How it Went

All-in-all, it was pretty damned good. I think next time I'll either avoid the chocolate or use less. It was a bit overpowering, and the chicken was awesome on its own.

- Tomato-basil spaghettini with garlic and butter.
- Yellow and green zucchini
- Bone-in chicken breast with skin
- Some tasty spices (chili powder, cayenne pepper, spicy red pepper, ground coriander seed, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh ground salt, fresh ground black pepper, smoked paprika)
- Vegetable oil and a few drops of hot chili sauce (ie.- Tabasco, but I used Susie's Tear Drops, which is funny if you know my dating history)
- Organic 70% dark chocolate

I'll assume you can cook pasta and veggies.

Chicken's a breeze. Dry it, rub the oil mix on it, sprinkle with the spices. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a cast iron frying pan and when hot, place the chicken skin-side down for 2-3 minutes to brown. If the chicken is sizzling too fast, turn down the heat, you're starting the fat rendering here, not cooking the chicken. Don't turn chicken (but you can tilt it so the sides brown a little). Put the pan in the preheated oven for 20-25 min or until internal temperature is 165 degrees.

Take out the chicken and put it on the pasta and let it rest. Deglaze the pan and pour the sauce on the chicken.

If you want the chocolate, melt it in the microwave (30 seconds at time, stirring in between), and pour on the chicken.

Bon apetit.


Before the chocolate hits


Damn that looks good


And here's the organic 70% chocolate


Time to eat


Moist


Tasty

More Food Tilt?

Mookie tonight. 6 more events to go (an extra Riverchasers HORSE on Sunday).

I'll probably play in the 50-50 and 26k as well... because I multi-table like a champ! No, wait... I suck at multitabling. At least I have a token for the 26k.

Anyway, enough poker. More food talk! If you don't like it... tough. This is my blog and I like cooking as much as I like poker. Except I'm a better cook than poker player.

I was debating all day on what tonight's dinner will be. Do I go back to my well of Elk meat? Maybe an elk burger, or pasta with chicken and honey-garlic elk sausage? I also had a craving for some Thai from across the street - it would be quick and easy. Maybe I'd throw together some orange chicken again? Spicy chicken caesar perhaps? Hmm.

Then I ate some dark chocolate and a light turned on. Tonight will be a spicy roasted chicken breast (bone-in if I can find some) with dark chocolate and maybe raspberries or even cherries. I think for the 3rd straight night that zucchini will work well as a vegetable. Maybe green beans if they look decent. As for the rest, I'm leaning towards a thin pasta (spaghetti perhaps, maybe angel hair, depends what I've got... I don't think my lemon linguine will work) in butter and garlic as a base for the chicken.

Dessert - I've still got a ton of fruit to get through, so a simple compote of strawberries, raspberries, cherries and watermelon should work well. Maybe a kiwi too.

Gotta think that calls for either a Baileys concoction or wine. I may be able to get a nice white or rose (rare these days, but I think it'll work with this) chilled in time.

Whaddya think?

Fifty/Fifty Shot #1

I figured I'd give the new Fifty-Fifty on FT a shot tonight. Out 434 of 927 on this hand:


Money was in on the flop, my M was under 10 pre-flop, and definitely under 10 post-flop. 15 (well, 14 after his hand was exposed) outs twice. My money is in every time.

Yes, I know I'm only 42% here, but that's obvious after you see his cards, if he as AQ then I'm ahead.

Ah well. 'Twas fun, I must try again, this time with cards.

Bayne_s and LJ were playing too. Bayne went out before me, and LJ is still rockin' the joint. Here's hoping she takes this thing down.

Update - she's out. No blogger power tonight it seems.

Also donked around in the Monkey Tourney a bit too. Had the chip lead and was schooling the table before I got sucked out on 3 times in a row against all-in shorties and the tables went stupid. Was fun, and was good for the ego. :)

Congrats to weak_player on the early arrival! Here's hoping everyone's healthy.

Good times.

-----------

Played another $6 and $8 lvl 1 pair. Some interesting things when screens are adjacent:

Nifty flops. No good for me either way.


Tens on both tables at the same time, both times into overpairs. Better flop in the $8. Got the token there. Obviously bubbled in the $6.


And this one.. only one screen though. Got the guy to put me all-in.


---------------
Let's make this even longer and more pointless. Tonight's dinner:

Steak, sliced and marinated in a paste of vegetable oil, soya, teriyaki, chipotle tabasco, regular tabasco, garlic powder, onion powder, ground coriander seed, turmeric, chili powder, cayenne pepper, ground hot red pepper, smoked paprika and balsamic mustard. On top of kick-ass fried rice (white long grain, soya, yellow zucchini, red pepper, green onion, garlic, bacon, and an egg). Washed down with limeade. Was going to make a dairy-based drink to go with, but decided drinking before chores and multi-tabling would be detrimental.

Mixed Nuts

I was curious how the MATH would play after Hoy's revealing Friday post. It didn't disappoint.

Bayne_s goes gigli. Miamidon out second. IslandBum1 was the fourth one out. Osu and Recessrampage finished in 45th and 40th respectively. Newinnov was the bubble boy. Iggy, Jeciimd went out in the teens, and BuddyDank went out just before me. Wow.

I held on the longest of the 10, going out in 10th on a perhaps ill-advised move that almost worked. A3d on the button with a fairly short stack (let's say M under 7) cmitch raising pre-flop when just about anything was going. I push and get called with A9o. Two diamonds on the flop, but no improvement and only 2 overcards to the 9, so no split. Ah well. I wanted to see another final table and the cash, but I wasn't about to try and limp my way in. Considering I'd chipped up from 700 chips and last place with 20-something left, I'm not complaining.

Things were going well until Chad got bored and played push-or-fold for an orbit or so. Not that I had anything worth playing in that span. I did put out a feeler raise with QJo at one point that he came over the top of. I was tempted to call, but I greatly dislike QJo for all the right reasons. Lucky me, this started with him calling my push with a weaker ace, which kept me alive.

5 events left I think? Should be interesting.

Played the 26k too, which was a bad idea. Went out in the 900's with over 1300 starting. 30 minutes, 400 people gone, and then me. I played like a donk for 20 minutes, chipped back up to a starting stack, and made a move against an unfortunately better hand. Ah well.

Before that though, I was having fun with the level 1 tokens. 2 $8 Turbos and 2 $6 6-handed in 2 hours. Finished 6th and 7th in the $8 and 2nd both times in the 6-handed. It essentially worked out to about a $3 profit... woohoo. The $8 turbos are of course a favourite, but I'm really liking the 6-handed ones more and more. They're soft, and it plays really well to my game. Then again, I've always preferred short-handed play. It allows for a wider range and forces aggression and control.

It was a strange night though. I was exhausted, full, and running purely on energy drink by the time 10:00 rolled around. My desktop was full of windows - chat, poker, web, BuddyDank radio, e-mail. The TV was on for a while too, and for some reason I decided it would be a good time to pick a paint colour for my solarium. Needless to say, I was multi-tasking like mad. And then, for some reason, I decided to get in line for the blogger cash game after I was knocked out. Luckily for me, I didn't get in before common sense took over and I called it a night. The fact my VCR clock is an hour fast helped.

Tonight will be filled with chores methinks. Finish up the laundry, and clean my damn floors already. I'm pretty sure I could put together another cat and a family of dust bunnies with what needs to be swept. If I get that done, then I'll probably swing by the Monkey Tourney on Stars at 8:30. It's ISS Spock's WWdN replacement, and I'm curious as to how it will play out now that a large chunk of the "OMG IT'S WIL!" crowd will be gone.

One Part Awesome

2 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes
1/2 a medium-sized sweet potato
2 green onions
couple dashes of smoked paprika
garlic powder
fresh ground salt and pepper to taste

red onion
red pepper
yellow zucchini

1 cranberry-sage elk sausage


-Shred the root vegetables, dice the green onions, combine with seasonings in a bowl and mix.
-Spread out in a medium non-stick frying pan with oil and butter, heated on high.
-Brown one side, flip and brown the other, reduce heat to medium

-In another pan saute the zucchini, pepper, and red onion. Salt, pepper and garlic to taste

-Flip the potatoes occasionally, but generally leave alone.

-In a cast iron pan with a bit of vegetable oil on just under high heat, fry up the freakin' awesome elk sausage.

-Put it all on a plate with a dollop of sour cream.

Serve with a pint of Kilkenny. That was dinner tonight, and it was sooooooo good.

Once the beer is done, comes the white and dark chocolate mousse ice cream, with fresh raspberries and strawberries.

It's nice to have time to cook for myself.

Wish it Was Me

Congrats to Fuel for taking down a seat to the WSOP Main Event in the Stars 150 Guaranteed last night. I was railing him for the last couple hours, also known as the most painful "bubble" in online poker. Since I have almost nobody in the girly chat, I was texting him as it went.

He had an M of 7 when I tuned in, and played enough hands to float around that level the whole time. If you have any sort of stack with < 300 runners left, it's not a hard game, just a tedious one. First to raise generally wins, and if you get re-popped, fold. As it got tighter, anybody with a brain and some chips folds aces. I watched some moron push his last 5k in the cut-off with A2o pre-flop with 4 left to the money. Damn but I wish I was able to play yesterday. Even if it took around 10 hours to get from 6800 to 220.

