Legends Of Pokers Main Event Day 2

Date: Tue, Aug 26, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

Yesterday was a long and tiring day for me. I woke up at 3:30am for work and the only thing that got me out of bed was it was my Friday and I also was going to meet the wife of the Deputy who was murdered 2 weeks ago.

It was a slow day and at 2:00pm my partners Craig and Jamie and I headed to meet Celeste Escalante for the first time to give her a check from the Fallen Heroes Fund and a Cruise for the whole family donated by Linda Johnsons, Card Player Cruises.

As you know Linda has been a HUGE supporter of my Charity and we have become good friends. I have met a lot of people in my life and Linda has the Biggest Heart of anyone I have ever met.

It was a little emotional for me to see the Escalante kids running around with a Picture of their father on an easel in the Living Room. They are well behaved and lovely children and its a shame there Dad will not be around to watch them grow up.

I arrived at the Bike about 2 hours after the tournament had started and it was pretty quiet with about 170 people still in.

I watched Gavin Smith play a hand and he called a bet on the river and his opponent had Quad tens.Mark Seif went on a rush and at one point had over 300,00 in chips but he ended the day with about 242,000.

Layne Flack was wild and crazy as usual and he was down to about 20,000 at one point but he came back and ended the evening with 189,000. The best play though was by Raymond Davis. Ray was down to 7,000 chips early in the day. With a lot of work and tremendous patience and the ability to have no fear in re-raising certain players he ended the day with close to 190,000 chips.

Alan Weintraub was by far the luckiest of the day. I watched him hit almost every flop for an hour and build his stack to over 500,000. Alan was playing J6 off and turning full houses, 5-3 diamonds flopping flushes and he knew he was hot and continued to play almost every hand.

Kelly Kim (from the November9) made a call early against John Smith with a board of 10-10-5-2-2, of 75,000 chips,two thirds of his stack. John went all in and Kelly thought for awhile and you could see the anguished look on his face. Kelly folded but with some hard work he is back in contention and I hope he makes the final table along with Mark Seif. As I told you yesterday, I am very impressed with Kelly, as he is a very polite and down to earth guy.

The other big hand I saw was Antonio Esfiadiari All In against an opponent with AQ. Antonio had him covered slightly with KK and when the flop came A-Q-7 Antonio was flustered. But as I stated to the table after the King hit the River, "Thats why they call him the Magician" Everyone just laughed and Antonio doubled to over 200,000 chips to put him in the top ten of chips.

Nothing else really exciting happened. Allen Cunnigham was reading a magazine while playing and Eric Seidel was sleeping with his Ipod on during the last break of the Night. I did see Gabe Kaplan make a King high straight flush and then call for food service. He looked at the Menu for about 15 minutes and I told him , " Gabe that's not a script, its a food menu" he laughed pretty hard and shook my hand and finally ordered a fruit salad.

Walking around the room and watching these established pro's play is quite rewarding. The style of play is so different then the players I am used to going up against. Rarely do you here an "All-In" call,the pace is much slower and position is very well played.

I enjoy watching players go at each other. I actually study their faces and look for some sort of tell and I try and guess to myself who has the best hand and what they might have.

I really believe I could do well in this kind of event, because it fits my style of play.

I will not be going to any other days of Legends until the Final table Thursday. Going to spend some time at home with the girls and take care of a few things around the house.

I am going to try and play the Player Appreciation $225.00 NL tournament on Friday at the Bike, because it starts at Noon, so I have to take a few hours off of work.

So till Friday..........Take Care....Be Safe.........Good Luck Mark,Antonio and Kelly hope you get there.

Bad fir Poker, Baby?

Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

I�€™m a little late on this topic, but some people feel that the way Scotty Nguyen�€™s behavior at the 50k HORSE final table was bad for poker. I�€™m not so convinced about that.

