Bald Eagle Poker

Happy new Year

2009-01-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all! It has been one heck of a ride in 2008 and I am looking forward to the new year with some new plans and new changes.

Quick update on where things are.. not a lot of details because well, I don't want to share too many :)

- Job is going well. Work is well, work. Gotta be done, but not to bad.
- Married life is not going as well. Estie and I are seperated and she will be moving back to jacksonville in February most likely.
- Sports betting is the devil!
- Poker is well.. poker. Still the love of my life, but god I hate her at times.

On to new news... Harrahs has started a combined promotion that was too good to pass up.

Every day when you play between 8-11 AM or 6-9 PM they give you a certificate. If you come back within 24 hours, you get 10% of your buy-in back (max $30). So if you play every day between 6-9 PM then every day they pay you $30. Expand that over a month and that is $900 to play poker!

On top of that.. at the end of January if you have played over 50 hours you get a cashback check of $x per hour played. the X is from 2 to 5 depending on how many hours you played. Play 50 hours get $2 per hour (total of $100), play 101 get $4 per hour (total of $404), and it caps out at 126 hours for $599. Making the net promotion of 126 hours and 31 days of poker worth just over $1500. Now since I have a real job.. I won't make 126 hours, but my goal is 76 hours which gets me in the $3 per hour club and hit the everyday thing for a nice profit of just over $1100 on top of what I make playing!

I started out on this quest January 1st putting in right at 5 hours and up $700. An excellent start and far exceeded my expectations. I manged to flop 3 sets, ending in 3 boats, and 3 large pots. I am amazed at what people will pay off with. Unfortunately for me.. this lesson didn't hold as I did well for a few days before degenerating into a "I am smarter than you" pissing contest which ended in me being stacked by a guy with top pair, top kicker on a Q high, 3 spade, straight possible board. Technically he SHOULD have folded for his whole stack with something as weak as top pair.. but he didn't. I am still up $600 over 6 days which is perfectly acceptable ($100 a day would be just over 3 grand in profit for a month. I can live with that). I just have to remember the situations where they pay me off with monsters and NOT try to force stuff.

Monday night we had a nice little Omaha 8/B 4-8 limit game going to break up the no-limit grind so I jumped in and after 3 hours turned a $25 dollar profit. Hardly life changing, but it was fun and I didn't lose. So hard to argue with it.

One funny hand from the first day. I flop a set of 5's, turn a boat on a queen high board. I check raised the guy on the turn and he called. On the river an Ace hits and I pushed all-in for about $150 into a $300 pot. This guy things for awhile and eventually says you must have flopped a set of 5's and turned the boat. Now I was shocked he had such a good read on it, and a bit disappointed as I was sure he would fold now he had put me on my EXACT hand. Then he called. This guy will be dangerous one day when he learns to fold the 2nd best hand...

Another fun hand that demonstrates it isn't about your cards but about the story you are telling. In this case, the story was unintentional. Flop comes down K66 two spades and I have 6/7 of hearts. Bunch of players in the hand as it was limped and early position leads out. I called in middle position and everyone else folded (not what I wanted but oh well). Turn is the 3rd spade, original bettor now checks and my read is he is scared of that spade, so I bet. He calls. The river is the 4th 6. Now he leads out and I reraised him all-in which he instantly called. The funny thing about this hand is I had firmly represented hitting the flush and then being an idiot (noone with a flush should reraise on a board with 3 6's on it). I didn't MEAN to represent the flush.. but the reality was I did by accident and that was the nail in his coffin. If he thought I had a 6 he would never have bet into me, but thinking I hit the flush on the turn meant he was sure his King for the fullhouse was good.

Back to the casino tonight for a few more hours of poker, see if we can go back to no-limit and start the winning back up.

Life lessons

2008-10-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

Do you have feel like you do the same things in life over and over again in numerous aspects? When I do something for the first time I research it to death, make sure I do as good a job as I can at it, and am very focused on what I am doing. In general when I do those things I succeed. This is in and of itself a marvelous thing... however once I do something and succeed at it I either get overconfident or lackadaisical and then start to suck at it.

It happens in poker, sports betting and in life and it leads to a rather vicious cycle of succeeding at something, then failing, then re-analyzing and succeeding again, etc.

Sports betting has gone into the failing cycle as I was/am becoming very confident and betting on too many games in too many ways. The end result is an 8 day losing streak that really sucks! The good news is it has been counter-balanced by a good run in poker where I have re-analzyed my play and really improved. I have started to play more within myself and wait for my spots. I managed to cash back to back tournaments last week and have been doing very well at the cash games.

The one thing I have really improved on is quitting. Giving up on a hand when I THINK I am beat but don't want to be (a big problem I have... I want to win the hand, even though I know I am losing). Also, a huge part of poker is confidence and when you are playing with a lot of confidence the other people believe you.

In the past 2 weeks I made a guy lay down QQ on a 9 high no flush, no straight board as he was 100% sure I had flopped a set. I thought he had AK and my 5 I hit was good... the reality was it didn't matter because I had a HUGE amount of confidence in my hand and he believed me. Another hand I made a woman lay down the same exact hand I did, simply by believing my hand was better. (actually made the same lady lay down basically the same hand as I had twice in less than an hour).

The key to just about everything in life is confidence, confidence in yourself, confidence in your play, confidence in your decisions. Many times your decisions are poor... but even then if you have confidence in them and keep your head about you you can turn poor decisions (such as pushing all in with 4-5 suited on a 9-5-2 board against Q-Q) into good results. Then you just have to keep yourself from getting OVER confident which is the fine line I have to walk and one which is (and probably always will be) a challenge for me. So far I have been keeping over-confidence out of my poker game, and I have to keep focused on that. I also have to remember that even though I may know more about poker and in fact be a better player than them.. I don't have to show them that EVERY hand.. it is ok to let a few get away, pick your spots as they say.

2008-10-02T16:01:00.001-07:00

I have been playing a little more poker lately with a couple of runs at the trasure island tournament and a couple of Venentians. My last venetian I went really deep but just missed the money finishing 28th out of 140 but they paid 18.

I played exceptionally well and patient, except for one thing. When I have a good hand but a bad flop I WANT to win the pot. I just couldn't back off the hand and ended up giving away a lot of chips. At the 3rd break I had 15K and I had given away 20K just because I wanted to win the chips.. I can be so patient pre-flop picking my spots, and staying out of trouble. Then I get into a hand and all that goes out the window.

I played Treasure Island on Wednesday night and did much better, keeping my nose clean and riding some nice conservative play (and a nice suckout with 22 vs AA) into the final table and a 4 way chop. Add this in with a nice win in the cash game this past weekend and I finished this week up. Been awhile since that happened and hopefully I can keep it rolling this weekend.

Sports betting is going well as well, hitting 3 out of 4 second halves and only missing the Neworleans 2nd half on a stupid late FG when they were trying to run out the clock and "accidently" got into FG range and kicked it.

I have started watching for a very specific 2nd half situation which is cashing at a monsterous rate. Large favorites who are trailing at the half, this bet has been super-money so far and I expect it to continue. It isn't a surpise for a big favorite to lose, but they normally find a way to come back and make it close. Perfect examples this past weekend Oakland led SD 15-0. SD was a 9 pt favorite. I got SD -7 for the 2nd half.. no way Oakland beats SD by more than a TD, they might end up winning by 3, but SD *IS* going to come back. Same thing on the Dallas/Washington game.

Looking forward to a big weekend of Poker at the venetian and some nice football. GOO ALABAMA! I want a rematch in the SEC championship game bitches!

Hilton Football and TI Poker

2008-09-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

The weekend started off with a nice day at Treasure Island. I love the BBQ Cobb Salad at their buffet, not to mention good Sushi and BBQ. The tournament didn't go well, getting knocked out early. I only really played 3 hands.

AQ vs AK early losing some of my chips, then just sitting and folding while the blinds went up and up and up finally waiting for a hand and get AA in the SB. The table had been very loose agressive so I was waiting for the raise with 3 callers to push over the top. It is FOLDED to me in the SB, the only time ALL night it folded to the blinds. I raised and the BB folded.. whee.

Finally down to 2000 chips with blinds at 100-200 I saw a good chance to get some chips when 6 limpers to me in the SB with 6-8 suited. I pushed and got called by 55. Flop is 4 to the flush but a 5. In an appropriate ending to my tournament the turn paired the board to leave me drawing dead, while the river gave me my flush for a wasted catch.

On Sunday I went down to the Hilton to check out their sports book and Sunday NFL party. I have only one thing to say about that.. OH MY GOD! Now first of all we are talking a 1000 seat theatre with every game on, free crap give-aways, $2 beer and $1 hotdogs. Now if that wasn't absolutely wonderful... I then found a seat in the real sportsbook which was SOOO much more comfortable, much less crowded and the drinks were FREE! I noticed in the TI and Ceaser's sportsbook last week that the drinks were free there as well.. must be a new thing in Vegas, and I LIKE IT! How much better does it get than Free Beer, Comfortable seats, all the games on TV, and a waitress bringing you the beers! I got and held onto my seat through both the 1 PM and 4 PM games before heading home up slightly from betting there.

Overall betting was mediocre this weekend ending it up just a tad with an AWFUL day in College (I think I picked too many games as I had 16 games and 2 teasers going) but got it all back in the pros even tho I lost my biggest bet of the day with Cincy tanking it vs Baltimore.

Tonight I have to work but am keeping an eye on the games on ESPN. I like Minny and the under in the early game and Oakland in the late game.

baseball picks today are on Cincy and Arizona.

Let's get caught up

2008-09-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have been SERIOUSLY slacking lately with a lot of things. So let's get caught up and back on track.

1) New job - Going well, working in an office now. Getting paid regularly is nice and having weekends off is AWFUL nice.

2) Online Poker - Going great have run my $5 free money up over $650. I have won several big 180 person tournaments and am rolling right along.

3) Live poker - For some reason I just can't seem to win anything. Tournaments, cash games, everything goes bad. I just don't get it... Part of it is impatience, but part of it is just plain bad luck. I got knocked out of the Venetian tournament on Saturday after flopping a flush against 2 pair. We both have 7200 in chips with the blinds at 25/50. Early position makes it 500, this guy makes it 1500. I put him on a set, as he had limped pre-flop and the board was Ace high, or potentially AK with the K of diamonds but seemed rather unlikely. So I pushed. He called with 2 pair and his boat rolled right off on the turn. I just don't get how you call a 7200 chip bet with 2 pair on a 3 diamond board, WTF did he think I had! He even said "I think you flopped a flush but I have outs if you did". Sheesh... I will give it some more attempts this weekend to find the right mix of tournaments.

Now for some new stuff. I have gotten back into sports betting with a new adjusted Reverse Line movement system and some additional resources that have done fairly well. Doing $50 bets I managed to clear a little over $1300 in the first weeks, so liking it so far :)

Here are tonights bets: (now that I wrote them down it will surely lose)

MLB:
OAK vs BAL - OAK +100
PHI vs NYM - PHI +117
KC vs CLE - KC +125
ARI vs LAD - LAD -128
Chicago Cubs -145

WNBA:
Conn -9.5
NY Over 158.5
PHX under 177
LA +2 1H
LA/SA under 143.5

College Football:
Navy under 61.5

Finally... I am looking at getting a new mode of transportation. Something other than the nice reliable Camry that has gotten me this far...

http://www.bikez.com/pictures/suzuki/2005/21384_0_1_2_sv%20650%20s_Image%20credits%20-%20Suzuki.jpg

I am going to go in a few weeks to take a safety course and get my license, then go out for some test drives.. little nervous but excited! There isn't a better place in the world to ride a motorcycle that Vegas. Lots of backroads, easy parking for bikes, no rain, etc... can't wait.

TV and Poker together at last

2008-03-19T09:12:00.001-07:00

With the writers strike TV pretty much sucked... and with the difficulty in getting money into online poker it also pretty much sucked. Well that has turned around a little.

TV has picked up some with BattleStar Galactica restarting for its final season in April (catching up with Season 3 on DVD right now.. WOO!). Just for the record the 4th episode of Season 3 may very well be the best SciFi episode of a TV show I have ever seen. I was actually tearing up when Adama started his "It has been an honor to serve with you" speech.

American Idol has restarted and BAH! These people suck! I can barely even stomach half the final 12 singing and the other half don't make me want to spend a dollar on Itunes for a song much less a real album.

Dancing with the stars is also back and I have always enjoyed this show, but even more so this year since Shannon Elizabeth is on there. Shannon is an avid poker player for those who don't know, and is semi-decent but not really GOOD. She played at the world series last year in several events and was at my tables a few times. We had some nice conversations about Allergies and dry air (I know.. I am smooth), and she turned out to be fairly nice. I am excited to see someone I have actually had a conversation with on Dancing with the Stars. On a related note.. I watched American Pie again and now it is just wierd, I thought she was super-hot when I saw her the first time on there... but now that I have seen her in Jeans and a pony tail she is just like any other girl. It really makes you realize how much the camera/makeup make a difference on these people.

My Dad is off on the Apalachian trail just passing the 1 month mark. He is expecting to finish it in about 5-6 months and so far so good. His trip history is on his website www.piperhiker.com and it is a really good read. I am going up with Estie to see him at the end of May and I wish him the best of luck and know we are all pulling for him.

I have been continuing my online tournament effort and managed to cash in 6 more multi-table tournaments including a 3rd in a 180 person tourney, I also cashed another 180, a few 45's and have run my total on there up to 240+. Not a bad run up from $5.

I took my newfound tournament skills to the Venetian on Sunday for the $150 and managed to outlast 10 of the 117 players before getting knocked out pushing all-in against Quad's. Would you believe I thought he would fold? yeah turned out he won't fold Quads.

I played the 4/8 Omaha H/L game for awhile afterward and ran it up to up almost 200 before I decided to change seats. The guy who took my seat went on to win about 400 more while I proceeded to lose all I had won and cash out just barely above even. Luck of the draw I know.. but it sucks.

Estie is heading to Florida for a week with her friends.... so I am going to be a poker playing fool while she is gone in a valiant effort to allay my grief over her being gone for SOOOO long. I just hope that I can survive :) I will surely miss her, but I know she will have a great time and I will live through it (I hope)

Quick Update

2008-03-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well... been a month or so since I updated so let me give everyone the scoop. I have been hitting the 4/8 at the Bellagio about two to three times a week and playing pretty well. One bad session on a Saturday where I couldn't hit anything and they could cost me $600. (Yes.. I really lost 600 dollars in a 4/8 game), but a few 400-500 winning sessions brought it back up to the positive.

Work has made it tough to play during the week and weekends are so crazy sometimes.... I wish I could play more.

AllVegasPoker (www.allvegaspoker.com) had an inviational tournament last weekend and Estie (being a member) and me (being a lurker) went and played. She was out early but I finished in the money in 5th out of 36 for a 50 dollar profit.. not much but a start. I won $110 earlier in the day at 4/8 so bring my total for the year to a meager, but positive +620.

A month or so ago PokerStars gave me $5 for free... just enough to tease me back to their site, blah blah blah. So I decided to take them up on it and go play the 2 cent/4 cent tables. What better way to practice against suckout artists than there! Well I played for 6-7 hours over 3 days total and managed to run that up to $8.67. Not a bad run... at 4/8 that would have been over 700 dollars.

I wanted to work on my tournament game some as I felt like I was having issues adjusting to the tournaments now. I saw a 25 cent 4,000 person tourney so I gave it a shot and then I also noticed a few $1 tourneys, so lets rock em out and see what happens. Well low and behold I manage to win one of the 45 person $1 tourneys for $14 and decided to reinvest in a $4+$0.40 180 person tournament. Well bingo again 6th place (could have been much better but I have an issue I will tell you about later) and another $36 to end the day up to $41 dollars from $8.

The next day I went back and played that same $4.40 tourney again as well as the 25 cent 4K person and a few $1. I took a first and a second in the 45 person $1 tourneys and ANOTHER 6th in the 180 person $4.40. the 25 cent I went out in 400 and something out of 4,000 for 53 cents! Oooohhh baby.

Well after all is said and done my $5 has turned into $87 and I am improving dramatically at the tournaments...

I still have a few issues...

1) Not calling with big hands against bigger hands. Stuff like AK shrinks down real small against 3 all-ins.

2) Not tangling with the other big stacks.

3) Changing my game when the game changes. Several times I was cruising along, picking up blinds, pushing people off hands when the bubble bursts and they start playing back at me.

4) Not getting too creative too early. NOONE folds for the first 2-3 blind levels. So you have to sit back and be OK with folding... wait till the money means something after the first break when Antes kick in... then go after the money.

5) Steal with a hand I don't like. Most of the time when I raise I don't want/expect a call. If I *DO* get a call then I might as well have 2/3 instead of A/7. At least I won't get attached to my Ace or want to call the all-in if I get reraised.

6) Pay attention to the stacks, don't raise to 5500 when a short stack has 6500 and can snap on you. Keep your options open!

All in all improving and growing... time to step it up this weekend with the Friday night at Ceaser's for $150 and some 4/8 at the bellagio. See if I can make a little money to keep the momentum going.

Valentines Poker

2008-02-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday was the annual "Partners Tournament" at Ceaser's. Estie and I played this last year and it was a lot of fun. You play 40 minute levels with each of you playing 20 minutes of it, from the same chips. So if you lose chips your partner has fewer to play with than when they left. Estie and I both played very well but we got outdrawn on a big hand and card dead the rest of the time meant we were out fairly early when QQ lost to KQ.

This tournament is a lot of fun to watch the interaction of couples trying to play poker from the same chips... You have girlfriends who are so afraid to lose the chips their boyfriend got them they won't ever play a hand, then you have guys coming to the table and trying to get a bunch of chips playing over aggressive. Not to mention friends playing together changing their play styles to not get knocked out since they are playing for their friend as well. It is a lot of fun.

When we were not taking our turn in the tournament we took our turn in the no-limit cash game. I figured out what my problem was in no-limit... I just need to get pocket Kings 5 times, Aces 3 times in a 7 hour period and I will be up for the day :) My Kings got cracked twice both times when I had a set. The tournament had a $230 buy-in and after 7 hours of no-limit Estie and I were up a combined $230. Coincidence? I swear we did not plan it that way! It just happened when we got to the cashier.

We started the day off with a lovely buffet at the Bellagio. It was very good, but we have to get Line passes next time, that hour wait was brutal. We then finished the night with a nice steak dinner at the Victorian Room at Bill's. It isn't going to win any awards for best steak, but it is pretty solid and the service was good as was the price. All in all a lovely valentine's day a few days early.

Monday and Tuesday are Estie's night out with the girls for their Ladies tournaments. I get to catch up some with my Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek, play some PoxNora and Warcraft and relax. Wednesday through Sunday we will probably be at the casino again.

Bankroll is up over 1000 now, and not having to use any of it for bills is awful nice! I want to get a few more wins under my belt and them move up to 8-16 at the Bellagio. The game looks less passive but still very very loose. I want to grind up to a 4K bankroll then settle in at 15-30 for awhile.

Bellagio poker room

2008-02-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

It is absolutely amazing to me how one of the biggest poker rooms in vegas can be so absolutely awful. The Bellagio is the biggest room in Vegas sporting about 35 tables and is constantly sold out. They also sport the biggest games and the best action. However the room is crowded, the cocktail service is absymal, the waiting list is kept on a piece of paper (no electronic list), the paging system is a microphone which only works in the poker room, no comps, table felts are old and need repair. It is just absolutely amazing that a room of this nature is run this poorly... On the other hand their main competition the Wynn has nice electronic lists, you can get on from your room, you can get a pager and wander the casino (and therefore lose MORE money while waiting), best cocktail service in vegas, etc... So why play at the Bellagio? I will give you one reason, the players are AWFUL!

Most poker players are stuck up ego-maniacs. They won't play somewhere where they don't feel like they are the center of the universe. The Wynn makes them feel this way. The Bellagio does not. So what you get at the Bellagio are the players who don't know any better, while all the educated good players go to the Wynn. The Wynn games therefore are much tougher than the Bellagio games, so I suck it up, put my ego in my pocket and play the Bellagio.

On to some Poker. A nice 5 hour session at the Bellagio in 4/8 went very well. I felt I played almost as good as I could, 2 minor mistakes in 5 hours is an acceptable mistake rate. The cards weren't amazing, I only flopped 1 set in 5 hours, didn't really get any big draws in big pots. I did play the hands to their maximum value and my A's (twice) and K's (once) held up to avoid getting cracked. I ended the night up 430. I look back at the session and realize I didn't really get any extraordinary hands.. I just played the hands I was winning to the maximum and got out of the hands I was losing. Played hands in position where I knew where I was, and could control the pot... it was a masterful session if I do say so myself. I realized towards the end the table had NO idea how I was winning. One guy commented how lucky I was getting and how I always hit the flop (despite the fact I fold most hands after the flop), and another guy commented that I was playing so loose (despite the fact I played very few hands). I only raised premium hands and only showed down premium hands yet I would raise A's and get 7 callers. They would then fold on the flop just donating to the pot with no chance of winning.

