2012 WPBT Winter Classic Report – Eat, Walk, Play

Another WPBT Winter Classic is in the history books, and my wife and I were fortunate enough to be there. The three activities we engaged in the most on the trip are in the title of this post, with “Play” perhaps being the least of the three. Below is my report on this year’s shenanigans.

First, an observation: hardly anyone who attended this year’s gathering seems to have an active poker blog any more. So, a lot of the links you see below for named people will be for their Twitter handles, since that now seems to be the more common method of communication among this group. Maybe we should start calling it the WPTT (World Poker Tweeter Tour)?

 

Thursday Nov. 29

This evening was taken up by dinner and the screening of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 movie event with our friends Ron and Barb Moore. Ron was the visual effects supervisor for TNG as well as many other TV shows and films. We met Ron and Barb on a couple of Cruise Treks and have been friends with them since. We had a great time catching up with them and watching the TNG episodes and bonus features at the screening. Side note: Ron has just written a book about his career in visual effects, titled “Flying Starships”; you can get more info about it at his website.

 

Friday Nov. 30

 

The big event Friday morning was the hike on Oak Creek Loop trail in Red Rock Canyon just outside Las Vegas. Dan (aka PokerPeaker) suggested it, expecting two or three people to show interest. 15 of us showed up, and everyone enjoyed the easy and scenic hike. A group photo by Astin can be found here; I took some photos too, which you can see here.

 

Friday afternoon and evening was mixed games time at the Aria poker room. I played for a while and finished up a few dollars. These sessions are more about having fun playing with fellow bloggers, but walking away with a few extra bucks does sweeten the deal.

 

Saturday Dec. 1

 

Pat and I started our day with breakfast at the Hash House a Go-Go at The Quad (formerly Imperial Palace). The “twisted farm food” at the Hash House is excellent and highly recommended. We then walked through Bellagio to look at their Christmas decorations on our way to Aria for the WPBT tournament. Bellagio always puts up a fabulous holiday display in their Conservatory.

 

Things started out slowly for me in the tourney. I took a few pots to keep my stack from shrinking too quickly, but didn’t chip up as much as I would have liked. I made a couple of ill-advised plays that cost me some chips, but managed to stay in contention through the first two breaks. Near the end of the second break (or was it the third?), I was talking to Dan, who was seated to my left and had a very healthy chip stack. I mentioned that my stack was getting short and I was nearing the danger zone. He said a double-up would put me back into the thick of things. First hand of the next round, I picked up AQ and went all in. Dan insta-called with KK. I spiked an Ace on the flop and got that double-up. Those chips allowed me to steal a few pots to keep pace with the table and eventually stick around for the final table. I had never gone that deep in previous WPBT tourneys and was thrilled with making it that far. Plus, my last-longer partner Alan (aka metsfan) was still in the game and at my table, so I knew we had a good shot at winning that prize. My run would not last much longer, though, due to a cooler hand of KK vs. The WookieWay’s AA. He had me covered by about 800 chips, and I was out in 9^th place out of 58 runners. I didn’t cash, but I’m very pleased with the deep run. I found out after the tourney ended, with CJ (aka the Luckbox) taking it down, that Alan and I tied with Dan and Michael (aka Grange95) for the last longer. My share of the last longer pool almost covered my buy-in to the tournament, so that worked out quite nicely.

 

When I tracked down VinNay to get my last longer winnings, I found him at the Monte Carlo Café with Alan and his fiancée Kat, plus my old pal Wil Wheaton, Shane Nickerson, Ryan (aka absinthetics), Chilly and another gent whose name I failed to get. They ate their dinner while Pat and I chatted with them, after which VinNay suggested that we have our own mini slot tournament: each player would choose a $0.25 machine and deposit $20. At the sound of the virtual bell, the contestants would play for 5 minutes, and player with the highest remaining total would take all the winnings of all players for the tournament. I joined in, expecting it to be a chop of zero money left for all of us. But, several of us hit a few winners during the 5 minutes, with Vinnie coming out on top. His haul was something like $180+; not bad for five minutes of slot play.

 

Sunday Dec. 2

 

Pat and I decided to go for the Caesars buffet pass, which gets you into any buffet at the Caesars properties, as often as you like, in a 24 hour period. Because, you know, we hadn't eaten enough already on the trip. We started by having brunch at the Flamingo buffet, and then drove away from the Strip which was being closed for the Rock and Roll Marathon to be run that afternoon and evening. We visited one of the outlet malls, plus Green Valley Ranch Casino, and the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and their Cactus Garden which was fully decorated with holiday lights (photos here). The traffic around the Strip was monstrous when we got back, which complicated matters a bit but didn’t prevent us from getting to the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood to use our buffet pass for dinner. Gotta get our money's worth.

 

Before I went to bed, I played in the Sunday night $3/$6 mixed game at The Quad (I still want to call it the IP). They were spreading some really weird games, only two of which I ended up playing. The first was Stud Eight, but the twist was that each player got four cards to start, all face down, and then each player would look at his cards and discard one. Then a designated player would turn up one card, and the player to the left would turn one up, etc. Play then continued as in regular Stud 8. I won over $40 in a few minutes playing this game, getting some good hands that got paid off. I gave it all back in the next game, though: 3-2-1 Omaha Eight. What the hell is that, you may ask? It starts like regular Omaha High-Low, but three flops are dealt, plus two turn cards and one river card. I’m not the best Omaha player but I have a decent idea of how to play it. This version, though, confused the crap out of me. After I lost my earlier winnings, I decided it was time to call it a day. I’m sure the regulars who were in this game wanted me to stick around so they could try to get more of my chips, but I didn’t feel like giving them that chance.

 

Monday Dec. 3

 

We used our buffet pass to stuff ourselves one last time with breakfast at Harrah’s, then headed for the airport for the flight to L.A. to visit Pat’s dad. We spent the week with him and came home Friday.

If I have any regrets from this trip, the first would be not having spent more time with some of my blogger friends, and not getting to spend any time with those who couldn’t be there this year. The second would be not taking more photos, especially at the tournament or mixed games. But overall I had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year. Many thanks for April for organizing the poker stuff, VinNay for handling the last longer, Dan for suggesting and leading the hike, and the Aria poker room staff for everything they did to make us WPBT folks feel welcome.

 

Happy Holidays to all, and see you next time!

2012 WPBT Winter Classic, and other updates

You heard right - it's time for another World Poker Blogger Tour Winter Classic gathering in Las Vegas, the weekend of November 29 through December 3. Check April's blog for more details, and RSVP if you haven't already at the Facebook event page. It is bound to be a fun time, so don't miss it.

I will be attending again, and staying at the Imperial Palace. Yes, it's not the classiest property in town, but the location and prices cannot be beat. My wife will be coming with me too, and we plan to do some non-pokery stuff while we are there. One of those things may be a tour of the Neon Museum, who have recently opened their new visitor's center. If we do that, it will most likely be Saturday morning. We are also going to meet some friends Thursday evening at the Orleans and go to the movie screening promoting the Blu-Ray release of the second season of Star Trek - The Next Generation. Beyond that, some other activities might include a trip out to Red Rock Canyon on Friday morning for an easy hike with some blogger friends, a visit to the Ethel M chocolate factory, hitting one or more of the outlet malls, and who knows what else. Anyone who wants to join us for any of these adventures, let me know.

In other news, I recently took an early retirement package from my job, and as of October 31 I am officially retired. I have taken advantage of my newfound free time to ride the players' bus up to Winstar Casino one day last week to play some poker. After losing a big chunk of my buy-in early, I came back and finished ahead by about 22 big blinds after roughly three hours of play. I probably could have done even better if I hadn't played as loosely as I did the first half of the session. I plan to go back up there on a semi-regular basis, depending on whatever else is going on.

I will do my best to post updates here, from the WPBT trip and from my future poker sessions.

