Sticks & Stones

My note-taking about other players online has always been fairly scattershot. Probably the one part of my online play where I am the least disciplined.

When I first started playing real money games, I took notes diligently, though not terribly effectively. Mostly I was recording the knee-jerk, misinformed impressions of a novice. Thus later on, when I’d read some note I’d taken say, a year before, I’d instantly realize a flaw in the note. Often what I’d find is that I’d drawn some jingle-brained conclusion about a player’s style based on the way he or she had played a single hand, and even that generalization was sometimes off-base.

As subsequent experience and knowledge made me skeptical of the earlier notes I’d taken, I found myself less and less inclined to take notes at all. Only very occasionally would I write anything, and usually didn’t devote too much energy to doing so.

Pot-limit Omaha became my primary game of choice somewhere around the spring of 2007, and while the game has definitely become more popular online over the last year-and-a-half, there are still usually a relatively small number of tables going at each level on most sites. I do, therefore, often come to recognize certain players as regulars at the games. Regardless of the site, I’ll usually find at least one player per table with whom I have played before, and most often those familiar names/avatars represent decent players who’ve put in a number of hands and have some clue about how to play.

At some point last year, I started taking notes again, although I am now realizing that frequently the only time I was inspired to take a note on a player was when that player said something to me -- usually derogatory -- in the chatbox. Had a moment later on when I noticed that whenever someone at the table had the little designation on the avatar indicating I’d taken a note, that was a person who’d once insulted me. I remember having a cluster of sessions in there somewhere where it seemed like every time I sat down, someone at the table had taken enough offense at one point or another to call me a name.

If that had happened early in my online poker days, I’d have been mortified. But by then I’d played long enough to know better.

For most sites, when you take a note on a player it saves to a file on your hard disk, so it is possible to go read all of your player notes, if you wish. For PokerStars, look in the main folder for a text file called “notes.” For Full Tilt Poker, look for a file with your username and the “.dat” suffix and open in Notepad. Depending on what kind of note-taker you were/are, doing so might provide a kind of snapshot glimpse of your online poker playing progress.

I did just that today, and while there were a few notes like this…

“called me a donk once”
“cursed me once after I felted him”
“got sarcastic after I won a small pot from him in a PLO freeroll”
“once got all pissy w/me after I got lucky vs. his AA in the Hold'em part of a HORSE game”

…I didn’t find as many of those as I thought I might.

Saw one note about a player calling me a “hureson” after I’d hit my wrap draw on the river against him in PLO. Had to look that one up. German for bastard.

Actually, what got me on this subject was I had a hand yesterday which resulted in a player cursing me (again, in German). For those who are interested, I’ll just post the hand in the replayer and let you decide about my play, his play, and the validity of his post-hand comment. (I set the replayer to show MrAnger’s cards at the start.)



Said MrAnger afterwards: “arschloch, wichser, play lotto idiot!!” Then he left.

Maybe I am an arschloch. Or a wichser. Or an idiot. But which of us here is closer to playing lotto?

We all know you are much more likely to be called names online than in live play. And while that can certainly be unpleasant to experience sometimes, when it does happen, it has to be viewed as an overall positive for you.

You win a hand, and someone calls you a donk. There are two ways of looking at it: (1) Yr name-caller is correct in his or her assessment. Perhaps you are a donk. In which case you have been given some indication it is time to work on yr game. That’s good. (2) Yr name-caller is off the mark. You are not a donk, but in fact have some clue about what yr doing. But someone thinks you are, and is sharing with you and everyone else that critique. That’s good, too, yes?

Have to say, I didn’t mind one bit being left to play with the Bystanders after MrAnger’s outburst -- if they think I’m a mindless gambler, all the better for me.

Kind of goes back to the point with which I began about those first impression, knee-jerky notes I had been taking when I first started playing. More misleading than helpful, those. Chatbox crudities often work in a similar fashion, I’d say.

Or maybe that’s just wichser-thinking.

Playing Poker & Writing About Poker

This summer I had the good fortune to spend a great deal of time doing something I particularly enjoy -- writing about poker. Also had the opportunity to spend much of that time interacting with others who also like to write about poker. Some real talented folks, too.

I’m referring both to members of the so-called “poker media” (all duly marked by the laminated badges hanging on lanyards around our necks) and to numerous others, including some who have authored poker books, some who contribute significantly to poker websites, and some who keep personal poker blogs.

I rarely encounter other fellow “poker writers” in the circles I usually trace (not face to face, anyway), and so that was another particularly pleasing facet of my summer experience.

I mentioned a few times during my excellent adventure how covering the WSOP tended to lessen my desire to play poker. I was essentially spending almost every waking moment while there writing about others’ play, leaving myself little time and/or energy to play myself. I did put in a few sessions of low limit hold’em here and there, and there was that freeroll tournament near the end (which went well). But that was about it.

Not surprising, then, that I leave Vegas and start playing poker again.

