Thursday, July 12, 2007
Day 1, my second table. Robert Varkonyi, 2002 Main Event Champion in the red shirt. Note the bracelet on his wrist. I saw him on Day 2b and he wore exactly the same clothes. The red head is Melissa Hayden, poker pro and the significant other of Allen Cunningham.
Here's a quote from Bluff Magazine's running update log:
Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:19:57
Table of Pros
Anyone being moved onto table 66 is in for a rough Day 1. Seated in the one-seat is the 2000 World Series of Poker Champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, to his left in the five-seat is Ishak Noyan, Melissa Hayden is to his left, and the 2002 World Series of Poker Champion Robert Varkonyi is in the ten-seat.
[they were close, Varkonyi sat in the 9 seat, but who's counting?]
Here's a quote from Bluff Magazine's running update log:
Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:19:57
Table of Pros
Anyone being moved onto table 66 is in for a rough Day 1. Seated in the one-seat is the 2000 World Series of Poker Champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, to his left in the five-seat is Ishak Noyan, Melissa Hayden is to his left, and the 2002 World Series of Poker Champion Robert Varkonyi is in the ten-seat.
[they were close, Varkonyi sat in the 9 seat, but who's counting?]
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Day 2 Summary
I went in prepared to be patient even though I was very low on chips. I was patient. So patient, I didn't voluntarily put chips in the pot for over an hour. Unfortunately they have these things called blinds and antes. Can you believe they force you to put chips in the pot before even seeing your cards????? The nerve. I didn't think it was possible to have worse cards than I did at the end of day 1, but today I did.
First hand was 3-4 offsuit and it didn't get any better. Next hand 5-3 offsuit. It was unbelievable. The best hands I had were As7s in the blind after a middle position raise and A-5 offsuit under the gun (first to act pre-flop). If I push with those hands, I will only be called by a hand who is a 3:1 favorite over me. Any big Ace or reasonable pocket pair will have me drawing to 3 outs (or miracle flush or straight possibilities). Unfortunately, I would have flopped 2 pair with A-5 on an A5K board. My chips would have been in the middle, but I'm actually not even sure I would have won the hand as a guy ended up going all in on the turn.
The other unfortunate hand was when I was in the big blind with J-2 offsuit. There was a middle position raise and a call. Obviously that is a shit hand so I threw it away. Flop was 228. I might have tripled up there or at least doubled with the post-flop action.
Soon thereafter is the J-7 hand I texted in that knocked me out. That was literally the only hand I played. I was in the cutoff seat (1 before the dealer button) and nobody had entered the pot to me. I moved in confidently, but there is no way a guy is folding 8s with the number of chips I had. He had to call. Flop was no help, but I turned the Jd and everybody said, "You can sit back down!" I was now more than a 3:1 favorite to stay in the game with 1 card to come, but.....Damn it, they jinxed me, cuz the river came another diamond to give us both a flush. But his was 8 high and mine was 7 high. I'm out.
I sit down in a cash game soon after busting and pick up pocket QQs twice in the first half hour. Come on....where were those in the tourney!?!? Of course I lost big pots both times.....[who calls a 6x BB raise with K-7 offsuit in the SB?]
In addition to the pros I played against, I was able to chat with several pros including Chad Brown and Gavin Griffin. Right after I got knocked out, Chad and I recounted some poker war stories side by side at the urinal. Gavin Griffin is doing a charity walk for breast cancer in Long Beach, which I asked about as my mom is a survivor. He dyed his hair pink as a symbol of support for breast cancer survivors. I thanked him for his efforts.
Overall it was a fantastic experience and a great time. I wish I had a chance to play more poker as my stack size and lack of cards dictated my actions of folding or pushing all in for the last 4-5 hours of play. I really want to do it again next year......you Syndicate members best watch it, cuz Jakey-O is hunnnngggrrrry. [In my head that was in a Humberto Brenes voice]
After I get these pics transferred off the camera, I will post some of the good ones. Thanks for your support and thanks for reading. The Syndicate is only getting stronger, so I really look forward to [winning it] next year.
