WSOP 2009 Main Event Day 2a done, 2b today

Day 2a of the WSOP's Event 57 - $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em concluded a little over 3 hours ago. 1,476 began the journey yesterday but only 630 survived to play another day. The current chip leader is Eric Cloutier, sitting on 384,000 in chips. The best known name currently in the top 10 (7th) is Greg 'RBT' Mueller with a sizable stack of 311k. However, a much larger field will begin Day 2b today, and stacks may certainly swell. Patience, we'll just have to wait and see!

Other notable names who survived 2a are: Andy Black, Mike Sexton, Sorel Mizzi, Chris Ferguson, Jimmy Fricke, Thor Hansen, Pamela Brunson, Vitaly Lunkin, Tom Schneider, Kara Scott, Greg Raymer, Joe Sebok, Jason Alexander, Sam Farha, Van Nguyen, Dewey Tomko, Erik Seidel, Rolf Slotboom, Carlos Mortensen, Joe Serock, Bill Edler, Bruno Fitoussi, and Roland de Wolfe.

Casualties include: Eli Elezra, Juha Helppi, 'Amarillo' Slim Preston, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Todd Brunson, Alex Kravchenko, Michael DeMichele, Mel Juday, Erik Cajelais, Hoyt Corkins, Beth Shak, Micheal Craig, Shaun Deeb, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Tilly, Tony G, Phil Laak, Mike Caro, Katja Thater, Brian Townsend, Barry Shulman, Jon 'PearlJammed' Turner, Johnny 'frickin' Chan, and Gus Hansen.

There's still lots of poker to be played here people. Day 2b as I said returns today after which we'll be to the point at which the entire field of remaining players will be part of one big pool, which will be playing simultaneously. Players will get a day of rest, on Thursday, while instead a media event will take place, beginning at 1pm. Then, the action gets going again on Friday for Day 3.

I leave for family vacation Friday night, to Myrtle Beach, SC. So, yes the laptop will be packed and the idiocy that is my blogging will continue. I wouldn't want any of you to miss me! I'll be thinking of you all as I pickle my liver... and slowly turn myself into a Chicken Nugget while lying on the shore. Hope they don't mistake me for a beached whale again and try to roll my ass back into the ocean.

Right in the "brow hole!"

Regards,

cheer_dad

To all you nay-sayers...

Well you thought the day would never come. Two outa Three ain't bad huh!?! Well what's been nearly a year in the making is finally going to happen. "What's up, cheer_dad," you ask, "what's the earth shattering news?" Well according to this article http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1846891047/W-Va-racetrack-given-OK-to-offer-poker/index.html?printview=true Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center will FINALLY be opening its doors to offer poker to the masses! That's right people the third West Virginia casino will finally be offering something other than slots and dogs. This comes nearly ONE YEAR after the initiative was passed by Kanawha County to allow the casino to open poker and table games at the existing casino. Wheeling Island and the Mountaineer jumped on that bandwagon long ago and has thrived at least as far as my personal observations and the various articles have thus far suggested. I wish Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center good luck, and yes eventually I'll be down to give it a go, but I'm still a little irritated that it took so long to make it happen. The people of Kanawha County were none to happy either, and even the Governor weighed in on it you'll recall from a previous post I threw out here on the blog. But anyway, today's the day following 2 days of successful "charity" poker tournaments to get the ball rolling, the Lottery Commission gave their blessing and a quiet sigh of relief which says, "sheesh, it's about friggin' time Tri-State!!!" Anyway, read the article, and make plans to visit this new poker room when you can. My buddy Frank, was headed down to indulge in the madness of the first day/night, this evening. I haven't talked to him since I left for vacation so I'm not sure how all that's panning out.

I'm back in town now, having just arrived home after that long drive back from Myrtle Beach, SC. It's good to be home, but as usual there's already a lot to get done after a vacation. So rather than sitting here pecking away at the keyboard, I better get to it.

See some of you later this evening at the Eagles drawing, and others I'm sure over the weekend. It's good to be home.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Extremely tired among other things.

