WSOP Europe

Forgive me if this entry isn't top notch. I only got four hours of sleep last night, so I'm bordering on delirious.

I played Day 1b of WSOP Europe today. The day called for 5 two-hour levels. I busted with 9 minutes to go in the last level:

Raise to 1050 UTG with Ace-King suited, Nenad Medic calls, Barry Greenstein calls, and (I kid you not!) FOUR others call before it gets to the big blind who (to my elation) shoved all-in for 4,500. I shoved all-in for 15,500. It folded back to a middle aged British guy who, to my surprise, called. He had Jacks, the short stack had King-Queen... no luck this time around.

Anyway, I started feeling kind of sick towards the end of the day (sore throat, achy, etc), so I changed my flight. I was supposed to fly home on Wednesday, but now I'm flying home tomorrow. In fact, my flight is at 11:15 am, and right now it's 3 am. Normally I'd feel kind of guilty for flying all the way to London only to fly right back home after 3 nights... but (no offense to Europeans - I have no problem with the people) Europe just sucks. Everything in London is 2-3x what it would cost in the U.S., I don't feel well, and I don't really know anyone here.

Screw it, why not go home?

I'll close by saying that the tournament was really sharky. Initially, I had planned on buying in directly. I'm glad I wound up winning a seat for $500, because I think I would have been pretty disappointed to drop $20,000 on a tournament that I might only have a 10-20% ROI in.

Hurricane Ike and WSOP Europe

Hurricane Ike messed up Houston pretty bad. I took these pictures a few hours after the storm. All of them were taken within a quarter radial mile from where I live, so this is by no means a handpicked photojournal of the worst damage throughout the city. Michael and I did things kind of backwards: stayed here for the storm and then left shortly thereafter. We stayed in Louisiana casinos for six nights playing craps and online poker while waiting for Houston to be repaired. That trip was nearly as damaging to my bankroll as Ike was to Houston... but I guess that's fitting.





















If you look way in the background of those last two pictures, you can see the Wachovia from which those sign panels were carried by the wind. I tried lifting one of them up... it had to weigh 35-50 pounds. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the middle of that thing's flight to the other side of the street.

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Later today, I'm flying to London for WSOP Europe. I've been a little distracted from poker lately due to the financial crisis and my exposure to the Presidential election. Since I can't really control the stock market or the election, I decided to ignore that stuff for the next few days and pour all of my focus into this tournament. It looks like I'll have 100% of my action and first place should be somewhere in the $2,000,000 range. I'm ready to do what an abrupt 3-outter stopped me from doing in the American version of this tournament... crack the top 158, obv. ;)

ESPN Appearance

I got another call from ESPN today. The bad news is that I will not be in the September 30th episode. This doesn't come as much of a surprise to me though, being that I knew I was only at that feature table for a very short time.

The good news is that I'll probably be in the episode airing October 14th! That episode will cover Day 5 action when I lost a 1.1M pot to Michael Carrol's King-Jack with my Ace-Jack all-in on a Jack-Six-Two flop. That hand will likely haunt me for years to come, but being that I'm a self-absorbed poker player, it would be a pretty significant consolation prize to wind up with an ESPN appearance because of it. Especially if it's a significant enough appearance to ship the $10k bonus from Full Tilt for wearing their logo.

Based on what I could gauge from the guy on the phone, I'd say it's anywhere from a 70-90% chance you'll see me in that episode!

Welcome Home, John

WSOP-Europe On The Cheap

I mentioned before intention to go London later this month for WSOP Europe and EPT London. Although I've already purchased airfare, lately I had been considering canceling the trip since the $30k worth of buy-ins seemed steep in light of the opportunity cost to bet that money on John McCain. Thanks to a stroke of good luck, it appears I'll be able to have my cake and eat it too.

Bodog held a $500+$40 satellite with two $24k WSOP-E packages guaranteed. There was a huge overlay; just 53 players participated. Despite running Ace-Queen into pocket Kings in a blind-vs-blind battle with five players left, I ran well enough to finish in the top 2. For the sake of my sanity, it was a good thing too; 3rd paid $0.

The package is pretty tight. In addition to the £10,000 seat, it comes with airfare, hotel, a limo ride to and from the airport, and £500 in spending money.

Not bad for a $540 buy-in! :)

Bill O'Rielly Interviews Obama

This is the first segment in a four-part Bill O'Rielly interview with Barack Obama. Quite frankly, it's pretty uncomfortable to watch, so I can't say I'm eagerly awaiting the next three segments (which air Monday through Wednesday).

Basically, O'Rielly alpha-males Obama to death. No doubt, O'Rielly comes off like a jerk, but I think the way Obama handles it could have been much better. Watch the video to see what I mean:



Notice how Obama is leaning forward throughout most of the interview. That's a classic body language characteristic of someone who is seeking the other person's approval. He also gets caught up in the pettiness of O'Rielly's style by elaborating too much on certain points. Obama is well known for his lengthy, academic responses to reporters' questions, but Bill O'Rielly isn't exactly your average Obama-friendly journalist. He was totally unprepared for this interview.

In my opinion, Obama could have looked much better in this interview by outdoing O'Rielly on the alpha-male front by:

• Leaning back comfortably in his chair.


• Keeping his answers short and sweet (which would make O'Rielly uncomfortable for having to keep fighting to get Obama talking).


• Subtly poke fun at O'Rielly in a playful, but dominant way, by saying stuff like, "well I had a long list of important interviews to do before this one," or, "c'mon Bill, Iran could be watching, I can't give away tactical secrets!"

People don't elect beta-males for President. Which is part of the reason why I'm all-in on war-hero alpha-male John McCain!

Wake Up Call

My phone started ringing at 11:45 a.m. today. Of course, since my life is awesome, I was still asleep. I barely got to the phone in time to let off a sleepy, "hello?!"

"Hi, this is Steve from ESPN, we're calling to get some biographical information from Cory Albertson for an upcoming World Series of Poker show..."

DING DING DING DING DING!!!

Anyway, from what I could gauge, it looks like there's about a 70-90% chance I'll appear for at least one hand in the September 30th episode. Any substantial appearance also means I get $10k shipped to me from Full Tilt for wearing their logos.

The pieces are in place for Letdown of the Century!!

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Update: Through email correspondence, ESPN told me today's phone call was concerning a Day 3 Secondary Table appearance in which Victor Ramdin was at our table. The odd part is that I was only at that table for 4 or 5 hands before they broke the table. We barely even had enough time to be hooked up with microphones before they were taking them off again. It was pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, I find it peculiar that a TV appearance could result out of that short stint at a TV table. I recall there being exactly zero TV worthy hands played before the table dispersed.

I'm hopeful that the producers are making these calls in in the order that the show will be produced. If it's "quite likely" that I'll make it on TV as a result of some meaningless Day 3 appearance, I'd have to think that the Day 5 action of my AJ < Michael Carroll's KJ all in on J62 flop or Tiffany Michelle's AA > Alex Outhred's 55 all in on 865 flop would almost certainly make the TV cut.

Time will tell...