Poker Blogs - Live blogging from poker tournaments plus pro blogs on lifestyle, poker strategy and the poker industry

Stout's Bahamas Trip Report - The Final Chapter

2010-02-01 19:25:00

In the first two parts of this blog, I ranted about everything on my vacation to the Bahamas going wrong (and I do mean just about EVERYTHING) and my sick cooler hand to bust out of the main event.

Oh well, I could be left with a ton of down time in a million worse locations than the Bahamas. I'll just grab a drink and head to the beach, right?

Wrong. The temperature was in the 60s and peaking in early 70s most of the week. It's not bad weather, but when you get wet and have ocean winds blowing it's not particularly enjoyable.

I had high hopes of spending four days on the mile-long Lazy River, which is basically tubing with rapids and water slides. I spent several relaxing hours on it last year, and planned on putting in a LOT more on this trip. I went twice for about an hour each time, but I just couldn't take the wind and cold.

Then came the breaking point when I couldn't suck it up and just be happy that I was on vacation anymore. Some scumbag managed to hack my online poker accounts.

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Bahamas Part Two: PCA Cooler

2010-01-23 19:32:00

In my last blog, "Bahamas: Trouble in Paradise," I outlined how a beautiful vacation in the Bahamas can start to go to crap (Cliffs Notes: girlfriend cancels last minute, suitcase lost for two days, local weed is beyond bad).

Fortunately, I managed to get my suitcase back just in time to play Day 1B of the PCA $10k main event ... almost two days after arriving. Apparently it had been left in Orlando during my layover and didn't get to the island until the next day.

I even managed to get a little REAL (ie green, containing reasonable levels of THC, glorious, unlike the putrid Bahama Brown I wrote about in my last blog) ganja from a buddy. I'm not sure if he would want his name publicized here, but in case he doesn't I'll just say THANK YOU, MINI-ME!!!

The pieces were coming back together and everything was starting to look up again...

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Bahamas: Trouble in Paradise

2010-01-15 01:38:00

After having a great week in the Bahamas and a deep run in the European Poker Tour PCA event last year, I was truly looking forward to making the trip again this year. I expected it to be one of the best and most relaxing weeks of the year for me once again.

Boy, was I wrong…

The problems actually began before I even left for the airport. A few days before my girlfriend and I were scheduled to leave she found out that her ex-best friend had passed away. I never knew the girl, but apparently she was my girlfriend’s best friend for several years before we got together.

However, shortly before we got together they had a falling out. My girlfriend had been trying to avoid her for the past few years because of the person the girl had become. That is why I was surprised at how upset my girlfriend became after receiving the news.

She ultimately decided the night before we were to leave that she had to skip the trip to attend the funeral. I was a bit disappointed, but obviously completely understood and respected her decision to say her final goodbyes.

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Matt Stout's WPT Five Diamond Day 4

2010-01-10 22:17:00

As you can probably tell by the fact that I didn't post for about three weeks, day four of the WPT Five Diamond main event didn't go as planned.

I started the day 9/36 in chips with 700k at 5/10k, but spent the first few hours of the day slowly slipping down to just over 500k.

I managed to gain some momentum back when Matt Waxman tried to bluff me on a 3♠ K♠ 3♣ flop, then busting a shortstacked Steve Brecher with Q♣ Q♦ against his A♠ 10♦.

Then, just when things were looking up, I decided to try to bluff Curt Kohlberg who never folds.

After spazzing off a few hundred thousand to him I was left with just 350k when we got to 10/20k. I managed to suck out all in with J♠ 8♠ against Joe Cassidy's A♣ J♣, but then decided to donate the rest of my stack to Kohlberg so that they could be with my other chips.

My other chips would have wanted it that way.

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Matt Stout's WPT Five Diamond Day 3

2009-12-17 20:29:00

I entered Day 3 of the $15k Bellagio Five Diamond WPT event with over 300k at 1200/2400 - good enough to put me in about 12th place out of the remaining 131 players.

I had a pretty wild start to the day, in both good and bad ways.

First, I ran the nut flush into flopped quads on the second hand of play. Fortunately though, I managed to lose the minimum because the kid spent the whole hand trapping me.

Just a couple of hands later I got it all back and then some when I three-bet-called Ralph Perry's all in four-bet from the cutoff with T♣ T♠ for around 120k total. He had A♦ Q♥, and there was pretty much no sweat to it after the 3♦ T♥ 3♥ flop.

I also busted another player for another ~250k pot just an orbit later. I had A♥ T♦ against his 8♣ 9♣, and we got it in on a T♥ 9♥ 7♦ flop.

Normally I'd be a bit hesitant to stack off such a large pot in this type of event where people have a much tighter range to get it all in than they would online or a smaller tournament, but here's where doing your research comes into play: I knew he was French!

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Matt Stout's WPT Five Diamond Day 2

2009-12-16 23:59:00

At the end of my last blog post I mentioned that Bellagio had set up all the tables for day two as seven- and eight-handed.

Apparently they did it just so that I'd research my table draw the night before and they could break the table before play began on day two!

I was only at the other table for a couple orbits so it's not worth giving the lineup, but I did manage to lose about half of my stack on the first hand.

Fortunately I managed to fold Q♠ Q♦ on the river and save my last 30k when Scotty had flopped a set of fours and put me all in.

I was pretty close to shoving on the turn and to making the call once I did get to the river, so I sort of feel like the tournament is a freeroll now.

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Matt Stout's WPT Five Diamond Day 1

2009-12-15 18:00:00

I'm going to continue the epic slowroll of publishing my Foxwoods WPT final table just a little bit longer... not for dramatic effect, but to try to do nightly blogs while the Bellagio WPT event is going on.

This is always the way I'd like to be able to do it, but it's not nearly as easy when I'm on the road as when the tournament is in Vegas and we only play five levels per day.

I arrived at my starting table to find three unfamiliar faces to my left, one of whom Todd Terry told me was "the richest man in Hungary and plays every hand."

I was happy about this, but not to happy to see a bunch of online beasts who also happen to all be buddies of mine to varying degrees to the right. The combination gave us a table that looked like this:

1 - Jason "JP OSU/ouemokid" Potter
2 – Me
3 - "The Richest Man in Hungary"/DontBluffMePLZZZ
4 - friendly unknown older guy who I vaguely recall playing with a long time ago
5 – unknown
6 - Cory "UGOTPZD" Carroll
7 - Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron
8 - Randal "RandALLin" Flowers
9 - Mark "newhizzle" Newhouse

I'm going to continue the epic slowroll of publishing my Foxwoods WPT final table just a little bit longer...not for dramatic effect, but to try to do nightly blogs while the Bellagio WPT event is going on.

This is always the way I'd like to be able to do it, but it's not nearly as easy when I'm on the road as when the tournament is in Vegas and we only play five levels per day.

I arrived at my starting table to find three unfamiliar faces to my left, one of whom Todd Terry told me was "the richest man in Hungary and plays every hand."

1 - Jason "JP OSU/ouemokid" Potter

2 - Me

3 - "The Richest Man in Hungary"/DontBluffMePLZZZ

4 - friendly unknown older guy who I vaguely recall playing with a long time ago

5 - unknown

6 - Cory "UGOTPZD" Carrol

7 - Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron

8 - Randal "RandALLin" Flowers

9 - Mark "newhizzle" Newhouse

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Making the TV Final Table at WPT Foxwoods!

