30.12.06
28.12.06
Jumping in the (Full) Ring
Have been playing full ring games lately, as opposed to my usual 6-max. Started doing so in last couple of weeks, mainly because I’m now playing $1.00/$2.00 and thus desirous to lessen my variance as I acclimate myself to the larger pots. So far so good. While I can get wild now and then, I do believe my “natural” character as a player is to be conservative, so I don’t have a problem folding and being patient. Indeed, I used to play full ring exclusively, then got locked into the 6-max world after having some success. Going back to ten-handed games has caused me to observe important differences between full ring and 6-max. As you probably noticed earlier in the week when you saw that cousin whom you haven’t seen since last Christmas, differences become more conspicuous whenever we’ve been away for a while. At the beginning of Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea (1938), the narrator, Roquentin, talks about why he’s decided to start the journal that forms the novel’s narrative. He figures if he writes down his day-to-day activities, he’ll have a better grasp of the changes that occur in his life. Otherwise, “a crowd of small metamorphoses accumulate in me without my noticing it, and then, one fine day, a veritable revolution takes place.” Not unlike what I’m experiencing going back to the full ring game -- it’s like a “revolution” or “overthrow” has taken place, with all sorts of crazy changes standing out to me in glaring ways. Lemme mention three of them here:
(1) When ten-handed, players play, for the most part, much much tighter than in the 6-max game.
Obvious, I know. I’ve mentioned before here how Small Stakes Hold ’em doesn’t really offer much specific advice for short-handed games. There are a few references here and there to how hand values change in heads-up or short-handed situations, and during the discussion of preflop play there is that one footnote that says “For a short-handed game, assume that your game is ten-handed and that the first few players have folded.” That’s about it, though. I have always taken that footnote to mean that when it comes to Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth’s recommendations regarding preflop hand selection, one can essentially omit “early position” altogether (the first three seats to the left of the blinds), and consider the six seats as follows: SB, BB, MP1 (UTG), MP2 (UTG+1), LP1 (the cutoff), and LP2 (the button). May not be what the authors are intending, but that’s what the footnote seems to imply. Of course when it comes to actual play, you cannot really “assume that your game is ten-handed” when sitting at the 6-max tables. If you restrict yourself to Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth’s preflop hand selection criteria when playing the 6-max games, you probably won’t be playing enough hands to survive the blinds’ relentlessly eating away at your stack.
When I first picked up SSHE some time ago, I went through all of the recommendations for preflop hand selections and took some time to calculate how many hands a person would likely be playing if he or she followed the recommendations to the letter. For each seat at the table, I took into account what the trio was recommending as far as whether or not to play a hand given the preceding action, then I figured out the likelihood of being dealt each hand (e.g., 6/1326 for a pair, 12/1326 for a non-suited non-pair, 4/1326 for a suited non-pair), the likelihood of there being a raise or reraise in front, and so forth. In the end, I found that playing the SSHE hands as instructed would mean playing something like 23% of the hands you were dealt. If you drop out the first, second, third, and fourth position seats and get down to a 6-max table, SSHE is still telling us to play around 27% of the hands.
(That’s after my somewhat-tedious-but-by-no-means-infallible calculations. If anyone knows of more precise numbers along these lines, by all means send ’em on.)
In practice, though, one really has to play more than 27% of the hands in 6-max limit games to get by -- particularly since you’re paying a blind 33% of the time! So I make the obvious declaration here: people tend play more hands in 6-max, and fewer in full ring. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to tighten up in the full ring game (not always, anyhow). But it does mean that I have to understand most of the other players are likely playing a tighter game, and thus are more likely to have the goods should they go deep into a hand with me.
(2) When ten-handed, players tend not to raise preflop with marginal hands from early or middle position.
One of the very first things I noticed when I started playing 6-max games was how some players kept preflop raising with hands like A7-offsuit, then pushing with them regardless of what came on the board. Other players would preraise with any Broadway card. Kind of thing that previously never even occurred to me to do, to be honest. Some used this strategy to good effect, especially if they were agile playing after the flop (getting away cheaply from their obvious losers, craftily disguising their winners, etc.).
In the full ring game, such craziness is less likely to occur. There are steal attempts from late position, to be sure, but if someone preraises UTG in the full ring game, he or she usually has something close to a premium hand, if not an actual monster.
(3) When ten-handed, players tend not to reraise preflop (from any position) without a premium hand.
Something else I’ve noticed a lot in the 6-max game is how often players reraise (from any position, really) in order to isolate the raiser. Very often the player who does this is holding a small or middle pair, or even just J9 or QT or the like. It isn’t such a crazy play in the 6-max game, really, since getting heads-up is easier to accomplish when you only have one or two other players to discourage from calling your three-bet. QT wants to play AJ heads-up -- he’s 40% to win, if he can. 55 wants to play AK heads-up -- he becomes a favorite (55% to win), if he can.
However, since the isolation tactic is less likely to succeed when you’ve got a half dozen players left to act, you are less likely to see preflop reraises from folks who aren’t pretty sure they’ve got the advantage when they put in the three-bet. I had a hand today where I was in fourth (early middle) position and was dealt
. It folded to me and I raised, then the player to my immediate left (also in middle position) reraised. Everyone folded and I called. The flop came 
and I led out with a bet, hoping my opponent didn’t like that ace. He immediately raised me. I thought for a bit (eight seconds, to be precise -- I was playing on Bodog where the hand histories record the exact second each action occurs), then folded.I realized as I let the hand go that I probably would’ve pushed back had we been playing short-handed. There I would’ve figured it more likely than not my opponent also held a pocket pair, with the odds being in my favor that it would be less than my jacks. However here in the full ring game I felt about 80% sure that my opponent either had a big ace, KK, or QQ. I could’ve been wrong, of course (we’ll never know) -- if anyone thinks I could have been, do let me know why. In any event, here was a clear example of me playing a hand differently because it was ten-handed as opposed to 6-max.
I could probably add a few more items to my list here, including the fact that bluffing seems to me to be much more significant (and useful) in the 6-max limit game than in full ring games. But I probably need to gather some more experience before making any more fancy declarations about how to play poker.
In fact, to prove to all that I shouldn’t be pretending to give advice about poker, I offer as evidence the following chat transcript from a game I played about a month ago. I’ve changed the names, but otherwise everything is exactly as it happened. (I’ve highlighted the more interesting moments in bold.) The only action you need to follow occurs in the first hand; for the rest just read the highlighted chat. You’ll notice I only contribute a single line to the proceedings, and even that wasn’t original, but lifted from some advice delivered to me by my friend Yorkshire Pudding (in his comment to an earlier post). Thanks, Yorkie! Enjoy!
POKERSTARS GAME #----------: HOLD'EM LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00)
Table ‘Hammett’ 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus ($34.05 in chips)
Seat 2: nickandnora ($1.80 in chips)
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain ($20.70 in chips)
Seat 5: CasperGutman ($13.15 in chips)
Seat 6: blackmask ($12.80 in chips)
blackmask: posts small blind $0.25
Short-Stacked Shamus: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Short-Stacked Shamus [Kd Qh]
nickandnora: calls $0.50
Leggett-Dain: folds
CasperGutman: calls $0.50
blackmask: folds
Short-Stacked Shamus: raises $0.50 to $1
nickandnora: calls $0.50
CasperGutman: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [6d Ts 8h]
Short-Stacked Shamus: checks
nickandnora: checks
CasperGutman: bets $0.50
Short-Stacked Shamus: calls $0.50
nickandnora: calls $0.50
*** TURN *** [6d Ts 8h] [Jh]
Short-Stacked Shamus: checks
nickandnora: checks
CasperGutman: bets $1
Short-Stacked Shamus: calls $1
nickandnora: calls $0.30 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [6d Ts 8h Jh] [9s]
Short-Stacked Shamus: bets $1
CasperGutman: calls $1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Short-Stacked Shamus: shows [Kd Qh] (a straight, Nine to King)
CasperGutman: mucks hand
CasperGutman said, "lmfaoi"
CasperGutman said, "lmfao"
Short-Stacked Shamus collected $3.25 from side pot
nickandnora: mucks hand
Short-Stacked Shamus collected $5.40 from main pot
CasperGutman said, "what is wrong with u"
CasperGutman said, "????"
CasperGutman said, "moron"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $9.05 Main pot $5.40. Side pot $3.25. | Rake $0.40
Board [6d Ts 8h Jh 9s]
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus (big blind) showed [Kd Qh] and won ($8.65) with a straight, Nine to King
Seat 2: nickandnora mucked [9h Ad]
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CasperGutman (button) mucked [Jd 8c]
Seat 6: blackmask (small blind) folded before Flop
POKERSTARS GAME #----------: HOLD'EM LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00)
Table ‘Hammett’ 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus ($39.20 in chips)
Seat 2: nickandnora ($15 in chips)
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain ($20.70 in chips)
Seat 5: CasperGutman ($9.65 in chips)
Seat 6: blackmask ($12.55 in chips)
Short-Stacked Shamus: posts small blind $0.25
nickandnora: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Short-Stacked Shamus [8s 9d]
Leggett-Dain: folds
CasperGutman said, "terrible play idiot"
CasperGutman: raises $0.50 to $1
blackmask: folds
CasperGutman said, "terrible"
Short-Stacked Shamus: folds
nickandnora: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [3d 5c 9c]
nickandnora: checks
CasperGutman said, "terrilbe"
CasperGutman: bets $0.50
nickandnora: folds
CasperGutman said, "just terrible"
CasperGutman collected $2.15 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2.25 | Rake $0.10
Board [3d 5c 9c]
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: nickandnora (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CasperGutman collected ($2.15)
Seat 6: blackmask (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
POKERSTARS GAME #----------: HOLD'EM LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00)
Table ‘Hammett’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus ($38.95 in chips)
Seat 2: nickandnora ($14 in chips)
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain ($20.70 in chips)
Seat 5: CasperGutman ($10.80 in chips)
Seat 6: blackmask ($12.55 in chips)
nickandnora: posts small blind $0.25
Leggett-Dain: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Short-Stacked Shamus [2h Td]
CasperGutman: folds
blackmask: folds
Short-Stacked Shamus said, "hang on i can play worse"
Short-Stacked Shamus: folds
nickandnora: folds
Leggett-Dain collected $0.50 from pot
Leggett-Dain: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.50 | Rake $0
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: nickandnora (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain (big blind) collected ($0.50)
Seat 5: CasperGutman folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: blackmask folded before Flop (didn't bet)
POKERSTARS GAME #----------: HOLD'EM LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00)
Table ‘Hammett’ 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus ($38.95 in chips)
Seat 2: nickandnora ($13.75 in chips)
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain ($20.95 in chips)
Seat 6: blackmask ($12.55 in chips)
Leggett-Dain: posts small blind $0.25
CasperGutman: is sitting out
blackmask: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Short-Stacked Shamus [5s Jc]
CasperGutman leaves the table
Short-Stacked Shamus: folds
nickandnora: folds
Leggett-Dain: folds
blackmask collected $0.50 from pot
blackmask: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.50 | Rake $0
Seat 1: Short-Stacked Shamus folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: nickandnora (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Leggett-Dain (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: blackmask (big blind) collected ($0.50)
Tao of Poker: 2006 Year in Review Part II The 200...
