Archive for May, 2010

Good Evening Poker Addicts !

The last week I’ve tried to qualify for the World Series of Poker Main Event by playing satellites on PokerStars but for now I haven’t been lucky yet. I was pretty deep in on of those but my pocket Tens where crushed on the river when the guy hitted his Ace. It was a chance, but I’m not giving up guys. I really want to play there one day. That must be wonderful. Anyway I love playing poker at FatBet  these days. I’ve just played for a month now and I’ve already won 350 euro which is nice. I’ve played for that for more than a year on PokerStars. I mean, full of fish there on FatBet. But you are probably steaming right now to know the next three players on numbers 10, 9 and 8. Let’s start with some Danish Dynamite…

(10)   =>   GUS   HANSEN

> Gustav Hansen

> born 13/02/1974, around Copenhagen (DEN)

> resides now in Monaco (FRA).

> Nickname : ‘ The Great Dane ‘

> finished 61th in the 2007 WSOP Main Event

> won 4 WPT-titles (’02 Five Diamond/ ‘03 L.A. Poker Classic/ ‘04 Caribbean Poker/ ‘04 Bad Boys of poker)

> won the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event

> was the first winner of Poker After Dark

> plays online at Full Tilt Poker as a member of Team Full Tilt.

> has Live Tournament Winnings of over $ 7,500,000 (until 2009).

Gus was a former world class backgammon player and youth tennis champion in his country before playing poker professionally in 1997. He calls himself more a professional gambler as well at as besides the table. He has made bets on several various athletic challenges, such as a tennis match with his good friend Patrik Antonius. Mr. Hansen is also a successful businessman as he closed online ventures with PokerChamps.com (now Betfair poker), thePlayr.com and GusHansenTV. Gus has an unique style of playing, betting and checking. He’s mostly playing his opponent in stead of his cards as he can hold any two cards at any time which makes him virtually impossible to read. He has a very agressive style and he makes some loose plays from time to time. The Great Dane is a big and wildly respected player in tournaments and at the biggest cash games, being a regular in Bellagio’s Big Game. He’s featured in the Professional Poker Tour and on several seasons of GSN’s High Stakes Poker where I once played a memorable hand against Negreanu, called by Daniel ‘his biggest beat ever’ when Gus had quads against Daniel’s sixes full on a board 9 6 5 5 8. Gustav is the only player with 4 World Poker Tour titles and he was inducted into the WPT Wall of Fame in 2004. He also made 7 other final tables at WPT and EPT and he was the winner of season 1 of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Mr. Hansen took AUD$ 1,500,000 for his Aussie Millions Main Event victory and his book ‘ Everyhand Revealed ‘ describes his hands and thoughts during that event. Gus was once voted one of the top-100 sexiest men on the planet.

(09)   =>   SCOTTY   NGUYEN

> Thuan B. ” Scotty ” Nguyen

> born 28/10/1962, Nha Trang (VIET)

> resides now in Henderson, Nevada (USA) with his wife Julie and 5 kids.

> Nickname : ‘ The Train ‘ or ‘ The Prince of Poker ‘

> was the WSOP Main Event World Champion winner in 1998

> won 4 other Bracelets (’97 Omaha 8 or better, ‘01 Pot Limit Omaha, ‘01 Omaha Hi-Lo split 8 or better, ‘08 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship)

> won 1 WPT-title (’06 Gold Strike) after defeating Michael Mizrachi.

> likes his favourite hand Jack of Diamonds and Nine of Clubs.

> has Live Tournament Winnings of over $ 11,270,000 (until 2009)

Scotty came to America with his family at the age of 14 before being expelled from school for spending too much time in underground poker games. He became a dealer at Harrah’s and played Stud with his earnings, but lost too much. That all changed in 1985 when his luck turned and he gambled his bankroll up to $ 1 million. But when he also gambled too much on marijuana, cocaine and alcohol, he soon lost his million again. Finally he made his way into the 1998 WSOP Main Event due to financial support from Mike Matusow and as you all know Scotty won it:). Mike got his share. Sadfully the day after his win, Scotty lost his brother who died in Vietnam, so you’ll never see Scotty with that Bracelet on, out of respect for his brother. Scotty is famous for playing with emotion and a lot of talking, most of the time using his stopwords ‘baby‘ or ‘yeah baby‘ and the famous sentences ” That’s poker baby ” and ” You call, it’s gonna be all over baby ” (during his last hand heads-up at the 1998 WSOP Main Event). Scotty consideres himself more as a tournament player, which he enjoys more than the strict and serious cash games. He’s definately one of the most colourful and charasmatic characters in the circuit wearing a lot of diamonds and juwels with his sporting outfit. Scotty had a not so pleasant win at the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. WC in 2008 because of his rule-breaking behaviour with swearing and scolding at others at the table due to alcohol. He excused many times afterwards and stated that he’ll never drink again during a tournament. Later in 2009 Scotty won the inaugural LA Poker Classic $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. WC at the Commerce which proved once more his reputation as one of the greatest masters of all variations of fixed limit poker.

