After all of the so called hype going into the final table can Darvin Moon win it all? My guess is that he is at least going to finish in 3rd place unless he has some godforsaken meltdown. Moon currently has $59 million in chips or 1/3 of the chips in play. That is a lot of chips and would certainly allow him to wait for the premium hands without risking much. After listening and seeing several interviews he seems to be a bit taken aback by his new found stardom. Darvin is a good guy that simply wants to get back to cutting down trees. Strange but true. Most of us would be thrilled to be in a situation where we could retire and enjoy life but this guy wants to go back to work. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

The only problem I have with Moon winning is that I do not believe he would be a very good ambassador for the game. That needs to be changed by Harrah’s in my opinion. All players that play in the main event should have to sign a promotional contract to get out and do prime time interviews and talk shows to promote the game after they win. That is a very small price to pay considering you just took down $8 million plus. Also, Moon isn’t much of a talker and has very little personality. Nothing wrong with that but it does not project well on TV. I suppose one could make the same argument about Phil Ivey. In any event I am glad that this thing is only a few days away. It seems like forever already with the delay.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Is Barry Shulman a jerk? If you are not familiar with Barry Shulman he is the cantankerous publisher of Card Player magazine. Barry also just won the WSOPE Main Event and appears to be a little full of himself if those reporting about his behavior are to be believed. I read a thread recently about how he was abusing other players and the dealer at a Caesars Palace $500 event. This was taking place when they made correct plays against him. Everyone was always wrong except Barry Shulman. That’s pretty sad and reeks of degenerative behavior. Now I can completely understand why Jeff Shulman is a jerk.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I thought you might enjoy this recent extended Phil Ivey interview.

Enjoy!

As much as I love the game of poker I have found that at times life can get a little out of balance. It’s great to be able to play and enjoy the game and writing about it is a bonus but sometimes you need to do things outside of the game. Lately, I have been working on renewing my love for other activities outside of poker. I am also working on taking care of myself better and getting more rest than I would normally. I know these may sound like very small things but they can have a major impact on your well being in both the long and short run.

The bottom line is that I have been working too hard and not stopping to smell the roses enough. I haven’t been playing as many live poker tournaments as I normally do because I have been working. Even my wife noticed that which tells me that I need to slow down. Having a passion for something in life is fantastic but when it consumes you to the point that you are no longer living it becomes a problem. So, while I am recalibrating my thinking just a little bit so that I can enjoy the things in life both in and outside of poker a little more. I wish the same for each and every on of my readers. Balance is good!

I feel kinda strange even talking about this. I think all of you know that PokerStars has it’s annual PCA tournament around this time each year. It seems like I have made zillions of final tables in the qualifying events but never could get there in the main super satellite. Be that as it may I decided not to play any qualifiers for this event this year and it feels weird. I actually fee left out even though I knew I was not going to play the even this year.

Anyhow, it’s a great event and the satellites are good quality and plenty of them as usual. I usually play with FFP points. So if you have a bunch of them built up then you should give it a shot.

Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he asked me if the game was fun. Of course I responded, “yes” and asked him the same question. He replied, “It’s all about the money dude.” To some degree I understand where he was coming from. The fact of the matter is that poker is about making money and building your bankroll. But is that all the game has to offer? Is that the sole motivation to play the game? I think not. For me the game of poker is far more than just about earning money. It is about the ability to compete at the highest level against the best competition I can find. In my case that means poker tournaments.

I love to play tournaments despite knowing how much variance is involved in them. The idea of sitting down for hours at a time matching wits with other players does it for me. Winning and/or placing high in the money makes it even more fulfilling. The fact of the matter is that we all have different reasons for playing the game and why we enjoy it. You gotta love that. Whatever your motivation for playing the game I hope it’s fun and enjoyable to you. I know it is for me despite all the ups and downs.

These past couple of years have been tough for all of us that play online poker. Not knowing what may be coming around the corner is kinda scary at times. True, this mostly applies to US poker players but there are others in the world that are experiencing the same kind of paranoia. The poker players alliance is an advocate for online poker and poker in general. I think we all pretty much understand their role and for the most part are glad they are doing what they do. However, I am starting to wonder why they spend so much time on individual cases, such as proving poker is a game of skill repeatedly, instead of getting the information into the hands of people that honestly have no clue and need it.

Sure, Barney Frank is on our side and I am happy about that but I would  like to see the PPA change direction a little and really start hammering the lawmakers a little more than they have in the past. The bottom line is that we need to convince those without the knowledge of this game how it works. Only then will we see some true progress being made.

I got out from behind the computer yesterday and played a live Deep Stacks tournament. The going was kind tough early but I already had it in my mind that I was going to play a lot of hands. That is exactly what I did. I lost about 1k in the first level but I continued to stay involved. There were a lot of hands I picked up small and middle pairs that did not hit on the flop. Finally I picked up [A][K} and took down a nice pot and from there things came together.

The entire day the largest pair I had was [T][T] but I also flopped a straight when I picked up [J][T] and limped on the button with three other players. That allowed me to pick up another big pot but I was steady winning small pots with timely bluffs against weak players. By the second break I was chip leader at my table after hitting an inside straight draw while holding [K][J] of diamonds and also having the nut flush draw. I busted a player holding Ace Queen when he hit two pair on the river for a huge pot. Once we got to the final two tables I busted out 16th. The funny thing is that this tournament wasn’t  really a deep stacks tournament in the true sense of the word. Why? Because once we got down to the final two tables everyone was short stacked due to the blind structure.

