"You'll Read About it on the Blog!"

As I mentioned in one of my last two posts (or possibly both of them), I’ve been to Vegas twice since mid-April.  I’ve never told my stories in chronological order, so let’s start with the reason I went back there a second time, just at the end of May.

My long time poker/blogging pal Lightning organized a Poker Blogger (and readers) Meet Up Game for May 30.  This was to celebrate the return of retired blogger Josie to Vegas.  It’s been 10 years since I first met Josie in person in Vegas. At her insistence, she has her own personal label on this blog, so you can find it on the right side of the page and find all the blog posts that reference her. I think the prime motivation for her timing of this particular visit was to see Koalapete from down under again, who I first met on the same trip that I met Josie and have seen in Vegas a few times since.  Josie was coming to Vegas with her long time pal Gary, aka The Crafty Southpaw (The link is to his seemingly defunct blog, even tho he hasn’t posted in over four years, but you see, Gary is not on Twitter)  My recollection is that when I burst upon the blogging scene, some 11 years ago, Gary was the first person to add my fledgling little blog to his blogroll, and I am forever grateful for that.

I wanted to see all those wonderful folks again, and I wanted to finally meet Gary, who always struck me as a great guy from his blog.  So I had no choice but to head up to Vegas just a few weeks after I’d returned from there.  Lightning, enterprising fellow that he is, did a blog post about the game and soon everyone wanted to attend! 

The location was the fairly new Sahara poker room, which I had never been in since the hotel underwent about 17 ownership and name changes.  It is a small room and is sadly short of players too much of the time, so I could never find a game there during my last trip.  Since it was quiet and the manager over there is a good guy, Lightning figured it would be a good place for a private game (or two), and he was right

I was surprised to see Mr. Ben, but then I shouldn’t have been. Ben lives in England, but despite that, of all the bloggers I’ve met in Vegas, I’ve probably run into him the most.  It’s like he’s always in Vegas when I go.  He is a good guy, and it is always a pleasure to toss cards with him. I don’t believe he made a special effort to show up in Vegas for the game, but like I said, he’s in Vegas a lot.

Josie greeted me with the traditional ass grab, or at least that’s what she tweeted.  In reality there was a big hug but no ass grab.  I don’t think anyone else hugged me, and I’m not complaining about that. 

By the time we started, there were enough for two tables, and I think a third table of mixed games broke out at one point.  We drew for seats, and at the “main table” I got seat 8, sitting between Ben in Seat 9 and Lightning in seat 7.  In seat 6 was Luke Johnston, not a blogger but a long time twitter pal to most of us, and a former dealer at both Sahara and the WSOP.  Blogger and twitterer Mr. Subliminal claimed seat 4.  He lives in Vegas and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him several times before.  Usually he is sitting next to me at the Wynn and after about an hour and a half he finally gets around to telling me who he is since I apparently suck at matching names and faces.  This time I recognized him!

Seat 5 was taken by Joseph W, aka Hockey_Poker who I only recently started following on Twitter but is a prolific poker player and, I guess, a hockey fan.  By strange coincidence, I met Joe for the first time earlier that same day.  You see Lightning, Koala and I had lunch at the Cafe at South Point, and afterward, I wanted to check out the tournament area they had for their summer series.  I was kibbitzing with one of the dealers there I know (it was Mike, ex of the MGM) and somehow, even though we had never met, Joe figured out I was Rob or perhaps I figured out that he was the hockey poker guy.  I have no idea who first realized who the other one was.  But I did recognize him when he showed up at the MUG game and took seat 5.

Gary, Koala and Josie took seats 1,2,3 respectively.

It was a really fun game, but we were surprisingly restrained, and not nearly loud enough to justify having the room to ourselves. But we were laughing all the way through.  A few of the Sahara dealers were having fun knowing it was a big group of friends and were making as many jokes as we were.  Sadly though, as much fun as we were having, I didn’t catch a lot of “blogging material” type comments and I didn’t catch a single “woman said.”  That’s probably because Josie was so far away from me it was pretty hard to hear most of what she was saying.   Same for Gary & Koala (tho I wasn’t expecting any “woman saids” from them).  And after a couple of hours Josie switched tables so she could play with the one and only Tony Bigcharles  (he needs no introduction) who responded to Josie’s many pleas on twitter that he come down from Reno to play in the game.  Another twitterer who needs no introduction, Alysia Chang was also at that table.  There may have been some other people at that table that I knew or should have known but I can’t recall.  Sorry.

So….the poker.  The very first hand I was dealt pocket 6’s on the button.  Instead of facing a raise, a re-raise and a 4-bet, as you might expect from a game like this, it folded to me.  I have to raise there, right?  I made it only $8, but the blinds folded.  Can’t win them all if you don’t win the first, right?

Later, with King-Jack of spades I limped in and Ben, acting next, raised to $11.  It was four-way and the flop was Jack-high. I checked, Ben checked and the rest checked as well.  On a blank turn Josie bet $15 and I called, heads up.  There was no betting on a blank river and I claimed the pot, beating Josie’s pocket 8’s. 

I got pocket Aces and before it got to me, Joe made it $11. After a couple of folds, I made it $33.  Joe called, we were heads up. The flop was Ace-high but two spades.  I bet $35 and Joe called.  There was another spade on the turn and we both checked.  A Queen on the river put four to Broadway out there, in addition to the possible flush.  When Joe bet $45, I tanked for awhile, but the board was too scary to raise.  I just called.  Turned out that Joe had rivered a set of Queens. Set over set is always nice if you have the bigger set, but Joe didn’t have that set til the last card.

