Day 1C begins with Begleiter, Dwan, Antonius and Chan highlighted, Scotty Nguyen interviewed, and the yearly empty seat of Phil Hellmuth. The feature table is the defending champion, Joe Cada.
"What do you do for a living?"
"This"
"Yeah, who isn't a professional poker player these days?."
Hand 1 begins in the second level (100-200) Alex Gregory raised 75 off from +1, Cada flats and Ross flats with Ac7c. The flop is 962cc and they check it through to Ross in position who bets 1,100, Gregory lats and Cada makes it 5k to go. Ross calls with his nut flush draw and Gregory folds. The turn is the 6d giving Cada a full house, he bets 6,500 and Ross folds. People try to paint Cada as a luckbox, but people who pay attention see that this hand came over 1 and a half hours into the day, it wan't the first hand.
Hellmuth's table put a $100 bounty on his head.
Johnny Chan doubles up with top set vs middle set. Imagine if Cada had done that?
Scotty Nguyen loses a hand to Matthew Ashton and tries to tell us he's a nice guy. He knows the cameras are watching.
Negreanu has his stack in on the turn on AQJ8. His opponent folds.
We get a rundown of Hellmuth's entrances throughout the years. Racing car driver, Army guy, Julius Ceasar. And here he comes for this year as an MMA fighter.
"This is tame, and even by poker brat standards, so so lame."
Hand 2 and David Katalan maes it 300 with 99 from the HJ. Hellmuth defens his blind with 76off. 10 7 5hh. Hellmuth leads for 400. Katalan flats. The turn is the Qs. Phil bets 400 again and gets flatted. 2300 in the pot and the 9h hits. Katalan bets 1k. Phil folds. Nice 1k chips lost to start with.
Jeff Fennick an Australian boxer in the HOF is shown winning a hand. Eric "Basebaldy" Baldwin is also shown losing a hand. Tony Campagna, a Mr America bodybuilder does an inane celebration followed by a rant. Donk.
Third level now and Hand 3. Cada makes it 800 on +1 with 77, Nils Bardsley makes it 2200 in +2 with KK. AA7s is a decent flop for Cada, and it goes check check. The turn 2s gives Bardsley's Ks a flush draw. Cada bets 3600 and Bardsley flats, the river is the 4s and Cada bets 11k. Bardsley gives it to him.
Hand 4 has us on the turn, Cada has 109 off on a 9923hh board. Miller bets the 53off and Cada flats. the river Ac sees Miller check fold to Cada.
Cada tells us about last year.
Darvin Moon rails Dennis Phillips as he loses a pot with KK to aset of 6s. I like seeing Phillips lose for some reason. Billy Kopp doubles up with 63 on a 33KJ board against QQ. Some old donk stacked off even though the K was there. Antonius beats "Little Man" Mike Sica. Durrr plays a pot while wearing Peter Jetten as a Koala bear button. Durrr has the nuts and wins.
Table 2 has changed, Phil remains. Hand 5 has Hellmuth with 55 on an A65 rainbow board. Rollason bets with AJ and Phil calls. the turn is the 9d and Rollason bets 1500. Hellmuth flats. The river is the 9s. Phil checks and the old guy checks behind. Who would have thought and old guy would check behind. Phil wins the minimum.
Hand 6 pits James Carroll (crol online) with the wild card hand against Hellmuths JJ. The flop is 543ss and Carroll bets when checked to. Phil flats. The turn is the 3c. It goes check check. The river 10s completes the flush. Phil leads 1475 into 4350. As Norman Chad says, "Whats the point in betting now? He's either got nothing or can't call or can beat you and will raise your mixed martial behind!" Carroll raises to 6,200 and Phil calls. Carroll has A6ss. Well played Phil.
Chau Giang is all in with 1010 against Esfandiari's AQ. AQ10 flop and Chau dodges the outs. Back to Durrr and he has the nuts again, beating Todd Butts. We get a Durrr interview, with a random high five from some girl. We then see Peter Jetten, subject of Durrr's button. He loses a hand.
Hand 7 and it's a new level, 150-300 with a 25 ante. cada makes it 800 from the HJ. Miller calls with KJdd from the sb. QQ4dd. Miller checks and Cada bets 1k into 2125. Miller calls. 9d hits the turn giving Miller a flush. It goes check check and look what it is! The old 3h. Miller bets 1600 and Cada makes it 8500. Miller calls. Nice life Cada.
Hand 8 and Cada has Bardsley all-in with QQ vs AJ. Cada wins. Bye Nils.
Out in the field Robert Mizrachi gets Clement Thumy all-in with KK vs QQ on a 982 flop. Mizrachi wins. Negreanu has a Dutchman called Meelis on a 885KJ and bets 2400. He gets raised by Meelis to 5800, and Daniel makes it 11,200. Daniel shows 43off.
Hand 9 and Carroll makes it 800 from the button with AA. Hellmuth defens out of position with A4 off. Good stuff Phil. A95ss is the flop, Carroll bets 1550. Phil calls. The turn is the Jd. Check and Carroll bets 3250. Hellmuth has 10k back and flats. the river is the Kd. Phil checks and Carroll shoves. Hellmuth folds and rants. Excellently played Phil. "Another cooler" claims Phil.
Durrr has J high against Markholt. He bets. You don't mess wiht Lee Markholt. Chau and Antonio get it in on a KQ93. Giau has J10 and Esfandiari KQ. Antonio fils up on the river. He then goes heads up with the Chadster.
Max Pescatori joins Cada's table. HAnd 10 and Cada makes it 800 with 87hh. Chris Brice calls with 66. the flop is 998. Brice checks and Cada bets. the turn is the Js. Brice cheks and so does Cada. J on the river counterfeits both of them. Brice bets 3500 and Cada folds.
Billy Kopp has Alex Gomess all-in with top 2 against a double gutter. He;s up to 114k. Dwan is all-in with J10 on a J1086. His opponent Talebi has QJ and hit a straight on the 9 river. Durrr is out.
Cada has JJ utg and makes it 1100. It's 200-400 now on Hand 11 he gets 3-bet to 4k by some guy on the Hi Jack whi has 77. Cada puts him in for his remaining 3k or so. lol @77. So much dead money. Cada knocks him out. (Gio Ruby, a sculptor. 2show me some of your work, I'll make you an offer.")
Hand 12 and Hellmuth is all-in with JJ against AK and QQ. He loses to the Queens. Bye Phil. Another appalling performance.
That's a wrap! Huck Seed, Jerry Yang and Steve Begleiter wave goodbye.
Monday 18 October 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Main Event on ESPN: Day 1B
Here we go with Day 1B! Snapshots of Kido Pham, Jen Tilly, Joe Sebok, Dan Harrington and Erik Lindgren. Annette Obrestad is on Table 2 and the main feature table has Gavin Smith, with a cameo from Ivan Demidov.
Incredibly Gavin Smith persuades his entire table to show a card of their choice when they win a pot. Hand 1 sees Peter Jaros raise Q10cc to 250 and he gets called by three Ace Queens! Balazs Botond (who min-cashes), Smith with AdQd and George Karambinis. The flop is Kd 6d 4s, and despite being out of position against three players Jaros continues, betting 600 into 1150. Only Smith calls with his nut flush draw. The Jh hits the turn, giving Jaros an open ender, and he continues for 1500 into 2350, Smith flats. The river is the 3h, and Jaros finds the heart and commitment, making a nice 1500 value bet bluff into 5350. Extremely aggresive from Jaros, very tough for Gavin, other than raising the flop I can't find any other way to play it.
Hand 2 is joined on the flop multiway, Annete has 44 on a JJ4dd board, she bets and gets called in position by Brandon Steffens with J7. The 7d hits the turn to crack Annete's hand, she bets 2550 into 3600. It makes it even harder for Annette that the turn made a flush. The river is the Qh and Annette bets 5050 into 8700. Steffens raises it to 12k total and Annette makes an awesome laydown, again given the fact that a flush hit the turn it's even more difficult. Steffens gave a lot away during the conversation on the river but the fold is still a premium one. The rest of the episode isn't so kind to Annette but this fold will be difficult to top this year.
Dan Harrington is playing against Batman!
And Jamie Gold is out!
"Jesus the valet hasn't even parked his car yet!"
Hand 3 and Gavin makes it 250 with A6 off. Ken Croener calls him out of the bb with 7h6h. The flop is 532ss and Gavin bets 350, Croener raises to 1025 with his overcards and gutshot. Gavin calls with his overcards and gutshot. The Jc hits the turn and Croener bets 1250 into 2600. Gavin folds. Another tough spot for Smith. In my book he hasn't done anything wrong so far.
Hand 4 and Gavin makes it 250 with A10 off, Demidov makes it 800 from the button with 99. The flops is a dream one for Demidov, 10 9 2cc, Gavin checks and the Russian bets 1050 into 1750. The turn is the 2h giving Ivan a full house. Smith checks and Demidov bets 2800 into 3850. Smith is a non-believer. The river is the Qs. Smith checks and Demidov value bets 6550 into 9450. Smith pays him off. Hmmm. Again, nothing terrible, Smith clearly knows Demidov could be three-barelling. The river seems like a good card for a bluffer to fire a final bullet on, but really, Smith can only beat AK at this point. Ambitious.
Hand 5 is back with Annette. She has JJ on a 873 rainbow. She is checked to by 65off and KQ off, and fires 1125 into 1400. The button is Steve Wilson, an old guy with a beard.
"He says he is a socio-political philosopher, I assume that means he doesn't work."
He has 10 10 and makes it 3k total. Annette makes an understandable fold when it comes back round. If she calls she'll be out of position in a 7k+ pot against an old guy that raised the flop. She has to figure him for a set here. I know I would fold. For what it's worth I'm pretty sure Wilson thinks he has the best hand as well.
We get an Annette segment, talking about her early success.
Out in the field we see Liv Boeree angrily losing a hand to Kevin Iacofono. Next up is Thuy Doan making a studied fold. Erica Schoenberg is shown winning a pot.
"Like me she is a former model and personal trainer."
Over to her boyfriend Erik Lindgren, "Why would she date this guy?".
We see Lindgren get his last 8k in with Jc8c on a QcQs6c board. He's called by 99, hits the Kc on the turn but a 9 appears on the river to eliminate the '08 POTY.
Elky, Bellande and Phil Laak are featured, Laak is shown losing to Tristan Wade who finishes 113th.
Hand 5 is joined at the flop, pre-flop smith raised 99s from utg+1, Seth Thomsen 3-bet with AQ off from utg +2 (questionable) and the flop is Q97dd. Smith checks and Thomsen bets 3200 into 4650, Smith, who had under 15k (50bbs) to start the hand then shoves, it's cost Thomsen 10k more. I can't help but feel he did it to himself by turning this into a 3bet pot, the best he's going to see is a draw, Gavin never turns up KQ here surely? He calls and Smith doubles back to his starting stack.
Smith gets an interview now, focusing on his bracelet and his mindest coach, Sam Chauhan.
Gavin's table is strong. Botonds, Croener, Jaros and Karambinis all have decent cashes, and then there's Demidov. There's not too many weak spots there.
We go back to Annette for Hand 6, there's 2900 in the pot, she has 99 on a 10 5 3cc flop, Grantlin Hillman has JJ. Chad tells us that pre-flop Annette limped UTG and Hillman made it 6x with JJ from the button. Annette checks and he bets 1600 into 2900. Obrestad ships her last 8150 in, and Hillman tanks for a little and calls. She accuses him of slowrolling, which is harsh, she's disappointed to have 2 outs. It's ok cause the 9 arrives on the turn. She doubles up to half her starting stack.
We get the usual Barbara Enright story about women in the main event. Then we see Elky getting knocked out, he has a flush vs a full house. Phil Galfond arrives on our screens! OMGClayAiken bets Thuy Doan out of a pot.
Aaaanddd it's time for a Thuy Doan cancer survivor tearjerker. I prefer this to the usual sob stories we get in the Main Event, as she is someone that's semi-known in poker circles, rather than some random ESPN picks up.
After the interview we see Sebok knocked out in a race.
Hand 7, Smith makes it 800 with AJhh, Demidov flats in position with 88. The flop is A76 raibbow, Smith bets 1150 into 2050, Demidov calls. The turn is the 9d. Gavin checks, and Ivan checks his up and downer. It's the 4d, Smith bets 1625 into 4350. Demidov makes what I think is a great fold. He could have made this pot bigger but he kept it small, and still managed to make a good fold.
Robert Iler of the Sopranos is here, as is Orel Hershiser. Jen Tilly is knocked out, then we see Laak play a monsterpotten with Tristan Wade, the money going in on the turnm Laak having two pair vs Wade's set. Wade has over 100k and Laak still has 58k, he must have had a huge stack!
Hand 8, Gavin makes it 800 UTG and is flatted in the HJ but John Mousseau, definitely the weakest player we've seen on Gavin's table. the flop is K108 all spades, Mousseau has a set. Gavin checks and the Moose bets 1200 into 2k. Gavin makes an ambitious call. The 9h appears on the turn giving Smith a straight. Mousseau bets exactly the same amount, 1200 after Gavin checks to him. Gavin calls. The river is the 9c giving the Moose a full house. There is 6850 in the pot and this time Gavin leads for 3800. For some reason known only to himself the Moose flats. There's no way Gavin ever has 10 10 or K K and checks the tree spade flop, and for that matter K9 either. The moose has to raise for value ger especially as their are straights and flushes on the board. Smith is startled not to have won. I don't like the way he played it either, but Mousseau played it a lot worse.
