Saturdays with Dr. Pauly... Saturday at 4:20pm ET!

By Pauly
Amsterdam

I doubt that I will be able to play this week. Regardless, the show must go on without me. Sting11165 is the defending Champion. Try to take him down!


Previous champions include... Grouse14 (twice), The Rooster, Buddy Dank, DrPauly, StB, Bikom, Family Ice, Bettercheck4, 23skidoo, USC55ND24, I_CrackQuads, Bayne, MrMojo, and Resdent Evil (three times including back-to-back), CSauve (twice), holdin-ragz!, Sydney 8 (twice), OneEyeKeith, Derek (twice), SmBoatDrinks, Boscodon, NoTalentTom, quinedge, GoIrish89, Quak Quack, ValpoProf, dfense072, Bad Blood, ArcticAction, and Sting11165.

If you have problems finding the tournament, look in the Tourney tab, and then the Private tab.

Oh, and if you don't have a PokerStars account... sign up for one today. Download PokerStars software.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Michael Martin Wins 2008 PokerStars.com EPT London

By Pauly
London


Photo courtesy of Jay Luck
I covered the final table of the EPT London which featured a WSOP bracelet winner, one of biggest cash game players in France, two Team PokerStars pros, and one of Brandon Schaefer's good buddies...

The Final Table:
Seat 1: Eric Liu (USA) - 1,308,000
Seat 2: Johannes Strassmann (Germany) - 434,000
Seat 3: Philippe D'Auteuil (Canada) - 476,000
Seat 4: Antony Lellouche (France) - 1,022,000
Seat 5: Michael Tureniec (Sweden) 1,331,000
Seat 6: Alan Smurfit (Ireland) - 396,000
Seat 7: Marcin Horecki (Poland) - 309,000
Seat 8: Michael Martin (USA) - 718,000

Yeah, if you don't know... Saturday night (er, Sunday morning) at 3am Michael Martin called Brandon Schaefer who was in Germany for Oktoberfest. Brandon found a flight and flew to London on Sunday morning. Martin's mother and girlfriend flew in from the Philly area last night/early morning to sweat him on. Their journey was worth it because the young American came from behind to win £1,000,000. The kid went on a sick run. He was down to 100,000 in chips and inside of 15 minutes, he went from the super short stack to the chipleader as he took out fellow American Eric "peachykeen" Liu.

For the first time in a very long time, it was a pleasure to see one of the good guys win. Congrats to Michael Martin.


Photo courtesy of Jay Luck

The Final Table Results:
1. Michael Martin - £1,000,000
2. Michael Tureniec - £525,314
3. Marcin Horecki - £303,439
4. Eric Liu - £234,920
5. Philippe D'Auteuil - £195,766
6. Alan Smurfit - £153,351
7. Johannes Strassmann - £120,723
8. Antony Lellouche - £81,569

That's it for now. My next assignment will be the EPT Budapest at the end of the month.

I will write a recap of the entire PokerStars.com EPT London very shortly. For now, I'm off on a week long holiday in Amsterdam with Change100.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Sting11165 Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
London


We had our second London installment of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. This time, I was heavily distracted with covering the EPT London and could not give the tournament my full attention.

However, we had a good turnout with 26 runners. Top 3 got paid prize money.

Special guests included Wil Wheaton, Katkin, Jose from South America, and BamBam.

Sunoo5103 was Gigli.

I showed up a few minutes late. The tournament began when I was on the floor of the Vic Casino logging a big double up by French high stakes cash game pro Antony Lellouche.

I eventually busted out early. I couldn't even tell you the hand, I was so busty multi-tasking. I went out in 20th place.

Niktak was the chopleader at the first break with 14 to go.

Final Table:
Seat 1: holdin-ragz! (5530)
Seat 2: Wil Wheaton (4270)
Seat 3: Trane420 (5710)
Seat 4: MyLuckyGirls (2985)
Seat 5: Sting11165 (4590)
Seat 6: HermWarfare (2250)
Seat 7: DoubleDave (3825)
Seat 8: niktak (8720)
Seat 9: ResdentEvil (1120)

At the second break, Derek opened up a massive lead. He had Aces a couple of times and busted a few players. With 7 to go, he had 13K... twice as much as second place. He had 1/3 of the entire chips in play. Then donked them all off. He'd finish up in 6th place.

Holdin-ragz ended up the Bubble Boy. The Last King of Scotland failed in his quest to win his record-shattering 4th Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Alas, he finished in third place. John Katkin (from Murder's Row fame) finished in second behind eventual champion Sting11165.

Here's how Sting described the final hand... "I had 7s As Qh Js in the 2K big blind and checked after he limped. Once the flop came Qs 8s 3c I was plotting how to get all the money in the pot and I started by checking. The turn was the 6d and I checked again, hoping Nik would take the bait. And he did, although he only bet the minimum. I went ahead and bet the pot and was happy when he made a 'Screw it' push. No, seriously, he actually typed "Screw it" and pushed an open-ended straight draw 4c 5h 2d Tc. My hand held up to his 6 outs and I took my first Saturdays with Dr. Pauly title!"

Congrats, sir.

The Money Winners:
1. Sting11165 - $130
2. niktak - $78
3. ResdentEvil - $52

And thanks again to everyone who played this week. And thanks for pimping the event.

Sorry that I could not give it my full focus this week. Next week might be tough for me to play since I'll be on holiday. Regardless, Saturdays with Dr. Pauly will run as scheduled.

Congrats again to Sting!


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Fantasy Football - Week 4

By Pauly
London

Uncle Jodd's Band had an amazing week in the Lamont Jordan Fantasy Football League. We improved to 2-2 and posted the highest total for the week which netted us a cash bonus. Sweet. The bad news is that Boldin got fucked up last week. He's our top receiver.

And in the Tao of Poker pool, I continue to struggle. I'm tied for 64th place. PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) is in sole possession of first place. There's a four way tie for second place.

Tao of Poker Football Pool Top 5:
1 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 44
2 Oyster Bay Moore (J. Moore) 42
2 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki) 42
2 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 42
2 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 42

Click here to view the overall standings in the Tao of Poker football pool.

* * * * *
According to Blinders...We had 39 runners this week for Fantasy Sports Live's Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion. SWDP rookie PayMe put up the high score of 141.1, and Pauly has a score of 102.5. Players who beat Pauly's score in Week 4 are shown below. Pauly beat the scores of the three people who had two week streaks against him, so no new entries into the TOC this week. After Week 5 is complete we will have our first entry into the Super-TOC.


TOC Entries by Beating Dr. Pauly's Score 3 straight weeks ($200 added)

Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry

Buffalo66, Chewbot, Kev, Resino

High Weekly Scores for the Season ($75/$25 added)

1st Jag 141.8 (Week 2) 2nd PayME 141.1 (Week 4)

Week 1-5 Series Standings (Winner gets $25 + Super TOC entry with $125 added)

Expensive Wino 467.3
Buffalo66 459.9
AlCantHang 451.7
bonds 442.3
Mattazuma 435
Brian 430.2
greengoddess 428.4
Chuckdnb 425.5
TaoPauly 421.3
Chewbot 416.4
bayne_s 412.4
Humperdink 382.8
jek187 382.8
Mr. Decker 381.5
repete oiffenders 379.7
Joe Speaker 378
Jag 375
Big Pirate 374.2
ebk03001 372.4
HermWarfare 366.7
Kev 365.9
Kaiseroll13 351.2
Pokerpeaker 346.5
RTrizzle 313.2
23skidoo 308.5


Click here for more details on how to participate. We will be running three series this season. This will be the last week for Series 1. Series 2 begins on Week 6.

If you don't have a Fantasy Sports Live account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.

Open to all FSL users. $500 in bonus cash is added. Enter contests called "Sundays w/Dr Pauly."



Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

I'm the Cooler and John Juanda Wins WSOPE

By Pauly
London

I went to bed and the WSOPE final table was still running. It was heads up and I expected it to end soon. It was not my assignment anymore. I was focused on the EPT London. However, when I woke up and didn't find Change100 or Gloria in our flat in Soho. I logged online to discover that the final table was still running. It started at 1pm and it was 9am the next day. Change100 and Garry were doing hand for hand for the entire night! Garry and Gloria already missed their flights and everyone was fatigued.

I offered up my services to Garry and PokerNews to finish off the final table of WSOPE at the Empire and then head across town to the Vic for Day 2 of the EPT London. A double dip. A subway series... er a tube series, if you will.

Cue Enter Sandman.

I'm a Yankees fan and as I briskly walked down Charring Cross Road, I felt like Mariano Rivera trotting out of the bullpen at Yankee Stadium. Owen from PokerListings joked and said I was more like Flash Gordon. Maybe... so, maybe it was like coming out of the bullpen to pitch the bottom of the 21st inning in a marathon of a baseball game.

My cooler powers were in full force. Within several hands of sitting in the media area, John Juanda has a timely double up and crippled the young Russian who may or may not have been softpalying his Russian counterpart. It was over minutes later.

That's it for now. I'm signing off from the Empire Casino. I'm going for breakfast and then heading over to the Vic across town to cover Day 2 of the EPT London for PokerNews.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOPE Main Event: Jigsaw Falling Into Place

By Pauly
London

Well, the final table is set for the WSOPE. Some dude from the November Nine ended up making the final table of the WSOPE. His name? Ivan Demidov. He's one of two Ruskies at the final table along with three Las Vegas pros, a Scandi, a Fin, and a couple of Brits.

WSOPE Main Event Final Table
Seat 1: Robin Keston (London, UK) - 849,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas, NV) - 1,002,000
Seat 3: Chris Elliott ( Alloa, England) - 281,000
Seat 4: Bengt Sonnert (Linkoping, Sweden_ - 385,000
Seat 5: John Juanda (Las Vegas, NV) - 1,349,000
Seat 6: Ivan Demidov (Moscow, Russia) - 1,006,000
Seat 7: Toni Hiltunen ( Lahti, Finland) - 386,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman (Las Vegas, NV) - 732,000
Seat 9: Stanislav Alekhin (Moscow, Russia) - 1,278,000

I missed the action yesterday because I was across town at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino covering Day 1A of the PokerStars.com EPT London with Snoopy and Jay.

I forgot how much fun it is to cover a tournament with Snoopy despite the many logistical challenges of covering a major tournament at the Vic. Snoopy had me in laughing in stitches a couple of times. But it was Martin from PokerListings who stole the show with his use of new poker vernacular such as... Euro-Donk, Euro-Bluff-Muck, and my favorite the Euro-Tank. That might leave yous cratching your head, but if you have watched Scandis play live as much as we have, then you'd be pissing in your nickers right now.

Here's a bit of Martin's recap from last night...

Figuring the pot was his, Montgomery went to muck his hand, but seconds before he was going to let them go, the Euro grabbed his mucked cards and flipped them over - just to see if his busted 10 high flush draw was good. Needless to say it wasn't and The Bizarre Euro Bluff Muck makes the hand dead anyway.

I had a couple of decent posts yesterday. One of note included a Radiohead reference...

Everything In Its Right Place; Benyamine Up to 50K
Posted by DrPauly

After the dinner break, David Benyamine was low in chips and in the haunting words of Thom Yorke, "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon." Well, Benyamine must have squeezed out a couple of vats of lemonade with his lemons. The Frenchman has been on a tear over the last two hours. He was on the verge of utter catastrophe with a short stack of 8,000, however, Benyamine doubled up and then busted an opponent after he flopped a straight with 10-8. He pushed his stack past the 50,000 mark. Yes, everything seems to be in the right place for Benyamine. Now, if Benyamine can help Thom Yorke return to his home planet, the universe will finally achieve a moment of perfect harmony

Anyway... head over to PokerNews.com for coverage of the WSOPE final table and EPT London Day 1B.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOPE Main Event: Optimistic

By Pauly
London

Yesterday, morning I stood on my balcony of my Soho flat and gazed at the building across the street. A woman sat on the ledge of her window smoking a cigarette. The first of the day. She was still in her pajamas and I thought, "If she shifts just a bit, I can see her snatch."

And then it happened. We got bush! We got bush! Nice hair pie, love.

I need to stand on my balcony and smoke cigarettes more often.

That's how I started my Tuesday. It was all uphill from there. In the next 24 hours, I would finally get a new laptop, book a trip to Budapest for the EPT Hungarian Open, and get some news that fuckin' blew me away.

* * * * *
The damn Canadians have been integrating their coins in the UK as well. I used to see Canuck loose change all the time in the States, but it was sort of a shocker to find a Canadian quarter the other day when I got change at the local Sainsbury's. I saved the quarter and gave it to Owen from PokerListings. I told him to put it towards a travel alarm clock since he has the same problem as me... we live on the road and do not trust hotels to provide a timely wake up call. For my life, they are batting only .750. That's a sickly average in baseball, but when you log long hours and need to wake up in time for work or to head off to the airport, your fate is in someone else's hands.

* * * * *
PokerStars threw a party last night near Piccadilly Circus. The last time I went to a PokerStars party was in Las Vegas during the WSOP and I witnessed Dario and Isabelle sucking face a few meters in front of me.

Garry and I checked it this party and we wondered what sort of hijinks would ensue. We spent most of the time in the hidden bar (which was empty most of the night) inside the Cafe de Paris. We drank shitty French beer and chilled out with Martin from PokerListings, Benjo, Maria, Mad, and a slew of other folks.

The entertainment was some chick with feathers inside of a cage. She did random exotic dances while Vivaldi's Four Seasons blasted on the sound system.

I did some lime tossing with Benjo. I had been rusty but nailed my first shot for a score. Then Benjo stepped up and missed. He negotiated a deal to pay me less for his missed shot since I was a professional lime tosser. Regardless, I got paid in pounds when I should have asked for Euros!

* * * * *
The WSOPE Main Event is down to the final 24 players. The top ten includes... Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Johnny Lodden, Bengt Sonnert, Philippe Rouas, Ivan Demidov, Brian 'sbrugby' Townsend, Soren Kongsgaard, and Brandon Adams.

And several big names still left (with smaller stacks) such as... Andy Bloch, Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow, Mel Judah, and TMay420.

They will play down to nine on Wednesday and the final table is set for Thursday.

* * * * *
I will not be covering the WSOPE at the Empire Casino anymore. I'm heading across town starting on Wednesday to cover the PokerStars.com sponsored EPT London at the Vic.

My partner in crime will be the one and only Snoopy. We shall be providing live updates over at PokerNews.


Snoopy is one of my favorite poker writers and one of the most hysterical people you will ever meet from the UK. He's going to totally out-write me over the next few days so it's time to elevate my game so I don't look like a fuckin' amateur.

See you at the Vic.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.