A Dandy Impostor and the Return of the Gym Teacher - August 17, 2011 Results and Pictures

This week the players showed up early and stayed late.  There were lots of really interesting hands and it seemed like everyone had a really distinct and different style of play.  Two jackpots were won and the table was full all night.  It was a fun night, here are the highlights;

Brain Kramp, still reeling from his losses last session, showed up in a vest, "To channel the play of Dandy Bloch"  Unfortunately the vest must be a few years old, because he channeled the 2008 Dandy Bloch, not the game-crushing 2011 Dandy Bloch.  As X would say "That's a Bogey."

Speaking of Nat X, he played surgical like a Doctor, but unlike our house voodoo Dr., Dr. Kramp  - he had lots of patience.

Big Stack Bob was the night's big winner and dazzled with his play and his gym teacher pose.  He really played solid and justified his nickname.

 Following the game, Ali-G booked a consultation with a plastic surgeon for her bad hands.

The Co-Bra played strong, he played silent and he had a plate-full of chips.  He played like that kid from the McCain's commercial.

Army felt the heat and his stack went commando.

T-Money Mart didn't take great care of her little clay children.  CFS removed the chips from her care for being so aggressive and pushy with them.  Eventually with some good behaviour, she was able to earn some visitation rights with a few of them by the end of the game.

Cheeseburger played like rock star.  He came, he collected his appearance fee and he jetted.

OK - So that rock star is Cheeseburger's cousin, Whitney Houston, so it's really not that impressive, but a win is a win...

Harvey came late and was a little short (on his luck).

Lastly, I don't want to admit to money laundering, but I did make a Tidy profit.

The bonus was won twice last game, bringing the total times the jackpot has been won to 7.  No player has won the jackpot twice.  You can check out the 2 players that have been added to the jackpot club as well as the winning hands and jackpot amounts, by clicking here.

Here is more photo evidence of the good time had by most;

The last comment goes to our white board.  We tracked Kramp's losses throughout the night and even had a pie chart of who had the chips he lost.  By the end of the night we needed a longer white board...

Keep posted for another game coming soon.  The Crantini Kid is coming to town and that is as good a reason as any to get a game going.  

More and More and More Poker Shirts

Here we go!  The latest version of the Pass The Dip poker shirt gallery.  Obviously I will have to explain the first shirt to Kramp. Speaking of Kramp, if the second shirt was true, he would own a Chinese restaurant and be very very rich.  Thanks to Lemon for lending me his shirt 36.  Army could flash shirt 33 to Brain Kramp, in fact, he could wear a new one every day this year.  I fully expect T-Mart to utter shirt 35 to Lemon at least once at the game tomorrow.  I did hear that Ali-G and Kailey "V-Dub" Stoezey chipped in and bought a dozen shirt 34s for all the suckers they knock out next tournament.  I will wear mine proudly!

I'll let you write your own jokes for the rest of these beauties...

If you enjoy these, check out the previous 7 posts by clicking here.

  Shirt 31

  Shirt 32

Shirt 33

Shirt 34

  Shirt 35

  Shirt 36

  Shirt 37

Shirt 38

  Shirt 39

  Shirt 40

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.

Epic Poker - Inaugural Tournament Series

The very first Epic Poker tournament series has just come to completion at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.  (For those that hadn't heard, this is the league created by a group called Federated Sports and Gaming League which includes Annie Duke and Jeffery Pollack amongst others).

There were 3 tournaments that ran from August 5th to the 12th.

PRO/AM EVENT


Buy-in - $1 500
Entries - 190
Prize Pool - $259 350


The top 9 players gained a $20 000 seat into the Main Event.  Andy Bloch was the only player in the top 9 that already has a card to play in the Main Event, so 8 players that had been blocked from the big one, got their chance to prove themselves against the world's best.  Here is how this event played out;

 1st:     Steve O'Dwyer        $43,810 
 2nd:    Brandon Meyers      $31,900
 3rd:     Andy Bloch             $27,540 
 4th:     Cliff Waite               $25,160 
 5th:     Jeremiah DeGreef    $23,570 
 6th:     Micah Raskin           $22,780 
 7th:     Dan Fleyshman         $21,990 
 8th:     George Long            $21,190 
 9th:     Sean Getzwiller        $20,000 
10th:    Brian Rast                $3,170 
11th:    Michael Chow         $3,170 
12th:    Vanessa Selbst        $3,170 
13th:    Evan Karcie            $2,380 
14th:    Aniko Lendvai         $2,380 
15th:    Jordan Jayne           $2,380 
16th:    Chris Klodnicki       $1,590 
17th:    Mike Matusow        $1,590 
18th:    Eli Elezra                 $1,590 


CHARITY EVENT

Buy-in - $240 with $100 rebuys and a $100 add on

Entries - 91

Prize Pool - $53 800 - all of which went to Operation USA

The first ever Epic Poker Charity event was hosted by Brad Garrett and Jeremiah Smith.  The charity of choice for this tournament was Operation USA which will benefit the victims of the tornadoes that devastated Joplin Missouri.  The tournament was quite a fun event with players joking with one another as well as with the rail.  The final table had Gavin Griffin raving about how this was one of the toughest tables he has ever played at.  Besides Griffin, the final table featured Dwyte Pilgrim, Justin Young, Mike McDonald and the winner, Andy Frankenberger.

