billandmatt

Hi!

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:38:13 GMT

Our blogs have moved. Matt's is at hoss_tbf. Bill's is billchenpoker. Bill's web page (under construction) is here.

I am out 36th

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:14:49 GMT

$3238 cash. BTW Matt Savage was the tournament director, so it was good to catch up with him. Apparently he had no idea Steve Landrum had moved out of the area, and he seemed a bit surprised when I told him Sabyl and Steve were married.

So all of these tables from here on out are 8-handed, I think that's a great idea BTW.. We started at the 800-1600, 200 level the first two hands someone raised, and I moved in and took the pot, so that was a good start. Up to 58k. Then, I raise two off the button with 33, to 4500, BB goes all-in for 14.5K. Call or fold? i decide to call and lose to A9.

So i am down to 40K, play hands, lose, etc, ante some more. So I am down to 26K or so, now the limits are 1k-2k, 300, 8 handed. Player to the right in the Sb makes it 7k, you have Q2s, what do you do? I decided to call. Flop is 775, he checks, I decide to check. Turn is a Q, he bets 8k, I decided to jam, although Terrence makes an argument for calling and playing the river in position. Anyway he folds, and he tells me later "i actually had two overcards to the board even then." Given his play and talk later I think he was telling the truth, comments? It's pretty bad not to bet AK on that flop I think.

So Terrence is on the rail watching, I'm one for one bubbling while he is watching in tournaments. So 48 left, 40 pay, farm farm farm, seek the bubble, farm some more. So I get moved to a new table with 42 left. BTW, twice today I got moved from the BB to the cutoff, once when the table broke but the second time was to balance a table, Terrence thinks this is wrong but shrug. Anyway first hand, limits 1200-2400 with 400 antes, UTG limper, 2nd UTG limps, player raises to 8K, you are on the cutoff with 32K and AQ, your move? I decided not to move there and folded.

So you hear "Dealers hold up after this hand" meaning there is 41 left, and they are going hand for hand. You have 31K in the cutoff at the same level, and see QJ. The BB is reasonably stacked, about 80K or so. I decided to move this time, and everyone folds. BTW we received 10K chips for a $2500 buyin initially and get the $3238 for coming in 40th if it affects your decision. You also hear Hawrilenko's voice going in your head "Seek the bubble, seek the bubble!"

Anyway, I jammed, took the blinds. Then made the money, and got no hands until I was down to 23K. I jammed with 66 in the cutoff and ran into QQ. And that's why I am going to Hong Kong later tonight with Terrence.

APPT Macau

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:58:16 GMT

At the end of the night, of the 352 starting players we are down to 77, we started with 10K, I am up to 41.3K, slightly below average. 40 places pay.

So the first couple of levels I play a lot of hands and have a little below 7500. The blinds start at 25-50 and then double to 50-100 then 100-200 then 100-200 with antes, I coninue playing a few more hands and get back to 11K.

The hand of note here is against a player named Jay in seat 9. I am on the button while he is in the BB. I have 76s in the 100-200 round with 25 antes. A couple of limpers, so i limp in als0. Flop comes 9c4h3c. They check to me, I decide to bet 1000 because of my gutshot. Jay calls, everyone folds. Jay takes a long time to call, but I'm not really sure what to make of it. From earlier conversation, Jay is an online pro who does well playing online tournaments, so he isn't one of those guys who tanks before every major action. In any case the Ac comes on the turn. Check, check. I think I want the free card with the option of bluffing/bluff raising if I miss. Well river is the 3h. Jay checks, I decide to bluff 3K. Now Jay really goes into the tank. He says "you must have filled up," etc. BTw I have 4K left now. Jay says "well I am gonna fold but I'll show you my hand" he turns over a T high flush, and folds! Well I turn over my hand also. He did seriously ask about the hand, my comment was bascially well I would have made a bet on the river, but like the trap worked he did induce me to bluff.

Anyway, so there's this aggressive player in seat 3. Well maybe aggressive isn't the right word. He calls a lot, then makes these oversized bets into the pot with position. He is not getting called much but when he gets called he has been getting pretty lucky on the rivers. He escaped for a chop against the nuts a couple of times, betting on a board of kqjt and rivering the ace, etc. He also has gotten bet into when he had the nuts a couple of times, now he has oover 50K. So now I have about 11K. I raise in early position with AsKh, he calls in the field. Flop 9s7s3c, I decide to bet 1K. (I think this was still the 100-200 round with 25 antes). He calls. Turn is the Kh, I decide to check, he bets 2500, I call. River is the 6d, I check$ he pushes all-in, I call, he shows Q2 qith the Qs.

Anyway at the dinner break we play a couple more rounds and I still have about 20K.

