Two hours into day one, and I have zero chips

Well, yes, but this is because I don’t play until tomorrow. I was informed upon arrival that is is a two flight event, because they can only accommodate 128 players at a time. So, the tournament is sold out at 256, and each flight of 128 plays down to 12. All 24 remaining players after two flights are in the money, and play down to nine…then they start the TV. The only players that I know for sure who are playing today are Raymer, and Kirill G. Tony, Noah, and I definitely got day two. I’m sure I will have the both of them to my left. I’m a bit surprised, but Marcel is not here. He must be in Aruba. All the top European players (save Marcel, and Devilfish) are here, and I ran into many of them as we were all packed into a small ish place. One surprise player here is Kathy Liebert, who must have qualified online at Stars, because she was in our Poker Stars player welcome luncheon.

So, sorry for the anticlimactic post, but it appears my poker will start tomorrow at 3pm local time.

The Vic is a very cool place, but is terribly understaffed for this kind of an event. I felt bad for them as they struggled to keep everything together. Conrad, Otis, and the people at Poker Stars were all really great, and did everything they could to try to pitch in. There are actually poker tables on three different levels for this event…and remember, we only have 13 or 14 tables in play at a time. Another thing I learned about the Vic is they have some big cash games here. Outside of Bellagio, and maybe a couple other places, this place has got to have the biggest games. Everytime I begin to fool myself into thinking I am a poker player, I walk by one of these games, see the amount of money on the table, and am instantly reminded I am a tournament player. See you tomorrow.

The Jen Show

So, there are certain things that happen to my girlfriend Jen that could ONLY happen to her….I’ll explain.

For example, a couple months ago we were in the Palm Restaurant (fairly upscale place), and the waiter came up behind Jen and….started feeding her. Took the fork out of her hand, and started trying to delicately shovel food into her mouth. Jen protested, but the guy persisted. If any of you know the Palm…these are guys who are professional waiters…its not some place where kooky antics ensue, or the waiters have to wear a certain amount of ‘flair’ or whatever. So, the waiter finally gets the hint, and leaves…only to come back 5 minutes later and put a lobster bib on her (she didn’t order lobster), and try to feed her again. This time he got the hint fairly quickly. Believe me - I was expecting Ashton Kutcher to pop out of a wall at any moment to tell us we had been punked.

So, tonight…we had another episode of what I call the ‘Jen show’…this time we are in London. We were going to go to Brick Lane, and have some Indian, but both decided we were too tired, and just went across the street to a pub to get some bangers & mash (which I had in honor of my guy Schmulka), and Jen had steak, and guiness pie.

We run into these three guys in the pub (which was packed) who were nice enough to let us have our dinner at their table (which they weren’t using - after circling the pub three times, Jen went up to them, and charmed them into letting us occupy it). Three guys in their mid forties – an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scot. Anyway, we get to chatting with these three (the scot more than the others).

So, after a few minutes of chatting with these guys, the Englishman takes off his shirt (in the middle of the bar), and autographs it for Jen, and gives it to her (by the way the inscription was “From Crazy Big Kid – Sept 05”). Now, how did I know he was the Englishman? The second he took off his shirt…I knew….Yikes. Fee Fi Fo Fum, I see the build of an Englishman. Bad Times.

Anyway, he gave her the shirt, and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Of course, she did get a big sloppy kiss before he let her go. So, now we have a Neil Young shirt (Size XXL, thank you) from about 1985 to add to our collection.

PS - Let me recount the line of the night. This Scottish had a pretty thick accent, and I had to really focus to understand what he was saying. The Scot is trying to tell us which places to go to, and he says “Do you know Time Out?” (London magazine which lists all the happenings). I understood him, and said yes. Jen missed by little however, and responded with “K Mart? Of course we know K mart.”

This one everyone can understand...

OK, so one piece of instant feedback I got on my blog is a little too technical on the pokerspeak for my friends, so I will try to create some balance. Here is a blog entry having nothing to do with poker....

I bought a couple DVDs for the plane ride over. One being the Family Guy Stewie Griffin movie, and the other being the Dick Cavett rock icons DVD.

Before watching the Family Guy movie, let me say that I think Family Guy is great….but make no mistake, give me the Simpsons anyday. After watching the Family Guy movie, I think there are more days you can give me the Simpsons. Much like the TV show, I find FG to be inconsistent. The movie starts really slow on the laughs, and improves over time, but I guess if I were to sum it up in one word, I would say (slightly) disappointing. There are definitely moments, but I see why this is the one that went straight to video, and the next one (which I presume they will work harder on) will be the one released in theatres. I think the hardcore FG people will be happy, but I can’t see anyone ranting and raving the way many people do about the show.

