The First Robvegaspoker Blog Post in Over Two Years? No Way!

Let’s see if I remember how to do this.

As I was saying……

I wasn’t expecting to ever do another blog post but the poker session I had this past Saturday just seemed to have a few elements to it that reminded me of the exact things or the kind of things that I used to talk about in the glory days of this blog. Things like poker etiquette, poker room policies, dealer errors and of course, the Dreaded Pocket Kings.  Also, the fact that I won and in fact had my best poker session in over a year and half gave me some enthusiasm for reporting on it. Oh, and yes, it turned out that I actually won my biggest pot with the aforementioned dreaded hand!  Sorry, but there are no salacious stories, which is also something the blog was somewhat famous for way back when.

What made this session sweeter was that I came thisclose to not playing at all. The really rainy weather we’d been having for more than a week was gone, replaced by extremely high winds. It gets really windy in the area where the room I play in now is as it is in the desert, and it makes it a bit treacherous for driving. But I decided to give it a go.

In the past half year or so, I’ve been playing at a new (to me) room here in Southern California, a very small room called Diamond Jim’s, which is in Rosamund, CA but really it is in the middle of nowhere. If it helps, it’s very close to Edwards Air Force Base.  It’s about an hour’s drive for me which isn’t really much different than the Ventura poker room I had been playing at, or for that matter, the Bike, which shouldn't be an hour away from me, but it is (or longer) because of downtown L.A. traffic even when I go on a Saturday.  On Saturday afternoons when I go to Diamond Jim's, I’ve never seen more than two 1/2 games going plus sometimes they do get an 8/16 Omaha 8 game running. I believe it gets busier in the evenings.

I’ve known about this place for years but until recently I avoided it because their 1/2 game had a $40-$100 buy-in.  That’s just not enough of a max buy-in to make a decent game. The 1/2 game in Ventura has a $50-$100 buy-in and I tried that and it was a terrible game.  The buy-ins for 1/2 are even worse at Commerce and the Bike, maxing out at either $50 or $60.  I think you need to buy in for at least 100 big blinds to make a game playable.

When I noticed that Diamond Jim’s had changed the buy-in max for the 1/2 to $200 (still $40 min), I decided to take a chance and drive up there one Saturday. I found the game to my liking and it’s been my “home room” pretty much ever since. It is also a more pleasant drive (less traffic) than the drive to Ventura and there are no parking issues like there are in Ventura.  And 1/2 with a $200 max as opposed to 2/3 with a $300 max means I only need $400 in my pocket to walk in with two buy-ins, as opposed to $600 for Ventura.

The one negative is that for the $40-$100 they used $1 chips (the same at every Southern Cal casino I’ve played in) and they didn’t change it when they added $100 to the max buy in. They still play the game with $1 chips. In Vegas of course, you wouldn’t see a 1/2 game like that, it’s played with $5 chips everywhere I’ve played it. It is so much better that way. When you buy in for $200 they give you two racks of $1 chips. It’s a royal pain in the ass. I always ask for one stack of red with a rack of blue (the $1 chips). Yeah I could ask for all red but with everyone else using the blue chips it would be awkward to be the only one using red. So, if I still had my full buy-in in front of me, and I want to bet, say, $40, I’d push out two stacks of $1 chips instead of using eight $5 chips. And then if you are running well and you have lots of profit in front of you, you just have a ton of $1 chips which is just a mess. You can rack them but that takes up so much room.  The only racks I want in front of me in a 1/2 game are ones filled with red (or dare I say, green?). Unless of course Sydney Sweeney visits the room. I am not holding my breath for that to happen.

Before I get to the three poker hands that made my day, I want to discuss a poker room policy, specifically rules for “must move” games.  I never dealt much with “must move” games before. I had only seen that with games that have bigger limits than I play (like 2/5 or 5/10).  As best I can tell, if they open a second 1/2 game during their first hour after they open (11am), the second game is always a “must move.” Which means that if anyone leaves the first game they started, they take a player from the second game and move them to the original game, in order to keep the "integrity" of the first game intact, so that players who get there early and start the first game always have a full game.

I suppose that makes sense but sometimes I’ve seen it where they have an open spot in the first game, they have a player on the waitlist ready to play, and they insist on taking one of the players off the must move game and putting them in the “main” game, sending the new player to the must move game.  What is the point of that? As long as they have a player ready to go, why not send the new player to the main game instead of disturbing a player at the second game, making him pack up his chips (racks of $1 chips!) and move and have the new player replace them in the secondary game? It seems to me you are playing musical chairs for no reason. Of course, anyone in the secondary game could always be put on the transfer list if they wanted to move to the main game.

Can anyone out there who works in a poker room or in poker room management explain to me why they would insist on putting the new player in the secondary game when the main game would have a new player anyway? Why not just put the new player in the main game, when they would be able to keep the main game full off the waitlist?

The first big hand I had was based on dumb luck and a dealer goof, tho I didn’t really see what happened so I dunno how much the dealer was at fault. (The dealers in this room are really good, by the way.) But as I was moving my first card closer to me, my second card hit my hand and flipped over (maybe it was my fault, but I don’t think so). The flipped card was the 6 of hearts. I took a quick look at my first card and it was an Ace. So when I got the replacement card for the 6 of hearts, I was delighted to see that it was another Ace. I can only remember situations when that kind of thing hurt me, not helped me. One time a flipped card was 10, my other card was 10, I ended up with a garbage hand and the final board had two more 10’s on it. I would have had quads if not for the flipped over card! This time it was obviously to my benefit.

Sadly I didn’t take good notes because I never imagined I’d be writing a blog post again.  But I did raise with my bullets and got a bunch of calls and won a nice pot on a board that had two flopped queens.  That kept me from getting the most value from my hand because in this room players love to play face cards.

That was early in my session and the first pot I won. I kept most of the profit from that for a long while, winning a very small pot with something or other.

Eventually it was time for me to get the dreaded hand. If you remember the blog from the old days you remember that I have an issue with pocket Kings, having taken some of my worst beats with what is supposed to be the second best starting hand in Hold’em. Again, forgive the lack of detail but I can tell you this, I raised with them, I got a bunch of calls, and I flopped a set! I do have stories where my flopped set of Kings was taken down by a straight or a flush, so I wasn’t counting my money yet. I slow-played the flop and didn’t bet on a non-scary board, then one guy bet the turn, I raised him, he called.  He bet the river, I went all in, and he tanked and called. Turned out he had King-Jack and was afraid I had Ace-King (there was no Jack on the board, he just had top pair, decent kicker). I mean, he even said, I guess you have Ace-King when he called!  It’s great when you get called by players who think they are beat but call anyway!