After dinner, we are playing 300-600 with 75 antes, but it's only 8 handed. I am on the button with and make it 1800. Jay raises to 5500 in the SB, BB folds, I jam for what seems like 13K more in his stack, you are Jay with KQ, what do you do? He decided to call, I have AK and I win. Comments? He told me he thought that my raise of hands was pretty loose on the button (well, ok that may be true) and he tought I was capable of "making a play." Actually, I don't know about the second part, I mean I also pointed out he's getting pretty damn good odds to call. Anyway I will leve the comments to you.

So I build up to about 55K when my QQ hold up against AJ, get up to 70K lose bback down to 60K, then the following hand happens. Blinds 600-1200, 200 antes, 9 handed. UTG goes all-in for 14.1K folded to me in the SB with AQ, covering the SB who has about 30K. What do you do? I decided to jam. I mean it turned out okay this time with jammer having KQ, but I ended up getting rivered.

That's how I have 41.3K going into today. I decided to skip the 9:30am bungee jump.

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:34:09 GMT

*think* it's Friday afternoon in the US, if so have a good rest of the Thanksgiving holiday! My flight came it at 9pm last night in Hong Kong (Thursday night). After figuring out how to get to the Macau Ferry--BTw Hong Kong downtown is beautiful--and then cabbing it from the ferry it was about midnight. So of course I rested for an hour and went to the PokerStars party until 4am. BTW I have a newfound respect for Team PokerStars member Isabelle Mercier, she can party pretty hard. Apparantly according to eyewitnesses, I stuffed a balloon down my shirt and was dancing on stage to "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me", while she was squeezing the balloon. Anyway I go to sleep around 4am, get up at 8am because my clock is a little messed up and eat breakfast, then go back to sleep.

The tournament starts at 12pm. Oh so if we bust on Day 1, Team PokerStars decided to do some team bungee jumping off the Macau tower, 245 meters or something like that. So like I don't mind that much if I bust out, the bungee jumping sounds like fun but something I wouldn't get the nerve to do myself. Also Terrence Chan is here and knows Hong Kong pretty well so it would be cool to hang out with him if we both bust. I really want to see Hong Kong, eat some real cantonese food, go to some clubs, etc. So that's how the tournament starts.

To play or not to play...

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:10:14 GMT

Today I made it to the second day of the Omaha 8
event but with only 6.5K chips remaining with 81
players left, average is 30K, 54 make the money.

The limits are 1500-3000 tomorrow so obviously I have one hand at 2pm. The question is whether I should buy into the 12pm 5K short handed NL tourney. I think I have a pretty good overlay in this event ( I won the bracelet last year in the 2500 short handed, and short handed NL is cool). The factors in favor are that I could only play for one hand in the O8 and I would hate to miss out on the overlay for the 5K NL. However, the fact that it is short handed means I will probably lose 1500 in chips the third hour of the NL tourney.

I think it's close...

Bill

Shootout ethics and such

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:39:17 GMT

So there has been much discussions on the forums about the deal I made at my shootout table when I had a 21:9 chip lead and made a deal with the guy for 25% of my equity going forward.

LEt me say at the point I made the deal, it was clear the floor was allowing such deals and we called a tournament director over when we asked whether we were even able to negotiate. He was standing there the whole time we talked abut the deal, and when we threw in the chips.

I do understand the arguments that such deals shouldn't be allowed since it affects other players in the tourney not privy to the deal. In light of this, I support the policy going forward to not allow such deals or any deals unless agreed to by all the players. Personally, I will not make such a deal again.

2500 Short handed

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:54:41 GMT

It's been a little frustrating. Started with 5K, got to 25K, then lost a few confrontations, got back up to 17K then busted out with 130 left, 78 got paid. I had a few interesting decisions, will post them later.

Congrats to Sabyl Cohen for her 11th place finish in the 1500NL in a field of 2300+.

My parents as well as Carole and Josh Grant visited over the weekend, so was able to get away from the Rio for a few hours.

Anyway tomorrow is the Heads up match play.

On Card Player TV

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:22:32 GMT

http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/25272

Still have only cashed twice. I made it to the final 35 in the stud8, but they paid 24. I will have some time probably in the next few days (I plan to play the NL events instead of the stud ones) to update some of the hands.

Out of the PLO, Now playing the Stud 8, 5K NL report

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:46:20 GMT

Not much to report. My bust hand i limped behind with (K6)cK5 with 2800 behind, player behind me raised to 400, limper calls, I call.

Flop is J74, with two clubs. I bet the pot, the original raiser raises the pot. He has (AQT)c Q
Not that this is a situation you hope for in PLO but he still had a club, a Q, and an A for outs...

3K is chips is not much.

So one hand in the 5K NL was the subject of a lot of discussion. I raised in about 4 off the button with AA to 150, remember we have 10K and the first round the blinds ate 25-50. Two cold callers behind. Flop is K76, I bet 500, which is probably an overbet on this static board. One of the two calls behind. Turn is a 3, I check, he bets 2500 (!!) and I fold.

