Random Conversation

Check out this post from Stephanie . . . errr . . . . Dawn. She's friends with F Train and wrote this funny post about the Boathouse Bash. Here's a bit of it.

To set the tone . . . some middle aged magician just walked up to us during a NL ring game at the Boathouse.

Courtesy of Ms. Dawn:

Instead, it was another deck of cards. This time, Derek was his mark.
"Is that your daughter?"” he asked pointing to the baby-faced Mrs. Spaceman.
"“No, she'’s my wife,"” he (Derek) replied.
He (the magician) looked surprised.
"“But you guys can'’t cross state lines, right?" (says the magician)”
"“No, it'’s ok. We'’re from Kentucky,"” Derek answered, not missing a beat.


How old are you?
There were plenty of weird and hilarious conversations going on during the Boathouse. Too bad we didn't have a film crew documenting this blowout party because it was a wild one!

The Boathouse Bash 2005 - Part 2

Friday, September 23rd

Paul and I ate at Denny's again for the second time in less than 8 hours. I haven't been to Denny's in forever. Afterwards, we headed over to watch Spaceman play at the Taj Mahal. Paul and I hung out with Mrs. Spaceman and told her about last year's Boathouse Bash. The USPC tourney structure sucked ass and the blinds/antes were getting pretty high. Jason eventually got KO'd as the shortstack. I had a great time watching him play and talking to Mrs. Spaceman.

Paul and I took off for the pre-Bash party. It was time to hang out with AlCantHang, Eva, Big Mike, Stb, Bob, and Landow. They were waiting at the Boathouse for us! Big Mike and Al were great all trip. Big Mike paid for alot a drinks and alot of other things too. He and Al were great hosts all weekend. They made sure everyone was having fun. By the way, Big Mike also did a great job raising money for charity this weekend. He's the man! I must thank him, Al and Eva for a great time. They were awesome to hang out with and party with. Thanks guys!

Highlights of the night:

• Watching Big Mike down two full glasses of SoCo upon walking into the bar after work.
• Watching Big Mike tip almost 100% of the bill.
• Watching Big Mike clandestinely slip the hotel customer service girl some cash to take care of his family!
• Getting completely shitfaced wasted drinking beer and SoCo all night.
• Watching Bobby Huge Junk get a lap dance. His junk was thrice confirmed.
• Getting flashed and seeing some spectacular boobies (Boathouse Bash foreshadowing).
• Watching Al shake his ass and dance in protest all by himself. He was ticked at the music selection.
• Watching StB drink 17 different kinds of beer and then some without falling off the bar stool!
• Big Mike and Al started doing dial a shots and Badblood was one of the few to pick up the phone. Boy was he a smart man! He was home on Friday night with no plans of coming to Philly. By the end of the phone conversation, Badblood was packing for Saturday's party.
• Watching Paul lose a prop when he couldn't finish 6 crackers in less than a minute without drinking water.
• Listening to Bob and Stb sing Footloose on the way home from the diner.

After drinking from like 4:20pm to around 1am, Stb and Al thought it would be great to eat some food. I definitely drank too much and puked as soon as we got to the diner. I puked 5 full times this go around. The funny thing is that I puked last year but it was on Landow's front lawn. This year it was in a parking lot right up against another car. lol. Landow told me that we were really close to his place too. Darn, I wanted to puke on his lawn again! Next year Landow! Supposedly, I puked so loud that Eva and Paul could hear me in the diner.

Bed time. BOATHOUSE Bash is on Saturday!


Saturday, September 24th

I woke up fine even though I puked the night before. I knew there wouldn't be a running of the Lewey this year but something was going to happen . . . you could just feel it.

Highlights of the day:

• Playing in the 2005 Good & Plenty Classic. Before we headed to the Boathouse, Paul, StB, Bob, and myself played a quick SNG in our hotel suite. We used candy for poker chips. I lost to Stb in heads up play when I bet into his nut flush. I actually hit a few gutshots against Steve but he eventually won the first ever Good & Plenty Classic!

StB Wins!

• Coloring up the white Good & Plenty's for sugar packets.
• Having two poker tables going on at the Boathouse before the party started. One table was spreading 2-4 Horse. Otis, Bad Blood, Joaquin, Mike, Helixx, and Bob played at that one. The rest of us played No Limit. Just like Paul, I lost 2 buy-ins totaling $80. We played with Spaceman, F Train, Carter, Stephanie, StB, Landow, and Rachel. I lost most of my money on two hands. In both hands I had a straight on the turn and lost to a river full house. Ouch! The craziest hand I played was against Mrs. Spaceman. I had A-K and she had Q-Q. We had a preflop raising war until I finally moved all in. She thought for a while and eventually called. It was a huge hand. The flop was Q-J-8. Rachel flopped a set but I hit a straight on the turn with a 10. The crowd went wild but exploded even louder when Landow dealt a 10 on the river. I lost my stack. It was an amazing hand and Mrs. Spaceman played it very well. You know what happened next, right? REBUY on table 2!!!! The poker action was great and I had a blast playing with everyone.
• Free Booze!
• Free Boobies!
• Nice beaver!
• Explaining to Otis, that if it weren't for Philly and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania would just be Arkansas.

