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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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Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee

Full Tilt had 3,709 players participated in Full Tilt’s $750,000 Guarantee. Buy in is $200 for the event. Full Tilt had to contribute $8,200 to make the prize pool $750,000 Guarantee. Pro players that cashed were Chip and Karina Jett finishing 490th and 472nd respectively and David Singer lasted until 47th. ’splashthaap0t’ outlasted all and took home the Championship and the $132,787 prize. Photo Source: Fult Tilt Poker

Here is how the final table ended up.

1st: splashthaap0t $132,787
2nd: bigegypt $80,250
3rd: dag2 $52,500 
4th: Deviland $41,400 
5th: P0KERPR0 $31,050 
6th: UboughtMyBMW $23,025 
7th: aquanaut $17,250 
8th: El_Imbecil $13,500 
9th: muchaka $10,500 

PartyPoker $300,000 Guarantee

PartyPoker had 1,487 players this weekend in the $300,000 Guarantee tournament. Tournament Buy-In was $200 so a $2,600 contribution by PartyPoker was needed to make the $300,000 Guaranteed prize pool. When play was down to four players a deal was struck after much discussion. The payouts for the final table are below and reflect the first four places chopped.

1st: Hjarno $49,000 
2nd: hertigafkorv $30,000
3rd: dani2611 $30,000
4th: Smakkies $21,050
5th: Liverpul  $13,800
6th: garbage_  $10,350
7th: zillick $7,950
8th: chuckchuk $5,250
9th: Zonck $4,050
10th: mmcessa $2,850

Bodog $100,000 Guarantee

Bodog was able to get 747 players this weekend all with a Buy-In of $100. Bodog was  short $25,300 of the Guaranteed prize pook and made up the difference. 8BallDeluxe won the Bodog Championship and the $25,000 first place prize money. The final table payouts ended up like this:

1st: 8BallDeluxe $25,000
2nd: carman111 $14,300
3rd: looshle $9,200 
4th: bearbeer $6,900 
5th: PV01 $5,500 
6th: whodey1978 $4,500 
7th: eltico $3,500 
8th: quietwinner $2,500 
9th: joseph k $1,600

The Online sites are hoping that in the upcoming weeks, that the entries pick up and they no longer have to contribute to the Guarantee prize pools.  

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• Rhynie Campbell wins WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classics 

Rhynie Campbell who started the Final Table with the 2nd least amount of chips worked through the 5 other players at the WPT Turks & Caicos Final Table to win the Championship and the $436,675 prize money. Rhynie outlasted the field and won the Championship on the 206th hand of the day.

Picture Source: CardPlayer

• Final Table Eliminations
• Erik Cajelais Eliminated in 2nd Place $225,000

Erik Cajelais raises from the big blind to $124,000. Rhynie Campbell moves All-In and Cajelais calls and turns over. Campbell displays. The flop was good for Cajelais giving him 2 pair. The turn is the and Campbell has an inside straight draw. When the river brings the Campbell hits the set of 10s and wins the Championship on the 206th hand of the Final Table.

• Alan ‘The Usher’ Sass Eliminated in 3rd Place $125,000

Rhynie Campbell raises to 60,000 and Alan Sass moves All-In for around 200,000. Campbell calls and shows and Sass has. Campbell gets help from the flop heading with an inside straight draw. The turn is just what Campbell needed when thebrought the straight. The river is a blank and ‘The Usher’ is eliminated on the 176th hand of the Final Table.

• Chris Sims Eliminated in 4th Place $70,000

Chris Sims re-raises All-In and Erik Cajelais calls. Sims has and Cajelais has and Sims is behind and needs help. The board brings a flush and straight draw for Smith but he doesn’t hit either of them and is eliminated on the 140th hand of the Final Table.

• Trevor Hebert is Eliminated in 5th Place $50,000

Trevor Hebert raises All-In and Erik Cajelais comes over the top to isolate against Hebert. Cajelais shows and Hebert has. The board doesn’t pair either of Heberts hold cards and doesn’t fill the flush for him either. Trevor is eliminated on the 126th hand of the Final Table.

• Nam Le is Eliminated in 6th Place $30,000

Nam Le re-raises All-In for his remaining 54,000 in chips. Rhynie Campbell re-raises to eliminate all but Le from the hand. Campbell has ahead of Le’s. The board brings a on the turn and two other diamonds on the flop to give Le a back door flush draw. The river is a blank and Campbell wins with a Ace kicker. Le is eliminated on the 37th hand of the Final Table.

