Hugo's Blogspotting: 19 October

Tony G in the Red

Tony G is in Moscow and playing in some big cash games. He writes that he has been winning until,

“this week I took a beating on Monday and dropped 300k in the 200-400 Pot Limit Omaha game”

Now a lot of professional players I know take a break or maybe drop down a level or two when they suffer a big loss, but we’re talking about the G-man here, not some nitty grinder.

"after the big loss I decided to move up a level and sat down in the 1k-2k PLO game 500k min. buy in with no cap.”

That’s more like it. Tony probably couldn’t take the other game seriously so no wonder he lost in it. How did he fare at these nose-bleed stakes?

“I was down 350k immediately and I was not sure if I was going to have rebuy. The game is pretty tough compared to the 200-400 which is an easy money, friendly game…. Soon I was up 500k and 1m on the table. Total table stakes were 5m at this stage, the game was 5 handed.”

Wow, now that’s a game. Naturally Tony was the top dog and wins a massive pot. He actually describes the hand but fails to include his own hand! You can guess he had Aces double-suited from the description. I guess Tony is notorious for his celebrations when he wins a pot, but seeing as this one is worth 3.15 million we can forgive him a little when he gives one of his trademark victory whoops:

“And I gave out a scream and kind of lost my voice - just a little. I do get too emotional and excited with poker”

And how did the Lithuanian Bulldog end up at the scores on the doors?

“Later I just cruised and was up nearly 7m at one stage before going on a bad run at the end. But still I picked up 5m for the night”

Hmmmm, I’m thinking about moving to Moscow. In fact, I’m sure Tony would agree that that is a good idea.

“Poker in Russia is really, really huge right now….Poker here is just starting but I can see it’s going to be like the USA here. People are getting very wealthy. They are smart and they need a hobby. The weather is terrible and that makes poker the answer for an outlet to enjoy and play.”

Jeez, get me on the plane right now. All I need to do is rustle up a few readies and I’m away. According to Tony though I don’t need too much money as,

“playing in USD is cheap as the dollar is a 3rd world currency these days the way it depreciates daily”

Excellent! Put my name on the 200-400 PLO list please comrade.

Absolute Cheating

Hot on the heels of the Mark Teltscher/TheV0id multi-accounting furore the other big story that has been gathering steam for some time now is the cheating scandal over at Absolute Poker. Nat Arem has done some excellent detective work at his N 82 50 24 blog and pieced together a load of technical data and has reached the somewhat unsurprising conclusion that it was an inside job.

“The tournament was won by a player named POTRIPPER who made a crazy call with T high against Marco’s 9 high flush draw. In the following days, Marco emailed with AP support and asked for a hand history so he could review POTRIPPER’s play at the final table. There were rumors that POTRIPPER could see hole cards and he wanted to follow up because of the possibility that he was cheated.”

What’s interesting is the hand history that Marco received showed,

“ALL of the hole cards in the hand history. This, of course, allowed them to watch how POTRIPPER played and to examine what hands were at the table when POTRIPPER was/was not playing hands. It quickly became apparent to all who saw the history that POTRIPPER was cheating and, somehow, knew peoples’ hole cards.”

Arem puts up a link to Poker X-Factor which has the tournament in question on his blog and you only have to watch for about five hands to see how obvious it is that POTRIPPER had access to all the hole cards. Either that or this POTRIPPER is the greatest no limit holdem online tournament player ever.

Todd Witteles aka DanDruff has theorised how he thinks the whole scenario played out which makes for some good reading. This can be found on this thread at the Hendon Mob Forum - look for the post by Mark the donkey.

I guess this might be one of the few times when a poker player thought something was a bit dodgy about online poker and he was right.

Mass Debate over Poker

Continuing with the serious tone of this week’s column here’s a blog From the Desk of a Poker Philosopher. In the entry titled GPSTS Event The Philosopher gives us an account of a panel discussion he attended at Harvard which was part of the newly formed Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society. This society was formed to analyse and discuss the educational value of poker.

Basically, somebody at Harvard noticed that a lot of the students there were goofing off and playing poker and wanted to know why some of the finest young minds in the world are more interested in triple-barreling with complete air on a highly co-ordinated flop with multiple opponents than studying, say, law or history or something.

Guests at this GPSTS group included Howard Lederer (handy that his nickname is The Professor, eh?) and veteran road gambler Crandall Addington.

“Addington credited a St. Louis mobster named Sid Weinman with popularizing the game in Vegas. Sid worked at the Dunes Casino (where the Bellagio now stands) and set up a table in a prominent location on the casino floor, a spot that attracted quite a few "seals" (seemingly archaic poker slang for what are now called "fish") who lost some valuable commodities, including, he insinuated, a controlling interest in the Dunes, in that game. Later, the same mob allowed Johnny Moss to spread No Limit Texas Hold 'Em at the Aladdin.”

Seals? Fantastic, at least I have a new insult for my favourite stars/donators/pigeons/ fish. Anyway, one would figure that Addington had played a fair few hands though the years and with that experience have gained great wisdom and insight into the game. However, during a discussion on how best to show the layman that poker is a game of skill rather than just luck Addington somewhat lets the side down one feels:

“He began his next anecdote with the promise that, "This is not a bad beat story, but...," and went on to talk about a hand where he got all in with KK versus 97 and lost.

The player then told him, "I know how to beat pros like you. I just go all in. Then you can't outplay me.

Lederer diplomatically suggested that, "If you were still playing today, Crandall, you'd probably play a different style. The average player is much more knowledgeable these days. You can't just wait to trap someone with a big hand."

Addington dismissed him with a roll of his eyes and continued, "People used to think it was this big advantage to act last." He went on to explain why it is better to act first because No Limit Hold 'Em is a game of aggression and you want to be the one who bluffs first.”

Oh well, at least Addington can be remembered for his fancy dress sense at the early WSOPs…

Fresh Plates

Finally let’s get back to the reality of poker and what the hell you’re supposed to spend all that hard won money on. Adam Junglen has a bought a new car and is now scratching his head over what his personalized number plate should be. Amongst his choices are GG WP UL, PWNSTER, I AM NLH, HU4RLZ or SKILGME. Hmmm, it’s very tempting to now insert what I think a poker player’s license plate should be, but that’s a bit of an easy joke I think….

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

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