Poker Talk

Great Fun at Club One -- NOT!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 30 Jun 08 13:05:57 -0400

Actually, the title was just me having fun. Club One, Edmond's card room up in Fresno is very impressive. Ed invited me up this weekend for his WSOP sat. I really didn't need to spend 4 hours on a train and bus to venture into Fresno for a deep stack tournament when there are so many in Vegas (there last week) and in LA close to my house. But I had been wanting to visit the casino and see what's been keeping Ed busy for the past few months and the foreseeable future. I also wanted to visit with LakeofFire and his wife. The room is very impressive. Ed manages about 400 employees which is a task in and of itself. The room has tons of tables, a nice bar restaurant, a horse betting room and a large banquet room. The operation runs very smoothly and Ed has done a great job of filling his staff with hot ladies whom aim to please. Great job, Ed! So I loved the room. What about the games? I played a little $2/5 NL on Friday night and found the action to be fairly typical. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I'm sick to my stomach over Bond's WSOP Final Table Beat

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 18 Jun 08 23:45:33 -0400

I read yesterday about Bond18's bad beat at the final table at the WSOP $3k NL event and I still feel sick to my stomach. If you haven't heard here's the summary from Cardplayer: [b]Tony "MuckTheNuts" Dunst Eliminated in Eighth Place ($54,344)[/b] Tony Dunst moved all in for his last 133,000 and Matt Vengrin made the call in the big blind. Dunst showed KK and was up against 98. Dunst held a big lead, but the board came 10 8 7 J 10 to send him to the rail in eighth place. After the hand, Vengrin was up to 1.5 million in chips. [img]http://tworags.com/files/ev29_tony_dunst.jpg[/img] [url=http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/14437]Here's the link to the full report if you wish to re-live the rest of the ugly details.[/url] Bond has discussed some of his other ugly bad beats deep in tournaments but I'm sure this will come close to the way he was sent to the rail in the Main Event last year. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

WSOP PS Step Challenge - Step 6: Part II

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Fri, 30 May 08 17:32:13 -0400

As you might have read in my previous post on this subject, I've been trying the PS steps to get my seat this year. I made it to Step 6 and flamed out really quicky finishing last. I took a two week break after the disappointment of my flameout and tried again. I began at Step 3 and won it so I immediately played in a Step 4 and Step 3 at the same time. I won the Step 3 again and was cruising along in the Step 4 when with about 5 people left to go my KK ran into AK and met a nice little A on the flop so I was out. I had some time so played the second Step 4 and won that one pretty routinely and then had an interesting ride in the Step 5. I kept on going up and down and somehow managed to hang on until 3 handed. With 3 to go, you are basically freerolling since, at worst, you can still play the Step 5 again which is pretty nice since it's a $700 tournament. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Pokerstars WSOP Steps -- first try: Me and the Big Bear

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Fri, 23 May 08 13:47:29 -0400

It's that time of year again. The WSOP is just around the corner and need to decide on my plans. Three years ago I won a seat into the Main Event by winning a double shootout on Stars. On my first attempt I came in second out of the 81 entrants and on my second try I won. The past two years I didn't even bother with the online sats. I just played a few preliminary WSOP events and some live sats. This year I decided to give the online route a try. PS is running step tournaments. These are one table tournaments. In most cases if you finish in the top 2 you advance to the next step, 3-4 you can play the same step again, and you step down and anything else you lose (each of the 6 steps are slightly different, but they are all the same principal). Step one is just a few dollars, step 2 around $25, step 3 around $80ish, etc., etc. I deposited $500 into my account and started with step 3's. At first I was very, very successful. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Two Chips and a Chair (plus terrible Dealer Mistake)

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Fri, 16 May 08 21:31:57 -0400

Edmond and I made plans to "bring our home game to the Commerce" this past Monday. The Commerce has a great program where they will host your regular home game. They provide the dealer, will furnish snacks and will even offer instruction on some new games if you need it. There is no extra fee; they only take their normal rake depending on the stakes played. No crazy wildcard games allowed. You need to stick to the basic games offered at the Commerce, but that does leave you with lots of options ([url=http://www.commercecasino.com/poker.aspx]click here to learn more[/url]). We were planning on starting with a basic $300-500 stakes NL game and throw in some H-O-R-S-E games if everyone was up for it. We were pretty excited to play and Dave Mosikian, head of player relations was set to play with our group. However, Dave had some bad back issues Monday afternoon and had to pass. Could it be that he was channeling Kobe Bryant’s back pain from Sunday’s Lakers game? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Shortest 9-handed SnG ever!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 12 May 08 19:55:44 -0400

I played in the weirdest Sit-n-Go ever. It was a Stars step qualifier to the WSOP Main Event. I was just fooling around at Step 1. The entire SnG took 10 minutes and 23 hands. We just played 1 hand at the 25/50 blind level. Has anyone ever seen a 9 handed tournament go from 9 down to 2 players in less time? Here's how it went down: This one guy, ussro, kept on going all-in from the very first hand. It didn't matter if he was the first in the pot at the 10/20 limit of if he was pushing after a standard raise. He just kept on going all-in. On a few hands he did fold, but not normally. On the 5th hand ussro RR all-in and is called by two players. He has jh8h and the other players have QQ and AK. He turns quad 8's. On the 9th hand he goes all-in with QT and gets called by AT. He flops a Q! On the 14th hand a guy goes all-in, he calls and another guys calls. ussro had kc4c and the other hands were AhQh and AdJd. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Bike Stars and Stripes $335 NL Tournament -- following through with a plan!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 24 Apr 08 16:46:06 -0400

