Couple of local guys go deep

A couple of WV guys made final tables recently.

Really good guy and an excellent carpenter by the way, one old one cashed in the UltimateBet 3k Guaranteed Sniper on 06-25-2008. For finishing 2nd out of 493, he won $450.00.

WVUManiac2 made deep runs in both of the FullTiltPoker Daily Double Tournaments on 06-25-2008. In the FullTiltPoker Daily Double - A, he won $70.49 for finishing 16th out of 1007.
In the FullTiltPoker Daily Double - B, WVUManiac2 went even deeper, making the final table. He finished in 5th out of 915 entrants and won $439.20. Great job guys.

Me? Well yesterday I played a $2.20 satty to the Sunday Hundred Grand and the 4 pm EST $8.80 tourney, or as I like to call it, "My White Whale Tourney." I played well in the satty and made a bad move and busted out when I should have cashed. I busted out of the 8 with AQ vs AK. The funny thing is that $11 in losses shouldn't have been much of a concern because it was a really good afternoon at the day job. But the almost 5 figures earned didn't take away the bad taste of the eleven dollars lost. Fast Eddie was right: "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."

Shout out to ESS286

Thanks to Ess for keeping Northern Ohio safe for the good citizens there and congrats to him for cashing in the PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand [$11 NLHE, 10m levels] on 06-22-2008.

That tournament is a monster wiht a huge field.

Ess finished 1132nd out of 20825 and won $20.83. I usually bust about 30 away from the money in it. Congrats sir.

Congrats to Dan "Wretchy" Martin

Congrats to Dan Martin aka Wretchy for cashing in his first World Series of Poker event today. Wretchy finished in 121st place out of 2,720 entrants in Event 39 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. He won $ 4,084.

Great job by Wretchy who was hit with some very bad luck today as his QQ was cracked by JJ all in pre-flop. It's the first, but it won't be the last.

At the Rail with Annie Duke

Annie Duke is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and arguably the best women’s poker tournament player ever. More importantly though, she a the mother of four and one of the co-founders of Ante Up for Africa. Conservative estimates put the number of murdered in Rwanda at 800,000 over the last 15 years and the massacre in Darfur has left at least 400,000 dead and caused millions to flee their homes and now are living as refugees.

On July 2, 2008, the second annual No Limit Hold-Em Tournament held in conjunction with the World Series of Poker® will be held in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino®


Annie Duke, 2007 winners Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, and Don Cheadle

Thank you for joining me here at the rail Annie.
How did Ante up for Africa begin?

One day Don and I were having Lunch back in September of ’06. Sushi. We were chatting about nothing much and then I mentioned a charity poker tournament I had just hosted that had raised almost a million dollars. We had just been talking about Darfur so the two topics just had a light bulb go on over our heads. It was a Duh! Moment where we realized we could raise money to help the crisis in Darfur though poker.


How are the funds raised put to work?

The funds are divide equally between two charites. One is Not on Our Watch (http://www.notonourwatchproject.org/) and The Enough! Project (http://www.enoughproject.org/)

I’ve read that several states have passed legislation requiring that Sudanese holdings be divested from state operated retirement/pension plans. How many states have made passed laws as of now and are there others who may soon do so?

Here is the best place for information on that:

http://www.sudandivestment.org/home.asp



Are there other lobbying or non-direct aid to the people affected by the unconscionable acts of the Sudanese Government that the organization is able to provide?

That is what The Enough! Project does. It raises awareness about issues like Darfur.


What is the one thing that you’d like to make sure that everyone who reads this knows about the plight of the people in Africa?

What I want people to know is that there are over 2 million people driven from their homes, in refugee camps where they need clean water, food and medicine. These people cannot turn to their own government for help because it is their government who has driven them from their homes. The US does not have a strong economic interest in the area so as a country we have not focused much attention on Darfur. Without an economic interest such as oil the only way we can effect change is by making our voices heard, letting the world know that this is an issue we care about. We hope that events like Ante Up For Africa will help in that cause.



Your first tournament raised more than $700,000 last year and a non-WSOP related event raised another $500,000 at the San Manuel Casino near Los Angeles, California recently, is there a specific level you hope to reach with this year’s tournament in Las Vegas?

Last year we thought the pie in the sky number would be $250K. Obviously, we raised much more than that. We were so ecstatic. I would hate to make a goal because any number we raise is so fantastic. But, obviously, that million dollar mark is very enticing.


