Trade deadline has brought a lot of heavy action

The Braves traded Teixeira for a guy I don't know much about, the Yankees stole Pudge Rodriquez from the Tigers to replace an injured Jorge Posada and that might not be the biggest deals we will see before the evening is done.

I never would have thought that Ken Griffey Jr.'s run in Cincinnati would turn out the way it did, but he is now a Chicago White Sox. Hopefully he will be healthy the rest of the year. It's a shame what injuries to Griffey have robbed from the history of baseball. He should be up with Aaron and the Babe.

I can't believe with the way that Manny Ramirez has loafed the last month that teams are actually lining up to trade for him. He has been a great hitter but what a shame to see him walk on groundballs, play left field like he has no interest and take days off for the hell of it.

MATHCLUBNZ made it to heads up action in the Absolute Poker $7K Guaranteed (Rebuys) yesterday. He won $1167.18 for finishing 2nd out of 700.

iLLNuGWichee made the final table of the PokerStars $22+R NL Hold'em on 07-30-2008. He won $768.56 for coming in 8th place out of 360.

Great job guys

One of the highly rated players on www.pocketfives.com, your internet poker authority, is Tristan Wade aka Cre8ive. He recently started a blog which is a very well written, in-depth look at his efforts on the felt.

When you have a few moments, do yourself a favor and visit it via the link below.

Cre8ive Blog

Monday Morning Highlights

Congrats to agriffrod for winning $15420.00 for finishing 5th out of 387 in the PokerStars $215+R NL Hold'em [$150,000 guaranteed] yesterday.

Great job by ess286 made the final table of the PokerStars $4.40 NL Hold'em [180 players] on 07-27-2008. He won $25.20 for finishing 7th out of 180.

Another great tourney for iLLNuGWichee. He made yet another final table, this time it was in the Bodog $20K Guaranteed (DS) on 07-27-2008. He won $340.00 for coming in 9th out of 171.

Congrats to Sicktight311 for cashing in his first Sunday major yesterday. You can read about his experience here

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Nuggy's rep leads to monster chop

Nuggy's final table prowess led to an even chop even when he was at a 1-2 chip disadvantage yesterday. Read more about it at Pocketfives.com, your internet poker authority, here

Another awesome job Nuggy! Congrats

Motto

I play it cool
And dig all jive.
Thats the reason
I stay alive.

My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig And Be Dug In Return.

by Langston Hughes

illNugwichee continues roll

Zac "illnugwichee" Fronterhouse bounced back from final tabling the final table of the FullTiltPoker $33K guaranteed 1rebuy + 1addon to make the final table of the 20K rebuy at UltimateBet and win the deepstack $15K on bodog. After adding in his other four cashes, it was quite a big night for the Indianapolis Colts' biggest fan.

In the Bodog $15K Guranteed (DS), he beat out 116 other players and won $4500.00. At UB, he finished 9th of 153 and won $600.00.

Congrats on a great evening Nuggy. It would have been a helluva week for most of us.

Mathclub, playing as silverfern on Bodog, made the final table in the $5k guaranteed tourney yesterday. He finished 3rd out of 81 players and won $600.00. Congrats to Mathclub who is currently visiting Texas from the great country of New Zealand.

Mathclub takes down tourney

Just hours after making the best decision of his life and declaring himself a Dallas Cowboys fan, Mathclub, playing as silverfern on Bodog, won the Bodog $5K Guaranteed (rebuy) last night. He won $1828.80 for beating out 164 other players.

Great job sir!

top pair top kicker
the river washes away
shot in the gut now

5 -7 -5

You all know the drill
it is the time not to rhyme
the rising sun warms

Chipper breaks up no-hitter, Teixiera probably gone

Chipper Jones got the Braves' lone hit in yesterday's loss to Florida. Atlanta is now in 4th place in the NL east, 7 games back of the Phillies.
The Braves just can't get the offense going consistently this year. I hear that Jeff Francoeur has an ankle that is pretty messed up and which may require surgery at the end of the year and Chipper's injury seems to taken away some of his power. Of course the pitching staff has been bombarded with injuries too. How much better would the record be if Smoltz and Hampton were in the rotation and Glavine hadn't gotten hurt? We will never know for sure but this is a season that might have been.
Now the payroll cap which has hamstrung the Braves ever since Ted Turner sold/merged his empire is about to futher gut the offense. I cannot imagine that Mark Teixiera will a Brave on August 1. He is hitting the ball well and his power and defense will definitely make him a trade target. It's too bad. He is the perfect guy to have hitting in the cleanup spot behind Chipper and as a Georgia Tech alum, you would think that Atlanta would be a place he would like to stay. But with Scott Boras as his agent and the fact that they refuse to discuss a new deal before the end of the season, Tex is likely gone. That is way too bad. My time watching the Braves began when they were in the cellar of tne NL in the late 70s. I hate that by setting an unreasonable payroll they are now making it more likely that is their destination instead of the playoffs.

