back from the 2009 Borgata Winter Open

I returned late last night from AC connecting through Las Vegas. I was seriously tempted to pull an all nighter cash session at MGM but, decided to follow through with my plan to come straight home.

When I got to Vegas for my layover, I texted Lucko and found out he and LJ were both knocked out of Day 2. Apparently some fish chased his gutshot with overs all the way to the river to put a dent in Lucko's stack then he lost a flip with AK.

I had a great time while at the Borgata. Got a chance to spend a little time with Riggs. He picked me up / dropped me off at the airport (thx buddy). If you don't know this already, Riggs is a freakin rock star at the Borgata. As he showed me around the place after I arrived, players and staff were constantly stopping us to say what's up to Riggs. I also got a chance to meet Corron10 and NewinNov for the first time. Both cool peeps. Mr. AlCantHang was very generous taking turns letting me use his laptop during the tournament coverage. I was unable to bring ours since Tina needed it for school. Next time I'll have to bring my own.

A few highlights from the trip other than covering the tournament were:

- playing craps with Lucko and LJ. (dusted off -$200 ghey)
- dinner with Rizen during Day 1a dinner break. discussed his approach toward coaching Darus Suharto in the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table. He wrote an article about it in this month's edition of Bluff Magazine. Definitely worth a read.
- drinking it up with Al, Lucko and LJ in the racebook for free-fiddy-free. I won a $2 exacta on the 2nd bet i made for $26.40. the racebook also gives you a drink ticket for every $2 bet you make so i freerolled my drinking there.
- chatting with Mark "the Omaholic" Roland and Jason Young during tournament breaks. Mark took down the HOSE event for $70k and Jason took down event 1 for $100k. Both were very down to earth and easily approachable.
- I crushed the 1/2 NL cash tables making the trip a profitable one

Monday night I played a 3 hour session from 12:30am to 3:30am ET and ran pretty well cracking AA with 7-9s and flopping trips with AQs vs QJo on a QQT board. We got it all in. The turn brought a J and I rivered an Ace for the resuck. Also another guy bluff shoved his stack into me on the river when I had a set of Kings. I finished the night +$600 putting me up +$1450 for the trip at the cash tables. I <3 Borgata.

You can continue to follow the 2009 Winter Open Main Event at Borgata Poker and PokerPages. There are also some video interviews that were done prior to the start of the $2m Borgata Winter Open Main Event which should pop up on the site we were updating, keep checking back there.

live and direct from 2009 The Borgata Winter Open Day 1b

Lucko finished the day 42nd of 284 remaining from Day 1a with 125,900 chips. LJ had 44,200 chips after it was all over. Unfortunately Rizen was knocked out during the last level of the day.

Congrats to Lucko and LJ for making it to Day 2.

After the day was over, I headed straight the bar with Lucko and LJ.

Day 1b kicks off today. NewinNov was able to win his seat into the Borgata Winter Open 2m Guarantee Championship on Saturday and is playing today. Also, U2Killers who picked up his seat through the WCP Freeroll Thursday night is playing today. We'll keep a close eye on their progress. You can follow our reports at Borgata Poker.

Lacey


Tiffany Michelle


Random asian hottie


Shaun Deeb


Random hot chick


Steve Dannenman


Ted Forrest


"NewinNov"


"U2Killers"


"JohnnyBax"


Lacey, Ted Forrest and Shaun Deeb are all seated at table 56. Shaun is already out, he flopped a set and another player turned a higher set. Good times.

Update (3pm ET): "JohnnyBax" is seated at NewinNov's table and just made a sick fold with bottom set on a 7-8-3 rainbow flop. Another player showed pocket 8-8's for top set. NewinNov has around 47k in chips and is getting short-stacked with the blinds at 100/200 he's got an M of 156 and 235 BB's. U2Killers is even worse off with 44000 chips. Break is coming up after this level and we'll be moving to 150/300/25 ante in level 5. They'll have to pick up some chips before level 5 or the big stacks will start targeting them. :)

Oh somehow, Tiffany Michelle lost her remaining 31k after donking off 19k during the first 3 levels and got all-in after a pf raising war with QQ running into KK. gg

Update (5:45pm ET): We're about to start the 6th level (200/400/50 ante). NewinNov went out early in this level right after the break. (dude i was kidding about you getting short). U2Killers has run his stack up to 85k. No other notable bustouts since the 5th level began.

