Jun
21
by Chad Holloway
On Friday, June 10, 2011, I played in my first-ever World Series of Poker tournament, an event at least 15 years in the making. I’ve always wanted to play in a WSOP event, and regretted not doing so in my previous visits. I decided this was the year and decided Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. would be it. I’d have gone with a no-limit event, but I figured the limit format of the H.O.R.S.E. would ensure I’d get my money’s worth.
I wasn’t thrilled that the tournament started at Noon, considering I had worked until 3:30 AM that morning, but I was at the Rio and ready to go at the start of the tournament. Interestingly, I was in my seat (Table 53 Seat 5) in the Pavilion waiting for things to start, I got a phone call from the producer of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars TV show. I had submitted some old WSOP photos for consideration and they called me to schedule a time to film. Needless to say, I was super excited and it put me in a great mood for the tournament.
*I’ll be sure to write more on the Pawn Stars experience in a future post.
Now I’ve been working the WSOP for three years, having covered dozens of tournaments, but this was the first time I’d actually paid to be there. Instead of hovering around the tournament floor, bouncing from table to table, I paid $1,500 in cold hard cash. I was no longer a vulture scavenging for the remnants of action; I was a hawk eagerly looking for easy prey.
Things got off to a fast start. During the first round, which was hold’em, I picked up pocket queens and bet every step of the way as the board ran out 2-Q-6-2-7, giving me a full house. Surprisingly, I got paid off by two players. Not bad for the first hand I ever won at the WSOP. A few minutes later, Matt Savage took his seat to my immediate right. I’d never met Savage before, but I knew him as the Tournament Director for the World Poker Tour. Not long after, former WPT champ Tuan Le was moved two to my left. Needless to say, the table was getting tougher.
I managed to chip up to 5,600, from a starting stack of 4,500, by the end of Level 2.Come Level 5, I was sitting with 6,150, which right around the time 1998 WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen sat down at my table in Seat 8. I love me some Scotty, baby, and I knew it was going to be a fun day. Win or lose, at least I’d get to play with a World Champion.
Two things happened right before the dinner break. First, Savage was busted by Le. Second, I took a shot at busting Nguyen in a hand of Omaha Hi/Low. Unfortunately for me, the distinction of the man who knocked Nguyen out of the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. eluded me as he survived to triple up. Had I knocked him out, I had a nickname all picked out. I was going to insist people call me the “H.O.R.S.E. Whisperer,” at least for awhile.
After dinner, I returned to a stack of 9,800, which was above the average of 7,200. Nguyen busted a short time later, which was followed by our table being broke. I was moved to Table 41 where I encountered the second most-famous Chad at the table, Norman Chad. I was looking forward to some good conversation with ESPN’s color commentator, but he was unusually quiet. I chipped up a little at Table 41 before breaking again and being moved to Table 2. Obviously this table wasn’t going to break at all on Day 1, so I was happy to see the most notable players at the table were 2008 Main Event fourth-place finisher Ylon Schwartz and 2008 Ladies Event Champ Svetlana Gromenkova.
Around this time I did an interview for PokerNews which was really cool. Being a part of the PokerNews team is great because everyone is in you corner and pulling for you. Unfortunately, with only two levels to go in the night, the cards went cold. The big blinds and antes began eating away at my stack and before too long I was well below the chip average. With only 6,500 remaining, I made a stand in the Stud Hi/Lo round after making a 6-5-3-2-A low on sixth street. Schwartz bet the entire time and I had a bad feeling he had made a better low; however, with just 1,600 back, I called off on the river. Sure enough, Schwartz rolled over a wheel to scoop the pot. Good game me.
While I didn’t cash, I was happy with my performance. I busted around 200th place (out of 963), meaning I cracked the top 20% of the field. I truly look forward to my next WSOP event, and hopefully my first cash. In my next post, I’ll bring you up to date on my various fantasy poker leagues, and also fill you in on some of the more interesting things that have happened in Las Vegas and at the WSOP. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ChadAHolloway.
*Picture courtesy of PokerNews
May
28
by Chad Holloway
One of the fantasy poker competitions I am doing this year involves a great deal of the PokerNews crew as well as some other members of the poker community. The league, run by Tim Duckworth (who writes a great blog called “Tilted Behaviour”), costs $100 and allows each participant to draft a team by choosing players to fill certain categories. There are two chances to win: a prize for the team with the most cashes at the WSOP, and another prize for the team that earns the most money throughout the WSOP. Here is a look at my team:
Categories:
Female: Kathy Liebert
American Nationality (USA, Alaska and South America): Phil Ivey
Canadian Nationality: Pat Pezzin
European Nationality: Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Other International Nationality (includes far east Europe such as Russia and everywhere else not mentioned): Eugene Katchalov
Previous WSOP/E Champion (includes WSOPE): Phil Hellmuth
Online Player (must have honed his skills playing online - ie more none for his online game than anything): Vivek Rajkumar
Full Tilt Sponsored Player: Erik Seidel
PokerStars Sponsored Player: Daniel Negreanu
Minor Site Sponsored Player (includes Doylesroom etc and even Ultimate Bet as we will disregard the dumping of their pros): Phil Laak (Unabomber Poker)
The real difference maker in this draft is the non-traditional picks as most teams have Ivey, Seidel, Negreanu, and the like, which just cancels everything out. If I succeed, I have a feeling it will be because of Liebert, Pezzin, Rajkumar, and Laak.
