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What to do when the love affair is over

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I've got a confession to make.... I was sick of poker.

I hadn't been playing much, and when I did play I was just throwing money away. Chasing pots, making stupid bluffs - I had gone back to being a little fish in a big pond.

It kind of snuck up on me. I'd loved poker for so many years, I couldn't imagine not liking or playing anymore.

It wasn't just online poker either, but with everything to do with the game. I wasn't reading my poker magazines -they still arrived every month, but sat in a pile, their envelopes unopened. I flicked through the cable TV guide, skipping over the poker show listings I once salivated over.

I ignored the emails and text messages from my regular live games. My own table was folded up in the garage gathering dust.

Was it because nothing was new and exciting in poker any more? Had I just gotten bored with it? Why didn't I love poker anymore!

The day I noticed I had been neglecting poker, I had a good think about how it happened. I came to the realization that it was because poker had become a chore rather than a joy. It was going to take some work for me to get any better and I think that had dulled my passion.

I was good enough to beat some games, but had never devoted enough time to my game to become a really good player. I hadn't put any hard work in, not enough to reach that next level.

And I hadn't really expanded my repertoire past Hold'em. Sure I 'know' how to play most poker games. As in I know the rules.... But I wouldn't even think about entering a big Omaha, Razz or Seven Card Stud tournament! The only big buy-in tournaments I had ever played were all Hold'em.

So I made myself a promise. I wouldn't let my love affair with poker die without a fight.

I dusted off the table and invited some friends over for a game - of H.O.R.S.E! Most of them didn't even know how to play some of the games, but it was the most fun we'd had around a poker table in years! We even invented our own game variation - D.H.O.B.S - Draw, Hold'em, Omaha, Badugi & Stud.

So now we have a regular DHOBS game, and I love poker again!

I started playing more Omaha & Stud online in the micro-limits. It was so much fun to go back and play for cents instead of dollars! I realized that the best thing about poker isn't winning money - it's more about making friends, having fun and trying new things. And I'd missed it...

So over the next few months you might see some changes on Poker.com. We're going to start adding a lot more info about games other than Hold'em and start hosting our own tournaments featuring other games. We're going to try and get everyone else enjoying more than just Hold'em. It may be the Cadillac of poker, but everyone knows it's sometimes fun to drive an old Mustang too.

Your in poker,

Ed


Posted at 10:02 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


What a final table!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Johnny ChanThe final table of the 2008 WSOP's 28th event is playing down right now, after starting with a star-studded final nine players.

Noted online player, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond currently has the chip lead , ahead of David Benyamine, Adam Hourani and Johnny Chan.

Already eliminated today are Kirill Gerasimov, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Phill Hellmuth and Brian "tsarrast" Rast.

How's that for an intimidating lineup to get through for a bracelet? If OMGClayAiken can hold on, he'll have one hell of a story for the grandkids after beating the likes of Chan, Hellmuth and Negreanu at the one table!


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Poker pros big golf bets

Friday, June 13, 2008

Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius played in a high stakes gold match this week. Check out the video below. Their swings aren't that great, but they sure know how to bet!


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WPT looking for new home

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

WPTIt had been reported on a few blogs around the interwebs that the World Poker Tour's deal with GSN (Game Show Network) may not be renewed after it's contract term ended on Saturday.

It seems that the rumours were correct, with the WPT today releasing a statement announcing they are exploring new network options.

GSN's CEO, David Goldhill, had this to say;

"The World Poker Tour has been a great partner and the show continues to perform strongly on our network. We are continuing discussions with WPTE regarding how we may be able to work together – including perhaps broadcasting parts of Season VII."

The show was actually GSN's HIGHEST rating program. But the network has had a change of management and the new team is not as interested in poker, also cancelling the popular 'High Stakes Poker'.

Apparently the WPT has entered discussions with several broadcast networks. The next network they run with will be their third, after the travel channel and now GSN.

WPT CEO and founder Steve Lipscomb said, "We have enjoyed watching the show and our numbers grow on GSN. Our hope is that we can find ways to collaborate with the network long into the future."

"This may allow us the first opportunity to explore diversifying content on multiple networks like most sports leagues. We have already begun those discussions and look forward to making another season of the best and most widely distributed poker programming in the world to our dedicated viewers and fans."

Season seven is scheduled to get underway with the Bellagio Cup, running July 11-17, 2008 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Let's hope they get a TV deal, because it would be a shame to lose this program, which has become a poker institution. And they haven't even had a chance to turn a profit yet!


Posted at 2:28 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP Event #11 recap

Here's the recap of WSOP event #11 - the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout., won by Phillip Tom.

