A Cruising we go (very long)

It is cruise time! I couldn't be more excited... this is the kind of thing that I came to vegas to do, and now it is upon me. Estie and I got up at 5 AM (ish) to drive to San Diego. She has a friend in San Diego and wanted to tour the city some, so we decided to drive the 5 hours instead of fly. Everything was going beautifully, all packed the night before, everything laid out, up and shaved and out the door at 6 AM just like we had planned.... Then we decide to stop in Primm, ok *I* decide to stop in Primm and fail to tell Estie (I pointed at the sign and went yum.. food, but that isn't the same thing as DISCUSSING it. How was I suppose to know that!) So we stop at the Primm Valley casino and go into the cafe to get some nice steak and eggs. However, they apparently change shifts at 7 AM and the outgoing shift stops working around 6:30, and when the new shift gets there at 7 they can't take any orders until they have their morning coffee. Let me give the people who are in customer service industries a piece of advice... If you are going to ignore your customers, do NOT NOT NOT do it where they can see you! We can SEE them drinking their coffee and discussing their weekend plans! Yet none of them are coming over to take our order... it was stupid just watching 20 people mill around drinking coffee and noone talking to us! We finally got one of them to find out who was on our table, and they all argued about who would take the orders... Very very sad, needless to say his tip was NOT good.

After a rather lengthy breakfast the rest of the drive went very well and we got into San Diego at 11:45 only 45 mins later than planned, and as it turned out PLENTY of time ahead. The directions on how to get to the cruise ship were not exactly stellar... Especially if you had someone dropping you off. They mention where to park at for 12 dollars a day, but not where to drop someone off... They also don't give any info on how to get there from ANYWHERE but I-5, which is NOT the road you come in on from Vegas... I-5 runs along the coast, noone drives that from anywhere but LA or the airport, which is apparently their target market. We finally find the cruise ship (turns out the big boat at the dock is the one I want to get on... go figure) and we park at the public parking area, it is only about a 1/4 mile to the boat but my bag is HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY. So everything hurts when I finally get there and find out there is a passenger drop off RIGHT NEXT to the boat. BAH!

I get inside and the checkin is smooth until I find out that the boat was late getting in and as such is late departing. We are smooshed into a small area with not enough chairs for 2 hours waiting to board. The boarding was fast enough once it started and I settled into the stateroom and get into the 3 PM dealer meeting.

This cruise is a bit of an oddity to me, and I am a little nervous on how it is going to work out. First of all, I am basically a passenger who volunteers to deal. I have to pay for my own cabin, own fees, own transportation, everything. On top of that, we get no hourly wage. So basically tips from 7 days has to cover everything! So I am already about 400 bucks in the hole before I even go on the cruise, and I am giving up a weeks work at the same time. Of course, I do get fed every day with excellent food and I am on a cruise ship to Mexico. So we will wait and see.

The poker room on the ship is setup in the Crows nest in the top of the ship, 29 tables, 37 dealers on swing shift (scheduled, no idea how many will actually show up) and I work every night but Tuesday from 7:00 until the players go home (Graveyard shift is 5 people). They spread games from 2-4 to 40-80 and 1-2 NL to 5-10 NL as well as Omaha and a little Stud. I was a little worried coming on the ship as I didn't know anyone else who was going besides one girl from work who I have met like 2-3 times. It turns out I shouldn't have been worried as I knew about 10 other dealers from previous jobs and had plenty of people to hang out with. One of the dealers I met at the series comes up to me and tells me "There really isn't many prospects on this ship. Not that it matters much to you". He glanced around the room to emphasize his point that there were very few unattached women. I apparently misunderstood him as he pointed out to me a few minutes later as he started pointing out the attractive MEN in the room and telling me why they were unavailable. Surpise again it seems.

Dinner the first night is excellent as I had some nice Pork Chutney with a honey glaze, and it was quite tasty. Unfortunately dinner is at 6 and work is at 7 so I had to rush thru dinner a good bit... but I managed to get it all down and get to work on time where I had 9 downs, 2 breaks and was out at 12:30 to get to bed for some welcome rest after being awake for 20 hours straight. It wasn't a bad night for only 5.5 hours averaging over 20 dollars a down for a 183 night. It was a very interesting experience dealing on a moving ship... especially on the 10th floor of a big ship in 40-50 MPH winds as we headed out... got some nice movement up there on the top :)

*** DAY 2 ***

Well I didn't bother setting an alarm since I didn't have to be anywhere until 7 PM for work... and I was extremely tired. I am caught up a little now after sleeping 10 hours, and after some lunch went and hit the poker room for some nice 4/8 action. I had some decent cards for some small pots, and made some nice pots out of draws and ended up 60 bucks before going to lay down for a nap before dinner at 6 and work at 7. Tonight is Formal dinner and I am looking forward to some marvelous Beef Wellington!

Tonight was the first night we were at sea all day and we don't hit port until Noon tomorrow so it is a perfect night for some poker. Unfortunately as I discovered we have a pretty large portion of older customers and as such the games tend to break down pretty fast around 11 PM. I managed to make it to 10 downs and 6.5 hours with another pretty good push, all 3 balls with 1 dead spread. Tomorrow is Cabo San Lucas! One fun note from tonights dealing, they have a 20/40 Omaha H/L game that is "The Big Game" on the ship. I didn't get to it the first night, and I wasn't too worried aobut it the second night. However, when I got there I realized that not only was it an Omaha H/L game (one of my weakest games to deal), but it was a game with the 2 owners of the company, the husband of the director of operations, the day shift supervisor, and 2 guys who write books on Omaha 8/B games. Suddenly, I was a little more nervous... I managed to get by with just a few mistakes and no major ones. I almost burned and turned too early which would have cost Linda Johnson (the announcer for the WPT Finals) a huge pot if I had in a several thousand dollar pot. Whew.

*** Day 3 ***

We docked in Cabo around Noon which was about the same time I got up. A quick lunch and I hit the 1 PM tender to do the Shore Cruise I had purchased. The cruise was beautiful as it was a nice 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We got to see the Sea Lions, the arch with the beach underneath, lovers beach, and the old lighthouse. The beaches in Cabo are amazingly beautiful and the people there are very well taken care of. It was a pleasant change from the other places in Mexico I have been in.

As I am getting ready to get on the tender over to the shore they announce that a girl is missing. An 18 year old on the cruise with her grandparents. It was very windy last night so there was a great fear she had fallen overboard. After dinner that night we find out that she has been found, and that she was asleep in a guys room! Apparently there was more to the story than I heard completely, but drugs and alcohol played a part. The guy she was in the room with was a dealer on the same shift I was on, and he was kicked off the boat in Mazaltan!

Dinner was solid tonight with a marvelous Roast Lamb shank and some delicious fruit. Dinner starts at 5:30 but it is impossible to get thru Appetizer, Salad, Soup, Bread, and Entree before 6:30 when I need to leave for work. Therefore, I have yet to get to desert in time... But tomorrow night is a day off, so I plan to sit and relax and eat slow, order every desert on the menu, maybe even 2 or 3 entrees...

Work was another solid night, I started really slow hitting 2 dead spreads and a break in the first 2 hours, but then it picked up and I ended up working 7.5 hours and doing pretty well considering I only had 9 downs total. The tips seem to be getting better every night, as my average per down is going up each time. Either I am getting better at dealing (possible as some of the games I was pretty rocky on), or I am just getting to know the people better. I have noticed some people recognizing me in the hallway/etc and tipping better in the games. I hit the 20/40 game twice tonight and was MUCH MUCH more comfortable. I didn't have any errors, smooth as silk and the tips are great in that game. That game freaking flys by... it is amazing how many hands I can get out in that game. 25-30 per half hour!

The ship really started rocking last night and being on the 10th floor it was REALLY bad. We ended up handing out 200 sea sickness pills and lost several dealers and a lot of players to the motion of the ocean. I was not complaining because it meant more downs for me....

*** Day 4 ***

Today we are in Mazaltan. I am off work tonight, so it is a real free day for me... Very exciting! I got up in time for breakfast this morning after working till almost 3. I am claiming a victory even if the phone did ring to wake me up... but I count it as a victory so MEHHH!

After breakfast I had SOOO much energy that I went for a 1 mile run (OK I WENT for a 3 mile run, but I stopped after 1). Heading into town now to do some shopping, buy some liquor, and then meet up with the other dealers at Senor Frogs for some beers... a nap afterwards and then some poker for awhile before going to bed. Tomorrow we are in Puerto Valerta where I have planned a treetop zip line tour over the tops of the jungle! It should be amazing and I am sooo excited. After that we are back at sea the rest of the way and on the downward part of the journey.

Senor Frogs was a great time with almost every dealer there dancing and drinking, doing shooters and jello shots. It was a great time, and I was just sorry that boat was leaving at 5:30 so we had to get back so soon. I took a little nap before going up to play some poker on my day off from dealing.

At dinner they announce some MORE people missing from the boat. Apparently a couple didn't make the last tender. They were out drinking and thought the last tender was at 6 PM, but it was at 5:30. I don't really think I want to be on the other side of that conversation with my wife when we miss the cruise ship because I was too drunk to remember the right time. The couple apparently took a bus to Guadalare and took a plane to Puerto Vallarta to get back on the ship. This was particularly difficult because they forgot their ID's and their credit cards!

I really get upset at myself when I do not play up to my abilities. I sat down tonight and lost the first hundred very quickly for no specific reason, chasing draws I didn't have the odds on, trying to bluff weak players who I knew wouldn't fold, etc. It was just horrible. I straightened up and got that hundred back plus another 120, but I looked at the end of the night and realized just how much better I could be if I could get some consistency in my play.

Tomorrow was suppose to be a late start due to us being in port till 10 PM, however due to some mechanical problems with the ship they are running at less than full power so we are leaving at 6 PM instead. So the poker room opens at 7 PM as normal. However, graveyard shift has already been given the night off! We have to work from 7 PM until everyone goes home or day shift comes in at 8 AM. Oops... could be one long night if I make it the whole way.

