I left work Friday, and headed straight for Vegas. Well, I stopped in LA first to pick up a friend, and then to Vegas. Just one quick stop for good and gas (cheap, at $2.45/gallon for premium!) on the way there. We showed up at around 12:30am, checked into our dump of a hotel (the Nevada Hotel and Casino; it’s worse than that picture looks, but cheap), and headed right across the street to the Golden Nugget for some poker. I wasn’t planning on spending much time in the hotel anyway.

Not much of interest happened during my first poker session (ever!) in Vegas. Playing 4/8, I wasn’t getting anything playable for a while, and was down around $90 when I hit a few hands in a row. Finished the session +$71. Some pros were playing at another table while I was there, and from what I heard it was up to $4000/$8000 by the time I left. My winnings don’t seem that impressive. Around 4am Saturday morning, I went to sleep, for 6 hours. That was the last sleep I would get until I was back in California.

Saturday, I played at the Mirage (3/6). Only one interesting hand to talk about here. I’m dealt KK UTG, raise, and get a few callers. Flop comes AQx, and for some reason, I bet. The button raises. I call, figuring if I hit, I’ll get paid off well. Well, I hit. Turn is a K, but puts three spades out there. I check and call. The river another Q, and I bet. A few callers, and the button raises. I raise back, people call in the middle, and the button calls. I show my kings, callers in the middle muck, and the button shows AQ. I probably shouldn’t have bet or called on the flop, but things worked out for me. I finished the session +$110, but it would unfortunately be my last winning session of the weekend.

We headed over to the Hilton to see the new Star Trek Experience (yeah, geek), and also saw Dennis Miller. The Star Trek thing was pretty cool, though the original one (which they still have there) was better than the new one. It used to be you pay once to see the first one as many times as you want during the day. Now, it’s one price to see both of them once. Dennis Miller was funny, though I don’t agree with most of his politics. He was surprisingly pro-Bush. The guy who opened for him was pretty good, too.

While waiting for the show, I played some 3/6 at the Circus Circus, down the street from the Hilton. They have a different game structure: only one big blind, no small blind. It didn’t really change things too much, but I played terribly while I was there. I think the smoke was getting to me. It didn’t help that I wasn’t hitting any cards at all. I was basically just folding everything and getting bored, and my eyes were bothering me from the smoke.

I was dealt the The Hammer! in early position, and raised. I don’t think I’d raised a hand yet, so I guess that scared a lot of people. I got only one caller (who had position on me). Flop was no help. Check, check. Turn was a 2! I could feel that I was going to win. I checked, and called a bet. River… 7! I bet, get called, and proudly turn over my 72o. It held up (the caller had KT, for second pair on the flop). Unfortunately, I never caught another hand, so showing down with that didn’t help me at all. Finished that session down… enough.

That’s all for now… the rest later. The WSOP main event is down to 30 (or less). You can get good updates at Gutshot, and watch an online simulcast of the final table tomorrow at Gutshot or PokerStars.

Share

I’m contemplating driving down to Vegas this weekend. The WSOP main event starts Saturday night, and while I don’t plan on playing in any satellites to get in, I would like to go watch some of it. It’s only a six hour drive, and some other people I know are going to be there this weekend anyway. Plus, the low limit cash games should be real good this weekend.

A week and a half ago, I put finished off the hands I needed for my bonus at Poker Stars, so I withdrew some and put it into Poker Room, for a deposit bonus there. 20% up to $100, so I put in $500. As of today, I’ve received my bonus, and have $533 in my account. At one point, before the bonus was deposited, I had over $700. I guess that’s what I get for trying to move up in limits, and play a few $20+2 tournaments. In one of them, I finished 19th out of 151 (10 pay) when my AQ ran up against AA. At least I didn’t lose all my money.

