Overheard At Blockbuster

"You got dat white girl chained up movie?"

Pimpin' for CC

I've been getting my WSOP news from CC and the rest of the Pokerworks crew. I like the Atlanta connection and now that he's given us a banner and goodies to win, pimpin' is a no brainer. Go check him out and don't forget to play "name that butt." In reality, I should be giving them more props, but I'm lazy and I need incentives. Hey, at least I was already reading them.

Vegas Weekend End Report

I just realized I never finished my Vegas report. I guess the reason is because Sunday ending up being a non poker or blogger day. My lazy ass slept until noon, so that killed one of the tourneys I was going to try. We were invited to a cookout and hang at the pool of my buddy’s friend. What was supposed to be a late afternoon meal turned in to a late night meal and that shot any chance of going down to the Rio/WSOP or checking out the poker room at Green Valley Ranch. While I am grateful for the free lodging, transportation, and entertainment, I am still bummed that I was able to do nothing that I had planned for Sunday. Who knows, maybe this day was the only reason I was able to minimize my Vegas losses to $15. If Colorado 1 hadn’t killed my pocket Aces on Friday, I just might have been able to come home with a few more dollars in my wallet then I took out there.

I look forward to doing it again. I doubt in will be in December due to limited vacation time and I would like to see the spectacle that is the WSOP so it will probably be next Summer. I think I will try to spend the night down on the strip at least on that Saturday night so I can do a little more hanging at bars with bloggers and maybe try a late night tourney.

Cash Games Night 2

Once the blogger tournament was over, some of us were going to head over to Planet Hollywood and play in their tournament. It had been given good reviews and the structure was supposed to be among the best for a lower buy-in. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out because it had already filled up before we left the Orleans. I was still thinking about going to TI or Sahara, so I left the bloggers after the tournament and grabbed a quick bite to eat in New York, New York. I love the chili in America and with a side salad, I finally had some greens.

My success in the 1/2 NL game on Friday, gave me enough confidence to go back to MGM Saturday night before heading to one of the late night tournaments down the strip. Shortly after sitting down, I flop an A high straight with 2 hearts on the board. Hey, this could turn out very nice again. Young European Grizzly Adams With 4 Inch Headband (YEGAW4IH) bets out pretty big and I come over the top for all of my chips. He calls, but doesn’t have as much as me, so about $50 is returned. The dealer runs the cards and when we hit the last one, YEGA flips over his rivered flush. He said he called because he had the flush and straight draws. Well shit, that didn’t turn out like I had hoped.

I floundered around like the fish I am and dropped down to about $40. About this time, Love_Elf comes over for a visit. Unlike the Smokkee Effect from the night before, Elf brought some good Mojo my way. While we talking, I was able to catch some great cards or the flop would pair up both of my hole cards from the blinds. We had a good time talking about dogs and travel. Before I knew it, I had $140 back in front of me. I should have just called it a night right there, but I had to get involved with YEGA one more time. YEGA limps UTG and with Ah, 10d in late postion I called an earlier raise and YEGA completes. The flop comes out with a K,8,? all hearts. YEGA bets out $50 and the original raiser folds. At this point, Elf heads back over to see Smokkee play (no foreshadowing here, LOL!) I have been watching this guy hit all his draws and felt he was trying to go for it again. I figured if he was going for the flush, it would hit me better so I pushed in for about $75 more on top. He insta-calls and my flush never comes as he shows Ad,Kd for top pair top kicker. This was just an absolutely horrendously, idiotic play on my part. I could have easily folded and played for much longer, but I got sucked into trying to outplay and bust him. I have never let a hand bother me the way that one did. It wasn’t necessarily the amount of money, it was just a bad, bad play to do. I wasn’t drawing totally dead, but I put my money in on the 35% side of the numbers for absolutely no good reason. I declined to re-buy and said my goodbyes to the other table full of bloggers. Elf had a look of complete shock on her face since she had left me just moments before and I had a good stack still. I informed her of my idiocracy and I didn’t feel much like playing any more so I gathered my toys and went home. I am still such a newbie in cash games so this was a great learning experience. I have taken quite a few things away from the 2 nights play. In total, I was down only $15 for 2 nights cash and 1 tournament, so I guess I got a great deal on the lessons.

