"The Definition of Insanity is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results."
-Albert Einstein
The truth about poker is this. The road to glory is filled with degenerates and burnouts. The reason is this fucking game can drive a normal man insane. The best players in the world can have 2 or 3 losing months in a row. You can’t imagine the emotional toll losing for 2 months straight can take on someone. It’s a constant drag. Everyday you wake up and go to your job and give it everything you have, you play your best and you still leave with less than you came with. Whether it’s $5 or $5,000, losing fucking hurts. I hate it. We all hate it. Poker is also a predatory game. It’s a dog eat dog world. Ego has destroyed countless bankrolls (it hasn’t helped mine either.) Just like losing for 2 months can tear a person up. The opposite is equally as dangerous. When a poker player is on a heater (long winning streak), it is like they are invincible. The problem is they begin to believe they are the best, when the honest truth is they are probably playing good, but more importantly running better (the cards are just breaking their way.) This leads to the player taking shots at higher levels. If they normally play 20-40, but have been winning for 3 months in a row, they might move up to 50-100, or 100-200. In one week it is possible to lose 3 months of hard work. It’s sort of like a little story Doyle Brunson relays about one of his old adversary’s who was always broke. Someone came up to Doyle and said “What the heck, why is Johnnie always broke, I thought he was the 8th best poker player in the world?“ Doyle nodded and agreed, and said, “That’s right he is the 8th best player in the world, but he plays against the 7 best.“ My most recent entry talked about the joy of winning. This will be about the gut churning feeling about losing.
For the first time in my life I have no desire to be a professional card player. Spending the last 3 weeks in Vegas has taken a toll on me physically and mentally. More importantly though, it has given me an idea of what playing as a live (vs. online) professional would be life. It would be miserable. I had been to the Bellagio a few times since I’ve been to Vegas and thought it would be impossible for me to have a big loss there. Well it’s not. Some time last week (don’t remember the day), I went there and spent 9 fucking hours folding, folding, and folding some more. Over the course of 9 hours, I only took 6 hands to showdown. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I picked up AA in the big blind. Finally, I thought, all this folding is finally gonna pay off. The player under the gun raised (perfect!! I am getting some action and clearing the field) Then something unexpected happens, the old rich fish in the small blind 3 bets, he hasn’t done anything like this all day. I 4 bet, and UTG caps the pot (It’s a 5 bet cap in Vegas.) The flop comes K 10 5, and the old man bets, I raise and the other guy folds. The turn brings a second 5, which essentially makes it impossible for me to lose because I have 2 pair aces and 5’s. Even if the old man pairs his 2nd card, he will only have a lower 2 pair (for example Kings and Queens.) The only card that could fuck me now, is one of the last 2 Kings in the deck. Well of course the king hit’s the river and it’s good game Tommy2tyme. The old man had KJ offsuit and takes down the monster pot. I played for about 10 more minutes then got up and left. Somehow I lost $1,800 playing in a game I should have crushed. This was the beginning of a rough few days.
The type of person cut out for this profession (in addition to having the talent), is one with a lot of self-discipline. The kind of person that has complete control over their actions. While you need talent, having self-discipline is more important. I have very strong will power, but once I’ve been beaten down enough times, I accept it and thrive on it. I am very good at turning a losing streak into a monumental disaster. Whether it’s sports betting, getting tilted up and playing too many hands, or playing while tired, I’ve been good at all 3 at one point or another. My buddy Jared on the other hand has a shitload of self discipline. I can’t even get the kid to play $100 of blackjack with me. He also displays great discipline while playing poker. There are many times in limit hold em where the decision is close, but folding is probably the better option than calling. I (along with 90% of the other players) make this call, while Jared can fold it. There are definitely benefits to calling, if you hit you can tilt up your opponent and make him play worse vs. you in future pots, but in the long run folding is the better option.
Since being here I have seen everything. So many of the famous poker players are broke, and playing the tournaments on a stake from another player. On the same token, I have met other online poker kids who I thought would have a shit load in the bank, and they are playing with their last $10,000 while out here. It’s really been sad. On the flip side of the coin, my roommate Jared, and Greg (Wild Duck) have tons of money in the bank and have real success. What separates these 2 groups? The busto players are equally as talented as the robusto players, but they have leaks. What are these leaks? I’ve talked about a lot of them already. They are sports betting, blackjacks, strippers, hookers, drugs, clubbing, video poker, using bad bank roll management, spending big on frivolous items. In moderation, any of these things are fine. The problem is, most poker players have degenerate tendencies. It’s what allows them to play poker for thousands, and not feel weird about it. The same skill that allows them to make money, is ultimately their demise. Poker players with discipline are few and far between, but at the end of the day only 3 types of poker players have a lot of money in the bank. First, the best players in the world, if you work hard enough and are blessed enough to literally be the best at what you do, you will have a lot of money in the bank (While I consider myself to be a world class limit hold em player, I am certainly not the best.) The second type, are the people that get lucky and win a huge tournament (I hope for this to be me and have had some success in the past.) The third are the one’s with discipline. This is the group I strive to be in. The one’s that realize the stakes they can beat and the one’s they can’t. The people that don’t bet thousands of dollars on sporting events, who don’t play thousand dollar hands of blackjack. These are all easy things to do when you are motivated to do them. It’s when the motivation slips and you get mentally weak that these things come into play.
Alright, one more paragraph of this grief and no more for the remainder of the blog. But I think it’s cool to give people a true look at what a poker player goes through both good and bad. I’ve made and lost shitloads playing this game. More money than I could have ever imagined 4 years ago. So I’ll tell you about the shittiest poker experience I have ever had in my life. This isn’t the most money I have lost in a day, but easily the most depressing day.
I got home Saturday night (Sunday morning) at 6 am. It was Tony’s last night in town, so we ended it at the place every Vegas weekend seems to end ;-). Anyway, Sunday at noon was the $1,500 limit shootout, the last event before the main event. Limit hold em is my expertise and the shootout format definitely plays into my hands. The shootout format means, each table plays from 10 players down to 1, with the winner advancing to a 2nd table. If you win the second table you are at the final table. I have an advantage because most players have no experience in shorthanded limit hold em, while I play it everyday of my life. I rolled out of bed at 11 am, on 5 drunken hours of sleep. I hopped in the shower, mumbled something to Tony about having a good time, grabbed an unopened box of Cheerios, and headed to the lobby to get a cab. Unfortunately, the cab took 20 minutes to arrive and I was 15 minutes late to the tournament. I sat at my table and looked around. Everyone was 40+ (a great sign) and I recognized no one. 2 hours into play I had doubled my chips from 3,000 to 6,000 and it was clear that there was only one other competent player at the table. By 4 o’clock Vegas time, I knew I was going to win this table. The table had 4 players remaining and I had about 50% of the chips in play at the table. My only concern was that the competent player still remained and was in 2nd place. Another player was eliminated, and we headed to a 20 minute break. At this point there is 3 players. Hero (me) with approx. 16,500, Competent villain with about 9,000, and Nitty Villain with 4,000. The 20 minute break is an awkward thing. Too short to get a real meal or something, but too long to just run to the bathroom, I end up standing around bored. Anyways, I took a piss, called my Dad, texted Bobby, B Corn, and Sox Nation and then awkwardly walked around the Amazon room waiting for the break to end. I was already having visions of myself at the final table. When I win the first table the prize is $5,100, and if I can just win one more table I will be at the final table playing for a bracelet. Finally, the match starts back up. Nitty Villain says something along the lines of “I’m not even going to take my sandals off and get comfortable,” a reference to the fact that he has $4,000 chips left and little to no chance. Well we all know what happens next. Nitty Villain goes on the rush of his life, and eliminates Competent Villain. This is great for me, because now it Shorthanded Limit Hold em professionaly Tom Solomon with $19,000 in chips vs. Nitty Villain who has honestly probably never played a hand of heads up limit hold em in his life with $9,000. If we play this match 100 times with those stack sizes, I win 85 to 90 times.
This guy is limping the button when I have the big blind (literally the best thing ever for me.) He is clueless, but of course the deck couldn’t hit him any harder. When we got to heads up, we were one of only 4 or 5 tables at that point. When we finished only 5 of the 80 tables were still going. The heads up match lasted over 4 hours. Twice this card rack had me all in, I fought all the way back to the chip lead before another 20 minute break killed my momentum. Long story short, Nitty Villain had Aces 3 times, flopping a set once. He flopped the nuts on 3 other hands where I had second pair or better. He cracked my kings both times I had them, once with trips and once with an A high flop. And worst of all, he cracked my flopped nuts with 77, on a 732 board, by going runner runner flush with J5 of diamonds. He finally eliminated me when my 22 was no match for his 95. I have never been so sick in my life. I honestly wanted to cry. It felt like getting punched in the gut. Here I am, about to get my first cash in a WSOP event, in my best game, with the best format for me and some old man who has no clue what he is doing literally rips my dreams our from right under my chair. I literally played perfect the entire time heads up. I never tilted and stole tons of pots. This guy could not miss though, and at the end of the day the cards talked and Nitty Villain would advance. Gross! I literally felt sick leaving. I think at this moment I knew I was burnt out. What happened next hurt a lot more financially but not nearly as bad emotionally. I went back to our Condo and lost $7,000 playing on Bodog. It was brutal, the games were good, but like I said, at the end of the day the cards talk. Things broke against me, I started tilting, it sucked. All in all, it was like losing $12,000, the $5,000 I should have won (with the possibility of more) + $7,000 I actually lost. It was not easy sleeping that night!!!!