Update (9:50pm ET): We've returned from the dinner break and just finished level 7. Blinds have gone up to 400/800/75 ante. WCP boy "USKiller" just scooped a big pot and has 165k. I just told him "now i'm really pissed i didn't win that seat". He laughed all the way back to his table. I run so bad. I'm heading out to the bar with Al and Lucko for a while then plan to play a few hours of 1/2 NL before heading back to the room tonight. Tomorrow i travel home. Keep an eye on www.pokerpages.com for live updates on Day 2. If Lucko makes it to day 3, he said he'll call me during breaks so i can post updates here on his progress. gooooo Luckooooo!

live and direct from The Borgata Winter Open

Yesterday, I got my feet wet covering the H.O.S.E event which was final tabled by Captain Tom and Chris Reslock. Mark Roland won $68,992 for besting the 122 player field.

I got to bed about 4:30am this morning and relied on room service to bring breakfast on time for my wake up call. They were about 20mins late so i had about 15 mins to eat, shower, get dressed and bolt to the tournament room.

I snapped a couple of pics for the site

Sucko


Pvan Haribo / LJ


Beth Shak


Mario Ho


Eric "Rizen" Lynch


There are over 400 players playing Day 1a of the 3k / $2m Guaranteed Borgata Winter Open Championship. Some other big names playing Day 1a are Jason Young, Bill Edler, Allen Kessler, Matt Mattros, Lee Childs, Al Krux, Brett Yungblutt and Robert Varkonyi.

Lastly, I'm extremely impressed with the Borgata. Their hotel/casino is easily as nice as some of the best casinos in Las Vegas and the reason i got to sleep so late is the cash tables were very juicy. To give you an idea, some guy called off all his chips with J-J on a K-high flop. I bought in for $200 and cashed out $1050 after only 4hrs. I hit a few hands and got paid off every time.

Follow our coverage at 2009 The Borgata Winter Open.

Update (3pm ET): we just moved to level 4 (100/200). LJ is just below her starting stack of 50k with 47k. Lucko is sitting with 57k. The only notable bustout to this point has been Paul Snead. I missed the hand but apparently no clock was called.

Update (4:45pm ET): The players just came back from a 10 min break and are starting level 5 (150/300/25 ante). Lucko is chipping up nicely with 64k and LJ has 48k. Rizen has taken a big hit and has 16075 chips. But with this structure, there's no need to panic. Hopefully, he can get some chips back before the dinner break. Maria Ho busted out right before the last break on a sick cooler. She got it all in with QQ on a K-Q-T flop and ran into another player's KK.

Update (5:15pm ET): Lucko21 just took down a big pot pf without a showdown. Some guy raises to 900 from EP, player in MP flat calls and Lucko bumps it to 3100 from the button. EP guy calls and the guy in MP reraises to 16000. Lucko shoves his stack in the middle and both players fold with the guy in MP mucking 3-3 face up (wtf !??). Lucko now has around 90k.

Update (8:30pm ET): We just returned from dinner break and start level 7 (300/600/75 ante). Lucko lost some chips during the last couple of rounds but is still sitting comfortably with 70000. LJ has around 40k and Rizen was able to get a double up during the last level before the break has 38k. They're playing two more levels and calling it a night. There are 358 players remaining of the 439 that started Day 1a.

Update (9:05pm ET): Lucko runs so good. He just took out a shorty with AK vs JJ for a 50k pot all-in preflop. He now has around 90k.

23k KO Final Table

I registered to play several tournaments last night on Full Tilt including both Big Doubles ($69+6 buy-in), the Midnight Madness and 23k KO Guarantee.

I fizzled out about halfway thru both Big Doubles running JJ into KJ in DD-A and QQ into AA in DD-B. I got pretty deep in the Midnight Madness finishing 103 out of 1929 runners for a small cash and managed to final table the 23k KO.

I came into the final table 8th in chips with $63k and the blinds at 2000/4000/500 ante, I still had a couple orbits to try and pick up a hand to double up.

After the first orbit, i picked up 99 on the button and was able to double thru against KQo.

Winning that race put me in the middle of the pack and while I was able to outlast a few more players, I ended up getting knocked out in 5th with 2-2 vs. the BB's K2s to finish 6th for $1150.

The 23k KO has a very good structure with 3000 starting chips and 12 minute blind levels. Unfortunately, i think i only picked up 3 $15 KO's throughout the entire tournament.

