Episode #116: John D'Agostino

MAIN TOPIC

FullTilt pro John D'Agostino gives us a ring while driving from New Jersey to Connecticut (relax, he wasn't driving!) to talk about poker and donuts. Listen to the show by clicking here. Some topics we discussed:

• The joys of living in Connecticut AND New Jersey
• Coming up through the limit ranks
• Chatting with fans on FullTilt
• Becoming a WPT Boot Camp instructor
• What high stakes poker games are really like, and why he plays on the East Coast instead of Vegas
• Why he hates razz
• And, of course, that quad-miracle that Hoyt Corkins turned at the U.S. Poker Championships.

OTHER TOPICS

PokerWire ends run: But we're sure Joe and Gavin will be back some how, some way.

Rattlesnakes as a weapon: How would you kill a poker rival? We're guessing you didn't think of this. Or, at least, we hope you didn't.

Rob and Amber challenge the odds: Chris proves once and for all how pathetic his life really is, watching the entire season of Rob and Amber Against the Odds in one sitting. Find out how well Boston Rob takes to Daniel Negreanu's advice.

Poker workshops at school: Harvard professor Charles Nesson wants to form a "global poker strategic thinking society" that will offer poker workshops to schools and community centers.

Ante Up! Hotline: A listener calls in with a question about razz antes. Our advice: Be careful stealing in razz. Also, we want to hear some of those funny stories that have happened in your home games. Call us toll-free at 1-866-371-9605. If we get enough good clips, we'll devote a whole show to them.

One Minute Mystery: Our listeners are very smart. They quickly figured out that Columbo has no reason to call with two pair in this Omaha hand with a straight and flush on the board.

Tampa Bay Poker Replay

Alright, hold on tight. There's a lot of action at local rooms. Here are the highlights:

• Sarasota Kennel Club: On Labor Day, one person every hour will get a chance to rack as much as $1,650 in chips in 93 seconds.
• Derby Lane: The $500+$50 entry $250,000 tournament on Sept. 30 is sold out, but you can still win seats with high hands.
• Tampa Bay Downs: The $40 1 p.m. Monday tournament is no juice, and on Saturdays play in $45 satellites for the weekly $230 tournament or the monthly $540 event.
• Tampa Greyhound Track: At 6:30 p.m. Saturday is a $150 tournament that awards a seat in the $5,000 Celebrity Poker Tournament in San Diego. At 2 p.m., a $25 with unlimited $10 rebuys satellite is planned.
• Hard Rock Seminole: One Sunday a month a $100 stud and a $100 Omaha 8 tournament is held.
• Treasure Island Sun Cruz: Every Sunday are $200+$20 satellites for the World Off-Shore Poker Tournament.

HAND OF THE WEEK

Chris lets J-Dag guide him through a recent hand where he had 8-8 in the BB and was isolated against the SB. Chris raised preflop, continue bet on the flop and then checked the turn. When the flush hits on the river, the SB makes his move and Chris has to bail to what turns out to be a bluff.

- SCOTT

Photo credit: World Poker Tour

Catching up with Kenna

I saw this video of Ante Up! Nation's very own Kenna James last night and thought everyone might get a kick out of it. He recently went to Kentucky to visit with some servicemen and they promptly gave him a buzz cut. Stay tuned, you might be hearing about him going to Iraq to visit the troops real soon, too. He's at the Bike in this clip, and ladies, try not to drool over his "assets" okay?

-- Chris

P.S. Kenna has stepped in to replace Kirk Morrison as TV host the National Poker League at the Venetian. It will be available in roughly 95% of the American television market so look for those first 26 episodes coming soon. For more info go here.

We have our John Daly!!!

 

Last night, as I watched ESPN's coverage of the final two sessions of Day 1 at the WSOP's Main Event, I came to realize Chris Moneymaker is the John Daly of poker. Let's compare, shall we?

If I said "This person came along in his sport at a time when it was struggling and needed a boost." who would I be talking about? (Moneymaker is credited with the poker boom and Daly's "Grip It and Rip It" style and beer drinking on the course endeared him to millions of Average Joes in a country club sport.)

If I said "This person came out of nowhere to win one of the most prestigious titles in his sport in his first attempt and he got into the event in a non-traditional way." who would I be talking about? (Moneymaker won a $40 satellite and eventually won the 2003 WSOP Main Event; Daly's win at Crooked Stick in the PGA Championship as an alternate gave golf the shot in the arm it needed.)

If I said "This person has a huge following to this day, even though he pretty much hasn't done anything since winning that title." who would I be talking about? (The galleries behind Moneymaker and Daly rival the greatest players in their respective sports, and autograph-hounds surround them wherever they go. And yes, Daly won the British Open later and Moneymaker also cashed a couple more times in the WSOP and made a WPT final table, but you get the point.)

If I said "This person is a little chubby for his frame, wears baseball caps (even though his sport isn't baseball), has been known to have a little scruff on his face from time to time and wears a gawdy chain bracelet." who would I be talking about? (Just look at the pictures, which came courtesy of Getty Images.)

If I said "This person is from Tennessee and had/has a problem with gambling and addiction." who would I be talking about? (Moneymaker is from Tennessee and though Daly is originally from Arkansas, he calls Memphis home now. Moneymaker admits in his book that gambling led to problems at home and in his bank account, and I don't need to list Daly's problems do I?)

