Vegas Sans The Poker

I put in about 50 hours live last week, with little to show for it. I made about 3k in the cash games but ran very cold in the $525 and $1030 satellites. I decided to take a few days off and enjoy Vegas for its many other activities.

On Saturday Jared and I went to the Ultimate Fighter 5 finale UFC fight at the Palms. They upgraded our tickets, so we were sitting on the stage right next to the octagon. It was disappointing that the Gamburyan/Diaz fight was decided by a non fight related injury. All the other fights were awesome, and the experience made me a big fan of the UFC. I had been riding the fence before this, but I definitely will be getting into it more in the future. It’s too bad I left my camera in the car for this; there would have been some sick pictures.

After the fight we met up with Mo and B for dinner at one of my favorite Vegas restaurants, Nobu. The dinner there was delicious as always, and we even got Mo and B to try some raw fish. The bento box desert had some of the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. You know you’ve had the perfect meal when you leave completely satisfied, but don’t feel so full that you have to immediately pass out.

Delicious

I wanted to grab a drink at the Red Square, so we went over to the Madalay Bay. The club/bar that’s next door looks interesting so we get a table/bottle to enjoy for the night. Getting a table makes the club experience 100x better. No waiting in line, and no standing around all night.

2 pimp ass ninjas

Fish #1 and Fish #2

A deer in the headlights

B is definitely drunk by now

lol I'm so drunk here

They actually play some decent music there, and half naked women dance/swing across the ceiling. Our table had a great view with one of the dancing platforms directly overhead.

There could have been more women there, but it was a good time none the less. Mo even invented his own dance titled "The All In"

Mo tried to get us to play drunk live poker, but I would get bored so fast when drunk I'd be pushing all in every hand within one orbit. It was a good night that definitely shook off some of the live poker tilt I was feeling. I have a ton of website work to catch up on this week, so I doubt there will be much poker time. Delicious food and casino war will most likely take place multiple times this week. God I love Vegas.

Vegas Part 1: Live Poker – A cross section of dementia

We’ve been in Vegas for a week and a half now. Jared and I haven’t been around the site too much because on top of being busy in Vegas the internet at our house has been down. I’ve put in a good number of hours at the tables. I’ve played about 20 single table satellites, and am down about 4k on those. I’ve been running really cold when it gets down to 3-4 handed. The blinds get really big at that point so you eventually have to win a 60-40 at the end to lock it up, but I haven’t been able to do that yet. The cash games have been a little better. I’m up about 3k playing 5/10 so far. I played in the 2500 6 handed bracelet event, but ran into some rough hands early on to knock me out.

The trip has been pretty interesting so far. The live poker world is a totally different animal than the online scene. Here are some of my observations from the trip so far.

Live poker sucks: I guess I’m just spoiled with internet poker, but playing full ring poker live is like watching paint dry. Occasionally people will donk it up so much it’s hard to hold back the laughter, but if the table is a bunch of boring pricks it’s hard to handle. I really enjoy the games when they get short handed, but I’m glad I don’t have to make a living playing live where you get 40 hands an hour and have to play 9 handed most of the time.

Live players are insane: I’m not sure if live poker attracts the crazy people or if it creates them, but live players have to be the most demented group of people on earth. I thought online players could be major dicks, but the ratio is much higher live. People who are otherwise civil members of society turn into huge assholes at the poker table. I guess poker is just a game that brings out the true spirit of most people. I can’t really blame them either. If all I ever played was live poker and I had to wait 3 days for AA only to have them cracked by 74o, it might start to grind on me. It might also drive me crazy if it took me a year to play the same number of hands I play online in a week. It seriously must take these people 10 years to actually figure out if they are winning players or not. Live poker is a fun break, but online poker is definitely where I want to spend most of my time.