How did I never Valet before?

2008-02-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

The Bellagio self-park is located off the strip and is at the opposite end of the casino from the poker room. So I asked around to some poker friends and found out there was a north valet located off of Flamingo. I thought I would give it a try and WOW! It is about a 2 minute walk to the poker room, they take your car, and bring it back for free... just give them a little tip and bingo! So now I valet everywhere! it is so amazing! I can't believe I never did it before!

On the poker side of the news, I played the bellagio on Thursday night hitting up the 4/8 for 3 hours. They say that if a bad player hits good cards he can have a good day and win some money, especially in 4/8 which is basically a showdown game. However if a good player gets good cards, watch out. He will run over a table! Well I had one of those days... good cards, good flops, no suckouts. Just killed the table up 330 in 3 hours. It was absolutely sick. I just couldn't miss...

Friday night however was a whole different story, bad cards, bad flops. When the good cards came someone else was coming out better. I flopped flush over flush, 2 pair over 2 pair, set over straight, etc. To top it off, I was getting frustrated at the stupid people and I left my ipod at home. So I was pushing trying to make something happen and forcing hands that I had no business being in. So I dropped 350 in about 4 hours before Ifinally managed to straighten out my game, played better and won 250 of it back before cashing out at about 12:30 AM for a net loss of 95.

It just goes to show that in the long term the better player WILL win, you just have to not get sucked into the short term results. Heading back out to the bellagio again and we will see if I can maintain my focus.

Back on the wagon (again)

2008-02-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since my last post between Christmas, New Years, new job, old job, etc... I have been so busy and so distracted to say the least.

Let's talk about Poker first. I don't know if I will ever make the cut with no-limit and tournament poker. I don't know why, but i think there are parts of my personality and background that make backing down and accepting someone else has me beat as hard. I just feel like they are stupid (and they are) and I should win... it doesn't really work that way.

Limit poker on the other hand has a lot of math to it. When I can apply mathmatics and not emotion to the game it makes all the difference. So it is back to limit for me.

In the past 6 weeks I have played about 25 hours of 4/8 Limit and am up 475 dollars.

I have also played no-limit once, and 3 tournaments... Lost every time down 400 total.

So I am going to stick to limit, planning to move up to 8/16 in the next week or two and keep grinding away.

On the positive side, my wife is awesome at tournaments and doesn't have the ego I have... even though she is winning them left and right including a 3rd place finish in a 500 dollar buyin event at Binions which took home 3.5K. This was a huge deal as a good portion of the field was pro's including Kenna James, Barbara Einright (first woman at the WSOP final table), Chip and Karina Jett, and many others who I didn't know... it was one tough tourney let me tell you. 11 hours and she was out 3rd. I couldn't be prouder of her, and she really made an impact there and got a lot of notice.

The job is going very well, I moved from a contract to perm position into full time on Feb 1st. There is still no real Las Vegas office so I am working at home which is pretty nice I must admit. On top of that I also got a nice 6% payraise during my move to perm. I have to admit it is pretty nice not to have to worry about paying the bills anymore, that is definately taken care of now with both of us working. A big change from neither of us really working a year ago.

Smoking Sammy

2007-10-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well, the poker world is turning around a little. After 3 straight quick losing sessions (totalling about 600 down in less than 3 hours), I pulled 2 nice sessions in a row up 700 in 2 nights over about 8 hours. Add in a few sports bets which went well and thinks are looking up. Neither of the sessions were memorable just solid poker with very few all-ins. A good table image plus picking up some unclaimed pots, and milking the few good hands for a nice profit made all the difference.

I proceeded to the Palms on Monday to place my NHL bets for the day (NYR and the over, TOR and the over, and Broncos and the over). The Palms used to spread only 2-5 NL and it was a pretty vicious expensive game. I walked by and they had a 1-3 with 300 max buy-in... sweet. I pulled out 200 and sat down. Right away I pick up Q9 and hit 2nd pair. My read says the guy is full of shit, and I should reraise... however 3 players behind me, one of which was already in the process of calling convince me to just call. The turn gives me 2 pair and I reraise the early position better all-in, turns out he was betting his gutshot and 2 overs, and hit it with MY Queen... down 1 buy-in already.

Buy-in for 200 again and get Q/10 flop is QJ9, checked to me... I bet 25, call from the button, SB raises to 49 and all-in. Freaking 1 dollar means I can't reraise and have to just call. River gives me a straight when the king hits and I dodge a club on the river. However button called a pre-flop raise with 10/6 offsuit and splits the pot with me...

I build back up to 500 and call 15 pre-flop with pocket 4's. Flop a 4 on a 2 heart board and early position maniac leads out for 15, call from UTG and I pop it to 100. Folded back around and "Smoking Sammy" as I later found out he calls himself, calls. Turn is a blank and I make it 200 more. He insta-calls with about 75 left behind. River is of course a heart and he pushes.. .I call and he had 10/8 of hearts for a small flush. I couldn't believe it..... I looked at him and he shrugged and said "They call me smoking sammy because I am running hot. I never fold flush draws". OMG! Then he racked up and left exclaiming how he was up for the day now. I can't imagine how he ever got DOWN! Sheesh.

Back down to 75 or so... top off for 200 more, double up one more time when I hit 2 pair on a J89 flop and get put all-in by J4. Cashed out and went to pick up Estie from work and go to work myself.

Winds of change and progress

2007-10-29T10:47:00.001-07:00

When I moved out to vegas, I was single, focused, and had a firm plan in place. My intention was to cut my expenses to the bone, live a frugal lifestyle and poker it up. Unfortunately things didn't line up like I wanted... My house in Atlanta didn't sell, when it did sell it sold for less than I owed on it. My credit cards were not completely paid off. To top it all off, the woman I was in love with was back in Atlanta and I was miserable in Vegas without her.

It happens often, that the best laid plans have to change, and so it is in this case. I started working more and more in the casino as a dealer and supervisor just to keep up with the bills and had less and less time to play. On top of that I was working a lot harder for a lot less money than I had in my previous career. Top it off with the fact that I had almost no time with my wife since I was working nights and she was working days. It was just time for a change.

A week ago I got offered a job as a Configuration Engineer for a local company and accepted. I am a little nervous because I have been out of the business for over a year. If this all works out I will be a lot more settled in and can get back to playing poker. I will have nights and weekends free, be unburdened by major financial constraints, and be able to leave my bankroll to poker and not worry about playing to pay bills.

At some point in the future if I end up with a good bankroll, and a years worth of bills maybe Estie and I can pursue a year of poker and travel together.... for now, lets just focus on eating and playing.

Of course, as soon as I accept this job offer, another one pops out of the closet when the configuration manager at Estie's company up and quits. DANG! I could have had a V-8! Or that job at least... but it is probably better if our eggs aren't in the same basket. I am looking forward to getting paid holidays and paid vacations again.

Lawson's Losers

2007-10-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well... Football started again and Georgia sucks again. We barely beat vandy, we got crushed by UT who are also awful... but apparently not as awful as we are. The offensive juggernaut and the great defense we had are gone. BAH! I barely want to watch it. Of course I still do :(

2 weeks ago I ran across a new parlay card at the Imperial Palace where you could pick 12 teams and if you got 10 right you got paid 6 to 1, 11 right 60 to 1, and all 12 right 1400 to 1. So I of course tossed down 5 dollars to win 7,000 dollars and prompty went 3 for 12. I then went and did it again next week and got 3 for 12 AGAIN and tacked on a 5 team parlay that went 0 for 5. So a combined 6 for 29 in 2 weeks... My new plan is i will write down what teams I think will win, and then everyone else can break the sports book by betting against them.

NFL games:

ARI @ WAS (-8) - Arizona has no QB, Washington has been on a roll. Should be an easy cover for the Redskins.

ATL @ NO (-9) - Atlanta is due to win eventually and I think this is the week. New Orleans finally busted out last week for a real game and I don't think they can do it again. Atlanta covers and probably wins.

MIN @ DAL (-9.5) - Dallas at home against a rolling Viking team. Dallas is coming off their crushing against the Patriots. I expect Dallas to win but keep it close. Minnesota loses but covers the 9.5

NE @ MIA (+16.5) - I refuse to bet against the Patriots until they show me why I should. This line could easily be 25 and not be too much. New England rolls Miami and covers easily.

CHI @ PHI (-5) - I don't think Chicago's DEF can stop anyone now. Too many injuries and too many issues. Take PHI and the over.

STL @ SEA (-9) - Bad team vs bad team, but STL is the worse team. SEA has been good at times this year and this will be one of them. SEA big.

IND @ JAX (+3) - Indy is coming off the bye week and is ready to face up the Patriots undefeated. 3 pts is a piddling, take Indy and the over.

NCAA Football

South Florida @ Rutgers (+2.5) - Rutgers is at home, but USF is my parents alma mater and are rolling. I bet against them once, I won't make that mistake again. They cover easily.

Vandy @ South Carolina (-13) - South Carolina manages to keep almost every game close, and Vandy is better than people thing. SC wins, but it is close. Take Vandy to cover.

USC @ Notre Dame (+18) - USC is vastly over rated, and injury plagued. ND sucks, but not 18 pt bad sucks. Take ND to cover.

Florida (-7) @ Kentucky - Kentucky is the pretty pick... beat LSU, ranked in the top 10, etc. Florida is off 2 tough losses and is not in a good mood. Florida wins handily.

Auburn @ LSU (-10.5) - LSU is pissed off, Auburn is playing well but not that well. LSU wins by probably 30.

I just want to state for the record GOOOO South Florida. National Championship is coming your way!

Oops... I guess you are in charge now

2007-10-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the move to swing shift at work was a nice change. The money was a lot better and I was really enjoying working 3-4 hours and making the same money I was making in 8 hours on day shift. That lasted all of a week before I came in last friday and got the information that the swing shift supervisor had been fired. He was already on probation and apparently had overstepped the line the last time. I came in friday night expecting to work, and bingo bongo I am in charge. I covered his shift for a week and then on Tuesday was pulled aside by the poker room manager and offered the "interim" shift manager. Basically, it is mine if I don't screw it up... I have 90 days to prove him right. This should make for an interesting ride... Swing shift manager at a poker room on the strip in vegas. Oh boy.

The good news is that the money is pretty decent... the bad news is there is a 3 week delay till I see any of it. 2 week pay cycle and then 1 week delay in paychecks getting cut. So money will be a little tight which has cut down the poker playing until then, but once we get on the cycle it will be much better.

I did get out to play once this week and it was a short lived visit. I got there and not much happened until about an hour in. I limp with Pocket 7's and the flop is A73 of spades. My standard play with a big draw board is wait for a non-scare card on the turn and try to get them off the draw. 1-2 NL players just don't fold with 2 cards to come. They will sometimes fold with 1 card to come... SOMETIMES. Early position leads out, myself and 2 others call making the pot 50 dollars to the turn with 4 players. Turn is a red queen and early position checks. I bet 35 into the 50 dollar pot (my fairly standard 2/3 pot size bet on the turn) and the guy to my left raises to 135. The original flop better calls the 135 bet and I put him on a big spade probably the K or Q or spades. I figure AK or AQ with the K or Q of spades. I push all-in for my last 35 and both players call. At this point I figure made flush to my left, big flush draw to my right, and I need the board to pair. River doesn't pair the board and the cards go over. The reraiser to my left shows pocket 3's for a flopped set, I show my flopped set of 7's, and the original bettor shows pocket Q's for the turned set of Q's. I am stacked and headed home for the night.... I don't feel bad about how I played it. If it had been A73 rainbow I would have slow played it... Flopped set on non-scary board is instant slow-play. I was getting the right odds to draw to a full house with 3 players in the hand.

Football Poker and a rollercoaster

2007-09-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Lots of changes over here in Las Vegas. Football season has started and already my bulldawgs have dropped a game to the evil Steve Spurrier and his SC Gamecocks. I am really concerned about their offense, and even though Matt Stafford has all the skills I just don't know if he can put it all together. I won't even discuss the Atlanta Falcons... I think it is time I picked a new pro football team to follow. Maybe I should pick one based on the colors of their jerseys, it seems to work better than following the falcons!

Some good news on the job front. I got a semi-promotion (more a lateral move) to a dual rate position in swing shift. I now work 6 PM to 2 AM with Wednesdays and Thursdays off. The money on swing is much better than on days which is nice. It also provides me with the chance to watch football before work which is awful relaxing. The negative side of it is pretty huge though as I don't get to see Estie as much and poker time is really withered down to about 2 days a week.

Poker has been going better as well, I had a nice run of 3 great days and was up about 1500, turned around and dropped a bunch back but am still ahead for the month. I had a nice little run of 3 hands on Saturday afternoon where I got pocket 10's in back to back hands and flopped back to back sets. I ended up taking a big chunk from the 1 seat on the first set, then the rest of his chips on the 2nd set. The next hand I got pocket 7's in the BB and 1 limper and the same 1 seat raises to 15. I fold not wanting to play a small pocket pair OOP in a small pot against a pre-flop raiser. The flop was of course a 7 and I would have stacked him AGAIN. Instead another girl stacked him and he left the table after dropping 500 dollars in 3 hands. Luckily for me she held onto the chips for awhile and gave them all to me when I rivered a flush in a 900 dollar pot. I will never understand why people bet 25 dollars into a 200 dollar pot and then 300 when the flush hits. Please Please continue to give me odds to draw to my flush, and then dump money in the pot when I have my made hand. I read some about it in the books, players feel threatened by a scare card hitting the board and get more aggressive to combat that threat. It makes much more sense NOT to fight... but human nature is to fight back. That is what makes poker so difficult to master... so much of it is counter to human nature.

Slow start, but a start nonetheless

2007-07-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

I started out on my return to 4/8 with a short foray at the Venetian. It took 5 hours to get started (maybe I shouldn't go at noon on a wednesday), but when it did it was REALLY good, and I felt extremely comfortable. I had forgotten how comfortable I was at 4/8 when I played last year and how uncomfortable I felt at 1/2 NL. I only played for an hour or so, but was up 85 and very happy with my start.

A few days later I went for my first "targetted" night out at 4/8. It was a thursday night and I had to decide where the good games were going to be. After my experience at the Venetian I decided their game selection on non-weekends was very lacking. I knew from my dealer friends at the Rio there 4/8 games were virtually non-existant except on the weekends during the summer months (a habitually slow time for poker). MGM and Station are rock gardens at 4/8 due to the 2/4 sucking up the fish and the fact that a lot of the "regulars" play there. The other harrah casinos don't really offer 4/8. The only places in town that seem to have regular 4/8 going are the Wynn and Bellagio. I picked the Wynn for my first night out since it was easier to get in and out of the parking garage, and their comps are better.

I started out in an immediate hole, a REALLY REALLY big problem I have. I am all excited to play, pumped up with adreneline and ready to make some money. So I immediately start bluffing, and reraising with air. Of course I get called since I have no image at the table and quickly was down 100. I missed a few draws and was down to 50 and then finally started going back up before running into the luck box of a calling station sitting to my right. He hits 2 freaking runner runner draws and ends up stacking me after about 2.5 hours of play. I left a little frustrated... I got some bad luck, but a good portion of it I brought about on myself by overplaying many hands, and trying to get to creative. I have to relearn that 4/8 and limit in general is a game of patience.

I took a few days off to reconsider my play and readdress my bankroll... I went back on wednesday and decided that despite the horrid parking at the Bellagio (The only entrance is on the strip in the middle of Flamingo and Tropicana a horrible place to be on the strip at) the reviews of the games were that they were really good.... so I had to give it a try to judge for myself. Well the games at the B were absolutely amazing. It took me about 30 mins to get in, but the game was insanely good. 7-8 players for 2 bets pre-flop and then 5 of them folding on the flop. I don't know what hands 5 players could have that could not call one bet getting 14 or 16 to 1 on the flop. Any 2 overcards, any gutshot, etc... even back door flush draws with an over should probably call. They folded which meant more dead money to win in the pot and that made the pots huge with few people vying for them. Everyone at the table was for the most part a very simple straightforward player. They bet with top pair, check/called with draws and cold-called with 2nd pair. Bluffing was not an option but winning with top pair seemed to work well. After just 2 hours I was up over 200 and decided not to push my luck and called it a night.

I couldn't have been happier all night having played extremely well, read all the people at the table perfectly, and really established a confidence in my game I had been lacking. I of course HAD to go back the next night. Now this is where I tend to have a problem... confidence from a session of poker is often wrapped up in your image at the table, knowing the players, adjusting to the attitude of the table, etc... None of these things carry over from one session to another... however my attitude didn't change. I hit the table the 2nd night all full of confidence and expected everyone to just roll over. Unfortunately they were not there the night before and didn't realize *I* was suppose to win... and I didn't. I immediately lost 200 in about 45 mins and rebought for 200 more (after all I am exceptionally good at this game and they just have to realize it then I will start winning). I hit a monster hand with set over set and get back to almost even before a few more hands bring me back up over even.... a monster comeback and I am once again on cloud nine. Unfortunately as I was about to leave after about 4 hours of play I got a pretty nasty bad beat and was back down to even.... I didn't want to go home even (it felt like such a waste of time), so I tried to win one more hand to get back up... then I got another bad beat and was down... so now I started to try even harder to win... now I am down 200 and pissed off... so I try even more... now I am down 300 and upset and don't want to admit I lost 300 at 4/8 in an hour.. so I play even more aggressive... now I am down 400 and out of money and have to go home broke. I managed to turn an even or minor win night into a 400 dollar loss without even really breaking a sweat.

It is really very frustrating. It is so painful to just sit there and stew in your misery knowing it is all your fault, and totally under your control but being unable to do anything about it. There is so much self-control in poker and if you don't master your emotions and attitude you can do nothing but lose.

On an even more depressing note... There is only one more week left of my step-daughter's visit for the summer. Clarese is leaving on August 2nd and we are trying to squeze in every last thing we can do before she goes. It is really very sad that she is going to be going home soon.... The house definately won't be the same with just Estie. Noone to tell us what she won't eat and have to get plain cheeseburger's if we try something new so she won't starve (poor child must be from a 3rd world country the way she starves sooo often).

Saturday was a big day for all of us as Clarese had a casting call for a hollywood producer. We aren't getting our hopes up too high as there were a lot of kids there, but she did get a lot of very positive feedback and is very excited about doing more acting auditions and getting her face in front of some cameras.

All in all it has been a rocky start but a good one.... it is a tough job being a poker player, and one which does not really work well when you aren't in the right frame of mind. I swear I may have to look into these mind exercises to relax and put you in the right state of mind. Yoga? meditation? something? who knows...

Time to get this party started

2007-07-19T10:11:00.001-07:00

After a rough 6 months or so where I was trying to figure out how to play no-limit (and failing) and a falling bankroll and mounting bills, I was getting a little bit discouraged. The world series of poker ended yesterday about 4 AM and that got us completely caught up on everything. Now it is time to address this poker issue.

I spent some time thinking on things, and talking to Estie and friends/family. I don't think I am currently able to maintain the level of concentration and insight I need to play no-limit. I have way to big of an ego and way to much of a wandering mind to stay in the no-limit games. Limit I have a mathematical basis for everything I do. I know when I am getting too emotional in the game because the math no longer adds up. I went from averaging 3-4K a month in poker winnings to breaking about even at no-limit.

All this has lead me to a revitalized interest in poker and a drive to get back to playing 4-5 times a week. I have also moved back to Limit poker which means more work at finding good 4-8 and 8-16 games. It looks like at this time the only 8-16 games in town are at the Wynn and Bellagio. And the only reliable 4-8 games are at the Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio and really only in the evenings.

A Smack in the bum

2007-04-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well it is amazing sometimes where and when things will "hit" you. I have been lazy in many ways lately... working close to 40 hours a week has drained me (can you believe I used to work close to 70!) and has really sapped my motivation to do anything other than sit and sleep.

A few pointed comments from new friends and old friends has put me back on the right track. I have moved up to 2/5 NL and had some success with it. I also got a pointed reminder the other night that poker is a J*O*B* and is not for fun.... I had a great time, watched the braves game, the Thrashers playoff game, drank beer, had a great time... and played like a complete moron and lost 700 bucks. (before I had fun, I was up 400 and playing great). It just goes to show that if you are going to turn a hobby into a job, you have to take it seriously!

Work is going well. I finished my training and had my first day alone on the floor on Saturday. It was a piece of cake, no issues at all. I even had a minor fiasco when I had to add a 5th table for the tournament, the tournament clock broke, had to reseat 7 players, and all happened 3 minutes before the tournament was suppose to start. I managed to get the tourney started only 2 minutes late and felt like it was a real success.

I have settled into a bit of a schedule now for both work and poker... Playing on Monday, Wed, Thursday and Friday nights (leaving work early on Mon and Wed to play). So it should keep moving on up now.

Oh yeah... Kelly Johnson is a good 2B? Well call me stupid and slap me in the back of the head... I thought Bobby Cox had gone crazy again... but it turns out he DOES have some ability to recognize talent.

Thug-enomics

2007-02-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

Well, last weekend was the NBA all-star game, Presidents day weekend, Chinese new year and a huge tourism weekend for vegas. Unfortunately the weekend seemed to attract two main types of people... those too rich to gamble who would rather party and be seen... and those too poor to gamble who would rather steal and cause trouble. The end result was a miserable weekend for the gambling based businesses and a lot of trouble for the cops.

I have been playing some poker and doing well until Thursday night at Venetian. I played pretty poorly at times and gave away several hundred dollars just being stupid. Towards the end of the 6 hour session this hand came up. I get 6-9 of hearts on the button and there is a live straddle. 5 callers to me and I call, Straddle raises it to 9, and UTG raised to 20. 2 callers back to me and I call as does the straddle and big blind. The flop is 7/8/10 2 hearts giving me a gutshot straight flush draw and a flopped straight. Straddle bets out 25 into a 100 dollar pot, UTG raises to 50. I make the decision that I am not f'ing around on this and raise to 200. Straddle folds back to UTG who thinks for a minute before pushing all-in. There are only 2 reasonable hands for him to have here... a big pair played very poorly or more like a pocket pair that hit a set. I have virtually the nuts right now and it is 240 more to me and I call making a pot of over 1000 dollars. He turns his hand up to show AK of hearts for the nut flush draw and nothing else. The river is the 2 of hearts putting him on the winning end of a 6 outer for a huge pot.

If that wasn't enough 2 hands later I flop ANOTHER straight and get top pair to put all his money in and he hits runner runner to a boat to end up setting me back 200 for the night. It could have been much worse, but it was setup so perfectly for a huge winning session and it all came crumbling down at the end. It was the largest pot I have ever been in to date... and it was painful to be on the losing end of it.

I have been offered a fulltime dual rate position at work. Dual rate means you are a dealer part of the time and a supervisor part of the time. It gives me a pretty regular schedule and a nice experience for the resume and the future in this town. Right now I will be training on graveyard and the moving over to day shift in a month or so. This will also give me more time to play poker as I will have more of a regular schedule and can actually get adjusted to it instead of jumping all over the place.

For now though... it is graveyard and it is time to go to work.

Valentines Day and Poker

2007-02-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend Estie and I went to Ceaser's to play in a couples tournament. The structure was that we played the same chips and took turns every 20 minutes, and then when we were not playing we took turns playing at a live no-limit table with the same chips. In the end we both played very well for the first 3 hours, but as the blinds got higher and the chips got smaller I ended up making a move from under the gun with J9 suited (btw, probably not what I should have done as Estie will inform you) and got called by A10 and was knocked out.

We ended up finishing 16th out of 86 but they only paid the top 9. It was still a great time and we had a lot of fun playing together. In the cash game nothing spectacular happened as we ended up down $1 for the 4.5 hours we played. About 3 hours into the game a couple extremely drunk guys came in with their friends and played at the game with us. Well one of them was very loud and looked familiar... when someone called him Andy it clicked with Estie that this was Andy Dick sitting next to us offering her a beer... He really isn't that funny when he is completely wasted, but it was fun anyways.

Live games have gone better lately as I have adjusted my game back to a little more patience in it. I have been playing really well about 95% of the time and have had 5 straight winning sessions. However I am still making a few mistakes per day which are costing me a lot of money. It seems to happen after I start winning and relax my game and suddenly I called too many hands with nothing, and made to many reraises with mediocre hands, etc. And suddenly I was up 600 and now am up 400 or was up 400 and now up 150. It is a part of the game I have to adjust and will be working on for awhile.

The check is in the mail

2007-01-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

OK well not exactly a check... but Estie's Green Card (which is apparently Pink) is approved and according to the nice lady she talked to at the INS on Tuesday, January 30th it is "In the mail". They approved it on the spot and sent it off to be printed and sent to us. So in a week or two she will be a card carrying member of the Foreign Elite :)

It is now 3 weeks from January 30th, 2006 when she can apply for citizenship and 21 months when she can get permanent residence. A *HUGE* thank you to everyone who helped in this process as it is a big relief to be done. My mom and Dad, Estie's Mom, Jon, Katherine, and everyone else who went out of their way to make this possible. It is greatly appreciated and we will never forget the kindness and support of everyone in this time.

Thank you again and congratulations to Estie! I personally could not be prouder or happier at this time in my life.

Stepping Up

2007-01-30T20:43:00.000-08:00

It hasn't been a good start to 2007 so far.... I got my second lesson of the year in tilt. After getting my Pocket A's cracked by 5's on the turn I dumped 300 more on the table before rebuilding from 600 down to 50 up. I decided not to leave because there was a drunk/idiot who I wanted to get his money and got sucked out on again for another 300 and then proceeded to dump all of the remaining 400 onto the table for a net loss of 700. Not only was most of it tilt induced... I strongly suspect that the Drunk/idiot was not really as much of an idiot as he played it up to be. He was getting away from an awful lot of big hands and making some marvelous plays with some marginal hands. I left very frustrated and actually stayed away from poker for a few days even though I had time to play.

We had a big tournament at IP this weekend and it got me to thinking about getting my skills up the level where I can compete regularly in those tournaments. First place was only $37,000 which is small for those tournaments but it is definately enough to make a dent in my bankroll! I also spent some time talking to a few of the local pros about moving up, bankroll management, games in town, etc... and made the decision to take a shot at 2/5 No-limit at the Palms. This is a 200 minimum, 1000 max buy-in game. It is higher than I have ever played before but I felt like my game was ready for it as long as I could keep my head about me.

The room at the Palms is nice enough. It is only 10 tables. 6 in one room for the limit games, and 4 in the "High Stakes Room" where they only spread 2-5 no-limit. They had 3 tables going with a list and it stayed that way the entire 5 hours I was there. The bathrooms are right in between the 2 rooms (very convient a huge plus), they serve red bull without charging $5 a can like the station casinos do. The waitresses were nice, and prompt... Dealers were acceptable, if not outstanding. The rake is one of the best I have seen in town with a max $4 rake on a $120 pot and high hands and bad beat. All in all, I understand the reason the word on the street is that Palms is the best 2-5 in town.

The game was pretty good. The stacks were very deep and the play was decent enough to take advantage of. We had a husband/wife team playing in the game and they appeared to be playing together which was a bit disturbing but they left shortly after I sat down. I played very well most of the night... however I misplayed 2 hands badly putting most of my money in when way behind and I should have known it. I dropped 700 on those 2 hands alone, and ended the night only up $426. It could and should have been better... and I never really got any big hands. I felt like I could play this game regularly and beat it for a sizable profit..... So I will definately be back. Especially with their half a million dollar first prize freeroll in June which I only need 300 hours of play to qualify for :)

Year 2006 Summary

2007-01-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

The year of 2006 was not a bad start. I finished with 545 hours played at the poker tables and up $9,794 for an hourly rate of $17.97. Almost 18 dollars an hour and that was with an awful May where I played almost 100 hours of negative poker.

My goal for 2007 is to play 100 hours a month at a win rate of $30.00 an hour. I think this is definately achievable for my continued improvement in the game. I also want to include 1-2 medium size buy-in tournaments each month (100-200 buyins) with deep stacks and slow blind levels. Probably MGM or Ceasers.

I had a good year dealing as well, even though I think I would have been more successful if I had just played poker. Dealing gave me the consistency I needed at that point and has been an enjoyable experience. I plan to remain on the extra board even if a full time position opens up in 2007 to allow me the abilty to continue to do tournaments and cruises. Estie and I have talked and discussed that I will not accept a full time position unless it is a primo spot until after the world series in 2007.

There are 2 Bellagio tournaments I want to do in the first half of 2007, as well as one at Mirage, Mandaly Bay, and possibly the world series again. I also have a cruise to Alaska, Party Poker Million cruise, and back to Mexico in November. All in all, a lot of interesting and enjoyable stuff coming up in 2007 and I have to fit poker in there somewhere :)

November and December were a decent finish to 2007 with only 58 hours and up $1540 for a $26.32 win rate. It was almost exclusively no-limit and I have continued into 2007 the same way. Except for one tilt induced session at Ballys where in just a few hours I dumped 800. Not a good start to 2007, but recoverable.

Oops... My bad.

2007-01-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well the interview at INS was Tuesday morning and we got there at 8:35 for our 8:45 appointment. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and we got a nice friendly gentleman for our officer. He asked a series of questions to verify what we had written down and then only asked for more details/documentation if we didn't have all the answers correct. Unfortunately one of the questions was "When were you divorced from Emily". I didn't know the answer... (Estie did, but that didn't help!) so he then asked for the Divorce Decree... well I hadn't gotten THAT piece of information, and ask such we got the green form. The green form means you have to come back with the extra info before you can get approved.

Other than that, the interview was smooth as silk. We had everything else we needed and it was over very quickly. Once I get that copy and bring it back... we should have Esties conditional residence. If Estie is still putting up with me in 21 months from that date, then she will be given her permanent residence. 3 years from the date of the conditional residence she can apply for citizenship.... So it is fairly well finished at this point... a huge relief for both of us.

We went and celebrated by going to the Spa for the afternoon together. We had a lovely pedicure, wax, facial and a nice relaxing day (I didn't do the facial that is for women!). It was very relaxing and refreshing. Aftewards it was poker time!

Poker went fairly well yesterday with a 4 hour session finishing up 180. It was a quiet controlled day where I was never down, and didn't get many cards to play with. I had to work and grind for everything I got. Today was a different type of day. I immediately went down a full 100 when I went all-in with 2nd pair on an 10 high flop. I got called by QJ with a gutshot who caught a king high straight. He apologized profusely and actually turned out to be an incredibly nice guy from Dublin, Ireland. We sat next to each other for 5 hours and had a great time. He ended up giving back that 100 and a lot more over the rest of the night :)

After losing the first 100 I bounced up and down and around for awhile before getting extremely lucky playing the Hammer (2-7) from the straddle. I decided this guy was buying a pot and pushed all-in with 2nd pair. Unfortunately he had the 8 on an 8 high flop and called. It was the same Irish guy from before, and this time I sucked out hitting a 2nd 7 on the turn and taking down a nice pot with the Hammer!

I played well for awhile taking down some unclaimed pots, and making a few great plays. I made one in particular which I was very proud of. I had K/10 on the BB and 2 limpers to me and I made it 12 to go. They both called and the flop was 10 high. I bet out 25 into the pot and a player at the other end of the table who got a huge beat earlier and was playing a bit off-kilter made it 75. The other guy folded and it was back to me. I looked at the guy and the way he held his body and the way he looked at me made me feel like he wasn't very confident in his hand. I made the read that he was making a play at me with a drawing hand, and that I was ahead. I pushed all-in for 75 more into a 180 dollar pot and he called after some long thought. My read was dead on, he had J high with a poor draw and my K/10 held up for a nice pot.

The poor guy had lost his third buy-in for the night and had to take a break. The night was winding down when this hand came up. The table had gotten very passive but a lot of new players were coming in as the "night shift" came in. I limp in under the gun with Q/10 offsuit. It is raised by my the guy to my immediate left to 10. 4 callers back to me and I am priced in to call. The flop is 10/10/7. So I flop 3 10's with a Q kicker. I feel very confident in my hand at this point when the guy to my right leads out for 60 into the 60 dollar pot! This is same Irish guy from earlier! I had played with him for awhile and had a pretty good read on him. He made a few comments about full houses and quads which didn't fit with his body language so I put him on a weak 10 who wanted the draws out.

I called the 60 and it was folded around to a guy sitting with 87 in front of him playing his 3rd hand of the night who goes all-in. At this point I can't fold for 27 more into a 300 dollar pot and call as does the Irish guy. The turn is a King and the Irish folds to my all-in bet of 200 more. (I really thought he would call... but whatever). We turn our hands up and the short stack had pocket 7's for a flopped full-house and was WAY ahead. I had 6 outs to catch up and the miracle Q hit on the turn for the better full-house and the whole pot. That put me up 300 for the day and I managed to give some back before cashing out up 187 after 5 hours.

It is back to work on Thursday morning at 1 AM for 2 days of graveyard before the big 500 dollar buy-in event at the Imperial Palace at 9 AM on Saturday morning... I will probably be on graveyard next week, but it should be a good week with 2 big tournament days and a big weekend on graveyard. Last week was really good with the 5 days on grave and almost 600 at the poker tables.

Big day tomorrow

2007-01-22T04:12:00.000-08:00

Well... tomorrow is the immigration interview for Estie and I. This is when they decide whether we got married for a green card only, and if we did everything right. It is the last major hurdle for us to overcome in a long, painful journey. It is pretty nerve wracking right now...

In addition to that, I had my first week working on graveyard. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... and it looks like with one guy out for 10 weeks for a hip replacement, I will be on it for awhile. Once you adjust the sleep schedule it is actually pretty good.

World of Warcraft expansion came out, so that has been pretty exciting working to get my priest up to level 70. In addition to that, Estie has made some adjustments to her game and started playing a lot more poker with me... so both of us are working towards some big accomplishments in the near future.

I got my phone replaced after leaving it at the airport. However, I have lost every phone number I had.... so if you want to ever hear from me again, send me your phone number or call me. If you don't have my email address it is my first initial, last name, at gmail.com.

I wanna go Fast!

2007-01-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Jannuary 7th
It is amazing how much of a difference a real weekend makes after a real week at work. When your average day is 4-5 hours, days off are not that important. When you work 40 hours in 4 days... suddenly not going to work seems a whole lot more fun. This was the last weekend for Clarese as she heads back for Jacksonville at 7 AM Sunday morning. It is going to be very sad not to have her here with us. She is a real joy in our lives, and it is tough having her live so far away.
Saturday we went to the Sahara and the "Nascar Experience". Apparently it isn't exactly the biggest attraction on the planet since at 3 PM on a Saturday afternoon there were no lines, and hardly any people. We went on the rolleroaster there "Speed - The Ride". I have to say, that is a darn good coaster. Backwards and forwards, a vertical drop in reverse, one loop, some twists, with no waiting it was pretty solid. We also did the "Cyber Speedway". I was sorely disappointed. The graphics were awful, the handling was poor, the cars were difficult to use, and overall a poor lacking experience. Play an Xbox driving game and skip this one.
Now that Clarese and Johan are finished with their visit, which I wish had been longer but everyone has other things to do than entertain me. (I wonder why that is... I pay them enough I thought :), I can start my new year of poker. I want to start playing more serious tournament poker and plan to hit up the Venetian, MGM or Ceaser's tourney's first. They are respectable starter tournaments at 100 or so buy-ins, 30-40 minute levels and deep stacks. So it is a real tournament and not a push-fest like the 40-50 dollar ones around town. In addition the prize money is fairly large (4-5K for a win in most of them), so it is worthy of some effort. I want to try to hit 1-2 a week as well as 20 hours or so of playing. I will try to finish up the numbers from 2006 to give an idea of how things finished up. Overall it was a good year, and I hope next year is even better.
A funny story from the Nascar ride at Sahara. We are waiting our turn to get on, and the guy in the coaster already is smoking a cigarette. Now this SEEMS to be a bad idea, but what do I know. He then drops the lit cigarette into his lap and starts trying to find it in his layers of clothes, at this point the ride takes off. Speed is a turbo start, so he is launched back into his seat with a lit cigarette in his lap. On the return trip he states to his friends "My hat is gone. Right off my hand". Regardless of the fact there is a sign that says "No loose articles of clothing. Please put all hats, sunglasses, purses, etc into the lockers". He had a hat on as well as his 4 Nascar jacket wearing friends who all promptly took their hats off and put them in a locker. As he gets up to walk off the ride he falls back INTO the the coaster cars and has to be helped off the platform by the employees. I think he was drunk, hatless AND burned at this point. I am sure this guy will be a poster boy for natural selection one day

Happy New Years! 4 Dollars to Call!

2007-01-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Well.. the new schedule came out and I expected to be on Day shift again this week, however it turns out I moved over to swing for the week. New years eve I am working at 5 PM "until". I was not terribly pleased as this meant I couldn't spend new years eve with Estie. It was our first one since we got married and I wished I could have been with her. The rest of my schedule was 8 PM on Monday and tuesday and then 4 days off for the rest of the week.

The time leading up to New years was great. We went on the Gondola ride at the Venetian and got to ride on the boats, and listen to the beautiful singing of the Gondola drivers. We had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris and some excellent food! I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting. We also visited the Bellagio Christmas display, it was amazing! Polar bears made out of live carnations, Reindeer out of Pecans, a 35 foot christmas tree, 100's of poinesettas. It was absolutely gorgeous! Estie and Clarese took her brother (Johan) to see the rest of the sites. They rode the rides at Stratosphere, and NYNY. They spent a lot of time sight seeing, and he utterly enjoyed the sights around town.

New Years eve Johan had to go back to England where he lives now, and I had to go to work. It started out slow, but since we had only 10 dealers and 6 tables it moved by pretty well. At midnight the room emptied out down to 1 table. It was very amusing to be sitting there on New Years eve with everyone counting down to the new year and we are there dealing out hands. "Happy new Year sir, 4 dollars to call".

After midnight we had a short reprieve when we got to have some dinner and relax a few minutes before the real fun started. With 300,000 people on the strip it was a mad house, and a whole bunch of those were coming in to play poker with us! Between 12:30 and 1:00 AM we went from 1 table to 9. It ran smooth as silk with me and Loughman at the front directing everyone, and the supervisor Rick getting the dealers on the tables and the money. As soon as a table was full they started dealing. We had all 9 tables running 10 handed at 1 AM and we held all 9 tables until 5 AM when we started breaking down. I ended up going home at 7 AM after 14 hours of work. I had reached that point beyond exhaustion where everything was just a haze. The nice thing was it was good money. The bad thing was it really really messed up my sleep schedule. Atlanta time, working mornings, then switching to nights, and getting off at 7 AM. I was definately broken. I was so tired on Monday when I got to work that I decided to go home early so signed the Early out list. Well I'll be damned if all the people from New Year's eve didn't want to go home! One guy called in sick, 2 people had to work overtime, and it was insane in the room. I ended up being their until 4 AM and coming home exhausted AGAIN. On top of that, one guy didn't show up for New Year's eve and was fired. So they added another day to my week giving me Saturday night at 9 PM. The next day I come in to work at 8 PM again and find out that another guy has been suspended for getting in a fight while off shift in the room, and now I have been given ANOTHER day at 7 PM on WEdnesday. My 4 day weekend has now become a 2 day weekend.

Tuesday I go in, and again sign the EO list trying to get home before 1 AM so I can get a good nights sleep. I am still not able to sleep past 11 or so... which really sucks when you go to bed at 5 or 6 AM and are already exhausted. Unfortunately for me... noone is going home again, AND someone calls in sick again, so AGAIN I am there until 4 AM. 3 Days, 22 hours of work all in the late evening and early morning. Welcome to the life of a dealer I guess. Tonight I am in at 7 PM and if they scheduled me for another shift I will probably cry!

Vacation Overload

2007-01-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

There are times when you go on vacation and the story is "Yeah, we had a good time and got to see everyone again". Then there are other times where your vacation sounds like you decided to fill every waking hour with something to do... This was one of those trips.

To start out with I booked a great flight direct out of Las Vegas to Orlando to meet up with the rest of my immediate family and their spouses/children at Disney. It left Vegas at 11 AM and arrived in Orlanda at 6 PM. A Perfect flight on the 19th of december. So I requested my vacation time at work from December 20th to December 25th. This was less effective than I had planned it to be, since I actually left on the morning of the 19th!

I went to work and told them "Oh my I made a mistake I can't work on Tuesday". So I had to apologize to the big boss, and get him to fix the mistake I made. We were already short staffed that day, so the Supervisor was mad, etc. I then get home from work and get a message from my Mother saying she will pick me up at 6 AM on Wednesday morning in Orlando. 6 *AM*! Oh crap... I go check my flight info to inform her that she is wrong, when I find out she is right! DOH! I booked an 11 PM Flight on Tuesday! Well crap... so now I *CAN* work on the 19th since I was scheduled for 10 AM, and so I called my boss and told him so. Unfortunately I didn't write it down and send it to him, I just called him. I had originally written down the original problem. So written trumps verbal.. and when I came to work on Tuesday morning the schedule had changed and I was off that day. Oops.

The flight went fine and we got there right on time. Dad was there to pick us up and we got caught up with everyone at the condo before going to take a short 4 hour nap, drove to get Clarese from her Dad, and got everyone all together for dinner. The weather was moving in and the original plan was to go to Universal Studios on Friday and Disney Christmas thing on Thursday night. However, with Clarese only being in Orlando for 2 days, and it maybe raining on Friday, and us leaving on Saturday we decided to go to Universal Islands of Adventure on Thursday morning just in case we didn't get to go to Universal on Friday. It turned out it didn't rain until after we finished on Friday and we had a great time at everything. The rollercoasters were awesome, Clarese had a great time (I enjoyed it a little as well, but don't tell her. I want her to think I just went for her). Disney world for christmas was great.

We left early Saturday morning for the extended family christmas in Thomasville, and then got home late before doing our immediate family christmas on Christmas Eve. Our flight back was at 1 PM from Atlanta so we had to get up and leave Bainbridge at 6 AM. We made it in record time since there was no traffic and hit the airport early and had an hour and a half extra to eat and relax.

Now in most airports security they have a little white bucket that you put your keys, phone, etc in. While they have big gray trays you put the big stuff like your laptop. etc. However in atlanta they do not have the little white trays. So the man yelled at me for bringing my keys with me to the scanner, and made me go back and put them in a gray tray with my cellphone. This unfortunately put my keys/cellphone way behind the other stuff I put thru. Well... fast forward 2 hours and the plane is leaving in 10 mins which is when I realized I didn't get my keys and cellphone from the security checkpoint! So a mad rush, mad train ride, back to security where they had found my keys but NOT my cellphone. It could have been worse... we only have one key to the car! so losing both would have sucked. So now I have no cellphone! BAH! Time to get a new one and get everyone's number again.

Once I got back home and checked my schedule at work I was scheduled for the next 5 days straight after taking Sunday and Monday off for the vacation. It wasn't too bad with 3 9 AM shifts and all day shifts. This worked well since I was still on Atlanta time and was waking up at 6 or 7 AM anyways. So I had no problem getting to work. It was good to be back home after everything. It was great to see everyone, and I really had a good time. Clarese is with us now for the next 2 weeks and Estie's brother is coming to visit as well for a few days. So it is sure to be an exciting time!

A Cruising we go (very long)

2006-12-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-11-21T12:03:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-10-06T01:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

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"

2006-09-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-31T09:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-05-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-17T01:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-05-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

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....

2006-05-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

(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

2006-04-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Celeb Reality

2006-04-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

What a busy week this has been... you would think being unemployed and single you would have a lot of free time, however somehow I manage to fill every second up. After getting the job on Tuesday I slept in on Wednesday before going out to get my social security card. I know I *HAD* one but I couldn't find it when I needed it. I found out later that "only an hour" wait at the Social Security Office was good, but I thought it was AWFUL! I finally finished that and stopped at the Walmart to finally buy a TV to go with my furniture. It turns out the 24 inch TV boxes are too big to fit into my Camry, so I left the box and just took the TV.. Sorry trash guy.

The casinos in town make it VERY easy to get to places you lose your money at... Lots of signs, directions, easy to follow paths, etc. This is NOT the case when you try to get the Human Resource department. From the Bally's parking garage these were the directions I got to the HR Department and I quote:

"Go down to the main casino level, out to Ballys and past the bar, turn right and go down the escalator, down the shopping hallway to the sportsbook. Turn left at the sportsbook, go outside, down the construction hallway, into the building marked 'Human Resources' turn right and go down the hallway foollowing the signs for 'Processing' and into that room marked 'Processing done here'."

Piece of cake! Only took 15 mins to walk that far, and 20 more mins to get the lady to repeat the instructions 8 times because I was sure she was kidding. I finally get there at 3:40 and they stop processing at 3:30. Well THAT sucks. So I have to come back tomorrow, as long as I am here I might as well play some. I hit up the blackjack tables at Ballys and have a grand old time with some tourists and cash out up 240. I then decide to check out the Ceaser's poker room as I am across the street from it. Over the bridge I go and walk the 10-20 miles throuogh Ceasers to get to the poker room. It turns out they are taping an episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy today and I get to watch Penn, George Wallace and some gay guys play poker. The whole time arguing over what the proper arrangement of chips and cards, and colors of chips, etc. It was quite humurous. I waited around long enough to shake hands with Penn and George and tell them I enjoy their shows and then went to play 3/6 with a half kill that we later turned into a full kill.

Now there are times when the world works as it should... this was not to be one of those days. Flopped set loses to runner runner flush (but he had 2 overs was his excuse), flopped straight loses to better straight on the river. It was just plain ugly, but the table was fun and I enjoyed the game and the people... only down 101 so can't complain much.

Now for those of you who say I never lose at Blackjack I won't even get into how much I lost on Wed and Thursday but suffice it to say there are some casinos in Vegas I will ALWAYS be welcome in now. Even me and the South Coast are square now... the pit boss from my +800 day remembered me and took notice of me giving most of that back.

Thursday evening I went to the Las Vegas 51's AAA Baseball team's season opener. It is a nice little stadium that only holds make 3K fans.. and it wasn't even 15% full... I know I can be really smart at times, however when trying to figure out why they were the 51's I was totally blanking. However, when the alien mascot ran on the field I figured it out pretty quick... Area 51 - Las Vegas 51's... yeah yeah I get it now. Ha Ha very funny. We left at 7-2 Vegas in the 7th and I proceeded to give MORE of my blackjack money back to the casinos (they have employees to pay and I felt bad)

Thursday afternoon I had finished my "processing" and was then sent to get my fingerprints done. So Friday morning I went to eat and then to get my fingerprints done. I have never before been told I need to Moisturize! The fingerprint lady seemed highly offended that my fingerprints were so sucky because my hands were so dry. BAH! Girly moisturizing... hmmph. I might do it,but I will NEVER admit to it.

A quick stop back at the HR office (I know where it is now and can park closer :) ) to drop off my fingerprint info and my 75 dollar money order to apply for my Gaming Control Board card so I can legally deal poker in Vegas after I pass the background check. I got off easy though... you should see the hoops the bartenders have to go through, and I didn't even have to pass a drug test since I was only temporary (that scared me a little... knowing the 800 people they are hiring are not drug-free)

I then headed over to the Wynn for some 4/8 action. I love the Rio but they rake a straight 10% to 4 dollars, the Wynn rakes at 10/30/50/80 which adds up after awhile. I try NOT to win pots smaller than 80 dollars, but I do on occasion. I would MUCH rather all my pots be over 80, but I won't turn down any winning pots.

The night started off card dead, and I managed to finagle being up 35 without anything reasonable. I then got dealt KJ of hearts in late position and it was folded to me, so of course I raised. Folded to the big blind who called. Flop is 3 low cards and 2 hearts checked to me, and I bet. He calls. Turn is nothing, he checks, I bet he check/raises. I figure he hit a pair on that board and I am still drawing live, or is just mad at me for raising his blind. So I call drawing to I figure 15 outs (9 hearts, 3 J's, 3 K's). The River is a K and I figure I am good, he bets and I just call. He had freaking pocket K's. Hmmph.

The NEXT hand I get dealt KK myself, so I of course raise get a few callers. Flop is crap and I keep betting, and getting called. 2 Diamonds on the flop and of course I get chased down by A6 of diamonds and the King of diamonds comes in on the river. I check/call the river and cry at the luck on that one. The NEXT hand I get dealt 10/10 and the flop is raggedy enough to keep me around and I end up losing to J/2 who called 2 bets cold from mid-position and hit 2 pair on the river. What else can I do... 2 hands later I get dealt KK AGAIN, and unfortunately being on the button raise and get called by 3 people. Flop is 7/9/x and I get bet into by a straightforward player. I reraise to see if he is kidding and he just calls. I put him on top pair and I keep betting into him and he just calls. Turns out he flopped 2 pair and the board doesn't bring a pair or a K and I am down again. So 4 hands, net loss of about 120 bucks... UGLY

I decide to take a walk, stop at the Wynn blackjack tables and manage to bring 100 back out of the game to make me feel a little better. Head back to the poker room and the whole lineup has changed, so I get my reads down on the new people and manage to get back all 120 and another 150 before I leave after 8 hours. These people were passive, calling stations playing scared. Limping with A's and K's, and getting outdrawn constantly and complaining. One fun hand towards the end...

I get dealt 2/4 of diamonds in the big blind and it is raised with 6 players in to me so I call getting 11 to 1 effectively on low suited 1 gappers. Behind me it is 3 bet and 4 bet by the original bettor so now I am getting 11 to 1 to call 2 more bets and I have to do it. A Cap behind me and I call the final bets 6 ways for a $120 pot pre-flop. Flop is K/x/4 with 1 diamond. Bet into me by the original raiser who is surely on AK or AA at this point, maybe KK, but getting 35 to 1 on the call it is hardly a tough decision drawing to at least 1 out, and probably 6 (3 2's, 2 4's and backdoor diamonds). The turn is another 4... So the original bettor bets into me and I reraise, freezing out the table and isolating against him. I probably should have flat called to encourage calls behind me, but I just didn't feel very strong... a lot of things can go wrong from here and I wanted to know if I was Way ahead or Way behind. (ie did he flop a set of K's). On the river is the 4th 4! So now I KNOW I am winning... Quads don't lose often, and he checked I bet and he called to bring home a MASSIVE pot.

An interesting little side note. The Wynn is just FULL of celebrities this weekend as I saw Meadow from the Sopranos, Cuba Gooding Jr, and heard Paris Hilton was partying like a rockstar at the Maxim party in the Wynn. Meadow was playing the 1/3 NL game at the table next to me at the Wynn... it was really cool.

Saturday morning I decided boxes of furniture was not the best arrangement and put together my desk, chair and TV stand I bought. I even put away my luggage, arranged my closet, and washed all my clothes. I know... SOOO domestic. The room looks MUCH better now, and I can now relax some having it put together properly.

I got a phone call from my friend Tiffany telling me all about the OC and chastising me for not watching it, but it is on at 8 PM on Thursdays which is a prime night for poker! I told her I can't afford a TIVO yet, and I am not going to stay home and watch TV at night... It is always amazing how technology can taint our view of things. We used to watch shows we weren't home for BEFORE TIVO so what did we do? Oh yeah... we used a VCR, and I just bought a Tv with a built-in DVD and VCR... oh what a concept! I could USE THAT! Wow... DUH! Such a dork sometimes.

By the time I finished putting the furniture together, doing 3 loads of laundry, folding it all, going to get something to eat, reading a few chapters in the book, it was already 5 PM! I decided to hit the Rio again and got clocked in around 5:30. I somehow managed to rediscover my patience at the tables and hit a few flops, and really played well finishing up 388 before getting to tired to focus anymore around 11. I wasn't quite ready to go home so I tried the Texas Hold'em table game which promptly sucked 200 bucks out of me... BAH! So I hit the shoe blackjack at the Rio with a $15 min-bet and watched the dealer go the ENTIRE SHOE without busting on a 6 deck shoe. We are talking hard 15 and 16's and drawing to 3's and 4's constantly. It was flat out brutal, cleared the table out and new players came in who had no idea how to play. They just flat out tanked the game and I dropped the entire 200 I bought in with before getting mad and putting 200 cash down to play, dealt 18, dealer draws to 17 and I am back to even at blackjack. I play a little more before moving to the Single deck 6/5 blackjack game (I know horrible game but the Rio spreads a LOT of this and all the shoe games were full). I managed to get some AMAZING counts in a single deck 5 handed game when the first run put 22 cards on the table and only 3 tens and 1 Ace, tripled the bet and hit blackjack twice for nice wins even at 6-5 and cashed out at 530 for a 330 profit to erase my 200 from the other games, and headed home to bed.

Sunday Ken Brune arrives in vegas so I am off to meet him at the Venetian before we go Monday morning to the Paris and Bally's morning poker tournaments.

Best Damn 4 Hours EVER!

2006-04-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

Oh tuesdays... so much to do and so little time. The testing for WACA's new WISE release is going poorly as I am getting some strange ramp up results and the script which ran fine in testing is now erroring out. So I have to get that fixed, the wireless at the new place is flaky at best but I did find a Panera where I can relax and work with a lot more speed.

After chasing a fax machine all over town, getting a printout of the IRS forms my contracting payments, and signing everything I was only 2 hours late for class... Not to bad, class was good felt good in the box both downs and am really starting to feel good dealing Hold'em. I even worked on my Stud pitch and it is looking a lot better when I relax :)

After class and fighting traffic (I thought I left this behind in Atlanta!) I hit the Rio for a night of poker. About 5 PM the fun really started... oh lordy. An hour of blackjack results in me being up 230, even thought the pit boss wouldn't give a buffet comp! WTF! I bet 25 dollars a hand for an hour, I get to eat for free... I read that in the manual! Harrah's is different of course... bastards. Still not a bad start...

I then go over to the poker room and the 4/8 is full so I get on the list, while I am waiting I heard they were doing World Series of Poker auditions on Tuesday mornings. I thought this might be a good way to get a lot of time in the box and make some contacts by dealing the World Series of Poker. I planned to spend a LOT of time practicing in class and go next Tuesday to audition. I ask the floor manager some questions about the audition, what time, what documentation do I need, etc. He tells me the answers and then says "Well they are over there right now, go ahead and audition now." Oh lordy! I am soooo not ready! I haven't practiced nearly enough, I am dressed in Jeans and sneakers, haven't shaved in 3 days... Oh god. Sure why not :) Worst they can say is I suck and go practice. So I go over and have to wait about 30 mins till they get to me, and then it starts.

I blow the first two questions out of the box. What is HORSE? and what is the max bet in a Pot Limit Omaha game? I knew the answers but I missed them anyways (I said the E in horse was Omaha 8 or better instead of Stud 8 or better, and the max bet in PL Omaha was the pot, but it is really a CALL then a RAISE of the pot). So at this point I just want to run away but I hang with it... I answer the rest of the questions, read a few hands, count down the stub for Omaha and Hold'em, give him the rules for Razz and Omaha H/L split, and then deal a hand of 2-7 Triple Draw lowball (thank god I tried that once on line), Omaha High, and Hold'em.

He tricks me once with a stupid question when dealing Omaha High he asks me what the nut hand is and I tell him, he then asks me what the nut low is and I show him. He says "Nope, we are playing Omaha not hi-low". Dork! Don't ask questions you don't want an answer to...

We then go through an ante exercise where he intentionally shorts the ante and another hand reading with a stub question. At the end he gives me the paper and tells me I start June 12th, go fill out the paperwork at HR! Holy cow they hired me! What a rush! I was shaking so bad I couldn't even say anything after that... I am going to be dealing the World Series of POKER! The big kahuna, the biggest tournament in the world! 6 weeks of 12-15 hour days at $5.25 an hour! Oh boy... what have I gotten into! If nothing else, it will be a shitload of experience!

So after all that I go eat dinner and get a fortune cookie which says (I am NOT kidding it really said this) "Today all your hard work will be rewarded" you better believe it! I sit in the 4/8 game and catch a gutshot for a huge pot, top pair, top kicker outkicks his Q/10 for another big pot, flopped set turns into a boat, Flop a broadway straight, and top pair holds up for some nice pots and a +174 profit playing for 2 hours and I call it a night.

Up 404 and got a job... How do you beat THAT for 4 hours of work! I can now officially say I am a "Professional Poker Dealer"! Bring it on biatch... life is good.

Oh what a weekend

2006-04-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

So much going on here I feel like I need a vacation! Sheesh... I went shopping on Saturday to get a desk, chair, TV Stand, and a television (I failed on the TV search....) and a miserably failed search for a small black dresser... I think I am giving up on that search. I can live out of a suitcase until I get my own place and a full bedroom suite. How hard is it when you only have boxers, socks, and T-shirts and everything else is hung up in the closet.

Saturday I was so tired I went to bed early and then didn't get up until late on Sunday and hit the Rio for a few hours of suck-out city poker. It really wasn't my day but a few good hands of Blackjack and I finished up 17 dollars overall... WHEE! Maybe I need to take Sundays off now as well.

Monday is my day off from school (my choice), and I hung around the house watched the Braves game, caught up on some documentation for WACA and relaxed a little. I then headed over to South Coast for the 7 PM tournament arriving around 5:30 since signups start at 5. It turns out I was WAY to early and they only had 27 people for the tournament. I hit the blackjack table to play some doubledeck blackjack and managed to run 200 into 450 in a little over an hour, and then hit the tourney. I kept running into bigger hands iwth my hands and folding smartly but was getting whittled down. I finally hit an Open ended straight draw on the button and get check/raised all-in for 900 more (start with 2000). I decide I don't want to play short stack poker and am either going to get a good chip stack or go out. So I call, and miss and am out of the tourney 20 minutes in.

Head back over to the Blackjack tables and run that 450 from earlier into a grand in about 75 minutes, get a buffet comp, cash out and go eat at the Steak Buffet they have on Monday nights.

At this point it is only 9 PM so I decide to check out the brand new room at the Venetian. This is a GORGEOUS casino and even better poker room... Wow is it nice. talk about luxury. The dealers need some work, the floor is mediocre... but boy can they decorate. 2 hours of poker and I am up 100 so decide to call it a night. Up 800 from blackjack, up 100 from the Ventian, down 120 at Video Poker (maybe I should give up the Video Poker dream), and 60 from the tournament for a nice 720 dollar profit for the day. Not bad for watching the braves game, and lounging around the house most of the day.

Constantly amazed

2006-04-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

I am almost 35 years old... you would think that after awhile I would not be surpised anymore. Yet, I still am... let me give you some stories from vegas to explain.

- They have cup holders in the bathroom stalls.... seriously.
- I live in a desert, yet I am 45 mins from a ski resort.
- I live in a desert that has flood zones.
- If you are 80 years old and have to gum a piece of watermelon to death to eat it... A push-up bra and a low cut shirt is NOT the outfit for you to wear EVER. And DEFINATELY not acrosss the poker table from ME!

Friday night I tried to play at the Wynn. A girl I met and I were heading over there (They have strawberry julius.... yummy), I got there and the wait was over 2 hours for a table! but Jennifer wasn't there yet, so I waited... Jen calls tells me she is stuck downtown and how is the wait. I tell her 2 hours+ and that I am going to the Rio (which has no wait). The game at the Rio is donktastic as usual.... unfortunately I am frustrated from waiting so long to play, a long day on Friday and starting to play later than normal.... So I get sucked into the table after my Aces get cracked for the second time and donk it up with the table. Unfortunately my donking skills are lacking and I lose all 200 of my buy-in and sulk over to the blackjack table where I make it back.

Friday afternoon I had my first evaluation of my actual dealing skills. I take written tests REALLY well. I always have. However physical coordination and evaluation have never been my strong suit... Let's be honest, I am not the most athletically gifted person on the planet. So I was nervous... My best game to deal for me is Hold'em, followed by Omaha and then 7 card stud. So of course I am shaking nervous and they make me do Stud first... BAH! I throw one card off the table, can't control the rest of them and get graded very poorly on my stud game. The other 2 games go much better and I calm down, other than dragging a pot through the flop and messing it up I did fine and passed with a few comments

Saturday is moving day as I move into my new place. I get everything packed up and moved out, get my whole security deposit back and everything goes fairly smoothly. I don't get out to the poker tables until around 7 PM and stop for dinner at the NY NY "village" food court. The place is jam packed and I get a coney dog and am waiting for a table to open up to sit at when one finally does. I of course jump on it to sit down and notice 4 college cuties standing up at the counter in their clubbing outfits trying to eat chili and cheese fries and hotdogs with a knife and fork balanced on their hands... EEK! So I of course invite them to join me at the table which is plenty big for the 5 of us. They readily agree and we have a pleasant conversation about where they go to school and that is one of their birthdays and they are here for spring break, etc. They then tell me they are going to meet some more friends out clubbing tonight and what was I doing.

Now at this point in the story I have to decide how much of a dork I REALLY want to look like. If you really know me you know the answer I gave them which was "Oh, I am going to play poker on a saturday night by myself with a bunch of other guys no way I can go to the club". I really want to change the story to be some crazy night of dancing and making out with college girls on spring break in vegas... but well I can't. Everyone would know I was lying... so I gave them exactly the answer I put above and they gave me exactly the look every one of you has on your face right now... the ever famous head shake and "Richard is a dork" look. But really... Saturday nights are good for poker, lots of people play bad on the weekends.

This story would be REALLY good if I then told you I went to the MGM, made 100's of dollars playing poker and I am the smartest person EVER. It is nowhere NEAR as amazing if I tell you that I went played for only a few hours before being too tired to continue and went home and went to bed.

Look on the bright side... at least I didn't say "EWWW! They are girls stay away!". Does that help my image at all? No? Dang it!

Carrot Top

2006-03-31T09:33:00.000-08:00

You know sometimes you really wonder what makes people tick.

Thursday morning I got up and went to stand in line for Carrot Top half price tickets. There are these stores in Las Vegas that sell same-day half price tickets to shows, basically unsold tickets get discounted for that nights show. I get there to get the tickets and the line is HUGE! Wrapped around inside and then outside, probably 300-400 people in line.. EEK! Now first of all that is a lot of people! Secondly, the lady making sure the line kept moving, and noone broke, etc had her mouth WIRED SHUT! I know I do not have a lot of customer service experience, but come on... If you have to talk to customers shouldn't you be able to OPEN YOUR MOUTH! Dear god who decides this!

I am standing in line, just reading a magazine and watching the rather light crowds walk by and a guy walks up to me in the middle of the line. Asks if I want this coupon he has called an "A+ List", he is leaving town this afternoon and doesn't need it anymore. It turns out this coupon lets you go to a special line which NOONE is in, and buy your tickets at an even bigger discount. Dude! This rocks! I just keep showing the ticket to each person I pass and they wave me on ahead... WHEE! All the way to the front, get my tickets and done! WOW! Then, they let me KEEP IT! So now every time I go I can just go to the front of the line. Yeah, I am going to do THAT again indeed!

