Why are you here? or Pull That Runner!

I'd almost forgotten this little gem of a blog still existed.  Brings back some hazy, soju-soaked memories of that ass-Seoul of Asia!  Mmmm, good times.  Seems like at least a lifetime ago I pulled three back-to-back runners.  Thank God.

What could be better than whatever the hell you want and getting paid to do it.  That's what most of you reading this probably do for a living.  Whatever the hell you want.  By that I mean you're probably an English teacher in Korea.  What a freaking joke, am I right?  Come on be honest, you don't really do shit, you've got no bills, you're overpaid, and - by your presence on this sight - your biggest worry in life is if the donkey you got to call off all his chips is going to hit his gut shot to suck out on you.

Why you're on this site I have no idea.  As I said, I forgot it existed.  Yet it seems that hundreds of people a month stumble (drunkenly) onto this blog despite the fact that I haven't posted a thing on it since I left Korea about 2 years ago.  Yes, my 3rd consecutive "runner," as they say.  Have a nice day.  Please don't shed any tears for the Hagwon Industry.  They'll continue to rape their customers and abuse their workers just fine without me or my two-weeks notice.  Perhaps I'll come back for another stint.  Maybe for more than a few weeks this time.

Either way, enjoy your time in Korea.  My advice (and this is for the poker freaks - and you should be one in Seoul if you got half a brain):  show up stone sober and rested at about 10pm on Friday night.  Play straight through til noon Saturday.  Mop up the drunks money, head home, and do it again the next night.  Get rich quick and get the fuck out.  Take it from me, it feels good to Check-Raise Korea.

Wanna know how?  Read my very own Ugly Truth about getting check-raised by Korea and then settling the score.

Getting It All-in Blind at Walker Hill

Blind All-in:  Betting all one's chips before any cards have been dealt.

I discovered two very good reasons not to move up to the higher-limit games at Walker Hill Poker Room Friday night.  First and foremost, I put in my third straight losing session since arriving in Seoul just about three weeks ago.  But more than that, it was witnessing the most reckless form of gambling known in poker - the blind all-in - at the $5/10 game that confirmed my lowly place on the $1/2 tables.

To be clear, this wasn't just someone's last $50 thrown casually into the pot at the end of a losing session.  No, this was a $4000 blind all-in - 4,000,000 won to be exact.  It was 3 am, the stacks were - as always - ungodly deep, and for no obvious reason, "The Gambler" decided to blindly shove all $4000 of his chips, showing no fear or concern about the outcome of his recklessness.

What could drive a player to such insanity?  Maybe this guy was an adreleline junky.  Maybe a millionaire.  Maybe a degenerate gambler hell-bent on making a big payday.  Who knows?  Two things are certain though.  One, he had absolutely no fear or respect for money.  And two, he didn't even flinch when he got called by AK...

The Ugly Truth

Much to my surprise, I've gotten quite a few e-mails regarding my original post "The Art of Poker," in which I vaguely describe my past experiences in Korea.  Most e-mails are questions resembling, "What the fuck are you talking about?" or "So you came the second time on a tourist visa?" or "What do you mean, check-raised by Korea?"

Yes, most of what I wrote there doesn't make much sense.  And it was never really meant to.  I was mainly curious if there was anyone else out there like me:  obsessed with poker and in Korea.  It seems there are quite a few of you out there.  My first post was 17 days ago and the site's gotten over 800 visitors.  A much better response than I expected.

For anyone who is curious, I will indulge myself and reveal the whole rotten truth of the matter, and hopefully make some sense out of my first post in the process.  Enjoy...

Say Goodbye to Full Tilt Poker

Looks like if you're a Full Tilt Poker (FTP) user, not only is your online bankroll frozen, but now all operations of the online poker site are suspended, as of today.

Full Tilt Poker is registered in Alderney and regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), under the name Filco Limited.  Alderney is a tiny island in the English Channel.  FTP has had its entire online operation suspended by the AGCC.  In a statement released by the regulator, FTP was instructed to stop customers playing on the site and suspend all withdrawals from the site.

This action, along with Phil Ivey's recent $150 million lawsuit against FTP, puts the poker giant in some seriously hot, murky water.   FTP has issued a response to Ivey's lawsuit, but has not yet issued a statement on the AGCC's harsh actions.

I'm not sure exactly what this means for you.  I personally have about $300 frozen on the site that I'd much prefer to have sitting in my own bank account.  All this creates a dark cloud of uncertainty hovering over online poker and it seems anyone's guess how it will play out in the end.  My guess is most players, especially US players, will never see their FTP deposits again...

Getting Snapped Off at Walker Hill

Snapped Off:  Beat, in poker, when holding premium hole cards.