  • The $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Shootout attracted 360 entrants. The total prize pool amounted to $1,692,000. The top 36 places (which included all players who progressed to the second round) each collected prize money.

  • A "Shootout" means the objective is to win all the chips at a table in order to advance to the next round. On Day One, the tournament began with 360 players competing in what amounted to a ten-handed Sit & Go. One player from each table (the winner) progressed to play in the second round. On Day Two, those 36 winners were divided into six tables, each playing a six-handed Sit & Go. The six winners from this round progressed to Day Three to take a seat at the final table – which was played six-handed. Essentially, the winner of the tournament was required to win three consecutive Sit & Go rounds.

  • A Shootout emphasizes short-handed poker skills. This generally requires competitors to play cards out of the standard range of starting-hand requirements. It also makes post-flop skill paramount to victory. In a sense, each round is a "final table" for all the competitors since the objective is to accumulate chips and eliminate opponents.

  • The tournament was played over three days. On Day Three, the final table was dealt out on the ESPN stage, also known as the "feature table." The secondary final table, located adjacent to the main stage area, featured the conclusion of Event #12 in an intentional scheduling overlap. This year, most days at the WSOP will include two final tables.

  • This was the first all North American final table of the 2008 WSOP. There were five Americans and one Canadian amongst the final six players. All other 11 events so far this year included a multinational final table composition.

  • All players started with an equal number of chips at the beginning of each round. Hence, there was no "chip leader" at the start of the final table.

  • The winner was Phillip Tom, from Las Vegas, NV. He is a 55-year-old financial advisor and investor. He plays poker very seriously, but would still be categorized as an amateur player.

  • Through the conclusion of Event #11, nine professionals have won WSOP gold bracelets versus two amateurs.

  • Tom was born in 1953. As a good luck charm, Tom uses a Benjamin Franklin silver half dollar as a card protector, appropriately minted in 1953.

  • Tom lives next door to the former owners of Binion's Horseshoe, which owned the WSOP through 2003. Oscar Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas, also lives a few houses away.

  • Tom collected $477,990 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. This was Tom's first-ever final table at the World Series.

  • The second-place finisher was Greg Mueller, from Vancouver, BC (Canada) who is beginning to feel the effects of going deep in many tournaments without a major win.

    "If they gave away gold bracelets for finishing high but not winning, I'd be Erik Seidel",     the good-natured former pro hockey player remarked afterward.

  • Mueller could be proud of his performance. Lesser players would have certainly busted out earlier. He also remarked: "Overall, I was very happy with the way I played. All day, I really did not get too many hands. I thought I played good. But I just didn't close the deal."

  • Another quote from Mueller: "There's only so much you can do without cards, especially when playing short-handed. If you can't show a hand at some point people are just going to call you down. It's frustrating because I really want to win that gold bracelet... yeah, the money is important but the gold bracelet really matters most to me."

  • Final Table play began at 2 pm and ended at 9:40 pm. A total of 176 were dealt.

  • There were a number of notable finishes in this tournament. Places 7-36 were essentially equal in stature, since all players in those places on the official money list performed equally - winning the first round, but losing in the second.

  • Bill Edler won this event last year. He entered this year's tournament but did not cash.

  • Eight-time gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel finished in-the-money. This was his 47th career WSOP cash. He now ranks seventh on the all-time list in that category.

  • Three-time gold bracelet winner John Juanda finished in-the-money. This marked his 40th career WSOP cash. He is now tied for 12th place on the all-time list with Thor Hansen.

  • Other former gold bracelet winners who cashed included Eric Froehlich, Burt Boutin, and Maciek Gracz. Another milestone was cross by Gracz in this event as he now has over $3 million in lifetime poker tournament winnings.

  • Through the first 11 events of the 2008 WSOP only one player currently has four cashes. He is Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. One player, Matthew Graham, from New Orleans, LA has cashed three times. There are 74 players with two cashes each.
Thanks once again to Nolan Dalla at the World Series of Poker for the great updates.


Posted at 1:57 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP Event #10 recap

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Here's the recap of WSOP event #10 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better, won by Farzad Rouhani.
  • The $2,500 buy-in Half Omaha High-Low Split / Half Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split event attracted 388 players, creating a prize pool totaling $892,400.

  • This tournament debuted at last year's WSOP and attracted 327 players. Hence, the turnout was 16 percent higher this year.

  • These two games tend to attract more experienced players who appreciate the nuances of limit poker. The average age of players in the tournament was a bit higher than usual, reflected in the composition of the finale table which had four players aged 44+.

  • The tournament was played over three days. Day Three featured final table play, which took place adjacent to the ESPN stage. Given the presence of a few poker celebrities, a standing-room only crowd circled the table.

  • When the final table began, Farzad Rouhani was the chip leader. He earned what amounted to a wire-to-wire victory.

