World Record Attempt Starts

In 4 hours I commence my record attempt.

I shall endeavor to post regular updates here.

Sleeplessness is Nigh!

I am entering a 2 day self imposed rest period in Preparation for my World Record Attempt.
Yesterday I played $1500 WSOP tourney. I may play a little bit of cash today but other than that I intend about 12hrs of sleep.

Orleansing The Poker

Gratuitous Old Pic of Me From Monte Carlo

Spent Yesterday punting about The Orleans Poker Room.

After a 3 hour stay in their daily tournament (in which Jen Mason blasted my AA with 77) to no avail I moved along to the only NLHE cash game.

$1-$2 NLHE and after 8 hours I managed to win $60 (after going down about $800 BAH!)

I did put on a bit of a performance and managed to get Snoopy nearly drunk on 5 mai tais.Yum Yum!

Notable hands:
1) Bottom 2 pair strikes again.
I call a raise of $15 with 5s6s along with 4 players to see a 9c 5d 6h flop. YUM!
Original raiser bets the pot and I raise. He re-raises and I push. AFter he calls I tell him his AA is no good and to my surprise he rolls over JJ and the board blankety blanks so I scoop.

2) I raise with J8 soooooted and get 5 callers.
Flop = 9d10h2c
All check to me and I bet the pot. Only the BB calls.
Turn = Kd.
BB and I both check.
River = 7s
BB bets $100 and I raise to $250. He calls me like a shot and produces 777.
MUHAHA! I scoop with my straight.

One table away Jen sat down with $300 and within 2 hours had spun it up to nearly $1000 on a table of mad drunk English guys.

Riht I'm off to The Rio now to stat shaking the money trees again and to meet up with one "Mad Irish" Guy (Gutshot Owner extraordinaire).

A Light Day of Pokering

I hd my 1st long good sleep in a week yesterday. I slept for about 15hrs and awoke to eat a big breakfast. After completing the triple S, I taxied over to The RIos to see which trees were a blowing.

After wandering about for 30mins, railing Squelch (who had a decent stack in the $5K PLHE event) I ran into Jen and Snoopy and we decided to have a fun, Single Table Sat go. LOL Either we aren't that good or the cards were well against us. I finished 10th, Jen finished 9th, and Snoopy finished 8th. The good news is that I won the Last Shorter Bet...MUHAHA

We then proceeded to have a bit of a laugh about outside in the beer/smoking garden with Brummie, Simon Nowab. After a 1 hour STS we formulated a plan to attack The Horseshoe 2AM $110 tourney.

My tourney was rather uneventful and I made my exit when I jammed my A10sooted into KK in a blinds battle. Jen went on to a 3 way chop . WOO HOO Jen. Go get em!

Whilst waiting for Jen to complete her tournament domination, Snoops and I engaged in a bit of smash ($1-$2 NLHE). Snoops leveled and I took about $400 profit away.

All in all, a quiet, but fun and profitable day.

MadYank's HU Press Release

Apokerlypse Now

World Series of Poker 2006. The Main Event. Day 1A. At the very moment that the traditional “shuffle up and deal” announcement comes over the PA system, ex US Navy Submarine Officer and Gutshot player, Ron ‘Mad Yank’ Fanelli will be over on the Gutshot stand at the Rio, looking down at his first two hole cards at the beginning of a non stop, head to head, No Limit Hold’em World Record attempt. The Guinness Book of Records has the current benchmark is just over 72 hours and they will have their own people in place to verify events. The poker world will be watching and cheering the Mad Yank on, with the likes of Mad Mike Caro (the professor of poker), world renowned ‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth and Johnny ‘Oriental Express’ Chan among the many top named pro’s offering their services and willing to take a shot at the Mad Yank. How many players he’ll encounter before breaking the World Record is anyone’s guess, but one thing’s for sure…Ron Fanelli is just Mad enough to pull it off.

‘Everyone gets everything they want. The Mad Yank wanted a mission, and for his sins, Gutshot gave him one. They brought it up to him like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, he’d never want another…’

Attack of the Vicky Coren!

Vicky Coren crushes $2-$5 NLHE game at RIO without even turning up...

"It's not possible" you say. But, It Tis, It Tis. For background the 7-4 is Vicky Coren's favorite starting hand. Well it just may land hard on my favs list these days.

The last 3 days of "Radio Silence" have been dedicated to straight up MegaGrind of the cash tables.

Day 1:
Hit the PLO Hard.
After going down $700 in less than 1 hour and in full gaping mode I managed to find a superduper coup and return to levels then hammer on for anther hour to book a tasty $1200 Profit. Yum Yum Yum!

Day 2:
Lessa playa some a holdem...
One of those beautiful days when I never had to reload. Sat with $500, dropped to $350 but soon got it in on a moderate gambool with a flush draw against AAA for the lovely flush to land. Yum Yum Yum.

Next Case Vicar! Call a $20 raise from the small blind with 7-4 soooooted (hello Vicky!).
Flop = 4c Qs 7s

I check, preflop raiser bets $45 and I instantly checkraise to $150.(Bottom 2 pair is strongish o the flop but highly vulnerable when slow played.) With all other players folding the preflop raiser then proceeds to put on a 5 minute act telling me how good his hand is. He then TELLS ME I have 74 and moves allin for $400 more. Hmmmmm. I had been overtly playing my "any 4" game (playing all hands including a 4 preflop for non-ridiculous raises). This game tends to loosen the table up a bit and make my hands quite unpredictable. Well in this case, I decided he eiter had AA, KK or had just given me an oscar winning performance with QQQ. Thus, I call. He then rolls over his hand and shouts out "I'm SO winning" tabling AhAd. Turn and rivr blank off and the $1000+ rolls my way and he leaves mouth agape.

Day 3
3rd Verse same as the 2nd Verse
Back to the $2-$5 NLHE game and playingmy "any 4" game. After showing a few winning powerful hands I run into 2 lovely situations.

Situation 1: I raise to $25 with AA in early position and only the button calls.
Flop = Js 3h 3 d
I fire out $55 and the button calls.
Turn = 10c

The button seemd somehow aroused by this card so I assume it must have helped him in some way. The only logical explanation is that he called preflop with J10 and had just made top 2 pair. If he had JJJ the 10 wouldn't have helped and he certainly wasn't the type of player to call with 1010 on the J high flop. So I returned to my original conclusion that he must have J10. Now he has $400 and I'd like to gt him to put the LOT in the pot. I bet $190 (nearly half his stack, which allows him to quite reasonably raise the whole $400 in) He promptly fllows my unspoken wish, I call and Voila! He produces J10 and with a river Blank I win with Aces up and he wanders away.