In other fantasy poker news, I took part in the 2011 ESPN Fantasy Poker League along with Dwyte Pilgrim, Lance Bradley, Dennis Phillips, Daniel Negreanu, Chops from Wicked Chops Poker,Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, Eric Baldwin, Bernard Lee, and Mark Seif. If you recall from this blog, I managed to win the title last year. The league proved very popular with poker fans and this year was no different. Here is a look at the teams, with the roster listed in the order they were drafted.
PILGRIM: Eric Baldwin, Scotty Nguyen, Thomas Marchese, Shaun Deeb, Steve Gross, Allen Kessler, Darren Alias, Josh Brikis
HOLLOWAY: Phil Ivey, Alexander Kostritsyn, Andy Frankenberger, Sam Trickett, Galen Hall, Justin Young, Phil Laak, Sorel Mizzi
BRADLEY: Erik Seidel, Scott Clements, Robert Mizrachi, David “Bakes” Baker, Isaac Haxton, Brett Richey, Chris Bjorin, Allen Bari
PHILLIPS: Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, Bertrand Grospellier, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Jeff Madsen, JC Tran
NEGREANU: Erick Lindgren, Daniel Alaei, Scott Seiver, David Benyamine, Justin Smith, Michael Thuritz, Yuval Bronthstein, Yueqi Hu
CHOPS: John Juanda, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Ted Forrest, Dwyte Pilgrim, Shawn Buchanan, Alexander Kravchenko, Chris Bell, David “Doc” Sands
FELDMAN: Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan, Vivek Rajkumar, Justin Bonomo, Matt Hawrilenko, David Oppenheim, Ali Eslami, Yevgeniy Timoshenko
WISE: Barry Greenstein, Jeffery Lisandro, Huck Seed, Vanessa Selbst, Nick Schulman, Jason Sommerville, David Pham, Roland De Wolfe
BALDWIN: David Chiu, Eugene Katchalov, Carlos Mortensen, Andy Bloch, Frank Kassela. David “ODB” Baker, Vladimir Schemelev, Michael Chow
LEE: Michael Mizrachi, Shannon Shorr, Chau Giang, Phil Galfond, Faraz Jaka, James Mackey, Jen Harman, Jonathan Duhamel
SEIF: Mark Seif, Gavin Smith, John Racener, Michael Binger, Matt Glantz, Chad Brown, Freddy Deeb, Todd Brunson
First and foremost, Pilgrim taking Baldwin with the #1 overall was both unexpected and amusing. Pilgrim was diligent in his defense, but it put me in a quandary . . . Ivey or Seidel? I assumed Pilgrim would have taken one or the other and my decision would have been made for me; however, that was obviously not the case. I decided to play it safe and go with Ivey, despite Seidel’s amazing 2011. Needless to say, Seidel was drafted immediately after.
I’m really happy with landing Ivey and felt it gave me a little security to gamble a bit on my draft picks. Kostritsyn is a solid performer and a pretty conventional pick in the late stages of Round 2. In Round 3, I went with World Poker Tour Player-of-the-Year Andy Frankenberger. This is one of those gamble picks as Frankenberger plays primarily no-limit hold’em events. However, he has been on a heater as of late and is hungry to qualify for the Federated Sports + Gaming League, so I expect him to play a lot of events.
I’m really pleased with my 4th and 5th Round picks in Sam Trickett and Galen Hall. Both are young and have hit their stride. I believe both are playing at their peak and will play a lot of high buy-in events, which could translate into some major points. The only downside is that Trickett is a no-limit hold’em specialist, meaning he’ll pass on the mixed games.
Rounding out my team was Justin Young, Phil Laak, and Sorel Mizzi. Young is a solid performer, although I’m not sure of his schedule. Like Frankenberger, Laak is intent on qualifying for the FS+G League, so he has said he’ll be playing a full schedule of events. I’m really counting on the Unabomber to pull through. Finally, I got Mizzi in the last round, which I believe was a nice way to end the draft. He hasn’t been putting up results like he did in 2010, but if he can recapture some of that fire it’ll mean big points for my team.
I will say that I had my eye on both Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and David “Bakes” Baker; however, they went taken by Dennis Phillips and Lance Bradley respectively, right before my next pick I might add. That left me scrambling and I rushed into picking Trickett. He is a great player, but I’d probably do things differently in hindsight. For a great analysis on the whole draft, be sure to check out Feldman's article on ESPN.
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.
Jul
12
by Chad Holloway
Gavin Smith wins his first WSOP bracelet.
