I'm currently putting together an epic post as I haven't blogged in a while.
Since my last post I spent at week at the Hilton in London playing the £5,000 buyin EPT main event. I got to mix it up with the best in the world and ended up one of the chip leaders after the first day, I ran pocket Ks into As preflop twice within an hour on day 2 to kill me :( It was an amazing experience and got to play with lots of the high stakes cash game and tourney players from the US and Europe :) Even Boris Becker made an appearance.
I also had my biggest score online to date, winning $10,500 for a 3rd place finish in the $162 Big on Stars.
I also final tabled a £300 side event in London for a score of £1,500.
Since all of this I've taken a break from Poker and haven't really played a proper session in ages.
I've a massive all day schedule planned for next Sunday starting around 3pm and hopefully finishing around 7am the next morning :) I've the Monday booked off work some I'm looking for a deep run and a six figure score.
Watch this space for my epic post :P
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Oxegen, 2 Finals, UKIPT Brighton & Golf
This is my first update in a while. Nothing major to report pokerwise, work and my personal life has been busy so my poker volume has been down of late.
I recently got back from 5 days in Ireland. I went over for the Oxegen Festival and it was totally awesome. About 90,000 people were there over the course of the weekend and it was said to be the biggest festival in Europe.
Highlights for me were Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Two Door Cinema Club and City and Colour. I also went to see BEP, Beyonce and Bruno Mars, not my typical music but all great entertainers in their own right. Bruno Mars was awesome, singing, dancing, playing the guitar and piano, just an all round class act.
Two Finals
Although I've nothing to rave about poker wise I have made 2 final tables within the past week. They both came in the my usual Big Antes Cap games I play, the first was 4/285 in the $27.50 500 Cap for $600 and the second was an annoying 8/358 in the $22 for $180.
UKIPT Brighton
After failing hard to qualify for UKIPT Brighton I decided to buyin anyway. I had all the required days booked off work and I've also sold off 20% of my action in the Unibet Open, so decided to "treat myself".
I've got the Hilton booked for Fri and Sat night so will probably drive down early Friday morning (depending on how I feel I may head down Thur afternoon and find a cheap room somewhere).
With the majority of pros in Vegas I imagine the quality of the field to be reduced. 15k starting stack on an hour clock gives plenty of room for play so I'm looking forward to it. This will be my 5th UKIPT (played Season 1 Galway, S1 Coventry, S1 Nottingham and S2 Nottingham) and I'm yet to cash in any. I've made day 2 50% of the time so looking to break my duck this weekend. Updates can be found on my Twitter account.
Golf
I've decided to take up golf along with S4ooter, we've had one driving range session and have another scheduled for this week. We'll hopefully hit a course for the first time in a few weeks pending improvements.
We're blogging our golf progression here. We've had one private coaching session by Mr Golf Dan Carter which led to epic improvements. More to come hopefully :)
I recently got back from 5 days in Ireland. I went over for the Oxegen Festival and it was totally awesome. About 90,000 people were there over the course of the weekend and it was said to be the biggest festival in Europe.Highlights for me were Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Two Door Cinema Club and City and Colour. I also went to see BEP, Beyonce and Bruno Mars, not my typical music but all great entertainers in their own right. Bruno Mars was awesome, singing, dancing, playing the guitar and piano, just an all round class act.
Two Finals
Although I've nothing to rave about poker wise I have made 2 final tables within the past week. They both came in the my usual Big Antes Cap games I play, the first was 4/285 in the $27.50 500 Cap for $600 and the second was an annoying 8/358 in the $22 for $180.
UKIPT Brighton
After failing hard to qualify for UKIPT Brighton I decided to buyin anyway. I had all the required days booked off work and I've also sold off 20% of my action in the Unibet Open, so decided to "treat myself".
I've got the Hilton booked for Fri and Sat night so will probably drive down early Friday morning (depending on how I feel I may head down Thur afternoon and find a cheap room somewhere).
With the majority of pros in Vegas I imagine the quality of the field to be reduced. 15k starting stack on an hour clock gives plenty of room for play so I'm looking forward to it. This will be my 5th UKIPT (played Season 1 Galway, S1 Coventry, S1 Nottingham and S2 Nottingham) and I'm yet to cash in any. I've made day 2 50% of the time so looking to break my duck this weekend. Updates can be found on my Twitter account.
Golf
I've decided to take up golf along with S4ooter, we've had one driving range session and have another scheduled for this week. We'll hopefully hit a course for the first time in a few weeks pending improvements.
We're blogging our golf progression here. We've had one private coaching session by Mr Golf Dan Carter which led to epic improvements. More to come hopefully :)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
€2.5k Unibet Open Package and four figures
Well I put in an uber 12 hours grind session this past Sunday. It didn't start too well but then I ran deep in the Stars $11 rebuy. I ended up busting in 6th out of 1,362 runners for a score of $1,700. This was bitter sweet as I was playing very well and thought I'd have a great shot at shipping it. 6 handed I lost a flip to bust a player KJ < QT. This would have seen 5 left with me 2nd in chips, I failed to recover from this and busted out in 6th.
Last week I watched a few clips on YouTube of the Unibet Open event in Malta, it looked sick. So I did some research and saw that they run a weekly tourney with 8 packages guaranteed. They are holding an event in Barcelona this week but their next stop is in Dublin in August. Therefore I downloaded Unibet, fired up an account and fired in some Euros. I played a €60 sub satellite to their weekly €275 satellite. I shipped this and bagged a seat.
Now with €20k worth of packages guaranteed they needed 80 players in order to meet the guarantee, they satellite only got 63 runners meaning an overlay of about €4,500. Once I got a decent stack it was fairly easy to push on and bully everyone as they were just all on auto fold. After 3 and a half hours of solid play I found myself in the top 8 and with a €2,500 package to the Unibet Open.
It's a 4 day €1,500 event. I also get €300 for flights and the rest covers four nights in the City West Golf Resort Hotel which is where the event is held. Really looking forward to it.
Screenshots of the results are below...
Last week I watched a few clips on YouTube of the Unibet Open event in Malta, it looked sick. So I did some research and saw that they run a weekly tourney with 8 packages guaranteed. They are holding an event in Barcelona this week but their next stop is in Dublin in August. Therefore I downloaded Unibet, fired up an account and fired in some Euros. I played a €60 sub satellite to their weekly €275 satellite. I shipped this and bagged a seat.
Now with €20k worth of packages guaranteed they needed 80 players in order to meet the guarantee, they satellite only got 63 runners meaning an overlay of about €4,500. Once I got a decent stack it was fairly easy to push on and bully everyone as they were just all on auto fold. After 3 and a half hours of solid play I found myself in the top 8 and with a €2,500 package to the Unibet Open.
