My X Account (Twitter) Was Hacked!!!!

I have no idea who will see this but if you follow me on X (Twitter), my original Robvegaspoker account, which I spent YEARS building up, has been hijacked from me, and some spammers have taken it over.

If you want to continue following me on X, which is virtually the only way I communicate publicly with anyone these days, please follow me at @RealRobVegaspker.  And if you could spread the word, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

I Played Live Poker....Seriously! (Part 1)

Driving Around in Circles (Part 1 of 2)

The title is accurate. Unfortunately, I got a little carried away and wrote so much preamble, I won't get to the actual poker until part 2.  So unlike me to get so wordy, I know.  Don't worry, the second part is written and I will post it in just a day or two.

But on Saturday, August 29, I actually played poker.  Real, live poker.  And not some seedy little underground home game.  Nope, it was totally above board, real live poker an in actual brick and mortar card room.  Actually it was full-fledged casino, in fact.  In California, yet.

So no, I didn't go to Vegas.  And no, Emperor Gavin Newsom did not come to his senses and deign to allow casinos and card rooms to open in the state he rules.  In fact, he came out with new guidelines for re-opening the state's economy that are virtually impossible to ever meet until COVID-19 completely disappears.  Basically, if it is up to Emperor Newsom, the state won't re-open until NASA is able to send astronauts to Uranus and back.  That's only a mild exaggeration.  It really looks like we are locked down for the rest of the year.  Or perhaps we will open up completely on, say, November 4.  We'll see.

But although he no doubt thinks he is, Newsom isn't quite God. Many years ago, CA made a deal with a number of Indian tribes to allow casinos on their land.  Due to agreements with both state and federal authorities, casinos on Indian land are not subject to most state laws. The Indian lands are basically sovereign nations within the state of CA.

Thus, Indian casinos in CA are very different than the card rooms in the state.  The Bike, Commerce, Player's Casino in Ventura…..they are all card rooms.  You won't find a slot machine in any of them.  They do have table games, but they have weird rules because it is against CA law for anyone to play against the house.  That's why poker is fine.  For blackjack, someone other than the house must bank the game.  You can't bet against the Bike.  You bet against a third-party that is the banker.  In reality this third-party is usually just a big corporation unrelated to the card room but just as big, financially speaking. Somehow there is a rake or a "collection" involved so that both the house and the banker make money.  Of course just like any blackjack game, the odds are stacked against you.

But in these Indian casinos, it's pretty much just like Vegas.  For one thing, there are slot machines.  Boy are there slot machines!  I believe that a few years ago there was a proposition on the ballot that would allow the CA card rooms to have slot machines.  You can bet the Indian gaming lobby spent a boatload of money advertising against it, and it failed. The table games play like Vegas table games.  And the poker plays like….well poker.

So when the Emperor shut down the state in March, there was really nothing to stop the Indian casinos from keeping open and operating as they had been.  But they all shut down, at least initially. I think they, like everyone else, had safety concerns, and for sure they didn't want any bad publicity from an outbreak. Not sure if they were worried about legal liability since they are sovereign nations.  But they all shut down, to the best of my knowledge.

In fact, in the brief period when Emperor Newsom had come to his senses and started re-opening things, I'm not sure all the tribal casinos re-opened.  But then, three weeks later, the Emperor freaked out and closed everything back down.  There was no reason for the tribal casinos to close, but most did.  I believe that the only one in Southern CA to either stay open or re-open shortly after a brief close was a new one, Jamul Casino in San Diego county.  A few in Northern CA opened around the same time.  But nothing near me.

The nearest Indian casino to me is Chumash, north of Santa Barbara.  I have been there once, many, many years ago when I was a limit player. I don't remember much about it other than it wasn't worth the drive.  If I recall correctly, the limit game I played (2/4 or 3/6 most likely) had either a kill or a half-kill, which I have always disliked.  It's a long drive, and it's on some less than great roads, and it takes you thru a wonderful tourist town called Solvang, which is great to visit but not to drive through if you're mostly anxious to play poker.

I was surprised that Chumash stayed closed during the second lockdown.  But finally the other day, looking through Bravo, I saw they had games running.  I think they re-opened August 21.  But I also saw that another tribal casino had games running—Morongo Casino, out near Palm Springs.  I believe they re-opened around the same time.

It started to occur to me that I now had two choices if I wanted to play poker badly enough (and of course badly is the only way I play poker). And I started considering it.

Google maps told me that Chumash was slightly closer but a somewhat longer drive.  Morongo was just a straight shot down Interstate 10.  Easy Peazy.  About a 90-100 minute drive.  A long way to go for an afternoon, but doable.  Although I had never been inside, I do recall driving it past it once over 20 years ago when I had a meeting out past it for work.  I remember being rather surprised to see a casino out there in the middle of the desert, in the middle of CA.  This was long before I was playing poker.

Well, I'm sure you all read my second to last post (here).  You know how I feel about having been under house arrest since mid-March.  You know it has been driving me more than a little bit nuts.  The thought of actually having something to do, someplace to go on a Saturday, had great appeal to me.  But I'm not crazy (at least, not totally crazy).  I had concerns of course of catching the virus. Would it be safe?

I had decided that Morongo would be the preferable choice, especially since they had 1/3 NL ($100-$300) as opposed to 2/3 NL (I assume $100-$300).  I checked their website and their safety protocols looked pretty solid.  I began thinking more and more of scheduling a trip out there to check it out. 

