O-Poker

(Sorry for the long delay between posts. I had a busy week and found out I had to go to Hawaii this week for business - kind of sucks to be away from the family for 3 out of 4 weeks. I'm breaking this up between 2 or 3 posts or I would probably never get it posted.)

The best thing about the WSOP this year is that I got to meet a ton of cool bloggers – most for the 1^st time. (in order of meeting on this trip)

Weak_Player – First blogger that I met this trip. We met up at the Venetian, had lunch, and hit the 2/5nl tables. It was great to meet him and I’m definitely a little jealous that he gets to spend the entire WSOP in Las Vegas playing the juicy cash games. He has a great live cash game style – tight aggressive against the guys that don’t pay attention and selective aggression against the LAGs that are paying attention. I’m curious to see how much he is up from playing cash games by the end of the trip. GL Weak, I’ll be checking your updates.

SprStoner – I met stoner and lucko last year at the P5s party. I recognized stoner from coverage of one of his events (I think by CC). I didn’t get a chance to talk to them very long because I had to run and blow my $$$ in a WSOP sat. A few days later, I randomly ran into stoner at Shutters Bar in the Rio and had a few beers. Fast forward to this year, I had just texted Bayne to see if he was still in the WSOP PLO tourney and was walking to the Amazon Room. I look up as I’m getting a beer at Shutters and guess who is standing 5’ away from me? Yep, stoner!! Talk about Déjà vu. We grabbed a few beers before Bayne and CK joined us. Stoner has a great mtt game and if he runs just average in a live mtt, he should have a huge live score soon. Keep getting the money in good and hopefully the poker gods will shine on you.

Bayne aka CrapsMachine aka Cockroach – I caught up with Bayne and CK just after CK busted out of the PLO WSOP tourney (just short of the money). I haven’t played craps in years (probably since before I started playing poker) and Bayne taught me how to rapidly lose money playing craps. I guess you need someone to get on a roll and I don’t think that ever happened while I was at the table. I don’t think you will find me at the craps tables on the next trip to LV unless I’m sweating Bayne.

CK aka Ms. SetoverSet – It sucked that she came so close to the money in the WSOP PLO, but didn’t cash. PLO can be a brutal game and it’s got to be tough to go so deep. She is walking around LV with $350+ of mine thanks to a set of set hand in a mostly blogger 1/2nl game at the Venetian. (more on that in a future post.)

Miami Don - I was really looking forward to meeting Don. CK, Bayne, Weak, and Don picked a great spot for dinner (N9NE) at the Palms. It just happened to fall on my b-day and the day after Don's B-day. I got to witness 1st hand just how bad he runs. In the 1/2nl blogger cash game, Don and Weak got it all in preflop. Don with AA. Weak with KK King on the river of course. If Don got one more bad beat while we were sitting at the table, I was going to grab my chips and duck for cover.

Vinnay - I wound up hanging out with Vinnay more than anyone on the trip since both of us were staying solo at the Rio and mainly playing cash games. It was great hanging out with Vinnay and talking over hands, hopefully I'll run into him at the WSOP next year.

LJ - Another blogger that I was looking forward to meeting. She was on a bad run coming into LV, but that is how it sometimes goes when you are exclusively playing MTTs - even for the best of the best. She took some brutal bead beats in tourneys and drowned her sorrows at Shutters (the hooker bar). The most ironic thing about her whole trip was that the bad karma turned good when she won her seat to the WSOP Main Event while playing in an online satellite in her Rio hotel room. Weeeeeeeeeeee for internet pokah!!!!

BamBam and Pebbles - Got to have one drink with them, but sadly didn't get a chance to play poker with them - maybe next time.

Hoyazo - I was glad I got a chance to finally meet Hoy and had breakfast with him and Vinnay before the $2k WSOP tourney. I was really rooting for him to go deep, but the cards weren't on his side. Maybe, I can get a chance to hang out with him more next time.

F-Train - I barely talked to F-Train, but since I talked to him for like 5 secs and I hung out a little with CK, I got to pretend like I knew a guy that went pretty deep in a WSOP event. He busted from the Razz event in 33rd place about 15 minutes after Vinnay and I showed up to rail him. Coincidence or cooler?

Astin - I met Mr. AA/KK on the day when I was feeling the worst. I was so hung over it wasn't even funny. I did get to raise and re-raise him a ton in the blogger 1/2 cash game. Congrats on the deep run in the Caesar's deep stack tourney.

