7-Deuce.com

Long time! This Thursday September 20th at 9 pm on TSN!

2007-09-18T01:04:00.001-04:00

Yes the Degree Poker Championship is on all this week. My show will be airing on September 20th at 9pm. Make sure you tune in and check it out!

3rd at the TV Table

2007-06-28T23:46:00.000-04:00

Yep I didn't get through the 6 person table, came in 3rd...I played really well with no cards...I was chip leader at the beginning and hadn't hit a pair.

Only hand that matters, blinds are 40,000/80,000 I am the big blind with 369,000 left. Button pushes all in for 269,000. Chip leader decides to call (he has 2 million in chips lol, can you tell that someone was dominating the table weee fun). I look down at A Q of spades and I push all in as well.
Flop comes K Q 6 no spades, turn is a K and the river is something that doesn't matter lol
Full house for the Button and I am out of the tournament.

BTW the button was Jim Rich the guy who won last year, he would lose 15 mins later to an internet kid in his first live tournament. The guy was good, but he picked up cards at the right time and got people to call with pretty trashy hands.

All and all in was a great experience again, come September it should be fun to see the hands.
Especially one involving me throwing away Pocket 9's and I still don't know if it was the right move or not....

TSN here I come

2007-06-26T16:34:00.001-04:00

Degree Poker Championship 2007!
Craig is back! And once again he will be featured on the Television tables!
I made it through day one and now I will be playing my 6 man table, if I beat that, then I am once again in the finale for a chance to scoop up $100,000.

So far it's been an amazing time up at Casino Rama and everyone associated with this tournament is top notch.

Thanks for all your support, stay tuned!

If you don't remember what happened the last time I was on TV, check this out.

It's been a while

2007-06-03T18:10:00.000-04:00

Yep I have been pretty busy with work lately so haven't really updated this site at all.

But let me tell you how things have been going in the poker world.

I have been running quite good actually, on the Red Hot Poker Tour I have had two wins and 2 seconds this season, which really doesn't mean anything since it takes 1 million points to get into the tournament of champions, but hopefully I will continue to do well.

I am going to try and satellite into the 100 seat guarantee on Full Tilt on the 16th, so hopefully that works out lol

I played in one of the red hot online events on partypoker, around 120 showed up and I took 8th place. It was the worst final table I have ever had. I get pocket queens run into pocket kings, I get pocket jacks the very next hand and this donk goes all in with A 5 and hit's and ace on the river.
Then a huge pot where I had A Q and the flop came 7 7 5 and the guy moved all in, so I threw that away. And the final hand came down like this first position raises like 3 times the big, I have A J and decide to just call (I have been doing this a lot because I find post flop I am a lot better) we get another caller in the sb or bb (can't remember) Flop comes A, 5, 2 rainbow and it goes check, check to me. I have hardly anything left and move all in, the sb calls and the raiser folds, he flips over A 2 for two pair and I am out.
In this case had I re-raised pre flop and gotten heads up with the raiser I would still be in the tournament, because I slow played, the A 2 got in for cheap and hit.

Degree Poker 2007 is at Rama, I will be there on Sunday the 24th and will be playing on the 25th (which is a Monday) The tournament should be a lot of fun, even though I wish they would give us a bit more starting chips, but that's just me.

100th Post

2007-04-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Yes it's a milestone for this blog lol

It seems like forever since I was in the Degree Poker Championship in 2005, but really it hasn't been that long. A lot has changed since them but I still continue to play poker and keep trying to get better at the game I love.

There have been a lot of people asking me "Craig have you heard anything about Degree this year, where do I go to find out more information." Of course I direct them to www.degreepoker.com and tell them to sign up, which will them inform them when all of the fun times begin.

Well now you can read this 100th post and get the answer you were looking for:
the Degree Poker Championship will be held in June (at least that's what I assume haha). That's all I got for you now but isn't that good enough lol, clear your schedule and get ready.
Last year I was a bit off, so this year I am looking to make it back to the final table.

Another Sunday another loss

2007-03-12T00:07:00.000-04:00

Well last weekend when it really mattered I came in 3rd place and tonight when I was just out for points I ended up taking 2nd place.
30 minute heads up battle, so it was quite fun actually.
It was up and down, here are a couple key hands.

The player I was up against loves to push all in, no matter what, so I was just waiting for my opportunity. I ended up losing a couple key hands to her when I had King 9 and she had Jack 9, a Jack came on the flop and she doubled up. I then got down to about half her stack and she moved all in, I looked down at A Q and insta call of course, she had Jack 10 and I won the hand to bring it back to even.

The final hand was....well let's just say I had to slow play to try and get all her chips and it back fired.

I am dealt KK in the small blind and just call (she has moved in almost every time when I have just called the small blind, this time she didn't), flop comes 10 9 5, rainbow which is a good flop ...she bets out 15,000 (blinds are 5,000/10,000) so I figured she had hit a piece of it, since she usually checks and gives up on the flop (every hand that went to a flop heads up I won by betting it out, most of the time I had nothing, she was a pre-flop player to say the least).
I call the 15 K and an 8 comes on the turn....thing's aren't looking good here for Kings if she had the draw, but you know big pockets are hard to give up lol she moves all in...I call and she flips over 9 8 for two pair.

So that was that, good heads up match, just to bad it didn't go my way. I got lucky at the final table cracking AK with KQ, so to be honest it was great to just have a shot at the win.

2-Outers are fun

2007-03-04T23:21:00.000-05:00

So just got back from the Red Hot Wild Card Event...first place gets a seat into the TOC.

Very well run for an event that had 90 people show up. This tournament had the most people in it other then the TOC itself...crazy.

So I came to the final table with the chip lead at 95,000, but got card dead for pretty much the whole thing. Knocked one player out with K 9 (the best hand I had at the final table) but that was about it.

Down to 3 players, I am in the BB blinds are 6000/12,000 after the BB I have 52,000 left. The other two are big stacks. I have one of my better hands at the final table J 4 off lol

Everyone calls I check, flop is K 7 4 rainbow, SB checks, I bet out the min 12,000 to see where I am (should have bet more, first mistake) the button sits there and is playing with his chips, this guy takes fucking forever he is a newb and one hell of an annoying player.

I then start to talk to him, which I have been doing most of the final table, I tell him I have 40 K left and after the next card I will be putting it all in, or you could just take it now and I will call you.
Keep in mind the SB still has to play, so the button guy ends up calling and SB folds.

A 3 comes on the turn and I move all in.
He calls, flips over pocket 3's for a turned set.

Hmmm unique, so he knew his two outer was going to come? Since that was the only card that could help him on a board like that....

Who knows but that one really hurt...I got 3rd place....woo points....

Big week for...

2007-02-18T22:53:00.000-05:00

Why is Marissa Miller on this post? Why not?

So Anthony Mak will be heading down to L.A this week to be taught by Daniel Negreanu and hopefully take down the WPT event. :) I know he can do it!!

In other news, I took down the sunday million dollar tournament....

Umm no, but I won the Red Hot Event...which pays me nothing lol
2 final tables = 2 wins...not bad, now I just have to play more.

Finally

2007-02-02T21:28:00.000-05:00

Yes I finally won a tournament again at Red Hot...seems like forever since I put together a good round of tournament poker. I could feel it coming in the past couple of weeks, I was playing very well and getting my money in ahead, just got unlucky at a couple points. This time everything came together and I was able to take it down.

Key hands heads up: He just calls the small blind, I have pocket 10's and cover him, I raise 15,000 more and he moves all in, I call, he has Ace 5, spikes an Ace on the flop and I lose.
Now I am down to like 50 k and he has 200 or something.

I double up and take the chip lead again, final hand I have J 7 off, he raises my bb 15,000, I make the call and the flop comes J 7 Q, he bets out 10 grand, I make it 20 (that should have given him some worry lol) He calls, 10 on the turn, which of course is the worst card for me...he moves all in, I call he has King 6...no Ace or 9...it doesn't come and I win the tournament.

Played a bit this week

2007-01-20T13:58:00.000-05:00

Thought I would just talk about this one interesting hand, it was played in a 1/2 NL cash game.

I am in the small blind, guy under the gun raises it to 10 bucks. I have 10/9 of spades, comes around to me no one else is in, so I decide to call. (This player had just sat down so I did give him credit for a hand but wanted to see a flop)

The flop comes Q K 10 rainbow, I check it over to him and he checks as well. Hmm that's interesting, slow playing A Q? A K? Kings? Aces? Or maybe he is worried about the Queen and has Jacks. Lets continue...

The turn is a 10, so now I have trips with a 9 kicker, not bad I guess unless he has Ace 10 lol
I decide to bet out 15 bucks to see where I am at (22 in the pot), he raises it to 30 bucks.
So I call the extra 15 to see what the river will bring, it comes another Queen. I now have 10's full of queens. But the Queen really wasn't the card I wanted to see, I thought he might have had a Queen all along and now this gives him Queens full of 10's.

I decide to check and see if we can just flip it over and see what's up lol He moves all in for 60 bucks more.
82 bucks in the pot. So let's go over this on a board of Q K 10 10 Q, what can I beat with my hand...about the only thing I can beat is AK, Jacks or AJ...but would he push all in with a board like that with those hands....no...he had to have something like AQ or KQ.

I decide to throw away the boat and he was nice enough to show me Pocket Queens, for the nice Quads on the river lol, but he had me beat the whole way, so that Queen on the river actually saved me 60 bucks, he a 2 or something comes I have trip 10's and most likely think I am ahead of his two pair or whatever.

Fun hand, well played by him.

Haven't been playing very much

2007-01-15T23:48:00.000-05:00

But thought I would share this story,
I was short stack with 1800 blinds are at 300/600, it was an aggressive table and I was first to act, I look down at pocket queens, I decide to try and get lots of money in the pot, so I just call, 4 others are in the hand, it didn't matter what came I was going to go all in.

Flop comes 8 2 2, I think perfect, the BB makes a bet of 1200, exactly what I had left, so I call and everyone else folds, before he flips over he says sorry lol

He flip over 8 2 for the full house hahah
I get up, the turn comes and it's a Queen! I hit the bigger full house, golden.

My last hand of the night came when I had Ace 9 I move in (3rd position) and the bb calls with pocket 7's, flop comes 7 7 3, he flops quads and I am out, I guess I deserved that.

Happy New Year

2006-12-31T17:02:00.000-05:00

20000777777777 weeeeeeeee

Ya that's all for now.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T00:39:00.001-05:00

Hey hey everyone
Just thought I would say Merry Christmas!!

