How the poker landscape has changed for me

Poker has been crazy for me since the World Series of Poker ended for me in 2006. The regulations that kicked in late in 2006 took the site that I regularly play offline for players from the United States. As you may recall from prior postings I played in the $10/$20 Limit game or $5/$10 Limit game for the most part. The sites that I now play have those offerings; however, they don’t have nearly the same number of players playing at those tables. On the old site, I could log in and there would be 15-20 full tables running those games at those levels. On the site I now play at, Full Tilt, there would be maybe 2 tables at 5/10 and they would only have a 10/20 game going at their busiest times.

To make the adjustment I’ve moved back in to No Limit Texas Hold ‘em. I’ve always enjoyed playing No Limit, but the game at Party Poker (the old site) was easy to beat. There is a definite difference between playing Limit and No Limit. The obvious difference is that in any given No Limit hand your whole stack of chips is at risk where in Limit there are caps for the betting.

The No Limit game that I choose to play is at varying different levels. I typically will play either $1/$2 or $2/$4 No Limit Texas Hold ‘em. For those of you not entirely familiar with the game that means that in a hand there will be two forced bets from the first two people dealt cards. The first person (also called the Small Blind) will have to put in the lower amount, and the second person (called the Big Blind) will put in the higher amount. If my bankroll is high enough I will occasionally dabble with $3/$6 game.

I often get asked “How much should my bankroll be?”, and “What level should I play?”. Every player is different, but I usually plan to have 7 buy-ins at whatever level I am going to play, but definitely never less than 4 buy-ins. My minimum buy-in for a level is going to be 40 times whatever the Big Blind (BB) is. So at the $1/$2 level, my buy-in will be $80, and I would need to have at least $560 to play at that level. If I’m running cold and I drop below $320 (four buy-ins), I will drop down to the next lower game. OK, enough about bankroll management. Look for me to try and get a portion of 2007 caught up in the next postings.

2007 - Poker leagues

I bought a condo in late 2006, so I no longer have the extra space to hold larger tournaments like I did when I had the room to rent while I was at the apartments. Because of this I haven’t held an “Oak Shores” tournament in a while, but a couple people have gotten a couple of different poker leagues running and I’ve been able to participate in those. Playing live poker is so much more fun than online poker. I enjoy both, but for different reasons. I tend to enjoy the live games in the league because of the socializing aspect that comes along with it. I still enjoy winning in those, but it’s not the primary reason I play those.

Anyway, in the early part of 2007, Bob ran his Nwatch Poker League (NPL). It was the second season of the NPL. The season runs for 8 weeks, and is followed by a championship week. The champions from the 8 prior weeks don’t have to pay for the championship week. Due to conflicts with traveling for work, I was only able to play in 5 of the 8 weeks, but I was able to snag a win and two third place finishes in the 5 weeks I played. My friend Adam won 4 of the events from that season!! Each week had somewhere between 15-20 players, so for one person to win half of the events was truly remarkable.

Another league started up in early 2007. This one is called the Cream City Poker League (CCPL). The format is similar. There are 8 tournaments followed by a championship. The championship will only have ten players and is not open to all. You either need to win your seat by winning a prior event or accumulate enough points to get in. Two people will earn seats through points. Points are earned based on your finishing position in a tournament. If there is someone who wins multiple events, then a “play-in” tournament would fill the remaining seats. I did host one of the CCPL events, and I played in all of the events, but I failed to win any of the events, and I didn’t earn enough points to get a seat. I was extremely disappointed in my results in the first season of the CCPL as I only cashed a handful of times.