Smokkee and Love_elf - I think smokkee was the first blogger that I ever met in person a couple of years ago. I've been an avid reader of his since before the poker pimping blog sell-out days. (I keed - sorta!) He played a tourney while a few of us had a late dinner. It was good to finally meet his better half. Now go back him in the WSOP.

I'll put up some interesting hands that came up while I was in LV in my next post - hopefully I'll have it up sometime before 2009.

I'm pretty busy since I haven't been in the office in almost 2 weeks, but I'm working on a trip recap post with some hhs, etc. I should have it up tomorrow or the next day.

I'm freaking tired too. I think the jet lag going from LV time to EST is 10x worse than the normal PST to EST jet lag, because of all the late nights in LV.

I wanted to get up the post today, but work and my brain aren't cooperating.

I'll post more hand history details next week - for now just a quick update.

Wednesday

5/10NL - Extremely juicy table +2,300 (won my buy-in to $2k WSOP tourney)
Craps with Bayne, MiamiDon, CK, and Vinnay -$500

Thursday

WSOP $2k - out after about 3 hours. Big losses included:

9Ts (me) vs AT on a JT35T board
AQ (me) vs AA on a KKQ46 board (I had raised the previous 3 hands in a row; AA was only guy that played back at me on those hands)

Last longer with LJ, Hoy, and Vinnay in the $2k -$200

WSOP 2nd Chance Tourney -$340 (out around 55th of 200+ when JTs called off all of his chips preflop against my AKs and made a straight.)

Roulette with Vinnay and Bayne +$400 (won my 2nd chance tourney buy-in back)

Blackjack with Vinnay and Bayne +$1,000

Craps with Vinnay and Bayne +$15 (biggest win at craps ever!!!)

I'll post more details when I get home on Sunday night/Monday.

I got to the Rio around 2 PM on Monday, checked in with no problem, showered and made my way to the Amazon Room.

About halfway down the 2 mile long corridor between the casino and the Amazon Room, I overheard someone leaving the Amazon room on his cell phone, "....The flop came J88. He bet and I raised......" I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but I knew what was to follow. It was a sure sign that I was at the WSOP. I hadn't even made it to the poker room before encountering my first bad beat story.

I made it down to the Amazon Room, got accustomed to the layout, purchased a safety deposit box, and made my way to the SNG satellite line. I wanted to ease back into live poker and figured that the sng sats would be the cheapest, easiest way. About 1 1/2 later, I chopped a $225 with two other people for $800. It was great to start off with a win. There weren't any real exciting hands, but the play was horrendous. They are total crapshoots. In the $225 and below sats, you start with 1k in chips and the blinds go up every 15 minutes. On the 1st hand, 3 guys limped for $25, the SB raises to 300, the blinds fold, one of the limpers folds and 2 cold call 30% of their stack on the 1st hand after limping. The flop comes Q,rag,rag and the SB shoves. The other 2 players fold and he shows Q10. As we got deeper, players were opening for 3x BB (60% of their stack at times) and folding to re-raises. When we were 4 handed, I shoved 4 times in a row without getting called. I could go on and on, but take my word for it - the lower sng sats are extremely soft, but high variance.

After the satellite, I went and grabbed some quick dinner and headed back to the Amazon room for some 2/5NL. My table was fairly tight for most of the night and I walked out up $180 after 4 1/2 hours.

Yesterday, I met weakplayer for lunch at the Venetian and then we sat down at the 2/5NL with $1k max buy-in. He left shortly after the start of the NBA Championship game up around $500. I waited until halftime before cashing out up around $380. (hand details to follow in a future post)

After watching the end of the game at the Rio bar, I went up to my room to look up Bayne's phone number and headed to the Amazon Room to see if I could catch up with him. I ran into sprstoner as I was walking by the bar and we hung out there until Bayne and CK joined us. It was great to finally put some faces to (screen)names. CK ran pretty deep in the WSOP PLO tourney, but can up just short of cashing. Bummer. :(

After several beers, I headed back to the satellite room and played a $525 sng sat. I had brutal luck and eventually went out with AK vs KQ all-in preflop. I'd rather get those beats out of the way in sng sats than cash games.

It looks like I'm playing the $2k WSOP tourney tomorrow. Hopefully, I can play well and run well.

One day after the TOC debacle - Life is good. I'm not sure why, but blowing the chip lead at the final table of the TOC and eventually busting out without winning the one of the WSOP ME or bracelet race seats doesn't even bother me anymore. Maybe, it is because I have been it that situation before and let it bother me. Maybe, it is because I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow. Maybe, it is because I hear the stories of the same situations from so many other people. Maybe, I just have a different perspective on poker now-a-days. Things happen, there isn't much you can do about it. Life is good, so why let things I can't control bother me.

