31 thoughts on “The Hangover Part 4?”

  1. This pic is from the lobby of the Rio. It came after a FT (9th) that Carlos hit at the Aria 1PM deepstack. Breyer, PF, and I railed him. He played solid and deserved a much higher finish compared to the rest of the talent on the table.
    Breyer then got 15th in the same event tonite. Yours truly did not do so hot.
    I finally got a set (fours) on a A 4 10 flop and got crushed by a set of Aces.
    Cooler!
    The camaraderie and competition has been nothing but the best. These guys are just the nuts.

  2. Cool pic – this is getting me psyched for this weekend.
    I like the contrast between piefarmer and breyer in shorts vs. carlos and keone not. Do they blast the AC in the Rio convention center?

  3. I played in the 10PM Deepstack at the Rio last nite. It was freeeezing. BTW stay away from those. The rake is ridiculous. But I was so desperate to play something and that was the only game in town at that time. Every drunk wannabe was in that one. I think they keep the poker room cold so they can sell more WSOP sweats.

  4. Ok, no racial jokes here, but Carlos is in fact wearing dark shorts.

    We played at the Wynn, the Aria, the Monte Carlo, and the Rio. The Rio is very cold, the others are not.

    Pokerwise, my trip could not have been worse for my bankroll. But my liferoll grew immensely spending time with these three.

  5. C’mon man! Why would you not stand up straight knowing you’re already the shortest person in the photo? Hell, I think Breyer may be standing on his tip toes.

    Dana, I’m wearing shorts as well. It’s just that my legs are almost the same color as them, lol.

    *Fair warning, I am going to have some fun in the comments on this photo.

    I like the money, but days like this one are what make me love the game.

    • lol at me for not seeing that – I’m going to blame the shadows/dark background and not any kind of racial tinted viewing on my part.

      Thanks everyone for the info on the air conditioning – will be packing a hoodie

  6. Breyer and Keone are dressed decently, as they were staying in the Rio.
    Carlos and I were walking all over the place, so we look like kids from a hostel, but we kept the backpacks and hats out of the picture.

  7. This pic was right after I final tabled a tournament at the Aria and 2 days later, I chopped the same tournament. Running good.

    • What a nite it was. Carlos, Breyer, and I zipped down to the Aria for the 1pm tournament. I busted out early when I flopped a flush against a AQ raiser. K, 10, 7 of spades. I’ll spare you the details but a red Q hits the turn and he shoves my open. I snap call. He looks stunned and says I didnt think you had it. Unfortunately he had the Q of spades with a red A and the river was the J of spades. GG me. Anyway Breyer got knocked out but Carlos played another strong game and chopped with the last 4 runners. Since he was the chip leader he also won a seat to the WPT Main Event at the Wynn.
      While he did all this which took about 12 hours I went to play at the Orleans and for the first time in my life played in a Limit Omaha High/Low tournament with bounties. With 135 runners. Ive only read some books and the only live experience I have is PLO, my favorite game. It took me some time to get used to it and got some bounties but ended up 21st just 5 out of the money. It was a great learning experience.
      I cabbed back to see Carlos do the chop and Killing Bird and the whole TPE crew were there railing Carlos. So nice to see the kind of camaraderie and love by that poker crew. I know Carlos will eventually have bigger and better cashes. He is truly worthy of it.
      Breyer enters the Seniors tomorrow and Im off back home to the family.

      • Reading over this to jog my memory for the podcast and had to laugh when Keone says I’ll spare you the details right before going into immense detail. Actors cant spare you the details because acting IS the details.

  8. BTW if you ever want a unique poker experience the ORLEANs have a top crew of regs. Greg Pappas who came in 3rd against Helmuth and Forrest in the WSOP razz was in that small Omaha tournament and so was Daniel Goldman who placed 6th in the Pot Limit Hold Em WSOP event. A bunch of Poker Stars employees played as well and they are a great friendly crew although of the older set. Lot of mixed games and even a good Chinese game going on there. Monday and Thursday they have an Omaha tournament in the evening. But its not soft to say the least.

  9. The legend lives.
    Breyer made Day 2 of the Senior’s event and is about 20 from the money. Saturday should be fun for him. Gogogogogo.

  10. Thanks for the congrats and do indeed have hangover today. Couldn’t have gone nearly as deep without Carlos the worlds greatest poker caddy.

    • Caddied a bit for Mike Kachan as he shipped a bracelet. I railed and used KB’s Ipad to relay hands to him 30 minutes after when they aired on the live stream.

      Caddied for Dan Singer as he went deep in the PH 25K too.

