Set Your DVRs

I was very quietly trying to post every day this month. Unfortunately my travel schedule and my packing schedule caught up with me.

The packing is done. The boxes and the furniture are on a truck bound for Las Vegas. For the first time in more than fourteen years, I have no home in New York City. I'm not particularly nostalgic about it, but it does feel a little odd.

In the meantime, I see that 60 Minutes is finally going to air the long-delayed Ultimate Bet / Absolute Poker cheating segment on Sunday night at 7pm. This is how the segment is described on the 60 Minutes website:

The Cheaters
60 Minutes and The Washington Post reveal how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That’s because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints. Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's Gilbert Gaul report.

There's also a 1:28 teaser video:

I'm encouraged by the description of the segment on the CBS website. Players "were forced" to uncover the cheating on their own because site-owners in the "mostly-unregulated" industry refused to look into it. That seems to suggest that players are not in the wrong for playing, that they need protection and that regulation and oversight are needed for the industry. The promos during the Detroit-Tennessee NFL game today were less encouraging: "Plus, the story of a great poker swindle -- how cheaters won $20 million and got away with it."

The risk is that Joe Public will only hear "online gambling has too much potential for cheating" and "online gambling is illegal". 60 Minutes may even ultimately come down on that side of the fence. We'll have to reserve judgment until the full piece is shown. Unfortunately I'll be in Sydney, Australia when the segment airs, but I've read that it will be available online a few hours after 60 Minutes ends. I'll have my thoughts at that time.

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I Thought Iggy Was an A-Lister

Iggy sent a text tonight from the Latin Series of Poker in Costa Rica. It reads:

"Here with me - T.J. Cloutier, Humberto [Brenes] and Kato Kaelin. Surreal? U betcha."

I was going to reply "So it's legit then!" until I saw Kato's name. At least now we have a likely suspect when the ransom note arrives.

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Progress?

You might assume that a small New York apartment couldn't possibly hold that much crap, no matter that the occupant has been living in it for more than eight years. The trash bags piled up on the sidewalk outside my building would suggest otherwise.

That's all I have for you today. My body clock is telling me that it's 27 o'clock, which sounds like Miller Time.

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Home Again, Home Again...

...which means it's time to head back to the airport.

Before leaving Manila I had discussions with a few acquaintances at the tournament who'd actually been to other parts of the Philippines. As a result I'm modifying my description of the country. The Philippines are not necessarily the Mexico of Asia; but Manila is definitely the Tijuana of the Philippines. We got up to plenty of fun without getting jumped, mugged, kidnapped or raped though, and came home without any (new) diseases, so it wasn't all that bad -- even if we never did find the donkey show that C4 was sure must be lurking just around a corner somewhere.

Today is laundry day; tomorrow CK and I fly to New York for a quick trip to pack up our apartments and send all of our possessions on a journey across the country to catch up with us at our new rental house (six months after first arriving in Vegas). Please don't hate on me if you live in NYC and I don't make time to see you while in town. We have four days to pack up two apartments. That's now seeming like a fairly ambitious schedule.

The six-month retrospective: there have been some bumps along the way, but I'm still happier doing what I do now -- writing articles, traveling and covering poker tournaments, and making more and more contacts in the poker industry to branch out into more and more projects -- than I ever was as a lawyer. The rub is that my new occupation pays about 25% of the average salary for a NYC hedge fund lawyer. We've trimmed lots of our expenses by moving here, and there's no state or local income tax. It's not a wash, but it definitely helps. What would be more helpful if the work flow were steadier. October was barren in terms of work; in November I had to turn down three different projects due to scheduling conflicts. That's freelance work for ya.

One of the high points of the last six months was cashing in Event 26 - $1,500 Razz at the World Series of Poker. When I got home from Manila last night, CK told me, "You got a box." Sure enough, there was a medium-sized box addressed to me sitting near the front door. Inside of it was a keepsake and reminder of that summer high point:


A huge thank you to Jamie and the rest of the Wall Street Poker crew for their generosity and thoughtfulness. It's nice to have something tangible to look at and be reminded of that tournament. As soon as CK and I get into the new house and I get my new office set up, this baby will be joining the Golden Hammer on my desk.

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More of That Steicke Magic

I first met David Steicke in Macau. He plays a unique brand of poker in which he tank-looks-into-your-soul for four minutes and then calls with ace-high on a double-paired, straighting, flushing, high-card board. He is one of the few exceptions to my theory, "Tankers always fold." With Steicke, you're never really sure what you're going to get.