Podiman called two weeks to say that he’s coming out to LA for a visit and was to play in the Bicycle Club’s [url=http://www.thebike.com/tournaments/schedule/index.php?tournament_id=91]Stars and Stripes[/url] tournament this week. I had been planning on playing a few events anyway so we made plans to meet up at the event. The event was Tuesday night and was a NL event with a $335 buy-in with one optional re-buy during the first 3 levels. The structure is excellent for a one day night-time start. We were given 3,000 chips and blinds started at 25/25 with 30 minute levels. The levels moved for the first few levels to 25/50, 50/100, 100/200 and then 100/200 with a 25 ante so there was quite a bit of play for a while; especially so if you bought in for another 3,000 chips for $300. I really wasn’t feeling very good so decided to just see how things went before purchasing a rebuy. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Brunson, Flack, Conseco and the TwoRags Gang

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 25 Feb 08 21:26:37 -0500

As many of you know, we joined forces with Pokernetcast.net (the old Live at the Bike team) to put together a single table tournament for the ages. The tournament was filled for later broadcast both here on on the pokernetcast site complete with hole card cameras and commentary from most of participants. We had a great table including: Todd Brunson Layne Flack Jose Conseco Shaundeeb Adanthar Nath SirWatts Thayer Shaniac Vivek Edmond and I started the live commentary and were soon joined by each participant once they were knocked out. The broadcast is being edited as I create this blog, and we should have some great clips to post in the next few weeks. The entire broadcast will be made available on the Pokernetcast.com site soon thereafter. We'll be sure to post more details in the coming weeks. Below are some pictures from the event. Stay tuned! [img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3217/2283325648_28bfdb8914.jpg?v=0[/img] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Suite at the Laker Game, Limos, Bad Beat on a Crazy Prop Bet...

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Fri, 22 Feb 08 13:20:00 -0500

David, out friend from the Commerce, sent me a text message informing me that he had 5 tickets to the Commere’s private suite at Staples Center. This would be the first game back for the Lakers from a their longest road trip in team history (and most successful). Plus it was Gasol’s first game at home for the Lakers so this was no ordinary game. David… you’re the man! I invited a few of our Featured Bloggers. The Commerce was nice enough to send a limo to take the guys over to Staples. Sirwatts, Thayer, Vivek and their buddy and Adam’s roommate Ray (exitonly4) joined me. [img] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2171/2282543353_a6eb44bc55.jpg?v=0[/img] Sirwatts and Vivek [img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2282543763_14a68e9004.jpg?v=0[/img] Dave and Thayer grab some treats [img] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2302/2282544173_97c33b0fec.jpg?v=0[/img] Exitonly4 enjoys watching the Lakers crush the Hawks [img] http://farm4.static.flickr. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

LA Poker Classic Event #8 $545 NL -- bubble and trouble

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 07 Feb 08 22:22:29 -0500

I made it out to the Commerce last Friday night (February 1st) for the $545 NL event #8 of the LA Poker Classic. Approximately 550 runners showed up for the event and they paid 55. We started with 2500 in chips, 40 minute levels and a 25/25 starting level. The structure was pretty good for a preliminary event. You can download all of the structures at the [url=http://www.commercecasino.com/tournamentDetails.aspx?tournamentId=3]Commerc's tournament page[/url] – just click on the event name to access a word file with the structure. I got to my seat a few minutes after the start time and missed one hand. I wish I missed two! On the second hand I’m on the button with 7[d]8[d] and two limpers to me. I make it 100 to go and they both call. The flop comes K75r and they both check so I make it 200. One guy checks. Great start, Scot. I decide I’m going to shut down until I see an A on the turn and my opponent appears to be very uncomfortable with it. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Commerce Freeroll, Bike Cash games and upcoming LA Poker Classic

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 16 Jan 08 20:56:55 -0500

Haven't been playing much poker lately. I've been pretty busy on the new tworags design, which should go up today, and some other projects. I did manage to play a few cash games and the 97.1 charity event at the Commerce. That was a really fun event. You can read Edmond's hilarous [url=http://new.tworags.com/blog/edmonddantes/post/1530/commerce_casino__freerollin_at_the_commerce__97.1_freefm_freeroll_trip_report]write-up of it here.[/url]. Our friends at the Bike, John and Dave, invited us to the club for this freeroll. It was a really fast structure, but lots of fun. In the first orbit or so Dave came around and threw a $50 itunes card into the middle to the person who won the next pot. Of course I played my 94o for a small raise and saw the flop 6 ways. When the 9 high board hit, I was quickly all-in and everyone folded. Sweet! Got busted soon thereafter, which was pretty much my plan. I was most interested in heading downstairs for some $5/10 NL action. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Happy New Year!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 01 Jan 08 13:33:36 -0500

Haven't played much poker lately but hope to change that with the upcoming LA Poker Classic at the end of January and through February. I'm shooting for a 3-4 events and lots of sats. I might even play a few non-hold'em events this time. Wishing all of you a great and profitable 2008 and I'm looking forward to reading about your personal and poker accomplishments and highlights this year. Have a healthy and prosperous 2008! - Scot