It's a 4 day €1,500 event. I also get €300 for flights and the rest covers four nights in the City West Golf Resort Hotel which is where the event is held. Really looking forward to it.
Screenshots of the results are below...
Friday, June 3, 2011
Trip Report: Last Vegas, April 2011 P2
Part 2 is written by Loz, details our activity from Mon-Wed. Enjoy... (If you haven't read Part 1 you can do so by clicking here)
Cliff Notes
Went to the Gun Store
Spewed money in Aria
Won money in Cosmopolitan
Did the New York Rollercoaster
Went shopping
Went to ‘Pure’ nightclub.
Monday
Monday afternoon we awoke at 12:30pm. The original scheduled time for rising and shining was meant to be 11:30am however neither of us heard the alarm on account of Pich putting his phone on silent. A precious hour wasted. Once on our feet it became clear that we were both unpleasantly hung-over. Food is obviously the first order of the day and so we headed south along the strip to Paris where we ate at Sugar Factory American Brasserie and were served by the lovely Monica. Probably a waitress by day and hooker by night. Pich had sadly forgotten his sunglasses which was unfortunate as Monica sat us outside and he inadvertently chose the seat facing the afternoon Nevada sun. I was not in the mood for an epic savoury snack that morning so went for a ham and cheese crepe. TP obviously fancied something with a bit more sustenance and so opted for a steak baguette.
I was however in the mood for something sweet, The Sugar Factory is famous for its desert menu and neither of us had had a desert yet with any of our meals. It was the time and place for one. I decided to opt for the standard ice cream sundae; Pich went for the same thing. He casually told the waitress, Monica, that he wasn’t interested in sprinkles or whipped cream etc and she duly noted this and went off to advise the kitchen. My ice cream sundae is on the left, Pich’s ice cream sundae is on the right. We both paid the same…who’s winning?
Once TP had ploughed through his enormous and over the top desert we headed further south along the strip to the MGM to spew a little money on roulette and slots. Didn’t win, obviously. We had decided that day, to go visit ‘The Gun Store’ on Tropicana Avenue. Originally our vacation plans involved things like going to the Grand Canyon, playing golf, going to lots of shows etc. So far we’d only done one show, albeit an awesome one, and had spent the rest of the time getting slapped around the face by red and black on roulette, today we actually going to add another activity to our roster.
I didn’t know the way to the Gun Store. I knew it was on Tropicana Ave but wasn’t sure whether it was walking distance, and whether it was east or west. Plus Pich gets funny about walking in ‘areas’ in case we get mugged. (He was majorly flapping on our walk to the Rio). We therefore checked with the MGM concierge and got a taxi east to the Gun Store. Pretty sure we didn’t get as screwed over this time in the cab ride as he only had to drive straight along one road, although it is about 3 miles from the strip. He charged us $15 for the privilege.
We were greeted at The Gun Store (The Gun Store | Las Vegas) by an attractive young lady dressed in a ‘Gun Store’ cap and ‘T-Shirt’.
“Hey their guys, you come to do some shootin’ today? Awesome! Well we’ve got single shot and semi auto guns which you can hire for $25, alternatively you can fire a fully automatic machine gun for $50…We also have packages available such as the ‘Iraq’ package where you get yadah yadah yadah..”
The ‘Iraq Coalition’ package sounded good. (Guns n shit innit?) so we both went for that at around about $129 each. I added on the ‘Dirty Harry’ .44 Revolver to the package for an extra $25. The attractive lady outside told us that there was a bit of a queue and we’d be waiting for a approximately an hour. Irritating, but tolerable. In reality it was absolutely heaving in there and we were queuing for at least 1 hour 45. The queue snaked around the room in a fairly disorganised manner, everyone clutching at the paper targets they had chosen (14 to choose from, collect them all!) and a box full of ammunition for the various guns they had chosen to fire. Men, women, old people, children, all carrying shot gun shells and machine gun belts. I say children because, this being America, everyone should have the right to express themselves through the second amendment if they want. The Gun Store recognises this by offering a ‘Kids Package’ for only $40. God Bless the USA.
One thing we noticed about the Gun Store when we were queuing was how goddamn happy the staff there were. It was like a youth club for them, playing table tennis, drinking panda pops and sliding across the floor on their knees. Not quite, but they were still singing and dancing and generally having a gay old time. Job satisfaction at the Gun Store is evidently quite high. They were also heavily armed. One member of staff had around his waist, two handguns, spare ammo, a taser, pepper spray and a hunting knife. Obviously one can never be too careful when dealing with tourists and firearms.
Anyway eventually we reached the front of the queue, were met by a youngish instructor who was loving the fact that when I said “Dirty Harry” I actually pronounced it “Dir-y Harry”. “Say Dirty Harry again for me dude”. Kid needed to watch is step, otherwise I’d shoot him. Anyway goggles and ear protectors on, we were led out onto the range. I was first up, our instructor challenging me to fire the .44 magnum with one hand at a sideways angle and hit the unfortunate figure on my target in the eye. Needless to say the power and recoil on the thing was unreal and I’ve no idea where my bullet ended up. Certainly not in the target. Throughout the session we took turns in firing an M9 Pistol, an M4 rifle and the sick M249 SAW. (footage below). At the end of the shoot we got to choose a ‘free’ (although obviously it’s not) t-shirt. I am unsure when I will find a suitable moment to walk around wearing my t-shirt with a picture of a machine gun on it. Fed up with extortionate taxi prices, we head back to the strip by a convenient $2 bus that stopped right outside the Gun Store.
YouTube - M249 SAW, The Gun Store, Las Vegas
YouTube - Loz: M249 SAW, The Gun Store, Las Vegas
We decided that evening to try and go to some sort of elite club type place as we had done the night before. We hadn’t checked out the Aria or City Centre yet so figured this would be our destination for the evening. I’d been reading about a rooftop club called Marquee which we were going to try and go to. The bouncer tells me that the club opens at 10:30pm so we go to The Henry on the ground floor of the Cosmopolitan for dinner. This meal proved to be a nice change as the portions weren’t as if they’d been taken straight from an episode of ‘Man vs Food’. Nice food (we both went for roast chicken) in manageable portions. Club not open yet so we make the walk across the road to the Aria where they apparently hold ‘the big game’ now. Despite it’s large size, the game wasn’t big enough for us to spot. Just a bog standard poker room. We did the old slot machine trick of getting a ‘free drink’ whilst tipping her a dollar each and spewing $10 more on the machine, so that’s cashback right there. Then with the money we’d saved by only in effect paying $11 a drink we went to find a roulette machine…
Black had come in 7 times in a row apparently, so obviously it’s going to be red next spin. We plonked $40 down on red and watched the ball set off in motion. Black.