I was paid off in all $1 chips so when all was said and done, I had three racks of blue chips, about $30 in loose $1 chips plus my original stack of red.  Thus, I had more than a double up, which was very nice indeed.

I went back to being card dead and was thinking of calling it a day.  It had been a long time since I had a double up and I didn’t mind having a short day if I could leave with an extra buy-in in my pocket for next time. I had stayed long enough after the big Kings hand so it wouldn’t be like a hit and run.  I was dealt what I thought would be my last hand, which turned out to be pocket 8’s.  I had just had that same hand about five hands ago.  And I had the same thought. “I’ve already gotten a set of Kings today, no way am I flopping another set.”  But….well, yes, way. My previous pocket 8's hand had crashed and burned, but this time the flop was King-8-x, and I had my second set of the day.  I had called a modest raise to see the flop. I don’t remember the betting action until the river, but I’m pretty sure there was money in on both the flop and the turn, but not big bets. Again, I took no notes. I do know that on the river, another King hit, giving me a boat. I bet $40, and the one guy left first put out $80, which he did by putting out a rack of $1 chips which had one column empty. But then, he started to put the rest of his chips in the rack, which seemed like a string bet unless he said “all-in” before he put out the initial $80.

Instinctively, without really thinking, I asked the dealer, “Did he say all-in?”  The dealer said no, and told the player his bet was $80, no more. He actually took the extra chips out of the rack and put them behind it. I’m not sure exactly why I didn’t shove there, I guess I was still thinking about his string bet and also the thought did occur to me that he might have King-x with x being one of the other board cards for a bigger boat than mine. I couldn’t imagine he would have played pocket Kings the way he had played his hand, so I wasn’t worried about losing to quads.

I guess I was thinking that his raising me on the river might have meant he had a bigger monster than my monster, so I just called.  He did have King-x but he hadn’t paired his “x” and my boat was plenty good. This added over $100 to my stack. I was happily stacking my chips and was looking for a chip runner to get my $1’s colored up to $5’s when someone pointed out that the other guy wanted to bet more and because he made the string bet he couldn’t. That reminded me of something I remembered from the Ventura poker room.

I asked the dealer, “If I hadn’t said anything, would you have called the string bet or did I have to call it out myself?”  He said that it was only because I had said something that he prevented from making the string bet. “Heads up, I’m staying out of it.  If the other player doesn’t call it, we don’t say anything.” I knew to ask because I had seen the same thing happen in Ventura.  I guess this is true in all Southern California rooms?  It’s only a string bet if the other player calls it out. The house won’t intervene.  That’s certainly not the rule in Vegas.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen dealers call out string bets long before the other player(s) question it.  I’ve seen dealers actually push bets back to the player on their own. But in CA the other player has to call it.  What about where you folks play?  Is a string bet always a string bet or is it only a string bet if the player bet into calls it out?  I’m curious. And do you like that rule? I'm thinking it is bad for newbies who might not know to call out a string bet.

I stayed a few more orbits and by then I had colored up to red and cashed out $536 for a $336 profit.  I guess that’s not quite a sensational enough result to cause me to do a new blog post in and of itself, but I thought there were enough interesting things about it to for me to get off my ass and publish my first blog post in well over two years.

Can I ask you folks a favor?  It’s been so long, no one would be expecting a new post from me, so if you found this and liked it, please spread the word to anyone who you think might be interested in this material. And if you didn’t like it, tell people you hate about it to get even with them. Thanks.

It Was Only Three Bucks

How much responsibility does a poker player have to maintain the integrity of the game?

I mean, if you are playing in a brick and mortar room, there's a dealer, and a floor person, and a shift manager to make sure the game is handled properly.  But what if you see a dealer make an error, or think you do, and it doesn't involve you? Should you say something?  Should you get involved?  Or should you mind your own business?  If the dealer goofs and costs one of the players money, isn't up to to that player to speak up for himself?  But anyone can make a mistake, and maybe the player who was "cheated": made the same mistake in his mind that the dealer did.  Or is a newbie?  Shouldn't we protect newbies so they keep coming back and playing?

I've seen some discussion quite recently about this very subject.  And I've heard varying opinions.  Where do you stand?

The simplest example would be the dealer pushing the pot to the wrong player.  The dealer misreads the hand.  And sometimes, even though the player who really won the pot thinks he really won the pot, he might be too embarrassed to speak up.  This would be especially likely if he was a new player.

Of course, if you are just observing, you might be afraid to speak up because it would be embarrassing if you were wrong and the dealer was right.

Well, I'm pretty sure I saw the dealer make an error at my most recent visit to Ventura.  And I didn't say anything.  You'll see why.

Here's the situation.  It was either the flop or the turn.  Player A made a bet, and Player B announced all-in.  It was quite an increase over the original bet, which was less than $50.  Player B had at least $400-$450.  Player A had two stacks of what looked like $100 each and three $1 chips.  This was after he made the initial bet.  I'm not sure if the street started two-handed but by the time it got back to Player A, it was definitely heads up.

Player A thought a bit  and then finally said, "call."  He pushed out in front of him the two stack of yellow chips he had (in the L.A. rooms, the $5 chips are yellow and the $1 chips are blue).  He did not push out the three blue chips he had, but of course, his verbal call and the pushing of any chips out in front of him clearly meant he was calling.  It was obvious that Player B had him well-covered.

Player B won. The dealer did not count any chips, as it was obvious that Player B had a lot more than Player A.  The dealer took the two stacks of yellow chips and pushed them to Player B.

And that was it.  He didn't grab the three blue chips that Player A had left over, or ask him to put them out for him to push to Player B.  He totally ignored them..  Player A rebought, but he kept ahold of those three $1 chips.

I knew this wasn't right.  He was covered, and the only way to continue in this hand was to put all his chips in play.  Including those three blue chips which he (apparently) forgot to push out.  The dealer should have caught it and insisted he pay the winner his last three bucks.

