It seems there will be no big blogger blowout this summer, which is unfortunate because those are always fun. In 2006, April Kyle did a fantastic job of organizing the thing and we had over 100 at the tournament at Caesars, plus Howard Ledrer, Michael Craig and Phil Gordon (her crush) as speakers. There was also a wicked Roshambo tournament before the poker tournament where I think I made the quaterfinals before John Caldwell beat me. We also met up at a bar at Excalibur (the hotel home) for drinks a few times. Iggy creamed me at Roshambo for a Benjamin and wisely took 2% of me in the main event for a $120 profit.
Those days may be gone, but since these Battle of the Blogger tournaments should bring at least a few folks into Vegas in late June/early July I wanted to get a conversation started on a second small blogger gathering around that time. There is one going on at the usual early June time, but I hear few people will be at that. And while there would be few at this second one too, at least it will be something for the rest of us. I think Lucko said he was going to be in town at that time, as well as SirFWALGman. I'll be there. Who else?
We could possibly get one of the smaller outfits, maybe the Plaza (which has hosted BARGE before), to let us do a small private tournament. We can definitely get a mixed game going at Venetian or Caesars one day. We can certainly gather for drinks somewhere. Thoughts?
I could use the fun break from the rest of the action. I've been pulling my hair out this month at the poker tables. I'm losing live. I'm losing online. I'm losing in cash games. I'm losing in tournaments. Historically, I've done well in Vegas. Of all my trips there I think I left a loser only once (my 2005 trip to BARGE) so perhaps my luck will turn.
I'm trying really hard to find enough writing work so that I can make a comfortable living and only play poker for recreation (the "fun" fund, if you will). When you try to count on poker as a significant part of your income the game can become harrowing and the pressure is often too much. At least it is for me, but I probably just suck at the game too hard.
I had tried a new thing this year where I kept up with my wins and losses each day in a ledger. My goal was simple: win at least $100 a day and $150 on Mondays (the days I got rakeback from WPEX added in) for a total of $550 a week, or $28,600 in a year. Obviously, with the variance in poker, booking a win of any sort on any given day is a ridiculous goal. I think it caused me to press too much. After I was up nearly five large in the first few days in January it didn't really matter how I did on any given day, but after my total yearly win started drawing closer to my expected win to that date I became more and more frustrated. At the end of January I was still $3,000 above "par." At the end of February it was +$2,012. By the end of March it was only +$479. By April's end I was in the red at -$489, and now as May draws to a close I am more than $3,000 below "par." It's not that I'm getting my butt kicked (well, other than this month); it's more that I am treading water and not getting close to my $28,600 goal. So call me a quitter if you will, but I have decided to stop keeping track of my daily totals compared to the goal. I'll just go back to my older record keeping of marking down each live win or loss on a calendar and only marking down online wins and losses when I cash out or lose a certain amount online (like $500 or $1,000).
I do that for two reasons: 1) my goal now is to focus on writing or other miscellaneous income that does not involve gambling of any sort, and that makes the $100 per day grind harder to achieve, and 2) I think it will take some of the pressure off. If I am fortunate enough to earn $28,600 or more playing poker in 2008 it won't be because I am pressing or grinding. It will just happen.
I really think people set very unrealistic goals for themselves in poker. While $28,600 ought to be obtainable, setting certain win goals for the year may be unreasonable due to the week to week and month to month variance in the game.
This guy here http://pokerew.wordpress.com/ had the goal of winning $100,000 in 2008. He hasn't posted since Feb. 5, when he was up a grand total of $250. You could get the feeling from his first posts and his posts on 2+2 that he was a bit of a novice getting in way over his head.
I'm amazed that I've been able to exist mainly from poker income for almost three years now. The problem is that I have merely survived, not thrived. I haven't contributed any additional income towards retirement (thankfully in my newspaper days I saved a lot -- the max of 25% between 401K and company stock purchase), and my bank accounts have slightly shriveled.
After returning from Vegas in 2005, I was hot as fire, winning about $14,000 from mostly playing 10-20 limit hold'em on Noble Poker in July and August. Results became more modest in the coming months and I showed a couple of results in the red. But at least I was having fun, with trips to Atlantic City, Tunica and Reno from September to March. My bankroll was shrinking as I won my seat into the 2006 main event at the WSOP and prepared to go to grad school when I returned to Tuscaloosa. Thankfully, during that best summer ever, I took home about $16,000 that let me go back to school and not worry about any student loans. I didn't play a lot of poker during my year in school, and decided to take one more trip to Vegas last summer after getting some guaranteed writing work. It was a nicely profitable month from that aspect, though not so much with the poker as I won only a few hundred during the trip.
By October, I was happily married but growing poor by the minute -- several writing gigs dried up, Rounder temporarily folded and I couldn't win at poker for nothing. Luckily, Rounder came back and I started winning at poker again -- if at least modestly.
And here we are today. I'm thinking about job hunting again. I like the freedom and flexibility I have now, but I also get bored here at home most of the day. Working from home is not always as great as you might think. At the same time, I really hate the thought of returning to graze on the cubicle farm from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. The truth is I just don't know what to do.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A little Indiana Jones quiz
The day is finally upon us. Of course the movie won't live up to the hype (do they ever?), but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should be good fun regardless.
To mark the day here's a little quiz about the first three movies in the series. Some are easy, many are hard. See how well you remember the IJ flicks...
1. Indy famously shoots a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. What color were the swordman's clothes?
A. Red
B. Black
C. White
D. Green
2. Indy is surprised to find a girl batting her eyes at him while teaching a class in Raiders. What words are written on her eyelids?
A. "Kiss Me"
B. "You're Sexy"
C. "I Love You"
D. "Archaeologists Are Hot"
3. In what country does Indy encounter Marion Ravenwood in Raiders?
A. Pakistan
B. Myanmar
C. Nepal
D. Mongolia
4. Which character never enters the Well of Souls in Raiders?
A. Indy
B. Belloq
C. Marion
D. Sallah
5. Marion accidentally hits Indy in the chin with which object while on the ship in Raiders?
A. Iron
B. Book
C. Mirror
D. Whip
6. The club that is the site of the opening scene of The Temple of Doom is named after which Star Wars character?
A. Luke Skywalker
B. Obi-Wan Kenobi
C. Yoda
D. Boba Fett
7. Shortround was Indy's trusty sidekick in The Temple of Doom, and like Indy, he sported a prominent hat. But can you recall which Major League Baseball team's logo was featured on his cap?
A. Los Angeles Dodgers
B. Chicago Cubs
C. New York Mets
D. New York Yankees
8. The dinner selection at Pangkot Palace was interesting, to say the least. What was the name of the entree that came from a snake?
A. Snake Surprise
B. Snake Snack
C. Slippery Snakes
D. Snake Supper
9. Willie Scott is grateful when Indy brings here which fruit following the eventful dinner?
A. Apple
B. Pear
C. Orange
D. Banana
10. The cult in Temple of Doom are known as what?
A. Thugees
B. Sankaras
C. Lao-Ches
D. Crips
11. The opening scenes of The Last Crusade were shot in which Utah national park?
A. Canyonlands
B. Bryce Canyon
C. Zion
D. Arches
12. The Last Crusade opens when Indy was a teenager, and he nabs a cross that some treasure hunters have discovered. Which famous explorer did the cross once belong to?
A. Balboa
B. Hernando de Soto
C. Coronado
D. Magellan
13. Indy tries to escape the trasure hunters by running across a circus train. Which of these animals does he NOT encounter during the trek?
A. Bear
B. Giraffe
C. Rhinocerous
D. Lion
14. In The Last Crusade, Indy travels through a lot of Europe. In which of these countries did he not travel?
A. Italy
B. Germany
C. Hungary
D. Austria
15. Henry Jones Sr.'s Grail diary is signed by whom in The Last Crusade?
A. Albert Einstein
B. Robert Oppenheim
C. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
D. Adolf Hitler
16. In which flick did Indy NOT disguise himself as a Nazi soldier?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
17. Which film was the first to be rated as PG-13 by the MPAA?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
18. Which of these actors did NOT appear in an IJ flick?
A. Ben Kingsley
B. Dan Aykroyd
C. Alfred Molina
D. River Phoenix
19. Which of these creepy crawlies were not prominently featured in any of the first three movies?
A. Bugs
B. Rats
C. Snakes
D. Lizards
20. Which IJ grossed the most money at theaters?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
And the answers....
1. B
2. C
3. C
4. B
5. C
6. B
7. D
8. A
9. A
10. A
11. D
12. C
13. A
14. C
15. D
16. B
17. B
18. A
19. D
20. A
Anyone get them all?
To mark the day here's a little quiz about the first three movies in the series. Some are easy, many are hard. See how well you remember the IJ flicks...
1. Indy famously shoots a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. What color were the swordman's clothes?
A. Red
B. Black
C. White
D. Green
2. Indy is surprised to find a girl batting her eyes at him while teaching a class in Raiders. What words are written on her eyelids?
A. "Kiss Me"
B. "You're Sexy"
C. "I Love You"
D. "Archaeologists Are Hot"
3. In what country does Indy encounter Marion Ravenwood in Raiders?
A. Pakistan
B. Myanmar
C. Nepal
D. Mongolia
4. Which character never enters the Well of Souls in Raiders?
A. Indy
B. Belloq
C. Marion
D. Sallah
5. Marion accidentally hits Indy in the chin with which object while on the ship in Raiders?
A. Iron
B. Book
C. Mirror
D. Whip
6. The club that is the site of the opening scene of The Temple of Doom is named after which Star Wars character?
A. Luke Skywalker
B. Obi-Wan Kenobi
C. Yoda
D. Boba Fett
7. Shortround was Indy's trusty sidekick in The Temple of Doom, and like Indy, he sported a prominent hat. But can you recall which Major League Baseball team's logo was featured on his cap?
A. Los Angeles Dodgers
B. Chicago Cubs
C. New York Mets
D. New York Yankees
8. The dinner selection at Pangkot Palace was interesting, to say the least. What was the name of the entree that came from a snake?
A. Snake Surprise
B. Snake Snack
C. Slippery Snakes
D. Snake Supper
9. Willie Scott is grateful when Indy brings here which fruit following the eventful dinner?
A. Apple
B. Pear
C. Orange
D. Banana
10. The cult in Temple of Doom are known as what?
A. Thugees
B. Sankaras
C. Lao-Ches
D. Crips
11. The opening scenes of The Last Crusade were shot in which Utah national park?
A. Canyonlands
B. Bryce Canyon
C. Zion
D. Arches
12. The Last Crusade opens when Indy was a teenager, and he nabs a cross that some treasure hunters have discovered. Which famous explorer did the cross once belong to?