I limped with 9-7 clubs.  The flop had two clubs so I called Josie’s $15 bet.  Heads up, no more betting.  The final board had two jacks and a third club hit the river.  I didn’t bet it because my flush was low and the board was paired, but I won the pot.

I didn’t write down the details but I lost a pretty big pot when I rivered the bottom end of the straight with a Jack in my hand.  However Lightning had King-Jack and won with a bigger straight. I was kind of chasing the gut shot all the way through and just needed a King to get it.  Instead, an 8 gave me the bottom end, so I called off on the river only to see Lightning’s bigger straight.

As I noted, Josie moved to the other table and was replaced by a fellow named Gabriel.  I’m not sure if or how I know him, but he was apparently part of our group and was a good guy.  Anyway, he opened this hand to $10, and before it got to me, Luke called the $10.  And I looked down at the dreaded Pocket Kings!  Well, now, what do I do here?  I believe Gabriel had a lot of chips and I was thinking, “here goes my stack.”  Nevertheless, I did indeed three-bet.  Not sure why I bet a little bigger than I ordinarily would have, but I made it $50.

Everyone folded and of course, I mean of course, I had to show the Kings. I figured almost everyone there knew of my perpetual problems with that hand.  So I showed my hand and everyone reacted.  At least a few people, including Gary I specifically recall, shouted “Dreaded” or “the dreaded hand” or “Dreaded pocket Kings.”  I have to admit, it warmed my heart a little!

Luke had left and been replaced by someone not of our group.  And this new player was acting like he really didn’t know what he was doing, like he had never played poker before.  I had pocket Queens and this newbie had opened to $6 in front of me.  Lightning called.  I was thinking about raising but I got caught up in thinking this newbie was so quirky and so unpredictable I should play it safe and just call.  The flop was K-Q-X.  The newbie checked, Lightning bet $8.  I made it $25.  The newbie folded and Lightning tanked. He talked about trying to get a read on me.  Finally, reluctantly, he folded.  I told him, “You can read about what I had on my blog post!”  I didn’t show.  But I believe I texted him what I had just to be a nice guy.  I think he folded a King with a weak kicker.

I had pocket 9’s in the big blind and Gary opened to $12, a few others were in the hand.  My 9’s were an overpair.  I really don’t remember the betting action but on the river, with the 9’s still an overpair, Ben took a stab at it with a $25 bet and I called.  He said, “Well you won, I have nothing.”

Now, my good buddy Don had arrived and took over Joe’s spot in the center of the table.  He opened the pot for I don’t know how much and I called with Ace-10 of hearts.  I didn’t accurately record the betting action, but there was an Ace on the flop and I called Don’s c-bet.  Another Ace on the turn. I think I called but I may have bet, can’t recall.  I do recall the river, it was a 10. Yahtzee!  Kaola was in the hand too and he led out for $25.  Don tanked a long, long time..I had the nuts so it was just a matter of how much I was gonna raise if he did call (if he had raised, I would have shoved).  But eventually he folded.  So I put out $75 and now it was Kaola’s turn in the tank.  He thought a long, long time, talking through the hand.  I suspect if he didn’t know me, a call would have been easier.  But eventually he folded.  I shouted over to him, “You’ll read about it in the blog!”  However, after we were done playing I did tell him I had the boat.  He told me had pocket Queens.

Eventually a good chunk of us got up to move on.  I had played 4-½ hours. My longest poker session by far since the 2020 lockdown.  There was a lot of nice conversation after we were done playing too.  I did get to chat with both Alysia and Tony who were at the other table the whole time (or maybe they were at the mixed game that sprung up, I know Alysia was).  Alysia and I compared our results for the night, she won a buck or two, I recovered from down over $100 to book like a $7 loss.  Tony was really interested in learning about the re-opened and re-located poker room in Ventura.  I answered all his questions, and I must admit I have been remiss in not discussing the new room here on the blog. I hope to rectify that soon.  I have no idea why Tony is so interested in the Ventura poker room though.  It’s not like it is practical for him to play there.  Now that it is right on the beach I’m sure there is no lodging anywhere near there that he could afford.  I’m not sure there is lodging near there that that Elon Musk could afford.

The goodbyes were turning out to be long, most of us were through playing, and when I left I thought everyone would soon join me in departing but that was not the case.  I got texts from both Lightning and Don that I missed a big time brouhaha.  It was at the other table, not the one Lightning, Don and I were playing at.  Don was still playing and Lightning was just chitchatting.  But apparently a drunk guy gave another player a “beer shower” (and got beer all over the table) and then took a swing at the same guy, but the guy successfully ducked the punch.  He fled, but I think I heard that security caught up with him, and the victim was hanging around because he wanted to press charges.  I hope that in Lightning’s version of this night, which I’m sure is coming soon, will give more details on this epic skirmish.

It was really great meeting old friends, making new ones, and just bullshitting and playing poker with a great bunch of folks.

I saw we do it again, soon, what do you say?

Very funny dealer (Tom, maybe?), Gary, Kaolapete, Josie, Mr. Subliminal

Joe (Hockey_Poker), Luke, Josie, Lightning, Mr. Ben, yours truly.

Action Buttons, Kill Pots and a Deli From the Past

When last I left you (here) I had just busted out of the Sam's Town $40 tournament.  But Lightning, Flushhdraw and Chris were still alive.  And I busted out on the last hand before the first break, so I had a chance to tell the guys that I had busted out.  I believe it was at that point that I found out that Lightning's old blogger buddy Mike , who I first talked about in the post here, had also joined the party.

