so i was in a tournament all day so i missed one more, i think that puts us at 3k

made it to day 2 of the 2-7 tripledraw with rebuys, this is a fun tournament, and the only non-holdem event im playing, was 4th in chips at the dinner break, but im shortstacked going into day two, we havent busted anyone at my table yet, so none of us have any chips, just been moving them around

saw psycho bitch yesterday for the first time this world series with sklansky at bellagio, obviously still have gotten nothing from her

not really much else going on, probably going to go downstairs and play some 1/2

We get to see things that most do not. This is segment we like to call, “We saw it at the World Series of Poker”.

Daniel Negreanu was practicing his golf swing in the back hallway during a break from a tournament. When asked how he was swinging today, he said he hit it so far he didn’t see it land, but if we were going that direction, we should look out for his ball.

…

One of our new favorite poker player is Humberto Brenes. Most of you are probably familiar with his sharks. Zero zero six and zero zero seven, as he refers to them. We met him on the first day of the World Series, and every time we have seen him since then, he gives us a big smile, and sometimes gives Amity a kiss on the cheek. Heath is fine with keeping their friendship to hand shakes. The only problem is, he doesn’t speak much English, and we don’t speak much Spanish, so it makes our conversations pretty basic. If you have a chance, you should check out Gary Wise’s interview with El Tiburon (the shark) himself, Humberto.

…

During the final three tables of the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event, Phil Hellmuth caught his card on the river and bet big. Another player clearly had the best hand until the river came out and pushed hard. Once the cards were flipped, Phil saw that he got very lucky and admitted that the guy outplayed him, and he got lucky. He then called himself an idiot, and then this conversation took place:
Phil (standing up): Where is the tournament director? Can I get a penalty for berating myself?
Perry Friedman: Phil, are you a master-berater?
Phil: Perry, you are way too clever for me. I’m going to just sit down. (He takes a seat and pauses) But my wife has been out of town for a while.

–A & H

just busted out of the 6 max, all in with 2 pair vs a gutshot, standard

gonna really try to collect some debt today, already texted a bunch of people and most of it seems to be dead at the moment, but im going to try to do what i can, pretty short on cash and need some for rebuys tomorrow, also still havent bought into the main event

alamo finally called me, said i couldnt extend it, i have to go down there and get a new contract, but ill deal with it when i dont have anything more important to do

I took the first day off of my trip, and went to the skywalk over Grand Canyon West. It was worth the day I spent… It’s hard to describe, but I came back fresh and ready to play.

I can’t come up with a good reason to play 2-5 instead of 1-2. I’m regularly having $500 sessions at 1-2, and it seems like wherever I play, the people I most want to play with are at the 1-2 and 1-3 games. Aziz is regularly playing 2-5, and his games just don’t look anywhere near as juicy. I suppose if I cared more about leveling up, and less about profit, I’d move up limits, but It would probably be a poor bankroll decision. If I run up past +10k, I’ll start playing more 2-5.

I’ve been saying that the Venetian is my favorite poker room in Vegas, but the more I’ve played, the more I’ve got to give the credit to MGM. They are different rooms with different strengths, but the kicker for me is that the MGM seems to have a higher caliber of dealer.

It’s probably because the V has brought in a bunch of temp dealers for the Deep Stack Extravaganza, but should that matter to me? On this trip, Dealing has been a lot better at the MGM, which is a bit of a surprise. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the V a lot.

Tonight, a temp dealer let my opponent pull his hand back out of the center of the table. I had bet the river with the top flush (the board was four flushed) and the villain tossed his hand past the bet line. As the dealer put the deck down and motioned to grab his hand, I put my tip on my hand and slid it toward the dealer, having won the pot. The villain asked the dealer if his hand was mucked, and pulled his hand back and called. I looked up to see a call where I thought the player had folded. Obviously, the dude had noticed that the four flush also paired the board, and he’d filled up. The floor claimed that the mistake was that the dealer didn’t muck the player’s hand quickly enough, and his hand was live.

