Posts Tagged ‘John Harris’

Team Pokerati WSOP Update

Time to save a Series?

by , Jun 28, 2010 | 4:44 am

Will La Sengphet be the only player to have repped the upside-down spade at a final table this year?

Though we’ve had a handful of cashes and a couple deep scores (in non-open events), Pokerati’s crew of patch-wearing competitors have admittedly struggled. Now, more than a month into the 2010 WSOP, we know it’s not gonna be about who can rack up the most bracelets (and pieces of Pokerati) in pursuit of Player of the Year, but who can pull out a big save … preferably before the main event!

Toothless Bob is still alive, btw — I mean in life, not any tournament — for those who were concerned. Turns out he just lost his phone and needed to wander aimlessly for a few days to shake off his early departure from the Seniors event after reportedly flopping Aces-full and running into flopped quads.

And Tom hasn’t gone totally broke yet — though he might be coming to believe those high buy-in mixed-game events (you know, the ones where every table has multiple world-class pros) might not be the best use of bankroll compared to low-cost no-limit events.

For Harris, a former WSOP dealer now working as both dealer and floor guy at the Venetian, it’s been all about low-cost no-limit events … and so far he’s gone 0-for-3. And while that’s just mathematically how these donkuli sometimes work, I’m not so sure @85Nutz was necessarily expecting the ill effects of regularly repeated run-bad on a not-yet super-accomplished player’s psyche.

It’s the kinda thing that can really shake a player’s confidence in his game. However, this weekend, armed with pre-game leak advice from The Maven (who happened to play at his table in a previous $1k) and a poker counseling session with DonkeyBomber on big-field strategy, Team Pokerati’s weekend warrior made his first Day 2 of 2010 … not necessarily in great shape, but a successful grind to get him to a point from where he’s propelled himself to a final table before.

Here’s the note he sent his WSOP backers, who are all petulantly waiting for a return on their money enthusiastically cheering him on:

I’m sorry for the late update, my phone died right as we finished for the night. Here are the stats going into tomorrow.

Total Entries: 3128
Players Left: 446
My Chip Count: 12,425
Avg Chip Count: 21,040
Blinds: Level 9 – 300/600 w75 ante (15 minutes left in level 9)
Places in Money: 324
324th: $1,886
1st: $485,642

We restart tomorrow at 2:30 Vegas time. We will be moving into the famous Amazon Room to table 334, seat 6. I’m off to get some rest after a long day.

You can follow the run-up to cash in the latest weekly $1k and other events here. Many Pokeratizens know Richard Ferro; he goes into Day 2 fourth in chips.

Other notables positioning themselves to avoid and/or absorb bad beats as the field races toward the bubble and beyond include Jeff Madsen (23rd, 42k) and Chris Moneymaker (24th, 41k).

Mickey Appleman, David Levi, David Sklansky, Terrence Chan, Lyle Berman, Antonio Esfandiari, and JJ Liu all have slightly above average stacks.


(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 1

by , May 28, 2010 | 6:57 am

In just a few short hours, the 41st World Series of Poker will get underway at 12 noon at the Rio in Las Vegas with the first bracelet event, the $500 Casino Employees event. This will be followed at 5pm with the $50,000 Players’ Championship, consisting of HORSE, no-limit holdem, pot-limit Omaha, and 2-7 triple draw lowball with no-limit holdem being played at the final table.

Friday preview

Last year’s Casino Employee’s winner was Andrew Cohen, a bartender at the Palms, who won $83,833 in a field of 866 players. Hopefully Team Pokerati member John Harris can improve on his 25th place finish last year. This is the first year for the $50,000 Players’ Championship, a five-day event that is replacing the $50,000 HORSE event that was held the previous four years. David Bach won what appears to be the final $50,000 HORSE event last year, besting a field of 95 to earn $1,276,806. The Chip Reese trophy that was given to the HORSE winner will now go to the Players’ Championship winner.

Where to find information

For those looking for updates, the official WSOP site will have live updates powered by PokerNews. This year, the WSOP.com site will also be making various tournament information available to everyone, including entry lists, end of day chip counts, tournament reports from WSOP media director Nolan Dalla, as well as the media guide. CardPlayer, Bluff Magazine, PokerListings, PokerRoad, ESPN.com’s poker section and other poker media outlets (like Pauly) will provide updates, reports, gossip, video segments and other stuff for the poker enthusiast.

