Welcome to Derek's Poker Blog

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Hammer Quads . . . . Enough said

Quads with the Hammer!



Poker Player and Midgets . . . .

I did some work on my side bar. Check out some of my new links including Poker Player Newspaper. I also have a nice picture of Iggy on the bottom right. It's the last pic. Go ahead and click on it.

Here's a funny front page to a NY newspaper. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this on the subway.





Don't forget to sign up for this Sunday's WPBT WSoP Satellite. There's only 31 bloggers signed up so far. We need more, so sign up asap.

PokerStars
No Limit Satellite for the $1500 WSoP Event
Sunday, May 1st
7pm EST
Buy in: $30 + $3
Restrictions: Bloggers only
Password: same password as last time

Friday, April 29, 2005

WPBT WSoP Satellite # 2

As you know by now, Iggy announced a second WPBT WSoP Satellite for the $1500 NL event. It's for the June 3rd event at the Rio in Las Vegas. Here's your chance to win a seat and play with the big boys and Bobby Bracelet.

PokerStars
No Limit Satellite for the $1500 WSoP Event
Sunday, May 1st
7pm EST
Buy in: $30 + $3
Restrictions: Bloggers only
Password: same password as last time

Sunday, April 24, 2005

BOB . . . itsone2many!!!!

WPBT WSoP Event
PokerStars
Sunday, April 24th

Congrats Bob!! Bob pulled off a great win tonight and won the $1500 NL seat in June. 78 bloggers played tonight and he outlasted them all. Job well done! We'll be cheering you on Bob. Good luck!

I signed up for the WPBT event late today. I'm glad I made it but I played like shit. I won a few hands but pissed away my stack with marginal hands. The weird thing was that I got seated at the same table as Paul. Paul got KO'd when his AK lost to JJ. He flopped an A but the other guy turned a J. Ouch.

Nothing exciting happened to me. I lost a decent sized pot to Helixx (my AT to his AK). I doubled him up. I eventually got KO'd in 46th place. My all in push with 44 right before the break lost to QQ. Bob winning the seat made this thing a blast. I can't wait for the WSoP event. It should be fun.

Thanks to Iggy and Otis for setting this up. See you guys soon!!

Friday, April 22, 2005

WPBT WSoP Event

No Limit Satellite for the $1500 WSoP Event
Sunday April 24th
7pm EST
Buy in: $30 + $3
Restrictions: Bloggers only
Password: E-mail Iggy for specifics

The WPBT WSoP Satellite is this Sunday on Poker Stars. The winner gets a seat in the $1500 NL event on June 3rd. I might not be able to play. I'm going to try my best to make it. Good luck everyone.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

WPBT: Poker Stars Event

Wednesday, March 30, 2005



It was back to Holdem. 109 people played in this one. I got lucky again and finished in the money. I took 16th place. I played at the same tables as Iggy all night. He was kicking butt. We didn't get into too many pots together. He raised my blinds a few times and I folded to the button bully.

Mean Gene
hit our table and I flopped a set of 5's against him heads up. He folded and I won a decent sized pot. It was one of my first take downs of the night. A little later, I got KK when the blinds were 25/50. I raised preflop. Someone reraised and Rod reraised after that. For some reason, I just called. I should've moved all in right there. Instead I called and the flop hit all flush cards. The pot was huge. Rod moved all in on the flop. I figured he didn't have a flush. He would've checked. One of my K's was the same suit as the board. My only worry here was that Rod had AA. Rod had a big stack. He took down a bunch of hands early in the tourney. I was hoping at worst, he had an A of spades with a chance to suck out. I put him on a high pocket pair or AK. I called and he flipped over QQ. I won the pot and became the chip leader. It was early and I jumped out to a big lead. This was the first blogger tourney that I started out fast. I usually grind it out early on and make a move later on. I just couldn't lay down KK in that situation.

I won another big hand with QQ vs Lumberking's QJ. I raised preflop and he reraised me. I raised again and he called. A J hit the flop and he moved all in. I called and won over T6000 in the hand and KO'd Lumberking. He was in the top 20 in chips when that hand started.

I got pocket J's. I hate that hand. I flopped a set and finally won with that damn hand. I took down a three way action pot too. Paul got KO'd around now and finished in 65th place. I got AA twice in 4 hands and there were no callers.

My QQ lost to 77 when the guy flopped a set. I was knocked down to 2nd place after this hand. I sucked out Drizz when my AT rivered his AK.

Level 7
started and so did the antes. I foolishly doubled up Ugarte and got kicked down to 15th place. This is the level when I got QQ and moved all in to an all in bet by a guy named Soxlover. I KO'd his ATo and made a snotty comment about hating the Red Sox. lol. I moved into 3rd place with this win.