Situation 2:
Blessed be The Coren!
After a 10 minute walkabout for a cigarette and bathroom break I return to my table just in time to take my blind. 3 players call $5 and then another raises to $20. Folded around to me and I put in the $15 (who knows what mysterious flop could await us:) 2 Other players call and we see a lovely flop.
Flop = 9d 4s 7s (Yum Yum 2 pair)
I check as do the oter players and the preflop raiser bets $60 into arund a $60 pot. After scanning the other 2 players and reading that they hardly seem interested in this pot, I raise to $200 and await the carnage to unfold. The other 2 players fold (as expected) and the bettor thinks. And thinks, and thinks. Then he says the magic words "All IN!" (For another $300), I call, and the turn and river come J Q and he proudly tables KK. I, of course, show my 2 pair and another player wanders off into the "who the hell is that madman" pugatory. :)

In WSOP news:

The ridiculous fields continue to play on the tournaments. 500-2000 players for every event. Given y horrid showing in the $2k Event, I payed a week ago I am concentrating on the lucrative cash before I decide to spin any more $$ into the lotto WSOP structures.


More Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood
Don O' Dea
Hugh Kirton (Gutshot regular Extraordinaire)
Marc Goodwin
Squelch (Mr $262K from last month's Stars Online tourney)
Iwan Jones

MadYank Finishes 4th in Tournament!

Jen Mason and I posing in front of the Wall of WSOP Champions at The Horseshoe

What a Country!

Oh bye the way it was a $110 Tournament at the Horseshoe. After Jen M. Finished her log day of WSOP updating, we headed downtown for a fun (that word outlawed by Harrah's) tournament.

After arriving late with Bhupinder (another London friend) we were deposited into tthe tourney as alternates and proceeded to enjoy. Sadly (for her) I knocked Jen out when my Q10 landed hard on a flop of 10-10-4 against her KK.

After outlasting most players, I managed to get my stack in with K8 sooooted against the BB who called with A8. OOPS!

Oh Well! Twas back to the cash.

Return of The MadYank

Ok. Been radio silent (as Andy Ward would say) for the last few days. Changed hotels from the lovely Cancun Resort (A HUGE Thank You to Jen Mason) to The Orleans. Seemed to have dropped most interent connectivity in those days. Stand by for further programming to resume.

One Last World Cup Bit

A Germanic-centric Video Collage

Lets Break A Record (for Charity of Course)

Come July 28 (Day 1A of the WSOP 2006 Main Event), I'll be kicking off a marathon heads up quest. I shall be attempting to play over 76 hours straight to set a new Guiness World Record.

All profits will go to the Las Vegas Children's Hospital. All and sundry are welcome to take me on (Just outside the Poker Room in the Rio).

Gutshot Poker are sponsring the Attempt. Check out my Interview

The Salesman, The Snoopy, and The Sniper

I spent Saturday (afternoon sleeping of course) as a relaxation day. Jen Mason, Snoopy, and I decied to have a wander bout downtown. This being Snoopy's 1st Vegas visit we had to do Binions (former poker mecca). We (after some lubrication of course) played the 2AM $110 tournament at the Horseshoe. Amusingly the structure wasn't half bad. It had about 50 odd runners but they proved too many for us. Of course I was ejected first after losing with trip queens to a case river Ace for a final table stack sized pot and then running JJ into the mighty KJoff which rivered a K. Marveloooooos! It was quite enjoyable though. Back to actually having fun in a tournament instead of being surrounded by angry aggressive players all thinking they are entitled to a WSOP bracelet (surely they must see that it is I who am entitled :)

After our ejections we wandered about Freemnt Street with Snoopy observing that each casino had a very different smell. Hmmmmmmmmmm. He does pick up some funny things. After our downtown walk-about it was back in the cab to check out some strip casinos. We landed at Ceaser's to check out their new poker room. Quite posh and modern. The staff was quite friendly and the games were ridiculously fishy.

Being as it was a bit of fun venture, we all sat down in a $1-$2 NLHE cash game. The only way to describe it is as insanity!. My 1st hand I pounded the turn with Arag on an A high board to take down a pot. With all and sundry asking where we were from I of course stated I was a Londoner. Several punters seemed in a disbelieving mood so I pledged that the next pot I won I would sing Rule Britania. Of course the next I was dealt was AA. :) UTG raised to $20
MP1 calls $20
MP2 re-raises to $80
I move allin for $235 and stand and start singing "Rule Britania".
The $20 contributors pissed off quickly and the $80 better thinks for a few minutes then calls after I do a bit of sales work. ( I start meekly telling him tat I'll show him if he passes MUHAHAHA)
No 2 outer this time and MY AA finally stands up to a KK. :)

Meanwhile, Snoopy went on a table dominating performance after winning a $800 pot with KK on a K 2 10 J board when he got QQ to call him only for a lovely J to hit the river and house him up.

Jen (Le Sniper) remained quiet for the most part except to win her large pot when she checkraised allin for $200 on a 8c 2s 4c flop with AcQc o be called. The turn and river were blanks and her meager Ahigh was declared the Winner by her opponent. Hmmmmmm. Makes ya wonder what they call big allin raises with doesn't it.

After a few hours of fun an debauchery at The Ceaser's Poker Room we headed out (with a few very spooky looking Celine Dion commemorative $5 chips. I booked a $150 profit, Jen took a $95 upcheck and Snoop landed the BIG win for over $1000. Breakfast was on Snoop, obviously. After that it was back to the Cancun and a nice relax/sleep and a finely prepared MadYank Chicken stir fry (trying to get some healty eating in which is fairly hard in a WSOP room full of burgers and pizza).

Nevr Fold AK Soooted Preflop and 2000 Reasons For A Structural Assessment

Lets start with a "Marvellous!, You'll Be Alright!, Lose It Quietly, What a Country!"

Friday was the day! The day I participated in my 1st WSOP Event of 2006. Twas the $2000 NLHE. Before I relate how the tournament went I'll start with the day's build up. I awoke at 5AM, having slept for 14hours in a recvery from my previous 28 hour playing session. This day I was to check out of The RIO and move into a friends cool timeshare just south of the Strip (Big Thanks Jen M. :) ). So, my plan for the day was to eat some breakfast then play some NLHE cash till 10AM, then checkout of the room, then register for the tournament, then Win It! Well best laid plans and all that bollocks leads to a bizarre twisty road.

