Woke up Sunday morning and wasn't sure what I was going to do. CC was headed to brunch in the Quarter with the girls and I was contemplating driving to the Beau to play their Sunday tourney. I decided not to b/c I always end up leaving there a lot less enthused than when I got there. It's just so hard to play consistent in those things. I decided to drop in Grandma Harrah's house Sunday afternoon since I have heard that the games are actually pretty good on Sunday's. Well I get there and I'm like 4th or 5th on the list for the 2/5 game and there's only two 1/2 games. Well one of the 1/2 games looks pretty good. Three ppl on the table with over 1k and another two with over $500. I know I swore off that game but with that money on the table I'm sure it's playing bigger than usual.
I sit down with $500 and told myself I was not limping into in any pots unless from the button or the blinds. I think I raised 3 of the first 5 hands dealt to me. For as much money that was on the table there wasn't a whole lot of gambling in the short time I was at the table. I made a straight with 5,3 to win a nice pot and then had a hand that I love. I have 9d,10d and make it $15 to go and get three callers. Flop came jack high with one diamond and I was thinking about all the cards that could hit the turn for me to make a really nice draw. (I know that playing for the redraw isn't the best approach but sometimes ya gotta be an optimist...or wishful thinker). I bet $45 on the flop with my "redraw-draw" and get two callers. The turn is the Queen of diamonds and the redraw-draw got there..giving the best possible card in the deck. I check and guy bets $50 and I raise to $165 and he calls. River card is the jack of diamonds...I thought this would a great card to get paid off on since it paired the flops high card and I wasn't at all concerned about the guy being full. I bet $180 and he thinks waaaaay to long and folds showing his flopped two pair and the jack on the river counterfeited him. Still a nice little pot. A few minutes later they call me for my seat on the 2/5 game.
I move games and the game was a lot of old guys but a very easy game to maneuver and know exactly where I was in hands at all times. I end up playing in that game for about 40 minutes until CC showed up and after picking up a few bucks in that game too I racked up and left with her for a nice little win after about and hour and a half of play on the day. After cashing out we walked through the casino trying to find the best slot machine to play. I don't even know when was the last time I put money in a machine or anything other than the rake drop at a casino, but one of our friends gave us like $80 in free play coupons on the slots and they expire at the end of July. So we found the $1 slot game Monte Carlo (I think?). We started playing and after about 30 minutes we were like $150 winner and took our free roll profit and got out of there.
It was nice to do a little hit and run...I don't think I have ever done that but I think I'm entitled to it considering the hours I've put in at that place. Not sure what's gonna happen this coming weekend. Not gonna play Friday b/c I'm heading to Houma and Saturday is White Linen in the warehouse district so I know I'm not playing that night. Sunday is still a possibility and Davey and I tossed around the idea of heading to the Beau for the tournament but I'm not sure how likely that is as of right now.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
7.28.2009
7.23.2009
Joe Cool and a Bubble
Decided to venture off to Harrah's last Friday and I was not disappointed by everything that happened. First thing is as I'm pulling into the garage to park I see a sign on the parking ticket machine that says "special event parking"...I'm not even sure what exactly was going on but then I see that the fee is $30 and if you lose your ticket it's $100!! It wasn't always that expensive for a lost ticket but I guess Harrah's is falling on tough times or just like to screw ppl whenever they get the chance. There's also something about diamond and seven star free parking and now I'm wondering if they stopped giving free parking for 30 minutes of play...this is Harrah's so nothing would shock me. Well I find a place to park relatively quick and get out my car to head to the elevator and then I stop b/c I can't find my parking ticket to get validated and I momentarily panic. Go back to my jeep and pull everything out of my pockets, check the usual spots where I put the ticket and NOTHING...now I'm trying to figure out a way to not pay $100 for parking. I check one last place and sure enough it was there and I avoided the first shitty beat of the night.