Black had come in 8 times in a row apparently, so obviously it’s going to be red next spin. We plonked another $40 down on red and watched the ball set off in motion. Black.
Very calmly we headed back to the Cosmopolitan, not at all flapping about the roulette session. “It’s just one of those things” I said.
“That was jolly good fun” Tom replied
“I’m pleased that money’s gone to a good cause” I declared.
Outraged at the previous 10 minutes we went up the escalator to hit up the Marquee and take in some sick rooftop strip views. It was about 11ish now. Sadly everyone in Las Vegas had the very same idea and the queue was horrendous. I don’t do horrendous queuing with a bunch of people who are probably twats so suggested we give this one a miss, learn from our mistakes, and queue up early next time.
We drowned our sorrows in the nearby lounge bar called ‘The Chandelier’. So called because the bar is set in a giant chandelier. People were going nuts for this place for some reason. I was speaking to a concierge at Ceasar’s the next day and she told me it was “the most amazing place ever”. It’s not the most amazing place ever, it was fairly average. Some of the girls in the bar were blown away by the crystals in the chandelier “Do you think they’re real diamonds?” I heard one of them say. They’re obviously not real diamonds love, that would just an Oceans 11 waiting to happen, they’re clearly plastic. Use some sense. The bar’s website describes itself like this:
The Chandelier During this spiritual experience we hatched a plan to win back the money we just lost on roulette.* The plan was to put $20 in and have two $10 attempts. Whether we bet on red or black would this time be decided by a flip of a coin. Heads = Red (obviously) Tails = Black. If the bet came in we would flip the coin again and place the winnings wherever the coin told us. We would do this a maximum of 4 times. If we lost we would jump off the roof of the Cosmopolitan. To save us from embarrassment in front of real people we found ourselves a computer roulette machine. Pich was doing the betting, I was doing the flipping. First flip – tails (black). We placed the bet and looked away (if you look at the screen it’s a fact that you’ll definitely lose). A moment later we look back, our money is still on the pixelated roulette screen. We had won ten whole dollars. I flip again. Heads (red). $20 goes down on red, the wheel starts spinning. BOOM red. This coin knows it’s stuff. Tails (black). $40 goes down. The tension is beginning to rise. The coin can’t get 3 in a row right…
$80! We are literally high rolling. At this point doubt begins to set in and we call a general meeting. We could cash out now and would almost be even. The coin won’t get 4 in a row. However, we did previously agree to go with 4 spins no matter what… I flip the coin to see what it says. Tails, black. Twice in a row coin? Really? It was time to pull our fingers out. 80USD on black. We look away for quite a while. I slowly turn my head. “YEAHHHHHHHAWOHROFDNSIOFNIO$£”^&*(“^&” was the sound. $160 plus the extra $10 is a $170 cash out. We are actually very nearly up on the night. With night drawing on it was time to leave the Cosmopolitan as victors. I’m sure our visit will have severely dented their April profit margins.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was the final full day of our Vegas vacation. In recognition of this we actually managed to get up pre afternoon. The plan for the day was souvenir shopping and night time entertainment at Ceasar’s palace. First port of call however was New York New York. I’d been badgering Pich about going on at least one ride whilst we were in Vegas. He wasn’t all that keen when I showed him some pictures of the attractions at the stratosphere so we decided in the end to compromise for the ‘closer to the ground’ New York New York rollercoaster. Rollercoasters are best done pre-breakfast so we figured we’d get some food after being thrown around amongst the mock NY skyline. We got there just as it was opening for the day at 11am, chucked all of our valuables into one of the available lockers, payed the $14 fee and took some seats near the back of the carts.
It’s difficult to describe a rollercoaster in a TR. You go up slowly, you go down fast, Pich flaps, screams and swears, you go upside down, round and round, it’s all very exciting, end.
That out of the way I took the opportunity to do a spot of souvenir shopping. One of my work colleagues asked me if I could bring back the obvious souvenir, a mini statue of liberty. The person is an idiot but I obliged. I also managed to pick up a fairly sick Vegas photo frame for the sister (she collects them). For breakfast we headed over to the MGM to a rather bog standard establishment which I think might have been the Studio Café. It did the job however and the waiter was pretty good. On the way out we gave some money to some sick and needy slot machines and sat down in the sports book to watch the second half of one-sided Man Utd vs Shalke.
Following that it was time to get on with souvenir shopping. Neither of us really knew what we needed to get in all that much detail. Pich wanted some Twinkies for his brother and a ‘Pandora charm’ whatever one of those is, for the missus. I wanted a t-shirt, for myself. Walgreen’s pharmacy was on the way to the Miracle Mile so we stopped off there first. I was flapping about needing to cut my finger nails so went off and bought a nail clipper, as you do when you’re on holiday in Vegas. Pich found a box of Twinkies. Score one for the souvenir list.
The Miracle Mile has a circular floor plan so we figured it was best to do a preliminary observation walk to get a feel for the place. TP went off to look for watches, but was dismayed that none of them had price tags on. I went off around every souvenir shop looking for the perfect t-shirt. Most were unsuitable, sporting slogans such as ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ and stuff like that. Slogans like that might have been true at one time, but I’m pretty sure that camera phones, blogs and forums put an end to all that. Eventually I found a t-shirt that was a little bit tasteful, something I could conceivably wear to places other than Las Vegas Airport. Sadly yesterday I spilt garlic bread juice down the front of it so it’s in intensive care at the moment, too early to tell whether the stain will come out. I can obviously let the forum know as soon I get an update on the stain status.
Next stop after this insubstantial amount of shopping was the more ‘elite’ Forum shops at Caesar’s Palace. The Forum is nicer than the MM, but probably a bit too elite for me. I don’t really care too much for brands or paying lots for clothes, with the exception of shoes and shirts. The Forum is just one designer shop after another. I left TP in the Pandora shop so he could go ‘charm shopping’ and I wandered up one of the ‘streets’ in the Forum. I popped into the Guess shop. A label I had not heard of until I arrived in Vegas, but apparently it’s quite popular with people with a sense of style. One thing I noticed about Vegas is that unlike a classy establishment elsewhere in the world, the shop assistants/waiting staff/casino floor employees don’t talk down to you if you walk in dressed like me. It being Vegas, they can never be sure if the low roller that’s just walked in has just come into a lot of money on a slot and is looking to splurge. I don’t recall any ‘bad’ service from anyone in Vegas.