I went down to the cardroom and promptly took a seat in a $2-$5 NLHE cash game. After 1 hour I was playing fairly tight and winning $300. Since it was a fairly quiet game (aside from the fact that PHW was in it) I was also playing backgammon on my laptop. (Perhaps a bizarre version of multitabling). Well along came a pot... 1 player limps from middle position and all others fold to me in the cutoff. I have AcAd. I raise to $25 from my stack of just over $800). The button re-raised to $100 (from a $1000 stack). All others folded back to me. Without much fanfare I re-re-raise to $400 (half my stack). I raised this much for several reasons. First, in general a re-raise there could be a genuine hand or a resteal. If it is a genuine hand I stand a good chance of getting action. If it is a resteal attempt we get on to the next hand with little ado and the reraiser can fold with face saved after encountering such a serious raise. Well, this one turned out a little differently. He thought for about a minute then said "I've never folded this hand preflop EVER!" I thought "Sweet. That must mean he has KK and will call" Eventually he decides to raise allin. I call.

Flop = 2s Kc 7c (YUCK!)
Turn = 9c (some hope now since I have the Ac)
River = Ks (Double Yuck)

I show my AA fully expecting him to produce his quad kings. Surprise time! He shows AdKd! He rivered me. I looked on in shock that AK was the hand he had NEVER folded preflop. Only one thing you can say "What A Country!"

Moving along ... I quickly pulled up anothr $500 and within an hour had run it up to $1250 for a $250 profit despite the AA setback. Twas 1030AM so I left the table, went upstairs, checked out of my RIO Room then made my way back to the Poker Room and registered for the $2000 NLHE WSOP tournament. After about an hour rest/wait, I made my way to Table 173. 8 of my opponents were there for the first hand. 2 hands into the tournament, a surprise shows up to fill the empty seat to my left. None other than Paul "ActionJack" Jackson. I hadn't seen him since we had played in The Monte Carlo Millions (In which he finished 2nd to Phil Ivey). We did a bit of catching up then he disappeared into the mist when his 1010 ran headlong into AA on a 9 high flop. I suffered on for another 1.5 hours until I met my bizarre demise.

With blinds at 25-50 and my stack down to 1700 I called a 150 bet in the BB with 6c7c.

Flop = 4d Kh 7s
I check, the raiser bets 100 and I move allin for 1550 knowing he has nothing. He calls like a shot and rolls over 8h6h.

Turn = 5c (Marvellous! He called a checkraise allin with a gutshot draw and received instant service)
River = Qd

I then recieved a rubdown from both the winner and another player. Oh well! The structure was ridiculous. $2000 for a tiny stack tournament means you can only make one play if you don't win your 1st pot.

The 1st Long Day

The 12th-13th was a Looooong day.
Started my 2nd day with 2 more single table satellites. Chopped one and was out 2nd hand in the next one. Oh well. Profit obtained.

After single tabling for 2.5 hrs, I jumped back into the cash. The goal was to play the $2500 Shorthanded tournament on Thursday but that plan changed when I looked at the watch at about AM and was sat in a NLHE cash game that could NOT be left.
Earlier I had played in a $2-$5 PLO game that went thru stretches of boredom and high action. After a few hours, and the game in danger of breaking, all the players agreed to change it to a $5-$10 game and the table rapidly filled. Vanessa Rousso (newly sponsored pokerstars player) sat down. She was very friendly and quite graceful in both victory and defeat. Oh yeah, she is also quite pretty :). No serious hands for me in the PLO other than missing a big draw and then getting paid on a few houses.

Amusing hands
Sat into a -5 NLHE game after the PLO broke. 2nd hand I played I called an over raise from a semi drunk player with 4d5d. The flop came 10h10d7d. The initial raiser bet $45 into a $60 pot and I immediately pushed allin with $470. He thought for 2 minutes then folded QQ face up. :P MUHAHA. Hard to call the unknown man on that board.

About a round later, I called an overraise from a shortstacked woman with 7h9h in the BB. The UTG player called and we saw the flop 3 handed
The FLop came 9d8c7d.

"Hmmmmmmm!" Me thinks. I'm beating the woman's obvious overpair, now I just need to get thru the UTG guy. I rapidly figured that unless he had J10 (nut staight) or trip 9s (unlikely with me holding a 9) or 8s he would have to fold to a big bet (Not looking for too many customers with dangerous drawing flop). SO I pushed allin. He called like a shot for $400 and so did the woman for her last $50. OOOOOPS. UTG had J10 for the straight and the woman had JJ.
Turn = Kh
River = 9s. BINGO Full house and all pot to me :). What a country!

About an hour later at a different table I set a Phil Helmuth wannabe (PHW) on FULL TILT!
I raised UTG with the soooooooted Gutshot Powerhouse (5s2s). A young English guy and PHW called.
Flop = 8h 5s 3c.
Both I and English guy checked. PHW bet $45 into the $65 pot. I called and so did English guy.
Turn = 4d
HMMMMMMMMM. Now I had a pair and a straight draw. I checked waiting to see what the action might be.

English guy checked and PHW bet $145. I thought for 3 minutes then moved all in for $450. MY reasoning was fairly easy. PHW clearly had some sort of weak 8 and should be able to fold. EVen if he didn't fold I had 13 cards to hit (any 5 for trips, any 2 for 2 pair, and any 6 or A for a straight). PHW though for 1 minute then called.
River = A. BINGO stairghten up and fly right! I scoop the pot! PHW goes mental calling me a donkey and telling me how he read me perfectly and I'm just a lucky donk. SInce I had the pot I wasn't bothered and started making EEEEEEEEEEW AAAAAAAAAAAAW! noises.

This guy was clearly steaming and wouldn't stop rattling on about the hand. Over the span of the next few hours he slaughted anothe $2000 on one long extended tilt. :) MadYank still has the tilting MoJo! :)

AT about 1PM Thursday, I quit the game and headed off to bed.
Planning to possibly play the Friday $2000 NLHE tournament.
Heading down to the Poker Room to try and spin a few single tables.

More Who are the People in Your Neighborhood
Keith "Camel" Hawkins
John Duthie
Rory Liffey
The Hendon Mobsters
Padraig Parkinson
Marcel Luske
Gary McGee (The Quiet American from The VIC)
John Kabbaj
Roland De Wolfe

Welcome to The Rio sir. Now please walk 2 miles to the poker...

Arrived in Las Vegas after a long but rather routine flight with a layover in LAX. Boring.

RIO...Not so Boring. Upon enetering the main WSOP room my 1st impression was that of entering a giant circus of crazed human animals. This room is the size of an 747 hangar and had WSOP tournies proceeding simultaneously. $10,000 PLO Final table. Day 2 of $1000NLHE. and Day 1 of $2000PLHE were all merrilfy buzzing away. Of course the other corners of the room were filled with cash games and nonstop 1 table satelites.

After watching a bit of the PLO final, I wondered over to the 1 Table sat area and ran into Andy Ward. I watched him finish a chop of a 1 Table then we had a quick Grab N Go lunch.