A few hands later, a player tossed a legal reraise past the betting line, then went back in to pull back the raise and make it a call. A player not in the hand pointed it out, and was asked to stay out of it by the original raiser. The Dealer let it slide. Our next dealer was better, in that she was really, really slow, but tried hard to get it right at least. Players had to point out what the winning hand was while she was dumbly looking at the board trying to figure it out… but at least she didn’t screw the game up.

When talking to the floor, I was surprised that he wasn’t more concerned about the room’s image. He explained that the first dealer was usually a chip runner, as if that resolved the issue and made it ok.

I should point out that the Venetian has at least one stand out quality dealer. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten his name, but he’s a young black man who is quick on the deal, keeps the action going, and stops players from playing out of turn or disrupting play. My next trip, I’ll go out of my way to get his name to give him credit.

The MGM has it’s share of good and bad dealers as well, but there are three standouts that I’ll mention. My least favorite dealer at the MGM is a small, pregnant asian girl. She was fine last year before she was knocked up, but now it’s a struggle. Her arms are not long enough to grab chips or cards from the ends of the table. Now that she’s got a bun in the oven, she can’t sit up in the seat to scoop the chips up, so she asks us to do it for her. This slows down the action a lot, as players are responsible for doing her job for her… and annoying as well. It ends with players putting their chips in the middle of the table, making it hard to track what the action is. There are many service jobs where a pregnant woman can still perform as well as others. Usually, I’ll tip a lil’ extra as I have a soft spot in my heart for a working woman with child. This is not true for strippers or poker dealers. Some jobs should be left for the more physically able.

Nick at the MGM is a quality dealer. I don’t think he’s particularly more efficient than the average dealer at the MGM, but he does a great job of keeping it interesting and entertaining, and especially and keeping the drunks comfortable at the table. I haven’t noticed any mistakes, and he’s pretty quick.

By far my favorite dealer in this town is Jeff at the MGM. Jeff, from Augusta, has all the requirements of a good dealer: Quick, efficient, keeps the game going, doesn’t make stupid mistakes and prevents players from making game disrupting mistakes. The reason he’s my favorite dealer, though, is that he’s a value added dealer. His deep, gravelly voice has just a touch of southern drawl. His commentary is amazing. Raise to 20? “20 bones…” Make it 40? “40 all-day”. In an unraised pot, and a player looks confused… “2 dollars.. it ain’t gonna break ya”

It’s hard to put in words how refreshing and valuable Jeff’s subtle commentary is in the middle of an 8 hour session, but I’m not the only person to notice it. All of us who have been playing at the MGM regularly are fans. Multiple times I’ve seen Jeff in the middle of his push, and was hoping he was headed to my table.

When you spend as much time at the poker tables as I have been recently, The Nicks and Jeffs help a lot, while the chip runners and preggos make the sessions more taxing. I’ve twice now finished a session because the pregnant girl was pushing to my table. It’s just exhausting and annoying to have to do her job for her constantly, or to sit and wait for other players to.

missed 2 more days so thats 2500 i think

not much going on, just been chillin the last few days, went bowling at the rio tonight, lost 10k, was really close to winning 10k but got a 0-0 on the 8th and 10th frame on the big match, so that kinda sucked, i was doing pretty well other than that

just played a short 1/2 session downstairs, lost like 5 and quit, first time ive played live 1/2 this series, so boring, should be getting some money shipped to me online tomorrow, so gonna try to run it up again

the 5k 6 max is coming up, really looking forward to that event, should be a lot of fun, i wish they had a shorthanded or heads up limit tournament, i hate limit tournaments, but i think if they had those they would be much better

missed another day, 1500

took like a day or so off, been going out the past few nights, went to light 2 nights ago and rhino last night, got 5k online today and ran it up to 20 and busted it, played the sunday million today, dont ask me why, every time i play an online tournament i always question myself as to why i would waste my time with it, but i was bored today

not too much else going on, about to go to dinner with some friends

the people on 2+2 seem to think im going to start playing in the pit a lot, i dont see that happening, as its why half the people who owe me are broke anyway

just in time to stop me from playing 2-5, I had a $800 downswing at the 1-2 game at the Venetian. Now, you’d think it would be pretty hard to lose $800 at 1-2 without interesting poker hands to analyze, but that’s what happened. I won’t just list out bad beat stories, because they are all the same, but suffice it to say that I felt very good about my play.

