Online Poker Tournament Rankings

 It's been a while since my last update. September was filled with Jewish holidays so I spent a bunch of time traveling to friends and family. Jetblue offered an all you can travel promotion from Sep 8 to Oct 8 for $600, I took full advantage booking more than 10 flights in that time. The downside to all this was my inability to play any Sunday tournaments as they conflicted with the Jewish Holidays. I believe this was my first time missing 4 straight Sundays since I started tournament poker.

I made it home in time for the Caesars Poker Classic, where they ran a 1K heads up tournament. The last time they ran a heads up tournament was in May, and I was able to take it down winning my 2nd WSOPC ring in the process. This tournament didn't go as well - although I did make a deep run - finally falling to eventual winner Chad Brown in the semifinals.

I'm incredibly excited to have been invited by TheMavenVT to participate in the online broadcast of the WSOP Main Event Final Table. TheMavenVT will be launching in early 09, and I'm very happy to be involved with the creation of this new training site. My first video for the site will be my final table earlier this year in the Stars Million, where I chopped 3 way for 116K.

I'm looking forward to action packed November, where I'll be working hard getting TheMavenVT ready for launch. The beginning of the month features the 14th Ftops, and then I'll be heading to Australia for my cousin Ezra's Barmitzvah at the end of the month.

Check out some videos TheMavenVT channel on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMavenVT

 I've been looking forward to this world series for the last few weeks. I'm going to play more events this year than ever before, and I'm hoping for big things obviously. So far I busted the 1K, 1.5K Plo and 1.5K. A number of my students are playing WSOP events, I'm hoping we can get a few bracelets into the Ari's Training Center family this year to go along with the 5 WSOPC rings.

I loved seeing Tom McEvoy defeat Robert Varkoni in the made for TV freeroll. Should be epic TV watching... (No chance we'd want to watch a ft like the 5K PLO last year won by Phil Galfond instead).

The difference between a bracelet being bought and won as per the logic of the Harrahs Players advisory board:
I get a particular joy in knowing that no players can "buy a bracelet" this year. For example, last year a young Man Max Greenwood, purchased his bracelet in the 1K rebuy, by merely beating out 879 players. This year there are 147 players in the 2.5K 2-7 event a game that very few players have a chance at winning... makes sense to me. It definitely makes sense that there are no people from the younger generation involved in these decisions, the kids would definitely mess it up.

I've been very impressed with Pokernews' coverage of the series, I think that have improved big time. Of course when it comes to reporting from the WSOP there's a clear winner: Taoofpoker.blogspot.com. (Edit: That's not meant as anything negative to p5's live, they've done a great job covering online players)

Best of luck to everyone.

I am a huge fan of the Scoop series. It's awesome having the variety of buyins to choose from, and even though I haven't had success yet, I'm very excited to play them. I've been sick over the last week and am just starting to feel better, hopefully a big Sunday is in the works.

Pesach/Passover is starting this week which means I'll have to skip a bunch of events I would have wanted to play. At least I'll get to spend a few days with the family away from all things poker. It's almost good from a poker perspective having these "forced" religious breaks, as I have a hard time limiting myself naturally.

Daisyxoxo (ranked first in the world according to bluffmagazine.com) is going to be offering training at my training center in early May. His progression from unknown to Mtt superstar has been amazing to watch from afar. I'm looking forward to having a chance to meet and learn from one of the best in the business. If you would like more info on training with Daisyxoxo, private message me or email: ArisTrainingCenter (at) gmail (dot) com.

While the rest of the poker world went out to LA, the Saturday start day there precluded me from playing, so I decided to head out to Omaha Nebraska for the WSOPC in Council Bluffs Iowa...just across the bridge from Omaha. It was my first time in that part of the world. Unfortunately, the tournament only got 66 players, on a positive note I recognized very few faces and as the avid poker fan that I am, I tend to recognize (by face if not by name) most if not all players that have got even a drop of coverage.


It was even nicer to stack the "kid" to my left wearing a WSOPC ring who let go of 80% of his starting stack when his likely over pair.

I managed to lay down aces for the first (ok maybe slight exaggeration:) time. Amateur player opens UTG, I flat Aces in mid-position, and four of us see a flop. It comes 10,7,4,(rainbow) UTG leads, I call, 3rd to act calls in position, the blind folds. Turn is a 9 (making 2 diamonds) UTG leads, and I'm convinced that between them both I'm no longer good. So, I consider my options and make what I considered to be a prudent fold. After a non-diamond King on the river, UTG leads out again (he bet the same amount on the flop, turn, and river) and the other guy makes a crying call...gets shown AK diamonds and mucks. So much for disciplined laydowns. I managed to “shake it off.”


With blinds at 1K-2K and fourteen or so people left (9 paid) a short stack (who'd folded down to his current levels) shipped 3.8K (less than 2BB's) and got called from the button, I called in the SB w/ A2 and so did the big blind. The flop came J105 with a flush draw, we checked around. I led for 4K after a turned 2; both players folded but the button first flashed his 44. When the short stack showed his top set of JJ, and the table saw I was drawing dead, shenanigans ensued:)


At the final table, 6 handed, I was dealt 16 BB UTG+1 and I open to 2.5x w/ 88; it gets to the SB who goes all in (the SB and BB were virtually tied as chip-leaders at this stage and both had approximately double the player in 3rd). The SB was an amateur player who was playing on the semi-active side, but definitely wasn't an aggro-tard. With the BB's stack behind (and possibly the help of some live reads...he got up and walked around, did way to much unnecessary movements for a guy bluffing). I laid down my hand (I flashed my hand to SB hoping for him to show me as he had done the day before in a similar spot). The SB was nice enough to show me his AA. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take advantage of it and busted out in 6th place. It was my first 5K buyin final table.


Big Congrats to "Irish" Mike Sinnott who took down the 2nd preliminary event in Iowa, a $500 buy-in for $25K. I also want to congratulate DeadMoney627 for taking down the Bodog 100K (something I've still never done, after playing it close to every Sunday since it started to run. Lifetime, I have 2 FT's where I ended 3rd and 4th.)

Tomorrow I'm beginning the Bluff Poker Challenge where 25 of the best online players players start with $200 (no reloads allowed). Whoever wins the most in MTT's and Sng's gets on the front cover of Bluff Magazine. I've spent a ton of time thinking about bankroll management throughout my poker career, so this competition provides me with a built in advantage.