Whartz Up Wednesdays!

Welcome to Whartz Up Wednesdays! Here’s the deal, every Wednesday I am going to post a bunch of videos for you guys to check out. I want to change my blog up a bit from just stories and pics and things and throw in some funny videos. I get a big kick out of videos and I’m hopin you guys will like the new segment. Plus I wanted to take a little break from the Poker Party talk.

I’ve put together four videos for this week. You should find these pretty entertaining (just hit the play button on each video and it will play)

Man show kid asking chicks out for dates video:




This kid is absolutely hilarious. Could you imagine being one of these girls cruising the streets and having this kid coming up to and making some sexual advances at you. I find it hysterical and the kid has got some balls.


Fat Man on Diving Board Video:



Oh man, i must admit I laughed my ass off on this one but I do feel bad for the poor dude that millions of people are watching this and laughing at his expense. Oh well i thought you guys would enjoy it. I don't have a problem with hookin up the Kid's followers with some laughs.

darcy tucker hit video:



All I've got to say here is holy shit what a hit. That's why this guy is a hometown favorite. He lays people out all the time and I love it.

road trip prank:



I don't know if you guys have done this before to a friend or not but this guy's facial expression was absolutely priceless. I mean it could go something like this:

Making your friend piss his pants (and having to buy new ones) $75
Showing the World that you're a follower $25
Scaring the shit out of your buddy Priceless

Thanks for checking out Whartz up Wednesdays and the kid's blog. Be sure to check out next weeks awesome lineup of vids. Have a solid one and enjoy the
Poker Party.

Ebay Scam

Last night I’m sitting in my basement flippin channels between the Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. The Leafs took it to the Florida Panthers and the Raps were in a real tight one but came out on the losing end once again. But while I was sitting there cheering on my two favorite teams I was thinking about what I was going to bust out in the blog today. I am a free spirited individual and I love to explore a variety of avenues in life and I’m gonna go on a rant here about these people that just live their lives to steal or to scam others.

A couple of weeks back a couple of buddies and myself were looking into getting some new Cell Phones and we had noticed that Nokia was coming out with this sick new phone and we somehow wanted to get our hands on it. But, there was one problem, they are not yet available. So we looked around and found a few places that supposedly had a ton of them. These places that said they had them were either in China, Nigeria, and Romania. The phones are going to retail at and around $1500 dollars. We found a couple of companies that were selling them in units and we found them on Ebay. We gave a couple of companies a call to see what the deal was. This one guy we talked to was unbelievable he was saying he was actually looking for guys in Canada to sell his products and all kinds of nonsense. He sounded so legit and convincing. We were real close to hooking something up with this guy but we wanted to do some research on it first. On his Ebay listing it said if you want to buy it now don’t hit the buy it now button contact me directly. This was kind of odd so we checked into this and we found a ton of stuff on people who have been scammed not necessarily by this guy but by the same design. They tell you they can’t accept Pay Pal or anything like that but you have to wire your money via Western Union. Apparently, Romania and Nigeria are notorious for these types of scams so just be careful if you are purchasing something off of ebay or other sites from these countries. There are articles all over Google about this type of thing.

I’m bringing this to your attention because these people are making a living off ripping us off. This drives me absolutely crazy! You know what I understand that you might live in a country where the poverty levels are real bad and I feel sorry for them for that. But, this is a big But I have absolutely no tolerance for people who make a living off screwing other people. There are a lot of ways people can make a living and this is not one of them. I have absolutely no idea how people can wake up and look themselves in the mirror everyday and be happy with what they are doing. I say fuck these people and if you come across one of these scammers lets nail these son of a bitches.

Wow I got real heated thinking of this again. What made me think about it was I was watching the news last night and they were talking about the
Xbox 360 and how there has been some scams of late on these new systems and it got me all fired up. I still can’t believe people can do this to others, it truly boggles my mind.

So I was sitting in my basement watching the games and at the same time my Raptors just lost and I was a little pissed at that and I had these fucking idiots on my mind. Needless to say I was getting steamed so I thought it’s time to take some of my frustrations out on party poker. Yeah that’s right its time for a bloody Poker Party and that was probably a mistake. I started playing and I really was not concentrating at all and I proceeded to make a few bad calls and it cost me. I knew I wasn’t in the right mind set to play as I was very agitated. I am an emotional dude and I get real annoyed at certain things. But, people know that if I get mad something must be up. I am real laid back with pretty much everything but I can get fired up! Oh yeah, I lost playing poker last night and that didn’t help anything. Oh well, can’t win em all.

Don't forget to check out my blog tomorrow as it is going to be the first installment of Whartz Up Wednesdays. This feature is going to be all about crazy videos and photos. There will definitely be some laughs in these posts.

Thanks for checkin out the kids blog!

Just Another Manic Monday

It’s Just another Manic Monday! Well this is the first installment of my Manic Monday Posts. I have decided to come up with themes for each day of the week and try and change some things up on this Blog of mine. Manic Mondays is gonna try and brighten up those that tend to get a “Case of the Monday’s”. It is my hope that this will brighten up your Monday Just a Lil Bit.

With Monday’s typically being the hardest day of the week to get motivated and feeling great especially if you are an individual like myself that tends to giver pretty good on the weekends, and I know exactly what you’re feeling on these fine Monday mornings. I spend my Sunday’s laying in my buddies basement all goddamn day (recovering from Friday and Saturday nights) and when I wake up on Mondays I feel like I haven’t slept in a fucking week. Although I am up at 6:15 and I head for the gym for a nice session of pumpin weights no matter how shitty I feel. Trust me there are some days where I just want to lay in bed and not get up, but that’s where the motivational factor comes in to play and I force myself to get up and get my ass into the gym. That was the case today for The Kid.

~~

Did you frequent the bars this weekend? I sure as hell did as there was a pretty big bash on Friday night at this bar in Toronto called the Crystal Room. We were there for a fine ladies birthday and the entire crew made their presence. The festivities saw a shit load of alcohol consumed, a ton of laughs and there was a rapping session that was pretty sick and it could be coming to your local radio station in the near future (look out for the kid featuring Fritz Dawg). With the amount of alcohol consumed I don’t have to explain too much but I did spend the majority of my Saturday curled up under the blankets in one of the best chill sessions of all time. The kid definitely needed it and enjoyed it!

When you are at the bar there are a lot of sayings that go on and I’m sure a lot of them have hidden meanings/messages behind them. I’m sure you probably heard a few of these over the weekend. Here’s a list of some sayings and what they really mean:

"No, really, I'm OK to drive."
--I'm wasted, and I am too embarrassed to have anybody see who I am going home with.

(ah looks like someone busted out the beer goggles)

."You get this one, next round is on me."
--We won't be here long enough to get another round.

"I'll get this one, next one is on you."
--Happy hour is about to end....now drafts are a dollar, but by the next round they'll be $4.50 a pop.

(Cheap son of a -----)

"I haven't seen you around here for a long time."
--You stuck up little -----, too good for your old friends??

"Hey, where is that friend of yours?"
--I have no interest in talking to you except as a way to get your attractive friend into a compromising position.

"Lets get out of here."
--I just dumped a half a pitcher of beer into that Harley guy's helmet.

"Ever try a body shot?" (female to male)
--If this is how wild I am in the bar, imagine what I'll do to you on the ride home?

(Personally haven’t heard this one, but I’m definitely intrigued)

"I don't feel well, let's go home." (female)
--You are paying more attention to your friends than me.

"I don't feel well, lets go home." (male)
--I'm horny.

"Who's got the next round?"
--I haven't bought a round in almost 3 years, but I am an expert at diverting attention.

"Excuse Me." (male to male)
--Get the f--- out of the way.

(I’m sure we’ve all heard this one before)

Any of these sound familiar! I’m sure you guys have heard these before and if you didn’t know what they meant, well now ya do.

~~

What is a weekend without a Poker Party? Well there was definitely a poker party in good ol Phril’s basement yesterday. My buddy was feeling it as he was playing on Pacific Poker and he was cleaning up almost every Sit ‘N’ Go there was. Unfortunately I didn’t play any poker this weekend as I took a little bit of a break but I’ll be all over Partypoker (use the bonus code 20BR on party poker) tonight though. Hey Phril, when are the goddamn Raptors gonna win there second game. Could it be tonight? I guess we’ll find out. Hey Shep are you reading this? If you are “oh they spinnin” bud, why don’t you crack open a Steveweiser and guzzle one down one time for the kid. Cheers!


"Jesus Shep you didn't tell me your flat in Belfast was so Nectar"


Some Random Tidbits


Phil Ivey had a tremendous week of poker in the glorious Monte Carlo. Not only did he take home the $1 million dollar Monte Carlo Millions tournament he promptly followed that up by winning the live Fox Sports Net event. That netted him an additional $600 thousand dollars. I’m sure he’ll be enjoying himself with all that extra cash hangin around.

Man do these poker players get to see some unbelievable places. I mean Monte Carlo has got to be one of the best places in the world to visit. That is if you can afford it. I definitely wanna check this place out at some point in my lifetime.


"A view of Monaco in the Evening"

Poker Room has introduced a great idea for those that like team events. Well this is the first one of its kind in the online variety as they have launched a team tournament feature. Teams can consist of five to ten players and compete against other teams from around the world.

"Teams are established by a Team Manager and can participate in Team Leagues - a series of tournament rounds where several team members play simultaneously in each round. Members can also battle it out for lucrative cash rewards in Team Eliminators, which are tournaments played out in teams."

"Team Eliminators, on the other hand, offer a different twist to online poker. The Team Manager assigns one player to go up against a member of the opposing team. The winner of the match and his team then proceed to the next round, continuing until only two teams remain to go head-to-head for the title. The top teams will share the prize money generated by the total number of team buy-ins, depending on the payout structure."

I think this truly is a great idea and I'm gonna put a team together for sure. It just adds a little different flavor to poker and it could definitely set up for some great ideas down the road.

~~

Well that's it for this post so thanks for stoppin by!