After paying for the tickets they tell me that these are not the actual tickets. These are just vouchers for tix. Now I have to get back in the car, drive over to the Luxor and exchange these tix for REAL tix. I decide that since I am just running in and out, I will valet and tell the valet that. Surely, he will just pull it up on the side and this will be quick right? Naw.... I head over to one of the 3 box offices in the Luxor and there are only 5 people in front of me, but I think the ticket guy died. He was pretty old... and just standing there. The line wasn't moving at ALL! 10 minutes of sitting there and it was still not moving. He didn't even see to be doing ANYTHING, so I decided to walk to the other boxoffice near the main theatre (they had a map, I haven't memorized the luxor yet). I walk up there, 4 people behind the desk nobody in line. Grab the tix and back out to the car.

The Luxor has gotten very fancy with the Valet... they have eliminated that person you give your ticket to to go get the car, and replaced it with a machine. Now you can't explain to the machine you are in a hurry, and you can't yell at it when it doesn't bring your car. You just sit there with the mad face on. It took FOREVER for my car to get there... sheesh. It is 2 PM in the afternoon who the heck is working around here! It FINALLY shows up, head off to class, get one down in which went pretty well, and I left a little early to get ready for dinner and a show.

The lady I am going with is named Erica, very sweet lady who I met in Vegas. She is in school at UNLV to be an elementary school teacher and like me liked to go to shows and movies so we have hung out a few times. After dinner at a mexican restaurant we went over to the show arriving at 7:35 when the seating started at 7:30. Perfect timing, 30 mins till the show started. It was in the Atrium theatre which is a nice small place which only seats about 300. Apparently so small that there is no restroom within half a freaking city block! I decided to go before the show started (good thing it turns out) and I had to go back OUTSIDE the theatre across the way and into the arcade to us the restroom! Sheesh.

Carrot Top was hilarious. I love his prop oriented high energy comedy, I saw him at the University of Georgia about 10 years ago and he has changed some. He only had 1 trunk of props at UGA and his show was more props and less comedy. Now he has a whole bunch of different themed trunks of props, including a washing machine up on wooden blocks that he does redneck jokes out of... really good. All in all an excellent show, got done around 10 PM and headed to bed. Test tomorrow... need to get my beauty sleep.

A day off (kind of)

2006-03-29T23:38:00.000-08:00

Well... After a long day at school on Tuesday and staying up till 1 AM watching a stupid and badly done mini-series on Sci-Fi, I decided going to school on Wednesday was not going to happen. Regardless of the fact I have a test on Friday which I am NOT ready for... and I need to practice, and get some time in the box. I still skipped :(

Instead I went to South Coast to have lunch (NICE buffet... I like that buffet a lot!). My favorite vegetable in the whole world is steamed brocolli... and they had that. My 2nd favorite is baby carrots.. .which they also had. So I was in heaven... stir fry, pasta, mountain dew (that IS important to any meal), and one of my favorite deserts (chocolate silk pie). Yummy... I might even pay 13 dollars for that for dinner one night.

As for Poker... Tuesday night I only played 3 hours. The cards were good, I was bad. Raising with a straight against *2* full houses, raising with 99 on an AQQJ board, etc. Luckily the cards saved me and I was up 125. I did manage to hit a nice straight flush wheel in my third hand, very nice.. unfortunately only 1 card from hand played so I didn't get the bonus.

Wednesday I was already at SouthCoast, and after watching a movie (She's the man... CUTE movie. Definately recommend for the sentimental in the group), and playing a little blackjack (up $350 for the night at BJ), I signed up for the 7 PM $60 buy-in tournament. The structure is about as good as you will get in vegas... Freeze-out, 53 of the 60 into the prize pool, Blinds are friendly even if they are 20 minutes. Not to mention, the players are horrid....

Early on I get AQ on the big blind and UTG limps and everyone else folds. I raise a large amount expecting everyone to fold and I get reraised all-in. I read the guy as an idiot (which he was) but not for having AK! Luckily a Q on the flop and he was out. After combining down from 4 tables to 3 I get KJ and raise from the button I get reraised all-in for only about 1K more into a 5K pot so I call and he has 88. K on the river takes him out. Just cruising along, stealing a few pots here and there when I can, an occasional blind and antes. Down to 2 tables and another UTG limper, I raise with AJ suited and he reraises all-in. I of course call, because I decide he is dumb. Turns out he had KK and an Ace on the turn and HE was out.

At this point we are down to 11 players and I am the chip leader... I take out the cute married girl next to me, and another one drops before we combine to the final table at 9 players. There is one guy who likes to be the table captain, nice guy.. but demanding and he wants to change the payout from top 3 to top 6. We all agree to discuss it further at 6 players left, all except one guy who of course goes out next. The previous chip leader is the short stack now and limps in from the button with Ax, I check from the big blind with 10/6 offsuit and flop 2 pair. I check, hoping he will make a play being short stacked and he checks behind. The turn comes and gives 3 hearts on the board and I bet out for 3K, short stack calls and small blind folds. Nothing helps on the river as I boat up and he is out. One more goes out and we are at 6 players. The big blind is about to be virtually all-in and we all 6 agree that 6th place will get $100 out of the $2120 prize pool. Immediately after that, she goes out 6th and is very happy with that.

With 5 players left, we agree 5th gets $200 and then of course someone goes out 5th. With 4 players left we discuss a 4 way chop for $455, but the table captain wants no part of it... I build up to the chip lead again and 3 of us are very close in chips with the table captain short stacked. Eventualy after a few more orbits we chop it up 4 ways and 455, top the dealers 15 and take 380 in profit.

This would have been a banner day, except that they have this 50 play video poker machine. So see... this machine pays out close to100%, but it appears I didn't read the fine print that said "Not to Peipers!" BOGUS! so I dropped 190 into it before finally giving up and going to hit the blackjack tables. It is a good thing I won there and at poker for a net of 550 for the day.

I have to get up early to get Carrot Top tickets and then get to class to get ready for my test on Friday and for the big weekend ahead. Saturday is moving day, and shopping for minor furniture for the room... And lots of poker with the tourists in town. Tons to do... need to get my rest.

Strategy Article

2006-03-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are not poker players, this won't interest you at all.... For those of you who are, and tell me you can't win at limit poker or ask me how I do... here ya go.

Limit poker is a math problem, a very long term one. Look at it as an investment, you want to put your 4 or 8 dollars into the pot when your long term return is positive. It may not pay off right now.. but it will pay off.

Pre-Flop:

Most low-limit games are passive donk-fests. Anyone who raises is immediately scary. You can use that to your advantage by playing position very aggressively. You also have to remember that you are only going to win at showdown with the best hand. Almost every hand in a good game will go to showdown, so you better have the best one when you get there.

Pre-flop If I am the first person into the pot and not on the button or Cut-off I will only enter with premium hands and play them for a raise. That means J's or better, AK, AQ, KQ suited, AJ suited and that is about it. This is also why I go to the bathroom when I am Under the Gun (aka UTG) or UTG+1.

I will loosen my standards as more limpers enter the pot. 4 limpers in the pot ahead of me (counting the Small and Big blinds since they always call) and I will expand down to any pocket pair, AJ off, high suited connectors like J10, etc. I am playing pocket pairs for set value only for the most part. It is rare to win with pocket's lower than J's unimproved.

Calling with Any 2... even something as bad as J/5 offsuit has a 24 to 1 chance of flopping 2 pair, and 63 to 1 of flopping trips. You are unlikely to win with anything less than that against 8 or 9 players, so call it 20 to 1 return and if you think you can get 20 bets out of the pot if you hit... call. Normally you can't. Limped to you with 8 callers gives you 8 to 1, 3 callers on the turn gives you 11 to 1 and 2 on the river gives you 15 to 1. You have to be really sure the table is going 5-6 to the river to make it worth calling with any 2.

However, take 9/10 suited... with 7 limpers. You have a 120 to 1 to flop a flush, 77 to 1 to flop a straight, 63 to 1 to flop trips, 24 to to 1 to flop 2 pair, and 8 to 1 to get 4 to the flush on the flop. So You can generally limp in with suited connectors above 4/5 simply for set, 2 pair, flush, straight possibilities and only need 5-6 callers to make it very profitable. You can probably do it with as few as 4, but I like to see at least 5 in the pot ahead of me unraised (counting the big blind but not the small) This assures me of having decent position on the field, and proper odds to call even if raised (since they will all call before me).

So the short version of pre-flop strategy is:

first or 2nd into the flop. Top 10 hands only, and for a raise or a 3 bet. NOTE: I will 3 bet with AQ or JJ even though often I am behind pre-flop because I want to play it headsup cheaply where I know where I stand instead of against 8 players calling and trapping me in a big pot I have almost no chance of winning after the flop. If I 3-bet and he caps I know most 4/8 players have AA KK or AK, and I will know which on how he plays the flop based on his previous play.

4-5 limpers any pocket pairs, high suited connectors, AJ+ off, KQ+ off.

6-7 Limpers any suited connectors above 4/5 (below 4/5 you lose some of your straight possibilities and it drastically drops their win percentage), Ax, Kx suited

NOTE: I won't play Ax or Kx from anywhere but very good position. So many 4/8 players will limp in with AK or AQ because "that hand never wins why raise", you be looking at a dominated ace more often than not, and they play so passive you will be spewing chips very often.

Post-flop if you pay attention to betting patterns you will know exactly what they have. As a general rule if they bet they have something. Normally top pair or better. If they 3 bet your raise, they REALLY have something, unless they are a maniac or better player they are looking at 2 pair or better, normally 2 pair though. The key to post-flop play is math. Once you figure out what they probably have... you can determine what you need to win.

When you are betting pre-flop pay attention to how many bets go in. The majority of dealers will tell you how many players are in on the flop. So if it is 1 bet all the way around and he says 7 players, you know there are 7 bets in the pot. Ignore the rake for now... So you have 7 bets in the pot and someone raises. You are getting 8 to 1 on the call (7 bets in pre-flop, his bet makes 8). If 2 people call before you you have 10 to 1... piece of cake if you just keep track of the bets as they go in. After the flop betting is done divide the bets by 2 (your turn and river bets are double size so you have to change the count a little), and generally subtract one small bet at 4/8 since the rake is about 4 dollars. So if it was 11 bets total on the flop, drop one bet to give you 10, divide by 2 to give you 5 and to call it is 6 to 1 if he bets (5 +1 = 6)

Here is an odds table with some notes:

Pot Odds:

2 outs (Pocket pair to trips) - 22 to 1
4 outs (Gutshot straight draw) - 10.75 to 1
5 outs (pair to trips or 2 pair) - 8.40 to 1
6 outs (2 over cards to top pair) - 6.83 to 1
8 outs (Open ended straight draw) - 4.88 to 1
9 outs (Flush draw) - 4.22 to 1
11 outs (OESD + 1 over) - 3.27 to 1
14 outs (OESD + 2 overs) - 2.36 to 1
15 outs (OESD + Flush Draw) - 2.13 to 1
21 outs (OESD + Flush + 2 overs) - 1.24 to 1

So now all you have is a math problem. How many bets are in the pot, what kind of odds re you getting and you make the right call based on your draw. If you do this consistently you will win money. If you want to get more complicated you can get into implied odds. (ie how many will call after you, and if you hit your hand on the turn how many more bets can you get, etc). You can also get into free card plays. The main reason you play from good position with suited connectors and Ax, Kx hands is because when you hit a good draw you can 2 or 3 bet the flop fromthe button. The other passive players are now scared to death and will check back to you. Letting you see 2 cards for the price you paid already on the flop.

When I have some more free time I will write another article on Table Image, player reads, chip stacks, etc.

I thought I had friends

2006-03-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows I love SciFi and Fantasy shows.. movies, TV series, books, etc. I was also a huge fan of Dr. Who back in the day (well reruns but it was new to me!). So someone explain to me why NONE of my friends told me a new Dr. Who was on SciFi since late in 2005! FINE! Keep the secrets from me... hmmph.

I wanted to go by the half price ticket place tonight and see if they generally had Carrot Top tickets available for Thursday. Since it is right next to the MGM I might as well stay and play there. After dinner at the Palms (not bad but not awesome either), I headed to the MGM. I normally take Mondays off for a reason and now I know what it was... The place was a ghost town, only one 3/6 game and one 4/8 going short handed, and the game was fairly bad... I dropped down over 100 before coming back to finish +25 at poker. I really felt like I played about as perfect as I could tonight... but when you play for 4 hours and see QQ once, JJ twice and AJ once as the only premium hands, being up 25 is a feat.

The table was really tight with a lot of good players, but it was a blast to play at. There were 4 guys from england there, one guy who had lost his luggage in Chicago, and one guy from Florida. We had such a great time I wouldn't have cared if I lost 200. A couple hilarious hands from tonight...

I get dealt 6/4 suited in the BB and it is raised behind me, for some reason I called. Flop is KK8 and it is checked to me heads up with 2 hearts on the board I bet my flush draw. He calls, and the turn pairs the board. He checks and I bet. He folds face up saying "My 7 kicker is no good". So I show him my 6 kicker and everyone busts a gut laughing at that one.

Earlier in the night I got JJ and the same guy from the 6/4 hand had QQ and with the board being 5 high I went all the way to the river losing a nice size pot. So towards the end of the night I get dealt QQ and he raises into me. I 3 bet and ask him "Do you have the hooks?" to which he responds "Yeah, you have Q's?" and I of course tell the truth for once and say yes. We go bet/call to the river and we were both telling the truth and I scoop a nice pot.

Before heading over to poker I have to pass the Blackjack tables which is a dangerous thing for me. Now apparently half of the MGM Blackjack tables are stay on 17 rules, the other half are hit soft 17. Stay on 17, double any 2, double after split, and resplit Aces is a heck of a good blackjack game. One of the best I have seen in Vegas to date... So of course I had to sit down, and cashed out up 80 after 3 shoes.

Lazy Sunday

2006-03-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

There are days when you just don't feel like getting out of bed. I got home at 10 PM on Saturday and didn't get off the couch until after 1 PM on Sunday. It was beautiful... I have been going to hard, and having a good Saturday allowed me to relax and enjoy Sunday. It was absolutely stunnning here... wow. 75 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I found myself with the windows down sitting at stoplights admiring the country. I know it gets hot sometimes (heh... sometimes), but it is gorgeous right now!

I ended up not getting to the Rio until 2:30 PM and only stayed until 5:30. This place is so insane that I just didn't want to be there anymore, and I knew if I didn't want to play I would get sucked into the table and get destroyed (as I saw several other people doing). It was 7-8 to the flop, every pot was over 100 dollars, and noone was folding if they had ANY draw. I watched it go bet, reraise, 3 bet, 4 bet and then watch 3 people coldcall with stuff like K6 offsuit. I ended up 68 after 3 hours and decided to call it a day. I know I can beat this game for a ton over time, but I have to have the right mindset...

After dinner and relaxing some I ended up going to bed early and having a nice relaxing day. It felt good :) I am going to see Carrot Top on Thursday, so I am probably going to have to work on Monday but for now.. sleep is the answer.

Oh and btw, someone has to explain to me how a fast food joint like In and Out burger can get 80 people in line on a Sunday afternoon. The freaking drive thru was 20 cars long and it was moving FAST! It was absolutely incredible... nowhere to sit within a 2 block radius... people on the grass, sidewalks, everywhere.

2006-03-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Some days everything goes exactly as planned... other days nothing goes as planned. The original plan for Saturday was to go hiking in Red Rock Canyon, eat lunch at the South Coast buffet, go to the All American Reining Classic horse show at the equestrian center, and then play some poker.

Well.. my hiking partner's boyfriend had a family emergency (his grandfather died), she lost her wallet and all her ID's and money at the bar (what was really funny is this has happened to her before!), and I was so tired I didn't want to get out of bed Saturday morning.

Then when I got to the South Coast the horse show was running behind because the power was out there, and the buffet was closed (apparently they can't cook on generator power). So I was starving, and the concession stand only had candy bars. The horse show was amazing, I got to watch an 11 year old ride a horse better than anyone I have ever seen... it was amazing watching her gallop and stop on a dime. So graceful... I took some pictures I will post later.

After the horse show and while waiting for the buffet to open I played a little blackjack. It was great because it was a quiet day at the casino so I got to go heads up with the dealer. Even out of a shoe it was very profitable cashing out up 225. I am constantly amazed at how badly people play blackjack... wow. Staying on 14 against a 10, just silly stuff. I had to keep changing tables when the idiots sat down.

One really funny (well not really but it was laugh or cry) scenario... I get dealt 11 against a 5, double down and hit 21. The dealer draws 5 cards to 21 so we push. The NEXT hand I get AA and split hitting a 10 on both. Dealer draws 4 cards to 21. EEK! Twice I got 77 and split and got another 7. Too bad I wasn't play 777 bonus!

After an hour of that and the buffet nowhere close to opening, I went and had a salad at the Rio before playing some poker. The players here are HORRID and I do mean HORRID. 7-8 to the flop almost every hand, passive as can be. You almost never seen raises even with top 2 pair,etc. If I could ever catch cards here I would retire.

A few interesting hands from Saturday... I get Pocket K's and it is raised immediately to my right, so I 3 bet it and the flop comes Q high. He raises into me and I raise it, a few callers and he 3 bets.. Now I put him on Pocket Q's with the 3 bet with a chance of AQ. Turn comes and it is a beautiful K, giving me the current nuts. It is raised into me again, I raise back and he 3 bets. I cap and we have one caller along for the ride. The river is a 2nd Queen... now I put him on QQ and now he just hit Quads. He bets into me again and now I am sure I am beat and just call. The guy who has been coming along for the ride RAISES. Holy crap, he has a Q! So now if that guy has a Q, and there are 2 on the board... then THIS guy can't have pocket Q's and I am holding the best hand. It is 3 bets back to me and I make it 4, he caps and everyone calls. K's full of Q's takes the whole thing for a HUGE 230 dollar pot, and 3 Q's and 7's full of Q's don't get a thing.

The NEXT hand I get pocket 8's and the flop is K/10/7 with 3 clubs. It is 2 bets to me and I happily fold. Now it turns out that on guy flopped a flush, and 3 others flopped sets with Pocket K's, 10's, and 7's! Talk about an action flop! The turn was another 7!!! Giving one guy quads, and the other 2 full houses. The guy with the flush was to my left and folded with a sign knowing he was beat when it was capped on the turn. River was a blank and the pot was "only" 280 because they ran out of money on the river with 2 of the 3 remaining players all-in. That was just plain out craziness!

I only managed to win 5 hands in 3 hours... but AA, KK, and QQ all won nice big pots and KK lost one. I also won one with AQ and one with 4/5 from the button. I would have been up a LOT more if I was playing smarter... but instead I cashed out up 154 and not a bad day being up 379 for the day. For some reason I keep trying to make things happen and against 7 and 8 callers you need premium hands or premium flops. I did manage to flop 2 pair and lose to runner runner flush, and and several top pairs to 2 pair.

You're FIRED!

2006-03-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

Last night was late and this morning was early... I have been seriously over working myself pulling 16-18 hour days with 5-6 hours of sleep. If you know me at all you know I LOVE 10 hours or more of sleep... and less than 8 makes me mad. So you can imagine how I feel :) Unfortunately living in a boarding house the noise starts at 8 AM and so I get up... even when I go to bed at 2.

I had my first written test today in class and passed with flying colours. I got 4 questions wrong out of 50 so not to shabby... one of them I had no idea, one I was confused by the instructors, and the other 2 well.. Cards have colours on them for a reason! Take the colours away and it is hard to see those flushes! Stupid black and white tests.

This morning when I got up and finished with my WACA work, I finally decided to make some noise about my house. I own a house in Georgia and it STILL has no sold. My real estate agent is useless.... he never returns my calls, emails, anything, and I am sure he has been the same with customers as well which is why the house magically never sells.... So I decided to call the office and escalate to the owner if neccessary and get it sold or transfer the listing. Well, when I call in I get the receptionist who tells me my agent was FIRED! WTF! Well that explains why he wasn't returning my phone calls... she tells me my listing has been transferred to the owner of the company who has been trying to reach me with some interested parties however all the contact info he had didn't work (I had to change it all when I moved and gave it to my old agent who never gave it to anyone else... nice). So now my listing is with a real motivated agent (he owns the company, I think he might care) and I am giving him 30 days to make progress. Let's see if it improves...

After class, my plans were to go to the Rio and put in 6-8 hours, go to bed at 2 AM and sleep until noon. However, I was not really in the mood to play feeling exhausted from the week. So I went with some friends to a bar for a few drinks and am going to check into the bed early. Tomorrow morning I am heading to Red Rock Canyon for a morning hike and some fresh air. The weather is so amazing here right now that is is impossible to pass up.

