Talk about a fun sweat...

If you haven't heard already, Event #49 has got an awesome lineup seven handed. It's the $2500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball and the final seven chip counts, at the time of the post, are as follows:

1 David Bach 572,000
2 Jason Mercier 455,000
3 Justin Bonomo 330,000
4 Leonard Martin 300,000
5 Eli Elezra 265,000
6 Masa Tanaka 260,000
7 Jon Turner 127,000

You can watch all the action along with me here!

Sh&t Hits the Fan...Again!

It's another big day in the news for Full Tilt Poker. It looks like the website is currently shut down completely after having their egaming license revoked. This is a tough story to watch unfold, as just a few months ago, FTP was a powerhouse in the online gaming industry.

It's amazing to watch this unravel, and with each layer pealed off, I find it more and more unlikely that they will be able to recover.

The forums are going crazy on this latest announcement, and it should get real interesting in the weeks to come...

No wonder why it's taking Full Tilt so long...

I think it's becoming increasingly clear what Full Tilt's dilemina is with returning funds to US players.

In the weeks after Black Friday, the poker community was concerned that the big three were all in trouble, and we weren't sure what was going on with the money. Pokerstars cleared the air quickly, and came out with a convenient process for players to get their funds. They requested that you withdraw 100% of your funds, and gave you three options to choose from. The process was painless, and US players applauded Pokerstars for their superior customer service.

Surely, the community thought that Full Tilt would follow suit in a matter of days. However, days passed, and then the days turned into weeks, and before we knew it, we were getting bombarded with announcements announcing future announcements, and continued to see the stalling....

Now, reports are coming out that give us the true story of what was going on at Full Tilt. It's sad to watch this story play out, as I've been such a huge supporter of Full Tilt over the years. To read that they have created an accounting nightmare, with US players' funds, infuriates me.

I think that the only reason that Full Tilt would continue to process these transactions is greed. There were alternatives to what they did, and it's sad they chose this path.

I am of the opinion that online poker will return in the near future to the US. I don't want to say that I've completely turned my back on Full Tilt, but I've got to admit that their handling of Black Friday compared to Pokerstars, has shed a new light on both companies. Pokerstars has gained my respect, and, more than likely, my business if they are an option in the future.

Matt Jarvis gets his bracelet

Just a quick shout out to Matt Jarvis for taking down Event #40 at the WSOP- $5000 NL Six-Max. Most people will remember Matt as one of the November Niners from the 2010 WSOP Main Event, who eventually finished 8th, unable to capture the title.

I think one of the more difficult things to do in poker is to defend why you deserved to be a member of the November Nine. November Niners are typically under a microscope in the poker world to see what they can do next. With tournament poker, it's tough to navigate through the variance to find yourself back at a final table. And when you do, you've got to have the self-inflicted pressure of wanting to show the poker community you are worthy of respect.

Matt's bracelet here at the the 2011 WSOP, along with the $800k + he shipped, should keep the haters off his back.

Congrats Matt!

CrazyGood Blog

Just a quick note as I've been getting alot of people asking me about CrazyGood lately. I'd like to keep this blog about poker, so I've got another blog here to answer all the questions.

Mercier get #2!

Photo courtesy of Pokernews...

A big congrats to one of my favorite young guns- Jason Mercier as he snagged his second bracelet this week in Event #35. The $5000 PLO 6 max event had roughly 500 players and it was a tough field to navigate.

Durrr made a deep run in this event but eventually missed the final table. Mercier took a commanding chip lead and ended up victorious after three days of play.

You gotta love this guy. It seems like every final table he makes, he ends up taking it down. He's got some serious end-game skills and he's always a blast to sweat.

Congrats Jason!

#12 Tonight???

Photo courtesy of Pokernews...


You either love him or you hate him- or you're like me and always on the fence. I laugh at his antics, somtimes feel like he gets what he deserves- but ALWAYS route for him at the final table...

At the time of this post, we are down to the final nine in Event #33 of the 2011 WSOP. It's the $10k Stud Hi Lo Split 8 or Better Championship and The Poker Brat is sitting with an average stack of around 550,000 chips.

A few tourneys ago, Phil almost broke out of his no limit shell by taking down the 2-7 Single Draw tournament, but John Juanda spoiled the party by coming back from a 2-1 chip deficite to capture the title.