Hand 9 is with Annette, she has As10s against ultra experienced pro Chris Bjorin, the flop is 873cc and it looks like Annette raised pre and was called out of the bb by Bjorin. She bets 1000 into 1575. The turn is the Jh, and Obrestad tries 2300 into 3575. Bjorin sticks around to the 8s river. Bjorin goes for the sneaky check but Annette gives up. She moans a little but Chad is a little harsh in his criticism.
Liv Boeree is out, Thuy Doan doubles.
Wild card time at the feature table. Hand 10 and Botond makes it 800 with AJ off from the HJ (he has the wildcard). Gavin flats the cut off with Qs8s and Demidov joins from the bb with 87cc.
"So we're going to have a Russian a Hungarian and a Canadian being analysed by an American nutjob."
The flop is AcQc9s. Chad has Botonds pegged for a weak ace.
"It's a weak ace whether you're from Birmingham or Budapest." I hope he meant our Birmingham but probably not.
There is 2775 in the pot and Demidov checks his flush draw, Botonds checks, Smith bets 1650. Demidov makes a great raise with his flush draw, correctly analysing that Smith was taking a stab in position. He pops it to 4450. Unfortunately he falls victim to Botond's weird play/fantastic read of the situation. Botond flats. 13325 in there, the 2c hits the turn giving Demidov his flush. He bets 6k and Botond calls. 25325 in there and the fourth club hits, the 9. Kc, Jc and the 10c beats Demidov. Botond bets 10,900 which is the remainder of Ivan's stack. I don't know what Botond was up to herem whether it was good or bad, but it worked out for him. I honestly have no idea.
Hand 11 sees Demidov all in with AKs vs the KQ off of his nemesis Botond. Botond hits the Q and takes out the 2008 runner up.
Botond finished the day in 5th overall.
We see Galfond in 4th, sitting next to Gabe Walls in 2nd, he gets it in pre with 10s7s vs Steven Thomsen (wearing a Germany shirt) who has AhQh. Walls flops trips but Thomsen goes runner runner and then does a ridiculous celebration.
We then see Fillipo Candio, who they say is chipleader (he was actually 2nd). Maybe we'll see more of him?
Hand 12 is our last one, Bjorin raised to 900 with QQ from early, Annette flatted with AJ off from the button and Steffens joined them with Q10 off in the bb. the flop is 922. Steffens leads with air, 1800 into 3225. Bjorin raises to 4500 and Annette shoves 19,950. Wowww. A cold 3 bet all-in on the flop. Bjorin makes the call. When she sees his hand she comments that she thought she could get him to fold his hand, and gives him a bit of "nice call" needle. She either has Quad 2s or 9s full and surely she woudn't cold 3-bet shove for 60bbs with those hands? It's an easy call for Bjorin as her hand doesn't make sense. She is unlikely to have KK or AA either having flatted the button. It was a very bad, needless bluff.
Day 1C coming soon!
Incredibly Gavin Smith persuades his entire table to show a card of their choice when they win a pot. Hand 1 sees Peter Jaros raise Q10cc to 250 and he gets called by three Ace Queens! Balazs Botond (who min-cashes), Smith with AdQd and George Karambinis. The flop is Kd 6d 4s, and despite being out of position against three players Jaros continues, betting 600 into 1150. Only Smith calls with his nut flush draw. The Jh hits the turn, giving Jaros an open ender, and he continues for 1500 into 2350, Smith flats. The river is the 3h, and Jaros finds the heart and commitment, making a nice 1500 value bet bluff into 5350. Extremely aggresive from Jaros, very tough for Gavin, other than raising the flop I can't find any other way to play it.
Hand 2 is joined on the flop multiway, Annete has 44 on a JJ4dd board, she bets and gets called in position by Brandon Steffens with J7. The 7d hits the turn to crack Annete's hand, she bets 2550 into 3600. It makes it even harder for Annette that the turn made a flush. The river is the Qh and Annette bets 5050 into 8700. Steffens raises it to 12k total and Annette makes an awesome laydown, again given the fact that a flush hit the turn it's even more difficult. Steffens gave a lot away during the conversation on the river but the fold is still a premium one. The rest of the episode isn't so kind to Annette but this fold will be difficult to top this year.
Dan Harrington is playing against Batman!
And Jamie Gold is out!
"Jesus the valet hasn't even parked his car yet!"
Hand 3 and Gavin makes it 250 with A6 off. Ken Croener calls him out of the bb with 7h6h. The flop is 532ss and Gavin bets 350, Croener raises to 1025 with his overcards and gutshot. Gavin calls with his overcards and gutshot. The Jc hits the turn and Croener bets 1250 into 2600. Gavin folds. Another tough spot for Smith. In my book he hasn't done anything wrong so far.
Hand 4 and Gavin makes it 250 with A10 off, Demidov makes it 800 from the button with 99. The flops is a dream one for Demidov, 10 9 2cc, Gavin checks and the Russian bets 1050 into 1750. The turn is the 2h giving Ivan a full house. Smith checks and Demidov bets 2800 into 3850. Smith is a non-believer. The river is the Qs. Smith checks and Demidov value bets 6550 into 9450. Smith pays him off. Hmmm. Again, nothing terrible, Smith clearly knows Demidov could be three-barelling. The river seems like a good card for a bluffer to fire a final bullet on, but really, Smith can only beat AK at this point. Ambitious.
Hand 5 is back with Annette. She has JJ on a 873 rainbow. She is checked to by 65off and KQ off, and fires 1125 into 1400. The button is Steve Wilson, an old guy with a beard.
"He says he is a socio-political philosopher, I assume that means he doesn't work."
He has 10 10 and makes it 3k total. Annette makes an understandable fold when it comes back round. If she calls she'll be out of position in a 7k+ pot against an old guy that raised the flop. She has to figure him for a set here. I know I would fold. For what it's worth I'm pretty sure Wilson thinks he has the best hand as well.
We get an Annette segment, talking about her early success.
Out in the field we see Liv Boeree angrily losing a hand to Kevin Iacofono. Next up is Thuy Doan making a studied fold. Erica Schoenberg is shown winning a pot.
"Like me she is a former model and personal trainer."
Over to her boyfriend Erik Lindgren, "Why would she date this guy?".
We see Lindgren get his last 8k in with Jc8c on a QcQs6c board. He's called by 99, hits the Kc on the turn but a 9 appears on the river to eliminate the '08 POTY.
Elky, Bellande and Phil Laak are featured, Laak is shown losing to Tristan Wade who finishes 113th.
Hand 5 is joined at the flop, pre-flop smith raised 99s from utg+1, Seth Thomsen 3-bet with AQ off from utg +2 (questionable) and the flop is Q97dd. Smith checks and Thomsen bets 3200 into 4650, Smith, who had under 15k (50bbs) to start the hand then shoves, it's cost Thomsen 10k more. I can't help but feel he did it to himself by turning this into a 3bet pot, the best he's going to see is a draw, Gavin never turns up KQ here surely? He calls and Smith doubles back to his starting stack.
Smith gets an interview now, focusing on his bracelet and his mindest coach, Sam Chauhan.
Gavin's table is strong. Botonds, Croener, Jaros and Karambinis all have decent cashes, and then there's Demidov. There's not too many weak spots there.
We go back to Annette for Hand 6, there's 2900 in the pot, she has 99 on a 10 5 3cc flop, Grantlin Hillman has JJ. Chad tells us that pre-flop Annette limped UTG and Hillman made it 6x with JJ from the button. Annette checks and he bets 1600 into 2900. Obrestad ships her last 8150 in, and Hillman tanks for a little and calls. She accuses him of slowrolling, which is harsh, she's disappointed to have 2 outs. It's ok cause the 9 arrives on the turn. She doubles up to half her starting stack.
We get the usual Barbara Enright story about women in the main event. Then we see Elky getting knocked out, he has a flush vs a full house. Phil Galfond arrives on our screens! OMGClayAiken bets Thuy Doan out of a pot.
Aaaanddd it's time for a Thuy Doan cancer survivor tearjerker. I prefer this to the usual sob stories we get in the Main Event, as she is someone that's semi-known in poker circles, rather than some random ESPN picks up.
After the interview we see Sebok knocked out in a race.
Hand 7, Smith makes it 800 with AJhh, Demidov flats in position with 88. The flop is A76 raibbow, Smith bets 1150 into 2050, Demidov calls. The turn is the 9d. Gavin checks, and Ivan checks his up and downer. It's the 4d, Smith bets 1625 into 4350. Demidov makes what I think is a great fold. He could have made this pot bigger but he kept it small, and still managed to make a good fold.
Robert Iler of the Sopranos is here, as is Orel Hershiser. Jen Tilly is knocked out, then we see Laak play a monsterpotten with Tristan Wade, the money going in on the turnm Laak having two pair vs Wade's set. Wade has over 100k and Laak still has 58k, he must have had a huge stack!
Hand 8, Gavin makes it 800 UTG and is flatted in the HJ but John Mousseau, definitely the weakest player we've seen on Gavin's table. the flop is K108 all spades, Mousseau has a set. Gavin checks and the Moose bets 1200 into 2k. Gavin makes an ambitious call. The 9h appears on the turn giving Smith a straight. Mousseau bets exactly the same amount, 1200 after Gavin checks to him. Gavin calls. The river is the 9c giving the Moose a full house. There is 6850 in the pot and this time Gavin leads for 3800. For some reason known only to himself the Moose flats. There's no way Gavin ever has 10 10 or K K and checks the tree spade flop, and for that matter K9 either. The moose has to raise for value ger especially as their are straights and flushes on the board. Smith is startled not to have won. I don't like the way he played it either, but Mousseau played it a lot worse.
Hand 9 is with Annette, she has As10s against ultra experienced pro Chris Bjorin, the flop is 873cc and it looks like Annette raised pre and was called out of the bb by Bjorin. She bets 1000 into 1575. The turn is the Jh, and Obrestad tries 2300 into 3575. Bjorin sticks around to the 8s river. Bjorin goes for the sneaky check but Annette gives up. She moans a little but Chad is a little harsh in his criticism.
Liv Boeree is out, Thuy Doan doubles.
Wild card time at the feature table. Hand 10 and Botond makes it 800 with AJ off from the HJ (he has the wildcard). Gavin flats the cut off with Qs8s and Demidov joins from the bb with 87cc.
"So we're going to have a Russian a Hungarian and a Canadian being analysed by an American nutjob."
The flop is AcQc9s. Chad has Botonds pegged for a weak ace.
"It's a weak ace whether you're from Birmingham or Budapest." I hope he meant our Birmingham but probably not.
There is 2775 in the pot and Demidov checks his flush draw, Botonds checks, Smith bets 1650. Demidov makes a great raise with his flush draw, correctly analysing that Smith was taking a stab in position. He pops it to 4450. Unfortunately he falls victim to Botond's weird play/fantastic read of the situation. Botond flats. 13325 in there, the 2c hits the turn giving Demidov his flush. He bets 6k and Botond calls. 25325 in there and the fourth club hits, the 9. Kc, Jc and the 10c beats Demidov. Botond bets 10,900 which is the remainder of Ivan's stack. I don't know what Botond was up to herem whether it was good or bad, but it worked out for him. I honestly have no idea.
Hand 11 sees Demidov all in with AKs vs the KQ off of his nemesis Botond. Botond hits the Q and takes out the 2008 runner up.
Botond finished the day in 5th overall.
We see Galfond in 4th, sitting next to Gabe Walls in 2nd, he gets it in pre with 10s7s vs Steven Thomsen (wearing a Germany shirt) who has AhQh. Walls flops trips but Thomsen goes runner runner and then does a ridiculous celebration.
We then see Fillipo Candio, who they say is chipleader (he was actually 2nd). Maybe we'll see more of him?
Hand 12 is our last one, Bjorin raised to 900 with QQ from early, Annette flatted with AJ off from the button and Steffens joined them with Q10 off in the bb. the flop is 922. Steffens leads with air, 1800 into 3225. Bjorin raises to 4500 and Annette shoves 19,950. Wowww. A cold 3 bet all-in on the flop. Bjorin makes the call. When she sees his hand she comments that she thought she could get him to fold his hand, and gives him a bit of "nice call" needle. She either has Quad 2s or 9s full and surely she woudn't cold 3-bet shove for 60bbs with those hands? It's an easy call for Bjorin as her hand doesn't make sense. She is unlikely to have KK or AA either having flatted the button. It was a very bad, needless bluff.
Day 1C coming soon!
Thursday 19 August 2010
Main Event Day 1A on ESPN
Wooo! The Main Event is here! Flash montage and then clips of the opening days field.
"Lon I can't believe I'm saying this but Greg Raymer just gave me chills."
The feature table is, once again, Mike Matusow. He was on the Day 1 feature last year, and 2006, not sure about the intervening years but it's a strong possibility. Also at the table is Jason Lester who was 4th in 2003. Allen Carter is at the table, he won the WPT Southern Championships in Jan '09 for $1 million. Alex Carr is a young online pro with 4 cashes at the 2010 World Series.
Hand 1 sees 22 year old Alex Carr make it 250 with A6 off, flatted by Matusow in the CO with A6hh, Gerhard Maurer from Munich flays the button with 10c and a mystery card, Alan Carter calls out of the bb with 53 off. The flop is Q64 rainbow, Carter leads 600 with the open ender and Mike flats with second pair. Carter leads 1050 on the 5h turn and Mike pops it to 3k. Carter flats and checks the Kh river, Matusow thinks he needs to bluff and bets 4,400. Carter snap folds. Mike talks about playing it real slow on Day 1 but he had 80 big blinds at risk in this early pot.