First hand was 3-4 offsuit and it didn't get any better. Next hand 5-3 offsuit. It was unbelievable. The best hands I had were As7s in the blind after a middle position raise and A-5 offsuit under the gun (first to act pre-flop). If I push with those hands, I will only be called by a hand who is a 3:1 favorite over me. Any big Ace or reasonable pocket pair will have me drawing to 3 outs (or miracle flush or straight possibilities). Unfortunately, I would have flopped 2 pair with A-5 on an A5K board. My chips would have been in the middle, but I'm actually not even sure I would have won the hand as a guy ended up going all in on the turn.
The other unfortunate hand was when I was in the big blind with J-2 offsuit. There was a middle position raise and a call. Obviously that is a shit hand so I threw it away. Flop was 228. I might have tripled up there or at least doubled with the post-flop action.
Soon thereafter is the J-7 hand I texted in that knocked me out. That was literally the only hand I played. I was in the cutoff seat (1 before the dealer button) and nobody had entered the pot to me. I moved in confidently, but there is no way a guy is folding 8s with the number of chips I had. He had to call. Flop was no help, but I turned the Jd and everybody said, "You can sit back down!" I was now more than a 3:1 favorite to stay in the game with 1 card to come, but.....Damn it, they jinxed me, cuz the river came another diamond to give us both a flush. But his was 8 high and mine was 7 high. I'm out.
I sit down in a cash game soon after busting and pick up pocket QQs twice in the first half hour. Come on....where were those in the tourney!?!? Of course I lost big pots both times.....[who calls a 6x BB raise with K-7 offsuit in the SB?]
In addition to the pros I played against, I was able to chat with several pros including Chad Brown and Gavin Griffin. Right after I got knocked out, Chad and I recounted some poker war stories side by side at the urinal. Gavin Griffin is doing a charity walk for breast cancer in Long Beach, which I asked about as my mom is a survivor. He dyed his hair pink as a symbol of support for breast cancer survivors. I thanked him for his efforts.
Overall it was a fantastic experience and a great time. I wish I had a chance to play more poker as my stack size and lack of cards dictated my actions of folding or pushing all in for the last 4-5 hours of play. I really want to do it again next year......you Syndicate members best watch it, cuz Jakey-O is hunnnngggrrrry. [In my head that was in a Humberto Brenes voice]
After I get these pics transferred off the camera, I will post some of the good ones. Thanks for your support and thanks for reading. The Syndicate is only getting stronger, so I really look forward to [winning it] next year.
Out
I'm out an hour into the day. Not 1 playable hand. Open pushed in CO w J7, called by 88. Hit my J on turn...he rivered a flush. Bummer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Off Days
Not a whole lot to report from yesterday and today, which were spent relaxing and preparing for my Day 2 tomorrow (wednesday). Spent some time at the Venetian playing cash game poker.
Todd's friend here in town who has serious connections and who arranged the free room for us to stay in at the Rio got us some comped tickets to a show tonight. It was Ooh La La at the Paris hotel, which was pretty cool. Big thanks to Todd and his friend who have made this trip that much easier.
I just wandered down to the Amazon room here at the Rio which is where it all goes down and things are as busy as ever. The final numbers for the tournament are in and there were a total of 6358 people who registered for the Main Event with a prize pool of close to $58 million. The top 621 players will "cash" with the lowest prize amount at over $20,000; the winner will get $8.25 Million.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I have essentially made the top third of the field by making it to day 2. I have outlasted many top pros and thousands of others. That I can be proud of, though not satisfied with. I am thinking positive thoughts about tomorrow's poker playing and look forward to a long day of poker and many updates to come.
[i hope i can find some Aces or Kings relatively soon though!]
Todd's friend here in town who has serious connections and who arranged the free room for us to stay in at the Rio got us some comped tickets to a show tonight. It was Ooh La La at the Paris hotel, which was pretty cool. Big thanks to Todd and his friend who have made this trip that much easier.