Partypoker Introduces its High Flier Promo

It's time for another unbelievable contest for those players that play at Partypoker or for those looking to play there. They have the Ferrari contest going and the actual event for that is December 3rd. Now pay attention this next contest is real solid.

First place in this tournament gives you the opportunity to spend up to 25 hours in the air in a private jet with up to six friends to any destination in the world. Partypoker is giving you the option of 5,000 different airports to pick from. What a prize (worth $125,000). And they are not done there. Second place will receive a brand new Mercedes G55 AMG (this is worth $105,000). I don't know about you guys but i'm gonna be all over this tourney to try and get my hands on one of these awesome prizes. To finish off the top five, partypoker is giving away three more mercedes. Stay tuned and get on this tremendous opportunity. I'm sure there will be some more incredible giveaways real soon. Just look for the High Flier $600,000 guaranteed prize pool giveaway. It's not too brad!

Definitely a Poker Party i'm gonna be signin myself up for.

Well today i am off to my buddies basement for a full on football Sunday. I am sure there will be some online poker played at some point. I am still in recovery mode from my long friday night giver affair. Which i will fill you all in on later on. Since i need some more time to recover my thoughts from that crazy night.

I am looking forward to increasing my record at SNG's today. I have been hot and cold of late. I was on an awesome streak at one point where I thought I was untouchable at the table. But, i am looking to get that feeling back and work my way up so I can play some of the bigger games and make some bank.

Happy Football Sunday and don't forget about the Poker Party!

The kid is out!

First Edition of Freeforall Fridays

“It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth.” (George Burns)

First off I hope all the Americans in the house had a great thanksgiving and I’m sure you guys are all recovering today from the mad amounts of food that you gobbled up yesterday. Mmmm……. Turkey. I love the holidays for that reason alone. I love to stuff my facia, and what better way to do that then with turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and then some fantastic pie to polish it off with. Plus the fact that there is football on (even if my Detroit Lions are shit) and you can suck back mad amounts of alcohol. That sounds Not too Brad!

~~

Friday is here and I’m ready to get this weekend underway. I plan on givener and givener hard tonight and have a hell of a night. We are havin a birthday bash in the big smoke tonight and there are gonna be mad peeps up in the house so it’ll be a gong show (stay tuned for the recap and some pics). This crew knows how to
"Git R Done" and tonight is gonna be no exception. Hey Fitzy you ready to bust out some rhymes bro!

So "Jessica Simpson" and "Nick Lachey" called it quits huh. Surprise! Surprise! They are just the latest "Hollywood" couple that couldn’t make it. It’s so crazy how so few of these couples actually stay together. As they say fame and fortune can’t buy happiness. I mean with Jessica Simpson she is incredibly hot but is she not the dumbest girl on the planet. Now who knows if she played that up or not for the television to spike the ratings but I mean no matter how hot she is, dealing with that stupidity is enough to drive anybody fuckin nuts. But she is Hot! For that reason I’m sure Lachey hung around for as long as he did.

~~

All of a sudden there is a major attraction for the cops to bust these underground poker rooms. I mean take a break I’m sure there are a lot worse things going on in NYC and Baltimore than people playing goddamn cards at night in an “Underground” club. I’ve got one for ya! Why don’t you worry about all the goddamn murders and shit and catch some of these fuckers instead of worrying about people playing cards and making some money on the side. Fair enough, gambling is illegal but Christ there is so much other shit that these pigs should be worrying about. How about this for a start: murders, rapists, and fucking pedophiles. Get on it! The kid is ranting on this cause I’m sick and tired of turning on the news and the lead story every goddamn night is someone is missing, someone is killed. Something has to be done and I don’t think worrying about poker should be the PIGS priority. Especially since breaking up these clubs is not gonna stop people from playing poker or gambling. The latest poker raid (in Baltimore) was a waste of time anyways cause the dumb cops used the wrong subsection of law when they handed out the tickets the night of the raid. So they will all get off. Haha! God! Idiots! Definitely some emotion being brought out in this post! All I’m askin for here is for some goddamn sanity in this world the way it used to be. So who’s up for a Poker Party this weekend?

~~



"That's a bit of a steep penalty, don't you think?"



"That's embarassing"


Could you imagine if you were one of these guys! I mean doing the deed is bad enough but then you wake up in the morning and you are all over the internet (and on the Kid's blog) in that uncompromising position haha. Get a grip and think about it!

~~

A little Jovogaunch update for those that are curious on what he's up to. Well he's still crazy and loving life in the land down under. He has had no problems to report on his sick new ride. And yes he has picked up a couple of music contracts (thanks to the recording on my blog). He actually was signed by the Jackson's to be the newest member of the "Jackson Five". Here's the latest pic of the R&B Sensation.


"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Jackson Five is proud to present its newest member "The Jovogaunch", Damn dude Run That Game"

A little update to the blog as I am going to have weekly features for everyday during the week and it will all begin on Monday with "Manic Mondays". Thanks for taking the time to read the kid's blog and let the Poker Party begin.

A Basement Poker Party

Its time for another rendition of the kidinthehizy gettin bizzy at the tables. Last night was definitely a Poker Party in the Cobster’s basement. We had the hockey game on (really it shouldn’t have been since the leafs got freakin smoked) and the laptops fired up. The game plan that I had set up was to play in three SNG’s (and hopefully cash in all of them) throughout the night. The first game I played I got busted out in fourth place (one out of the money), what a shitty place to finish. I mean I’d rather be knocked out first than finish in fourth goddamn place. All that time you waste to get nothing out of it.

Once I was eliminated in fourth I quickly found myself joining another table and starting over again. This time I could feel like something good was going to happen. First hand this guy goes all-in pre-flop and I’ve got pocket rockets so I call him. He has pocket kings and my aces held up. They finally held up! This is one of the first times I have had aces and they actually won me some goddamn chips. So with that quick double up I was in great position to make a move. I eventually would continue to play well and I was getting some pretty good cards as well. I finished in first place after a long heads up battle. We were going back and forth for so long that I was glad it was finally over.

#Game No : 3084835956
***** Hand History for Game 3084835956 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:17668616 Level:10 Blinds(300/600) - Wednesday, November 23, 21:36:53 EDT 2005
Table Table 66985 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 3: kidinthehizy ( $7790 )
Seat 7: jtoffic ( $210 )
Trny:17668616 Level:10
Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to kidinthehizy [ Th 8d ]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 4d, Qc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]
jtoffic shows [ 2s, 3c ] high card queen.
kidinthehizy shows [ Th, 8d ] a pair of tens.
kidinthehizy wins 390 chips from side pot #1 with a pair of tens.
kidinthehizy wins 420 chips from the main pot with a pair of tens.
jtoffic finished in second place and won $30.
jtoffic has left the table.
Congratulations,kidinthehizy! You won $50.
kidinthehizy has left the table.

It’s amazing how pumped you get for winning $50 but I love it. I get pretty animated after a win that’s for sure. I hope I can keep em coming.

My third SNG of the evening was a long hard battle. I saw myself get real shortstacked and then hit a couple of huge hands that got me right back into the bad boy. There were a couple of guys at the table that were 100% Calling Stations. They would call everything and then try to buy the pot. I was getting annoyed with all-in calls and they would have 93o like give me a fuckin break. Eventually I would knock one of these bastards out in fourth place and I loved it. My luck did run out though and I finished off in third place.

All in all not a bad Poker Party evening! I cashed in two out of the three and I had some fun doin it.

Use the bonus code 25BR at party poker

Some Daily Insight

"If your left leg was Easter, and your right leg was Christmas, would I be able to meet you in between the holidays?" - Josh Longden

I thought I’d start the day off with a little quote. Well we had our first snowfall in the land of Eskimos, Igloos, and Penguins last night: yeah that’s right people snow in Toronto can you freakin believe it. The streets were filled with penguins goin wild last night and I’m not talkin about Sidney Crosby either. I am truly not a big fan of winter at all and I can’t believe it has finally arrived. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Great White North, it gets cold here, and yeah it does snow here but I’ll tell ya one thing it’s the best goddamn place in the world baby! I’m sure people will disagree and that’s why some people are placed on this earth: to agree to disagree. Those folks are the ones who think that they are always right and their opinion is always right. God! Idiots! Seriously though, I am proud of where I live as should everyone I just hate the fact that people can be so ignorant to think of the Great White North as a hell hole. I’ll guarantee that if you have never been here before you’d love it once you saw it. As the saying goes Its Not Too Brad!

--

Some Poker Party Insight

Kido Pham is your latest winner of a WSOP Circuit Championship event as he outlasted a tremendous field and a great final table. My boy Scotty Nguyen finished up in fourth place and cashed in a cheque for a cool hundred grand. I have become a big time supporter of Mr. Scotty Nguyen since my Vegas Trips. We have run into him a few times now and he is an absolute class act. Gotta be one of the nicest guys in the game.

In other news, Full Tilt POker and Fox Sports Net are teaming up once again for another televised live event tournament. It is taking place tomorrow evening (November 24) live from the Monte Carlo Millions. Here is the Poker News report:

“Confirmed entries for the event in Monte Carlo include former World Champions Phil Hellmuth and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who will be joined at the table by fellow professionals John Juanda and David “DevilFish” Ulliot. Three other players have been extended invitations, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Mike Matusow, but we’ll have to wait until showtime (live at 6PM on the East Coast) to see what the actual final lineup will be.

Each player will be putting up $120,000 and Full Tilt will add in another $160,000, bringing the total purse to a cool $1 million. Only the final three players left at the table will walk away with any of the bounty, with third place getting their buy in back, second taking $280,000 and the first place winner walking off with $600,000.”

Curious to find out when the bloggers are going to have a televised event. Wouldn’t that make for some interesting television? Set it up at one of the shittier casinos, with an unlimited supply of drinks (in my case RBV’s and Coors Lights, a shameless plug for my go to drinks), and just see what happens. The viewing public would love it. Guys playing poker, getting shitfaced and telling stories. It’s pretty much everyone’s Saturday night but it’s televised. Sign me Up!


