OhCaptain Poker

WBPT Trip Report: Part 4 - Pinball Hall of Fame #WPBT

2010-01-04T13:13:00.001-06:00

The holidays are both awesome and suck. All the time off from work rocks, spending time playing with the kids and the Mrs rocks, but this year I failed in my goal to process all the pictures I took in Las Vegas during the Winter Gathering. I do have a photo dump here that might have made PirateLawyer's day had it not been for recent entry into the Uncle's Club. Huge congrats, BTW!

This time around, I seemed to have a lot of planned options for my camera. I had seriously considered hanging out with the golfing crew, but I wanted to make sure I got to the Pinball Hall of Fame and the Neon Graveyard. Without PirateLawyer organizing this, I pretty much failed at getting a big group going. I have to make a huge apology to Maigrey. She had asked me the night before to call her when we are going. I completely forgot! I'm very sorry.

This first picture is the new front of the Poker Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's not much. From what I gathered, they moved just weeks before we got there. Yestbay had rented a car for the weekend and after a nice breakfast at Harrah's buffet, we headed over.

I'm hoping for the future of the place, they do just a bit more with the front. If we hadn't been specifically looking in this very location for the place, we would have never just stumbled upon it. The old front had a big painted window that really looked awesome. In all actuality, the inside was as I'd hoped...roomy with plenty of room to grow.

The rest of this post should be just a photo dump. Yestbay mostly played like a rock star. I kept hearing the crack of the free game on the machine he was playing. At one point, we played some doubles. I was always good for a lose of a credit, so this really helped him work down that count.

I was inspired to photograph some of my favorite games. I played a few because how could you not? But mostly, I just walked around and shot. For you photography buffs out there, I'd like in the future to bring a few things:

A faster lens - this place is poorly lit and all the glass makes flash photography virtually impossible.
A sheet or some other blocking device - there's a lot of glare on the top of the glass from the lights above.
A tripod - something that always hinders me in Vegas. I never bring one with because of space concerns. Next time, I might just buy a cheap disposable one or a really nice one and ship it home.

This first shot was a game I hadn't seen in YEARS. Dragon's Lair. This was pretty much the first and only game I had ever truly mastered. This was a game driven by a laser disk, think of it as a precursor to all of the stupid DVD games to come. There was only one set path in the game to the ultimate high score. Memorize this path, and you'll get there. My friends growing up came up with challenges to the game to make it interesting. Since most of the game could be played by timing and audio cues, we would play blindfolded and see how far we could get.

This year, I noticed more of the great video games. There were a few last year, but there just seemed to be more this year. I dropped a few quarters in this one. I still sucked at it, but it was fun.
The structure of the games is pretty much the same as last year, only bigger.
They seemed to grouped a little, this wall isle seemed to have old school video games on one side, old school pinball on the other.
When I was walking around, I started to really think about the art and design that went into these machines. As a kid, you mostly just think about the winning. I thought this was particularly interesting, you see that red dress? Yeah, it moves out of the way to reveal a sexy night gown. Inspiration to win the game for a teenage boy can come from my places, usually it's just the groin.
I had never really stopped and looked at this one before, I had seen it countless times, this was one of my favorite pinball machines. There are many iconic figures on this one. I'm sure at the time, Mikhail Gorbachev seemed to be a timeless character, like Marilyn Monroe and Santa, but I'd guess that any under the age of 35 has no idea who he is or could even spot him on the back of a pinball machine.
Yeah, more huge spacious isles. I think it could accommodate each and every blogger at the gathering.
Old school number wheels rock.
I took a couple hundred pictures here and might post them on Flickr later. I hoping to prove CK wrong and get all of the recaps I want to get done posted before March. Still to come, the Neon Graveyard, Steel Panther and football in lap of luxury.

Stay tuned!

Happy new year!!!

2010-01-01T00:02:00.001-06:00

WBPT Trip Report: Part 3 - Playing poker with Teddy "KGB" #WPBT

2009-12-23T14:34:00.003-06:00

By now, PirateLawyer has fallen over dead waiting for me to post pictures from the Pinball Hall of Fame. The truth is, I'm just about finished going through the pictures from the trip. Just about. I'm just shocked I've actually gotten to put up post #3. I mean, I really never finished last year's recaps...Bravo! Besides, last night, one of my neighbors invited me over for $.10/$.25 NLHE cash. Degeneracy before all, right? (A tidy profit too :)

In my last post I alluded to my final poker session of the WPBT weekend. I personally found this to be the most fun I had had all weekend at the card table. Gotta thank my buddy Drizz for getting me there. After dusting off my profits the night before, I wasn't sure I was really playing +EV, but he was in the mood to play some donkey poker before we left. How could I say no.

He suggested we head over to the Flamingo and try that card room. He was staying there and I'd never been there, sounded like a winner. It wasn't $10/$20 NLHE at the Bellagio so I figured I didn't need a second mortgage to play.

The card room is another one of these converted space areas on the casino floor like so many other Vegas rooms. When we asked about $2/$4 LHE, wouldn't you know there was no waiting and we could sit right down.

Drizz tried buying in for $400(?) but for some reason the floor staff gave him a ton of static. Sure it was more then most people needed but he was in philanthropic mode...right?

I was determined not to let the play of the previous night distract me or follow me to this game. The first sign I'm about raise into a guy when I put him on the nuts, I was standing up and leaving. This table felt angry when I sat down. There wasn't a lot of fun in these faces. I was in the 8 spot, Drizz on my left, an Asian woman that looked like Mimi Tran was on my right.

2 or 3 spots to my right was a young man that asked if we were from Minneapolis. If you aren't from Minnesota, you might not understand why I asked him if he meant from Minnesota. You might be surprised at how many people think Minneapolis is pretty much the whole state, even though, surface area wise, Minnesota is a pretty big state. I'm not from Minneapolis or even the Twin Cities area, so frankly, I sometimes just answer no, I'm from Minnesota. He snapped at me for having the gall to even do that. He too was from the Twin Cities. He calmed down after some small talk, but I could tell, he was a man on the edge.