Russ Rosenblum said after I folded that he thought the way the guy bet he had a set of 7's. I am always a little more suspicious (like why not a set of 6's???), but I did think he had a strong hand, of course some people think AK is a strong hand there.

Bill

My second cash

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:10:20 GMT

I posted last last message when I was sleepy. Barry actually had the open kings on 6th.

So I played in the 1500 NL shootout today. The way it works it that each table is played down to 1 as in a satellite.

Partway through the first round I made a 4000:2000 "must win table" bet with Gavin Smith, when I had about a 2:1 chip lead (he was on a different table). SO Gavin busts, I get heads up with a 21K:9K chip lead on my opponent. He agrees to take 25% of my equity for the rest of the tourney for me winning the table.

So here's the question, what's Gavin's financial liability?

Anyway play starts again at 9pm.

Bill

Quick update

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:41:49 GMT

I busted out of the Stud but cashed in the 1500 Stud event. It was interesting actually--there were situations where farming was correct. The problem was that the payout for 40th was 3612, or more than twice your 1500 buyin. With about 10k chips, two out of the money and 1500-3000 rounds with Barry Greenstien opening in steal position with a Q, I had (77)6. Normally I reraise, am probably going to commit but survival is worth over 7K in chips.

After making it into the money, Barry raises a completion with Kd showing, I make it three bets with pocket KK. Barry calls, he catches a diamond on 4th a Q on 5th and king on 6th. I meanwhile make an open pair of kings on 6th when I make an open pair of 9's. So he makes his flush on the river and I am done.

5K stud Event

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:55:41 GMT

So total success for the us today. I have 41.4K in the 5K Stud, about double an average stack, Jerrod after cashing earlier today has 29K in the Stud and Matt made it to the money last night in the 2K NL with about 40K.

So I love playing stud, my best win rates (live) have been in Stud tournies, of course these were $100 buyins back in the day. So I had two big hands.

So Layne Flack had 20K early (out of a 10K stack) on one hand I had (Q3)K and raised as a steal (BTW this i normally a bad steal but I was in late position and the highest card was duplicted 6). Layne calls with a 4d. I catch a 3, giving me a small pair, laybe catches a Tc. I bet and get raised, and I call. Laybe ctaches a 5d to match his 4d, I catch a 7. He bets, decsion time. Well I mean I am in pretty good shape against a pair, I dunno if he has anything more serious so I call. 6th brings him the Jd and me another 7. I check-call. I fill up with a 7 on the river and check-raise, and win. Layne goes "You caught runner-runner-runner sevens to fill up!" Chris Ferguson apparantly had to hear about it throughout dinner.

So I had another tough decision with 23K later in the tourney. We're playing 600-1200 with 100 antes and a 200 bring. An ace raised from a solid but good player, a T calls, I call wih JT9 of hearts, there are two hearts out. I catch a queen on 4th the other hands seem to catch blanks the A bets, T7 calls, I decide to raise, the ace reraises gettign the toehr player out and I call. He keeps pushing it, on 6th he catches another A, and I still only have the str8 draw. Now what? Well I decide to call, the reraise on 4th might be two pair, but it really doesn't have to be. IT eems wimpy but I make the str8 on the river and just call down again and win the pot.

Play resumes at 3, many happenings are going on in the Rio I will report on them when I have time

Matt's adventures so far.

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:25:30 GMT

So Matt is also struggling a little, but doing nominally better than I am, he cashed for under 5K in the 1500 limit holdem event.

If you guys recall Matt bubbled in the 50K HORSE event and lost out on 137K, the biggest bubble in tournament poker history.

So in the 5K mixed limit/NL tourney, otherwise known as Event 1, 46 players remain. 45 get paid. Matt has 60K (we started with 10K so he's below average but he's near certain to be in the money if he decides to sit). 45th pays 11K. A player who previously raised a position later with 54s now open raises for 10K, Matt has AK on the button.

What would you do? Well Matt jammed, called by QQ and lost. I think it's the right play, but it certainly seals his fate as bubble boy.

Comments?

Other tournies

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:13:15 GMT

Jerrod has 95K chips in the 1000 rebuy he's 17th out of 81, first prize is over half a million. They are in the money already, play resumes at noon.

I busted out on an interesting hand in this one. So on a previous hand, with blinds 100-200 and me having around 1)K, a player limps in the field. I raised to 700, everyone folds except this player who calls. I bet 1000 and take it on the flop.

So on this hand this player limps in early position. I have 12K and I make it 700 with KdQd and everyone folds, except this player who calls. Flop is 7d5d4h he checks, I bet 1000. Now he check-raises to 2500. I decided to jam, he instantly calls with 77 and I fail to catch the diamond. After a little analysis, I sitll like my play here, opinions?