I assume he saw Lightning's tweet about playing at Sam's Town and decided swing by.  I believe that, inasmuch as he didn't have a car, he had taken Uber from the Strip all the way to Sam's Town.  I wish I had thought of asking him at the time how much that cost him.  I would be interested to see how much that length of an Uber ride would run.  Oh well, maybe he'll read this post and leave a comment—if he even remembers.

We talked a bit and then I just figured I'd hang around while the rest of them inevitably busted out.  The first thing I did once the tournament resumed was walk around a bit and look around the casino some more.  One thing that intrigued me was the nearby Sports Deli, in the Sports Book.  Lightning had texted me that the three of them were all eating there while I was driving over.  And he said the food was really high quality.  And cheap.  So I had to take a look.

When I mentioned last time that Sam's Town reminded of a casino from when I first started going to Vegas, this deli is really what I was mostly referring to.  It wasn't big, but it had a big counter and more importantly, a big menu.  Not just sandwiches but hot dogs and even burgers—and fries.  I think there was some Mexican food, salads and even breakfast selections.  And furthermore—yes it was cheap!  A burger (with fries) was $6.25.  That'd be close to $20 on the Strip.  A hot dog and chips was $3.50.  A pastrami sandwich was like $6-$7.  And again, according to Lightning, the food was really good.

You used to be able to find a place like this in every casino you walked into in Vegas.  Maybe not quite as cheap as this (relatively speaking, considering inflation) but not that far off.  This is exactly the kind of place every Vegas casino needs and used to have. No more.  You have to drive out to Boulder Highway to find it now.  What a shame.

Sure, MGM has a deli near the sports book (and poker room).  But it has a very limited menu, and you can't get a burger or fries, and just two or three sandwich choices.  And the pastrami sandwich (which is awful) is like $17.  There used to be a Stage Deli in that location (at MGM) which was better quality food and a slightly bigger selection, but still nothing like this little sports deli at Sam's Town.  I swear if the food is as good as Lightning claims, and if the poker room had more 1/2  action, it'd be worth it to drive out there regularly.

What was interesting about this is that I noticed a big food court on the other side of the casino when I first entered it (from about as far away from the poker room as possible).  I mention this because generally speaking food courts have replaced these type of delis at casinos.  Instead of a "mom & pop" style deli (well, it looks like a mom & pop place), they have these food courts with all the franchise places having a space.  You know, there's a Subway or some sandwich place, a burger joint (McDonalds or maybe Johnny Rockets), a pizza place, a Mexican place, a Chinese place, maybe an ice cream shop and always….always…a Starbucks.  Of course, because they're inside a Vegas casino, the prices are jacked up well beyond what you'd pay at your local version of the same restaurant.  When I'm downtown and playing in a tournament, if I make it to dinner break I always walk to the Subway that's at The Plaza.  And my sandwich and soda cost about $3-$4 more than if I had bought it at a Subway in a regular strip mall.

Anyway, since I had eaten I didn't buy anything but I was really impressed with the place.  I looked around some more and then sat down at an empty poker table and stared at my phone for awhile.  By this time they had opened up a cash game.  I considered playing in it….and when it had gotten nearly full, I decided WTF, I might as well play.  It looked like the guys were going to be playing in that tournament awhile.  Guess they're all better players than me.

Well, the game was 2-6 spread limit, not exactly my game of choice.  But I figured why not give it a shot for a little while?  It had been a long time since I've played a limit or spread limit hold'em game (other than as part of a mixed game).  If I'm not playing no limit, I'd prefer fixed limit to spread.  Actually, I've never really seen the point of spread limit, but I guess some people like it.  I think I played 2-6 spread a few times at MGM a few years back when they were trying to establish that game

But I didn’t have a choice.  When in Rome…as they say.  So I bought some dollar chips and joined the game.

When I got into the game, there were two interesting things about it.  One, it's a kill game.  Not half-kill, but full kill.  So if someone wins two pots in a row, the next hand is a kill pot and you're suddenly playing 4-12 spread limit until someone else wins a pot.  And the player who won those last two pots has to post $4.  Usually that's an additional blind unless that player happens to be the blind.

You know how I feel about kill games, right?  Oh wait, you don't.  Amazingly enough, I've never discussed my feelings about kill games or half kill games.  And the reason it's amazing is that it should have been one of the very first topics I discussed when I started the blog.

Now those of you who have been with me since the beginning will recall that when I started the blog, I was almost exclusively playing limit poker, mostly 2-4 limit.  That was the game I started with when I first played poker in a casino and I was still playing it when I started the blog in September of 2011. Jeezuz…..can it be seven years already?  Seven??? Wow, maybe I should do something for my anniversary?  Anyway, the point is that my assumption was that the posts I would do about poker would all be about limit poker.  And one of my issues at the time was the increasing number of rooms that had added the half-kill to their low fixed limit games.  Because back then, I really, really hated it.

Although I had been playing poker regularly in Vegas for a few years by then, for most of that time I had full time "real" job (in a very much non-poker environment) and didn't get to Vegas that often.  And I wasn't heading down to the local L.A. rooms very often either.  So I was still trying to figure out the poker thing.  And I couldn't seem to master it to the point where I was a winning player.  Now maybe I wasn't very good, but I came to believe that the main reason I wasn't winning as a 2/4 limit player was that at that level, it's virtually impossible to overcome the rake.