Dick Cavett…..those were the days. Sly Stone baked out of his mind mumbling on national TV…..Ironic that you couldn’t get away with that kind of stuff on the air today, because of all the “progress” we have made. Anyone who enjoys that period of time should at least rent these. Seeing Bowie in his prime was really cool, too….Never seen that. Speaking of DVDs…when are people going to put out Get Smart on DVD? There are bootlegs of the show out there, But, as I hear it the guy who owns the rights died, and his heirs have never gotten the right offer to put the DVDs out. Someone…..get on that! Luckily, we watched the DVDs because Jen talked (begged) me out of bringing the 11,000 pages of Howard Hughes declassified FBI docs I bought off Ebay (on CD Rom), Now THAT will be a party.

The plane ride was uneventful, with the notable exception of the British gents sitting behind us. How do I know they were British? They spent $100 on drinks for a 7 hour plane ride....try that sometime...not easy to do.

“Tomorrow” (today since we lost a day on the red eye flight), we are going to go to Camden market, and buy some stuff. Also, I need to get some Heinz rusks for my infant friend Will….seems his Daddy curled up in a ball, and ate all of them after his precious Raiders went 0 – 3. By the way…when someone can figure out my Broncos for me (are they the team that got killed by Miami, or the one that humiliated KC on national TV)…..send me a memo. Speaking of the Broncos….Going to Giants Stadium in three weeks to see them play. My boy Nick is trying to hook up some VIP love…Have I mentioned how much I like him.

Oh yeah, I'm playing in the London Masters tomorrow.

Out..

EPT London qualifier $380 at Stars

I just won my second seat into the European Poker Tour London event on a Poker Stars super satellite. I doubled up on the first hand on a very atypical play for me, putting it all in with TP/TK on the first hand, but I had played with the opponent before, and knew him to be a pretty free & easy 'get chips early' kind of guy. He had TP/2ndK, and I was off.

The two supers I have won into this event have been really odd for me. The first one, I was the chip leader for about 4 of the six hours of play (having double anyone else in the field for a solid 90 minutes). In this one, here I was again, top of the table from the first hand on. Usually, I am the one lying in the weeds, middle of the pack, surviving until the time comes to mix it up.

So, after about the first hour of play I was getting brought back down to earth, and by the end of the third hour of play, I was near the bottom in chip count. At one point, I was 37th in chips out of 38 players. I just couldn’t find anything to put it in with, something I’m normally pretty good at. It got to the point where I was going to move in with any two cards UTG, as I had 3 big blinds left. I found 3 5 off, and just couldn’t do it. Turns out the UTG + 2 raised, got re-raised, and his AK suited ran into KK…on a flop of A K A….ouch, check please.

So the next hand. In the BB with less than 2 BB’s behind it. I see 8 4 off. UTG makes it 3BB, gets one caller, and I call figuring the miracle triple up is just what the doctor ordered. Sure enough, the board comes 2 3 K, the turn is a 5, and the river is a 6. Now, through my BB, I have about 8 BB’s, and although terribly short, I don’t have to stick it in with anything.

From there I go on the rush of life, including a couple key bluffs when the following hand comes up. One guy in particular (goldy18k) had been re-raising me all night. I have QQ UTG, I make it 3.5 BB’s to go. He is in the small blind, and comes over one more time. I insta call, and he shows….AA. The flop some 3 5…….Q all diamonds. I look…he doesn’t have the A of diamonds. No reverse two outers, and I am 7th in chips with about 25 left (20-13 get their money back, top 12 go to London).

Rare to pat myself on the back (when it comes to poker, anyway), I must say from there I played pretty well, and with some well timed position plays, I got to the point where I was 2nd or 3rd in chips for the last 90 minutes of the tournament. This one took a little longer (7 ½ hours…the first one I won took 6 hrs 15 mins), but at 10:30, we were done.

Dick that I am, I didn’t realize that Stars pays this out in W$, so now I have $5,500 W$....which I can sell, but I won’t get as much as I should for winning the second seat.

Anyway, off we go on Wednesday morning to play in the first seat, and I am really looking forward to it. I’ll stick around in London for some meetings the following week, as London has become pretty much the center of the online poker business world, with many of the top firms there. I can’t wait to have some first rate Indian food, and see what I can do against Europe’s best. Speak to you on the ground from London.

Schecky

London Bound

I leave for London on Sept 28. You can follow along with the whole tournament on Poker Stars Blog. Or, if you're just interested in my experience in London, keep it locked right here at EuroSchecky.