It’s been over a week and I still can’t shake the image. Her bovine body…bloated face…open mouth…chewing…and chewing…

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It was horrible. But first, the…


Home game

I was running a little late for my WSOP Vegas trip number 2, jamming for a Saturday morning flight out of LAX into Las Vegas to meet lakong and Shaniac for breakfast and maybe hunt down nath and Adanthar before Event #38.

I'd overslept after dealing a home tournament the Friday night before. It’s a real berry patch but becoming a bit of a pain. I deal one table and supervise another, the food's terrible, the smoking's a drag and it's an hour in traffic to get there. AND the host always forgets to restock Jack Daniels. I keep telling myself "Never again", but it’s at the home of a good friend and it's so SOFT…

This particular Friday night we had 18 players for a $100 buy-in freeze-out. The skill mix of players ranges from bad to horrible with two of my favorite indicators of EV- decision-making—smoking and tattoos—prominent. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lower back tat (on a girl) as much as the next guy, but Chinese characters or tribal images on a Hispanic or white guy? If he’s not in prison, I think even Mike Tyson’s gonna check the mirror when he’s mid-50s or so and regret the face tattoo. And smoking's been a known carcinogen for what, 40 years now?

Even without body art and controlled substances, the play’s laughable. Guys are super loose early and then, with the bubble in sight, they seize up like an engine without oil. Here's a sampling of the bumbling…

Hand 1. Early in the tournament, I picked up KK in the BB. With one limper to me, I raised 4x the blinds. In this game, there are three types of raises—min raises, 10+x raises and me raising 3-4x depending on position. The flop was Q high rags and I made a half pot bet. “I know you have a good hand.” he winced and called. Turn was an A, not so good in this game. I bet half the pot again. Call. Ugh. River's a blank. I checked, basically insisting that he take the pot from me with any decent bet, but he whiffed the cue and checked behind. KK > TT. Nice.

Hand 2. With the blinds at 100/200, a 15x stack in no danger of blinding out pushed and was insta-called by a somewhat larger stack. The original raiser showed 32o (light for even this game) and the caller, a more reasonable KK. 2 on the flop, 2 on the turn…32o > KK and is promptly renamed The Conrad, after its talented proponent.

Hand 3. Down to 14 players with the blinds at 100/200, there was an UTG raise to me with KK—I re-raised. Behind me in rapid succession…all-in…all-in…original raiser all-in. I had everyone covered and called with confidence. KK v AQ v 88 v AK and, frankly, I was surprised at the quality of the hands—there’s usually a misplaced AJo or QJs in this mix. I feared the worst, but K on the flop and I knocked three guys out at once. Note to self: tip the dealer.

A few hands later, we consolidated to one table and I was feeling good with the #2 stack. #1 stack was a calling station and I could pretty much walk into the money from here. Until, of course…

Hand 4. Blinds were 200/400, two limpers to me with TT with a stack of 7500 or so. I made it 2000 straight hoping to narrow it down. Big stack called. Flop came Kx9. Checked to me, I bet out 2000. Big stack called. Turn was a T, at the site of which, he…pushed? I dismissed the possible straight and called only to be shown QJo for the nifty “out-of-position limp/call pre-flop, call flop bet with gutter and turn a straight” push. The river bricked and I was out two spots from the money. I briefly considered beating him to death with a pizza box but decided that I couldn’t conceivably post bail in time for my morning flight and instead opted to take a little break to regroup.

The great thing about dealing this game is that when I take a beat like that, I get to stick around and see my chips squandered away. I’ve never been divorced but it strikes me kind of like making alimony payments. You know you’re paying some personal trainer somewhere, and for what? Her butt’s never fitting into a size 4 (and certainly not for your benefit) and there’s no fixing stupid. True to form, chip leader started spewing—limp calling any two—and blew off half his stack limp calling Q3o all-in pre-flop v KK. He finished third, I think. The rest of the evening was more of the same spewage with a God-sent chop around midnight. Never again…


Event #38 No Limit Hold’em $1500 buy-in

As it turns out, I made the flight easily and got into Vegas around 9:30. I grabbed a Town Car over to lakong’s hotel and we head over to the Rio to meet Shaniac for breakfast. When we got there, the line at the Sao Paolo Café was a good 30+ minutes, not good. Fortunately, lakong channeled his inner New Yorker and annoyed them into giving us Platinum player card treatment. Shaniac, kong and I caught up a little over egg white omelettes and then made our way over to Amazon room.