Anyway, I can't remember where or when I first encountered limit games that had the half-kill or even the kill rule.  I think I'd been playing for a few years before I came across one.  But find one I did, then another, then another.  And it was happening in some of the rooms that had been my favorite rooms to play 2/4 in.

Now here's something I've never mentioned before.  Back when I first started playing, one of my favorite places to play was The Orleans.  You see before I started playing poker, Orleans was always one of my favorite casinos. I played tons of blackjack, craps and then Pai Gow there.  They had low betting limits.  And the rooms were fairly cheap so I stayed there often too.  And back then, they had some decent cheap food options (and my favorite burger joint, "Terrible Mike's").  So it was only natural for me to give their poker room a try when I started playing poker.  And I liked it.  They always had plenty of 2/4 action so you didn't have to wait too long for a seat.  Sure the players were nitty, but so was I and I liked that, I didn't want to see a lot of raises as I was learning the game.

And then one day I went in there and the 2/4 game had become 2/4 with a half-kill (I think they converted the 4/8 game to half-kill first, but not sure).  I guess I knew what that meant but perhaps Orleans was the first room I played to have it, again not sure.  And once I learned what it meant, once I played it a few times, I absolutely hated it.  And after a time or two, I never played 2/4 in Orleans again.  And as I found other rooms that spread their 2/4 with a half-kill, I stopped going to them also.

Biggest objection to the half-kill was simply this:  If I wanted to play a 3/6 game (which is what the 2/4 game becomes when the half-kill is on), I'd go find a 3/6 to play (in those days they were easy to find).  Also, it seemed so arbitrary.  You could go 90-minutes without winning a pot, then suddenly win two pots in a row and you've changed the game, plus you're committed to posted extra and costlier blinds.

Besides, I figured people played 2/4 because they wanted to keep the stakes and the betting low.  If they were looking for a more action game, they could find it.  Why try to turn a 2/4 game into a bigger game when people were playing it most likely because they liked to nittiness of the game?  It made no sense to me.

Anyway, I stayed away from those rooms, and I missed a lot of them but why should I play in a room that had rules I didn't like when I could always find a game with rules I preferred?  Note:  When I played 2/4 at MGM back then, it did not allow for kill pots.

So when I started the blog, I knew in the back of the mind that someday I'd need a topic to write about and then I'd write a blog post pontificating on how much I hated the half-kill games.  But before I got around to it, I started playing No Limit (first tournaments, then cash) and I had a whole lot of other stuff to write about.  And since I was no longer playing a game where you could even have kill-pots, there was no point in going on about it.  Until now.

Anyway, for this game, I was ok with the full-kill.  I mean I now play NL, how could I logically object to the max bet being increased to $12 when for the game I regularly play the max bet could be your entire stack on any street?  But somehow I suspect if I was ever to go back to playing limit regularly I'd still prefer to avoid games with kills and half-kills.

The other weird thing about this game was that it had "action" buttons.  I think these are also known as "overs."  I'd heard of them but had never played with this before.  As explained to me, players had the option to ask for an "action" button when they joined the game (or any time after).  If any hand ever gets down to only players who had an action button, the game suddenly becomes No Limit for the rest of that hand. 

I guess I see the logic of it, especially for a room that doesn't get too many live hold'em games. Obviously some of their regs only want to play the spread limit.  And some obviously prefer NL but they may not get enough of each to have both games a lot of the time.  So they have play a combined game to fill up the table.  The action players who want NL have to deal with a lot of spread limit hands, but every once in a while a hand gets down to only players who really want a NL game and they get their way.  It's a weird hybrid.  I suppose sometimes, everyone at the table has an action button and then the game just becomes a regular NL game.

Since it was new to me, I opted not to take an action button.  My thought was, I really had no idea if the strategy changed for this type of game.  I mean I know how to play NL (at least in theory I do).  And I remember enough about to play limit games to get by.  But is there a strategy for a hand that starts out as a limit game and suddenly turns into a NL hand when the last person without an action button folds?  I imagine there is some strategy involved, and not having ever giving it a thought, I felt it safer to avoid the situation altogether.  How about you?  Anyone every played in a game like this before?  Is there a specific strategy you can use to handle the unpredictable nature of it?  For a game that can change from a fixed limit to a no limit game in the middle of a hand?

As for the game itself, my card-deadness continued.  I only wrote down one hand, a small pot I won.  Let's see, I limped in with Ace-10 off.  The flop was Ace-Jack-x, all hearts.  My 10 was a heart.  I bet and got a caller.  I bet again on a blank, call.  The river was the King of hearts, giving me the second nut flush.  I bet and got called, he had the 5 of hearts.

While I was playing some more folks we knew (or knew of) showed up.  Let's see, there was Alysia Chang, a tall guy and another couple.  The tall guy I figured out to be Washdude, who I've been following on Twitter for some time.  I guessed who he was (I was right) and introduced myself.  Turns out he is a really nice guy.  I didn’t figure out who the couple was until I was gone and I never got introduced to them.  But I later came to understand they were Jason and Adriana, who I tweet back and forth with and who appeared to be good friends with Alysia.  May I belatedly say to Jason & Adriana, nice to have almost met you!

None of my pals ever joined me in the spread limit game.  I actually didn't play very long.

Now at some point Chris abandoned Lightning leaving him stranded at  Sam's Town, along with Mike.  I suppose I should have left them there to Uber back to the strip, but of course I agreed to chauffeur them back there myself.  Am I a nice guy or what?

