ANTE UP! INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT

It is here! Cue the music! The first-ever Ante Up! International Invitational Tournament has been officially booked!

The date: Feb. 25
The time: 6 p.m. ET
The site: Pokerroom.com
The buy-in: $5+$.50 (that's a total of $5.50)
The password: anteup
At stake: Your pride!

The name of the tournament is: WILLHOPPER's Tournament. Yes, the cat is out of the bag, my screen name is WillHopper. I booked the tournament this morning and realized I can't name the tournament anything, it has to be named after its creator. So, yes, you can gun for me if you want, I am WillHopper on PokerRoom.com. And Scott and I will have something to give away for knocking us out, but we're not sure what at this time.

Now, the cap for entries for this tournament is 300, though I really doubt we'll get even a third of that, but don't say I didn't warn you. And I'm pretty sure you can go there and sign up right now, so if your nervous you might not get in (Ha!) go sign up now.

We'll talk more about this on the show, but for now, this is basically everything you need to know. And again, if you don't have a pokerroom.com account, email one us and we will send you a referral so you can get a signup bonus.

Good luck, and when the tournament's over I'll post the results here (if they are given to me.)

Vegas is so soft

I'm back with a few extra bucks, but not nearly as much as I expected after spending the first couple days in Vegas positively slack-jawed at the softness of the competition at 3-6, 4-8, 1-2 NL, and tournaments. There will be plenty of highlights on the Podcasts on Wednesday and Feb. 8, but here's a quick tip: Unless you play Hold 'em, Vegas has very little to offer. I realize it's the world's most popular poker game, but at least in Atlantic City you can still get stud and stud 8. I called the Mirage to ask if they had razz, and the woman nearly hacked up a lung laughing. She hadn't heard the word "razz" in 10 years. At Caesars, the last stud game was eight months ago. You can find 4-8 Omaha/8 at the Orleans, but the players there are tough, tough, tough. I took a peek into Bellagio's high-limit room and saw Doyle Brunson in a four-handed game where each player was fanning out a hand of about 12 cards. Wonder what that was? Oh, and here's a tip for Bellagio: Get rid of the clipboard and the lousy attitude and computerize your waiting lists.

Kenna is confirmed!

It's all set. Cowboy Kenna James will be on our February 15 show. Through a mutual friend we have nailed down the specifics and will interview him that afternoon. If you have any questions you'd like to have answered please send them our way through this post or through poker@tbt.com. We have a ton of stuff we want to talk to him about so we may cover your questions, but send them anyway.

Still golden at TB Downs, but tarnished in Vegas

Hey folks, just got home from cashing yet again at Tampa Bay Downs. Even though it was only 14th for a puny $76, it felt good to get a confidence boost after getting beaten like a junkyard dog in Sin City last week. I won't blather on about Vegas too much since we'll devote the next two podcasts to the trip, but suffice to say my wallet come home with a lot more room in it, even after scoring a $328 voucher from Southwest for taking a bump.

But I played extremely well at TB Downs tonight in a field that swelled to 159 (guess being the only game in Pinellas is good for business. Who knew?). At the end, I moved all-in on four straight hands - all of them solid or in position (AK/AJ suited/88/A-10) and got the table hot and bothered over it, but hey, at 2000/4000 blinds and 400 antes, that's a heck of lot of chips in the middle to get cute with. I showed the last one (AK) since everyone was convinced I was stealing. Then I look down on the next hand and see AQ, and tell the table, "I'll give you one more shot at me - all-in." Two took me up on the offer - 22 and AK, which beat me with a boat. Cripped, I went in blind on the next hand with 9-5 suited but couldn't improve. Had I won the AQ-AK showdown, I would have been tough to beat at the final table.

But that's poker.

Weird night, but it ended well

Ever have one of those sessions where no matter what you do it goes wrong? You get King Kong in the hole and raise, get a caller and an Ace comes on the flop and he pushes all-in; You make two pair on the flop, but you played suited connectors and now someone had flopped a straight; you have top pair with top kicker, bet out and have some donk call you down and hit a king on the river to edge you out; you make the nut flush get your chips all-in, get a caller with a one-out straight flush draw and he hits it; etc. It goes on and on. This was my night last night, but, like Kanish in Rounders, I am a grinder and I had worked myself back to only being down about $20. So I hit the $1-2 NL table hoping for a big hand before I went to bed.

