Phil & Friends Rocks the Civic Center with Trey on Guitar

Yes indeedy. Trey has played with Phil before and both their roots are as classically trained musicians/composers. I saw Mike Gordon (Cactus) & Trey with Phil & Friends last summer at SPAC. But it didn't even dawn on me that Trey who is hanging out and about and around Saratoga/Washington Counties as terms of his probation might just put in an appearance. Not only did he put in an appearance he played the entire concert as co-guitar with Jackie Greene who because of the scarf around his neck I called Dario Minieri (hes the 2nd one in from the left in the picture & Phil is on the end Right side for all who have no idea who Im talking about) He's the new guy and I didnt know his name as I hadn't done my usual research prior to this gig.

Set list follows:


10/20/07 (Sat) Glens Falls Civic Center - Glens Falls, NY

Set 1: Alambama Getaway, Pride of Cucamonga, Friend of the Devil, Deep Elem Blues, Deal, Bird Song, Bertha

Set 2: Shine, Viola Lee Blues > Cumberland Blues > Viola Lee Blues > Cumberland Blues > Viola Lee Blues, Plasma, Unbroken Chain, Dark Star > Wharf Rat > Dark Star > Help on the Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower, E: Box of Rain


Lineup: Phil Lesh - Bass, Vocals; Trey Anastasio - guitar and vocals; John Molo - drums; Jackie Green - Guitar, Vocals; Larry Campbell - guitar; Steve Molitz - Keyboards.


Friend of the Devil was made perfect with the fiddle. Lets just say if I was a stripper, I would choreograph my dance to this version of Deep Elem Blues. The whole first set had a vibe just perfect for a beautiful autumn night at the foothills of the Adirondacks.

Back at Creekend (MaxCreek) in March, I kept getting whacked by a fat gal in fairy wings who looked like she made a wrong way turn on her way to a String Cheese Incident (SCI) show. Two songs into this show a young dude who couldn't handle his booze/drugs or combo passed out splat on my foot. His glasses went smack on the floor. His friends were close by but he couldn't stand on his own so they had to carry him off the floor to the EMTS. He missed an awesome show for sure.

Snake couldn't make the show, three weeks earlier he realized he had to bring his youngest to a wedding in Vermont and BFF Kim who is on crutches with a broken leg and bad hip from a car accident never RSVP'd for the ticket. I gave it to Zoe whose hubby already had tickets with a neighbor. Steve and Karen from the poker league were going too and I'm the type of gal who has no problem going on her own. Heck Ive never been to a show and not seen someone I didn't know. The first person I recognized was Randy, an old roadie, for a ton of bands including the Dead and its variations who lives down by the river in a teepee I think and rides his bike all over HalfMoon. I usually run into him at the Hess station. Never saw Zoe so I don't know if she used the ticket but Karen found me at intermission and Steve and Karen and I hung out and danced the entire second set.

Karen isn't as hardcore a fan as Steve and I. She hates the trippy spacey stuff. I had told her Phil doesn't do a drums space sequence ala Dead, but I was wrong. She loved the first set but the second set lost her when the segues had lots of improvised spacey jams and the Trey tune Plasma. The guitars had a heavier sound with Trey in the house (Phish has a totally different sound then the Dead). I looked at Steve and said we are losing Karen. So, when I talked to Snake last nite to firm up plans for Foxwoods this coming weekend, I told him I was actually glad he didn't go because I probably would have lost him during the second set. He would have loved the people watching. But no matter how you slice it, Snake would look like a Narc with his buzz cut (25 years in corrections does that too you) and I his hippie decoy even if i dressed him up in my Vintage Not Fade-Away Tye-dye shirt circa 1986.

I got to talking to some young dudes at the start of the show when they asked me some questions, and of course they had never seen even the Dead. When I mentioned I had seen the Dead for the first time over 23 years ago and they were toddling in diapers we laughed. Of course, they thought I was really cool and offered me hits on their joints (which I declined since I no longer smoke). I realized how lucky I was to have been able to see the Dead with Jerry, Bobby, Phil, Micky, Billy and Brent and then Bruce Hornsby/Vince Welnick on the keyboards. PigPen was deceased by the time I got on the bus and I never saw the Godchaux's live with the Dead.

