Is the Happy Hour schedule going to stay the same forever, or are you guys going to mix it up any time soon?

While I’m not the resident Happy Hour guru around these parts (unless, of course, you’re talking about happy hour at your local bar), I have been hearing whispers about some impending changes to the schedule. Once again, please don’t quote me on this (if you do, I might get fired), but I’d say be on the lookout for perhaps some more game-specific Happy Hours in the near future. I know that we already have a Limit-specific Happy Hour, but we’ll probably take a foray into the Omahas, Studs and Mixed Games of the world fairly soon.

I can also say that we might or might not be planning a new promotion centered around Happy Hour, so stay tuned for more potential details on that potential debacle. I joke, I joke, I kid, I kid. We’ve absolutely never held a promotion that could be classified as a debacle. Fiasco, maybe. But debacle, never.

I was just watching the latest Poker After Dark, which was a cash game as opposed to the standard tournament format. Any chance they’ll be switching formats completely? I thought it worked so much better as a cash game.

Once again, I’m not the resident Poker After Dark expert around here, so I can only speak from my extremely limited knowledge. I also saw the Poker After Dark cash game and was extremely entertained. I mean, who doesn’t love watching Phil Hellmuth make a complete ass-hat of himself? And that kid Tom Dwan (Durrrr, to all you online fan-boys out there), man, can he play or what? He’s going to make himself a lot of money one of these days. What? He’s already made millions? Looks like it’s time for another crying jag for me…

In terms of whether or not they’ll be permanently switching formats, I seriously doubt it. I do know that there’s another cash game on the schedule for later in the year, but I really hope they don’t do away with the tournament format altogether. Cash games can often be fun to watch (with the right mix of players), but there’s no end-game to look forward to (other than making large piles of money to take home). I just feel like the tournament format provides a little more excitement than the cash game does. And you can take that statement to the bank (wincing)…

You’re welcome my son. I take my duties as Jesus very seriously.

God complex aside, yes, FTOPS IX is almost here. Satellites are running, the last few pro hosts are being confirmed, and we’re all ready to rock and/or roll. Let the donkaments begin! Seriously though, it almost feels like Christmas around here. We all get so giddy and excited, we’re like a bunch of five-year-olds waiting to unwrap their presents. The fun begins on August 6^th, don’t miss out.

That’s it for now folks. Until next week…

What advice would you offer to someone making their first foray into the WSOP?

It’s been a long time since I was there, and I probably play a lot different from someone sitting down for the first time. For example, I’m looking to pick up a lot of chips early in a $1.5K event, and if not, I’ll enjoy the rest of the day. Whereas if it was my first or only event, I’d be playing super tight and looking to survive early on and make the most of it.

For someone that’s here for the first time, I’d advise them to stay away from the pit - it’s a money burner. If you’re here for the tournaments, stay away from the cash games, because the last thing that you want to do is stay up all night until 6AM before a tournament and possibly lose a lot of money, because then you you’re not going to be focused on your $1.5K tournament. Map out your schedule, choose the events that you want to play and can afford, get a good night’s sleep and come in realizing that it’s the World Series. Take it seriously. It’s like anything else – you don’t want to be up partying and drinking the night before. If you’re doing it seriously and want to do well, then you’ve got to treat it seriously.

I know that this sounds like standard advice, but it gets overlooked or blown off all of the time. People are miserable because they weren’t prepared and got knocked out of a tournament, so they fly over to the pit thinking that they’re going to win their $1.5K back. The next thing you know, they’re down $10K. All of a sudden, a $1.5K buy-in that was affordable has now become almost a $12K loss. The key is to stick to the game plan early on – that’s key.

I’ve seen so many people come to the WSOP with a list of things that they plan on doing, like eating good, getting exercise, going for a massage, getting plenty of rest, and staying away from the pit and live action. After two days, they’ve been drunk, lost over half of their bankroll, haven’t done the other things that they wanted to do, and they haven’t even left the casino. They’ve done everything completely wrong in the first two days. Getting off to a good start is crucial, because it’s easier to keep doing things right than it is to try and get out of trouble. On the other hand, when you get off to a bad start, everything is a lot more likely to go wrong. The discipline is sticking to your own rules.

Is there anything that you’d say to players coming specifically from an online background?