With the success of the tournament in Los Angeles are there plans to have additional tournaments throughout the country and the world?

We did an event at the WSOP Europe last year. We are planning an event at the Aruba Classic this year as well through our presenting sponsor, Ultimatebet.com. They have made an extremely generous commitment to the charity and part of that commitment will be the event in Aruba in October.


Are there any non-poker tournament fund-raising events held in conjunction with the tournaments such as an auction or a dinner?Thank you so much for taking time to talk to me Annie. One final question, many poker players don’t get to make the trip to Las Vegas for the series. For those who don’t, where can they contribute to Ante Up for Africa?

We will be doing a silent auction this year at the even during the WSOP. Also, you can donate you player points at Ultimatebet.com. UB will also be auctioning off cool items to raise money for the charity such as poker lessons from me, a signed guitar from Scott Ian and other really cool stuff. Check the auctions area of the ultimatebet.com website for more details. The auction and special tournaments for Ante up for Africa are running June 21st and 22nd. A computer problem prevented this interview from being published when it was originally conducted on June 10th. Click this link to find out more about the UltimateBet.com promotions for Ante up for Africa.

I hope that everyone who is able to play can help support this very worthy cause. To learn more about the Ante up for Africa organization, to register for the tournament at the World Series of Poker, and/or to make a donation, please click here

Editorial Note: This interview was completed before Annie Duke's final table at the 2008 WSOP and the purpose of the interview was solely the charity Ante Up for Africa. There was no attempt on the part of the interviewer to ask Ms. Duke questions about poker strategy, her role at UltimateBet or the problems which UltimateBet has suffered in the past year.

Sicktight311 Final Tables HORSE Tournament

Congrats to FLB guitarist and all around great guy Greg "Sicktight311" Benoit for making the final table of the $3.30 HORSE tourament at PokerStars earlier this today. He finished in 4th place out of 216 competitiors and won $46.66.

Sick going deep in a tourney is becoming a nightly event. Well done sir.

Write more songs though.

Check out Greg's band here.

You should hear the future of music today.

Wretchy pwns UB $200 MTT

Last night/early this morning, the Wretched one, Dan "Wretchy" Martin, took down the $200+15 80K guaranteed tournament on UltimateBet. For his win, Wretchy collected a cool 20,000.

Another very impressive win for Wretchy. He has won major tournaments at each big site still open to play for American players.

WP GG and Congrats sir.

Good Luck to Ess

Grade A guy and officer of the law Ess has a very important union election today. Best of luck to Ess. Take it down sir
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

PokerNews interview with Devin Porter

I just found this interview of Devin and thought you might like to see.

PokerNews interview with Jared Hamby

Interview of TheWacoKidd at the World Series of Poker

Clonie Gowen talks about the WSOP shootout event and ladies events.

Tourney updates since last entry

iLLNuGWichee cashed in the Bodog $5K Guaranteed (rebuy) on 06-12-2008. He won $278.30 for finishing 7th out of 89.

Wretchy chopped the PokerStars $109+R NL Hold'em heads up evenly 06-13-2008. He would have had a commanding chip lead as he got it all in with JJ v AJ pre-flop when the stack sizes differed by less than 30k, but his opponent hit the three outer on the turn. Wretchy won $11,175 for the even chop and finishing 2nd out of 117.


iLLNuGWichee won the Bodog 5K Guaranteed on 06-13-2008. Nuggy won $1500.00 for winning in the 126 player field.




iLLNuGWichee made the final table of the PokerStars $22+R NL Hold'em on 06-13-2008. His prize was $1499.20 for finishing 4th out of 252.


Great job guys and gl at the WSOP

How could I get more value out of this hand?

On this hand, I think my river bet smelled like value bet or he thought i hit an open ended draw. I am pretty sure he either had a set or two pair on flop.

I thought that if i checked the river looking to check-raise, he would have checked behind. My bet must have convinced him that I had the goods or he was totally on a draw. I'd like thoughts on what sized bet you think he would have called on the river or any other way to get more value out of this hand.

