2007 Bellagio Wpt Championship ***update Thread***

[dna4ever 2]

51 9 Steve Mandelbaum 312,300

Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!GL to everyone still in.GG Looosh (barry greensteined eh? SOAB!) and JC (I love the play, sorry it didnt work out)

[cubsfan44 0]

GL today Al. great read on the blog btw. how did craps go last night?

[MyPlayIsRAB 0]

if phil hellmuth wins this well never hear the end of it

[Al Smooth 0]

GL today Al. great read on the blog btw. how did craps go last night?

Just spun my wheels...I think I was actually even on the night in craps, though I only played for about 45 minutes.

[kakon2 0]

-EDIT: This is JC accidentaly posting under looshle's s/n +1 for the 'ol looshball-Blinds 1/2k I have 185k in chips, Neverwin has 210 or so and minraises EP, I call in MP with Ac10d after playing really tight at this table (I played very loose at my 1st one), BB calls, flop Kc10x3c, he bets 7k I make it 20k thinking I'll probably win the hand right there or get called and give up. It folds to Neverwin who calls fairly fast, the turn is a 2c he checks and I check behind, the river is a 9d which puts the str8 on board and he bets 30k pretty fast. Now I know he has a hand, betting 30k into about 50k, I thought he had QJ or a small flush but since I had the Ac I knew I wasn't up against the nuts, so I decided to raise tiny to 80k giving him 3 to 1 to call he thought for like 5 minutes and folded 67 of clubs face up (or 89cc)...I felt so sick after that hand that I got confident and called Roland with the 2d5d 5 hands later, meh.

wow, what a sick bluff, guess he didnt think you can pull off something like that.

[Andr4w 0]

Im not up on my poker player gossip. Is Ram the one that welched on Ivey?

No Scumbag Ivey cheated Ram

[Whatever 1]

Who knew that Ram posts on FCP???

[nutzbuster 7]

Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!GL to everyone still in.GG Looosh (barry greensteined eh? SOAB!) and JC (I love the play, sorry it didnt work out)

I talked to Steve just a little while ago. He doesn't have a computer and was not aware that we even knew he was still in this thing, or that he was in it at all for that matter. He asked me to tell everyone that he appreciates the good wishes and will try like he11 to take this sucker down!The good news is that he has a decent amount of experience with J C Tran and Robert Mizrachi, so this is a good table for him.Go FCP!

[DoinSublime 0]

No Scumbag Ivey cheated Ram

You're still here? Go get some tea and brekky and relax.(And I hope Phil busts his azz.)

[Willing 2 Die 0]

can someone copy and paste Al smooth's blog entry? I cant access Myspace from work.

[Hammered Burt 0]

JC has to go broke on his hand btw.

I totally disagree. At a different time, under different circumstances, yeah, sure he's got to go broke w/ this hand, but not on day 2 of the 2nd biggest tournament of the year w/ a top-10 chip stack, playing against a top player who has you covered. Much like you can't win one of these on the first day, you can't win it on the second either.Obv. I wasn't there, and I'm not aware of the intangibles like JC's table image, RDW's table image etc. etc. but there's no reason to risk all you chips (when you have PLENTY) on a hand where you're at best flipping a coin. You can try to make the argument that he was playing to win the tourmament, but you can't win it for another 3 days. It's kind like the argument of hand 1 of the Main Event. You've got QQ, and a player in front of you moves all-in, accidentally exposing AK suited, do you call? Obv. you're getting the best of it, but I don't think those extra chips give you enough of a chance to win the whole event to risk going broke.Anyone want to bet me that neither Phil Hellmuth nor Roland wins this event?