I’d advise them to stay completely focused on the game at first, like not wearing headphones for example, because you’re going to miss out on things that are really important. You don’t want to miss out on blind structures, conversations at the table – there’s too much to pick up when you’re new to this type or level of tournament play. You need to stay focussed and try to pick up as much information as you can and not be distracted; watch the play, watch the action, and listen to the conversation.

This is especially true when you’re seated with good players. Back when I first started, I remember being seated with guys like Howard Lederer and I’d listen to everything that they said and watch how they played. You can learn a lot from good players just by watching them. I specifically remember watching him and another really good player, and really paying attention to how they played every hand. If you’ve got your earphones on and you’re just staring out into space, you’re not going to learn nearly as much. It’s a totally different world from online play.

While we’re talking about online play, I thought it would be good to revisit a little feature we’ve dropped over the past few weeks: the big stakes games. Thanks to our friends over at the High Stakes Database, we can tell you that since July 1^st, the biggest overall winner on the site has been OnTheRize, who’s banked more than $851K so far. He’s followed closely by Team Full Tilt’s Gus Hansen who’s picked up more than $822K, and CHUFTY, who’s raked in nearly $760,000. The full list of the top 10 is shown below:

• OnTheRize - $851.316,00
• Gus Hansen - $822.244,55
• CHUFTY - $758.302,00
• Urindanger - $588.364,75
• David Oppenheim - $509.842,30
• Aeron73 - $509.703,65
• pr1nnyraid - $508.134,25
• La Key U - $505.299,95
• Nizot Skizared - $462.186,25
• Rob Hollink - $434.431,55

When it comes to specific games, pr1nnyraid is leading the No-Limit Hold ‘em money lead with more than $306K in winnings since July 1^st, while OnTheRize has made all of his money at the PLO tables. Gus Hansen is the big, big winner in this month’s PLO Hi/Lo games, with more that $1.4 million in profit, though he’s given about $600K of that back to the poker community in other games. Who says the pros don’t know how to share?

Return of the Monthly Million

After a two month hiatus for FTOPS VIII and our 150 Main Event Guarantee, the Monthly Million returned to the schedule last weekend, much to the delight of GulahPapyrus who took down the tournament and more than $219K in first-place prize money.

Overall, 2,396 ponied up for Sunday’s big tourney, generating a prize pool worth $1,198,000, which was good enough to pay out the top 351 finishers. Some of the notable names who padded their bankrolls on Sunday include Michael Craig, Roy Winston, Matt Sexton, and our newest Full Tilt Poker pro, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh.

Welcome to the Family

While we’re talking about new FTP pros like Josh, we’d be remiss to mention a few other red names you’ll be seeing around the site. First off is notable high-stakes player and the always entertaining, Eli Elezra who brings with him one WSOP bracelet and a whole lot of “gamble”.

Another bracelet winner joining the pro ranks is Nikolay Evdakov, who along with Vitaly Lunkin and Svetlana Gromakova, make up our new Russian team. Speaking of teams, our buddies over at CardRunners have expanded their lineup as well, adding some familiar online names to our roster. Look for Isaac Baron, David Benefield, and Ryan Daut playing under their own names in our ring games and on our educational tables.

Personally, I’m lobbying to head up our newest effort, Team St. Bart’s, but it’s going to be a tough fight against The Captain. Wish me luck.

Until next time…

• FTOPS IX: that’s right baby, FTOPS is back! 25 events, more than $15 million guaranteed – that pretty much says it all. If you can’t get excited about this then you really need to get your head checked. This truly is online donkament play at its finest. The action kicks off on August 6^th, please don’t miss out.
• Big Money Sundays: more awesome donkament action at Full Tilt Poker. There’s over $1 million in prize money up for grabs every Sunday with the Sunday Brawl, $750K Guarantee and Sunday Mulligan. This Sunday the $750K gets replaced with the monthly $1 Million Guarantee, so there’s even more prize money to be had.
• Happy Hour: earn twice the Full Tilt Points simply by playing in your favorite games. Whenever you see the smiley face in the game lobby that means Happy Hour is on. Come on people, who doesn’t love to get free stuff just for doing the same old thing? Use those extra points to get great gear from the Full Tilt Store. Doggy tank-top anyone?
• The Iron Man Challenge: my all time favorite promotion. It’s a bit on the complicated side, so let me summarize for you – the more you play, the more you get. Earn Iron Man Medals to use in the Iron Man Store, get entry to Freerolls and the chance to win up to $100K. This one is for players who really want to commit themselves to the game, and it’s really a great reward for showing that dedication.