After self assesing that I was not truly tired but also not 100% I decided to have a pop at some small end single tables and then see how I felt. I played 2 single tables (finishing 4th and a Horrible 2nd with no chop discussed) All reports about these singles is true. The standard of play is abysmall on the whole.

After the 5 hands in a row of outdraws to lose the 2nd one, (My personal favorite being the last hand where my allin ith 88 was called by K6o and I lost to board of QQ1010) I thought maybe I should knock the singles on the head for the night.

Still with sme energy in me, I had a small crack at the cash action. I played in a $2-$5NLHE game for about an hour and manged to profit $10. WooHoo!

That games was boring the pants off me so I swithed to a $2-$5 PLO game. After 4 hours in that game wih only several minor interesting pots, I officially kicked it on the head for the night with a modest $250 profit.

The super amusing theme of the night was running into numerous online foes. My favorite was a 24Hr player named LOL. He and I both vividly rememer having an absolute chat slagfest with each other over a year ago in an online PLO game. That night we threatened unspeakable horros to each other, tonight we shook hands and traded jokes. What a Country!

Who are The People in Your Neighborhood?
Run into lottsa European players and friends.

Andy Ward
Neil Channing
Rory Liffey
Gary Bush
Jaime Posner
Andy Black
Johann Storakers
Conor Tate

All and sundry seemed to be having sme sort of success or another.

Right. Now it's tie for the sleep of the just. (Just arrived that is)

WooHoo! 12hrs till I'm in Vegas.

Or, perhaps it's not woohoo. After reading a recent post from another blogger on The State of The Game (Thank You Andy Ward for the fine linkage) it's hard to to feel a little deflation. The blogger, Shane S., talks about his growing consternation with the whole team concept and the starstruck poker idolators worshiping at the Alter of A Big Name.

It all rings a bit true and is a bit concerning. But, where will it end? and more importantly, should it end? It's hard to say that 1 week from now, if I'm hoisting my 1st WSOP bracelet for the assorted press (Yes, Yes I know. I'll be alright :) ) that I will be able to decline a serious sponsorship offer from PokerStars or whatever site it might be. In reality it is nearly impossible to decline, in that it offers significant protection from the volatility of playing ridiculously large buy-in tournaments ridiculously often.

Oh Well. All that in mind, I'm still excited to be heading out in mere hours.

Or, Did You Really Want an Answer?

What SHAL we Talk About Today II

More Structured Hand Analysis

OK This Question is posed By MEDS from BadBeat.
Has he made the correct bet AND call on the Flop in this hand.

Scenario
5 Players left in a $50 STT
Blinds 50-100
MEDS in BB
(MEDS doesn’t give stack sizes so I’ll have to make certain assumptions)

Assumptions:
1) Normal 10 handed STT with starting Stacks of 1000
2) 5 Players Left SO I’ll assume each player has an average stack of 2000
3) Flop is Rainbow (Meds doesn’t mention the flop’s color texture)
4) Normal Payout Structure of 1st =$250 2nd =$150 3rd=$100


UTG, MP, and Button ALL Fold.
SB calls 50 thus the pot is now 200.
MEDS in BB raises 200 to 300 with K3sooted.
SB calls the 200 raise. Pot is now 600.

FLOP: K 10 5
SB Checks.
MEDS Bets 300 (stating that he always continuation bets in this situation whether he has a monster, a moderate hand or nothing)
SB reraises ALLIN.
MEDS calls.

Turn: Q
River: 9
Final Board: K 10 5 Q 9
MEDS shows A Pair of Kings
SB shows J10 and wins with a straight.

OK I won’t get into how you got yourself to this flop with K3. Lets just say your there and you have bet 300 and now face the decision of whether to call the allin or not.

When you are facing the allin bet the pot is now 2600 (2x300 preflop +2x300 postflop + 1400allin raise)

So you are getting 2600/1400 = odds of 1.86 to 1 for your call. Thus, you need to win in this scenario 35% of the time for this to be a break even calling proposition. This being a STT which are available at all times in endless numbers my inclination is that you will call every time you are in this situation and have a +EV.

OK Lets look at possible hands you are up against

Hands that Are CRUSHING YOU
KK wins 100% you win 0%
1010 wins 98.7% you win 1.3%
55 wins 98.4% you win 1.6%
K10 wins 98.5% you win 1.5%
K5 wins 91.25% you win 8.75%
10 5 wins 75.45% you win 24.55%

Assuming that the chance of your opponent having any of these hands is equally likely
(An assumption with legs if we think that the chance of him slowplaying KK like he did is as likely as getting action from the SB with 10-5)

You win (37.7/6)= 6.3% of the time.

Other Hands Ahead of You
AKs wins 89.9% you win 10.1%
AKo wins 89.1% you win 10.9%
KQs wins 88.7% you win 11.3%
KQo wins 87.9% you win 12.1%
KJs wins 87.6% you win 12.4%
KJo wins 86.8% you win 13.2%
K9s wins 78.2% you win 21.8%
K9o wins 77.6% you win 22.4%
K8s wins 74.4% you win 25.6%
K8o wins 73.6% you win 26.4%
K7s wins 70.5% you win 29.5%
K7o wins 68.7% you win 31.3%
K6s wins 66% you win 34%
K6o wins 63.9% you win 36.1%
K4s wins 53.1% you win 46.9%
K4o wins 50.5% you win 49.5%

Assuming that all of these other hands are equally likely,
(a very aggressive assumption in that since there has been a raise preflop it tends to leave greater chances of the bigger hands being against you)
you win (393.5/16) = 24.6% of the time.


Other Reasonable Hands You are beating
AQs wins 31.2% you win 68.8%
AQo wins 27.7% you win 72.3%
QJs wins 36.9% you win 63.1%
QJo wins 34.2% you win 65.8%
A10s wins 26.3% you win 73.7%
A10o wins 21.8% you win 78.2%
Q10s wins 25.9% you win 74.1%
Q10o wins 21.6% you win 78.4%
J10s wins 25.9% you win 74.1%
J10o wins 21.6% you win 78.4%
A5s wins 26.3% you win 73.7%
A5o wins 21.8% you win 78.2%
QQ wins 12% you win 88%
JJ wins 12% you win 88%

Assuming these reasonable hands are all equally likely,
(Once again an aggressive assumption since the preflop raise tends to leave a higher chance of the better hands sticking around)
You win (1054.8/14)= 75.34% of the time.

Absolute Bluffs
(Below just supplied as example of clear bluffs)
45s wins 22.9% you win 77.1%
45o wins 18.4% you win 81.6%
89s wins 10.6% you win 89.4%
89o wins 6.4% you win 93.6%

Assume the Absolute bluffs will all land with low probability wins but some off chance of escape to a victory.
You win (341.7/4) = 85.53% of the time.