After losing a few blinds I picked up Q♠9♠. A bunch of limpers came in and I was in the BB so I just checked. Flop came 8♠9♣Q♥. I bet the pot and got one caller. Did I have the wonderful misfortune of having yet another player flop the nut straight when I hit top two pair? Please, oh please, fill me up, I started screaming inside my head.
Turn = 9♦. YES! I check and he pushes all-in. Ka-ching! I would have beat him into the pot if we were playing in a live game, that's how fast I clicked the call button. And sure enough, he turned over J♥10♣ for the nut straight. The river was the case 9♥.

Nice to make quads, even though I didn't need it. It made me a cool profit and saved what had been a frustrating night.

One quick note: Actually watched live@thebike last night for the first time. For the uninitiated, this site follows a no limit table at the The Bicycle Casino in California. It's just like on TV in that you can see their hole cards and there are commentators. It's a live web cast that starts at 10 p.m. ET A couple of notes, it is difficult to follow the action because this isn't edited at all and the camera angles don't follow the action properly. But, it may be better from night to night. On this night it was a $2-5 $300 max buy-in, but some nights you get bigger buy-ins and it's more exciting. If the quality was a little better it could be addictive.

A well-rounded night of poker

I sat down at the computer last night with an itching to play different games on FullTilt. I'm still on the fence about this site, and I'll address that in some future post when I give my full review, but I do like the diversity of games.

First I played Razz, because I didn't want to deal with making too many BIG decisions; I just wanted to ease into playing. You can make a killing if you're patient at Razz live tables. People would have K,10,9 showing and be betting into me when I had A-2-7. It's ridiculous. Sometimes you have to wonder if they even know they are at a Razz table or if they even know what a good hand is. I won a few bucks but I've noticed that I get bored with Razz a lot, even if I love it. Maybe because there's not a lot of thought that goes into playing it.

I moved on to pot limit Omaha Hi for a bit and I think I played a little too tight there. I still won my share and came away up a few bucks, but there was one hand in particular that I wish I had back. Here it is:

I was in the BB with K♥4♥J♠10♠. No one had raised, but there were like five players. The flop came low: 5♠3♥ 6♥ One guy bet the pot and I called, as did another player, who I perceived as very tight. She didn't play many hands and when she had to show down her cards she showed the nuts at least three times inside 25 minutes. Anyway, I figured the guy who bet out had the straight already and was ramming and jamming and I was convinced the other caller was drawing or had a set.

Anyway, the turn: J♥. So I have the second nut flush. The lead bettor checks, so now I KNOW he has the straight, and I bet the pot. The woman who called on the flop then reraised me the pot, which would have put me all-in. I thought long and hard and laid it down. The other guy folded as well and then she flashed me Q♥10♥ and two other rags. She was showing me to make me feel better, but little did she know that broke my heart. I got upset for a minute, but then thought back to the popular edict that has soothed the souls of many a poker player "You have to be able to lay down the best hand once in a while to be a top poker player."

Should I have called, given her betting patterns and tight play? Probably not. Sure I had the best hand, but could I be certain? So much for not making tough decisions. I recouped that lost pot a little later when I made a better boat than someone, but I still thought about that flush hand for a bit, which I know I shouldn't do. I played another hand later and I played it poorly, even though I won. I was drawing to the nut straight with a wrap draw, calling small bets and when I hit it on the river I bet the max. Of course the player folded like a napkin, and that sucked because I should've found a number he could've called instead of pushing it.

That's another thing that's wrong with the Internet. I agree that for the most part we need to have a timer on every player. But every once in a while I think it would benefit us to have a little more time to make our decisions. If I were at a live table I think I would've dialed in on an amount and then bet it. But sometimes when you know you HAVE to act fast you make mistakes. This time it probably cost me a few bucks, but who knows.

So after making a profit in both games I decided to play a NL Hold 'Em SNG. I played super tight early and won like three major hands to take the chip lead. I won the tournament pretty easily and was so elated with my run of three winning minisessions that I thought I'd take a stab at playing a HORSE SNG. Again, if you don't know what this is it's a combination of five games: Hold Em, Omaha, Razz, 7-card Stud and 7-card Stud 8/B. I held my own in stud and stud/8 playing very tight and then I kicked butt in Razz, Omaha and Hold 'Em. I ended up cashing 3rd, which made me feel good because it feels like I really played POKER well, and not just one game. I like HORSE, but I'm still a little uncomfortable with Stud 8/B and O8B, but the sessions weren't too long so I only got involved in like two hands in each. I think the key is to have a working knowledge of all the games and to play tight. It worked for me. Overall I cashed in every tournament I played and won cash at every table. It was a good night.

