The House of Pain

It was rare to see so many grizzled veterans sitting at the poker table with their mouths agape, yet this is what happened at the Bellagio the other night.

Normal raised pot preflop with 2 protagonists, followed by a rainbow flop of K 7 3.

Postflop action was bet, raise, re-raise, all-in, call.

The board then ran out to (K 7 3) T J.

Following protocol, the called all-in sheepishly tabled AQ for the nut straight, while the other guy just stared in disbelief, throwing his AK faceup into the muck.

As the dealer was pushing the huge pot and before we all recovered, the young nerdy gentleman sitting next to me had already keyed in the hand into his smartphone app and whispered, "Geez, AK was 98.1% favorite on the flop!"

Yeah, that's sure to give me some comfort next time I get sucked out on when only a 93% favorite.

We chose this path

I have no one to blame for the sick feeling I have in the pit of my stomach but myself. The greasy sack of shit in the 2 seat who called my huge all-in raise with an open ender despite the terrible odds, and the prick of a dealer with a shaved head who so conveniently conjured up the requisite suckout card, are simply nausea-inducing lowlifes that come with the territory, and shouldn't really affect me. Yet every so often there is a perfect confluence of circumstances whereby my well-entrenched embracement of variance seems to vanish. Like at the Aria now.

Poker Hall of Shame IX

On Sunday I played for 6 hours at the MGM Grand poker room, not by any means a long session for me. They have a cheap, primitive, non-swivel, non-adjustable chair, the designers of which deserve to be publicly flogged. Today my buttock muscles were sore for the first time in the 10 years that I've been playing poker in Las Vegas. I'm walking around like I've shat myself.

Howard Lederer breaks his silence

The Lederer Files, a video interview Howard Lederer did with PokerNews, was released this week. The 7-part series can be seen on YouTube.

Throughout this whole saga, my policy has been to refrain from any serious commentary that could jeopardize the prospects of the players getting repaid, and I continue to keep the Full Tilt ad on my blog to this day. Anything I had to add was usually of a lighthearted nature. In keeping with this practice, I present some choice snippets from the Lederer Files :

A Big Thank You!

Without going into exact details (though it does involve a rather nasty bad beat), I dove headfirst into the Grand Canal at the Venetian late last night. I would like to personally thank Greg, the quick thinking and courageous young gentleman who jumped in and saved me from almost certain drowning.

Career update

Unfortunately, Big Six Wheel dealer training is proceeding at a very slow pace, much like the motion of the wheel itself. I have no problem with the physical aspects of actually spinning the wheel, nor with the payout calculations. However, I don't see why we have to master such advanced topics as angular velocity, acceleration and kinetic energy, and effects of friction, some of which require solving third-order nonlinear partial differential equations.

Colon hydrotherapy is starting to look good again.

Seven Deuce

Late night session at the Aria and someone suggested we introduce seven deuce to liven things up. Basically, this means that anyone winning with 72, either at showdown or through bluffing, gets paid an agreed-upon sum (in our case $10) by each other player.

The motion was unanimously adopted and naturally the dynamic of the game changed. There were several big pots where players holding 72 risked large amounts of money just to be able to table their bluff and reap the additional $80 reward. I wasn't so bold but did manage to win the $80 when I called a button raise with 72 in the BB, and took the small pot down on the turn.

Here is an example of a well-executed 72 bluff :





Sometimes, however, things get out of control :

Pass the Sugar

The Aria dealer notices that Seat 6 and Seat 7 are having a conversation in a foreign language even though they are not in a hand.

"English only at the table please," requests the dealer.

I crack up laughing, having already identified the "foreigners" as Australians as soon as they had sat down.

"We were speaking in English," responds one of the Aussies.

The dealer, a native-born American, still looks puzzled and, amid bursts of laughter, I assure him that it was indeed English.

Ex Libris Subliminalis

I have heard good things about these 2 books:

Quantum Poker by Derric Haynie and

Playing the Player by Ed Miller

and will soon be adding them to my collection. I find it best to wait for the second edition, which usually has fewer errors and typos than the first, not to mention the inevitable price reduction.

The debasement of poker terminology

"That's not a knife, THAT'S a knife!"

-- Crocodile Dundee

The other day I was on the giving end of a bad beat when I decided that my AKo was good enough to get involved in a preflop raising war between 2 other LAG's. We ended up all-in 3-handed with the following holdings (and preflop equity) :

LAG #1 : As Ah (93.1%)

LAG #2 : Ad Kc (3.6%)

Myself : Ac Ks (3.2%)

Much to the dismay of everyone present, I took down the huge pot with a club flush. THAT is a bad beat.

Matt Matros, a player with a strong math background who I highly respect, talks about his WSOP experiences in Card Player (August 8, 2012). He recounts a hand where his KK was all-in preflop against AKo and an ace came on the river. This is a 70:30 situation and on a bad beat scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 5. Yet he refers to it as a "huge beat" and a "vicious beat". Later on he describes losing a preflop all-in with his A9o vs. QJo as a "bad beat". This is a 57:43 scenario, sometimes loosely referred to as a coinflip, hardly a bad beat.

Wendeen the teaser

US players with account balances on Full Tilt have been given more food for thought as to the prospects of seeing 100% of their funds with this teasing tweet by industry insider Wendeen Eolis. In her last tweet on this very subject, she spoke of a "cloudy forecast".

Schadenfreude and Planet Hollywood revisited

For reasons best left unsaid, I found myself playing poker for the first time in many years at Planet Hollywood on Friday night. I don't particularly like the "room" as it is just a roped off open area surrounded by drunk screaming girls and a generous oversupply of loud music. Communication between players and dealer is done through shouting and, when necessary, with sign language.

Tonight, 24 hours after the event, as I was reading grrouchie's blog I happenstanced upon a link to another blog and after some reading realized that I had actually played with this blogger on Friday night, although I didn't know it at the time. It was no other than Stump, a very amiable young fellow who was seated to my right. I have added his link to my blog list and suggest you take a look.

One lowlight was when I managed to get a straight flush which is normally rewarded by a $200 high hand bonus, provided there is at least $10 in the pot. I was heads-up with a young imbecile who, despite my obvious prompting and hinting, refused to call my $5 bet (which I would have gladly returned to him plus some) to bring the pot over $10, thus denying me the $200 bonus. I let him know my feelings in no uncertain terms, but as it so often happens with the mentally challenged, he couldn't comprehend what had just occurred and refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing or mistake on his part.