OK. Now lets decide what chance of each grouping exists.
Crushers: 15%
Other Hands (Beating You): 50%
Reasonable Hands (Your ahead): 25%
Absolute Bluffs: 10%

Doing some quick maths
[(.15 X 6.3%) + (.50 X 24.6%) + (.25 X 75.34%) + (.10 X 85.53%)]
= 40.61% win chances all things considered

OK. At the start I said the pot odds dictate that you only need a 35% win rate to break even. With 40.6%, it looks a clear call. BUT! This number is sensitive to the assumptions AND the stack sizes which were not provided. So It is better to look at that 40.6% number more as a range from 40.6% to 30.6%. Thus you are almost dead break even and your decisions should be influenced by other influences such as player history (aggressive, tight, passive, etc.)

SUMMARY
You have got yourself into a funky situation playing a big pot with KX. When you get serious action you’re not sure where you are in the hand even after hitting the flop. MY best recommendation is that if you were going to call the checkraise in the first place you should have bet a more meaningful amount on the flop to indicate to your opponent that the chances of him making you fold with an allin diminish rapidly as the size of your bet goes up.

Happy Hunting!

MadYank

Don't Play with a Cheetah? (In Response To DY)

Ron,

Dominic just phoned me up. He's heard of backgammon on Party for
real money and can't understand what's to stop someone running Jellyfish to
'cheat'.

DY

1st Thing is to tell Dominic to get out of the Stone Age! "Snowie" is the latest bestest BG software, Jellyfish is old hat.

OK addressing the point: Theoretically not much stops a player from using Snowie aside from a time constraint.

There are 3 options for clock length when one plays a game. The larger the stakes the faster the clock I would use, as it takes time for Snowie to recieve the board state then run its 100,000 simulations, calculate the equities, and present the best move. If a player is working with only a 1 Minute global timer for the game he should be hard pressed to get Snowie on the case for many moves.

That Said, of course a shrewd player might gain an advantage by only using Snowie in a few “high volatility” situations to determine the best path forward or for cube decisions.

Of course saying all that, this is Party who figured out a way to block 3rd party software (such as PokerTracker and PokerOffice) from datamining poker tables that the user is not currently engaged on. Perhaps that is the holdup on raising the stakes limits. whilst Party devises an anti 3rd party BG software defence.

World Cup Final

SEE THE VIDEO OF ZIDANE laying the smackdown

ZZ Glasgow Kiss

Forget Baggio. Isa alla Gooda!

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Pictures Above XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
For some Reason they Don't want to come into this post

Below My Observations picked up from the start of the 2nd Half.
OK Picking up in the 2nd Half. from Savanahs. (A local pub in a former Roy Roger's restaurant)

48MIN: Corner for Italy. Well placed in the box an volleyed about dangerously in front of the goal mouth before being knocked out for a goal kick.
49MIN: Henry just denied but picks up a corner.
51MIN: awkward moment in the Italian Box as The ball sits dead uder the feet of a French Forward. Luckily An Italian defender comes up
52MIN: WHEW! French forward brought down in the box but the Argentine Ref says Play ON!.
57MIN: Viera takes a seat on the pitch then on the bench as he limps off.
61MIN: Italian GOAL. Denied by the linesmans flag.
66MIN: Weak header by the Italians goes wide.

Play seems to have slowed a bit with both sides waiting a for a clear advantage to press forward hard. Perhaps they are resigned to another 120 min battle and are trying to conserve their energy.

70MIN: Whew! Free kick from Zinedane mishandled by Buffon but still cleared out of the box.
72MIN: Luca Toni hits the pitch in the French box but NO call!
77MIN: Italian free kick barely misses the outside post wide.
80MIN: ZZ takes a hard foul on the shoulder and has to leave the pitch fr a minute.
82MIN: Corner taken by ZZ but cleared quickly.
85MIN: Henry Takes an OBVIOUS dive in the box but again the ref doesnt fall for it.
88MIN: Weak break by The Italians results in a weak shot easily picked up by Barthez.
91MIN: Weak attempt by France gobbled up by Buffon.

The French are starting to look mighty weary just as the Italians seem to have found a second wind and are attacking with vigor.

92MIN: End of regulation time.

EXTRA TIME BEGINS
98MIN: No serious threats yet. Just probibg attacks with no finishes.
99MIN: Ribery fires in a low rocket passing just outside the goal.
100MIN: Trezeguet subbed in for Ribery. Ribery looking quite winded.
102MIN: Long slow floating cross into the box quickly gatered by Buffon.
103MIN: Danger Will Robinson! A wicked ZZ header tipped over the goal one handed by Buffon.
105MIN: End of the first Extra time period.
The French seemed to have found their second wind as well.
110MIN: ZZ sent off for delivering a Glasgow Kiss to an Italian midfielder. It would appear ZZ had enough of the rough defending.

115MIN: It would seem both sides are settled into defending for the last 5 mins of extra time rather than allow a lapse lead to a goal.

119MIN: WIltord makes a break for France but is forced to take a low probability shot from off angle which sails harmlessly over the goal.

120MIN: Its another Penalty Kick Decider. OH DEAR NO Baggio this time. The good news for Italy is that France's main Penalty taker, ZZ, is OUT!

The Order of penalties is Italy then France.
Barthez looking a bit nervous :P
PIRLO rockets it IN! 1-0 Italy
Wiltord Slots into the right corner for France. 1-1
BOOM! A deceptive run up by Materazzi. 2-1 for Italy.
Trezuguet hits the crossbar! 2-1 for Italy!
EASY DAYZ! DeRossi slips it into the upper left corner. 3-1 Italy.
Abidal easily slots home. 3-2 Italy still lead.
CHA CHING! Del Piero Slotted home! Italy lead 4-2.
Sagnol keeps France alive. Italy 4-3.
Fabio Grosso Leaves no doubt with a rifle Shot past Barthez.

ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA
AZURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRI BABY!

GO ON THE AUSSIE SARAH!

Sarah Bilney is still in the Hunt in the WSOP $2500 NLHE event with just 32 players left. She is now guaranteed her 3rd money finish after only 12 events in this WSOP.

WOOT WOOT!

Previous Sarah Piece

UPDATE:
Down final 3 tables (27 players) Sarah still swinging.

UPDATE:
Down final 2 tables (17 players) Sarah still swinging.

UPDATE:
Sarah OUT in 12th place BAH! She ran QQ into KK.
Her consolation is $50,439.

Well Done Sarah!

Bye Bye Baby, Bye Bye!

Oh Mommy Mommy Why do they persecute me so?

It would appear that Ronaldo desires to leave Manchester United before the upcoming Premiership season. His reasoning "Nobody stood up for me...Snff Snff!"

