WCOOP-19 Result and News

I got a small cash in this event of $830. Was going pretty good in it until one crucial hand where I had AA vs KK and actually had him drawing to a 2 outer only on the flop, very unusual in Omaha. The King hit on the river =(

I am skipping the Horse and Limit events tonight. I will be entering the main event tomorrow, the $2,600, $5 Million guaranteed!

In other news, DTDPoker got their gaming licence approved today :-

History was made today at Nottingham Magistrates Court when Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) was issued with a casino license making it the UK's first legal poker club and the largest licensed card room in Europe.

Rob Yong, Managing Director of DTD, says: "I am absolutely delighted as are all my team at the news. It's been a lot of hard work these last two years but we've cleared the final hurdle and we can look ahead to opening later this year, making DTD the best poker club in Europe."

It was not all smooth sailing for the club though due to objections from three casino groups, Gala, Stanley's and London Clubs International on the grounds of "insufficient demand." These objections led to an adjournment of the original case in April 2007 until September 24th.

Within the first ten minutes of the case opening, London Clubs withdrew their objection but barristers for both Gala and Stanley's continued to fiercely contest the bid. They argued that there was not enough demand in the local area and the club was not financially viable.

However, after a day's cross examination of DTD's witnesses (Rob Yong, Simon Trumper and Mike Wiseman) followed by a visit to the premises on Tuesday and two letters of support from the Gambling Commission, in itself an unprecedented event, the magistrates were swayed in DTD's favour.

A date for the club's opening is yet to be confirmed but one thing we can guarantee is that it will be the premier poker venue in Europe and the wait will have been worthwhile!

So sign up via my banners above and start saving up those DTD points which you will be able to spend in the live club on drink/food and even sit and go's!

Finally, there is a funny thread on 2+2 with the title "Where does Sammy Farha's Money come from?"! There are lots of funny photoshopped pictures like the one above! Enjoy.

More Johnny Cash

I know I've posted about him before but I'm semi addicted to him, more classic "Working Class Hero" Johnny Cash! This time live from San Quentin penitentiary!

Bad Result

Didn't last long in this, oops.

Also lost pretty big at cash tonight but hard to feel too bad since I'm still up $30,000 this month, but I was up a lot more. I saw some posts saying I was close to busto, thing I think most people don't realize is I have probably have a bigger roll than some of the $200/$400NL players. Not much chance of going busto.

Results and an Answer

One of the first 20 people to bust out of this event which even for me was unexpected =) Bit of a rig but oh well =)

Purposely busted out of this one as I wanted to go see a movie. We went to see DeathProof by Quentin Tarantino which I recommend to anyone who likes those old 70's road movies.

As far as the question goes I already had an answer but was very curious as to what other peoples opinions on this matter would be.

I am not paying him his buyin back. The biggest reason vs an unknown player to me is obviously the fact that when its the other way around I won't even bother to seek to get my money back let alone get it when I try. You can't be expected to pay people back for disconnects when you won't get the same in return.

The exceptions to this are obvious but I would pay anyone back that is a friend and I would pay anyone back that I play with regularly if I feel they would probably do likewise. This includes most people I play with regularly at cash.

The good thing for him though is he can think of it as a long term break even situation, as when I get disconnected vs him he can now morally refuse to pay me back even if he normally always would. The unfortunate part for him is that it will probably take him several life times to reach this balancing effect =)

Tonight is the $1,050 NL Hold'em, $2 Million guaranteed!

Results and a Question

I managed a small cash of $565.80 in this one.

Close to the money in Razz but faltered towards the end.

WCOOP-12: $215 HORSE, $200K guaranteed and WCOOP-13: $530 PL Hold'em, $400K guaranteed are tonight.

Now for the question :-

You are playing in a heads up sit and go. You join the game and you see that your opponent is sitting out. He actually sits out for the entire length of the match giving you a free win. Several days later he appears in one of your tourneys asking for his money back...

Taking the following points into consideration should you pay the person back :-

1. You don't know this person at all.
2. He claims he would have given you, your money back.
3. You know that if it was the opposite way round you would not have asked for your money back.
4. You suspect that when you are disconnected that most of the time you will not get your money back nor would you even try but if you did most people would almost certainly refuse.
5. It is a substantial amount of money that is meaningful to you and to him.

Thoughts in comments please.

Washout again!

