More short-handed play.

Played more short-handed $3-6 last night on Stars. What a disaster of a session! I was down 20 BB right away. Ran Aces into Q-10 off suit, bet and raise all the way till the river. He flopped one queen and rivered a second one, this is after I three bet another player in the hand pre-flop. He was in between and decided to chase. After an hour of play I managed to get back to exactly even. Was about to quit when I decided to play in the $15,000 guarantee at seven for $11. So I decided to play some $3-6 at the same time. I joined the table from hell. No one would fold to my pre-flop raises. They would chase any piece of the flop or draw to the end. Of course I got sucked out on repeatedly. When I finally decided I had enough I was down $350! That sucked big time. Played a little No limit after that and won two buyins.($40) Also went deep in the tournament finished 115th for a big $24 prize. I sucked out one big hand when we first got into the money. I pushed in my $20,000 stack after 2 limpers with the blinds at 500-1000 with a 100 ante. The one seat insta-called me. It was the first time I pushed the entire tournament I had Kings, he of course had Aces. The story has a happy ending I sucked out on the flop when it came K-3-4. Three Kings held up and I had a nice stack. I was happy with my play in this donkament. Would have liked to get further but my nines couldn’t fade someone’s A-Q. I pushed and they called for 70% of their chips. Oh well winning these things is like walking through a mine field carrying two hundred pounds on your back, naked in 120 degree whether. If you can overcome that then maybe you can win one of these donkaments J. BTW there were 2249 entries making first over $4700! Good luck at the tables. Tony

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Live Sit-N-Gos.

No limit Sit-N-Gos are so brutal. Played two of them at my cousin’s house last night. I bubbled in the first one and took 3rd in the second(Which gave my buy in back.) I never am able to win a pre-flop coin toss, when it counts. I pushed with A-Q and got called by K-7, he rivers a 7 and takes many of my chips. On my last hand of the 2nd SNG two players limped ahead of me. I find pocket nines in the bid blind. I push for like almost one third of the chips in play. A-Q insta-calls me, he flops and Ace and a Queen. Of course I don’t improve and I am out. Thought I had him covered but it turns out he had me covered by 100T. I am really starting to hate No Limit Tournaments in general, these days. I played a few live ones, at my brother’s house and the same thing happens over and over. I think the last nine times I have gotten knocked out had the best hand pre-flop and it never holds up. I am talking about A-K against A-9, Pocket eights against A-10, A-Q against J-10, etc. I am either a big favorite or on the better side of a coin toss. I just don’t know how people consistently make money playing these things. Online I have had better luck. Of course these are against donks playing in $11, $22, and $33 SNGs. Really love limit tournaments over no limit. These days it’s getting harder and harder to find a live Stud, Stud hi/lo, or limit HE tournament to play in. My wife and I will try to play in the Stud tournaments at the Taj and Foxwoods this fall. Enough wining for one day. Good luck at the tables. You will need it to win these donkfests J. Tony

More Short-handed play.

Short-handed play is really tough! Played for two hours last night. Couldn’t get anything good to happen. I was quickly down fifteen big bets. Could never get back to even. I keep starting with medium pocket pairs. Never flopped a set, around 15 pocket pairs. Had a real donkey on my right, who was playing and raising every hand. In 2 hours he lost over $500 at $3-6! I decided to play the isolation game with him. He brings it in for a raise and I three bet with A-Q, pocket tens, and pocket nines. Lost all three hands. The pocket tens really hurt. Flop was 9-9-3, he bets and I raise. Turn was a Jack, he checks and I bet. River was a blank, think a two. He bets out and I call. Hmm what does he have? J-7 offsuit of course. Problem was I wasn’t able to isolate him, in most hands. Everyone at the table knew what was going on. I started raising light knowing he was playing junk. The table picked up on this and called my raises light also. One luckbox at the table flopped three sets and quads in one hour. Of course against me twice when I flopped top pair top kicker. After the donkey went broke I moved to a new table. Made a small comeback, ended the day down 24 BB. Not a terrible loss but against these weak players I should have crushed the games. In two hours no Aces, Queens, or Jacks.(Kings once that won the blinds!) Also not a single flopped set, straight, or flush. Not unheard of but unlucky anyway. I will give it another short try tonight. Am going out to play some Sit-N-Gos at my cousin’s house. Always a good time even though I rarely win in this donkfest. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Short-handed LHE.

