My "sister is packed and ready":http://www.livejournal.com/users/fuzzyfruit/512978.html. I'm nearly packed as well, and excited as hell. After all the crazy shit of the last few weeks I can't wait to have a few days where I do nothing but climb 5.10 jug hauls all day and scoop monster pots all night. I'll do my best to keep both climbing and poker journals, so I can satisfy all 4 of my readers equally.
This whole "blogging" thing seems to have taken off lately. My "best friend":http://providencelife.blogspot.com/, "my sister":http://commiescorner.blogspot.com/, and "her very good friend":http://luggnut.blogspot.com/ (and also a friend of mine growing up) have all popped up with their very own in the last few weeks. If my mom starts a blog I will officially eat a hat. It's great to see these blogs; Ryan's especially. He just made a dramatic move from Philly to Providence (well, maybe it wasn't dramatic, but people in his life made it that way. I
It looks as though Lance is on track to pick up his record TDF win. This should come as a suprise to no one; he's amazingly fit (with freakish lung capacity), and he's backed up by the best support riders, the best technology, and the best training methods. Another amazing repeat story is unfolding in Las Vegas this week, too. It's the Main Event in this year's "World Series of Poker":http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/, and with only two more days and 27 players left, last year's champion Greg Raymer is starting today in fifth place with $3.8 million in chips. Other notables are "jailbird":http://www.bluffmagazine.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=69 Mike "The Mouth" Matusow in first place with $5.1 million, and Phil Ivey in second with $4.6M. Considering the huge field he had to wade through, it's simply incredible that Raymer is on the verge of another final table this year.
There was a lot of talk about the huge explosion in poker's popularity this year, and how every event was going to be a crapshoot with all these Internet qualifier donkeys, but it would seem that in most events the cream rose to the top, with many big names taking many big events, including both Doyle Brunson and Johnny Fucking Chan winning their record 10th WSOP bracelets.
I have no idea how the main event is going to finish up this year. Phil Ivey is the odds-on favorite (3-1), and Raymer is right behind him (5-1). Matusow is a volatile presence, so a final table involving all three pros would be something, indeed.
Highlights: * Bauhaus * New Order * Coldplay * The homefries at a Palm Springs breakfast place * Winning $50 very quickly at a super-loose California "cardroom":http://www.hotwatercasino.com/ Saturday
Lowlights:
* The fucker from "craigslist":http://phoenix.craigslist.com/ who never got back in touch about camping tickets * Selling one too many extra Sunday tickets on Saturday, and having to buy another one Sunday * Forgetting my ticket at the condo Saturday and having to go back for it * Chemical Brothers * Losing $150 not as quickly at a super-loose California "cardroom":http://www.hotwatercasino.com/ Sunday * The 5 hour drive back last night, and getting in at 3 a.m. * The realization that I am now officially old and un-hip
Remind me again why I'm grinding it out at $3/6 limit while my sister is "tripling up at $1-2 no limit":http://www.livejournal.com/users/fuzzyfruit/408811.html? *update:* Ok, maybe it's not so bad. A few hours work, and I made like $400. It was a crazy action table, so I just picked my spots and got lucky a few times too, like when I flopped a straight flush with Q-10s. Too bad I didn't get much action on _that_ hand.
* It's time for me to turn in my geek badge. Saturday morning I was futzing around on my work machine, which really is my primary machine nowadays because I'm lazy, installing the latest version of "Firefox":http://mozilla.org/, when right after it completed my screen went black. Alright... I waited for a few seconds, and then just figured I should do a hard shutdown. Upon rebooting, my machine wouldn't go back to the windows login screen. It would show the XP startup screen for a few seconds, then kick right back to the BIOS screen and start all over. Nothing I picked worked; Safe Mode, Last Known Good, etc. I started looking online for problems relating to startup and "mup.sys":http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1082631480, which is the last line that would load before the reboot, and it sounded like it was more of a hardward issue. I took out one memory stick, and then the other. I even tried different slots, and to no avail. Figuring this was too important to screw up or try to do a rebuild on (and re-installing all that damn software, ick.) I brought it to Best Buy. Picked it back up yesterday, and it turns out that there were some corrupt sectors on the disk (head crash, maybe?). Fixed those, and now my machine is back to normal. All I would have had to do it pop in an XP disc to boot from, and try the repair routines, but I've tried that a few times and broken things enough to force a wipe and reformat, so I simply gave up and wussed out. * In the car I was listening to "Whad'ya know?":http://notmuch.com/ on NPR, which is one of my least favorite NPR shows, but it was on, so (shrug). It was the part of the show where he reads questions people have written down and gives his glib, unfunny answers. One was from a woman who wanted to know if she should be the one proposing to her boyfriend. Long story short, she was trying to use the peer pressure to goad him into saying yes. He sounded very un-thrilled, and then finally said yes. I would have probably done the same, and then screeched out of the parking lot and left her there for trying to put on so much public pressure. Show is "here":http://notmuch.com/Show/index.pl if you want to listen to the uncomfortable-ness.