I did have one hand that I wanted to discuss here though, and it goes to show how “playing the player, not the cards” can really come in to play in a poker game. This hand was early in a tournament. I was dealt T8offsuit and was in the small blind (SB). Several people limped, or just called, and when it got to me I decided to raise in an effort to steal everyone’s limp bets. Limping is typically a sign of weakness at a poker table. One of the people who had limped early in the betting was my co-worker and friend Adam. Now, he and I discuss poker all the time. We know how each other plays because of all that discussion. When the action got to Adam, he decided to reraise me. He did this because he knew that I could be raising with nothing because everyone limped. Obviously, he was correct in his initial read. Now everyone starts folding until it’s back to me, and Adam and I are the only two left in the hand. Now, I know that Adam also could be reraising with garbage because he thinks that I’m raising with garbage, so I decide to raise again, this time going all-in. Now, I’m praying he’ll fold because Ten-8 is an awful hand. Eventually, after much thought, he did fold. As it turns out he had Ace-Ten (AT). This play could not have been accomplished without knowing a lot about the other person’s play. Adam played it right and read me right initially, and I read the fact that his play was based off his read and not his cards correctly, too. It was a fun hand, and Adam and I spent some time discussing that hand once the tournament was over.

Next time, I’ll talk about some tournaments that occurred in 2007, including how the WSOP went, too.

Super Loose in Tampa

Work sent me to Tampa this week, and whaddya know, the Hard Rock has a casino & hotel there. The casino only has slots and a poker room, but the poker room and a Hurricane glass was all that I was looking for. The poker room is actually quite large. They have about 50 tables. The only thing is they only offer $1/$2 Limit cash games, $2/$2 Limit cash games, or tournaments. The tournament buy-ins start at $120 with $100 going to the prize fund and $20 going to the house. The tournaments start as soon as they have 10 players available to play at the designated amount. I usually prefer the cash games, but since it was all Limit poker with small blinds and that usually means extremely loose play I thought it might be better to try my hand at the tournaments. I got a seat in a $120 tournament, and quickly found out that those were just as loose as I expected the cash games to be. The tournament started with 1500 chips, blinds at 25/50, and levels going up every 10 hands. After three hands, two players were out, and on the other hand, three players went to see a flop when it had been raised to 300 chips, or 20% of the starting stack!! I was fortunate enough to not have gotten involved in any of the hands, so when I found QQ in my hand 4 hands later I had a full stack to play with. One of the benefactors of the early exits had raised it to 200, and a second player had already called. When the action is that loose and furious, the play is made easy…just move all in with the big hand, which is exactly what I did. Everyone folded to the raiser, who called, and then the other player also called! When the flop came T-9-4 and both players checked I knew I was in good shape. The turn came T and the river came 6. Unfortunately for me, the river card was the killer as the large stack had called with 6-6, and made his hand at the river. I was out, but I was very determined since the play was as loose as it was.

I got in what I had planned to be my last tournament, a tourney with a $225 buy-in. I liked the fact that only $25 was going to the house, so the percentage of the rake was significantly smaller. I was able to double up early when I had raised with QQ again, got two callers, and the K-Q-7 board gave me a set of Queens, which held up against the opponent who put me all in with his pocket 9s. I was then able to use my big stack to make my way in to the money. The final three players get paid in these tourneys. During three-handed play I was able to get my stack in against the opponent who had just more than me when I found myself holding AK. My opponent declared, "I finally got you!" and proudly turned over his QQ. Before the dealer put the board out I retorted with, "You realize it's still just a coin flip, right?" and I showed just how devastating AK can be when the flop came K-5-5 and made those Queens look as bad as if they had been deuces. Obviously it's nice to have the made hand, and I've been there myself, but I'll still take AK in three-handed play anytime. The board didn't improve either of us from there, and I had 12000 of the 15000 chips in play with only the three of us left. One of the short stacks knocked the other out, and then my AK held up on the final hand of the tourney against my opponent's A5 and I won that tournament. First place paid $950, and I was now way ahead for the evening.