(08)   =>   HOWARD   LEDERER

> Howard Henry Lederer

> born 30/10/1964 in Concord, New Hampshire (USA)

> currently resides in Las Vegas with wife Suzie and son Mattias.

> brother of famous poker pro Annie Duke

> Nickname : ‘ The Professor ‘

> was 5th in the 1987 WSOP Main Event

> won 2 Bracelets (’00 Limit Omaha  Hi-Lo/ ‘01 2-7 Draw)

> won 2 WPT-titles (’02 Foxwoods, ‘03 Party Poker M.)

> plays online at Full Tilt Poker as a member of Team Full Tilt.

> has Live Tournament Earnings of almost $ 5,600,000 (until 2009)

Howard was a young chess talent, playing at high school and at Columbia University before he discovered the magical game of poker and he joined the famous Mayfair Club later on, where others like Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington were regulars. Howard is very famous for his analytical style at the table, for his long history of wins and for his instructional poker books, videos and camps. Combine that with his symbolic suits he wears and he’s correctly the one and only ‘ Professor ‘. Howard also has some other roles in the poker community besides playing and teaching. He’s the co-host for Poker Superstars and Learn from the Pros and he’s one of the founders and CEOs of ‘ Tiltware Inc. ‘, who are the owners and creators of Full Tilt Poker, along with Ray Bitar. Howard is a vegan and hod obese for much of his life, so he had a gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. He once won a $10,000 prop bet from David Grey for eating a cheeseburger. Of course, Mr. Lederer is a superb tournament and cash game player. He won AUD 1.25 million by winning the $100,000 NL Hold’em Challenge at the 2008 Aussie Millions, being the world’s most expensive tourney buy-in ever. He also won 3 Poker After Dark titles and was the first WPT Player of the Season. He has been a regular in the biggest high stakes cash games for more than 10 years, which is quite exceptional. He’s wildly considered by his peers as one of the best NL Hold’em players.

Finally, we’ve started with the magical and divine top-Ten out of my Most Famous Poker Players list. Let me know I’ve you agree! I hope to see you again next time when I present to you the number 7 and 6.

Cheers,

J.M.

Hi tournament lovers !

Today I’m going to show you a complete summary about the Spring Championship of Online Poker 2010 that I played on PokerStars. I played in 5 events in total, each time at the low limits as my bankroll isn’t ready yet for bigger buy-ins. I had won 5 tickets to play at these SCOOP Events by winning them at the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker earlier this year as you’ve read before. I had different tickets: one of $33, two of $22, one of $16.50 and one of $11. So I really couldn’t choice which event I played and I had to look at the buy-in.

So the first event I’ve played was Event (L-2)  $22 No Limit Hold’em. I was a little bit unsure at the beginning of the tournament because everybody started very deep stacked with a starting stack of 10000 and blinds at 25/50. After some unlucky beats (full boat over full boat e.g.) , I was very quick down to 10 BB. But I managed to hang in there by some winning all-ins with  QQ or 77, both pairs that I got a lot that day. So when more than half of the field was out and we were closer to the money I got a feeling that I had a shot for cashing. I still got around 10 BB like the hole tournament long so I couldn’t maintain a winning streak and had only one move, to shove when I got a hand. So I did with Ace-Queen suited in the cut off and I got called by pocket Eights. I lost the race and I went out in 7469th place out of 26200 entrants.

My second Event was the SCOOP (L-8)  $11 NLHE with 18353 entrants.  I played very good, playing smallball poker and I got some good hands and sexy rivers at the right times, combined with well-timed agression and bluffed at the right moments. I build a good stack and was at one time in the top-100 which was nice for such big tournament. But this Event started very late and after more than 6 hours of playing  the sun already came up. I was extremely tired and I couldn’t get any hand so I blinded away in the money. So I decided to play very agressive and shove with any pair or big Ace. So I did with my Eights but got called by Nines and I couldn’t suckout. I should have really went to sleep in stead of playing like that and just sit-out and see te next morning how far I came. Oh well, it was an experience. I went out in 683th place with $50.25 in the bag. those Events are not well-timed for the European players and it’s really not fair!!!

The next stop was at Event (L-15) $16.50 NLHE with 11206 players. I just had a successful poker evening with friends behind me so I was ready to gamble. I called a raise with QT of Spades and I flopped a monster with an open ended straight flush draw. The guy had flopped top set so he called my reraise-shove and I wasn’t lucky because I missed my monsterdraw and went out in 9111th place. The following Event was (L-20) $22 NLHE again with this time 21481 entrants. I was card dead for a long time and I couldn’t get any action when I got a hand or I flopped something finally. It was really frustrating for me and I couldn’t build a stack and was constantly on a rollercoaster with my stack.  Than I woke up with Jacks and my raise got repopped by the big stack bully and I shoved with my Jacks, being absolutely sure I had the best hand against his loose character. He called with pocket Sixes and I laughed out loud when the flop came 9-6-6. Well, I guess that’s poker, baby ! I went out with nothing in 14.3l75th place.