We ran into Steicke outside the hotel last night. He asked what we were up to, and I mentioned that we were trying to figure out where to go for a beer. A woman had taken the elevator to the lobby with us, and when one of the PokerNews crew asked her where we should go, she suggested "Los Angeles Cafe". I told Steicke that I immediately vetoed that suggestion, having read about the place on the internet. It's a hooker bar, and I don't mean a hooker bar in the sense that the Geisha Bar at the IP is a hooker bar. It's an entire multi-level club that is crawling with hookers whose services can be purchased for $40 a night -- and the men they attract.

"It's a bit seedy over there, isn't it?" remarked Steicke.

"It's a hooker bar," I replied.

Steicke didn't miss a beat. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

Maybe Steicke's been reading the same internet sites that I have. Maybe.

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Lord of the Binge

One thing I didn't mention yesterday is that Wednesday night we were in a bar called "Hobbit House". It had a circular door (just like a hobbit hole) and was owned, managed and staffed by midgets. Dwarves? Little people? Whatever. Hobbits. I didn't see anyone blowing smoke rings, nor did I ask if they consumed eight meals a day. The interior was typical kitch, with a Lord of the Rings theme, but like any good bar it served alcohol. That's all I really need.

Sad to say, this is not the first time in my life I've been in a LOTR-themed bar. In January 1996 I was wandering around Seville, Spain very late one night with a group of college friends when we stumbled across a bar called "El Hobbit". The interior was decorated with all manners of LOTR crap -- tapestries, paintings, I think there were even some swords hanging on the wall. It turned out to be a great place, made even better by the fact that we were already shitty drunk when we got there. I spent an hour having a conversation with a local who claimed he was a novice bullfighter. Politeness being what it is, I never told him that he was just a novice bullshitter.

I enjoy the hell out of what I do, and the LAPT and APPT put on a good show, but all of the traveling and time zone jumping of the last two weeks have really wiped me out. Yesterday I crashed out at midnight to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Tonight I suspect I will be putting my liver to the test after we're done for the day. Carter Gill keeps mentioning a club called Embassy (he's on the hunt for sexy, easy Filipina women) but my internet research suggests we avoid Embassy and hit a place called Alchemy instead.

Really though -- as long as wherever we go serves alcohol, I'll be fine.

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The Mexico of Asia

I'm in my third country (and almost my third continent) in a week -- the Philippines. The Asia Pacific Poker Tour's latest stop is taking place in Manila, which has to be the sketchiest city I've been in since Bill Clinton was getting blown in the Oval Office. The city is filthy and reeks of seediness. Its reputation was confirmed by a discussion with poker pro and Manila resident David Saab on Wednesday night.

Me: You live here. Why is this place so sketchy?
Saab: What? As long as you have a driver and a security team, you're fine.

Right. Earlier that day, a hostess at a karaoke bar that the rest of the PokerNews crew went to prior to my arrival was delighted to see bunch of whities enter the bar. "Foreigners!" she said. "Welcome! Have any of you been kidnapped yet?"

The Philippines Tourism Board should start a new promotion: "Come visit the Philippines. We're the Mexico of Asia!"

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Next Stop: Manila

I'm spending my morning in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX and have reached one inescapable conclusion.

Goddamn the Japanese are weird.

World Series of Poker Final Table clean-up: I'm disappointed with the result last night. I had my own, purely selfish reasons to pull for Demidov. I've lived in Russia at two different times in my life and was hoping that a win by the Russian would help open the Russian poker market. Who can pass up the opportunity to return to the motherland and once again order baked potatoes from street-food vendors? McDonald's ain't got nothin' on Yolki-Palki.

Demidovcame storming out of the gate, actually taking over the chip lead at one point. He was pounding away at Eastgate, winning pot after pot, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Eastgate took a crippling blow. That never happened. Eastgate fought back and reclaimed the chip lead. When the big pots came, they all went to Eastgate.

ESPN has space for three or four heads-up hands. My money is on the following hands making the cut:

Hand #208 (HU #39) - Eastgate picks off a bluff with a turned pair of jacks
Hand #267 (HU #98) - Eastgate turns a diamond flush with 7d-4d
Hand #271 (HU #102) - Eastgate turns a full house with pocket 3s
Hand #274 (HU #105) - Eastgate turns a wheel with A-5 to win it all

That doesn't come remotely close to telling the story of the heads-up match, but such is poker on television.

