Sunday, March 29, 2009

Crazy For Cucusoft...

3/29/09

Crazy For Cucusoft...

Yup...I am...Well, also crazy for Peanut Butter Cap'n
Crunch, but that's another subject to be discussed at a
later time. Who knew what this simple software program
would do to my life.

Any free time I have, is dedicated to decoding and
uploading more movies into my Ipod. I'm up to about 25
gigs in media so far. I may have to stop soon. I may
burnout of downloading so many movies, that I really won't
have time for poker, hehe. Or watch them for that matter.
I will need to hire a personal assistant soon to get my
whole DVD collection ripped and put on my Itunes, hehe.

I guess it's better to get all these movies in now, and
to not wait until later on, right? Word, to your motha's
uncle...

Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Taste Of Victory, Part II - No Not the P.Diddy Remix...

3/28/09

The Taste Of Victory, Part II - No, Not the P.Diddy Remix...

Today, I checked out the new M Resort Hotel/Casino, located
on South Las Vegas Blvd. It's not near the Strip at all,
but a welcome site in a sea of cookie cutter housing
subdivisions in southeast Vegas. But believe you me, this
place is pretty plush. I would rank it as one of the best
looking locals casinos off the Strip.

It seemed pretty busy too, but that may be the fact that
this is a new casino and that we're in the middle of
March Madness college b-ball.

I've been meaning to check out the poker room, so it was
a perfect excuse when one of my co-workers mentioned that
they started NLHE tournys there this week. So, this morning
I met up with him and a buddy of his, to play in the tourny.

The tourny buy-in is $55.00, where you get $3,000.00 in
tourny chips. The blind levels change every 30 minutes,
so you got a little bit more time to play poker and not
necessarily gambo gambo in the first level of blinds.
I think there was a total of 45 players.

I think I've mentioned it before, I'm kinda' glad that
I don't pick up pocket Aces or Kings in the beginning
of tournys, because of the commitment to play them to
the end of the flop at times. And, I hate getting
badbeated or "outlucked", lol. But again, I wish every
starting hand could be either pocket Aces or Kings
everytime, hehe.

Anyway, the 3 of us traded ten percent of our gross
winnings, if any of us make the cash. I always offer it,
it's like insurance for you in the tournament. You have
a couple more chances to win, ya' know.

I made a semibluff early in the tournament to chip up a
bit and try to show my initial table, that I was willing
to gamble with the worse hand on the flop. It basically
went like this. We were about 8 handed on my first
table. A couple of the players had already gotten
knocked out. It was during the first few minutes of
the third level of blinds $100/200. I had only about
$3,000.00 in total at the time and was in the big
blind. A mid position player (pretty erratic guy, but
had a good stack of about $7,000.00 chips) called the
big blind, the next player who called was the dealer
button (filipino guy probably about my age or older,
he played pretty good, he said he was a part time
dealer too), the small blind player (white senior
citizen dude) called and I then peeled up Queen/Four
of Clubs, where I checked my option to raise. The
flop came out 6 of Spades, Five of Clubs and Two of
Clubs. I had a gutshot straight draw, flush draw and
an overcard with the Queen. Some good possibilities,
but basically Queen high at this time. The small
blind checked, I checked, and the midposition player
checked. When it got to the dealer button player, he
stared at the flop for about a minute and made a bet
of $600.00, so now the pot held about $1,400.00 total.
The small blind player folded, so now it was up to me.
I paused to think what the dealer button and midposition
players could have. I was thinking they both held
some type of marginal Ace or facecards, where they
didn't hit the flop, as it came pretty low. I then
looked at my chips and it didn't feel right just to
call the bet from the dealer button player. Since I
had "outs", I felt the better play was to raise all
in. I mean, he could have the better hand at this
time, but I had the turn and river cards to hit my
hand. Like I said before, I don't think the dealer
button player and midposition player had any thing
on the flop, so my bet should elicit folds from both
players. I ruled out flush draws for the other 2 players
as well, as I seemed to notice that they would overbet
their flush draws. Alright back to the grill again, the
midposition player then asks me what I have, trying to
get a response. I just look at him and say nothing.
He folds, whew, now to the dealer button player. He says
to me that he has a pair of Fives on the flop, but no
clubs, again trying to elicit a response from me. He
thinks for about 30 seconds, folds and says "good bet".
You know what, I think to myself, I'm gonna' show my
hand here. I want to show a bit of table image to the
other players, that I am willing to gamble it up with
them, "So don't mess with me FOOL!", hehe.

