Tourney Tracks Blog

Yet another short blog because I made it through another day of the Razz event. We come back with 18 left tomorrow at 2. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m short stacked after losing a couple big hands. I was up to 170k a few hours before the end of the day, but ended the day with 54k. Still a fighting chance, but a little annoying to run bad when so much cash is on the line.

I played a lot with Phil Hellmuth today, and had a number of conversations with him. I’ve had a pretty negative impression of Phil, but he was personable and a number of people have told me he’s a good person, which I saw today. There were a couple of whining fits, which I made fun of immediately, but when he wasn’t whining he was quite charming.

Played quite a bit with Barry Greenstein and talked to him a little bit as well. Not as talkative as Phil, but personable and incredibly knowledgeable about the game. Other notables included Scott Clements who I already knew from other events and working with him on PokerXFactor (his PLO cash videos are great), former WSoP Player of the Year Tom Schneider who was pleasant, Jared Bleznik who was funny but a little out of line and drew a penalty at one point, and Robert Williamson III who didn’t last long but was pleasant enough.

Sam Grizzle was at my table most of the day, getting into arguments with Bleznik. Grizzle is the funniest old angle shooting hillbilly you will ever meet. Crass, to be sure, but I find him hilarious. I needle him every time we play, and he always plays hurt, which is laughable. The Grizz was in rare form today, talking all day and letting us all know how great he was. By far the best exchange happened when Phill Hellmuth took a beat at the next table over. I was chuckling to myself for an hour.

Phil started complaining about someone’s play, and Sam joined right in, though he had no idea what had happened.

“Can you believe they play like that at the World Series of Poker?” he said, faking incredulity.

“They play like it’s a $70 tournament at the Orleans. Tell em Phil, let him know where they’re at!”

Phil continued complaining and Sam began to encourage him.

“Get on their asses Phil, let em have it!” he shouted across the tables. The mocking was incredible. “Stay on their asses!” he added when Phil seemed to slow down.

Most of the remaining field are well known players and there are a ton of bracelets left, but I am still seeing a few fairly average players and I have enough chips to cause some trouble. One double up and I’m right in this thing. first is $180,000, so root for your favorite blogger (as long as your favorite blogger is me).

It was a mess trying to get a cab tonight because of the electronic music festival, but otherwise a fairly uneventful trip to the Rio. If you are in town you will be able to bet on me at the Rio sportsbook tomorrow right up until the two o’clock restart. You can bet I’ll be laying a few bucks down on myself, if for no other reason than to have a betting slip with my name on it as both the bettor and the bet. I imagine the odds will be very high with my short stack and being a fairly unknown player, so I’m probably a good bet too. I am definitely a very solid Razz player, and there are soft spots left in the field.

I’m beat after another 12 hour day at the tables and heading off to bed. Follow updates at pokernews.com or follow me on twitter @foxpokerfox for updates.