Suze Orman had another poker player call in to her “Can I Afford It?” segment seeking her approval to buy into a $1,200 tourney in Las Vegas. Young guy. Spoiler Alert: Quickest denial ever!
LOL, apparently Suze doesn’t understand that players like Brian are “good for the game.”
He’s not broke, he swears, but he is, like everyone, way more money-minded than before … because he has to be! You have no idea how much a prop bet against Phil Ivey can affect the price of a barrel of oil.
Phil Hellmuth sat down for an hour with PokerTube.com the other day (an hoouuurrr), and while most of it’s gag-worthy, I did find his explanation of bankroll management and his personal cash sitch interesting:
He really really really wants you to buy his stuff at PokerBrat.com.
Wait, you mean poker pros aren’t the only ones who go broke? Apparently not … according to Brian Cuban (Mark’s brother) 60 percent of all pro athletes go belly-up after retirement. Likewise for Hollywood-types. So much for our theories on poker players being inherently more degenerate … they’ve hardly got the market cornered when it comes to pissing money away.
Though I question Cuban’s numbers, I don’t doubt so much his concept. He will be talking about it — pro athletes specifically — on his podcast (radio show?) tomorrow at 11:15 central.
They’re calling it Trash Talk Tuesdays, and indeed, have heard a teensy little buzz about it around town. Follow me on twitter for updates. My plan is to play tight and not get caught up in twittering.
As you can tell, this will be a big game for me — essentially $2/$5/$10 NLH that I hear grows even bigger as the night goes on. I’m a little nervous — am pretty sure it’s poor game selection to risk a third of your bankroll in a potentially wild, unfamiliar game playing at higher stakes than you’re used to. But sheesh, they’ve even got a bonus for playing the hammer! Go Dream Team money …
From Hard Rock Poker Lounge:
Trash Talk Tuesdays
Bad Sportsmanship Encouraged – ornery dealers, slow rollers & grown men crying…
Buy-in: $300-$3000
Mandatory “Hard Rock Straddle” on the button
Blinds: $2-$5
Seven Deuce BountyWarning: If you’re a whiny little baby who can’t take a joke about ginormously fat and disgusting your mother is, then this event is not for you. So stop reading this and MOVE ON!
More about this game from 2+2 here and Doc W (who took the picture from that game above) here.
UPDATE: You can see my results on twitter … but in a nutshell, this game plays WAAY bigger than 2/5 or even 5/10. Got my ass handed to me (twice) before dropping down to “Wacky 1-2″ … which is essentially the same game with 1/2 blinds and a forced $4 straddle.
Eric and I played in the first round of the limit holdem shootout. What a nice, funny guy in addition to being a great player.
I beat him at the first table, but before I did, we agreed to save 10 percent. After beating him, I failed to get his phone number in order to contact him to arrange for payment after I won the tournament. Oops. I didn’t win.
I should have paid him his $435 before he left and figured that he would come watch me if I made the final table. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t make the final table, but I ran into Greg Mueller heads up. He’s soooo lucky.
Anyway, I owe Eric some money and want to pay him. Please help! I don’t want to be lumped in with all the other nonpaying “pieces” that I have encountered during the WSOP — and I certainly don’t want to to be included in Pokerati’s gallery of villains.
Anybody know how to get in touch with him? Seriously. I just want to pay him.
UPDATE: Savvas Zenonos is the bad guy.
Despite Annie Duke’s assertion that “poker players are the most awesome people in the world!”, we all know the truth: you’ve got some bad apples in the mix. That became very apparent in one of the last $1,060 mega-sats for the main event — where 22 players agreed to a chop, but one of them reneged on the virtual handshake and ran off with more money than he was supposed to keep, effectively ganking $2,400 from the prize pool.
Hey, these are tough times. It’s been a long month+ on the poker frontlines … pressures are high, bankrolls tapped, and casualties have mounted. Character-testing times, to be sure … and save for a few multi-bracelet winners, we’ve all had to re-evaluate not just our play but also our purposes in life at some point during this Series. Thus it’s with little shame that Pokerati has decided to get into the business of morally righteous extortion poker collections.
So here’s the deal, dude: You have until the start of Day 3 — roughly 48 hours — to make good and pay up, or we’re going to out you as a shyster and do our best to make sure that anyone googling your name sees the post revealing you as a poker crook. Cool? It’s not libel when it’s true; and just because you told a few people, allegedly, “I’m going to screw you” prior to doing so, that hardly constitutes “fair” warning.