Random Thoughts
-I have some fun stories coming soon. I will probably post tomorrow, I was gonna put it at the end of this one, but it got too long.
-I met a girl from Michigan out here and got her number, she’ll probably come out with us tonight.
-Jared’s girlfriend Lindsay is here, but his girl friend Jenna is also here. A solid 8 to 9, she’s also a fire cracker. Think Jackie Dombrowski (personality not looks) on uppers. She just got here last night. Things might get interesting.
-I want to give a shout out to Andrew Tymrak at his request
-I have never been in such bad physical health in my life. I need to stop going out, and start sleeping more. Unfortunately, the Bodog party is tonight. It is being held at some 50,000 square foot penthouse suite at the Palms. Apparently this place has a full size B-ball court, and countless stripper poles.
-The day after I lost this money I went to the Rio to play a $325 satellite, it was still too soon. I bluffed off all of my chips on the 5th hand of play. I was not ready to play this fucking game again and should have never tried.
-I picked up my gear from Bodog! It is sweet. I have 3 t-shirts, a sweatshirt, 2 hats, a water bottle, a chip protector, and an 8.1 mega pixel Samsung digital camera!! All in a Bodog duffel bag. I am psyched.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Truth
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.
-- Teddy Roosevelt
-- Teddy Roosevelt
Truth
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.
-- Teddy Roosevelt
-- Teddy Roosevelt
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Why I Play This Game
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are usually right"
-Henry Ford
Yo peeps. It ain’t easy, but it sure is fun. Life is good. I freakin remember why I play this game now. I spent the last 8 hours ripping up the Bellagio 30-60 game. Poker is a humbling game, after losing the last 2 days you start thinking you aren’t quite as good as you thought. Then you start to wonder why you waste your time playing this game. Well, today answered all these questions for me. The day completely 180’d for me. I bought in for 1400 and immediately lost 600. I literally had lost all confidence. I even mucked 77 preflop in an un-raised pot. Then it all turned, I picked up aces and they freaking held!!! It was turning. I grinded up about $500, then went and grabbed a quick Caesar salad from the “Snacks” restaurant. I came back and hit a rush. First pocket aces, then AK, then KK, then a huge pot with KJ of clubs. I was crushing. Suddenly I was up 2 dimes. Then some retarded 40 year old in his backwards hate and cool sunglasses started talking shit about me. Loud enough for me to hear, “there is no substitute for luck,” “Must be nice to get Pocket Aces and have them hold.” What a fuckin tool, has he never hit a run of cards? The guy was obviously the biggest fish in the game. As I was stacking my chips, he was bluffing his off raising 75 offsuit and betting to the river. Then my favorite hand of the night. I raise AJ of spades, someone calls, said jackass 3 bets on the button, and both blinds call. I just call. The flop comes 10 8 3 with 2 spades. The blinds check, I check, said monkey bets on the button, both blinds call and I come in with the Check raise. The turn is a second 10, the blinds check, I bet, monkey calls and both blinds call. The river comes the 8 of clubs. I am stuck with Ace high. Both blinds check, I bet (I can’t win if I don’t bet), monkey on the button gives some huge speech about how it must be nice to hit Ace 10 the way I did, then mucks, both blinds muck and I scoop the $800 pot and table Ace high. The guy looks like a dear in headlights, I quietly say “there is no substitute for luck” and stack his chips. Fucking Awesome! Loved every minute of it. I went on to win a total of $3,815. My second favorite part of the night was leaving. I had a few observers behind me commenting on my stack. The 30-60 game uses $10 chips. It’s standard to keep your chips in stacks of 20 ($200). I had a monster 5x5 square built out in front of me (5*5*200). At one point I almost had 6k in front of me. Anyways, the monkey soon lost all of his money and had to leave the game (I am sure it was more than he could afford to lose). As he got up, I began racking my chips (how you carry them to the cashier) and saying goodbye to the friendly people around me. This is basically a big slap in his face, because without saying it, I am making it clear he was the reason I was still playing, i.e. He’s a fucking donkey.
Random Thoughts
My boy J-Money (Jared Mahoney) also won 3k tonight, so we were both pretty happy.
The big game was running inside Bobby's Room at the Bellagio. Notable players include, Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, Jen Harmen, Johnny Chan, Sammy Farha, and Todd Brunson.
I was sitting at the 30-60 game and some dude sits down in jeans, a t-shirt, a blazer, a backwards Detroit hat, and some huge aviators. He notices the D logo on my Titleist hat and asks me if I from Detroit. I say ya, Grosse Pointe. It turns out to be McClean, Trevor Mallon's roommate. It's a small world.
I think we will be back to the grind tomorrow.
Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, I was really fired up typing this out.
Cheers
2tyme
-Henry Ford
Yo peeps. It ain’t easy, but it sure is fun. Life is good. I freakin remember why I play this game now. I spent the last 8 hours ripping up the Bellagio 30-60 game. Poker is a humbling game, after losing the last 2 days you start thinking you aren’t quite as good as you thought. Then you start to wonder why you waste your time playing this game. Well, today answered all these questions for me. The day completely 180’d for me. I bought in for 1400 and immediately lost 600. I literally had lost all confidence. I even mucked 77 preflop in an un-raised pot. Then it all turned, I picked up aces and they freaking held!!! It was turning. I grinded up about $500, then went and grabbed a quick Caesar salad from the “Snacks” restaurant. I came back and hit a rush. First pocket aces, then AK, then KK, then a huge pot with KJ of clubs. I was crushing. Suddenly I was up 2 dimes. Then some retarded 40 year old in his backwards hate and cool sunglasses started talking shit about me. Loud enough for me to hear, “there is no substitute for luck,” “Must be nice to get Pocket Aces and have them hold.” What a fuckin tool, has he never hit a run of cards? The guy was obviously the biggest fish in the game. As I was stacking my chips, he was bluffing his off raising 75 offsuit and betting to the river. Then my favorite hand of the night. I raise AJ of spades, someone calls, said jackass 3 bets on the button, and both blinds call. I just call. The flop comes 10 8 3 with 2 spades. The blinds check, I check, said monkey bets on the button, both blinds call and I come in with the Check raise. The turn is a second 10, the blinds check, I bet, monkey calls and both blinds call. The river comes the 8 of clubs. I am stuck with Ace high. Both blinds check, I bet (I can’t win if I don’t bet), monkey on the button gives some huge speech about how it must be nice to hit Ace 10 the way I did, then mucks, both blinds muck and I scoop the $800 pot and table Ace high. The guy looks like a dear in headlights, I quietly say “there is no substitute for luck” and stack his chips. Fucking Awesome! Loved every minute of it. I went on to win a total of $3,815. My second favorite part of the night was leaving. I had a few observers behind me commenting on my stack. The 30-60 game uses $10 chips. It’s standard to keep your chips in stacks of 20 ($200). I had a monster 5x5 square built out in front of me (5*5*200). At one point I almost had 6k in front of me. Anyways, the monkey soon lost all of his money and had to leave the game (I am sure it was more than he could afford to lose). As he got up, I began racking my chips (how you carry them to the cashier) and saying goodbye to the friendly people around me. This is basically a big slap in his face, because without saying it, I am making it clear he was the reason I was still playing, i.e. He’s a fucking donkey.
Random Thoughts
My boy J-Money (Jared Mahoney) also won 3k tonight, so we were both pretty happy.
The big game was running inside Bobby's Room at the Bellagio. Notable players include, Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, Jen Harmen, Johnny Chan, Sammy Farha, and Todd Brunson.
I was sitting at the 30-60 game and some dude sits down in jeans, a t-shirt, a blazer, a backwards Detroit hat, and some huge aviators. He notices the D logo on my Titleist hat and asks me if I from Detroit. I say ya, Grosse Pointe. It turns out to be McClean, Trevor Mallon's roommate. It's a small world.
I think we will be back to the grind tomorrow.
Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, I was really fired up typing this out.
Cheers
2tyme
Monday, June 23, 2008
A little burn out, and a couple nights out.
"The true measure of a man, is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good"
Sorry, I haven’t updated this in a while. Vegas has been kicking my ass the last few days. I have learned an important lesson about burning myself out. I have been spending my time playing single table sit n go’s at the Rio. They are sattelites to the WSOP events. It is a winner take all format, but the final 2 or 3 people usually come to some sort of deal so no one leaves empty handed. Somehow I’ve played 5 of these in a row, and haven’t won one even though I’ve finished in the top 3, 4 times. It’s really been sick. I haven’t won a coin flip deep in a while. Also, I took the sickest beat I can remember. With 4 people left in a $500 sit n go ($5k first prize), I was chip leader and the blinds were 400 and 800, I had around 5500 in chips. The button pushed all in for 3,000, or another 2,200 to me. I made the call with Q T of spades, which is a pretty ballsy call. Sure enough I was right and he flips 34 of clubs. The flop comes KQ2, and the guy gets out of his chair and steps away from the table. He has exactly 0 clean outs. The turn was the Ace, and before I know it the river 5 hits giving him the ol’ runner runner straight. I ended up busting with AQ, when the same guy shoved all in on the button and the Small blind called. They had QQ and JJ, they Ace hit on the flop and I thought I was in the clear, but sure enough the case Q peels and I am eliminated empty handed.
I have lost about $2,500 in the last 3 days. It isn’t terrible, and is just the result of running bad, which happens to everyone from time to time. I am still up a decent amount on the trip. I decided to take today off and just recharge my batteries for a tough week of grinding.
