Coverage here.

Payouts here.

http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-29/payouts/

It’s been a while since I’ve made any sort of poker-related update with substantial content, so I figured I’d write up a quick trip report from the WPT Championship.

My day 1 table had some really tough competition but I had one of the best seats at the table so for me personally it wasn’t that rough of a day. Here’s the lineup I faced on day 1 (we started with super deepstacked with 1000bb’s and not a single player busted out at our table during the course of the day):

• Seat 1: Tony Cousineau
• Seat 2: older American guy wearing a hat that said “GIBO”
• Seat 3: middle aged Aussie guy
• Seat 4: Steve “thorladen” Weinstein (legendary Bridge player and big winner in high stakes cash games and MTTs)
• Seat 5: John Juanda
• Seat 6: Mike “…and the agony of defeat” McClain
• Seat 7: Matt “mattg1983″ Graham
• Seat 8: me
• Seat 9: Michael Mizrachi

The first big hand of the day came about 20 minutes in. GIBO raised UTG to 300 (50/100 blinds), thorladen called, I called on the button with QJo, and Mizrachi called in the SB. The flop came down QJx rainbow, GIBO bet 900, thorladen folded (telling me on Tuesday evening at Bushman’s place here at Panorama that he folded AQ after looking at me!!!), I called, and Mizrachi folded. Turn was the apparent case Q, GIBO checked and I overbet the pot, tossing in 3200. GIBO called and then check called a blank river when I overbet again, this time 11500. I turned up my nuts and GIBO disgustedly mucked KK faceup, complaining about how I sucked out on him.

A few minutes later, I played one of the more bizarre hands of the tournament when I flat called Mike McClain’s UTG+2 raise with TT and Mizrachi flatted behind. Flop was a beautiful Tx9d2d, McClain checked, I bet 900 into 1050, Mizrachi folded, and McClain called after maybe 3-4 seconds of thought. Turn was the 6x, McClain checks, I bet 1800 (which looking back was clearly far too small, 2400-2500 is a much much better bet size here), and McClain takes no more than 10 seconds to checkraise to 5100. I elected to just call, and on the Qx river, he took a moment before betting 5200 and I called after a minute of deliberating over putting in a value raise but I was honestly worried he had 87 or KJdd. McClain showed 99 and I was mildly tilted that he didn’t put in the checkraise on the flop. At dinner that night I had a pretty spirited discussion with Mattg, Aaron, Scott, and Ike over the merits of value-raising the turn or river.

I ended that first level with a really nice 125,000 chips and through the rest of the day I hovered in that range before ending the day with 144,150. I played surprisingly few tough spots throughout the day, mostly due to the fact that I rarely flopped a hand that was between total garbage and the nuts. I always had really easy decisions to fold my trash or bet my nut hand. Overall I was super impressed with the play of thorladen, who has an amazing live image, Juanda, who I also played with in this event last year on day two and puts people in really tough spots, and Mattg, who has over the last two years or so really become a scary LAG that has capitalized on the super-nit image that I felt he had in 2006.

The hand of the day certainly has to go to thorladen, who got nit-of-the-century Tony to lay down KK the 2nd level. I’m not sure of the exact action, but thorladen raised to 500 or 600 in EP, got 1 or 2 callers, and Tony made it around 3000 from the BB. thorladen took no time at all in making it 10,000 straight, the callers folded and Tony quickly called. Flop was Q9x I believe, Tony checks, thor fires another 10,000, Tony quickly calls. Turn is another blank card, Tony checks, thor bets 25,000, and Tony immeidately gives a speech saying something like “I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY COOLERED ME THIS BADLY THIS EARLY IN THE TOURNAMENT” and folds his KK faceup. Without a word spoken, thor quietly turns over the ‘ole AKo and rakes in the pot. Tony didn’t say another word for the rest of the level. It was beautiful.