We’ve also got a few great promos coming up that haven’t been officially announced as of yet, but let me give you a quick sneak peak. For all you SNG fiends out there, another round of Sit & Go Madness is coming up very soon, so stay tuned for all the details on that one. And for all the Patrik Antonius fans out there, we have a couple of great promos in the works involving Team Full Tilt’s newest member. Details on all of our new promotions will be coming soon.

That’s it for now folks. A hearty thanks goes out to all the Tilters out there who help make this the best place to play online poker. Have a great weekend pokerland…

So there you have it, Chiu takes a bite out of Boatman and wins the match by a score of 4-3. Check back next week for more fun, games, and idiotic stupidity from yours truly…

So now that we’ve reached the final table of the Main Event with a bunch of no-names, can we officially declare the decision to the delay the final table a complete disaster?

Not quite yet. I’m going to pull a complete 180 here and pretend that I’m an optimist for a moment. Let’s give the giant propaganda machine that is Harrah’s/ESPN a chance to do their thing and turn these nine nobodies into the next big thing. The power of persuasive media can be, um, quite powerful.

But yes, my initial reaction to seeing that nine stiffs had made the final table was that Harrah’s/ESPN were probably shitting their pants. Obviously they’re praying to the wrong god, because this really didn’t work out too well for them. Might I suggest the Church of Fonzie for their next stop?

Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting to watch it play out. Either the powers that be will be able to turn water into wine or this is going to be the biggest disaster since Waterworld. My feeling is that if things don’t work out well the WSOP will switch back to its standard format next year and kill the delay. It should be a fun four months…

The Tiffany Michelle debacle was obviously the biggest storyline of this year’s Main Event, any thoughts on the matter?

Oh boy, do I have some thoughts. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them will probably get me fired, and some of them are better suited for Penthouse. With that said, I’m going to tread lightly here and answer this question as carefully as possible.

I think that Tiffany’s deep run in the Main Event was great for poker. It would have been fantastic had she made the final table, but hey, that’s poker baby. The enormous amount of pressure on her going into that last day of play had to be a tremendous burden, it sucks that she wasn’t able to just focus on playing poker and forget about the rest of it.

As for the other part of the story (the part dubbed by Sir Dr. Pauly as the battle for Tiffany Michelle’s breasts), yeah, not so much. She made a rather stupid decision to pimp a not-to-be-named-here online poker room currently engulfed in a not-to-be-named-here scandal. Was it because she’s friendly with people who run the not-to-be-named-here site? Was it because they offered her the best deal? Was it just some bad advice from the wrong people? Or did she really just not know any better? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I do know this is bringing negative attention to online poker at a time when we really didn’t need it. And that’s all I have to say about that.

And, before I forget – giggity!

I’m not really into conspiracy theories, but the whole moving Hellmuth to Matusow’s table thing when they were the only two big names left in the Main Event reeks of backroom shenanigans.

From what I’ve heard (and trust me, I don’t hear very much these days), ESPN were really the people running the show this year at the Main Event. So am I surprised that both Hellmuth and Mikey wound up at the same table to put a show on for the crowd? Of course not, poker is entertainment and having those two sitting next to each other is about as good as it gets. Do I think this was some elaborate JFK style conspiracy? Umm, no.

Think about it: the best case scenario for ESPN was having both Phil and Mikey make the final table (along with Tiffany Michelle’s breasts). If they’re sitting at the same table, the chances of them both making the final nine decreases substantially. Instead of having their own pool of fishes to feed on, they were both swimming in the same pond. That means that pond just got a hell of a lot smaller, and there are less fishes to eat.

So save the conspiracies for your local crazy homeless guy – this is poker, not politics. Until next week…

The three guys I was tracking had mixed results. My Toronto pal Stephen Ladowsky nursed a short stack most of the day and finally went out around 480^th when he pushed with A-Q and ran into aces. Iggy managed to maintain and build his stack with some blind steals and re-steals and finished Day 3 with 177,000. Hoyt Corkins fared even better, using his aggressive style to build his stack up to nearly 480,000. It was funny watching him pace the aisles before play began this afternoon. Hoyt seemed more nervous today than he did before the final table of the World Poker Open in Tunica in January (he finished second there). I guess that shows you the importance of the World Series of Poker to people.