*** Day 5 ***

Today we are in Puerto Vallarta. My trip leaves at 1 PM from the Tender Dock, so add in a 30 minute trip on the tender boat over to the shore and some moderate shopping time, plus lunch and shower and I had to get up at the butt early time of 10 AM. SOMEHOW I managed to do that, even after falling asleep at midnight the night before and got on shore and ready in plenty of time for my trip. The Canopy adventure is just that... a serious adventure. First we have to take a small tiny boat from the tender dock to the marina... a lovely 10 minute ride across the bay with some amazing yachts scattered around. Then, after a short wait we board an open air truck for 14 and ride miltary style up to the top of the mountain. In the united states a 40 Km drive to the top of a mountain is a lovely affair. In Mexico a 40 km drive to the top of the mountain is life or death. We had to dodge cows, donkeys, horses, cars that don't go up hill EVER, vendors stepping in the road, sharp turns up the mountain in the back of a truck. All in all it was probably the scariest part of the trip. Once we got there we were in a marvelous resort up in the mountains with no electricty. They had nice open air huts, very nice guides, and the most beautiful trees in the jungle you have ever seen. After some safety briefing, a wedgy of a safety harness and a short hike we went from platform to platform in the trees via zip lines. It was sooooo much fun. Flying thru the trees at insane speeds and braking to a halt at the last minute before hitting a tree. The longest run was about 150 meters and the highest stand was 80 feet off the ground. At the end of the lines we had to free fall repel down a 50 foot drop to the ground. I would highly recommend it!

So when we get back on the boat they are announcing that another person has not made it back yet. It turns out the person missing was another dealer from swing shift and he made the last crew tender back. He was late because his cab was in an accident and they wouldn't let him leave the scene of the accident!

I had to work at 7 PM and we got back to the boat at 6 PM. I had to shower, change, eat dinner, and get to work. I would dare say it was a bit rushed :). I finally got to work at 7 and ended up breaking a table early and getting bumped out at 10:30. Only 4 downs, cleared 88 before tip out, and then went to see the 10:30 comedy show. Unfortunately it was insanely crowded and I wasn't going to stand out in the hallway to listen to the comedian so I went back to play poker. 4/8 had a long list so I moved up to the open seat on 6/12. It was my first experience at something higher than 4/8 limit and I played extremely well for 2 hours and was up 250. I was doing everything right, betting when I should, folding when I should, reraising to isolate, etc. I had complete control of my game... then a few people left, a few new ones came in and I changed my game. I let my ego get control of me and started doing everything wrong. Calling to much, bluffing to much, all in all everything wrong. So now I am down 100 and the table is breaking up. I get back to down 50 before the table breaks and take my remaining 150 dollars over to the 1-2 no-limit game. My first big blind I get Q4 of hearts hit 4 to the flush on the flop and there is a small bet from the SB which I call, and then a min raise from the button which I also call. The heart hits on the turn giving me the 2nd nut flush but also pairs the board. It checks all the way around. The river is a blank and the original aggressor bets 20, I raise to 60 and fold out the big blind and the SB calls for a nice pot to bring me to 225 total. I get whittled down to 200 before this hand happens. I am UTG and stradle for 5 dollars (they let you do that not sure why). It is foled to a guy in middle position who makes it 13 to go. 2 callers back to me and I look down to see pocket 8's. Now I see the bet from middle position as a weak ace or 2 high card bet, and the callers as even weaker. So with 50 dollars in the pot I decide I have the best hand and want to take it down right now. So I raised to 75, the early position raiser reraises all-in. I have 125 behind and it is folded back to me. At this point I put him on 2 big cards, and that he thought I was just trying to steal the pot. A little over 400 in the pot and I have to call 125 into it.... I figure there is a small chance he has a big pair, but more likely that he has a small pair or 2 big cards. the callers in between probably have big cards as well so I figure I am probably ahead and I am getting 3 to 1 as a likely favorite so I call. He flips over AK and my 88 holds up for a nice pot. A few hands later I get KK and raise with it, getting 2 callers. Flop is crap, and the blind goes all-in for 28 into me. I reraise to isolate and take down the pot. So now I am up 300 and after a JJ vs JJ hand where I bet and she folded, I cash out up a little over 300 at 3 AM.

3 AM rolls around and there are 2 full tables running, the poker room shift supervisor comes over and tells us that despite 2 tables who can keep going for awhile... the room is closing in 15 mins! I have never seen a place kick people OUT of the room who are paying rake and playing. Even 2 tables is still dropping 200 an hour in rake... they had a good 2-3 hours of play left in those tables.

** Day 6 ***

We are in route back to San Diego. The cruise ship is a smaller "Shore Ship" and can't really go far off shore. So we are paralleling the coast of Mexico the whole way. This makes for a marvelous ride down the coast with a nice breeze and a gorgeous view of the coastline and mountains. I sat on the deck with some friends for lunch today and just watched the coastline go by and listened to a some live music by the pool.

The poker room closes tomorrow night at midnight, so this is our last full night. I am going to head off and take a nap before work. Tonight is Surf and Turf with Lobster and Filet Mignon.... So I want to save my energy for a double helping of THAT!

I tried to take a nap, but for some reason I am too rested for that :) so I read a little up by the pool and played some poker. I played about 2 hours and was up 80 at 4/8 before I went to get ready for dinner and Lobster time! Lobster and Steak was SOOO good! I ended up eating 2 helpings of both and would have gone for 3 if I could have but ran out of time. Work was good for awhile, but the desert buffet was at 10:30 and apparently chocolate beats Poker. Half the poker room left when the buffet opened and 8 tables broke, which ended up sending me home. I went down to the buffet as well with a few friends and it was mediocre at best.

** Day 7 ***

Since we sail in a Southeastern direction on the way down to mexico they change the time back one hour when you get on the ship. Last night the moved it back to Pacific time so we gained an hour. With the extra hour I made it up in time for Breakfast and 2 hours of poker before lunch and nap time. A few nice hands at the No-Limit table and I cashed out up 205 after 2 hours and called it a day.

Who are these dogs?

OK... I will always be a UGA fan, I went to school there for more years than I can count... and I love the team. But good god, we lose to Vanderbilt AND Kentucky and then give Florida a run for it, and beat Tech. I swear to god, these Dogs are crazy!

A house always looks better when you have a dining room table, after 6 months of eating on the floor we finally found one. It was perfect! Cheap, good looking, and easily replaceable when we get one we really want... perfect I say!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, Estie and I were suppose to meet some friends for an evening buffet but apparently EVERYONE in Vegas goes to eat out on Thanksgiving. The line was 2 hours long, the casino was overflowing, and several of us had to work overtime... So it ended up being dinner at a Mexican place and some Pai-gow and drinks until 11. Still a good time, and we felt just fine!

The weekend before Thanksgiving Estie and I went and watch what was MY first live rugby game. I don't understand how those guys play that game... They run full speed at each other, dive on each other, and beat the living snot out of everyone on the field. They do all of it in shorts and a t-shirt and with no padding at all. It almost seems like cheating!

Trevor and I went to LA as I discussed last time, but the excitement really came on Monday morning when I got up to return the rental car we had taken and it had a flat tire! Apparently there was a nail in the tire, and it had vacated the premises. So I had to change the tire, drive it to the auto shop to flat fix the tire, and then return the car. Yummy... but the cool thing was I got to lay down on the ground, get my hands and clothes all dirty and come home and go "Look how dirty I am honey". I felt like a real mechanic for about 20 secs until I realized all I had done was change a tire....

I leave for my cruise on Saturday and Estie and I have been talking. The more contacts I make in the industry the more I really don't want a full time job. I am currently leaning towards just staying on the extra board until the WSOP next year when I can decide better what I want to do. I have cruises, the WPT Mirage, WPT Mandaly Bay, Tunica events, as well as some Bellagion events to work... So it just makes more sense to be able to come and go as I please, always be able to get 25-30 hours a week when I want it at Imperial Palace, and have a spot ready to go full time if I want it after the WSOP next year. There are some drawbacks in that I won't be getting predictable shifts, no insurance, no benefits, etc... but you have to give up a few things to have some freedome. I am not sure I can survive with just 2 weeks of vacation anymore!

I'm not dead!

I have been slacking off big time in the blog... and I apologize. A quick run down of the past month or so.... Estie and I went to the Las Vegas Renessaince faire, let me say that it is nothing compared to Atlanta. A 3 day event, mostly vendors and amateurs. Not extremely exciting, but it was fun nonetheless. We are trying to plan a weekend in the mountains, but it hasn't come together yet... I went down to Anaheim with Trevor for GenCon SoCal (Wow that thing has really not taken off like GenCon Indy).... it was really good to see all my old friends from the Lord of the Rings days! I played a little bit of the new World of Warcraft CCG and managed to get 14th out of 156 in the one tournament I played. The prize support for that was 6 packs of the game... And talk about insanely lucky! I pulled the ultra-rare Turtle out of the packs and sold it on ebay for $125! Pay for the trip with one card! BONUS!



The month of October was not too bad for Poker... I still have to work on my scheduling with it, but I did get in 25 hours and finished up 970. So it was a good solid month, even though I hit a 700 downswing at the end of the month to make it much less exciting than it should be.



Work has picked up a ton... I figured out a few tricks of the trade, made some friends, and have managed to get up to 30-35 hours a week. I am pulling 6 days a week pretty regularly and even making some pretty decent money. I am up to 3rd from the top on the extra board list after we lost another extra board guy this weekend. He was fired for stealing.... I can't imagine how anyone would ever steal from the casino and completely ruin their career... Caught stealing from the casino = never work in a casino again!



On top of that, another guy is leaving next week and they have changed the tournament schedule which increased the amount of work they have... so we are actually short handed, and the money has been pretty decent.



Haven't gotten much poker in this month just been running around too much.... and working the next 12 days straight before I go on the cruise on December 2nd. Estie and I driving down to San Diego and she is going to spend the weekend there sightseeing. The cruise is sounding pretty exciting. I get to eat all the meals in the main dining room with the real customers, so it will be awesome eating all the good food... and making money while dealing poker on the cruise. Not to mention getting to go sight seeing in the cool ports we are stopping in.



Estie and I FINALLY went and saw Happy Feet yesterday. It isn't a bad movie, and it is really cute in parts... but the previews were definately the best part of it all. Lots more movies coming up for the holidays I want to see.... So time to get busy on the frequent movie club stuff!

Are we there yet?

After last week's marathon at Red Rock and my success I realized that I have to stay focused on my play and maintain my focus on poker. I can only achieve continued success and improvement through playing regularly. I am going to try to get back to 20 hours a week minimum and work on my skills at the table.

With the new month starting, and tonight being my first night off I intended to get in 4-5 hours at the tables. I had to decide where to play first. Red Rock has no more freeroll going on, and only gives $1 an hour in comps. Rio only spread 2/5 and it is way over my bankroll to play there, Wynn scares me with their no-cap buy-ins..... so I settled on Treasure Island. They have $2 an hour in comps, good promotions for local players, and some pretty good games...

Before I went out tonight to start playing, I wanted to take Estie up to the mountains. She loves the mountains, and so do I. Unfortunately it was a windy, overcast day but we went up anyways.... It is a short 40 minute drive up there, and has nice relaxing scenary on the way. We got up the mountain and got some trail maps from the ranger station. They have about 10 different trails and as I browsed through them I saw one that was 1.4 miles each way, and rated as "Moderate". So we decided a nice hike would be just what we needed...

Now I need to have a conversation with whoever rates these trails.... This "Moderate" trail was 1.4 miles of rocky trails with a 1040 feet total rise, including a final natural staircase at the top before getting to the waterfall. To make it even more challenging we had breezes up to 30 MPH and it was 60 degrees on the top of the mountain.... It also turns out that I am NOT in good shape :) Well... technically I *AM* in a good shape, that shape is just round. Round is NOT a shape that climbs mountains. I have the utmost respect now for the hikers, and especially my Dad who is planning to hike the entire Appalachian trail. I did 1.4 miles and was dying before I got .5 miles up the trail.... I can't imagine doing 100's of miles. I am definately going to get in better shape and work up to doing the entire loop around the top of the mountain which is about 16 miles with a climb from 8000 to 11500 feet in elevation.

We finishing the ALMOST 3 mile treck without incident, and felt a great sense of relief when we saw the car on the way back down. A big lunch at Maccaroni Grill and a nap and I was ready to play some poker. I headed down to Treasure Island around 7:30 and didn't get into a game until 8:30. I immediately started out by playing awful, and gave away 100 dollars in the first 30 mins.... a big hand doubled me back up and then I tried to bluff the nuts again (apparently I have to do that at least once a day), and was back down the 100 I had just gotten back.

I managed to hit a gutshot in a huge pot and was rolling along playing very well after the first hour, getting good reads on players and slowly building up to around +300 for the night. I then get 78 suited in the cutoff limped to me so I limp in. Button raises to 20 dollars and 3 callers so I call. Flop is 589 2 diamonds and a very loose aggressive player to my right bets 15 dollars. Pair and a gutshot so I call. Turn is a 2nd 5 and it is checked to me. I decided I am going to take it down right here and bet 50, folded to the loose aggressive who calls. River is another 8 giving me 8's full of 5's. Checked to me and I am contemplating what he will call. The only hands I lose to are Pocket 5's, 9's, or 98. While I am thinking this guy says "I will call anything you bet so just check". Now it isn't like we have been best friends... so I don't think he is "being nice". I decide to see how serious he really is... and say "OK all in then". He INSTANTLY calls. Now I am not so happy... until he flips up his Q/5 off suit for 5's full of 8's and the 2nd best hand. I rake in a 950 dollar pot and after 20 more mins cash out up 880 for the night and head home.

Work tomorrow at 1 PM and then back to the tables to try to keep it up for a few more days.

October Checkup

Well... I left Atlanta February 24th to begin this journey of mine. Along the way I had great runs where I couldn't lose, and weeks upon weeks where I was frustrated beyond belief. There were a few times when I wasn't sure I could do it anymore... when I thought everything I had learned was completely useless. I even had to take a few breaks and re-analyze my play. After 7 months now I have learned a lot of new things I had never considered...

1) It is VERY VERY hard to seperate yourself from the winning and losing. You will never be good at poker if every time you lose it affects you drastically.

2) Poker is not a game you control. It is like baseball... it helps to have strong shoulders and a good swing... but you have to hit what they throw at you. If you can't hit a curve ball, you won't make it long in the league...

3) If you try to win, you lose. If you try not to lose, you lose. If you play scared, you lose. If you play afraid, you lose. If you daydream or don't concentrate, you lose. If you do everything perfect, and play exactly correct on every hand... you MIGHT win.

4) Poker is an ever changing game and if you can't adapt you will not make it. One style does not work for every night. You cannot go into the game with a "plan" and expect everyone else at the table to go with it. It is even harder when the game shifts from one extreme to another in the same session due to changing of players.


The end result of 7 months of this is I am more driven than ever to make this succeed... I am finally starting to get educated properly. It is a lot harder than I expected it to be... It takes a LOT of mental stamina and focus, but I am making the adaption and improving my game. Dealing the game definately helps by keeping me sharp when I am not playing and helping supplement the income.

New Phone Number

Well.... I have been here over 6 months now, so I finally got a local number in vegas. I still didn't bother getting a home phone, but I did change my cell phone to a vegas number... so I guess that means I am going to stay for awhile :) However, in my infinite wisdom we bought a marvelous new couch at Walker furniture. It has 2 recliners, and a sleeper sofa... so very comfy! We both LOVE it. In order to make getting the couch the MOST challenging possible, we gave them my old phone number to call for delivery directions... then I went to Cingular and changed it. Obvious this worked very well when they called to get directions! We ended up having to call the office, get the number changed, have them call the driver, blah blah blah... Long story short. We have a couch and a living room... very exciting.

I mentioned earlier that I was working to get my hours in for the Station Freeroll in October. Estie had 74.9 out of the 75 hours she needed, and I was not quite as close. So Estie and I headed up to the Red Rock to work on my next installment of hours. I decided to make this as challenging as possible and dropped 400 dollars in the first hour. I managed through some miracle to get back to even and even cashed out a nice 60 dollar profit (which was a huge improvement over down 400). Estie was killing the 4/8 game turning a 90 dollar profit in the same time (she was smart enough not to stress herself out and stayed up almost the whole time). The night really got interesting when about 9 PM the 200,000 dollar station casino bad beat jackpot was hit at Boulder Station. Luckily the rules of the bad beat are the loser gets 45,000 of that, the winner gets 35,000, and every other player in every other station casino gets to split the rest of it. Estie and I were both playing when it hit, so the two of us along with 387 of our closest friends all got $345 each. It was a very nice capper to an already fun night out together playing poker.

Friday afternoon on the way home from work I stop to see how close I am to my hours... I need 75 and I have 67.7! BAH! that is 7.3 away from the requirement and I have to work Saturday night and we are going to some friends Saturday afternoon... so I guess I need to finish it Friday Night. An 8 hour marathon here we come!

So I buy in for 200 (the max at 1-2 no-limit), and on the 3rd hand run into Ace's with my 6's on an 8 high flop and manage to only lose 120 on that hand... so I cap off for another 100 and build back to even before hitting 2 pair against better 2 pair and going back down to 100 and recapping off to 200 for my final cash in my wallet. A few missed draws, and some missed flops and I am sitting at a little over 100 out of my 400 left, and only about 1.5 hours into the night... BOO!!!! I buckle down and determine not to play scared, but to play smarter... If I lose the 100 I have left, then I just won't get the hours... whatever, it has still been a good week.

7 hours later I am still playing, recouped all 300 of the lost money and another 525 on top of that. I really didn't play any huge hands, just nickle and dime stuff. I got Aces 3 times and managed to win all 3 times with them for a net of about 200 on those 3 hands, a flopped flush, and a straight made nice payouts... A very satisfying night until the end. Now Red Rock uses these login/logout system where when you get up from the table they push a button and you get no time while you are not there. It is a solid idea, and prevents abuse of people logging in and going for a 3 hour lunch... however, when someone forgets to punch you back in you fail to get the time, or as happened to me when someone logs someone into YOUR seat you get booted out and get no time. So I finish my 8 hour marathon and head to check to make sure I am all good and after 8.5 hours of playing, I am credited with 6.5! WTF! Apparently I lost 30 mins to dinner (which I expected) and another 30 mins to someone else sitting in my seat! BAH! I was falling asleep at the table (I don't play well asleep...) and even though I am still 40 minutes short I am going to bed anyways... I will find a way to get an hour tomorrow I guess.

The work schedule is out for next week, and with 1 person leaving for Green Valley I am back up to 4 days including 3 8 PM - 4 AM shifts (my favorite shift) and I got a 7 PM - 3 AM shift added for this coming Saturday. An overall very decent schedule for the week, and with thursday and Friday off a good time to take a ride up the mountain or go do something else fun.

The return of the Prodigal Shoe

OK... so now I think even my clothes are making fun of me. I put off working out because I lost my tennis shoes, and finally go out to get new ones... Everything is marvelous until my old shoes show back up! Apparently I had put them in the "perfect" spot, I just had no idea where that spot was... So 3 weeks later, I buy a new pair of shoes and boom! there are my shoes. Bastards are gunning for me... I can tell.

A cold front has moved through Vegas and snapped the weather from it's marvelous 100+ degree days with 8% humidty down to 85.. Wow, what nice weather that is. I can't even describe how nice it is outside at 85 degrees and no humidty! I thought I didn't like being outside, I now realize I just don't like being outside in hot, sticky weather! I LOVE 85 degree weather in vegas... I especially love looking at the weather on the news and seeing the 7 day forecast as Sunny, no humidty, high of 85, low of 60 every day... It is like they cut and pasted the weather across the week!

Work has been slow since I got back from my trip. Poker is slow this time of year, and so we are only getting 3 days a week for the extra board dealers... I had a long conversation with my boss the other day and now understand completely how everything works at the poker room. The short story is that Extra Board dealers are guaranteed 0 days a week, while full-time is guaranteed 5. He tries to make sure all regular extra board get 3 days minimum ( which is all we have been getting lately), in addition fulltimers cannot be sent home early unless the volunteer. Extra board can be sent home anytime after 4 hours of their shift...

The nice thing about extra board is that anytime I have something else to do, I just have to tell them and I am off. I don't get paid of course, but it has no impact on any of my future at the company... So I am going to take a week off in December to go deal on a poker cruise, and then probably another 2 weeks in January to go deal in Tunica at the WPT Gold Strike Classic. I really like having that flexibility, and I am like 6th in line to get a fulltime spot... so that means I need 6 people to find other jobs... Hmmm... not a decision I have to make right away at least.

Station casinos are running the qualifications for their next freeroll and you need 75 hours in 3 months, those 3 months end the 30th of September. Now July was the World Series, and August I started the new job and finally got to spend some time with my wife, and September I went to visit my parents.... So finding 75 hours was tough, and with 1 week left I needed 20 more hours! BAH! So I went into overdrive, and have been playing every day. Apparently that was something I needed.... since I have been playing much better, showing a lot more discipline and patience, and have managed to make almost 800 dollars the past week while working on my hours. I still need about 7 more hours... so let's hope I can keep focused while finishing that up the next 2 days.

It really is amazing in poker how much your mental state makes a difference! A good attitude, a marvelous marriage, and a supportive wife... makes such a HUGE difference. It is really not that easy to sit with 9 strangers for 4-5 hours at a time without losing your focus. Especially since so many of them are SOOOO annoying, and the more fun I am having the worse I play!

Lots of fun stuff coming up the next few months... Vegas RenFest the first part of October, friends coming to visit in October, November, December and January. Christmas in Orlando at Disney, poker cruise to the Mexican Riviera! Sheesh... I need a vacation from my vacations!

A little misinformation

They say in poker to change up your game and always keep them guessing. I suppose I carried that over to real life when on June 23rd I married Estie Moller and kept the secret from my family. I didn't do it for any deceitful reasons, but my sister was having her first baby in early June and I didn't want to distract from that. I knew that if I told everyone they would want to come out and be part of the wedding. So we got married in a small ceremony at the Mon Bel Ami chapel in downtown Las Vegas. It was a gorgeous ceromony and I can say I now know why so many people get married in Vegas. It was SO easy and relaxed... I really enjoyed the wedding and the amazing Steak afterwards at Smith & Wollensky's. In keeping with the simple approach we registered at Amazon.com and are going to have a party next summer to celebrate our 1 year anniversery and invite everyone to attend then. (So consider this your fair warning!)

I sprung this news on my family this past weekend when Estie and I went for a visit. It was a marvelous visit and even though we had connecting flights both ways, no bad layover stories are to be told. We got to see my sister and her new son Keith (whose first name is Charles... so when HE becomes a dealer, he will be using THAT name... Hpmmph). They are moving down to Columbia soon, so all the young kids will be around north georgia (my 2 younger brothers are in Athens).

While I was in Athens visiting my 2 brothers and sisters (and their marvelous spouses... on a side note, how does EVERYONE in our family manage to marry outside their class? Every one of us managed to marry a marvelous spouse which we so totally do not deserve... It is obvious God takes mercy on those less fortunate) I got a phone call from CardPlayer Cruises inviting me to go deal on a Poker Cruise to the Mexican Riviera in December... I have to get it approved with my boss, but a week long cruise that I get paid to go on seems AWFUL nice.

Work is still going well, and I am getting back into playing poker now that things are settling down. I need 20 more hours to get to the 75 hour minimum for the freeroll in October at Station Casinos. A guaranteed 100 dollars and a first prize of 70K is awful good... not to mention that in October I plan to start playing at the Rio again, and getting into their monthly freerolls. 40 hours a month is doable, and first place in the freeroll is a 10K entry into the WSOP in 2007.

I have discovered a minor flaw in my "amazing" poker skills. They only apply when *I* am not playing. I am really good at knowing what people have in their hands when I am observing the game from the dealer box... I am about 95% accurate on who is going to win and with what in the games I deal... However, when I am playing, for some reason all that goes out the window and I let emotion rule my decisions. Last night I have pocket 10's and the flop is J56 rainbow. I raised and got reraised by an aggressive solid player. He often made plays at pots, but had not made reraises or called with weak hands. So his reraise said at LEAST AJ and probably 2 pair or better. So since I had 1 pair that could not even beat AJ I reraised all-in. Of course, he called and had 2 pair and I lost 200 on that hand. It was obvious to me outside of the game that he had me beat... but in the heat of the hand I decided I should win since I had a good hand... but not good enough to win. It is very frustrating to look back and see how poorly I played and know I can play much better, I just have to seperate emotion from reality. A real challenge for me, since I tend to be overconfident at times :)

I mentioned the other day that I intended to start working out when I got home. So Tuesday I was recovering from my flight and had to work that night so I planned to start on Wednesday. Wednesday I overslept (well I slept really well and long with no reason to get up... so it kind of counted) and I got up around 3 with the intention of going to work out (after spending an hour relaxing, and another hour watching TV and playing games) and ran to the closet only to remember that I had managed to lose my shoes in my tiny little apartment with no furniture in it (I think they returned to Atlanta without me, not sure why... I think I forgot to wash my feet and offended them. Or maybe it was the friends who visited and picked them up by accident... but I am sure they walked back to Atlanta in a tizzy).... so my wednesday workout was killed by not having any shoes. Wednesday afternoon I went to get new shoes :) However, I have flat feet and the only shoes I have ever liked are Reebok's so I went to Target to get some, but they don't have reebok's, and then the shoe place near me doesn't have any I like, and the reebok outlet is far away from here (like 10 MILES!) and it was 5 PM and there was traffic and I wanted to play poker, so I didn't go! In hind sight 40 dollars on shoes would have saved me 300 in poker and allowed me to work out Thursday morning... but whatever I had a learning experience... BAH!

Now I have shoes, and motivation (I bought new pants which don't fit but I like them so I have to exercise).... so tomorrow... for real this time... tomorrow. IN the meantime, work tomorrow at 1 PM as well as Saturday, poker every night, World of Warcraft and KOTOR II, and I placed a few bets on football (Florida State can't cover 29 against a high school team, Georgia has been covering everything this season even 27 against Colorado is a good bet, Baltimore will beat Cleveland by 15 or more and the line was only 6, Tennessee has looked very bad recently so 22 against Marshall was too much, Steelers and Bengals are going to beat each other up and over 41 total seemed a good bet. So I basically bet that TEN and FSU suck and can't cover huge spreads, BAL and UGA are better than the other team and will win handily, and Big Ben and Carson will put on a show and score over 41 total.)...

The "Night Life"

I never thought I would "get used" to the heat. I mean I lived in Atlanta and it hit high 90's often, but I sitll thought 120 was FREAKING HOT! and it is! But now, I go outside and I am like "Oh it is fine... a little breeze and shade". The heat freaking MELTS my books when I leave them in the car... but I go outside for walks. BAH! It is frying my brain... that must be it!

Imperial Palace is going well. The more I work there, the more I like it. I got moved to swing shift, and it is great! I work 4-5 days a week and get 8 hours almost every time I go in. Fortunately for me, the rest of the dealers want to go play poker... so I can stay and they go early if it is slow. I had to make some adjustments to my dealing from the Series to here. The players at the Series were there to PLAY, and there was nothing you could do to slow them down if you were lost. At IP they are there to drink, hit on the waitress, tell stories, etc... So you really have to push the game along. If you don't, then you get no hands out, and you get no tips. The really nice thing is working the night shift at IP, in at 8 or 9 PM most nights is awesome... the sun is down, the weather is beautiful, lots of peopel coming and going, and there is a night club right outside the poker room and the only bathroom is past the poker room.

Poker has been a little more challenging lately. I moved to no-limit and did very very well, making almost 2 grand in a week or so, but then I got cocky and thought suddenly I was better than everyone else at the table, and then I lost :( a LOT. So I went back to limit and lost, and went back to no-limit and lost, and the idiots got lucky, etc etc. It is really tough when you combine overconfidence and running bad! I had to go back to the basics and re-evaluate my game. I played a lot better when I was focused on improving my game, evaluating what I was doing every hand, etc.

The last week or so I have been playing on my off days and before work, and doing much better. Playing with more respect for the game, and listening to my knowledge a lot more. I am heading to Atlanta for a visit this weekend, and then after that will be able to really focus again. I am also going to go back into the gym starting next week... It is just too important to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you have no sick days! Not to mention, all the women playing poker now don't tip fat bald guys nearly as much as they tip bald sexy ones!

World Series ends and the rest of the year begins

The World Series is finally over... It was pretty easy for awhile, then really kicked into high gear for the last 2 weeks before trailing off quickly. The 12 hour, no break days ended after Day 2 on Wednesday and then it was pretty short work from there on staying at 7-8 hours or less. I won't get the final check until Thursday, hopefully it will be a good one and I can relax a little on bills.

Now I have to decide what I am going to do now. I was offered a full time position at Imperial Palace (technically extra board which just means no benefits, no normal shifts, and no guaranteed hours. But it is still 40 hours a week basically), and had an audition at Treasure Island, in addition I was offered a spot on the Card Player Cruise in December, and a spot at the WSOP Circuit event in Tunica in September.

The only problem now is working all these options together and figuring out where to go.. .For now, I am working at Imperial Palace and will see how it all fits together in a week or so when I hear about Treasure Island.

When I worked at the World Poker Tour at Mandalay Bay they gave me 2 free tix to see Mama Mia which is a musical based on the music of Abba. A very good, very family oriented show... very nicely done. Then at the World Series I was given 2 free tix to both Clint Holmes and ERocktica. Clint Holmes is a one hit wonder from 30 years ago (he had a song called Playground of my mind - My name is michael) and nothing since. But it turned out to be a lovely tribute show, and very touching.

I then went and show Erocktica. Now it is effectively the same thing as the Clint Holmes show, cover tunes, etc... except instead of an amazing live band behind the 2 singers, it was a group of dancers and recorded music. VERY VERY loud recorded music, and lots of smoke machines, etc... WE ended up getting seats up in the 2nd row, and since the dancers were all topless it made for a very interesting show. It is really a sad state of affairs that I was watching the show at one point and didn't even realize they had put their tops BACK on... how sad is that! The singers were both very good... but I think there are better shows in vegas if you want to see Topless dancers and live music.

Overtime

Apparently when you piss off enough employees it eventually comes back to haunt you. They originally hired about 900 dealers for the World Series of Poker and are down to 550 after the most recent round of walk-outs and firings.

Yesterday was the 2000 dollar buy-in event which had "only" 2050 players.. However, they had about 20 dealers call-in sick and didn't have enough to start with, so we ended up with Chip Runners and Managers dealing for the first 2 hours with no breaks. Of course, as soon as the 12 PM tournnament started breaking down they had live cash games starting, satellite's, a 3 PM tournament, a 5 PM tournament, a 7 PM tournament, a dinner break, etc. So I ended up dealing 6 straight hours (as did almost everyone else) without a break and worked 11 hours with only 2 short 15 minute breaks. I didn't realize how tired I could get dealing poker... now I do!

Lucky for me I have Saturday off so I can recover. A good nights sleep and now I am off to look for a real job after the series if over. I have a few leads on some... I just hope one pans out.

Quick Update

Sorry for the long delay in updates... It has been hectic crazy lately. The world series is... well going. Highlights so far.