Tao of Poker: 2006 Year in Review Part II
The 2006 retrospective continues as I review the last seven months of 2006 including the WSOP.
* * * * *
June
June started out in NYC before my travels took me to Tennessee and eventually out to Las Vegas for the WSOP but not without stops in Colorado and LA. After cleaning up my storage space in New York City, where I threw out tons of junk and old stuff, I ended up taking several trips down memory lane as I sorted through nostalgic items that I kept. That inspired the Born to Gamble series as I capped off a ten week creative binge where I cranked out some of my best poker writing to date.
The Born to Gamble series continued with:
I went down to Nashville to hang out with Spaceman and lovely Mrs. Spaceman for a few days with Change100 before we went to the Bonnaroo music festival with my buddy The Joker and Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot. We even played poker at Bonnaroo! Here's the index of Bonnaroo coverage including two hilarious You Tube videos:
I finally arrived at the Rio Casino to cover the 2006 WSOP and found several new rules in place by the suits at Harrah's that limited my access on the floor. Spectators and railbirds had a better opportunity to cover the final table. As a media rep with a dreaded "red badge" I could not take photos from the stands or take notes. But if you were a tourist or railbird, you could do both. Fucked up, eh?
With limited floor access, I had to set up camp in the media room instead of sitting twenty feet from the final table in 2005. No more sitting in the trenches in media row. That was for the "green" badge people wich included inept CardPlayer interns some of which had no idea who Johnny Chan was or what a "dry side pot" was.
The media room was located several ballrooms away from the tournament area and Harrah's made about ninety people share a room designed for twenty. They finally gave us a second room after the media swelled to several hundred during the Main Event. But for six weeks, they jammed us into that tiny room.
Live blogging was prohibited which meant no more lighting quick updates on the Tao of Poker. Of course those four words (live blogging was prohibited) seemed to be absent from the vocabulary of a small percentage of readers who acted like spoiled jackoffs demanding live updates and chip counts when that was impossible and would put my badge in jeopardy. With several outlets paying me to write articles and recaps for them, I was not going to put my career on the line just to appease a few unsatisfied readers who have never paid me a cent for my writing.
The WSOP whored that aspect out to CardPlayer and PokerWire and my role changed. I had no choice. Looking back I can now laugh at the absurd demands of several readers. At the time, I was super pissed off because my options were limited and given the circumstances, I was doing the best that I could and at the same time sticking to my gameplan (spending less time at earlier events to conserve my energy and focusing on the $50K HORSE and Main Event instead).
I wrote for almost a dozen different outlets by the time the WSOP ended. With a deadline every four or five hours, the folks who paid my wages did not care if I had not slept in two days, or about the other outlets I wrote for, or whether or not I had the chance to update the Tao of Poker. It's a ruthless business and most of the other media reps had one or two outlets to write for at most. A few had more but I juggled several fireballs at once. That's why I got paid the big bucks... because I could handle that intense pressure for two straight months. But the one place I was writing for free was at the Tao of Poker. I was fortunate that 99.72% of the readers understood my situation.
I admit that the live coverage on the Tao of Poker was nowhere near as good as the 2005 WSOP. But if you look at the collective writings of every outlet (PokerStars, FoxSports, MSN, Las Vegas and Poker Blog, Poker Pro, Poker Pro Europe, Poker Player Newspaper, Expressen, and Poker Magazine to name a few) that I wrote for at the 2006 WSOP, my coverage was more comprehensive. Overall, the opinion that matters the most is mine and I felt that I did a better job with the 2006 WSOP, esepcially under the crappy circumstances.
Plus I was a lot more smarter about some of the information and dirt that I accumulated at the 2006 WSOP. Instead of pissing that away for free on the Tao of Poker, I stashed away those gems for the Las Vegas book.
I adapted a new strategy with a journalistic/beat reporter approach to the WSOP more than a live blogging monkey chained to my laptop. I experienced more of the overall WSOP and spent more time talking to players and other media reps than watching every single hand of the final tables of preliminary events. Unlike at the 2005, at the end of the day I felt that I was doing more real writing and my clients were very pleased.
Here are a few posts about the first week at the 2006 WSOP:* * * * *
July
July featured action at the WSOP and the summer gathering of the bloggers with F Train winning the prestigious blogger's tournament. I played in one WSOP event, and my first ever PLO event. Plenty of weird stuff went down at the WSOP such as Hellmuth winning his 10th bracelet, Chip Reese beating Andy Bloch heads-up for the $50K HORSE crown, the dealers mutiny, the birth of Liz Lieu Tuesdays, the dot.net fiasco, and other hijinks with bloggers including the infamous Keno crayon incident.
Here's the index of noteworthy posts including WSOP coverage:
The dealers
Here are some freelance articles that I wrote during the WSOP:
* * * * *
August
I started the month smack in the middle of the WSOP Main Event and drinking way too many pints of Stella on dinner breaks at the Tilted Kilt. I had been hired by Otis and PokerStars Blog to cover their players for the Main Event. One of the perks was getting a free room for two weeks at Treasure Island. It was closer than Grubby's apartment in Henderson which meant that I got an extra 45 minutes of sleep every night.
Otis assembled a Dream Team of bloggers that included CJ, CC, Wil, Mad, Howard, Ali, Max Shapiro, and myself. With Ali sweating fellow Australian Joe Hachem and other Aussie and Kiwi players, Mad kept an eye on the Europeans, while Howard sweated the Brits and Irish players. CJ and CC followed on the rest of North American players on Stars, while Wil and I got the sweet assignments... covering members of Team PokerStars. I got to keep tabs on Tom McEvoy, Barry Greenstein, Humberto Brenes, Katja Thater, Isabelle Mercier, and Greg Raymer. If you watch the ESPN broadcasts of the Main Event, you'll see me in the background on the rail as both Brenes and Raymer bust out.
The play was super slow in the $50K HORSE event but the play was ultra fast in the Main Event, so much fast that the action ended early on a few nights and didn't need close to 1.5 days that was allotted for the tournament. The thousands of internet push monkeys helped accelerate the action as several friends went deep including an old friend from New York City Stormy and fellow bloggers Ryan and Tuscaloosa Johnny.
With only Allen Cunningham as the lone pro who made the final table, the missing chips rumors and speculation began to swirl. I was fortunate to get a few emails from an insider who used to be a former floor supervisor. He/She explained the dealer's mutiny and a possible theory of the missing chips.
What $12 million looks like
Here are the highlights from August including WSOP Main Event coverage:
Former Star Trek Actor feeds meth addiction by stealing water
When the WSOP ended and Jamie Gold won$12 $6 million, I headed back to Henderson and got to play some poker at Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock. Grubby took a job designing slot machines in Chicago and came back to Las Vegas to pack up the rest of his things. It was a sad moment as we both said goodbye to the apartment in Henderson.
I finally left Las Vegas and went to Boulder, CO to decompress after a tough two month assignment. I earned and saved enough money during the WSOP to take the rest of the year off from covering poker tournaments and went back into semi-retirement. Aside from a few columns, I did not take on any freelance work as I returned to NYC to write before I hit the road again to do some more traveling.
And and yeah, the Tao of Poker thurned three years old in August!
* * * * *
September
I took a break away from all things poker when I moved back to NYC to rewrite Jack Tripper Stole My Dog. I headed down to AC then over to AlCantHangland, PA for the annual Bash at the Boathouse where blogger hijinks ensued. Here are the recaps of that four day bender which included my birthday in NYC and some guy calling StB a sore loser at the Borgata:
Other noteworthy posts from a dead month include 21 Flavors: A 2006 WSOP Photo Dump and Dear Hillary where I told my faux-Senator to vote against Frist's UIEGA.
* * * * *
October
October 2006 for some. Black October for others. Poker players got "Frist-fucked" when Bill Frist railroaded the UIEGA at the end of the Port Security Bill. Party Poker pulled the plug and all of their revenue went right down the crapper. Party Gaming stock was worth less than toilet paper. But PokerStars and Full Tilt hung in there... for now.
Frist fucked me over when I lost several clients due to his hard-on with online poker and I also had to take a 25% pay cut for one of the magazines I write for. Freelance writers don't make a lot of money. Freelance poker writers make even less. And after Frist, the entire poker industry (non-online poker sites) took a major shot to the gut. His attempt to appease the Religious Right made it tougher for me to earn a living. For that, Bill Frist wins the Tao of Poker's Assclown of the Year Award.
Bush II signed the bill and we're a few months away from the banking industry figuring out how to enforce it. The UIEGA got a lot of people sleepwalking through life fired up about something important as our personal freedoms are eroding every single day. Today it's online poker. Tomorrow it's full access to the internet. Geez, I'm starting to sound like the Human Head!
I started the month in NYC working on my book and eventually migrated to the Left Coast. I spent time in LA and Las Vegas for the Vegoose music festival. I played a lot of online poker and enjoyed the last few days at the profitable tables on Party Poker. I cleaned up as the last of the fish donked off the last of their Party Poker dollars. That run was mentioned in Business Week article called Online Gambling Goes Underground.