The Monte Carlo Millions has gotten down to the final table. Here’s a breakdown of the final table:

Chip Counts
1 Phil Ivey $ 2,317,000
2 Richard Herbert $ 908,000
3 Paul Jackson $ 809,000
4 Marc Goodwin $ 681,000
5 Bengt Sonnert $ 582,000
6 Kenna James $ 310,000
7 Monte Carlo Gold Winner $ 160,000

I’d like to see Phil Ivey take this bad boy home. How tough is it for these guys that they get to play poker for a ton of dough and then at night they can cruise the streets in Monte Carlo. Like Christ, I’m gonna admit there is definitely some jealousy here on my part. I’d better start playing in bigger online events than my SNG’s so I can qualify for one of these bad boys. Although I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t be in the greatest shape whatsoever at the tables cause I’d be out givener pretty much every night. That's how I roll!

--

Well tonight is gonna be a pretty solid evening for the kid as there is a big leafs game and typically what happens when a game is on is we head over to the Cobster’s basement and throw on the big screen, fire up the laptops, and crack open the beers. Yeah it will be a Poker Party no doubt about it. The kidinthehizy will be live tonight on Partypoker so I’m hopin I’ll have some stories about the kid winnin some cake. This is the Kid and I am Canadian!

Hey Alex Happy Birthday!

The Kid is out!

Some more Ramblings by The Kid

Thanks for checkin out The Kid’s blog and get ready for a nectar little Poker Party here on the B Spot.

Are you at home right now? In the office tryin to do some work but you can’t, hey don’t worry about it if you are that’s what I’m here for. I’m tryin to provide some entertainment for those that grace the pages of this blog of mine.

Quote of the day for those Napolean Dynamite fans: “Why don’t you just stay at home and eat all the freakin chips Kip”. Are you a fan of this movie? Well I must say there are some funny lines in it but if you actually say it’s a quality movie well this pretty much sums you up “God! Idiot!”

--

Let’s Roll!

Last night I decided it was time to have a little fun by havin a Poker Party in my office with my laptop and you got it I logged on to Partypoker and played a couple of SNG’s. I must say the Kidinthehizy was definitely getting bizzy. I have been having some pretty good success in the last little while playing in these and last night was no different. I played two of them and I finished in second place both times. The last one was a bit of a pain in the ass as I was heads up with this chump and I had pocket kings and he went all in pre-flop so I quickly called him and he turned over pocket tens. I was winning all the way down to the river card when you guessed it a goddamn ten came up. Just my luck and I finished in second place. I’ll take it but it would have been nice to win that one.

Party Poker has been pretty good to me of late and I thoroughly enjoy setting up shop at this site. I predominantly play here but I am going to start playing with Dr. Pauly (check out the tao of poker blog) and the rest of the bloggers at Poker Stars in the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly events. So, I’ll see how I stack up against the rest of the poker blogger community. It should be fun.

--

Time for some news on the WSOP

Alright there was an article on ESPN recently talking about possible changes/additions to the World Series of Poker and I’m gonna bust out some highlights of what is being discussed.

There is talk of having an event with a buy-in in the high six figures or even possibly being a million dollar buy-in. Would this create excitement and only the best/richest players would be able to play in this one. But Christ, think of the prize pool and the pressure these guys would face once they get to the final table. Great idea if it comes to fruition. I’d be glued to the tube on this one.

As soon as next year there is a plan to implement a mixed game event like there used to be. This would be good as this would show really who the greatest all around player would be and I’m sure everyone would like too see this. For the players that have abilities in all games they would love to see this happen. I’m surprised it hasn’t been around in a while, but it looks like its gonna be back.

Another interesting scenario that is being looked as is making the WSOP brand going internationally and potentially having tour stops in all major countries throughout the year and then leading up to the Finale in Vegas. They compare it to the WPT and I think this would be tremendous. It’s obvious that the WSOP is looking to expand its horizons and become a dominant force year round in the poker world as opposed to just the two months in the summer. It should be interesting and stay tuned for any breaking developments.

--

It’s the time of year again for Oprah's Favorite Things. This is some serious donations made by this woman and she should be commended for what she does for people. Yesterday was the surprise day and she came out with some great gifts and it was to the right people. This time she gave her favorite things to those Hurricane Katrina Volunteers. Truly a great gesture! Here is what she busted out for her adoring fans.

Each adoring fan would receive:

A Blackberry
A Sony DVD camcorder—the most expensive item she's every given away at $1000
A $400 necklace
A Smoked Turkey
A Vacuum Packing system
A Panasonic portable DVD player
All this plus food, clothes, lotions and all kinds of potions.
My opinion on this is that its Not Too Brad. Hey Oprah what about doin a little session of your favorite things for the poker blogging community. I think its awesome what she does, I know people will be critics and say its all given by sponsors yeah and even if it is who gives a shit. It’s still an unbelievable gesture and she brings a ton of happiness to a lot of people. Good on ya.

Some more good stuff from our bud Phil Hellmuth

After Phil gets eliminated from the Monte Carlo Millions here’s what he had to say:

"I ALWAYS get my chips in when I'm ahead. I come all the way to Monte Carlo & some idiot takes me on with K-6 - it's what I've come to expect, people call just to eliminate me. I'm the best player here, & these idiots can't play the game. I've had to battle against these idiots all my life..."

Is this guy not classic or what. That’s why I enjoy watchin this guy play he’s always got something to say and typically its about how good he is and how bad everybody else is. The only problem I see with that is he hasn’t won anything in a long long time. I’m still a fan of his though and its only because of his quotes.

--

I’m not sure what is going on in the world of sports of late but all these professional athletes and their heart troubles are quite scary. There was another incident last night where Jiri Fischer of the Detroit Red Wings had a seizure on the bench during the game. All the best to Jiri and his road to recovery. What’s the deal with all these heart problems though it seems that there are issues weekly now with guys having heart troubles.

Some more off topic talk


Today, the ugliest dog in the world passed away. I’m not kidding this dog was voted the world’s ugliest dog for the last three years running. Take a look at the pic, its fuckin scary.


"Who's a Tired little Puppies"


Let's get a Poker Party started up in here and will the real slim shady please stand up. Until next time thanks for readin the kid's blog and don't forget to hit up the poker tables. If you play online at Partypoker use the bonus code 25BR.

The Kid has left the hizzouse

Poker Party Ramblings

Back from NYC after a long drive home and a couple of late nights on the town. It was real nice to get to sleep in my own bed again and have some nice home cooked food. NYC is a hot spot and I'm lookin forward to goin back to this city.

What’s goin on in the world of poker?

The WPT World Poker Finals wrapped up this past weekend at the Foxwoods and the young 21 year old online poker phenom Nick Schulman took home the title. His Online handle is “TheTakeover” and that’s just what he did at this final table as he took over everybody’s chips and turned that into $2.1 million dollars. That’s not too brad! Keep your eyes on this name as he is gonna continue to make more and more noise at all the major tournaments.

Empire Poker is apparently getting ready to take some legal action against PartyGaming. This should be interesting, if something happens here I’ll likely put my money on PartyGaming to win this battle.

Negreanu and the Wynn have officially parted ways as Negreanu feels he needs to play in more of the big games at the Bellagio. Is this a good move for Daniel’s poker career? I’ve got to think it is and hopefully this will help him get of the schnide it big tournaments. We’ll have to wait and see.

Last night 60 minutes had a piece on online gambling. There was not much new that was presented in this piece other than online gambling is a big industry and that the Poker Party over at Partypoker is the number one site on the net. What a surprise. It is said that Internet gaming companies will profit more than $10 billion this year. Wow is that incredible or what.

Random Ramblings

Apparently Britney Spears and her husband are the latest celebrity couple to have a sex tape coming out. I guess with Britney getting very little exposure of late why not come out with a bang. Oh yeah, i'm sure she doesn't want this tape getting out to the public, yeah right. She has been real quiet of late and probably hates the fact that she is no longer in the limelight while all the other females in her genre continue to get mad headlines. Might as well bust out a sex tape.

Well my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs had another impressive weekend and are slowly making some damage in the Eastern Conference in the NEW NHL. Anyone else sick of hearing the NHL being called the NEW NHL. Like shit its still the NHL get off of this marketing crap and stop trying so goddamn hard to sell the game. I mean you don't have to say this all the damn time. Call it the NHL and that's that. The NEW NHL god that drives me fuckin nuts. I think i'd rather sit on a street corner and listen to all the drivers in NYC just honk their bloody horns all day. I seriously think that a horn is honked atleast every ten seconds of every day down there. It truly is unbelievable how impatient people can be.

President George Bush haha. How can anyone take this guy serious. Did you see him yesterday trying to escape reporters during his press conference in China and he tried to open the doors and he couldn't because the doors are locked. What an ass! This is the President of the United States of America and as each day passes he becomes more of a joke. There are websites all over the net displaying his best features. One of my favorites i have seen of late is the one where he is compared to chimpanzees. That is hilarious. Check it out here Bush or Chimp.

Well that's it for this post and if you are lookin for someone to have a Poker Party with, look me up.

Bright Lights Big City on a Friday Night

We have finally arrived in New York City! Is this the biggest and busiest city on the planet or what? I mean we came in through the Lincoln Tunnel and we had to get to forty fifth street as that is where we are staying. We had to cut up 42nd street and holy shit there are people everywhere. I guess the fact that all the Broadway shows are getting out and we are two blocks from Times Square really doesn’t help anything. One question I have about New York though is what the hell is with all the goddamn honking. Its pretty amusing though at times especially when you are stuck at a red light and people are honking their horns for you to get going. I think it’s just a big game but I’m not sure. I don’t think I could handle driving in this city all the time. Its fuckin’ nuts! Especially those Cab Drivers.

We are staying at The Alex Hotel and we wheel in there and this place is real quality. A nice modern hotel and the location is perfect. The view we had was unbelievable, we opened up the blinds and all you see is the Empire State Building. Simply an awesome site. We are walking distance to Times Square and there are a ton of restaurants, bars, and pubs all over the place. That’s what I’m talking about. We check into our hotel room and unload our gear and its time for us to get ready to grab some food and a couple of drinks.


