My PLO video - 4 cards are better than 2!

posted by GrinningBuddah on 03/18/08

Ok, I sent off my video to Brian a few days ago, so I thought I'd post it here for y'all. It has a running commentary (with bonus off-screen tables that I commentate for a minute in the middle of the vid), and might give some of you a starting point for PLO. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them here!

Go Go Gadget Video

Back from the Bahamas

posted by Adam Schwartz on 1/16/2008

Man I run good. On the way down to Nassau, the airline lost not only my Brother Dan's suitcase, but his golf clubs and my co-host Mike's clubs as well. How do they manage to lose both sets up clubs? Beyond me. Predictably, he was on super monkey life tilt and decided that he wouldn't play the main event. Four days into the trip his bag appeared. The next day his clubs. All the while I made jokes at Dan's expense. "Nice shirt welcome to yesterday" "Damn, I switched underwear three times this morning till I found the most comfortable pair" You get the idea.

Before the trip started, Mike and I made a prop bet on who would win a 100 yard dash. He talked a lot of smack so I called him on it. As we were walking down the 12th fairway at the Ocean Club on Paradise Island we decided that this was the place to throw down. We both had about 4 or 5 drinks in us, which certainly gave Mike an edge because he drinks way more than I do, but I had no fear. Mike had golf runners on and I had proper golf shoes so I said I would only do it if we both ran barefoot. He agreed and we lined up at the 250 yard marker. On the first try, I had a 5 yard lead about 20 yards into the race and Mike fell. How very convenient! He fared no better in round 2 as I pulled away early and make like an airplane for the last 20 yards to rub it in!

I did run bad at the poker tables for the most part. I lost $1000 in a $2/5 game that literally anyone who could name the colors in a rainbow would destroy. Every pot was 7 limpers to me. I would make it $35 with something like 33 and miss every time. I think I probably had 30 pocket pairs the entire trip and flopped exactly 0 sets. Ugh. I did win the only tourney I played in, however. A good friend of mine, Warren Karp, was running a series of tournaments in another casino on the island and we all went over to play in one of their nightly $250 event. Thirty starters and a few hours later I had all the chips when my HU opponent called off my huge all-in re-raise with 22. I asked him what he hoped I had. :)

Lots of interviews and Bahama Mama's later, here we are. Great week and looks like we may be going to Monte Carlo to cover that event as well. James, our Scottish producer, says he can't wait to eat Ketchup for seven days to save money. He's heard the stories of $40 dollar sammiches.

Lots of good stuff coming up on the show in the next few weeks. We have David Sklansky on this week to answer all the goofy questions we can fire at him Head on over to our forums and look for the upcoming guest thread to submit yours to the man himself. Bye for now!

Adam

Two tickets to paradise...

posted by Adam Schwartz live from the PCA on 1/05/2008

Two tickets to paradise…island that is. Adam and Mike have arrived in the Bahamas and are reporting live from the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure - PCA.

Have a listen to our Day 1A report from the event. The plan is to provide updates from the event each day with special focus on the 2+2ers competing for the approximately $10 million prize pool. That is if we drag themselves away from the beach, the pool, the bar, the golf course, the...

Adam

8 long months....

posted by Adam Schwartz on 12/31/2007

It's been 8 months since Mason, Mat and myself sat down for lunch and first talked about bringing our show over to 2+2. There were lots of hurdles to jump, but we finally are here!

I joined the community very early on. My original account "Tuco" is around member number 500, and I could see early on that this was a place to become a better poker player. In 1995, after quitting a hotel job in Nanaimo I started my poker career in the limit holdem games in the casinos of Vancouver. It was a constant struggle, but I truly loved what I was doing.

I went broke playing limit several times. The games weren't big enough at the time to live a lavish lifestyle and I learned the hard way that bankroll management was a very important skill for the poker pro.

Then, god smiled down on us and brought us online poker, my first online game was in 1999 when I plopped down $500 and started grinding. Of course the software back then was incredibly bad by today's standards, but the games were incredible. It was free money, as well as instant bankroll management because it was so hard to get money off the site! Very good for me.