Table 2 and hand 2 features Erik Seidel. We get to the flop where he's out of position with AcAs vs Matt Groves AdJd on a 456 flop. Erik check calls every street, the board running out 2 then 7. Seidel masterfully let the aggresive kid fire 3 barrels.
We see Jeff Shulman and TJ Cloutier in the field, then see Ted Forrest all-in with 88 vs J10 on a 10 6 2 flop. It doesn't matter because there's two eights to come.
Back to Matusowland. Hand 3 and the blinds are up to 100-200, Carr makes it 600 with Jh 9h from the button. He gets called by both blinds, Matusow and Maurer, bith with QJ off, the fun flop comes down Q98cc. Mike leads 1k into 1800 and gets called by both of them. All three payers make a straight on the 10 of clubs turn, nobody has a club. Matusow checks, Maurer bets 3k into 4,800 and Carr flats. Matusow does some inappropriate talking and makes a sensible fold. The river makes it even scarier, pairing the board with the 10h, and Maurer kamikaze shoves for 8,925, Carr calls.
I like the way Mike played this, a sensible spot to avoid variance. Not sure how Maurer found a shove, and given Carr is a very good player I have to think he knows Maurer is donkish to call him on the river.
Matusow comes out with one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, in the 2008 WSOP, "Only 1 person of the entire 100 chip leaders of day 1 cashed". Not even close Mike.
ESPN asks a load of players how to win the Main Event, apparently you have to watch Rocky.
Back to the field, Bobby Baldwin, Chris "Depressed to be playing poker for a living" Moneymaker, and Greg "I just got 300 big blinds in with a pair and a flush draw vs a set" Raymer.
Hand 4 has us on the Jd 4d 2h flop, Mike has 10d8d and bets 600, Carter calls with Ks8s for king high. The turn is the 9c and goes check check, Matusow bluffs King high on the 4s river and doesn't show the 'bluff'.
Raymer is out, finished off by Mikhail Shalamov, a player whose attire sparks Chad's, "What is this, fashion week on QVC?" comment.
Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are shown, Maria knocking out 2+2s 'Dante', Jeremiah De Greef, AA vs KK. Ray Romano bests Martin Schirp with a bet on a Q666 board and then shows Aces. Forrest doubles again with AA vs 88.
We see a feature on the Matusow vs Forrest weight loss bet.
"Ted's gotta lose 20 more pounds in less than 2 weeks to win the bet, ain't gonna happen, and even if it does, do you think he's gonna be able to collect $2 million dollars from Mike Matusow? Ain't gonna happen."
Hand 5 sees Carr raise Qd3d and get flatted by Matusow in the co with 8h5h. the flop is Ad9d8s and Carr c-bets his flush draw, Matusow calls with bottom pair. There's 4450 in the flop when the Kc arrives. Carr bets 2k and Mike makes it 5400. Carr decides to fold his draw. Mike makes another nice play, he plays good in these spots, I don't know why he is addicted to scared careful Main Event play, he's much better like this.
Hand 6 is one of Eril Seidel's worst ever televised moments. Taylor Larkin, runner up in a $1500 for $390k has 33k and AK off in the c/o. Seidel has A6 off in the bb. Larkin makes it 725, Seidel pops it to 2325. Larkin 4-bets to 6,500. Seiderl 5-bets to 17,000. Larkin 6-bet shoves for 17,425 more. Seidel is getting 3:1 and has invested half his stack. Why is he putting himself in a position to fold? He should have 5-bet to around 11k if he planned on folding to a shove. Making it 17k and folding is atrocious when he needs a 25% hand. Larkin couldn't believe he dind't get called.
Seidel tells us a story about beating a guy out of his boots in Backgammon.
Yay! A Scott Seiver and Isaac Haxton sighting, as well as EPT star Jeff Sarwer beating fellow pro Peter Feldman.
Hand 7 Carr makes it 750 utg and gets called by Matusow's 8d5d. Robert Pisano calls from the bb with the Wild Card Hand. Carr bets 1500 on the 8s7s2c flop. Both players call to see the Js. It;s checked round to Mike and he bets 3,050 into 6,900. Pisano's wild card hand makes it 8,100 and Mike has no choice but to fold. Pisano has AsKs for the nuts. Kind of a spewy turn bet from Mike.
Shawn Marion is knocked out. Who the hell is he?
Yay! Abe 'bet bet' Mosseri is shown trying to knock someone out but getting sucked out on.
It's Grinder time! We see him winning a pot and having a nice big stack.
Hand 8 and Mike limps utg with Ad5d. Ugh. Carter makes it 1225 from the Hijack with Ace Queen off and Mike flats. Ugh. Qh 8h 4d on the flop and Mike leads for 1325. Carter nicely flats. The turn is the 9d, giving Matusow the nut flush draw. Mike donks out 3500 into 5550. Carter is happy to string him along further. The river is the Qc and Mike donks out 7k. Carter calls obviously. Mike should have shut down here, what did he think Carter had? He loses half his stack here.
Hand 9 and Pisano (who goes on to finish 23rd) makes it 900 from the cut off with AJ off, Mike makes it 3100 from the bb with JJ and Pisano shoves. Mike started the hand with 55 big blinds. He shies away from this but spews half his stack in bluff spots? I'm not going to be overky critical about not wanting to get 55 bbs in with Jacks, but if you're going to play smallball then you need to be consistent. Don't limp/call early with A5 and then lead all 3 streets with air. That's not smallball.
Hand 10 sees Seidel hooked up with strong pro Noah Schwartz and Peter Bartagov. Seidel hits running two pair after the flop is checked and Schwarts pays off on the turn and river with Ace high to see Seidel back to his starting stack.
Out in the field we see a Barry Shulman bluff against Andrew St.Jean (we saw Tedd Forrest playing against an Andrew St.John earlier!). TJ Cloutier is out. And now......
We go over to Mike "the Mad Genius of Poker" Caro's table. Mike bets in the dark with J3 off into 4 players (one of which is Will Molson). "Look at how Genius moves and breathes." James Taylor calls. The turn is the 9d. Genius checks. "absolute genius". The river is the Qs. Genius checks. Taylor bets. "Genius is, as genius does." Genius folds and Taylor shows a bluff. "He may be the mad genius but I've never seen him win."
Hilariously Mike gets dealt an Ace that gets exposed. His second card was also an Ace. Classily he folds face-up. Mike moans.
Ray Romano gets eliminated when Schirp makes a straight flush. Bye Ray! Moneymake makes a straight and wins a pot against Michael Swimelar. The Grinder wins another pot! Imagine if he final tabled this? That would be amazing. Ted Forrest doubles again vs John Jiles. He now has a massive 3,900.
Mike is down to 6675. He tells everyone he never goes broke on Day 1. HAnd 11 and Mike makes it 850 with KJ off. Varter flats 88 on the button. Lester flats AsQs from the sb. There's 3075 in the pot. J85cc. Mike moves in for 5800. Carter has a set. He calls. Mike is gone. Bye!
He played pretty badly, it's all well and good being a nit pre-flop with big hands, but he needs to stop spewing in situations he shouldn't be in.
Day 1b is coming soon!
"Lon I can't believe I'm saying this but Greg Raymer just gave me chills."
The feature table is, once again, Mike Matusow. He was on the Day 1 feature last year, and 2006, not sure about the intervening years but it's a strong possibility. Also at the table is Jason Lester who was 4th in 2003. Allen Carter is at the table, he won the WPT Southern Championships in Jan '09 for $1 million. Alex Carr is a young online pro with 4 cashes at the 2010 World Series.
Hand 1 sees 22 year old Alex Carr make it 250 with A6 off, flatted by Matusow in the CO with A6hh, Gerhard Maurer from Munich flays the button with 10c and a mystery card, Alan Carter calls out of the bb with 53 off. The flop is Q64 rainbow, Carter leads 600 with the open ender and Mike flats with second pair. Carter leads 1050 on the 5h turn and Mike pops it to 3k. Carter flats and checks the Kh river, Matusow thinks he needs to bluff and bets 4,400. Carter snap folds. Mike talks about playing it real slow on Day 1 but he had 80 big blinds at risk in this early pot.
Table 2 and hand 2 features Erik Seidel. We get to the flop where he's out of position with AcAs vs Matt Groves AdJd on a 456 flop. Erik check calls every street, the board running out 2 then 7. Seidel masterfully let the aggresive kid fire 3 barrels.
We see Jeff Shulman and TJ Cloutier in the field, then see Ted Forrest all-in with 88 vs J10 on a 10 6 2 flop. It doesn't matter because there's two eights to come.
Back to Matusowland. Hand 3 and the blinds are up to 100-200, Carr makes it 600 with Jh 9h from the button. He gets called by both blinds, Matusow and Maurer, bith with QJ off, the fun flop comes down Q98cc. Mike leads 1k into 1800 and gets called by both of them. All three payers make a straight on the 10 of clubs turn, nobody has a club. Matusow checks, Maurer bets 3k into 4,800 and Carr flats. Matusow does some inappropriate talking and makes a sensible fold. The river makes it even scarier, pairing the board with the 10h, and Maurer kamikaze shoves for 8,925, Carr calls.
I like the way Mike played this, a sensible spot to avoid variance. Not sure how Maurer found a shove, and given Carr is a very good player I have to think he knows Maurer is donkish to call him on the river.
Matusow comes out with one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, in the 2008 WSOP, "Only 1 person of the entire 100 chip leaders of day 1 cashed". Not even close Mike.
ESPN asks a load of players how to win the Main Event, apparently you have to watch Rocky.
Back to the field, Bobby Baldwin, Chris "Depressed to be playing poker for a living" Moneymaker, and Greg "I just got 300 big blinds in with a pair and a flush draw vs a set" Raymer.
Hand 4 has us on the Jd 4d 2h flop, Mike has 10d8d and bets 600, Carter calls with Ks8s for king high. The turn is the 9c and goes check check, Matusow bluffs King high on the 4s river and doesn't show the 'bluff'.
Raymer is out, finished off by Mikhail Shalamov, a player whose attire sparks Chad's, "What is this, fashion week on QVC?" comment.
Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are shown, Maria knocking out 2+2s 'Dante', Jeremiah De Greef, AA vs KK. Ray Romano bests Martin Schirp with a bet on a Q666 board and then shows Aces. Forrest doubles again with AA vs 88.
We see a feature on the Matusow vs Forrest weight loss bet.
"Ted's gotta lose 20 more pounds in less than 2 weeks to win the bet, ain't gonna happen, and even if it does, do you think he's gonna be able to collect $2 million dollars from Mike Matusow? Ain't gonna happen."
Hand 5 sees Carr raise Qd3d and get flatted by Matusow in the co with 8h5h. the flop is Ad9d8s and Carr c-bets his flush draw, Matusow calls with bottom pair. There's 4450 in the flop when the Kc arrives. Carr bets 2k and Mike makes it 5400. Carr decides to fold his draw. Mike makes another nice play, he plays good in these spots, I don't know why he is addicted to scared careful Main Event play, he's much better like this.
Hand 6 is one of Eril Seidel's worst ever televised moments. Taylor Larkin, runner up in a $1500 for $390k has 33k and AK off in the c/o. Seidel has A6 off in the bb. Larkin makes it 725, Seidel pops it to 2325. Larkin 4-bets to 6,500. Seiderl 5-bets to 17,000. Larkin 6-bet shoves for 17,425 more. Seidel is getting 3:1 and has invested half his stack. Why is he putting himself in a position to fold? He should have 5-bet to around 11k if he planned on folding to a shove. Making it 17k and folding is atrocious when he needs a 25% hand. Larkin couldn't believe he dind't get called.
Seidel tells us a story about beating a guy out of his boots in Backgammon.
Yay! A Scott Seiver and Isaac Haxton sighting, as well as EPT star Jeff Sarwer beating fellow pro Peter Feldman.
Hand 7 Carr makes it 750 utg and gets called by Matusow's 8d5d. Robert Pisano calls from the bb with the Wild Card Hand. Carr bets 1500 on the 8s7s2c flop. Both players call to see the Js. It;s checked round to Mike and he bets 3,050 into 6,900. Pisano's wild card hand makes it 8,100 and Mike has no choice but to fold. Pisano has AsKs for the nuts. Kind of a spewy turn bet from Mike.
Shawn Marion is knocked out. Who the hell is he?
Yay! Abe 'bet bet' Mosseri is shown trying to knock someone out but getting sucked out on.
It's Grinder time! We see him winning a pot and having a nice big stack.
Hand 8 and Mike limps utg with Ad5d. Ugh. Carter makes it 1225 from the Hijack with Ace Queen off and Mike flats. Ugh. Qh 8h 4d on the flop and Mike leads for 1325. Carter nicely flats. The turn is the 9d, giving Matusow the nut flush draw. Mike donks out 3500 into 5550. Carter is happy to string him along further. The river is the Qc and Mike donks out 7k. Carter calls obviously. Mike should have shut down here, what did he think Carter had? He loses half his stack here.
Hand 9 and Pisano (who goes on to finish 23rd) makes it 900 from the cut off with AJ off, Mike makes it 3100 from the bb with JJ and Pisano shoves. Mike started the hand with 55 big blinds. He shies away from this but spews half his stack in bluff spots? I'm not going to be overky critical about not wanting to get 55 bbs in with Jacks, but if you're going to play smallball then you need to be consistent. Don't limp/call early with A5 and then lead all 3 streets with air. That's not smallball.