Everyone at the table was on the edge and it didn't take long to figure out why. In the 1 spot was a very drunk Russian guy. In my experience at live limit hold 'em at low stakes in casinos, there's one "strategy" you'll see a fair bit of. It's the jerk that raises at every opportunity. He's usually drunk and pisses people off because the price of poker gets spendy and most people just won't keep calling him with top pair all the way down. I've also learned from experience that trapping these guys doesn't do much. You've got to wait for cards that may or may not ever come. What I've found particularly effective is go after them. Reraise them, make it friggin' expensive to keep firing blindly at the pot. Turn their game against them. It does take a complete disregard for the value of the money in front of you and you definitely need to check your ego and fear at the door. You've got to play some pokah.

I mucked the first 3 or 4 orbits, playing only a couple of really cheap hands from the blinds and the button. I think there was 2 times maybe I put money in voluntarily. When I saw the flop for free, I mucked to any raises. Drizz...well his VP$IP was asymptotically approaching 100%.

Teddy "KGB" made a quick comment about how tight I was and I took that as my cue. Time to play some pokah. I figure it was time to change the mood of the table. The frustration over Teddy's constant raising and his growing stack was making everyone so angry.

Sitting up very tall in my chair, I blurted out loudly, "All day with the check, check, check." trying as hard as I could to sound like I had a Russian accent. On the ride side of the table, reserved laughter. Teddy, he laughed and smiled at me. The dealer, had no clue what that was all about. I swear, how the hell do you end up a poker dealer in Las Vegas and don't know the movie Rounders??? I mean really.

From that point on, I tried out a few more quotes from the movie and a little table banter starts. Ah, we might actually have some fun...playing a game! Some side action about the year the movie came out was all it took to bring some smiles back.

Not long after, Teddy raises from UTG+1, still not unusual. The table actually folds to me in the little blind, I looked down and found one of my favorite hands, so I call. Drizz, perks up, makes a confused grunt and calls as well.

We see the flop. KK7 rainbow. I check, Drizz checks and Teddy raises (no surprise there), I was next to act and with supreme confidence and calm, I announce raise and make it $4. Drizz takes a second and mucks his cards like they were covered in H1N1. Teddy seems confused, I can tell from his face he's thinking, "Did I really just check raised?" I looked back at him confident in my play and when he reraises, I grab the chips for one more raise. He reluctantly calls.

The turn is a blank. I grab my $4 a put in my raise. Teddy calls. At this point, he seems reserved to the fact that I made my hand. I'm not sure why he's still in the hand, but he is. I don't remember thinking there were draws.

The river is another blank. I grab $4 more and firmly throw the chips into the pot. Teddy grabbed his cards and declares "I missed my draw, you win." I took my cards and threw them in front of the Russian, "I missed too." My J 10 of spades was complete air. He was not a happy man. The most aggressive and crazy betting man at the table had just been bluffed out of a pot...at $2/$4 limit. I smiled. I played pokah.

"Don't worry, I'll get those chips back. Just wait, I'll do the same to you," he tells me. I felt very confident I could out play this man. I gestured to my stack like Vanna White, "They are right here. Come get them." No fear.

Drizz was just shaking his head. I know, things can go so wrong in a hurry at $2/$4 LHE. Bluffs get called all the time with someone making a pair on the river or ace high, but today, I had a read on Teddy. We talked about ordering him some Oreos, but never did it. Would have been funny, don't you think?

Teddy had some tells. He was obviously drunk and the casino kept serving him. We hypothesized as to what he was really doing there. He showed some definite skills at the table, I mean to lay down to my river bet meant he was at least thinking about something. Was he a better player that was just drinking hard and letting off steam? Was he really just a moron with too much booze? We never did find out. His tells were as thick as his Russian accent.

When Teddy played, he talked like crazy when he had a hand. He was also betting differently. When he had nothing, he just grabbed the bet and threw it when it was his turn, very slow and distant from the game. When he had a hand, he counted his chips carefully and couldn't wait to get them in when it was his turn. These tells were just sitting there. In the open and about as rock solid as I've ever seen.

I played 2 more hands with him and one more with the Asian woman. I bet into Teddy every street with top pair and a medium kicker. He didn't like me doing that with just a pair of kings. The Asian lady called all my bets. She had top pair and an ace kicker. The mortal nuts in LHE, right? Well, if someone had raised preflop, I might not have been there when my 94o hit two pair on the flop. She seemed disgruntled.

The last hand I played with Teddy "KGB" seemed to leave him a little upset. I let him bet every street. He was just grabbing and firing. I like my chances with my hand. On the river he fires the last $4, I grabbed my $4 white chips and tossed them in front of me, turned my cards over and threw them to the middle face up, "My ace high is good, isn't it." His cards were thrown hard into the muck. Ace high? Yeah, he missed. Funny how that works.

Not long after, I was hungry. Vegas is hard on the body. You leave your normal schedule behind and eat when the need arises. There are so many fun things to do.

Stay tuned! More to come: the Pinball Hall of Fame, Gamblers Book Shop, Steel Panther and living the good live at the Palazzo.

WPBT Trip Report: Part Deux - They play poker in Las Vegas

2009-12-18T10:32:00.001-06:00

The Winter Gathering is an event that needs to be experienced to be believed. Like I mentioned in the last post, Thursday night is all social for me. Meeting people and drinking way to many Sam Adams is the only item on my agenda. I should apologize to Otis for commandeering his phone to do this. Not sure how many of those Sam Adams where in me, but one should never drunk tweet from another man's phone. Sorry dude.

For the first time in my life, I was in Las Vegas without my better half, OhCountess was home recovering from a tonsillectomy she received two weeks prior. She's an awesome lady, for those of you that have met her, I'm proud to admit I did the blogger thing and married up. I'll be forever grateful to her, but since she wasn't there, I didn't feel any pressure to ever not just sit down and work on thickening my leather ass. On this trip, I actually played 5 session of cash poker and one tournament.

After a lovely breakfast at Bellagio with Astin, Astin's friend, Lightning36, Katitude and JJOK, I played that one and only tournament; the blogger game.

I had high hopes, my team rocked. PokerPeaker and Lightning36. Peaker and I final tabled last year and Lightning is as good as they get in donkaments. Personally, I found the structure a bit steep for my taste, but you usually think that when you are card dead. I never really got anything going and busted out just after Peaker, we were both around the 2 hour range. Lightning fought on for a while, but he too went down early.