Sweet! I am in the $350k Tourney

2006-12-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

Pocket Jacks: I raise to 250, two callers, bb then raises it to 900.
I call the other two fold (I have 2100 left after the call)
Flop comes K J 7 two dimonds, BB pushes all in, I call.
He has Aces, my trips hold up.
Up to 6300, long way to go.

Aces lose of course...lol I cracked them, then I lose most of my stack with them.
4 spades on board and I don't have one.

AQ clubs vs K10 unsuited, I lose when a King comes on the turn.
He raised to 400 I was BB, I re-raised to 1700 all in and he called.

GO ANTHONY!

2006-12-09T18:35:00.000-05:00

"A few hands later Anthony "Juanda Junior" took over 120,000 chips from Robin when he check-raised him on the turn and wasn't called, leaving Anthony with approx. 600,000 of the 1 million chips in play. "

Yes he is on a sick run, he is now at 650,000.

Take it down man!!!

ROBIN BERGREN ELIMINATED IN 3RD PLACE
On a board of 84j82 Robin's J 9 loses to Hadi's JQ leaving Robin with only 7,000 chips. On the next hand Robin's hand couldn't hold up against Anthony Juanda Juniors nut straight.

Chip count at start of heads up
Anthony 690,000
Hadi 310,000

ANTHONY MAC CROWNED DANIEL NEGREANU'S PROTEGE #2
Anthony steam rolled over the competition and continued his aggressive play through the heads up match to cripple Hadi and then eventually putting him away. Interviews, photos & videos (Including the last hand) will be posted shortly.

Fuck ya!!! SicKKKKKKKKKKK

Well at least I am back on track

2006-12-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

Just started playing on FullTilt poker and I want to try and get into their 6 pm Sunday $350 Grand tournament. I paid 8 bucks to play a one table sat. I won that...which is good lol This puts me in the 3:30 tournament to get a seat into the 6pm tourney. So we shall see if I can take that down.

Sick run...of bullshit

2006-12-02T17:42:00.000-05:00

LOL
Ya so ever since that AA being cracked by 22 it has been all down hill. I haven't really played live at all and have been trying to recover online. The day after I had Aces cracked, I had Kings cracked in the same way by 9's.

This whole week has been a downward spiral, just loss after loss. So pretty much I have stopped playing right now to find out what's going on. I don't know if it's me or just a bad run of cards...let me give you an example.

Early in a tournament I get dealt AK(clubs, hearts) on the BB, first position guy calls the 200 blind, the guy before the button raises it to 900, I just decide to call and see what comes on the flop, the first position guy re-raises to 1700 all in...the raiser also goes all in for 2500 and I have 3700 in front of me. I am more worried about the first position guy then this guy on the button, I figure he is trying to isolate with something like pocket 6,7,8's. I call the all-ins. The first position guy flips over Ace Queen(hearts, clubs) then raiser flips over...Jd 3c off.....How do you think this is going to end.
The flop comes 9, 10, Jack...two diamonds. The turns comes the Queen of diamonds, I hit my inside straight, the river a 3 of diamonds....giving the guy with J 3 a flush.

Lets go over this hand, raise to 900, I call = 2100 in the pot (including blinds), once the guy goes all in for 1500 more above what the 200 he already had in we now have 3600 in the pot. The guy with J 3 looks down at his cards and thinks wow these are great cards...he has committed 900 and is left with 1400, so he is getting more then 2 to 1 on his money...but with me behind him and a first position re-raise he has to figure his cards aren't going to be good and at best he will be 22% to win, if his J is taken, like I have AJ or something he is an 8% to win.
I mean the blinds weren't that big at 100/200 and 1400 is 100 below his starting stack...I just don't get the call, maybe if I hadn't called and he was heads up alright, but with an all in and another player after you, you have to get rid that of shit.

BTW I have started to play on Full Tilt Poker...and it is making me go on tilt. I have never played so many bad players, I need to make back my money and leave or go broke and leave simple as that. It's like I am playing Pot NL Holdem...everyone makes these huge pot sized bets...its very odd, great when I have trapped them but otherwise very annoying.

I got IN! And now I am OUT!

2006-11-25T15:01:00.000-05:00

Yep so I got an email last night that said I was on the waiting list and boom I show up and get in.
I was determined to play aggressively since I sat there last time and was way to passive. The cards helped to, I had KQ twice, KJ twice, 5's and Aces....I lost with all of them and my final hand went like this. Aces on the button, 2 callers of the 100 bb, I raise it to 350 and in front of me is 2000 in chips. The small blind calls, BB folds and the first caller calls.
3 People in the hand, flop comes 2, K, 9 rainbow. I am thinking oh please someone have the king, I need to double up. We have a check and a bet of 350, I sit there for a while, then raise all in for 1650 more to this guy, small blind folds, the guy calls, he flips over pocket 2's for the flopped set and I don't improve.
To aggressive? If I raise to lets say 900 even to see where I am at, doesn't he just call...then I don't know where I am in the hand and if he puts me all in do I put him on a set or two pair? Maybe, but then I am crippled if I don't call anyway.
This was my double up opportunity and well...he hit the set so there wasn't much I could do about it.

Well it's been a while...and I didn't get into Red Hot's TOC

2006-11-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

So I haven't updated in quite a while. I have been pretty busy with work etc.
I have been playing Red Hot, usually about 2 times a week, if I am lucky I can get out 3 times. I have been doing really well this season at least in my own mind, I never dropped off the leader board and ended up taking 8th place overall in the weekly online games. (If FCP hadn't switched servers these last couple of weeks I may have made it into the TOC, since I have been playing quite well online)

I had a chance to seal my fate on sunday, showed up late, went down to 1200 chips and fought all the way back to 40k in chips, which put me in 3rd at the final table. But of course I finished 6th...I have pocket 9's, I am on the button and I have one caller, I raise it 3 times the bb to 18,000 I have around 18,000 left after that, bb and sb fold, the caller puts in the extra chips. Flop comes Queen, 8, 2 rainbow. He throws out 20 grand...now I raised pre-flop I only have 18k left and he bets out on a rainbow flop like that with the Queen? I took a while, asked him some questions, then I called. He flipped over A - 8 off, I was a head, as I thought, but another 8 came on the river to put me out.

Overall I finished in 138th place...120 get into the Tournament of Champions. So it really sucks to be honest. I had no doubt that I was going to get in, I thought the magic number would be 5500-6000 points, I ended up with 6425 and the magic number to get in was....6900. Really amazing since the TOC usually is in the range of 4000-5000 points to get in, really competitive season this year.

Also I wanted to mention that a friend of Johnny's is in the Daniel Negreanu Protege Final...which is fucking amazing. So check out his profile and cheer him on.
FCP Name: dynamoz123
Name: Anthony Mak
Age: 23
Hometown: Ancaster, ON
http://protege.fullcontactpoker.com/seat9.php

Vince Sessa aka Hollywood!

2006-10-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

Just want to give props to DA Man Vince Sessa, who took home 3rd place at the WPT Canadian Open today.
Vince and I met at the Degree Poker Championship and he is an amazing player that can be seen on the CPT.
Get job man!

And the winner of the North American Poker Championship was Soren Turkewisch...he's a Canadian so go Canada!

What a turnout

2006-10-27T18:46:00.000-04:00

The WPT kicked off it's first ever Canadian Event on Wednesday. (well really Sunday if you count the $2500 buy in event) The 10 Grand event was supposed to attract around 300 people, but instead it got 480! This meant that there was a 4.8 million prize pool, with first prize taking in an amazing 1.3 million bucks. WoW!

So far from all the reports the event has been a huge success with great dealers, amazing poker room staff and accommodation's. Which of course I know first hand, Niagara Fallsview is an amazing plain and simple, it's got everything going for it.

I will update once we have a winner on Sunday.

Really disappointed in my play...

2006-10-21T00:51:00.000-04:00

That pretty much sums up my mood after the $640 Sat. at Niagara. I had planned on playing quite agressive but got stuck with a very agressive player to my right, was the first person moved from one table to another...so I went in not knowing who these people were and one guy had a huge stack and was pushing, and played one hand terribly...that really set the tone.
The last hand was AQ vs 77 the blinds were 50 ante, 150/300, I move all in for 500 LOL the small blind moves all in for 3600.
So heads up and I lost the coin flip.

The hand I don't even want to talk about, I am on the button. Two limpers for 50 and, I have pocket 10's I raise 200 more, both the limpers call and big/small blind fold...already I am like wtf you call 50 and then both of you have a good hand and call the 200 more...I put the women on something like King Jack, King 10, Ace 9, or who knows slow playing a small pocket or something.
Flop comes King 8, 6...rainbow, checked to me. Now here of course I should throw out something...but I really figured one of them had a king and I was done already. So I checked and 2 comes out, they check again, I check...why the fuck do I keep checking god damnit, in my head I am saying this, Jack on the river, women bets out 300, and I fold...I gave up on the hand as soon as I saw the King...arrrg wtf.

Button again, 100/200 blinds, I get Aces, guy to my left raises it to 450. I have 1500 in front of me and decide he will call it, he's got a hand. Plus I need to double up here. But he ended up getting away from the hand and folded...

That's about all that happened really, I didn't play enough hands or do anything that would give the table any worry. It was terrible poker...Oh and this guy moved all in for like 300, I moved in with Ace 8 just to isolate, with the small and big out, it was me vs Jack 8....turn and river were a Jack.
It was only 300 but it was money I needed.

A Red Hot player was also there at the tournament DOM! and I gave my chips to him, so hopefully he wins it.
Oh and I was 12th out of 20.

Here we go

2006-10-19T22:54:00.000-04:00

Here we go...today is the day, I am heading up to Niagara, going to take down two tables and get in the main event...stay tuned.

WPT at Niagara

2006-10-15T20:51:00.000-04:00

Well I am one step closer.
I went up today and played in the single table $90 satellite and...I won it lol
So now I have to go back up on Friday and play in the 2 table $640 satellite winner gets a seat into the 10 grand main event, second gets a $1200 sat. seat and 3rd gets a replay in the $640.

Can I turn $90 bucks into $10,000...I hope so!

I still got it lol

2006-09-30T00:24:00.000-04:00

Had a fun night, up and down that's for sure. Was down to 925 and built it back to 20000 for heads up, but I was up against a 60,000 stack and lost pretty quickly.
Oh well 2nd will do.