* Poker continued to be good to me, and even with some ups and downs it was a +$500 weekend. I hit "another":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001479/ ~$250 hand (this time in just a straight $3/6 hand, to give you an idea of how much betting and raising was going on), this time in like a 7-way pot with pocket kings. I've tightened my live and online play up considerably lately. A-x suited in early position? Throw it away. K-10 offsuit early? Throw it away. So far it seems to be working out well.
* House inspection tomorrow. I'll be bringing my camera and taking a zillion pictures, first to give you all a better idea of what it looks like inside, and second so Kim and I can start coming up with a bit of a strategy on getting started on the fixing up. Her lease ends 3 weeks after we close, so we're hoping that we can at least get the flooring and painting in the bedroom done so as not to have to move furniture all around after we're already in. She's quite the ebay maven, so we're going to try and find "everything":http://search.ebay.com/pergo_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8 there and save some bucks.
Last night I headed over to the Diamond to while away the hours waiting for my sweetie to get back. While I was there I sat at what could be referred to as an "action" table; there were a bunch of maniacs raising and re-raising nearly every hand pre-flop. I hunkered down and waited for big hands, and of course none came, and I was soon whittled down from my original buy-in of $100 to about $60 or so. I was just getting ready to leave the next time the blinds get to me when there's a kill pot (a $6/12 hand). I'm under the gun and dealt AK offsuit. Figuring this is as good a hand as any to decide if the poker gods love me or hate me I raise it to $12. 5 callers (see what I mean about it being an action table?). Flop comes 2-3-2. SB checks, BB (who was a completely aggressive maniac who would bet anything and also happened to get lucky a lot) bet, and I called. Everyone called, and everyone is in. Pot is now already $90. I can't put the big blind on a 2, or even a 3, because he literally would bet or raise any 2 cards. Turn card is a beautiful, magical king. SB checks, BB bet, and now I raise ($24 raise at this point). We lose only one player and now the pot is $186. Someone is slow-playing a 2. I know it. Everyone else at the table knows it. We're just waiting to find out who. River is a 7. It's checked to me, I bet my last $9, get all but one caller, and we flip up. Other hands were K6o, pocket 5s, and the rest were mucked. So I got to take down that massive $260 pot! I actually raisied my arms up and did my best Homer Simpson "woo hoo!", which I'm not sure everyone else appreciated, but fuck 'em for being such maniacs. I stuck around for one more orbit or two, lost about $20, and decided to skedaddle while I was still in the black.
Moral of the story is: get your money in while you have the best of it. One big hand can make your whole night.
Kim left me yesterday to go with a friend to Nawleans for a few days, and as part of my boyfriendly duties I dropped her off at the Phoenix airport early yesterday evening. On the way back down I-10 I go right by the "Gila River Wild Horse Pass Casino":http://www.wingilariver.com/wildhorsepass.php, so I figured I'd stop in again. I had been there once before, and found very juicy and soft games, but didn't get any cards and left even after about an hour. This time went a little better, to say the least. I sat at an awesome $3/6 table, full of loose, passive and flat-out bad players. Perfect example was a hand which had 3 players at the showdown. There was 2 pairs on the board; 10s and 4s. Woman in the 8s turns over pocket deuces for 3 pair, and the other two players mucked their cards, and I saw the 9s throw away a king. Only the top two pairs would play, so all the woman really had was deuce high, so king high would have been the winner. Ooops, sometimes it's better to just let the dealer tell you what you have.
2nd hand I was in I was dealt 2 red kings, raised it up, got one caller and he folded to my flop bet. Ok, that was easy. No cards for awhile after that, but then I started getting some good hands; pocket 10s, then AQ which connected on the flop, followed by AJ which hit on the turn. In each case I had at least 3 or 4 callers to at least the turn, all of them apparently calling with nothing. In all those cases I would show my hand even without callers so they knew I was getting and playing good hands.
Pocket aces? Twice. Held up both times. Later in the game I had pocket kings again in the big blind, raised it with like 6 limpers, hit my set on the turn and pulled in a metric ton of chips. Had A-10 of spades, raised it and had the flop come with 3 spades. I even had a string of kill pots (ie. $6/12 hands) that I was winning with some silly cards, like 6-4 offsuit that my free look gave me a pair of 4s on the flop which held up. Yes, I thought I was playing well and being selective with my starting hands, especially compared to the ninnies I was playing against, but a monkey could have played my cards and done well. I freely admit that I was lucky in a lot of spots, especially these 2 hands:
3-4 of clubs in the middle position. Against a table this loose and passive I can get away with limping in with this one, so along with like 5 other people we see a flop that's 9-7-x with 2 clubs. Woohoo! Early position bets, one caller then I raise. A halfway decent player across the table from me makes it 3 bets, so I call. Other players drop out. I figured he's got A-9, so with my flush draw I'm going to crush him 30% of the time. Next card is a 3, pairing me up and giving me some more outs. I check, he bets, and I call. River is another 3, giving me trips. Now I have to worry about him possibly having a set on the flop, which would give him a full house now. I bet, he just calls and shows 9-7 for a flopped 2 pair.