Walk to the poker room and they have two 2/5 games and like 243 1/2 games going. I hang out at the desk of the poker room for 5 minutes before anyone acknowledges me and asks what game I'd like...poker room is nuts and they have two floor ppl. Well I'm on the list and like 12th or so and it's 9pm. To my surprise there isn't a game on every table. I find a spot to chill and sweat the 5/10/20 game and then they start to move around like they are opening a new table and they did...of course it was a 4/8 game. Well Matt and Joe show up so at least I have someone to talk to while waiting. After about an hour and a half on the list I finally get in the game and the game I got sent to didn't appear to be the better of the two mainly b/c the avg. age was around 68 years old. Well that was earlier in the night and when I got there the complexion of the game had somewhat changed. I was undecided on my buy-in before I sat down since they upped it to 1k. Well I wish I would have sat down with the full amount. I get my chips and sit down the dealer asks if I'd like to post but I'm UTG so I'll just wait...well then Harrah's version of "Joe Cool" tells me to straddle, so with my chips still in the rack I throw in $10. "Joe Cool" is actually a guy named LT...if you've ever played there you know who I'm talking about, always has a hat, sunglasses, and button up shirt. Doesn't say a whole lot and NEVER, I mean NEVER takes off his glasses, not sure if the guy even has eyes. Well he encourages my straddle and the douche on my left does the dumbest thing in the world (he's a regular who is pretty sure of himself for some reason) and makes it $20 blind raise...not sure what the point of that is? Well it gets to LT on the button and after a few limp for $20 he pops it to $100 and the guy on my right calls the $100 and of course I look down at QQ without even having my chips straight. I make it $400 total and LT calls w/out thinking and we see the flop heads up. I move in on the flop and he calls and mucks on the river. I more than double my money on the first hand. So much for playing small pots.
The night would slow down but the game didn't. It was wide open and raises ranged from $20 to $60 and action was given on almost all hands dealt. It played well and I think I might have won like 8 pots total on the night and was a pretty nice winner. The game stayed really good till I left. I got to play with Tex who made an appearance but I didn't get a chance to talk with him, he was on the other side of the table and all we got to do was shoot the occasional glance with a WOW expression on our faces from the shit that was being shown down.
Last night I decided I wanted to play something online but had no idea what it was going to be. I pulled up Full Tilt and they had a tourney that was double stack, non-turbo, and was in late registration. It seemed like a winner to me so I signed up and then I realized it was 6-handed which I was glad to see. I've done pretty well in 6-max online tourneys and this was no different. Had about 750 players and I played pretty well. Made quad aces on the third hand and then didn't see a pocket pair above nines for the next 3 hours. I had fun playing and did a lot of three betting and tried to play aggressive throughout. With about 40 players left I got into the top 5 in chips and stayed there till 10 handed. We played 7 handed for quite a while and had a lot swings. I ended up busting 7th and bubbled the final table. It would have been nice to win it but it was still fun to run deep. That was the first tourney I had played live or online since Vegas. I'm getting pretty excited to play some tourneys when the Beau starts up in September. Not sure if I'm gonna head to Harrah's this weekend, guess I'll just see what happens.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
Walk to the poker room and they have two 2/5 games and like 243 1/2 games going. I hang out at the desk of the poker room for 5 minutes before anyone acknowledges me and asks what game I'd like...poker room is nuts and they have two floor ppl. Well I'm on the list and like 12th or so and it's 9pm. To my surprise there isn't a game on every table. I find a spot to chill and sweat the 5/10/20 game and then they start to move around like they are opening a new table and they did...of course it was a 4/8 game. Well Matt and Joe show up so at least I have someone to talk to while waiting. After about an hour and a half on the list I finally get in the game and the game I got sent to didn't appear to be the better of the two mainly b/c the avg. age was around 68 years old. Well that was earlier in the night and when I got there the complexion of the game had somewhat changed. I was undecided on my buy-in before I sat down since they upped it to 1k. Well I wish I would have sat down with the full amount. I get my chips and sit down the dealer asks if I'd like to post but I'm UTG so I'll just wait...well then Harrah's version of "Joe Cool" tells me to straddle, so with my chips still in the rack I throw in $10. "Joe Cool" is actually a guy named LT...if you've ever played there you know who I'm talking about, always has a hat, sunglasses, and button up shirt. Doesn't say a whole lot and NEVER, I mean NEVER takes off his glasses, not sure if the guy even has eyes. Well he encourages my straddle and the douche on my left does the dumbest thing in the world (he's a regular who is pretty sure of himself for some reason) and makes it $20 blind raise...not sure what the point of that is? Well it gets to LT on the button and after a few limp for $20 he pops it to $100 and the guy on my right calls the $100 and of course I look down at QQ without even having my chips straight. I make it $400 total and LT calls w/out thinking and we see the flop heads up. I move in on the flop and he calls and mucks on the river. I more than double my money on the first hand. So much for playing small pots.