Congratulations to Gavin Smith! He finished 2nd in the Pot Limit Holdem, I know the really wanted to win, but 2nd is well deserved, and you gotta be lucky to win a bracelet right?

WSOP 2007

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:10:44 GMT

This is Bill I think Matt has decided he's too busy to blog this year.

Okay, I jut got my laptop yesterday, I plan to start blogging today. So no luck in the WSOP yet, but of course it's early. Today I am in perhaps the softest Omaha-8 field ever, play resumes at 3:00, I have around 10K, 180 players left, they pay 63 players. I have to basically triple up for an in the money stack.

So we started in the tent otherwise known as the
Pavillion while the winds were whisping outside. The lights were waving back and forth and the support beams were rattling like crazy. The Rio staff insisted on running the tourney there, saying of course we were free to leave the tent if we were worried for safety issues. I had decided I was going to leave and be blinded off if they made us keep playing I mean 1500 really isn't worth like something that's dangerous. Anyway after one of the support beams seemed to snap, they decided to give us an early dinner break, and then they moved us all inside at 10:30.

My coolest hand was defending the blind with (j7)43 against a button raiser and scooping on a board of KJ872 with a pair of 7's and 43 low, the raiser had A2. But like this is a pretty soft field, like people opening with KQJ7 in the field. Also the pots were limped more often than not, so I had the option of playing for more money if I wanted with good hands or getting free plays in the blinds.

Anyway play starts again at 3pm. I really want to play the Stud 5K event, so if I bust I will rush over there and buy in.

Out of Bellagio 25K

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:59:16 GMT

This is Bill.

So I guess last hand first. KK on the button with 68K, limits 400-800 with 100 antes. Cutoff who covers me raises to 2600, I make it 8000, he calls. Flop is Q83, he checks I bet 13K, he check raises to 30K, I think for a bit and commit, he has 88.

For what it's worth, it didn't feel like he was making a play. But once I put AQ in his range of hands, I decided that to call with KK.

On a hand earlier, I had an interesting hand against Greg Alston--I haven't played with him for several years, but he's a high limit player from the Bay Area. I have about 55K. AsKs in the SB, Alston raises 5 off the button (400-8, 1 limit as before) for 2500. I decide to call, I suppose that's the first non-standard decision. I don't really mind playing 3-handed especially with the BB who was inexperienced, and felt Alston would autobet the flop since that's was his style--of course that isn't necessarily indicative of how he's going to play against me in a 25K event.

Anyway the BB folds. Flop is J55, one spade. I check, he bets 3K, I call. Turn is a J, check-check. River is a K. I check, he bets 6500, I call, he mucks without showing.

Now my natural reaction was to bet the river hoping to get paid off by a weaker king or perhaps even ace-high. However I decided on checking a hand that I was pretty confident was the best hand. I thought the weaker king was a non-issue as he would definitely bet a king. One factor also is his river bet would probably be bigger than my river bet since I want to bet small enough to make ace-high indifferent. Also given the check-check on the turn it makes ace-high less likely.

Comments welcome on either of those hands.

Bellagio 25K WPT Event

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:26:10 GMT

This is Bill.

I have to say, I made sure I was focused and rested for this event:-). Matt was here with five of his buddies for a bachlor party for one of the group. We had dinner at Emril's Steakhouse at the Venetian, then they had reservations for the nightclub Tryst at the Wynn. It's one of the hottest nightclubs in town, normally I'd be all for going, but I decided to skip it and go to sleep a little after midnight, it turns out they stayed up until six... To be fair there were mitigating circumstances like a sprained ankle preventing me from dancing (or walking much).

Anyway, on an unrelated matter, the second round Matt has around 53K, blinds 100-200. There is a limper, so he makes it 800 with AhKd, and gets 4 callers. He bets 2500 on a Jack-high flop with three hearts, a player raises to 10K. So what actually happened was Matt jammed and the player called with the king-high flush. There was much discussion about the play afterward, but I'll let others comment first.

My table was pretty tough, Seat 8 is Brandon Cantu, Seat 9 is Patrick Antonius, seat 10 is Surindar Sunar, Seat 1 is Russ Rosenblum, and I am in seat 3. I mean, it's probably better I am behind all those guys but it still makes it tough,

So I myself lost a lot of chips on a few hands against the weakest player at the table. First hand, blinds 100-200, I raise with TT four off the button, he calls in the field. Flop is 987, I bet 1K, he calls. turn is a 4, I bet 1K again, he calls, river is a Q, I bet 1k a third time, he calls with AQ. Later, I make it 550 with KK two off the button, he calls in the SB, the BB makes it 1500, I decide to be tricky and just calls, the weak player calls in the SB again. This turns out to be my downfall as the flop is T97 with two clubs, the weak player bets out 3K, 5K and then 5K, I decide to call down he has Kc8c and made his flush on the turn,

Anyway this downturn continues until I have about 22K from my starting stack of 50K. So then I pick up AK, 200-400 with 25 antes. There is a limp for 400, Cantu makes it 1700, you are around two off the button. What do you do? Well I jammed and picked up the blinds and antes. So now I have 25K, limits go up, blinds 300-600, antes 75. Patrick Antonius opens for 2100 early, I pick up AK again in the SB, well? Jam and take the pot. People thought these were oversized raises, but Russ afterward said he would have done the same thing with AK.

