Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

“Maybe the house war is becoming a bit of a distraction and we’re not playing real poker.” – Rosenkrantz

This sums up my feeling on this entire show perfectly.  A house war? A rival house? A “GRIDIRON CHALLENGE!” ohhh…so frightening!  Such exciting TV! But a poker show?  Okay…..

Listen, G4, i get it.  You want to attract dudes who aren’t necessarily into poker, to GET into poker and watch your show.  Here is the thing you’re missing, poker guys want to watch poker.  Not the random stuff they get up to “spice up the show.”  Making the show “spicy” would be some sweet back massages from hot chicks.  Or, having guest appearances for a day by Hellmuth or Negreanu, or any other other “Big” names, and have them comment on the game.  Poker players want to see that shit.  They want to see sick hands, or sick calls, or amazing bluffs.  They dont want to see people playing basketball saying “hey, dude..you know what would be cool?  House war. totally.”  Sorry, i changed the channel at “hey dude…”  because that’s what i do with my friends, and i’d rather be doing it than watching someone do it.  And here is the thing, Non-poker guys could care even less about all that shit, because the poker for them isn’t even the saving grace of the show.

Ahem…girls taking off their panties is great, but make them walk around the house while the guys are playing poker and give them massages.  I’m just saying. 

   
Now on to the poker..

They have lost 84,200 this week.  That’s a lot. 

Here is how the week looks:

Roberts          Down        $4,000
Stern             Down        $33,000
Rosenkrantz    Down        $80,000
Patel              Up            $32,800

Overall total of $114,400 in earnings.

I could go into the matches, but really, i found them kind of boring.  I wish they would start focusing on their goal instead of worrying about the “challenges” and all that other stuff.  They are obviously not taking the game seriously, or don’t really have a good handle on what they need to do to accomplish their goal.  They have a month and 1 week left to make 1,876,000 bucks…and with they way they’re playing, they’ll be lucky to stay in the black (except for Patel…)

Not that I’m complaining!! But i mean, really!  There are a ton of people who “Grew up playing cards” and then, just happened to be beautiful, have modeling careers, get put in a tournament to be “eye-candy,” and BOOM, all of a sudden, they’re in the to 20% of the field, and everyone is surprised!

Anyway, i digress…..Today’s Friday post is dedicated to Erica Schoenberg.  She use to model professionally, but no one put her in a poker tourney as “eye-candy.”  Not this model/personal trainer/ professional blackjack player!  Yeah, she’s a math whiz, who studied with the MIT blackjack team!  When ESPN was showing their Blackjack tourneys on tv, she came in second in her episode (not bad, considering).

Why am i mentioning her on the blog you ask?  Well, one day while playing a friendly home game with friends (including Phil Helmuth(!) ) she decided that she really liked this whole poker thing and would give it a shot.  That was back in 2005.  Since then Erica has placed 16th at the Five-Star world Poker Classic (cash of $118,000), then finished 69th in a field of more than 1,100 in the WSOP 1,500 pot limit hold’em event.  Erica’s first major win came in April 2007 winning the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at Mandalay bay, and beat out 2775 players to finish third ($260,000) in a field of 2778 at a $1,500 WSOP NLHE event.

When she’s not on the tables live she’s hanging out with her fiancee (i wonder if he’s a poker player…?? or maybe it’s one of those MIT guys…?) or hanging online at Full Tilt Poker

Excuse me while i go work on my modeling career…or maybe put a call in to the MIT blackjack team…..?

Those aren’t poker chips!

Four Weeks just isn’t enough time to properly examine the proposal! Senator Darrell Steinberg (D – Sacramento) stated (centralised online poker website for California players is) “a legitimate idea for consideration.. .it should not be taken up in the last four weeks.”  They are worried that they may miss a proper overview of the “financial benefits, and potential risks” if they push this through too quickly, and so, as stated 4 weeks (the government year end is September 12) is just not enough time for this.  But wait…weren’t there rumours of this way back when the proverbial shit was hitting the fan and California was paying workers with IOU’s, and the state was essentially broke?  Didn’t someone say “hey, there’s all this money in Internet gambling”, why not tap it? hmm….i think i remember that….*ponder*

While there really isn’t much more news on the subject, it appears that Pechanga Band of Mission Indians has declared it’s opposition to legalizing online gambling. They have sighted a poll, commissioned through EMC research company, which showed that 61% of 802 randomly selected registered voters opposed legalising Internet poker, and only 36% in favour.  This is hilarious, because the Pechanga Band is a Major gaming tribe, that has brick and mortar casino’s that would potentially stand to lose money to the online gambling.  As far as I’m concerned this really shouldn’t affect their business, but when you’re looking at losing customers to people who never have to leave their house, I’m sure share-holders get nervous if you DON’T oppose a fast tracked legislation.  Even so…pretty ironic at the least!