Heard from the Times Mob

Hey all,

TIMES MOB CHIMES IN: Mike and Scott called me today from Vegas, they were on their way to the Wynn to play in a satellite to the big noon tournament. I don't want to reveal too much of the conversation because we're going to do back-to-back shows on their trip, but Mike did say that the live tables were the softest he has ever seen, even at $4-8. He also said I would kill the $1-2 No Limit tables, so I'm eager to go out there and see if he's right! I do know that Mike had a cash in the first tournament he played in, so that's good. Can't wait to hear the stories.

KING OF VEGAS: Have you caught this show on SpikeTV yet? It's actually pretty annoying. There definitely are some outrageous characters on that show, including Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and David Williams (at right), and I'm entertained by it, but I'm not sure it's worth following. The show basically takes renowned gamblers and has them compete in every casino game out there, from Red Dog (Acey-Deucey) to Caribbean Stud and Craps. One thing that is totally unfair is they have a Texas Hold Em Death Match at the end for the players who get eliminated from the other games. How can a craps player be expected to compete with The Mouth at the poker table? Matusow and Williams can play recklessly at the other games because they know if they are eliminated they'll be able to play poker to survive. They should rotate the "Death Match" game so no one has the advantage every week. I guess it will come down to when Williams and Matusow are eliminated from the other games and will play heads-up.

One of the saddest parts is one of the co-hosts is Max Kellerman. Has anyone fallen further than Max (at left)? The guy starts out on ESPN as a boxing analyst, then ESPN rewards him with his own show, Around the Horn, he gets lured away by FSN to have yet another show called I, Max, which bombed, and now he's co-hosting this "sideshow" on SpikeTV. Sorry, Max. Like Keith Olbermann and Craig Kilborne before you, you should have stayed on the mothership.

No poker playing to report, sorry. Took the night off to make fun of some American Idol contestants.

Kings are the death lately

My wife Jeanne and I have been chuckling a lot lately when it comes to pocket kings and how often they've been getting beat in our games, online and in homegames.

Of course there's the instance I brought up on our show last week when "Lance" turned over and folded his King Kong when I pushed with pocket 10s. But it doesn't stop there. I've lost with KK to J-6 and AA in the past two online sessions and I've beaten them heads up with AK, which is what happened last night. I'll get into that hand in a second, but I want to refer to my post on JUNE 22 when I talked about this very same subject. It's just comical how we think of kings as monsters and yet we constantly hear stories of people getting sucked out on, etc. I'd put a link here to that post but it doesn't work in this format for some reason. But if you go in the rail on the left-hand side and click in the June archives you'll see the post.

Anyway, I was just killing time last night in a micro-limit NL table and had been getting sucked out on a lot, including making the nut-flush only to lose to a straight flush on the river when we were both all-in. I also saw someone lose to a royal flush, which was cool, and comical, because the person who got it didn't even know he made it. One downside to FullTilt, if you get a royal you only get the pot you won, nothing else.

So, after those suckouts I didn't want to quit losing piddly amounts to crap players on lucky hands. So I moved up to a larger NL table and caught A♣K♣ fairly early on. I raised 3X and got a reraise. The reraise was about 40% of the guy's stack and I had a feeling he may have had AK or QQ. I decided to reraise all-in to try to push him off. He deliberated for as long as FullTilt allows and eventually called with K♥K♠. OK, so I'm dominated, but if I don't push him all-in I don't get to see all five cards, now do I? Here's the flop: Q♠4♣8♥. No help ... yet. The turn=9♣. Now I have a lot of help. I picked up nine ♣s and three aces for a total of 12 outs. That meant there was a 25% chance for me to hit the winning card.

Now, some sites delay the river to heighten the excitement. FullTilt does not do this, but on this hand I NEVER saw the river. It just never came. I heard the chips being pushed to someone but never saw the river. I looked down at my money and I had won the hand. Care to guess which came, a club or an ace?