Not dead yet....

Six months is a long time to go between posts, I will agree. If only I had six month's worth of intriguing news to report. Still, just to prove that there is life remaining in this blog, I thought I would post an entry.

Yes, I have played a little poker since December. I've played for a few pennies on line at Bovada, but all I have left on that site is a few pennies, and I haven't logged on there in a while. I have put in a couple of live sessions up in Oklahoma, at the Winstar Casino just over the TX border and the Riverwind Casino in Norman, and both sessions were profitable. At the Winstar a few weeks ago, I left with about $12 more than I bought in with. This past weekend, my wife and I went up to Norman to visit our son who is at OU for summer classes. I nearly doubled my buy-in there after about a two hour session. Feels good to walk away ahead.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think of these results as signs that I am turning into a "good" player. I think most of my basic instincts are on track, but every time I sit down at the table, I realize how much I *don't* know about how to play poker well. I really need to play more ring games to get more experience under my belt. My profits in these sessions have mostly come from winning a few big pots when I caught cards and they held up. I know that I play too tight/weak a lot of the time, and probably concede some pots that I should go after. However, there was one hand at Riverwind where I decided to take a chance, and I am embarassed to say that I don't have a good feel for whether my decision was a smart one (not taking into account the result).

$1/$2 NLHE; my stack was about $250. I was in late position and started with AdJh. Preflop raises were not chasing a lot of people out of the pots at this table, so I decided to limp in behind a few others and see if I could hit something before committing much money to the pot. The player to my left also limped in, and the flop came cheap.

Flop: A J T rainbow

It was checked to me and I bet roughly the size of the pot with top two pair but a drawing board. The player on my left went all in for about $110 more. I thought about it for quite a while. My opponent said, "If you have KQ you have me beat, otherwise..." This player didn't strike me as very sneaky or deceptive, so my first reaction was to think that he did not have KQ himself. I did consider the possibility that he was trying reverse psychology on me if he did have that. I then considered that he might have a set of tens and was trying to push me off a draw. In the end, I had the gut feeling that he really didn't want me to call, and therefore might have a hand that I could beat like A-rag, so I called him. He turned over AsJc, the turn and river didn't change anything, and we chopped the pot.

I didn't feel particularly comfortable with that decision. What I want to develop is the ability to analyze these types of situations more clearly so those decisions will come a bit more easily. I can go back and re-read the poker books that I have, but I know that it requires actual experience more than anything else to improve my skills.

In on-line poker news, AlCan'tHang has joined forces with up-and-comer Face Up Gaming to start up a new blogger tournament series. They held an ice-breaker tournament June 9, which I was unable to play. Here is the info for the next tourney; more details at Al's site:

Tournament: Bloggers 2
Date: Saturday, June 30th
Time: 3pm ET - Noon PT
Buyin: Freeroll
Password: battle2

Face Up is a monthly subscription site; Al should be able to tell you whether you have to sign up for the subscription to play in the tourney. If everything works out for me to join the fun, I hope to play, and to see you there.

My favorite poker-related Xmas gift of 2011

We opened our gifts tonight due to plans we have for tomorrow, and I got an awesome T-shirt as one of my gifts. Behold:

I <3 this shirt so much, I will be taking extra-good care of it. But, yes, I will be wearing it at future poker gatherings, for closer inspection.

Try not to be too jealous.

WPBT 2011 Winter Classic report

I have browsed around to some of the poker blogs that I know but I haven't yet seen a report about this year's WPBT Winter Classic weekend. Maybe there are some posts out there that I haven't seen yet. In any case, here is mine.

Wednesday night
Check into Imperial Palace around midnight. It's 2:00 AM Dallas time and my wife and I are dead tired. She makes a joke about just staying up all night instead of going to bed. Ha, I say, because we have to get up for...

Thursday morning
I take my wife to the airport so she can catch an early flight to spend the weekend with her sick dad. It would be nice if she could spend the weekend in Vegas with me as originally planned, but it will be better for her to spend some time with her dad and help him out.

Breakfast at McDonalds is followed by a short rest at the hotel before looking for a poker tournament to play. I choose the 10:00 AM $50 buy-in at Planet Hollywood. To kill time before it starts, I play some $0.25 video poker, Deuces Wild. Down to my last $3.00, I hit four deuces and cash out for $250.00. Nice start to the weekend, eh? I use $50 of my winnings to buy into the tourney. About two hours later, I finish third for another $150.00+ payout. I'm on a roll!

Back to the IP, where I see CK, Bam-Bam and Pebbles playing Let It Ride. I watch them play and can't figure out how the hell this game works. Bam-Bam says, "Sit down, I want to buy you in for one hand." After a few minutes of "No thank you"s and "Come on"s, I give in and sit down. First deal, I get some big hand (can't even remember what) and get paid double or triple my bets. Next hand, something just as good or better. I think I got three of a kind at least twice in the space of 30 minutes. After going up about $200, I tell Bam-Bam that I think we should quit while we are ahead. He insists on splitting the winnings with me, despite my offer to let him have it all since I didn't do anything more than sit there while the cards were dealt to me. I still owe him and Pebbles drinks, dinner, or something. My run good continues, but not for much longer.

Sherwood Forest bar, Excalibur: this year's blogger meeting spot. I drive to the Excal with lightning36 and meet up with lots of old friends and acquaintances. There is talk of heading to the Palms for the Thursday night Pokerati NLHE/PLO game, but very few actually leave the Excal and I am not among them. Eventually lightning and I play for a little while in the Excal poker room. I lose about $50 and decide I need some sleep. I drop lightning at Bally's and hit the sack.

Friday
Feels good to sleep in. After a fabulous breakfast at the Hash House A-Go-Go, I go for a walk. Antiquities, a memorabilia store in the Forum Shops at Caesars, has a sign announcing that Pete Rose will be appearing there that afternoon. I grew up in the Cincinnati area and have always been a fan of Pete's. I walk some more, come back after Pete's starting time, buy a book that he co-wrote, and get his autograph on it along with a few pictures.

Back to the IP again. I spend a little time in their poker room playing $2/4 Limit HE with what looks like a bunch of locals. When lightning calls to say he will be there soon for our trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame, I am about $20 ahead. PokahDave catches up with us too, and lightning drives us to the Pinball HOF. We use up just about all of the quarters that I had brought with me, leftovers from my previous visit there a couple of years ago. Fun times. After that, lightning wants to go visit the graves of Redd Foxx and Stu Ungar. Why not, Dave and I say, and off we go. A little searching and a query to one of the cemetery employees, and we find the graves. We pay our respects and head out.

Aria poker room. After a quick dinner, we walk to the Aria to join the bloggers for some poker. The mixed game table is full when we get there, but a $1/3 NLHE table is opened up and I sit in. A couple of hours later, I have dropped my buy-in after some loose calls and card dead streaks. A leisurely walk back to the IP and an early bedtime for me.

Saturday
Recommendation to anyone reading this: find somewhere else to eat breakfast besides the Emperor's Buffet at IP. Below-average food and selection for the same price as most other places. Harrah's and Flamingo are both easy walks from IP and the buffets are much better. Another leisurely walk to the Aria for the tournament at noon. Very early on, I call off about half my stack to MrsChako with AA vs her set of 5s. I should have known better, but instead got myself short on chips early. I stuck around longer than I thought I would, but eventually busted out in 52nd place to Dr. Pauly. He seemed pleased to get my bounty, a copy of the Yes CD "90125" - remastered edition with bonus tracks!!

More walking ensued, including a trip back to the IP, with stops at the Aria gift shop and Miracle Mile mall, with OhCaptain. Always a good traveling companion. Eventually we ended up back at the IP poker room, where a maniac was holding court with a table mostly full of bloggers who were intent on taking advantage of his wild and loose playing. There wasn't a seat open for me at first, and when I finally did get to join, I was on the maniac's right and did not get to play with him. The guy to my right eventually felted the maniac, much to the chagrin of the rest of the table. Then that guy left, taking most of the chips in play with him. By then I was running behind again and thinking that I had better turn in, having an early flight to catch Sunday.