A. Balboa
B. Hernando de Soto
C. Coronado
D. Magellan
13. Indy tries to escape the trasure hunters by running across a circus train. Which of these animals does he NOT encounter during the trek?
A. Bear
B. Giraffe
C. Rhinocerous
D. Lion
14. In The Last Crusade, Indy travels through a lot of Europe. In which of these countries did he not travel?
A. Italy
B. Germany
C. Hungary
D. Austria
15. Henry Jones Sr.'s Grail diary is signed by whom in The Last Crusade?
A. Albert Einstein
B. Robert Oppenheim
C. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
D. Adolf Hitler
16. In which flick did Indy NOT disguise himself as a Nazi soldier?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
17. Which film was the first to be rated as PG-13 by the MPAA?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
18. Which of these actors did NOT appear in an IJ flick?
A. Ben Kingsley
B. Dan Aykroyd
C. Alfred Molina
D. River Phoenix
19. Which of these creepy crawlies were not prominently featured in any of the first three movies?
A. Bugs
B. Rats
C. Snakes
D. Lizards
20. Which IJ grossed the most money at theaters?
A. Raiders of the Lost Ark
B. Temple of Doom
C. The Last Crusade
And the answers....
1. B
2. C
3. C
4. B
5. C
6. B
7. D
8. A
9. A
10. A
11. D
12. C
13. A
14. C
15. D
16. B
17. B
18. A
19. D
20. A
Anyone get them all?
Monday, May 19, 2008
When you are not playing poker in Vegas...
Things to Do in Vegas When You’re Alive
Now you may be a poker junkie, but even if you’re in Las Vegas, the poker capital of the world, playing in the World Series of Poker, the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, you still have to step outside and enjoy the scenery. Here are some of the sights you must see after you’ve taken a brutal beat the tables and need a break.
The free stuff
We’ll start with the sorts of things a poor, low-roller like me prefers – the freebies. Luckily, there are plenty of things to see and do for free in Vegas. After all, the casinos need some sort of attractions to lure you into their lairs in a city full of choices. Let’s start with the Bellagio fountains. The famed fountains, which number more than a thousand and shoot water as high as 240 feet, are choreographed to music ranging from classical to showtunes. Situated in the lake in front of the Bellagio casino, the fountains go off every half hour in the afternoons and every 15 minutes after dark until midnight. They are perfect for a romantic night out.
Just down the Strip are a few things close together you might enjoy. The volcano outside the Mirage “erupts” every 15 minutes after dark until midnight. The 54-foot high structure in front of the casino emits a show of steam, water and light that at least approximates a volcano eruption. A good place to view the brief show is from the second floor of the terrace at St. Mark’s Square outside the Venetian, which is directly across Las Vegas Boulevard. The square is a pretty fair replica of the famed corner in the real Venice. After viewing the eruption, walk inside the Venetian to admire the beautiful adornments, including the paintings on the ceiling and the Grand Canal Shoppes, where you can buy your special someone that something special after a big night at the tables.
Just down from the Venetian is TI (formerly Treasure Island) and the Sirens of TI show. I recommend this half-heartedly. It’s a cool show if you’ve never seen it, but the crowds that gather in front of the casino can grow large and make viewing the show a pain. If you got, get there at least a half hour early (shows are at 7, 8:30, 10 and 11 p.m.) to stake out a decent spot. During the show, male and female pirates battle it out on two ships on either side of the crowd in a display of pyrotechnics and acrobatics.
While you’re heading north on the Strip, you might as well catch a cab or bus and head to Downtown for the Fremont Street Experience. The $70 million light show in the sky features five different shows each night on the hour lasting several minutes over four city blocks. The action is projected on a canopy 90 feet over the pedestrian mall. While you’re Downtown, duck into Binion’s and walk to the back of the casino where you can still see the former WSOP tournament area much as it used to be. The casino is planning some major renovations to its poker room in the coming months, but for now you can glance at a table and imagine yourself trading bluffs with Doyle Brunson or Stu Ungar.
The not-quite-free stuff
Sometimes you’ve got to give a little to get a little. Among the sights you ought to see that cost a little coin, is the top of the Stratosphere tower, which costs about $10 to ride to the summit of the 1,149-foot structure. There are several thrill rides at the top. Try the Big Shot, which will make similar rides at other amusement parks seem like child’s play after you are shot up 160 feet and back down again at the top of a 100-story tower.
For the outdoor enthusiast, take the short drive to Red Rock Canyon, about 20 miles west of Las Vegas. There’s a $5 per vehicle admission fee. Once there, you can take your time driving the 13-mile scenic loop, stopping at points along the way to hike your way to the springs that first drew visitors to this part of the Mohave Desert nearly two centuries ago or to view ancient rock drawings made by the Anasazi.
Where to eat
A boy’s gotta eat, right? When you’re not chowing down at the snack bar outside your favorite poker room – or, heaven forbid, the WSOP kitchen – you’ve got to try some of these places while you’re in town.
If your wallet is fat, go ahead and splurge at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at MGM Grand. Main courses at dinner will often run $30-$40 but the eating is good. Also try Mr. Lagasse’s Delmonico Steakhouse at the Venetian. Bouchon by famed Thomas Keller and located mid-Strip, is a delight to the palate, while Chang’s of Las Vegas is an affordable Chinese restaurant in the north part of the Strip. There’s no better place to use those $2 an hour poker comps at Binion’s than upstairs in the Binion’s Ranch Steakhouse, which provides a gorgeous view of the city. And if you’ve never been, you must go to In ‘n Out Burger for a burger, fries and shake. You won’t regret it.
What shows to see
For the non-gamblers among us, Vegas may be most famous for its selection of shows, from major artistic productions to magician acts and very low-brow impersonation fests. There are several Cirque de Soleil productions in the city, but the ones that come mostly highly recommended are O at the Bellagio, Love at the Mirage (a tribute to the Beatles) and Mystere at Treasure Island. Tickets don’t come cheaply, however, as you should expect to pay $100 and up for most seats.
In a town that seems to magically make the money disappear from your wallet, it should come as no surprise that there are a number of magic shows. Among those worth seeing, Lance Burton: Master Magician in the Monte Carlo offers a good value at around $65-$75 a ticket. Penn & Teller over at the Rio (just a hop, skip and jump from the WSOP tournament area) are famous for revealing some of the secrets behind the tricks and tickets are on part with Burton. Mac King, a magic/comedy hybrid artist, is one of the best values in town at $25 a ticket.
If it’s cheese you seek, there’s no shortage of it in this town. One option would be to wander Fremont Street and wait for someone to hand you a “free” ticket to a lounge act (which, of course, requires the purchase of at least one overpriced drink if not more) or you could head to one of these shows: American Superstars at the Stratosphere features a variety of celebrity impersonators singing the songs those celebrities are famous for. You might hear Charlie Daniels followed by Christina Aguilera followed by Michael Jackson. Expect to pay around $40. At the Excalibur, you can sit down for a meal and a joust at the Tournament of Kings. Knights compete in a variety of contests while you eat your $45 meal with your hands. It’s great for the kiddies.
Now you may be a poker junkie, but even if you’re in Las Vegas, the poker capital of the world, playing in the World Series of Poker, the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, you still have to step outside and enjoy the scenery. Here are some of the sights you must see after you’ve taken a brutal beat the tables and need a break.
The free stuff
We’ll start with the sorts of things a poor, low-roller like me prefers – the freebies. Luckily, there are plenty of things to see and do for free in Vegas. After all, the casinos need some sort of attractions to lure you into their lairs in a city full of choices. Let’s start with the Bellagio fountains. The famed fountains, which number more than a thousand and shoot water as high as 240 feet, are choreographed to music ranging from classical to showtunes. Situated in the lake in front of the Bellagio casino, the fountains go off every half hour in the afternoons and every 15 minutes after dark until midnight. They are perfect for a romantic night out.
Just down the Strip are a few things close together you might enjoy. The volcano outside the Mirage “erupts” every 15 minutes after dark until midnight. The 54-foot high structure in front of the casino emits a show of steam, water and light that at least approximates a volcano eruption. A good place to view the brief show is from the second floor of the terrace at St. Mark’s Square outside the Venetian, which is directly across Las Vegas Boulevard. The square is a pretty fair replica of the famed corner in the real Venice. After viewing the eruption, walk inside the Venetian to admire the beautiful adornments, including the paintings on the ceiling and the Grand Canal Shoppes, where you can buy your special someone that something special after a big night at the tables.
Just down from the Venetian is TI (formerly Treasure Island) and the Sirens of TI show. I recommend this half-heartedly. It’s a cool show if you’ve never seen it, but the crowds that gather in front of the casino can grow large and make viewing the show a pain. If you got, get there at least a half hour early (shows are at 7, 8:30, 10 and 11 p.m.) to stake out a decent spot. During the show, male and female pirates battle it out on two ships on either side of the crowd in a display of pyrotechnics and acrobatics.
While you’re heading north on the Strip, you might as well catch a cab or bus and head to Downtown for the Fremont Street Experience. The $70 million light show in the sky features five different shows each night on the hour lasting several minutes over four city blocks. The action is projected on a canopy 90 feet over the pedestrian mall. While you’re Downtown, duck into Binion’s and walk to the back of the casino where you can still see the former WSOP tournament area much as it used to be. The casino is planning some major renovations to its poker room in the coming months, but for now you can glance at a table and imagine yourself trading bluffs with Doyle Brunson or Stu Ungar.
The not-quite-free stuff
Sometimes you’ve got to give a little to get a little. Among the sights you ought to see that cost a little coin, is the top of the Stratosphere tower, which costs about $10 to ride to the summit of the 1,149-foot structure. There are several thrill rides at the top. Try the Big Shot, which will make similar rides at other amusement parks seem like child’s play after you are shot up 160 feet and back down again at the top of a 100-story tower.
For the outdoor enthusiast, take the short drive to Red Rock Canyon, about 20 miles west of Las Vegas. There’s a $5 per vehicle admission fee. Once there, you can take your time driving the 13-mile scenic loop, stopping at points along the way to hike your way to the springs that first drew visitors to this part of the Mohave Desert nearly two centuries ago or to view ancient rock drawings made by the Anasazi.
Where to eat
A boy’s gotta eat, right? When you’re not chowing down at the snack bar outside your favorite poker room – or, heaven forbid, the WSOP kitchen – you’ve got to try some of these places while you’re in town.
If your wallet is fat, go ahead and splurge at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at MGM Grand. Main courses at dinner will often run $30-$40 but the eating is good. Also try Mr. Lagasse’s Delmonico Steakhouse at the Venetian. Bouchon by famed Thomas Keller and located mid-Strip, is a delight to the palate, while Chang’s of Las Vegas is an affordable Chinese restaurant in the north part of the Strip. There’s no better place to use those $2 an hour poker comps at Binion’s than upstairs in the Binion’s Ranch Steakhouse, which provides a gorgeous view of the city. And if you’ve never been, you must go to In ‘n Out Burger for a burger, fries and shake. You won’t regret it.
What shows to see
For the non-gamblers among us, Vegas may be most famous for its selection of shows, from major artistic productions to magician acts and very low-brow impersonation fests. There are several Cirque de Soleil productions in the city, but the ones that come mostly highly recommended are O at the Bellagio, Love at the Mirage (a tribute to the Beatles) and Mystere at Treasure Island. Tickets don’t come cheaply, however, as you should expect to pay $100 and up for most seats.
In a town that seems to magically make the money disappear from your wallet, it should come as no surprise that there are a number of magic shows. Among those worth seeing, Lance Burton: Master Magician in the Monte Carlo offers a good value at around $65-$75 a ticket. Penn & Teller over at the Rio (just a hop, skip and jump from the WSOP tournament area) are famous for revealing some of the secrets behind the tricks and tickets are on part with Burton. Mac King, a magic/comedy hybrid artist, is one of the best values in town at $25 a ticket.
If it’s cheese you seek, there’s no shortage of it in this town. One option would be to wander Fremont Street and wait for someone to hand you a “free” ticket to a lounge act (which, of course, requires the purchase of at least one overpriced drink if not more) or you could head to one of these shows: American Superstars at the Stratosphere features a variety of celebrity impersonators singing the songs those celebrities are famous for. You might hear Charlie Daniels followed by Christina Aguilera followed by Michael Jackson. Expect to pay around $40. At the Excalibur, you can sit down for a meal and a joust at the Tournament of Kings. Knights compete in a variety of contests while you eat your $45 meal with your hands. It’s great for the kiddies.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Back in the thick of things...and cool Binion's news
It's the ides of May and the blogger tournaments are starting to wind down. I am kind of glad. They are fun to play, but the nightly jaunt wears on you, and my wife says, "I can't wait to get my husband back." Last month by this time I was pretty well out of the running and skipped about half of the remaining tournaments, but I am in the thick of things again in May (probably still in second place after JDSchellnut's win last night. Evy could leapfrog me too.)
I look forward to the OE tournament tonight because I have witnessed some tragically bad play in the mixed game blogger tournaments, especially Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo. Those high pairs are no good in that latter game people, and 4-5-6-7 is a terrible hand in the former, guys and gals. There's your two cents for the day.
Actually, it's funny I say that because I busted 3rd in the HOE event Tuesday with split kings to open. I raised and Chippy re-raised with 6-6-3 and caught two pair on fourth while I did not improve. I've been wondering about this hand...now obviously both hands suck at a full table...like I said before high pairs are no good, and a hand like 6-6-3 is in no man's land. Is it a high draw or a low draw? Not much of either. However, I wonder when heads up which is better. At first I thought obviously the kings, but now I am not so sure. It seems with the 6-6-3 you are likely to either make a low (knowing your opponent will not make one other than runner runner runner runner) or a good high hand. But will those sixes make a high hand better than the kings often enough when it also doesn't make a low (for the split pot) to make it more profitable than the kings? Math geeks? Anyone?
Now if I manage to luck up and win another $2,000 package I wonder if it would be uncouth to use those funds to bankroll play in other Vegas tournaments rather than the WSOP? I plan to play some tournaments at either/or/all of the above: Binion's Poker Classic, Venetian Deep Stack and The Grand Poker Series at the GN so I am thinking I would thereotically put any additional FTP prizes toward that. Alternatively, I could buy into two $1,500 and sell several hundred dollars in shares to poker pals and use those funds to bankroll smaller tournament entries. Thoughts?
I still haven't booked my flight (though I booked Amy and me for the GN on July 3-7 as they had a special for their poker series...$350 after tax at a four-star hotel on the July 4th weekend...yes, please), but I am thinking of getting a one-way ticket to Vegas around June 25th, 26th, 27th. I would decide later when to come home, possibly with Amy on July 7 or later if I either win a main event seat or pick up more writing work. I've talked to Ted and will probably stay at Binion's again for most of my Vegas trip.
Speaking of Binion's (the staff of which I interviewed for the latest Q & A in the May issue of Rounder), you may recall (or have at least heard) that Benny Binion used to have 100 $10,000 bills in a horseshoe-shaped display in the casino where people could get their picture taken with a million smackers. Well, guess what? They are bringing it back, in a different fashion.
This, from General Manager Tim Lager:
"There are some things we want to do down here that we think will be big hooks for the property. Obviously, a huge hook for the property in the past was the million dollars display. We can’t do the same display anymore because those were $10,000 bills. You can’t get a hold of them. In our remodeling plans, in an area back by the poker room we’re going to do a display – when someone won the World Series of Poker they came out with the box of money and piled it on top of the poker table and took the picture of the gentleman – we’re going to do a similar type thing where we have the poker table set up with a million dollars and a Plexiglas pyramid to put over it so people can come in and take photographs, which we think will be a huge hook. Everybody remember a million bucks so we think that’s the kind of stuff that’s going to start bringing bodies back down here."
In the interview, Lager said the tournament area is going to be moved to where the old sportsbook was after that area is remodeled. I have always been a fan of Downtown Las Vegas so I hope these summer tournaments will draw some people to the area. Viva la Fremont Street!
I look forward to the OE tournament tonight because I have witnessed some tragically bad play in the mixed game blogger tournaments, especially Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud Hi-Lo. Those high pairs are no good in that latter game people, and 4-5-6-7 is a terrible hand in the former, guys and gals. There's your two cents for the day.
Actually, it's funny I say that because I busted 3rd in the HOE event Tuesday with split kings to open. I raised and Chippy re-raised with 6-6-3 and caught two pair on fourth while I did not improve. I've been wondering about this hand...now obviously both hands suck at a full table...like I said before high pairs are no good, and a hand like 6-6-3 is in no man's land. Is it a high draw or a low draw? Not much of either. However, I wonder when heads up which is better. At first I thought obviously the kings, but now I am not so sure. It seems with the 6-6-3 you are likely to either make a low (knowing your opponent will not make one other than runner runner runner runner) or a good high hand. But will those sixes make a high hand better than the kings often enough when it also doesn't make a low (for the split pot) to make it more profitable than the kings? Math geeks? Anyone?
Now if I manage to luck up and win another $2,000 package I wonder if it would be uncouth to use those funds to bankroll play in other Vegas tournaments rather than the WSOP? I plan to play some tournaments at either/or/all of the above: Binion's Poker Classic, Venetian Deep Stack and The Grand Poker Series at the GN so I am thinking I would thereotically put any additional FTP prizes toward that. Alternatively, I could buy into two $1,500 and sell several hundred dollars in shares to poker pals and use those funds to bankroll smaller tournament entries. Thoughts?
I still haven't booked my flight (though I booked Amy and me for the GN on July 3-7 as they had a special for their poker series...$350 after tax at a four-star hotel on the July 4th weekend...yes, please), but I am thinking of getting a one-way ticket to Vegas around June 25th, 26th, 27th. I would decide later when to come home, possibly with Amy on July 7 or later if I either win a main event seat or pick up more writing work. I've talked to Ted and will probably stay at Binion's again for most of my Vegas trip.
Speaking of Binion's (the staff of which I interviewed for the latest Q & A in the May issue of Rounder), you may recall (or have at least heard) that Benny Binion used to have 100 $10,000 bills in a horseshoe-shaped display in the casino where people could get their picture taken with a million smackers. Well, guess what? They are bringing it back, in a different fashion.
This, from General Manager Tim Lager:
"There are some things we want to do down here that we think will be big hooks for the property. Obviously, a huge hook for the property in the past was the million dollars display. We can’t do the same display anymore because those were $10,000 bills. You can’t get a hold of them. In our remodeling plans, in an area back by the poker room we’re going to do a display – when someone won the World Series of Poker they came out with the box of money and piled it on top of the poker table and took the picture of the gentleman – we’re going to do a similar type thing where we have the poker table set up with a million dollars and a Plexiglas pyramid to put over it so people can come in and take photographs, which we think will be a huge hook. Everybody remember a million bucks so we think that’s the kind of stuff that’s going to start bringing bodies back down here."
In the interview, Lager said the tournament area is going to be moved to where the old sportsbook was after that area is remodeled. I have always been a fan of Downtown Las Vegas so I hope these summer tournaments will draw some people to the area. Viva la Fremont Street!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Cake Poker anyone?
I signed up for rakeback for Cake Poker and registered my account, but I have found one sort of major problem...I can't get any money into the site. With ePassporte pulling out of the U.S. there is no way for me to deposit. So can any blog readers help me out? Any of you got an account there where we could do a money swap?
Friday, May 02, 2008
More on "live" main event table
I haven't finished transcribing the conference call I listened in on Thursday, but here's a few quotes from WSOP commish Jeffrey Pollack:
“We’re going to put the spotlight on the entire final table, celebrating the fact that they’ve outlasted and outplayed thousands of competitors. Now instead of there being one star who emerges from our main event, there will nine stars, one of whom will receive our championship bracelet on ESPN the same day they win it – the first time this has ever happened.”
“I think this same day telecast is really going to be a cliffhanger that will be must see appointment television, and really what we’re doing is shifting the paradigm. Now poker fans will be anticipating who will win instead of just talking about who won.”
“After several weeks of live play at the WSOP, there will be now be an additional 16 weeks of promotions that I think will lift the entire game of poker and further mainstream the incredible personalities that make the WSOP so much fun and so interesting.”
The chatter online about this move has been quite heavy. I can see both good and bad points. For example, players with momentum could lose it, international players (and also domestic ones) may have trouble making two trips to Vegas depending on what else is going on in their lives (although Harrah's is footing the bill). On the other hand, the final nine all ought to be able to score some nice sponsorship deals before playing the final table and will receive more fame and media attention.
A big question I've seen online that was answered in the conference call is that after all players are paid ninth place money immediately after making the final table, the rest of the prize pool will be put in an interest bearing account for the three months between play. I don't know the exact numbers from the past since I haven't looked them up, but I heard the number $20 million bantered about as an estimate of how much would have been put into the account if this were done in 2007. I don't know how much $20 million drawing interest for three months would earn at today's rates, but it will be a little something extra.
