I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! PokerStars.com is the home of Free Online Poker Games, bloggers can play for free in the exclusive WBCOOP tournament, register here to play: WBCOOP

Registration code: 001435

Live online draft on Sunday August 23rd, 3PM eastern (day/time negotiable). $100 for a team, top 3 pay (also negotiable).

Don't forget to check out my new football blog - 18 and No

On my way home the next day I stopped at DiFara's for a pie to eat on the ride. Good timing - only 2 people ahead of me. Order my pie and wait. Mine is up next and in swoops none other than Kevin Spacey who begins to argue that he never got his pie. They give him mine. It's ok, because of the argument, the pie was left in the oven a little to long and was a bit burnt. I got the next one and it was delicious.

This past sunday I went up to Seneca Niagara casino and proceeded to wreck house. I sat at 2-5 and just steamrolled the table, kicking 5 to the rail. The table broke and I had to go to 1-2. Broke that table too, and the next 2 as well. Finished a 3 hour session up 4500. Went to get smokes and stopped at roulette at the insistence of HAC (hot asian chick) who I had been talking to as she got bounced around to various tables with me.

Got 200 in nickels and placed $25 each on 22,23,13. First spin hit 22 for $875. Play 23 and 13 again. 23 hits for another $875. Play 13. 31 comes up. Try again, 13 hits for winner. 4 spins - $2625 (minus $100 in losses). Not bad. Color up, and the pit boss is furious. They comp me a room. They rest of the evening was excellent.

Hit the casino again last night. Tough table and after 6 hours of play I was just about even, so I called it a night. They are now rating in the poker room, so it wasn't a total loss.

It was also my birthday week, and I was on vacation, so much drinking and being depressed about 35 happened. HAC happened way back when I was 34, so it seems those days are behind me now.

Haven't been doing much online lately, but it looks like Bodog is going to be starting up a blogger tournament this fall. I'll probably be playing in that since the Bodog structures are so good.

Some emails have also been going around about the winter gathering already. A bit premature if you ask me, but I booked. See you all there.

New York Mets = Jenga. Every game ends with it all falling apart.

Cleveland Indians = Yahtzee. You never know what your going to get.

Pittsburgh Pirates = Sorry! Self Explanatory.

New England Partriots = Clue. Mr. Belichick, At the Opposing Team's Practice, with a Video Camera.

Chicago White Sox = Hungry Hungry Hippos. 7 Players over 240 lbs (thats 109 kilos for my canadian readers).

Congrats to all the bloggers who have kicked ass representn' - CK, LJ, Sprstoner - all kicking ass this year. GL to cmitch in the 2K.

TuscaloosaJohn
# of Hands in Dataset - 3267
VPIP - 20.85%
LP VPIP - 26.67%
PF Cold Call - 11.27%
PF Raise - 9.97%
PF Re-Raise - 2.11%
LP PF Raise - 14.44%
PF All-In -2.73%
Steal Blind Attempts - 26.47%
Fold SB to Steal - 60%
Fold BB to Steal - 61.82%

Plays more hands than I like to, but no one can argue about his success in the BBT4. Excellent post flop player who extracts maximum value. 9-1 to win.

heffmike
# of Hands in Dataset - 16203
VPIP - 21.89%
LP VPIP -22.58%
PF Cold Call - 9.13%
PF Raise - 12.36%
PF Re-Raise - 1.41%
LP PF Raise - 16.13%
PF All-In - 3.38%
Steal Blind Attempts - 31.05%
Fold SB to Steal - 57.14%
Fold BB to Steal - 67.65%

Likes to see lots of flops, but can get away from bad situations. Reasonable chance to pick up a seat. 11-1.

Shabazz Jenkins
# of Hands in Dataset - 28356
VPIP - 15.22%
LP VPIP - 19.34%
PF Cold Call - 5.49%
PF Raise - 7.56%
PF Re-Raise - 1.32%
LP PF Raise - 11.17%
PF All-In - 2.41%
Steal Blind Attempts - 22.94%
Fold SB to Steal - 63.04%
Fold BB to Steal - 72.41%

One of the best in the field in my opinion. Plays position very well. Very aggressive. 8-1.

