Pokerati published a rumor that the second place winner in the Ante Up for Africa WSOP event (meant to help Sudan and Norman Chad) stiffed the charity.  Evidently, the donations are voluntary, not taken out of the prize pool automatically.  I commented on the blog that this may be a gaming law and licensing issue with which Harrah’s/Rio had to comply.  A poster alleging to be the second place winner claimed that in an interview with Norman Chad filmed before the final table, he stated what he intended to do with the money.  Interesting.  The good news is that the charity event raised over $300,000.

The Main Event starts today (and of 75% of the field, Saturda, Sunday and Monday).

The $50k HORSE event ended with David Bach winning the $1.3 million first place prize.  David Bach is a relative unknown; this was his first bracelet.   While unknown to us on the outside, he has certainly had his successes, including several cashes in the WSOP and Aussie Millions. Notable finishes include Huck Seed (5th), Chau Giang (7th), Erik Seidel (8th) and Gus Hansen (9th). 

Vitaly Lunkin looks to have a lock on Player of the Year, further adding to the cred of the Russian poker players.

I saw a very interesting Overtime idea here.

I think it is a great idea because it really lets the coaches decide who gets the ball and where. It also makes the coaches make another crucial decision in a tie game, which means the coaches will never want it, and therefore, the league would never implement it.

Yesterday started out like most Wednesdays. Woke up at 6. Gym by 6:30. Work out, shower and get dressed. That’s when it became different from most Wednesdays. First, I put on a pair of shorts and T-shirt (as opposed to a suit). Second, there was an unexpected $20 bill in the right pocket of my shorts. Something told me that it was my day.

I donned the shorts and T-shirt because that particular workday because I was headed to Winstar.

I felt like Buckner walking back into Shea…

I have been chewed up and spit out at Winstar over the years. Today I planned to play $1-$2 under the assumption that the competition would be easier than my usual $2-$5 game. It was.

I played for 7 hours, from 9:30am to 4:30pm. I won some hands and ran my $200 buy-in up to $550 early on. It stayed between $450 and $550 for a long time. Then I went on a tear.

First, I called down a bluffer who fired three bullets into a pot. I won with middle pair. He said “good calls”. I agreed.

The biggest hand was at 3:10pm with my KK flopped top set, I went all-in and got called by the AKs with the nut flush draw. I was a 2:1 favorite, and the hand held up. My stack was then $970.

Another bluffer fired three bullets into the pot. I called all three bets and (again) won with middle pair. He didn’t say “good hand.” He said “you are so lucky.” I didn’t agree. Huh? How is calling down a bluffer “lucky”? That was 3:20, and my stack was now $1,100, my high-water mark.

Two deaf guys sat at our table. We tried – via signs and doing some role-playing – to explain to them that they could not sign to each other during the hand. The never got it, and they were basically speaking “Sputnik” during hands in which they were both involved. It ended up not mattering, as they busted out and left.  But it was funny.

At this point, basically nothing had gone wrong all day. Every time I was favored, my hand held up. Every (both) suspected bluffs I called down were, in fact, bluffs. And my bluffs didn’t get called.  Good times.

Then I got 89s on the button. I raised and got some callers. Flop came 678, one of my suit. Check, check, I bet. Call, re-raise (overbet) all-in. I thought about it and figured, “hey, I might be ahead. After all, my bet looked like a position bet. Even if I am not ahead, I have plenty o’ outs.”  I call. So does the other guy, who has about $200. The turn brought the 5 and I made my straight. Guy bets and I put him all-in. He called so quickly that I didn’t need to see his cards to know that he had 9T.  He flopped the straight and played me like a fiddle.  I was clobbered.

I played a few more pots and cashed out $788 in chips for a profit of $588, or ~300BBs. I was pleased. The sting of that one hand wore off rather quickly.

I then drove from Thackerville to Arlington to sit in the corporate suite behind home base and throw back some beers (doesn’t my Wednesday seem like CCM’s ever day?). We played that game in which you pass around a hat and the person holding it either puts in money or takes out money based on what happens each at bat. I was holding the hat when Blalock hit the walk off HR. I walked off with the pot.

That was a very good day.

Regarding JG’s post on backdoor covers…

We had NU+10.5 in this game.  Think about that when you watch this.

Yes, you saw that. An easy cover, then an interception returned for a touchdown to blow it…..except that the students stormed the field and tore down the goal posts, which meant KSU was unable to kick the PAT. I wonder to this day if any of the fans on the goal post bet on NU that day.

They’ve played down to 3 tables in the $50k HORSE event.  Today, we’ll have

(Table 58)
Erik Sagstrom – 1,315,000
Erik Seidel – 464,000
Steve Billirakis – 576,000
David Chiu – 397,000
Mike Wattel – 779,000
Chau Giang – 616,000

(Table 60)
Huck Seed – 672,000
Ray Dehkharghani – 262,000
Brett Richey – 671,000
Todd Brunson – 145,000
Vitaly Lunkin – 1,527,000
Frank Kassela – 499,000

(Table 62)
Tony G – 642,000
David Bach – 1,265,000
John Hanson – 815,000
Ville Wahlbeck – 842,000
John Kabbaj – 678,000
Freddy Deeb – 1,300,000
Gus Hansen – 801,000

This event will be one of the few to be aired on ESPN. You know that they so want Gus Hansen to make the final table. Whoever does make it, it will be a Murderer’s Row.

The Main Event, now lasting 13 days, begins on Friday. As with last year, they will take a break until November before playing the Final Table. Let’s do some Fantasy Poker again. Draft your poker players aby leaving comments to this post. Pick 3. You can’t pick anybody that is already picked. You get 1 point if your player goes to Day 2, 2 points if they make it to Day 3, and so on. I’ll take:
-Ivey
-Hellmuth
-Lisandro