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2010 BC Poker Championships Results

Addict — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:33:09 +0000

Greeting everyone,

With the BC Poker Championships behind us, a new champion has been crowned. Currently only the main event results are available. I’ll post the others as I can find them.

Special congratulations to Connor Allisen for excellent representation of the locals with a 2nd place finish. Well done sir!

BC Poker Championship Main Event Results

1st Place $300,000
Eric Place from Halifax, NS

2nd Place $189,978
Connor Allisen from White Rock, BC

3rd Place $119,491
Benjamin LeBlond from Wakefield, QB

PS: For the out-of-towners who don’t think this tournament is worthwhile – it has been praised numerous times by well known pros like Daniel Negraneu. Most recently respected poker commentators Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz (also local boys) praised the tournament for it’s structure.

As if there wasn’t enough reason to visit Vancouver, this is an event that should be marked on your calendar – if you have the bankroll of course. If not, you could always join me online on Pokerstars.

Until next year,
~Addict

Full scoop on the 2010 WCPC

Addict — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 03:15:10 +0000

Hey all,

I’ve updated my pages and have the full details on the upcoming West Coast Poker Championships at the Edgewater Casino in downtown Vancouver.

This is the first running of this tournament, and while it has many positives, there are some areas for improvement, in my opinion.

The Pluses:

The blind structure is good and allows for skill to prevail over luck
The main event is split up into two “day 1′s”
They’ve managed to convince full tilt pro Mike “The Mouth” Matusow to come down and teach a class in poker!
There is a reasonable variety of game types and buy-ins

The Minuses:

Some of the events are on week days in the middle of the day
The PLO/PLH event seems very specialised
There are no limit events

I suppose I’m nit picking seeing as I’m not going to play in either of the events listed in the “minuses”, but I credit myself with being a fairly observant guy – I think that these facts may result in some low fields.

I’ve played at every card room in Vancouver and there’s one thing going either as strong as, or stronger than no limit – and it’s limit. In my opinion it wouldn’t have hurt to had another $200-$300 limit event to pick up some of the low-hanging fruit (so to speak).

Anyways, just me chiming in – I’m going to register for the $300 No Limit event now – I’ll post my results when I have them! In the meantime – you guessed it. I’m practicing tourneys on pokerstars.

Cheers,
~Addict

Satellites added for the 2010 BC Poker Championships

Addict — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 03:51:03 +0000

Greetings!

I’ve been hard at work updating the my site to include all the information I could find on BC Poker Championship Satellites.

It looks like this year only the River Rock will be holding these satellites. I was surprised to find that even the Boulevard Casino isn’t holding satellites! They’re both owned by Great Canadian Gaming, so I figured it was a lock!

Also, the Edgewater Casino is doing their own fall poker tournament that seems to have potential. This year, they will be holding the West Coast Poker Championships. As this is another major tournament I will dedicate another page to Satellites and tournament structure as I find it.

Until then, check out my page on the 2010 BCPC and practice up on pokerstars!

~Cheers,
Addict

Dusting off ol’ bloggy

Addict — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:32:48 +0000

It just wouldn’t be a blog on the interwebs unless every post is about how it’s been a while since the last post. While I normally wouldn’t stoop to commenting on it normally, I think I’ve earned it after a wicked 10 month spree. (Was going for a record here…)

Anyways the economy has sucked and I’ve been between jobs, blah blah, and really what it comes down to is this: no bankroll, no poker, no poker writing…and really no motivation in general.

I’m on a life upswing now it seems and the motivation to blog has returned! (Along with the money to play some real poker)

I’ve been getting back into the swing of things by occasionally hitting up Cascades and Starlite Casinos, which are now nearby for me. I’ve also been working on going deep in tournaments by practicing on pokerstars.

Anyways, look for more coming soon, including updates on where to satellite in to the 2010 BC Poker Championship.

Cheers,
Addict

BC Poker Championship 2009 Results

Addict — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:52:50 +0000

Not without controversy, here are your BC Poker Championship 2009 Event winners:

Event #1 – $500+$50 No Limit Hold’em

1st Place: Daniel Martel from Spruce Grove, Alberta
$51,842
2nd: Michael McWhirter from Vancouver, BC
$32,683
3rd: Sean SkarboNorth Vancouver, BC
$20,286

Event #2 – $1,000+$100 No Limit Hold’em

1st: Ryan Comely from Edmonton, Alberta
$130,654
2nd: Johua Philipchalk from Langley, BC
$83,678
3rd: Rick Hebert from Delta, BC
$52,796

Main Event – $2500+$200 No Limit Hold’em

1st: Sophon Sek from New Westminster, BC
$364,364
2nd: Roberto D’Amato from Burnaby, BC
$233,359
3rd: Kyriakos Nicolaou from Vancouver, BC
$147,236

First off, congratulations to all who cashed, it was good to see a significant amount of local players in the top 3 in each event.