A couple of hands later, this very same cretin lost his $200 stack when his turned nut flush was rivered by a boat. As he sat there stunned, I vocally made it known that I was very pleased at the result by shouting "very, very nice hand" at least 4 times to the victor, standing up and applauding while doing so. Fuckstick then slowly left the table accompanied by some subtle, albeit crude, farewell parting shots from yours truly.

PokerStars settles with DOJ and acquires FTP

After many months of rumors, today (Tuesday, July 31, 2012) the online poker community finally received the official news it had been eagerly anticipating. PokerStars issued the following press release :

PokerStars today announced that the Company has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Southern District of New York. As part of the settlement agreement, PokerStars has also acquired the assets of Full Tilt Poker, and has committed to the full reimbursement of Full Tilt Poker customers outside the United States.

The total amount to be paid by PokerStars is USD$547 million which will be payable over a period of three years. The money paid to the US Government will in part be used to reimburse former Full Tilt Poker customers in the United States, through a remission process to be administered by the Department of Justice. PokerStars repaid all amounts owing to its own U.S. customers shortly after it closed its U.S. operations.

PokerStars will also make available in a segregated bank account, all outstanding balances owing to all non-U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker (an amount totalling USD$184 million), with no restrictions on withdrawals, within 90 days of completing this transaction. PokerStars has remained open for non-U.S. players, with all its licenses in good standing, without interruptions.

Under the agreement with the Department of Justice, PokerStars does not admit to any wrongdoing. Furthermore, the agreement explicitly permits PokerStars to apply to relevant U.S. gaming authorities, under both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker brands, to offer real money online poker when State or Federal governments introduce a framework to regulate such activity.

PokerStars plans to re-launch Full Tilt Poker in most markets as a separate brand, following the appointment of a new, independent management team. Full Tilt Poker’s operations will continue to be run from Dublin, but regulatory oversight will be transferred to the Isle of Man. Further details of these plans will be announced shortly.

Intra-hand equity-mood swings

I have AhQs and call a young guy's pre-flop all-in. He tables Ac5d, making me the 72% favorite. Stoic discipline prevents me from showing any signs of elation. He appears disappointed.

Flop : As 7h 5c

The bastard outflops me and his 2 pair now makes him the 73% favorite. Stoic discipline prevents me from showing any signs of dejection. He appears ecstatic.

Turn : 7s

Bingo! His 2 pair is counterfeited and I catapult into the lead as the 87.5% favorite. Stoic discipline prevents me from showing any signs of euphoria. He appears crestfallen.

River : 7d

We split the pot and prepare for the next round.

Full Tilt PokerStars Deal Done?

Unconfirmed report from Wendeen Eolis that negotiations between PokerStars and DOJ are complete :

Breaking News: The ups and downs and glitches in negotiations between PokerStars and the United States Department of Justice with respect to Full Tilt Poker have come to an end.

Without giving away the identity of a consistently impeccable resource, it is now safe to say announcements for public dissemination are in the works. At this point I am ready to go out on a limb; FTP customers will see their monies well in time for Christmas shopping.

Poker Player Newspaper's print edition goes to press before I can provide further details, rest assured the story is a thriller that will be told.

WSOP leaves town

No need to phone in and put my name on the list. Vegas poker rooms are empty shells of their former selves. WSOP and Deep Stack flotsam, the source of many weeks of pre-flop all-ins, shameful calls, and exhausted chip runners, are now but a distant memory.

How much is that? WTF !?!?!

2/5 at the V. I pick up KdTd on the button and limp in with 2 earlier callers, to be joined by the SB and BB. 5-way unraised action with genial Joseph about to deal the flop and yours truly on the button; what could possibly go wrong?

The flop is Kh Jd 9d giving me top pair and the second nut flush draw, not to mention straight flush and gutshot straight draws.

It's checked around to me and I bet $20. Everyone folds except BB, a local regular who calls and has me covered.

The turn is 6d, giving me the 2nd nut flush. BB checks, I make it $45, BB calls.

The river brings a harmless 5s. BB checks again and I go all-in with my remaining $150.

BB looks at the chips I have just pushed across the line, and then asks Joseph, "How much is that?" As he counts out his chips, I am already mentally stacking the chips in the pot that are soon to be pushed my way.

As soon as BB calls and even before he slides his chips over the line, I immediately expose my hand, not wishing to prolong his agony any further. He looks at my cards and then turns over Ad3d, the nut flush.

I decide not to say anything at the table, get up and leave. 20 minutes later I catch up with BB, who is on a break away from the table. I shake his hand and say, "Nice hand. But when I'm all-in and you've got the nuts, why do you ask How much is that ?"

"I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I shouldn't have," he replied and repeated it again. I know this regular and accepted his apology.

My friend wants me to cash him out

I have never played a tournament at the WSOP because I don't play tournaments. And despite reports of juicy cash games, I have resisted the temptation to play any at the Rio. I have always felt that the Wild West atmosphere where thousands of unknowns, with a good sprinkling of vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells among them, are wandering around would not be a safe place to leave my chips unattended during a break. No casino is responsible for chips left on the table, but a regular at the Venetian or Bellagio would be better protected by the dealer, his fellow players, and the superior security and surveillance than that afforded by the transient crowd and staff, and carnival atmosphere at the WSOP.

So it came as no surprise when I read about the case of some guy making off with $20,000 in unattended chips from a cash game table at the Rio on Monday (25th June). "My friend wants me to cash him out," he claimed as he started racking up the chips.

They took reports from everyone but said that ultimately the player was responsible for his own money.

Playing to the crowd

A situation which I'm always looking out for is when a player is approached by a friend who will inquire as to how he is doing. After being updated, the friend will typically hang around for a few hands, standing behind the player who lets him peek at his hole cards.

When this occurs, I have noticed that this particular player may be prone to making some bold multi-barreling bluffs just to impress his friend. I have doubled up on several occasions in this type of scenario.

Liquidity provider

Facebook keeps on falling and is now 26.81. Luckily I didn't average down when I was tempted to. However, the shit has hit the fan, judging by this email from my broker :

Dear XXXXXXX,

Your account is $2,470 in arrears. The check that you forwarded has been returned unpaid.