Greetings from the sand, sun and surf. A whole lotta sun, and even more beer. Big Red, Cole and I, Steph and Jeffrey, and Chris, Laura and Megan are here at Myrtle Beach , South Carolina. We had another great day in the sun, tanning and tanking, or getting tanked. : ) We've had some great weather, despite the fact that when we were driving in we were getting quite a bit of rain. We were all a bit concerned. But the sun has shined ever since then. The Brothers(es) will be staying on through Saturday, while the rest of us, are planning on leaving Thursday morning. The kids will all be heading back to school VERY soon. Even I hate it for them. Summer is just too short. We're currently here at the condo, unwinding and relaxing. I'm bloggin, and drinking a Corona while everyone else does their thing too.

I wanted to mention that Jr hosted NDPT #12 at the Eagles this past Sunday and got 29 players along for the drive. He seems to believe that they are quite pleased and definitely want the group to return, Sadly we're all disappointed not to have played, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. While did All-In Allman hafta win the damn thing! (Congrats anyway!) Jr let me know that there were 29 players who took part. I'll get the points posted later, but this is the first I've actually been connected while on vacation.

Back home Whit heads to gymnastics as well. Uncle "Jun" is helping to pick up Whit and get her to practice... you have NO IDEA how much I appreciate the help.

Anyway, I hope all is well!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Pack the House

Last word from Mr. Yanok sounds like the basement is going to be full, when it comes time for the cards to get in the air. Tonight at 7:30 we'll converge at the Yanok home for the August qualifier tournament. Maybe I'll actually get around to doing well in one of these. This one would be a good one to take down too, since the numbers, the $$$, and the points will all be high. But let's not get ahead of ourselves huh...

The work day was short, as promised but I actually had to put in some actual work before calling it a day at noon. This Configuration Management thing will most certainly be the death of me. But on a positive note... we leave for vacation on Sunday for Myrtle Beach, again! Unfortunately, Whitney won't be coming along with us this time, as her cheerleading duties and schedule have re-prioritized her life. She's okay with it all though. I haven't heard any complaints anyway. What with all that teenage angst, she's probably looking forward to the time away from the 'rents! For any of you little twits out there who are thinkin' about stopping by to hang with my little girl while I'm out of town, just wipe it from your little brain! She'll be heavily guarded.

Gotta run, now and take Whit and Jordan to the Homecoming festivities. Then, poker Yanok style awaits!

Regards,

cheer_dad

NDPT Points Update

I'm a little bit behind, but JR did send me the NDPT Points update to get posted to the website. The link on the website is now pointing to the new and improved points spreadsheet. But in case that's just all too difficult for you to find, try this... http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=ptNl6_cpXDHlDaBaHIU7NVA&hl=en. You will note that somehow despite a horrid finish I've remained on top of the heap, albeit by only the slimmest of margins against Steve "All-In" Allman. Here's where that maximum of 10 games thing starts to kick in. Actually only 3 of us can be considered "DIE HARD PLAYERS" thus far on the year, seeing as we haven't missed a game. That'd be Big Red, Allman, and I. Yeah, we don't have a problem... we can quit anytime we want. We just don't WANT TO!!! However, Steve has the opportunity to be the only one this NDPT 2008 season to get PERFECT ATTENDANCE! Since Big Red and I will be missing the next game NDPT #12 which JR has arranged to have held at the Eagles. We will be baking ourselves on the beach, instead. : ) I know, it's a tough trade-off! So, Steve ole buddy what do ya think, can you make every single game until the end of the year. Duh, there's a no-brainer...

A number of us will be playing this Friday at the Yanok's. Then, hopefully we'll be heading out the next day, beachward bound. I really need a top finish there, to get myself in a position for the end of the year tournament. So, if we could keep the suckouts to minimum, and my case of 2nd best out of it, that'd be great.