It was a fun night at Sam's Town, good people and I felt a bit like I'd taken a trip back in time.

The Sam's Town Quickie

Note: This is sort of a two-parter, although the poker in the two parts will be unconnected with each other, so each part more-or-less stands alone. 

This took place the day after the tag team tourney I talked about last time (here).  Lightning was still and town, and had arranged to help fellow blogger FlushhDraw with a medical procedure he had scheduled for the day.  He was gonna hang out with retired blogger Stump (Chris) who was driving Flushh to the appointment.  All this went on while I spent the afternoon slaving away at work from my hotel room.

Late in the afternoon I finally heard about their day and their evening plans.  The medical procedure went fine, Flushh was feeling well and they were all headed over to Sam's Town to play in their 7pm $40 tournament. Lightning sent out a tweet to that effect, asking for anyone in the vicinity to join them.  OK, I thought, I didn't have any plans for the evening, why the hell not join them?

It turned out that by the time I found out about this they were already at Sam's Town having some fine dining.  So I was on my own for dinner.  I ate in my room and then headed out to god's country, I mean Sam's Town.  I took my life in my hands by trusting the Waze app to get me there.

You've probably never heard me talk about Sam's Town on the blog before—unless you read my Ante Up columns, because I have talked about it there.  But truth be told, I had never played poker there before.  Sam's Town is way out on Boulder Highway, a good long schlep from the Strip.  It's actually beyond Henderson.  It's part of the Boyd group, same folks who own Orleans and Gold Coast.  It is most definitely a locals casino.

Back in the early days of my Vegas trips, when I was going there with my pal Norm like three times a year, Norm and I would occasionally venture out that far.  Because it was so off the beaten path and strictly for the locals, it did have lower betting limits than the Strip casinos, which is what we were always looking for.  But honestly, there was never really any reason to go there once we had seen it once or twice.  I recall that whenever we did go there, we noted that we immediately lowered the median age of the patrons in there by about a half (but to be fair, we were much younger in those days!).

Once I started playing poker, I knew they had a poker room but never felt compelled to make the drive to check it out.  The main cash game is 2-6 limit, not exactly my game.

But how could I resist playing with those three clowns?  Besides, I had never met FlusshDraw before and it seemed like high time to do so.

It turns out that from the Strip it's pretty much a straight shot heading east on Flamingo to get there, so simple even Waze couldn't screw it up.

Due to human error, I missed the first turn into the parking area from Boulder Highway and ended up at the back of the property.  I headed for the first parking structure I saw and it turned out I parked about as far away from the poker room as I could and still be in Clark County.  If I had walked from Bally's it wouldn't have been much more walking.  I certainly didn't recall how damn big the place was.  I was surprised by the size of it. BTW, the parking structure I missed by turning in the wrong place is right next to the poker room.

Now walking in and through the casino was an interesting experience.  I swear, it didn't seem like I'd gotten there by car, it was more like I'd taken a time machine.  It reminded me of Vegas from 20-30 years ago.  It was nothing like the Vegas Strip casinos of today (well, if you ignore the slot machines, the gaming tables and stuff like that).  Just a totally different vibe than I've experienced from a Vegas casino in years.

I eventually found the poker room and was fairly exhausted from the walk. I wondered if I could take Uber to get back to my car.  I noticed Chris sitting at an unused poker table talking to a rather large fellow, who I assumed was FlushhDraw.  I said hello and met Flushh.  He is a really nice guy and told me a little about his procedure.  Chris and I caught up as well.  They pointed out that Lightning, problem gambler that he is, didn't want to waste any time just sitting and talking when he could be playing and was indeed splashing chips at the only game they had running, a 2-6 spread limit game.

It's actually a really nice poker room, much nicer than you'd expect for a poker room out in the hinterlands.  Eleven tables, nicely spaced apart.  And the room is well run.

When I went over to register for the tourney, I noticed the name of the woman who was running things and taking the money for the buy-ins, Kay.  I realized that this was poker room manager, who I have been dealing with via email and telephone since I started working at PokerAtlas.  Seeing as how I'd never been to Sam's Town since I started this job, I'd never met her.  So of course I introduced myself.  It always nice to meet someone in person you've been working with only electronically until then.  I even had my brand new business card to give her.

Before the tournament started, I tweeted out this:  "Playing Sam's Town $40 donkament with @flushhdraw , @AbramskiChris and @lightning36 . Keep me in your thoughts and prayers."  Well I thought it was funny.  It did get me 12 "likes."

The $40 tournament started with 5K chips and had 20-minute levels.  A $5 staff bonus got another 2K chips.  Not exactly the deepstack tournament I like.  You'll note I rarely play tournaments at that level.  Just not enough play for me.  But with a month in Vegas planned, I'd have plenty of time to play the kind of tourneys I prefer.  This one I was playing for social reasons.

They got a very good turnout for a Tuesday night—five full tables and there were alternates (they weren't staffed for more than five tables).  But the cash game did close down because most of the players in it were playing in the tournament.

Flushhdraw and I were at one the same table, and Lightning and Chris were together at another table.  My notes were quite sparse.  I wrote about a hand during level 1 where I raised preflop with Ace-Jack, c-bet, got called, and had to give up.  That was it until level 3 when it all fell apart.