If I hadn't been so damn tired last night, I would have spent more time watching Demidov's reaction to losing. I mean hey -- he still won $5.8 million! One thing I remember clearly from Event 2 was that everyone ignored poor James Akenhead after he lost. He wanted desperately to get away from the stage but didn't know how to get paid. I felt sorry for him and directed him to the appropriate individual. Bad enough to take a punch to the junk the way Akenhead did; even worse to have to stand there and watch the junk-puncher receive the admiration of the assembled pokerati.

Now it's off to Manila for a working vacation to crown the next hundred-thousandaire. At least the hookers are supposed to be cheap.

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Overheard on the Penn & Teller Theater Stage

ESPN has already finished editing everything up to the heads-up portion of the final table. They created twelve segments worth of material from the action yesterday. Eleven minutes of content are reserved for heads-up, split over two segments.

Tonight at 9:50pm local time, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack will introduce the Player of the Year winner, Erick Lindgren. As part of his prize for winning POTY, Lindgren will receive an engraved Harley (that is sitting backstage). The only problem? The engraver misspelled Lindgren's name. His name is currently covered by a piece of black tape.

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World Series of Poker Main Event Errata

It was a solid fifteen-hour day yesterday covering the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Some interesting moments from the day:

* Standing in line at Starbucks to buy coffee at the start of a very long day, the guy in line behind me noticed my media pass. "Ah, PokerNews!" he said. "I represent Ylon Schwartz!" Wrong time, wrong place. I made some very small talk and quickly escaped with my precious black gold.

* TD Jack Effel would periodically introduce "notables" in the gallery on stage around the table. All were applauded -- until he decided to introduce the woman who made the deepest run in the Main Event this year. As soon as he started to introduce her, Change100 and I looked at each other.

"They're going to boo her," she said. And indeed they did.

* Phil Hellmuth later came to sit in media row and talk with Jeffrey Pollack. Effel came by at one point and said, "I'm ready for you whenever you are," to Hellmuth, presumably to introduce him to the crowd. Effel then added, "But you heard what happened last time."

* Naturally, Hellmuth encouraged people to boo when he was introduced. He later went to sit with Tiffany. The camera-man near our media table got a shot of them and said into his headset "The Poker Brat, and the Poker Brat-ess". God no.

* An early pot between Chino Rheem and Dennis Phillips left me scratching my head. On Hand #41, Rheem opened the pot for 800k with blinds at 150k/300k. Phillips, who had been getting absolutely hammered up to that point, had only 4.1 million left of the 24 million chips he started with. He reraised all-in from late position. Rheem tanked for close to two minutes. During that time, I typed the following into the PokerNews IM channel:

me: not sure how chino can call
me: phillips is such a tightbox
mickey: has he won a pot today?
me: no. maybe? maybe a blind steal. [ed.: I checked later - the answer is no.]

Of course, Rheem called with pocket jacks; Phillips had pocket queens. Rheem never improved. That was the hand that righted Phillips' sinking ship.

* Dennis Phillips had an army of over 300 supporters (the Dennis Phillips Army), all dressed in St. Louis cardinal caps and matching white button-down shirts -- right down to the patches. I chatted with some of them during one of the breaks after they adopted CK. They were a very friendly bunch, even if their command of poker was somewhat limited.

* The 2008 inductions into the Poker Hall of Fame (Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein) took place right after the dinner break, with speeches by Jeffrey Pollack, Doyle Brunson, Tomko and Mori Eskandari. My comment to California Jen: "Can you imagine if they stopped the world series of baseball in the 5th inning of game 7 to do the HOF inductions? There would be a riot in the stands!" It just didn't seem like the right time.

* The money was carried onto the stage in Milwaukee's Best Light branded silver suitcases. Seriously.

* The Johnny Chan All-In Moment was exactly as I feared -- it was a shill for his crappy energy drink. I have to be somewhat diplomatic about how I describe things for PokerNews, but this is what I wrote about that episode:

We are now on a dinner break. Play will resume at 7:15pm local time.

Just prior to starting the dinner break, there was a pause in the action to announce a multi-year sponsorship deal for All-In Energy Drink as the official energy drink of the World Series of Poker. This is a Johnny Chan endeavor, and TD Jack Effel called Phil Hellmuth to the stage to introduce Chan.

"That's ok, you guys can boo," said Hellmuth as he mounted the stage. The gallery complied, to Hellmuth's delight. After a few kind words about Chan, Hellmuth called him to the stage.

"Who's gonna win, Johnny?" asked Hellmuth.

"I don't care who's going to win," replied Chan. "I just care who's going to drink the most All-In Energy Drink."

"That was a pretty shameless plug, Johnny."

Maybe so, but Chan didn't seem to care.

