Chris Moneymaker & The HPO Media Invitational

As I mentioned in this post here, I played poker with Chris Moneymaker recently. And as I said in that post, it was pretty much the coolest day in my brief poker “career.”

I suppose it would have been cool if I had had a chance to play with any Main Event bracelet winner.  But it was especially cool that it was Chris.  The obvious reason is due to Chris’s importance in the popularity of poker.  His Main Event win is rightly credited with starting the poker boom early in the previous decade.

The other reason is that Chris is simply one hell of a nice guy.  There’s no airs about him, nothing phony about him.  He’s just a down-to-earth, regular guy.

And another cool thing about the day…..I didn’t have to risk a single penny play poker with him.

The Hollywood Poker Open took place at M Resort the weekend of June 27-29.  Of course, M Resort closed its poker room last year.  But the parent company, Penn Gaming, runs the HPO and has tournaments all over the country during the year, with the main event held at their only Vegas property, the M Resort.  Our friend, Memphis MOJO, won a seat to the main event this year (see here).

This year, HPO’s ambassador was Chris Moneymaker.

A few months back, I received a call from Madeline Caldwell, who was in charge of publicity for the event.  Madeline, by the way, works for a company called “TB&C”.  I’m not kidding.  You can find their website here.  Perhaps they should hire a certain poker blogger as their ambassador?

Madeline asked me if I thought the poker media would be interested in a special invitational tournament for the press, with the prize being a free entry into their main event, a $2,500 value.

I don’t think I’ve ever answered a question “yes” and faster.  She also wanted to know if I thought the press would be able to accept such a prize, and I assured her that I could think of no conflict.  She mentioned that we would all be able to meet Moneymaker, and then asked if I would personally be interested in attending and playing in such an event.

“Absolutely!”  I said that before she finished the question.

A few months later, I received an official email invitation, and so, the day before the HPO main event started, I traveled down to M to meet Chris and my fellow journalists and to play a tournament for the right to get a seat at the big tournament to start the next day.

I met Madeline, and a bunch of my fellow poker writers.  If you check the twitter feed at @Hwpokeropen, you can see pics of everyone who was there.

And there, holding court as it were, was Chris Moneymaker.  He was in the middle of telling some great stories when I managed to introduce myself to him.

I was wearing my Ante Up shirt, and so I pointed that I wrote for Ante Up, and then added, “I also work for PokerAtlas, and I have my own little poker blog.”

Chris said, “I love PokerAtlas.  It was the first thing I looked at when I got into town to find out about Vegas poker.”

I loved hearing that.  I was sure to tweet that out before I left the M.

Then he proceeded to ask me how PokerAtlas gets all that information about the tournaments and the cash games and such.  I said that this was my job, and he pressed further about the details.  Do the rooms constantly send you updates?  He seemed genuinely interested in how I do my job, so I told him.

Here is a guy who has won millions playing poker, and he was asking me how the job of getting that information listed.  Wow.

Then he went back to telling us stories. Great, great poker stories.

Chris is sort of like the fastest gun in the west.  Whenever anyone recognizes him, they feel compelled to challenge him to a poker game, to try to prove that they’re better than him.

These are almost always rank amateurs—but rich, rank amateurs. One guy wanted to play him heads up for $25,000.  Chris accepted the challenge.  Chris immediately realized that whenever the other guy had a good hand, he’d bet big and say, “let’s gamble.”  And Chris would fold.

The guy was very willing to bluff at Chris, and made it pretty obvious when he didn’t have the goods.  He wouldn’t say “let’s gamble” when he was bluffing.  I think that’s known as a “tell.”

Finally, after losing $16-17K to Chris he said to him, “This is no fair.  You only play when you have a good hand.”  The guy asked if he could stop before losing the entire $25K.  Chris of course let him off the hook.

Another story involved being challenged to a game by Jack Binion soon after Chris had won his bracelet.  That didn’t end well for Jack, and he recruited his son and another player to play against Chris.  But Chris ended up winning over $100K.

When Chris won the main event, Binion’s was on the verge of bankruptcy.  People warned him that he should take his prize money in cash.  He was told there was only a 20% chance the check would clear.  But Chris took the check, “Think of all the bad publicity they’d get if the check bounced,” he told the doubters.

And Chris was told, “They’re bankrupt.  What do they care about bad publicity?

But he took the check and of course it did clear.

So we played a little turbo tournament.  There were exactly 10 of us, one table.  Chris played.  It wasn’t clear to me what would have happened if he had won, since he was already going to play in it as the event’s ambassador.  I guess the runner-up would have gotten the seat. 