K-8 of spades in late position. 4 people limp, I limp and the button raises. Everyone calls, and the flop comes x-8-8. Fireworks are going off in my head, but there's 2 clubs on the board, so when everyone checks and the button bets, I raise when it gets around to me. I have to try and make it expensive for flush draws, so better to get their money in now while I'm still ahead. I bet the rest of the way, keeping most of the callers. River is a 3rd club, but luckily nobody had a flush. My trip 8s were good, and that was a crazy big pot.
End result? I was there for a little less than 5 hours, and walked away $300 to the good. That works out to a little more than 10 BB/hr, which is completely unsustainable, although I'd sure like to try and do it again. Rats, I should have taken a picture of my chip stack; I had made a full triangle of 20-chip stacks, 6 wide at the base. I'm thinking I should buy in for that much every time, because it got me lots of respect.
I had this happen while doing a little multi-tabling last night:
Suffice to say that I walked away a winner at both tables.
Last night Kim had a hankerin' for some bingo, so we headed over to the Diamond for the evening session. Bingo is a funny game; nowhere have I seen people trying harder to assign patterns to random number events than there. "Oh, sure... the first two numbers he pulls are the ones I needed last time." As if the little plastic balls with no cognitive abilities and no memory were just playing a little game and taunting you. I especially enjoyed how the old folks directly across from us were ripping on the caller (the guy pulling the numbers) as if he had anything at all to do with the numbers popping out of the little vaccuum tumbler machine thingy. After the bingo session (no, neither of us won, although I was within one number twice) Kim went to hit the slots, and I went to play some poker. There was a pretty long list for $3/6, so they started a new table and I got a seat. The action started pretty slow as everyone was just trying to get a feel for the table, and then it turned into magical loose table like that one "at the Rio":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001316/. All kinds of crazy loose passive play, 8-handed flops, etc. Of course I was only playing for about an hour and got only a few playable hands. Two good wins though... once with AJo (a notorious trouble hand) which I raised from early position, got two callers, hit an ace on the flop and had them call me the whole way down to the river. The other hand I had AKs in the small blind, raised to get the big blind out, and only got called by Star Jones across the table. Flop came all undercards, but with 2 of my suit! I bet out and was called, and then bet $6 in the dark before the turn card came out (it was a queen, and not my suit, btw). Star thought about it for half a second and said "He bet in the dark? He can have it." and folded. I think if I had waited until the card had come out she would have called, but by representing AA or KK I got her to throw away whatever she had, maybe she had hit a pair on the board. I don't know if I would have spiked a pair on the river or made my flush, but I'd love to think that my in-the-dark bet got her out of there.
Kim came to collect me with me up $20, so $15 for bingo plus $3 for snackies for us plus $1 for the woman who cashed out my chips meant I had made $1 for the evening! Kim was bumming because she had lost another $40 at the slots, so on the way out we passed by some sort of Monopoly nickel slot machine and I threw in $10. A few spins later, we landed on Boardwalk, collected 300x the nickel bet, and cashed out up $7! Total for the evening +$8 and lots of fun.
Hey, I'm going to go to Vegas in June for the next WPBT event! A "tourney at the Aladdin":http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/000968.html, but more importantly all the cash games that Vegas has to offer for 2 days full of nothing but poker. It should be interesting to meet some of these people that I know by name and URL only. Can't wait.
My sister's recap of the final part of her trip here to visit, in which much poker was played, is "now up":http://www.livejournal.com/users/fuzzyfruit/361700.html. She's practically a poker blogger now!
Well, Stella finally got her groove back. I did a fair amount of multi-tabling BBJ(Bad Beat Jackpot) $2/4 tables a few nights last week when the jackpot was so astronomical ($250k to the guy who eventually hit), and it went well. Monday night at the regular $2/4 tables were no exception, and now I'm up about 150 BBs from where I was last week. Nothing has changed in my play style, so cards are just falling for me. The last few sessions have felt really good. When everything is clicking I feel like an incoming tide. Every so often, a big wave will come and increase my stack, withdraw slightly, and then move forward again... a slow surge that is as inevitable as the tides themselves. The actual play starts to feel secondary, dreamlike. Cards come, bets and raises are made, hands are won and lost, but Zen calmness prevails. I've felt like this a few times while "climbing":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/climbing/; where moves just feel more like instinct than work, and it's almost like you're watching yourself in your activity. It's a nice feeling.
