Small Ball...

7/29/08

Today I decided to check out the 3 pm NLHE poker tourny at
Caesar's Palace.Buy in was for $70.00 bucks, where you started
with $2,500.00 in chips. Blinds changed every thirty minutes.

Well to make a long story short,I busted out with Ace/Two offsuit,
when I went all in from the smallblind, with just the big blind
player. He went into the tank for a couple of minutes and finally
called me with Ace/Ten offsuit. That should be an automatic call
for him, as he had twice as many chips as me at the timeand blinds
were already $300/600. I had about $5,400.00 in chips atthe time.
Flop went Jack/Eight/Eight, so i'm hoping for another Jack
to tie or Two to win, on the turn. Turn card came Queen, now I
have other outs to tie, I'm hoping for Jack or Queen to tie, Two
to win, on the river. River card came 3 of clubs, oooh so close.
But hey, that's the breaks.

Actually the play I was proud of was when I had two black Aces
in the big blind. Blinds were $100/200, with a $25 ante, at the
time and I had about $3,200 in chips. It went fold all the way
to the small blind player, who raised it to $800.00. The pot
amount was up to $1,250.00.I thought it out and decided to go
all in. I had a good feeling that he was going to call me.
I was trying to make it look that I didn't want a call, maybe
have him think that I was going all in with some type of Ace
rag hand, or maybe he thought I might have had Ace/King where
he would want to race. He had about twice the chips I had,
so if he called and lost, he wouldn't be out of the tournament
just yet. Of course he obliged me and called my all in. He
flipped up pocket Eights, nice, I have him severely dominated.
The flop came out Queen of Hearts, Six of Clubs and Seven of
Clubs. Whoa, I though the hit an Eight. Turn card comes Five
of Clubs, great now he has a straight flush draw, with his
Eight of Clubs. At least I have the Ace of Clubs for a nut
flush draw as well, so that eliminated all the other clubs,
besides the Four of Clubs and Nine of Clubs, which would give
him a straight flush. He also had the two last Eights, and
any non club Four or Nine for a straight, as outs to beat my
pocket Aces. Now for the river card, a slowly rolled out Two
of Hearts. Nice double up, I also got compliments from a few
of the players about my play. They never put me on pocket Aces.
Well, that's why I played it that way.

But again, I did bust out before making the money...Lol...

After I busted out of the tournament, I decided to play a cash game
in the poker room. I really wanted to play some Pot Limit Omaha,
but there was no interest in the room. I got on a $1/3 blinds, No
Limit Texas Holdem cash game instead. I cashed in for $200.00,
played for 3 hours and ended up cashing out $577.00. A nice
triple up for the session.

One key hand I had was when I held pocket Eights in mid position.
Basically, I called the bet of $3.00 and if I was raised preflop,
I would make a decision of calling or folding, depending on my
position. Luckily, it became a family pot with no raising before
the flop came out. There was about $26.00 in the pot, after the
dealer took the rake. The dealer then flopped out the first three
cards, a Queen of Hearts, an Eight of Clubs and a Two of Clubs.
Sweet, I have a Set (Three of a Kind, when you have a pair in
the hole) - this is a monster hand. The small blind player bet
$12.00 into the pot, I put him on a pair of Queens. The next
3 players folded in turn. I then reraised him to a total of
$27.00. I was actually giving him pot odds to call, if he had a
flush draw, but I was ready to get all the chips in, if the turn
did not club out. The last 5 players folded after me as it got
back to the small blind player. He contemplated for a minute
and then pumped the total bet to $100.00. Now there is about
$153.00 in the pot now. I had $166.00 left behind me. I kinda
wondered what he had now, Ace/Queen of Clubs for pair of Queens
with nut flush draw, two pair combo, or a set of Two's? Hmmm...
I decided to bet all in $166.00. I would be happy to take the
pot right there. So now there is $319.00 in the pot. The bet
goes back to the small blind player, who asked for time. He asks
me what I have and I say nothing. He then flipped up his cards
and shows that he has two pair Queens/Eights, for top two pair.
Now, I'm wanting him to call. He did not have any redraw for the
club flush, so his only outs are the two remaining Queens. I talk
to myself inside and hope that he calls. He still was asking why
I would go all in like that, he now says that he thinks that I am
on a flush draw. After a couple of minutes, he calls my all in.
Cool, now there is $485.00 in the pot and I got him
dominated. I flipped up my cards and show him that I have a set,
he looks disgusted. He kept on saying why did he call, when it
was so obvious that I probably had a set. Well, if you knew, why
did you call? I guess it would be difficult for him to know that
I had a set of Eights, when I limped in preflop and he also had an
Eight in his hand. Anyway, turn card came Six of Clubs (whew, good
thing he didn't have a flush draw) and the river card came Ace of
Diamonds...My Set of Eights hold up....