Degree Poker Championship 2006

2006-09-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

Yes it's all over folks, we just crowned a new champion and his name is Jim Rich. Congrats!!

It was once again a great production with some crazy river cards this year.
And what's with all the guys with crazy names winning poker events. Jamie Gold, Chris Moneymaker and now Jim Rich....interesting eh lol

Oh Poker

2006-09-20T23:51:00.000-04:00

Yes above is the Pamela Poker.com header...lol why does she have a poker site??

Ahhh Pokerrrr...

Actually it's been pretty good to me. I didn't play for the whole film festival, went on and played the Red Hot online event and got 3rd out of 63 people. Then went to one of the live events and got 6th out of 35 or so people. So all and all keeping up with the leaderboard.
Cash game wise not so good, but haven't had a lot of time to sit and play, so meh, I will get that back on track at some point.

Its all over...damn

2006-09-16T15:30:00.000-04:00

Well what a week! It was a blast this year at the Toronto Film Festival, even more so because I had a camera pass which allowed me on all of the red carpets and into some press screenings. Went to a couple of parties and go free food and more importantly free drinks, which is always a bonus.
Going to do a little re-cap of some of the movies I saw and what I thought of them, so here goes:

All the boys love Mandy Lane
Wow, Mandy Lane is smoking hot which makes this movie amazing lol, scroll down to see pics of her. What really pissed me off was that she didn't show up for the World Premiere of the movie, she is filming some show on the CW network, fuck the CW errr. The film got picked up by the Weinstein's so hopefully it will get a wide release.

An Evening with Michael Moore
Very, very fun. It was a great thing to see Moore talk about his movies and his experiences through life. Got to see clips of his new movie Sicko which should be amazing.

The Host
This movie was long and boring, it was not very good and it annoyed me most of the time. It was the first movie I saw and the theatre was hot, so it was not a great first experience for the fest.

The Last Kiss
Rachel Bilson is hot. It's a very depressing movie though...check it out.

Pan's Labyrinth
Probably the Best Movie I saw at the festival. Dark fairy tale, very cool

Renaissance
Terrible and boring...worst movie of the fest.

Rescue Dawn
It was amazing to see the World Premiere at Ryerson with the director and Christian Bale in attendance. Enjoyed the movie, it wasn't great and it dragged on at parts, but is worth seeing.

S&Man
No one will ever see this, so I guess it's cool that I did. Made on Digital and done like a Doc, it was weird but unique.

Severance
A lot of fun, great crowd for the showing. It really is the Office meets Deliverance and it works! This will get a release and should do very well.

Suburban Mayhem
It was a 50/50 crowd, I enjoyed watching this slutty Aussie chick say fuck you to her father and cause chaos in the suburbs, but some people don't like that lol.

Chronicles of a Prisoner
About the Argentinean government capturing people and torturing them...it was ok, not a happy movie.

Love and Other Disasters
God I wanted to shoot myself. So bad...except that Brittney Murphy is always wearing lingerie.

And the other movie I saw that was outside the festival but had a press screening was Feast. It was a lot of fun and was actually better then most of the movies I saw at the festival lol http://www.feast-movie.com
So there we go...lots of movies over a span of a week, not as many as I wanted, but hey, when you have to work and fit in movies this is what happens.

Bobby Premiere 1 hour ago lol

2006-09-14T19:56:00.000-04:00

Ahh fun times...tooo much Chaosssss.

Some of the screen caps are blurred sorry, was in a rush lol might grab some better ones later.

Breaking and Entering

2006-09-13T20:31:00.000-04:00

Just pics no time to talk lol

The Last Kiss

2006-09-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

Yep Hellllo Rachel Bilson....see a theme? I follow the hot ones.

Just got back from this movie...

2006-09-10T02:53:00.000-04:00

Ya I had to post this because well lol I Love Mandy Lane.

So Film Fest movie is called All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and here now I present you with Mandy Lane aka Amber Heard.

Film Festival time in Toronto which means....umm no poker just movies

2006-09-09T00:21:00.000-04:00

I am drained...I can't even write a good blog. So much going on, so many crazy things happening, tons of celebrities everywhere and parties to go to. It's a lot of fun but it can be a lot of work.
Going to post some screen caps of the celebs that I have been filming...my god Reese Witherspoon looked so good, everyone at the red carpet was going insane.

Oh and Penelope Cruz is really friggin hot...

Yes she looked at me!

Man o man I have been in a drought

2006-08-20T23:10:00.000-04:00

You would not believe the about of disgusting beats I have had in the past week. Just sickkkkkkkkk.

But enough of the bad beats. Red Hot Poker has these online tournaments everyweek, on Friday I got 3rd out of the 64 people that were there and today I just took down the $10 buy-in, 21 person tournament.

It felt really good because I came to the final table with an average chip stack and 5th in chips. The guy I ended up beating had the chip lead since we were down to 5 players and didn't really push it around. I was actually starting to get annoyed because I had him to my left, so I had to act and when I had an Ace mid rag I was worried that I would have to go against him, whereas I just wanted to take out the short takes behind him.

The hand that changed it all was a nice bluff on my part, I played the hand as though I was chasing the flush (check calling the whole way), two hearts on the flop and when the 3rd heart came on the river I bet it out and he folded the hand. I showed him the king 4...because well I hoped I would get him to play aggressively against me and think I was bluffing.

Wouldn't you know it, the next hand I had Queen 9 of clubs, he raises (3x) and I make the call. Queen, 8, 4 on the flop one club. I check he bets, I re-raise him and he moves all in. I call and he flips over Ace 8. No Ace to help him and I took the chip lead for the first time.

That was the turning point, I grinded away and got all his chips and the nice little $94 bucks to go along with it.

Still playing poker

2006-08-13T21:45:00.000-04:00

Ya I am still playing...but just card dead. And getting donked over and over again haha I love it.
Sometimes I play good players and get cold decked so thats fun too.

As you can see I am in a bit of a down turn...but meh soon I will be out of it...maybe.

Hellmuth wins number 10!

2006-07-26T16:36:00.000-04:00

Well we prematurally celebrated about a week ago but Phil finally pulled it off last night in the Re-Buy tournament. And to think he only rebought 8 times...not 48 lol

Here's the story from Card Player

Could we see a Phil Hellmuth vs Jeff Madsen in the Main Event Final Table heads up? I think so!

Highlights of the Re-Buy tournament

2006-07-24T01:42:00.000-04:00

Oh Daniel. He say's he loves these re-buy tournaments...compulsive gambler in him.

Check this shit out (from Cardplayer.com):

-Sun Jul 23 14:11:00 PDT 2006
The Magic Number is 48
Daniel Negreanu has rebought 48 times (that's $48,000 for any math majors out there).

-The Daniel Negreanu Show

Daniel Negreanu calls an all-in pre-flop (blind) and flips up 5spade3heart. His opponent has Q-Q. The board comes 9club9spade2diamond6heart4club, and Negreanu makes a runner-runner straight to double up to $3,700 in chips.

A few hands later, he gets all-in again with Jheart2club against AdiamondKdiamond. The board comes Jclub4diamond3club2heart8spade, and he doubles up to $6,150.

The next hand, he tells a Card Player reporter that since he finally has a noteworthy stack, he has just started to look at his hole cards before acting. On his first such hand, he looks down at A-10, flops trip 10's, and adds $500 to his stack.

On the next hand, he makes his first pre-flop fold of the tournament, nearly two hours into the event. He wants it to be known that he folded suited cards (a very tough laydown).

Later, the cocktail waitress comes by...and Negreanu doesn't have any $1 bills on him. James Bechtel buys him a water.

Man o Man...
Wish I had that kind of money to throw around...

What did you do when you were 21?

2006-07-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

How about go down to Las Vegas and win TWO WSOP bracelets.
Yes it just happened. James Madsen just took down Erik Lindgren to win his second.
Oh and btw he has been on 3 final tables, and took 3rd in the Omaha h/l event.
Click

The big pot between the two were AK vs 88, all in pre-flop, Erik hit the Ace on the flop but James hit his 8 for trips. OUCH!

Very Good ESPN article on James

The Observer

2006-07-17T00:12:00.000-04:00

This is just a quick post because I was watching the Full Tilt 100 spot WSOP event and it came down to the bubble.

There were tons of people talking at this one table because this guy was all in and if he didn't win he would finish 128th (top 127 get a WSOP main event seat). He ended up losing the hand and was the bubble boy and all the observers were laughing and going "How does it feel to be one person away from winning a seat!"

My question is and if I was anyone at the table playing "What did you say OBSERVER? Sorry I missed that OBSERVER." These guys aren't in the tournament and are railing...this guy was at least in it until the end, so who are you to talk about him?

Sorry just had to put that out there...petty people annoy me.

Well.....

2006-07-15T23:21:00.000-04:00

Look at this pic mmmmmmm....what you thought this would be about how well I did at the Red Hot event....

Ok so...I could have gone broke on the very first hand I played (which was 40 minutes into the tournament...gah tough day)
Here it is the big hand: blinds at 50/100
First position raises to 400, I look down at A Q spades, I call, everyone else folds.

Flop comes A, 8, 3 rainbow. He bets out 600....I call.
Turn comes another Ace (all suits out now) he checks....I am thinking to myself...we both have trip aces...does he really have Ace King? I decide to check.
River comes a 7....he bets out a 1000...I can't throw this away...I could raise...I just call.
He flips over A 7 off for the full house.....ouch...a first position raise with ace 7 off..blah.

Half my stack is gone in that hand, I get kings and get back to 3500 and my last hand was pocket 4's vs....Q 5 off???? He hit a 5 and I was out.

Bad day...came home wanted to steam off a bit, played a 30 person 5 buck (didn't want to steam in a big game lol) turbo on full contact and ....won?? wtf lol Ya so that was fun, at least I made some profit today.

H.O.R.S.E event and Red Hot

2006-07-14T13:32:00.000-04:00

Check this out:
1- Jim Bechtel $841,000

2- Doyle Brunson $1,227,000

3- Chip Reese $1,756,000

4- Dewey Tomko $438,000

5- Andy Bloch $934,000

6- T.J. Cloutier $351,000

7- David Singer $745,000

8- Patrik Antonius $13,000

9- Phil Ivey $885,000

Thats the final table for the $50,000 HORSE event at the WSOP, I mean my god that is a stacked table. Should be amazing to see who comes out of it on top. The final table goes tonight at 9 PST, because the players played from 1 pm yesterday to 9am today...now that's a lot of poker.