Played some more short-handed limit HE on Stars last night. It appears I have figured out what I was doing wrong, over the weekend. Made back half of what I lost in less then one hour! Also I exercised great table selection. Looked for some of the fish that took my money on Sunday. I got hit by around five two outers on the river, when I was way ahead each time, on Sunday. Case in point I had Q-K suited on the turn when the board was 2-Q-3-Q. River came with a Jack. He bet into me, Q-J was flashing in my head. Problem is he three bet pre-flop so I didn’t think he was that bad. Against my better judgment I raised and he three bet. I made the crying call, he had pocket jacks that got there on the river. It was very hard to put him on that hand being he raised me on the flop. Oh well it won’t be the last two outer to beat me on the river. Yesterday I was like Teflon coated. Was able to fade the bad beats every hand. Think I won almost every showdown in an hour. Then I switched over to .25-.50 No Limit and lost two buy ins in 5 minutes. I recovered quickly from this. After twenty minutes I was up one buy in and felt I couldn’t do any wrong. Poker is so sweet when things work out! It was a very good night, to say the least. Another great thing is I did fifteen miles on my stationary bike, while I was two tabling and reading emails. I multitask so well J. Can’t wait to get back on tonight. Expect a good post about it tomorrow. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Bad Beats and Shorthanded play.

This post is not about bad beats. It’s about the unbelievably bad play at short-handed limit HE games online. This weekend my wife decides to jump into the $5-10 6 handed LHE on Poker Stars. Her bankroll is way to small for this game but with just 20BB she takes a shot. She crushes the games and ends the weekend with around 70BB. I decide to give it a try also, play $3-6 shorthanded on Stars. I didn’t have any success at all. I am quickly down around $250 in 2 hours. By the end of the weekend I win half of it back. The play at these games is just so bad! Like I wrote earlier this isn’t about bad beats. This hand is just an example of how bad the play is. I raise with pocket tens and the button calls me heads up. Flop comes 9-3-2 rainbow, I bet he calls. Turn comes with the Jack of spades, which completes 4 different suites on the board. I bet he calls. River brings a ten, a set for me should be good right? I bet he raises, me not believing he really caught a case ten for a straight re-raise. He raises again and I make the crying call. Yup runner-runner for a straight.(Q-8 off) He called the flop with 1 over. Then the turn with 1 over and a gutshot heads up. This hand illustrates just how loose and crazy these games are. It seams there is still a ton of money to be made at the shorthanded donkfests online. I need to learn how to make this money. I noticed some very good aggressive players making a ton of money at my tables but overall a ton of really bad players. I couldn’t fade the bad beats, top pair was never good enough, even heads up. It was bizarre I could never figure out the hand that would beat me. I would have A-K and flop K-2-4 and bet it like it was the nuts. The river would be an eight and I would loss to 4-8 sooted! So then I tried to play slow and keep losing to over cards on the river. By the end of Sunday night I seamed to have figured it out somewhat. So it wasn’t a total waste of time and money. I think this week I will make a ton playing shorthanded. We will see, will post about it this week. Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Stud

I haven’t written much about my wife’s big success at the WSOP this year. She took 17th out of around 390 players in the Stud $1500. This was her first live stud tournament and only 2nd WSOP event. I like to think it’s from my teachings but my results at the WSOP are just horrible. I have played in seven events and not cashed in even one! I only taught my wife how to play poker around two years ago. She didn’t even know which hand beats which. She had never played a single hand of Poker before I taught her. So this win was really a big achievement. I am very proud of her play. She went into day two with a very short stack. At one time she had built it up to 48,000T and was in 4th right behind the chip leaders. The one problem she had is that Greg Raymor owned her at the table she played at. We have watched him play in the WSOP hundreds of times. For some reason my wife never believed that he had the had he was representing. Time and time again he had it. One hand he brought it in for a raise with a jack on 3rd street. My wife had a pair of tens and called his bets on every street. By the end his unimproved Jacks beat her unimproved tens. This hand cost her 80% of her chips and took all the wind out of her sails. Moral of this post is don’t think you have a line on someone’s play just because you have watched them play on TV! She gained some valuable, in the money experience and is ready to get back up on the horse and play again. Looks like the USPC and Foxwoods this fall for us. We will both play in all the Stud events we can. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Vegas Locals.