[silkyjonson 1]

I totally disagree. At a different time, under different circumstances, yeah, sure he's got to go broke w/ this hand, but not on day 2 of the 2nd biggest tournament of the year w/ a top-10 chip stack, playing against a top player who has you covered. Much like you can't win one of these on the first day, you can't win it on the second either.Obv. I wasn't there, and I'm not aware of the intangibles like JC's table image, RDW's table image etc. etc. but there's no reason to risk all you chips (when you have PLENTY) on a hand where you're at best flipping a coin. You can try to make the argument that he was playing to win the tourmament, but you can't win it for another 3 days. It's kind like the argument of hand 1 of the Main Event. You've got QQ, and a player in front of you moves all-in, accidentally exposing AK suited, do you call? Obv. you're getting the best of it, but I don't think those extra chips give you enough of a chance to win the whole event to risk going broke.Anyone want to bet me that neither Phil Hellmuth nor Roland wins this event?

when he raises and then Dewolfe shoves its an instacall with the price the pot is laying him with that hand, like he said he could have slowed down when he was initially raised but once he pops it to 100k his decision is an easy one.

[socalpoker_j 1]

can someone copy and paste Al smooth's blog entry? I cant access Myspace from work.

Well, I said I run good, and dammit I meant it. I played tough all day, got away from some possible mistakes, lost a few pots that I felt I should have won, but I also won a couple later in the day that I probably shouldn't have but people just weren't playing back at me once I found a table to my liking. It all started in the poker room at Bellagio. I don't really like playing tournaments in there...it's dark, loud, the chairs are wierd, and on top of all that I drew a sickening first table. Seven of the ten people seated had at least 90k in chips, and Vinny Vinh was raising/bluffing/firing at EVERYTHING. I've never seen a player with such a reckless abandon with his chipstack. He would fire 30k into a pot on a bluff in the first hour of play. He REALLY makes you make some tough decisions for a large portion of your stack and I just don't see how over the long term that's successful, but he makes it work for him. The high point of that table was Hellmuth constantly bitching about how Vinny was high on cocaine and so when he senses fear in an opponent he just raises. I personally don't know how or why Phil thought Vinny was doped up, but I was laughing out loud everytime he would mention it. Luckily I escaped the first table with my chips just a little over where I started with around 140k.That table broke, but then I got moved to a less star studded table, but there were enough stacks and some good players to make me tentative. My Friend Looshle was to my direct left, and Jamie Gold was a few seats to his left. Yet another player with a penchant for bluffing. The guy doesn't even seem like he wants to win tournaments as much as he wants to see how many people he can bluff out of hands on a given day with 6 high. However, he does have a bracelet and over 12 million in winnings and I'm writing a blog that's read by about seven people on a weekly basis...BTW, I'd like to take this time to thank my seven loyal readers. So Jamie bluffs me out of one pot where I check called twice, but when he fired 10k on the river I waited over a minute for him to say something, anything, it didn't matter! If he had turned and told the massuse to lighten up I would have called. But for some reason he didn't say a word. The chattiest player in poker today shut the hell up for sixty seconds, I laid down my second pair and he ruend over 56 offsuit. Nice hand sir.FINALLY I get moved to the Fontana lounge where I would spend the rest of the day. After that second table I was down to just about 100k in chips and was really having to fight for every pot because of the loose cannons that held position on me in the poker room. Wel, the new table was PERFECT. I had three old white guys to my right, which basically meant that my blinds weren't going to get raised relentlessly the rest of the day. For those that don't know, old white guys are great to play poker against...they only play Aces, Kings and Queens, lay down when you bet at them, and basically just sit there and wonder how everyone else gets so lucky all the time. God bless them. I had a couple of solid players to my right, including Scott Clements who I've met through friends of friends, but never got a chance to really get to know until today. Good guy, and a very good player. Oh yeah, there was also some guy named Johnny Chan a few seats to my right. I spend all of level three sizing up the table, and then in level four I decide to basically let loose and start brutalizing the tbale not that I'd spent about an hour and a half doing nothing but folding. I'd say I raised about 80% of the pots that were unopened when it got to me and I would either take them down pre flop or would outplay my opponents after the flop came down. I was just sick!!! I was trying my best to channel my inner JC (Tran or Alvarado, you can take your pick). The final hand of the barrage came when old white guy #3 raised my sb to 5000 from the button and I called with J2dd, unfortunately so did the big blind making for a 17k pot. The flop came 7Q10with one diamond and we all checked. The turn brought the seven of diamonds and I decided that this was a very good scare card for me to possibly take down the pot with so I lead out with a 7.5k bet, the bb thought about it and just called, but the old white guy on the button folded (big suprise, lol). The river came a black deuce and I gave up and checked...but so did the guy in the big blind, he says, "I missed", to whick I replied, "I've got a DUECE!" and slammed down my cards on the table like it was dominos. Nice little 32k pot, and now my table image was shot to hell so I tightened back up but my stack had grown to over 180k. Perfect! Now I could actually have enough chips to play with, and if I got dealt a really big hand I would more than likely get some action. Well, the big poket pairs never came, but there was one more interesting hand...In the 800-1600 blind level, I decided to raise from under the gun with Q10cc to 5500. Everyone folds around to that Johnny Chan guy who calls the bet from the button and we were heads up to the flop as the two old white guys in the blinds folded (are you guys starting to sense a theme here?). The flop came 10-8-6 with one club and I checked, and Mr. Chan bet out 4500 into the 15k pot...so I just flat called to see what the turn was. No need to over extend myself against such a talented opponent as Johnny Chan (I'm not being sarcastic, the guy is a freaking god at the table and I've never seen or heard of him making a bad play). The turn brings the 3 of clubs so now I've got top pair and a flush drawand I decide to lead out with 14.5k into the pot which basically committed me to play for the rest of Johnny's chips if he stuck them in there as he only had about 35k left. Sure as hell he sticks them in and I think, "Well, I've got 9 outs, and maybe even 14," so when I call he turns over...77. WTF? Did Johnny Chan just stick all of his chips in with third pair and a gutshot? I had to dodge five outs on the river, which I did because I RUN SO GOOD GOD DAMMIT, and I basically put it on lockdown for the rest of the day. I won a few pots in the last level, but nothing huge. I was basically avoiding the big confrontations, enjoying my diet coke and massage (that I waited three levels to get) and ended the day with 264,700 in chips going into tomorrow. The play is astoundingly good, but there's still some dead money left in the tournament. Unfortunately, looking at the table draw, none of it is at my starting table which is just about as sick as the one I started at today...not to mention the return of one Mr. Vinny Vinh who will be seated to my direct left. Fortunately I'm at what should be the first table to break so I can just lay low, and wait for my opportunities in level 11 tomorrow at noon. Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone on the virtual rail. I really appreciate all the support.

