Bizarre Clonie Gowan Story

Clonie Gowan, in case you aren't aware, is a professional poker player.  She was also -- up until about two months ago -- a member of "Team Full Tilt", a select group of about a dozen poker players affiliated with the poker website FullTiltPoker.net.

Something odd has happened.  I noticed recently that Clonie's image no longer is amoung the group of players that appear at the end of every "Full Tilt" television commercial.  A visit to the website shows that she has been airbrushed out of every photo and removed from every listing of players.  She's apparently been dispatched down the memory hole, with a degree of efficiency that would make a Bellagio chip-runner jealous.

Naturally, there's a lawsuit involved.  Clonie is suing Full Tilt's parent company (along with some of the owners individually) for $40 million.  She claims that when the website was founded, she was promised 2% ownership of the company.  Apparently there's nothing in writing to prove this.  But she says some weeks ago, Howard Lederer (the purported CEO) offered her $250,000 to walk away.  She thinks she deserves more; hence the lawsuit.

Now, I'm not a lawyer.  But I do know quite a bit about contract law, so I can make a couple of conclusions about this situation.

1. The fact that this alleged ownership interest lacked a written agreement isn't terribly relevant.  An oral contract is just as binding as a written one in most cases (there are plenty of exceptions.  Real estate transactions, for example.).  Having something in writing is helpful, of course, but not usually a requirement for an action to proceed.

2. On the other hand, in order for a contract to be binding, it must involve an activity that is legal.  In other words, if you hire Vinnie the Blade to knock off your ex-girlfriend, and he doesn't, you can't sue him in court for breach of contract, because the basis of the contract was not a legal activity.  Is running an online poker room legal in the United States?  It's not entirely clear whether it is or not.

Regardless, I'm sure that Full Tilt isn't eager to see this action make its way to a courtroom.  It would pretty much oblige them to open up their books and show a lot of details about where the money come from -- and goes -- that they'd just as soon keep private.

If Clonie is seeking $40 meg for 2% of the company, she's basically saying the firm as a whole is worth $2B.  That's difficult to accept, at least for me.  If you'd value the company at between one to one-and-a-half times annual revenue (pretty generous for these types of enterprises that are public), a back of the envelope guesstimate (by me) would give Full Tilt a value of maybe one-tenth or one-twentieth Clonie's number.

My prediction is that the two sides will settle for a low, seven-figure number that will remain secret; Clonie will fade away, and we'll never hear any more about the matter.

But the whole thing is bizarre.

I've always thought that Clonie Gowan was an odd fit for that organization.  Frankly, she's not that good of a poker player.  And her vocabulary includes the kind of words you'd only find at the dockyard ... or in the Illinois Governor's office.  She actually holds the record for the most bleeped player on the TV show "Poker After Dark".

Think about it:  Here are some of the other members of Team Full Tilt:

 * Former World champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson

 * Eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel (8 bracelets!  Only three human beings have more.)

 * Jennifer Harman, perhaps the best female player in the world

 * Phil Ivey, widely considered poker's very best player overall

 * Erick Lindgren, who's been both WPT and WSOP "Player of the Year"

 * Widely respected cash game player Patrik Antonius

 * Etc. etc. etc.

And ... um ... Clonie Gowan?  I mean, how does she fit in with this group, after all?

Not to mention the fact that she basically confessed on an episode of "Poker After Dark" to having cheated in a game.  She said she noticed the deck they were playing with had too many Aces ... but she waited until the pot was pushed to her before she notified the floorman.

Believe it or not, there's a code of honor among poker players.  Handshake agreements fall under that code ... but so does respecting the integrity of the game that you're in.  Every player has the obligation to do what's best for poker at all times; Clonie didn't live up to that requirement.

That doesn't mean she doesn't deserve to be compensated for her work on behalf of Full Tilt.  But if she's that kind of player, it just might indicate why she's no longer part of their team.

Why I Hate Ace-Jack

I’ve posted before about Ace-Jack, and how it really is a pretty bad hand to come into a pot with. I frequently fold it pre-flop if there’s any action early on, and I always fold it from early position. But some folks don’t, and they end up having to deal with consequences that I’m able to avoid.