I love scooping big pots...

Don't try this at home kids...Playing poker can be long periods
of boredom with occasional times of terror...hehe...I need an EKG
now...

Again to celebrate, I got me a Kosher Hot Dog, a Knish and an
iced tea at Canter's TI...mmm..mmm...I need a cholesterol
test now...

Giddy...

7/27/08

Feel like a Japanese Schoolgirl...heehee...

A couple days back, my buddy took me to a new sushi place his friend opened up on Sahara, just off the strip. The place is called Wayne's Sushi, it is just west of the 15 highway, past Palace Station. If you make it to Vegas, you have to check this place out. His rolls are the so called "bomb". If you like sashimi, it is darn fresh. I had a plate of halibut, salmon,tuna, abalone, crab and other sea faring raw fish that was excellent. I also had my usualof salmon skin roll - gooood as well. Another roll that caught my palate was a tempura sushi roll, with seared tenderloin on top, fucking good.

Last I night hooked up with one of my buddies who has been living in Vegas for the past few years. The original plan was to hit up one of the casinos to play some poker. I told him about the sushi place on Sahara and we decided to make a pit stop. Even though the sushi was the shieet. I decided to just get a couple of beers, as I was pretty full from eating dinner earlier that night. It was already about 9 pm, and I try not to eat past 7 or 8 pm. Anyway, my buddy ordered a couple of the rolls and was amazed at Wayne's creations. You don't even really need to mix up wasabi, soy sauce and ginger. Wayne usually tops off his rolls with his own secret jalapeno hot sauce. It's almost perfect. Wayne also hooked up some tuna and octopus poke'. Again excellent, as Bill and Ted would say. After an hour at the sushi bar, I finished up my 2nd Asahi. We then went on our way out to the Strip.

Unfortunately, the poker rooms of the strip were not in our fate tonight. My buddy wanted to check out a strip club. As much as I like going to strip clubs, I've been getting kind of burned out on them. Since I have been in Vegas (approximately 5 weeks, this Tuesday), I have been to strip clubs about 5 times. 3 times to Spearmint Rhino and twice to Cheetah's (I just hit up Cheetah's the day before with another buddy, it was for happy hour, so lap dances are $10.00 bucks till 9 pm, half off domestic beers and no cover - if you wanted to know). My buddy wanted to check out Little Darlings, which is a full nude strip club. We got there, his admission fee was $10.00 as a local and they were going to charge me $25.00 to get in. As I said, I am kinda burned out on them and didn't want to pay the door fee that night. We then decided to check out Sapphire's instead (a topless only strip club down the ways), as his admission would be free and I was thinking maybe $20.00 bucks for me (I'll make the sacrifice, for friendship, hehe). I had the mindset of just budgeting $70.00 for the strip club. I don't want to get caught up in giving more donations to the independent contractors from LA. I thought that should be enough for admission, a beer and a couple of lap dances (I was going to be discretionary - they got to have personality and dance talent, no ordinary run of the mill blonde from the OC). Anyway we got to the club, and what turned me off this time, was that it was a Saturday and the place was packed. Next thing that pissed me off was that the cover charge was $30.00 bucks. Dang, nowI only got enough for 2 lap dances and no drinks. That is also money that I could be using for poker. Lol. I pouted to the cashier girl about paying, as I am sort of a LasVegas resident now - but of course they needed valid ID. After I paid, she gave me a couple of VIP passes to assuage the pain. When we got into the main area of the club,I was like wow - again Vegas must have the top 2 percent of genetically perfect women of the world - this town is too plastic sometimes. But hey, you gots to love it. The plethora of bebots, kind of calmed my initial pessimism. We decided to sit down at the stage closest to the rear of the club. This is where each stripper would make their rounds before going out on to the floor of the club, to swipe twamps and benjamins off of unsuspecting horny fools. I'm proud of myself, I went a whole hour and a half without getting a lap dance. There was so much temptation. I just spent the time, watching each new dancer make their rounds onstage, putting a discretionary dollar on the stage if they did something out of the ordinary - you know like some type of crazy gymnastic move on the pole or giving me a sultry eye. I didn't even order any drinks. Discipline baby. I finally bent down to temptation when this stripper of African American heritage stopped by my chair to talk. She was pretty cute in a Tatyana Ali sort of way, you know the little sister from the tv show, The Fresh Prince. She didn't push a dance off the bat. We talked for a while and she told me that she was from Sherman Oaks. She was a bit bougi, I guess being from Sherman Oaks, but it made her cuter. She didn't come at me like Craig's ex-girlfriend from Friday, "You ain't gots to lie Craig, you ain't gots to lie!!!!"....She was trying to make about $3,000.00 that night and was up to only at about $1,000.00 at the time. She said she got a fat mortgage payment, and it's due in about a week. I kind of laughed, cause I know she didn't expect me to help her out. She asked me what I was doing in Vegas. I told her that I'm out here, just seeking a change of pace out of the Bay Area, and also seeing if I could actually make it in poker. I told her that it has been hard leaving family, friends and my girlfriend in the Bay. She seemed pretty cool, so I decided to get a lap dance from her. I think the song playing was that "Dangerous", with Akon on the hook. Not bad, bougi and ghetto do mix together. After the dance, we hung out a bit talking - her concern at that time, was that she was not getting enough business that night. She wanted to know if the quality of her dance was not up to par. I told her that it was cool. There's just not enough brothers in the club that night. It was mostly filled with caucasian and asian dudes - who are usually not attracted or scurred of black women. Those types of guys usually go for the cheerleader types or me so hornay' gurls...She thought that was funny, but I said it's the truth. She knew that. I told her to approach the whiteboys and tell them not to be scurred, as she most likely lived in a more affluent community than they did (Sherman Oaks, remember). Lol, I should be a the Walter Conkrite of stripper interviews.