I was playing in a rocking $4-8 with a half kill at Binions during our Vegas trip. I hate playing these “small” games being my smallest live game now is $10-20. For limit I didn’t have choice, being it’s the highest limit game offered downtown. We stayed at the Golden Nugget and it was 11:00pm so I didn’t want to drive to the Rio or Wynn. Just wanted to have some fun splashing around for an hour or two. Something great happened, I went on a sick rush. Won over $400 in 1 hour, gave back around $100 of it. I just kept getting decent starting cards and playing them like a maniac. For some odd reason it worked and I kept dragging down pots. I started with $200 in $1 chips so I didn’t have any room in front of me. I asked my wife to get me 3 racks so I could make some room on the table. This is where the trouble started. An old crabby Vegas local, who was pretty drunk, starts to get nasty with me. She starts complaining that I couldn’t keep my chips in a rack being it will slow the game down. I nicely told her I would keep a working stack of at least $100 in front of me. She then got very rude and keep telling the dealer to make me take my chips out of the racks. A nice local, sitting on my left, stated it was ok as long as my racks touched the table. So I complied but this wasn’t good enough for the old crabby hag. She continued to complain and starting telling me what a lucky idiot I was. She was mad being I was raising every hand I was playing pre-flop. In her eyes I was forcing the table to gamble too much. She got so nasty that I told the dealer I was done for the night. I told the whole table that the “live one” was leaving with all the chips. This is a problem I have with Vegas locals, a lot of them are unhappy and rude at the table. I won’t play in a game where everyone it serious and quiet. When I arrive at the table I try to get people to be happy by joking around and splashing chips around. Like to give the impression that I am a loose tourist out to have a good time only. I do like to have a good time at the table but want to win the money first and foremost. The locals need to work on their tableside manner if they intend to win money and keep the tourists coming back again. Just my two cents on the matter, IMHO. Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Cash Games.

The Limit HE cash games at the Rio this year were so soft. In $10-20 I won consistently day after day. I went on a rush one day and won $550 in 1 hour. I promptly quit the game a winner. The $20-40 games were soft also but not as much as $10-20. I would have to say that $10-20 was even softer then the Taj in AC! Maybe even softer then Foxwoods, which I thought wasn't possible. As for the No Limit games I did't play in them but from what I was told they weren't that easy to win at. The limit games around Vegas were all good IMHO. I only had a big losing session at the $15-30 at the Venetian. I just ran bad in that game. In 2 hours I got Queens five times and tens four times. Think I won one of those hands only! I can't wait to play the side games again next year at the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Angle Shooters.

I was playing in a loose fun $15-30 LHE game at the Venitian during my recent trip to Vegas for the WSOP. "Poker Dick" as he wanted to be referred to in this BLOG keep going at it with a young man in the eight seat. I thought it was funny that they both kept bluffing each other off of the winning hand. They took turns showing it and I thought it was good for the game. Then "Poker Dick" put a bad beat on the eight seat. The eight seat starting getting personal and nasty toward "Poker Dick". That was starting to ruin the game. Then the eight seat shot an angle at "Poker Dick" and got him to muck his cards by faking that he was mucking on the river. The floor was quickly called over and the pot wound up being pushed to "Poker Dick". Almost everyone at the table, including the dealer agreed that this was bad poker edicate. Only the eight seat and a young man in the four seat thought it was ok. The eight seat went as far as telling the floor that it was part of the game. I couldn't disagree more!! Stuff like this makes poker no longer fun to play. What do my readers think of conduct like this? It turns out that the eight seat is eighty sixed from multiple Las Vegas cardrooms for similar behavior. What a jerk he is. At first I thought he was funny, until his true side came out. Was so glad the pot was awarded to it's proper owner, eventhough he didn't have cards in front of him. This was one of the few bad experiences I had in Vegas. I will write about one other bad thing that happened this week. That's it for tonight, good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP HORSE