I was in early position at a $2/$5 no-limit game with Ace/King offsuit. The first player folded; I raised to $15, and got two callers – a loose, middle-position player, and the guy on the button. The flop came Ace-Ace-Three rainbow. I checked, hoping for the chance at a check-raise … but unfortunately the other two guys also checked behind me. The turn brought a deuce. Although this meant a straight was in the offing, I thought that was extremely unlikely. After all, who is going to call a raise pre-flop with a five-four?

I bet $20; the button called and the other player folded. The river was a nine (no flush draws), so I put in a $60 bet. My opponent called and proudly showed the Ace-Jack. I turned over my Ace-King and dragged the pot.

How I Play Kings

I nearly titled this "How To Play Kings" ... but that would be a little presumptive I think.

But it is true that the way I play pocket Kings (or Queens or Jacks, or even to some extent Aces) is different from how a lot of people play them.  To begin with, with any of these hands I'm quite content to take in a small pot.  Someone (Stu Ungar?) once said pocket Aces will either win you a small pot or lose you a big one, and I've played enough to realize that's true.  So, given that choice, I'd rather win the small pot.

So with any of these hands, I will raise from any position, or re-raise if it's already been raised.  Ideally, I want to be down to a single opponent pre-flop.  None of these hands play particularly well with multiple opponents.

On the flop, if an overcard comes (i.e. an Ace when I'm holding Kings, or Ace or King when I have Queens, etc.) then I am pretty much through with the hand.  Just about the only hands worth calling a pre-flop raise with contain an Ace, so now I am beat.  Fortunately I most likely have only put in a comparatively small amount, so it's not too painful.  Frustrating, but not painful.

With Kings or Queens, I will reraise a preflop raiser, trying to get heads-up like I said.  If my opponent re-reraises me, I'll just call.  That way, if I'm taking my Kings against Aces, I won't lose as much as I would if I continued to make it a shove contest.  Then just check and call it down, and hope the Kings hold.  I'll almost never raise all-in with Kings, but I will call somebody else's all-in.  If they have the Aces at that point, well I guess too bad for the home team.

Here are a couple of hands from a recent poker session to show you what I mean.  Both of them occurred at the $2/$5 no-limit table.

In the first hand, I was the big blind.  A player in early position limped (oh how I hate early position limpers, such a bad play).  Everybody else folded to the small blind, who called.  I looked at my hand -- pocket Kings -- and raised to $20, hoping one of my two opponents would fold.  The first limper called ... and then the small blind re-raised me, to $100!  Usually, I would have just called ... but I really did want the other player out, so I re-re-reraised again, to $300.  The early limper folded; then the small blind went all-in, which was a total bet of $500.  Well of course I was committed, I had him covered, I called.  A river King gave me trips, which I didn't need against his pocket Queens.  The $1000 pot was mine.

In the second hand, I was in early position with Ten/Four of clubs and folded, so I was just a member of the audience for what went down.  It was folded to the button, who raised to $20.  The small blind folded; the big blind re-raised to $50.  The button then raised to $160; the big blind went all in (about $400) -- he had the button covered -- and the button called.  The big blind showed his Kings and the button showed his Aces.  The dealer placed five bricks on the board, and the big blind had successfully donked off almost his entire stack pre-flop.

I don't even like the big blind's first re-raise.  At this point, he is already heads-up; I would have just called the button and taken the flop.  But after the button re-raised, his all-in shove was a horrible decision.  Think about it:  Not many hands are worth putting $160 into the pot pre-flop; and fewer of those can be beaten by pocket Kings.

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Here's a shout-out to my co-worker Steve, who came in second in a recent PokerStars tourney for a $7000+ payday.  Many more of those Steve and you probably won't be my co-worker for long!  Big congrats.

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The Seattle area has a new casino which opened recently, the Snoqualmie Casino.  I went and checked it out over the T'giving weekend.  I guess I will be charitable and say that since it just opened, they haven't grown to their capacity yet.  When I was there, only one table of the 12 in their poker room was playing, and it was a $4/$8 limit table.  There was list for $2/$5 spread limit.  I played the limit table for a few hours, and the other players there were just ghastly.  I've already written how I don't like the lower limit tables, because the rake alone makes it almost impossible to beat.  Anyhow, they promise that they will have a larger poker room opening in a few weeks; let's at least hope they have more players too to populate it with.

The Importance of Being Patient

I waited a couple of days to post this, and I am glad that I did, because there’s an additional chapter to the story that hadn’t occurred earlier.