Time to post my long-overdue report from my trip to Las Vegas last weekend. We flew out Saturday afternoon, and I had my first SouthWest experience. I didn't notice much of a difference from other airlines, other than the whole cheaper thing, and getting to pick your own seats. The flight attendants didn't have cigarettes dangling from the corners of their mouths, and there were no chickens in coops under our seats.
We land in Vegas 20 minutes after we took off (with the time change); pretty sweet. I'm still tickled every time I land at the airport, and you get right off your plane to the sound of slot machines. I noticed that they're catering to "developmentally challenged":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20050110_vegas/IMG_0426.jpg people now, which is nice. Bit of a pain to find our hotel shuttle bus, but eventually we get on and make our way to Palace Station.
First order of business is to get some food. Off to the buffet, which was sub-par at best, but for only $7.99, you really can't beat it.
Then it was off to the strip for some gaming. The first place we went to was the Excalibur, which somehow feels like a sleazy Disneyland with its castle theme. I sat at a $2/6 spread-limit table for a little while, and it was as good as advertised (although there was "no fight":http://taopoker.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_taopoker_archive.html#110304710577342822 while I was there). They had a thing there that if your pocket aces got beaten, you got to spin the "money wheel", and could win anywhere between $20 and $230 cash. Too bad that never happened to me. They had strange tables, with a wooden border where you would stack your chips, if anyone took theirs out of the rack, which they didn't. I found that highly annoying, and it slowed the game down as people tried to get chips out of a full row. I only was there for less than an hour, sitting in the 10s closest to the dealer's right, and got only one or two playable hands, but there were 6-8 people limping in to see every flop, hoping to hit a big hand. I raised from MP with pocket 10s once and got no callers. Another hand I had QJo, limped in and flopped middle pair. A woman with about $200 in front of her in the 8s bet, and I raised. I wound up making a straight on the river, beating her pair of queens. When I got up I was up about $20, which was fine. I wanted to go back, but never quite made it.
Next was the Luxor, which had a small poker room, maybe only 6-8 tables. I sat at a $2/4 which had some of the drunkest people ever at the other end. Apparently they had been there for a good part of the afternoon into the evening, drinking a lot and playing crazy; capping the raises at every opportunity, etc. They were so loose that it was a shame that I got no playable hands for the hour or so I was there. -$20.
Then it was back to Palace Station for Kim to play bingo. I went into their poker room, which was jammed. I put my name on the list for $4/8, and sat at a $2/4 table to wait. There were the oldest people in the world at my table, and each hand took about 5 minutes as people took their heart medicine or something before making a move. I won one hand before I moved (K-10o which turned into 2-pair), and then I slid over into my $4/8 seat. The structure was pretty cool, because small blind and big blind were $1 and $2, respectively. So, you could limp in for $2, or raise it to $6 pre-flop. That made it pretty cheap to play tight and wait for a good hand; no more expensive per orbit than $2/4.
I played pretty cautiously early on trying to gauge the skill level of the table. I won one decent pot betting into two other players with K-10o (again) with an A and Q on the board, as well as 3 clubs. Guess that was scary enough to make them go away.
Next big hand I had KK, raised pre-flop and got 3 callers. The flop is a rainbow of low cards; perfect for my hand. I bet out, and get 2 callers. Turn is an ace, which I'm not happy about at all, but I fire my $8 out, the 5s folds, and the 7s directly to my right raises. I make a crying call. He checks the river, and I check behind him. Jackass had A9o.
Near the end of my 2 hours being there I get AK of diamonds and raise. 2 callers, and a K and a diamond on the flop. Wahoo! Betting and getting called by the 3s. Turn and river are both diamonds, giving me the nut flush. One last bet and a call, and the other guy had AKo, so I scoop a healthy pot. Finished up for the night up $40, which wasn't bad considering I didn't play many hands.
Next day (Sunday) we made our way over in the morning to the Rio to drop our bags off and get some food. We went to the "World Buffet", which was $25 a person and fantastic.
It was fun to try and see how many different continents you could get on one plate. Look, I've got sushi next to mashed potatoes next to some General Tzo's chicken!
We rolled out of there and made our way to the CES. It was a giant clusterfuck trying to get on the shuttle bus, pick up our passes, and get into the show. Once finally inside we saw some neat stuff, although I didn't get to the TiVo booth. Apparently there are these things called "plasma TVs", which will be really hot in the near future.
Back to the Rio, and time to check out their newly opened poker room. You would think since they're hosting the 2005 WSOP they'd be a bit more on the stick, but the room was barely a month old, and the tables were old tables that had been refurbished. Apparently they're building some huge new building out by their convention center just to house the WSOP.
