That Time Of Year Again...

Well, the WSOP is coming up fast and I've been working on trying to go from nothing to a PLO Buy in by playing $1/$2 NLHE. Thus far I have done well taking $30 and turning it into $1100 after losing my entire roll by trying to move up to early. That roll I had built to $1200 from $80. Sadly, a bill came up that HAD to be paid and so, alas, the $1100 roll is now gone as well. Not to worry though, I will be back at the tables next week building it back up. I will keep you all informed as to how I do as well as covering the WSOP live.

A slight break from Poker...

Hey folks,

If you like playing games other than poker I just wanna let you know that you should check out Aeria Games and more specifically Shin Megami Tensei: imagin Online and Project Torque. These 2 games are very nicely done and from very different genres.

Shin megami is based in the not too distant future in a destroyed Tokyo. You are a "Demon Buster" trying to bring about the "Rebirth of Tokyo". You do through this through the use of your skills and friendly Demons who you can form contracts with in the wild or you can "Fuse" 2 or 3 demons together to make other demons that have different skill sets. The game is VERY storyline intensive, unlike most MMOs, and you will watch many cut scenes and do storyline quests throughout your adventures making this game qute unique and enjoyable.

Project Torque is a racing game...Yes, online MMO Racing. You start out with a racing license in the lowest class posible and need to work your way up through the ranks to get better cars, upgrades, girls to cheer you on, etc. The game is a lot of fun. I know a few people who play it constantly, for me it's more of a time waster type of game but still quite enjoyable to get in there and race around. There are several racing modes including one I really enjoy where you just drive around an area with other players and try to pick up boxes that give you items you can use in other races...

Aeria also makes several other games that are worth checking out and can all be quite fun.

Check these games out, they are a last and a great way to relieve the stress of being donked on all day long at the tables...well, That's my break from poker for now...tune in tomorrow for more poker news! :P


Shin Megami Tensei
Project Torque
Aeria Main Site

Full Tilt Poker Matrix Tournaments...

When I first saw Matrix tournaments on the list of available games at Full Tilt all I could think as, "Great, another silly variant.". We've all seen quite a few of these over the years, especially online. But I decided to check one out anyway and had a fun time. I played a couple more and realized that there are some very interesting strategies involved in playing these games to win.

the way these tournaments work is 9 players sign up and all play each other...4 times all at once on 4 different tables. You are given points for outlasting people at each table, for taking people out on each table and bonus points for winning a table. Each table pays out the top 3 spots. Your points are totaled at the end and the top 3 point earners are also paid.If you're into playing multiple tables at once I strongly suggest you try these as they are a lot of fun and quite interesting to play in. I have only been playing in the free money games so far as I am still practicing and learning some of the strategies and therefor unwilling to put real cash on the line...but I will soon.

I'm Back!

Hi everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted anything but a death in the family part way through the WSOP left me a bit uncaring about blogging and poker for awhile. I am feeling somewhat better now though and will once again be playing, watching and reporting on the Vegas Poker goings on. Once again, I am sorry for my long absence, but now you all have me back, take advantage of me...please? :P

WSOP Auditions...Day 1!

Well, day 1 of the WSOP open dealer auditions was hectic to say the least. With over 350 people showing up to try out to deal this prestigious event things ran a little long. I arrived at about 7:10 am this morning and didn't actually get to be seen until 12:30pm because there were already so many people ahead of me. I was told by people who arrived as early as 6:30 am that when they arrived there were already over 100 people in line.

Upon arriving I found that I would need to deal 1 hand each of PLO, 7 Stu 8 or better and 2-7 triple draw. Having dealt plenty of 7 stud 8 and knowing pot limit I was pretty confident about them. I had never even seen 2-7 triple draw though and asked the other waiting dealers a lot of questions to make sure I was ready.