2009-12-14 18:35:00

At the end of my last blog entry I was already in the most lucrative position of my poker career, chip leader with ten left at the WPT Foxwoods main event.

The seating assignments and chip counts were as follows:

1. Adam "Roothlus" Levy - 892,000
2. Lee Markholt - 480,000
3. Curt Kohlberg - 1,127,000
4. Kenna James - 1,217,000
5. Tom Dobrilovic - 565,000
6. Eric Froehlich - 714,000
7. Steve Brecher - 660,000
8. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 1,554,000
9. Soheil Shamseddin - 1,233,000
10. Me - 2,101,000

Just two orbits into the final table, still ten-handed, I ended up playing the biggest pot of the tournament. With blinds at 1200/2400 (300), Soheil (~1.1 milliion) raised from UTG+2 and I (2.3 million) was right behind him with pocket aces.

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Playing Down to the Final Table at WPT Foxwoods

2009-12-06 15:39:00

When I left off with the ongoing (for almost a month now...damn I'm lazy sometimes) saga of Foxwoods, I had ~465k @ 2/4k with the average stack around 290k.

There were 46 players remaining entering day four, 36 of whom would make the money. First place was $910k.

Day four basically went EXACTLY how I wanted it to go. It was just one of those incredible days where you pick up or make a ton of hands, and your opponent has exactly what you want them to have. I don't think I could have scripted the day any better!

When I left off with the ongoing (for almost a month now...damn I'm lazy sometimes) saga of Foxwoods, I had ~465k @ 2/4k with the average stack around 290k.

There were 46 players remaining entering day four, 36 of whom would make the money. First place was $910k.

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WPT Foxwoods Day 3: The Bathroom Bluff

2009-11-26 23:45:00

Editor's note: This post covers Day 3 of Stout's final table run at the recent WPT Foxwoods main event. To play catch up check out Days one and two before reading this.

I went into Day 3 of the WPT Foxwoods event with a slightly above average stack of 174k @ 1200/2400 (300) and immediately went on a heater. On the second hand of the day I received something that you rarely get in $10k events: a gift!

A player decided that they were going to stack off 8♠ 8♦ against my T♦ 8♥ on a 10♥ 9♠ 6♥ flop for about 75k after they min-raised before the flop and I called from the big blind ... basically because I suspected that they might do something as redonkulous as that after the flop.

I was running great after that at the softest table in the room, and even may have missed some value on two sets that I flopped in the next two levels by playing them too fast. I wasn't too concerned though, since I had skyrocketed to 370k in the first level back while we dropped from 70 to 57 players.

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WPT Foxwoods TV Final Table!

2009-11-10 21:46:33

Well it's been a long time coming in my poker career, but I've finally made my first televised final table!

I'm really excited but am trying to stay focused on the goal. No matter how much money is on the line this is just like any tournament I play: I came to win.

It's a huge deal to make it this far but there's still a big difference between the $166k I'm currently guaranteed and the $910k first place prize.

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Matt Stout's November Nine Predictions

2009-11-07 20:08:40

Anyway, onto some predictions and opinions about the November Nine ... bear in mind that I haven't watched all of the available ESPN footage, so I may be missing some info about players' tendencies and capabilities.

First, I don't think Phil Ivey has nearly as good of a shot as most people seem to think (since 90% of people seem to be sure he'll win it seems).

Yes, Ivey is at least one of the best, and probably the best player in the entire world. He's clearly the best player at the final table. But with blinds soon going to 150/300k (40k) and the average stack at nearly 22 million, Phil only has 9.8 million.

He's not in panic mode or desperately shortstacked, but he doesn't have as much room to maneuver as he'd like to.

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WPT Foxwoods Main Event Day 1 and 2

2009-11-07 19:57:20

Despite the fact that I've played played 4,327,981 tournaments at Foxwoods and cashed in exactly one, I decided to make the trek across country to grind out one more stupid donkament.

After my run in such a tough field at Bellagio and being so close to my first WPT main event final table that I could taste it, I just couldn't talk myself out of playing one of the softest WPT events of the season.

The structure of the event is pretty good when it matters, even though it's a bit fast early on. We start with 30k chips at 50/100 and it's 200/400 (50) by level four, but they don't skip the 2400, 5k, or 10k big blind levels.

My table draw for day one wasn't exactly what I was hoping for in a Foxwoods tournament. It would be a great draw at Bellagio, don't get me wrong, but the field is a LOT different here.

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The World Series of Not Poker

2009-11-02 20:52:01

Well first of all, I'd like to thank my New York Yankees for taking a little bit of the sweat out of the equation for me. I have $4,500 riding on the Yankees to win the World Series, and here's why:

1) The Yankees were nearly a 2:1 favorite to win the Series according to Vegas bookies (who seem to know how things will play out with scary/suspicious accuracy)

2) I have a ton of friends from South NJ and PA area who, for whatever reason, have decided to put themselves through the torture of being Phillies fans

3) I <3 $$$

The combination of these facts led to me doing the first significant sports betting of my life. Normally I bet sports very rarely, and when I do it's $20-$100 between friends just for shits and giggles.

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How I Just Missed the Final Table at Festa al Lago

2009-10-27 18:26:59

We began day four of the $15k WPT Festa al Lago main event at Bellagio with 37 players remaining and 27 spots to be paid. I had ~500k going to 5/10k, which put me 14th in chips and slightly above average.

My table for the money bubble of the tournament included Chau Giang, Prahlad Friedman, Brandon Cantu, Mark Seif, Matt Glantz, and Tommy Vedes.

Another table with several million in combined winnings, and definitely a table that wasn't going to nit it up and be scared bubbling the tournament.

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WPT Festa al Lago $15k Day 3

2009-10-24 19:42:56

I began the third day of the $15k WPT Festa al Lago main event at Bellagio with 205k at 1500/3k. I started the day at a table with Barry Greenstein, Corwin Cole, Justin Bonomo, and Bob Safai.

I was picking up a ton of big hands but was taking most down with raises and re-raises before the flop.

But just when I was getting comfortable (and it's hard not to when you have a big pair every fourth hand or so), they came to break the table.

Here was the lineup at the new table, who I believe have about $974,206,239,234 in combined earnings.

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WPT Festa al Lago $15k Day 2

2009-10-23 18:36:06

I began the second day of Festa al Lago's $15k WPT event with 58k @ 600/1200, and arrived to find about as soft of a table draw as I could ask for on day two of this particular tournament.

In fact, the pittsy calling station that Paul Wasicka had been telling me about hands with the night before was conveniently located on my left!

I was able to chip up a bit when the station, who was a really nice older businessman, chased the nut flush draw against my top pair/top kicker and bricked. But, sadly, they broke my table about a level into play.

Even more sadly, I arrived at my new table to find some VERY familiar faces: Marco "CrazyMarco/NoraFlum" Johnson, Steven "MrTimCaum" O'Dwyer, Barry Greenstein, and Phil Ivey. I was definitely not happy with my new table, even with a few soft spots to my left.

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Day 1 WPT Festa al Lago $15k

2009-10-22 23:28:41

Just finished up play for day one of this year's Bellagio Festa al Lago main event. Despite the comically pathetic turnouts for the preliminary events, there were about 260 entrants today.

Strangely enough, Bellagio has also decided to allow players to buy in during day two of the tournament. This is the first time I've ever seen this in any live tournament.

