Onto Day 2

I finished Day 1 of the 5K main event in Indiana at 56,700 which is about average with 27 left. Top 18 get in the money. Toph Moore is also still alive with 38K. The rest of the crew is gone with some gross beats. We play down to 9 tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

How Do You Play This Hand?

Let me set the situation: It's fairly late in a supersatellite for a $5,000 seat into the main event. 17 players remain with 7 getting seats. You are seated at the nine handed table. You are sitting on a slightly below average stack of 25,000. The blinds are at 600/1200 with a 200 ante. You pick up AK0 under the gun and decide to make it 4500 (a little too much, but you really are wanting to just pick up the blinds at this point). A player in the hijack (sitting on 35,000) makes it 14,000 to go. He has been at your table for about 45 minutes and has played one hand where he raised pre and took down the pot on the flop with a continuation bet. Oh yeah, and he is wearing this goofy Pi hat. Anyways, it folds back to you. Do you:

A) Fold?
B) Shove?
C) Call intending to stop and go your last 11K no matter what comes?
D) Call and see what comes and then decide?

Think about your answer...........................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................


If you chose D, here is the flop J84 rainbow. Do you now:

A) Shove?
B) Check fold?
C) Check Call?

What happened in a later post.......

Breakthrough for Ms. Mandy B

Amanda "Mandy B" Baker won the 1K NLH here in Indiana yesterday by besting 290 of the finest players the Ohio Valley has to offer. It was her biggest score ever, her first live tourney win ever, and she did it after entering the final table only 1,000 in chips out of last place. However, she made some big calls, some small bluffs, very few mistakes, and won the key allin pots. Congrats!

Watch Out Hoosiers

Tom, Joel, Jason, and I arrived midafternoon yesterday to the hotbed of US poker - New Albany, IN for the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Indiana. The first event was the $550 1/2 PLO 1/2 NLH. While Jason, Tom, and I were knocked out beofre the money, Mr gamblegambel final tabled the event before finishing 9th. If it weren't for a monster pot he lost with 11 players left, he may have won the whole thing. At the very least, he would have entered the final table as the chip leader.

We will be here for the next 12 days or so. Expect a few more final tables before we are through, and with a little luck, one of us will bring home a win.

Win is Voided!

Investigation on PokerStars WCOOP Winner Comes to Conclusion

Author: Chris Vaughn chris@bluffmedia.com

After weeks of ongoing investigation and countless rumors about the ordeal, PokerStars has released its official statement regarding the issue of the WCOOP Main Event winner 'TheV0id' using multiple account in the tournament which he won nearly $1.4 million.The final decistion from Poker Stars read as follows follows:The investigation into the WCOOP Main Event has now been concluded.We have determined, based on the totality of evidence, that the tournament winner “TheV0id” was in breach of the PokerStars Terms of Service.In the interests of Game Integrity, “TheV0id” has been disqualified from first place.All other WCOOP Main Event prizewinners in addition to the player who originally bubbled in 415th place will therefore advance one place in the prize pool. The necessary financial adjustments to reflect the revised tournament places will be made within the next 24 hours.Please note that we are unable to release further details of this investigation, for reasons of confidentiality and privacy.Stephen W.Manager, PokerStars Game Security----------This makes another chapter in the book of cheating and breaking rules in online poker. Conversation on online forums now rotates around the topic of prevention and if online poker sites will come up with ways to stop people from multi-accounting before they even have a chance to enter online tournaments

I guess I am happy about this, because another cheater has been caught and the punishment (in this case) is massive. However, it is also a black eye on the game of poker and the online industry. I hope this message gets out loud and clear that this kind of cheating is unacceptable.

How Hot is Hot?

While I am no baseball historian, I do know my fair share about the game, and what the Colorado Rockies are doing right now may be the hottest streak to ever finish a season.

After winning 13 of 14 games just to get into a one game playoff (in which they pounded one of the top three NL pitchers - Jake Peavy), they have won seven more in a row so far (the 1-game playoff, 3 in the NL Divisional Series against the Phillies, and the first 3 in the NL Championship Series vs the Diamondbacks). In total that is 20 of 21 games. This is the Colorado Rockies of major league baseball!! It's not the UCLA Bruins' basketball team in their heyday; it's not Roger Federer at Wimbledon; hell it's not even the Notre Dame football team (wait strike that last one, when were they last a championship contender).

This type of streak doesn't happen in baseball very often, and doing it under the pressure of late/post season makes it even more impressive. Furthermore of the 21 games, how many were against clubs with losing records? ONE!!! It was the first game of the streak against the Florida Marlins. The rest have been against LA, ARZ, SD, and PHI.

So how did they do it? Well obviously it has been with their big name pitchers. Here are their post-season starters: the ace of the staff Jeff Francis (4.22 ERA and 47-34 career record), Ubaldo Jimenez (4.28 ERA and 16 career regualr season starts with 4 wins), Josh Fogg (4.94 ERA and 60-60 career record), and tonight's starter Franklin Morales (3.43 ERA in 8 career regular season starts with 3 wins). How's that for a murderers row? Just sends chills up your spine.

Colorado does have a very potent offense despite the fact the average fan wouldn't recognize half the lineup. Here is their usual order: Willy Taveras, Kaz Matsui, Matt Holiday, Todd Helton, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Troy Tulowitzki, and Yorvit Torrealba. The team average was .280 during the season. In addition, these boys can handle the leather. They only had 68 errors during the regular season. This was easily the best in the majors, and their fielding percentage was (if I remember right) 1st or 2nd in major league history.

As for myself, I've been rooting for them since the playoffs started for a few reasons: they aren't the Yankees (aka the team salary isn't in the strathosphere, and their fans don't believe that it is their God-given right to win the championship each and every year), they aren't the Red Sox (aka the team salary isn't in the mezosphere), they aren't the Phillies (Philadelphia fans are among the most obnoxious and fickle in pro sports, if you don't know why you haven't followed sports in the past couple decades), they aren't the Cubs (next year will be 100 years since their last World Series, and while I feel for Cubs fans, a full century without a title is so funny/futile I can't root for them yet), and they aren't the other 3 teams who made the playoffs Arizona, Cleveland, and Anahiem (these teams don't spark one ounce of interest for me).

They do things the right way. They aren't flashy or loud. They play team ball. Oh yeah, and they are pretty confident right now. I hope they win it all, and I hope they do it without a loss in the playoffs. This would make a remarkable story for sports. With a 3-0 lead in the NL Series, a World Series appearance is likely, and while I like their chances against either the Sox or the Indians, a sweep would be extremely unlikely. But then again, the Colorado Rockies are only 1 game away from their first World Series appearance!! How likely was that a month ago?

Bread and Butter

I played some cash games for the first time this month (and actually for the first time since August). It was a mixture of Stud H/L and NLH 6 and 9-handed.

Did I mention I love the UB short handed NLH tables?

First hand at the table I get QQ in the BB. Some short stacker in the SB with just under $500 raises it to $75 (10/25 table), I decide to push instead of a "normal" raise to around $225. He thinks and finally calls. Unfortunately, an A and K came, and he showed (you guessed it) K8. Wait that hand didn't come to mind when he called a little over $400 more. However, that was about the only real moronic play that beat me over the course of 2 1/2 hours. I stacked 3 or 4 guys and netted almost 7K at the table (and about 5600 on the day).

After a month long ride on the tourney train, it was nice to play some deep stack cash game poker. It was even nicer to win some.