WCOOP events seven and eight were complete washouts for me again. I am busy tonight so I am probably going to have to skip the $215+R NL Hold'em, $1 Million guaranteed.

Gulkines appeared at my $5000NL table last night wanting heads up again. I said I was going to bed in five minutes so I didn't want to play(true). He then started saying how I'm like all the rest and never want play heads up(half true, I need to be in the mood). This of course made me play... LOL!

The very first hand I decide to raise K9 on the button to $6149 - all in. Gulkines calls my bet fast with A3 creating a $10,000 pot.

The board comes 4J85Q giving him ace high which of course beats my king high. He drags in the $10,000 pot.

The second hand we play he raises all in on the button and I have an easy call in the SB for $5000 with 65. He turns over J7.

The board comes AA855 letting me scoop the $10,000 pot.

We play a third hand where I pick up 96 on the button. I of course push all in for $10,000. He instantly calls off his stack with 53. Another $10,000 pot.

The board comes T9JJ2 giving me Jacks and Nines and another $10,000 scoop.

He stops after this hand at which point I went to bed.

Ok ok, before you all think I've lost my mind we agreed to do some coin flips before bed. I of course outplayed him very harshly =)

Even though the WCOOP has been going pretty shitty cash has been going very good. I worked out that to enter all the WCOOP events it would cost around $16,000. I'm probably going to have to skip a few so maybe it will only cost $14,000 or so. I also managed to enter several events for free with my FPP points.

I actually won the biggest pot of my life last week in cash. It was vs Pau060771 at £8000($16,000) buy-in playing heads up. I was already up £8000 vs him so had a £16,340 stack. He had worked back up to a £12,793 stack. I raised 66 on the button to £240, he then reraised to £800. I called.

The flop came A96 giving me a set of sixes. He then leads into me for £1400. I reraise to £3040. He then reraises again to £6500. I push all in at this point and he calls for another £5573. This creates a £25,746($52,000) pot.

He turns over KT. Ugh. Why not just AK =)

The turn is the T.
The river is the J.

Woot, two blanks and I get to scoop in a nice pot.

I'm going to post soon an update to an article I posted over a year ago. It was titled The Illusion of Style. My own style has changed uttery and absolutely since I made this post and although I still stand by most of what I said in it I still want to update and make a few corrections to it. Poker has changed quite a bit since I wrote this article as has my own style so I have a much deeper overall understanding than this time last year.

WCOOP Event 6

Another good result!

Tonight is the WCOOP-7: $215 Limit Hold'em, $100k guaranteed! Yawn =)

WCOOP Event 5

This tournament just finished after 22 hours of play. I managed to last ten minutes! Better to go out early than at around hour 18 =) I flopped a set and got it all in vs a flush draw. He won.

Tonights event is the $320+rebuys PL Omaha, $400,000 guaranteed! Hopefully I can last a big longer.

In other news, if you are into Starcraft 2, you must check out the new Terran gameplay video. It looks as if it going to be a great game, they have even kept in supply depot choke points which I feared might be lost in a 3D engine.

With regards to the Absolute Poker scandal that someone pointed out in comments. I know absolutely nothing about it apart from some stuff I read over at two plus two today. I have never played there and certainly won't be depositing any time soon thats for sure. The just of it seems to be that some of the high stakes games having been getting crushed by players who on the face of it just shouldn't be winning. Stats like, 80-90PFR combined with 70%+ won at showdown. The basic accussation is that these accounts can actually see their opponents hole cards. I have never seen stats like that either at high stakes. Mark Seif's name seems to be popping up all the time so perhaps he is somehow involved but it is all just rumour as far as I'm concerned as I have not read enough about it to comment. Here is a post by Dan Druff who has actually played there a good deal about it :-

Dan Druff -
"I've played a whole lot on AP this year, especially over the summer.

Oddly enough, I missed out on most of the Greycat/Supercard/etc. games due to sheer coincidences of timing (basically I'd be out or sleeping when he'd show up). Still, I played about 10 sessions with the guy, including one heads up, and noticed exactly what everyone else is noticing:

1) His hand selection pre-flop is so bad (especially 9 handed) that he should be losing a fortune against the top-flight players he's been facing. Instead, he's been winning big almost every session.

2) It is very rare that he will fold if you miss the flop.

3) When you are holding a huge hand, he folds often.