But Chris didn’t win, proving that poker is not a game of skill only.  But hey, everyone reading this already knew that.

I didn’t last long.  I was totally, totally card dead.  I didn’t win a hand.  I didn’t bother writing any hands done because it was so bad.  I tried to make a few moves, but was always called, and then had to back off.  Example: first into a pot I raised with Queen-10 off.  The human encyclopedia of poker, @Kevmath, shoved all in. He had me covered.  I wasn’t ready to bust out with such a mediocre hand (or the evil hand, as Coach calls it).  I folded and he showed pocket 7’s.  Hmm….I suppose I should have taken the coin flip, now that I think of it.

A few orbits later, I had just a few big blinds left when @danmichalski raised in front of me.  I was looking for even one broadway card to move in with, before the big blind came to me.  Queen-Jack was plenty good at this point.  Dan called my shove (it wasn’t much more than his raise) and so did one other player, so we didn’t flip the cards over.  The flop was K-10-10, giving me the open ender.  When an Ace hit the turn, Dan bet and got the other player to fold.  I was liking my hand, the nut straight.  But Dan had the dreaded pocket Kings for a flopped boat!  I was drawing dead and was out.

But I had had a great time and stuck around.  For one thing, I wanted to ask Chris the solution to the poker brain teaser he had given us early in the tournament.  As it happened, I was able to ask after he busted out (I believe his two pair ran into a better two pair).  He gave us all the answer, and I knew I would use it here. 

I was still around the M and visited back to see the end of the tournament, which was heads up between my fellow Ante Up Ambassador @PokerKatt49 and Cardplayer’s @JRodriguezCP Julio won.  Oh well, it helps that he is a nice guy.  All the players were:  @MarkHokeShow,      @HDBadBoyHR,   @divisionofpoker, and @jonsfen.  Sorry to those I didn’t get to single out. But you can find them all on twitter and find their material from there. (Edited to add: Jon Sofen's take on the event can be found here.)

Thanks again to Chris, and to Madeline for setting up a great, fun event.  A truly awesome day for me in the poker world.

The Solution to Chris Moneymaker's Poker Quiz

Here it is.  In my previous post I gave the poker brainteaser that Chris Moneymaker gave us when I played poker with him Thursday (man, it is still cool to say that!).  You can find that post here, but I'll reprint the question below.

"In a regular Hold-em game, you are ahead of a single opponent on the turn.  It's heads-up.   Yet, no matter what card hits the river, you cannot win outright.  You can either lose or chop.  What hand must you have, what hand must your opponent have and what must the board be for this to be the case?

I'm pretty sure that you have to assume no flush possible, otherwise it might not work."

The solution:

You have 7-2, your opponent has 6-5, and the board is 3-3-4-4.  At that moment, you both have two pair and your 7 is the better kicker.

But if you make a pair with either of your cards, your opponent has a straight, you lose.

Obviously if a 6 or 5 hits, your opponent has a better two pair, you lose.

A 3 or a 4 gives you both the same full house, you play the board, you split the pot.

Any 8 or bigger gives you both the same five cards, you play the board, and you split the pot.

There's no way you can win the pot outright, but your opponent can.

As soon as I post this, I will approve the comments with the other suggested answers I received.

Here's the thing, no one had that exact scenario, but at a casual glance, it appears that some of the other possibilities may also work.  But honestly, I'm having too much fun in Vegas right now to further analyze them to see if they really do work.  Is it possible that Chris Moneymaker missed a few other legitmate possibilities?  Hmm....

Go ahead and take a look at the other answers and see if they work.  If you see that they do or don't, go ahead and make a comment as to why it does or doesn't work, either on this post or in the previous post.

Hope you enjoyed this brain teaser, and thanks for playing.

And thanks to Chris Moneymaker for the question.  

I will do a post about my meeting Chris soon, I promise!

UPDATE: Because blogger put the comments in the order they were received, it's hard to find them all with the other comments that I approved at the time, because they weren't possible solutions.  Therefore, all the other scenarios I received are reprinted below, to make it easier to find them all and comment on!

Thanks so much to all who commented!

bill June 27, 2014 at 2:56 PM

I was going to say:

Me - 2,4
Opp - 2,2

Board - 3333

but then if the case 2 comes I would still win....so I dunno

Anonymous June 28, 2014 at 10:33 AM

I'll take a stab at this one. Have to use some questionable logic to give you the better hand.

You both have similar pocket cards, yours are connected his are suited. Your hand is the better hand due to domination. Flop gives both of you a straight draw. Turn completes the straight and pairs your kicker, and giving the villain a flush redraw.