Check out other Just Poker Talk WPT posts here.

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• WPT Turk & Caicos Poker Classic down to 6 Players

Playing late into the night on Friday the WPT Turk % Caicos Poker Classic finally got to 6 remaining players. Players will enjoy Saturday off before resuming TV Final Table action on Sunday at 10 am eastern. Chip Leader at the end of Play on Friday is Erik Cajelais with 1,086,000.

Also on Friday the WPT added $7,500 to the official prize pool and that was awarded to 10 place finisher. Here are the cashers thus far.

• 7th Jumphol Srinark - $25,000
• 8th Rami Boukai - $20,000
• 9th Isacc Baron - $15,000
• 10th Robbie Been $7,5000 

• Seating Assignments and Chips Counts for Sunday’s WPT TV Final Table

Seat 1 - Nam Le - 232,000
Seat 2 - Erik Cajelais - 1,086,000
Seat 3 - Rhynie Campbell - 275,000
Seat 4 - Chris Smith - 301,000
Seat 5 - Trevor Hebert - 400,000
Seat 6 - Alan “TheUsher” Sass - 466,000

Erik Cajelais has more than a 2 to 1 chip lead on the closest challenger, but as always with WPT tournament’s blind structure there is no certainty that Erik will survive.

Nam Le goes to the TV Final Table as the ’short stack’. This is Le’s 3rd Final Table at WPT events including the Championship in Season IV at the 101 Shooting Star event.  

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael and how he looked when he hit that Straight Flush earlier this year. It was unbelievable and I kept my Poker Face throughout. Of course I was playing online so it wasn’t too difficult to maintain. Too bad I wasn’t at a WPT event TV Final Table.

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• WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classics Final Table

Play is continuing for the Day and the Tournament is down to the Final Table 10 Players. Chip leader is Erik Cajelais with 624,000 roughly. Here is how the Chip Counts and Seat assignments currently look. Play will continue tonight for 3 more hours or until 6 players remain for the TV Final Table. If more than 6 players remain the players will have the option to continue playing until only 6 remain or play tomorrow and lose the day off on Saturday. TV Final Table play is scheduled for Sunday September 30th, 2007.

• Current Seat Assignments and Chip Counts

Seat 1 - Nam Le - 87,000
Seat 2 - Erik Cajelais - 474,000
Seat 3 - Rami “ARBIANIGHT” Boukai - 128,000
Seat 4 - Jumphol Srinark - 225,000
Seat 5 - Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron - 298,000
Seat 6 - Ronnie Been - 529,000
Seat 7 - Rhynie Campbell - 208,000
Seat 8 - Chris Smith - 271,000
Seat 9 - Trevor Hebert - 220,000
Seat 10 - Alan “TheUsher” Sass - 274,000

• Day 3 Notable Eliminations
  • Maros Lechman
  • Mark Seif
  • Gavin Smith
  • Johan Storakers
  • Antonio Salorio

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• Payouts at WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classic Lowered

Only 137 players entered the WPT Turks and & Caicos Poker Classic. The Champion was to be Guaranteed $1,000,000 and $25,000 entry into the 2008 WPT Championship in April. With the 137 players paying the $7,500 buy-in the WPT reported that the prize pool was only $996,675 well short of what would be needed to pay all the players that would usually cash in a Tournament this size and the winner $1,000,000. To solve the issue the WPT gave the final 100 players 4 options to select from for the payouts. 

Here are the options the players had to decide on:

• Option 1:

Winner take all $996,675.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger assumes that this Option did not get much support.

• Option 2:

Final 10 players get paid with the payouts being:

1. $426,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $70,000
5. $50,000
6. $30,000
7. $25,000
8. $20,000
9. $15,000
10. $10,000

• Option 3

Payouts would only be for the WPT 6 Player Final Table with the payouts being:

1.  $436,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $90,000
5. $70,000
6. $50,000

• Option 4

The last Option was to have the last 9 players cash with the payouts being:

1. $436,675
2. $225,000
3. $125,000
4. $70,000
5. $50,000
6. $30,000
7. $25,000
8. $20,000
9. $15,000

Not sure how the vote totals turned out but the Final 100 players ended up selecting Option 4 and 9 players will cash. The Tournament end on Sunday September 30th, 2007.

As of this post 43 players remain. You can see the current chip counts here.