I’ve cashed out some of my money from Poker Room, and will be depositing it into Pacific Poker to get Iggy some sort of referral credit, and get myself a deposit bonus there. From there, who knows. I really wish Ultimate Bet would get their act together with hand histories so they’re not as much of pain to import into Poker Tracker, because I really like playing the tournaments there better than anywhere else.

I finished 57th out of 500+ in a $5+.50 ($500 added) there last night, 7 out of the money. I was just not getting any good cards, the blinds were getting very high, and I couldn’t seem to steal any pots. No big deal, I’m still happy with a finish that high. I finally went out when presto (55) ran up against 77 and two overcards. I don’t even remember which of them won, just that I lost. In the half hour before the tournament started, I played at Annie Duke’s 4/8 miniblind table at UB, and made around $70, so it wasn’t a total loss. Best hand there: I get J♦9♦ in late position, and call. Flop comes T♦8♦7♠. Someone stays with my betting the whole way, the turn and river are blanks, and my straight holds up. I think he was on the flush draw, and would have liked to see my 7♦ or Q♦ hit.

I haven’t really been getting any comments lately, so maybe if I just outright ask a question, someone will respond. Should I go to Vegas this weekend? Leave a comment.

I think maybe all the poker talk has scared away the four (if that many) regular readers I used to have.

UPDATE: Hotel room is booked, not that I plan on sleeping much. Looks like my apartment will go uncleaned for yet another weekend.

Share

Lots to talk about now, and virtually none of it poker related.

Wedding

My Brother‘s wedding went well. It’s hard to believe they’re finally married after being together for 6 years. The ceremony was very nice, and the party afterwards was fun. Brad and Staci are now in Hawaii, hopefully enjoying their honeymoon. I’m back at work in California.

I don’t know what else to say about this, except congratulations to both of you!

Flight Home

Years ago, I took a trip with my family from New York to Tucson. We flew America West from NY to Dallas/Ft. Worth to Phoenix to Tuscon. Our flight out of Dallas was delayed, and we missed the last flight out of Phoenix to Tucson. The airline put us on a van, and drove us there. They dropped us off at the airport at around 4am, and left us there. No one else was there, and we were left stranded at the airport. We decided not to fly America West again.

This was a long time ago, so I decided to finally give them another try. I flew to Tucson, again through Phoenix, from Santa Barbara for Passover last month, and my flight to New York for the wedding was also America West through Phoenix. Last month’s wasn’t that bad. My flight from Phoenix to Tucson was only delayed for four hours (in which time my father, who was already in Tucson, could have driven to the airport to pick me up, and driven back). Unfortunately, that terminal of Sky Harbor doesn’t have wireless internet access. I ended up reading some of Sklansky’s Hold ’em Poker for Advanced Players while waiting. The flight from Tucson back to Santa Barbara was relatively smooth.

Getting to New York was easy. No delays, no problems. I read Bringing Down the House on the way there. Very good book.

The flight back, however, was a mess. We took off a little late from JFK, but still managed to make it to Phoenix on time. I slept for a few hours on the flight, and then started reading The Biggest Game in Town. I finished it about halfway through what was supposed to be a four hour layover in Phoenix, and I highly recommend it. I finally started Positively Fifth Street, when they announced that the plane to Santa Barbara would be delayed an hour and a half coming in.

While I was waiting for the flight, several others were delayed at the same gate and the next one over. A flight to Austin needed a new tire, which was supposed to take a half hour, and took two and a half. They were lucky, they eventually ended up getting where they were going. A flight to Palm Springs needed twenty volunteers to get on a flight the next day because of a weight limit on the plane. A flight to Durango was delayed, for some reason I didn’t hear. The Palm Springs flight gets the volunteers, and then gets delayed more anyway, because of problem with the plane. They finally get a new plane (and didn’t need the volunteers after all), and take off.