When my number was called I went and sat down to play while awaiting my turn in the box and watched the other dealers so I could get a better feel for the game, fortunately 8 others from that table got into the box before I had to step in so I got get a very nice feel for the game mechanics. Then it comes my time in the box...I breeze through the PLO and 7 Stud8 as expected. Now it is time for the 2-7 triple draw...I deal out the hands, take the discards, burn, pass out the draws...everything flawless...at the end of the hand only 2 players remained...and I misread the damn hand! Yep, that's right, with one player having A7643 and the other having 96432 I almost awarded the pot to the player with the A7 high, misreading it as 76 high because I forgot that the A was high and not low in this game. In the end I was point short of making it on the score sheet and was told by the rooms poker boss that I should return next week and he had every confidence that I would pass the 2nd time around. I spoke with him at length about why I messed that up and he seemed to understand. He let me know, and I believe it, that a lot of people do that the first time but almost no one does it a second time because the first time is such a traumatic event. Anyway that about sums up my day, I will update on other events happening the area during the week and let you all know how my 2nd WSOP Audition goes next Tuesday.

World Series Of Poker Open Auditions

For those wishing to deal at the WSOP this year here are the details for the open dealer auditions.

Rio Poker Room
Tues. & Wed.7-10am
Starting March 18th Ending April 30th

(702) 777-6785
Contacts:
Mike Bujanowski
Phil Miller

Binions Sale Final

Terry Caudill, the owner of The Four Queens Casino received the keys to Binions on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008. Caudill purchased the world famous Binions Hotel and Casino for a mere $32 million. Players and employees alike are hopeful that this purchase will help breathe some new life back into the ailing casino. Caudill has a lot of experience with downtown casinos and knows what it takes to make one successful.

I would like to wish Terry the best of luck in this endeavor. Binions has long been a part of the downtown scene and hopefully it will continue to be so for many years to come....I, personally, would like to see him work something out with Harrah's Entertainment to allow him to put the old Binions Horseshoe sign back on top of the building...god I miss that thing.

NBC Finals...

Sorry I didn't get this posted in a timely manner but I've not been feeling well at all.

The final matches went pretty much as expected (by me anyway) Chris Ferguson defeated Phil Ivey when Ivey had 66 flopped an open ended straight draw and pushed all in and was called by Chris who showed 88. Ivey didn't fill his straight or set and was eliminated from the tournament sending Chris to the final table for the 3rd time in the 4 years the event has run.

Andy Bloch Eliminated Huck Seed when he pushed all in pre-flop with AQ, Huck makes the call and shows 99 the board comes 5626A and Bloch Advances to the finals.

The final match was pretty even right up until this hand:
Chris raised 25,000 preflop and Andy called the flop came Tc, 7s, 3s Chris bet 35,000 and Andy check raised to 105,000, Chris makes the call. The turn comes 7h, Andy bets 150,000 and Chris comes over the top all in. After thinking for several minutes and flipping a coin Andy makes the call and shows Ts, 4s...He has top pair and a flush draw. Chris shows Jc, Js and has a nice lead with only one card left to come. The river turns up 7c giving both players a full house, Chris's is bigger though and Andy has to settle for 2nd place and $250,000. Chris takes home $500,000 and the trophy after coming 2nd in 2 out of the previous 3 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championships...

Congratulations Chris...to quote Phil Hellmuth..."What took so long?"

Action at NBC Headsup Championships...

Action was hot today as 24 players were eliminated from the tournament. the quarter finals, semi-finals and finals will all be held tomorrow starting at noon at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

The first 4 matches are as follows:

Jonathan Little vs. Chris Ferguson
Gus Hansen vs. Phil Ivey
Andy Bloch vs. Orel Hershisher
Huck Seed vs. David Benyamine

I must admit that I am a bit surprised at the performance of Orel Hershisher so far in this tournament, he has been playing wonderfully and it would be nice to see him go all the way. I personally feel, however, that the odds on favorite to win the whole thing at this point in time is Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. See you all tomorrow night with the final standings, who took out whom and some hand histories of the day.