1Queens Up1
# of Hands in Dataset - 8320
VPIP - 15.36%
LP VPIP - 17.06%
PF Cold Call - 5.26%
PF Raise - 9.52%
PF Re-Raise - 0.71%
LP PF Raise - 11.85%
PF All-In - 1.79%
Steal Blind Attempts - 24%
Fold SB to Steal - 76.92%
Fold BB to Steal - 80%

Tight, aggressive, all around solid. If played position a little better, would be one of my locks. 8-1.

HighOnPoker
# of Hands in Dataset - 7278
VPIP - 15.32%
LP VPIP - 15.96%
PF Cold Call - 8.4%
PF Raise - 8.36%
PF Re-Raise - 1.67%
LP PF Raise - 12.77%
PF All-In - 4.32%
Steal Blind Attempts - 22.67%
Fold SB to Steal - 55.56%
Fold BB to Steal - 73.68%

Running over the BBT4. 6-1.

ElSnarfGrande
# of Hands in Dataset - 605
VPIP - 16.14%
LP VPIP - 19.47%
PF Cold Call - 5.95%
PF Raise - 8.52%
PF Re-Raise - 1.12%
LP PF Raise - 12.39%
PF All-In - 2.91%
Steal Blind Attempts - 28.95%
Fold SB to Steal - 81.82%
Fold BB to Steal - 88.89%

Solid player, but can be pushed off hands a little too frequently. 12-1.

smokkee
# of Hands in Dataset - 32056 (this guys plays a lot of poker)
VPIP - 15.87%
LP VPIP - 17.5%
PF Cold Call - 5.55%
PF Raise - 10.12%
PF Re-Raise - 1.47%
LP PF Raise - 11.45%
PF All-In - 4.02%
Steal Blind Attempts - 26.6%
Fold SB to Steal - 54.69%
Fold BB to Steal - 78.46%

Tight enough to win, aggro enough to lose stack early. 10-1

Joanne1111
# of Hands in Dataset - 492 (pretty crappy dataset)
VPIP - 17.69%
LP VPIP - 21.88%
PF Cold Call - 5.88%
PF Raise - 7.69%
PF Re-Raise - 1.54%
LP PF Raise - 6.25%
PF All-In - 3.85%
Steal Blind Attempts - 12.5%
Fold SB to Steal - 50%
Fold BB to Steal - 66.63%

Underrated player. One of my faves to win a seat. 7-1

Bone_Daddy84
# of Hands in Dataset - 823
VPIP - 21.87%
LP VPIP - 22.92%
PF Cold Call - 11.43%
PF Raise - 11.3%
PF Re-Raise - 1.47%
LP PF Raise - 13.45%
PF All-In - 3.44%
Steal Blind Attempts - 20.51%
Fold SB to Steal - 97.54%
Fold BB to Steal - 55.56%

Semi-Loose, but plays against the blogger field well. 15-1

BuddyDank
# of Hands in Dataset - 6854
VPIP - 15.28%
LP VPIP - 16.07%
PF Cold Call - 5.15%
PF Raise - 7.86%
PF Re-Raise - 0.44%
LP PF Raise - 11.9%
PF All-In - 2.47%
Steal Blind Attempts - 26.14%
Fold SB to Steal - 70%
Fold BB to Steal - 61.54%

Like his better half, flies under the radar of being a really great card player. 7-1.

hoyazo
# of Hands in Dataset - 18798
VPIP - 24.6%
LP VPIP - 26.03%
PF Cold Call - 7.62%
PF Raise -15.21%
PF Re-Raise - 2.64%
LP PF Raise - 19.41%
PF All-In - 3.79%
Steal Blind Attempts - 45.66%
Fold SB to Steal - 42.86%
Fold BB to Steal - 61.11%

Will steal you blind, and wins far more pots from aggression than he should. Solid. 9-1.

columbo
# of Hands in Dataset - 9512
VPIP - 24%
LP VPIP - 29.3%
PF Cold Call - 12.42%
PF Raise - 12.95%
PF Re-Raise - 2%
LP PF Raise - 18.36%
PF All-In - 1.26%
Steal Blind Attempts - 33.33%
Fold SB to Steal - 68.42%
Fold BB to Steal - 69.57%

Cash game specialist, plays too many hands. Great post flop play, but gets involved in too many pots for a tourney. 14-1.