He clearly was out of line with his antics and deserved penalties for his behavior. I have heard that Scotty came out and said that he wasn�€™t drunk. I have no idea how that is possible. In fact, if I were him, I would say I was very drunk because then there is a reason to act that way. I don�€™t travel the tournament circuit, so I have never seen Scotty in person. His TV appearance has always come off as a nice guy. This appearance clearly is crumpled up and thrown in the garbage after the HORSE table.

I don�€™t think this was really bad for poker, though. People already playing poker are going to keep watching poker shows and keep playing the game. This added entertainment to poker for people that aren�€™t big poker fans. I had heard about the drunkenness and was looking forward to seeing what exactly happened. While this isn�€™t the kind of attention poker wants, it will get viewers, which certainly is not bad for the game.

The one thing that Scotty�€™s acts did tarnish a little was the celebration of deceased Chip Reese. The night was slightly intended to honor the poker great. The barrage of swearing put a cloud over that a little bit.

Scotty will have some work to do in order to get the image he had by the fans back. I don�€™t think his actions will help poker a whole lot, but it did add some entertainment that isn�€™t always there. I don�€™t think this was bad for poker. That being said, this can�€™t be a normal occurrence. That would be terrible for the game by giving it an image of drunks. As an isolated incident, it�€™s fine. People get drunk. That is not a secret.

Legends Day 1B

Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

Today the second starting day of The Legends of Pokers Main Event, started at 2:00pm at the Bicycle Casino.

There were 212 players who showed up to play the $10,000.00 No Limit Tournament which is the second largest event here in the Los Angeles area every year.

A total of 373 players entered to make first place One million and ninety eight thousand dollars and second place Five hundred and sixty three thousand. Last years tournament had 475 players and was won by Dan Harrington.

The big story of this tournament is the big name players who did show up. No Doyle Brunson,Todd Brunson,Scotty Nguyen,Mike Gracz,Chris Bell,J.C.Tran,Nam Le,Phil Hellmuth,Mike Matusow,Annie Duke,Howard Lederer,Michael Demichelle,Joe Hachem and Andy Bloch.

Some who did come to play are Mark Seif,Alan Cunnigham,Chris Ferguson,Jordan Morgan,Brandon Cantu,Theo Tran,Kathy Libert,Kenna James,Michael Binger,Maria Ho,Barry Greenstein,Layne Flack,Kelly Kim and David Levi just to name a few.

Phil Ivey was also here but only lasted 20 minutes before going all in blind because he had to leave for an unknown reason and losing to a very happy player, who doubled up early.

Play was very very slow and with 30,000 chips and 90 minute levels there is really no reason you should bust early because this is not some 300.00 event,it's a 10k and the play is so very different in a tournament of this stature.

I did get to speak with Kelly Kim for a few. Kelly is one of the WSOP main event final table players and he is a local, who like me, started playing small events at the Bike to hone our skills.Kelly is a great guy and I gave him one of the Fallen Heroes Shirts and he just might wear it during tomorrows play.Kenna James told me he is definitely wearing the Fallen Heroes hat and shirt during tomorrows session and that is great news.

I will be going to watch some of the play tomorrow and then I will not be going back until Thursday, when the Final table is being filmed. I am going to spend some time with the twins on my days off and get some honey do's done around the house.

Sorry I do not have anything interesting to report,but today was like watching paint dry on a wall, very slow.

Take Care,,,,Be Safe...

Legends Day 1A

Date: Sun, Aug 24, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

The 10,000 Main Event started today at 2:00pm PST today here at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California.

There were 161 entries for the first of two start dates this year and by 4;00pm there were 9 people on the road home. the most notable was Joe Sebok who had Aces and Kings busted and left him short stacked almost immediately.

All players started with 30,000 in chips and the levels are 90 minutes long,so there is quite a bit of play.

Some of the notables there today were, Eric Seidel,Men the Master, Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, Vinny Vinh,Bryan Devonshire, Eric Lindgren,John Phan,Gavin Smith, Antoni Esfiandari,who is supposed to go on a ride with me in the morning And several others.