My starting table consisted of poker legend Dr. Pauly, Astin (the winner of the whole damn thing...CONGRATS!), Penner3, Melissa Hayeden (Melissa was the only pro in the tournament. She's also Allen Cunningham's girlfriend. If you didn't know, she's currently 17th in All-Time Female Money Winners. - taken from Dr. Pauly's blog- I had to ask who she was, I'm such a noob.), and Joe Speaker. There were a couple of other people at the table, but I had no names. Pauly had a bit more detail.

I basically sucked the life out of poker. When my stack dwindled to ~3200, I shoved the preflop raise of Elissa Harwood, her QQ was more then good against my A7o. She liked my bounties. Pauly and I explained the history of the bottle of Wild Turkey. Good times. Now it's up to her to give it back next year. Hopefully VinNay gets to sign it too.

I think that recap of the tournament took longer to write then I was actually playing. Hm.

I played 5 cash session of $2/$4 LHE. The goal of this trip was to prove to myself I could beat a game. I know, I shoot low but hey, we have to start somewhere.

My first session was Friday night. I had spent some time walking around with Lightning talking about life and stuff and we kinda decided not to head over to the Hard Rock Hotel to play the $1/$2 mixed game hosted by Pokerati. I kinda waffled back and forth on that one. I'm kinda glad I went to the MGM. I didn't want to miss the Blogger Mixed game (even though I did) but I did get to witness #Table16 (also documented here & here) Holy crap that was one wild table. At one point, I believe there was over $3,000 on a table of $1/$2 NLH. Jeebus. I was sitting in the minors one table over playing $2/$4 LHE. Me likey my spot. I finished up a $100 buyin in about an hour and a half.

My next session came after the night out at Steel Panther (this is a whole other post, I took a ton of pictures here - stay tuned). After the concert, DrChako, Drizz, myself, Cuban, F-Train, CK, TheWife and I'd swear I am missing someone or two or three. I'd just like it known for the record that they had Red Stripe beer for sale at the concert for cheap. While I had a good buzz on, I still knew to sit to the left of the Doc and Drizz, they were well lubricate. I made a few sets in this game and walked away up $60. Not too shabby. Blogger money is pretty sweet.

After busting out of the tournament on Saturday, I found myself in uncharted territory. I had no idea what to do with that much free time on a Saturday afternoon. Last year, finishing 5th got me out of the tournament at 11pm. It was 3pm this year so I figured I should go spew some cash since that short run had barely started to scratch my poker itch.

I felt good about the MGM session from the night before and headed back. The table was full of tourists, not like I'm not. I was sitting in the 4 spot. There was a really large English guy on my right and a Dutch kid two to my left and down at the other end were a pair of drunk middle aged guys. One of them kept bragging about how rich he was. I figured him for a Car Dealership owner. He probably had some money, but dude. You are playing $2/$4 at the MGM...whipping out the nice little cigar kit was cute, but...

This session wasn't nearly as good as the night before. I ground it for about 4 hours to lose $7. I guess there are bigger losses to be had in Vegas. I though I had played pretty well. At one point, the drunk guys and the Dutch kid were folding to my raises post flop. The large British guy called every raise of mine to the river with jack high. I had pretty much stuck to TAG poker.

I left the MGM looking to catch the tail end of the tournament but I didn't make it. Everyone at Caesar's had left. BloodyP had been twittering looking for other bloggers. Since I was now wandering alone I suggested he join me for $10/$20 NLHE at Caesar's. Har, har! Yeah, like we are bankrolled for that. Ppfffttt. Without sufficient funds or skill to sit at that game, we headed back to the IP's Geisha Bar. We were back to boozing it up.

I learned a valuable lesson this night. After busting from the tournament playing poorly, grinding to a tiny loss at the MGM, I decided to go over to the IP's $2/$4 LHE game in their poker, um, room? (It's more like a little fenced in area off the floor, not sure what you call that) I should have never gone over there. Feeling toasty and REALLY tired from not sleeping and pretty much going solid for the last 36 hours, I dusted off $80 and left it with some of the world's worst players. I remember one particular hand, I put a guy on KJ. The flop come KKJ...so I cap the flop with him. Not one of my better moments.

I played one more session of cash the last night. It was one of the funnest live session I have ever played. This session was so much fun, I'm gonna save it for another post. Here's the teaser, Drizz and I sat down at a table being run over by Teddy "KGB", a drunk Russian guy. I'l leave you with that and go play a little online poker. Poker After Dark is playing on my DVR and I've got that itch again.

Stay tuned!

WBPT Trip Report: Part 1 #WPBT

2009-12-15T21:38:00.010-06:00

Holy crap. I haven't slept like that in ages. Monday night was a 9 pm lights out for me and if it was for the fact that I was behind the wheel of a car driving from the Minneapolis airport to my cozy home in southern Minnesota, it would have happened a lot earlier. Do I have any complaints? Nope. The exhaustion was worth every red line in my eyes and my complete inability to focus on any task that took more then 5 seconds.

The Blogger Winter Gathering is like no other adventure. My memories are both vivid and hazy. I'd recommend a tour through real time archives of our collective hast tag #wpbt. It was by the use of Twitter that many people were communicating for the weekend. April had a good idea and maybe we should do it next year, Twitter training. It was essential for much of the shenanigans that occurred.
Drizz and I decided to meet at MSP at around 2pm. Since we are some seriously organized chaps, this gave us time to hang out before we got on our separate flights. Wait, what's this? Oh look, our

tickets have the same flight number. Yeah, we were actually on the same flight.

No fear, food and cocktails aren't a problem at the airport. As we all know, the Winter Gathering is all about celebrating his birthday, so a birthday cap'n & coke were on my agenda...Happy birthday BTW!

As I would soon learn was gonna be typical for the weekend, our flight was delayed. A connecting flight was running behind so we needed to wait. Yawn. We did what any other upstanding Minnesota boys would do, pinball. Seems Drizz is a phenom at this. In the course of a few minutes, he'd lined up a few free games for us to kill. I killed mine quickly and with few points accumulated. He, kept the points rolling. Sigh.