If I said "This person has had marital problems." who would I be talking about? (Moneymaker lost his first wife due to his poker lifestyle and got remarried, and Daly has had at least 4 wives.)

Conclusion: Chris Moneymaker is the poker world's John Daly, there is no denying it. And, just like Daly, who almost always gets disqualified from a tournament if he isn't in contention due to frustration, you can see that frustration creeping into Chris' face, as evidenced by his poor play last night. Hopefully he will be able to quell his frustration and problems so he won't end up where Daly is now.

Are there any other similarities that I'm missing?

-- Chris

Playing the 2-7 game

And no, I don't mean Deuce-to-Seven. Over on the forum someone posted about the first episode of High Stakes Poker Season 4, which aired last night. And they mentioned something that came up, called the 2-7 game. I asked the forum bunch to try not to elaborate on it because we were going to have Mike "The Mouth" Matusow on the show this week. But as you see, he was travelling so we asked Dags to be on instead.

***SPOILER ALERT*** If you haven't watched this High Stakes episode yet then do NOT read further. If you don't care, read on.

So, what's the 2-7 game? Well, it's played during hold 'em, and whenever someone wins a pot with 2-7 in their hand, everyone at the table MUST pay that winning player $X. Last night the amount was $500 each. On like the second hand of the night Matusow picked up K-K and Hellmuth got 7-2. In the end, Hellmuth bluffed $40K and got Matusow to lay it down. It was beautiful, and we'll be sure to ask Mike about it when he eventually lands on Ante Up! But here's the thing: Some schmoe with 2-7 actually lost $117K last night trying to push a guy off a hand when he had flopped quad kings!!!

So here's the reason for the post: What do you think about incorporating this into your home game? Why do it? That idiot lost $117K to try to win at most $3,500 from everyone else. What a joke. I have thoughts about this, and I have a feeling I'll be able to discuss it through the comments, so let me know what you think. Sorry about hijacking this from the forum, but we were supposed to talk to Matusow about it. Maybe Dags will weigh in on it, too.

-- Chris

Dags on Show 116

My fellow Nutmegger, John "Dags" D'Agostino, is booked for this Friday's show. Of course I'll be asking him about that armpit of a state, Connecticut, and we'll bring up such topics as the U.S. Championships, High Stakes Poker and Full Tilt. But if you have something you'd like to ask him please list it here or email us and we'll be sure to take it under consideration.

-- Chris

Things you love to hear at a poker room

Here's your poker chuckle of the day. I was at Derby Lane last night when this announcement came over the PA:

"Attention players. The ATM in the poker room is now working!"

- SCOTT

AIPS II Event #9 created

The ninth event of AIPS II has been created and it open for registration.

The tournament is on Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern, at FullTilt. Password is "anteup." You can find the tournament under the "Private Tournaments" tab.

And remember, you can find all the information about AIPS by clicking here.

Good luck!

- SCOTT

Episode #115: Chinese Poker

MAIN TOPIC

Yes, in our ongoing quest to introduce so many games to our listeners that no one can become good in any one of them :), we introduce you to Chinese Poker, also known as Russian Poker or 13 Card Poker. Listen to the show by clicking here.

Two to four players can play, using a standard 52-card deck. Each player is dealt 13 cards, and must make three poker hands from them: a Front, Middle and Back. The Back is a 5-card hand and must be the best hand. The Front is a 3-card hand and must be the weakest hand. The Middle is a 5-card hand.

Once everyone has set their hand, the hands are revealed, and players compare the strength of each of their hands individually with all of the players. If your Front hand is better than your opponent's, you win 1 unit. And so on for the other hands. If all three of your hands are better than your opponent's, then you "sweep" and earn extra units depending on the scoring method you are using.

There are multiple scoring and rules variations, so be clear what the rules are of the game you're playing.

The game may seem to be all luck, but there is some strategy in it, and good players use this razor-thin margin to profit. For some strategy suggestions, check out http://www.chinesepokeronline.com/strategy.html or http://www.thesmolens.com, which also offers a book for sale for $22.99 and a computer simulation program for $46.95.

OTHER TOPICS

AIPS: We heaped praise on Event #8 champ heffmike, the first two-time banana winner, and Chris, who finally cashed in an AIPS event this season. Check the blog frequently for notice of when the next event, Limit Hold'em, is set up. And remember all AIPS details can be found by clicking here.

Vote for us!: Click here to vote for Ante Up! as the best podcast in Bluff Magazine's Readers Choice Awards.

Watch Survivor...: And you'll see pro Jean Robert Bellande compete against the other castaways in China. We're not laying him good odds.

High Stakes Poker is back: And with higher stakes. It'll take a cool $500K to sit at the table on GSN's show.

Learn to play Traktor ...: by clicking here. Good luck, and buy a widdddddddde screen TV to watch it.

Dead Pool winner is...: Michael Paul, who correctly predicted that Fasso, Chris and I would last a combined 16 levels at the WSOP.

Ante Up! Hotline: Jason from Nashville gives us a ring to say PokerStars won't do anything about a player who types into the chat "He's a bluffer!" to a friend, who calls and beats Jason. The site says it's bad etiquette, but not collusion. We agree, though would love to beat this chatty guy with a rubber hose.

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: We argue about the timed rake that some local rooms use for no-limit hold'em.