The Red Hot TOC is tomorrow at 1pm, my strategy is to win...my goal is top 20 so I can go to this Negreanu Boot Camp he is having in Toronto. Last TOC I was out in an hour and half...hopefully that won't happen again.

Well I made it

2006-07-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

So I have been pretty happy with my play the last week or so, got the bubble twice and then finally pulled off a 4th, 8th and 2nd place finish to put me into the Red Hot Poker Tour Tournament of Champions next Saturday. The only thing that I am pissed about is not winning a tournament this season, I have always posted at least a win in each of the seasons I played and I had the chance last night but went heads up against a chip stack 5x more then mine and he hit an opened ended straight to beat my top pair.

But I have been thinking that since I haven't won a tournament the TOC would be a perfect time to do that wouldn't it?
If I do win this is what I would recieve:
The Red Hot Poker Tour's Season 5 Champion is going to Las Vegas where you'll go Head to Head with Daniel Negreanu!

You and a friend will be flown to Las Vegas for an unforgettable experience. You'll enjoy two nights at the legendary Caesars Palace, have dinner and hang out with Daniel and his friends, and then you showdown in a heads up battle for $5000. Even if you can't beat him you win, as Daniel will drop $2500 in your Full Contact Poker account as a consolation prize!

The Season 5 Champion, and newest member of Team Canada Poker, will also win a trip to Las Vegas with the Red Hot Poker Tour Vegas Invasion July 23-27, 2006.

Not bad eh?

Odd...

2006-07-10T01:18:00.000-04:00

It seems Canada now has two WPT events??? Back to back at Fallsview...this is odd.
WPT Canadian Poker Open and the North American Poker Championship(we know this is the 10 grand buy in whats the other???)

World Poker Tour Site Info

So I just might make it now...finally a 4th place finish

2006-07-07T23:24:00.000-04:00

Played tonight, felt good going in and just hit nothing the entire night untilllll...

I am in the small blind 600 invested and I have 2000 left. First to act goes all in (only has 1000) and one other person does also, who has the exact same chip stack as me. I figure there is already so much in this and I have 10 8 of clubs, maybe I will hit, so I go in as well.
First to act had King 4?? and the other girl had Aces lol great. Flop comes 9 7 2, turn is a Queen and the river is a 6 giving me the straight lol sometimes you just have to get lucky I guess.

Our table is then moved I sit down and instantly double up with A 3 vs the big blinds 5 2 (he called cause it wasn't that much to him, can't remember the blind levels haha)

Then a sick hand where I turned 3 of a kind and I pushed all in the guy called me with a flush draw and missed.
Then the best hand of them all, which pretty much secured my final table appearance.

I am small blind for a 1000, the on guy movies all in for 6800, and it comes around to me I have King Jack of clubs, I figure this guy for low pockets or something suited, he was getting low and desperate. I call, the big blind then moves all in for 3800 more...I am thinking what have I gotten myself into, but can't fold now (after everything I am left with 10 grand) So the original guy flips over Queen 10 and the big blind flips over Pocket 8's. So I am looking pretty good here...flop comes all blanks, the turn is a 5 and the river is a King, giving me the huge pot.

I went to the final table around 4th or 5th in stacks and ended up getting 4th, I will take it but the final hand was disgusting I tried to make a play and it failed when I ran into my own lucky hand of King Jack.

I am now in 96th place on the Red Hot Tour and top 120 get into the Tournament of Champs.

Phil decides to slow play this "Punk" and get's F'd on the river

2006-07-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

Yes Phil lost a 4 hour heads up session with a 22 year old from Cali.

I listened via Sirius Satellite radio and it was an amazing session to say the least. Unfortunately we will only see "highlights" because ESPN execs. are dumb fucks and decided that this wasn't important enough for a full TV crew.....

Read about the match at Card Player

But I just have to say one thing...why did you slow play soooooo much Phil, I know you were trapping and it worked a couple times but of course the guy figured it out..I mean he even said after "Ya Phil was trying to trap me a lot."
Example of Phil's slow play that cost him dearly: 22 year old raises preflop, Phil calls. A 5 3 flop Phil checks and the kid bets like 60,000, Phil calls. Turn is a Jack and Phil checks, Kid checks. River comes a King. Phil checks and the kid bets out 100,000, Phil quickly calls fliping over two pair 5 and 3's (He floped two pair!) the kid flips over Pockets King's for a set and boom the slow play dies. Now of course this may have happened either way if the Kid didn't think Phil had an ace, but still...this happened like 5 times, Phil slow played and was rivered.

Can Hellmuth become the first 50/10??

2006-07-06T18:43:00.000-04:00

Whats 50/10 you ask? Well that means 50 cashes and 10 bracelets at the World Series of Poker. And that is what could happen for Phil Hellmuth today down in Vegas. It's the "little big one" the $5000 No Limit event and it would be amazing to see him take it down.

On a side note ESPN wasn't going to film this final table, but once they heard that Hellmuth was going for history they quickly set up the cameras....I mean wtf why wouldn't you be covering the 5 K event its only second to the main event and the horse event...I don't understand that.

Here is the list...found at taoofpoker.blogspot.com check his site out
Top 10 WSOP Career Cashes:
1. Phil Hellmuth 50
2. Men Nguyen 49
3. T.J. Cloutier 48
3. Berry Johnston 48
5. Chris Ferguson 43
6. Erik Seidel 41
7. Humberto Brenes 38
7. An Tran 38
7. Ken Flaton 38
10. Mike Sexton 37

Top 10 (er... 15) WSOP Bracelet Winners:
1. Johnny Chan 10
1. Doyle Brunson 10
3. Phil Hellmuth 9
3. Johnny Moss 9
5. Erik Seidel 7
5. Billy Baxter 7
7. T.J. Cloutier 6
7. Men Nguyen 6
7. Jay Heimowitz 6
10. Phil Ivey 5
10. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson 5
10. Ted Forrest 5
10. Layne Flack 5
10. Stu Ungar 5
10. Berry Johnston 5

Poker on the Radio? Wah?

2006-07-05T00:53:00.000-04:00

And this is the girl who is giving you updates from the poker floor...damn why is she on radio....(warning this is what I believe the women's voice would translate into image wise)

Yep that's right! Poker is everywhere now...even on Sirius Satallite radio.

Poker Radio WSOP coverage

So I turn it on for the first time and they are talking to these people that don't really know how to play and then some people asking questions like "why do people call me a donkey when I beat them on the river playing a 4-2 off", I kid you not this one guy said that.
So I was like "I must call in and make this show a little interesting" I was going to plug myself but thought maybe later...So I call in and ask about the poker bubble I figure might as well hear what these guys have to say and I ask about the 50 K H.O.R.S.E event and is this a ploy by the pro's to make their own main event?

So they thought that the bubble won't burst, it will keep expanding (I don't believe that, it has to hit a peak somewhere, next year or so it will happen) and they thought that the pro's would love to see 8000 people in the horse event because they would crush them all...valid point hehe

For my troubles I recieved a subscription to Bluff Magazine...sweeeeeeeeeet. Time well spent.

Bubble Boy

2006-06-28T15:02:00.000-04:00

Alright so for the past month I have been on the bubble of the final tables at Red Hot and it's starting to get annoying. (yes I got 2nd online, but live play is what we are talking about here)

I don't really know what's happening late in the game, am I losing it? Playing to tight? Oh now I remember...getting knocked out by people that haven't played the game!
Yes A 3 off is a great hand to call my raise with when I have A J, and then I bet out on every single card and she called it down after thinking each time for like 10 minutes...and then hits a 3 on the river to knock me down to nothing....but hey that's poker.
Last night it was a great outing but I just got blinded out when the cards went away at critical points. The hand that put me out was my 7's vs AK and the king came.

Also last night some funny things happened, the 2nd hand I doubled up when I hit my queen high flush and the guy went all in with a 9 high flush.

Then two hands later, 25/50 blinds. I raise it to 200 with AK, I am talking to this guy beside me when this other guy raises me to 600, no one else is in, I turn to him and say "You raised ME?" He's like ya...So I say all in, he thinks for like 5 secs and says call...I flip over AK he flips over AQ, boom I knock him out as well.

So back to the bubble...I bring this up because the Red Hot Tournament of Champions is coming up and today the stats got updated and guess who is on the bubble LOL ME!
120th place which is right at the cut off...I mean damnit...if I bubble on this and don't get in I will be pisssssedddddd.

In case you didn't know

2006-06-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

The World Series of Poker starts today in Las Vegas....sickkkkkkkkkkkk

And also if you didn't hear Mike Sexton won the WSOP tournament of champions, beating Daniel Negreanu and taking away 1 million bucks.
www.worldseriesofpoker.com for all the info

Arrggg what a Tournament

2006-06-26T00:49:00.000-04:00

Just played in the $1000 Freeroll for Red Hot Poker players, on Full Contact Poker. What a crazy tournament...

I ended up come in 2nd out of 102 and won $180 bucks, so not bad but I really wanted to win.
I mean I come in 2nd on too many tournaments lol especially big wons...*cough* Degree.

So we are heads up and this guy Robby has been really playing well, and I told him so before we started. I have the chip lead, then he does, back and forth we go.
Huge turning point, I hit my full house and get paid off big, he's down quite a bit but fights back.
This hand is a blur because I thought I had won and then all of a sudden the chips went over to him...I had the Jack of clubs on a board of 10, 9, 7, 6 of clubs (but to be honest I didn't really see it, all I saw were clubs, moved all in and he called, something came down and then boom I am looking at his cards and what does he have the 8 of clubs...straight flush...ya...I don't even know if I was paying attention, it happened so fast that I couldn't tell u what I was thinking lol

So ya fun times, there were lots of other hands but to be honest from 10-11 pm I wasn't really paying attention because I was watching Entourage and Life with Louie on TMN lol, then all of a sudden I had some lucky breaks and boom I am in the money (top 15)

Blogger Championship

2006-06-18T17:07:00.000-04:00

BAHH 88th out of 2200 and top 50 get some sort of prize.
AJ vs 10 9 and a 10 hits on the river to end it all.

24,000: pocket 10's (me) vs Queens and I flop a 10 to keep me in.
113 left

Update: Well that hour was up and down...had it over 10 grand and now I am down to 4300 with 350 people left...not looking good.

