New Edition

Today is 14 weeks - only 26 more to go. I guess the counting has already begun! Due date is end of January and it will be another month and half before we can find out the sex of the baby. Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby!

harry potter movie

so we went to go see the new harry potter movie. it was good as usual, but it's definitely not going to be my favorite harry potter movie. my memory must be just as bad as it's aways been, because I can't remember what happened in the last one, or what happened in which previous movie. 2 more movies to go before i can start reading the books...i hate watching movies after the reading the book. i'm always disappointed. but everyone i know is addicted to reading the books.

A sad day in the ACC

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser yesterday. The ACC has it's share of quality coaches - good people who are real class acts and Skip was no exception. He will surely be missed.

Spudtastic!

Everyone please welcome the newest edition to our Mr. Potato Head family. I saw a spiderman spud, but wasn't too impressed. Optimash Prime rocks!

1st WSOP winnings purchase

Wei Yan bought an iphone today. Before he left for Vegas, he said that he was going to buy an iphone if he cashed. I know that he was going to buy one either way.

So I'm by myself still on Sprint. I had my eyes on the Treo 750 - but have read some really bad reviews on battery life and bugs. So I'm still undecided. I guess when I get my first bill from Sprint, I'll get motivated to make a decision, but if anyone's got a suggestion, I'm taking them. I still have my 1st pda - microsoft gave it to me when I worked for them in college. I haven't even considered moving away from the Windows platform - all the Treos I've considered ran windows mobile. darn it, they've got their claws into me!

Drive-through ATM

My bank has a drive through ATM. The other day, I noticed that all the buttons have Braille on them. I thought it a bit odd. Today I had to go into the bank and decided to use the ATM inside of the bank. It has a touch screen as well as numerical button (for your PIN number I suppose) - but none of the buttons had Braille on them. Nice.

Main Event Wrap up

Sam busted out last night in 142 place. He was crippled by one hand where he had AsKs suited and the board came A A 7 4 with 3 clubs. The other guy had AxQc so Sam was favored 68%. The river came the Jc.

Congrats Sam! We were all rooting for you. Awesome tournament.

Day 4 Update - 2nd Break

Sam's got 800K. About 210 players left.

Couple updates on pokernews.com - you can specify Sam to see what's up with him.
Wei Yan says that there are 220 players left now.

Sam also had an interview with ESPN Online, so they may post it some time tonight.

Day 4 update from Sam

Sam just doubled up to 600K. He was hurting a little before then, but looks better now! Sam's made it to some of the update logs on pokernews.com - so look him up!

A bit of good news and a break from Poker

Derek Fisher will be returning to the Lakers. A break from the drama that is the Lakers these day, no spoiled tantrums or whining or excuses. Here's a Laker who clearly loves the game. And who couldn't use more of that these days?

Main Event Day 4

Sam will be starting again at noon today. Here is his table:

56 1 Pat Atehison 189,000
56 2 Ken Lawrence 119,000
56 3 Avi Cohen 390,000
56 4 Rami Boukai 203,000
56 5 Bob Slezak 130,000
56 6 Adam Weiss 446,000
56 7 David G. Conway 248,000
56 8 Steven Jacobs 1,127,000
56 9 Samuel Padgett 467,000

Re: The Main Event!

Well, I am out in 504th for a cash of $25K.  Sam is still going strong at 460K chips.  Day 3 has just ended.  They are in the middle of the 15th level, 3K/6K blinds with at 1K ante.  The average chip stack is right around 360K and there are around 339 players left.  The payout level is at $39K now and will jump to $45K once they reach 288 players.  Play resumes tomorrow at noon pacific time.

 

My day just started out really bad.  I had 139K to begin the day.  My new table draw was not too favorable with several really good agressive players around me.  There were a few really tight players, but every single pot was a raised pot preflop.  I played a couple pocket pairs early for raises and got reraised off them, so right off the bat I was down to ~110K.  After that, I tightened up some and just couldn't get any cards at all.  I won a total of 2 hands that first level and was down to ~60K.  I was able to pick off a late position raiser by shoving with 99 in the BB and that got me back to 75K.  This is when hand for hand started with about 635 players remaining.  It took about 14 hands to burst the money bubble and by then I was down to ~55K. 

 

So finally, we get to playing again.  Third hand into it, I'm in the BB.  The same late position raiser comes in for another standard raise.  I look down at ATo and decide to make my stand and shoved my last 55K in.  He instacalls with JJ.  Guy to my left says he folded an A... great.  I say "dealer, give me two tens".  Sure enough, flop comes TT6 and I double up.  I go to dinner break with 97K.