Anyway, good luck to you all in that and in Sunday's tournament at the Eagles. Do your best to make this one, and show your support. If all goes well, we hope to continue playing there on a recurring basis.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Bodog Beginner Tournaments

In other news from last night, I decided to logon to Bodog when I finally got home last night with Cole. Big Red headed to the Eagles to meet up with some of her girlfriends, while I opted to stay home, as I was in a bit more mellow mood than that. I joined a couple of the Beginner Tourneys (SNG's) again. I realized last night that these play at higher levels than I'd realized before. I noted the presence of some $8 beginner tables last night, but like I promised myself I was sticking to the lower ones until I reach a pre-determined bankroll level on that site. I won one of the SNG's and took 2nd in the other. I did lose in another one but I got my money in good and lost to a suckout. That happens, but these SNG's when played in multiples have a nice way of levelling out your losses. In fact, I moved up another $10 last night. So that helped to reduce my overall $$$ loss from the night, including JR's house.

I still agree with every move I made in last nights NDPT gathering. I lost but I guess I lost the right way! : ) Hey, I can't complain, how often do you get to look down and see quads. I was on one heckuva card roll there for a while, just too bad it had to end abruptly.

See you all on the felt again, soon. By-the-way Big Red and I will NOT be at NDPT #12 held at the Eagles as we will be leaving for the beach, along with the Brothers clan. Yes, this is beach trip number two for us for this season. I could get used to this. I hate to miss the game and I'm excited to see how it all works out for us, since we hope to add this venue to the available poker frenzy here in our little town. If all goes well, this game will likely be available on a monthly basis... So, don't forget to get out there and support this game with your attendance. Also coming up this Friday is the Yanok Qualifier for August. Actually we WILL be able to make this one, so we'll see you all real soon.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 4 up to the dinner break

Once again, posts such as these prove that the guys playing in the Main Event are a lot like the rest of us twisted poker degenerates:

Posted by MeanGene Refer to Your Tournament Director's HandbookNo doubt quite a few players were out last night celebrating the fact that they cashed in the Main Event. One such player is sitting at Table 6 and looking a little green around the gills, and he asked the dealer, "If I throw up on the table, is that a penalty?"

Just over 5 hours ago Robert Mizrachi's Main Event journey came to an end. He got in in with the best of it but was rivered by his opponent.

And not long after he made his exit, Mountaineer qualifier Brian Schaedlich made his final stand with A-9os, he was called down by Darren Grant with a Q-7os. A queen came up on the turn and Schaedlich makes his exit in 456th place and $27,020 in his pocket. Not a bad return on a $135 tournament entry fee back at the Mountaineer Casino in Chester, WV. : ) Congratulations to him!

According to postings at PokerNews.com the first level of play on this Day 4, has taken its toll on the field. They have averaged a bustout a minute throughout the level.

Wow, Table #6 in the green section doesn't sound all that fun, at all! Five hours ago, Jeremy Joseph found himself there, with two empty seats that were filled by Alexander Kostritsyn with 900,000 in chips, and Johnny Chan joined soon after. ESPN setup shop, soon after!

Oh there's a surprise, Phil Hellmuth has a blow up after losing a hand with a great big pot... and openly berates his opponent.

Just as Round 17 was about to begin, the T500 chips are no longer required and the color up took place just before a quick break. The price of poker is going up! 350 players remained.
Maya Gellar-Antonius was eliminated in 331st place for a $32,166 payday. Congratulations, and hubby Patrik should be proud!

Hevad Khan was busted by the lovely Tiffany Michelle, and makes it up to 660,000 chips! Did I say lovely? Okay, yeah... I did.

Just over an hour ago another lovely and talented lady makes her exit from the Main Event. Evelyn Ng has been eliminated, but congratulations on her deepest finish yet in the Main Event!

An hour ago, Gus Hansen was moved to Mike Matusow's table, amid cheers from the spectators.

And oh look another blowup by Phil Hellmuth. You know he really is an ass...

And the stack of Jeremy Joseph just keeps growing and growing, an hour ago, he was at 2.5 Million!

And with that, or there abouts, the players head off for dinner break. Upon their return at 9:30pm PDT, they will play one final level before calling it a night.

The field now stands at 218. Still much poker yet to be played, but with that I'm calling it a night. We have 2 baseball games tomorrow, the first of which is at 9:00am. By the way, tonight the boys won, against "Tubby's" Team, Nate and Kevin know what I'm talking about. We pounded them, 30-6 before they finally cried uncle at the end of the 3rd inning. That is the boys first win in tournament play, against a team that beat us previously, that we just knew we could beat! : ) Cole may not be of much use in the games tomorrow, since he was injured running to 2nd base. His ankle is pretty swollen and stiff, but he seems to be getting around, albeit slowly and a bit tender. Sorry buddy.
As soon as the games are over, cheer_dad and family will start the drive SOUTH to Myrtle Beach!