In fact, it was only when I lost a stack to the top straight with my wheel, that I felt I was steaming, and even then I stood up from the table, and ended my session.

Table 6 at the MGM is a fun place to play between midnight and 5am on weekends. You get a prime view of the talent coming out of Studio 54, and often drunk and silly girls come by and railbird for awhile. Now, while this is terribly distracting to your poker game, it’s very enjoyable, and if you play it right, you can gain a lot of value.

At one point I was holding a conversation with a very drunk girl from the Bay Area. While I was constantly distracted by the 4 or 5 loud drunk hotties around the rail, I figured that people would expect I would not play any but premium hands, so I kept getting “distracted” by hands to raise, and went on a tear with very speculative hands. It doesn’t hurt that other people at the table are also distracted.

I finished up $535 at the MGM, negating much of the previous loss. It did keep me from playing 2-5, but I don’t mind that much. I guess my absurd hot streak had to end eventually, It just ended a little harder than I wanted. I’m pretty pumped that I didn’t have any confidence issues hold me back from having a good friday session. I briefly considered not playing, but decided I wouldn’t have a problem, and I was right.

Below is an excerpt for an article I did for Southern Gaming and Destinations magazine

The 80’s

USA’s hockey team won gold in 1980 overcoming the dominate Russians along the way in what has been coined the Miracle on Ice. In as much dramatic fashion that sitting in a chair and fingering chips can muster, Stu Ungar accomplished a similar feat in poker. The first two years of the ’70’s only knew one champion and the next decade would be no different. Stu Ungar, the gin rummy master, made his World Series of Poker Main Event debut in 1980. He was an aggressive and brash kid. His reputation as a New York rummy player had preceded him. As it turned out ‘the Kid’ was also pretty good at Texas Hold’em. In 1980 and again in 1981, Stu Ungar won the Main Event Championship event at the World Series of Poker. Stu’s first title came against dominate Texan players Doyle Brunson and Johnny Moss at the final table; Brunson ended up being Stu’s head’s up competitor.
~
A true poker miracle actually took place in 1982. As the saying goes, all you need is ‘a chip and chair’. Never did this expression ring so true than in the 1982 Main Event championship. Jack ‘Treetop’ Straus pushed in what he thought were his remaining chips into a losing effort. He began his exit, until someone noticed a single $500 chip partially hidden from view underneath a napkin. This was Straus’ saving grace. He bet his last chip on the next hand and won. Through a series of stealing blinds Straus collected a formidable stack. His remarkable rush ended with a Main Event championship victory.
~
An appropriate title for Binion’s tournament could have been the Texas Series of Poker. But by the 1980’s the title could have shifted to the America Series of Poker, before finally settling, in 1987, as a true World Series of Poker. Johnny ‘the Orient Express’ Chan was born in Canton, China and immigrated to America when he was nine and eventually resided in Las Vegas. Chan learned the game through employment on the Strip. At one point players welcomed his money at the table, but the Chinese native learned poker quickly as he transformed himself into a poker shark. ‘The Orient Express’ became the fourth person in history to win back-to-back Main Event titles, doing so in 1987 and 1988. The west coast was also enjoying the same back-to-back success with the Los Angeles Lakers. Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers and poker regular himself, challenged Chan that if he won a third poker championship the Lakers would follow suit with a three-peat. Chan came close; finishing second in 1989 to the youngest World Series of Poker champion ever, Phil Hellmuth (from Madison, Wisconsin.) In similar fashion, the Lakers placed runner-up to a team from the Midwest; the Detroit Pistons.
~
Mark “52″ Rogers is the author of the ‘52 Greatest Moments World Series of Poker’
available at www.52pokermoments.com