Anyway, I finally caught up with my buddy (where in the hell was he anyway), after about another hour and a half of chillin' at the stage. I'm proud of myself, after 3 hours I only spent a total of $65.00 bucks in that place. I went under my budget of $70.00 bucks. Who's the big winner, Scotty is!!! We decided to call it a night. I didn't really want to play that night. You get exhausted just kicking at the strip club sometimes...

Sunday, I decided to hit up poker tournament, as I did not get to play poker the night before. I did some research on the Net, to find out where the best small buy in tournaments were being held that day. I decided to check out the $65.00, $40.00 rebuy No Limit Texas Holdem tournament at the Golden Nugget at 3 pm. I got there about 45 minutes before it was to start and paid my buy in of $65.00. I read Card Player and did my bad habit of smoking my cigarettes to kill time before the tournament. At 3 pm the tournament started and all the players started with $2,000.00 in chips, with an optional rebuy/add on for $40.00 bucks, which you can pay off the bat. I didn't elect to pay the extra $40.00. I will leave that for later if needed to. If you know me as a player, I usually do not like rebuys or add ons, because it keeps players that should be out of the tournament, in the tournament. One good thing about it, is that it pumps up the prize money. I was embroiled in playing a very tight aggressive style as you really did not start off with a lot of chips and the blind periods were only 20 minutes each. If you raised a hand, you may be pot committed as you would not like to get short stacked for the next blind period. One thing that annoyed me during the tournament was this drunk ass white older guy who played to my right until he busted out. The dealer, I or other players would have to instruct him on what to do when it was his action. I just wished that I was the one to bust him out. But alas, another player got him to commit all of his chips with Jack high - the other player had pocket Aces. The board did not help anyone and the drunk ass guy busted out. I happened to trump along with at least 10 to 15 big blind bets throughout each round. Short stacked, that's my steeze, hehe. Only the top 3 were to be paid for this tournament. When it got down to 6 players, I asked the table to see if they wanted to work out some kind of chop. I had a medium stack of about 22 blinds, soI was not in desperation mode at that time. I just thought it might be a good suggestion at the time. No one at the table agreed. I did have a couple of breaks along the way thought. Namely when I shoved all in on Ace/Seven OS from midposition 6 handed. I got called by the button player and the small/big blinds folded. I was up against Ace/King OS. I was severely dominated. But, whattaya you know, flop came jackpot for me - Seven/Seven/Six. Blanks hit the turn and river. Wheee!! What a double up, they feel good, almost like the sex, hehe. Anyway to make a long story short, the last 4 players (including me of course) decided to chop the rest of the prize money. $500.00 went to the chip leader, 2nd/3rd/4th places got $350.00 each. Cool, a net profit for the day.

Since it was still early, I then decided to go to the Orleans for their $105.00 No Limit Texas Holdem tournament that starts at 7 pm. I have about an hour until it starts, so why not? I like Orleans poker tourny formats - you would start out with $5,000.00 in chips, blinds for the first hour were 20 minutes long, then would be 30 minutes thereafter. The Orleans Sunday night tournaments usually field about 100 to 150 players.Tonight it was short of that, with only 71 players. The top 7 players would be paid, with first place taking a little over $2,200.00 bucks, not bad for a days work.