Frankenberger donated his 80% of his first place money to Operation USA and the remaining money to the dealers.

Video - Epic Poker Charity Tournament Highlights

MAIN EVENT

Buy-in - $20 000 

Entries - 137

Prize Pool - $3 140 000 (includes $400 000 added by Federated Sports and Gaming)

This was run as a 6-Max No Limit Hold'Em event and was only open to Epic Poker League card carrying members as well as the top 9 finishers from the Pro/Am.  The tournament structure was developed by Matt Savage, so you know it was a good one.

The final table of this event featured a ridiculous amount of talent as you would expect with the design of  this league.  Hasan Habib, Jason Mercier and Chino Rheem started at the top end of the chip counts while Gavin Smith, Erik Seidel were lower in the counts with Huck Seed entering as the chip stack.  

Seed made up some ground before being knocked out in 6th.  Mercier then knocked out Smith when Smith's nines failed to improve against Mercier's queens.  Habib was the next to go when his sixes were barely overpaired by Rheem's sevens.  Seidel sent Mercier to the rail in 3rd when he won a big coin flip and then finished him off when Mercier shoved with 89 off suit.  

Heads up had Rheem winning pot after pot and had him and Seidel showing each other cards and having a great time talking back and forth.  In the end Seidel had AQ and Rheem had AK and the win.

Rheem didn't show much joy in his win which might be explained by the rumours that he owes a number of pros money, some of whom were sweating his final table play, waiting to collect.  Rheem was escorted to the cage following the presentation of the championship ring by League Commissioner Annie Duke.

Here is the ITM list for the Main Event;

1st: Chino Rheem - $1,000,000
2nd: Erik Seidel - $604,330
3rd: Jason Mercier - $360,970
4th: Hasan Habib - $237,560
5th: Gavin Smith - $154,260
6th: Huck Seed - $107,980

7th: Adam Levy - $70,960

8th: Eugene Katchalov - $70,960

9th: Brandon Meyers - $70,960

10th: Isaac Baron - $49,360

11th: Sam Trickett - $49,360

12th: Ted Lawson - $49,360

13th: Noah Schwartz - $43,190

14th: Matthew Glanz - $43,190

15th: Dan Fleyshman - $43,190

16th: Hafiz Khan - $43,190

17th: Hoyt Corkins - $43,190

18th: Justin Bonomo - $43,190

epicpoker.com

Upcoming Games - Wednesday, August 17th

Our next game will be Wednesday, August 17th in the fishbowl, as my basement has been newly minted.

This will be a cash game and as usual, we will start at 7:30.

I found some cards perfect for our game...

I am looking at running a few more World Series of Dip tournaments once August is done.  We still have to do a heads up tournament this year besides the Main Event in November.  I am also looking at running a 7 card stud tournament so stay tuned, or your wrist will have to go naked for another year...

Random Rounders Quote

Mike McDermott: Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker. 

Alex Rodriguez - Questionable Decision Maker to Be Questioned By MLB

Alex Rodriguez

Much to the chagrin of Major League Baseball, New York Yankees third baseman, Alex Rodriguez has been linked to the Hollywood home game mentioned in the past couple of weeks that featured Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Apparently MLB wants to meet with him in the next few days to discuss his role in the "illegal" poker games.  It has been reported that they would like him "to stop getting in these crazy situations" but they will not be suspending him for his involvement.

It is unclear who was at the game the night A-Rod first played, but one on-line site reports that one player was "coked up"and record label owner Cody Leibel, whose house the game was at, refused to pay his losses which was reported to be $500 000.  After a fight almost broke out, Leibel apparently paid most of what was owed to the players.  A-Rod was said to be a small loser on the night, quietly paid his loss and left.

The Hollywood home game is said to be run by Molly Bloom (sister to Philadelphia Eagle Jeremy Bloom).  Her involvement came to light as part of a deposition into Brad Ruderman who was jailed for running a Ponzi scheme.

Bloom is said to have helped Rodriguiz run his own hush-hush poker game in Miami just weeks after the Leibel incident.  This game didn't go as planned either as one loser called in his muscle when it came time to pay his debt.  A-Rod and Bloom left at that point.  Besides calling the other players after the incident, he has had no other involvement in Bloom's high stakes games.

Bloom is one of many people being sued by Ruderman's investors in an attempt to re-coup their money.


Pass The Dip: Tobey Maguire Sued by Brad Ruderman's Investors For Being a Way Better Poker Player Than Ruderman

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.

August 3, 2011 - Taking a Dip in the Fishbowl

The game on August 3 was a wonderful display of うんち.  I'll let the fine people at Babelhut.com explain this one...