  • The winner was Farzad "Freddy" Rouhani, from Germantown, MD. He is a 44-year-old professional poker player.

  • Rouhani was born in Iran. He arrived in the U.S. in 1985 to attend college. In fact, he planned to attend medical school. "I came to the U.S. 23 years ago to become a doctor," Rouhani said in a post-tournament interview. "But instead, I became a pro poker player. Go figure."

  • Rouhani plays mostly in Atlantic City. He once frequented local poker games in the suburban Washington, DC area, where he now lives. But the stakes proved too low for the more serious Rouhani.

  • Winning a WSOP gold bracelet obviously meant something special to the new champion. While playing, Rouhani wore another bracelet on his left wrist – which was presented to him for winning a tournament at the Jack Binion World Poker Open back in 2003. "I must admit that I really do need the money," Rouhani said. "Everyone needs the money. But this gold bracelet to me means a whole lot more. It is the thing that everyone in poker dreams of."

  • Rouhani earned a well-deserved victory. He collected $232,911 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. Rouhani came very close to winning a few years ago when he took second place in a No-Limit Hold'em event. To date, Rouhani now has eight WSOP cashes, two final table appearances, and more than $800,000 in career winnings at the WSOP.

  • Given that high-low split games tend to be somewhat monotonous, the final table was expected to run long. However, the finale concluded in about 6 hours, due largely to Rouhani's dominant stack size throughout, making it the quickest of ten final tables thus far at the 2008 WSOP.

  • The final hand came at 9:10 pm PST. Rouhani was dealt 9-8-3-2. The final board showed 7-3-3-A-3, giving the new champion quad-threes with an eight-low. After exposing his four-of-a-kind, the often demonstrative poker pro jokingly remarked, "If I knew they would show my hand to the audience, I would play better cards than (9-8-3-2). "

  • The runner up was Tom Chambers, from Chicago, IL. The former teacher and basketball coach now has four career cashes at the WSOP.

  • Widely-respected poker pro "Miami John" Cernuto finished third. The former air-traffic controller has won three WSOP gold bracelets. But his bid for his first victory since 2002 fell short.

  • This marked the 17th career WSOP cash for the fourth-place finisher, Rich Zhu.

  • While the final table was being played, poker jester Gavin Smith waddled over to the table cheer on his friend and protégé, Greg Pappas. Since Pappas wears full head of very long white hair, Smith nicknamed him "Big White." Meanwhile, longtime poker veteran and ex-horseracing trainer Jim Bucci was standing at tableside and remarked that favorite Big Brown had just lost the Belmont Stakes moments earlier. Smith couldn't resist writing a mock headline and shouted out for everyone to hear: "On the Day Big Brown Chokes in the Big Race, Big White Gets the Bracelet." It proved to be a premature assumption. Pappas, a.k.a. "Big White" ended up fifth.

  • Sixth-place finisher John Racener won the WSOP Circuit championship event at Harrahs Atlantic City last year.

  • Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi has enjoyed astounding success in poker tournaments in recent years. His career winnings total more than $6 million. But for all his accolades elsewhere, Mizrachi has not fared particularly well at the WSOP. This was his first-ever final table appearance. Unfortunately, he went out in eighth place.

  • Several former WSOP gold bracelet winners cashed in this tournament. The included Hoyt Corkins (14th), Jeffrey Lisandro (19th), Tony Ma (20th), Allen Cunningham (22nd), Gary Benson (23rd), Barbara Enright (26th), Berry Johnston (30th), and Scott Clements (39th).

  • Eccentric sports bettor and poker convert Alan Boston took 37th place. Boston is widely acknowledged as one of the best college basketball handicappers in the world.

  • Last year's champion was Tom Schneider, who went on to win the 2007 WSOP "Player of the Year" race. Schneider was unable to defend his crown in this event as he was still alive in another tournament at the time, the Mixed Games championship, which played its Day Two when this tournament began.


Posted at 9:48 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP Event #8 recap

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Here's the recap of WSOP event #8 - $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event, won by Anthony Rivera.

  • "Mixed Games" is a new event on this year's WSOP schedule. This is the first time in history that a major poker tournament has included eight poker games.

    These games include:
    1. No-Limit Hold'em
    2. Pot-Limit Omaha
    3. Triple-Draw Lowball
    4. Limit Hold'em
    5. Omaha High-Low Split
    6. Razz
    7. Seven-Card Stud
    8. Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better

    Games are played on a rotation basis. Games change every eight hands.

  • The $10,000 buy-in tournament attracted a stellar field of superstars and arguably the toughest field in poker history for an event of this size, other than the $50,000 buy-in HORSE competition. No less than 76 of the 192 entrants were former WSOP gold bracelet winners. The total prize pool amounted to $1,804,800. The top 24 players collected prize money.