Me and Otis
The Boathouse Bash was so crazy and wild that there is too much to recant. The conversations were great and hilarious. If you want to know more, then you'll just have to show up for next year's bash. All I can say is that I saw multiple breasts during the party and even caught a glimpse of some beaver. A few other bloggers saw it too but I won't mention their names just in case their wives read this. I love the person who invented Mardi Gras Beads! Yeah!!!

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The party was great. The music was great. Badblood got some metal fix! The Al Can't Hang Experience played again this year. The company was awesome and bar none. I had a really great time and wish we all could've partied together for one more day. I can't wait until next year's Bash! Once again, thanks to Al, Eva, and Big Mike for throwing another great party. BigMike and the gang raised a bunch of money for a great cause.


Sunday, September 25th

Paul and I got up early and ran home to watch the football games or as I like to call it . . . the Jet debacle. I can't believe there's going to be a Vinny Testeverde Era, Part 2. It's going to be a long football season in New York.

The Boathouse Bash 2005 - Part 1

Thursday, September 22nd

I woke up late on Thursday but eventually made my way down to Penn Station to grab the next Greyhound bus to Atlantic City. I bought a one way ticket to the Taj Mahal and I was off to the 2005 Boathouse Bash via a pit stop. After screwing around at the Taj for a little while, I went over to the Borgata to meet up with Paul.

Since I don't have a cell phone, I figured I'd wait for Paul in the poker room. He was covering the WPT event upstairs in the convention hall so I decided to play $6/$12 limit holdem until the event was over. To make a long story short, I was up $150 in a short timeframe and ended up walking away down about $100. D'oh!

I decided to head upstairs and check out the WPT action and see if I could get a glimpse of Courtney Friel. I wanted to see if she was even close to being the next Shana Hiatt. I made it upstairs and saw alot of drunk WPT folks. They had just finished filming most of their final takes. Mike Sexton looked like he had half a bag on and Vince Van Patten looked like he was on skirt patrol. Guys were drooling over Courtney big time. While I thought she was very hot, she's no Shana! I also saw a few G Vegas locals in the room . . . the Mark and the River Queen.


The Mark poses with Courtney Friel
While waiting for Paul to finish up, I ran into 3 hookers in less than 30 minutes. Two of them even hit on me at the same time. I was next to the Spanish 21 tables. Hookers seem to have a radar for me. I wondered if I looked like I hadn't had sex in a while or if they could just smell that I hadn't had any sex in a while. lol. Spaceman later joked that the hookers probably just smelled the huge bankroll in my pocket!

One of the girls told me that I was being hit on by the sexy Miss Chocolate Love. Too funny! They worked me hard but got nowhere. I just bullshitted them the whole time. I told them that I was a professional gambler named Phil Hellmuth. They had no clue who Phil was. lol. Some random guy walked by as I said this and he smirked. After a few minutes of jawing with these girls, I decided to take off and look for Paul. While walking away, I kind of felt a little dirty and used. I even checked my pockets to make sure I wasn't robbed blind! lol.

I decided to wait for Paul outside the convention room. On the way, I saw VVP, Sexton and Courtney going into the bar for drink. lol. Little did I know that Paul had already left convention room and was drinking with Mr. and Mrs. Spaceman at one of the bars. Anyway, while I was waiting upstairs, I ran into these two 2 Australian chicks. They wanted to interview Phil Hellmuth! lol. I couldn't believe it. I was just lying to someone else earlier and said I was Phil. lol.

I figured out right away that I couldn't pull one over these girls. They knew who Phil was. They asked me where I could find him. Later on, Mrs. Spaceman would suggest that I blew it and should've just told them he was upstairs in my room! lol. I missed the boat on that one. Instead, I just picked these girls up and foolishly walked them over to my brother who proceeded to get their phone numbers. I blew it again! How stupid am I! Dr. Pauly strikes again!

I got a chance to chat with Spaceman and his wife for awhile. While talking to them, we ran into Andy Bloch. He remembered sweating Spaceman in an online SNG during the WSOP. He watched it on Paul's computer. lol. Later on, we saw Kathy Liebert walking out of the casino and all I could think of was Daddy! I told Paul that we should convince her to give the big man a call. Unfortunately, she was with her mom. You don't want your mother around when your talking to Daddy about your hairy chest.