My big accomplishment? Level 1 Peep for a cheap Hoy buy-in. Seems somehow pale in comparison. That said, I'm feeling pretty good about by game of late, and think I could have killed in the 150 Guaranteed. Not too many chances left for an ME seat. I haven't really made the attempts I did last year, mostly because life keeps getting in the way, depriving me of the necessary time to throw endless gobs of cash at poker.

Speaking of Hoy, he's a got a tiltastic post up from Friday where he exposes the dirty secrets of the top 10 in the BBT. I'm not surprised by his read of me, and there's some accuracy there, but as usual, my game is deeper and more adaptive than people think, which I'm happy about. Posts like that make me smile.

I'm also itching for some more live action. I think I'll have to swing by the club some time this week. My confidence is at a high, and there's some fish in that barrel that could use a bullet or two.

Super Timing Guys!

Who schedules their 150 and 100 seat guarantees on Father's Day? Oh, that's right. Stars and Tilt! Jerks.

Off to dinner! Good luck to everyone who's taking advantage of the dead money.

Roid Rage

Part of my glorious interaction with walnuts the other day is that I was prescribed a healthy dose of Prednisone for 4 days on a tapering dosage. Steroids aren't fun. I've only been hospitalized once before for the nut allergy (generally, symptoms are mild), and they prescribed them then as well. I didn't take them, because I don't like medicating. This time I figured it was better safe than sorry.

There are 4 days of the year where I really need to be on top of my game at work. Today is one of those days, and I'm fucking antsy, twitchy, and unable to focus because of these little bastards.

On the plus side, they're doing wonders for my skin. Just nobody sneeze at me until Sunday. Yay immunosuppressant corticosteroids!

Lessons from a Trip

Consider this an addendum to the lengthy trip report below.

It's often said that you remember the bad beats, but never the great hands. This is often said because it's true.

I made a few moronic calls purely out of curiosity and had at least two memorable bad beats.

I usually don't post more than a quick recap of bad hands, but there's a lesson in here. Note, only two of these qualify as bad beats. Let's go in order of my fault to donkey.

1.- 1/2 NL at the MGM, Friday night. QTs limp in, board comes AQA. Checked to me in MP and I bet $20. Folds to cutoff who thinks and says, "does he have the ace..." and after a few more minutes raises to $60. Now, a completely sober me speaks up in my head and says, "You're beat. He TOTALLY has the Ace. At the least he has kings, or AQ, a stronger Q than you donkey." But I'd had a couple, and even though I knew I was beat, I called. Turn is crap, and he pushes all-in. I have him well-covered and call purely to see if my read was right. Of course it was. AJ flipped over, and he says he was worried I had a better ace. So now not only have I dropped over $100 in one stupid hand, but I'm painted as a complete fish. Naturally I tightened up and eventually got back to even before leaving.

2.- WPBT Tournament on Saturday. I have pocket queens and am heads-up with Mattazuma after he raise pre-flop. Flop comes all unders, he bets, I re-raise, and he pushes. I have him covered, but KNOW he has cowboys. Aces smells all wrong here, and he's not betting that hard with top pair or AK. Again, I need to know, and instead of asking, "I fold up, you show?" I call. Sure enough... kings, and no Q for me.

3.- 1/2 NL Saturday night. Relatively new guy to the table who finally brings some raising to the game. He's garnered my respect with his seeming tightness and aggression, although I can't think of any hands he's actually held. I have AJo and bet out around $15 pre-flop. Two callers, including him. Flop comes 8J4 and I bet $20 into the $32 pot. He calls. I've got to wonder here, so I check the 3 turn as does he. Rivers comes a 6 and I think I'm good, so I bet $40 and he pushes for $50 more. I call and he flips over 57d for the rivered inside straight. ARGH! But I guess I let him get there.

4.- 1/2 NL Saturday night, about an hour earlier. Woman directly on my right sits down and plays for a while. Chases draws and high cards like a fat kid chases his last smartie. I've pushed her off with re-raises once or twice, but we've generally not tangled. I have pocket 9's and raise it up. Two callers. Flop comes 9xx, two clubs. I bet 1/2 the pot and she's the only caller. She's sooo on the club draw. Turn is not a club, I bet 2/3 the pot, she calls. I go a bit cross-eyed. Kc hits the river and I sigh and practically toss up my hands. She bets something like $10 into about a $120 pot and I call saying, "nice flush." Sure enough, two completely unconnected clubs. I say, "not much I can do." and she replies with, "Well, you let me get there." I calmly replied, "Well, I did bet. I wouldn't have called it down." What can you do? I suppose I could have taken her chips and thrown them across the room, and then she couldn't chase.

There were others too. Calls and pressure with inferior hands, sometimes in an attempt to push someone off, sometimes because I just made a bad read. But other than #4 up there, these beats were entirely my fault. I called because I could afford it and wanted to see if I was reading right. There's nothing wrong with losing on purpose in order to get information - but only if that info is worth more than the money being lost. It wasn't in either case above. Also, there's no accounting for donkeys. If you let them get there, they'll get there, so if you're completely dumbfounded by a call and the turn card doesn't help them in any way, BET AT IT. Finally, no matter how hard you try, some people can't let go of their draws. They'll catch sometimes, but you'll make more off of them in the long run. Stay calm and you'll make your money back.

On the flipside, I don't make the donkey calls, and that $5 in my wallet looks more like $205, if not more due to stack intimidation. Just as if I walked away from the slots when I was up instead of playing more, I'm up for the trip. All it takes is a few mistakes and you're toast. I kicked myself after The Mookie last night for throwing away around 5600 in chips on hammer raises. I don't drive hard at those, then my TT re-raise all-in against Hoy's AK is maybe enough to push him off at the end, and I go deeper. At the very least, I would have had him covered.

Riverchasers tonight. Am I up for the ultimate in donkfests? Maybe.

Ahead for the Day

Short version:

Stars - lose a bunch of 1-table SnG's, make it back and then some in cash.

Tilt - 7th in the mookie = cash and 2nd consecutive final table, and some much-neeeded BBT points.
- 117/1395 in the 26k, top 224 paid. 2nd time playing, 2nd cash.

The 26k has to be the softest tournament in existence. I think I won about 14 hands, and knocked out 10 people. If it wasn't for a AK vs AQ suckout on the turn (money in on the flop and the only suckout against me), I'd have been dominating the thing. My ONLY mistake was pushing with KQo in the cutoff with 2 limpers, M=6, and running into AQo in the BB. Crippled me, and while I was able to chip back up a bit, A8 didn't beat AQ in the end.

The money was tiny, but it was good to be up at the end of the day.

And my Stars account should get a boost soon. Full Contact Poker is merging with Stars, and I have a few hundred bucks over there. I doubled my roll on that site the last day of its operation, and cashed out some bonus money to boot.

There's a Reason I Ask

The setting - 10:30pm, dinner at Marben with my team from work. We've had a good dinner, some cocktails and red wine, all following a few hours at our regular over-priced financial district bar. We're all pretty full but the waitress suggests a couple sampling plates of dessert. We agree.

On each plate sits rolled ice cream, a lime-meringue tart, and a banana bread pudding with peanut sauce.

"Excuse me, but other than the peanut sauce, are there any nuts in any of these?"

"What are you allergic too?"

"Walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts... tree nuts essentially."

"No sir, just the peanuts and these corn nuts, which are really just corn."

"Thank you."

So I dig into the banana bread pudding... and it crunches. I get this feeling of dread. Out runs the waitress.

"Actually, the banana one has walnuts as well."

Bingo.

They released me from the ER at 8am this morning.

The Rumours Are True

It turns out that the stories out of the previous 5 WPBT Vegas meetups are true. This is a fantastic group of people. I apologize for the mega-post, but if I split this up, I'll forget too much.

Day 1

I landed at 10:30pm Thursday night as planned. By the time my bag came out, and the surprising shortage of cabs at the international terminal was overcome, I checked into The Orleans, changed, and was downstairs by midnight. Bowling had finished before I got the hotel, but Pai Gow was just starting.

Having never been to The Orleans before, I wasn't sure what the layout was like. I somehow managed to walk right past the Pai Gow tables and wandered the whole floor. I was eventually able to find the place though. A jersey with "Zeem" on the back and another with "Falstaff" made it pretty easy. I sat down and put forth my first of many $100 for the trip. Pai Gow, besides being made for long periods of free drinking, is easy when you catch non-stop flushes and straights. Aces help too.

Bayne, The Penners, Pokergnome, Pirate Wes, and others were in and out, but we did manage to get a table of nothing but bloggers at one point. Ending up $100 at Pai freakin' Gow is a good way to start a trip. Though not as good as immediately meeting some great people who convince you to put money on a table and booze in your belly.

The hand of the night was easily Penner the 2nd's quad aces with jacks high and a king kicker. Even the floor supervisor had to say, "what the hell?" Unfortunately, nobody saw the 7-card straight flush.

Day 2

Friday was pretty much open until the planned drinking and mixed games at the MGM, so I met up with LJ/P(rince/van)haribo at TI to play in the 11am $60 tournament. She got there before me, but I found and joined her in the Coffee Shop for breakfast. I may have missed the Bellagio buffet with Fuel, Iak and Hoy, but I've got no complaints. After all, LJ is far cuter than any of those three (this could start a battle with the Iak fanclub, but I just don't swing that way - doctors have horrible hours). Meanhappyguy was on his way to join us, but turned around with a bad case of "feeling like crap."

