WSOP $1500 PLO 8

I think I broke my finger last night playing trivia with Gavin. Don't ask how. It's a long story.

Amazon Room (yay first time in here!). Orange table 72 seat 9.

1500 starting chips with two rebuy chips. 1 hour levels.

Table draw:

Seat 1: Jacobo Frenandez AKA The Human Rain Delay
Seat 2: RAG
Seat 3: Perry Friedman
Seat 4: ROWG
Seat 5: My arch nemesis from the Hollywood Park days, Mickey "Mouse" Mills
Seat 6: Mike "Salt of the Earth" Gracz
Seat 7: ROWG
Seat 8: Random Euro
Seat 9: JDN

This table needs more Euros and less ROWGs.

This is gonna be a long day...

I sit down and double up to 3000 pretty quick in a drawing hand vs Jacobo when I hit my wrap for a straight against what had to be a set. Sweet!

Near the end of the 2nd level it's big pot time. 4 way all in with Jacobo, Perry, a ROWG and myself.

I had the nut low draw that couldn't be counterfitted vs Perry's full house vs Jacobo's trips and nut low draw vs the ROWG's top pair. I whiffed.

I use my rebuy chips and I have 3000 at 1st break.

We get back from break and have pause for the bracelet cerimony. Lame.

Jason Potter sits down in seat 2 and Joe Tehan takes seat 4.

A couple of hands in, Joe Tehan doesn't quite pot it from middle position and its folded to me. I have Ac 8c As Qs. I pot it to 1350.

Joe calls half his stack off as the flop comes 5d 6c 9d. I move in for 2000 and Joe quickly calls the all in.

I open my hand and Joe says, "Pretty good flop for my hand..."

Oh Jesus. Joe shows Ad 4d 7h Jh. What? Wait! Did Joe Tehan really just call off half his stack preflop with that?

Oh My Gawd.

The turn is a 3h and I'm drawing dead. Well played Mr Tehan.

I'm down to 450.

A few hands later I get it all in with K K T 9. Joe calls from the big blind as the does the original raiser in seat 7.

The board runs out 3 J T 9 K. Don't you worry, Tehan shows the ole 2 8 Q J for the 2nd nut straight. The old guy shows A A 2 T.

The best part of the hand was that Joe talked the guy out of betting on the flop because there was no side pot.

Nice.

Normally I like Joe Tehan, but today is he's a fuck wit. Sorry Joe, you just earned the title and you really deserve it.

JDN

The Savage Invitational Golf Tournament

This is pretty much going to be a photo essay. Not to mention this happened about two weeks ago and I'm too lazy to write this up in a timely fashion.

For road trips I need fuel. Chipotle seems to do the trick and the burritos fit perfectly in the cup holders.



The night before the first round we meet at the Eureka Casino to get our tee times and gift bags.

George Karl is a little red and Matt Savage is very happy to hand out gifts.

Savage decided to be patriotic with the grab bags

After dinner Gracz, Katkin and I jump into a 2/8 spread limit game and Gracz announces that he is the world's greatest 2/8 player.

As Joe Tehan joins the game, Gracz asks if anyone will go skinny dipping with him at the hotel pool. The table is suspiciously silent.

I bust out of the game when I flop trip 6s vs a full house. Tehan folds the gut shot straight flush draw after the guy with the full house tells him he has a full house. The straight flush gets there. I hope Tehan is better at golf than poker.

Day 1

Hole 1

Oh boy. This is gonna be a long day.

I get bets down with Katkin, Gracz, Melissa Hayden, and Matt Savage. I'm playing them all straight up, $25 on the front 9, $25 on the back 9, $25 on the overall, and $5 a putt.

It's about 105 out too. Starting to sweat already.

Our group consists of Joe Tehan, Paul Taylor, Jon Katkin, and myself. I'm probably the worst golfer among us.

Hole 4:



On the 4th I hit my 4 hybrid over the mountain range and land a few feet off the green. My chip hits the pin and I birdie the hole with a 4 foot put. Sometimes I play good.

Front 9 totals:
Katkin - 52
JDN - 48

Hole 13:

This is my tee shot on 13. That's how I roll.

I shoot a 9 on 13. Did I mention we're hitting from the red tees today? Only 4000 yards and I struggling to break 100. So poor.