Throughout the tourny, I didn't get into many confrontations,
where I was called all in for my toubrnament life. The only
all in that was called by another player, was when I had Trip
Sevens. The sequence was that the UTG player (an older
lady) limped in, everybody folded, the small blind player
(white dude my age) just called and I peeled up Ten/Seven
OS. I checked my option. The flop was dealt Six/Seven/Seven
of all different suits. Beautiful, the small blind player
checked, I checked and the UTG player checked. The turn
was dealt a Queen. I decided not to check and made a pot
sized bet (approx $3,000.00, I had about $4,000.00 left)
and hoped somebody hit a Queen. The UTG player went all in
and the small blind player folded (he said he folded Ace/Queen,
wow, that was a good laydown). I of course called and pleaded
the poker gods to not give me a suckout on the river. The
river was dealt a pretty Ace of Diamonds. Dang, I wish she
didn't go all in, the small blind player, might have called
with his eventual top 2 pair. It's all good, I got more than
doubled up.

I also made a good call when this other player went all in.
I had pocket Nines in the cutoff and started to think about
what he could have. The other player who went all in, seemed
to be a pretty good player, but I felt he had a wide range
of what cards he would go all in with preflop. I was also
thinking about what the other players behind me would do.
They seemed pretty tight and would not call an all in
without some made hand or at least Ace/Queen. The lady to
my right even folded Ace/King of Diamonds to this same guy
a few hands ago, when she had him outchipped. I mean, that
is a tight laydown, especially with the blind amounts at
the time. Anyway, I felt that I had the guy beat and I
would take a race if he had overcards (I was thinkin' he
had Ace/Rag though). After I called his all in (I had less
chips), the other players folded and we flipped up our cards.
Whattaya' know, he had Ace/Five OS. Cool, just have to outrun
his Ace on the flop. The flop came out Five/Three/Two of
Clubs, luckily he had no clubs, but gross anyway, now he
had 2 Fives, 4 Fours and 3 Aces to win (he had 9 outs).
The turn was dealt a 6 of Diamonds, whew. The river card
was dealt a nonthreatening Ten of Diamonds, double whew.


I didn't really have any further confrontations the rest of
the tourny. We got to five handed and decided to chop the
pot. The blinds were getting very big and each of us were
pretty much the same in chips. It would be a luckfest the
rest of the way. Got paid about a little over 6 to 1 on
my buyin, I then gave $30.00 bucks each to my coworker and
his buddy for their ten percent. Not bad for a Saturday
afternoon. Wish it was a Bellagio Saturday $1K tourny
win though, hehe.

Funny thing before chopped, was that the last 6 of us
decided to contribute another additional ten bucks for the
bubble person (the tourny was to pay only the top 5 spots),
so the bubble person would at least get most of their money
back. The bubble person was talking pretty bold in the
beginning of 6 handed play, saying that she would chop only
if she got the actual first place money of about $560 and
then the rest of us would chop the rest. She wasn't even
a dominant chip leader at the time, I think she had maybe
3 or 4 more bets than the next chipleader. She was the one
who laid down Ace/King of Diamonds earlier. Then she mentioned
that she wanted to chop earlier, when she only had 2 bets left.
Karma is a biznatch, hehe. She eventually bubbled in 6th place
and got her $60.00 (her net equity was actually negative
$5.00, take that you scurred Ace/King Diamonds laydowner! - the
other guy at the time had Ace/Jack OS - she dominated him, lol).
To live by the sword, you must die by the sword baby...

See y'all on the felt. I will be taking investors in the next
Bellagio tourny or the WSOP, I'll keep you posted, lol...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Finally...

3/26/09

Finally...

I dunno why I lag on things like this. I finally got the sofware
to decode DVD's into MPEG4 format for my Ipod. I've had my 80g
Classic since last year, and have yet to use its full capability.

I only had about 8 or 9 Gigs of media in the thing since then, and
never added anything else to it for a while.

Well, syncin' it the wrong way a couple of days ago, must have
put the fire back in me. I erased my playlist and didn't have
a backup playlist on my Itunes. So, I had to copy a bunch of
my cd's (what are those? hehe...) and purchase some songs and
videos on Itunes.

I then thought to myself, that I have a bunch of DVD's collecting
dust under the flatscreen, I might as well copy those as well.

I got the Cucusoft program to decode the DVD's into MPEG4 format
and have been rippin away. It's pretty easy to use. Believe
me, I'm from Silicon Valley, but far removed from the techogeek
set - it was perfect...

I still only got about 14 Gigs of media...66 to go, lol...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

In and Out, Fast Food Style...

3/22/09

In and Out, Fast Food Style...