I decided to give a $120 tournament another crack, and managed to pick up some chips early again when QQ eliminated a player who called his chips off with AJ. I was able to accumulate some chips on a "weird Farkas play" (phrase coined by the Squirrel, soon to be used by Sklansky) where I made an absurd raise out of position with T9 against some limpers and flopped top two pair. I then maneuvered my way around losing a chunk of chips with 88 on a 6-high flop, and recovered what I had lost in that hand when my AJ eliminated an about-even with me stack who was holding AT. The board came 3-3-T and things looked grim, but the Jack on the turn reversed my fortune, and my hand held up. I got to heads-up play with my opponent, and what a see-saw battle it was! My opponent started with a 2 to 1 chip advantage, and I was able to work my way to an 8000 to 7000 chip lead when I ran into KK with KQ. My opponent's hand held up, and I was down 14000 to 1000 in chips. I survived my first all in on the hand immediately following that debacle when AQ held up. I worked my way back to a slight chip lead when my top pair, nut flush draw ran in to two pair. I was crippled again, but worked my way to about 6K in chips. I found KK when I was in the big blind when I decided to slow-play it to trap. The harmless board of J-6-3 looked good, so when I bet 1000 to build the pot and was raised to 4000, I knew it was time to move all in. My opponent called with QJ, and things looked great when the turn came 7, but I drowned on the river when a Queen hit, and I took second place in that tournament. Second place paid $300, so I had done better than doubling my cash in that tournament.

One of the things I noticed over the course of the evening was that I only got my chips in bad once. When I say "bad", I mean something worse than a coinflip situation. The one time I got them in bad it was heads up and I was willing to gamble to get the win with a solid hand, but it's a good feeling when you realize you're able to get your chips in the pot in a dominating situation on a regular basis. It's all about making the right decisions.

I was able to stop at the gift shop and picked up my usual Hurricane glass and some assorted other items before I called it a night. I definitely have to make sure to put the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on my list of places to stop again if I manage to make it to Tampa again and I'll remember how loose they play there!

The marathon session, and a piece of Gold

Dan and I checked out Monday, with Dan having to head to the airport, and I headed over to the Wynn. My flight wasn't heading out until Tuesday at 6:45am, so I had decided to play poker all day, taking a break to watch the Monday Night Football game with Chris and Brian. I was able to get a seat in the $1/$3 No-Limit Hold 'em game. I have to admit the deck hit me pretty hard during those first four hours. I had a hand where I caught a set of Aces at the turn when someone had flopped a set and slow played them until the turn. The result of that was pretty nice. I flopped the nut straight once and got paid when it held up. My "marginal" hands were hitting the flops; my big hands were holding up, it was great. I even had time to make a nice 3-level pyramid out of the $3 chips I had. I sort of had to start stacking them higher since I couldn't spread them out to my right or left at the full table.

Eventually, I had to split to join Chris and Brian for the Monday Night Football game. That went well, too. I took the under on the first half, the over on the second half, and the over on the game. I took Dallas, too, but that bet didn't win. Boy, can Drew Bledsoe really screw up a scoring opportunity. It was his interception just prior to the half when they were on the 5-yard line and about to score that kept the half under.

I had a good time watching the game, and the break from poker was nice, but I was itching to get back to the poker game because it was going well. The game wrapped up just prior to 8pm, and I was back at the Wynn by 8:30 all rarin' to go. This time I got seated at the $2/$5 No Limit game. I was seated in seat 9, so I was on the dealer's immediate right. There was a player with a VERY large stack in seat 1, and I got to find out why shortly after I arrived. This guy kept raising and was very aggressive. It became very difficult to play with him sitting on my left. I was getting ground away when I missed flops. The guy on my right and I got to talking. His name was Jack. He seemed like a decent player, and conversing with him was a good way to pass time while I was waiting for a solid hand with which to move in. Luckily though, the player in seat 3 got up and left, so I requested a seat change. I HAD to get on the guy on seat 1's left. Being on his right was doing me no good. I've never requested a seat change before. I usually will just try and play with the seat I'm given, but I'm really glad I made this seat change. The dealer even questioned my moving, asking me "Don't you want to play your button?" I declined. As it turns out, on my first hand in the new seat I was dealt the black 5's. I limped since I was in early position, and Jack raised it to $25. The aggressive player in seat 1 called, and I decided to call hoping I'd hit the flop. Well, the door card of the flop was a 5, and when it was spread out the flop was:

K-5-5

Flopping me quad 5's and the nuts. I checked, figuring that Jack or seat 1 would take the lead and bet, and Jack fired out $50. Seat 1 called, as did I. The turn card was a King. This was a great card for me. I was just hoping that either of my opponents had a King since they would think that they had the nuts with the full house. You just don't usually count on someone having quads in a hand. You may even recall me saying that in an earlier blog posting. Well, I check again, Jack checks now, and seat 1 asks me how much I have left. I count it up and tell him that it's about $225. He bets $100. Now, if he's putting me on a hand like A-5 or some holding with just one 5, he knows I can't just call. The $100 represents too much of my stack, so he's expecting either a raise all-in or a fold. I made the decision here that he did have the King so I moved in. If you have a King it looks like it's going to be a split pot. Jack folded (and later said he had AA), and seat 1 folded as well. I showed the quad 5's. Seat 1 told me he was on a flush draw and I wasn't getting any more money no matter how I played it. Seat 1 and I got to talking and I found out that his name was Dan (at least I'm pretty sure it was Dan), and that he attended Marquette.

About an hour after the quads hand, a $25/$50 No-Limit game opened up in the high-limit area of the poker room. The game had a $4000 minimum buy-in. It turns out that Jamie Gold, winner of the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, was looking for action in that game. There were a couple players that bought in to play against him. While we were watching that game from our table, Jack and I got to talking about how Dan should take his stack over there and "give the big game a shot." Dan had about $2800 in chips in front of him to go with some 100-dollar bills. Dan was a solid, aggressive player, was getting cards, and was obviously playing well against us. Jack and I kept half-heartedly pushing Dan towards that game, and he finally decided to go!!

I gotta admit, I really lost interest in my own game at that point. I was trying to see how Dan did against Gold and the other high-limit rounders. My game didn't suffer too much, since I was now really only playing big hands and big suited connectors. I was checking in on Dan regularly, and I noticed that he had already nearly doubled his stack within his first 45 minutes there! I bet he hadn't counted on winning like this when he showed up at the poker room today. Our dealer told us that he had been dealing at that table prior to ours, and Jamie Gold had already gone through $50K, and he had rebought for another $50K. The dealer couldn't tell us the amounts, but he dropped enough hints to let us know his buy-ins. It wasn't too much later when we saw a BIG hand developing at Dan's and Gold's table. It turns out that Jamie Gold had flopped two pair when another player flopped a straight. The straight held up and Jamie Gold was out "100 boxes of ziti" (Sopranos reference). Dan was still doing well, as it looked like he had about $10K. I have to admit I don't really like Jamie Gold much. He came across as a real jerk and A-hole when he was on ESPN, so I wasn't too heartbroken to see him lose here.

My marathon session was still going, but as the hour got late we had to consolidate players to one table. I was sitting on a stack of about $800, but I still had about 4 hours to play yet. I dug in, content to just play big hands. I started to go on a stretch of Ace-King hands, catching "big slick" 3 times in 5 hands. I did get stung on the third one, and it's that hand that I want to talk about here. I was dealt AK and raised it to $25 from mid-early position. I received a caller from late position, and the big blind(BB) called. The flop came:

A-K-4

hitting me very nicely. I led out and bet $50 with my top two pair, hoping that one of my opponents might have an Ace with a big kicker (Queen, Jack). They wouldn't expect me to bet my two pair with AK, so they might raise, and with two callers, I figured one of them had to have something to be worth calling since I bet less than the pot. The BB called me. The turn card came:

Q

He checked to me, so I bet again. This time I threw out $100. He decided to raise it to $260. Now, I decided to think about this. He hadn't reraised me preflop, so I didn't think that he had AA or KK. I also had to discount those since I held AK. He might have QQ. I would have reraised preflop with QQ, but at a cash game not everyone does, but would he have called me after the flop had both an Ace and a King? Probably not. He could have Jack-Ten, which means he just hit his straight, but that would mean he called with a bad hand out of position preflop and called after the flop with just a gutshot straight draw. That seems unlikely, but if he did call preflop with JT he would call after that flop since he was chasing the whole time. It still seemed unlikely. The likely holding was AQ. It would fit that he would call preflop with this, call on the flop, and now that he has two pair, the raise seems appropriate. I decided to call with the intention of getting his chips when he bet the river since he had to act first and he had just check-raised me again, showing strength. I call, and the river comes:

3

Not improving any holding I think is in play. The big blind has to act, and instead of making a large bet here, he checks!!! I really had to think about that. If he had what I thought he had he should have bet there. So now I take a minute to re-evaluate the situation. I really thought my top two pair was in the lead, but any hand like AQ, AK (unlikely), or A4 all should have bet there. So I guessed that I was either way ahead or way behind. If I'm way ahead, he's not calling any bet I make. If I'm way behind and I put a bet out, he's waiting to check-raise me here. Now it seems likely that I'm way ahead, but I don't see any value in putting a bet out here, since he can really only just call me with AQ. If he's got me beat he's waiting to pounce. The only hand that is going to just call instead of trying another check-raise or fold is AQ or AK. If he check-raises that means he's check-raised me twice, too! After going over this all in about a minute I decide to check. I haven't tapped the table twice yet when the guy in the BB says, "How do you not bet there?" He turns over 4-4, showing me the set of fours that he flopped. He follows that up with "You've got two pair, right?" I flashed the AK towards him. He just couldn't believe it. He had me pegged. You know, if he bets the river there I probably raise him or call his all-in. Either way, I should have lost a lot more chips. He and a friend/acquaintence of his told me that I made a nice check there. I still lost a little over $300 that hand, but it easily could have been my whole stack.

I still had a couple hours to kill before getting something to eat and then heading to the airport. I managed to get a little bit of what I lost in that hand back and at about 3:30am I checked with the poker room manager about getting something to eat. They comp their player's food, and they did just that, giving me a complimentary meal at the Wynn's Terrace Point restaurant, which is open 24 hours. I cashed out up about $450, so all in all a great time. After eating I went to grab my luggage, which I brought with me to the Wynn. The guy managing the bell desk seemed to know that I had left the poker room and started to make some conversation with me. It turned out that he is the son-in-law of Artie Cobb, 4-time bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker. He was an entertaining fellow, but after I got my luggage he just kept talking...and talking...and talking. I know it's 4am and there's not a whole lot of activity, but I gotta go! I eventually had to turn and just walk away. Nice guy, but man...

All in all a fun trip. I'm looking forward to the next one!

The dude folded Aces preflop??

Sunday started kind of on a down note. We had planned on everyone getting together at ESPN Zone to watch the Packers-Dolphins game, but even though we got down to the ESPN Zone shortly after they opened at 9am we found out that the Packer game was only being shown on one monitor that wasn't large, had the best seats around it taken already, and was in a smoking section. None of us really liked that idea, so we had to come up with someplace else to go. The sports book at NY NY was full, as we guessed most of the other casino's sports books would be by the time we got to one, so we decided to head over to the Hooter's casino and restaurant. Newly opened this year, they are located behind the Tropicana, and the Tropicana is located kitty corner from NY NY, so it was a short walk. We thought since Hooter's wasn't directly on the strip there may be a good chance they weren't busy. We got to the restaurant, which is located next to the pool (that was a nice plus), and the place was almost empty just prior to kickoff with the exception of a group of Packer fans that had already camped out in front of one of the big screens. We grabbed a table behind them and got to enjoy the Packers corralling the Dolphins.

We stuck around for the afternoon games since many of us had wagers on many of the different games (damn good-for-nothing-5-team-parlay-ruining Seahawks). I did all right on most of my wagers except for one bet (see aforementioned Seahawks). After the games, Chris and Brian headed back to the Imperial Palace to get cleaned up and some rest before the evening, and David headed back to NY NY for the same. Dan and I tried our luck at craps at Hooter's before leaving, and we finally found a craps table that was paying us. We played for about an hour, and although I did give back some on mine and Dan's last shots I walked out being able to pay for the food and drinks at the restaurant.

David, Chris, and Brian decided to go out to the clubs. David had an early flight and couldn't be out too late because of his work obligations, and Dan and I headed over to Bellagio to get some more poker in. We each got seated on different $2/$5 tables. We had noticed that some people were playing in Bobby's room, and as I got my seat I could see that it was none other than Sam Farha playing with two other players. I found out that the game being played there was Omaha High. According to the dealer, Sam only likes to play Omaha High. He doesn't like the split game that much, although in the regular big game they play both.