You cannot win. On any card but a flush card, you chop with the straights and obviously your straight loses when the flush hits.

Anonymous June 28, 2014 at 8:57 PM

Ahead is 2-7, behind is 4-6. board is double paired 3355

 

Anonymous June 28, 2014 at 11:09 AM

Example hands for my wordy explanation:

H:JsTc
V:Jh8h

Flop:
AdKhQh

Turn:
Th

River:

Other hands can be constructed to fit the criteria.

Herb Wolfe June 28, 2014 at 4:46 PM

I've been running this through my head and even tried to use a deck of cards to figure it out, but couldn't quite get it, even though I was on the right track with either A2 vs A3 or 22 vs 23.

I ended up using google, and found it posted here

Anonymous June 28, 2014 at 8:46 PM

Ahead hand is 2-7, behind hand is 3-4. board is double paired 5566

arniejokin June 29, 2014 at 12:43 AM

Board is A 7 7 4. You are holding 2 6 and opponent is holding 5 3. No one has a flush draw. If you hit a 2 or 6 he makes a straight. 5 or 3 you have a pair. Any other card is a chop. 

Volker Thebrath June 29, 2014 at 5:56 AM

Don't know if my previous post got lost: So my solution is: Board is AAKK and I#m holding 32 and the opponent is holding 22. We will chop it with anything than a 2 and if a 2 is on the river, I will lose.

arniejokin June 29, 2014 at 10:08 AM

Correction,
Board is A 7 4 4. You are holding 2 6 and opponent is holding 5 3. No one has a flush draw. If you hit a 2 or 6 he makes a straight. 5 or 3 he makes a pair. Any other card is a chop.

Poker Quiz

OK, today was pretty much the coolest day ever since I got into, and especially since I started working in, poker.  All I did was play poker with Chris Moneymaker.  Yeah, that Chris Moneymaker.

It all has to do with the Hollywood Poker Open that is starting at the M Resort tomorrow.

He is a great guy and a full report will be forthcoming.   But for now, all I can do is post the quiz Chris gave us during the tournament I played with him.  

In a regular Hold-em game, you are ahead of a single opponent on the turn.  It's heads-up.   Yet, no matter what card hits the river, you cannot win outright.  You can either lose or chop.  What hand must you have, what hand must your opponent have and what must the board be for this to be the case?

I'm pretty sure that you have to assume no flush possible, otherwise it might not work.

I suppose this might be a well known hand that I don't know about, but none of the other poker journalists there seemed to know about it either.

Note:  I'm not going to approve all the comments right away, since that would ruin it.  But post your answers and I'll approve them all when I'm ready to give the answer.

There's no prize for this.  But remember, being right is its own reward.

UPDATE:  HERE'S THE POST WITH THE SOLUTION

Chris Moneymaker & Me

Some time back there was a great read on the internet about Chris Moneymaker and the 2003 WSOP— the start of the poker boom.  You can find it here on the website, Grantland.  Coincidentally, I mentioned Bill Simmons, the editor-in-chief of Grantland, in my recent basketball post (here). 

I wanted to link to it even though many other tweeters and bloggers have already done so.  I think it’s a great story told extremely well, and if you’re a poker player and missed it, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

But I know that non-poker players read my blog and I urge them to check it out too.  It’s a great bit of history and should be enjoyable for anyone to read.  Also, although there is a fair amount of poker jargon in it, the article is footnoted so that the novice will be able to find explanations for the confusing terms.

It got me thinking about how got into poker, which of course is now a huge part of my life, seeing as how I work for All Vegas Poker and Ante-Up Magazine and spend most of my “free” time writing what is arguably a poker blog.  At the time I got started, I never realized that Chris Moneymaker and his success at the 2003 WSOP were responsible for my new-found interest in poker.  I’m not sure I had even heard of him at the time, several years after his historic victory.

But I do recall how my interest in poker started back a few years ago, around 2005, I guess.

I had played some poker in high school and in family games a few years after that.  I always liked it but when the family game ended I didn’t play again for many years.  The crowd I was in didn’t play, except for one unusual form of poker, which was called “Bullshit poker” or just “Bullshit” for short.

You could play this game with any number of players, the more the merrier, and you didn’t even need a poker table.  We used to play it while we were on line to see a popular movie.  The player who started took 5 cards off the top of the deck and declared a poker hand.  It could be a full five cards or just a single card.  So you could declare the hand a spade Royal Flush or a deuce.  Or anything in between.