I played in the All-In Magazine Media Freeroll earlier this week. It was a super turbo, and I mean it was extremely fast. There were 89 entrants and a few of us from PokerNews entered. There were also a number of poker professionals and notables in the field including Carlos Mortenson, Robert Williamson III, Barbara Enright, Montel Williams, Gavin Smith and Jerry Yang. I’m proud to say I was the last PokerNews member standing and went on to make the final table, which included Corey Zeidman and Marsha Waggoner. Zeidman busted in 7th place and I was right behind in 6th. Waggoner ended up chopping the win and took home some prizes. All in all it was a great event and I had an awesome time.
On the 4th of July, I attended the Bluff Magazine party at Sapphire, the World’s largest gentleman’s club. The strip club itself was alright, not overly impressive, but the party was a great time. A lot of people from the poker industry were there and it was open bar, so it all made for a great time. I met and hung out with John Blowers, the author of Life on Tilt. His book will likely be made into a movie soon and that was a fun topic of conversation. John is a fun guy and it fun getting to meet him, especially considering we both write for Poker Pro Magazine.
As for the WSOP itself, I watched Gavin Smith win his first bracelet. That was something special and among my favorite things I’ve gotten to see out here. The featured table was packed with supporters and it was a very emotionally charged atmosphere after he won, one of those rare moments you look back on and are glad you were part of it. Congrats to Gavin on his first bracelet. Other highlights recently have included Daniel Alaei winning his third bracelet. He is only 25 years old and the only person to have won that many bracelets by that age was, guess who . . . Phil Ivey. Alaei is the real deal and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dominate for years to come. Also, apparently Peter Eastgate, the 2008 Main Event Champion, quit poker on the eve of the Main Event. He is giving up his sponsorship deal and moving on from the poker world to focus on other things. It sounds like he is for real since he didn’t play the Main Event. I guess only time will tell.
The Main Event itself has been insane. The Rio is packed and everyone in the poker world is has shown up. As I write this, it is Day 1d and NFL superstar Emmitt Smith did the famous “Shuffle Up and Deal” announcement before playing. The cameras were surrounding him and I even managed to snap a few photos myself. Also, the table right next to me was home to Chris Ferguson, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith and John “The Razor” Phan. For a Day 1, that is a stacked table. It should be interesting to see who can navigate this massive field. I’ll be sure to document anything worthwhile in my next blog.
Apr
19
by Chad Holloway
Jose Conseco may or may not get into a brawl at the 2010 WSOP.
I’m pretty excited. It looks like I will be at this year’s World Series of Poker for its entirety. Although I wish I was playing tournaments that entire time, I’m afraid I’ve been relegated to reporting on the tournaments only. That’s because I’ll be working for Poker News over the summer as a field reporter and blogger. This means I’ll be keeping track of poker’s biggest names, chips counts, and the action throughout the series. I’m really looking forward to being a part of the WSOP and being there during the Player’s Championship, the Tournament of Champions, and of course the Main Event.
Since my schedule won’t allow me to play in any events (maybe one or two if I’m lucky), I’m planning on focusing on the cash game action. When I was out there last year, the $2-$5 No Limit Hold’em tables were action packed and provided a great opportunity to pad the bankroll. One night last year, I was playing after a 13 hour shift and the table decided to play the 2-7 game, meaning if any player won with a 2-7 then each player at the table would pay him or her $20. The action was really heating up when a new player sat down immediately to my left. I told him about our game and asked if he was in. He gave an enthusiastic “of course,” and we had a good time. It wasn’t until about two hours later that I realized this guy sitting next to me was Jose Conseco.
I was surprised at how social and friendly he was. That’s when an interesting situation came up. After we had been playing a few hours, a beverage server brought Canseco an alcoholic drink saying it was from someone at a nearby table. Canseco said, “Thanks but no thank, I don’t drink.” The waitress promptly removed the drink and went on her way. Well this must not have sat too well with the people at the other table who had order the drink. How do I know this? Well, Canseco’s girlfriend (who was quite good-looking) happened to be playing at the other table and informed Canseco when they start badmouthing him behind his back. Too make a long story short, Canseco started to lose his temper and began arguing with the guys at the other table. Pretty soon the situation escalated and swears and “Let’s take this outside” were being shouted by Conseco. The other players tauntingly urged him on and it became a disruptive shouting match. Keep in mind, this was approximately three in the morning, so there weren’t a lot of people in the Amazon Room. As the scene was unfolding, I nonchalantly reached into my bag and got my camera ready. Hell, if a brawl was going to go down at the WSOP between Jose Canseco and some drunken poker players, you’d better believe I was going to get that on camera. Fortunately, of unfortunately, security showed up and managed to escort Conseco out of the room.
That was just one of my many memories of the WSOP and I can’t wait to add to them this year. If you make a trip to Vegas this summer and attend the WSOP, maybe I’ll see you at the Rio. Just look for the Poker News guy who is sporting some UnabomberPoker.net gear. With a little luck, I might be reporting on you.