Wretchy, Waco, Nuggy: Rinse and repeat.

I swear I am repeating previous columns, even though the names and deeds may sound familiar. Another incredible night on the felt for a trio of really good guys.

Dan "Wretchy" Martin continued his excellent play by making the final table of the PokerStars The Nightly Hundred Grand last night. For finishing 3rd of 1087, he won $16305.01. What can I say? That was another incredible effort and yet another huge cash. Very well done and I can't believe that he doesn't yet own the triple crown. But then again, it's only a matter of time.

Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby final tabled the FullTiltPoker $1K Monday on July 21, 2008. Wacon won $8680.00 for placing 9th out of 434. Waco is another example of a great player who has developed so many skills at such an early age. He will be around for a long, long time.

Finally, Zac "iLLNuGWichee" Fronterhouse continued to be a final table machine. Nuggy final tabled the UltimateBet Rebuy 20k Guaranteed yesterday. He won $1700.00 for finishing 4th out of 154. Then he moved over to FullTiltPoker. There Nuggy final tabled the FullTiltPoker $22,000 Guarantee (Rebuy). For finishing 6th of 285, he won $1647.45. "Wow!" you say? "That's not all," I say. In the Bodog Players Choice Semifinal yesterday, Nuggy won the tournament and took down the nice sum of $12000.00. I don't know how he does it. If I find out I promise that I too will move to final table. Fantastic night Nuggy. Well played guys.

Peace and Love

A lawyer I have known for a while, who is a pretty cool guy but I wouldn't describe us as close friends, once closed out our conversation by saying, "Peace and Love" instead of goodbye, see ya later or anything similiar. This was several years ago and when it happened I thought it was just a way of him trying to be a little different.

Now, with all of the stuff that's going on in the world, I think it's the nicest thing you could wish for someone.

Peace is contentment, the lack of stress and worry, safety and something we all could use a lot more of every day.

Love. There's no better feeling to love and to be loved. Not just a romantic love, but love like you feel for your family if you are lucky or the love I feel for my dogs. They just want to be around me and are excited to see me each time I walk through the door. Who wouldn't want that? Something tells me we would have a whole lot more peace if we had more love.

So good luck at the tables.

Peace and love

Monday Morning shout outs

Great playing continued by friends of the blog over the weekend.

Wretchy won the PokerStars $55+R Pot Limit Omaha on 07-20-2008. For beating 234 other players he won $12176.25. Maybe more impressive than the prize Wretchy won for first place was the way he won the tournament. Once the final table was down to four players, Wretchy knocked out one player on each of the next three hands to win the event. Wow!

mathclub made two final tables yesterday. He finished 5th out of 450 in the UltimateBet $8K Guaranteed Rebuy on 07-20-2008, winning $480.00. At UltimateBet,
mathclub finished in 4th place in the UltimateBet Deep Stack $3k GTD. There were 104players in the tourney and he won $353.60 for 4 out of 104.

Finally, -AG- final tabled a UltimateBet NL Holdem tourney on 07-20-2008. She won $116.10 for 3 out of 86. She is also serving our country so a big shout out to AG. Congrats everyone. Great job.

Dinner at Chili's ...

... is good even if you don't get the babyback ribs. Tonight's meal will feature some chicken crispers, chips and a ribeye. Chili"s has fantastic cheesecake (caramel topping ftw) and since the kids are with their grandparents, we might actually get to see a non-animated movie. Weeeeeeee!
Congrats to Nuggy for final tabling two rebuys yesterday and to WVUmaniac2 for his final table.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Good luck at the tables!
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Final table for Nuggy

Illnugwichee made the final table of the PokerStars Daily 50 grand ($50+5 50,000 guaranteed prize pool)tonight. He finished in 6th place out of 1530 players and collected a prize of $3,213.00.

Great job Nuggy on a very impressive effort.

Another Huge Night for the Wretched One

Dan "Wretchy" Martin continues to slice through the big fields in the big buy-in tournaments online.

Last night he won a $200 buy-in NLHE Tourney at AbsolutePOker. For beating out 80 opponents he won $3,240.00. Then at Pokerstars he made the final table of the PokerStars $11+R NL Hold'em [$45,000 guaranteed]. Wretchy finished 7th out of 1971 and won $2123.41.

Dan "Wretchy" Martin cracked the pocketfives.com rankings, making his debut at number 84. I truly expect the rise up the rankings to continue. Congrats to Wretchy. Check out the pocketfives rankings here The free poker forum at www.pocketfives.com is a fantastic community and entirely free. Visit it today.
Congrats to a great player and an even better guy. Continued success sir!

