I don't know how many times I've asked the poker gods to let me flop quads. I know, calling from out of position with medium pocket pairs is stupid, that's why I checked! Plus, 3 other people were going to see this flop so why raise, out of position with 9's?
He bet into me every street too until I was all in :)
It would appear I took a bit longer of a break then I had planned, getting to the last of my trip reports. You know, it happens. It's friggin' cold here and sitting at a computer writing isn't...who am I trying to kid. I played some poker, hung out with the wife and kids playing Uno, I even played a live cash game at the neighbors house. I took a break. Felt good, now back to the story.
You will remember that I busted 13th in the blogger tournament at Aria. Felt good to go deep, sucked to just miss the money by a hair. I thought hard about sweating Drizz on his journey to win the whole thing, but a few months earlier, StB, Katitude and PokerVixen had talked me into getting tickets to the roller derby. I had only ever seen it on TV, so a live match could be a lot of fun!
I left Aria with about 30 minutes to the start of the derby. I normally don't carry a long lens with me without a purpose while in Vegas. They are heavy and big. So I needed to get from Aria to MGM to get my lens and the zip as fast as the monorail can take me to the Riviera on the other end of the strip. Uff. Thankfully, I seem to now my way around the strip like a pro and new to walk quickly from Aria to MGM, dart through the casino avoiding all the tourist pitfalls, up the elevator to the suites, in my room, grab the lens, look longingly at the bed and dream about sleep for a second, then back down the elevator, race through the shopping and food court, thinking about how hungry I was and calculating the time it would take to get food...nope, too long. Hop on the monorail and wait, and wait, and wait.
The MGM and the Riviera are on opposite ends of the train. Sigh. At least there my iPhone was there to keep me busy. Except, at this moment #ATTFAIL was in full affect and my service sucked. VinNay had been texting me, interested in attending the roller derby, but alas, my phone sucked. Data worked, but texting was a nightmare. He ended up doing something else anyways, but damn AT&T.
I get off the monorail at the Las Vegas Hilton. For some reason, I remember the terminal being a lot closer to the Riviera then it was. Could be, I'm pretty much a dumb ass and went the long way, but the nice alley I chose eventually got me there. I really don't recommend taking unknown, poorly lit roads devoid of humans when travelling in Las Vegas. It's really quite creepy and a tad on the scary side. I coped with the situation by cranking Rob Zombie's More Human Than Human and run/walking most of the way there. You know, it might have been really safe but I'm from a small town in Minnesota. I just assume I look like an easy mark.
It took me a while to find the back ballroom hosting the Sin City Rollergirls. The Riviera is what I like to think of as Old School Las Vegas. It's got a lot of glitter, but the smells and the sights are like out of the movies from decades ago. The carpet is really something to behold.
When I arrived, it didn't take me too long to find Kat and PokerVixen. They had pretty decent elevated seats and reserved a nice cushion for me to rest my butt. There was food at the venue and I hadn't eaten since the breakfast at the MGM the previous morning. These burgers weren't spectacular but they did hit the spot.
Seems the Sin City Roller Girls were battling the Hoover Damned. You just have to love the names in roller derby.
I sat with these two fine ladies and enjoyed the action. I really had no idea what was going on, but the ladies helped me out. This is definitely an experience worth checking out. I'd really like to go back next year, hopefully with a faster long lens and a monopod. The following are the shots I got. I'll give some description when necessary, but for the most part, I'll just leave you with the pictures. They do a far better job then I can of sharing with you the night at the derby.
Well, we officially have a for real blog for my whiskey club, aka Bourbonators. To help things along, a few other members will be posting as well cuz we all know I need more blogs. If you are interested it's here: http://www.bourbonators.com - stop by, ask questions, ponder coming to a meeting.
Next meeting is tonight and I've set up emailing posts...which could be occurring while we drink. This could end poorly.
Cheers.
I brought up Facebook tonight to see what's happening in the universe. That's a lot of silly games people play. Full Tilt has been running a lot of freerolls and overlayed tourneys lately starting from social networking Juggernaut. I figured what the hell, the kids and OhCountess went to bed early and I left the Apple TV up in the bedroom.
Tonight last minute, impulsive tournament was 5 card draw. I outlasted well over half of the field and even got a short railing from Mr. AlCantHang. I sure hope he's enjoying the weather up here in God's Country.
Um, kay. I haven't played this (5 card draw) sober since, um, since, um, since...well, I'm not sure I've ever played 5 card draw sober. A few months ago, inaugural Gambling Tales Podcast Freeroll Champion DeeBakes had talked me into playing Deuce to Seven Triple Draw. I had a good time and walked away thinking about stuff. Not life stuff, or profound stuff, but poker stuff.
