Really? This is what Poker has come to in 2012?

Where do I start? I played my second bracelet event of this WSOP, a multi entry $1500 No-Limit Hold’em event that began on Saturday. I ended up getting knocked out on the 5th dealt hand. In this hand I defended 76dd from small blind, positive the BB was coming along... and they did. The flop came Qc7s4h and I check-called flop; turn was a 7c where I check-called too; river was 4d. My opponent bet almost half my stack, so I check-shoved all in. At this point, my opponent looked at me, shook his head, waited a good 10 seconds before he offered, "If you have quads your good". He then flipped them over and showed me pocket Queens for "Queens full!!!" What is wrong with these guys? They tank on the river with top full house and give a speech? In my opinion, this is insanity.

Anyways, I obviously entered day 1-b on Sunday, and needless to say, it was full of drama. I didn't play too big a part in this soap opera after I was eliminated at 100-200 no ante. My opponent opened from EP for 400, so I made it 1075 with AKss (with intentions of not finding many folds). Along comes a Ah7h2h flop, so we both find a way to get it All-In. He showed the old Q9hh for the flopped flush!! At least I didn't get in dead, but now I'm out again.

3rd re-buy for the event WSOP??? Of course. Which leads me to the drama....

A little backstory: To my left for day 1-b was my buddy, Will "the thrill" Failla. Will is a colorful gentleman from NYC, with heaps of success in the poker world, kicking extra-ass over the last twelve months or so. He won a WPT (BIKE LA) and I am pretty sure he hasn't finished worse than 6th in the last 6 months of play. Anyhow, it seems by the way of the "Twitter police", Will entered day 1-b twice in the same day!!! This is un-kosher; you can enter twice like I did, but only once each day, 1a and 1b respectively. OMG, the ethics board jumped in because of the cheating implications, and needless to say poker people were pissed. Will apologized over twitter, and many savvy followers responded with one simple word, "call" (hinting that he was full of shit)!

I don't have much to say about this, but if Will knew same-day double entry was illegal, then he was clearly in the wrong, If he was obtuse and honestly believed he could re-enter, then my biggest beef that he's a moron. Will is a "face" -- and a really loud and colorful one at that-- so he'd never "get away" with sneaking back into a tourney considering that when he busts, all his haters remember the hand and he'll stick out like herpes on the next break, day of mtt, etc..

My biggest issue is the "Twitter Policia" is comprised of a lot of the "cool kids" from the high-school culture of poker. I have heard many of these guys and girls -- ok, just guys; lets leave the ladies out of this (Ron Burgundy voice) -- call out the prospective cheaters many times before. In this instance they were all complaining about how bad the WSOP is run, etc., etc., and that Will clearly knew he was cheating, blah blah. Not for nothing, but these guys are constantly crying and drawing that definitive "line in the sand" (Walter Sobchak) over things like ghosting (multi accounting) in the past, but then 6 months later I see them tweeting "At dinner with so and so and his gf"!! If your gonna call someone out on Twitter, stick to it! If your gonna forgive someone in less than 6 months to a year then you guys better give Will "the Thrill" Failla the same benefit of the doubt over time. The complaints on twitter have ceased a bit in past few days, but I suggested that players upset about the way WSOP is run, they should all sit out of a standard small buy-in event such as a $1000 or $1500 NLH event. This was met by a huge LOL by my peer, Jason Mercier.

On the lite-brite side of things, my good friend Barry Hutter made a deep run in this reentry no-limit from above. Barry's been on a tear lately, playing at a high level. His run ended when he lost a 3 way all-in between Josh Duhamel who had 22, Brian Rast who held AQ; Barry's 1010 couldn't hold like steel. Brian won that pot and is now at the final table today with one of my favorite poker females, Amanda Musumeci. Amanda is an awesome poker player and an extremely hard worker as this shows as she has qualified for the WSOP national championship held this July 4th i believe. She may be going for her second bracelet in that one, GL Mander!!!

Well that re-entry took a long time to rant about, so back to me. My 3rd tourney was the 1500 Pot-Limit Omaha on Monday. OMG, I enjoyed the crap out of this one this one. I never played any Bracelet events out of the Hold’em discipline, but this one really kept me interested. My Omaha game needs some tweaking, but this mattered little with the considering the cards I was dealt -- all terrible. I actually managed to make it down to about 240 people out of the 960 that entered. 117 runners would cash, but after my KK52DD was out-flopped by AJ98HH, I was on my way to my second "In-N-Out" meal of the day (only thing that fills the void). My good friends Tristan Wade and Adam Adler were both still in this thing with 18 left, but Adam went out and Tristan is at his 4th final table in the past 2 WSOPs -- an amazing accomplishment! GL Tristan, I want to get first tryouts for your entourage!!

I am off to the 1500nl shootout that begins in 20 min or so. After a bowl of frosted mini-wheats I'll have my A-game and hopefully win my first table in this thing. I've hit 3rd or 2nd in the last 3 of these I played in, but unfortunately you money when you win the whole sit-and-go. Wish me luck; I also accept prayers in any form of religion.

In closing, I'd just like to thank my wonderful girlfriend for finally starting this blog for me. I've been asking some of my "boys" to do this for like 2 years, lol. Some of them have started their own blogs during this time, "cough, cough, TWADE"!! Also would like to thank Ryan Smith for proofreading these rants so whoever is reading them doesn't get any dumber looking at this "withered" collection of words. 

Have a better Day!

SK