Day 1 totals:
Katkin - 100
JDN - 98

Back at the club house I find out that Savage beat me by 18 strokes, Gracz shot the lights out on the front 9 and destroyed me on the overall, and Hayden beat me in putts. Maybe I should quit golf, but I did win a $90 skin for my birdie on 4. I think that was split 3 ways. That damn chip should have been in the damn cup.

We play a bounty poker tournament that night and I make the final table along with Paul Taylor and Melissa Hayden. I finish 7th and collect nothing for my efforts save one bounty.

Day 2

I get bets down with Katkin and Gracz. Same bets and we're playing the blues today. It's 6500 yards from the blues. I'm going to be sore tonight.

In today's group its me and Katkin with a couple of old ladies named Matt and Andy. Matt won this tournament last year as a 14 handicap.

I've had to hit this shot on hole 1 two days in a row, blind shot to the pin, over the mountain. Who chose this course?

6th Hole

Front 9 scores:
Katkin - 57
JDN - 59

We are so bad.

Hole 11:



Hole 11 is a par 3 and it drops down about 200 feet from the tee. I step up with a 6 iron and hit my shot. Looks good. It drops about 20 yards to the right of the green, takes a great bounce and rolls onto the green. Sweet! Then it keeps rolling. Rolling to about 6 feet in front of the pin. That's closest to the pin! Yeah boy!

Katkin's tee shot lands 3 feet in front of the green on the fringe. Then he chips it in with his fake "chipper" club for a birdie. I miss my 6 footer and my chance for a skin. Damn it!

Katkin is a cheater.

12th hole

17th hole. I hate this hole and it knows it. I almost get hit in the back of the head with a ball from a tee shot from 16. Fuck this hole. Not to mention the lowest score I get on it in 3 days is a 9.

Day 2 totals:
Katkin - 122
JDN - 117

That is so bad. So so bad. We should quit.

I hit up the casino bar to watch hockey and play video poker.

ship it!

The Pens win and I in turn, win $50 from Gracz who loves the Hurricanes. There should be no hockey in the Carolinas. Its just wrong.

Day 3

On day 3 I get stuck with Matt Savage, Mike Gracz, and Paul Taylor. This should be a train wreck. I wish Joy Miller was here to be my caddie. Someone would def go to the hospital.

The bets get down and we're off. Me and Savage vs Paul and Gracz, straight up. I take no part of that bet because, well because, I suck and Gracz sucks just a little bit less than me.

On 6 I grab a Heineken before I tee off. It seems to work as I absolutely crush my shot. It clears the creek and ends up about 75 yards from the pin. That's a 330 yard drive. Thank you very much. Too bad I hit the second shot fat and end up with a bogey on the hole.

Hole 7

Gracz leeves his 2nd shot short and we all watch him stand on the edge of a painful death to make his shot.

fall motherfucker fall!

Hole 8

Savage puts his tee shot in the front of the par 3 green and into the creek. Paul and I put ours in the creek too but opt to chip up from the drop zone.

Savage scours the creek for his ball and soon the shoes come off.

His first shot goes no where, but the second gets out of the water and showers Matt in mud.

It takes us at least 20 minutes to play this hole. Thank you Savage for not dropping and making us stand in the sun for 15 minutes that we didn't need too.

I'm playing so bad.


Front 9 totals:
Grazc - 49
JDN - 52
Paul - 40
Savage - 47

On hole 14, Gracz announces that his alter ego, the Hulk is back. He doesn't break a club but he comes close after blowing up on a couple of holes in a row. I like this version of Mr Gracz.

Hole 14. An amazing hole, that amazingly, I played well all three days.

I shoot a 10 on 17 again. I hate that hole.

On 18 Paul 3 puts and gives Matt and I the win. Yay! Too bad I didn't have any action on it.

Day 3 overall:
Gracz - 100
JDN - 113
Paul - 83
Savage - 89

I don't know how we won but Savage said we did so I'll believe him. I remind myself not believe him the next time we play heads up. You gotta keep an eye on him at all times.

I bounce out pretty quickly to get back to Vegas and the opening of Santana at the Hard Rock. Had fun but its too damn hot in Mesquite in June to play 3 days of golf. Specially since I suck so bad.

WSOP coming up!