Event #38 was a $1500 NL event with another nice Saturday turn-out—2,778 entries for a prize pool of $3.8 million total prize pool, $673,628 to the winner. I was hoping to hook up with Adanthar and nath but both ran late and were in the alternate line when the tournament started.

Two hands in, at 25/50, it was folded to me holding 98 in MP. I raised to 150 and the BB (some dude from NYC) called. Q22 flop and he led out for 150. WTF…do I look that much like a weak tight chooch? I’m re-raising that bullshit BB lead out 100% of the time. 99% of the time, he’s not sporting a set and certainly not here. I made it 450 and he collapsed like McCain’s fledging presidential bid.

A quick look around the table.

#10 seat was Isaac Haxton, runner up at the 2007 PCA.



#9 seat was…uh…I can’t remember.

#8 seat was the New Yorker from hand above.

#7 seat was a Swedish guy. He and Isaac seemed to know each other and chattered non-stop about online high stakes cash game hands, every one of which was “SO sick.”

#6 seat was a Jabba the Hut look-alike sporting garish neck chains and a Commerce Casino hat. And not just any CC hat—the cheesy one with the gold lame lettering. Two or three hands into the tournament, he set up a portable fan in a room that was running about 50 degrees Farenheit. Nice, Jabba is a sweater.

#5 was a likable kid who’s laughing off that he’s sharing the dealer box with Jabba the Sweaty Hut.

#4 seat was a big guy in sunglasses who looked like he could play.

#3 seat was a recently engaged weak tightie from NC.

#2 seat was me.

#1 seat to my right was a 40-ish guy dress in all black. Black suit, black silk shirt. Dude, this is $1500 event on a Saturday afternoon. Hold the suave.

Some hands…

At 25/50, I’m on the dealer button with 99. The cutoff (Man in Black) limped and I raised to 200. Flop was 866. MIB checked to me, and I bet 350. Limp/caller check-raised to $650 but didn’t look happy about it so I tossed in three one hundred chips. Turn was a Q. Checked to me. I checked behind planning to call a reasonable non-A river bet. River was a deuce and he again checked to me. I figure I’m good here for sure and bet 700. He called and showed 99 for a split pot. Ok, that was too much thinking for a chop.

At 50/100, Jabba raised to 300 from the dealer button. The Swedish kid, in the small blind with 1350 chips, re-raised to 800, and Jabba put him in. Jabba showed AQs; Swedish kid showed A3o. A3o < AQs and Isaac needed someone new to talk to.

Soon after, either losing his will to live or anxious to continue the conversation at the rail, Isaac shoved on a MP raiser for about 1500. The original raiser called instantly with AA; Isaac showed 88. Funny, he never broke stride from the story he was telling to the guy next to him. Flop was A99 and Isaac was out.

At the same 50/100 level, Man in Black again limped from the dealer button. With a K66 flop, an UTG limper bet 200 into the 400-ish pot. MIB starts counting out chips, shaking like John Daly with a Diet Coke, and called. I’m not sure why EP continued to bet with the I HAVE A SIX sign flashing, but he did. More shaking by MIB…call. Finally, EP shut down at the river but still called a half pot river bet. MIB proudly showed J6. Gee, no kidding. I guess the black suit does have the added advantage that if he wet his pants it wouldn’t show.

A few hands later, Jabba raised to 350 from the CO and the big blind re-raised to 1300. Jabba called and the flop fell QTx. Check. Check. Turn was a blank. Check. Check. River was a K. Check. Check. Jabba’s AK > JJ. I was embarrassed for them both.

I made the first break with 2850 in chips, but after a few orbits of 95o-ish hands and a nice “raise, whiff, continue, fold to raise” effort by me our table broke and I was moved to a new table with 2000-ish. As soon as I sat down—middle position or so—a guy directly to my right pushed. I haven’t even stored my backpack under the seat, but pick up KK and called. Oddly enough, KK > A8o and I doubled up to 4600-ish.

A few hands later, I had Q8o in BB. SB, the same guy who pushed on me with A8o, completed. Flop came Q9x and he led out with 200 bet into a 600 pot. “What is that?” I thought and banged it up to 700. I figured he’d insta-fold his 9, but he shoved—not exactly what I was hoping for. I thought for a second, ruled out a set, concluded that looked like JT or a crappy Q and called. Sure enough, he showed Q4o. Nice…I’m 2:1 to double up. Runner runner, paired board. As the dealer was splitting the chips, Q4o donk brayed, “I didn’t know you had a monster. Sorry.” Ugh.