Vegas is a great city: I’m not even talking about the casinos/night life. Our house is outside the city and I find it’s hilarious that every store in town must have slots/video poker. I walk over to the grocery store to pick up some grub, pay for it, and then I just have to throw down a bet to try to get my groceries for free. I’m 2-2 so far! Seriously, I don’t know how people have any money here. You go to the deli and can lose your kid’s tuition before you get your cold cuts and cheese. There is no reason online poker should be illegal when I can get a hair cut while playing $1 slots in Vegas.

The house is pretty pimp, and I’m sitting poolside as I write this. The Vegas weather is actually really nice. I could imagine myself owning a house here. I’d rent it out half the year, and travel the other half. I can play poker from anywhere so that type of lifestyle really appeals to me.

We have some good seats for the UFC fight tonight and will probably go check out the night life after that. I played too much live poker this week so I need to recharge before I go back to the tables. I’ll probably split my time between live and online next week. The next event I want to play in is the 5k 6 handed so there is plenty of time to make the buy in.

WEEEEEEE Live Poker

After coming in 2^nd to Sam Grizzle (we had equal chips at 500/1k blinds I pushed w/87 and he decided to call with 98...) in the first sat I played, I woke up on Thursday and decided I would play some more satellites all day. The players seemed ridiculously soft so I figure I should be able to make a decent amount of WSOP chips if I play a ton.

The first one I played I chopped a $225 with another knowledgeable player who said he had been to the site a few times. Next I played a $525 and when it got 3 handed I negotiated a chop that gave us our buy in back then played for the rest. I was the low stack and ended up losing a flip the very next hand. I don’t want to be chopping too many of these because the other players will make a lot more mistakes than I will, but if I’m up against someone good or the deal is really in my favor I’ll do it every time.

That was the last taste of victory I would have for the day as I ran ice cold the rest of the way. I’m so used to the speed of online poker that it’s pretty hilarious that I could play 12 hours of poker and not see AA, QQ, or JJ once. I knew the variance was going to be pretty high in these so losing 8 in a row is pretty common. I didn’t make any mistakes, just didn’t win the flips and 60/40s I needed to near the end. I’ll just have to do the same again tomorrow and hope I can get some decent cards and win some races. The first event I want to play isn’t until Monday so I have a few days to get some chips together.

F The Spurs

Jared and I rolled into SA a few hours before the game, checked into the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat on the river walk (which is a pretty cool part of the city), got the tickets, then rode over to the arena which was a good ways outside of downtown.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to hate the Spurs anymore than I already did, but after attending day 2 of the NBA finals I have found even more reasons to hate. I have never seen a group of fans more lame than the 18k packed into the AT&T center. They were very loud when the PA announcer told them to, but I don’t think I heard one bit of spontaneous noise the entire game. When the game got close the announcer had to tell them to get loud every 5 minutes or they would be dead silent. This is the NBA finals, you should be on your feet screaming your ass of for 4 quarters. Their dancers did a choreographed dance to “Ice Ice Baby”, and for some reason the decided it would be a good idea to randomly blare music in the middle of plays.

Ice Ice Baby


It would have loved to see the Cavs take down that game just to see the looks on those people’s faces. It was basically just a bunch of rich white people who came just because it was the thing to do, and not for the true love of the team. Mike Brown could not make that a reality for me as he really gave the game up with his first quarter strategy. Hmmm Lebron gets two fouls early, so not only does he bench him for the whole quarter but immediately puts in a line up that had 0 scorers. When I saw that happen I told Jared that they would be down 15 by the time that lineup was off the court, well I was wrong they were down 17.

The 2nd half was a lot more interesting when they finally realized that Lebron driving every play and either drawing a foul or kicking it out to someone who could make a 3 was the correct strategy. The AT&T center was located in the low economy area of the city and as we slowly made our way down that street everyone was out in front of their tiny houses making noise and celebrating the victory. The people who weren’t at the game jumped into their cars and started in impromptu parade. I really wish those people had a chance to go to the game. The people who couldn’t afford it were the true fans and the ones who really should have been in the arena; it would have been a great atmosphere if they had been.

