Jackpot

Finally got a table share of a Jackpot at the Hustler. It’s been a long time coming. AK vs. QQ and the flop was AA6. I asked the dealer for an A on the turn and got it. Nice.

Now that the November 9 has been set at the 2010 WSOP, it’s time to reflect on my trip this year.

Compared to 2007, this year’s WSOP was better organized and seemed to be running a lot smoother. I liked that the 1st day wasn’t a marathon 16 hours, and instead was not even 12 hours (including the 90 minute dinner break). This made the experience more enjoyable and I actually had a lot of fun, unlike in 2007.

During my day off from the tournament, I saw an interesting spherical camera device that was hanging above one of the tournament tables. There was an operator (see the guy in the white hat on the left) that was controlling it using what appeared to be game console controllers. The sphere had multiple camera lenses on it, including one at the bottom (see picture below).

360 degree camera?

I don’t know what this device was but it was not being used at an “important” table so I assume it was some kind of experiment, perhaps by ESPN.

Just like in 2007, I stayed at the Rio for the advantage in the tournament to being closer to it during the breaks. As a matter of fact, I was able to leave the table a couple of minutes before the 20 minute break, get back to my room, order food, go to the bathroom, and still make it back in time. One thing I didn’t know until this year was that I could just ask room service to leave the food in my room even if I wasn’t there in time. This made it a lot easier for me to have my dinner waiting for me in my room.

Something I did this year was to go to the grocery store near the Rio (Food For Less, a few blocks away) and stock up on food to put in the frig in the room. This is a lot cheaper (including the taxi cost) than eating and drinking from the room bar. This was definitely the smart move and I’ll be doing this again next time.

The only thing that was a fail at the Rio was the internet connection, or lack thereof. It was so intermittent, it was basically unusable. I literally spent several hours total over a few days talking to the customer service people for the Internet service.

If that wasn’t bad enough, even the checkout service on the TV was not working properly. As you can see below, I guess the Internet service wasn’t working for the hotel either.

Rio TV

Despite this one glitch, my stay at the Rio was good and I plan on staying there again when I return to the WSOP, hopefully next year.

Unlike my trip back in 2007 to the WSOP, there was no “Gaming Life Expo” this year. I guess it didn’t work out for the booths. In any case, since the glasses I bought back then were destroyed during my trip to Vegas, I had to get new ones. The WSOP store were selling the Poker Armor glasses for about $60 but with a 10% discount with the Harrah’s players card. These glasses have less coating on the bottom so it’s almost clear when you are looking down at your cards.

Poker Armor Sunglasses

Just like in 2007, I had to make a big decision with a medium pocket pair (10s) hoping they had AK, but turned out to be KK in one case, and QQ in another case. Both of these decisions turned out to be my downfall because I didn’t have enough chips to work with after these bad calls. I have to learn to know when to let these hands go.

Doyle Brunson shown here on day 1D

Right after dinner break on day 2, an active player raised, got flat called by the guy next to him, and I decided to put what is called a squeeze play on them with 10-7 suited. The active player quickly folded, but the flat caller went into the tank. After a long time, he called with K-10, which was bad since I didn’t have 2 live cards. Nothing came and I was out of the tournament with a whimper.

Although I didn’t cash like my last outing in 2007, I felt a lot more confident and relaxed. I never felt nervous like the last time, and I felt like I knew what was going on at the table at all times. What a difference 3 years and winning a couple of tournaments make. I really want to go back in 2011, and will probably do more than just one event.

TV table from day 1B

My first day at the WSOP did not start well for me. After starting the day with 30,000 chips, at one point, I was down to about 12K. Mostly, this was due to a lot of loose play on my part but I was determined to not play scared this time.

After slowly working my way back to about 22K, I picked up A, J off suit. The flop was K, J and 5. I bet out and unfortunately, got one caller. This caller happened to be the tightest player at the table. Not good for me. The turn was an Ace giving me 2 pair. I decided to make a big move and went all in. The tight player called with Q – 10, giving him a straight. Basically, I had 4 outs (2 Jacks and 2 Aces). I stood up to get ready to leave the table, when a miracle Ace came on the river for me giving me a full-house.

This double-up got me excited enough to start playing well and managed to finish the day near 60k, which is above the average chip stack.

Next: Day 2A on Friday.

It seems like just last year but it’s been 3 years since my last WSOP. There were no big name poker players on the plane from Los Angeles but Gene Simmons was right after us in line.

One thing that I did notice is that in 3 years, they have improved the registration process a lot. Instead of an ad hoc room, they had a cage like they do for a small casino, and another table area for pre-registered people like me. Registration was quick and easy and everyone was very friendly.

This time, I’m not hear to just cash. I’m here to win.

It’s almost time for the 2010 World Series of Poker. That means it’s time to update my tournament outfits. There was an ad in Bluff Magazine from Scotte Vest for a hoodie with a lot of pockets.

Scotte Vest Ultimate Hoodie Microfleece - $56 with Promo

It’s normally $70 but with the promo code “BLUFF2010″, it’s $56. It may seem a little high for a microfleece hoodie, but take a look at the pockets it comes with.

The most unusual one is a see-through pocket where you can put your iPhone, or Palm Pre in my case. You can sort of see the screen and more importantly, you can touch the screen to operate your phone. There are routes for your headphones to go through to your head so you can go to the next song without even taking your phone out of your pocket. Nice feature.

Palm Pre in clear touchable inside pocket

On the other side, there are 2 pockets that are vertical so that you can put water bottles or your drink of choice so you’re always ready to some refreshments.

Inside pocket for drinks

There are other pockets (like on your upper arm) but the one that I like are the ones on the side which you’re most likely to use. They are equipped with magnets so that they automatically close shut. It’s nicer than velcro because it’s very easy to open but you don’t have to worry about your wallet falling out after you take your hand out of your pockets.

