BOOM - Poker Documentry Trailer

More great work from Ryan Firpo, Jay Rosenkrantz and Taylor Caby.

From what I understand there are a number of high stakes cash game players involved in the project, both in content and in financing.

You can see the trailer here:

They started producing/filming this before Black Friday, so my hat goes off to them for adjusting the content and coninuing with the project.

KK Holds

I was on an annual festive pub crawl that we do each year between Christmas and New Year yesterday and one of the games we played was a blind hand of poker where the winner took all the stakes and had to nominate someone to drink a forfeit drink with the proceeds.

We dealt out 9 hands and I got KK. I was explaining that it was pretty unlikely I hold given that 9 hands would see a showdown. Two other players also had a King and there was only one ace out and some nice looking suited connectors. To my complete surprise I actually hold and take down the hand.

Frustratingly I have been grinding tournies today to try to ensure a top 2,000 TLB score for the Stars Passport promo this month and have been dealt KK 11 times. Guess how many won a pot at showdown?

WSOP Stories

With the WSOP Main Event well under way I thought I'd share some of my favourite stories so far:

Phil Hellmuth's Entrance was pretty ridiculus. He's going to have to die soon because there is no way he can keep topping this year after year. I'd like to put him in touch with Naseem Hamed about using a magic carpet to get him to his seat next year.

Everyone winning multiple bracelets (Ivey, Parker, Lisandro (3!) and Mueller) is also something I'm a big fan of. I know the some of the fields for this win weren't that big, but I think it goes some way to showing that poker is a game of skill, and not a complete lottery.

Ivey winning his bracelet prop bet. You guys were mental to bet against him when he's motivated. I wonder if he'll get action next year?

Tales of terrible play. People checking the nuts behind (a few of these) and a couple where people were confused (sometimes in epic pots) when the chips get pulled their way when they hold 88 on a 855 board vs 85 or similar. Poker is alive and well in 2009, even in $10,000 buy-in events...

WSOP Standings on the official site. You mean the USA are winning the most events with the most cashes in a 'world series' held in America with fields populated by 90% Americans? Wow.

Improved WSOP Structure

“It’s a tough economy, so we wanted to make sure our poker players were getting the most value,”

If that's what it takes to get more starting chips and extra levels at the WSOP this year then I'm all for it.

It looks like the $1500 events will be starting with $4500 chips now, as supposed to $3000. I think the added levels will have the biggest impact though. If they add a 75/150 level the early stages of the smaller events will allow for a lot more play, especially when players are starting with an extra 1500 chips. As the events get deeper there should be more chips in play, which can only be good news. I'm sure they will still be a bit of a crapshoot, but it's a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen how much longer it will take to finish he events however, those going deep in weekend $1500 event are probably in for some long hours at the tables.

The Main Event will start with 30,000 chips this year instead of the 20k stacks players have started with for the lest few years. I'm sure this is partly because they need to have a consistent dollar value (3x) for tournament chips (otherwise you could potentially take chips from an event where you get more for your buy-in) but should also have some interesting implications for what is already a deep starting stack.

It should make it even funnier when people stack off with top pair on the flop this year. With 300 BB's that's going to take some doing.

Running Good

I think it's fair to say I run somewhat badly after this hand from tonights $80k on Stars:

PokerStars Game #24868753242: Tournament #139354490, $50+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2009/02/12 17:01:39 ET
Table '139354490 132' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: ZAR84 (2085 in chips)
Seat 2: uvw03191155 (6028 in chips)
Seat 3: Hikkespett (3317 in chips)
Seat 4: Shotgun747 (14651 in chips)
Seat 5: .xXmagnetXx. (24909 in chips)
Seat 6: SirSmokey33 (23430 in chips)
Seat 7: Für Elise (16955 in chips)
Seat 8: arestone (6846 in chips)
Seat 9: Icemen85 (14294 in chips)
ZAR84: posts the ante 25
uvw03191155: posts the ante 25
Hikkespett: posts the ante 25
Shotgun747: posts the ante 25
.xXmagnetXx.: posts the ante 25
SirSmokey33: posts the ante 25
Für Elise: posts the ante 25
arestone: posts the ante 25
Icemen85: posts the ante 25
Hikkespett: posts small blind 150
Shotgun747: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to arestone [Jd Jc]
.xXmagnetXx.: folds
SirSmokey33: folds
Für Elise: folds
arestone: raises 600 to 900
Icemen85: folds
ZAR84: folds
uvw03191155: calls 900
Hikkespett: folds
Shotgun747: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ts Jh 7s]
arestone: bets 2500
uvw03191155: raises 2603 to 5103 and is all-in
arestone: calls 2603
*** TURN *** [Ts Jh 7s] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Ts Jh 7s Js] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
arestone: shows [Jd Jc] (four of a kind, Jacks)
uvw03191155: shows [Ks Qs] (a Royal Flush)
uvw03191155 collected 12681 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12681 | Rake 0
Board [Ts Jh 7s Js As]
Seat 1: ZAR84 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: uvw03191155 (button) showed [Ks Qs] and won (12681) with a Royal Flush
Seat 3: Hikkespett (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Shotgun747 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: .xXmagnetXx. folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: SirSmokey33 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Für Elise folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: arestone showed [Jd Jc] and lost with four of a kind, Jacks
Seat 9: Icemen85 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

2009 WSOP Schedule

At last we have a somewhat delayed WSOP schedule for 2009.

Some thoughts:

Lots of events at $2500 and below should make for some decent field
sizes this year and help solve some of the issues regarding higher
buy-ins and 'the downturn' or whatever they are calling it now. I'm
not sure how much effect currency rates will have, but I have seen a
couple of European players downscaling their schedule due to quite
rapid changes between the Pound/Euro and the Dollar. Last year it cost
me just over £5,000 to play the $10,00 Main Event, this year it would
set me back over £7,000.

I really hope they televise the $40k even they are holding to
celebrate the 40th anniversary of the WSOP. It should attract a field
of decent players, and they'll be starting so deep (800 BB's by my
calculations) that you could sit out the first day and still be pretty
comfortable. It should throw up some interesting deep stack
situations, although I realise this isn't necessarily what the average
ESPN viewer wants to see.

The removal of the rebuy events is probably a good thing and a less
complicated 'I can only lose $x' approach might bring in the fish a
bit more. I don't think the arguments about being able to 'buy' a
WSOP bracelet are well founded, but there was one event last year ($5k
rebuy 2-7 lowball?) that was a bit silly really.

The first weekend sees the introduction of a $1k NLHE event, which is
going to be mental. 2k starting stacks and litterlayy thousands of
players is going to throw the Rio into absolute mayhem for two days.
It should be a lot of fun. Also, I wonder if they have been looking
at the mega field turbo tournies online and thinking 'we could do
that'

As for my own plans, I hope to get out there at some point, but as
ever my job will have the final say. It's a busy time of year
hopefully I'll get lucky enough to make it out to Vegas for a week.
Not really thought about trying to qualify for the ME this year, in
fact I might not even bother.

Where are the November Nine?

I'm not sure what Harrahs/ESPN's plans were to hype up the WSOP final table, but it doesn't seem to be working.

As we approach the end of September I honestly can't name any of the players at the final table. Perhaps that would have been different if the gorgeous and highly marketable Tiffany Michelle had made the table, or either Helmuth or Matasow had managed to run a bit deeper.

I think if they are going to generate the hype they need to pull this off they need to start now. As for making it a global event, I haven't even seen anywhere it's being shown here in the UK. I guess we'll have to wait for re-runs on some random entertainment channel in 2010 or something.

I hope I'll be proved wrong and when the WSOP programmes start to air they pick up a significant amount of interest. This should be a great chance for poker to get an influx of new players to the game, and help improve the profile of poker as a game where peoples dreams can be realised.