We soon left to grab something to eat at Denny's before heading off to bed. Friday was a big day for us. We had to sweat Spaceman in the US Poker Championships and then drive down to Philly for the pre-Boathouse Bash drunk fest.

WPBT - Titan Poker

Thanks to everyone who played last night in the WPBT tournament. I had a good time even though that damn chat feature on Titan Poker stinks. I had major problems typing in it. Oh well, maybe I'm just retarded. Anyway, Maudie played great and represented well but it was a reader who won. Congrats to PI45 for taking the event down. I believe this is the first time a reader won, eh?

66 people played and the top five made the money. Joanne has a list of the final table on Card Squad. Check it out. PI45 beat out Sixtos. I saw PI45 drop the hammer in heads up action. Nice job! Congrats to them both for playing well. A job well done.

Otis had the chip for awhile and I was rooting for him to win once Paul got KO'd. Unfortunately, it did not happen. I got KO'd half way through the tourney when my AA got cracked by runner runner straight. Ouch! I flopped a set too. Double ouch!! Anyway, I had a blast and can't wait for the next one. And please fix that damn chat feature Titan!!!

Tomorrow . . . I'm off to Atlantic City for a day or two and then I'm heading to Philadelphia for some madness known as the BOATHOUSE BASH! Be back soon.

New WPBT Tournament Today!

Don't forget that today is my brother's birthday. Wish him a happy b-day! He's off to the Borgata this morning to cover the WPT main event. I'll be joining him soon and then we'll be heading off to the Boathouse Bash. I can't wait for that!



Happy Birthday Dr. Pauly!

So Iggy set up the long awaited WPBT event. It's set up for tonight on Titan Poker. The field is pretty thin right now which is pretty embarrassing if you ask me so sign up now and help my brother celebrate his birthday. He'll be in his hotel room in Atlantic City so let's keep him some company by playing in the tourney! Also, if that isn't incentive enough . . . since we're playing on Titan Poker, you will also have the opportunity to play against Otis. Yes, you will have a chance to knock out Mr. Otis . . . that's if you can!

So what are you waiting for . . . . sign up now!

What: WPBT Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1 No Limit Hold'em
Password: thehamma

What are you waiting for?

Pokerstars and Hurricane Katrina Recap

I played in the Pokerstars charity event last night and finished in 5th place. Wil Wheaton helped get this relief tourney going with Lee Jones. Many thanks go out to them and Otis for setting this up. Pokerstars raised a ton of money for the hurricane victims. Thankfully, a very large field played . . . . 2,212 people to be exact! Wil kicked butt and finished in 20th place. Nice job Wil!!! There were also a ton of poker bloggers playing in this event. Thanks to every single one of them who played and watched as the night went on!


Gordie Lachance is at my table??
Helixx kicked some major ass too! He will now henceforth be known as "Big Sexy." Big Sexy finished in 13th place. Good job my man!! A player named DavidK won the event. Congrats to him for playing great! A job well done. DavidK actually KO'd me from the tourney. I had the final table chip lead and blew it all to him in two hands. Oh well. I had a great time!!


Final Standings
I had over $1million in chips at one point when the final table was down to 6 handed play. DavidK KO'd me and eventually won the event. Congrats again David! I lost a chunk of my chips when my AK lost out to David's AJ. He was all in and I doubled him up when a J hit the turn. Ouch! Later on, I was KO'd when my KJ lost to his KQ. The flop came down K-Q-7 and I was toast from there. I had some outs when a T hit the turn but I didn't get any help on the river. Oh well. I had a blast and made a good run. Plus, a ton of money was raised for the hurricane vicitms. Nice job everyone!



a cool $1mil in chips, eh!


DavidK won the event when he took down Stardawg in heads up play. Good job guys! Ironically, Stardawg KO'd Wil. Too funny!! Many thanks also goes out to the 2000+ people that signed up and made a donation to the Hurricane Katrina victims. Thanks! Don't forget, there are 3 more events on Pokerstars!


Heads up

Borgata Poker Open

I won a seat to today's Borgata satellite on Full Tilt Poker. There were 201 players in it. The top 3 places got a package to the WPT's Borgata Poker Open. I got KO'd in 71st place. Damn! It was a tough loss too but oh well. I won a seat to this satellite yesterday by finishing in 2nd place in a Multi Table qualifier. I almost won it too but it didn't matter since we both got the seat to the satellite.


