O-Poker

I was browsing 2+2 today and came across a great thread that had me laughing like crazy. Like one poster said:

Behold, the worst play in the history of the WSOP ME

"I thought the thread could never live up to its title.

BUT IT DID..."

The first post (hand) is good but there are a couple of other classic hands:

First orbit, first level, day 2... 250/500/50

villain 1: hollow-faced guy w/ moustache and terrapins sweatshirt
villain 2: average young thirties guy w/ glasses and hat

villain 1 limps in EMP, villain 2 completes, BB checks

Flop: K Q 9

villain 2 checks, bb checks, villain 1 bets 1k into 1800

villain 2 checkraises to 3k instantly

bb folds

villain 1 thinks and reraises to 11k total

villain 2 thinks and announces a reraise allin. he has villain 1 covered.

villain 1 has to call 30k more

villain 1 tanks

and tanks

AND FOLDS JT FACE ****ING UP

BEHOLD

or this one for those of us that lick our chops when we see a juicy cash game:

5/10 at the rio, MP raises MP2 calls BTN calls, flop: KQJ 2 spades

MP bets, MP2 raises, BTN jams for 2kish (everyone about 2k deep) MP re-shoves MP2 tanks forever and folds AT face up and goes "i know the board is gonna pair or a spade is coming)

hands kept face-down

turn: pairs board

river:x

BTN shows boat, MP2 fist pumps and goes "I KNEW IT WAS COMING I KNEW IT, YES!!!"

i stare amazed at what happend while i see a older lady shaking her head saying "wow nice laydown, i couldnt have made that fold"

OMG, the WSOP ME is so +EV!!! Here is why:

....as witnessed by a Stars' blogger:
(They are real)

#1
Day 1A, just after the first break (blinds 100-200): Preflop action, a guy announces "raise" and bets 300. The dealer promptly says "Sir, it has to be 400" and the guy fires back "But I want to make it 300, I said 300, make it 300". Floor is called and rules "If you raise you should bet at least 2 BBs", guy keeps saying "I just want to make a 300 bet". Some of the other players at the table try to explain him the minimum raise is one big blind, it's impossible to raise just half of it...
... and now the punchline: After tons of arguments, the guy yells: "If a raise should be at least one big blind, why they didn't put that on the rules before the tournament had started?"

The new season of Poker After Dark starts tonight. This time it is a cash game instead of a SNG. Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Hopefully, it will have as much high stakes cash game action as High Stakes Poker since HSP seems to have lost it's home at GSN.

I'll cross my fingers that the ratings will be high enough to make NBC turn the show into a main stream (Sat/Sun afternoon or evening) event.

WOW!!!! Very tough laydown in the WSOP Main Event.

From Pokernews.com - Day 5 of ME

Alexander Kostritsyn Can Fold Kings Preflop

Garrett Beckman limped in for 10,000 from UTG, Allen Carter raised to 35,000 from early position, Reagan Silber reraised to 105,000 from middle position, Alexander Kostritsyn made it 285,000 to go from the small blind, Beckman folded, and Carter moved all in for 311,000, sending Silber into the tank. After a bit of thought, Silber moved all in over the top, having Kostritsyn covered.

Now it was Kostritsyn's turn to tank. The young Russian ultimately mucked face-up, saving his remaining 930,000. And the cards were turned on their backs...

Carter

Silber

The board ran out and Silber's aces held up to eliminate Carter. Silber is now up to 1,815,000.

I just saw this posted on pokernews.com.

Biggest Pot So Far

Brian Schaedlich limped from early position before Jeff Kimber raised to 6,000 from the button and Schaedlich made the call before the flop came {Q-Spades} {3-Diamonds} {5-Hearts}.

Schaedlich checked to face a 6,000 bet from Kimber that he raised up to 15,000. Kimber then reraised up to 50,000 before Schaedlich raised again and for all his chips. It was a huge raise considering how deep these two were.

Kimber snap-called with {Q-Hearts} {Q-Clubs} and a shell-shocked Schaedlich turned over {A-Diamonds} {A-Hearts} . The turn came {10-Diamonds} and river {4-Clubs} to hand the biggest pot of this year's Main Event to Jeff Kimber, a massive 681,000.

Schaedlich's back down to 387,000 and, as he was handing over chips, he commented "What could I do?"

Kimber said he would never have gone to war without the goods because of the size of Schaedlich's stack.

What can you do? I wonder if he realizes that you are allowed to fold AA.

