wher hehro! (very long / self-absorbed)
Thought I'd post and let everyone know I'm doing fine. BD and I went down to Commerce on Saturday night, and I caught a free shuttle to LAX in the morning. The flights were fine, and after hanging out with my brothers in Omaha for a while, I got home to Hastings late Sunday night. A solid 15 hour nap had me back on top of my game and ready for... nothing.
My grandmother just got moved to a nursing home from the hospital, and is in stable condition, though the doctor doesn't think she has much time. Blood clots, etc. I don't like hearing about that kind of thing, so I try not to pry. We're trying to move her into our home, but that requires a bunch of busywork setting up in-home 24hr nursing care and such. Until then, I have vast quanities of free time in which to do nothing. I've already seen every movie under the sun, and I've vowed not to watch television, so that leaves poker. I'm attempting to get a years worth of poker under my belt in the next few months, and build myself a nice fat bankroll to spread about Europe in the Spring when Pat Carter and I head down (up?).
Yikes, I haven't posted in a month. And it has been a pretty eventful month I suppose. Seldom Sober and I spent a good solid week in Vegas, where I passed the time as a local pro at the Bellagio and Wynn 15/30 games. Definately one of the more enjoyable trips in my life. A web forum devoted to poker that Seldom and I both post on was having a get together in Vegas that week, so we got to play with some of the best poker players in the world. It was a real treat sitting with some of them and knowing I was holding my own and then some. It was also incredibly enjoyable getting to run over the local pros, who came to hate "those damn kids who always raise preflop." They have a definate edge over the tourists, but were easy pickings for us kids who play more hands in a month than they will play in a year.
There were a few very good local pros who would kill time waiting for bigger games, and they were real characters to. My favorite was a little old asian guy everyone called 'Hustler', since he wore a hat with the word Hustler on it. He could read hands like no one I've ever seen, both from knowing peoples playing styles, and then refining that knowledge by reading their physical tells. He would call out hands cold to me under his breath when we were sitting out, and sure enough. I'd have a few down too, but yikes. The Dragon turned out to be my main nemesis. He was a visiting Swedish pro who wore snappy dark suits and white sneakers, with a black hat with golden dragons embroidered on it and dark sunglasses. Very WPT. He definately knew what he was doing though, and the few battles we got into were usually very interesting. I think I ended up getting the best of him in the long run, but probably due to luck.
Rich and I together probably slept 10-15 hours the six days we were there, and most of that time was spent at the tables. I logged around 100 hours of live poker while there. My earn rate was around $35/hr, and I was running way hotter than that, so you can guess how I did.
A rich millionaire from Florida was sitting at our tables frequently, and we got to know him pretty well. He left the same day that I did, and told me he'd stake me in any big tournament I wanted to play in, and even to stake me in a local $80/$160 game in his hometown. He bragged to everyone at the tables that all of my winnings came from him; quite a stretch, but he did dump a few chips off to me. He was there for the entirety of one of my monster sessions, where I ran up almost 200BBs. I have a few pictures, which I'll post below. A great guy though. So if he's still willing come July, I'm on for the World Series baby. So theoretically I made another $10k on top of my other earnings. Hot damn.
Other than live poker at the Player's Club and Commerce, nothing much else happened. Both of my cars were down at the same time, again. I got them both fixed before I left, when I don't need them anymore. Meh. I took a shot at the Commerce $20/$40 the Wednesday before I left, and yikes. You really have to be callused to the value of your money when playing that game. I dropped over $3k in ten hours before going on a tear and making it back with a little interest. I don't think I'm emotionally ready for those stakes, but the next highest game Commerce spreads feels like a kiddy pool. I guess I'll man up, because it's definately a good game. God bless and help the asians.
I suppose I'll post on here fairly frequently, not that I'll have much to say, but it's six in the morning and I'm finally feeling tired. I'll leave you with one of the better tales from the Vegas trip.
Rich and I had been playing all night at the Wynn, and headed up to the room of one of his friends. Everyone there was crashed out, and we weren't tired, so we headed down to the bar at the sportsbook, and spent the next few hours drinking, chatting with Max the bartender, and playing video poker. Very sleep deprived and drunk, we got it into our heads to go play low limit poker at the Ghetto Castle, so we caught a taxi at six in the morning. There were only three tables running, two 2-6 spread limit games and a $200 max buy-in NL game. Rich sat at the limit, and I bought into the NL game.