NBC Heads UP Round of 32

Here are the 32 player who advanced in each bracket after todays play:

Hearts:
Vanessa Rousso vs. Andy Bloch
Scott Fischman vs. Jamie Gold
Orel Hershisher vs. Allen Cunningham
Sam Grizzle vs. Freddy Deeb

Diamonds:
Huck Seed vs. Brian Townsend
Clonie Gowen vs. Michael Mizrachi
Barry Greenstein vs. David Benyamine
Doyle Brunson vs. Erick Lindgren

Clubs:
Jonathan Little vs. Gabe Kaplan
Greg Raymer vs. Scott Clements
Mike Matusow vs. Tom Dwan
Gavin Smith vs. Chris Ferguson

Spades:
Gus Hansen vs. Scotty Nguyen
Jerry Yang vs. Phil Laak
Phil Ivey vs. Johnny Chan
J.C. Tran vs. T.J. Cloutier

Some thoughts on NBC Head-Up Event.

Well,

I went to the red carpet event this evening and had a wonderful time hanging out the poker elite. All of those we met were very personable and didn't mind taking a few moments to chat. I asked several of the players for comments I could post on my blog and heard a few others say things I thought were memorable or funny and decided to post those here as well.

When asked if it was really him playing all those games on Full Tilt Mike Matusow was noted to say, "No, it's a fucking impostor!".

Daniel Negreanu was a laugh and half, I asked him for a quote and he said to pick something he said as we were talking. When I asked him to sign my copy of Card Player Magazine he was holding a folder in his hand and decided to put it in his waste band behind his back and said, "Sure, let me just put this in my ass...I can't fit in my ass...Ah, there we go, got it in the ass!" I instantly told him that would be the quote and he laughed and said okay.

Jamie Gold said, "Great Meeting you, wish you a lot of luck!".

Greg Raymer stated simply but honestly, "Play Smart!".

Gabe Kaplan and I walked into the poker room together and he asked me if he was in the right place, I said "No, you have to go down the red carpet outside that leads into the nightclub." He responded with, "I have to go down the red carpet?" I told him yes and he replied, "Ah fuck!". I guess Gabe has had his fill of red carpets over the years.

Scotty Nguyen was just very cool and we had a nice conversation although nothing spectacular was said, unless you count, "If you call now it's all over baby!".

Eli Elezra, when I told him about my blog gave me his email address so he could come check it out...no you can't have it unless Eli gives it to you himself, sorry!

Everyone else was nice and I had a few nice conversations with several players including Jerry Yang and Doyle Brunson. That's about it for tonight, the tourney starts in about 5 hours and I plan on attending some of it in the afternoon so I will come back in here with an update as to where players stand, who is left and who is likely to win. Take Care for now, be safe!

Regular Tournaments

I have compiled a list of all the tournaments that I know about that happen regularly in Las Vegas. Most of these tournaments I do not have average player information on but will try to find out and update the page as I get new information. You can find the list here. If you know tournaments not listed here please let me know either by email, phone call through GrandCentral or a comment on this post and I will be sure to add it. Please also contact me if you play in one of these regular tournaments and and can give me information about the average number of players as well as info that may be incorrect on rebuys/add-ons, many of the tourneys listed have 0 re-buys and 0 add-ons listed simply because the information on the web site of the casino in question does not list re-buys and add-ons so some of that information may be, at the moment, inaccurate. I do plan on calling around to these casinos over the next week or 2 to get better information for you.


Good luck.

NBC National Heads-Up Championship This Weekend!

Caesers Palace is hosting the NBC Nationl Heads-Up Poker Championships begining Friday Feb. 29th. 63 of the 64 players scheduled to attend have been announced and are listed below.