I didn't rush over there because I naively thought we might just be days from California opening up and that poker rooms nearer to me would be available.  Like Bike or Commerce.  Or in a perfect world, my Ventura room. After all, that spike in hospitalizations and deaths that sparked the Emperor to shut us back down had passed.  Everything was looking positive.  Surely we could open up again. I really thought that. Silly me, fool that I was, I gave Newsom way too much credit.

On Friday, August 28, Emperor Newsom released his new guidelines, and as I've indicated in the opening of this post, the guidelines are a joke.  A sick, sick joke. No chance of a poker room under the Emperor's control opening any time soon. 

That pretty much clinched it for me.  I wasn't going to playing poker in CA anytime soon.  I was so sick of being locked up in my house, seeing no one, doing nothing. And I finally had something to do other than going out and picking up fast food (and, on occasion, eating it at a table outside of the restaurant). And of course, of course, I sure did miss playing poker.  Man, did I miss it.  I even missed getting felted with the dreaded pocket Kings (although I missed that more like you miss a toothache when it finally goes away).

But now there was an additional reason to drive out to Morongo and try to play some poker.  It was to say, "F*** you, Gavin Newsom!" The Emperor hates it when any of his subjects has a good time, or even tries to have a good time. He hates those Indian casinos that he has no control over being open. It really pisses him off.

If I could have some fun and at the same time piss off Emperor Newsom, well that might just my new definition of a perfect day. Man, I do love those Native Americans.

So it was no coincidence that it was the very day after His Royal Highness released his new, impossible-to-meet guidelines, that I found myself driving east to find the Morongo casino.

I wasn't sure what the food situation would be when I got there.  It appeared they might have had some indoor dining available (again, totally prohibited by Emperor Newsom, but this is sovereign land) but I wasn't sure.  I thought about stopping at some fast food place on the way, but decided I didn't want to take the time.  I had a quick, early lunch at home and hit the road so I could get there as soon as possible.

The first 2/3's of the drive out there is identical to the one I take to get to Vegas.  Thus, when I approached the I-15, which I'd take to go to Vegas, the toughest thing to do was to drive right past it and keep going straight. It took a lot of self-restraint not to head North on the 15, but I did it.  Then I was unfamiliar territory but Google maps did its job and eventually, after about an hour and a half, I could see the Morongo casino from my car.

It was then that Google maps totally failed me.  You see to get from the freeway to the casino, you have to navigate that traffic atrocity known as the "traffic circle." Or maybe they are known as "roundabouts" although there might be some distinction between the two.  No matter what you call them, they are the worst invention the history of mankind. Seriously, I cannot put into words how much I hate traffic circles.  They should be banned immediately.  Furthermore, the inventor of traffic circles should be water-boarded non-stop for the rest of his life (I assume a man invented him, I have too much respect for women to believe any female could be stupid enough to have come up with the concept).  If said inventor is already dead, I have no doubt that he is currently spending all eternity in hell.

Let me put it this way: If you told me Gavin Newsom invented traffic circles, I would believe you.

I am confident I handled the traffic circle you come to when you exit the 10 at the Morongo as Google instructed me, but somehow, as soon as I entered said traffic circle, I heard the beep from Google maps telling me that it was re-routing me because I was off the suggested route.

Did I mention there was some road construction all around the Morongo and near the exit?  Perhaps things were not as Google maps as expected.  Or perhaps what I assumed was the entrance to the traffic circle was an entirely different road.  Who the hell knows.

All I know is that Morongo was sitting right there, directly across the freeway, I could almost reach out and touch it.  But I couldn't get there from where I was.  Nope.  And Google maps was telling me to take this dinky little two lane road, barely paved, for another mile or so.  Parallel to the 10 but there was no place to turn to get to the casino.  So I started driving away from the casino, far away.  Oddly, the map program didn't tell me to turn around.  Just keep going.  Farther and farther away from my destination.

Eventually I came to a street to turn on.   Well that street actually took a left turn almost immediately after I got on it.  Maps didn't warn about this, but luckily I figured it out before taking another wrong turn (or in this case, going straight when I should have turned left).

Now I was north of the freeway (same side as the casino) and eventually I could see the casino again.  But then….the damn Google maps program told me to take the second (or whatever) exit from the upcoming traffic circle.  Oh f*** me.  Another damn traffic circle???  Yes.  By now I could literally walk to the casino from where I was, if only I could have left my car in the middle of the road.  Would have been a two minute walk. But no, I had to enter the traffic circle. Which I did. Or so I thought.  Nope, I missed the traffic circle.  I think it was just past where I had already turned.  And where I had turned was the entrance to the 10, going east!  So, not the way I had come from, but toward Arizona (I wasn't really that close to Arizona).  So I had to go another mile or so out of my way before I could exit the freeway and try again to find the damn casino.

If there was another traffic circle waiting for me when I exited freeway, I have blotted it out of my mind.  To my surprise, I was on a different street that paralleled the freeway, different than the one I had been on just a minute ago only to get on the freeway going to east. And as luck would have it, there was no damn traffic circle to navigate to enter the casino parking lot this time.  I was able to turn right into it!  Victory!

