Roy's The Big Cheese

Winston Puts a Bad Beat on Hunger

You could say Roy Winston winning the Put a Bad Beat on Hunger tournament was a cheesy ending to a cliched Hollywood script, but organizers wouldn't want it any other way.

Winston, one of two notable professional poker players in the field, beat amateur Marc Eckert of Robbinsville, NJ to win the top prize which included an entry into the Borgata Poker Open Main Event.

"Having Roy win is the best thing that could've happened for us," said Roberta MacDonald of Cabot Creamery Cooperative, which sponsored the tournament. "He's a recognizable player and when he plays in the main event, he'll continue to bring attention to our cause."

Cabot, best known for it's line of cheese, partnered with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa to help support the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Southern Branch. "We're looking forward to a very long relationship with Cabot," said Margie Barham, Executive Director of the Southern Branch, who was estatic with this unique first time event.

In addition to receiving a $20,000 donation from Cabot, the food bank collected donations from the players, including half the prize money won by Winston. "I played really well," he said. "I'm glad to help."

Winston has also pledged a portion of any money he wins during Borgata's September Main Event. "I'm stunned by the generosity of the players who continue to make donations to the food bank from their winnings," said MacDonald, Cabot's Senior Vice President of Marketing."

The field featured Steve Dannenmann, the 2005 WSOP runner-up and first year pro James Boyle. Borgata regulars Jason Warriner and Ahmad Wardak also played and everyone was excited to have a chance at the top prize.

"I'll take the seat, that's what I really want," said Warriner while sampling some Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cabot cheese during a break. "A chance to play for a $2 million prize pool at a televised final table. You can't go wrong there."

"It's really good cheese, I think I've had 12 helpings," joked Evelyn Ankers who made a last minute decision to make the trip to Atlantic City from suburban Philadelphia. "I just got moved to Dannenmann's table. I'm thrilled I get to play with a pro. That's worth the price of admission right there."

Ankers thrill was even more intense when she played against Winston at the final table. She was one of three woman at the table on her way to finishing 5th.

Eckert also made a late decision to play in the tournament after he initially started playing at one of Borgata's cash tables. "I signed up today," he said, and with his second place winnings will consider playing in the main event. "The opportunity is there, I have some time to decide."

All of the top seven finishers made a donation to the food bank which serves thousands of impoverished families in Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland and Burlington Counties. "You can make an immediate impact in someone's life," said Barham. "You give them food and make a difference right then and there. Times are tough and people need our services."

Winston isn't only impressed with what the food bank does, but also how the Cabot Cooperation works. "The more you hear about the co-op the more you like it," he said. "It sounds like a great system with 1,300 farms owning Cabot. The more I've learned, the more pleased I am to be a part of this."

And the organizers are glad he's part of it as well. "I'll be cheering for him," said Barham as everyone looks ahead to the Main Event.

And who knows, the sequel might even be bigger and better. Winston won the Borgata Poker Open Main Event in 2007 and would love another title, another donation and more awareness for the food bank.

Winston, Barham & MacDonald

Cabot's Cooperative Effort

Bad beats in poker are like opinions, everyone has one. Players will quickly lament the times they were victimized, but rarely do they brag about dishing out a bad beat.

That all changes this Thursday at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, as it teams up with Cabot Creamery Cooperative to Put a Bad Beat on Hunger, as they stage a unique tournament.

The Vermont based organization, best known for Cabot Cheese, is looking for hundreds of bad beat stories, one from every player who turns out to play in the Atlantic City event benefiting the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Southern Branch.

Cabot's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Roberta MacDonald, is excited about this first time venture, "we make food and want to help others who give food away," she said.

MacDonald and a dozen Cabot Creamery representatives were at Wednesday's kickoff reception, along with food bank dignitaries and state officials. Also on hand were professional poker players Steve Dannenmann and Roy "The Oracle" Winston.

"Most people go to their refrigerator and there's food in it," said Dannnenmann the 2005 WSOP runner-up, "but some people don't have a refrigerator or even a place to call home. These are tough times and it’s nice to give something back and help others make ends meet.”

The Southern Branch of the New Jersey Food Bank is the lifeline for thousands of impoverished families in Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland and Burlington Counties. Last year the branch gave out 5.1 million pounds of food, a 29% increase from the previous fiscal year. It's great the bank is helping those in need, but it's alarming that the numbers continue to climb.

"We're very thankful of Cabot," said Margie Barham, Executive Director of the Southern Branch, "they're a valuable resource in our fight against hunger." Barham added that this time of year is when food bank supplies are at their lowest and the current economy is making things worse than usual.

In addition to hosting the Put a Bad Beat on Hunger tournament, Cabot donated $20,000 to the Food Bank. "We not only want to contribute financially, but we also want to bring awareness to people in need," said MacDonald.