**Sick Hand**
I am dealt Jack 10 off and I am in the big blind. Flop comes Jack, Jack, Ace.
The small blind bets and there is one more guy to act after me, I just call and the other guy calls. Turn comes a Jack...Quadssssssss....the small blind continues to bet (oh man he has the ace), I call and the other player folds. River turns a 5, he bets out again for like 200, (its early in the tourney), I re raise all in to see if I can cash on him hoping its a split pot or I am full of shit, sits there forever and then pays me off. He had Ace 5.
***

Right now I am in around 100th place out of the 1500 left. First break, started with 2000 its up to 7300 now...not bad...average stack is 3000.
We shall see how the cards go in the next hour.

Moment of silence

2006-06-11T23:11:00.000-04:00

It was a sad week here in Toronto at the Red Hot Poker Tour, as our first ever champion passed away. I knew Jim from way back when I was just starting out as a poker player and he was a great guy to hang out and play a round of poker with.
Red Hot sent out this:

JIM "Gryffen" GRAHAM
Our team was saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Season 1 Champion, Jim Graham last week, and our thoughts go out to the many members who, like us, had an opportunity to get to know him for the terrific guy he was. The incredible emails and support really shows how Red Hot has become a family and community, and losing someone that was a big part of the Tour, and history of the organization, is truly a blow to us all. Our thoughts are with you Jim.

Looking for a cool tournament?

2006-06-04T01:03:00.000-04:00

Try this out, saw it on Cardplayer and thought it sounded fun.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4479850

Degree Poker Moment in Vegas lol

2006-05-31T17:15:00.000-04:00

So I am sitting at the blackjack tables, in of all places, the Tropicana. And I start to look around the room as I do when I am bored and the dealer keeps getting 21 in 5 cards. And who do I see across the room? Bruce Redwood....The Degree Poker Announcer! WTF right? I mean its pretty odd to say that least that I would see anyone I know down in Vegas but especially someone from my Degree days at Niagara. I had to go over and say hey and it was good times all around. Him and his wife were there celebrating there 10th anniversary and had just gotten there pretty much, while I was on my way back to Toronto the next day.
So Bruce if you are reading this hope you won tons of money because I certainly didn't.

Also just wanted to mention the fact that I got to stand in the Bellagio's poker room and stare into Bobby's Room. It was pretty amazing to see Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harmen, Barry Greenstein etc. all playing in the big game. I didn't get to meet any of them but it was still pretty awesome.

WPT at the Mirage

2006-05-31T00:13:00.000-04:00

So the first day we got to Vegas was the final table taping of the new season of the WPT (season 5). So I wanted to go check it out and see how everything went down in these huge tournaments. Well as I turned the corner, who do I see, Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patton. And of course I had to get a pic...just because. I was of course looking for the hot blonde who hosted the WPT but was unable to find her because she had already been replaced by another hot little blonde. Ever since Shana left they just can't find that magic I guess.

Well the final table was long and very agonizing, but they did have an open bar for all of the audience in the back so that was a bonus. We didn't stay for the whole thing, left for about 4 hours, then came back to see the that 3 were still left. It had started at 4pm and went until around 1am.

All and all it was a very cool experience for the first day in Vegas.

Back from Vegas

2006-05-28T17:06:00.000-04:00

Tons of stuff to talk about really, but I will be doing it over a couple of days. I saw tons of Poker people, got to go to the taping of the WPT at the Mirage and I even got to lose most of my money playing in cash games lol

And no I didn't get into the Price is Right...fuck. But I did see Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno so that was pretty cool.

Also I will be talking about a certain Degree Poker Announcer that I bumped into at the Black Jack table haha.

Vegas, L.A and the Price is Right

2006-05-11T22:24:00.001-04:00

Yep so it's time to take a trip down to the desert. I will be travelling to Vegas next week and then onto L.A after that. Hopefully this trip will cost me nothing because I will win money playing in the many poker games that will be all over the strip. But probably I will come home broke and you won't get another post on the website because I have had to give up my computer as well.

It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait to play some poker down there since the last time I was there I wasn't into Hold'Em and just spent all my money on Blackjack.

So I have wanted to go down to L.A for a long time...the reason....The Price is Right. Yes I have wanted to be on this show my entire life, so now is my only opportunity because as we all know Bob Barker is 100 years old and could die at any moment.

Bob Barker is the Hugh Hefner of game shows. I mean just look at his gig..he is surrounded by his Barker Beauties which are usally playmates, and I am sure Hef sends them over, and of course Barker has to "try them out" to make sure they can handle the tough jobs he has in store for them.
I want to be Bob Barker.

Craig quoted in the Star

2006-05-06T16:29:00.000-04:00

Yep I am in the Toronto Star.

I was interviewed up at Niagara during the media event and if you would like to see the article click the link: Degree Poker 2006

Or here it is pasted for you:
Online registrations increased to 20,000, 20 per cent over last year's inaugural tournament, said the casino's Steve Wolstenholme. Those not chosen will get a final chance to play. Early on, about 300 places will be drawn among those who are at the casino, ready to play.

That's how Craig Macrae, 22, of Toronto got into last year's tournament, placing second. "I just walked up, got a seat, played for a week and they gave me a cheque for $10,000," Macrae said, adding he had only been playing the game for seven months at that point. He used the prize money to pay off tuition loans and take a vacation.

"It was a hard, tough battle," Macrae added. "You've got to get cards. You've got to be lucky and you've got to know how to play poker."

Macrae credits online poker with the game's explosion in popularity.

"Anyone — wherever you are — can get in (an online game). You don't have to go to a casino," he said.

Mr. 7Deuce busted by a 7-2? Wouldn't that be ironic?

2006-05-04T16:52:00.000-04:00

Well it didn't happen, but that would have made this post a lot funnier don't you think?

But yes I have busted out of Degree 2006 but I still had a great time. I would just like to thank everyone up at Niagara Fallsview, I had a great time and got to see everyone from last year. The girl who picked my name that allowed me to get into the tournament, the players that I had such a great experience with last year, the suits (as I call them) who said "great to see you back again" and even the dealer who didn't shake my hand (I know you all remember him!). Once again everyone put together a great tournament and it's too bad I couldn't spend the week there and see all of the players go through the experience that I went through last year.

So I guess I should talk about the hand that busted me. Well the blinds went up every 20 minutes, wayyy to fast, but it is a freeroll and they want to keep things moving so I can understand that, 2000 in chips to start off with.

So I won the first hand! Which was sweet because it was one of the only hands I would end up winning haha. It was a slow painful death as I told Bruce the announcer, but it was still a lot of fun. The last hand came when I was in the small blind, 200-400, we have one caller in seat 7 and everyone else folds, I look down at A 8 off and to be honest that was an amazing hand with the garbage I had been seeing (top hands that I got: A Q suited, 9 8, king 10, jack 10 and thats about it, no pockets). So I move all in which is 800. So the big sits for a while then finally is like might as well call for the 400 (he was chip leader at the table) and the guy who limped also called. They checked all the way down and the flop was 2 2 3 9 9, so with that I am thinking wow I might just have won with ace high or I am still in with a split. Big blind flips over 6 - 4 and the guy who limped....turns over pocket kings.....

I said goodbye to everyone and they announced my departure and that was the end of Degree 2006. It was fun and I pretty much knew it would be bust out in an hour and a half or make it through, it was just a gut feeling. I also predicted that I would run into a big pocket pair... just didn't think it would catch me off guard like that haha.

Wow what a weekend

2006-05-02T12:31:00.000-04:00

This was one crazy weekend in Toronto! Daniel Negreanu was all over the place and probably got about 3 hours of sleep in the last 72 hours. The Protege table lasted until 2 a.m on saturday night and then at 2 pm the next day we did the Canadian College Poker Championship down at the CGTV studios. I was tournament director for the event, which pretty much meant me making sure things went smoothly. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to see it all editted togeather. My friend Johnny was the dealer and it will be interesting how much of him gets on television.

After that I got to go hang out with Daniel, which was really amazing, we had a great time with all the winners and he talked to us about strategy when playing in different tournaments and his experiences. He also did some really great impressions of some of the people at the tournament that...well I can't really say who they were about but it was gold!

I am now getting ready as we speak to head up to Niagara Falls for the media event tonight and then tomorrow I will be playing at 1 pm. It should be a lot of fun, I really don't have any expectations for this event, I would love to just make it through day 1.

Big Week in Toronto

2006-04-27T13:10:00.001-04:00

Yes poker is in the air here in Toronto. Daniel Negreanu's Protege table will be filmed here on sunday and we will finally find out who gets to travel around with Daniel and hopefully win some big bucks. The winner get's buy-in's to 4 $10 grand tournaments and of course tips etc from Daniel himself. http://www.fullcontactpoker.com
Be there on Sunday to watch it live via the internet.

Also the Daniel Negreanu Canadian College Poker Championship is on Monday with the top 6 flying in from across Canada to compete for a full scholarship and a chance to play Daniel Heads Up. It should be a lot of fun and you will be able to see it on CGTV coming in the near months. On a side note to this I was going to be the dealer for this event but then I remembered that I am a terrible shuffler and didn't really want to do it on television and embarress myself haha. http://www.lifeofsports.com
for more info.

And finally the Degree Poker Championship 2006 starts next wednesday so that is going to hopefully be a huge event for me. I will be playing on May 3rd, so come out and cheer me on or boo me, either way I want to see people doing something.

WPT in October at Niagara Fallsview

2006-04-23T01:06:00.000-04:00

Holy shit people! Its happening!

"The North American Poker Championship is scheduled for October 23-27, at the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls Canada."

They are wanting for it to be confirmed for sure, but it seems its just paper work that needs to be done. They are going to run satellites etc. and its going to be huge!

http://www.niagarapokerrooms.com/News/wpt.htm

http://www.worldpokertour.com/calendar/?x=...ason=5&type=wpt

Daniel's Protege Table

2006-04-21T21:49:00.000-04:00

Just got this email, thought I would share.

On Sunday, April 30th, poker and Daniel Negreanu fans alike can watch an event via live webcast at www.FullContactPoker.com that will change the life of one amateur poker player forever. This final table webcast will begin around 12:00 pm EST and last into Sunday evening.

Ten amateur poker players from cities around the world will all vie to become Daniel Negreanu’s first-ever protégé. In this rare opportunity, the lucky winner will experience the life of a professional poker player for four months, and possibly beyond, while being mentored by ‘Kid Poker.’

“People from all over the world can log-on and watch the play-by-play to see who becomes my first-ever protégé,” explained Negreanu. “I’m going to give this person every tool at my disposal to make him or her an outstanding professional player. From the bankroll, to tips, to analysis on some of the individuals they’ll be up against — my goal is to help potentially launch their full-time career as a professional player.”