Sunday
Flew home.

I had another great time at the Winter Classic. The poker and other activities were fun, but as always it was the people that made it special. My thanks to everyone I got to meet or spend time with. Extra thanks to April, the Aria poker room staff, and the others who worked to organize everything. I hope to see all of you again very soon.

Overdue update, including WPBT Winter Classic news

Yes, it has been quite a while since I posted here. My poker activity has been sporadic since the WSOP, so there hasn't been much to talk about. Let's see what my memory banks can produce from the last few months.

As with so many other poker players, my playing has been reduced quite a bit since the Black Friday shutdown of the big online sites. I played in a few play-money tournaments on PokerStars with some other bloggers, but dropped out of that group when the host insulted me during one of the games. I didn't see any point in sticking around for that. I still have a few dollars on Bodog and play there for small change once in a while, but not much. I tried a free month on ClubWPT.com by mailing in a postcard, but the game offerings were sparse and I didn't care for the interface much., so I didn't send in any more cards to keep it going.

I played in a tourney at Riverwind in Norman OK when we moved our son up there in August. Didn't get very deep in that one. I did better when my wife and I went on another cruise to Alaska in September. I played in a one-table tourney in the ship's casino and chopped first place. I also helped organize a freeroll tourney for the Cruise Trek group that we sailed with, as I did on a previous cruise in 2006. I finished second in the freeroll, which won me a voucher for credit toward a future cruise. So that trip turned me a poker profit.

I play semi-regularly in a local bar league, and have finished in the points a couple of times recently. But I know that my game is rusty and I need to be more focused and brush up on my skills. That need is magnified because I will be playing some "serious" poker in four weeks.

That's right, I will once again be attending the WPBT Winter Classic in Las Vegas. I almost ended up not going this year, but decided that I do not want to miss out on the fun. My wife will be along for the trip again, and we will be doing some non-pokery stuff when I'm not playing. We will be staying at the Imperial Palace, arriving late Wednesday and leaving early Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of the poker blogger crowd the first weekend in December

On a non-poker note, I am thrilled that the Texas Rangers made it to the World Series for the second consecutive year, but (naturally) disappointed that they weren't able to get that last strike (twice!) to seal the deal. They had a great season and I expect them to continue to play great baseball for years to come.

See you in less than a month in Las Vegas!

2011 World Series of Poker report - Doyle Brunson liked my shirt

I never said that I was prompt about posting trip reports. Better late than never, though, right?

My first ever World Series of Poker experience was, overall, fairly positive. I played in the Seniors Championship event, and although I didn't get very far in the tournament, I don't feel like I made any real boneheaded decisions that cost me a chance to go deep. I played a fair amount of poker outside the WSOP, and did some other touristy stuff; more about that shortly.

My adventure started when I flew into Las Vegas the morning of Thursday June 16, the day before the start of the Seniors event. I picked up my rental car and drove across town so I could register for said event. I'm glad I got there early in the day, because I only had to wait in the registration line at the Rio for about 15 minutes. By the time I finished, the line had grown out of the room and just got longer as the day wore on. I then wandered around the convention area of the Rio, where the WSOP events were being held, so I could figure our where everything was. I had never seen so many poker tables, or poker players, in the same place at once. I knew there would be a big field for the Seniors tournament, as well as hundreds of players for the other events. It didn't take long before I saw my first recognizable poker pro, Bertrand "ElkY" Grosspellier, walking through the Pavilion. Soon I was spotting pros every other minute, and I gave up trying to keep track of them all, so you won't see a list of them here.

Eventually I caught up with one of my blogger pals, AlCan'tHang, and chatted with him for a few minutes. Later I would meet up with Dr. Pauly, Special K, F-Train, CKBwoP, and other friends and acquaintances. I didn't do much more than soak up the atmosphere around the WSOP area at the Rio that afternoon.

After a brief trip downtown, I ended up at the Palms to play in the Pokerati mixed NLHE/PLO game Thursday evening. I wasn't playing very much, just treading water, until an interesting hand came up. In middle position, I called a straddle bet of $5 with T9 of clubs. The button, pro Matt Stout who was sitting in for some fun and games, raised to $15. I called the raise to see what might develop, and we were heads up. The flop was TKT, giving me trips. I bet $15, and Matt called. The turn was a 9, filling me up. I thought about checking but decided to see if Matt  would call me again like he did on the previous street. I bet $25, which he called fairly quickly. The river was an Ace. I announced all-in, which Matt snap-called. I showed my boat; he turned over QJ for the straight.  After that nice pot, I played for a short while longer and decided to call it a night, having been up since about 4:15 AM Dallas time.

The next morning, I attended an interview session with Phil Gordon and Doyle Brunson which was sponsored by BadBeatonCancer.org, which had a booth at the WSOP asking players to donate 1% of their winnings to cancer research. Phil interviewed Doyle about his life in the poker world and about Doyle's own survival of cancer. After the interview, Doyle took questions from the audience. I got in line and asked Doyle how he liked playing in the cash game shows made for TV like The Big Game and High Stakes Poker. He said he loves playing in those games and isn't bothered by the televised nature of them. You may be wondering, where did the title of this post come from? Well, I wore my red Texas Rangers T-shirt that day, with "TEXAS" in big letters on the front. As he finished answering my question, Doyle, a Texas native himself, said, "I like your shirt, by the way."

The Seniors tourney started at 12:00 noon, or actually several minutes later, after the introduction by Oklahoma Johnny Hale and general ceremonial stuff. I had no pros or celebrities at my starting table, but those who were there were nice enough people. A couple of people got annoyed by this or that, but by and large things were pretty friendly. I played tight to start, as did everyone else. I took a few small pots, mostly playing position, but didn't build my chip stack. I made it to the first break with a few more chips than the 3,000 that everyone started with. I knew I was going to need to step things up a bit when we got back, but the cards weren't coming and my opponents had pretty much the same idea as I did, so I found it hard to play back at anyone. As my stack started to shrink, I was looking for a chance to double up while doing so would still gain me a decent stack. I found it when I got AK in late position and reraised all-in the UTG player's 3XBB opening raise. He called, showed QQ, and busted me when the A on the flop had a Q right next to it. I suppose I could have folded preflop, but really, how could I do that? And if I had just called, the chips would have ended up in the middle when the A hit the flop. I don't regret that move, or really anything else I did in the tournament. It just wasn't meant to be, for me, and I'm fine with that.

After I busted, I tracked down Special K, who busted ahead of me on a bad beat. He suggested that we play some cash at Caesars Palace, to check on that action and to get more information about a Super Seniors tourney they were hosting the next day (which turned out to be too pricey for us). We hopped the shuttle bus from the Gold Coast, where we were both staying, to the Strip and walked over to CP. We ended up seated at separate tables, and I think I got the luckier draw. On my immediate left was a gent who was in nearly every hand, making weird bets, calling down with very weak hands, and more or less giving his chips away. I managed to get some of them myself and doubled my buy-in before fatigue got the best of me. I would have loved to stay longer and try to get some more of his donations, but I really felt the need to crash, and to catch the shuttle back to the Gold Coast before it stopped running.

Saturday, I went back to the Rio, thinking about entering the daily $230 deepstack WSOP side tourney. I played some cash at the Rio's regular poker room early in the day, losing a little of my profit from the previous days. By the time I went to check on the deepstack tourney, it was full. I decided to take a break and see what shows were on that might be fun. I had seen an ad for "Recycled Percussion" at the Tropicana, which sounded a lot like Stomp! where the performers bang on all manner of household objects as percussion instruments. That sounded good, so I went to a discount ticket booth on the Strip and bought a ticket for that night's performance. I got a text from Special K, who wanted to play some poker at the MGM Grand. I told him I would meet him after the show.