Hand 10 sees Seidel hooked up with strong pro Noah Schwartz and Peter Bartagov. Seidel hits running two pair after the flop is checked and Schwarts pays off on the turn and river with Ace high to see Seidel back to his starting stack.
Out in the field we see a Barry Shulman bluff against Andrew St.Jean (we saw Tedd Forrest playing against an Andrew St.John earlier!). TJ Cloutier is out. And now......
We go over to Mike "the Mad Genius of Poker" Caro's table. Mike bets in the dark with J3 off into 4 players (one of which is Will Molson). "Look at how Genius moves and breathes." James Taylor calls. The turn is the 9d. Genius checks. "absolute genius". The river is the Qs. Genius checks. Taylor bets. "Genius is, as genius does." Genius folds and Taylor shows a bluff. "He may be the mad genius but I've never seen him win."
Hilariously Mike gets dealt an Ace that gets exposed. His second card was also an Ace. Classily he folds face-up. Mike moans.
Ray Romano gets eliminated when Schirp makes a straight flush. Bye Ray! Moneymake makes a straight and wins a pot against Michael Swimelar. The Grinder wins another pot! Imagine if he final tabled this? That would be amazing. Ted Forrest doubles again vs John Jiles. He now has a massive 3,900.
Mike is down to 6675. He tells everyone he never goes broke on Day 1. HAnd 11 and Mike makes it 850 with KJ off. Varter flats 88 on the button. Lester flats AsQs from the sb. There's 3075 in the pot. J85cc. Mike moves in for 5800. Carter has a set. He calls. Mike is gone. Bye!
He played pretty badly, it's all well and good being a nit pre-flop with big hands, but he needs to stop spewing in situations he shouldn't be in.
Day 1b is coming soon!
Sunday 8 August 2010
50k Part 2
Five players remain, Oppenheim holds the chip lead. The Mizrachi brothers are the short stacks. In his usual rapper-esque get-up Chino Rheem tells MM to "shake it off".
Hand 1 of the episode begins with one of the favoured Chad-isms, Shchemelev raising with A6dd, "Schemelev studied mathematics at St Petersburg state (lol) University in Russia, I believe they are the Rambling.....?" I've never understood any of those references, I guess you have to know about US college sports to compute that correctly.
Juanda flats in the seat next to him with JJ, a move that has been criticised, but I don't mind in this situation. The Mizrachis are still to act with 12.5 and 16 bbs, perfect for a shove, while Juanda has 35bbs and is covered by Vladimir's 70bbs. I can't see him getting much value with JJ and those stacks by 3-betting in that spot. He also has to consider the ICM implications, going broke with 35bbs would be disastrous given the brother's stacks. The only thing a 3-bet achieves is to ensure a heads-up pot. The way it plays out, given that we knoe the hands and outcome, flatting looks bad, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad move. Juanda flats and then Michael Mizrachi also flats KQ off. Vladimir made it just under 3 bbs to go, Mizrachi has 16 to start the hand. It's definitely a live player move, good online players are folding or shoving there, but I don't think it's the awful mistake many have made it out to be.
"There are a lot of other poker playing brothers people don't know about Lon, the Super Mario brothers, the Jonas brothers, the Marx brothers, Parker brothers, the Almond brothers, Smothers brothers."
Both blinds fold and they all go to a Q 10 5 flop, Vladimir and Juanda check, Mizrachi shoves, Vladimir quickly folds and Juanda deliberates then folds.
Hand 2 is the brother vs brother destruction hand, Michael opens QJ off to 200k from the button, Robert shoves for 665k. Michael is priced in and has to call. He opened over 3bbs here, 2-2.5 and maybe he can fold, but probably not. Robert had 10bbs so his play was easy.
Oppenheim remarks that, "This is going to be like a Greek tragedy", Chad is quick off the mark with, "Well in Greek tragedies someone always dies no?"
Michael turns the Jack and eliminates his brother in fifth, and bumps Michael to around the 30bb mark. ESPN shows us the history of the $50k event, Reese, Deeb, Nguyen and the man who the TV shunned and is destined to be known as the forgotten champion, David Bach.
Hand 3 has Michael making it a little less this time, 150k and 2.5bbs from the button with KcJc. Schemelev makes a questionable call from the bb with 65off. The flopp falls 9 8 3 rainbow and goes check check. Vladimir makes the donkey end of the straight when the 7 hits the turn. Vladimir bets 175k, giving Mizrachi 3:1, not an unreasonable call to make if you think making a pair is live. He runs good when the 10 lands on the river. Vladimir leads for 350k which I don't like, as it opens him up to being bluffed, and he's unlikely to get value out of anything that he can beat. Check-call was deffo the best play. MM makes it 1m to go and Vladimir folds.
"I think Schemelev has just found out that the Grinder and Robert are related."
Hand 4 sees Juanda shove 21bbs UTG with K9dds. Ermmmm....ok. Not sure what he was up to there, he's fine to open and then fold if shoved on, which would have happened as Vladimir has 10 10 in the bb and wins.
Then there's a short clip about how the Mizrachi's love each other. "I don't buy it, I'm still bitter that my older brother Steve beat me in a potato sack race in 1969."
Hand 5, and the blinds are up to 40-80k, Mizrachi completes K7 off in the small and Opie checks 76hh in the big. The flop comes Ah3h5d, massive for Oppenheim. Suprisingly he checks behind. The turn is the 7c and Mizrachi bets 125k, Opie flats him. the river is the Ad, and Mizzrachi makes a very nice value bet of 440k into 470k. Oppenheim tanks and does live player histrionics, melodramatically telling Grinder he had "a straight flush draw."
"If that's a straight flush draw, I'm the count of Monte Cristo Lon."
Oppenheim decided that he wanted to get more value out of his massive drawn than just a c/fold on the flop from the Grinder, but that got him into a sticky spot.
Hand 6 is another Grinder sb vs Opie bb battle, at just over 60bbs effective. Grinder has 10 8 off, Opoe J7 off, check check on AQ8ss, 5c on turn, Mizrachi bets 100k into 220k, Opie floats, 4d on river, Grinder bets 300k into 420k, Opie makes it 850k total, 550k more, and Grinder calls!
There has been a lot said about Mizrachi's play on this Final Table, but he just owned the supposedly spectacular Oppenheim here. The river is a relatively easy check call, but the bet-call is superb, and I really think he had it in mind that Opie might try a funky bluff. This pot propelled him back to the chip-lead.
Hand 7 is the wild card hand, Opie in the sb with the wild card vs Schemelev in the bb with Q10 off. Opie completes, Vlad checks (I would raise here). Q72dd and Opie bets 130k into 225k. Vlad flats. The turn is the Jack of spades, Opie bets 345k into 515. There is 1.2m in the pot going to the Jh river, and Opie bets 390k. Vlad calls, and Opie shows 9h7h. How he thought he was getting 3 streets of value out of that hand is beyond me. Another million dropped by the cash game wizard.
We get a Schemelev segment, which is all subtitled, he basically tells us how ace he is and how Russia owns poker.
"A Russian wearing snakeskin loafers, that's like Elvis eating Borscht, I don't know what to believe anymore."
Hand 8 has the blinds up to 45k-90k with 25k ante. Vlad makes it 250k from the button with A4 off, Grinder makes it 600k with KQ, and Opie makes it 3.3m total with an all-in ship. It costs Grinder 2.7m to win 4.225m so he's getting 1.5-1, needing 42.5%. It costs him half his stack to call.
I think the Grinder should have made it more like 800k to begin with, as the Russian was almost certainly going to call an extra 350k in position with most of his button raising range. Opie ships around 37bbs in, so given the action and what little I know about him I have him on 22+ AJ+, and against that range Grinder is 38%. If he had made it 800k in the first place it just about squeaks his call into the mathematically correct territory.
Overall I think it's a marginal error, but Grinder decided to gamble and it worked out, Opie showing 88 and losing on the river. The Grinder and Vlad go heads-up. Grinder stars with 10m and over 110bbs while Vlad has 7.2m and 80bbs so they're both pretty deep.
Hand 9 has Grinder making it 245k with KJ off and Vlad re-popping aggresively with 86 off to 790k. MM makes the call and they see a Q93 rainbow flop, Vlad puts 1.1m into 1.63m. Grinder calls, the flop is now bloated to 3.83m. The turn is the Qc, and Vlad is in no mans land. He checks over to Grinder, but Grinder declines the invitation to take it down, and they see a 6d river. Having made a hand, Vlad checks to Grinder, and Grinder checks behind. Vlad wins and tilts Mizrachi. This puts them back even at 9m apiece, 100bbs.
Hand 10 has Vlad raise out of turn, it's Grinders button yet the Russian tries to make it 245k. Mizrachi limps and Schemelev then follows through. He has J9 off and Mizrachi has A6 off. Vlad seems eager to play out of position in bloated pots vs the Grinder, not normally a great tactic. The flop is JJ8ss, and Vlad bets 300k into 630. Grinder calls and they see a 7c turn. Vlad checks, Grinder bets 500k into 1.2m. Vlad calls and the river is the Ks. Vlad check calls 600k from the Grinder.
Post-flop I really liked how Vlad played this, he flopped a monster and allowed the Grinder to hang himself, getting max value out of the situation.
Hand 11 is joined on the flop, Vlad has 55 out of position vs MM's 8d4d, the flop is 433. There is already 540k in there so there was a raise/call pre, and given that Vlad checks to grinder it was probably Mizrachi who raised. Grinder bets 275k, and Vlad raises to 600k. Grinder is nothing if not stubborn and he min 3-bets to 950k. I have no idea what he's trying to achieve with this bet. If he sizes it better he at least asks a question of the Russian, but he makes it a size that means most hands are unfoldable. The turn is the 10h and Grinder bets 500k into 2.4m after Vlad checks. Vlad calls the tiny bet.
"By the way if this guy's an amateur, I'm a proffesional broadcaster."
The river is the Kh and it goes check-check. 3.4m goes over to Vlad. What on earth was MM playing at here? He didn't really give Vlad the chance to fold, even though it seems he was trying to.
Vlad has 13m and Mike has 4.4m. The blinds go up to 50-100k, Hand 12 sees MM make it 200k with Ac7c, Vlad makes it 750k with AdJd and Grinder shoves. Given how aggresive Vlad has been out of the bb from what we've seen, it's tough not to shove here if you're Mizrachi. He sucks out with a flush anyway, bringing the stacks back to almost level.
Hand 13 is joined at the flop, MM has Q7d in the sb, Vlad has 98off on a K87 rainbow. Mike check calls the flop and binks on the Qs turn. Mizrachi checks and Vlad bets in a spot where he should be checking, 1.1m into 1.7. Mizrachi ships it in, and Vlad folds.
Mizrachi has 14.5m and Vlad has 3m. We get no real explanation as to how that happened, they were even after the Mizrachi double-up and now it's almost over. Maybe Hand 13 encapsulates the flow of the heads-up portion we didn't see.
Hand 14 sees MM raise to 225k with 3d2d, Vlad flats with Q5cc. The flop is AQ8ss and it goes check check. The turn is the 3c and again it goes check check. The river is the 3 of hearts and now Vlad bets 250k for value. Mizrachi tanks and makes it 2m. The raise is great, but my only complaint is why on earth didn't you put him all-in? Grinder left Vlad with chips to double up with.
Hand 15 is the final hand, Grinder shipping it with Q5off and Vlad calling with Q8 off. The Grinder turns his 5 and ships the tournament. I feel like he is a deserving winner and didn't deserve the criticism he recieved for this performance.
If we analyse all of the individual performances I don't think anyone shone. Thuritz was very unlucky, Alaei wasted a lot of chips with KQ, Baker had a night to forget, Robert Mizrachi didn't stand out, Juanda made a strange pre-flop shove for his bust-out, Oppenheim lacked patience and tried to bluff too much, the Russian put himself into lots of difficult spots and the Grinder was very erratic.
All in all it was a good show and an entertaining final table. Now for the Main Event!
Hand 1 of the episode begins with one of the favoured Chad-isms, Shchemelev raising with A6dd, "Schemelev studied mathematics at St Petersburg state (lol) University in Russia, I believe they are the Rambling.....?" I've never understood any of those references, I guess you have to know about US college sports to compute that correctly.
Juanda flats in the seat next to him with JJ, a move that has been criticised, but I don't mind in this situation. The Mizrachis are still to act with 12.5 and 16 bbs, perfect for a shove, while Juanda has 35bbs and is covered by Vladimir's 70bbs. I can't see him getting much value with JJ and those stacks by 3-betting in that spot. He also has to consider the ICM implications, going broke with 35bbs would be disastrous given the brother's stacks. The only thing a 3-bet achieves is to ensure a heads-up pot. The way it plays out, given that we knoe the hands and outcome, flatting looks bad, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad move. Juanda flats and then Michael Mizrachi also flats KQ off. Vladimir made it just under 3 bbs to go, Mizrachi has 16 to start the hand. It's definitely a live player move, good online players are folding or shoving there, but I don't think it's the awful mistake many have made it out to be.
"There are a lot of other poker playing brothers people don't know about Lon, the Super Mario brothers, the Jonas brothers, the Marx brothers, Parker brothers, the Almond brothers, Smothers brothers."
Both blinds fold and they all go to a Q 10 5 flop, Vladimir and Juanda check, Mizrachi shoves, Vladimir quickly folds and Juanda deliberates then folds.