The parking lot is poorly marked.  After seeing one sign that said self parking this way, I couldn't actually find a lot that said self-parking.  And I saw no sign indicating there was a parking garage, so I assumed there wasn't one.  But once I was inside the casino, I did see signs directing you to the parking garage.  Wish I had known there was one and how to find it, it would have been preferable to parking outside in the desert sun.  Oh yes, this is in the desert, very similar climate to Vegas and hotter than my neighborhood.

But I found a spot near one of the entrances and got lucky, as it was the entrance nearest the poker room.  Of course before I got inside I had to be screened.  The temperature check was different from others I've seen.  You had to stand about 6 feet from the screener and lower your mask (masks were of course required).  Weird. The screener held something that looked like a small TV camera and pointed it at me, and somehow determined it was ok for me to enter the property.

Ordinarily I would check out the casino before heading to the poker room but I knew I'd be on the waiting list for a good long while so I'd have time to explore once I got on the list.  Now, although there is a big sign indicating the Poker Room is right next to the entrance I used, it turns out that poker room is down a long, dark hallway, hidden away from the main casino floor.  It was almost like entering a speak-easy.

What happened when I walked down that long, dark hallway?  You'll have to come back for part 2 to find out.  But I promise, I really will report on some live poker hands.  Honest!  Stay tuned. Or better yet, go to it right now, it's here.

Edited to add:  My pal Norm sent along this pic with his comment (see below), and of course it is perfect.  Thanks, Norm!

It Will Be a Fun Post to Write

Well, I have a great post for you.  I just haven't written it yet.  And it will take some time to write it up.  And I have to warn you, it might be a multi-part post.  

So I can't promise when, but it will hopefully soon.  

What happened was that on Saturday I went down to Commerce to play in a $240, $200K guarantee tournament.  SPOILER WARNING: I made it into the money.  And then I made it to Day 2.  So on Sunday I went back to Commerce.

Now I didn't win life-changing money, not at all.  But I didn't min-cash either.  And after nearly 10 hours of poker over the two days, I have much to talk about.  Yes, there will be plenty of those boring hand histories that some of you actually like.

Since I don't have anything else to post, I wanted to get something up here so you don't think I got my ass thrown in jail as happened to another famous blogger recently.

So hang in there and keep checking back, and hopefully I can something published before too long.

Out of the Hospital

This will be another brief update on my condition.  Fortunately, I feel closer and closer to the point when I can do some real writing.  But still too tired and drugged up for that quite yet.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I was released from the hospital   I guess I was up to that but going "home" was quite the ordeal and took so, so much out of me.  The night was rough too as getting used to not having a nurse I could call when I needed something was challenging.  I am currently staying with my sister until I am up to completely caring for myself.  

Everyone has been joking about the possibility that I was having "cute" or "hot" nurses taking care of me, even giving me sponge bathes.  Hah! Nothing could be further from the truth.  Nearly half the nurses were male (though, to be fair, some of my readers may have thought some of them cute).  The female ones were hard working, dedicated, very caring.  And in the end I am glad they were hired for those reasons and not because of their physical characteristics.  

I had the triple bypass morning Saturday, so just five days ago.  Hard to believe.

Right now recovery consists of exercising....which means going for a walk twice a day.  I started at five minutes, and am supposed to add a minute each day.

I would certainly like to push the fast forward button on the next 6 weeks.  

In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for your well wishes.  Keep the coming..they do help!

Quickie Update

All the doctors say I'm doing really well. Of course I'm still in a lot of pain and discomfort but the docs know best.  Got out of surgery about 48 hours ago.

No idea when I'll be back to a normal routine. It will probably be a while 

Hopefully I can get back to doing some writing sbout the ordeal soon.

This Alternative to Being in Vegas Really Sucks

Just a quick update.  I was supposed to be in Vegas tonite, through Halloween Weekend.

Not happening.

I am in L.A., in a hospital, waiting to be told when my Triple Bypass Surgery is scheduled.  Should be by Monday, the latest.

The problem was caught early, which is good, obviously.  There's no reason why I shouldn't have a complete recovery.  But it won't be quick, for sure.  After I am released, I am looking at six weeks of limited activity and no driving.  So Vegas, or any form of live poker, is out during this period.

So I won't have much if any of my usual content to write up.

The circumstances that got me here might be interesting though, and after I am able to write again, I may turn this (temporarily, at least), into a hospital story blog (one story even involves a medical tech who likes to martingale blackjack!)

We'll just have to see what develops.

Thanks in advance for your well wishes.

(Edited to add: Just found out I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow--Saturday--at 7:30AM) 

(Edited to add #2:  I changed it so that comments to recent posts, including this one, do not need my approval.  Figure it might be awhile for me to be up to approving them.  I will delete the spam comments that get thru when I get the chance)

Win a Seat to a WSOP Bracelet Event for Only $10!

I want to alert everyone to a great opportunity for all of you who will be in Nevada on June 28.

It’s a chance to win a seat into a $1,000 WSOP bracelet event for a mere $10 entry fee.

Yeah, just 10 bucks.  How sweet is that?

The link is right here.

The excellent site Poker Update is sponsoring a $10 satellite to WSOP Event #64.  It’s a new event this year.  It’s the “online event.”  It starts at Noon on July 2 online at WSOP.com.  After a couple of days of play online, the final table will be assembled live at the Rio on July 4. So the final table will be just like all the other events.  It’s the getting there that’s very different.

