Well, I did it tonight. Took down my first WPT title, at the WPT ‘Bad Boys of Poker 2′. It was a great night. The other players were Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Men Nguyen, and Jean Robert Bellande. This will go down as by far the WPT with the most chat at the table, as the mouths were running all the time. Probably 3 hours into it, Matusow looked over at me and said ‘Man, you talk more than I do….A lot more!’. I guess I consider that an honor.

Speaking of honor, in honor of my recent trip to Japan to promote poker, I wore a Kimono to the Bad Boys. It was quite a scene, as you will see in the pictures.

The game play was fast, and furious as you might expect, and this will go down as one of the quicker final tables in WPT history. The amount of play was OK, as we all had 250,000 to start, and the blinds were at 3,000/6,000. These TV things need to go rapidly, and tonight, we all obliged.

Things like this are so much fun. I want to thank the WPT people for including me, and being so nice. I support the WPT, as I have said before. And, while I respect other peoples opinions that the WPT take too many liberties, I will continue to support the WPT – they have been great for poker. I would say that even if I did not win tonight.

I had a couple of interesting hands. One with Jean Bobby where I had QJ, he had J7, and the flop came 8 9 10. No way he gets away from this, and it gave me a lot of chips. I felt I played really well, and when it got down to heads up, I had a bit of a lead against Matusow, and pushed him around for a few hands….always with absolutely nothing.

On the last hand, Mike set me up good with two kings, but I had a big lead, and a hand that has always been magic to me – the 8 10 of diamonds. I called, and sure enough the magic came with the flop being 8 10 2. No help, and it was all over.

Everyone was really nice, and the fans were really supportive. European Champion, and WPT title winner all in one year. Not bad for a guy off the street.

I’ll put some pics up soon. Enjoy them, and I will see you soon. Busy time for me, as I play Bay 101 tomorrow, and NBC National Heads Up starting Saturday.

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Pictures:

Hi –

Thanks so much for your support of me, and this blog. As a small reward, I would like one of you (plus a guest) to join me at the World Poker Tour ‘Bad Boys of Poker 2′ shoot this Saturday in Los Angeles. I will be playing, and my opponents are annouced as being Gus, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, and possibly Mike the Mouth. Write in 50 words why I should pick you, and e-mail your submission to: Schecky@gmail.com. We will notify the winner via e-mail by Friday at noon Pacific time.

This prize doesn’t include any private jets, hotels, limos, or any other stuff like that. Just two tickets to the WPT shoot in Los Angeles. It starts around 4pm, and you should plan on being there for 5 or 6 hours – I know I do.

If I win, and you are nice….maybe you can join me for the celebration afterward.

Thanks for your support. See you soon.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get anything going all day. From the first hand, when I got a bad river, I was down to 15,000 chips…starting chips was 20,000. 700 players showed up, huge field. 2.4 million for first. A lot of money in poker these days. You just gotta win, but its not easy. The standard is improving all the time. I had a pretty nice day – just relaxed, and enjoying myself. This is what its all about for me now. I just enjoy the game, and the experience. I lasted most of day, but towards the end, with a short stack I made a few moves. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. I didn’t pick up anything all day, so it’s not easy. You need to get good hands, and good situations. It’s not the hands that are as important as the situations. I had TJ Cloutier, and Martin DeKnjiff at my table. TJ is playing great, he had a nice stack, he is a super player. A few loose spots, but it just didn’t work out – I couldn’t get any of their chips.

Next for me is the WPT Invitational, then the WPT Bad Boys of Poker. I’m really looking forward to that. Gas Hansen is in it, Phill Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, I think. That’s going to be a very interesting field. Then I am off to Vegas, to play in the National Heads up Championship. I’ll get to take on Phil Hellmuth, hopefully. I really like my chances there. I love heads up. That’s March 3 through 6. I’m sure I’m going to last, and win it. It will be on NBC.

LA is nice. Not so warm. Coming from Melbourne, the weather was a bit better. I’m looking forward to going out to Santa Monica, and spend a few days before I go to Vegas. I gotta do my job as a Bad Boy, that’s next.

If you want to get into the WSOP main event for free and softly then you can join me in the Pokernews Team here are all the details on how you can join me for this years WSOP main event, I plan to play all events in WSOP this year.

WSOP Team

I just arrived today. I took a long flight from Austrailia. It took me about 20 hours, and it was a direct flight.

Tomorrow I play the WPT $10,000 buy in event. Then I will be in the WPT Invitational, then the Bad Boys of Poker.

I’m staying in downtown Los Angeles. I hope to do well. I will update. Its exciting to be back here in the good old USA.

I am still in Australia been in Tasmania, its a wonderful place I loved it there. My next trip is LA and I will play in the WPT there then the WPT Bad Boys of Poker with Helmuth, uni bomber, Mike the Mouth & Scotty Nguyen. This will be fun and I will be in USA for about a month playing in bay101 then some other events.

Australia has been great and I look forward to come back here again soon.