Also can you guys discuss the PartyPoker High Roller fiasco?



Comments from players and the PartyPoker rep can be found in this thread (starts at post 2532):

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61.../index102.html

Cliff notes:
-Three players regged for a $2,600 tournament from the start.
-All players went all in during the first hand and ended the tournament, giving $100,000 to the winner.
-Hours after the tournament, PartyPoker freezes the winners account. No further comment from Party, but sounds like the winnings was confiscated from the winner's account .

Would be interested in hearing you guys' opinion on this situation.

If this happened in a $5 MTT with $2000 as the amount lost, would similar actions be taken? Would a sinilar ruling had occurred if ths took place on Pokerstars?

There's a growing trend where more players are late registering because the first few levels are quite meaningless. What are ways of getting players to register earlier? I can think of extra rakeback/rake discount, changing the blind structure so that blinds jumps are more gradual and decreasing late reg time altogether.

^^+1

I was also thinking about suggesting this same topic to be discussed. Pretty interesting and lots of opinions on every side.

+1 I live in New York and would love to hear about the underground dealer's perspective.

Bring on "The Trooper", a low limit grinder/dealer broadcasting a 10 minute video daily on YouTube. His subscriber growth has been exponential this year. Someone started a thread in Las Vegas Lifestyle that is a dumpster fire, but his YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/TheTrooper97Vlog.

Todd Brunson to discuss being selected for the WSOP HOF and playing big cash games including HU against Andy Beal last year.

Tim Feriss has a new book coming out. If you ever had a chance of getting him on, it's now. The guy needs something to market.

First, to the main question of the post. No one should be punished for manipulating the tournament within the rules.

Situation 1--When I was playing on PokerStars, 2+2 had the Official Double or Nothing thread. In that thread, the pros were bragging about "timing the blinds" (playing faster or slower so that the blinds would go up as they hit certain players.) Those DON pros had turned timing the blinds into an art form, sometimes using implicit collusion to kill an entire blind level. No one ever complained in that thread. No rules were broken.

Situation 2--When it was proved that Chinese players were explicitly colluding in the DONs, many players were banned, over a million dollars was returned to affected players, and DONs thereafter allowed only one player from China to register for each tournament.

Situation 2 was cheating. Situation 1 was not. The Party Poker tournament was a situation 1, a no-lose situation for the players. No rules were broken.

If you have aces in that situation, you're a fool not to call a shove. If you have 52o facing two shoves, you call because you're going to at least win a very nice third place prize. Those players were punished for two terrible crimes: profit maximizing and registering in time to play the first hand.
All three players should the prizes that they earned.

Now, on to another topic that you mentioned:

On threads for both Americas Cardroom and Winning Poker Network the very long/deep tournaments with several hours of late registration are frequently discussed. I have seen players register very late, sometimes starting with an M < 10.

When you say "the first few levels are quite meaningless" that's certainly one way to look at it. I look at it a different way. I accept the tournament for what it is and I prepare and adjust accordingly.

1. If a tournament might run for eight hours or more, I only play it when I've had plenty of sleep. I will sometimes adjust my schedule so that I'm up late several nights in a row, which prepares to me to play well past midnight. Other players are tired with several hours to go. I'm not, which gives me an edge.

2. I like to play a lot of speculative hands, and those deep stacks and/or long levels give me more chances to do that.

3. if I expect to have an edge over the early starting field I want to play as many hands as possible before the bad players get knocked out. I have no problem playing for eight hours and not missing a hand. That's what pee jars are for.

4. If it's late in the tournament and my stack is many times the stack of a new player, that's a matchup that I want. I can call shoves with a low level of risk because it's a very small percentage of my stack, and also because villian is desperate to get chips and will be shoving with a very wide range.

I don't worry about fixing tournaments like this. I look for them.

The WSOP Main Event day 7 table with Will Kassouf shown on ESPN tonight was a giant ****show.

For those who did not see it, you can go to ESPN3.com to watch it. Both episodes are worthy but the **** hits the fan in the second of the two episodes.

I hope Terrence and Adam can comment on it. I know that they have commented on Kassouf previously, but this is even more worthy (!) of your guys' commentary.

All the best.

My suggestion is Andrew Neeme. He is Vegas grinder that is doing an outstanding Video Blog. Check him out on you tube. It is as much about his life as it is poker. I have found it very compelling.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm a few episodes behind, but did you do a story on the PPC Aruba scandal yet?

Not yet, it's in the notes for the next show

Which is when?

Does it matter when you're five shows behind?

I'm on the Barry episode! And if I have a question read, I'll jump to that immediately upon release.

So obviously you should have the winner(s) of the pokercast ffb on the show.

Probably obvious, but the latest 2+2 hack deserves some attention.

Hey guys, could you explain to me what a straddle is and how to play it? I understand it helps the fish somewhat but I don't know what it is.

I hear time and time again about it in live games but I've never come across it. I'm just wondering what to do if I were to face it.

I was going to answer, but it is a good topic for the show, especially since there are different types of straddles.

Interesting article and video about an EPT situation not covered by any rule. They were playing hand-for-hand and there were many all-ins on the bubble, causing multiple bubbles over multiple tables. Scroll down to see the explanation video.

EDIT: https://www.pokernews.com/strategy/t...hand-22474.htm

Great segment on the Timex thing. Really enjoyed the back-and-forth between Adam and Terence.

Maybe a good segment would be markup in general--how do people arrive at the conclusion that they're worth 1.2x or whatever?

I couldn't agree more! Especially on the straddles part!!

Gonna throw Tonkaaaa up for request again. Newest sponsor of 888. Mah man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can I suggest TheTroop, Neeme, RayzRayl (ButterflySymmetry itt), Boski.

Trooper is the best vlogger, Neeme is the best player, Butterflysymmetry has the best thread, Boski best at MTTs

All vloggers and get all 4 for the best show ever.

The BetOnline blackjack scandal is worth a quick mention. After what happened at UB years ago, is one case of inside cheating enough to permanently tarnish an online gambling company's integrity? Should it be enough?

Limon