Briefly played in a $20+2 Stars MTT with Joe, at the same table for a little while. With a raise and a call in front of me, I pushed in with KK, and got called by the initial raiser’s AA. Not looking good. Looked even worse after the AAx flop. Just to rub it in, a king came out on the turn. He busted shortly after when his all in with 99 was called by KJ and AQ. Hard to win against four overcards if you don’t flop a set. A jack on the flop, and he was gone.
I’ve continued to play the $25NL 6max game at Party, with reasonable results. I still have a long way to go before I feel comfortable moving up again. It’s a real shame, too, because I was absolutely killing that $100NL game before I got hurt. I’m seeing myself make stupid plays that I wouldn’t have even thought about doing 3 months ago. Seeing it before it happens, and doing it anyway. I’ll get there.
I miss Vegas.
I slept too much, as I always do. I finally made it downstairs to the poker room, after a shower (and ankle bath, as Joe so nicely put it) and desperately needed shave, to find a bunch of bloggers in the Plaza’s noon tournament. I watched them all play for a while, and then sat down in the 1-2 NL game with $100. That didn’t last long. My third hand, I raised to $11 with AKo, and got four callers. Not really what I wanted there. I pushed all in for my remaining $89 at the $55 pot on the KTx flop. Someone thinks a little bit, and then calls, and everyone else folds. There was pretty much only one hand I want to be called with here, since I don’t think he’d call with a king but lower kicker, so I said “I hope he has QJ.” Then on the 9 on the turn, I corrected myself, “I hope he doesn’t have QJ.” The river was a queen or a jack to put a one card straight on the board anyway, and he flipped over his QJ. Why don’t I ever hit my draws like that? At least I didn’t give him the odds to make the call… he needed 2.6:1 and was only getting 1.6:1. That doesn’t really make me feel much better. I bought in for another hundred, and that didn’t last terribly long, either. More than three hands, though.
I watched the tournament a bit more, and saw Pauly suck out with runner runner spades to double up. He flopped top pair with AK vs top two with AT. I saw Bobby Bracelet and … someone else, dammit, who was it? … get busted by an “experienced tournament player” who sucked out on both of them, complete with Big Slick shirt, and standing and cheering when he won. He would end up finishing fourth, but get busted by BG’s friend Nate who would go on to win the tournament. When I left for lunch, Pauly, Derek, Chris, and Nate (and maybe others) were still playing.
I wandered over to Binion’s with Gracie, Pablo, and their friend whose name I never caught. Pablo ran to the gift shop and picked up a couple of decks of cards, and we played hold ’em for sugar packets. The very first hand, I got dealt 7♥2♥. Sure, it’s not the hammer, but it’s close enough. I raise to 4, bet my pair of 7s on the flop, and take down the first pot. I would go on to get some good hands and win quite a bit. It was my only winning session in Vegas. For sugar packets. And Equal. And Splenda. The food at Binion’s coffee shop/restaurant is very good and reminded me of some of the Denver restaurants of my childhood.
Back to the Plaza, to find only Nate and Poker Geek still alive in the tournament. They make it down to the final table, and Geek lost most of his chips with ATs vs QQ. The flop was Q55, and he was drawing to runner runner straight flush. The next hand, got in with A3 vs A2, and with a pair and high cards on the board, it was looking like a split, but then a deuce spiked on the river and he was knocked out. Nate, who was playing in only his second ever live tournament (he took third in the WPBT ACC the day before), would go on to win, and played great poker doing it. Everyone to the bar for a round of drinks.
I almost got myself ahead for the weekend. Almost. While hanging out at the bar, I wandered over to the roulette table nearby. It had a sign on it, “This is the table that Ashley Revell bet $135,300 on red, and won.” Something to that effect. For some reason, I decided I should put $20 on 23. I can’t explain it, I just figured it’d be the right thing to do. I didn’t. It hit. I walked away in disgust. That was the closest I came to playing a -EV game over the weekend.