Babelhut.com - explaining the play of Pass The Dippers since 2003.

Yes, we at Pass The Dip are not the only who are proud to display their うんち.  


The game was aggressive with Brain Kramp coming out of the gate with reckless abandon.  I guess having a few successful nights at McPhilips wore of on the little Kegel.  When Lemon arrived with the intent of playing snug, he saw Kramp trying to push the table around for exactly 16 seconds before his game plan went out the window.  The resulting play caused me to crack a champagne bottle over the shelf and christen our poker cave "The Fishbowl."

When Lemon walked in decked out in new Winnipeg Jets gear, I expected him to play dump and chase poker.

Dandy scoops a healthy pot.  I'm not sure why he bothered stacking it before he gave it to Lemon.

Whenever Dycker is all in, he assumes this pose.  And then he assumes the reach for the wallet pose.

I'm not sure where the other 5 players are...

The community cards in the biggest hand of the night.

This is why we play poker - For beautiful looking pots like this.

T-Money Mart with her toughest decision of the night.  In the end she made the right fold, saving the $68 river bet.  I promised to tell, so here it is...I had a full house with 85.

K-Diddy made a late entrance and played great to go home with some nice pocket change....

...this was largely to do with Brain Kramp re-buying and losing it all to K-Diddy in the very next hand. 

Pellets for the fish in The Fishbowl

T-Mart was (rightfully so) wishing the play would speed up as Lemon and I kept rehashing a big hand.  Here I am telling T-Mart to hang on just one minute.

Now I haven't yet mentioned the T-Mart - Kailey factor.  For whatever reason, T-Mart lovingly calls Kailey a name I'd prefer not to mention here throughout the game.  It morphs into Bug; you may follow the logic from the pictures below.

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned for more great posts coming in the next couple of days...

I spent some time last night trying to work out some bugs in the female poker player bracket, but I wasn't able to get things adequately fixed.  Tomorrow I will have more time to dedicate to get this corrected.  I should also have some bios on the new favourite female players that are head to head in the new poll.

For those of you that came to the game on Wednesday, it was a fun night with a lot of big pots and chips moving around.  I will have a recap with pictures and backhanded compliments up very soon.  Check in throughout the next few days for more wildly entertaining Pass The Dip posts.

Pass The Dip...

...because I have all the chips

Welcome to the Jean-Robert Bellande Show

I really enjoy this clip.  I know Jean-Robert could have been a candidate for some of you in the "which pro would you rather punch in the face" poll, but I like the guy.  I think as a contestant on Survivor the best parts of his personality ended up on the cutting room floor.  From what I read, most of the pros like him as a person, although they might state the obvious when they say he has a few leaks in his game.  Jason Spades and I met him at Aria where he acts as a casino host for Ivey's Room, and he was really personable to us.

Like him or hate him, enjoy this clip!

WinnipegHustling.com

For those in Winnipeg interested in talking about anything poker related, Winnipeg Hustling is the site for you.

As their header says, they are "Winnipeg's poker connection".

If you've played anywhere in the city, you've played against some of it's posters.

You can spend a lot of time poking around the various threads and lurking on the site or you can register and become an active poster.  It is a great place to get advice, give your two cents or learn about what is going on in Winnipeg's poker community.

GroovyT is a great guy and is the administrator of the site.  Great work buddy!  I'm going to make sure to drop a post every now and then (and I encourage all of our readers to do the same!)

http://www.winnipeghustling.com/

+I've added this link to the Interesting Links section on the right in case you need to find it in the future.

Tobey Maguire Sued by Brad Ruderman's Investors For Being a Way Better Poker Player Than Ruderman

Tobey Maguire imitating Ruderman's investors.

Tobey Maguire is being sued because apparently he is a bit of a shark at an exclusive Hollywood home poker game.

Brad Ruderman - bad investor, bad poker player, bad person

Brad Ruderman was operating a $5.2 million Ponzi scheme, and because this happens to be illegal, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Ruderman was a regular loser at the Hollywood home game that Maguire played at and now the investors are coming after Maguire as they say he won $300 000 off Ruderman. In fact they contend that the Spiderman star made a cool million every month over the course of 3 years.  Nice!  Other notable players that played in the bi-weekly *home game include: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nick Cassavetes, Gabe Kaplan and Rick Salomon.

The reason the investors feel they can sue Maguire is because they claim that he has no right to the winnings because the games were held illegally and without permits.

Wanna see Maguire's poker face when confronted by TMZ?

Tobey Maguire -- Poker Face

Tobey Maguire has just responded by including with his legal documents, copies of checks he wrote to Ruderman, proving that he lost money to Ruderman in the game as well as won.  The investors would have done well to check this kind of thing out before wasting more money in the courts.

How awesome is it that Tobey Maguire has 2 checking accounts dedicated to poker?

To view the court documents filed by Tobey Maguire, as posted by TMZ, follow this link.

* OK - the "home" was really the luxury Beverly Hills Hotel, The Four Seasons and The legendary Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.