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• Jean Robert Bellande Survivor
• Photo Source: CBS Survivor

Just thought Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger would get you an update on the Survivor pursuits of Jean Robert Bellande. Earlier I posted this Story about Jean Robert on Survivor. As of the broadcast on Thursday Jean Robert is still playing the same way. He is trusting his reads on people to get him farther in the game. This episode for a period of time it seemed like it would be Jean Robert that would be voted off the island. Jean Robert made it through ‘tribal council’ by a couple votes and lives to play another day. One of the other Survivors, Courtney had some unkind words for Jean Robert during the reward part of the show. Courtney said things like, and I am paraphrasing here:

• I tried my best to be away from Jean Robert in the bathtub as I could possible be, he was at the one far end and I took the one at the other far end
• He is kind of gross, every single part of me wants to see Jean Robert go, I just don’t like him
• He’s a horrible person

It looked real bad for Jean Robert after his tribe lost the immunity challenge. Lots of his tribe members were discussing getting rid of Jean Robert. Lots of items were discussed about who to vote off here are a few snippets.

• That would require talking to him and you know I don’t do that
• I am going to vote for Jean Robert
• I hate him
• Well unless we vote for Jean Robert
• I think we should vote for Jean Robert tonight
• My gut says Jean Robert

Even Jean Robert wasn’t trusting his feel for the game. He admitted being uneasy and something didn’t feel right. At tribal council Jean Robert drew some very critical comments from two of the women of his tribe after he called himself the ‘bad boy’. Here are a few of the comments:

• Little do you know they don’t like you
• Bad Boy not quite the term I would have selected
• Bad Boy cause you play poker or something?
• Do you have a Harley we don’t know about?
• We don’t get along, we don’t like each other, he talks alot, his jokes aren’t funny, lots of judgements of other people, he has lots of self righteousness
• He is just a crappy person

But Jean Robert, once again when it seemed he was All-In, caught Runner Runner to stick around for at least another hand…..er episode. So far his plan, as published in Bluff Magazine, to be the biggest jerk possible without being voted off is working. He is at the final table so to speak with only 10 survivors remaining.

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• WSOP H.O.R.S.E. on ESPN Starring Phil Hellmuth’s Behavior - Part Two

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger is continuing yesterday’s post regarding ‘The Poker Brats’ behavior at the WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Tournament. Today’s post details ESPN’s 2nd hour of the broadcast. If you didn’t read yesterday’s post the underlying opinion I put forth is that ESPN got off track and chose to show too much bad behavior instead of good poker. ESPN had the chance to show great poker in 5 different games but instead highlighted Hellmuth’s Tableside manner at every opportunity. Here are the behavior items ESPN edited into the one hour show:

• Just seven minutes into the broadcast ESPN analyst Norman Chad gets a little dig in on Phil while talking about Eli Elezra and Barry Greenstein being part of the ‘Big Game’ he says ‘Hellmuth is not part of the Big Game he is part of the Big Ego, the Big Game players don’t have a whole lot of respect for Phil Hellmuth’. Chad goes on to say ‘the Big Game keeps a light on for Phil anytime’.
• 13 Minutes in while playing Hold ‘Em Phil says ‘raise it up boys’. Chad once again gives the needle to Hellmuth by saying ‘it definitely bothers Phil that he hasn’t won a bracelet outside of Hold ‘Em and he doesn’t have the respect of the Big Game players. When Barry Greenstein hits a flush and beats Phil, the talking starts from Phil: ‘I haven’t won one Hold ‘Em pot just cause I checked top pair and then he hits the miracle heart again. Its just sick, nice hand Barry’.
• Then ESPN goes to a taped sit down discussion with Phil and he lets all of us know how good he is when he says things like:
  • A lot of the Great Players underestimate my H.O.R.S.E skills, they say oh Phil just plays Hold ‘Em, but
  • I can play all of the games close to perfect
  • Am I a world class stud player? sure.
  • Omaha 8 or better there’s only probably 4 or 5 that are better than me
  • Razz I just absolutely world class top of the game
  • Hold ‘Em obviously I am at the absolute top of the world
  • They can’t attack my integrity and honor cause that’s perfect
  • They can’t attack my Hold ‘Em cause thats perfect
  • There’s not much left to attack
  • Oh they can always attack my ‘Poker Brat’ behavior
• Phil is back and saying: ‘Barry has beaten me every hand in Hold ‘Em but just wait till it turns around I am going to barbecue him’ then when he loses a hand to another opponent he says ‘the best Hold ‘Em player in the world by far and the guys just beat me and beat me, I won two antes and a tiny pot it is just sick’.
• 35 minutes into the ESPN show and Hellmuth is show standing by himself and talking to nobody and saying ’such an effing joke, these are supposed to be great players? they don’t know anything about Hold ‘Em, so sick, I want to throw up when I watch these people play Hold ‘Em, supposed to be great players, they suck’.
• Forty minutes in and Hellmuth is playing Omaha 8 or better and Phil gets scooped by an opponent when Phil doesn’t have a very good hand. The opponent gets Phil to stop chattering by saying he can overcome the beat he just took. The very next hand that ESPN shows, Phil starts by saying ‘might be a little steam on this one boys’ and Phil doesn’t hit his low hand and for the only time I can remember Phil has nothing to say.
• At last the final opportunity to witness Phil Hellmuth’s Tableside manner at the WSOP this year, unless you watch the encore showings. Phil is All-In playing RAZZ and Phil is beat easily. Phil leaves the table with this parting shot for all: ’so brutal, I am the best player at that table in every game, that’s whats brutal, I got a good table draw and never won a chip’