- first paycheck was less than half what everyone expected, so huge uproar from the dealers.
- second paycheck was even worse... So a bunch quit.
- Another 100 or so walked out in the middle of the shift and demanded to see the boss.
- A decision that paying everyone by hours worked, while being unable to control what everyone did or where they did it at, encouraged people to clock in and hide for 8 hours. So the hourly pay was scrapped, and it went back to paying you for how much you worked (novel concept I know)

So that has been quite the excitement... the money isn't as good as expected. However, $30 an hour or so isn't exactly slave wages. If I had to pay travel expenses, etc I might be a little more upset.

I have been playing some no-limit in my spare time. I am discovering that unlike limit when I do something stupid it is VERY expensive. I have to work on my decision making process and thinking through everything. It has been a painful learning experience to say the least, but I am learning and growing in that... it will also help my tournament play.

It is very nice to be able to relax and know the paychecks are coming in to pay the bills... Not to mention as of the 17th the house is officially sold! So that makes life much more relaxed.

Welcome to the club

It has been just over a week at the World Series of Poker and I feel like I am officially in the "club". The first few days were really easy.. 4/8, 2/5 no-limit, 225 dollar buy-in 200 person tourneys. Nothing special at all. The last 3 days however... they were something else. It definately stepped up to a new level. Saturday I was in the $2500 buy-in 6 handed no-limit tournament and had just about everyone at my tables. Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Kathy Liebert, Reigning world champion Joe Hachem, and many more. Sunday I was in the live section and got the row of Pot-limit Omaha from 5/10 to 25/50 PLO and a couple of Chinese Poker tables. Monday I figured it couldn't get any worse... PLO Hi/Low is about as tough as it gets, pots getting up to 4000-5000 dollars and pot, repot...ick. Monday started out well. 2/5 No-limit, 5/10 no-limit, chinese poker, a break. I come back from break and the idiot Dealer Coordinator has sent someone who just came in to my table! So I go talk to him and he says "oh, go on break and then push 162 at 5 till the hour". Well I just came OFF break, but whatever... then I look and 162 is 400/800 mixed with 2-7 triple draw, Badugi, and Omaha Hi/Lo. Oh shit... followed by 75/150 Omaha Hi/Lo, and then 50/100 Stud Hi/Lo for 2 tables and finishing with 50/100 limit!

I got to find out just how good I really was... Angry players, playing for thousands of dollars, and me with my few weeks of experience. It turned out to be really smooth, all the players treated me well (even though I heard they were NOT so nice to other players... so maybe I am doing more right than I expected). Then, to top it off with this murder's row... I push into the first table and the cash box is $100 down. So I have to call the floor over which starts a chain reaction of people coming by going "Really?" All of the chips should add up to a static $800 in the hi-limit section and this one was exactly 700. I think the poor guy who was there before me got fired for it... I am really glad I counted that box over his shoulder and did everything exactly right. It would be a really bad time to get lazy (which is what I think he did) and not count it.

World Series Update

Well 2 days in and it is a little less exciting than I had expected. The people running the dealers and the events are really far behind. I generally am sitting and waiting for 1-2 hours before I even start dealing, and they have so many dealers I haven't worked a full 8 hour shift yet. Nothing extremely exciting so far... lots of poker celebs running around but none at my table. A few very loose No-limit games, but otherwise nothing exciting.

I have decided in my cash games I like this no-limit stuff.... 5 sessions of No-limit and up all 5, at least 2 buy-ins normally 3-4. I played this afternoon and was up 7 buy-ins at 1/2 NL with a $100 buy-in.

I finished up my Month 4 numbers and so far after 4 months I am not doing to bad. So far I have made $12,560 after taxes for an average of a little over $3,000 a month. It is less than I made as a computer engineer, but with a LOT less hours and a whole lot more upside.... So I can't complain to much at all... especially since I was in class for 2 of those months and travelling for 3 weeks.... So all in all, unemployed for about 3 months isn't TOOO bad to not be belly up.

Here comes the world series

I went to see Click last night, very good movie.. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It makes an interesting statement about what is important in life, and how you can get too caught up in what you HAVE to do and not what you really WANT to do. In the movie he misses his kids camping trip because his boss wants him to do a job for him. It really makes me appreciate the direction I have chosen for my life. I turned 35 a few weeks ago and I am more than halfway to retirement and couldn't be happier. I really feel like I am doing what *I* want to do and it really shows in my attitude and my work.

I finished the Imperial Palace 3 day gig on Sunday and start the world series on Monday at 10 PM. Once again, at the end of a temporary gig I was approached about a position with them. Obviously, my attitude and professionalism keeps attracting attention. Everywhere I go I meet more people and more people learn my name and my face. I have so many opportunities and options coming at me now I am actually have to turn stuff down.

I had orientation for the World Series of Poker on Thursday and got to see "THE ROOM" for the first time. 208 tables in a massive room... It is going to be insane seeing THAT many poker players in the same place playing. I got assigned "Swing7" shift which means I will be coming in everyday sometime between 2 PM and 11 PM. It is one of my favorite shifts and I am estatic to have drawn it. I can't wait to get started tonight and it is going to be a blast. I saw some of the dealers from Mandalay there, and it was nice to catch up with all my friends from class and previous jobs.

Good Bye Robert Morea. We will miss you

A good friend of mine Robert Morea passed away a few days ago from a lung infection. Robert had numerous medical problems over the years including a lung transplant, but he never let it get him down and always had the best attitude. Robert was a founding member of Team Draft with myself, Trevor and Will. He made every trip with us even going to Vegas just months after having a lung transplant. A better friend you could not ask for, and I would not have changed a thing about him... I just wish he could have been with us longer. Robert was an asset to his friends and a wonderful companion.. he will be dearly missed. Good Bye Robert... you have touched me and everyone around us. You are an inspiration to us all, and we love you.

Going Going GONE!

I have discovered that no matter how little stuff I have, I STILL hate moving. Hooking up utilities, unpacking, setting stuff up, etc... It is beyond annoying. To top it off, I moved into an apartment with nothing... so I now have that empty room problem!

The past week has been swamped with stuff. The house sold and closes on June 30th, but I lost the keys to it.. so I had to track down a copy and get it to the agent (who managed to lose the one I gave them), I took and aced my final exam so I am officially graduated. I had an audition for a 3 day tournament at the Imperial Palace which I got a perfect score on. I also walked into the Rio and saw that the final freeroll for a world series seat required 50 hours between June 1 and June 15, unfortunately I didn't see it until June 8... So I put it into overdrive to hit 50 hours.

I also had the Station freeroll which I played very well until I managed to invent a new way to lose. Virtually guaranteed moving onto day 2 I made a dumb move and finished 120th out of 500 (top 100 move on to day 2).

The Rio freeroll was tonight, and it was really a very very nice structure. 30 minute rounds, 5000 in chips, 25/25 blinds to start. I lasted 3 hours before pushing in with KK and 5800 in chips and getting called by 66 who then flopped quads on me. I went out 24th out of 39. Not a bad showing... but that pot would have put me up near the chip lead and in good position to win the 10k first prize.

Whew... I need a nap

Well it is all over but the final paycheck, and it was one heck of a ride. I never realized sitting in a chair slinging cards around could be so tiring.. but it was. I ended up working 13 days straight without a day off and I am definately worn out and need some rest... Luckily I have nothing planned for the next 2 weeks so I plan to get some nice mid-afternoon naps.

The media circus at the WPT was amazing. They were like bees swarming around leaning over my shoulder, writing down everything. These guys were playing for a first prize of 1 million dollars, so any mistakes were definately NOT an option. I made sure to take my time and not make any mistakes, which I fortunately didn't. There was a line of laptops along one side, TV cameras and interview chairs on the other, a live radio show going on, and hordes of note taking peons.

I ended up finishing with 75 tournament downs for the event. Each down was 30 minutes in the box. I also picked up about 650 in tips from live games. I get my final check and tips on Friday so we will see how it all comes out in the end. It was certainly well worth the effort. I made a lot of great contacts, had a great time, and have established myself in the tournament world as a viable tournament dealer who anyone would be happy to have.

I managed to pick up some leads on new events and tournaments and am going to be pursuing those to keep this train rolling. Things do look very promising to say the least.

Only in Vegas

Only in Vegas can you sit at a table and play 4/8 with Elvis and a Blonde in a bikini wearing sunglasses and acting all serious. At least Elvis was having a good time... The funniest thing was I asked Elvis wear he was from and he said LA!

Yesterday was the first day of the main event... and everyone was out. TV Cameras, interviews, pictures, rows of laptops lined up, people walking around doing chip counts, etc. It was a crazy media event... media credentials required of course. Everyone who was anyone was there. Phil Ivey, Daniel Negranue, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak and his girlfriend Jennifer Tilly. Even Shannon Elizabeth showed up to take on the big boys. It was insane... and I loved it :)

Better watch the slowplay

The main event starts tomorrow, so of course with 4-5 table pushes and few breaks I went out and played poker until 3 AM... but I will survive. One thing I have noticed about these high limit players is they are action JUNKIES. They have 4-5 grand riding on a baseball game, $300 last longer bets with the entire table of a 10 person Sit and Go, etc... they love to gamble and if there isn't money involved then they are bored. I can honestly say I don't see the excitement in betting if the flop will be more red than black.

I hit the Rio tonight with a ton of energy and came out of the gate on fire. Unfortunately noone else at the table got anything and I ended up with mostly blinds and small pots so I was up a modest 40 bucks. Now this is where the story should end... but as you might have guessed it doesn't. I then proceeded to go on a sick run of getting rivered with 1 and 2 outers and ended up tilting badly and pressing to get back at them and dropped 350 before I decided to get out of that game... You might think the story ends here... but NO. It was only 11 PM, why go home now... So they started up a 1/2 No-limit game and I have been wanting to give it a try, so I decided to give it a go. I took my remaining 46 dollars in chips and another 100 in red I bought and went to the 1/2 game. Shortly after sitting down I take down a nice pot with JJ against AK on the turn and am over 200 in chips... sweet, this no-limit thing is EASY.

It wasn't always so easy as I got JJ again against a flopped flush and put 45 dollars more than I should have into the pot. I then missed a few draws and had to rebuy for another 100 as I dwindled down to a net of over 500 down. The night took an upturn finally around 12:30 AM as I got 66 UTG. I raised it to 5x bb ($2 BB so $10) and it is reraised to $20 and called by one other player reluctantly. I put the raiser on a big ace and the caller on a weaker ace (meaning one ace is dead and I am a bigger favorite) so I reraise all-in to isolate and the original raiser called, the other player folded. The raiser had AQ suited and nothing came and I stacked him to double up. Interestingly the caller SAID he had JJ and would have won... if he did, he played that hand absolutely AWFUL....