Just a little Commerce $5/10 NL Cash Game Action

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 11 Dec 07 21:21:41 -0500

Had to drop off some tworags/commerce promotional cards at the Commerce this afternoon and even though I didn't have much time to play I couldn't resist at least a little action so I dropped $400 down at the $5/10 NL (400 max) table, ordered some chicken kabobs - food is free at these limits - and began a quick session. Only had about an hour to play, but what the heck. I observed for a few hands. Many hands went unraised and almost all reasonable raises in the $15-25 range got called by at least one or two players. This was also one of these weird games where every hand seemed to be won by a nut flush or fullhouse. After about an orbit I'm dealt A[d]9[d] in the SB and complete with 4 limpers in front of me. Flop comes with two diamonds and I make it $30. Two people call. The turn brings the flush and I make it $75 and one guy calls. The board pairs which worries me just a bit, but I decide to make it $100 (kind of a value bet) and might consider folding to a push. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

A fun little heads-up hand for your enjoyment!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 26 Nov 07 19:04:25 -0500

I've been playing a little heads-up lately on pokerstars. Nothing major, just a little $1/2 or $2/4 every once in a while. Here's a beauty that you might all enjoy. You can vew in on [url=http://www.pokerhand.org/?1743279 ]pokerhand.org[/url]. I also reproduced below. Of course I give this hand up if I don't have the nut flush draw to go along with my KK. This is one of those hands where you hit your draw, get pretty happy and then sit in disbelief as the chips don't come to your side of the table as you expect. Always lots of fun! Pokerstars Game (?) Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2) - 2007/11/26 - 18:00:30 (ET) Table 'Yunnan II' 2-max Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: Hero ($122 in chips) Seat 2: djforever ($225. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

TwoRags.com just changed servers and new design

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 05 Nov 07 18:43:39 -0500

We're happy to report that we changed ISP's this past weekend and are now on our own dedicated equipment. Up until now, we have been co-located on a server with other websites. The server was in Canada so we had two issues that were causing speed/response-time problems. First, when other websites experienced high volume our speed was affected. Second, because the server was located in another country, there were basic internet connection issues from time to time. We believe that the new ISP and the new dedicated equipment should greatly help to solve these issues and result in a faster performing site. Please let us know if you are seeing our pages load quicker. If you are still experiencing any speed issues, do not hesitate to drop me an email or post a comment to this blog entry. I'm at scot@tworags.com. On another topic, we're in the process of redesigning the site. This should take another month or so to be implemented. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Sucking out at the Bike

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 18 Oct 07 17:53:32 -0400

Edmond and I met with the marketing folks at the Bike today and we were done around 5pm. I saw no reason to head out the door when the sweat sound of chips hitting the felt beckoned me to stay a while. Edmond agreed to play too, and we were both immediately seated at a $5/$5 table with $300-$500 stakes. There were 1-3 empty seats during our 2 hour session and the play was fairly loose preflop with many limped pots. Standard 3x or 4x PF raises didn't usually accomplish much to thin the field, and often PF raises as much as $30-40 were made regularly. One guy even raised $100+ PF with one small raise in front of him and won the pot when he was called by two big cards. The $200 guy had 83o! I bought in for the max $500 and in the first orbit I'm dealt K[c]6[c] in late position. Four of us see a flop of: Q[c]T[s]6[d]. The SB makes it 40 and one other guys calls. I decide to make a loose call with botton pair, backdoor flush draw and position. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

PS Blog Championship -- playing like a maniac, no other choice

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 15 Oct 07 09:30:15 -0400

I had registered for the Pokerstars free-roll blog championship. The tournament started at 12pm CA time, but we had plans to at 12:15 and wouldn't be back for about 3 hours. That gave me 15 minutes to play like a complete maniac and see what I could do with my stack. I figured if I could double or triple my stack size, I might have something left when I returned. We started with 10k in chips and just went at it from the first hand. For example, on the first hand a guy raises to 150 and there were 3 callers. I quickly made it 3k to go and took it down. This type of thing happened for the first orbit and I was sitting with 16k. So I had substantially increased my stack with no regard for what hand I had and without ever going past the flop. Of course someone could have woken up with a hand, but I tried to feel it out and determine to the best I could when people were hedging their bets. I then called a raise with 66 and flopped trips. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

When you lose a hand -- just shut the (*&%$% up!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 11 Oct 07 09:13:17 -0400

I was just playing a 6-handed turbo on PS when this hand came up: ****************************************************************** Big Blind is t400 (3 handed) Hero (t4855) BB (t2220) Button (t1925) [b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is SB with K:spade:, T:spade:. [color:#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], Hero completes, BB checks. [b]Flop:[/b] (t650) 9:club:, 8:heart:, 7:club: [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color] [color:#CC3333]Hero bets t800[/color], [color:#CC3333]BB raises to t1795[/color], Hero calls t995. [b]Turn:[/b] (t4240) Q:heart: [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color] [b]River:[/b] (t4240) J:heart: [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color] [b]Final Pot:[/b] t4240 Hero has Ks Ts (straight, king high). BB has 9s Qd (two pair, queens and nines). Outcome: Hero wins t4240. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