Another item that I found ironic is: Many times Phil’s commercial for WSOP the video game was shown during the two hours of ESPN coverage. Phil is shown with a black eye and saying the some of the players are taking the ‘Beat the Brat’ theme too far. I mentioned to my sons during the broadcast with all the years that Phil has played and had his Tableside manner that he is probably fortunate nobody has popped him.

I know that it is all an act to get the other players off their game and not play their best. Also to get Phil some more TV time, but it has no place in Poker in my humble opinion. More and more players try and use the same behavior either online or at live games. Probably ESPN contributes to this with all the coverage they give to Hellmuth and others like Mike Matusow. Please stop ESPN.

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• WSOP H.O.R.S.E. on ESPN Starring Phil Hellmuth’s Behavior

ESPN aired the 1st two episodes of six last night of what they are billing as the ‘2007 Players Championship’. You know it is the 2007 WSOP $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger posted many WSOP articles and gave extensive coverage to the H.O.R.S.E. tournament and its eventual winner Freddy Deeb. This post is just to discuss my disappointment with ESPN and the TV time they give to Phil Hellmuth and his Tableside manner. Yes ESPN talked extensively about the ‘Best All Around Player’, the ‘Pros Championship’ when discussing the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Tournament. Daniel Negreanu is shown stating ‘Without a doubt it is the most important tournament in the whole world’ and 2004 Main Event Champion Greg Raymer says ‘it is a small elite field of the greatest players in the world’. ESPN says it is time to settle all arguments about who is best and this is the Bracelet all the ‘Big Game’ players want.

But in your ‘Dead Money’ blogger’s humble opinion ESPN got off track of showing the great players playing great poker in all the disciplines. Instead ESPN seemed to focus way too much TV time on the typical Phil Hellmuth horrible Tableside manner.  Thankfully at the end of the second hour Hellmuth was knocked out of the tournament and for those of us that want to watch the rest of the ESPN H.O.R.S.E. coverage we will not have to see, the great in all the Poker Games according to Phil himself, Phil Hellmuth anymore. Here are some of the examples I saw during the first hour last night. Tomorrow I will detail some more examples that happened during the second hour.

• Just 9 minutes into the Coverage of the 1st hour ESPN cuts to Phil as he rips out his ever present ear piece and tears off his sunglasses and he says: ‘oh this idiot’ and then says ‘you are so bad Bruno you don’t even know it, this is your worse game’ then goes on to say ‘its ridiculous how bad they play’.
• 23 minutes after the beginning of the 1st hour of Coverage ESPN goes back to Hellmuth in time to hear him say: ‘Freakin idiot, so bad’ once again talking about Bruno. Phil goes on to say: ‘it is alright, he is going to blow off all the chips anyway, I just hope I am here’ then he says: ‘its so ridiculous’. Then ESPN shows Mike Matusow coming over to commiserate with Hellmuth as Phil goes on to explain how the idiot called him and then beat him. Phil goes on to say: ‘I read him so easily, he got away with one stud pot, he tried to bluff me in stud and he won’t bluff me all day again’. I do give credit to ESPN analyst Norman Chad who says: ‘Ladies and Gentleman Ugly American Hall of Famers Mike the Mouth and the Poker Brat’.
• 35 minutes in and ESPN is back to Hellmuth who starts with many expletives deleted from the broadcast and then says: ‘you people are the worse players on the planet, I swear to God’ and then ‘oh my God are you kidding me, thats four bad beats they put on me’ once again it is Bruno who did the beating.
• For the last time during the 1st episode ESPN shows Hellmuth who is saying to Barry Greenstein: ‘try and run me over now Barry’ and Mike Matusow comes back to the table and Phil tells Mike ‘they just can’t wait to race their money in against me’.

That is all the ESPN viewers could stand and ESPN did not show anymore of the great Phil Hellmuth’s Tableside manner. Check back tomorrow when I detail the even worse behavior that Phil exhibited during the 2nd hour of the broadcast.