      I tell ya, that’s almost as fun as playing and such an advantage for those of us who have poker friends in Vegas.

  11. Our man Carlos is bringing his A game to Vegas. Last nite he hit the money again and came in 16th in the profitable 1PM event at the Aria. Tap, Tap, Tap……

    • Thanks Keone. It was the $200 25K Guaranteed at Planet Hollywood that I got 16th in though. That’s a 5th, 9th, and 16th in the last three 250+ man fields that I’ve played. The run good continues.

      Only hand I am not 100% sure of was on the bubble. Young kid just gets moved to my table where I am the monster stack with about 60bbs. He opens from UTG from a 20bb stack. Folds to me in the SB and I shove AQo on him. He calls with TTs. If his range is 99+ AQ+, I have 36% equity and probably shouldn’t play the hand. I would expect that range from a tighter player, but I had to make a snap judgement. The kid was talking about cashing the Millionaire Maker and seem comfortable. I thought maybe he opens some KQs, AJs type stuff too. Even then, I still only have about 40%. I thought maybe he’d fold for ICM reasons like I did later in the game with my UTG TT vs a tight player’s 20bb from the BB AKs shove. Maybe my AQo was a fold? Maybe my TT was a call? Not sure, but I love the way that I am playing. Im gonna keep doing my best all summer.

      My bust out hand was a BvB shove for 12bbs. I shoved T8o from the SB and the same kid from before called me in the BB with K7s. I dont hate his call if he expects me to be as wide as I was. I would make the same call earlier in the game, but I dont know how ICM should affect this when there are 16 players left.

      The best part about poker is that we get to learn from the experience and do it again the next day.

  12. Howd you like the room at PH? Its taking over for Caesers not that the Palace is shut down.
    I didn’t like it when I saw it. But maybe the tournament room is different. I think the shove OOP is good.

    • The room itself is fine. The dealers are not the greatest and the chips are horrible with very confusing colors. As far as the dealers, I thought they tended to get involved a little too much. I raise folded to a shove once and the dealer made chicken noises. Had I been tilted, I would have had a less than stoic reaction to that. I was too busy designing cages at the time so it didn’t bother me until the next day.

