WOO HOO! PokaPaloma just won a no limit hold’em satellite!

I’m at the Eastern Poker Tour’s 5th Anniversary Celebration at the Johnson & Wales Inn in Seekonk, MA. As a part of the celebration, they are sponsoring a $15K No Limit Hold’em Tournament at 3:00. Buy-In is $125.00 with an add-on of $15.00. 

From 10:00 am – 2:00 pm they are holding no limit hold’em satellites. The top two from each ten-person satellite table win entrance into the $15K tournament this afternoon. 

I arrived shortly after 10:00 am, paid for the satelite with a voucher that I had won when I placed third in Seekonk in March, added my name to the list, and was seated shortly afterward.

I had played with 3 of the other players at the table before. One I had in the maniac bucket. “Oh damn…”, I was thinking. “He’s got to be at my table?” I got some great cards in between long periods of blanks. I had Aces twice and Kings once. My final hand at this table I had Jacks. Jacks had been hot so far, holding up 3 times in the hour and 10 minutes we had been playing. So with 3 of us left, I went all in from the Button. The Small Blind folded and the Big Blind called blind, putting himself All-In. Turns out he had an Ace and an 8? Anyway, the Jacks held up and the maniac and I move on to the tourney this afternoon.

So, I’m registered, paid for the add-on, and am going to have a good lunch before the big tourney begins.

What about you? Are you an EPTer? Did you attend the event? How’d it turn out for you?

Why do we Call when we know we are Beat?  w-h-i-n-e

I’m still scratching my head over a call I made Monday night. Sunday night I had won. Monday night I was feeling very focused and was on course to win and, then, I called a guy’s post-flop All In when I new I was beat. I mean I KNEW IT!

Game: No Limit Hold’Em
Runners: 38

There were 3 of us left at the final table. My opponent was the short stack and I was in the middle. The blinds were 3000/6000. I had 92000 in my stack after the blinds. My opponent had 56000.

I had limped in. My opponent had limped. The flop was something like 8 K 2. Two clubs. My opponent checked. I had Qs, so, I wanted to know if he had a K.

I bet 6x the Big Blind. He insta-called with a shove All In. So, my brain flashes to that Jenn Harman commercial when she tosses the K’s saying, “when you’re beat you’re beat”. So, it is clearly confirmed for me that he has a King.

I start out acting like I’m going to call… counting my chips and all. <– That’s what I wanted to do.  Then I called!  Huh? <– That’s not what I wanted to do

He immediately turned up a K and I was left begging for another Q.

Idiot!  Lost 56000. It  didn’t knock me out, but, it was the beginning of my demise as I was unable to re-build my stack fast enough. I beat myself on that hand. I wasn’t outsmarted and the cards didn’t beat me.  I simply decided to defy the truth. I had asked the question and he had answered directly.

So what is it that makes us make the calls when we know that we are beat?
Is it ego? We want to be right so badly that we will call even if it is detrimental to our tournament life.

Is it because we are adventurous and want to be perceived as a dare-taker, living on the edge?

Are we junkies driven by the euphoric feelings we get upon sucking-out, so, we are willing to put our tournament life on the line?

Is it because we want to give our opponent a beating and put him in his place? 

Or are we just cocky and feeling invincible because we have sucked-out in the past?

Are we acting deliberately, setting the stage for future hands and future games? Trying to manipulate perceptions?

Are we simply fatigued and disconnected with the outcome, so, 2nd or 3rd becomes good enough? 

I don’t know what the cause is. I know that that one bad call overshadows the excellent decisions that I made throughout the first part of the tournament. Yesterday, it was that call that kept replaying in my head and not the 5 excellent plays I made earlier in the tournament that brought me to the final table.

I’ve seen Daniel Negreanu do it…and Scotty Nguyen. I’ve done it before, and hopefully, will not do it again for a long time.

What about you? Why do you think we make the calls when we know we are beat?  Click the title of this post to go to the page where you can leave your thoughts.

Yesterday, I learned that PokerStars’ NAPT (North American Poker Tour) tournaments will be televised on ESPN2 starting April 19th.