The plan for Monday was to play poker all day, but the hotel’s internet didn’t work. So, we just hung out at the river walk for a while, saw the Alamo, and relaxed. There was a bomb ass steak house near the hotel and we ate like a 6 course meal there.

We saw what had to be the most awesome restaurant of all time on the way to the game, so we had to eat there before we left on Tuesday. It was called “Tanks Chicken and Waffles”. For $2.75 you could get a giant waffle and a fried chicken leg. We went there pretty much as a joke, but it actually turned out to be quite delicious.

Delicous


After almost running out of gas (there are like 40 mile stretches of nothing in this part of TX) and the road being blocked by a helicopter air lifting someone from a nasty accident we ended up stopping off in el Paso tonight. This is the only high way I have ever seen in the US that has an 80 m/hr speed limit, it was pretty sexy. The original plan was to drive to Phoenix tomorrow then the grand canyon Thursday, but we need to get our WSOP fix in soon so we’re just going to do the 11 hours there tomorrow and skip everything else. We’ll probably grab a hotel on the strip until we get the house on Saturday and hopefully the cash games and satellites will go well so we can get into a bunch of events.

Some Hands + WSOP Here We Come!

I haven’t posted a ton about my actual poker play since I stopped the back to basics blog. I don’t want this to be a results blog, but I will definitely be posting up all the interesting hands/situations I get into as well as general thoughts on the game I come up with. I’ve been playing anywhere from $200NL to $600NL 6max, some $400 heads up, and even a little 6 max Omaha the last few weeks. For a while it was looking like I would repeat the pre WSOP month long cooler from last year, but I was able to pull out of that and have consistently been able to make some good money. I’ll be able to take a decent chunk of that to Vegas, so hopefully I can continue doing well and come back with a bracelet or 3. Here are some interesting hands I’ve played so far this week.

I made the huge preflop raise because this guy had been getting frustrated with me and had started to call all my bets. I knew the extra large bet would make him do something stupid. We were both a little more than 2 buyins deep, so getting as much money in early is definitively a plus. The turn was an amazing card since it lets me play the hand like I have the nuts. I'm still probably going to get the money in vs this guy even on a scarier board, but it's always nice to know you have the best hand in a huge pot. My turn smooth call works very well because he proceeds to bluff a buy in and a half on the river then fold when he only has to call $300 more into a $2600 pot. I wish it were easier to post bodog hands, stuff like this happens all the time.

I had an interesting 2/4 heads up session. This guy ran very hot early and took a few buyins from me. He was a tight preflop player who really fished it up when he did see a flop. I played him for about 5 hours and it took me like two before I realized how terrible he was. I picked up on some triggers that would make him bluff big or call down with ace high. After the rough start I was able to come back and built up my stack to about $3000k before we finished. At points we were playing 4+ buyins deep each. Here are some of the hands from that match (in no particular order).

FullTiltPoker Game #2557084922: Table Ahey (heads up) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:24:10 ET - 2007/06/01
Seat 1: pareshjain ($2,046.80)
Seat 2: dot_carter ($1,009.50)
pareshjain posts the small blind of $2
dot_carter posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dot_carter [7d Qd]
pareshjain calls $2
dot_carter checks
*** FLOP *** [4s Ad Td]
dot_carter bets $8
pareshjain raises to $32
dot_carter calls $24
*** TURN *** [4s Ad Td] [6d]
dot_carter bets $72
pareshjain raises to $288
dot_carter raises to $973.50, and is all in
pareshjain calls $685.50
dot_carter shows [7d Qd]
pareshjain shows [Kd 5d]
*** RIVER *** [4s Ad Td 6d] [9h]
dot_carter shows a flush, Ace high
pareshjain shows a flush, Ace high
pareshjain wins the pot ($2,018.50) with a flush, Ace high
dot_carter is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2,019 | Rake $0.50
Board: [4s Ad Td 6d 9h]
Seat 1: pareshjain (small blind) showed [Kd 5d] and won ($2,018.50) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: dot_carter (big blind) showed [7d Qd] and lost with a flush, Ace high

FU TURN CARD!