Alright, I’ll get to the 2 months 2 million update in a few min.  First, as i was reading the news of how much these guys are up, it got me thinking.  First i thought..what happens when these guys hit 2 million?  That’s quite the feat.  I mean, 2 million bucks.  They just cracked 198,600 in 2 weeks.  At this rate they will only have 800,000 at the end of an 8 week stretch, so they admittedly need to pick it up, but for the “”Average” player increasing your bankroll like that would be great.  But when they hit 2 million, would they cash out? would it stay in their online accounts?  Is there some agreement with G4? hmm…

Next i thought about goals.  Goals for your game play.  These 4 guys have one goal in mind.  They need to make 2000,000 in 2 months.  Does that affect their game play?  Do they fold that risky all-in in favor of the safer play, or do they push BECAUSE they are short on time?  Does the goal itself give you meaning, or is the time line the thing that drives you?  In my opinion most players, when starting out online or even veteran online players who do it as a hobby, generally don’t have a goal to reach for.  You fire up your account, and unless you’re playing with money that “matters” you’re not thinking to increase your bankroll.  If you lose a tourney, or drop 20 bucks at a cash table, it’s not a huge deal.  There is no game plan.  That can seriously adversely affect your bankroll over the long term. 

Anyway….back to the 2 months for 2 mil.  It seems that G4 is trying to show the glam and glitz of Las Vegas..and don’t get me wrong..i love Vegas…but when i watch a poker show..I’m watching for the poker.  Not for prop bets on a golf course.  I’m pretty sure i could watch Negreanu’s video blog for golf course prop bets.  I’m also not watching to see them hire a personal assistant.  I get that this is trying to show off the life…but focus on the POKER!

Last week the 4 guys ended up $35,700, but Stern was down 10,000 early in the second week.  2 Months for 2 Million introduced the tilt room.  Scary.  right. The tilt room (which looks like it was the garage) included items to kick, punch and throw (including watermelons, a garbage can and stuffed animals).  In response to being 10,000 in the red, Stern committed to a lock down day.  24 straight hours of online poker.  this seems like a great idea because, in his own words “In poker, the more you play, the better your chances of winning assuming you’re a winning player. When you play tens of thousands of hands, the luck factor slowly dissipates.”  As it turned out, 12 hours later, he was 30,000 in the red and decided that 12 hours was good enough and began drinking.  Then they hired a harpist.  I’m not really sure why that happened.  I’m sure it made for great TV (read: sarcasm).  Actually, as soon as they hired the Harpist, i turned it off because i was already tired of the hiring people antics, and hiring a harpist was totally the end of my patience. 

As the numbers stand at the end of week 2:  

Rosenkrantz was up $147,000,

Roberts was up $46,000,

Patel was down $11,500,

Stern was $18,600 in the red.

Collectively, the team was up $162,900 for the week and $198,600 overall.

Pick it up guys, and for gods sakes, focus on the poker and stop hiring harpists….

I always thought it would be cool if they could package and sell a “Las Vegas” feel with online poker.  A direct site, set up and managed by a major casino in the gambling capitol of the USA.  Sure Full Tilt and Pokerstars are great website, and have a loyal following, but they still don’t have that Vegas feel to them. 

 Fox News Business is reporting That World series of Poker has signed a deal with ESPN ensuring their coverage of the World Series of Poker through 2017.  While this should come as no surprise, having the WSOP stay at ESPN is probably great for the franchise and great for poker as a game.  Having consistency as well as a long term vision is something most successful sporting franchises covet.  And in this situation, the franchise is the brand WSOP.

Under the new agreement ESPN will air a minimum of 32 hours of WSOP footage annually.  The footage will air across all ESPN networks, and obviously, because they have owned the rights for so long, they have an extensive amount of backup material.  Some weresurprised by the long term deal, as poker ratings have been down from years past.  In 2008 the WSOP had an average of 1.13 million viewers (up 15% from 2007).  The 2009 WSOP had fallen by 8% from the 2007 numbers, but these stats are incomplete as the final table has not been aired yet (and ratings for the final table will likely surpass that 8% gap).    

“We are very excited to continue our relationship with Harrah’s to deliver the largest, richest, and most prestigious gaming event in the world to fans across a variety of our platforms,” – Doug White