O-Poker

I know that I said this before but I had a great time in Las Vegas. For a poker player, there is nothing like being in Las Vegas during the WSOP.

I planned on posting more while I was out there, but I kept pretty busy and didn't feel too motivated to post after not qualifying for the Main Event.

My wife, her friend and I arrived mid-day Thursday. My wife headed to the spa and I went down to the Amazon Room to register for the $1k Super Sat. The place was pretty crazy because a lot of the tourneys and satellites had been moved to later start times because of the Ante Up for Africa charity tourney.

P5s Party
That night I wound up at the Pocketfives.com party at the Hooters Casino and after busting out of the Super Sat. headed up to the Voodoo Lounge for the P5s OT Party. I met a ton of awesome people at the P5s party and the OT party and had a great time. I would go into more details, but the night is kind of fuzzy. Let's just say that I drank my sorrows away that night.

Cash Games>Super Sats
The next day, my wife and her friend were going to see Blue Man Group. I decided to play some 5/10nl instead of joining them. I had a decent session and decided that I would buy into yet another Super Sat. This was pretty much a recurring theme for the next two days. Win $$ at cash games, buy into Super Sat, bust out of Super Sat (sometimes close to the seats; sometimes not), rinse, repeat. In case, I haven't mentioned this before - tourneys suck, cash games rule. Looking back, I wish that I had just stuck with the cash games. I can't believe how poor the play is in live cash games - especially, if you found the right game. I sat at one 5/10nl table where the average player was worse than the average online $0.25/$0.50NL player.

Drunken Low Limit NL/MGM Sucks
I was a little down on Monday after failing to qualify in the last Super Sat on Sunday night. My wife and her friend left that morning also.

I played a few table games and met Fuel, CC, and a couple of Fuel's Canadian friends for dinner. Fuel had just busted out of the Main Event and was understandably feeling a little bummed out. (I've been there and know how much it sucks when you bust out - no matter how or when.) Craig is a great guy and has had some kick ass coverage of the WSOP. I can't imagine being away from my wife and kids for so long - I know he is looking forward to being home soon.

After dinner, I met up with rubbarose. He had just busted out of the Main Event. His text message (probably a common one that day) told the ugly story, "Out. Set over Set." We planned to do some serious drinking and some not so serious gambling.

After losing some cash at the table games, we jumped in a limo and headed over to the MGM for some drunken low limit nl cash games. We eventually made our way over to the same 1/2nl $200 max buy-in and immediately changed the table dynamics. I would raise to like $20 on the button after several people limped and everyone would then fold. I did this almost every time that the table limped to my button and there were people that never caught on and continued to limp-fold.

I was drunk and gambling it up, but still making correct decisions. The funny thing was that no one ever believed that I had a hand. I think I took down a $600+ pot with AK vs. AQ and JJ on an Ace high flop. I had $1,400 in front of me at one point and cashed out around $1,200 at the end of the night.

We had a great time playing and the table was having a lot of fun. Everything was great until the grumpiest dealer in LV sat down. He immediately started to correct everyone and quickly told players that the action was on them if they didn't act in 2 seconds. He obviously wanted to be anywhere other than behind that table.

At the end of the night, rubbarose in Seat 2 got involved in a pot with Seat 3. He checked on the turn and while Seat 3 was deciding how much to bet, rubbarose said something like, "I'm gonna call whatever you bet." Keep in mind he said this before the player had acted and before the action was on him. Seat 3 said he was all-in and the Dealer immediately told rubbarose that he had to call the addtional $200+. He didn't agree and Seat 3 didn't agree.

The floor was called over and she just heard the dealer's version and said that the dealer was correct - basically just backed the dealer up. The head floor was then called over and basically backed up the dealer and floor - IMO mainly because we were drunk and it was low stakes. Again, Seat 3 (the other player in the hand) didn't have a problem and didn't think rubbarose should be committed to calling. We were drunk but never rude or loud. We were both tipping extremely well and the entire table was having a lot of fun.

IMO, he shouldn't have to call the bet because it was table talk and the action was not on him - mainly because the action was not on him.

MGM handled it horribly and basically talked down to us and treated us like crap. They were extremely rude and never once looked at the situation with an open mind. The grumpy dealer was right no matter what. The customer isn't always right, but they should always be treated fairly and we weren't. We packed up along with several other players at the table and left. I won't be returning there, which is unfortunate because I liked the poker room.