FullTiltPoker Game #2557625887: Table Ahey (heads up) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 6:36:37 ET - 2007/06/01
Seat 1: pareshjain ($2,443.20)
Seat 2: dot_carter ($1,341.50)
pareshjain posts the small blind of $2
dot_carter posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dot_carter [Ac Tc]
pareshjain raises to $12
dot_carter raises to $36
pareshjain calls $24
*** FLOP *** [8s 9s 3d]
dot_carter bets $55
pareshjain calls $55
*** TURN *** [8s 9s 3d] [Td]
dot_carter checks
pareshjain bets $182
dot_carter calls $182
*** RIVER *** [8s 9s 3d Td] [9h]
dot_carter checks
pareshjain bets $424
dot_carter calls $424
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pareshjain shows [Kh Ts] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
dot_carter shows [Ac Tc] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
dot_carter wins the pot ($1,393.50) with two pair, Tens and Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,394 | Rake $0.50
Board: [8s 9s 3d Td 9h]
Seat 1: pareshjain (small blind) showed [Kh Ts] and lost with two pair, Tens and Nines
Seat 2: dot_carter (big blind) showed [Ac Tc] and won ($1,393.50) with two pair, Tens and Nines

Deep stack heads up is fun!

FullTiltPoker Game #2557521030: Table Ahey (heads up) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:48:39 ET - 2007/06/01
Seat 1: pareshjain ($1,863.10)
Seat 2: dot_carter ($1,543.80)
pareshjain posts the small blind of $2
dot_carter posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dot_carter [7d Td]
pareshjain raises to $12
dot_carter raises to $36
pareshjain calls $24
*** FLOP *** [6c Qh 9d]
dot_carter bets $55
pareshjain raises to $145
dot_carter calls $90
*** TURN *** [6c Qh 9d] [5s]
dot_carter checks
pareshjain checks
*** RIVER *** [6c Qh 9d 5s] [4d]
dot_carter bets $255
pareshjain has 15 seconds left to act
pareshjain calls $255
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dot_carter shows [7d Td] (Queen Ten high)
pareshjain shows [3c Ac] (Ace Queen high)
pareshjain wins the pot ($871.50) with Ace Queen high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $872 | Rake $0.50
Board: [6c Qh 9d 5s 4d]
Seat 1: pareshjain (small blind) showed [3c Ac] and won ($871.50) with Ace Queen high
Seat 2: dot_carter (big blind) showed [7d Td] and lost with Queen Ten high

This was the hand that made me realize what a mega fish he was. I got him to call me with A high 4-5 more times in the session when I actually had a hand.

FullTiltPoker Game #2557452749: Table Ahey (heads up) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:19:27 ET - 2007/06/01
Seat 1: pareshjain ($2,749)
Seat 2: dot_carter ($666.60)
pareshjain posts the small blind of $2
dot_carter posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dot_carter [7h 7d]
pareshjain raises to $12
dot_carter raises to $36
pareshjain calls $24
*** FLOP *** [6h 7c 3s]
dot_carter bets $55
pareshjain calls $55
*** TURN *** [6h 7c 3s] [5d]
dot_carter checks
pareshjain bets $182
dot_carter calls $182
*** RIVER *** [6h 7c 3s 5d] [Qc]
dot_carter checks
pareshjain bets $546
dot_carter calls $393.60, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $152.40 returned to pareshjain
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pareshjain shows [Tc 8c] (Queen Ten high)
dot_carter shows [7h 7d] (three of a kind, Sevens)
dot_carter wins the pot ($1,332.70) with three of a kind, Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,333.20 | Rake $0.50
Board: [6h 7c 3s 5d Qc]
Seat 1: pareshjain (small blind) showed [Tc 8c] and lost with Queen Ten high
Seat 2: dot_carter (big blind) showed [7h 7d] and won ($1,332.70) with three of a kind, Sevens

Had to let him bluff of his stack here.

