Hugo's Blogspotting: 8 June

Quiet Lion 86'ed from Harrahs

The World Series of Poker is finally upon us and all the bloggers finally have something to blog about. First up is Quiet Lion. No doubt he is going deep and making a final table or two already in this year’s Series I hear you ask? Well no, because Harrah’s has seen fit to barr him from all their properties. PokerVerdict usually likes to take the piss out of Richard Brodie, but this time he has our sympathies.

His last update on his blog detailed a lucky streak at Video Poker which was entirely due to Caesar’s making a mistake and setting a machine too loose. And now he is paying for his good fortune by being banned from Harrah’s for winning too much at Video Poker. Hmmm, so Harrah’s aren’t content enough with having the most prestigious poker tournament in the world and all the vig that comes with it (let’s face it, the WSOP is the one poker festival that doesn’t even need advertising – you build it and they will come), they now want to ban someone who won some money playing video poker. From the Lion’s blog:

“Harrah’s was built on the high-margin, low-volume player. They produce a predictable win, cost little in comps, and there are many, many of them. High rollers demand games with a slim house advantage, generous comps, and the possibility of actually walking away with a win once in a while. Harrah’s doesn’t like that.”

He continues,

“One reason I like video poker is because you can get lucky and win. You hit a royal flush every 40,000 hands or so. If you’re lucky enough to hit two, you’re ahead! If you hit three, you’re ahead for a long time! Boy, have I been lucky at Harrah’s. I hit four huge royal flushes in the last year at three of the Las Vegas Harrah’s properties. Not surprisingly, I’m ahead, although I’ve put 80% of it back… This seems to rub them the wrong way. But I have trouble imagining the thought process that would cause someone to decide that kicking out one of your most loyal customers is an appropriate solution to the problem of him having extremely good luck…And kicking out players who have been lucky makes about as much sense as banning people from playing the lottery because they win it.”

Brodie is quite popular amongst the vast legion of bloggers and players (don’t forget he’s friends with the Full Tilt elite) and already there is outrage at this ridiculous ban. Will Harrah’s see sense and at least let the Lion play some of the events at the World Series? There’s not a video poker machine in sight in the Amazon room so the bean counters upstairs are going to have to search hard for a good reason as to why he can’t attend the top tournament of the year.

Michael Craig Checks out the Chat Box

Michael Craig is busy updating pretty much every day from the World Series, but this blog about a tournament he played online caught my eye. He finds himself going deep into a tournament in the wee small hours. As is the way with these things lady luck plays a small part in the outcome of certain hands. You would think most poker players understand this aspect of the game. After finding himself committed Craig calls with As 8s vs pocket 4s; standard tournament stuff I think you’ll agree. Naturally he spikes an Ace and knocks his opponent out. His opponent’s response? He types in, “Get AIDS” Nice. At the final he watches as another player gets knocked out, his KK losing to AQ. Craig writes,

“He said to the other player, “you lucky #$%@ go suck some @#$# and die, ill go fist your mom some more”. Did he think that up on the spot or did he have a cheat sheet with it, ready for use?”

Hmmm, it seems to me these guys have more in the verbal department that Craig’s good buddy Mike Matusow.

Pauly at the WSOP

If you’re looking for good World Series of Poker stories you can’t do better than the Tao of Poker. Pauly is one of the PokerNews team providing live coverage and somehow he also seems to find time to update his blog every day. As usual he makes plenty of spot on observations; he writes,

“I really don't have high expectations with anything I do in the poker industry. I simply assume that things (and tournaments) will be fucked up and I have to do what I can to get through each day….There are people in the industry and on the sidelines that have a spoiled approach (impossible expectations to meet and they act like whiny bitches when they don't get instant gratification) or attack with a streak of self-righteousness. Poker is bigger than all of us and at the end of the day, the machine wins. The Man wins. Big Business wins.”

