Flopped the Nuts

I just got a 90 day renewal notice for this domain…

I think I’ll go ahead and let it die.

The value of commitment — reflections on my 10 year wedding anniversary (as it relates to poker)

Word to the wise: having seen how well it worked this time, if you ever sit across from me in a poker tournament and I say I have a flight to catch, don’t believe it.

I’ll put the info after the jump in case anyone doesn’t want a spoiler…

Continue reading ‘WSoP: Main Event Winner’

Poker has a new world champion — This article by Daniel Negreanu raises a great point:

The buy-in for the main event has been $10,000 for more than 30 years. It’s time for a change. $10,000 just isn’t what it used to be! After all, there are $10,000 buy-in tournaments taking place around the globe on almost a weekly basis.

That’s exactly why this year’s $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament was so important to poker’s future. In fact, I suspect that it will ultimately be recognized as the defining event at the World Series of Poker.

Chip Reese ended up winning the tournament and took home a cool $1.7 million. Sure, that payout will be dwarfed by the estimated $10 million first place prize in the main event, but those within the poker community will know who the real World Champion is.
There is only one $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament, and in my book, Chip Reese is the true 2006 World Champion of Poker.

Hear, hear! The main event at the WSoP has gotten completely out of hand. $50k seems like a perfect price point for an adjusted buy-in. And congrats to Chip Reese, one of the classiest guys in the game.

—

Meanwhile, in completely worthless celebrity poker news, the stars of Ocean’s 13 aparently get their very own private poker club to help while away the time between takes. It’s good to be the ruling class of Hollywood.

Update: I checked this story with my Hollywood source, who is close to this particular production, and they confirm it.

Don’t even get me started, it’s all true. (Except the part about the “crew” being able to go.)

You know, there’s a little poker tournament going on in Vegas right now.

If you want the semi-real time action, I suggest you visit Pauly at Tao of Poker. He’s got great updates on the action and some fun photos as well.

I never figured out Chess when I was young and maleable.

Cards weren’t even all that interesting to me before Texas Hold ‘em took off. I enjoyed a game of Cribbage now and again, but I didn’t get rabid about it like some folks I know.

No, back in the day, my game was Backgammon. I played with my grandparents when I spent summers in Florida with them.

Now I hear via the Freakonomics blog that the Party people have a Backgammon offering that you can get to via the poker interface or it’s very own (much like the Blackjack game)… Well, hell. This could be bad…

(For the record: The house belongs to Dave and Sarah, and both were present. DJ gets top billing as he was the organizer.)

To begin with, it was the poker game that almost wasn’t: I had said I’d be in if JT and EZ were in and that DJ should call me if any arm twisting was warranted. Then Dave talked to Erik, and EZ told him we were definitely doing it because he’d gotten a hall pass from the wife. I happened to be within earshot of Erik’s side of the convo, so I figured we were good to go. When I got to the house, I was the first one to pull up. Happily Wil came strolling out of the alleyway at the end of the block as I was gathering myself in the car. We popped up to the front door, beers in hand only to be greeted by Sarah with a “What are you guys doing here?”

…

Yeah, we’re not so good at last minute communication, I guess. JT had sent an email that I’d missed saying he was out, so Dave figured I’d be out. DJ called Erik saying that there’d probably be no cards, and asked him to call Wil. EZ missed that call so Wil never got called, and nobody even thought to call me at all. Oh, and then Jeff came walzing in (he also lives in the same ‘hood as Wil and DJ+Sarah) — there was no thought to call him off the game either! We ended up with six players at the table, primed for good times…

Continue reading ‘Memorable Moments from Poker at Dave’s’

I placed first in a $6 sit-n-go on Party tonight.

Had a marathon heads-up battle with the second place finisher. Luckily nobody at the table played short-handed the way I do. (Not that I rule short-handed — my style just doesn’t tolerate much competition when the head count gets low.)

I decided to spend a little more time on Doyle’s Room today, since I had the money there and all.

First I hit a $5+0.50 9-seat “extended” sit-n-go. I’m not sure what “extended” means, but since the other options appear to be “speed” or “turbo”, I figure it must mean “pretty close to normal pace”. I washed out at fifth place after spending most of the tourney in the top three. Oh, well, the fun was just about to begin…

Continue reading ‘Doyle’s Room on Krank’

There isn’t a whole lot I can actually tell you about last nights home game…

There were a lot of inappropriate jokes (more quips, really - not set-up followed by punchline type jokes) and stories told. We had a chick in the game (Hi Tippy!), which oddly made the conversation more raunchy than usual.