"Here's a shot of our living room in The Alex, Not Too Brad!"

We went to this irish pub and we had a few beers. This crazy drunk guy and his date strolled in and were seated at the table right beside us. What a character this cat was. I’m not sure what it is about us but for some reason every time we go somewhere we always locate these crazy people. This guy was so lit that he was all over the map, he was stumbling all over the bar.

He was sooo hungry that he ordered so much food and all I could think is when is this chief gonna unload all of it. The best thing was when he was eating his chicken wings. I think he got more on his face than he did in his mouth. I couldn’t stop looking over and laughing at the situation at hand. It looked like he just stuck his face in the middle of the plate and was playing the game bobbing for Chicken Wings. The poor girl he was with, I mean could you imagine being out in public with this guy or even trying to have a conversation when the guy has wing sauce and pieces of chicken stuck all over his face. Definitely a funny site, plus the fact that he was talking nonsense and you couldn’t understand a word he would say since he was so gunned. Very amusing and another encounter for the crew to get a good laugh at.

We stayed at this place for a couple of hours and it was time for some much needed rest. We got back to the room and I was desperately trying to have a Poker Party on Partypoker (Bonus Code 25BR on Party Poker) but the goddamn internet connection in the room would not work. That’s the worst. All I wanted to do was play a couple of SNG’s and keep on building the kid’s bankroll. So this didn’t work and it was time to shut er down and get ready for tomorrow.

Off to NYC and a Poker Party

Here we go again! Well last night we just arrived home from Las Vegas and today we are off to the Bright Lights Big City of New York. I am real tired after having an all out giver affair in Vegas and now we are off to experience the limelight of New York City. Right now, we are sitting in my buddies Infiniti in Buffalo, New York and we are stuck in ridiculous traffic due to this goddamn snow storm. The roads are god awful and there are cars in ditches everywhere.


"A little Winter Off Roading"

I guess with the first snowfall and people not having the time to change their tires(put on snow tires),and I’m sure the fact that people are in a rush to get home they are driving a little careless. But really though I’ve seen some cars in positions that I didn’t think were humanly possible.

Last night after I got home from Vegas I tried to shut er down real early but I had a tough time fallin asleep so I busted out my laptop while layin in bed and it was time for a late night Poker Party. I logged onto partypoker and played a couple SNG’s. I didn’t really play that much in Vegas so I thought it was time to get back at it and sharpen up my game.

Back to the trip to NYC, I haven’t been to the big city in like five or six years so I’m pretty pumped to get there. Unless this goddamn snow storm clears up at some point we might not make it there in time to hit the town. I mean its gonna be Friday night in NYC and we can’t go out, that sucks. Hopefully we’ll find a way. I’ll let ya know what happens.

Got Vegased!

Well whaddya know the kid got vegased for the second time. The term Vegased is a little term that i came up with and it represents how shitty you feel when you are sitting in the Las Vegas Airport after a few tremendous nights of givener in this crazy city.

I mean at the time it seems like a great idea to just keep going and going until your forced to stop partying (Consuming large amounts of RBV's). But Jesus H. Christ this groggy feeling that i have at this instant makes you think about your decisions. Maybe drinking for twelve hours wasn't the best decision i've ever made but last night i thought it was the best thing ever. Either way you can't have both. You can't expect to giver and then wake up and feel great. Its just not freakin possible. What makes it worse is if you have a cold spell at the tables, so now you're head feels like shit and your bank account is hurtin just as bad as your head. You could call it a Poker Party gone bad.

Back to getting Vegased. I'm sure everyone who has been to Vegas has had this feeling at some point. Well now you've got a goddamn term for that vegas feeling. You wanna drink till your heart's content get ready to get vegased. I always have
an awesome time in this place and no matter how I feel right now and no matter how many times i say i'm not coming back here for awhile i'm sure i'll be back. This place is that crazy. Tiring for sure, but what a party.

Just Another Evening in Crazy Vegas

I woke up this morning wondering what the hell happened last night. It was our last night in Vegas and we did it up our customary way. We started our afternoon off down in the casino sitting at the roulette tables and at the blackjack tables. We ran into a couple of our buds from our previous encounters at the tables (namely Tony Yao). Our man Tony looked to be havin a rough afternoon as he wasn't nearly in as good a mood as from the last time we saw him.

So we were drinking Coors Lights at this time and we were gettin a nice little buzz on when we decided to go eat some food. There is a buffet right across from the poker room at the Hilton so we decided we would check it out. To our pleasant surprise we were informed that the cost of the buffet was $15.99 but the best part about this deal was that it was all you could drink. I'm sorry what was that you said; an all you can drink buffet. Jesus Jerry! The buffet was pretty good all around, our buddy "The General" or the self proclaimed Thermometer thoroughly enjoyed himself as he had about five platefuls of this buffet stuff. He is a machine when it comes to putting down food, no doubt about it.

It was time to head up to the room and get ready for the evenings festivities. We weren't planning on doing the club thing at all this time around, as we did that a couple of months ago and the bank accounts took a bit of a beatdown. So this time
we figured we'd just chill at different casinos and do some gambling and get some cheap drinks out of the deal.

Fitzy and I knew where we were gonna end up. For those that read my previous Vegas posts you'll know that we love this ghetto casino called O'sheas. Its not the nicest place in the world but man everytime we get into this place something crazy
goes down and we always remember it. Well needless to say we had another wild epsode in this joint last night. We roll in to O'sheas after having spent about an hour or so in Flamingo's and we were gettin our drink on. We were startin to get a little rowdy, that could be a bit of an understatement.

Our buddy the General was all about playin poker but he also wanted to giver which typically isn't the best of combinations, unless you don't mind losin your money. Anyways, he wandered over to the poker room and decided to set up shop. Well this is where we came in. Fitzy and I (gettin a little rowdy at this point) and our buddy the cobster (also gettin rowdy) decided it was time to go over to the poker room and watch our buddy play some poker. Well we wandered on over there and all of a sudden I thought we were in the Imperial Palace and there was a poker lookalike tournament. I mean our buddy has a little Scotty Nguyen in him and then look at this list of players he was playing with. The dealer was a Phil Hellmuth lookalike, then we had the Magician, Joseph Hachem, Doyle Brunson, Jesus Ferguson (all this cat needed was the hat and he was an absolute ringer for him), Tuan Le was in the house and the same Johnny "fuckin" Chan. What a cast this was and with us bein a little alcohol driven we let these fine players know all about our thoughts. The guys at the table were havin a good time with it. They probably couldn't believe what they were seeing. A good time in this joint but it was time to fire it up in good ol' O'Sheas.

We roll into O'sheas and we instantly kick the poker party up a notch as we enter this fine establishment. We came in firin up mad chants. For you soccer (football for my european crew) fans you'll know the ole chant. Well we fine tuned this
one to go like O'Sheas, O'Sheas, O'Sheas (you know the rest of it). Anyways we had this place turnin into a party. Everytime one of our guys (namely the Cobster) would get a big hit at the roulette table we would fire up this chant. The only thing about O'sheas is that they don't have a poker room. So we had to settle for the roulette tables. But at this point in our evening we love playin
roulette. Not really much thinkin goes on there. People can tell you all they want about having a system. Its all bullshit, the dealer spins the ball and hits on a goddamn number and if you had that particular number you win. Not much to it. Look at our boy Tony Yao, the poor guy kept putting all his money on five because he thought eventually it would hit. He hit it a couple of nights ago and made a killing, but today he missed everytime and pretty much gave all his winnings right back to the casino. Its funny how that happens.

Anyways, back to the party at O'sheas. With us getting rowdy it was time to find a random gunned person for us too chill with. Since this is what we have come to associate the experience with at O'Sheas. Well again I can safely say we found another loose cannon. This time it was a female (probably late 30s tough to tell though, but definitely from the trailer park). Her name was Jenny (we call her Jenny from the Block) and she thought she was some kind of rapping phenomenon. This scene was absolutely histarical. I mean we are in a casino and we are all gunned and we have this lady busting out rhymes (they weren't good by any means, but i was absolutely dying). My stomach was killing me from all this madness. Jenny
would eventually get kicked out of the casino and then the scary part was she said she had to tell her son she got kicked out. Her son was twenty two
and probably hating life. I mean comon, imagine your with your mom in a casino and she starts rapping with four dudes and just creating a spectacle. I mean we had this place rockin though. Even the Pit Bosses were lovin our antics. Probably because they wanted us too keep on drinking and they wanted us to lose the money. But little do they know that when we get like this we are more pumped and we generally hit a lot more. We've got some videos of these episodes so stay tuned for them. They are definitely worth taking a look at.

We had an awesome time as per usual at O'sheas and it was time for us to head home since we had to get up this morning at seven O'clock to get to the airport and catch our flight from hell. So we had two hours of sleep and i'm waiting in the airport right now. Not feeling good at all. I will tell ya one thing though, we had an awesome time and the kid was up in the hizzy.

The Crew has Arrived in Vegas for Round 2

Welcome to Las Vegas! This is the sign that I see which really made me think I’m really here again. I know the last time I came to this place I said to myself I probably won’t be back here for at least 6 months to a year. Well I was wrong and I’m back in two and a half months and I’m ready to go.

We are waiting for our connecting flight from Phoenix to Vegas when out of the corner of my eye I think I see Scotty Nguyen. Yeah it’s him as I hear the “Whassup Baby” from across the Airport. So slick this cat is. He seems like an awesome dude, I mean he gets stopped by everybody and he talks to every single person. Class Act! When you come to Vegas be sure you check out Scotty’s favorite place for a Poker Party and that’s the Imperial Palace.

This time around we are staying at the Las Vegas Hilton, the hotel is Not too Brad as we have all the necessities at our finger tips. We’ve got the bar, the poker room (so we can throw our Poker Party in the hotel), the roulette tables, and did I mention the bar. This hotel is located just off the main strip, but close enough that you can get around and hit up all the necessary spots.