1. Alexander, Jason
2. Antonius, Patrik
3. Bellande, Jean-Robert
4. Benyamine, David
5. Bloch, Andy
6. Brown, Chad
7. Brunson, Doyle
8. Brunson, Todd
9. Chan, Johnny
10. Cheadle, Don
11. Clements, Scott
12. Cloutier, T.J.
13. Cunningham, Allen
14. Deeb, Freddy
15. Duke, Annie
16. Dwan, Tom
17. Edler, Bill
18. Elezra, Eli
19. Elizabeth, Shannon
20. Esfandiari, Antonio
21. Farha, Sam
22. Ferguson, Chris
23. Fischman, Scott
24. Forrest, Ted
25. Gold, Jamie
26. Gowen, Clonie
27. Greenstein, Barry
28. Grizzle, Sam
29. Hachem, Joe
30. Hansen, Gus
31. Harman, Jennifer
32. Hellmuth, Phil
33. Hershiser, Orel
34. Ivey, Phil
35. Juanda, John
36. Kaplan, Gabe
37. Kelly, Tom
38. Laak, Phil
39. Lederer, Howard
40. Lindgren, Erick
41. Little, Jonathan
42. Matusow, Mike
43. Mizrachi, Michael
44. Moneymaker, Chris
45. Negreanu, Daniel
46. Nikzad, Hooman
47. Nguyen, Scotty
48. Pham, David
49. Raymer, Greg
50. Rousso, Vanessa
51. Schneider, Tom
52. Schreiber, Daniel
53. Seed, Huck
54. Seidel, Erik
55. Singer, David
56. Smith, Gavin
57. Tilly, Jennifer
58. Townsend, Brian
59. Tran, J.C.
60. Tran, Kenny
61. Wasicka, Paul
62. Williams, David
63. Yang, Jerry
64. PokerStars.net qualifier (to be announced)

Good Luck to everyone, see you there!

Omaha...the game, not the city...

Omaha H/L is a very strange game at times, it can be quite interesting and fun. For those who don't play it often it can also be quite confusing. I have tried many times to explain the nuances of this game to new players with a complete lack of success. One of the problems people have is they have been playing holdem and trying to play tight. Playing tight in Omaha is a sure was to lose, albeit slowly. In Omaha you usually have a lot more outs than you do in holdem. The picture below is a good example, I think, of why you have to chase and why you have to also use pot odds to win.



As you can see here the play in seat 9 flopped a set, the player in seat 1 flopped the nut low draw and I, in seat 3, flopped 2 pair I was also drawing to a decent low, a straight . After the flop any 2, 5, 6 or 7 would give me a straight and even a straight flush was possible with 2c, 7c on turn and river (though not very likely). The player in seat 9 bet 240, seat 1 called. At this point I figured the player in seat 9 had flopped a set (and I was right) and had put the player in seat 1 on a draw of some sort as he had been calling on alot of awkward draws. I made the call knowing I had quite a few outs, I just had to hope the player in seat 9 didn't fill up.

On the turn he once again bet 240 and seat 1 and I both called, now getting good pot odds as well as implied odds.

The river, there is my key card! the 5 gave me the nut straight so I knew that unless seat 9 had gotten lucky and filled up I had him beat now, I also had seat 1 beat no matter what he was drawing to. Sure enough seat 9 bets 240 again and seat 1 raises all in, once the all in bet was in I knew I was losing the low but I also felt confident that I had the high hand covered and made the call. Seat 9 called also presuming his trip 4s were the best hand, not even seeing the straight out there. This is a common mistake among holdem players coming to omaha for the first time of only playing rarely.

If there are 3 cards to a low straight on the board they fail to see it or count it as in holdem you probably would have folded those low cards preflop and therefor missed your straight. In omaha, however, you often hold these kinds of hands to the flop unless there is a large raise in front of you because having 4 cards...anything can happen and you can hope to get the low half of the pot if nothing else. Having said all of this you can see from the picture that the player in seat 9 made a critical error by calling the river, the best on flop and turn were good bets but kept seat 1 and myself priced in to see the next card. Seat 1 and I ended up splitting both the main and side pots and seat 9 went home early. This was a key hand in tourney as I ended up coasting my way to take 2nd without any trouble.