Things hadn't started out too well for me. I bought in for $300, and was down about $200 an hour in to the session. I bought in for another $100 to give me a chip stack that would at least put some sort of fear in to some of the other stacks. I was glad I did, because shortly after that I got KK. I raised it up to $25 preflop and got a couple callers. The flop came very nicely for me:

K-9-3 (two diamonds)

I led out and bet $50 and was called by one other player. This player had been pretty tight. The turn card came without pairing the board and didn't put another diamond out there, so I decided to check, hoping that my bet after the flop would be perceived as a continuation bet and my check here would then be perceived as weakness on my part. The plan would be to then check-raise. He checked behind me though, which I have to admit made me think he was now on the flush draw. Well, a diamond hit on the river. Now I have to check. He bets $50, which is too small of a bet to fold to so I call. Well, he's got AA, so my set of Kings holds up. I'm sure he was frustrated that his Aces got cracked, but considering the way the hand went I personally think he lost the minimum he could lose there.

About two hands later, this same player who just had pocket Aces was under the gun. He looks at his hand says something in disgust, flips his hand face up, and declares "Fold"! He had pocket Aces!! Apparently, getting his Aces cracked bugged him more than I had realized. I've never seen anyone do that, especially under the gun! It was really poor on his part that he showed them, though, as since he was under the gun and no one else had acted, it had a significant impact on how the hand was played. It even became more important when it was realized later that another player had been dealt QQ. Another player had been dealt AJ and didn't even try to go to a flop with it because two of his outs were gone. Personally, I think the guy's an idiot for making the play. He had a chance to win back a lot of his chips in that hand. The fact that someone was going to play that stupid just made me glad that he was at my table. That guy played at the table for about another two hours, and I don't recall him playing another hand. That's what makes it that much more crazy. Obviously, the guy was waiting for premium hands, and for him to fold THE PREMIUM HAND just because it got beat a couple hands ago made his play that much more bizarre.

I got up and went over to tell Dan what had happened, and apparently the news had traveled there already. Dan just wasn't sure which player at our table it was. Within 20 minutes it seemed like we were getting glances and some pointing at our table from all over the room. It was pretty funny! I was waiting for the guys in Bobby's room to put down their cards for a minute just to come to the door to see who the moron at our table was. That didn't happen though.

I played on for a while, and cashed out up a little over $100, so no real complaints. I wanted to stay, but I was getting too tired, and I just didn't see my stack improving over the last hour or so. It was about 2:30am. Dan was still going strong so I went back to the hotel. I had to get some sleep tonight because I knew that I would have a marathon session for my last day.

Stirring up trouble at the Venetian

David and I headed down to the ESPN Zone restaurant/bar to watch the Badgers game. The sports book for NY NY is just across from the ESPN Zone so we were able to make our wagers for some of the games prior to the start of the early games. Dan was catching up on some sleep since he got back from the Wynn very late.

The Badgers crushed Purdue at Purdue's place! Woo Hoo! That's a good start to what I was hoping would be another good day. I played solid poker yesterday, felt rested, and was ready to go to war again. Dan, David, and I decided to play at the Venetian's poker room that evening. We made the trek on the Strip to the Venetian, and I got seated at a $1/$2 No-Limit table, and Dan got seated at the table behind me (also $1/$2). David got seated at my table. I was really trying to turn up the intensity so I went into my "mean" mode. I didn't speak once during the first hour and a half at the table other than when I ordered my first drink from the cocktail waitress. I would just stare ahead into nothingness really. If I was in a hand with someone heads-up they just got that same stare at them the whole time. I noticed it was quite difficult for anyone to maintain that stare with me for more than a couple seconds. It was really quite boring and hard to maintain. My chip stack did quite well. I seemed to have an intimidating effect on the table, moving all-in quietly on decent pots and then just waiting for people to fold. After the initial hour and a half I had worked my stack to over $400 from the original buy-in of $100, so I decided to completely change it up and I got chatty.