One month checkup

2006-03-24T01:05:00.000-08:00

March 23rd marks the 1 month mark of my escapades. My first day in Tunica was February 24th and after 1 month I have played 153 hours of poker, made $2,771 for an hourly rate of $18.11. It beats the heck out of McDonalds, but hardly the hourly rate I am used to. I am not to upset though as I made a ton of mistakes, played tired, played stupid, got snobby, etc. The long and short of it is I probably lost close to 1000 dollars just from being dumb, it really hits home when you think of it that way.

Class today I only got 2 downs (15 minute dealing sessions) but I got a lot of experience from just observing. I also didn't realize how freaking hard it is to keep so many things going in your head. If absolutely nothing disturbs me I am fine... I can do all the things I need to with no problem. However ONE distraction and I am done... an average hand of poker goes like this:

- Deal out the cards and take the bets. Keep track of how many people are in the hand and how much they bet so yo uknow the size of the pot.
- Change a dollar or two for quarters, take 5% of the pot size in rake after all the pre-flop bets are done.
- Make sure everyone bet, pull in the cards they folded.
- Burn and flop the cards, let everyone bet again
- pull in those bets, add the total of those bets to the previous round bets and take the rake (this is where I start to lose control. If I forgot how much was there before I am done..and if you make a funny face I forget the total from before)
- Burn and turn the next card, repeat and rake.
- Burn and turn the final card, drop the remaining deck (have issues here as well) or count down the remaining cards to make sure the deck has the right number of cards.
- Take the rake up to $4 total. Figure out which hand is the best hand.
- muck the losing hands, push the pot to the winner, move the button, drop the rake, take the tip, thank the customer.
- Shuffle, Shuffle, box, Shuffle and deal the next hand.

I do pretty well until I forget the total of the pot, and when I forget to drop the deck. Otherwise, I am doing well...

After work and a break I went to dinner at a buffet. I decided that eating vegetables instead of fast food was a good idea... so I tried that.... it was wierd but I think it is good for me or something. I then headed to the MGM to meet some guys from class for poker.

I have got to learn that I do NOT HAVE TO WIN IMMEDIATELY. I just cannot relax when I sit down, 2 hours into my session... I am stone cold awesome. When I sit down or go on tilt (losing control and playing dumb) I suddenly become "That idiot guy we all love". And that idiot guy generally goes broke... I don't want to be him. I sat down tonight and the cards were dead to me... so I dropped over 200 before I decided not to be an idiot. You would think I could decide that around 50 down... but I am stubborn. By some miracle or all miracles I became a good player after that and worked back up to +20 before cashing out and making 55 more at blackjack for a 75 profit in 6 hours... not awesome but not a loss.

Let's try not to get arrested today

2006-03-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

School has been going very well, I a 3 days into it now (approximately 15 of the 80 hours). The first day I learned to shuffle and box/strip properly as well as the finger pitch. The method I was using gets the job done, but I would have been retired in 6 months due to wrist issues... so it is good they teach the proper way to avoid injury. The 2nd day I learned flops, cutting chips (apparently you are suppose to be able to do this without looking at them! WTF!), 7 card stud pitching, pulling in bets, proper holding of the deck, mucking, etc. All the basics of the game.

Wednesday when I got to class I got to have my first experience in the box dealing. Wow there is a lot going on. I have dealt tournament poker before, but keeping tracking of the pot for the rake, mucking properly, out of turn actions, etc. There is soooo much going on. It was awesome! I did very very well and the instructors were impressed.

After class, I went by the Orleans to see what kind of bowling leagues they have. I checked the Gold Coast on Tuesday and decided that I am going to try to find a league to join as a way to meet new people outside of something other than poker. I also want to have some hobbies, even working 90-100 hours a week I need something to do other than work. Gold Coast has a LOT of leagues but Orleans does not have as many. I will check the South Coast on Friday or Saturday when I go to the horse show and then see if I can get on as a sub or fill-in on a league team.

I still had 9 dollars in comps on my Coast card so I hit the steak buffet which only cost 5 bux thanks to the comps, and then headed over to Bally's to play again. The nice juicy 3/6 game from last night was gone and there was a short handed 2/4 which was good, but broke after about an hour and I was up 60. I decided to go check out the Rio on the way home as it was only 8 PM.

Now the Rio has 2 parking garages, they have real names but we will call them "Close to where I was going" and "The ENTIRE OTHER SIDE OF VEGAS from where I was going". You only have one guess as to which one *I* parked in. Dear god, I thought I was walking to mars! I finally got to the poker room... it was very nice, well run, etc.

On the way to the poker room I had.. well.. a first for me in Las Vegas. I am walking into the bathroom and sitting on the corner was a very attractive women who couldn't take her eyes off me or stop smiling. I almost stopped but I really DID need to go to the bathroom. On the way back out of the bathroom I glance around for the girl and find her being escorted out of the casino by security. I don't think she was looking for me to buy her a drink... I think I got hit on by a prostitute! I guess I really am a vegas native now :)

I am looking for 3 things in a poker room:

1) Plenty of limit action, lowest limit should be 4/8. It is generally true that the lowest limit spread in the room will be the loosest, and if 4/8 is the lowest there, then it will be a lot looser than a placec where they also spread 2/4 or 3/6.
2) High Hand jackpots and no bad beat. You MIGHT hit a bad beat once in your lifetime, a few table shares maybe.. but overall it is not likely to hit for you... so the drop is a waste. High hands however you will hit frequently and as such I like them.
3) Waitresses who are friendly and bring drinks!

Well the Rio had it all... I loved this room, at 11 PM on a Wednesday night they were running *3* 4/8 limit games and they were all juicy as ever. 5-7 to the flop, noone folded on the flop, it was sweet! I was unfortunately missing everything, flopped 2 pair 4 times and lost all 4... twice to gutshots. But I know my time is coming, even though I was down 168 at the Rio (for a net of down 108 for the day) the pots were very nice, and people were calling down with 3 and 4 outers. So I know that won't last and I will eventually win. Not to mention my cards were pretty bad, so only down 100 is not a big deal.

I will definately be back tomorrow. They also have a monthly freeroll for regulars. And give $1 an hour in comps. So if I get in 80 hours a month there (yeah that will be hard) I will be able to have some nice buffets once a week or so, and the monthly freeroll if I get some good cards can get me a seat in the World Series! (that is first place).

WOO! I have a home

2006-03-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 21st

I got word this morning that I got the place and stopped over after work to give them the rest of the documentation. I move in the 1st of April. I couldn't be happier, I am already hitting it off with them. The husband is a musician and invited me out to the clubs with them, but I can't do that on a school night :)

After dropping off the paperwork, and a short nap I headed over to Bally's for some 3/6 full kill action. The game was pretty darn good for a weekday and I was very pleased with myself. The cards were bad, the suckouts were there, and I managed to keep my head. A few hands of note...

- QQ in the big blind, folded to me.
- QQ Under the gun, raise and I lose to 9/10 off who hits a straight on the turn.
- J/9 and flop is 9/9/x capped by a guy holding 9/8 and the river pairs the board to split the pot.

After 2 hours I was only down 50 and feeling proud I wasn't down more. I then finally got some cards getting QQ twice and JJ once all holding up. Made a marvelous play at a pot on a guy who wanted to fold, so I inspired him by betting. He folded showing his bottom pair which beat my Ace high. Then this hand comes up:

KK under the gun and I raise. 5 callers. Flop is Q high and I lead out, a few callers and a raise from a very passive girl in the 1 seat. I 3 bet to find out how serious she is and fold the rest of the table as she calls. So I figure her for AQ or maybe 2 pair, turn is a J and I lead into her and she calls. So now I am sure she only has top pair. River is a K giving me trips, I think of a check/raise acting afraid of that but she is too passive to bet it. So I bet and she calls and shows Pocket Aces! Oh my! Talk about playing Aces passive... wow. She raised ONE time with them before giving up and calling down. Of course this was followed by the comment you always get "Aces never win at limit". Well not if you play them like that! SHEESH! You have to charge people for beating you.

So almost midnight and 3.5 hours of play, up 110 and off to bed. It is nice after the weekend I had to finally get a decent hourly rate out of the game.

A Day off

2006-03-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

Monday, March 21st

There are two teachers at the school I am going to for dealing. One of them is an intro teacher, teaching mechanics and process, etc. The other is an advanced teacher who handles advanced theory and actual game situations. The intro teacher is my teacher for now, and he is not there on Mondays. Instead there is another guy there. Now I am not trying to be snobby but I want a consistent lesson and one teacher. I also need some kind of a break. So Monday is now going to be my day off! No poker, no class, no nothing. Between 10 hours a week on an IT contract, 25 hours in class, and 30-40 hours at the poker tables. I need a day off each week! You would think the unemployed would have more free time... but nope.

I took the time on Monday to go look at more places to live and found one place that scared me to death. I literally wanted to go get a shot for every disease known to man after leaving that house. It was very very bad... me no want to live there! However, the other place was gorgeous. It is south of town which is growing rapidly and has a beautiful view of the landscape and surrounding mountains and desert. The house is awesome, a nice bedroom upstairs and pool table downstairs. The family (husband, wife and 4 month old son) are awesome and I spent an hour getting to know them. They were marvelous and both around my age. So I called them on Monday evening to take the place and sent them my references and deposit. I hope I get it.

Star Struck

2006-03-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 19th

After a relaxing morning I headed to the Bellagio around 1 PM. Now I have been craving some good chili and the snack bar at the Bellagio had some. Oh boy did it hit the spot, even at 4 dollars a cup! I finally got into a 4/8 table full of donks, including a trio of Georgia Tech grads who all had no idea what they were doing but were obviously riding the Irish Luck box because they couldn't lose.

A couple hours into the game I see a familiar face walk in, Freddy Deeb and Daniel Negreanu are playing a 4000/8000 mixed game in the glass room at the Bellagio. It was surreal to see them sitting there all relaxing with 100's of thousands of dollars sitting in front of them. They looked so normal and were only a few feet away from me. This had to be one of the coolest days in Vegas so far. The Five Diamond classic is in the first part of April at the Bellagio and I will have to find out about how to go watch the final table.

Unfortunately that was the highlight of my day as my cards were horrible and the ones that did hit got sucked out on. Not to mention I was pressing once again and playing to long with the bad end of a hand and ended down 160. I left around 10 PM and hit the blackjack tables managing to make back 150 of it, before going home and crashing out.

Here horsie horsie

2006-03-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 18th

The plan for saturday is to find the new South Coast casino and see just how wild and crazy their games are. The casino is marvelous and easy to get into and out of. The parking is sweet, the casino is wide open and very nice. They have an equestrian center there with a lot of free shows, next weekend they have a show there which is free to the public so I plan to stop and see that. I do love the horses.

All they had was a 2/4 and 1/2 NL game so I sat in the 2/4 and was holding my own. Despite massive suckouts. Flopping 2 pair and they hit a flush, AK missing consistently, etc. I still was up 30 before going on a run to top out at 100. I decided to play for awhile longer which was apparently a mistake as the cards went bad, and I went worse and cashed out up 20. I then went and saw Failure to Launch which was hilarious. I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone with older children.

After the movie I headed to the MGM. Good god what a walk it is from the parking garage to the poker room! I am talking 20 minutes! Next time I am parking at NY-NY and walking over from there.

Now I play very well from ahead, I am relaxed and patient and read the game very well. I play very poorly from behind. I try to hard, bluff when I can't win, play to many hands, etc. So you would think putting myself in a hole each and every time I sit down would be a bad idea. Yet I keep doing it. This time I sat down and played K/10 offsuit for a raise from late position, and hit a K on the flop. I then proceeded to reraise a player I had no read on, and bet it the whole way to lose a bundle when he called with KQ the whole way. I then tried to bluff at a pot against what I found later was someone who wouldn't fold. These plays are reasonable when you know the game, the texture of it, and who will fold what. Doing this in the first 10 hands is suicide, so of course I do it often.

I started in a 100 dollar hole and managed to work my way out of it before changing tables. The new table was great and I was fine until a few suckouts put me down 100 again, I started pressing and was down almost 200 before this hand came up. I get Pocket A's and raise under the gun. Only one caller and flop comes down A/10/10. Now one of the things about low limit poker is you don't get many hands that you will win. (Playing 15-20% of hands and winning 30% of those isn't a lot of winners), and even fewer where you can extract value. So when you hit a monster you have to be able to get the maximum value out of it. I read the girl who called me as someone who couldn't get off a hand after she convinced herself she was winning, so I checked to her. She checked behind. Turn was a J and I lead out into her representing I hit the Jack. She called and the river was a blank. I lead the river and she raised me. At this point I have the virtual nuts, losing only to pocket 10's and I was about 60 dollars from the felt. If she has 10's I am going to the felt happily. I raise back and she raises again, it ends up going 6 bets before she just calls with K/10 for trip 10's. So that brought me back to a good level and a few more hands before the table broke put me at down 50 for the night at MGM.

Tomorrow I am going to try the Bellagio and see how the 4/8 is there.

Weekend at the Wynn

2006-03-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

Friday, March 17th

I stayed out until 3 AM on thursday night, and slept in this morning. I decided to skip class as the teacher I normally would work with was out sick and the sub was not very good on Thursday. About lunch time I went to look at a nice apartment with a small room. It was a great location but I didn't feel like it was perfect, so I am going to look at others.

A nice mid-afternoon nap and a relaxing day on the couch before I went to the Wynn around 6 PM for some poker. I fully expected the Wynn to be full of high rolling whales, but it was almost all locals at my table. The table had a few fish at it, but in general was a really tough game. It is unusual for me to be in a 4/8 game where I don't feel like I am one of the two best players in the game.... This time I really did feel like I might not be the best player here.

Interestingly the other players had the same impression of me, and at one point in the game decided I never bluffed and always folded to me. So of course, I bluffed and showed them.. but until then everytime I raised on the flop everyone folded. I even had a guy laydown top 2 pair to my flopped set on the river for 1 bet. He said "I don't know how I am beaten, but I know I am."

I did manage to hit a few hands, and despite playing mediocre at best. I still took over 100 out of the game and went home around 11.

Good bye Trevor

2006-03-22T00:52:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 15th

This is Trevor's last day here so after I finished my first day of class (turns out I do everything wrong and have bad habits at dealing as well.. go figure) we met up for some excitement back at the hotel. Blackjack went well for me, but poorly for Trevor... Poker went well for me but Poorly for Trevor. So I managed to get up 116 before we went out for a night of drinks with Mark and Trevor. It was great to see Tuttle again and he is doing marvelous things at Wizkids.

Apparently there is some kind of time machine in Vegas because I didn't remember drinking that much or staying out that late.. but it was 3 AM when I dropped Trevor off at the Riviera to play some poker before his 7 AM flight and I went and crashed. Friday morning came awful early... so of course I skipped class :) And relaxed a little around the house. Still trying to get my sea legs back and actually was starting to eat a little.

I think I need a job

2006-03-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 15th

I slept in and had a breakfast of oatmeal of which I ate 3 bites... the stomach still isn't quite right, and then went to meet up with Trevor to see the GAMA show and all our old friends. It was great to see everyone and what everybody is up to. All the old decipherians have moved on to new haunts so I now know someone at all the major companies which is sweet. I feel so special :)

After a hotdog for lunch (which I ate almost the ENTIRE thing! WOO! and drank a coke) I went to go look at schools. You only get a job audition in Vegas one of two ways... you pass a class, or you have documented experience. It turns out that my experience doesn't count... so class it is. Casino Gaming School came highly recommended and had the highest Student to Teacher ratio. It also had the best history of placing people in jobs... Noone can GIVE you a job you have to earn it... and they teach the most technique and mechanics which will help get those.

I went ahead and signed up to start the next day and went back to meet up with Trevor for dinner. We went to a very very expensive Outback (since when is a steak at Outback 30 dollars) and then over to the Riviera to play for awhile. I only made it until about 10 PM before crashing out, but I did eat almost 1/3 of a 9 oz steak and 3 bites of potatoes! So I felt like I was back to 5 or 10% of normal... whee!

The players at the Riviera are HORRID. Oh my goodness I wish they had something more than 2/4, but I took 55 out of 2/4 in 2 hours while catching absolutely horrid cards. I literally saw ONE ace, but one good read, and a couple good flops out of the blinds as well as a really nicely played flopped flush brought me into the positive without cards. It is always nice to win without cards.

This is why God invented Hazard lights

2006-03-22T00:36:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 14th

Monday morning about 3 AM I woke up with some intestinal problems. Now my stomach is very sensitive in general (which I often ignore and just deal with the consequences) but after the 5th visit to the restroom I thought I might have an issue. So in the morning I decided to eat things which might give me a chance to "hold it together", ie Oatmeal, fruit, etc. Well that didn't help and a few more visits to the restroom left me very unhappy. Trevor and company left to go to work at the Riviera and I loaded up my car and headed to the Pharmacy. I figured some Pepto would solve everything. Well I don't think I got it down in time as halfway back to the hotel I was stopped at a stoplight (with a long line behind me) and had no choice but to deposit breakfast back into nature. Needless to say, the other cars went around! Surpisingly noone honked at me... which was awful kind of them.

I felt a little better after emptying my stomach but after a cup of soup I was still not feeling well. Yet I had no place to live yet and the plan was to spend Monday finding temporary housing. So I went to the top place on my list a 12 bedroom boarding house run by Bootsie! :) Took a look at it and signed the lease immediately. It wasn't perfect but it had a bed a TV and a bathroom. This was all very impt at that time. $160 a week for a decent sized room and a shared bathroom and I had a home in Vegas.

I tried to meet up with Trevor on Monday night but failed as I went to sleep at 3 PM and slept 17 hours straight. I think I was sick... hard to say, but pretty sure that qualifies.

Tuesday I went to the store, got a few things and laid on the couch all day sleeping most of it. Isn't it nice to arrive in your new home and immediately make an impression. I will never forget the greeting the bathrooms in Vegas gave me... warm and welcoming indeed.

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas

2006-03-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 11th

Well it is official. I am in Las Vegas. The end point of my travels and my new home until I run out of money or reach my goals. It was a quick 2 hour drive from Laughlin and I had to go find this stupid hotel WAY out in Summerlin. Apparently when you have everything you own in the car, it is not exactly ideal for picking up people from the airport. Trevor and his friend Jason were arriving in an hour and I had to unload the car at the hotel so they could fit in there. It was extremely entertaining to see the hotel clerks face when I rolled in a whole bunch of luggage for one night.

After getting Trevor from the airport, and checking into the room we headed back into town to the Luxor for their ticket tournament (and lunch). The ticket tourney is a locals thing where if you play X hours in a week you get into a tournament where they pay for the most pots over 30 dollars won. So the locals play like idiots trying to win the pots and the smart people rake it in. However, this time it was No-limit to qualify for the pots and as such the 2/4 games were HORRID. We only stayed about an hour and I cashed out down 12. We then headed to the MGM where I love playing, and was having a grand old time. I played poorly though and despite running up to +100 I managed to give it all back and cash out +8.

A trip to the Excalibur for one final spot and a few winning hands, and a really nice draw coming in put me up 50 there for +46 for the day. Quick dinner and to bed as we were all tired around 1 AM.

Relaxing day at the River

2006-03-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 11th

Laughlin, NV is on the Colorado River with a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding it. It is a very peaceful and relaxing place. The original plan on Saturday was to get up and signup for the 10 AM tournament at the Belle, go eat breakfast, play (and win of course), eat lunch, watch a movie, play for 5-6 more hours and go to bed for the trip to Vegas in the morning.

Well, that plan got shot to shit. The tournament was sold out more than an hour ahead of time, breakfast line was 2 miles long... so I hit the buffet and walked over to the Edgewater to play some Blackjack. I quickly went up 50 bucks but the table was a ton of fun and I decided to stay so of course I lost all of that and another 50 before slowly building back up and finally cashing out 2 hours later up 200. Lunch was some quick pizza and then I went and saw The Libertine which was an interesting yet odd movie.

Back to the poker room at Laughlin's Riverside and the 4/8 full kill game there. It was the only one running and boy was it juicy. I was card dead for awhile and managed to steal a NICE pot from a guy when we had the same hand and he folded to my aggression. I then showed him after he showed me and he tilted for the next hour. A few more big hands later, and a nice outflop with KQ vs AK on an AJ10 flop and I cashed out up 300.

The Riverside poker room has a gorgeous view of the river and the mountains that made it very easy to sit and wait on hands as I was just enjoying the scenary when I was card dead. I would definately recommend this room.

Jesus take the wheel

2006-03-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

Friday, March 10th

I am from Georgia, and it gets COLD in Georgia. Sometimes it gets down to like 25 and icy! It turns out there is such a thing as colder than that if you can believe it! 20 degrees, 30-40 MPH wind. Wow, remind me not to move to Maine.

A 12 hour drive on 3 hours sleep was not the best plan in the world. I had already paid for the Grand Canyon tour and wasn't going to waste a hundred dollars on sleep. So off I went. The drive went well until I got to flagstaff, even with the snow, wind and ice.