The only possible exception I've seen is in Vegas (never L.A.), where sometimes a player puts a dollar chip on the rail if he orders a drink.  That signifies he is holding back a buck to tip the waitress when he gets his drink. On very rare occasions, I've seen a player either call or move all-in and pick up a single chip from his stack and tell the dealer and his opponent that he was holding out that chip for the waitress.  He is kind of asking permission to do that and I've never seen anyone object.

But this wasn't the case here.  Player  A had not ordered a drink.  He didn't have those chips on the rail.  They were part of his stack—the part he didn't push out with his big stacks of yellows.

I couldn't think of any way this wasn't a mistake and that Player B wasn't getting short-changed $3.  But after thinking about it for awhile, I decided to keep quiet.  For one thing, by this time I knew Player B was an experienced player.  He surely knew that he was entitled to the three bucks.  It was on him to speak up, and if he didn't want to—or didn't notice—it was on him.  I suppose it was possible he did notice and didn't want to look cheap or even like he was rubbing it in by insisting on getting the guy's last three dollars.  But that's the rules, right?  He's entitled to those three dollars.  He surely would have had to pay the guy that extra three bucks if he had lost the hand.

The other reason I didn't speak up was….well, it was only three bucks.  Right is right and all, but to get involved in a hand I wasn't a part of for a lousy three dollar mistake—well, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

What do you think?  Should I have said something?

As to the game, there was one memorable hand that made it a nice session.  I had won a couple of really small pots from the blinds, then opened to $15 with pocket Jacks and didn't get a call.

Finally, down to about to about $245 or so (from my $300 buy-in), I looked down at pocket Aces.  I opened to $15.  It folded around to a guy who made it $35.  Everyone else folded and I thought for a bit before making it $90.  This guy had me covered but not by much.  He didn't waste much time before announcing "all-in."  To say I snap-called would be an understatement.  I don't think he'd finished saying the "n" when I said "Call!"  After the hand, the guy on my right commented on how fast I called.  "You called so fast…."  I said, "Well, there was no one else in the hand, there was no point in Hollywooding."  And of course by that time he knew I had Aces. Why draw it out?  Still, he seemed either surprised or impressed by how fast I called.

Obviously the other player wasn't pleased by my insta-call.  He said, "You have Aces?" as he turned over—you guessed it—two Kings.  Ah, the dreaded hand.   But would it be dreaded for him or me?  It had been awhile since I'd been involved in the classic Aces vs. Kings match-up.  It's always memorable, no matter what the result.

The flop had a lot of paint, but it was Queen-Jack-3, rainbow.  But the turn card really was interesting—and by interesting I mean scary as hell—a 10.  So he had an open-ender.  Six outs.  But only six.  Because if he caught his set on the river, I would have Broadway.  OTOH, if I caught my set on the river, he'd have the straight to crush my set of Aces.  So neither one of us wanted to catch our set.

The turn was another 3, totally harmless.  And I had my double up.  Suddenly there was nearly $500 in front of me.

I bled some chips for awhile and finally cashed out with a $160 profit.  Those cooler hands are nice when you are the cooler and not the coolee. 

OK, so what does the pic above have to do with this post?  Well both of us had really big pairs, so.....

The Premature Ace of Diamonds

This is just one hand from a poker session up in Vegas last week.  It has to do with a dealer error and a player going on tilt as a result.  I was, arguably at least, the beneficiary of the dealer error.

I won't mention the room this took place, although it really doesn't matter.  This error could have taken place in any poker room in the world; dealers are, after all, human and there is not a one who hasn't made a mistake, or for that matter, this particular mistake.  That's why there's a rule for handling such errors, and as far as I know, it’s the same rule in every poker room.

The game was 1/3 and it was a fairly new table, both the other player and myself had been in the game since it opened.  In the cut-off, I limped in with Ace-7 of clubs.  At least one player had limped in already, maybe two.  No one raised and four or five of us saw the flop, which was 9-8-6.  There was one club, but more importantly, there were two diamonds.

Someone bet $10, and I called with my open ended straight draw, plus the back-door flush draw.  Two other players called and there were four of us left to see the turn.  The turn card was nice for me, it was a 5.  I didn't remember the suit afterwards, but it was neither a club nor a diamond.  I had the second nuts with my straight; only 10-7 could beat me.  The big blind, who is the other key player in this hand, checked.  So did the player who bet $10 on the flop, as did the other player. I was last to act, and I wanted to chose my bet carefully, so I was thinking for a bit.

Obviously there were two diamonds on there and it was very likely at least one of the players who thought the hand was worth $10 on the flop had the diamond draw.  And of course any time you have a straight with four on the board you are very vulnerable to getting counterfeited.  I ended up deciding to bet $40, which was just a bit under the size of the pot.

After placing my chips in front of me, I looked up and saw the big blind was upset, and motioning to me.  Now I was in seat 2 and he was in seat 6.  He was an older fellow and had seemed like a pretty friendly, pretty happy guy up until that point.  But he was motioning to me and said something indicating that I had bet out of turn and it was actually his turn to act.  Huh?  Hadn't he already checked, as had the two players behind him?

I started to say something like, "You checked," when I looked at the board and noticed that there were actually three, not two, diamonds on it.  And that one of the diamonds was in fact the Ace of diamonds.  But it was the last card out there, in the fifth spot.  The five of whatever was no longer the last card on the board. Somehow the river card had been dealt while I was making my turn bet.  I did not see the dealer put out the river card, but the evidence that she had was quite obvious.

I said to the guy, "This is my turn bet." The dealer immediately realized her error.  She said, "I thought you had checked."  I didn't have to insist I had not, she knew immediately that I hadn't.  So she called the floor, while the older gent in the big blind started to stew. I don't think he said anything at this point, but he was visibly shaken.

Fortunately the floor came over right away and the dealer explained the situation.  The floor ruled, as I knew he would, that the river card, the Ace of diamonds, was coming back, coming off the board.  Now I suppose he was going to explain that, after the action on the turn was complete, if the hand was still alive, the Ace of diamonds would be returned to the remaining deck, the deck would be reshuffled, and then a new river card would be put out, which of course, could conceivably have been the Ace of diamonds again.

But he never got that far.  Once he said the Ace was coming off the board, the big blind was just livid.  He flipped over his hand and you could understand why.  It was King-4 of diamonds.  In other words, the Ace of diamonds was absolutely the perfect card for him, giving him the stone cold nuts.  It was exactly the card he was hoping for.  It was the ultimate tease for him, out there for a second and now pulled back.