This final shot from the airport is Drizz winning yet another hand of Chinese poker. I had never played it before, shock, I know. The very first hand he dealt me, I had a royal flush, but as someone twittered back to me, your royal flush is only as good as the other 8 cards....they sucked. He went on to win the first 5 hands I ever played. I suck. Need cash? Play me.

In preparation for the weekend, he also introduced me to Pai Gow, minus the casino, and the money and the complete intoxication. This too...I sucked at. Go me.

Our plane boarded almost exactly one hour late. If you ever met the two of us, you will notice that he's a few inches taller then me. He's actually a fairly tall guy...me, I'm average. Seemed only fitting I'd get the exit row and the flight attendant would use a shoe horn to squeeze the big guy in the row behind me. Gotta love fate.

Thursday night of the Winter Gathering is all about the hugs, the howdy's and the booze. There were so many people I looked forward to meeting for the first time and old friends I needed to pick up from where we left off last year. This post went on way longer then I had planned. I used to want to write about Thursday night, but frankly, I don't take notes. You really need to attend this event.

Here's what's on the agenda and these next posts I promise to organize a lot better. I played some poker, stories are plenty. If I don't write about the Pinball Hall of Fame, PirateLawyer will explode, that's coming. Steel Panther Friday night at Green Valley Ranch. Neon Graveyard. Lagasse Sports Stadium for Sunday football and random shots around town.

I've almost finished going through the 800 pictures I took. For some reason I always get hung up on getting this first post out. Some more sleep tonight and probably some more writing tomorrow. More linking to come. I'm still friggin' exhausted. I have no idea why I go back to work right away on Tuesday. Ugh.

Reunions, sleep and transition to normalcy - on hold #wpbt

2009-12-14T11:55:00.003-06:00

Immense boredom. Total exhaustion. Sleepy eyes. I'm sitting here at McCarran airport, midway between the surreal life and the quiet home I had left behind. The shuttle I included in my package picked me up an with plenty of time to get here, go through security and find my gate. The little bit of extra padding was magnified as it is again snowing in Minnesota. Deicing planes takes time...like an hour. Sigh.

This past weekend was truly epic in scale. So many little perks added to what is normally a rockin' good time. From the overlay in the tournament's last longer bet provided by PokerStars, to the simply lavish suite and awesome service at the Laggasse Stadium suite in the Palazzo, this weekend was over the top.

I took some ridiculous amount of pictures this weekend (~800). While it was cold, my camera clicking finger was ready to go, even if my stomach was doing some kind of funky chicken dance.

I didn't win the blogger donkament. I did play more cash poker then I ever have in a 3 day window. I did not get my -EV on. I did tilt like there was no tomorrow in one session of cash. I also ran good enough in 3 other sessions for it not to matter.

My flight will be boarding soon and I can't wait to reach new levels of REM sleep. I miss sleep but I think I miss OhCountess and the kids more. Funny, just last Thursday, I couldn't wait to get out of town, hop a plane and fly to Vegas. Today, that friggin' plane can't get here soon enough.

WPBT crew: I miss all of you already.

Stay tuned.

Shuffle up and deal!

2009-12-12T15:13:00.000-06:00

The annual blogger tournament has begun. 84 runners and team D-Listers is in the house. In the photo are my bounties.

Hopefully, this will be a long day!

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Location:Las Vegas Blvd S,Las Vegas,United States

I love the neon

2009-12-11T21:45:00.000-06:00

Walking around Las Vegas with Lightning36. Good times.

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

The story of 3 bags and a broken clock

2009-12-10T07:41:00.001-06:00

Here they are, 3 bags. My suitcase, camera bag and the bag I'll take to work with a change of clothes.

I'm updating all my blogs with this post because a trip to Las Vegas is when all 3 cross paths. I have poker, photography and fun all planned! The only thing missing will be my bride at my side. This will be my first trip to Vegas without her. Some parts won't be the same without her.

Have fun in Minnesota! While it's not warm this time of year, Vegas is also not 3 degrees. I won't be jealous. Promise!

Many updates to come! Laters!

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Snowed in

2009-12-09T09:05:00.001-06:00

No doubt, I'm gonna be here at the house for the forseeable future. We got around 11 inches of snow and top that with a lovely cherry, we now have wind gusts in the 40 mph range.

My street has 3 and 4 foot drifts. Until I see a plow, it's cookie decorating time!

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Location:County Road 22,Rochester,United States

Preparations and Plans #wpbt

2009-12-08T23:17:00.003-06:00

Snowmageddon is bringing with it the 4 horsemen here in Minnesota. Loads of fun. Our local weather people have promised me that my plane will leave MSP as planned barring the freezing solid of the planes fuel. The forecast for Thursday is a balmy high of 9°F, that's -13°C for our Canuck friends. Those highs in Las Vegas of mid 50's sounds FANFRIGGINTASTIC!

Not to sound too excited, but I finished packing Sunday, a full 4 days early. Here's a sample checklist for the weekend:

Pocket Purell
Camera, lens and select gadgets
Chargers
Ibuprofen
Tums
Imodium
Bounty (Part 1)
A couple of books

Yeah, packing for this thing ain't all that hard, it just that when I rush at the last minute, I forget all my chargers. I know me.

The rest of this week has been all about building up my anxiousness. One way I've found to get me really in the mood has been listening to the Gambling Tales Podcast. I'll make it real simple for you, here's the iTunes link. This podcast is brought to us by WPBT bloggers Falstaff and Special K. Their 3rd episode is out. Awesome stuff. What makes the show so fun is these guys are pretty well read in the gambling history and use that converse on more modern topic. Very cool.

Twitter has been buzzing this week as well. If you are looking for the best way to follow the live action of this weekend, I'd suggest following Peacecorn's list. As far as I've heard, she's got the most comprehensive list any where. Go check it out! I stopped using Tweetdeck for iPhone a few months ago. The damn thing was as buggy as it gets. I've heard it's gotten a lot better, but it also sports the ability to have columns for searches. #WPBT should be your hash tag of choice.

One addition to my preparations this year was purchasing a portable battery for my iPhone. I'm still sporting one of the first units that came off the assembly line. The aluminum jacketed iPhone 2G. The biggest problem I've had when traveling with it has been battery life. This year, I bought the 3GJuice iPhone/ iPod Battery Charger. It should give me a double long day without having to crawl under the table looking for an outlet. Let's just see how it does.