"You see (the charity event) Ante Up for Africa, but we have our own problems at home and right here in New Jersey." She added, "if it were up to me, we'd be doing this in every poker room across the country."

As a cooperative, farmers own Cabot Creamery and 100% of the profits go to the dairy farmers who help make the cheese. That same philosophy impacts how the co-op spends its money on marketing and advertising. Instead of using the $20,000 on a big ad campaign or a catchy new jingle, Cabot Creamery feels it gets more value by donating the money to the food bank.

Members of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Southern Branch accept Cabot's $20,000 donation.

"I think it's a great event," said Winston, the 2007 Borgata Poker Open Main Event Champion. "I've had a good life as a doctor and as a poker player, and anytime I can give back I try to do it," and added, "this is a cause I believe in, I'm glad to be here."

Thursday's tournament starts at 2 pm and is a $300 entry fee ($260 + $40). Dannenmann and Winston will both be in the field competing with Borgata regulars. As an added prize pool bonus, Cabot is tacking on to first place an entry into the Main Event of Borgata's Poker Open in September, a $3,500 value.

"We're going to introduce hundreds of poker players to the world's best cheese and once they taste it they'll want to go home and buy it," boasted MacDonald.

During Wednesday’s reception Cabot honored local ShopRite stores for their contributions to the Southern Branch of the food bank. “Without them we couldn’t provide the services that we do,” said Barham.

We've all heard the story of how the villain hit a two-outer on the river, ending the hero's day. But what about the story of a single mother of two children who depends on food banks for day to day survival?

Cabot Cooperative and the New Jersey Food Banks know it all too well and Thursday they're hoping to hear a lot of bad beat stories at Borgata as they try to send hunger to the rail.

Blown Coverage

It's been nearly a week since the bombshell announcement of Michael Vick's return to the NFL. And while Philadelphia fans struggle to balance moral outrage with the football intrigue of a gifted athlete on the roster, I want to focus on a blown opportunity by the Eagles brass.

The news came down around 8:35 Eastern time Thursday night with ESPN's Chris Mortensen first reporting the story during the Steelers/Cardinals exhibition game. Across the state just 300 miles away, the Eagles were closing in on halftime of their preseason game with New England unaware of the shock waves reverberating around the league.

The breaking news caught everyone off guard in Philadelphia, including the Eagles Television Network, which apparently had no knowledge of the story until the wildfire was nationwide and burning through Lincoln Financial Field.

ETN finally broadcast the news 12 minutes later. At this point the crew of Kevin Reilly, Herm Edwards and Hugh Douglas was merely parroting the information reported by ESPN.

Because of the flow of the game, the preplanned halftime show and lack of information, the trio didn't get a chance to process, digest and present analysis until the second half, nearly an hour after it was announced on another network.

I don't blame the ETN broadcasters, producers or anyone on the crew, as this story was kept under major wraps and was a bomb shell dropped on them in the middle of what is already a chaotic and fast paced environment. The network did the best it could considering the circumstances.

As a broadcast veteran of 16 years, I have empathy for the broadcast team's situation, but it didn't have to be this way. The same leaders that stealthy debated and negotiated adding a convicted felon to the team, could have just as discretely worked with one or two of the key ETN personnel to help the organization lead the way on the story.

Preseason football broadcasts are always bought and paid for by the home team, meaning they control everything from the broadcasters to the content. The three former players in the booth all referred to the team as "we," as in "we need to do a better job protecting the quarterback." Unfortunatley for them they didn't get to say with confidence "we signed Michael Vick."

These aren't regular season games where the team has to work with the network crews and the organization has little or no control over the flow of information. These broadcasts are the mouthpiece of the entire franchise, complete with in-house "reporter" Dave Spadaro patrolling the sidelines.

I think it's an outrage and a disgrace that the Eagles Organization had a platform to be leaders in the Vick announcement, but instead forced ETN to play catch-up. I understand if they didn't want three part timers guessing how things unfolded and being the initial spokespersons, but there are ways around that.

The brass should have made it a priority that the Vick news was first announced by either Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie or President Joe Banner DURING the game. In addition to puff piece player interviews, Spadaro should have been tossing softball questions to somebody with inside knowledge of the process.

Obviously any extra involvement from the crew are potential leaks, but vague instructions to "leave 5 minutes available for a special half-time announcement," would have given the crew a chance for proper coverage.

Can you imagine having Lurie in the booth offering a meaningful and heartfelt explanation as the third and fourth stringers continued to play? The owner would've had a captive audience while scoring major points for his candor and honesty.

Even if Mortensen broke the news before a planned in-game announcement, the crew would've been in position to read and react to the breaking news instead of having to play from behind. Advance planning would've already had the wheels in motion so Lurie and/or Banner were available to make an imediate statement detailing the particulars that would have helped stem the tidal wave of initial reaction.