Hand 2 is the brother vs brother destruction hand, Michael opens QJ off to 200k from the button, Robert shoves for 665k. Michael is priced in and has to call. He opened over 3bbs here, 2-2.5 and maybe he can fold, but probably not. Robert had 10bbs so his play was easy.
Oppenheim remarks that, "This is going to be like a Greek tragedy", Chad is quick off the mark with, "Well in Greek tragedies someone always dies no?"
Michael turns the Jack and eliminates his brother in fifth, and bumps Michael to around the 30bb mark. ESPN shows us the history of the $50k event, Reese, Deeb, Nguyen and the man who the TV shunned and is destined to be known as the forgotten champion, David Bach.
Hand 3 has Michael making it a little less this time, 150k and 2.5bbs from the button with KcJc. Schemelev makes a questionable call from the bb with 65off. The flopp falls 9 8 3 rainbow and goes check check. Vladimir makes the donkey end of the straight when the 7 hits the turn. Vladimir bets 175k, giving Mizrachi 3:1, not an unreasonable call to make if you think making a pair is live. He runs good when the 10 lands on the river. Vladimir leads for 350k which I don't like, as it opens him up to being bluffed, and he's unlikely to get value out of anything that he can beat. Check-call was deffo the best play. MM makes it 1m to go and Vladimir folds.
"I think Schemelev has just found out that the Grinder and Robert are related."
Hand 4 sees Juanda shove 21bbs UTG with K9dds. Ermmmm....ok. Not sure what he was up to there, he's fine to open and then fold if shoved on, which would have happened as Vladimir has 10 10 in the bb and wins.
Then there's a short clip about how the Mizrachi's love each other. "I don't buy it, I'm still bitter that my older brother Steve beat me in a potato sack race in 1969."
Hand 5, and the blinds are up to 40-80k, Mizrachi completes K7 off in the small and Opie checks 76hh in the big. The flop comes Ah3h5d, massive for Oppenheim. Suprisingly he checks behind. The turn is the 7c and Mizrachi bets 125k, Opie flats him. the river is the Ad, and Mizzrachi makes a very nice value bet of 440k into 470k. Oppenheim tanks and does live player histrionics, melodramatically telling Grinder he had "a straight flush draw."
"If that's a straight flush draw, I'm the count of Monte Cristo Lon."
Oppenheim decided that he wanted to get more value out of his massive drawn than just a c/fold on the flop from the Grinder, but that got him into a sticky spot.
Hand 6 is another Grinder sb vs Opie bb battle, at just over 60bbs effective. Grinder has 10 8 off, Opoe J7 off, check check on AQ8ss, 5c on turn, Mizrachi bets 100k into 220k, Opie floats, 4d on river, Grinder bets 300k into 420k, Opie makes it 850k total, 550k more, and Grinder calls!
There has been a lot said about Mizrachi's play on this Final Table, but he just owned the supposedly spectacular Oppenheim here. The river is a relatively easy check call, but the bet-call is superb, and I really think he had it in mind that Opie might try a funky bluff. This pot propelled him back to the chip-lead.
Hand 7 is the wild card hand, Opie in the sb with the wild card vs Schemelev in the bb with Q10 off. Opie completes, Vlad checks (I would raise here). Q72dd and Opie bets 130k into 225k. Vlad flats. The turn is the Jack of spades, Opie bets 345k into 515. There is 1.2m in the pot going to the Jh river, and Opie bets 390k. Vlad calls, and Opie shows 9h7h. How he thought he was getting 3 streets of value out of that hand is beyond me. Another million dropped by the cash game wizard.
We get a Schemelev segment, which is all subtitled, he basically tells us how ace he is and how Russia owns poker.
"A Russian wearing snakeskin loafers, that's like Elvis eating Borscht, I don't know what to believe anymore."
Hand 8 has the blinds up to 45k-90k with 25k ante. Vlad makes it 250k from the button with A4 off, Grinder makes it 600k with KQ, and Opie makes it 3.3m total with an all-in ship. It costs Grinder 2.7m to win 4.225m so he's getting 1.5-1, needing 42.5%. It costs him half his stack to call.
I think the Grinder should have made it more like 800k to begin with, as the Russian was almost certainly going to call an extra 350k in position with most of his button raising range. Opie ships around 37bbs in, so given the action and what little I know about him I have him on 22+ AJ+, and against that range Grinder is 38%. If he had made it 800k in the first place it just about squeaks his call into the mathematically correct territory.
Overall I think it's a marginal error, but Grinder decided to gamble and it worked out, Opie showing 88 and losing on the river. The Grinder and Vlad go heads-up. Grinder stars with 10m and over 110bbs while Vlad has 7.2m and 80bbs so they're both pretty deep.
Hand 9 has Grinder making it 245k with KJ off and Vlad re-popping aggresively with 86 off to 790k. MM makes the call and they see a Q93 rainbow flop, Vlad puts 1.1m into 1.63m. Grinder calls, the flop is now bloated to 3.83m. The turn is the Qc, and Vlad is in no mans land. He checks over to Grinder, but Grinder declines the invitation to take it down, and they see a 6d river. Having made a hand, Vlad checks to Grinder, and Grinder checks behind. Vlad wins and tilts Mizrachi. This puts them back even at 9m apiece, 100bbs.
Hand 10 has Vlad raise out of turn, it's Grinders button yet the Russian tries to make it 245k. Mizrachi limps and Schemelev then follows through. He has J9 off and Mizrachi has A6 off. Vlad seems eager to play out of position in bloated pots vs the Grinder, not normally a great tactic. The flop is JJ8ss, and Vlad bets 300k into 630. Grinder calls and they see a 7c turn. Vlad checks, Grinder bets 500k into 1.2m. Vlad calls and the river is the Ks. Vlad check calls 600k from the Grinder.
Post-flop I really liked how Vlad played this, he flopped a monster and allowed the Grinder to hang himself, getting max value out of the situation.
Hand 11 is joined on the flop, Vlad has 55 out of position vs MM's 8d4d, the flop is 433. There is already 540k in there so there was a raise/call pre, and given that Vlad checks to grinder it was probably Mizrachi who raised. Grinder bets 275k, and Vlad raises to 600k. Grinder is nothing if not stubborn and he min 3-bets to 950k. I have no idea what he's trying to achieve with this bet. If he sizes it better he at least asks a question of the Russian, but he makes it a size that means most hands are unfoldable. The turn is the 10h and Grinder bets 500k into 2.4m after Vlad checks. Vlad calls the tiny bet.
"By the way if this guy's an amateur, I'm a proffesional broadcaster."
The river is the Kh and it goes check-check. 3.4m goes over to Vlad. What on earth was MM playing at here? He didn't really give Vlad the chance to fold, even though it seems he was trying to.
Vlad has 13m and Mike has 4.4m. The blinds go up to 50-100k, Hand 12 sees MM make it 200k with Ac7c, Vlad makes it 750k with AdJd and Grinder shoves. Given how aggresive Vlad has been out of the bb from what we've seen, it's tough not to shove here if you're Mizrachi. He sucks out with a flush anyway, bringing the stacks back to almost level.
Hand 13 is joined at the flop, MM has Q7d in the sb, Vlad has 98off on a K87 rainbow. Mike check calls the flop and binks on the Qs turn. Mizrachi checks and Vlad bets in a spot where he should be checking, 1.1m into 1.7. Mizrachi ships it in, and Vlad folds.
Mizrachi has 14.5m and Vlad has 3m. We get no real explanation as to how that happened, they were even after the Mizrachi double-up and now it's almost over. Maybe Hand 13 encapsulates the flow of the heads-up portion we didn't see.
Hand 14 sees MM raise to 225k with 3d2d, Vlad flats with Q5cc. The flop is AQ8ss and it goes check check. The turn is the 3c and again it goes check check. The river is the 3 of hearts and now Vlad bets 250k for value. Mizrachi tanks and makes it 2m. The raise is great, but my only complaint is why on earth didn't you put him all-in? Grinder left Vlad with chips to double up with.
Hand 15 is the final hand, Grinder shipping it with Q5off and Vlad calling with Q8 off. The Grinder turns his 5 and ships the tournament. I feel like he is a deserving winner and didn't deserve the criticism he recieved for this performance.
If we analyse all of the individual performances I don't think anyone shone. Thuritz was very unlucky, Alaei wasted a lot of chips with KQ, Baker had a night to forget, Robert Mizrachi didn't stand out, Juanda made a strange pre-flop shove for his bust-out, Oppenheim lacked patience and tried to bluff too much, the Russian put himself into lots of difficult spots and the Grinder was very erratic.
All in all it was a good show and an entertaining final table. Now for the Main Event!
Saturday 31 July 2010
WSOP 2010 on TV - 50k Player's Championship
The WSOP is back on ESPN! The first episode covers the final table of the 50K mixed event, the opening event of the series and direct descendant of the 50k HORSE.
Lon and Norm are back! They immediately play up the brother vs brother storyline, with Mike and Robert Mizrachi both at the table.
"If they ever find intelligent life on Mars Lon, I believe they will be playing mixed games."
There are shiny new graphics, including a notation informing the viewer which position the player they're watching is in. The first hand has Grinder raising A10 in the HJ and going up against David Baker with 77 in the sb. Baker check calls a c-bet on an 832 flop.
"I believe the continuation bet has cost more people more money than anything other than federal income tax."
The turn is an Ace and the Grinder checks behind. Baker rivers a two-outer and leads into Mizrachi, who has no option but to call given the play of the hand.
The second hand is more typical of an ESPN televised hand, it's a coinflip! Mikael Thuritz, an L.A. based Swede raises the Cut-off to 110k with JJ on 20-40k, Juanda flats KQ off in the sb and then Alaei ships for just over 30bbs with AK out of the bb. Thuritz makes the simple call and Alaei turns the A.
The third hand sees Thuritz crippled down to an ante chip getting 40bbs in with KK vs the AA of the Russian Shchemelev, changing the chip lead.
"Like they say Lon, a chip and a chair, though I would save that chip and use it to buy a whole set of chairs, maybe with leather backs."
The fourth hand is one of those hands where everybody limps in with crap because someone is akready all-in pre-flop. Chad is apoplectic amidst all the limping.
"Boy I hope these new graphics don't explode!"
"Thuritz with a chance to sextuple up, which sounds illegal."
"I'm trying to follow that yellow next to act thing, but man I'm dizzy, I feel like I'm inside of a pinball machine."
Mizrachi flops trips with K9 on 997. He bets 50k into 275k and gets floated by Oppenheim with A8. The turn brings a 10, giving Oppenheim an open-ender, which gives him the impetus to semi-bluff the Grinder, raising his 125k turn bet to 425k. Mizrachi snaps him and they see an offsuit 3 on the river. Mizrachi checks, Oppenheim unleashes 550k, and the Grinder folds his trips, which means Thuritz does sextuple up as his J3 off rivered a pair which beats the A high of 'Opie'. Oppenheim played on the fact that Thuritz was all-in to put money into the dry side=pot and outwit the Grinder, though surely he didn't believe trips would fold? The Grinder had 1.2m left on the river, 30bbs, so calling and losing would have left him around the 15bb mark. Grinder tells his brother Robert, "I thought he had 68 for sure."
"Welcome to the big game" says Norm.
The camera flashes to Robert, Norm ponders his thoughts:
"Did I raise my kid brother this dumb?"
Thuritz gets the infamous ESPN 'We didn't have time to spare for your bust-out hand, so when we come back from an ad-break you will be shaking hands' treatment.
"Ah he was a kid with a dream" - one of the Chad trademarks.
The first backstage interview of the year, predictably goes to the Mizrachi brothers. 2010 is the World Series of Mizrachi - when people reference this year in 10 years time they'll say, "the one with the Mizrach brothers."
Hand 5 is the Wild Card hand. Juanda makes it 150k with J9 suited on 25-50k, and is called by Robert Mizrachi in the bb. Robert's hand is concealed, we see Alaei fold Q3 offsuit.
"I'm putting Alaei on Queen-trey offsuit Lon".
The flop is J98 all clubs, Juanda c-bets 250k with his 2 pair and Mizrachi calls. The turn Qs sees Mizrachi lead 375k into Juanda. Three clubs and a 1 card straight is scary, and Juanda folds his two pair. I had Robert on K10 with the K of clubs, in fact it was AJ without a club, a flopped top pair top kicker that Robert decided to kind of "probe-bluff" on the turn.
Juanda gets an interview, about finding his 'drive' again.
Number 6 sees brother vs brother, Robert opening UTG with J9, Michael calling out of the SB with KJ off (hmmm). Michael donks out (he loves the donk-bet by the way) on 954 and Robert flats, it goes check-bet-fold on the 2 turn.
"By the way Lon, correct me if I'm wring, but I believe Cain murdered Abel after tsking a bad beat in Razz."
Number 7 sees a misstep from David Baker, opening K10cc utg, he gets flatted by MM with about 25bbs and Q10 off on the button. Baker check-raises all-in on the Q 10 3 flop, and obv gets snapped and doubles up the Grinder. Chad revealed during this hand that Baker believes he will be the best all-around player in the world in 5 years, an Ian Poulter-like prediction.
Hand 8 sees Alaei open-limp KQ off utg+1, a curious move, Opie picks up Aces and makes it 225k in the hi-jack which Alaei flats. the flop is K104 and Alaei check-raises all-in abd Opie calls. Alaei turns two pair but Opie rivers a better one. Alaei had 40bbs to start the hand and it feels like a bit of a waste to lose all but 9 of those bbs with that hand in this spot, esoecually in the fashion he did.