"Recycled Percussion" was fabulous. A high-energy show with lots of audience participation: everyone coming into the theater was given a drumstick and asked to grab an item out of one of four bins of pots, pans, buckets, and other stuff to hit. It was almost certainly the loudest Vegas show I have ever attended. Go see it if you get the chance.

My session at the MGM Grand was not so fabulous. Just a few minutes after I sat down, I got involved in two big hands. In the first, I started with AA, raised and got one caller. Flop was J rag rag. I bet about half the pot and got called. Turn is another J. I bet half pot again and got smooth called. Figuring that my opponent called me with top pair on the flop and just turned trips, I checked the rag that fell on the river. Opponent bet, I thought for a few minutes and folded. A few hands later, I got AKo in the cutoff. I raised to $12 and got reraised by the button to $25, which I called. Heads up, the flop was KQx. I bet $25 with top pair; button raised all in and had me covered. If I had thought this through, I would have figured out that the three most likely hands where he would push like that, AA, KK and QQ, all had me crushed. My best hope was that he had AQ (I'm ahead) or AK (we probably chop). But, I didn't think it through, called him, and he showed AA. I didn't suck out, and decided to call it a night.

Sunday morning, I walked over to the Rio to sign up for their 10:00 AM daily (non-WSOP) tourney. Only $60+5 to enter. The structure was pretty fast but that didn't bother me for such a small buy-in. I got aggressive early, caught some hands and built my stack and put some pressure on the table. We only ended up with 24 entrants because of a shortage of dealers. After making it to the final table, the cards cooled off for me. I hung in and was the beneficiary of a four-way all-in that busted all three players who were shorter stacked than the winner of the hand. That took us down to four, with three places being paid. We all agreed on a save for the bubble of $20 each so the bubble would get (most of) the buy-in back. I was one of the shorter stacks but another player busted ahead of me, so I made the money. My short stack would not last long, though, and I finished in third place. That payout made up for the buy-in that I lost at the MGM Grand the night before.

I decided to take another tourist break and drive out to Red Rock Canyon Sunday afternoon. It was hot and dry out there, but the scenery was great and I was glad to get out and stretch my legs. I also picked up some nice souvenirs for my wife and son in their gift shop. Much better than the tacky crap in all the casino gift shops. On my way out of the park, I got a text from lightning36, who had just arrived in town for his WSOP trip. We met at the Harrah's buffet for dinner and had a great time catching up.

The trip turned out to be a lot of fun, and I'm glad I went. Not counting the Seniors event buy-in, I came home with more poker money than I started with, and that is always a nice feeling. Will I play in the WSOP again next year? A lot can happen between now and then, so I will make no commitments nor predictions now. What I will say is, I won't rule it out.

The WSOP competition just got easier - for now

By now you have probably heard that Phil Ivey has declared that he will not be playing in the World Series of Poker this year, and is suing Tiltware, which I believe is the software arm of FullTilt where he has been an icon for several years. The full statement, which was posted May 30, can be found here. While his absence from the WSOP is not likely to benefit me, since my only event will be the Seniors tourney, I suppose there are others who are glad that they won't have to worry about facing him across the table.

His statement, though, brings up a whole host of questions. Some of these points have been discussed all over the web and undoubtedly there will be much more analysis and speculation about what it all means. Here are a few thoughts that have crossed my mind.

One sentence of the statement says, "I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot." This appears to imply that Ivey is sympathetic to the players whose funds are stuck on FullTilt and who cannot cash out the money they intended to use to buy into various WSOP events. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. One would think that a top-notch player like Ivey would be happy to have less competition and smaller fields to contend with. How many players will be shut out of the WSOP because of their unavailable funds is unknown (to me, anyway) and may never be known precisely, so maybe it isn't a big number. But how a boycott of the WSOP by Ivey will benefit the stuck players is beyond me. Maybe he is trying to pressure the FullTilt honchos to step on the gas in their efforts to pay out to US players, and if they miraculously succeed, he will rescind his boycott and play in events later in the Series (with FullTilt patch in place). Plus, if his action appears to have had some success in getting players their money, he will gain a lot more positive press and fan appreciation.  It still seems to me, though, that the losers in this boycott are Caesars and the WSOP organization, who stand to lose some players who will join the boycott or decide not to show up if they think won't get a chance to interact with Ivey in or around the Series.

The last sentence of the statement says, at the end, "I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment." My question is, what can Phil Ivey do to "find a solution" to this issue? If he was part of the FullTilt group in charge of handling the player funds, which I seriously doubt, what can he do that he hasn't done already? If he is not part of that group, which I expect is the case, what influence can he have or what can he do about the payouts to the US (and other) players? Does he have enough money in his bank accounts to pay the players what they are owed? If he does, why would he do that? I just haven't figured out why he would say this except as a way to say to the players, "I'm on your side."

I have read a response to Ivey's statement from Tiltware (Pauly quotes it on his site here) which is very unflattering to Ivey and calls his motives into question. It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out over the next few weeks. Will Ivey and Tiltware kiss and make up? Will a lot of dirty laundry see the light of day? Will FullTilt US members ever see their money? We are in for some entertaining and potentially enlightening exchanges in the near future, methinks.

Meanwhile, two weeks from today I will arrive in Las Vegas to prepare for WSOP Event # 30, the Seniors Texas Hold'Em Championship (No-Limit) which begins at 12:00 noon June 17. I've been doing a lot of reading of my poker books and playing when I have had a chance in the local bar league tournaments. As I type this, I am playing on line in a tournament on the new RISE Poker site, a freeroll with a $1,000 prize pool. My game plan for the WSOP tourney is to play my usual tight-aggressive game and avoid marginal situations to the best of my ability. I fully expect to be outclassed by most of the competition in this tournament, and will be praying for the poker gods and the Card Fairy to smile on me during my participation. I will be sending updates from my plain old dumb cell phone to Twitter, so look for me there as @yestbay if you want to find out how I am doing.

Cashed out of PokerStars, and booked for WSOP

The good news: PokerStars has opened up their cashier and is processing cashouts for us US players that can't play with our real money on their site any more. I requested my money, and it was deposited in my bank account within a few days. I guess the next time I want to play for actual dollars on PokerStars, it will be when such play has been legalized and making a deposit is no big deal.

The disappointing news: FullTilt has not yet started offering their (former) US players the ability to cash out. I received an e-mail Friday from them saying that they will have a further update this coming week. Why it should take FT so much longer to come up with a means to send US players their money than it took PokerStars, I have no idea. For the sake of all of us who have funds stuck there, especially those who have large amounts coming to them, I hope it isn't too drawn out a process.

Other good news, for me anyway: I have booked my trip to Las Vegas for the 2011 World Series of Poker Seniors event. I arrive Thursday June 16 and fly home Monday the 20th. I will be staying at the Gold Coast, so I will be able to walk to the Rio for the WSOP event, and be just a shuttle ride or car drive away from the Strip if I bust out early and want to hit the town. I saw in a recent comment that Special K is planning to be there for the same event; it will be nice to have a fellow blogger there to meet up with and cheer on, at least until we both get to the final table. Anyone else who will be in Las Vegas during that time, leave me a comment or e-mail me at david dot westbay at verizon dot net if you want to get together.

I have read a couple of interesting articles on line recently which I recommend you check out:

A legal analysis regarding the "Black Friday" indictments, titled US Attorney's Office on Tilt

One about why outlawing online poker is a dumb idea, one titled Can Poker Save the World?

And one on a similar theme from the L.A. Times titled Federal crackdown on Internet poker looks like a relic from the past


I found all three articles through my friend Linda Geenen from PokerWorks.