ESPN plans to show 16 hours of the NAPT tournaments. Here’s how the schedule’s looking…

4/19 – 10-12 p.m. ET – NAPT at Venetian $25,000 Invitational High Roller Bounty Shootout

4/26 – 10-12 p.m. ET – End of NAPT Venetian $25,000 Invitational High Roller Bounty Shootout, and coverage of NAPT Venetian $5,000 Main Event

5/3 – 10-12 p.m. ET – NAPT Mohegan Sun NL Shootout

5/10 – 10-12 p.m. ET – End of NAPT Mohegan Sun NL Shootout and coverage of NAPT Mohegan Sun $5,000 Main Event

5/17 – 10-12 p.m. ET – NAPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High-Roller

NAPT TV schedule at the NAPT website.

Will you be watching?  Let us  know –>

Watching live streaming of the Bay 101 10K Main Event. Today (Monday Mar. 8th) is the first day. Tuesday is day 1B. Runs Wed – Fri. Final table Fri. at 4PM pacific time.

Bounties and end-of-day highest stack pay outs.

Annie Duke wins the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Champion in a best of 3 against Erik Seidel. Duke won the first and the last matches. Duke wins $500,000 and Seidel wins $250.000.

How’d they get to the finals? 

Clubs/Spades Bracket

Erik Seidel beat Peter Eastgate
Scotty Nguyen beat Jason Mercier

Hearts/Diamonds Bracket

Dennis Phillips beat Doyle Brunson
Annie Duke beat Jerry Yang

Semifinals

Erik Seidel beat Scotty Nguyen
Annike Duke beat Dennis Phillips

Watching the LA Poker Classic being streamed. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/la-poker-classic-2010.  Featured table has Daniel Negreanu.  Not the best video, but, better than than not seeing it.

Winding up for today, but, expect that they will run Noon – 8:30 again tomorrow.

It’s been an interesting morning here at PokaPaloma central. While catching up on the poker news I found…

PokerDailyNews reports that James Akenhead won Full Tilt’s Poker Million VIII.

The Full Tilt Poker Million was an invitational event featuring 72 players from around the globe fighting for the half-million dollar first place prize. The shootout-style event’s preliminary and semi-final bouts were filmed earlier this year in London and already aired on Sky Sports in Europe. While those rounds were taped, the final table players returned to London Friday to play down to a champion.

Here are the final table results from this year’s Poker Million:

1st Place: James Akenhead – $500,000
2nd Place: Juha Helppi – $250,000
3rd Place: Dag Martin Mikkelsen – $200,000
4th Place: Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz – $150,000
5th Place: Craig Wakeham – $100,000
6th Place: Peter Vasiliou – $75,000
7th Place: Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby – $50,000
 

Gambling911.com reports that James Akenhead won the PokerStars Poker Million 8:

Professional poker player James Akenhead has won the PokerStars 2009 Poker Million 8. His total winnings in live tournmanet play for the year amount to just over $2 million now.

By the end of the tournament, Akenhead found himself heads-up against Finnish veteran, Juha Helppi, eventually winning out.

 
Found lots of tweets and retweets about Gambling911.com story.

And BetFair reports that James Akenhead won the Poker Million

James Akenhead can seemingly do no wrong right now and has capped off a fantastic year by taking down his first major tournament of 2009, the Poker Million.

Over the weekend Akenhead played the final table of the 2009 Poker Million aiming to win and add $500,000 to the $1,442,077 h had won this year all ready. After seeing the likes of Taylor Caby, Dag Martin Mikkelsen and Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz hit the rail, Akenhead found himself heads-up against Finnish veteran, Juha Helppi.

So whose tourney is it? Enlighten me!

Monday, November 9, 2009, the morning of the 2009 WSOP FINAL Final Table when Darvin Moon and Joe Cada were to battle it out for the championship, I played in a daily no limit hold’em tournament at the MGM Grand.

I registered about 5 minutes before start time.  There were 70 players registered already. I was told that the tables were full and that I was 1st alternate. By tournament start time there were enough alternates to seat another table. One of the alternates inquired about that and the tournament manager said that he would like to start another table, but, he didn’t have enough dealers.

Mental Note: MGM Grand, Monday mornings @ 11am, the casino plans on 70 runners for the tourney (in November).  

Buy In:               $65
Starting Stack: $1500
Levels:               20 minutes
Re-Buys:            No
Alternates:       Original players busting out within the first 4 levels may apply to get on the Alternates list.
Seating:            10 players per table

I was seated during the first level; probably saw 2 – 3 hands before the end. There were a couple of very experienced players at the table; a couple of newbies, and the rest mediocre players.