Over the last week I have gotten the chance to return to online play and have discovered I still enjoy doing so. Am taking seats at pot limit Omaha and H.O.R.S.E. tables, again sticking to the low limits at which I am most comfortable. Did happen to get involved in a fairly dramatic three-way PLO hand yesterday in which a $125 pot was pushed my way (at a $50 max. table), but something like that represents an extreme. Usually for me the pots don’t exceed single digits dollar-wise.

Playing a bit more -- and writing a bit less -- has gotten me thinking about both activities and how closely related they are. For me, anyway. Playing poker provides me a great deal of pleasure. So does writing about it. And I think, in a way, the pleasures are very similar to one another, even if on the surface the activities seem quite different.

Almost everyone who plays poker spends at least some time reflecting about what he or she is doing, I’d imagine. And a certain percentage of those people record those reflections in some fashion or another. They might keep an exhaustive diary or journal or blog. They might write books on strategy and theory. They might post a hand or anecdote in an internet forum as a way of starting a dialogue about their play. Or they might just jot down a few numbers in a notepad as a pithy, functional chronicle of their activities.

I’ve written before about the various reasons why I enjoy poker. A good while ago I wrote a fanciful post in which I listed five motives, assigning each a letter -- P = profit; O = opponents; K = knowledge; E = enjoyment; R = risk -- as a way of addressing the subject. There I explained that I play poker because I like making a little cabbage, I like competition, I like puzzles and trying to solve them, I like the social side of the game (even if it is much muted online), and, finally, I do like taking occasional (if carefully managed) risks.

I think all of those reasons more or less apply to writing about poker, too, though the hierarchy is necessarily different.

There’s a profit motive, I suppose, but it is minimal. (Woe to any poor soul who gets into poker writing for the money.) Also, anyone who writes for an audience is probably competitive (to some extent), too. There’s a challenge that comes with trying to “win” over readers to accept one’s views, or simply to be interested in what one has to say. And, of course, there’s always some form of risk involved whenever one decides to publish those views to the world.

The two most similar motives, though, are the social aspect of writing and the intellectual stimulation writing provides.

Those of us who do keep poker blogs and/or contribute to poker forums have all experienced (more or less) the fun of interacting with others with similar interests. This is one way we find each other -- by writing about ourselves, responding to others’ words, etc. And I think for most of us this is probably the primary reason why we write, namely, to communicate (and not simply “broadcast”).

Writing is also a manner of problem solving, of working out a kind of intellectual puzzle. One has something to say. It might be quite clear and explicit what that something is, in which case the puzzle isn’t too difficult to solve. Like folding eight-trey offsuit from under the gun. Or that something might be a bit more elusive, in which case one writes in order to solve the mystery. (We learn to write, then we write to learn.)

Raymond Chandler once claimed that “everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.”

A bit of bluster, there, as well as another subtle shot at literary critics, of whom Chandler was no fan. But if I understand what he’s saying, Chandler seems to be indicating that as long as the writer keeps writing, he or she is still trying to figure out what writing is. It remains an unsolved puzzle.

Much like poker, yes?

2008 WSOP, A Reporter’s Notebook

Left Vegas on Tuesday, but the body clock still ain’t quite reoriented itself.

Each night the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. have been quite restless. Frequently find myself stuck in that limnal space between waking and sleep, still occasionally churning out posts about hands. Player completed from the small blind, and player checked his option. The flop came. Player checked, player bet, player called. The turn was. Both checked. The river brought. Player checked, and player thought a moment before checking behind. Player turned over. Player mucked.

Then I turn over, stubbornly renewing my awkward quest for blissful slumber.

The hours between 7 a.m. and noon have been the opposite. Somewhere around dawn I, too, hit the muck, and am dead to the world for those several hours.

After a couple of months’ neglect, I have now gone back through and updated my archival pages: On the Street, The Rumble, Shots in the Dark, High Society, and By the Book. I know when I check my stats that occasionally readers will hunt around in those for old posts, so they are all up to speed now.

I’ve also been going back and working on properly tagging all of the 500-plus posts. I didn’t really use tags until a year ago or so, and so there’s a healthy-sized chunk of old posts that still need ’em. If I ever get them all done, I’ll add a list of those tags somewhere on the main page. (Incidentally, that search box over on the right works pretty well for finding particular terms or names in old posts.)

These last two months probably saw me cranking out more words per day here than at any other time in Hard-Boiled Poker history. I did manage to post at least once every day of the World Series of Poker, plus a few other items here and there along the way.