Anyway we had so much fun (Steve and Karen and I) that we are going to do Ratdog in two weeks when Bobby and his boyz hit the Palace Theater.

Look for a re-edit. If I have time I'm going to do my list of what not to Wear to a Dead show or other Jam band gathering (with props to Carmen and Change100). But im going to say the dude who had the clown mask on the back of his head would have freaked me out had I been tripping. Even stone cold sober I wanted to rip the clown mask off his head. Clowns are just freaky evil looking (sorry Bozo). I just never have been the same since I saw Steven King's IT and Pennywise the Clown makes me shudder and think of bad things that go bump in the night.

With that this is IG aka BigEyedPhish saying Peace All!!

Absolute Poker Update and WCOOP fallout

First the WCOOP main event fallout on Pokerstars. TheVOid account has been banned by Pokerstars and TheV0id will not receive their winnings and all finishers were bumped up a spot. That makes Ka$ino the winner and Vanessa Rousso the runner-up. Pokerstars didnt release details just that TheVoid account failed to follow the Pokerstars terms and conditions. (Can you say multi-accounting). Kudos to Pokerstars for fast resolution of this matter.

Apparently Mark Seif, a former attorney and one of the Absolute Poker resident pros (with an alleged ownership interest in AP) has come forth requesting that an inquiry be done. Latest info on Pocket5's is that AP will be issuing a statement addressing the "superuser" account/cheating previously denied

Which got me to thinking. If poker is to ever gain credibility in the mainstream and be "legit", I forsee a day when online poker will really be a semi-live game. We will all have to take our seats at a virtual table via Webcams and some kind of face recognition to username will take place that verifies we are who we say we are.

FarFetched? Perhaps but technology has come a long way.

Toodles for now. Off to prepare to get ready to play live. I'll have a longer update of my Friday off later this weekend. My withdrawal still hasnt hit my epassporte account but it can take up to 48 hours and we havent reached 24 yet.

Absolute Poker Scandal and........The Return of IG to Full Tilt

Like a moth to a flame I am returning to Full Tilt and BBT deuce had nothing to do with it. Part of my issue was getting money back on in a timely fashion. I have epassporte but to reload from my bank account onto Epassporte takes about two weeks. Then I remembered Absolute Poker takes Epassporte. So I withdrew a little more then half my AP roll of $222. As soon as it hits my Epassporte account onto FTP it will go.

The withdrawal from AP was made very easy based on a couple of things. I rarely play buy-ins there. Mostly I play that site for Poker Analysis games and a few other forums I belong to. Most of those games are freebies. I had originally deposited about $35 onto AP back in the fall of 2004. I withdraw all but $100 to finance Vegas 2006 (about $800 or so). I won a little bit more playing infrequently there. Coupled with the rumors circulating about the alleged cheating going on at AP and frankly Id rather play on a site whose credibility is a little better.

AP has one nasty PR nightmare on their hands. The fact that they have behaved like ostriches with their heads in the sand pooh-poohing the issue will not go unnoticed by the balla MTT players, Pocket-5ers, NeverWinners etc.

Watch it with your own eyes;

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=FczbS7FiWSM

Part 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PbQyKgELDEA&watch_respon

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqmp-a7SzFs&watch_respon

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCMiK9pJ7Kw&watch_respon

Here is the 2+2 link (even longer then the Brandi Hawbawker melodrama and I was David Sklansky's teenage lover threads)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12523924&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

and this one by Neverwin Poker's Dan Druff posted on both Neverwin Forum and 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=12523179&page=0&vc=1

Check this NY Times article out:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/the-absolute-poker-cheating-scandal-blown-wide-open/


And Absolute Poker..... Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Back in 2005 I sent this email to AP:

11/27/2005
I have told you about these two before. there is a player Mystery45678 and Mystery98765 both from Bethalto and is playing at the same table. He has so much as admited to having multiple accounts. Please see tourney #48973 Entertainment Addicts Stud

11/6/2005
Please pull the chat for tourney 48970 Entertainment Addicts. 9Birdman9 and mystery98765 were colluding... In addition mystery admited to having multiple accounts in chat. Please see mystery98765 and mystery45678. Wasnt even smart about changing his name.