 

After dinner, blinds go to 2.5K/5K with a 500 ante.  I'm looking to double up some how.  Bout third hand into it, I find AJo in middle position and bring it in for a standard raise of 15K.  It's folded around to the BB who is the big stack at the table with 700K in chips.  He calls.  Flop comes J84 with 2 clubs.  He says the flop hits him, I'm thinking that's good and bet.  He calls.  Turn is an offsuit 3, I bet, he calls.  River is K of clubs.  He goes all in.  I have 35K left at this point and the pot is ~165K.  For some reason, I didn't put him on the flush draw and decided to call off the rest of my chips.  He flips A9 of spades for the nuts.  Doh.  At first I thought he had ace high and was ready to rake the pot.  I don't think there is any way I get away from this hand and the big stack is not folding either, so I think I get stacked here no matter how I play it. 

 

I guess I'll just have to wait for next year. :-(  Thanks for all the support!  We still got Sam to cheer on and he's got chips to play with!

 

Wei Yan Chan

Day 3 Dinner Break update

Dinner break. The guys both doubled last level!

Sam: 350K
Wei Yan: 97K

They have also reached the $25,000 payouts.

Day 3 Update - We're in the money!

8:35pm - Wei Yan has called to say that the last 1-1.5 hours has been excruciatingly slow! Hand for hand for so long. Players were busting as we speak & I hear the announcement that they've moneyed and the cheers in the background!

Sam & Wei Yan have officially made it past the bubble and have made the 1st payout of $20K.

Wei Yan reports that he now only has 57K and Sam has $160(someone confirm?). Blinds are 2K-4K, so Wei Yan can officially push-or-fold to his hearts content. On the bubble, he folded pocket 8s on the button with 2 big stacks still to act after a small stack pushed. Good luck guys!

Here is how the guys started as far as official chip counts.

Here is also a list of the payout structure. Last report was that they were down to 553, so they are already getting ready to jump a level.

End of Day 2

END OF DAY 2. They both SURVIVED.

Wei Yan: 139,000
Sam: 208,800

Varying reports from different sites, but ~800 survived day 2A. 621 get paid. Sam says 800, some site say 808, others say just under 800.

Play starts Thursday at noon and players should be in the money in the first couple levels on Thursday. They'll be starting the day at Level 11 (37 min left). Blinds will be $1,200/$2,400 with $300 antes.

Day 2 - Last Break of the day

HUGE level for Wei Yan. End of level 10. 1 hour 20 minutes of play left today.

Wei Yan: 130K
Sam: 185K

Check out CardPlayer update log. Story about John Murphy titled "Commanding Respect" - Sam is seat 3, but gets revenge in this level by taking John Murphy out.

I finally get a call in the middle of the night that wakes me from my sleep that is welcomed. It's Wei Yan telling me he feels like he's in good shape & not to worry (Not some customer service support person from work telling me they've screwed something up & need help to fix things).

Day 2 - Dinner Break

The guys have both made it through. Only 3 more hours of play left!

Sam: 160K
Wei Yan: 68K

Sam now has Chip Jett & John Murphy at his table (latest chip counts say they have a combined 400K in chips).

Next Blind level is 1K/2K with $300 antes.
Play resumes at 8:30pm PST and ends right after midnight. 100K avg stack.
72 tables still in action, with 639-648 players still in. That puts the total remaining field to right under 1,000 - so only ~350 more players need to go out til the guys get to the money.

Day 2B - 2nd break

The guys are almost 1/2 way through the day now and both still in. On their 2nd break - at the end of level 8.

Sam: 115K
Wei Yan: 41K

Chip Jett sat down directly to Sam's left with 300K. Wei Yan is sweatin' - knowing he needs to accumulate some chips soon. He's got ~25x the big blind, so he's not totally short stacked yet, but they've announced that they've gone < 800 players before the break, so he's got to survive several more hours. Yesterday ended at 12:04am when they hit 350 players, so tonight they will play until 12:04 as well. They guys will need to survive tonight & make it through part of the day tomorrow before they make it to the money. Get some cards & some flops, turns & rivers, guys!

Fwd: DAY 2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Samuel Padgett
Date: Jul 11, 2007 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: DAY 2

End of level 7.

Sam: 100K
Wei Yan: 43K

Sam
--
Sent from my iPhone

Main Event: Day 2

Day 2 for Wei Yan & Sam will start at noon Pacific time (3pm EST) today. After 2 days to rest up and not play any poker, hopefully they will be rested & ready to play. It looks like they should play until about midnight. At the end of the day, there should be less than 1000 players left. A little over 600 get paid. (Last night at 8pm there were ~500 from the 1st day 2 field from the 1,000 players that started). Sam & Wei Yan's day 2 should start with ~1300 players.