Their perspective would have helped mute knee jerk reactions, while demonstrating complete control with a game plan of how things would play out over the next 24-48 hours. Instead Philadelphia fans were in the dark for a couple of hours waiting for answers.

The one time the home team had complete control over the product, they failed to use the platform to get out ahead of the story. Instead, the head honchos sat back and watched the news blow up around the country.

Even if there were a snag in the negotiations and a deal wasn't imminent, it would've been much easier for the producers and talent to replace the 5 minutes of potential coverage with a back-up plan, than to be completely caught off guard.

Angry and bewildered fans called the local talk shows, national pundits spewed speculation and everyone wondered how this all happened. Instead of squelching some of the ambiguity with an in-game announcement and taking air out of the speculative balloons, the Eagles put its broadcast at a disadvantage and left their fans hanging.

There was no normalcy in the second half as the fans and media were left rooting for the clock to run out. Everyone was more interested in hearing Andy Reid's postgame comments on Vick than watching to see if defensive end Jason Babin could beat the Pats third string double team.

The front office's lack of planning left Reid hanging out to dry as he was the first representative to address the breaking news. This was an organizational decision that effected people on many levels and it wasn't fair that the coach had to face philosophical questions along with explaining the football reasons for the move.

An in-game statement or interview would've taken some of the heat off Reid, especially since the franchise is just as concerned with Vick's personal rehabilitation as they are with his football impact.

Reid handles on the field issues and had to sell Vick's addition to ownership. In turn, ownership should've been selling the decision to the fans. Instead Reid did all the intial heavy lifting.

To make matters worse, not only did ETN not get the benefits of having a spokesman on the air during the game, the network signed off after the final gun and didn't get to carry the postgame explanations. The captive audience the Birds had for more than three hours quickly switched to Comcast SportsNet, ESPN or the NFL Network to get the skinny from the podium.

Over the next day fans finally got to hear from the principals as Vick and Lurie took the stage at Friday's news conference. The speculation, results and ultimate explanations wouldn't have been much different than what could have been offered the night before, but at least the Eagles would've been in control.

The organization could have sealed the deal of keeping things under wraps by presenting a public statement on THEIR terms. Instead they opted to play a prevent defense and were forced to react to speculation and misinformation for a longer period than was necessary.

The Eagles secondary will have lots of break downs during the season, but nothing like the blown coverage the front office had concerning Michael Vick.

Barrage Of Bullets

You don't hear it often, but I laugh when players lament pocket aces.

"I hate aces" and "they always get cracked" are two of the popular cries, along with "I'll take what's in the pot," after a ridiculous over bet gets them seven bucks.

This post isn't to preach how it's ridiculous to hate the best starting hand in poker. It's not to explain that even though you lost a boatload of chips to a flopped set, that even in this economy, aces still have a postive EV. And it's not to give you tips on how to handle being check raised on the turn.

No, this is to relish my recent run of pocket aces.

It's a statistical anomaly, but I haven't lost with aces the last 20 times I've had them! How do I know it's 20 in a row? Because with my touch of OCD, I've been keeping track during my live play (not much on-line for me).

The bullets have been on target, pocket rockets are blasting my profits to the moon and American Airlines has me flying in first class.

It doesn't matter if it's a cash game or a tournament, if I take it down with a standard preflop raise or if I'm all-in and we see the river. 20 in a row!

Unfortunately I can't say I've WON all 20 hands because of an unfortunate chop when my tournament opponent also had bullets. The nerve of that guy, dropping my record to 19-0-1. He should've been scared that I was going to four flush him out the door, that's how good my rockets have been running.

I started keeping track after last year's Sahara-like drought, when I didn't see aces for, something like, 20 hours of play. If you figure there's an average of 30 hands per hour in live play, and the odds of getting dealt pocket aces are 220-1, I should've had Alan Alda at least twice in the 600+ hands I played.

Fast forward to 2009 and the streak started with a couple of AA wins in a 4 hour session and continues to build. The official stats break down like this:

15-0 in casino $1/$2 NL play,
1-0-1 in casino tournaments
3-0 in free rolls (Riverchasers)

My most satisfying win was at Borgata when I did all the betting, on all the streets, and the dude kept calling. Finally on the river, he goes all-in and I snap call.

"Do you have aces?" he asks. I motion that I called him and I wanted to see his hand.

"Do you have aces?" he repeats in a more irritated tone.

Finally the dealer makes him turn over his AK, which gave him top pair, top kicker on the king high flop.

Dude is ticked when I show AA and take him for $250. It prompts him to call me a feminine hygiene product, followed by a homophobic slur, which another player brings to the floor manager's attention.

I just smile while stacking his chips.

I'm not arrogant enough to keep track of all the money I've won during my good fortune and I'm not afraid of jinxing future results.

It's simply an amazing run.

I've got another Atlantic City trip scheduled and just want to keep flying first class as long as possible. Hopefully the players whining in coach don't disrupt my friendly skies.