There was 23 people left when Level 9 started. I finally moved all in with KJs and lost to A6s. I got KO'd by the eventual winner. I took 16th place and did well again. Iggy kicked ass in the tourney and finished in 4th place. I got to see his run up close because I sat at every table with him. Congrats to Pathetic Poker for winning the tourney and for KO'ing me. Job well done. Check out the WPBT leaderboard. Royal is in 1st and On_thg is pretty close with 2nd place. My lucky ass is in 13th place.



Monday, April 18, 2005

WPBT HORSE Event

Full Tilt Poker
March 13, 2005

I almost missed the HORSE tourney but ended up finishing in 10th place. I'm was pretty excited about that finish. I did much better than I thought I would. I was as high as 4th at one point. I blew it when I got killed on two Holdem hands in Level 16. I pissed away T20,000+ in chips in that round. Congrats again to Royal who won. I played at his table for awhile and he kicked ass. I can't remember a single mistake he made. Well done Royal. I just missed the final table but I had alot of fun.

Prior to the tourney, I got a some advice from Paul. I had never played Razz before. I had only read about it. And I've only played Omaha and Stud a few times at best and not for alot of money. After a bunch of conversations with Paul, I jumped into the HORSE event.

During the tourney, I had to pay attention to the lobby menu to stay focused. I had it up in the background so I could remember what game I was playing. I tend to space out sometimes so I needed that window up to remind me what hands to play. lol. Since Holdem was my best game, I figured I definitely had to do well in those levels. My goal in the other levels was to not do anything foolish and try to make it to the second round of horse. If I still had some chips, I figured I could make a run then (or at least attempt to). I figured I was going to lose all my Stud and Stud Hi/Lo hands. I feel those are my 2 worst games. I have no clue why but they are. Well, I have some clue but I won't share that.

Level 1 - Holdem: Got a few good hands but won no big pots.

Level 2 - Omaha 8OB: Won a hand with the low. Small pot.

Level 3 - Razz: Played a few hands and lost a big pot when 6th and 7th street killed me with runner runner KK.

Level 4 - Stud: Won a few hands surprisingly. I jammed the pot with JJ-A and won a big pot.

Level 5 - Stud 8OB: Won a nice sized pot with TK-A.

Level 6- Holdem: Flopped a set of 8's and won the pot. I caught some monster hands in this level and kept winning big hands. I was moving up in the standings fast. I started to get a little more aggressive around this time.

Level 7 - Omaha 8OB: Won a fews hands but nothing big until I scooped the high and the low for a monster pot.

Level 8 - Razz: Won a big hand with 8 high.

Level 9 - Stud: I was in 13th place by now. I was jamming the pots big time in Razz and Stud when I had great door cards showing. It was working because most people folded or called then folded to me. I was trying to be aggressive at this point and it seemed to work because by the time this level ended, I was in 9th.

Level 10 - Stud 8OB: Folded like a machine in this level.

Level 11- Holdem: I slipped places in this level. I couldn't believe I was sucking it up in holdem. I did better the last holdem round but this one was bad news for me. I was in 20th place now.

Level 12 - Omaha: Won a few pots here to pick up some momentum again.

Level 13 - Razz: I won 3 pots in a row in this round and moved up to 7th place. My aggression level was high and I was getting hungry. Snack time for me. Too bad there wasn't a waitress here to get me some chicken fingers.

Level 14 - Stud: I was over T12,000 by now. I kept winning pots early when I raised. I moved into 4th place in this level but blew it when 2 nut flush draws didn't hit. I ended the level in 11th place.

Level 15- Stud 8OB: It was down to 2 tables. I won 2 big pots with TA-A and then rolled up Q's. I caught a full house on 6th street and beat another boat. The other guy had 10's full. The pot was almost T20,000. I moved into 3rd place.



Rolled Up Queens



I was 4th in chips!


Level 16 - Holdem: My KJ lost to FTrain's JJ. I rivered someone a little later when my A4 beat A8. I made some bad calls in this level. Too many cold calls killed me and I was getting shortstacked. I pushed all in with A8s and lost to AK. I finished in 10th place and missed the final table. 93 people played which was way more than I thought would. Top 16 places paid. Moonstomp killed me in the last level. He played very well all night too.

The tourney ended when Royal beat out Moonstomp heads up. Congrats again Royal! While prepping for this event, I think I got a little addicted to Razz. lol. I think I picked that game up pretty quick. Full Tilt was a pretty decent site. It was much better than some others I've played on. Though I didn't like it that I couldn't tell what city everyone was from. I thought the tourney ran pretty well except for the blind structures. They started out a little high for my taste. We probably should've gotten more chips to start with that structure. I had fun and I was glad I did well since that was my first time playing HORSE. I have to thank Paul and Phil Hellmuth for my good showing in this event. Paul gave me a crash course the day before the event and I re-read through Phil's Play Poker Like the Pros book the day of the event. How funny is that!!