Since coming back to play more on Full Tilt, I'm having an ok month sitting at 49% ROI in tournaments as of yesterday per OPR. While I've had a couple of final tables in January, some of that has come from satellite cashes.

Tomorrow I fly off to AC to help cover day 1 of the Borgata Winter Open. I believe Lucko is going to play the 3k $2 million guaranteed Championship Event. We'll keep close tabs on him.

Check here for live reports.

"We regret to inform you that tournament # 76813289 ($18,000 Guarantee) has been cancelled. "

After getting down to approximately 50 players in the 18k Guarantee, Full Tilt decided to lock up. I don't think i've ever been more pissed bubbling a final table. Only 36 players were supposed to be paid. Instead, all players still alive were paid based on their chip stacks. I was at a table full of weaklings with a nice stack and ended up with 10th place money according to their monkey math.



From: cashier@fulltiltpoker.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 4:57 AM
To: smokkee@cox.net
Subject: Full Tilt Poker - Cancelled '$18,000 Guarantee' on Full Tilt Poker

This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker.

Dear smokkee,

We regret to inform you that tournament # 76813289 ($18,000 Guarantee) has been cancelled.

Buy-in + Tournament Fee: 1 $75 Tokens
Remaining Prize Pool: $17664.00
Your Chip Count: 25495
Total Chips in Play: 930000

When a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):
* All remaining players will be refunded their buy-ins + tournament fees of 1 $75 Tokens in the currency they used to buy-in to the tournament. * The remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count - (Remaining Prize Pool)*(Your Chip Count)/(Total Chips in Play) = Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool. In your case, this means $17664.00*25495/930000=$484.24.

Buy-in + Tournament Fee Refunded: 1 $75 Tokens
+ Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool: $484.24
Total Amount Credited to Your Account: 1 $75 Tokens + $484.24

If you have any further questions, please contact customer support at support@fulltiltpoker.com. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,
Full Tilt Poker

F'n ghey

FTP Tournament Purgatory / PokerSavvy / Borgata Trip

I've been spending the majority of my time this month working on my tournament game while at the same time trying to build a BR for upcoming BBT4.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster right? Dinking around in tournaments trying to build a BR. heh

OPR shows me with a 21% ROI on Full Tilt thru January as of yesterday, doubt that will hold unless i can get over the hump and finish in the top 3 of one of these minefields.

The money I started with came from the previous month's rakeback payment, which was just a few hundred. I've been grinding at low buy-in sngs and tournaments on FTP this month while playing cash games on Bodog sporadically.

Yesterday, i played the early daily doubles ($5+1 buy-in ea.) and tried to get the last longer bonus. Early Daily Double A started with 1327 players and Early Daily Double B began with 1109. I'm not sure why more than 200 players would pass on Daily Double B but whatever, better for me.

I got very deep in both but didn't final table either, finishing 14th in DD-A and 40th in DD-B. While i was pretty happy to get that deep in both tournaments of over 1000 players running simultaneously, it wasn't good enough for the Early Daily Double last longer bonus. Two players finished ahead of me with "Pno Prodigy" picking up a $410 bonus for lasting the longest. I got a small 3% bonus for cashing in both.

I also played a 90-man $10+1 KO tournament which i final tabled but only took 5th for a small cash. While playing that i was in a large field $10+1 KO tournament with 542 runners and bubbled the final table 10th for another mini skirt cash.

Along with all that biz i'm squeezing in token frenzies, sngs and tier token tournaments. Being a poker degen is not ez.

The guys at Pokersavvy contacted me about taking a look at their videos. Yesterday I watched a video from Tony Dunst aka "Bond18". His style of play and attitude toward the game is very entertaining. The video i watched included him multi-tabling 3 final tables and he didn't seem stressed at all. One of the final tables was for a winner take all "Winner's Choice" 12k WPT/WSOP Package. He has a straight forward way of how he approaches each situation making it pretty simple to apply to your own game. I'm looking forward to their other videos. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial, definitely check it out.

Lastly, it appears I'll be flying out to the Borgata next friday and expect to be there for a few days (1/23-1/27). I don't plan on playing their 3k event but i may try a satellite. I'll definitely be spending as much time as I can at the cash tables.

GL and have a profitable weekend!