HAND OF THE WEEK

ElSnarfGrande sends us a Stud 8 hand from a recent HORSE MTT that proves just how brutal Stud 8 can be. Snarf starts out good with Ad-3s-7d, and improves both ways with a 4d on Fourth Street. Things get tricky on Fifth Street when Snarf makes his low with the 8s, but is sandwiched in between boards of Ks-Ah-Jh and 4s-3d-3c. Snarf just calls here, but the collective wisdom was a raise would have been better.

Snarf improves his low and picks up a straight draw with the 6s on Sixth, and again just calls now facing boards of Ks-Ah-Jh-Kh and 4s-3d-3c-Ac. Again, a tough decision. A raise would be very risky, but informational, so the right play was probably calling.

The wheels come off on the river, when Snarf completes his straight and improves his low with the 5c. He raises, gets reraised and then capped and find out what it's like to be the baloney in a sandwich made of Full House and Wheel bread. Ugh. We feel your pain, brother.

- SCOTT

One Minute Mystery: Case of Teeny Tiny Coffer

We're playing a Pot Limit Omaha cash game and call from late position with 10s-Qc-7d-Js. The small blind raises 3x, and we join three callers to the flop.

On a flop of Jh-Qd-9d, the small blind bets 4 into a pot of 15, and we call, as do two others.

The turn brings the Ad, and the small blind bets 8 into a pot of 19. After two callers, the pot is at 43 and action is on us.

What do we do?

AIPS II Event #8 Champion: heffmike

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

• Joker10690 (Chris "willhopper", 7th place)
• nate_46 and GapBand85 (Scott "OffDeadline", 48th place)
• PokerGeek (Fasso "stpetebeach", 56th place)
•  Columbo "columbo" did not play

NEXT EVENT: Limit Hold'em, Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and the first bananahead of the year Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS II events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

• Joker10690 (Chris "willhopper", 7th place)
• nate_46 and GapBand85 (Scott "OffDeadline", 48th place)
• PokerGeek (Fasso "stpetebeach", 56th place)
•  Columbo "columbo" did not play

NEXT EVENT: Limit Hold'em, Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and the first bananahead of the year Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS II events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

• Joker10690 (Chris "willhopper", 7th place)
• nate_46 and GapBand85 (Scott "OffDeadline", 48th place)
• PokerGeek (Fasso "stpetebeach", 56th place)
•  Columbo "columbo" did not play

NEXT EVENT: Limit Hold'em, Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and the first bananahead of the year Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS II events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

• Joker10690 (Chris "willhopper", 7th place)
• nate_46 and GapBand85 (Scott "OffDeadline", 48th place)
• PokerGeek (Fasso "stpetebeach", 56th place)
•  Columbo "columbo" did not play

NEXT EVENT: Limit Hold'em, Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and the first bananahead of the year Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS II events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

• Joker10690 (Chris "willhopper", 7th place)
• nate_46 and GapBand85 (Scott "OffDeadline", 48th place)
• PokerGeek (Fasso "stpetebeach", 56th place)
•  Columbo "columbo" did not play

NEXT EVENT: Limit Hold'em, Thursday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m. Eastern

Click here for the Player of the Year standings. (Special thanks to Ante Up! scorekeeper Gambit for compiling them and the first bananahead of the year Blazman for hosting the results).

Click here for the schedule and all the info on AIPS II events. We'll update it as we set dates for future events, and recognize champions. (This link is also permanently posted on the right-hand side of the blog with all the other important links).

- SCOTT

Congratulations to heffmike, who wins the eighth AIPS II banana (and his second career banana) as champion of the Stud Hi/Lo event, which drew 78 entrants.

heffmike won the last hand against Mickey Jay when his JJ22 scooped Mickey's KK.  Congrats to the entire final table, which amazingly included some stiff named willhopper (aka Chris "A10" Cosenza)!

Bounties go to:

AIPS STUD/8 TONIGHT!!

Just a friendly reminder that AIPS Event #8 is tonight at 9 ET on Full Tilt Poker. The tournament is Stud/8, the entry fee is $5+.50 and the password is anteup. Care to make any predictions about the Ante Up! crew and where we'll finish? Want to predict where you'll finish? The comments section of this post is open, so grow a spine and tell us how you think you'll do.

Of the three of us, I say Scott Long goes out first, Mike Fasso follows quickly behind (neither cashing) and I take this bad boy down tonight!!! I will get on the board tonight and I will make the final table and I will ride my first banana into the sunset!!!

-- Chris

VOTE FOR ANTE UP!

I was checking our listeners blogs today and went to Short Stacked Shamus' blog and found an item mentioning Bluff Magazine's Readers' Choice Awards. When the winners were announced last time we weren't even mentioned and that ticked me off. Now we are one of the nominees and I am calling on the ANTE UP! NATION to help us bring home the prize!!!! It's not easy to find, so you HERE is the link. It would be a pretty remarkable honor to win. I hope everyone votes for us, so stuff that ballot box!!

-- Chris

I'm right back where I started ... again

If you're familiar with Star Wars (and knowing our IT crowd I'm sure most of you are), then you know about the balance in the Force. There can never be more Siths than Jedis, or something like that (I'm sure someone out there will tell me the EXACT "rule"). Well, lately I feel like the Force has been fiddling with my bankroll. I've mentioned this before, in that I always seem to do better at online when I'm stinking up the joint in B&M poker and then vice versa.