Anyhow, I'll be playing in as many free bar league tourneys as I can manage between now and the WSOP trip, to get in whatever practice I can. If I can get up to Oklahoma to play some real poker over the next few weeks, I might try to do that too.

Meanwhile, I have signed up for Heffmike's PokerStars play money Home Game club and plan to play in his inaugural tourney tonight. Go to his blog for details on joining the club.

Random thoughts, and WSOP plans update

If you are reading this blog, then I expect that you have heard the news about the US Department of Justice charging PokerStars, FullTilt, and Cereus Network (parent of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet) with a host of crimes including fraud, money laundering, operating an illegal gambling enterprise, and I'm not sure what else. You can read the actual indictment here and the civil suit here (links copied from Pokerati). Lots of bloggers have posted their thoughts on what is going on and may be to come. CK writes a very readable summary of the legal aspects as well as her reactions; Pokerati has a lot of good information or links to it; and there are plenty of others out there for you to search for. Here are a few random comments, observations, and questions from me.


*I have active accounts at three poker sites: PokerStars, FullTilt, and Bodog.

Right now, I can log into PokerStars but I cannot join any cash ring game or register for any tournament which has a "real money" prize or is a satellite to such a tournament. The only thing that appears to be available to me there is play money games. I can't register for an FPP tourney or even a freeroll if it ends up with some sort of tangible prize.

I can't log into FullTilt at all. When I try, I get a message that a software update is available. When I try to accept the update, I get a message that the update could not be retrieved and I should try again later. (I have been getting this message since yesterday, so I don't know how soon I will be able to log into FT, if ever.)

I have no trouble logging into Bodog. They aren't included in the current indictment, and they appear to be operating as usual. Interesting side note: Bodog's website has no mention of the recent developments. I can't say I'm totally surprised; what are they going to say? No doubt they don't want to call undue attention to themselves, so I suppose ignoring it for now is as good a strategy as any.

*Although the dot.com domains for PokerStars, FullTilt and Ultimate Bet have been seized and redirected to a DOJ information page, the dot.net domains for those companies are still available. I have to wonder if the DOJ really wants to shut these companies out of the US market completely if they are leaving the dot.net domains alone (at least for now). Perhaps they concede that they can't legally seize a website if it says all over it that it only offers play money games and no real money play.

*Will this change increase the player base of the online subscription poker sites like ClubWPT.com which appear to be legal in the US? That would seem to make some sense, since the serious online players are going to want to have someplace to ply their trade. I don't have any plans to pay $19.95 a month to join ClubWPT; I don't play often enough in my spare time to make it worth that kind of expense. There is a way to get around the monthly subscription fee, by sending a post card every month; I don't know whether I will go to that trouble or not at this point, but I may try it once to see how it goes.

*Will televised poker shrink due to loss of advertising by the major sites? Probably so, especially in the near term. But the TV producers can always try to find new sponsors for the shows. They will just have to sign up other companies that want to reach the poker-viewing audience. PokerStars' show The Big Game seems likely to take a big hit since the whole premise is to bring an online qualifier onto the show to play against the pros. With no US players eligible to play for the spot, where will the contestants come from? Canada, maybe?

*Without the hundreds of online qualifiers to fill seats, the World Series of Poker could very well see significantly lower turnouts this year and in future years, depending on how everything shakes out. Besides the US players who would have won packages to the WSOP from the major online sites, there are almost certainly players who would have used money from their online bankrolls to pay their way to the big dance. The bright side for the people who do play in the Series is that they won't have fields as large to contend with.

As a small stakes recreational player, this ruling doesn't have a huge effect on my life. I certainly have enjoyed the ability to log on and play whenever I wanted, and will miss it to some degree. I feel for those whose livelihoods have been disrupted by this development. I don't have the faintest clue how all of this will evolve, but it is obvious that things have changed greatly, and most likely permanently, for online poker players in the US.

Meanwhile, my plans to play in the Seniors event in this year's WSOP have not changed to speak of. For quite a while it looked like I was going to abandon the idea, due to some upcoming family stuff. But in looking at the big picture again, it still appears that getting my first WSOP experience under my belt this year is going to work out better than waiting for some future time. I've looked again at airfare, hotel rates, etc. and will probably firm up my plans soon. Once it is all set, I will post more info in hopes that I can meet up with any fellow bloggers or friends that might be in Las Vegas while I am there.

More coming soon....

WSOP plans, WBCOOP, PokerStars Home Games

This year has not got off to an auspicious start for me as far as poker goes. I made some bone-headed plays in the bar league that I play in, I have min-cashed in exactly two online tournaments so far, and I have felt off my game for pretty much the entire month.

So, naturally, I am making plans to play in the World Series of Poker this summer in Las Vegas. Why, you may ask? A reasonable question, and one that my wife asked when I told her what I am thinking. The bottom line answer is, because I can. Right now, I have the means to enter a (relatively) low buy-in tourney and can afford the travel costs to do it. I have wanted to participate in the WSOP experience for several years now but haven't taken the steps to make it happen. In a few more years, my wife and I are hoping that I can retire early from my current job, following in my wife's footsteps who volunteered to be laid off from her job last fall. I figure that now is a good time for me to fulfill this "dream" of playing in the WSOP, while I have a steady income and don't need to worry about whether the money I might spend playing poker should be used to pay the electric bill instead.

I can't go nuts and jump into the Main Event or anything like that. I feel like I can handle a bottom-tier buy-in event, preferably over a weekend so I don't have to take too many days off work. After examining the recently released event schedule, I have found what I believe is probably the best fit for me: the Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship, which starts Friday June 17 at 12:00 noon and has a buy-in of $1,000. Don't be too surprised that I actually qualify for this 50-or-older event, despite my youthful good looks. I know that the majority of my poker blogger friends aren't quite at that milestone in their chronology yet, so I don't expect to see many of them in the event with me. But I am hoping that some will be in Las Vegas during that time, and that I will get to say hello to them in between sessions or before or after the events that everyone enters.

I know that the competition in the Seniors event will be tough. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of long-time players in it with decades more experience than I have. But, at least I won't have to face the ultra-aggressive Internet punks who are barely older than my son. I do plan to study more, and play more, between now and June, to try to find and plug (or at least slow) some of the leaks in my game. If I will have one thing going for me in the event, it's that the chances of any of my opponents having played me before or knowing how I play are infinitesimal.

Besides the preparation for the tournament, I also will need to take care of some logistical stuff. Where to stay? When to arrive in Las Vegas, and when to leave? How to get around while in town? Right now, I will probably fly in the Wednesday night or Thursday morning before the event, giving myself the day on Thursday to relax and maybe meet up with any friends who are available. The Seniors tourney is a three-day event, so I will most likely book a flight home on Monday. If I bust out early, I will have whatever remains of the weekend to hang out, play some cash games, and generally soak up the atmosphere of the WSOP.

I am not sure about where to stay. The Rio itself has rates right now for that weekend that aren't as expensive as I thought they would be, but are a little more than I would like to spend. I could stay on the Strip for less, perhaps in a Caesars property and ride their shuttle to the Rio. But I don't like the idea of depending on their shuttle, nor having to drive a rental car from a Strip property to the Rio every day that I am in the event. The Gold Coast, right next to the Rio, has very good rates and is looking like a definite possibility. I may or may not want to have a rental car. It would give me more freedom, especially if I bust early and want to get around town for the rest of my stay. I'll probably get one, if only to avoid having to deal with cabs and shuttle buses.

I would really like to get some feedback from anyone who has tips for a first-timer at the WSOP, whether it be about playing in the Series, dealing with travel stuff, or whatever. I would also love to hear from anyone who will be in Las Vegas that weekend (June 16 - 19), either visiting or living there, in case we have a chance to meet up. Please leave me a comment or e-mail me at david dot westbay at verizon dot net.