A little while later the guy to my left lays down a hand to a reraise and is shown the bluff and is now steaming. My read on him is he wants to get his money all-in ASAP and is looking to check/raise someone all-in to do it. I limp on the button with K6 off-suit and he raises a small amount. Folded back to me, and I call. I figure if I can hit a flop I can stack him and it will be easy to get off of. Flop is AKx and he checks. I smell a trap as this guy is steaming and check. The turn is a gorgeous 6, giving me 2 pair and he checks again. I "Fall for it" and bet $20 into a $60 pot. He check-raises all-in and I call before he even finishes saying all-in. He shows AJ for the "Trap" and I stack him. He leaves in disgust.

A little while later I got to demonstrate the power of position... I have the button and limp with J/9 suited. The Big blind raises a signifigant amount and I call. The flop is A/9/x and he checks. I make a stab at the pot and he lays down his QQ. He shows me and goes "Good laydown", and I show him the J/9, a little while later I would stack him with a flush vs his top pair.

I ended up busting 4 guys out of the game and running from 500 down to 57 down to end the night, including being up 300 at no-limit. Not to shabby for my first attempt at No-limit.

Now off to bed.. Main event.. time for the big time baby.

I don't like to lose

I have discovered something about myself... It doesn't matter if I want to win or not, I still don't want to LOSE. We had a dealers tournament tonight at Mandalay Bay with a $55 buy-in and the top 4 of the 60 person tournament got an entry into the $1000 super-satellite where the top 10% got entries to the 10k main event. So we are talking a $55 investment to possibly win over 1 million dollars... But it is one heck of a long shot, and I have to play for at least 5 days to get ANYTHING back from it. (1 day of a Super Sat, and 4 days of the main event before I reach the money). I am making about $300 a day dealing the WPT events, so that means I am giving up $1500 in earnings at a miniscule chance of winning a whole lot of money... If I KNEW I was going to win I would do it in a heartbeat... however I would really rather have the guaranteed $1500 right now.

I can't bring myself NOT to play in the dealers tournament, the chance to play against my fellow dealers was too much fun to pass up... and of course I had to do well, and then I wanted to win! Unfortunately they paid top 4 and I bubbled out in 5th. BAH! It sucked even worse as I got my pocket 9's busted by 8/3 off when I was the short stack. I really did feel I played pretty well but I still have a lot to learn about tournament poker, when to make moves, reading players, etc.

Another interesting tidbit from the dealers tournament... Back when I was in Atlanta playing bar tournaments there was a dealer who dealt on occasion who I heard other players commenting was a "Vegas dealer who was visiting friends here". I watched her deal a few times and was amazed.. she was so fast, and so accurate, and had such good control of the game. It was like she was flying around the table she was so good. I could only hope to be even half as good as she was one day.... now fast forward to our current tournament and the dealer in the box is this cute blonde with a slight accent. She mentions she is from Atlanta and it suddenly dawns on me THAT is why she looks familiar (I thought it was just because she was cute and blonde... it happens, leave me alone). So we talk a little and she confirms she used to deal at Jeffries and Rafters and that was where I knew her from. She starts up dealing and I realize just HOW much better I am now than I used to be... Now she looks very good as a dealer, but no better than I am... It is just amazing how much of a difference it makes when you have a different perspective.

My plan during the WPT events was to play after work one day, and then go to bed early the next. This would allow me to play a decent amount and still keep up on my sleep (it is hard when you prefer to sleep 10 hours a day if allowed to). Tonight was suppose to be my playing day, however I ended up in the dealer tournament for over 4 hours... so home I am and I will play after work tomorrow night.... so now I have to get to bed so I can be well rested and play until 1 or 2 AM tomorrow night if the games at the Rio are good.

It's just money

Apparently even when people buy-in for 1,000 or more dollars, have 1 hour rounds, and blinds that start low.. they still play crazy and reckless. I thought the all-in fest was just for these silly bar tournament and low buy-ins, but even at the top levels it is craziness. I saw a guy CALL an all-in with top pair, *10* kicker. WTF! Another one call an all-in with a pair of 10's on a 7 high board. This was within the first 5 freakin minutes!

It is amazing how many things you can find to do when you aren't careful... I have another week of the WPT, Might and Magic V is coming out for the PC, TitanQuest is due out in 2 weeks, Rio is having another 80 hour free roll so I need to find 80 hours of time to play there, and I just finished qualifying for the Red Rock freeroll. Sheesh... I am just swamped! Not to mention moving, World Series of Poker, and apparently I need a bed to sleep on. Hmmph.

Red Rock went well last night, it is obvious I CANNOT play with friends at the table. I completely lose track of the game and give my money away. Ended the night up 28, but it should have been more but I had WAY to much fun... the good news is that having a good amount of money coming in has improved my poker game 2000%! Not NEEDING the money I am winning or losing has made me a much better player... thank goodness I predicted SOMETHING right.

I stopped by class real quickly yesterday and gave an update on what was going on, what to expect, etc. My instructors were very impressed with how much I have learned so quickly... It is amazing what you learn and how fast you improve when you are enjoying yourself and WANT to get better. Everyone keeps telling me that it won't be as much fun in the future, etc... but I just don't see that. There are some very bitter, angry people in this industry. I just have to stay away from those and hang out with the positive ones like Susie Lederer and some of the other dealers I am meeting.

They pay me for this?

OK... so dealing poker *IS* actual work. My arms hurt, my shoulders hurt. I sweat, I am fatigued when I get home, I want to put my legs up and watch TV... just like a real job. However, the next morning I can't wait to get back to work. I come back from break and am just waiting to get back into the box and deal another down. I can't even describe how much I enjoy this job... Even more.. they pay me for this!

I had my best day to date today, dealing 6 tournament downs, and 6 no-limit cash games including a 5/10 no-limit game with one of the shift managers in it. I got rave reviews from everyone, made a killing in tips, kept the games running and made no mistakes. I even had one customer request me to come BACK to their game as I was the best dealer he had had all day long.

After work I went by the Poker Palace to pick up my paycheck and then over to South Coast to cash it (they give you free stuff when you cash your check at the casino. Silly gamblers.) I spent some time talking to my old boss about the WPT and dealing, etc. And he paid me an amazing compliment without even knowing it. He was talking about another dealer he knew who was just awesome, and said "You are a good dealer now, and will be amazing in 2-3 years and then someone will take you to meet this girl and you will know just how good she is". This guy has been dealing for 20 years and a floor/manager for 5... I was really happy to hear he thinks that I am going to be that good.

I am making it a real point to network while I am working this WPT and WSOP events, I want everyone to know who "That bald guy Lawson" is, so when I call for a job they find one for me... I am still debating if I want to get a 3-4 day a week job so I can work on playing as well, or get on with the WPT and WSOP tour events and work 2-3 weeks with 2-3 weeks off.

We will just have to see how it all shakes out.

Hello my Name is Lawson

OK fine... I give up. Over the years I have not worked very many places with name tags, so it was very simple to introduce myself as "Richard". I have always gone by Richard or some variation of that, and it was never a problem. Unfortunately with playing poker and everyone seeing my comp card, and working and them putting my legal name everywhere... My name is now Lawson in Vegas. I have just given up... Lawson is more unique, more memorable, and actually gets my attention when I hear it.... I guess I will get used to it one day.

Friday was the first day of the WPT at Mandalay Bay. It was also my first REAL day dealing for 8 hours. I got 7 30 minute tournament downs in dealing the 330+ person 1,000 dollar buy-in event that started at noon, and 5 30 minute downs in the regular games. Only 2 breaks, and 2 turns on brush... So it was a REAL day and a REAL job, I haven't work an 8 hour day in 3 months... ouch.

The tournament downs were nothing exciting, no major issues, no major excitement. I got to deal to Kathy Liebert who was very nice. The cash games were a TON of fun... I loved it. It was my first time dealing a live game with rake, and I was rocking the house. The game was running smooth, the tips were awesome ($122 in 2.5 hours) and I even managed to handle the 4/8 game with 10% rake, 5% jackpot drop by quarters, 1/2 blinds and a half kill. So the pots were always small, rarely capped and often folded before the river. One of the hardest games to deal in vegas... so I felt good being able to handle it.

I also managed to get 4 more hours in at Red Rock and only need 6 more to qualify for the freeroll. 4 Hours and I was up 159, I played pretty darn well and felt like I was close to 95% correct for the night which is very good considering how tired I was after dealing all day. Apparently this big bald head of mine makes an impression as several people now know who I am and that I am a decent player as I am starting to get some comments like "That guy is tricky" and "He rarely loses a hand" or my favorite "God that guy is lucky".

Time to head off to work.... bah this having a job thing!

Sir, come with me please

I am going to try to update the blog more often, with shorter posts... I find I wait to long to post, then there is to much to say, then I put it off because I am too busy, etc. I played my longest session in a good long while, 8.5 hours of solid poker. No walks, no breaks, no fooling. I managed to finish up 243 and felt I played pretty decent. No really huge hands of note, just solid play and solid equity calls and raises. I did find it extremely funny when the guy next to me won a 4 way pot with bottom pair (he had a flush draw and caught a pair), and another guy won a hand against a caller, the caller had 7 high. Now I understand calling for information, or if he might be bluffing.. but he had 7 freaking HIGH! (btw, this is the same guy who called my bluff with Ace high and won.... so maybe he couldn't read the cards.. he wasn't very young).

One of the more interesting events of the day came as I was leaving. Security surrounded a table and escorted a gentleman from the 5/10 No-limit game for refusing to pay a river bet. Apparently he went all-in and a guy called and he didn't want to pay the whole thing. They spent 20 minutes negotiating and eventually read the guy the trespass act and escorted him from the casino.

I turned in my notice at Poker Palace since I can't fit that AND Mandaly Bay WPT into my schedule. The boss was very nice and told me he wasn't surpised, he knew as soon as I auditioned for him I was too good to work there and would be gone very soon. That was a nice ego boost for me... I also got some nice feedback from my instructors that they were not worried at all about me in these upcoming events, and that I was good enough to be working on a strip casino now.