Anyway, he took the King-4 of diamonds, and threw them away.  I don't mean he mucked, I mean he threw them toward the dealer.  Not hard enough to hit the dealer, they just more or less hit the muck, just hard enough to let you know how pissed he was.

The other players in the hand folded in much calmer fashion, so I was awarded the pot.  I did feel bad for the guy, but his over-the-top anger made me feel less bad for him than I might otherwise have.  After all, he still could have called me.

The guy was expressing his anger toward the dealer.  I think he was just grumbling incoherently, I didn't hear him curse out the dealer or anything like that.  Maybe he said something about how the dealer should have been more careful.  Someone said to him, "Well everyone makes mistakes, she's human."  He said something like, "Yeah….but I've been losing constantly.  I haven't won a pot in two days." 

Meanwhile a couple of the players around me were talking about it too, quietly.  I said, "He could have called, he still could have gotten a diamond on the river, possibly even the Ace.  He didn't have to fold."  Another player, "he wouldn't have called your bet," meaning if the dealer had not put the turn out prematurely, he would have folded to my big bet anyway.  Well yes, I did bet big to deny equity to flush draws, that was my intention.  But here's the thing…I think if play had occurred normally, he would have at least taken time and thought about it.  He would have processed it.  In this case, his anger caused him to react without thinking. 

Despite the bad odds I was giving him, he might have considered implied odds.  If I was betting that big with a straight, perhaps if he hit his flush he could squeeze some money out of me anyway, it's not easy to fold a straight.  Also, he might have considered the possibility that someone else had a weaker flush draw and would call him if he hit his flush.

The thing is, he was never gonna see that Ace of diamonds on the river without having to call a bet on the turn.  It was a cruel tease, but he was not going to get to see it for free.  If there had been no dealer error, he'd have to consider my bet and then make a decision.  Again, I think he might have reasonably considered calling, especially because there would have been two players behind him, either one of whom might have called giving him better odds. Of course, one of them could have raised too, but that seems unlikely.

In fact, if you think about it, since I was always going to bet the turn, that prematurely exposed Ace of diamonds gave him additional information that he shouldn't have had.  Had things happened properly, he would have to take into account that even if he hit is flush, it would only be the second nut flush, and conceivably someone could have had the Ace-high flush.

But with the exposed card, he knew that no one had the Ace of diamonds in their hand.  It was in the deck.  So if any diamond hit the river now, it was as good as the Ace of diamonds.  Because either the Ace of diamonds shows up on the river (again) or it is in the stub.  A deuce of diamonds on the river is just as good for him as the Ace.  If he had had any concern that he could make a flush and lose to a higher flush, he now knew that was impossible.  And he shouldn't have known that and you could argue that the dealer's error hurt me more than it hurt him.

But the poor guy just flew off the handle right away, and didn't take any time at all to consider the situation.  As I said, he was an older guy and seemed to be a fairly knowledgeable player.  So I assume he knew that the Ace would be put back in the deck and could come out again on the river (however unlikely that would be).  Perhaps he thought it was now out of play and that he'd have one less diamond available to him to make his flush, making calling my bet even less EV.  But honestly, it didn't seem like he had time to even think about it.  He just mucked his cards too fast.

Well, it was unfortunate for him the dealer made the error, but he sure didn't help his own cause by flying off the handle and reacting without thinking it through.  So I guess he got what he deserved.

I feel a little bad, but of course we'll never know for sure if he would have called me if the hand had played out as it should have.

In any case, I am suffering no guilt for taking that pot.

It Was the Best of Kings, It Was the Worst of Kings

I made sort of a last minute decision to go to Vegas for Labor Day Weekend (and the week following).  I usually go then, except for last year when I couldn't go because I had cataract surgery the week before.  But as you know from reading my posts, I have become less and less enamored with Vegas lately.  And after my month-long summer trip ended in early July, I openly wondered how soon it would be before I returned.

As the weekend approached, I was thinking more and more that I wouldn't go.  But somehow the desire for another Vegas trip returned just in the nick of time.  I made some mental adjustments that I thought would help me with my poker. And then I realized that I had just enough comps left that I could keep my expenses down for a "quick" 10-day visit.  So I figured I'd give it a go while the weather was likely to be good and the days weren't short yet.  Note:  In winter, the days in Vegas are actually shorter than in L.A. and I hate it when the sun is gone by late afternoon.  Even in the heat, I like it when the sun is out in the early evening.  Typically, by September, things have cooled down a bit in Vegas so the weather you have to worry about is inside the casinos, where it is winter pretty much all year round.  Note: It turned out for the first part of my trip it was almost as hot as June, and for the second part it was cloudy, windy and rainy. 

So I booked a room and then the only other consideration I had was what to do about tournaments.  I've long felt that I was a better tournament player than a cash game player.  But my recent results seemed to be telling me otherwise.  I'd had quite a dry spell, tournament-wise. The only time I cashed in 2017 was the whopping $40 I'd won at the Bike Mega-Millions in March (see here, if you like).

Thus, anticipating the trip, I debated with myself whether I should even play any tournaments, or I should just stick to cash the whole time.  I did ok during the summer at cash but took a beating at the tournaments.  Of course, with tournaments the variance is much greater. I had two competing thoughts.  The first was, it had been so long since I'd done well in a tournament that I was "due."  The other thought, however, was the old saying, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Well I must be insane because after researching the tourneys available to me for the time I would be there, I decided to get back on that horse and try a couple.  As it happened, that first Saturday I didn't play a tournament because of some issues with the room I was staying that took just too long to get semi-resolved.  By the time I was done with the issues, it was too late to play a tournament.  However, I should point out, this decision was influenced by my less-than-overwhelming desire to play a tournament.  Despite the issues, if I had really, really wanted to play in a tournament that day, I could have and would have.

But I passed, and that brings us to Labor Day.  I took advantage of the holiday to play in one of my favorite tournaments—and also one that I've had quite a bit of success in over the years—the Aria 1PM with a $125 buy-in.  In fact, I've already written about one particular incident that took place during this tourney (here).

Since I didn't cash in this tournament, I'm only gonna discuss a few hands of interest.  If you love complete detailed summaries of tournaments, fear not.  I have two more tournaments to blog about and those two will together probably fill out enough blog posts for the rest of the year.

