Duke vs. Obrestad - Favourite Poker Pro

Here is the final Round 1 matchup in our Favourite Female Poker Pro tournament bracket.

The second round will feature Jennifer Harman who won the "Married to a Pro" bracket going up against Kara Scott who won the "Canadian" bracket.

On the other side of the tournament, Liv Boeree KO'd Lacey Jones in the "Model Behaviour" bracket and will face up against the winner of the next poll, the "Fighting Annies" bracket.

Before I get into the current match up, here is the results from the last poll.

WHICH OF THE BELOW IS YOUR FAVOURITE FEMALE POKER PLAYER? THIS POLL IS ONE OF THE ROUND 1 MATCH UPS IN THE "FAVOURITE FEMALE PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT BRACKET".

(I think her photo spread just might have tilted the poll in her favour.)

Here is the who's who of the "Fighting Annies" bracket that matches up Annie Duke and Annette Obrestad.

Annie Duke

Annie Duke is an accomplished pro who got her start in the early 1990's with the coaching and finance of her brother, poker pro Howard Lederer.  As of 2010 her live tournament winnings were over $4 270 000.  She has cashed in 38 WSOP events.  2004 was the year that she won a WSOP bracelet in Omaha High-Lo 8 or Better.  That year she also won $2 000 000 in the very first WSOP Tournament of Champions that was a 10 player winner take all event, stacked with great poker pros.  The 2004 WSOP was also memorable for her as she knocked out Howard Lederer from 4 different events.  She has also won the 2010 NBC National Heads Up Poker Tournament.  [Annie is more than a poker player though, she has been involved in all areas of the game.  She is a coach (on The Best Damn Poker Show and for Ben Affleck when he won the 2004 California State Poker Championship.)  She is an author (She has an autobiography called How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker and she has a new book out called Decide to Play Great Poker.)  She is a teacher (WSOP Poker Academy).  She is a reality TV star (Deal or No Deal, Celebrity Apprentice where she placed 2nd to the hideous Joan Rivers and 1 vs 100 where she answered a record 35 consecutive questions right until she was eliminated in a last man standing match where she was eliminated at the same time as Ken Jennings in the final 5.)  She is a spokesperson for poker players and is active in fighting for players rights.  She has been a spokesperson and a consultant for Ultimate Bet although these days her time is spent as the commissioner of the new Epic Poker League.  Quite the resume.

Annette Obrestad

Annette was 15 when she started playing poker on-line.  She is 22 now and somewhat of a phenom within the poker community.  She has numerous online tournaments including an impressive win in a $4, 180 person sit and go online without looking at her cards, just to prove that position and paying attention to players is so important to be successful.  Another impressive feat was when she took down a 20 000 player field in an $11 tournament on Poker Stars.  In live poker, 1 day before she turned 19, she won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event with a top prize of $2.01 million USD, to top Annie Duke's record win by a female poker player by .01 million.  Right now her lifetime winnings stand at $4 374 464.  The world was shocked when a 15 year old Norwegian came out of nowhere to humble the male dominated game, but now the world can't get enough of what Annette_15 will do next.


Now that you know the contestants, please go to the poll on the right and vote for your favourite!

Boeree vs. Jones - Favourite Female Poker Pro

Here is the latest installment of our Favourite Female Poker Pro tournament bracket.

First was the "Married to a pro" bracket where Jennifer Harman crushed Vanessa Rousso.

Here are the results in the "Canadian" bracket had Isabelle Mercier up against Kara Scott.

WHICH OF THE BELOW IS YOUR FAVOURITE FEMALE POKER PLAYER? THIS POLL IS ONE OF THE ROUND 1 MATCH UPS IN THE "FAVOURITE FEMALE PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT BRACKET".

In the latest match up, Mercier's low cut assets were not able to be used against Scott, but they did attract Italian pro, Dario Minieri.  Mercier concedes the contest as she wanders off to a corner of the room with Dario.  Kara Scott with a twinkle in her eye takes the win and advances to the 2nd round.

The next bracket is the "Model Behaviour" bracket and I encourage you to read on before you go and vote for your favourite.

