Episode #108: WSOP, baby!

Chris and I have less than 24 hours left in Vegas, but we have stories to last a lifetime (and, for the Ante Up Nation, at least three to four shows). So stay tuned over the next few weeks (109 will be pro interviews and other tidbits from our trip, 110 will be a review of the WSOP Academy and 111 will be dedicated to the products at the Expo). Whew. Listen to this week's show here.

MAIN TOPIC
Chris and I recount our World Series runs (Chris is a little more tired, since he ran much farther). Chris finished around 600 out of more than 3,100 entrants in the largest non-Main Event WSOP event in history, while Scott got to, well, sit at a table for a few hours in his event (it was a very nice chair).

But we both said we felt very comfortable for our first WSOP events, and we'll definitely be back.

OTHER TOPICS
Meetup: We played cards for several hours at one of the greatest card rooms in the world, Binion's (you gotta love the old school charm) with Ante Uppers AZSlick, Croker, New Scott and John from Toronto. The Binion's brass gave us a private table, and we dealt dealer's choice - stud8, limit hold'em, razz, 2-7 lowball and a painfully wonderful new game, Juarez (it's Omaha 8, but everyone gets five cards and there are two boards, but only one river. The best hi and the best low win. Ouch). Photos to come.

WSOP Academy: We attended the 3-day instructional camp to review it for you, our listeners. It was a lot of fun to rub shoulders with and get advice from the likes of Scott Fischman, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem. But the jury is still out on whether it's worth the cost. Stay tuned for our in-depth review.

Sightings ...: Listen to the show to find out where, and under what circumstances we bumped into David Sklansky, and we also recount a long, frustrating night with a happy drunk named Andy.

OMM: As we predicted last week, Columbo dug himself his own trap by not getting information on his opponent, or driving him out, and he ultimately loses a hand when he lets his opponent catch up after Columbo flopped an Ace. Ugh.

HAND OF THE WEEK
Scott finally got serious about playing some no-limit cash games but as expected, he still has some things to learn. In a $1/$2 fun game at Paris, Scott calls a $10 raise preflop with 10c-8c in the big blind. He flops a 10 on a Jack high board with two diamonds. He checks to the initial raiser, who pumps $20 into the 3-handed pot. The other caller comes along, so Scott peels one off hoping to trip up or hit two pair. The turn is an 8, giving him two pair. He checks, hoping to get a check raise in, but something happened that he didn't expect - the other caller called again when the raiser bet out $30. Befuddled, Scott shut down his check-raise plan (he should have pushed) and called, and the worst card in the deck came on the river: the Ace of diamonds. Scott folded to the $35 bet when the other caller called. It was a good laydown, as the Ace gave the initial raiser Aces up (A-10). But Scott would have likely taken down a nice pot had he pushed on the turn. Live and learn.

- SCOTT

Comments

[ScottD]

Scott's coupon book - ACG or LVA POV?

[boil d s]

are there any differences between the 3 episode 108s on the rss feed?

[Erwin Blonk]

In coffeeshops over here in The Netherlands you actually can get coffee. However, you might find that there is, eh, enhanced tobacco on sale as well. Over the counter.
Come to think of it, what will a Dutch version of Starbucks be like........

[Erwin Blonk]

I´m listening to the show right now and I heard about the Luske interview coming up. Wow, great catch!

btw you pronounce the ´Lus´ part of the name like ´bus´ and the e at the end isn´t silent, you pronounce it like the u in bus, or ´duh´ with a k (like ´kuh´). ´How To Pronounce Dutch Names´ is brought to you by Air-win Blonk, onk procounced like in donk (yes, I have considered e-donk for a FT or PS name) :)

[Scott Long]

Las Vegas Advisor. I even got Anthony Curtis to autograph mine at the Expo. :)

[AZslick]

Guys, I had a great time at the meet up, really enjoyed taking Chris's money. By the way, he counts every chip in front of everyone at the end of every hand. HA! Air-Win good post, I still don't know how to pronounce Luske. LOL

As Always with Pocket Aces

[Erwin Blonk]

Note to self: subject for my podcast - how to pronounce the names of Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Rolf Slotboom and other Dutch players.

[ChicagoMike]

The girl with sklansky was most likely Brandi Hawbaker, here's a link:

http://www.rawvegas.tv/watch.php?vID=bd7f89daf170a3bd4d5866db1a9214

If you follow 2+2 boards she has a bizare history of claiming cpt. tom franklin ripped her of in a tourney backing deal and tried to assault her, and now she ends up with sklansky as her "poker mentor".

She surfaced I think at the Bellagio WPT in December and got a bunch of pub as the early chip leader before she busted, and since then her stories and tales on 2+2 have been better than anything "As the World Turns" or "The Young and the Restless" writers could ever dream up.