$25,000 World Poker Tour Championship

2006-04-19T23:20:00.000-04:00

Well it's that time of year again where the best in the world all head down to Vegas and play in the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. It's day two of the event but really it's still day one because the field was 600+ which meant they had to split into Day One A and Day OneB. Cardplayer.com has all the live updates and videos from down there so you should go check it out.

Some interesting notes: Daniel Negreanu is currently at 45,000 in chips and Evelyn Ng is at 190,000 (currently 2nd).
On the first day Hellmuth as always came in late, about 40 minutes into the tournament but today Ted Forrest beat out all late comers by not showing up....
"With only 70 minutes left in the final level of the day, Ted Forrest has still not made an appearance. His seat and chips await him and he still has around $38,000 chips." Very odd...

Also this just happened and I thought it was funny...this happened on High Stakes Poker as well...Freddy Deeb keeps getting into fights with other players: "Security had to be called over as Freddy Deeb and Haralabos Voulgaris had to be separated. Voulgaris had been eliminated and the two got into a confrontation after the hand. Voulgaris eventually left the poker room
and everyone called down."

High Stakes Poker

2006-04-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

Well not much to talk about really, just finished up school so in the next couple weeks I can play some more poker to get ready for the Degree Poker Championship in May.

I was watching some of the High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network, amazing stuff really. I guess last night was the last episode of season one and if you head over to fullcontactpoker.com Daniel just updated with some info about season two.
It really is amazing seeing all the top pro's in a cash game and watching Phil Hellmuth lose all his money and start swearing and getting up from the table is really a joy. Even though I do like Phil and think he's a great player, its just fun to see him blow up on television. "I can dodge bullets baby!"

So...do you want to win 1 million bucks?

2006-04-07T20:39:00.000-04:00

Ya thought so...
So if you haven't heard the biggest online tournament in history is having qualifiers right now and I suggest checking them out.
Here's the lowdown: The Ongame Network Poker Classic is a tournament with a record-breaking guaranteed prize pool of $5 million and at least $1 million for the final winner. This will be the largest-ever guaranteed prize for an event that starts online. It is an exclusive event open to Full Contact Poker players.

Sit & Go and Scheduled tournament-based qualifiers start on Monday, March 27th. Players can proceed through various levels which start at $1 – and who knows, $1 could lead to $1 Million.

So head over to FullContactPoker.com!

Campus Heaven check it out

2006-04-03T15:44:00.000-04:00

Check out this new site that just launched this week. www.CampusHeaven.com its going to become big very soon and it has poker...sweeeeeeet!

Red Hot Poker Tour

2006-04-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

Tournament of Champions was held on April 1st, 2006.
An amazing event in downtown Toronto, which saw Daniel Negreanu be our host for the final table or the speaker system. TV camera on top of the table so we could watch all the action from anywhere in the bar and some of the most crazy hands in poker history!
Well maybe not history but Daniel said he had never seen a final table with so many bad beats after the flop.

The Final hand of the night that crowned our winner "Jimmy" was a shocker.
With the blinds at 6000/12000 and each player dead even with around 300,000 in chips (Jimmy had a bit more then James), it was all about limping in or saying all in...which is a unique strategy considering the amount of chips in play, and with the blinds so low (compared to stakes).

The button was on James, so he calls the 6000 and Jimmy checks the big blind. The flop comes 5 9 Q all dimonds...a dangerous flop if I ever saw one....Jimmy checks....and James says All IN! wow....what does he have? Nut flush? Set? ....

Jimmy says CALL! and stands up quickly throwing over his Set of 5's! James throws over Pocket Aces!!@!@! He limped with pockets to set a trap and the Jimmy set a trap after flopping the set by checking...amazing shit.

The turn comes an 8 and the river comes a King...Jimmy is our champ and has a seat at Daniel Negreanu's protege table.

www.redhotpokertour.com
www.fullcontactpoker.com

Great Hand...that beat me

2006-03-28T00:02:00.000-05:00

Its one of those stories where you are like wow that player played that hand so perfectly that I just don't know what to say lol. *I got up and shook hands, as you should*

First to act calls, I am 3rd to act I look down at King 10 off, its 100 to call, I call, small blind folds, the big blind checks.
Flop comes down Jack, Queen, 8 rainbow. Big blind throws out a bet of 200, other player folds and I call with an open ended straight. The turn comes an 8 (still no flush draw all suits) The big blind checks to me, did she have the 8 and I am going to be check raised here...might as well find out where I stand...I throw out a bet of 500, she takes a while and then throws in the 500. The river hits an ace, I hit my straight.

This time she bets out 300...alright thats an odd bet, why such a low bet...no raise pre flop, has she been fishing for an ace the whole time...or she has had the trip 8's and slow played them hoping I have an ace....I decide I need to see if she is full of bs or not...I raise it to 900. Not that much of raise just a test. She says all in for 2200 more.

What have I gotten myself into here? I am thinking to myself...does she have king 10 as well...not likely, does she think her trips are good? Or the big question in my mind does she actually have a Full House...she didn't raise pre flop so I don't think she has ace 8...she could have q, j 8...but I sort of put her on something weak like 10 8....So what did she have and what do I do?

Well I called, and said you have a full house and I have a straight...she flips over Queen 8.

She played the hand amazing and even though I did figure it out in the end she did trick me. The call of my 500 bet confused me and made it so I didn't see the full house like I should have :)

Degree Poker 2006

2006-03-19T18:57:00.000-05:00

It'ssssssssss Back!
May 3rd 2006 is the start date of the Degree Poker Championship 2006 at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. This year 3000 people will be allowed into the tournament and once again it is a random draw via the internet.

www.degreepoker.com

Check it out! Come and knock me out this year...and then maybe you won't see me doing my crazy 7-Deuce shit again.

Good Luck Everyone!

First Draw is March 22nd.

Playboy Mansion

2006-03-10T22:35:00.000-05:00

Right now I am playing in a tournament that gives you a trip to the playboy mansion...why can't all tournaments have this prize? haha

I shall let you know how I do...19th out of the 130 that are left...started with 708 players.

***Update***
Bahhhh
Dealt QQ on the button blinds are 2000/4000 I raise it to 16,000 after there were two callers ahead of me. The big blind raises all in which is 8000 more to me. Everyone else folds and I call, he flips over A K and the flop hits the King on the flop and the ace on the river for funnnn.
Left with 4000 I get King 10 dimonds and move in and lose.

31st place...ohhhhhh well.

Thought I would share

2006-03-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

BTW Update from last blog about my losing ways. I got 3rd out of 80 players at Red Hot on Monday, so at least the live game is still going good.

Just thought, since I am posting video stuff recently I would share with you the Feature I did on the Red Hot Poker Tour last year. This was the first time Daniel came to Red Hot and it was at the Madison Pub here in Toronto. (and this feature was named best fact based feature at Ryerson's Tara Awards...exciting stuff lol)

So...

2006-03-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

Well its a new month but the bad run continues. I have been playing at Royal Vegas and have just been getting destroyed...now I don't play high NL games so don't worry destroyed doesn't really mean that much money, but its still money.

It's almost hysterical because I have this knack for running into pocket aces. Just now , the hand that prompted me to write this, I have jack 10 and had just called the small blind. The big blind raised it to double the big blind. I figure might as well see a flop. flop comes jack, 3, 5. So I bet out, the guy raises and I re-raise to twice what he had originally raised. So what do we have hear, me being stupid and thinking my jacks are actually good, or him thinking I have shit and that orginal raise was me just trying to take the pot. Hell the small blind with a small raise could be in with anything even a 3, 5. Well it was a macho match at this point and he RE RE Raised me, buy this time I am sick of this bull shit and go all in. Of course he flips over pocket aces....I mean in the past two days I have run into aces 5 times and kings twice...do I not have the ability to see these massive pairs or are they actually hidden under these small raises. So to end the story...the turn comes a 10 yes I make two pair, wow I am really lucky...the turn is a 5, giving him aces and 5's and me jack's and 10's ahh fun times.

So will the slump end? Hopefully in some live games...which are really the only ones I care about.

The moment that allowed me to win 10 grand

2006-03-02T15:52:00.000-05:00

Yes here it is, the name of the site should give away what the video is going to show, the infamous 7 Deuce hand vs Ace 9. As well you will see the last hand of the Semi final where I make my speech haha

Hit play then hit pause, let it load because it's a bit slow.

Unique Breed

2006-02-22T01:42:00.000-05:00

Alright let me just state that this could be a rambling onnn...kind of reading but I will try and get my point across.

I wanted to write about this ever since I watched the WSOP footage of Phil Hellmuth going nuts over a players "play" at the table. If you have watched the footage its when he tells the guy "He doesn't even know how to spell POKER" btw that is a classic line as well as "I can Dodge Bullets baby!", you have got to love Phil.

So we have this boom in the poker scene over the past couple of years (and yes I am included in this area) and we have two different types of players, the ones that play by the book and the others who don't. Do these "amateurs" really not know how to play poker, or do we have this new generation that don't seem to care what the pro's think are the best cards? It would seem they just want to see a flop with any two cards, as though they have developed a strategy all their own, which makes everyone else think "what the hell are you doing" while they take your chips away.

Pros have always said that playing by the book type players are easy to read, so haven't they shot themselves in the foot by saying this? Because wouldn't that mean that all these new players want to listen to the pro's, so they will do the opposite of what the pro's think they will do.

Of course this is giving a lot of credit to these river rats and king 3, 9 2, 7 2, type players, who believe that "hey they were suited" is a legitimate excuse for calling a raise with garbage. But maybe these players are playing a new type of game, a game where the luck of the cards will rule the day and maybe they will try to throw some skill into it. Why try and read someone when you really don't care what they have, all you need to do is play your cards and HOPE that you hit it in the end.

The lucky players will cash in on the short term, while the ones with skill will continue to get payouts in the long run.

I hope I am in the later catagory, but this site is called 7-Deuce isn't it :)

On a side note yes we can get angry at these players but what good will that do? If you try and tell them that they have done something incorrectly they will just say "look who has the chips". Unfortunatly they are correct, you sometimes just have to take those bad beats and get over them. I am always trying to "teach" others how they "should have" played that hand, but that really isn't my place now is it...but I do believe advice is helpful and if I sat down with any pro and they told me I played the hand wrong I would listen because it can only make my game better.

