Breakfast Club Poker

Girlfriend Duty at the $1500 NL Event

This is the first WSOP event that John is playing in this year. I like the cards he's getting but it's already been a roller coaster in the first hour.

Not long after I got there seat 10 went all in. It got folded around and I was shocked to see John call. But with so many players in this cheapie event, of course you need to double up or go home. They turned over their cards and the 10 seat had AK, John flipped his to show KK. Some guy to my left on the rail started cheering for an ace, and I said, "No! Kings hold up, kings hold up, kings...."

The flop gave and ace, and that's all the guy needed to take the bulk of John's chips. Luckily, he had him covered for $400-500 and was still in the game. I stuck around thinking it might not be that long, and he went all in again after a guy in the 5th seat raised. He had a pair of sixes and John had AK, with an easy catch on the flop that held up.

Then, the guy to John's right, the 7th seat went all in with his piddly short stack. John was still low on chips, but called again. When they turned their cards over, the shorty had 10c5c, and John had queens. He got another queen on the turn and the shorty went walking.

So you know, I've never seen John get so many good cards in such a short period of time. Hopefully this is something that will hold up the rest of the day. (the picture above is from when he played in the EPT in Deauville this year)

Chip Reese ...Black Stallion?

Just when we thought it would never end, the chips changed hands yet again. The two tired men had been seeing most of the flops and the one that paired the board usually carried through. But on a flop of 9s3d8d, Chip moved all in.
Andy got up and thought about it.
Then he called.
Andy turned over 9c7s for top pair.
Chip turned over Kd6d for the flush draw.
the turn was the 5d, and the river, a moot Kc.

It left Andy with 300k. He said, "We're not done yet," and battled it out for a bit longer, to no avail. The level ended before he did, and Andy said, "If I double up, then we can take a break." But he had no intentions of giving up.

More all ins. Some calls, some folds, some wins.
On the last hand, Chip went all in and Andy called.
Andy had 8s9s vs Chip's AQc
The flop came 7s7cJc. The turn was 4h and the river 4s.
Andy was stunned, and Chip turned around to hug his kids. Andy's girlfriend Jen understandably left in tears while Andy was still in his interview.

Gavin Smith Continues His Tear

No matter what kind of poker events you're tuning into lately, it seems like Gavin Smith is the guy with the chips. The fact that he was this year's player of the year almost seems like old news. At the end of May Gavin took second in the WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans for $293,930, he's already cashed once at this year's WSOP, and the other day he baffled pros and amateurs alike in the Mansion Poker Dome Pro-Am for $500,000 (to air on July 12). Yesterday he ended Day 2 of the $5000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split  as the chipleader with  $118,000. Sam Farha was on his heels with $115,000.

Anyway you look at it, Gavin is on a great rush.

I met his new assistant the other night at the Full Tilt Clonie Gowen party. His name is Justin. I think that's a great idea. The weight of all the events and media appaearances during the WSOP can wear on one, I think he was smart to get someone to help him with the details, even the after hours ones like fetching the next drink. Go get'em, Gavin!

No 10th Bracelet for Phil Hellmuth—Yet

The back of his UB jersey said Poker Brat, but Phil Hellmuth was nothing but gracious as he lost to Jeff Cabanillas in front of a staggering crowd of friends, fans, and onlookers. Jeff who? People in the audience were talking about this event as Jeff's first tournament, while others started referring to him as The Kid.

"This is the best final table ever," said Ian McKenzie from  BLUFF. But that was when it was still early. By 10pm the crowd was consumed with their own conversations and wondering when Phil would end this thing. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow came over to the final table stage, shook hands with Phil and took a seat. Phil made sure it was a hug not a handshake, and before we knew it, Mike was at the mic calling the plays. Did we know Mike wanted to be a Tournament Director? No doubt he makes more money playing tournaments.

Also in the audience was David Williams, Devil Fish, Marcel (who finished third in the same event).

The play seemed to go back and forth, back and forth, with the chips more even than not. But at a quarter to midnight when the ten bracelet holders Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan came over to shake Phil's hand and cheer him on from the front row, the action heated up.