“We’re going to put the spotlight on the entire final table, celebrating the fact that they’ve outlasted and outplayed thousands of competitors. Now instead of there being one star who emerges from our main event, there will nine stars, one of whom will receive our championship bracelet on ESPN the same day they win it – the first time this has ever happened.”
“I think this same day telecast is really going to be a cliffhanger that will be must see appointment television, and really what we’re doing is shifting the paradigm. Now poker fans will be anticipating who will win instead of just talking about who won.”
“After several weeks of live play at the WSOP, there will be now be an additional 16 weeks of promotions that I think will lift the entire game of poker and further mainstream the incredible personalities that make the WSOP so much fun and so interesting.”
The chatter online about this move has been quite heavy. I can see both good and bad points. For example, players with momentum could lose it, international players (and also domestic ones) may have trouble making two trips to Vegas depending on what else is going on in their lives (although Harrah's is footing the bill). On the other hand, the final nine all ought to be able to score some nice sponsorship deals before playing the final table and will receive more fame and media attention.
A big question I've seen online that was answered in the conference call is that after all players are paid ninth place money immediately after making the final table, the rest of the prize pool will be put in an interest bearing account for the three months between play. I don't know the exact numbers from the past since I haven't looked them up, but I heard the number $20 million bantered about as an estimate of how much would have been put into the account if this were done in 2007. I don't know how much $20 million drawing interest for three months would earn at today's rates, but it will be a little something extra.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Plausibly live WSOP final table is a go
I'll have more after the media conference call at 1 p.m. CST, but for now here is the press release:
Final Nine Players Will Square-Off This November on ESPN
LAS VEGAS – May 1, 2008 – The World Series of Poker® (WSOP) Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light today announced a groundbreaking change that will more closely align the televised presentation of the world’s largest, richest and most prestigious poker tournament with other premier sports broadcasts.
The last nine players of the $10,000 World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, known as the Main Event, will compete on November 9-10 instead of the originally scheduled date of July 16.
“Our intent is to provide an even bigger stage for our players,” said Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the World Series of Poker. “Now fans and viewers will ask ‘who will win’ our coveted championship bracelet instead of seeing ‘who won.’ The excitement and interest surrounding our final nine players will be unprecedented.”
This change in how the Main Event final table is staged will bring the excitement and drama of high-stakes WSOP tournament play closer to millions of fans around the globe.
All other 2008 WSOP tournament structures and schedules remain unchanged. This announcement affects only the final nine players of Event #54, the Main Event World Championship.
Continuing the trailblazing efforts that have made the WSOP the industry standard, this move is being made in close collaboration with ESPN, the television rightsholder of the WSOP, and the WSOP Players Advisory Council (PAC), the commissioner-appointed committee of professional and amateur poker players who provide guidance and perspective to the WSOP leadership team.
"It's an exciting time for the World Series of Poker and ESPN," said Jamie Horowitz, senior producer, ESPN Content Development. "This adjustment will add a new element to a very successful and popular event. We look forward to documenting all of the exciting stories that make the WSOP Main Event the seminal competition in all of poker."
“This is a huge step forward for poker and more specifically poker on television because it will help create more buzz around the final table and that is good for all of us,” said Daniel Negreanu, a WSOP PAC member, three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and one of today’s most successful and popular poker professionals. “Not only will this innovative step create more buzz for the final table, the added time prior to the final table will help get poker mainstream media attention. I’m very excited about this decision and can’t wait to see it all unfold, hopefully from a seat at the final table!”
The 39th annual World Series of Poker will take place from May 30th to July 14th at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The Main Event will begin on July 3rd, with the Final Table being determined on July 14th. The nine players who advance to the Final Table will return to the Rio on November 9th to play down to just two players. The final two, will go head-to-head late in the evening on November 10th to determine the champion and winner of poker’s ultimate prize.
The winner of the Main Event is expected to be crowned in the early hours of November 11. ESPN will edit the two-day Final Table action and televise it in a two-hour program from 9:00-11:00 PM ET on Tuesday, November 11 just hours after the winner is crowned. This is akin to television coverage of the Olympic Games, where because of time zone differences, the telecaster schedules programs “same day” in primetime to provide the largest possible audience a convenient viewing time.
ESPN will begin its coverage of the 2008 World Series of Poker on Tuesday, July 22. Viewers will see two hours of original poker programming every Tuesday through November 11 (except November 4 when a special preview of the Final Table will be aired at 10 p.m.). Telecasts will be aired at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. July 22 through September 30 and at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. from October 7 through November 11.
Each of the players who make it to the WSOP Main Event Final Table will receive ninth place prize money on July 14, when the finalists are determined. Harrah’s will then provide each of those players with an all expense paid trip for two for their return to Las Vegas in November to play the final portion of the tournament.
From July 14 to November 9, a span of 117 days, players will have an opportunity to line up sponsorships, coaches, review the play of all their competitors, participate in other tournaments, and take advantage of the new publicity and promotional opportunities that will be available.
Final Nine Players Will Square-Off This November on ESPN
LAS VEGAS – May 1, 2008 – The World Series of Poker® (WSOP) Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light today announced a groundbreaking change that will more closely align the televised presentation of the world’s largest, richest and most prestigious poker tournament with other premier sports broadcasts.
The last nine players of the $10,000 World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, known as the Main Event, will compete on November 9-10 instead of the originally scheduled date of July 16.
“Our intent is to provide an even bigger stage for our players,” said Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the World Series of Poker. “Now fans and viewers will ask ‘who will win’ our coveted championship bracelet instead of seeing ‘who won.’ The excitement and interest surrounding our final nine players will be unprecedented.”
This change in how the Main Event final table is staged will bring the excitement and drama of high-stakes WSOP tournament play closer to millions of fans around the globe.
All other 2008 WSOP tournament structures and schedules remain unchanged. This announcement affects only the final nine players of Event #54, the Main Event World Championship.
Continuing the trailblazing efforts that have made the WSOP the industry standard, this move is being made in close collaboration with ESPN, the television rightsholder of the WSOP, and the WSOP Players Advisory Council (PAC), the commissioner-appointed committee of professional and amateur poker players who provide guidance and perspective to the WSOP leadership team.
"It's an exciting time for the World Series of Poker and ESPN," said Jamie Horowitz, senior producer, ESPN Content Development. "This adjustment will add a new element to a very successful and popular event. We look forward to documenting all of the exciting stories that make the WSOP Main Event the seminal competition in all of poker."
“This is a huge step forward for poker and more specifically poker on television because it will help create more buzz around the final table and that is good for all of us,” said Daniel Negreanu, a WSOP PAC member, three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and one of today’s most successful and popular poker professionals. “Not only will this innovative step create more buzz for the final table, the added time prior to the final table will help get poker mainstream media attention. I’m very excited about this decision and can’t wait to see it all unfold, hopefully from a seat at the final table!”
The 39th annual World Series of Poker will take place from May 30th to July 14th at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The Main Event will begin on July 3rd, with the Final Table being determined on July 14th. The nine players who advance to the Final Table will return to the Rio on November 9th to play down to just two players. The final two, will go head-to-head late in the evening on November 10th to determine the champion and winner of poker’s ultimate prize.
The winner of the Main Event is expected to be crowned in the early hours of November 11. ESPN will edit the two-day Final Table action and televise it in a two-hour program from 9:00-11:00 PM ET on Tuesday, November 11 just hours after the winner is crowned. This is akin to television coverage of the Olympic Games, where because of time zone differences, the telecaster schedules programs “same day” in primetime to provide the largest possible audience a convenient viewing time.
ESPN will begin its coverage of the 2008 World Series of Poker on Tuesday, July 22. Viewers will see two hours of original poker programming every Tuesday through November 11 (except November 4 when a special preview of the Final Table will be aired at 10 p.m.). Telecasts will be aired at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. July 22 through September 30 and at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. from October 7 through November 11.
Each of the players who make it to the WSOP Main Event Final Table will receive ninth place prize money on July 14, when the finalists are determined. Harrah’s will then provide each of those players with an all expense paid trip for two for their return to Las Vegas in November to play the final portion of the tournament.
From July 14 to November 9, a span of 117 days, players will have an opportunity to line up sponsorships, coaches, review the play of all their competitors, participate in other tournaments, and take advantage of the new publicity and promotional opportunities that will be available.
Monday, April 28, 2008
And a word from our sponsors
Just wanted to take a minute to thank the recent advertisers on this blog by giving a quick introduction.
We have the German incarnations of both Poker Room and Party Poker. I haven't played either in a while, but enjoyed both back in the day (well the English versions that is). Dang you UIGEA...
Also new is ArtPoker.net and BeeJack.com. On the former you can download themes and skins that match various online poker sites. Very cool stuff. The latter has a lot of news and strategy on online casino gambling in general, as well as links to various online casino and poker room sites.
Last, but not least, is CardsChat.com, which features a forum and poker strategy discussion. Good site it appears.
I should also let you know that I have one person looking to advertise on more blogs, so if any of you reading have any interest in a little easy $$$, feel free to email me at jkampis@hotmail.com.
We have the German incarnations of both Poker Room and Party Poker. I haven't played either in a while, but enjoyed both back in the day (well the English versions that is). Dang you UIGEA...
Also new is ArtPoker.net and BeeJack.com. On the former you can download themes and skins that match various online poker sites. Very cool stuff. The latter has a lot of news and strategy on online casino gambling in general, as well as links to various online casino and poker room sites.
Last, but not least, is CardsChat.com, which features a forum and poker strategy discussion. Good site it appears.
I should also let you know that I have one person looking to advertise on more blogs, so if any of you reading have any interest in a little easy $$$, feel free to email me at jkampis@hotmail.com.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Planning your trip to the WSOP
Vegas or Bust: Planning your trip to the WSOP
Whether you are a Vegas virgin or an experienced World Series of Poker phenomenon, we think the following guide should prove useful as you plan your excursion to Las Vegas this summer.
Airfare
Before you can plop yourself down on your Vegas hotel bed, you’ve got to get there. For most of the country that means travel by plane, and there are a number of options for seeking the cheapest tickets. Our favorite is www.farecast.com, in which you input your travel dates and get four pop-up windows showing comparable rates from Hotwire, Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline. Usually there isn’t much difference between the four, but you will often save $5-$10 (like if one of the services is waiving the booking fees for a promotion) that can be used for the slots. A recent look at the site uncovered a number of round-trip flights from Birmingham for under $300, so similar fares are likely from other airports in the East. The trick is to fly between Sunday and Thursday. Rates are generally higher on Friday and Saturday.