Had a great time in Vegas. The HORSE tournament was so much fun. Got to play all day with some average poker players, John Jaunda and Doyle Brunson! Both super nice guys. I even outlasted both of them. Doyle by only 10 minutes. He signed his most current book for us. BTW it's awesome, called 50 greatest hands I played or something along those lines. I owned Doyle in the Limit HE leg of HORSE. I check-raised him on the turn like 4 times in one 30 minute period. Each time with air, took the pot down all 4 times! I realized he was trying to bully the table so I played back at him. He owned the table and I in RAZZ. He won like half the pots in a half hour leg of it. I played really bad at first and was quickly down to 2500 chips out of our 5000 starting amount. I played lock down poker and had it back to 6000 within 2 hours. Did very well but only made it to the last hand on the end of day one. I flopped a pair of nines with an open end straight draw. Only to get knocked out by a maniac who 3 bet me pre-flop, from the button, with 2-6 of clubs. His flush got there on the turn and that was it. Really looking forward to playing in another big either HORSE or Hi/Lo stud event. That's it for tonight. Look for more WSOP updates all this week. Have a lot of hands and things to discuss. Good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Report.

My wife is now famous! She cashed in her 2nd ever attempt in the WSOP. More about our trip later today. For now I need sleep! Good Luck at the tables. Tony.

BTW - She is number 17.


38th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #14 - WSOP 7 Card Stud
June 8, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Tournament Schedule
Buy-In $1,500
Prize Pool $577,500
Entries 385
Report Available


Michael Keiner
Place Name Prize
1 Michael Keiner (Braunfels, Germany) $146,987
2 Nesbitt Coburn AKA "Nez" (Minneapolis, MN, USA) $80,876
3 Steve Sung AKA "MuGGyLiCiOuS" (Torrance, CA, USA) $51,222
4 Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palo Verde, CA, USA) $33,698
5 Dale Phillips (Darien, IL, USA) $26,150
6 Gregory P. "Fossilman" Raymer (Stonington, CT, USA) $19,680
7 John Robertson (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $15,097
8 Larry Eubanks (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $11,053
9 Matthew Kelly (Fort Worth, TX, USA) $7,495
10 Craig Thomson (Culver City, CA, USA) $7,495
11 Stephen Richman (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $6,848
12 Varahram Vardjavand (Quickborn, Germany) $6,848
13 James Boyd (Martinsburg, WV, USA) $6,201
14 Ted Forrest (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $6,201
15 Matt Grapenthien (Madison, WI) $5,554
16 Ricardo Festijo (Margate NJ) $5,554
17 Theresa Viganola (USA) $4,906
18 Helmut Koch (Chesterfield, MI, USA) $4,906
19 Donna Cobb (Hot Springs, AR, USA) $4,906
20 Louis Russo (Brooklyn, NY, USA) $4,906
21 Mimi Tran (Torrance, CA, USA) $4,906
22 Yuebin Guo (Brooklyn, NY, USA) $4,906
23 Matthew Humphrey (Indianapolis, IN, USA) $4,906
24 Sanjay Pandya (Smithville, NJ, USA) $4,906
25 Sherkhan Farnood (Afghanistan) $4,259
26 Chris Barnes (Raynham, MA, USA) $4,259
27 Paul Darden Jr (Hamdem, CT, USA) $4,259
28 Keith Shiraki (Los Angeles, CA, USA) $4,259
29 Lewis Lipsey AKA "The Lip" (Los Angeles, CA, USA) $4,259
30 Charles Khoury (Northridge, CA, USA) $4,259
31 Bill Byers (Apollo Beach, FL, USA) $4,259
32 John Campbell (USA) $4,259
33 Harku Shpend (Statten Island, NY, USA) $3,612
34 John Argentin (USA) $3,612
35 Joel Fischbein (las vegas, NV, USA) $3,612
36 William Chen (Lafayette Hill, PA, USA) $3,612
37 Roger Barlow (Center Point, AL, USA) $3,612
38 Todd Keikoan (Las Vegas, NV, USA) $3,612
39 Frank Stollmack (USA) $3,612
40 John Womack (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA) $3,612