I clicked on the hand history and it was an A♦ SWEET! I turned to Jeanne and said: "You knew I was going to win. Pocket kings suck!" She laughed.

I went on to kill the table after that, picking up bullets, queens, 10s and big slick at least once more. I started bluffing a lot because I had kept showing down the nuts earlier. I quit with a tidy profit at 2 a.m.

Not too bad.

Other news: If you haven't listened to Lord Admiral Card Club you should, especially this week (Show 60), because they used my email! At first I listened to the show to see how we stacked up, but now I'm a fan and listen whenever I get a chance. Last episode they did their awesome Columbo Minute Mystery, and if you don't know what that is you have to tune in to experience it. Anyway, Columbo presents a situation in a NL tournament that he's in and then asks what his next move should be (sort of like our WHAT SHOULD WE DO? segment). Anyway, I analyzed the situation and responded and they used my response on the show. The host Cincy Sean touts our show and has linked it on his web site. So I appreciated that and have returned the favor here. I'm gonna play the clip on our show next week I(2/1) because it's entertaining. And in case you were wondering, I was spot on correct, and almost none of the responders were right. Pat on the shoulder baby!

Wondering about the Kenna James situation? We're talking about dates and discussing moving the show to a local radio studio to do this right. More later on that. Also, it's getting close to booking the Ante Up! International Invitational Tournament on pokerroom.com. Again, if you don't have an account but want to play, email me and I'll refer you so you can earn $25 when you accumulate enough points.

New meaning to the term ALL-IN

This is unbelievable: Paradise Lakes Resort, the nation's largest clothing-optional club, will host a strip poker tournament on Friday (1/27/06) as the highlight of an all-day Bulls in the Buff event for University of South Florida students. USF students, as well as other 25-and-under young adults, will be admitted to the resort free of charge beginning at 3 p.m. (The event is limited to couples and single ladies -- well duh!) The strip poker tournament runs from 6:30-8 p.m., with prizes offered to the winners. For more information click here, but be warned, you will encounter nudity if you peruse this site.

Housekeeping

Just a few nuggets to chew on:

Special guest on podcast: I just got word from one of our listeners that poker pro Kenna James is interested in being on our show! Not sure when it will come together because we'll have to get the necessary equipment to do a live phone interview, but we're working on it. The listener is good friends with him and told him about the show. Kenna said he'd love to be on, so if you have any questions you'd like asked send them my way at cosenza@tbt.com or post them here on this blog entry. STAY TUNED!!!

Scott and Mike are in Vegas: The guys left Sunday morning and will be there for most of the week, returning on Friday (1/20). Wish them well, and if you see them out there, try to put them on tilt, ok? We'll get all the details on back-to-back shows (2/1 and 2/8) when they return.

Home tournament: Speaking of tilt, we had our first tournament session in a few months on Saturday. We had nine show up and it went well, though the first two tournaments sucked for me, and I mean that literally. Twice I got sucked out on at the river by our old friend Schwarb, once to cripple me and the second time to eliminate me. I won't get into the minutia of the hand, but I was a huge favorite until the river both times, and BOTH times he hit the K♠ to suck out. That didn't sit too well with me, but I didn't go on tilt, even though I had to deal both times. I rebounded by winning the next tournament (which paid the most because of multiple rebuys) after I limped with Q♥ Q♠ and trapped our fellow podcasting friend Steve Spears of Stuck in the '80s fame, and then I finished second in the final tournament. I was particularly proud of the second-place finish because I played the short stack well, bluffing at the right times and then showing the bluffs to put Scott on tilt. Twice I showed him 4 high, and those wins propelled me to second. I came very close to winning that last tournament but when Mike pushed all-in with A3 I had A2 and he spiked a three to avoid the split pot. If I win that hand or if we split who knows what would have happened. Mike played very well and was the big winner, I earned the second most on the day and that makes four straight winning sessions in the home game, and like seven or eight straight winning "tournament" sessions with our friends. Not too bad, and this is the largest my cash bankroll has ever been. I also won a decent hunk on FullTilt this weekend so life is good.