2010 WSOP storylines

With 56 bracelets up for grabs over the next seven weeks (with the final one decided in November), there’s plenty of interesting angles to find in this year’s WSOP:

Does the Year of the Woman continue? With the wins of Annie Duke at the NBC Heads-Up, Vanessa Selbst at NAPT Mohegan Sun and Liv Boeree at EPT San Remo, the poker media is anticipating a breakout WSOP for women. The last year more than one woman won an open bracelet event was in 2004 (Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert and Cyndy Violette).

How will Annette Obrestad perform? This is Annette’s first year she can actually play at the WSOP in Las Vegas instead of being a spectator limited to the hallway, a moment that has been eagerly anticipated by the poker community since she won the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event at 18. She’ll be the most followed, scrutinized, criticized, fawned over, etc. newcomer of this year’s group of WSOP newbies.

How will the UIGEA affect the WSOP? With the June 1 deadline rapidly approaching, online sites and players are wondering what will happen in the next few weeks. Does the US Department of Justice swoop down on the Rio and arrest Team Full Tilt? Will players not be able to get their funds in time for the Main Event? Will it be business as usual, with no noticeable drop in attendance at the Rio?

Betting on Bracelets Bracelet bets for big money is not reserved to Phil Ivey and his fellow pros. Justin Bonomo was laying 10 to 1 (1k minimum to Justin’s 10k) that at least one person from a list of people living at Panorama Towers will win a bracelet at the WSOP. Bonomo offered the same bet last year, laying 7 to 1, and Greg Mueller’s two bracelets had Bonomo winning his bet. The big Phil Ivey bet this year is with Howard Lederer: Ivey has the 2010-12 WSOPs to win two bracelets, WSOPE bracelets count only towards making the bet a push, for $5 million. Talk of other bets Ivey will surely hit the rumor mill over the coming weeks.

More updates to come during the next few weeks, and good luck to all the players.


Team Pokerati at the 2010 WSOP

John Harris: Weekend WarriorTTU

by , May 18, 2010 | 4:53 am

We wouldn’t be heading to the 2010 WSOP without patches, obv … isn’t that the whole point of the summer? (But we are running out ’em guys, so do be judicious with the sticky side.) The Team Pokerati crew will include some familiar faces and some new ones, too — from across the spectrum of player types who make their way to the Rio each summer. Follow along, root ’em on, and stay tuned leading up to WSOP Opening Day as we reveal the rest of our player line-up.

This year, leading off will be John Harris, aka @JohnHarristtu.

If Harris is a minor-league pro, then you might consider him a solid A-ball player. He’s done well at poker, but hasn’t yet made a big splash in the Hendon Mob database. (His profile here.) Harris comes from Dallas, where he took over as the tournament director for the 2007 Pokerati Invitational (and did an awesome job). He now lives in Las Vegas and is currently a dealer at Bellagio and the Venetian. He’s dealt the World Series for the past three years, became a TV-table dealer, and in 2009 was a finalist for WSOP Dealer of the Year. But this year Harris won’t be pitching cards at the Series … he’ll be working instead at the Venetian Deep Stacks and playing at the Rio on his days off.

His first event this year will be Event #1 — the $500 Casino Employees event. Beyond that, Harris will be looking to play all six of the $1,000 weekend events … believing that gives him the best prospects for ROI.

However, as an A-ball player, Harris is working with an A-ball bankroll. Thus, he’s currently locking down backers — friends and poker associates liking his chances of small-cashing repeatedly and/or going deep in at least one of those $1k events.

He’s seeking $6,500 in total, and still has shares available. So help Harris get in the game! He’s even got a nifty PowerPoint presentation laying out his tournament stats and the backing arrangement he’s offering.

Go Harris! And if you win a bracelet, we’ll definitely buy more patches.


Team Pokerati at the Final Table

by , Jun 13, 2009 | 5:42 am

Jeff Carris beat out Jason Somerville to win the $1,500 NLH-Shootout in a 20-minute heads-up duel. And our own Team Pokerati ITMer John Harris (@johnharristtu) had just stepped into the box to deal the final hand:






Team Pokerati Results: Laodecian Money?

by , May 28, 2009 | 10:45 pm

john_harris-event1 It was a fun run following @johnharristtu in event #1, and things were looking good as they got deeper and deeper into the money. He maintained an above- to about-average stack throughout the day getting very few good cards — he saw Kings once and pocket 10s — and he was even willing to risk it against the chip leader (at the time), Cesar Chavez, sitting to his right, by three-betting him with a hand as small as Q-J to tell him to stop stealing his blinds and other hands he was raising with.