  13. Just got back from Vegas – I had a blast at my first experience at the series.

    Some highlights:
    1) Only lasted just past the first break in the $1500. Even though my bust-out hand was a cooler (KQ vs AQ on a QQx board), I didn’t play well and had a tough table. I got into a hand with TPE pro Tim Kelly, that caused him to berate me a little bit about my turn call (he tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/TimRKelly/status/475371783948754944). I knew I wasn’t getting the right direct odds for the call, but I thought he would bet often enough on the river (he shoved when I checked to him) to give me the right implied odds. FWIW I’m pretty sure I called in the BB after a couple other callers.
    2) I got to play 1/2 PLO against Bob Ciaffone & Peter Alson (co-author of the Stu Ungar biography) at the RIO. I talked to Bob about bridge (he’s writing a book on bidding with a world class senior player) & asked him who was a better player, him or Steve Z (he said he was at bridge, but Steve was better at backgammon). Peter knew one of the guys from my local PLO game from his Mayfair days. Bob and I were both playing tight & didn’t get into any hands but I did win an all-in vs Peter when I hit my flush/straight draw. Another interesting character at the table was a heavy-set young kentucky PLO pro who was winning most of the money at the table “How many books have you written Bob? I could use some help in my PLO game, but you know I can’t read.” I think $12/hr timed rake is too much, so didn’t play long – the Aria PLO game was better & more fun with all the Euros.
    3) I played at Binion’s to check it off my list of things to do in life. It was midnight and they just had one 3/6 & two 1/3 tables running. After I sit down, one of the old guys is warning another old guy at the table “you know who this is?” (pointing to the kid to his left) “this is bracelet winner Leaf Forrest” I look over and it is Leif Force. After a couple hands I ask him why he’s playing 1/3 at Binion’s. He says he’s just hanging out with his buddies drinking. His one friend, a very outgoing guy who talks, looks and acts like Andy Samberg with a slight North Carolina accent, tells us that every year they play the 1 AM $65 Golden Nugget tournament without looking at their cards. I decide to join them and had a total blast. They only got 9 people for the tourney, so it was the 4 of us, 4 imbibing senior citizens and 1 kid playing in probably his first tournament ever. The structure was shallow, so it was mostly a shove fest, but it was fun the first couple levels to set up spots where you know you can get bet-folds. Best moment was when the grumpy old guy open shoves 15 to 20 BB’s from the SB and Andy Samberg folds AK face-up. The old guy then flips over T8o. Once 3 of the 4 of us were knocked out they told the remaining 3 players what we were doing – them and the dealers were pretty entertained by it. I then played 1/2 – they have no buy-in limit at the Golden Nugget. There was a young Indian guy with a big beard sitting at the table with about $30K in bills in front of them (he must have been waiting for someone else to buy in for the same amount).
    4) While waiting for my buddy who was playing in the 7pm HORSE tourney at Orleans, I played in a interesting 2/4 limit game w/a kill – all old locals at the table. A couple of them kept chiding me for folding out the field w/ my set of A’s on the turn (I showed) since I was so going to hit the high hand on the river (“you’ve got to know your casino promotions before you sit down at any table”)
    5) I shouldn’t bluff middle aged woman (MAW). Middle stages of the noon daily at the Golden Nugget, just moved to a new table, open from early position with JJ’s, and MAW in BB puts in a small raise. We’re not that deep and I know I shouldn’t call this, but I figure I might be able to outplay her in position. I watch her as the flop hits. It’s KKT and she looks like she does not like it at all. So I shove for 1.25 pot. She gets visibly upset, tanks and starts asking me if I have AK, then counts and re-counts her chips. I think once she figured out she would still have 5 BB’s or so if she lost, she calls with A’s. My buddy, who was also at the table, plays a tournament the next day with her and says she was still talking about how agonizing a decision it was. Next day, just in the money of the Aria 7PM daily, a MAW very hesitatingly open limps UTG w/10 BB’s and I decide to ship my 11 BB’s w/ K6s from the button. She’s wearing sun-glasses and stares me down for about two or three minutes and finally calls with KJo. (I didn’t win either hand)
    6) Observing your opponents can sometimes make you miss other things… in the 6 seat at a 1/3 table at Aria, I had been getting into a lot of hands w/ the two middle aged businessmen in the 8 and 9 seats who liked to call my raises. Victoria BC in the 8 is getting a back-rub, while the Vegas room reg in the 9 jokingly says he’s afraid of me while they call my raise to $15. The flop comes and the three of us are just staring back and forth at each other while we check the flop and turn (I had broadway cards on an all low card board). Finally Vegas bets pot on the river and myself and Vic BC insta-muck, only to have the amiable Asian guy from LA call from the 1 seat. We all have a big laugh about this. LA says he was entertained and kept letting us check out of turn. The dealer tells us he kept saying 4 players at each street and the old guy in the 7 says he kept pointing at 1 and saying it was his turn to act. My sarcastic response “You weren’t in the hand sir”
    7) My friend I was staying with kept pointing out woman he thought were working girls in the casino. Last night, coming out of the Aria at 3am I decide to put his theory to the test. Just before the tunnel to the parking garage, I see two girls walking in looking like they are going to a club. I chat them up and sure enough after a few pleasantries I am propositioned. I snap reject them and but at least they gave me a chuckle as I quickly walked away (“Can we come with you to your hotel room?” “No, I am staying with a buddy.” “Well, there’s two of us, and two of you.”) I think I was given a small cosmic pay-back for toying with them when I spent about 3 minutes trying to get into my rental car only to realize that mine was the one right next to it (they were the exact same make, model, color, year, and California plate). Speaking of coincidences, I was knocked out of the 1pm and 7pm Aria tournaments on the same day when my pair of A’s was two outer’d on the river by pocket J’s.

      • Thanks piefarmer.

        I forgot to add that I used my one time at the Vegas airport. I almost missed my flight but I waved down the attendant as she was closing the gate door. She was nice enough to open the door and let me in. I think if I missed the flight I wouldn’t be allowed to go on trip like that by myself again.

    • Epic post.

      Wish I could have touched bases with you, but sounds like we were both running around a ton. I talked to Tim about his tweet referring to you and he apologized. He had such a bad run this trip that he ended it early and went home a few days ago. He is an awesome guy in my experience.

      Thanks for all the support guys.

      • Thanks Carlos. Congrats on your results so far. Yeah, I was running around a lot – I was trying to play in as many card rooms I hadn’t been to before.

        I could tell Tim was more frustrated in general – it was only the one sentence after the hand and then he went back to being his friendly self. (If anything, made my day a bit to get tweeted about). I think he was the first person to start talking & got the table to open up, which made it a fun game.

    • Sounds like a great time, Dana, thanks for taking the time to write this! Sorry to miss you out there, glad you had fun.

      • Your welcome Andrew. And I topped off the great week with my 40th birthday party today w/ friends and family in New Haven.

  14. Another Final Table chop for our boy “los”!!! Binions!!!! Happy Birthday!!!
    The legend continues. Catch that cab!!!!

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