JDN

WSOP Event #22 $3000 HORSE

I was the bubble boy in this tournament last year when it was $2500. Here's to not bubbling this year! Cocktails!!!

Table Draw:

Seat 1: Some guy named Jack that I know. Kinda.
Seat 2: ROWG
Seat 3: JDN
Seat 4: RAG (Random Asian Guy)
Seat 5: ROG (Random Old Guy) ethnicity unknown
Seat 6: RPG (Random Persian Guy)
Seat 7: My 2nd favorite friend from North Carolina, Mike "The Kid" Gracz
Seat 8: Hollywood Dave... Here we go again. Hopefully he doesn't feel the need to berate the the players at the table like I witnessed at the Ceasars Tournament. I'm going to change his name to Hollywood Douche.

You're doing it wrong! This year the Rio is changing the game every 8 hands instead of every half an hour. The dealers are keeping track of the hands and game with numbered pieces of yellow paper. So far we've had a couple of disputes and one name calling incident. This should end well.

Finally I hit my heater in the Stud 8 level. I win 5 outta the 8 hands and I'm rolled up twice. In a row. Once with 9s to scoop and once with 2s to scoop. So sick, as Roland de Wolfe would say. Everyone at the table hates me but its a pleasant atmosphere and the table banter is fun.

I continue to torture Hollywood Douche in the stud rounds and he's lost half his stack by the end of the Stud 8 level.

At first break I have 12k and have doubled up in two levels of limit games. And two of the games are split games! For the first time this WSOP, I'm actually having a good time.

I bust Hollywood Douche in the next omaha round when I make a 8 high flush against his A A x x. Opps. Thank you come again.

Shortly there after, David Bach and his little fan get moved to the table. All the short stacks keep doubling up. This is BS. Someone needs to bust.

Allen "The Chainsaw" Kessler gets moved to my left after one of the short stacks finally goes busto. I get involved in one of the best hands of the tournament. I got no clue what the blinds are, so you can just plug in some random numbers and make it a huge hand.

During the hold'em round I call a raise from the button by seat one with AJ. David Bach calls from the big blind. The flop comes Kc Tc 9d. Bach checks, seat 1 bets, I call (gonna need a Q), and Bach moves all in for less. The turn is a Q. Ding! Seat 1 bets into me. Double Ding!! I raise he calls. The river is a 2. Or a 4. I can't remember but it didn't matter. Seat 1 checks I bet, he calls. I open up my broadway and seat 1 does the "Kevin Garnett" scream, but no chest pounding since its a losers scream, and throws his JJ down. As David Bach mucks he shows us the QJ. Dang. Sick.

21K at the midnight break.

The table finally breaks at 1am. I got 28k and I got some new faces at my next table. In seat 2 is David Levi, in seat 4 is Andy "I'm not Andrew Black" Bloch, and in seat 5 is Cardplayer's Queen Bee, Alyn Schulman.

I get involved in another rather large pot in the stud round with Andy Bloch. This seems to be a theme developing for this tournament.

Andy brings in with a 2 showing and I complete with (K K) T and Andy calls. I hit a K on 4th street and Andy calls my bet. On 5th street and Andy hits another 2. I'm golden now. I check raise him, he calls. On 6th I catch the last deuce and Andy calls another bet. On 7th Andy checks blind and I squeeze out another T to fill up. Of course I bet and he calls.

As I open up my hand I say, "Kings full." Andy thinks I say kings up, and shows his trip 2s. No sir Mr MIT blackjack genius, that's KINGS FULL, not kings up. Ship it to me. Andy is crippled and gets busted the next hand. 34k for me.

I end the night with 31,200, good for 12th in chips.

Day 2

I wake up to the noon sunshine and the birds chirping and the freeway freeing and... I'm kinda hung over from drinking a bottle of wine the night before to celebrate not busting out of a tournament. Its go time!

Table Draw:
Seat 1: ROWG
Seat 2: Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. His fossil looks like a lacured clam.
Seat 3: JDN
Seat 4: Ted Forrest
Seat 5: Markus Gosler
Seat 6: Random Euro
Seat 7: Annoying Euro from the omaha tournament that turns out to be south american. Still annoying though.
Seat 8: ROBWG (random older bald white guy)

Greg Raymer just keeps talking about nothing the whole time we're at the table. Yadda yadda yadda. I'm considering asking Hoyt Corkins if I can borrow his ear plugs. It's more like he's just talking to himself and everyone has to listen as he tries to draw people into his self-conversation. Ted even looks mildly annoyed and he stops responding to the Fossilman.