I had been pretty active at this table and had been 3 betting the button player a ton. He was starting to flat call a lot and usually folded to c-bets. I 3-bet his button raise from the SB with QQ. What do you do on the turn?


$1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


Hero (SB): $255.95
BB: $370.65
UTG: $286
CO: $81
BTN: $214.35

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (SB) (suites spade and diamond)
2 folds
BTN raises to $7
Hero raises to $24
BB folds
BTN calls $17

Flop: ($50) T K 8 (2 Players) (TcKc8h)
Hero bets $32
BTN calls $32 - not a good sign, but there are 2 clubs

Turn: ($114) J (2 Players) (Js)
Hero ???? - Very draw heavy board with 1 over

What do you do? (This is another example of why playing oop sucks.)

Since my last template was messed up in some versions of firefox, I've gone back to the basics. This is my new template (maybe temporary). I think that I probably need a new banner - one that matches the header and one that deletes Loopy (since he hasn't posted in 2 years).

I guess I may need to knock Mookie out of the next Mookie Tourney.

I'm going to try to start posting more interesting hands again. I saved this one from last night because I think it shows that you don't always have to 3 bet a hand like AK out of the blinds.

I think that there are a few of reasons to sometimes just call with AK out of the blinds instead of 3 betting a player with a high steal % (sometimes varies depending on your opponents, stack sizes, # of players in the hand, etc. Obviously, there are times when 3 betting AK pf is the most +EV play):

1. To balance your range. If you just flat call late position raises from the blinds with hands like small/mid pairs and suited connectors and 3 bet your big hands then your range is going to be more predictable to your opponents. A lot of people balance their range by 3 betting oop with some of these type hands, but you can also add some balance by just calling late position raises out of the blinds with big hands.

2. If you 3 bet, most hands that AK beats are going to fold and hands like AA-TT are going to 4 bet you or shove on you and then you are flipping a coin at best. There aren't too many hands that would 4 bet or shove that you are a favorite against. You are going to have to commit a lot of chips and possibly all of your chips.

3. Your hand is disguised. If you flop an Ace of King you may be able to stack your opponent with a weaker Ace or King, especially on a draw heavy board. The hand below is a great example of a hand where my opponent read my hand as a draw and shoved.

4. It allows you to get away with check raising some flops with draws out of the blinds on later hands. Players will have a harder time putting you on a hand when you flat call from the blinds. You can c/r your draws against the aggressive late position raisers and take down a lot of pots or often get a free river card if called.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $458.15
MP: $384.45
CO: $200 (pretty aggressive with high steal %)
BTN: $219.35
Hero (SB): $232 (2nd hand at this table, 4 bet the CO all-in with AK on my 1st hand)
BB: $78.90

Pre-Flop: K A dealt to Hero (SB)

2 folds
CO raises to $7
BTN folds
Hero calls $6
BB folds

Flop: ($16) A T 5 (2 Players)

Hero checks
CO bets $8
Hero raises to $22 - I made the raise kind of smallish to hopefully look like a draw.
CO calls $14

Turn: ($60) J (2 Players) - Not the best card in the world for my hand

Hero bets $42 - about 70% of pot
CO raises to $171 and is All-In - In most spots this might be a tough call but my hand looks so much like a draw that I have to call here.
Hero calls $129

River: ($402) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $402 Pot ($3 Rake)
CO showed J 9 (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-$200 NET)
Hero showed K A (a pair of Aces) and WON $399 (+$199 NET)

I know some people will argue that you always need to 3 bet AK from the SB against a CO opener in a 6 max game, but I think that always is probably -EV and more value can be gained by sometimes cold calling with AK out of the blinds.

Am I the only one really, really wishing that I was in Las Vegas this past weekend for the WSOP Main Event? This year, I decided to head out to LV during the middle of the series instead of during the ME. I'm wishing that I waited until the Main Event - even if I wasn't going to play in the ME. Oh well, for now I'll just follow all the online coverage.

I am in the poker funk that I seem to fall into every year after the WSOP. Does this happen to anyone reading this? I get all jacked up about poker (both online and live) in the months leading up to the WSOP, head to the WSOP, and have a blast while in LV. A few days after getting home it starts to sink in that my WSOP is over. The motivation to play seems to fade. I find myself donking around in tourneys while watching TV instead of grinding out the cash games. Maybe, it is all the travel that I've done lately. Maybe, it is the long Holiday weekend.