In a very serious month, I took a not-so-serious approach to life and that attitude showed in the writing on the Tao of Poker. Here are some of my favorite posts from Black October:
* * * * *
November
I spent the first half of the month traveling... Vegas to NYC and then to Amsterdam. I played a ton of heads-up Chinese Poker against Change100 in Amsterdam as she went on MECPT (Mega Euro Chinese Poker Tilt). I came home early after the Tao got hacked but thanks to blogger.com, everything was restored.
I spent the rest of the month in NYC writing. 15 minutes was one of the best pieces I had written in months and Sophism was my favorite posts of the year to crank out. Poker wise, I was grinding it out online at the Limit tables as I tried to break even for the year. And Iggy quit blogging. Sort of.
Here are some interesting posts from the month:
* * * * *
December
December was a fun but wild month where I spent time in Hollyweird, Las Vegas, and New York City. I headed out to Vegas for the 3rd annual December blogger gathering, which was one of the best to date. Congrats to -EV for his victory in the Holiday Classic tournament.
I decided to write up my Vegas trip reports in a different way and weaved in the Seven Deadly Sins after I went off the deep end and went on MPGT (Mega Pai Gow Tilt). I donked off $2K quickly. Here they are:
The 2006 retrospective continues as I review the last seven months of 2006 including the WSOP.
June
June started out in NYC before my travels took me to Tennessee and eventually out to Las Vegas for the WSOP but not without stops in Colorado and LA. After cleaning up my storage space in New York City, where I threw out tons of junk and old stuff, I ended up taking several trips down memory lane as I sorted through nostalgic items that I kept. That inspired the Born to Gamble series as I capped off a ten week creative binge where I cranked out some of my best poker writing to date.
The Born to Gamble series continued with:
Born to Gamble Part III: Midnight RiderJust like in 2005, I spent the month before the WSOP writing a ton of freelance articles. Here are a few that were published online during June:
Born to Gamble Part IV: Ramblin' Man
Born to Gamble Part V: Whipping Post
Born to Gamble Part VI: Revival
2006 WSOP Preview: The $10 Million Man (or Woman) (Las Vegas & Poker Blog)Here's a recap within a recap! I posted a recap of the 2005 WSOP.
Poker Stars: 5 Million and Counting (Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Poker: Avoiding Distractions (Poker Player Newspaper)
Pauly's Picks: Las Vegas Poker (Las Vegas & Poker Blog)
Poker Blogs: The Best of the Best (Bluff Magazine)
I went down to Nashville to hang out with Spaceman and lovely Mrs. Spaceman for a few days with Change100 before we went to the Bonnaroo music festival with my buddy The Joker and Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot. We even played poker at Bonnaroo! Here's the index of Bonnaroo coverage including two hilarious You Tube videos:
Bonnaroo Part I: Thursday Arrival (Tao of Pauly)I moved back into my apartment in Henderson with Grubby which was 10,000% better than the Redneck Riviera and only five minutes away from Green Valley Ranch. I also added another video to my You Tube collection called Grubby's Secret Drawer where I revealed Grubby's morbid and secret addiction.
Bonnaroo Part II: Fanfuckingtastic Friday (Tao of Pauly)
Bonnaroo Part III: Superlicious Saturday (Tao of Pauly)
Bonnaroo Part IV: Sunday Finale (Tao of Pauly)
Bonnaroo video Part I
Bonnaroo video Part II
I finally arrived at the Rio Casino to cover the 2006 WSOP and found several new rules in place by the suits at Harrah's that limited my access on the floor. Spectators and railbirds had a better opportunity to cover the final table. As a media rep with a dreaded "red badge" I could not take photos from the stands or take notes. But if you were a tourist or railbird, you could do both. Fucked up, eh?With limited floor access, I had to set up camp in the media room instead of sitting twenty feet from the final table in 2005. No more sitting in the trenches in media row. That was for the "green" badge people wich included inept CardPlayer interns some of which had no idea who Johnny Chan was or what a "dry side pot" was.
The media room was located several ballrooms away from the tournament area and Harrah's made about ninety people share a room designed for twenty. They finally gave us a second room after the media swelled to several hundred during the Main Event. But for six weeks, they jammed us into that tiny room.
Live blogging was prohibited which meant no more lighting quick updates on the Tao of Poker. Of course those four words (live blogging was prohibited) seemed to be absent from the vocabulary of a small percentage of readers who acted like spoiled jackoffs demanding live updates and chip counts when that was impossible and would put my badge in jeopardy. With several outlets paying me to write articles and recaps for them, I was not going to put my career on the line just to appease a few unsatisfied readers who have never paid me a cent for my writing.
The WSOP whored that aspect out to CardPlayer and PokerWire and my role changed. I had no choice. Looking back I can now laugh at the absurd demands of several readers. At the time, I was super pissed off because my options were limited and given the circumstances, I was doing the best that I could and at the same time sticking to my gameplan (spending less time at earlier events to conserve my energy and focusing on the $50K HORSE and Main Event instead).
I wrote for almost a dozen different outlets by the time the WSOP ended. With a deadline every four or five hours, the folks who paid my wages did not care if I had not slept in two days, or about the other outlets I wrote for, or whether or not I had the chance to update the Tao of Poker. It's a ruthless business and most of the other media reps had one or two outlets to write for at most. A few had more but I juggled several fireballs at once. That's why I got paid the big bucks... because I could handle that intense pressure for two straight months. But the one place I was writing for free was at the Tao of Poker. I was fortunate that 99.72% of the readers understood my situation.
I admit that the live coverage on the Tao of Poker was nowhere near as good as the 2005 WSOP. But if you look at the collective writings of every outlet (PokerStars, FoxSports, MSN, Las Vegas and Poker Blog, Poker Pro, Poker Pro Europe, Poker Player Newspaper, Expressen, and Poker Magazine to name a few) that I wrote for at the 2006 WSOP, my coverage was more comprehensive. Overall, the opinion that matters the most is mine and I felt that I did a better job with the 2006 WSOP, esepcially under the crappy circumstances.
Plus I was a lot more smarter about some of the information and dirt that I accumulated at the 2006 WSOP. Instead of pissing that away for free on the Tao of Poker, I stashed away those gems for the Las Vegas book.
I adapted a new strategy with a journalistic/beat reporter approach to the WSOP more than a live blogging monkey chained to my laptop. I experienced more of the overall WSOP and spent more time talking to players and other media reps than watching every single hand of the final tables of preliminary events. Unlike at the 2005, at the end of the day I felt that I was doing more real writing and my clients were very pleased.
Here are a few posts about the first week at the 2006 WSOP:
First Day at the WSOP: Buffets and Hookers 1, WSOP 0
Event #2 $1,500 NL
Tilt-a-Otis
Bad Beat Princess
July
July featured action at the WSOP and the summer gathering of the bloggers with F Train winning the prestigious blogger's tournament. I played in one WSOP event, and my first ever PLO event. Plenty of weird stuff went down at the WSOP such as Hellmuth winning his 10th bracelet, Chip Reese beating Andy Bloch heads-up for the $50K HORSE crown, the dealers mutiny, the birth of Liz Lieu Tuesdays, the dot.net fiasco, and other hijinks with bloggers including the infamous Keno crayon incident.
Here's the index of noteworthy posts including WSOP coverage:
Rafe First, Dutch "Bi-Polar" Boyd, and Hellmuth's 50
WSOP Fashionistas
Bouncin' Round the Room and Bathwater Surprise
WSOP Event #9 $5K NL Final Table: Hellmuth, Mercier, Luske, and Vinnie Vinh
F Train Rules and Hookers & Mashed Potatoes: Bloggers in Vegas Update
WSOP Ladies Event
Bloggers at the WSOP and Liz Lieu Tuesdays
WSOP $50K HORSE Day 1 Update, Mexican Wedding Crashers, and How I Won Grubby's Car
WSOP Rumors: Rebel Dealers and Andy Black's Hammer
WSOP $50K Horse Final Table: The Real Heavyweight Championship
World Series of Bad Beats, Grubby's Last Supper, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays
Hot or Not? A WSOP Conversation with Foiled Coup and 5251
Cyndy Day?
Lee Watkinson's Chimps Gone Wild and Ode to Paul McKinney
WSOP Photo Dump 7.22
I Lost $400 Because Otis Ate 2 Keno Crayons
WSOP Sports Jersey Photo Gallery
Ninja Midgets, BoDog, and Tao
Hellmuth: Poker's First 50/10 Player
WSOP Media Tournament and Poker Lifestyle & Expo Pics
Almost There: On the Cusp of the WSOP Championship
2006 WSOP Main Event Day 1A
2006 WSOP Main Event Day 1B
2006 WSOP Main Event Day 1C
2006 WSOP Main Event Day 1D
The dealers
Here are some freelance articles that I wrote during the WSOP:
First Impressions: 2006 WSOP (Fox Sports)Here are the some photo galleries:
Chip Reese Wins $50K HORSE (Fox Sports)
Serious Business (Fox Sports)
Calm Before the Storm (PokerStars)
2006 WSOP Black & White PhotosThanks to the following bloggers who bought Pieces of Pauly for the WSOP $1,500 PLO event:
2006 WSOP Photos
2006 WSOP Main Event Photos
Pieces of Pauly PLO Backers:
1. Grubby & Change100
2. Senor
3. Derek
4. Ryan
5. John Caldwell
6. Brandon Schaefer
7. Seatle John
8. CBGCs: Kat & Jules
9. Iakaris
10. Alan
11. Miami Don & SinCity Carmen
12. AlCantHang
13. Iggy
14. Joe Speaker
15. Big Pirate
August
I started the month smack in the middle of the WSOP Main Event and drinking way too many pints of Stella on dinner breaks at the Tilted Kilt. I had been hired by Otis and PokerStars Blog to cover their players for the Main Event. One of the perks was getting a free room for two weeks at Treasure Island. It was closer than Grubby's apartment in Henderson which meant that I got an extra 45 minutes of sleep every night.