Daniel Negreanu

2006-02-11T16:14:00.000-05:00

"Nice to meet you Daniel" as Craig shakes his hand.
Thats all I got to say as he was walking out of the Loose Moose yesterday on his way to play a private event with some Lucky Red Hot Poker Tour Members. The winner of season 3 and online tournament held last week got to play a small game with some Red Hot staff and Daniel. Pretty sweet deal and I am sure it was a lot of fun.

Daniel is in Toronto this week as his blog says on FullContactPoker.com and was in Hamilton on Wednesday. It was jammed pack of course and people who arrived at 5:30 hoping for a spot to play were left out in the cold as all spots had already been filled.

As well on a random note I will be at the Leafs game tonight and it just so happens so will Daniel, pretty funny...to me...not too anyone else I take it.

Red Hot Poker Tour...another win

2006-02-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well I won at the Madison back in December and as I said before it was the place I had always wanted to take 1st place.
Cut to today and once again I won down at the Maddy. Great tournament as always and very well run.

I wasn't going to play tonight but last night I went down to Philthy's and got destroyed on the river for 8000, which put me out. I decided I would go down to the Madison play a tight game and see where it got me. Well at first it got me down to 2000 when my pocket 8's ran into pocket queens. But I pretty much stayed course and continued to wait for the cards, since the blinds weren't very high at that time. Finally I tripled up, then another double and another.

Got to the final table second lowest in chips at 35,000 (what a comeback!) I was on the button to start the final table so I could wait for my opportunity and see if I could double up. The big hand came when I was dealt King 10...normally I don't like playing king 10 that much but at this point when the blinds are 4000 and 8000 I decided that I would go all in for 19,500. I got called and was up against pocket 8's. Hit my 10 on the flop and it held up.
After that it was pocket 8's that cracked another player, doubling up again. And then it was down to 3.

So here is where I got into a trap mode. I was on the button and both of these players were moving all in, almost every hand. I look down at Pocket Queens...now of course I should push and see what happens, or at least put in a little raise...but I am hoping one will think I am weak and push all in. Of course the small blind calls and the big blind checks. Flop comes 9,8,6 rainbow. Both check to me and I move all in. Hoping one of them has caught the 9. Small blind calls and I have him covered by 10,000 - big blind folds. He flips over open ended straight draw. But it doesn't hit and we are now heads up.

It took 3 hands for me to finish it off: Chip count 250,000 to his 150,000. Small blind is in(blinds are at 6,000 and 12,000), I look down at Pocket 7's...I raise 40,000 on top of the big. He says all in, I call. He flips over King 6 and my 7's hold up for the title, the toque and the 25 buck gift certificate haha

Fun times!

Well no free trip...

2006-01-29T19:48:00.000-05:00

Well I tried...5th place...

At one point I was 2nd in chip stack, but it sort of went down hill at the final table. I had 10,000 going into the final table of 10 which put me in 6th postion for chips. It was a pretty agressive table and I just didn't find the cards at the right time. The turning point in the tournament was a hand where I was dealt Ace Queen off, I raised and got two callers. I was on the button and last to act, flop came king, 10, 9 with two clubs, giving me a gut shot straight. The first guy to act bet and the next guy re raised. Do I risk my whole tournament on a gut? I had 7 grand left...I decided to wait for a better opportunity. Of course the turn came a Jack, but I was right the guy had flopped two pair king 9, so at the time I was right to fold.

My last hand was King Queen diamonds, I had 5000 left and on the button (blinds are 800 and 1600), I moved all in and the big blind called with Ace 5 (no respect!) And of course he hit trip aces and I was out in 5th.

Ahh well it was a fun tournament.

Hopefully I will win this and go to Vegas...

2006-01-28T17:37:00.000-05:00

Ok so my dad clips out this thing in Eye Weekly Magazine, its a Poker Tournament on PokerRoom. There were 4 Qualifiers and today was the last chance for me to enter...had I know I would have had 4 shots, so I wanted to getter donnnne today.
Well I am glad to say that I pulled off a 4th place finish (top 15 got a spot in the finale) and that means TOMORROW I am in the final against 60 other players for a chance to win a Trip to Vegas!
I will update the blog tomorrow with the results...cross you fingers.

On another note Congradulations to Daniel Negreanu for getting it done down at the WSOP Circuit event in Tunica. He won last night and collected a cool 750,000. Wish I had that kind of money lol

Canadian College Poker Championship is underway

2006-01-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

So if you haven't checked it out yet:

Here is the link to the CCPC

It started on Tuesday and had a great crowd show up and very cool and talented Canadian students from across Canada. The top 3 were dominated by St. Fx with 1st and 3rd going there way and U of T picked up the 2nd place spot.
I tried to represent Ryerson as best I could...and picked up a 9th place spot. But it just wasn't my night as I was short stack at the final table, made my move with Ace Jack off and run into...Queen 8.....yes lol...and 8 on the river ended my run. Oh well thats just the way things go.
So check out the website! Every Tuesday and Thursday on Fullcontactpoker.net thats where the tournaments are held.

Canada Represents at the WPT in the Bahamas!

2006-01-12T16:42:00.000-05:00

Oh hell ya! Well done Steve Paul-Ambrose!
A 22 year old from Waterloo just won $1.2 million down at the WPT tournament in the Bahamas. That is amazing and what an amazing feat for this guy to make it all the way to the end. Pokerstars paid the way, because he won a $100 satallite to get into the main event. I always try and win those but damn so many stages to go through!

Random note...took this pic off the Toronto Star page, the name of the image was poker_dude....guess they can't be bothered to put his name lol

WPT Second Season finale...means....goodbye to....

2006-01-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

Ok so Shana Hiatt has now left the WPT...really the only true thing holding the show together. I mean sure we can still watch poker but lets not kid ourselves...we all watched the show to find out what little quirky facts we were going to get in "This weeks Poker Corner with Shana Hiatt." I mean comeon now what gives?

At the end of the amazing WPT Championship that was on citytv yesterday there was a little video package and then a "thank you for 3 seasons". And the website still has her on it. Now if you have picked up a poker magazine you will have seen that some blonde has replaced Shana, but I am still a little disappointed.

When I get on the WPT, all I was looking forward to was meeting Shana and of course cashing in on the millions of dollars at stake.

So from everyone up here in Canada...goodbye Shana we will miss you! (especially when the WPT is in the Bahamas)

Canadian College Poker Championship

2006-01-04T18:15:00.000-05:00

http://lifeofsports.com/ccpc/

You have to check this out people! Sign up and you could face Daniel Negreanu heads up for some big cash.

Heads Up Tournament Tonight

2005-12-30T01:23:00.000-05:00

Red Hot is putting on a Heads Up Tournament tonight for the winners of the past two weeks and the top point leaders. I am currently 10th on the Leaderboard so I will be there to Represent.

Hopefully I do well....I have been playing some online heads up and doing quite pretty good. And I have always thought my heads up game was pretty solid (guess not that good, since I lost at the Degree Tournament) Maybe tonight I will take it down...who knows.

BTW Merry Christmas LOL
And have a Great New Year People. Lots of stuff coming up this year so it should be a good one!

KickAss Freeroll on Royal Vegas

2005-12-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well I remember about this freeroll 5 minutes before it started and thank god I did. Got myself into the money out of 560 players. Not tooo bad!

So what was the hand that ended it all I am sure is what everyone wants to know. Well of course it was a terrible beat, but I had hit some nasty runner, runner to get into this position so I can't complain that much. Down to 4 players (4th = $100 First= $400), the guy to my left just keeps moving all in, who knows when he has a hand because no one is standing up to him. Blinds are 4000 and 8000, I am on the button, we have one caller and then we have me and the small and big blinds. I look down at Ace King Suited, I have 80,000 the small blind has 125,000 and the big has around 70,000. I move all in. The small blind calls, the other two fold. He flips over 10, 9 unsuited. The flop comes 4, 9, 10 rainbow. I need some help and it doesn't come. He wins with a pair of nines. Ya that hurts lol

So I haven't lost my touch

2005-12-20T23:35:00.000-05:00

Went down to the Red Hot Poker Tour tonight at the Madison Ave. Pub. This is where it all began for me (and Red Hot, for that matter) , I have always wanted to win there but haven't been able to crack the top 5. Until tonight....I finally won there and man was it ever an uphill battle. There was a packed house of 90 players and it seemed to run on forever. But has we got down to the final table it was time for me to try and double up quick because I was pretty low stacked with 30 grand.
It didn't happen though, as I was down to my last 5000, I was forced all in with 7 4. I was up against king queen, so at least I had open cards. And thank god some luck was with me as I hit the 7 on the flop which held up.
Once that happened everything seemed to change, I started getting the cards and playing very well. The big hand that allowed the table to get down to three went like this: I am on the button and get dealt A K, the big blind goes all in. I call. He throws up Q J, the flop comes 2, 4, 8 - the turn comes a Q....nooo why does it have to end like this....the river comes a K and I win the monster pot..... wow now thats some fun poker haha.
I got heads up and it went for a long time. At first I was down, but was able to steal some pots and get lucky on the flops. In the end it was a great night and now I get to be in the Heads Up event that is happening next week.

The Last hand of the WSOP Freeroll last night

2005-12-18T13:41:00.000-05:00

Just in case anyone wanted to check it out. The guy who won is the guy who put me out as well. I have never seen such weird/amazing calls. Either the guy just wanted to lose or knew his cards were good. Example of this: He had a high card nine, with a flush draw that he had to hit it on the river, the other guy moved all in for something like 150 grand, he called and hit it.

Royal Vegas Poker Freeroll to the WSOP

2005-12-18T00:37:00.000-05:00

Well I was in it....and I was doing amazing. The tournament had 5000 people in it. It was down to 70 players I was in 5th place with about 125,000 in chips.

I have ace jack off suit, the blinds are 4000/8000 I raise it to 24,000 and get one caller, the big blind. Flop comes out 6, 8, 4 two dimonds. The big blind checks to me, I put out a 12,000 bet and he calls. The next card comes a 2. He bets out this time for 24,000 I decide that he hasn't hit this flop at all and has two over cards just like me, so now its a game of chicken. I raise to 60,000 if he called he would only have 8000 left. He sits there forever and then just calls me....the river comes the 10 of dimonds. As of right now I am in shock that he has called me, he bets his last 8000 of course and I have to call. He flips over Ace Queen off suit....his queen kicker takes down the monster pot. I don't even know what to say about that....