Thought I’d compile links to all of my WSOP posts here for easy reference later. One post -- “On Covering the WSOP” -- is not included in the list, as it wasn’t so much a daily report as reflective detour. Am not including descriptions of the posts here, but the titles are all at least somewhat suggestive, I think. Here are them links:

Day 1: Dawn
Day 1: “We're In For Six Solid Weeks of Poker”
Day 2: Time Flies
Day 2: Live from the Rio
Day 3: First Final Table Delivers
Day 3: Who Will Wear the First Bracelet?
Day 4: The New & Improved Mixed Hold’em Event
Day 4: Into the Fire
Day 5: Five for Five
Day 5: Storytelling
Day 6: Lights, Camera, Action!
Day 7: Last Night’s Final Table
Day 7: And He Rested On the Seventh Day
Day 7: Mixed Event Look-In
Day 8: Shootout!
Day 8: Keep Up the Pace
Day 9: Running Well
Day 10: Final Table Fun
Day 10: Let’s Make a Deal
Day 11: Escape!
Day 12: Omadraw!
Day 12: Buffets, Bustouts, and Bullsh*t
Day 13: Birthday
Day 13: A Big Hand for the Little Lady
Day 14: Reporting from the Eye of the Hurricane
Day 14: Postscript
Day 15: R & R
Day 16: Year of the Pro?
Day 16: Rebuy!
Day 17: Laughs & Lightning Bolts
Day 17: Brasilia
Day 18: Bluffs & Boasts
Days 19-20: Catching Kings, Z’s, then a Break
Day 21: No Expectations
Day 21: Tigers & Grizzlies
Day 22: Be the Ball
Day 23: Sweat
Day 24: Lowball
Day 25: More Clichés Than You Can Shake a Stick At
Day 26: Cowboy Hats, Cigars, and Draw Poker
Day 27: Cheers
Day 28: Horsin’ Around
Day 29: Love
Day 30: Long Night’s Journey Into Day
Day 31: Kafkaesque, It Was
Day 31: Tell Everyone You Know and Duplicate
Days 32-33: The Beginning of the End
Day 34: Three Tales
Day 34: The Last Final Table
Day 35: The Big One
Day 36: Starting Again
Day 37: Pop Stars, Sexual Puns, and Magic Swords
Day 38: Living the Dream
Day 39: Taking Shots
Day 40: “Seat Open!”
Day 41: Chuck Norris Doesn’t Dodge Bullets; Bullets Dodge Chuck Norris
Day 42: Bubble Go Pop
Day 43: Whirlwind
Day 44: IGHN
Day 45: From the Bleachers
Day 46: Whoopee

Gonna move back to my usual weekday posting schedule now, so have a good weekend everybody. (It is Friday, ain’t it?) Try to get some sleep.

The November Nine and the WSOPE

Back in May, about a week before the WSOP began, there was an announcement regarding the WSOPE schedule. The exact number of events had yet to be determined, but the dates were then set -- September 19th through October 1st.

A couple of weeks ago, just as the WSOP Main Event had gotten underway, Harrah’s Entertainment announced a more specific schedule. There will be four bracelet events this time around:

Event 1: €1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, Sept. 19-22 (4-day event, 2 opening days)

Event 2: €2,500 H.O.R.S.E., Sept. 22-24 (3-day event)

Event 3: €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, Sept. 24-26 (3-day event)

Event 4: €10,000 World Championship No-Limit, Sept. 27-Oct. 1 (6-day event, 2 opening days)

Also as part of the 2008 WSOPE schedule will be five other, non-bracelet events taking place at a few different poker clubs in London.

When I heard the announcement in May that the WSOPE events would take place in September-October, my first thought was that those events would be taking place before the WSOP Main Event champ was crowned in November. I wrote a short post about it at the time, pointing out that Harrah’s and ESPN would likely want to ensure that all of the “November Nine” showed up in London for the WSOPE events during the interim.

Seemed like a no-brainer to me, as having those guys play in the WSOPE would both heighten interest in the WSOPE as well as give the players some extra exposure prior to their return in November. In fact, I had assumed that the WSOPE schedule had been a factor that had influenced those who had decided upon the plan to delay the WSOP ME final table.

Even before I made it out to Vegas this summer to help cover the WSOP for PokerNews, I discovered that in fact the WSOPE had not figured into thinking regarding the final table delay at all. Someone in the know responded to me regarding my post, telling me that in fact the idea to send the November Nine to London had not occurred to tournament organizers. (In fact, he told me that after reading the post he had passed it along to them.)

Now we’re on the other side, and early indications seem to suggest that while a few of those making the final table may make their way over to London in September, it is highly unlikely all of them will.

Yesterday I listened to a couple of podcasts, the latest Two Plus Two Pokercast (7/14/08) and PokerRoad Radio (7/15/08), and the topic came up on both shows.

On the Two Plus Two show, one of those who made the final table, David Rheem, appeared as a guest. Rheem was asked about an “orientation session” that apparently took place for the final nine players the day after play ended at the Rio. Specifically, the hosts asked Rheem what sort of obligations the players would have during these intervening months regarding accessibility, promotions, etc.