Please make arrangements for payment of $2,470.

Sincerely,

YYYYYYY

If I sell now, I'll owe the broker about $600. I might as well hang on and owe him 4 times as much.

So, here is my emailed response :

Dear YYYYYYY,

This is highly embarrassing and I apologize for the misunderstanding. I cannot for the life of me imagine why my bank didn't honor the check.

I shall resolve this matter with the urgency it deserves.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX

Hopefully that should hold them off for a few weeks. From a longer term perspective, I would be grateful if someone could stake me in one of the juicy cash games that are now being held all over town. It's either that or providing $5 handjobs behind the old bus station.

Averaging down

I should have realized that something was fishy when my broker accepted my theoretical $2,470 in G-Bucks and issued me 65 Facebook shares at 38. As mentioned in the comments to my last post, I was expecting to offload them at around 50 for a quick profit. Needless to say, they only briefly hit 45 and have been going down ever since, closing at 28.84 today.

Fortunately my broker is probably still buried in IPO paperwork and hasn't noticed the crudely photoshopped check I sent him, which honestly enough does clearly state that it is drawn on the Bank of G-Bucks.

Even though I have a $595 hole to fill in, I'm thinking of averaging down and purchasing another 65 at these levels. You see, I just remembered that I have some more funds at the Bank of Sklansky.

My roll < $38

The losing sessions continue. Everyone's running into the bottom of my range.

Despite my penury and destitution, I have calculated that I am up $2,470 G-Bucks for the year and will be providing my broker with an audited spreadsheet to this effect, hopefully persuading him to allocate me 65 Facebook shares in tomorrow's IPO.

Grim reminder

Each time I walk through, I can't help but notice that there's another tournament series at the Bellagio. I've sworn off tournaments ever since that fat cunt Joanne eliminated me deep in a $1,000 event at the 2005 Festa al Lago, when I was a 98% favorite on the flop.

Palms opens poker room and sports book

As part of a series of upgrades, a new poker room and sports book opened at the Palms today. Cantor Gaming will operate the hybrid sports book-poker room, the first of its kind in Las Vegas.

"A poker player folds eight or nine hands out of ten," Cantor Gaming CEO Lee Amaitis said. "They can watch the other players, but it gets boring. This way, they can bet on a game."

... and eventually join me at the shelter where it gets even more boring.

Hack away

Now that the forums at 2p2 are down owing to the recent hacking, I have had some time to delve into the archives. Fascinating stuff which shows how things have changed since 1997. Some quotes :

"On a related note the fear of flopping a small set when someone flops a bigger set is totally unfounded. I can't even remember the last time this happened to me."

-- Mason Malmuth, 18 August, 1997.

"I would be very surprised if the pot limit game in Oceanside has any problems. This is a major poker room and the game goes on a regular basis. However, with this being said my advice is to concentrate on limit play. That is where poker's future is anyway."

-- Mason Malmuth, 22 September, 1997.

GBT fails in bid, PokerStars to buy FTP

Announcement from GBT :

Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success.

From 2p2 :

PokerStars has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to buy FTP. The things I heard:

* All players will be refunded 100%
* Both sites back online
* Both sites have promotions
* Employees remain in both places

Expect more news today.

Breaking news, still developing.

Six Card Poker

Late one night on my way out of the Venetian, I stumbled upon a new table game, Six Card Poker. No-one was playing at the time so the dealer briefly explained the rules. Apparently it's a Shuffle Master variant of Caribbean Stud and has been open for about one month. Dealer and players each get 6 cards, with the players getting to see 3 of the dealer's cards before having to make any decisions. There is an ante bet (plus 2 other types) and the aim is make the best 5-card hand.

I searched the WizardofOdds site for any info but couldn't find anything. I'd be interested in knowing optimal basic strategy and the house edge. I could dedicate hours of analysis and simulations as an intellectual exercise, but am too preoccupied at the moment.

Addendum, May 4, 2012

The game has finally been analyzed here. If one wishes to indulge in negative expectation activity, then the low house edge (1.27%) makes it an attractive alternative to the other poker carnival games.

Happy Anniversary

Exactly one year since Black Friday, and nearly six years since Bill Frist, Jon Kyl, Jim Leach, and Robert Goodlatte inducted themselves into the dregs of society with the sneaky passing of the UIGEA.

Crunch time

Since dropping out of colon hydrotherapy school, I'm on the lookout for a new career path. Unfortunately I have a limited education and possess very few social skills. On the plus side, I have no criminal record that I'm aware of, and cannot afford to use any of the popular recreational drugs.

I may try dealing school.

Social climbing

Yesterday I experienced one of those rare dream sessions where I happened to be on the right side of variance. Top pair medium kicker holding up, a gutshot on the river. I was beside myself as I made my way to the cashier, clutching a stack of reds in each hand. And I have small hands.

Two hours later I was walking out of Wal-Mart, at long last the proud owner of a pot to piss in.

Limping with aces

lightning36 has a good post about limping with aces. I agree with him that there are definitely situations that warrant such a move.

I only play live cash games and I don't subscribe to any predefined set of rules, such as only limping a certain percentage of the time. On the extremely rare occasions that I actually do get dealt AA (last AA sighting was in the summer of '08), my aim is to maximize my expected profit (EV) from the hand. This will be dependent on, inter alia, my position with respect to both the button and other players, relative stack sizes, my image, game flow, meta game considerations, and other players' strengths and weaknesses.

So in some cases, maximizing EV will be equivalent to getting in as much money into the pre-flop pot as possible, though I'd prefer a lid on the number of opponents. Depending on the circumstances, this may entail either limping or raising. In other cases, maximizing EV may be more post-flop oriented, such as trying to trap another big stack, and, once again, limping or raising will be situation-dependent.

My new friend

As I inch towards total insolvency, I am really hoping for a speedy resolution to the FTP saga. 15% unemployment in Las Vegas certainly doesn't help either. Ever the optimist, I decided to adopt a dog from a local shelter last week. She's a great companion - here we are downtown :

GBT - FTP - FUD

The rollercoaster ride continues. It wasn't long ago (February 2) that legal and gaming industry consultant Wendeen Eolis thought the Group Bernard Tapie (GBT) - Full Tilt Poker (FTP) deal was in peril. This morning, after speaking to GBT counsel Behn Dayanim, she expressed renewed optimism.