Another great option is to install Southwest’s DING program on your computer and select Las Vegas and your home airport. If you keep this program running, it will pop up daily with one-day only specials for the airports you choose. We recently saw one-way flights from Birmingham to Las Vegas for $99. There are different specials each day and flights to any one city aren’t that common so you will have to be vigilant in checking this, but you can find a really good deal.
A bonus tip to you first-time Vegas fliers – fly at night. The view of the fully illuminated Strip after the sun sets over Vegas is fabulous as you descend into McCarran.
Hotels and houses
Obviously, choices are not a problem in the city that has more hotel rooms than any other in the world. It’s just a matter of how much you want to spend. If you plan to be in Vegas for a month or more and are not filthy rich you probably want to start cheap so let’s look at some of those options.
First, you must consider if you want to rent a car. If not, stay on the Strip or in Downtown (where you can ride the city bus to the Strip for $2 if you’re frugal. Otherwise it’s at least $10 each way for a cab). Even if you rent a car it’s still nice to be able to walk out of your hotel room and be within walking distance to the Strip or Downtown. And it’s better yet to be able to walk out of your hotel room and into a poker room without leaving the premises. Your best bets for reasonably priced casino hotels with poker rooms include Binion’s, which offers a poker rate of around $30, and the Sahara, which has some summer specials with rooms under $50. Some other cheap options with poker rooms in the downtown area include El Cortez and Fitzgeralds, though neither poker room features much action.
For those looking to fork over more for their rooms, the Venetian is offering discounted suites this summer during the Deep Stack Extravaganza. The prices are $139 for weekdays and $199 for weekends.
Harrah’s is offering discounted rates at its Las Vegas properties, including the Rio, Bally’s Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Imperial Palace and Paris. The lowest rate is $89 on weekdays and $159 weekends at Imperial Palace. If you’d like to be able to ride the elevator and walk straight to the WSOP area, you will pay $139 weekdays and $279 weekends at Rio. If you pre-register and pay for WSOP events, you get $20 to $30 off of your room rates each night.
Other options include weekly rentals at places like Budget Suites, which has several locations in Vegas. For $239 a week for one bedroom and $339 for two bedrooms, you get a full kitchen and living room and private bedrooms. You can get similar accommodations and rates at Extended Stay America, including a location on Flamingo not far from the Rio.
Alternatively, you can rent any number of houses and condos during the summer. If you have several friends traveling to Vegas with you and really want to party, you can rent a 5,000 square foot condo with full bar, game room, pool and other amenities for hundreds of dollars a day. Split four or five ways, the price might just be right for you. There are numerous options out there, but you can start at this site: www.travellinkunlimited.com to see a handful of choices.
Not sure which option is best for you? Try this new site called www.myvegaspokerhost.com where you answer a few questions that help match you with a property that will best suit your extended stay needs.
Car rental
The easiest way to rent your car is to use one of the online travel sites listed under airfare. Las Vegas recently constructed a new transportation hub near the airport where all of the car rental agencies are located. You can get a compact or economy car in Vegas for under $100 a week in many instances, and unless you’re planning on driving to the Grand Canyon and back you probably won’t need more than a tank or two of gas during your stay.
Grab a book too
Our last piece of advice is to get a copy of American Casino Guide, not because it is all that great for helping you pick a poker room, but because it has fantastic coupons. For $15 you get a book filled with discounts for 2 for 1 rooms, 2 for 1 buffets, match play coupons and other casino sign-up bonuses. This year the book includes a $10 chip bonus for playing poker at the Golden Nugget, which almost pays the cost right there. You should get your money back out of this investment several times over.
Whether you are a Vegas virgin or an experienced World Series of Poker phenomenon, we think the following guide should prove useful as you plan your excursion to Las Vegas this summer.
Airfare
Before you can plop yourself down on your Vegas hotel bed, you’ve got to get there. For most of the country that means travel by plane, and there are a number of options for seeking the cheapest tickets. Our favorite is www.farecast.com, in which you input your travel dates and get four pop-up windows showing comparable rates from Hotwire, Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline. Usually there isn’t much difference between the four, but you will often save $5-$10 (like if one of the services is waiving the booking fees for a promotion) that can be used for the slots. A recent look at the site uncovered a number of round-trip flights from Birmingham for under $300, so similar fares are likely from other airports in the East. The trick is to fly between Sunday and Thursday. Rates are generally higher on Friday and Saturday.
Another great option is to install Southwest’s DING program on your computer and select Las Vegas and your home airport. If you keep this program running, it will pop up daily with one-day only specials for the airports you choose. We recently saw one-way flights from Birmingham to Las Vegas for $99. There are different specials each day and flights to any one city aren’t that common so you will have to be vigilant in checking this, but you can find a really good deal.
A bonus tip to you first-time Vegas fliers – fly at night. The view of the fully illuminated Strip after the sun sets over Vegas is fabulous as you descend into McCarran.
Hotels and houses
Obviously, choices are not a problem in the city that has more hotel rooms than any other in the world. It’s just a matter of how much you want to spend. If you plan to be in Vegas for a month or more and are not filthy rich you probably want to start cheap so let’s look at some of those options.
First, you must consider if you want to rent a car. If not, stay on the Strip or in Downtown (where you can ride the city bus to the Strip for $2 if you’re frugal. Otherwise it’s at least $10 each way for a cab). Even if you rent a car it’s still nice to be able to walk out of your hotel room and be within walking distance to the Strip or Downtown. And it’s better yet to be able to walk out of your hotel room and into a poker room without leaving the premises. Your best bets for reasonably priced casino hotels with poker rooms include Binion’s, which offers a poker rate of around $30, and the Sahara, which has some summer specials with rooms under $50. Some other cheap options with poker rooms in the downtown area include El Cortez and Fitzgeralds, though neither poker room features much action.
For those looking to fork over more for their rooms, the Venetian is offering discounted suites this summer during the Deep Stack Extravaganza. The prices are $139 for weekdays and $199 for weekends.
Harrah’s is offering discounted rates at its Las Vegas properties, including the Rio, Bally’s Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Imperial Palace and Paris. The lowest rate is $89 on weekdays and $159 weekends at Imperial Palace. If you’d like to be able to ride the elevator and walk straight to the WSOP area, you will pay $139 weekdays and $279 weekends at Rio. If you pre-register and pay for WSOP events, you get $20 to $30 off of your room rates each night.
Other options include weekly rentals at places like Budget Suites, which has several locations in Vegas. For $239 a week for one bedroom and $339 for two bedrooms, you get a full kitchen and living room and private bedrooms. You can get similar accommodations and rates at Extended Stay America, including a location on Flamingo not far from the Rio.
Alternatively, you can rent any number of houses and condos during the summer. If you have several friends traveling to Vegas with you and really want to party, you can rent a 5,000 square foot condo with full bar, game room, pool and other amenities for hundreds of dollars a day. Split four or five ways, the price might just be right for you. There are numerous options out there, but you can start at this site: www.travellinkunlimited.com to see a handful of choices.
Not sure which option is best for you? Try this new site called www.myvegaspokerhost.com where you answer a few questions that help match you with a property that will best suit your extended stay needs.
Car rental
The easiest way to rent your car is to use one of the online travel sites listed under airfare. Las Vegas recently constructed a new transportation hub near the airport where all of the car rental agencies are located. You can get a compact or economy car in Vegas for under $100 a week in many instances, and unless you’re planning on driving to the Grand Canyon and back you probably won’t need more than a tank or two of gas during your stay.
Grab a book too
Our last piece of advice is to get a copy of American Casino Guide, not because it is all that great for helping you pick a poker room, but because it has fantastic coupons. For $15 you get a book filled with discounts for 2 for 1 rooms, 2 for 1 buffets, match play coupons and other casino sign-up bonuses. This year the book includes a $10 chip bonus for playing poker at the Golden Nugget, which almost pays the cost right there. You should get your money back out of this investment several times over.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Dramatic LOST gopher
You've probably heard of or seen the "dramatic gopher" making the rounds on the net. Here's a video that one You Tube user described as combining two of his favorite things: "Lost and YouTube videos that don't make any sense."
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Time bends for the poker player
You spend enough time in a casino and time carries no relevance for you. Case in point, Monday night I came in from a bad night of poker in town and slipped into bed after midnight. At about 1:30 a.m. my wife and I were awakened by my beeping cell phone.
The message read as follows: "Lookr like in the morning wil call u wen i wake"
That came courtesy of Tom Schneider, who I'm profiling for the May issue. Two things seemed apparent. One, he needs a teenager to teach him how to type text messages and two, he has spent too much time in casinos, warping his sense of time.
All kidding aside, I'm not sure he realized I'm over in CST. We talked yesterday. I had met him in Tunica in January and finally got around to calling him for the interview. Procastination = my friend. Nice guy that Schneider, even if he did wake me up.
The message read as follows: "Lookr like in the morning wil call u wen i wake"
That came courtesy of Tom Schneider, who I'm profiling for the May issue. Two things seemed apparent. One, he needs a teenager to teach him how to type text messages and two, he has spent too much time in casinos, warping his sense of time.
All kidding aside, I'm not sure he realized I'm over in CST. We talked yesterday. I had met him in Tunica in January and finally got around to calling him for the interview. Procastination = my friend. Nice guy that Schneider, even if he did wake me up.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Respecting the game? Not so much
Here comes the latest tale of author Jim McManus, crusader of all that is pure and right in poker, courtesty of scottro from the BARGE mailing list:
Playing two games of $2/$4 6-max limit HE on FTP last night. After an hour or so, Jim McManus sits at my table. I have always admired Jim for his writing and his accomplishments at the poker table, and as some have noted, I side with him on his "respecting the game" issue. I said hi to him, told him I enjoyed his writing and that he was an inspiration to me and my writing. He said that was "cool" and that it was a pleasure to meet me. That was it. I didn't want to bother him too much.
All is well until this hand comes down. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2424570
I was SB, Jim was BB. I thought I played my hand in a typical aggressive blind on blind situation in a short-handed game. I thought he could've easily been on a re-steal, and when I flop a pair on a fairly non-threatening board like this, I'm going to see the river in most cases. I also was pretty sure I had a value bet on the river.
I won't post the whole transcript of what followed, but McManus goes off on me, calling me first a moron, then a "true moron" (whatever that is). He continues to berate my play, and I remained calm, asking him why he was behaving like he was. I finally told him my respect for him just went down a notch. He replied in kind, adding that his respect for me was very little to begin with. I was shocked that he was acting like this, and honestly, my feelings were a bit hurt. He's not my idol, but it's sort of like idolizing someone for years then finally meeting that person and they treat you like shit. Then he goes off on someone else. Very uncalled for and rude comments. I surmised that he was drunk and rather prone to tilt. I left 30 minutes later with a nice profit, more of which came from McManus.
