The Heartland Poker Tour is back again at the Majestic Star casino in Indiana. Once again I will be playing satellites into the Main Event starting July 3rd. Having had some time to reflect on the previous satellites a few months ago I am ready to rock and roll.

I will make a few adjustments in my play and hopefully it will pay off by winning the seat this time and advancing deep into the tournament. I am definitely looking forward to the challenge. The Main Event does start until late July and runs into August so I have plenty of time.

Yes, Phil Ivey has done it again and won his second bracelet of the 2009  World Series of Poker. This time he won the bracelet in the Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo Event. First Prize was good for $220k+ and another bracelet to add to the legend. Ivey is on more than a tear in this years WSOP. The side bets must be insane! I can only imagine that Ivey bet plenty of money on himself winning a bracelet as usual. Now those bets are paying off big time. The series is just kicking into full swing now so it ought to be an interesting next few weeks with Ivey being this hot.

Today has been a tough day tournament wise and in my .25/.50 cash game. I am not so sure I could have played either hand any better than I did. Not a big deal but certainly disappointing considering I put myself in the best position possible each time.

This first hand is still puzzling as I cannot think of one good reason to even be involved in the hand let alone calling an all-in re-raise after the flop. The $1400 post flop bet made no sense. If he had Aces or Kings wouldn’t he have re-raised to narrow down the field? This made my push an easy play to make and the correct play. At best I had him on [T][T] or [J][J]

This hand I am totally at peace with as well. I got my chips in as a 60/40 favorite with one card to go. Sure, I am a 3 to 2 favorite but I was not even expecting to be called. I was happy that he did but obviously I did not get the outcome I had hoped for. If I had to do it again I wouldn’t change a thing.

If you are anything like me you like to keep track of what your bankroll looks like from session to session. Fortunately, I have found a site that allows you to track all of your bankroll exploits for absolutely FREE. With Poker Dominator you can input all of your session earnings and get an accurate picture of just how your bankroll is being affected from session to session.

All you have to do is register on their site and begin entering your data each session. Here are some of the key features:

• Track online play, brick and mortar play, or home game play
• Bankroll Management
• Advanced, customizable charts
• Session Templates for speedier session entry
• Detailed Tournament Stats
• Import Sessions from PokerTracker^®, PokerCharts^® or by using PokerDominator.com’s Excel import template
• Export sessions in .csv format
• Advanced session filtering system
• Collection of reports ranging from overall stats to daily breakdowns
• Foreign currency support

There are other products available for free and for a minimal fee but they are not as robust as this particular product in my opinion. You can easily use Poker Dominator session tracker to export files to an Excel spreadsheet which comes in handy. You can check out Poker Dominator at the link below:

Poker Dominator Session Tracker

Yes, you read it correctly. I had one heck of a night last night on my way to the Final Table. I actually flopped a straight holding [Kc][Qc] and then turned the Royal Flush when the Ace hit the board. What a hand! From there I cruised into the Final Table after doubling up two more times. I busted out 5th when my [A][9] lost to [9][8].

Brutal!

Here is a look at the hand:

The first Do or Die Poker podcast is now online and ready for downloading. It took me a while to get to it but I am pleased with it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. In my haste I left out the “or” in the URL but it is easily read throughout the entire podcast or by simply searching Do or Die Poker.

Hey I’m new to pod casting so I figure one mistake on the first one won’t kill me.

lol

Anyhow, we would love to hear your feedback so that we can continue to improve the podcast moving forward. Thanks for your patience and enjoy the show.

Curtis III AKA “Curtom”

If you happened to have missed the Peter Eastgate interview after he won the 2008 NL Championship event here it is.

Enjoy!

Peter Eastgate Main Event Winner WSOP 2008.

November 9th is finally here. After a three month break from the 2008 WSOP Championship No Limit event the tournament will begin playing to its conclusion this afternoon. Nine players have waded their way through 6,844 other players to make the final table in this poker tournament. Each player has already pocketed $1 million dollars and will be playing for a first prize of over $9 million dollars.

Either way it goes this has been a heck of a ride for everyone involved.

The chip leader is 53 year old trucking account manager Dennis Phillips from St. Louis. Phillips is sitting on a hefty $26 million in chips and he certainly won’t be in any rush to get involved early. Next in line is Ivan Demidov who plays poker semi-professionally and hales from Moscow. Demidov is sitting on a cool $24 million in chips and is armed and dangerous.

Next in line is Scott Montgomery, 26, of Perth, Ont., with about 19.7 million chips,

After Scott there is Peter Eastgate, a 22-year-old professional poker player from Odense, Denmark, who holding 18.4 million chips. Eastgate also happens to be the youngest player at this final table.

Next is Ylon Schwartz, 38, of New York sitting on $12 million in chips.

Next up is David “Chino” Rheem, a 28-year-old professional poker player from Los Angeles, in seventh place holding 10.2 million chips

In last place is 31 year old Kelly Kim. Kelly is a professional player and is short stacked coming into this final table with only $2.6 million in chips. He will need to double up early and then once again to get back in the tournament. Otherwise, he won’t be long for the final table.

The tournament will be broadcast live on ESPN at 10a.m.