Nice night for E-friends

Another big night on the virtual felt for members of pocketfives.com.

Wretchy got heads up in the PokerStars $222.22 NL Hold'em [2X Chance] on 07-14-2008, bringing in $5172.22 for 2nd place out of 113.

The dissident aka dissident11 final tabled the UltimateBet NL Holdem earlier today. Dissident won $33.60 for finishing 9th out of 112.


Finally, TheWacoKidd final tabled the PokerStars $109 NL Hold'em [$20,000 guaranteed] yesterday. Jared won $688.50 for finishing 9th out of 459.


Great job guys!

In the money at UB

I signed up for a five dollar rebuy last night without realizing that it was a rebuy. The crazy aggressive play in the rebuy period is not something that my style meshes well with. There were 525 players in the tourney so it was likely to be a long time before the cash bubble was busted.
About three and one half hours later, the 61st player was eliminated and everyone left was in the money. Below is the one key hand that got me a stack to case. I flopped full house and slow played it effectively so that I was doubled up on the river by an opponent who had made a straight.

Getting Hand History Information...
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hand #55190554-143 at 7pm8K-007 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Started at 13/Jul/08 21:37:42

Todd3313 is at seat 0 with 16220.
reep11 is at seat 1 with 8755.
wrapking is at seat 2 with 24240.
jfs888888 is at seat 3 with 3570.
Mancoe is at seat 4 with 13305.
SluggerWV is at seat 5 with 17020.
jkoch1405 is at seat 6 with 56735.
speedy15453 is at seat 7 with 8895.
candysticks is at seat 8 with 38005.
M2 is at seat 9 with 19855.
The button is at seat 1.


SluggerWV posts ante (75).

jfs888888 posts the small blind of 300.
Mancoe posts the big blind of 600.


SluggerWV: 9h 9c

Pre-flop:

SluggerWV raises to 1600. jkoch1405 folds.
speedy15453 folds. candysticks folds. M2 folds.
Todd3313 folds. reep11 folds. wrapking calls.
jfs888888 folds. Mancoe folds.

Flop (board: 8d 8s 9d):

SluggerWV checks. wrapking checks.

Turn (board: 8d 8s 9d 7h):

SluggerWV checks. wrapking checks.

River (board: 8d 8s 9d 7h Tc):

SluggerWV bets 1400. wrapking raises to 2800.
SluggerWV goes all-in for 15345. wrapking calls.

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

wrapking shows Jh Kh.
SluggerWV shows 9h 9c.
Showdown:

wrapking has Jh 8d 9d 7h Tc: straight, jack high.
SluggerWV has 9h 9c 8d 8s 9d: full house, nines full of eights.


Hand #55190554-143 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
SluggerWV wins 35540 with full house, nines full of eights.
----------------------------------------------------------------


I had not realized how the rebuy allowed for some good deep stack action. Even though I was card dead throughout most of the action, I wasn't ever dealt aces or kings, and only had two sets throughout the tourney, I was able to get enough pots to stay alive until that double up. I finished 50th, busting when I pushed AJ v KK.
I believe that there will be more rebuys in my playing future.
Good luck everyone.
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Amanda Leatherman interview of Devin Porter

Here is a short interview of Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter by PokerNews' Amanda Leatherman during a break at the World Series of Poker Main EventTM. It seems that TC is a bit more superstitious than you mightt have thought.



Good luck Devin.

Natalie Portman to star in poker movie

I saw a link in Shane Schleger's blog about an article written by a friend of his where the friend discusses working with Natalie Portman for her role in an upcoming poker movie, My Blueberry Nights. The author is Peter Alson who wrote the well received poker book Take me to the river.

First, it was great to hear that someone with some poker credibility was working with the director and an actor on a poker movie. Second, it's great to hear that Natalie Portman will be starring in a poker movie.

The article is pretty interesting, though short. You can check it out here.

Final Table early Friday

I had a block of free time in my office this morning. Since I was just sitting around making phone calls and doing computer work, I decided to play a small tourney on AbsolutePoker. I played a limit Omaha HiLo MTT with 63 entrants. I was very happy to make the final table. I finished in 8th place after my final two hands each saw the flop hit the exact opposite of my cards. Hopefully there will be another final table this weekend.

Good luck on the felt everyone
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DexterCain's daily double

A post today on Pocketfives.com pointed out that San Jose resident and forum member DexterCain had an incredible day at PokerStars on July 7.