After all that, now we wait.

So here's my plan for the weekend. To avoid outrageous parking fees, I'll be meeting my brother at he'll drop me off at the airport. Unfortunately, his only free time to do this is a little under 4 hours before take off. So I'll be getting to the airport at 2 where I should also be running into Drizz. His flight leaves just a few minutes after mine. Yeah, we planned that well, but I should be buying him his first tasty birthday beverage(s) before take off and discussing the opportunity to wager on our arrivals.

Thursday night: drinks at the Imperial Palace's Geisha Bar. I should arrive there around 8? My plane is scheduled to land at 7, so we will have to see. I believe Colombo described this as EXTREME networking. Actually, it is, and it's a ton of fun. New for me this will hopefully be drunken pai gow. I'm really looking forward to meeting people I've been connecting with over the last year through twitter, facebook and their blogs. More massive link dumps coming soon!

Friday, I'll be joining Kat and others at the Neon Graveyard. Vegas continues to be one of my favorite places to photograph. This trip will be now different. I need to go to the Pinball Hall of Fame sometime too. Not exactly sure when everyone is going. I need to figure this out Thursday night.

Friday night, we head over to the MGM, more drunken games. The WPBT Mixed game table is something I really want to try that this year. Not saying I'll avoid the cowboys at the limit hold'em tables, but mixed games it is.

Saturday, the only thing planned is the Blogger Tournament. This year, Otis hooked up the Luckbox Last Longer Challenge with a surprise from PokerStars. They are juicing the pot with an extra $2,000. Even before that big news hit the intertubes, we had created Team D-Listers: Lightning36, PokerPeaker and myself. Should be really fun. Guys, let'show those A, B, C listers how this game is played!

After this, my weekend is pretty open. I'd like to check out the private box Luckbox has set up for the sports betting day on Sunday. Kat has suggested she'd like to rent a car and go shoot more of the Las Vegas and surrounding, I think maybe it was to head up to Red Rocks or even Hoover Dam. Kat, I've brought with about 100 GB of storage. Let's do this.

Monday morning, my adventure ends. I'll get back in a tin can and prepare to be flash frozen, but I'm not thinking about that right now. I'm about 36 hours away from leaving the office and getting the hell out of Dodge. You going too? Looking forward to see all of you again!

Tick tock, tick tock...

###UPDATE###

Crap! Forgot to mention...Saturday, 12:30AM - STEEL PANTHER! I'll be there! Rock on!

The return of Kenny Tran

2009-12-07T00:52:00.002-06:00

Kenny Tran was back at the microscopic stakes LHE tables. I just found it right when he sat down and got to be first in line on the waiting list. It didn't take long for me to get the seat on his right. Yo, the pro's got position on me. Bring it! :)

The last time I sat down with him, people asked if I played any hands with him. I didn't really remember much. This time, I tried a little harder.

The first hand, I called from the BB and went heads up against him. When playing limit like this, many players will defend their BB with any two cards. I have a strong hands for heads up, but I'll be out of position for the entire hand. I called to keep the pot small. No reason to raise only to completely whiff the flop and dump a bunch.

Yeah, that sucked. I probably lost the minimum to him.

This next hand was the only other hand I played with him. Not sure what he's doing down here, but I think I know how you might get the nickname "Sick Call". To me, calling with Q high is just kinda stupid, but then again, I'm not a well known, red letter pro.

Yeah, ace high is the winner for me. Let this be a lesson. Bet your flush draws. Kenny "Sick Call" Tran will call you with queen high.

Just when you think the doom switch is fully engaged

2009-12-04T23:50:00.005-06:00

I've had a really unfun run of cards lately. Actually, I found away to give back a few buy ins in just a matter of a couple minutes at limit hold 'em. You know when AKs flops AAX and some donkey decides it's positive EV to cap every street with you and that damn deuce on the river just had to give him a full house, right? Of course you knew that. Friggin' deuce on the river gives the donkey a full house A2o is the gawd damn nutz...fricka fracka...why I oughta...

Anywho. This time next week, I should be lining up to see Steel Panther with a group of bloggers at the WPBT winter gathering. I'll just say it now, sorry for any drunken tweets or posts that might show up. Dude..it happens.

So, I really did figure the doom switch had been engaged the last couple of days. I probably shouldn't be playing poker exhausted, but we all know, we don't play bad, there's evil people that run these poker site that are out to get us. That's why they invented the doom switch. To get us. (I kid...I'm pretty sure I was WAY too tired to play poker)

Well, tonight, I felt like I got a little bit of my karma back. Check out this screen cap -

Now, before you go and think, "Well, OhCaptain, did he slow play those aces all the way to the river?" The answer, of course, is absolutely, positively, no way. We got it all in on the flop cuz I think diamonds are purdy.

Here's the replay:

I'd love to hear some theories or explanations of how I had a suspicion that he had a big pair and this was some awesome play. He was not normally not that passive early, but why do I care, I'm trying to shake off a doom switch and pretty much just tilting the night away. I suppose I really should be writing about Vegas. I said I'd write about Vegas...but but but, no excuses, I was just wasting my time playing cards.

***UPDATE***

Doom switch is still fully engaged. The most passive bubble play you've ever seen. I went artic card dead after the straight flush. Doing my best to stay afloat with stealing and position play. I finally ran KQh into KK and then did this sick orbiting for like forever watching the most passive moronic play. Sigh. It finally took KK to take down my QJ. Sigh.

168 Hours but who's counting? #wpbt

2009-12-03T11:53:00.003-06:00

WPBT Winter Gathering is 168 hours away from beginning for me, but who's counting?

Questions that need answering:

Who's Team D Listers?

Will Drizz be standing at the Geisha bar with drink in hand before me?

What's gonna be the line on the race to Vegas?

Will I forget something?

Will I remember something I really don't want to?

How long will it take me to drink the first beer? the second? the third?...

Can I really get it all done in 4 days without puking on my shoes?

Can I invert my biological clock and make it to Steel Panther?

Why so many friggin' questions when the clock ain't moving?

Can I learn Pai Gow and Craps and continue to pay my mortgage on time?

Answers coming soon...stay tuned!

