No News is Good News?

Not much to post about poker adventures since the Friday night Legion game was off because of some dumb holiday (oops, 4th of July is not dumb).  We enjoyed the local parade with little granddaughter Eva catching a lot of candy thrown from the vehicles. Afterwards we made our way to the fire station to enjoy a barbequed hotdog, complements of the taxpayers (me) I suppose.

My online games consist of:  having the best hand, someone catching some improbable cards to beat me.  Example: pocket aces cracked by A/7 with him using the 7 to make the bottom end of a straight.  Here's another:  shove with 10/10, 4 callers!!!!  The amazing result, everyone beat me.  K/J caught a jack, Q/8 made a queen high flush, Q/3 made a flush with his 3, and jack/8 made 2 pair.  Wow!!!

This is not to say that I did not make some good and even great hands.  For example, playing K/J suited, I flopped four to a royal flush, then completed it on the turn.  It was bet by another player and a caller on flop and turn.  Another heart on the river killed my action, but hey, you don't get a royal flush every day.

I am trying to score again on the 10 step tournament for $10,000 prize pool.  Have worked my way up to step 6 at this point.  There is also another cool tournament for a Vegas trip, entry in a $1500 deepstack plus $1500 in travel expenses.  Definitely need to focus on that bad boy.

The good news is that this Friday the Legion tournament is back on, plus there is a once a month Sunday tournament for $100 buy-in.  Will definitely be there for that.

I am enjoying a visit from the Seattle family, they leave tomorrow, so gotta go.      

Random Pictures from WSOP Trip

 An overview of tables.  Impossible to show how large the room is and how many poker tables.

 Took this picture at midnight the last night we were in town.  The $1500 buy-in super deepstack tournament was just breaking for 20 minutes.  It was a madhouse.

 Don and I leaving the Rio.  Car packed and ready to go to Phoenix.

 Stopping at a rest stop on the way to Phoenix.  Intimidating sign.  I saw a couple of huge lizards on this tree.  Must have been 110 degrees in the shade there....except there was no shade.

Selfie taken while waiting for plane out of Vegas back to Tri-Cities.  The display featured '60's era flight uniforms.  Nice stewardess outfit.

WSOP Day 6

Now, those of you who know me may find this tough to believe, but after spending the week in Vegas I was tired.  I had mentioned to my sister that if things did not go well for me, would think about renting a car and driving to Phoenix (5-6 hours) for the weekend.  Don and I had a short discussion Friday morning and decided to pack up and leave.  We drove to Phoenix, had a great time visiting my mom and sister.  I caught a plane last night (Sunday) back to Vegas, checked into hotel and am now waiting for the shuttle to the airport.  Fun trip, definitely could have played more poker, but not stuck too bad (flight was covered with frequent flyer points) and avoided the weekend hotel at the Rio cost.

WSOP Day 5

So, day 5 we decide to change things up, driving to IHOP for breakfast.  Those buffets can get mighty tiring I must say.  So, rather than play in a deepstack (they had been cancelled due to overwhelming demand for the $1M guarantee superdeepstack that added 3 additional flights over 7800 players), we wandered over to the Mirage for the 11:00 tournament.  Don outlasted me, but neither of us cashed.  In the meantime, I played some 1/2 NL and chalked up a mini-win of $12.

We then took a cab over to the MGM for the $80 buy-in tournament.  It did not go well for me, but Don chopped 4 ways for $600 and repaid me the entry fee per our agreement.  While waiting for Don, I played some 1/2 NL, buying in for $150 and cashing out for $243.  A profitable day for both of us.

We got back to the Rio late, checked out the action at the WSOP.  They were just breaking for dinner, so it was a madhouse.  Called it a day and went to bed.

WSOP Day 4

This is a great place to spot the poker celebrities.  Who is that in the elevator with Don's wife, Penny?  Why it is former WSOP Main event champion Joe Cada.  Who is that standing at the urinal next to Don?  Why it is bracelet winner Phil Helmuth.  Crazy place.

Don and I decided to make this a relaxation day.  He hung out at the pool, I went to the Venetian to play some 4/8 Omaha.  They were in the late stages of their own deepstack,  $1100 buy-in event with over a thousand players.  They were down to the hundred level in the money.  First prize was $114,000.

The Omaha did not treat me well, dropped $200, but met some funny guys and had a good time swapping poker stories.  One guy was from Madison Wisconsin and good friends with one of Hellmuth's friends.  He had played poker with him several times.  Gave one player my "business card" and promised to write about some of the stories for my blog.  I  left to meet Don & Penny for dinner.  Had some awesome ribs at the Rio.  Below is a picture of the Rio, just impossible to show how busy it really was.  They have about 80 tables, and they were all full with waiting lists.  I had to wait an hour for my seat.

wsop day 3 (Tues.)

First of all, an apology for not updating more.  Yesterday would have been a good day to catch up, but just didn't access the web with my netbook.  First, a couple of pictures, my giant tenderloin (already had cut off most of the excess), and a picture of a dealer at the deepstack.

Tuesday I decided to "warm up" for the 3 p.m. deepstack  by playing the 11:00 Mirage $65 tournament.  This has been one of my favorites, with around 30-40 players, 20 min. blinds and 8K starting chips.  I have cashed in it 5 out of the last 6 times played, so looks like easy money.  Sure enough, ended chopping 4 ways for only $227 because of very light entry (17).  But glad to get a win under my belt and win a portion of the $235 deepstack buy-in.    Sorry to report that I had very similar results to the last deepstack.  Went out around 200th at 10 p.m. (out of 1250 players), my last hand was AQ vs. AA.  A giant stack had moved to our table and had raised 3 hands in a row.  I decided to call bullshit on him with my AQ and moved all in for 45K on his 15K bet.  Problem was, another player came over the top for all of his chips with AA, and the big stack folded 4/4.  I hit my hand on the turn with a queen, but dealer could not find another one to crack the aces.  The ironic part was that the aces were only still in because he had cracked aces with......4/4.  Further irony was provided when the original raiser hit his 4 on my river, which would have eliminated the aces (and me) had he called the overshove.  My phone died shortly afterward, so lost my hotspot to update.  Now fixed but my netbook is acting very erratic, so hope I can continue.

WSOP Day 2

Woke up early and walked across the street to the Gold Coast Casino for buffet breakfast.  It is a great value at $5.99, besides Rio is way overpriced, not open for breakfast.  We then registered for the 3 p.m. deepstack tournament with $235 buy-in.  This is a great tournament with 15K in starting chips and 30 minute blinds.  There were around 1200 entries (includes re-entries).  First prize was about $40,000 with around 120 players making money.  I played o.k., not making too many errors, but raising in late position with K/10 (that was a mistake) late in the tournament, I was called in two places.  The flop was 8 high with 3 spades and I had the king of spades.  A player bet out, was re-raised all-in by a big stack, and I decided to run with my draw.  Had more outs than I thought when the first bet folded and the other player tabled 9/9.  Yikes, how do you miss that many outs?  Finished under 200th place (they do not update stats frequently until the bubble) at around 9:00.

I hung around for a while and watched the $50K buy-in player's championship tournament.  Literally all the poker superstars were there:  Brunsons, Ivey, Juanda, Hellmuth, Lindgren, Hachem, etc.  Said hi to Umberto Brenes (shark guy), and Barry Greenstein strolls by.  Hi Barry.  Had some great pictures to post, but my phone died last night.  Will add them later.  Got some positive stuff to give you on tomorrow's post.