In a short while, I will be playing in today's PokerStars WBCOOP 8-Game tournament. In my previous two attempts in this year's WBCOOP, I have come up short of any prizes. I would like to get some sort of ticket to another event, if nothing else. Although I can afford to pay my own way to the WSOP this summer, winning some money online that I could use towards those expenses would certainly be nice.

On a different note, some of you have probably heard about the PokerStars Home Games that they are now offering. I haven't looked into it too closely yet, but it struck me as a way for poker-playing friends to play together for fun without having to request private tournaments from the poker sites. I will be happy to set up a "club" (as Stars calls them) for any of my blogger pals or other friends who want to play occasionally (or regularly). If you are interested, leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail and I will send you an invitation when I get things going.

I hope to hear from some of you, about the WSOP or about the home game or both, soon!

PokerStars WBCOOP 2011 - I'm registered; are you?

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 157829

Belated WPBT Winter Classic 2010 trip report

Yes, I have been back from Las Vegas for almost two weeks. I will use the "busy holiday season" excuse for not posting my report sooner. If you want to read into that the "too lazy to get around to it" excuse, I won't say that you are too far wrong.

One big difference about this year's trip compared to previous years is that my wife Pat came along for the first time. That changed my activity schedule somewhat, but I still participated in a fair amount of poker blogger fun. Another change this year is that I didn't arrive until Friday, so I missed the usual introductory get-together at the Geisha Bar at Imperial Palace. I think I will try to make it out on Thursday next time, partly to join the gang at the Geisha Bar and partly so I will have the early half of Friday available for additional tourist time.

Friday evening, after checking in at Bally's and grabbing some dinner, my wife and I went to MGM Grand so I could play in the traditional blogger mixed games. Pat went off to look around the casino and hotel, while I sat down with a blogger all-star group that included CJ, Snuffy, Poker Grump, Special K, Very Josie, and 23skidoo. I know there were a couple of others there whom I either did not know or have forgotten (sorry). We played HORSE, and I went up early during the Hold'em and Omaha 8 rounds, but then went card dead during the Razz, Stud and Stud 8 rounds. I walked away a whole $7 in the black, but had fun playing with the group, which is the main thing. There was a very interesting Razz hand involving Josie and skidoo, which you can read about at Josie's blog here or at Grump's blog here. Hilarity always ensues when bloggers play mixed games. I also finally met my last longer teammate BrainMc in person.

Saturday was the day of the big blogger tourney at Aria. Pat and I decided to get over there early to look around the City Center complex a bit since neither of us had seen it before. Beautiful place, with very weird but attractive architecture. I got to the poker room early and hung out with several bloggers while we waited for the starting time to arrive. After a blogger group photo, which I have not seen yet and don't know whether it has been posted anywhere, the tourney began. The Hammers started flying fast and furiously, from players trying to pick up the $50 bounties offered up by PokerStars for the first ten players to win a hand post-flop while playing 7-2 offsuit. I got one early on, raised pre-flop, but took the blinds when no one called. Later, I called a PF raise from Vinnay with 66, whiffed the flop and folded to his C-bet. He showed the Hammer and took one of the last available Hammer bounties before they were all claimed.

I got AA and KK a few times in the early levels, but got no action for them and was unable to build a chip stack. I lasted to about 51st place, when my KT was bested by F-Train's A-rag and another blogger's KJ (sorry that I didn't catch her name). I didn't make my goal of lasting longer than last year's finish of 29th, but I feel like I made mostly good decisions, which is about all you can do anyway. By the end of the night, Miami Don had taken the trophy and first place, in a six-way chop with the other finishers. Congrats to Don! Unfortunately, TAG Team did not finish in the money in the Last Longer Challenge. BrainMc went pretty deep, about 16th I think, but Mike and I didn't hold up as long. Maybe next year.

After I busted out, I called my wife, who had met a friend who lives in the area for lunch and then gone shopping at the Fashion Show Mall. We chilled at the mall for a bit and then headed to the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood for dinner. We have been to this buffet a few times before and it is a definite favorite. The line to get in was monstrous, but at least we weren't starving when we got in it. The food did not disappoint when we eventually were seated. We bought a 24-hour buffet pass there, which is good at the buffets at all of the Caesars' (formerly Harrah's before the recent corporate name change) properties. After dinner, we went back to Bally's and I played $1/2 NLHE in their poker room for about an hour. I finished up $50, which capped off the night nicely.

We used the buffet pass again the next morning for breakfast at the Flamingo and then dinner at the Rio Sunday evening. In between, we drove down to Hoover Dam to check out the new bridge. The view of the dam from the new bridge is very cool. We then drove back to the Strip, gawked at a few of the casino hotels, and waited in the long line at the Rio for their buffet. One side note about that buffet's queuing system: they had one line for people using coupons, comps, discounts, or other promo-type things, and three or four lines for people paying with cash or credit card. About 95% of the people in line were using something that required them to stand in the promo line, including us with our buffet pass. They would move people along much better if they had more lines for promo customers.

We then drove downtown to check out Glitter Gulch and the Fremont Street Experience, which we had not seen for many years. It was packed with people, which made for a festive atmosphere. There were lots of costumed performers there, including some dressed as rock stars, cartoon and movie characters, and Vegas showgirls. I wish now that I had taken more photos there. I went into Binion's and the Golden Nugget to look at (but not play in this time) their poker rooms. On a future visit, I would like to go back down there and play a few hands, and look around some more.

We drove back to Ballys and hit the sack to get some rest before the flight home on Monday. It was another enjoyable gathering with the poker blogger group, and I look forward to the next one. Many thanks to April, CK, CJ, Al, PokerStars, and everyone else that had a hand in making this event another success.

Big Game - high and dry, plus WPBT updates

The bad news: my video for the PokerStars Big Game TV show was not chosen as a winner, so I won't be appearing on the show in the near future. I have played in a couple more qualifying tournaments but have not progressed to the final round again (yet). I have some ideas for a new video but will keep them under wraps until I get to the point where I need to make one.

The good news: in case you haven't been marking off the days on your calendar, the 2010 WPBT Winter Classic gathering is only 16 days away. This year, my wife will be along on the trip for the first time, and it will be interesting to see her reactions to the motley group that is the poker bloggers. We arrive Friday afternoon and depart Monday.

If you will be in Las Vegas for the fun that weekend but haven't yet signed up to play in the WPBT tournament, contact Texas April ASAP, via Facebook or her blog, to get on the list.

In other WPBT news, I am pleased to announce that I have joined a team for this year's Last Longer Challenge.

Presenting, TAG Team:

BrainMc
Mike G. (friend of BrainMc)
Yours truly

Opponents, get ready to be smacked down.

Poker Stars Big Game update - in the pool

As I mentioned in my last post, I qualified to play in the second round tournament towards the PokerStars Big Game TV show. So, I played in the second round tournament, finished in the top 1,000, and won an entry into one of the third and final round tournaments. I played in the final round tournament, and just squeaked into the top 200 to make it into the contestant pool. I almost let myself be blinded out of the final round, but woke up to the fact that my chips were disappearing faster than I thought just in time to survive.

Having made it to the contestant pool, I was waiting for the e-mail from PokerStars telling me what I needed to do next. I knew that it involved making a video telling them why I should be the next "Loose Cannon" on the show. However, several days went by and I didn't hear from them. I finally e-mailed PokerStars support asking when I should expect to get the e-mail. The reply said they were sorry I hadn't received it, and gave me the instructions, which are:

• Make a video of yourself explaining why you should be chosen to go on the show to play with $100,000 of PokerStars’ money!
• The video must be a digital movie not larger than 32MB in any of the following formats: .avi, .mp4, .mkv, .h264 • The video must be no more than two minutes in length.
• Audition videos must be submitted within ten days of the satellite in which you placed in the top 200. (They let me off the hook for this one.)