missed another day, so thats a thousand

was running good for a couple days… sent out like 25 or so, started today with around 65 on stars, immediately got punished for 45k against a new guy at 2/4, took a break, came back, won 30 straight pretty quickly in a 6 handed game, then the new guy was playing joe at 5/10 so i jumped in, as usual, things started out well, won 60k at first, had the account to 110, before i knew it i was stuck, and obviously busted it, same story, its a bloodbath, although i think i was playing pretty well through all of it, new guy ran realy good

earlier in the day my friend busted his account and went into a frenzy and i had to follow him down to the bacarat pit to make sure he didnt do anything stupid, he won 17k, i won 12k, obviously after i busted in the 5/10, we had to try to repeat that, obviously we each lost 15k, i never play the pit, dont think that will turn into a problem anyway

played the limit tournament yesterday, didnt last long, not too much else going on

hasnt been a good day, i might have to kill myself, ive been doing like nothing but playing online in the room, so hopefully going to try to take a break for a few days and get out and do something else

dont think theres any shot of me getting to sleep right now, me and my roomate are both in complete frenzies, should be a fun day, might go to rhino, might jump off something, definately going to leave whats left of the BR in the safe before i leave, updates tomorrow!

I had a great session last night. It’s not that I’m not talking about tough decisions or potential mistakes… I’m just running really, really hot and there aren’t that many rough hands to discuss. Hopefully, this will continue, to the detriment of this blog, but to the benefit of my bankroll.

I sat down at a 1-2 NL game at MGM, and it was a pretty loose game. Early on I get 88, and raise to 10, getting calls from both blinds. the flop is Txx with a flush draw, and the small blind donks out for 20. After the big blind folds, I raise it to 60, and take it down. A few hands later I limp in third with A9s, and the guy to my left raises three limpers to 7. We all call, along with the button, and the flop comes down 9 high with one suit. I check to the raiser, who also checks, but the button bets pot. After it folds to me, I repot on the check-raise, and he thinks for awhile and lays it down, saying his JJ probably wasn’t any good, and that he thought I had a set. I smirk, but don’t tell him anything.

A few hands later, I have 44 in the big blind, and call that same guy’s raise to 12, along with a few other players. I hit a set on the flop, check to him, and when he continuation bets, it folds to me, and I decide that slow playing is a terrible option because I have such an over-aggressive table image, having put in huge raises on the flop 2 hands in my first lap. I raise pot, and he shoves over the top, giving me a sweet stack.

I find this interchange an interesting example of how to work people’s incorrect perceptions of you when you’re new to a table. I had also thrown a straddle in UTG, which really helped push my over-aggressive image as well.

The next hour or so is pretty quiet, I build up a few more chips with continuation bets. I limp ATs in early position, something that I’ll do a reasonable amount once I discover that a table has a tendency not to try and punish limpers. The small blind raises to 12, and I call along with the big blind. The flop comes down Q8s6, giving me a flush draw. The SB bets $35, leaving him $76 back. BB thinks for awhile, and calls, leaving him about $185 behind. I give a lot of consideration to whether I should push or call, and decide that the odds of the BB having two of my clubs are very high. I have less outs than I’d like, but If i hit one, he’ll probably pay me off, so I just call.

The small blind goes all in for $76 in the dark, and the turn comes a 9, giving me a gutshot for the straight. I make the small blind for an overpair, probably KK or AA, so it’s possible that an A can give me the pot as well, but unlikely. The BB calls, and so do I. I make my gutshot, but not my flush, and get paid off because although I was right that the BB had a flush draw, it was with a 9, and he somehow thought his 9 might be good.

As I write this, I realize that he must not have had 93s as I remember, but 96s or something that gave him two pair, because I really don’t think he was dumb enough to put his last $100+ in the pot with second pair ass kicker vs. two opponents.

My real debate is whether or not I was correct to play it the way I did, or If I should have pushed on the flop. As it turns out, my read was correct on both players. I finished up $850 at the MGM, and picked up another $160 later in the night at the Tropicana, giving me my first $1000+ day in NL poker. I’ve had a few of those at limit, but it’s nice to feel like my NL training has been positive. It also gives me the bankroll room to try out 2-5 NL this weekend If I want.