The night would slow down but the game didn't. It was wide open and raises ranged from $20 to $60 and action was given on almost all hands dealt. It played well and I think I might have won like 8 pots total on the night and was a pretty nice winner. The game stayed really good till I left. I got to play with Tex who made an appearance but I didn't get a chance to talk with him, he was on the other side of the table and all we got to do was shoot the occasional glance with a WOW expression on our faces from the shit that was being shown down.
Last night I decided I wanted to play something online but had no idea what it was going to be. I pulled up Full Tilt and they had a tourney that was double stack, non-turbo, and was in late registration. It seemed like a winner to me so I signed up and then I realized it was 6-handed which I was glad to see. I've done pretty well in 6-max online tourneys and this was no different. Had about 750 players and I played pretty well. Made quad aces on the third hand and then didn't see a pocket pair above nines for the next 3 hours. I had fun playing and did a lot of three betting and tried to play aggressive throughout. With about 40 players left I got into the top 5 in chips and stayed there till 10 handed. We played 7 handed for quite a while and had a lot swings. I ended up busting 7th and bubbled the final table. It would have been nice to win it but it was still fun to run deep. That was the first tourney I had played live or online since Vegas. I'm getting pretty excited to play some tourneys when the Beau starts up in September. Not sure if I'm gonna head to Harrah's this weekend, guess I'll just see what happens.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
7.10.2009
Vegas...part 3
I've been back from Vegas for a while but just haven't finished posting about it mainly b/c I haven't really wanted to sit down and type and the fact I haven't played since I've been back might have something to do with that too. I played a late night session at the Bellagio that was somewhat interesting. It took forever to get into a game and when I finally did it was at a very entertaining table....I only wish I would have been winning b/c it would have been even more fun. I sit down at the table and start playing and I'm in the two seat and there is an open seat in the 4 and the floor guy comes and puts a little piece of paper with a name on it and it says Bubbles. I'm not sure what to expect to here, possibly a stripper?!? Well about 20 or so minutes go by and the seat is still empty and someone at the table asks the floor guy about it since we could have had another player. The floor guy tells him that Bubble's walks with a cane and doesn't move to fast. The stripper thought just got a little more interesting. Well it turns out to be about a 6ft tall 300 pound 60+ year old Italian guy that sounds like he just got off the set of a Sopranos filming. He sits down at the table and just starts working the room. He was rude, definitely politically incorrect (referring to the 10 seat as china-men), dropping f'bombs...and most importantly he was fucking hilarious. I couldn't help but like this guy. He asked me where I was from and when I told him I live in New Orleans he said he's got a friend that owns a restaurant there. For whatever reason he wasn't giving me a hard time but the rest of the table I couldn't say the same. He let me off the hook about 4 times when he out drew me and told me to fold when I prolly would have paid him off and he showed me winners every time. It was one of those nights for me. He was also hammered, taking shots of Jack Daniels every time the cocktail waitress came around.
A couple things were really funny. I wasn't sure if this guy was big time or just full of shit but every dealer knew him and every floor guy and few of the guys playing in the big games gave him a hello while walking to the cage. Well it turns out he has some big role with a restaurant in Caesars Palace. Rao's is rated one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States and is pretty tough to get a reservation there. Well now I know this guy isn't full of shit and one of the funnier moments of the night came when Johnny Chan walked near our table and was standing about 10 feet away and Bubble's said "hey Johnny" and Chan replied with a "Hi Bubbles" and then Bubble's asked "how's your son"...Johnny said "he's doing fine Bubbles"...Bubbles then said "that's good news" and then before Johnny Chan can even turn his back Bubbles says...in a not so discrete voice "fucking prick" and I about spit my drink all over the table. Chan didn't acknowledge the comment and the dealer just smirked and said "he's the second biggest one next to Sammy"
I thought that shit was pretty funny. Later a guy tried to cut between the tables to run over and pretend to be friends with Prahlad Friedman who had just won about a 30k pot on the table next to us and while he was passing between the tables he stepped on Bubbles foot and Bubbles didn't hesitate to call the guy out on it and pretty much demanded the guy come back and apologize which the guy did about a dozen times. One last interesting thing about Italian restaurant guy from New York City is that he asked me if I saw The Hangover. I told him I did and then he asked if I remember then end when they showed the picture and the one with Wayne Newton in it....I did remember it and he was actually in the picture, When I got back home I pulled up the movie on project free TV and fast forwarded to the end and sure enough he was not full of shit, he was sitting next to Wayne Newton in the picture...that was pretty cool.