And now for the controversy: Sophon Sek, the first place winner of this year’s BCPC Main Event was arrested for manslaughter in connection with the Surrey Six shootings of 2007. He was arrested two days after winning when he went back to the River Rock Casino to claim his prize. The money is currently being held by the Great Canadian Gaming at the request of the RCMP.

So the big controversy here of course, is who gets the money?

There is a lot of talk about who should get the money, but very little talk about who will get the money. My opinion it that he is going to get to keep it.

Why?

Well for starters, he is the legitimate winner. The RCMP have also stated that they were only withholding the money to prevent him from leaving the country before he was arrested.

Here’s the (ace) kicker though: What connection to the Surrey Six shootings have to the Sophon winning the BCPC? The answer is, at this point, none. (At least until proven otherwise)

It’s my opinion that these facts make it pretty clear that he will get to keep his winnings, convicted or not. Whether or not he should or should not from a moral perspective is unfortunately irrelevant. We can only take heart in the likelihood that this money will only be going to legal fees, and that he won’t personally see it for a long time, if convicted of course.

Anyways, if anyone would like to leave any comments with their opinion, please feel free.

Until next time, best of luck to you,
~Addict

Upcoming Online Freeroll for Vancouver Poker Players

Addict — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:17:17 +0000

Hi again,

While researching different inexpensive ways of winning myself into the BC Poker Championship, I came across a freeroll tournament coming up which has some potential. LuckyAcePoker.com is running an online freeroll and has invited players from Vancouver to attend. My contact with the company assures me that they are doing everything they can to cater to us Vancouverrites.

I’ve received this message from my friend at LuckyAcePoker.com regarding the freeroll:
LuckyAcePoker.com is happy to present this freeroll tournament to our loyal clients. We are even happier to be able to make this available to Canadian poker players in Vancouver. It should be an exciting event and we look very forward to giving away the guaranteed $5000 prize poll.

What a classy guy I can assure you I’m less that entheusiastic about giving away my money at poker tourneys.
Full details for this online freeroll are available here:
http://www.pokervancouver.com/5000-freeroll-for-poker-players-from-vancouver/

Cheers and good luck,
~Addict

Sweet Jesus… $165,000 Bad Beat Jackpot at Cascades

Addict — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:59:09 +0000

During my BC Poker Championship Satellites research yesterday I ended up calling around to all of the local Vancouver casinos including Cascades in Langley. As it turns out they are offering BCPC Satellites however with one exception…

Their Bad Beat Jackpot is right now over $165,000!!!

As it stands, the cash table action there is absolutely insane with huge waiting lists for ALL games being offered. Considering the fact that the casino only has 8 poker tables, they have effectively postponed all BCPC Satellites until the Bad Beat hits. This is of course to keep the mad action on the cash table running as much as it can.

I’m in touch with their poker room and will be informed when it hits, so stay tuned for updates as to when you can hit up their BCPC Satellites again.

For information on which satellites they are offering please see my page dedicated to the BCPC 2009 Event Schedule and Satellites

Cheers,
Addict

Live Satellites to BC Poker Championship Updated

Addict — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:31:01 +0000

Hello all,

Been taking a break lately, however that certainly doesn’t mean I haven’t had my ear to the ground as far as the latest BC Poker Championship news.

First off, I pains me to report that last years BCPC champion Daniel Negraneu will not be attending. He confirmed this both via Twitter and also on the 2+2 Pokercast, where he stated due to a scheduling conflict he won’t be able to make it. There were subtle hints about it having something to do with the way the BCPC has been managed, however not much can be further confirmed about this.

He was honestly a selling point for me attending this year… I was hoping to challenge him to a game of pool. I clearly cannot make a cash bet high enough to convince him to play so I was going to try to will him into playing for a sandwich. (I assure you, this is one damn good sandwich)

Anyways, I’ve also done some calling around to the local Casinos and have a complete list of all of the Satellites to the BC Poker Championships which are running in Vancouver Casinos.

You can find this information as well as full event details here:
http://www.pokervancouver.com/bc-poker-championship-2009-event-schedule-and-satellites/

Anyways, I’m off to play some cash tables on pokerstars as always. If anyone needs more specific information about the BCPC feel free to leave me a comment.

Cheers,
Addict

Captain Scotty from CFOX “topless” at the River Rock Roulette tables.

