This past Monday, I returned from my stint at the World Series of Poker as a blogger for PokerNews.com. It was a fantastic experience, one which I hope to get the chance to do again sometime. Playing in the World Series is a lot different from reporting the World Series. I actually enjoyed the later more this time. One reason is that I didn’t have the stress associated with playing. The last two years, I was burnt out by the time the World Series was over. This year, I could have continued on past the time my contract expired. I was glad to be done though. By the time 4-H Camp time arrived, I was sort of regretting my decision. I ended up figuring out later on that was just due to my missing camp. I talked with several people about camp, and things went well. Step will be taken to where I can attend next year. There is a small hole in me that is noticeably missing due to not attending camp. At the same time, we must make sacrifices in our lives at time to make our overall life better, or at least put ourselves in said position.

One thing that is different now that I am back is that I am officially Summer’s manager. We have of course joked a little about that since the beginning of her Senior year at Longwood, but she officially asked me while I was in Vegas. As a result, I have begun to research potential comedy gigs, and might event float her name for some small local roles. I will start her off small as this dream is one that she is pursuing while trying to work full time. If she stays serious about my managing her, who knows where this will wind up, as I will try and get her started as best I can.

Anywho, back to the WSOP. I was witness to a lot of interesting final table and even some history making events. John Phan won his first bracelet on my watch, as did David Benyamine. I was able to watch final tables that included Marcel Luske, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Hoyt Corkins, and Erik Seidel. Phil Hellmuth and I had a conversation about Matusow during one event. I got to meet Lon McEachern and actually got to talk to him at length on several things, including his thoughts on Harrah’s overemphasis of the excessive celebration rule. I learned that Jean-Robert Bellande is just as he appears to be on TV. (I have a pet monkey too as a result of the event I covered him in.) An Egg McMuffin was even threatened to be thrown at me. (You need to read the PokerNews.com blog about that one.)

All in all it was a great trip. I’m glad to be back home. Of course, I got some news when I got back home that was expected but yet unexpected. I can’t go into that for a while still. It doesn’t involve me.

Oh and for those of you wondering who the hotter girl between Amanda Leatherman and Tiffany Michelle is…. you need to check out Melissa Castello. Yes Melissa, Im talking about you.

Ok folks, talk to you soon.

I will say that I was EXTREMELY fortunate to finish in 4th. During a Razz round, I improved from an 8 to a 7 on 6th street. My opponent went all in against me. I was short too, but had him covered by 100 chips. He flips over a 6 and I don’t improve. I am down to literally the ante. 100 chips and the betting levels are 300 and 600 with a 100 ante. I was dealt 4-5-6 and improved to a 7 low in 6 cards. 5 people were in the pot trying to bust me. They all caught high cards mostly and I took the ante pot, which got me to 900 chips. For those that just looked at me like the RCA dog, we were playing 9 handed. Yes, 9 handed in a H.O.R.S.E. tourney.

Anywho, a couple of hands later, I wind up nearly doubling again when I am showing a strong board on 5th and everyone folds. I am able to take another pot a little later in Razz with some strong betting on a draw that forced more people out. At this point I am sitting around 3000 in chips. A nice comeback. Soon after, I end up doubling up in a stud hand where I pushed pocket Kings and end up catching Kings up. My opponent missed about 15 outs for a straight and flush. At this point, I have about 6000 chips and am in good shape.

One thing leads to another and I am at the final table. The event only pays 5 spots, so I still have work to do to make the money. Then, with about 7 players left, what I consider a minor disaster occurs. I am being dealt a Omaha 8 hand. I get and A of hearts, 2 of hearts, a Queen of club, and then the dealer screws up the pitch of the last card and an Ace of diamonds is exposed. I pick it up and try to keep it. The floor is right there and the first thing he says is, “He put it in his hand let him keep it.” Then, someone says what the card was and the guy was like “Are you fine with me knowing you hand?” I say sure. I have AA2Q with one suit. I’m ready to go to war with this hand pre flop. When he asks this, I show the card so that everyone has the same info. The floor then reverses his ruling and tells the dealer to replace my card. I don’t like this. I got a 7 of diamonds as the replacement card. Instead of raising with this hand, I just call the blind. The flop comes Queen of spades, Jack of spades and the 2 of hearts. I end up folding the hand. At this point, I am glaring at the dealer and mumbling about how that the floor made two calls about the hand. The turn card comes the 9 of spades and the river is the 4 of hearts. One of my opponents flips over the K-10 of spades for the STRAIGHT FLUSH. Instantly, I go from “this sucks” to “maybe that wasn’t so bad”. A couple of hands later, I tell the table what I held in that hand and everyone agreed that it was a good thing that the dealer misdealt, or I might have busted out in 7th.