A few events later, Phil has another chance to snag a bracelet in a non hold-em event. The table is streaming live over at WSOP.com and he's got a tough table to navigate through. Still alive are Joe Tehan, John Racener and Ted Forrest.

The competition will be tough, and if Phil can do it, it will be history well earned....

Good luck Phil!

Event #31- realcharder30's to lose...

Cropped this photo, so let me just go and and credit PokerNews for the photo above....

With 13 people left at break, Christian Harder is currently the chip leader in Event #31, $3,000 PLO. Christian is a fellow Marylander, and we wish him the best of luck with this bracelet run. He has over $1,750,000 in earnings, but this would be his first jewelry addition to his resume.

The final 13 won't be tough to navigate. Still in the running are Sam Stein, Adam Junglen, Brock Parker and Tex Barch to name a few...

Christian currently has 810,000 in chips, just about double the current average.

Good luck Christian!

Shaun Deeb's Turn?

At the time of this post, Shaun Deeb is chip leader of Event #29 with 10 players left. The $2500 10 Game Six Max Event is currently on dinner break, and Deeb is in the pole position with 635,000 chips.

Following his tweets, you'd be hard pressed to think that Deeb is confident about taking this one down. He's had a yo yo stack the past couple of levels, but alas he's currently at the top of the mountain.

Deeb's live earnings are around $550,000 but he's been crushing the online world the past couple of years, including over $3,500,000 in cashes on Pokerstars alone. With the current landscape of online poker in the US, this may just be the year that Deeb makes his mark at the land-based events. He's got a legitimate shot at taking this event down, and hopefully he can bring home the bracelet.

This cash will be Deeb's fifth cash of the 2011 WSOP. He's got about $33,000 in cashes so far. The winner of Event #29 will take home roughly $250,000.

Good luck to Shaun on grabbing his first bracelet.

Contracted with PTG

It's time to get the dust off my blogging pen. I've recently been contracted to write for PTG, a site being released in a couple weeks, and I'm looking forward to getting back in to the blogging game. It's an exciting time, and among other things we will be bringing back the Brawl.

I don't want to get into too much detail about the new site, but what I can tell you is that it's from a unique perspective, and all of the guys there are full pledged dedicated degenerates. They've all been around the game for years and match my passion for poker.

Since my last post, I've been enjoying the flourishing economy just like everyone else. The side games dried up for a while and I've been grinding online everynight. Recent live action has picked up and been pretty steady for the last couple of months.

I've got a staking arrangement online now that's been working out pretty well. It's a 50/50 split on MTTs, and we've both carried the other through negative variance. The arrangement is in the black right now, and I'm pretty confident that we will keep climbing.

Life is good. I've got a munchkin on the way. The wifey is healthy. Still have a job. Still stacking chips. And now I'm jumping back into the blogging arena.

I've been keeping up with everyone's blogs. Most are easy to keep up with since the posting counts are down. :0)

At any rate, I'm back, and looking forward to rededicating myself to time that I don't have to put some words down and publish.

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

The Brawl is private no more

The official post...

After a good solid run of nine months, the Bmore's Brawl (as a private tourney) will cease to exist.

Starting next week, I will open the tourney up to the public.

This is good for the Brawl. It served it's initial purpose. I wanted to have a tourney in which all the old school grinders could meet up each week and take flops with each other if they wanted to. I think we had some great tourneys and it was a blast.

However, participation is down, and I need to open this up to the public to keep it going.

Everything else will remain the same. And who knows, the public may never get interested in the Brawl. I've got to give it a shot though, as I like hosting the tourney every week.

The next Brawl will be:

Wednesday, October 8th @ 9:00pm EST
Full Tilt Poker, password = omrounders

See you there..

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

thebmorekid takes down Brawl #38

Yeah, I know...

I slacked off. The last Brawl I posted results for was #33. Unfortunately, the Brawl as a private tourney hasn't been able to keep momentum by itself. I should be happy, it's outlasted The Horsey Ride, and Rocco's Rumble...

It's tough keeping the tournament private. On the one hand, you want to have an event once a week where all of your friends can get together and play each other. It's fun. We've got grinders all over the states at this point. I never counted up the states represented, but there was a lot.

Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New York, Missouri, Las Vegas, California, North Carolina...

So yeah, it was great. We were able to catch up with each week with guys who used to play in our home games. These were guys that we were used to seeing once a week across the table. For one reason or another, they had relocated, and we handn't played cards with them in months.

