Entries from May, 2008
One TD to Rule them All
Posted by The Captain | Filed under Bloggers Corner
Heralded by months of speculation on policy and change, the WSOP is finally here. With that, anyone who’s made a quick cruise through the boards has probably come across entire threads dedicated not only to what is happening, but whether it’s good or bad and why. While some of that’s interesting and some people have valid opinions on their topic of choice, one striking aspect of it all is how upset people get over tournament rules. In particular, I’m talking about player conduct.
Tags: WSOP
Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Days 29-30
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
I am not quite sure how to classify what day of my trip it is at the moment. My current sleep schedule goes as follows: go to sleep at noon, wake up at 9PM, stay up all night, sleep again at noon. As a result, for the last couple nights I’ve been relaxing in the room and playing online poker. On my first day back I managed to run like god in a $200 freeze-out tournament and win for $20,000. Online poker > live poker.
Since very little has been going on I thought it’d be a good idea to talk about my past experiences at the WSOP leading up to WSOP 2008, which will kick off for me with Day 1B of the $1,500 NLH event on June 1st.
Tags: Bond18
Heads Up: Roland de Wolfe Versus Aaron Bartley
Posted by One Angry Monkey | Filed under Heads Up
Welcome back to another round of the Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up Challenge, not to be confused with the Full Tilt Poker $25K Heads-Up World Championship. The $25 HUWC was an actual “poker” event held this past weekend on FTP where real “players” competed against one another for prize money. This Heads-Up Challenge actually has nothing to do with “poker” in any way, except for the fact that we’re talking about “poker players” here. So with that little caveat aside, let’s move on to the good stuff. Today’s match is another 5 seed versus 12 seed battle, as Roland “Proof that even British people can play poker” de Wolfe takes on Aaron “Ladies, I’m single and I have a car” Bartley. This should be a good one folks, as an established live pro takes on our first real online player. Gentlemen, start your engines:
Tags: Aaron Bartley, Roland de Wolfe
Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Days 27-28
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
I find myself in seat one of table 4 for the start of Day 3. The top 27 places will pay, with 27th getting 7,500 Euro. There are about three stacks below me, but nobody is extremely short and they’re sure to nit it up to a totally absurd degree. The blinds are 2,000/4,000 with a 400 ante and my 68,500 gives me just over 17 BBs to work with. The cards get in the air a few minutes late and I spend my time chatting to the Swedish guy on my left.
I fold the first four hands, which see minimal action on most tables. On the fifth hand I get involved:
My stack: ~62,000. Villain: ~240K. I hold A-Jo in the SB. Blinds 2,000/4,000 with 400 ante.
Tags: Bond18
Reader Mail: WSOP Madness!
Posted by One Angry Monkey | Filed under Reader Mail
Reader Mail – the journey continues. The World Series of Poker is set to kick off in just a couple of days, so how about an all WSOP flavored mailbag to get you in the right mood for the impending madness? Email us at pokerfromtherail@fulltiltpoker.com with any comments, questions, or ill-advised inquiries about any subjects that have nothing to do with poker. It’s time to roll and rock:
The Pros Speak: Jennifer Harman
Posted by The Captain | Filed under The Pros Speak
Whenever there’s a large tournament coming up, conversation always turns to strategies and tactics for making the big score. Whether or not we’re actually playing, we’ve all got opinions on how it should be done. This is especially true when it comes to talking about tells or reads in live play.
Rather than sharing the explicitly unprofessional views of my colleagues and I, we thought it was in order to seek out the opinion of someone who has a demonstrated mastery of the subject. To that end, Team Full Tilt’s Jennifer Harman has a few thoughts on what her opponents are telling her about their game – before they even start playing. Here’s what she had to say:
Tags: Jennifer Harman, Live Poker
The Week at FTP: Heads-Up Madness!
Posted by One Angry Monkey | Filed under The Week at FTP
Welcome to The Week at FTP, where the only thing on our minds is the $25K Heads-Up World Championship. Considering Big Donkey’s strong aversion to heads-up play, we thought it best if I took a crack at giving you a recap of the largest buy-in heads-up tourney ever. Without further ado, let’s get this show on the road:
Tags: $25K Heads-Up World Championship, Phil Ivey
Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 26
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
It takes until almost 6AM to feel tired enough to go to sleep. Some people are able to play in a major tournament and sleep like a baby that night; I am not one of those people. I’ve had trouble sleeping for a very long time and the additional pressure of a major tournament, plus the exponential pressure added from trying to stop the descent into failure don’t help.
The room, lacking a clock or any means to tell the time, only increases my paranoia. I find myself waking up several times in a state of near panic wondering what time it is. On top of that, when I fall back asleep I have a strange kind of nightmare where I can’t fall asleep and soon reality is blurring with unconsciousness. I’ve ordered a 2:30PM wake up call (play starts at 3pm) and, upon waking up yet again in a terror over the time, I call downstairs to the front desk and ask for the time:
Tags: Bond18
Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day25
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
I settle into my seat on table 6 and find seat 9 even more uncomfortable than imagined. There is only a tiny bit of space between the back of my chair and the guy sitting in seat 6 on the table behind me, to the degree that I already know we’ll be jamming into each other all day and dealers will have to shove me into the table just to make a change over. Whatever though, I’ve got a chair, 15,000 chips, and hour levels to work with, plus a table full of nobody I’ve ever seen before. Cards get in the air with 25/50 blinds.
My table seems very tight weak to start. There’s not even much in the way of limping, just a lot of folding over and over. In most live tournaments, and especially early, I’ve developed what I call a ‘Small ball LAG/Big ball TAG’ style. That is to say, I open raise quite a few pots, continuation bet at a higher frequency than online, and occasionally bluff scare cards, but for the most part don’t get very out line. I try to build an aggressive image and then when I play a big pot and start multi-barreling I have it a large percent of the time. Obviously in tough tournaments or if I happen to draw a tough table with many thinking players I can’t be so consistent, but creating an image in small pots that I abuse in larger ones seem to trick normal live players just fine.
Tags: Bond18
Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 24
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
Barcelona Spain, May 23: It is a manic day. Reflecting on last night I realize I was pretty wound up but a good night’s rest has mellowed me out. That has kind of become my process when things get close and then fall apart; tap the table politely and say good luck, walk home, and spend the next two hours rambling at Celina about “those fucking live motherfucking nit bastards.” Then a few hours later or the next morning everything is fine.
Still, today is weird because I have to seek out 5,300 Euros in less than 24 hours. When I fire up the computer I find a private message from Timex which reads: “He hasn’t replied yet [referring to someone who was supposed to help with a transfer], western union was all automated and I could never get to a real person after trying for a while, you still in the prelim?”
Tags: Bond18