Addict — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:15:03 +0000

According to Albert Einstein “You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.” Obviously Albert never played roulette topless and beside a generous high-rolling Asian gentleman who will fork over $2,000 to you for “good karma.” (This actually worked for said gentleman as he bet $80 on red 36 and won)

This was the scene for radio host Captain Scotty earlier this morning on the Jeff O’Neil show on CFOX as he tried to turn $500 into $1,000 for the BC Children’s hospital. While unsuccessful at their betting, an anonymous gambler who caught wind of what he was trying to accomplish donated $2,000 and then another $2,100 (after hitting his number). With that donation and the $1,000 added by the River Rock Casino, he succeeded in raising $5,100.

Scotty’s betting strategy (betting on single number) though apparently resulted in some phone calls from professional gamblers who said to basically put the money on red or black. Now i in no way consider myself to be a professional gambler… at least not yet, but I believe I can give some insight as to why this was suggested.

At the poker table, good cash players will frequently and quickly be able to calculate the “expected value” to determine whether or not a move is profitable. Expected value is simply the money you would gain by winning minus the money you would lose by losing.

In the case of betting on a single number, we can break down the expected value of a $100 bet like this: (Note that there is no positive expected value bet possible in roulette and also note that I am not factoring in karma donations, or toplessness )

We will lose $100 for 37 out of the 38 possible places the ball could land
(-$100 X 37 / 38) = $(-97.37)
We will gain $3,500 for 1 out of the 38 possible places the ball could land
($3,500 x 1 / 38) = $92.11
We can now determine our expected value of the $100 bet on a single number over a long period of time
$(-97.37) + $92.11= $(-5.26)

Now, lets analyze the same $100 bet on red, black, even or odd… all of which have the same winning probability.

We will lose $100 for 20 out of the 38 possible places the ball could land
(-$100 X 20 / 38) = $(-52.63)
We will gain $100 for 18 out of the 38 possible places the ball could land
($100 x 18 / 38) = $47.37
We can now determine our expected value of the $100 bet on a red, black, even or odd over a long period of time
$(-52.63) + $47.37= $(-5.26)

Low and behold with each $100 bet, Scotty is expecting to lose $5.26 no matter where he places it! You would think that either of the two choices would be equally as good, however Scotty is only looking to double up to $1000. With the specific goal of only going from $500 to $1000, the choice here should now become a bit easier to make.

Why?

Here are our options from a more simple perspective:
A 47.37% chance to turn $500 into $1000
A 13.16% chance to turn $500 into $3500

Easy choice here. That was until Jeff had said to “Go for $3,500″

Given that our goal has now change, which is the correct choice?
Betting on a single number, or on a red/black/even/odd?

Well as it turns out, either has same probability of occurring so really there is no better choice. One choice we get it all at once @13.16%, the other we have to double up several times @47.37% each try (this essentially requires three wins in a row, I’m about 99% sure that this will work out to 13.16% too).

Anyways, props to the Jeff O’Neil Show for making this a heck of a lot more interesting than my roulette sessions, for raising money for a good cause, and for giving me inspiration to do a detailed mathematical overview of roulette on a friday afternoon =)

Cheers,
~Addict

Friday Special Poker Tournament at the River Rock

Addict — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:51:34 +0000

UPDATE: Early registration to this tournament has started. You can call in to the River Rock’s poker room to reserve yourself a seat, however these early call-in registrations are very limited.

River Rock’s Poker Room Number: 604-247-8983

I said I’d post how I did at the BCPC Satellite I played in over the weekend and well… I did pretty good despite just edging out before earning myself a seat. There were 56 players entered, meaning 5 tickets to the BCPC $1100 event. While I feel I played my A game (my reads were super hot) I placed 11th, bubbling out before the final table.

If you’re not feeling it at the BCPC Satellites then I did find a good alternative coming up at the River Rock. They are going to be hosting a “special Friday” tournament with what looks like a really good structure. Often with many of the local casino’s daily tournaments, I find that the structure doesn’t allow for skill to overtake luck and the tail end of tournaments turn into what one regular called “bingo”.

This new one-time tournament coming up on Friday October 9th, 2009 is a $275 + $25 buy-in with 30 min blinds and 10,000 starting chips! The only downside is that it’s on a Friday at noon, which may make this tournament difficult to attend for working stiffs such as myself.

Anyways, I see this tournament as a very good value and will be doing everything I can to attend. Anyone looking for practice for the BCPC should head down and give this new tournament a shot as it’s likely to be the closest structure to the BCPC before it goes down. Since this tournament won’t be on the River Rock’s Poker Schedule until October, I’ll try to add any new details or announcements that I find.

Best of luck to those who can attend. As for me, I’ll be practicing on Pokerstars as usual… anyone who wants to cheer me on, or watch my strategy at work will find me online tonight between 8pm and 11pm PST… just do a player search for “Teh Addict”.

Cheers,
~Addict