Poker Journal

July 2006

July 31
I've been kind of following the WSOP main event over the past couple of days, but have found it nearly impossible to keep up with it.

Even though I wish I could be there, it doesn't seem to have the same prestige as it once did. Sure the players have to beat out 9,000 players, but in order to do so, even the best players in the world have to get into non-ideal situations in order to accumulate chips. Do the best players make it to the top? I am not so sure in a NL Holdem field of this size. I guess if Phil Ivey makes it into the money again, I will have to re-evaluate my thoughts a bit.

So in order to keep track of a field like this, what's a girl to do? I sure can't count on the great coverage from last year. The big guys in charge made sure that Pauly couldn't do the counts because he would run circles around them. So I have to just accept what they give me and that is a whole bunch of coverage on certain professionals and absolutely zero on other interesting players. I want some coverage on David Huber!

July 24
Two Sundays in a row, I've been close to making the money in the $200+15 buy in tournament on PokerStars, but I have not caught a break in the late levels when it matters.

I had a decent size chip stack and was dealt A236 in the small blind. I played this hand a lot more passively than I normally do because it had been raised and called before it got to me. I just flat called preflop and then called all the way down with my nut low and pair of sixes. I ended up getting 1/6 of that pot and it really ate up my chips because the level was so high. I had almost 12,000 in chips and after the hand was over I had a little bit more than 6,000.

About two hands later, I raised preflop with AT92 and two players called behind me and so did one of the blinds. The flop was QJT. I only had a tad more than one small bet and I checked my bottom pair, straight draw. The player on the button bet and I am very familiar with this player. I have played with him at the Bike and online and I knew he wouldn't bet on the button without a straight. The blind also called and I contemplated making the call but I couldn't justify it because I was most likely drawing to chop. I did have a chance to scoop if I hit runner runner full house or runner runner flush, but the pot odds didn't justify the call. I folded and the hand went to a showdown and I was correct with my read. The button did have AK and flopped the nut straight.

I was left with $2,200 and ended up playing my final hand against one opponent. He outflopped me with his pair of jacks, I picked up two pair on the turn, and the river was another jack giving him trips and sending me packing in 24th place.

PokerStars just announced the Moneymaker Millionaire Free Poker Tournament. It is the largest free poker tournament to date with $2.5 million in cash and prizes.

Paradise just had their Million dollar freeroll this weekend and the final ten players are off to an all inclusive vacation where the winner will walk away with $1million dollars. Currently, they are running their Million dollar Power freeroll.

July 16
I just got back from another Vegas trip and will write a report about it soon. (Here is the report.)

As soon as I landed, I got a phone call from a girlfriend who was playing in the shootout event. She said, "I heard you are here." I told her I just landed in Los Angeles and at that moment, I wished I was back in Vegas. Next year, I plan on staying for the duration and playing in as many events as I think I can handle.

I played in the Omaha tourney on PokerStars tonight but didn't make it into the money. I made it down to 35 players along with "What is 7x6". He is a player that I used to regularly play with in the $30-60 game and I had the pleasure of meeting him at this year's WSOP. I forgot to mention him in my report about the Omaha event, so I figured I would give him an honorable mention tonight.

July 10
You haven't seen my picture posted all over various poker magazines and websites, so obviously I didn't win the $5,000 Omaha event. I did manage to finish my report about it though.

It was nice to see some of the familiar faces at the WSOP and it's nice to see that some of the players who have been in the game for awhile are still tearing it up at the tables (Max Pescatori, Allen Cunningham, and William Chen to name a few).

July 4
Happy Fourth of July!

It looks like I will be driving out to Las Vegas tomorrow to play in the $5,000 event. I had my fifth of eight treatments (yeah! More than halfway through now) yesterday and I breezed through with flying colors. The first four treatments are different from the second four treatments, so if yesterday was any indication of how the last three are going to be, I will be doing much better from now on. Hope I didn't just jinx myself for saying that.

PokerStars did it again! This time around they signed one of the most talented, most respectable, poker players in the industry, Barry Greenstein. Wouldn't it be something if he won the World Series of Poker and gave PokerStars their fourth Champion? I wouldn't even mind losing my bet with Jennifer if Barry won the whole thing.

My mind has been so scattered over the past month that I forgot to mention two articles that I was mentioned in last month. Dr. Pauly mentioned my journal as in his article "Poker Blog: The Best of the Best." It's pretty cool to be listed with such a fine group of writers (and entertainers) including Iggy from Guinness and Poker and Joe Sebok, but the best part about it was I was mentioned by MY favorite blogger of all time, Pauly. The other article was a short piece in Jane Magazine. Jane is similar to Cosmopolitan and Glamour, so most of you might not have ever heard about it. The article was about cool jobs and who could argue that I have one of the coolest? If you are passing through a magazine section, take a look at page 23 in the June/July issue.

Time to wrap it up. Gonna go celebrate the fourth with my Sister.

July 3
I'm having my treatment today so I'm still not sure that I'll be playing Thursday's $5000 Omaha tournament at the World Series but I'll be sure to put an update here before we would leave on Wednesday.