After tossing around some ideas in my head, I decided that I wanted to keep it simple, but do something to make it at least mildly interesting visually without jumping through a lot of technical hoops. You can see the results at the website where the contestant videos have been uploaded:

http://memelabs.com/pokerstars/

At the site, look for the Search box below the main viewing window, type in yestbay1 (my PStars ID) and press Enter, and it should bring up the thumbnail for my video. Click on the thumbnail to select it and then click the play button on the main screen.

It took me several tries to get the video the way I wanted it, and I still would have liked it to turn out better in some respects, but I think it came out OK, and definitely better than some of the others that have been submitted. I do wish that I didn't sound like I have a mouthful of mush. Nevertheless, it's hard to tell what the producers are looking for in these vids, so I will just have to cross my fingers and hope they see something they like in mine. If the long shot comes through and they pick me, you can bet that I will be blogging about it here.

EDIT: I didn't realize it before, but you can vote for the contestant videos by clicking on the "Vote" button in the upper right hand corner of the viewing screen. I don't know if the number of votes has any effect on who gets chosen, but I encourage you to vote for my video, just in case.

In other news, I won a bar league tourney recently for a whopping $50 first prize, and I finished ahead $20 playing $3/$6 LHE up at the Riverwind in Oklahoma on a recent visit with my son up there. I'm on a roll; maybe I should start up those plans to turn pro. Or not.

I'm also counting the days (38 as of today) until I fly to Las Vegas for the WPBT Winter Classic. I have one teammate for the Last Longer Challenge, BrainMc, and we may be looking for a third. Let me know if you are interested in joining us.

PokerStars Big Game - tourney hand analysis

As many of you probably know, PokerStars presents a TV show called “The Big Game” in which amateurs who qualified in freeroll tournaments on PokerStars get staked $100,000 to play in a high-stakes cash game with professional poker players. I have watched the show and found it rather entertaining and educational. I will have more to say about the Big Game in another post that I am formulating. But this post is about a hand that I played in one of their qualifying tournaments. After it was over, the player who came out on the losing end had some comments about the way I played the hand. I am certainly willing to learn from my mistakes, so I thought it would be worth looking more closely at this hand to see what mistakes I may have made, and what I could have done better.

A little background: in the Round 1 freerolls like this one, the top 300 finishers move on to the next round. Each of the nine players at the table starts with $10,000 in chips. The blinds start at $200/$400 with a $100 ante. So, before any cards are dealt, each player has an M of about 7. This has two effects: (1) you have to start accumulating chips early, and (2) just about every pot is worth contesting. Another thing that happens is that there is a lot of limping, because everyone wants to hit a draw and take down a big pot.

So, here is the hand in question, with my comments added along the way.

*********** # 109 **************
PokerStars Game #50429242296: Tournament #308745183, Freeroll  Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (1200/2400) - 2010/09/30 22:30:29 CT [2010/09/30 23:30:29 ET]
Table '308745183 11' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Rivit36 (19050 in chips)
Seat 2: iam99930301 (105650 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: ResinSystems (77700 in chips)
Seat 4: bunny'sTiger (48450 in chips)
Seat 5: Alley Cat 7 (210175 in chips)
Seat 6: BAPMAN55 (138500 in chips)
Seat 7: yestbay1 (203600 in chips)

I am second in chips at my table, and in the cutoff seat. My M is around 23, so I am in decent shape and have some room to maneuver.

Seat 8: kowalabear69 (106050 in chips)
Seat 9: Framkie B (87250 in chips)
Rivit36: posts the ante 600
iam99930301: posts the ante 600
ResinSystems: posts the ante 600
bunny'sTiger: posts the ante 600
Alley Cat 7: posts the ante 600
BAPMAN55: posts the ante 600
yestbay1: posts the ante 600
kowalabear69: posts the ante 600
Framkie B: posts the ante 600
Framkie B: posts small blind 1200
Rivit36: posts big blind 2400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to yestbay1 [Qd Ad]

A nice hand to play, especially in late position.

iam99930301: folds
ResinSystems: calls 2400
bunny'sTiger: calls 2400
Alley Cat 7: calls 2400
BAPMAN55: folds
yestbay1: calls 2400

Three limpers, so a nice pot is building. If I can hit a big hand, I can add a nice chunk to my stack, so I decide to limp along. I can stand to call a raise, but I don’t expect to see one.

kowalabear69: calls 2400
Framkie B: calls 1200
Rivit36 is disconnected
Rivit36 is connected
Rivit36 has timed out
Rivit36: checks

Pot is now 25,800. I would love to take this one, even on the flop.

*** FLOP *** [6c 4d Kc]

That doesn’t help me at all, but did it hit anyone else? I am ready to fold to a decent-sized bet.

Framkie B: checks
Rivit36: checks
ResinSystems: checks
bunny'sTiger: checks
Alley Cat 7: bets 4800

A bet of less than 1/5 the pot? Hard to tell what kind of hand Alley Cat would bet that amount with. My best guess would be a flush draw, because one or two pair or a set should bet larger to discourage others from drawing. I can certainly afford a call, and might catch an Ace and/or Queen or running cards that could win this pot. Of course, I don’t want to see a club. If someone behind me raises, I am done, with minimal damage to my stack.

yestbay1: calls 4800
kowalabear69: calls 4800
Framkie B: calls 4800
Rivit36 is disconnected
Rivit36 has timed out while disconnected
Rivit36: folds
Rivit36 is sitting out
ResinSystems: folds
bunny'sTiger: folds

Two more callers, so the pot is definitely getting fat; now up to 45K.

*** TURN *** [6c 4d Kc] [Jd]

I love that card, giving me straight and flush draws. I would probably fold to a big bet, though, to guard my stack. I don’t have to finish first, just 300^th or better.

Framkie B: checks
Rivit36 is connected
Rivit36 has returned
Alley Cat 7: bets 9600

OK, what is this cat up to? This time it’s just a little more than 1/5 the pot, giving me the odds to draw, especially since Alley Cat has a big stack for me to aim at. Even if someone has a set and would fill up on the river if the board pairs, I still have 7 diamonds as outs (discounting the 6d and Kd) plus 3 Tens for a straight (discounting the Tc which might give someone a crub frush). That’s ten outs, and the Rule of Two says that gives me about a 20% chance of catching a winning card. With the bet of slightly more than 1/5 the pot, I’m getting pretty much the right pot odds up front to call, especially if the players behind me call, plus some implied odds if I can get paid off. I can’t see much reason to fold here, and also no reason to raise since I haven’t made a hand yet.

yestbay1: calls 9600
kowalabear69: calls 9600
Framkie B: calls 9600

And yet more chasers, sweetening the pot even more: 83,400.

*** RIVER *** [6c 4d Kc Jd] [8d]

Gin! How do I get some chips out of these suckers, er, worthy opponents? I hope someone has a lower flush and bets into me…

Framkie B: checks
Alley Cat 7: checks

Well, looks like Alley Cat either missed his draw or got scared by the diamond. Might as well bet a decent amount which I hope can be called by at least one person. How about roughly half the pot?

yestbay1: bets 42400
kowalabear69: folds
Framkie B: folds
Alley Cat 7: calls 42400

Suckered in one, anyway.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
yestbay1: shows [Qd Ad] (a flush, Ace high)
Alley Cat 7: shows [Kh Kd] (three of a kind, Kings)
yestbay1 collected 164600 from pot

Whaddya know. Alley Cat flopped a set of Kings and played them so slow that they got away from him (or her; I will guess “him” for simplicity’s sake). Then comes the commentary….