* Ace-queen was the nuts at the final table, winning every all-in showdown it went to despite being crushed when all the chips went in. Seriously, if you had ace-queen, you were completely in the right to shove all your chips in and wait for them to come back, with interest, five cards later.

That's all for now. I need to pack my bags for Manila (8am flight = ugh) and get on over to the Rio for the heads-up match and long-delayed conclusion of the Main Event.

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Live from Media Row

No time for much of a substantive post today. The final table has been as wacky as advertised right from the get-go. Here's how I described it for the first post on PokerNews this morning:

The day dawned gray and rainy in Las Vegas, but that hasn't dampened spirits in the hallway outside the Penn & Teller Theater. Spectators were lining up hours in advance of the official 9:30am opening of the theater to the general public, stretching almost all the way to Buzio's seafood restaurant. Nobody was tailgating in the parking lot outside, but there were people downing a breakfast of barbecued meats; people carrying giant foam hands and thunder-sticks; an army of people dressed as Dennis Phillips (red St. Louis Cardinals caps and white button-down shirts) and the usual assortment of attractive models hawking poker-related products. The Starbucks outside the theater was doing a brisk business.

Inside the theater, the featured table set from the Amazon Room has been re-created on the stage. This will make it difficult for anyone not in the prime spectator seats on the stage around the table to see or hear any of the action, but giant monitors have been set up inside the theater to allow the general-admission audience to follow along. A DJ is currently blasting thumping dance music as spectators file in and take their seats.

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The November Nine Poker Spectacle

One day til the World Series of Poker finally ends. What a spectacle it is turning into it. The PR person from Harrah's emailed around a bunch of information yesterday, including a schedule of events. Schedule? Events? I thought they were playing poker!

They are -- just there are a bunch of other things that are going to cause breaks in the action. Namely:

Michael Wunderman Watch Presentation
Johnny Chan All-In Moment (no idea, probably just a shill for that energy drink he was pimping during the WSOP)
Hall of Fame Inductions
Player of the Year Presentation
Heads-up Player Introductions/Shuffle Up and Deal (Michael Buffer)

In other news, I've mentioned before the symmetry between the first prize of the Main Event ($9.1 million) and the rake Harrah's collected on all of the WSOP events combined ($9.1 million). Yesterday Harrah's sent around an updated payout list for the final table. Each player was paid $900,670 (9th place money) on July 15, and the remaining $24,527,416 was put in an interest-bearing account. According to Harrah's, the $24.5 million earned $98,179 in interest.

That number seemed surprisingly small to me. I broke out my eighth-grade algebra book, a slide rule and a pencil and paper to figure out what the interest rate on the account was. I know from my days as a corporate lawyer that these types of fixed escrow accounts usually come with an upfront locked-in interest rate -- a rate better than what you can get by taking $100 to your local mega-bank. Which makes sense. $24.5 million dollars should buy you a better rate than $100.

The formula I used was [principal * annual interest rate / number of days in a year * number of days in the account = accrued interest]. After plugging in some values, the equation is $24,527,416 * x / 365 * 117 = $98,179. When we solve for x (I always thought that would make a good band name; that and "Jesus Cat"), we get... 1.25%! Really, Harrah's? The best you could do with $24 million was 1.25%?

The players got screwed. I was getting 3.5% on a personal savings account over the summer. $24 million should have at least been able to buy a 2% interest rate. Given the figures involved, an extra $75,000 split over eight places might not amount to much, but why forego it?

[Edited to add: California Jen did some actual fact-checking for Pokerati (Fact-checking? Who does that?) and reports that the money was invested in a Fidelity Institutional Money Market Fund - Treasury Only Portfolio on July 14th and withdrawn on November 5th. The account returned a variable rate of .9%. I suppose it was compounded daily. Harrah's likely figured better-safe-than-sorry by choosing a Treasury Only account, but why wouldn't they have just put it in a special escrow account with an agreed-upfront rate of return? This makes no sense to me.]

Credential pick-up begins at 8am tomorrow. Cards are supposed to be in the air at 10:23am (no joke). Follow the action at PokerNews.

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What Obama Means to Poker...?

I shared a flight home from Costa Rica yesterday with PokerNews member FerricRamsium and ESPN's Gary Wise. Wise started waxing eloquent about Barack Obama's election victory after we arrived at Houston for our connecting flights. He linked it to something he had just read in a book about the Brooklyn Dodger teams of the 1940s and 1950s and the potential for changed perceptions of what a 25-year old black man could hope for and aspire towards from then until now.