SmBoatDrinks
# of Hands in Dataset - 481
VPIP - 15.12%
LP VPIP - 17.46%
PF Cold Call - 13.46%
PF Raise - 4.65%
PF Re-Raise - 0.78%
LP PF Raise - 6.35%
PF All-In - 1.16%
Steal Blind Attempts - 30%
Fold SB to Steal - 65.33%
Fold BB to Steal - 100%

Have not played enough with SmBoatDrinks to make a good judgment. Stats look reasonable. I'll just throw out 18-1 without any further information.

125Will
# of Hands in Dataset - 355
VPIP - 18.14%
LP VPIP - 14.04%
PF Cold Call - 2.38%
PF Raise - 11.39%
PF Re-Raise - 2.95%
LP PF Raise - 10.53%
PF All-In - 3.8%
Steal Blind Attempts - 23.68%
Fold SB to Steal - 50%
Fold BB to Steal - 41.67%

Again, not much of a HH on 125Will, and I don't think I've ever played with him. 22-1.

Tony Eusebio
# of Hands in Dataset - 8924
VPIP - 19.04%
LP VPIP - 25.56%
PF Cold Call - 6.58%
PF Raise - 14.78%
PF Re-Raise - 2.24%
LP PF Raise - 20.18%
PF All-In - 4.26%
Steal Blind Attempts - 36.14%
Fold SB to Steal - 66.67%
Fold BB to Steal - 83.33%

I don't know who this is, but for some reason I don't like this guy. He never chats. Super aggro at final tables. If he makes it that far, will win a seat, or bust in 8th or 9th. 14-1.

jimdniacc
# of Hands in Dataset - 102 (Useless dataset, but here is what I have)
VPIP - 19.35%
LP VPIP - 18.18%
PF Cold Call - 13.33%
PF Raise - 9.68%
PF Re-Raise - 2.15%
LP PF Raise - 4.55%
PF All-In - 3.23%
Steal Blind Attempts - 14.29%
Fold SB to Steal - 0%
Fold BB to Steal - 100%

Too passive post flop. Not much data on him, but I have played my fair share against him. 18-1.

Julkeus
# of Hands in Dataset - 370
VPIP - 17.92%
LP VPIP - 14.29%
PF Cold Call - 3.03%
PF Raise - 7.51%
PF Re-Raise - 1.73%
LP PF Raise - 7.14%
PF All-In - 1.16%
Steal Blind Attempts - 7.69%
Fold SB to Steal - 100%
Fold BB to Steal - 100%

Soon to be Buffalo neighbor, J plays too passively. Needs more aggro. Has busted me before. 18-1.

lucko21
# of Hands in Dataset -24591
VPIP - 18.77%
LP VPIP - 19.79%
PF Cold Call - 7.78%
PF Raise - 12.53%
PF Re-Raise - 2.11%
LP PF Raise - 14.44%
PF All-In - 2.73%
Steal Blind Attempts - 33.97%
Fold SB to Steal - 60%
Fold BB to Steal - 61.82%

Bane of the bloggers, lucko has a good shot. Will bust early, or build a nice stack early. One of the few who probably won't play timidly considering what is at stake. 8-1.

Some interesting trends are coming to light as I go through peoples numbers, and adjustments to my game are definitely going to be made. I should have done this long ago for mookie stats and maybe I could have taken one down by now.

I'll be posting the first round of player stats (maybe 20 players or so) and my thoughts on their chances to win one of the WSOP seats tomorrow. Stats I will report on include - VPIP, LP VPIP, PF Cold Call, PF Raise, PF Re-Raise, LP Raise, Blind Steal Attempts, BB and SB fold % to Button Steals, and All-In PF %. These stats are for Full Ring Tournament Play only.

I'll be keeping post flop stats on people to myself.

