Big_Ham's blog

I was convinced I would win. I knew I had to play well in order to win, but I had convinced myself not only that it was possible, but that I would. I have made calls like this before and been right ... but this time it was not meant to be.

It was WSOP Event #2 at the West Palm Beach Kennel Club's Circuit series. There were about 450 entrants with the top 10% of the field to make the money. I have played in a WSOP event before, but on a much larger scale back in 2007 ... it was a $1500 event with thousands of players. I went out before the first break in that one ... I would prove to fare better in this tournament.

We started out with T12,000 and the tournament structure was fantastic, leaving lots of room for play. First prize was more than $40k, which is more than enough money to justify taking 18-24 hours of your life to sit at a poker table.

Poker in Tampa? Really? Could it even be worth talking about? Thanks to recent Main Event runner up, John Racener, Tampa is more official than ever when it comes to poker.

Many years ago this was definitely not the case. All you could find were 1/2 limit games and $65 tournaments. It was passable as "entertainment", but not really anything you thought you could make money at.

Then came the intermediate period where they allowed NL games at Tampa horse and dog tracks and also the Hard Rock, the only rub was the $100MAX. That's right folks ... lose all the money you want, but you have to do it $100 at a time. There were routinely games at the Hard Rock that were 5/10 where I guess people would just push over and over again to flood the table with money. Sounds awful to me.

I don't get to play live much anymore after adjusting to life with twins. I wish I did and I know some day, some time, I will be able to make a weekly game. My wife is/was excellent about it, but with twins as infants? When you're actually witness to it, you realize that it's not fair to leave the other person alone for any extended period of time. What does this have to do with poker? Well unfortunately heading out to north Tampa for a poker game has been replaced with online poker.

I play on Full Tilt and I have to say that I really do see more frequent bad beats than I ever did live. I have no real measurements. I know that I see a TON more hands online than live. However, the sheer amount isn't even enough to qualify it. It's the severity level that makes them unique. I'm talking from runner runner two outers to the infamous 3 outer on the turn and sometimes the 6 outer on the river. They beat your set, knock your pocket pair down to nothing and leave you broke and penniless along the way.

Of course, we all know that we WANT these morons calling us, but at the same time, miracle cards come so frequently that it's staggering and surprising.

Sure, it's not rigged against ME, per se - but I am a believer in the theory that there are simply more action hands dealt from the deck. They are still random hands being shuffled randomly - you just need to watch your step even more than you ever might have to in a live poker room.

Good luck at the tables ... join us on Wednesdays for our AJOPC (Angry Jacks Online Poker Challenge) on Full Tilt.

Player of the Year at WSOP Picked -

The Player of the Year at the World Series of Poker for 2008 is 3rd place finisher in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event Erick Lindgren. Lindgren has been known as one of the best poker players in the world to have never won a bracelt at the World Series of Poker, but he changed that this year with a victory and five cashes, including coming very close to winning the famous H.O.R.S.E...

State Deal With Tribe To Gamble Goes Bust - Tampa Tribune -

State Deal With Tribe To Gamble Goes Bust
Tampa Tribune, FL - 37 minutes ago
Previously, tribal poker rooms only allowed players to face one another. In return, the state would receive a cut of the revenue. That money was in the form ...

[Tampa Poker News]

We've scheduled another go at the Angry Jacks Online Poker Challenge on Full Tilt. Doogie was nice enough to schedule another round of tournaments for $10+$1 a piece to allow more people to get in.

Here is the tournament schedule:

(locate your tournament by clicking on Requests, then Find Tournament by ID)
21:00ET
Tournament #53444096 (07/02/08)
Tournament #53444132 (07/09/08)
Tournament #53444163 (07/15/08)

For a couple of weeks now, the Tampa Greyhound Track's poker room, Lucky's Card Room, has been offering a few no-juice tournaments that players love since 100% of their buy-in goes to the prize pool.  Now they are adding to that with a no-juice bounty multi table tournament on Sundays at 3pm for $80 ($15 goes to bounty).

For the second year in a row, Angry Jacks sent people from our Tampa Poker group to the WSOP as a profit sharing opportunity.  Scott and Burt both won $3000 seats into an event.  They both participated in event #31 and while both tried valiantly, they did not cash in the event.  Last year we had 2 people cash in a $1500 event and I'm sure that in future years we will have someone do more than just cash with the high level of talent in our group.
Congrats to Scott and Burt for winning seats and trying to bring home the gold!