$350 live Bike Club tourney -- deep run, name-calling - part 1

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 04 Oct 07 13:09:00 -0400

Played in the October tournament series at the Bike last night. The buy-in was $350 with 200 or so runners. I got home around 3:30am and only slept for about 4.5 hours so I'm running on fumes. Here is a quick summary. I'll fill in the gaps in the next post: - podiman was in from NY and invited me to join him at the Bike last night - we both made it deep. Podiman was knocked out with about 4-5 tables left. I made it to 19th, just in the money. - my $525 win amounts to about $25 per hour. Wow! - I called a guy a pussy after he yelled at a guy for cracking his Aces. The problem was I did this without first even looking to see if i could take him! I was in the 9 seat, he was in the 1 seat, so I never got a good look at him. Luckily, he was not very big and didn't give me any trouble. - Was short all night. Just grinded the best I could. Was all-in 5 times. Once we had the same hand. The other 4 times I was either about 50/50 or 40/60. Won all 4. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

ePassporte is such a joke!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 25 Sep 07 16:51:03 -0400

I haven't played online in months since the old neteller days and wanted to try my hand at some of the wcoop events so Adam suggested I give ePassporte a try. Well I have and so far NO GOOD. I first tried using my Visa card and it was rejected. No biggie. I assumed it was one of those issues with the credit card company not wanting to fund a gambling site so I thought I would use the bank account option. I tried that but received a 'communication error.' I next tried a second CC and it worked fine. Only funded $150 to start. I won my first $109 sng, but then bubbled a few times, and had a few interesting hands so I needed to reload. Today I tried to use the CC again and received a 'rejected by your bank' error. I called my bank and they told me that they not only didn't reject any transaction, but there wasn't any transaction. So I called epassporte and after waiting on hold for a while was told that they have been having a CC processing issue since Sunday. What? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

So Mikey.... what do you really think of your buddy Gus?

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 20 Sep 07 10:36:36 -0400

I was reading Bond18's recent post [url=http://www.tworags.com/blog/Bond18]The Worst Player I know[/url] and it made me think of a video I saw a while back. If you enjoy watching guys go off on their opponent after receiving a bad beat, you'll love this one. Enjoy!

CA State Poker Championships (Commerce) - $545 NL

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 10 Sep 07 13:15:12 -0400

[b]First Satellite[/b] I made it the Commerce around 3pm. The tournament wasn’t starting until 7pm so I had plenty of time to play a one table satellite. They were running plenty of $120’s so I immediately sat down at one and it started within a few minutes. I only recognized a few regular local pros at the table. A few of the guys seemed pretty green and nervous. One guy asked if anyone was interested in a $50 last longer and I was the only taker. This in itself told me that the table was inexperienced because at the WSOP about 5-6 guys would always want to do it. We start with $1k in tournament chips and 25/25 blinds/15 min levels. I was fairly card dead and didn’t play many hands. Given the fact that we only start with $1k in chips, it’s dangerous to splash around too much at the start, so I tried to find a good hands. Unfortunately it never happened. When the blinds got to 50/100 I was in the SB with AT and about 550 chips. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Finally playing a live tournament!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 06 Sep 07 18:20:37 -0400

I haven't played a live tournament since the end of June during the World Series of Poker. It's hard to believe it's now been over two months since I've played. How did that happen? I had planned on playing a few Legends events at the Bike, but it never worked out. Between vacations, kids events, party commitments, etc., I just never had 2-3 days. Why 2-3 days? Most of these tournament require 2-3 days. While I often could make the first day of a tournament, it would become a big issue if I made it to the following day since things would get very sticky if I had to cancel plans. Last year I played a Legends tournament and my wife was leaving at 6:30am in the morning with some friends for a weekend with the girls. I was doing great and made it down from 400 runners to about 50 when a critical hand came up around 4am. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

deliberate stalling in online tournaments

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 29 Aug 07 19:45:43 -0400

I was just reading through a thread on twoplustwo that really hit home to me. The author of a post was playing a $1000 satellite to an EPT event online at Pokerstars when a player at his table was deliberately stalling on every single hand by taking the maximum time to play. This has happened to me a number of times and it drives me crazy. It usually happens to me during one table sit-n-goes, so the only issue is the time the sng will take. In the case of a big MTT the stalling has serious consequences because you don't have as many hands to play as other players in the tournament. The poster wrote to Stars and they told him that there was nothing they could do. He kept on complaining and asked who has taken over since Lee Jones left. Here's what they wrote: [i]The position formerly held by Lee has not been filled at this time but there are a few people who have taken those responsibilities. However they are not going to tell you anything different. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

$5/10 NL Holdem Cash Game Session at the Commerce

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Sun, 19 Aug 07 13:45:47 -0400

I visited the Commerce last week to meet with some potential business partners. After the meeting I decided to stick around for a few hour cash game session. There was no wait and I was immediately seated at the $5/10 NL table. The maximum buy-in is $400 and that’s what I started with – if you bust-out they allow you to buy back in for $600. A quick scan of the table revealed few dominant stacks. There was an attractive Asian woman to my right who did have about $1000, but she told me that she was actually even having bought back in for $600. She was very chatty with the guy to her right. He just lost a substantial portion of his stack when he raised PF with AK, hit the A on a AT5 flop and then was CR all-in on his flop bet and called. His opponent had A5. He spent about 10 minutes discussing with her his bad luck and the reasons for his call. The table was somewhat passive. Nobody appeared very aggressive or creative. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Event 38 $1500 NL -- Bette Davis Aces

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 10 Jul 07 11:52:53 -0400

I don't recognize anyone at my table and most people look pretty nervous so I just peg everyone as inexperienced unless they show my that they are not. I already discussed the hand during the first orbit where a guy mucks KK after spending 2/3rds of his stack. What I didn't mention was that that the guy who won the hand and is sitting to my left has been playing 3 out of every 4 pots and comments to the table that he might as well get his money's worth. Well it doesn't last long and he is the first victim after only 20 minutes or so. He tries to bluff the active woman at the table who I also wrote about in my last blog. She happened to have the nut flush and he is out. His strategy wasn't bad because she has been raising light many times before and this wasn't an exception. Only this time her A3s happened to make a flush. This Loose Woman who I talk about in my last blog looks a bit like a 45 year-old Betty Davis. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I have two pair. Can you beat it?