Dexter started off the day by beating out 935 other players and winning the $11 NLHE MTT. He won $2,340.00 for his efforts there. Dexter said that two hands stood out after the tourney was down to two players. When the heads up action began, he was faced with about a 4 to 1 chip deficit. When the first hand was dealt, his opponent pushed all-in, after tanking Dexter called with KJ. His opponent turned over a QJ and the KJ held. A later hand saw the players all-in for a huge pot with A5 and A9 respectively. Fortunately for Dexter the board produced a chop and he stayed alive to take down the tourney.

The confidence boost he received from this win helped in another tourney he was now playing at the same time. The $11 cubed(1r+1a) Pot Limit Omaha. This tournament had started while the No Limit Hold Em tourney was moving to an end. Dexter reached the final table and, in his words, "got hit in the head with the deck." A nice run at the best time saw almost every hand produced a flop which gave him top set or the nut straight. His opponents didn't know what hit them, but they saw Dexter walk away with the top prize. For beating 107 opponents, he won an additional $531.31.

This impressive day of playing also saw Dexter reach another final table, this time in the $30 PLO freezeout on Pokerstars. Dexter's rating on pocketfives has reached the nintieth percentile. Many more days like this and he will find himself in the top 100. Congrats on a great day.

Finally bagged my white whale

The 4:00 EST $8.80 tournament on PokerStars has been my personal white whale tournament. No matter how close I came to cashing, it slipped away from me. I once was two away from the cashing and found myself with TT. Not wanting to limp into the money, I moved all-in only to have the big blind call with Ace Jack and, well, you know the rest.

But today the white whale was bagged. I finished 14th out of 1107 in the tournament. I can't tell you how happy I am about finally doing well in this event and what a relief it is. It was a pretty good afternoon as I finished in 17th in a tournament at Doyle's Room. I am impressed with the new software they are using and it seems that there are more players there now.

Friends taking over final tables across the interweb

Wretchy visted the final table a couple of times yesterday. In the PokerStars The Super Tuesday (2x) on 07-08-2008, he finished 7th out of 552 and won $19320.00.

In the FullTiltPoker $15,000 Guarantee on 07-08-2008. Wretchy finished 3rd out of 367, winning $2202.00. He also final tabled a $1,000 live event in Las Vegas the same night.

iLLNuGWichee final tabled the FullTiltPoker $23,000 KO Guarantee on 07-08-2008. Nuggy won $1600.09 for finishing 5th out of 431.

Today, iLLNuGWichee kept the ball rolling in the UltimateBet Bounty 10K Guaranteed on 07-09-2008. He won $800.00 for a 4th place finish out of 220.

ess286 just missed the final table in the FullTiltPoker $3 + $0.30 Tournament on 07-08-2008. He finished 11th out of 366 and won $15.37.

Great job guys! Continued good luck on the green felt and off as well

New evidence in Jonbenet Ramsey case

It is too bad she died and that her mom didnt live to see this day.

New dna evidence shows that a non-related male killed jon benet and the Boulder District Attorney today issued a letter of apology to John Ramsey for the actions that led to suspicion of him and his family in his daughter's death


Read more at aol news.

Also, if you get a chance to read John Douglas' 2002 book The Cases That Haunt Us where he convincingly argued that the other evidence exonerated the Ramsey family, do it. It's a great read.

July 9. 2008

Here is a link to an interesting Cardplayer.com interview with Howard Lederer about the WSOP Main Event. Q & A


Johnny "World" Hennigan won the Ante up for Africa tourney earlier this month at the WSOP in Las Vegas. You can read more about it here at pokernews.com.

Barack Obama is gaining a lot of support in the poker community. You can read about it at poker pages.com

Congrats to TranquilChaos and Wretchy

I wasn't able to keep up with all of my friends tournament results last week while I was on vacation but I did want to meantion a really good run in a tourney by Devin Porter.

Playing as "tobias fuke" in the PokerStars $109 NL Hold'em [$15,000 guaranteed] on 07-01-2008, he finished 2nd out of 414 and won $6210.00.

Great job sir!

good luck in the main event

Also congrats to Wretchy for making the final table in the PokerStars $22 NL Hold'em [1R1A] on 07-05-2008. Wretchy finished 4th out of 279 and won $1080.24.

Fantastic job sir!

July 4th weekend

Here are some pics from my trip to Cherry Grove which is right beside North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Deep run at Stars

After banging my head against the wall last month in MTTs, July has started off pretty well. I cashed in the daily 15k yesterday and made a deep run in a $3 MTT there today. I had connection problems when we got down to the final 4 tables. I was disappoonted that I couldn't re-connect, damn you hotel ethernet, but I was happy to finish 25th of 1404. I was particularly happy to deep because I didn't ever get a great run of cards.

Hope everyone in Vegas is having a great time and I can't wait to see an OTer take down the main event. Good luck on the felt everyone.
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