Back to the poker room, I sat chatting with the Poker Geek and others, while watching the Mets blow out the Giants in the second game of a double header, and waiting for the floorman to set up our mixed game. It finally gets going, and it would be four innings into the latenight ESPN replay of the Mets/Giants game before I’d get up from the 7 seat. Early on, I take down a big pot, and make a comment that it would be the last pot I’d take all night. That was far from true, and for a while I was running well good and was +$120. I’d finish down $30.
I was UTG for one of my many straddles. “Live four!” It gets back around to me threebet, and of course, I have to cap it (aside – this is how it’s been done all weekend, but I’m pretty sure with the straddle it should be a five bet cap – oh well) in the dark. The flop comes down KTx. Gracie bets from the big blind, and I raise it up in the dark. There are one or two other players still in, and it gets back to me raised again. I’m no poker pro, so at this point I decided I should probably look at my cards. AJ. I have a gutshot, with a huge pot, and a rainbow board. “The pot’s too big to fold now,” as my chips go in. I call the blank on the turn, and the beautiful queen shows up on the river. “I value bet my nuts.” Gracie calls and flips up her AA. I flip up my straight, and the table goes nuts. “Okay, that’ll be the last hand I’m going to win all night.”
I’m not sure how I bled all my winnings away, but there were some other fun hands played at the table. A hand of Razz came down to whoever had the better (worse?) two pair. I drew at a low in Stud Hi/Lo, and ended up taking the high with sixes up. Two pair, sixes and threes. Playing a low hand, again in Stud Hi/Lo, I get runner runner hearts to scoop a pot against the (other) Geek. I decide not to straddle, and muck 43o UTG, only to see a 567 flop and two people hit the flop hard (66 and 77). The board didn’t pair on the end, and the whole thing woulda been mine. We had a Jason Giambi lookalike, complete with Yankees clothing, come up to the table and ask us if we were the bloggers. He sat down and played with us for a while. Apparently, he had read my blog, and of course, Iggy’s, but never Pauly’s or Grubby’s. Strange. I didn’t catch his name or blog, but I’m pretty sure someone did.
After the game finally broke, we headed up to Casino 2351. This was possibly the best part of the whole trip. Just sitting around, hanging out, having good conversations. It was there that I was told about bloglines. There that I finally got to really talk to AlCantHang, Iggy, Pauly, Grubby, tp… and others, I’m sure. Iggy offered me $100 for a domain name I registered, which I had to refuse. He’s getting it at cost. At some point during the night morning, I was trying to figure out who the first poker blogger I read was, and I couldn’t remember. Through the magic of the Internet Archive, I found that the first one I linked to was none other than Professional Poker Player Chris Halverson. He was probably the first one I read, followed quickly by Iggy, Grubby, and Pauly, I’m sure. Speaking of which, my poker blog links are sorely lacking at the moment. Many more will be added, as soon as I figure out how to change my layout to fit them all where I want.
At some point I realized that I couldn’t go to work in the condition I was in. I would need to at least shower and change out of my smoke-filled clothes first, which unfortunately meant leaving the suite that much earlier. I got a call from Orbitz telling me my flight was on time. That gave me three hours. Shortly after, I said goodbye to everyone, headed to my room for another ankle bath, and caught a cab to the airport. While there, and again in LAX, I was constantly checking the blogs of people who might have already made it home by this point. I landed in Santa Barbara at around 9:35, drove straight to work, and got there 5 minutes before the start of our quarterly meeting.
Get one of these.
Had I found it a few days earlier, it woulda been the bounty on me for the ACC.
Coming up in Vegas, Part III:
- my last NL session of the weekend
- railbirding the Plaza noon tournament on Sunday
- poker for sugar packets (my only winning session!)
- another mixed game at the plaza, including the aces cracking straddle
- hanging out in the suite as long as possible before heading to the airport
Be sure to check out Tao of Poker and Lasvegasvegas.com for the best WSOP updates on the web.