Inside Poker: Has anyone seen this show yet? I caught it on Sunshine, but not sure what channel it would be on around the country/world. It's like a magazine show with very basic advice but from very big names, like famous poker author/player Lou Krieger. It's hosted by Matt Savage and it has this really corny segment at the end called On the River with Matt Savage (or something equally goofy), and he gives his opinion on something in this sort of pulp fiction flick setting. All that's missing is him puffing on a nonfiltered Camel. But they have some good people on there for interviews such as Jen Harman, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Antonio Esfandiari, etc. If you haven't gotten enough basic poker information then you should watch this catch-all.

Foxwoods: I'm headed to Connecticut to see the family on Feb. 17 and will head to Foxwoods to play the no-limit tables probably on the 18th. Wish me luck.

Forum: I've talked to the powers-that-be and we have a forum template here at the St. Petersburg Times. There has been some interest in having one so I'm leaning toward doing it. It'll probably listed under the SPORTS header on th elink I posted above. I think I'll keep the blog too, at least in the beginning. It 1,100 hits last week so that's cool. But I'm gonna talk to our IT/WEB guys and see what's involved, etc. for the forum. It may take a while, but it looks like it may happen. More later.

OK, that's about it for now, how'd y'all do this weekend?

Bankroll, FullTilt

Mike here ... You can find my review of two books on gambling addiction here, and you can also take the 20-question Gamblers Anonymous quiz on the recent podcast titled "Gambling Problems." But this isn't intended to be a buzz-kill. I just want to mention a couple money-management tips that I intend to follow on my next Vegas trip that may be useful. I say this as someone who has NEVER practiced much money management, win or lose, on previous trips. This time, I am taking a total amount, X, and a daily amount, Y, and when Y is gone, I'm done. Time to take in a lame lounge act, see a movie, or walk the Strip and people watch. Discipline!

Topic 2: I recently signed up to FullTilt, being a Mac user limited to Pokerroom for several years, and I'm impressed. I like watching the pros, I like the interface and the speed of updating chip counts in tourneys, and, maybe best of all, RAZZ! Razz is much more straightforward than the other games (I'd argue it's barely even poker), and it's good to have all the games under your belt. We talked on the podcast about HORSE, and I'd argue that if you can't play limit/no-limit Hold em, Omaha (hi and 8), stud (hi and 8), and razz, you're not a real poker player. Now if I can just figure out triple-draw lowball...

TB Downs still dealing tournaments

The state's demands be darned! Tampa Bay Downs has not halted its tournament play, even in the face of stern warnings from the state parimutuel division that the tournaments are illegal even after changing the value of chips.

The track's card room was closed Wednesday when card rooms were informed of the state's decision. News reports this morning quoted a spokesman from the parimutuel division as saying every room in the state had shut down tournaments, except TB Downs. I expected TB Downs to follow suit this morning, but an email today from a local publication mentioned that the track was continuing tournaments. Surprised, and convinced the report was wrong, I just called out there and got a cheerful "Yes!" when I asked if they were still running tournaments.

We'll watch this closely to see how the state responds.

Poker message board?

In the post directly below this one, Gambit727 brought up the point of making this blog a forum. I'm sure y'all know what a message board forum is so I won't get into the minutia of that, but I am curious if there's interest in this. I've thought about it in the past, but it would take a lot of work to set up and moderate initially. If a lot of people don't have interest I can't see myself really going through all that. So, this post is your chance to speak out and ask for it. I'll see what kind of response we get and I will let you know if we will consider doing it.

I envision such topics as: General discussion; Beginner questions; Online play; Advanced strategy; Games other than hold 'em; tournaments; Poker on TV; Off topic, etc.

Offer your suggestions here as well.

Thanks

BREAKING NEWS: CHAOS!!!

Once again the state of Florida has shut down tournaments. What does this mean? Well, it means today's podcast is all up in the air! We planned on having one of Derby Lane's dealers on the show but now that's fallen through. We'll still have a show, we are professionals after all (heh-heh) but we're not sure what the status of the dealer show is. Rest assured, we still have your questions and we will still have the show, but we have to get to the bottom of this shut down first.

Stay tuned.

Have any dealer questions?

On this week's podcast, our guest will be a local dealer/supervisor who will give us some insight on what it's like on the other side of the table. Kind of a "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Dealing, But Were Afraid to Ask" show. So post some questions here, and we'll pose the best of them to our guest. And we'll make the show a two-parter - the following week will be "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Supervising, But Were Afraid to Ask." Send us some questions to ask!