Happy Birthday

The boys at the shelter threw me a surprise birthday party on Saturday. It was a catered affair held at the McDonalds on Fremont and Eastern. Afterwards, we caught the Deuce to Bellagio where we managed to pool together a $200 buy-in by cashing in some welfare checks, to the dismay of the well-coutured lady at the cage.

I then sat in on a $2-$5 table where, after 4 hours of tight play, I slowly built it up to $225. I wanted to quit and take a profit but the boys were adamant that I continue. The very next hand I looked down at what I thought were pocket aces, but in fact turned out to be the visually similar pocket fours. I have not had my eyes or spectacles checked for at least 5 years and it has occasionally caused me problems. Anyway, I went all-in pre-flop against someone fortunate enough to really have pocket aces.

6 sphincters collectively puckered up as the dealer laid out the flop :

4 4 A

I leaned forward, with my nose virtually touching the cards, to make sure it wasn't A A 4 and the rest is history. After redistributing everyone's original stake, it was unanimously decided that the $250 profit would be used for a vision test and new spectacles for yours truly. The dentist will have to wait.

Which reminds me

I've been putting off a visit to the dentist for 8 years now. Each time I manage to scrape up the necessary $150 copayment, I lose it in a big pot going in as a 70:30 favorite.

The horse above is Black Caviar, an Australian Thoroughbred champion sprinter.

Poker Hall of Shame VIII

If you want attitude and unwarranted haughtiness, you need look no further than Yan, poker dealer at the Venetian. Her table talk makes it patently obvious that she hasn't attended any internal customer relations courses. Judging by other players' reactions, she continues to inflict further brand damage when playing after her shift.

Shortest poker books ever written

There's a thread on 2p2 titled "Shortest poker books ever written". Here are some of the better ones :


I Can't See My Cards Over These by J. Tilly

Playing Trip Deuces by Peter Eastgate

Putting Opponents on Tilt: Aggressive Table Talk for Champions by Erik Seidel

Home Security Systems by Jonathan Duhamel

Balancing Poker and Family Life by Sam Grizzle

Enjoying Salads by Greg Raymer

Bankroll Management by Archie Karas

Every Hand Revealed - 3 Handed at the Final Table by Ben Lamb

A Pro's Guide to Chip Handling and Advanced Chip Tricks by Martin Staszko

Things I Love about Northern Europe by Phil Hellmuth

Reading Physical Tells by Hal Lubarsky

Internship my arse

Spotted this ad in craigslist about an online poker magazine wanting some naive intern to "research and write" 5 articles a month for no pay. Have these people no shame?

Even I am fallible

For the record, I misplayed a hand post-flop yesterday.

I am SB with AQ of spades, the flop is A J 3 rainbow with one spade. I bet and button calls.

The turn is a 6 of spades. I bet half pot and the button raises to 4 times my bet. I call.

The river is a brick, I check, button bets and I fold.

Hit me

I found a copy of Casino Player Magazine (November, 2011) in a Strip poker room. It contains the usual articles about how to improve your chances at winning in such negative EV games as blackjack and the slots, and, not surprisingly, is replete with ads from casinos and gaming companies.

One particular article, "Blackjack Etiquette" by Managing Editor Rob Wiser, states that basic strategy is the mathematically correct way to play every possible hand. He then goes on to say :

Hit that 16 against the dealer's 10, as much as it may scare you, and, more often than not, you will win the hand.

Wrong!!! You will lose the hand more often than not. However, you will lose less by hitting than by standing (so hitting is better). And that's assuming late surrender is not an option.

The Interpretation of Dreams

Last night I wake up in a sweat. Another recurring nightmare where I'm all-in and have no cards.

FTP and GBT reach agreement

Subject: Poker just broke the latest news in this complicated saga. Looks like progress.

Subject: Poker can now confirm that Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie have executed an agreement to further the transfer of FTP’s assets to GBT. This agreement was necessary to pave the way for the US Department of Justice to take possession of the assets voluntarily being forfeited by Full Tilt.
...
...

Sources have confirmed that Laurent Tapie appeared personally in Dublin today and spoke to the employees about the hurdles already jumped and those still ahead.

The next key step will be for the actual forfeiture(s) to the DOJ, and the DOJ’s dismissal of the civil charges against the FTP companies. It is believed that these steps will take place shortly.
...
...

Tat funt Camara seals my fate

Busted out of the South Point freeroll without making it to the final day despite my having a well above average starting stack. I was card dead all night, endured many coolers, with the final coup de grace delivered during that tat-assed fitch Bamara's down when, without the aid of a sigmoidoscopy, she successfully managed to pull a 9 out of her well-endowed arse to give my all-in opponent a set which cracked my queens and crippled me.

Poker rooms must remain competitive

Brick and mortar poker rooms can no longer take their clientele for granted. They must compete by offering freerolls, hourly comps and, of late, cash back. Wynn is offering $50 cash back for every 25 hours of live play, while the Tropicana will pay $7 per hour for the 3 hours between 4pm and 7pm. All this in addition to the hourly comp rate. South Point, the M, and the Station rooms are among many that have generous freerolls.

High hand jackpots, which come from the player subsidized $1 per pot, are no longer considered a perk. The rooms will have to start digging into their own pockets to return a proportion of the rake in the form of freerolls and cash back. After all, players are the ones subsidizing dealers' wages in the form of tips, and now rightfully expect something substantial in return for their patronage and loyalty.

I spy

Latest sightings at South Point poker room : Jose Canseco, Karina Jett, Paul Magriel, Burt Boutin.

Relocation

Temperatures are starting to plummet here in Vegas forcing me to seek alternative lodgings. A shopping cart and 6 square feet under an I-15 overpass won't cut it anymore. Hopefully I'll find something suitable before the WPBT bloggers hit town.

Breaking news : GBT and DOJ Strike Deal

Subject: Poker has just published the story "that Groupe Bernard Tapie and the US Department of Justice have come to terms that allows GBT’s acquisition of Full Tilt Poker to continue. If FTP’s current shareholders agree to acquisition of their company, this deal with the DOJ will provide for payment of all players worldwide..."