Anyway, the way things turned out, we ended up doing a save and gave the 6th place finisher their money back. I suggested the deal. My reasoning was two-fold. First, if the short stack is still going to get money, then chances are they may take a chance and get busted out. Then, the rest of us get to the money easier. Second, I was about 3rd short stack at the time, and with the blinds the way they were, I could have just as easily finished 6th as 4th, and I wanted something for my 4 hours of play in the event.

The two remaining women in the field busted at the same time in 5th and 6th place and the rest of us were guaranteed at least 4th place money. I was the short stack at that point and was all-in shortly after. My hand didn’t improve and I was done. The funny thing about this H.O.R.S.E. tourney was that I did not rely on Stud 8 or better to carry me through the event. Actually, I only played one Stud 8 hand past third, and I had to fold it on 4th. I just couldn’t get hands. Most of my chips actually were accumulated in Razz of all games. A combination of good hands and bad players added up to chips.

Overall, I was very happy with my play. I definately got luck in some spots, but at the same time, I managed to play a tight-agressive style that allowed me to get to the money. While I didn’t win, it was good to see that I can still do well in a live tourney. The fact that its a limit tourney and H.O.R.S.E. makes it all the sweeter.

Well, tomorrow I have a meeting for the WSOP and then either Friday or Saturday I start covering the events. You can keep an eye over on Pokernews, and also Ill post here which events I am covering. Talk to you soon.

The first hand you are dealt split 3’s with a 6 in the hole. You have one three as your upcard and are the bring-in. There are 4 limpers and you see 4^th for free and immediately catch trip threes. You bet out and get called in 3 spots. Fifth comes an 8 and you bet out and get called in three spots. Sixth is a 10. You bet and are raised by a player with a 10, A, 7, K board, with a 10, A, K of hearts. You call and one other player calls. You fill up on the river with a 6. You have 3’s full of 6’s. You bet, one player folds, and then you get raised by the player who raised on sixth. You then reraise, only to have another raise put in by your opponent. Heads up, the betting is unlimited. How would you proceed?

The second hand you get to the river with an A, 8,6, 4, 3, Q,10, facing a board of 7, 6, A, Q with 3 spades. You bet on 4^th, and 6^th, and checked the river. Your opponent bet out on the river. What do you think was the result and how would you proceed.For the first scenario with the full house, how many of you put the player on a flush? How many of you would continue to raise with your full house? Remember you have a pair of 3’s showing with an 8, 10 on board. Any astute player seeing that you bet all the way is going to put you on a minimum of trips and when you bet out and reraise, they know you have a full house. When the player put in the 3^rd bet so quickly, the first thing that came into my head was ROYAL FLUSH. I actually just froze for a second when that realization hit me. This time, I went with my gut, stopped raising, and called the 3^rd bet. My opponent flipped over the Royal Flush. Paying close attention to what was going on saved me several bets. I would have probably put in another 2 or 3 bets if I thought I was getting raised by a normal flush, but with the way the hand unfolded, I figured I was beat, and I was. (I realize that there were other potential hands that could have possibly won. I just happened to guess the exact hand that had me beat.)

How many of you would have folded in the 2^nd scenario on the river? How many of you put the player on a flush, a better low, or at least a pair. Your best hope is that you 8 low somehow is good right? To my shock and amazement, I had a scoop hand. You read that correct, I scooped. I had AQ10 for high with an 8, 6 low. My opponent would up showing AQ8 for high with an 8, 7 low.

Poker is a funny game at times. I went from losing with a Full House to a Royal Flush to scooping with AQ10 and a crappy low in the span of three hands. Poker is funny that way. If you play, hopefully you have a sense of humor.

