I have enjoyed being able to blog here for the past several years. However it is going to be awhile before I do anymore writing or videos.

Thank you all for the kind words I have received.

Take care…Be Safe….

The 2003 WSOP was the turning point for the Poker community when Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, taught us all what a “bluff” was in Poker, when He moved all in on Sammy Farha and then beat the professional player to win the Million Dollar Prize and the coveted bracelet.

No one knew Chris other than family and friends and I am not sure how many people in the world new Sammy other than family and friends in the poker community.

ESPN brought us a new era of TV made heroes by showing the 2003 WSOP in it’s entirety and even made it exciting. They followed up in 2004 when another unknown Greg Raymer played a masterful tournament with 2500 entries and defeated a young mawho had just begun his poker career, David Williams.

The excitemnet generated by these tournaments caught on like wildfire throughout the country. Casino’s started holding NL tournaments and anyone could say,”All In”like their new found Poker protege did on ESPN on Tuesday Nights.

The 2003 main event with its 849 entrants continued to grow and grow and in three years the Main Event had over 8,000 players. Where else could the average person sit next to the superstar Poker Player TV made for us.

Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matasuow, Johhny Chan, The Godfather, Doyle Brunson. Names most of us never knew until 2003. We were used to Babe Ruth, Johny Unitas, Jack Nickalaus Magic Johnson etc. We as mortal humans could not play the sport that made these men famous along side of them as we could Poker Players.

These players started to teach the game to make some extra cash and on-line sites started popping up over night and making deals with these Players to attract new players (us)to their site.

The WSOP became a spectacle much like Super Bowl weekend and Baseball and Basketball Allstar weekends.
Jerseys with Poker Players names and other lines of pokr clothing became very popular.

With all of this, people whom never held a real job and gambled on everything from monopoly to if a girl or guy was going to walk through the door next became household names and signed autographs wherever they went.

There were several successful business people who left their professions because of all the fame and fortune one could win in these Poker Tournaments. Some of them even won and made more money then they could have in their previous profession.

Now some of them think they are so much better than the rest of us. They have developed ego’s and believe they are better than most. I think they have forgotten where they once were. Living in their car or at a friends house, working odd jobs here and there to survive.

The economy has taken a turn for the worse right now and it has yet to affect Poker. I see people going to the Casinos and trying to double their pay check week in and week out. Sponsorships are becoming fewer in all sports and Poker players need backers more than any other sport with the exception of Nascar.

I play Poker not for fame but for the competition I used to enjoy in Basketball and softball before getting hurt and not being able to play them like I used too.

I enjoy sharing my stories in Poker with all of you and getting feedback in your comments.

Just remember who the real heroes are in society today.

Take care and Be safe

As the Final Table draws near and the much anticipated finale of the 2008 WSOP finally comes to a close, I had a chance to talk with Kelly Kim yesterday at Commerce Casino.
Kelly, as you all know is my choice for champion for several reasons.

Not to take anything away from any of the other players but as you know we all have our reasons for our favorites. Today being election day here in the USA we will go to the polls and vote for our favorite candidates for one reason or another.

We do the same thing when it comes down to a final table of an event and we choose(sweat,rail) our favorite.

Kelly is a little nervous and excited at the same time. He has been having a hard time sitting in one place lately as the FT is on his mind. Kelly told me this has been life changing and although the marketing deals have not been in abundance as he thought they would be, he is very happy to be wearing the Full Tilt patch.

Kelly will also be wearing the patch I had made for my Charity. The FallenHeroesLA.org patch made its debut last week at the Festa Al Lago WPT event. J.C. Tran, Quin Do and Nam Le all wore the patch while playing.

The WPT has even approved my patch to be worn at the Final Table of any WPT event which is huge and I would like to thank them for their support of the Memorial Poker Classic.

I am also honored Kelly decided to support us and wear the patch for the WSOP FT. It just speaks in volumes about the character of Kelly and I saw it in him the first time we met and over the past few months Kelly is still Kelly and has not let the notoriety get to his head as it does so many other players.