How cool would it be if the winner of Poker Update’s $10 satellite made it to the final table? Or even cooler, if that player took home the jewelry?

It could happen. 

The online event should be one of the more interesting bracelet events this year.  All those online specialists will be vying for the chance to prove that they can convert their online game to live play when the bracelet is online. 

I’m wondering what that final table will look like?  Will there be any known live pros?  Will it be all players who only (or mostly) play online?  What happens when those online specialists have to play live at the final table?

Will that table be 100% hoodies and headphones and sunglasses?  Will you be able to see anyone’s face?

Is there a chance some old-timer sneaks in?

The field for this event should be huge, since no one will have to get off their couch to even enter.  And a huge field means a huge prize pool, of course. And you’ve got a chance to play for it for only $10. 

So I want to make sure all of my readers who are eligible will take advantage of this really special opportunity to satellite into a WSOP bracelet event for just a $10 buy-in.

If you don’t usually play online, this would be a great time to give it a try, wouldn’t it?  If you do play online, you can show your stuff for only a $10 investment.

That link again, is here.  Take your shot for 10 bucks, and good luck!

(Edited to add: an explanation of why this satellite never ran can be found here). 

Colder Than a Witch's Tit

New Year's Eve forecast for Las Vegas:  Snow.

Snow?  In Vegas?

Yes, snow. 

Snow!

Barring some unforeseen circumstance, I will be on the Vegas strip for New Years Eve.  If I can get there from my undisclosed location.

As I write this, there is a 60% chance of snow in Vegas on Wednesday, starting in the afternoon.

That should make things interesting.

Having lived almost all of life in Southern California, I am not used to being around snow. I am sure as hell not used to driving in it.  I think I drove in a few flurries once on a once-in-a-generation snow fall (very light flurries) coming home from work through the highest elevation of my commute one February many, many years ago.   But that was for less than five minutes, tops.

Another time, my buddy Norm and I were making our annual birthday trip to Vegas--it was mid-April--and we encountered some snow through the higher elevations.  This was actually on Easter Sunday and it was a freakish late winter storm (in Spring).  I immediately pulled over and let Norm drive the rest of the way, since, through his work, he had been forced to learn how to drive in snow.  I never needed to.

We got by ok, it wasn't snowing much as we made it into Vegas.  We later learned that just hours after we drove through the area known as Mountain Pass, they had to close the road because of the snow.  If we had left LA a few hours later that day, we wouldn't have made it to Vegas that day.

And it will be cold.  Of course, it has to be for it to snow.  Duh.  It's already cold here, very cold.  What's missing is the precipitation, and that is due in time for New Year's Eve.  But a storm is a' coming, and the snow level may get as low as 2,000 feet--which is the elevation of the Vegas Strip!

The past few days, Twitter has been all a' twitter about the coming possible New Year's Eve snow storm.

Discussing the possibility of all those tourists driving in the snow on the day of the year where more alcohol is consumed than any other day has been, um, interesting.  True, many tourists will be in town from cold weather states where they are used to snow. But most of the Vegas tourists come from Southern California (like me) where they are only used to driving in snow if they like to go to the mountains to ski. Many, like me, do not do that.

As I say, interesting.

It's already ridiculously cold here, much colder than I'm used to. I'm spoiled, living in L.A.  I come to Vegas every winter, where it is always colder than Southern California.  Still not as cold as Buffalo or Minnesota, of course, but colder than my mild L.A. climate.

So when I get in my car late at night (or early in the morning) and see the temperature gauge reading in the 40's....or even, gulp, in the 30's, I am a bit taken aback.

Still, as friggin' cold as it is, it is not unseasonably cold.  Because it is winter, and that is the season for cold.

One of my twitter peeps, discussing the coming storm, where the temperature may drop to the mid-20's, said, "I heard it's gonna be as cold as dicks."

I never heard that phrase before.  I wanted to ask, "As cold as Dick's what?"

But it will be colder than a witch's tit, if you believe that old saw.

Should be interesting, to say the least.  I am worried about the girls who make up what I lovingly refer to as The Slut Parade. I hope they have the good sense to leave those barely-there dresses in the closet and dress warmly and appropriately for the cold weather.  Long, heavy pants, multiple sweaters, heavy coats, no skin showing at all.

Yeah, that's what I hope. 

Stay tuned to the weather channel and this space for further developments.

As for the pic below, Kate Upton is, to the best of my knowledge, not a witch. But here she is in a bikini, in the snow, and I bet when this pic was taken, her famous "hand-warmers" were not very warm.

Half A Million

I apologize in advance for what will will be the most self-indulgent post I've ever done.

I know, you're saying they're all self-indulgent, and that's technically true.  Doing a blog gives you the freedom to do it anyway you want.  I don't answer to anyone.  I write what I write and I write when I want to.  Every post I do pleases me, first and foremost.  When I write for someone else, like my Ante Up columns, I have guidelines to follow.  For example, I don't think they want me writing about hookers, or talking about how (not) to play pocket Kings.

But this one is more self-indulgent than usual.  You see, I just reached 500,000 pageviews on this here blog.  That's half a million.  A half a million times in the past 3+ years, someone has landed on my tiny corner of the internet.

It's very flattering and not a little bit humbling.  I want to thank all of you, all of my loyal readers, for coming back post after post to see what I'm babbling about this time.  Even if you don't read every post.  Even if you skim through the longer posts and don't read every single word.  Thanks to all of you for making it possible for me to do a post celebrating such a milestone.