I liked playing these obscurer games because the remind me of something that seems to be alluding many of the players in the tournaments. The fundamentals of solid tournament poker.
First rule: Know your position. So many players forget the value of position. I haven't found a game yet where position doesn't matter.
Second rule: Know what you are drawing to/trying to accomplish. Drawing to a gut shot straight draw is crazy gambling in any game. If there are more cards to come, have a plan, count your outs, understand what your opponents are trying to do. In 5 card draw, the number of cards a player chucks is important. Think about what kinds of hands a player stands pat, draws 1, 2 or 3 cards. If they don't shove a lot and draw 1, they are probably drawing. Again, reference rule 1 for how and why to remember this. The more cards make your hand a monster, the more valuable it is. 2233 is two pair but only drawing to 4 cards that make it better.
Third rule: Hammers are still cool and should be played like the proverbial nuts. Er, maybe not.
Forth rule: Never play a hand with a 9 in it. It's neither high nor low. Unless you have a lot of them, 9 high/low sucks in all games.
Fifth rule: Stud 8 sucks. (That's my opinion. It's another way of saying, don't expect to make money at games you suck giant monkey balls playing)
Sixth rule: luck, while a part of the game, doesn't win it. You can bet every street, shove every hand but eventually, luck loses to well timed aggression.
Seventh rule: on the word aggression. When you appear strong, raise. When others continually behave weak, bet stronger. No variation of poker rewards the weak, passive player.
Eight rule: while you can't win if you fold, folding and conserving chips can be a very valuable way to stay alive in a tournament. I remember hearing something from Annie Duke, a woman, once said about tournaments on line, (it went something like this, my memory is poor and I don't remember where this from to even look it up) "...a lot of the time, you can just let the weaker players impale themselves on your chips." While this sounds contradictory to the aggressive, not weak thing, this is also important to remember that when a less skilled player is trying to be aggressive, let them do the raising for you when your hand rocks. They don't mind and are really quite good at it.
These rules aren't colorfast and probably aren't even useful. Some (most) are just the ramblings of an overtired geek, but I think this can definitely spur on some conversation. What are your thoughts on rules that transcend games? Why is it, that the more experience I have playing poker, I find learning variations a little easier? Do you really think you can honestly say, your puppy is cuter then mine? (Shameless plug for my photoblog, almost doing the JJOK always link to yourself thing...but I'm only a D lister...)
I think I picked the wrong time to lay down the hammer preflop. What was I thinking?
Played the Mookie. Saw old friends. Lost all my chips. (LB)A2 vs (BB)32. A33 flop. Sigh.
Saturday morning had arrived in Las Vegas. Back in Minnesota, my wife was struggling through one of the worst snow storms we've had in a very long time. The furnace intake pipe had gotten plugged with snow, twice. She was so snowed in, a neighbor in a 4 wheel drive had to take her to work. I honestly had no words for her. I felt terrible sitting in a hotel room, in Las Vegas, enjoying the mid 60's for highs. What could I do? Funny thing, I couldn't even fly home if I wanted to. The airports were all closed.
I pretty much just spent the morning hanging out in my room, watching some cable news and playing some online poker. Stupid I know, but there comes a time when a guy just wants to enjoy the quiet.
The tournament was scheduled to start at noon at Aria. I was really excited to see this place. It opened the day after I left in 2009. Some of the local bloggers had really good things to say and Phil Ivey's Room was there. How cool is that?
Aria and City Center aren't really all that hard to find. They basically define huge. The walk there from MGM isn't too bad. I was hoping to get there early enough for the poker lesson, but that didn't happen. Kinda bummed about that. I did swing by the Louis Vuitton shop for a little motivation. Not that I'd ever want anything there, but I told my wife that if I won the tourney, I'd stop by there on my way out to get her a little something. She just laughed.
The walk into Aria isn't completely finished from the Bellagio side. You are walking around The Cosmopolitan which I believe open THE DAY AFTER I LEFT (I smell conspiracy). When I finally found something with Aria on it, I also ran into CK which was good. She gave me directions to the card room. Aimless wandering could end.
The night before had pretty much decimated my cash supplies. I learned a valuable lesson about modern casinos. The ATM's are label "Coupon" something. I guess it makes sense they want you thinking about cashing out rather then getting more cash.
The card room really is beautiful. It's not quite as secluded as Caesar's but it's not sitting next to a live band. Whew.