Now ain't that a damn shame? I can't imagine why no one defended his diving, acting and referee lobbying. Perhaps The Premiership can do without him. I'm not so sure about Man U though. He seemed to be an integral part of Sir Alex Ferguson's future team. The good news may be that Ruud Van Niestelroy (a far more productive and less objectionable player) may now stay with Man U knowing that the ballhungry look at my skillz twat (Ronaldo) is leaving.

But discord in Man U's camp cn only be a good thing for the ever improving Tottenham HotSpurs. Now if we can just get half of Chelsea and Arsenal to defect, Spurs can finish top 2...Oh well! A goils gotta have dreams.

Orange County Al Qaeda

It would appear that an Orange County, CA man has chosen to become a propaganda tool for Extremist Muslims. WTF? Too much of the good life now leads to growing a beard, changing your religion, and condemning your own country? Oh what has become of American Youth? Is this the new rebellious faze? Or more likely is it just another self obsessed twat trying to add some sort of twisted meaning to his vapid life?

OC Al Qaeda

In other Homeland Security News, The FBI announced that they have derailed a plan for 15-20 suicide bombers to blow a PATH train (commuter line running under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Ney York City) on the 5th anniversary of September 11th.

Train Plot Stopped

Ze Germans End On a High Note

Germany pelted Portugal 3-1 in a rather entertaining contest giving the home supporters one last show in The World Cup.

Germany's run in this tournament was indicative of all that is good in football. An inspired home team of good to average quality playing above themselves in a winning and attacking fashion.

Portugal's run was bit less nice. At times they played sublime with players like Ronaldo and Figo making superb plays but all too often there play was overshadowed by unsporting behavior.

Oh well just one match left. Italy and France.

Did I mention before? GO ON ITALY!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrinding Can Be So Soul Sapping

Another 1000+ hands of poker on both Stars and Gutshot.

Another small profit shown.

Only excitement was a brief return to the Sit N Gos on Stars. Played 2 $100 STTs and finished 2nd and 3rd. BAH! I played well and cashed in both, but really for STTs its all about winning to show any kind of return longterm on these things.

I actually can only remember a few hands of note during the session.

My personal favorite was in STT #1.

I had been disconnected for 20 mins early in the STT due to a less than responsive wireless router (D-Link YOU SUCK! get disturbed by a damn cordless phone). After I returned the blinds were on the last stages of 25-50. 10 mins later and I still have barely played a hand when I raise on the button with AJsooooted. SB folds. BB limit re-raises. I PUSH. In most cases I would probably call here but worrying about whether the damn router was going to fail just in time to watch my hand get automucked on a disconnect made me go for the PUSH.

BB calls and has J4off. :) I'm playing like a rock and still hey want to take me on with J4? By some miracle of fate My AJ holds up and sets me on my way to a 2nd place finish against the table zagnut who didn't seem to have a fold button at any point in the tournament

What a country! $100 STTs and they stil don't pay attention.

Hmm must start sniffing about the $500 STTs to see if they pay attention.

On The Backgammon Front
Played another 20 or so games on the PartyGammon.

Won about $50 but starting to get annoyed.
1st Annoyance: Limit per game is still $25 (Sort yourself out Party)
2nd Annoyance: The lobby updates too slow.
3rd Annoyance: The server moves a bit slow. With only 500+ players on its crawling. CMON! You have 80K players on your poker server, you can't sort out the gammon one?

For those interested in a Backgammon lesson or generally abusing me my username on PartyGammon is: B_madyank_B

Oh well It's Vegas in 3 days!

What SHAL we talk about today?

Harrington calls it Structured Hand Analysis. I call it my maths insanity forcing its way out of my brain (MadYank was once a Nuclear Engineer you know).

Here is hand that The Irish Guy (Derek of Gutshot) posed out as a question.

Tournament Last night N/L Hold’em with lots of runners
Down to the last 10 – playing 10 at the table
Next out gets €920 – 9th gets €1250 – Winner gets €17,000
Biggest stack has 220k – smallest 12k – I have about 90k
Blinds – 3000/6000

I’m in fifth position with one caller before me.
I look down and find AcAd. I make it 20k to go.
Two callers with one of them being the big stack, (on the button) and the other had me covered, (on the BB).
Flop Ah-Jh-10h First to act, (the big Stack), checks –BB pushes all-in

OK lets ignore the position discontinuity of The Big Stack and attack the issue of ALLIN guy.

We have top set here though we could be behind. Well if he has flopped a royal flush then were the never coming back kind of behind. ANything else we got chances.


OK Lets Look at The Pot.
Preflop:
SB put in 3K and folded
BB put in 20K and saw the flop
Limper Puti in 6K and folded
Button put in 20K and saw the flop
Derek put in 20K and saw the flop
Total Pot preflop = 69K

From the action described: BB moves allin (covering you) ergo the pot is now 139K (69K + 70K) (that part of his stack that you can call) if you call the pot is now 209K.

So you are being offered 1.96 to 1 odds on the pot and possibly more if the big stack chappie decides to call.

What mix of hands does the allin bettor have to have to make folding correct here?
If he has KhQh your proper fooked and win 0% of the time but I'll discount that hand (just for now) for the simple reason that he has moved in with 2 reasonable stacks to act behind him and a "raiser friendly" flop that is likely to get at least a continuation bet out of the original raiser.

Hands that are beating you on the flop
If he has KhQx (or KxQh) hes ahead with his straight But you win 33.83% of the time.
If he has a made flush Lets say 78h(I would suppose its not the Kflush (back once again to the why allin question)) hes ahead But you win 33.48% of the time
If he has KhXh you win 33.43% of the time
If he has KxQx (both non hearts) hes ahead with a straight but you win 37.12% of the time

Ok those are the possible scenarios where you are behind on the flop.

other likely hand holdings that would move allin here.
and near nut flushdraw with gutshot straight draw
KhJd hes behind and you win 63.08% of the time
AsQh hes behind and you win 62.27% of the time

Pair of Kings with the Kh
KhKx hes behind and you win 64.04% of the time

Pair and other flush draw
As9h hes behind and you win 69.59% of the time

Other Set
JsJc hes behind and you win 92.62% of the time
10s10c hes behind and you win 92.62% of the time

Open end LOW straight draw and flush draw
9h8x hes behind and you win 58.28% of the time

Crazy Brave underpair with a flush draw
9h9c hes behind and you win 70.40% of the time

OK. Those seem to be the reasonable range of hands this player could have BOTH called the preflop raise AND pushed allin on the flop.