I made my way to the poker room at Walker Hill around 1am Friday night.  I like to go late when most players are tired, drunk, or stuck a bunch of money.   I expected to get a seat right away, but the room was packed.   Three $1/2NL tables and one very deep-stacked $5/10NL game were all full.  I made my way towards the poker pit to get on the list, but paused and looked up, hearing someone calling my name from the $5/10 game.

Alex. I knew this guy from my poker days at 7-Luck a couple years ago.  He was hyper-aggressive, loved big pots, and excelled at putting players on tilt with his banter.  He reminded me of a coked-up Antonio Esfandiari, in appearance and play.   He was the kind of player who either won a few thousand or lost a few. I don't think I ever saw him break even...

Spiderman's a Shark?

Looks like a series of high-stakes underground A-list celebrity cash games has been unearthed.  And guess who's getting sued for winning?  Spiderman's Tobey Maguire.

From what I've read, the game's sharks were Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck.  Donks apparently included Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio.  High Stakes Poker announcer Gabe Kaplan was a regular, as was poker pro Dan Bilzarian, who's also being sued.  Bilzarian had some choice words here for Brad Ruderman, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year for operating a wire fraud and investment adviser fraud scheme that lost investors $25 million.  $5.2 million of those dollars were lost on the underground celeb games and duped investors are suing to get that money back.  Good luck with that.
ABC coverage, KGO coverage, Card Player coverage, TMZ here and here.  Watch the news video here or click "Read More."

ElkY Gets His First WSOP Bracelet

Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier took down the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship at this year's WSOP, completing a WSOP/EPT/WPT triple crown and earning $331,639.

As many of you may know, he started his career in South Korea as a professional video gamer, then turned to online poker as a natural progression.  He spent some of his early poker years playing in Seoul, according to a friend of his I spoke with a couple years ago at 7-Luck.
You can watch the video here, or click "Read More."
This ElkY's interview after setting the online multi-tabling world record.

Other WSOP news:
Phil Ivey Not Playing in WSOP, Files Lawsuit Against FullTilt
FullTilt Issues Statement on Phil Ivey
Phil Hellmuth Has Chance at Bracelet #12
Online Poker Legislation Being Introduced to Congress

Why Dave's a Douche

Recently I've made a total of six posts on two forums about Check-Raising Korea.  Three on Dave's ESL Cafe and three on Waygook.org.  All six have been deleted or locked.

It seems free exchange of ideas is not a real option on these forums.  Any posts that may direct traffic to other forums (a TINY amount I promise) are viewed as a threat that must be eliminated.  Replies with words like "gambling," "illegal" and "homegame" must not endanger the motherforum.  Those advertising dollars can not be jeopardized.

Dave's sent me no messages, the posts just vanished down the memory hole.  Good riddance I guess.  Most comments were not positive, as can be expected on Dave's, where the grammar-police, arrogant K-vets, proud expats, and other miserable trolls spend hours a day commenting on posts they decry as lame and unworthy of their time.  Yet they post replies...

Rabbit Hunting?

Rabbit Hunting: Exposing the remaining undealt cards after a poker hand has concluded.  Generally requested by the losing player(s) to see what cards would have been dealt.

Is anyone else puzzled why Walker Hill Poker Room would have a you-can-rabbit-hunt-whenever-you-want-just-ask policy?

To me, frequent rabbit hunting can really kill the action on a table.  If players know they can see the river every time without having to pay for it, many will instead of paying to chase.  It also seems like plain-old bad business for the casino.  If fewer turns and rivers are paid for by players to see, pots are smaller, and thus the rake is smaller.  A lot of it seems to be weak, pandering dealers and lack of good management on the poker room floor.

Getting Greedy at Walker Hill

I made my way to the tables on Friday night around midnight.  The poker room at Walker Hill was full, but I got a seat at a make-shift table that was set up for overflow.  $5/10NL, $2/5NL and I think 3 $1/2NL games were running full.

I wasn't happy with the action at my table, so I asked for seat changes and table-hopped for a couple hours until I got into the "main" game, which was more deep stacked than the others.

I had originally bought in for $500 but was down to $300 after losing $200 in my first round of play at the overflow table.  I held 44 and the flop came 874 rainbow after I called a sizable under-the-gun raise in late position.  The original raiser led out for $40, and seeing that he only had a little over $100 left I raised him all in.  He gave a lengthy speech, bemoaning that he new I'd flopped the straight.  After a couple of minutes he finally called, showing 88 for top set.  Shocked that he hadn't insta-called, I doubled him up with no 4 on the turn or river.

But now, finally getting to the main game I played pretty tight.  I grinded my stack back up to a little over $500 with basic no-frills play.  My first major boost came when I was dealt KK in early position...