We all know how much we love to party and we understand that the surroundings in Vegas fully entice people to go out and absolutely giver on their liver. Ya know what I’m sayin. Well we followed this plan to a tee last night as we were pretty much the spectacle in the Hilton Casino. The Kid hopped on board his customary Vegas tradition of pounding sick amounts of RBV’s (Red Bull Vodka's). After this evening was concluded I came to the conclusion that it probably wasn’t the greatest idea on my part to drink more than twelve RBV’s in a night (even though I was warned about this before I came here but when they start rollin down my throat I can’t stop). Man oh man was I absolutely wired and one hurting machine this morning.

The poker room in the Hilton is quite small but its location is absolutely prime for me. The poker room is situated adjacent to the self proclaimed “World’s Largest Sportsbook” and right beside the bar. Not too Brad! Anyways we played some poker and then we were on our way out of the casino and we were going to go and hit the town. But, with the clever casino designers we walked right past the roulette tables. Needless to say we never saw the town on this night. I will say that the casino probably had wished we had hit the streets because of two reasons. The first reason being the chips that we kept winning and the ruckus we were causing in there. We were having an absolute blast in there chillin with the dealers, pit boss, and of course the random casino guests. A couple of the boys were hittin large on the numbers at the roulette tables. My boy Fitzy hit his number and picked up some serious change. Then there was our boy Tony Yao ( who we met at the table, he wasn’t the real Yao but his name was Tony and I just called him Tony Yao. He loved us). Now this cat had a weird ass style of playing roulette, but damn did it work.

Well it was time for some late night snacks before we would eventually shut er down for the evening. The crew got back to the hotel room and we weren’t quite finished for the night as there was some serious jokes and mad laughter going on. I had some laughing issues on this night as I literally couldn’t stop. Must have been the Red BullItis. This is a term we came up with on our last trip to Vegas when our buddy “The General Sao” claimed to have had a disease called Red BullItis. Apparently this disease is caused by drinking too many RBV’s and the next day you get the shakes. To me it just sounds like the day after drinking, known as a hangover. Anyways this was the first night in Vegas and as per usual we had a great time and more stories to share.

The Kid's Ramblings

I am having a lot of fun of late writing in my blog and I am learning a lot from a lot of my fellow bloggers. I’ve got to say for those poker fans looking for other blogs to check out you have to read the blogs from the Tao of Poker and Al Cant Hang. Both of these guys have some fantastic stories to check out.

This Blog’s main focus is on poker and life stories and I find it a great avenue to express what it is I think at any particular time. I'm havin a great time doin it thus far and I hope I can entertain the rest of you.

Of late I have been playing a lot of online poker at party poker and I have been having some success. I am intrigued by the possibilities that could come from this. I’m not saying I’m gonna be a beast at the tables I’m just looking to steadily increase my bankroll and have some fun with it. Right now I solely play at party poker but I’m hoping to eventually branch out and play some tourneys with the fellow bloggers at Poker Stars. Right now I’m quite happy by playing SNG’s and multi table tourneys.

In the last three days I have played in 9 SNG’s and I have cashed in six times. Some might say that’s Not Too Brad!

For you hockey fans out there did you guys see the shootout goal by Sydney Crosby last night? Good god! That might have been one of the best goals I have seen in awhile. For you non hockey fans out there bear with me here as I am a huge hockey fan and I will definitely be talking about hockey from time to time in this blog throughout the year.

For those looking to throw a Poker Party at their house maybe you should throw out an invite to Antonio Esfandiari and his rocks and ring crew. Man, give me a break! Get a load of his Rocks and Ring Crew. Have a laugh when you check it out. It’s kind of embarrassing. Isn’t this the same guy that turned his back on his friends who he grew up with once he started making a lot of money? Definitely a character guy! I’ll put up a challenge to this cat, my boys versus his boys in an all out drinkin’ fest. We’ll fly our bud Gaunch in from Australia to take part with us. All I can say is it would be lights out for the Rocks N Ring crew.

Did you read my posts on my last trip to Vegas (check out the September Archives). If not you should and get prepared for some more solid posting. The same crew is heading to Vegas for round 2 next Monday. Here we again, Look out Vegas here comes the Crew! I will have some tournament reports to bring back for ya as we have a couple guys that are going to be playing in a WSOP Circuit event which is being played at Paris/Bally's. Should be a good time! Oh yeah, there is some work involved while we are there as well! Hey Fitzy I’ll see you at O’Sheas Roulette table bud.

So Mike “The Mouth” Matusow ended up winning the latest WSOP Circuit Event and what a final table it produced. I mean you have “the mouth” and “the poker brat” at the same table. Can’t wait to see this on television! Two goddamn pieces of work battling it out at the final table. It’s surprising that know one ever tries to punch Matusow in the goddamn face when he talks mad trash. I guess the fines would be pretty outlandish but imagine turning on your television to ESPN and watching a tournament and all of a sudden you see a guy get up from the poker table and throw a haymaker. That would make for some great television and I’m sure a lot of the professionals would love to get their mitts on this clown.

Check out some of this interview with Mike “the Mouth” and Michael Kaplan from Cardplayer:

--

MK: Does the notion of going broke bother you?

MM: I have people I can borrow money from. I don’t worry about money. When things get bad, my mom asks how I will pay bills. I say, “Ma, shut up. Have I ever worried about money?” I don’t worry about money. Somebody will always loan me money. I’m a great poker player. People will always loan money to great poker players. If they think you can’t play, though, you’re f---ed. Plus, I know I can borrow $300,000 cash on my house in one day.

MK: Yeah. But you wouldn’t risk your house on poker, especially if you’ve already lost enough money to have gotten to that point in the first place.

MM: Sure I would. I’ve done it many times and paid it back.

Oh man what a loose cannon. Its sad too see what people go through when they are addicting to gambling.

--

MK: Doesn’t sound like you have much respect for online players.

MM: Online poker players are the worst poker players in the history of mankind. I play against really bad players who just give their money away. Guys put in $13,000, $14,000 when they can’t beat anything. Only online do you see that. That can never happen in a live game. I crush the no-limit online.

Apparently he crushes the online players but what happened when you just lost $400,000 during the World Series of Poker. Apparently you get crushed! I will say this though about the Mouth he does make for some fun television watching.


Well goddamn winter is almost on its way here in the great white north (that’s Canada and yeah we do exist and it does snow here, and no we don’t live in goddamn igloos). I love that question when I’m visiting random spots across the globe. Yeah and I have a goddamn pet penguin as well. I am not a big fan of winter though I’ll tell you that. This is what the kid has to say to winter:



I can't wait to get out there and start shoveling the snow when its freakin freezing out there. Especially when there are pet penguins runnin all over the goddamn place. Trust me its a real pain in the ass.


"This is my Canadian Winter Home"

Well it looks like its time for a Poker Party. I'm gonna hit up the tables and see if I can throw some bait out at the fishies at Party Poker and reel in the cash.

Thanks for checkin out the Kid's blog
As ManKind says "Have a Nice Day"

A JovoGaunch Moment

Well our buddy Jovogaunch is in preparations of becoming a pop star in Australia. Today we had a conversation with our good bud over Skype and he was telling us about his aspirations of becoming the next Pop Superstar in Australia. Apparently he has been seen at various Karaoke clubs across Perth and he is getting calls constantly to send in a demo tape for them to take a listen to. Not soo much! Here's the real story he calls us on skype in the office and sings to us constantly. He's bad, I mean real bad, so today we thought we'd pull a prank on him and record him and let the world see how untalented the Jovogaunch really is. Just in case you didn't read my earlier post on the Gaunch here's what he looks like. Here's a picture of him on his sick new ride during his latest jean photoshoot.


"Australia's Newest Pop Singing Sensation"

Jovogaunch is a total nut bar and our good bud who we definitely miss hangin with and seeing at all of our parties. The Gaunch is one guy who adds flavor to a party, no doubt about it. In Australia, Jovogaunch is known for drivin around in his sick new ride (which is in the picture above) playing with his pet penguin Jose, and his own personal Koala bear which he named Princess Koivu (he named his newest pets after his favorite figure skaters).

Lookin for a good laugh or just hear this man in action. Here is the Jovogaunch coming live to you from his swanky one bedroom apartment in Perth, Australia (probably shirt less) while he is hosting a Poker Party.

Click Here to listen to the JovoGaunch singing

2006 Canadian Open Poker Championship Details Announced

Thanks to Card Player for the details on this tournament, its gonna be one big Poker Party.

Heads-Up Format Limits Tournament to 128 Players

Details for the 2006 Canadian Poker Championship have been released.

The head-ups event, which will be filmed and televised, will take place March 8-12 at the Stampede Casino in Calgary, Alberta. The $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament will be limited to 128 players, who will vie for the top prize of $250,000. The runner up will receive $125,000. All the dollar figures are in Canadian dollars. (The Canadian dollar is currently worth 84 cents US.)

Qualifying satellites will be held during January and February at casinos in several Canadian cities and at the Stampede Casino the week before the tournament starts. Details about when and where the satellites will take place, as well as when and where the show will be broadcast, haven’t been finalized and will be announced at a later date.

A Poker Party in my buddies basement

The kidinthehizy was back on Party Poker last night looking for some action and to increase my bankroll. I started off by playing a $10 No Limit tourney and my chip stack was constantly going up and down. I played pretty aggressively throughout this tourney and I was eventually the chip leader with three players remaining. I had a commanding lead once I was heads up and a couple of loose calls sealed my fate and I finished off in second place. I was calling the guy strictly because he was short stacked and I wanted to finish him off. Unfortunately I didn’t win but I’ll take the second place finish.

Alright now its time for the Poker Party to take place. My buddy’s basement is the perfect spot to set up shop for the night for some poker action. We’ve got the big screen television, the wireless connection, our laptops, and oh yeah mad beers. I was getting ready to play in the $10 Multi-Table No Limit Hold’em tournament at 8:30 EST. We were well on our way to havin a solid poker party. My two other buddies were playing at Poker Stars in a multi rebuy tournament.