Both times the reply was a form email:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for choosing Absolute Poker; it is a pleasure to be of your assistance.

Thank you for letting us know about what you witnessed at the tables.

A single incident of collusion is often difficult to prove conclusively, with the exception of the most obvious cases. When we are confronted with the possibility of collusion between two players, we will not just review that game, but also all incidents of the two playing together. We look into the histories of the two players to see how they have played in the past and if it is possible that other players may be involved.

At times we can prove conclusively that there was cheating. Many more times we can conclusively prove that the players were definitely not cheating, and what may have appeared as collusion to one in the game or observing the table was merely a coincidence.

If we notice a pattern of unusual activity then we will take actions. It is against our policy to reveal any actions taken against another account. Therefore, the actions taken against those suspected of cheating cannot be discussed with anyone but the account holder. We want to thank you again for bringing this possible collusion activity to our attention.

Please feel free to contact us back if you have any further questions or comments.

Kind Regards,

XXXXXXX
Team Absolute ~ Security and Control Department

Whirlwind Weekend

Weekends are all to short. Even three-day weekends. After my errands on Friday I headed up to Fort Edward for Week III of the APL. When Snake got there I said, I'm taking off early if I bust out, as I have to leave for NYC early tomorrow AM. He wished me happy birthday in case we didn't catch up and filled me in briefly on his TROCK results. We draw for tables and he gets the deal at my table and I'm in the 8 seat. Someone has to move and he pulls the card and gets moved to the table behind me (we have 21 runners 10/12/07). Same thing happened the week before when I got moved from his table when the first person went busto.

Anyway, I decided to play uber-aggressive as was my original intent this season. There are four limpers on my second BB. I raise it to $400 with BigSlick. Two callers. I immediately roll my eyes and say, no one respects my raises here (you nits). Flop comes K8 and a blank. I fire $1500 at the pot and get reraised by a young gun Josh but we lose Wild Bill aka Pappy who has been pwning the league with two wins in two weeks and a chop at the pre-season tourney. I decide to move all in with TPTK and Josh has two pair with K8os and I'm behind and headed for an early exit. I'm out of my chair when an Ace spikes on the river and I double up. Completely overplayed my TPTK but as I said before I was willing to gamble and frankly Josh deserves to be rivered calling my raise with K8os.

I make it to the final table and bottom cash with a 4th place finish and move into 3rd place overall for Season III. Snake went out 11th when his KK allin which he decided to jam with after the TROCK debacle got called by Karen's AQ (she usually is very conservative) and she spiked two Queens on the flop. Pappy aka Wild Bill made it a three-peat after an early brutal suck-out of a newcomers Broadway (cant remember if it was flopped or turned)when he boated up holding KJ on the river. Im pretty sure it was a runner-runner knife to the heart for Derek or Darren and I nicknamed Bill the Luckbox to go along with Wild Billy and Pappy.

Off to NYC in the early AM. My moms back is acting up and she says she wont be able to do a lot of walking. Judy and Jerry are taking the train into NYC and are staying overnight at their son Jeff's Apt. Frank and Barbara are on the bus with us and headed for an exhibit at the International Center of Photography. Its some exhibit of war images. Not the way I want to spend my birthday as I'm planning on having breakfast in Soho at the place picked out and meeting up with LJ. Of course it winds up that only mom and myself take the subway to SOHO for breakfast at the CUPPING ROOM CAFE. I walk south on Broadway a few blocks only to discover that even though I'm on the West Side of Broadway there is no 359 and the address is 359 West Broadway (not the same thing duh).. So back up to Canal and west on Canal and north on West Broadway to the Cafe.

LJ meets me and my mom a few minutes later and we have a great visit. I haven't seen LJ since Vegas and it seems like we rarely catch up between my self-imposed exile from Full Tilt Poker (so no blogger tourneys for me there) and our busy live schedules. We promise my mom we will only say one thing about poker (Vegas in December) but of course that doesn't hold true. I had Eggs Benedict over Fresh grilled Salmon with home fries. My mom had the same but the hollandaise was held. LJ had a cheddar omelet with apples which was very tasty. Thanks to LJ for treating me and my mom to my birthday brunch!! Boy do I want to go to Vegas in December but it's just a bad time of the year for me, work, money etc.