I played my game and grinded it out to the last couple of tables. There were about 21 players at that point. There was this key hand that I had at the time. Blinds were$1,000/$2,000.00, with a $50.00 ante. Before any bets, there was $3,350.00 in the pot. The under the gun player bets out $25,100.00 all in. Two players fold and the bet comes to me. I have about $28,000.00 in chips at that time. I peeled my cards up and see Ace/King OS. I was having a problem in putting a range of hands on him. What would this guy have to go all in like that. Obviously, he didn't want to get called. He must have a low pair or maybe Ace/rag (which I'm hoping for). He doesn't have a pair of Aces or Kings, maybe Queens, but would he go all in like that? I told the dealer to put a clock on me. Usually other players would put the clock on another player. After contemplating, I decided to call - hopefully I have him dominated. The button, small and big blinds folded. We were heads up and he flipped up pocket Jacks. Ok, a race, I really wish I was dominating him. Blanks on the flop and turn for me. God, let me hit a King or Ace. Wheeee, again...Hit me a river Ace. A nice double up. I could breath for awhile. I'd rather be lucky than good. But yo, it was a coinflip - you have to win these to get to the money. By the time we got to the final table of 10 players, I had a decent chip stack and knew that I was going to get to the money table of 7 players. There were 3 short stack players still left. I could probably just fold out until they each got picked off. When it got to 9 players, the table decided to give the 8th and 9th places their buy in of $105.00 back so they wouldn't leave the tournament with nothing. I totally agreed to that, I hate busting out just short of the money, when you've played for a good part of the day. I could have been next, you know.

The dominant chip leader was this caucausian guy in his forties. I had my ups and downs at the final table, but eventually got to in position to at least grab 3rd place money of $720.00. The chip leader pretty much took out the last 5 players. I had about 1/6 of the chips in player, the other player had 2/6 if the chips in play and the chip leader with about 3/6 of the chips in play. I had work to do. In this certain hand, the chip leader folded his button, the small blind raised the bet up to $14,000.00. I had $4,000.00 in the pot with my big blind. With antes at $500.00 each, the pot swelled to $19,500.00. I peeled my card and saw Ace/Five OS. I looked at my chips and saw that I had about $25,000.00 left. I told myself that it's now or never, but you're probably behind. I went all in was quickly called, the other player had Ace/Ten Spades. I'm in bad shape. I'm hoping for a chop. I called for the Five'sky, which the dealer obliged when the door card on the flop revealed a beautiful Five - followed by a Two and an Ace. Damn top two pair on the flop, please no Ten. The turn brought another Ace, I got a Full House Baby, again no Ten! The river was a beautiful Two. Both of us got Full Houses, but mine is better kid, wheee!!!

The chip leader finally bounced the other player. This guy is lucky. He had about a 4 to 1 chip lead on me. I need to win some pots. After trading a couple of all in's back in forth, I had a 1 to 3 chip deficit still. I then looked down to Ten/Five OS when I had the dealer button. I kind of acted as if I was contemplating a raise preflop. After my Oscar Award winning performance, I completed the bet to $6,000.00. The chip leader checked his big blind option. The flop was dealt Ten of Clubs, Two of Spades and Six of Clubs. I should have a monster hand heads up, top pair is pretty good. The chip lead led out with a pot sized bet of $15,000.00.I contemplated for a bit again, but I knew I was going to get some chips in this pot. I had about $50,000.00 in chips and decided that I was going to ship them in. I declared all in at that point, which shuddered the chip leader a bit. I know I got him. He decided to fold. We played back and forth for the next 10 minutes, not really getting anywhere. I asked him if he wanted to chop the pot. He counted out his chips, which numbered about $180,000.00. I counted my chips out to $167,000.00.We were pretty much even. I offered him 50% chop, he agreed and we both got about $1,600.00 each. We even qualified for the monthly freeroll.

Like I said giddy as a Japanese Schoolgirl....

Redemption

7/19/08

Redemption…

Well, this title sounds like the title to some Bruce Willis movie where he is a cold blooded killer who finds the meaning of life protecting the child, of whom he is originally hired to kill. Maybe I should write the script. I could be the next Pinoy Shylaman. Oscar baby and @#$%&* “pokuh doo”….hehe.