Daniel Negreneau stopped by and I had a nice conversation with him and he was very wound up and appeared to be very happy he was here in Los Angeles.He was doing an interview with Amanda Letherman from Poker Road so you should check it out and see how excited he was for yourself.

It was a pretty slow evening and there was some tense players in the group,but as always if you were at John Phans table, it had a party like atmosphere.

My good friend Jorge Pineda who won his seat into the event unfortunately will not make it to day two on Monday as he had an early exit.

Not much else to report, very slow day. They are still running some $1,000.00 satellites tomorrow morning to give someone a chance to play at the 2pm start time.

So if your feeling lucky head on down to the Bike and take a shot at a Million Dollar payday.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more exciting. have a great day..take care..Be Safe..

Legends Main Event Starts this Weekend

Date: Wed, Aug 20, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

Time is going by at record speed this year. Tomorrow is my two year anniversary of playing tournament poker as the Legends of Poker Media event starts at Noon.

It seems as it was just yesterday I was taking down last years Christmas decorations and in just a short few months I will be taking them out to put up again.

This is where I had my first taste of a REAL poker tournament as Kelly O'hara, the Bikes wonderful marketing Director allowed me to play, because I wrote articles for our Department magazine.So if you want anyone to blame, it would be Kelly!

I'm still thinking about my blunder from the other night. I have talked to a few close friends I have made in the Poker world and they all agree I am stupid for not shoving when I looked at two tens,but as Long as I learn from those mistakes I should be a better player in the future.

The funny thing about that hand, I had listened to that little voice in my head all night. The one that tells you don't do it and we usually do. After the flop the voice told me to shove and I did not listen, so I let my opponent catch up when I was getting greedy and trying to trap him.

One good thing came out of this tournament is that I know I can play with the Big Boys and that gives me more confidence as I grow as a player.

I watched the 50k H.O.R.S.E. Event last night on ESPN and was amazed at Scotty's demeanor.The show was not good for poker last night as ESPN was beeping half the conversations and we saw the worse of three very respectable guys come out last night.

Eric, who as an athlete learned along time ago how to curb his emotions even told Scotty he was not a fan of his. Demichele,whom I have never met but seemed like a pretty nice kid when he was doing well in the USA Poker Championships a few years ago on ESPN, lost his patience with Scotty and was biting his tongue I am sure because this event was being filmed.

The guys at PokerRoadradio.com are going to be talking about this in the next few days on one of their shows.They also talked about the same thing I wrote about a few weeks ago when Norman Chad bashed Justin Bonomo on ESPN.

I believe this is not good for Poker. People getting interested in Poker, as I did by watching it on ESPN, are going to think only morons and degenerates play Poker and are going to stay away.

I think ESPN should have not shown the 50k event on TV even though it was the premier event for professionals at this years WSOP. I, personally was disappointed in Scotty who I met several years ago at Legends and who gave my girls Chips with his likeness on it at this years WSOP. My girls were so excited to see him on the TV last night,they came in from riding their new Razor scooters I bought them yesterday to watch along with my wife.

We were so disappointed, we left and went to Chili's for dinner.

I will be playing for only the first hour tomorrow at the Media Event as I have to go to court at 2pm.

I wish I could play the Main Event it would be a goal of mine,but I have to work this weekend and I did not play any super satellites to try and gain enetry.I forsee myself playing a 10k event in the near future though, so I will be patient.

Good luck to all who enter and play, there should be around 400 entries or so as there were last year and Dan Harrington should be in town to defend his title of a year ago.

I am waiting for the California State Championship Series to start in Two weeks, so I will be giving the cash games a shot. I played $200.00 NL yesterday and won $645.00 which is good because my truck registration is due next week..LOL

Take Care...Be Safe...

One Lousy Mistake Cost me!!!

Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

Today was the 1000.00 Nl event at the Bikes Legends Of Poker. I have been playing very well as of late and tonite was no exception.

I won a 120.00 satellite and chopped another Sunday night and I entered todays Event. This is the biggest buy in I have ever played with exception of The Seniors Event at the WSOP.