Kelly, THANKYOU ………………………………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also had the Chance to talk with Nam Le yesterday. He is not going to Foxwoods because he will be sweating his good friend David “Chino” Rheem at the final table Saturday. Nam told me there might be a slight possibility that David will wear the FALLENHEROESLA.org patch also so he asked me to mail some to the Bellagio.

Nam said Pokerstars has been very picky about their players wearing other patches, so we will just have to wait and see. I also thanked Nam for the 1000th time and being the gentleman he is, he thanked me for what I was doing. Class!

I know Dennis Phillips will be wearing some sort of patch on his shoulder after he auctioned off the space on E-Bay and donated the winning bid of $19,500.00 to the MS Foundation which I thought was very admirable.

I have not heard too much about any other charity work by the other players, but they may be concentrating on the FT and will possibly be helping someone or something when this is all over.

Kelly, again Thank you and I am having a Barbq at my home on Tuesday night so we can watch the FT. I know it will be all over by Tuesday, but there are at least 20 Deputies who are coming over and as of right now are hoping you can make history at the Main Event!!

As for my Poker playing, I have been playing on line and actually won enough money to enter a few events at the upcoming Heavenly Holdem series at Commerce, which starts this Friday, Nov 7th. Enjoy the ME.

Take Care………….Be Safe…………..

As you know from past blog’s I started a Charitable Organiztion called the Fallen Heroes Fund. This Charity assists the families of Law Enforcement Officers and Firefighters families who die in the Line Of Duty. The web site is now up and running and we are still improving it, however it has pictures and information from our past two tournaments.

Linda Johnson,Jan Fisher and Mark Seif have helped these tournaments get off the ground and we will be forever grateful for their support.

February 22nd 2009 is our third event at the Bicycle Casino and Linda and Jan will not be able to make it this year, because of a prior engagement. However Mark will be there and James Woods promises to attend as will several major professional players who will be at the tables for autographs,pictures and a few lessons.

Chris Bell and J.C.Tran are going to be there and they also will be wearing our new patch at this weeks WPT Event in Niagra Falls.

Some of the other pro’s who support our event and will be there this year are,Jamie Gold,Chad Brown,Michael Gracz,Nam Le and Kelly Kim with several others wanting to attend schedules permitting.

Bluff Magazine who has supported us from Day 1, when no others would, are possibly going to be doing a story about the Fallen Heroes in their January issue. Eric Morris who is the owner and Matthew Parvis their superb editor have discussed the possibility with me recently.

If any of you would like a patch or a hat the pictures should be up on our web site within the week. In the meantime you can e-mail me at smdiamon@lasd.org if you want one and I can mail it to you.

We have helped four families this year with our fund and their responses have been heartbreaking. Tragedies such as these are not easy and by helping the families we try and bring comfort to them with our support and the promise to be there for them always.

I hope you can attend the upcoming event and have a great evening of Poker. There will be some outstanding prizes and for the $120.00 donation you get a long sleeve shirt,hat,commemorative card protector coin and a Buffet Dinner.

We have several months before this event,but time goes by so fast I am just getting the word out to all of you,so please mark your calendars..

As always thank you wisehand and checkout our site at fallenheroesla.org…

Take Care…Be Safe….

I spoke with Ron Kramer today from the Bicycle Casino. Anyone who has played at the Bike knows Kramer! I think he is a Legend in the Poker World and I enjoy all of the stories he tells me.

Anyway, he told me the management at the Bike approved my Fallen Heroes Event for February 22nd 2009. This event and one other are the only two Charity events to be held at the Bike next year.

The Bike is going to remodel its tournament room and the construction starts in January and will not be complete until July.I am sure it will be worth the wait.

So MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDARS people…..February will be upon us very fast.

We will have pre registration on our website..FallenheroesLA.org and also on the Bicyclecasino.com site…Hope to hear from all of you soon. It is going to be a fantastic evening of Poker, just ask those who attended last years event!

I was going to tell you about the past two tournaments I played on Wednesday and Friday at the Bike, but other things are sometimes more important. I lasted to about 180 players out of 797 Wednesday. I made a move with 88 and was called by a big stack holding QJd and he hit a QJ on the flop. Friday AA lost to A2h when I pushed all in first, in a 4 way pot of about 4400 chips and was called. The flop ALL HEARTS..