On that note, the WCOOP Main Event final table featured a microstakes tournie player who won a $5200 seat in a depositors freeroll. He wasn't able to unregister so played, made the final table and ended up dealing for over $800k with a shot at making over $1 million if he won. If you're going to run good for once of your life, I'm pretty sure that's the time to do it...

Edit: Sods law, after I posted this I fire up Stars and see they are doing a big promo called The Million Dollar Men which involves the 6 PokerStars players at the final table of the WSOP.

Trust Stars to succeed where others have failed.

WCOOP

I have been seriously impressed by the turnout at the WCOOP this year. Stars have just had to increase the number of seats in the $25k HU event as it reached it's 64 person capacity a full three days before the event was due to start. They have also smashed the guarantees on all of the events so far, so maybe getting 2,000 players to stump up $5k for the Main Event, which has a $10 million guarantee, won't be a difficult as I thought.

Unfortunately I'm 0 for 4 during this series, and it looks unlikely I'll be able to play any more events.

As I suspected the play in the non Hold'em events was horrible, but I think all the super duper mega crapshoot sats probably had something to do with that. I satted into the $320 Omaha event in a $107 tournie with 750 starting chips and 3 minute levels, the only saving grace being that none of these super turbo satellites have a rake. I'm pretty sure people who simply had no idea what they were doing were playing these, and due to the structure of the sats there would have been plenty of them in the main WCOOP tournies.

Even though I won't be participating I still have a decent number of stakes in people for the remaining events, some of which are most definitely due a ~$400k win so hopefully I'll have a big score to write about next week.

WCOOP, WSOPE and being bad at poker

After grinding out the cash games last week during the Stars promo I'm back to tournies this week. I have sucked sooo badly all week, repeatedly running up huge stacks and donking them off in a variety of super fun ways. I went deep in a couple but lost key flips/got sucked out on, and had a couple of light shoves called and way behind when short. Didn't really get much going in the Sunday Million or any of the other Sunday tournies last night, so a dissapointing week overall.

Unfortunately all of the guys I backed are out of the WSOP. One guy made the money but busted in the first level. It was fun railing the guys and it was cool being at work in the morning here in the UK and getting the odd update e-mail.

There isn't much on the poker horizon for me a the moment, but two things I'm looking forward to are the WSOPE and the WCOOP, both of which aren't until September.

Since they have added a £1500 (roughly $3k) event to the WSOPE, I initially looked at trying to sat into that, but it appears nobody is running sats to that event, so I may try to buy-in direct. I don't really have the patience or the bankroll to try to win a $25k ME package, so I doubt I'll be bothering with that.

WSOP Final Table Delay

As some of you may have heard, Harrahs/ESPN are looking at delaying the Final Table of the WSOP by 3 months. The idea is that they would then have the time to follow the players around, build a back story and make the FT more of a global sporting event than it is now.

Some of the main reactions to this are quite funny:

- OMG What if someone dies in that 3 months
- People will collude and do deals
- People will get trained/coached by pros for a % of their winnings

Although I think all of these points are valid, I don't think any would be that big of a deal.

It's possible someone dies during the WSOP while they still have chips anyway. I realise that this is more likely given a 3 month gap in which to croak, but it's still not something that would be a major concern.

As for the training, I think you would be surprised how little you can teach some people in 3 months. I think the better professional players (if any) who make it would suffer a bit as the level of competition would increase, and naturally there will be more information available on them than the randoms who make it to the FT. However, the dynamics of the tournament can change at any time, so much of what they might learn could change in an instant. They suddenly find themselves short, or double through twice and a few players bust early and leave him 5 handed with a huge chip lead.

I don't think it's possible to practice all of those eventualities, so I still think the player who can adapt and draw on his own experiences will still have an edge.