A few hands later, the same guy limped and I raised to 800 with 99. Flop came AJT with two spades and he insta-shoved. I can’t even imagine what hand he was playing there, but I’m guessing my nines were behind.

An orbit or so later, I doubled up with AT when a big stack called my pre-flop raise and T high flop shove with 88. The table broke shortly thereafter and I headed to table 31 with 8000 chips when I saw it…


The Beast

We were still at 100/200/25 and I was feeling good about my stack, call it 8400 chips, when a water buffalo in a Full Tilt fisherman’s hat limped from EP. Her size alone would give most guys pause but she compounded her presence by chewing gum/reeds/whatever with her mouth agape. I was nauseated, of course, but composed myself and raised to 700 with A7. The table collapsed back to the beast, who stopped chewing long enough to count out a call. The flop was 764 and she tapped a hoof on the table, still chewing. I tried my best to block the image and bet out for 2000. Back to her, she gave me a look like I’d made a move toward her feedbag and shoved. I asked for a count but concluded she pretty much had me covered.

I’d like to say I thought out the full range of hands this masticator could have, but to be honest, I just wanted the wretched site out of my mind. I rationalized that given my stack and hers and the action, top top was no good and mucked the hand. Adanther, nath et al. later ridiculed the decision, but at the time I felt like Roy Munson confronted by his landlady in Kingpin. I just wanted it over.

A few hands later, still nauseous, I dodged a bullet when I folded 77 to an UTG raise and MP shove. An orbit or so later with the blinds at 150/300/25, I raised to 900 with AKo UTG. An old timer called 600 from BB. I whiffed the flop but re-raised to 1800 when he led out with 400 into the 2000+ pot. Did I mention that that’s a real hand like, never? Due respect to Super System, of course.

Fast forward to 200/400/50. I’m UTG + 3 with 6600 chips. I raised to 1200 with 66. Uber-tight guy behind me shoved and it’s back to me, another 5000 to call. Hmmm…have you even played a hand in over an hour, sir? Uh, no thanks.

At this point, a big stack joined the table in the #10 seat just in time to post. UTG (number #1 seat) open-raised to 1600. Table folded around and the big stack called. Flop brought all low diamonds. BB checked and UTG shoved for well over 10,000 chips. BB stood up, clearly agitated, re-checked his hand and the board. “I guess I have to call.” he said and turned over J8 for the flopped the flush. “Yes,” I’m thinking. “Yes, you do. No way a big diamond flush pushes there.” Sure enough, UTG showed QQ, no diamonds. One minute, he was the #2 stack at the table. Next minute, he was headed to the rail as a 45:1 dog from the flop. Nice work.

An orbit or so later, I was short with 4000 and it’s folded to me with ATo on DB. I shove con gusto and a medium stack called and showed Ac7x. T on the flop (nice!), two clubs. Runner runner clubs and I’m flushed from the tournament. Lovely.


Nath confronts a crustacean

After I busted, I met up with Adanthar and nath, both of whom had beaten me to the rail. We headed over to Buzio’s, the Rio's fish restaurant, picking up mlagoo, SuperfluousMan, et al. along the way. It was about 6:30p, well before the dinner rush, so I thought we’d be eating by 6:45p easy. Nope. Since we were obvious degenerates, the hostesses brushed off our request for a table for "6 or so, maybe more…" with open disdain. As we reviewed our options, I stepped back to the podium, gave one of the hostesses a hundie and asked her to keep us in mind if another party didn't show. Most staffers in Las Vegas respect a nice note signed by the Secretary of the Treasury and these harlots were no exception. They found us a spot in less than a minute.

Dinner was somewhat uneventful other than being howled at for my fold to the Full Tilt heifer (“You had top top!” “It’s live! People suck live!”) and watching nath try to figure out how to eat a lobster. None of us had eaten all day so we pretty much tore up the bread basket like we’d just been released from prison. Drinks, appetizers followed by more reflection on the unseemly play we’d all witnessed earlier.

There was an awkward moment when the waitress brought nath’s entrée, a lobster roughly the size of a small dog. I grew up in Maine and have probably eaten more lobster than hotdogs. Nath, though, looked at his entrée with the look of a man who’s seen a duck speak. Taking the initiative, I cracked the bastard open (the lobster, not nath) and set him upon it. Dude, by the way, that green stuff isn’t wasabi.

