Well, the 2004 World Series Of Poker is under way at the Horsehoe in Las Vegas, despite all the craziness with the Horseshoe being closed and then sold to Harrah's. I was really hoping to make it out to the final this year, but I don't think it's going to happen. The reality is that I haven't tried very hard to win a seat. I've been building my small bankroll up slowly in cash games and it's hard to justify throwing money at tournaments right now when I don't think there's much chance I will cash and make the trip.
Anyway, if you're like me and aren't even lucky enough to be there on the rail, don't fear. ESPN will have very extensive coverage this year starting in June, which will actually include some events before the final. 7 Card Stud with hole card cams? That could be pretty cool.
In the meantime, one of the best places to keep up on the tournament results is at pokerpages.com, the schedule is here, and you can click on individual events from there. The info is much more current than on the official web site.
If you're looking for commentary, you can't go wrong with Jesse May. Jesse is on a tear right now, having written some great articles about the WPT final at the Bellagio. His coverage of the WSOP is here. Andy Glazer is posting articles about the tournament as well, but I haven't taken the time yet to register and read any.
So far the winners are James Vogl of London in $2,000 NLHE, Ted Forrest in $1500 7 Card Stud, and Aaron Katz in the $1500 Limit Holdem. Congrats.
Ted
There was a new WPT episode tonight, the 2004 Jack Binion's World Poker Open from Tunica. It was great to see both Chip Reese and Barry Greenstein in action.
Reese is one of the true legends of poker - having played in big cash games and tournaments for years, he is the author of the 7 stud chapter in Super System. Greenstein is a very wealthy former Symantec employee who is known for donating his tournament winnings to charity.
I had to feel the pain of Tony Hartman when he was eliminated. The chip leader at the time, Randy Jensen, raised blind. Hartman looked down at AJo and moved in. I can't blame him at all, that's a strong hand six-handed against a completely blind raise like that. Unfortunately, Jensen looked at his cards, found AQ and called. That was a tough exit.
Another great moment was when Reese came over the top of Greenstein on the flop with middle pair, he made a great read there. Barry raised preflop with K2o and Chip called with T9o right behind him. The flop came A97. Barry bet a little less than the pot, and Chip moved all in. Barry quickly folded. (One thing I really like about Greenstein's play is the lack of Hollywood moments - if he thinks he can't win the pot he lays it down quickly.)
Of course the most amazing hand was the one that eliminated two players when they were four-handed. Reese moved all-in with K5s, and James Tippin, the amatuer at the table called with QQ. He made a point of saying to Greenstein that he was not all-in but had only called, which was odd, and Greenstein moved in with AKs. Tippin thought for a long time and called. The flop came with and A and a K, and another A on the river gave Greenstein aces full of kings. Tippin and Reese were eliminated.
Once Jensen and Greenstein made it heads-up it became pretty clear that Jensen was out of his league. He made some nice, strong plays, but you could see him start to spin out of control, and he commented out loud at one point that he could not get a read on Greenstein. Finally Barry checked top pair and Jensen went all-in with middle pair (fours), saying, "I'm not gonna to give you a chance to outplay me..." Of course he had already been outplayed, and Greenstein's hand held up.
This was really entertaining poker, and a great chance to see one of the top tournament players at his best.
Ted
I've been testing out the software for fulltiltpoker.com. If you've been living under a rock, it's a new site that has a bunch of the top tournament players affiliated with it, including Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Fergusen, and many more. Right now they are beta testing for play money only.
The software has some interesting features. There are avatars you can choose from (the pros have custom avatars that look like them), and you can switch table backgrounds like at Ultimatebet. There is a "last hand" feature that brings up a window with a graphical representation of the hand (the board and all the known cards that were held), which is kind of cool.
I was playing NLHE last night when I noticed that Phil Ivey was at the 7 stud table which bears his name (the table names turn red when one of the pros are there). The wait list was 25 people and I was getting tired, so I just railbirded a bit.
If you want to see how much celebrity has entered the poker world, spending a couple of minutes railbirding someone like Phil will make it very clear. People were fawning all over him. Some of the questions he was asked were:
What kind of wheels do you drive?
What's the most you've lost in a single hand?
What kind of music do you listen to? (Answer: hip-hop, r&b, and jazz).
I wonder how many play money sessions these guys will have to put in before they wish no one knew who the hell they were :)
Ted
Ok, here we go, this is my new poker site. If you've found your way here today, then you must be me, because no one else has any idea it exists. Hopefully that will change soon.
This isn't meant to be a diary-type weblog where I whine about my bad beats, although I will mention some interesting hands I play at times. The content will be more about what's happening with the game and how I feel about it, and hopefully I'll add in some things like reviews of sites, books, etc.
Thanks for reading,
Ted