This weekend was a blur. This was my shortest stay so
far coming back home. 2 nights went by pretty quick.

I guess 2 nights in Vegas as a tourist seems alot longer.
It's probably because you are up all day and night doin'
whatever may be - gettin' drinks poolside, waiting in
line at Tao for 4 hours (because your ass is too cheap
to get bottle service, hehe), hoping your double down
at Blackjack hits, etc...

Seein' my lady after a month was great. I'll be mushy
and say that I was counting out the days and hours.
We spent the day Saturday, up in the City and checked
out a couple of spots here in there.

Tommy's Joynt on Geary, should be a must go for you hole
in the wall types.

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We shared a roast beef sandwich with swiss cheese
on sourdough (pretty tasty). It's not for you upscale
ma'arte types though. We then hung out and shopped
around Union Square, before heading back to San Jose.

It was also great to see my family after over a couple
of months. We got to go celebrate my pops Bday
Saturday night at the Fish Market. Was feeling like
a steak that night (after eating fish all day Friday,
due to my Catholicness), but ended up getting oysters
fish and chips style. It was pretty good. Nothing like
battered and fried food items, they're the best.

Sunday went by fast as well. Finished up my taxes with
my uncle in the morning. Got Viet food in the afternoon.
Then met up with Triple D's (Dave, Deb and Danielle)
at Pizza California, with Shuggs before leavin' on a
jetplane back to Vegas.

I wish again that I could have met up with more of my
peeps there - but hey, I'll probably see them in Vegas
in the next few months. Summer and the World Series of
Poker is just around the corner. The season when the
playas' play and mountain of chips can be found on the
green felt of our terra firma we call Sin City.

Wishful thinking...

P.S. Ooh...found a nice surprise in my bag when
I got home. I got a Team Pacquiao Nike Tshirt for
pasalubong from my cousin Jorge in the PI. Props
bro, been trying to find one like that for the
past year. Pinoy Size L, fits just fine. I just
got to make sure I don't put the tee in hot
water when I wash it or I may find myself with
a nice baby tee for summer, lol...

Heatin' Up...

3/20/09

Heatin' Up...

Who knew that 85 degrees would feel hot to me in this
godforsaken town. I guess after a few months of
60 degree weather, the jump in temperature is a bit of a
shock to the system.

I'm just glad the a/c system in Taylor the Jeepney
is working just fine. Kinda surprised the air blowin' out
of it is ice cold, just like it just came out of the
factory. I will definitely need in good working order,
for the hell of a summer that is coming up.

I do remember those triple digit days when I first moved to
Sin City. Whoowee, at least I can sweat off a few pounds
by just living here.

Anyway, I'm at McCarran Int'l Airport, waiting for my
flight back home to the Bay. I guess I can't come to call
Vegas home, I'm just a tourist on extended stay, hehe.

Hope the poker starts heatin' up as well. 2 out 3 tournament
cashes ain't so bad for the year. That would be a great
winning percentage. I just need to get a little lucky and
also on the other hand, not get outlucked. I think I
have this tourny thing down pat - just go in with the
worst hand and hope it holds up - Wheee!!! Haha!!!

Done for now, boardin' the plane in a few....

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

On A Roll...Right...

3/18/09

On A Roll...Right...

Just finished as chip leader for the mock poker tourny
to pick the 4 man team to represent AAA at the Corporate
Challenge of the City of Las Vegas. Whoohoo, we started
with 7 whoppin' entries, so I had to outlast 3 people to
make the team. It made it easier snapping up over half
the chips in play.

The actual tourny is on 6/2/09 at the Golden Nugget.
I think it will be like some type of shootout format,
where the team will combine their point results together
to get a final "score" for the company team.

I must be on a roll...hehe...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Another Day, Another Dollar...

3/15/09

Another Day, Another Dollar...

This past weekend, some of the homies from the Bay and LA
came into town. Friday was pretty much a blur. If you know
me, I usually wake up automatically by 800 am or so, without
the use of an alarm. I actually slept in until about 1 pm on
Saturday. I would have slept in longer, but woke up due to
the smell of bacon, spam and eggs in the air.

Funny, just had spam and eggs at California Casino at about
600 am that morning. But yo, spam is good anytime of the day.

I did wake up at around 1030 am that morning to take a peepee,
but went right back to sleep, as soon as the tank was on empty.

Now I remember why I do not like taking tequila shots. It's
that damn headache you get the next day. I only had one
shot and maybe 3 other drinks spread out thru 5 or six hours.
That lone tequila shot, put the hammer to the head though.