Flagstaff I called the airport and it was closed down due to the weather as well as the road to the Grand Canyon was rated treacherous and not recommended to come up there. So forward to Laughlin I went.

I never realized how much difference a few thousand feet of elevationwould make. I left Flagstaff and the roads became treacherous beyond belief. The roads were 2 inches deep in packed, icy snow. Then the windshield started to freeze over from the road spray and snow coming down. The windshield wipers froze into a sheet of ice going back and forth. Then a mustang changed lanes in front of me and flew off the road (mustangs go straight in snow. Turning is NOT an option). Passed a station wagon face first in a ditch, a jackknifed tractor trailor, lots of semi's pulled over (how are they ever going to start going again? like it is going to melt on top of a freaking mountain). A huge accident on the other side of the road. If I wasn't a Christian before that experience I certainly became a Jesus Freak in a hurry during that. It made me think of that song Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood.... Sometimes you really do feel like your life is not in your control.

Amazingly after I got over the top of the mountain the other side was completely clear. Not a drop of snow 5 feet from where there was 2 feet. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen! Flew down the other side, cleaned off the windshield and got into Laughlin in no time flat.

Checked into the Ramada Express, and rested up a little from the trip. I headed over to the Colorado Belle after a snack and sat at the 4/8 table there. Very early at the table I get QJ suited in the big blind, the ENTIRE TABLE limps to me. Now with 10 players in the hand, I need this flop to hit me square in the head to win this pot. A pair of Q's isn't going to do it! The flop is 8/9/10 rainbow! OK... so there is hitting a flop and there is freaking destroying a flop. Wow. I check of course having flopped the nuts and it is raised immediately to my left and then 2 bet behind him, several callers and back to me. So of course I call not wanting to kill the action. The turn is an Ace and it is bet by the last card raiser, and then 2 bet behind HIM! So now a NEW guy is 2 betting, wow. Folded back to me and I should have raised but decided to go for overcalls and a checkraise on the river. The original better folded and it was headsup. River I decided to lead into him as I didn't want it to check through and he called for a huge pot! JJ held up in a kill pot (they run 4/8 with a full kill) and I was up a little over 100 in an hour. The table then broke for a tournament starting and I got moved to a 2/6 spread limit game which was tight as I have ever seen. The average pot was 6 dollars! I hit a huge hand with AJ suited against 9/2 who hit a boat against my flush and lost a bunch so cashed out up 30 and went to bed.

Don't close my table Biatch!

2006-03-19T11:29:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 9th

The wind is still blowing but nothing like it was yesterday, so I heading up to the Sandia Peak tram and up the mountain for lunch. It turns out I am not COMPLETELY over my head congestion from the allergies in Tulsa. That is not a really big deal until you get up to 11,000 feet above sea level and your ears won't pop because of your head congestion! Talk about immense pain, OUCH! I had brought a book to read at the scenic restaurant on the top of the mountain looking out over the majestic views. It didn't work so well... I ate (AWESOME food btw wow), and went right back down. The view from up there was amazing! You can see for miles and miles and it is so peaceful. There was no snow even this time of year due to the drought they were having, but it was still majestic. They have very nice day hike trails up and down the mountain and I really wish I had brought some hiking boots and done that, it would have been so beautiful. I have uploaded some beatiful scenic pictures from the top of the mountain here

After a short nap and some recovery of the ear's pressure issues, I headed for the poker room again. There was a 7 PM World Series of Poker qualifying tournament I thought of playing in, but it was 140 people + and I didn't want to stay up that late with the long 12+ hour drive tomorrow to Laughlin, NV. I get a seat in the 4/8 and noticec a distinct difference in the lineup. There is a lot of trash talking, attitude, criticism, etc. The crowd tonight is just a complete but of a-holes and I am really glad I didn't play in the tournament if these are the people in there. I am looking forward to the tourney starting so I can play with the friendly normal people who I have won so much from the previous two days!

7 PM rolls around and they come around to find out who is going to be in the tourney, etc and write down the names of those who are not. Then they CLOSE EVERY TABLE! Yes, they kick EVERYONE off of every table and use all the tables and all the dealers for the tournament with 20-30 alternates. It is almost 2 hours before they open another 4/8 table and in that period of time I find dinner and a blackjack table and manage to lose 100 dollars. Thanks for closing the tables!

Around midnight I get back up to +200 at the tables and begin to consider that I am tired, have a long drive and should go to bed. However, the fish are not out of money yet and I don't think I should leave a good table because I reached a goal or have somewhere to go. So I decided to stay another hour, well an hour of bad cards puts me on tilt, 2 hours of bad cards pisses me off, and then my one good hand in 3 hours losing sends me to bed pissed off at 3 AM down 200 for the night.

I was so irritated at my play, my attitude, and my losses that I couldn't even sleep soundly. I had to be up at 7 AM to leave and hit the Grand Canyon tour I had booked by 2:30 PM so 3 hours of restless sleep, a 12 hour drive ahead of me... what a good plan this is!

Wow, that's Windy

2006-03-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 8th

The original plan was to go up to Sandia Peak today on the 2 Mile airway tram. Now a tram is basically a large bucket hanging from a string going up a mountain for 2 miles... a little on the scary side, but perfectly safe. However when I got up and couldn't walk into the wind it was so strong that idea changed dramatically.

Instead, I decided to go to the route 66 diner for lunch. I had originally planned to go there on Thursday but the wind hath spoken and I shall obey. The diner was really neat, every bit the 60's diner experience all the way down to the uniforms and how they made the milkshakes. The burgers were awesome, the shake was HUGE and boy was it tasty. They had some really interesting materials and such around from the route 66 days a nice map of the entire original route 66. More pictures of the diner are here

After lunch and a nap, I went out to play at Sandia, the cards were better today getting pocket A's 4 times and hitting quad J's as well. Quads at Sandia are worth 2250 points, which translates to about 5 dollars in comps. WOOO!! Fortunately they can be spent across the street for Gas so 5 dollars in free gas is well, 5 dollars in free gas. I had to wait a little to get on a table, and picked up 40 at blackjack while waiting and then 8 hours of poker netted a nice 407. I am starting to like this place, it is a real grind but the pots are really nice and when the hands hit they pay.

Getting my kicks on Route 66

2006-03-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Yeah Baby! Road Tripping time! I had to go pick up my laundry Monday morning (yes, I am so lazy I paid someone else to wash my clothes instead of sitting in a laundromat for 2 hours, and went and saw a movie instead) and then jetted out of town. I was going to play the tournament at 10 AM but 120 people and 4 hours to the final table would have killed me. Out of town it is. Route 66 from Tulsa to Oklahoma City was amazing... Nice little small towns, diners, old quaint downtowns. Really nice.

I discovered after some research that route 66 that it was closed 20 years ago or so, and the renewal of it is very segmented... so some sections are completely unmarked, and others are very well marked with museums and signs, etc. So I bounced back and forth after Oklahoma City onto Route 66 and back off, found a nice museum and met some nice people in there. An interesting history of the road they call Main Street USA or The Mother Road. Very interesting history of the road and the time before interstates. How did we ever survive without interstates? Oh my... I get mad at 4 lane roads, imagine going through actual TOWNS when driving! WOW!

Tulsa to New Mexico was a 10 hour drive that I made a 13 hour drive by taking side trips and tours, and eating the best ribs in Texas (maybe I should find a new state for that, since I didn't they they were that great)... Made it into Alburquerque at 10 PM their time and eventually found the casino and the hotel (in that order :) ). Checked out the tourney schedule and found they had only a 7 PM on Tuesday of Omaha Hi/lo Limit... bah! I will pass on that one. 13 hours of driving and I am not even going to play tonight, so off to bed it is.

Tuesday Morning I wake up at 7 freaking AM! WTF! STupid time change, and sleeping soundly. It is just bad news.. I decided that Phoenix is too expensive, and I am really a Braves fan. I will just take a vacation next year and go to Spring Training instead in Orlando, so I am going to stay in New Mexico until Friday and then hit Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon on the way to Laughlin until Sunday when I head to Vegas.

A little research and some mapping incidents, I decided Tuesday morning (ie today) I would go see Sky City an authentic Indian Peublo on a mesa outside of town. Wednesday morning I will take the tram to Sandia Peak for the great pictures and have lunch looking out over the valley, and Thursday morning I would play the 9 AM tournament at Route 66 Casino. I can then put in 6-10 hours a night at the Poker tables and try to reach my goal for week 2 before I head to Laughlin. Laughlin can make me spending money!

Sky City was soooo cool, to think people lived in those huts for hundreds of years without any power or running water and still do. It is 100 freaking degrees in New Mexico some days, and they built houses they stayed cooler than anything I ever lived in. Just amazing what those people do. I have lots of pictures I will post very soon. I didn't get to the Poker tables until 4 PM and they were seating a must-move 4/8 with a half kill that I sat right into. I got there at a good time as I only played 7 hands before I was moved to the main game and started settling in. It was a good start with A/big (AK and AQ) winning 3 times in a row to start things out, and get me a nice 100 dollar profit cushion to play with (I am a much better player when I am ahead and relaxed).. the table is very nice and calm, lots of loose passive play, lots of suckouts. Several solid players tilting bad and trying to push me off the nuts (turns out I won't fold the nut flush even if you raise me).... The table cycles in and out, new players coming in all the time. I manage to hit quads twice in the same session! WOOO! That is 3 quads in my last 2 sessions now... whee. They have a high hand promotion that quads gives you some extra bonus points or something (whatever that is for), but only for J's or better quads. WTF! Dude quads are quads. Pay me biatch! My Quad 7's didn't get anything special, but the quad K's paid nicely.. Finished the session up 406 after 8 hours and am heading off to bed now.

Tomorrow it is up to the top of the mountain and down to the poker tables. Let's hope it all stays up.

More route 66 pictures at http://photobucket.com/albums/f84/rpeiper/Route%2066/

You might be a bad poker player if

2006-03-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

I have always had problems with Allergies, and I half expected them to go away when I left Georgia. It appears I have these problems anywhere stuff grows, good thing I am moving to a desert. Saturday night I was only able to play 3 hours before the allergies kicked me in the teeth enough to send me to a benadryl induced coma, and 6 hours on Sunday. I did manage to take 340 out of the game during that sequence, so that is a good side benefit but playing sick is BAD! At least with a regular job when you are sick you can call in and still get paid... here if I call in I get nothing, and if I play sick I probably lose money. Whee....

I leave Tulsa for New Mexico Monday morning. I was going to play the 30 dollar tourney at Cherokee but it gets 80-120 people and I have a 9 hour drive if I take I-40 (which I won't since I am going route 66), so I am just going to make it a travel day instead. Once I get into New Mexico I will check the room out and decide what to do next. I can either go down to Phoenix and hit Casino Arizona, spring training, and the World Baseball Classic. I could also go over to Laughlin and get a much cheaper room. Not sure which yet, but I am leaning towards baseball. A few extra bucks, but I have never been to a spring training game before.

The more time I spend at the tables the more I realize how many good players are not that good. I have great respect for the gamboolers and their raise every hand mentality. However the ones who tilt easily, expect everyone to play their game and not adjust, and the ones who have stupid ideas about poker... so I came up with this list that will help you know the bad players who THINK they are not.

You might be a bad poker player if you have ever said (and meant it) ...

- I never win with AK, I should just fold it pre-flop (this is also often said of AA and KK)
- Everytime I get KK there is an Ace on the flop
- I hate games where it is capped 8 ways pre-flop.
- How do you beat a 1/2 No-limit game where it is 60 to see a flop 6 ways.
- I wish people would stop chasing and learn to fold.

I am sure there are a lot more... but those are really starting to bug me. I am off to route 66 tomorrow...

But I had a flush draw

2006-03-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

It only took about 6 hours to get to Tulsa, then another hour to find a gas station... WTF is wrong with these midwest towns where they can't put a freaking sign more than 6 inches off the ground for a gas station! Do they all ride freaking bicycles, sheesh.

I did learn something about hotel reservations, don't get the cheap one. Wow.. I know they are trying, but sheesh. Paper thin walls, dirty bathtubs, No travel fridge, no desk... Kind of weak. But they were nice, friendly, and have wireless. So I will deal with it. One other thing... if the sign says DO NOT DISTURB. It means DO NOT F'ING DISTURB. Not to KNOCK on the door and ASK if I want to be disturbed!

Cherokee Casino Tulsa is well... kind of odd. It is pretty new (about a year old) and I expected it to be bigger. It is right outside Tulsa and gets a mainly regular crowd. The good things first... Very classy joint, dealers were great, a lot more female dealers than most places and a lot younger dealers. The female dealers were some of the better ones there, very good. They have a fountain drinks right next to the poker room which you can get anytime you want. And they have mountain dew 10 feet from the table... oh baby baby...

The bad... It is primarily locals, they aren't very good but they do play a lot. So you don't get anywhere near the crappy play you get in Tunica and Vegas where tourism is bigger. Comps are horrid, 75 cents an hour period. No free buffets every 4 hours like in Tunica, no poker rate on rooms, they even rake at some of the table games. This is also the first casino I have ever been to where drinks are not free! I know tipping is customary, but $3.50 + tip for a Heineken is silly.

Onto the games.... They spread 4/8, 1/2 NL, 2/5 NL, and a few random Stud and Omaha games I didn't look at. My 4/8 table LOOKED really solid when I got there, but as I paid attention I realized they were all 30-40% VPIP calling stations and I could grind the good hands against them. I was rolling along nicely, busting a guys KK with Q/7 which flopped 2 pair from the big blind in an unraised pot.... and then the world changed. In came a new player Floppy McGenius I will call her. Nicest lady ever.. but I don't think she ever actually KNEW what she had.

When Floppy McGenius gets to the table she immediately hits 3 flops in a row and announces she is doing a progressive betting, and it helps her win more hands in a row because the dealer wants the bigger tips. She quickly goes up 200 and says she has a new plan. "I'm going to leave the Casino with money". This is the NEW Plan? WTF? What was the OLD plan? And she came up with that ALL by herself... Oh my.

After being up 200 Floppy starts to dwindle away as she plays about 90% of hands regardless of position or raises. And then this hand comes up. Q//3/7 with 1 diamond. Turn is a 10, and river an 8 to give J/9 of diamonds the straight, the guy with AQ makes a little comment about nice catch to which she announces "I had a flush draw". He asks "where?" to which she replies "On the flop. See there was a diamond". OK... I knew Runer runner is TECHNICALLY a draw.. but dear god don't use that as an excuse! Oh my..... I thought that was it, it couldn't get any dumber. I was wrong.

I have QJ on a J/10/9/7 board and raise into her she reraises and I call. River is an Ace and I bet, she just calls. Shows A3. I said something about the river being her love child in a previous life, and she said with a straight face and not even joking one bit "But I had a straight draw". No.. you didn't, the JANITOR had the same straight draw you had! A draw to a straight on the board is NOT A DRAW! Oh my.... After my AA got cracked by J/10 and 10/4 in a capped 5 way pre-flop pot, I had to get up and leave. 9 Hours, down $114. I should have lost a lot more but somehow I managed to survive KK vs AA vs Flopped set of 10's, AA cracked, 4 gutshots and a few more runner runners, to minimize the damage. I then played some "Ultimate Texas Hold'em" table game and made back 80 of it to finish down 34 for the night.

Back tomorrow after a few errands.

Good Bye Tunica, Hello Tulsa

2006-03-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a lovely stay in Tunica and everyone was very friendly with no real issues. I decided to play in the 60+20 buyin freeze-out Thursday at 1 PM (kind of early but I managed to get up for it) and it got 29 players for almost 3 full tables. Blinds went up every 15 minutes and the whole tourney only last about 2.5 hours. So you can imagine it was a bit of a crap shoot... We are down to 7 players and I have a decent sized stack, but the blinds are going up fast now and even though I am not short stacked the blinds still hurt. I am in the big blind when a very solid lady to my left who plays a lot of these and the No-limit cash game pushes all in. All-in pushes are common at this stage as a blind steal will add 20-30% to most stacks, folded to me in the big blind and I look down to see glorious pocket rockets. I apologize and call, she has King's and the Aces hold up bringing us down to 6. A few hands later the short stack goes all-in with 3's and is called by K's to get knocked out. We chop 5 ways for $337 off an $80 entry, not bad for 2 hours of work. I was the chip leader and could have been an ass to the short stack who was about to put 50% of his stack in the Big Blind, but decided not to as a chop was fairly standard practice and I didn't want to one of those "I caught a hand, F all you guys", and I would want that kind of courtesy if I was the small stack.

Well apparently my karma was good for that as I sat down in a 4/8 game and was grinding along pretty well when I lost a series of big hands to set myself down 130. In the process of walking around steaming from the last beat (A8 off limp/reraise/cap UTG flopping 2 pair, then racking and leaving) I notice my favorite people from the weekend all at the same table. There is "I just wanna see what you have Lucy" who has dropped 1100 in 2 days while I have been watching her, "I like the big pots Fred", and "This is fun Hippie Sam". Add in the tilting "I know how to play an you are all idiots" guy, the flush raiser, the calling stations, and the I always bet top pair even if you just check/raised me people... it was a gold mine. I turned down 130 into up 300 in about 2 hours and went to bed after 3 of my favorite fish left.

One funny story from Wednesday night. The weekdays in Tunica are all pretty much 80 year old retired men sitting there for hours on end not generating much action. The games are very beatable as they still play 40% or so of hands, and play them very passively. But you are only getting 4-5 to the flop, no raises and often folded on a flop-bet. So it is hard to take much out of it... The old guys are also all pretty quiet and other than a few don't talk much. After a few hours of almost sullen silence at the table someone gets their aces cracked, and I mention that if that had happened between 4 AM and 8 AM they would have gotten a rack of whites (aka $100). One of the older gentleman tells me that he heard about that and considered getting up a few hours early to play at 4 AM! A few hours EARLY! F That... I was just going to stay up a little later... So I inform them they could just play until 8 AM from now. You would have thought I suggested they eat their first born. That got them all going... 8 old guys all talking at the same time about how late they could stay up, and this one time when they stayed up until 11 and slept in until 6! And then I said the magic word that REALLY got them worked up. I felt like I was on Pee Wee's playhouse and had said the magic word "RV Park". OMG! They flipped out... I swear heads were turning around backwards they were talking over each other, comparing stories. "The RV park here is kind of expensive", "You know they don't even have a laundry", "If you book for 2 weeks you can get it for about 49 a week", "Oh I generally average about 35 a week if I plan ahead", etc. It was freaking hilarious.... I thought one of them was going to have a Coronary right there and then.

That is it for the first week... Not a bad session at all. I played 59 hours of poker in 7 days and 1 hour of table games. Up $1,125 over that period ($945 of that at poker) playing 4/8 or under, and one tournament (and 1 hour of table games netted me 180). Everyone was super-nice, the floor at Sam's Town and Grand were awesome as were all the dealers. I only went to the goldstrike on Saturday and maybe they were having a bad day, but they were horrid. My last visit to the Gold Strike was good... this time I really felt unwelcome and unimportant. I didn't go back there the rest of the week... the games at the Grand were just too good, and the people were as nice as they could be. A special thanks to Terry and Barbara for getting all the room issues sorted out and going well above and beyond to make sure I left a happy customer (of course I did put in 35 hours in their room so they got a good deal of rake from me which I am ok with). Now it is off to Tulsa and the Cherokee Resort in Catoosa...

Look Ma! I'm a redhead

2006-03-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 28th

My Cousin Nikki lives in Southern Mississippi just north of New Orleans and my Cousin Stacy is there for Mardi Gras. I told them I would come down there for Fat Tuesday and visit for awhile. I had no idea what I was in store for... Nikki was a wonderful hostess and other than a lack of hot water I could not have asked for a better place to stay. I didn't get there until almost 10 PM Monday night and since we were leaving at 8 AM for Mardi Gras (apparently traffic is a bit of an issue on Fat Tuesday) we went straight to bed. First thing we do is hit up a few of Nikki's friends Scott, Emily and Jesse. I was completely new to Mardi Gras and had to have a lot of it explained to me, apparently there are various groups in New Orleans called Krewes who put on all the various parades throughout the Mardi Gras weeks. We had gotten invited to the "Tuck House" which is the Mother Ship of the Krewe of Tucks and is the home of Chris Beary and his lovely wife. Now the Tucks are a group founded by 2 college kids in a bar, so you can imagine what they do on a regular basis. Drinking, partying, and having a good time... and these were THE nicest people I ever met. They didn't know me from Adam and they welcomed all of us into their house with open arms. Not to mention they were amazing hosts! Half a block from the parade route (The parade lasted from 8 AM to 5 PM for 5 different parades back to back), catered breakfast and lunch, open bar, beautiful home. Just the absolute most Tuck-tastic party ever!