Now we have to assign some probability to each hand grouping.
KhQh (ok I said I dismiss it but you can't can you) I'll give it 10%
KxQx 10%
KhQx (KxQh) 25%
KhXh 10%
7h8h (other made flush) 10%
KhJd (AsQh) 10%
KhKx 10%
JJ or 1010 10%
9h8x 2.5%
9h9c 2.5%

OK quick maths
10% of 0 = 0% wins
10% of 37.12 = 3.71% wins
25% of 33.83 = 8.46% wins
10% of 33.43 = 3.34% wins
10% of 33.48 = 3.35% wins
10% of (63.08 + 62.27)/2 = 6.27% wins
10% of 64.04 = 6.40% wins
10% of 92.62 = 9.26% wins
2.5% of 58.28 = 1.46% wins
2.5% of 70.40 = 1.76% wins
summing up 0 + 3.71 + 8.46 + 3.34 + 3.35 + 6.27 + 6.40 + 9.26 + 1.46 + 1.76 = 44.01% wins

You win 44% of the time based on my assumptions which conservatively put the allin bettor ahead 65% of the time when he moved allin. Personally I would put a higher weighting on the pair and draw hands, but I wanted to heavily weight the ahead hands to demonstrate that it's still a trivialy easy call here with the top set. Even if the bettor had KhQh 20% of the time and NEVER had JJJ or 101010 then you still win 35% of the time and it is now an almost EXACT mathematically correct call.

From The "Ain't That a Damn Shame" Files

Christiano Ronaldo crying after Portugal's defeat in the World Cup Semi Finals.

For the background, look below at my Ronaldo Rant after the Portugal-England Match.

Arrrgh! 5th for Isabelle.

It appears she went fairly card dead at a table of betting madmen. She lost a big pot on a bluff to Phil Helmuth then pushed with K3 and was called by 88. and didn't improve.

Oh well. $136,000 should be some consolation.

With 4 players left its Helmuth, Marcel Luske and 2 others. Time to switch cheering gears and start funking for Marcel.

Go On The "No Mercy"

Isabelle Mercier is 4th chipped at the final table of the WSOP $5,000 NLHE tournament. For those of you who don't know her (hard to believe as shes sponsored by PokerStars these days) she is a former Canadian Lawyer, former Cardroom supervisor of The Aviation Club de Paris, and now fulltime sponsored Poker Player.


I have met her a bunch of occasions and always found her to be (unlike most poker pros) quite down to earth and lacking of an oversized ego.

Good Luck Isabelle! Go get em!

Sugar Water Espionage.....

As if the world didn't have enough to wory about with North Korea Testing Long Range Missiles, and constant upheaval in Iraq, and Iran clammoring for an Independent Nuclear Power program,......Pepsi sent in spies to Coke.

If I didn' think it before, I do now. The new world disorder is upon us.

Spies Like Us



For a refreshing SugarHigh Check This Out:

SugarHigh (Click on the Videos Tab)

2000 Hands Of Poker, 89 Betfair Trades, 37 Backgammon Games, and 2 packs of Smokes Later

After all that maneuvering.......I amassed a healthy $450 profit.

Sweetness. A lot of effort for a rather mundane highly boring result.

Better than losing I suppose.

Ok Sleep then more grinding.

So it is Done!

France held out to seal a 1-0 victory over Portugal.
Not of course before some fine Portugeses dives and a few hairrising blunders by The French Keeper, Barthez.


France vs Italy fo Ze Final.

With The Italians playing by far the more consistent and better footbal throughout the tournament, I'd have to make them rather large favorites to hoist the World Cup.

Azurri Azzuri!

Le France...

Currently Backing the arse off Under 2.5 goals on the France-Portugal Match.

In the battle of he who dives wins, Henry got the first semi-dive in 1st and thus Ze French got a penalty which was swiftly dispatched by Zidane (Any of you England penalty takers watching how to deliver those things).

Looking more and more likely that Ze French shall be colliding with the Azurri. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO on Italy!

Hope Your Not Planning a Trip to Atlantic City This Week.

It would appear that The New Jersey State Legislature has not resolved a budget agreement yet. So the Guv'nor did the clearly logical thing. "Ah feck it! Let's shutdown the whole damn thing!" Jon Corzine wants to raise sales taxes (American VAT equivalent) but strangely enough those who answer to the voters are not too keen. So, Jon pulled a largescale version of the old playground "If I can't play, I'm taking my ball and NO ONE's gonna play!"

By shutting down goverment, the state casino monitors are not on duty ergo the casinos can't operate whilst the guv'ment is shutdown.

All you can say is "What a Country!"

CROUCHing Tiger

OH Dear! Some funny stuff. If you haven't exploded laughing at The Crouch Bit then have a look at the next Link for some Free Flowing Football

Crouch Attacks

Free Flowing Football

Busting the Poker Champion of The World

For those That Don't Recognize Him...
Bill Fillmaff


PokerStars Game #5439085876: Holdem No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/07/03 - 04:15:40 (ET)Table Herberta 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Ho403 ($136.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Bil_Fillmaff ($44.30 in chips)
Seat 3: madyank ($77.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Konditorei ($266.80 in chips)
Seat 5: BeatThePoker ($29 in chips)
Seat 6: A Warm Place ($131 in chips)
BeatThePoker: posts small blind $0.50
A Warm Place: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to madyank [Ah Ad]
Ho403: calls $1
Bil_Fillmaff: raises $5 to $6
madyank: raises $12 to $18
madyank said, "uh oh champ"
Konditorei: folds
BeatThePoker: folds
A Warm Place: folds
Ho403: folds
Bil_Fillmaff: raises $26.30 to $44.30 and is all-in
madyank said, "i have to call champ i got AA"
madyank: calls $26.30
*** FLOP *** [Jc Ac 9d]
*** TURN *** [Jc Ac 9d] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [Jc Ac 9d Qh] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bil_Fillmaff: shows [Qd Qs] (three of a kind, Queens)
madyank: shows [Ah Ad] (three of a kind, Aces)
madyank collected $88.10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $91.10
Rake $3
Board [Jc Ac 9d Qh Kc]
Seat 1: Ho403 folded before Flop
Seat 2: Bil_Fillmaff showed [Qd Qs] and lost with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 3: madyank showed [Ah Ad] and won ($88.10) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 4: Konditorei (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 5: BeatThePoker (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: A Warm Place (big blind) folded before Flop

Aussie Sarah Strikes Again!

Sarah Bilney, Has Cashed in two WSOP Events so Far.

I First met Sarah about 3 years ago in London at The VIC cardroom. We played many hours at the VIC 3-3 PLHE game and had many a discussion. She is another one of the nice guys (oops) nice goils of poker. Intelligent, charming, attractive, and as it turns out quite handy at da poker. It's good to see success for someone I know, like, and respect (The list of people who land on all 3 lists is short).


Check out her dashing website via the link to the right.

VIVA Las Vegas?