But for this tournament, I'll start with a hand late in level 4. I started that level with a stack of $12,200 where the blinds were 25/100/200.  The starting stack is $10K.  I opened to $525 with my old friends, the dreaded pocket Kings.  There was a call and than a lady made it $4K.  Hmm.  She was new to the table.  Her stack looked to be about the same as mine (which had dwindled down to $10K-ish).

Since it was Kings, I insta-folded.  At least in my mind.  But in real life, I am just about never folding Kings preflop.  Would you have?  That $4K was a big part of my stack (and hers) and I really couldn't see calling.  I guess you could make an argument for it.  Fold on the flop if there's an Ace, get it all in if there's a King on the flop and play it by ear if it's Queen-high or lower.  But I couldn't see that. I had to assume, without any other evidence, that she could be doing that with Queens, Jacks, maybe even 10's and of course Ace-King.

I couldn't really raise without shoving so I shoved.  And the speed with which she announced "call" signaled that I was in deep shit.  Of course she had two Aces.  I started thinking about what I could do with the rest of my day.  Until I saw that beautiful King on the flop. My set of Kings held and I was left stacking her chips and wondering why I hated that hand so much.  I had her covered by just a few chips, it was a nice double-up.

As I was stacking the chips, I started thinking that this was an omen.  A sign from the poker gods.  If I got it all-in Kings vs Aces, and somehow laid a bad beat on the other player—I survived KK vs AA—there's no way I am not cashing this tournament.  I have to cash.  It's been ordained.  It's friggin' destiny.  I owed it to the poker gods to cash.

Sigh.

The woman on my right thru the early rounds was someone I recognized, or at least I think I did. If I'm right, she's a regular at the Aria tournament.  But she didn't say hello to me, so maybe I have her confused with someone else.  Of course, to be fair, I didn't say hello to her either.  She is a mature woman if you catch my drift.  I'll call her "May."

The success with Kings did not propel me to greatness.  Instead I lost chips raising when I could but getting called or raised and having to let the hands go.  So by level 6 (50/300/600) I was down to $8,100.  It was shove-or-fold.  And I was dealt King-Jack off.  May open limped.  This was surprising.  By now she had built up a fairly big stack.  And she had been fairly aggressive since she had gotten a double up with a set of 9's.  I couldn't remember another open limp from her.  That affected my thought process.  If she had raised, I would have folded.  If she had folded, I would have open shoved.  But the limp.....well?  Based on what I saw, I figured the limp was a sign of some weakness.  And I decided that there was no way she would call a shove from me with a hand she had only limped in with.  I was so sure of it I was willing to bet my tournament life on it.  So I shoved.  It folded back to me, she asked for a count, took her time, and then shocked the hell out of me by calling.  Well, so much for that read.

And she flipped over Ace-10 off, which also surprised me. She was in middle position and that's a tough hand to play out of position.  To me, it would have made more sense to raise if she wanted to play it.  Whatever, I was behind but at least I had live cards.  Well, there was a Jack on the flop and another Jack on the turn for good measure, and I had a much needed double-up.

Next level May raised to $1,800 and I called with pocket 10's, we were heads up.  She checked a Queen hi flop.  She bet $2K on a blank, I assumed she didn't have a Queen so I called.  We both checked the river.  I showed my 10's and she mucked, saying she had a 6 (there was a 6 on the board).  I assumed she either had Ace-6 suited or maybe 7-6 suited.

The next hand, the (male) dealer pitched her a card and it somehow flew off the table and hit her, sort of in the chest.  It went off the table and it was a misdeal.  May said to the dealer, "You damn near hit the cleavage with that."  The dealer laughed and said, "Shh....don't give away my secrets."

As I was coming back from the break before level 8, I saw they were breaking our table.  So I got my new assignment just as the level started.  I had $24K with the levels at 100/600/1200.  I opened to $3K the first hand back with pocket 5's but the guy on my left shoved and I had to fold. 

A hand or two later I was the big blind with 8-5 offsuit.  It folded to the button.  The small blind still hadn't returned from the break, so if the button folded I'd get a walk, which would have been really nice since I had such a garbage hand. But the button said, "Oh, I gotta gamble...I'm all-in."  However, he was super short stacked—only $2,900.  When I got the count, I thought about it and realized that for such a small additional bet, and with all that dead money in there, it really didn't make sense to fold. It was just a little more than another big blind ($1,700) to call. His stack was so short he could be doing that with almost any hand, and even if he had Aces it wouldn't have been a terrible call (just a really odd looking one).  So I called.

Well, he really was gambling.  He had 6-2 and it wasn't even suited.  Absolutely nothing hit either one of us, and I busted him with 8-high!  Yeah, I won the pot with 8-high!  Pretty sure that never happened to me before.

I survived that level with $17K and the blinds went up to 200/800/1600.  And early in that level the table broke. We were down to 30 players (93 total players, they were paying 11).  I had just posted the big blind at the old table and now I lucked into the big blind at new table. I looked down at pocket 9's and I figured that unless there was a lot of action in front of me, this would be it.

Well it folded around to the small blind.  Hey, a walk there would have been fine with me.  But the small blind, who had a big stack, added $4K to his SB.  Well, I didn't know this guy at all, hadn't seen him play a hand.  But I figured with his big stack and seeing my short stack, he might do that with all kinds of hands, including total garbage.  It's a smart play, and I've done it myself.  So I shoved.  Unfortunately, he snap called and turned over pocket Kings.  Ugh.  Yeah, that was pretty dreaded.  I didn't hit my two-outer and my tournament life was done.

So the dreaded Kings worked for me beyond my wildest dreams early in the tournament.  But in the end, the burned me, as usual, even though I wasn't the one who held them.

I had played five hours.  The top prize was $2975 and 9th, 10th, and 11th all paid the min-cash of $217.  Not one, not two but three places get less than double the buy-in.  You can bet I wasn't t thrilled when I saw what the min-cash was, you've heard me rant about that.  But at least I felt that I had played pretty well, well enough to consider another tournament or two before I left town.  Stay tuned.

"Europeans are Crazy"

This was another session from December on a football night, so I got to MGM fairly early to try my luck with the football promo again (see here).  Plan A was to fill out one of the promo cards, hopefully before the NFL game ended (for $300) or at least by midnite ($200). Plan B was to get at least one stamp (out of five), get my card thrown in the hopper and suck out again like I had the previous Sunday and win $500 (or $300 for runner up).