The last hand of the second level (50/100/no ante) I was in the Big Blind. The most experienced player at the table was in the hijack seat. Everyone folded to her and she opened with a $400 bet. Fold, fold, fold to me, and I called with AhQd. We were heads up. Flop came 2 7 10 rainbow.

I knew the flop didn’t hit her and I had observed that she played very aggressively when in hijack to big blind position, so, I thought this was more of the same.  I decided to check-raise to drive her out of the hand. I checked. She bet $400. I raised  it to $800. She called… hummm. I had her on KQ or KJ. Was she sitting on trips? Better slow down.

A 4 came on the Turn. I figured that didn’t improve her hand. I thought for a few moments and decided she was convinced she had the winner and was going to let me hang myself, so I checked. She checked.

An A came on the flop. She called me all in for my last $300. I called, was outkicked, and lost. She had AK offsuit. I didn’t last more than 25 minutes.

Room:
The no-smoking poker room is located at one end of the casino area. It is curved like a quarter moon and holds about 20 tables. Two sides are open to the casino area and are separated from the casino by a black rail. The other two sides are abutted by the Race and Sports Book area on one side and the Centrifuge lounge on the other. The tournament took place in what staff refer to as the “back” of the poker room. The “back” is the side of the poker room farthest from the registration desk. It is railed off and open like the other side, but has less traffic as the popular attractions (Lions Habitat exhibit, for example) are on the registration side. It was actually pretty quiet at that time of day considering that the Race and Sports Book area (with tons of TV monitors) and the Centrifuge lounge are on either side and the 22,000-square-foot Studio 54 nightclub is just across the hall. The tables and chairs were in very good condition, and although there were 10 seated at a table and there was a little bit of jostling for space, the tables were separated a good distance from each other. Here’s a map of the MGM Grand layout.  Poker Room is in the lower left of the diagram.

Dealers:
I only experienced two dealers this tournament. I recognized both from having played at the MGM Grand in previous years. Both were professionally friendly and rather quiet. They announced raises, but didn’t go out of their way to guide the newbies. When there was a delay, they pointed to the person whose turn it was and said something to encourage a response and move the game along.

Players:
At my table, there were all levels, so, I am guessing that is the general spread across the tables.

After attending the 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table in Las Vegas, I attended the 2009 PubCon Conference. I registered to play in the No Limit Hold Em Tournament the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino put on for PubCon on Tuesday evening.

The tournament was held in a private room alongside the Casino. Number of entries was 40. $0 buy-in. Each player received $1500 chips to start. All levels of experience. Ten seated at each table. $20,000 worth of prizes were being given away. All prizes were awarded in Hilton promotional chips. The promotional chips were good for playing any game in Hilton’s Casino. Winnings in those games would be paid out in “real” chips which could be cashed in. 

Top 4 places were paid. First place received $10,000 in promotional chips.

Each player reaching the final table received $100 in promotional chips.

We had a very fun time hooting and hollering and cheering. There were some serious hands, but, mostly the players were there to have fun.

There were 4 players in my last hand. Two of us got busted out and a third was down to the felt, while the winner of that hand went on to win the tournament. I went out in 6th place, earning $100 in promotional chips. I converted that to $50 cash with a little round at the Roulette table.

Since I started playing live no limit hold’em tournaments recently, I’ve found there are a couple of things that get on my nerves: sticky chips and drunk players.

Sticky Chips
In a couple of recent games, players started to put together their bets and ended up raising the bet because two of the chips stick together. It doesn’t bother me that they raised the bet. It bothers me that the chips are so dirty that they won’t come apart with a fingernail prod. They need two hands to disengage.  In these times with H1N1 hanging over our heads, what would it take to clean the chips? Soapy water?

Drunk Players
Another live game pet peeve is the drunk players. The two players that I am thinking about from this week’s play were a distraction and took away from the game. One got up and went to the bar to get a drink in the middle of a hand while he was the dealer. In another game, a more belligerent know-it-all was abusive to other players. He was also frustrated with the pace of play and let the table know. A couple of times he went outside to have a cigarette. Since he wasn’t there when it was his turn to act, we folded his hand. Upon returning he’d be angry because his hand was folded. Huh?

What about you? What gets under your collar when you are playing live no limit hold’em tournaments?