Opie gets an interview with the usual high-stakes-cash-game-player-moaning-about tournaments-on-tv-stuff.
Hand 9 sees Alaei ship his last chips in, re-raising a Schemelev open with A6hh. Schemelev has AK, Alaei departs.
"Lon we are closer to a possible heads-up between Robert and Michael Mizrachi, that would be like Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez auditioning for the same lead role."
Number 10 sees Baker bust, shipping AJ and 30bbs over Grinder's utg+1 open. He gets the first 'whamboozling' of the year from Norm as he departs in 6th.
Chad makes a mistep in Hand 10, being obsessed about Schemelev's amateur status. Norm still doesn't understand that it's enntirely possible for a professional to play badly and an amateur to play well. There are also quite a few rich "amateurs" (such as Eli Elezra and Dan Shak) that do nothing but play poker having made a fortune in the 'real' world. Vladimir could easily be one of these characters. The Russian makes it 175k on 30-60k with 44 in the c/o. Mizrachi flats Q10dd out of the sb.
"I know it's suited, but if he plays this I'm going to send him to Queen Ten rehab centre. After two weeks there you won't play Queen Ten against a guy playing with just one card!".
Mizrachi does his favourite move and donks out with air on a 762ss. the turn is an Ace and Mizrach checks, Schemelev checks behind, then MM bluffs small on the river J. It costs Vladimir 330k to win 1.3m and if he has been paying attention to the donk-betting MM I think it's a call he has to make.
The last hand (11 of the first episode sees the chip leaders MM and Opie clash in a huge hand. mizrachi covers Opie by 1m (18bbs). This is important because that is the amount Michael has left after losing the chip lead!
Opie opens to 175k utg on 30-60k with 44. Mizrachi flats him with AQ out of the bb. The flop is the cooler-esque Q54ss. The pre-flop effective stacks were just shy of 80bbs. Grinder checks, Opie bets 235k into 455k. Mizrachi check-raises to 735k. I'm not sure I'm a fan of this move out of position, because he will either get flatted and be in limbo out of position vs a great player on the turn, or he will get worse hands to fold. If Oppenheim comes back over the top then surely AQ has to be folded given this is 1st in chips vs 2nd in chips and there are intetense money jumps coming up. Oppenheim flats which means there is 1.9m in the pot and Oppenheim has about 3.5m back. The turn is the blankish 8 of hearts, giving 76 a straight. Mizrachi bets 1m and Oppenheim ships in 2.7m more. Grinder calls, presumably putting Opie on a semi-bluff flush draw, total air or KQ. I hate the way Mizrachi played this hand given the dynamics of the Final Table.
That concludes the first episode, leaving 5 players left, Oppenheim having double the chips of Schemelev in 2nd. Oppenheim has 150bbs, Schemelev about 65, Juanda with 35, Michael 15 and Robert 12bbs. The brothers at the bottom of the totem pole.
Lon and Norm are back! They immediately play up the brother vs brother storyline, with Mike and Robert Mizrachi both at the table.
"If they ever find intelligent life on Mars Lon, I believe they will be playing mixed games."
There are shiny new graphics, including a notation informing the viewer which position the player they're watching is in. The first hand has Grinder raising A10 in the HJ and going up against David Baker with 77 in the sb. Baker check calls a c-bet on an 832 flop.
"I believe the continuation bet has cost more people more money than anything other than federal income tax."
The turn is an Ace and the Grinder checks behind. Baker rivers a two-outer and leads into Mizrachi, who has no option but to call given the play of the hand.
The second hand is more typical of an ESPN televised hand, it's a coinflip! Mikael Thuritz, an L.A. based Swede raises the Cut-off to 110k with JJ on 20-40k, Juanda flats KQ off in the sb and then Alaei ships for just over 30bbs with AK out of the bb. Thuritz makes the simple call and Alaei turns the A.
The third hand sees Thuritz crippled down to an ante chip getting 40bbs in with KK vs the AA of the Russian Shchemelev, changing the chip lead.
"Like they say Lon, a chip and a chair, though I would save that chip and use it to buy a whole set of chairs, maybe with leather backs."
The fourth hand is one of those hands where everybody limps in with crap because someone is akready all-in pre-flop. Chad is apoplectic amidst all the limping.
"Boy I hope these new graphics don't explode!"
"Thuritz with a chance to sextuple up, which sounds illegal."
"I'm trying to follow that yellow next to act thing, but man I'm dizzy, I feel like I'm inside of a pinball machine."
Mizrachi flops trips with K9 on 997. He bets 50k into 275k and gets floated by Oppenheim with A8. The turn brings a 10, giving Oppenheim an open-ender, which gives him the impetus to semi-bluff the Grinder, raising his 125k turn bet to 425k. Mizrachi snaps him and they see an offsuit 3 on the river. Mizrachi checks, Oppenheim unleashes 550k, and the Grinder folds his trips, which means Thuritz does sextuple up as his J3 off rivered a pair which beats the A high of 'Opie'. Oppenheim played on the fact that Thuritz was all-in to put money into the dry side=pot and outwit the Grinder, though surely he didn't believe trips would fold? The Grinder had 1.2m left on the river, 30bbs, so calling and losing would have left him around the 15bb mark. Grinder tells his brother Robert, "I thought he had 68 for sure."
"Welcome to the big game" says Norm.
The camera flashes to Robert, Norm ponders his thoughts:
"Did I raise my kid brother this dumb?"
Thuritz gets the infamous ESPN 'We didn't have time to spare for your bust-out hand, so when we come back from an ad-break you will be shaking hands' treatment.
"Ah he was a kid with a dream" - one of the Chad trademarks.
The first backstage interview of the year, predictably goes to the Mizrachi brothers. 2010 is the World Series of Mizrachi - when people reference this year in 10 years time they'll say, "the one with the Mizrach brothers."
Hand 5 is the Wild Card hand. Juanda makes it 150k with J9 suited on 25-50k, and is called by Robert Mizrachi in the bb. Robert's hand is concealed, we see Alaei fold Q3 offsuit.
"I'm putting Alaei on Queen-trey offsuit Lon".
The flop is J98 all clubs, Juanda c-bets 250k with his 2 pair and Mizrachi calls. The turn Qs sees Mizrachi lead 375k into Juanda. Three clubs and a 1 card straight is scary, and Juanda folds his two pair. I had Robert on K10 with the K of clubs, in fact it was AJ without a club, a flopped top pair top kicker that Robert decided to kind of "probe-bluff" on the turn.
Juanda gets an interview, about finding his 'drive' again.
Number 6 sees brother vs brother, Robert opening UTG with J9, Michael calling out of the SB with KJ off (hmmm). Michael donks out (he loves the donk-bet by the way) on 954 and Robert flats, it goes check-bet-fold on the 2 turn.
"By the way Lon, correct me if I'm wring, but I believe Cain murdered Abel after tsking a bad beat in Razz."
Number 7 sees a misstep from David Baker, opening K10cc utg, he gets flatted by MM with about 25bbs and Q10 off on the button. Baker check-raises all-in on the Q 10 3 flop, and obv gets snapped and doubles up the Grinder. Chad revealed during this hand that Baker believes he will be the best all-around player in the world in 5 years, an Ian Poulter-like prediction.
Hand 8 sees Alaei open-limp KQ off utg+1, a curious move, Opie picks up Aces and makes it 225k in the hi-jack which Alaei flats. the flop is K104 and Alaei check-raises all-in abd Opie calls. Alaei turns two pair but Opie rivers a better one. Alaei had 40bbs to start the hand and it feels like a bit of a waste to lose all but 9 of those bbs with that hand in this spot, esoecually in the fashion he did.
Opie gets an interview with the usual high-stakes-cash-game-player-moaning-about tournaments-on-tv-stuff.
Hand 9 sees Alaei ship his last chips in, re-raising a Schemelev open with A6hh. Schemelev has AK, Alaei departs.
"Lon we are closer to a possible heads-up between Robert and Michael Mizrachi, that would be like Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez auditioning for the same lead role."
Number 10 sees Baker bust, shipping AJ and 30bbs over Grinder's utg+1 open. He gets the first 'whamboozling' of the year from Norm as he departs in 6th.
Chad makes a mistep in Hand 10, being obsessed about Schemelev's amateur status. Norm still doesn't understand that it's enntirely possible for a professional to play badly and an amateur to play well. There are also quite a few rich "amateurs" (such as Eli Elezra and Dan Shak) that do nothing but play poker having made a fortune in the 'real' world. Vladimir could easily be one of these characters. The Russian makes it 175k on 30-60k with 44 in the c/o. Mizrachi flats Q10dd out of the sb.
"I know it's suited, but if he plays this I'm going to send him to Queen Ten rehab centre. After two weeks there you won't play Queen Ten against a guy playing with just one card!".
Mizrachi does his favourite move and donks out with air on a 762ss. the turn is an Ace and Mizrach checks, Schemelev checks behind, then MM bluffs small on the river J. It costs Vladimir 330k to win 1.3m and if he has been paying attention to the donk-betting MM I think it's a call he has to make.
The last hand (11 of the first episode sees the chip leaders MM and Opie clash in a huge hand. mizrachi covers Opie by 1m (18bbs). This is important because that is the amount Michael has left after losing the chip lead!
Opie opens to 175k utg on 30-60k with 44. Mizrachi flats him with AQ out of the bb. The flop is the cooler-esque Q54ss. The pre-flop effective stacks were just shy of 80bbs. Grinder checks, Opie bets 235k into 455k. Mizrachi check-raises to 735k. I'm not sure I'm a fan of this move out of position, because he will either get flatted and be in limbo out of position vs a great player on the turn, or he will get worse hands to fold. If Oppenheim comes back over the top then surely AQ has to be folded given this is 1st in chips vs 2nd in chips and there are intetense money jumps coming up. Oppenheim flats which means there is 1.9m in the pot and Oppenheim has about 3.5m back. The turn is the blankish 8 of hearts, giving 76 a straight. Mizrachi bets 1m and Oppenheim ships in 2.7m more. Grinder calls, presumably putting Opie on a semi-bluff flush draw, total air or KQ. I hate the way Mizrachi played this hand given the dynamics of the Final Table.
That concludes the first episode, leaving 5 players left, Oppenheim having double the chips of Schemelev in 2nd. Oppenheim has 150bbs, Schemelev about 65, Juanda with 35, Michael 15 and Robert 12bbs. The brothers at the bottom of the totem pole.
Friday 16 July 2010
78 players remain in the WSOP Main Event for 2010 - the fabled November Nine is in sight, so it's time to discover more about our porential future world champion.
The average stack is just over 2.8m, which is roughly 70 big blinds when they return to 20k-40k blinds tonight.
I will add more bios when I get time, I'm off to see Inception tonight so Day 7 will be in full swing by the time I get home so some of the counts will have changed and some of the names will be no more, but whatever, it's fun.
Theo Jorgensen 9,259,000
The chip leader is a man with big tournament experience and this gives him a huge chance to make it to November. The Dane has $2.3m worth of tournament cashes and won the WPT Paris event only two months ago. He finished 8th in the Main Event of the first ever WSOPE, and won't crumble under the pressure. One of the biggest names remaining in the field, I give him a better than 50% shot at making the N9.
Michael Mizrachi 7,535,000
What can you say about the Grinder this series? Could it be possible that the same player wins the first and last event, and the two most prestigous at that. He has the biggest career earnings of any player left at $8.8m,including 2 WPT wins. The man's a beast.
John Racener 7,200,000
Racener is a young looking pro whi has over $1m in career tournament earnings, his highlight being a WSOP Circuit win in late '07 in AC for just under $400k. Like the Grinder he hails from Florida.
Jonathan Driscoll 6,570,000
Driscoll is from Quebec and has 4 listed cashes on the Hendon mob, with his most recent being by far the biggest: $45k in a $1500 Venetian Deep Stack event just last month. No doubt that gave him the impetus and bankroll boost to go for the ME title as well.
William Thorson 6,525,000
Thorson is a Pokerstars Pro whi has been here before. He finished 13th for $900k in the only live poker event in history with a bigger field than this one - Jamie Gold's 2006 victory. This makes his presence so deep in this one even more impressive. The Swede has just under $2.5m in career cashes.
Matthew Jarvis 6,125,000
Another Canadian in the top 10, Jarvis has 11 listed cashes dating back to 2007, with the biggest being for $20k in the 2009 BC poker championships.
Edward Ochana 5,950,000
Ochana is from Illnois and has $400k in tournament cashes, $368k of which came in a 3rd place finish in the $5k 6-max at the '08 series.
Alexander Kostritsyn 5,715,000
Kostritsyn is the biggest online cash game beast remaining, he plays the highest limits online as PostFlopAction. He won the '08 Aussie Millions beating Seidel heads-up and has cashed for $2.4m in his live tourney career. He is the Russian Durrr. This series he finished 10th in the 50k Player's Championship and made the Semi Finals of the $10k Heads-Up.