Trapped myself good

First let me say that I had a big day in our homegame on Saturday, winning more than $240, and that was a great feeling because it was the best session I've had ever since we started playing this five-game format. Plus, it's my third straight winning session with Scott, Mike and Kyle. Another thing I was proud of was my play in 7-card stud, which we subbed for Crazy Pineapple this week. But first let me get to the main reason for my post, and it figures that this lesson would come from the LAST hand of the day.

It was a $1-2 No Limit $50 freezeout, which is how we always end our session, and I was up to about $120. We already had extended the session by almost 20 minutes and so we agreed it would be the last hand. I was on the button and looked down at 9♥ 2♥. For some reason when I'm the big winner on the day, I always feel obligated to play the last hand if the cards I hold have any merit at all, plus I had position. The player to my left was somewhat shortstacked and the person in the big blind had a little more than the buy-in, but nothing that could keep me from a winning session. So I limped and there was no raise.

The flop was 9♣ 9♠ Q♥, which is a monster flop for me. I have trips and a backdoor flush draw. The SB checked and the BB bet $10 into a $6 pot. With that kind of bet I put him on one of two hands: a bluff or any queen. I decided he had a queen and chose to slow play. I smooth called and the SB folded. The turn was a 10♣. He bet $10 again and I had a sinking feeling I was overlooking something or that he may have the case nine. With trips and $36 in the pot I again called. The river was an 8♠. All he needed was a jack to make a straight and he bet $20. If I call I'm still up $30 for the NL portion of the session and I still would clear $240 for five hours of play. I called and he turned over J-8. He made the straight on the turn. I can't be certain of the suits but I think one was a diamond and one was a spade. Either way he didn't have a flush draw and it turns out he had made a semibluff after the flop.

Here's my mistake: When I hit the trips I should have pushed all-in. Neither player could have busted me and I was assured of a profit no matter what the outcome of the hand. But when he bet out I changed my strategy. If I push all-in there's NO WAY he calls all of his chips (which I think was about $57) on a gutshot, which I just couldn't put him on with a $10 bet after that flop. He was representing that queen. I never thought for a second that he had the case nine because I think he would have slowplayed that as well. He was down a bunch on the day and wouldn't want to lose that opportunity to make more money. As it turned out he got pretty much maximum profit out of his hand anyway, but he needed a miracle to win that hand and he got it. After the hand was over I was rationalizing with the guys that if I had gone all-in he might have called me because he was open-ended, but then when I thought about it he wasn't open-ended; it was a gutshot and that hurt a little.

Was I disappointed? Sure, but it's hard to get too upset when you nearly triple your buy-in on the day. But I still wish I had played the hand differently. That $40 is equal to an entry into a Tampa Bay Downs tournament so of course that sucks, but I'm not complaining, just rehashing my misfortune so you can learn from my mistake. I had a very good day with Omaha, winning what felt like 90% of the hands over an hour period. But my stud strategy (which I won't reveal) paid off and set up my very successful run for the day. I think I'm getting better at it, though I don't like it nearly as much as Razz.

More later.

Catch TB Downs' TV show

Local poker fans: Set your Tivo for 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. every Saturday night on CBS (channel 10) and catch Tampa Bay Downs' TV show, "Track Time." (It's listed as "Paid Programming" on Tivo, so you'll have to do a manual record Season Pass, unless you want to fill your box with Ron Popeil reruns.)

It's a fun little show that includes race recaps, previews, a golf tip, a cooking segment with the track's chef and (the reason for this post) a weekly poker tip. Last week's was A-K. It was a little hokey, and not much of a "tip" per se (more of a "dramatic recreation"), but still fun to see some guys you play with every week.

Good news!

Hey rounders,

Just wanted to drop a line to tell y'all that I have some good news about our Ante Up! podcast and blog. The podcast averages nearly 2,000 listeners a week according to some rough numbers our web editor got today and the blog hits have doubled since I asked for y'all to give us a read. We've been blogging more and you've been reading more, so that's awesome. Thanks!

In poker happenings, I played in a NL Hold Em SNG last night and got an incredible run of cards to start, including Big Slick suited, Kings, Queens and I made a gutshot all within the first 10 hands. I won pretty easily and quit for the night. Not too bad. Home game is Saturday (1/14) so I'll be bypassing TBD for at least a week, maybe two. After that I plan a return. Got to improve on that 21st-place finish.