Basically, yes, he plays like someone who can see your cards. But that's nothing new to anyone on this thread. I've played against legitimate players who have run so well that I'd swear they could see my hand if I didn't know better. We've also all seen examples of huge donks running up amazing short-term streaks that we never thought were possible -- including odd plays that leave us scratching our heads.

So what's the difference here? Perhaps nothing, perhaps something. But the evidence we've seen so far, some anecdotal, others more damning, makes this worth another look.

Before I go on, I can confirm that Greycat, Supercard, and the other suspect accounts posted here ARE indeed the same person. This isn't an assumption or a guess. It's a fact. PM me if you want me to explain this part further.

So we have this Greycat person playing on multiple accounts -- sometimes chipdumping between them -- and playing the highest games Absolute Poker has to offer. He plays both limit and no limit, yet top regular players from both games report the same suspicious experience with him.

He has won a ton of money (does anyone have the exact figures?), and rarely seems to lose.

If he is cheating, I think I know how he's doing it.

Long before Greycat showed up, there was some concern that AP had a "superuser" account, created by its software developers. This account, created strictly for testing purposes, would be able to see all cards of all players in all games. As a software programmer by trade, I can tell you that such an account would be very helpful in the development and testing process for a complicated piece of software like AP. I referred to there being "some concern" that such an account exists. I say this because I have some circumstantial evidence (which I can't share in public) that this is true, but I don't have any proof. Furthermore, prior to this Greycat situation, I had no reason to believe that this account ever fell into the wrong hands.

But what if it did fall into the wrong hands? Perhaps someone could have hacked it. Perhaps a rogue ex-developer of the software could have passed some info along to an accomplice. Perhaps a lot of things.

The fact is that, if Greycat did get access to such an account, he'd pretty much be doing exactly what he's doing now. Yes, maybe some subtlety would have done him better (so as to avoid this suspicion), but history is full of criminals whose otherwise brilliant capers were foiled by just a bit too much greed.

It's time to stop guessing and get some answers here. Obviously AP will never admit their system was compromised, even if it were true. That would pretty much be the equivalent of poker room suicide. We need to put together a concrete plan of action to either prove this guy is a fraud, or prove to ourselves that we're a bunch of paranoid fools. Either way, we need to prove something. In the next post, I'll give my suggestions on what I feel we should do next."

If anyone has some good info on this stuff put it in comments as I didn't read up on it all too much. Maybe there are some new developments =)

WCOOP Event 3

I crashed out early on this one but I also didn't really feel like playing so it was probably inevitable. I decided not to play Event 4 since I wasn't into playing last night.

Tonight is Event 5, the $530 NL Hold'em, £2 Million guaranteed! I will probably be playing in this! Fingers crossed!

WCOOP 2007

The Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker started yesterday and I plan to enter as many of the events as I can. Last year I made a final table in an Omaha event. Hopefully I can make another final table this year.

This is my finishing in event one, the $215 NLHE(6-max). I was going pretty steady in this event but busted out with KK all in pre vs AK. This would have given me a decently above average stack.

This is my finishing in event two, the $215 PL 5-card Draw. I was going good in this event also, amongst the top 50 chip leaders until I picked up a pat king high flush. Someone limped UTG which was called by the villain, I raised big and the UTG folded and the villain called. I stood pat and he drew 1 card at which point I put him on a four flush or straight draw. I thought he would raise his two pairs vs an open limper. I bet big on the river which he called with his ace high flush. He said he didn't draw the A which made me feel 1% better. I went out soon after this hand.

Events today are the $215 PLO(6-max) and the $215 2-7 Triple Draw.

Daniel Negreanu on Internet Players

Yesterday before bed I was watching Daniel Negreanu playing ADZ124 heads up in the $100/$200($20,000NL) game. It was just one table and I was curious to see how they would play. It turned out to be a pretty boring encounter from a spectators point of view with both players playing small ball for the 45minutes or so that they played. There was literally no repopping pre and there was a lot of checking from both players. I am not being critical at all, this is merely an observation about the match that lasted around 250 hands.

The reason I bring it up is because on Daniels blog, someone posted about the match and how ADZ124 is a tough player and Daniel responded very insultingly about ADZ124. When it ended(Daniel quit) I think Daniel was up around 6-7k. A totally meaningless result over 250 hands.