Rheem was a bit evasive about what actually was discussed during the meeting, but it definitely sounded as though the players are not being obliged to do anything in particular between now and November. “As far as, like, what’s going to happen within the next three months, I’d rather just keep that to myself,” answered Rheem, avoiding sharing any specifics from the session. Rheem explained that he just wanted to “figure out, like, what the best interest for me is. I’m not really too worried about what Harrah’s and what ESPN want to do -- that’s their own thing. For me, I just want to try to lay low and keep a clear head and just stay focused for the final table.”

When asked if he planned to play any poker during this interim period, he did say that he might play a couple of WSOPE events, which seemed to suggest that topic most certainly came up. But Rheem made it clear that if he were to play the WSOPE, doing so would be his own decision. “It’s not 100% what exactly, what I’m going to do,” he said. In fact, he said he didn’t want to play too much poker during these next few months, as doing so might unduly affect his “game plan for the final table.”

Over on the PokerRoad Radio show, Courtney Harrington, Gavin Smith, and Joe Sebok also discussed whether or not the nine would be heading over to London. Said Smith, “I think what Harrah’s should have done when they decided to do this thing… I think they should have taken the interest [that will be made from the yet-to-be-awarded prize money]… and all nine of these people should have been flown over to WSOP Europe and playing in those tournaments.”

The hosts went on to speculate further about how many actually would make the trip. While Sebok and Harrington thought all would go, Smith said he was sure at least three would skip it.

I’m with Smith here. I think it unlikely all nine will make the trip, and in fact it could be the case that only a few even bother, particularly if they have to pay their own way. I’m recalling how in 2007 Tom Schneider won the WSOP Player of the Year, and part of the prize was an entry into the WSOPE Main Event. He decided not to make the trip, though. (I think there was some golf to be played.) One has to think the nine who made the WSOP ME final table will also find reasons not to put themselves through the stress of travelling to England, playing in poker tourneys with difficult fields, and having their efforts scrutinized much more intensely than they’ve experienced previously.

Interesting enough fodder for us to ponder over, I suppose. Still find it unfortunate that we’re talking about marketing and not poker. That’s what the Main Event has become, though.

On Patches and Pitch; or, the Disgrace That Is UltimateBet

I’m back, safe and sound. Still a bit weary (and, unsurprisingly, a bit under the weather at the moment). But very glad to be back.

Have started trying to catch up on the blogs and forums. My sense is most folks are describing that WSOP Main Event finale as a huge anticlimax. See both F-Train and Dr. Pauly for smart takes on the whole “out with a whimper” feel to the event. Mean Gene’s WSOP coda neatly captures the idea, as well.

Can’t help but notice when assessing “the rumble” how a lot more energy is being directed at the moment toward the UltimateBet scandal and associated stories than toward the WSOP. Which perhaps says something about the relative importance of both to the so-called “poker community.”

When we had that freeroll tourney early last week for PokerNews peoples, one of our field reporters, Tim, showed up with a hilarious white long-sleeved shirt on which were sewn about twenty patches of various online poker sites and other pokery stuff. A number of these guys have worked previous tourneys together, and so some perhaps had seen Tim’s shirt before. But I hadn’t, and so got a good belly laugh out of it.

The shirt was funny for a couple of reasons. For one, although we had dealers and played the freeroll as if it were a regular WSOP event, it was essentially an informal, friendly affair in which the idea of “sponsorships” was amusingly incongruous. Also, I got the sense that Tim’s shirt was part of a tongue-in-cheek effort to intimidate opponents, the kind of thing that perhaps works for real in other contexts, such as on the ESPN feature table during a WSOP event.

The fact is, while these patches most certainly have a tangible value for the players, they carry significant symbolic weight as well. And sometimes the figurative meaning can overwhelm whatever literal significance the patch might have.

I just got the chance this morning to read PokerNews’ statement about Tiffany Michelle’s decision to don UltimateBet patches during the last stages of her amazing Main Event run. In the statement, PokerNews expresses disappointment in the sponsorship deal, suggesting how it in fact conflicted with PokerNews’ own association with Michelle as she was both an employee of PN and a sponsored player.

The upshot? PokerNews says it has been “sabotaged by Tiffany, her agent and UltimateBet,” and as a result appears to be severing its ties both with Tiffany and with UltimateBet.

Can’t really comment on the former, as I have no real insight into the nature of Tiffany’s sponsorship deal with PN. Goes without saying that I personally wasn’t too thrilled when I saw her show up on Day 5 (my last day of live blogging) marked as the latest recruit of the UB “army.” But, whatever -- not my business.

But I am associated with PokerNews, and thus am most certainly pleased about the latter development in which the site for which I write will no longer have UltimateBet among its roster of sponsors.

Have been trying this morning to catch up on all the latest rumblings related to the sordid UB saga -- e.g., these revelations that cheating occurred on UB as early as January 2005, that numerous large scale money transfers were routinely permitted to occur between alleged “super-user”-type accounts, and that UB owner and 1994 WSOP Main Event champ Russ Hamilton along with several co-conspirators have been implicated.