Otis assembled a Dream Team of bloggers that included CJ, CC, Wil, Mad, Howard, Ali, Max Shapiro, and myself. With Ali sweating fellow Australian Joe Hachem and other Aussie and Kiwi players, Mad kept an eye on the Europeans, while Howard sweated the Brits and Irish players. CJ and CC followed on the rest of North American players on Stars, while Wil and I got the sweet assignments... covering members of Team PokerStars. I got to keep tabs on Tom McEvoy, Barry Greenstein, Humberto Brenes, Katja Thater, Isabelle Mercier, and Greg Raymer. If you watch the ESPN broadcasts of the Main Event, you'll see me in the background on the rail as both Brenes and Raymer bust out.
The play was super slow in the $50K HORSE event but the play was ultra fast in the Main Event, so much fast that the action ended early on a few nights and didn't need close to 1.5 days that was allotted for the tournament. The thousands of internet push monkeys helped accelerate the action as several friends went deep including an old friend from New York City Stormy and fellow bloggers Ryan and Tuscaloosa Johnny.
With only Allen Cunningham as the lone pro who made the final table, the missing chips rumors and speculation began to swirl. I was fortunate to get a few emails from an insider who used to be a former floor supervisor. He/She explained the dealer's mutiny and a possible theory of the missing chips.
What $12 million looks like
Here are the highlights from August including WSOP Main Event coverage:
WSOP Main Event Day 2AHere are some pics:
WSOP Main Event Day 2B
WSOP Main Event Day 3
WSOP Main Event Day 4
WSOP Main Event Day 5
WSOP Main Event Day 6
WSOP Main Event Day 7
WSOP Main Event Final Table
Jamie Gold Wins 2006 WSOP Championship
WSOP Championship Time Line (Fox Sports)
Aloha
Inside the WSOP: Disgruntled Supervisor Speaks Out
Tilting Locals, Four Random Hands, and Return of the Poker Grub
The Menagerie of Tweakers and LLT
Tao of Three.
Random B&W photo dump
Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos
Tao of Poker's Main Event Gallery
Former Star Trek Actor feeds meth addiction by stealing water
When the WSOP ended and Jamie Gold won
I finally left Las Vegas and went to Boulder, CO to decompress after a tough two month assignment. I earned and saved enough money during the WSOP to take the rest of the year off from covering poker tournaments and went back into semi-retirement. Aside from a few columns, I did not take on any freelance work as I returned to NYC to write before I hit the road again to do some more traveling.
And and yeah, the Tao of Poker thurned three years old in August!
September
I took a break away from all things poker when I moved back to NYC to rewrite Jack Tripper Stole My Dog. I headed down to AC then over to AlCantHangland, PA for the annual Bash at the Boathouse where blogger hijinks ensued. Here are the recaps of that four day bender which included my birthday in NYC and some guy calling StB a sore loser at the Borgata:
Treading Water: Bash at the Boathouse Part I
Moments of Clarity: Bash at the Boathouse Part II
Other noteworthy posts from a dead month include 21 Flavors: A 2006 WSOP Photo Dump and Dear Hillary where I told my faux-Senator to vote against Frist's UIEGA.
October
October 2006 for some. Black October for others. Poker players got "Frist-fucked" when Bill Frist railroaded the UIEGA at the end of the Port Security Bill. Party Poker pulled the plug and all of their revenue went right down the crapper. Party Gaming stock was worth less than toilet paper. But PokerStars and Full Tilt hung in there... for now.
Frist fucked me over when I lost several clients due to his hard-on with online poker and I also had to take a 25% pay cut for one of the magazines I write for. Freelance writers don't make a lot of money. Freelance poker writers make even less. And after Frist, the entire poker industry (non-online poker sites) took a major shot to the gut. His attempt to appease the Religious Right made it tougher for me to earn a living. For that, Bill Frist wins the Tao of Poker's Assclown of the Year Award.
Bush II signed the bill and we're a few months away from the banking industry figuring out how to enforce it. The UIEGA got a lot of people sleepwalking through life fired up about something important as our personal freedoms are eroding every single day. Today it's online poker. Tomorrow it's full access to the internet. Geez, I'm starting to sound like the Human Head!
I started the month in NYC working on my book and eventually migrated to the Left Coast. I spent time in LA and Las Vegas for the Vegoose music festival. I played a lot of online poker and enjoyed the last few days at the profitable tables on Party Poker. I cleaned up as the last of the fish donked off the last of their Party Poker dollars. That run was mentioned in Business Week article called Online Gambling Goes Underground.
In a very serious month, I took a not-so-serious approach to life and that attitude showed in the writing on the Tao of Poker. Here are some of my favorite posts from Black October:
Bad Beating a Danish PrinceAnd yes, my brother Derek won the Blogger Quiz and Gracie won the Spice Girls Essay contest in a close race. Too bad that the UIEGA went down because one of my favorite poker posts of all time Bad Beating a Danish Prince got overlooked from all of the UIEGA fall out. If anything else stands out from the month, it has to be Exile on Main Street.
Crisis = Opportunity
Prison Tips for Online Poker Players
Exile on Main Street
Discipline
R.I.P. Party Poker
Gracie Wins the Spice Girls Essay Contest!
A Rain Gently Falls
Nietzsche Died of Syphilis
AlCantHang & Pauly's Blogger Quiz
Drunk Grandma at Green Valley Ranch
November
I spent the first half of the month traveling... Vegas to NYC and then to Amsterdam. I played a ton of heads-up Chinese Poker against Change100 in Amsterdam as she went on MECPT (Mega Euro Chinese Poker Tilt). I came home early after the Tao got hacked but thanks to blogger.com, everything was restored.
I spent the rest of the month in NYC writing. 15 minutes was one of the best pieces I had written in months and Sophism was my favorite posts of the year to crank out. Poker wise, I was grinding it out online at the Limit tables as I tried to break even for the year. And Iggy quit blogging. Sort of.
Here are some interesting posts from the month:
Tilt and FlowOn Turkey Day, I gave a message of thanks especially to my top referrals of the year.
Ummm... I'm Not Dead Yet
Crack
15 Minutes
Sophism
Book Review: Why You Lose At Poker
Top 10 Referrals of 2006:
1. Las Vegas & Poker Blog (Poker Prof & Flipchip)
2. Wicked Chops Poker
3. Guinness and Poker
4. Aaron Gleeman
5. Tao of Pauly
6. Chris Fargis
7. AlCantHang
8. Up for Poker
9. Pokerati
10. Pot Committed
December
December was a fun but wild month where I spent time in Hollyweird, Las Vegas, and New York City. I headed out to Vegas for the 3rd annual December blogger gathering, which was one of the best to date. Congrats to -EV for his victory in the Holiday Classic tournament.
I decided to write up my Vegas trip reports in a different way and weaved in the Seven Deadly Sins after I went off the deep end and went on MPGT (Mega Pai Gow Tilt). I donked off $2K quickly. Here they are:
Part I: Lust & GluttonyHere are the other posts from the blogger weekend in Las Vegas:
Part II: Wrath
Part III: Greed & Sloth
Part IV: Envy
Part V: Pride
PreambleI also reviewed of Jay Greenspan's book and revised my infamous Vegas Tips:
Snailtrax, Male Prostitute
-EV Prevails
Epilogue
Book Review: Hunting FishAnd kids, always remember Rule #20! Don't get rolled by a hooker. On that note, I'm done with the review. Thanks for reading. See you in 2007.
Bloggers Invading Las Vegas 4.0
27.12.06
The Circuit 2.0
The holidays are swiftly coming to a close. I’ve noticed a few folks starting to get back to their blogs. The combined effects of heavy doses of tryptophan & spiked egg nog have apparently finally begun to recede. Most seem to be gravitating toward “year end review/new year resolution”-type posts. Dunno if I’ll bother with either of those. For some good year-end reviews of what happened in the poker world in 2006, go to the Poker Prof.’s blog and/or Pauly’s always-worthwhile Tao of Poker. Poker News has also been working its way through a month-by-month recap. As far as resolutions go, I got nothin’ other than to try to keep having fun (and making a few berries here and there) playing our favorite game.After a few days away from the tables, I logged onto Full Tilt today and found professional player (and new co-host of The Circuit) David Singer sitting at a $1.00/$2.00 limit table. Easy to tell which one was Singer. Besides the custom avatar, he was also the only one with over $20,000. (Your guess is as good as mine as to why he thought he needed to bring so much.) I jumped on the waiting list, thinking perhaps I’d get to experience a little of that “mixing it up” I wrote about last post, but unfortunately Singer left before I’d made it to the top of the list.
Ended up watching several of the hands, and saw Singer chatting it up in a very friendly way with the rest of the table. He seems like a nice enough fellow. Not sure, really, how good of a fit he is for The Circuit, though. The new crew -- which includes Singer, Konan Luce, and Rich Belsky -- made its debut a couple of weeks ago at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Singer is the lone pro of the trio, and while he’s certainly knowledgable and even demonstrates a dry sense of humor now and then, his understated monotone probably makes it difficult for most listeners to remain attentive. Of the amateurs, Belsky seemed fairly comfortable and did a fair job during the shows asking guests about particular hands. Luce seemed mostly out of his element, however. I don’t think the group necessarily deserves all of the negativity spewing on the Circuit forum (over at CardPlayer), but they do have a lot of room to improve, I think.
The Circuit is fairly unique among all of the podcasts in its on-the-spot coverage of the major tournaments. (Have yet to check out The Tournament Trail over on Hold ’em Radio.) I’m pulling for the new hosts to figure out how to make the show work. I mentioned something before about how the new hosts -- whoever they turned out to be -- were going to have Shana Hiatt-esque shoes to fill thanks to the high mark set by Scott Huff, Gavin Smith, and Joe Sebok. (Posted that observation over on the Circuit forums and here’s what Circuit intern, forum moderator, and funny guy Justin “Shronk” came up with in response.)
Think I’ll go take a look that DVD of The Cincinnati Kid I found in my stocking Monday morning. Probably looking at a review here in the not-too-distant future.
Welcome back, all!