One thing I forgot about the tournament was how quickly the blinds move from the 2nd hour onwards. I made it past the first break, but eventually went down. This turned out not-so-good since I then dropped a couple hundred bucks to the slots in the next 15 minutes before coming back to check up on LJ's progress. She too went out before the money, just in time to meet up with a couple friends of hers from NY. Lucky me, they enjoyed the craps, and I won a bit back.

Somehow, it was time to register for the 2pm TI tournament, which is identical to the 11am. This time I made it to 4th, and the money, which brought me closer to even, but not without a rebuy on my part. LJ's friends also signed up, but didn't make the final table. Off they went to the Tropicana to lose money there.

Alone, I lost more to the slots, and wandered the strip, slowly heading back in the direction of my hotel. Weaving in and out of casinos on the way created a sine wave of profit and loss as I'd win and lose on various slots on the way. At this point, I began to think I may have a problem. By the time I got to New York New York, it was time to meet up at MGM. A quick cab ride to the hotel to reload the funds and clean up a bit, and I was heading back.

As I was rounding the corner to the Sports Book bar, I ran into LJ again. Being the only blogger she'd actually met, I was her means of finding the rest. They were, as promised, drinking away at the aforementioned bar. Futher introductions were made to IG, Hoy, Chad, Carmen, Meanhappyguy, BrainMc, Columbo and more. Turns out the planned mixed games were now canceled, which sucked not a small bit. So after some imbibing, we decided to just play cash. a 3-6 HORSE game was started, and us low-rollers who didn't want to actually lose money opted for 1-2 NL instead. Actually, a good chunk of the higher-limit players donked around 1-2 as well, which was quite the amusing sight. As I waited for my name to be called, I noticed a missed call from one Instant Tragedy. I grabbed a drink and returned it for the requisite dial-a-shot. Ah technology, enabling drunks over thousands of miles.

As 2am approached, with no Waffles sightings, LJ was up a TON -- enough to buy into the Ladies event instead of satelliting -- and felt like throwing some of it away at the 2am TI tournament again. I obliged, since I was up a bit but hadn't caught anything in a while. Winning one big pot on my second last hand sealed it. So no Waffles, us "new generation" (although I've been there as long as most) aren't pussies, we just got sick of waiting for you and moved on. I went past the first break again, but decided at 3am with too many donkeys, a shortish stack, and A6d in front of me, that it was time to double up or go home. I went home. LJ had been knocked out earlier, which was undoubtedly to build up the karma for her WSOP run.

I really should say something about the donkeys to my right. Two guys who I couldn't put older than 23 who obviously had limited live experience. I'd guess one (let's call him A) had played live a couple times, but never in an MTT, and the other (B) was completely clueless. Both these morons would CALL down to the river with the worst hands I'd seen so far. A board of A75JT with a flush draw would be bet from the flop down by an opponent, and they'd flip over K3o for the loss. Shit like this happened more than once. Then they'd lean in to see how they lost. Seriously, not a single pair, draw, or even a decent high-card hand that they'd throw chips after. Let me reiterate - they'd CALL this shit down. (A) got knocked out early, and stayed at the table. The dealer pointed out that he had to "move back" and he grudgingly obliged by pushing his chair back but STILL LEAN ON THE TABLE. The dealer would ask again, and his response was "I'm as far back as I can go!" The rest of us pointed out he had to actually be AWAY from the table and he almost started whining about it. Our waitress brought him a scotch he'd ordered earlier and he settled in, glad he had his "glenfiddy" finally. That just about got me smacking him - I hate misplaced arrogance, and this tool was bleeding it. Are you really going to act sophisticated with a glass of 12 year-old Glenfiddich in front of you? I'm seriously doubting it was the 40. Anyway, (B) was just as bad, except he'd obviously never played live in his life. He couldn't track blinds, position, bets, cards, or anything else. Minbets that didn't cover the min, checks to raises, etc.. The sad part is that he outlasted me. I felt worse for the poor guy to their right, who actually knew how to play and couldn't figure out what these two were playing with their retarded calls. He could have made a mint off them. That's what I get for playing a donkey-level tournament. Next time I'm in Vegas, my buy-ins are going up.

Regardless, I was out on a stupid call and push on my part, and was asleep by 4:30 for a solid 4 hours of sleep. Which made it about 10 hours out of 72 so far.

Day 3

Up at 8:30 and ready and rearin' for another day, but no word from Iak or Fuel re: breakfast. So it went to plan B. I tagged along with LJ (my new bestest Vegas Blogger friend, I think she now takes the record for most mentions in one post) and her friends for brunch at the MGM before the big blogger tourney back at the Orleans. I just couldn't bring myself to actually consume food at Orleans. Brunch was solid, and it was back for the tourney where sign-up had begun.

What a mess. I'm neither the first, nor will I be the last, to bemoan the state of this year's WPBT tournament. From the prick of a director to possibly the worst structure I have ever seen, this was a disaster. This is by no means a knock on Falstaff or Sloshr, who did a great job of setting this all up. 2500 chips, 15 minutes, 25-50, 50-100, 75-150, 100-200 +25, 150-300 +25, 200-400 +50, 300-600 +75, and then I was out. I may have added a level in there. Green chips were in play until the final table, and there were 80 BB available with 2 tables left. The fact the tournament went as long as did was a testament to how tight people were playing with their short stacks. It just wasn't poker past the 3rd level. Throw in being told to "keep it down" because they had "people who play here every day" when quads were rivered by Fuel against Aces, and it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

That said, the turnout was great, and many, many more of this motley crew were met. Pauly, Waffles, Don, Spaceman, Blinders, Weak Player, and many more, and some I recognized but didn't actually get a chance to meet.

Final three came down to Grubette, Spaceman's Wife and Waffles. Also known as the closest Waffles will ever get to a threesome. Waffles out 3rd (naturally the first to finish in this menage), and some great girl-on-girl action led to Mrs. Spaceman taking it down shark-style. Congrats!

During the match was the search for a real tournament to play in. Venetian didn't run one on Saturday, TI and others couldn't handle the volume, Caesar's affordable one wasn't until 11pm, Planet Hollywood was full, etc, etc.. So we went back to MGM and their wonderfully profitable cash tables. But first, I placed a call to the much-missed Katitude for a promised dial-a-shot. At least she was there in spirits, if not in body. Man I'm hilarious with the puns.

A few hours, a couple hundred bucks up, a couple bad beats, and it was time to break for dinner with Fuel, Pokergnome, and CC. 10:30 Saturday night at the MGM means NOTHING IS OPEN. Just the Studio Cafe. Luckily, the food was fine, if not quite what were looking for. Actually, the french onion soup was really good, if not as tasty as mine (I really should do a food post sometime).

Back to the tables, Card death and a loose table as usual makes it hard to turn a profit. Lucky for me (and everyone else), the wet dream of all poker players sat down. No, not Shana Hiatt in skimpy bits, but that glorious combination of alcohol, money, and absolutely NO clue how to play the game. I never got his name, but the 3 of us on his left got his money. When your game is "raise to $15 pre-flop, go all-in on the flop" with any two cards... you're going to lose. Lots. He eventually got up and moved to a 2/5 table for some unknown reason before moving to yet another 1/2 table. He was greatly missed.

LJ was at my table to start, but quickly left (I'd be sick of me by now too, but I swear I got put there purely by chance), leaving me bloggerless. Luckily, I had a good table, with at least 3 other chatters. The huge stack on my right was all kinds of cute, the guy next to her had plenty of that dry humour I do so like, and the man with 1 giant tower of chips (just calling for someone to kick the table) was more than happy to play along.

A quick quiz - board of A3JAQ all red, 3 hearts. Bet and called pre-flop down, $200 in the pot. Caller to this point raises all-in for around $400 into a big stack (dry humour guy 2 to my right). Loooooong time in the tank and the stack calls. Raiser flips over pocket queens for the flopped queens full of aces and the former stack slams down his cards with a mighty "FUUUUUUCK!" and a storm off. What did he have? We originally put him on an ace, but then figured it HAD to be jacks for him to make that big of a call with a flush on the board and two aces with two faces. We never found out as the dealer moronically said, "I can't show you his cards unless he lets me." when he was asked to flip 'em before they hit the muck. The floor director cleared it up later that he should have flipped them regardless of the player's desire since it was a called hand. Needless to say, our friend left shortly thereafter, although I did see him wandering around the WSOP the next day. Glad no seppuku was involved.

Once the cute asian girl on my left who had some solid poker skills and was good conversation left with her boyfriend, I decided to call it a night at 4am, down a bit on the game, but still up on the night.

What I should have done is jumped on the Blogger table earlier in the night for the +EV fun of it all. If I had been up or even for the trip at this point, I probably would have without a second thought, but I actually felt like winning money. That said, on this night it was loads of fun to watch them. On Friday they'd given a few grand to the tourists, but tonight they managed to take it back. It started off the same, with money going the wrong way, but the bloggers soon found they had some pretty large stacks in front of them. They then made it a de facto 5/10 game with their bets and raises. Lots of money to be won, if you had the balls. The funniest thing I saw was the last 5 of them getting up at once to call it a night, and the 4 tourists on the other end who had just sat down look in bewilderment that the table had suddenly disappeared.

I wandered the floor looking for straggling bloggers and chatted with Fuel at his 5/10 game and Iak at his 1/2 (2/4?), before running in to Hoy, who was wasting time until his 6:30am flight home. We chatted for a solid hour before heading out, and I had a feeling the next morning might be a bit rough.

Day 4

Up at 10, and it was rough. The severe lack of slumber over the previous 4 days was finally catching up to me. Luckily, I had moved my flight from the 1:40 to the red eye at 11:20, so I had only my noon checkout to worry about.

After getting together at half-speed, I checked out on the TV (and avoided the ridiculously long line at the counter), dropped my bags at the bell desk, and cabbed to the MGM for more poker. I didn't see anyone familiar around, but I wasn't there to socialize. About 3 hands into the game, I knew I was at the wrong table. Something about my opponents was a bad mix. It's not that I was facing sharks or donkeys, but just a tough table to read. It got worse when the woman who sucked out huge on my the previous night sat to my right. After a few hours, I pushed in my last chips in with AsKx on a K-high flop with two spades. The guy who called my pre-flop raise with 78s called my push and caught the 3s on the turn. No more spades on the river ended my play.

So I did the only sensible thing. I went to the Rio to cheer on LJ, who was kicking ass in the Ladies event. After all, why move my flight if I wasn't going to cheer on my new friends? IG and Change100 were already out, CC, Pauly and Carmen were doing their thing for the press, Waffles was playing cash, and Don was checking out the action. Don and I found LJ at her table, with a great-sized stack in front of her. One didn't doubt that she was 4th in chips. She played her table right, and made some great moves, and continued to chip up. Most impressively, she trusted her reads.

It was one hell of a table. Kathy Liebert was to her right, and went out soon after we got there. Another woman 3 to the right had a monster stack and decided it was her duty to play the LAG. I only hope she went out early with the reckless plays she was making. To LJ's left was a tight aggressive player who chipped up huge in the time we were there. From a barely-there all-in to the table leader. Luckily, the table broke not long after she got that monster stack.

I wandered back into the Rio to lose more money. What caught my eye, besides the pros strolling around, was the number of people I recognized from tables at the MGM and the TI tournaments. All poker players eventually make it to the Rio it seems. On my way back to the Amazon room I met LJ and Don heading for dinner. After checking two full restaurants, we headed for the Tilted Kilt for some pub grub. Good fries, good beer... all was well. Don and I gave what advice we could, and answered a flurry of questions, but in the end it came down to "play your game, and be aware of the situation every time." After the walk back to the tables, I left to catch my flight home.

Orleans, airport, and waiting around for the plane. The flight had filled up fast, and my standby status turned into my last gamble. One that I won this time, as I made it on, sitting in the emergency exit row with its ample leg room. I don't remember the flight, as I was asleep from takeoff to landing. Interestingly enough, while standing in line on the way TO Vegas, a woman behind me got yelled at for being on her cell phone... on the way back, she was another standby passenger who I was seated next to. But as I said, I slept the entire flight, so conversation was minimal.

I walked in my front door, and checked out pokernews for the Ladies' status, and then decided my best move would be to play poker. I didn't get the token in a level 1 18 sng, but dominated the $6 short-handed one to buy into the Hoy. Oh addiction, I know you well.

And now, hours later, it seems LJ has recovered from her WSOP knock out, and the Loonie I gave her as a card-capper is to be blamed for her bad luck. I'll take full responsibility. I just hope that means I don't have to make up the difference between 97th and 1st. :)

As for the $5 left in my wallet? A piece of advice - if you're not willing to lose, don't play slots. Me? I'm just glad there aren't any within walking distance of me. That said, I'm still up over the last 12 months in them. I just have to learn to quit whilst ahead. Regardless, my losses for this trip are far less than anything that could be considered significant in the grand scheme.

And I think, depsite the numerous mentions and congratulatory post, that LJ deserves her own bit here. We both went into this thing mostly blind. Of all the people there, I had only met two of them previously (Iakaris and Fuel), and she hadn't met anyone. While Vegas is totally do-able solo, it's good to have a go-to friend along, and that's what LJ very quickly became. I can honestly say the trip would have been stretches of "well... now what will I do?" between blogger events if she wasn't there. As it turned out, I had an awesome time, and she played no small roll in that.

The trip was great, and exactly what I needed. Some 40 salt-of-the-earth people gathering for drinking, gambling and general good times is something not to be missed. For those who sat on the fence too long to decide, it was your loss. Friends were quickly made, and good times had by all. I have every intention of being there come December, which promises to be bigger and better. If you don't plan on going, then I think you should maybe see someone about that head trauma you've obviously suffered.

All Good Things...

Before anything else - HOLY SHIT CONGRATULATIONS LJ!!! 97th of 1200 in the WSOP Ladies Event! For those who haven't figured it out - that's IN THE MONEY! I'm so happy for you. :)

I can't wait to hear how it all went after I left to catch my flight. Considering she was originally going to try and satellite in on Friday, but instead won her buy-in playing cash at the MGM, and that she is needlessly unsure about her game, this is even MORE amazing. Way to go! When I was there, she was playing a great aggressive game and the rest of her table stayed out of her way.

I hope she didn't listen to a thing Don and I told her during the dinner break and played her own game, since it got her to that point pretty well.

That totally perked me up from the Vegas/flight hangover.

Congrats to Hoy as well for cashing in the Short Handed NLHE event as well. Bloggers REPRESENT! There isn't much I can say about Hoy that isn't already known. But wow, 2.5 hour bubble... and I thought the Mookie was bad. :)

I'll get a full trip update on here after I've grabbed a bit more shut-eye.

Short version - Everyone is awesome, I almost didn't make the flight out, and I have $5 left in my wallet. Now THAT'S bankroll management :).

**EDIT (about 5 min after I posted) - Just spoke to her, after 4 1/2 hours of drinking her bitterness away at the Hooker bar. Shitty way to go out, but I think I'd have done the same thing. I won't take away her story though, she can post that herself.

Not a Bad Kick-Off

EDIT: Oops - I apparently can't read 24-hour time. I'm getting in at 10:30 tonight. Sweet, bowling should still be going on by then.

Turned out I made the Mookie last night after all. Which is good since I missed The Hoy. Even better? I final tabled that baby for the first time since I won it. I went out in 8th when my JJ ran into Doogman's QQ. The guy had been pushing like mad, so I put out a committing-but-weak-looking bet to get the re-raise. It happened, I insta-called and swore. To drive home the point, he spiked the 3rd Q on the river. That was SUPPOSED to be a Jack. With all the huge suckouts last night, it figures I don't get mine. :)

Worst luck I saw was Bayne_s (I think). Calls an all-in with AK to meet TT. T on the flop seals it. The very next hand, and VERY short-stacked, he goes all-in with Rockets to meet... TT, with a T on the TURN. AK and AA in consecutive hands busted by a set of tens. Wow.

Regardless, I got some much-needed points to move me into 12th place on the BBT, which puts me back in striking distance of the top 10, but it will be a fight to get into the top 5 again.

I have to give huge props to BuddyDank and InstantTragedy for a great live broadcast. Even if IT didn't show up until half the players were gone. Generally great song choices (I'm so glad my feed droppen when Hanson came on), and some of the funny at the end. For the record though - I don't have Parkinson's, it was a comment on how to get ahead in slot tournaments.

According to my handy-dandy countdown clock, I have just over 7 hours until take-off, which means I have 12 hours until I look at all that pretty neon. Damn but I'm looking forward to this.

All Alone in the Moonlight

T-34 hours. What will I forget to bring this time?

Swung by the Wheatie last night to bid our gracious host adieu. Amazingly enough, he was still there at 10, and in fact made his first WWdN final table! I believe it was his 2nd cash in his own tournament. Excellent timing sir.

While Spock will be continuing the WWdN tournaments, they won't be quite the same. Let's be honest here, the reason most of the bloggers kept showing up was either nostalgia, tradition, habit, or because Wil was playing. This is the one that got a lot of us started on this road. But with the MATH, Mookie, Big Game, and yes, even the Riverchasers, there are many alternatives out there, most with a higher calibre of play. If you want to donk off some chips cheap? That's what Kat's Friday Donkament is for.

But 2 years ago, this was something new. You got to play with a bona fide member of Team Pokerstars, a celebrity (even if the letter in front of "list" is a little low these days), Wesley Crusher, author, comedian, blogger extraordinaire, and all-around decent guy. It also only cost $11, and you could win over $100! The players were better than you, but you could totally learn from them. Ok, so that last bit didn't last long. The Wheaton was a great level 1 incubator - a complete donk could play regularly and if they actually wanted to, improve their game by watching the veterans, although not all of them did. There was even a point where you could find most of the regular bloggers there, and the quality of play far surpassed what a $10 tournament should have. Even to the end it was still the largest field in the blogger circuit.

But most importantly, it was the seed for the tournaments mentioned above. Not to mention the DADI and CC's Bash as well. None of these would have happened if Wil hadn't had a series of Hurricane Katrina benefit tournaments that were so successful he decided to hold a weekly "home game". I know I'd probably still be playing for fake money on Stars and being 6x the donk I currently am if it wasn't for these. I sure as hell wouldn't be going to Vegas tomorrow.