My last ticket was the biggest one that I spend in Event (L-29) $33 8-Game with 3138 entrants. I really love this 8-Game. the second time I played it after I also cashed in the WBCOOP with this game of poker so I was confident going in. So there are 8 different games of poker as you hear in the name: start with  Limit Triple Draw 2-7, than Limit Hold’em, Limit Omaha H/L, Limit Razz, Limit Stud, Limit Stud H/L, NL Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and back to the first one. The key is to play your best games strong + active and lay low at your weaker games and only draw to the nuts. So I did successfully and worked myself into the money again. I was busted out in the Triple Draw 2-7 where I was unlucky to draw an Ace at the end when I held 3-4-5-7 . But well, I really love the variation in this game and of course my $48.95 earnings for finishing in 411th place.

So this SCOOP 2010 have been quite good for me as I earned around $100 with my two cashes combined and I didn’t bought any buy-in myself. I’ve also got more big stack tournaments experience now which can only be good for the future. Next time I’ll present you the numbers 10,9 and 8 of my Most Famous Poker Players top-100 list. There are two more grown-up men and one guy nominated as one of the top-10 hottest guys on earth ! See you than, especially all the ladies out there !

Cheers,

J.M.

Hi there !

I’ve played two events at the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) for the moment, with some different success and results. First I’ve played the 2nd event No Limit Hold’em at the Low Limits where I went out in 7469th place just before the money by a horrible beat. My second event was Tuesday night where I’ve played in Event 8, NLHE at the Low Limit again. I was more successful there because I cashed in 683th place out of 18.353 entrants. I earned around $50 after more than seven hours of playing where I was as tired as hell. You could say that the Events are more a benefit for the American players.

Oh well, I’ll report extensively about the SCOOP and the Events I’ve played in my next post. But for now let’s join the next two players in my list before we reach the magical Top Ten. We could say that these two are for sure two of the most hottest online players for the moment and fearless High Stakes Cash Game rockets. Here they are…

(12)   =>   TOM   DWAN

> Thomas Dwan

> born 30/07/1986 in Edison, New Jersey (USA)

> Nickname : ‘ durrrr ‘

> is an online poker phenom

> finished 12th at the EPT Main Event London, which was his first live tournament

> plays online at Full Tilt Poker as a member of Team Full Tilt.

> won around $1,150,000 in Live Tournament Play (until 2009)

Tom attended Boston University as an engineering major before quitting school to play poker full-time. He’s wildly considered as one of the most dangerous and best high stakes cash game players in the world. His No Limit Hold Em and Pot Limit Omaha game is fearless, renovated and successful. His tournament results are still away, despite his only final table at the World Poker Tour. He appeared on different seasons of Poker After Dark, Million Dollar Cash Game and High Stakes Poker. He started his online poker career at Paradise Poker with $50 which he’ve turned in a online bankroll around $5 million which makes him one of the best online high stakes cash game player out there. Mr. Dwan has constantly huge swings with his online bankroll after frequently sick challenges with Antonius, Ivey, Brian Townsend, Ilari ‘ Zigmund ‘ Sahamies and others. But Durrrr still manages to recover his losses which proves he’s one of the best online guns. Tom holds the record for winning the largest pot ever in a recorded live game at over $1,100,000. It was televised during the 4th season of Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game. Tom is also the creator of the Durrrr Challenge where anybody can play him for $ 1 million during 50,000 hands on NLHE or PLO. Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius have already accepted the offer.

(11)   =>   PATRIK   ANTONIUS

> born 13/12/1980, Helsinki (FIN)

> currently resides in Monte Carlo (FRA).

> married to Maya Geller and has one child.

> Nickname : ‘ Black Lotus ‘ or ‘ The Fin ‘

> won EPT Baden in 2005.

> won 1 Poker After Dark title

> plays online at Full Tilt Poker as a member of Team Full Tilt

> has Live Tournament Winnings of over $2,850,000 (until 2009)

Patrik is a former tennis player/coach and he’s a model. He began his poker career as a good tournament player with his European Poker Tour win and final tables at WSOP, WPT and EPT. He was also mentored by Jennifer Harman and Marcel Luske in the beginning of his career. He’s well-known as one of the best and fearless online rockets with most of his winnings at the highest cash games. He’s a heads-up specialist, is the first contestant in Durrrr’s Challenge and has already won millions of Dollars online. In November 2009, Patrik won the biggest pot in the online poker history against Isildur1, a cool $1,356,946. Besides online play, Patrik is a successful and fearless live cash game player, being a regular in the Big Game at the Bellagio. He made successful appearances in different seasons of GSN’s High Stakes Poker, including one of the show’s largest pots ever between him and Sammy Farha for a cool $ 998,800 in the pot from which Patrik won 3/4. Patrik is famous for his ice cold poker face and his prop bets at the table. I can say with proud that Mister Antonius is one of my favourite players as well for his play, making monster calls with small hands or making well-timed blufs, as for his beautiful wife.

Well, those two are pretty close to the Magical Top Ten, don’t they? Maybe they will climb in the list when I make it the second time because they are both running extremy hot for the moment. I see you next time for an update on my SCOOP before we move on with the top-10 of my Most Famous Poker Players list. Keep it Smallball guys !

Cheers

J.M.