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• Global Poker Strategic Thinking Societies (GPSTS)

I previously posted about GPSTS at Harvard Law School. GPSTS is the brainchild of Law Professor Charles Nesson and was developed in August of 2007. GPSTS is designed to promote Poker Strategy as a vehicle for learning. Poker clubs are being formed at six other universities with plans for competition within Collegiate Conferences and a National Tournament next year.  Charles Nesson, who has been a tenured member of the Harvard Faculty for over 40 years, had this to say:

“Poker teaches many lessons that are transferable to the challenges of life, including strategic understanding of risk, resource management and self control, When to hold’em, when to fold ‘em, as the song says”.  Source

Formal acknowledgement of GPSTS at Harvard Law School was achieved on October 1st, 2007. To date 62 students have joined GPSTS. Other Universities that have founded GPSTS chapters include USC, UCLA, Stanford, Penn State, Brown, Tufts and Boston University.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger knows that if GPSTS was available so many years ago when I was of University age I would have joined. In my previous post I tried a little humor about the NCAA Tournament for Poker and the ‘Poker Tonight’ each night on ESPN. But after more investigation about GPSTS, it is not something to be made light of. Anything that can increase the intelligence of the Universities students has to be a good thing. And if along the way you participate in some Poker than it is all good. Also I think I would have done much better with those Story problems if they involved Poker and whether to call or fold instead of the trains.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael and how he looked when he got accepted to Harvard Law School to enroll in Poker Strategy.

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• Jean Robert Bellande Survivor
• Photo Source: CBS Survivor

Have you seen Jean Robert Bellande on Survivor China? I posted previously about Jean Robert being part of Survivor China. I have to admit I was a little surprised at the way CBS Survivor has been showing him. And they have been showing a lot of him. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger should have known that Jean Robert would not make many friends on the Survivor Island. Given the way he plays poker with the tableside manner of Phil Hellmuth and combine that Poker attitude with the lack of food and rest on Survivor, that makes even the most likable people behave horribly, it is no wonder we see the worst of Jean Robert.

On the latest episode CBS Survivor showed him causing much trouble with the sleep arrangements. Not only does it appear that Jean Robert has a bad snoring issue but ‘needs’ to sleep next to the young women of the tribe. The young women of the tribe are shown on CBS Survivor discussing how much they hate sleeping next to Jean Robert and how they avoid it at all costs.

In one very damaging segment to Jean Robert’s fans was when he was discussing strategy with another member of the tribe. Jean Robert got into a discussion about one of the women of their tribe that was very frank and of a sexual nature. That was bad enough but Jean Robert was talking loud enough that the women and another member of the tribe heard the discussion.

Because of Jean Robert’s size and strength he is valuable on the challenges thus far that have mostly been physical in nature. He has helped his tribe win most of the events so far. Jean Robert does not seem to be very popular with his tribe-mates. It seemed during the last episode, after his tribe lost a challenge, he would be voted off the Island, but he survived. Kind of like he went All-In and nobody called. It will be interesting to see how long he can last and how much weight he loses.

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• WSOP 2007 Main Event Hevad Khan on ESPN

Watching the ESPN broadcast of the WSOP 2007 Main Event over the last few weeks I have noticed a few things:

1. ESPN has not showed much bad behavior that was so prevalent on the broadcasts last year. Maybe that means there wasn’t as much such behavior.
2. Lots of the Hollywood crowd made it a long way in the Main Event.
3. Norman Chad is as funny as ever to Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger.
4. Lots of recognized Poker ‘names’ made very long runs in the Main Event.
5. Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan got way too much ESPN time.

Yes, Hevad Khan did finish 6th in the Main Event and won almost $1,000,000 in prize money. So he deserved a lot of ESPN air time finishing that well in the WSOP Main Event. If what you read on the Internet is even partially accurate, he is an outstanding Online Poker player. Just like Humberto Brenes with the Shark, Hevad Khan with the screams and dancing around and fist pumps is an act I only needed to see once. I would much rather see more hands shown on the ESPN broadcasts instead of the ‘Act’ that Hevad Khan puts on seemingly every time he wins a hand. I understand getting excited when you win a hand especially as the Main Event was getting near the Final Table. But Khan was doing this ‘Act’ as early as day 3 on the ESPN broadcasts. I have tried to figure out what this did for Khan. Did it help him play better? Did it put other players on Tilt? Did it make other players try to take him out with marginal hands just to get some peace and quiet? I have a hard time believing that he puts on this act in his home games. I guess I am left with, it is Khan that is on Tilt, maybe not the Poker Tilt but some type of Tilt for the 30 to 45 seconds the act lasts. I do have to give Khan credit for consistency though, he did go into the act everytime. In this earlier post I discussed some of the behaviors that take the fun out of poker for me. I will have to go back and update the post to include Shark and ‘Rain’.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael probably will never be in a poker game with either the Shark or ‘Rain’ but you never know I might find myself contributing to their chip-stack and having to put up with their shtick.