23.12.06
Mixing it Up
Finally got a chance to hear this week’s Beyond the Table. Missed the live show on Wednesday night, but the podcast version is available here. Favorite moments: (1) Tom hollerin’ “Shamus, get yr ass in here!” (gotta figure a way to sample that somehow); (2) Karridy likening me to a boss having called in a wayward employee (friggin’ hilarious); (3) Dan recognizing the oddity of the trio spending a portion of this week’s show reading a transcript of last week’s show, and wondering if someone might transcribe them reading the transcription (we’d all probably vanish into some sort of self-reflexive, M.C. Escheresque vortex if anyone dared try that, I think). Anyhow, fun stuff -- go check ’em out, if you haven’t already.The show -- along with some other events this week -- got me thinking about how poker uniquely enables truly meaningful interaction between pros and amateurs. I mentioned before how Beyond the Table brings us dialogue between a professional player (Tom) and two amateurs (Karridy and Dan). A number of other poker podcasts (e.g., Bluff Poker Radio, The Circuit, Joe Average Poker Radio, Keep Flopping Aces, Rounders, The Poker Edge) feature a similar dynamic. These shows work best (or, I should say, are most interesting to me, the amateur player listening in) when there is some genuine communication occurring between the amateur and the pro. (Not always the case, actually, on some of these.)
Sure, I’m as curious as the next sap to hear the pros describe their lives and gossip about the circuit scene. And it can be useful sometimes to hear them share their theories and strategies. However, when the pro then gives sincere attention to the amateur’s situation -- asking questions about his or her life and/or play -- that’s when someone like me becomes genuinely engaged. That’s when I not only become more likely to profit from whatever wisdom about poker (or other things) the pro might be imparting, but I get to feel as though I’m participating -- in a meaningful way -- in a wider community. Poker is great for many reasons, but the way the game provides a means to community-building is one of its truly special qualities.
I remember when I first started playing poker. I’d hop online and play hands for pennies, then go watch the WSOP or WPT on the tube and think about how the rules of the game were the same, only the stakes were different. I used to think of poker as being like golf in this respect -- what I’m watching is the same damn game, only it’s being played at a different level (and thus not really the same damn game, but resembling it in a number of ways). Amateur golfers follow the same rules and try to employ the same strategies as do the pros. They even sometimes get to play the same courses, maybe even start from the same tees. And certainly, whatever level at which they’re playing, they get to experience a lot of the same highs and lows the game produces.
There are differences, though. Golf tournaments may begin with a “Pro-Am” event early in the week, but such exhibitions don’t count for much, really. (Not for the pros, anyhow.) By contrast, every major poker tournament involves amateurs competing against pros. At this year’s WSOP Main Event, for example, it was estimated that of the 8,773 entrants only a thousand or so could be reasonably described as “professional” poker players. I’d estimate there were probably more than that, but certainly well over half the field were amateurs, meaning that every starting table likely featured a mix of pros and wannabes. And the same is true for just about every major circuit event -- there are amateur players at every stop who pony up the entry fee and give it a go. Why? Because they can.
The fact is, pros and amateurs play poker together all the time -- online and live. (Probably one way to define who belongs to which group, actually -- the pros are the winners and the amateurs the losers.) I’ve never had the experience, but I know some who have played over at the Bellagio and had pros come around and sit in at their low limit (3/6 or 4/8, I don’t remember) game for an orbit or two. Kind of a public service, I suppose. A true thrill for the amateurs, as you might imagine. There’s Negreanu’s “protégé,” the Full Tilt pros chatting with customers and playing low limit tourneys, other sites inviting amateurs to knock out pros for bounties, and so forth. Chris Cosenza on Ante Up! told about seeing Kathy Liebert warming up for the WPT Foxwoods main event (where she final tabled) by playing in the 1-2 NL games -- and having a hell of a time. Not at all unusual, really. For fun or for profit, pros and amateurs mix it up on a regular basis.
Which brings me to the other reason why I was thinking this week about pros and amateurs mixing it up -- the whole Brandi Hawbaker saga that started on the 2+2 Forums exactly one week ago and has since swiftly mushroomed into one of those internet “memes” like the dancing baby or Mahir Çagri. Hawbaker got some attention back in October by finishing 35th at the WPT Festa Al Lago main event (after being an early chip leader) -- her first significant cash on the circuit. We heard her interviewed on Pocket Fives and saw her picture leading off the CardPlayer Photo Gallery in the 11/28/06 issue. Then last Saturday (12/13/06) she started a thread on 2+2 (in the “News, Views, and Gossip” section) with a lengthy post describing her dealings with “Captain” Tom Franklin, a professional player since the early 70s who holds one WSOP bracelet and has earned over two million dollars in tourneys. Hawbaker’s post describes Franklin’s offer to serve as a mentor/protector for her as she began her career, then goes on to accuse Franklin of a number of offenses ranging from simple lying to stealing a large portion of her (modest) bankroll to attempted sexual assault. At the moment, the thread has over 130,000 views and 4,500 replies. Here’s the thread, and here’s a summary version. Go read if you’re interested (and/or, like most of us, something of a voyeur). If not, just consider it a low rent, Glitter-Gulch version of Clarence Thomas vs. Anita Hill.
What really happened between the amateur and the pro? Who knows. What’s clear is the interaction was not at all positive, and perhaps an unfortunate by-product of the ease with which members of both groups enjoy mostly unrestrained access to one another. Generally speaking, such access is a good thing, I think. As I said, us amateurs benefit greatly from the pros occasionally taking an interest in us -- not just in terms of improving our play, but simply being able to connect meaningfully with the mostly wonderful community that is “the poker world.” Hopefully poker’s continued growth (or other factors, like the UIGEA) won’t make positive interactions -- like the one I had this week -- harder to come by.
20.12.06
19.12.06
Poser, Know Thyself
I miss the Ramones. Growing up in the suburbs, I was a big poser. I loved punk music, but watched the scene from a safe distance. Sure, I went to see bands, but usually only the ones I just could not bear to miss. DKs, Buzzcocks, and the Ramones. The Ramones were especially interesting in that their albums never sounded like their live shows. They were like two bands in one.
I never wanted to be a real punk. A kid with a nihilist view of the world bent on non-conformity and personal destruction? Not for me. I wanted to enjoy the music, then upon turning 18, go to college. Well, sorta. I wasn't ready for college, and well, umm. never mind, that is not the point.
fast forward 20+ years...
I played in the "Monday's at the Hoy" last night and only 13 players participated. But for a player like me, that is a best case scenario. You see, I play poker based soley on the "fundamental theorem of poker", aka MATH. I don’t "read people" (although I dabble in pattern recognition). I rarely bluff (but I'll steal like a motha), and I HATE getting my money in behind unless I am certain it will look to my opponent that I am instead getting my money in ahead. When you play this conservative style, field size is your #1 strategic opponent. Tactics are even different, as with a big field you need to accept more volatility. Something I accept as readily as a high school reading assignment of Anna Karenina.
Short story long, last night was the longest bubble in freaking history. We were down to 4 player (pays 3) at like level 5. So we had deep stacks and were trying to maneuver appropriately. I had twice the chips of everyone else, and was determined not to do anything stupid. But one player (Tommy2Tone) was freaking Napoleon. Nappy was making CJ the Luckbox look like Bad Luck Schlep-rock (Flintstones reference). It reminded me of the old RISK commercial from our childhood when the Napoleon dressed guy exclaims "Can nothing stop this man?!" as some geeky kid rolls 3 sixes.
But here is game where hand histories tell no real tales. It was the strategm of "dodge and weave" that took me to head up with Nappy, and a change of strategy that secured the come from behind victory. After the longest 2 table MTT I have ever played online, I actually went to watch an episode of "ROME" and fall asleep in the early morning hours... Hail Ceasar!
oh, yes and... save the cheerleader, save the damn internet! http://savetheinternet.com/
I never wanted to be a real punk. A kid with a nihilist view of the world bent on non-conformity and personal destruction? Not for me. I wanted to enjoy the music, then upon turning 18, go to college. Well, sorta. I wasn't ready for college, and well, umm. never mind, that is not the point.
fast forward 20+ years...
I played in the "Monday's at the Hoy" last night and only 13 players participated. But for a player like me, that is a best case scenario. You see, I play poker based soley on the "fundamental theorem of poker", aka MATH. I don’t "read people" (although I dabble in pattern recognition). I rarely bluff (but I'll steal like a motha), and I HATE getting my money in behind unless I am certain it will look to my opponent that I am instead getting my money in ahead. When you play this conservative style, field size is your #1 strategic opponent. Tactics are even different, as with a big field you need to accept more volatility. Something I accept as readily as a high school reading assignment of Anna Karenina.
Short story long, last night was the longest bubble in freaking history. We were down to 4 player (pays 3) at like level 5. So we had deep stacks and were trying to maneuver appropriately. I had twice the chips of everyone else, and was determined not to do anything stupid. But one player (Tommy2Tone) was freaking Napoleon. Nappy was making CJ the Luckbox look like Bad Luck Schlep-rock (Flintstones reference). It reminded me of the old RISK commercial from our childhood when the Napoleon dressed guy exclaims "Can nothing stop this man?!" as some geeky kid rolls 3 sixes.
But here is game where hand histories tell no real tales. It was the strategm of "dodge and weave" that took me to head up with Nappy, and a change of strategy that secured the come from behind victory. After the longest 2 table MTT I have ever played online, I actually went to watch an episode of "ROME" and fall asleep in the early morning hours... Hail Ceasar!
oh, yes and... save the cheerleader, save the damn internet! http://savetheinternet.com/
18.12.06
Who Wants to Write About Poker?
I finally stopped grabbing poker podcasts manually and got myself a copy of Juice to search for, find, and download new episodes for me. I have ten different shows currently loaded into this sucker. Here are the shows I try to catch (the links are to the RSS feeds of each): Ante Up!, Beyond the Table, Bluff Poker Radio, The Circuit, The Joe Average Poker Show, Keep Flopping Aces, Poker Diagram, The Poker Edge, Pocket Fives, and Rounders. (Yes, The Circuit has returned, though as a shadow of its former self.) A new addition to the list is Beyond the Table, another of the many shows produced live on Hold ’em Radio and then made available as podcasts. I’ve listened to the last four or five episodes of the weekly show and have liked what I’ve heard. The show has three hosts: Tom Schneider, a professional high-stakes poker player and author of Oops, I Won Too Much Money, Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Table (recently reviewed in CardPlayer); Karridy Askenasy, a computer programmer and amateur player who created and manages something called True Texas Poker with T.J. Cloutier; and Dan Michalski, a freelance journalist and amateur player who runs the popular poker blog, Pokerati.