UltimateBet is a disgraceful mess of an online poker site, dragging the reputation of online poker deeper and deeper into its unsavory muck with each passing week. The standing of other UB-paid entities such as Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth has clearly been negatively affected this summer, and the longer anyone persists with their association with UltimateBet, the worse it will be for him or her.

In the first part of Henry IV there is a scene in which Falstaff, play-acting as the king (Henry’s father), ironically warns the young prince about hanging out too much with people like himself. “There is a thing, Harry,” says Falstaff (as the king), “which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou keepest.”

Falstaff is joking around, but Harry knows exactly what he’s talking about. Indeed, eventually Harry will cut the fun-loving drunkard Falstaff loose as someone he can’t politically afford to be associated with once he takes the throne.

UltimateBet has now become a similar sort of “pitch” -- a thick, black, tar-like substance the more one rubs the worse it stains. Eric “Rizen” Lynch and PokerNews have realized this, and thus gotten away. I have, too, in a sense. You might notice a couple of my advertisers (under “Shamus Plugs”) have UB included among their collection of links. One has already agreed to remove the UB link. The other is up for renewal in a couple of months; I’ll see then if they’ll remove the UB link (if not, we’ll no longer be running the ad).

It’ll take a while, I think, but we’ll get the UB stain out eventually.

2008 WSOP, Day 46: Whoopee

Am sitting in Gate A of McCarran International Airport, the air filled with indecipherable public address announcements, cell phone conversations, and, of course, the incessant drone of electronic bells and other effects emanating from the rows of slots that fill the center of the space. Oh, and there’s a toddler with a whoopie cushion in the row behind me, firing it off every couple of minutes and giggling “I farted!”

Will be in the air about an hour from now. Had originally intended to stick around LV for another couple of days, as there were still a few other things to do and people to see. But yesterday I was overcome with a sudden realization that it was time for me to go home. So I changed my flight and here I sit, typing and occasionally smiling at the sound of faux flatulence.

Went back over to the Rio last night with James to watch a bit more of the last night’s proceedings. Tiffany Michelle had already busted by the time we got there. We got seats in the ESPN arena and watched a couple of levels’ worth of poker. Saw some interesting hands, and three or four bustouts. Have little or no familiarity with any of the fellas who made the final nine. Or interest, really, for that matter.

I noticed WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack standing over by media row at one point when it was down to just 12 players left. I saw him studying the crowd and looking up at the big screen overhead. I wondered if he was perhaps reconsidering the whole final table delay. Or maybe wondering just how arduous of a task it is going to be to build any interest beyond hardcore poker fans in these nine who made it.

I said it back in the spring when it was just a rumor, and again at the beginning of May when the rumor become reality. And I’ll say it again now. I think the final table delay stinks. That kid with the whoopie cushion is providing a perfect soundtrack.

Thanks, everybody, for reading along these 46 days. Will be getting back to the usual routine here at Hard-Boiled Poker pretty soon.

Thanks also to everybody at PokerNews and all of the other folks I got to meet and spend time with this summer. (Not naming anybody here, as I’m in a bit of a hurry, but they know who they are.) As I say, I’m more than ready to get back home, but you guys all made my home-away-from-home pretty special, and for that I’ll always be grateful.

Talk to you again soon.

2008 WSOP, Day 45: From the Bleachers

A friend of mine, James, is visiting Vegas for a few days, and a primary reason for his visit was to check out the World Series of Poker. He’s relatively new to poker, having seen it on television the last few years and heard me talking about it now and then. When he learned of my coming out this summer, he decided to take a trip of his own. The timing of his visit was particularly good, as he arrived just as I was putting in my final shift with PokerNews.

Yesterday James and I went over to the Thomas & Mack Center during the afternoon to watch some of that NBA Summer League that’s happening over there this week. We saw one game between the Charlotte Bobcats and New Orleans Hornets. Not too thrilling, as none of the regular rosters of either squad showed up. Nor did the head coaches, so we didn’t see Larry Brown, the Bobcats’ new leader. Was still fun to watch some hoops.

Afterwards, I found myself once again heading back to the Rio, accompanying my friend to watch some WSOP. I had my credentials with me, but kept them in my pocket most of the time.

We started out taking a spot up in the Milwaukee’s Best Light No Limit Lounge, and indeed we were drinking cans of the Beast with Phil Hellmuth’s picture on the side as we watched the Poker Brat get knocked out of the Main Event in 45th. My main feeling at watching his demise was ambivalence, with perhaps a dash of pleasure as I anticipated some seats opening up below (they did).

