Poker Round-Up, Day 2

Thursday I bought into the $200 no-limit tournament, along with 386 other players.  The game started at noon and lasted until forever.  I finished 28th, which was good enough for $250.  Woo-hoo!  Now I actually have some stats to go with my otherwise-empty Hendon Mob database entry.

I was out by 8pm, so I went over to the cash games.  But I was completely wiped out.  I had been SO FOCUSED during the tournament that I just didn’t have any brainpower left for the cash game.  I went through the motions for about an hour, then gave it up and went back to the motel for the night.

There are plenty of C- and D-list pros in attendance; basically the ones that seem to show up every year.  I’m talking about Linda Johnson, Marsha Waggoner, Susie Isaacs, Vince Borgio, Howard “Tahoe” Andrew, and “Oklahoma” Johnny Hale (the last three I actually played against in either the tourney or a cash game).  The one player who isn’t here that I expected to see is Tom McEvoy.  There’s a big tournament going on at the Bellagio right now, so perhaps he is there instead.

Poker Roundup, Day 1

I had hoped to blog about the tournament real-time, but since I didn’t have any Internet at my motel I wasn’t able to do that.  But I still wrote down some notes each day; I’ll post them a day at a time.  Enjoy!

I flew into Walla Walla in the late afternoon on Wednesday, got my rental car and drove down to Pendleton to my relatively decent motel room.  (No Internet access, which always drives me up the wall, but that’s another story.)

That evening there was a Super-Satellite playing at the Wildhorse Casino (the Roundup host), so I got there in time to enter it.  Several hundred players put down $115, and the top 20% got paid entries into Saturday’s $500 “Main Event”.  I went out in the first round, when I decided to play Ace/King from late position.  An Ace flopped, I called a big bet from one player (everybody else folded) and by the turn, all of the chips were in the pot.  The river was a Queen, my opponent had Ace/Queen, and I was out.

So I went to the cash games and bought into the $2/$5 no-limit table.  I folded every hand for over an hour.  Then I got pocket Aces.  I raised, got re-raised by one player in late position, so I re-raised him; eventually we were all in pre-flop.  He had pocket Queens.  A third Queen came on the flop, and I was broke.

I re-bought, folded for another hour, then ended up in the Big Blind with King/Deuce of Clubs.  Several limpers came into the pot so I checked.  The flop was perfect – Ace Deuce Deuce, giving me trips with best kicker.  I bet out, got one caller who raised, everybody else folded, I called.  Rags came on the turn and river, and by then all the chips were in.  I showed down my trip deuces with King kicker, and he showed Ace/King, so I doubled up.  Basically, I was back to even for the night (not counting the satellite entry).  I ended up the night net winner a small amount.

Just A Short Note

I haven't played very much poker in a long time, which is very frustrating for many reasons.  Mostly because my skills tend to fall off a cliff after only two or three days off.  I've been playing a little bit lately, and I might as well be playing with my cards face up.  It's beyond tragic.  I'm just giving away my chips.

Worse than that:  I'm headed to Pendleton, Oregon for the Poker Round-Up tomorrow afternoon.  Five days or so of non-stop poker at the Northwest's premier poker event.  I went last fall and it was truly spectacular.  Among the pros there were Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Marsha Waggoner, and Susie Isaacs.  I can't even remember who else.

Meanwhile, I've somehow found my way onto the Hendon Mob Poker Database: http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=s&n=122369

The photo is from the WSOP Main Event last year, the first day.  I obviously don't have any statistics yet, because I haven't cashed in any qualifying tournaments (the Wildhorse/Pendleton tournaments will qualify, if I do well in any of them).  Frankly I'm surprised I'm even on their website, without any stats.

There are four tournaments on my radar this week in Pendleton -- one each on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The Saturday tourney is the "Main Event" with a $500 buy-in.  There's a satellite to that tourney on Wednesday night, so I might just play that too.  And you can count on me hanging out at the cash tables in between the tournaments.  Some of the best poker I've ever seen.

Not Much Poker Lately

As is always the case, the biggest reason why I haven’t posted anything lately is because I haven’t been playing very much poker (and the corollary, which is that I’ve been really busy at everything else going on in my life).  Up until yesterday, I’ve only played a few hands the past few weeks.  One of these will give you an idea of how my poker’s been going recently:  I have Ace/King, opponent has Ace/Queen and has me covered.  Flop is Ace-Rag-Rag.  All the money ends up in the pot.  River is a Queen; I lose it all.

Yesterday, I managed to get about two hours in.  I played only two hands the entire time – pocket Queens, and the very next hand with pocket Aces.  When I got up and left, I’d doubled up my buy-in.  Not bad for only playing two hands!

My co-worker Steve has been playing some good poker lately, recently taking down second place in an online tournament that brought in over $3000.  He also plays in a weekly home game tournament in Chicago, and keeps threatening to get me into the game on one of my frequent trips out that way.  He told me this humorous story about his last time there.

One of Steve’s opponents asked him for the secret to his recurring tournament success.  “It’s very simple”, Steve said, reaching over and picking up one of his opponent’s chips.  “No matter what you do, never ever ever bet this chip.”  He put the chip back down on his opponent’s stack.  “As long as you remember that warning, and never bet that chip, you will be certain to win the tournament.”

Roughly half the table got Steve’s point immediately, and chuckled obligingly (including, fortunately, myself, who heard the story some time after it happened).  The other half of the crowd figured it out after thinking about it for a short while.  Unfortunately, the guy Steve had been talking to was completely perplexed.  He picked up the indicated chip and inspected it very closely, as if it were somehow magnetically charged or differently weighted.

“I don’t get it,” he complained.  “What did you do, put a hex on it or something?”  This generated another round of chuckling from the assembled table.  Indeed, at one point this player went all-in – minus only the one chip Steve had identified.  (He won that hand, which merely added to the mystique.)

Eventually, Steve was heads-up with this player, who still hadn’t deciphered the Secret of the Magic Chip.  Sadly, whether magnetism, magic, or cosmic rays were responsible, it didn’t prevent our victim from losing the heads-up to Steve – although he did eventually figure out what Steve’s statement actually meant.  Just not in time for it to do him any good!