Players will start with a full starting stack of 60k, and may register up to the end of level 8 (600/1200), which will be the third level of play tomorrow.

I've also begun updating from the table on breaks on Twitter ... which I finally caved and decided to join. You can follow me at @MattStoutPoker since @MattStout is taken by some guy who apparently regrets not acting on his dream to be an astronaut ...

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No More Bubbles! Heater Time! Ship the $1K!

2009-10-16 18:37:24

"Pokah's nice. I loves play pokah." --Chau Giang

OK, well, sometimes I do! I won't get into detail because I have yet to tell the stories from London, but I've been doing a lot of bubbling lately ...money bubbles in big events, final table bubbles in online donkaments, etc.

Well I finally managed to come through in the clutch (and be a huge lucksack) this week!

First I took down the $10k guaranteed $55 tournament on Lock. While it was on the smaller side, it had been a while since I'd had an outright win in any MTT. Sometimes a little push like that is all you need to get the ball rolling again.

And roll it did. On Monday night I did something that I've been trying to do for a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time: ship Tilt's Monday night $1k buy-in.

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Home Sweet Home

2009-10-11 22:02:06

Finally got home from my Jersey and London adventure the day before last. I'll get to telling all the tales from the road eventually, but for now I just wanted to post a quick blog before I fire up another lonnnnnng Sunday session.

In my last blog I mentioned the guy who absolutely lost it and berated me when I bubbled him during the Borgata $400NL preliminary event. It was truly entertaining to me in a way...

While we were getting close to the bubble there were several players who were playing ridiculously tight to try to squeeze into the money. One of whom, a short stocky white guy from New York, was down to about ten big blinds and seated on my left.

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Borgata Blow-Ups!

2009-09-25 23:38:56

OK, so they weren't complete blowups ... but I'm definitely not happy with myself in the wake of the Borgata Poker Open.

When I left off in my last blog I had a big stack in the $400 NL opening event of the series. Although my 240k stack had me near the chip lead to start day two, it was only thirty big blinds in a somewhat quick structure.

Even though Borgata has some of the best structures in the country for big events, they really should include all of the blind levels that they include in their main event structure for the preliminary events.

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Prop Bet Frenzy, In the $$$ Borgata Event 1

2009-09-10 19:45:01

I should have been asleep about an hour ago, but I figured I'd get a quick blog out there because I had a blast at my first trip back to Borgata (aka "home") since moving to Vegas in February.

Jason Young and I had been toying around with ideas for a couple of prop bets, one of which was a bet on who would cash for more money during the series at Borgata.

Since I'm skipping several events to play online we decided to do most gross winnings across five tournaments: today's $400 NL, the two $1k NL non-HU events, the $3.5k WPT main, and we each get to pick one other tournament.

We added this to the bet because I'll be playing the $1650 NL, which he can't make. He's going to pick one other event that I'll be playing online during to compensate for this.

The bet is $10k, but there is an interesting "pity rule." If one if us wins six figures and the other doesn't, the person who cashed for more will instead owe the "loser" $10k.

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The Tilt Piñata

2009-09-09 19:14:40

I finally left the Vegas and CA area for the first time since February, when I moved to Las Vegas. After arriving at the Philadelphia Airport I decided to stop at a store to pick up a few things before I headed down to the Atlantic City area to stay with my friend Kenny "Kenny Rap" Weinstein.

I'd like to thank Kenny for his hospitality. Had I just been playing the main event at Borgata I'd probably have just stayed at the hotel, but I flew in a week ago so that I'd be out here and settled in before the World Championship of Online Poker kicked off.

Besides, I don't get to see Kenny enough now that I've made the move out West. We used to play a lot of online sessions together in Jersey before I moved, and he's fun to talk hands with since he has an interesting and sometimes unconventional approach to the game.

I'd also like send some hate and ill will towards the slew of mentally challenged roosters who live outside his place. These evil creatures will roost at ANY time of the day.

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I'm a Lock Poker Pro!

2009-09-01 19:20:08

Well it's now 4:21am and I've officially given up hope of going to bed before my flight leaves from the airport in Vegas at 9:10am, so I might as well get a blog post in before I get to Jersey. I'll sleep when I'm dead I suppose. Oh, and on the flight.

Anyway, I'm really excited about what I mentioned in the title. Lock Poker, a member of the Cake Network, recently signed a group of pros including myself, Jason Young, Lee Childs, Mike 'GoLeafsGoEh' Leah, Joe 'JoeytheB' Brooks, Kyle 'kwob20' Bowker and Jonathan Jaffe.

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, who was the first Lock Pro before the rest of us were signed, was also announced as VP of Product Development in the same press release.

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Going Back to Cali Strictly for the Weather, Women and the Weed

2009-08-28 22:16:00

Well Biggie was close, except you can replace "women" with "Legends of Poker $10k WPT @ the Bike" since I have a girlfriend. =)

Since they're playing out the final table right now while I sit at home watching Tommy Boy after a long online session and writing this blog, you can probably tell that it didn't go too well!

I continued my strange streak of having a heavily stacked table on day one of a major event, which is ironic because the later days are usually where you find the toughest tables after most of the soft spots have been eliminated.

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Aquatic Misadventures with Matt Stout

2009-08-22 21:23:37

So after a long and unproductive FTOPS series, my roommate and I decided to go jet skiing on Lake Mead to relieve some stress and get away from the soft glow of our monitors.

Had I known what was to come, I'd have stayed home for some R&R instead ...

The day started out well, even though my roommate and I got split up from the start. I was still signing my contract for the rental as we were leaving the dock, and he left a few minutes ahead of me.

I couldn't find him once I got away from the docks, but I figured he'd headed over to the Hoover Dam to check out the view since that's what we were planning on doing.

Apparently I overshot the Dam...guess it wasn't big enough for me to see. But I was having so much fun jet skiing through canyons and finding new coves that I just kept going. I took a break for a little while and headed back in the direction I came from ...

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Is It FTOPS Time Again? Already?

2009-08-15 20:58:32

It's that time again, the time we wait literally weeks for, FTOPS!

Seriously ... I haven't done a timeline on it yet or anything, but I'm pretty sure that FullTilt is slowly closing the gap between the different FullTilt Online Poker Series at an ever increasing pace.

They probably won't stop until they're running one continuous FTOPS series. But hey, if they can keep the fields huge I'm not complaining!

My FTOPS hasn't been great so far, but it hasn't been terrible. I made a deep run in the $215+rebuys event, which is always one of my favorite FTOPS tournaments. I was one of the chip leaders for a decent portion of the tournament but ended up fizzling out not too long after we got into the money.

I also cashed in one other event of the series so far, the $500 6-max PLO. I ended up getting it in on a pretty standard Omaha post-flop flip, holding bottom set and a straight draw against top two with a flush draw, and cashing for barely more than the minimum.

This is just going to further my recent desire to improve my Omaha game through books and training videos, because I seem to go deep in a lot of PLO events even though I'm self-taught and relatively inexperienced.

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WSOP Main Event Recap Part 2

2009-08-07 20:16:55

I might as well stop putting off writing this blog before I manage to completely block this tournament out of my memory...because I'm pretty close as it is, thankfully!

As I mentioned in the first part, my starting table looked more like a tough final table. I wouldn't be surprised in a WPT event, but since this is the softest $10k buy in tournament of the year it was pretty bad news.

Unless I managed to get in a good spot against one of the softer spots at the table it was going to be tough to accumulate.

But since the first day is all about survival I just decided to lay back, taking a lot of flops with the soft spots and picking my spots against the better players.

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The $215+Rebuys Final Table

2009-08-03 06:04:41

In my last blog I was pretty tilted after a brutal session of 20 or 25 online donkaments. I was down to just the $215+rebuys on Stars, and decided to blog while I was one-tabling because I can still pay enough attention when it's only one table.

As the Editor's Note mentioned, I finished 2nd in the tournament for $28.5k. It felt pretty good to get back on the right track after a pretty significant downswing. Not out of the hole yet, but am off the starting block and ready for another heater!

It also felt great because I was pretty tilted from that session and hadn't had a single cash yet...unless you count the MONSTEROUS $95 I cashed for in the Turbo Takedown $1M prize pool freeroll. That only left me down $4-5k for the day!

But seriously ... I managed to stay focused and keep playing my A game, even though I only had 4k chips at 75/150 after rebuys were over. I managed to overcome the desire to dust off my short stack and play Mario Kart and turn it into a solid cash.

There weren't too many tricky/interesting hands in that tournament, despite the fact that so much of the field in that tournament represents the best players in online poker. The fact that I put coolers of three of them deep in the tournament helped out...in more ways than one.

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Matt Stout's Separate Lives

2009-07-27 19:46:01

I'm going to interrupt my WSOP Main Event story because there's just no need for me to write about something that sucks that much right now. I'd rather focus on the positive at moment...after just a couple more lines...

As I write this, I'm down to one table after another brutal Sunday session. I lasted a grand total of eight hands COMBINED in two of the biggest tournaments of the day: the Warm Up and the $750k guaranteed.

This was partially due to something that was such a statistical anomaly that I have to share it. I busted out of three different tournaments by running into quads, twice when I had boats...all on paired boards, not ones with open sets.

To be fair, I also flopped quads once during the session. And a note to all of the people who think all online poker is rigged for action: I've never seen quads this many times in a session (25-35 tournaments), let alone hold or be up against them that many times!

But despite being on another brutal, six-figure downswing, I've managed to remain positive and still be pretty happy overall. It's probably partially due to my move to Las Vegas, which I'm very happy about so far.

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Main Event - Sweet Table Draw!

2009-07-23 22:46:11

Now that I've spent about a week and a half barely playing poker while getting over busting the WSOP Main Event, I suppose it's time to tell the tale.

Not that the interim has been too bad...I'm really working out the kinks in my Mario Kart for Wii game, have become better acquainted with my new digital VOLCANO vaporizer, and re-watched (I somehow got a hold of these when I was about 11) half of the gruesome, sick, and highly controversial "Faces of Death" movies.

I'm also starting to get back into roller hockey, in the hopes that one day I may be in shape again...or at least a shape that isn't round. =)

Anyway, back to the lecture at hand...

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Last Two Prelims Before the Main Event

2009-07-06 21:57:14

I made a rare decision to skip online tournaments last Sunday to play the $3k Triple Chance tournament for a couple of reasons.

First, I feel that I've played very well throughout most of the WSOP with a few deep runs, and have little to show for it.

Second, the $3k NL is the tournament in which I've had my closest run to a final table (even though I consider my 118th place finish in the 2007 Main Event my best WSOP finish), finishing 13th place last year when John Phan won his first bracelet.

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$2k at Venetian Deep Stack

2009-07-02 22:37:40

So I guess I inadvertently lied to you all in my last WSOP blog.

I said I would be back in action on Saturday unless I played the limit shootout on Friday, but out of the boredom derived from the mixed game players having their way with the WSOP schedule last week I decided to head over to the Venetian.

They're running another one of their highly popular Deep Stack Extravaganzas, and on Friday they spread a $2k NL event. I expected a decent turnout, but since it was such a big buy in (relative to most Venetian prelims) and it wasn't a WSOP event I thought there would be around 200-250 players.

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GUNNAR Optiks

2009-06-26 05:26:07

OK, so I hate the idea of turning my blog commercial ... but it's for a good cause ... and a great product. In conjunction with GUNNAR Optiks, I'll be making a charitable donation for each sale made with the code PPIStout at their site www.gunnaroptiks.com

I can't decide which charity yet, but probably Second Harvest (formerly Feeding America, www.secondharvest.org) or Habitat For Humanity (www.habitat.org).

I did a lot of work with my college's chapter of Habitat, and even served as their Vice President for a term. I've also been making donations to Second Harvest recently, because around Christmas-time I started thinking about how badly the recession must be hitting our nation's food banks.

Anyway, the story with GUNNAR goes something like this (I'm paraphrasing from a phone conversation over a month ago, so this is sort of the story =).

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Events 32-39: Matt Stout's Brickhouse

2009-06-25 01:58:44

Event 32 - $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em, Event 34 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, Event 36 - $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em, Event 39 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.

What do they all have in common? Soft fields, huge prize pools, and my buy ins donated to each of them without me even sniffing the money or day two in any of them. Brick, brick, brick, BRICKKKKKKK!

I'm still feeling pretty good though...except for this cold that I'm just getting over. I skipped the $1,500 NL and the $5k NL shootout that were held on Sundays in favor of playing online.

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$2,500 6-max and $1,500 No-Limit

2009-06-21 10:32:30

Event 19 of this year's WSOP was one that has moved up to replace the now defunct (damnit!!!) $1k rebuy events as one of my favorite prelim events of the Series: the $2,500 shorthanded no-limit event.

It drew 1,068 entrants and paid out 114 places with $552,745 going to the winner.

I had a pretty crazy rollercoaster ride for most of day one, which shorthanded tournaments tend to be. I was probably the chip leader at one point with over 80k.

Unfortunately, I frequently have trouble believing re-raises from European players (or anyone under 55 for that matter)...so I ended up hitting the spew button at the end of the day and finished up with 35k going to 600/1200.

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Don't Ever Give Up

2009-06-08 12:35:24

At the end of my last blog, I mentioned that I was really looking forward to the $1,500 NL six-handed event. It turned out to be a very soft field, as expected, of 1,459 players.

Many of the inexperienced players either played way too aggressively, or too tight and passive in the short-handed format. I was able to capitalize on this and chip up pretty slowly throughout the day without too many big confrontations.

We made it into the money (144 places) well before the end of the day, but I was stuck in reverse from the bubble until the end of the day.

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CSPC 2k NL Part 2: Cold War 2

2009-06-07 22:39:20

After stacking off a straight-flush draw and getting there for the chip lead at the end of Part 1, the other chip leader and I went back and forth quite a bit.

We were down to two tables, but the other table had no big stacks at it. Fortunately I got the better of this battle, highlighted by turning sixes full on a 2c-5c-5s-6c board after flatting a three-bet pre and calling a flop bet.

It was just unfortunate that he had crap and shut down after the turn.

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PLO for the First Time

2009-06-04 14:19:56

I was really looking forward to the WSOP Event 5: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, which was my first live PLO event.

Since I never read structure sheets even though I should, I didn't realize that they had a unique structure for the event.

Instead of just starting with your normal stack of three times the buy in, 4,500 in this case, you started with 1,500 chips at 25/50 with two "bullets." These are $5 tournament chips that represent two rebuys that you can take at any time during the first three levels regardless of chip count.

If you don't use them by then, you still receive 1,500 for each bullet after level three.

After I was done thinking about how badly I'm going to miss "real" rebuys tournaments, which have been eliminated from the WSOP schedule completely, it was time to figure our what my strategy should be here.

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CSPC $5k and the WSOP!!!

2009-06-01 23:23:52

Fresh off my win in the $2k NL event at the California State Poker Championships, I got to play my first $5k tournament where the house had paid my entire entry.

Since the seats to the $5k main event were money that was added to the prize pool by the casino, they footed the bill for this tournament. Thanks, Matt Savage!

It's a good thing it was free, since I blew it. We started with 15k stacks at 25/50, with the incredible escalation structure that I outlined in the $2k blog.

If the whole tournament world were run by Matt Savage, it would be a much better place.

I had my stack up to 40k at one point, but made a mistake that I've rarely made in live tournaments late...I got impatient. One bad bluff led to another, and I was on my way out the door and back to Vegas. At least I had an awesome bear trophy to occupy the passenger seat on the drive back. =)

I think I mentioned a couple blogs ago that I've taken on a student in LA, which was another reason I was out there. I didn't get as much work in as I'd like to, but his results and thought processes are improving dramatically.

He's asked me not to mention his name in my blog/publicly, but he's been a losing player for several years. In the last few weeks alone he's made several final tables, had one pretty decent-sized win in a FullTilt tournament, and made an extremely deep run in one of the biggest Sunday majors.

He also had a huge stack in the mid stages of the WSOP $1k event and took a horrible beat. I don't want to say too much, but I'm very proud of him and his progress so far and excited about my new training endeavor.

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California State Poker Championships $2k Pwnage

2009-05-26 20:15:30

While I'm in LA, I decided to play two events at the Commerce Casino's California State Poker Championships, the $2k NL preliminary event and the $5k main event.

The Commerce is California's biggest card room and as of the last LA Poker Classic they've got a man who (whom?) I and many other pros consider the best current Tournament Director in the World at the helm: Matt Savage.

Matt has several years of directing some of the biggest poker tournaments in history under his belt, including the WSOP Main Event.

He is constantly working hard to give players what they want and get feedback, and is even a fixture in the Two Plus Two forums where he likes to get players thoughts/complaints/ideas so that he can make his already sick tournaments even sicker.

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Calllifornia Lovvvve

2009-05-18 19:10:30

Just a little update before I crash after a longgggggggg (about 14 hour) Sunday session.

If you haven't guessed from the fact that it's Sunday night and I haven't angrily shut down the laptop and either gone to bed or started drinking, I WON!

The day started with a lot of promise, as I had made it to day 2 of the FTOPS $2500 event.

We had just gotten into the money and I was pretty short, but I very rarely get discouraged when shortstacked … especially since my two major live wins came after I was down to four big blinds or less at some point in the tournament!

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The Times They Are A-Changin'

2009-05-11 03:24:06

If you're a frequent reader of my blog (I don't know why you would be, but thank you if you are!), you'll notice some changes in the future.

Like the rest of PL.com bloggers, I'll be posting much shorter, more "bloggy" blog entries instead of my usual rants and rambles about brags and beats.

More importantly, I'll also have more freedom to talk about one of my favorite recreational activities, getting baked, without having to be subtle.

So get ready for some fat blunts to be sparked, and some funny and some not-so-funny stories of making sure that we always have one ready for the next tournament break.

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Tunica FT Pt. 3: My Untimely Demise

2009-04-09 01:07:35

It's finally here! The conclusion of Matt Stout's WSOPC Tunica final table run.

At the end of my last blog, I asked readers to guess what the most ridiculous hand David Dao could be holding after he limp-called 42k more at 8/16k and check-shoved my 80k bet to 520k+ on a 2♥ 5♥ 7♣ flop …

After I snap-called with the A♥ Q♥, David showed me the six and the two of diamonds. The 6♦ 2♦. THE 6♦ 2♦. THE &%#$ING 6♦ 2♦!!!

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Tunica Final Table Part 2: Riverboat Gambling!

2009-03-26 19:17:50

At the conclusion of part one, I had just taken a pretty gross beat for about a quarter million chips at the hands of Kai Landry.

However, I was still left with about 960k going to 8/16k (2k) and was not fazed much by the hand since I didn't get in as a huge favorite anyway.

Then I almost made a crucial misstep when we were still six-handed. I raised to 42k on the button, L.B. Eidson called from the small blind and we went heads-up to a A♥ 5♣ 9♥ flop.

He checked and I bet 55k, pretty sure that my hand was still good. He called.

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The Possibly Mildly Anticipated Tunica Final-Table Blog

2009-03-23 19:54:14

At the conclusion of my last blog entry the stage was set. I was in great position to pick up my first major title in a main event and have the biggest score of my career.

I'm pretty sure it was actually the biggest chip lead I'd ever carried to any final table, live or online.

With nine of the 154 entrants remaining, I held more than one million of the slightly more than three million chips in play. The average stack was 342k, but no other player held more than 405k to start the final table since my stack skewed the average so much (my opponents' average was 254k).

A lot of people seemed to think that I would come into the day firing away and running over the table.

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Tunica Part 3: More Rungoodsauce Than Me?

2009-02-27 20:03:26

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, I went into Day 2 of the WSOP Circuit main event in Tunica with $255,500 at $1,500/$3,000 ($400).

I was second in chips out of the remaining 61 players, 27 of whom would finish in the money. Given my huge stack and the relative weakness of the field, I felt great going into Day 2.

I had only played with two of the players at my new table the day before, so I sat back and learned what I could about the rest of them before I started splashing around.

The only player who had more chips than I did, David Dao, showed me what he was about right away.

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Tunica Part 2: Cure for the Common Slow-Roll

2009-02-17 21:14:42

I ended part one of this blog with a story about a guy who slow-rolled AA when someone had put him all-in preflop during the World Series of Poker Circuit event in Tunica.

After the hand, Tyler "tydean" Smith was reminded of a much sicker slow-roll story he'd heard from earlier in the tournament, which I later got directly from the player involved.

In a small event earlier in the series, the player raised from early position to $500 at $100/$200. There were a couple of callers, and the flop came Q-Q-J.

The player led out for $600, and one of his opponents made it $2,400 to go. The player then moved in for $2,575 total. His opponent went into the tank for a few minutes. I think you can see where this is going ...

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Tunica: Slow-Roll City, Miss. Part 1

2009-02-16 01:18:31

Last week I made yet another first-time trip to a casino town in the South that, in general, gets bashed by most touring pros.

This time it was Harrah's Tunica, for the World Series of Poker Circuit $5k main event.

To be honest, I had the bar set pretty low in my head based on what I saw during my previous two trips to tournaments in the South (the WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans last year and WPT Biloxi this year).

The hotel still managed to fall below the bar, what with a dearth of various amenities and a general lack of helpfulness on the part of the hotel staff.

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Biloxi Blues

2009-02-11 21:22:31

I recently made my first trip to the Beau Rivage, and my first trip to Biloxi, Miss. at all for that matter, to play the $10k WPT Southern Poker Championship.

Based on what everyone had told me about Biloxi, I wasn't expecting much from the place ... except the typical deplorable level of play by the locals.

The airport and what I saw of the town on my way to the casino seemed to be on par with what I was expecting.

However, I was pleasantly surprised with my first impression when arriving at the Beau Rivage (or the "Boo Riv-ij," as Jamie Rosen insists on pronouncing it).

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One to the Ghetto and One to the Hospital … Happy Birthday!

2009-01-22 18:11:17

There was only one good thing that came out of my last trip to Bellagio: the opportunity to get together with some buddies and get crunked while playing $2/$4 mixed games at Treasure Island.

I don't really like to go to clubs, so this is my equivalent of "getting a table." It's a blast, especially when you're trying to learn the games as you go along at a high level of inebriation.

Amanda "Mandy B" Baker, Paul Wasicka, Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke, Jason "OUEmoKid/JP OSU" Potter, Mike "SirWatts" Watson, and my friend from AC named Leo "smoothustler" August joined my girlfriend Aimee and me for the game.

Since my girlfriend doesn't read my blog, I can safely say that the highlight of the night was set-over-setting her in pineapple and stacking her. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

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Bellagio Five Diamond: Oops … I Have the Seven-High

2009-01-21 16:45:50

I'm going to keep my story of the whole Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic series somewhat short because, well, that's how most of the tournaments in the series were for me.

Instead, I'll breeze through that disappointing run so we can get on to good stuff, like getting smashed and playing $2/$4 mixed games at Treasure Island for my birthday.

I played three or four preliminary events during the series, including a $2k, two $3ks, and a $5k. The only one I even came close to cashing in was the $3k, but I picked up A♣ 3♣ against Bartholdi's 7♠ 7♥ in the battle of the blinds and went broke.

I made it to the mid-stages of the $5k with a decent stack, but ran A♣ K♠ into a set of fives on a K♣ 9♠ 5♦ flop. I was pretty sure I was beat, which meant nothing if I didn't fold.

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Festa al Lago Day 3: Exsqueeze Me?

2009-01-14 19:08:05

Day 3 of the Bellagio Festa al Lago main event started off a little slow for me.

I had a favorable table draw considering the remaining field, with the toughest spot being Michael DeMichele two seats to my left.

I also had a great stack of $249k @ $1,500/$3,000 with a $300 ante, which put me in great shape with under 100 players left and 50 places paid.

However, I was unable to get much going early on, and slowly bled chips away until I was under $160k. Then I picked up AA vs. KK and made a full house with 6-6, but managed to not get max value out of either hand.

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Festa al Lago Part 2: Whatever It Is, We Have to Gamble for It!

2008-12-09 19:24:49

Since I played Day 1a, and Day 1b would be played on Sunday, I decided to go hang out with some buddies of mine (Zachary "CrazyZachary" Clark, Tom "SBRounder" West, Cody "thugmoneymkr" Slaubaugh, Andy "BKiCe" Seth) and play the Sunday majors.

A lot of people think I'm crazy when I spend my day off from a major tournament ... well, grinding more tournaments.

But it turned out to be a good idea, since I took down the FullTilt $50k guaranteed $163 freezeout for over $32k! Not a bad score for my "day off."

Anyway, back to the tournament at hand.

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Festa al Lago Part 1: It's OK, I No Speak-a da English!

2008-12-09 02:51:14

First of all I'd just like to say happy holidays to everybody.

Despite the bitter cold, December is my favorite month of the year. I'll sustain the subzero temperatures anytime for good times with family and friends.

Add in my birthday on the 12th and the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and how could I favor any other month?

Now that Thanksgiving with the family in New Jersey is over, it's time to get back on the road.

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A Great Day ... to Fight Off Tilt

2008-11-21 02:04:45

I started Day 2 of the WPT Foxwoods main event with $72k at $400/$800 with a $100 ante, and a great table draw.

I recognized a couple of East Coast regulars when I saw my table draw, but only one stood out to me as a solid opponent: Clint Schafer.

Clint chopped the 2007 WSOP Circuit main event in New Orleans last year when he got heads-up with Louie Esposito. He also made a deep run in the WSOP Main Event this year, finishing 32nd for $193k.

It seemed like a great situation, and I was honestly looking forward to a day of deep-stacked poker with bad players.

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WPT Foxwoods Day 1a: The Pimp Hat

2008-11-07 03:15:23

Since we have a day off in between Day 1a and Day 2 of WPT Foxwoods while Day 1b is going on, I'll actually get a blog post in right after the events happened for once!

The WPT "World Poker Finals" is under way at Foxwoods, and what a piece of crap this place is. I swear it gets worse every time I come here.

Their customer service motto must be "Well we're the only poker room in New England, so you better like it!" Hopefully the newly reopened Mohegan Sun poker room will force them to change their ways, and soon.

The redeeming factor is that the only thing as bad as the service and attitude of the staff running the tournament is the quality of the players in the tournaments.

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WSOP Redux and Kenna James, Prop Bet Fish

2008-11-06 21:52:24

"I get behind myself, I need to rewind myself." - Kid Rock. Eventually I'll stop procrastinating and get my blogs written on time.

That way I'm doing it from recent memory rather than fuzzy memories and notes in my phone about key hands.

I guess part of the problem is that poker players (myself included) have little desire to write when they're running bad. After all, it's obviously no fun to talk about losing money.

But I'd be remiss to speak only of my successes and not of the tribulations ... since tournament poker is chock-full of them!

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Bellagio $5k: Saving the Rungoodsauce

2008-10-21 20:13:54

Well, to be honest I was having so much fun in the Bellagio $5k that I wished I didn't have to make my exit so soon.

My starting table included Josh "pbdrunks" van Duhn (who by himself makes the table entertaining enough), John Roveto (third-place finisher in the 2008 $25k Bellagio WPT Championship), and Jason "treysfull21" Mercier (winner of EPT San Remo and EPT London's "High Roller" event).

Although this may sound like a stacked table, it was a relatively weak one as far as Bellagio $5k preliminary events go. I wouldn't have been surprised if I could have named every single opponent when I sat down.

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WPT Niagara Falls: NAPC

2008-10-20 19:03:36

After I was done in Atlantic City (which I'll blog about soon - I'm a bit out of order), I reluctantly decided to head to the Fallsview Casino for the North American Poker Championship.

It's on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls in Ontario and it's the only Canadian stop on the World Poker Tour.

Last year I decided to skip this event because of the experience I had on my first trip to Fallsview. Two years ago was the first time Fallsview (or anywhere in Canada, for that matter) hosted a WPT event.

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WPT Legends of Poker Part 2

2008-09-10 19:06:41

Part two of poker pro Matt Stout's blog about the recent World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Casino.

I was glad to see only two familiar names at my table on Day 2: Gavin Smith and Mike McClain.

Gavin clearly needs no introduction, but some of you may not know/remember Mike. He was the "Agony of Defeat Guy" at the 2004 WSOP, and the "I Got It In Pre with Aces Against Raymer's Tens and Busted Ninth Guy" at the 2005 WSOP.

He seems like a very nice guy, and is easily one of the tightest poker players ever to roam this Earth. This basically made the fact that he was on my immediate left a nonissue.

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WPT Legends of Poker Part 1

2008-09-09 20:43:04

I went into the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Casino feeling pretty good, despite my recent struggles with the game.

I had finally uncorked everything I had bottled up while going deep in major events and having a series of near-misses. I shared my true feelings with you guys instead of just blogging about the usual ... another tournament and a bunch of hands I played (or misplayed).

But most importantly, I threw down the gauntlet and am challenging myself - to either have a big enough score to settle down, buy a house, and stop spending practically all of my days on the road grinding every stop on the tournament circuit, or to at least finish my degrees before I decide where to go from there.

If I do go back to playing professionally after I graduate, I should probably at least have that as backup.

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Running Bad Part 2

2008-08-23 17:45:37

Part two of two of poker pro Matt Stout's blog about his recent trials and tribulations with high-stakes tournament poker.

More recently, I've had even more close calls to big money (although not quite as big as the other two). Just a week before the WSOP started in Vegas, I finished 13th in the WSOP Circuit main event in New Orleans.

First place was about $380k in that tournament. Then at the WSOP I finished 13th again, this time in the $3k NL event won by John Phan (which I obviously blogged about already in practically epic detail). First place there was over $400k.

Then a couple weeks ago I had what I guess you could look at as the straw that broke the camel's back.

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Running Bad Part 1

2008-08-22 18:41:43

Whenever I take a hiatus from writing, the same thing happens ... I feel less and less inclined to play "catch-up" by the day.

But looking at the PL.com blog homepage, it seems as though I'm not alone. Lots of writers here seem to be on a hiatus as well. Alas, I seem to not be the only one suffering from post-WSOP life tilt!

With about two weeks left until the end of the World Series of Poker, I decided to fly back to the Borgata for the $5k main event of their annual Summer Series. I still have this tournament, five WSOP prelims, and the WSOP Main Event to blog about.

Fortunately, I've gotten into the habit of writing notes on every hand where I voluntarily put a chip in the pot.

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WSOP Event 32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-27 18:33:43

Here is yet another one of my all-too-short stories about a poorly structured circus, otherwise known as a WSOP $1,500 NL event.

As usual, I showed up to find a table full of players I'd never seen before in my life, with the exception of the late-arriving Tony Cousineau. And as usual, the new guys kicked my ass. =)

After making two big calls against a bluff with second pair, I was up to about $4,300 during the first level ($25/$50).

Then I did something that you're absolutely not allowed to do early in an event with a structure this poor ... I lost a coin flip. I got it in pre-flop with A♠ K♣ against a player who had 9♥ 9♦ for a pot of almost $5k.

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WSOP Event 29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Part 1

2008-06-25 21:03:49

Live tournaments that start on Sunday always pose a problem for me.

I'm forced to weigh my options between whatever live tournament is going on and playing all of the huge-field online donkaments filled with satellite winners and weekend warriors.

It's usually a difficult decision, but in this past Sunday's tournament there was a bracelet on the line, which made the decision pretty easy ... especially once PokerStars and Full Tilt both replaced their big weekly Sunday tournament with satellites for the WSOP Main Event.

My starting table wasn't particularly tough, but was certainly not nearly as weak and inexperienced as most of my starting tables for the smaller NL events at the WSOP.

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WSOP Event 29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Part 2

2008-06-25 20:35:34

So on to the interesting hand I mentioned at the end of Part 1: I was sitting in the small blind and the big blind had not yet returned from break.

It folded around to the player in cut-off, who prepared six black ($100) chips and one yellow ($1k) chip. However, he didn't say raise, and had pushed the black chips forward first. He was held to a call since they call this a "string raise."

Even before looking at my cards, I was planning on three-betting any late-position raise with a wide range of hands. With the big blind sitting out, late-position players are generally willing to raise with an especially wide range.

However, their three-bet calling range remains almost unchanged ... something I can't help but exploit.

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WSOP Event 27: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-19 18:36:35

For some reason I can't quite explain, I showed up for another circus full of monkeys chasing a bracelet the other day ... otherwise known as a WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Because these are the smallest-buy-in NL events at the WSOP, they naturally attract the largest and weakest fields of all NL events.

Unfortunately, I have what equates to a snowball's chance in hell of winning a bracelet in one of these events.

Even if I thought my edge was so great that I was twice as likely as the average schmo to win the tournament (which I don't), I'd have less than a 0.1% chance of winning the bracelet, given that the field is over 2,000 players.

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WSOP Event 23: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-17 21:18:18

I hope you have other things to do, because this is going to be a very short story.

I picked up a couple of big hands in the first two levels, but never got much action on them. I picked up J♠ J♥ in the second level, but had to fold on an ace-high flop to multiway action.

With the structure of WSOP preliminary events the way it is, you generally need to chip up in the first two hours to have a comfortable stack going to the third level, $100/$200.

This is especially true in smaller-buy-in events, since you always start with twice the buy-in in starting chips ($4k for the $2k, etc.).

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WSOP Event 17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout

2008-06-16 19:08:02

I just finished playing Event 17, which is a shootout tournament.

Shootouts were added to the WSOP schedule just a couple of years ago, due to the increasing popularity of sit-and-go (single table) tournaments.

Although my specialty is multi-table tournaments, I spent a good chunk of my career grinding sit-and-go tournaments.

The structure depends on the number of entrants, but in this case we started with 1,000 players at 100 tables. Each played down to a single winner, and then these players redrew to square off in round 2.

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WSOP Event 13: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-12 20:04:46

The field for the $2,500 NL event seemed a bit more solid than those of the $1.5-$2k events, but not too much more.

I had a pretty decent table draw, with just two faces I recognized: Kenna James, a very solid tour pro, and Steven Merrifield, who finished seventh when I won my WSOP ring and who's made two WSOP Circuit main event final tables since then.

Although I generally tend to play pretty tight in the early levels, things started off with a bang in this event. With $5k starting stacks, I called a $200 raise with 7♣ 8♣ and went five-way to a 5♣ 6♥ 9♠ flop ... GIN!

I got it all-in after the T♦ fell on the turn, and dodged 10 outs against my opponent's 6♣ 6♠.

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WSOP Event 9, $1,500 NL Hold'em Six-Handed

2008-06-11 22:45:31

My third event of the 2008 WSOP was Event 9, $1,500 NL short-handed (six-max).

I always look forward to short-handed tournaments, because play tends to be fast and furious with fewer players at the table ... and generally players tend to play even faster than they need to in these tournaments.

My starting table was nothing short of my expectations. Most pots were raised and many were three-bet pre-flop, and several went to showdown.

There was only one familiar face at the table, Richard "knucklehead" Friere, an Atlantic City regular.

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WSOP Event 7: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-05 20:00:58

When you wake up for a poker tournament and want to go back to bed, and then before you even get in the shower find yourself thinking about what you'll do that day if you bust out ...

Well, you should probably take the day off. In fact, showing up to a tournament that day is much like setting money on fire.

Well, I set two grand on fire today. I didn't really play poorly, but I also didn't bring my A game. I picked up a huge hand in a multiway pot during the first level ($25/$50), when I had A♦ Q♦ on a Q♣ Q♠ 8♦ J♦ board.

Unfortunately, I got no post-flop action there ... a common problem when you have the deck crippled like that.

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WSOP Event 5: $1,000 w/Rebuys No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-05 19:23:49

My second event for the series was my favorite type of preliminary event at the WSOP, NL Hold'em with rebuys.

I have always loved rebuy tournaments, and they are also where I have made the most money online. Naturally, I always go into these tournaments with high hopes.

I had a lineup of familiar faces at the table, including Brad Berman, Chris McCormick and Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer.