I was playing at a $2/$5 no-limit table, like usual, and suffered a really terrible beat that risked putting me on a massive tilt jag.  It took a lot of discipline not to just donk off the rest of my chips . . . or resolve to give up poker altogether!

First of all, I had been playing my game really well all evening, and had started to build up a respectable stack.  I was suitably tight, very attentive to the play and to my opponents, and feeling really good about the session.  Then, along came the following hand.

I was under-the-gun and found Ace/King of clubs, a premium hand if there ever was one.  Like I usually would with this hand, I raised it to $15, and action continued to the player on my left.  He re-raised me to $50.  Now, he was also playing quite tight and I had a lot of respect for his game.  But I wasn’t going to surrender my nice hand before at least seeing the flop.  Everybody else folded; I called; and it went to the flop heads-up.

The flop was Ace-rag-rag, so I had top pair and top kicker.  There were no straight or flush draws.  Very, very nice.  I put out a $40 bet, and he insta-called me.  This confused me, but we went to the turn.

The turn was another rag.  I thought I still had the best hand, but his behavior was baffling, so I just checked.  He checked behind me; this gave me quite a bit of confidence.

When another brick came on the river, I put out a bet of $100.  He raised all-in, which was not much more.  I had him covered, so I called and turned over my pair of Aces with top kicker.  He turned over his pocket Aces, for a flopped set!  I was behind from the start.  Worst of all, I really couldn’t blame anybody for the hand.  I’m just not going to surrender Ace/King suited pre-flop; I think it was just fated for me to lose.  I lost everything I had won that session, as well as a decent chunk of what I had brought to the table.

I played on for a few more rounds, extremely tight, more as an exercise in forcing myself not to tilt.  But the cards didn’t break my way at all, and ultimately I just got up and left.  It was a truly horrible experience.

So that’s where it stood for a day or two, and I had decided to post the hand here as a therapeutic measure.  But tonight, the next chapter was writ; I’m glad I waited to post, because I see both of these hands as part of a matching set.

The theme of this entry is patience.  If I hadn’t had patience, what happened next probably never would have.  And if I hadn’t had a fundamental faith in my game – perhaps my best poker quality – it definitely wouldn’t have.

Another day; another $2/$5 game.  I sat down still dejected from the last session, with a rather fatalistic outlook on the world, and pretty much expecting to see my chip stack wither away either gradually or through one classic crash-up like before.

After a couple of rounds where I was starting to build my stack (like usual), and playing very carefully and (if I do say so myself) quite disciplined and good, I looked down under-the-gun and found pocket Aces.  I brought it in for a raise ($15).  The player on my left, somebody I hadn’t ever played with before but who I pegged as relatively tight, raised it to $50.  This seemed eerily like the previous day’s fiasco, although this time I held the Aces.  It folded around to me, and I said (to myself), oh, the hell with it, and I just shoved in my stack; around $500 (I had my opponent covered).  He insta-called, and all we needed now was a board.

It came Queen, Jack, and three rags.  I turned over my pocket Aces.  He turned over his pocket Kings.  I won a huge pot; even bigger than the one I had lost the day before.  All was right with the world once more.  My opponent got mad and left.

I never think it’s wrong pre-flop to shove with pocket Aces, in a cash game at least.  At worst, I am 80% to win.  I don’t feel the same way about Kings though; nor even (generally) about calling somebody else’s all-in while holding Kings.  I have some more thoughts about playing Kings, and I’ll post those some time.  But I did want to make this entry for the time being.

2008 Pendleton Fall Poker Roundup

I have to say, this is one of the very best tournaments that I've ever been to.  Not only were the tournaments good, but the side action was some of the consistently best poker I've ever seen.  It was a great place to play poker!

I took a walk around downtown Pendleton Saturday morning, and although there's not much to it I must admit it's a pretty decent town after all.  And it isn't as small as I originally expected; all in all it's probably about the same size as the town I went to college at in Nebraska.  So it was a very comfortable place to be.

The motel I was at was as cheap as could be, but not a bad joint at all.  Best of all, the wireless Internet worked!  And it was next door to the 24-hour Denny's restaurant, so I had decent breakfasts all weekend (and a few nice lunches too).

