Deepstack360, Poker After Dark and WSOP Main Event final table

Last week was so busy with many different things that were poker related!



It started with the shooting of the DeepStack360 video camp featuring Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. It was the first ever internet camp done by him and first ever live stream poker camp in 360 degrees. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Tristan "Cre8ive" Wade were also there as players and commentators. Everyone was playing at one table starting with 30k, as they would at the WSOP Main Event and the blinds would increase rapidly to give a feel of each level and how to adjust. Micheal would go over each hand after each round and point out the right and wrong of how each person played. We shot for a full day and students watching from the comfort of their homes got a full 5 hours of Michael's view on the game. They also took breaks from time to time to give out tips and strategies for the upcoming level. They will be doing more of these camps in the future as this one was a huge success. The introductory price was $50, with satellites running on Full Tilt for as low as $5, but they will be charging somewhere around double in the future. Which is still an amazing deal considering the amount of information each student got.




The shooting of Poker After Dark is also going on right now and I was invited to go on the set to watch them play. I cannot talk about any results, but I can say is that the cash game edition is going to be very exciting to watch! Huge pots, great poker and awesome action. They have been shooting at Aria this year which in my opinion is the coolest hotel on the strip. The set looked absolutely fantastic. Hopefully in the years to come, I will be one of the players! *smile*



The WSOP Main Event was also going on over the weekend, and the fact that I knew 3 of the players made it so much more exciting! A few of us went to watch it in the VIP section right behind the stage in hopes that Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi would make history with the winning of the Poker Players Championship and hopefully the main event. He would have become the highest tournament money finisher if he won it and WSOP Player of the Year. As most of you know by now, he took 5th... no win, but still a great accomplishment! We were all wearing red "Go Grinder" shirts and the energy in the Penn & Teller Theater was incredible! Everyone was cheering and chanting for the player of their choice taking turns in doing so. It was an incredible day! After Mizrachi lost the title, the Quebecoise in me was obviously rooting for French-Canadian Jonathan Duhamel who ended up capturing the Championship. He played great and his win was well deserved. He surely made the whole of Quebec proud! He will be a great ambassador for poker as he is very charismatic and outstanding player.



This coming week is all about the Deep Stack Extravaganza Series at Venetian and cash games. No more excuses... back to the grind!

WSOP Ladies (and few men?) event #22

I played the WSOP Ladies Championship Event #22 this weekend. Of all the events, it is the one that I look forward to the most. There is a camaraderie and complicity in that event that you do not find in any of the other mix ones. Plus, we all have to admit, it makes for a pretty good looking crowd!

Unfortunately as it’s been for the last few years, some guys could not help themselves and had to register for it. Technically, under discrimination laws, they are totally allowed to do so, but does that mean it is ethical? I think not. There are plenty of low buy-in events that they can go for throughout the WSOP; it makes for a lot of empathy towards them and bad publicity. Some girls are not comfortable playing mix events and would never play in a WSOP, but because it is ladies only they make a point to fly into Vegas to play it. The whole week is geared towards ladies tournament in various casinos, and these women come for the week to play them all.

I was told that some of the men, including Shaun Deeb, were playing for charity, but why not pick out a regular event to do so? Would these same guys crash the Seniors event or the casino employee one? So why pick on the ladies event? It's totally rude! Hopefully playing with us has made them realize it was a bad decision and they will be humble from it and respectfully stay away next time!

I was sponsored by Deliverance Poker for that event and was seen sporting their gear. Pretty cute stuff too actually!
Deliverance Poker is a new poker site for players that is launching in the next month. I am really looking forward to playing on there as I think it's gonna be quite revolutionary. Their tag line is: "Don't get screwed on the river" which should give you all an idea of what's to come with them! They have already signed some big time pro's including 2010 WSOP $50,000 Player's Championship winner Micheal Mizrachi and his brother's. Definitely a great team to start with!

I played awesome for most of the event and had a lot of chips throughout the day. I played for nearly 13 hours and ended up busting just before the end of the day one, in the last level with a little under 180 players left. I feel really good about the way I played, but got unlucky in the end. Unfortunately when those blinds get up there, luck needs to be on your side and your hands need to hold up! After losing a few pots, I ended up shoving with Q10s in the cut off position with 11 blinds left. I talked to numerous pro's about my last shove and most said it was the right one, including my mentor The Maven. Two of them said I could have played it a little different but overall, I do not think it was a mistake. I took a chance,I had position, it was just unfortunate that the girl to my left woke up with JJ and they held up.

There were 1,054 players in the event and 117 where getting paid, again, a long day but not quite good enough. I understand the win rate in tournaments is 1% and cash rate is about 10-15% so I am not discouraged. I am playing better than most; I just have to be patient. This is my year... my time will come!

It's finally that time of the year!

It's been quite a slow start for me this WSOP season as I was feeling under the weather. I didn't really want to waste money in a big buy-in event knowing that I was not feeling my best. I was very disappointed not to be part of the first week of tournament action, but I was good and stayed home.

I finally felt a little better by Tuesday and decided to play the Mega Stack at Caesar's Palace. They had a pretty good turnout with 544 players. The tournament was only $225 and we got $15k in tournament chips to start, which for such a low buy-in is a lot of chips! First prize was over $22k, so I had my eyes on that! The only thing that was kind of strange to me is that there were no antes until we reached 600/1200 blinds. I love playing with antes, so I could have used them a little earlier than that!!!

Everything was pretty good and I was cruising through each level accumulating chips. I had about 45k in chips by level 7 which was about twice the average when everything started going wrong!!! The guy sitting in seat 9 started going on a rush and became my nemesis. Every time I tried to bluff, he re-raised me, every-time I had a good hand, he had a better one! So it goes without saying that I was chipping down fairly quickly. I ended up short stacked and went all in with QQ and he called me with nothing less than KK. That whole level was a fiasco for me! Ugggggh!

Later on I went to cheer Sam Bensinger's final table where he took 4th at the Venetian for $14k! After that we went to the Rio to watch Michael Mizrachi play heads up in the 50K HORSE and take it down for $1.5 million! That was such a great moment!!! His whole family was there and lots of his friends. The place was filled with great vibes towards him.

---Some other exciting news is that my PETA interview is up on their website!
Here is the web address to it: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2010/06/annie_lepage.php
I hope you enjoy!!!

I am planning on playing mainly satellites the rest of the week. My 1st event should be the $1k this weekend. Although I might wait until Monday and play the 6 handed NL as it is a better game for my style of play and it's my game of choice when playing online. I am also playing the Ladies event next Friday and probably a Venetian Deep Stack tournament somewhere in between.

I will keep you all updated. I'm ready for my 1st WSOP bracelet!