Regards,

cheer_dad

P.S. Oh and one other really cool item of interest, Big Red's mom (the original Big Red) called us while we were at the baseball game all excited. Seems she was at BINGO, and playing the tips, and she was playing my son, Cole's birthday numbers, and she hit for a COOL $9,000!!! $6,500-ish after taxes!!! Since it was his numbers, does that mean he gets splitsies?!? Yeah like he wouldn't anyway from his Mamaw!

Sure honey let's go on vaction...NOW!

My wife, the lovely Big Red... will one day send me to my grave. Probably sooner than later! When she gets an idea, damn the girl can run with it! You've all obviously been up on current events in my life, which I've inter mingled in the words about the WSOP and other pokerosity. I'm talking about All-Star baseball and my life as a dad, coach, husband, blahblahblah... Well we're playing again tonight in Belpre against South Parkersburg "B." Plus a couple more games tomorrow.

Here we gets tricksy.

The Morrison clan (including Jeffrey who's on the team with Cole) have a beach trip that starts tomorrow. So, we've known he wouldn't be there to play, but no prob, we've still enough kids to play. Then, somehow the conversation emerges about, "hey, why don't you guys join us in Myrtle Beach, SC?" That conversation fired up maybe a day and a half ago. It was sheer talking out loud. I wasn't even involved in it. Fast forward to this morning... and I'm checking with my boss about taking a week off beginning NOW, shuffling some other duties, sorting out baseball since I won't be here to coach, and a million other things. Meanwhile, my wife's on the phone booking a room for yup tomorrow night. She's already figured out we'll stay for tomorrow's game (maybe) and then get the hell outa Dodge! Yes, she's worked all this out in her head while on hold with the Beach Realty company. AND she got dropped on the call once, put on hold twice, and one lady tried to charge her about $500 more for the room than she quoted, when the "system" mysteriously crashed in the middle of the transaction. Sadly, said lady had NO IDEA she was dealing with Big Red. Not only did a demand for a manager ensue, and when she was conveniently disconnected and left dangling on hold for 20 minutes, she grabbed a 2nd phone line, and gave 'em what for and got a room for the price originally quoted. And this lady in the same office, said yes it was a madhouse, but she wasn't aware of any system crash. Hmmm. Manager's Special, my ass!

So anyway, I went from Thank God It's Friday, to feeling like I'm going into OVERDRIVE!!! So, thankfully this is my short day, and I get off work at 2:45pm. I can rush home, and break out the lawnmower and get that done, before changing and going to the baseball game in Belpre, gotta be there by 5:15pm. Hopefully, done by 8:30-ish. Go home, clean up, eat, attack the laundry with a vengeance, pack, organize, make a couple of plans, check up on the status of the WSOP Main Event. Get to bed, get up the following morning at the crack of dawn, and get ready for baseball game, be there by 8:30am! Finish that, and then we'll either hang out for the other game at 1:00pm or say fuggit and head SOUTH! Oh I haven't mentioned, that we're also taking along JoJo, at least my daughter Whitney is checking on that right now. No wonder I'm fully medicated for stress and anxiety.

Oh and let's get one other thing outa the way, I am not prepared for the beach. I'm likely to have a herd of Eco-Tree-Hugger types trying to help coax me back into the water when they find me laying on the sand (if you get my blubbery drift.) My man titties may actually lactate in the heat. I dunno...

Someone sympathize, just a little. Maybe I'll follow the lead of SirAlCan'tHang and go to a bar when I get to Myrtle Beach and just do dial-a-shots all day! I just hope I don't need a vacation AFTER this vacation to recuperate!

Well that's all I got folks, I'm tapped, spent even. I wonder if this complex will have wi-fi? Laptop, balcony, mass quantities of alcohol and an already dwindling online bankroll. Oh yeah I see great things happening! At least there'll be some great bad beat stories to be told after the fact!