Now the parade route is a very interesting array of characters. You have your high society classic Mardi Gras people. Fancy outfits, elaborate masks, just amazing. Then you have your college kids living in tents on the parade route with couches, grills, coolers, and secret beer sales to cover their costs. Then you have the kids, which is really what the parades are all about. The kids sit up on ladders specially fitted with seats on the top. The parents stand behind them on the ladders taking pictures. It is really very cool watching the kids catch beads and plush toys, etc. Each parade is done by a different Krewe or organization and have different beads and cups they throw out, so if you want to "get it all" you have to do some trading (as different parades go different routes).

After the parades and partying was done my Cousin Stacy and I headed over to Harrahs where I hit up the 3/6 game there. The jackpot at Harrahs is up to 59K and the bad beat requirements is Aces full of 10's or better beaten. Which is the EASIEST one I have ever seen. Unfortunately the game was full of local rocks soft-playing each other, and every fish who sat down got eaten immediately and sent packing. I won 2 hands early and was up $40 and should have noticed the quality of the table and the players and left. But I was only there for 2 hours and I wanted to play (Mental note... forcing yourself to play in a poor state of mind or poor environment because you "only" have X time is a recipe for disaster). I proceeded to lose the entire buy-in and rebuy for another 100 and drop it as well. Flush over flush, top 2 vs rivered flush, boat over boat, etc. I have to share probably the worst played boat I have ever seen...

I have 3/5 off in the BB and the flop is 3/8/K rainbow. checked around, and turn is an 8. I figure the K would have bet, the 8 would let me know he had it, so I lead out with the 3. A few callers, a few folders and the river is a 3. No raises so I know noone has an 8, and now the naked K doesn't matter. So I lead again and 2 callers. The button shows the 8 for the better full house. With 8's full of 3's and the rake capped, the only things he loses to are Pocket 3's, Pocket K's and K8. I think I would have had to bet at SOME point in that hand.. especially facing the whole table after I raised in the BB and he was the button. Thank goodness he didn't as I probably would have gone to 4 bets with him not believing he had the 8.

As I am about to leave down to my last few dollars and refusing to rebuy I witness the most obvious softplay ever. I know I have HEARD of this, but never seen it. The flop is 3 hearts and early position bets out, folded to button who calls. She looks up and says "Just me and you Mike?" and flips over her hand. He does the same and they check it down. Now the dealer obviously understood this because he flipped the next 2 cards without even asking them for a bet, and pushed the pot to the winner. WTF! Talk about making a player feel unwelcome.... Softplay if you want, but dear god don't make it THAT obvious!

Finish with Harrahs around 8 PM and head to the restroom before we go. I take a look in the mirror and realize my head has changed colors. Apparently I should have gotten a hat, because my normal bald head is now RED! and I mean GLOWING red, like neon.... Oh dear, suddenly I am a redhead and will be in a lot of pain very soon, but not now as it is time for Bourbon Street! Yeah baby.

I expected Bourbon Street to be crowded but OH MY GOD! I had never seen anything like this. The street is about 5 blocks long filled with Bars, Strip Clubs and Lingerie shops and in no specific order. The people were packed nose to tail as solid a sea of people as I have ever seen. You went at the same speed as everyone else or you were trampled. I stoped for a beer, a slice of pizza and got run over by a drunk trying to get to the bathroom to puke.... Oh baby my Mardi Gras was looking good. As I am walking along with the crowd suddenly the whole sea of people just stop in place. I look up to the balconies (which apparently you have to PAY to get on) and see two topless women making out. NOONE moved from that spot until they stopped.. It was hilarious! So now my Mardi Gras was complete, I had beads, trash, awesome parties, beer on bourbon street and now I feel like I did all I could at Mardi Gras. I can return to my regular life and feel fulfilled. As I turn around to leave we see 2 girls walk by with shirts so tight I could see every wrinkle and nipple, and the shirts were really cool looking with bright mardi gras colours on the front. As I looked closer I realized that it was not a "Tight Shirt" it was NO SHIRT! The ladies had actually PAINTED their breasts and were walking through the crowd like that! I was so enthralled I lost my cousin in the crowd and didn't even get a picture! WTF! Come back Come Back! DOH!

Back out to Canal Street to find a cab back to my car (which I eventually found out was a LONG LONG way away). At this point I need to learn NOT to ask for things, because God things he is funny sometimes. I said "Crap, I forgot to take a picture of the painted breasts. I hope I see that again." Unfortunately for me... I did, and that image will haunt me forever. I turned the corners into Harrahs to find a cab and almost get run over by a large woman with breasts down to her knees... and they were PAINTED. Oh my, I think I actually injured something in that moment. I may never recover from that...

A 30 minute cab ride back to the car, which I was really scared I would never find again... and we were golden back to Nikki's and crashed out in 30 secs after we got there. Back to Tunica on Wednesday morning.

WOO! I am a fish!

2006-03-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 26th

I head over to the Grand Sunday morning to checkin and get my room with internet access (turns out the Veranda only has it in the lobby so I could have stayed at Sam's Town for $18 a night instead and driven to the lobby to use it. But whatever). I head over to the poker room around 2:30 PM and get seated in a new 4/8 starting up. The lineup is pretty good for this game with mostly tight passives who can be pushed off the flop, and loose chasers who write their hand on their forehead. I manage to get pocket A's for the first time ALL weekend in this game, and then proceed to hit them 3 times and a few A/big and other nice hands including a few sets to run up a nice +140 in 4 hours. The quote of the day at this table had to be from one of the "Any 2 will do" crew who after buying in for the 5th time said "It's only money. I own my own company. I will jsut fire a few more people if I don't win soon".

Early dinner on a nice buffet comp and a quick nap before heading back up to the poker room around 9 PM. The highest I have ever played at a casino is 3/6 before this trip and I had the expectation that 4/8 was tighter from the few times I had watched it. My experiences from earlier this weekend had confirmed that. So when I sat at the 4/8 on Sunday night and saw 8 to the flop and 5 to the river I was in shock. I managed to play a tight game and not tilt over the suckouts and ran my $200 buyin up to almost 400 before giving back about 80 waiting for a hand, When this hand comes around... QJ of hearts in the small blind. Limped to me with 7 players in the pot so I complete. Flop is K, 10, 3 2 hearts. I figure if I get lucky I can check raise the whole table and if it checks around it isn't the worst sin ever. So I check. 3 to my left bets, 5 callers, 1 fold to the button who raises. I decide a 3 bet here will kill the action and just call. The rest call. 7 of us see the turn. Ace of spades (to go with the K of spades on the flop) giving me the nut straight. Surely ONE of these 7 people will bet.. so I check from the small blind position Raise and reraise back to me. 1 person folds and I once again decide for the overcalls and 5 of us see the river for 2 bets each. River is nothing, and I decide checking around with the nuts is bad. So I go ahead and lead out. Apparently I underestimated my table image as everyone folded but 1 caller He had A10 for 2 pair. The other people ALL said they had 2 pair as well. (Yeah Yeah they ALWAYS HAD the nuts)... $180 pot pushed my way. I toss the dealer a redbird and color up.

A few hands later. Action Jackson who has blown through 2 racks trying to bluff into 9 callers every hand live straddles. Jumping Joe raises it. Jumping Joe has not been able to sit in his seat for more than 1 orbit at a time, has smoked 50 cig's while I have been at the table, and is so jittery he looks like he had 50 cups of coffee as well. I look down to see AK of clubs and make it 12 to go. Only the 3 of us to the flop. Flop couldn't BE any better for me... A10x 2 10x of clubs. Top pair and nut flush draw... yeah I will bet this. Action Jackson checks, Jumping Joe leads out and I raise folding out Action Jackson and it is heads up to the turn as Jumping Joe calls. Turn is the K. Jumping Joe leads out again and top 2 pair with the nut flush draw is so crappy I decide to raise it. he 3 bets, I 4 bet and he caps. (even though technically it was not a cap as we were headsup so could have gone on forever. But I didn't HAVE the nuts so I was fine with not bringing it up). River is the beautiful 7 of clubs. He bets out and I raise. At this point he informs me I am a flush chasing river rat who should never touch a poker table again, and that he has the straight and I am ahorrible person for getting the flush (he used SLIGHTY different words). I have to show first (and he waits for me to do so) showing top 2 pair and the rivered flush atwhich point he mucks his hand in disgust and tells me he had me until then. At which time the whole table rolls their eyes and says nice hand.

I top the dealer 2 redbirds and thank her for an amazing run that helped the bankroll immensely. Cashed out up 383 in 6 hours of play.

I head back downstairs where I saw some table gables I thought were interesting. 4 card Poker, and Flop Poker. So I sit at 4 card poker and give it a shot. They deal you 5 cards and you make your best 4 card hand out of it... then the dealer gets 6 cards to make her best 4 card hand and best hand wins, some bonus action on a jackpot bet pays nicely on big hands and 4 of a kind is a HUGE payout. I sat for 45 mins getting not much and finally hitting a straight to get back to even and stood up. I saw a seat at flop poker and decided to give it a try. Flop Poker each player puts up a "Post" bet (which is the table minimum), an Ante and an optional bet after seeing your 3 cards. You are dealt 3 cards, dealer is dealt 3 cards and turns them up in the middle for the flop. You make the best 5 card hand out of your 3 and 2 of hers and are then paid if you have Jacks or better. The best hand at the table wins the Flop bet's. I am doing fine not winning or losing (which is good for a table game) and find myself up $10 so I decide one mroe hand. Well I get dealt 886 and consider folding, but say WTF maybe I can hit 2 pair or better. Flop is 86x for the Full Boat. Well it turns out a full house pays 30 to 1 and I rake in a $180 profit from the hand and go cash out. Sleep and off to New Orleans tomorrow.

"What do you do for a living?"

2006-03-01T14:13:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 25th

Saturday I don't get up terribly early... OK I slept in, deal with it. Got up around Noon, hit the buffet and then decided to make the rounds to see what tourneys, etc they had at the various rooms. Horseshoe has no freeze-outs under $100 and no rebuys under 60. So I will pass there. Goldstrike has their early bird at 11 AM (OOps.. I overslept. Darn) and nothing else that fit well. Heading out of the horseshoe I trip over a wheelchair, and almost run into a lady with an oxygen tank at the blackjack tables. I know retired people love casinos, and I love when they play poker there (Us young kids raising all the time and ruining their poker game. We don't play the game right!). However, if you are on an OXYGEN TANK you might want to STAY AWAY FROM THE CASINO! I mean seriously, how much excitement can you take if you are that frail. I really don't want to see someone die at the casino, seriously.

I head over to the goldstrike and sit in the 4/8 they are just starting there. The players are a normal mix, some good, some tight, some bad, and one who never folds. I look up to the TV and they have Bass fishing on, I remark that I am not a big fan of watching fishing on TV. The guy who calls every hand pipes in "I love to fish!" to which half the table erupts in laughter and I say "Of course you do... you seem to have a skill for it". I am running well and playing well until the Fisherman gets under my skin and I blow off a few hundred trying to "catch him". A bad idea in case you were wondering, and switch to a 3/6 table when I couldn't handle this guy anymore.
I sit down at the 3/6 with about 80 of my 200 buy-in in front of me and quickly go down to the felt and rebuy, going down to the felt again and rebuy for another $100. Tilting in a major way, pushing WAY to hard, and playing like I was a complete moron. Chasing gutshots, overs, bottom pairs, etc. Just throwing money away basically. The seat to my right is a nice gentlemen from Oxford, MS (University of MS) and his girlfriend is from Atlanta so we are chatting it up, jabbing back and forth about UGA vs Ole Miss and after my third buy-in at the table he asks "Wow, you have a lot of cash what do you do for a living?" to which I reply "Well I guess right now, I play poker for a living since I quit my job on Friday". To which he replies "I see THAT is going well". Oh boy... was *I* embarassed. I finally managed to get off tilt, hit a few hands finally and ended the afternoon shift down $50.

I decided to hit the night shift at Sam's town to finish off my hours and get some of my losses back. The 3/6 is just as crazy as ever. Sitting to my left is Charlie. Now Charlie has spent his entire life fishing, skiiing, etc on the river, and has obviously made a friend somewhere upstairs with his 11 Children and 27 grandchildren because Charlie cannot lose. If he has a draw it hits. Runner runner trips holding a naked ace, gutshots, river sets, etc. He never folded if he had ANY way to win and win he did. He ran his stack to over 700 before giving back some and quitting. I was holding my own in that game until I flopped a set vs A's and Q's to win a huge pot and put the guy to my right on tilt. He decided he was not going to fold anymore, he was playing every hand all the way to the river, he was tired of this. Now this was my cue to get up... but I am not all that smart sometimes. So I get K's and raise, 6 callers. Flop is J high and after bet/call, bet/call to the river tilting guy shows Q/9 for the runner runner straight drawing virtually dead. I was planning to get up after the K's hand and go to bed up a little for the day. Instead I stayed for 2 more hours tilted off another 200 before finishing the night down 215 for the day.

Day One

2006-03-01T14:12:00.001-08:00

Friday. March 24th 2006

Friday is my last day at the office, so of course I came in around 11 after meeting a few friends for one final going away breakfast. After finishing up a few final pieces of documentation, and saying a few tearful goodbyes to friends. I walked back upstairs to a surpise going away party, complete with cake and friends. Pat made a nice speech about how much I would NOT be missed, and capped it off with a nice piece of cake in the face. What a send off!

I had planned to leave around 2:00 but didn't get away until 2:30 with all the surpises and goodbyes, but once I did I had everything I owned packed in my car and was on the first interstate out of town. Vegas here I come! Arrive in Tunica around 7 and check into my room at Sam's Town (which they tried to cancel but I got lucky and noone had taken it. What f'ing casino cancels a room reservation because you don't arrive before 6 PM! Sheesh). Drop the luggage in the room and head straight to the room. I am at Sam's Town because noone else had anything, and I need to put in 10 hours over 2 nights to get the poker rate for 2 nights. So I figured hit it on Friday and see how it goes. Sam's spreads 2/4, 3/6 and 4/8. The 2/4 is filled with "Professional Idiots". You know the type, the ones who sit there with their ipod, glasses and stare you down before they call a $2 bet on the river into a $70 pot, and then criticize the other players. If you are raising with 8/6 off at a table where 9 people see the flop every hand... you do NOT get to criticize anyone's play.

I sit at the 3/6 table and it is just flat out superb. A few decent players, but noone playing anything more than their hand and most playing a whole lot less. One girl to my left who is a "Professional Bar player" and is going to win a seat in the world series doing that... yeah I bet, who tells me that the "Low Cards are hitting so she is playing the low stuff". The cards that night are absolutely horrible, AK a few times all rivered by various two pairs and runner runner straights. My only pocket pairs are 2's and 5's once each. I manage to get a few draws to come in, and some check/raises before people catch on and stop betting into me (which helped me hit my draws more). I stayed there from 8 PM to 3:00 AM and the table turned over 3 times during that, so not much stability but still good.

One funny hand from the night. QJ in late position with 7 players and I limp in. Flop is J72. Checked to me so I raise and called around. River is a 5, checked around again and I raise only 4 callers. River is another J and I raise of course holding 3 J's and show when I am called down. Everyone mucks face down and the pot comes my way. One girl at the table remarks "You rivered me, I flopped a set of 2's". I had to stop for a few mins to make sure I heard her right, you mean you had pocket 2's? She said yeah and one on the flop. So I said "So you folded a full house?" and she stopped for a few mins before hanging her head in shame. I thought about giving the money back to her, but didn't. Turn your cards up and stop trying to be slick by mucking face down.

Ended the night on a nice run and finished up $297. Not a bad start to the trip. The people at Sam's are very nice, Dealers are friendly and efficient, Floor didn't make any mistakes I saw. They are the only smoking Poker Room in Tuica so you can imagine the crowd they attract. The weekend brush Connie was awesome and always willing to help out (not to mention pretty cute). Apparently she deals during the week and brushes on the weekend, so I will have to see how good of a dealer she is later this week.

The Plan

2006-02-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well now that I am unemployed and homeless, I might as well come up with a plan. I have to get to Las Vegas, I will need a car and money when I get there, I will need a job and a place to live eventually....

So the first part of the plan is to get to Las Vegas. Now driving coast to coast as fast as humanly possible is one option, but why do that? I can take the scenic tour of the country and enjoy the trip a whole lot more. Not to mention this would be one boring blog if all it said was "And then we were in Las Vegas".

I love meeting new people, playing poker, and visiting historic/interesting places. So to combine those and to make some money doing it I decided to travel coast to coast via Poker Rooms and take 2 weeks to get there. This works very well as my best friend Trevor will be in Las Vegas March 12th and I can have at least one friendly face when I get there. So I timed this trip to take 2 weeks and get me there in time to pick him up from the airport.

Stop 1: Tunica, MS - There is no better place for poker in the SouthEast. The dealers are friendly, there are 5 rooms in close proximity to each other. For 10 hours a day of play you get 3 square meals, a room in a nice hotel for between 20 and 35 a night and some of the easiest competition I have ever seen. The perfect mix of loose passives, retired people with money to lose, and college kids who think they know more than they do.

Stop 2: New Orleans, LA - Mardi Gras ends with Fat Tuesday on February 28th and my Cousin's Nikki and Amanda live outside of New Orleans. Family, home cooked dinner, Mardi Gras beads, and now Harrah's has reopened. Perfect distraction

Stop 3: Tulsa, OK - Back to Tunica for a few days then off to Tulsa. Cherokee Tulsa has 36 tables and spreads a variety of games. A weekend in Tulsa should be able to cover my rent for another month.

Stop 4: Alburquerque, NM - Sandia resort in New Mexico seemed like a good stop for a few days. Nice room, 35 tables, and in the heart of the southwest for some awesome views and picture taking options.

Stop 5: Phoenix, AZ - There are 3 resorts in Phoneix, Casino Arizona being the best of the group. 40+ tables, tons of action, lots of low-buyin tourneys for a ton of profit options. I also have friends all over Phoneix so I scheduled 4 days here

Stop 6: Las Vegas, NV - Welcome home biatch!

I will sight see during the day, sleep until noon, play until dawn....

The major places of interest so far are Carlsbed Caverns, Grand Canyon, Route 66, and Mardi Gras. I am sure I will find more as I go through.....

2 weeks to get there, and a ton of things to do before then!

The Beginning

2006-02-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

It all started about around the beginning of 2005. I had been hosting my home game and playing poker online and got a gig dealing for some charity poker tournaments around town. My first one was a bit scary as I had to try out in front of the tournament director and deal to several other dealers. He critiqued my dealing but overall gave me a passing grade and some very positive comments. My first tournament was 20 tables and I dealt until there were 4 tables left, and I got a nice check for my troubles, and I was hooked. I loved the feel of the cards, the control of the table, the game, the people. everything... I would have done it for free and they were PAYING me.

I got a few more gigs after that, one a month at least... money was ok, and I loved the work. So I started researching dealing in Las Vegas. I took 4 trips to Vegas in 2005 and spent some time each trip talking to the room managers, dealers, floor, etc and finding out what I needed to know how I needed to do it, etc. Around July I decided I was going to do it very soon. I was burning out on IT, burning out on Atlanta, and burning my social life up by being an online computer junkie (Poker, World ofWarcraft, Civ IV, etc). So I made the decision that at the start of 2006 I was off to Vegas. I told my boss, gave my 3 months notice, helped hire a replacement, train the replacement, and on February 24th, 2006 at 2:32 PM the odyssey began!

Bald Eagle Poker

Happy new Year

Life lessons

Hilton Football and TI Poker

Let's get caught up

TV and Poker together at last

Quick Update

Valentines Poker

Bellagio poker room

How did I never Valet before?

Back on the wagon (again)

Smoking Sammy

Winds of change and progress

Lawson's Losers

Oops... I guess you are in charge now

Football Poker and a rollercoaster

Slow start, but a start nonetheless

Time to get this party started

A Smack in the bum

Thug-enomics

Valentines Day and Poker

The check is in the mail

Stepping Up

Year 2006 Summary

Oops... My bad.

Big day tomorrow

I wanna go Fast!

Happy New Years! 4 Dollars to Call!

Vacation Overload

A Cruising we go (very long)

Who are these dogs?

I'm not dead!

Are we there yet?

October Checkup

New Phone Number

The return of the Prodigal Shoe

A little misinformation

The "Night Life"

World Series ends and the rest of the year begins

Overtime

Quick Update

Welcome to the club

World Series Update

Here comes the world series

Good Bye Robert Morea. We will miss you

Going Going GONE!

Whew... I need a nap

Only in Vegas

Better watch the slowplay

I don't like to lose

It's just money

They pay me for this?

Hello my Name is Lawson

Sir, come with me please

I think I win

I could've been a STAR!

There's an 8 *AM*?

Oops I did it again....

Month 2 Checkup

Blast from the Past

Brune blows through town

Celeb Reality

Best Damn 4 Hours EVER!

Oh what a weekend

Constantly amazed

Carrot Top

A day off (kind of)

Strategy Article

I thought I had friends

Lazy Sunday

You're FIRED!

One month checkup

Let's try not to get arrested today

WOO! I have a home

A Day off

Star Struck

Here horsie horsie

Weekend at the Wynn

Good bye Trevor

I think I need a job

There's an 8 AM?