Anyway, when I got there there was only one game going, a $3/6 with a bunch of die-hards playing. 2 couples that wanted to play showed up, so we got a new dealer and started a new table.
1s - Kinda hot woman with a big rack 2s - Her husband, who fancied himself a fantastic player 3s - A guy in a baseball cap who actually knew what he was doing, sorta 4s - Relatively tight asian guy. By relatively tight I mean he was the only guy (besides me) that wasn't in every single hand! 5s - Me 6s - Saucy older asian woman. Big hair, big fake jewelry, and very sweet. 7s - ?? 8s - Fat wife. Part of the 2 couples that showed up. 9s - Fat balding husband. 10s - Jay from NYC. Old-ish guy (sort of "Dennis Farina":http://imdb.com/name/nm0001199/ -looking) who sold karaoke supplies or some such nonsense.
This was the greatest table ever, and I wasn't able to take advantage of it. It was 8-handed to almost every flop, as loose-passive as you could ever hope for. The problem was I got hardly any cards to play. I mean I was in some sort of statistical black hole where I kept getting 5-10 offsuit, Q-3 offsuit, etc. Finally I'm in late position and peek down at AQo. Raise and get 6(!) callers. Flop has a queen, and I'm feeling good. I bet the whole way, and callers keep dropping off until the river, when a 3 gives fatty in 8s a set. I didn't really mind, because a few hands later I get Q10o in late position, limp in and see a Q-3-7 rainbow flop. I figure it's time to get aggressive with this table. Fatty in 8s bets, gets 3 callers and I raise. Fatty calls, and other callers fold. Turn is a beautiful 10, giving me top 2 pair. She bets, I raise, and she calls. River is a blank; she checks, I bet and she calls. She had Q-3 and flopped two pair, but it was a worse two pair.
Next interesting hand I get AQs in EP and raise. 6(!) callers. Flop is Q-2-x. Turn is a 2. I bet, 4 limpers folds, and 2s raises. Uh-oh. I call, and the river is another 2. Now I'm fucked. I check, he bets, and I call. He flips up (drum roll, please), "The Hammer":http://72off.cjb.net/! Oh, "cruel irony":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001289/!
At this point I'm down $70, which is amazing considering how juicy the table is. Then I start to get a few hands. KQo, which I raise and get 3 callers. Flop is K-Q-x, giving me top two pair. I bet, 8s calls, everyone else folds. Turn is a 3. I bet, she calls, and now I'm worried about her having a set again. River's a blank, I bet and she calls with A-3o. Hahaha!
Very next hand I have pocket 4s, and flop a set. Huge pot!
I finish the session up $115 and go to have some dinner, then back to the tables. I get a different table this time, with some new faces. Slightly better play at this one, as it's only 6-handed to every flop instead of 8. I sat tucked into the corner of the 9 seat, next to a guy who groused about every hand he didn't play that would have flopped an unlikely straight, and a very drunk asian man who didn't know where the hell he was.
At some point a guy who just won $1000 playing roulette came and sat in the 7s, which gave us some action for awhile. He quickly pissed away $100, including the last $20 that he played about 3 hands raising the whole way without even looking at his hole cards. And he won 2 of the 3!
I blew one hand completely. I was in the small blind, and had K-9 of hearts. There were 6 limpers, and I completed the bet. Flop has 3 hearts, and I could feel my eyes doing that old WB cartoon thing of turning into cash register dollar signs. It checked around to the button, who bet. Here's where I screwed up. I raised, when I should have just smooth-called and let the rest of the table call as well. There was realistically only one card out there to worry about; the ace of hearts, and I wouldn't be able to put in enough raises to get someone with that card to folds, so all I did by raising was announce my made flush, and scare everyone off. Next time I'll think a bit more about what I'm trying to accomplish; if I'm trying to protect my hand, or let other people make 2nd best hands. A few hands later I had KK, and had it hold up.
I'm in LP(Late Position) and see 4-8 of diamonds. 4 limpers, so I'm getting decent odds to try and have a big hand. Flop has 2 diamonds in it. There's a bet from early position, I raise and get 2 callers. Turn no diamond, and it's checked around (using the free card play! I learned stuff from books!). River is a diamond. Guy to my right bets, and I just call, hoping for an overcall from the 5s. 5s _raises_, and now I figure my baby flush just got beaten. "Oh, shit" I say. 8s calls, and so do I. 5s made a straight, and 8s had two pair. "What was that about 'oh shit'?" the 8s laughed as I scooped the pot.