While waiting for a seat, I ran into my pal BuzzedSaw.  That’s not a name I came up, that’s the name he’s used for himself over the years at various spots on the Internet—including numerous comments on this very blog.  BuzzedSaw has the distinction of being the very first total stranger I ever met to tell me he read and enjoyed my blog. It happened while we were sitting next to each other in a poker game and he figured out who I was by overhearing my conversation with the dealer. This took place just a few months after I started the blog, in late December, 2011, and it absolutely made my day.  Well, actually it was pretty late in the evening so it made my night.  I have alluded to BuzzedSaw in a few posts over the years but never had occasion to actually use his “name” until now.  He is an MGM reg, but he usually plays graveyard.  Basically, he’s just getting into the room when I’m about to leave.  But we’ve run into each other many times over the years and have played together numerous times as well.

On this night, he was there early for the football promo.  In fact, on the Sunday before, when I hit the promo, he was also there and we chatted.  He was one of the folks who reminded of the second chance drawing that I ended up hitting for $500.  And when I hit it, he wasted no time in coming over and giving me a hard time about it.  “Rigged. The fix was in!”  In fact, he commented on the post I did about it (that I already linked to) to that effect.

We ended up getting called to a new table together.  A bit later, we were joined by VegasDWP who took the seat on my immediate right.

There were a couple of Germans at our table, rather chatty and of course, very aggro.  One of them was on my immediate left.  Anyway, I was down about $50 and BuzzedSaw was down to less than $50.  Someone straddled and BuzzedSaw called.  And so I look down at the dreaded pocket Kings and made it $20.  I have no idea why I raised to only $20, that’s way too little after a straddle and a call.  Note, the UTG straddle at MGM is $5 and it’s the only one they allow.  It folded back to BuzzedSaw who just put the rest of his chips out.  It was just heads up—assuming I would call.

The dealer (who has been dealing at MGM since I first started playing there) didn’t wait for me to call and didn’t announce raise.  Actually, she didn’t realize that there was a raise.  She just scooped in all the chips and was about to put out a flop.  Before either BuzzedSaw or I could say anything, the German on my left spoke up and pointed out that there was a shove for more than my $20 bet.  Since all the chips were in the center of the table, we had to recreate the pot.  When every chip in the pot was reassigned where we assumed it came from, it appeared that I needed $15 more to call  In other words, BuzzedSaw’s shove as $35 total (including the original $5 he had put out to call the straddle).  Frankly, I wasn’t sure that was right, but I asked BuzzedSaw if that felt about right to him and said, “Yeah.”

So I called the $15 and the dealer put out a board. I dunno why I didn’t show my hand but BuzzedSaw asked me if I had a pair, and I said, “You know what I have.”  He laughed. When all five cards were out, three of them were Aces.  I showed the cowboys and BuzzedSaw didn’t show his hand, and took some money out to buy more chips.  That got me a stamp on my poker parlay card (the football promo) for the full house.

That wasn’t the only mistake this dealer made due to inattentiveness.  I was looking at my phone and suddenly there was a dollar chip near my stack, but not part of it.  I assumed it was mine and took it and put it on my stack.  BuzzedSaw said to me, “What, you just gonna keep that buck?”  Huh?  He explained that the guy on his left had put it out for the small blind and it rolled over to me.  I hadn’t seen that obviously—I’m not gonna steal a buck.  But again, the dealer should have noticed it.  I guess she was sleepwalking through this down.

My buddy Mike pushed into deal.  I said to DWP, “You see this guy coming in?  He’s the worst dealer in Vegas.”  I think Mike laughed but everyone else at the table who heard it kind of went “Whoa.”  Needless to say, I would only tease him like that if he was actually one of the best dealers in Vegas (which he is), but perhaps the strangers at the table didn’t realize that.

I called DWP’s raise to $10 with Ace-7 of clubs.  Four of us saw an Ace-4-3 rainbow flop (no clubs).  It checked around.  The turn was another Ace and after DWP checked, I raised to $25 and didn’t get a call.  That got me a stamp for trips.

My stack was still around $100 or so, and I was getting to the point where I was gonna add on to it.  But first I got pocket Jacks and opened to $10.  It was 3-way and the flop was 7-5-4.  I bet $25 and only an Asian kid called.  I checked the turn, which was a deuce.  The Asian kid shoved for $59.  I called, hoping he had a worse overpair than I did.  Nope, he had 5-4 for a flopped two pair. The river didn’t help and I was down to $9 so I bought $200 more in chips.

I called DWP’s raise to $10 with Ace-8 of clubs.  BuzzedSaw was the only other caller. The flop was an Ace and two low spades.  I called DWP’s $15 bet and we were heads up.  No more betting took place and the board bricked out.  He showed pocket Kings and I took the pot.

The German on my left was annoying.  For one thing, he was crowding me all night, even though there seemed to be a lot of room on the other side.  I actually had to ask him to give me some more room once or twice.  He was pushy.  He reached over from across the table to push the dealer’s board to call for service, and I think he did the same thing to punch himself back in the game when he’d been gone for awhile.

And both he and his pal were typical Euro aggros. In fact, that came up for discussion.  There was hand that DWP got involved with one of the Germans.  And he called a shove.  Now, I think this was preflop, but am not sure.  Anyway, DWP had Ace-King and caught a King to take the pot and get a double-up.  I guess it was preflop.  Anyway, as DWP was stacking his chips I said to him, “That was a good call.”

The other German, the one not in the hand, said, “You have to call there.  He’s European.  Americans only have Aces there, but Europeans could have anything.”  And DWP said, “Yeah, Europeans are crazy.”  The German said, “Yes.”

So then, I limped in a multiway pot with King-Jack of diamonds.  The flop was Queen-Jack-x and no one bet it.  I bet $10 on the turn and only the German called.  By the river, I think there was four to a straight so I checked, the German didn’t bet but showed one card…a Jack.  I showed my King-Jack and he mucked, obviously his kicker was no good.  The other German said to me, “You didn’t bet there?”  I said, “That’s right, I didn’t bet.  I’m American.”

I limped/called $12 with pocket deuces, it was four of us.  I caught my set, with a Jack-9 to go with the deuce.  I checked, thinking the raiser, who was last to act, would bet but she checked.

BuzzedSaw led out for $16 on the turn, the Asian called, and I just called.  I didn’t make any note about why I didn’t raise.  I dunno.  By the river, the board included a 10 to go with the Jack-9 and I was worried a bit about a straight.  So BuzzedSaw checked, the Asian bet $35…and I just called.  BuzzedSaw very reluctantly called.  I dunno what he had but the other guy claimed he had Jack-10 for two pair.