I was then lucky enough to land a prop job, there were very few games running regularly when I started. It picked up and eventually I was propping the 5/10 shorthanded omaha game. For 18 months I played nothing but three and four handed omaha. It was a great game because people had no experience playing it and would give their money away. Even the other props were pretty bad. I would literally go months without having a losing day.

Years went by and everything changed. Mike and I started a poker radio show and three years later here we are! I can't wait to take our show to the next level with all the resources of 2+2 at our disposal. Please spend some time in our forums and help us make you a better poker player.

Adam

Gotta start somewhere

posted by Mike Johnson on 12/30/2007

Timeline - approximately 3 years ago today. As host of a weekly NHL talk show, it is becoming increasingly clear that the millionaire players and billionaire owners who can't play nice may decide to scrap the entire hockey season. To fill the masive void of TV Programming in Canada, 24 hour sports stations decide to turn to poker. Raymer and Moneymaker have won the last 2 World Series and the re-runs are endless and I am hooked. The radio station I work at starts hosting weekly free-roll poker events to give the lonely, bored Canadian Hockey fans something to do. Talk of the first weekly poker show in Canada on mainstream sports radio is born.

Enter Adam Schwartz, a buddy who has made his income from poker for several years and knows the scene inside out, particularly online. He talks a good game and helps me with mine so I ask him to be the co-host of the show in the role of the 'expert'. He agrees and claims he also could arrange some high profile guests through his contacts at this site called twoplustwo.com.

We call it Rounders, the Poker show and the first shows are a little rough. We have the content(Negreanu, Raymer and Sexton all on the very first show), but it's clear that Adam isn't a broadcaster yet and I couldn't tell you the hi-jack from the cut-off. Show polishes up and Adam and I start having a great time with the program. Despite the return of hockey, the show carries on with an important new element, the podcast. Now we're talking to the world, and for some reason, about 25,000 people a week are downloading the show. We're not sure if it's due to our great guests, Adam's advice or just to continue to hear how much of a donkey I am after playing for 2 years solid but the show just kept growing. Nearly 150 episodes of Rounders can still be heard at our origional site, archived at www.bigpoker.ca.

Today - Throughout my 3 years in the poker world, there has probably been no source I have used more than twoplustwo.com, both as an improving player and for show content. When we were informed of the sites interest to add a weekly podcast, we both jumped at the terrifying opportunity. While some people who don't know poker wouldn't look on leaving a well-known sports radio network for an online poker forum as an 'opportunity' or 'terrifying', they clearly don't know twoplustwo. I don't even think many regulars realize that 2p2 had 4.7 million unique visitors in the past 12 months. For a guy who has a day job like many of you and hosts the show as a passionate hobby, the prospect of talking to the most intelligent, knowledgable and in some cases harshest poker audience is a bit frightening. The show is no longer Rounders, but Adam and I are still the same clowns as before and from some of your posts in the new 2+2 Pokercast forum(visit if you haven't checked it out) you have asked us not to change too much. While there will be some new segments, and a whole new stable of experts to help us all become better players, we're still going to joke around, I'll still be a jackass who says 'uh' all show long instead of pausing like a normal host, we might throw in obscure hockey references by accident and we'll still play the coolest music bumpers anywhere.

We'll be scouring the forums for material and getting you involved as well, so don't be surprised when we mention your twoplustwo name on the show. Our first assignment is to interview the founder and owner of twoplustwo on New Years Day. Nothing like a simple first gig. Hung-over MJ meets Mason Malmuth. Luckily, since we may need a vacation after that, we are off to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to cover the first big tourney of 2008. We're expecting 2005 World Champ Joe Hachem as a featured guest for that program. Adam and I have already locked in a prop-bet for a 100 yard dash barefoot on the beach. That'll be a little like watching a parade more than a race (Adam being the fez-wearing shriner racing the mini-car and me with the rainbow wig on the tricycle), so let the side action commence. OK, I'm off to attempt to find a picture of Mason from this century! Enjoy the Pokercast, please introduce yourself in the Bahamas next week and remember, everyone's gotta start somewhere.

MJ