Everyone at the table looked at me with obvious delight; an incredibly drunk college boy with a nice stack of chips! Easy monies. I posted in mid-position (a clear tip off that I had no idea how to play), and looked down to see pocket kings. I pretended to squint really hard at them, then grabbed a stack of five dollar chips and hurled them into the middle of the table, glaring at everyone like you might see on the televisions. A quiet looking construction worker in late position thought for a minute before calling, as did the guy on the button. Everyone else folded, and we saw a flop of Kxx (ding ding). I did my squint/glare at the flop (which wasn't entirely faked, things were pretty blurry), then grabbed another stack of reds and threw them out. The MP guy took his sweet time thinking, then called. The guy on the button quickly moved all-in, and I smiled and called. So did construction worker. All of our chips went into the middle, and I turned over my set of kings to see AK from construction worker, and AA from the button. Hiiiya, ship it.
After an hour or so I wasn't really faking anything though, and the waitress cut me off. In Vegas. At the Ghetto Castle. I got. Cut off. From alchohol. WTF kind of a place is this. So I told everyone it was my last hand (since I was UTG and the blinds were coming next). I raised to $30 blind, and got one caller in late position. I looked down to see KJo, and a flop of K10x. I threw out another stack of reds, and lp called. I checked the turn blind, and another blank came off. He bet out $30 or so, and I called. The river came a Q, and I bet out around $50. He thought for a few seconds, then went all-in. I called, and beat his weak kicker king to drag another huge pot. Everyone at the table was glaring at me by this point, so I felt bad and grabbed a huge fistful of $5 chips and started throwing them at everyone at the table. I am such a fag. Thank you kindhearted Ghetto Castle waitress, you probably saved me a great deal of money. We went back to the Wynn and crashed out for a few hours. I got up and took a shower, and then it was back to the tables.
This story also took place the night after my big monster session, of which here are some pictures:
Rich took this picture the night before we left for Vegas at Commerce.
Obviously trying to continue a theme, here at the Wynn halfway through the session...
And here near the end...
Each time I started out with 6 stacks of red. The money in the bottom two photos came from people buying stacks off of me. You can't take money you've won off the table until you leave, so you have to keep it with your chips. Not everyone displays their benjamins as ostentaciously as this though. Can you blame me? Stacking messloads of chips is the greatest joy of live poker.
My grandmother just got moved to a nursing home from the hospital, and is in stable condition, though the doctor doesn't think she has much time. Blood clots, etc. I don't like hearing about that kind of thing, so I try not to pry. We're trying to move her into our home, but that requires a bunch of busywork setting up in-home 24hr nursing care and such. Until then, I have vast quanities of free time in which to do nothing. I've already seen every movie under the sun, and I've vowed not to watch television, so that leaves poker. I'm attempting to get a years worth of poker under my belt in the next few months, and build myself a nice fat bankroll to spread about Europe in the Spring when Pat Carter and I head down (up?).
Yikes, I haven't posted in a month. And it has been a pretty eventful month I suppose. Seldom Sober and I spent a good solid week in Vegas, where I passed the time as a local pro at the Bellagio and Wynn 15/30 games. Definately one of the more enjoyable trips in my life. A web forum devoted to poker that Seldom and I both post on was having a get together in Vegas that week, so we got to play with some of the best poker players in the world. It was a real treat sitting with some of them and knowing I was holding my own and then some. It was also incredibly enjoyable getting to run over the local pros, who came to hate "those damn kids who always raise preflop." They have a definate edge over the tourists, but were easy pickings for us kids who play more hands in a month than they will play in a year.
There were a few very good local pros who would kill time waiting for bigger games, and they were real characters to. My favorite was a little old asian guy everyone called 'Hustler', since he wore a hat with the word Hustler on it. He could read hands like no one I've ever seen, both from knowing peoples playing styles, and then refining that knowledge by reading their physical tells. He would call out hands cold to me under his breath when we were sitting out, and sure enough. I'd have a few down too, but yikes. The Dragon turned out to be my main nemesis. He was a visiting Swedish pro who wore snappy dark suits and white sneakers, with a black hat with golden dragons embroidered on it and dark sunglasses. Very WPT. He definately knew what he was doing though, and the few battles we got into were usually very interesting. I think I ended up getting the best of him in the long run, but probably due to luck.