So I guess that means Wil has cost me a lot of money. Hmm...

So thanks Wil, you started something great, and like all successful ventures, this one got a big enough push from you that it can sustain itself now. I hope to see you at the virtual tables still, and that you'll drop by some of our own "home games" from time to time. Hoy's extended an offer to buy you in to a MATH anytime you want. I imagine he's not the only one who is willing.

Buh Bye

Och!

Wil's having his last "official" WWdN tourney tonight, and I can't make it!

That said, I shall promote it. Mayhaps it shall be his biggest ever.

WWdN: So Long and Thanks for All the Chips
Pokerstars
8:30pm EDT
$10+1
Password, as always : monkey

Good luck to all who can play.

BBT No Go

Missed the MATH last night, but as I said, no complaints. I'll miss the Mookie on Wednesday as well, which means I fully expect to find myself around the 20s in the BBT leaderboard by the time next week's MATH rolls around.

Then I'll have no chance but to storm back into the top 10 with a vengeance, and eventually pull out the last-minute 1st place victory! Or not. Whatever.

Because really, it's all about VEGAS! Less than 59 hours to go until I'm airborne! Room's booked, flights have me listed somewhere on them, the Canadian dollar is kicking all sorts of ass... all I have to do is pack and get to the airport on time (the former being much easier than the latter).

There's a very high probability of me heading over to TI to play in their $60 11am tournament on Friday... or maybe the 2pm. Hell, they run 6 a day, and I love 'em. Anybody else want to low-roll with me? I imagine the lines will be much shorter than at the WSOP, and you can tell the difference between a 6 and a 9.

Considering the nights will be full of the alcohol, and Saturday's going to be largely taken up by the WBPT tourney, Friday may be my only solid chance for overzealous gambling. Craps? Check. Slots? You betcha. Poker? Why the hell not. Blackjack? Sorry, I can sleep in my room.

Bleh

The "bleh" is a comedown from "ARRRRGH!!!"

A couple hands of note come to mind.

I find AKo early in the 19k, raise pre-flop and get two callers. Flop comes KQ5 and I bet out over 1/2 the pot, getting one caller. I put him on a Q. Turn is T, bet, call. AJ? River is 6, check, bet.... I call. He flips over 56o??? I'm down, but not quite crippled. Bottom pair shitty kicker is gold with 2 overs and then a straight draw on the board? Wow.

Up and down a bit, and soon very short stacked. Same guy, I have KTs or somesuch, board of QKx. I push my last hundred or so chips, and get called. He flips over hilton sisters of course, and I'm history. I hate when donkeys find a hand.

Daily Double - I cashed in one, went out in 4oo-something in the other. The one I went out in though had this brilliant play by me:

I have AQs in MP, with a limp on my right. I raise to 3x the BB and the limper calls. Flop comes AAT, and the limper thinks and bets the pot. I "think" for a bit... and then hit FOLD!!! I almost threw my mouse across the room. Total mental breakdown on that one cost me a pot of at least 13 BB, and would have been more. I guess these things happen... grrr.

MATH tonight. I may be late, but I'm pretty sure I'll make it. If I don't, I won't mind - Python trumps Poker.
---------------

A 12-year old??? I have scotch older than that! (btw - it's quite good). I think that kid knocked me out with a suckout too. Still, I find it pretty funny.

---------------

81 hours and change until I'm airborne to VEGAS BABY! If I thought I couldn't get the Elvis out of my head before, the next 3 days will be maddening. Viva... VIVA.... LAS VEGAAAAAS!

Revisitation

As with all of the self-aggrandizing poker blogs, I am guilty of talking about myself and my game. After the big swing in two games last night, and Waffles' comment about the golden rule of Riverchasers, I think it's time to do so again.

I started playing online a couple years ago, and the first time I put in any real money was for one of Wil Wheaton's Katrina benefits. Since Stars allowed only a minimum $25 deposit, that left me with some cash left over and that, in turn, led to me continually putting money into the slot machine that is online poker.

When I had started, I knew the basic rules. I'd played draw games and 5 card stud on-and-off for years, but never anything serious. I didn't know anything about pot odds, bet sizes, M, EV, outs, or anything else. Hell, the concept of blinds was still relatively new to me at the time.

What I did know is that I liked to play. I loved trying to figure out what my opponents had, and how I could get their money. I wasn't very good at it. Strike that, I could read people easily enough, but my play sucked.

So I bought the books. All of 'em. Harrington 1 & 2, Jones, Hellmuth, Sklansky, Gordon, etc.. Oddly enough, not Brunson. It's a shelf of books that scares my friends when they see it. I haven't made it through any of them, but it started me on a path.

Then came the blogs -- what hands to play in what position, appropriate bet sizes, what a donkey was, what the odds were, and all those other gaps in my knowledge. I still maintain that the most valuable piece of advice for anybody starting out is that the best way to learn is to play.
I noticed the endless lines of Harringtonites in games. Tight, tight, tight. I went by the general philosophy at the time for a bit, but found it far too boring and predictable. Jordan figured that out pretty quickly too. As I said at the time - if everyone played the same, it would be boring. It was like sitting at a cash table with a bunch of multi-tablers. They bet, you fold because they've got AA-AK. Otherwise, steal their blinds all night.

I still wasn't winning anything though. I was playing well enough to consistently finish in the middle of the pack after hanging on by my fingernails for orbit after orbit. It was unsatisfying at best. If I cashed, it was mostly pure luck. I also stopped listening to the ol' Spidey-sense, as that was "bad poker" I'd heard.

So I stepped back and looked at my game. Especially after one blogger match where Jordan decided to make me his whipping boy. Raising and re-raising me into oblivion. I finally called him with a short-stack to see the crap he was scaring me with... and he won it and knocked me out. I had no idea how to play against that. I looked for the holes in my game and plugged them. I came back with a vengeance and almost immediately felt a difference. Now if I lost, I could pinpoint where and why, and knew if it was my fault or not. If it was, I could find those holes and work on them. If it wasn't, then I moved on. I also started to trust my reads more, and more often than not, they're right. Whether it's based on betting, pauses, historical knowledge, or just straight up instinct, they're there for a reason.

It's a struggle to not become complacent and fall back to the easier ways of playing. Anyone can play Aces. You flop a nut flush? That's easy poker. The same can be said if you flop nothing on bottom-feeding flop. So avoiding becoming a weak-tight player is an active pursuit. Sometimes I swing too much the other way, but figure it out pretty quickly.

So what brought all this on? Like I said, Waffles' comment that Riverchasers is no-fold-em hold-em. It's tough to play against players that have no respect for your play. Yes, in the long run you want these people to stick around because you will take far more from them than they will from you, but it's frustrating nonetheless. That's what surprised me the most last night, that in a game made up of a mix of bloggers and the aptly-name 'chasers, it was obvious who was who. Yet in the $12 Turbo 45 man SnG, the quality of play at the final two tables was a perfectly acceptable form of poker. Heck, there was one hand with 4 all-ins of decent-sized stacks, and every one of those raises and calls made sense based on position, odds and stack size. In a "normal" low-limit tournament, I was able to dominate. In a tournament full of calling stations, I didn't adapt properly. A mistake I won't make again. After I turned off the machine last night, I knew that I'd grown as a player, and come a long way from where I started. I also knew that I still had much to learn, and that the road I was on stretched to the horizon.

My goal previously was purely entertainment. Play as long as this game is fun. Play at limits I'm comfortable losing at. Continue to improve, because winning is fun. I think my goals will shift a bit now. Since I can't deposit on Stars or anywhere other than Tilt, my goal will be to actively dominate the level I am at now - both cash and tournament - and build those rolls to a level where I can move up without depositing another cent. Then repeat. I already know I'm better than most of the donks I sit down with in these non-blogger events, now I just need to take care of the rest of 'em.

So Close

Well, I was almost right. Not Gigli, but out about 5th last in the Riverchasers. Mostly my fault I'm sure. In most games, I'd think that some aggressive play into Princeharibo's BB check that ended up with a weak fold by me on the river ace skewed my table image. But since I was called down by people with cards worse than mine after a pre-flop raise, and they caught what they needed to beat me, and I had no idea who they were, leans me more towards being a victim of an attack of the killer donkeys... which I hear is common in the Riverchasers. Really people, JTo in MP is NOT a great hand when faced with a pre-flop raise and a bet on a Q-high drawing flop.

Or maybe I'm just shifting the blame. I know I made mistakes, but they were when I was short-stacked. Hell, I went out with a pathetic all-in re-raise (didn't even cover a min-raise at that point) with middle pair, shitty kicker heads-up.... right into a flopped straight. Regardless, possibly my wost bit of poker in a looooong time. I'm trusting my reads, and it's usually paying off, but it's also costing me when people are catching what they need to beat me.

So I took my rock-bottom play and bad swing of luck, and decided to do something about my Stars bankroll. Jumped into a $12 Turbo 45-man SnG determined to win the thing, and did just that. Quad 9s, winning just about every single race, and getting live cards to catch certainly helped. I went into the final table the chipleader, and went heads-up with 5x the chips of my opponent. I had also knocked out at least 7 players. One might say I was dominating. I definitely had luck on my side, but I think I was able to turn that into some respect, since people let me get away with all sorts of crap when they shouldn't have (ie.- I'm a HUGE stack on the button and they have an M < 2 and fold to any raise from me when they're in BB+2 down to the button). It was a $12 Turbo, I expected more donkish play towards the end. I guess when you have more than 3x the rest of the table's combined chips, it strikes a bit of fear in 'em.