Day 2 table:

• Seat 1: Michael Mizrachi
• Seat 2: Eli Elezra
• Seat 3: Mohamad “TerrorOfSweden” Kowssarie
• Seat 4: Toto Leonidas
• Seat 5: David Benyamine
• Seat 6: Louis Werman (MrBeeks on p5s)
• Seat 7: Raymond Henson
• Seat 8: Nenad Medic
• Seat9 : Me

As you might be able to tell, we had a lot of “big names” at the table. Eli and David were playing props, Nenad and Mizrachi were joking back and forth, and Kowssarie was playing wildly agressive.

I had a pretty uneventful start to the day, not playing any big pots until the 3rd level of the day when I busted a tilty French guy who was moved into Mizrachi’s seat. David raised in EP to 4100 at 600/1200 – 200 ante, I flatted TT with ~200 bb’s effective vs David, and the French guy made it something like 24,000 with about 16,000 behind. David folded and I decided to backshove on him, figuring his range to be weighted towards hands like 77-JJ and AQ-AK. He took a minute or so before putting his chips in with JJ (sigh) but the door card was a T (nice life) and I held to bust him out.

After that hand I lost a few medium sized pots and was down to 140,000 at 800/1600 – 200 ante. Dan Heimiller was moved into Eli’s seat early in the level with a HUGE stack around 500,000, and my buddy Jon “FatalError” Aguiar called me over to his table to give me a live tell he had on Dan. No more than 15 minutes later, I opened black JJ to 4800 in the HJ and Dan 3-bet to 18,500 on the button. I called and the flop came 542 with two diamonds. I check called 20,000, then check called another 40,000 on the 6x turn, picking up a whiff of the tell Jon told me about. The river was an offsuit Q, I checked with just 61,000 chips behind and Dan instantly said “all in.” It was such a gross spot and I tanked forever hoping that Dan would do exactly as Jon said, and sure enough about 4 minutes into the tank I saw what Jon told me and I snap called. Dan said “nice call” and I flipped up my JJ. He flashed AKo (couldn’t tell if he had a diamond) and mucked. That got me to 240,000 and I ended up the day at 243,500, which was about 40k above average with 130 or so players left paying 50 spots.

Day 3:

• Seat 1: Johnny Chan 404k
• Seat 2: Justin Young 621k
• Seat 3: Me 243k
• Seat 4: Jen Harman 341k
• Seat 5: Mimi Tran 330k
• Seat 6: Xiang Liang 108k
• Seat 7: Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail 279k
• Seat 8: Alex “Kadabra” Keating 269k
• Seat 9: Haralabos Voulgaris 45k

With the average stack starting the day at 200k-ish, we had a LOT of chips in play at the table, and it only got worse when Haralabos busted and his seat was filled by Michael DiMichelle who had around 500k. The dynamic at the table was really bizarre because right off the bat, Johnny, Alex and Justin agreed to pay each other $20 any time they showed a successful bluff. One of the first hands I played Johnny raised the button and I called in the BB with red 88. The flop came out AKJ with two spades and I check folded to Johnny’s bet. He flipped up 43o and collected his bounty.

The biggest pot of the day that I played came in the 2nd level, 1500/3000 – 500. Alex raised in MP to 8,000 and I called in the SB with AsJc. We both had a rough go of it in the 1st level and were both around 160,000 chips. The flop came KxKd5d and I check called 13,000. The turn was another Kx, and I decided to check call his bet of 31,500, for a variety of reasons I don’t feel comfortable putting out here on the internet. The river was the 3d, I checked and he took a moment before looking back at his cards and then announcing “all in” after re-capping his cards. I tanked for a good 5-6 minutes before folding even though I was sick to my stomach thinking that I was about to be shown a bluff, but he flipped up the K for quads and I was happy to not have called off my last 100,000 with ace high.