PokerStars Game #18069826573: Tournament #91352474, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/06/11 - 15:33:14 (ET)
Table '91352474 20' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: No jinx here (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: Khales (1540 in chips)
Seat 4: Zeon26 (1470 in chips)
Seat 5: bombay black (3630 in chips)
Seat 6: ninnig1 (1680 in chips)
Seat 7: Isabella7 (1460 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: SluggerWV (4530 in chips)
Seat 9: BAYvw (3690 in chips)
Isabella7: posts small blind 10
SluggerWV: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SluggerWV [Jh Th]
BAYvw: calls 20
No jinx here: folds
Khales: folds
Zeon26: calls 20
bombay black: calls 20
ninnig1: calls 20
Isabella7: folds
SluggerWV: checks
*** FLOP *** [8s Qh 9c]
SluggerWV: bets 100
BAYvw: calls 100
Zeon26: folds
bombay black: calls 100
ninnig1: calls 100
*** TURN *** [8s Qh 9c] [7d]
SluggerWV: bets 200
BAYvw: raises 200 to 400
bombay black: folds
ninnig1: folds
SluggerWV: raises 640 to 1040
klem mate is connected
BAYvw: calls 640
*** RIVER *** [8s Qh 9c 7d] [6c]
SluggerWV: bets 1040
BAYvw: folds
Uncalled bet (1040) returned to SluggerWV
SluggerWV collected 2590 from pot

World Poker Tour and GSN part ways.

Season VII of the World Poker Tour will not be shown on GSN it was announced today. The WPT and GSN have parted ways. Apparently a change in leadership at GSN after the acquisition of the rights to the WPT were acquired by GSN has been a large part of this decision.

To read more about this bad decision in my opinion, please visit Pocketfives.com here

Online Final Table for Devin Porter

Devin Porter, playing at PokerStars under the screen name of Tobias Fuke, made the final table of the $109 $30,000 guaranteed tournament yesterday.

Devin finished in 3rd place out of 306 competitors.

For his great effort, Devin cashed for $3151.80.

He is playing great and I expect to see him at least one other final table during this year's World Series of Poker. Congrats sir!

Poker and the Presidential Candidates

The Poker Players Alliance is a great organization which each American poker player should be a part of in my opinion. They are working to protect our right to play poker and with the upcoming election, they have information on the presidential candidates' position on poker.

To read more, please click here

Congrats to Devin Porter

Congrats to Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter on finishing 3rd in the World Series of Poker 6 handed event yesterday/this morning depending on what part of the world you may read this from.

He played great and I predict this isn't the last you will hear from him during this year's event. Read more about the tournament here at Pocketfives.com

TranquilChaos final table!

Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter has made the final table in Event Number 9 of the World Series of Poker, 6 handed no-limit hold'em tournament. A couple of three outers were hit by opponents on the final table bubble. Without this bad luck TC would have had a much healthy stack. But he certainly is still in it.

Great job and hopefully Devin will bring home the bracelet when the tournament resumes tomorrow

I'll be playing as a blogger in the PocketFives Open. P5s is adding some $530 Sunday Million seats for the poker bloggers out there.The PocketFives Poker Forum is source of the best online poker rankings in the world.In addition, PocketFives features regular content contributions in the forms of poker articles from top poker players such as AJKHoosier1 and USCphildo.Registered:518908949

Final Table at FullTilt Poker

I haven't been able to play as many non-satellite tournaments for the past month or two. I have never had a lot of success at FullTilt even though I really love the structure of the tourneys there. Last night I found a $5 PL Omaha 8b tourney that fit into my schedule and was very happy to make the final table. I started the final table with a chip position of 8 of 9. I finished 7th and got a really good return on my buy-in.

Good luck to Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter and Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby as they are both deep in the money in the World Series of Poker 6 handed no limit hold em tournament. Both are great players and even better guys. Hopefully they will get heads up for the bracelet.

Chipper hits number 400!

Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones hit career home run number 400 last night in the Braves 7-5 win over the Florida Marlins. Chipper became the third switch hitter of all-time to hit at least 400 home runs. He also went 4 for 5 at the plate to raise his league leading batting average to .418.



Congrats to Chipper and here's to continued good luck and success for the rest of the year.

Reports from the game Yahoo Sports

ESPN

Lakers Celtics

I grew up a huge Philadelphia 76ers fan. I loved watching Dr. J play and hoped one day to be able to dunk (didn't happen) and Andrew Toney was my other favorite because he could shoot the lights out and always played great against the Celtics. As a good Sixers fan, I always wanted them to win, especially against LA and Boston. If they didn't, then the mission became hoping that whoever was playing LA and/or Boston would beat them(damn you twin towers of the Houston Rockets for letting me down and wtf Ralph Sampson? Getting your ass kicked by whiner Jerry Schisting).