Pauly was responsible for getting the chip counts and updates for the recent PLO event. Besides playing in the tournament many of the big names were gambling amongst themselves –

“There are screens with various chipcounts streaming throughout the Amazon Ballroom. Two happened to be stationed right above the PLO tables. The pros had prop bets on various chipcounts and right away several that I knew wanted faster updates. At that point, I shifted the focus of my team from less hands and more chip counts to appease the pros. Of course they were asking for an impossible task”

Or how about this scene he witnessed?

“Devilfish raised (Andy) Black and he went into the tank. Devilfish started trash talking, I'll lay you 5 to 1 that you don't call." Black objected to his prop bet and felt that it had no place in the tournament. That spat boiled over as the two jawed back and forth for most of the day.”

Like many others Pauly is not immune to the charms of Brandi Hawbaker, who he describes as “the Lindsay Lohan of poker”. His observation of this femme fatale maybe the sharpest of them all – he writes,

“You could easily spot her table with a slew of railbirds and media lurking in her section like sleazy paparazzi. She had a $1,200 Louis Vuitton bag underneath her chair…and I must say she's a much more attractive person in real life. She has a certain energy about her that sucks you in. That's why women like her are dangerous.

Hellmuth's Putter is Hot

There’s one player who would have you believe that the World Series is all about him and that is of course Phil Hellmuth. Not content with screaming about his bad luck and knocking chairs over when he gets knocked out Phil has been gambling it up in the VIP lounge during breaks in the tournaments. Having missed a couple of putts he asks Barry Greenstein,

"How much for me to make the last three in a row." Doyle stepped up and said, "Ten thousand to one thousand." I agreed, and brushed the next two right into the dead center of the cup. Then I was feeling a little heat, but I knew I couldn't dog it, no way! I knocked in the last one like a champion, and the game was on. I beat Barry for $1,000 and Doyle for $10,000.”

As usual his blog is full of Hellmuthisms; you have to say he’s a great believer in positive thinking! He writes,

“I do not know why I left the room smiling. Is it the simple fact that I'm playing my best poker? Is it that I think I'm going to win a bracelet soon, especially if I continue to play like this? Is it the fight and struggle that I love? Is it the fact that I took so many beats--any one of which would have positioned me with chips—and was still in there? Is it the fact that playing so great, playing at such a high level, just seems so easy to me (right now anyway!)?”

No doubt bracelet number 11 will soon be adorning his wrist.

Drunk

Bryan Devonshire recently had the good fortune to come 2nd in the Omaha Hi Lo event at the World Series (ok, he was upset at not winning the bracelet, but you know what I mean). Seeing as Bryan won a little over $140k he decided some partying was in order over at the Wynn. Having had a load of drinks and fun at the nightclub there, Bryan and his pals decided to donk it up in the $1/$3 blinds No Limit Holdem game in the Wynn poker room. Bryan had around $10k on the table. Unfortunately for him, the manager decided him and his pals were being a little too loud. He writes,

“The two tables that were near us had no complaints and actually thought we were all hilarious. After about four minutes of reasonable conversation with her not listening to a word I said, I finally lost it and yelled to the room, "Does anybody have a problem with how loud or how much fun we are having?" Several people laughed and nobody objected. There weren't even annoyed looks given in my direction. Anyways, that apparently was enough for her, and she called security and had them escort me out”

Oh dear, it sounds like Vegas is losing its sense of humour.

Or is it? According to the same blog Devonshire tells us about this “light moment” during the late stages of the Omaha Hi Lo. He writes,

“In day two as we were on the bubble, the TD made an announcement that we were in the money, everybody cheered, and hand for hand was over. There were two very short stacks at my table that were thrilled to make the money and one in particular started going nuts trying to get a bunch of chips. He did, quadrupling his stack from 2500 to 10k in four hands, when the TD made an announcement that said, 'Just kidding... we're still one out from the money.'”

I guess the TD did that player a particular favour as he made a lot of chips, but what if the same player had been knocked out and then told, “Just kidding”? How the hell would Harrah’s explain that?

31 May 2007

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