My plane takes off shortly afterwards. A minute or two into the flight, I can tell something is wrong. We don’t seem to be getting any higher, it seems like we start circling, and there’s some strange noise. After another few minutes, the captain says the front landing gear won’t retract, we have to circle to dump some fuel, and will be landing in Phoenix again. I’m not at all surprised. We circle for twenty minutes, a third of the flight time to Santa Barbara, and land again. On the ground, I find out that the Palm Springs flight also had a problem, and landed back in Phoenix.

After another hour and a half in the airport, waiting for the plane to possibly be fixed, they tell us the flight is cancelled. The later flight to Santa Barbara is also delayed over an hour, and will likely be cancelled. I get booked on the 7:28 am flight the next morning, and they put me up in a hotel, and give me a $10 meal voucher good at the airport or the IHOP in the hotel. As I’m leaving the terminal for the baggage claim, they announce that some other flight is delayed because the dashboard lights on the plane don’t work.

I pick up my bags, get the van to the hotel, and check in. I’m told the IHOP is closed for the first time in six years, until Wendesday. The remote control for the TV in my room doesn’t work. I watch Monk, the only episode of the show I’ve ever seen before, and then go to sleep. I get up at 4:15 to shower and get the 5am van to the airport. I check in, check my bags again, and get told to go to gate B18 (the same gate as the previous night). After about an hour, I use my $10 food voucher on overpriced Cinnabon and bottles of water. I happen to check the monitor while I was doing this, and notice my flight has moved to gate B1.

At gate B1, the Palm Springs flight is supposed to take off at 7:24. My flight is 7:28 at the same gate. We board late, after the other flight, but somehow manage to take off and make it to Santa Barbara on time. Only 15 hours after I was originally supposed to be there. I get a cab home, and then go right to work.

I don’t think I’m ever going to fly America West again. They didn’t offer any voucher for future travel or refund. I don’t think I’d feel safe flying with them when their planes have so many maintenance problems anyway. It really wasn’t worth the $200 or so I saved by choosing them over any other airline.

Baseball

Randy Johnson became the oldest player to throw a perfect game last night, throwing the 17th in major league history. He struck out 13 batters and threw 117 pitches, 87 for strikes. The best part of the whole thing, for me, is that it was against the Braves, who aren’t in first place in the NL East for a change. The Mets aren’t either, of course, but I’ll take what I can get.

The Mets did give me a nice blown save in my fantasy league, though, to get a win against Isringhausen and the Cardinals. They’re only one game under .500, and only 2.5 games out of first. There’s still hope.

Softball

I missed last week’s softball game because I was in New Jersey. Apparently, we were winning going into the last inning, when the other team scored 14 runs. Last night, we were losing 5-1 after the first, and 13-9 after 5. I walked in my first plate appearance, and was left stranded, lined a single to left in my second, and was forced out at second base. In the top of the 6th, I came up with the bases loaded, down by four, and lined another single to left. Only one run came in, and the bases were still loaded. The next batter also singled, driving in one more. After a run scoring flyball, and a popout to the infield, I was the tying run at second base with two outs. A groundball up the middle drove me in, and we scored two more in that inning to take our first lead of the game since we went up 1-0 in the first inning. In the bottom of the 6th, the other team loaded the bases with nobody out. They had the tying run on second, and needed just a single to bring him in. They hit two flyballs to center (driving in the runner on third), and then the last batter lined out to left, giving us only our second win of the season. I think we’re now 2-5. But it was fun, and we won.

I’m sure I had more I wanted to talk about, but I can’t think of it now. Maybe some other time.

Share

Sorry for not posting in so long. It’s not because I haven’t had anything to say, or haven’t been playing poker. I’ve been playing far too much. I just haven’t gotten around to writing anything.

Last weekend was my brother’s party. It wasn’t a typical bachelor party. No strippers, and not that much drinking. Just a lot of poker. We took a limo (supposedly a ten person, but we learned that that includes the driver and passenger seat, apparently) down from Manhattan to Atlantic City. The ride down was interesting, but I won’t go into any details, to spare certain people from unneeded drunken embarassment. You don’t really want to know anyway, trust me.