This morning about 8;00am I was assigned to assist LAPD in Highland Park re: a Homicide Investigation. When I arrived I found out it was one of our own Deputy Able Escalante who had only been on our Department 2 1/2 years.

Deputy Escalante was shot several times as he was getting in his vehicle to go to work at the County Jail by an unknown assailant. He was only 28 yrs old, married with three young children and served time in Iraq with the U.S. Army.

I did not know Deputy Escalante, but anytime a Law Enforcement Brother/Sister lose their life, a certain piece of you inside dies along with them. It is hard to take and this one is even tougher because of the way it happened.

Two years ago another Deputy Maria Rojas was in Long Beach putting her gear in the trunk when she was shot by two unknown individuals riding bikes early in the morning.

Those two suspects were caught and recently received life in prison without parole. The jury deliberated only a short time because the evidence was overwhelming against them but the Jury decided against the Death Penalty.

LAPD has their finest Homicide Detectives on this case and some of our finest are assisting them. There were so many High ranking officials from both Departments there and LAPD did a great job of securing the area to keep the media and looky loos out.

My boss Sheriff Leroy Baca was there immediately after being notified as was Chief Bratton from LAPD.One thing Sheriff Baca makes sure of during a crisis such as this that the family is looked after and someone is there with them 24/7 over the next few weeks. Many Deputies admire him for this knowing if tragedy strikes in their families, he will be there to make sure all is taken care of properly.

My prayers and thoughts are with the family right now. There is still a long road ahead and with LAPD’s finest and our team of experts the suspect will soon be found and brought to justice.

Thanks LAPD for the way you all handled today. Thanks to our Command Staff for showing so much compassion today.

Deputy Escalante may you rest in Peace!

I was going to talk about my vacation with my family in Laughlin this past week and my two tournament beats,but after logging on and reading Ryan’s blog today there is noreason to tell you another bad beat story or the story of my vacation when their is so many other more important issues going on in the world.

I have never met Ryan and I commend him for being a great son to hs Father. I have written stories before about “Perspective” in life and we all sometimes forget the wonderful gift we have of being here with friends and loved ones.

Ryan if there is anything I can do for you and your family,please do not hesitate to ask.

I will let all 5 of my readers know about my vacation later next week, in the meantime please say a special prayer for the Schmelzer family.

Take care…Be safe….

I wrote this article last year on Memorial day and I find it fitting to share it with you again. My son in law returned safe from Iraq last month and we are all very thankful for it. However there are almost 5,000 others who have not.

A loss of a brother,sister,mother or father,cousin nephew or best friend is the hardest thing for me to deal with in life. It is not easy for anyone to lose someone but when we do there are others to help us through the tough time.

I started my Charity Poker Tournament after losing so many friends in Law Enforcement to not only help the families but to make others aware Fireman and Cops are here to help and we sometimes sacrifice our lives for you as the men and women of our military are right now.

Thank you to everyone who does something to make this world a better place to live.

Since the poker explosion in 2003, which in part owes thanks to ESPN’s coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and amateur player Chris Moneymaker’s remarkable win, poker players have adopted dreams of becoming not only millionaires, but world famous celebrities.

We have all witnessed the fame and fortunes so many poker players have received over the past few years. The World Poker Tour has made several unknown individuals household names, as have Internet poker sites. So many of today’s players were still in junior high or high school when they started watching poker on television, well before they were legally old enough to gamble.

Some of the most famous players had their dreams planted in their minds either by reading about the game of poker, or seeing something on television which gave them the lust for victory. Most of the time, it takes hard work and dedication to make your dream become a reality, but we have seen several people make millions playing poker, winning a huge tournament only to return to being just an average player.

I was listening to a very successful poker player, Gavin Smith, on his radio show from the Mirage Poker Classic a few weeks ago. He and his co-host, Joe Sebok, were discussing the amount of poker players who probably still have money in the bank from playing poker on the tournament circuit, those who are actually successful at their trade. Their final estimate was around 200 people. I found this to be very interesting!

