Jun
10
by Chad Holloway
It’s really nice to be back in Vegas for the summer and getting to see so many poker friends, both players and media members alike. This year PokerNews has been kind enough to put me up in a house along with four other media veterans in Eric Ramsey, Mickey Doft, Paul Oresteen, and Jon “Jon Bon” Boncek. I get along with them all, the house it sweet, and I can tell it is going to be a much more comfortable summer than the one I experienced last year (I spent seven weeks in the Hard Rock with no kitchen, washer/dryer, etc.).
The cash games here in Vegas have been tearing me up, but I’ve managed a couple of tournament scores that have evened me up. First, I played an $85 buy-in NLHE tournament at Caesar’s Palace and chopped that four ways for around $900 each. The second tournament was also at Caesar’s, but was a part of their Summer Mega-Stack Series 2011. The event was the $130 buy-in Limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament took place on June 2, 2011. Players started with 12K in chips and the event attracted 132 players. I made it all the way to the final table and we decided to chop seven-handed, which was a good idea considering the big stack only had around five big bets. We chopped based on chips, which looked as follows:
Seat 1: 230,000
Seat 2: 160,000
Myself: 265,000
Seat 5: 505,000
Seat 6: 100,000
Seat 7: 345,000
Seat 9: 290,000
As you can see, I was sitting fourth in chips which allowed me to lock up $1,367. I was happy with the chop considering the original payouts were: 1st- $2,946; 2nd- $2,049; 3rd- $1,536; 4th- $1,191; 5th- $858; 6th- $659; and 7th- $538. Like I said, the betting limits were so high (40,000-80,000) that it was a matter of luck at that point. Plus, I brought up the idea of a chop right before the blinds hit me, so I’m sure I got some extra value there.
Speaking of poker tournaments, I’m really excited to play my very first World Series of Poker bracelet event on Friday, June 10, 2011. I am already registered to play the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. at noon that day, and I’ll finally be able to check “Play a WSOP Event” off my bucket list. That’ll just leave “Play the Main Event!” I’ll be sitting at Table 53/Seat 5 in the Pavilion White area. I sold some of my action in that event and am looking to make a lot of people, myself included, a great deal of money. It sure would be nice to finish in that top ten percent. I’ll obviously be posting about that experience in a future blog.
In other Vegas news, I went to see Daniel Tosh of Comedy Central’s Tosh.O do standup at Mandalay Bay last week. There were like 8,000 people there, but it was still a great show. I’m a huge Tosh fan, so it was great to get the chance to see him live. He’s also a Miami Dolphins fan, so that makes him alright in my book.
In fantasy poker news, I am not doing so hot. In the 2011 ESPN Fantasy Poker League I am in dead last with zero points after ten events. It didn’t help that I had Phil Ivey and he decided to skip the 2011 WSOP. That’s like losing your star player to injury reserve in fantasy football. I hated to do it, but I used my one-time drop on him and picked up Steve Billirakis in his place. I think that was a good pickup, but I’m not thrilled I had to use it in that spot since I was planning on dropping one of my no-limit specialists and replacing them. I understand and support what Ivey is doing, but it sure wreaked havoc on my fantasy team. Here is a look at the standings through ten events:
Feldman: 207 (8 points from Mercier in Event 11 coming)
Bradley: 185
Baldwin: 117
Pilgrim: 94
Lee: 65
Chops: 63
Phillips: 43
Wise: 32
Seif: 17
Negreanu: 6
Holloway: 0 (Points for Billirakis coming)
*Billirakis ended up finishing third in the $10K Omaha Hi/Low Championship which bumped me into 5th place!
I’ll be posting a lot of fantasy poker updates throughout the WSOP, so be sure to keep checking the blog for those. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ChadAHolloway. Also, I’m trying to get Phil “Unabomber” Laak to do our PokerNews Podcast sooner than later, so if you have any questions for him, shoot them to me on Twitter and I’ll do my best to ask them on the air.
Apr
1
by Katrina Lim
I made a 24 hour trip to Vegas so my family can spend the week for free at the Palazzo. It was good to check up on the condo too. Same ole, same ole. Spent the evening sitting on the couch looking around the room wondering if it is worth keeping. Like the rest of America, my condo is one of the millions of underwater mortgages that is begging for mercy from BofA, also known as the Great Satan. I should hear from Satan any day now regarding a loan mod and will decide if I should continue to sell my soul to him.
Had dinner at Naked Fish with XTracey and Pearljammer and we enjoyed some of their famous sushi rolls. Yum! Spent some time at the Ballys tables and it was nice to see my dealer friends again. But it sure sucked losing $500 last night. Worst beat was when my set got rivered by the villain’s 2 pair when he rivered a flush.
Driving home on the 15 was the worst case of jank ever! I was stopped by CHP and the fool gave me a ticket for 78. Yes, I was speeding considering the limit is 70. Yes, other fools were passing me up but of course he has to stop me. C’mon! How fast can a 115 horsepower Honda Civic really go?! I think my Decepticon sticker just attracts Blue. Anyway, fine! Gimme my dumb ass ticket cuz it’s almost the end of the month and I know you have a quota to meet! Dumb ass CHP! They’re all slaves to Arnold now that the Governator has demanded more tickets issued. Start with your dumb ass wife getting caught on TMZ talking on her cell phone…twice!
Anyway, here is where I get really janked…about 10 miles after I get my ticket, the same dumb ass CHP officer is behind me in the fast lane and I’m going exactly his recommended 70 mph limit. He flashes his headlights at me to move over so he can pass me up cuz now I’m going too slow!!! OMG!! Sure enough, Decepticivic moves over to the next lane and Mr. Officer passes me up real fast. I actually laughed cuz I realized the fool just janked me up without even knowing it. But he made a big mistake for picking on LimShady!!! No one screws LimShady and gets away with it. So, I truly believe Mr. CHP just cursed himself and sooner or later, the next gangsta he stops is going to put a cap in his dumb ass cuz no gangsta is gonna accept what happened to me today. Mr. CHP is just asking for a 187.