I think I'm going to work some Omaha into the rotation. It seems like a fun change of pace, especially if people play this bad:

FullTiltPoker Game #2602540992: Table Atlantic (6 max) - $1/$2 - Pot Limit Omaha - 2:19:30 ET - 2007/06/07
Seat 1: ykamikaze ($267.35)
Seat 2: dot_carter ($396)
Seat 3: sweets166 ($506.25)
Seat 4: marcjays ($321.30)
Seat 5: monkey68 ($164.95)
Seat 6: ClownBluff ($198)
ClownBluff posts the small blind of $1
ykamikaze posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dot_carter [Ah As 7c 9h]
dot_carter raises to $7
sweets166 raises to $24
marcjays calls $24
monkey68 folds
ClownBluff folds
ykamikaze calls $22
dot_carter raises to $121
sweets166 calls $97
marcjays has 15 seconds left to act
marcjays folds
ykamikaze folds
*** FLOP *** [8s 5d 8c]
dot_carter bets $275, and is all in
sweets166 calls $275
dot_carter shows [Ah As 7c 9h]
sweets166 shows [4h Js Qd Qh]
*** TURN *** [8s 5d 8c] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [8s 5d 8c 2d] [8h]
dot_carter shows a full house, Eights full of Aces
sweets166 shows a full house, Eights full of Queens
dot_carter wins the pot ($838) with a full house, Eights full of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $841 | Rake $3
Board: [8s 5d 8c 2d 8h]
Seat 1: ykamikaze (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: dot_carter showed [Ah As 7c 9h] and won ($838) with a full house, Eights full of Aces
Seat 3: sweets166 showed [4h Js Qd Qh] and lost with a full house, Eights full of Queens
Seat 4: marcjays folded before the Flop
Seat 5: monkey68 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: ClownBluff (small blind) folded before the Flop

Finally a graph of my last 35k hands at full tilt. It's a shame I can't get bodog into the graph as well!



Jared and I are leave for the Vegas road trip tomorrow, and will be making a stop in San Antonio to catch game 2 of the NBA finals. We are taking our time to get to the WSOP since we don't have the house till the 16th. We were both too pumped to sit around the apt anymore so we figured that we might as well go see a the basketball game. I've never been to the finals of a big sports before, hopefully this will be the first of many big sporting events I attend in the near future. We still need to do the pre WSOP competition I wrote about earlier. We will most likely get it done on the way to Vegas. The real question is should I make Jared dye his hair pink, blue, or red when I crush him?

Poker Weekend #1 Part 3

We both went light on actual poker play on Sunday. Jared spent the whole day going over his poker tracker database and I got a massage in between 2 1k hand sessions. It really topped off a very relaxing weekend. My back usually gets pretty stiff after a long poker session, so I might have to make it a habit to get a massage every other week or so. Maybe there is even a place near by that also does happy endings.

I returned to play my second session of the day and managed a massive $13 win to close out the weekend. Before we packed up and left we both went over all the hands we played over the weekend and had some pretty interesting poker theory discussions. We both decided that this would be the tradition for the end of every poker retreat. Digging into your PT database and really going over problem hands is probably the best way to make fast improvements in your game. I know I came out of the weekend a much better player than I entered.

We will definitely be doing more of these in the future; maybe we can even get some other dynasty members to come as well. I think it would be pretty fun to get a small group together and do nothing but play and talk poker for a week. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

The Grand Bohemian Hotel

Nice.... but no where near Jared's whip

Jared's Poker/Smoke Station

Can't have a poker weekend without red bulls on ice

The hotel came with complimentary bad beat protection

Pimpin' Ain't Easy