Anyway, some folks from the Bay have came into town last Thursday (no permission to use their names yet). I partied with them at the “ZOO”, my new nickname for the Spearamint Rhino, where the wildlife runs free and “charges” (my rhino pun) you to the max for lap therapy. But it’s nice, lol. Who thought getting “blueballs” would be this fun. Talent pool was good as always, I was actually tempted to go to the VIP room, but I didn’t want to further donate to the debauchery at hand. Lap dances in the main room are fine with me. Oh yeah, short term happiness can also be found with a lap dance performed by Lorena, the ”biracial” Cuban/Mexican goddess from Pomona. She apparently had no other part time jobs during the week and solely subsisted on working at gentlemen’s clubs scattered throughout the SoCal area, with the occasional trip to Sin City. Yo, you don’t need to diversify, if the money’s right.
Saturday, my family came into town. It always feels good to see family, especially being this far away from the Bay. I mean, I’m not completely cut off from any friends or family in this godforsaken town, but it’s always great to see me mum, pop, bro and “sis” (me bro’s wife). We also met up with some of their friends from San Jose as well. We decided to make Treasure Island are base of operations for that night. Cool, if I needed to eat, I had about a $10.00 food comp banked at the poker room. Need to save money, times is hard kids, hehe. What ensued, appeared to be a drinking contest at Mist Lounge in TI. Vegas just makes you a different animal sometimes. No concept of time or limits. But yo’ they all on vacay, who cares unless somebody get hurt. I just can’t go to the extremes, if I plan on having success in surviving in this town. I just did not feel like drinking any further and decided to get my poker room food comp for use later on that night.

As I made it to the sign up desk, I noticed that a $1/$1 Pot Limit Omaha game was being dealt that night. The blinds were low and I could fold out until I felt comfortable playing the game. They say the PLO is the wave of the future. I could tell why…It’s an action game. The game ran only 5 handed, but there were significant pots each time. The table makeup was made up of one loose aggressive Aussie, one weak English player, one loose player from the States, a tight player from the States and I (usually tight aggressive, but I can make some gambling plays too). Sounds like the World Cup, but the States are never in it, hehe. The Aussie player looked like the chip captain to me, he had about $600.00 in chips in front of him, while the rest of the players had $200.00 to $300.00 in front of them. I decided to buy in for $100.00, I haven’t really played any Omaha, let alone PLO.

Lately I have been doing some reading about basic strategy in the game, so I have been always curious to play it. It’s hard to find a low stakes game of this nature, so I told myself why not give it a go. If you do not know what Omaha poker is, I will explain it very briefly. The action is very similar to Texas Holdem, but instead of starting with 2 cards in the hole, you get 4 cards. Preflop there is a betting round, where you are allowed to call the big blind, fold, raise (to the pot amount, hence pot limit, as opposed to no-limit where you can bet any amount). The flop and betting rounds are the same as in Texas Holdem. The rule with using your 4 cards, is that you must exactly use 2 from the hole and 3 on the flop. If you had one Heart suit in your hand and four Heart suits flop out, that is not counted as a flush. It’s the same thing with straights, say you have the Ace of Clubs and 10 to King flop out, it is not counted as a straight (unless you have any other matching straight cards in the 4 that you hold in your hand). If you are just used to playing Texas Holdem, it can be confusing at times (and expensive to your bankroll).
Well, back to the game at hand. As I stated before I bought in for $100.00, not a big risk if I happen to lose it. It was for good use, the education of a poker player. I folded quite a bit during the first 30 minutes, as I didn’t seem to obtain any premium hands. That is a good strategy for beginning players in any poker game, as it also allows you to observe the action of the other players during their hands. The Aussie player seemed to be getting all the big pots, as he busted the loose English and loose American player, once each. Then this hand came up when I had a pair of Kings Spade/Club, Jack of Clubs and Queen of Spades. This was a fairly good wrap around (straight possibilities), 2nd nut flush and big pair combo hand. The Aussie player raised it to $7.00 under the gun. The loose player from the States (like it’s a foreign country to me, hehe) called, the tight States player called, I called from the small blind and the English player called. There was $35.00 in the pot at that time. The flop came up rainbow, Queen of Clubs, 2/3 of spades. That is a pretty good flop for my hand. I had top pair with King kicker and the 2nd nut flush draw. I had some good potential, to be the best hand or potentially best hand at this point. I was in the small blind and decided to check. I was not in a really good position to bet the pot, as I would be the first to act on every street. I didn’t want to bet, then get reraised and be put on a decision to basically call off the rest of my chips. I also thought about reraising anybody who bet the flop, to try to isolate the raiser. Anyway, the English player checked, the Aussie player checked, loose States player bet $20.00 and the tight States player folded. The bet then came to me. I thought for a minute and called the $20.00 to see what would develop on the turn. The English player folded and the Aussie called. There was now $95.00 on the pot, with 3 of us left in play. The dealer dealt a 7 of clubs on the turn. Wow, now I had a 2 way 2nd nut flush draw, an overpair with the Kings in my hand and top pair with King kicker. I believe I would be even money with anybody with 3 of kind (which would be the best possible hand at that time – no potential straights nor flushes could be possible at this time). I thought again for a minute and decided to check again, to see what the other 2 players would do. The Aussie checked and the loose States player bet out the pot of $95.00. Now the pot contained $190.00. I had $73.00 bucks left and the pot odds were offering me about 2.5 to 1. That should be an even call for me for a 2 way 2nd nut flush draw, top pair and an overpair. If somebody held the potential best hand of 3 of a kind, I could still win on the river with a club flush, spade flush, or another King for top set (i.e. 3 of a kind). I decided to call for the rest of my chips. The Aussie player also called the $95.00 the loose States player bet. This created a side pot for those two players of $44.00 bucks. The pot I could only win would be in the amount of $314.00. The river was dealt a Jack of Hearts. I can’t beat a set now, but I got top two pair, the pair of Kings in my hand would not count, as the best two cards in my hand would have to be used to create the best possible hand for me, two pair Queens and Jacks. I flipped my cards up first and the Aussie folded. I was sure that I was beat by the loose States player. He showed Queen/Seven for two pair as well. Wow, I won the main pot of $314.00. This is a cool game, hehe.