Its time to get my tournament underway and I take a look at the number of entrants in the field and there are just under 2200 people. I knew that if I played well I could be here for awhile. I started off a little too aggressive and I saw my chip stack slowly going down real fast and I knew I had to double up, but I was going to wait for a pretty good hand before I made my move. I got a couple of great hands and I quickly doubled up a few times and I got right into the thick of things. For the majority of the tournament I was double the average chip stack which I was feeling real comfortable with and I knew that was the key for me to continue to make a move in the tournament. There were a couple of big hands that I won and there was one hand that really hurt me. I had pocket jacks and there was three of us in the pot. One player was shortstacked and he went all in and another guy called and then it was my turn to act. I called as well. Both of these guys were all in and the pot was at 38,000 chips. We flipped our cards over and one guy had AQ, and the other had AK. I was in the lead and was just hopin for luck to be on my side. Unfortunately, the Ace hit on the turn and I lost the bet and my chip stack went from 33,000 down to 19,000. Ouch! I was able to hang in there for awhile. I ended up finishing in 40th place which is not too brad considering there was 2200 people playing in the tourney. My Poker Party lasted for just over four hours in this tourney and I earned a little bit of cake for my efforts. Partypoker puts on some good tourneys and I’m sure I’ll be hitting up another tourney tonight.

Guy Witnesses Accident; Hilarious Audio Clip

You have to listen to this call a guy made to report an accident. You want to laugh; you will die when you hear this. It's absolutely hilarious.

Guy Witnesses Accident

hit the play button to listen to it

Terrell Owens its time for a Poker Party

Here we go again with our heroes in sports goin off and then feeling sorry for themselves after the incidents have gone down. Yeah you got it we are talkin about T.O. (Terrell Owens) here. First off I’m gonna say this guy is an absolute character, not a character guy you want in your dressing room per say, but a character that makes the evening sports shows much more enjoyable. I mean whether you like him as a football player or not you’ve got to admit he makes for some very interesting television. This is the guy that reinvented the wheel for endzone celebrations. Now, people can say all they want about the endzone celebrations and how they should be penalized for some of them, I say screw that notion I look forward everytime either T.O. gets a touchdown or my man Chad Johnson grabs a TD pass. You know they have something up their sleeve and I can’t wait too see what is coming from them next. Its a shame we will not be seeing anymore of these celebrations from T.O. again this year but he got what he deserved.

Mr. Terrell Owens you say your sorry for your actions do ya. Well do you really mean that or are you thinking of the paychecks you just ain’t gonna cash for the rest of the season. You obviously didn’t care when you were goin off on McNabb on the sidelines for not throwing you the ball or for the team not celebrating your 100th TD. You want some congratulations, here you go: Congratulations Terrell Owens on catching your 100th TD. Now back to reality, last time I checked this was a team sport and that all you cared about when you signed with the Eagles was you could help the team win a Super Bowl. Maybe now that’s why you didn’t want to go to the Ravens when you were originally traded to them because you knew it would take a while to catch your TD passes. Anyways, I enjoy watching T.O. play because he truly is a tremendously gifted athlete and an unbelievable wide receiver. Its just a shame that his ego has gotten in the way of his talent on the football field.

Now yesterday T.O. comes out and says he’s sorry for everything that has happened and that he wants to return to the team. Well that ain’t gonna happen and its time for TO to work on his poker game and get ready for the celebrity poker tour. That’s about all he’s gonna be doin for the next 6 months. A mad
Poker Party for Terrell Owens.


"Now that i'm finished with Football i'm takin up poker full time, its gonna be a mad poker party baby"

What about his agent Drew Rosenhaus; is he the second coming of Jerry Maguire. I mean cmon bud like you weren’t all over Terrell to come out with this public display of affection and saying you love this man. I’m sure you do because you make an absolute fortune off of him. Well after watching these guys at the press conference I felt I’d had enough of these professional athletes and it was time for me to have a
Poker Party. I fired up my laptop and started playing some Partypoker
.

Popularity of Playing Online Poker

The popularity of playing poker online is constantly growing each and every day. Forget that each and every hour of each passing day. It's amazing to me to see the numbers of players that constantly hit up the tables at places like party poker, poker stars, ultimate bet and many others. Think about the popularity of online poker for one second; party poker just went over their three billionth hand played and they gave away some great cash prizes for those players sitting at the table for this tremendous occasion. To me that is absolutely incredible.

Online poker is definitely a good way to start your poker career off. There are obvious reasons why as you can play a lot of hands for relatively cheap amounts of cash and you can get a lot of hands under your belt (by playing at more than one table at once) before you hit up the real felt at a casino or in a live tourney. I for one am a big fan of playing online poker as on some nights we will throw a
Poker Party in my buddies basement where everyone brings out their laptops and we play in tourneys or sit and go's. Don't get me wrong, we love to play home games but some people are just hooked on playing online poker. I am one of those as i will often find myself either in my office or my bud's basement rifling through sit'n'go after sit'n'go.

If you are new to poker are you are curious about how much money you might need to start off your poker bankroll I found this great article from Cardplayer magazine on bankroll requirements for online poker. Read the article below:


Cardplayer Magazine
written by: Roy Cooke

To state the obvious, it is important when playing poker not to go broke. You need to have sufficient bankroll depth to survive the cruel beats the deck will put on you, sometimes for days and weeks, and even months. This is even more true for Internet play than live play.

I have written before about the conventional wisdom for bankroll requirements for limit poker: somewhere between 200 and 300 big betting units of the game you play. If you are playing for a living and it is your only source of income, I would add six months of living expenses to the equation. How fast a style you play, the difference of ability between yourself and your opponents, and which game you are playing (Omaha eight-or-better will have smaller swings than limit hold’em) all impact the equation, but I believe the guideline is a good one and a conservative one. If you go broke under those circumstances your game is in need of an overhaul.

But it’s a new millennium, the new information age is upon us, and it’s a new world. The Internet has taken the poker world by storm; versus live play, an ever-growing percentage of poker action is found on the Net. While many concepts of live and Internet poker are congruent, bankroll requirements are not. The conventional limit guidelines were set for live limit games.

In my oft-repeated dictum that net edge times volume equals expectation, which added over time into a recurring field will equal earn, the Internet has provided a powerful opportunity to manipulate the volume variable. But, it sometimes comes at the expense of some edge, and, accordingly, this affects how big a bankroll you need.

So, what are the bankroll requirements for online play? Yeah, you guessed it. It depends. Like live play, how fast a style you play, how great the difference of ability between yourself and your opponents, and which game you play all impact your bankroll requirements. That said, the equation for Internet versus live play is somewhat different, with many varying components to be weighed.

First, the edge factor in Internet play is not as high as if you were playing the same opponents in a live game. The reason for that is that your “game feel” is greatly reduced by lack of visual contact. For instance, you can’t see how a player handles his chips and therefore gauge his experience level. Also, tells are fewer and less reliable. Because the edge factor is not as high, you need a larger bankroll to handle the increase in statistical fluctuation that a lower edge factor produces.

Second, you can play more hands per hour, either because Internet poker deals more hands per hour or because you can play more than one game at once. While playing more hands per hour increases the amount of money you bet per hour, it does not increase your fluctuation per hand. Each hand is an independent event. If you play 100 hands at a given edge and it takes you two hours to play those hands, your statistical fluctuation is the same as if you played that same number of hands over one hour. So, the mere fact that you play more hands per hour does not require an increase in your bankroll requirements.

That concept also holds true when playing more than one game. When you play two games at the same time, they are independent events, and assuming that the edge factor is the same, no increase in bankroll requirements is required. It makes no difference if you play two games at once or one game for twice as long. Or does it?

If you had a robot playing identical strategy in both games, it would not. But no two lineups are identical, and each table you play creates additional demands on your decision-making processes, which must cause a deterioration in the quality of your decisions. No human can play two games as effectively as one. This factor is magnified for those playing three, four, or more games. A player earning $25 per hour playing one $10-$20 game will not earn $50 per hour playing in two games or $100 per hour in four. You just lose something from your game when you have twice as many issues to deal with. Personally, I find the point of significant diminishing returns at the third game, but I recognize that this may not be true for those with more agile minds than mine, particularly younger players raised on the Net.

How much edge you lose depends upon the human element. I’ve seen some young guns raised on video games play very close to perfect, and good players in a single poker game fall apart when attempting to play two games at once.

So, once again, we have a situation in which the volume bet per hand should be about equal (I understand that playing two games will adjust your volume, also, although it should be slight), but the edge factor is reduced, producing greater fluctuation and creating higher bankroll requirements.

A third major factor is the prevalence of shorthanded games on the Internet. The Internet is rife with fivehanded and sixhanded games, as well as heads-up opportunities. On many sites, the standard table has nine players rather than 10, and even this requires some adjustment. Playing shorthanded strategy involves playing more hands in a more aggressive manner, which greatly increases your fluctuation. So, if you are playing shorthanded games, be prepared to swing wildly and possess the bankroll to sustain those swings. If you play heads up exclusively on the Internet, a completely different analysis is necessary, especially if you play freezeouts.

This again brings us to bankroll requirements. If I am a tight, solid player with a significant edge over my opponents, one for whom a 200 big-bet bankroll in live play would be very adequate, I would increase my bankroll requirements 50 percent and make it 300 big-bet units for Internet play. A fast-paced player or one playing in an environment in which the edge between himself and his opponents is not great, one who requires a bankroll of 300 big-bet units if playing live, should increase his bankroll requirement 50 percent to 450 units when playing on the Internet.

In both cases — the tight, solid player, and the fast-paced or lower-edge player — if I were playing more than one game, I would double my requirements from live play to make up for the lower edge from playing multiple games. If I were playing shorthanded constantly, I would give myself 500 units if playing one game and 1,000 units for multiple games.

One of the many results of the greater number of hands played per hour with positive edge by winning players is that losing players are getting their money in with negative edge faster — which means the sharks are swallowing the guppies at a more rapid pace. This has profound implications for the future of the Internet poker economy, including the fact that as the guppies bust out, the sharks’ edge against the field must shrink.