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 27 Jun 07 23:17:36 -0400

I apologize for running a bit behind on my tournament blogging, but I did write up a long post two nights ago only to have it vanish in the internet time-space continuum. My internet connection for Vegas was horrible and I needed to use my Treo 700wx as a modem. However, I haven’t figured out a way to get it to block calls, so whenever a call comes in, the connection is dropped. Oh… well. It only took me about an hour to write the post! I’ll try again to get up to date, but rather than blogging about specific tournaments and results I thought I would give you a flavor of some of the players and type of plays I have seen at the WSOP. [b]I HAVE TWO PAIR, CAN YOU BEAT IT?[/b] This happened on the 3rd hand of the 1500 NL event on Saturday. A MP player raises to 175 at the 25/50 level. The BB calls. The flop comes Q78. The MP player bets 500 and is called. The turn is an A and the MP player bets 1200. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Hey, WSOP Bracelet Winner. Get out of my seat!

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Sun, 24 Jun 07 14:47:21 -0400

Event #37 - $2000 Pot Limit Hold'em I get to my seat, which is #6 and find Jeff Lisandro seated there. He apologized and moved to seat 5. Jeff won the bracelet the night before in the 7 card stud event and lots of guys came by to congratulate him. He's a great guy and a fun person to talk too. In fact, he was probably a bit too much fun to talk with because we really hit it off and I probably wasn't focused as much on my poker as I should have been. Jeff told me stories about his years managing poker rooms in Russia, grinding it out in rooms all over the world playing different games and some crazy stories about some poker screenplays he had written and how his stories have been stolen from him and made into films (some very well know films!). At first I was a bit skeptical but after a few minutes of hearing the details I had no doubt what he said was absolutely true. If you run into Jeff and have a few minutes of his time, ask him about this. Interesting stuff. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

NL 1500 - Event # 35

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Sat, 23 Jun 07 00:08:28 -0400

My first wsop event of 2007. Pretty excited and ready to open up my game. I get lucky and am at a table full of tight-passive players. Over the first few levels I pretty much have my way with the table. I'm not trying to look crazy and reckless, but there are tons of places to resteal against weak players to my right and I quickly build my stack from 3k to 8k by the second level. There were no major premium hands that held, just lots of hands like this: I'm in the SB, a late position raiser makes a standard raise, the button calls, I can see that the late position raiser is not happy so I pop it and they both lay down their hands. On another hand UTG raises to 225 at 25/50 blinds, UTG+1 calls, it's folded to me in the BB and I push with 2600. The stack sizes were awkward to raise and I didn't want to call. They both folded and showed JJ (UTG), AK (UTG+1). One hand I'm on the button and a MP raiser makes it 300. There is one more caller and I call with A9o. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Venetian Deep Stack Tournament

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Fri, 22 Jun 07 11:46:47 -0400

My first WSOP event isn’t until tomorrow (thurs) so I decided to play in the Venetian Deep Stack $330 NL event today. I started off strong and was quickly the chip leader at my table and probably the tournament. I went from 6k in chips to 18k within the first few levels. I doubled up pretty quickly with this hand: I get 77 UTG and limp with blinds at 25/50. Four people see the flop of 7QQ – bingo. I’m second to act and make it 200 hoping that nobody will believe it and really hoping that someone has a Q. I’m rewarded by the button (who just doubled up himself when his nut straight beat the second nut straight) who min-bets me to 500. It’s folded to me and I decide to mini-bet him back hoping he’ll think I’m still making a play – nobody plays back if they have it. So I make it 1k. He now pumps it to 2.5. Seems like a limit game…huh. Well, it’s very weird. I’m sure I have him. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Welcome to the WSOP

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 20 Jun 07 08:59:52 -0400

I get into town this evening after a 6 hour drive. Fairly uneventful, but I did get a later start then I wanted and hit quite a bit of traffic while heading out of Los Angeles. After checking into my hotel I head over the. It’s now 9:30ish. It was pretty empty at this time and I quickly got my player card and looked around the Amazon room. It was a little different from previous years. The final table is still in the back but now off to the right. The sat area is now in the font near the registration booths. They were seating for the $325 so I took a seat. Unlike last year, you pay at the registration desk before taking a seat. It went very smoothly – at least it did at this time of night. The $325 gets you 1500 chips with 15 min levels. I’m in mid position on the first hand and it’s folded to me. I look down at two red Aces. Welcome to the WSOP! I raise to 100 (25/25 level) and only the SB calls. The flop comes 458r and he checks so I make it 200. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

