Money where my mouth is

One of my father's day presents was a little cash to go play in a tournament at one of the local poker halls. There are two big ones in town (not to mention all of the bars and restaurants that have tournaments all the time). At some point I'm sure I'll become a club member at Full House Poker in downtown, but on Saturday, I'm going to play in a tournament at Royal Flush Poker (really creative names, I know), which is in a different part of Eugene.

The last tournament I played was when we were in SoCal for the kids birthdays and my father-in-law hosted a tournament for about 14 of us. I took second. I haven't played a casino/card house tournament since i took 17th at Pechanga, and that was long before I even moved up to Oregon.

Needless to say, I'm excited. I walked in and checked out the beginning of the tournament last Saturday, and there seemed to be about 50 or so people. At a $35 buy-in, the prize pool will probably only be around $1700, so first place will probably pay around 700. It would be pretty sweet to make the final table and be in the money again.

I posted the Mullets, because they have turned into my lucky hand. At Pechanga, I went all-in and was called by pocket aces. My pocket sevens held up when i hit a straight on the river, knocking out a very pissed off guy who had his aces cracked.

I also had a monster hand at a home tournament, I held the walking sticks and saw a flop with two other players. The flop came out 7-7H-QH. I slowplayed my quads, trying to keep the other two guys in, hoping they might both have a heart-draw. After the turn and river both brought hearts, I made a comment saying "one of us has the Ace of Hearts, one of us has the King, and one of us is full of crap". Both other players went all in, I called, and sure enough, I was right. One had the Ace of Hearts, one had the king, and I knocked out both flushes with my quads. It was beautiful.

Missing the GSAC

Just saw one video on Youtube of the APU at Biola game last year that APU won with 5 second to go. They brought out a fake Eagle to pump up the crowd then he ripped off a red shirt to reveal a Cougar 'Blackout' shirt underneath. BRUTAL, but funny. I can't believe how much I miss the rivalry. I also miss Ken Ammann and Concordia Basketball a bit. Finally found this clip, too:

Best.Song.Ever.

A while back I did a list of my favorite songs of all time. Of course, a ton of U2 songs were on there, along with Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah, Comfortably Numb, I Walk the Line, Sympathy for the Devil, Garth's "The River", and a handful of Beatles songs.

I'm not sure where exactly I had Imagine on the list, probably somewhere close to the top, but under U2's "One". Well, as of today, I'm making it #1 on my list (sorry, Mr. Hewson). I've always loved the song. Now I have a strange reason to bump it to #1. Imagine has stood the test of time, and is such a damn beautiful song, that I believe it is impossible to cover poorly. I have not heard a bad version of it. On Tuesday the Instant Karma Darfur benefit CD was released, and it included three versions of the song: Jack Johnson, Me'Shell NGodechello, and...Avril Lavigne. Now, I kinda like Avril (guilty pleasure), but she doesn't have a stellar voice. Her cover of Imagine......AMAZING.

So that got me thinking: Are there any bad covers of Imagine out there? A search on Itunes found me some possibilities: A Perfect Circle, Dolly Parton, Ruben Studdard, Rick Springfield.....Antonio Banderas. Every single version sounded good, even Banderas (no, no, no...too sexy!!!).

Find me another song that can be covered by ANYONE in any style and still sound incredible.

Update

Negreanu finished third in the shootout. The 5K No-Limit Hold 'em event started yesterday and after the first day, Jennifer Tilly is fourth in chips. I just don't get it. She is a braclet winner (the 2005 Ladies event), but every time I've seen her play, she comes off like a bigger donkey than me! And her "teacher" is Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, who I think is one of the most overrated players in poker.

Then again, I read both of their columns in Bluff Magazine every month, and they are both rather intelligent about the game. But then again, so is Phil Gordon, one of the greatest Poker minds out there, who NEVER produces on the felt. He has ZERO braclets, but has taught me more about poker than any other pro (probably because I haven't read Supersystem yet).

The countdown is on: six days until the best new event of the year: The World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em!

Negreanu: Final Table

My favorite professional, Daniel Negreanu is at the final table tonight of the two-day No-Limit Hold 'em Shootout. This event is unique in that there are three "Rounds" of sit-and-go shootout tournaments. If you win your table in the first round (90 of the 900 entrants) then you are automatically in the money, and you move onto the semifinals (9 tables, ten people on each). Negreanu is one of the nine guys to win in that round, and will play the final table tonight, going for his third braclet. He's got a formidable foe in Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren, who also has some braclets to his credit.

I love the shootout, because you have to play heads up twice before you even get to the final table, and it's the most similar thing to the home games I'm used to playing.

Eleventh Heaven

Odelay is official turning into PokerBlog for the summer. I live vicariously through the participants in the World Series of Poker, following everything intently on the internets, just wishing that I was able to go there and play.

Phil Hellmuth Jr. has just won his record-breaking 11th World Series of Poker braclet (the big prize, in addition to a huge mound of cash, that you get for winning one of the 50-odd events in the World Series of Poker). With #11 he breaks the tie that he had with other legends Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson.

Hellmuth takes a ton of heat as the "poker brat" as he has been villified in this day and age of 24-7 televised poker. He truly is an arrogant prick, and he has the biggest ego in poker. But here's the thing: Everytime he says that he is the "greatest no-limit holdem player in the world", He's RIGHT. All 11 of his braclets have come in the event. He was the youngest main event champion of all-time (Beating Johnny Chan in 1989 to keep Chan from getting his third straight title), and he now holds records for most braclets and most cashes at the World Series. He is unbelievably good.

I still don't like him a whole lot, but my hat is off today to Phil Hellmuth for winning #11. Now lets just hope Doyle Brunson can win another one!

If you're missing Lost already...

Sawyer S.O.B. Ever notice that Sawyer from Lost is the expert at delivering a certain line?