Tripling my Stars roll (yah, it was that low) ended the night on a high note. Now if I can get the 7 or 8 things I need to get done by tomorrow done, I'll be happy.

Kat's donkament tonight?

The Walls are Magnetically Shielded

I feel like it's crunch time. I've got a wedding to attend on Saturday, and I need to get everything together for that. What's everything? Card, gift, haircut, etc.... I hope I have a clean suit. Sunday I'm supposed to be doing the Ride for Heart, but that will depend heavily on how the wedding goes, and if I can rouse myself at 7am for the 8:15 start time. In order to do that though, I need to get my bike fixed. I have nobody to blame but myself for this, since I bent the rear rim a year ago, and never got around to getting it repaired. So tonight I'll be rushing home after work to get the bike to the shop, and hope they can have it fixed by Saturday morning so I can pick it up before the wedding and be ready to go Sunday.

Monday and Wednesday are Luminato events, and I can't help but think I'm forgetting something on Tuesday. Then Thursday I head off to the airport and board a flight to LAS VEGAS! Sweet Jeebus I'll need that vacation. Drinking and gambling.... mmmm.

In the online front, I didn't play The Mookie last night. I had better things to do, and it was relieving to go a day without poker after the run of mediocrity I've seen lately. However, I'll make a point of playing the Riverchasers tonight, and I hope to make the HORSE event on Sunday as well. Even though I suck at HORSE, I need to make up for the fact I'll be missing both the MATH and Mook next week. My focus will be on getting some big points, as I've dropped out of the top 10 in the BBT. And now that I've set a goal, I'll be sure to fall well short of it. I'm predicting Gigli for me.

How NOT to Untilt

So I figured I'd try and win my buy-in to the Wheatie, or not play at all. Got creamed in a $12 Turbo SnG, and couldn't get more than a few bucks up in a $0.10/0.25 cash game. So no dice there.

Then I jumped into the $19K guarantee at Tilt. 1077 runners... out 252 or something like that. Hovering around the starting stack the entire time.

Walk away, do some chores, call some people (nobody around... le sigh), and then sat back down. Cash time. $1/2 NL on Tilt. $200 in.

Many hours later... down $200.

Built up nearly $100 quickly due to mr. check-call-with-any-pair or min-bet-every-board on my right, and me catching some really good hands. A bit of aggression also helped steal blinds.

Then... angerrrrrrr. A multitabler calls my pre-flop raise... I'm holding the aces though. Sweet. Absolute GARBAGE flop (T73 or something) and I bet 1/2 the pot... he calls. 9 on the turn, I bet 1/2 the pot again, he min-raises. Ok, thinks I, maybe he has pocket 9s, but that's out of character for a multi-tabler. Kings or AK is more likely with their type. Turn is a Q, he bets, I raise, he re-raises all-in and I call (have him covered by enough to lose)... he flips over... POCKET NINES! Damn me for not listening to my instincts. Suddenly I'm down a chunk.

Build it back up to $180 thanks to a set of 8's on the turn after a loose call on the flop against kings. Figure I'll build back to my initial and leave flat. Nope. Cowboys get folded when another calling station bets big on a river ace after I bet him fairly hard all the way down.

Build back up again... still not to the initial. Again throw away a solid hand on the river when the call-with-second-pair guy raises huge on the river when 2nd pair becomes 2nd set. Grrrr...

And from there I threw the rest away. All-in with $12 left doubled me up when my A caught. All-in with the new $24 loses when someone else's A catches. I finally call it a night far too late and far too pissed off.

At least I can re-load on Tilt, and I'm not broke there yet. But man was that annoying. I really need to force myself to walk away.

Change or Die

Sam The Record Man's flagship Yonge store is closing... again.

For anyone who has lived in Toronto, this is a landmark. The "spinning" neon records over the entrance, the sheer size of it, the history. 70 years ago it opened, and was THE record store in the city. None bigger, none better.

The Barenaked Ladies snuck their first indie tape into the racks because they figured it was the easiest way to get discovered by the masses. They were right. The fact that none of the employees knew what to charge for the album didn't matter. Sam let it stay.

CityTV started it's newscast and Late Great Movies with a shot of the store, so you knew they were in Toronto.

Sam himself became an icon in the city, and could often be found sitting behind the counter chatting with his employees and always willing to help out a customer.

Sam's sons reopened the place 5 years ago when it last closed its doors. Over 100 stores across the country existed, now there are 2. Competition from HMV hurt in the 90's and early 21st century, especially when they opened a bigger, newer store just across the road from Sam's.

The sons claim that technology, namely online shopping, is what has hurt them most. This is certainly possible, although I think they're putting too much blame there. I mean, HMV, Sunrise, and Music World all still operate brick and mortar stores and haven't shuttered-up yet.

Of course, those stores look newer and have incentives for customers to come in. 3 for $30 deals on DVDs, 3 for $20, club cards, sales, huge indie, Criterion, or World Music sections, etc, etc, etc. Plus they are universally cheaper than Sam's.

Sam's was cool when it was the only big player on the block. Now it just looks old and outdated. Drab colours, decor that hasn't changed in 70 years, overpriced merchaindise, hard-to-find staff, confusing layout. It tried so hard to look like a corner record shop, but you knew it wasn't, so you couldn't forgive the frugality.

5 million people during a work day in the city. The largest per-capita movie-viewing public in North America, and a lot of music and culture lovers with a wide range of tastes. There's no reason they should have failed outside of their own reluctance or inability to change with the times.

Sure, they opened their big DVD section a few years back... it looked like a newer version of the rest of the store. And it doesn't take much to walk across the street to Sunrise or HMV and find the same stock for cheaper. Boxing Day for me was making a pass through all 3, and then buying each item where it was cheapest. That would often mean 1, maybe 2 things from Sam's, if the line wasn't too long (and last year it definitely wasn't), and 10-20 each from the other two.

Why not make the effort? When you shuttered and re-opened before, it was a prime opportunity to re-do the store. I'm not even talking a multi-million dollar reno, but re-arranging the racks, painting, laying down some laminate flooring... something. If you felt technology was killing you, then you should have embraced it. Where is your website? It didn't need to be an online store, but some place to advertise, check stock and prices, and put items on hold. Why not have a points or membership card? Sell MP3 players. Hell, have an MP3 kiosk in the store to let people buy and download songs directly on their players. Push your indie and unknown selections, start a buy/sell/trade program, lower your prices... there are a ton of possible options that you missed the boat on.

Sorry boys, but don't blame the Internet, blame yourselves. When a store doesn't make strides to keep up or pass their customers and competition, it will die. Nostalgia and history only go so far, especially when your base gets older and you aren't replenishing it.

I'll miss seeing Sam's, it's just another piece of my city that will fade away. At the same time, I'm curious as to what will replace it. That's a prime piece of real estate.

Productivity be Damned!

So, I really need Vegas, and it will be a great kickoff to a solid month of weekend parties to attend.

Our humble organizer, Falstaff, has his rough plans up. They sound pretty good.

I'm in Thursday night, 11:30ish arrival. Apparently anyone around should be good and tanked and bowling by that time. I'll swing by and see what's what.... if nobody's around, then expect 1am phone calls.

Friday HORSE at Binions just doesn't appeal... mostly because I suck at HORSE, I'll probably be hitting the 11am NLHE tourney at TI instead, and perhaps spend the day gambling.

Friday night - sure, mixed games sound as good as anything else... sure beats spending the whole day gambling solo.

Saturday - WPBT tourney for sure! Good dinner? Of course! Drunk at the Rio? Why not!

Sunday - I'm hoping to get out on the 1:30 flight, which means a noon brunch at the Wynn just ain't going to work. Damn. The next flight that's appealing to me is the red-eye, and that just ain't that appealing after all.

My only regret? No Ellis Island? Where's the cheap drinks?!

Turnout looks alright, definitely enough to cause a ruckus or 7. Guess my only issue is that of all the people on the list - Fuel's the only one I've actually met. Not a knock on Fuel, just that I hate wandering aimlessly looking for people I don't know :).

Mantra

Well, seems Wippy has issued a challenge to bloggers to post a "poker mantra." Normally I don't give away too much here, because I much prefer seeing what other people think my methods are. (I've heard everything from nearly ATC to "steals from UTG and UTG+1" to "always has aces"... but I digress). Based on my disappointing results and assinine play last night, it's as good a time as any to reiterate. Still, don't expect to learn that much... that would be counter to what it says up above there. I'm thinking this is less mantra, and more manifesto really.


One beer is fine, many beers are fine if you intend to lose.

Nothing more substantial than a snack and a glass should be consumed while playing. Poker and a 3-course meal don't work simultaneously.

Porn only when you don't care about the game anymore.

Don't multi-table. If you do, make sure at least one of the games doesn't matter.

Focus

Keep the distractions to a minimum. If silence is distracting, turn on background noise (TV you can ignore, or music).

Figure out the range you're happy with, and make sure it changes based on the table conditions. Be sure to mix it up a little to keep people guessing.

Know your opponents, and know where the button is.

Focus

Don't let your bets be a tell.

If you have a set of kings, don't assume the all-in is a set of aces. Don't discount it either.