Joseph Cheong 5,555,000
Pejmanpatric Eskandar 5,540,000
Matthew Berkey 5,450,000
Filippo Candio 5,385,000
Evgeny Shnayder 4,790,000
Cuong Nguyen 4,705,000
Gabe Costner 4,635,000
Bill Melvin 4,515,000
Jonathan Duhamel 4,295,000
Duy Le 4,100,000
Bryn Kenney 3,820,000
Michal Wywrot 3,815,000
Robert Pisano 3,735,000
Matthew Bucaric 3,595,000
John Dolan 3,470,000
Matt Affleck 3,315,000
Evan Lamprea 3,300,000
John Armbrust 3,295,000
James Fennell 3,000,000
Michael Skender 2,980,000
Benjamin Statz 2,910,000
Jerry Payne 2,765,000
Meenaskshi Subramaniam 2,690,000
Corey Emery 2,640,000
David Baker 2,480,000
Ismail Erkenov 2,400,000
David Assouline 2,400,000
Brandon Steven 2,330,000
Niklas Toorell 2,300,000
Adam Levy 2,290,000
Gianni Direnzo 2,280,000
Rudy Miller 2,250,000
Michiel Sijpkens 2,160,000
Denis Pisarev 2,140,000
Scott Clements 2,100,000
Damien Luis 2,050,000
Mads Wissing 2,025,000
Pascal LeFrancois 1,950,000
Brock Bourne 1,950,000
Richard Morgan 1,940,000
Eric Baldwin 1,890,000
David Benyamine 1,750,000
Mark Meloche 1,750,000
Johnny Lodden 1,700,000
Jim McCrink 1,700,000
Josh Brikis 1,610,000
Tony Dunst 1,600,000
Marcel Cole 1,550,000
Dag Palovic 1,375,000
Jared Ingles 1,370,000
James Manning 1,265,000
Ronnie Bardah 1,250,000
Nicolas Babel 1,220,000
Eduardo Parras 1,220,000
Jakob Toestesen 1,200,000
Pierre Canali 1,200,000
Hasan Habib 1,180,000
Redmond Lee 1,175,000
Gabriel Nassif 1,125,000
Habib Khanis 1,065,000
Sergey Rybachenko 1,010,000
Christopher Bolt 970,000
Matt Harris 965,000
Jason Senti 800,000
Adam Etter 765,000
Jacobo Fernandez 705,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 700,000
Peter Jetten 675,000
Jeff Banghart 645,000
Gary Dishongh 450,000
The average stack is just over 2.8m, which is roughly 70 big blinds when they return to 20k-40k blinds tonight.
I will add more bios when I get time, I'm off to see Inception tonight so Day 7 will be in full swing by the time I get home so some of the counts will have changed and some of the names will be no more, but whatever, it's fun.
Theo Jorgensen 9,259,000
The chip leader is a man with big tournament experience and this gives him a huge chance to make it to November. The Dane has $2.3m worth of tournament cashes and won the WPT Paris event only two months ago. He finished 8th in the Main Event of the first ever WSOPE, and won't crumble under the pressure. One of the biggest names remaining in the field, I give him a better than 50% shot at making the N9.
Michael Mizrachi 7,535,000
What can you say about the Grinder this series? Could it be possible that the same player wins the first and last event, and the two most prestigous at that. He has the biggest career earnings of any player left at $8.8m,including 2 WPT wins. The man's a beast.
John Racener 7,200,000
Racener is a young looking pro whi has over $1m in career tournament earnings, his highlight being a WSOP Circuit win in late '07 in AC for just under $400k. Like the Grinder he hails from Florida.
Jonathan Driscoll 6,570,000
Driscoll is from Quebec and has 4 listed cashes on the Hendon mob, with his most recent being by far the biggest: $45k in a $1500 Venetian Deep Stack event just last month. No doubt that gave him the impetus and bankroll boost to go for the ME title as well.
William Thorson 6,525,000
Thorson is a Pokerstars Pro whi has been here before. He finished 13th for $900k in the only live poker event in history with a bigger field than this one - Jamie Gold's 2006 victory. This makes his presence so deep in this one even more impressive. The Swede has just under $2.5m in career cashes.
Matthew Jarvis 6,125,000
Another Canadian in the top 10, Jarvis has 11 listed cashes dating back to 2007, with the biggest being for $20k in the 2009 BC poker championships.
Edward Ochana 5,950,000
Ochana is from Illnois and has $400k in tournament cashes, $368k of which came in a 3rd place finish in the $5k 6-max at the '08 series.
Alexander Kostritsyn 5,715,000
Kostritsyn is the biggest online cash game beast remaining, he plays the highest limits online as PostFlopAction. He won the '08 Aussie Millions beating Seidel heads-up and has cashed for $2.4m in his live tourney career. He is the Russian Durrr. This series he finished 10th in the 50k Player's Championship and made the Semi Finals of the $10k Heads-Up.
Joseph Cheong 5,555,000
Pejmanpatric Eskandar 5,540,000
Matthew Berkey 5,450,000
Filippo Candio 5,385,000
Evgeny Shnayder 4,790,000
Cuong Nguyen 4,705,000
Gabe Costner 4,635,000
Bill Melvin 4,515,000
Jonathan Duhamel 4,295,000
Duy Le 4,100,000
Bryn Kenney 3,820,000
Michal Wywrot 3,815,000
Robert Pisano 3,735,000
Matthew Bucaric 3,595,000
John Dolan 3,470,000
Matt Affleck 3,315,000
Evan Lamprea 3,300,000
John Armbrust 3,295,000
James Fennell 3,000,000
Michael Skender 2,980,000
Benjamin Statz 2,910,000
Jerry Payne 2,765,000
Meenaskshi Subramaniam 2,690,000
Corey Emery 2,640,000
David Baker 2,480,000
Ismail Erkenov 2,400,000
David Assouline 2,400,000
Brandon Steven 2,330,000
Niklas Toorell 2,300,000
Adam Levy 2,290,000
Gianni Direnzo 2,280,000
Rudy Miller 2,250,000
Michiel Sijpkens 2,160,000
Denis Pisarev 2,140,000
Scott Clements 2,100,000
Damien Luis 2,050,000
Mads Wissing 2,025,000
Pascal LeFrancois 1,950,000
Brock Bourne 1,950,000
Richard Morgan 1,940,000
Eric Baldwin 1,890,000
David Benyamine 1,750,000
Mark Meloche 1,750,000
Johnny Lodden 1,700,000
Jim McCrink 1,700,000
Josh Brikis 1,610,000
Tony Dunst 1,600,000
Marcel Cole 1,550,000
Dag Palovic 1,375,000
Jared Ingles 1,370,000
James Manning 1,265,000
Ronnie Bardah 1,250,000
Nicolas Babel 1,220,000
Eduardo Parras 1,220,000
Jakob Toestesen 1,200,000
Pierre Canali 1,200,000
Hasan Habib 1,180,000
Redmond Lee 1,175,000
Gabriel Nassif 1,125,000
Habib Khanis 1,065,000
Sergey Rybachenko 1,010,000
Christopher Bolt 970,000
Matt Harris 965,000
Jason Senti 800,000
Adam Etter 765,000
Jacobo Fernandez 705,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 700,000
Peter Jetten 675,000
Jeff Banghart 645,000
Gary Dishongh 450,000
Monday 12 July 2010
2548 players remain going into the first universal playing session of the World Series of Poker, Day 3, and that includes my boy, Phill Huxley! 283rd place is a great place to be right now, and he's the chipleader on his table, ready to own!
Players in the top 150 to look out for:
6th - Jesper Hougard
The first player to win a bracelet in the same year on both sides of the Atlantic, and the owner of Jamie Gold on his Day 1 feature table in 2007. A top player that will be going deep.
9th - Cole South
Cash game monster from Townsend's CardRunners stable.
11th - Jim Collopy
MrBigQueso, 21 year old tournament phenom.
15th - Jon Van Fleet
Apestyles online, co-writer of one of my fave strat books, Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.
16th -Johnny Chan
24th - Vanessa Selbst
Winner of NAPT Mohegan Sun, best female MTT player and very interesting character.
30th - Patrik Antonius
31st - Carter Phillips
EPT Barcelona winner and bracelet winner from this series.
34th - Matthew Hilger
Founder of Internet Texas Hold'em forum (http://www.internettexasholdem.com/poker-forum) and % swapper with Phill!
44th - Archie Karas
Legenday gambler
49th - Evgeniy Tymoshenko
WPT and WCOOP Main Event winner looking for a triple crown
63rd - Sammy Farha
67th - Alex Kostritsyn
PostFlopAction - Another High Stakes monster
72nd - J.J.Liu
77th - Michael Mizrachi
81st - Dan Bilzerian
102nd - Robert Mizrachi
The brother's WSOP odyssey continues.
112th - Robert Varkyoni
116th - Billy Kopp
Chasing redemption.
121st - Praz Bansi
123rd - Phil Galfond
126th - Theo Jorgensen
127th - Aaron Kanter
4th in '05
128th - Steve Jelinek
Trying to bring the Main Event bracelet to Broadway!
131st - John Kabbaj
Players in the top 150 to look out for:
6th - Jesper Hougard
The first player to win a bracelet in the same year on both sides of the Atlantic, and the owner of Jamie Gold on his Day 1 feature table in 2007. A top player that will be going deep.
9th - Cole South
Cash game monster from Townsend's CardRunners stable.
11th - Jim Collopy
MrBigQueso, 21 year old tournament phenom.
15th - Jon Van Fleet
Apestyles online, co-writer of one of my fave strat books, Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.
16th -Johnny Chan
24th - Vanessa Selbst
Winner of NAPT Mohegan Sun, best female MTT player and very interesting character.
30th - Patrik Antonius
31st - Carter Phillips
EPT Barcelona winner and bracelet winner from this series.
34th - Matthew Hilger
Founder of Internet Texas Hold'em forum (http://www.internettexasholdem.com/poker-forum) and % swapper with Phill!
44th - Archie Karas
Legenday gambler
49th - Evgeniy Tymoshenko
WPT and WCOOP Main Event winner looking for a triple crown
63rd - Sammy Farha
67th - Alex Kostritsyn
PostFlopAction - Another High Stakes monster
72nd - J.J.Liu
77th - Michael Mizrachi
81st - Dan Bilzerian
102nd - Robert Mizrachi
The brother's WSOP odyssey continues.
112th - Robert Varkyoni
116th - Billy Kopp
Chasing redemption.
121st - Praz Bansi
123rd - Phil Galfond
126th - Theo Jorgensen
127th - Aaron Kanter
4th in '05
128th - Steve Jelinek
Trying to bring the Main Event bracelet to Broadway!
131st - John Kabbaj
Monday 5 July 2010
World Series of Poker Main Event - Day 1A
Day 1A of the 2010 Main Event is set to start in under an hour, and I'll be blogging some of the stories that the mainstream sites might have missed.
My good friend Phill Huxley who was with me at UKIPT Nottingham qualified through Full Tilt and will be playing Day 1B tomorrow.
Some things to look out for -
How will the defending champ Joe Cada and the rest of last years November Nine fare? The 2008 vintage were represented strongly the following year with top 100 finishes for Dennis Phillips and the defending champ Peter Eastgate.
What will the field size be? There was a lot of controversy last year when people were locked out of Day 1D, which was the main reason that registration numbers dipped from the previous Main Event. In 2010 Harrah's have made sure registration is spread more evenly across the Days, and I think it's reasonable to expect that this year will top 7k entrants, making it the second biggest of all time after 2006.
How will the big names do? Last year we had Ivey make it to November, and there's no doubt that big-name inclusion ups the interest significantly for everyone involved.
Will Frank Kessela win Player of the Year? The likelihood is that the double bracelet winning Kessela will take home the POTY prize.
The points model is as follows:
Cash - 5pts
27-19th - 10pts
18th-10th - 20pts
9th 25pts, each position increases by 5pts to 3rd - 55pts.
2nd - 75pts
1st 100pts
Here are the players that could still catch Kessela, along with which position they need assuming Kessela does NOT cash:
Kessela - 285
John Juanda - 225 (Needs 2nd place or above).
Vladimir Schemelev - 210(Needs 2nd to tie, 1st to win).
Dan Heimiller - 205
Michael Mizrachi - 190 (Both need 1st place).
James Dempsey - 185 (Needs 1st to tie).
As you can see, it's incredibly unlikely that Kessela won't win, but stranger things have happened.
I'll be back tomorrow with the Day 1A recap.....SHUFFLE UP, AND DEAL!
My good friend Phill Huxley who was with me at UKIPT Nottingham qualified through Full Tilt and will be playing Day 1B tomorrow.
Some things to look out for -
How will the defending champ Joe Cada and the rest of last years November Nine fare? The 2008 vintage were represented strongly the following year with top 100 finishes for Dennis Phillips and the defending champ Peter Eastgate.
What will the field size be? There was a lot of controversy last year when people were locked out of Day 1D, which was the main reason that registration numbers dipped from the previous Main Event. In 2010 Harrah's have made sure registration is spread more evenly across the Days, and I think it's reasonable to expect that this year will top 7k entrants, making it the second biggest of all time after 2006.
How will the big names do? Last year we had Ivey make it to November, and there's no doubt that big-name inclusion ups the interest significantly for everyone involved.
Will Frank Kessela win Player of the Year? The likelihood is that the double bracelet winning Kessela will take home the POTY prize.
The points model is as follows:
Cash - 5pts
27-19th - 10pts
18th-10th - 20pts
9th 25pts, each position increases by 5pts to 3rd - 55pts.
2nd - 75pts
1st 100pts
Here are the players that could still catch Kessela, along with which position they need assuming Kessela does NOT cash:
Kessela - 285
John Juanda - 225 (Needs 2nd place or above).
Vladimir Schemelev - 210(Needs 2nd to tie, 1st to win).
Dan Heimiller - 205
Michael Mizrachi - 190 (Both need 1st place).
James Dempsey - 185 (Needs 1st to tie).
As you can see, it's incredibly unlikely that Kessela won't win, but stranger things have happened.