"... Final details are still being worked out between GBT and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Subject: Poker hopes to be able to report the full terms of the deal in the coming days. Once this is complete, Groupe Bernard Tapie will be able to propose a deal to acquire Full Tilt Poker directly to its shareholders. Members representing two thirds of ownership interest must vote to approve any such deal.

Subject: Poker has confirmed from numerous sources that, if shareholders agree to GBT’s proposal, Groupe Bernard Tapie will assume responsibility of Full Tilt’s debt to non-US players and the US DOJ will set up a fund to repay US players. We do not know at this time what the timeline for such repayment will be.

If current FTP shareholders agree to the sale, GBT can move on to licensing, making the new company one step closer to launch."

Even more pain at South Point

Just got back from a session where I lost a $1,300 pot when that impotent sack of shit dealer Tom from Buffalo managed to find one of the 7 remaining spades in the deck on the river, with 2 guys both drawing to a spade flush against my flopped nut straight.

Of course one shouldn't be blaming the dealer, but after all the tips that I've left them, I feel justified in cursing him out a bit. From now on, even though it will be against my nature, I will refrain from tipping any South Point dealer for an indeterminate period of time. No more enjoying my generous profit sharing plan without participating in the losses.

And if any of you want to defend these cunts, most of whom I actually really like, please comment. I know my position is intellectually untenable. In fact "Blame the dealer!" is sarcastically bandied around as a counter argument whenever someone invokes my stance. But for the moment, fuck them and the horses they rode in on.


Edited Postscript (October 30) :
The "indeterminate period of time" that I refrained from tipping South Point dealers lasted about 15 minutes i.e. just after I had won my first pot in the next session. As I said, it is against my nature not to tip. And I like the dealers, with Tom being among my favorites. I was thinking of deleting the above post, but am keeping it up to highlight the immediate emotional impact a brutal session has on me.

Bore mad beats at Pouth Soint

Pissed out on a big mot when my aces were cracked by all-in kings. Bickhead Dobby was responsible for the hankroll biccup. For the dain they pish out, these dealers should be tuggered up the ass not bipped.

South Point bad beat jackpot

At 12:50am (about 3 hours ago), the $50,000 South Point bad beat jackpot was finally hit. I was playing $1-$2 NLHE on Table 11 with John dealing, when seat 1 (8s 8h) and seat 4 (9c 9s) had the good fortune of mixing it up on the following board :

8h Qc 9h 8c 9d

Seat 1 got $20k, seat 4 $10k, and the 84 folks in the room, myself included, received $239 each.

Reprieve?

I was 10 seconds away from kicking the stool out from beneath my feet, when Joe came running in.

"Looks like a French group will be buying Full Tilt!" he shouted.

"You sure?" I asked. It had taken me a good 25 minutes to set up a makeshift gallows and I wanted confirmation before removing the noose.

"It's all over 2p2!"

Prudence and past disappointments dissuaded me from jumping for joy.

My first bad beat jackpot?

A huge, dead satellite tumbling to Earth is falling slower than expected, and may now plummet down somewhere over the United States tonight or early Saturday.

NASA expects about 26 large pieces of the UARS spacecraft to survive re-entry through Earth's atmosphere and reach the planet's surface. The biggest piece should weigh about 300 pounds.

NASA officials have said the chances that a piece of UARS debris hits and injures one of the nearly 7 billion people on the planet are about 1 in 3,200. I haven't won a lottery in my life but I've got an eerily good feeling about this one.

Latest Full Tilt Poker Press Release

"On April 15th 2011 the United States Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment against a number of individuals employed by major online poker operators. After the issuance of that indictment and a related civil case brought by the United States government, Full Tilt Poker withdrew from the US market. Then in a related action, on June 29th, 2011, Full Tilt Poker had its operating licenses suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

As a result, Pocket Kings Ltd. (provider of marketing and technology services to Full Tilt Poker) has adopted a cost optimization program and estimates that they need to reduce their costs by approximately €12m. This program is intended to streamline the company’s operations in order to better position itself for future growth and profitability in Full Tilt Poker’s markets outside of the U.S.

If all of the required cost savings were to be achieved through redundancies, approximately 250 positions could be affected; however the exact number cannot be confirmed until the conclusion of a consultation process with its workforce.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Pocket Kings firmly believes it has a very strong future in Full Tilt Poker’s Non-US Markets, and is fully committed to ensuring Full Tilt Poker restores the site and repay players in full. To this end, Full Tilt Poker has retained Sea Port Group Securities, LLC as its financial advisor with regard to raising capital and/or assisting in securing a strategic partner in order to fund continued operations of Full Tilt Poker's non-U.S. business. The Company is in active discussions with several parties and will provide a further statement in due course."

The AGCC hearing will be held in camera on September 19. Here's hoping.

Life unplugged

I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. Most of my life roll ($17.32) is stuck on Full Tilt, and the resultant mental anguish is causing a severe case of writer's block which in turn is holding up the release of my new poker book. Lack of funds will probably mean I'll have to drop out of colon hydrotherapy school. If it's not one shitstorm, it's another.

My new book

I am devoting most of my spare time to writing a poker book. It will encapsulate over 10 years experience playing in the highest cash games* in Las Vegas, and will reveal strategies heretofore unpublished. Topics covered will include aggressive check calling, check folding, and open folding post-flop when first to act. Nothing will be held back.

Initially it will be in ebook format, available exclusively on the HP TouchPad.

* that I could buy into

Come on, Full Tilt!

I am still hoping that Full Tilt can pull out of this, and that all player funds are repatriated. I am doing my little bit by keeping their banner up on my site (right sidebar, bottom).

Poker Hall of Shame VII

Watch how 2011 EPT Grand Final winner Ivan Freitez shoots an angle.

Guillaume Darcourt

102 players left in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. I had the pleasure of playing a few sessions of $1-$2 NLHE with Guillaume Darcourt last July at the M Resort. The Frenchman, a very personable fellow, is currently 9th with 4,100,000 in chips. I hope he makes the November Nine.

FTP deal done?

Rumors are that the Full Tilt deal with the European investors has been completed and that the site will be reopening soon.

Thank you, Yahoo!

Now that I can't play poker online, I was looking forward to watching the tape-delayed Haye Klitschko fight on HBO at 6:45 PT (in about 1 hour).

Then I see this on my Yahoo! home page :



Generally Yahoo! and other sites have been pretty good in respecting East coast - West coast time differences (as well as American-European) when it comes to withholding spoiler results in headlines. This time Yahoo! fucked up big time.