Fight fire with fire.

Short stacked is more free than big stacked.

Just because you have chips doesn't mean you have to give them away. I failed sharing in kindergarten.

Trust your reads. If your reads are wrong, figure out why.

If someone seems to have figured you out, fuck with them.

If you've lost the respect of the table, earn it back.

Bad beats happen, and will piss you off, but they shouldn't tilt you.

If you make stupid mistakes, learn from them, and don't repeat them.

If you make a mistake but don't know why, figure it out.

Focus.

It's not over until you're out of chips.

Treat the rest of the players with respect. If someone comes after you, be witty and well-spoken when you smack them back down. Nothing pisses off a donkey more than pointing out exactly why your call was right and they're an idiot. It also scares the shit out of the rest of the table. NB: This doesn't apply to bloggers.

Don't be afraid to see a flop. Don't be afraid of a flop. Don't overpay to chase your draws no matter how sure you are they're coming.

You're going to lose more than you're going to win. Just make sure the wins are bigger than the losses.

Two pair will win 72% of the time. That means 28% of the time they're going to break your heart.

A 15-outer twice for you means a 32-outer twice for your opponent. So don't be surprised when your straight flush draw doesn't hit. This doesn't mean you shouldn't play it.

Sometimes it's more about not losing than it is about winning. Second chances are better than last shots.

It's better to burn out than fade away.

Laugh when you both have K5o and go to the river on an A-high board.

If you fold to a bluff, then the appropriate response isn't "DAMN!" it's, "Nice bluff."

Greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, gluttony and lust will kill you at the table.

Chastity, abstinence, liberality, kindness, and humility won't help too much either. But diligence and patience will.

Never stop improving.

And that is waaaaay too long. Definitely more manifesto than mantra. My mantra? Pay attention.

I've Had More Fun

Imagine me with a giant LED sign on my head, flashing TILT for a couple hours last night.

The night started off well enough. I fired up a level 1 peep to try and get into the MATH cheap, and was feeling far too goofy. Hammer as my first hand I got totally sucked out on by KQ. So then I calmed down, but couldn't make anything happen since I now had ZERO respect from the table. I fired up another one and played for real. At the final table I found myself with the chip lead next to Drizz and was able to more-or-less sit out to the token.

Meanwhile, I had signed up for the Memorial Day 50K and started playing that like it was the peep. My play was far too loose to start, but the double-stacks gave me some leeway. I was able to get to a respectable level and maintain for a while. It was very cool to find myself at a table with Lightning36 and Joespeaker though. 2400 runners, 3 bloggers at the first table. And we stayed there as long as I was in.

Then the MATH started, and I was in the right headspace for it. But I was at Joespeaker's table again, which made for an opportunity to chat about the 50k whilst it was going on. Also got to thank pushmonkey72 for the 26k notice since he was there too. As was Drizz again. The Full Tilt blogger world is getting very small apparently.

Then my computer froze in the second hour of the MATH when I had just raised with pocket Jacks and someone put out a significant re-raise. By the time I was back in, a couple hands had passed and I was down about 1000 chips with the blinds climbing.

Then I got mildly distracted and played like a donkey in the 50k. AKo raised pre-flop and called. Crappy board and I bet at it, and get check-called. I fire a second bullet at the Q on the turn (this is where the distraction came into play) and get check-called again. I figure I'm beat by someone with AQ. Then the K comes down, and the caller bets out for nearly all my stack. I, like an idiot, call, and he flips over cowboys. What can I say? He played it right, and I played it like a complete donkey. This pissed me off to no end since I could only blame myself.

So with only enough to cover the blinds and a little, I was all-in with A3c, which met AQo and KK and I was done, about 1017 or so out of 2300+. Considering I had just been up around 170th, I was not pleased.

MATH was still going though, and my stack was craptacular there as well. I managed to stay afloat but was now in a shitty mood and eventually went down with a not-so-terrible hand in 23rd I think.

I got up and walked away. No Wii too cool off with, as my controllers are at a friends, so I stalked around my place until my head was a bit clearer. Then I logged into my favourite de-tilting room - Full Contact Poker.

FCP was one of my favourite sites when it opened. It was on the Pokerroom network, and had a bunch of pretty solid players. The amount of donkey play seemed smaller than other sites, which means that people actually respected aggression and you seldom ran into someone who called down pot-sized bets with A-junk suited. Then everyone's favourite anti-gambling law came into affect and their network flew the coop. FCP switch to the Digital Gaming Network, and the number of players dropped to about nil. When I logged on last night, 700 people were connected. That said, the quality of players has degraded to the point where the fishing is easy, if you can find a school.

Throw in a small bankroll on the site (I have no intention of refilling it these days), and it makes for low-limit cash games with minimal amount of caring on my part. The only table with open seats was 0.25/0.50 6-handed NL, so I sat down and took everyone's money. People dropped out when I had increased by over 1/2 my initial buy-in and I left glad that I had managed to win SOMETHING to end the night.

Wheatie is tonight, but I don't think I'll be there. I'm still not in a great poker mood, and my Stars roll is getting dangerously low to be tossing $11 at a donkfest.

Will probably skip the Mookie tomorrow too, but Riverchasers is a possibility.

Tell Me Why...

Sorry, Boomtown Rats were going through my head for a moment. They were quickly replaced by Elvis... Vivaaaaa, vivaaaaaa Las Vegaaaaaaaaas.

Congrats to Le Goat for his 5th place finish in the 26k last night! That's over a cool grand in winnings for Groucho. I'm very jealous, but at least I know some of my chips helped him get there.

Yes, Vegas. Still haven't officially booked anything, but I'll be there. Just a phone call to get me listed on the flights, and a few minutes of effort to book a room and I'll be set. From what I've heard though, it will be a smaller than usual turnout. Shame. I'll try an make up for it with drunkery, volume, and excessive gambling.

MATH tonight, Memorial Day edition. Or as we call it here in Canada - Monday.

26K of Fun

This isn't bad:


But it could have been SO much better.


I actually had more than that, and held on to first for a while. Bounced among the top 3, and then got KILLED when an AJo turned into a straight draw on the turn, and filled it on the river when my 3rd queen showed up. 2nd to bottom 5 in one hand. No Q saved me when I went all-in with AKo and met rockets next to me. JJT flop, but alas, no lady to be found.

Saw quad tens too.


But that was earlier on. A reverse Hoy overbet for value on the river ALMOST worked, but the man with AJ just couldn't call my huge bet. Ah well.

Found myself with Julius_Goat (who had previously railed me with Hoy) at my last table for a decent amount of time. He went from being a little stack between the monsters (me and 2nd place) to outlasting us both. Good job. Once he got some chips, he ramped up his game and became a danger on my right. Here's hoping he takes it down. He's 13th of 27 as I write this. Good luck!

And thanks to pushmonkey72 for reminding me about the 26k. If I'd made the final table, I was paying for your buy-in :). Ran into him in the $75 token frenzy (got that one)... 88 runners and I get dropped down on his left immediately. Quite the night for bloggers.

My Power is Laziness

Well, my solution to playing in the MATH when I knew I'd be late was easy enough. Take down a level 1 token an only pay $8.

Problem was that I got to the game later than expected, in fact, I didn't open Full Tilt until the first hour was nearly up. Seems I was doing alright though in my absence. All told, I essentially hung on until the points bubble burst and went out 23rd. A few bets, a made hand or two, and a double-up on the bubble was enough to keep me alive. I'm not exactly proud of how I pulled that off.

Just as NBC shouldn't be proud about that abortion that was the Heroes season finale. There be spoiler here. You've been warned. Highlight after the dots.

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What a waste of an hour. 55 minutes of dithering and NOTHING happening followed by 3 minutes of "we don't have the budget to do something cool", 1 minute of denoument from a climax a 12 year-old would be ashamed of, and 1 minute of "please watch next season."

I gave them the benefit of the doubt for the first 20 minutes. There was some tension built, it was all coming together. Then it took them another 35 minutes to... what? Get down to the square? The Hiro/Ando storyline was the only one that anything happened in, and it was pretty pathetic. It's great that Hiro suddenly has a 99% accuracy rate with the teleporting after learning how to use a sword.

And Parkman... my god, what a horribly done character. It's like the writers decide "he's stupid for the next 20 minutes." every episode he's in. He shows flashes of being competent, and then he suddenly thinks HE can take on Sylar? With what? A gun and the ability to read his mind? Are you going to make fun of his secret shames?

There were cool scenes, the actor who plays Noah (yet ANOTHER Biblical name - Peter, Nathan (son of David and Bathsheba), Matthew, Noah (something about an Ark), Micah, Gabriel (God's Messenger/Angel of Death), Isaac (prophet), etc.) Bennet is great. He says so much without actually saying it. Facial expressions, and the depth in his eyes. Claire jumping out the window was solid, even if the line before was weak.

But it was outweighed by the stupid. Why doesn't Peter read EVERYONE'S mind when he needs to know what's going on? Can't Peter fly himself? Why does Nathan have to be involved? One line - "It's taking all I have to hold on." would have explained it. Nobody dies??? Maybe Nathan... but Peter will have to live, especially with Sylar crawling (or was he dragged?) to the manhole. Parkman lives? 5 bullets in the chest?? DL can walk after Mohinder looks at him? He's a geneticist, not an MD. Weren't most of the heroes supposed to die and we started anew next season? How pathetic.

