No blogger championships for me

Hello PokerStars Player, You recently applied to take part in this year's World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker (WBCOOP). In response to complaints received in 2007, the eligibility guidelines for this year's WBCOOP are slightly stricter than those in previous years. In order to be eligible, a blog must:
- Have been online for at least two months
- Have been regularly updated in that time
- Have substantial, unique and original content
- Be a blog (not a forum thread)
- Be available to the public
- Not be libellous or defamatory towards PokerStars

PokerStars also reserves the right to limit the number of entries from the same web domain (for example, online poker communities). Unfortunately, your blog does not meet the eligibility criteria for this year's WBCOOP. It's likely that PokerStars' will run this promotion again in the future, so keep on writing! We hope to see you again next year with an eligible blog.

Best Regards, The PokerStars Team

I of course appealed and of course was denied. Hopefully next year I will blog more to become eligible.

WBCOOP

Stewman is ready!!!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 627412

Yes We Can

Obama did it my friends and so can NBA and Stewman as we head to Vegas this Friday. One of us will FT the tourney. We are due. With 2 cashes (including a 2nd) in my last 4 live tournaments I'm feeling good but in these donkaments lies many minefields. We shall see.

We haven't even left yet and I'm down $435 in bets to NBA to be repaid in cash/food comps so I'm pretty much only going to be able to play 1 tourney which will more than likely be Friday at Caesars and then hopefully clean up at cash games on Saturday. UFC fight to watch that night and then football all day Sunday. Fun trip to be had by all.

Vegas trip

So this blog has been pretty sparse lately. Not much poker related happenings for NBA and me. However, that will change in November when we venture out for the Venetian Deep Stacks tournaments.

This time there will be last longer bet and I will win it. Why because I'm a better tournament player than NBA...just don't tell him I said that. Of course the bet will probably end up costing me more than it should as I will probably lose after getting my money in with the best of it and NBA will be nursing his customary short stack and survive before he busts half a level later.

No worries. Hopefully we won't be busted but if so we will catch the ufc fight at a bar and then hang out in the MGM sports book all day Sunday and watch some NFL and maybe place some bets.

On the on-line front, I did place on the SNG leaderboard 2 weeks ago in the Mars division I think it was. Finished 96th I believe. NBA is trying for PCA through the steps. Hopefully he will book a seat and take it down for $2 mil. I saw that the Costa Rica LAPT event is happening during my school break. I may try again and qualify through Stars as I would love to go down there and play. Even though it will be cooler and rainy, I would still love to go. Hopefully if I try, I don't repeat the agony of Uruguay!

Well that is all for now. Will update if anything happens and will have a post Vegas report.

Why Play Tournaments?

So Phil Ivey wins over $1 million in a day and almost $3 million in the month of September. Why play tournaments? Seriously, when you make money like this why play. I know it gets you exposure and possible endorsements and who doesn't like to win a competition but why do the grind on the circuit when you can make this much.

http://www.highstakesnews.com/2008/10/01/phil-ivey-ended-september-winning-over-million-dollars-in-a-day/

WSOP 50k Horse

For a recap of this debacle check out my post on PokerSift

http://www.pokersift.com/tournaments/wsop-horse/

Utter Poker Devastation

Read my post from pokersift...I'm going to puke

http://www.pokersift.com/tournaments/utter-poker-devastation/

He Shipped it when I had Quads

Even the so called great ones make donkey plays

PokerStars Game #18233603215: Tournament #92592956, $5.00+$0.25 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Match Round I, Level III (15/30) - 2008/06/19 - 00:30:05 (ET)Table '92592956 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the buttonSeat 1: BigHeeb91 (782 in chips)
Seat 2: Stewman20 (2218 in chips)
Stewman20: posts small blind 15
BigHeeb91: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Stewman20 [Kh 6d 7h Ah]
Stewman20: raises 60 to 90
BigHeeb91: raises 180 to 270Stewman20: calls 180
*** FLOP *** [7c 7d 7s]BigHeeb91: bets 512 and is all-in
Stewman20: calls 512
*** TURN *** [7c 7d 7s] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [7c 7d 7s Kc] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN
***BigHeeb91: shows [2c Ac Tc Td] (HI: a full house, Sevens full of Tens)
Stewman20: shows [Kh 6d 7h Ah] (HI: four of a kind, Sevens)
Stewman20 collected 1564 from pot
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 1564 Rake 0 Board [7c 7d 7s Kc 9s]
Seat 1: BigHeeb91 (big blind) showed [2c Ac Tc Td] and lost with HI: a full house, Sevens full of Tens
Seat 2: Stewman20 (button) (small blind) showed [Kh 6d 7h Ah] and won (1564) with HI: four of a kind, Sevens