Sam start the day with 71,500 chips. Wei Yan has 51,900. Wei Yan calculated that it will cost us about 100,000 in blinds and antes to play Day 2, so we definitely can't sit back. We'll have to pick our spots and sometimes move some chips.

Interesting article on CBS (one of the only sites I can get to from work) about how the pros are dealing with their fame & everyone knowing how they play.

A long time WSOP dealer had this to say

The player who ends up winning is generally, in my opinion, the player who gets most lost in the crowd," Bowen said. "It's the players who don't flamboyantly make dramatic entrances into the pot that are going to be there at the end.

So, I think Wei Yan and Sam will have their tight images at the table, but for the most part won't be drawing too much attention. They will have to be careful about the 1 play that players might remember, but they definitely won't be all out there.

Main Event Day 1 results

Just to clarify, out of the 6,358 players that entered the main event it looks like 2,395 players are left after day 1. Wei Yan and Sam's chip count rankings are just out of the 680 players left on the day that they played. One more day of rest before the grind starts again. The estimates are that they will need to make it to day 3 before the money, but that of course depends on how fast folks are going out.

From the CardPlayer.com Main Event updates:

Mon Jul 09 19:10:00 PDT 2007
Players on Dinner Break
Official Numbers

The tournament details have just been announced. 6,358 players entered this year's main event, creating a $59,784,954 prize pool. This tournament will pay 621 places, with 621st place taking home $20,320 and 1st place place pocketing $8,250,000. The full prize pool will be updated shortly.

I am 154th from Day 1C. Wei Yan is 272nd.

http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/results/7278?day=11407&page=8
http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/results/7278?day=11407&page=14

I've already started looking at yachts and am considering buying a villa in Italy.

- Sam

Day 1C Recap: AC-TI-ON

We played poker almost 16 hours yesterday. We started at noon and weren't done bagging and tagging our chips until 3:45am. Grueling day.

It's been a curious tournament for me so far. My stack has fluctuated wildly, up and down, up and down. Up to 35K, down to 15K, up to 70K, down to 45K, until I finally finished the day at 72,500, 154th for Day 1C according to Card Player.

So I folded KK preflop. Third hand. I was taking my first sip from my first cup of coffee and settling in for a long day of poker. Blinds 50/100, stacks 20K. UTG folds, UTG+1, a young guy with a shaved head in PokerStars gear and black wraparound sunglasses, makes it 425. Folded to me in the small blind. I squeeze my cards. Black Kings. I take back my blind and throw out three purple chips, announcing, "1500." The other blind folds.

UTG+1 stares me down. He hems and haws. He riffles his chips and thinks. A minute passes. "1500, huh?" he says. More riffling. Finally he says, "6000."

Uh oh. I get a sick feeling. I routinely play 200 blinds deep on Absolute, and I hate hate HATE sticking it all in with Kings preflop. You only get action from one hand. I think. 6K to go, and we only have 20K chips. Not enough to play for a set. Too few chips to consider folding the flop if I call here. He raised in early position. I reraised out of the blinds. He has to put me on a monster. And he reraises, after making a show of it.

Isn't there some rule about folding Kings preflop? I don't care. I muck.

After a few orbits, I start to get a feel for the table. I got a relatively tough table draw. A lot of aggressive players who like to move chips. Two of them are from Spain, and they talk to each other in Spanish between hands. Who knows what they are saying. Sketchy.

One of the Spaniards is crazy aggressive, borderline maniacal. He doesn't speak any English. He only knows "I check, I raise!" and "AC-TI-ON! AC-TI-ON!" which he chanted repeatedly midway through level 4. And he moves chips. He will bet if checked to. He will check-raise with draws, air. He doesn't like to fold, but can make laydowns. This guy caught cards and built a huge stack midway through the day. He was two to my right. We played a lot of hands.

One hand I misplayed -- maybe badly -- one of the ones that took me back to 15K chips after the start of level 3:

Blinds 200/400. I have in the neighborhood of 25K chips. Crazy dude covers. He limps first in. I am dealt AQs in late middle position. I make it 1600. Folded back to the limper who calls.

Flop is JJ4 rainbow. He checks. I consider betting, but I don't think he'll fold. It's a scary flop that isn't likely to have hit me. He might checkraise. He likes to make plays. I think he'll bet the turn if I check. I check to induce the turn bluff or to try to check it down, a play I make in cash games sometimes.

Turn comes a 6. He bets as expected, but it's a big bet. 3500. Hm. I stick to the plan and call. I put him on two cards, and I think he'll probably bet the river no matter what.

River is an 8. He leads for 3500 -- again. Ugh. Looks like a blocking bet. I'm getting 4:1. How did I get in this spot? Hm. I call. Maybe it's a mistake.