I started to think of how many people have been playing the tournament trail recently, and could this just be some kind of fad that will diminish soon? We all have dreams of being at the final table on television in a major event at the WSOP. We all see the rich and famous going weekly to these extravagant parties, driving fancy cars and eating at the best restaurants. But what price do these people have to pay for their new found fame and fortune?

Several of the poker players I talk with tell me of multiple times of not knowing where their next meal might come from, or where their life is heading. Watching ESPN the other night, they were talking about how Howard Lederer in his early days of playing poker back in New York he would sleep on a park bench in Greenwich Village at night. I never slept on a park bench, but when I was younger and had just moved to California I lost my job and had to spend the cool wintry nights in the back seat of my car for awhile.

I guess if I were twenty-one years old and living at home I would spend all my allowance and hard earned money bluffing on the Internet trying to gain fame and fortune. I would probably even get together with my buddies and bring my roll of hundreds and play Monopoly for $10k a game.

Dreams are what the world is made of. They’re what we are made of. Or are they?

As I sit here and write this, my daughter’s 24 year-old boyfriend, who did one tour in Afghanistan, is already being sent back to Iraq in a few weeks. What about his dreams? What about the dreams of 3,500 U.S.A. military men who have lost their lives fighting to protect a country from dictatorship?

Poker is a game, and some say life is a game. Both are very, very tough at times. So, if you’re to be one of the lucky ones who wins a bracelet or two, remember all those other dreamers who are not able to be here with us today. Remember your tough times and try and continue to be the person your family would be proud of. We tend to forget those who have fought to protect this country from our enemies. Memorial Day gives us a time to reflect back and thank those heroes who never had the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of coming back home to the loved one who so patiently waited for them, and to start a family or raise the one’s they already had.

I have a dream. Do you? You should, and if you don’t, start working on one today. It could be as small as dreaming for a new outfit, to as big as winning the lottery. It can be as small as hoping you and your sibling will be able to get along, to as big as everyone in the world getting along. No more poverty, no more racism, no murders. No more wars.

But since most of you reading this are poker players, start dreaming of winning the Main Event and becoming the poker ambassador for the next year, living with the title of World Champ for the rest of your life. But do not forget those who allow us the freedom to live out our dreams, the men and women who have given their lives to keep America the Home of the Brave and the Land of the FREE.

If you have read my story about “Keeping Things in There Proper Perspective” than you will know there was a tragic reason for me writing it.

The Coble family lost there 3 year old twin girls and 5 year old son in a terrible car accident.

I have told you of the miracle of the Coble family who lost their three children that May 4th morning last year. The Miracle, Mrs. Coble was pregnant with triplets. Two girls and a boy.

Well Mrs. Coble gave birth last night and the triplets are in serious condition in a Mission Viejo Hospital.

I am sure with all our positive prayers these babies will pull through and live a normal life.

The Cobles deserve as much.

It has been a good start for the the month of March for me. As my birthday is in March it is one of my favorite months of the year. The winter is behind us and here in California everything is green from the winter rains. In a months time the hillsides will be brown from all the heat and our yards will have to be watered every day to stay green.

While I am on the subject of green, I should talk about the “Winning of the Green” tournament series going on at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens.

Sunday was event #12 a NL Holdem Tournament with a $335.00 buy in. I wasn’t going to play in this event because I had been up until midnight the night before with the Xterminators Poker Crew March qualifying tournament at fellow members house, Paul Valencia. I made the final table there and took 4th after a runner runner Full house beat my flush. So I left for home right after because the clocks were being moved up an hour for daylight savings time and I had to be in briefing at 5am. This gave me only 2 1/2 hours sleep.

I was pretty tired and another Xterminators member Josh Nichols called me as I was leaving work and said 5 of the Crew would be playing in todays event and I should join them. Jon,Bryan,Josh,Paul and Dave were already there and I should come. I told Josh how tired I was and started heading home. My wife called and told me she was going to take the girls and go visit her Mom so the house would be nice a and quiet for me to take a nap.