Blogger Tourney Day

We had our private blogger tournament at 2PM on Saturday. Slightly less than 45 showed up and the top 5 spots were paying. It turned out to be a $80 straight with no rebuys or add-ons.

At my first table, we had Pauly, Falstaff, LJ, Zeem, Columbo, Cracknaces, and a nice looking young woman in shorts that I didn’t recognize, and I think Linda. While the blinds were still low, I was able to drop the hammer from UTG, so I got that out of the way early. Everyone at the table gave each other respect but Pauly had a little more gamble in him than the rest. After losing a couple of pots, Falstaff reminded him that it wasn’t a re-buy. The look on his face was priceless as he looked down at less than 2/3 of his starting stack.

I just played my normal game and it worked out OK. Iak was able to make a good move on me in an early to mid level hand. I laid down pocket 9s in early position after I had already raised and he bumped it up quite a bit. I probably played a little too snug, but it helped my image when I would come over the top of someone’s bet. I had one good suckout with my A,10 that bested A,J. I was able to knock out Pauly when he pushed in front of me and I had pocket queens. Believe it our not, 4 tits was able to hold up against his A,4 suited.

Adding Pauly’s stack to mine helped me make the final table. When the 10 of us were there, Kurokitty got us to agree to a deal. 6-10th would get their $80 back and 1-5 would each sacrifice $80, but still get the bigger payouts. Grubbette was the only one that really didn’t want to, but she said she would go with the group. Also at the table were Iak, Bayne, MiamiDon, MeanHappyGuy, Rachel / Mrs. Spaceman, ?, and Waffles.

Bayne put me to the test early when people were in push / fold mode. He came in with a 3X BB raise and I thought about pushing with my A,10. I know he is not a loose player so I decided I would take my chances later with someone else or better cards. That might have been a mistake, but I'll never know. The hand that crippled me was when I was the small blind against Rachel in the BB. I had Q,J and bumped it to 3X. It was a really stupid bet because it wouldn't run her out and with the pot size, I would be committed to her reraise anyway. Sure enough, she pushed and I had her more than covered in chips so I called. She flips over 6,8 I think and promptly hits 2 more 6s on the flop. I was more than a little irritated at this. Not just the cards, but my play. This left me just enough to wait for the BB and then I had to put the rest in when Waffles pushed and Kuro followed. I barely had enough to make another blind, so yeah, I gambooooooled. I wasn't in the worst shape since I had a better kicker with my A than Kuro. Of course Waffles K,K and another on the board busted us both. Kuro finished 1 place higher than me with T500 more in chips after the count, but we both got our $80 back for our final table finish. Not a bad showing for the ATL, but a W would have been great.

Beginner's Luck and Lesson Learned, Summer Classic Part 2

I hung around the bar for about 30 minutes or so talking to Bayne and MeanHappyGuy. We broke when the other bloggers were starting up a 3/6 mixed game and I was having none of that. I decided to try my hand at playing 1/2 NL for the first time in a casino. I was the complete and total nube. I didn't know how to do anything. Do I have to go get chips? How do I get a seat? How much are drinks? Oh yeah, Helloooooooo, my name is Brian and I'm a fish!

I bought in for $200 at a 1/2 No Limit table. I started off great by slightly more than doubling up within about 3 hands. My A,K making an A high straight on the turn against nice looking older Asian women who had K high straight. Hells yeah, this shit is easy. Just keep shipping it my way.

My big stack in front of me, I see a familiar face as Smokkee sits down across from me at the same time I'm dealt pocket Aces in middle position. I raise it up to 15 after a limp and a raise. The guy to my left, let's call him Colorado 1 (his buddies 2 and 3 were also at the table), mucks his cards right on to mine. The dealer calls for the "floor." I'm like WTF does that mean? Those of you that have played live in casinos know that my hand is now dead and I've contributed $15 to the pot and just folded my pocket aces. Now I know WTF those stupid-ass protectors are all about. Since I was in the seat to the immediate left of the dealer, it was more likely to happen, the other players told me. Gee, thanks! I understand it was an accident, but the schmuck didn't even offer to at least replace my bet.