2007 WSOP Journey starts tomorrow

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 18 Jun 07 21:32:34 -0400

So I'm finally ready to stop writing about poker and actually start playing poker. The schedule is cleared, the reservations have been made and the bags are almost packed. I am scheduled to take the wife and kids to the airport tomorrow am (they are going to North Carolina to visit some old friends), drop the big car back off at the house and take my car to Vegas. I just downloaded a month's worth of podcasts for pokerwire and rounders to get me in the mood while I spend 5 hours or so in the car from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The first WSOP tournament I plan on playing is Thursday's NL tournament which leaves me one night and one full day to play some warm-up events. Haven't played any poker in a few months so I probably need to work off the rust. I'll head over to the Rio once I get into town and check out the differences between this year and last year. I'll probably play a few sats and try to hook up with Adanthar, Nate, Shaniac, Rizen and some other guys. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Moneymaker Folds KK pre-flop at WSOP Event

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 06 Jun 07 10:21:24 -0400

There was an interesting post over at 2plus2 discussing a laydown by Chris Moneymaker in Event #3. The action goes like this: "Chris Moneymaker makes it 1,500 under the gun. Mike Banducci in late position re-raises to 6,200. The small blind goes all in for 24,000 and the big blind also goes all in for his last 8,100. Moneymaker and Banducci both fold. The small blind has 5d5s and the big blind has AdKd and the board is Js 7s 8h 2h 3s. Moneymaker said after the hand that he folded kings. " [url=http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=WSOP&Number=10652106]The thread can be found here.[/url] Some people could not believe that there is ever a reason to lay down KK PF. Others were not as sure and felt it was a reasonable laydown. I can see folding this hand. I think it all comes down to your read on the BB. Banducci's range is fairly large here -- let's say AQ/AK, most pairs and perhaps even other big cards. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Gazes vs. Brown HU - misreading board and letting it affect future play

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 17 May 07 12:08:18 -0400

So the match is Kristy Gazes vs. Chad Brown. Gazes has a small lead and the BB, Brown has the button. Blinds 1500/3000, not sure of stack sizes but they are fairly deep I believe. Brown raises to 8000 with A[c]2[c], Gazes reraises to 24k with 9[s]9[d] and Brown calls. The flop comes 666. For some reason Gazes finds this scary and funny. She checks as does Brown. Now the turn brings the 4th 6 and Gazes finds this even funnier; given that her hand is counterfeited, it wouldn’t be funny to me. She bets $40k and Brown calls with the absolute nuts. The river is a 2. Now things get strange. Gazes checks the river and Brown, in position, checks too. WTF? What just happened? Why would Brown check the stone-cold nuts? Now things get REALLY strange. They both turn over their hands and the dealers starts sorting the chips and pushing them to Brown, when Gazes says ‘hello… we both have quads. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Hustler Monday Tournament Trip Report

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 23 Apr 07 11:12:20 -0400

Played in the $125 plus one rebuy tournament last Monday. There were approximately 130 entrants and we started off with 1500 chips at the 25/25 level. I'll just report on a few significant hands: 1) Get AQ in mid-position and make it 100 after one limper. Both blinds call as does limper. Flop comes AT5 rainbow. I make it 350 and get check-raised all-in by BB. I played with him for a while in a cash game while I waited for this tournament and he seemed pretty solid and reasonable. In a non-rebuy event or perhaps in a bigger buy-in event I fold here in a minute -- especially given that there was no flush draw on the board that he could be semi-bluffing with. However, given that this is a rebuy event I called for two reasons a) there is a chance he could be making a move with AJ or even the same hand as me. If he had AK I'm pretty sure he raises preflop; and b) it's a rebuy event so I can just rebuy. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

$5/10 NL Cash Game -- One difficult (for me) decision on river

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 17 Apr 07 09:10:03 -0400

I made my way over to the Huslter last night for the 7pm tournament. Hadn't played any poker for a few weeks so when [url=http://www.tworags.com/home/StrayBullet]StrayBullet[/url] mentioned that he would be in town and was game for meeting at the Hustler, I was in. I showed up a few hours early and took a seat at the $5/10 NL table. Actually, they didn't have a seat initially so i played a little 2/5 for about 30 minutes. The buy-in there was $300 and I ran that up to about $500 when my seat opened at the 5/10 table. I bought in for another 300. My stacked only moved a bit in the time I spent there. It was about 6:50 and I was about to cash in my chips so that I could take my seat for the 7pm tournament when this LAST hand came up. I'm in LP with A[d] K[c] and there is one limper to me. I make it $35. One blind comes in and the limper completed. The flop comes K[s] J[h] 8[s] . Checked to me and I make it $110. The blind folds and the limper calls. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

HSP Hand - Townsend vs. Antonius Hand

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 10 Apr 07 16:19:51 -0400

Just finished watching the last episode of HSP season 3. There were several great hands, but one in particular had me a bit confused. Brian Townsend raises preflop to about $2400 with AQo and Patrick Antonius, who appears to have position, re-pops it to $6600 so it's about 4200 more to call. Townsend asks Antonius how much he has behind him, which turns out to be aroudn $500k, and Brian has him covered. Townsend, after much deliberation decided to fold. Now given Antonius's loose image (he had 96h in this hand), i really don't see a fold here. Now i'm assuming the reasons for this are that Brian would be OOP after the flop, if he does hit the A or Q he feels that he won't get paid and there is a chance that Antonius has him dominated with AK/QQ-AA. However, looking at it another way, it's also just as likely that he could have Antonius dominated with a hand like AJ, Ax, KQ, QJ, etc. Sure, nobody wants to play Antonius out of position, but still... your thoughts?