There are some benefits for the players however. They will fill the poker media for 3 months prior to the big day. Their faces will be on the front of magazines, Stars and FTP will sponsor the non-sponsored players and they'll generally get a lot of exposure that they wouldn't otherwise, because normally we only know who makes the FT the day before. I can't even name the people who busted 6th or 7th in previous years, but I definitely would be able to if I got 3 months of them in interviews/magazines/websites.

After saying all this, I still think it's a bad idea. Harrahs are trying to hold on to a TV audience that is losing momentum. There is a lot of poker on TV these days and not enough people to watch it all. It's difficult as a producer of these shows, because fast paced action with vibrant well known pros is what the majority of poker programme viewers want. Only a minority want to see interesting well thought out hands with detailed analysis. When you're trying to appeal to a wide market you don't want to confuse them by saying that 'He floated the flop so that he could shove over the top of any turn card that was unlikely to have hit villains range'

If they want to appeal to the wider audience then this 3 month gap is the way to go.

I have a solution that probably helps both parties though. It's actually really simple.

Run the WSOP episodes DURING the WSOP. It's a long enough event, with 4 starting days you have plenty of time to edit a story together. Then it might be worth having a day or two gap before the final 18 start. That way they can catch up on the action, show the story so far and still keep the players happy. Play down to 9, break for a couple of days to air the last lot of highlights from the final two tables and build some excitement. Do some bios on the players, market the hell out of the final table then screen it live with a reasonable delay.

As long as they remain smart with which hands they show from the earlier tables I don't think this would be a bad idea at all. It keeps it close to the original format and nobody is going to get whacked to improve the equity of someone else at the table.

Time!

I haven't been able to play much over the last couple of weeks. Work has been really busy and unfortunately that's only going to get worse. I have also been busy at the weekend so my playing time has been severely limited.

Not being able to play tournies has been killer. I have trouble motivating myself to play cash ring and SNG's, managing to post just 3,000 hands of $200 NL 6-max and about 50 SNG's in two weeks.



I'm desperate for WSOP sats to start on Stars and FTP to give me something to focus on. I probably used up my luck by winning two seats last year, but I'm definitely going to make an effort to play lots of sats this year and try to get myself out to Vegas again.

I did manage to get a live tournie in last night. There was a disappointingly low turnout of 80 runners, but it was a rebuy, so at least the prizepool was half-decent.

I made the FT with a little above average stack and busted in 5th when, after shovebotting for a while, I got called light when I had AQ and got sucked out on. I picked up $800 for my efforts though, so i can't really complain.

Credit Card Roulette

I have managed to convert a few of my friends to the delights of Credit Card Roulette. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, every time you get a bill in a restaurant or a bar everyone puts their card on the tray and you spin it. Whoever is lucky enough for it to land in their card gets to pay the bill.

The people I have introduced to this game love it already, mainly because I have picked up pretty much every bill since we started doing it last week.

We had a meal out for 6, I lost that one, followed by the Friday lunch AND Friday night food/bar bills. Then on Saturday night 4 of us were out for dinner and I lost that one too.

It's possible to run bad in other ways than just losing of course. One I actually managed to avoid was on Sunday night, our tab in the bar for about 45 mins which came to a massive $21. Awesome.



In poker related news I had a pretty bad day of it in the Sunday tournies last night. I think I made one first break out of 7 or 8 tournies I played, and that was the $55 buy in at 10pm on Stars, my lowest buy-in of the night.

I made a pretty big mistake in the Sunday Million when I could have called an obvious value bet rather than shoving over the top for the rest of my stack with 2 pair like the LAGtard I am. Only two hands in his range were ahead, but I should have just called and kept the pot smaller. I had him covered but I busted a few hands later.

I just need to learn when to control my aggression in spots like this, but I do find it really hard to give too much credit to unknowns in donkfests like the Million.

Still, I picked up on the mistake and learned from it, which is at least one positive I can take away. I might read through a few hand histories from other tournies and take a look at what I have done in similar spots. I haven't played much the past couple of weeks, so it's nice to come back and still be enthusiastic about plugging my leaks and improving my game.