For now, I'm going to catch up on some of the cardrunners vids and spend some much needed review of past cash game sessions. Hopefully, the poker motivation level will kick back into high gear. If not, maybe I'll start some sort of challenge to jump start things.

/End Rant

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TEMPLATE

It appears that my template is still messed up for some people - my current browser included. Can anyone recommend any good poker blog template sites? WillWonka mentioned Blogcrowds.com and I'll see if I can find some there, but I seem to remember running across a bunch of great template sites when I first started blogging.

I think the new version of Firefox doesn't like the template that I am currently using.

Is my background plain grey with no breaks between posts? Or do you see the white background with lines and breaks between posts? Which browser do you use?


Anyone have any good template site recommendations?


Thanks

I was reading through some of the WSOP odds posted on the Bodog website and got a good laugh out of a few of them.

The first one that caught my eye was "Which of these Poker Bloggers will win the most money in the ME of the 2008 WSOP?" The category itself isn't that funny, but a few of the names on the list are. Nothing against Smokkee (who put in countless hours running the recent Bodog Blogger tourney series that awarded a WSOP package), but he is on the list at 40/1 - pretty horrible odds since he isn't playing in the ME. I was really hoping that Bodog would give him the ME seat after the guy that won the ME seat opted for a much smaller cash prize instead of going to the WSOP.

Shaniac - 9/2
DrPauly - 16/1
ZeeJustin - 3/1
Good2cu - 15/2
Daniel Negreanu - 5/2
Brian Townsend - 9/2
Thomas "Goodnightmoon" Fuller - 10/1
Taylor Caby - 15/2
Rizen - 9/2
Smokkee - 40/1

My picks - Rizen and Good2cu

Next Category - "2008 WSOP* - Which of these “Celebrity” poker players will win the most money in the Main Event of the 2008 WSOP* (Event 54) beginning in Las Vegas on July 3 2008? " LOL at most of these odds.

James Woods - 5/1
Jennifer Tilly - 5/1 - Umm, I check the 2nd nuts.
Don Cheadle - 9/1 - played pretty solid in the past. I think I remember reading a ME update last year or the year before where he lost the min on a set over set situation in the early levels.
Tobey Maguire - 11/1
Ben Affleck - 9/1 - doubt he plays since he seems to be pretty deeply involved in some world charities lately
Ray Ramano - 14/1
Jason Alexander - 14/1
Norm MacDonald - 9/1 - Might have trouble staying patient; maybe he can hit the craps tables during breaks
Montel Williams - 13/2
Shannon Elizabeth -5/1 - hehe
Brad Garrett - 14/1
Sully Erna - 14/1
Jose Canseco - 30/1 - Do steroids help your poker game?
Lennox Lewis - 30/1
Yevngeny Kafelnikov - 5/1
Boris Becker - 9/1
Penn Gillette - 30/1 - (Insert your own magic related joke here)

My Picks (assuming they play) - Don Cheadle (he runs goot!! and plays pretty good too) and James Woods (despite his apparent ego)


The next bet that has a group of players is - "Which pairing will have the most winnings in the Main Event of the 2008 WSOP* (Event 54) beginning in Las Vegas on July 3 2008?"

Doyle and Todd Brunson - 6/1
Marco Traniello and Jennifer Harman - 6/1
Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok - 9/2
Annie Duke and Howard Lederer - 15/2
Jeff and Barry Shulman - 15/2
Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly - 6/1
David and Shirley Williams - 6/1
Brian and Heather Wells - 10/1
Chad Brown and Vanessa Russo - 9/2
Patrik Antonius and Kathy Liebert - 4/1 LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! Can someone put up a picture of their baby?

My picks - Barry G and Joe Sebok (just for how great Barry seems to be playing lately; I'll take Joe S as a write off) and Chad Brown and Vanessa Russo

The last one on their list is my favorite, especially because of the "No Money odds" - "Will Jean-Robert Bellande be a “Survivor” of the $10,000 2008 WSOP* Main Event?"

No Money - 1/20 (yep that isn't a misprint!!!)
10th - last paying place - 5/1
2-9 - 75/1
Winnah, Winnah, Chicken Dinnah - 500/1

(warning - really long post to make up for the lack of recent posts)

Wow!! To say it has been a hectic month is an understatement. My work doesn't require me to travel very often. I may have to travel outside of Florida 2 or 3 times a year for work. That seems to have changed lately and all the travel came in a one big wave. The work travel combined with my trip to the WSOP in the middle of the month means that I was away from home more than I was home during June. I am getting settled back in, so I should be able to get back to updating the blog more often.