So, given the amount of people who listen to our show I'm hoping the tournament will really be successful. Strictly speaking from solid commitments we have at least 30 players. This doesn't include the people who plan to play but just haven't said anything for whatever reason. Can't wait to get the final numbers. As it gets closer we will have a time and passwords (if needed), etc.

Ultra Turbo tournaments - thumbs up or down?

A few months back, I stumbled into an Ultra Turbo SNG on UltimateBet by accident. (Turbo tournaments usually hike the blinds every 5 minutes; Ultra Turbos do it every 2-3 minutes). By sheer luck, I won the thing, and swore I'd never play another one.

This week, though, I found myself looking for a multi-table, and the only one running at the time was an Ultra on DoylesRoom. It had a paltry $3+0.30 entry fee, so I said "why not?" What I should have said was "what am I thinking?!?!"

I was out lightning fast, which, of course, is the point. The funny thing was it started with 270 players; I finished somewhere near 80th, less than 30 minutes in. No doubt, I'm a tight player by nature, so tournaments with loooooooong blind levels suit my game the best. But I doubt even hyper-aggressive players feel comfortable in the Ultra environment. You essentially have to push in any time you enter a pot - and since you know you'll be called, you have to win race after race. To me, all it was was a $3.30 lottery ticket I didn't cash.

Anyone feel differently?

Quads in Stud

This is Mike Fasso, blogging under my nom de plume The Cineaste. Thanks, Chris and Scott, for inviting me to post. We talked about some gambling books on today's Ante Up Podcast, and I'll have more to say about them in a future post, but I wanted to start with a situation that came up in a limit stud game recently online. I started out with rolled-up kings (three of them), and put in a raise in a six-handed game. There were no ace door cards, and I got three callers. My next card: KING. Good news, bad news. Good: I have four kings. Bad: How am I going to get anyone to contribute to my pot? And more bad: Fourth street brought aces to two players, lowering the chances that either would pair up.

I decide to check fourth street, and not surprisingly the other three check. Fifth street? I have now settled on a strategy: Checking fifth and sixth streets and betting seventh. Needless to say, everyone checks along.

I'm still high with the open pair of kings and bet the end (is it called the river in stud?). To my delight, I am raised. After the others fold, I make it three bets and he just calls. I didn't look up what he had, but it could have easily been aces up or trips. One player said in the comment box, I had a feeling you had quad kings; no other hand made sense the way you were playing it. That may be true, and perhaps I could have bet fifth and sixth streets and been called, but I felt my best strategy was to let them catch up, even if it appeared obvious what I was doing.

Usually it makes sense to play rolled up hands fast, to make the drawing hands pay you for the honor of drawing, but quads need to be played s....l....o.....w.

H.O.R.S.E. event at WSOP!

Our good buddy ChicagoMike told me today (in a post buried on here) that Harrah's announced it will hold a H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker. For those of you who don't know what H.O.R.S.E. is it's a combination of five games Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven-Card Stud and Eight or better 7-card stud. The buy-in is an unprecedented $50K!!!!! Mike says it's my chance at fame and fortune. If I had $50K to spend on an entry I wouldn't be sitting here in St. Petersburg playing $.25 NL with yahoos that's for sure! Thanks for the headsup Mike. Read more about it here. Hopefully ESPN will cover this event for us!

Gotta come clean

I've been getting a few emails about the chips and sunglasses I have in my bio picture on the side over there. The sunglasses are Morpheus glasses from The Matrix. I was a huge fan of the movie and I loved those glasses so my wife bought them for me for my birthday a few years ago. The chips are just standard composite chips I got for Christmas two years ago from my parents. You can find them everywhere online, including here and even in stores like Bed Bath and Beyond or a Costco/Sam's Club-type place. But this does not mean I endorse the link I listed or the stores I mentioned, I'm just giving some examples.

Now here's the "gotta come clean" portion of the post. The chips you see have been manipulated to add the asterisk (*) to the chip because that is the logo of our publication: tbt*. We did it in Photoshop. It's the same thing we did with the chips you see on the righthand side of this page, those were created in Photoshop as well. As for the glasses, I wear them when I'm driving, but I never wear them when I'm playing, and I never wear any sunglasses when I play at all. And I especially wouldn't wear the Morpheus glasses because they pinch my nose too much after like 30 minutes.

OK that's it, my soul is cleansed.