Liv Boeree

Liv Boeree is an astrophysics studying, heavy metal loving, guitar playing model that crushes at the poker table.  I don't care where she has to hide her cards.  She entered poker through the UK reality series Ultimatepoker.com Showdown.  From there she was flooded with offers from the poker community as TV presenter, a journalist and, well, eye candy.  Somewhere along the way she has managed to win over $2 000 000 at the tables - WOW.

Lacey Jones

Lacey Jones got her start in the poker world through a modelling gig.  She was hired as a prop player to play in a tournament and did so well that was picked up by Absolute poker who had her fine tuning her game with Mark Seif.  In the poker community she is known not just as one of the hottest girls on the circuit, but also for her intellect (who else reads books on quantum physics in their spare time?)  Her winnings in poker pale in comparison to the money she makes from the poker community by astutely promoting herself.  Life is good for Lacey Jones!

Now that you've read about BOEREE and JONES (you did read beyond the pictures, right?), so to the side of the blog and vote for your favourite in the poll.

Mercier vs. Scott - Favourite Female Poker Pro

First of all, I'll start with the results of the Jennifer Harman vs. Vanessa Rousso match up...

WHICH OF THE BELOW IS YOUR FAVOURITE FEMALE POKER PLAYER? THIS POLL IS ONE OF THE ROUND 1 MATCH UPS IN THE "FAVOURITE FEMALE PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT BRACKET".

It was like Harman had AK and Rousso called off her stack with AQ -  a pretty convincing win by Harman who will move on to the next round and face the winner of this next match up...

Isabelle Mercier

Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier is a Canadian poker pro who moved to Paris to earn her master's degree  in commercial law.  During this time she became the poker room manager at the famous Aviation Club and then eventually turned pro.  She had some early success with her first win coming in 2004 at the WPT ladies night where she finished first.  She has had other high finishes in big tournaments and as of 2010, she had over 1.15 million in live tournament winnings.  In 2009 she won the Ante Up For Africa tournament outlasting a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, Tony G, John Duthie, soccer star Teddy Sheringham and Dario Minieri who she was photographed sucking face with in 2008.

Kara Scott

Kara Scott is a Canadian girl who got her start in poker as part of her move to the United Kingdom.  She was hired as a post for the World Series of Backgammon which lead into a series of poker gigs.  Scott immersed herself in the poker world and has regularly written about poker for a number of magazines.  Her latest hosting gig is working with Gabe Kaplan on High Stakes Poker for season 6 on GSN.  As far as success at the tables, she has booked a second place finish at the 2009 Irish Open as well as being on the second woman to finish in the money in consecutive years at the WSOP Main Event.  She is over halfway to $1 million in her short poker career and many people expect she could be a force in the future.


Now that you know a bit about MERCIER and SCOTT, go to the side of the blog and vote for your favourite in the poll.

Poll Results

Well, you Dippers didn't want to dedicate any of our precious home game time to feeder tournaments for the Manitoba Lotteries Poker Open.  There were not a lot of votes, and I think a lot of people are going to wait until a little closer to October to see if they can make any of the tournaments.

WOULD YOU PLAY IF WE HELD SATELLITES FOR THE MANITOBA LOTTERIES POKER CHAMPIONSHIP IN OCTOBER?

October 27 - 30, 2011

For more information on the Manitoba Lotteries Poker Championship, follow this link.

There is another poll posted, go vote on your favourite female poker player in the new tournament bracket poll.

Favourite Female Poker Professional Tournament Bracket

I now running a poll to see which of the above 8 female poker pros are your favourite.  There are many reasons someone might be a fan of any of these players, so I will leave the voting criteria up to you.  Simply, who do you like the best?

The polls will run consecutively and I will do a post giving you information on each of the match ups.

Poll Results

The latest poll is closed and in no uncertain terms, we find out that Nat X and Dandy Bloch and their back and forth needling is not what you want to see as part of our head's up tournament match ups.  This is likely because there are 3 other really good match ups that others want to see, for a variety of reasons.

Big Stack and I have had some epic battles with some really interesting hands.  There would be some history and a never say die attitude in this one.

Lemon and Sheldonkey - It would not last long, and J high would probably win it all.  Both players would think the other one is terrible and backhandedly let him know it.

Kailey and Ryan would be a great match up because there is always an added element when you are riding home in the same truck and sleeping in the same bed as the the person that just walloped you.  Both play well and Vegas has the line at even money.