So then 4 off the button, I make it 1800 (the 300-600 limit). Cantu is in the SB with 77, what would you do with his hand? Antonius is in the BB and will be more likely than most people to call 1200 more, so I think the call with 77 is reasonable. Cantu has around 65K, Antonius has 100K, I have 28K. Flop is T98, now what would you do with Cantu's 77? He checked, checked around to me, I bet 5000, now Cantu makes is 17K total, fold, I jam, he is pretty much forced to call with 77, I actually have JJ and double up, opinions?

That's sort of the story of how I made it with 53,800. Play starts at noon tomorrow.

Damage Control

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:40:01 GMT

This is Bill.

http://suffolkpunchpoker.blogspot.com/

So like these pictures came out this morning.

What really happened: There was a fairly wild (by US
standards) party at Black Diamond in Monte Carlo.
There was a stage and pole thing next to the dance
floor. Of course the local hotties where dancing on
stage (you see pictures of them).

So during one break the left the stage empty while the
music was playing. Since I was close to the stage I
got up there and started dancing suggestively with the
pole. Encouraged by the crowd I started taking my
shirt off. It just so happened most of the poker
media were at this event so they had video and camera.

If you see the whole dance routine all will be clear, and I think everyone will understand.

Bill out of the EPT

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:30:41 GMT

Well the hand I went out on wasn't particularly intersting. I defended my blind with JTs from a 2nd UTG raise to 1600 (blinds 300-600 with 75 antes). Flop was JT9, we put all our money in on the flop eventually (I had 13K left), he had QQ, and I fail to catch two unpaired blanks (actually the turn and river were K's).

A little before that was an interesting hand. Same limits player who's seems a little loose raises UTG on my left for 1800 (I had just been moved to the table recently). Gavin Griffin calls in the field, Carlos Mortensen also calls in the SB--Carlos thinks about it for a little, it seems he could have been thinking about reraising, he has a massive chip stack, or maybe that's just how he acts.

I look down and find AdQd in the BB with about 13K left. What do you do? Well I called. I figured I could flop an A, Q, or flush draw and be able to get my chips in against one of those guys instead of reraising. I think given the range of hands of the initial raiser and lack of reraise, the only vaible options are jam or call.

Anyway the flop came 3 small clubs, UTG raiser jammed for over 20K, Gavin calls, Carlos thinks and mucks, so I muck. It turns out UTG had AT with the A of clubs, Gavin had KcQc, Carlos had TcTx. So if I had jammed, Carlos says he definitely calls.

It turned out I would have just given Carlos more chips, but definitely if I had known how loose UTG really was then jamming is clear. The lack of re-raise by the other two also limits their hands.

----------------------------

So the story of how I ended the first day with 13,800 out of a starting stack of 15K. Well, I actually thought I made some weak plays here and there. There also do seem to be some "cultural" differences between European players and WSOP players that threw me off a little. First, what's with all the limping preflop? Also, I think there is a lot more slowplaying in Europe--both in choosing to do it with a strong hand and what qualifies as a slowplay. Maybe it's realted, but there's less betting of medium strength hands to "protect your hand" and more checking and inducing bluffs. Some of the mannerisms also are a little different so my weak/strong reads and preflop folding reads seemed to be off. So I guess it was a good learning experience.

In the first round I got pocket aces twice and was able to get up to 23K. First hand of the tournament, "Dealer button will be in seat 3." Yay! I look down and I have aces--life is beautiful . We start with 15K--it was a e10K buyin so I joke that these are "American dollar" chips. Blinds of 25-50. A couple of limpers. I don't know anyone at the table except for Paul Ladanyi, Hungarian who used to live in LA. I decide to play exploitively by raising to 300--these guys only know me from publicity and haven't directly witnessed my play so I think it's reasonable to try to exploit here. Two callers--BTW this seems to happen a bit here limping then calling a big raise. Flop is 553. Check to me, I continue the theme by betting the entire pot, 1K. Turn is a J. Check, I am a little wary afteer all this IS the first hand so I check behind. River is a third 5. He bets 3K, I decide it;s safe and raise 4K more. It's an older guy and he starts muttering in French and folds. This is a good start. BTW he claims to have pocket QQ to his friends--it's kinda a weird atmosphere, there are official rules, "English only, etc" but then there are friends aroudn the table without a rope and people just tlking back and forth.