I know this shouldn't bother me so much, but I keep thinking about it. I've always wanted to meet Jim (I'm guessing some of you know him personally, at least on a casual basis) and talk to him about writing and poker. Now, well, not so much.
Another BARGER added in the discussion that he suspected McManus would get a talking to since he was playing under FTP sponsorship at the time. Another one said his "respect level for Mr. McManus fell drastically" after he personlly observed the hand.
Playing two games of $2/$4 6-max limit HE on FTP last night. After an hour or so, Jim McManus sits at my table. I have always admired Jim for his writing and his accomplishments at the poker table, and as some have noted, I side with him on his "respecting the game" issue. I said hi to him, told him I enjoyed his writing and that he was an inspiration to me and my writing. He said that was "cool" and that it was a pleasure to meet me. That was it. I didn't want to bother him too much.
All is well until this hand comes down. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2424570
I was SB, Jim was BB. I thought I played my hand in a typical aggressive blind on blind situation in a short-handed game. I thought he could've easily been on a re-steal, and when I flop a pair on a fairly non-threatening board like this, I'm going to see the river in most cases. I also was pretty sure I had a value bet on the river.
I won't post the whole transcript of what followed, but McManus goes off on me, calling me first a moron, then a "true moron" (whatever that is). He continues to berate my play, and I remained calm, asking him why he was behaving like he was. I finally told him my respect for him just went down a notch. He replied in kind, adding that his respect for me was very little to begin with. I was shocked that he was acting like this, and honestly, my feelings were a bit hurt. He's not my idol, but it's sort of like idolizing someone for years then finally meeting that person and they treat you like shit. Then he goes off on someone else. Very uncalled for and rude comments. I surmised that he was drunk and rather prone to tilt. I left 30 minutes later with a nice profit, more of which came from McManus.
I know this shouldn't bother me so much, but I keep thinking about it. I've always wanted to meet Jim (I'm guessing some of you know him personally, at least on a casual basis) and talk to him about writing and poker. Now, well, not so much.
Another BARGER added in the discussion that he suspected McManus would get a talking to since he was playing under FTP sponsorship at the time. Another one said his "respect level for Mr. McManus fell drastically" after he personlly observed the hand.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Freshened up the blog
I'm too lazy to go pull weeds in my yard, but I did get the motivation today to freshen up this blog. For one, I've blogrolled all of the players who left comments in the past week, including Fuel and Donkette. I'm not one to hold hard feelings guys and gals. If anyone would like to link to me I would be very much in your debt.
Looking at some of the blogs for the first time, I was impressed with the quality of the designs. My blog is rather pathetic in comparison. I did spruce it up a tad, first by getting rid of useless ads and boxes from Google and Amazon that weren't really making me any money. I finally updated my poll, which you may recall asked how many players were anticipated at the 2006 WSOP main event. The new poll should be a fun one as it relates to an article I'm doing for the June issue of Rounder that proposes the question: which former WSOP event should be brought back to the Series?
I also have started (barely) my 2008 WSOP resources section. I found that on Bravenet you can start a calendar, and I am going to put one together that lists the days of the various tournaments in Vegas this summer, including the WSOP, Binion's Poker Classic, Grand Poker Series at the Nugget, Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, the Bellagio Cup and the Orleans Open.
For the May issue of Rounder I'm writing an article on planning your trip to Vegas for the WSOP and will post much of that info on here as well. Hopefully this section will be helpful to both Vegas virgins and old hands.
As always, thanks for reading.
Looking at some of the blogs for the first time, I was impressed with the quality of the designs. My blog is rather pathetic in comparison. I did spruce it up a tad, first by getting rid of useless ads and boxes from Google and Amazon that weren't really making me any money. I finally updated my poll, which you may recall asked how many players were anticipated at the 2006 WSOP main event. The new poll should be a fun one as it relates to an article I'm doing for the June issue of Rounder that proposes the question: which former WSOP event should be brought back to the Series?
I also have started (barely) my 2008 WSOP resources section. I found that on Bravenet you can start a calendar, and I am going to put one together that lists the days of the various tournaments in Vegas this summer, including the WSOP, Binion's Poker Classic, Grand Poker Series at the Nugget, Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, the Bellagio Cup and the Orleans Open.
For the May issue of Rounder I'm writing an article on planning your trip to Vegas for the WSOP and will post much of that info on here as well. Hopefully this section will be helpful to both Vegas virgins and old hands.
As always, thanks for reading.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The "lucksack" recaps Biloxi
Sorry for the lack of drama over the last few days. I do try to entertain and I haven't done my part since Friday. I've noticed on many blogs that people are writing about the lack of decorum in the BBT. You know my view on this, but I can also see the point of MiamiDon, who wrote on his blog:
"I read a lot of old schooler's are pining for the days of playing a tourney with buddies without all the asshats like it used to be. Well the blogger tourneys have evolved into cutthroat affairs with tens of thousands of dollars at stake so unfortunately those days are gone probably forever."
Other than that annoying incorrectly used apostrophe (my biggest grammer pet peeve), I agree with his point. Miami Don also wrote that "Now I talked a lot of smack during BBTwo but I retired it when I was playing BBThree..." You sure about that Don? Seems you keep calling me a "lucksack" or "break even player" or such. Of course, he is the same guy who told twoblackaces that I won 12 hands in a row as an underdog on the Sunday I pulled ahead on the leaderboard in March. Hilarious.
Meanwhile this "lucksack" continued his unlucky ways last night. Once again, I made the points and then couldn't make the final table when I got my kings cracked in hold'em. Not enough chips to get away when the blinds are 500-1,000 and the average stack is like 10K. Now I did "lucksack" my way into the points. In razz, I got all my money in with A,2,3,5 and then caught brick, brick, 4. Yeah, not really lucky but in MiamiDon's world this would be lucksacking it. How could a fish like me have any success in these blogger events otherwise?
OK, enough smack talking, wait...how's the view from 51st MiamiDon?...Sorry, couldn't resist. OK, so I haven't recapped the latter part of the Biloxi trip yet. As you may recall, I was down there mainly to do some work for Rounder with the Spring Break Poker Classic ending at the Beau and the IP Poker Classic beginning at the IP. After the Beau ended, I moved over to the IP and had a couple of days off before the first event on Wednesday. Another guy had come down to do the final table recap (there was an accidental overbooking) so it turned out I had very little to do before I left on Thursday.
I took a drive around Biloxi on Tuesday and the city is still a sad sight. Other than the casinos and about five Waffle Houses, very little has been rebuilt on the coast. Several of the original casinos have not returned, including the President, which used to be here:
The coast is simply barren now. I hated to see that my favorite restaurant in Biloxi, the Bombay Bicycle Club, has not rebuilt. Heck, they haven't even finished clearing off the lot two years post Katrina.
To escape the sad sights I retreated to the IP. I did a lot of reading while I was there, including a book on the history of Vegas with a lot of old pictures. I keep feeding that Vegas fever. Otherwise, I was trying to get my sorry wireless connection in my room working so I could play the blogger tournaments.
On Wednesday, my last full day down there, I decided to play the first event of the Poker Classic since Brian was there to do the recap. It was a $230 NLHE affair, and I managed to make the final table, where I finished 7th. I think my profit was about $750 as there were only 117 players in the field. Not big money by any means, but I will take it as a good finish to a mediocre March of poker playing. If you don't count the $2,000 I will get from FTP (and I don't since $1,500 is going straight to Harrah's and $500 to an airline and hotel) I only made about $1,500 on the month. Ramen noodles for us this month I suppose.
"I read a lot of old schooler's are pining for the days of playing a tourney with buddies without all the asshats like it used to be. Well the blogger tourneys have evolved into cutthroat affairs with tens of thousands of dollars at stake so unfortunately those days are gone probably forever."
Other than that annoying incorrectly used apostrophe (my biggest grammer pet peeve), I agree with his point. Miami Don also wrote that "Now I talked a lot of smack during BBTwo but I retired it when I was playing BBThree..." You sure about that Don? Seems you keep calling me a "lucksack" or "break even player" or such. Of course, he is the same guy who told twoblackaces that I won 12 hands in a row as an underdog on the Sunday I pulled ahead on the leaderboard in March. Hilarious.
Meanwhile this "lucksack" continued his unlucky ways last night. Once again, I made the points and then couldn't make the final table when I got my kings cracked in hold'em. Not enough chips to get away when the blinds are 500-1,000 and the average stack is like 10K. Now I did "lucksack" my way into the points. In razz, I got all my money in with A,2,3,5 and then caught brick, brick, 4. Yeah, not really lucky but in MiamiDon's world this would be lucksacking it. How could a fish like me have any success in these blogger events otherwise?
OK, enough smack talking, wait...how's the view from 51st MiamiDon?...Sorry, couldn't resist. OK, so I haven't recapped the latter part of the Biloxi trip yet. As you may recall, I was down there mainly to do some work for Rounder with the Spring Break Poker Classic ending at the Beau and the IP Poker Classic beginning at the IP. After the Beau ended, I moved over to the IP and had a couple of days off before the first event on Wednesday. Another guy had come down to do the final table recap (there was an accidental overbooking) so it turned out I had very little to do before I left on Thursday.
I took a drive around Biloxi on Tuesday and the city is still a sad sight. Other than the casinos and about five Waffle Houses, very little has been rebuilt on the coast. Several of the original casinos have not returned, including the President, which used to be here:
The coast is simply barren now. I hated to see that my favorite restaurant in Biloxi, the Bombay Bicycle Club, has not rebuilt. Heck, they haven't even finished clearing off the lot two years post Katrina.
To escape the sad sights I retreated to the IP. I did a lot of reading while I was there, including a book on the history of Vegas with a lot of old pictures. I keep feeding that Vegas fever. Otherwise, I was trying to get my sorry wireless connection in my room working so I could play the blogger tournaments.
On Wednesday, my last full day down there, I decided to play the first event of the Poker Classic since Brian was there to do the recap. It was a $230 NLHE affair, and I managed to make the final table, where I finished 7th. I think my profit was about $750 as there were only 117 players in the field. Not big money by any means, but I will take it as a good finish to a mediocre March of poker playing. If you don't count the $2,000 I will get from FTP (and I don't since $1,500 is going straight to Harrah's and $500 to an airline and hotel) I only made about $1,500 on the month. Ramen noodles for us this month I suppose.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Garfield Minus Garfield
I finally got around to checking out this site, which takes Garfield out of his namesake comic, leaving Jon Arbuckle as a mess of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Check out the link. Here's a sample:
Shooting bloggers in a barrel
Two things are quite noticeable about these blogger tournaments. The first that has been obvious for a while is there is a lot of dead money in these things. Several other bloggers have pointed this out so I know it's not just me with that point of view.