You then handed the cards to the next player, who could either accept the hand or call “Bullshit.”  If he/she accepted the handed he/she was required to declare a better hand than what the previousl player had declared.  The player could draw up to five cards if desired.  So if someone called it a deuce, you could of course declare a better hand.  If someone called two pair, say Kings & 7’s, with a 5 kicker, you could change the kicker to a 6 or better and improve the hand.  If you declared Kings & 7’s with an Ace kicker, things got trickier.

Of course, after awhile, everyone had seen the hand but didn’t know what the players after them had done—had they broken up the hand to trap someone or to make a better hand?

Now, if you called “Bullshit” the hand was exposed, and if the declarer had the hand that was declared, or better, the other player got a letter, starting with “B” (like the basketball game, “HORSE”).  If the declarer was indeed full of it and didn’t have a hand as good as he declared, he/she was the one who got the “B” or the next letter.  When you got 8 letters to spell out “Bullshit”, you were out of the game.  Last person standing won.

And that was pretty much the extent of my poker playing for many, many years.  When I went to Vegas, as I did regularly, I’d play blackjack and craps.  Once in a blue moon I’d play video poker, but that was rare.  When they introduced Pai Gow Poker to the casinos, I started playing that because it was relaxing, you lost money a lot more slowly than other games, and it was very social.  I guess that did indeed somewhat whet my appetite for poker.

And then one day I was watching some sports event on ESPN.  I’m going to guess it was a tennis match.  I fell asleep before the coverage was over.  I don’t recall the match; I assume it was not the match of the year.  When I finally awoke, there was poker on the TV, I assume WSOP coverage (very likely a rerun and old news).  For awhile, I was too tired and sleepy to even reach for the remote to change the channel, and before I knew it I was awake enough to be paying attention and I started finding it surprisingly interesting.

I had no clue how to play Texas Hold-em (a statement that will cause some that have played with me in Vegas to say, “And still don’t”) but I started getting the hang of it from watching.  I couldn’t believe I found watching poker on TV even remotely interesting, but it did keep me watching.

I would have almost forgot about it but virtually the same thing happened not long after, as it turned out that on the sports network the Lakers were on, they frequently had poker shows (not the WSOP) coming on right after the games.  I found myself watching them.

For the entirety of my next trip to Vegas, I was toying with the idea of trying the game.  But I hadn’t taken the step of studying the game at all, so I told myself no, I wasn’t going to do that.  I wasn’t going to risk real money on a game I hadn’t learned.  I had read books about blackjack and craps long before I’d ever set foot in Vegas, that was the model I thought I’d use.

But I did notice that one poker room—I suddenly found myself wondering near the poker rooms and just sort of idly checking them out—offered free poker lessons, so I sat in on one.  There was virtually no strategy conveyed, it was just the mechanics of Texas Hold’em, when to bet, what you could bet, when the cards were dealt, etc.  I had something to do right after or might have broken my rule of not putting real money in play for a game I hadn’t studied.

But then on my last night in town, with my bankroll doing ok (either I was ahead or hadn’t come close to losing my allotted “gambling fund”—I can’t recall which), I stood and studied the poker room at Green Valley Ranch for a long, long time.  They offered 2/4 limit, which I knew to be the smallest, lowest level game offered in Vegas.  Maybe I should see if I liked it before I invest in poker books and research back home, which had been my intention?

So I figured, I’d take out a $100 and see what it was like.  I had no clue about strategy or even what a good hand was (though I did know “what beats what”).  I wasn’t playing to win, my main goals were to see if the game might be for me, and then, perhaps more importantly, try not to look like a total idiot at the table.  I meant that more from the perspective of not violating poker etiquette (betting out of turn, folding when I’m the big blind and no raise was made, etc.) than from showing down a terrible hand when someone had a royal flush.

I played a few hours and eventually lost my nervousness.  I remember the thrill I had when I won my first pot—don’t recall how much it was but it wasn’t much, I’m sure—and also when I stopped making silly, newbie goofs.  I left the table a loser but with more than half my $100 buy-in intact.  It was a friendly table too, that helped.  The dealers were nice, the players were nice.

I knew, driving home the next day, I was going to give that game a try on my next trip.  I hit the bookstores and the internet and starting reading up on strategy.  I spent a lot of time studying.  That’s the thing about poker: this was a long time ago and I don’t think I’ve studied anywhere near enough to play this silly game.  That doesn’t stop me from doing it, though. 

Somewhere along the way, in one of those books, I read the story of Chris Moneymaker and the 2003 WSOP, and realized, even though I didn’t know it at the time, that was reason I got into poker when I did.  Well that, and the fact that I couldn’t stay awake during a tennis match.