We have a little time to kill and browse Anthropologie. Of course I see tons of stuff I love but the stuff is pricey and I had just bought a knock off top at Kohls for like 1/3 the price of Anthropologie. At 1 PM LJ advises us to head up to our show for a 2 PM start and this is where the day gets interesting.

We get on the Q which will take us right to Times Square. The subway doesn't move. Next thing I hear there is an announcement that says.. Please exit the Subway there is an odor, fire, smoke something either on the subway or in the tunnel. NYFD is there in full gear with axes at the ready etc. But they go no where and stand there with us while the subway takes off empty. Its a few minutes wait till an R comes in. I say to my mom lets get a cab. Some lame NYer looks at me and says you're better off waiting. My mom agrees probably because she thinks the cab will be too expensive. I mutter something like money talks I'll get a cab. Ive spent $$$ for these theatre tickets I want to see the fawking show for crimineys sake. I then state 'IF train isn't here by 1:20 PM I'm hailing a cab." A second train does arrive. Too many people pack onto the R train with no air conditioning because of the mystery smoke/odor/vapor smell. We stand there and stand. And I make the profound statement of "We are going no where". Then the announcement. There is going to be a short delay. FAWK FAWK FAWK.

Out of the Subway station and back to the main intersection of Canal and Broadway which is jammed with too many people trying to do the same thing. I start walking North on Broadway with my arm up in the hailing a cab salute. Within three minutes Im successful. I know twenty short city blocks is a mile and we have almost two miles to go to 45th. So I wave money in front of him (Only a $20) and tell him its all his if he can get us there as fast as he can go. And damn that cabbie was good. Unfortunately we ran into typical NYC gridlock two times. As well as a fire truck and numerous ambulances trying to get thru the same traffic as us. We arrive at the theatre about three minutes late. The cabbie wound up with about a 20% tip not as good as it could have been but a tip is a tip.

We tell our tale of woe to the usher (unexplained subway delay followed by traffic and I also drop its my birthday) and he lets us in as the first number is going on. Our usherette says she can seat us after the second number. We barely missed anything. The show CURTAINS is great even with the understudy in David Hyde's Pierce role as the detective. It would be interesting to see how he plays it though.

After the show my mom and I are still full from breakfast and we decide to shop. I want a blemish/zit extractor so we head to Sephora. I then decide not to spend my money on it as I'm now paying cash for everything and I buy no make-up. I tell myself I have to use up what I have and even though i love the smell of Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume, I had just bought Gwen Stefani's L and am rotating that with Pleasures (Estee Lauder), Versace (Bright Crystals) and L.

Next stop Virgin Megastore. Here I do spend some of my birthday dollars. Virgin sells a lot of great music at $10 a CD and a lot of cheapo DVDS too (of course it costs pennies to print them). My new editions:

1) Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisted $10

2) Bob Marley - Legend

3) Duran Duran - Greatest (guilty pleasure CD)

4) Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere (the only one not at $10)

We decide to have dinner at John's Pizzeria Times Square location which is in an old converted church around the corner from the show.. Too busy half hour wait and we have to be on the bus by 8 PM. So instead we head to Junior's attached to the Marriott in Times Square. I have Matzo Ball soup, and mom and I split a really good Shrimp Salad Sandwich on Challah. I did mention in my last post I was craving Deli. We each got a slice of their cheesecake to go which i ate yesterday.

What would the weekend be without some poker. I had intentions of playing a full slate of Sunday tourneys on Pokerstars including the Blogger tourney. I got a late start to my Sunday sleeping in. I got home from grocery shopping too late for the noon Deep Stack and the 1 PM 5k guarantee. So I decided to watch football until the 3 PM start time. The Blogger tourney looked sweet with 10000 starting chips but the blind level was really kind of turbo. I doubled up early when my KK got called by J9. I hit a set on the flop, my opponent hit two pair. I played it perfectly and doubled up early. I had Gracie at my table believe it or not out of 1337 players. I also had MurrytheCat who Ive known since my forum days. It was cool though as my early double up had everyone (Katiemother, Katitude, Surflexus, Sham) stopping by my table to say hello, wish me happy birthday etc. Blogger Brad even stopped by!! I felt like I was at the TV table as someone mentioned early on. As I got moved I had several unknown to me bloggers tell me how much they liked my blog. I in turn tried to ask them their blog names to reciprocate and as you can see I have added some new links and moved some of you slackers to the Graveyard (retitled where the heck did they go?).