One thing that is very frustrating is the more I learn about the dealing the more it upsets me to watch bad dealers. It is absolutely stunning to see how bad they are. I mean the simplest things, making sure everyone called a raise... making sure everyone got a chance to bet... making sure everyone got 2 cards. I watched one girl give BACK money to a guy telling him he had bet to much, then having to go get the money back when we pointed out she was wrong. It is just sad how bad some people are, but I guess in any industry not everyone really belongs.... I just thought in a place where you have to AUDITION for a job, it would be less frequent to find people who sucked at that job.

I think I win

It is amazing where the time goes. You pick up one little job for 10 hours a week and suddenly you have no time for ANYTHING. It is hard to believe I have been going non-stop for a week now, but it has been a good time to say the least. Dealing is going great! I had one of the instructors and some other students come play on Monday and had great feedback from them. I am really starting to settle into the box and picking up speed and personality in the box. The tips are really good, and I am averaging $40 an hour even just working part-time. So it is hard to complain at all about that. I went to dinner with 2 of the other dealers on Monday night and one of the players picked up the check for us... So that was pretty cool.

Last week at the Red rock I hit my first straight flush in a casino. Too bad it wasn't a bad beat or high hand house... it was still a really nice pot, snapped off Aces with it :) He seemed less pleased than I was for some reason.

One of my friends from class got a job dealing the WPT event at Mandaly Bay starting May 25th and talked me into auditioning. I called up Monday morning and talked to the manager who said I could come in for the last audition on Tuesday at 2:30 if I could get all my app done before then. I rushed around, filled out the app, rushed it through processing, did my drug test (who came up with this stupid hair sample drug test! It is a direct attack on the bald people of the world! We will NOT discuss where the hair sample came from EVER!)

I managed to get everything done, and got to the audition early. There were about 18 people auditioning and it had to be one of my worst auditions ever. It is true what they say, just jump right in and don't think about it. I was 6th up, so I had PLENTY of time to get nervous... and get nervous I did. My pitch was horrible, I was shaking, messed up the shuffle, everything I could do wrong just about. I was sure I had bombed it, I just knew I had... when they called me into the office to discuss my audition all she said was "You were a little nervous, but good job. Come in on Monday to do paperwork". Holy cow... 2 other guys from class came in as well and neither one got it. I guess I am pretty good at this after all, it was very encouraging to have a sub-par performance and get through anyways.

Playing wise it has been pretty good lately, running up a couple of grand to get back on the positive side of things. I have not played anywhere near as much as I wanted to so far only getting in 80 hours in over 2 weeks and only up 750 so far.. but that is a recovery from being down until just a week ago.

The station freeroll is in early June just after the WPT ends, first prize there is 60,000 dollars... so I will save all my good luck for that. Only 1800 other people to contend against, let's see how I can do in that one.

I could've been a STAR!

You know they say timing is everything... the company I used to work for was sold, and all the employes got a nice bonus from the former owners in the multiple thousand dollar range, and now I found out that MTV is PAYING people to move to Las Vegas to become a dealer for a new reality show! DOH!!!!!

My 2nd night of dealing went even better than the first. I am starting to settle in and get used to everything there. It is amazing how all the little things they mention in class becomes HUGE in the real game. Keeping control of the situation, moving cards out of the way before pushing pots, etc, declaring all actions, etc. It is amazing how many things there are to do, and how important all the little things are in the long run.

I got my tips for Saturday night. Worked almost 2 hours and got $31 in tips. Not to shabby since I also get $10 an hour base pay for working the tourneys... Tuesday night I get to deal the final table, so it will be more like 2-3 hours.

After work I went by the Red Rock to play and ended up staying until 1:30 AM and finishing up 107. The bad thing though is that I was playing SOOO well and was up 200, and then got rivered and before I knew what happened 2 hours had gone by and I was back to even. I really have to stay focused at the table and pay attention to how I am feeling and when I am not playing well get up. I can't afford to keep learning these same lessons over and over again...

There's an 8 *AM*?

Thursday when I went to the audition I was told to come in at a quarter till 8 on Friday. My first thought was "Sure.. I will grab some dinner and head over there after class." Then I realized he might mean 8 *AM* since he was talking about Human Resources afterall... Holy cow, I didn't realize how EARLY 8 AM *IS*. To make it to North Las Vegas I had to get up at 6 AM to leave by 6:45 and make the drive in traffic. It turned out traffic was good and I got there 30 mins early... After Paperwork, orientation, some videos on problem gambling and safety regulations at the casino I made it to class the earliest I have been in a month (11 AM).

Friday night a bunch of the guys from class and I all went to the Orleans to play in the $65 165 person tournament there. It was a well run tourney, definately worth playing again. 1st place paid $4500 so doesn't take many wins to make it a good idea :) I ended up busting out around the end of the 2nd hour after making two poor calls which really cost me some chips. They weren't really POOR calls, they just turned out VERY poorly. I made one call against a documented idiot (He had the papers to prove it and everything), but turns out even an idiot can have a hand :( and another call against a guy who played it very well.

Saturday was laundry day and a little bit of warcraft, before heading to work for the first time. I got there around 5:30 and got situated. I was on table 3 of the 5 table tournament. They only had 42 show up so table 5 didn't go at all. They break down the tables in order as people get knocked out, so I got to deal for an hour and a half before my table broke, at which point I was done and out the door. I headed over to the Red Rock where I played until 2:30 in the morning. Egads! I started out really well, then got sucked out and tilted badly.. after a few walks I settled back in and ended up getting back everything I lost except 10 dollars.

My schedule at the Poker Palace is M-Th and Saturdays. So I took advantage of my off day by sleeping until 1 and going to see Mission Impossible III. WOO! Good movie, lots of explosions, and shooting.. very action packed. Now it is back to work... 6 PM tonight. WHEE. Only on table 3 so I should be out by 7:30 again.

Oops I did it again....

(WARNING! This is a long one as I am catching up!)

Oh what a week+ it has been... Between Ken and Estie visiting I was worn out and haven't stopped since then. On Monday I went and watched the WPT Championships final table. You will get to see my bald head on TV in the 3rd row behind Klaus when it airs in July on the Travel channel. Good god is live poker boring, bet - Fold, bet - fold, bet - raise, fold. I was there for 4 hours and I swear I saw 4 rivers... it was brutal, but interesting at the same time.

Tuesday I played a little blackjack after going to see V for Vendetta (GOOD movie... wow) and started out very well before the dealer just flat out kicked me square in the face. I dropped my profit and 500 more before crawling back to only down 280 and going home.

Wednesday I went and checked out the new Red Rock casino and quickly discovered that I was not in the frame of mind to play so I dropped 250 before I managed to crawl away. Red Rock is a beautiful casino at the foot of the mountains. They spent 1 BILLION dollars to build this place which is a solid 20 minute drive from the strip.... and I wouldn't be surpised if they got it all back in 2 weeks as busy as that place was.... They have also hired the best poker dealers in town and have a 20 table room that is flat out full every night so far. After dropping 250 at the poker tables I decided to get it back at Craps. So now I am down 750 and decided to get it back at blackjack. So now I am down a grand and see an empty double deck 25 dollar table. I decide to go heads up against the dealer, so now I am down 1200 for the night and not in a terribly good mood. I play a little longer and finally ALL the bad luck from the rest of the night caught up and I ran an entire double deck heads up against the dealer without losing a hand. I wish I had been betting more, but even at 50 a hand I was up 500 on that shoe alone and managed to leave only down 880.

2 bad days and a little over a grand down is not how I wanted to start month 3, but I have learned not to panic and not to try to get it all back at once. That only makes it worse! I booked a modest 42 dollar win on Thursday night and a nice 206 on Friday before heading down to Phoenix to visit Trevor who was in town for business until Monday. Saturday I drove the 5 hours to Phoenix. Did you know Phoenix is in a desert? And there is not much IN the desert except sand, cactus and a "Forest".

Now in Georgia a forest would be something you could not see through, around, or over. A bush is something that you CAN see over. Apparently that is NOT what a Forest, Bush or Tree means in Arizona. A bush "only" comes up to your knees. Anything taller is a "Tree". Whatever you do, do NOT call any of their Trees a bush! That is a hanging offense... and they still do that there. (Luckily they ride camels and a Taurus *IS* faster than a camel). So I am driving down the road to Phoenix and I see a sign "Now entering the Joshua Tree Forest". So I look around for this "Forest" of theirs and I see nothing... a few bushes and some green leaves (unusual for here) but nothing higher than my CAR and nothing closer together than spitting distance... but you know, use whatever terms you want to use. Forest... tree... road... hmpph.

I finally get to Phoenix and after buying a map (I knew ABOUT where I was going, but the roads didn't agree.) and finally found the casino. 3 and a half hours saw me up 162 and Trevor had arrived from California where he was earlier in the day. He had been up since 4 am so for some reason we went to sleep... No idea why, it was only 1 AM. Sheesh, babies.

Saturday we managed to get up before breakfast was over downstairs. (I know it amazed me too... but we DID go to bed early) and met up with Scott Goodrich to head down to Tucson for the Full Metal Alchemist tournament that Trevor was in town to "promote". It was a sealed deck pre-release for the next set, and they had *27* players show up to a store that can seat MAYBE 16...so they got all 27 to sit somewhere (wow it was crowded, and hot,and in arizona). I played fairly well and only lost 1 game to the eventual tournament winner. By the time we finished the tournament, had dinner, and got back to Phoenix it was almost midnight. Another early night and Monday morning we didn't make breakfast. (They really should serve breakfast until 2 PM.... it would help a LOT)

Lunch at the mall and Trevor was off to the Diamondbacks game and to visit some stores in the area and I had the long drive back. Luckily the Braves game was on XM and kept me company and finished 5 minutes outside of Vegas. Hudson pitched a masterpiece... it was a good game to pickup on the way back. I caught a movie and dinner at South Coast and a little blackjack to keep my pit boss happy and giving me free meals. Nice little +65, free dinner, free movie, and an early night.

Tuesday it was back to Red Rock and another 250 drop at poker. I really need to learn not to play when I am in a testy mood. I did manage to find the patience for some double deck as I found a $10 table with a complete moron who somehow managed NOT to go bankrupt. I kept from getting distracted, played well and booked enough of a win to get back to +135 for the night net. I also picked up free dinner for Thursday.. good night indeed.

