Main Event Day Two

I felt like I played eighteen hours of nearly perfect poker, and was rewarded with a double-up the first time I faltered. I spent a lot of time at tough tables the first two days without many cards. For a while I was sitting there grinding it in shark-infested waters looking at Ana Marquez on the rail.

The Gambler played deep with Marquez in the PCA this year, where she led the field heading into day five before expiring in 10th place. Joel noted how tight she was playing. Tight can be successful in tournament poker, as long as it's got some spice.


I think Ana was railing the prodigiously talented Bryn Kenney, who's probably capable of playing tight but rarely does. Kenney went super deep in last year's Main but lost a crucial pot to Scott Clements before exiting in 28th place.

I was talking with Scott a little bit during the breaks. He was grinding a shortish stack too, just focusing on 100% perfect decisionmaking. He would finish the day with 154k.


Eventually I got moved to a table with the venerable and still foxy Kristy Gazes.


Kristy was playing with great patience, chatting with great charisma.

Late in the night one of the hottest girls I have ever seen at a poker table sat down with a stupendous stack. To my surprise, she was playing a Somervillian smallball game rather than the stereotypical bludgeoning I'd expect from a female with a stack.


I was shocked by the quality of this girl's play, not because she was a girl, but because she was a girl I'd never seen nor heard of. Apparently her name is Cherish Andrews, and she finished the day with 200k after beating me out of a couple small pots. Based on the way she was playing and looking, I don't think it will be long before Cherish is a star in the poker world.

Main Event Day Two

I feel like I've played about as well as I'm capable of playing the first two days of the tournament and now have 145k in chips with the blinds going to 800-1600-200. Take away one lucky turn card and my stack would be 10% what it is. It's a razor's edge, and the tightrope walk is just beginning.

Four Hotties of the Day coming tomorrow.

Event #58 $10000 NL World Championship

I managed ten hours of mistake-free poker and finished the day in the pack with 45k. Blinds will be 250-500-50 when we resume on Tuesday.

I have no idea how hot Cardplayer reporter Rebecca McAdam is. I'm really confused on this one. It could just be smoke and mirrors, accent and accents.

The Twenty Players Most Likely To Win The Main Event

As I noted last year, this exercise becomes more and more pointless every year. There are hundreds of elite no limit hold em players today, thousands of competent tournament players. Some excellent player you and I have never heard of will probably win the Main Event. This is merely a finger on the pulse of the apex of tournament poker at this moment.

20. Scotty Nguyen
Seems too nitty to succeed in today's environment, but his results - particularly in the Main Event - are unassailable.

19. Daniel Negreanu
Due to make some noise in the Main Event.

18. Michael Mizrachi
Still can't believe I left him off last year's list after including him every other year.

17. Erick Lindgren
Nothing to add here; I'll be playing day 1d (Sunday).

16. Jason Somerville
A multi-dimensional game tailored for the Main Event.

15. Hoyt Corkins
Patient yet punishing.

14. Bertrand Grospellier
I used to say I was "good at games." Elky is good at games.

13. John Juanda
Always seems to win one the moment you started to forget about him.

12. Vivek Rajkumar
The rare young guy with a big-pot-poker style.

11. J.C. Tran
Not quite as sharp as he once was, but still might be the most well-rounded NLHE tournament player in the game.

10. Sam Stein
Sam Stein is like a villain from a horror movie franchise. You just can't get rid of him. He just keeps coming around. He never dies.

9. Jason Mercier
At least thirteen six-figure scores in the last 40 months.

8. Shawn Buchanan
The kind of guy who could make the final table without ever being all-in.

7. Eugene Katchalov
Good to see his yeoman's work pay off over the last couple years.

6. Thomas Marchese
Flawless.

5. Carlos Mortensen
Brutally effective over the last decade.

4. Vanessa Selbst
The most terrifying player in the game today.

3. Phil Hellmuth
Always a streaky player, it's clear Hellmuth - the likely WSOP Player of the Year - has gotten into his zone.

2. Gus Hansen
Three top-150 finishes since '04, including multiple chipleads.

1. Erik Seidel
This video says it all.

Event #56 $1500 NL

I am sad that the WSOP preliminaries are over. When I busted out, it was like saying goodbye to a friend who I won't see again for another year or more. I have always known that I will make a monster score in one of these WSOP $1ks or $1500s, but it didn't happen this year.

David Sands isn't just one of the best looking professional poker players, he's one of the best-looking men I've ever seen.

Event #54 $1000 NL

Our house has been playing a lot of Dr. Mario on Nintendo64 this summer. The best players in the house play on Level 20, High speed. Even at this most difficult level, a skilled player can navigate her way to the end without much trouble. But when you play that high, there is no room for error. One mistake early on is usually fatal. It takes a sterling effort to overcome any initial hardships.

The most exciting games are the rare ones where you are able to overcome initial adversity, scrapping and clawing to keep your head above water before finally disassembling your tower of viruses and debris and cruising to the finish.

These WSOP $1ks and $1500s do not afford much opportunity for pitfalls. You have to keep winning and winning pots in every level. Even the best players cannot afford to lose any pots of significance or they find themselves at death's doorway. The blinds rise too fast to outlast a run of crappy cards - you simply have to find a way to pick up pots at every juncture of the tournament.

I lost an all-in pot with AKo against AKs early yesterday and found myself down to 500 chips with the blinds at 50-100. But I won two races and then played my ass off, and before I knew it, I had disassembled the tower of debris and found myself with 15k at 100-200-25.

But that wasn't enough. I lost a series of pots in unregrettable spots and busted out.

Two poker hotties of the day since there were two starting days for this event and two gorgeous ladies at my table at different junctures.

This Canadian who was badbeated out far too early:

Glasses are always a tough call. Loosely speaking I am generally against them, but the austere glasses look can be pulled off by the right (usually long-haired) woman.

And then there was this distinctive girl who I have seen around a few times this summer:

I'm assuming she's a pro though I have no idea who she might be. Her striking, unique look seizes attention.

June Top 15

15. The Airborne Toxic Effect - Changing
14. Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy
13. The Decemberists - Rox in the Box
12. Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
11. Cage The Elephant - Back Against The Wall

10. Tift Merritt - Engine To Turn
9. Tift Merritt - Mixtape
8. Mark Knopfler - What It Is
7. Cake - Sick Of You
6. Cliff Richard - Devil Woman

5. Mark Knopfler - Border Reiver
4. Sublime - What I Got
3. Steve Earle - Feel Alright
2. Young the Giant - My Body

Song of the Month: Tift Merritt - After Today