We arrived at the Tropicana and checked in. Before we got to the rooms, I put one quarter in a slot machine, doubled my money, and cashed out. I was already up for the weekend. We dropped all our stuff off in the rooms, and then grabbed a cab (well, two) to the Sands to play in the Friday night tournament. Turns out it was limit hold ’em, with no rebuys. None of us did particularly well, though my two brothers lasted the longest. I got absolutely zero good starting hands, and the guy to my left would never fold to a blind steal. I didn’t even try, actually, as I don’t think I ever saw him fold a hand preflop. He must have been doing something right though, because he got a whole lot more chips than I did. I finally ended up all in with an A7, and lost. It was only $35, though, and it was fun.

The Sands poker room is pretty bad. I tried for 20 minutes before the tournament to get a seat at the 2/4 table. There were names on a list in front of me, and they called the first one. No one ever showed up, but I had to let them know, and ask them to finally call the next name. I eventually sat down and got to play for 13 minutes before the tournament started. I got one flush draw that missed, and lost $22. That would be my last losing session of the weekend. (Thanks to Poker Journal for all these numbers.) After I busted out, I played 3/6 for 25 minutes and made a whopping $1. The Sands poker room is not a non-smoking room (though there was no smoking in the tournament area), and I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon (not that I’ll be in AC again any time soon, either).

We went to Hooters for dinner, and then sat down at the Trop poker room. It was much bigger, much nicer, and much better run than the Sands. It was also completely non-smoking, which is a good thing. I played 2/4 for about 2 hours and made $11. I guess that’s not too bad in BB/hr. My first hand, I get dealt AA. I raise it up, and get a few callers. The flop and turn are 3467, and there’s a bet and a raise before me, so I figure I’m beat. Someone has to have a 5. I fold. At the end, they turn over KJ and Ax. Ace high wins the pot. Oh well. I get AA again two hands later, and it holds up (and I don’t fold, this time). I don’t think there were any other terribly interesting hands

We took a break from playing the live game to run a small tournament in the room. I took second place, and got my money back. I don’t really remember much of it, but one hand I do remember: I get AQo UTG. I raise it up my normal 3xBB. It folds around to my younger brother, who looks at me and says, “Ace-Queen, huh?” and pushes all in. I knew he probably didn’t have me beat, but I folded and showed my AQ. He turns over T8 or T7. I still don’t know how he knew. I make that same raise with any hand I want to raise with.

After the tournament, most of us head back down to the poker room. I don’t remember too many hands from the session. In fact, I only remember one. I’m dealt Q9o in the big blind. Someone in early position raises, and enough people call that I pretty much have to. Flop comes QQx, and I bet, and get two callers. Turn is another Q. I bet the turn and river, and get two callers. They pretty much know what I have, but are calling me anyway. At showdown, I turn over my cards and say, “Is four queens good?” The preflop raiser shows his AA. I finish this session (2/4) up $67.

Unfortunately, at almost 6am I decide to sleep. Even more unfortunately, everyone lets me sleep until almost 2:30. What a waste of time I could have been playing poker. I get up, get showered, and head down to the poker room again, where everyone else is. This time, I sit down at 4/8. I only remember one hand from this table as well. I get K8s in late position, and call. Flop comes T8x, none of my suit. There’s a bet before me, and I call. Turn is another 8. same guy bets, I raise, and he reraises. I figure he could have T8, or TT, so I just call. River pairs my K, giving me eights full. He bets again, and figuring he could have tens full, I just call. He turns over A8, and I rivered someone else for a change. I apologize to him as I’m collecting my chips. This session ends at around 5 (+$59) and we all head over to the Borgata.