I'll try to continue to blog, even if I have to drive around w/the laptop to find a hotspot!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Myrtle Beach 2007

Well all good things must end...but let's recap the Myrtle Beach 2007 trip.

We stayed here:

We did a lot of this...

I saw a COOL waterspout!!!

We took time out to do this...

And even some of this (twice even)

We looked a little silly at times

Suffered some minor casualties...

But in the end...

We all survived, got along, had a BLAST, and all made it back in ONE PIECE! All's well that end's well. (We even managed to get in a few hands of poker to pass the time.)

Regards,

cheer_dad

Fun in the sun

This looks like a crew up to NO GOOD doesn't it! Actually they've gotten along very well while we've been on vacation here at Myrtle Beach. We're getting ready now to head down to the beach for another day of sun worship. Well at least MOST of us are up and are moving around.

The other two members of the party are still down for the count, huddled in their bed.

This is what they look like under normal circumstances:

BUT, so they don't get mad for having pictures posted of "just" them, I'll show one of group too, minus BIG RED of course, who took the picture.

Note the fact that Whit although "holding" the beer bottle, was not being permitted to "drink" it. What kind of parents do you take us for!? Time to hit the beach.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Myrtle in the morning

It's Tuesday morning on the Jackson/Murray vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC. Things are going great, the sun keeps shining, the waves keep rolling and the beer...well it's wet and cold! As usual Big Red opted for the less than wise approach to the art of sunbathing. She will never learn. Yeah, Big Red's a little red. : ) Cole got a little extra sun on the first day as well, but just on ONE shoulder, so he's surviving. Yesterday we opted to skip the beach and go instead to Broadway At The Beach. We all got henna tattoos and wandered around and actually had a good time. The shopping excursion didn't last too long. Cole started to get restless and I was able to convince Teresa it was time to head back to the condo. I think I owe the boy! Then we ALL headed out that evening to Murrell's Inlet and a restaurant called Nance's. Nice seafood restaurant, non-buffet...but it was very good. Afterward we walked up and down the boardwalk that connected a number of restaurants/bars. The boardwalk also led into a marina, with some enormous boats that the boys really liked. The boys have gotten along very well. You know how that's not always true when you have 3! Right now they're sitting here on the coach, playing Mario Kart on their DS's. The "gamer" chatter is entertaining to me! If it was a FPS...or a poker game, it'd be smack talk.

Speaking of poker, we've played cards a couple of nights already. One night a cheap game of TONG. Last night we started out with TONG and moved on to Hold 'em. Bob joined us, so a five person game is where it started until Jody busted out and headed to bed. Then the four of us continued. Big Red and I each started with $10 and each cashed out at around 1:30am for $40 and $37 each. I'd like to pretend that I was just playing well, but Matt was just hitting a run of bad cards. Now, having not played with Bob before, I didn't know what to expect. Of course he was in the same boat! Observations...a bit loose, but aggressive. He could be the type to blindside you with junk...which he did to Matt once, when he played the Shuman hand and nailed the straight. Matt got stuck with AQos, when he hit his two pair on the flop. Ouch! I played tight for the most part, and they remarked that it was the uber tight variety, and said I was incredibly patient for a 4-man game. I took the hint slowly, and opened up the game a degree. It worked for me. I was able to capitalize on Bob's misplaced aggression against Bob, when he made a move on Matt. He had discounted me staying in the pot when he made it $11 to go after the flop. I had hit two pair and I couldn't put him on the straight or flush draw possibility. He had top pair only, I later learned. I didn't get to see it immediately. I pushed all in for an additional $10. He dropped after going into the tank. All in all, it was a good time. And I hope to do it a few more times this week. We'll see.

I'm preparing for sitter duty today, so I'm going to wrap this up. Matt, Dillon and the Bob's are all going golfing. The ladies are all heading to the flea market, for a few hours. Whit and JoJo are still in bed, but should be beginning to stir soon. I'm staying here with the 3 boys and taking them down to the pool to worship the sun god and let them run amok in the pool.

Anyway, hope all is well in P-burg, we'll back in a few short days. We'll all get together again soon.

Regards,

cheer_dad