That got me close to even and then they did the drawing.  I only had two stamps so I didn’t get anything for filling out the card but was eligible for the second chance drawing.  I believe DWP had all but one stamp but close isn’t good enough and his only chance for promo money was the drawing, same as me.

BuzzedSaw was also only one stamp away and didn’t make it.  So, before the drawing, he proposed that we combine our action on the drawing.  If either of our names were called, that person would take 60% and give the other one 40%.  I guess he figured he I was running hot on drawings.  I agreed.  But neither one of us was called, so no promo money for us (DWP whiffed too).

It’s fun playing with friends, and I didn’t lose too much.  Winning would have been better, of course.

"Since When Do We Allow Side Bets Here?"

New Year's Eve, 2016

Part 3

This is the third and final chapter.  See parts 1 (here) and 2 (here)

As we pick up the story, a new player came to the table.  Let’s call him, oh, I dunno, Jose. 

Jose was not a happy camper and was having a bad night, poker wise.  He soon revealed he came over from the 2/5 game, which apparently broke.  Now I understand why Rick was at our 1/2  game, he must have come from a broken 2/5 game too.  Pretty much the first words out of Jose’s mouth were, “Whatever you do, don’t give me Aces.  I can’t win with Aces.  I had Aces two times in that game, raised big both times, and both times I lost to a set of Queens.  They called and ran me down.”  In case Rick hadn’t heard him, he said to him, “You were there, you saw.”

Jose changed the dynamic of the game.  He was betting like he was still playing 2/5.  He would often open big--$25, even $40.  Other times he would limp or raise to a more reasonable amount.  But he was definitely quite the aggro. And he kept muttering about how bad he was running all night. 

I soon learned that Jose was waiting for some folks to join him, he and his friends were going to Hakkasan for New Year’s Eve.  The way I learned this was by listening to him shouting into his phone. He wasn’t on the phone, it appeared that he was voice-texting.  “Where are you?”  “Get your ass over here!”  “No, I don’t want to go to the club without you.”  “No, I don’t want to meet you inside.”  After sending one fiery text, he said to the entire table, “I’m gonna kill these people when they get here.” For whatever reasons, the rest of his party was delayed, and Jose was not pleased about that.

Not long after Jose came to the game, a dealer I’ll call “Dewey” took the seat next to me.  He was on the clock and made it very clear he was trying to get an “Early Out”—get off the clock so he could drink.  But that wasn’t in the cards for him.  He had table changed to get there, and I originally thought he wanted this table to be with his colleagues, Ginger and Jennifer.  Make it sort of a dealer’s game.  But I later found out that wasn’t the case at all.

I had never played with Dewey at all and I was surprised to see that he was super-aggressive himself.  Pretty much a match for Jose.  He only had about $100 when he got to the table but he wasn’t afraid to put that stack in play, making big opening raises just like Jose did and often open shoving or three-bet shoving when Jose had opened.  I was frankly surprised a dealer would play so aggressively in his own room.  I would think they’d want to be a little less aggro knowing that the other players in the game may be in a position to tip them (or not) in the future.  I think that’s why a lot of dealers prefer to play in other rooms, not the ones they work in.

This made it very difficult to play.  Between the banter of the ladies I was trying to overhear (for this very blog post), and the incredible distractions provided by the NY’s Eve Slut Parade (as described the previous post(, it was hard to concentrate on the poker. And now that there were two maniacs at the table, I just tightened up completely, knowing that I couldn’t concentrate well enough to succeed at this suddenly high stakes game.

Finally, Jose was getting ready to leave (not sure if his party had shown up or not, but he had clearly had enough poker for one night).  I’m sure he had gone thru several buy-ins and was now down to less than $100.  And so, he just started open-shoving with his diminutive stack.  Actually it was anywhere from $40-$70 or so.  He didn’t do it every time so he was being at least somewhat selective.  I didn’t get any hand to call with.

Jose was getting upset that he couldn’t just lose his chips so he could go.  Really.  I guess he was looking for a double-up (which would make the trip to the podium to cash out worthwhile) or a bust-out.  The blinds he was picking up shoving weren’t enough.  When he did get called, it was by a shorter stack and he didn’t make enough to satisfy him.  Or he would lose to a shorter stack and still have chips.

Apparently he knew Rick, and I suspect they knew each other from before that earlier 2/5 session they had played.  And Jose said, “Man, I just gotta lose this and bust and then I’m leaving.”  Now, I dunno who suggested it, but Jose and Rick made an agreement.  They had a side bet between the two of them on this one last hand, whoever had the better hand at the end would win.  The stakes?  Jose’s entire stack.  Jose said this would be his last hand either way. They didn’t want to play against the other players, so they both folded and asked the dealer to put their hands off to the side so they could see how they compared to the board later. I’m not sure they even looked at their cards.  The dealer put their hands to the side, but then, someone else raised and there was no call so there wasn’t even a flop in this hand.  Rick and Jose asked the dealer to put out a board anyway, and after hesitating for a bit, he complied.  He put out a five-card board and then turned over both of their hands and it turned out Rick won.  Jose was fine with that and he gave Rick all the rest of his chips (well under $100) and took off to go kill his friends.  Or at least meet them and go to the night club with them.

I was happy to see Jose leave. With his constant complaining about his cards, his yelling into the phone to his friends, and his aggro betting, I felt we were well rid of him. And I didn’t give much thought to the little wager they made that got rid of him.  If I had thought about it much, I would have been grateful it worked out the way it did.

But Dewey was livid.   He said to the dealer (his colleague), “Oh, we allow side bets here?  Since when?” The dealer said, “Well, he was gonna leave anyway.”  That was true.  Then he said, “I thought they were doing it out of their own pocket.”  I doubt he actually believed that.

I didn’t really understand at first what Dewey’s problem was.  Yes, it was not strictly within the rules.  But it was New Year’s Eve, it was supposed to be an evening of celebration. Forget about Jose, Rick was one of the best regulars in the room, was it a big deal to bend the rules a bit to accommodate him?

But then Dewey made his point clear.  “I’m trying to win his money.  It’s a lot easier to win it from him than it is now, from Rick.”  Yeah, true.  Rick is a tough player, and Jose had just been spewing chips. 