One interesting thing I noticed is that most people fold their BB to a steal attempt much more often than folding their SB to a steal attempt. The only exceptions to this I have found so far are myself, BuddyDank, and Columbo. I find it strange to fold BB more often here then the SB, when in the SB there is still a player to act behind. Why defend SB more often than BB? Anyone have any ideas on this?

So....I send him an email with a small request. Today I got this back (email address removed to protect the innocent) -

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

xxxxx@xxxxxxx.com

Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)

Technical details of temporary failure:
The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7720
[postbox.fabulous.com. (10): Connection timed out]

Talk about rejection. So, I pop over to his blog today to leave a comment relaying this rejection. I type it up, enter the word verification, hit publish. Nothing happens. Hit publish again. Nothing happens. Try a third time and get an error saying there was a problem submitting my comment, please refer to blogger error code blablablabla. Rejected again.

Seems as though the internet is trying to prevent me from making my request to Riggs.

As I am about to publish this, I worry it will take my whole blog down.....fingers crossed....

The final table bubble lasted a really long time, as did the final three - myself, Jo, and TJ.

I ran very well early on, picking up KK three times, AA twice, AKs twice (flopping top two once and turning Broadway the second time) and chipped up to 12K before the first break.

I had some setbacks against Astin and Cmitch and got snapped back to 6K during the second hour.

I proceeded patiently from then on, and worked my way back to 20K or so when my KK held against nzgreens AK. I fluctuated between 20-25k for a while on the final table bubble.

At the final table, Tony Eusebio went on an aggro-maniac tear. Raising and re-raising over and over and over. He took the chip lead and became my primary target, especially once he got to 60K raising with ATC, and I was back down to 20K. To be fair, he got to 60K with AK, but I knew there was no way he had great cards every time he re-raised all-in, so I bided my time.

Down to 4, at 600/1200, our chip stackes were -

Seat 2: Joanne1111 (32,672)
Seat 3: VinNay (22,841)
Seat 4: TuscaloosaJohn (27,645)
Seat 8: Tony Eusebio (42,842)

I raise with A5off to 3600. Tony re-raises all in (as he had the past 4 or 5 times I came in with a raise). I figure my A is ahead and make the call against his J-10. Flop comes AAx and I double, and let loose a sign of relief. Tony is a very good, aggressive player, and I was just praying this was one of those times he had a marginal hand.

Jo took out Tony in the next hand when her flush beat his straight. Three handed, we took turns taking the chip lead for a while, and I mistakenly told TJ "gg" when I thought Jo took him out, but he still had a few thousand. Of course he turned his micro-stack into the chip lead in a few hands.

I played some re-raising games and got up to 60K vs 40K and 20K before TJ's KQ > my A9, knocking me back down to 40K.

Jo took a big lead and got to almost 80K vs our 20K stacks. My flopped set of 33 beats her 66 and I double. Jo held us on the ropes as she build her stack again, and ultimately took out TJ when her KK held against his JA.

I came into heads up a 2-1 chip dog, but got aggro and closed the gap to 66K to 59K.

With 4s9s, I limp from SB.
*** FLOP *** [4d 8d 9d]
Jo bets out 4500. I flat call.
Turn is 5h.
Jo checks, so I try to rep the flush and take it down now in case she was betting the flush draw.
I bet 6K, and she mins to 12.
The pot is laying me 5-1, giving me just the right odds to call on a boat draw.
River comes 2h, no apparent help for anyone, but Jo pushes all-in.

I request time and tank. Jo's check-raise on the turn still has me confused. Check-raise should be telling me she wants no more action, considering I flat call the flop. Is she worried I have a better flush draw to her made flush? But it was a min raise....she knows she has to bet bigger than that considering my action.....and then the push on the river....if she puts me on a flush draw, she knows she doesn't need to risk everything to get a fold......

I type uuggggggg into the chat box, and conclude either she has nut flush, or is behind my 2 pair.

She shows 8h2c for a worse two pair and I double up and have 120K vs her 7K. I raise 3 hands in a row (Q2, J4, and finally Q4) and she calls the third with 10-5. Board helps no one and I go home winna!

See ya'll in May at the TOC. I missed the BBT3 TOC, and so did no TOC player roundup, but expect to see one from me in the coming weeks as I pour over my data on all the winners.