I played about 2-3 hours and never got higher than around $425. I called it quits around 2PM. I had dropped down a bit and did not quite doubled my buy-in, but it was still a big win for the day. I headed back to my buddy's house at 2 to get a good night sleep so I could go for it again all day Saturday. We were having the blogger tournament at 2 and then I think most were going to spend the evening at the Rio and see our fellow bloggers that are working the WSOP. I was planning on trying the 7PM NL tournament at Treasure Island before I head to the Rio and I thought I'd try the noon one at Caeser's Palace Sunday.

Vegas Trip Report Part 1

The trip started off in a bit of a tizzy Thursday evening. As I was going upstairs to do some exercising before dinner, the power died. This made it too hot to elliptical in the bonus room and put dinner plans up in the air. We decided to grill some pork chops since that could be done without power. Crisis averted easily enough and we left for the airport at our scheduled time. Apparently, flying out on a Thursday night is the bomb, because I was at my gate about 45 minutes after we left the house. This gets me there plenty early, and I killed the time by watching some poker on DVD.

The flight was easy thanks to High Stakes Poker and Will Ferrell's Best of SNL. I got in to Vegas around 11:30 PM local time. My buddy picked me up at the airport and we rode back to his place in Henderson. Along the way, I was introduced to his new dog that was along for the ride. It was not the most pleasant ride back because this little 10 pound terrier has the worst gas I have ever had the misfortune to share breathing space. OMFG his farts were horrendous and he did 2 in the short trip to the house. I really appreciated the ride, but come on!

The first night started off with a dream about a live TV channel version of Carmen's blog, complete with Iggy in a clothes hamper like Oscar the Grouch. If this wasn't weird enough, in between the segments, it showed graphic ads for porn. It was like those "free tour" sections that none of us ever, ever see on the internet, yeah right. When I woke up, I knew my brain was not quite ready to handle a weekend in Vegas with these folks.

I started my early weekend with a bit of acrobatic flying Friday morning. My buddy has a kick ass hanger full of toys. He's got his bi-plane, his wife's boat, another buddy's plane and it's a great place to hang out and drink a beer when you're done flying. We did some low level terrain following through the canyons on the way to the California border. When we got there, we found a nice open area and did a loop, roll, some tight turns and just general goofing around. He is an excellent pilot and I always felt at ease. We flew around for almost an hour and it was starting to warm up so we headed back to the airport. With the rising temperature, increasing turbulence, and decreasing adrenaline, my stomach finally started to feel a bit queasy, but never to the point of getting sick. We did 1 touch and go and then came in on the other side of the field for our final landing. Landing in a tail dragger can be quite exciting to say the least. It is not for novices or faint of heart.







We grabbed some lunch after flying and then I went down for a 2 hour nap. I ate again and then headed down to the MGM and met the bloggers around 10PM at the bar in the sports book. The first non-ATL blogger I met was the social butterfly herself, Carmen. She led me around and introduced me to the others. Falstaff, our organizer, Astin, IG, LJ, Columbo, Bayne, MeanHappyGuy, the Surly Poker Gnome. Next up, some actual playing.

Countdown

I'll be on a plane in less than 12 hours. We'll do some recreational flying tomorrow morning and then let the madness begin Friday night at the MGM. I am so psyched!

I Am Sooooooooo Jealous!

My friend / neighbor / Neighborhood Poker League leader just won his seat to the WSOP Main Event…..on his first attempt! Friday night, Mike won a $13 SNG that put him in to a Saturday night super satellite with 1st place getting a seat plus a grand for spending money. Well after toppling 100+ players, he walks away with nice prize. It will be impossible to defend my blinds against him in tonight’s home game. See, Surf told you it was a good bunch of players, we just didn't know we had that diamond in our rough. Time to ride some coat tails.