Somehow the discussion got twisted around to black poker players. It's to be expected that people who make poker a lifestyle will try to tie everything to it, but it still drives me nuts. I listened to FR and Gary theorize in a pseudo-philosophical sort of way about what things like this might mean for black poker players for a few minutes before putting my foot down.

"What black poker players?" I asked them. "I guarantee that both of you can name ten recognizable white poker players off the top of your head and ten recognizable Asian poker players off the top of your head, but I defy either one of you to name ten recognizable black poker players."

Of course they tried. After five minutes, they were up to eight: Phil Ivey, Paul Darden, David Williams, Teddy Monroe, Ray Davis, Don Cheadle, Michael Carroll, and someone whose name is escaping me at the moment. I refused to give them credit for Tiffany Williamson or Shirley Williams, but I conceded Barack Obama. And since Dawn Summers is neither recognizable nor black, stalled at nine they remained.

I don't have much of a point with this post except to say that there aren't that many black poker players and I'm not sure why that is. (P.S. For the Asians, you could say "Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen, Tran, Tran, Tran, Tran, Chan, Chan, Lee" and that would about cover it.)

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Leftovers from San Jose

Things I've never seen before: five guys raping a goat. For some reason this came up yesterday in media row at the LAPT San Jose.

Things I wish I hadn't ever seen: Lucky You, which I had on the TV in my hotel today while getting some work done.

Things I might never see again: AsKs v. AhKd all in preflop at the final table. The board came Js-Ts-8s-Qs-9s. That's injury (flop the nut flush), insult (turn a royal flush) and a punch in the junk (board straight flush).

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Hola Desde Costa Rica!

A new month, a new city. I'm writing this post from the cozy confines of media row at the LAPT San Jose, where we're currently on a dinner break. Otis would be sitting right next to me if he weren't outside having a post-dinner cigarette.

It was a bit hellacious getting here. Upon arriving to McCarran Saturday morning, I was informed that not only was my flight to Houston delayed, but it was delayed to the point that I would miss my connection to Costa Rica. It was, of course, the last flight to Costa Rica of the day. My options were: (1) try again Sunday morning, or (2) take a 10pm flight to Newark, where I could catch an 8am flight to Costa Rica Sunday morning. Ugh. Word to the wise: 5am at Newark Airport is a lonely, wretched place. Especially when you have three hours to kill.

In the end, I made it to the hotel in San Jose in time to see the second half of the Jets-Bills game (J! E! T! S!). Covering the tournament has been a great experience so far -- feel free to follow along at the PokerStars Blog. I think that Otis and I are turning out some fun pieces.

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Live Play Musings

Iggy had a theory, once upon a time, that good poker players abhor bad online poker clients. As a result, he felt that the softest games were at the places that had the most god-awful interfaces. I think Pacific Poker was one of his favorites.

Recently I've been wondering if there isn't a similar application to live poker rooms here in Vegas. Some people will say the quality of games is more or less the same across the board, but I'm not so sure. Last night CK and I went to Wynn, primarily to avoid having to deal with hellions looking for candy. The Wynn poker room has several things going for it in terms of generating a good base of "regulars". It is off the main floor (less noise, less smoke). It has easy access to the parking garage, located about one hundred feet from the door. It has an excellent waiting list system. The list is computerized by game and the brush will put you on the list by calling ahead. There's ample space between the tables and the room is well-lit.

The Wynn poker room also doesn't generate that much "random passer-by" foot traffic. As already mentioned, the room is tucked away off the main floor. In addition, the casino itself is separated from the main part of the Strip by Spring Mountain Road, with only the dreadful Circus Circus and Riviera north of it. The property across the Strip from Wynn is the Fashion Show Mall -- not a mecca for gamblers. It's a recipe that means far fewer casual, recreational players will make it into the poker room, and for whatever reason lots of the local grinder types prefer it that way.

Contrast that with the Bellagio. If there's one thing that I repeatedly hear from locals, it's that they dislike the Bellagio room. It's cramped. The waiting list system is extremely user-unfriendly (they still use paper and pen!). The room is too close to the noise of the casino floor and is located a half-mile from the parking garage.

On the other hand, Bellagio is located in a prime spot of the Strip -- dead center of all the action. The casino is a major draw in Las Vegas, and with the poker room so close to the floor it easily can draw in recreational players who've "seen poker on TV" or played with buddies a few times. Bobby's Room brings in even more players who want to say they played where the best play. These are the types of people who are in town for a few days, may not necessarily play live or online poker regularly, and don't mind dealing with hassles like paper waiting lists and cramped tables (at least partially because they don't know any better).

Now if your objective is to make money, where would you play -- Wynn or Bellagio?

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