Internet poker is still evolving. The industry is only six years old, and really took on its present form with the advent of PartyPoker in 2001. The game as you know it today will be very different a year, two, or five from now — and you’ll need to readjust your bankroll requirements accordingly as the future game takes shape.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow wins the WSOP Tournament of Champions

Mike Matusow wins the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions.

Here is the Article courtesy of Worldseriesofpoker.com




It was, quite simply, one of the greatest final tables of all time. It had everything - drama, tragedy, humor, passion, laughter, tears, a fight, a downfall, a comeback, and an ending no one could possibly have predicted.

It was twenty times longer than an episode of "SportsCenter," eight times longer than the movie Rounders, and four times longer than a Super Bowl game. Clocking in at just over 11 hours, it was perhaps the only final table where the standing-room only crowd departed the arena feeling completely exhausted -- yet wanting more.

It was a final table which had nine compelling stories: a player who was the second place finisher in the Main Event at this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP); another who arrived at the final table as chip leader at his last big tournament and busted out a disappointing fifth; a player who has grinded out a living for ten years on the tournament trail but who has yet to earn a televised breakthrough victory; a poker megalomaniac who finished second in the Tournament of Champions (TOC) last year; a player who has enjoyed tremendous success in poker recently, but who had not won a WSOP-related event in 13 long years; a professional poker player who has yet to win a major poker tournament although he has made it to several final tables; a player from New Orleans who barely qualified for the TOC and lost much in the devastation that was Hurricane Katrina; an Englishman who has won big events overseas, but who has yet to make it big on the American poker scene; and finally, a fabulously-talented (admired by some, despised by others) poker pro who started off the year as far away from a table at Caesars Palace and ESPN television cameras as humanly possible. No matter who won, there would be a great story.

The 2005 TOC concluded in a way which will be the yardstick of all future televised tournaments. Some events, such as the World Series of Poker, may be considerably bigger, but no major poker tournament has ever offered so much human drama as this three-day invitational event. Fortunately, ESPN was there to capture it all for posterity -- the special three-hour telecast will air on Dec. 24 from 1-4 pm EST.

The final table's opening moments began with a series of hysterical pranks. The banter made it seem more like a comedy act than a multi-million dollar poker tournament. Given the colorful cast of characters, it was hardly surprising that egoistical Phil Hellmuth would be everyone's favorite target. It all started when Mike Matusow mocked Hellmuth's new line of designer sunglasses by showing off his own unique new design: superimposed in the lenses was a hand with one extended finger tilted upward. One gets the idea.

Steve Dannenmann had his own prank in store for Hellmuth. Knowing that the telecast will air on Christmas Eve, Dannenmann presented Hellmuth with a colorfully wrapped holiday gift. Hellmuth was shocked. Encouraged to open the gift by the audience, Hellmuth unwrapped his box like a 4-year-old and pulled out a stuffed donkey. The audience roared. Even Hellmuth cracked a smile. Ironically, the jovial spirit which characterized the Hellmuth-Dannenmann relationship early would become increasingly poisonous from that moment forward.

With cards in the air, the first big hand of the day took place when Hoyt Corkins found himself in a horrible spot. He was dealt pocket Queens against Brandon Adams' pocket Aces. Just when it looked like Corkins would be the first casualty of the day, a Queen on the turn delivered salvation and Corkins went from being one step away from the rail to second place in the chip count. The $220,000 pot put Corkins onto the heels of Hellmuth. Meanwhile, Brandon Adams was down to his last $30,000.

9th Place - Brandon Adams arrived as a crowd favorite. The amateur player from New Orleans who lost so much in Hurricane Katrina was playing for far more meaningful reasons than just a poker championship. Adams pledged that ten percent of his tournament win would be donated to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. It was a remarkable gesture since he and his family lost many of their possessions in the hurricane and flood. Had Adams won the TOC, it would have been the 'feel-good' story of the year. As it turned out, Adams could not recover from the devastating early beat. Adams collected $25,000 in prize money.

8th Place - The hand which eliminated Keith Sexton was even more cruel. He went from big dog, to big favorite, to big dog within a 45 second span. Sexton was dealt pocket Tens. Hoyt Corkins picked up pocket Queens (again). Sexton moved all-in with a re-raise before the flop. Corkins quickly called. Corkins was a definitive favorite when the flop fell with all blanks - 9-4-2. But a Ten rained down on the turn and shocked the room full of spectators. Just when it looked like Corkins would lose in the same manner where he doubled-up, the river was dealt. Wham! A Queen rocked the table and Sexton's dreams were crushed. All Corkins could do was shake his head in disbelief and rake in a huge $305,000 pot. Keith Sexton earned $25,000 in prize money, but was clearly disappointed with the outcome.

That extraordinary hand was the first in a series of earthquakes which shook Phil Hellmuth. The 1989 world poker champion went card dead during the early stages of the final table and watched as his tall towers of chips slowly disappeared. By essentially busting the first two players, Corkins rocketed into the chip lead for the first time and surpassed the $300,000 mark. It was the first occasion since late on Day One that Phil Hellmuth was not the tournament chip leader.

7th Place - David Levi's patience earned him an extra $25,000. Hopelessly short-stacked from the start, Levi survived two full hours and catapulted into seventh place, moving from an anticipated $25,000 in prize money up to a cash of $50,000. Levi had an opportunity to move up even higher. He moved all-in with A-Q and caught a Queen on the flop. But Mike Matusow hijacked the top pair with his pocket Aces and crushed Levi's dream of staging a comeback. David Levi, a former pro soccer player from Israel who now plays poker full time, earned $50,000 in this freeroll. Not bad for three days of poker playing.

6th Place - An hour passed before the next elimination. Grant Lang went out on a hand that was baffling to the casual observer. But given the scenario, the hand actually serves as a demonstration of what tournament poker is like at the highest level. After not playing a big pot for a while, Lang was dealt 9-5 of diamonds in the big blind. He called a raise by Tony Bloom, sitting in late position. The flop came K-J-10, normally a fold situation for the 9-5, but Lang played his opponent and the situation, hoping (wrongly, as it turned out) that his opponent might fold a stronger hand. Lang moved all-in after Bloom bet out. He said later that he hoped Bloom had a small pair and would fold. Lang went on to say he hoped Bloom would give him credit for A-K (top pair, top kicker). Unfortunately, Lang picked the wrong time to be creative. Bloom had pocket Aces all along, and Lang's mental gymnastics resulted in a crash and burn in sixth place. Lang, a.k.a. "G-Money" collected $75,000 for sixth place.

With that hand, Corkins still retained his chip lead with nearly $400,000. Bloom was second with $230,000. Meanwhile, Hellmuth continued to lose ground. He was down to $145,000 when play became five-handed. Then, more fireworks came.

Tony Bloom took a tough blow when he had Steve Dannenmann all-in and drawing slim. Dannenmann was dealt A-4 of hearts and tried to steal, but Bloom woke up with A-K and called. Desperate for hearts, the deck delivered. Two hearts flopped and a third heart came on the turn, giving Dannenmann new tournament life. Dannenmann flashed a big smile, looking like the cat that ate the canary. Suddenly, Dannenmann was back in the race with $185,000 in chips.

Then, it was Bloom who caught a big hand, doubling up against Hoyt Corkins. Bloom moved all-in after the flop came A-10-2 (all spades). Bloom had K-Q, with the Queen of spades. Corkins thought for a while, then called holding J-10, with the Jack of spades. Bloom was facing elimination, and then caught a lifesaving Jack on the river which completed a straight. Corkins two pair hit the muck and Bloom was back in the game. That marked Corkins' first serious setback at the final table.

At a final table with so much at stake, and with so many combustible personalities, an explosion was foreseeable. What wasn't expected was who would light the fuse. Bothered by Phil Hellmuth's constant toying with his chips, and not stacking them in a conventional manner which allowed them to be easily counted by opponents, Steve Dannenmann had enough and insisted that Hellmuth cease his covert chip activities. Hellmuth refused. That brought about a barrage of insults that made for great television, but which certainly detracted from the jovial spirit which had characterized the final table up to that point.

"I don't understand why you can't stack your chips like everyone else," the normally reserved Dannenmann declared. "You are disrespecting the game."

Still, Hellmuth refused to comply.

"I'm here playing as an amateur, and I know I'm up against professionals," Dannenmann said. "You above everyone else should know the rules...you sell all those books and products. But you aren't a professional - you're a punk!"

Coming from Matusow, the insult might have been expected. But delivered by the normally soft-spoken Dannenmann, the words stung. Half of the audience had their mouths open in disbelief. The other half were bent over in hysterical laughter. Unfortunately, the casualty of the verbal barrage would ultimately be Steve Dannenmann himself. He lost two critical pots, which destroyed what might have one of poker's greatest soap operas.

Dannenmann's first blow was one for the ages. Mike Matusow, who chatted incessantly throughout the initial stages of the final table, became decreasingly vocal as his stack-size dwindled. Unable to needle his favorite target (Hellmuth), Matusow was silenced when he was all-in with A-K against Steve Dannenmann's pocket Jacks. By the fourth card, Matusow was in serious trouble. The Jacks were best, but four hearts were on the table, including Matusow's Ace of hearts. Desperate for an Ace, King, or heart, he leapt into the air, fists raised, when a heart tumbled down on the river. Matusow spiked his flush and the standing room only crowd went wild. As it turned out, that would be a huge hand. Even more ironic was the fact that at last year's WSOP final table in the Main Event, Dannenmann eliminated Matusow when he caught runner-runner hearts. Payback time.

5th Place - Steve Dannenmann's misery continued. He tried to make a move at the pot with A-10 after the flop came Q-J-3. On a semi-bluff, Dannenmann moved all-in and Mike Matusow quickly called with K-Q. The top pair held up. Dannenmann was out. Steve Dannenmann, a self-described amateur poker player who is "the fourth best poker player in his weekly poker game (quoting him from the 2005 World Series of Poker)," finished in fifth place and collected $100,000.