This weekend I donked off a boatload of cash on Full Tilt. I don't know what it is, but every once in a while I lose my discipline and all it takes is one giant hand not to get there and I'm sunk. But after that donkfest I went to Derby Lane and won it all back. The week before I won a bunch online but lost at One-Eyed Jacks. My bankroll always seems to be in balance lately, never gaining ground and never losing.

I don't want to talk too much about the online bleeding because I'm trying to focus on the positive today. Let's just say that my draws never got there and there were two occasions where I didn't believe the other player and I was wrong. That in a nutshell is my online debacle.

Now, on to my Derby Lane experience. I got exactly what I wanted, a new table opened up so we all started with $100 or less. I played tight for a while (mostly because I didn't get anything above a 9 for like 25 minutes) and I limped with small suited connectors which never hit. A couple of times I called a $6 raise with hands like 44 or 55 but when I missed completely I got out. That had my stack down to like $72, then the following hand came up:

I was UTG with A♥K♠ and I raised to $8. I got two callers, one guy who wasn't very good and another guy who got hit with the deck in that first hour, so he had enough to felt me. With the blinds in there the pot was roughly $25 (accounting for rake). The flop came K♥5♠K♣. I had a feeling that the bad player (who was playing any paint) might have a king by the way he sat up in his chair (I was watching him as the flop came out). I thought it would look suspiscious if I checked after showing strength (and it was the first pot I had entered for a raise so I had a tight image). I bet out $20 and the guy who I thought would call me did. The luckbox folded. The turn was like a 7♠ so I bet half the pot, $30 and he called right away. Before the river came out I knew there was no way this guy would fold to whatever I had left so I put it in blind. The river was the A♣ and he called my remaining $14. I turned over my hand and he mucked. I can only imagine he had a king or he had a pocket pair higher than the 5 and the 7.

So that got me off to the races and ultimately pocketed $150 for my session.

Now, here are two things I want to mention: I made quad 4s (two in the hole) on the turn in once when the board was 4-3-3-4 and a guy went all-in. I called and said PLEASE HAVE 3-3!!! He only had one three, otherwise it would've been the bad beat jackpot, which was approaching $12K!! But, it was the high hand of the day at that point. It came a little after 5 p.m. and all I had to do was make it to 6 p.m. and I would've won a $500 seat into Derby Lane's massive $250K tournament in September. The ad for this tournament is at the top of the blog. And guess what? Yep, someone made a steel wheel at like 5:40. DOH!!!!

The other thing is this: I'd like to know what you'd have done. I had just won that AK hand and finally got above my buy-in. It was like 4 hands later when I looked down at K♣Q♥. It got folded to me so I made it $8 again. Now, I had been playing so tight that I was hoping they'd realize I had a hand again. I got one caller, and this guy had already gotten felted once for bluffing and he got caught another time. The flop came 10♥4♥6♥ and he bet out $25! I had two overs and the third-nut flush draw. I finally got my stack above water and if I called there who knows what he's going to make me call on the turn if it's not a heart. Plus I'd be right back to even if I fold to a turn bet. And even if a heart would come on the turn, could he have THE COSENZA with the A♥? I laid it down. Would you have folded there?

-- Chris

Sarasota Kennel Club review

Chris, Fasso and I loaded into Fasso's LandCruiser on Saturday and glided down to Sarasota to visit Sam Minutello and his One-Eyed Jack's card room. We weren't surprised to see that the room remains the class of Tampa Bay poker rooms, but it was nice to see the place buzzing with action this time. It's a great room - we just wish it was a lot closer.

THE ROOM: Swanky with a capital S. But we told you that the last time we were there - very nice tables, great decor. You really feel like you're in a top Vegas room. No plasma screen wait list, but a big dry erase board that was easy to see. It's still very spacious, so you never feel crowded, even when sitting at the table. And I'm not really sure why I care about this so much, but the bathroom was luxurious, too. Hey, sometimes that's important. And the room's chips just won the "Poker Chip of the Year 2006" award from the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club. They're nice.

THE GAMES:

$1-$2 NL Hold’em Min/Max buy-in $60
$2-$3 NL Hold’em Min/Max buy-in $100
$3-$5 Limit Hold’em Min buy-in $30
$2 Straight Hold’em Min buy-in $20
$3-$5 Omaha Min buy-in $30
$3-$5 Omaha Hi/Lo Min buy-in $30
$2 to $5 7 Card Stud  .50 ante
$2 to $5 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo  .50 ante

Fasso and I parked ourselves at the stud game, and loved the structure. Stud the way it's meant to be played. Despite all three of our names on the list, we couldn't get a Stud 8 game going, though. But the $3/$5 hold'em was going ($2/$3 blinds, which presents its own unique strategy. I'm not a fan of it, but I can easily see why others would like it. Definitely better than $2/$4). However, I do like the $3/$5 Omaha 8 game, since it forces you to play tighter. The no-limit has the dreaded timed rake. Sam is emphatic that this benefits the player, and I agree with him - if the dealers are quick (they were) and the players don't stall (they didn't). But even then, if you're losing, it can get costly. Chris points out that he'd like the $1/$2 no-limit to also allow a buy-in of up to $100.

High hands! Lots of them! Thank you! Like I've said before, if you're dragging a buck out of my pot, gimme a chance to win it back. Bad beats aren't that. Here, any quads or better wins you some cash in hold'em (quad 10s or better in stud, straight flushes or higher in Omaha).

