Poker Blog Round-Up: 19 January

If there’s one thing we here at Poker Verdict love it’s an obnoxious 20-something online pro. After a rather sorry posting back in October where he claimed he saw no reason to post anymore ActionJeff aka Jeff Garza is back! He has posted an interview that he has done which he himself thinks is “just classic”. To be fair he’s not wrong and it makes great reading. In it he claims that he is the notorious Fast_Freddie, the player who has won two of the biggest pots in online history so far. The biggest was against "bad_IP" aka Johnny Lodden (for $465,451) and the other one was against Zweig aka Prahlad Friedman.

Both pots saw loads of trash talking on Jeff’s part and it’s safe to say that he has never read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The needle between him and Prahlad is obviously still very strong as evidenced by Jeff’s answer to the question of what his poker goals are. Jeff replies: “Dim lighting. Cold, emotionless faces. Camera zooms in on my face. My eyes flicker. I grab a stack of cranberries, $25k a chip, and casually slide them into the pot. Ivey stares me down. No emotion. He flicks his hand in and his cards hit the muck. I scoop the pot. Camera zooms down to my feet. Prahlad is there. He is shining my shoes. They are Nikes. Back to my face. I say, 'Nike, The footwear of champions'. The commercial ends.” This could possibly one of the greatest answers EVER.

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Congratulations are in order to Andy Ward who after the last Blog Round-Up went on to win the $500 NLHE at the World Poker Open in Tunica. Not only did Andy trouser $81k, he also won a seat in their main event, a $10k WPT event. What is interesting is his subsequent posts which have mentioned the come down one can sometimes feel after such a great result. Not many people write about this as I suspect most of them start playing in the biggest game in the room and then suddenly find themselves back on skid row. Andy, of course, is far too clever to let that happen and is happily sticking to his plan of playing $300 and $500 second chance events. In these tournaments he often finds himself playing with locals whom he amusingly refers to as “mouth-breathers”. Nice to see that getting the lot has changed him into a happy-go-lucky upbeat sort of guy...

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Michael Craig is excited about the 2007 WSOP schedule. Like us at Poker Verdict he loves the return of a more “Benny Binion” style of tournament with a greater variety of mixed games represented. However, he notes that to play everything will cost you $194,500 and this does not include rebuys. Yikes! All is not lost though as he amusingly shows us how you could cut that down to only $76,500.

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If you’re looking for actual poker content then check out Milkybarkid’s update from the Aussie Millions. Unfortunately he busted out of the main event early, but gives us a few hands to mull over. The entry dated 13 January is a little juicier though. He writes: “You get to meet some sick gamblers in this poker world. I was chatting to a couple of Scandi players that i know. One of them had a $2 million roll in December. He lost it all in two weeks. Was down to $10,000 and now he has $1 million again. The other one once lost $380,000 in one night, over 50% of his bankroll, playing drunk a week or so ago.” Now that’s gambling.

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Tony G has also updated from the Aussie Millions and gives a good account of the $100k speed poker event. Unfortunately, Tony bubbled in fourth place so there is none of his usual chest beating, although Tone is gracious in defeat, giving props to eventual winner Erick “E Dog” Lindgren. Although it’s one of the Lithuanian Bulldog’s (© Poker Verdict 2007) more subdued postings he still has a great turn of phrase – “E-Dog sent me out to look for my bike; it was going to be a long, slow ride pedaling back home.” Unlucky Tony.

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One blog that has become slightly more interesting recently is Richard “Quiet Lion” Brodie’s Lion Tales. Richard was the original author of Microsoft Word and Bill Gates’ assistant so, as you can imagine, he’s not short of a few bob. What to do with all that money? Richard decided to join the World Poker Tour and try and become one of the elite players. When I first came across this blog it was clear that Quiet Lion was a beginner, but now he has reached the lofty heights of being a friend of FullTilt.

I suspect many of the top pros were friendly to him because they saw a rich fish, but Richard just thinks all the top players are great guys. When he began his blog he was married and his wife would often accompany him to the far flung destinations of the WPT. Recently, it seems they have divorced (I wonder why they split up?), and all of a sudden Brodie’s blog is full of strippers and “uberbabes”, a word he uses with annoying frequency.

We here at Poker Verdict don’t like to be negative, but I’m afraid Richard comes across as unbearably smug. With his constant showing off about wine and food and name-dropping of poker players he comes close to being a class 'A' bore, but if you want to read about what it’s like to be a multi-millionaire divorcee who loves to letch after 20-something hotties this is the blog for you.

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Finally, new hero Grubby writes a great account of getting his ass handed to him at $2/$3 blinds no limit holdem at the Hawaiian Gardens in California. Many bloggers post about bad beats and such but somehow Grubby makes his entertaining. “I picked up 10-10 in late and raised $20 and three people came along. Three people. With those odds, I was surprised there wasn’t a fourth caller. The flop was undercards – 4-8-2 (rainbow). A limper bet $40. Folded to me. I put him on A-8 and pushed. With $75 left, it didn’t make much sense just to call. He called instantly and the turn gave a Q, river gave a J. He said “Queen” and flipped Q9o. Obviously I missed the runner straight possibility on the flop. He said he put me on Ace-King. Yeah, but that still beat Q high, didn’t it?” he writes. What’s refreshing about Grubby is his honesty and the fact that he has no problem telling us about each pull-up. Plus he updates regularly...

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

19 January 2007

OTHER BLOGS BY HUGO 'CHIMNEY SWEEP' MARTIN

POKER VERDICT BLOG INDEX

Blogs by David 'TheKid08' Gross

Blogs By James 'Slicker66' Hipwell

Blogs By Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

Blogs By Phil 'Jackal69' Shaw

Blogs By Jeff 'Lord Neil' Israel

Blogs By Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing

Blogs By The Hendon Mob