Monday, May 31, 2010

WSOP Fantasy ~ Event #5- $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Not much time for a blog post today as I'm trying to enjoy the last of my long weekend. Here are today's picks.

Event #5 ($1,500) No-Limit Hold'em (3 day)

Position Player
A Player Annette Obrestad-not playing still not in Vegas oops!!
A Player Jason Mercier is playing
A Player Kathy Liebert is playing
A Player Adam Levy is playing-made day 2 well stacked and in the money
A Player Phil Ivey - busted day 1
B Player Annand (Victor) busted day 1
B Player Scotty Nguyen -not playing next event is 5k tomorrow
B Player Dario Minieri is playing
B Player Jeffery Lisandro
B Player Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
C Player Men "The Master" Nguyen
C Player Robert Mizrachi -duh about to cash in 50k players championsips
C Player Mike Matusow
C Player Isaac Haxton - busted day 1
C Player Gavin Griffin -busted day 1

Only two of my horses were left in the 50k players championships and they were still 5 from the money when play began today. John Juanda was working it real good though. Eric Seidel is my only other horse alive. Let's hope both of them put up numbers for me.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

WSOP Fantasy - EVENT #4 -Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (3 day)

Event #4 beginning at 8PM EST is $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better aka O8B. Day 3 of the 50k Players championships is also underway. I went into the day with only 5 horses remaining. Based on an earlier post on PokerNews, Justin Bonomo was close to hitting the rail and may be out by now. Scotty Nguyen started the Day as a shortie. David Bach who I feared would not repeat as champion staged a comeback yesterday. Never count a gunslinger out. Haven't had time to check many results today and will do so later. My horses for today's event:

Event #4 ($1,500) Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (3 day)
A Player Lee Watkinson
A Player David Benyamine- busted day 1
A Player Michael Binger - is playing, made day 2
A Player Jason Mercier - is playing
A Player Robert Mizrachi -not playing still in 50k duh
B Player Annie Duke cant be playing if watching tv with kids per recent tweet
B Player Chip Jett - is playing, made day 2- finished 72nd $2750
B Player Tony Guoga - busted day 1
B Player Keith Sexton
B Player Layne Flack
C Player Kassem "Freddy" Deeb
C Player Andy Black is playing, made day 2 - finished 77th $2750
C Player Fabrice Soulier
C Player Brett Jungblut is playing, made day 2
C Player Todd Brunson-is playing, made day 2-finished 52nd cashed $4296

Also underway is day 1B of the $1000 donkament. I have no idea if any of my 15 horses played yesterday or are playing today. Too many people and unless they show up in a live blog post or are noted as a bust-out I wont know if I have any alive until the fields combine tomorrow. I also boo-booed and picked someone in the 50K (not a horse of mine) for the $1k event.

When I woke up this AM I noticed a familiar name at the top of the 50k leader board: Kirk Morrison. This girl and I have/had a thing for Kirk and were disappointed when he disappeared the last two years. While I was out shopping I received a OMG OMG Kirk Morrison sighting text message from CK who lives in Las Vegas. I immediately texted her back realizing it wasn't as early in Vegas as I thought and put her on a mission to see what Kirk's story is. After having a really big 2007, it was rumored he was into a backer for quite a bit of change and was laying low. There always is a good comeback story out there so if he wins or final tables I'm sure we'll hear some of it. And good luck to CK today as she plays her first WSOP event of 2010.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

WSOP Fantasy -Event #3 ($1,000) Donkament #1

Only one WSOP event begins today: the first of the $1000 buy-in weekend donkaments. It's scheduled for 4 days and up to 5000 are expected to enter. The chance of any of my 15 horses actually cashing let alone final tabling is probably nil. Last year I had a bunch of goose eggs in these events and expect no different.

I doubt any of my horses in the 50k event will trouble themselves with running back and forth between two tables unless there is some kind of absurd prop bet going on where someone like Phil Ivey will attempt to play all events. I eliminated all my 50k horses from inclusion in my picks for today's event.

I went heavy on internet phenoms who will undoubtedly chip up or bust out early. Full Tilt's list of pros you can pick is fairly limited and consists mostly of Team Full Tilt, Full tilt red pros, WSOP prior year final tableists (of the last two years or so) and WSOP Main Event Champions. For example I cant pick the likes of Bryan Micon, Shane Schleger or Yevgeniy Timoshenko or numerous other tour champions.