Alley Cat 7 said, "great very bad playing"

Normally I don’t respond to derogatory chat comments, but I thought I would toss one back.

yestbay1 said, "if you say so"
Alley Cat 7 said, "    u had nothing      and got really lucky for runner runner"
Alley Cat 7 said, "i say so      i guess"

In the interests of poker education, I decided to let out a little secret of my playing strategy.

yestbay1 said, "you gave me the pot odds"

Which got me the snappy rejoinder:

Alley Cat 7 said, "yeah    sure greg"

I have no clue who Greg is. In any event, I have to wonder if Alley Cat realized that he could have prevented getting drawn out on, just by betting more to deny me (or others who were drawing) the right odds to keep trying to get there. Maybe he will learn a lesson from this hand. I did, and it is: don’t slowplay your flopped sets in multi-way pots when there are draws on the board. Then again, I think I learned that lesson a while ago. Nevertheless, an occasional reminder is always a good thing.

Epilogue: I did finish in the top 300 and went on to the next round. More about that in a future post….

WPBT Luckbox Last Longer Challenge III (plus bonuses!)

As you may recall, the Luckbox organized a last longer challenge for last year's WPBT Winter Classic tournament. For 2010, the challenge has expanded to new heights of awesomeness. All the details are here, but below are some highlights.

The Luckbox Last Longer Challenge III, or L-Cubed-Cubed, just starts where last year's contest left off. PokerStars is once again adding to the contest prize pool, this year to the tune of $3,000. They are also sponsoring two new add-ons to the fun: $100 bounties on ten players from the original WPBT tournament in 2004, and a $500 prize pool for the first ten (post-flop) winning Hammers dropped in the tourney.

Be sure to read the whole post at www.upforpoker.com to get the nitty-gritty. Once you have done that, come on back, and leave me a comment if you would like to join me on a team for the L-Cubed-Cubed, or e-mail me at david [dot] westbay [at] verizon [dot] net. I look forward to going deep in the tournament with two of my fellow bloggers and taking down the big prize.

And if you haven't made plans to attend the Classic this year, what are you waiting for? If you are on Facebook, sign up to attend the tourney at this page; if you aren't on FB, read more about it and leave a comment at This Is Not a Poker Blog.

Many thanks to the fine folks at PokerStars for the very generous bonus prizes for this event, and to the Luckbox for putting it together! And to April, of course, for organizing the tourney.

Who will be on the winning team with me?? Get your name in fast - first come, first served. Once our team is formed, we will discuss our team name. It should be intimidating and awesome. Put your thinking caps on.

See you there!

Success story

As I predicted in my last post, I dropped in at the Riverwind Casino in Norman, OK, this past weekend to play some poker. In fact, my son Ben and I played in their Saturday morning bounty tournament, where the buy-in was $50 + $10, + $25 towards the bounty. I had never played in this tourney before so I didn't know what to expect in terms of number of players, structure, skill levels of my opponents, or much of anything else. Actually, I hadn't played in more than a handful of live, cash buy-in tournaments up to that one; the great majority of my playing is online. But this one went fairly well for me.


There were 71 entrants; 8 places paid. Everyone started with $2000 in chips, and blinds started at $25/$25, with levels lasting 20 minutes. I played my usual tight game at the beginning, and most of the other players did the same. In fact, there was plenty of limping and a lot of multi-way pots. I didn't get much going early on, but I took a few pots to keep from being blinded off too fast. My stack started shrinking, though, and it took a couple of decent-sized pots to stay afloat. I won a bounty when I called a shortie's all-in with A-J and caught a Jack to beat his 99. After that, I stole a few times and won a few others, holding my head above water but never threatening to take the chip lead.

I wish I remembered more details about specific hands, but there weren't many that stuck in my mind. I do feel like I didn't make any bone-headed mistakes or decisions that stand out in my memory. Suffice it to say, I made the final table and finished 7th, for my first live cash tournament payout. I won a second bounty along the way, so my total cash-out was $210.00. Less my $85 buy-in, I gained $125.00 net, which will cover my buy-in to the blogger tournament at the Winter Classic in December. I know that this is no big deal to almost anyone who might read this, but I feel good about the fact that I finally made the money in a "real" tournament, as I always thought I could. Hopefully this will be the first of many live cashes as time goes on. Finishing well in the aforementioned blogger tourney in December is definitely a goal this year.

Oh - my son busted early on. It was his first live tournament and he was a bit intimidated. I told him not to worry about it and that more experience will make him feel more comfortable.

I think I will leave it at that for now. I may have to try the same tournament when I am in Norman again to visit Ben later in the school year. With a little luck, I will do as well as this time, if not better.

WPBT Winter Classic, "Lost Vegas," and other random updates

Can it only be five months away, give or take a few days? Yes, the 2010 WPBT Winter Classic is closer than you think, and many have already made their plans to join in the insanity, including yours truly. Texas April has arranged the blogger tournament at the shiny new Aria Hotel and Casino on Saturday December 11. Of course, the other usual shenanigans are bound to ensue such as the Friday night mixed games at MGM Grand, the annual Thursday night introductory gathering at the Geisha Bar (which I will miss this year, but you should try to attend anyway), and other unpredictable hijinks and debauchery.

If you aren't already on the "I wouldn't miss it" list, you can RSVP via the Facebook event page or at the post on April's blog. See you there!

Next item: I recently ordered my copy of Dr. Pauly's long-awaited new book, "Lost Vegas," and you should get it too. If you are a fan of his poker blog, and who isn't, this book is bound to be a must-read.

As for my poker activities of late, well, it hasn't been pretty. Since May 18, I have cashed in exactly two tournaments out of 25 played. I am also slightly in the red in cash games over that period. I am looking forward to this run-bad streak ending, and soon. I also expect to get a little bit of live poker in next month when we move our son back up to Norman, OK for his sophomore year at OU. I plan to drop in at the Riverwind Casino up there and take another shot at their poker room.

Meanwhile, I'll be watching the ESPN coverage of this year's WSOP, and also watching the Texas Rangers as they do their best to hold onto first place in the AL West and win that division title. I want to go to another playoff game, and this time see the Rangers win it and go deep.

Yet another post about the WSOP Ladies Event

There have been many articles and blog posts about the World Series of Poker Ladies Event and whether or not it should be continued. Let me direct you here for a well-written post about this particular blogger's thoughts on the subject, which also includes links to other sites and posts on the subject. I don't fully agree with the position stated in this blogger's post, but it has a lot of merit.

I would like to hear what the people who actually *played* in the WSOP Ladies Event, this year and in past years, have to say. Those people are the ones most likely to be affected by any change in the status of the event, so I am very curious to hear what they think. I would like to see a poll or survey taken of these players, with questions including, but not limited to, the following:

*Did you play in only the Ladies Event at the WSOP, or did you play in any other events?
*If you played only in the Ladies Event, why did you make that choice?
- Scheduling
- Buy-in amount
- Preferred playing with ladies instead of men
- Thought the field would be softer
- Wanted to socialize with friends also entered in the event
- Someone recommended this event
- Other
*If you played in other events, which ones?
*If the WSOP eliminated the Ladies Event, would you play in other WSOP events instead? If so, which ones would you be most likely to play?
*If the Ladies Event were changed to a non-bracelet event, would you still play in it?
*Do you think that the WSOP Ladies Event has a positive, negative, or neutral effect on the participation of females in poker?
*If you could recommend one or two changes, however small or large, to the WSOP Ladies Event, what would they be?

Since the Ladies Event has a reasonable turn-out each year, it makes financial sense for Harrah's to continue offering it. If it is going to continue, then I think it makes sense for the participants to have input into how (or whether) it is offered.

I am not convinced that deleting the Ladies Event from the WSOP will have a positive effect on women's standing or participation in poker or in the WSOP in particular. Many seem to think that the women players should only be playing in open events, because there is no reason for them to feel that they can't compete on a level playing field with men. I think that a survey like the one I propose would give us at least some information about whether the Ladies Event is full of women who only play that event, or who play other events, or who would not play at all if that event weren't offered, along with a glimpse of why they feel the way they do.

If such a survey has been conducted, please leave a comment with a link where one might find the results.