A recap of some of the carousing we have been doing. My cousin Will was in town to visit this weekend, and anyone who’s met him know that leads to some rowdiness. His first night here Will, Dave, Jared and myself went out. Dave and Jared got a huge kick out of Will. They couldn’t believe the way he walks right up to girls and just starts talking or dancing. They are the nicest 2 dudes in the world, but I don’t think they get out quite as much as the GP people. They are like kids in a candy store looking at all the girls dolled up and everything else.
Anyway, the night started out at my favorite bar in Vegas, the piano bar in NY NY. Unfortunately, it was a Tuesday night so it was a bit of an older crowd. We caught a cab over to the Ghost bar. You can get in for free with Palms room keys, but obviously we didn’t have any. We went to the check in desk and Will reached over the desk and stole 3 room keys when the lady’s head was turned. Thank God for his cat like speed and reflexes. Anyways, this had Dave and Jared rolling (That’s negro speak for laughing.) It saved us $120, and let us buy the Grey Goose instead of the house vodka. We were a bit under dressed having not planned on going there and stayed about an hour. We spent the next few hours walking the strip and playing some $5 blackjack and craps. Of course, I could bet $5 a hand for about 15 minutes before betting whatever I had in front of me on one hand. I ended up winning $115 in tables games. Ship it! Our next stop was Carnival Court, which is an outdoor bar at Harrah’s with no cover. I quickly learned a lesson on paying cover. While it may suck, you get what you pay for. This place was called Carnival Court for a reason, it was full of freaks and geeks. Anyways, we do what I usually do in a situation like this involving alcohol, made assholes out of ourselves. Will and I were twirling anyone who would take a turn on the dance floor. Then Jared bet me I wouldn’t dance with some 300 pound 50 year old beast of a woman who at this bar alone, dancing in a corner with no one. So I spent the next 15 minutes, bumpin and grinding with her. She was missing like half of her teeth. It was sort of gross. Anyways, by the time we left Carnival Court we were all a little tipsy. Of course on our way out, we bumped into the limo that offers to take you to any strip club for free. How could 4 drunken fools pass up such an offer.
We arrived at the Rhino around 4 am, it’s pretty much the greatest gentleman’s club on earth. Before I went out, I took the vast majority of my money out of my pockets, just in case a situation such as this was to arise. As a disclaimer, I normally have a strong dislike for strip clubs. I think it is gross, the women are usually hideous, and I’d like to think I don’t need to pay to see boobies. But this isn’t a strip club, it’s the Spearmint Rhino. I’ll do my best to describe the scene for anyone who has never been there. The place is stocked full of over 100 beautiful ladies. They have all makes and models. There are young girls, old girls, tall girls, short girls, black, white, asian, big ol’ take fitties, small natural perky taters, it’s basically covers every color in the spectrum. This isn’t the minor leagues, it’s like having a roster full of Lebron’s, Kobe’s, and Duncan’s. There are usually 2 or 3 girls dancing and the rest of the girls are walking around trying to sell their services. A half hour with one of these girls costs $200. They aren’t prostitutes, and don’t do anything but dance with you, but like I said they are good at their job. I was committed not to spend a single dollar on the girls, it is clearly a waste of money. Somehow my cousin Will got a strippers number (and even met up with her for a drink on another occasion) without giving her a dime. We left around 6:30 a.m., when we walked out it was bright as day. I had $300 less in my pockets :-( .
A brief run down of Saturday night on the town. We got wasted. We went to the Toby Keith bar at Harrah’s and were breakin it down on the dance floor. This night made me realize that everyone is in Vegas to have a good time. I was breaking it down with a wide variety of ladies. From Cougars, to the 21 year old birthday girl, it was a lot of fun. Somehow Will got kicked out for being drunk. I asked the guy what’s up with kicking him out and he said “Come on man, look at him, don’t BS with me, you can see how drunk he is,” I gave Will a good, hard once over, he honestly looked fine to me, which made me aware just how drunk I must be. I figured the bouncer was right, so to save face, I just smiled, nodded and said “Ya, you’re right.” We ended up going to some piano bar at Harrah’s. Some older ladies I was chatting it up with introduced me to their niece who had just turned 21. They were all from Arizona. I ran some drunken game, and outtalked some Marine who was trying to pick her up. I wasn’t really interested in brining her home or anything, just more the thrill of knowing I had her hooked. In the meantime Will, David, and I (Jared took off) hopped on stage and requested The Piano Man (the same song I request every time I am drunk). Obviously we belted every word. I was spent, I am pretty sure the dude on the piano was actually making fun of us over his microphone to the entire bar. It was time to go. One of the aunt got my number for her niece, and we stumbled out of that place. I think we hit one more bar before we came back, but I honestly don’t really remember.
Randome Thoughts
As a poker player, Vegas will kick the shit out of you if you aren’t careful. The first day I was here and came to play cards, I was fresh and mentally sharp. The problem is live poker is slow and boring, and as a player you need to stay mentally tough to stay sharp and not play too many hands. Also, the place burns you out, walking through the casino enough times will drive anyone crazy. Also, there is a shitload of temptations. Staying away from the sports book, the table games, and the strip club which are more than happy to destroy your bankroll quickly.
Right now is Monday morning and I feel refreshed. My goal is to make $5,000 this week. I know I can do it, I just need to put in the hours and play well.
I need to get to the pool more often, I’ve been here for 2 weeks and have been to the pool once. A little variety is good for the soul.
Sorry, I haven’t updated this in a while. Vegas has been kicking my ass the last few days. I have learned an important lesson about burning myself out. I have been spending my time playing single table sit n go’s at the Rio. They are sattelites to the WSOP events. It is a winner take all format, but the final 2 or 3 people usually come to some sort of deal so no one leaves empty handed. Somehow I’ve played 5 of these in a row, and haven’t won one even though I’ve finished in the top 3, 4 times. It’s really been sick. I haven’t won a coin flip deep in a while. Also, I took the sickest beat I can remember. With 4 people left in a $500 sit n go ($5k first prize), I was chip leader and the blinds were 400 and 800, I had around 5500 in chips. The button pushed all in for 3,000, or another 2,200 to me. I made the call with Q T of spades, which is a pretty ballsy call. Sure enough I was right and he flips 34 of clubs. The flop comes KQ2, and the guy gets out of his chair and steps away from the table. He has exactly 0 clean outs. The turn was the Ace, and before I know it the river 5 hits giving him the ol’ runner runner straight. I ended up busting with AQ, when the same guy shoved all in on the button and the Small blind called. They had QQ and JJ, they Ace hit on the flop and I thought I was in the clear, but sure enough the case Q peels and I am eliminated empty handed.
I have lost about $2,500 in the last 3 days. It isn’t terrible, and is just the result of running bad, which happens to everyone from time to time. I am still up a decent amount on the trip. I decided to take today off and just recharge my batteries for a tough week of grinding.
A recap of some of the carousing we have been doing. My cousin Will was in town to visit this weekend, and anyone who’s met him know that leads to some rowdiness. His first night here Will, Dave, Jared and myself went out. Dave and Jared got a huge kick out of Will. They couldn’t believe the way he walks right up to girls and just starts talking or dancing. They are the nicest 2 dudes in the world, but I don’t think they get out quite as much as the GP people. They are like kids in a candy store looking at all the girls dolled up and everything else.
Anyway, the night started out at my favorite bar in Vegas, the piano bar in NY NY. Unfortunately, it was a Tuesday night so it was a bit of an older crowd. We caught a cab over to the Ghost bar. You can get in for free with Palms room keys, but obviously we didn’t have any. We went to the check in desk and Will reached over the desk and stole 3 room keys when the lady’s head was turned. Thank God for his cat like speed and reflexes. Anyways, this had Dave and Jared rolling (That’s negro speak for laughing.) It saved us $120, and let us buy the Grey Goose instead of the house vodka. We were a bit under dressed having not planned on going there and stayed about an hour. We spent the next few hours walking the strip and playing some $5 blackjack and craps. Of course, I could bet $5 a hand for about 15 minutes before betting whatever I had in front of me on one hand. I ended up winning $115 in tables games. Ship it! Our next stop was Carnival Court, which is an outdoor bar at Harrah’s with no cover. I quickly learned a lesson on paying cover. While it may suck, you get what you pay for. This place was called Carnival Court for a reason, it was full of freaks and geeks. Anyways, we do what I usually do in a situation like this involving alcohol, made assholes out of ourselves. Will and I were twirling anyone who would take a turn on the dance floor. Then Jared bet me I wouldn’t dance with some 300 pound 50 year old beast of a woman who at this bar alone, dancing in a corner with no one. So I spent the next 15 minutes, bumpin and grinding with her. She was missing like half of her teeth. It was sort of gross. Anyways, by the time we left Carnival Court we were all a little tipsy. Of course on our way out, we bumped into the limo that offers to take you to any strip club for free. How could 4 drunken fools pass up such an offer.
We arrived at the Rhino around 4 am, it’s pretty much the greatest gentleman’s club on earth. Before I went out, I took the vast majority of my money out of my pockets, just in case a situation such as this was to arise. As a disclaimer, I normally have a strong dislike for strip clubs. I think it is gross, the women are usually hideous, and I’d like to think I don’t need to pay to see boobies. But this isn’t a strip club, it’s the Spearmint Rhino. I’ll do my best to describe the scene for anyone who has never been there. The place is stocked full of over 100 beautiful ladies. They have all makes and models. There are young girls, old girls, tall girls, short girls, black, white, asian, big ol’ take fitties, small natural perky taters, it’s basically covers every color in the spectrum. This isn’t the minor leagues, it’s like having a roster full of Lebron’s, Kobe’s, and Duncan’s. There are usually 2 or 3 girls dancing and the rest of the girls are walking around trying to sell their services. A half hour with one of these girls costs $200. They aren’t prostitutes, and don’t do anything but dance with you, but like I said they are good at their job. I was committed not to spend a single dollar on the girls, it is clearly a waste of money. Somehow my cousin Will got a strippers number (and even met up with her for a drink on another occasion) without giving her a dime. We left around 6:30 a.m., when we walked out it was bright as day. I had $300 less in my pockets :-( .