Mike Sexton has been elected into pokers Hall of Fame. Sexton, a former Ohio State University gymnast, is now in the poker HOF. How sweet is that? Mike has been on the scene for years and became the high profile host of the fledgling PartyPoker web site when it first came on the scene. Since then Sexton has gone on to host a number of poker tournaments as well as winning the Tournament of Champions a few years back. We also recognize Mike from his work with Vince Van Patten on the World Poker Tour. Most of us acknowledge Sexton as the best TV analyst in the game. I know I do. It was only a matter of time before the induction of Mike Sexton into the HOF and I am extremely happy for him.

Best wishes and congratulation to Hall of Fame poker player and TV poker analyst Mike Sexton.

I don’t know about you but making final tables isn’t quite as fun when you are not grabbing the ring. How can anyone run so good and never get there? It seems almost impossible to make this many final tables and only have 2 wins to show for it. On the other hand I have seen J.C. Tran constantly make final tables only to run into bad luck before he had his break through year. To say that I am frustrated would be accurate. I do realize the math has to catch up to me sooner or later. Going over my final table histories I found one situation where I made an really poor fold with [A][K] that would have put me 2nd in chips and positioned to win the tournament with 5 players left.

It happens.

The other tables I felt like I made all the correct plays. Ultimately we all have to be consistent and true to our beliefs and style of play. For as  frustrating as it may be now to make so many final tables I could just as easily run off 5 wins in one month. Things tend to come in waves in this game. I suppose I should be glad those waves aren’t drowning me.

I had another good weekend at the poker tables. I made a final table and took down a nice cash in the PokerStars Deep Stacks 90 player tournament. However, I did find one particular scenario peculiar. I was sitting on the button with [A][Q] and the action folded around to me. The tournament had just started and we were on the second level. I raised it up to $120 and the Big Blind re-raised me to $300. Normally I would not get overly aggressive with a hand like [A][Q] in this spot but I had good notes on this particular player and was familiar with his style of play. I decided to get my chips in the middle after thinking about it for a few seconds.

The flop came down [A][Q][X] and my opponent held[9][9]. There was no help on the Turn or River and the fireworks began. For the next hour I was getting railed about re-raising with “only” [A][Q]. The broken and railed player continued to say he had the best hand. This is where we differ in opinion. Having a 2 percent edge is not having the best hand in my opinion. You are pretty much in a coin flip situation. I had put him on [A][J] at best and possibly a middle pair. In my minds eye he would have had to hold [Q][Q] or better to have the best hand. This was not the case nor was it likely and that is the reasoning for me making the move. It was an easy fold on his part. Who’s to say I wasn’t holding [T][T], [J][J] or any other big pocket pair? I hadn’t played a hand in a while.

The bottom line is that small edges are not enough to call big raises with especially early in tournaments. Had the show been on the other foot it’s an easy lay down.

Yes, you heard me right. You can win a piece of Phil Ivey on Full Tilt Poker. You will need to “opt-in” through the My Promotions in the cashier section of their software. When done you will see a link directing you to the promotions web page where you may sign up.

Once you are registered you will earn tickets from playing both cash games and how well you do in their poker tournaments.  These tickets will enter you in a raffle that could net you up to 5% of whatever Ivey wins in the Main Event final table. So you could win anywhere from 63k to 427k just from entering. So give it a shot. What do you have to lose?

Most of us tend to play tournaments for the excitement and all. Some of us prefer to play heads-up poker to build our bankroll. Then there are those of us that like to play single tables. However, there is always the cash game looming in the back of our minds. There are plenty of cash games to choose from for just about every bankroll size. The real question is are cash games for you? Are you patient enough to make them a profitable venture or will you die from lack of action from having to fold so often?

I really think this is something that players should consider. Cash games require a great deal of patience to be profitable. One of the reasons for this is because the game has evolved so much over the past few years. Everyone seems to know the latest and greatest poker strategies and we all pretty much read the same books. Having said that I also know for a fact that there is still plenty of profit to be made. Picking the right table to play is probably more important than anything. If you can do that consistently your profits will soar even higher.

Just be sure when you sit down at a cash game table that you know what you are getting into and be prepared to be patient.

PokerPages will be shutting down October 31st. This is a sad day for all of us in my opinion. The site not only had great articles and up to date news but it also hosted a number of professional player blogs and strategy poker articles. Unfortunately, through the sale of the site to another entity I noticed that the content was not quite the same and the quality began to change. I don’t know if that was the main reason for the site moving on or not.

The good news is that there will be other sites and hopefully sites that are just as good as PokerPages used to be.

Recently I read a post on a popular poker forum about Phil Ivey and a number of other professional poker players stating how lucky they are. I decided that I was not going to make a snap judgment and read the entire post which happened to be quite lengthy. Once I was done I shook my head and kinda laughed at all of the accusations from Phil Ivey to Phil Hellmuth no one seemed worthy of winning anything because everyone was sooooooo lucky.

I read a couple of the comments and it was quite clear that everyone, including myself, knew that this individual was insanely jealous of the professional players. More to the point there are many players that hate the idea of anyone winning anything outside of themselves. We all must keep our perspective on the game in relation to our place in it. Ivey, Hellmuth, Seidel, Brunson and a myriad of other professional players don’t have multiple bracelets by accident.

So instead of whining about how much better you are than the pros you might want to enter a tournament you know they will be attending and prove it.

Just a thought.