The assistant in the Guess shop didn’t give me bad service, he was just a twat. “Hey man how’s it goin’?” he asks me as I put a foot through the doorway. Obviously you answer “good thanks”. You say this even if you’ve just lost your life savings on roulette; your wife and kids have left you for someone else; and you’re actual reason for popping into the store is to buy a belt to hang yourself with in the hotel room. Unfortunately he then started getting a bit pretentious and asking me “so when was the last time you wore Guess?” that’s incorrect grammar, and also I’ve never worn Guess. When I told him this he was a little taken back.. “You don’t wear Guess?!” Then he went on about how I’d just love the new spring stuff they’d just had in, but that there was also clearance stock around the back. It all looks the same to me. Unfortunately he didn’t make a sale that time.
Pich had successfully purchased a charm from Pandora. Not sure how much he spent on it, but it was about the size of a 5p piece so was probably expensive. I had with me a voucher book that offered FREE SHIPPING ON ALL PANDORA ITEMS, but we were pretty sure we’d be able to fit it somewhere in one of the bags if we sacrificed some non essentials.
On the way out I paid $10 for an elite ice cream. It tasted nice. Just like ice cream is supposed to. Pich bought another novelty slush puppy type cocktail thing in a big pink receptacle.
Back at the IP we spruced up in clubworthy attire and headed off to Ceasar’s. We stopped by the poker room because apparently the WOSPC main event was taking place and Pich wanted to have a look. Sure enough there were people, playing poker. It was a sight to behold. That essential visit ticked, we next headed to ‘Pure’ nightclub to chat with the bouncer about what the crack was with the place. He advised me that I could either pay $30 to get in after 10:30pm or pay $300 for a bottle and table service. This to me seems like a –ev proposition. Has anyone ever paid for this at a club in vegas? What do you actually get? Is it just one bottle? A bottle of what?
Pich is as Italian as they come, he doesn’t even speak English. With this in mind we headed to Rao’s Italian restaurant in Ceasar’s for some high roller dining. It was pretty rammed in there so we opted to eat at the bar. The food here was top quality. TP went for Spaghetti Bolognaise and I opted for Ravioli and Cranberries. We staked each other for some huge meatballs to go with it. The service here was impeccable too. Our waiter was obviously gunning for a big tip and achieved this with the standard talk about how his family originates from Liverpool and that he has a Liverpool United shirt at home. He then decided to gamble his all but guaranteed 15% tip for a 20% tip by incorporating some risqué jokes about Man Utd and Freddie Mercury into the routine. Luckily for him he read his opponents well and was rewarded with the full 20% tip. Thoroughly earned. Promotion potential?
After the meal we nailed a few ‘free’ drinks from slot play. I actually managed to hit the jackpot on my last spin turning 2c into $50. Cashback. A queue hadn’t yet formed at Pure, but there were lots of minglers about. There were also about a billion suited door staff. Anyone would think Barack Obama was about to make an unscheduled appearance. I inquired about the guest list but sadly it was too late to be put on this. As 10:30 rolled on by we took our place near the front of the queue. All was going well until one of the secret service agents protecting the president pulled Pich up and advised him that “You won’t get in looking like that…you gotta dress smart to get in here”.
I berated TP about this all the way back to the IP where he changed out of his trainers and t-shirt into something more respectable. Time for Pure, take 2. At the junction where we crossed to get in Caesar’s we met a man offering wrist bands for Pure. He mentioned how without the bands we’d pay $40 to get in, but that with the bands we’d only pay (him) $20 and would get a free bar from 12am til 2am. We were drunk and this sounded amazing. For some reason neither mine or TP’s early warning systems were functioning at this moment in time. The fact that one of the door people had told me the cover charge was $30, not $40 did not alert us. The fact that free bars don’t actually exist in real life, especially for $20, did not alert us. The fact the guy was asking for the $20 right there and then in cash on the street, rather than allowing us to get the discount at the door, did not alert us. Alert free we stumped up the cash feeling we were onto a winner.
Just as we were walking through the doors of Caesar’s a suited and booted man spied the bands we were wearing.
“Guys, you’re not going to get in with those, that’s a scam, he tell you that you’d get a free bar? That you’d get in for $20 in the VIP section?...Yeah that’s not going to happen. Have one of these instead…for free.” He handed us both ‘VIP Cards’ offering us standard general admission for free. He gave them to us for free. These cards looked a bit more official, and as he was giving them out for free, it seemed legit. Irritated at being victims of the most obvious scam in Las Vegas, but relieved that we’d passed someone able to recognise this before we made fools of ourselves we rejoined the queue. The cards worked and we got in for free after much scrutiny over our UK driving licences by the door staff. It was a net loss of $20 each, but still cheaper than paying $30 to get in.
Pure was a bit of a letdown to be honest. The downstairs area was just like somewhere you’d find in Chepstow, with the exception that you were basically not allowed to stand anywhere as everywhere was taped off for VIPS. “VIP” by the way, is the most over used, and over rated expression Vegas. It means nothing.
VIP stands for ‘Very, Important, Person’. American 21 year olds with rich parents on their spring break are not, in my eyes, very important people. Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the UN is very important, Paul McCartney is very important, Steve Jobs is very important… Corey, 21, from Orange County, California is not important, he’s a bellend. Anyway we bought some pricey drinks and stood around waiting for the upstairs area to open. (The VIPS had get seated first). There were some free vodka shots going around so we managed to blag a few of those with our charming English accents. Eventually the upstairs was opened up to the lower classes and we made our way upstairs.
The terrace was actually pretty sick. Good music, good looking people and not a horrific queue for the bar. Still nowhere to sit down, but we were a bit drunk now so did some shit dancing instead. I ordered us two corona and limes and was instead given a corona and two limes and one corona with some lemon in it. For some reason I tipped the bartender $4 for this. It’s the effort that counts, not the attainment.
The evening eventually reached a close and we headed to O’Shea’s for a quick dose of junk food and, as was the theme of the trip, lost another $60 on roulette at the IP before retiring to bed for the last time. Standard.
Cliff Notes
Went to the Gun Store
Spewed money in Aria
Won money in Cosmopolitan
Did the New York Rollercoaster
Went shopping
Went to ‘Pure’ nightclub.
Monday
Monday afternoon we awoke at 12:30pm. The original scheduled time for rising and shining was meant to be 11:30am however neither of us heard the alarm on account of Pich putting his phone on silent. A precious hour wasted. Once on our feet it became clear that we were both unpleasantly hung-over. Food is obviously the first order of the day and so we headed south along the strip to Paris where we ate at Sugar Factory American Brasserie and were served by the lovely Monica. Probably a waitress by day and hooker by night. Pich had sadly forgotten his sunglasses which was unfortunate as Monica sat us outside and he inadvertently chose the seat facing the afternoon Nevada sun. I was not in the mood for an epic savoury snack that morning so went for a ham and cheese crepe. TP obviously fancied something with a bit more sustenance and so opted for a steak baguette.