Click below for the breakdown of how this main event satellite finished up and a good chop went awry — leaving several players, including DonkeyBomber, coming up short when it came time for payouts:
More…
Big congrats for the deepest run of any Team Pokerati player in 2009, who just finished 3rd in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw. From WSOP.com:
Julie Schneider played a remarkably clean tournament right from the start of play on Day 1. She quickly proved to her male competitors that she was more than just a pretty face at the table, picking off one opponent after another with her well-timed bets (and a few favorable draws). Her deep run comes to an end in third place, good for $66,285 and a big hug from husband Tom
Though we still need to run the calculations and wait for the main event to finalize, as of now, it looks like Mrs. @DonkeyBomber will win the Team Pokerati Net Results Challenge — and though not quite enough for Tom to quit his job and become a stay-at-home dad, it should be enough to keep the Schneiders out of indentured servitude. (Phew!)
What? You didn’t know the Team Pokerati Net Results Challenge existed? Either did we, but hey we swear it might be disastrous cool … tallying up not just winnings, but winnings-minus-buy-ins to see who’s really tearing it up at the WSOP.
Unofficial standings in that department:
1. Julie Schneider
2. Pat Poels
3. Gregg Merkow
4. Cliff Fisher
5. John Harris
6. Robert Goldfarb
7. Shoegal
8. Karridy Askenasy
9. Whit Blanton
10. Tom Schneider
After a valiant 0-for-18 start, with only one Day 2 in the mix, everybody’s favorite @DonkeyBomber has finally made the money — winning his first-round table in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout, an event he finished 5th in back in 2006.
Yep, it’s a guaranteed $4,350 payday ($2,850 net). We know he’s got a long way to go against a bunch of other tough pros to stop the bankroll-bleeding … but c’mon, golf-clap … baby steps. Now all he needs is a third-place finish (or maybe second) to get him pretty close to even for 2009 WSOP tourneys.
Other notable players advancing include:
David Williams
David Plastik
Juha Helppi
Humberto Brenes
John-Robert Bellande
Brock Parker
Nick Binger
Diego Cordovez
Greg Mueller
Ray Henson
… and a lot of others that have 2-4 WSOP cashes under their belts.
Here’s Tom’s 2nd Round table:
Tom Schneider – 45000
Juha Helppi – 45000
Mike Thorpe – 45000
Daniel Kraus – 45000
Michael Byrne – 45000
Brock Parker – 45000
Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller – 45000
Mike Beasley – 45000
If you tally up Hendon Mob Results and WSOP hardware for all the players still left (64 out of 572), this table represents the 1st most difficult out of 8. Must-win.
A $2,250 Mega-Sat for the $50k HORSE breaks out right in front of us, where suddenly the seasoned pros are kicking it old-school — playing with jovial intensity and the hope that their real poker dreams can be bought at a bargain. It’s the poker economy, the regular economy, and backer variance in play … with satellite sponsorship deals, backing syndicates, and a question about what kinda team Russian backers will deploy. Special appearances by Michael Mizrachi, Allan Kessler, Bill Chen, et many medium-higher-rolling al.
presented by:
Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NVEpisode 11.21: HORSE Hunting
4:09Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Episode 11.22: The Satellite Economy
5:06Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
They’re back in action in 2.5 O8B (bear with me, still experimenting with new abbreviations) … Mike Matusow is out, but with 14 players left Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is climbing back hanging on for dear life. Mark Tenner is the chip-leader, but imho the guy you really have to watch out for is Mark Gregorich. This game caters to his style, and with half-a-table of knockouts to go before the final, fifth chip position is arguably a stronger spot to be in than momentary #1.
UPDATE: 13 left now. Pat in 11th chip position. Needs a scoop something fierce …
UPDATE: 12 left … but Poels involved negatively in the three-way-action scooped pot that knocked out Patrice Boudet. OK, now 11 left … Pat still near the bottom, but with more relative chips. 8th overall — and that’s with having just lost a pot. At the same time, even a double-up right now would still leave him in 8th place.
Here’s what they’re playing for when they get down near the final table bubble in this sort lower-middle buy-in split-game event. Obviously the $229k for the bracelet is nice, but for the non-winners, where exactly they finish could make the difference on whether or not they have a wave a winning or losing World Series:
1 $ 229,192
2 $ 141,647
3 $ 93,199
4 $ 65,094
5 $ 48,028
6 $ 37,350
7 $ 30,562
8 $ 26,213
9 $ 23,541
10 $ 17,007
11 $ 17,007
UPDATE: Poels = 9th. Nice-ish.
Not everyone is winning this year … and we’re getting near that point where you either gotta make something happen to turn it around or be left, perhaps literally, in the main event going for broke.
Mike Matusow getting ready to lose it (via Annie Duke):
And of course we know how our buddy Tom is doing (0-for-14) … so he decided to booze it up for the $2,500 Razz. “It can’t really make me do worse,” he said, before giving most of his stack to Eskimo Clark en route to going bust:
Usually, at least among bracelet holders and Batfaces at the WSOP, Team Pokerati members are not required to wear their patchwork until after electronic devices have to come off the tables. This was a compromise reached with the TPPU (Team Pokerati Players Union) because we see lots of people we know and like throughout the early stages of tournaments, and unless they’re some sort of ridiculous super-monster chip leader, we usually say the same thing when they say hi: Whatever, talk to us on Day 2.
