Wise Hand Poker

I know in Law Enforcement when you are called a Legend there is a reason for it. Doyle Brunson is called a Legend and rightfully so. Babe Ruth was a Legend and so was Wyatt Earp.

I think after 17 years of organizing and running the second largest tournament every year on the West Coast, while putting in 14-16 hour days so it can be considered the "BEST" tournament,deserves the title of, "LEGEND".

Commerce Casino has the LA Poker Classic every February and players from all over the world bring their $10,000.00 buy in and compete to be the LA Poker Classic WPT Champion,a coveted title in the Poker Community.

Cherri Dokken, the outstanding Tournament Director for the past 17 years is the "Legend" behind all the successful tournaments Commerce has hosted and she is the reason Commerce Casino is a household name with all Poker Players.

Cherri has seen so many people grow not only in Poker, but in Life. She has heard 17 years of bad beat stories,not only in Poker but in all her players lives.Always an ear for anyone and a smile or comforting hug,Cherri has been there for so many.

Today as the $1500.00 NL California Poker Championship was about to start,Cherri made her announcement to the 482 players in the Ballroom and they stood up and gave her a standing ovation for over a minute.

The $183,00.00 first place prize was not even thought about as Cherri stood there fighting back tears in front of so many people she has known for so long. A "LEGEND" I think so and so did a packed house at Commerce today.

Cherri,you will be missed and I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you for everything you have done for me the past two years. They do not call you 'Momma" for nothing...xoxoxo.

I have been talking about my tournament play and how it always seems the incredible beats keep coming and the past two days were no different.

However after what had happened here in Los Angeles on Friday at 4:23pm I do not see how I can ever complain or be disgusted with what happens in a Poker Tournament.

One of my very first articles I ever wrote was called "Perspective" I wrote it after being very upset about My KK getting beaten by the case Queen on the river when I was the chip leader at a WSOP Circuit Event in Vegas two years ago. It was about the family whose vehicle was rear ended by a semi truck and the twin girls and their brother died in the tragic accident. It made me realize being the father of two sets of twin girls Poker is just a game and how very lucky I am to be a father of these beautiful girls.

As time goes on we sometimes tend to forget about how lucky we are in life with so many tragic things that occur in our society today. I should be ashamed of myself for getting so upset about the bad beats I have been taking in Poker and when I tell you about my adventures I need to word them differently.

Friday was the worst Commuter train disaster in the history of the State of California. Two trains colliding head on and leaving a scene that was so devastating it will leave a vivid picture in my mind for the rest of my life. I can only imagine the picture the people who survived the crash will have,but it was the worst thing I have seen in my time and being a Deputy for 22 years, I have seen a lot.

There were so many heroes on Friday from Law Enforcement ,Firefighters and the public it made me proud to be a Deputy for the first time in a long time. Deputies crawling through twisted metal, smoldering fire and climbing over dead bodies and getting soaked in diesel fuel to save a life or to give some peace to those who were still alive but fading fast.

To the Doctors who were flown in by helicopter to the triage site and were amputating limbs in order to save people's lives,it was a scene out of a war zone,absolutely devastating.

The impact of the two trains was so enormous,all the windows in the homes nearby were shattered from the shock wave the crash sent out. We may never know the EXACT cause of the crash because the engineer died, the NTSB will only put the pieces of the puzzle together and give us their thoughts to as why the crash happened. We know the engineer did not obey signals, but we may never know why.

Twenty Five people lost their lives and hundreds are in mourning. With many more in very critical condition in the hospitals in the death toll could rise,but also the torn and battered survivors of this ordeal will live with pain the rest of their lives,not only physically, but mentally as well. My prayers and thoughts go out to everyone.

Thursday will be the Funeral for an LAPD Officer who died in the crash. Tomorrow I go with some of my board members to present a check from the Fallen Heroes Fund to her Mother and Father. It will be another difficult day.

Sunday I won an $80.00 dollar satellite and played the $225.00 Shootout Event where my flopped two pair lost to as set with three players left at my table and yesterday I played the $545.00 event and with 194 entries first place was close to $30,000.00

I played FANTASTIC and was so very focused. But as you know everything has to go just right for you in a Poker Tournament and with 40 players left My AK clubs lost 5k to AQ when a Queen hit the flop and a few rounds later I had KK in the Big Blind when the small blind moved all in for 7200 chips. I called he turned over Q8 of diamonds and the flop was all diamonds and I was crippled again. I hung on playing some very aggressive poker but my A6 diamond ran into 88 when I had only 5100 chips left with 26 players. Only the top 18 were paid and the blinds 600-1200 with a 200 ante...( Ok Brandon) I pushed under the gun with an Ace but lost.

I am very happy with my play. Again I felt I did not make one mistake, there were a few pots if I would have been more aggressive I would of won pre flop, but I was playing the style I said I would play before the event started and it was working, so I did not want to try and fix what was not broken. I satellited into these two events so it only cost me about $105.00.

I am pretty tired and do not think I should play tonights $225.00 event,maybe tomorrow. The $335.00 NL is the last NL event until Saturdays Main Event and that is a $1600.00 buy in..

Thank you everyone for stopping by and reading my blogs and coming up to me at the Tournaments and saying kind remarks. I am just a pea in the pod in the Poker Community and it has become a passion of mine and meeting all of you has been great.

Take Care and Be safe and please say a prayer for everyone involved in the horrific event of last Friday..

Now that I have publicly made a point of being dissatisfied with Full Tilt Poker's payment processing, I thought I would follow it up with how things have resolved so far.

Since I discovered that FTP had cancelled the Cash Pickup option, I've played exclusively at Pokerstars. The rumor that Stars had a cash pickup option seems to be just that, as I have not discovered one. I made a check withdrawal request on August 28th from Full Tilt, who make it clear that it can take up to 15 business days for your check to arrive. It has been my experience that you rarely recieve it much earlier than that. I made a check withdrawal request a week later from Pokerstars, on September 4th.

5 days later on the 9th of September, My Stars check had arrived. Today, September the 16th, 19 days after my cashout request, I received my FTP check. That's almost 4 times longer waiting for FTP than Stars. I will say that I am relieved to have received the Full Tilt money, but I find it hard to imagine a legitimate reason for this discrepancy. It's been this way as long as I've been playing both sites. I don't know if I can keep money on a site that is so cavalier with my money. Sure, I can get rakeback on FTP, but there are less players and the games are worse for that reason anyhow. I've always preferred a few small things about the FTP interface, it's always seemed more user friendly to me.

The only reasons I can conceive of for the discrepancy in payout time are as follows:
1. FTP just plain has a slow system, which doesn't prioritize timeliness.
2. FTP wants to squeeze out that extra profit from holding on to our money for a few weeks longer
3. FTP is in financial trouble, or keeps in funds in a bank that is close to insolvency.

None of these excite me, and even if it is just the first one, the reason they haven't solved it may be the second or third. The payment problems FTP has had over the past few months make me consider the third more than I otherwise would. It's a shame, because between rakeback and the interface, I would rather play on Full Tilt, but I just don't feel comfortable doing that now, and the timeliness of payouts is important to me.

Perhaps I will return to Full Tilt if they bring back Cash Pickup as a payout option, but as of today, it's still not available.