Towards the end of the night 3 young guys who were all dealers at the "Canterbury":http://www.canterburypark.com/ (which is a huge card club in Minnesota(?)) showed up. The one guy was kind of a smug prick, doing all kinds of "chip tricks":http://pokerchiptricks.com/, and wearing mirrored shades and a visor. C'mon, dude.. it's just a $3/6 game.. what kind of "tells" are you going to get off of a bunch of loose drunks that will call with anything? Turns out he was a "prop" player for the Canterbury most of the time, which means that he played at tables to fill seats. Apparently the difference between a prop player and a shill is that he played with his own money, not the house's. So, he was actually like a professional poker player, which means I needed to get out of there, especially considering I was down about $70 for that session.
One of the last hands I had was pocket 8s. Flop was Q-Q-6. I bet (figuring I'm going to call a bet it's better to bet than call anyway), get 2 callers. The magical 8 comes on the turn, giving me a full house. I bet, and get one caller. The river is the 13 of purple horseshoes(I totally stole that phrase from some 2+2 forums discussion, btw), and I bet. Last caller folds, and I show my house. Finished that session down $5, so +$110 for the night.
Our last day we had some time before our afternoon flight, so we checked out of the Rio and headed to Treasure Island (now just "TI") to check out their buffet, which was slightly cheaper and almost as magical as the Rio's. Took the tram over to "the fucking Mirage":http://imdb.com/title/tt0128442/quotes, and I check out a $3/6 table. The action was good, but nothing can compare to the joy that was the Rio the night before. I was only sitting for a half-hour or so (Kim quickly lost her money at roulette), won one hand with a flopped set, and walked out up $20.
We went over to the forum shops at Caeser's, which was pretty damn impressive. Lots of walking around, and lots of expensive crap.
We had just enough time before catching a cab to our flight to the airport for me to go back to the Mirage for a short while. I sat at a different table, lost with my pocket 10s on one of the first hands, and the time approached for me to leave. I waited through one last orbit, and then pulled the most awesome move from UTG(Under The Gun, first position after the blinds). Yep, I tossed "a live straddle":http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=&Number=838502&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart= out there (For those of you that don't know, a straddle bet is raising before you even see your cards. It's totally stupid and will lose you lots of money in the long run. But it was Vegas, baby, Vegas), and got 2 callers. While the flop is coming I actually look at my cards... A-6o, not too shabby. Flop has a pair of jacks and a 3 or something, and I bet it. Both guys fold, I turn over my cards triumphantly, and skedaddle out of there.
Flight home was uneventful, and I slept like the dead that night.
I definitely need to go back sometime in the near future and do nothing but play poker at some of the juicier spots I found, namely the Excalibur and the Rio. I think with some more time and some slightly better cards (see stats below), and I should clean up.
Some stats for the cards I saw. Times getting KK: 2. Times getting 10-10: 2. Times getting AKs: 1. Times getting AA, QQ or JJ: 0.
In other news, it's Kim's birthday this weekend (I'm not at liberty to say how old she is), so we're off to Vegas on Saturday for a few days. I'm hoping to have a bit of a turnaround in my poker, because it's been pretty bad lately. Nothing wrong with my play, really... just hitting a bad stretch of cards. Perfect example would have been at the B&M casino over the weekend. I flop a nut flush, and get beaten by a one-card straight flush. I flop a full house, and get beaten by a bigger full house when the board double-pairs. Online hasn't been much better; I'll meander around at the $2/4 tables, and maybe be up a bit, maybe be down a bit. Then I'll go to $3/6 and either make $100 in about a half an hour, or lose 3/4 of that in 2 hours.
We're staying at the Palace Station Saturday night, and the Rio Sunday. It would have been nice to do the Rio both days, but rooms are amazingly expensive that weekend, on account of the fact that it's both the "CES show":http://www.cesweb.org/default.asp AND the "AVN awards":http://www.avnawards.com/... In fact, we're going to try and sneak into the CES show and collect lots of gadgets and pens and USB keychain drives.
Interspersed with all the gadget-coveting and fake-boob-spotting, of course I'm going to try and play some poker. Last time I was there I didn't really play long enough (or well enough) to get a good idea about where the good games were, so this week I'm scouring the online archives of "my":http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com/ "favorite":http://taopoker.blogspot.com/ "poker":http://alcanthang.blogspot.com/ "bloggers":http://www.upforanything.net/poker/ to try and find where the juicy tables are. I'm going to want to hit Aladdin, the Flamingo, the Luxor, Excalibur and perhaps the Mirage. Oooh, maybe the Bellagio for some celebrity-spotting. Any other suggestions? I'll be bringing a notebook to the tables, so I should be able to give a pretty good trip report when I come back, as opposed to "I did good" or "I did bad".
I was in full-on car upkeep mode this week, as the 'rents might borrow it to toole around while I'm working on Friday. Got the oil changed (and washed it) yesterday, and today I went first to State Farm to move my insurance over to AZ, then to the MVD (as opposed to DMV, which is what every sane state calls it) to get a new driver's license and registration for the car. Apparently owning a newer car is A Bad Thing(tm), because the registration is amazingly expensive. I walked out of there with a $500 hole in my wallet, but on the plus side I did get a cool personalized plate out of the deal.
