Street3

Since I began playing poker way back in the late2007’s, I thought there weren’t any bad times to play poker, barring weddings and funerals.  But this Thanksgiving week/weekend, proved me wrong!  I was never home long enough to play as I had thanksgiving at my parents and at Kelly’s house.  And then as soon as family leaves, I get the shits and thrown ups, medically known as a stomach virus.  It was not pretty; I missed the Twitter Poker Tour because of family and missed playing poker because of the horridness that found every way to exit my body as humanly possible.  I tried to login and play some online poker on Full Tilt, but just wasn’t in the mindset to play.   

One good thing about being sick and bed ridden is that I can still browse the internet’s looking to learn something more about holdem and I found a great place to learn the rules, over at Full Tilt, along with the series of blogs, I found Poker from the Rail, I was able to entertain myself while sitting on the throne and puking into a bucket!  Good times!  The good news is that I feel 100% better today and if I can turn my $2.12 of poker funds into $6, I will be playing with Geoff and Paul and the rest of the TPTpoker gang in the Twitter Poker Tour, which plays every Thursday at 9 PM EST on Full Tilt Poker!  Join Geoff and Paul on the twitter poker show this week are Jason Mercier and maybe Randal Flowers.  The reason I say maybe Randal Flowers is because after the TPT tweeted that he and Jason were joining the show, @RandALLin replied, “I am? Lol” So, you’ll have join them live at http://twitterpokertour.com/live to see who shows up!  See you all on the virtual felt.  Peace.

Going into last night’s Twitter Poker Tour, I was somewhere around 31^st on the leader board, mainly due to my horrendous 50^th place finish last week, as the week before I finished in a somewhat (insert donkey sound) respectable 22^nd.  So I told myself to play better, tighten up my opening range, which usually hovers around almost anything depending on my mood and stop getting in good and getting sucked out!   I picked up Aces FOUR times, unfortunately, twice was in the BB and everyone folded around, once I opened up to 4x and only got the BB to call, then check/fold the flop and the fourth time, I was in middle position, and kbinferno opened up 3x and FTP decides to lock up on me and force a time out.  I got wilted down and shoved 77 into JJ, lucky for me a 7 fell on the river to more than double me up and I was sitting pretty, around 7^th of 35 remaining (I believe 93 started).  After that, nothing good happened, I remember a few times being forced out of pots with nothing.  Eventually, near the money bubble, I was dealt JJ.  Scott Diamond, aka, DeputySD, aka chiwawa, opened up a standard raise, Val Zlasdjkflasjkdflakfowekasldagaldk (pardon that his last name is too hard to spell),aka, Blizge, smooth called and I jam my remaining chips, to my delight, both Scott and Val called, I was looking at a triple up! The flop came T high, two hearts, Scott shoved and Val insta called.  My heart sank.  I knew I was beat. And man was I ever beat, Scott held TT for a flopped set and Val held QQ .   Both players had me, I was looking to spike one of the last two Jacks, but fortunes were not on my side and Scott’s set held and eliminated me in 22^nd.  Money was at 19.  Oh well. I really enjoyed playing and listening to the broadcast as Paul and Geoff interviewed November 9’er Matt Jarvis and was later joined by Bluff Magazines senior editor, Jess Welman and the man who takes pretty pictures and knows a lot about the happenings in the world of poker, B.J. Nemeth.   Lifelong TPTer Tracy Snell would end up shipping the event, thus securing himself a leader board top spot and a ticket into the 750K Guarantee on Full Tilt Poker this Sunday (or any Sunday he wants to play).  Thanks again for a great show and event guys.  And remember; if you play online poker, please come join us every Thursday night at 9 PM EST! See you next week!

The 2010 WSOP is on the verge of completion, just one table left and 9 players fighting it out for a 1^st place prize of over $8.9 million and the title of Main Event Champion.  Of the nine players left, an unprecedented SEVEN are Full Tilt Poker sponsored players.  Unfortunately, due to WSOP regulations regarding site affiliated logos, only four will be allowed to wear the Full Tilt logos during the televised final table.  Full Tilt has its hands full in selecting which four of the seven to wear the logos.  Obviously, Michael Mizrachi will be one, but who else?   Well let’s look at seat position and chip counts:

                Seat 2:  Joseph Cheong (23,525,000)

                Seat 3:  John Dolan (46,250,000)

                Seat 5:  Michael Mizrachi (14,450,000)

                Seat 6:   Matt Jarvis (16,700,000)

                Seat 7:  John Racener (19,050,000)

                Seat 8:  Filippo Candio (16,400,000)

                Seat 9:  Soi Nguyen (9,650,000)

I would guess that Full Tilt would want maximum exposure; therefore putting logos on who they feel has the best shot of winning, and then who would last longest.  Based on the chip counts, I would say, in addition to the Grinder, logos will be put on John Dolan, Joseph Cheong and most likely John Racener.  Although short stacked, Soi Nguyen, an amateur, could be one wearing FTP logos because most of the viewing audience can relate more to him.   For more in depth articles and analysis, check out Full Tilt Poker’s WSOP 2010 Final Table Coverage.   Leave a comment and let me know who you think will wear the logos and what you think of the WSOP’s rule only allowing a maximum of 4 players representing the same site at each featured table.

The Twitter Poker Tour, or #TPTPoker, is quickly approaching it’s two year anniversary.  The first game, played on Full Tilt Poker on October 30^th, 2008, was the beginning of a weekly game between amateur players who found each other on twitter.  The game has grown from just a few friends, to many different players, including some pros, sponsorship deals with Dueces Cracked, Bluff Magazine, Full Tilt Poker and others along the way.  Prizes are awarded each week and to the top three finishers in a monthly leaderboard. Some ridiculous prizes have even been provided by Matt Waldron just by listening to the live show on Ustream.  That’s right, the #tptpoker is broadcast live each week by hosts Paul Ellis and Geoff Manning.  Weekly quests have included the likes of Andy Bloch, Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Alex Outhread and many more. The TPT is open to anyone who wants to shell out $6 for a double stack, no-limit holdem tournament, a twitter is account is preferred, but no necessary.  Lots of ribbing and joking and shit talking along the way, but all in good fun!  The Twitter Poker Tour even sent a player to the 2010 WSOP.  Mike 4get 2 4bet Me won entry into Event $47, a $1,000 buy-in event.  He played extremely well, but ended shoving QQ into KK and finishing just short of the money.  As the TPT continues to grow, more players are likely to win seats into similar and bigger events in future WSOP’s.  If you don’t already play, sign up is easy, just visit http://twitterpokertour.com, download Full Tilt Poker here, http://www.fulltiltpoker.com, create an account and join us every Thursday night at 9 PM EST for the best online poker league around and be sure to listen and chat while you play!