To celebrate the occasion, I made a little video. This is the self-indulgent part.  It's a video of Hitler reacting to the news that I reached this particular landmark. It's the famous "Hitler reacts" meme that you're all familiar with. In fact, I posted one already, that my pal Woody made for me (see here). 

I guess maybe I should give you some context.  As I explained in the post here, where I was celebrating 50,000 pageviews (wow, now I've hit ten times that!), a lot of the early posts here were rewritten from emails I had sent my friends about my Vegas adventures.  Two of those friends Luv Malts & Woody, were the two who encouraged me to do something more with those emails, which led to this blog.

Another friend of mine saw these emails too.  I thought he was enjoying them as well.  However, as sometimes happens, the two of us had a tiff. Instead of things getting resolved, it escalated.  Harsh words were exchanged.  It got to the point where words were thrown back and forth that had nothing to do with the original quarrel, as I'm sure you can all relate to.

And so at one point, this friend of mine referenced the lengthy emails I was sending him and my other friends.  He said they were too long (imagine that?) and pointless. And at one point he said to me, "No one is interested in your silly stories."

To be fair to him, I really am not sure if he really meant, or if it was just something he said in the heat of an argument, when one tends the just throw everything including the kitchen sink at the other party.

This happened some time before I started the blog.  He didn't know about the blog when it started, and he never, ever suggested that I shouldn't do a blog.

Still, whenever I reach some sort of blog milestone, whenever I do a really popular post, whenever someone comes up to me out of the blue and tells me that they enjoy the blog, I can't help thinking of what he said to me.  And that amuses me no small amount.

And now, achieving half a million pageviews, all I have to do to make myself smile is replay those words in my mind, "No one is interested in your silly stories."

Oh, and just to save you some Googling, the word "ficken" I use in the video is, as best as I can tell, the German word for the f-bomb.  I hope I've used it properly.

I hope you enjoy this.

Late Night With Scott Davies

This past Friday night, and into Saturday morning, I was riveted to the TV, watching poker.  Scott Davies was playing for a bracelet.  Not just any ol’ bracelet.  He was playing for the Main Event bracelet at the WSOP- APAC in Australia. In other words, it was a big effing deal.

I’ve mentioned before, I don’t actually watch that much televised poker.  But I was excited to make an exception for this event, in order to cheer for Scott and see if he could get his very first WSOP bracelet.

Why did I care?  Well, for over four years now, Scott has been blogging about his adventures as a professional poker player on AVP (now PokerAtlas).  He started long before I started blogging, and before I started working for AVP.  In fact, the title of his blog is called, “My Quest for a WSOP Bracelet.” You can find his blog here.

So I’ve been following his adventures and his quest, his highs and lows, for all this time.  He’s practically family!  If my memory is accurate, I only briefly met Scott one time, last year during the WSOP in Vegas (see here).

When I learned that Scott had made the final table at the Main Event down under, and that the final table was going to be televised on ESPN live here in the US at 10PM Friday night, PST, I knew I had to watch and see if Scott could do it.  He came into the final table with the second most chips, so it was certainly doable. 

Across the twitterverse, I saw all kinds of encouragement directed at Scott.  Some of these folks no-doubt knew Scott from his AVP blog.  Not sure how the others knew him, but apparently everyone who knows him or knows of him likes him; that’s the kind of guy he is. 

In Vegas, a few of his friends organized a viewing party to watch the telecast together: AlaskaGal, Stump, Michelle, all names you’ve seen on my blog in the past.  But since I wasn’t in Vegas, I had to do the next best thing.

Friends and followers of Scott from all over organized a Facebook chat group, just so we could all watch the final table together and comment about it in real time.  Isn’t the internet cool?  I hope I don’t leave anyone out, but on the group chat were Vook, Nick, John, Jess, Benton, Dwayne, Dan (sorry, don’t have a link for him).  Oh yes, Scott’s wife, Liezl, was also part of the chat.  She was home in Canada, watching on TV like the rest of us.

And it was the chat that made it extra special.  All of us, chiming in from around the country, sharing our thoughts, our good wishes, it was just a total blast.  And keep in mind, for those of our group who live on the east coast, this started at 1AM and didn’t finish until after 5AM!  They were all troopers.

One logistics problem was that, when you televise poker “live” and you show the audience the hole cards, you have to do it on a delay (so that a player can’t have an opponent’s hole cards signaled to him).  We all took a vow not to look at twitter or any other source that would reveal the results prematurely.  Even Liezl agreed…..insisting that Scott not tell her anything when he called her during the breaks.  Honestly, I have a hard time believing she didn’t get real updates during those conversations (or that she didn’t check Twitter for current updates), but hey, I’ll go along with it. J

It was so exciting watching Scott go for the bracelet, and chatting with all his friends and fans at the same time, that I wasn’t even tired.  I had no trouble staying awake, even tho this went on well past the time I normally retire when I’m home in LA.

At the start of the 6-handed table , the biggest stack belonged to Jack Salter, but after awhile, Frank Kassela took the chip lead (moving Scott down to third, I believe) and started bullying the table around.  He went on quite a run. Meanwhile, Scott was card dead and hardly played any hands.

