Hugo's Blogspotting: 1 November

Here, My Dear

There are many poker couples out there; Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly, Chip and Katrina Jett, Norman and Beverley Pace, and er….well, I’m sure you can think of a few more. What happens when one knocks another out of a tournament? No sex that night? Sulking by the loser for hours on end? Or maybe they have an agreement that the weaker player out of the couple must dump chips to the stronger player if they ever find themselves on the same table? Not that I’m suggesting the couples above would do that. Besides I’m sure each half of a poker playing couple always secretly thinks they’re a better player than the other.

Anyway, Snoopy’s latest blog addresses this uncomfortable situation:

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. You might take a fleeting glance at another woman, perhaps you've incorrectly answered the "do I look fat in this?" question, maybe you've even dared to disagree with the love of your life, but all of these crimes pale in comparison to eliminating your girlfriend from a £1,000 GUKPT tournament.”

Oh dear. I remember many years ago my girlfriend who then went on to become my wife knocked me out on the bubble in a tournament at the Vic. I had only been playing for about half a year and had no idea that I had no idea. I’m ashamed to say I walked away from the table berating her play when of course she had done absolutely nothing wrong. As an aside that woman and I are now divorced. How did Snoopy’s better half react after he found pocket Queens when she had pocket 7s?

“As she offered her hand in defeat, I felt a slight twist in what was a firmer than normal handshake, and it was then that I realised I'd be sleeping in the bath tub for the rest of the week ....What really unnerved me was when she said, "I don't mind you knocking me out, as long as you win some money." Gulp.”

Gulp indeed, that’s what I call pressure. Imagine having to justify bluffing off your chips to your missus as you drive home? I think I’d rather have her shout at me for looking at the hot waitress…

Going Deep

Brandon Adams writes the occasional blog at Always Bluff – they tend to shed some light on the high stakes games in L.A and Vegas and are always worth reading. This week it’s no exception and perhaps the most revealing sentence is the following:

“…. the more interesting my experiences, the more I think, “Am I really going to put that in a blog?”

That’s a good point. If you’re playing for serious money why would you want to reveal any sort of information to your opponents (and potential opponents) via a blog? I suspect Brandon has kept back a lot of interesting stuff.

He’s been playing online and gives us a hand history from a big PLO pot he played with Gus Hanson and David Benyamine. The flop brings a small straight with a club flush draw. After all the money has gone in and the dust has cleared Benyamine wins when his middle sets fills up. I have a feeling that if you changed the names to unknowns and the dollar amounts to smaller numbers there would plenty of armchair poker critics slating the play of all involved.

Adams also talks about Viffer who you may remember was the guy who lost a massive pot to John Duthie when John called on the river with Queen high. Anyway it seems that Viffer has been playing a marathon session:

“One of the overlooked arguments for booking a win and going to sleep after, say, 16 hours, is that if you keep going, you will often find yourself in the situation of, “Shit, i’ve been playing for thirty hours, but this game is too good to quit. No way I can leave.” And next thing you know you’re 77 hours deep.”

Can I Borrow a Pen Please?

What do you give a poker player for their birthday? More specifically, what do you give Howard Lederer for his birthday? Not a pen that’s for sure. According to Michael Craig the “Professor” has a pen and is never going to want another one:

“It's a Fisher Space Pen with a Black Titanium Nitride Coating. It's the same coating they use on the space shuttle, writes underwater, never runs out of ink, and is indestructible.”

What is it about poker players that they always have to have these ludicrous status symbols? Mind you, it sounds pretty cool and I do recall the last time I went swimming wishing that I had a biro on me so I could do some mindless doodling on the bottom of the pool…

Video Testimony on AP

Wicked Chops Poker has two videos on it’s site related to the Absolute Poker cheating scandal. One is from Absolute Pro Mark Seif. In it he seems uncomfortable trying to defend Absolute Poker’s rather slow reaction to the scandal. He also defends himself against allegations that he also cheated. The other video Wicked Chops have for your viewing pleasure is Todd Witteles aka Dan Druff who replies to Mark Seif. Both are worth watching.

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

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