For the first couple of weeks we were rolling. I think our attendance record was around 35. Very very fun. And then, who knows?

FTP accounts went busto...
Wives started complaining that they were playing poker again every week...
Dart leagues...
I forgot...
FTP is NOT random...
House game got robbed...
New live game on Wednesdays...

We started dwindling down, but we were still seeing 15-20 guys, and I was fine with that. I noticed that when I didn't have time to send the reminder email, the count would drop a bunch. Even though it was always on a Wednesday. Always at 9pm EST. Always the same password.

I don't know. It doesn't matter. It was fun while it lasted, but it's tough to keep the momentum going when I restrict the tourney by making it private.

With that said, I think I'm going to make a post right now officially opening the Bmore's Brawl up to the world...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

thebmorekid takes down Brawl #33

Brawl #33 was heads-up between me and pops. Here is the first hand:

And here is the second hand:

Not much of a match. The cards pretty much dictated both hands. So that makes two boats in two hands of the Brawl and a flopped straight flush for me tonight in a five way pot in a 90man SNG when everyone got the money in on the turn. Not too shabby, but I can't mark it up to skill. Final lobby below:

See you next week...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

New FTP Guest Pro Profile

I've finally gotten around to adding the Brad Booth profile to the blog. On the left, there is a link to click to get to the profile. This catches the profiles up with the exception of Chris Klecz, which hopefully I will get to tonight. Getting these profiles up finally reminded me of how much fun it was to have these guys (and girls) stopping in to take some flops with us at a private tourney.

To be honest, I've been avoiding the email reminders for a couple of reasons. Mostly, it makes the administrative stuff much easier when I'm running a one-table tourney. However, recently, we've been playing live on Wednesdays and it's definitely had an impact on the attendance of the Brawl.

There's a part of me that likes the small tourneys, but part of me wants to build it back up again to thirty participants so I can get a couple more pros coming through. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to go, but I do know that FTP added a lot more red pros after this last WSOP so there are a ton more options of pros to invite. We'll see...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Profile: "Yukon" Brad Booth

The Brawl was happy to welcome "Yukon" Brad Booth to our private tourney as an FTP Pro Guest. Booth has been one of my favorite pros to sweat online since I started playing years ago. I use to rail him in the high stakes games while he played under the screen name LFISGD. He always engaged the rail birds, quizzing them on poker stuff and shipping $5 here and there to those who got the answers right. Just a cool guy all around.

Booth got a KO or two in the Brawl, talked to many of us in the chat box and made the night one to remember. It takes a special kind of person to play a $10 private tourney while he's multi tabling $20/$40 NL at the same time. We appreciate him taking the time to take some flops with us!

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

thebmorekid takes down Brawl #32

Yours truly holds the title going into tonight's Brawl. Just wanted to get the post out there in case anyone was wondering why my name was on the trophy. FTP should be getting back to me shortly with the official results from Brawl #32. Once I have them, I'll update the Money Leaderboard.

Good luck tonight everyone...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

2008 Money Leaderboard Updated

Moving right along...

The 2008 Brawl Money Leaderboard has been updated to include results from Brawl #31. I inched into 3rd place while purplerain05 and coleman410 made improvements up the ladder as well.

The Money Leaderboard is up to date with the exception of Brawl #32. I played this one on my laptop at a cash game and forgot to get a screenshot of the final lobby. FTP should be getting back to me shortly and I will be all caught up...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

coleman410 takes down Brawl #31

Congrats to coleman410 for taking down Brawl #31. It was a good heads up match and he deserved the win. Money Leaderboard updates coming. Final lobby below:

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

Money Leaderboard Updated

The 2008 Brawl Money Leaderboard has been updated to include results from Brawl #30. jmlabrie18 widen his lead at the top spot, and congrats to BlueHen226 for getting his first cash.

More updates to follow...

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore

jmlabrie18 takes down Brawl #30

Yeah, yeah yeah....

I know I'm very late updating these. We've been playing a live Omaha game in the city the same night that the Brawl goes on. Keeping track of everything has been tough. I've been saving screenshots on my laptop, then sending them back to my home computer where I my blog.

No excuses though, just been lazy. Here's the final lobby from Brawl #30. I'll get the money update done right now:

Damn Donkeys,

Bmore