Wise Hand Poker

Well, I am officially done with my junior year in college. I am excited and scared about only having one more year left. I am not a big fan of school, but not knowing what my life will be like in a year is a little terrifying.

With exams recently, I haven't had much time to get any poker in. It's been bad as of late when I can find the time to play. It seems like I have been suffering a lot of variance most of this school year. I went on a huge heater last summer; I hope I can do that again this year.

It looks the the tournament back home is having a hard time getting people to play. I wouldn't be surprised if they cancel it. None the less, I am sure there will be some cash games this summer. Hopefully I can rake in some dough from those.

I have relieved I like playing live a lot more than online. I just have a feel in a live game that I believe gives me an edge.

I have been enjoying this past year being able to blog here at wisehandpoker immensely. My poker game has improved partly because I am the type when I take something on I read,study and get involved as much as I can. I have played in 15 tournaments this year and have played well in about 10 of them. I have put to use what I have learned from friends and from the material I have read and studied. A break is good and spending time with my wife and girls is awesome. My job, well it has been busy and I have been putting in some extra hours and pocketing a little extra cash from the County.

I read on-line as much as I can regarding Poker and I continually talk to the friends I have made in the past two years playing Poker. I remember when I started playing two years ago and had the opportunity to meet a few poker icon's because I live here in LA and played in tournaments at the Commerce and the Bike.

Some of the first individuals I met were the hard working Poker Reporters who roamed the aisles writing down hands of the players we are most interested in and posting them on the sites they worked for. You truly have to love poker to do this, as it is hard work and a thankless job. The Pro's love these reporters though, because they get the word out to their families and friends on how they are doing in a tournament and give them much needed exposure.

If you have been a constant reader of my blog's you know I was very vocal when Bluff and Cardplayer monopolized the tournament reporting and some friends were out of work. I since have come to know Eric Morris the President of Bluff magazine and he is a big supporter of My Charity Event and a very down to earth guy.

Cardplayer would not give mention to my Charity event because of my blogs and when Allyn Jaffrey Shulman attended my Charity Event she demanded to know why CP was not involved.

Allyn is a fantastic person and I was honored to be able to meet her. I explained what I thought might be the reason and she told me CP will be a big contributor to the Charity next year.

I am an old fashioned type of guy and I do not forget the people who have been kind to me in my life. When I first started playing Poker I was a pea in a pod in the Poker Community. I made some friends and in two years time hundreds of people are saying hello to me that I never have met. Pretty awesome and I want to thank all of you. I do not have an ego so all of you do not have to worry about my bald head getting any bigger. I am a down to earth as they come and this is why I supported all those who took me under their wings and introduced me to others in the Poker Community. I will always do my best to stand by you and support you!!

Several of them because of their talents caught on with other companies and are doing well. I am very happy for them.

With all of the turmoil in Poker right now I am glad too see Bluff and Cardplayer trying to keep Poker in the Limelight. I have three subscriptions to Poker magazines, Bluff, CP and All-In and cannot wait for them to come each month.I am grateful as a poker enthusiast Bluff and CP even send reporters to events so the Poker enthusiast can go on-line and keep up with their favorite players on the tournament trail. Thank you Bluff and CP for your continuing effort on keeping Poker in the forefront.

I am so looking forward to the tournament reports from this years WSOP. I know how tired you reporters are going to be and the difficult task of 12-14 hour days you have ahead of you! I want to thank you all in advance for your dedication and hard work you our about to embark on!!

I will be attending some of the events as my time permits this year and I am going to introduce myself to as many of you that I can and THANK YOU personally for the work you do for us avid Poker enthusiasts on a daily basis during tournaments.

I will be handing out some T-Shirts from my Charity Poker Event to as many of you as I can. So at least you will have one more clean shirt to wear during your month in Vegas.

Good luck to all those who are venturing to Sin City in the next few weeks to work at the WSOP and to those of you who are going to play. I will be writing some blogs about my experiences in Vegas and if you allow me to, will post the names of the people I meet there this year.

Also I called the WPT again today and no one answered. Tomorrow I will drive by their office (it's in an area I patrol) and go up there and try and get some info for all of you about the future of broadcasts on TV for the WPT.