PokerSluts recaps in a timely manner

2009-11-24T11:07:00.003-06:00

Yeah, timely. That's me. Thank goodness for hand histories! Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, I played the Limit Hold 'em edition of the PokerSlut Tour XVI. I love me some limit hold 'em because it's a really great way to learn how to play a much wider variety of hands and also play more optimally post flop. I had a really fun time playing the tournament, even finishing 2nd. By the time we got heads up though, I was way ready for bed and just couldn't wait for it to get over. Probably why I never stopped firing raises to stpetebeach...probably why he also didn't stop calling any of them either.

There are a few things I'll rarely do playing no-limit that I will do in a limit game. One thing I do if I think a player is mostly raising with big cards is play small, suited connector type hands and see a flop, especially from the button. Take this hand:

If felt there was a good shot that SmBoatDrinks was raising with a ace or a bigger pair. We are short handed and my button limp screams weak. Which it is, but in limit, I'm getting 5:1 to call from position. I've also got a fairly sizable stack. I can let go of this hand if I completely whiff the flop.

When the flop hits, I know I'm never laying this hand down, that flop is perfect for me. The trick now is to get maximum value, unless of course he's got a bigger flush draw, but still, two outers make it difficult to worry too much at this point. I flopped the nuts and have the stone cold nut draw.

By the way the action turned out and what he had for cards, I'm assuming he didn't have me anywhere near that flop. Which was good to know, I think my play with a bigger stack had been eradicate to hopefully be confusing.

In my opinion, that's one of the keys to limit hold 'em. You want people to think you are playing different cards then you are.

This next hand actually happened earlier, but I figured I'd lose you by now and could just lay it out for discussion. I'm disguising my hand since I didn't actually play in the hand, but I do question the comments of others as to why, why would they say what they say...My comments are in red, if you can't read red, let me know I'll provide a copy in an alternate color.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16056750288: PokerSlut Tour XVI (111159087), Table 1 - 200/400 - Limit Hold'em - 22:34:32 ET - 2009/11/15
Seat 1: Julius_Goat (2,270) <-- Good to see you on the felt!
Seat 3: Zerbet (2,250)
Seat 4: stpetebeach (7,100) <--Isn't this Fasso from Ante Up? I asked and no one would say.
Seat 5: OhCaptain (5,000) <-- 2nd in chips :(
Seat 6: wvapoker (290) <--Gonna be making a move soon
Seat 7: SmBoatDrinks (3,125)
Seat 9: WiredAces77 (3,965)
Julius_Goat posts the small blind of 100
Zerbet posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [Ap Aq]
stpetebeach folds
OhCaptain folds <--I know, pocket aces, but look at the suits. I never play those unsuited.
wvapoker raises to 290, and is all in <--As long as we understand that this will be called with any two shiny cards in a later spot to act...just sayin'
SmBoatDrinks folds
WiredAces77 calls 290
Zerbet: double you tee eff
Julius_Goat: gg light <--well played comments are always welcome in blogger games
Julius_Goat calls 190 <--Can't say that talking while calling is a good move live, but here, I'll let it slide
lightning36 (Observer): later, mates <--Good game my friend!
Zerbet calls 90
*** FLOP *** [2h 6h 9d]
Julius_Goat checks
Zerbet checks
WiredAces77 checks

^--check, check, check? No one bets? I know there's someone all-in but it's not like he'll have a huge stack when he's done. Let's build a side pot.
*** TURN *** [2h 6h 9d] [Ac]
Julius_Goat checks
Zerbet checks
WiredAces77 checks

^--sigh. More checking.
*** RIVER *** [2h 6h 9d Ac] [2s]
Julius_Goat checks
Zerbet checks
WiredAces77 bets 400
OhCaptain: later <--Saying good bye to Lightning suck.
Zerbet: sigh
Julius_Goat has 15 seconds left to act
SmBoatDrinks: gg <--well played comments are always welcome in blogger games
Julius_Goat folds
Zerbet: betting into a dry side pot? really? <--I don't know Zerbert, it looks like a value bet to me. Most people only do this when they have something. According to my math, that bet would make a side pot with enough profit to make up for the initial bet if called.
Zerbet has 15 seconds left to act
WiredAces77: really <--representing a 2.
Zerbet folds <--representing not a 2.
Uncalled bet of 400 returned to WiredAces77
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WiredAces77 shows [2d 4d] three of a kind, Twos <-- See, a 2.
wvapoker mucks <--apparently, not a 2.
WiredAces77 wins the pot (1,160) with three of a kind, Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,160 | Rake 0
Board: [2h 6h 9d Ac 2s]
Seat 1: Julius_Goat (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: Zerbet (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 4: stpetebeach didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: OhCaptain didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: wvapoker mucked [8c 8h] - two pair, Eights and Twos <--nice! sorry it didn't hold up.
Seat 7: SmBoatDrinks didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: WiredAces77 (button) showed [2d 4d] and won (1,160) with three of a kind, Twos

Now, Zerbet went on for a while and seemed to get pretty steamed over some of us not seeing that bet as being a bad play. I personally didn't think it was horrible or even donkish. It's the last opportunity for a value bet with what is most likely the winning hand. The only hands the all-in dude could have that would beat you are a 2 with a bigger kicker, a set of 6's, 9's or aces. If no one was betting those by now, then they are morons. If that's what the all-in hand had, so be it, but we are looking for value from the others.

Zerbet was right that there was probably no one at the table that would call just to see, but there was a chance that someone with an ace might call. There was almost no chance that the person calling would have a better hand, but to say you shouldn't bet because no one is likely to call is just crazy. How would you know that in some weird twisted moment, the guy with K9o doesn't call just to keep him honest. In limit hold 'em, you bet to build bigger pots. I don't see the harm in fishing for value. Getting that one extra bet can make or break your day.

Here's the replay if you want to just see it play out. And no...I didn't muck aces, but thought it looked cool...kay?

Just for giggles

2009-11-23T00:46:00.002-06:00

I signed in to Full Tilt looking for a little poker something to pass me into dream land. Look who's playing the super cheap stakes Limit Hold 'em...not me...the dude across from me. What the hell is he doing at this level?