So later in the round, same Frenchman to my right raises to 150 on the button. In the SB I have aces, so I make it 400. He calls. Flop is 542. Going with the simlar theme from before, I bet 1000, he raises to 3K, he has 6K left. I intend to go all in, but I think that if I raise back immediately he might fold, while he might continuation bet if I just call here. Turn is a 3, so at this point I figure I have to go all in now, so I jam. He says he has KINGS, shows them to his kibitzer friend and folds. At this point, I hope someone else at the table asks to see his cards--I refrain from doing so.

I mean it's a really weird way of playing Kings right?

So I am up to 23K and it goes downhill from there. More hands later.

Well I didn't completely hose

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:43:44 GMT

I am left with 13,800 at the end of the night. We start again at 2pm tomorrow. I think I'll try to go to sleep then post tomorrow about hands.

Dinner Break I have 20K

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:50:55 GMT

A few interesting hands but I want to rest now. It seems the rounds are going to go until 3:30am tonight so a short nap seems in order.

EPT Monte Carlo

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:51:29 GMT

Bill again. Just a quick note here. I am playing today at 2pm (8am EDT, 5am PDT). I haven't posted much since I have been running around doing interviews, and have been looking around Monte Carlo in my spare time.

The interviews were fun. PokerStars really does a great job with publicity. I did my seventh interview today--this was with Maxim.

So like the interviews may sound like plugs for everything, but actually that's really my opinion about the topics they ask.

Q: The Mathematics of Poker seems like it will hard to read?
Well Jerrod's great at explaining things, he wrote most of the prose. If you start at page one and work your way through it, you can understand the main ideas of the book without having to understand some of the more obscure math stuff.

Q: You still have a job, what's up with that?
Well SIG (www.sig.com) is a great place to work. We do financial trading in stocks, bonds, options, currencies, etc. As a quantitative analyst I make mathematical models for trading. They let me play the World Series and a couple of tournaments here and there. Jeff Yass and several of the other partners are former poker players. We think poker teaches skills for trading. There's also free lunch and candy at work, please send resumes to me.

Q: What about Team PokerStars?
PokerStars is the best site to play on. I've known several of the people there for more than ten years since before they started the site. It's hard to complain about being sponsored into tournies, getting to travel and having them work on publicity for me.

etc, etc... After listening to one of these things, I might even think I have it good. Of course given the amount of pain and suffereing in the world, even averaged over several billion people, we all have it pretty good.

So Monte Carlo has been fun. The amount of wealth in this place is amazing. Ferraris, Maseratis, and Aston Martins are the norm on the street, and the dock is packed with yachts. It's warm enough to lay out in your bathing suit during the day. It's in the principality of Monaco, there is no income tax, no inheritance tax, etc. I went downtown and to the main casino yesterday, won e600 at blackjack and even learned how to play Trente and Quarante (sp?). The main visitor attraction is the Palace here, and of course the shopping is ridiculously expensive, Gucci, Prada, etc. This has saved me money--I haven't bought anything here yet. Anyway I gotta go play, maybe some poker content later today.

Our excellent Paris adventure.

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:25:40 GMT

This is Bill. Unlike the usual, I decided to write in train of thought and see what comes out…

Matt recently got engaged to Emily and are staying in Paris for the next month. I am playing in the European Poker Tour Championship sponsored by PokerStars, and part of the fun of the event is being part of Team PokerStars in events like this, especially detours to places like Paris (not that there are any, but I've been known to say he has a hand like aces")

So my schedule is to fly out of Philly Friday 3/23, get into Paris 8am 3/24, spend two days there hanging out with Matt and Emily, and fly out Monday 3/26 for Nice and then Monte Carlo. I will chronicle my trip and my tourney play in this blog.

I echo Matt’s sentiment—Paris is amazing. I love Paris! This in the second time I have been there, and Matt and Emily's first--and this trip frimly sealed it as my favorite city in the world. Last time I was here for three days, stayed in the Champs Elysee, visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Versailles, etc. Here my goal was to see the Louvre, and try some fine French dining, anything else was extra. Of course there’s the added thrill of Credit Card Roulette. For those who are reading this blog and don’t know about it, everyone puts in a card, and cards are drawn out one at a time, and the player at the end pays. Really exciting when the check is over a thousand, it certainly makes fine dining just that much more exciting.