One thing to remember about omaha is that you MUST use 2 cards from your hand and 3 from the board to make your best 5 card hand. Too often in live games I see new players forget this and at showdown blithely flip up their Ac5h2d8s declaring, "Nut Flush!" when there are 4 clubs on board...unfortunately for them they don't have a flush at all, just A high. Keep this fact in mind and look at ALL of the many possibilities when making decisions in omaha and you will do well, forget this fact and you will go home broke...whatever you do, don't be a seat 9 and miss the obvious, to me, straight on the board.

Another tip from your friendly neighborhood card shark.

Recommended Reading

Here is a list of a few books I recommend reading if you wish to become a winning poker player .

 

Doyle Brunson's Super System: A Course in Power Poker by Doyle Brunson Read more about this book...

Doyle Brunson's Super System II by Doyle Brunson Read more about this book...

Caro's Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro Read more about this book...

Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play by Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie Read more about this book...

Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame by Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie Read more about this book...

The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen, Jerrod Ankenman Read more about this book...

 

In my opinion, these books are essential reading for anyone who wishes to be a winning poker player, there are many other good books out there on this subject but I believe these should be the core of your collection. I will post more books later, after you've had a chance to read these.

Another Limit Tip.

Please remember that in limit even the best pocket pair is still just another pair. In limit holdem you're not going to be able to push people out of the pot as easily as you would in a no limit game so be prepared to have your AA and KK sucked out on come the river by a hand that would otherwise be considered marginal at best. The low cost of playing the hand all the way to the river means players almost always have pot odds if they have any kind of draw at all. People catching their straights and flushes on the river is very common so unless you catch something good on the flop, like a set, or better yet a boat, you should be ready to lay down your AA or KK to a raise or re-raise if their is a straight or flush on the board.

Just another tip from your friendly neighborhood card shark.

Vegas Poker Tip...

Something you should be aware of if coming to Vegas to play poker is that there are alot of donkeys (pronounced tourists) here. Tourists are the bread and butter of every local poker player, especially at the limit tables. Most tourists have played before in their local pub leagues or home games and strictly play no limit. They arrive in Vegas bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to go...and find out they have to wait 1-2 hours or more to sit at a no limit table. These people are impatient and don't want to wait for a no limit seat to open up so they sit at a limit table to while away the time. Not realizing that while both games are named Texas Holdem, there are HUGE differences between Limit and No Limit Holdem. So these people, not realizing this, sit down and blow their entire bankrolls while they wait and never get into the no limit game at all. Be aware, if you come here and play no limit and come to Vegas, learn limit first or you could find yourself in a world of trouble...and broke!

WPT World Championships coming to Vegas again...

Well, I guess it's that time of year again, the WPT is in full swing and the World Championships are coming back to the Bellagio on April 19th. I Details so far are rather sketchy and all I have at the moment are the dates and place. I will certainly be updating here as information becomes available so make sure you check back. You can also check the official WPT site at http://www.worldpokertour.com/Tournaments/Seasons/Season_6/WPT_World_Championship.aspx.

WSOP Circuit Event Coming Soon...

Las Vegas is soon going to see another WSOP Circuit event on the strip. Begining April 20th at Caesers Palace hundreds of players will gather to play while preparing for the WSOP which begins May 30th. No details as of yet as to who is expected to show but as soon as I hear anything I'll let you know. I am looking forward to this event as there are many games taking place with only $550 buy-ins including several super satellites. The field will likely be made up of some very tough competition but what field isn't in a WSOP Circuit event? If you would like more details please contact me and I will give you what information I have, or you can contact Caesers Palace or check out http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/tourneydetails.asp?groupID=369

Sunday, April 20, 2008 to Thursday, May 01, 2008
Caesars Palace
3570 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV US
800-851-1703

Welcome to LV Poker

This blog is about poker, poker and err...poker! I will be writing often about games happening in Vegas... live games, tournaments, funny stories, bad beats, all will posted here. Some of the stories will be about games I play in and others will be about games I deal or just observe from time to time. Anyone living in Vegas who is a poker and wishes to contribute please contact me and we will discuss options. Thanks for coming everyone, enjoy!