THIS YEAR WE WILL HAVE A HEAD'S UP TOURNAMENT AS PART OF THE WSOD. WHICH MATCH UP WOULD YOU FIND MOST ENTERTAINING?

Lemon v Sheldonkey

A new poll is up - go vote now!

Poll Results

It doesn't look like we are adding a message board at this time.  I do appreciate Brain Kramp bolstering the stats by voting twice, but I don't think we have enough interest to sustain a message board right now.

I have added a new poll that looks forward to this year's WSOD Head's Up (date yet undetermined) event and which player match ups might be entertaining to see.  Check it out and vote!

IF I ADDED A MESSAGE BOARD, HOW OFTEN WOULD YOU USE IT?

Poll Results - Ivey Skipping the WSOP?

Phil Ivey didn't realize that the Humphrey's were supporting him and not just the lead of an unruly mob, so go he went.

Well people seemed to like Phil Ivey's moral stand vs Tiltware and think nothing will change in that situation to make him unbar himself from this year's WSOP.  I hope they are wrong, but I suspect they are right.

WILL PHIL IVEY END UP PLAYING ANY OF THE 2011 WSOP?

The next poll has a direct effect on this blog, so please go and vote.  This is information I need to serve you better...

A message board would contain threads about all sorts of topics about our game and the poker world at large.  It is very useful in adding information to a subject like poker's black friday or any subject that is more of an on-going discussion.  As a user, you would be able to post links and way more information than you can in the comments box.  It should also be easier to maintain a thread's discussion than simply using our comment boxes because now if a comment goes unanswered, within a few days it gets lost in the archives.

Poll Results - Have You Seen Rounders?

In a totally unsurprisingly unanimous result - Rounders was the poker movie that every one who voted would recommend you see.  This reminds me of being in Vegas and having everyone of us at all of our tables ask every new players "Have you ever seen Rounders?"  The more players that came and left, the funnier it got to those players at the table that had heard it asked all night long!

If you haven't seen it - do it now; before the fabled Rounders 2 actually gets made.

WHAT POKER MOVIES WOULD YOU RECOMMEND? (CHOOSE AS MANY AS YOU'D LIKE)

Poll Results - I Want a Re-Count!

For the first time ever, we have a poll with unanimous results.  What could be so polarizing?

Well we asked who you thought was the biggest lucksack at our game.  Being a results oriented group,


 Someone Has Everyone Leaving Down On the Night and that is...

Sheldonkey

WHO IS THE BIGGEST LUCKSACK AT OUR HOME GAME?

Sheldon, I think that you should take this poll as an indication that what players thought they were voting for was "What player was luckiest enough to be born with a superior poker intellect".

I am very surprised that Brain Kramp didn't use one of his multiple computers to vote for 7 Nation Army at least once.

In a related subject, here is a picture I took at our home game shortly after you left with a big haul last time Sheldon...

It's been said that you if you are given lemons, you should make lemonade.  That being true, if given sour grapes, you should make whine.  (Check it off the bucket list boys...)

A new poll is up and running - check it out and vote like you mean it!

Poll Results

The following poll had some really interesting pairings, any of which in reality could take down the title if such a tournament was played.  I think a couple of the groupings included people that don't often win, but usually place pretty well, a prime example being Kailey and Co who both have continually made the money lately.

Look to the side bar for the next poll - This one will determine once and for all who is biggest lucksack at our home game.

VOTE FOR THE PAIR OF PLAYERS THAT WOULD HAVE THE BEST COMBINED FINISH IN A PASS THE DIP TOURNAMENT. (PLEASE PICK 3 PAIRINGS.)

Poll Results

It seems as though our regular voters didn't want to give props to the players that always have their number.  I get it though - when a player that you think is inferior to you has your number, you don't really want to give them the nod in a poll when you feel they keep sucking out on you!

A new poll that pairs our home game players in a fantasy tournament is now up and running.  I would like you to vote for your top 3 pairings.  Happy voting!

WHICH PLAYER(S) IN OUR HOME GAME ALWAYS SEEMS TO HAVE YOUR NUMBER? (MULTIPLE SELECTIONS ALLOWED).

Poll Results

WHICH POKER PRO WOULD YOU RATHER PUNCH IN THE FACE? (MULTIPLE SELECTIONS ALLOWED)

Well he's certainly not lacking confidence now is he...