The second, and this seems to be growing, is the catty chirping that is taking place at the tables. Al noted this recently on his blog how people are bitching at each other. These are supposed to be fun little tournaments with some very nice extras thrown in, but you still get the standard online bitch slapping taking place. Some of the discussion at my O8 table on Wednesday night was hilarious with the "fish" and "donkey" names tossed about, and the irony was that all of the players who were doing the name calling were themselves terrible O8 players.
On one hand I held A-A-X-X and the board came K-J-3-10-4. I check called the river, but took my time doing so. One player scolded me for basically slowrolling aces and another said "don't tap on the glass." Sorry, I didn't realize that unimproved aces were the nuts on the river in Omaha, and I was calling for about 20 percent of my stack. Meanwhile, the don't tap on the glass guy risked his tournament life unneccessarily with K-J-7-7 or something similar. Of course, this pro went on to make the final table.
I withheld names to protect the innocent, but in Fuel55's case I will not since he particularly acted like a douche. In the hand that got him riled up last night in the PLHE tournament, we were both sitting with 19,000+ and he had me slightly covered. It was folded to Fuel in the SB and he raised my 800 BB to 2,400 with K-Q. I held jacks so I repotted to 7,200. Fuel calls off a third of his remaining chips (a play I wouldn't have made, but not terribly unreasonable I suppose) and we see a flop of K-3-3. He checks and I have to push hoping he didn't hit the flop. You can't check in this spot and let him steal it or catch up on the turn. So he calls and I spike a jack on the turn.
"Nice catch fish," he says. Fine, he outflopped me and I got lucky. I can live with a little whiny comment. That's part of online poker. I felt fine with the way I played the hand.
So Fuel busted shortly afterwards and we are soon off to the final two tables. I lost a couple of hands to shortstacked tilt away, who pushed on my BB and I had odds to call wiht 9-10 and his A-K won. Then he raised from the button and I repotted with A-9, but he had A-10 and it held. "Keep spewing chips" Fuel typed from the rail. OK, so now he's stalking me. LOL.
Then when we get down to 12 players, a player raises and I repot from the cutoff or button with 8-8. Tricky spot here. Not sure if you should repot or flat call in this spot, but with only six players at the table, I thought an aggressive re-raise was in order. He calls with A-K and spikes an ace on the river to win the flip. Up chirps Fuel again with some spewing comment. I bust shortly afterwards in 11th.
Pretty hilarious that Fuel stalks me after I crippled him. Word to the wise -- don't be that guy. Don't be the player who can't take a beat and sits on the rail chirping at the guy who busted him. It's just pathetic. Since Fuel thought I was so fishy I was curious where he stood on the blogger leaderboard. So I went to the page and I scrolled down, and scrolled down and scrolled down and FINALLY found him down there in 99th...one time making the points in 17 tournaments in March. How's the view from down there Fuel?
The second, and this seems to be growing, is the catty chirping that is taking place at the tables. Al noted this recently on his blog how people are bitching at each other. These are supposed to be fun little tournaments with some very nice extras thrown in, but you still get the standard online bitch slapping taking place. Some of the discussion at my O8 table on Wednesday night was hilarious with the "fish" and "donkey" names tossed about, and the irony was that all of the players who were doing the name calling were themselves terrible O8 players.
On one hand I held A-A-X-X and the board came K-J-3-10-4. I check called the river, but took my time doing so. One player scolded me for basically slowrolling aces and another said "don't tap on the glass." Sorry, I didn't realize that unimproved aces were the nuts on the river in Omaha, and I was calling for about 20 percent of my stack. Meanwhile, the don't tap on the glass guy risked his tournament life unneccessarily with K-J-7-7 or something similar. Of course, this pro went on to make the final table.
I withheld names to protect the innocent, but in Fuel55's case I will not since he particularly acted like a douche. In the hand that got him riled up last night in the PLHE tournament, we were both sitting with 19,000+ and he had me slightly covered. It was folded to Fuel in the SB and he raised my 800 BB to 2,400 with K-Q. I held jacks so I repotted to 7,200. Fuel calls off a third of his remaining chips (a play I wouldn't have made, but not terribly unreasonable I suppose) and we see a flop of K-3-3. He checks and I have to push hoping he didn't hit the flop. You can't check in this spot and let him steal it or catch up on the turn. So he calls and I spike a jack on the turn.
"Nice catch fish," he says. Fine, he outflopped me and I got lucky. I can live with a little whiny comment. That's part of online poker. I felt fine with the way I played the hand.
So Fuel busted shortly afterwards and we are soon off to the final two tables. I lost a couple of hands to shortstacked tilt away, who pushed on my BB and I had odds to call wiht 9-10 and his A-K won. Then he raised from the button and I repotted with A-9, but he had A-10 and it held. "Keep spewing chips" Fuel typed from the rail. OK, so now he's stalking me. LOL.
Then when we get down to 12 players, a player raises and I repot from the cutoff or button with 8-8. Tricky spot here. Not sure if you should repot or flat call in this spot, but with only six players at the table, I thought an aggressive re-raise was in order. He calls with A-K and spikes an ace on the river to win the flip. Up chirps Fuel again with some spewing comment. I bust shortly afterwards in 11th.
Pretty hilarious that Fuel stalks me after I crippled him. Word to the wise -- don't be that guy. Don't be the player who can't take a beat and sits on the rail chirping at the guy who busted him. It's just pathetic. Since Fuel thought I was so fishy I was curious where he stood on the blogger leaderboard. So I went to the page and I scrolled down, and scrolled down and scrolled down and FINALLY found him down there in 99th...one time making the points in 17 tournaments in March. How's the view from down there Fuel?
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Piano Hero
Now this is exciting news. Activision and Red Octane have just announced a follow-up to the popular Guitar Hero series called Piano Hero. The game comes with more of a keyboard than a piano, but the instrument will allow players to emulate their favorite piano players in such classics as Elton John's "Your Song", Billy Joel's "Piano Man", Alicia Keys' "Fallin" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." As you can see, the variety of great piano tracks over the years of rock music will be vast. In all, 45 songs are expected to come with the game, with more available via download later. The game will be released for XBox 360, PS3 and the Wii.
"Considering how much players loved our Guitar Hero series, we looked for ways to expand the franchise. We developed Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which will detail the rise of the band through the last four decades, for release this summer and we branched out even further with Piano Hero, which is targeted for an April 2009 release date," said Red Octane spokesman Tim Collier.
Further thinking of ways to expand into the music industry, Collier said that Red Octane is considering a "Cowbell Hero" game. Beyond including Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", Collier said he wasn't sure which songs would be included in this sure to be awesome game.
"Cowbell Hero" is tentatively scheduled for release on April 1, 2010, following the release of "Piano Hero" on April 1, 2009.
"Considering how much players loved our Guitar Hero series, we looked for ways to expand the franchise. We developed Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which will detail the rise of the band through the last four decades, for release this summer and we branched out even further with Piano Hero, which is targeted for an April 2009 release date," said Red Octane spokesman Tim Collier.
Further thinking of ways to expand into the music industry, Collier said that Red Octane is considering a "Cowbell Hero" game. Beyond including Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", Collier said he wasn't sure which songs would be included in this sure to be awesome game.
"Cowbell Hero" is tentatively scheduled for release on April 1, 2010, following the release of "Piano Hero" on April 1, 2009.
Looks like I won the WSOP seat last night
First of all, I want to remind everyone that my chat is currently banned at FTP for being a bad boy so I can't communicate during the blogger tournies. I wish all of you well too and thank you for the kind words. I just am unable to express them.
The key hand was against the one guy I definitely needed to beat, twoblackaces. The blinds were $60/$120 and pureprophet raised to $360, both TBA and the cutoff called the raise and I had QQ in the BB. I decided to repop to $1,100, hoping pureprophet didn't have a hand to push in. She folded and then to my surprise TBA pushed in. Obviously, this gave me some pause, but not enough for me not to go with my gut. Considering both of our situations here, where if one made the points and the other didn't the one making the points would get the seat, I figured two things about TBA's play here: 1) he wouldn't flat call with AA or KK after a raise for fear he gives another hand a cheap chance to suck out on him postflop and possibly ending his chances for the seat, and 2) he knows that I know I have to beat him so that allows him to be more aggressive against me with weaker hands hoping I will fold. Figuring these two things to be true, calling with QQ was easy since I stood to be no worse than a flip against him (and honestly thought he could be doing this with hands I dominated). Unfortunately it was a flip when he showed AK. After a scary three diamond board came by the turn, giving him 14 outs, my hand held up on the river and TBA was out.
I still needed to make the points to guarantee a seat since a few players could win the event and overtake me. Once I made the final 16 it was over. I had some breaks along the way this month, particularly the J8 push against AA on Sunday preflop when the subsequent flop came JJ9, but for the most part my 12 times making the points in the last 14 tournaments was just smart, solid play. I heard MiamiDon tell TBA that I won as an underdog 12 consecutive hands Sunday night and I am preplexed by that. Far from the truth. I won several major hands as a 70 percent favorite against dry aces or as a 75 percenter against underdog kickers. Yep, it takes luck, but it didn't take 12 times luck, and I often had bad luck once we reached the points in these events, hence the few cashes and final tables.
As far as what event I would play at the WSOP, my first choice is the $1,500 HORSE tournament. I feel I can play all five games well and many players can only play a few of them well so I hope to give that a shot. The $500 extra will go a long way toward bringing Amy back to Vegas again this summer. She's hooked almost as much as me. I had hoped to get a free room at Planet Hollywood if they advertised with Rounder, but the deal fell through so it may be back to Binion's with Ted for me until Amy gets there. Wonder how the old fart is doing these days?
Now, here's a real question for you. Do you think it would be uncouth for me to keep playing the blogger tournaments in a real effort to try to win another $2,000 package? Obviously I am going to play the end of the series TOC for seats and the freeroll for another seat for putting the banner on my blog, but I am talking about the April and May prizes. There's still the overall leaderboard where I could win $700 for first. Granted the chances of winning a second monthly prize is slim, but if I really tried would that speak poorly of me? Would I seem like a greedy bastard?