Final Standings

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Las Vegas - Day 3

Sunday, December 12, 2004
Sports Book, Mandalay Bay, & boozing with AlCan'tHang


"I don't know how to fall asleep. I only know how to pass out." - Rodney Dangerfield


I can't remember much from this day. It's taken me a long time to piece together the events of this day. My troubles started soon after I woke up. Supposedly that's a good thing. Paul and I woke up and hit the food court at the Excalibur. We ate at McDonald's and I had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. Nice! We were running late. Kickoff time was approaching and we wanted to place a bet before we got to Mandalay Bay.

We ran into SnailTrax at the Excalibur sports book. We placed some bets and headed to the tram. When we got there, AlCan'tHang, BG and Bob were waiting around at this table. They reserved it for everyone. Paul and I placed a bet on the Bengals as per Iggy's advice. We placed our bets and Iggy's at the Excalibur and quickly noticed that the spread was better at Mandalay Bay. Oops! We all picked Cincy over NE. The weird thing is that I picked NE in all my football pools that weekend. Iggy was very convincing the night before with his Bengals pitch so I put some money on them.

BadBlood dropped the hammer in the poker room which was right next to the sport book. He caught two pair on the river. Otis and CJ showed up shortly afterwards. CJ talked about his breakfast meeting with Edna from the Aladdin. I recently saw Edna on TV. She was at the WPT Bellagio event that Daniel Negreanu won. She was sitting in the first row. lol. She's the poker room manager at the Aladdin. The PokerProf and CJ met with her to discuss our next live WPBT event.

Grubby, Eva, and Iggy showed up during the first set of games. Of course, I lost some money at the Mandalay Bay Sport Book (yet again). The Steelers-Jets game killed me but at least I was shitfaced by 11am. I can thank AlCantHang for that. I was pretty damn wasted that morning. As Paul said, "I was visibly slurring my speech and speaking with a three second delay." At one point, Eva passed out in the chair next to me. Thank god Paul picked up some chicken fingers and fries from the nearby cafe. It definitely helped sober me up a little.

Al and gang kept breaking out into the now infamous San Diego Super Chargers fight song. By the fourth quarter of the Chargers game, everyone had the cheer down perfectly. The funny thing was that we had everyone's attention. Everyone in the sports book was focused on our group when we'd burst into that rowdy rendition of the Chargers' fight song. This old guy in front of us would stand up every time and direct the chorus of poker bloggers as we chanted.

Al had a decent sized bar tab going but he kept buying more SoCo shots for us. What a guy!! So Iggy's tip panned out and we won our Bengal's bet. Paul, Iggy, GRob and myself all had money on Cincy. What a game! Soon Paul and I took off for the Excalibur after the games and headed for dinner. I ate a burger since i had fingers for lunch. I inhauled the damn thing pretty fast.

We headed off to the poker room after dinner. BG was there. I played for a few hours and crashed really hard. I wished I stayed up longer that night. I could've played at BG's table. That would've been fun. I hear there was a fishy slutty middle aged woman at his table. Oh well . . . . bed was calling after a long day at work.

I remember this one thing from the poker room that night. There was this kid who kept telling everyone at the table that he wanted to turn pro. He said he read all poker books and was studying real hard to be a great player. The funny thing was that he was a horrible player. He lost every big pot he was in. This Canadian woman kept making fun of him. She was pretty damn annoying in general though. She kept demanding to see my hands when I'd bet her out of a pot. I just laughed at her. So did the dealer.

Supposedly sometime before or after Paul's Bellagio hookers sighting, Paul came into the room when I was sleeping. In my sleep, I asked him where his chips where? How funny is that!! I was dreaming and sleep talking about poker. Anyway, this trip report has taken me forever to finish. Stay tuned for my next report. Next up is Day 4: The NL Tourney at the Aladdin.

Stay tuned . . .

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Maine Bound

I'm heading away for the weekend to Maine to visit a friend of mine who owns a restaurant up there. It will be good to get away but I wish I was going to Vegas instead. We'll all be there soon (not soon enough). I can't wait, it should be a blast. Check out WPBTonline or CJ's site for more info. So how about Paul! Many congrats to him for his new gig in Vegas! I'm so jealous. He will do great. I'm very excited for him and I wish I could go. Him and the PokerProf will have some great stories to tell plus Grubby and Otis will be there too. I'm sure they'll all parlay that into some great times. Check out Paul's site for more details of his summer gig. Good luck Paul and most of all . . . have fun! Check out the WPBT leaderboard. Royal is numero uno and I'm in 13th. Wow. And congrats to Pathetic Poker for winning the last WPBT event on PokerStars. Great job!