On to better things.....

I leave for Las Vegas in 12 hours!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I have a really good feeling about this trip. My head is in the right place. I plan to kick ass and not worry so much about the taking names (or playing against "named" players). I felt really good about my mtt play in the TOC. I haven't been playing well in mtts lately, but I think that I turned the corner and was really focused in the TOC. Hopefully I can carry that over to LV. I was confident in my reads and didn't hesitate to act on them. It is a good time to be feeling good about my game.

I'm going to try to update daily (or at least every other day) while I'm out there. I get in Monday mid-day and will probably play some cash games and maybe a sng sat or two.

If interested, below are some links to my last trips to the WSOP the last two years.

I want to meet up with as many people as I can while out in LV. If you want to meet up and don't have my number, email me (in my profile) or leave a comment.

2007

WSOP Trip Report Part 1

WSOP Trip Report Part 2

WSOP Trip Update 1 and Trip Update 2 and Final W/L Tally- while in LV - seems like I should have just played cash games last year.

2006 (I actually played in the ME this year)

WSOP Trip Report Part 1 (Tiffany Williamson at starting table)

WSOP Trip Report Part 2 (New Table/Old Guys)

WSOP Trip Repoart Part 3 (My Demise) or "Phil Ivey owns me hard"

Someone thought that I was famous - LOL

Some Ass-Jack calling the clock on me

Long live the Donkeys!!!!

I won't complain about the suckouts. It really all boils down to me playing one hand really awfully.

The BBT3 TOC paid out 2 WSOP Main Event Seats ($10k) and two Bracelet Race Packages ($2k) to the top 4 places.

I came into the FT with the chip lead. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words.



Oh well, Las Vegas in 2 days!!!! Cash games here I come!!!!

EDIT: I just noticed that this is my 500th blog post - pretty freaking crazy. I started posting after Loopy set up the blog and never stopped. What the hell ever happened to Loopy anyway?

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WSOP

I'm getting pumped. I probably won't be able to play poker for several days since I am flying out of town tonight on business and don't get home until Friday night. Surprisingly, this doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Knowing that LV is only 6 days away is keeping me going. As stressful as the next few days might be, I know that a nice well deserved WSOP vacation is right around the corner. Las Vegas + Poker + WSOP = Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I can't get enough of the WSOP coverage. I've been reading a lot blogs, poker sites and listening to a ton of podcast.

I have a bunch of cell phone #s and need to get several more. Right now, I'm leaving my plans the way that they should be on a vacation - playing it by ear. The only real plans that I have is to play in the $2k NL WSOP event on Thursday (or the $5k on Wed if I manage to win a ton of lammers.)

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BBT3

I didn't do so well in the BBT3 in the last month of tourneys. I had a chance to catch Lucko, LJ, and RR in our sidebet, but fell apart in the last several tourneys. I did win my sidebet with Fuel, so I broke even on the sidebets. I still don't know how I managed to finish second in overall money won during the BBT3 - coming in 2nd in the 1st BBT3 Big Game probably played the biggest role in that.

I finished 14th in the overall standings which was enough to win a FTP custom jersey. I'm still debating on which one to buy, but am leaning towards the baseball jersey. I have no idea where I would wear that thing without feeling like a complete tool.

The TOC is on Saturday - maybe I can luckbox my way to a WSOP ME seat or a WSOP bracelet event package. The field is very tough, so I'll need all the luck I can get. I want to handicap the field, but I don't even know where to start. (I'll leave that to the experts.)


Hope everyone has a great week.

I knew that I was going to have a busy week since I am heading to LV next week. I didn't realize how busy it would be until I got a phone call on Saturday morning.

Client: "I've got good news for you. You know that unused plane ticket that you have? You are going to be able to use it.

Me: "Ummm.... Ummmm....." - trying to think of an out for a situation where I knew I was drawing dead.

Client: "We need you to fly to CA with us Tuesday and you can fly back Friday afternoon."

Me: "alkfdj;askfjadskl;fjadskl;fj;adsklf. I mean, OK, sure, no problem." :(



I'm not sure how much online poker I will be able to play (if any) between now and the BBT TOC. I probably won't get a chance to post much either, unless I whip up a post on the airplane. I want to put together some odds for the TOC, so I can put some thought into my opponents.