Another interesting hand that I held, was when I held a pair of Tens Heart/Spade and Nine/Eight of Diamonds. This time I was on the dealer button. To make it simple, all 5 of us made a call of the cutoff player’s (this time it was the tight States player) raise of $6.00 bucks. There was $30.00 bucks preflop. The dealer then dealt out Six of Diamonds, Six of Hearts and Seven of Diamonds. Nice flop for me, even though it may have hit someone with a full house or at least trip Sixes. I had a draw to a straight flush with the Five and Ten of Diamonds. Man if the Ten of Diamond hits, I would get a full house and a straight flush, wheeee!!! My chances of that are pretty low, that’s 2 cards out of 31 to hit, a 7% chance at best. It went check, check, check, check to me. I bet out $15.00 bucks into the pot. The Aussie player folded, the English player called, loose States player folded and the tight States player folded. The dealer then turned a Ten of Diamonds. Wow, that’s nice – got me straight flush with a full house to back it up – the stone cold nuts. The English player led out with a bet of $30.00 bucks. I did an acting job of looking back at my cards and thinking about what to do, when I know all along that I will just call his bet and punish him on the river. After my act of contemplation, I made the “crying call” of $30.00 bucks. The river is dealt, which is a Jack of Diamonds. Now I have my super straight flush. Man, I wish everybody was in this pot. The English player quickly checks. I look at the board intently and bet $40.00 bucks, into a pot of $120.00. I should have really bet more like $60.00 to $70.00 bucks. I wanted him to reraise me if he hit a full house or maybe even 4 of a kind (with the Sixes, for the 2nd nuts). Anyway, he made the crying call of $40.00 – I guess he kinda knew that he lost the hand, but called with 4 to 1 on his money at that point (I was thinking he probably hit a flush too). I flipped up my cards and showed him that I hit a straight flush and full house. He showed us that he hit a King high flush. Thanks for that Ten of Diamonds baby. The dealer pushed the pot to me, nice…

I decided to call it quits after only a couple of hours, as the Aussie had been pounding on the English and loose States player for their chips. I felt that the action was about to dry up. I just about quadrupled my stack within that time, so it was definitely not a bad day. Some people think that to be successful in poker, you have to stack up monster wins (which is probably right, hehe). When you are starting out, I think you will still need to grind out these small wins. If you play your best at all times, in for the long haul, your results should tell in time. It was about 3 am at that point and was hungry. I cashed out my poker comp, which got built back to $15.00 bucks. Nice – I was fiending for pancakes and bacon, yum yum…

In search of the perfect haircut...

7/15/08

The title is kind of an oxymoron for me. If you known me for the past some odd years, you know that I've probably grown my hair out once. Usually I get my head shaved with a "half" or "numma won" guard, all around my scalp. Not a hard job for my "stylist". Hell, I could even do it myself, as I have clippers of my own. I just don't want to deal with the mess. I just love getting that shampoo/scalp massage after the cut. Especially in Las Vegas, I like having my scalp damp, to cool off a bit from this heat.

Anyway, I've been house/dog sitting at my cousin's house just south of the Strip. It's kind of in the boondocks. It's not like back home in San Jose, where asian salons are at each nook, cranny and corner of the city. $10.00 fades with $2.00 shampoo are the norm in the Bay. I usually went to Michelle at Hair Today on Cropley and Capitol, the northside of SJ. She would usually waive the shampoo "fee", because I would hook her up with a good tip. I miss those shampoos, a good sitting with a scalp massage was always a cure for a hard day at work. I always felt "faklempt" after my haircut/shampoo from Michelle. I'm gonna pause and tear for a while, sorry.....