Oh, and Candice claimed in the last episode that she was a huge woman in reality, not a Missy Peregrym lookalike... yet when she's knocked unconscious, she reverts to the image we always see?

At the end of the day, it felt very much like NBC execs stepped in and said, "This is our ONLY real hit this season, and we're a bunch of terrified cheapskate pansies. Don't kill anyone, and we can't afford to give you a cool final scene, so make up a cheaper one." At least I hope that's what happened and not that after an incredibly cool first season, the writers couldn't come with an ending. Next time, just have a giant foot crush everyone.

As an aside - Peter should now (depending on proximity) have just about everyone's powers. Since he's invincible and we assume he can survive his explosion and fall (unless he splatters maybe) we'd now have someone who can fly, has super strength and agility (Niki/Jessica), can phase through walls (DL), control electronics/computers, find anybody in the world, turn invisible, is invincible, has telekinesis, freezing ability, can travel through time, teleport, see into the future, have prophetic dreams, go radioactive/electromagnetic, read minds, has super hearing, can melt objects, see how anything works, and probably a few others I've missed... if he lives, then he's damned near unstoppable.


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Anyway. I'll be watching next season despite my disappointment at the final episode. It was obviously stretched. I actually tried to stay positive about the finale for awhile, but writing this just made me realize how lacklustre it was. At least it will give me something to watch while waiting for Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica to start up again in 2008.

Something... in the wine

Well, I confirmed my status as a degenerate with a terrible addiction tonight by borrowing a friend's laptop and bringing it to a Victoria Day/friend's birthday BBQ to play in The Big Game. I got there around 8pm, and sat and mingled whilst I played once 9:30 rolled around. I managed to build up a decent chip lead by 10pm, when the fireworks started. I sat out and went outside to watch the show. When I returned 20 minutes later, I had dropped a spot but was obviously still strong. I checked the hand history and had just missed cowboys, folded AQo, and a flopped set on decent pocket cards. Ah well.

Nothing too special as I sat among friends and played poker, engrossing a couple of them. Everyone else started up a board game and were shocked when I said I was in for that as well. So I was eating cake, playing poker, and yelling out answers to Taboo with a drink in front of me. All told, bubbling in 7th place isn't the worst possible outcome. I won more than my fair share of races to get there, but the one that counted, when I went all-in with AQo vs pocket Tens, didn't go my way. Card death with a short stack on the bubble is not an ideal situation.

Had fun, got points, I'll live. Not sure if I'll make The Hoy on Monday or not. I'll be busy until after it starts, and I'm not so willing to drop a buy-in just to start at a disadvantage. Let's see if I can figure something out...

Behind the Scenes

Eric Idle and John Du Prez have once again collaborated on transforming a Monty Python film into a stage performance. This time, it's The Life of Brian as an oratorio called Not The Messiah. Its world premiere will be at the Luminato Festival in Toronto in June.

A friend of mine is singing in the production and was able to bring a couple friends into last night's rehearsal as part of a test audience. While I didn't get her e-mail in time to respond, another friend of mine did, and in an act of total awesomeness offered me her spot. So I went. Around an hour of rehearsing different parts and making changes (as they're still finishing it off) was done, and then a complete run through for the audience.

It was great. Eric Idle and Christopher Sieber (the original Dennis Galahad from Spamalot) were both soloists (with Sieber playing Brian), along with 3 other excellent singers, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Mendelssohn Choir. The guinea-pig audience was laughing along with the performers, singing and whistling to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and generally having a great time. It's only around for 3 performances in June and then who knows where it will end up, as it was commissioned by Idle's cousin, who happens to be a conductor here.

If you're a fan of Monty Python, then you really need to see it.

The whole Luminato festival looks fantastic actually, with some amazing speakers (Gore Vidal, Leonard Cohen and Phillip Glass), world premiere works, hard-to-find films (I'll finally be able to see Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain!), and all kinds of artistic events that I think really raise the bar for festivals here. There's an old saying - there are only two seasons in Toronto - Winter and Construction. I'm not disputing this, but if you can get around the construction, summer in Toronto is a series of non-stop festivals and events that are definitely worthwhile.

A Worthwhile Tradeoff?

Missed Das Mooken last night due to going deep in my club's tournament. 59 runners, top 7 paid. I finished 6th for a whopping $80 payday on my $40 buy-in after 4 hours of play. YES! $10/hr! At that rate I could retire to a really nice flop house. That said, 1st place was $800, and I wanted it.

Kat kept following me, we started at different tables, then she got moved to mine, then I got moved, and 20 minutes later she got moved. We both made the final table, which was great for this field, and I THINK she had fun as well :).

The club's a bit tricky. Like the blogger games, it's got a big mix of players. Donkeys, fish, newbies, pros, and a large chunk of us amateurs sitting in the middle. Also like the blogaments, the range of interest ranges from apathy to obsession. After all, the real money's in the cash games.

I've traditionally done poorly in these tournaments. I think it's because I never adjusted for the blind levels. There will inevitably be aggressive players at your table. Some actually have skill to back it up, others are what are quickly becoming my favourite player to play against -- those with the aggression > skill mindset. I've tightened up against these guys in the past, thinking that the 4000 starting stack was large enough to wait to make my moves. It never is, since the blinds start at 25/50 and increase every 15 minutes. So this time I came determined. I sat down in seat 10 and watched. One thing people at the club seem incapable of doing is determining the type of player they're up against. Sure, they can make calls on occasion, but to actually figure out their opponent's style seems beyond them. Right away the table's fish swam up for food. A young guy, but not a poseur, he was calling or raising every hand, and winning. A few showdowns revealed the cards he was playing with and what he was catching... I knew it was just a matter of time. I found my old friend KJs and raised with no action but his call before me. He naturally called and the J on the flop was gold for me. I bet, he called. I bet more, he called. My flush filled on the river and I bet big... he called. QJo was apparently no good. I took more money from him two hands later when my ace caught and his 7's were no good but he wouldn't let go. The table was dumbfounded by both my plays based on his betting pattern. Why? Because they couldn't see past their own cards. I knew I was ahead every single time.

Unfortunately, I was moved to another table, taking what was the big stack at my table and sitting to the left of just about ALL the chips at the new one. Excellent, a new target. I chatted and joked with the table and the monster to my right and found out he'd been a card rack. Sweet. Little pairs holding up, draws catching, etc.. On top of that, he had no idea how to play his massive stack. This guy had to have had 70-80% of the table's chips before I sat down, and was playing a weak calling game with it. So I took some of it from him. Then I took some more. Then someone else took most of the rest with a dirty board, then he got knocked out. That was fun.

One suckout of note at this table, when I called a not-small all-in with AQo and AKo was flipped over. Another Q was in the muck, but I caught my 2-outer to win it.

Moved yet again, with the blinds up and my stack getting relatively smaller, this time to a table with some people who had both a clue and chips. Two tables left. Card death hits, and zero opportunity to make any sort of moves, as all the shorter stacks were making them first. Twice I saw boards that would have made me a mint, but somehow 23o vs an all-in and a call by the big stack didn't seem worthwhile pre-flop. So as my table got down to 6, and then 5, I was hoping for SOMETHING to go with while still shorthanded... but it didn't come. Final table merge and we're at 11 players, with 1, maybe 2 people shorter than me. Blinds have whittled me down to nearly inconsequential, so I have to move soon or pray.

I wait. Relatively quickly we're on the bubble. An all-in UTG from me with ducks scares everyone away. Which is sad seeing as I only had 3x the BB left. It taught me a bit about one player who admitted to having presto when I showed the twos. Then came a couple huge hands. My all-in presto vs A7o... A on the flop... 5 on river, and for the first time EVER in live poker, I actually cheered. The other was AJ vs 77 that rivered a 5-high straight after a 7 on the flop for another double up. Snowmen tossed aside to two all-ins, pocket sevens that scared off an AK, I was alive and well with 6 left.

Then I made a tactical error. I decided to steal the blinds with KTo. Table was still ultra-tight and I was UTG with two tight shorties next to follow me, and a button that wasn't paying attention to the fact he'd bled away his chiplead. I had 43,000 in chips with blinds at 3000/6000, and was 2nd or 3rd in chips. I raised to 18,000 and it folded as expecte to the SB, who started thinking... and re-raised all-in for 32,000 more. I thought and tossed the cards, and he flipped over tens. Shit. This bugged me on my walk home. I kept my head up for a couple more orbits before finally have to toss in my last 2,000 with an A7 that met AJ and someone else's crap and lost.

Now, in hindsight, I should have tossed it right away, but I felt I could take the blinds down with that bet. I'm not sure if the push would have made a difference in his call, and might have induced it even more. Knowing that he had tens makes me think that the fold was the right move in that situation, but when his cards were hidden, I can't help but think I should have called. 25k left was nothing at that point, and the results were the same. Maybe the K, maybe the straight... maybe nothing but bricks, but my odds were better than what I ended up going out on.

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I was going to play in the Riverchasers tonight when I started this post, but plans have since come along that trump it. I get to see Eric Idle tonight, and I find that a hard opportunity to pass up for a shot at BBT points. No Mookie, no Chasers, and probably no Big Game = dropping in the standings for sure. Alas. Still lots of poker to make it up.