After dinner, there was some talk of credit card roulette but this was the day BEFORE mlagoo’s Sunday Millions score, so I waved everyone off and settled up. Part of the group wanted to go play craps, but kong and I wanted to torture ourselves in a couple more satellites. Before we split, kong flagged down a casino patron to take this photo. Although it looks like a Civil War era lithograph, it was, in fact, taken in June of this year.



Left to right…EdmondDantes, Adanthar, mlagoo, SuperfluousMan, nath, [player to be name later] and lakong


Back to the grind

Lakong and I headed back to the Amazon room to play a couple of single table satellites. Once again, the $525s were seating quickly. In the first one, I was in the #10 seat, with Tony Ma was two to my right. Kong sat across the table in the #6 seat.

On the first hand, I busted the #9 seat…by mistake. I was UTG with AKo and tossed out a 100 chip intending to raise. Oops. Three callers including the BB. The BB led out for 100 on the K high flop and I raised to 350. Back to him, he shoved. Eww. I thought for a second, figured that was too strong to be a set or two pair and called. He showed KQo, didn’t improve and I doubled up.

Play was, once again, stupid soft. I twice saw flopped nut flushes check/checked to river. Ma busted out with 6A446 board after another gripping flop check/check turn check/check sequence when he made an inspired re-raise all-in on the river…with air…and was called by guy with a crappy A. It was like watching the opening sequence of the old Wide World of Sports in which Vinko Bogataj crashes spectacularly without even clearing the ramp.

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As it turns out, Ma at least made good use of his time. On the other hand, I managed to waste a little under two hours by working down my nice stack until three-handed when I pushed from DB with A2o and was promptly called by BB with A6o. 2 on the flop (the thrill of victory!), 6 on the turn (the agony of defeat!) and I was out. Ship the stretcher.

Disgusted by that showing, I did what any proven degenerate would do—I signed up for another. This one had the same woman who cracked my A2o with A6o and a friend of hers seated at the table. I was once again in the #10 seat and directly to my right was a short guy (maybe 5’ tall) wearing a top hat, sitting on two stacked seat cushions. He looked a bit like the town gadfly in High Plains Drifter* or Dr. Miguelito Loveless, the psychotic midget in the old Wild Wild West TV series.



The first level was uneventful other than me raising UTG with AKo (indeed, raising this time), continuing and being blown off the hand by re-raise shove. That and a guy who said this was his first live tournament, flopping quads with pocket aces and flopping a boat with pocket queens AND stacking another player both times. Oh, and another girl drawing AA twice and doubling up both times. Other than those hands, the first level was pretty standard.

It got a little interesting with the blinds at 25/50, when Dr. Loveless limp/called a raise to 200 by a woman in the #4 seat. The flop brought all low cards and he quickly shoved for 1700. The woman looked for a second and called, tabling AA. He showed…KTo? After he slunk from the table in shame, the other woman in the #5 seat commented, "He only did that because you were a woman.” No, hon, he only did that because he was a moron.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, these 525s are stupid soft. If you wait for a spot, you can easily get it in as a 3 or 4 to 1 favorite. I folded to the third level (50/100), when an EP raiser made it 325 to go on my blind. I looked down at KK…ok…here’s my spot. I paused for effect and then pushed for 1800 hoping to look weak. As it was, no Hollywooding was necessary, the EP raiser called instantly with QQ. Excellent. First card off on the flop was a Q, however, and I was out. Not so excellent.

I’d had enough carnage for one day and headed back to lakong’s room to crash on the couch. The couch folded out into a bed—a mattress bowl, more accurately. It wouldn’t have been bad, but the A/C was blowing directly on me all night. I spent the better part of the night shivering, with outside temperatures around 90 degrees or so.

The next morning we headed over to Starbucks to find a decent internet connection and ended up camping out there until noon or so when the infinite loop of the new Paul McCartney album got to be unbearable. Kong decided to play the mixed NL/limit event at 5p so we grabbed a bite at the Palms before I headed off to the airport and back to LA.

Overall, I guess I’d say I was happy with my play but disgusted with the results, an increasingly common WSOP result for me. I’m still haunted by my confrontation with the water buffalo, but watching the ongoing comedy of live play, meeting mlagoo before he got all huge with his Sunday Millions win and witnessing a one on one between nath and a lobster made the trip worth it. I guess.

Still looking to get even,

Edmond


*That character, Mordecai, was played by Billy Curtis, a veteran actor in Hollywood whose role credits ranged from playing an original munchkin in the Wizard of Oz (and, according to legend, hit on Dorothy constantly) to Mayor McCheese from the inception of the character by McDonalds until his death. McDonalds retired the character after his passing in the late 1980s.