I was however in the mood for something sweet, The Sugar Factory is famous for its desert menu and neither of us had had a desert yet with any of our meals. It was the time and place for one. I decided to opt for the standard ice cream sundae; Pich went for the same thing. He casually told the waitress, Monica, that he wasn’t interested in sprinkles or whipped cream etc and she duly noted this and went off to advise the kitchen. My ice cream sundae is on the left, Pich’s ice cream sundae is on the right. We both paid the same…who’s winning?
Once TP had ploughed through his enormous and over the top desert we headed further south along the strip to the MGM to spew a little money on roulette and slots. Didn’t win, obviously. We had decided that day, to go visit ‘The Gun Store’ on Tropicana Avenue. Originally our vacation plans involved things like going to the Grand Canyon, playing golf, going to lots of shows etc. So far we’d only done one show, albeit an awesome one, and had spent the rest of the time getting slapped around the face by red and black on roulette, today we actually going to add another activity to our roster.
I didn’t know the way to the Gun Store. I knew it was on Tropicana Ave but wasn’t sure whether it was walking distance, and whether it was east or west. Plus Pich gets funny about walking in ‘areas’ in case we get mugged. (He was majorly flapping on our walk to the Rio). We therefore checked with the MGM concierge and got a taxi east to the Gun Store. Pretty sure we didn’t get as screwed over this time in the cab ride as he only had to drive straight along one road, although it is about 3 miles from the strip. He charged us $15 for the privilege.
We were greeted at The Gun Store (The Gun Store | Las Vegas) by an attractive young lady dressed in a ‘Gun Store’ cap and ‘T-Shirt’.
“Hey their guys, you come to do some shootin’ today? Awesome! Well we’ve got single shot and semi auto guns which you can hire for $25, alternatively you can fire a fully automatic machine gun for $50…We also have packages available such as the ‘Iraq’ package where you get yadah yadah yadah..”
The ‘Iraq Coalition’ package sounded good. (Guns n shit innit?) so we both went for that at around about $129 each. I added on the ‘Dirty Harry’ .44 Revolver to the package for an extra $25. The attractive lady outside told us that there was a bit of a queue and we’d be waiting for a approximately an hour. Irritating, but tolerable. In reality it was absolutely heaving in there and we were queuing for at least 1 hour 45. The queue snaked around the room in a fairly disorganised manner, everyone clutching at the paper targets they had chosen (14 to choose from, collect them all!) and a box full of ammunition for the various guns they had chosen to fire. Men, women, old people, children, all carrying shot gun shells and machine gun belts. I say children because, this being America, everyone should have the right to express themselves through the second amendment if they want. The Gun Store recognises this by offering a ‘Kids Package’ for only $40. God Bless the USA.
One thing we noticed about the Gun Store when we were queuing was how goddamn happy the staff there were. It was like a youth club for them, playing table tennis, drinking panda pops and sliding across the floor on their knees. Not quite, but they were still singing and dancing and generally having a gay old time. Job satisfaction at the Gun Store is evidently quite high. They were also heavily armed. One member of staff had around his waist, two handguns, spare ammo, a taser, pepper spray and a hunting knife. Obviously one can never be too careful when dealing with tourists and firearms.
Anyway eventually we reached the front of the queue, were met by a youngish instructor who was loving the fact that when I said “Dirty Harry” I actually pronounced it “Dir-y Harry”. “Say Dirty Harry again for me dude”. Kid needed to watch is step, otherwise I’d shoot him. Anyway goggles and ear protectors on, we were led out onto the range. I was first up, our instructor challenging me to fire the .44 magnum with one hand at a sideways angle and hit the unfortunate figure on my target in the eye. Needless to say the power and recoil on the thing was unreal and I’ve no idea where my bullet ended up. Certainly not in the target. Throughout the session we took turns in firing an M9 Pistol, an M4 rifle and the sick M249 SAW. (footage below). At the end of the shoot we got to choose a ‘free’ (although obviously it’s not) t-shirt. I am unsure when I will find a suitable moment to walk around wearing my t-shirt with a picture of a machine gun on it. Fed up with extortionate taxi prices, we head back to the strip by a convenient $2 bus that stopped right outside the Gun Store.
YouTube - M249 SAW, The Gun Store, Las Vegas
YouTube - Loz: M249 SAW, The Gun Store, Las Vegas
We decided that evening to try and go to some sort of elite club type place as we had done the night before. We hadn’t checked out the Aria or City Centre yet so figured this would be our destination for the evening. I’d been reading about a rooftop club called Marquee which we were going to try and go to. The bouncer tells me that the club opens at 10:30pm so we go to The Henry on the ground floor of the Cosmopolitan for dinner. This meal proved to be a nice change as the portions weren’t as if they’d been taken straight from an episode of ‘Man vs Food’. Nice food (we both went for roast chicken) in manageable portions. Club not open yet so we make the walk across the road to the Aria where they apparently hold ‘the big game’ now. Despite it’s large size, the game wasn’t big enough for us to spot. Just a bog standard poker room. We did the old slot machine trick of getting a ‘free drink’ whilst tipping her a dollar each and spewing $10 more on the machine, so that’s cashback right there. Then with the money we’d saved by only in effect paying $11 a drink we went to find a roulette machine…
Black had come in 7 times in a row apparently, so obviously it’s going to be red next spin. We plonked $40 down on red and watched the ball set off in motion. Black.
Black had come in 8 times in a row apparently, so obviously it’s going to be red next spin. We plonked another $40 down on red and watched the ball set off in motion. Black.
Very calmly we headed back to the Cosmopolitan, not at all flapping about the roulette session. “It’s just one of those things” I said.
“That was jolly good fun” Tom replied
“I’m pleased that money’s gone to a good cause” I declared.
Outraged at the previous 10 minutes we went up the escalator to hit up the Marquee and take in some sick rooftop strip views. It was about 11ish now. Sadly everyone in Las Vegas had the very same idea and the queue was horrendous. I don’t do horrendous queuing with a bunch of people who are probably twats so suggested we give this one a miss, learn from our mistakes, and queue up early next time.