Ever since I hurt my wrist and had to stop playing poker online for a month and a half, my game has been absolute shit. I couldn’t really put my finger on why until the blogger gathering in Vegas. In particular, one hand in the 1-2NL at the Aladdin made it all become clear. I raised to $15 with KQo, and got reraised to $30. As I’m making the call, I said something to the effect of “I shouldn’t call this, it’s only going to get me in trouble.” I check-folded to a $40 bet on the king high flop, face up. I never saw his cards, but I’m pretty sure I was beat. I was told AK. Unwind and relax with the engaging and entertaining experience of judi online.
That’s when I realized the main problem i’ve had playing lately: lack of discipline. Most of the time, I know the correct play (fold), but I do something else anyway. I don’t really know that I have anything else to say about the problem. At least I’ve figured it out. I honestly do believe that I know the right play most of the time. It’s just a matter of execution.
With that in mind, I played some $25NL 6max at Party last night. I still have the bankroll for the $100NL game I was playing, but I want to get back to playing well before I move up there again. I played two tables, more than doubled up on each one, for a nice $60 profit. It helped that I got hit by the deck, but I also made some decent laydowns and one good call with second pair. I had one streak of four hands where I was dealt JJ, 99, 66, and AA consecutively. I flopped a boat with the first, called an all-in on the turn with an 8 high board on the second, bluffed and won at the ace turn on the third, and won at showdown with the fourth.
Most importantly, I got back a little bit of confidence that I actually know how to play this game. Let’s hope that holds.
We made our way to the La Salsa Cantina from the Aladdin, and headed to the private party section in the back. I’m sure there are some good stories to come out of this party, but I don’t really have any. I just chatted with and met a lot of people. I finally met the other guy who was staying in my room, Joaquin, though I don’t think either of us had actually slept there yet. I also met Grubby, Pauly, Al, and many others.
Fast forward to after the party. Felicia was supposed to be setting up a mixed game for us at the Plaza, but it’s full for a tournament, so a bunch of us wander over to the Nugget. As soon as we hit the poker room, the floorman asked us what he can do for us and what we want to play. This begins the 2-4 HORPSE game. Again, I don’t remember the entire table makeup. I’m sure we had Bobby Bracelet and Joe Speaker at the table. Chad was apparently there, too. I had been up too long at this point, and wasn’t taking notes. I lost around $80 of my $100 buyin in the first round of Omaha. After that, I decided to just fold any four cards I was dealt in that damn game.
I wasn’t really involved in any notable hands in this game, but it was a ton of fun. I raised preflop in pineapple with 972, threw away the 9, of course. I bet out at the T2T flop, and took it down with the pineapple hammer. It was probably the best hand after the flop, anyway. I got dealt three kings – in pineapple. That was useless. Bob took down a pot that was almost $150 in Razz. All three players in for the capping had decent hands. I honestly can’t really remember any other hands from that game, but it was a blast. Sometime in the middle of that I had a hot dog from the snack bar – other than a donut at the plaza, the first thing I ate since arriving in Vegas.
After that game broke, I went back to the Plaza intending to finally head to bed. I stupidly decided to check out the poker room there to see who was around first, and of course had to sit down in the mixed game there. Not too long into the game, I look down at my hole cards and see the first pocket aces I’ve been dealt all weekend. We were playing razz. My doorcard was a 2, but there was a lot of action with low cards showing and I had to dump it. A little later, I got A♥A♠9♠ playing crazy pineapple. The flop was Q♠3♠3. Given the action, I knew I was behind to at least a 3, and dumped an ace to chase my flush. I hit on the turn, but was behind to Al’s Q3 the whole way. I stuck around until the game broke, and finally went up to bed, at around 1am. I had been up for 40 hours.
