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

Enjoy!

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.

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

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.

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.

Now you can play poker on your Blackberry PDA. Aces Texas Hold’em for the Blackberry is the best poker software for the popular Blackberry hand held. This particular poker pda game has the best instincts of any of the hand held pda poker games. Aces Texas Hold’em is intuitive and the competition actually is worth pursuing.

Here is what you get with it:

• Excellent sound effects!
• Play up to 22 different opponents
• Customize your options with up to 4 game speeds
• Use nicknames for yourself and other players
• Easy to read display
• Best artificial intelligence of any poker PDA game

This is well worth the $15 price to download it. I would give this software an 8 out of 10.

Recommended Resources

Playing on your blackberry can be fun, but it won’t make you win big. Visit an online casino like Casino Bellini today and start winning for real!

Another tough hand. Good Lord I could never get used to this. This sucks big time! I absolutely cannot stand it but it sure feels good when your on the other side.

LOL

Things will turn. They always do. In the mean time enjoy my latest trip to the rail.

Curtis III

Here is an example of how easy it is to get paid off on a big hand. You will notice that everyone limps and then there is a raise and a call. Once the flop hit’s and the betting begins it is quite clear that at least one player is on a flush draw.  The turn comes and the flush is now on the board. A bet is made and “Ohamen” compounds his call by min raising instead of pushing all-in. On the river “Ohamen” decides to push. I assume he is doing so because of the implied odds should he fill up on the river. The guy with KQ calls off his stack as well. Another really bad decision considering there was a push in front of him and the flush was already on the board with yet one more player to act behind him.

You make the call:

Curtis III

I gotta tell you that this was a puzzling play but I am not at all surprised considering the buy-in level. These are the kinds of plays that I have been talking about in these low buy in tournaments that are really frustrating. It was clear after the flop that no one had an Ace in there hand and at best my opponent had a medium pair. It was an easy call after he pushed and as it turns out he flopped big. The thing that gets me is that he calls a re-raise for $1k. Unfortunately logic need not apply to these kinds of players as they will call with any two cards. The previous hand I picked up AA and got re-raised with A7os and the guy called my all-in raise.

Go figure?

I just busted out of the PokerStars WSOP tournament. I am still VERY happy with my play. I was able to get out to a nice lead early and I maximized my bets on every pot. Just a little dissappointed that I didn’t “get there.” Here is the hand I busted out on:

CIII

I would have liked to avoid this bad beat if possible. Back in the groove though.

CIII