The Mother-in-Law had The Wife call and tell me the neighbors were complaining about the noise as a joke. I totally fell for it, because it was completely plausible.

We killed a (half-full) bottle of Soju at the end of the night, which was probably a silly idea…

And, yeah, we played some cards, too. Tippy did really well for this being her first time playing hold ‘em. She took a giant pot from me early on. I was actually able to come back from that pretty well until DJ killed me with a flush one hand and a straight the next one. (My memory is fuzzy, though, so I might not have been in both of those hands…) I finished the night with about half my buy-in, and Tippy was the only player knocked out. The other four actually made a few bucks.

Good times.

It seems someone was kind enough to follow my affiliate link to Doyle’s Room and actually deposit some real money in their account. To them, I say thanks very much!

That means I had a little bit o’ cash dropped in my DR account, so I tried a little $5 NLHE sit-n-go. Finished 2nd (the single table tourneys are mostly nine-seaters at Doyle’s), so I’m happy a wee bit more money in the bank.

The home game is on for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have some stories for you.

At 9pm on Tuesday nights, the TiVo tends to record Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I’m not a fan. Sure Ice-T and Belzer are cool, but I get no kicks watching stories about rape and child abuse. Whatever. Not the point…

So, I hopped on the Compy 386 and putter about for a while. After not-too-long-at-all, I decide to play a little poker — my home game is on this Thursday and I can stand to look at some cards, right? I end up buying into a $6 10-seat sit-n-go on Party Poker (which has a snazzy new interface these days!)… the speed variety. These speed SnG’s have their pros and cons. I’d usually prefer a regular pace, but fine. It’s fine, really.

That said, the fact of the matter is I bombed two “regular pace” SnG’s last night (The Wife has been working evenings…), so this is probably a good thing. I also figure I should distract myself a bit, so I fire up the internet backgammon. Good times.

Internet backgammon and no-limit poker are not the best of mental bunkmates, so really I end up playing backgammon and occasionally reacting to my cards. This, it turns out, is a good stragety for me right now. I don’t end up playing the poker as tightly as one might think, but I certainly didn’t play a lot of hands. A few of the hands I did play with the backgammon in the wings turned out to be good earners, though.

Continue reading ‘Speed Party’

Last night’s episode of the tv series “Lost” featured a no-limit hold ‘em showdown between Jack, the castaway’s doctor and de facto leader, and Sawyer, the white trash conman of the bunch who hordes any supplies he can get his hands on for trade.

In the final hand, Jack goes all-in, betting a gigantic pile of island fruit against Sawyer’s stockpile of medical supplies (You can tell Jack has already gotten under Sawyers skin if you consider the inequity of the bets…).

At first, Swayer pegs the all-in bet as a bit of a bluff, but Jack tells him, “You won’t fold. There are all these people watching, and you don’t want them to see you lose.” That turns out to be true, and Sawyer calls.

Jack turns over a wired pair of nines. I immediately start yelling at the TV: “YOU GONNA FUCK ME WITH THOSE NINES?!?!?!”

Sure enough, Sawyer shows a smaller pocket pair and ends up getting fucked by those nines.

Good times.

Rule One: No work talk

Aside from making fun of people. Slander is encouraged, but limits must be imposed and respected.

Rule Two: No working at the table

If you have something pending that will require the opening of a laptop during play, you might just want to skip the game that time.

Rule Three: Three Pair is the best hand possible

But it won’t always win you the pot.

Rule Four: Love the Host Dog

The Host Dog will bring you luck.

Rule Five: Don’t touch the white chips

Particularly if they belong to someone else.

Rule Six: Pot is good

Or so we’ve heard…

Rule Seven: No food requests.

Take what is offered and shut your trap.

Rule Eight: If it’s your first night, you must drink Mickeys

Preferrably a 40oz in a brown paper bag. (You should also finish the night no better than even.)

Rule Nine: A pair of nines fucks all

“You gonna fuck me with those NINES?!”

Rule Ten: Outsiders cannot ask into the game. The game asks them.

Asking more than once to be included will result in a lifetime ban.

Rule Eleven: No bitches

Host Wives are not bitches.

Rule Twelve: The Host can always change the rules

This may include exceptions, restrictions, or any other sort of modifications. Why? Because it’s his damned house!

(Props to DJ for his input.)

It’s here. Anybody want to try it and let us know how it is?