[Willing 2 Die 0]

thank you for pasting that for me social.

[mx957 0]

STEVEO!!!!!!! GLGLGLGLGL!!!!Take this down!!!!!!!

[crocd99 0]

I talked to Steve just a little while ago. He doesn't have a computer and was not aware that we even knew he was still in this thing, or that he was in it at all for that matter. He asked me to tell everyone that he appreciates the good wishes and will try like he11 to take this sucker down!The good news is that he has a decent amount of experience with J C Tran and Robert Mizrachi, so this is a good table for him.Go FCP!

And JC Tran's heater has to end soon... so hopefully its against Steve7stud

[mx957 0]

according to cardplayer JC Tran is busto...let's hope Steve did the dead......glglgl steveo!

[checkymcfold 0]

the cardplayer updates are all messed up for me--sometimes i can find steve, sometimes JC, sometimes Al, sometimes no one. who is actually still in?

[cardcore 0]

Hey folks,Sorry for not updating, I was having computer issues. Everything is resolved.Updates all day here and on www.TexasHoldem.comThanks!

[cardcore 0]

Waco has $135kAl Smooth $290k --- directly to left of Patrik Antonius

[silkyjonson 1]

Waco has $135kAl Smooth $290k --- directly to left of Patrik Antonius

ohhh do you think he can touch his hand???? OMG that would be so cool. PA is all round human being champ

[cardcore 0]

al busted vinnie vinh

[xmykro 0]

al busted vinnie vinh

He figured Vinny out. He wrote about his tendencies in his blog last night. Good to see him capitalize.

[xmykro 0]

Cardcore - Is Phil Ivey and Ram Vaswani still sitting at the same table?

[nutzbuster 7]

Cardcore.........FIND STEVE PLEASE!kthxbye!