SNGs ($40-$300) now pay three spots, and there's a point system. Everytime you cash in a SNG, you earn points that can get you entered into a monthly tournament for a World Series of Poker Main Event seat. Wow.

Two or three MTTs a day, including a $330+$20 doozy on Saturday afternoons. (Satellite in for $85).

THE PERSONNEL: Sam, of course, is all class. He runs a smooth room, and you can tell he trains well. The other floor personnel were fair and personable. Dealers were great, though Fasso reports one accidentally tried to get the stud action moving counter-clockwise. Oops. I like dealers who can deftly move between keeping the game moving quickly and correctly and can also keep up a conversation. Most here do that.

MY PLAY: Fasso and I found ourselves at a stud table that, no surprise, skewed older, but all fun players. Most were very loose, which is great - if you get cards. I hit a flush early on, but then hit a dry spell. But since it's $2-$5 spread with a 50-cent ante, and pots got pretty big, it was easy to withstand that spell. I started picking up some hands late, but was only treading water. When we declared "last hand," Chris and I were prepared to go to the mat. And since Chris has pocket Queens and I had split Aces, it wasn't hard to keep that promise. With that win, I left up $24 and change for just a couple of hours of work. Not bad.

Just one room left for us to review - the Seminole Hard Rock. As always, share your experiences at One-Eyed Jack's here.

- SCOTT

PPA problems?

Lately we've gotten a few emails and one voice message from listeners asking if there was something up with the Poker Players Alliance. They mentioned that for one reason or another they haven't received their certification and swag proving they joined. They said they contacted the PPA and asked where their stuff was and they were told the distributor was having a little trouble.

So I decided to try to get to the bottom of this and I contacted the PPA through the standard email method, but I told them who I was and that I was representing the Ante Up! Nation. Within the hour I had the executive director's response, an email with his direct phone number at the PPA offices. (Now that's power baby!)

I called him and stated what the listeners have been telling me. This is what he wants everyone to know: If you have contacted the PPA within the last four weeks, sit tight, your stuff is coming; there was just a backlog. If it's been more than four weeks since you contacted them (or since you joined) you need to call Jason at (415) 975-0897 and tell him everything that's happened.

What I was told was a lot of people joined the free enrollment thinking they were getting something when in fact the aren't due anything, they're just members. Now, I'm not saying that's the case with our complaints, but it's a fact that a lot of these people are just confused about what they should be getting as a member.

I hope this helps.

Keep us updated, too.

-- Chris

P.S. I talked to the director for a few minutes and asked him on the record how the PPA is doing. He said they are doing great and they're very encouraged by all of the activity in Congress. I told him when something significant happens we will want to have Sen. Alfonse D'Amato on the show and he was very pleased by this and assured me we'd get him whenever we wanted him. So stay tuned.

Tampa Greyhound Track freeroll

You're probably too late to qualify, but 245 players will fight for a $10,000 top prize on Sunday in Tampa Greyhound Track's $25,000 freeroll. To make it, you had to log 50 hours of live play since the room opened on July 1.

That's a pretty sweet payout for essentially just playing poker, a lot of poker.

- SCOTT

Episode #114: Becoming a Dealer

Dirk Shadd   |   Times

MAIN TOPIC

The new laws in Florida have made dealing cards far more lucrative, and as poker continues to spread around the world, you might be considering learning to sit between the 10 Seat and the 1 Seat. John Plenzick runs the Real Deal Poker Academy in St. Petersburg, and he dropped by the studio to give us all a sense of what to expect if we aspire to become a dealer. And you won't believe some of his stories. Click here to listen to the show.

OTHER TOPICS

AIPS: Reminder that the next event, Stud 8, is on Thursday. Click here for all the details. Who needs a banana? You do!

Commerce goes electronic: The Commerce Casino near L.A. proudly announces that it has installed a bunch of those computer tables. Ugh.

Bid on poker stuff for a good cause: If you want a tennis lesson from Vince Van Patten, or, well, something else, bid on it in a World Poker Tour auction to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Bid here through Aug. 23.

Boot Camp on sale: The WPT Boot Camp is offering a discount ($1,495) for Tampa residents for the Biloxi camp on Sept. 8-9.

Second Life bans gambling: The feds win again. The Second Life alternate universe has banned gambling. What am I going to do with all these "Linden dollars" now?!?!

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: The Ante Up Mob invaded One-Eyed Jack's at the Sarasota Kennel Club last weekend. It's still the class of the area poker rooms. It's just too bad it's so far away from us. (Look for a full review tomorrow).

One Minute Mystery: How can this be?!? Chris and I BOTH right?!?! Turns out, our opponent is betting hot and heavy with an inferior "dog" of a hand.

HAND OF THE WEEK

It's an audio one!

Jeremy from Ohio shares a hand from a $1/$2 no-limit ring game at charity festival. He bumps it to $15 with A-Q on the button, and picks up on a comment the big blind makes. On a rainbow flop of A-Q-4, he bets just short of pot and gets heads-up with the blind. His opponent puts him all-in on the turn Jack, and our hero amazingly lays it down. Chris and I want his opponent in our home game. You will, too, when you hear what he had.

- SCOTT

New meaning to big "blind"

There's a line in Rounders that I love (I know, what DON'T I love about Rounders) when Mike is with his professor in the bar talking about the Judges Game:

"Put a guy like me in a game like that, the cards don't even matter. I'll play it blind."

