Month: June 2006

I decided to relax and get a massage this morning and sent Suited to
the 1/2 NL table at the Hilton. She won a little bit and I’m very
relaxed. Were goofing off and doing tourist stuff.
I’ll probably play a little after dinner tonight. Elmo and Chrisjp
are playing a tourney at Binions. Elmo said he’s working on his short
stack play, which don’t sound good.

I decided to relax and get a massage this morning and sent Suited to
the 1/2 NL table at the Hilton. She won a little bit and I’m very
relaxed. Were goofing off and doing tourist stuff.
I’ll probably play a little after dinner tonight. Elmo and Chrisjp
are playing a tourney at Binions. Elmo said he’s working on his short
stack play, which don’t sound good.

I took up Full Contact Poker’s offer to give me a microscopic share of Daniel’s winnings if I wear their hat and I’m meeting them today to collect a bunch of gear.

I arrived just in time to miss Matthew busting out of the $1,500 PL event.  I did get to watch him collect a big fat wad of cash, so that was probably almost as good.  We went to a bar and talked about poker, ITH and T.J. Cloutier (who was tossing money away at the craps table as we watched).  I’m getting caught up in the excitement of the room full of poker players.  It really is jumping over there!

I’ll probably play some SnG or supers today to get in the right mindset for tomorrow.  I’ve double-checked and I should be able to post updates on my blog from the poker room pretty easily.  Stay tuned!

I’m also going to check out the new room at the Venetian today.  It is supposed to be very nice.

I’m off to the airport.  Vegas bound, baby!

I just had a nice run in a Stars FPP freeroll where they gave 5 seats over a field of 1,700 runners or so.  I finished 100th.  I was among the chip leaders for some time, but the ever-increasing blinds took their toll.  There were short-stacks who were pushing on a wide range.  I doubled up people with AT losing to QJ, AK losing to 66, 22 losing to a very short AT, AQ losing to 99 and finally busting with AQ against TT.  I had 5 straight coinflips and lost them all.

I actually think I played pretty well and extracted the max chips when ahead and kept down my losses when behind.  I’d still rather have won.  😉

I leave for the land of sin and sun in about five days now.  I’m starting to get amped up about it.  I will try to post live updates here as best I can.  The WordPress post-by-mail interface is not very good, so I don’t know how patient I will be to do so but I’ll try.  There is also a WSOP results forum at ITH that will have updates from all of us, I expect.  Event 6 starts on Saturday and will be televised.  Given that it is on a weekend and is pretty affordable, I would expect to see a sold-out event.  It is also being televised by ESPN, so perhaps I’ll wear a giant foam hat or something.

Maybe not.

I am actually considering an offer to get a cut of Daniel Negreanu’s winnings if I wear FCP poker gear.  No one else is likely to make any kind of endorsement offer to me.  I think the EV for the offer is really low, but if he wins an event or two, it could be worth something.  I’ve actually been taking some time away from the tables lately and I feel like I’m in a really good mental space to play this event.  I hope that my results will match my expectations.  😉

I was doing well enough for a while, but two big hands did me in.  In the first hand, I flopped two pair and wound up making a crying call on the river to see the flush that I knew he had.  That cost me a good-sized chunk of my stack because on the first two streets I was trying to make sure that he didn’t have the odds to chase and I wound up building a very big pot.

I kept my head in the game, even though I was now short-stacked and frustrated with myself.  I was in a poor mood anyhow because I was trying to play on an Amtrak train with the cell phone as a modem.  It was like playing on the slowest dial-up connection ever and many times I was in the time bank before I even saw the action buttons.  I was annoyed.  I wound up pushing all-in with A4s on a 543 board.  I figured the pre-flop raiser might well have high cards and fold and even if he did have an overpair, I probably had 8 outs (plus a backdoor flush draw).   He called me with 99 and was very unhappy when I doubled up on an Ace.  Oh well.

Unfortunately, just about three hands later I went home.  I found TT in middle position and raised an early limper about 4x BB.  The BB called, as did the early limper.  The flop came down JT9 and I had middle set on a scary board.  The action went check-check and I bet about 75% of the pot.  The BB then pushed, the early limper called.  I was pretty unhappy about my situation, but just couldn’t fold my set there.  I was against AJ and KQ.  I didn’t improve and the flopped straight with KQ sent me to the rail.  I had slightly less than 30% equity, but with my pre-flop raise and my flop bet, I was getting such ridiculous odds (5:1) that a call was required there.  I believed that AJ/QJ/JT hands would have been all-in on this particular table, but it is never fun to go home empty-handed.

I’ve come up with what I think is an excellent idea to send an ITHer to the WSOP ME.  We are going to organize a ITH only tourney where participants put in $200 to compete in a MTT to send someone to the main.  My innovation is that the losers will all retain 40% (or maybe even 50% in the latest version of the plan) of their buy-in as a stake in the winner.  That way, even if you lose, you still have an interest in the Main Event.

If we come up short, I’m going to let the winner chose to buy more shares in himself.  If he doesn’t want to buy the rest, I’ll offer it up to ITHers at large.  I’ll probably accept even fairly small donations.  I think we could probably raise an extra three or four thousand that way, if we need to.  Hopefully we won’t, since we only need 50 players at $200.

I’ll collect players who want to risk $100 or $50 and arrange tourneys for each of them.  Half of the $100 players will get $200 stakes, 25% of the $50 players will get $200 stakes and so on.  I think it could work.

ITH has talked to me about doing a few things to sweeten the pot.  If they work out, they will be very nice offers.  Matthew and his folks are really a good group of guys.

The initial interest thread has some good discussion.  I will post a grand launch thread later.  As PokerElmo said, it is a no lose proposition — either you win a seat or you get to have a stake in one of your friends.  Win-win.

I’m so angry about this I can’t hardly focus. In my mind, this is the next PokerSpot. There are just too many rooms and we know nothing of their long-term viability and financial health and there is no way to sue them.

I’ve now seen three different posts on different forums with this same letter, so I am completely convinced of its accuracy. It is addressed to those who won through the “Checkpoint to Millions” and “Freeroll to Vegas” promos.

We regret to inform you that CnR will be unable, at this time, to make a lump sum payment for the 10 WSOP seats that were won this year through the â??CheckPoints to Millionsâ? and â??Freeway to Vegasâ? promotions on ChecknRaisePoker. However, we plan to make this up to you over the coming months. We will deposit into your player account 5% or more, as cash flow permits, of the value of your entry in monthly installments starting July 31st , 2006 until 110% of the cash equivalent is paid in full.

Unfortunately our cash flow did not allow us to set aside sufficient funds from the time that you won your seat in March. If you plan to attend the WSOP in any event, we wish you the best of luck and we are sure you will have a great time.

Please accept our sincere apologies for having to break this news to you just weeks prior to the event we promised you. Please do not hesitate to contact us by return email, if you have any questions or comments. If you would like to speak to us by phone, please suggest a convenient time and provide a phone number and we would be happy to call you and provide more details and answer any questions that you may have.

Best Regards,

Erez and the ChecknRaise Team

I have no idea what can be done, but I’m happy to get on a plane to wherever with my pitchfork. This is so digusting, I feel sick for these players.  I first heard of this disgrace on an ITH thread, but I’ve now seen two more threads elsewhere.