Along with around 300 other folks, I played the $500 buy-in tournament on Saturday.  Much to my surprise, there were a lot of pros who were there!  I didn't expect this, because of the WSOP circuit tournament going on in Tahoe, but there they were:  Susie Isaacs, Marsha Waggoner, Tom McEvoy, Barbara Enwright, Linda Johnson, a few others too.  When I saw Tom McEvoy, I remembered that I happened to have brought one of his books with me to read on the plane, so I resolved to bring it back the next day and see whether he would autograph it for me.

I made it more than half-way through the field, but busted out before the money.  But on the other hand, I saw that I had outlasted every pro except for Linda Johnson, so I guess that's something.

The next day (Saturday) was the "Main Event", with a $1000 buy-in.  But I was having such a good run at the cash games that I decided to skip it and just play $2/$5 after all.  I brought my book for McEvoy to sign -- but he never showed up!  I guess when he busted out of the Friday tournament so early, he just decided to head out.  Bummer!  I really wanted to meet him.

Sunday was the "Last Chance" tournament, with a measly $200 buy-in.  Just for fun, I played a $20 satellite to see whether I could get in for cheap; made it all the way to heads-up, and then cut a deal with the other guy.  I gave him the win, and he gave me $75.  So I decided to go ahead and play that tournament.  There were over 200 entries.

I made it to the final five tables . . . but they only paid the final two tables.  So I nearly made it.  Then, back to the cash tables for more money-making.

At one of my cash games were two pros that I'd never heard of before:  Vince Burgio and Howard "Tahoe" Andrew.  It's probably a good thing that nobody told me they were pros until after they had left or else I might have probably been intimidated.  As it was, I pretty much wiped the table with them.  "Tahoe" especially received a lot of pain from playing pots against me.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they haven't heard of me either.

They play either two or three of these "Poker Roundups" each year; not clear to me yet which it is.  But I can promise you that I will definitely be back!  I have found a group of really good poker players, top to bottom, and it's a totally terrific environment to play in!

Pendleton Fall Poker Roundup

So here I am in beautiful tiny Pendleton.  I flew into what was certainly the smallest commercial airport I have ever flown into -- and I've flown into plenty of tiny airports.  Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and Traverse City come to mind.  As for this place -- the waiting area was smaller than the turboprob plane that brought me there!  Since it's only 40 miles away from Walla Walla, I'm surprised that it's even still open.

The motel I'm staying at reminds me of the places in Kansas City they used to close down because of all the drug trafficking.  Sometimes I'm so cheap I can't even explain it to myself.  The difference in price between this joint and the casino hotel is basically one decent no-limit pot, so it's not like I wouldn't be able to afford the upgrade.

Then I popped over to the casino, expecting to be seriously disappointed.  The casino itself (the Wildhorse) looks like any other Indian casino, the kind that you find every thirty miles or so in Michigan.  I thought, okay, their poker room has maybe six tables in it, if I'm lucky (turns out it has four).  I wandered about the slot area (smoking section of course), looked through the gift shop, then walked over to the convention center to take a peek.  Many times, big tournaments are held in the convention area rather than the poker room (like the WSOP).

I ended up walking into one of the largest poker rooms I'd ever seen outside of Las Vegas and L.A.!  There must have been 50 tables set up, maybe more.  It was extremely impressive.  So, just to get the feel for the crowd, I sat down at the $2/$5 no-limit table and bought in for $400.

That $400 lasted me around six hours, but I had one of the worst runs of cards I can remember.  In fact, there's really only two key hands that I played where I put in more than $15-$20.  In the first, I had pocket Queens, and my opponent had Ace/Jack.  The board flopped a Jack, and the third Jack came on the river, so I lost a decent pot there (around $200).  The second hand, I had Ace/Jack suited on the button, and I ran into a flopped full house (pocket nines caught a nine-five-five flop).  That pretty much did it for me.

When I have a session with bad hand after bad hand, I start to think, well, I hope I got all the bad hands out of the way so next time I get better hands.  I'll see whether this holds true, because I'll be playing the $500 no limit tournament today.  Some of the dealers said they expect around 500 players -- this would make for a prize pool of $250,000!  I think it will be fun.

Tomorrow is a $1000 tournament.  I will probably play that one too, but to be honest I haven't decided yet.

Some Interesting Hands

For one reason or another, I found a few hands I played recently rather interesting, so I’ll post them in case anybody else does too.  They’re all from the $2/$5 no-limit table.