My early double up was for not as I went card dead midstages and couldnt crack 25k. I fluctuated down between 8000-16000 for a long time and went out 270th running AQ UTG into the BB's AK (again). Congrats to Surflexus, BadBlood, Khanwoman of PokerSluts, EasyCure, HermWarfare (aka Derek) and the Luckbox (CJ) for their deep finishes as well as too Big Slick Nuts who Ive had linked for a while. I did rail Surflexus and BadBlood for quite a while and the blogger crew was on the rail in full

So after I rail the boyz and gal and watch their exits I decide to satellite into the 100k for next week. I also notice that Snake is playing a double shoot-out for the Sunday Million and hes sitting all alone having won his first flight. We hadnt talked yet as I figured he was hunting all day (bow season) and then watching his Cowboys get pwned by New England and I hadnt bothered to see if he was playing earlier as I figured he wasnt. Im deep in my tourney but they turn off chat which I realize when I try to type nice hand. On Snake's final table of the shoot-out I see him type..... IG are you out there?. I cant answer back as when I do they had turned off chat at his table. So I call him on his cell which he has off and he eventually calls me back. I'm like what did you want? He laughs and says "Oh nothing, just seeing if you're watching I have you up but cant talk."

Anyway I tell him how I misclicked a hand I hit trips on the flop with as Im not sure he even saw it. I had a caller all the way to the river and the river was a third diamond. I check the dude bets only $400. My intention is to call there flush or no flush with all that money in the pot as I had put in about $1500 as had my opponent. $400 into a over $3400 pot is laying me 8.5 to one. Im priced in and I fully expect my hand is best but my hand shakes and i hit fold. I feel worse that I look like a complete nit on that hand for folding when all that money was in there. I say nothing in chat as no one cares that I had a Parkinson's like tremor in my hand so I only bemoan my plot to Snake. He tells me to regroup.

And regroup I do. A few steals and a late double up while on the bubble on an all-in (As I say to Snake its only $2.20) and I coast into a seat in the $100000 guarantee for next Sunday. Or I can unregister and use the $T for the Sunday nooner deep stack and re-satellite into this one. I havent played many satellites on Stars. I think Ive tried 3 times at most to sat into this tourney which is only $11 buy-in anyway and thats the extent of my satelliting efforts. Snake got his buy-in back in the shoot-out for the Sunday Million so hell have to try again.

As it is the Ladies tourney is probably on my agenda at Foxwoods on the 27th unless I decide to do the mixed field tourney on the 24th (same buy-in but the tourney on the 24th will have more players for sure).

Bodonkey tomorrow

But for the Grace of God Go I

I am by no means a religious person although I do consider myself spiritual in a Eastern Philosophy/New Age-ish kind of way. I kind of take what I need from various religions and leave the rest. If you asked me what religion I am I might say... All of them. I was born and raised Catholic but I never took to the Catholic Dogma and although not a radical feminist I don't agree with the churches position on women in the church as well as a lot of things. But this post has nothing to do with my religious beliefs or lack thereof.

People overcome incredible hardships to get where they are today and to become the people they are today. I had my battle with alcohol and one day at a time I have managed to stay sober 17 years and 9 months. I always say my problems are those of wants not needs (problems of luxury). I have been blessed with good health other then allergies and asthma and now the afflictions of middle age.

Most of you know if you read my blog that I became a fan of Top Chef this season. Although I was routing for Casey the female chef in the final four who faltered in the final challenge I truly believe the best chef did win. Vietnamese immigrant Hung Huynh won. He had impeccable knife skills (although he did almost impale Casey in an early episode running around the kitchen with his knife), he was said not to be a team player (but this was about being Top Chef not working together on a line or in a kitchen) and some thought his food lacked soul but in the end the judges got it right and he fired on all cylinders when the Heat got hot. Hung is the executive sous chef at Guy Savoy in Las Vegas and plans to stay in his position for several more years. Lets face it $100,000 after taxes isn't going to change his life.