This seemed to work well, too, as some of the players who I had gotten involved with pots were now trying to get in any pot I played. I was still playing pretty tight though. At one point we got a player at our table that I think was waiting for a higher limit game to open up that decided to raise every hand to $20 or $25 preflop. He would then just move in after the flop if he got any callers. He was talking trash, but I wasn't getting any cards at the moment. So, I did the one thing that I know how to do well when I'm not getting into pots with a player...I put him on full tilt, baby. This player, let's call him Abdul since I don't know what it was but he looked like he could be an Abdul, raises a pot and gets called by two players. Now, after his being at the table 10 minutes I think a couple players had figured out his game and were waiting for him to pull his crap. One of the players from this table that I thought was pretty decent was in the hand, and when Abdul moved in on the flop this guy promptly calls him. The board had something like K-8-8 on it and the decent player showed his AA right away. Abdul didn't show his cards, but when the turn and river hit he started to muck them. Now, at most cash games if you're dealt in to the hand you can request to see the cards of any player that has a hand at the showdown, which this was, so I immediately declare before the cards hit the muck "Turn his cards up." This is usually not done as it's considered a breach of etiquette. When it is done, it's almost always done by the other player(s) involved in the showdown, not an outside player. Abdul half jumps out of his chair reaching for his cards saying to the dealer, "Don't show him." This of course is exactly the reaction I want so I sort of half get out of my chair, lean over towards the dealer and quietly say, "I was dealt in to the hand. The hand went to a showdown. You will turn over his cards." The dealer immediately turns over 3-2, showing Abdul's bluff. The fact that he was bluffing wasn't the point. It was getting Abdul rattled that I wanted. Abdul even got the floor person called over about it. It was really unfortunate that I couldn't find a hand that I could make work while he was seated with us. Believe me I tried. Abdul was almost never taking his eyes off me while I had cards the rest of the time he spent with us. Unfortunately for us, his seat opened up about 20-25 minutes after his hand being shown and he left. He was down, but I wanted everything he had.

The rest of the session went without incident, and I did give back some of what I had won, but I walked out of the Venetian up a little over $150. We headed back to the hotel, where we got some rest prior to Sunday's Packer game.

Oh, how I love to Wynn!

Even though I didn't win at the MGM, I really felt I was playing very solid poker most of the day and because of that I was really looking forward to playing today. We didn't want to play at the MGM, and I suggested that we give the Wynn's poker room a shot.

I've always liked the Wynn's poker room the best, and that doesn't change at all on this trip. I think it has very comfortable chairs, the drinks are plentiful (none of the poker rooms charge for drinks, but it can be a long time between rounds), they'll comp the food if you play there long enough, and the room itself just has some character. There always seems to be some action going on there, too. Did I mention that all the cocktail waitresses at the Wynn have modeling contracts? Not something the ladies might be interested in (unless you'd like to work there), but I think the average joe doesn't mind the occasional distraction while being served his drink.