For the first hand, I was in the big blind.  The first player folded.  The second player called the big blind of $5.  He was a very loose player, seeing a lot of flops, so his call didn’t mean a thing to me.  (Although I don’t believe I will EVER understand why somebody in early position would ever just call the big blind.)  The only other caller was the small blind, another loose cannon.  I looked down to see Queen/Six of clubs – true garbage – so I checked and the three of us saw the flop.

It was Seven of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, Jack of Clubs.  So I had flopped top pair with rotten kicker, but almost certainly the best hand.  The small blind checked; I bet $5 into the $15 pot and got both players to call.  Nice.

The turn was the Six of Diamonds, and suddenly I had two pair.  Oddly enough, at this point the small blind overbet $40 into the $30 pot.  There’s no way he had me beat; I’d seen him play enough to know that if he had either a set (because of a pocket pair) or a better two pair than me, he’d have bet it earlier.  So I just smooth called his bet.  The third player folded out of the way.

The river brought the Nine of Spades.  At this point, my opponent checked.  I value bet a measly $60 (the pot was over $100) and without much delay, he called.  I showed my two pair; I don’t know what he had because he mucked.  But I brought home a nice $220 pot.

As for the next hand on the agenda, I was in late position.  The player under the gun raised to $20 or four times the big blind.  (Now that is how to come in from early position!)  This guy was moderately tight, so I was a bit concerned about what he might have.  The next player folded; then the one after that called the bet cold.  He was a very loose player and his call didn’t really mean much to be as he had been playing a lot of pots.  Frankly, I put him on two high cards.  The next player folded; I looked down at the two red Queens.  Now, believe it or not, frequently in this situation I would strongly consider folding!  That is, a tight player in first position coming in for a raise, with one player calling the bet cold . . . absent any other information, I’d assume at least one of them had Aces or Kings.  But this was a very loose table, with everybody calling every bet with bizarre hands, so I thought that it was extremely possible that I had the best hand here.   So I went ahead and called.  The player to my left (who was the button) also called – but I actually liked that, because he was a truly terrible player and I saw it as a chance to take some chips from him.  The two blinds folded.

The flop was pretty good for me:  Seven of Hearts, Three of Hearts, Three of Spades.  I thought that it was extremely unlikely that it had hit anybody; with that much pre-flop action, you’d have to believe everybody had cards higher than seven.  The betting round confirmed my hunch, as the first two players checked (at this time I put the UTG guy also on two high cards).  I put $60 into the $87 pot; the button called and the other two players folded (whew!)

The turn was the Jack of Clubs; my Queens were almost certainly still good.  This time I put $140 out (the pot was around $200) and again my calling-station opponent came along for the ride.

River:  Three of Diamonds.  Now, only three hands beat me:  the case Three, or pocket Aces or Kings.  No way my button buddy had those.  I put him all in for another $120 (I had him covered).  He thought a good long time before folding, and the $460 pot was mine.

Big deal, you’re thinking, anybody can play pocket Queens.  And you’re right.  So this last hand is about as opposite a hand as you’ll find . . . in fact, it played out so odd that I just cracked up when I was over.  I won’t tell you my holding until the very end.

I was in the big blind.  The first player folded; the next one limped (he might be the tightest player I’ve ever seen); another fold, then the next player min-raised to $10 (why oh why such a ridiculous raise?).  The one to his left called the raise; it folded around to me.  At this point, with the pot odds I’d have called another $5 with any two cards, so I did.  Mr. Tight also called, so it was four to the flop.

The flop came two black Aces, and the Deuce of Diamonds.

When I see a flop like this, I have two competing reactions: (1) The fact that two Aces came makes it less likely that anybody else held an Ace pre-flop; and (2) If anybody does in fact hold an ace in their hand, it will become pretty clear during the betting that is to come.

I checked; so did Mr. Tight.  The pre-flop raiser put out a min-bet of $5, and I was the only caller.

The turn was the Three of Spades, and it went check-check.

The river brought the Ten on Clubs.  The pot held just over $50 by now.  I value-bet a miniscule $20 into the pot; my opponent called, and I turned over (what I knew from the flop on was) the winning hand:

Seven/Deuce of Clubs!

I don’t know what my opponent had for sure but it must have been two high cards.

I’m going to be playing at the “Poker Round-Up” at the Wildhorse Casino in the massive metropolis of Pendleton, Oregon next week.  Just a change of pace to shake things up.  I’m going to enter a couple of events there in addition to playing the cash games; I’ll let you know how I did.