Side pocket with magnets

After testing out my new hoodie at a few tournaments, I’m really liking this mega-pocket outfit. You may see me at the WSOP this year wearing it.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a tournament at Commerce so I decided to try their “Hold’em Series.” Their first of 17 tournaments was a multi-day $500,000 guaranteed one but I got there too late on the last day and it was sold out. They told me I could be an “alternate,” and would be able to get my money back if I decided the wait was too long.  My number was 600 something and after waiting for about an hour, it was only to 70 so I gave up and got my money back.

One thing new was they finally changed their player card to a thick credit card-like card instead of the thin paper-like card from before.  As before, they have a computerized system that prints out the player card with your name on it.  Nice technology they have there.

One new thing they added was an ID scanner called “SnapShell.” I tried to find out who makes these via google but was not able to find the manufacturer. There is a company in Santa Monica that OEMs them and sells the OCR software called Card Scanning Solutions. Basically, it’s a small device that has some type of scanner or digital camera with a light built into a  box as shown below. The user puts the ID right on the screen face down and an image of your ID is scanned into the computer. the OCR software then extracts the data right off of your ID. This software automatically recognizes IDs from all states and enters the extracted data into a database. When there are long lines of people waiting, this can save tons of time compared to an operator manually entering the data.

But I digress.

I returned the following week for another multi-day $400,000 guaranteed tournament but only lasted about 4 hours. Although the rounds are 40 minutes long, you start with only 3,000 in chips so one big mistake and you’re stack is low. I tried to make a move and got caught and lost half my stack. From there, it was a struggle and a slow death.  The lesson there is, when you are playing a small stack tournament, don’t’ try to get too tricky until you build up your stack.

After my disappointing performance at the last series of tournaments at the Bicycle Casino, I decided to keep trying at the Legends of Poker tournaments.

First, I tried the re-buy $300 tournament ($200k guarantee) with no luck.  The week after that, the Bike decided to change their rebuy tournament on August 14-15th 2009 to a no-rebuy tournament for some reason. It still a $200,000 guarantee, which made it a good one to try. The rounds are 40 minutes and started at 50-100 blinds.

Everybody gets one of these free baseball caps for entering the tournament, as well as a coupon for free dinner. Hey, they have to do something to make it seem like you’re getting your money’s worth.

Men “The Master” and his wife were there, as well as Lou Diamond Phillips, the actor slash poker player. On another table, Sam Simon (co-creator of the Simpson’s) was trying his luck.

Actually, both of these guys are fairly serious about their poker. Simon is famous for having a big home game in Los Angeles, which was featured on 60 minutes a while back.

Now, Simon has had a cable show called “Sam’s Game” on Playboy, since June 2009. Here’s a clip from their show below. You can tell that it’s more talking and BSing than poker. What little poker that is played is only good for showing people what NOT to do if you want to play properly. The only reason for watching is to see Playmates playing poker, but they have their clothes on so it’s not very interesting. However, I would watch this show if it was Simon playing strip poker against only Playmates at the table.  Now, that would be a real show to watch.

But I digress.

In the $500 buy-in tournament, I was doing fairly well when I got pocket Queens under the gun. The blinds were only $150-$300 but I raised to $1,500 because I was on a super high action table. As I suspected, I got 5 callers.  The flop was Jack high, no straight draw but a club flush draw possible.  After the big blind checked, I went all in for about $18,000.  I got one caller, who had an Ace high flush draw, and he got there on the river. He easily covered me and I was out.

So ends my Legends try. I’m not even going to try to win my way into the main event. Well, at least I got a free baseball cap.

Normandie exterior

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Normandie but I was talking to a poker friend and was reminded of all the action they used to have on Saturday nights.  I don’t know if it’s still going on but it sure was fun back in the day.

There’s not much else going on at the Normandie as far as poker, but on Saturday nights, some of the people from Caribe (back in the day) go there for a $500+ no limit game.  Steve, his brother Mike, Dr. Laura, Mickey, and some new people are there for some crazy action.

For me, it’s a challenge because Steve uses every trick in the book to confuse and annoy the players.  Not only that but it’s pretty much like a private home game in that people will make deals during the hand, including asking another player if he wants half the action.  Cards are passed to other players for examination before more prop bets are taken.  Of course, showing one or both cards is nothing unusual at a game like this.  All things that would not be allowed in a casino are allowed.  Side bets and props are the norm.

On top of all this, there’s some crazy action, pre-flop and post-flop.  $3,000 pots can happen on an unraised pot.  This is no game for pussies, that’s for sure.  Sometimes new players will come in and will leave after a few hands because of all the craziness.  Other times, the craziness causes new players to go on tilt and give away all their money before they leave mumbling obscenities.

Since I didn’t win my way in to the 2009 WSOP main event this year (again), I decided to try the Stars and Stripes Championship event at the Bicycle Casino for $1070.  I waited until there were a couple of people sitting at my table before I sat down.  There was a young Internet guy in seat 3, and we chatted a little before the tournament.

While chatting, I noticed WSOP 2006 Main Event winner Jamie Gold sitting at table 6, seat 9 nearby.  Around the same time, I also observed Men “The Master” Nguyen buying in 2 of his “horses” apparently on credit. I’m not positive but I didn’t see Nguyen playing himself, but one of his horses came to my table later in the tournament. With all the controversy regarding Nguyen being accused of collusion, I’m glad he was not at my table.

I’ll spare you the boring details of how I got knocked out, except to say that I had top pair on the flop, and the big stack went all-in with his open ended draw and got the straight on the river.

On a side note, Jamie Gold ended in 6th place in the tournament.