At the Borgata, we first head over to the Old Homestead to see if we can get in early, even though our reservation wasn’t for another two hours. That fails, so we go check out the poker room. It is by far the nicest poker room I’ve seen, and they have an all electronic waiting list system. It’s very cool, but it’s also a three hour or so wait. Unfortunately, we instead go and play regular table games, and I drop $100 playing Caribbean Stud, which I swore I’d never play again after I played hold ’em for the first time. It was mildly entertaining, but I’m still upset with myself for doing it. About 7:15 we go back to the restaurant, and in my boredom I put $5 in a slot machine. I finish with $7, and then it’s time for dinner. I came out +$2.25 on slots games like irish luck slot for the weekend. The steak at the Old Homestead was quite possibly the best (and biggest) steak I’ve ever had. Also probably the most expensive. We pass on dessert, and head back to the poker room. The wait’s now only an hour, but we decide to skip it and head back to the Trop.

We play another tourney in the room, and I bust out third (top two pay) when my 96 two pair is beat by Brad’s K6 two pair. I hang around until the end, and then head back down to the poker room. I sit down at 2/4 for ten minutes, waiting for the big blind to get to me when I seat opens up at 4/8, so I switch. One nice hand from this session: I’m dealt JJ in early position, and raise. It gets reraised, so I cap. Flop comes QJx. I bet, get raised, reraise, and the other guy raises and says cap. It’s just the two of us left, so the dealer says there’s no cap. I just call, anyway, figuring he could have QQ. Turn is a J, and I checkraise. River is a blank, and I bet and get called. I flip my four jacks, and he shows me his aces. Twice in one weekend, I crack aces with quads. Not bad. I finish the session +$146 in 3.5 hours.

At 4am, we break for dessert. We go to Horizon’s, where Brad has a rematch with their Strawberry Tall Cake after six years, and loses again, not even finishing half of it. I eat about a quarter of my chocolate cake, and we eventually head back to (where else?) the Trop poker room. I play an uneventful 2/4 session for three hours (+$7), and then head up to the room to pack up. I sleep the limo ride back to Penn Station.

Share

I played in two $5+.50 multitable tournaments at UB last night. My UB bankroll had dropped pretty low, and I don’t really play there anymore, so I was just trying to finish it off. I didn’t get very far in the first one. I had about an average stack, pretty early on, and got QQ. Flop comes with a Q as the high card, I make a sizable bet, and someone who has me outstacked pushes all in. I call, and he hits his open ended straight draw on the river. My brother was also playing in this tournament, and he lasted a bit longer than I did, but also didn’t make the money.

I played for less than an hour in that tournament (at 8PM) which let me just get right into the next one, which was at 9PM. I was playing pretty tight, and for the most part for the first couple of hours only played premium hands. Not because there were no other hands I would play, but because I was either getting those or absolute junk. I think the only hands I played were JJ-AA, AK and maybe an AQ or AJ mixed in there. No terribly interesting hands, though. Luckily for me, people happened to push all in ahead of me when I got those hands. The guy who did it when I had JJ had a much shorter stack than I did, so I think it was a good call (actually, I raised, to knock everyone else out, which I did.) He had A3s, and no ace, flush, or straight hit, so I took it.

I had an above average stack, but not great, when I got dealt 87o in the small blind. There were four or five limpers in before me, something that hadn’t happened too often, so I called. Flop came 69T, rainbow. As Mike McDermott would say, I flopped the nut straight. I checked, and the big blind bet out. UTG raised all-in, and it folded around to me. I pushed in as well, and the big blind called. Since we were all in, our cards got flipped. Everything happened so fast, that I don’t remember exactly what the big blind had. Probably top pair, good kicker, or maybe two pair. UTG had 99 for a set. Anyway, the board didn’t pair up, I took two people out of the tournament, had a commanding chip lead (at that point I think 50k when second place was 30k) and basically coasted to the final table. I believe my exact words in the UB chat after the hand were “holy crap”. I’ll try to get a hand history from UB so I can figure out exactly what happened.