FTP 10k Guarantee final table

I haven't played this before primarily because it starts at 1am PST. But, I was wide awake and had the urge to play a tournament. I really didn't think a field this small would take over 5.5 hrs to navigate. The structure in this is awesome, 12 minute levels and 3000 starting chips.



As you may have already guessed, i finished 5th. I came into the final table 7th in chips just shy of $60k with the blinds at 1500/3000/400 ante. I was in no rush to get all my chips in the middle.



Two guys busted right away in blind vs. blind battles. This is the kind of thing i've seen happen time and time again. Players finally get to the final table and get impatient trying to win it right away or defend their blind with some marginal hand. But in a structure like this, there's no hurry. Unless you're a shorty, you can still play poker.

I picked up AQ and AK within the first orbit giving me a little more breathing room. I woke up with AK a few hands after I took down the blinds/antes with AQ and the player two seats to my left 3-bet me, I insta-shoved and he folded. Those two pots gave me a few more chips to work with.

A couple more players busted and I was 4th in chips with 5 remaining when I picked up KK in the SB.



Unfortunately, it didn't hold against the only guy I had covered and I went out a couple hands later with 44 vs J5s. That pot would've put me comfortably in 3rd with 4 remaining. One of the remaining 4 players was on a suicide mission and busted out 4th right after me. That beat cost me at least 3rd place money and a shot at 1st. ugh

This is how it all finished.



It's been a while since i've final tabled a tournament at FTP. I've been spending more time there lately trying to build a roll in preparation for BBT4.

I wouldn't say i was hit in the head with the deck. But, i did pick up some decent hands i could ship my stack in with late.

I saw AA once, KK twice and QQ a few times throughout the tournament only doubling thru once with those hands. I won a big pot about midway thru with a set vs overpair and coasted most of the time picking up small pots without committing too many chips along the way.

Once we got down to the last few tables, I won a couple flips and two races with big stacks as a 3-1 favorite on the final table bubble. As expected, the big stacks were hammering away when we were short-handed on two tables making it difficult to pick up chips without a real hand.

Unless i have a severe case of insomnia, i don't expect to be playing this tournament again. Tina woke up to get ready for work while i was coming to bed.

SNG madness

I intended to spend some time playing sng's this weekend with Full Tilt's sng madness promo running hoping to make a few bucks and maybe win an entry to an FTOPS event thru their raffle. They were giving away 30 FTOPS XI seats away.

Yep, another FTOPS is right around the corner.

The thing is you need to finish 1st in as many sng's as you can to accumulate entrys into the raffle. I played over 20 sngs and only got one 1st place finish. I was able to get HU a bunch of times and just couldn't close the deal. I eventually got frustrated after a few sessions and didn't bother playing at all on Sunday.

I did run into one of my former employees at a table Saturday night (early Sunday morning).

Apparently, he was trying to get my attn in the chatbox but i had so many tables running i didn't catch it. He took out the majority of the table and when we got 3-handed this hand came up.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 3 Players

BTN: 2,410
Hero (SB): 1,560
BB: 9,530

Pre-Flop: (600) 4h 3c dealt to Hero (SB)
BTN folds, Hero raises to 1,560 and is All-In, BB calls 1,160

Flop: (3,120) 5c 4c 5s (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: (3,120) Js (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (3,120) 2d (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 3,120 Pot
Hero showed 4h 3c (two pair, Fives and Fours) and WON 3,120 (+1,560 NET)
BB showed 9c 7h (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-1,560 NET)

It's a pretty standard shove short-handed with ATC after it's folded to me. He had a mountain of chips and called with 9-high. I won the race and somehow he went on to finish 3rd. I took 2nd obv. As soon as the game was over, my phone rang. This was at around 5am PST. I immediately picked up so Tina wouldn't wake and it was him. We "discussed" the hand.

We've played against each other in the past, so he's pretty familiar with my game. But, 9-high?

btw, this guy quit his job at our former employer to live like a king in Thailand before the shitstorm hit.

vgg

i play good!

i decided to try a couple of the $24-2 / 45 man sngs on FTP today.

what a mistake that was. i donked off $50 in less than 45 mins. the structure in those is horrible. they're really turbos, 6 minute blind levels. i play single table turbos all the time but a 45 man?

BLOW

anyway, i had already donked off around 450 chips of my 1500 starting stack and was ready to check out of this donkathon when i decided to see a flop with Qc-Js then jam into a 7 high all club flop.

btw, that splooge monkey Amatay was at the table. i don't think he noticed cuz i had just been moved to the table a couple hands prior and he was probably busy spanking it to redtube while multi-tabling.