Back to the task at hand...Well, I ventured into Chinatown (Las Vegas' version), off of Spring Mountain Road and Decatur. I'm driving through - dang where is an asian hair salon here? Dim sum, massage parlors, Big Lots - where the hell is one? I see one at the Big Lots shopping center area. I park and walk in - no menu selection for haircuts for men. Hmmm, should I go, if it's not posted? The owner, Sharon greets me and asks me for what I want. I ask her how much a haircut and shampoo is. She tells me $15.00 total. Kinda' high I think. Well, I'm here, I'll just test it out I guess. She wants to shampoo me first, I tell her that I want shampoo after the haircut. She says no and says it's better to shampoo first, so that my hair is clean. She will rinse my scalp after the haircut, so that it will be fully clean. I was about to walk out, but decided that it's worth a try - I don't want to search for another hair salon all day. We then go to the shampoo chair, where I put a towel around my neck and sit down. She then rinses my hair for 10 seconds, dollops a squirt of shampoo on my head, then mixes it into my hair for approximately 7 seconds, rinses it off, then we are done. This is not going well for me. She then takes me back to her station to start the haircut. I asked her to give me "half guard" shave around my scalp. She sort of protests and says that it's better to do "half guard at the bottom, and one guard at the top of my head" - I don't want to look like a mushroom. I told her just to use half guard all the way around my scalp, easy right? She completes the haircut and rinses my
head for 10 seconds and we are done. I pay her $17.00 bucks total and I leave.

I miss Michelle. That's the last time I will go there. I'm going to have to find Indy and go out on a mission to find the Lost Ark of the Haircut/Shampoo/Scalp Massage Covenant. Hopefully I don't turn up any dust...

Vegas Baby...

7/12/08

Vegas Baby...

Man…just got done with a poker session at Treasure Island. I have been playing tight, as most of the players I observe played very loosely. I started out with $300.00 bucks on the table. Toward the end of this poker session, my stack went down to about $140.00, when I woke up with pocket Aces (Heart and Spade) in the big blind. Prior to me looking down at my cards, the button raised it to $15.00. The small blind folded and I in turn re-raised the button to $40.00. The button contemplated for a minute and called my bet. The flop came out Jack of Hearts, Seven of Clubs and Eight of Hearts. The pot held about $90.00. My only fear is that he held pocket Jacks. I then went all in for my last $100.00 and was quickly called by the button player, with of course his set of Jacks. Turn came Ten of Hearts, so I’m hoping for a river Heart and/or Ace to scoop. Any non Heart Nine would chop the pot as well. But the 4 of Diamonds hit the river of course. How you like them apples? At least I got a $28.00 dollar poker room comp ($2.00 comp for every hour played, not bad) for food, which probably equates to food for 0.75 people on the Strip, lol…But no, I used $15.00 of it at Canter’s Deli to drown my sorrows with a Coke, a kosher hot dog and for dessert, frozen chocolate custard. Mmm, mmm…Will try to get further hours in at the poker room, so I can actually have enough to feed two or more people – that’s my motivation, hehe…I’ll tell you what, if you are a poker player, you’ve seen your Aces go down in flames as well. The day before, I was playing at Treasure Island. I too cracked the Aces with my pocket Jacks on a one outer on the river (it does feel good, so I have experienced both sides baby)…
As for my tournament sessions, I have played a total of 4 poker tournaments to date. I played in 2 $80.00 NLHE tournaments at Orleans, a deep stack NLHE event at Caesars for $235.00 and an Omaha 8 or Better Tournament. I couldn’t crack the top 30% of the field yet, but hopefully the cards will even out and I can cash in my future events. You still need some premium hands to get through these fields. I was pretty card dead throughout, and was surprised that I made it as far as I had in these fields. All in all, I thought I had done a pretty decent job, even though my actual results have not shown it so far.

I still think about this hand I had in the Caesars tourney, where the blinds were $50/100, in the second level. This tourney was a pretty good format, where you started with $7,500.00 in chips and the blind levels increased every 45 minutes. In this particular hand, I raised from mid position with Four/Five of Spades to $250.00 (trying to make a deceptive raise, as I would try to control the size of the pot and if I hit a good flop, I could then reap the rewards). I got a call from the dealer button and big blind. In the pot was $800.00. The flop comes out all Spades, Six, Queen and Ace. The big blind contemplates for a minute and shoves in the rest of her chips, to the amount of $5,300.00. That is a big over bet, I probably most likely have the best hand with a baby flush. I tried to put her on a range of hands. I thought she may have Ace with King of Spades, two pair Aces/Queens or maybe a set of Sixes. She would have probably re-raised preflop if she had pocket Aces or Queens. I had the nuts so far, but she could draw out on me on the turn and river for the nuts. I thought about the situation, I only had $250.00 in the pot, I still had $7,400.00 behind. If I called her and lost, I would basically be a short stack with about 20 blinds. I still had to think about what the dealer button player would do as well, but he looked like he was going to fold (his right hand was holding his cards near the muck – not a sign of strength). After a few minutes of thinking, I decided to fold. When the dealer button folded, the all in player showed her hand to me and the table. She had a set of Sixes. I probably would have called her if I had a redraw to the nuts (even though I had the nuts itself at the time). I guess you can make a case for folding and calling. I think in this situation, I felt that the fold was in order, as I still had effectively 74 bets, being this early in the tournament, I would have plenty of time to stack up in chips.