However, squaring off against such opponents can be a good thing in rebuy tournaments because it means that they are ready and willing to fire away to accumulate chips during the rebuy period.

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WSOP Event 2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

2008-06-04 19:05:55

After a long cross-country road trip (which I'll be blogging about soon), I just played my first event of the 2008 World Series of Poker: Event 2, $1,500 NL.

I came into the event psyched up for the start of the World Series and ready to play my A game... something I admittedly don't bring to the table for every tournament, even though I obviously should.

I really wanted to get my WSOP off on the right foot.

I had a great table draw, which is pretty typical for a $1,500 NL event at the WSOP. They are the live equivalent to the PokerStars Sunday Million.

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Monte Carlo Part 2: How to Play AA?

2008-05-27 19:53:15

In my last blog, I asked what readers would do in a very interesting hand I played during the European Poker Tour Championship in Monte Carlo.

Here's a recap of the action:

About an hour into the level, I'd pegged the UTG player as a very loose fish, mixing it up between loose-aggressive and loose-passive.

The other player involved had just arrived at the table, so I had no information about him.

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Monte Carlo Part 1: Extracting Value

2008-05-02 19:08:03

I just arrived home from the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

It proved to be well worth the trip, as it ended up being the largest tournament in Europe's history.

Because of the ever-weakening U.S. dollar, the buy-in was the equivalent of more than $15,000. However, thanks to the booming success of the European Poker Tour, they were able to draw 842 entries for the tournament, creating a staggering prize pool of over $13 million with a first prize of $3.2 million.

There are few locations better suited for such a tournament, either.

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Tournament Tipping: Don't Stiff Your Dealers

2008-04-21 18:47:30

Tournament tipping has always been a gray area in the poker community.

Although I'm not an authority on the matter in any way, I couldn't resist the urge to post my two cents.

The issue recently became the center of debate after Brandon Cantu won the 2008 Bay 101 Shooting Star WPT event for more than $1 million and allegedly stiffed the dealers.

To make it worse, this was one of the few WPT events of the year where no percentage of the prize pool was withheld for dealers' tokes.

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Atlantic City Part 3: The Final Table

2008-04-17 21:02:14

I arrived at the final table of Event 7 of the World Series of Poker Circuit - Caesars Atlantic City with a sizable chip lead.

I had about a quarter of the chips in play, more than 50 times the big blind, and about twice as many as my nearest opponent.

I had my eye on two tough opponents who I would be doing battle with at the final table. The first was Louie Esposito, who won the WSOP-C main event in New Orleans last year, among other tournaments.

Louie is a great player, but I've played enough with him to know his tendencies and have a pretty good read on him.

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Atlantic City Part 2: Down... But Not Out

2008-03-31 20:21:23

In my last blog, I asked what readers would do in a hand as we approached the bubble in a $500 World Series of Poker Circuit tournament in Atlantic City.

To summarize, we were seven-handed with the blinds at $1,200/$2,400 ($300 ante). It folded around to my opponent in the cut-off position. He moved all-in for $37,100 total.

I had about $50k in chips, was on the button, and held A♠ J♣.

No one who responded was in favor of pushing here. In general, I agree. This is usually a spot where I'd fold and try to find better spots.

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Atlantic City Part 1: Where It All Started

2008-03-19 20:51:09

I recently played the World Series of Poker Circuit events at Caesars of Atlantic City, N.J. This series has a special meaning to me for multiple reasons.

Aside from originally being from New Jersey and considering Atlantic City to be my home court, this is also where I had my first cash in a major event on the tour.

Two years ago, when I was still 21 years old and wet behind the ears, my friend Mike "KrustyTheClown" Hofeld convinced me to take a shot at the upcoming WSOP Circuit event with some of my winnings from the daily tournaments around Atlantic City.

World Series of Poker Circuit events are a great opportunity to gain experience on the tour, especially for inexperienced and online players who want to play larger events on the tour eventually.

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How to Succeed in Online Satellites

2008-03-11 23:56:49

It's that time again - time to parlay a few electronic bucks into your chance at millions of dollars and poker stardom while playing on the world's stage.

Satellites have begun on most online poker sites for this year's $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event.

If you'd like to make it to Vegas for the big show this year, there are countless ways to qualify. You can play multi-table tournaments or step SNGs. You can play freerolls or real-money tournaments. You can buy-in for $2 or $2,000.

I've had a great deal of success in satellites during my career, and they were very helpful early on when I couldn't afford to buy into the $5k and $10k events.

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Australia Part 5: The Unfortunate Conclusion

2008-02-29 22:39:44

After Tournament Director Matt Savage stopped play in Level 18 on Day 3 of the Aussie Millions, he announced the remainder of the tournament would be played six-handed.

Although I have plenty of short-handed experience, I was unaware of this plan and it definitely threw me out of my rhythm a bit.

Things immediately got off to the wrong start. The player on the button, who had been pretty active in the first couple orbits, had a stack of just under $250k. He raised to $30k on the button with the blinds at $5/$10k ($1k ante).

I looked down at A♦ J♣ in the small blind. I decided I was far enough ahead of his button-raising range to re-raise and try to take the pot down.

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Australia Part 4: TV Table Draw From Hell

2008-02-19 21:24:39

I began Day 3 of the 2008 Aussie Millions main event with $333k and the blinds at $1,500/$3,000 ($500 ante).

It was a very comfortable stack, with the average stack still around $150k.

Unfortunately, I also had my worst table draw of the tournament and one of the tougher table draws of my career.

Erik Seidel, Andy Black and Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul were all at my table with huge stacks. Oh, and to make things worse, they were all on my left.

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Australia Part 3: Patience Is a Virtue

2008-02-11 19:18:03

After the hand I blogged about in Parts 1 and 2, the remainder of Day 1 of the Aussie Millions main event went pretty smoothly for me.

I got paid off on a couple big hands, and picked up some chips at the end of the day by raising and re-raising a lot of pots on the artificial bubble.

Although we were far from the money at the end of the first day of play, many inexperienced players, as is their wont, tightened up considerably because they didn't want to play all day and go broke.

Others simply wanted to be able to say they made it through the first day, regardless of their stack.

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Australia Part 2: AllInAt420 vs. JovialGent

2008-02-04 20:25:53

Last week, in "Australia Part 1," I posted an interesting hand I was involved in with Yevgeniy Timoshenko (aka Jovial Gent/atimos) during the 2008 Aussie Millions main event.

Check out Part 1 to see where we left off. I'd like to thank the readers for their feedback, which I will now respond to while I evaluate my options on how to play the turn after I check and Yevgeniy Timoshenko bets $2,800 into the pot of $6,750.

The first option I have is to fold. Only one reader even mentioned the possibility of folding. This is clearly the safe and conservative route.

Although I have top pair and a flush draw, I have put my opponent on a pretty big hand and am nearly sure that I am beat at this point.

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Australia Part 1: Welcome to Melbourne

2008-01-25 21:14:03

I just got home from Melbourne where the Crown Casino hosted the 2008 Aussie Millions.

If you ever have the chance to go to Australia, especially for this event, I highly recommend it.

Australia is a great place to vacation and the Crown does a great job of running the tournament. Not coincidentally, the tournament continues to grow each year.

The Aussie Millions main event, with an AUD $10,500 buy-in (approximately USD $9,200), attracted 780 entrants this year.

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