I decided not to party with them on Saturday night, due
to the fact that I was feeling cheap (I didn't want to pay
for bottle service - I'm pretty much desensitized to the Vegas
club atmosphere in my old age), plus I wanted to have a clearer
head the next day, if I was planning to play in a poker tourny
on Sunday, which I planned to do (as I probably won't play for
the next couple of weeks, because of next weekend's trip
back home and work this week).

Anyway, I planned to play the 12 noon tourny at Caesar's.
Those plans got squashed, when I couldn't get a hold of a
couple of the poker homies that morning. They were probably
still sleeping in after partying the night before. I also
wanted to check out a couple of the last episodes of season
5 of the Soprano's. The past month and a half or so, I've been
rewatching each season. God, I miss that show and Entourage.
Maybe, I need to get into watching Big Love, a Mormon style
Soprano's on HBO, as well.

I decided to make the 3 pm tourny at Caesar's. It has a
buyin of $70.00, with a starting chips stack of $2,500.00.
I really don't like starting with a shortstack off the bat.
The noon tourny starts you off with $7,500.00 in chips, but
the 3 pm tourny would satisfy my poker tourny jones for the
day. Plus the blind levels went up every 30 minutes, so at
least you had more time to try to chip up each level.

Into the second level of blinds, I about doubled up my
starting stack to $5,000.00. I then proceeded to give
chips away until the end of the second level, where I went
back to my starting stack of $2,500.00. At least I was above
10 big bets and had some fold equity at the start of the
3rd level of blinds.

Again, I really had no premium hands throughout the
tourny. I had pocket Kings once where I went all in with about
7 big bets, with no callers. Better to win the dead money,
then get coolered by Ace Rag on the river.

The tourny started with about 55 people and would pay the
top 6 finishers. Luckily, we got down to 7 handed and we
all decided to give 7th place $60.00 for a bubble finish.

I was reading the other players pretty well and won a few
coinflips.

My all in over the top of another all in player with Ace/Ten
of Spades. I had the the other player outchipped 2 to 1,
but was looking to win the blinds/antes as well. I felt
the other player was just making a move with any hand,
and I was willing to race him with my ace suited hand.
Good thing the other player had King/Ten OS, I was
in the lead (which I thought anyway). We both flopped
a Ten on the turn, but no river King for him.

My all in with pocket Sixes, faded Ace/Nine OS (thanks for
the call you donk!, hehe - I can't believe I got called
by that hand. He practically called off all his chips
with that hand, after just putting in one bet initially.
Well, that's a call I wanted. The longer he took to call,
the better I felt, that I was ahead in the hand. Cool,
another double up.

My all in with Ace/Eight of Spades against pocket Jacks,
brought me an Ace on the flop, plus I runner runnered
the nut flush. Lovin' it. Double up time again.

My all in with Ace/Six of Spades (while in the money),
got called by Ace/Ten OS. I rivered a straight. I
couldn't believe that I was called by that hand either.
There are such a range of hands that beat Ace/Ten OS.
I can't blame the guy, he did make the right call, if
he put me on Ace/Rag or a baby pair. I think even, if
I put another person on Ace/Rag or a baby pair, I would
fold Ace/Ten OS, if I had no money in the pot. But hey,
that call from the other player doubled me up.

I had to make a couple of key laydowns, where I felt I
was behind in the hand (even with top pair). The other players
showed their hands after I folded, and was indeed behind in the
hand. It's better to save chips, then dump them off needlessly.

Kinda' surprised myself gettin' that far without really
any premium hands. Well, I had pocket Jacks a couple of
other times - but I got no callers with my raises at those
times. I could have raised with air and still get the dead
money.

Oh yeah, my bust out hand was King/Eight OS. I had only
about 6 big bets at the time and was under the gun.
The dead money in the pot was about a 30% of my stack at
the time. I might as well try to steal it. I went all
in and was called by the chip leader (who actually deliberated
folding his hand). He called my with Ace/Ten OS (saw
alot of Ace/Ten combos throughout the tourny, weird).
Anyway, the flop came out Nine/Seven/Six rainbow. About
the best flop I could get. I was on a open end straight
draw with a King. I had ten outs twice (3 Tens, 4 Fives
and 3 Kings - on the turn and river - I'll take
that). The turn came a Jack - still have the same outs.
The river hit an Eight. The other player thought he lost,
by me making a pair of Eights. The dealer and I pointed
out that he made a straight. The luck tank ran out.
I can't say it's all luck - I was the one usually initiating
the action with my raises and all ins.

God, so close...When can I get a first place again?
Again, better to cash, than, bust out right before the money.
So close...

Maybe, I'm leadin up to the winner's circle again.