Ah. It's a night to relax

2009-11-21T00:30:00.001-06:00

Home game poker. Nothing better. Whiskey club is at my house this month. Thankfully the cash game after the first tournament is helping to fund the night. I learned a game called 3 Card Monty. Not the street hustle but something else. Definitely -EV.

More on the whiskey layer. Time to play some cards, listen to music, rate the cartoons of the 1980's and drink tasty beverages.

Hope your Friday rocked too!

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Learning How To Fold Kings

2009-11-19T11:48:00.005-06:00

I really need to find more time to write about poker. This week has been full of topics: the $100 bonus on Full Tilt, PokerSluts, WPBT and Poker League. For now, you'll just have to work with me on a hand from poker league and try really hard to convince me I made the right decision...I'm really doubting it...

So, I missed the last two weeks of league and hadn't played any live poker in that time. I know, shocking. I felt good going in to the night, no bad beats swimming in my, no fear of one outers, really, no baggage what so ever.

I had done a decent job of chipping up for the first 30 minutes. I sat at the table mostly enjoying the table chatter. We had the return of a guy that used to play quite often and then sort of disappeared for the last year or so. My memories of playing him mostly go back almost two years ago.

In our conversations, this guy had told us that he's spent most of this time playing online and going up to Canterbury to play the tournaments there with a bit of success. When we last played, his game was fairly ABC with a bit of a passive nature broken up with some recklessness. But I wasn't really sure how to use any of this early on. I don't like to rely on someone's tendencies from a long time ago, people change.

We are about one hour into the tournament, my stack sits 2025, a little more then starting stack. My chipping early had been whittled away. There were 7 people left at our table and I'm now under the gun with blinds at 50/100 T$. This early at poker league, I'm hard pressed to ever play much from this position. The play tends to be weak/passive and even raises will get called by a party, but for this hand, I was dealt KK. I'll play that from any position. I raised a standard raise, to 300.

The guy to my left folds. On his left is the guy returning from the past. He quite firmly moves all in for 1600. This really struck me as odd and my "somethings up detector" was going off like the alarm on LOST. Why so big? AK? AA? KK? QQ? Hm. the next 3 players fold until the BB announces he's all in for 1850.

I have a rule in my head at poker league. Never fold AA or KK preflop at poker league, but what's going on here. I stuck to my rule and called. I had both players covered but I have to tell you, I had a feeling one of them had aces.

The BB player was true to what I expected from him. He'll do this with almost any pair 99 and up or any painted ace.

But the thought I couldn't get out of my head came true. The guy that hasn't played for a while had played me like a fiddle. He tables AA. The BB guy...yeah he had AJo. Crap, I know now I'm in big trouble, but with one ace left in the deck, my odds improved...son of bitch...case ace on the turn. I'd need a K on the river to take the tiny little side pot. Nope. AJo gets that one too.

Now, the dude with aces is talking after then hand about how he'd hoped I'd perceive the shove as weak and call. I'll be perfectly honest, I call with Kings regardless right there, but should I?

I think here is where I should really integrate more 3rd level thinking for a select few players. He's talked about playing a lot more online and in the casino. I think his game is definitely improved since his explanation is 3rd level thinking...he's making this move on the hopes that I perceive him as weak. Well played. Being a 4:1 dog with kings sucks, but should I consider folding that hand? My something fishy alarm was going off and I ignored. Can you fold kings pre to anyone? When do you give a guy credit for an improved game and use that in your decisions? How do you smell a rat?

Without looking, I covered the next two cards dealt to me in the BB with my remaining 175 chips. With about 4 others in the pot, the community cards get dealt, The cut-off shows their paired ace and I find JJ. Yep...running like a god can be fun.

It's all booked

2009-11-16T22:04:00.003-06:00

I'm in.

I should be landing in Las Vegas at ~7 PM Vegas time on Thursday December 10th. Which means I'm hoping to have my first bottle of beer drank at the Geisha by 8:01 PM. This of course assumes it will take me an hour to get from the airport, check in to the hotel and get served by 8 PM. I think I can still drink a beer in under a minute.

My return to the frozen tundra will begin with a take off at 9:30 AM Monday morning. This should give me ample time to enrich the economy of the local community through generous giving at the [insert table game]. I hope someone can finally give me lessons at playing -EV games.

Unfortunately, I'll be making the trip sans OhCountess. She's just pretty sure the tonsillectomy won't be ready for prime time by then. She does send her warmest regards. Does Astin need a new hat? Maybe something to keep you warm?

To do's:

Get contact information for Lightning36.
Finish plans with Katitude to photograph the hell out of Las Vegas.
Drink a few.
Play some pokah.
Drink some more.
Play some pokah.
Pinball Hall of Fame. (It's moved...click link for details)
More photography.
Steel Panther.
There's just too much to list...damn it.

Do I really need to wait a month for this...damn. I better start charging my phone. I feel some twittering coming on. I'm thinking about getting this charger...any one tried it?

I think maybe it's time...

2009-11-15T08:48:00.003-06:00

Here's hoping the stars align and I can actually find the time tonight to play in this...hope to see you there! I'm already registered, not that my dead stack would play any different then I would.

The Details Are Up! #wpbt

2009-11-09T21:00:00.003-06:00

Poker writing has been a bit absent from my life lately. It's mostly because I have had precious little to do much playing and I doubt anyone comes here for the up to the minute WSOP Main Event news. If you are, why aren't you reading this, or this. Although on that subject, I thoroughly enjoyed the Bluff Magazine live broadcast when Joe Sebok and Annie Duke were doing it. They did a fantastic job of describing the action on the felt. After the dinner break, I missed who was doing it, but they sucked.

So what's up with the title of this post??? The details of the Winter Gathering tournament are up!!! April got the details done and if you haven't already RSVP'ed the YES that you know you want to do, then head over and find out how! Um, did you miss the link? It's right here...http://www.thisisnotapokerblog.com/?p=755

The Main Event is gonna start some time after I fall asleep tonight. Friggin' Pacific Standard Time. Night all!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

Presto is not gold - presto hates me

2009-10-22T09:19:00.002-05:00

I sat back down to the felt on Tuesday night exercising my weekly hall pass to get out of the house unchaperoned by the Mrs and kids. I was still feeling the pain of having played poorly at state and decided before the first hand was dealt, I was going to play a bit unorthodox, well, at least for me. I really just wanted to get my gambool on.