*Update:* "Robin":http://firepile.com/robin/ sent me an updated license plate. Really sort of demonstrates what she thinks of me.
You can also "make your own here":http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/.
*Update 2:* Crap. After doing a Google popularity contest between "27o poker":http://tinyurl.com/5p8uz and "72o poker":http://tinyurl.com/6sohb I should have made it be "72 OFF". Crap. Maybe I'll have a nice run at $3/6 and just get it anyway.
I figured at the end of the day today I'd do just a little bit of online poker before heading out for the evening. I had just re-read some sections of "Small-Stakes Hold 'em" last night and was feeling all pleased with my play. I sat down at two $3/6 tables and proceded to get completely smacked in the face by the deck. Sit down to two pair, kings and 9s. $40 pot there. Other table I sit down to AKs, flop 4 to the flush, and my lead-out bet gets no callers. Only $16 there, but it was still a good sign. I proceded to get a few flushes, a couple of open-ended straight draws that came through, and pocket aces twice in 3 hands (both of which held up for a $70 and $80 pot) at one of the tables. Bottom line, I made $200 in about 20 minutes. Granted, my win rate of around 60 big bets/hour (a good player will average about 3) was completely unsustainable, so I quickly got up before the cards went cold and went for a nice bike ride, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm hoping I'll get similar cards tomorrow at Casino Arizona, but confident that I'll play patiently and well regardless of what I'm dealt.
Wow, haven't done a poker post in awhile... I guess without a "home game":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ every week there's not usually anything exciting to report. This past weekend I hit the casinos, tried $3/6 Hold 'Em for the first time, had some ups and downs, and came out on top. Saturday night I went to check out the Desert Diamond poker room for the first time. Well, that's not exactly true. The first week I moved here I actually wound up there, but just walked through to look at it, and was waaaay too intimidated to sit down.
This time I walked in ready to play (especially after hitting the poker room at Casino Del Sol a few times and finding it not scary). I went up to the cardroom manager (super-nice guy (Jason maybe?)) and asked about $2/4. He said that everyone in a seat right now was a die-hard, so it might be a long wait. He wanted to know if I would take a seat at a $3/6 table instead. I thought about it for a minute, then said "sure". After all, it's only a buck more in blinds per orbit, so as long as I played tight I figured I'd be alright.
Finally got into my seat, got $100 in chips, and I was ready to play. I folded about the first 20 hands, then got pocket 4s. I call the big blind, and the flop is full of overcards, so I fold at the first bet.
Couple of hands later, and I'm dealt pocket 9s. 5 players to the flop, and there's a 9, so now I've got a set. There's a bet in front of me, and I raise to try and ward off any freak draws. 2 callers, and the turn in a blank. I bet out again, get one fold and one call. Last card makes a pair of jacks on the board, so now I've got a full house. It's checked to me, and I bet. The woman I'm heads-up against folds, and I show my cards as sort of a PR move. It was a nice sized pot, and now I'm probably at about $140.
After that, however... nothing went right. I continued to play tight/aggressive, but cards weren't coming my way. I mucked bad hand after bad hand... 2-5o, 10-5o, 7-3o. Fold, fold, fold. It wasn't really frustrating; just some quiet bemusement that I wasn't getting anything to work with. The few good starting hands I did get didn't turn into anything. I would flop four to the flush, and then no more cards I needed would come. Medium pairs wouldn't yield anything, so I would have to fold. The end result was that I walked away down about $70, but considering how long I was playing, and how much worse it _could_ have been, I was pleased with my play, but just dissapointed with the net results.
Yesterday I went to Casino Del Sol, to see if I was just having an off night. Once again no $2/4, but there weren't even any tables of it, so I had to go to a $3/6. This one started out much the same way; up a little, down a little, but holding my own and no major disasters.
Then the cards started coming my way. It started with A-10o, and the flop came with some cards towards a straight, and 2 spades. My ace was a spade, so I figured it would be worth it to stick around. 4th street was another spade, and the other guy in the pot is betting like mad trying to get me off the hand, but I stay in. Last card is another spade, and now I've made the nut flush. With no pair on the board, I'm sure I've got the best hand, and I do. That opened the floodgates, and I started getting some really good hands. Flopped trip 7s which held up. A-J of diamonds makes a flush grabbing me a monster pot. Even my A-10 stands up as top pair, top kicker. After that hand one of the better players at the table (and they were by far better than the people playing the night before) commented that he couldn't get a read on me, which I took as a huge compliment. Of course, I had to say something funny like "why, because I look like I'm shitting my pants on every hand?" I don't think I wound up losing a showdown the rest of the day. I had a weak 2-4o (in the blinds) turn into 2 pair on the river, beating out a pair of aces.