Down to $5,950, I was in the small blind with Queen-9 off and completed.  The flop was 9-8-x, two of a suit.  I bet $600 and it folded to Flushh, who shoved his last $2,800.  Hmmm…..I figured he knew I had a hand there, and that he wouldn't be risking his tournament life without a pretty good hand himself.  So I decided there was no way he couldn't beat my top pair, mediocre kicker.  He must have a better kicker to go along with his 9, or perhaps two pair?  9-8 was very possible.  So I folded.

Note: Before the evening was over I asked him what he had and he told me Ace-8.  Ouch.  I said, "I thought you had a better hand than that!"  He replied, "I knew you would, that's why I did it.  I was desperate."  Well congrats, sir, on being a better poker player than me.

I still had chips to play with and we were coming to the first break. The next hand would be the last hand before the break.  On the button with King-Queen suited (hearts), I saw just about everyone but the Pope limp in front of me.  So I raised to1K (not sure what the blinds were, I no longer have the blind structure).  As soon as I raised, the guy on my immediate left said, "I knew that was coming."  Huh?  How did you know that?  Cuz I lost the last hand?  I still wasn't desperate. I wasn't gonna raise with 7-deuce there.  How did you know I was gonna get a good hand like King-Queen suited?  Weird.

I got 4 callers. The flop was King-high.  It checked to me and I bet $2K.  Not sure why I just didn't shove there considering the size of the pot but I didn't.  The last guy with cards called.  After a blank turn, he led out for 2K more and that was more than I had.  Of course I called.  Of course he turned over Ace-King to take the pot and bust me out.  When I showed my hand after we were all-in, that idiot next to me said, "I knew you were desperate." 

I didn't say anything to him.  But what a jerk.  It's not like I was raised preflop with garbage.  King-Queen suited is a raising hand, right?  And then I had top pair, second best kicker.  Nothing in my play indicated I was desperate.  This guy was clearly clueless.  Maybe that's why Flushh likes this tournament so much—the players are so bad.  Too bad on this night and I didn't get the cards to take advantage.

I was the first of the four of us to bust, but none of our group cashed. But Lightning was the last to bust out and then imagined that we made a last longer bet.  We hadn't.

Well, I have more to say about this evening, but I'll save that for next time so I can get this posted now.  Come back in in a few days for more of my Sam's Town report.  (Now posted, see here).

He Had a Horseshoe Implanted Up His...

This was a fun session from the beginning of my second week in Vegas in June.  And by "fun" I mean I had a profitable session (even if ever so slightly).  But it was also fun because Lightning was there.  This was the early part of his week long Vegas visit and the first time I'd seen him during it.  You can read about this session and his entire trip beginning here.  At least, that's his version.  Wherever our stories overlap and possibly conflict, you can always count on my version to be the accurate one.  Also making an appearance was Lightning's pal Mike an old-time poker blogger.  I ran into Mike a number of times during that week but I think we only played one hand against each other the entire time.

Now Lightning had been tweeting and texting about his good fortune ever since he had arrived in town. He seemed to dragging monster pots every few minutes. I heard a rumor that Bally's had to send out for more bills when he cashed out after his last session. One of his stories was that he had flopped a set of Aces and had two aggros push all-in against him.

Now I had gotten to the Mirage before him and he was sent to a different table but transferred over to mine before he had played much at the other one.  In fact I'm not sure if he had even taken a hand.  So on his first hand at the table, after the guy on my left opened to $15 and another player called, Lightning three-bet.  In his blog post he said he made it $40 but my voice notes say $60, so not sure how much but the guy called.  The flop was 10-high, he checked, Lightning bet $60, the guy check-shoved, Lightning confidently called and flipped over pocket Aces, only to see the guy flip over pocket 10's for top set.  Lightning said, "That's not good."

But of course, the turn was an Ace!  And the river was a blank and Lightning had a double up on his very first hand.

Seriously, who gets Aces on his very first hand of a session?  And then, who turns a set of Aces after getting all the money when he's behind on the flop?  And who gets a double-up on his very first hand?

As he was stacking his chips, I tweeted, "Playing @MiragePoker with @Lightning36. Since I last saw him, he's had a horseshoe implanted up his ass."

It was kind of a wild table, especially at the beginning.  There were these two guys  who I think were from England, both extremely aggro.  They appeared to be buddies and they liked to play at each other.  If they were both in a hand the pot would get huge.  Also the guy who hit the set of 10's against Lighting was aggro.  As such there were a lot of big pots and all lot of all-in pots.  I was mostly a spectator for this as I was card-dead.  And the big raises and re-raises kept me from playing more marginal hands that maybe I would have played at a different table. 

One hand that got my attention before Lightning joined me was a hand where the two Brits got it all in on the flop (maybe it was the turn) and all they each had was top pair, which was an Ace.  One guy had a King kicker to win it, the other guy showed an Ace but didn't show his other card.  There were no good draws and the two stacks were both $200 or more.

I had pocket Jacks and one of the aggros made it $10, I called and four of us saw the flop. It was Ace-Queen-x and it checked around.  The turn was a blank and this time I bet $20, only the aggro who raised preflop called.  The river was another blank, I checked and he checked.  My Jacks were good and he said he missed his draw.

I limped with pocket 6's, there was no raise and four of us saw the flop, which was 6-4-2.  I bet $8 and someone made it $16.  I just called not wanting to scare him off. It was now heads up.  The turn was a deuce giving me a boat.  I checked, expecting him to bet so I could check-raise but he checked behind.  I bet $25 on a blank river but he folded.

I called $12 with pocket 7's and it was heads up.  The flop was Jack-7-x, two clubs.  He c-bet $15 and I made it $40.  He folded pocket 9's face up.