I shudder to think about how much money these guys play for online on a daily basis. It’s really scary! Having said that I do know that Ivey has a net worth of around $100 Million dollars and certainly is not hurting for cash. Even still it is mind boggling how these guys play at such nose bleed stakes.

You have probably heard about this huge hand which is now the largest online pot in history between Phil Ivey and John Juanda. What really puzzled me is why Juanda played it the way he did. He could have just as easily taken the free card and saved himself $300k. Instead he pushed all his money in the middle on a draw. That does not sound like the professional player that I know Juanda to be. He is extremely calculated and patient in poker tournaments and obviously does not take that same approach to cash games.

Ivey has no choice but to call the all-in by Juanda and pray that another spade does not hit the board. Take a look for yourself.

Phil Ivey vs John Juanda in largest online pot ever!

The Festa al Lago continues to march on. Now with only 12 players left things are beginning to shape up for the final table. Bertrand Grospellier is the current chip leader but may want to be a little cautious going into day 5. As has been referred to as the “curse of the chip leader” each one of the chip leaders in the tournament have busted out before completing the next day. This includes yesterdays chip leader Dan Negreanu.

Joe Sebok remains in good shape with a stack over $1 Million keeping him positioned for his first WPT final table going into day 5.

Here are the chip leaders:

1. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - $2,039,000
2. Odie Dardon - $1,959,000
3. Will Mietz - $1,840,000
4. Michael DeMichele - $1,717,000
5. Olav Prinz Von Sachsen - $1,631,000
6. Joe Sebok - $1,470,000
7. Nenad Medic - $1,435,000
8. Nam Le - $1,149,000
9. Andrew Robl - $1,087,000
10. Mike Wattel - $886,000
11. Jimmy Tran - $739,000
12. Adam Levy - $568,000

Day three has been completed and Dan Negreanu is no longer the chip leader. There are now thirty-four players left battling it out for the top prize of $1.4 Million dollars.

Here are the current chip leaders:

1. Ryan Fair - $1,331,000
2. Will Mietz - $1,217,000
3. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier - $1,151,000
4. Joe Sebok - $1,100,000
5. Nenad Medic - $925,000

Joe “Seventh Bok” is still in command of his destiny and appears on his way to his first WPT final table.

Good luck Joe!

Looks like Gavin Smith is on a mission to win the big one in front of his home crowd. Gavin is the chip leader going into the TV final table at the WPT North American Poker Championship. He won’t win it without Kathy Liebert having her say. She is second in chips. This one is gonna be good!  Here are the chip counts for the final six players.

Seat 1 - Kathy Liebert - 1,620,000
Seat 2 - Gavin Smith - 2,815,000
Seat 3 - Marc Karam - 1,850,000
Seat 4 - Glen Witmer - 3,710,000
Seat 5 - James Trenholm - 1,365,000
Seat 6 - Ryan Fisler - 2,285,000

Day 4 of the North American Poker Championship gets underway today at 12 noon ET. There are 27 players left in the tournament and the chip leaders are all familiar to those of us that watch the World Poker Tour. The blinds are at $4000 / $8000 with an $1000 ante. Here is a look at the top five.

1. Vivek “Flog” Rajkumar - 1,080,000
2. Gavin Smith - 979,000
3. Matt Matros - 943,000
4. Kathy Liebert - 879,000
5. Erik Seidel - 851,000

I am sure Gavin Smith would love to take this tournament down seeing as he is from Canada but he has a formidable field ahead of him. The other pros vying for the $1 Million dollar first prize include one Erik Seidel, Matt Matros and you certainly cannot count out Kathy Liebert or the white hot Vivek Rajkumar.

Poker player Jimmy Fricke gives his take on the players and his picks to go all the way.

Here is a hand I played recently in the Pokerstars $20 Deep Stacks tournament. This tournament, as do all deep stacks, requires much more skill than the typical fast structure tourney. I enjoy playing small pot poker quite a bit and was able to capitalize on mistakes early to build a nice stack. However, throughout the tournament you will find yourself getting extremely familiar with the players at your table.

Early on I had been playing my big hands aggressively. It was working quite well for me but I was also portraying an image that I needed to change after two hours of play. Changing gears becomes much more important in these kinds of tournaments than it does in a fast structure for obvious reasons. The caliber of player, in my opinion, is higher due to the nature of the game. So how you are playing and your hand selection and position has to go up accordingly.

Since I had been aggressive early I chose to limp with my pocket Aces. The table had become aggressive about five hands previously out of nowhere. So I was hoping for a raise and I could take it from there. Fortunately, I got what I asked for but the flop was not quite what I had in mind. However, you cannot simply fold because of a scary flop. I had to bet out to see where I was at. If I had faced a big bet on the river then I clearly had a decision to make. I believe I played this hand for the maximum value in this scenario.

How would you have played this hand?

Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson is a true poker legend. He literally helped bring the game loved all around the world to the main stream. The most interesting praise I can give to Doyle is simply that he remains relevant today. He is still a winning cash game player and continues to win major tournaments well into his seventies. That is far and beyond anything most of us could ever hope to accomplish in the game of poker. Doyle is truly a class act and a very interesting interview. Take a listen to Doyle giving his insight on the explosion of poker.