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• Poker is it Luck or Skill the Debate Continues

 PokerPro Magazine has an analysis of the Luck vs Skill in Poker written by Tony Guerrera that is very detailed and is an excellent thought provoker. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger when it comes to Poker of course isn’t very Skilled or Lucky it seems. Do yourself a good deed and click on the link and read the entire magazine article. 

You know about Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that has caused many Online sites to not allow US players to play any longer at their site. If Poker can be proven to be a game of Skill, Congressman Robert Wexler’s HR 2610 Skill Game Protection Act will have a better chance of succeeding. That success will hopefully open the Online sites up again. Here are some of the points made in the analysis.

• Games of Skill

Wikipedia’s definition of a Game of Skill:

as one in which “the outcome is determined mainly by mental and/or physical skill, rather than pure chance” “games of skill can be mastered, and when two parties engage in a game of skill, the party with the higher level of skill is favored to win”

The analysis talks about Chess and Sports as the examples of Games of Skill that nobody debates. In the article Tony makes a point about the difference in the skill set of the competitors and the likeliness the less skilled competitor will prevail.

“games of skill can be mastered, and when two parties engage in a game of skill, the party with the higher level of skill is favored to win”

• Games of Chance

Wikipedia’s definition of Games of Chance:

“A game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device.�

Tony talks about these games as the ones the games that random events determine the outcome. You know, shooting craps, playing roulette, playing the lottery, etc….You probably played lots of these Games of Chance.

The analysis moves onto Probability and Expectation Value (EV) and how Poker Players that are very skillful master this ability and apply it to Poker playing. The article goes into much mathematical detail about how to determine Probability and EV. 

EV = (Payout of Outcome #1)(Probability of Outcome #1) + (Payout of Outcome #2)(Probability of Outcome #2) + … + (Payout of Outcome N)(Probability of Outcome N).

I recommend you go to the story to better understand the EV formula, he provides examples.
The last part of the article provides extensive discussion about:

• The Poker Playing Process

Tony outlines the four sections that make up The Poker Playing Process.

1. Putting your Opponent on hand distributions
2. Evaluating your hand relative to opponent’s hand distribution
3. Predicting how your opponent will respond to each of your possible actions
4. Executing the line of play yielding the highest possible EV based on 1,2 and 3.

Tony explains each process expertly and makes numerous great points. This leads to the Summary section and we see these items:

The big difference between poker and other well-accepted games of skill is that chance events appear to have a much bigger effect on poker outcomes. However, the proper way to view poker decisions is to consider EV, which is a quantity that only makes sense when considering the long run.
accomplished poker players make decisions yielding higher monetary EV than those made by their less skilled counterparts, resulting in them making more money in the long run.

Since money is the metric by which score is ultimately kept, poker is, therefore, as much a game of skill as chess, basketball or any another commonly accepted game of pure skill.

Great analysis by Tony.

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Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee
Huck Seed made the Final Table at the Fult Tilt $750,000 Guarantee. Seed finished 8th and took home a prize package of $13,755.60. Fult Tilt had 3,821 players for the online event. The Prize Pool was $764,200, $14,200 over the Guarantee. Here is the Tournament’s Final Results: 
1st ($135,301.61): sunfish2
2nd ($81,769.40): razooo
3rd ($53,494): SmackGirl
4th ($42,183.84): bastral
5th ($31,637.88): Jaysick88
6th ($23,460.94): Egarim
7th ($17,576.60): southside1
8th ($13,755.60): HuckleberrySeed
9th ($10,240.28): Tarsis

Other Fult Tilt pros that that played included Lee Watkinson 363rd, David Benyamine 324th, Ram Vaswani 230th and Keith Sexton cracked the top 100 by finishing 90th.

PartyPoker $300,000 Guarantee
PartyPoker had 1,494 players to be 6 entrants short of $300,000 Guarantee. The final two online players chopped the prize money after negotiations. Here is the result:
1st ($51,825.33): Merxxxx
2nd ($41,174.78): RAMMS888
3rd ($20,700): LeShagg
4th ($16,350): acecrusher
5th ($13,800): Nxwill
6th ($10,350): Bubbelpojken
7th ($7,950): Dione444
8th ($5,250): Stonygolf
9th ($4,050): jonbam
10th ($2,850): PeeGee999

Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
Bodog had 729 entrants ending up 271 players short of the needed 1,000 players to reach the $100,000 Guarantee. The Bodog Tournament ended up like this:
1st ($25,000.00): naskoxx
2nd ($14,300.00): BKiCe
3rd ($9,200.00): bluffmeidareyou
4th ($6,900.00): Jadenali
5th ($5,500.00): rufrider
6th ($4,500.00): t_j_06
7th ($3,500.00): spice_man
8th ($2,500.00): yub yub
9th ($1,600.00): cajunslim

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• USPT (United States Poker Tour) Coushatta Classic Tournament

USPT Tier 1 Coushatta Classic completed on Sunday 09/23/2007. The event was held over 3 days starting on Friday 09/21/2007 at the Coushatta Casino and Resort in Kinder Louisiana. Buy-in was $2000 with a $120 fee. 107 players entered the tournament producing a total prize pool of $214,000. You might be saying what is the USPT so here is what is their website says: 

The U.S. Poker Tour (USPT) is an organization designed to create a nationwide network of member-casinos and card rooms, dedicated to promoting the game of poker by offering tiered tournaments and a system for national ranking of its member-players.

Alvin Cahee of Welsh, Louisiana won the event and was given the 1st place prize of $53,500. The the top 10 looked like this as provided by USPT.

1. Alvin Cahee (Welsh, Louisiana)                     $53,500
2. Christopher Gurney (Unknown)                     $29,960
3. Michael Weldon (Houston, Texas)                 $23,540
4. James Temple (Pearland, Texas)                  $18,190
5. William Cunningham (Conroe, Texas)          $14,980
6. Richard McCurley (Unknown)                        $11,770
7. Ricky McGowan (Unknown)                           $10,700
8. Raul Lozano (Unknown)                                  $8,560
9. Eric Lally (Spring Valley, California)              $6,420
10. Daniel Schmiech (Houston, Texas)              $4,280

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• ‘ESPN WSOP Main Event Tuesday Broadcast

Just a notice to let you know that rumours have it that ESPN Main Event coverage on Tuesday 09/25/2007 will include coverage of MSU student, and no relation to your ‘Dead Money’ blogger, Alan Keating during his deep Main Event run in July. I am sure Alan is also pleased at the Spartan’s beat down of Notre Dame on the grid iron yesterday. Just wanted to let my Just Poker Talk readers know so they can arrange their schedules to see Alan on ESPN.
Photo Source: VC Poker
Alan did very well in the Main Event. Near the end of Day 4 he was near the top of the Chip Leader board.  Day 4 did not end well for him and he was knocked out on Day 5. Alan finished 102nd and took home $58,570 in prize money which I am sure is probably helping with his Student Loans at Michigan State.

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Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael will be tuned in to ESPN Main Event Coverage on Tuesday.

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• Beware the Garbage Ace - PokerPro Magazine

This story gives excellent views on the ‘Perils of Ace Rag’. Sam O’Connor wrote the story and goes through different scenarios on playing Hold ‘Em with an Ace and another hold card that he describes as garbarge. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger plays with a friend that plays every hand when either of his Hold cards is an Ace. Everybody that plays with him knows their big pocket pair is no good as soon as an Ace hits the board, but conversely if they have a Big Ace they know they will probably get a lot of his chips.

Sam talks about:

• What if we Play the Garbage Ace?
• When the hand is checked around
• Position Play
• Should we ever Play the Garbage Ace

Here is the link for the complete story:

you might see yourself in some of the cases he describes. I know I did.

Sam had a quote in the story that is very true:

The Ace-Junk Hand Is Intended Mostly for the Inexperienced Player So He can Lose His Stack to Us

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• Review of Caesars Poker Room

I found this review of the Caesars Poker Room over at Up For Poker. Blogger Otis goes into a lot of detail with his review. Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger has lost some of his money in Caesars Poker Room.

Otis breaks down the review into:

• The Good

Otis likes the structure of the mid-day tournaments as you get to play lots of poker. The dealing staff is very competent and the payouts very good.

It was not a push and hope fest after the first level. In fact, it took us more than six hours to reach the final table and the winner was not declared until two hours later. Frankly, I’m not sure if I’ve found more play for such an inexpensive buy-in in any daily tournament. source

• The Bad

Discusses the inability to broker deals effectively. Harrah’s eliminated paying out a different amount than the percentages listed in the payout schedule.