The key hand was against the one guy I definitely needed to beat, twoblackaces. The blinds were $60/$120 and pureprophet raised to $360, both TBA and the cutoff called the raise and I had QQ in the BB. I decided to repop to $1,100, hoping pureprophet didn't have a hand to push in. She folded and then to my surprise TBA pushed in. Obviously, this gave me some pause, but not enough for me not to go with my gut. Considering both of our situations here, where if one made the points and the other didn't the one making the points would get the seat, I figured two things about TBA's play here: 1) he wouldn't flat call with AA or KK after a raise for fear he gives another hand a cheap chance to suck out on him postflop and possibly ending his chances for the seat, and 2) he knows that I know I have to beat him so that allows him to be more aggressive against me with weaker hands hoping I will fold. Figuring these two things to be true, calling with QQ was easy since I stood to be no worse than a flip against him (and honestly thought he could be doing this with hands I dominated). Unfortunately it was a flip when he showed AK. After a scary three diamond board came by the turn, giving him 14 outs, my hand held up on the river and TBA was out.
I still needed to make the points to guarantee a seat since a few players could win the event and overtake me. Once I made the final 16 it was over. I had some breaks along the way this month, particularly the J8 push against AA on Sunday preflop when the subsequent flop came JJ9, but for the most part my 12 times making the points in the last 14 tournaments was just smart, solid play. I heard MiamiDon tell TBA that I won as an underdog 12 consecutive hands Sunday night and I am preplexed by that. Far from the truth. I won several major hands as a 70 percent favorite against dry aces or as a 75 percenter against underdog kickers. Yep, it takes luck, but it didn't take 12 times luck, and I often had bad luck once we reached the points in these events, hence the few cashes and final tables.
As far as what event I would play at the WSOP, my first choice is the $1,500 HORSE tournament. I feel I can play all five games well and many players can only play a few of them well so I hope to give that a shot. The $500 extra will go a long way toward bringing Amy back to Vegas again this summer. She's hooked almost as much as me. I had hoped to get a free room at Planet Hollywood if they advertised with Rounder, but the deal fell through so it may be back to Binion's with Ted for me until Amy gets there. Wonder how the old fart is doing these days?
Now, here's a real question for you. Do you think it would be uncouth for me to keep playing the blogger tournaments in a real effort to try to win another $2,000 package? Obviously I am going to play the end of the series TOC for seats and the freeroll for another seat for putting the banner on my blog, but I am talking about the April and May prizes. There's still the overall leaderboard where I could win $700 for first. Granted the chances of winning a second monthly prize is slim, but if I really tried would that speak poorly of me? Would I seem like a greedy bastard?
Monday, March 31, 2008
No Biloxi Blues
I've been down in Biloxi since Friday, coming to the Gulf Coast to do some work for Rounder at the end of the Spring Break Poker Classic at the Beau and the beginning of the IP Poker Classic at the IP. It's been an enjoyable trip so far. I'd never spent any significant time here at the Beau Rivage. It really is a very nice casino. Glyn Banks, a good poker player from Tennessee, called it a "mini-Bellagio, only instead of a desert view you get an ocean view." So true.
I've played very little poker here, and it was intentionally as I mostly came to work. On Friday night, Evert and I headed down to the Hard Rock, which is right beside the Beau. It was about to open when Katrina hit and they repaired it quickly (unlike some casinos it was not completely destroyed). The Hard Rock is also impressive, with a high wall of memorabilia as soon as you walk through the front doors. We played some $1-$2 NL. I lost $25 over three hours after getting up about $140 quickly. I never seem to be able to hold on to chips lately...
Just did a lot of hanging out Saturday, getting some flavor from the start of the $2,100 main event, and drinking some beers at the Eight75 club during a Rounder meet and greet. Did play some $10-$20 Omaha Hi Lo w/ a half kill and won $165.
Today I spent most of the day working on the quick 400-500 word report on this tournament that they'll slap in the mag tomorrow just before sending it to press. I also worked on the Rounder Recap, a daily report we will do each day at the IP sort of likes the ones at the WSOP, though not quite so comprehensive.
Tim Hebert of Lafayette, La., won the main event for a $106,000 score. I actually ran down to interview him during the blogger tournament tonight right before the second break. I ran back up and got back just after the third hour started. Good thing I squeezed the tournament in as I made the points by finishing 11th. It appears I have FINALLY moved into first for the month as I see the minimum anyone has gotten in any event for pointing is 40. That means I should have at least a 15 point lead over twoblackaces going into the final event Monday night. Now, can I hold on? If he points in the last event and I don't the $2,000 package will be his. Some others like Lucko and TiltAway are still in it if they can win Monday. Should be a good finish.
Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll actually play some poker in town as I should finally have significant free time. I plan to drive down to Gulfport and back just to see how Biloxi looks these days during its still long recovery.
I've played very little poker here, and it was intentionally as I mostly came to work. On Friday night, Evert and I headed down to the Hard Rock, which is right beside the Beau. It was about to open when Katrina hit and they repaired it quickly (unlike some casinos it was not completely destroyed). The Hard Rock is also impressive, with a high wall of memorabilia as soon as you walk through the front doors. We played some $1-$2 NL. I lost $25 over three hours after getting up about $140 quickly. I never seem to be able to hold on to chips lately...
Just did a lot of hanging out Saturday, getting some flavor from the start of the $2,100 main event, and drinking some beers at the Eight75 club during a Rounder meet and greet. Did play some $10-$20 Omaha Hi Lo w/ a half kill and won $165.
Today I spent most of the day working on the quick 400-500 word report on this tournament that they'll slap in the mag tomorrow just before sending it to press. I also worked on the Rounder Recap, a daily report we will do each day at the IP sort of likes the ones at the WSOP, though not quite so comprehensive.
Tim Hebert of Lafayette, La., won the main event for a $106,000 score. I actually ran down to interview him during the blogger tournament tonight right before the second break. I ran back up and got back just after the third hour started. Good thing I squeezed the tournament in as I made the points by finishing 11th. It appears I have FINALLY moved into first for the month as I see the minimum anyone has gotten in any event for pointing is 40. That means I should have at least a 15 point lead over twoblackaces going into the final event Monday night. Now, can I hold on? If he points in the last event and I don't the $2,000 package will be his. Some others like Lucko and TiltAway are still in it if they can win Monday. Should be a good finish.
Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll actually play some poker in town as I should finally have significant free time. I plan to drive down to Gulfport and back just to see how Biloxi looks these days during its still long recovery.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hump Day Report
My wife reminded me last night that yesterday was our seven-month anniversary. Apparently, I am supposed to remember every time that the 25th rolls around that was have our monthly anniversaries.
"You don't have to get me a present every month," she said, "just every other month."
These blogger tournaments are driving me insane. I pointed the Razz event last night (heck, even made the money this time), finishing in 10th. Of course, twoblackaces made the points yet again, going out just behind me in 13th. At least I made up some ground on him when it looked early on that he might just clinch the monthly leaderboard last night as a top chip stack midway through the tournament. With three events left I figure to be about 100 behind him so there is work to do.
Our poker player profile lineup this month in Rounder is not as thrilling as the James Woods/Freddy Deeb combo of March. For the April issue I interviewed Allen Kessler, Brandon Cantu and Young Phan. We did get Cantu right after his Bay 101 win so that's a timely interview for us.
I'm now mapping out my articles for the next two issues. Other than trying to finish an article I have been working on about husbands and wives who both play tournament poker, I'm not sure what I'll do for May. I think June is going to be our big World Series of Poker preview issue, which I think will be fantastic. I've already interviewed Jerry Yang for it and hope to get Lee Childs. Last November when I was at Coushatta I interviewed Dimitri Nobles, but he was such a fleeting face I'm not sure if he is worthy of major coverage (though he is very nice).
For feature articles, I already have two in the can. The first is a look at old WSOP events that no longer exist and the likelihood they will ever be brought back. They range from the likely (Ace to Five Draw Lowball) to the possibly (Chinese Poker) to the very, very, very unlikely (Five Card Stud). That was a fun one I wrote last year while at the WSOP, saving it for the future. The second article is one I wrote three(!) years ago that Bluff had no interest in. It's a look at The Andy Bloch Project, in which tournament reporter Tom Sims got Andy to let him stand behind him and record his cards during the main event of the 1998 WSOP. Sims in a sense was a precursor to hole card cameras. I also plan a guide to Vegas during the WSOP (some of which you will get on here dear readers). Hopefully, we can also do the monthly Q & A with WSOP tournament director Jack Eiffel.
I will be heading down to Biloxi this weekend to do some work for Rounder. The Beau Rivage is currently hosting the Spring Break Poker Classic and the IP will host their own Poker Classic next week for two weeks. We're doing some daily tournament reports for them similar to what you see at the WSOP so I am putting those together next Monday-Wednesday.
"You don't have to get me a present every month," she said, "just every other month."
These blogger tournaments are driving me insane. I pointed the Razz event last night (heck, even made the money this time), finishing in 10th. Of course, twoblackaces made the points yet again, going out just behind me in 13th. At least I made up some ground on him when it looked early on that he might just clinch the monthly leaderboard last night as a top chip stack midway through the tournament. With three events left I figure to be about 100 behind him so there is work to do.
Our poker player profile lineup this month in Rounder is not as thrilling as the James Woods/Freddy Deeb combo of March. For the April issue I interviewed Allen Kessler, Brandon Cantu and Young Phan. We did get Cantu right after his Bay 101 win so that's a timely interview for us.
I'm now mapping out my articles for the next two issues. Other than trying to finish an article I have been working on about husbands and wives who both play tournament poker, I'm not sure what I'll do for May. I think June is going to be our big World Series of Poker preview issue, which I think will be fantastic. I've already interviewed Jerry Yang for it and hope to get Lee Childs. Last November when I was at Coushatta I interviewed Dimitri Nobles, but he was such a fleeting face I'm not sure if he is worthy of major coverage (though he is very nice).
For feature articles, I already have two in the can. The first is a look at old WSOP events that no longer exist and the likelihood they will ever be brought back. They range from the likely (Ace to Five Draw Lowball) to the possibly (Chinese Poker) to the very, very, very unlikely (Five Card Stud). That was a fun one I wrote last year while at the WSOP, saving it for the future. The second article is one I wrote three(!) years ago that Bluff had no interest in. It's a look at The Andy Bloch Project, in which tournament reporter Tom Sims got Andy to let him stand behind him and record his cards during the main event of the 1998 WSOP. Sims in a sense was a precursor to hole card cameras. I also plan a guide to Vegas during the WSOP (some of which you will get on here dear readers). Hopefully, we can also do the monthly Q & A with WSOP tournament director Jack Eiffel.
I will be heading down to Biloxi this weekend to do some work for Rounder. The Beau Rivage is currently hosting the Spring Break Poker Classic and the IP will host their own Poker Classic next week for two weeks. We're doing some daily tournament reports for them similar to what you see at the WSOP so I am putting those together next Monday-Wednesday.
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