That hand was pretty representative of how the entire day went, as I only won 3 hands in the 4+ hours I played on Tuesday, and I did not improve my hand post-flop once the entire day, unless you count the time I flatted Q9 of hearts in the BB and check shoved 25bbs on a AhTx3h board vs Johnny Chan and got him to fold. By late in the 2000/4000 – 500 ante level I was down to 77,000 and I open shoved JJ from the CO. Xiang Liang tanked in the SB before calling with AKs (what……I was imagining getting snapped by Blake in the BB with KTo, not getting tank-called by someone with AKs lol), and the door card was the Ace and I was busto out of the money on day 3 for the 2nd straight year.

Overall I’m very happy with my play in the tournament and feel like it was a good live tournament primer for this summer’s WSOP. I shook off the disappointment of busting yesterday by having one of my best cash game sessions of the year, so I’m at a high-point right now confidence wise. The weather has been beautiful in Vegas the last few days so I’m just going to try and enjoy the pool these next few days and get back into the cash game grind now that SCOOP and the WPT Championship is over for me.

Around the end of January I went on a 20 buyin downswing over a week or so, with a lot of my losses coming from battles with the regulars. I’ve made it a point over the last 2 months to try and play as many of the regulars/bumhunters as I can, mostly because they’re so unbelievably bad and I can often get them to 3-4 table me, where I think I have a monster edge on them.

Today I broke out of this rough stretch in a major way. I rampaged through a few of my favorite faces in my early session and won ~$2k in 1200 hands, then took a 2 hour break to clean up around the house, and came back to put in a 2nd session a little after 1am. I quickly got action from one of the 6 max regulars that sometimes dabbles in heads up and is downright awful at the game. After 1400 hands I had beaten him for just under 15 buyins.

GET THE F*** OFF MY STREETS SON

also, I have some bonus semi-related AIM chat with the mastrblastr from earlier tonight

(2:54:39 AM) Scott: i’ve decided
(2:54:41 AM) Scott: i’m the omar of poker
(2:54:50 AM) Scott: all the bumhunters
(2:54:52 AM) Scott: they’re just the hoppers
(2:54:55 AM) Scott: working the corners
(2:54:59 AM) Scott: livin off the addicts
(2:55:05 AM) Scott: but I come in
(2:55:08 AM) Scott: with my 12 gauge shotty
(2:55:12 AM) Scott: and i boost their stacks
(2:55:25 AM) Scott: so I don’t need to work no corner
(2:55:29 AM) Scott: cuz I just take from them

(if you don’t get the reference, go out and buy season 1 of The Wire immediately)

When I was a junior at East Carolina (02-03), I made a list of every single restaurant in Greenville, printed it out, and determined to eat at every single one before I graduated. I didn’t quite make it before I moved in March 06, but I came very close. I still have the original list sitting in my closet for some reason. Obviously I can’t do the same for Las Vegas since it would take me ~10 years to eat that much food, but I can make a list of places I have to try before the end of 2009:

• Hedary’s
• Daniel Boulud Brasserie
• Cafe Heidelberg
• Espees Gourmet Tamales
• Hash House A Go Go
• Nhu Lan
• Los Tacos
• Los Molcajetes
• Dona Maria Tamales
• Emperor’s Garden Szechuan
• RM Seafood
• La Costa Grill
• China Mama
• Marche Bacchus
• Rosemary’s (how have I never been here?)
• Settebello
• Mix Zone Cafe
• Bartolotta
• Habib’s
• CUT
• Vintner Grill
• Bouchon
• Agave
• Almaza

FWIW, I shamelessly took about half that list from John Curtas’ recently posted list of best eats in town on his site www.eatinglasvegas.com

As for poker, January has been an up and down month. I broke even the first 10k hands, then went on a wild 40 buyin upswing the next 10k, and then a 20 buyin downswing for the latest 10k hands. Thankfully I took a sizeable piece of a friend in a cash session, and he ended up winning 34 buyins (!!!) in the span of a few hours, which has basically erased that 20 buyin downer. This marks the literal first time I’ve taken action of someone in a game and made money.