We drowned our sorrows in the nearby lounge bar called ‘The Chandelier’. So called because the bar is set in a giant chandelier. People were going nuts for this place for some reason. I was speaking to a concierge at Ceasar’s the next day and she told me it was “the most amazing place ever”. It’s not the most amazing place ever, it was fairly average. Some of the girls in the bar were blown away by the crystals in the chandelier “Do you think they’re real diamonds?” I heard one of them say. They’re obviously not real diamonds love, that would just an Oceans 11 waiting to happen, they’re clearly plastic. Use some sense. The bar’s website describes itself like this:
The Chandelier $80! We are literally high rolling. At this point doubt begins to set in and we call a general meeting. We could cash out now and would almost be even. The coin won’t get 4 in a row. However, we did previously agree to go with 4 spins no matter what… I flip the coin to see what it says. Tails, black. Twice in a row coin? Really? It was time to pull our fingers out. 80USD on black. We look away for quite a while. I slowly turn my head. “YEAHHHHHHHAWOHROFDNSIOFNIO$£”^&*(“^&” was the sound. $160 plus the extra $10 is a $170 cash out. We are actually very nearly up on the night. With night drawing on it was time to leave the Cosmopolitan as victors. I’m sure our visit will have severely dented their April profit margins.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was the final full day of our Vegas vacation. In recognition of this we actually managed to get up pre afternoon. The plan for the day was souvenir shopping and night time entertainment at Ceasar’s palace. First port of call however was New York New York. I’d been badgering Pich about going on at least one ride whilst we were in Vegas. He wasn’t all that keen when I showed him some pictures of the attractions at the stratosphere so we decided in the end to compromise for the ‘closer to the ground’ New York New York rollercoaster. Rollercoasters are best done pre-breakfast so we figured we’d get some food after being thrown around amongst the mock NY skyline. We got there just as it was opening for the day at 11am, chucked all of our valuables into one of the available lockers, payed the $14 fee and took some seats near the back of the carts.
It’s difficult to describe a rollercoaster in a TR. You go up slowly, you go down fast, Pich flaps, screams and swears, you go upside down, round and round, it’s all very exciting, end.
That out of the way I took the opportunity to do a spot of souvenir shopping. One of my work colleagues asked me if I could bring back the obvious souvenir, a mini statue of liberty. The person is an idiot but I obliged. I also managed to pick up a fairly sick Vegas photo frame for the sister (she collects them). For breakfast we headed over to the MGM to a rather bog standard establishment which I think might have been the Studio Café. It did the job however and the waiter was pretty good. On the way out we gave some money to some sick and needy slot machines and sat down in the sports book to watch the second half of one-sided Man Utd vs Shalke.
Following that it was time to get on with souvenir shopping. Neither of us really knew what we needed to get in all that much detail. Pich wanted some Twinkies for his brother and a ‘Pandora charm’ whatever one of those is, for the missus. I wanted a t-shirt, for myself. Walgreen’s pharmacy was on the way to the Miracle Mile so we stopped off there first. I was flapping about needing to cut my finger nails so went off and bought a nail clipper, as you do when you’re on holiday in Vegas. Pich found a box of Twinkies. Score one for the souvenir list.
The Miracle Mile has a circular floor plan so we figured it was best to do a preliminary observation walk to get a feel for the place. TP went off to look for watches, but was dismayed that none of them had price tags on. I went off around every souvenir shop looking for the perfect t-shirt. Most were unsuitable, sporting slogans such as ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ and stuff like that. Slogans like that might have been true at one time, but I’m pretty sure that camera phones, blogs and forums put an end to all that. Eventually I found a t-shirt that was a little bit tasteful, something I could conceivably wear to places other than Las Vegas Airport. Sadly yesterday I spilt garlic bread juice down the front of it so it’s in intensive care at the moment, too early to tell whether the stain will come out. I can obviously let the forum know as soon I get an update on the stain status.
Next stop after this insubstantial amount of shopping was the more ‘elite’ Forum shops at Caesar’s Palace. The Forum is nicer than the MM, but probably a bit too elite for me. I don’t really care too much for brands or paying lots for clothes, with the exception of shoes and shirts. The Forum is just one designer shop after another. I left TP in the Pandora shop so he could go ‘charm shopping’ and I wandered up one of the ‘streets’ in the Forum. I popped into the Guess shop. A label I had not heard of until I arrived in Vegas, but apparently it’s quite popular with people with a sense of style. One thing I noticed about Vegas is that unlike a classy establishment elsewhere in the world, the shop assistants/waiting staff/casino floor employees don’t talk down to you if you walk in dressed like me. It being Vegas, they can never be sure if the low roller that’s just walked in has just come into a lot of money on a slot and is looking to splurge. I don’t recall any ‘bad’ service from anyone in Vegas.
The assistant in the Guess shop didn’t give me bad service, he was just a twat. “Hey man how’s it goin’?” he asks me as I put a foot through the doorway. Obviously you answer “good thanks”. You say this even if you’ve just lost your life savings on roulette; your wife and kids have left you for someone else; and you’re actual reason for popping into the store is to buy a belt to hang yourself with in the hotel room. Unfortunately he then started getting a bit pretentious and asking me “so when was the last time you wore Guess?” that’s incorrect grammar, and also I’ve never worn Guess. When I told him this he was a little taken back.. “You don’t wear Guess?!” Then he went on about how I’d just love the new spring stuff they’d just had in, but that there was also clearance stock around the back. It all looks the same to me. Unfortunately he didn’t make a sale that time.
Pich had successfully purchased a charm from Pandora. Not sure how much he spent on it, but it was about the size of a 5p piece so was probably expensive. I had with me a voucher book that offered FREE SHIPPING ON ALL PANDORA ITEMS, but we were pretty sure we’d be able to fit it somewhere in one of the bags if we sacrificed some non essentials.
On the way out I paid $10 for an elite ice cream. It tasted nice. Just like ice cream is supposed to. Pich bought another novelty slush puppy type cocktail thing in a big pink receptacle.
Back at the IP we spruced up in clubworthy attire and headed off to Ceasar’s. We stopped by the poker room because apparently the WOSPC main event was taking place and Pich wanted to have a look. Sure enough there were people, playing poker. It was a sight to behold. That essential visit ticked, we next headed to ‘Pure’ nightclub to chat with the bouncer about what the crack was with the place. He advised me that I could either pay $30 to get in after 10:30pm or pay $300 for a bottle and table service. This to me seems like a –ev proposition. Has anyone ever paid for this at a club in vegas? What do you actually get? Is it just one bottle? A bottle of what?
Pich is as Italian as they come, he doesn’t even speak English. With this in mind we headed to Rao’s Italian restaurant in Ceasar’s for some high roller dining. It was pretty rammed in there so we opted to eat at the bar. The food here was top quality. TP went for Spaghetti Bolognaise and I opted for Ravioli and Cranberries. We staked each other for some huge meatballs to go with it. The service here was impeccable too. Our waiter was obviously gunning for a big tip and achieved this with the standard talk about how his family originates from Liverpool and that he has a Liverpool United shirt at home. He then decided to gamble his all but guaranteed 15% tip for a 20% tip by incorporating some risqué jokes about Man Utd and Freddie Mercury into the routine. Luckily for him he read his opponents well and was rewarded with the full 20% tip. Thoroughly earned. Promotion potential?
