Change100 at PokerWorks

This will be my last post here at PokerWorks. I depart the blog family incredibly thankful to Linda for the opportunity to write here. I’ll be concentrating more on writing feature pieces and tournament coverage for PokerNews, and will continue to blog about poker, Hollywood, music, American Idol and my misadventures with Showcase and Pauly over at my original home, Pot Committed.

Please don’t forget about my friends who are still blogging away for the PW family. I’ll certainly still be reading them every day.

So, goodnight. Good luck at the tables. And thank you.

There’s a reason Pauly dubbed Amy Calistri as “the Nancy Drew of poker.” Amy has the uncanny knack for getting to the bottom of any story, as she just did with the Case of the Shitty Ladies’ Event Payouts. Says Amy:

“I realized that the structure has a break in payouts for fields larger than 1000 players. For example, 27 players (or three tables of nine) get paid for fields between 200-299, 36 players (or four tables of nine) get paid for fields between 300-399, and so it goes in 100 player increments. So if you played in a field of 300 players, 36 players got paid or 12% of the field. If your field was 399 players, 36 players got paid or just over 9% of the field. But the 100 player increments stop at 1000 and increase to 500 player increments. If you played in a field of 1000-1499, 99 players (or eleven tables of nine got paid. If you played in a field of 1000 players, 99 got paid or 9.9% of the field. But if you played in a field of 1499, 99 got paid or just 6.6% of the field.”

So there you have it. Good to know Harrah’s isn’t just screwing over women (and old people, as the seniors event drew over 1,800), they’re screwing over everyone. Which still doesn’t make it right. But at least they’re equal opportunity screwers. (more…)

I sat down. I stood up. I paced. I went to the Poker Kitchen for some cookies and Red Bull. And then I paced some more. I half-heartedly read an abandoned copy of Bluff Magazine. And then I gave it away to some other guy who seemed to be in the same mindframe as I was.

Sit down. Stand up. Pace. Look over at the table. Breathe when he finally folds his hand/drags the pot/ stacks his chips. Give encouragement with a reassuring smile. (more…)

“Oh my God, she’s so serious!” cried the woman with cropped gray hair who sat on my right in the 1 seat.

Just minutes ago she had given me her business card. She worked at the Ocean’s 11 Casino in San Diego County. We had chatted for a few minutes before the cards went in the air. And now, maybe four orbits into the tournament, I thought she was typical dead money like the rest of my table.

“This is serious.” I shot back. “This is the World Series of Poker. I don’t see how it gets more serious than this.” (more…)

I played the PokerStars Oceans 13 Darfur Tournament this afternoon and finished 263rd out of 744 runners. The event ended up raising $41,800 for Not On Our Watch. I went in for 4 rebuys plus the add-on and happily busted my Stars account for a worthy cause. I ended up seated at the same table as the lovely Mad Harper, who covers the EPT for PokerStars while Pauly drew Humberto Brenes’ table. He had more railbirds than the Costa Rican “Sharrrrrrrk.” I spotted Drizz, Katitude, yestbay1, bayne_s, AlCantHang, Derek, EPT founder John Duthie, Katja Thater, Bill Chen, Tom McEvoy, and Chris Moneymaker in the field.

My big opportunity to acquire a stack came late in the rebuy period when I called with A-K in a four-way pre-flop all in. My opponents had K-J, K-J and 5-8 offsuit. An 8 flopped and I was felted. Did a double rebuy and hung on with between 3000-5500 for the rest of the tourney. I donked out when I raised with K-T from the cutoff, got re-raised by the button and just decided to shove for 10 BB more. He had Q-Q and that was the ballgame. But it wasn’t really about winning in this one.

Pauly played a lot better than I did and went out on a bona fide bad beat “with A-9 vs. A-2 and the cumstain rivered a 2… you can quote me on that.”

I played a few $6.50 turbos during the Darfur tourney and finished 2-2-4, funding a couple of rebuys. I suck at playing heads-up in these turbos and seem to lose all solid reasoning and patience when we both have like, 6000 chips and the blinds are 400-800/100. I blew huge chipleads heads-up to land both my second place finishes.

Tomorrow, Pauly and I pack up the car and move to Vegas for the next two months to cover the WSOP for PokerNews. For our summer digs, we have a lovely furnished apartment with a patio and a big screen TV at the tweaker-free Del Bocca Vista complex, which also features two pools and a gym. We have a ridiculously short commute to the Rio and are within a five-minute drive of a Sonic. Mmmmmm… Texas Toasters. We’ll have a few days to settle in, attend some pre-WSOP meetings, and hopefully find time to play some cards.

