Andrew moved to a softer table and is up to a comfortable 45k at the dinner break.

They are only playing four 2-hour levels today, instead of the scheduled 5,  so they’ll come back from dinner at a little after 6pm PST and then play until about 10:30pm with a break around 8pm…

Andrew is at a meh starting table with a good player on his left. For those not following the twitter, here are the updates so far:

3:35pm Fish wins huge pot off of best opponent. this is a very very good thing.

First Break- 2:15pm Just over 30K starting stack at break. Table is awful- mostly unspectacular tourney guys but one seemingly very very good guy on my left.

2pm 3bet k8s on button turned nuts guy bet folds a one card straight

12:15pm Shitty table. already double barreled and called down two streets with k high.

My girlfriend’s been working tremendously hard on a redesign of the Thinking Poker blog/website, and it’s going to be going live tomorrow. By the time many of you read this post, it may be live already, in which case, don’t panic- you’re still in the right place!

If you happen to read this before the changeover, know that there could be some downtime/technical difficulty as we transition from Blogger to Wordpress. Hopefully there won’t be any, but in any event, it will be well worth it. The new site design is amazing and about 1000 times better than this crap you’ve been looking at for the past 6 months.

Oh, and I’m playing the main event tomorrow, so remember to follow me at http://twitter.com/thinkingpoker. I’ll keep you posted on my steadily rising chip count and all of the hopeless triple barrels I’m too disciplined to attempt. Positive thinking!

For some reason, people in Vegas talk to strangers on the elevator, which is a total 180 from common elevator behavior anywhere else in the world. I think it has something to do with the general mood of the place combined with how crowded the elevators often are.

Usually it’s just some lame joke about the crowds or something, but today, while I was waiting for the elevator at the luxurious Imperial Palace when a skinny man who looked to be in his early fifties walked over and pressed the button as well. “Mmm mmm mmm,” he groaned, shaking his head at me in frustration.

There are about a million reasons why someone might be feeling that way in Vegas, so I just pursed my lips and snorted sympathetically.

“This my last trip with that woman,” he told me. “We get home, I’m gettin’ a divorce.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Mmm hmmm. She outta her goddamn mind. I mean she seriously crazy.”

“Vegas can bring out the worst in people.”

“Naw, man, this been goin’ on. 53 years old and she a muthafuckin’ streetwalkin’ whore.”  Read the complete post...

3875 coming into the break. Were playing 200 400 when we resume.

Level 3 I got into some good spots vs the fish (there are 2 now). Once had three to a low flush that turned into a 7 low and lost to a better low from fish who limped 9(62). Also mde 3456 on 4th in a multiway pot and busted everything.

Didn’t play a single hand for first 55 minutes of level 4, which wasn’t the end of the world since the ante was tiny and I didn’t get many bringins. Then last 2 hands I chopped a small pot with a flush out of my bringin and scooped a smallish pot with 34567.
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Up from 4500 at the start. Table isn’t particularly soft. There’s one very loose player on my right but otherwise everyone seems solid. I’ve had some strong hands, including rolled up 7s that only got half of a small pot and a buried pair that made trips to chop a large 4way pot.

It’s a lot of fun playing live s8 but also tough keeping track of everything, way harder than online.
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Edit: As I was drifting off to sleep last night, it occurred to me that I should have titled this post “Loosey Luske”. In my defense, it was 3AM and I’d been playing Stud/8 for 8 hours, so my creative juices were a bit stymied.

Early in level 7, the Flying Dutchman joins our table, upside-down sunglasses and all. Almost immediately, he takes half my stack.

Action folds to me in middle position. I’ve got 8(72), hardly a premium hand, but there’s nothing but junk behind me: two Queens, Marcel with a Jack, and an 8 on the bring-in. I raise, Marcel calls with the J, everyone else folds.

On 4th, I catch an A, Marcel catches a 4. I bet, he calls. Odds are good he’s got a pair of Jacks (though maybe I should expect him to 3-bet that more often than call?), but I’ve got outs to both halves of the pot plus the A is a scare card.

On 5th, I brick, and Marcel catches a 3. I bet, he calls.  Read the complete post...

Legendary 2+2 poker author David Sklansky was recently the victim of a home invasion robbery committed by what appeared to be several armed individuals. According to the local NBC affiliate,

“‘The guy burst into the bedroom, it was dark but I did see what appeared to be a gun,’” home invasion victim David Sklansky recalls.

Sklansky was asleep in his bedroom when two men broke into his home near Wigwam and Bermuda shortly after 3 am Thursday morning.”

Thankfully, no one was hurt. Sklansky’s cool-headed (some might say robotic) personality surely helped in that regard:

“‘During the time he was there, my main focus was to make sure that he didn’t think that I was panicking or that I would do something silly,’” Sklansky explains. “‘The advice is the same as in a poker game; you try and figure out what the other guy is thinking and then act accordingly. I can imagine if he was doing this same robbery with someone who didn’t’ behave the way I did it could have turned out terribly.’”

I think it’s particularly funny that the article doesn’t in any way explain Sklansky’s involvement with poker, so I’m sure that quote comes across as bizarre to those who don’t know who he is.  Read the complete post...