But to show you how fast things can turn around in tournament poker, Kassela went from chip leader to busto in the span of just two hands!  First, he had the misfortune of seeing Ace-King when Scott finally woke up with a hand….a big hand.  Pocket Aces, to be precise.  They got it all in and Scott’s Aces held (I believe there was some Hollywooding on Scott’s part before he put all his chips in the middle).  Suddenly, Scott was the chip leader. 

The very next hand, Kassela was dealt Ace-Queen, and guess what?  Salter woke up with the Aces this time.  Again they were all in, and again, the Aces held.  Bye, bye Kassela.  From the penthouse to the outhouse in two hands.

The rest of the players were soon eliminated (actually, Kassela went out 5^th; the lone woman at the final table, Ang Italiano, was the first to bust) and it was heads up between Scott and Salter.

Scott had a small chip lead.  I’m not sure, but I think Salter may have jumped slightly ahead once or twice, but it was usually Scott in the lead, but never by more than 60% to 40%. 

When it was heads up, things got real interesting, thanks especially to the commentary by noted pro Antonio Esfandiari.  The few times previously I’ve heard Esfandiari doing poker commentary, I’ve always enjoyed him.  He is not only insightful, but he’s witty and charming and presents a winning personality.  I think he’s the best poker “color-man.”

Or at least I did until he started his commentary on the heads-up match.

Antonio didn’t like Scott’s play at all.  He didn’t like his heads-up style.  He clearly didn’t think Scott was aggressive enough.  He even said that he didn’t think Scott had a lot of experience heads-up. 

He was only the “guest” commentator, but really, he should have done some research.

Those of us in the Facebook chat group all knew (or soon learned) that Scott is actually a heads-up specialist.  He might have checked Scott’s cashes from this year’s WSOP.  Scott finished fourth in the $10K heads-up event. 

Antonio predicted immediately that Salter would win the bracelet; he made it clear that he felt Scott was overmatched, and kept praising Salter (and dissing Scott) even as his stack was shrinking.  It was kind of funny.  Except that it was really annoying to our little chat group of Scott’s fans.  Antonio may have lost some fans this night.   Meanwhile, Liezl was telling us that Scott was doing exactly what he wanted to do, that this was his specialty, and that he was going to win.  She laughed off Antonio’s digs at her husband and expressed total confidence in Scott.

To be fair to Antonio, he has his own view of how heads-up should be played, and that’s what he was there for, to give the viewer his expert opinion.  But you know, there’s more than one style that can be successful in poker and Antonio didn’t seem to be willing to consider that.  If you ask for advice on how to play a specific hand of five different pros, the first thing they will say to you is, “It depends.”  Then the five of them will give you at least seven different answers. 

We didn’t see it until after the event was over (on TV, that is), but we later learned that another top pro, Phil Hellmuth, had tweeted out that he disagreed with Antonio and that he actually loved Scott’s style and strategy. 

Anyway, Antonio’s disagreeable comments probably made us pull even harder for Scott, if that was possible, just so we could all kind of universally say to Antonio, “Take that!”  Or “Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah.”  Or even, “Where’s your main event bracelet, Antonio?”

Heads-up play went on for a (seemingly) long time without a lot of dramatic hands.  Scott kept chipping up, but there were no monster pots or monster hands.  It was after 2AM on the west coast, and it was beginning to look like I’d see the sunrise before this thing would be over.

There were a couple of hands that had us all going crazy on the chat.  On one, I think Scott had top pair, but there were two 4’s on the board and Salter had one in his hand.  Scott was beat, but it was hard to put Salter on a 4 and Scott could have easily thought he had the best hand.  Facing a river bet, Scott tanked for a long time.  The chat room was going crazy, “Fold!”  “Lay it down!”  Finally, Scott did indeed fold and we all cheered.

The flip side was when Scott had a Jack in his hand and there were two Jacks on the board.  But the board was scary.  Salter had a straight draw, and on the river, he missed.  But the river put a third diamond on the board.  Scott’s trip Jacks looked eminently beatable.  But Salter had absolutely nothing.  He led out with a huge overbet, bigger than the pot.  Scott went into the tank for a long, long time.

Then the weirdest thing happened.  As we were all shouting in the chat room, “Call, call, call!” the TD came over and told Scott that he had one minute to act; the clock had been called.  But no one, and I mean no one, had heard Salter call for the clock.  Even the commentators were surprised, they hadn’t heard it either.  We wondered if it was possible that the TD did it himself?  Pretty sure that isn’t allowed.  Apparently Salter must have whispered it, or perhaps had somehow signaled to the TD non-verbally.

However, Scott couldn’t hear us shouting to call (especially since, by the time we saw it on TV, it had happened half an hour earlier).  And as the clock was counting down, he folded.  Damn it!

The commentators, Antonio and Norman Chad, had a field day with this.  They both proclaimed that, even tho Scott still was the chip leader, this was the “turning point” of the match.  They clearly expected Salter to go on from there and start taking Scott’s chips as if he was taking candy from a baby.  Honestly, they way they were talking, Scott may have well as just thrown in the towel. Even before this, they were saying that Salter was clearly outplaying Scott, which was absurd. Scott was the one who was slowly but steadily building up his stack. It would have been funny if we weren’t all pulling so hard for Scott.

I assume at the break that Scott learned that he had been bluffed there, but that’s the difference between successful pros and amateurs.  They can deal with that without going on tilt.  Scott kept playing his steady game—the one Antonio didn’t like—and built his chip lead back up. 