$1k NL LAPC tournament

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 27 Feb 07 18:29:00 -0500

I played in the last event at the LAPC prior to the main event. It was another $1k event with about 500 runners. Like last week, I got off to another fast start. On the second orbit I was dealt QQ from UTG, raised, was called by a later position player and bet every street. The guy mucked the river and I won about 1500. From there my stack pretty much stayed the same, at around 4-4.5k (we started with 2.5k) for the next few hours. There was really no eventful hands to report until... About 2 minutes before the 7pm dinner break I raise on the button with KJs. Both blinds call. They were solid and aggressive players. The flop came Q95rags. They checked and I checked. The turn brought J and two of the same suit. They both checked again. There was approximately 1k in the pot. I was 99% sure that my TP, good kicker was the best hand. There was no way that these guys would check twice with a hand that could be me. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Calling Stations plus Cold Deck equals disaster

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 21 Feb 07 13:42:01 -0500

So my wife and I planned to head up to Santa Barbara wine country for a romantic Valentine's dinner at the Sunstone Vineyard with a few other couples. She booked a room at the new Chumash resort. I recalled reading the poker listing of the Chumash poker room up on Tworags, so I was hoping to get in a session or two if I’m able to find some time. We arrived Friday afternoon and she was a bit under the weather and wanted to get a good night sleep in so she would be rested for the big dinner the following night. Okay, I guess I'll just have to go down to the poker room. Not too bad... I get there a bit past 9pm, and it is packed. They are spreading 4 NL tables at the $100-200 buyin level with 2/5 blinds and one NL table at the $300-500 level with 5/10 blinds. The lists are 15+ names deep, so I also put my name on some limit list and go to the cafe to grab some food. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

LA Poker Classic - $1k NL event

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Wed, 07 Feb 07 09:41:08 -0500

I got off to a REALLY fast start. We start off with 2500 chips for the 25/25 level (big field – about 450 runners, $1k each). At the end of the 2nd level, I’m a bit over 8k in chips! By far the leader at my table and maybe in the top 5% in the tournament. It was mostly due to good cards. A few hands/situation during the good run. 1) only bad hand. I raise to 100 with AKs from MP, button makes it 600, I’m not sure what to do (what would you do?), I decide to see the flop, miss, he bets, I fold. Feel that it was weak, but also didn’t want to a) risk my stack here, b) be a pussy and just fold. 2) Q6d from button, 3 people in before me at 75, decide to make an iffy call with position, flop comes Kxxd, guy raises, another guy pushes, I call. He’s drawing dead with TPTK. Double up to 3k or so. 3) Raise to 150, I’m on button with 88. Flop comes 865 all hearts. Guy raises half his stack, I push (have him covered by a bit), he calls. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Phil Ivey headsup vs. Paul Jackson -- Sick Hand

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 29 Jan 07 13:03:14 -0500

This is one of the sickest poker hands you'll ever see. Comments are welcome!

Home Game Fun

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 22 Jan 07 14:37:22 -0500

Went away camping in the mountains with a few other dads and their daughters. After the kids went to sleep we decided to play some $1/2 NL. There was a guy there that used to prop at the Commerce in some $100/200 and $200/400 stud games. He was good and had a great run of cards for the first few hours and was dominating. But he was also getting drunk. I was card dead and could not play back at him. I finally got 55 and pushed against his 3 bet. He had 77 and I hit a 5! I then flopped a straight and he pushed at me on the turn and I won that. A few hours later I had jx with two clubs and bet on a board of AJx with two clubs. He called. On the turn there was another A (I don’t think he has an A) and I bet again and he calls. On the river the flush comes and I bet again and he calls with K2 of clubs! I had him all the way up until the river. I hate when this happens -- you actually had the best hand the entire time, but you are rooting to make your draw. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Fun session at Caesars Palace

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 02 Jan 07 13:00:03 -0500

I visited Vegas last week and played in the new room at Casears for the first time and really enjoyed it -- see my review at [url=http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=comments&todo=view&ID=71]here[/url]. I played the $2/5 game with no max buy-in. Because of this the game played much higher than a typical $2/5 game. Most of the players had several thousand dollars behind them. What was very unusual was that most of the players were inexperienced. They weren't timid though. They were gamblers. One guy saw 100% of the flops and this was for 5 hours. He even called 3 bets PF when the pot was raised to $75-100 and he didn't have anything. It didn't matter, he wanted to see flops. Because of his loose play most of the table loosened up too. One time a guy 3 bet to $100 and 3 other players called with nothing. What’s even better is that two of them had the bottom end of a four card straight on the river and they called a $250 bet when there was also a 4 card flush. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Good Phil Ivey - Patrik Antonius Hand on FT

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Sat, 16 Dec 06 13:37:19 -0500

Here's a pretty sick hand I just watched. Luigi66369 is poker pro Patrik Antonius. I didn't put it through a hand converter, but it's worth following: Full Tilt Poker Game #1420648299: Table Halbert (heads up) - $300/$600 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:09:25 ET - 2006/12/16 Seat 1: Phil Ivey ($65,098) Seat 2: Luigi66369 ($54,899) Luigi66369 posts the small blind of $300 Phil Ivey posts the big blind of $600 The button is in seat #2 *** HOLE CARDS *** devilsagain (Observer): lol thepenisblue (Observer): cuz hes agsngsta Delthafunky1 (Observer): why not dimmy (Observer): because he wants to be like mike Luigi66369 raises to $1,800 BelOwaB0Ve (Observer): phil is black RazorEdge (Observer): how you know its Patrick? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Quad Kings -- Odd Situtation

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Sat, 02 Dec 06 11:06:39 -0500

Had an odd situation come up yesterday. I'm playing two tables on Full Tilt. On one table I get dealt two black kings just as the flop gets dealt on the other table. Two red kings show up on that table and I think to myself how nice it would have been to see that flop on my other table. It gets raised to me and I 3-bet with my black kings and the initial better callers. The flop comes 2 red kings for quads on the flop! Anyway, the hand was pretty uneventful. I raised the flop hoping that he wouldn't believe I had a king. I find that more often then not people will reraise you when you bet a paired board. Anyway, the guy folded so it was just an normal hand, but the coincidence was worth noting. Or perhaps the random card dealing software was stuck!