David and I made the trek from NY NY to the Wynn, which is a lot further than I originally thought. We got there and got our names on the $1/$3 list, and the Wynn told us to hang around because the list was getting to the point where they were going to open a table with the people on the list. Now, on a trip like this I don't necessarily like to sit at a table with someone I am friends with because I really am not trying to win that person's money. Don't get me wrong, if I've got the nuts and my friend sets me all-in I'm going to call, but I am usually hoping that situations like that can be avoided. My cards and play were pretty solid while I was playing at the Wynn this session. David and I only got heads up twice, with me checking down Ace-Ten to a showdown that I won, and the other hand I held AK and moved David off his hand on a raggedy-looking flop that David checked to me, and it turned out I was way ahead (found that out after the session). We did have an interesting time with one of our dealers there, and I can say that this incident was the only time I've ever had any issue with anything at the Wynn. This dealer sits down, and I cannot recall the name, only that I thought it started with an 'O', so let's call him Oscar for this story. I was seated in seat 9, which is to the immediate right of the dealer. David was seated in seat 5, which is directly across from the dealer. Well, Oscar gets seated, and shortly after he gets seated the cage brings over some chips to him for his chip tray, and he's got to take the time to count it all and verify things and get it into his tray. I imagine that this had to be done because the game had just recently opened and the dealer's tray was short on chips for handling the rake. Well, Oscar seemed to be having trouble with the chips. He decided to take it out on us for some reason. I did hear him mutter "My day was going great...until now." He started dealing very slow, and Oscar was being pretty much a grouch. There was one point where Oscar took the cards out of the shuffling machine in the table and then just sat there...waiting...and waiting. He seemed to be staring off in to oblivion, and it was then that I realized David hadn't put out his big blind yet. This guy couldn't be waiting for that, could he?!? So we all sat waiting. This had to go on for about a minute, which is an eternity with nothing going on at a poker table. David put out his big blind, and then Oscar finally cut the cards and dealt the next hand!! What an a-hole! I think EVERY other poker dealer in Vegas would have either said something or started dealing and informed the player as they dealt that the big blind had to be posted, but not Oscar. We apparently had done something to piss him off. Another dealer came up behind Oscar to be what appeared break him and Oscar asked "Are you here to break me?" the other dealer responded with something unintelligible to which Oscar muttered, thinking he was being taken off our table, "Good...I hate this table." I only heard this because he happened to be muttering it as he dealt me my card so he was facing me. I don't think anyone else heard it. I know David did not. The fact that he apparently misheard the dealer since he didn't get to leave our table then did not help matters. I honestly don't know what Oscar's problem was, but everyone at our table was glad to see him go at the end of his half-hour. I tried to replay the events from when he showed up to the "not dealing" hand, but unless someone not tipping him for a hand really pissed him off I cannot think of anything other than the chips being brought from the cage that would have caused his bad mood. I can only imagine that he didn't get tipped a couple hands in a row. I've never seen a dealer act like that before. I'm guessing he woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, but man, he was going to ruin his tips for the day if he kept that crap going on other tables!

The rest of the session went well for me. I got a little lucky as I was getting beat down early in the session when I was dealt 6-6, and on a flop of 5-5-7, my opponent checked blind to me so I bet, and he then raised, but I had enough chips in the pot that I had to play the hand so I moved in only to find my opponent had Q-5. The turn and river came a perfect 3-4 to make my straight. After that little bit of luck to double up I started getting some better hands and saw enough action to finish ahead $226. It was a well-needed win given what had happened in the other sessions to this point.

David and I went back to NY NY, hit the pool and whirlpool for a little bit, and then just relaxed for a little while. Dan was going to be showing up soon, and I figured we'd grab a bite to eat together before heading out to play some more cards. Dan wanted to hit the Wynn, so Dan and I made the trek back to the Wynn. I put myself on the $1/$3 list, and Dan got on the $2/$5 list. I got seated pretty quickly, and then Dan must've gotten tired of the waiting and got himself on a $1/$3 table behind where I was seated. That session went well for me, too. I was checking on Dan's stack periodically to see how he was doing, and he appeared to be up as well. Shortly after Dan sat down I noticed the guy on Dan's left was very familiar. It was none other than the guy who took me for all of my hard work from the MGM!! I tried to get Dan's attention before the guy spotted me, and Dan came over to my table. As it turns out the guy's from Waukesha! Dan had already been chatting with him and had pointed out that I had come here with him. The guy told Dan that "Ah, yes. I was playing with Jason over at the MGM yesterday," but hadn't mentioned to him his good fortune. I was already up a couple hundred at this point, and he wasn't at my table so I could care less...sort of. The guy was all right, though. I got up at one point and jokingly said to Dan, who had about $300 in chips in front of him at the time, "Dan, you'd better get working...you need to collect another $900 off that guy," referring to the guy on Dan's left.

The guy was actually pretty nice. The Wynn offers back and neck massages while you play. The cost is $2/minute with a 10-minute minimum. The dude from Waukesha bought me a 10-minute massage, which, after having one, I highly recommend. As I said, the session was going well, and I finished that session up about $430. I decided to call it quits around 2:30am, and when I looked back at Dan he didn't appear to be up. I suppose I could have stayed, but my chip stack hadn't gone up or down for a while, so I was feeling like the game was getting stagnant. I knew Dan wouldn't want to leave down, so I just told him I was heading back to the hotel to catch some sleep before watching the Badgers and the other college games since they started in a couple hours. All in all, a pretty good recovery day. Oh, how I love to Wynn!