WSOP 2009 Event #1, and a concert

A grueling 13-hour day of poker kicked off Event #1 of the World Series of Poker. As "FerricRamsium" puts it the Casino Employees NLHE Event is a "sea of relative unknowns." My buddy JR takes issue with that, saying that we degenerate gamblers would likely recognize various dealers and casino employees from our trips to Sin City. A total of 866 players ponied up the $500 entry to play in Event #1, and at the end of the day, only 81 remain. All of those remaining are in the money. We'll have to stay tuned to see who walks off with the $83,778 first prize and the coveted WSOP bracelet. Action resumes today.

Also slated for today is the 40th Annual NLHE (Event #2) which has a whopping $40,000 buyin! The event was added to the mix as a celebration of this the 40th anniversary of the WSOP. The field will obviously be limited to the heavy hitters and perhaps a few wannabes. It's going to be a long 7 weeks or so folks while the series plays itself out. I for one will be glued to the live-reporting, blogs, and forums. Do I have a problem? Like last year, I'll continue to provide some blurbs on the action, from what I gather out there, and write it up here on the blog. I know a number of you are "proxy challenged" and you may not be able to follow along. Fear not, your ole buddy cheer_dad's got your back.

In other news, we're going to a concert tonight in Charleston, WV. Big Red, Laura, Uncle June, and I are all headed down this evening to see Keith Urban and the Zac Brown Band. We've seen Keith before in concert with Kenny Chesney and he puts on a really good show. Red just couldn't pass up the tickets, when she found floor seats yesterday. Way to plan ahead. So sad is the fact that because of work the next day, we won't be able to drive on down to Cross Lanes to play a little live poker afterwards. Sad indeed! But it's gonna be a lively road trip as usual when this group gets together. I'll try to get pictorial evidence. See ya!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Today's Poker Roadmap, and Obama & Hillary too

Event #3 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em and Event #4 $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No Limit) will both resume today for the televised final tables. Event #3 wound its way down from 713 players to the final 9 and gets under was at 2:00pm PST, and Event #4 which began at 332 players will start back up at 3:00pm PST. Needless to say two more bracelets will likely be awarded somewhere through the evening/early morning hours. Event #3's winner will bring home $214,131, while, Event #4 boasts a $374,505 top prize. Neither, anything to sneeze at.

Event #5 $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/ Re-buys and Event #6 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better will continue on with their Day 2 installments. Event #5 doesn't yet list the total number or remaining numbers of players, but does however show a whopping $636,736 1st place prize. Event #6 is down to 205 of the original 833 starters, with a $243,356 top spot.

Also, getting under way today at Noon PST is Event #7 $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em, and then at 5:00pm PST Event #8 the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event.

In other non-poker news, if anyone cares about anything else. Barack Obama is now the official "presumptive" victor in seizing the Democratic nomination for a little race being run for the United States presidency. Hillary Clinton says she's not out according to this CNN article http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/04/democrats.wednesday/index.html?eref=rss_topstories, but then again, Bill did not have sex with that woman either... Go figure.

According to another CNN article http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/04/election.runningmates/index.html?eref=rss_topstories Obama's got quite a laundry list of potential running mates from which to choose, and of course among them is Hillary. Question, has an assassination attempt ever been made against the President by the VP? I don't mean to suggest harm on anyone, but wow that would seem to me to be quite the powder keg! I also, cannot come out in whole-hearted support of either Barack, Hillary or for that matter John. I keep waiting for another mystery candidate to be picked from behind Door #1. Right now I feel a bit like Monty Hall has just shown me the goats behind all the other doors.

Anyway stay tuned (my few faithful blog visitors ) I'll keep you informed of the goings on, or at least point you in the direction of the real journalism going on out there on the web.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Event #2 winner Grant Hinkle

Read all about it over at PokerNews http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/event-2-1500-nlhe/id49651.htm#no49651, that Grant Hinkle has won WSOP 2008 Event #2 ($1,500 NLHE) and lays claim to the coveted bracelet (not to mention the $831,462.) To top it all off Hinkle took it down when he got his opponent (James Akenhead) all-in. Akenhead had a monster AKos, to Hinkle's 10-4s. The flop destroyed that though, when it came 10-4-10! And then the capper of a turn... the final 10 in the deck! Quad 10's! And with that another event goes down in the history books.

Congratulations to Grant Hinkle!

Regards,

cheer_dad

More WSOP, props to Otis, and a little local content too!

My hat's off to all the players who've been thus far enduring the long hours of poker play at the WSOP 2008. And at this point we're only in to Event #4! In addition to the players don't forget the staff and the bloggers and reporters doing the job that allows us all to live vicariously through their words. For a blow-by-blow of the action, head on over to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/ and pick the event which strikes your fancy and read away. For a quick down and dirty, let me help you out just a bit though. Yeah, I'll take the hit and have management track the fact that I was surfing for poker related content yet again on the company's dime. I'm kinda like the guy who finds the cop for all the other speeders. Anyway, Event #2 $1,500 NLHE is now down to 18 of the original 3,929, and thankfully for all involved is currently on break and will recommence today at 2:00pm PST.
Event #3 $1,500 PLHE as well went into the wee hours of the morning and is down to 63 of the original 713. It would appear that the action continued on until around 4:00am-ish PST, and thankfully they won't get to it again until 2:00pm today as well.
The heart of my post is focused on Event #4 $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No Limit.) I've been following along with the progress courtesy of Shamus and shorton. It would appear, that they loosely alternated adding posts up to the Live Blog as the action unfolded. When play starts back up today at 3:00pm PST there will be 91 of the original 332 player field. But the comments which told the story I've found very informative, but more so entertaining. The post titles as the hour blurred from "it's late" to "omg, it's early" were great! Here are a few of the example title posts and snippets of the action that gave me a chuckle while drinking my morning coffee:

"11 hours 39 minutes ago Posted by Shamus, Chiu Takes Bite from Opponent's Stack"

"Devilfish Attack"

"9 hours 16 minutes ago Posted by shorton, E-Dog Always Lurking...Lindgren wins the pot. "I'm always lurking," Lindgren says. Lindgren turns to the PokerNews reporter. "Don't write that up! That's a boring hand.""

"7 hours 30 minutes ago Posted by shorton Bride of Chucked" ~Recapping of course the demise of Ms. Tilly.

"Lederer Slays the Dragon" ~sounds better than Howard vs David

"Hellmuth on a Rampage" ~which involved the brat "...kicking over his chair."

"3 hours 47 minutes ago Posted by Shamus, No Shooting Stars . . . Yet, the fun continues over at Hellmuth's table. After the verbal sparring between him and another player had gone on for a while longer, Marcel Luske had an idea. Luske got up and went over to ask the security guard if he had a gun with which he could shoot them both. Not sure what the guard responded, but it seems to have quieted down over there." ~My favorite post and best idea of the night.

Oh and how many more puns can you guys come up with along the lines of "Hungry Like de Wolfe." : )

Ultimately, the top spot in this event will pay out a cool $374,505. A quick scan of those remaining brought instant recognition of all of the following names, at least to me:

David Williams, Gavin Griffin, Maria Ho, Barry Shulman, Ted Forrest, Roland de Wolfe, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer, Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, Patrik Antonius, Michael Craig, David Grey, Marcel Luske, Jeff Shulman, Hoyt Corkins, David Benyamine, and Erick Lindgren

Thanks all for the coverage. Shamus looks to me as if your doing just fine! The rest of your co-horts as well! Looking forward to all the rest squashing what little bit of work productivity that I generally contribute.

Among other news which caught my eye in Google Reader this morning I submit http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/gambling-holes.html posted up by "Otis" chronicling an adventure by he and "G-Rob" which found them in quite the "drinking establishment." I can't elaborate, you'll just have to read it yourself. But as a "suburban father with mortgage..." myself I feel like I was almost there myself. Thanks for the post Otis!

Here on the local scene, this Friday "Shuman" will be playing host to his all-too-familiar cash game already teaming with all the usual suspects, some of whom with loose play and money to burn, that have me salivating like Pavlov's dog.

I really should get some work done.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Change up

Okay, last night I make a departure from Limit Hold 'em. I definitely needed a change up. Maybe, it'll force me to tighten up a bit. The No Limit Game is not the place to dabble, and I know it. It was my playing ground at lower levels, but this time, I'm opting instead for the $.50/$1.00 NL tables. I crawled, yes crawled...no running allowed. I actually made it back up to my initial deposit amount! REALLY! That wasn't a lot, but it was on the PLUS side this time, instead of the eternal spiral that I've been feeling lately. NOW, I didn't play GREAT, there were a few minor bumps. But there was one hand I was proud of. I had A-K preflop and raised, was called, bet standard post flop, when I missed, and was reraised. There was crap on the board. I'd been paying attention to the guys play. He was also a big stack, but the whole table was betting huge, when they actually had it. One guy even pushed all-in preflop for over $150, when he held Pocket Kings, solely out of fear of the suckout. So, back to my hand. This other guy has hit...I know it, feel it...I made him for a solid upper/mid range pair, and I'm confident that no matter what I did I wouldn't have shaken him. It is even possible that he held a set, but I decided not to draw against a made hand. It stings to lose, but I remembered the goal in playing here was discipline. I therefore...won, but not losing big. The only dumb hand of the night, was with pocket 9's. I call a preflop pot bet of $3.50, from a guy who is in late position. Flop comes up 10-10-5, w/two diamonds. He bets small, very small, so I call. Turn is another 5. He checks I check behind. River fills in the flush possibility. But now I'm wondering if he's been sitting on Big Slick from the get go, and is confident with his 10s and 5s Ace kicker, in which case I can take this down. He again bets small, and I walk in. He flips over his Cowboys. Okay, I lost...and it was stupid. I went too far and completely misread it. But it was a good, not TOO costly excursion into Wishful Thinking! Don't ever friggin' do it AGAIN! IDIOT!!! I also looked back through my stats for the night. I showed a small profit while winning a VERY SMALL percentage of the hands. So, I do believe I was playing TIGHT, legitimately TIGHT! I was agressive when the circumstances called for it. So, I hope to use this as a learning experience. Re-introduce the possibility of loss of it all to myself, to perhaps train the brain.

Tune in next time kids...and until then, stay away from the Tilt-A-Whirl!

Regards,

cheer_dad