My June consisted of:

May 30th (Saturday) - Get a phone call from client asking me to go to California on Tues for 4 days
June 3-6 (Tues-Fri) - Working in California
June 9-15 (Mon-Sun) - WSOP trip
June 16 (Mon) - Get an email from client asking me to go to Hawaii for a week
June 22-27 (Sun-Fri) - Working in a Hawaii; did get to surf and meet gnome so not all bad.

WSOP Hands

I wanted to post some interesting hands that came up during the trip - a few cash hands and a few tourney hands

Cash Hand 1
5/10NL at the Rio - Awesome Table; One really horrible player (Seat 2) would couldn't fold preflop; One medicore player (Seat 8) that was playing horribly because he kept trying to bluff the horrible guy that couldn't fold.

Me - Seat 6

I was barely above even at the table when a young guy sat down to my right. He bought in a little short, and seemed to be playing tight when the following hand came up.

I'm dealt K6o in the BB. Everyone at the table limps to me. I think that a couple of people from the table next to us may have even limped into the pot. (You gotta love live poker.) I check from the BB.

Flop 662 - two diamonds

SB checks, I check and someone it checks around the whole freaking table.

Turn Kd - Bingo, Bango, Bongo!!!

SB checks. I bet $40 hoping someone will raise me with the flush, the Ad, or air.

One guy in MP calls. It folds to the SB. SB raises it to $100. I think for a while and raise it to $250. MP folds. SB insta-calls.

River is a blank. SB checks. I put him all-in for about $550 more. He thinks and thinks and thinks. He keeps talking out loud trying to put me on the hand. He seems to have convinced himself that I have at least a 6 and probably a full house. He finally makes the call with a Jack high flush!! (You gotta love live poker)

Cash Hand 2
5/10NL - same table. Remember Seat 2 is horrible.

I'm sitting on the button (Seat 6) with around $2,500. Seat 2 has luckboxed (no joke) his way to about a $4,000 stack.

Seat 6 limps. It folds to me. I raise to $50 with AJs. SB folds. BB calls.

Flop A44 - 2 spades. (I don't have spades - obviously)

Seat 2 checks. I bet $90. He min-raises to $180. I call. This guy was prone to making really big raises when he hit a flop. He was playing ATC pf, so a 4 was definitely in his range, but he would have made a bigger raise if he had the 4. He, also, made big raises with flush draws, so I figured that wasn't in his range.

Turn - blank.

He checks. I check for pot control since we are fairly deep and my hand can't stand a big check-raise.

River - blank.

He checks. I am 90% certain that I have the best hand. I value bet $150 and he insta-min-reraises me. Normally, in a live full ring cash game a river check-raise equals the nuts, but against this guy it doesn't mean anything. I call with my top pair, jack kicker and he immediately says, "You win." and mucks his cards. WTF did he think I would fold? A busted flush draw? I had to call $150 into $775 pot.

Cash Hand 3
5/10NL - same table; I wasn't involved in the hand, but shows just how crazy Seat 2 was playing.

Seat 2 - $3,500 +/-
Seat 3 - $1,100
Seat 8 - $2,300 +/-

I think that I was BB (seat 6). Seat 7 folds. Seat 8 raises to $60. Seat 2 re-raises to $800 - no joke. Seat 3 (a very solid player) insta-shoves. Seat 8 thinks for a while and counts his chips then shoves. Seat 2 calls.

Seat 3 - obviously has AA.
Seat 8 - QQ - He figured he was beat by Seat 3, but had about double the chips of Seat 3 and Seat 2 covered him. So not a bad spot to shove based on how idiotic Seat 2 was. Thoughts?
Seat 2 - 88 (You gotta love live poker)

The AA held up for a triple up. QQ broke even or +/-$100 on the hand.

I really didn't want to leave the table, but I had plans to meet Miami Don, CK, Weak_Player, and Bayne for dinner. The guy in Seat 7 and I had been talking about how great the table was for a while. When I mentioned to him that I had to leave to meet some people for dinner, he said, "How well do you know these people? I'm not getting up to eat or use the restroom until Seat 2 leaves." LOL - I really wanted to stay, but eventually left for dinner.

I'm not sure how Seat 2 wound up, but while I was there he went from $1,500 to about $5,500 to $0. Re-bought for $1,500. Back up to $3,000 to $0. He had just re-bought for another $1,500 when I left.

Cash Hand 4 (Sets suck - part 1)
1/2NL at the Venetian with several bloggers - Smokkee, Weak_Player, MiamDon, CK, Astin.