I don't read my local paper the Times Union (the Times Useless as I call it) very often. But while waiting for my latte at Starbucks last night I glanced thru the paper and found this article had the paper had about Hung's Bittersweet Victory:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=629152&category=LIFE&BCCode=&newsdate=10/12/2007&TextPage=1

I've never been to his parents restaurant outside of Pittsfield, but I've passed it many times as I spent almost every summer weekend for 5 years down in Stockbridge at Rob's (my old dead-head beau) parent's house.

So today I head out to fill the car with gas, get the car inspected, get the USA Today and get money out for NYC tomorrow. I get gas at Stewart's (cheapest at $2.89 a gallon) but they are out of the USA today so I stop at the Mobil and get the paper there. I want a wake-up soda but its too pricey at both these places and I have a punch card for a freebie at Hess so I stop there. The Times Union catches my eye. On the front page in a column to the left of the feature headline I see....PRAYERS FOLLOW PROFESSOR'S ARREST. Immediately my heart dropped. I knew in my gut that a friend of mine had been arrested. We both are past president's of the running club. Earlier in the year another mutual friend disclosed that he and a couple other friends were worried about our friend's gambling on basketball. In fact one intervened. But those of us who have wrestled with addictions no that addicts need to feed our jones:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=629445&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=10/12/2007

Needless to say a sobering and sad start to my birthday weekend. This is a person that I have worked with on committee's and at races, I sent him PaceSetter's when he was recovering from spinal meningitis and from which he almost died. Ive shared many a laugh and he is a great albeit wordy storyteller. This is person who also watched another friend get paralyzed when a car plowed into a group of the top Capital District runner's who were out on their daily training run. He is a great person with an illness that anyone of us could succomb to. I just remember we are powerless over lot's of things: Outsourcing of jobs, bad relationships, addictive and destructive behaviors, family member's. Today I try to live my life in moderation rather then the more is better girl that I was.

Tomorrow up to 1800 athletes from about 50 countries will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and run 26.2 in a true test of athletic ability at the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championship . Many of these folks have overcome incredible personal hardships to toe the line in Kona. It's is a feat this out of shape dry-docked zoftig former runner/triathlete could only dream about qualifying for now. When its broadcast in December look for some incredible human interest stories. Ive had friends compete in Kona. They've been baked in the sun of the lava fields, blown off their bikes from the wind, swallowed enough sea water to get sick to their stomachs but they all have finished with a life changing experience to talk about and a hell of a story to tell. To all those athletes toeing the line tomorrow good luck and GodSpeed.

And congratulations to Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. You may be one of the best president's we never had.

Weekly Bo-Donkey and Bluff Poker League

Round 4 of the Bo-donkey for IG. I bubbled in 4th but managed to take home T$109 dollars basically earning a buy-in to the 100k guarantee. Not bad for a couple hours work. I now have a T$401 and over $100 cash so I'm in good shape on the Dog. Bodog has been extremely generous to us Bloggers with the added T$ and Smokkee has been the host with the most.

Bodog gets props/kudos for correcting an error with the Tuesday nite tourney on the fly. They set it up with hour long levels and a break every ten minutes. With the deep stack structure we would have been there all nite. Fine for the semi-retired folks like MiamiDon and the West coasters. But bad for us East coasters. Smokkee got support on the phone and support cancelled the tourney and set a new one up to start at 9:20 EST. Not many sites other then perhaps Pokerstars are responsive like that.

So in four outings in the Bodonkey I have 1 in the money 3rd/two fourths (earning my t$11 back in one and t$109 in the other plus my t$11 back) and one semi-early exit. Ive been using my tourney dollars to buyin to the blogger tourneys which I earned from the Rounders Radio WSOP Main Event seat that was divided up back in June.