The trio have good chemistry and are always engaging. As some other podcasts have demonstrated, the professional-amateur dynamic works well, particularly when (as happens with Beyond the Table) we not only have the amateurs taking an interest in the pro’s life as a player, but the pro taking an interest in the amateurs’ activities as well. Tom does a great job asking questions of Karridy and Dan about their games (and lives), which keeps the show interesting and fun.Near the conclusion of last week’s show (12/13/06), there occurred a provocative exchange between Tom and Karridy regarding the phenomenon of poker blogs. Dan was not present for last week’s show -- like a lot of bloggers, he was at the WPBT in Vegas. Karridy mentioned how much they missed Dan since he is such a “wealth of knowledge” about poker, as demonstrated by the fact that Pokerati is “renowned throughout the blogosphere as just being really information rich.” Karridy then made an observation about poker bloggers that led to a brief dialogue about the subject. I thought I’d share what Karridy and Tom said, then make a few brief observations of my own regarding some of the assumptions made during the exchange.
Karridy: “If you sit around and write about poker ten times more than you play it . . . I think it’s kind of hard to walk the walk when you’re talking that much talk.”
Tom: “Yeah . . . . It’s interesting . . . this whole blogging thing is just really, it blows my mind, because . . . I don’t know where these guys get the time. They must type like crazy, though . . . and . . . why would you blog so much instead of doing a lot? You know, I mean if you have a chance to play poker or write about it, I mean, to me, it’s not even a toss-up, you know? It’s not even a question.”
Karridy: “Right. Well, I think it plays, it plays to people’s -- and I’m not gonna say this in Dan’s case, because Dan . . . is a journalist, he was a former editor of All-In Magazine, I mean this is Dan [we’re] talking [about] -- but some of these guys, I gotta think, that, you know, they’re probably well-spoken, they have, maybe, a unique insight to the game, somehow, some way, and this kind of plays to their vanity in the fact that if they can get some readers and utilize their computer skills that they can be a little bigger than they might be in the poker world otherwise.”
Tom: “Yeah, I guess maybe that’s it. I don’t know . . . . You know, it’s interesting, too, though, the whole blogging thing is big. If you watch these political shows -- I don’t know if you ever watch any shows related to politics -- but they mention bloggers all the time. They say ‘the bloggers this’ and ‘the bloggers that’ and it’s incredible how that has become a major source of news . . . .” [Tom then spends a minute or so speculating whether it could be an “age thing” -- that like happens with anything mediated by technology, older generations are less quick to adapt.]
Karridy: “And I wanna say that my opinion I expressed just a few moments ago, it sounded pretty harsh. That was in response to the overabundance of bloggers -- not just in poker -- I think there’s a lot of celebrity bloggers . . . Hollywood . . . you know, kind of paparazzi-style bloggers like Perez Hilton, who’s super famous for that. They’re all across a number of mediums and industries and I think it attracts a certain kind of individual, but at the same time, as Tom pointed out, you know, they can also provide a tremendously valuable service, and I think Dan is one of those people. And long before Dan and I were friends . . . I visited his blog daily . . . and I still do.”
Tom: “Did you really . . . ? Why did you do that?”
Karridy: “Because the information I couldn’t get anywhere else. He has . . . it seemed like he just . . . he knew everything that was going on, and if I wanted to get a quick information fix, and I didn’t want to, you know, scan the headlines, go to CardPlayer, then go to Bluff, then go to All-In and try to find this info that I wanted, I knew that Dan would be a great aggregate source of the really good info. And that’s what I wanted. It was all about immediate gratification, and he provided that . . . .”
Tom: “Huh. That’s interesting.” [Tom proceeds to admit he doesn’t really use the computer very much, anyway, and the pair change the subject.]
An intriguing exchange, I thought. I see three main assumptions about poker blogs being advanced here. I’ll list ’em and respond to each:
(1) Poker blogs are similar to “vanity press” publications, primarily serving to stroke the ego of those who (perhaps) aren’t necessarily deserving of such attention.
Karridy’s opening comment implies that a lot of poker bloggers are chiefly self-promoters, presenting the most flattering versions of themselves in order to solicit positive feedback and attention. He may be correct in some cases -- just a month ago I wrote about how much easier it is to report wins than losses on one’s blog, and how it is hard, sometimes, to resist the urge to make oneself out to be a better player (or more interesting person) when openly chronicling one’s experiences as a poker player on one’s blog. However, almost none of the blogs I regularly read seem to work this way. Most of my favorite bloggers appear much more humble and realistic about themselves than Karridy's comment suggests. To be fair, his observation might be intended to refer more directly to “wannabe” poker news blogs that imitate (or, often, plagiarize) other, successful blogs/sites like Pokerati, Poker News, IGGY at PokerWorks, Poker Prof.’s Poker Blog, and Tao of Poker. (His later reference to Perez Hilton suggests as much.) In any event, as those of us who regularly read other varieties of poker blogs can attest, there are all sorts of other motivations for poker bloggers than simple narcissism.
(2) There is a “zero sum” correlation between writing on one’s poker blog and playing poker -- that is, time spent writing on the poker blog is always time that could have been spent playing poker.
This idea is Tom’s main contribution to the discussion. He wonders why anyone would want to write about poker rather than play it. Of course, one needs only look to the title of Tom’s show -- “Beyond the Table” -- to answer his question. Those of us who spend time writing such blogs clearly have an interest in taking a break from the table and reflecting on what happened there -- or on other aspects of our lives. (The fact that Tom himself penned an autobiographical book about his experiences in business and in poker shows that he, too, possesses this urge to stop and reflect.) The fact is, such “billable hours” mentality does not always apply to non-professional players. The time I spend writing on the blog is not necessarily time I could have spent playing poker.
(3) Poker blogs have become primary sources of information, rivalling other examples of blogs significantly affecting the exchange of news and ideas in other areas of our culture (e.g., politics and entertainment).
I suspect this assumption to be accurate as well. In fact, it may well be the case that many poker blogs and websites are -- generally speaking -- even more reliable sources of information than are publications like CardPlayer, Bluff, All-In, and the like, particularly if one pays attention to how the “news” these publications provide is significantly shaped by the various corporate entities that provide their significant advertising revenue. (Here’s an old post where I complain about CardPlayer’s non-subtle evolultion into a weekly Full Tilt Poker promo.) Of course, this assumption also excludes all non-news poker blogs (such as the one you are reading) from the discussion. Do our attempts at editorializing about such things also qualify as worthwhile contributions to the conversation?
I think so. If anyone reads them, that is . . . .
16.12.06
Truckin - December 2006, Vol. 6, Issue 12 1. 12 b...
Truckin - December 2006, Vol. 6, Issue 12
Welcome back to another issue of Truckin'. The December and final issue of 2006 features the return of Grubby with a hilarious gem about a recent trip to Las Vegas. Fellow bloggers Sean A. Donahue and Falstaff are back. I Also penned 12, which is a recap of twelve different hashbars that I visted one day in Amsterdam. And I'm happy to introduce a new writer and fellow poker blogger from the mix, Nick Cantwell from London.
If you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along the URL. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list or writing for a future issue.
1. 12 by Paul McGuire
"Hey, let's go to ten hash bars today." Nicky shrugged her shoulders and motioned, "OK." I didn't think we'd actually do it and when the night was over, we'd go to twelve in all. Twelve hash bars in twelve hours? I'm glad I did that because records are meant to be broken... More
2. Zippers Come Undone in Vegas by Grubby
At the club, Maya chatted me up. She said she'd moved from Fremont, CA, and has been living with her mother for three weeks. She's been working at Rhino for half that. I believed all of it... More
3. Fugue in Geek Minor By Falstaff
I had torn off down to New Orleans for Fall Break, gotten drunk at Wet Willie's, pissed in a public park under a streetlight and gotten front row seats at Big Daddy's Topless & Bottomless, where a Eurasian chick with a black pageboy cut and three tattoos did things to Jason's hat that made him swear he would never do laundry again... More
4. The Man John Never Knew by Nick Cantwell
John spent all day with one eye on the latest share prices, and his other eye fixed on the neighbourhood - and when his job became second nature to him, it was this other eye that he found much more captivating... More
5. Grounded by Sean A. Donahue
I just wanted to rest. But Dad would have none of it, from the yard work being done to taking me out to lunch, we did everything but sleep... More
Welcome back to another issue of Truckin'. The December and final issue of 2006 features the return of Grubby with a hilarious gem about a recent trip to Las Vegas. Fellow bloggers Sean A. Donahue and Falstaff are back. I Also penned 12, which is a recap of twelve different hashbars that I visted one day in Amsterdam. And I'm happy to introduce a new writer and fellow poker blogger from the mix, Nick Cantwell from London.
If you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along the URL. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list or writing for a future issue.
Minding my M's and Q's
Got a tourney puzzler for y’all. Been goofin’ around w/those tourney dollars I won awhile back -- have yet, really, to try anything big. (Kind of nice always to be freerollin’ this way.) Still feel too much of a tourney novice to take any big risks, though. And as a novice, I humbly solicit yr sage advice, dear reader . . . .Here’s the skinny: Level 9 of a $3.00+$0.30 NLH MTT on Stars. 957 entrants, and the bubble just burst about five minutes ago. About 130 players left. Blinds are 300/600, with a 50-chip ante.
After a rocky start, I’ve played fairly well for most of the two-plus hours of the tourney. I managed to donk off over a third of my 1,500-chip starting stack in the first two hands, but then patiently picked my spots and built back up. At the time I was moved to the current table, I had around 6,000 chips, but I was able to work that up over 10,000 primarily by picking on a couple of passive players who weren’t protecting their blinds. By the time we reached the hand in question, I had 9,711 chips, just a hair below the average chip stack for the tourney (9,832). The average stack at my table was just over 10,000, and there were exactly four players with more chips than me and four with fewer chips.