Well, for the first time this Series, our mascot pal Tom actually has something to say … because for the first time this WSOP, @DonkeyBomber has “bagged chips” — and sure enough, he credits his early donning of The Patch, if not our friendly encouragement and mixed games coaching, for this baby step toward success. Tom is playing in the $10k 7CS-HL, and with 110 of 164 players remaining, he’ll begin Day 2 near the top of the leaderboard, 8th in chips.
Follow his progress throughout the day here … and maybe here. (Though don’t count on it, as superstition seems to be part of his new plan.)
Congrats, Schneider. Hopefully yesterday will not be remembered as your best day of the 2009 WSOP!
I feel kinda bad (not really) for crushing Tom’s soul. But I was hearing the same story from him as I’ve heard from at least a half-a-dozen other pros finding similar results: “I’m playing great! I’m making sick laydowns! My mental state is good! Just running bad. Cold cold cold. It’s getting frustrating. But I’m playing some of the best poker of my life! Jesus, [everyone else] is just getting lucky!”
Yeah. Uh-huh. That’s gotta be what it is … it’s clearly not possible that the deadest money on the table is someone who thinks they’re playing their A-game but isn’t compared to everyone else. In an effort to get a semi-retired Pokerati blogger and my best pro pal to consider shifting gears, I sent him the net-results rankings for everyone who has played in the 2009 WSOP under the Team Pokerati banner:
1. Gregg Merkow
2. Cliff Fisher
3. Robert Goldfarb
4. John Harris
5. Julie Schneider
6. Pat Poels
7. Shoegal
8. Tom Schneider
I then reminded him that the guy who picked him to be on his ESPN Fantasy Team (Gary Wise) is in dead last place. (Ha ha.)
You get the gist. The numbers don’t lie repeatedly. So while “playing some of the best poker of my life!” … not only is the DonkeyBomber something like 0-for-13 in cashing in tournaments, but also he hasn’t even made a Day 2. So before he finds himself trying to trade jewelry with Eskimo Clark for a satellite buy-in, he has decided to change his game says he will no longer be twittering until he bags chips for the first time in the 2009 WSOP. Good gameplan.
Click here to see the beginnings of a first-half WSOP fail regaled in increments of 140 characters or less. We’ll see if Tom returns with a vengeance or if his twitter account, along with his poker career, fades into oblivion.
Matt at PokerListings (or should we be saying @_Pokerlistings_?) directs us to a fun Twitter feed to follow: Jean Robert Bellande’s — aka @BrokeLivingJRB.
Tales of a, er, stability-challenged(?) degen burning his bankroll down to $200(!) … but not before boozin’ it up at Vegas nightclubs … all in 140 characters or less.
How can you not wanna follow that, especially during the WSOP?
The Empress Casino in Joliet, IL, and its poker room of course, had to be evacuated yesterday as a big fire threatened to turn the first casino I ever gambled in to ashes.
At age 19, a couple of my Northwestern classmates and I would skip a few classes sessions of Super Mario and make the trek to Chicago’s outer suburbs … (I can’t remember if you only had to be 18 to gamble or if we used fake IDs) … and we all know where things have gone from there. When the Empress opened in 1992, you used to have to pay $12 to go on a “cruise” … i.e. the boats would leave the dock for about 10 feet. We were so excited to learn, after a few trips, that we could be playing enough $5 blackjack to get the pit boss to “comp” us another cruise ticket, and eventually we didn’t even have to stop playing or get off the boat! Ahh, our first taste of the high-roller life.
This is also where I was introduced to the concept of “a chip and a chair” when I once took my last $10 and put it on the 5-to-1 on the Wheel of Fortune and eventually left the casino that day up about $200, which was an absolute mint back then. It is also where I was exposed to (but didn’t quite get) the concept of bankroll management when my girlfriend at the time kept coming over to a blackjack table where I was winning and grabbing $30 or $40 every so often. I was pretty pissed at her by the time I ultimately went bust, thinking she blew my wad on slots little by little … but much to my pleasant surprise she was just pocketing the money, and when I later moaned to her about the bad beat I took with an 11 against the dealer’s 6, she was totally nonplussed and pulled out $265 that she had stashed away, telling me, here, this is yours … to which I responded “I love you”.
Watched Game of Thrones, now I am playing Sensible Soccer on the 360, for some reason. #Monday
@apokerplayer betting patterns, eyes, posture. the combos were all there, and spot on.
Great crAAKKer post by @Grange95: http://t.co/KcaobMfP) I wish I could write like Michael. Maybe someday. #poker #onlinegaming