I was surprised to have learned about the decision to overturn Hellmuth’s penalty at the beginning of play yesterday. Talk about applesauce. I hadn’t witnessed the tirade that got him the penalty at the end of play on Saturday, so I can’t say one way or the other whether he deserved it. But you can’t just take it back like that. We would witness another player, Joe Bishop, receive a one-orbit penalty yesterday over at the ESPN feature table, although I am not certain what he did to earn it. Whatever it was, he surely didn’t have the opportunity to appeal his case the way Hellmuth had.

After the first break they swapped Tiffany Michelle’s table over to the main stage, and we eventually would watch a couple of levels’ worth of her table in action. This was a period during which Michelle built her stack from approximately four million up to the nine-plus million she has to start play today. She played well, I thought, being aggressive but not recklessly so, and doing a terrific job accumulating the chips when she did hit hands. Had one hand in particular in which she flopped a set of treys and got the absolute maximum out of Cristian Dragomir (sitting to her right).

As a PokerNews colleague, I have met Tiffany and chatted with her a few times, and though I can’t claim really to know her much beyond that, my impression is she’s a friendly, witty person and certainly not hard to root for here coming down the stretch. She’s done the video interviews for PokerNews the last couple of years, and if you’ve seen those you know she does quite well in front of the camera. A lot has already been made of her being the last woman still playing, and, of course, she’ll be a superstar should she make it through today and to the “November Nine.”

Tiffany’s an interesting case, really. This is her first ever Main Event, but she has a lot of tourney experience. And as an interviewer and actress, she’s much more comfortable in the spotlight (I’d think) than most -- or, perhaps, all -- of the other 26 players still vying for the bracelet. So while on the one hand it seems utterly remarkable for her still to be playing here on Day 7, on the other hand it shouldn’t be all that surprising to see her handling herself well here during these final stages of play. (She begins today in 3rd place.)

During one of the breaks last night I separated momentarily from James to go talk to Tim Lavalli, the Poker Shrink, who along with Amy Calistri is putting the final touches on a book about Mike Matusow. (Matusow went out on a tough hand in 30th last night.) Was glad to meet Tim in person, and I definitely look forward to the book. When I reunited with James, he was all grins as he showed me a picture of himself with Tiffany. Apparently he’d caught her coming out and she had taken the time to pose for pictures with a few folks, and he’d jumped in line and got his own pic.

Remains to be seen whether James got himself photographed with one of the November Nine or not. A lot can happen today, of course. Play gets underway in just a few minutes. Of the remaining players, the ones I was most impressed with along the way were Craig Marquis (currently in 2nd place), David Rheem (6th), Brandon Cantu (14th), and Albert Kim (18th).

James is in town until tomorrow, and I know he wants to go back today to watch some more. I’ll probably head over at some point, too. Dunno when, but I think I probably would like to be there for the very end. Will let you know tomorrow what I saw.

Meanwhile, you can follow along from afar over there at PokerNews.

2008 WSOP, Day 44: IGHN

I’m not going home just now, actually. Still a few more days before I fly. But Day 5 of the World Series of Poker Main Event was my last as far as live blogging goes. The group has been narrowed down to just a few more tenured writers for these last couple of days, meaning I was released from duty when play concluded last night close to midnight.

Was overall kind of a slow day in terms of reporting. After the first couple of hours or so the pace slowed down somewhat, and the day became quite different from Day 4 which never let up. Still a lot going on, though. Several big elimination hands and/or hands in which a ton of chips were exchanged. And, of course, when Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow were seated next to one another at the ESPN feature table during the last level of the night, there was a lot of interest happening over there (we had TassieDevil on that table). Hellmuth actually ended the evening incurring a one-orbit penalty for his applesauce, so he’ll be in the “penalty box” (as F-Train put it) when play starts this afternoon.

Probably the wildest hand I posted about was the one where Sean Sheikhan lost almost all of his stack pushing his pocket jacks and getting snuffed by pocket aces. He had raised from late position, and got reraised by Jamal Kunbuz who was on the button. Sounded like this sort of thing might have been happening a lot, where Sheikhan kept getting bet out of pots with reraises. So this time he shoved his stack of 1.5 million or so, and Kunbuz snap-called him with A-A. Sheikhan lost all but 75,000 of his chips on that one, and was out shortly thereafter.

Also posted about a fun one in which Aussie David Saab needled Hellmuth, showing him a bluff on the end. Hellmuth blew up, as is his custom, and Saab gave it back pretty effectively. (In fact, the scenario -- Hellmuth getting bluffed out of a hand and his opponent showing -- was very similar to the one that took place in that last hand of the night after which Hellmuth got the penalty.)

My colleagues yesterday came up with several neat, interesting color posts that added a lot to the proceedings.

Loganmark published a few posts about the payouts and what would be the case if, say, the last 99 players decided to chop up the remaining money. If they did, Logan determined they’d all get better than 13th place money, actually. F-Train wrote what I thought was a very interesting post called “How Do I Get My Money?” in which he described the process a player goes through when busting out of the tournament. He wrote that one from experience, of course, as he finished 33rd and thus cashed in the Razz event a few weeks ago.