Pulling out my Harrington on Hold ’em, Volume II: The Endgame, I see that my “M” here is only a little over 7. That puts me in Harrington’s “Orange Zone,” where, according to Action Dan, I am mostly (but not entirely) reduced to all-in (“first-in vigorish”) moves. My “Q” (the ratio of my chips to the average stack) is almost 1. According to Harrington, your “M” is more important than your “Q” (“M” is the “strong force” while “Q” is the “weak force”). I usually don’t pay that much attention to my “Q” number, though I do generally pay heed to how my chip stack compares to the average stack at my particular table. Incidentally, Harrington doesn’t appear to specify what exactly constitutes a low “Q” number, though I imagine anything below 1 would qualify. (If anyone has any Q-tips, send ’em on, please!)
Anyhow, back to the hand. Given my stack size and the overall situation, I’m starting to get a bit anxious but am by no means desperate. For this hand, I’m in the small blind where I get dealt
. I watched as a player in middle position -- SuperTrooper, with 9,304 chips (just a few hundred less than me) -- min. raised to 1,200. The table folded around to me. Question 1: What do you do here?
I contemplated the all-in move here. With SuperTrooper’s raise, that would’ve netted me a nice pot (2,800) if he (and the big blind) both folded. I thought for a moment then decided a larger-than-average raise should accomplish the same purpose while also (perhaps) giving me options down the road. So I raised it to 5,400 (just over half my stack). Here’s my thought process: (1) He might have AA or KK; if so I’m cooked. However, if he doesn’t, the only correct call would be with AK (in which case I’m in a coin-flip situation). (2) He might think by my oversized bet I have less than QQ, and thus might well call me with something worse than AA, KK, or AK. (3) If there’s no ace on the flop, I’m probably gonna push.
SuperTrooper called. The flop came
. Question 2: What do you do here?
What did I say? I'm probably going to push if no ace came? Is that what I want to do? When the flop came this way -- and I noticed our stack sizes relative to the pot -- I hesitated. The pot was 11,850. I now had 4,311, and SuperTrooper 3,854. Neither of us was going to give up this pot, I was certain. I quickly realized that pushing here was probably going to get a call no matter what SuperTrooper had. (In fact, as it turned out, my preflop play hadn’t really allowed myself that many options down the road.) I checked. I did have a couple of immature rationalizations in mind for checking (e.g., “If he pushes, he’s weak!”), but to be perfectly honest I was just buying time. SuperTrooper predictably put his remaining chips into the pot.
Question 3: What do you do here?
I called, of course. I had essentially committed myself to the pot with my preflop raise -- as had SuperTrooper, really -- so it was probably destiny that we were getting it all in at this point of the hand.
What did he have?
.Shamus furrows his brow, obviously distressed. I had one of the diamonds, so I had to sweat the eight that were left (plus the other three aces, of course). The CardPlayer odds calculator says I’m 56.77% to win here. Still, given how the hand went, this was about as good as I could’ve hoped, really. (Looking back, the only other, better possibility for me -- that would be probable -- would be for him to have had tens or nines or something.)
Alas, the
came on the turn and I was all but toast. I lasted three more hands with my remaining chips (528), then quickly bowed out of the tourney with a cool $4.59 for my efforts.My first response was frustration over the fact that my opponent had called my largish preflop raise (9x the big blind, 4.5x his own min. raise) with crummy ace-nine suited. (I didn’t fault his postflop play at all.) But the more I thought about it, the more I began to question my own play here. Did I really have to be in that situation? How would you have handled this one? If I had been less aggressive preflop, could I have escaped the hand with, say, half my stack (or more) intact?
14.12.06
Holiday Classic Recap
December 2006
I didn't sleep much this trip. I arrived on Thursday and left late Monday night. In total, I slept 8 hours in 5 days. Sick.
It's a good thing though. Sleeping means you miss the hijinx. I've witnessed some of the craziest shit between the hours of 2am and 8am during these Las Vegas trips.
This trip was no different.
I shaved a few more years off my life but it was worth it. GCox was a champ and slept even less than me. I was impressed. He was a pretty cool guy and fun to party with.
I had alot of fun this trip even though I lost over $1,000. That's US Dollars folks. Thank goodness it wasn't Euros or British Pounds.
After I lost my one thousandth dollar of the trip, which was in the IP poker room, I walked back to the hooker bar . . . err . . . the Geisha Bar with Change100 and Rachel Spacewoman.
After we passed the Pai Gow table, I turned to the ladies and mentioned that I only had $42 in my pocket at that time.
I needed to reload.
My junk hurt but I was ok. The loss didn't hurt that bad.
I'm just a sore loser.
Who isn't really? No one likes losing money no matter what the amount.
* * * * *
Rachel: You lost over $1,000? That stinks Derek.
Derek: Yeah. I don't even have enough money to buy a hooker right now.
Rachel: There's nothing you can get for $42?
Derek: Not at the hooker bar. I should just walk up to one of the hoes and tell her that I lost a shitload of money. Maybe she'll feel sorry for me.
Change100: I don't think they give discounts.
Derek: Hey honey, I got $42 . . . what can that buy me? My ass already hurts from losing money . . . how about two fingers up my asshole? One finger??
Change100: Smoke break.
Derek: Agreed. Maybe I'll bring Rachel with me when I approach that blonde hooker.
Fucked by a casino . . . fucked by a hoe. What's the difference, right?
I think I'll take the one that doesn't involve STD's or getting a pierced asshole.
Being stuck sucks.
* * * * *
Memorable Moments:
-Getting another chance to be in the presence of Sir AlCan'tHang. Truly honored.
-Stained cigarette fingers.
-Drinking greyhounds at the Pai Gow table with THG for 6 hours. Bathroom breaks: Derek 10, THG 0.
-F Train's Gus Hansen shirts.
-The hand to crack all hands . . . The Rooster is cagey.
-Visiting the Red Rocks.
-Hot chicks on a plane! Ass and boobies hanging out.
-Daddy talking to any rodeo cowboy.
-Snailtrax aka Professional bull massager.
-Sweet sweet Gracie!
-Who's the President of the United States?
-"Closing the convention" with Daddy, Pauly and Boy Genuis at the Geisha bar.
-Reality show Grubby.
-Monopoly slots.
-Okie's rule . . . Go Maudie and GCox!
-Daddy likes em stout!
-GMoney, Otis, Bobby, the Heads and Rachel making the trip at the last minute.
-Sore loser.
-Felted at the IP. Doh!
-Pai Gow TILT.
-Viva la Grubbette!
-Blackjack TILT.
-Hear that other table games?
-Wynn buffet.
-Sports book Sunday.
-Miami Don called the Jacksonville upset. His picks helped me get unstuck (almost) for about 5 hours. I hate blackjack and Pai Gow.
-Great WPBT tourney table. Sat with Penner, Stb, The Rooster, GCox, Michael Friedman, Gracie. Later on, I got to sit with Miami Don, Otis, CC Sir F, and Veneno. My third table had Daddy, ACH and Soxlover.
-The Geisha bar.
-Great dinner at the Palms.
-The Heads.
-PokerTek?
-Las Vegas airport. Thank you for smoking.
-Aussie Garth!
-Rule #20.
-Two words: Dick Bro.
-Meeting Lou Krieger.
-Ass grabbing.
-Drizz and the money wheel.
-Maudie's new tattoo.
-I kept pissing off the blackjack dealers at the IP. Every time they hit a blackjack against me, I asked for a tip. They weren't amused.
-Chaka no like sleep.
-No links please.
-Strippers on a plane.
-I saw Pablo take a viscious blackjack beat. Some guy split his kings when Pablo had to double down. The kid pulled two Kings and Pablo got a rag. The dealer was showing a 5. The dealer pulled a 21 and no one won.
-The Pai Gow dealer at the IP asked Thg if Maigrey was his "honey." He said, "Of course, we're playing for our rent money. PAI GOW!!!!!!!"
Some guy walked up to Pauly at the Geisha bar and said that he was a big fan of his. Pauly must be used to this type of stuff by now. As Pauly paused to think of something to say, the fan mentioned that he saw Pauly yesterday on the IP Dealertainers stage singing an Elvis Presley song. "Great job buddy. I love Elvis."
At that exact moment . . . someone, somewhere in the world, had to be asking the real Elvis (he's still alive you know?) about his poker blog and what's its like to cover the WSOP and watch Otis eat keno crayons.
So true.
Really, it could happen.
G Money to me: Hoes don't work on Sunday?
How much to sniff your panties?
The Eagles won? Did Marky Mark play?
* * * * *
The Top 15 List: By the numbers . . .
15 - the # of packs of cigarettes I smoked in 5 days.
14- the # of times Bobby said, "Hear that ladies?" to no one in particular.
13 - the # of times I saw Sir F eye the blackjack table.
12 - the # of female asses I grabbed without getting slapped.
11 - the # of times I called Stb a "sore loser" per orbit during the blogger tourney.
10 - the # of bad beats I heard without collecting a $1.
9 - the # of times a tourist passed out at the Geisha barstool before security was called.
8 - the # of times Dan Michalski said I was better looking than Pauly. Don't ask. I just agreed.
7 - the # of times I heard Iggy say the word "please" when talking to a drunk cowboy.
6 - the # of pairs of underwear I brought with me. I only wore 4 of them. Mom would be proud.
5- the # of 18 yr old girls that Joaquin and Bobby tried to pick up combined. I tried to be a good boy this trip. No 18 yr olds for me. Plus, using plot lines from the OC as a pick up line isn't cool anymore. A year ago, maybe. That reminds me . . . Save the cheerleader. Save the world.
4 - the # of times that I saw the sun rise in Vegas during this trip.
3 - # of Asian woman in Vegas who still FEAR GRob. They admire his hair though.
2 - the # of times GCox flopped quads in the Caesar's tourney. Nice catch!
1 - the # of times I saw Daddy proposition a hooker while he wearing a Johnny Unitas old school retro jersey.