Full Tilt Poker, $24 + $2 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 30/60 Blinds, 8 Players
No Limit Hold'em - 21:14:41 ET - 2009/01/07

tigger1963 (CO): 1,620
SherriD22 (BTN): 4,405
Rounder63 (SB): 1,505
DSchreck (BB): 1,455
llIIlIIlIIlIIll (UTG): 1,785
MrKnowsmore (UTG+1): 1,455
amatay (MP1): 1,500
Hero (MP2): 1,055

Pre-Flop: (90) Qc Js dealt to Hero (MP2)
llIIlIIlIIlIIll folds, MrKnowsmore calls 60, amatay folds, Hero calls 60, 2 folds, Rounder63 calls 30, DSchreck checks

Flop: (240) 5c 6c 7c (4 Players)
Rounder63 checks, DSchreck bets 120, MrKnowsmore calls 120, Hero raises to 995 and is All-In, Rounder63 folds, DSchreck calls 875, MrKnowsmore raises to 1,395 and is All-In, DSchreck calls 400 and is All-In

Turn: (4,025) 7d (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (4,025) Jd (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 4,025 Pot
DSchreck showed 7h 5h (a full house, Sevens full of Fives) and LOST (-1,455 NET)
MrKnowsmore showed 8c 9c (a straight flush, Nine high) and WON 4,025 (+2,570 NET)
Hero showed Qc Js (two pair, Jacks and Sevens) and LOST (-1,055 NET)

hahaahaahaaahaahaaaa

more on the game

First of all congrats to all Cardinals, Ravens and Eagles fans for moving on to the next round of the NFL playoffs.



We had a kick ass time at the Charger game as expected. I've put up a post on my Charger blog with pics from the Bolts / Colts playoff game. Next week we take on the Terrible Tools in Pittsburgh.

knowledge drop

your regular season record means jack shit in the post-season.



Just ask 2008 NFL MVP Peyton Manning.

23-17 Chargers

Bolts / Colts playoff tonight!

We've arrived in SD and just checked into our hotel. We're off to the stadium in a few minutes to warm-up for the game (tailgate).

Last year i live blogged the Colts / Bolts divisional playoff which like this year, no one gave us a chance to win. But in the end it was Billy Volek and Darren Sproles who came off the bench to put together a game winning TD drive sealing the win and sending us to the AFC Championship.

It appears LT will be less than 100% and may not even play today. The talking heads have reported this morning that LT has a detached tendon in his groin area which is extremely disappointing i'm sure for him as well as the fans after what happened last post-season.

I have alot of faith that Sproles and Hester will be able to pick up the slack. The key will be putting pressure on Manning and hopefully create a few turnovers on defense.

I believe the winner of this game will go on to the Superbowl.

GOOOOO CHARGERS!!!!

Poker is a Journey

Every hand, every session and every tournament. How many times will you fail before allowing yourself to succeed? How far are you willing to go?

Poker teaches you a lot about yourself. How much pain can you endure? How will you handle success and failure?

Will you learn from your mistakes or continue banging your head against the wall? Do you really think before you act? Do you react or do you have a plan?

There is so much to know about this game we play. We can pick up bad habits and expect to fail before we even sit down. But what will you do to change that? Why should your results be any different than before?

There are no easy answers in poker.

You can begin by accepting the fact that getting your money in as a 80% favorite doesn’t mean you’re a lock to win.

I was watching a rerun of the 2008 WSOP Main Event and Chino Rheem had just taken a sick beat from Ivan Demidov when the field was down to two tables. All the chips went in the middle with Chino showing TT vs. Demidov’s 99. Chino flopped a set of 10’s but Demidov had a straight/flush draw which came on the river. Ivan said “that’s the first bad beat I’ve given the entire tournament” and Chino responded with “I’ve gotten lucky a few times too, nice hand”.

While most players would’ve been tilted or shaken up and possibly donked out right there, Chino was genuinely at ease. He accepted the outcome with class and just said “hey that’s poker”.

Poker will test your mental limits. Player’s who can overcome the emotional rollercoaster of this game will excel. You must continuously test yourself to succeed and be willing to endure a lot of pain along the way.

Like most things, if poker was easy everyone would succeed.