By the way, although these last two hands were one right after the other in my notes, I'm pretty sure there was a fairly long time between them.  I didn't flop sets that close together..

I limped in from late position with 7-6 clubs.  The flop was 10-7-6.  Lightning led out for $5 and Mike called.  I made it $20 and they both folded.

I raised to $8 with Ace-Queen and saw a pretty favorable but scary flop, Ace-Queen-Jack.  I bet $20 and nobody called.

There was one good hand—probably my favorite hand of the night—that got lost in my notes.  When I was recording my voice notes the next day, I realized most of the details were missing.  Haven't had that happen in awhile, I am thinking that somehow I highlighted my notes for it and wrote over them. This was one of the early hands at the table. So I don't have the details but I called a raise from one of the aggros with pocket Jacks, it was multi-way (including Lightning).  The flop was Queen-Queen-x and there was no betting.  No betting on a King turn either.  On the river I think there were three spades or three clubs in addition to the overcards.  This time the aggro bet $27 and my inclination was to fold since there were so many ways I could be beat.  Lightning folded and I started thinking more and more about it.  I realized he didn't have a Queen, he would have bet earlier streets. I decided there was a decent chance my Jacks were good and I called.  He said, "I hope you have nothing, Ace-high."  He showed an Ace.  I showed my Jacks to take the pot and got a few "nice calls" from various players.  I wish I had complete details because as I am recreating it now it doesn't seem like such a tough call.

Anyway, I had to take off and call it a night.  I ended up booking a $50 win, not much but it broke a losing streak.  It was only $50 because the aggros made it expensive to play drawing cards. So I was happy grinding out the small win, unlike Lightning who had the horseshoe right where he needed it.

Mystery Woman

This is one goes back to my October trip, taking place a few days before Halloween. I had taken the day off to play the Aria tournament. I played the tournament for about five hours, busted out 26th and didn't cash. There's nothing really to report from the tournament, I only mention it because some the people I ran into there turned up later in the evening.

After a quick dinner, I ended up at MGM for the evening. This was a Thursday night and they had their then current football promotion going on. This version was the poker parlay card where you had to fill up a card with five different hands in order to get paid.

I recognized Pokerkraut at the table I was sent to and said hello. This incident took place a few days after I had met him (see here) and recorded the opening for his vlog. But he had not used my opening yet and I had not written about our meeting yet either. He had been there for some time and had most of his card filled out. While I was there he got his fourth stamp and the football game was still going so he had a chance to fill his card out and get $400. If he completed the card after the football game was over he would only get $200. And if he didn't get his final stamp before midnight, he'd get nothing.

Well the game was winding down and Kraut made his final hand to complete the card. When he showed his hand to get the final stamp I looked up at the football game and it appeared to be over. The players were walking off the field and shaking hands. But it turned out there was still five seconds left to go in the game; it was one of those situations where there were no timeouts left, no way to stop the clock, so there was no need to run another play even though there was still time on the clock. Kraut completed his card with about five seconds to spare and got a well-deserved $400 promo payout.  He cut it about as close as you possibly could.

As soon as he got paid, he decided to take the money and run, and left game. I took over his seat because it offered a better view of the crowd that would inevitably be coming for the club later that night. I happened to look over at the podium while Kraut was cashing out and I recognized the guy he was talking to. It was a tall guy in a baseball cap who I had played with earlier that day at the Aria tournament. When he joined my table at the tournament, I knew I had seen him before, but I couldn't place him anywhere. But he was definitely somebody I had seen before. Was he a dealer from another room? Was he a player I played with before? I wasn't sure. I didn't think I'd seen him at the Aria before, but honestly, I couldn't be sure. In addition to the fact that he was tall, he stood out because he had a deep booming voice and he used it a lot, if you know what I mean.

While they were talking and while I was settling into my new seat, a woman took the seat directly across from me. She looked familiar to me as well. In fact as she sat down she even said hi to me. But I wasn't sure if that was specifically directed to me, or if she was just one of those people who says hi when they sit down at a poker table—there are people like that. I guess I was staring at her a bit trying to figure out where I knew her from, so she said to me “What?” As she said that, it suddenly hit me where I knew her from. She too had been at the Aria tournament with me earlier that day—in fact she had been at the same table with me and the tall guy that Pokerkraut was talking to. At this point I had no idea she and "Tall Guy" were connected.

So I said to her, "Oh, you were at the Aria tournament with me earlier today right?" She said yeah and said it with an inflection like duh, so apparently I was remiss in not recognizing her immediately. I asked her if she cashed and she said no, she had busted out 46th. Well I had busted out 26th, so I must have seen her bust. I pointed out Tall Guy talking to Kevin and said he was at our table too. She said yes and made it clear that they were somehow connected. So I asked if he had cashed and she told me he was the stone cold bubble. I said that sucks and she agreed. For a while I kept referring to him as the tall guy and she found that somewhat amusing. I eventually asked her what his name was and she told me, but I will not reveal that here. I'll just keep referring to him as Tall Guy. I saw that this woman was talking to another woman at a different table and I was pretty sure I recognized her as also having played the Aria tournament.