Rich and I together probably slept 10-15 hours the six days we were there, and most of that time was spent at the tables. I logged around 100 hours of live poker while there. My earn rate was around $35/hr, and I was running way hotter than that, so you can guess how I did.
A rich millionaire from Florida was sitting at our tables frequently, and we got to know him pretty well. He left the same day that I did, and told me he'd stake me in any big tournament I wanted to play in, and even to stake me in a local $80/$160 game in his hometown. He bragged to everyone at the tables that all of my winnings came from him; quite a stretch, but he did dump a few chips off to me. He was there for the entirety of one of my monster sessions, where I ran up almost 200BBs. I have a few pictures, which I'll post below. A great guy though. So if he's still willing come July, I'm on for the World Series baby. So theoretically I made another $10k on top of my other earnings. Hot damn.
Other than live poker at the Player's Club and Commerce, nothing much else happened. Both of my cars were down at the same time, again. I got them both fixed before I left, when I don't need them anymore. Meh. I took a shot at the Commerce $20/$40 the Wednesday before I left, and yikes. You really have to be callused to the value of your money when playing that game. I dropped over $3k in ten hours before going on a tear and making it back with a little interest. I don't think I'm emotionally ready for those stakes, but the next highest game Commerce spreads feels like a kiddy pool. I guess I'll man up, because it's definately a good game. God bless and help the asians.
I suppose I'll post on here fairly frequently, not that I'll have much to say, but it's six in the morning and I'm finally feeling tired. I'll leave you with one of the better tales from the Vegas trip.
Rich and I had been playing all night at the Wynn, and headed up to the room of one of his friends. Everyone there was crashed out, and we weren't tired, so we headed down to the bar at the sportsbook, and spent the next few hours drinking, chatting with Max the bartender, and playing video poker. Very sleep deprived and drunk, we got it into our heads to go play low limit poker at the Ghetto Castle, so we caught a taxi at six in the morning. There were only three tables running, two 2-6 spread limit games and a $200 max buy-in NL game. Rich sat at the limit, and I bought into the NL game.
Everyone at the table looked at me with obvious delight; an incredibly drunk college boy with a nice stack of chips! Easy monies. I posted in mid-position (a clear tip off that I had no idea how to play), and looked down to see pocket kings. I pretended to squint really hard at them, then grabbed a stack of five dollar chips and hurled them into the middle of the table, glaring at everyone like you might see on the televisions. A quiet looking construction worker in late position thought for a minute before calling, as did the guy on the button. Everyone else folded, and we saw a flop of Kxx (ding ding). I did my squint/glare at the flop (which wasn't entirely faked, things were pretty blurry), then grabbed another stack of reds and threw them out. The MP guy took his sweet time thinking, then called. The guy on the button quickly moved all-in, and I smiled and called. So did construction worker. All of our chips went into the middle, and I turned over my set of kings to see AK from construction worker, and AA from the button. Hiiiya, ship it.
After an hour or so I wasn't really faking anything though, and the waitress cut me off. In Vegas. At the Ghetto Castle. I got. Cut off. From alchohol. WTF kind of a place is this. So I told everyone it was my last hand (since I was UTG and the blinds were coming next). I raised to $30 blind, and got one caller in late position. I looked down to see KJo, and a flop of K10x. I threw out another stack of reds, and lp called. I checked the turn blind, and another blank came off. He bet out $30 or so, and I called. The river came a Q, and I bet out around $50. He thought for a few seconds, then went all-in. I called, and beat his weak kicker king to drag another huge pot. Everyone at the table was glaring at me by this point, so I felt bad and grabbed a huge fistful of $5 chips and started throwing them at everyone at the table. I am such a fag. Thank you kindhearted Ghetto Castle waitress, you probably saved me a great deal of money. We went back to the Wynn and crashed out for a few hours. I got up and took a shower, and then it was back to the tables.
This story also took place the night after my big monster session, of which here are some pictures:
Rich took this picture the night before we left for Vegas at Commerce.
Obviously trying to continue a theme, here at the Wynn halfway through the session...
And here near the end...
Each time I started out with 6 stacks of red. The money in the bottom two photos came from people buying stacks off of me. You can't take money you've won off the table until you leave, so you have to keep it with your chips. Not everyone displays their benjamins as ostentaciously as this though. Can you blame me? Stacking messloads of chips is the greatest joy of live poker.
posted by mittens at 11/22/2005 03:41:00 AM
5 comments