If LA was playing Boston in the finals, then conference bias set in and I decided that a Boston win was more honorable for the Sixers.

I haven't really had a team since I disowned the Sixers after watching Barkley plant a shoulder in the gut of some guard years ago and the style of play reminded me not one bit of the teams I grew up rooting for. I liked MJ and wanted his teams to win but didn't consider myself a Bulls fans. Today I find myself rooting for any team that Mike D'Antoni coaches for reasons explained in previous blogs.

But I also find myself, a good long time after I was a Sixers fan, looking forward to this finals series. ESPN has had a lot of programming about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry and it has actually inspired an interest for me. It's going to be as close to an old-school matchup that will happen for awhile. It should be a close series and we know that drama is good.

Attached via link is a story by ESPN's Bill Simmons, who grew up a Celtics fan and now lives in Los Angeles. Simmons is one of the best sportswriters going now.
Read and enjoy and thanks to BGX for tipping me off to the link

By the way, F Kobe Go Celtics

Surgery for John Smoltz

I was really sorry to read today that John Smoltz is going to have season-ending surgery on his shoulder today. Smoltz has been the heart and soul of the Braves for a long time. If there was one game I needed to win to save my life, he'd be the starting pitcher not only because of the quality of pitcher he was but because he has always left it all on the field. I hope that the surgery only ends this season for John, not his career.

Read more about Smoltz' condition and career at ESPN.com and at the Atlanta Journal Constitution

The World Series of Poker

The 2008 World Series of Poker is now underway and unfortunately I won't be among those participating this year. As I reviewed the list of events some things occurred to me.

It appears that there is a more diverse selection of games offered, but there are still too many no limit hold 'em tournaments. It seems to me that by having too many of the same type of tournament it takes away some of the prestige of winning one. I believe that there shouldn't be more than one tournament at any specific buy-in.

I also wish that there was at least one event for five card stud, five card draw and Kansas City Lowball. These are important games in the history of poker and a single tournament at even a thousand dollar buy-in would be a nice acknowledgement of that fact and a way of keeping the games alive. Given the new hyper-aggressive style practiced by so many players today, there's a decent chance that a no-limit or pot limit version of either five card stud or draw could gain a lot of new players. Many of the practioners of that style love to take any chance they get to show they have bigger balls than everyone else, these games would be right up their alley in my opinion.

Good luck to everyone making the trip to Las Vegas this year. I hope it's a safe, fun and profitable time.

UltimateBet signs Eric "Rizen" Lynch

On the heels of hiring online legend Johnny Bax, UltimateBet has made another excellent hire by signing poker star Eric "Rizen" Lynch to be a part of team UB.

I have been impressed with the recent moves by UltimateBet to rehabilitate the site with these two hires and the increased involvement of Annie Duke in the tournament offering.

Hopefully these are just the first steps in a concerted effort by UB to regain it's former status as an elite site.

Read more about the deal with Rizen here

Wretchy Final Tables another big tourney

Online poker star Dan "Wretchy" Martin followed up his win in the Sunday Brawl at FullTilt by making the final table in the FullTiltPoker $65,000 Guarantee last night. He won $1950.00 for finishing 8th out of 520.

Another incredible effort by the Wretched One. I look forward to seeing him on ESPN's broadcast of the WSOP later this year. There will be several players from the OT section of Pocketfives.com there I am sure. Look for Mathclub, iLLNugWIchee, Wein, TranquilChaos and TheWacoKIdd to crush some felt this summer.

Braves rebound to win

The Atlanta Braves were able to recover from a rocky first appearance by John Smoltz since returning from the disabled list to beat the Florida Marlins 7-5 in ten innings. The Braves won it on a two-run homer by Yunel Escobar.

Atlanta also got homers from Jeff Francoeur and Mark Texiera, and two more hits from Chipper Jones. It's great to see Frenchy and Tex hitting the ball better.

Wretchy takes down Brawl!

Wretchy won the Sunday Brawl on FullTIltPoker today. The $240+16 MTT attracted 1,627 players and had a payout of almost $70,000. He played great, especially after the tournament was heads up.

Great Job by the Wretched One. Expect to see him on your televisions soon m a broadcast from the World Series of Poker.

Coverage of Wretchy's win makes headlines on Pocketfives.com