I wonder if the G stands for "glass jaw".

Now everybody look to the right and see the next poll (multiple selections allowed).

Poll Results

WHICH HAND WOULD YOU RATHER GET DEALT?

 

Win : 18.75% 

Tie : 0.20%

 

Win : 26.92% 

Tie : 0.20%

 

Win : 24.52% 

Tie : 0.20%

 

Win : 29.61% 

Tie : 0.20%

I used the odds calculator from cardplayer.com (See the link in my previous post here) to figure out the winners if these 4 hands played a 4 way pot.  

A8 is the boss hand - put your hoof up if you were one of the donks that picked the pocket twos....


For all you frustrated players out there - it's stress relief time!  This next poll takes more than verbal jabs...GO VOTE NOW!

Poll Results

WHICH OF THE LAST 3 WSOP MAIN EVENT WINNERS DO YOU RESPECT THE MOST?

I recently listened to a Poker Road podcast where Duhamel was interviewed and I was impressed with him.  He is humble, grateful and gosh darn it, he's Canadian.

Poll Results

WHICH PLAYERS ARE THE HARDEST TO READ?

I was at Kramp's office the other day, and  I asked him how many computers he had access to.  He said "Oh lots, like 7 or so."  It was then that he came clean and admitted he voted 4 times for himself.

I don't hold this against him, because I don't think he can read himself very well - he thinks he is a decent poker player and that is a definite mis-read.  I also believe he voted for himself 5 times, but mis-remembered much like when he tries to re-tell a hand.

You know I'll never let a guy do adjustments to my bones if he can't even make adjustments to his poker game.

There is one poll running and another will be up soon!  Go vote.

Poll Results

WHICH DUO WILL WIN THE MOST BRACELETS AT THIS YEAR'S WSOP?

I think the real results from the 2011 WSOP will be a real toss up.

Seidel is winning everything this year and Bloch always does well at the WSOP.

Hellmuth is an awesome tournament player and Brunson plays fewer tournaments than he used to but still shows well, having won 10 bracelets with the last coming in 2005.

Ivey and Dwan will have some sick side bets and both will play everything.  Dwan is unproven at taking down tournaments but Ivey is great and plays well in the more obscure games with smaller fields.

Negraneau is 3rd all time in tournament winnings and won the WSOP player of the year in 2004.  Greenstein has also shown he can take down bracelets regularly.

I think we should have some type of pool for the WSOP this year.  I'll keep you posted if I come up with something.

There are 2 polls always running.  One is always about our home game and the other is always about the poker community at large.  Go Vote now!

WSOD to Include a Head's Up Tournament This Year

Ironically with the NBC Heads Up Championship just wrapping up, our poll to decide which game we would add to the World Series of Dip this year wrapped up as well.  You guessed it, the Heads Up tournament won.  This will not be the next bracelet event, but it is coming so set a mirror up on your desk and deal yourself some practice hands...

WHICH GAME WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN THE 2011 WORLD SERIES OF DIP?

Kirby, Kailey - I know, I know you want Pineapple and nothing else will do.  It is being taken under advisement...

(For anyone wondering if I've stumbled across some new form of heads up poker that involves mold, the answer is "no", I simply made a bit of an editing error when posting the poll.  Rest assured the heads up tournament will be just the way you imagined.)

As always a new poll regarding our home game has been started.  Go vote, and choose as many players as you'd like!

Poll Results

Here are the results of the latest poll to close.

There is currently one poll running that affects our home game.  It requests you to weigh in on which tournament you want as part of the WSOD this year.  The winning game will be played as a 2011 bracelet event.  Go vote now!

A new poll is running now, it should be a close one.

WOULD YOU RATHER...

Daniel Negreanu at the World Series of Golf 2009

I kind of liked this poll!

Player Nickname Poll Results

WHICH PLAYER NICKNAMES ARE YOUR FAVOURITES? (CHOOSE AS MANY AS YOU'D LIKE)

It was a tight race but The Crantini Kid's last minute handshake / kissing babies shameless self-promotion did the trick as he held off a surging Gepeddo Harvey and the ever-popular Dandy Bloch and the well named Brain Kramp.

A new poll is up and waiting for your vote!  There is also a "Would you rather poll" already running.