There are two major poker events on the horizon that will benefit the war-torn region of Darfur in the Sudan. Nearly half a million people have been killed there over the last three years including thousands upon thousands of children.

For those with smaller bankrolls, Poker Stars is hosting the Ocean’s Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament next Sunday, May 27th, at 12:30 PM PDT/3:30 PM EDT. Details below from the PokerStars Blog:

Buy-in: $10 plus rebuys

Prizes: Top 4 receive tickets to June 5th premiere in Los Angeles plus 2 night’s hotel and $2k for travel/spending.
Top 18 receive autographed copy of “Oceans 13” DVD.

These tournaments are special re-buy tournaments - the entire prize pool will be matched by PokerStars and donated to the Darfur relief efforts. At the conclusion of the event the prize pool, which will be temporarily awarded to the 1st place finisher, will be removed from the 1st place finisher’s account.

The amount will then be matched by PokerStars and sent forward to the Darfur charity. Thank you for participating - go re-buy crazy! – it’s for a good cause. Good luck!

Proceeds from the PokerStars Darfur Tournament benefit Not on Our Watch.

If you can’t make the tournament, it’s still possible to donate funds. Simply make a player-to-player transfer to the PokerStars account “NOOW,” which is set up to take additional donations.

For players with larger bankrolls, Ocean’s Thirteen star Don Cheadle and WSOP bracelet winner Annie Duke have collaborated to raise public awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur with the Ante Up for Africa Charity Tournament to be held at the Rio on July 5 at 4 PM, on the eve of the WSOP Main Event.

The tournament has a $5,000 buy-in and will benefit the International Rescue Committee and The Enough Project. In addition to pro poker players like Duke, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowen, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem, and Andy Bloch, actors and sports stars including Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jennifer Tilly, Matt Damon, and Charles Barkley are expected to play. A star-studded after-party will follow at the Voodoo Lounge at 10 PM for all tournament participants.

Please do your best to support these events and spread the word.

The Backstory

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I sat at a conference table across from half a dozen agents in the Beverly Hills offices of the “big five” agency that represents, among hundreds of Hollywood luminaries, filmmaker Curtis Hanson. The Big Man’s lieutenants and foot soldiers had these agency “walk-throughs” from time to time at all of the major percentaries on Wilshire Blvd., and these meetings were really just a way for us to get good face time with the agents and find out what their big clients were up to.

I was doodling something in my notebook when I heard one of the young Ari Gold wannabes at the end of the table say something about the World Series of Poker. My ears perked up like a puppy’s.

“Curtis is in pre-production on it right now. It’s a father-son story set against the backdrop of Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker.” (more…)

There are ten players remaining in a 45 player SNG. Six are paid. Blinds are 250-500 and play is five-handed. Action is folded to you in the small blind and you hold the 8c-9s. You have 9200 chips and the big blind has 12,500. You complete the blind and the BB checks. The flop is the 5s-6c-9c. You bet 1,000. The BB raises to 2,000 and you call. The turn is the 5c. The pot is 5,000 and you have 4,600 left.

What’s your move?

Typically I’d be giving EPT Monte Carlo final tabler Gavin Griffin all sorts of flack for his spiky coif that is currently dyed a light pink, but there is quite a story behind the odd color job. According to a report on the PokerStars blog, Gavin and his girlfriend Kristen, a breast cancer survivor, recently did the Avon Walk for Life and have pledged to walk another 39 miles this summer. Gavin dyed his hair pink for the walk in a show of solidarity. PokerStars has aggreed to help their effort in a big way, donating $15,000 to the Walk for Life to start and by matching donations up to $100,000 made by PokerStars players for the duration of the EPT Monte Carlo final table (where Gavin is just outside the chip lead).

To make a donation, open up PokerStars and make a player-to-player transfer to a special account set up for this purpose called “AvonDonate.”

Kudos to Gavin for raising awareness. Hopefully there will be major good karma on the way for him at this final table!

**UPDATE**

DEFINITELY good karma. Gavin just won the EPT Monte Carlo, collecting 1,825,010 Euros!

I’m blogging from the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, where I’ve joined Pauly, Derek and Senor on their annual March Madness trip. Thousands of degenerate gamblers will descend upon Sin City this weekend to place their bets on the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games jacking up hotel rates everywhere. Wanna stay at Excalibur this weekend? It’ll cost you $274/ a night. Thankfully we booked early, and are 12 miles away from the crowds on the Strip. Red Rock is gorgeous and our room is seriously swank. The bed was more comfortable than my own at home, the view spectacular, and we have a 30-something inch plasma TV on which to enjoy the March Madness games during the little time we’ll spend outside the casino. Everything is white walls and dark wood and the bathroom a marble palace. (more…)