From there, I don’t know if I played another hand until the final table. I might have stolen the blinds once or twice. My play at the finally table was pretty similar. I just wasn’t getting hands, and when I did, I mostly just picked up the blinds. That was fine with me. I started the final table in second chip position, and was happy to just watch other people drop out without playing a hand. I don’t think I committed any serious amount of chips at all until there were only four remaining. Even then, I didn’t play much. A few blind steals, and played a few high aces that never got past the flop. I didn’t knock out anyone at the final table. Basically, I just watched, until it was heads up.

I think I played heads up pretty well. I started with fewer chips, but not by much, and we went back and forth several times. I finally lost when I had Q9, flopped top pair (queens), and my opponent flopped a set of fours. I checked, he bet, I raised, and he reraised. I probably should have thrown my hand away here, when he reraised a checkraise, but instead, I pushed all in. He obviously called, and I was out in second place. Not bad for my first final table, I think. I turned my $5.50 into $310.40, and my UB bankroll is no longer low. First place paid $480. Tenth place, if I was first out at the final table, would have paid $16.

The tournament finally ended at about 1:15, after over four hours. I guess I’ll be playing in more of them sometime.

Oh yeah, while I was playing in that tournament, I also had a +34BB session at PokerStars 1/2. 70 more hands and I get my deposit bonus. Then I move on to other places for more deposit bonuses.

Share

Pokerstars has a rare deposit bonus, 20% up to $120. I cashed out $600 from Party, and deposited it into Stars. I have to play 600 raked hands to get the bonus. I was going to play 1/2, but the wait was long for a 9 person table, so I sat down at a 2/4 (two, actually). I played for a little over an hour, and finished +23BB. There were no terribly interesting hands, and I was just getting lucky with the cards.

I then took a break from poker to go to Staples to get something with my $75 gift certificates from American Express Blue rewards, and that expired yesterday. I ended up not buying anything at the store, and ordering a big 4’x8′ dry erase board for $75 off from staples.com. I’ve wanted a whiteboard for awhile, and now might actually have somewhere I could put it (I’ll have to rearrange a little bit, I think, but it should work well.)

Afterwards, I sat back down at the Stars tables, playing 1/2 this time. And I lost. A lot. I knew I was due for a session or two like this, and I didn’t lose as much as I made at the 2/4 tables, but it hurts to lose 36BB in two hours of 1/2. Still a net positive for the day. I lost with a combination of bad play and bad cards (or good cards that get beat, actually). It was mostly bad play. I needed food, but didn’t want to leave until I got my money back, so I was playing hands I shouldn’t have to try to do it. That never works. At least, it never works in the long run, and I knew as I was playing I shouldn’t do it. One nice gem from this session:

PokerStars 1/2 Hold’em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: penner42 is MP2 with Q♥, Q♦.

UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls, penner42 raises, CO folds, Button folds, SB calls, BB calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (8 SB) 4♣, Q♣, T♠ (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 checks, penner42 bets, SB calls, BB folds, MP1 calls.

Turn: (5.50 BB) 9♠ (3 players)

SB checks, MP1 checks, penner42 bets, SB calls, MP1 raises, penner42 calls, SB calls.

River: (11.50 BB) 4♥ (3 players)
SB checks, MP1 bets, penner42 raises, SB folds, MP1 3-bets, penner42 caps, MP1 calls.

Final Pot: 19.50 BB

Main Pot: 19.50 BB, between MP1 and penner42. > Pot won by MP1 (19.50 BB).

Results below:
MP1 shows 4♠ 4♦ (four of a kind, fours).
penner42 shows Q♥ Q♦ (full house, queens full of fours).
Outcome: MP1 wins 19.50 BB.

My pocket queens full house gets cracked by quads again, this time on the river. And to think I was happy when that 4 showed up, because I thought I was checkraised when he made his straight. That’s poker for you.

Share