The next few days will be a lot of work since I’m moving to a new unit here at Panorama Towers. I can’t wait to move in, it’s a huge upgrade and should be a lot of fun once everyone is in town this summer.

Finally, I need to remind myself to finally collect all the pictures I took during my two weeks on the east coast and post a trip report. I basically went on another food rampage across multiple cities and stuffed anything I saw down my gullet. From Baltimore to Philadelphia and New York City to Memphis, I ordered and ate everything I could. It was awesome.

I’m currently in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl (GO PIRATES!). I was at Silky O’Sullivans tonight, a bar on Beale St that was packed with hundreds of ECU fans. As I was walking into the men’s room, I passed a male ECU fan in his mid-20’s holding court telling a story to his friends. All I heard as I walked past them was a single sentence:

“this is what I was wearing when I met John Stamos!!!”

wtf

I was in NYC yesterday with my mom and sister and we made the mistake of parking my rental car near Times Square and had to fight the insane crowds to get back to the West Side Highway so we could get to my mom’s cousin’s house in Brooklyn. While we were stuck in traffic there I was able to get pictures on my iPhone of the Affliction and UFC billboards that were about a block from each other.

Affliction:

How badass is Fedor? “Yeah whatevs, you’re putting me on a billboard. Take the picture already.”

UFC 94:

from the collection of Scott Seiver:

Last week I went down to Mexico for one reason – to stuff as much Mexican food into my mouth as I could. There was also some poker tournament too, but who really cares about that?

grilled onions:

tacos al pastor:

preparing the pastor tacos:

another feast at a place called Apolonio’s

this guy came in off the street and sang for us at our table for over an hour, he was fantastic:

flaming tequila/pineapple/cinnamon shots at HILO in downtown Puerto Vallarta:

our meal at La Laguna – on the left, whole red snapper “zarandeado” style, then two MASSIVE seafood platters with lobster, shrimp, shrimp wrapped in bacon, sea snails, octopus, scallops, mahi mahi, and a ton of other stuff:

good shot of the ridiculous desert trays we got at Cafe des Artistes (that’s stevie444 on my left):

As for the poker tournament itself, a $2500+200 with a pretty good structure and insanely soft field. We started with 10,000 chips, and in the first level I had something happen to me that I would have never though could have happened in an event with a field this soft: a dude correctly folded a full house on the river to me, and it wasn’t one of those obvious full house folds, like dumping 22 on a AK2 AK board.

Our friend in question (a 35-40 year old guy who told me he was from Arkansas) limps UTG, a terribad rich Mexican guy, who apparently loses $20k+ on a regular basis in a local 5/10NL game, completes in the SB, and I make it 250 in the BB with KK. I had already lost a few smallish pots and had about 8300 behind after putting in the raise.

They both call. The flop comes 884 rainbow and the Mexican checks. I bet 500 and our friend quickly raises to 1300. The Mexican folds and I decide to call. I don’t think there is any other play here. Reraising here will only get action from 8x, 44, possibly QQ/JJ (which I didn’t feel represented more than a tiny percentage of his range), and TT/99 if he’s really awful.

The turn is a great one for me, another 8. Now it’s going to be tough for him to have the case 8, I’ve sucked out on 44, and the Zeebo theorem tells us no one ever folds a full house, so I should be stacking 99-QQ. I just check to make sure he continues with any bluffs in his range and he bets 2000. I just call again, planning to open shove the river, because it leaves me with less than a pot sized bet and it again gives him a chance to make a worse hand if he’s drawing dead with a hand like QJ. I’m only worried about an ace coming on the river.

The river is the 9 and I fake tank for about 35-40 seconds and move in. Our friend considers it for a minute and folds JJ. He tells me in his southern drawl “sumptin’ seemed fishy thar. did ya have me beat?” ARGH.

I finally busted my stack in the 150/300 level check/shoving the turn with Ad on a Jc board thinking I had as many as 21 outs, but was all but dead to the since I was up against . I didn’t get there and was off to the beach.