I lose 10k in the opening omaha round playing like a banana (tyvm eugenetoddbro). Maybe I should rethink my omaha strategy.

The table breaks and the poker gods have shined on me.

Table Draw:

Seat 1: JDN
Seat 2: Jim Pechac or something. The second fattest man in poker and an equally as large douche bag. One of these days I'll explain why I think he's a monster douche but I don't want to write the whole story of how he called the floor when he wasn't in the hand and how they took away the turn card and how I lost the hand after the turn was mucked. Douche bag.
Seat 3: ROWG
Seat 4: Markus Gosler
Seat 5: ROWG
Seat 6: ROWG
Seat 7: Phil Ivey
Seat 8: Shannon Elizabeth

Both Shannon and Phil have chips, ohhhhhh snap!

I say hi to Shannon and Phil and before too long Mike Sexton joins the table. Let's get our gamble on!!!

Guess what happens next? HUGE HAND! In stud no less.

Mike Sexton completes to 1200 (i remember the blinds) with a 4 showing and Shannon calls with a T up. I raise with 888. That's right. Rolled up again. Mike and Shannon call. My 4th street is a 5 and Mike and Shannon both hit an ace. Hmmmm. I check, Mike bets and Shannon raises. Now I guess I could have just called here and check raise on 5th street but I thought this was a good time to get Mike out of the hand. So I reraise. Mike just shakes his head and finally folds. Shannon calls.

I know that she doesn't have that much experience in stud and that she's only playing her hand. I bet every street, end up making 8s full of 5s, and Shannon calls with aces. Ding! As I open up my hand Mike says I can't believe you were rolled up. You should have seen me yesterday Mr Voice of the WPT.

I'm up to 49k. Then two hands later, I give some back to Shannon. I have buried aces and reraise Shannon's raise. She calls and everyone folds. We're off to the races. She catches a K on 5th street and I should fold. If she has buried aces I'm done but I figure she could easily have queens or jacks. I call her down but she checks 7th. Huh? I consider betting out and calling her Nadia to tilt her but I decide not to. I'm a nice guy. Sometimes. Once in a while. Rarely.

She shows the trip kings and I muck. Fuck. I liked those chips.

Table breaks. Damn it.

Table Redraw:

Seat 1: Berry Johnston. I like Berry, he's and old timer and an all around nice guy. But I swear to god he is my biggest mush in omaha. Either that or I just suck but I always seem to suck just a little bit more when Berry's at my table. Online and offline. Berry's mushiness travels over the internets.
Seat 3: Tom Scheinder. Tom is holding a plastic knife in his hand. I feel a stabbin' coming.

Those are the only two peeps I know. Can men over 50 be peeps? The Aussie to my left talks too much. I miss the other table.

This table breaks after I win a massive pot in Razz and I get moved to Hoyt's table
with about 60k in chips. Its all down hill from here.

Basically I can't win a hand or half a hand. I tighten up a bit as the bubble nears and I'm sitting on 40Kish with 43 left. 40 pay. Then comes this hand. In stud.

I'm the bring in with a 4. Its folded around to the short stack directly to my right. He raises with a Q showing. I look down at 5s 6s. I call. This could be interesting. 4th street bring me a Ks. Good card. He bets I call. 5th street gives me a 7s. Very nice. He bets I call. He's getting short. On 6th street I peel off a Jh. Pretty useless. He bets out leaving himself less than a full bet left. Ok, I'm open ended with a flush draw. If he has split Queens, I gotta nice here. Even if he has two pair or even rolled up, I got a lotta outs to win.

I raise him all in. He calls and shows split queens. Good I like my draw. I need an 8, a 3, a spade or a king. Thats like half the deck.

7th street comes faces down. Time to squeeze. Its black! Its and ace! But its a club. Fuck! One time and all that shit.

I'm down to 12k and not being able to pump the breaks I get it all in on the next hand with buried 5s against the buried 8's of the annoying Aussie. Pretty much drawing dead by 5th street and I'm going home. So fucking poor. I place 42nd while 40 pay.

I quit. Heineken please. Exit stage right.

JfuckingDN