A brief run down of Saturday night on the town. We got wasted. We went to the Toby Keith bar at Harrah’s and were breakin it down on the dance floor. This night made me realize that everyone is in Vegas to have a good time. I was breaking it down with a wide variety of ladies. From Cougars, to the 21 year old birthday girl, it was a lot of fun. Somehow Will got kicked out for being drunk. I asked the guy what’s up with kicking him out and he said “Come on man, look at him, don’t BS with me, you can see how drunk he is,” I gave Will a good, hard once over, he honestly looked fine to me, which made me aware just how drunk I must be. I figured the bouncer was right, so to save face, I just smiled, nodded and said “Ya, you’re right.” We ended up going to some piano bar at Harrah’s. Some older ladies I was chatting it up with introduced me to their niece who had just turned 21. They were all from Arizona. I ran some drunken game, and outtalked some Marine who was trying to pick her up. I wasn’t really interested in brining her home or anything, just more the thrill of knowing I had her hooked. In the meantime Will, David, and I (Jared took off) hopped on stage and requested The Piano Man (the same song I request every time I am drunk). Obviously we belted every word. I was spent, I am pretty sure the dude on the piano was actually making fun of us over his microphone to the entire bar. It was time to go. One of the aunt got my number for her niece, and we stumbled out of that place. I think we hit one more bar before we came back, but I honestly don’t really remember.
Randome Thoughts
As a poker player, Vegas will kick the shit out of you if you aren’t careful. The first day I was here and came to play cards, I was fresh and mentally sharp. The problem is live poker is slow and boring, and as a player you need to stay mentally tough to stay sharp and not play too many hands. Also, the place burns you out, walking through the casino enough times will drive anyone crazy. Also, there is a shitload of temptations. Staying away from the sports book, the table games, and the strip club which are more than happy to destroy your bankroll quickly.
Right now is Monday morning and I feel refreshed. My goal is to make $5,000 this week. I know I can do it, I just need to put in the hours and play well.
I need to get to the pool more often, I’ve been here for 2 weeks and have been to the pool once. A little variety is good for the soul.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
A Cool Half a Million
"In a battle of power and patience, take patience everytime."
Monday was probably the coolest poker experience of my life. I was looking on cardplayer.com on Sunday night and seeing if any big names had made final tables. I noticed the name Adam Hourani in the final 27 of the Omaha $5,000 buy in with Rebuys event. This is one of the biggest events of the series. Back at the end of May, I was introduced to a guy named Adam at the bar, whose poker screen name was Houdini (close to Hourani), and played high stakes Omaha for a living. He also told me he was staying at Panorama while he was out here. I decided there was a chance this was him, and looked him up on facebook. Sure enough, Adam Hourani was the same kid I was taking shots with at the Post on a random Thursday night. I face booked him Sunday night, and woke up Monday to see he had made the final table and accepted my facebook friendship (YESSS!!!) I sent him a quick note on facebook, telling him who I was, congratulating him on making the final table, and telling him to give me a shout if he wanted to go out. He told me they were gonna go out that night to celebrate the final table and call him and if I wanted to go.
Anyways, back to what was so cool poker wise about the entire day. Cardplayer.com described this as “possibly the best final table in World Series history.” Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, and David Bennaymine were the big name TV pros. The other 3 are all big name online professionals who have made millions. Phil Galfond (OMG Clay Aiken) and Brian Rast (T Sarrast) being 2 of the biggest online winners of all time. Everything I read going into the final table, gave my buddy Adam 0 chance. He entered 8th place in chips out of 9 and was expected to exit quickly.
The final table started at 2, and I walked up to Adam before and wished him good luck. I figured I’d watch for an hour or so before he busted. Little did I know I would be there until 2:30 am. About an hour in Adam doubled up through Daniel Negreanu, giving him 400,000 chips and a fighting chance (the chip leader had 1.5 million.) The action was very slow and 2 hours in no one had been eliminated. I introduced myself to Adam’s brother (Pollo), and ended up sitting with him. At about 4:15, the bodies began to drop. First out was Tsarrart, then Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and John Juanda. Suddenly, the table was down to 5 players, and Adam had made $100,000 more since the final table began ($170,000 total). Every hour or so the players would have a quick break, and Adam would come over to his brother and myself and shoot the shit with us. It was pretty cool for it to be the biggest poker moment in this kids life, and he was talking to me like I was his good buddy, and not some random kid who was in it for the after party. Anyways, it is hard to convey the tension and excitement in the room, and the fact that live poker is generally boring makes it hard to write about. Johnny Chan went out in 5th blowing a huge chip stack at the final table through horrendous plays. Adam’s biggest pot to this point came when he raised under the gun 4 handed. Serge, another online pro reraised to 220,000, if Adam called he would have 400,000 chips left and it was still possible for him to fold on the flop. Serge on the other hand was essentially committing himself to this pot by re-raising. The flop came KK5 and Serge went all in. Adam almost instants called revealing KT97 double suited (a strong, but not great starting hand) and Serge flipped AA22. Adam had him crushed. Adam’s hand held and he was suddenly in contention for a bracelet, not bad for a kid from East Lansing.
My favorite part of the day was our dinner break. Essentially, Phil Galfond had 3 million chips, and Adam and David Benyamine both had 1.6 million. On our way to dinner David Bennyamine’s publicist caught up to our group. She told Adam she had just talked to David and he descried Adam as “an unbelievable Omaha player.” Not bad coming from the guy who is widely regarded as the best Omaha player in the world. We stopped so Brian Rast (the 9th place finisher) could take a piss and David Bennaymine, along with his famous (in the poker world) girlfriend Erica Schoenberg (hot), approached. I don’t want to publish (even on my blog read by 5 people) what they discussed, but it was very cool to be privy to that discussion. Just ask me if you want to know. Anyways, we went to the American Grille for dinner. This is a casual steakhouse, with a menu full of steaks and seafood. I really wanted chicken fingers or a burger, but figured these high rolling online poker players I was with would certainly order steaks. Adam’s brother went first and ordered the chicken fingers, next was Tsarrant (online poker millionare) who also ordered the chicken fingers, followed by Adam who needed a nutritious meal before returning to play for just under a million dollars (first was $820,000.) Of course, nothing could be more nutritious then deep fried chicken and French fries so he got the same thing. This left me no choice, I would also have to get the chicken fingers.
So here we are over dinner, listening to Brian’s stories of winning and losing a million dollars in a month and discussions of his matches vs. Durr (regarded along with OMG Clay Aiken as the best 2 online players in the world) and we are all enjoying meals off of the kiddie menu. This is when I knew I was in the right profession. I am guessing if I was sitting with 2 of the top lawyers in the world, I would not be able to order the chicken fingers without looking like a fool.
I am gonna describe in a quick paragraph what took over 4 hours to happen. When the players returned from dinner, Bennyamine was in the mood to gamble and was quickly eliminated in 3rd place. This left Phil Galfond and Adam playing heads up for the gold bracelet and $820,000 first prize. Adam was well behind in chips when the match started and and never got it closer than a 3.8 to 2.6 million chip disadvantage. Pollo and myself were getting pretty drunk in the crowd and doing our best to cheer loudly every time Adam won a pot. Phil definitely had the crowd on his side, as it was essentially a who’s who of online poker cheering him on. The match finally ended around 2:15 am and we waited around while Adam was interviewed and Phil was presented with the bracelet. We then ran off to the poker cage, where Adam sat up a wire transfer for close to half a million dollars. What a sicko. Pollo, Adam, myself, and Dave drove back to Panorama to change our shirts then head to Jet where another player had already got table.
I was already pretty drunk by this point and don’t really know what happened during the hour we spent at Jet. All I know is the bass was loud, we had a table on the club floor and Adam got a bottle of Goose while someone else got a bottle of Crown. Pollo was only in town for 1 night and wanted to gamble, so the 4 of us left the club and hit the Mirage casino. We plopped down at Judith’s blackjack table who proceeded to take every dime I had brought (I had smartly left the majority of my money back at the condo when we changed.) All in all this was about an $800 hit. We then ventured to the $1-2 no limit hold em tables to donk around in some cash games after I hit the ATM. For some reason when you are drunk and playing way below the limits you normally play, it is a huge thrill to just act arrogant and shove all your chips in with any 2 cards. This is universally done by all successful poker players I have ever met. So this is what we did. Before I could blink I was down $400. Adam had dropped a few hundred, David was up a bit having called my open shove of AQ with nine deuce offsuit and spiking the deuce. Pollo had just lost his stack and everyone was ready to go. I had around $300 in front of me and told them to give me one more hand. I picked up 6 4 offsuit in the big blind. Someone raised to $10, and the Small Blind who had seen this act before just called the $10 out of the Small blind. I quickly shoved all in. The original raiser called and the SB shoved all in for $500 more. As the original raiser was determining whether or not to call the additional raise, the asshole in the small blind reveals he has AA. A huge breach of poker etiquette. The original raiser knowing the SB has AA, still makes the call. The pot was about $800. The flop came 37Q, the turn was a 10. My only chance at winning the pot was for the river to be a 5. Boooooom!!!! Sure enough the river peeled a 5, and I scooped in an $800 pot. The dickhead in the small blind was visibly upset that this drunk ass just cracked his aces. I quickly stacked my chips and that was that, we were headed home. It was bright as day by the time we got home (around 7 am.) All in all this was my favorite day in Vegas. I met some of the best online players in the world and went to the after party of a friend who had just made half a mill. I can’t even describe how much respect I have for Adam. The kid had met me once before, but treated me like I had been one of his best friends. I am sure he was happy to have someone else cheering for him, but he introduced me to a lot of cool people and played ridiculously well in the tournament shipping the cool half a mill.