My first event was a $500 buy-in 7 Card Stud event and Chris Grigorian was at my table as well as Al Barbieri. I lasted about 2 and half hours. The experience was great, and I knew I had some things to learn. The next day was a Pot Limit Holdem event in which I played with Mickey “Mouse” Mills. Mickey is an older gentleman with over a million in tournament earnings, numerous wins, and a couple WSOP final tables under his belt. I don’t know if it was Mickey’s good nature or something about my play, but Mickey started sharing a few Holdem tips. I was happy to listen as I really did not know how to play the game. My game improved immediately. I wound up winning about another 1500 in satellite chips based on some knowledge gained from him. Later that weekend, Mickey introduced me to a friend of his. This friend was someone that he considered a mentor and he claimed was personally responsible for giving him knowledge that helped him make a WSOP final table. This gentleman was also a poker author. His name was Bill Boston. At the time, I didn’t think much of this. I thought to myself, “Well that’s cool. I met a poker author.” However, I really wasn’t super impressed or anything as we didn’t get to talk much.

The next day was the $500 buy-in 7 Card Stud 8 or Better event. I arrived early, as I tend to do for most poker events I play, and to my left sat down Mr. Boston. This was kind of nice because this gave me someone at the table I could talk to. Bill and I exchanged some idle chit chat and the event began. I played several hands, and wasn’t doing so well. Personally, I thought I was just getting unlucky and not catching cards. Around the end of the first level, Bill leans over to me and says “Later on let’s get together and talk about Stud High Low Split.” The first thought in my head was “I must suck.” I did. I busted out just after the first break.

Five hours later, I ran across Bill in the poker room. He had just busted out of the event. He started out with rolled up Aces and caught Aces Full by Fifth Street. Unfortunately, someone else started out rolled up with Kings and caught Quads on 7^th and Bill was knocked out on a horrific bad beat. Bill looks at me and says “James, do you have anywhere you need to be? If not, let talk a little about Stud 8 or better.”

Actually, I did have somewhere to be. I had a dinner date planned with this gorgeous brunette I had met down there. At the same time, I had an opportunity to gain a lot of knowledge from someone who had been around the block a few times. I look at Bill and say “Let’s go over to table 14.” For the next two hours, Bill sat there and gave me a crash course on how to play Stud 8 or Better. He answered any questions I had and basically gave me a strategy that he recommended I work on. He then did something I didn’t expect. He took out a card and pen and gave me his email address to contact him at. “James, I want you to go home and use the strategy I just gave you and then tell me in 2 weeks to a month about how it’s working for you.” I didn’t quite know what to say other than thank you.

I went home and did what Bill told me. I played exactly the way he taught me, even if I didn’t agree with the strategy, and to be honest, I didn’t like some of it as it seemed even tighter than I even normally play. It took 3 games to see a difference in my play and that difference was dramatic. I went from being a player that would be lucky to cash in a sit n go once every 6 tries to someone that would be lucky NOT to cash in a sit n go 1 in 6 tries. Granted, I was playing at the free money levels. My live money games were about 50% cashes, which was about where Bill expected me to be.

The very next thing I did was buy Bill’s book on Omaha 8 or better and start working on my game. He also offered me a lot of instruction as well. I decided to take my turn at some event out in LA and see if I could do any better than my trip to Tunica. My trip to LA did not turn out much better than Tunica money wise, however, I made it deep in several events and barely missed cashing in both the Omaha 8 and Stud 8 events I played in. The difference in my play was night and day.

I continued to work on my game, and the next tournament set I went to, I ended up cashing in 3 events, including a Stud 8 event. Of course, the first person I told was Bill, who was ecstatic to hear about my accomplishments. Since then, Bill has been a good friend and mentor to me in Poker and in life in general. He has seen me go through ups and downs and has always given me very sound advice. I have not always taken his advice, but I listen, and he makes me think.

If you know someone that is particularly good at poker and they are willing to teach you or help you with your game, then take advantage of the resource. It does not have to be a pro or former professional player. I was lucky in that regards. No matter how much you learn, you can always learn more in Poker. In addition, mentors can help you through the rough times with solid advice or at least a shoulder to lean on. If you do not have a poker mentor, I personally recommend you get one. I can tell you from experience, I would not be the player I am currently without a mentor.