Harrah’s ended up cutting a deal that requires them to pay out exactly the percentages listed on their payout schedules. If you ask a poker room manager at Caesars about this, he will tell you that the Nevada Gaming Commission requires Caesars to follow these rules and at no point will Caesars pay out an amount different than listed on the payout schedule. source

Seems like this came from all the deals at the WSOP that caused IRS to get involved. Otis goes on to explain that yes you can still broker a deal, but somebody has to sign for the actual top amount listed by Caesars and it impacts the ability to get all involved to agree to the chop.

• The Ugly

According to Otis the Juice Caesars collects is too much in fees. He provides details and ends the section with this quote:

I believe in the staff and dealers getting their tokes, but when the juice on a $120 is that big, convincing folks to tip any more is going to be hard.

I no like-a da juice. source

Up For Poker is an enjoyable blog to read and this was an excellent review of Caesars Poker Room.

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• Card Player Magazine - Todd Brunson and UIGEA

Todd Brunson joins a long list of Poker Players that bash the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in this story in Card Player Magazine. Like many others Todd recommends getting U.S. regulation to online Poker and of course then letting the United States benefit by taxing the online Poker industry. He makes many of the same points that have already been made by others but says it a little more forceful. He indicates the elected officials that forced the UIGEA through with the the Port Security bill are ’small minded’.  

When these small-minded congressmen couldn’t get the bill through by itself, the proper, legal way, they attached it to a popular defense bill to increase port security. What does Internet gaming have to do with port security? What a cheap, slimy move!  source

In an earlier post I asked you to go to Poker Players Alliance (PPA) site and register to join the PPA and fight against UIGEA and while at the PPA site: Use the site to send letters to your elected Congressmen to support HR 2046 the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act and HR 2610 the Skill Game Protection Act. It is not too late to assist the PPA to get UIGEA modified to allow Online Poker. Please do it today.

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• $821,000 Bad Beat Jackpot won

Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot had risen to $821,670 before it was claimed on Wednesday August 29th, 2007. Online player KADI suffered the bad beat but was rewarded with half of the 65% of the Jackpot awarded to the players at the table. KADI received $267,042. The winner of the hand received 25% of the Jackpot totaling $133,521. The remaining players at the table each received $33,380. 

25% of the Bad Beat Jackpot is rolled over to the next Bad Beat Jackpot and 10% is taken by Absolute Poker.

KADI ended up with a Straight Flush to the 10 and was beaten by a Straight Flush to the King. You can click ====> here to read Absolute Poker’s web report.

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• The Stages of a Poker Player - Ray Zee

Two Plus Two Internet Magazine reprinted this story from author Ray Zee in the August issue. Ray originally authored the story in 2001 before the massive Poker boon. He had many requests to re-print the story and the requesters indicated how much the article had helped their Poker game.
The beginning of the story discusses how important it is to pay attention to the game. No headphones because those make you less attentive to the surroundings. Ray also indicates how he went through all the stages in his Poker career. Ray talks about how important each action in the hand is as it has a direct effect on whether you win or lose the hand and ultimately whether you are a profitable Poker Player. Ray indicates how it is paramount to get or save a bet during the hand. Even now 6 years after originally writing the story he still sees players just calling or checking and missing bets. Click ====> here to read the article.

Stages of a Poker Player

• Total Beginner

Plays too many hands and too loosely, raises foolishly, calls when they should raise. Takes these players a while to learn Poker is more than catching cards.

• Tight Player

Almost all successful Poker Players go through this stage. These players win a fair amount of time due only to their tight play and bad opponents. It is in this stage that the emerging good Poker Player learns that making good plays adds to the profits. Bluffs, speculative raises and some experiments gets the Tight Player headed to the next stage.

• Advanced Stage

Player wins more often, pushes marginal hands and every hand looks like it has value. The Tight Player is long gone. Winning the pots are easy with skillful manipulation. Ray indicates here the player has taken a big step back and long leap forwards at the same time.  The advanced stage, if the player plays too loose, might cause the player to lose his bankroll and never recover. But if the player gets through this stage successfully they move on to the next and final stage.

• Expert Stage

Incorporates tight play with imagination win pots without the best hand. The player has become tight and aggressive. Bluffs, Semi Bluffs and Raises to knock out better hands, good calls at the end are traits shown in this stage that were missing in previous stages.

Ray ends the article by letting the reader know that very few players achieve the Expert level and it takes much work.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger can only be classified as a Total Beginner. Take a look at the story and see what you think. I know I will have to get to work to move up from ‘Dead Money’ to Donkey as the summer ends and Poker Tournaments get back on the front burner.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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