However, I would have had more sympathy if it had been more chips.  It was less than $100, as I said. Not that I wouldn’t want to win that amount myself, granted.  But it’s not like he was cheated out of an opportunity to win a shitload of money.  And it made Rick happy, and I’ll bet that Rick has tipped Dewey generously in the past (and will in the future) when he’s been dealt to by him.

The argument between them got very heated.  The dealer kept saying, “He was gonna leave anyway.”  And Dewey kept saying, “My point is, it is more beneficial for that money to be in his (Jose’s) hands than Rick’s.” And so Jennifer and Ginger weighed in.  They tried to reason with Dewey, saying he was over reacting.  But they also admitted that what the dealer allowed was really unacceptable.  The amazing thing was that, this close to midnight, both Jennifer and Ginger (particularly Ginger) were coherent and not just raging drunks.  They were somehow sympathetic to both points of view.

Dewey actually got up and complained to the shift manager, which I found really stunning.  Ratting out one of your co-workers seemed extreme.  I mean, this was clearly a one-off. 

At that point, the dealer turned to me and said, “You heard him say he was leaving after that hand, didn’t you?”  I confirmed that I heard that.  He asked if I would vouch for that if it ever came up.  I said sure.  You see, the dealer figured that, as a reg, my word would hold some weight.

Anyway, they never really settled things, the dealer was pushed out, and Dewey was still upset.  Then, midnight was approaching and most of the players took off to go outside and watch the fireworks.  I think I may have been the only person left at my table.  So I just chatted with the new dealer for 20 minutes.

Slowly, the people started filing back in.  One of the first guys back to our table was a younger fellow wearing a baseball cap.  So it was just him and I and the female dealer at the table and the guy said to me, “Does Jose Canseco play here a lot?”

What?  Initially, that struck me as the biggest non-sequitor question I’d ever heard.  What made him think of Jose Canseco, I wondered.  He might have well as brought up the Sultan of Brunei.

I said—or started to say—that I’d never seen him in there when, the light bulb went off over my little brain and it occurred to me he just might have meant the aggro fellow who had just taken off to go to the club.  Could it be?  I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t have a real picture of Canseco in my mind.  But that’s what he must have meant, right?

So I asked him, “Wait.  Was that Jose Canseco who was in seat 5?”  “Yes, it was. I wanted to say something to him, I wanted to thank him for all the great baseball memories, but I was too shy.”

Holy shit.  How could I have been playing with one of the biggest baseball stars of my lifetime and not have known it?  Especially one that I knew played poker. I immediately whipped out my celphone and Googled “Jose Canseco today.”  And sure enough, some pictures came up that made it quite clear that I had been somewhat annoyed at Jose Canseco for the past several hours. Indeed, I had spent New Year’s Eve playing poker with Jose Canseco.

I dunno if I would have said anything to him if I had recognized him.  Likely not. He didn’t seem as open as Orel Hershiser was. At least with Hershiser, I eventually did recognize him, even if it took about an hour.  This time, if that guy hadn’t spoken up, I never would have known.

And of course, now you know why I named him “Jose”—that’s actually who it was, even if I didn’t have a clue at the time.  If I never found out, I probably wouldn’t have even given him a blog name.  I would have just referred to him as “Aggro” or “Maniac” or something like that.

A few minutes later, the rest of the players showed up, including Dewey.  I immediately asked him if he knew that was Jose Canseco in seat 5.  “Of course….that’s why I wanted this table.  And that’s why I was pissed about that side bet.  The whole point was to try to get his money.  I know how he plays.”

Shit, now it made sense.  He was angling for a table change the minute he saw Canseco at our game.  And those early aggro moves he made were all designed to play at Canseco.  He’s probably both dealt to him and played with him before.   Suddenly, I felt I had a better understanding about why he was so upset with side bet.

Dewey went on to mention something I had totally forgotten about—if I even noticed at the time.  At one point, he said, Jennifer was about to toss him a plastic water bottle from across the table.  And he said, “Don’t do that, it may hit someone in the head.”  Apparently, Canseco reacted to that, and it was intentional on Dewey’s part. There was a famous incident when Canseco got hit in the head with a fly ball and it bounced in the stands for a home run.

As for the poker at this session…well, not much to report, actually.  There were obviously a lot of distractions.  I was trying to hear the ladies banter—and I was distracted by the foot traffic.  Honestly, it was so good I was starting to get annoyed when I had to look away from it to look at my cards.

I wasn’t getting good cards (at least, I think I looked at them long enough to determine that, but I can’t really be sure) and it was obvious early on that I wouldn’t be able to give the game the concentration necessary to play my best game.  If I wanted to have a successful poker session, I should have asked for a table change to a table in the back, away from the club traffic.

Of course, I did no such thing.

But I really liked my seat.  I was not only potentially getting material from Jennifer and Ginger, but honestly, the seat I was at was providing me more entertainment than I’d had in months (but then, I’d just spent 7 weeks recovering from open heart surgery).  I really didn’t want to risk a lot of money under the circumstances.  I nitted it up and tried to make my one buy-in last until after midnight so I wouldn’t have to give up my seat without re-buying.

And that’s just what I did.  Early on, I lost the minimum with the dreaded hand when I ran into a set of Jacks.  I got Aces twice in relatively short order and won two small pots.

When we were short-handed, it folded to me on the button with pocket 6’s.  I raised to $6 and the blinds both called.  I made a c-bet on a blank flop and took it. 

I had pocket Queens when someone straddled and someone called the straddle.  I made it $20 and it was four-way.  There was a low flop, and my $40 c-bet took it. 

After midnight, when I was more or less ready to quit the game, my stack was down to less than $50.  Since I felt I could leave then, I just shoved with Ace-8 off (a Jose Canseco move!).  I got called by pocket Jacks.  I got both an Ace and an 8 on the flop, and doubled up.

I kept playing for awhile, and would have stayed longer. But a new player took the seat to my left and he just couldn’t stop coughing.  It was quite annoying and I was worried about catching the bubonic plague from him.  So after an orbit or two, I had enough and cashed out, a relatively small loss.  I still needed to kill sometime in the casino before all the roads would be open and I could drive back to my room.  Fortunately, there was still plenty to look at all over the casino.  So I did.

Finally, after 3AM, I got in my car and headed back.  Despite losing some money, it was definitely an extremely fun New Year’s Eve celebration.