GPT Fall 2006 Kicks Off This Sunday - 2pm

Hold'em this Sunday, $10 buy-in with $5 re-buys for the first three levels at 1000 or less, and one $5 add-on (30 minute levels). Same structure for the TOC and points as last season.

A few other things:

1) If you haven't played with us the rumors are true: free beer at my house (if you are of age).

2) I am on driveway 3.0 - my car can't be on it so neither can yours this week. We cannot repeat the HU hold'em fiasco when had the whole cul-de sac filled with cars because my next door neighbor is former Special Forces, and the next time Hank left my house late at night (no comments from the peanut gallery) my neighbor almost shot him (if you don't believe me just ask him. Hank, not the neighbor, who may shoot you).

If you can carpool awesome (you're staying for the cash game when you bust anyway, douche). If not, please park at the END of my street (12th lane). There is a nice grassy spot at the end of the street with nothing but signs (all of which hopefully survive this season).

3) As Hank's follow-up email indicated, we need to confirm emails. If you are new, or returning and haven't done it yet, send an email to gainesvillepokertour@yahoo.com with your name, nickname, and cell # (cell # optional). In the future we won't be using blast e-mails but rather our 2006 list. If you've already done this no need to repeat it (in fact, please don't) - Hank insisted on the blast this time. In the future your effort will be rewarded.

4) I'm not sure where "3" hold'em events came from rather than 2 but we'll see. The Player's Committee continues to shape the schedule. But it will be easier to make more tourneys if you didn't like weekday events.

5) Phil is the only Frenchman I ever liked, and he drinks bourbon, so we need a different DD.

Blicka blicka.

Another Gator - Tunica

This guy took a bad beat from Hoyt at the TOC but made it to the final table at the Tunica Circuit event (and finished 6th). Then he cashed in three WSOP events including 15th in Omaha/8.

Brandon Adams

- two degrees from UF, author of a poker novel, and graduate student in finance.

Tourney Watch - Who is that with Daniel?

WSOP Watch (4)

Jason's Gainesville Sun article:
Gambling Gator makes poker series

WSOP Watch (3)

Brent finished 168th and collected $47k pure profit. And it should be some nice publicity. Better even than All-In Condoms...

WSOP Watch (2)

Another G-ville player has gone deep. He's not in our group (too re-otch, be-otch) but is from Nich's game (who cashed at 816th) and Doug's game. He co-wrote a movie called All In and as part of that got a free roll in the tourney. He called over to Doug's last night after making the money.

The movie, FWIW, it still looking for a distributor. Odds are when we finally get to see it it will be much better than Michael Madsen's last poker project because it was actually written by someone who knows the game. "Tilt" - I've never seen a show other than that one that peaked with the title.

BMPE - Best Movie Promotion Ever. Wonder if this was Brent's idea.

PPT Round 1

If you didn’t watch it yet then don’t read. Some issues:

The clock sucks and has no place in real tournament poker. These are professionals for fuck’s sake.

Hit-out Harrington – who’d a thunk it?

The commentators suck. I never thought I’d miss Vince Van Patten. I love Mark Seif in tournaments when he’s running over tables, but he was horrendous. I think they didn’t get enough tape and kept looking comments like “every professional wants to be the first to win a PPT tournament.” Really, Mark? Then why the fuck do you have a mic in your hand, genius? One hand a few weeks ago they just called comically wrong. I don’t remember the specifics but basically the underdog flopped a monster draw and they started talking about how happy the (pre-flop) favorite was with his hand. You could look at the percentages or the players’ faces and know exactly the opposite was true. Yeesh, Vince we hardly knew ye.

Two of the final three players were “famous” faces from the very first season of the WPT. They’re also people you haven’t seen much of since – I’ve thought of both of them as basically “semi-pros.” I was surprised, but overall the final table was a pretty good line-up (what a shocker given the field).

What the fuck is it with all-in fests late? I’ve seen this in the WSOP Circuits they’re running on ESPN – like Gavin Smith pushing a small pair like they’re aces (against kings no less). Why would a professional with an advantage strive so hard to get all their chips in pre-flop? Tonight (a spoiler) heads-up with blinds of 15,000/30,000 and 3,000 antes, Bigler limped in with A8o (why he didn’t raise is another question) and Juanda pushed in for almost 700,000 with a pair of 3s. Seriously? With 15 seconds left on the clock Bigler called. Juanda had just ass-hatted Bigler the hand before when Bigler didn’t follow up a turn raise with a river bet and Juanda nicked his 5s with 7s. That hand gave him a slight chip lead – around 130,000. Why push with 3s there?

Interestingly the flop came with three spades and both players had one, so Bigler went to about a 53% favorite. Luckily he didn’t hit, although Juanda would have deserved it for such a douche play.

Scenes from a Poker Table

After Hachem said something to Kido Pham (the scariest-looking Vietnamese dude ever) about looking at him - Kido’s response:

“You know what I’m thinking? That you’re another fluke like Chris Moneymaker.”

Awesome.