WSOP fever

Excitement abounds as everyone awaits this Friday's opening of the 2008 WSOP. I snapped the shot below of one of the painting crews at the Rio applying the final finishing touches to the pool:

Random musings

Random.org is a great site to read up on random numbers, with Bo Allen highlighting some differences.

Bitmap generated by a True Random Number Generator (TRNG) via atmospheric noise :



Bitmap generated by a Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) :

Still waiting

Watching Chris Ferguson take down the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC this afternoon brought back some memories.

A few months after moving to Vegas, I had occasion to email Andy Bloch with an important technical question. He never bothered to reply. I didn't have a blog back then, so I just kept my opinion about Bloch being a rude prick, and undoubtedly the worst FTP ambassador out of the 15 pros, to myself.

Now I have a blog.

The injustice of it all

I finally scrape together a few shekels so that I may grace the virtual felt once again, only to be kicked in the junk by some specious algorithm devised by extremely cruel people who are at this very moment probably rubbing their hands with glee.




My worthy opponent managed to catch his 1 outer on the flop, yet I couldn't reciprocate with a 2 outer on the turn and river. In the grand scheme of coolers this barely makes the scale, yet on a personal, psychological and financial level it has set me back months, if not years. I'll recover, I'm sure of it, but I write this post as a legacy to the pain and anguish I now feel having been brutally robbed of $33 by some evil collection of bits and bytes.

FullTilt.org - a site review

If you're interested in playing on Full Tilt Poker, then you must check out FullTilt.org, a well-designed and comprehensive poker portal. This informative online resource has the latest promotions and bonuses, tournament information and detailed profiles of the 15 Full Tilt pros.

There are podcasts and video casts to help you brush up on your game, and for entertainment you can watch a collection of the great FullTiltPoker.com commercials, some of which have never been aired on television.

If all of this has whetted your appetite for some online action, you may download the software in the Full Tilt Poker Download section of the site, and qualify for a 100% deposit bonus up to $600 by using the Full Tilt Poker Referral Code FT600NOW.

Good luck at the tables!

Update on live multi-tabling

It's no secret that Las Vegas is feeling the pinch of the economic slowdown. Hotels are laying off staff, and poker rooms are not overflowing with players as they were this time last year. In an effort to fill the empty seats, especially during the quieter periods, a major Strip casino has allowed me to multi-table their $2-$5 no limit games. Initially I was limited to 4 tables, but with a larger than expected drop in patronage, this was raised to 6 tables as of last Tuesday.

Management has been extremely pleased with the pilot phase and intends to grant multi-tabling privileges to additional qualified applicants. I have been assigned the task of recruiting suitable candidates, so if you're a Las Vegas local and feel up to the challenge, please leave a comment or drop me an email. Preference will be given to those with rollerblading skills.

Foucault's Poker Academy

Andrew Brokos (Foucault) is a poker player and writer with many fine articles to his credit. Topics range from book reviews to poker strategy. In his latest blog entry, he lists the "Top Ten Tools to Learn No Limit Hold 'Em Tournament Poker". He claims the list is for both live and online, though I think it is a little skewed towards the latter. So while it contains forums, books, training sites, software (tracking, HUD, equity calculators), I think an important omission is training software like Poker Academy Pro. As a live player, I have no use for most of his software categories, but certainly find a tool like Poker Academy Pro indispensable for brushing up on my no limit hold'em tournament play. It's the closest I can come without actually having to part with the requisite buy-in. And for an under-rolled railbird like myself, that means everything.

Still, a good list.

I'm with GCox25, Change100 et al.

Apparently I made the right decision when I limited myself to 4 events only in the BBT3. Tonight in the Riverchasers, I called VBPro7 a turd after a comment he made when he re-sucked out on me in an all-in hand. I don't regret the substance of my comment because he most definitely behaved like a slimy douchebag. What is disappointing, however, is that I was naive enough to think I could still play one of these things with chat turned on. But how else are you supposed to play a blogger event?

Sorry fellas, no fun anymore.

Breakthrough

After extensive negotiations lasting several months, I am pleased to announce that the management of a major Strip poker room has given me permission to multi-table live $2-$5 NLHE, up to a maximum of 4 tables. This should lower my variance and keep me fit at the same time. I am the first player to be granted this privilege and if all goes well, the multi-tabling option will be extended to some of the regulars.