After the meal we nailed a few ‘free’ drinks from slot play. I actually managed to hit the jackpot on my last spin turning 2c into $50. Cashback. A queue hadn’t yet formed at Pure, but there were lots of minglers about. There were also about a billion suited door staff. Anyone would think Barack Obama was about to make an unscheduled appearance. I inquired about the guest list but sadly it was too late to be put on this. As 10:30 rolled on by we took our place near the front of the queue. All was going well until one of the secret service agents protecting the president pulled Pich up and advised him that “You won’t get in looking like that…you gotta dress smart to get in here”.
I berated TP about this all the way back to the IP where he changed out of his trainers and t-shirt into something more respectable. Time for Pure, take 2. At the junction where we crossed to get in Caesar’s we met a man offering wrist bands for Pure. He mentioned how without the bands we’d pay $40 to get in, but that with the bands we’d only pay (him) $20 and would get a free bar from 12am til 2am. We were drunk and this sounded amazing. For some reason neither mine or TP’s early warning systems were functioning at this moment in time. The fact that one of the door people had told me the cover charge was $30, not $40 did not alert us. The fact that free bars don’t actually exist in real life, especially for $20, did not alert us. The fact the guy was asking for the $20 right there and then in cash on the street, rather than allowing us to get the discount at the door, did not alert us. Alert free we stumped up the cash feeling we were onto a winner.
Just as we were walking through the doors of Caesar’s a suited and booted man spied the bands we were wearing.
“Guys, you’re not going to get in with those, that’s a scam, he tell you that you’d get a free bar? That you’d get in for $20 in the VIP section?...Yeah that’s not going to happen. Have one of these instead…for free.” He handed us both ‘VIP Cards’ offering us standard general admission for free. He gave them to us for free. These cards looked a bit more official, and as he was giving them out for free, it seemed legit. Irritated at being victims of the most obvious scam in Las Vegas, but relieved that we’d passed someone able to recognise this before we made fools of ourselves we rejoined the queue. The cards worked and we got in for free after much scrutiny over our UK driving licences by the door staff. It was a net loss of $20 each, but still cheaper than paying $30 to get in.
Pure was a bit of a letdown to be honest. The downstairs area was just like somewhere you’d find in Chepstow, with the exception that you were basically not allowed to stand anywhere as everywhere was taped off for VIPS. “VIP” by the way, is the most over used, and over rated expression Vegas. It means nothing.
VIP stands for ‘Very, Important, Person’. American 21 year olds with rich parents on their spring break are not, in my eyes, very important people. Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the UN is very important, Paul McCartney is very important, Steve Jobs is very important… Corey, 21, from Orange County, California is not important, he’s a bellend. Anyway we bought some pricey drinks and stood around waiting for the upstairs area to open. (The VIPS had get seated first). There were some free vodka shots going around so we managed to blag a few of those with our charming English accents. Eventually the upstairs was opened up to the lower classes and we made our way upstairs.
The terrace was actually pretty sick. Good music, good looking people and not a horrific queue for the bar. Still nowhere to sit down, but we were a bit drunk now so did some shit dancing instead. I ordered us two corona and limes and was instead given a corona and two limes and one corona with some lemon in it. For some reason I tipped the bartender $4 for this. It’s the effort that counts, not the attainment.
The evening eventually reached a close and we headed to O’Shea’s for a quick dose of junk food and, as was the theme of the trip, lost another $60 on roulette at the IP before retiring to bed for the last time. Standard.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
$870 - 1/121 ($26 Rush)
My 3rd outright MTT win of the month. I've never won 3 tourneys in one month before. I'd love to say I played amazing however due to lots of railers I can't say anything like that. I played well to get 5 handed but then I ended up getting it in with KQ vs AJ. With an A on the flop I was nearly logging out but then a K turn and Q river gave me the chip lead. A few hands later a shroty shoves for 30% of my stack. I call with AJhh and he shows AK. Flop comes down J high with 2 hearts haha :) So after that pot I got down to heads up and managed to use my #skills to take it down from there :) GG
$2,850 - 6/421 ($109 Rush)
This brag is both good but annoying as I feel uber deflated. I was playing and running well. With 6 left I had about average until I got it allin preflop with a similar stack to bust in 6th. Folded to me in sb with AQs, I put in a nice raise, he just shoves so I snap. He has AK and holds :'( $2.8k is a great result and adds to the uber sick month I'm having but $14k would have been epic. Happy non the less.
Also cashed in the $44 4-max tourney I like in 5th for $250 the same night.
Also cashed in the $44 4-max tourney I like in 5th for $250 the same night.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
$1,500 - 5/302 ($75 Early Antes)
I played a full schedule Thursday night for the first time in 5 days. 10 tourneys. Busted all bar one in which I made the final table but busted 5th for about $1.5k. This month is turning out to be a fantastic month for me.
I've won 2 tourneys outright for $3.8k and $2k and a further 2 final tables for $1k and $1.5k. I didn't post an update but back last week I finished 3rd on Poker Stars in their $27.50 360 Cap for around $1k which was nice.
Playing minimal poker this weekend however I'm currently planning a live schedule for July/Aug with S4ooter, we'll be hitting various locations for some UK ranking events. At the moment the DTD Grand Prix is looking likely and the UKIPT in Brighton is a shout but more information to follow. For now heres a shot of my 5th place finish...
I've won 2 tourneys outright for $3.8k and $2k and a further 2 final tables for $1k and $1.5k. I didn't post an update but back last week I finished 3rd on Poker Stars in their $27.50 360 Cap for around $1k which was nice.
Playing minimal poker this weekend however I'm currently planning a live schedule for July/Aug with S4ooter, we'll be hitting various locations for some UK ranking events. At the moment the DTD Grand Prix is looking likely and the UKIPT in Brighton is a shout but more information to follow. For now heres a shot of my 5th place finish...
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
$3,800 - 1/166 ($109 Daily)
So, I booked Monday and Tuesday off work this week in anticipation I'd be playing day 2 of at least 1 SCOOP event. As it turned out I cashed in one of 5 events, for about $350 in a $215 event. I busted all the others after roughly 3 hours of play in each. I used tickets for all so it was a slight profit (however will show as -$3k on sharkscope).
Therefore I took Monday off and chilled, then hit the MTT grid on today. Gymed it up this morning and played an afternoon schedule from 2pm. Played awesome in the $109 14:00 tourney and ran well when it mattered finishing FIRST for about $3,800. Weeeeee....
