Borgata Summer Poker Open Quickie: 6/16/08

Friendly Faces

Coming back East means running into a host of people that make my job much more bearable. I don’t know what it is about the Borgata’s tournaments that attract some real characters, but I have come to love seeing them. Guys like Joey “JOEYTHEB” Brooks, Lou Rousso, and Matt “Allinat420” Stout are always helping my tournament team with information on players, hands, and beats. This is invaluable considering we only have two to three guys on the Borgata reporting team and we often have to cover monstrous fields.

 

In addition, I can’t say enough about the Borgata poker staff. I’ve seen tournaments run in just about every casino in Las Vegas and I think Borgata’s crew easily rivals the best in Sin City. They really treat their players well and they treat my team with respect. Working with them is undoubtedly one of the best gigs in poker. As veteran tournament reporter Steve Horton so aptly put it, “The Borgata actually wants us here. Most places are so hostile to the media.”

 

The East Still Loves Poker

Despite the majority of the game’s professional players being in Las Vegas, there is still a strong contingency of poker players on the East Coast that love their action. The Borgata continues to see decent numbers in its Summer Poker Open tournament series and their poker room is constantly filled with cash games players. Early predictions also suggest that the Summer Poker Open’s $5,000 could be one of the East Coast’s hottest tournaments in years. 

 

Sometimes Playing Your Best Poker Means Checking Your Ego at the Door

Boston’s Paul McCaffrey keeps giving me free lessons about checking my ego when I’m at the poker table. I have watched him make several sick lay-downs which would have guaranteed that a player like me would hit the rail. Sure, I’ve made big lay-downs in the past, but McCaffrey did it a number of times in one day during Event #6 ($1,000 No Limit Hold’em) and he managed to dance his way through a field of poker landmines to the top of the chip counts.

 

Arguably one of the most articulate poker players I have come into contact with since I started working in the industry three years ago, McCaffrey clued me in to his reasoning behind several of the plays and I was amazed at how he was able to get away from monster hands when he felt he was beat. “You can’t win if you don’t know how to fold,” McCaffrey said a couple of Poker Opens back. The more I watch him play, the more I understand his logic.

   

 

 

Tom Cruise Vs. Dr. Drew

Image details: 17th Annual MTV Movie Awards – Show served by picapp.com

Actor Tom Cruise and television doctor and Celebrity Rehab host Dr. Drew Pinsky are currently battling it out over some comments Dr. Drew made in a recent Playboy article.

 

“A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology? To me, that’s a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood – maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect,’ said Dr. Drew.

 

 Needless to say, Cruise and his lawyer went ape-shit after learning about the comments. “This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for some notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without meeting them,” said Cruise’s attorney Bert Fields. Ironically, Dr. Drew is a board-certified internist and is an addiction specialist. Fields even compared Dr. Drew to Joesph Goebbels, a notorious Nazi war criminal.

 

Dr. Drew’s rep. almost immediately put out a response to try and quell the bad feelings. “Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful. Although Mr. Fields’ intent is clearly to slander and discredit Dr. Drew, under no circumstances is Dr. Drew making a blanket diagnosis about Scientology nor Mr. Cruise whom he does not know. Dr. Drew was simply using Mr. Cruise as an example of someone who is recognizable to help the public understand. Again, Dr. Drew meant him no harm.”

 

I don’t know why people even bother to make comments about Tom Cruise and his psychological state. It almost guarantees a legal response.

Signs Point to Phish Reunion

There is mounting evidence that jam band super-group Phish may be finally putting the band back together after a long hiatus/semi-retirement. According to a recent PopMatters.com article Phish lyricist Tom Marshall believes there is a good chance that Phish leader Trey Anastasio is finally ready to rejoin fellow members Jon Fishman, Page McConnell, and Mike Gordon.

 

“I think Phish is his (Trey’s) baby. It’s not  like there are people preventing it from coming back, it’s just that the landscape has to be right for it to come back,” said Marshall.

 

Marshall even went as far as to say, “Trey wants Phish to come back.”

 

Anastasio himself has hinted at a reunion of what may be the last big touring group. “When Phish broke up, I made some comments about how I’m not gonna go around playing ‘You Enjoy Myself’ for the rest of my life. And it is so funny because Fish and Mike and Page have been talking to each other a lot lately and now – it’s not that I can’t believe that I said that, but it’s symbolic of how much I lost my mind or how much I lost my bearings or something. Because at this point in time, I would give my left nut to play that song five times in a row every day until I die,” said Anastasio in a recent Rolling Stone article.

 

I really hope Phish comes back and starts touring again. I would definitely hit-up some shows. As for reliving the life I had when I spent several summers following the group, I doubt things will ever be able to truly go back to the way things were. I’m not the same guy and they’re not the same band. I hope Phish finds its sound again. Towards the end, it sounded like Trey was “pissing in my ear.” I am praying that the guys find the groove they lost when the 90s came to a close.

World Series of Poker Quickie: 6/16/08

Image details: NBC’s 4th National Heads-Up Poker Championship served by picapp.com

Negreanu Shoots and He Scores

Arguably one of the game’s best tournament players, Daniel Negreanu has once again proven that he belongs near the top of the game’s pecking order. By winning his fourth World Series of Poker bracelet, Negreanu managed to quell the doubt of many nonbelievers who have cited his long victory dry spell as proof that “Kid Poker” had lost his touch.

Negreanu’s bracelet win couldn’t have come at a better time either. Having just launched his Poker VT website, his victory should go a long way in helping his new venture succeed. Who doesn’t want to take lessons from a recent four-time WSOP bracelet winner?

DeucesCracked Posse Leave a Big Impression

I have previously written how much respect I have for Vanessa Selbst game, so it should come as no surprise that I would end up writing a post about her crew. As stated in a Pokernews.com post, the group’s website is DeucesCracked.com, a place where poker players can work on improving their game with Selbst’s and the site’s team of poker coaches.

 

Although they may not be well-known yet, and I stress yet, the group has some serious talent between them. Five of the six coaches made it to the Round of 16 in the WSOP $10,000 Heads Up No Limit World Championship and the only reason the sixth player didn’t make it was because Selbst had to eliminate him to move on to the next round. Make sure to keep an eye out for DeucesCracked members Jason Rosenkrantz, Brian Roberts, Emil Patel, Jonas Mentin, and John Snipes.

 

Eric Brooks is the Man

I don’t know how I just found out about this but according to the Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia businessman Eric Brooks is going to donate the money he won after coming in first in the $10,000 WSOP Seven-Card Stud World Championship. Brooks will give the $416,000 he won to an educational charity that helps students develop decision-making skills.

 

This guy just earned a hell of a lot of respect in my book. I’m firmly believe in giving back to the community and helping kids is where it is at. The fact that this guy is willing to give up this money to help others is a shining example that people still do care. We need all of the Eric Brooks in the world that we can get.

Hello From Atlantic City

Atlantic City Sunset

Greetings and salutations party people. Welcome back for another week of wandering through my headspace. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the site. I hit a record high of 45 readers last week. That may not seem like a lot, but it feels good to know people are reading the material I am producing. I am very grateful to my readers. I know they could spend their valuable time elsewhere. I’ll do my best to keep raising the bar with my stories.

This week I’m introducing a special section called the Borgata Quickie. I will use it to cover stories that I see unfolding during my time working at the Borgata Summer Poker Open.