Full Tilt -- no bad beat stories

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Thu, 30 Nov 06 16:13:19 -0500

I've continued to receive some bad beats, but I've also began to suck-out just as much -- a few QQ and KK beating AA, my two pair getting all in on the turn against a made flush and hitting a full house, etc., etc. Of course i also have had my share of bad beats, but it all evens out in the end. [i]That's poker[/i] as they say. Here are two hands I would like to share: Hand 1: Full Tilt Poker No Limit Holdem Ring game Blinds: $1/$2 6 players [url=http://www.neildewhurst.com/hand-converter]Converter[/url] [b]Stack sizes:[/b] Hero: $266.30 UTG+1: $186.75 CO: $329.55 Button: $340.40 SB: $329.85 BB: $207.25 [b]Pre-flop:[/b] ([i]6 players[/i]) Hero is UTG with A:spade: J:heart: [color:#cc0000]Hero raises to $7[/color], UTG+1 calls $7 [color:aaaaaa](pot was $10)[/color], CO calls $7 [color:aaaaaa](pot was $17)[/color], Button folds, SB calls $6 [color:aaaaaa](pot was $24)[/color], BB folds. [b]Flop:[/b] A:club: J:spade: 4:diamond: ([i]$30, 4 players[/i] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Second experience with Full Tilt -- One Outer Anyone?

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 27 Nov 06 13:03:36 -0500

Hey, I don't mean this blog to be filled with bad beats. But this one was classic. I guess the 5 out-er on river that I wrote about last night was not too bad. I'm getting good about not tilting though. I need to be proud of myself for that. $1/2 game on Full Tilt, I have $170, opponent has 150. I'm dealt 6[c] 6[s] in BB. UTG limps, button limps, I check. Flop comes: 6[h] 2[s] 2[d] NICE! I bet 7, UTG raises to 14, I call. Turn: Q[c] I check, UTG bets 22, I riase to 60, UTG raises to 98 (weird), I push, UTG calls. UTG turns over K[c] 2[c] Nice little double-up, but then: River: 2[h] Oops! * I guess he could have turned over QQ and it would have been just a normal bad beat.

First experience with Full Tilt -- a little Suck-out

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 27 Nov 06 10:29:10 -0500

I decided to try my hand at Full Tilt for the first time - and play like the pros as they say on the commercials. Or do they say 'Play with the pros?' Hmmm. Not sure. Anyway, I load for $500 at a 3/6 NL 6-handed table. The table starts off fairly weak. I raise from the button quite a bit and rarely meet resistence. I also 3 bet from the blinds when I suspect a steal from the button or CO and take down a few pots. I get JJ from MP, raise, see two callers, bet at a low flop and take it down. One hand that I could have played a bit differently was when I'm in the BB with KTo and there are 3 limpers to me. I check and I flop the nut straight with a flop of QJ9. There is a flush draw on the board and I'm first to act. I bet about 2/3rds of the pot and everyone folds. I considered a check-raise but was a bit concerned about giving a free card to a flush draw. Oh, well. I get dealt AKs. A MP player makes it 18 and there is one caller. I three bet to 40 and both call. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Poker on the Radio

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Tue, 21 Nov 06 09:09:44 -0500

I really enjoy listening to the Circuit radio broadcast. I listen to it via podcasts. You go to the itunes music store and download the broadcasts to your PC and then sync with your ipod. They are free. The show is hosted by a young guy named Scott Huff and two poker pros -- Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok. Joe is Barry Greenstein's son. These guys have really good chemistry and it's a lot of fun to listen to them discuss hands, tournament strategy, the latest poker news and basically have a good time while talking poker. Gavin and Joe are very loose aggressive players and they have both had good tournament success. Gavin was the WPT player of the year last year and Joe is fairly new to tournament poker but has had some really impressive results in the short time he's played. Listening to them discuss their aggressive style is pretty interesting and has helped open my eyes to the benefits of playing a more aggressive style. Gavin is a big advocate of playing small pots. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Poker on TV

admin@tworags.com (lakong) — Mon, 13 Nov 06 10:19:05 -0500

Today is Monday, and I really miss my weekly fix of High Stakes Poker. Not only is this my favorite televised poker show, it's probably my favorite TV show. Period. The show is just so entertaining and fun to watch. Much more so than the typical poker show. The tournament shows are just not that entertaining to me any more. They always turn into all-in fests because of the fast structures and the TV editing. Most of these shows do too many interviews and other features -- I guess to appeal to the non-poker players. Contrast this to High Stakes Poker where we get to see how poker is really played. We see both pre and post flop play. Most of the players are really good and we can learn what these professionals do and don't do. I guess it's also fun to see how some of them players goof up and don't necessarily play as well as we believe they should. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]