The funniest hand had me a late position with a 5-7 of diamonds. Flop came with some low cards and a 7 (with a diamond), so I stayed with my pair and backdoor flush. Next card gave me a gutshot low (A-2-4-7 on the board), so I called the bet from across the table. Last card was the miracle 3, giving me a wheel straight. The other guy had a pair of aces, and I flipped up my 5, proclaiming "straight!". The dealer took a look and said, "I can't get a straight from this", which of course made my heart completely stop beating. Then she took a second look and decided I did indeed have the straight, and raked that one in.
The total tally had me walking out with $275 after buying in for $100, so a profit of $175 for the day (not including all the tips for the dealers), making my weekend tally solidly in the black. I probably could have stayed longer and made more, but I had plans (bowling!) that I didn't want to miss. Small aside; the guy who said he couldn't read me and one of the dealers both made a point to tell me when I was leaving that I had played really well, which was pretty cool indeed.
* Leaving this weekend to go on the family vacation to "Antigua":http://www.antigua-barbuda.org/. We'll be staying at a "lovely resort":http://www.eliteislandresorts.com/site/resorts.asp?islandID=1&resortID=11 on the south part of the island. I'm not super into laying on the beach, but there are a few things I think I'll be able to do: 1) Sleep. 2) Do lots of pushups and situps to get my flabby body back into shape in preparation for a winter of "Hueco bouldering":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001226/. 3) Catch up on some reading. 4) walk around with my climbing shoes and a chalk bag. "Virgin":http://www.geocities.com/tryhardvideo/virgingorda.html "Gorda":http://www.utoledo.edu/~kpugh/VG-guide/ is too far away to take a puddle jumper, but it's the same volcanic formation, I think.. so there's probably at least a little bit of bouldering to be had on the island. 5) The place we're staying "has a casino":http://www.eliteislandresorts.com/site/features.asp?featureID=106&resortID=11&islandID=1, and there's also "a nice looking one":http://www.grandprincessentertainment.com/casino.htm a cab ride away. I figure there will be lots of fishy tourists (not including me, of course), so if I can find some $2/4 hold 'em I'll be very happy. * It's been pretty quiet here. Paul and April got married in New York over the weekend, and are on vacation in Banff and Jasper parks in Canada. I think they come back a week after I get back, and it will be good to see them. I have to order more holds for "the woody":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001231/, and have some problems set for when they get back.
* Been getting out and about on my fixed-gear bike. It's a whole different kind of riding, but it's really nice to have something that's so cheap and so easy to maintain.
* "Poore Brothers Habanero Potato Chips":http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?snack_code=435 are the shit.
* My cat is a one-cat lizard-killing machine. I found 3 small ones scattered around the guest house just yesterday. You know that awful smell when you drive by a dead deer or something on the side of the road? Shrink that down about a fifth, and that's what the little treats are that my special boy is leaving for me.
Not much play lately, as I haven't worked out "a home game":http://www.homepokergames.com/arizona.php yet, although I might have an in for one this Saturday night (even though it sounds like a lot of dealer's choice garbage, there also was talk of some straight Hold 'Em). I've puttered a bit online, but trying to stay away from that as I don't want it filling up my spare time, as I seem to have a lot more of it now. I did take my first stab at two $20+2 SNG's on PartyPoker, and bubbled (i.e. finished the highest non-money spot) in both. Guess I'll stay away from those for awhile. I've been doing lots of reading. I'm pretty much done with Super/System, and the one I'm reading now is "Zen and the art of Poker", which is philosophy as opposed to actual strategy. It stresses patience, even emotions, and general Zen. As I like to consider myself having a bit of an Eastern bent, philosophically, it meshes well. Detachment at the poker table is a hard thing to do, but I'm trying.
Seems like the home games in Pittsburgh are "picking up":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/2004/09/poker.html a "little bit":http://thisamericanstrife.blogspot.com/2004/09/labor-day-weekend-at-new.html of "steam":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/2004/09/i-love-this-weather-now-i-know-that.html, which is awesome. I was especially happy to see that David cleaned up last night. He improved vastly from when "we first started":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001029/, but sometimes played a bit loose, and had the _worst_ luck with pocket Kings. ;-) Nice that he finally caught some cards and was a big wiener.
At some point I'm going to have to check out the local casino action. "Desert Diamond":http://www.desertdiamond.com/ apparently has some low buy-in tournaments running pretty much all the time (and I feel like my tourney play is pretty strong right now), and "Casino del Sol":http://www.casinodelsol.com/ sounds like they have a nice poker room. Maybe I'll check that out this weekend. It would be fun to do like a once a month thing, go bring $50 and see what happens.