LA Times: FTP to be sold to European investors

After Alderney pulled the plug, things were looking grim. Then this :

A leading online poker company shut down by federal prosecutors is set to be bought by a group of European investors in a deal that could allow U.S. players to recover as much as $150 million ...

Alderney suspends FTP license

Joe stumbled into the shelter at about 4:30 this morning and immediately headed for my bunk.

"The Alderney Gambling Control Commission has just suspended Full Tilt's license."

I threw down the 3-year-old Forbes magazine I was reading and let out a bloodcurdling yelp.

"Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!"

As I longingly thought about the $17.32 I have trapped on the site, I doused the candle and sought the refuge of sleep.

FTP developments

Subject: Poker is reporting that gambling icon Jack Binion is considering investing in Full Tilt Poker. While this has yet to be substantiated, it is certainly good news after all the doom and gloom we have been subjected to.

Are we close to capitulation?

Market capitulation is defined in Wikipedia :

Market capitulation refers to the threshold reached after a severe fall in the market, when large numbers of investors can no longer tolerate the financial losses incurred. These investors then capitulate (give up) and sell in panic, or find that their pre-set sell stops have been triggered, thereby automatically liquidating their holdings in a given stock. This may trigger a further decline in the stock's price, if not already anticipated by the market. Margin calls and mutual fund and hedge fund redemptions significantly contribute to capitulations.

The contrarians consider a capitulation a sign of a possible bottom in prices. This is because almost everyone who wanted (or was forced) to sell stock has already done so, leaving the buyers in the market, and they are expected to drive the prices up.

The peak in volume may precede an actual bottom.

Why didn't I buy stocks in March, 2009? Because, like everyone else, I was too scared to touch them. And that's when the big money was to be made.

Phil Ivey has capitulated. F-Train has capitulated and finally removed the FTP banner from his blog. TonyG has capitulated and PokerNews is not referring any more clients to FTP. Quadjacks have capitulated. Bill Rini is moving toward capitulation.

2p2 is full of threads harshly criticizing Full Tilt's management and team pros. The company is eulogized in every 5th post, with many US players having written off their funds. Non-US players are complaining about cashout problems.

I'm not sure if we have reached full capitulation, but what this all means to me is that we are closer to a surprise development in this saga. I've been wrong before, but if it were possible to purchase FTP shares, I would start buying now.

Justice for all

Wall Street bankers are still gallivanting around in their $1,000 suits. Not one of them has been indicted for the crimes that they committed in bringing the US and world economies to the brink. Yet the DOJ has finally managed to indict the heinous monsters responsible for polluting America with online poker. As long as we have our priorities right, the future looks rosy.

Following Black Friday, there is no doubt in my mind that the freedom-loving quartet of Frist, Kyl, Goodlatte and Leach will be rewarded with this year's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Anything less than that, like a CNN Hero award, would be short-changing them.

RIP Spot. 1991 - May 28, 2011

We had to put the cat down today. She was 20 years old, a fighter to the end.

Your hand reading is atrocious

Young internet kid justifying a poor call : "I ran into the top of your range."

Back to live

Now that online poker is off limits, it's back to waiting lists, human interaction and 27 hands per hour. My last favorite venue was the Venetian, a spacious cardroom with good games and good staff. However, Xiulian, an accursed cooler-dealing witch, single-handedly wiped out 4 weeks of profits in 4 downs, so I have decided to try the Bellagio. The scenery is the same but for the extra addition of UIGEA refugees.

Poker face

Justice has been done

On the morning of September 11, 2001 at 8:30am, I was sitting at my desk in Queens, NYC, waiting for the NYSE to open. I had been trading from home for several months, but prior to that I had worked for a firm on the 45th floor of 1 WTC. CNBC's TV coverage was suddenly interrupted with shocking and unforgettable footage.

Fast forward to tonight, Sunday night, May 1, 2011 at 8:40pm. I am sitting at home in Las Vegas watching President Obama's address to the nation, reporting that Osama bin Laden has been killed.

"Justice has been done."

Norm Macdonald is also funny

I've always been a fan of Norm Macdonald and think he's doing a great job replacing Gabe Kaplan in High Stakes Poker.

2010 WSOP champ Jonathan Duhamel open raises with 88.
NM : "Jonathan picks up a pair."

Amateur Julian Movsesian calls with Kc2c.
NM : "Julian picks up a deuce with a big kicker."

Sigh

Black Friday

PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker have been indicted for running afoul of the UIGEA, and arrests have been made. Both PS and FTP have ceased US operations as of today. A personal fuck you to Frist, Kyl, Goodlatte, Leach and the horses they rode in on.





"Unfortunately, as a result of this action, Full Tilt Poker has decided that it must suspend “real money” play in the United States until this case is resolved. However, Full Tilt Poker will continue to provide peer-to-peer online poker services outside of the United States."

Coolered by Randomness

Most of you are by now familiar with my hysterical rants on the random number generators (RNG's) used by online poker sites. After an extremely brutal bad beat, I will often snap-post a short tirade lambasting all those remotely associated with the design, creation, testing and maintenance of the offending RNG. This is solely for my psychological well-being. Truth be told, I have full faith and confidence in the integrity of the RNG on the sites that I play on.

Poker multitabling

I am currently trying out the Peregrine gaming glove which allows you to trigger commands just by touching your fingers with your thumb. The glove has 3 Activator Pads – one on the thumb tip, another on the middle of the thumb, and one on the palm. It's a perfect fit for poker multitabling and I was mindlessly grinding 16 tables when the following hand came up :



I clenched my fist so tightly that a circuit in the glove must have shorted, and smoke starting wafting out of the USB port. I decided that if ever there was a more opportune moment to put my fist through the monitor, it was then, as the glove would prevent any collateral damage to my hand.

Fortunately I quickly came to my senses and instead opted to ram my forehead into the adjacent wall.

FCUK in chat results in automated warning

After a very demoralizing session, heavily punctuated with coolers, bad beats and suckouts, I decided to reach out to the boys who work behind the scenes at Full Tilt. Hopefully the Chat Monitor will be kind enough to pass on my message.