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WSOP Event #15 $1500 NL: In which Dana goes deep, Edmond chops an STT and Adanthar continues his war with luck...


The Setup

My buddy and I flew out to Las Vegas on Saturday morning for Event #10, ($1500 NL). I had planned to head out the night before, but my schedule got spun around a little so I couldn’t head out until the morning. I had a little nervous moment when the self-serve kiosk couldn’t confirm my flight reservation (gotta love that when you get stiff-armed by an ATM at the airport at 5a) but I managed to get on a 7:30a American flight and into Las Vegas well before 9a. I hooked up with Dana (he was on a different flight), grabbed a limo and headed to the Wynn to drop off our bags. Then on to the Rio to register, grab some breakfast with PianoMan and maybe meet up with nath and Adanthar before the event.

Registration went smoothly (<10 minutes) given the time of day, my existing Harrahs rewards card and cash in hand. Dana's registration took slightly longer since he needed to get a Harrahs card and had pre-registered (courtesy of an LA charity event where he felted 200+ other players), but the total time start to finish was <20 minutes.

The lines for the 2p event started to form around 11a, and by 1:30p, they were very long. If you’re going to register for a weekend event, you should try to get to the registration area before 11a to avoid the lines.

After registering, we headed over to the Café Sao Paolo to meet PianoMan for breakfast before he headed back to St. Louis for a break before the Main Event. We had an interesting breakfast with him, his brother and girlfriend and Derek Lerner, who had some entertaining “some girl named Brandi was hitting on me” scoop. PianoMan recapped his week—a 35th place finish in the 6-handed event for 7 grand, a couple of bust-outs and some nice cash game wins. We finished up around 12p and headed back to the tournament area to get a sense of the set-up.

This year’s layout at the Rio was somewhat different than last year’s. Obvious differences: a smaller exhibit area (no room filled with online site booths) and fewer exhibitors in the hallways; a Poker Kitchen area (basically, a grill set up in an unused convention room—good luck, Rio, getting the smoke and grease smell out of that room), the STT signup area was moved near the cashier cage (instead of presenting cash at the table like last year, you must sign up and received a registration card) and the cash game brush area was set up at the back of the Amazon room. In addition, at the front of the room to the left (facing the cage/cashier) is a large TV table/lounge area for final table type viewing. Some things haven’t changed—there are limited bathrooms. One thing that was really odd was the lack of tournament monitors in the room. For any given tournament, you have to hunt to see a level time monitor.

Anyway, enough on logistics…


Event #15: In and out in just under four hours

Event #15 was a $1500 NL event and like the other relatively low buy-in weekend events drew a big field—2,628 entrants, prize pool of about $3.6 million. A look are the crowd...



You can see the Bluff Magazine reporting here.

I was seated at table 157, seat 3. It was an uneventful table; no big names, no crazy hands. I made it through several rounds with a few playable hands—AQo, 88—no big pairs, no suited connectors. With the blinds at 100/200/25 and a stack of 2500 or so, I needed to get busy and pushed with 77 to pick up the blinds and antes. A couple of hands later, I doubled up all-in with AJs v A8s and was feeling somewhat better about my stack. I then promptly lost about a third of my chips in the following hand.

I made it 600 in middle position with AQ and was called some guy in a cowboy hat on the dealer button. I fired 1K at the 973 board, and Tex shoved. Ugh. I asked the dealer for a count and thought for a minute. It was about 4500 or so more for me to call into a 6500-ish pot. I figured I was at best 50/50 if my flush draw and over-cards were good and pitched the hand. Tex showed TT. I thought he had some sort of made hand when he pushed and had I really thought it out, I probably could've concluded that he didn’t have A or K and my draw and over-cards were indeed good. Worst case, he had a set; best case, a worse draw.

In any event, I was in tough shape with 2800 chips a few hands later, when utg+1 raised. Next to act, I picked up 99 and shoved. The table folded to the raiser, he showed QQ and when the other nines refused to present themselves, I was out. I wasn't unhappy with my play but I'm definitely rethinking the AQ hand.

As it turns out, Adanthar had busted out a few hands earlier so I met him at the rail behind nath, who was still in decent shape with a 20BB stack. My friend, Dana, was on fumes but scratching his way along. At this point, it was about 4:30p and I hadn’t eaten all day, so Adanthar and I had lunch before hitting a couple of STTs.