Recently someone told me about that 18-year-old phenom Annette playing an online tournament blind and winning it (of course I crippled her at the WSOP Academy when she was looking at the cards, but I digress). So last night for the hell of it I played a cheap SNG and won (actually my wife asked me to). I won pretty handily and basically did it with timely raises and situational poker. Only once was I behind and I hit a major flop. So aside from that I just outplayed the table. Later on I got to thinking, "Could I have won that SNG blind?" I mean, only two or three times would I have played it differently had I not seen the cards. So I decided to play one blind ... and I WON! The only thing is when we got to heads-up I took the piece of paper off my screen because I really didn't think I could play heads-up blind. Maybe I could have, I'm not sure, but I got to that point blind, which was pretty amazing. Of course it was a cheap buy-in, but that's not the point. There's a lot of truth to playing the person, position, etc.

I'm not saying I will do that all of the time, but it really helps you focus on position and chip stacks and betting patterns. I could tell players' moves before they made them, based on stacks and position. It was pretty surreal.

Ever tried this?

-- Chris

Show #113, the unmix

Show 113 has been unmixed, re-edited and reposted. If you have an old version you'll need to delete it and resubscribe. Sorry for the corrupt file.

-- Chris

Why do we keeping making the same mistakes?

So, this week I had about a half hour before The Wife gets home, so I fire up FullTilt and jump into three microlimit hold'em games - two pot-limit and a no-limit with a cap. I don't play optimal poker in these games, especially when time is limited. Rather, I like to limp, hit big and bust someone.

On Table 1, things were going fantastic. I called a raise with 9-9 and flopped a set. I check-raised all-in and was called by top two pair. The 9s held up, and I more than doubled up.

On Table 2, I had taken down a few paltry pots, and was treading water.

On Table 3, I was doing nothing. No cards. Never entering a pot. And then, I get QQ in early position. There was a limper, and I raised pot. Immediately, the next player repopped me pot (say that three times fast). Everyone folded back to me. What do you do? I reraised all-in (essentially a call, since my opponent only had to call another buck or two). Of course, my opponent turns over A-A, they hold up and suddenly most of the profit I earned on Table 1 evaporated in just one hand. (Have I told you I don't like no-limit?)

In my post-mortem on the hand, I kicked and bruised myself pretty hard. At the time, I just knew this guy had to have A-A or K-K to make that move. Had to. Had to. But even so, I shook my head and clicked the "Raise" button, somehow allowing myself one second of insanity that would let me believe he had a smaller pair. I've made this mistake countless times, but I'm becoming a much better player. So why do I keep making it?

- SCOTT

Tampa Greyhound Track to focus on poker

Interesting story in today's Times, saying Tampa Greyhound Track is suspending its live greyhound racing schedule, and will focus on poker.

No concrete details were discussed in the article, though it sounds like Derby Lane might get involved somehow. The interesting thing for me is that the law says you need to have a 100-day live racing meet in order to offer poker year-round. I guess we'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

Also, Chris, Fasso and I are headed down to One-Eyed Jack's in Sarasota today to see how Sam has jazzed the place up with the new limits. If you're around, swing by and say hi.

- SCOTT

Episode #113: Downtown Chad Brown

MAIN TOPIC

"Downtown" Chad Brown was in town, and scooted on over to our St. Pete studios to chat about a gazillion cool things. (Listen to the show by clicking here). Among them:

• His new book, Act to Win in Texas Hold'em, available at Bluff Magazine's Web site.
• The future of the Ultimate Poker Challenge
• His great run in this year's World Series of Poker, and some of the best poker TV ever (his 2004 WSOP Stud final table)
• His girlfriend, pro player Vanessa Rousso
• And we got him talking about his old days playing baseball and acting.

OTHER TOPICS

Back in the USA: Scott is back from the Dominican Republic, where he watched his wife scorch the Caribbean Stud tables and he reports that the "new Texas Hold'em craze" has arrived in the DR. Ha!

Au Jus, Redux: Remember how Chris teases Scott for pronouncing "au jus" like "au juice"? Well, the "jus" returned in a game other than poker. Scott gets some vindication, even if he still can't pronounce it correctly.

Happy B-Day, Dolly! Doyle Brunson is 74 years young today. Here's hoping he's enjoying 10 slices of double-chocolate cake. (Wait for it ... Wait for it... C'mon, 10-2?!? Oh, forget it)

WPT goes to China: Problem is, gambling isn't allowed in much of China. What are they doing? Beats us.

The Hand: Poor Lee Childs. Jerry Yang has told the world what he held in that fateful Q-Q hand with our Ante Up Main Event Superstar. It was J-J . Grrrr...

Ante Up Hotline: Maybe we should just shrink-wrap our laptops in plastic wrap. :)

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: Derby Lane will make someone $75,000 richer on Sunday, Sept. 30. The $500+$50 tournament will pay out $250,000 with a full field. Satellite in with $65 SNGs, or win a seat by having one of the two high hands every day.

HAND OF THE WEEK

At this risk of offending the Ante Up Nation, which loves to hear their hands shredded by pros, we asked Chad analyze a hand from his book since he was in our studio and the book contains lots of great real-live hands by pros. Better yet, this was a hand in which Chad disagreed with his co-author.