…continued…
UA Flight 1492 landed in Vegas around 11:40 (PM) Friday night, after being delayed a bit out of LA. I made my way to the tram. A quick calculation told me I’d be waiting there for at least 25 minutes before actually being able to get on one of them. The place was packed. As the next one pulled up, I made my way around to the exit side, and got on as the last people were getting off. Four or five other people followed. The employee who was working on some of the electronics in it looked up and laughed. I entertained myself playing solitaire on my Treo in the 45 minutes I was waiting for a cab. Finally, I arrived at the Plaza. Joaquin had already checked in, so I just had to pick up a key at the desk. I dropped my bags in the room, and headed back downstairs.
After a little internal debate, I decide to just play some poker at the Plaza instead of head over to the Aladdin to see if people are still there from storming the castle. Sadly, I had forgotten that I had a list of everyone’s phone number in my bag up in my room. I played decent poker, but got a little greedy on one hand and got outdrawn. I limped in the cutoff with 76s, and called a raise from the button, with two other players in. The flop was 767, and there’s a $10 bet and a $30 raise in front of me. The guy who raised to $40 was bad, and only had around $15 left behind him. The original preflop raiser was still yet to act behind me, and had me covered. The guy who bet out the initial $10 had around $150 left. I just called the $40. The button dropped, and the other guy called. The turn is a ten, and puts three hearts out. Checked to me, I bet $40. They both called (one all in for less). On the river, I pushed the other guy all in for his last $75, and he of course calls with his TT, and takes my money. The button then told me he knew exactly what I had, and folded KK. The bad player all in had JJ. If I had known I was against three overpairs, I probably would have just pushed all in there on the flop and taken it down, but I’d probably play that exactly the same 90% of the time. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful 8 hours of poker. I did win one hand with a $50 bluff bet on the river when I could barely beat the board with my hammer. Of course, I had to show the bluff, but it doesn’t get quite the same reaction at a non-blogger table.
Around 9:15 I grabbed a cab to the Aladdin, and finally got to meet some of the bloggers. I drew table 8, seat 8, with Felicia to my right, and Bobby Bracelet to my left. I figured my blinds were toast. Also at the table were Joe Speaker, G-Rob, and other people I should remember, but don’t.
The very first hand of the tournament, I hear someone scream “hammer!” at a table behind me, and see the other geek standing and taking down the pot. Other madness at that same table involved AA vs KK all in preflop. AKx flops, and KK hits runner runner spades to take it down. I didn’t get much in the way of hands. I somehow saw a free flop with QJo from the big blind in a multiway pot, bet out with top two pair, and got no callers. I defended my blind against Felicia once with 55, but the flop was all overcards and probably hit her, so I had to check-fold. With 100/200 blinds, I raised to 600 from early position with 66. G-Rob went all in for only 200 more, and I was forced to call when it folded back to me. He flips up AA. Someone says they folded A6, so I’ve got one out in the deck, and of course it hits on the flop to bust him. Oops.
After the first break, they split up my table. I got moved to the 1 seat, which I hate. At this table, I had to deal with Derek, Eva, Felicia again, and … other people. I really should have taken notes. Didn’t do much interesting here, either, though. Pushed in once with AK, someone says they folded 33. Folded ATo UTG when I had only 5 big blinds left. 99 and AQ get all in, and of course the flop is JQK and I could have tripled up. I finally pushed all in with AK, got called by AQ, and couldn’t avoid the damn queen on the flop. Payback for my set of sixes. I gave the guy who busted me the JOPKE hat, but neglected to actually find out who it was. No one else who was there seems to remember, either. If you busted me, leave a comment!
After busting out, I joined played the 1/2 NL game at the Aladdin with Geek, BadBlood, G-Rob, Russell Fox (buy his book! I will be, after watching him play), and eventually Otis sat down for a little while. There may have been other bloggers, too, I don’t remember. I played terribly at this game, after feeling like I played pretty well in the tournament. I did get my money in with the best hand a few times and get outdrawn, but in general, I just played badly. It was all a ton of fun, though, playing and talking with the bloggers. At some point while I was playing this game, Bill won the Blogger tourney. Congrats, again!