Another hand that bailed me out, was when I had pocket Kings and still held on to about $7,700.00 in chips. The action went like this. Under the gun player goes all in for $5.600.00, I quickly went all in after him, everybody behind me folded, and the dealer button called my all in. The small and big blinds fold. The UTG player flipped up Ace/Jack OS, I flipped up my Kings and the dealer button flipped up his pocket Queens. The flop brings up brings up nothing for each of us. The turn pairs a Jack for the UTG player. Jesus, blank it on the river! The river hits air. Wow, I chip up to about $20,000.00, lovin’ it.

During the $600/1200 blind level with $100.00 antes – I hold about $16,000.00 in chips – which is dangerous territory with my short stack. In this hand all the players folded to me in the small blind, where I held Jack/Four OS. The pot had $2,800.00 in the pot already. The big blind had approximately $4,000.00 left (including his big blind). I thought for a minute and felt that I wanted to gamble with the big blind at that time. If I fold, I would leave a much needed $2,800.00 on the table. If I lose, I would have $12,000.00 left in chips, pretty much leaving me on the same situation, but I still would have some fold equity during the rest of the round of play, before I get back to the blinds. I decided to put the big blind all in and he called with his King/Five OS. It was pretty much a random race situation. But of course the board blanked for both of us and he won with King high. In the very next hand, everybody folded to me in at the dealer button, I peeled the cards up and saw Ace/Eight OS. I paused for a second and pushed in with my last $12,000.00, leaving the small and big blind much fold equity. Anyway the small blind player agonized for a few minutes before calling with his King/Queen OS. A race situation again, at least I had the best of it. The flop brought out Eight, Nine and Ten OS. Cool I flopped a pair, but the small blind had 4 more additional outs with Jacks to win, along with Kings and Queens. The turn brought a sexy Two…but whattaya know, the river brought him his pretty Queen. Sucks…The next consecutive hand, all the players folded, but to my right the big stack player opened for $4,000.00. I then looked at my cards and saw Ace/Eight of Clubs. I had only $3,500.00 left, so it was a natural call. The dealer button, small blind and big blind quickly folded. The player to my right flipped up pocket Sevens. Cool, a race at least, a coin flip at best. Again the board bricked out for me and I was out of the tournament. I placed 120 out of 457. Not bad, but not good – no money!


7/13/08

Today I hung out with Ms. X (I don’t have permission to use her name yet) , who is a friend of my buddy Frank and my cousin Danny in Sacramento. She is originally from Sacramento and moved to Las Vegas a couple of years ago, when she was sent out by the card room she was working for in Sacramento, sent her to the Bellagio for a week for an employee appreciation event. She decided to call in sick after her event was up at the Bellagio and stay in Las Vegas to deal poker. She now works for of course the Bellagio in the poker room. We talked a bit about some of the players she has dealt for there. Tonight she is dealing in “Bobby’s Room”, which is where the big sharks play. The usual stakes are $4,000/8000 Limit Holdem, with a player pot cap of $100,000.00 (meaning any one player can only lose up to a maximum of $100,000.00 on each hand, cool…You can buy a decent two bedroom condo for that in Vegas, hehe). You gots to have some balls to put up the equivalent of your house value in play at any time. Crazy. It surprised me, but then didn’t surprise me that some of the players there (usually the old school ones) are pretty rude to the dealers and each other. Television doesn’t show that stuff – well, of course not, they wouldn’t be able to market these big time players. The thing that was funny to me was that she made more in tips at the lower level games (i.e., $2/5 No Limit Holdem, $4/8 Limit Holdem) than the “Big Game” at times. Sometimes she would get a tip of $5.00 after dealing a pot of over a couple hundred thousand. I told her I was tipping too much then, as I usually tip the dealer $1.00 to $5.00 depending on the size of the pot I won. I got to pick her mind about the game and got some tidbits about the games in Las Vegas.

I was feeling a bit down after all these early losses in the tournaments and cash games I’ve recently played. But I thought about it, it’s still early and I know it’s a process. Find the right game, just play your best each time and the success should come. You can also find a bit of short term happiness getting a lap dance from a half Chinese/Mexican stripper named Charmane (Thursday to Saturday nights only, as her “real job” is a hairdresser in Huntington Beach – I love interviewing strippers!) at the Rhino..Well maybe not, no potential to win your money back…Am I funny or what?