Tournament Report
WSOP GOLD BRACELET WINNER EVENT #14 - MICHAEL KEINER
The winner of the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship was Michael Keiner. He is a professional poker player from Frankfurt, Germany. He is 48-years-old.

Keiner was a medical doctor, before turning poker pro. He specialized in cosmetic surgery. Keiner won seven major poker tournaments in Europe before this feat - his first poker tournament win in the U.S. With this victory, Keiner now has five WSOP in-the-money finishes dating back to 2000. First place paid $146,987.

Keiner is the third gold bracelet winner from Germany in WSOP history. The other two players are Matthias Rohnacher (1997) and Eddy Scharf (2001, 2003). In fact, Keiner was motivated to play more events at this year's WSOP by his friend and rival, Eddy Scharf - the two time WSOP event champ. Occasionally, when Keiner spoke to his fellow countryman inside the poker room, Scharf was known to reply in German - 'Speak up Michael - I can't hear you because my two gold bracelets are rattling in my ears and making it difficult to hear you.' Steamed by this, Keiner was determined to play no less than 19 events this year - concentrating in the non-hold'em events with smaller fields. This gave him (numerically) a better chance to win his own gold bracelet. Mission accomplished.

Keiner is certainly accustomed to taking risks. He was wildly successful with his stock investments during the 1990s. However, he openly told the media he 'lost millions' in the stock market. Easy come, easy go. Many of his exploits are chronicled at: www.michaelkeiner.de

For Keiner, his first WSOP victory was as impressive as it was satisfying. He pummeled a final table with at least two bona fide superstars. Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Barry Greenstein finished in fourth place. Former WSOP champion (2004) Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer finished in sixth place. This was one of the more educated final tables in recent memory. The eight finalists included two (former) attorneys, a high-tech entrepreneur, a Harvard M.B.A. and a former doctor from Germany who beat them all - and became a poker champion.

by Nolan Dalla

Vegas Baby!

Just six more hours until I am on a flight to Vegas! Can’t wait to get out of here. Wife will be playing her event on Friday night - $1500 STUD. I will be scooping out the Rio for a good cash game or satellite/s to play in on Friday. Then Saturday night will be the event I have been training for the last few months, $2500 HORSE. I hope I get some pros at my first table. Just one or two and a bunch of donks for the rest of the table. Would love to get some of those online donks that call raises in RAZZ with a King showing. I don’t care if you have A-2 in the hole. Your hand is very easy for me to figure out. In other words you won’t get action from me and you will never know if I have you dominated or not. That is the bad thing about playing RAZZ when your door card is the J, Q, or K. Enough rambling for one day. I am counting the minutes down to leave work and go home and finish packing. Then straight to Newark Airport we go. Wish me luck. If I have a big score I will post about it early next week. Otherwise expect trip reports the next weekend. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Hi/Lo Stud

Been running really good in HORSE and Hi/Lo Stud mtts this week. Played a Hi/Lo tournament last night on Poker Stars, had 80 entries. I cashed in 5th after having a lead when we were down to 12 left. Really wanted to win but when you start with 4 low cards to a straight and end up with 2 baby pairs you lose a lot of chips. I lost 60% of my stack in that one hand at the final table. I managed to battle back up to 5th in chips but could never regain my momentum. I was very happy with my play. Let’s see that’s five cashes in six tries in the last week. Good run leading up to the WSOP this weekend. I can’t wait for the $2500 HORSE event on Saturday. The $2000 Hi/Lo Stud event is still up in the air for Monday. All depends how I feel and more importantly how the bankroll is doing . Can’t wait for Vegas baby. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Good.