Quotes from the forum post are as follows :-

"go rail, playing a tough customer in ADZ......." Initial post.
"still ok for DN, ADZ is a tough online NLHE player." First comment that got Daniel to respond with :-

"Not saying this to be mean at all, but are you serious??? I felt like he was one of the weakest heads up players I've ever faced and don't see how he could ever beat a good player heads up. I'm starting to wonder how good all of these online superstars really are because the ones that seem to be touted as excellent, play in such a way that I find easily exploitable.

I'm sitting, waiting for whoever, but my confidence is growing after playing some of these guys and leaving thoroughly unimpressed overall." - Daniel

"Yes. You're probably -EV against him long term." - Another comment.

"Absolutely no chance. If this guy is supposed to be better than me than I must be the biggest idiot in the world. I can't imagine how it's even remotely possible that I could lose to him long term unless he completely changed his tactics. Either y'all truly underestimate me in a big way or or overestimate the skill level of the online player." - Daniel's response.

"There is a lot of hype surrounding the online players and I think I may have bought into it a little bit myself. A lot of them are excellent players I'm sure, but I genuinely believe after talking to several, and playing with them from time to time, that there is stuff I know that most of them don't.

Compared to playing live poker, I absolutely suck online. Having said that, I believe I'd easily be a winning online player playing 100-200 NL. My "horrible" online play is still better than most, especially heads up.

Oh and Bob? My worst game is NOT limit hold'em! Are you insane? Just because you used to call me down with Ace hi and win all the time doesn't mean I suck. I lost to Patrick in a realitively small sample playing limit hold'em because A) he was very good, cool.gif he was more comfortable online, and C) He ran insanely lucky!

I've never lost money online playing NLH. Actually, the only real money I've lost online has been in PLO and limit hold'em vs a great player in Patrick Antonius. This 100-200 NL game, from what I've seen, isn't very tough at all.

As for my perception of ADZ, I played 250 hands vs him and his strategy heads up vs me was horrendous. Maybe he is good and doesn't match up well with me, or maybe he was "feeling me out," but either way, if he plays that way against on a regular basis without completely changing his approach he has no chance whatsoever." - More from Daniel.

Funny Pokerstars chat with Stinger talking for ADZ because ADZ is chat banned :-

$tinger 88: daniel, adz said to tell u that he read ur post about him on fcp
KidPoker: ok cool
KidPoker: is his chat banned?
$tinger 88: yeah
$tinger 88: from him:
KidPoker: I hear he is good, but he doesn't match up well against me
$tinger 88: dammit i cant copy/paste
$tinger 88: lol
$tinger 88: "i never knew he could play for 30 mins and leave and then call someone bad who hes never played b4"
KidPoker: its a style thing mostly
KidPoker: played 250 hands actually
$tinger 88: and "ask him if he wants to play 4 200/400 hu tables all at once"
JohnSmiley1: the king of talking smack is gonna cry about something daniel said
JohnSmiley1: what happened to the jman match
JohnSmiley1: lmao
$tinger 88: ok done quoting
KidPoker: lol tell him I couldnt play two games, I suck
$tinger 88: he can read ur chat heh
$tinger 88: just cant talk himself
KidPoker: i get too confused playing more than one
KidPoker: why was his chat banned?
$tinger 88: he said its his 3rd or 4th chatban
KidPoker: now this is a game where I'm CERTAIN I'm an underdog in
KidPoker: does he talk a lot of smack or something?

Ego alert. It is funny though =)

I would personally bet money on ADZ124 beating Daniel in the long run if they played a large sample of hands even if this was playing only one table. I have played with ADZ a fair bit mostly under a nickname he won't know and I find him to be a strong and very solid player. Adz has a slightly weird style(in my experience) and is more passive than most high stakes players but he does it well and traps you into betting when it is a bad time too.

In the heads up match they played, ADZ regularly completed the button and checked the flop a lot, but to be fair Daniel wasn't exactly being mister aggressive, he was regularly checking streets too when more aggressive players would bet. Either way I found this thread pretty entertaining and I think Daniel's assmessment of ADZ124 is insanely off but no wonder when he is coming to this judgement after 250hands? Lol. Stupid live players =)

Thoughts?

Mixing poker with music

This is what happens when you mix trying to be a successful poker player with being a successful jazz musician, you lose your friggin marbles!

This is my friend and flatmate Steve Hamilton breaking out his dance moves as the band stops for a break on the way to a gig. Lol!