Ten-Twenty-Five Live

I played about two hours of 10-25 NL at the Rio yesterday. The table wasn't full of spewmonkeys but I wasn't anticipating a lot of tough decisions. Mostly it was just a boring game. I say that, but I did actually bluff my entire $5K stack on my first hand.

Let me tell you another story first though. There was this wealthy Texan at the table who, when I first sat down, was on the phone placing sports bets. That's always a good sign. I later changed seats and ended up with him on my immediate left, meaning I was privy to the next two phone calls he made.

The first was to a woman named "Becky" whom he seemed to select somewhat arbitrarily from his address book. He hadn't seen her in a few months but turns out she was available for dinner on a few hours' notice.

His next call was a voicemail that I'll attempt to transcribe to the best of my memory: "Hey Jimmy, this is Dicky. Happy 20th birthday. That's a bit one. I'm sorry I won't be able to make it for your party tonight, I'm going to be tied up. I've got a little present for you, though- it's $50- you're mother will have that for you. You're growing into a fine young man. Hope you have fun."

Anyway, that big bluff I was talking about: I opened to $75 with AKs in late middle position and got 3-bet to $300 by a familiar-looking player on the button. I couldn't place where I'd seen him before, but he was young and serious-looking, which isn't a good sign. I assumed he was an internet pro whose face I'd randomly seen in a picture or something, but now that I think about it, I may actually have played with him at Foxwoods. It makes a huge difference which he is, but at the time, I was thinking internet, so anyway...

He 3-bets to $300, and I decided to make it $800 and fold to a 4-bet (he had me covered). He thinks for a while and calls. The flop comes down rags with two of my suit. I bet $1200, planning to unhappily call a shove. My hope was that he would just call and then I could shove the turn. That's exactly what happened. He tanked for a while but folded what was probably TT-QQ. I doubt anyone else at the table would make that fold, but then I wouldn't have 4-bet anyone else either.

So I made $2000 on my first hand, but I later misplayed a hand pretty badly and cost myself most of that profit. A new player had just joined the table, an older black man who seemed to be a regular in the Tunica games. He bought in deep enough to cover my nearly $7K stack.

I got AKs UTG+1 and raised to $75. Only the new guy called out of his BB. The flop came 862 and gave me my flush draw. He checked, I bet $125, and he raised to $400. I called. The turn was an off-suit 3, he checked, I bet $525, and he raised to $2000. I folded.

My turn bet is just atrocious. With less showdown value, it might be OK, like if I had a ten-high flush draw or something. But even then, I'm primarily relying on bluffing him off of bluffs, which assumes he's capable of check-raise bluffing the flop against an unknown early position raiser. With AK, I beat his bluffs anyway, so there's little value in betting and risking getting blown off a strong draw.

I ended up nearly dead even on the session and didn't play any other interesting pots.

Imperial Palace, Here I Come!

So apparently Vegas isn't quite as dead as I thought and waiting until the day before my arrival to make hotel arrangements was not wise. The Rio is booked solid until Tuesday, so I'm spending my first three nights at the good old Imperial Palace. I stayed there last year, and honestly, I expected worse. Hopefully I didn't just get an abnormally non-crappy room.

Quick little Twitter update/clarification (sorry I am just learning how to use this): you don't actually have to have a Twitter account to get updates. Just go to http://twitter.com/thinkingpoker and you can you see my most recent Tweets.

I'll be using that for occasional chip count updates and reports on important hands, but I'll still try to post more substantive stuff on the blog as time permits. It shouldn't be a problem through the first few days of the main event, but should I make it to Day 3, I'll have a lot less free time from then on out.

Wish me luck!

WSOP Trip Report Conclusion

The finale of my trip report from the 2008 WSOP is now appearing in the October issue of 2+2 Internet Magazine. I must say, getting down to the final tables of this huge tournament is a pretty thrilling experience, at once exciting and surreal:

"On Day 6 of the main event, the Amazon Room was empty. Nine tables were collected in one corner of the immense room, 80% of which was utterly vacant. A single cocktail waiter patrolled between tables. Floor staff and press chatted idly as they waited for something to happen. Tensile cord stretched an oval around the 79 remaining players, so that every table was on the perimeter and observers could easily watch any of them."

If you haven't read them already, you should probably start with Part 1 and Part 2.

Quite the Upgrade

Even though I eventually won a WSOP seat through Stars, they were out of hotel rooms at the Palms, so my only option was to take $1000 in exchange for their sponsorship. Cheapskate that I am, I spent my first few nights at the Imperial Palace. The room was nothing special, but it was better than I expected. It even had a little balcony with a decent view of Caesar's and Bellagio:


Having survived Day 1, I decided to treat myself on subsequent days. I booked a suite at the Rio, which was remarkably cheap (I'm paying barely more than I did at AP), and is way bigger and more badass:


It has a slightly better view as well: