Hugo's Blogspotting: 21 September

Million Dollar Cash Game

What with the WSOPE and the upcoming EPT event there has been a lot of cash game action going on in London. One of the games that has been going on is the Million Dollar Cash Game which featured mostly Full Tilt pros and Tony G, Patrick Antonius and Brian Townsend. This was filmed and is Full Tilt’s version of High Stakes Poker. Michael Craig has written 28 entries on his blog about this as he railbirded the whole game.

Evidently there was plenty of action; not just poker, but a load of prop betting on the colour of the flop, certain cards appearing on the flop etc.

“The pot…between Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius was the largest in television history, and one of the biggest NLHE pots ever. The official size was $807,400…. There were props-related bets and rules between Phil and Patrik that convinced Patrik that Phil didn't have the last ace (which Phil didn't). There may have been reasons related to the props that made it in Antonius's interest that he see the river card…. I think Patrik lost more in props today than he lost in that pot. Patrik is in the room right now and he mentioned that he lost over $600,000 in props today.”

Sounds like quite a hand eh? Mind you, it’s what these guys do, so it’s not that big of a deal. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Easy come, easy go.

“Patrik Antonius said in a brief break in play "that he'd been in several million dollar pots at the Bellagio last summer, but they'd run it, like, four times."

Brian Townsend's POV

For more details on this cash game check out Brian Townsend’s blog (entry dated Sep 21st) where he does some interesting analysis of some hands that were played including the big pot between Ivey and Antonius.

"The final hand of interest occurred between Patrik and Phil Ivey. The had about 400K in front of them. There was a ton of meta game involved as they had some huge side prop bets going on. I don't want to say numbers since its not really any of my business but they were gambling very big on the side. One of the props involved them not wanting to show down an ace. Phil had incentive not to play an ace or to take a flop with one because of the props."

Apart from some good poker content Brian makes an interesting comment at the end:

“Right after the hand the staff in the room clapped as Phil was being sent the pot. It was disgusting to hear everyone clapping at someones losses. It was completely inappropriate and they should have all personally appologized to Patrik.”

I have noticed in the past that people working on televised tournaments or cash games just think all poker players are having fun which is sort of fair enough I suppose. We are “playing” after all, which implies enjoyment, and they don’t really understand the mindset of a poker player, but what these observers never seem to comprehend is the pain of losing. A good example is when somebody thinks you have done really well because you came 22nd out of 300 in a tournament, but in actual fact you didn’t win any money for it so it’s completely redundant how long you lasted and how far you came in the competition. Don’t they understand that we’re only interested in winning?

Tony G Plays Cash

Another cash game that took place was the PartyPoker Poker Den: The Big Game II. Tony G played in the game and did pretty good from the sounds of it. Naturally Tony tells us this in his understated way on his blog:

“Tony G power was on display. I destroyed them all”

Many poker players can never resist giving lessons and advice when they win, but I feel the G man is more philanthropic when he dispenses his wisdom:

“I do keep telling them all that I am the only amateur at the table and that if I can do this, anyone at home can do this too. Believe me, you can all play like me. You just need a big HEART. Never forget that big heart courage and commitment to the game are the keys to winning.”

That’s not bad advice really and it makes a change to read that rather than some hand history and the pro’s reason why he played it better than the guy he ended up losing the pot to.

Annette Should Get Out More

The key word in the quote above is commitment – it has to be said that every top player (and a lot of bad players too now that I think about it) has at some point spent all of their time playing and obsessively thinking about poker. Mainly playing. It’s the only way to get experience. Annette_15 is a good example. She’s only 4 years old (alright, 19), but already she has probably played as many hands as a veteran like Doyle Brunson. Her win at the WSOPE is a nice validation of all that time spent online winning millions of dollars. Lee Jones at biggerdeal.com recalls trying to get her to go to the beach during some poker tournament in the Bahamas:

“Me: “Annette – go outside. It’s beautiful out there today.”
Annette: “Why would I do that?”
Me: “Sun, warm blue ocean, beach, etc?”
Annette: “Look at my skin. Do I look like somebody who should be on the beach?”

Besides that being an excellent comeback it’s also great that she knew all she wanted to do was stay inside and play poker. How else do you get so good? I’m reminded of a story (possibly in Tony Holden’s Big Deal) about two high stakes gamblers who were comped a free plane ride around the Grand Canyon. Anybody who has been to the Grand Canyon can tell you that the views are breathtaking. Anybody except the two gamblers who apparently never looked up once from their backgammon game. I don’t really blame them; action is action, who’s got time to stop and look at the view?

Lucky Jim

One person who seems to have time to stop and look at the view is Lucky Jim. Each blog entry seems more pathetic than the last (please note that I am using the word pathetic in its true sense):

“On Tuesday evening I felt out of sorts so went to The Western, a poker club near my house, with £225 in my pocket… I had realised the moment I left the house that I was not intending to win.... It took an hour at a $1/$2 table, most gone on an ill-timed bluff. Then I came home, drank three cans of beer, watched porno, and fell into peaceful sleep.

How much happier I would be if only I had a pet dog.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that. I recall that WSOP champ Tom McEvoy had a small lap dog that he would take with him to tournaments. Don’t forget Negreanu is fond of little dogs too – I believe he has at least two of the little critters now. Jim would be entering a select group of pro players with dogs. Would Jim be responsible enough to care for a pet dog though? It seems like he can barely look after himself;

“Since I have no money to travel to work next week, buy food or do any other number of worthwhile things, I just had to ask my mother to give me back £200 I'd sent her for safekeeping a few weeks ago.”

Oh the pathos! There but for the grace of God go I, or some other such bollocks. This reminds me of many years ago when I was playing in a cash game at the Stakis Casino. Sweating the game was top player John Kabbaj who at the time was potless (this was a long time ago; John is doing very well these days). Anyway, some hand came up where the guy who lost the pot was the donator in the game and his hand was so bad that it was even a bit embarrassing to say the usual consoling, yet insincere, “Unlucky mate”. There was a moment’s silence as the dealer gathered up the cards to shuffle them; with perfect timing Kabbaj filled the pregnant pause with the immortal words, “Meanwhile I’ve got no money to buy food.”

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