At around 5, we headed over to the La Salsa Cantina for the after-tourney-party planned by AlCantHang.
…to be continued…
Trip report(s) coming, I promise.
But first, I have to thank (and curse) whoever told me I should check out bloglines. Thank, because it rules. I signed up, added some feeds, and then just decided to steal all of Hank’s feeds instead. It’s a good start, anyway.
Curse, because now I can’t waste time obsessively checking to see if blogs have been updated. I have the Bloglines Toolkit installed, so now whenever there’s an update, a little icon in my browser changes. I no longer have an excuse to browse, just read.
Still, it rules. And Bloglines Mobile looks great on the Treo. Now I can read everyone’s blogs everywhere. Just what I needed.
I don’t even know where to begin. As a lot of other people seem to be doing, this will just be a quick rundown of a few things that happened until… well, until after I sleep. Then I’ll write some more.
So… the WPBT Vegas trip.
- 71(!) players in the Aladdin Classic. Cheering and clapping and screaming that wouldn’t be tolerated in a tournament of strangers. First three busts were (I think) two pocket aces and a hammer. Congrats to Bill Rini
- HORPSE at the Nugget – the P is for Pineapple, in which I took down a hand with the hammer. Yes, I threw away a card to leave me 72o. And raised preflop.
- Mixed game/dealer’s choice at the Plaza. I took down a huge pot on a straddle. Story later.
- I slept in my hotel room one night outta the three I had it. I didn’t meet my roommate until Saturday night, after we had both been in and out several times. Whenever we were both in the room at the same time, at least one of us was asleep.
Damn, so much more. But I’ll save it for later. I wanted to read what other people were writing so much that I was browsing poker blogs on my Treo until they made me shut it off for takeoff.
I got a picture of me up on Tao of Poker. That’s me in the spring training 2002 shirt.
I decided I needed to give out a bounty for knocking me out of the WPBT Aladdin Classic. I couldn’t think of anything good that had anything to do with me, so I decided to go for one of these instead.
If you have no idea what this is, see here, here, here, and here. Also, you should start reading Paul Phillips’ blog.
I’m hoping I’ll actually get it before I head to Vegas. If not, I’ll send it to whoever knocks me out. Hey, it’s better than Gigli (#9).
Dammit. Another rakeback program killed. I can’t say I’m really surprised, but this sucks.
We regret to inform you that Party Poker has asked us to remove them from the Frequent Flopper program. As you know, Party Poker has implemented a new policy to stop rakebacks on their site. (Actually, this isn’t a new policy; they are just actively enforcing it now). Since we don’t offer cashback with our program and OUR program was approved directly by Party Poker over a year ago, we thought we were going to be able to continue to list them on our site. In fact, we spoke to Party Poker in person about this just a couple of months ago during a London visit. However, the only thing that is certain in this world is change. We have no choice but to comply with Party Poker’s request. We are no longer taking sign-ups for Party Poker via the Frequent Flopper Program and our last payment will be made to our customers by June 10th for the period ending May 31st. This will not affect any other PSO/Party Poker promotions. We apologize for any inconvenience.
http://www.pokersourceonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10368
I don’t know where to play anymore, now, and I guess I don’t have a way to generate PSO points other than referrals (I already have accounts at all of their other frequent flopper sites). I guess I’ll have to keep playing at Party for the fish, but, they’re certainly not doing anything else to want to make me stay.
In other news, spammers have quickly figured out my comment preview button. Today I found one legitimate comment amidst 277 spams, waiting for moderation. I’ve outright banned a few words from my comments and will see how that does. If anyone has a good spam prevention solution for WordPress, please let me know. All the ones I’ve tried lately have way too many false positives that I never find out about.
|
All content Copyright © 2002-2009 Alan Penner Powered byWordPress, Penner Hosting and Superb Internet |
 penner42 |
Redistribution is permitted under the terms of this Creative Commons License |