Painful Interviewer

So I have been listening to Gary Wise for the past few months through his podcast. I just got to say he is one of the worst interviewers I have ever heard in my life. Up there with Larry King! Constantly fumbling and rewording questions, adding his own commentary, cutting off his guests, asking dumb questions and asking even dumber follow up questions. Now this hasn't stopped me from listening and won't in the future because like I've said before I am a degenerate and I need something to help get through the day at work but man is he awful. I like his writing for ESPN, Bluff, and on his own site but his interviewing skills needs more polishing. I expect better from someone in the Magic the Gathering Hall of Fame...well maybe not!

I can't make this shit up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_Hall_of_Fame

The Capitalization of Poker: The WSOP ME Delayed

So as any hard core poker fan has already heard Harrah's Caesar's Entertainment announced today that they will be delaying the WSOP Main Event final table 117 days (yes your eyes have not deceived you) and will play the final table November 9th. They will play down from 9 to 2 players and the HU battle will take place on November 10th with the final table airing at 9:00pm est on ESPN and going for 2 hours on November 11th. Harrahs and ESPN's goal in doing this is to increase their pocket books top poker franchise and make it a spectacle comparable to other top sporting events such as the Super Bowl. According to Jeffrey Pollack and I'm paraphrasing, they want to create 9 stars instead of just 1. They want to create must see TV and this will create anticipation and hype that is unprecedented in poker history.

After listening to the entire conference call, I can only conclude that they are only looking out for themselves and their sponsors. I personally do not like this decision and think that it can lead to many negative consequences. Top on-line player and former Poker Stars employee Terrence Chan had this to say on his blog and I completely agree:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/poker/2008-04-30-WSOP_N.htm

"They pretty much have all the bases covered (coaching, studying video, increased bidding for sponsorships) as far as I can see, but there will probably be some weird unintended consequence that no one foresaw. This is probably the single greatest argument against it. Consider this: they're running an experiment on the biggest prize in the game with something like a combined $20-25 million in player money at stake! It's ludicrous. You don't just dramatically change the format of the biggest tournament in the world with absolutely no precedent or trial run. To my knowledge, not once in the entire history of poker has a final table run four months after they break for it. And they decide the best time to try it for the first time is the main event of the World Series?

This is so stupid that I almost hope there's some massive clusterfuck. Not really, since that would be quite bad for poker and I'd feel really bad for any of the players affected, but seriously, the arrogance of a decision like this blows my mind."

What I don't get and bugs me the most is the fact that ESPN is only going to do a 2 hour broadcast of the final table. It is still going to be shovefest instead of showing what Daniel Negreanu thinks "You're going to see some really kind of more sophisticated play,". What's the point of doing this if you are not showing this live (w/holecards) or showing 4-5 hours. I'm sure with today's technology, ESPN could easily show the final table live (w/necessary 1-2 hour delay to prevent any sort of collusion). Bluff did this last year with there secluded final table which they aired on-line (not sure if they showed hole cards though).

BJ Nemeth asked about the live Internet coverage and whether Internet sites will be able to report hand histories and report the final two and eventual winner. Pollack stated that they are blowing the doors wide open and will allow any credentialed media person report whatever they see during the final table before the ESPN airing. Once again, to me this is no different then if I knew for 2 months before it aired on ESPN. Yes, the results will be 12-24 hours old but I will still know who the winner is before it airs. ESPN would do better to broadcast live

I truly hopes this works and will of course be watching November 11th but I have serious reservations and I think this in the long run this will create more of a backlash then create the publicity that Harrahs and ESPN wants.