Random Thoughts
While watching the tournament from the second row in the early stages, Mike Matusow, Joe Hachem, and Eli Elezra were sitting directly in front of us. Phil Hellmuth was consistently coming over talking about how bad he runs, but how good he plays. The man is no different whether the cameras or on or not. Also, Matusow is the same in real life regardless of the cameras. Mike has also lost about 150 pounds.
The highlight of my poker career was probably buying Durrr a water. We had drinks over dinner, so when we returned for the final 3 I wanted to offer to buy a round. I asked Brian (who was sitting next to Durrrr) if he wanted and thing and then asked Durrr. Durr wanted a water so obviously I obliged.
The tournamnet was a rebuy tournament, which means in the first 2 hours you can rebuy for another $5,000. Most players rebought 4-5 times. It is a sound strategy to play super aggressive and rebuy a lot of times early. This gets a lot of chips at your table after the rebuy period, making it easier to build a big stack. Daniel Negreanu rebought 17 times ($85,000) and Durrrr rebought 21 times ($105,000), what a couple of sickos. Miraculously enough Adam Hourani, rebought 0 times!!!! A bigger sicko.
Monday was probably the coolest poker experience of my life. I was looking on cardplayer.com on Sunday night and seeing if any big names had made final tables. I noticed the name Adam Hourani in the final 27 of the Omaha $5,000 buy in with Rebuys event. This is one of the biggest events of the series. Back at the end of May, I was introduced to a guy named Adam at the bar, whose poker screen name was Houdini (close to Hourani), and played high stakes Omaha for a living. He also told me he was staying at Panorama while he was out here. I decided there was a chance this was him, and looked him up on facebook. Sure enough, Adam Hourani was the same kid I was taking shots with at the Post on a random Thursday night. I face booked him Sunday night, and woke up Monday to see he had made the final table and accepted my facebook friendship (YESSS!!!) I sent him a quick note on facebook, telling him who I was, congratulating him on making the final table, and telling him to give me a shout if he wanted to go out. He told me they were gonna go out that night to celebrate the final table and call him and if I wanted to go.
Anyways, back to what was so cool poker wise about the entire day. Cardplayer.com described this as “possibly the best final table in World Series history.” Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, and David Bennaymine were the big name TV pros. The other 3 are all big name online professionals who have made millions. Phil Galfond (OMG Clay Aiken) and Brian Rast (T Sarrast) being 2 of the biggest online winners of all time. Everything I read going into the final table, gave my buddy Adam 0 chance. He entered 8th place in chips out of 9 and was expected to exit quickly.
The final table started at 2, and I walked up to Adam before and wished him good luck. I figured I’d watch for an hour or so before he busted. Little did I know I would be there until 2:30 am. About an hour in Adam doubled up through Daniel Negreanu, giving him 400,000 chips and a fighting chance (the chip leader had 1.5 million.) The action was very slow and 2 hours in no one had been eliminated. I introduced myself to Adam’s brother (Pollo), and ended up sitting with him. At about 4:15, the bodies began to drop. First out was Tsarrart, then Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and John Juanda. Suddenly, the table was down to 5 players, and Adam had made $100,000 more since the final table began ($170,000 total). Every hour or so the players would have a quick break, and Adam would come over to his brother and myself and shoot the shit with us. It was pretty cool for it to be the biggest poker moment in this kids life, and he was talking to me like I was his good buddy, and not some random kid who was in it for the after party. Anyways, it is hard to convey the tension and excitement in the room, and the fact that live poker is generally boring makes it hard to write about. Johnny Chan went out in 5th blowing a huge chip stack at the final table through horrendous plays. Adam’s biggest pot to this point came when he raised under the gun 4 handed. Serge, another online pro reraised to 220,000, if Adam called he would have 400,000 chips left and it was still possible for him to fold on the flop. Serge on the other hand was essentially committing himself to this pot by re-raising. The flop came KK5 and Serge went all in. Adam almost instants called revealing KT97 double suited (a strong, but not great starting hand) and Serge flipped AA22. Adam had him crushed. Adam’s hand held and he was suddenly in contention for a bracelet, not bad for a kid from East Lansing.
My favorite part of the day was our dinner break. Essentially, Phil Galfond had 3 million chips, and Adam and David Benyamine both had 1.6 million. On our way to dinner David Bennyamine’s publicist caught up to our group. She told Adam she had just talked to David and he descried Adam as “an unbelievable Omaha player.” Not bad coming from the guy who is widely regarded as the best Omaha player in the world. We stopped so Brian Rast (the 9th place finisher) could take a piss and David Bennaymine, along with his famous (in the poker world) girlfriend Erica Schoenberg (hot), approached. I don’t want to publish (even on my blog read by 5 people) what they discussed, but it was very cool to be privy to that discussion. Just ask me if you want to know. Anyways, we went to the American Grille for dinner. This is a casual steakhouse, with a menu full of steaks and seafood. I really wanted chicken fingers or a burger, but figured these high rolling online poker players I was with would certainly order steaks. Adam’s brother went first and ordered the chicken fingers, next was Tsarrant (online poker millionare) who also ordered the chicken fingers, followed by Adam who needed a nutritious meal before returning to play for just under a million dollars (first was $820,000.) Of course, nothing could be more nutritious then deep fried chicken and French fries so he got the same thing. This left me no choice, I would also have to get the chicken fingers.
So here we are over dinner, listening to Brian’s stories of winning and losing a million dollars in a month and discussions of his matches vs. Durr (regarded along with OMG Clay Aiken as the best 2 online players in the world) and we are all enjoying meals off of the kiddie menu. This is when I knew I was in the right profession. I am guessing if I was sitting with 2 of the top lawyers in the world, I would not be able to order the chicken fingers without looking like a fool.
I am gonna describe in a quick paragraph what took over 4 hours to happen. When the players returned from dinner, Bennyamine was in the mood to gamble and was quickly eliminated in 3rd place. This left Phil Galfond and Adam playing heads up for the gold bracelet and $820,000 first prize. Adam was well behind in chips when the match started and and never got it closer than a 3.8 to 2.6 million chip disadvantage. Pollo and myself were getting pretty drunk in the crowd and doing our best to cheer loudly every time Adam won a pot. Phil definitely had the crowd on his side, as it was essentially a who’s who of online poker cheering him on. The match finally ended around 2:15 am and we waited around while Adam was interviewed and Phil was presented with the bracelet. We then ran off to the poker cage, where Adam sat up a wire transfer for close to half a million dollars. What a sicko. Pollo, Adam, myself, and Dave drove back to Panorama to change our shirts then head to Jet where another player had already got table.
I was already pretty drunk by this point and don’t really know what happened during the hour we spent at Jet. All I know is the bass was loud, we had a table on the club floor and Adam got a bottle of Goose while someone else got a bottle of Crown. Pollo was only in town for 1 night and wanted to gamble, so the 4 of us left the club and hit the Mirage casino. We plopped down at Judith’s blackjack table who proceeded to take every dime I had brought (I had smartly left the majority of my money back at the condo when we changed.) All in all this was about an $800 hit. We then ventured to the $1-2 no limit hold em tables to donk around in some cash games after I hit the ATM. For some reason when you are drunk and playing way below the limits you normally play, it is a huge thrill to just act arrogant and shove all your chips in with any 2 cards. This is universally done by all successful poker players I have ever met. So this is what we did. Before I could blink I was down $400. Adam had dropped a few hundred, David was up a bit having called my open shove of AQ with nine deuce offsuit and spiking the deuce. Pollo had just lost his stack and everyone was ready to go. I had around $300 in front of me and told them to give me one more hand. I picked up 6 4 offsuit in the big blind. Someone raised to $10, and the Small Blind who had seen this act before just called the $10 out of the Small blind. I quickly shoved all in. The original raiser called and the SB shoved all in for $500 more. As the original raiser was determining whether or not to call the additional raise, the asshole in the small blind reveals he has AA. A huge breach of poker etiquette. The original raiser knowing the SB has AA, still makes the call. The pot was about $800. The flop came 37Q, the turn was a 10. My only chance at winning the pot was for the river to be a 5. Boooooom!!!! Sure enough the river peeled a 5, and I scooped in an $800 pot. The dickhead in the small blind was visibly upset that this drunk ass just cracked his aces. I quickly stacked my chips and that was that, we were headed home. It was bright as day by the time we got home (around 7 am.) All in all this was my favorite day in Vegas. I met some of the best online players in the world and went to the after party of a friend who had just made half a mill. I can’t even describe how much respect I have for Adam. The kid had met me once before, but treated me like I had been one of his best friends. I am sure he was happy to have someone else cheering for him, but he introduced me to a lot of cool people and played ridiculously well in the tournament shipping the cool half a mill.
Random Thoughts
While watching the tournament from the second row in the early stages, Mike Matusow, Joe Hachem, and Eli Elezra were sitting directly in front of us. Phil Hellmuth was consistently coming over talking about how bad he runs, but how good he plays. The man is no different whether the cameras or on or not. Also, Matusow is the same in real life regardless of the cameras. Mike has also lost about 150 pounds.