I just wandered down to the Amazon room here at the Rio which is where it all goes down and things are as busy as ever. The final numbers for the tournament are in and there were a total of 6358 people who registered for the Main Event with a prize pool of close to $58 million. The top 621 players will "cash" with the lowest prize amount at over $20,000; the winner will get $8.25 Million.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I have essentially made the top third of the field by making it to day 2. I have outlasted many top pros and thousands of others. That I can be proud of, though not satisfied with. I am thinking positive thoughts about tomorrow's poker playing and look forward to a long day of poker and many updates to come.
[i hope i can find some Aces or Kings relatively soon though!]
Monday, July 9, 2007
Day 1 Summary
Day 1 didn't quite go as I planned, but I guess it could have gone worse. Maybe I was lucky not to really pick up too many playable hands, cuz I can't go broke if my chips are not in the middle.
After about 45 minutes of having an empty chair at my first table yesterday, I started thinking it might be someone good or at least well known. Of course it was Andy Bloch that showed up over an hour late. If you don't know of Andy, he is an accomplished pro (http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Andy-Bloch/863) that took 2nd place to Chip Reece in last year's $50,000 HORSE tournament. He was a nice guy (nevermind his shirt was too small) and fun to have at the table with cameras and boom mics in our faces when he played a pot. It was actually kind of a surreal scene for an hour when the big screen TV directly behind Andy from my vantage point was showing the HORSE final table from last year. His head was about 5 time life size on that thing. I got a pic of Andy behind Andy that I'll try to post at some point. Sadly he was busted by a bad player that called a huge preflop re-raise with Ad10d. Andy flopped top set of Kings, but the board came with 2 diamonds. Flop action was check, check. Turn diamond. The guy check-raised Andy all in and he called. No board pair.
The French pro on my left won the first 2 hands of the day, both will full houses, and was the table chip leader from the word go. He had 2.5 times anyone else's chip count for a good part of the day. So I had to be a little bit picky with my starting hands as he was playing fairly aggressively.
I hovered around the starting stack of 20k chips for most of 3 levels, until one of the craziest hands ever. The first hand back from the dinner break I pick up two red Queens. I make a healthy raise, but get 3 callers. Flop comes Jack high. SB checks to me, I bet 5000, but right as I bet, the dealer notices he burned two cards before dealing the flop. The floor rules that the extra burn card, the flop, and the stub be re-shuffled. Flop #2 comes Jack high again with the same Jack of spades. Checks to me again, I bet 5000 again, the guy next to me goes all in having me covered. I end up folding and he shows the table JJ. He flopped a set of Js with the same Jack twice in the same hand! That hurt. Our table breaks 2 hands later and.......
I get moved to a seat with Robert Varkonyi on my left and Chris Ferguson two players over from him. Nice table draw Jake! 2 Main Event bracelet winners at the same table?!?! Wow, I stepped into the lion's den here. ESPN was practically living at the table, so I guess I might actually get some air time. Ferguson made what I thought was a bad call vs. Varkonyi when he pushed on the flop of KQ8. Ferguson showed JJ -- not really sure what hands he thought he was ahead of after Varkonyi called Ferguson's re-raise preflop. Varkonyi's AK held up.
I was completely card dead for the last 2 levels. After doubling up with a set of 6s soon after arriving at that table, I played about 3 hands in the next 4 hours of poker. I re-raised all in with JJ and and AK and won the pots pre-flop. Other than that I open pushed a couple times in the cutoff or on the button to steal the blinds and antes, but really never had any good cards. MAntis, was ruthlessly supporting me from the rail at my back chanting "Go Jake!" every time I folded. At one point he lent me his lucky batman chip card protector and I proceeded to win the next hand with an open push!! Thanks Mark.
As we got closer to the end of level 6 at about 3:30am, I was looking for a spot to try to double up, but couldn't call all in raises with my steady diet of 9-3 , 10-2 , and 8-4. So I ended the night with 13,700 chips with the average at about 52,000 after having been down to as low as 8000. It was a great time and I really enjoyed playing with "Rob" Varkonyi and Chris. I got lots of pics that I can hopefully post later. What a trip to be playing in a tournament at tables next to Ivey, Cunningham, Chad Brown, Danny Alaei, etc.