Early on I was up to 15,000 in chips as we started with 6,000 and 45 minute levels. I went card dead and could not make any moves and was down to 8200 when I was moved to another table. I picked up some blinds and antes to keep me right around 8200 when I was moved to another table.

The chip leader was to my right and he was raising every pot. I had 99 in the Small blind when he raised to 4200 chips and I went all in. He called with A9 and I doubled up as no Ace came.

Later I had 10-10 after he made a big raise and he called me with A6 and I am now at 36k. I get blinded down to 17,000 chips when I look at JJ and again the chip leader had raised. It was only 12,000 more for him to call and he did with 9-7clubs..The Flop 5-8-6 giving him a straight. Now we were on the bubble at the time. 272 players started todays event and only the top 27 were going to be paid. First place is 97,000.00 and 27th paid 1845.00. There were 28 players left and I was sick when he called me. I had been a thorn in his side all night and he said he was getting pot odds to call.

Well the turn was the 5diamonds and the river....5 of hearts to give me a Full House and keep me alive.

The next hand I have 55 and call his raise again and the flop was J-J-K he bet 4000 and I called the turn was a 4, I bet 4000 he raised to 8,000 and I called. the river was a Jack and he checked as I did with a full house and he folded.

So Ihave 60,000 and in the Small blind and we are re-seated and another big stack to my right raises to 12k when blinds are 3000-1500- and a 500 ante.

We are 11/12 hrs into this tournament and 25 people are left. I look down at pocket tens and only call his raise. The flop is Queen high and he bets 20k...This is where I make my mistake..I should of shoved here but I did not because I put him on A-10 or A-J.. The turn is a K and now I go all in and he calls with K-3 spades . What a mistake I made pre flop or even after the flop. I am still kicking my self as I leave with an $1845.00 payday when I could have been at the final table.

One lousy misstep tonite and I am really mad at myself.

There were some big name players there tonite. Vinny Vinh,Mark Seif, Max Pescatori, Tiffany Michelle, Men the Master Vince Burgio, Robert Turner, David Pham, John Pham, Crispin Leyser and his wonderful wife Jules and I outlasted all of them.

I am playing well and I am just going to have to shake this off..

Take care...be safe...

One Lousy Mistake Cost me!!!

Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 Professional Internet Tournament

Today was the 1000.00 Nl event at the Bikes Legends Of Poker. I have been playing very well as of late and tonite was no exception.

I won a 120.00 satellite and chopped another Sunday night and I entered todays Event. This is the biggest buy in I have ever played with exception of The Seniors Event at the WSOP.

Early on I was up to 15,000 in chips as we started with 6,000 and 45 minute levels. I went card dead and could not make any moves and was down to 8200 when I was moved to another table. I picked up some blinds and antes to keep me right around 8200 when I was moved to another table.

The chip leader was to my right and he was raising every pot. I had 99 in the Small blind when he raised to 4200 chips and I went all in. He called with A9 and I doubled up as no Ace came.

Later I had 10-10 after he made a big raise and he called me with A6 and I am now at 36k. I get blinded down to 17,000 chips when I look at JJ and again the chip leader had raised. It was only 12,000 more for him to call and he did with 9-7clubs..The Flop 5-8-6 giving him a straight. Now we were on the bubble at the time. 272 players started todays event and only the top 27 were going to be paid. First place is 97,000.00 and 27th paid 1845.00. There were 28 players left and i was sick when he called me. I had been a thorn in his side all night and he said he was getting pot odds to call.

Well the turn was the 5diamonds and the river....% of hearts to give me a Full House and keep me alive.

The next hand I have 55 and call his raise again and the flop was J-J-K he bet 4000 and I called the turn was a 4, I bet 4000 he raised to 8,000 and I called. the river was a Jack and he checked as I did with a full house and he folded.

So Ihave 60,000 and in the Small blind and we are re-seated and another big stack to my right raises to 12k when blinds are 300-1500- and a 500 ante.