Feels cool...even though the amount I won is what Mr. Wynn
wipes his nose with each day.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Taste Of Victory, Well A Sniff Of It At Least...

3/10/09

The Taste Of Victory, Well A Sniff Of It At Least...

Wow, it's been a few weeks since I last updated the
good old blog. Been busy workin' at AAA, part time at my
buddy's title business, and with some property management
issues. Plus, like I've said before - getting from point
A to point B in Vegas, is like driving from San Jo' to the
City - each damn way.

Anyway, after Vday weekend, my lady swung back from New
Mexico into Las Vegas the next weekend. Japes, his
girl and some of their friends were also in town for the
vacation and to play in some of the Deep Stack poker events
at the Venetian and Caesar's. Actually got to watch one
of his buddy's at the final table of a $300 event at
Venetian, the Friday after Valentine's day weekend. His
first tourny and he made a 4th place cash, which was good
for a great return on his $300. I'lll tell you this,
it was more than I made for my first place at Lucky Chances,
which now seems years ago, and if you remember that, that
was a good chunk of dolla' bills, hehe.

I decided to play a Mega Stack Poker tourny at Caesar's
the next day, on Saturday with JP. The buyin was for $340.00
total, which included the bonus, for a total of $15,000.00 in
tournament poker chips. The blind levels lasted 50 minutes
each. Pretty good value for the tourny, as you could have
a lot of play for the chipstack amount. Not necessarily
be gambo' gambo', but you could have the luxury of picking
your spots, without your tournament life on the line
in the first couple of rounds. A total of 155 players
played and they would pay the top 18.

The gameplan has pretty much been the same for me at each
tournament I play. I do not want to get into any big
confrontations early, unless I have the nut hand or if I have
a big enough stack to afford losing to some person who gets
lucky on me at the river. Playing small ball suits me these
days - I think back in the day, I would be willing to throw
it all in with Ace/King.

Recognizing spots to just call without putting a large
investment in the pot was a strategy that I wanted to employ
during the tournament. Ask Japes, he saw me do it time and
time again. I think everybody gets too hung up on raising
every hand and pot they enter. I think if you do that too
much, you can trap yourself in a hand. I'm not going to tell
you how I employed this strategy, hand by hand. I will tell
you it is a good way to build chips, without much of a hand.
You have to determine yourself when, how and who to employ
this strategy.

As in any poker tournament, there are times when you have to
get lucky. One hand I had, which Japes witnessed, and he
declared, "Vintage Scotty!". It's not like I wanted to get
lucky in the hand, but I was glad I did though. I made it
past the dinner break, Japes had already busted out, where
I found that my stack began to dwindle. Usually, if I am
around 10 to 15 big blinds, it is "All In" time. I just don't
do it indiscriminately. I try to find a good spot to make
my shove. Plus, I can't wait for pocket Aces or Ace/King
all day. This time, I shoved with a Five/Four of Diamonds.
I got one caller on the dealer button who had Ace/Ten OS.
I thought to myself, good it's a race, at least he doesn't
share any of my outs. The dealer dealt out Ace of Diamonds,
3 of Hearts and 5 of Hearts. What a flop, I have more outs
to win. 2 Fives, 3 Fours and 4 Twos, for a total of 9.
Ooh baby, the dealer dealt a turn card of Two of Diamonds.
Now I have a wheel straight, now the other player is drawing
to 3 outs for a chop (the remaining 4's in the deck). The
dealer dealt the river card which was an inconsequential
Ten of Clubs, which gave the other player a losing hand of
2 pair. I busted the other player, because I had $500 more
in chips. That was a nice double up. I didn't even celebrate,
cause it was still a long road ahead. Why should I celebrate,
we still had to get through 15 other players to get to the
money.

Back into grind mode now. After a few more hours, we
got to the money. We were now 2 tables of 9 each. To
make a long story short. I busted out in 11th place.
Made about 3 times my buyin, then gave 20% cut to Japes per
our trade. I guess I should be proud of the result.
Getting that far without having really any premium hands
is sometimes amazing to me. I only got pocket Aces once,
sometime in the early blind levels - where I raised it
under the gun, but got no callers at all (well, at least
I didn't bust out on them, lol).

I think my actual victory was that this was the first time
my girlfriend saw me play poker. She must have been bored
out her mind, but she did give me inspiration while playing.
Thanks hun!

And a first place would have been sweet as well, hehe...

Anyway, almost had the same result last Saturday at tourny
at the Orleans. Out of 69 players, I busted out at 13th,
just 6 away from the money. Jeez...

See you on the felt kids...