Smokkee had recently left the table to play in a tourney.

Me - Seat 5 ($350 +/-)
WP - Seat 6
Don - Seat 7
CK - Seat 8 ($375 +/-)
Astin - Seat 9

Clearly, I had horrible position at this table, but I made up for that by open raising for 6x every hand with ATC. Correct strategy, right? :)

2 limpers to me. I make my standard raise to $12 with 66. A couple of callers including CK.

Flop J65 - 2 hearts.

I bet $20. CK raises to $60. I decide that she most likely has a set - possibly 2 pair, because I hadn't seen her make a big raise without a big hand. I shove and she calls with JJ.

I don't improve. Set no good - Part 1.

Cash Game Hand 5
1/2 NL Blogger Cash game at Venetian - a couple of hands after the set over set to CK

Me - Seat 5
Seat 4 ($220 +/-) - not a blogger

I make my standard raise with 6d8d and get a couple of callers.

Flop 5x7d9d - Nothing like flopping the nut straight with a straight flush re-draw.

I bet big. Everyone folds. Seat 4 calls.

Turn Ax.

I bet big again. Seat 4 calls again.

Turn - blank.

Seat 4 checks. I put him all-in and he says, "OK, let's see it." as he is calling with A2 - no diamond. I got a good chunk of the $ that I sent to CK back.

Cash Hand 6 (Sets suck - Part 2)
Thoughts on this hand?? Anyone play it different??
2/5NL at the Rio. I sat down at Vinnay's table. It was fairly late and I was playing way too loose. Shortly after sitting at the table, I got a text message from Vinnay that read, "Seat 1 is tricky. Be careful."

Seat 1 - Old guy with a big stack of chips. He had shown the nuts a few times. I, also, saw him shove with a flush draw (or maybe a pair and flush draw) on an earlier hand.
Me - Seat 6 ($600 +/-)
Seat 5 - Not very good. Liked to bluff.

I'm dealt 88 in the BB. I don't remember the exact action. Small raise pf a couple of callers (including Seat 1 and 5) and I call.

Flop is J93 - 2 spades. Checks around or maybe the old man in seat 1 makes a small raise. A little fuzzy.

Turn is an 8 - not a spade.

Seat 5 bets $50. I make it $150. Seat 1 shoves. I make what in hindsight was probably a bad call. I would be interested to hear if anyone folds here. I think that I may have it I hadn't seen him shove earlier with a pair and flush draw. I figured he could have 2 pair, a flush draw with a straight draw, a pair and a flush draw, a set or a straight. I felt like I had to call based on the board and how wide his range could be there.

He had QT for the nuts. I didn't improve.

Cash Hand 7 (Playing Blind against Vinnay)
2/5NL - same game as above

Me - Seat 6 ($400 +/-)
Vinnay - Seat 8 ($400 +/-)

I Mississippi straddled the button. Vinnay made it $40 blind. Folds to me. I call blind.

Flop 883.

Vinnay bet $160 blind. I decided to look and see A6. I figured that I'm ahead of his random hand range and call.

Turn is an overcard and he shoves blind. I call.

Turn is another big card.

I turn over my A6.

Vinnay turns over his first card - 2. I'm looking pretty good to win. Next card an Ace.

Split pot!!! LOL!! We were both glad that we split the pot. I'm think that we should probably just flip a coin next time to save the rake.

Cash Hand 8 (Sets suck - Part 3)
5/10NL at Rio - Late at night playing short handed - 6 or 7 handed.
Me - Seat 8 ($1,800)
Seat 9 ($3,000)
Seat 6 ($1,650ish)

I am dealt 33 in the SB. Seat 6 had been raising pf quite a bit. He makes it $35. I call. Seat 9 (very active since the table has gotten short) raises to $100. Seat 6 calls.

Flop - A36 - 2 spades - Bingo!! Bango!! Bango!!

I check. Seat 9 bets $100. Seat 6 raises to $200. I raise to $500. Seat 9 folds. Seat 6 thinks for a while and calls.

Turn - 10x.

I shove for $1k. Seat 6 thinks for about 5 minutes and calls.

River - 9s :(

Seat 6 had KsJs and hit his flush on the river. (You gotta love live poker) He called $1k on the turn with 12 outs and 1 card to come.

Overall. I finished slightly down in the cash games after getting off to a great start.

I didn't play many tourneys, but will probably post of couple of key tourney hands in another update.

(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.