I arrive at 8am, get my bags and take a cab to Paris--as usual I realized I should get a hotel room Friday afternoon, so I called Matt and he booked me a room for e179/night, got a room a the Best Western Hotel Royal, on Saint-Michel, in the Latin Quarter near Notre Dame. Matt and Emily have an apartment a block away. This is so cool! I check into my room at 10am, call Matt, and run around for a bit in exuberence going up to Notre Dame, trying to imagine where the hunchback was (:-), have breakfast, and decide to nap for an hour starting at around 11. Matt calls at 11:15, says are you ready to go out? I say well let me nap for an hour.

At 2pm when I wake up (ok, I expected that) I call Emily's cell and we all decide to head to Montmarte. The plan is to visit the Basilica of Sacre Couer and I suggested the visit to the Moulin Rouge and the Pigelle (sex club) district afterward. Now I know them pretty well--I have the impression that they are fairly conservative about doing this type of stuff, but they tell me I'm just mistaken.

So we get into a cab--last time I was here we took the Metro everywhere, but Matt&Em were in charge of the maps, etc. So like the cab drops us before he gets there and says "traffic, I can't take you any further, I'm just going home, take the Metro." Something I have never seen a New York cabdriver do--there's always traffic in Manhattan, they just sit in traffic and get you there.
He still asks for payment! Anyway the traffic stoppage was like a parade or protest. The works--megaphones, flags, etc. They seemed to be a leftist party, the signs saying "100% Gauche!" being a big clue. [Links to photos of this and others will be uploaded soon.] We (well Emily) figures out the Metro, actually it's really convenient, it goes throughout the city, with a stop every half kilometer, I don't think they are going to take a cab again for the rest of their stay in Paris! It's e1.50 to go anywhere in the city.

We get to Montmarte, or at least the right stop. We rush into a local bakery to get our bearings. We know Sacre Coeur is on top of the hill, so we decide on the steepest ascent gradient algorithm to get there. After climbing hills and endless stairs, we get there. The thing about being in Europe, and Paris in particular is that there are just these great historical buildings all around. Sacre Coeur is a beautiful building and church. The displays of art and votives reminds me of the Cathedral in Barcelona. Apparantly the history is that they just built it because they thought it would be cool, actually the patron saint there is St. Dennis, who is the Patron saint of France, who became a martyr at around the second century. Montmarte is "mount-martyr" roughly (someone with better French please correct me). There also seems to be a service going on for children in French, the priest was just asking general questions like why was Jesus special, etc.

We actually find our way to the Moulin Rouge randomly. Shows are completely sold out for Saturday and Sunday. They aren't cheap either, over e110 per ticket, but we would certainly have gone. Then we see a game of three card monte. Matt and I are facinated by the dynamics, we try to figure out who is working with the guy, etc. When someone walks up, we try to predeict whetehr they will win or not (it seems entirely under the control of the guy) They do seem to get customers though, pretty interesting, All sorts of other entertainment around, strip clubs, etc. Emily needs to use the bathroom, so we head into a French fast food place—we actually need to order stuff to get the code for the bathroom.

So for dinner we try out Louis XIII, It’s actually the place Louis XIII was coronated apparently. Some things about fine French dining that we think are great ideas that I might take back to the States. The aperitif of champagne at the beginning of the meal and the cheese course before dessert are two great ideas, The food was awesome here, highly recommended. We got the chef’s tasing menu for e100 each and they kept bringing us dish after dish. The scallops, the fish and the pork dishes were the outstanding ones that I remember. So like credit card roulette goes this way: Emily mixes up the three cards (they have to put in two cards to my one to make it fair)—I say “middle one doesn’t pay.” Ding! Another $250 meal, thanks Matt!

So we debate going to the Champs Elysee ares but we’re all tired so we decide to wake up “early” the next day for the Louvre. Conversation goes:

Bill “so let’s say at nine”
Matt: “how about ten?”
Emily “Yeah I’ll make sure we’re up by then.”

Okay, we decide to meet at ten. I decide I want to hang out a little more so wander around the local cafes and then go to sleep at around 2am. So like the deal was tonight was the time the clocks moved ahead in France. I do wake up at what was actually 9am, thinking it was 8am. Long story short of course I call their cell phone at 10:40, really 11:40. We finally get to the Metro by 12:30 and start seeing the Louvre by 1pm. It closes at six, DOH!