Online Capers VII

1the, an up and coming, non-shortstacking multitabler from Russia, thinks he's found nirvana. He calls my $9 c-bet on the flop when he's a 95% dog, and then watches while 2 running clubs are pulled out of the accommodating arse of the FTP RNG to give him the stone cold nuts, and my stack, on the river. I bite my lip, and then my mousepad.

Online Capers VI

Just to prove that atrocious card players are evenly spread geographically, today's guest, goatherder CarpeDiemRS, comes to us from rural Bosnia and Herzegovina. When not busy chasing goats or flushes, he fills in as the village idiot on a per diem basis.

Online Capers V

A preflop raise wasn't enough to prevent ADASTRAPERASPE, whose IP address has been tracked to a Northern Italian mental institution, from calling with Q8o and cracking my KK. I put the imbecile on AQ when the money went in on the flop. Perhaps I could have gotten away from the hand.

We have a winner!

It's official, I have won 2 free hours of poker coaching from Jeremy "Oldschool" Steinhausen. First session is tomorrow at 12:00 noon. Hopefully everything will be set up in the library on time. Just to be on the safe side, I'll be going round to that old hag's place tonight, with rubber gloves and garden hose in tow.

Free coaching?

Oldschool, one of the poker coaches on 2+2, has offered 2 hours of free coaching for the best original funny story posted in his thread about why someone would need his coaching. I just submitted the truth :

I currently live at St. Luke's, a homeless shelter in east Las Vegas. Having completely depleted my poker bankroll and in desperate need of funds, I am seeking alternative revenue streams and to that end am now training to be a colon hydrotherapist. I have managed to download Full Tilt at a public library, thanks in no small part to a cooperative librarian to whom I promised a free colonic cleansing. I tried convincing her to install the 15-day free trial of HEM as well, but alas she would only do it after the colonic.

[x] Old rubber gloves
[x] St. Luke's garden hose
[ ] Appropriate facility

After an initial 27 BI downswing and a 150k breakeven stretch, I'm crushing 1/2 Rush (4-tabling, FR, play money) and feel I am ready to move up to 5/10. All this without TableNinja, hotkeys and auto Timebank. I am, however, wary of the pitfalls associated with a higher limit and would therefore like some coaching before undertaking such a move.

I realize that a comprehensive DB analysis is necessary and have devised a plan whereby I utilize an unknown Wi-Fi spot in the library, and together with a CAT-5 cable tied around one of my tooth fillings to intercept high frequency radio transmission, and a USB flash drive to transfer my hand history folder, we can temporarily avail ourselves of HEM's free trial and conduct a fruitful first session.

[x] Tooth filling
[ ] $5 CAT-5 cable
[ ] $7 USB flash drive
[x] Initiative

I have no cell phone but will soon be able to be contacted via a homing pigeon that I am training.

[x] oldschool lives in contiguous USA

The winner will be announced at the end of February. Let them laugh at me - I could do with some free poker coaching.

Online Capers IV

It seems as if a KK vs AA situation has to come up in nearly every session. Fuck the system architects at Full Tilt who designed the RNG, fuck Cigital, Inc and TST Labs, the 2 companies that evaluated, tested and accredited the randomness of the RNG, and fuck the respective horses they rode in on. If I've left anyone out, then fuck them too.

Online Capers III

In the grand scheme of things, this SB vs. BB hand is insignificant. However I called on the river because the BB's story didn't make sense. Remember, the story you are telling must at least represent something credible in the context of how the hand is played out.


Full Tilt, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players

Hero (SB): $19.25 (19.3 bb)
BB: $162.75 (162.8 bb)
UTG+1: $45.90 (45.9 bb)
UTG+2: $100 (100 bb)
MP1: $32 (32 bb)
MP2: $111.65 (111.7 bb)
MP3: $232.30 (232.3 bb)
CO: $20.70 (20.7 bb)
BTN: $277.40 (277.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ah 8s
7 folds, Hero completes, BB checks

Flop: ($2) 9h Js 8c (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($2) 5h (2 players)
Hero bets $1, BB calls $1

River: ($4) Jh (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $3.50, Hero calls $3.50

Results: $11 pot ($0.55 rake)
Final Board: 9h Js 8c 5h Jh
Hero showed Ah 8s and won $10.45 ($4.95 net)
BB showed 4c 7s and lost (-$5.50 net)

Online Capers II

This time we have toooh1, a Northern American idiot (Canada actually) with a VPIP of 44%, who calls my preflop raise with J8s, gets checkraised on the flop and calls with a straight draw, decides to continue chasing by calling a hefty $22.50 turn bet when the pot is $30.40, and then is rewarded for his stubborn persistence with a river card that completes his straight.

False positive?

Got this popup while surfing on 2+2. I did not press OK, in fact I was even scared to close it myself. Instead I opened up Windows Task Manager and ended the application from there. It listed itself as AVG - Windows Explorer, but in fact is malware trying to install itself when activated.

I found this on the interwebs (links intentionally deleted) :

The malware comes from this link : http:// XXXXXXXX.com/

XXXXXXXX redirects to YYYYYYYY.com in my case. The site displays a popup via JavaScript which says: "AV8 has found suspicious activity on your pc and will perform some action on your pc." It does fake virus scan, displays a fake Windows Security Alert, and then downloads a variant of Win32/Kryptik.IMZ trojan:

http:// YYYYYYYY.com/load/ZZZZZZZZZ.exe

Online Capers I

I bet the flop and was raised all-in. I would bury my head in shame had I won this pot in a live setting. But in the anonymity afforded by online play, ikkeno1, a Northern European idiot (Norway actually), gets another fillip to his bankroll before it, and him, dwindle into inevitable obscurity.

gg B&M?

For the first time in many years, I'm looking at getting into more serious online play. Clearly there are advantages to both forms, but $2-$5 at the Venetian is packed with regs and is getting harder to beat. Plus the commute will be shorter.

I know I will be facing more suckouts per hour playing online, but at least I won't be dealt cooler after cooler by that affected whore, Xiulian.

Gambling Tales Podcast returns

The Gambling Tales Podcast is back "on the air" with new shows weekly. Special K and Falstaff are the ones to blame. They will focus on a single topic each week, and will also reveal the password to their weekly Thursday Full Tilt freeroll tournament. I am now trying to get my hands on some headphones so that I can listen to one of these in the public library I frequent.

Table lag?

"Where was that flop last hand?"