Relaxing and resting up today and tomorrow. They added a 2nd Day 2 on Wednesday which will combine Days 1C and 1D. I'll need to double up near the beginning of play with the blinds starting at 500-1000 (i think?) for Level 7.
Onward and upward, chip and a chair and all that!
After about 45 minutes of having an empty chair at my first table yesterday, I started thinking it might be someone good or at least well known. Of course it was Andy Bloch that showed up over an hour late. If you don't know of Andy, he is an accomplished pro (http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Andy-Bloch/863) that took 2nd place to Chip Reece in last year's $50,000 HORSE tournament. He was a nice guy (nevermind his shirt was too small) and fun to have at the table with cameras and boom mics in our faces when he played a pot. It was actually kind of a surreal scene for an hour when the big screen TV directly behind Andy from my vantage point was showing the HORSE final table from last year. His head was about 5 time life size on that thing. I got a pic of Andy behind Andy that I'll try to post at some point. Sadly he was busted by a bad player that called a huge preflop re-raise with Ad10d. Andy flopped top set of Kings, but the board came with 2 diamonds. Flop action was check, check. Turn diamond. The guy check-raised Andy all in and he called. No board pair.
The French pro on my left won the first 2 hands of the day, both will full houses, and was the table chip leader from the word go. He had 2.5 times anyone else's chip count for a good part of the day. So I had to be a little bit picky with my starting hands as he was playing fairly aggressively.
I hovered around the starting stack of 20k chips for most of 3 levels, until one of the craziest hands ever. The first hand back from the dinner break I pick up two red Queens. I make a healthy raise, but get 3 callers. Flop comes Jack high. SB checks to me, I bet 5000, but right as I bet, the dealer notices he burned two cards before dealing the flop. The floor rules that the extra burn card, the flop, and the stub be re-shuffled. Flop #2 comes Jack high again with the same Jack of spades. Checks to me again, I bet 5000 again, the guy next to me goes all in having me covered. I end up folding and he shows the table JJ. He flopped a set of Js with the same Jack twice in the same hand! That hurt. Our table breaks 2 hands later and.......
I get moved to a seat with Robert Varkonyi on my left and Chris Ferguson two players over from him. Nice table draw Jake! 2 Main Event bracelet winners at the same table?!?! Wow, I stepped into the lion's den here. ESPN was practically living at the table, so I guess I might actually get some air time. Ferguson made what I thought was a bad call vs. Varkonyi when he pushed on the flop of KQ8. Ferguson showed JJ -- not really sure what hands he thought he was ahead of after Varkonyi called Ferguson's re-raise preflop. Varkonyi's AK held up.
I was completely card dead for the last 2 levels. After doubling up with a set of 6s soon after arriving at that table, I played about 3 hands in the next 4 hours of poker. I re-raised all in with JJ and and AK and won the pots pre-flop. Other than that I open pushed a couple times in the cutoff or on the button to steal the blinds and antes, but really never had any good cards. MAntis, was ruthlessly supporting me from the rail at my back chanting "Go Jake!" every time I folded. At one point he lent me his lucky batman chip card protector and I proceeded to win the next hand with an open push!! Thanks Mark.
As we got closer to the end of level 6 at about 3:30am, I was looking for a spot to try to double up, but couldn't call all in raises with my steady diet of 9-3 , 10-2 , and 8-4. So I ended the night with 13,700 chips with the average at about 52,000 after having been down to as low as 8000. It was a great time and I really enjoyed playing with "Rob" Varkonyi and Chris. I got lots of pics that I can hopefully post later. What a trip to be playing in a tournament at tables next to Ivey, Cunningham, Chad Brown, Danny Alaei, etc.
Relaxing and resting up today and tomorrow. They added a 2nd Day 2 on Wednesday which will combine Days 1C and 1D. I'll need to double up near the beginning of play with the blinds starting at 500-1000 (i think?) for Level 7.
Onward and upward, chip and a chair and all that!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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