Event #3 ($1,000) No-Limit Hold'em (4 day)

Position Player
A Player Luke "__FullFlush1__" Schwartz
A Player Dennis Phillips
A Player Shaun Deeb -
A Player Nikolay Evdakov duh was playing 50k still
A Player Jacobo Fernandez
B Player Josh Arieh duh was playing 50k still
B Player Steve "mrsmokey1" Billirakis duh was playing 50k still
B Player Ivan Demidov
B Player Alexander Kravchenko busted day 1B
B Player Eric Froehlich
C Player Amanda Baker
C Player Issac "westmenloAA" Baron playing day 1B
C Player Jean-Robert Bellande
C Player Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger - playing day 1B
C Player Jon "PearlJammed" Turner busted day 1A, not playing again till 2-7TD Tuesday


As for the 50k event 105 players remain. There were only 11 bust-outs yesterday: Dan Shak, Tom "Durrr" Dwan, Marc Karam (I have actually sat at the same tourney table with him at Turning Stone), Greg "FBT" Mueller, Brian Townsend, Mike Matusow####(who I picked and removed prior to submitting my final picks) and Daniel Alaei to name a few. I had none of these guys in my stable. Dan Shak was a thought as he had a great 2009 but he isnt a choice, only his ex-Beth is. Annette Obrestad did not play and isn't in Vegas yet based on a tweet that she is still in Norway for her mom's birthday. I also don't believe Jeff Madsen, David Williams or Peter Eastgate are playing the 8 game mix. I believe I have 11 of 11 in still. David Bach, last years champion when it was played as HORSE will probably not repeat as he has dipped to roughly 33k chips of the original 150k starting stack.

Action begins about 3PM EST. Follow the live reporting over on PokerNews.com and of course the great coverage on Dr Pauly's Tao of Poker, Pokerati, and Wicked Chops Poker to name a few.

####Correction: Mike Matusow actually made it thru to Day 2. He was incorrectly listed by WSOP officials as out.

Friday, May 28, 2010

WSOP Fantasy- Event #2-The Players 50k Championship

Once again I'm doing Full Tilt's Fantasy Poker Challenge. Seven + weeks of sweating my horses events ranging from $1000 donkaments to World championship events in various poker disciplines. Last year I won a bunch of entries into freerolls and the tourney ending championship event in which the first prize was a 2010 WSOP Main Event seat. I also won a couple of hats, neither of which I received. But that is okay because I have one already and shirts too!

Today we kick it off with the multi-day 50k players championship which consists of an 8 game mix (which i love by the way and how I learned duece-7 triple draw). Here are my horses for this event.

Event #2 ($50,000) The Poker Player's Championship (5 day)

Position Player
A Player Phil Iveybusted day 3
A Player Daniel Negreanu busted Day 2
A Player Justin Bonomobusted day 3
Player Erik Seidel busted day 4, oh so close to a cash too!!
A Player Scotty Nguyenbusted day 3
B Player Jeff Madsen did not start
B Player David Williams did not start
B Player John Juanda - 4th place finish $436,865
B Player Vitaly Lunkinbusted day 2
B Player Erick Lindgrenbusted day 2
C Player Jason Mercier busted day 2
C Player Annette Obrestad did not start
C Player Peter Eastgate did not start
C Player David Benyamine busted day 2
C Player Kassem "Freddy" Deeb busted Day 2

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Here's What I'm Up too

I took the afternoon off from work to play the PLO8 Scoop low buy-in starting at 5PM EST on Pokerstars. I have a freebie ticket from the Pokerstars blogger series. I used the other one I had the other night. I was down 5k chips before the first hour. Since it was a free roll for me I played laggy and basically swung and missed. By hour three I had 1/3 of the average stack but being the grinder I am I got back to even only to have my KK cracked by 65s almost 4 hours in. Dude with a slightly bigger stack called my 3x open raise in position and hit the flop hard two pairing. I only swore briefly at him because I had open raised the previous hand and had been doing so quite a bit.

Tomorrow I will be going to see the McLovins and Max Creek down at Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock with BFF Kim. Think we are going to have some Middle Eastern inspired food at a long time favorite restaurant of mine called Joshua's. Last time McLovins opened for Max Creek I missed them as I was trying to talk Kim out of getting lost in South Troy. I will shoot some video with the Flip but may spend more time dancing.

I am contemplating running the Freihofers Run for Women the first weekend in June. I have been walking and doing my 1 hour dance class and can make it thru 60 minutes of jumping, twisting, hip hopping. Not sure if my Achilles will groan or not though.

I have also committed to a 16 week fitness/healthy eating challenge that my employer is hosting starting Sunday. My goal is too lose the tummy I acquired going thru menopause. If I am successful i hope to be back to my 40 year old running weight by the time I turn 50 in October.

I'm hooked on Glee. I love love love the show and will confess I didn't watch it last year. Literally the first half hour is over before you know it and you are wishing it would keep going. Its campy and over the top but it also addresses some issues that are relevant for the teens in the Story lines.

My two favorite American Idol contestants have made the top three. Both Crystal and Lee are in along with Casey who I like too but think Lee is the better of the two guys left. Lee often reminds me of Dave Matthews and even a little John Mayer with a little more of a hard rocker edge going on in his voice.

Sadly 24 is coming to end. I have read so many spy stories/thrillers that I knew Jack was going to gut the Russian to get the Sim card the Ruskie baddie had swallowed. God Im going to miss Jack and my Bauer hour. Here is hoping for a movie series. Oh, and Kiefer keep your shit together Bro