Just as I posted this, my contact at the WPT returned my call. NO COMMENT NO COMMENT..is what I was told. However they did not seem to disappointed and are currently not looking for work, Its a sign right? Only time will tell...
Take Care and Be Safe...

The Game Show Network (GSN) who has for the past few years entertained its audiences with several different Poker Shows,announced yesterday they will no longer be broadcasting High Stakes Poker.

HSP was on Monday Nights and it was shown just before the 2 hour episodes of the WPT. GSN signed only a one year contract with the WPT and several people have tried to contact GSN for comment,however they are not talking. So as it stands now, we do not know if the WPT will be back for another season.

I tried calling my contact at the WPT for 2 days now and cannot get a hold of them. I guess ESPN will be the only game in town and they also did not film the U.S. Poker Championships in Atlantic City this year. Stand by for a lot of reruns or Poker only August through November on ESPN.

As we wait for the WSOP to start (16 days from now) table talk is still about the WSOP holding the final table for 117 days.

Robert "Chip Burner" Turner told me he thinks the decision is "Pure Genius" and Harrahs should hold the final table at the "Thomas and Mack Center" at UNLV, charge admission and he believes it will sell out, around 18,000 seats.

The major complaint by most is top professionals are going to make money coaching the final 9.

My rebuttal is, maybe,maybe not. After all the final 9 will have to have some Poker skills to get through the 9,000 person field. Oh of course there will be incredible luck needed. Look at Jerry Yang last year. The one hand that saved him has not ever really been talked about.

Jerry held A5 and was way behind after an all in call when the river hit a 4 giving Jerry a straight. A incredible card and he ends up winning the Main Event.

The professionals always like to chip up early and get very aggressive and in a tournament of this size with as much dead money as ever, I think if they actually played patiently and Poker as they write it in their books they would have a much better chance.

I have never played a tournament over $1000.00 buy in and the biggest field other than the WSOP Seniors Event last year (1900 players) was a $545.00 buy in during the 2007 LA Poker Classic with 790 players. I made a bad call with 17 players left with QJ diamonds against the small blind who was aggressive. he held 3-9 off and beat me with a 3.

Every professional has been waiting for the WSOP because it is the one event that makes you gain the respect of Poker players throughout the world.

If you win an event or go deep and accrue points your name is on all the big screens in the Amazon room and all over the poker web sites.

You are measured as a Poker Player on how you do at the WSOP.

Getting back to the WSOP. My point is Full Tilt, Poker Stars and Ultimate bet along with Absolute Poker will try and get one of the players to wear their logo. These sites have representatives who will be paid by the site you sign with to coach you. The site will pay them more than you will and it will be just an added bonus for you making the final table and you never know you could end up like Rhame and be a Poker Star pro.

Full Tilt and Poker Stars have the market when it comes to signing players. They have the most pro's and the most players. Maybe just maybe on-line will be legalized in the US by November creating more competition as well as huge signing bonuses for the final 9.

Coaching will not make the final 9 any better? Coaching will confuse the player more than it will help him? The final 9 will make a deal and everyone but them will lose money?

The WSOP will never be the same? Espn made a mistake?

These are some of the questions we all talked about and as time goes by the next few weeks hopefully there will be answers.

My question is will the WSOP allow conflicting sponsorships to get involved. For instance, Budweiser dressing up a player in a Nascar Suit when Milwaulkees Best paid millions to have its name on the Poker tables.

Jeffrey Pollack wants this. Will it ruin big sponsorships for 2009?

I personally like the delay. I am going to watch each episode like and wait each week for the next to show. Its become like your favorite TV show that says stay tuned for clips to next week, Like I did with Heroes,until it got boring.

It will lead us up to November creating excitement to finally see the finale. I mean I already knew who won the main Event last year,but I still watched every episode ESPN showed.

Look forward to seeing you all up there this year. I will be there off and on during the series.. Good Luck to all of you who play and shoot me an e-mail if you enter an event and I will post your name here and pass on any respectable message you would like the readers to know.