[Marcus]

Hey Guys,

just listend (or listened?) to your podcast today and it sounds like you guys really had some fun there and everything is back to normal.

One thing though: I think we all have be worried about the "fight" between Chris and Fasso and what is on the podcast? Nothing - not a single word.
Now I have to wait until the next episode to find out... Or is this something like some sort of teaser to kept the listers interested? I swaer that I will continue to listen even when this thing is announced!

Marcus from Germany and very curisous!

[New Scott]

The girl with Sklansky was not Brandi "POB" Hawbaker. I'm sure it was some other random 18 year-old that happens to be in his life at the time, lol.

[Erik Blazynski]

Sklansky has a history of hooking up with teenage runaways. They are perfect for each other.

-Blaz

Chris, you never actually mentioned where your chips went during your delay of the tournament.............did the dude to your left actually have them and did he move the dealer button? Did you give the dealer a nice "I'm number one" after you were politely informed you were no longer S.O.L.?

Michael

Marcus - I think there was a clue in there about "grace", Chris said not to mention grace.

[djm182]

Yeah, where did the chips go? Since the eye in the sky determined that you had 1550 chips, they had to see the chips head off somewhere. Wouldn't it be grounds for a DQ if they caught someone swiping them? Was it dealer error?

[Gambit]

Regarding the missing chips, this is from PokerNews.com:

http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2007-wsop/event-49-no-limit-holdem/day1/page4.htm

"# Sat Jun 30 2007 22:50 PST | Posted by gsqwared

Case of the Missing Chips: Volume IV

I just spoke with one of the tournament directors about the issue that came up during the dinner break involving a missing chip stack. Here's what we found out:

The incident today was the fourth time someone has reported missing chips during the entire 2007 WSOP.

Each of the four incidents occurred during the last hand before the dinner break.

Two of the first three instances were unintentional; one was deliberate.

Today's situation was unusual, but falls into the unintentional category, according to both the tournament staff and surveillance crew.

The "suspect," if you will, who was standing up at the time, had just won the pot. In one fell swoop, he picked up the bet he had cut in front of him, and then proceeded to pick up the entire stack of the player next to him, who'd already left for dinner. After that, he stacked up the chips that were pushed to him by the dealer.

The tournament staff handled the situation very professionally, taking the player out of the tournament area to discuss the issue. Both the tournament staff and surveillance crew gave the player the "benefit of the doubt," attributing the error to the excitement of the moment.

The chips have been returned to the affected player; 1,500 of them to be exact. The "suspect:" has been allowed to continue playing in the tournament.

Case closed."

[boil d s]

better get columbo in on it - the case of the missing chips-

[djm182]

Wow, without seeing this you can't really pass judgment. You need to see how physically close any of the pot was to Chris' stack. All that said, it probably is an honest mistake. If you're trying to steal chips, you probably wouldn't steal someone's entire stack.

Still curious how the button migrated 2 seats down.

[Yzerman13]

Let's start planing the Anteup takeover of the WSOP '08.

yzerman

[New Scott]

I'm on it Yzerman. I think I am planning on two weeks as of now, possibly three.

[Godard]

I want to hear how Scott used his 50% Palms coupon from the POV.

[boil dunce son]

yzerman is it harder in the shoot outs or the mtts at the wsop?

[Scott Long]

Just catching up:
1. It definitely wasn't Brandi with Sklansky. I had somewhat followed that sad saga, and this woman looked nothing like her.
2. I admit it was a terrible waste, but I likely won't make it back to Vegas again this year so Chris and I used the Palms coupon at the coffee shop. We both got terrible $7 sandwiches. In the past, though, I used it at the buffet with a group of 7 of us, so I maximized the value. It's probably best used to offset a hotel bill, but can't say I have any desire to stay there.

[yzerman13]

Boil, i would think that a regular event is more difficult.

First, i only needed to win one table to cash and the players didn't change. Also it's a SNG and people played way too fast fot the structure.

Second, it was capped at 900 people, which is a "small" field for a holdem event.

And I only played in the one event, so these are just opinion, but i think that chris' event was REALLY difficult to get through and cash.

yzerman

[boil d s]

thx yzerman - good points and congrats again- what I thought was it might be harder to win a table in a shootout than slip into the money in a mtt,

am going to make a real effort to satellite in next year and go for an ante up take over,

[Erwin Blonk]

Binion´s indeed is very cool. From their website: "At Binion’s, we take no money from pots for promotions, and only a 5% rake. Max of $4 on $4/$8 and higher Limit games and all No-Limit Games."

I like my poker as straightforward as possible. No silly jackpots, just pay the house for the services, tips for the dealer, no fancy stuff.