$525 STTs…Charmin soft

The STT set-up is, as I mentioned above, a line by the cashier area. It looks more formidable than it is. Both times Adanthar and I got on line for a $525, we were seated within minutes. This year, though, you have to show your rewards card/register/pay at the cashier and take a registration card to your table. It's actually somewhat more efficient than the old "pay at the table" approach since the dealers aren't handling money at the table. A few pics...

STT sign-up line



Satellite area



The structure

$525 structure


STT #1

Our table included an Iraqi ex-pat with reddish hair. Imagine a 60-ish, short, stocky Saddam Hussein-lookalike with red hair and no poker skills and you’d have our guy. On my right was some guy to my right that kept ranting about beats he’d been taking. To my left, some guy from North Dakota now living in Utah. Adanthar was across the table in the 7 or 8 seat. To his left, a quiet Asian guy; to his right, a woman from somewhere in Texas.

An interesting exchange developed at 50/100 when the complainer to my right raised to 300 from the dealer button, I folded my SB, but Dakota called. The board was all low cards and Dakota led out for 800. Complainer pushed and Dakota waffled and folded KK because "I know you've got aces." Complainer and he then get into an ongoing exchange about who really had what. Complainer claimed he had JJ and Dakota claimed he had KK; both insisted each other was lying. I was sandwiched in between, bemused, trying not to call them both out as idiots.

Early on, Adanthar had doubled up and was the chip leader at the table. With about 6-7 of us left and the blinds at 50/100, I make what he later reminded me was a revealing (aka donkish) 4x raise to 400 with JJ utg. Read his thoughts on betting tells here. The table folded to Adanthar, who waved at the pot like he was shoeing kittens out of a kitchen—all-in. I tanked for about 15-20 seconds (enough time to reflect on how much it would suck to see QQ here) and called. Fortunately, he showed AKo and, because he’s running so delightfully bad, I doubled up.

20 minutes later with the blinds at 100/200, I raised to 800 with QQ from early position (another revealing raise, in retrospect). The big stack at the table, now a woman, pushed and showed AKo when I called. The board bricked off and I was the new chip leader.

A few hands later, Complainer and Dakota mixed it up again. Dakota limped and called Complainer's min-raise from the dealer button. Flop was non-descript and Dakota check-raised all-in when Complainer bet. Dakota showed K5, no pair, no draw v Complainer's AA. Runner 5, runner K and Complainer went off, howling about how bullshit it all was. Two hands later he pushed on my BB with Q9o. With 5 to 1 odds, I called with J5d and promptly flopped a jack. Turn and river, no help and he was apoplectic. Whatever, pal.

So now we're down to five players with the blinds at 200/400…me, Adanthar, Dakota, Saddam and an Asian guy hiding in seat 10, who both Adanthar and I pegged as competent. Dakota raised from EP; Asian guy called from the blind. The flop came A76. Asian guy checked and Dakota shoved. Asian guy tanked and called for his stack. Dakota showed 96 and (in)competent Asian showed 45.



96s>45o and we were down to four.

A few minutes later, Dakota shoved some POS hand and lost to Saddam's AA so it was me, Saddam and Adanthar for the money. With the blinds at 200/400 or thereabouts, Saddam raised Adanthar and then called his AJo shove with A2s. Flop came AAKx…2 and Adanthar was out. Gruesome.

At this point, Iraqi guy had me covered 2:1 but immediately proposed a 3:2 money chop in which he would pay the taxes and dealer tip. I’m pretty sure I was EV+ there but I took the 2 grand and headed off to play another one.

I deal in a home game the first Friday of every month where players routinely stack off with hands like pocket tens on a AK772 three heart board. The competition in the $525 STTs is somewhere between that home game and a $20 sit-n-go on Party circa 2004. Seriously.


STT #2

The 2nd STT had a slightly tougher line-up, figure a Stars $20 regular sit-n-go, circa 2005. Early on, I was the SB, with AKo facing an EP raiser, two callers. I usually re-raise here without a second thought, but I just completed, whiffed the flop and check/folded like a nit.

A few hands later I was UTG with AKo and tossed a 100 chip in intending to raise but didn’t state “raise.” so I ended up with two callers. Hate that. The SB bet the KK5 flop and I raised hoping he had a crappy K. “5 no good?”, he asked and folded.

Adanthar busted relatively early when his flopped two pair < KJ no pair flush draw all-in on the flop. I lasted somewhat longer but with less than 10BB found myself utg with JJ. I pushed and was insta-called by DB with 99. Brick, brick, brick, brick…9…and I’m out.