Pocket 10's next hand, I raise get two callers, I move all in for 26,000 which is still alot same guy calls me with an open ended straight draw and hits it on the turn.
I am out in 66th place.
From 5th to 66th in a matter of minutes.

Shouldn't have tried to bluff the Ace Jack hand...but knew he had over's just like me and thought he would fold if I put all of his chips out there....

What Kind of Player are you?

2005-12-17T21:23:00.000-05:00

What kind of Poker Player are you?

Now I should just set this up first: I play at free games that are held in bars around Toronto. So of course I am not expecting to sit down beside a Johnny Chan or Daniel Negreanu, but it is very interesting to see all the different types of players that show up and try out the “new craze” of No Limit Texas Hold’em.

The Clueless player – Yes we all love to sit down at a table and look around too see confused faces staring back at us. “So what are these worth?” Now of course you politely tell them and help them out as much as possible because this is a friendly free game we are playing here, so it really doesn’t matter. But once you start to play and these players keep winning pots and saying “I can’t believe I am winning, this is my first time.” It starts to get on your nerves. But hey I digress and these players usually end up winning the tournaments and then never showing up again. (only to be replaced my many clones)

The Drunk player – I have to say that I find these players very funny to watch. And to be honest some people play better drunk (and even win Championships, Leslie). Now these drunk players will always be staring at you, but not quite at you, since they are probably seeing double. They will then announce “all in” in a sort of slurred type voice. Of course the one time that you actually call these types of players is when they will flip over the nuts and scream “I never lose!”

The guy with Sunglasses – I don’t wear sunglasses and I believe that you should not be allowed to wear them in tournament play. I mean if you are that afraid of people getting tells off you…well then don’t play. Look me straight in the eyes!
These guys are usually pretty funny though, because they sit there like a rock so as to give nothing away. You can try and get them to say things but they won’t move. In huge money tournaments this is fine but in play money games…get a life.

The Quiet guy in the corner – So there is a guy who doesn’t talk, plays very rarely, and then makes a huge raise out of the blue. Yep you should probably be afraid of this guy, unless his entire strategy was exactly what I just said. Then you call and take him out. (Most likely you will be leaving instead)

The Talker – Now there are two types of talkers: One is the guy who will talk about the cards and the hands after he has folded. Some will even be like damn I through away the 8-4, I would have had the straight. Well good for you! Now shut the F#$% up. If its after the hand fine, even though complaining that you would have won the hand is very annoying because in the reality of the situation you didn’t.
The other type of talker is the guy who isn’t paying attention to the game, he is ordering a beer from the hot blonde and looking at her breasts (now I am doing the same but I have already folded so it’s alright). He is yelling over to his buddy’s two tables down and he is talking on his cell phone. If you want to do all these things then please don’t sit down at the table get up and leave and come back when you are ready to play some poker.

The Know it all – So you think you are a god amongst men eh? You have read all the books and can read people like they were see-through. Well then you should be on the tour and not here playing beside me. This is the guy who will ask you “why the hell did you do that, I would have played it much better.” But you weren’t in the hand…so its not your problem now is it.

The Women in the room – There should be more women playing poker! That is really all I have to say about this but let me go a bit further. There are two types of women players, the ones that were brought there by their boyfriends and really aren’t interested in the game, we won’t want them (unless they are amazing hot) and then we have the women who actually know how to play. These women are here to kick our ass and screw with our minds. They may act as though they don’t know the game that well, but they will suck you in and take all your money away from you. Go Ladies! (unless your up against me then take it easy)

Red Hot Poker Tour and Daniel Negreanu

2005-12-13T21:03:00.000-05:00

First: Hopefully there will be an update soon as to who won the Season Three Championship on Sunday. I wasn't able to attend unfortunatly but its alright because I am saving myself for Season 4 when things really pick up. What am I talking about? Well check this out:
The Red Hot Poker Tour™ is the only place to play according to Daniel Negreanu.
How strongly does he believe the Tour is the breeding ground for the next Canadian poker superstar? Well, he's announced that he's looking for a Protégé and the ONLY place to play live to win a seat at his Grand Prize Final Table is the Red Hot Poker Tour. If you win the Season 4 Tournament of Champions, the seat is yours!

Yes one of the seats can be won right here in Toronto. For more info check the link -RED HOT POKER!

Deceptive Craig Macrae

2005-12-11T13:18:00.000-05:00

Wow! Well I am always promoting my site any way I can and usually it doesn't get me in trouble but this time I guess I crossed some sort of line. When I did this I actually thought it was funny because who in their right mind would think my site was endorsed by Daniel Negreanu. So this is what happened, I posted the email about all the cool stuff happening at FullContactPoker.com, so everyone could go and check it out. (hey I am a promotions whore for other sites to) But at the end of the email post I put "Also check out my friends site www.7-Deuce.com, because well I want people to read my blog too!
This all happened on PokerForum.ca, and now this guy ScootyZ has banned me from the site. No warning, because had he contacted me I would have taken off my little promo, instead just this email.

"You have altered an email to give the impression that Full Contact
Poker/Daniel Negreanu personally endorses your website, and posted this
doctored email in a public place. In terms of the forum's advertising
standards, this crosses the line as both excessive advertising, and
deceptive advertising.

I have also contaced Daniel Negreanu directly about your post. To be honest,
I will be surprised if I actually get a response from him about it."

So Daniel if you are reading this, sorry about all this, but if all this made you come to my site and read it then thats pretty cool lol

Wow exciting times at Hard Rock Cafe tonight!

2005-12-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

Look what happens when you go to a Daniel Negreanu party and come back to your computer. A whole new site! And some amazing news.

Do you have what it takes to be Daniel Negreanu's Protege!

Here's what was sent out to all his fans: The first big FCP online-poker promotion is called Daniel Negreanu's Protégé. When the final winner of this promotion is declared in about four months, I want to teach my protégé everything I know about poker and then bankroll him/her in tournaments. I sincerely believe that I can help someone become a great poker player. How do you become Daniel Negreanu's Protégé? Ultimately by winning a live 10-player final table tournament...and to earn one of these final table seats, there are ten unique qualifying paths (most of which are played at the new FullContactPoker.com) So go to his site and sign up right NOW!

Also I learned about a ton of other things that are going on here in Toronto, the WPT and some really exciting news for student poker right here in Ontario. So stay tuned and get excited about Canadian poker, because its expanding and soon its going to take over the world!

Just thought I would...

2005-11-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

Give some advertising to Red Hot Poker Tour. If you want to play against me I am always playing at these bars across Toronto.
Red Hot Poker was the first group organzied in Toronto and is the best by far, both in players skill and organization.
Also it has the backing of Daniel Negreanu (fullcontactpoker.com)

So ya, check out the site and if you don't live in Toronto it could be expanding across Canada soon enough.

On a seperate note, I have been playing the fun tournaments on Interpoker.tv, I am not a big money player on the net, but love to play big tournaments for fun with play money. Now some would say you play a lot differently then if money was on the line and yes of course that is true, but I still play my game and try and take advantage of loose players.
So on that note...I played in a 150 player tournament that had a 2 million prize pool and got 1st place, winning around 900,000. Now if only that was real money eh.

Why is the Canadian Poker Championship in the Bahamas?

2005-10-30T15:32:00.000-05:00

So I was checkin out events on PartyPoker.com and I come across this link for the Canadian Poker Championship for the WPT in Jan/Feb of 2006. I was like "wow sweet, an event in Canada!" Well not exactly, because its in Nassau, Bahamas at the Atlantis resort. Now I have been there and it will be an amazing event to say the least but I just don't understand the title. If anyone can explain it to be please do.
That has been Craig's Thoughts of the day. Brought to you by SINproductions.ca

1st Place this time!

2005-10-22T15:04:00.000-04:00

Ryerson Poker Society held its first big poker tournament this weekend. 200 players showed up for the $1500 freeroll sponsored by Scorepoker.

It was a great tournament even though it was once again a bit fast for my taste. We started with 1000 in chips, blinds at 25/50 and increasing every 11 mins.
First was the table game, top 2 move on, done and done.
Then the 22 players or so left played with 100 in chips and a new blind structure of 1/2 doubling every 12 mins.
Yes it sounds weird but whatever I guess.

Final table 7 people, I bust out every one of them. Got a lucky river to give me the flush and the other guy the straight. And after that the cards never let me down.
Heads up lasted only two hands. This is how it went down:
I am big blind, he is sort of short stacked, he says all in, i look down at 8-3, I fold, he slips over 6 2, he says I am just planting a seed. *right...*
Next hand I have ace 7, i say all in, he stares then says call, thinking I am doing the same thing, he flips over queen 6.
Ace on the flop and the river, trips I win.
Lots of fun and can't wait for the next tournament....anywhere.

Which is the real cover?

2005-10-21T18:28:00.000-04:00

Now I would have prefered my version of the cover, but I guess the other one will do.
Pick this issue up off newstands it has the story which I wrote about my experiences in the Degree Poker Tournament.
Its an interesting story and you got a bit of it from the Ryerson paper, but this is the full version.
Thx again to Canadian Poker Player Magazine for hooking this up.

Canadian Poker Player Magazine

2005-10-21T17:02:00.000-04:00

Craig Macrae is featured in this months Canadian Poker Player Magazine. Stay tuned for more info or go to your local store and pick up a copy.

Great Canadian Poker Tournament

2005-10-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

Down at the Docks today, 6am...for an 8am start time tournament. I better get in, 880 spots are available for the 2000 that show up. 10 Grand is up for grabs in this FreeRoll so we shall see what happens.

The Ryerson Eyeopener

2005-10-05T13:16:00.000-04:00

So just thought I would post this interesting article about the week I spent in Niagara Falls.
Its from my University paper and its not bad at all. Also check out Oct. 4th's Toronto Star for an article about Liam Grieg and the Degree Poker Championship.

Click Here for the bigger version

So did everyone enjoy?

2005-09-28T18:25:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone enjoyed watching my play on TSN, yes it can be considered to be a little crazy, but hey wasn't it good TV? Exactly!

Don't know what the future holds...but I will continue to play here in Toronto at the Red Hot Poker Tour (www.redhotpokertour.com) and I hope to get out to some other big tournaments coming up soon.

If you are interested in having me at your tournament please send me an email, so I can first...know about it..and second get myself there somehow.
As well, as all poker players know, we need sponsors. So if you are interested in sponsoring me in any way please email me so we can talk.
sinproductions@rogers.com

For now this will be the site I update, since its a pretty easy system.
Here is a pic of me and my giant Cheque.