Some of you folks may be familiar with the Bluff Poker Tour. I played a bunch of the events which used to be held on multiple sites until the UIGEA de-railed it. This years tour is on one site: Carbon poker (a Poker.com skin). The tour kicked off with a free-roll last nite which had entries to various tourneys. I was in the top ten most of the tourney. My demise was sealed when I raised to $3600 on the button with the blinds $1200/$600 (and an ante). I had about T8000 left. A smaller stack pushed all in and so for another 2000+ I make the call. Its AKos vs JJ and of course I double up the shorty with a K on the river. That left me with about 2000 and into the BB I went. I pushes pretty much pot committed with 6Ts and missed. Out I went in 13th. I did earn an entry into a $10000 guarantee tournament. Head over to the Bluff forum for details on the weekly league. Top prize is a Main Event seat and runner-up prizes are seats for smaller buy-in WSOP tourneys. The league will run thru April and starts on the 17th.

This weekend is the Poker October Weekend up at Turning Stone. I wanted to play the turbo deep-stack Sunday which is T10,000 starting chips and 20 minute levels, but the Pokerstars blogger tourney is Sunday with fabulous prizes. Ray/Snake5970 is up there now. He busted out about 60th of 193 in today's $340 buy-in. One hand before the second break will haunt him for sure. Had he won the hand he would have had about T54000 chips and smooth sailing for a deep finish (KK for Snake vs AK vs AK (both shorties one I think was allin preflop and the other post flop after calling Snakes bet on a 5 high board with no Ace) vs JJ that a weak tight Asian Lady hemmed and hawed about calling Snake on. You know the rest: Asian lady makes the call and the Jacks hit a set on the turn or river. Last I spoke to him he was playing cash and some donkey had just sucked out on the river on him in a $160 pot.

There were some good players there per Snake. The winner of the Deep Stack tourney at the Albany Poker Cup was present(who I played against most of that bubble day for IG) . The 1983 WSOP Main Event runner-up was also present. Apparently the man dropped this little ditty and Snake had me google the dude only knowing his first name was Rod and the fact that he was runner-up to Tom McEvoy. Apparently the man's memory must be a little foggy cause he said 1982 was his runner up year. IG is a super sleuth and the 1982 runner-up was Dewey Tomko. Now Snake knows what Dewey Tomko looks like and of course the names didnt match and Tom McEvoy won in 1983. While on the phone and working mind you I came up with the dude's name...... Rod Peate.

Of course he had a wonderful idea (Im off tomorrow) which if presented at 2 PM rather then after 7PM when I was at Starbucks would have been doable and a great start to my birthday weekend. If it wasn't raining cats and dogs here, and if my car wasn't overdue on its inspection by two weeks and need a full tank of gas and if my bankroll wasn't in the bank, I'd be on my way to Turning Stone to play poker into the wee hours with him. The tourney tomorrow is a $500 buy-in however and we all know Im not really a cash game player. GRRRRRR...............

So rather then bewail the fact that Im not on my way to playing live at TROCK with Snake and eating buffets etc. I fired up the computer and played a Poker-Analysis freeroll league game and finished 3rd for a few bucks. So Ive been playing really well all week. I made some really good plays when pot odds dictated I make the calls with drawing hands and I got paid off when they hit. Most importantly Im playing position better then I have been recently. Lets hope this translates into a nice finish tomorrow nite when Week 3 of the Adirondack Poker League gets underway at 6:10 PM at our new home in Ft Edward.

I turn another year older on October 13th (where does the time go?) and its my 10 year annniversary at my job the same day (I work in the Dental division of a major health insurance carrier). Im off to NYC Saturday for a show with my mom and family friends aka the geriatric set. (Jerry and Judy and Frank and Barbara). We are having breakfast in Soho and possibly dinner at Basilica if we can get in as mom passed on reservations there. Sunday will be a day of poker and football. I postponed pizza from Labella's till then. Im craving really good Deli right now.

WCOOP Main Event Collusion ??

I played a little on-line poker last week, Simultaneously winning a $2 Omaha8 buy-in over 21 runners on Vegas 24/7 (Absolute Poker skin) and finishing 3rd in the Bodonkey, turning $11 Tourney dollars into $25 cold hard US$$$.

Friday nite was APL week 2. Back to back final tables for IG, back to back 8th place finishes. I pushed all in on my big blind with pocket threes when I didnt need to and ran it into the UTG (new-comer Zack's) pocket tens. Because numbers are down we have only been paying top 4 spots vs last years top 6. Snake5970 managed to nurse his pitiful small stack to a 4th place in the money finish proving that he is a balla even with about 7 beers in him. The new jeans I bought at Kohl's (with the coupon) were a hit too.