I did just that and I have to tell you, shoving K8o into JJ is a lot of fun, especially when that beautiful king in the door shows it's face.

Normally, at league, I play a very tight and conservative game. I think my record is not playing a single hand in the first hour and a half. Most of the time, this strategy works. The loose/passive play gets into serious trouble when I still have most of my starting stack and double through the likes of Q4h, but I the take away I'm taking from Saturday is I need to be able to switch gears and play a different style when the need arises.

I've been really enjoying the Yahoo Messenger app on the iPhone. Chatting with other donkeys while playing poker can be very rewarding. Waffles was playing online and chatting telling me the stories of being sucked out again for the billionth time that night, all the while, I was shoving 10 3s into a paired board with two spades on it. It was so fun to hit that 5th spade on the turn. The dude that called my all-in flopped two pair with his 10 9. I had to ask, why would you call an all in with pair of 9s and a 10 kicker? He figured I was on a draw, which I was, but failed to realize that while yes, I was drawing to a flush, and a back door straight and had an over card, it's damn near a coin flip and I was getting my gambool on. Cha ching.

By some miracle, I made my way to the final table. I was basically freerolling and enjoying a night away from the grind of tight/aggression. I figured I made it this far, I might as well play good poker now. Chipping up a little more, we whittled the table down to 5 people.

From under the gun, I did a standard 3X raise with the hand of the devil. I know, final table I should just muck AQo, it can't possibly win. The big blind calls. The flop comes J76 rainbow. Looking at the dude, he missed it completely but shoves all in. Me, being pulled by the devil to misplay this hand, knew that since he missed this flop, I must be good...he couldn't have a medium pair...

Unlike Fuel55 (posting soon?), presto was not gold for me but it was, however, gold for the dude holding it across the table from me. Friggin' donkey.

Can't you smell that smell

2009-10-19T15:24:00.002-05:00

Saturday, I headed up to play in the state tournament for my bar poker league. I was pumped, I was psyched and I really had no idea how to play poker once the tournament began. Well, I might have known a little but that's not really how it looked in hind sight.

Curiosity (got a blog yet?) chimed in on one hand that precipitated my decline. She was the "villain" (actually seemed like a pretty nice person, but in forum lingo...she was not me) in basically the first hand I entered from a spot other then the big blind.

Take a deep breath and a step back and let's luck at my plan for the day. My plan was to play the first 190 knockouts as a satellite. The top 20 spots pay the same, so that's a completely valid strategy. To get there, I was going to play tight/aggressive poker like it was my job. Same way I play a token frenzy. Reality was a little different. It's how I played, but I failed to account for two things: 25 minute blinds and mostly passive pre-flop pay.

First problem: 25 minute blinds. This is way more like a turbo then anything. Even with the great Drizz dealing, no way my 10,000 charting chips last long folding like it's my job.

Second problem: really it was an opportunity: passive pre-flop play. There was a lot of people putting money in to see flops. Now, in some tournaments, this would be something of an opportunity to turn on the heat, but this is also a freeroll with a variety of skill levels. Seeing the river is almost a certainty.

I never called an audible and changed the plan. Damn it. I seriously thought about playing more flops from position but I really didn't want to risk chips for later when I would get a better hand, but considering that better hand never came, I'll play for about 4-5 hours for nothin'.

The hand Curiosity was talking about in the comment had to do with a the first big hand I got dealt, KK. A nice hand, even raised it up good pre-flop. Drizz put the Ace out there and I got quite cranky. I knew I was probably beat, but had to know for sure. That value bet on the river was too tempting to not call. It was pretty much how my day would go. Before 1st break, I played a bit more, lost with AK a couple of times to a smaller ace, thus the "Can't beat ace rag..." headline.

These tournaments can be so frustrating, adapting to them has always been a challenge for me. Play too tight, get crazy later, or start a little crazy and stay there. I just never know when to switch.

I stole blinds for quite awhile, hovering right around half a starting stack all day. Never really regaining ground or losing ground.

Much of this post game time has been spent thinking about how I could have improved my game and gotten deeper. Being able to switch gears and finding other spots to gamble would probably be a good place to start. Patience can only get me so far.

My quote of the day came from the lady that devastated my stack. It wasn't so much that she called me, I can see doing it too, but her words just took my breath away.

The blinds were at 600/1200, I'm under the gun. I open raise to 4200 which was just more then half my stack. I think I had around 7700. This bet size had been fairly effective at stealing enough blinds to keep me treading water for a while. It folds around to the little blind. She starts counting out her chips. I'm pretty sure the big blind is just waiting his turn to fold, he can't wait to release.

While counting her chips, she starts talking out loud:

Do I double up now or wait for later. Hm. I know I have you beat because there's no hand you'd raise with that could beat me. I have to be ahead, but do I want you to draw out on me.

If she's got kings or aces, so be it, but what in God's name is taking her so long to do this? Is she slow rolling me with aces?

The fact was she was ahead, I had AKs. All she needs is a pair to be statistically ahead. She moves all-in for her remaining 7,300. I'm not folding here anyways, so I call. Her hand? 55. Presto. The collective jaws on the table hit the floor. The guy on the button asks, "Ma'am, why would you possibly think that no one would raise with a hand that could beat you?"

Her reply, "Ha, this is a pocket pair. Not likely anyone would have anything bigger then this."

Sigh. The poker gods did hate me so, flop came King high. Yep out flopped her, but the 3 diamonds lead to her hitting the turn diamond flush. Poker can be so cruel.

One thing I took away from this was the complete lack of live tournament play over the last year. I don't think I've played a live tournament outside of the bar league Tuesday night game or whiskey club since the Winter Gathering. This has got to change. Anyone borrow me a few hours every week? Sit-n-gos are forming at the casino near me and I need to be there.

Back to the studying this crazy game. Another Tuesday night league is starting tomorrow.

You can't out flop ace rag

2009-10-17T14:08:00.001-05:00

Been pretty brutal so far. Played three hands in 2 hours and have 5550 left. Drizz just can't deal me anything. Ugh. Thankfully, he can't resist the call of the Pai Gow. No dealer after the break. Need some mojo soon.

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.