I will keep you posted.

LeCheese II

I finished just 12 places out of the money in RakeBrain's LeCheese Challenge II freeroll, which is a nice way of saying 13th last. Thanks Joe for the invite.

Poker Hall of Shame III

TassieDevil from PokerNews describes a hand in the PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo in which Antonio Esfandiari goes through his now-familiar shtick of questioning his opponent to try and get a read, followed by some drawn-out call/fold feigning.

"Do you have a set of threes? Or do you have shit? Do you want me to call sir?" probed Esfandiari, all of which was simply ignored by Rasmussen. "Dealer, is he allowed to not answer me like that?"

After much hesitation and some near-calls, Esfandiari finally folded and Rasmussen flipped pocket fours for a successful bluff.

Following the hand, Rasmussen called the floor person over to lodge a protest against Esfandiari's near-calls/folds, which could be described as gamesmanship to try and get a read from his opponent. Rasmussen complained that Esfandiari's cards crossed the black line painted on the table and they should've been scooped into the muck. However the TD informed Rasmussen that the line actually has no enforceable qualities about it and is simply a visual guide for players and dealers.

After some more heated words from both players, everyone settled down and got on with the next hand.

Antonio pulled a similar stunt on High Stakes Poker in a hand with Barry Greenstein. He pushed a bundle of cash forward and then folded. If he's prepared to pull these angles in high profile play, I can only imagine what he's gotten away with since the beginning of his career. Even more perturbing is the fact that he is an immensely talented player who has no need to resort to such dubious tactics in order to come out on top.

In a completely unrelated story, Antonio Esfandiari is the chip leader at the end of Day 3.

We'll be back after this break

The new WPT season is airing on GSN. Alas, it is impossible to watch, with the actual content to commercial ratio even worse than the fawking Travel Channel. Greedy bastards won't be getting my eyeballs.

Vanity?

Summer's coming so it's time to start dieting. That's me on the left, last year :

Gimme Shelter

Foreclosure papers were served on our shelter this morning. I have 30 days to find a new roof over my head.

Do not adjust your monitor

Earth Hour

Harrington to the Rescue

Barring the unforeseen and unforetold, this weekend I hunker down to read both volumes of Harrington on Cash Games. Hopefully there will be enough snippets of wisdom to be gleaned, so that upon their completion a renewed assault on the medium limit Vegas cash games will result in at least my recouping the bankroll-crippling $64 outlay for the books.

Smee

This Post Intentionally Left Blank

Seat open, 23!

I must apologize for the lull in posting, caused in part by playing too much live poker. My sessions were long and enjoyable, punctuated by the usual encounters with douchebags (Wynn), spiced up with the occasional lascivious ogling at waitresses (Wynn and Venetian), with some soul-crushing suckouts thrown into the mix (Bellagio).

Looking forward to starting my new job tomorrow as a sound effects technician with the Chippendales.

Good call, malaka!

It all started out perfectly. I was feeling fresh and rested as I lowered myself into the 9 seat, just in time for my first hand as the big blind. There was a waiting list for $5-$10 and seats open for $2-$5, so I thought I would play a little $2-$5 till my name was called for $5-$10. I bought in for $500 and looked down to see TT. There were 3 limpers, the small blind (SB) called and I decided to check. The flop came :

J T 9 rainbow

The SB checked, I bet $25, everyone folded to the SB who raised to $75. The SB, an elderly gentleman whom I had never seen before, had me covered. I decided to push rather than just call or reraise, and was instacalled. The thought of facing KQ, or another straight, crossed my mind.

Turn : 6

River : Q

I stared in disbelief as the SB turned over KJ for the rivered straight. He had instacalled a $420 all-in reraise with top pair and a gutshot. Even though I got my money in as the 84% favorite, it was the very first hand FFS, so I did feel some pain. Nevertheless, I was in control of my emotions and restricted myself to a sarcastic "Good call". I did, however, turn toward Dennis, the Greek dealer, and rhetorically ask, "How did that malaka call?"

I immediately left the poker room, muttering to myself. Ten minutes later I was still walking around the Bellagio muttering to myself, the only saving grace being that it was better babbling in front of strangers than steaming at the table.