I hear this at least once every time I play live. A player will bemoan the fact that the current flop is what he sorely needed in the previous hand in which he probably lost. The dealer or another player will then chime in with "Flop lag", everyone smiles and the game continues.

When multitabling online a similar situation can occur, only it is inter-table and concurrent.

Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker

I don't recall ever having read a history book. That is until I got my hands on Cowboys Full, a colorful and comprehensive description of how poker evolved into the popular game it is today. Author James McManus combines academic research with a gift for the narrative to produce a book which kept my interest from the first page to the very end.

Whether he's grinding online or playing live, a poker player at least owes it to himself to find out the origins of what he's spending hours, days and years on.

Read the book - you won't be disappointed.

Poker Hall of Shame VI

Today was the second time I played at the Aria. I was involved in a hand with a regular in which I lost a huge pot. The details are irrelevant but suffice it to say that it was a very ugly beat. Immediately afterwards, it was difficult discerning who had the larger smirk, the scumbag dealer Michael as he pushed the pot, or the smug regular. Way to go Aria! Way to go Altweis!

Evolutionary anthropology

This has yet to be confirmed by any official scientific body, but last night at South Point I sighted a previously unknown species that genetically links the Cro-Magnons with the Neanderthals - in the form of Claudio the dealer. International teams of forensic anthropologists and radiocarbon dating experts are being dispatched to Las Vegas as we speak.

Rebel Oil Racing Fuel

Even worse than the bad beats at the Venetian this morning was the near collision I experienced the previous night (Monday, November 22, 9:58pm), when a Rebel Oil double-tanker truck failed to yield at the I-215 and Windmill entrance, and sped through inches past me like in a scene from Duel. A friend jotted down his registration (Nevada 446741) while I regained my composure.

Spurious correlation?

I had no idea that early Tuesday morning at the Venetian was F.U.D.C* Day. First that bitch Lisa deals me KhQh, puts out an all-heart flop, but not before making sure that my opponent has Ah6h. Then that prick Fernando sees to it that I'm beaten on the river by an obvious bluffer who makes his gutshot straight.

You've been warned - if they're fat and ugly and it's Tuesday morning, get up and take a walk for 30 minutes.


* Fat Ugly Dealer Cooler

We have a winner

Canadian Jonathan Duhamel, the incoming chip leader, won the 2010 WSOP Main Event bracelet. Equally impressive was John Racener (pictured below) who folded his way into second place.


                             (Courtesy of nonecks from 2+2)

WSOP 2010 November Nine

I'm watching the live stream on ESPN3 and John Racener is still chewing like a fucking camel. Candio just moved all-in and Duhamel called in a 30 million pot. At this stage, the only thing moving in the Penn & Teller Theatre is Racener's jaws.

Calm before the storm

It was a variance free, boring session till dealer Tom stepped in. I had about $600 in front of me, having bought in for $500. Then came the 2 hands that unhinged me.

Hand 1
I limp in with AdJd in early position. Many callers.

Flop comes 8d 5d Tc
I bet $25, only old fart calls.

Turn is As
I bet $50, old fart calls.

River is Jc
I check and old fart bets $110. I call with my 2-pair and old fart takes the pot with KdQd, hitting a 3-outer to make his broadway.

Hand 2
Creepy lady raises to $40 from middle position and I am the only caller from the big blind with 88.

Flop comes Jd 8d 4d
Of course we get it all-in and creepy lady has JJ.

Somewhat tilted, I rebuy for another $500. And after an orbit, Tom deals the third pivotal hand of his down.

Hand 3
Very nice Italian guy who has me covered raises to $35 from late position. Once again I am the only caller with Ts9s in the big blind. Dubious call? Yes.

Flop comes 8s 5d 2c
I check and Italian guy bets $60. I have missed the flop entirely but somehow feel that the runner-runner possibilities warrant a tilt-induced call. I call.

Turn is 7s
I now have an open-ended straight flush draw and push with my remaining $380. Italian guy thinks for a bit, reads me correctly and calls.

River is Ks
My flush beats his QQ and I double up. Dealer Tom soon finishes his down, and thankfully my play and mental state are now back to where they were when he stepped in.

Wrigley to sponsor John Racener

Hopefully John Racener can brush up his act for the upcoming November Nine telecast. I found his open-mouthed chewing disgusting to watch.

Infusion and confusion

As thunderstorms hit Las Vegas, I am fortunate to finally have a non-cardboard roof over my head. It's a long story best left for another time, but surprisingly enough does not involve tournament chips.

I have been playing some $2-$5 at the Venetian thanks to $360 I recently earned as a participant in an FDA approved clinical study for a malady too embarrassing to mention. The denizens at the V are an eclectic bunch comprised of local grinders, visiting grinders, drunken tourists, off-duty dealers, conventioneers, busted-out tournament players, degenerates, to name but a few. After playing with a group for a few hours, different bonds are formed; cliques, friendships, rivalries - both feigned and real.

Last night I had about $650 in front of me, with the 2 big stacks ($2,000 +) to my immediate right (RBS) and two to my left (LBS). LBS was a very loose and aggressive European who would both raise and call pre-flop with what seemed like ATC, and continued the bulldozing post-flop. I limped with Qs9c and was one of 2 callers of LBS's $30 button raise.

The flop came Qc 9d 8c giving me top 2-pair.

EP checked, I bet $40, LBS and EP both called.

The turn was Ah.

When EP checked to me, I put LBS on air and decided to commit myself to the hand. I bet $200. LBS called with his normal tempo while EP folded. At this stage I could not put LBS on any hand, thought that I was probably ahead, so I decided to go all-in with my remaining $300 before the dealer put out the river.

The river was 9s giving me a full house.

LBS pondered for a while and called. I tabled my boat and he folded face down. In the ensuing discussion I had with RBS, the latter thought that I may well have been behind on the turn with LBS perhaps holding 88. I agreed, though there is also the possibility of 98 and KK where I didn't need to get lucky. Another question is whether my push "in the dark" had any influence on his call. Perhaps he put me on a busted flush draw?

I hope I see LBS again because the curiosity is starting to kill this cat.

End of summer

It got down to 58 degrees here in Vegas overnight and very soon sleeping under the stars will no longer be an option. My plan is to pass off some worthless tournament chips to an unwitting landlord. Failing that, it's back to the shelter.