In a 7-player, $120,000 buy-in invitational, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson opens from early position with Ad-Jd, and David "Devil Fish" Ulliott calls in late position with 4-4. The flop comes King high, and Devil Fish calls Jesus' continuation bet. The turn doesn't help either player, and Devil Fish again calls Jesus' bet. Chad said he would have raised here, believing his 4s were good unless Ferguson paired the King. The river brings no help to either, and it's checked down and Devil Fish wins the pot.

Tune in to learn a "secret" play Chad uses in these situations. It's an interesting one.

- SCOTT

One-Minute Mystery: The Case of the Dog in the Park

It's Level 3 of a no-limit hold'em tournament, and we have an average stack of about 3,000.

After the UTG folds, and four players limp, we look down in the BB to see Kc-Qc and check.

The flop: 2c-Jh-Kh.

The SB bets out pot (about 300) and believing that everyone else will fold, we call. Everyone does fold, and we go to the turn heads up.

The turn: 7s.

SB again bets out pot.

What does he have, and what do we do?

More on "The Cosenza"

After reading this you might think the title of this post should be Cosenza, The Moron, not More on "The Cosenza." But I have to pipe up here. Remember all of the crap I got for playing A-10 for a raise UTG in an 8-player SNG? I'd like to take this moment to mention that I've been seeing a LOT of people playing that hand, and in EP.

Last night on the WSOP coverage, SO many players raised with this hand in EP it was funny, and they were still at a full table. I'm not saying this is a premium hand, and I'm not saying you should raise with it UTG all of the time. In fact, I would fold it at a difficult table all of the time. But, if you're thinking I should only have AK, AA, KK, QQ when I raise UTG, then how easy would it be to play against me? Or anyone else for that matter? Some people raise with any two cards UTG depending on table image and the players at the table.

But, like AJ, which I know gets the ire up in a lot of you, A-10 isn't exactly a hand you go to battle with, either. It's a hand you misdirect with. It's also a hand you have when you're playing the player, not the cards. Time and time again I've seen people play this hand and come out on top because they know their players. Last night on the WSOP, Phil Hellmuth made a bad read and lost with it when he raised UTG with A-10. It actually was the hand that eliminated him, but he was playing his tight image and he was playing the player. He didn't think Beth Shak would call a raise out of position against him with KQ, so when he hit his 10 he went with it. I really can't believe he thought she wouldn't call a raise with a suited KQ and she was the MASSIVE chipleader, but that's for another post.

Even Columbo's example when he called a raise with J-10 and couldn't imagine his raiser having A-10. Almost none of you in your comments put him on "The Cosenza," and yet it was the first hand I thought of because Columbo said people were playing fairly tight. If that's the case then A-10 moves up in value, and no one suspects him of having it.

I just think A-10 is better than you think, but it's not the weapon of choice at a tough table.

Naysayers?

-- Chris

It's time to go Downtown!

If you could ask Chad Brown a poker-related question, what would it be? As it stands right now Downtown Chad Brown will be in the Tampa Bay area this week signing copies of his new book, Act To Win In Texas Hold 'Em Poker, and he'll visit our studio on Wednesday (8/8). So if there's something you'd like to ask him post it here and we'll see if we can squeeze it in. The interview likely will be Show 114 (8/17) as we have another guest planned for Friday's broadcast, so stay tuned!

-- Chris

Episode #112: WSOP Expo

MAIN TOPIC

It wasn't all games at the World Series of Poker, it was fun, too. (Get it, fun and games?) Listen to this week's show by clicking here.

Chris and I made a few passes through the World Series of Poker's Gaming Life Expo, which without the online sites of yesteryear morphed into a smaller "men's lifestyle" event this year. But there was still plenty of poker goodies in the big ballroom, so here are some of the highlights:

LONE STAR POKER TABLES: A very unique poker table company, run by real-live Ante Upper Pat Mulry. All of his tables are custom made, and the coolest part is that the drink holders and chip rack are built in as sliders, so they close up neatly.

POKERTEK BAR TABLES: Look for these cool amusement devices in your local bar and tavern soon. Play heads-up poker against a friend (though we can't guarantee you'll get to play Phil Laak or Antonio Esfandiari). Very easy to use, and with a credit card swiper, just as convenient to play as a pool table or a Golden Tee game. (Chris beat me).

PLAY HARD GAMING TABLES: If you're a teetotaler like Chris, you'll have to get your video poker table kicks at home. Play Hard offers three models - a 10-seater, a 6-seater and a 2-seater. (Yes, Chris beat me again. Like he's some sort of poker god or something. Geez).

MONSTER CHIPS: If you can shuffle these big bad boys, you're doing something Chris can't. Use them as a conversation piece (or more likely as a coaster), but these larger-than-life chips are pretty neat. Buck up the full $20,000 for the entire set, including case, dealer button and cards. Ha!

THE NUTZ: Every poker player wants to be holding the nuts. Buy one of these card protectors, and you'll always have the nuts. (Well, metal replicas of real nuts, at least).

OTHER TOPICS

Poker fashion: No one is ever going to accuse Chris and I of being fashionable, but it's a different story with folks like Robert Williamson III, Johnny Chan and Clonie Gowen. USA Today did a fun little read on poker fashion at the table. Can you guess how many high-end pairs of jeans Clonie owns? Try 65.

Phil Laak vs. the Poker Bot: Some smarty pants up in Canada built a computer, gave it a lame name (Polaris - PIP would have been better) and then challenged The Unabomber to beat it.