Iggy seemed very relaxed and drew fellow poker writer Jeremiah Smith two seats to his right. I talked with Jeremiah (who enters the day second in chip count with about $1.3 million) quite a bit last year, so it’s good to see the former PokerWire reporter doing so well in this event. Plus, Jeremiah was dressed in Full Tilt Poker gear so of course we love him here on Poker From The Rail.

Phil Hellmuth and Jean Robert-Bellande are at the ESPN featured table today. There’s a dynamic duo for you – that should make for good television.

I probably won’t stick around the Rio long here on Day 4 because if I want to make my fortune before I leave Vegas, I need to try to satellite into the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza Main Event on Sunday. If I can win a mint, it will give me a good bankroll for the upcoming FTOPS events.

The World Series of Poker is winding down to a conclusion. I always have mixed feelings on the event’s conclusion. Most of the tables no longer in use have been cleared from the Amazon room. No cash games are running here anymore. You can sense the excitement of the WSOP when it begins, when bankrolls are still fat and hope abounds. By the time the lights are turned off, most dreams have been dashed and a lucky few have earned a king’s ransom.

It’s nearly time to turn out the lights.

As I write this, we have reached double digits in main event participants. Long gone are Iggy, who busted in 403^rd on Day 4 to earn $28,950, and Hoyt Corkins, who was gone in 162^nd place for $41,816. That hiking trip may be on, after all, if he’s up for it. I know how disappointed poker players can be after busting in a major event; and after all, this is the biggest event in poker.

Play will continue here through Tuesday night, when the November Nine prepare for their place in history in, er, November. I can only imagine the feeling those nine players will have after receiving their checks for $900,000 and having the opportunity to return to Vegas four months later to play for more than $8 million more. I don’t believe we’ll see them on The Late Show with David Letterman reading a Top 10 list, but I think the move by Harrah’s to delay the final table until November will create a lot of additional interest and coverage for the WSOP among the mainstream media. Even though I think Harrah’s tries a little too hard to make a buck sometimes ($2.50 for a 12-ounce can of soda in the WSOP Poker Kitchen, really?), I do believe they have the best interest of poker at heart.

I have no grand illusions of personally making a mint during my last few days in Vegas. I have, however, reached the second round of a major blackjack tournament at the Golden Nugget where the winner will received $25,000. Hey, I never said I wasn’t a degenerate! I’ll be taking my remaining bankroll back home to Tuscaloosa with an eye on the upcoming FTOPS events. For now, I’m off to the Bellagio for some cash games. 

Nearly driven mad in the land of poker, I had the opportunity to get out of town on Sunday. Since Hoyt Corkins busted out of the main event on Saturday, he had time to go for a hike.

I went to his house and we hopped in his jeep, fully equipped with four-wheel drive, roll bars, and a five-ton winch that would surely get us out of any sticky situations. Starting too late to tackle Mt. Charleston, we headed to Red Rock Canyon to take the jeep trails into the Rainbow Wilderness area.

It wasn’t easy going up the rocky trails and I was surprised to see a few Grand Cherokee drivers try the climb. Although it was a relatively short distance, it took nearly an hour to reach the North Peak trail from the point where we exited the main scenic drive.

The hike was 1.3 miles from the jeep and I lugged a backpack full of bottled water and trail mix. As the young one of the duo, I got to be the mule. Although the trail was labeled as difficult on the guide sign, we found the going fairly easy at first. Still, those uphill trails can get an out of shape fellow winded pretty quickly, so we took frequent breaks.

The view from the top was worth the hour hike. From the North Peak we could see all of Vegas below, as well as Lake Mead, which was 50 or 60 miles in the distance. I’ve done a lot of hiking in my day, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, but this was the best view from the top with the absence of trees blocking the panoramic view. We stayed for a while to enjoy the view, but departed when we saw rain clouds coming up on us.

“You don’t mess with those flash floods,” Hoyt said. “If it starts raining very hard, we’ll be stuck here for the night.”

I certainly perished that thought so we hustled back, although we had to take it easy in spots due to the loose shale along the trail. It started sprinkling on the way down, and with a cool breeze in our faces it sure beat the heat of walking down the Strip. By the time we made it back to the jeep, the rain had stopped and we headed back down.

Meanwhile, the WSOP Main Event had played on. They’re down to 34 as I write this and will play to 27 tonight. On Monday, they’ll play down to 9 and then everyone will go home for four months. I sense that Tiffany Michelle will be the star of ESPN’s coverage. As an attractive young woman who is currently in the top 10 in chips you can expect to see a lot of her during Main Event television coverage. If she plays here cards right, she could make a mint from the exposure. 