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• 2007 Main Event Scottie Nguyen - Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

Back while the WSOP 2007 Main Event was underway I posted about Day 6 of the Main Event that outlined Scottie Nguyen’s rapid fall from near chip leader with 13 players left to eliminated in 11th place. I felt bad at the time as I was secretly pulling for Scottie Nguyen to win the 2007 Main Event. But after watching the ESPN version of Day 6 of the Main Event and seeing how Scottie was knocked out by Philip Hilm in essentially two hands made me feel worse. Scottie was interviewed by ESPN shortly after being eliminated and it just seemed like he was thinking, as we all do at times, I Coulda done this, or I Shoulda done this, or if I Woulda done this, and he would have been still alive and heading to the Final Table and for his 2nd Main Event Bracelet. Of course it was not to be. I was surprised at his All-In push on a bluff and how it reminded me of your ‘Dead Money’ blogger, when Scottie lost most of his chips. I can tell you that is a move I have made numerous times and too many times my opponent sees right through me and calls my bluff and I go home. Hilm didn’t have to read a bluff as he had Scottie beat and he knew it. To that point of the Day 6 play, ESPN had been showing mostly excellent play by Scottie, but this cleary is a play he regretted. We all make plays that we regret and think about long after making them, but I suspect this move will haunt Scottie for a very long time.

In case you did not get a chance to watch the ESPN broadcast here is how the hands that eliminated Scottie played out.

Round 29 Blinds 80,000/160,000 and Antes 20,000

• Hand that Cripples Scottie and Vaults Hilm to the Top

Scottie starts the hand with about 9.1 million in chips and Hilm has 6.8 million. Action folds around to Scottie and ESPN telecast shows that he has . Scottie raises the blind to 530,000. Hilm with calls. The flop brings , Scottie with top pair and top kicker puts out 600,000 and Paul just calls with his set. Scottie checks the turn  and Hilm bets 1,200,000. Scottie, who can’t win the hand, thinks for a little while and then announces he is All-In. Paul quickly calls and Scottie cringes at the site of the set of fives Hilm has, and the fact that he is drawing dead. Tournament officials count out the chips and Hilm now has 16,600,000 and Scottie is left with 2,300,000. The look on Nguyen’s face indicates he knows that he made a very serious mistake and his hope to win the Main Event is over.

•  Hand that Eliminates Scottie Nguyen in 11th Place, $476,926 

Paul Hilm again in the hand with Scottie and Paul raises the blind to 480,000. ESPN shows that Hilm has . Scottie in the Big Blind calls and he has . Scottie sees the flop of  and with a flush draw pushes All-In. Paul calls and when the turn is and the river  Scottie Nguyen’s Main Event ends.  

Shortly after the 1st hand when Scottie lost most of his chip stack ESPN’s Lon McEachern noted that ‘the once cocky former champion now looks tired and ready to accept his demise’.

In the post bust out interview on ESPN Scottie said: ‘This is a good lesson for me, I was doing good, playing good and I got too cocky and too confident’. He mentioned how disappointed he was and how angry he was at himself. He just wanted to out of there and go home.

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• Women make their Presence Felt at WSOPE

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger is impressed with how well the Women contingent did at the recently completed World Series of Poker Europe. Of course you know by now that Annette Obrestad (Photo Source: PokerNews) won the Main Event and the 
£ 1,000,000 - $2,000,000 US and the WSOPE bracelet. Annie Duke from the US also cashed finishing 21st and taking home £ 30,770 - $61,500 US. Jennifer Harman, also from the US, while she didn’t cash finished 42nd in the Main Event. Annie Duke (Photo Source: Imaconlinepoker)
In the 1st Event at the WSOPE the £ 2,500 - $5,000 US H.O.R.S.E. Tournament Jennifer was chip leader for large portions of the 3 day tournament and ended up heads up with eventual champion Thomas Bihl with Jennifer finishing 2nd and winning £ 40,688 - $81,200 US. Annie also made it to Day 2 during the H.O.R.S.E. tournament.
Jennifer Harman (Photo Source: PokerNews)
Congratulations to all the Women that did so well at the WSOP Europe. I am still having trouble grasping the concept of an 18 year old WSOP Main Event Champion. Youngest bracelet winner by over 2 years and will always be the 1st woman WSOP Main Event Champion. Congratulations to Annette. I can’t wait until she can play legally in the US, because the publicity that will be around her when she comes to the WSOP in Las Vegas in 2010 will be nice to watch.

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