Last Monday I was able to watch most of the final table of the WCOOP ME which by my estimate came in at 22 hours (Ive lasted 14 live and never got tired once the adrenaline gets coursing thru the system) . Actually, make that the final two tables. I didnt have to sign on to the phones till 10:30 AM and since I was hopping on and off for various stints I kept Pstars up and followed along when I could.

Snake and I didnt get a chance to really talk Friday nite as I left when I busted but he called me Saturday Afternoon to fill me in on the details and catch-up. So as usual we talked poker and some sports goings ons and our discussion mades its way around to the the upcoming FTOPs on Full Tilt (Im still in exile but may return), How Western Union transfers to pokerstars are fast but you are raped with the fee (I wired $250 and it cost me $29 - Epassporte may be slower but its cheaper) .

I then of course mentioned the WCOOP. First I will state that Ive been busy with watching lots of TV and have been behind on blog reading. So I of course pose the question to Snake " I wonder if Chad Brown took over for Vanessa at any time or assisted her?". It's no secret that the two are a couple. Usually when we discuss Chad we try to guess his real age since its no secret Chad refuses to divulge it. Of course Snake (who is 44), always says "No doubt hes older then me... gotta be at least 50". I of course am not so sure since Im going to be 47 next Saturday and dont really look it either (without the benefit of Botox, I might add)...... Sorry Chad, but even if you are pushing AARP age you're a good looking man. Somehow or other we diverged to Marion Jones pleading guilty to doping and the BALCO fiasco as well as Floyd Landis being stripped of his Tour de France title and didnt revisit the WCOOP.

Anyway out of boredom today I decide to google 'WCOOP main event collusion" for shits and giggles. I got more then I bargained for as up popped various threads on various forums ( 2+2 and NeverWin Poker)

First there was rumours of soft-playing and chip-dumping as Chad (Stelladora) and Vanessa (LadyMaverick) were at the same table early on and people are hypothesizing that Vanessa who had a big stack didnt put her boyfriend to the test for his chips when she should have. Not sure how that is construed as chip dumping since that is usually when two equal stacks are involved. I dont know all the details but it seems like Chad's stack at the time wasnt enough to really give Vanessa a bigger boost then the stack she had already acquired. Besides, being a team pokerstars player I reckon she is scrutinized pretty heavily. I you review the pocketfives hand histories I link to below note the prescence of another top online player SamENole


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12316387&page=5&fpart=1&vc=1

and

http://www.pocketfives.com/B2EA1C20-9912-4F8B-A10F-64F3012AA614.aspx


Then there is the post that Nitbuster the 6th place finisher was really a double secret account of none other then Josh Arieh. Come to find out Josh has apparently been accused of colluding or multi-accounting at the cash game tables at pokerstars. This allegation came from some railbirds intrepretation of something Daniel Negreanu said as a WCOOP commentator about Daniel knowing that Nitbuster belonged to Josh or slipping and saying "Josh" (who is one of Daniel's good friends). Now isnt Josh a Bodog sponsered pro. (Do the pros have exclusives with their sites or are they allowed to play elsewhere or does it depend on the contract)


Finally, the biggest allegation is that TheVoid, pro Mark Teltscher who won the WCOOP over Ka$ino (there was a slight chop) multi-accounted and is being investigated by pokerstars. There is a huge thread over on 2 + 2 that made my mind go numb much as the Brandi Hawbaker thread did. Apparently his real account is play2kill and TheVoid account was a newly created account that is registered to his sister.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=12335302&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

This Hendon Mob report has a nice recap of last weeks alleged cheating in poker.

http://www.thehendonmob.com/poker_news/5th_of_october

Overshadowed by all this is the fact that the PokerPixie aka Anna 'VietCutie' Wroblewski finished in 16th.

Finally, this is old news but is Jose Canseco such a loser that he had to enter a LadiesOnly Tourney as a protest?

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/09/womens-poker-spotlight-canseco-enters-tourney.htm

Happy Sleuthing

2007 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

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Registration code: 4360426