The highlight of my poker career was probably buying Durrr a water. We had drinks over dinner, so when we returned for the final 3 I wanted to offer to buy a round. I asked Brian (who was sitting next to Durrrr) if he wanted and thing and then asked Durrr. Durr wanted a water so obviously I obliged.
The tournamnet was a rebuy tournament, which means in the first 2 hours you can rebuy for another $5,000. Most players rebought 4-5 times. It is a sound strategy to play super aggressive and rebuy a lot of times early. This gets a lot of chips at your table after the rebuy period, making it easier to build a big stack. Daniel Negreanu rebought 17 times ($85,000) and Durrrr rebought 21 times ($105,000), what a couple of sickos. Miraculously enough Adam Hourani, rebought 0 times!!!! A bigger sicko.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Laying Low and my first WSOP event
“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”
I have taken it pretty easy the last 2 days. Other than the WSOP event and the walking journey to the In N Out Burger I have not left the condo. I even passed up going to the Rhino last night, when all my roommates when. I am feeling good this morning and after a quick jog I am heading to the Rio to stomp on some donkeys. One final side note, this kid I was introduced to at The Post in East Lansing a couple weeks ago has made the final table of $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys Final Table. That is sick considering it is one of the sickest final tables I have ever seen. I am gonna go keep an eye on him well I am at the Rio. He is staying in the same facilities as I am, so hopefully I get invited to the after party.
Quick WSOP Recap
My first WSOP event proved to be a quick tourney. It was actually one of the sickest tourneys I’ve played in and it only lasted 45 minutes. I arrived to the Rio on about 4 hours of sleep and very out of it. Luckily, this killed any nerves I may have had about playing in a big buy in tourney. The field for this event was huge, it was the 2nd largest for the series to this point. Each player began with 3,000 chips. On my 4th hand of play I was in the Big Blind with K4 of spades, and some 300 pounder popped my big blind to 150 (100 more to me.) I made the call and the flop came 443. He bet out 200 and I immediately raised to 600 he called. At this point I know I have the best hand, and I just want to extract as much value as possible. The turn was an Ace which is a beautiful card to hit the board. I check hoping he hit the ace, and sure enough he fires 600 into the pot, I just call. River is a blank and the we each have about 1600 chips left. I bet 1200 into him and he calls displaying AQ. He swears at me a bit, and I smile and just stack his chips. I start thinking how easy this tourney is gonna be. 4 hands later I pick up KK make a standard raise to 200, and get called by the button and the small blind. I fire out 400 into a 567 rainbow flop and get called by the button and raised by SB to 1300. The problem here is I am either way ahead or way behind. He either has a pair and a draw or a set here. I really considered folding, but do to the short starting chip counts and the drawy board, I shoved all in. He instantly called and flipped 66 for a set. It held. After the hand the button tells me he had 10 10. If he 3 bets preflop, like he is supposed to, I likely stack him and am sitting on a monster stack.
Anyways, I am steamed at myself a bit for calling and I am back to 3,000 chips. I am ready to walk away from the table for a quick break when I look down on the very next hand to AA. American Airlines baby, time to get my chips back. The guy right before me raises to 200 and I am gonna get tricky and just smooth call. I toss in 200 and wait for the rest of the action behind me. What a disaster, 4 other people call. The flop peels KJ3 with 2 diamonds, and I realize due to the drawy nature of the board, I have to go all in. The initial raiser bets, and reraise big, and some lady in the small blind in the small blinds shoves all in. I have to call and do. She tables Q9 of diamonds for a flush draw and gutshot draw. I have the Ace of Diamonds for a redraw. The turn is the 7 of diamonds and I am almost busto. The river misses me by a mile and I am down to my last 100 chips. In retrospect, I played this hand terrible. I should have raised the 3 bet preflop, everyone would have thought I was tilting anyways. From now on, I am slow playing nothing in these tournaments with low starting chips.
Random Thoughts
In N Out Burger is very good. They only have 2 things on the menu though. Cheeseburgers (Single or Double) and French Fries. It is the simplest menu I have ever seen.
My poor friend David spent 10 hours in this sattalite tournament to win a seat to the main event. 226 people got seats and the person finishing 227th got nothing. David was up to 200,000 chips putting him in around 30th with 450 people left. He found some formula on the internet that said he could fold the rest of the way and get the seat. He decided to stick with this theory. He folded QQ and AK, not to mention many other hands he could have stolen the blinds with. It turns out the math was wrong and David ended up finishing in 228th place. 226 people won $12,000 and he got nothing. It was one of the sickest things I have been a part of.
Cheers
2tyme
I have taken it pretty easy the last 2 days. Other than the WSOP event and the walking journey to the In N Out Burger I have not left the condo. I even passed up going to the Rhino last night, when all my roommates when. I am feeling good this morning and after a quick jog I am heading to the Rio to stomp on some donkeys. One final side note, this kid I was introduced to at The Post in East Lansing a couple weeks ago has made the final table of $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys Final Table. That is sick considering it is one of the sickest final tables I have ever seen. I am gonna go keep an eye on him well I am at the Rio. He is staying in the same facilities as I am, so hopefully I get invited to the after party.
Quick WSOP Recap
My first WSOP event proved to be a quick tourney. It was actually one of the sickest tourneys I’ve played in and it only lasted 45 minutes. I arrived to the Rio on about 4 hours of sleep and very out of it. Luckily, this killed any nerves I may have had about playing in a big buy in tourney. The field for this event was huge, it was the 2nd largest for the series to this point. Each player began with 3,000 chips. On my 4th hand of play I was in the Big Blind with K4 of spades, and some 300 pounder popped my big blind to 150 (100 more to me.) I made the call and the flop came 443. He bet out 200 and I immediately raised to 600 he called. At this point I know I have the best hand, and I just want to extract as much value as possible. The turn was an Ace which is a beautiful card to hit the board. I check hoping he hit the ace, and sure enough he fires 600 into the pot, I just call. River is a blank and the we each have about 1600 chips left. I bet 1200 into him and he calls displaying AQ. He swears at me a bit, and I smile and just stack his chips. I start thinking how easy this tourney is gonna be. 4 hands later I pick up KK make a standard raise to 200, and get called by the button and the small blind. I fire out 400 into a 567 rainbow flop and get called by the button and raised by SB to 1300. The problem here is I am either way ahead or way behind. He either has a pair and a draw or a set here. I really considered folding, but do to the short starting chip counts and the drawy board, I shoved all in. He instantly called and flipped 66 for a set. It held. After the hand the button tells me he had 10 10. If he 3 bets preflop, like he is supposed to, I likely stack him and am sitting on a monster stack.
Anyways, I am steamed at myself a bit for calling and I am back to 3,000 chips. I am ready to walk away from the table for a quick break when I look down on the very next hand to AA. American Airlines baby, time to get my chips back. The guy right before me raises to 200 and I am gonna get tricky and just smooth call. I toss in 200 and wait for the rest of the action behind me. What a disaster, 4 other people call. The flop peels KJ3 with 2 diamonds, and I realize due to the drawy nature of the board, I have to go all in. The initial raiser bets, and reraise big, and some lady in the small blind in the small blinds shoves all in. I have to call and do. She tables Q9 of diamonds for a flush draw and gutshot draw. I have the Ace of Diamonds for a redraw. The turn is the 7 of diamonds and I am almost busto. The river misses me by a mile and I am down to my last 100 chips. In retrospect, I played this hand terrible. I should have raised the 3 bet preflop, everyone would have thought I was tilting anyways. From now on, I am slow playing nothing in these tournaments with low starting chips.
Random Thoughts
In N Out Burger is very good. They only have 2 things on the menu though. Cheeseburgers (Single or Double) and French Fries. It is the simplest menu I have ever seen.
My poor friend David spent 10 hours in this sattalite tournament to win a seat to the main event. 226 people got seats and the person finishing 227th got nothing. David was up to 200,000 chips putting him in around 30th with 450 people left. He found some formula on the internet that said he could fold the rest of the way and get the seat. He decided to stick with this theory. He folded QQ and AK, not to mention many other hands he could have stolen the blinds with. It turns out the math was wrong and David ended up finishing in 228th place. 226 people won $12,000 and he got nothing. It was one of the sickest things I have been a part of.
Cheers
2tyme
Saturday, June 14, 2008
A lost prop bet and a broken arm
“A Clever Man Commits No Minor Blunders” -Goethe
Wow, yesterday was one of the craziest days of poker and life in general I’ve ever had. It started early in the morning when we moved out of the Rio and to the Panorama Towers. We had to meet some shady guy with a mullet to transfer the keys to us for this place in an In N Out Burger. Also, this place has high security so it took us about 10 minutes to explain who we were and why we were on property. The residents of the property are not allowed to rent their condo’s to strangers, so we have to tell anyone who asks that we are friend’s of Fifi, the women who owns our unit.
Anyways, the place is sick, it has a huge balcony overlooking the strip and 3 LCD TV’s. The garage of this place is full of 6 figure cars, all the residents are always dressed to the nines (I think that’s a saying,) and the women look amazing J . We are usually walking around in khaki shorts and t-shirts so we sort of stick out.
After we moved in, we spent the day running around the strip. First, we went to the Venetian wish had a $2,000 deep stack tourney. We were hoping the tourney would create a lot of big side action. Unfortunately, so many people entered they had no tables left for side action. After this Jared, Dave (Jared’s friend who’s out here), and I headed to the Bellagio to stomp on some donkeys. We got there too late in the day though and had a 2 hour wait on the 30-60 tables. We ended up back at the Rio, which is where all the fun began.