He flips over 77. I nod and muck, and the other players at the table look confused. It was probably a bad play, maybe my worst hand from Day 1. Having gotten to the river that way, the right thing to do was to SHOVE. I don't think he calls without a Jack.

One more hand from later in the level, one I might have played OK: Same villain. I have about 20K. I look down at 9s9c and make it 1200 from UTG+1. Folded to villain who calls.

Flop 654, two spades. He checks. I bet 2500. He raises to 7000.

A checkraise with these stacks in this spot is generally bad news. I only have Nines, but I'd seen villain checkraise a draw in a similar spot and also check top set three times in earlier hands. He would slowplay a set. As an early position raiser, it's not likely I have a draw. I decide he's probably got a flush draw or maybe a straight draw or some weak gutshot/pair hand. I push. He calls, and flips over 53o. He has a pair and is open ended. We're flipping coins.

Turn is the As. River 8s. My hand is good.

Day 2 is Wednesday. Gogogo!

- Sam

Day 1C is done!

Day 2 day 2 day 2

We survived the last level. It ended about 3:30am this morning. We're eating breakfast now at Paris talking about hands.

Wei Yan doubled the first hand in the final level and ended the day with 52K. I finished with 72,500. Average stack is about 50K, so we're well positioned for day 2, which is Wednesday.

Ok time to go to bed

Sam

Talked to Wei Yan this morning as well. They finished at 3:30am and had to bag up chips - so they did not get out of there to well into the morning. That is one heck of a long day of poker! Congrats on making it to Day 2! Rest up for Wednesday, guys!

Day 1C - Last break of the day

Email from Sam:

End of level 5. Huge level for me! Up to 65K chips. One more level
today until we get to sleep...

Wei Yan had a rough 2 hours, unfortunately. He's back down to 22K
after losing a large pot with JJ.

Today has been grueling.

Sam

Day 1C - 11pm break

End of level 4. Tournament started 11 hours ago. Sam has 40K chips. Wei
Yan is down to 29K. Average stack is about 30K.

Next level: 300/600 ante 50

Main Event Day 1C - Dinner break update

Dinner break and both Sam & Wei Yan are still in it!
Wei Yan has 39K. Sam has 29K.
The word on the street is that it will probably go til 3am in the morning.

Day 1B started with 1,545 players and 610 players survived. So that puts it at 1055 players from 1A & 1B advancing to day 2. Today (1C) started with 1706. There have been a total of 4,498 players so far - tomorrow will let us know what the final numbers will be.

I'm headed to bed soon, but maybe Sam will give us an update for all of us East Coasters to wake up to.

Good luck, guys!

Day 1C - 2nd break update

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Samuel Padgett
Date: Jul 8, 2007 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: The Main Event!
To: Samuel Padgett

End of 2nd level. I have 28K. Wei Yan has 33K.

Sam
--
Sent from my iPhone

Day 1C - 1st break

Wei Yan sat down and the dealer pointed out to him that his registration card said Saturday July 7th. After talking with the floor and hoping not to have to play on the last start day, there was a seat available on table 33 - so the day began there.

1st break at 2pm - Sam has 17K, Wei Yan has 22K.

Sam laid down KK preflop on the 3rd hand. Wei Yan flopped top 2 pair with J-10 and had to lay it down the the turn & river being 9, Q - that was a big pot that he lost a few thousand on. Had won big pots with pocket aces and flopping a set of 3s with pocket 3s and was up to around 25K before the J-10 hand.

The Main Event has begun

Wei Yan is at table 68. I'm at 67. Sam has promised to try to send updates, but they're strict about cell phone use.

Andrew went out 26 in the Venetian deep stacks tourney. Out of the money, but Wei Yan and Sam are going to try to convince him to play a satellite.

Main Event

Wei Yan, Sam & Andrew headed off to Vegas Friday evening. Wei Yan went without crutches since his gout has subsided enough to allow him to walk somewhat slowly.

Wei Yan and Sam registered for the WSOP Main Event - start day #3 - Sunday at noon. Since the event is so large there are 4 starting days. The 1st day (Friday - day 1A) started with 1,287 players and only 445 survived the 1st day. Saturday's 1B started with 1515. Over 5K have registered and they are expecting about 7,000 players.

Andrew's Venetian deep stacks tourney started at noon today with 130 entants. As of 8pm Eastern time, he was still in - on dinner break with 37 players left & 18 getting paid. He has 31K - which is slightly below average. Good luck, Andrew. We are all ready to have 3 representatives of our Friday night game in the Main Event!

Wei Yan and Sam have reportedly spent the day at Bally's playing 2-4.

Best of luck, guys! Represent!