At some point, Antonio finally realized that Scott was playing well, and started praising his moves a bit.  Then finally, just when it looked like there’d never be a truly game-changing hand, it happened.  Scott had pocket 6’s and Salter had Queen-10 (yes, Coach, the “evil hand”).  I believe Scott three-bet with his 6’s.

The flop came 10-10-6.

Bingo!

Scott had flopped a full house, and Salter “only” flopped trip 10’s.  On the turn there was some back and forth betting, Salter finally announced “all-in” and Scott insta-called.  He had Salter covered. The river was a blank and our pal Scott had his first WSOP bracelet—and a Main Event bracelet at that.

Out little chat group was ecstatic, to say the least.  Liezl told us that Scott had actually called her with the news while she was watching the final hand on TV (I guess Scott was tied up with interviews and such).

It was freaking awesome.

Side note:  I’m pretty sure that in the entire 4+ hours of poker, we never saw anyone get dealt the dreaded pocket Kings, for whatever that’s worth.

Congratulations to Scott Davies, Main Event bracelet winner!  No doubt there are more bracelets in your future!

Three Years of Blogging

I'm posting this on the third anniversary of this blog's debut.  Three years ago today I went live with two posts, followed by two posts the next day.  I've decided to mark the occasion with a repost of one of my earliest entries. 

The post below is actually the third one that I published.  I'm not reposting the very first post because, for some reason, it was a review of an experience I had staying at the Excalibur.  It was already a year after I had stayed there that it finally saw the light of day, and now, an additional three years later, I don't suppose it has much relevance to what the Excalibur is like today. 

My second post was my very first published report of a genuine hooker encounter (see here), but I'm not reposting that because a lot of you have probably read it.  As a hooker post, it got a lot of page views long after I published it, as I started telling other hooker stories and readers looked back for my older ones. So no point in reposting it.

The story below, however, has not gotten a lot of page views so it's likely most of you have never read it.  Recall that when I started the blog, I was almost exclusively a a 2/4 limit player, and this story below, which took place some time before I even started the blog, is about a game of 2/4 limit.  The other reason for reposting it on this day is that it is very representative of the kind of poker posts I thought I would be doing when I started the blog--fun hands, not much strategy or analysis.  I think it's fairly different from the kind of posts I do these days when I write mostly about poker.  See if you agree.  

Another difference was, back in the day, I didn't add any graphics to my posts.  I wasn't even aware of how easy it was to do that.  So my original post didn't have any pics.  To demonstrate yet another way my blog has changed over the years, I'm going to put in a totally gratuitous, random picture of a really hot woman at the end of this post, just to add some graphics.  The picture has nothing to do with the subject matter herein. But if you think I shouldn't include this particular photo with this post, you're crazier than the guy you're about to read about.  

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.  The original post was entitled:

FOUR 7!'S

Some time back I was playing in a 2/4 game at the BSC.   I wasn't doing well, so when I dropped down to having less than $50 in chips (from a $100 buy in) I bought in for another forty bucks.  This is what I've always done because I've always felt it was crazy to be short stacked in a limit game (no-limit is an entirely different matter).  I've seen countless times players having to go all-in with really good hands because they didn't have enough chips to start the hand.  It's actually worked to my benefit several times--not having to call a raise that a player with a better hand than mine couldn't make because they ran out of chips.  So in five years of playing, I've never been forced to go all-in in a limit game.  I've never really come close....until this story.

A rather annoying, obnoxious player had recently joined the table, sitting directly to my left (I was sitting in the 7 seat).  He was a buddy of the talkative nice guy in seat 3 or 4.  The guy next to me will henceforth be known as "Annoying Guy" or AG for short.  He was annoying for several reasons.

First, he was extremely loud, talking to his buddy across the table in a loud, deep voice.  He was basically shouting in my ear.  The other thing was his sense of humor.  He came to the table with chips, all of which were red (ie, five dollar chips).  Not what you want to see at a 2/4 game where dollar chips rule the day.  And whenever he raised at first, which was quite frequently, he said "all-in."  This wasn't funny the first five times he said it and got totally annoying after that.  Especially since he shouted "all-in" into my ear every time he said it.  Also he tried to raise more than he could and didn't seem to grasp why he wasn't allowed to do so.  I assume he got the red chips from a no limit game he had been playing.  I couldn't be sure if he was just clueless or obnoxious or very possibly both.

He raised a lot when he first got to the table, especially pre-flop.  He didn't stick around to the river often, so I couldn't see what he was raising with but it happened enough to convince me he wasn't raising with much.  I hate players like that.  It's one thing to be an aggressive player who raises with a good starting hand, but it's quite another to raise almost every time because you'd rather be playing higher stakes or NL or you think you can intimidate the other players.

It happened that while in early position, I looked down at pocket 7's.  I called, expecting to have to call AG's raise.  I'll two bet any pocket pair at the average, loose, low limit game, which this was.  To my surprise, AG didn't raise, one of the first times since he sat down that he hadn't raised pre-flop.  The flop was 8-7-4, rainbow, giving me a set but making me wary of a straight. I was first to bet the flop, no one raised, only two called, including AG.

The turn was the case 7.  Lucky me.  I didn't pay much attention to the fact that there was now a second spade on the board.  At this point, I wanted to slow play hoping someone else would bet and I could call hoping someone would hit a straight or even less likely flush.  But no one bet.