Then, while Tall Guy was still at the front talking to Pokerkraut, the woman said to me, "How about that, they're vloggers and you're a blogger." That really caught me off guard, because as far as I could tell the first time I'd ever seen this woman was earlier that day at the Aria. So I asked her, "How did you know I was a blogger?” She replied, "Because I'm smart." Well that was a little too mysterious for me and a little annoying, but try as I might I couldn't get her to tell me how she knew that I was a blogger. Furthermore, for the next hour or so she kept looking at me—not really staring but just kind of looking my way a little more than I thought you should have—and I was looking back at her, I guess because she was looking at me. So every now and then she would just see me looking at it and say, "What?"  I said, "Oh nothing," but I guess I was kind of looking at her to see if I could recognize her and try to figure out how that she would know that I had a blog.

The other interesting thing was her line, "They're bloggers." I assumed at the time she meant Kraut and Tall Guy. So maybe I had seen Tall Guy in a vlog—maybe he's a vlogger? As I mentioned before though, I don't actually watch too many vlogs. But I suspected that maybe that's how I recognize Tall Guy.

Of course I knew there was a possibility that Pokerkraut had told her that I was a blogger, but for some reason I just didn't think that was the most likely scenario initially. As I mentioned earlier, I had just met Kraut a few days earlier and he hadn't known about my blog until I told him about it, and he hadn't published the vlog with my intro, so I figured he wouldn't necessarily even think much of the fact that I was a blogger.

At one point, seemingly out of the blue, she looked at me and said, "Don't write about me." I said to her, "How can I? I don't even know your name?" (as if that's ever stopped me!) She laughed and said, "Yeah, we're going to keep it that way." So any chance I of finding out who she was left the building. Actually I think this was all pretty much a game to her and she was just enjoying keeping me in the dark about how she knew what she knew. But since she was so intent on driving me crazy and also on not having me write about her, well obviously I have to write about her. That's why I'm doing this post!

So at one point during the game, a dealer pushed in who I barely recognized. I think I've seen him maybe one other time before. But the woman obviously knew the dealer and started telling him about this home game sheet runs regularly. Apparently she has a couple of poker tables in her house and they have a regular game every week or two and they run tournaments, with the eventual prize being a Main Event seat to next year's World Series. She was really talking this guy up trying to get him to commit to being one of their dealers at the game, talking about how much money he can make and how it's a great gig and she even serves food and she's a good cook and he'd really enjoy it and make a little money. He could even drink on the job. So then the woman took out a card from her purse and handed it to him while he was dealing and said to give her a call or send her an email. But she put the card on the table face down and said to him, "Don't let him (meaning me) see this card! I don't want him to know my name." I laughed at this and said, ”I'm just going to refer to you as 'Mystery Woman', but it'll be worse than if I knew your name."  She laughed.

Mystery Woman at least gave me a really good "woman said" at one point. As I mentioned, it was a club night and it was just a few days till Halloween. I was kind of hoping that people would start showing up in costumes. A few did, but not many. But at one point Mystery Woman said to the entire table, "Did you see that?" Nobody knew she was talking about, so she explained. "There was this girl in a babydoll nightie with the back totally rolled up and you could see her entire ass." She really emphasized the word "ass." Damn, how the hell did I miss that?

During all this, did I play any poker, I hear you ask? Yes I did, but it was a pretty boring session. There weren't really any noteworthy hands, and I had a slightly losing session. I got only one stamp on the parlay card, and I hung around until midnight but didn't get called for the drawing. Sorry to disappoint those of you who love my hand histories, but I don't have any for you this post. Basically I'm telling the story because I know Mystery Woman didn't want me to.

I never officially learned Mystery Woman's name, but I did manage to see it on the Bravo screen in front of the dealer because I was sitting next to the dealer. I won't reveal the name, but it didn't really help me identify her at all. I also heard her call her female friend (at the next table over) Christin. But I left for the evening not knowing how Mystery Woman knew anything about me.

It was driving me a little crazy afterwards that I hadn't figured out how I knew Mystery Woman or Tall Guy and how this odd woman knew me, or at least knew that I was a blogger.  By now I was assuming that she did indeed get this information from Pokerkraut, but I wanted to confirm it. I did in fact email Pokerkraut sometime later and asked him for some details.

However, before I heard back from him, I watched a couple of his latest vlogs and found out some info on my own.  I saw that friend of Mystery Woman, Christin, on one or two, and Kevin identified her as a vlogger from Ireland (although she is actually German). You can find her twitter account here and her Youtube page here.  I'm using her real name because I'm sure as a vlogger, she wants all the publicity she can get.  As a result of seeing her on Pokerkraut's vlogs, I checked out some of her videos and they are well worth watching.

And that explained Mystery Woman's line, "They're vloggers, you're a blogger."  By "they" she didn't mean Kevin and Tall Guy, she meant Kevin and Christin.

And in one of Kevin's videos, I saw Tall Guy.  He was with a woman whose face Kraut took great pains to cover with an animated smiley face. I assumed it was Mystery Woman.  She really does have a fetish about keeping her identity a secret!

When I did hear back from Pokerkraut, he wouldn't say much about Mystery Woman other than that she was actually Tall Guy's wife.  But he did tell me that Tall Guy used to work as a dealer in a certain poker room in Vegas.  And that finally solved that mystery.  The room he used to work, which I won't name, is one I used to play in a lot until a few years back.  And as soon I learned that, my brain immediately placed in that room—that's why he looked familiar!

In fact, as my memory finally kicked in, I could actually remember bits and pieces of a story Tall Guy had told us back when he dealt at that room.  Don't remember the whole story, but it had something to do with him getting involved in a huge traffic jam either coming back to Vegas from L.A or vice versa.  So strange how the memory works (or doesn't).

Anyway, that's the story of Mystery Woman. Still mostly a mystery to me…but then most women are.