Take care...be safe

As some of you may know, about 60 lbs ago I was co-captain of the basketball team in high school. There was another kid named Henner Derstein, and we were the only two 3pt shooters on the team.

With three games to go in my junior year, some punk from Upper Merion took out my legs on a layup and I fell to the floor and dislocated my right shoulder (and tore every tendon and ligament).

At the banquet at the end of that year, Coach Engard said that I had "the potential to be the best shooter to ever come through Souderton (my high school)."

All summer Henner and I came up with our own elaborate shooting routine. Before and after every practice and before and after every game one person would stand about 3 feet from the basket on one side and shoot free-throw style. You had to stay at that spot until you made 10, then moved on. It usually took Henner and I 11 or 12 shots to get the 10 makes. See, we understood shooting, as we had both studied it. Coming onto the court and blowing up 3s right away is just going to fuck up your mechanics. Each day you have to re-teach all your fast-twitch muscles - that's your "touch." Lots of shooters have great mechanics, not many have great "touch."

So anyway, in December I suffered my fourth shoulder dislocation (this one more serious than the 2nd and 3rd since after the 3rd time, they went in and totally reconstructed my shoulder. This latest dislocation surely blew out any repairs they had done.)

My rehab for my should was coming along much slower this time; in fact, today was the first time I had shot a basketball in over 6 months.

So I woke up at like 6am and was bored out of my mind by 7am, so I decided it was time to really start to try to learn to shoot again, and I went to Walmart and got a new basketball (both of the $160 balls that I stole from Hatboro Horsham were left back in philly).

Walking up to the court and dribbling, I noticed a little rust, but I could still handle the ball well and could still do some of my old "And1Mixtape" tricks.

So I walk up to the rim. About 3 feet away. Bounce the ball twice. Knees bent. Smooth release.

Airball.

Not even close.

I shot from 3 feet away from the basket for a while. About 20 minutes and 40 shots later, I got my first make.

I made three more 3-footers in the rest of that hour.

It doesn't seem fair that you should have to relearn something - especially something you're an expert on. In that summer with Henner, I probably shot over 10,000 shots. And that was when I was already a good shooter. I can't even imagine how many it's going to take to get back ANYTHING that resembles my old shot.

That's the depressing moment. The moment you realize that no matter what you do, you'll never be as good as you used to.

It has already been almost a week and the conversation at Commerce last night was about Absolute Poker Scandal along with the Ultimate Bet scandal, as well as the WSOP changes.

My good friend George Pineda made yet another final table in the $545.00 NL event at Commerce's Heavenly Holdem Tournament. One of the guys at the final table was wearing an Ultimate Bet hat and this stirred up a conversation amongst the rail birds.

I was amazed to hear some of the Poker players NEVER heard about the scandal and some said they could care less since all on-line Poker is rigged.

However the main topic of conversation was about the WSOP. Just not about the November 9, but some other changes as well.

I just listened and found some of the guys points to be very interesting. One group of guys say if they make the final table during the 117 day delay they are going to make a deal to chop the money 9 ways. Some believe there will be a clause not allowing this,but it was an interesting debate anyway. Also some of the guys were talking about where they are staying. One group rented a house for 10k...for 6 weeks..7 bedrooms,pool Jacuzzi,and satellite TV. I guess thats not a bad deal for 5 guys.

George took 4th last night after making some incredible lay downs. Twice he layed down pocket 9's to an all in call, once pocket 7's and finally 10-10. The BB was amazed when George showed him 10-10 as he turned over AA.. George just got blinded down near the end and couldn't win a race with 4 left. Congratulations George another stellar performance!

If you want to read some more about the pro's thoughts on the WSOP format, go to ESPN Poker Club and read Gary Wise's interviews with several top names. Great articles Gary, lets hear some more.

Take Care...Be Safe....

Well the talk is still about the WSOP final table being played in November. Actually two days in November. The final 9 play down to the final 2,(unless when there are three players left and all 3 go all in,this would ruin some advertising dollars)The final two would come back the next night for heads up and be shown on TV the next day after editing some of the boring hands out.

This event used to be the world championship. It is still considered by many professionals, who would love to have that piece of jewelry given at the end of the event to the winner, as well as their photo up in the Amazon room for life as the Champions Event.