Mean Gene wrote another called “Strike the Sets” in which he told about how the tables were being taken apart and stored away as the field continued to shrink. Yes, when they broke tables they literally broke them down. And Change100 wrote one about the recovery of Doyle Brunson’s scooter, which someone apparently stole and had kept for much of last week.

As we moved into the last hour of play, it occurred to me I was looking at a last chance to contribute something along those lines, too -- something beyond just reporting another hand. But I just couldn’t summon the energy to do so. Truth be told, I was starting to feel myself already kind of disengaging from the whole scene. Not sure why, but I think the feeling resulted from a combination of knowing I wouldn’t be there to see the thing through (indeed, none of us are, not here in July, anyway) and a kind of mental exhaustion after six straight weeks of writing about poker nonstop.

Gonna hold off on the heavy philosophizing about the whole thing for later when I’ve got a little distance and more energy for it. I will say that as I left the Rio yesterday, I was strangely reminded of the one summer I went off to camp. I was about ten years old, and had spent a couple of weeks with a horde of other kids playing games, sharing meals, and sleeping in bunk beds -- the usual summer camp stuff. Finally the last day came, and my parents came to pick me up. I remember riding off and suddenly feeling very sad, which was confusing to me because in my still-growing ten-year-old mind I hadn’t really realized how strongly I’d felt about all those people with whom I’d been spending the last two weeks.

Have to say I have a little of that going on inside again today. At least this time I’m smart enough to have some idea why.

2008 WSOP, Day 43: Whirlwind

Day 4 of the Main Event was a whirlwind, roaring headlong down the road toward its ultimate destination of the final nine at a crazy pace. As I write this Saturday morning here at the home-away-from-home, it almost seems strange not to be hearing the dealers’ mantra of “All in and a call!” punctuating every few minutes of consciousness.

Yesterday was one of absolute nonstop posting from beginning to end. Always seemed to have four or five tickets to write up at every moment. The half-dozen of us who were blogging managed to churn out 35 pages’ worth of posts in just three-and-a-half levels. Each page includes 10 posts, so we’re talking a new one going up about every minute or so, with most being more than just a couple of sentences. Add it all up and it is like we co-authored a short historical novel chronicling the day.

Went so quickly yesterday, I really can’t even tell you what happened. I know we started the day with 474 players, and were already in the money. We ended with 189, with WSOP staff ending things early so as to stretch this sucker out more evenly over the next three days.

I know Iggy got eliminated early in the day (hell of a run, man!). I saw (and reported on) Phil Hellmuth acting up as usual, though surviving (as usual). I heard Jean-Robert Bellande took a sick beat on the ESPN feature table. That one drew the loudest roar I’d heard throughout the entire WSOP.

Tino Lechich took another tough beat on the feature table, too, and he ended up coming over to my desk afterwards where he described it to me. I wasn’t sure if our guys had caught the hand, and so asked him if he wanted me to narrate his demise to the world. He obliged, although it turned out one of our guys had caught the hand and already had a post ready to go.

Players at Blue Table #1 (right next to my workstation) were pushing around massive stacks of chips pretty much throughout the day, perfectly willing to gamble it up big time. I saw and reported on one hand between David Saab and Jason Su in which a series of preflop bets had them all in, each holding A-K. Not so strange, except for the fact that Saab started the hand with 1.8 million and Su with 1.2 million, and the blinds were only 4,000/8,000. That’s right -- no hesitation whatsoever from either about committing 150 big blinds with Big Slick.

In the middle of all that action on Table #1 was Kara Scott, patiently nursing her below average stack while effortlessly dazzling all of the males in the vicinity with her smile and glances from underneath her green PokerStars cap. She eventually got moved to the feature table as well, and so will be getting some television time this fall, I imagine.

Among those surviving to Day 5, we have Mike Matusow, Tiffany Michelle, Allen Cunningham, Andrew “Foucault” Brokos, Jeff Madsen, Matt Matros, Phil Hellmuth, Mark Vos, Kara Scott, Sean Sheikhan, Victor Ramdin, Gus Hansen, Chip Jett, Hoyt Corkins, and Kido Pham. (Pham was my pick early on, and I even dedicated a post to him early in the tourney that kind of singled him out as a player to watch.) I think I heard someone say the plan today was to play down to the last 36 players, though I am not positive on that.

I’ll be back at PokerNews helping cover the action today. Could be the last day for me, as we are continuing to winnow down the number of reporters and bloggers being used. Yesterday was quite fun and satisfying, as I started the day with just five tables assigned to me, and thus between myself and the three reporters I had aiding me, we were able to cover essentially every important hand and bustout throughout the day. Today should operate in a similar fashion, with each of the bloggers probably having four or at most five tables to cover.

So follow along over at PokerNews, why don’t ya?