A bleary-eyed and yawning press still awaits the November Nine. As I write this, it’s 12:45 AM in Las Vegas and 10 players remain in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

They’ve finally condensed to one table, after playing on two tables for much of the evening. The bigger names have fallen – first, former World Poker Tour winner Brandon Cantu, then Tiffany Michelle, the last woman standing. Michelle’s 17^th place finish is the best in this event by a woman since Annie Duke went out in 10^th back in 2000.

I think most of us are ready to get the heck out of Sin City. Many have been here for at least six weeks covering the 54 events. After less than four, I’m done with this place. It’s been a frustrating trip for me as I could never get anything going at the tables. Hopefully, the trip will pay off for me in the form of the time I’ve spent networking for more writing opportunities.

Tenth place will get just under $600,000 while the other nine will come back to the Rio Tuesday afternoon for a few hours to get their checks for $900,670 and receive details on what exactly is going to happen over the next four months. ESPN will document how their lives change for a special to air before the plausibly live final table. It will be interesting to see what becomes of these nine.

My favorite at this point is Dennis Phillips, a 53-year-old from St. Louis who wears many hats (including his favorite Cardinals hat). He sells various vehicles and equipment, and is a commercial account manager for a trucking company. He’s played well toward the end, with aggressive raises and re-raises that have caused many opponents to lay down hands. At present, he’s the chip leader with almost 22 million. I had a chance to meet him during the break and he gave me his card so I can call him for a profile for Rounder magazine in the coming months.

Another potential winner is Scott Montgomery, a 26-year-old professional player from Canada, who has a WPT final table from this year on his poker resumé.

It’s now 2 AM and I have to get some sleep before my flights tomorr….er, later today. I’m off to my hotel.  

There’s a lot going on when you sit down to a cash game, and obviously you’ve got to be aware of all of it if you have any intention of being successful. 

When you’re going to play – before you even sit down – you’ve got to decide how much you’re going to buy in for. It might seem like it goes without saying, but you’ve got to be aware of everyone’s chip stack when you decide where to start. For me, I generally like to start out at least equal with – or buy in for more – than the biggest stack at the table.

Another part of this is recognizing who’s properly bankrolled at the table. If there’s somebody that’s playing on case money, then he’s generally a good opponent to pick on: they’re the one’s taking a shot at the game. If they don’t succeed, they’re going to drop down or they’re done for a while. Recognizing this lets you manipulate certain situations and take full advantage of them.

As far as recognizing opponents goes, one of the most important things that you have to do whenever you sit down is develop an accurate profile of each person at the table. Profiling is a matter of getting exactly who all of the other players at the table are and how they’re playing. This is critical and you need to learn to do it quickly.

For example, if you sit down with an older guy that’s retired and just there to have fun, you know that you can probably get away (with) a lot. Of course, you could be sitting with a guy who looks exactly the same, but has been around the block more than a few times and has been playing poker for years. You need to be able to figure out the difference between the two real fast. A lot of this is intuitive, but it’s all about recognizing experience in a player; figuring out who’s strong and who’s weak. Also keep in mind that just because someone is an unknown doesn’t mean that they aren’t good – you’ve always got to watch how they act, what they do at the table and listen to what they say.

This is a little different with players coming from an online background. If you’ve got an opponent with a reputation as a really strong online player, it’s probably a good idea to sit back and take a more passive approach until you figure out how they play live. I think that this is definitely a case where live players have an edge over online players. For myself, I’m accurate about 90% of the time when I put someone on being a particular type of player: solid, an amateur, a seasoned pro.

Of course, the flip-side of this is how they perceive you as a player. For me, if I’ve got any notoriety at a game, people recognize or greet me by name, maybe even comment on my play, I can use it to establish an image as an aggressive player that might check/raise with nothing. If I pick up on that, I can make moves like betting 4K into a 2K pot and get paid off with middle pair because this person thinks that I’m playing with nothing. On the other hand, if someone doesn’t think that about me or doesn’t know how I play, I have to adjust accordingly – it all depends on how I see their read on me.

Once you know how people view you, then it’s just a reverse psychology game. You can adapt to that in so many ways – this is one of the strongest parts of my game. It really lets me manipulate the table to my advantage.

If you can keep all of this in mind, you should be able to figure out what and who you’re dealing with right off the bat. Take full advantage of it, and you’ll be the one getting paid off.