I am running very well this week. Perfect time for it, leading up to our WSOP trip. Started out yesterday when I decided to play a $26 satellite on Fulltilt. Top sixteen won an entry into the $216 400K big weekly tournament at 6:00. This started at 2:30 and I was still in it at 4:00. I played the satellite in my wife’s account being that is where most of the bankroll was. So when 4:00 came around really wanted to play in the 4:00 Riverchasers Blonkament being it was HORSE. (My wife was playing in 2 stud tournaments on her computer.) So I played it in my wife’s account as “TCGRO”. I ran very well in this we got down to heads up around 5:30. It was a real dog fight with “DeBag”, the 2nd place finisher. He fought hard but my heads up RAZZ expertise was too much for him. I took First out of 21 Bloggers for a nice score of $252. Great thing is that I have cashed in four of five HORSE tournaments in the last week. Took a second in the $55 HORSE tournament a few days ago. This is great leading up to the $2500 HORSE Tournament I will be playing in this Saturday at the WSOP. As for the 400K last night I was card dead for the whole tournament. Really should have made some moves before I was short stacked. I still finished in a respectful 968 out of more then 2700 players. My best hand was two nines but I didn’t even get to see a flop with them. Someone came over the top of my raise for all my chips. Could have called but it was early in the tournament and I still had 2500 chips when I folded. Next time I play will be more willing to gamble early to build up some breathing room. Can’t wait for Vegas, only four more days to go. WSOP here we come. Good luck at the tables. Tony

BTW – Big shout out to Alcanthang for sweating me in the Blonkament and then in the 400K.

Another Great Taj Game.

Played in another great $10-20 LHE game at the Taj. I crushed the game, pulled a hit and run up 20 Big Bets. I had the whole table befuddled. Stole a few pots but more often then not showed down the nuts. The rest of this post will be about one memorable hand that I think I played well. I picked up Aces and brought it in for a raise. Everyone folded to the Big Blind who 3 bet me. I four bet and we saw a flop of 4-J-K rainbow. He bet out and I raised. He re-raised me and I was not too happy. This flop was bad for me IMO. Pre-flop I put him on Jack, queens, or kings. Being a Jack and King flopped I could only beat queens. Unless of course he had Aces also, in which case we would chop. Turn brought a blank and he led out. I just called still thinking I was behind. River brought another 4. He confidently led out again. I called and he turned over A-K off expecting to win the pot. I took down the huge heads up pot. I don't know what hand he thought he could beat. Only hands would be if I had tens or queens. I had yet to get caught stealing so he should have given me credit for a big hand. Oh well I felt I made almost the most I could with this hand. I could have raised the river but it didn't feel right to me. Does anyone have an opinion of this hand? I can't wait for the WSOP. Good luck at the tables. Tony

More WSOP Training.

The WSOP training continued last night. Played a Turbo HORSE SNG on Poker Stars. Took 3rd but was very disappointed being I had the chip lead when we broke the bubble. Problem with turbo SNGs is you lose one hand and you are crippled. Last night it was the Stud leg. Started with Aces and brought it in for a raise. I bet the whole hand being he didn’t catch anything scary. I checked my unimproved Aces on the river and my opponent checked his Eights and fives behind me. I lost 80% of my stack and couldn’t recover after that. I can’t fault my opponent for chasing being we were short handed and you can’t wait for premium hands in a turbo. Oh well at least I finished in the money. Also played some .25-.50 no limit on Fulltilt. Won one and a half buyins in an hour. My running well at no limit has continued. Really should try a higher level but have been dragging my feet. I have been focused on keeping my HORSE game sharp these days. Based on my success/failure at the WSOP I may start playing a higher live HORSE level online. Been playing $1-2 and $2-4 with mixed success. $1-2 is such a card catching contest. BTW – The WSOP starts today. My wife and I are really excited to see the number of entries today and this weekend. Want to get some indication of how big the tournaments will be this year. It was crazy last year when the RAZZ tournament had almost 900 entries. I have no idea how many people will play in the $2500 HORSE event. I hope at least 500 so the prize pool is large. I can’t wait to go to Vegas! Good luck at the tables. Tony