Peter Webber

Spaceman and Badblood were cool enough to stop by and root me on. Thanks guys! I couldn't get anything going in the tourney. Every time I raised preflop, everyone folded. I had 12 preflop raises for wins before I got a single call from anyone. So all my early wins were small pots. As soon as the blinds got high enough in the later stages, my only move was all in. I won a few pots this way and even 2x up a couple of times but eventually got KO'd when I lost a race. I moved all in with AK and got called by 66. The flop was 2-3-5. No help for me but the turn card was a K. Suckout time! Unfortunately, the river was a 4. I hit a straight but so did my opponent and his was higher so I was done. My junk is still hurting! Oh well. Next time!



Kicked in the junk!

FEAR the GNOME

Sunday night was the second Full Tilt Poker Hurricane Katrina Relief Tournament. Over $24,000 was raised this time around. How great is that! Anyway, check out Paul's post for details on who played and what happened.

Congrats to Pablo for kicking some ass in this tourney. He did a great job and made the money. He outlasted every single pro!

FEAR PABLO! FEAR the Gnome!



FEAR!!!!!

Derek 2 Phil Gordon 0

Hurricane Katrina Relief Tournament
Full Tilt Poker
Friday, September 2nd 2005

As you all know, Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars have been kind enough to run a few charity tourneys online for the Hurricane Katrina victims. Many of us signed up to play in Full Tilt's Friday event. It was great to see the turnout. A bunch of poker bloggers played too. In total, 718 people played so I think we raised over $14,000 (including the FTP match). Several pros played including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wolfe, Steve Brecher, David Singer, David Grey, and Kristy Gazes. I played and finished in 33rd place. I made the money and I think I will just donate the winnings back to the Hurricane Katrina fund. Full Tilt Poker is going to run another relief tournament on Sunday. Details are below.

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 4th at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10

As with the Friday event, Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and it will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund. Also, don't forget about the 4 charity events that PokerStars is having in the upcoming weeks. Many thanks to Wil Wheaton for his efforts in getting this set up at Pokerstars. Check out the Pokerstars blog for more details. Poker Stars will also be giving money from the prize pool to the American Red Cross.

Back to Friday night's Full Tilt event . . . I took down two hands against Phil Gordon late in the tourney and I even rivered him once! Before I get to the suckout story, there was a sick hand that happened before Phil and I got seated at the same table. If it wasn't for this hand, I would've been KO'd much earlier in the night.


Me and Phil Gordon
I was dealt QQ in the SB. The button had KK and someone in EP had AQo. EP moved all in preflop, the button called and I re-raised all in. KK called and this was the board . . . A-Q-9-7-7. I flopped a set and hit my miracle one outer! This win got my stack up to over T7,000.

I got AA on the button. The SB had AKo, Phil Gordon had QJo, and the cutoff had 87s. I re-raised all in since my stack was getting chipped down. I got 3 callers including Phil. The guy who had 87s was the shortstack. The board came down 4-T-8-7-K. I lost to the guy with 87s but thank goodness he was the shortstack. I was excited enough to at least beat out the other two guys in the pot. I held onto a little over T8,000 in chips after this hand. The guy with 87s 4x up and his chip stack was up to T15,000. Those chips should've been mine but that happens. It's for charity, right? The real stat that mattered the most was . . . . Derek 1, Phil Gordon 0.

This next hand was the big one. I rivered Phil Gordon and it felt really good. lol. We were down to 4 tables or so and I was getting shortstacked again. I had ATo in EP and decided to move all in. Phil was sitting to my immediate left and asks me if I have AQ. Haha . . . I had something worse! Phil called with 55. He had me covered by alot. The flop came down 3-K-J. The turn was a 2 and the sweet river card was a Q! El maldito rio!! I rivered a straight on Phil to double up! I had over T22,000 in chips by then. Phil's only response was to type the word RIVER into the chat several times. lol. I quietly typed . . "better lucky than good" into the chat. Derek 2, Phil Gordon 0.


Phil has been RIVERED!!
Soon enough, I got KO'd in 33rd place when my A9 ran into AJ. Phil outlasted me and finished in 31st place. I had a great time and I got a chance to do something good and donate some money to people in need. If you have the time and money, sign up for one of the other charity events that will be going on. There's plenty of chances to donate to a worthy cause! Plus, you may get a chance to river a pro!!!!

Card Squad

A few weeks ago, I started writing for Card Squad. I'm not sure if anyone noticed since I never mentioned anything on my blog . . . . though I've seen the occasional Drizz comments on Card Squad (lol) so I know at least one person noticed! I got the job through Jen Leo. She was great enough to recommend me. Thanks Jen! It was much appreciated especially since I lost my job on Wall Street a few weeks ago. There are quite a few interesting bloggers posting on this site now. Even Wil Wheaton recently started posting on there which is pretty cool. I have over 40 posts on Card Squad right now. My posts aren't anything too exotic or exciting like a certain someone but it's worth the look. Check it out!