The WSOP is held in a huge convention center separate, but connected, from the casino. They have one huge room (The Amazon Room) which hosts all the tournaments and cash games, a 2nd room for their nightly tournaments, and a 3rd room used for WSOP satellites. I wanted to sign up for the $1500 NL event taking place Saturday, so I decided to give the satellite room a whirl. I signed up for a 10 man $275 sit n go. For some reason I was actually nervous I was going to be dead money in thing. As it turns out, these people were fucking awful. There was 4 people limping, people looked at me crossed eyed when I had the gull to raise, and I got in a fight with 5 people at the table for defending some donkey betting out when another player was all in. They were arguing it was more important to knock a player out in 10th (I.e. check the hand down among the remaining players) than play your hand to win (betting out.) They are all morons, but when dealing with morons it becomes clear they aren’t changing their opinions. Anyways, as the blinds increased I dwindled after losing a coin flip, but then recovered winning 77 vs. KQ. With about 5 people left and blinds rising I just started running over the table. I was raising 40-50% of the hands and not making many friends. With 3 people left I got coaxed into a 3 way chop which guaranteed everyone $500 out of the total prize pool of $2650. This was done with the intention of chopping more of the pot when the tournament was down to 2 players. I went on to crush my 2 opponents, having my A3 hold up vs. QJ in the only pot that could have dented me. So, I won my $1500 buy in to the WSOP event for Saturday.
The rest of night was fucking hilarious. After buying in to the tournament for the next day, I met up with Jared and Greg (Wild Duck from the Dog) who were already drinking a bit. Needless to say we spent the next 2-3 hours getting real tuned up and telling degenerate gambling stories and cool poker stories (I am sure they are only cool to us.) David had entered a nightly $330 in the MTT room so we were just waiting for him to bust then we were going to head home. In the mean time the 3 of us decided to sit down at 2-5 NL ($500 max buy in) table and play some drunken poker. For the first time in my life we were definitely “that guy” at the table. We were loud, drunk, recklessly raising every pot, laughing at other peoples play, and generally being arrogant about the level of play. Somehow, I managed to get stuck $1,000 in about 90 minutes. Jared and Duck were up about $400 each, which was pissing me off because I couldn’t believe I was going to leave this game down a significant amount of cash. Luckily, what happened next will go down in Tommy2tyme poker history. In the span of 6 hands, I picked up AA, 99, 77, 33, and 97. I doubled up with AA, flopped a set winning a 500 pot with 99, flopped a set cracking some idiots slow play with 77, taking and winning a $200 coinflip with 33 putting a guy who got it in with A6, and 2 barrel bluffing with 97 to take down a nice pot. After 10 minutes I went from down $1,000 to up $400. This was certainly enough for me, and we took our drunk asses to go watch Dave, who was surprisingly still alive in the tourney.
It was 2 a.m. and there was like 20 people left in this tourney, which meant it could last until 5. We debated whether we should leave Dave or watch him finish and decided to keep drinking and watch him. Being the degen’s that we are we ended making prop bets. It started with Jared challenging me to hurdle 2 chairs for $20, I told him I couldn’t do it but offered him the same bet. We set the chairs up side by side, with both chair backs on the outside (which if any of the 3 of you can visualize, makes it much tougher to leap.) The bet was you couldn’t touch the chairs at all and had to touch down past the chairs. We said you could straddle them if you wanted (spread eagle as you jump over.) Anyways, his first effort missed, but I gave him a second chance and he hit it. Things were sort of escalating at this point as all the other degenerates in the room saw this happening and obviously became intrigued by the Drunken Degen Olympics taking place. At this point I made an open offer laying 5:1 that no one could leap 3 chairs without touching. Some 30 year old, I have never seen in my life and will never see again offered to take the challenge. He was a dirty dude, with a buzz cut, some raggedy clothing, and basketball shorts on. I had a feeling I was getting hustled, but honestly did not believe the leap could be made. We put the $120 on the table and signed up an impartial judge for the official ruling. With about 20 onlookers, many who were still in the tourney (It was down to 6 people at this point) this dirtball degen backed up 100 feet to the far wall of the convention room and began in a dead sprint at the chairs. I fully expected him to attempt to hurdle the chairs likely knocking one down before landing awkwardly. What happens next could only be placed in the degenerate hall of fame, I would pay money to have it on tape. The guy leaps head first out of his dead spring (think Superman,) lifting his back legs over the 3 chair before crumbling in a heap. I think the entire room had their jaws hanging open. He had supermanned the 3 chairs, the audience was stunned, but he had also taken a head first spill into the concrete floor.
The aftermath of this event was 3 fold. First, I handed him the $120 and congratulated the valiant effort. Next, we were immediately kicked out of the tournament room for causing such shenanigans‘. As we walked out I continued talking to this degen who had just relieved me of the $100. He was in some serious pain and was complaining that he may have broke his arm. I took a look at it as I tried to finally stop laughing. His arm was messed up pretty bad. He hobbled off as 4 other on lookers came out to talk to me. They all asked me if he was ok, to which I asked why. They said when he had landed they heard a loud snap and thought he broke his arm!! They also, said they were 99% sure he grazed the 3rd chair as he flew over the top. I considered chasing the guy down for the $120, but I decided the $100 I gave him won’t even begin to cover his medical expenses. Not to mention, the entertainment I got from the event itself was worth the price of admission. The night wrapped up around 5 am, with Dave chopping the tournament 3 ways and making $11,000, making it his biggest win ever. Jared, Greg, and I, continued drinking and dicking around making random bets until the end of the night, none which could match the guy breaking his arm.
Random Thoughts
I went to bed at 6 and got up at 10 in preparation for this tournament, I think I am still drunk.
I am in physical terrible health after 3 nights in Vegas (See above)
Immediately after I was kicked out of the tournament room, we saw a 300 pound man being escorted out of the Rio wearing nothing but whitey tighties and a wife beater on. Unfortunately, he had also lost a prop bet, but was not allowed to continue playing.
I am gonna have to figure out a way to upload some pictures, Jared forgot his cord.
Sorry if this sucks, it’s turning into more of a vacation summary than exciting blog. Also, the writing probably sucks right now since I feel like I’m on crack.
Wow, yesterday was one of the craziest days of poker and life in general I’ve ever had. It started early in the morning when we moved out of the Rio and to the Panorama Towers. We had to meet some shady guy with a mullet to transfer the keys to us for this place in an In N Out Burger. Also, this place has high security so it took us about 10 minutes to explain who we were and why we were on property. The residents of the property are not allowed to rent their condo’s to strangers, so we have to tell anyone who asks that we are friend’s of Fifi, the women who owns our unit.
Anyways, the place is sick, it has a huge balcony overlooking the strip and 3 LCD TV’s. The garage of this place is full of 6 figure cars, all the residents are always dressed to the nines (I think that’s a saying,) and the women look amazing J . We are usually walking around in khaki shorts and t-shirts so we sort of stick out.
After we moved in, we spent the day running around the strip. First, we went to the Venetian wish had a $2,000 deep stack tourney. We were hoping the tourney would create a lot of big side action. Unfortunately, so many people entered they had no tables left for side action. After this Jared, Dave (Jared’s friend who’s out here), and I headed to the Bellagio to stomp on some donkeys. We got there too late in the day though and had a 2 hour wait on the 30-60 tables. We ended up back at the Rio, which is where all the fun began.
The WSOP is held in a huge convention center separate, but connected, from the casino. They have one huge room (The Amazon Room) which hosts all the tournaments and cash games, a 2nd room for their nightly tournaments, and a 3rd room used for WSOP satellites. I wanted to sign up for the $1500 NL event taking place Saturday, so I decided to give the satellite room a whirl. I signed up for a 10 man $275 sit n go. For some reason I was actually nervous I was going to be dead money in thing. As it turns out, these people were fucking awful. There was 4 people limping, people looked at me crossed eyed when I had the gull to raise, and I got in a fight with 5 people at the table for defending some donkey betting out when another player was all in. They were arguing it was more important to knock a player out in 10th (I.e. check the hand down among the remaining players) than play your hand to win (betting out.) They are all morons, but when dealing with morons it becomes clear they aren’t changing their opinions. Anyways, as the blinds increased I dwindled after losing a coin flip, but then recovered winning 77 vs. KQ. With about 5 people left and blinds rising I just started running over the table. I was raising 40-50% of the hands and not making many friends. With 3 people left I got coaxed into a 3 way chop which guaranteed everyone $500 out of the total prize pool of $2650. This was done with the intention of chopping more of the pot when the tournament was down to 2 players. I went on to crush my 2 opponents, having my A3 hold up vs. QJ in the only pot that could have dented me. So, I won my $1500 buy in to the WSOP event for Saturday.
The rest of night was fucking hilarious. After buying in to the tournament for the next day, I met up with Jared and Greg (Wild Duck from the Dog) who were already drinking a bit. Needless to say we spent the next 2-3 hours getting real tuned up and telling degenerate gambling stories and cool poker stories (I am sure they are only cool to us.) David had entered a nightly $330 in the MTT room so we were just waiting for him to bust then we were going to head home. In the mean time the 3 of us decided to sit down at 2-5 NL ($500 max buy in) table and play some drunken poker. For the first time in my life we were definitely “that guy” at the table. We were loud, drunk, recklessly raising every pot, laughing at other peoples play, and generally being arrogant about the level of play. Somehow, I managed to get stuck $1,000 in about 90 minutes. Jared and Duck were up about $400 each, which was pissing me off because I couldn’t believe I was going to leave this game down a significant amount of cash. Luckily, what happened next will go down in Tommy2tyme poker history. In the span of 6 hands, I picked up AA, 99, 77, 33, and 97. I doubled up with AA, flopped a set winning a 500 pot with 99, flopped a set cracking some idiots slow play with 77, taking and winning a $200 coinflip with 33 putting a guy who got it in with A6, and 2 barrel bluffing with 97 to take down a nice pot. After 10 minutes I went from down $1,000 to up $400. This was certainly enough for me, and we took our drunk asses to go watch Dave, who was surprisingly still alive in the tourney.