Its hard to change your mind set after so many years, but I believe as do others the Championship Event is now the HORSE Event. It is truly a skill of the all around player.

This would not make for very good television though,because most people are NL players only and do not understand the other games.Therefore they probably would not watch it as intensely as they do NL.

After much thought and reading some other opinions as well as Jeffrey Pollack's reasoning, Maybe we should give this a chance. So what if these 9 players get coached, I think after going through a field of 9,000 they have some skills and they deserve to have those skills polished.

They unfortunately have something tragic happen to them, the family still benefits plus this would cause even more of us to watch. The media would focus on this and it would make the event even more popular due to the extra media coverage surrounding a tragedy.

If this is making ESPN more money, Great!, ESPN is the premier Sports channel on TV and I believe no one else does a better job with Sporting events then them. Also no one else covers Poker Like they do and I am sure the Final table will be edited correctly this year to show a more personal side of the Players.

Sometimes we have a difficult time with change. Not only in our jobs but in our personal life. I have learned to be flexible because my Job requires it on a daily basis and it has helped me in my personal life.

If this does not work, The WSOP goes back to the way it was. No harm, No foul. However this new format could be the way of the future for Big Events, I could see the WPT trying something new to get their viewer ship up soon or we will lose another Poker Show on TV and the Players will lose some pretty good income.

We should be focusing our attention to the legalization of on line. This would make the WSOP even better because of the monies the on-line sites would put back into Poker.

Lets Give this a chance and hold our negative opinions until after November. I kind of think after much thought,it is going to be a good thing if Harrahs does indeed take care of the "November 9" as they are now being called, with getting them back to Vegas and accommodating their families transportation.

Take Care...Be safe...

I told my self before playing the $225.00 NL event at Commerce last night not to worry how tournaments have treated me there the past year. I chopped a satellite to get into this event and had come in 3rd in two others (No Money though)and I have been playing very well as of late.

The fields have been above average the past 4 days and that is a good sign for Poker here in LA. Last night there were 308 people entered.

Not to make this a long blog,although I should since I will not be playing for a whileI lasted 50 minutes last night. A big improvement over the last several tournaments.

I am in seat 5 and the button is in seat 3. Under the gun raises to 175 when the blinds had just gone to 50-25.. I have 66 and I call the 175 as does the button.The flop..10d-6d-4h. Under the gun bets 300 and I think of pushing here but I saw him smile here and I only called the 300. The button also called and I knew some one was on a flush draw and now I know I should of just pushed in. We only started with 1500 in chips so I was trying to be careful. The turn was the Qs and under the gun checked. I now push as does the button and to my amazement so does under the gun.

Under the gun QQ for a turned set and the button2-4 diamonds the river...8d to give the button a flush and I am scratching my head on the way out of the ballroom. I would of lost to the set of Queens no matter what. If I had pushed on the flop he was going to call anyway. I just do not know how the button called 2-4 d for 175.

I have [played well this year and maybe a break will do me some good. I am going to start working Overtime at work to build up some vacation time for this summer.I have 2 weeks off in July and the family and me are going to Laughlin boating over the July 4th week and then to Vegas to watch the WSOP and have some fun.

I am still playing the Seniors event at the WSOP and possibly might take a drive up to the Caesars Deep Stack at the beginning of June for one day.

Also at the end of May the Bicycle Casino is hosting a deep stack tourney with 50,60 and 100 dollar buy ins. I just may play some 40 dollar events to keep sharp, schedule permitting.

I hope all is well with all of you and if you need to get in touch with me ,pkrwisehand@sbcglobal.net...Take care...Be Safe............

My friend brian showed me this thign the other day. Basically you get unlimited .10 freerolls on sports bets. If you run it up past $20, you can cash out, or you can just keep running it up. If you bust, they give you another .10 to start out with. So far it's just been a fun way to have something extra to root on (especially when baseball season is the only thing going, which I find monumentally boring).

I never wanted to get into real sports betting because I've seen what it's done to people, but this is like fantasy sports betting since there's really no risk.

If you want to sign up go here: www.centsports.com

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