But in the end, John Harris lost three races in a row to finish in a Laodecian 25th place. OK, so maybe Laodecian isn’t the exact right word for expressing this WSOP dealer’s lukewarm feelings after cashing for $2,475, but hey, I’m just trying to use it in a (poker) sentence. Meanwhile, while Harris presumably replays all sorts of situations in his head trying to figure out where/how he coulda done better, we all know it was a great first WSOP go … and are pretty pleased to see the patch-wearing players we’re paying extra attention to start off in the black:

Buy-in: $500
Cash out: $2,475
Net: $1,975

john_harris-event1
His final hand: all-in with J-10 vs. 5-5; flop was A-10-5, K on the turn, 7 on the river.


(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 2 Evening Update

by , | 7:23 pm

In a case of subtraction by addition, the last two players to register for the 40th Annual $40k NL holdem event cost the eventual winner almost $135,000. Going by the WSOP’s payout structure, the winner would have taken 26.5% of the prize pool, or $2,025,000. However, the last two entrants pushed the payout into another bracket, as the winner takes down 24.5% of the prize pool–$1,891,000. The players are currently on their dinner break, to return at 8:30pm to play a few more levels tonight. 150 players remain when play resumes, some known names who don’t have to worry about returning: Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Annie Duke, David Williams and John Juanda. The top three on the leaderboard: Antonio Esfandiari, Justin Bonomo and Chris Moneymaker, who have increased their 120,000 starting stack to over 400,000 so far.

The other tournament taking place, the $500 Casino Employees event, is also on a dinner break with 17 players remaining, with a winner to be crowned tonight. Andrew Cohen is the current chip leader with over 360,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris was knocked out in 26th place to take home $2,475.

Follow the players progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com, and I’ll be back in the morning with more discussion on what day it really is at the WSOP. a recap of today’s events.


WSOP Event #1 Update

by , May 27, 2009 | 4:49 pm

The $500 Casino Employee’s event is well underway — done with more than half the field — and our guy @johnharristtu is still alive and well:

@ second break, 380 left, my stack is about 6600. Avg is 6800

The event had 866 runners, down slightly from last year’s 930.

Top 81 will get paid this year ($974 minimum), with a guaranteed $7,782 for making the final table, and $83,778 to [John and his backer, woot!] the winner.

The advice I just texted him so I can theoretically stake a claim on any of his prize money to help get him there:

Remember … Winner of this event will be who keeps their head straight and focussed [sic.] for the duration!

UPDATE from Harris:

Dinner break, @ 15400, Avg is 12990, 200 left

Lookin’ good, playin’ strong … now it’s time to get lucky — and by “lucky” I mean not get unlucky.

Additional WSOP-tagged tweetage here.

UPDATE from Harris:

4th break, 101 left, 25k, avg is 25700, blinds going to 500/1k with 100 ante

Anyone else get the sense that Harris is playing fundamentally sound textbook tournament poker?

Pokerati Preferred Player Cashes!
Friggin’ fantastic! This makes “our guys” 1-for-1 so far. (Maybe Harris’ first good decision was not beer-bowling with us last night.)

In the money! Stopping for the night @ 81 players, I have 54k avg is 35k

Tune in tomorrow to see just how deep dealer John Harris can go. I’m thinking like probably first.


Go Team! (WSOP Event #1)

by , | 11:41 am

As Kevin points out, today is the $500 casino employees event … and Pokerati’s got one of our guys in the seats: John Harris, whom will be making his debut as a poker twitterer here:

http://twitter.com/johnharristtu

Should be interesting. John’s a good player who has taken his game quite seriously over the past year+ … and he’s been playing on a backer’s money in his efforts to build a bankroll (while making a living as a WSOP Circuit dealer). There’ve been lots of ups and downs along the way, a few needle-moving tournament cashes, and overall he has grown his wad … but that process has been a slow grind to say the least. A big score here would go a long way toward helping him to step up to a level where he could do some real damage (or get his ass handed to him and get sent back down to the minors).

Here’s to hoping he can go deep — or at least last until after the UEFA Champions League final so we can patch him up appropriately and get a picture for the Team Pokerati photo album!

BTW: Though this will become more relevant as more events move forward, you can click here to follow all the twitterings of all Pokerati peeps together.