I turned the radio off in my truck and was enjoying the peace and quiet. I listen to a Police radio all day,drive with my windows down so I can hear whats going on around me when I am in my patrol car and it is nice to be able to have some peace and quiet while driving home.

As I came up on the 710 freeway,where you need to go towards the Bike. I made a last minute turn and decided to go down and see how the guys were doing. I arrived about ten minutes before the start of the tournament and for some unknown reason I bought in. There were 277 players entered and first place was going to be around $30,000 plus it was kind of cool to see 5 other crew members playing.

The Le family (Nam Le) were all there today and I was with his brother Leroy most of the evening. It seemed every time the table I was at broke Leroy and I got assigned to the same table. I have to tell you, I gave Leroy a new nickname this weekend,”Nine Lives Leroy” he survived some tough beats all day and when we got down to the money he was left with ONE 500 chip and turned it into 14,000 chips within a few minutes. All of the Le family I have met and have had the privilege to play poker with are quality people. They are very personable and have a quality in them every family tries to instill in their children.

The top 27 made the money in this event and my fellow Xterminators Bryan and Jon finished 22nd and 24th. Bryan was knocked out when his AA lost to 88 when an 8 hit the flop. It was a great showing and they both are extremely good poker players.

I had a little more luck then they did. I layed down some big hands during this tournament and I played a little bit different then normal. My reading ability seemed to be right on today and I also played my position a lot tougher today. I had the opportunity to cripple the eventual winner of this tournament. Charles Dolin a 21 year old cousin of Nams Family and Tim Pham’s nephew. I had 10-10 in early position and instead of limping with it like a normally do out of position I fired in a raise of three times the big blind plus a little more,2500 chips. Charles ended up re raising me 8500 chips as he is a very very aggressive player. He tried staring me down before making the raise,but one of my abilities do to my job is I can stare you down and not blink an eye. Its something I learned over my years of being a cop. Criminals like to try and stare you down in order to intimidate you. It’s some sort of ego thing with them. I never look away in a stare down!

Another aggressive player to the left of Charles was an Asian women who decided to put her last 5500 chips in the pot. I folded my 10-10 after showing it to Charles. I pulled some reverse psychology on him by showing him the cards and telling him Next time I will not lay a hand down against him. Well he turns over AK and the Asian lady turns over A-6 and the flop is 3-10-7. Charles just looked at me and I smiled and winked at him. This hand would of crippled Charles stack if I had played it and given me a pretty good size stack also.

Eventually Charles and I ended up at the final table together and he was very aggressive with his huge chip stack. But he stayed away from my raises and I was card dead at the final table after coming in 4th in chips with about 58,000. The blinds were 6,000-3,000 with a 1000 ante and I look down at KK on the button and go all in. The pot had about 30,000 chips in it and I only had 36,000 left. Well the big blind had AA and with 3 spades on the flop and I having the only spade I had more outs then AA,but no spade or King came and I finished in 6th place.

It was 3:50 am and I had to be at work at 5am again. The fatigue was setting in just thinking about having to go to work with no sleep. I only had to work 6 hours today because of a Dental appointment but I made it and went to the Dentist for 2 1/2 hours of work and was in bed by 6:00pm Monday night. I slept 11 hours and am recharged now.

It was a good weekend for a change and the style of poker I played this weekend I hope continues. I may go play the $545.00 event today since I won $2,820.00 the other night. I will play one satellite possibly,but I want to see how many entries there are before deciding to play. If not, I am playing Saturdays $335.00 buy in for Sure.

Its nice to make the money and final tables in events. I have learned though not to let this affect my game. Some individuals get a little big headed when they go deep in tourneys and think they have to every event they play.

Just as getting beat and having to forget about it as you enter the next one,you have to enter the next event fresh. Its nice to have some confidence in yourself after a good showing but I keep it within myself and take each new event on whether I cashed or lost in the previous one I played. You are only as good of a poker player if you can keep your ego in check because as we all know the swings in Poker are enormous and for me I am just blessed to be able to play with some great people day in and day out.

Take care and Be Safe!!