The weather has started to warmup around here and I have discovered that I like peace and quiet as well as a cool room at night. None of which are available where I am at now.... 7 AM garage opening (loudly), a sustained indoor temp of 80 degrees, and loud construction trucks all morning... It is time to find a new place to live.... So I spent some time looking and researching and driving, etc. I settled on a few things I wanted. An open floor plan (something with a kitchen that is open to the living room, like a bar/etc type), a garage or covered parking (it gets hot and sunny here), 2 bedrooms, nice exercise room, and a good pool. Everything I found that fit the bill was either 1000+ without a garage or 1400 with... way to much. I finally found a place out in the Lakes area of west Vegas which had everything I wanted,and only 1100 a month. Absolutely gorgeous and perfect... so I signed the lease to move there June 10th.

Wednesday I decided I had done enough for the week so slept in, ate at Pizza hut and took a nap. Ahhh what a nice day. Didn't make any money,but that was just fine. I even went to bed early so I could get up in time for class on Thursday. I did manage to get up close to on-time, but not really ONTIME. I got to class around 12:30 only to find out that a guy from a casino had been there at 11 AM doing on the spot auditions! What a day NOT to get to class on time. Apparently the guy was going from school to school and was ready to hire someone RIGHT NOW. About 3 PM the guy called back to the school and said he had not found anyone and if any of their top students wanted to audition to come by the casino at 6 PM for an audition. I finished my time in the box, had to run to West Vegas to drop off the apartment deposit, back to South Vegas to change clothes, and then through rush-hour to north Las Vegas to interview... Oh what a rush job that whole time was.

I managed to get to the interview 15 minutes early and meet up with Joe who got there just after me and we went in together. I got to deal 1 hand in a live tournament and was offered a part time job on the spot. 10 hours a week... averaging 30 dollars an hour. Perfect experience, and good money... Joe also got a job offer so we will be working together there. I fought the traffic to Red Rock and managed to hit some nice hands including pocket K's twice in 2 hours and cashed out up 118 and am turning into bed now. I have to be at HR at 8 AM in the morning! EGADS! Who makes these hours!

Month 2 Checkup

Well.. it has been 2 months now... the good news is that it is still going well.

Month 2 I put in 162 hours and was up $4,324 for an hourly rate of $26.69. A nice improvement from last month where my hourly rate was on $18.11 and I only got in 153 hours.

I really got a lot of experience with "Gamblers Memory" as there were several times where I tried to push an edge and got burned hitting two huge downswings of over 2000 each time. This is something I definately have to avoid.... riding the wave is good, riding it into the gutter is bad.

I also realized what the difference between a Gambler and a Real Poker player is. A Gambler remembers his wins and goes back again and again to get another one. They live for that rush. A poker player remembers his losses and plays to avoid those in the future, sometimes to the detriment of his game (ie limping with pocket Aces because they always lose anyways)

In month 3 I plan to focus more on my game and look at possibly moving up to a higher limit game and see if I can handle that. My win rate at 4/8 has been very solid. I also want to give a shot at some of the baby No-limit games as well to broaden my scope of games.

I of course want to get in my hours and get my hourly rate up, but that is normal :)

Blast from the Past

It has been one heck of a busy week with Estie visiting from Atlanta from Tuesday to Sunday I had to get as much class in on Monday and Tuesday as I could. Class is going well if a bit boring now as all we do is sit around and play poker, take turns dealing different games, making mistakes and learning from them. I am about ready to find 8 people to play poker for 4-5 hours while I deal and get in the ryhtym of the rake and the game at the same time. The rake is really the only thing holding me back from being finished now.

Estie got in Tuesday night, and wednesday morning we headed over to the South Coast for the tournament. When I first started playing poker all the various concepts were very new to me, and I had a hard enough time figuring out what the right play was in any given situation... I had no time to pay attention to vibes, feelings, instinct, etc. Now I have gotten to the point where those decisions have become second nature and I can relax more... Unfortunately I find myself NOT paying attention to my instincts and getting into trouble. That happened again on Wednesday morning's tournament as I limped in from early position with 8/9 suited. As I was thinking of entering the pot I noticed the guy across the table fingering his chips. He was short stacked and I got the feeling he was going to push all-in. This was not a hand I wanted to play all-in, I wanted to hit or miss a flop and get away from it. Instead of listening to my feelings though I called anyways, he did push all-in, another guy called and I had to call getting the right price. The flop hit me marginally and I called off the rest of my chips getting the right price again and was out. I got stuck in a pot I should never have been in because I didn't pay attention to what the other players were doing, and didn't listen to the signals when they were there.

Wednesday night we headed over to the MGM where I played marginally well making a lot of mistakes and trying to hard several times. I finished up 114 but nothing remarkable to talk about... never got any high pairs or AK so it was good to survive that day.

Thursday we went and visited the new Red Rock Casino that opened on Tuesday night at midnight. They were having $2 movie day and showing older movies, so we went and saw The Family Stone. What a great movie that was... I really enjoyed it. The original plan for Thursday night was to go see a show... but all the good shows were sold out so we decided not to go to one and played at the MGM again. A solid day of poker and nothing impressive to tell put me up 187. It seems the more I play the more often I don't hit any hands, any draws, any major pots, and walk out with more money than I came in with. There is something to be said for playing it close to the vest....

Friday we hit the early South Coast tournament again and again I made a major mistake. The most important thing to determine before bluffing is WILL your opponent FOLD. I failed to read that properly and even though I read that he WANTED to fold (which he said later he did), he was not GOING to fold ever... I ended up pushing all in with Q high and he called with pocket Aces. An afternoon nap and then off to downtown and the Fremont Street Experience. The 7 PM rebuy tournament at the Plaza was pretty decent getting 30 people and 27 rebuys, a couple of coin flips later and I was out... I walked into a huge pot with top pair top kicker against a set. I just reacted without thinking and crippled myself. After getting knocked out of the tourney that Estie was still in I played a few hours of face up double deck... A good run saw me up 900 and made getting knocked out of the tournament early OK! Estie went out 8th but they only paid top 4.

Saturday I slept in for awhile before heading over to the Venetian to play. The Venetian was a tough game that got a little crazy at times, but in general a solid group of players. I struggled without any cards or any flops and managed to finish up 91. About 9 PM we went to eat at a mexican restaurante upstairs... Wow was that nice. It was right on the Gondala River running through the Venetian where they do the gondala rides. So we got to eat under the "stars" by the river with Gondalas going down the river singing to their patrons in Italian. It was amazing.. and the food was good as well!

Sunday was Estie's last day so we went down to the Wynn to play out the string. So far this week I had gotten horrible cards, missed most flops, draws weren't coming in, no sets flopping, etc. It was a miracle I was up at all... All that turned around at the wynn as the draws came in and huge pots came my way. I hit quads early on which really set the tone, made the right calls on a few hands which came in, and a huge draw on a nut flush against a made straight and suddenly I was up 300 and the table was backing down to me. Unfortunately I got a little big headed and ran off 130 of that trying to "ride the wave" before hitting a few hands at the end of the day and running up to +418 for a nice 6 hour session.

In the middle of that day we went over to the Wynn Buffet as I had two free buffet comps there, and WOW was that a good buffet. Some amazing creamed mushrooms, buttered carrots, salmon, awesome prime rib... just great! I would definately recommend it again!

Brune blows through town

Oh boy... I always forget how crazy a few days with Ken can be, and how people who don't live in Vegas have to do EVERYTHING right now... sleep is for the plane ride home.

Ken got in Sunday afternoon and was staying at the Venetian so I met them over there after they finished lunch. We played there for a little while before decided to head downtown for the best blackjack in town as well as cheaper food. It turned out downtown was awesome! A great microbrewery, some awesome blackjack and craps games, and some amazingly cool old-style vegas entertainment.

Downtown Vegas is a very interesting place. They have setup the "Fremont Street Experience" which is a very nice road (which noone is allowed to drive on) with vendors and entertainment, a light show and musc. Add in all the lights and glitter from all the casinos littering the corners and it was very entertaining. I really like it a lot.

Downtown was good to us for awhile, and the beer at Main Street was AWESOME. Unfortunately we found Binions and a great single deck, 3/2 game with a 25 dollar min and the dealer proceeded to lay the beatdown on me and Ken pretty serious like. Unfortunately Binions wiped us out and we hung around a few more places until around 10 and we headed back to the Venetian so Ken could get some more money, and played there until around 1 AM before hitting the sack. The plan the next day was to play the 9:30 AM at Paris so we needed our rest.

Unfortunately Ken's roommate had to be at the conference at 7 AM so he was up at 6 and I couldn't sleep so I didn't get asleep until 3. So we were both exhausted and tapped out of the Paris tournament early. We decided to hit the Ballys 11 AM but there was only one seat left. I took it and Ken played blackjack. He was up 400 at BJ and I managed to take 3rd thanks to an INSANE outdraw. I get KQ on the bigblind with only 8500 total (4000 is the big blind), a min raise from UTG and I have to call with only 4500 behind. He flips up KK for a massive hand and me drawing so slim it wasn't even funny. The flop is J/10/9 for the nut straight. No Q and I take the whole pot and cruise into 3rd place.

After that and some craps I drop Ken at the Venetian for a nap and I head home to rest up. I managed to get an hour nap or so before we headed back out on Monday night. A quick trip to Circus Circus, Rivieara, the Wynn and Frontier managed to net me 700 for the day and a 2 AM bedtime again. Unfortunately for Ken, he went to the Strat without me and got crushed so he was cruising around at down 1500.

We agreed to sleep in on Tuesday morning as we were both tired... My version of sleeping in was till around 2... Ken's was till about 10 AM before he was back down gambling it up. I met up with him and Kevin at TI around 5 after getting tickets to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton then we headed over to there.

Now I don't get motion sickness very bad, but some people do... If you do, avoid the motion rides (DUH!) which Startrek is. I loved every minute of it... the history museum on the way into the theatre, and the live action actors acting out the scenes before the motion ride at the end... They have the Klingon one and the Borg one and I of course had to do both of them.

We ended up playing until 4 AM at the Hilton with me hitting a massive craps run at the end to finish up 900, and Ken catching some monster cards at the blackjack table to pull back to down only a grand. A funny story on the way to the buffet :)

Kevin and I are starving, so we are heading to the buffet. While we are waiting to cashout Ken sits down at a roulette table and wins his first bet... So he tells us he will meet us at the buffet in a minute. Needless to say 45 mins later the buffet is closed, and we are ken-less still. Bruneville was rocking the blackjack tables when we got out, and had managed to acquire a comp to the paradise cafe so he could eat later.