Back to Event #15

At this point, it was getting late 10p or so and I wasn't happy with how I was thinking or playing (see AK hands above) so I checked in on Dana. He was riding a short-stack roller coaster. All-in with K2s multi-way and spiking a K. Then all-in with KK v AQo and getting savaged by a river A. Nonetheless, he was kicking and scratching his way along as the field narrowed from 2600 toward the money—260 or so.

At one point, pulled me over. “There’s this guy in an Ultimate Bet jacket at the next table. What a tool.” I told him that’s Phil Hellmuth and make a silent prayer to the poker gods that they’ll put them at the same table. If anyone will call Hellmuth out as a complete and utter tool, it’ll be my friend. And, with any luck, it'll be on camera.

Around 11p or so, the bubble broke and everyone burst into cheers. Dana was a little perplexed by this, “Are you serious? Net fifteen hundred for 10 hours of work? An ugly call girl in this town makes $300 an hour. You guys need some perspective.” Dana’s just likable enough where this cracked up the entire table. If I had said it, I’d have been pelted with cell phones and iPods.

I sweated him for another couple of hours or so until they had their final break at around 1a. He was kind of cooked at this point, but they were breaking for the night at 2a so I told him to hang in there and avoid anything stupid. He said was fine but sat down at the wrong table at the end of the break. I steered him to his table and kept my fingers crossed that he had another 45 minutes of cogent thought. He did and we were on to Day 2.


Day 2

Sunday morning we met up at the gym in the Wynn for a quick workout before heading back to the Rio. Note: anyone who's serious about playing live poker has to COMMIT to a healthy diet and regular exercise. It's easy to fall into an unhealthy lifestyle—the extended sitting, irregular meals, stress, dehydration. A look around the poker room should give you all the confirmation you need—lots of out-of-shape guys, bad posture, poor food choices, smoking. That's not a winning line for guys without health insurance.

At the start of Day 2, the field was now down to 120 or so (nath busted the night before in 226th) so they moved into a smaller roped off area at the Rio. At this point, his stack was still below average but not horrible. Dana moved in just enough to stay ahead of the blinds—A5o, ATo, etc.—making progress only through field attrition.

After a couple of hours, Matt LaGarde sat down at Dana’s table with what looked to be about 200k+ chips, easily the big stack at the table. I pulled Dana aside and reminded him that Matt could raise and re-raise light, so any decent ace or pair was likely good. On the very next hand, Dana raised half his stack from middle position and Matt put him in from the blind. They showed TT v AJo, and because Dana runs better than Chad Johnson against a horse, he won his third TT coin flip of the tournament and doubled up. Matt apparently runs even better, because just an orbit later he rebuilt his stack to over 300k when another decent stack pushed AKs into his AA big blind.

TT holds yet again...




Taken out by a SKIRT

So now the field was thinning quickly…94…87…72…and moving toward better money. It's really funny how focused some players are on the various money jumps. At one point, a middle position medium stack held up AJs (showing his friend behind him) and FOLDED it in an unopened pot. WTF? I was tempted to yell “You SKIRT!” but I was full on multi-tasking at this point, taking pictures, texting nath keeping him up on Matt's progress and PianoMan on Dana's, chatting via phone with Dana's little brother and didn’t feel like spending the rest of the tournament outside on the curb. But seriously, WTF? How do you fold AJs in an unopened pot with 60 players left? Even more surprising, another player openly insisted he was only playing premium hands. He was fortunate to triple up with AA and AKs but still, he was obviously exploitable.

I thought about mentioning the AJs fold to Dana on the next break, but a few hands later Skirt raised from the button and Dana pushed with JJ. Skirt insta-called with AA and Dana was out in 56th with 10 grand for his 21 hours of work. It was sort of anti-climatic but a nice cash nonetheless.

Over 20 hours of poker (600+ hands), Dana never had AA. He had KK twice and both times it was cracked, once by Ax, once by 85o. Even more damning, he had TT all-in three times and each time it held. Hmmm…56th with no premium hands holding up…

When we were waiting to give Dana’s info in the cash out line, there was some big dude in full on Harley gear SOBBING like someone had trashed his vintage Shovelhead. Wow, dude…get a grip already. In any event, they presented Dana with a stack of hundreds and we were off to the Wynn for a nice dinner before the run home.


Wynner, Wynner…Chinese dinner

A note on the Wynn. The Wynn is a beautiful hotel, the nicest casino/hotel/spa property on the Strip in my opinion. Unfortunately, the desk and concierge staff aren’t as accommodating as the property. This was the second time I’ve stayed at the Wynn; both times I was treated like a panhandling railbird. For example, I checked in late (3a) and although I had a confirmed and paid for reservation for a non-smoking room, I was given a smoking room. When I called the front desk and asked if I could be moved at some point later in the day, the front desk person dismissed me with “No one guarantees non-smoking rooms.” She might just as well have said, “We have your monies, fish. Too bad.” Similarly, when my buddy and I called the concierge at 6p on Sunday after he busted out and asked for a reservation at a restaurant, the concierge brushed me off with “This late in the day? Our restaurants are very popular.” I basically had to beg to get a table a Wing Lei, the Chinese restaurant, which, btw, was great. We ended up running up a $800 bill for two—a 56th place finish, Peking duck and Opus One will definitely build a pot—and the food and service were top notch.

On the way back to the room after dinner, I looked in the other restaurants. They obviously had tables available. It’s a shame the desk and concierge staff act more like doormen at some vodka/Redbullshit nightclub instead of hospitality personnel at a five star hotel trying to accommodate registered guests. In my opinion, you’re probably better of staying at the Bellagio. It's slightly less nice but centrally located and with a staff that treats you like a guest rather than an inconvenience.


Conclusion

All in all, not a bad weekend. Nice finish by Dana, some tournament chips from the STTs and a good sense of how things are running. I'll probably head back out in another week for more of the squishy STTs and try to satellite in to the Main Event.

Keep digging!

Edmond

In a fit of OCD waiting for room service during my recent Tahoe trip, I compared the 2006 WSOP structure with the revised "double stack" structure for this year's WSOP. I applied the 2006 field attrition (interpreted from PokerWire posts) to both structures. Looks like the play will probably be pretty much the same.

WSOP 2006 structure vs 2007

I think it's going to be interesting to see how many entrants materialize. With online rooms unable to buy in directly for the event, I'm positive the number will be much lower. Think about it fro the typical player. He wins a satellite and Tilt transfers the $10,000+ to his account. For most guys, that's real money and could go a long way toward paying a few bills. I can definitely see a scenario where most satellite winners take the dough pay a few outstanding bills and MAYBE play smaller events or other live satellites to the event. I'm betting the total number of entrants will fall by almost 50%. I don't, though, this means the live poker is dying. The 2007 LA Poker Classic main event had 791 entrants vs. 692 in 2006.

Still digging,

Edmond

Played in a couple tournaments last night in my regular home game. In the first, a $10 buy-in six-handed, winner-take-all, single table donk-n-go, I felted in 6th place when my trip As nine kicker got derailed by trip As jack kicker confirming yet again that Ax hands below AQ are like high school cheerleaders, fun to look at but likely to end up flaking on you. As a general rule, I stay away from the likes of AT and A9 but rationalized playing them here because we were short-handed (6 players) and the blind structure was steep. So much for that.

The second was a $40 buy-in (one allowed rebuy) single table tournament with nine players. I managed to take third in that one on the back of a couple of interesting hands. First, late in the tournament I savaged the same player who bounced me from the first tournament when my KK filled up on the turn. Interestingly, he didn't reraise my pre-flop raise with his jacks. I'm an advocate of reraising with JJ and QQ preflop; I'm happy to take the pot down right there and not face the 50%+ chance I'll be seeing overcards on the flop.

Odds of overcards to your pocket pair hitting the flop

And if I do get repopped, I can pretty much get away from my hand if I'd like. In any event, he didn't reraised and smooth called my EP raise from the button. Flop was 44x; I potted the flop, he called. I boated on the turn when a K hit and checked. He checked behind. When a blank fell on the river, I pushed and he insta-called off all but 200 or so of his chips. That pretty much put me in good shape for the next couple of rounds. Hand #2 showed up when we were four-handed with the blinds at 400/800. With a 9-10k stack, I pushed from under the gun with 77. The big stack called and, amazingly, the short stack at the table called. We showed down 77 v AQo (the big stack) v 22 (the short stack). The AQ prevailed when the board came a nauseating T9KK9 counterfeiting my 7s. Fortunately, the 22 player had a shorter stack so I pocketed $80 for coming in 3rd. After the hand, I was talking with a friend about the lack of awareness of the money position by the 22 player. Given my pushing range and the quick call by the big stack, you'd think he'd sense one of us had a pocket pair and he was in tough shape. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Overall, not a bad session, up a little bit and happy with my play. Except the A9 hand. Still kicking myself over that one!