The real story is what took place in the post-elimination interview. With ESPN cameras rolling, Dannenmann blasted Phil Hellmuth. "We don't need players like that in the sport," Dannenmann said, raising a few eyebrows. Adding insult to injury, Dannenmann stated unequivocally, "Mike Matusow is the best player I have ever played with." As they say, war and poker create very strange bedfellows.

4th Place - Tony Bloom was blinded down to his last $100,000 in chips. He made a fateful call when he took K-8 up against Phil Hellmuth's A-Q. Both players flopped a pair, but Hellmuth's pair of Queens topped Bloom's Eights. Bloom wilted. Tony 'The Lizard' Bloom, one of Europe's most dynamic young stars, slithered away in fourth place and collected $150,000.

It was interesting that the three players who had dominated the Tournament of Champions from Day One ended up as the final trio of combatants. Hellmuth and Matusow had the chip lead during most of the tournament. Meanwhile, Hoyt Corkins (third after Day One to Hellmuth who was first, and Matusow who was second) vacillated up and down in the chip count before catching lightning early at the final table and stealing the chip-lead away from the two chatterboxes.

The next hand appeared mind boggling at first glance. But upon closer inspection, it revealed the strategic complexity of tournament poker. Corkins, dealt 5-4 suited, made a seemingly inexplicable play when he re-raised enough to put Matusow's all-in before the flop. Matusow had A-6 and called. The Ace-high held up and Corkins had just given Matusow renewed confidence and $150,000 in chips. Corkins would later explain that he thought Matusow was weak and would not play a big pot with a marginal hand. "My re-raise was just big enough to possibly make Mike lay down the hand," Corkins explained. "Even if Mike had two overcards like I believed and decided to call, I was still not that much of a dog and had (correct) pot odds."

After shaking heads settled and applause died down, the chip counts stood as follows:

Hellmuth -- $510,000
Matusow -- $320,000
Corkins -- $290,000

Now, Matusow was back on his game. He began threatening Hellmuth. "I'm going to bust you . Don't bluff off all your chips . Philly can't play." For the most part, the stoic Corkins stayed out of the war of words during the entire day. Perhaps it was opponents' respect for the stone faced Alabama cowboy or the simple acknowledgment that no amount of chatter would induce a tilt factor, that persuaded supermouths Hellmuth and Matusow to leave Corkins out of the toxic exchange of insults that continued over ten full hours.

Corkins won a series of small pots, which increased his chip stack to the point where he regained the chip lead. After the merry trio had played for an hour, Corkins had $460,000 to $330,000 for Matusow, and $310,000 for Hellmuth.

Then, disaster struck for Corkins. He moved all-in with a re-raise holding A-4 of hearts. Matusow, with pocket fives, made a heart-wrenching call. When the hole cards were revealed, even Hellmuth had to proclaim, "Great call, Mike." Corkins made things interesting when he caught a four on the flop, but two successive blanks gave Matusow the biggest pot of the night to that point, and a 3-2 chip lead over his rival Hellmuth.

Just when it looked like Corkins was about to exit, he outfoxed his two opponents and climbed back into contention. It was an amazing display. It took him another hour to regain those lost chips and retake the chip lead. Just as the clock struck midnight, another electrifying moment occurred when Matusow foiled poker's grim reaper. Holding A-Q, Matusow moved all-in with a re-raise. Corkins, holding A-K called instantly. With a sword at Matusow's neck, it appeared 'The Mouth' would finally be silenced. Yet another miracle happened at this final table in a night filled with jokers. A Queen fell for Matusow on the turn and the crowd went ballistic. All poor Corkins could do was smile and shake his head. That pot lifted Matusow into a decisive chip lead with $700,000. Hellmuth and Corkins were left to battle for the scraps that were left.

Hellmuth sensed the crowd heavily favored Matusow. In a bold public relations move, Hellmuth pledged to buy 30 bottles of Dom Perignon champagne if he won the tournament. At $150 a bottle, that amounted to a $4,500 prize for the audience. So much for poker player allegiances. Suddenly, the crowd started whooping it up for Hellmuth, chanting "Phil! Phil! Phil!" leaving Matusow mystified. Score one for Hellmuth.

After getting punched twice, Corkins was down to his last $150,000. With blinds up to $6,000-$12,000 Corkins had plenty of time left to make his stand. But with Hellmuth and Matusow steadily pounding away, Corkins knew he desperately needed to catch a big hand and double up. He did exactly that. Then, Corkins shifted into overdrive and essentially raised 12 out of the next 15 hands. "I call him 'Mr. All-In," Hellmuth described earlier. "Just when I wanted to be the aggressor, Hoyt would move in his chips and I had to (fold)."

The final confrontation almost everyone in the audience had been expecting, anticipating, perhaps even hoping for never materialized. Arguably, no two opponents had more to prove to themselves and the poker world by achieving victory. Mike Matusow, hoped to make the TOC triumph the final chapter in what has been the comeback story of the year. Phil Hellmuth, the runner up in this event last year, not only hoped, but expected to return and earn a victory. If that wasn't enough, the parents were in attendance. Matusow's mother and Hellmuth's father sat proudly in the audience. Add the individual theatrics, that Matusow and Hellmuth are probably the two most controversial personalities in poker, and the final stage was nearly set for a bloody duel that would have left one player with perhaps his most personally satisfying victory, and the other emotionally crushed, crying, and cursing off in a dark corner.

Hoyt Corkins wouldn't let it happen. Demonstrating an uncanny fortitude for tournament hold'em and raw courage that is easy to glorify but impossible to learn, Corkins regained those lost chips and lots more. When Hellmuth looked down and saw A-Q, he assumed this was the gauntlet hand that would put an end to Corkins' relentless all-in moves. Hellmuth called Corkins raise instantly and was horrified to see the Dixie cowboy flip over two red Aces. Corkins doubled up on the hand and Hellmuth was left with just over $100,000.

Hellmuth began jumping around the table, declaring that he would "never give up." Like a kamikaze warrior trapped on a desert island fighting a lost cause, Hellmuth made one last desperate dash to win the poker war. But he was ultimately defeated, thus extinguishing the tempestuous nine-time gold bracelet winner's final flicker of hope. Hellmuth went out with 10-8 suited against Corkins' K-5. Neither player caught a pair, and the King-high played.

3rd Place - "I come here to win. Third-place is unacceptable," Hellmuth declared in a post-tournament interview. "No one remembers who finishes second or third, except for my swearing tirades afterward."

"I played so great. But, so what? It doesn't mean anything. The American public doesn't understand how unlucky I got. I had Hoyt stealing my blinds over and over and just when I have a chance to bust him (with A-Q), he wakes up with Aces. I mean, how unlucky is that?"

When asked about how this year's third place finish compares with second place last year, Hellmuth replied, "This year is far more frustrating. I had to listen to all this B.S. (talking), and still I overcame it. But I could not overcome the bad luck...I never had my chips all-in at any point, except late. I played perfect poker. Great poker is not moving all-in every time. The public doesn't understand that."

Hellmuth was asked about the two confrontations with Matusow and DanneNmann. "No one should have to put up with that at a final table," Hellmuth declared. This is not Worldwide Wrestling."

About Dannenmann, Hellmuth said: "I forgive him for that outburst. He is not experienced in tournaments and hasn't played much at this level. I still shook his hand because there's nothing personal about it (the conflict)."

Phil Hellmuth, the former world champion and nine-time gold bracelet winner collected $250,000 for third place.

The heads-up duel between Mike Matusow and Hoyt Corkins started off with Matusow holding a decisive three to one chip advantage. But Corkins would prove to be an incessant thorn in Matusow's backside. With Hellmuth out of the room, the banter ceased and the poker became more serious. Amazingly, Corkins seemed to read Matusow perfectly every time, and knew exactly when to make a bold move with a raise. After 30 minutes of heads-up play, the two gladiators were locked into a virtual dead-heat.

The final hand came out of nowhere. After a series of hands where one player tried to steal with a big raise and the other player moving all-in (resulting in a fold), Corkins decided to make his final stand on a semi-bluff. Corkins was dealt Q-10. Matusow was dealt K-9. The flop came K-J-4. Matusow made a large bet and Corkins moved all-in. Matusow called. Corkins was on an outside straight draw. Matusow had top pair. Two blanks fell on the turn and river and Matusow won the $1,110,000 pot with a pair of Kings.

2nd Place - There's no question that Hoyt Corkins got lucky a few times early at the final table. It's just as certain that Corkins has a unique talent for playing a short-stack and intimidating opponents, even great players. Corkins was down to the felt at least two times and staged a roaring comeback each time. Perhaps had he filled the straight on the final hand, Corkins would have proudly lofted the TOC trophy. As it turns out, Hoyt Corkins had to settle for $325,000 and runner-up status.

1st Place -- Mike Matusow's win might very well be the greatest comeback story in poker history. It's certainly the greatest story since the late Stu Ungar's stunning victory at the 1997 World Series of Poker, after a 16-year hiatus. Matusow was broke and isolated from the poker world last January. Surrounded by only a few close friends and family, Matusow never gave up on himself. When afforded an opportunity to enter the 2005 World Series of Poker, Matusow registered and nearly eliminated himself on the first day (Note: He was given 40-minutes worth of timeouts for inappropriate conduct). Remarkably, Matusow survived amongst a record-field of 5,618 other players and went on to make it all the way to the final table. He busted out ninth, but managed to earn $1 million. The money was gone shortly thereafter.

Back to where he started, Matusow entered the TOC on a freeroll, having qualified via his WSOP appearance. He raced into the chip lead on Day One, but ended up trailing Phil Hellmuth (and later Hoyt Corkins) most of the way. In the end, Matusow overcame several downswings and waited for opportune moments, making possibly the biggest tournament win of Matusow's life.

"I knew I was up against great players at this final table," The two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner said afterward. "This table had the greatest poker I have ever been exposed to. I've never seen or been involved in poker played at this level."

Matusow was sentimental about the significance of the victory. "This is the greatest moment of my life," Matusow said. "All the disappointments I've had. All the bad beats. All the bad decisions. This win means everything to me."