OK MadYank is going West!

Booked my flight for da WSOP. I'm heading out there on 11JUL and leaving a month later.

Looking at playing
Event 21: $2500 ShortHanded NLHE
Event 22: $2000 NLHE
Event 25: $2000 NLHE Shootout
Event 26: $1500 PLO
Event 27: $1500 NLHE

After that week we'll see where I'm at. Hopefully I won't actually be able to play ALL these events for the simple reason I make day 2 in at least one of them :)

If Ya see me out there, say "hello."

Rooney and Ronaldo Reconcile?

Well Rooney looks happy here :)

Thanks to DOM for finding this gem and sharing it on the Gutshot Forum

Gammon and Eggs Please...Hold the Eggs

There is a deep blue sea of fish swimming around PartyGammon.

I won $200 in 1.5hrs this morning without playing any stakes higher than $6/point. Unbelievable. Even with the grotesque rake (5% and bigger depending on the rating differences) this sea is a nice trawling area. I had 3 different opponents take a cube from behind a 6 prime. WHAT A COUNTRY! The limits are still pretty low (max of $25 on any game or match) but I imagine they will be rising fairly soon.

On the Poker Front, I ran multi table testing on the PokerStars beta version and found it to work just fine. Was jamming 8 tables at once and the tiling feature was lovely.

One problem I have detected is that the chat box flots up when you enlarge the tables. Not sure that will be tooo huge and issue in that I can find few resons to enlarge a table other than if its the final table of a significant tournament and you wish to focus on it.
OK! Back to swimming in the wide gammon sea.

PokeHIM!

Gratuitous Old Pic of Me with goils in London Back When I sported Long Hair

Whew! Just ended a painful session. Could not beat anyone with a stick.
Ran into Lord Miros on Stars and managed to run my QQJ9 dbl sooted into his raggy ole aces preflop and mis all and sundry. He scooped the $600 pot with 1 pair...IN OMAHA! BAH to that. Also got beat up about the head and shoulders in another PLO game AND a PLO Hi/Lo. Tag onto that losing a chiplead gaining pot with KK to A2off in the stars deepstack tournament late on and I officially switched off poker for the night/morning.


On the good news front. PartyGammon was ridiculously good to me. Won $200 at tiny stakes. I had a run of about 15 straight games wherein my opponent made so many mistakes he couldn't win or I got lucky when required. God bless the Gammon fishys.

Right after a day of Betfair goal trading, watching England lose on penalties again, getting my arse opened for me at poker and winning at BackGammon I must sleep the sleep of the just. (If just means mad gambooler across all fronts of course :)

ZE FRENCH ZE FRENCH!

France outplays Brazil? What a Country!

Thierry Henry's strike was enough to put ze French thru to meet Portugal.

On The Bright Side
Backed Under 2.5 goals again and even had a little touch on France (4-1 seemed a bit too much value to pass up). Yum Yum profit.

And then there was Poker
Been happily humming along on The Gutshot Site. Multitabling NLHE with 1 table of PLO may just be my ultimo combo. Yum Yum Profit.

Other Things Poker
New upgrade for Pstars is on the way. Yum Yum resizable tables.
www.pokerstars.com/poker/download/beta.html

2 problems I've noted so far are.
1)Poker Office and PokerTracker dont work on it yet.
2)When You make the tables larer than normal the chat box floats up into the playing area

Redefining The Nutz!

Rooney Tried to redefine Ricardo Carvhalo's Nutz but recieved only a red card for his fine effort

And so another England Football run comes to an end on the dreaded penalty shootout. The match was a bit mediocre and England actually looked better with 10 men (once Rooney was sent off for stomping some nads).

But Please!
Lampard
Gerrard
Carragher

ALL MISS their penalties?

They all seemed hardly interested and under some ridiculous self induced stress.

On a different note. Someone really should pack up Christiano Ronald's belongings and send them home from England. What a nasty diving whining pile of crap this guy has been. But of course, to his credit, he didnt miss his penalty.

Hmmmmmm. Let me start by saying that clearly I have less emotional tie-in to England's Football team ergo probably more objectivity. That said, England being my semi-adopted country I proudly support them.

That out of the way:
1) He threw himself to the pitch on at least two occasions at the barest of contact and rolled into a little ball wincing in faux pain. (one of the times it was amazing in that all in one move he splashed to the pitch, clutched his leg, winced in pain, looked towards the ref, saw no card coming for the England player and instantly sprung back up and returned to normal. All within 3 secs.)

2) He stuck his nose into a situation that clearly wasn't involving him. He is a 21yr talented KID. If anyone has some issure with an England player's play then it should be the Captain fronting up the ref not pretty boy.

3) After all this performance, when another Portugal player hit the pitch (after the faintest of contact with Crouchs arm/hand) in midfield with England clearly on the attack and the Portugese defense out of position, Ronaldo chased down Crouch to give him a face full of mouth for not kicking the ball into touch when the Portugese player took a dive.
All in All. England lost the match
NOT because of Rooney
NOT because of Ronaldo
NOT because of the REF
BUT BECAUSE SVEN is a negative Manager
BECAUSE Lampard can't hit a penalty
BECAUSE Gerrard can't hit a penalty
BECAUSE Carragher can't hit a penalty
BECAUSE Robinson can't stop a penalty

All the reasons for losing aside, that doesn't change the fact that Ronaldo acted throughout the match in the most unsporting TWATISH manner possible. And THAT is why I think he is a TWAT.

On The Bright Side
I backed the ass off Under 2.5 goals on Betfair so with 0-0 the final I was in some quite tasty profit. Heres looking forward to a low scoring Brazil France match.

ALSO! SVEN IS GONE SVEN IS GONE SVEN IS GONE!

Engerland Engerland.......

Last week it was superhero inspiration, this week birds with belly flags. Will It work? We shall see.Just Fired up the match with Portugal. Go on youse crazy Engerlanders........

A Bit of Argy Bargy...

It would seem that The Argentinian Football team did not take kindly to losing to their German Hosts. After losing on a penalty hootout, a few of them went mental and started kicking and brawling with Ze Germans.

After playing some of the best football seen this world cup (cue 6-0 anhilation of Serbia & Montenegro) they just played crap in the 2nd half against Germany. Even though they took the lead in the 48th minute it always looked as if Ze Germans would at least equalize. With 20mins left in regulation play Germany was raining in shots on goal and The Argies were looking gassed/winded/not quite so good. The manager didn't help matters by pulling off the heart of the midfield (Riquelme) and there best striker (Crespo).

And so Germany will face Italy who had a rather breezy walk over The Ukraine.

I'm starting to smell a 94 Cup final rematch brewing (Italy vs. Brazil). Who will be The Baggio this year?