The session didn't go to well and I lost a couple hundred but it was mainly just boring b/c I know I woulda had a blast if I would have been winning, but oh well it happens. The last day there I didn't know where I was going to play and Davey and I decided on the Bellagio once again, mainly b/c he was determined the beat the 5/10 game there. I sat in a 2/5 game and got a pretty nice gift from the poker gods and had AA vs. KK and nearly got a double up but I had the guy covered by a few. It was nice and Davey was up from his game and asked if I wanted to get out of there and go catch the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian. Saw that I was a winner and said sure. That was a good call. The show was funny as hell and worth going see. It's an improv show and in a small theater so that made it cool. Best way to describe it is as a PG-13/R rated version of the tv show "who's line is it anyway?"
The Vegas trip was fun and I wish I was still there or could have stayed longer but it is what it is and I had fun. I did discover a few things that annoy me while I'm playing and most of it is just things that have become poker cliche' stuff. I'll be a sourpuss (whatever that means) another time. I haven't played since I've been back and haven't really had the itch but I heard the jackpot at Harrah's is still growing so I may have to head there and play next weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
A couple things were really funny. I wasn't sure if this guy was big time or just full of shit but every dealer knew him and every floor guy and few of the guys playing in the big games gave him a hello while walking to the cage. Well it turns out he has some big role with a restaurant in Caesars Palace. Rao's is rated one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States and is pretty tough to get a reservation there. Well now I know this guy isn't full of shit and one of the funnier moments of the night came when Johnny Chan walked near our table and was standing about 10 feet away and Bubble's said "hey Johnny" and Chan replied with a "Hi Bubbles" and then Bubble's asked "how's your son"...Johnny said "he's doing fine Bubbles"...Bubbles then said "that's good news" and then before Johnny Chan can even turn his back Bubbles says...in a not so discrete voice "fucking prick" and I about spit my drink all over the table. Chan didn't acknowledge the comment and the dealer just smirked and said "he's the second biggest one next to Sammy"
I thought that shit was pretty funny. Later a guy tried to cut between the tables to run over and pretend to be friends with Prahlad Friedman who had just won about a 30k pot on the table next to us and while he was passing between the tables he stepped on Bubbles foot and Bubbles didn't hesitate to call the guy out on it and pretty much demanded the guy come back and apologize which the guy did about a dozen times. One last interesting thing about Italian restaurant guy from New York City is that he asked me if I saw The Hangover. I told him I did and then he asked if I remember then end when they showed the picture and the one with Wayne Newton in it....I did remember it and he was actually in the picture, When I got back home I pulled up the movie on project free TV and fast forwarded to the end and sure enough he was not full of shit, he was sitting next to Wayne Newton in the picture...that was pretty cool.
The session didn't go to well and I lost a couple hundred but it was mainly just boring b/c I know I woulda had a blast if I would have been winning, but oh well it happens. The last day there I didn't know where I was going to play and Davey and I decided on the Bellagio once again, mainly b/c he was determined the beat the 5/10 game there. I sat in a 2/5 game and got a pretty nice gift from the poker gods and had AA vs. KK and nearly got a double up but I had the guy covered by a few. It was nice and Davey was up from his game and asked if I wanted to get out of there and go catch the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian. Saw that I was a winner and said sure. That was a good call. The show was funny as hell and worth going see. It's an improv show and in a small theater so that made it cool. Best way to describe it is as a PG-13/R rated version of the tv show "who's line is it anyway?"
The Vegas trip was fun and I wish I was still there or could have stayed longer but it is what it is and I had fun. I did discover a few things that annoy me while I'm playing and most of it is just things that have become poker cliche' stuff. I'll be a sourpuss (whatever that means) another time. I haven't played since I've been back and haven't really had the itch but I heard the jackpot at Harrah's is still growing so I may have to head there and play next weekend.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.
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