For being a subscriber to Card Player magazine, I get these regular emails, the Card Player Newsletter. Now usually, I read the Pro Tips and move on. I get the hard copy of the magazine so I'll usually be reading it later. This one caught my eye. A tip from Thomas Marchese:
It really has to do with patience and not getting frustrated. With live tournaments you are really playing in just a few, even during the course of a year. It is just about playing you're A-game as much as you can until you run good. Everyone is going to run good at some point, so all you can do is play your best consistently and you will have better results eventually. Thomas MarcheseAin't this the truth. I find staying in my A game to be about the hardest thing to do. It becomes increasingly hard when you are trying to focus with kids, a dog, a puppy, a job, a life, just trying to get a slice of your attention. Getting the good run of cards is something that just seems so far away.
, by Tommy Angelo.
So basically, parts one and two got you through Thursday. What can I say, there was a lot to Thursday.
Friday started the way Fridays usually start on this trip. Very slowly and please, for the love of Pete, keep it down. There are headaches among us. It's not like I really slept a lot. I think the total for the night was 3 hours. Weee!
So my credit card receipts show me as having breakfast at the buffet at MGM. This matches my memory fairly well and a photo I took (shown on the right). Again, my company was really the highlight of the meal. Gracie, Pablo and BettyUnderground.
The food there was pretty tasty, but the service, well, we had to beg to get our check. When we finished eating, most of the staff were just standing around, except our waitress. No one knew where she was or interested in helping us find her. Bad, bad, bad.
I wondered over to the card room, still a bit shellshocked from the night before. I hate losing, it destroys my confidence. There's this new thing being dealt over at the MGM card room. It's called "Beginner Hold 'em". My poker dyslexia read it as "Lightly Breaded Fish". The one kind of seafood I like. It's regular ring hold 'em with a max buy in of $50 and set up as a 5¢/$1. I only had about 35 minutes to kill before we needed to leave for the Neon Museum, so what the hell? Pablo, California April and Shelly were in...
Really, if you need $15 quickly and know how to read people and play aggressively, this is your game. In 30 minute I made $15. Most of it just firing at pots no one wanted.
But I had places to be...
Kat was running into some logistical problems so it was up to me to find Mattazuma and his lovely lady down the Strip aways to catch a cab. The Neon Museum is on the other end of the Strip and by the other end I mean go past Downtown other end. It's most definitely a cab ride.
We played twitter tag until we finally hooked up at the taxi stand of Bally's. I had the address of the Museum and experience getting there, so the cabbie's lack of knowledge didn't stop us. Of course, we called ahead just in case to make sure they knew there was a good chance we might be light. We are bloggers and not terribly organized.
The first picture on this post is of the new gateway to the Neon Graveyard. The city invested in a very nice entrance. This is much improved over last year. Now the city dudes using the leaf blowers were a bit annoying, but I understand things need to get done. This was one indication to me that things were indeed moving forward on this place. Last year we were told that by this year, they would have a building ready. The building was still in the same shape as last year with the offices still across the street in a small office complex. Hopefully, their dreams come true soon. I'd love to be able to shoot at a different time then none or 2 PM.
This following picture is of our tour guide. She was most definitely a girly girl. Right down to the peroxide blond hair. Thankfully, she knew all the good stories to tell about the many pieces on display.
Bloggers really are some of the best people you will ever meet. If you've never attended a blogger gathering, your soul is missing an experience like no other. These invisible Internet friends, I just don't know if I have the words other then, they rock.
I live on the city limits of the 3rd largest city in the 21st most populated state located in the frozen tundra of the Midwest. As has been pointed out many times by the east coast bloggers, I live in a fly-over state. Which is just fine with us because then we don't have to share God's country with them. What most people don't realize is that we endure the cold bitter winters because until you've sat in an Adirondack chair next to one of 11,842 lakes, you've never found perfection. No, seriously. One of my favorite comments from a blogger that has enjoyed one of our lakeside summers goes like this, "How do you guys keep jobs in this state?" He was fortunate enough to spend about a week up north. Once you are there, it's tough to pull yourself away.
So, know you have the back story. Bloggers rock and I don't get out much.
A couple of days before this year's gathering in Las Vegas, I received a direct tweet from Gracie.
@Peacecorn: When are you getting in?Sweet! Dinner plans!
@OhCaptain: looks like my plane is scheduled to land ~1PM on Thursday.
@Peacecorn: 6:40 on Thurs. EEEE! Would you like to join us for dinner at Picasso @ Bellagio that night? Reservation is at 9:30pm. (1/2)
@Peacecorn: Garth, his better half, Kat, Me, Pablo, Al, and Drizz will be dining. Garth and I owe his better half a nice dinner as she won our Fantasy Top Chef game.
@OhCaptain: sure! Never eaten there. Sounds like a lot of fun! I'll add it to TripIt and other reminder systems now. I may have had a couple by then :)
The other dinner goers were starting to gather at the Geisha Bar. I noticed my good buddy from Minnesota, Drizz looked a little different from his usual.
This photo on the right, is how he actually appeared.