It was 2 a.m. and there was like 20 people left in this tourney, which meant it could last until 5. We debated whether we should leave Dave or watch him finish and decided to keep drinking and watch him. Being the degen’s that we are we ended making prop bets. It started with Jared challenging me to hurdle 2 chairs for $20, I told him I couldn’t do it but offered him the same bet. We set the chairs up side by side, with both chair backs on the outside (which if any of the 3 of you can visualize, makes it much tougher to leap.) The bet was you couldn’t touch the chairs at all and had to touch down past the chairs. We said you could straddle them if you wanted (spread eagle as you jump over.) Anyways, his first effort missed, but I gave him a second chance and he hit it. Things were sort of escalating at this point as all the other degenerates in the room saw this happening and obviously became intrigued by the Drunken Degen Olympics taking place. At this point I made an open offer laying 5:1 that no one could leap 3 chairs without touching. Some 30 year old, I have never seen in my life and will never see again offered to take the challenge. He was a dirty dude, with a buzz cut, some raggedy clothing, and basketball shorts on. I had a feeling I was getting hustled, but honestly did not believe the leap could be made. We put the $120 on the table and signed up an impartial judge for the official ruling. With about 20 onlookers, many who were still in the tourney (It was down to 6 people at this point) this dirtball degen backed up 100 feet to the far wall of the convention room and began in a dead sprint at the chairs. I fully expected him to attempt to hurdle the chairs likely knocking one down before landing awkwardly. What happens next could only be placed in the degenerate hall of fame, I would pay money to have it on tape. The guy leaps head first out of his dead spring (think Superman,) lifting his back legs over the 3 chair before crumbling in a heap. I think the entire room had their jaws hanging open. He had supermanned the 3 chairs, the audience was stunned, but he had also taken a head first spill into the concrete floor.
The aftermath of this event was 3 fold. First, I handed him the $120 and congratulated the valiant effort. Next, we were immediately kicked out of the tournament room for causing such shenanigans‘. As we walked out I continued talking to this degen who had just relieved me of the $100. He was in some serious pain and was complaining that he may have broke his arm. I took a look at it as I tried to finally stop laughing. His arm was messed up pretty bad. He hobbled off as 4 other on lookers came out to talk to me. They all asked me if he was ok, to which I asked why. They said when he had landed they heard a loud snap and thought he broke his arm!! They also, said they were 99% sure he grazed the 3rd chair as he flew over the top. I considered chasing the guy down for the $120, but I decided the $100 I gave him won’t even begin to cover his medical expenses. Not to mention, the entertainment I got from the event itself was worth the price of admission. The night wrapped up around 5 am, with Dave chopping the tournament 3 ways and making $11,000, making it his biggest win ever. Jared, Greg, and I, continued drinking and dicking around making random bets until the end of the night, none which could match the guy breaking his arm.
Random Thoughts
I went to bed at 6 and got up at 10 in preparation for this tournament, I think I am still drunk.
I am in physical terrible health after 3 nights in Vegas (See above)
Immediately after I was kicked out of the tournament room, we saw a 300 pound man being escorted out of the Rio wearing nothing but whitey tighties and a wife beater on. Unfortunately, he had also lost a prop bet, but was not allowed to continue playing.
I am gonna have to figure out a way to upload some pictures, Jared forgot his cord.
Sorry if this sucks, it’s turning into more of a vacation summary than exciting blog. Also, the writing probably sucks right now since I feel like I’m on crack.
First Two Nights in Vegas
“A journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step”
I was expecting to arrive in Vegas last night around 9:20 local time and make it to the Rio by 10:15. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed an hour and my seat in the jet wouldn’t recline so I couldn’t sleep. Once I scooped up my luggage I was too cheap to get a cab, so I waited 45 minutes for a shuttle to take me to the Rio. All in all I arrived about 2 hours late, a little after midnight. I finally met my boy Sox Nation (Jared) and his best friend Dave. It’s a little weird knowing you are going to be living with someone you’ve only known on the Internet and never met in real life, but I was pretty sure this was gonna work fine. Luckily, both of these guys are awesome, and we had a couple of drinks at the Rio and shot the shit.
Unfortunately, my sleep schedule was jacked up and by the time we went to bed it was like 6:30 est. time (3:30 Vegas), and I couldn’t sleep. I literally got 0 minutes of sleep. Anyways, I got up early and went and got acquainted with the WSOP set up, which is actually in a convention center in the back of the Rio.
I was going to bring $10,000 with me, unfortunately I was too lazy and too late getting to the bank. I am sure I can find a Bank of America out here, but this has given myself an opportunity to set a new goal. I have $1,500 starting cash, my goal is to turn it into my WSOP buy-in by July 1.
Day 1 in poker went great, we headed over to the Bellagio, easily the best poker room in Vegas, for a little 30-60 action. The game was actually chalked (sp?) full of worse players than I had expected, and that’s saying something, because typically live players are terrible. These donkeys were limping into every pot, and calling raises with the same hands they would limp with. The median hand had 4 people to the flop, which is the equivalent to a 3-6 game online. Anyways, luckily I was running good (I.e. my big hands were holding up), which gave me a strong image and allowed me to steal a shitload of pots on bluffs. Unfortunately, Jared couldn’t get a hand to hold up and was taking a beating. All in all, I made about $1,800 playing poker, which is a very solid start, and gives me a chance to reach my goal. For any of my 3 readers who are unfamiliar with how poker works, even if you are the best 2 players at the table (as me and Jared were) there is around a 60% chance at least one of you will lose. Put another way, we each individually have an 80% chance of winning.
Random Thoughts
It was pretty awesome to be with some huge Celtics fan and watch the C’s come back from 24 down to beat the Lakers last night. Also, I went 3 for 3 on my $200 wagers (I took Pau Gasol to score over 16.5, Kobe under 31.5, and Under 191.5.)
It’s amazing to see all the young online kids here in Vegas, I have already met a few I’ve played online with. It’s hilarious to finally put a face with a screen name. It’s also funny that one of the most common questions is “What’s your screen name?”
I have built my bankroll from $1,500 to $3,900 after Day 1
We move into our baller condo in about 3 hours, in my next entry I will try to post some pictures (Jared has a camera.)
Sorry, this entry doesn’t have much debauchery, I was completely out of it yesterday, only getting 2 hours of sleep.
I was expecting to arrive in Vegas last night around 9:20 local time and make it to the Rio by 10:15. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed an hour and my seat in the jet wouldn’t recline so I couldn’t sleep. Once I scooped up my luggage I was too cheap to get a cab, so I waited 45 minutes for a shuttle to take me to the Rio. All in all I arrived about 2 hours late, a little after midnight. I finally met my boy Sox Nation (Jared) and his best friend Dave. It’s a little weird knowing you are going to be living with someone you’ve only known on the Internet and never met in real life, but I was pretty sure this was gonna work fine. Luckily, both of these guys are awesome, and we had a couple of drinks at the Rio and shot the shit.
Unfortunately, my sleep schedule was jacked up and by the time we went to bed it was like 6:30 est. time (3:30 Vegas), and I couldn’t sleep. I literally got 0 minutes of sleep. Anyways, I got up early and went and got acquainted with the WSOP set up, which is actually in a convention center in the back of the Rio.
I was going to bring $10,000 with me, unfortunately I was too lazy and too late getting to the bank. I am sure I can find a Bank of America out here, but this has given myself an opportunity to set a new goal. I have $1,500 starting cash, my goal is to turn it into my WSOP buy-in by July 1.
Day 1 in poker went great, we headed over to the Bellagio, easily the best poker room in Vegas, for a little 30-60 action. The game was actually chalked (sp?) full of worse players than I had expected, and that’s saying something, because typically live players are terrible. These donkeys were limping into every pot, and calling raises with the same hands they would limp with. The median hand had 4 people to the flop, which is the equivalent to a 3-6 game online. Anyways, luckily I was running good (I.e. my big hands were holding up), which gave me a strong image and allowed me to steal a shitload of pots on bluffs. Unfortunately, Jared couldn’t get a hand to hold up and was taking a beating. All in all, I made about $1,800 playing poker, which is a very solid start, and gives me a chance to reach my goal. For any of my 3 readers who are unfamiliar with how poker works, even if you are the best 2 players at the table (as me and Jared were) there is around a 60% chance at least one of you will lose. Put another way, we each individually have an 80% chance of winning.
Random Thoughts
It was pretty awesome to be with some huge Celtics fan and watch the C’s come back from 24 down to beat the Lakers last night. Also, I went 3 for 3 on my $200 wagers (I took Pau Gasol to score over 16.5, Kobe under 31.5, and Under 191.5.)
It’s amazing to see all the young online kids here in Vegas, I have already met a few I’ve played online with. It’s hilarious to finally put a face with a screen name. It’s also funny that one of the most common questions is “What’s your screen name?”
I have built my bankroll from $1,500 to $3,900 after Day 1
We move into our baller condo in about 3 hours, in my next entry I will try to post some pictures (Jared has a camera.)
Sorry, this entry doesn’t have much debauchery, I was completely out of it yesterday, only getting 2 hours of sleep.
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