  • Despite the astral field of poker celebrities, some top players pointed out that the composition of the tournament is not quite as formidable as one might believe. Three players (Sammy Farha, George Abdullah, and Amnon Filippi) argued that younger players in this event did not play "limit" and "high-low" split games as well as some of the more experienced players. Of course, two of those three were standing on the rail at the time, watching and pointing to at least of couple of finalists who allegedly "don't have a clue."

  • While all 55 WSOP tournaments on the 2008 schedule are categorized as "gold bracelet" events, this is also known as a "world championship" event. This means the winner of this event is the Mixed Games world champion. Beginning this year, all $10,000+ buy-in tournaments are designated as official world championships. This means a total of ten WSOP tournaments are world championships. This includes eight gold bracelet tournaments with $10,000 buy-ins, the $50,000 buy-in HORSE event, and the Main Event.

  • Four former WSOP gold bracelet winners appeared at the final table of eight players (Sammy Farha, Eli Elezra, James Mackey, and Jeff Madsen). When play commenced on Day Three, the chip leader was Matthew Glantz, a top high-stakes cash game pro who plays mostly in Atlantic City.

  • The tournament was played over three days. Day Three featured final table play, which took place adjacent to the ESPN stage. Given the magnetic field of finalists, a standing-room only crowd circled the table. In fact, the turnout (and one presumes -- interest) for this finale was significantly higher than for the conclusion for Event #7, which was played at the so-called "feature" table.

  • The winner was Anthony Rivera. He is a 22-year-old professional poker player from Las Vegas. Rivera is originally from St. Louis, MO. He attended the University of Missouri, but decided to suspend his education and move to Las Vegas to play poker.

  • Rivera began playing poker about three years ago on the computer. He turned 21 just prior to last year's WSOP and played in a few events. However, this marked his first time to cash at the World Series. He really made this one count as $483,688 was paid as the top prize.

  • Rivera has become a solid high-stakes player who frequents $200-400, $300-600 limit (and higher) tables in Las Vegas. He remarked afterward: "This was a very tough field. But it did not intimidate me. I am used to playing with many of these players. I know many of them pretty well. I know I can play all the games well enough to win."

  • The champ wore his lucky t-shirt, which read "Friends Don't Let Friends Play No-Limit." Rivera also pointed out that, for him, it was kind of social statement. While many poker players have concentrated their efforts on No-Limit Hold'em, Rivera has focused his poker development on a much more diverse collection of games. Fittingly, the hard work paid off and he became the first-ever "Mixed Games World Champion."

  • He said: "I really do not have a 'best' game. I do not really play No-Limit, that much. I prefer the other games. I think I can play all the games well."

  • Rivera pointed out that David Oppenheim was his most intimidating opponent throughout the tournament. He stated that Oppenheim got unlucky and busted out. "I was glad to see him go," Rivera said later.

  • The final table began at 3 pm and ended at 10:30 pm.

  • The runner up was James Mackey, who won last year's $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship. At the time, he was the third youngest gold bracelet winner in WSOP history. He came up just short of victory on this occasion.

  • Matt Glantz took third place. This was his sixth time to cash at the WSOP. He was the runner up last year in the $3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event.

  • Eli Elezra busted out in fifth place. This marked his 15th career WSOP cash. Last year, the Israeli-born poker pro won the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split championship.

  • Dashing and debonair Sammy Farha went out in sixth place. The two-time former gold bracelet winner is perhaps best remembered by casual poker fans for his second-place finish to Chris Moneymaker in the 2003 Main Event.

  • Jeff Madsen catapulted to superstardom at the 2006 WSOP, where he earned two gold bracelets and very nearly picked up two more, with duel third-place finishes. He obliterated the record for "youngest player ever to win two WSOP victories," achieving the feat at 21 years and 20 days. Madsen sought to add to his WSOP jewelry chest in this event, but ended up as the seventh-place finisher.

  • Several former WSOP gold bracelet winners cashed in this tournament. They included Gus Hansen (10th), Tom Schneider (12th), Johnny Chan (13th), Lee Watkinson (14th), and Doyle Brunson (21st).

  • Given that ten-time gold bracelet winners Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan were both still alive in the tournament with three tables to go, a buzz began to circulate around the Rio that this tournament might be memorable for its historic implications. However, both former two-time world champions were eliminated late on Day Two.

  • So far, this can be defined as the year when poker pros have rebounded to their former glory, after years of seeing poker rocked to its foundations with so many amateur victories. Bona fide poker pros have now won 7 of the 8 events which have concluded at this year's WSOP.


Posted at 10:46 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum

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