2008 WSOP, Day 42: Bubble Go Pop

Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event was a unique one for me. I did work, though didn’t write a single post.

The remaining 1,307 players were all assigned seats in the Amazon Room, with the table breaking order predetermined to begin in the Red section, then proceed to Orange, then to Blue (though I don’t believe they got quite that far). I was assigned to cover the high numbers in the Red section, meaning my tables were going to be breaking first, and once they did, I’d be free to break on out of there myself.

Took just over an hour for my tables to empty, and indeed, all my field reporters and I did the entire time was to pass along to our colleagues the new seat assignments for our players. And just like that, we were done.

During the afternoon I ran over to the Palms for a brief session of limit hold’em, where I lost a little while watching the old guys all river their inside straights and diamond flushes. Was too tired, though, to really be into it, so I headed back to the home-away-from-home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I spent most of the night checking in from time to time to see the live reports, playing in a 6-max PLO tourney online as I did. This was a $5,00+0.50 rebuy tourney on Stars, with about 150 signing up. I’ve gone deep in a couple of these before, and was doing well again last night. I actually was able to avoid rebuying altogether, having built a modest stack early on. Got into the third hour of the thing with a slightly-above average stack when something particularly unfortunate happened.

I had about 25,000 chips. There were 42 players left. I was on the button where I was dealt . Not really a hand to get too excited about, but one player had limped and the blinds acting behind me hadn’t been too active. So I limped, too, and the four of us all paid the minimum to see the flop come . Pretty much the ideal flop for my hand, as I’d hit my straight and had redraws to a better one, too. Checked around to me and I bet 900 into the 1,200 pot. The blinds folded, and the remaining player called.

The turn was the . Nice. Now it was impossible for anyone to river a flush. It checked to me and this time I went ahead and bet 3,000, the size of the pot. I’m thinking he could have the straight as well, but a set is much more likely. When he just called, I figured he was hoping the board would pair.

So when the river brought the , I was pretty much done with the hand. My opponent quickly firing out a pot-sized bet of 9,000 confirmed my decision. Time to let it go.

Here is where that “something particularly unfortunate” took place. Although the laptop has one of those touchpads, I prefer to use a mouse. I also prefer to type in my bets rather than use the slider, so my left hand usually rests on or near the keyboard. As I reached for the mouse with my right hand, my left hand must’ve brushed over the touchpad on the laptop, and before I realized what happened I saw that instead of folding I had raised my opponent to 18,000! Somehow I’d dragged the cursor over the minimum raise button and had applied just enough pressure on the pad with my left hand to click it. My opponent (predictably) responded to my mistaken bet by shoving all in (he started the hand with just about the same number of chips as I’d had).

I stared with horror at what had happened for a moment. I had only 2,700 chips left. But I had to fold, so I did. I typed “lord a misclick” in the box as a way of explaining my absurd play. No one was offering any sympathetic responses.

I’d gone from 14th or so down to 42nd out of 42 with one friggin’ misclick. The cash bubble was still a short ways away (I think the tourney probably paid the top 18 or thereabouts), so I can’t technically claim that was my most expensive misclick ever. And really, I’d only paid the $5.50 for this one, so it wasn’t like I’d lost more money here. Even so, the top spots pay out several hundred in these things, and I genuinely felt like I was going to be there. (I lingered on a bit, doubling up once, but ended finishing 36th.)

Of course, my disappointment hardly rivals that of the many who played into the early evening of the Main Event yesterday only to miss out on the money. Sounded like an arduous stretch of hand for hand play, causing them all to stick around a little later than planned last night. They’ve actually moved up the start time today to 1 p.m., although that decision may be related both to their having gone late last night and WSOP officials’ desire to stretch the remainder of the tourney over for four more days.

Was very happy to see Iggy hang in there and make the money last night. And he’s still in! So I’ll get to see him when I head over today to help cover Day 4. Looks like 474 players remain, with the next 100 or so bustouts all landing in the $27,000-$28,000 range. Average stack size right now is around 288,000.

Should be an intense day. Am seeing a lot of familiar names in the list of remaining players, including Sean Sheikhan, Phil Hellmuth, Victor Ramdin, Mark Vos, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Matusow, Evelyn Ng, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, Hevad Khan, Johnny Chan, PokerNews’ Tiffany Michelle, and the Two Plus Two Pokercast’s Adam Schwartz (among many others).

I imagine, though, we’re at the point where we will no longer be selecting players to follow, but will try to keep track of everyone. I hope that’s the case, anyhow.

Have no idea whether this will be my last day of reporting or I’ll be asked to help out anymore after today. (Even if I’m not, I’ll still keep reporting here on Hard-Boiled Poker from the last days of action.) Sort of like we’re all on the bubble here, taking it hand for hand. Waiting. Wondering. Hoping.

For now, though, do go over to PokerNews starting at 1 p.m. Vegas time (4 p.m. on the east coast) to follow along with today’s live reports.