* * * * *
I had a great time during this trip. I’m glad I didn’t play too much poker. I had more fun drinking at the bar and losing money playing -EV games.
Good times.
Wish I took notes. I'd have more to say and recant.
Oh yeah, there was a poker tournament too. Sickness.
Many thanks to April for her great work in setting this trip up. Thanks April!
I didn't sleep much this trip. I arrived on Thursday and left late Monday night. In total, I slept 8 hours in 5 days. Sick.
It's a good thing though. Sleeping means you miss the hijinx. I've witnessed some of the craziest shit between the hours of 2am and 8am during these Las Vegas trips.
This trip was no different.
I shaved a few more years off my life but it was worth it. GCox was a champ and slept even less than me. I was impressed. He was a pretty cool guy and fun to party with.
I had alot of fun this trip even though I lost over $1,000. That's US Dollars folks. Thank goodness it wasn't Euros or British Pounds.
After I lost my one thousandth dollar of the trip, which was in the IP poker room, I walked back to the hooker bar . . . err . . . the Geisha Bar with Change100 and Rachel Spacewoman.
After we passed the Pai Gow table, I turned to the ladies and mentioned that I only had $42 in my pocket at that time.
I needed to reload.
My junk hurt but I was ok. The loss didn't hurt that bad.
I'm just a sore loser.
Who isn't really? No one likes losing money no matter what the amount.
* * * * *
Rachel: You lost over $1,000? That stinks Derek.
Derek: Yeah. I don't even have enough money to buy a hooker right now.
Rachel: There's nothing you can get for $42?
Derek: Not at the hooker bar. I should just walk up to one of the hoes and tell her that I lost a shitload of money. Maybe she'll feel sorry for me.
Change100: I don't think they give discounts.
Derek: Hey honey, I got $42 . . . what can that buy me? My ass already hurts from losing money . . . how about two fingers up my asshole? One finger??
Change100: Smoke break.
Derek: Agreed. Maybe I'll bring Rachel with me when I approach that blonde hooker.
Fucked by a casino . . . fucked by a hoe. What's the difference, right?
I think I'll take the one that doesn't involve STD's or getting a pierced asshole.
Being stuck sucks.
* * * * *
Memorable Moments:
-Getting another chance to be in the presence of Sir AlCan'tHang. Truly honored.
-Stained cigarette fingers.
-Smoking Gracie.
-Drinking greyhounds at the Pai Gow table with THG for 6 hours. Bathroom breaks: Derek 10, THG 0.
-F Train's Gus Hansen shirts.
-The hand to crack all hands . . . The Rooster is cagey.
-Visiting the Red Rocks.
-Hot chicks on a plane! Ass and boobies hanging out.
-Daddy talking to any rodeo cowboy.
-Snailtrax aka Professional bull massager.
-Sweet sweet Gracie!
-Who's the President of the United States?-"Closing the convention" with Daddy, Pauly and Boy Genuis at the Geisha bar.
-Reality show Grubby.
-Monopoly slots.
-Okie's rule . . . Go Maudie and GCox!
-Daddy likes em stout!
-GMoney, Otis, Bobby, the Heads and Rachel making the trip at the last minute.
-Sore loser.
-Felted at the IP. Doh!
-Pai Gow TILT.
-Viva la Grubbette!
-Blackjack TILT.
-Hear that other table games?
-Wynn buffet.
-Sports book Sunday.
-Miami Don called the Jacksonville upset. His picks helped me get unstuck (almost) for about 5 hours. I hate blackjack and Pai Gow.
-Great WPBT tourney table. Sat with Penner, Stb, The Rooster, GCox, Michael Friedman, Gracie. Later on, I got to sit with Miami Don, Otis, CC Sir F, and Veneno. My third table had Daddy, ACH and Soxlover.
-The Geisha bar.
-Great dinner at the Palms.
-The Heads.
-PokerTek?
-Las Vegas airport. Thank you for smoking.
-Aussie Garth!
-Rule #20.
-Two words: Dick Bro.
-After an all night bender, I went to Denny's with Daddy, Iggy, The Rooster, and GCox. Hijinx ensued and fun was had by all. I slaughtered a chicken fried steak, 2 biscuits, 2 eggs and 3 pancakes. And a coke.
-Meeting Lou Krieger.
-Ass grabbing.
-Drizz and the money wheel.
-Maudie's new tattoo.
-I kept pissing off the blackjack dealers at the IP. Every time they hit a blackjack against me, I asked for a tip. They weren't amused.
-Chaka no like sleep.
-No links please.
-Strippers on a plane.
-Woody woodpecker . . . nuff said.
- I'm 2-1 betting on Iggy's Cincy Bengals during WPBT holiday classics. Ship it!
-Ending my MGM curse by crushing the 1/2 NL game.
-Thanks. I'm quite good at cards.
-Nice catch donkey.
-15 packs in 5 days. Ouch. $120 in the toilet. I guess I never heard of a carton.
* * * * *
Random Hijinx:
-There was a homeless woman trolling the craps table trying to steal drinks. I saw her harassing Bobby, THG and Joe Speaker. Later on, she approached GCox who was lighting up a smoke and asked if she could buy a cigarette. He responded with, "There's a cigarette lady walking around somewhere."
Seconds later, the cigarette waitress walked by us. I laughed my ass off when the homeless woman got thrown out by security a little later. Shortly after that is when Bobby shouted out his infamous, "Hear that other table games?" line.
The craps table hit a big roll and they errupted with joy. So, Bobby wanted to make sure the entire IP pit heard the action so he whipped around and yelled, "Hear that other table games?"
-Astro-physicist gets 5 minute Pai Gow lesson from me, Joanne and GCox while pounding beers at the Geisha bar. Said astro-physicist walks away from Pai Gow table 30 minutes later. He 4x up. Blackjack anyone?
-The Pai Gow dealer at the IP asked Thg if Maigrey was his "honey." He said, "Of course, we're playing for our rent money. PAI GOW!!!!!!!"
* * * *
Thursday
3pm - checked into hotel room over looking Caesars.
3:30pm - leave room to go down to casino with Pauly and Change100.
3:31pm - while waiting for elevator . . . two male rednecks with a thick drawl comment on the reefer smell. Second redneck mentions that it smells like good shit.
Side note: Shortly after check in, Spaceman mentioned that when he got off the elevator, he knew he was on Pauly's floor. All he had to do was smell the hallway.
* * * *
At that exact moment . . . someone, somewhere in the world, had to be asking the real Elvis (he's still alive you know?) about his poker blog and what's its like to cover the WSOP and watch Otis eat keno crayons.
So true.
Really, it could happen.
* * * * *
Quotes:
Me to G Money: Is that pimps AND hoes?
Pimp to hoe: Damnit bitch, I told you to get over to Casino Royale!
Quotes:
Me to G Money: Is that pimps AND hoes?
Pimp to hoe: Damnit bitch, I told you to get over to Casino Royale!
G Money to me: Hoes don't work on Sunday?
How much to sniff your panties?
Daddy aka Snailtrax aka Donkeyfucker aka Working Man to hoe: It'll cost you $800 if you want to fuck me. You don't get to see the vanilla gorilla unless you show me eight $100 bills.
Daddy says to group of older woman: 5 in our party, 5 in yours . . . how about an orgy, err party?
Cowboy to Pablo: Get a haircut!
Geez, how many pimps does a hoe need?The Eagles won? Did Marky Mark play?
* * * * *
I got lucky once again with my plane ride. I got to sit next to several hot chicks. My conversation with F Train last year has resulted in good karma.
Unfortunately, I couldn't close the deal on any of them. Not the 18 year old. Not even the middle aged horny woman. I guess I'm not a coat check room kind of a guy like Vincent Chase.
Then again, I was on an airplane so it didn't matter much. There was no coat check.
Could you hurry up already?
I'd rather go the distance.
Mile high? Yes. But not the kind you think. Just high.
ABC.
* * * * *
The Top 15 List: By the numbers . . .
15 - the # of packs of cigarettes I smoked in 5 days.
14- the # of times Bobby said, "Hear that ladies?" to no one in particular.
13 - the # of times I saw Sir F eye the blackjack table.
12 - the # of female asses I grabbed without getting slapped.
11 - the # of times I called Stb a "sore loser" per orbit during the blogger tourney.
10 - the # of bad beats I heard without collecting a $1.
9 - the # of times a tourist passed out at the Geisha barstool before security was called.
8 - the # of times Dan Michalski said I was better looking than Pauly. Don't ask. I just agreed.
7 - the # of times I heard Iggy say the word "please" when talking to a drunk cowboy.
6 - the # of pairs of underwear I brought with me. I only wore 4 of them. Mom would be proud.
5- the # of 18 yr old girls that Joaquin and Bobby tried to pick up combined. I tried to be a good boy this trip. No 18 yr olds for me. Plus, using plot lines from the OC as a pick up line isn't cool anymore. A year ago, maybe. That reminds me . . . Save the cheerleader. Save the world.
4 - the # of times that I saw the sun rise in Vegas during this trip.
3 - # of Asian woman in Vegas who still FEAR GRob. They admire his hair though.
2 - the # of times GCox flopped quads in the Caesar's tourney. Nice catch!
1 - the # of times I saw Daddy proposition a hooker while he wearing a Johnny Unitas old school retro jersey.
* * * * *
I had a great time during this trip. I’m glad I didn’t play too much poker. I had more fun drinking at the bar and losing money playing -EV games.
Good times.
Wish I took notes. I'd have more to say and recant.
Oh yeah, there was a poker tournament too. Sickness.
Many thanks to April for her great work in setting this trip up. Thanks April!
Congrats to -EV for winning the Third Annual Holiday Classic. He's the new poker champ.
Easycure won the Gigli award.
I snagged my pics from Pauly and Linda. Thanks guys.
Here's the final table results:
1: -EV
2: Veneno
3: Michael Friedman
4: Daddy
5: Jim Gallagher
6: Sox Lover
7: April (CA)
8: Mattazuma
9: Vinny
10: Biggestron
That's it for now. Don't forget . . . pimps and hoes are people too.
Btw, anyone notice my last post was about pimps? Coincidence, foreshadowing or destiny?
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