Got My Invite for the Full Tilt Party

Amy has been hoping that the party invites start coming in, and I got the best one last night. Full Tilt will be hosting their party at PURE at Caesars. That sounds awesome. And, like last year's party at the Wynn, they will be running a charity tourney to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Get out here, Amy! There's fun to be had. But first...I have to head over to the Fashion Show Mall and scare me up a new dress.

Where the Stars Are at the Rio

So, the other night after Clonie's Maxim Party, we just didn't want to go home yet. John had a hankering for the 3,5,7. After I lost a quick hundy, I headed over to the blackjack tables on the other side of the pit. Erick the dealer claimed to be Scotty Nguyen's old fish tank cleaner. He claimed that Scotty was always checking on his fish, and couldn't keep his hands out of the tank. Eric also mentioned that Scotty was extremely generous, always taking care of his family back home, and confident about how he was going to win the WSOP, well before he did in 1998. Eric got let go from his job after an unfortunate incident with the fish. He said, " I should of done a better job of keeping his hands out of the tank."

It seems the table games in the Rio are a hotbed of poker pros stepping away from the Amazon room. At the table next to me, Tuan Le was playing Blackjack with two beauties, and Tony G was at the bar talking business with Linda Geenan about  Poker Works. I also hear that the seafood restaurant, Buzio's, near the hallway to the convention rooms is a mealtime pitstop among the pros, too.

Isabelle Mercier, Phil Hellmuth, Marcel Luske

There is a chance, that tonight's final table for the $5000 No Limit Hold'em (Event #9) will be the most talked about event of the WSOP besides the final table. The buzz has already started and everyone is excitedly picking their favorites. Phil Hellmuth who is on a tear with three cashes already is after his 10th bracelet. Poker's darling, Isabelle Mercier, is after her first, as is the singing stallion, Marcel Luske. But the talk isn't just about these three starlets vying for the golden wristband. The more important discussion is that ESPN is not covering this. Wow, what a mistake. Will they hurry on up and do a quick add? We shall see, but there is no doubt it my mind you'll hear it from the bloggers first.

Phil Hellmuth updated his blog after midnight last night when they ended the day's play. He talked about some high and lows from the day, and some secret plan. Here's a great play that he discribed.

I began to ante off my chips from $90,000 down to $75,000, before I finally picked up the hand I was waiting for all day, twice!  First Vinh opened for $19,000, and I smooth called with my A-A.  The big blind called and the flop came down 8h-3h-3s, and both players checked to me.  I figured that they were both drawing dead, so I checked (I did not have the Ah so that I could potentially lose to heart-heart finish).  The turn was the Kc, and now the big blind bet out $50,000, Vinh folded, and I moved all-in for another $6,000.  The blind had the king, plus an eight so that he had four wins in the deck (I was a ten-to-one favorite) and a four hit the river.  Now I was back!  I was now near my high for the tournament in chips, and four hands later La raised my blind from the button and I looked down at A-A!  Wow, this time I called the $25,000 and raised $50,000 more.  He moved all-in with what turned out to be Q-Q, and now I had over $340,000 in chips. Bang, bang!  My patience finally paid off! — Phil Hellmuth Blog

Here's more talk from the blogosphere about this final table:
Tao of Poker
PokerNews.com
Wicked Chops Poker
Pokerati

 

Non WSOP Poker

So, my friend Harold is in town. He busted out of the $2000 NL, and we've been playing some poker outside of the Rio. First, I played in the $70 Paris breakfast tourney. It started with 30 players and I went out in 7th. They chopped when they got to 4th and I was pleased enough with my play. Then we had lunch at one of my fave casual strip restaurants, Canaletto at the Venetian. It was Harold's first time in the Venetian, and since he's staying at Paris, he was definitely starting to see some of the "theme-ier" side to Vegas. We shared some fancy polenta and had a salad each.

Then it was off to try out the new Venetian poker room. While it's a lovely upscale room with a living room style waiting area, the cash games are poorly organized with the boards being hard to read, and the staff being less knowledgeable about what's going on than you'd expect. However, there's a second desk in the back for tourneys and this was the exact opposite. They were running tight and it wasn't long before H and I moved back there.

They had $65 Sit-N-Gos and I thought that would be a perfect place to practice up for my Poker Dome action this week. I played two of them and it didn't go so well, but talking about my play with Harold really helped and I learned a bit about playing NL. Harold on the other hand, won his SNG. It wasn't the WSOP, but he had fun!