There is a lot of art in the Louvre. It would take several days at “normal” museum place. There was one wing (there are like 4 floors, each with three wings) devoted just to Egyptian funery art during the Roman period (after Ceasar to about 800 AD). It’s really amazing to see stuff that you’ve seen in Art History books. “Oh there’s the Mona Lisa,” “Here’s the Venus de Milo,” etc. It’s also amazing how large some of the murals are. One mural must have taken a lifetime (I forgot the artist’ name) there were over 100 figures, etc. Matt: “Well it was worth it, I mean he painted the mural that hangs opposite the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.” None of the three of us really know much about art, so we thought next time we go we might just hire someone as a guide. The problem is that though there are occasional English explanations, most of the stuff is in French. Young woman strolling by “That’s from the neo-classical era, see the Greek influence?” Hmm I guess I can understand some of the looks when I try to explain math. BTW I am really turned on by smart women, she definitely seemed to be it, Unfortunately there was this guy she happened to be with. . So some quotes from the Louvre. Emily (solemnly) “They did sacrifices on that altar.” Matt (after reading the French carefully) “They sacrificed bulls.” Bill : “See I didn’t think the Greeks sacrificed humans, wimps!” ..So on the top floor most everyone was exhausted. Old French lady “Oh la la!!” Matt: “I’ve been waiting my whole life to hear that.”

So most of you in our social circle know that we’re theatre geeks. Jerrod has seem Les Mis seven times, it’s my all time favorite musical, and Matt and Emily have memorized the soundtrack to it and Avenue Q—awesome show, the significance is that the main character is named “Princeton,” of course Matt and Emily are alumni. So whenever Matt hums a tune from it, there’s the obligatory “Heyy Princeton.” It gets annoying enough that I don’t even have to say it at this point, I just have to smile and wave. For some reason he switches to humming tunes from Les Mis, It seems he likes the version “Matt-ster of the house” Walking down Saint-Michel it seemed appropriate for the three of us to burst into:

“Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men, it is the music of the people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drum. There
is a life about to start when tomorrow comes….”

I wonder if the people were shaking there heads going “Les Americans..”

We eat dinner at La Tour D’Argent, a restaurant overlooking Notre Dame. So the owner pays for part of Notre Dame’s electricity bill so his customers can enjoy the view of it at night. The specialty of this restaurant was ducks. With each duck, they give you a card with the number commemorating the duck. We had ducks number 1055001 and 1055002. I like the food better here. The pike dumplings were my favorite, Matt claims he feels that I’m going to pay tonight. I’m already out an e60 tie I bought for this place,. We continue debate about my position on Eponine vs Cosette—which is basically that Marius is an idiot going for Cosette. Somehow, this again leads to talk about the slim possibilities in my dating future,

Anyway Valjean = 24601 = 73*337. Now what’s the chance Victor Hugo didn’t mean this as symbolic? Wine does strange things to your mind. They talk about recording the show “24”—the one with Jack Baeur. There is actually a game called “24” invented by a SIG cowerker’s parents’ friend, where the purpose is to take 4 numbers like 3,4,5,8 and get the value 24 using the four arithmetic operations, …

24 = (5-3)*(8+4) or (5+3)*4 – 8

I actually think it would be a great game for kids to increase their math creativity, I will let others comment more.

So I gave them a problem from the game: 3,3,7,7. I even offer to bet Matt the check that he won’t get the problem before the check comes, This was before the cheese course, then dessert—that is in a French meal about an hour and a half before the check. Matt doesn’t take it, even though he’s getting 2:1. I think if he went about it methodically, he would have been able to exhaust all possibilities, Jerrod, how many are there, and how much of a factor is wine?

An hour later during dessert: Emily “Are you still thinking about that problem?” Bill: “Of course he is” Emily: “Well I knew that I was just being hopeful…” Matt and I order the chocolate cake, Emily orders some pear thing (Bill: “How can you pick that over chocolate? ”), Anyway the pear thing comes covered with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, C’est la vie.

No, I’m not gonna give the answer here, figure it out!

Anyway, Credit Card Roulette was more of a sweat this time. We got heads up, Emily shuffles, I say “bottom one pays” Ding! Thanks for dinner again Matt!

Bill

Eliminated 7th

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 01:06:28 GMT

So, nothing at all happens to me until I jam with 77 with about 35K left, blinds 1500-3000 with 400 antes. JC Tran has aces. I don't improve and I'm at the payout desk getting $23K.

BTW, one complaint I had is that I've been to the payout desk 9 times for shares of others' wins or my own wins. I understand when there's something complicated like splitting the winnings it will take a while, but this was by far the easiest cashout I've had, I doubt it took more than 15 mins. The others took well over a half hour, I remember the first tourney, a 61st place finish took over an hour. I think they streamlined the process to a two step process instead of a three step one, kudos to them.

Bill

In the finals of a 1500 event

wchen_8369@yahoo.com — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 11:37:24 GMT

This is Bill

So they are running bracelet events at the Rio this week. I enetered one with a field of 420 players. We're down to the final 13, I have 47,200 in chips. The finals start tomorrow (today) at 2pm. Certainly a chance to win another bracelet, and to reclaim first in the player of the year standings,

Anyway my opinion is that these should not really be bracelet events...

BTW Congrats to Sabyl, finishing 56th in the main event for $123K, and being the last woman eliminated. It was refreshing to root someone else on for a bit.

Bill