I'll be back tomorrow with the Day 1A recap.....SHUFFLE UP, AND DEAL!
MPL Grand Final 3
On Saturday I engineered the afternoon off from work to go and play in pub poker organisation MPL's third "Grand Final". This is a big day for the denizens of this particular midlands pub poker scene, and with £4k and a GUKPT Main Event seat up for grabs I felt obliged to play.
As you might imagine, the field is super soft, with most players never having played outside of a pub before. The setting was my least favourite casino of all time, Grovesnor Walsall, whose approach to their normal events is so laissez-faire that the last time I played I was unable to find a floorperson to complain to when in a 4-handed pot two of my opponents told each other they had "a huge hand that isn't a pair." In addition, my friend Tom made the final table and was part of a 7 way deal, and in large part due to the tournament staff's insistence on not getting involved, someone managed to pilfer £300 out of the prize pool.
There were around 160 players in the tournament, and I managed to draw Table 1 seat 3, which pleased me as I hate being seated on first-to-break tables, mainly for the effect it has on getting into a position to get a decent read on your opponents but also the pure inconvenience of just gathering all your stuff and high-tailing it across the room to your next table. The kid two to my right had won the previous 'quarter final' and played around 80% of hands. He had a real go big or go home approach and was certainly decent enough to do some real damage. The rest of the table was appaling, I would say that there was 1 solid player who wasn't going to do anything really bad or really good, but apart from that it was a festival of eee-orrs.
Some notable hands (10k starting stack) - in the first level (25-50) there's 1 limper and the aggro kid raises for the 4th time in 10 hands on the button to 225 He had previously shown all 3 hands he took pots down with - J4, J8 and 10 3, none of them amounting to a pair. I 3 bet with 3 4 off to 1425 and he called. The flop came K J J and I c-betted 3100 and he made it 7k. I folded and he showed me Ace 5 off. All in all I think both of us played horiffically here, I don't know why I felt it necessary to take a stand with 3 4, as well as leaving myself open to the big bluff. He put 60% of his stack on the line with Ace high, why don't I just wait until I have the goods and then stack him.
After this hand and a few ther excursions I was down to 5.5k. On the last hand of the first level the majority of the table limped, and the kid to my right made it 500, 10bbs, which is classically a tight range of AK, AQ, JJ or 1010. I looked down at 99 and after a few moments contemplation I shipped it, he called with AK and I held to give me my starting stack back.
After this I didn't do anything except play sneaky-good, my favourite gear. I got up to 16k at the break without showing anything down, doing lots of squeezing when anyone apart from the psycho was involved. The psycho went as high as 40k in the first level, but finished up at about 25k. In the first 2 hours before the break the tournament lost 15 players, 8 of which came from our table.
After the break the blinds escalated really quickly, but I still chipped up to 30k. Again there was nothing notable; just taking advantage of the plentiful weaklings at the table. I opened UTG+1 with AJ off, got called in the bb by psycho, J73, check check, he led 2500 at the 8 on the turn and I flatted, the river was a Q and he checked. Knowing that he is capable of the old hero call I bet big on the river, 5,200 which was close to potting it, he insta-called with 66.
I was up to 30k, which was second in chips to psycho when I busted. The blinds were 600-1200 so I had 25bbs, psycho opened the cut-off to 3600 and I flattted with KQcc. I can't 3-bet fold here, and I think open folding is awful in position against this guy, so I don't mind this street. The flop came Kh, 10h, 3h and he c-betted to 4500. I have 26k back. I've thought through this hand quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I have to get it in here. My only physical tell on him was that he had flopped something, this c-bet wasn't air. The problem (or benefit) was that given this board texture he's c-betting for value a really wide range - any K, any A hearts, any lower pair with a decent size flush draw. And with most (if not all) of this range he is getting it in with. He's good enough to know that i can come over the top with hands that K9 is beating, and his whole philosophy means that he's not missing the chance to play a big pot with a big draw. I stoved it giving him a huge range of AA, KK, 1010, 33, all his two pairs and AKings, every QQ, JJ, and 99 and 88 with a heart, all the flopped flushes which is every suited Ace and most kings, down to J7 suited and 98-97suited. He also has all QJs, every Ahearts, and a few other pair/straight draw with flush draw combos, and finally all the naked Kings that we beat. I don't think he's folding almost any of his c-betting range apart from some non-heart QJs and Q9s. The stove makes me 52% fave, I would make it 55% with the addition of some FE. So all in all I think I took the correct line with this hand, and given the fast structure I didn't mind playing one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far with him. In the end I made it 17k (just so he might think he has some tiny FE of his own) and he snap-shoved. I put the rest in knowing I was in trouble and he showed AdKd that held.
All in all it was a decent day and I thought I played well - in a slower structure I think my edge would be substantial enough to have a massive edge, but even so I think the edge I have anyway ensures I should always try and play in these.
As you might imagine, the field is super soft, with most players never having played outside of a pub before. The setting was my least favourite casino of all time, Grovesnor Walsall, whose approach to their normal events is so laissez-faire that the last time I played I was unable to find a floorperson to complain to when in a 4-handed pot two of my opponents told each other they had "a huge hand that isn't a pair." In addition, my friend Tom made the final table and was part of a 7 way deal, and in large part due to the tournament staff's insistence on not getting involved, someone managed to pilfer £300 out of the prize pool.
There were around 160 players in the tournament, and I managed to draw Table 1 seat 3, which pleased me as I hate being seated on first-to-break tables, mainly for the effect it has on getting into a position to get a decent read on your opponents but also the pure inconvenience of just gathering all your stuff and high-tailing it across the room to your next table. The kid two to my right had won the previous 'quarter final' and played around 80% of hands. He had a real go big or go home approach and was certainly decent enough to do some real damage. The rest of the table was appaling, I would say that there was 1 solid player who wasn't going to do anything really bad or really good, but apart from that it was a festival of eee-orrs.
Some notable hands (10k starting stack) - in the first level (25-50) there's 1 limper and the aggro kid raises for the 4th time in 10 hands on the button to 225 He had previously shown all 3 hands he took pots down with - J4, J8 and 10 3, none of them amounting to a pair. I 3 bet with 3 4 off to 1425 and he called. The flop came K J J and I c-betted 3100 and he made it 7k. I folded and he showed me Ace 5 off. All in all I think both of us played horiffically here, I don't know why I felt it necessary to take a stand with 3 4, as well as leaving myself open to the big bluff. He put 60% of his stack on the line with Ace high, why don't I just wait until I have the goods and then stack him.
After this hand and a few ther excursions I was down to 5.5k. On the last hand of the first level the majority of the table limped, and the kid to my right made it 500, 10bbs, which is classically a tight range of AK, AQ, JJ or 1010. I looked down at 99 and after a few moments contemplation I shipped it, he called with AK and I held to give me my starting stack back.
After this I didn't do anything except play sneaky-good, my favourite gear. I got up to 16k at the break without showing anything down, doing lots of squeezing when anyone apart from the psycho was involved. The psycho went as high as 40k in the first level, but finished up at about 25k. In the first 2 hours before the break the tournament lost 15 players, 8 of which came from our table.
After the break the blinds escalated really quickly, but I still chipped up to 30k. Again there was nothing notable; just taking advantage of the plentiful weaklings at the table. I opened UTG+1 with AJ off, got called in the bb by psycho, J73, check check, he led 2500 at the 8 on the turn and I flatted, the river was a Q and he checked. Knowing that he is capable of the old hero call I bet big on the river, 5,200 which was close to potting it, he insta-called with 66.
I was up to 30k, which was second in chips to psycho when I busted. The blinds were 600-1200 so I had 25bbs, psycho opened the cut-off to 3600 and I flattted with KQcc. I can't 3-bet fold here, and I think open folding is awful in position against this guy, so I don't mind this street. The flop came Kh, 10h, 3h and he c-betted to 4500. I have 26k back. I've thought through this hand quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I have to get it in here. My only physical tell on him was that he had flopped something, this c-bet wasn't air. The problem (or benefit) was that given this board texture he's c-betting for value a really wide range - any K, any A hearts, any lower pair with a decent size flush draw. And with most (if not all) of this range he is getting it in with. He's good enough to know that i can come over the top with hands that K9 is beating, and his whole philosophy means that he's not missing the chance to play a big pot with a big draw. I stoved it giving him a huge range of AA, KK, 1010, 33, all his two pairs and AKings, every QQ, JJ, and 99 and 88 with a heart, all the flopped flushes which is every suited Ace and most kings, down to J7 suited and 98-97suited. He also has all QJs, every Ahearts, and a few other pair/straight draw with flush draw combos, and finally all the naked Kings that we beat. I don't think he's folding almost any of his c-betting range apart from some non-heart QJs and Q9s. The stove makes me 52% fave, I would make it 55% with the addition of some FE. So all in all I think I took the correct line with this hand, and given the fast structure I didn't mind playing one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far with him. In the end I made it 17k (just so he might think he has some tiny FE of his own) and he snap-shoved. I put the rest in knowing I was in trouble and he showed AdKd that held.
All in all it was a decent day and I thought I played well - in a slower structure I think my edge would be substantial enough to have a massive edge, but even so I think the edge I have anyway ensures I should always try and play in these.
Monday 28 June 2010
Best names of the WSOP 2010 Part 1
Ahoy - the WSOP is almost over for 2010, only 9 events left to register for, and with that in mind here are some of the funniest names to have cashed this year:
Chad Roedersheimer
Yolanda Basterrechea
Puangpaga Holmes
Cornelius Hardwick
Hansen Ni
Vagan Oganyan
Vladimir Ventosa
Jerrymee Jose
Dash Dudley
Rich Rice
Norris Wong
Tu Ta
Jackson Chasengnou
Octavian Vogele
Brentley Props
Chad Roedersheimer
Yolanda Basterrechea
Puangpaga Holmes
Cornelius Hardwick
Hansen Ni
Vagan Oganyan
Vladimir Ventosa
Jerrymee Jose
Dash Dudley
Rich Rice
Norris Wong
Tu Ta
Jackson Chasengnou
Octavian Vogele
Brentley Props
Thursday 15 April 2010
Still here!
I have been gone longer than my Dad's hair! I have to admit that the lack of updates is due to my outrageous laziness. It's a disease people!
The biggest headline in my poker life during my blogging sabbatical is the arrival of this:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=142179
Yes, I have a Hendon Mob page! It feels like I've been waiting for ages to get a page on there, but the reality is that I've only entered (I think) three tournaments where a cash would have got me a page - £100 at DTD a couple of years ago and the £300 at Broadway I freerolled into just over a year ago. So this was the third one, £50 double chance (4k+4k), 30 minute levels. It's a long time ago now, but basically I ran really hot and steamrollered from 100 players to 30 but had an epic slowdown after that. It was a real grind up until about 13 or 14 left and then I got paid off on a load of nice hands.
The FT went ok but I didn't really improve my stack (I was 2nd in chips to start). Eventually we made a deal 4 handed, the chipleader who had about 55% of the chips took £1300 and the rest of us got £860. 4th place was circa £400 and 3rd was £695. It was a bad deal but I was tired and losing momentum. My stack was 12-13 bbs and I was 3rd with maybe (15%). I took the easy option and locked up a decent payday. Plus I got a nice 3rd place trophy!
Since then I've played a lot less live, maybe about 4 tournaments, all at Broadway, and 3 of which I've finished 11th, 12th and 13th, running really bad in key spots.
Myself and Bergeroo, hero of EPT Berlin will be playing the UKIPT event in Nottingham at DTD, Day 1B on May 13th. It will be far and away the biggest live tournament I've played in. but I'm confident that with a decent table draw I can find some nice spots, and I'm not afraid of anyone.
Everything else is fine, I hope to be making some career decisions soon, I went for a promotion at work and didn't get it, it might be a while before more opportunities open up. My girlfriend is still the most beautiful, funniest woman in the world!
The biggest headline in my poker life during my blogging sabbatical is the arrival of this:
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=142179
Yes, I have a Hendon Mob page! It feels like I've been waiting for ages to get a page on there, but the reality is that I've only entered (I think) three tournaments where a cash would have got me a page - £100 at DTD a couple of years ago and the £300 at Broadway I freerolled into just over a year ago. So this was the third one, £50 double chance (4k+4k), 30 minute levels. It's a long time ago now, but basically I ran really hot and steamrollered from 100 players to 30 but had an epic slowdown after that. It was a real grind up until about 13 or 14 left and then I got paid off on a load of nice hands.
The FT went ok but I didn't really improve my stack (I was 2nd in chips to start). Eventually we made a deal 4 handed, the chipleader who had about 55% of the chips took £1300 and the rest of us got £860. 4th place was circa £400 and 3rd was £695. It was a bad deal but I was tired and losing momentum. My stack was 12-13 bbs and I was 3rd with maybe (15%). I took the easy option and locked up a decent payday. Plus I got a nice 3rd place trophy!
Since then I've played a lot less live, maybe about 4 tournaments, all at Broadway, and 3 of which I've finished 11th, 12th and 13th, running really bad in key spots.
Myself and Bergeroo, hero of EPT Berlin will be playing the UKIPT event in Nottingham at DTD, Day 1B on May 13th. It will be far and away the biggest live tournament I've played in. but I'm confident that with a decent table draw I can find some nice spots, and I'm not afraid of anyone.
Everything else is fine, I hope to be making some career decisions soon, I went for a promotion at work and didn't get it, it might be a while before more opportunities open up. My girlfriend is still the most beautiful, funniest woman in the world!
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