Daniel Negreanu more animated than usual. Kid Poker will voice three characters in the upcoming Disney cartoon The Replacements. No word on whether any of them will sport PokerStars logos.

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: How smart is it to sit down in a Florida no-limit game late in the night?

One Minute Mystery: Aha! Chris was right! Our opponent was holding "The Cosenza" (A-10). So now we know there are at least two donks out there.

HAND OF THE WEEK

Youv from Israel has taken up HORSE, so we give him a little advice on where he went wrong in a Stud 8 hand.

He brought it in with a 3h-Jd-2c, and rightly took one more card off after he collected the 5h on Fourth Street. But the wheels came off on Fifth, when he picked up the 7h, and called two bets cold when one his opponents was going high, the other had a lower board and many of his "scoop" cards were gone. It gets worse on Six Street, when we get the 4c and raise, and then stick around in a capped Seventh Street when we don't improve.

Our advice: Try to get heads up, don't draw to half the pot unless it's the nuts.

- SCOTT

Why do aces hate me?

This is no lie: From the day I landed in Vegas (June 28) until last night (Aug. 1) I have received pocket aces FOUR times in live cash games (I said cash games, not tournaments). Once at Monte Carlo, once at the Orleans, once at Derby Lane and once on Full Tilt Poker. And all four times they got cracked. Two of them I played the same way, pretty straightforward, and twice I played them sneakily. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Only four times you've been dealt aces in a month?" But you have to remember, I have been playing a lot of Stud/8 lately, and I only played NLHE when I had to or if I was in the mood. In Vegas I really only got them twice.

Here are the first three times:

Monte Carlo, $1-2 NLHE, fairly loose table with a calling station who had lost $1,600 by day's end. Two people limped, I made it $20 to go and the calling station does what he has done to earn him his title. I get heads up with him and the flop is Q-8-X. I put him all-in, he calls, the turn and river don't pair the board and he slow rolls me with Q8o.

The Orleans, $1-2 NLHE. I have just come back from being down like $50 to reach about $160. I limp UTG+2 because there are two very tricky, aggressive players behind me. As expected the first wild guy (in the SB) makes it $15 and the second guy (BB) calls. When it gets back to me I make it $60 to go. They both call and the flop comes Q♠J♠10♠. I, of course, don't have the A♠. First guy bets out for $70, next guy pushes, which has me covered. I of course make a good fold and one guy had broadway and the other had the A♠.

Derby Lane, $1-2 NLHE. After doubling up on the first hand with 10-10, I look down at two red aces. I just blogged about this so as you know I raised it up to $20, got heads up, harmless flop and he hit two baby pair. Nothing I could do about that.

Now, here's last night's hand, and the reason for the post:

Full Tilt Poker, $.10-$.25 NLHE, I had played Stud/8 for about an hour at microlimits and lost exactly $10 when my low and straight was beaten by a wheel and a flush. So I thought, maybe I could double through some donk at the micro NL tables. I bought in short just looking to make $10 and go to bed. I made a few moves here and there (mostly check-raises with nothing when I knew they had nothing). So I was up to $13 when this hand came up.

Seat 1: Yodaddy379 ($44.75)
Seat 2: 3034529960 ($34.05)
Seat 3: Boise_Knuckles ($24.90)
Seat 4: Smotpoker024 ($13.50)
Seat 5: willhopper ($13.05)
Seat 6: pitchitquik ($24.75)
Smotpoker024 posts the small blind of $0.10
willhopper posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willhopper [Ad Ah]
pitchitquik raises to $0.85
Yodaddy379 folds
3034529960 folds
Boise_Knuckles folds
Smotpoker024 folds
willhopper calls $0.60 <--- I had been raising this UTG raiser a lot when I was the SB and he was folding his BB to me. But he always took his time, like he was wondering if I was just stealing, and I could tell I was getting to him. This is why I just called with the aces, which is something a LOT of people like to do in cash games when they know they are already heads-up with a raiser.
*** FLOP *** [5d 8s Js]
willhopper checks <--- setting up the check-raise.
pitchitquik bets $1 <--- I'm hoping he has AJ or QQ or KK.
willhopper raises to $4.80 <--- I just clicked on pot.
pitchitquik raises to $20.25 <--- BINGO! I got him!!
willhopper calls $7.40, and is all-in
pitchitquik shows [9s 8c] <--- So this guy raised with this crap, and only had middle pair when he pushed. He must've thought I was on a flush draw or he thought I could lay down $7 when there was already $25 in there.
willhopper shows [Ad Ah]
Uncalled bet of $8.05 returned to pitchitquik
*** TURN *** [5d 8s Js] [Qd] <--- What will be my card of death? An 8? 9? 10?
*** RIVER *** [5d 8s Js Qd] [9d] <--- Ah, the nine!!
pitchitquik shows two pair, Nines and Eights

So, I played it sneakily, trapped him perfectly and still got beat. I trapped the guys at the Orleans, they weren't smart enough to fold and they got a dream flop. I bet 10X the BB TWICE and both times got called by guys with crap who flopped two pair. I promised myself after the Derby Lane debacle that the next time I got aces I would just push and pray. But I got greedy last night and didn't reraise preflop. No matter how I play these two cards I get busted. I think it's back to Stud/8 and Razz for me. Any advice?

-- Chris