The Ace of Hearts fell on the river....I would have preferred the Ace of Spades hoping someone hit a backdoor flush, but no such luck.  I was pretty sure no one had flopped a straight, it would have been an awful play to slow play a flopped straight.

I bet out, disappointed.  Since no one had bet the turn, I was sure neither of my opponents would call and I would take down a pretty small pot, especially disappointing with such a monster hand.  To my absolute astonishment, AG raised!  I couldn't believe my good fortune. The third player folded immediately. Back to me, I of course re-raised.  I was certain AG would now fold, having failed at his pathetic attempt at a bluff.  If I was lucky, he would call and give me an extra four bucks.

But again he raised me, with stunning alacrity.  At BSC, unlike the locals casinos, limit games allow four raises (five bets).  Without hesitation, I put out eight more bucks and said, "I'll cap it."

The dealer, an older guy who is a part-timer, said, "No, there's no cap when it's heads up." While I was wrapping my brain around this bit of good news, AG put in eight more bucks and said "raise."  Be still my heart!  I was too excited at the thought of a very small pot turning into a very big one to really analyze this at the time.  I knew the rule about their being unlimited raises when there are only two players, but I'd seen it actually come into play less than half a dozen times in all the times I've played limit poker.  And it never came into play when I was involved personally.

So I didn't spend a lot of time thinking that the dealer might have made an error, because my understanding was that the "no cap" rule only comes into play when the betting round starts with two players.  And unless my excitement at the thought of beating this jerk really, really badly had messed with memory, this betting round had started with three players, though third player didn't put any money into the pot on this round.

Instead, my mind went to the obvious...have I missed something?  Is there any possible way this jerk could beat my quads?  Before calling his raise, I paused.  I double checked the board. No other pair on the board, so he couldn't have better quads.  A straight flush?  I checked three times and there were not three cards on the board of any one suit.  Sure there was straight out there, but that's not a problem for my quads.

Convinced I was unbeatable, I raised.  He raised again.  The speed with which both of us raised caused the dealer to tell us to stop.  He counted out AG's remaining chips (he had less than I did, thanks to my rebuy) and told me how many I'd need to match them.  He then said, "I assume that's what you both want to do?"  We both said yes, in my case, I could barely contain my enthusiasm.  He had put about $65 into the pot just on the river and I matched it.  That's some action for a guy like me used to playing 2/4 Limit!  I would have been at least twenty bucks short if I hadn't done the rebuy.

What the heck did this guy have?  I couldn't see him flopping a straight and slowplaying it.  But the other possibility....that the river Ace gave him Ace's Full didn't seem likely either.  If he was dealt Ace's, I couldn't imagine him not raising preflop.  Anyway, the dealer asked us both to show our hands.

AG proudly, yes proudly, said "Two pair!"  The river Ace gave him Aces up, with the 7's on the board (he was playing Ace-6, he flopped a gutshot).  That's it. That's all he had.  He went all in with two pair, when one of the pair was on the board.  I didn't even need pocket seven's to beat him.  One 7 in my hand would have been enough.

I swear as I was about to turn my cards up, the rest of the players at the table, in unison, seemed to say aloud, "Four sevens!"  Yeah, everyone at the table knew what I had, except AG. You see, they had all been playing with me for quite awhile and knew what a tight player I was. None of them could imagine me putting all that money into the pot unless I had the absolute nuts.  (Hmmm....I probably need to work on my table image, wouldn't you say?)

AG seemed genuinely surprised, amazingly so.  He got up, said something to his buddy about meeting up with him and said to me, "Enjoy my money!"

Everyone at the table was congratulating me, not only for winning a nice big pot with a nice monster hand but also for busting AG out and getting him to leave....I wasn't the only one this guy was annoying.  They commented on the fact that I had paused at one point to make sure I had the nuts, and complimented me for the way I played the hand (but really, it was all AG's stupidity).

In hindsight, I think that AG didn't like me and was hoping to give me a beating (pokerwise).  He let that emotion rule his actions and he clearly wasn't thinking straight to think his two pair could hold up. Why didn't he like me?  Well, I never complained verbally about his obnoxiousness, but I'll bet my body language was indicating my annoyance, especially when he kept shouting in my ear.  Just speculation, though.

As I told that story the rest of my visit, one thing became clear to me.  The dealer made not one but two mistakes on my hand.  For some reason, at BSC and at most poker rooms in Vegas, when it is heads up, they don't let you go all in (in a limit game).  They insist you get there one bet and raise at a time.  We should have just kept raising each other until he ran out of chips. But that's just a cosmetic error, it had no effect on the result.

His earlier mistake did.  I asked my dealer pals and they confirmed that the rule was that "no cap when heads up" only took effect if the betting round starts heads up.  In telling the story, I indicated that I thought therefore that the dealer might have made a very nice mistake in my favor.  They say it happens, the dealer forgets that there were other players in the round at the start of it, and if no one points it out to them, so be it.   I'm sure that's what happened here. The guy gave me $65 on the river when by rights, he should have only been able to have given me twenty bucks.

Do I feel guilty about getting extra money from the guy due to a dealer's screw up?  I might if the guy wasn't an obnoxious jerk.  As it is, I've lost zero sleep over this.  Hey, the guy could have stopped raising me anytime.  In fact, he never should have raised me in the first place.  Yes, you clown, I did enjoy your money!