This is my 2nd outright win this month and although I ran well in one particular hand, I feel I'm gaining a clear edge short-handed and headups. This is aided by playing 6-Max and 4-Max which I highly advise as it comes in so useful. I've still not gotten around to doing a short-handed article, I'm keen to do some sort of 4-max video as I have HH's from endless tourneys now :) Time pending of course.
Anyway, the hand in which I got uber lucky was 6-handed in this event. Myself and another guy were playing 90k, which at the time were the two biggest stacks. The past 2 rounds I'd opened raised his BB, only for him to put in a strong 3-bet. 3rd time around I have A7s and open once again, low and behold he 3-bets from the BB and it's back to me. I don't want to call and play a flop with so much invested pre-flop. Therefore I figure he's capable of folding AQ, AJ and medium pairs to a shove here Vs the other biggest stack. Therefore I ship it in and he snaps me off with KK haha :( WTF!!!! Anyway after a blank flop I'm about to smash the laptop due to throwing away a great spot with an ill timed move. Poker Stars have other ideas when an A binks on the turn :D :D I fade a K on the river and I'm in a prime spot to own it from here 5-handed. By the time it's heads up I've chipped up to like 400k and playing against a guy with 100k. I get him to shove allin with QT Vs my A6s, blank blank blank blank ...... Q ! :P Here we go. I regroup and figure I would have loved to be in this spot when I was allin with the A7. I mix it up with some well timed 3-bets and take it down when we get it allin on a 3 spade flop, I have 2 spades and he has the Ace of spade. I fade and SHIP IT, Weeeeeee...!!!!
Therefore I took Monday off and chilled, then hit the MTT grid on today. Gymed it up this morning and played an afternoon schedule from 2pm. Played awesome in the $109 14:00 tourney and ran well when it mattered finishing FIRST for about $3,800. Weeeeee....
This is my 2nd outright win this month and although I ran well in one particular hand, I feel I'm gaining a clear edge short-handed and headups. This is aided by playing 6-Max and 4-Max which I highly advise as it comes in so useful. I've still not gotten around to doing a short-handed article, I'm keen to do some sort of 4-max video as I have HH's from endless tourneys now :) Time pending of course.
Anyway, the hand in which I got uber lucky was 6-handed in this event. Myself and another guy were playing 90k, which at the time were the two biggest stacks. The past 2 rounds I'd opened raised his BB, only for him to put in a strong 3-bet. 3rd time around I have A7s and open once again, low and behold he 3-bets from the BB and it's back to me. I don't want to call and play a flop with so much invested pre-flop. Therefore I figure he's capable of folding AQ, AJ and medium pairs to a shove here Vs the other biggest stack. Therefore I ship it in and he snaps me off with KK haha :( WTF!!!! Anyway after a blank flop I'm about to smash the laptop due to throwing away a great spot with an ill timed move. Poker Stars have other ideas when an A binks on the turn :D :D I fade a K on the river and I'm in a prime spot to own it from here 5-handed. By the time it's heads up I've chipped up to like 400k and playing against a guy with 100k. I get him to shove allin with QT Vs my A6s, blank blank blank blank ...... Q ! :P Here we go. I regroup and figure I would have loved to be in this spot when I was allin with the A7. I mix it up with some well timed 3-bets and take it down when we get it allin on a 3 spade flop, I have 2 spades and he has the Ace of spade. I fade and SHIP IT, Weeeeeee...!!!!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
SCOOP Schedule
The Spring Championship of Online Poker begins tomorrow with 6 events kicking off. This will be the first online series (on Stars) since Black Friday and therefore start times and guarantees have been amending accordingly.
I'll be playing 5 of the 6 events, I've a $2.1k ticket in the account from a $7.50 step lol, as well as some entries for $215s. I've decided to play the 6-max $2k event as I feel my short handed game has really come along over the past 6 months and it would be good to "mix it with the best" so to speak. All of these are 2-day events and play ends after 12 hours in each (I believe), I'd be overjoyed to make day 2 in at least one of these 5 events.
So my schedule tomorrow looks as follows:
Sunday SCOOP Schedule
15:00….$22….SCOOP Event #1 [L]….$200k Gtd
15:00….$215….SCOOP Event #1 [M]….$500k Gtd.
15:00….$2,100….SCOOP Event #1 [H]….$500k Gtd.
19:00….$22….SCOOP Event #2 [L]….$200k Gtd.
19:00….$215….SCOOP Event #2 [M]….$1m Gtd.
Other Tourneys
18:00….$109….The Big….$50k Gtd.
20:00….$55….The Big….$200k Gtd.
Total Buyins = $2,738
I've also got some $$$ tied up in BAPs which are always fun, I've 20% in a SCOOP BAP for s4ooter which spans 9 of the tourneys during the series. We also have another little "Sunday BAP" on the go for another couple of tourneys so it'll be a busy day/night for both.
Watch this space for either a positive or negative post on tomorrows events either Monday or Tuesday.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
$2,060 - 1/156 ($44 4-Max)
During my first online poker session since Vegas I ran like the wind. I played about 5 tournaments making money in four of them. The final tourney was the $44 4-Max event which I love and have done well in the past.
We got down to the final table all even around 150k in chips each but everyone was simply playing for the pay jumps, which is easily exploitable 4-handed. With a pay jump of about $1,600 from 4th to 1st I was only after one thing, FIRST! It's been a while since I won a tourney outright, I think it was a $26 Rush event for $1,200 back in late Feb so I was gunning for this and ....
We got down to the final table all even around 150k in chips each but everyone was simply playing for the pay jumps, which is easily exploitable 4-handed. With a pay jump of about $1,600 from 4th to 1st I was only after one thing, FIRST! It's been a while since I won a tourney outright, I think it was a $26 Rush event for $1,200 back in late Feb so I was gunning for this and ....
Monday, May 2, 2011
Trip Report: Last Vegas, April 2011 P1
I went over with my mate Laurence, we've know each other for about 10 years and also started playing poker at the same time, although he tends to play for fun as appose to grinding most evenings. Loz has been to Vegas briefly before, he's just come back from 4 months travelling the whole of America on his own, so when I said I was going to Vegas he was well up for it, as he said he didn't spend nearly enough time there. We flew over separately as I was flying direct and Loz had some stop overs there and back, he booked the flight last minute for about £550 return I think, which was ok. He had one change over in Minneapolis on the way there and 2 change overs on the way home.
FYI, Loz wrote a pretty comprehensive travel blog while he was in America, it's 90% finished but the detail is amazing. If ever you get a chance take a read, highly recommend it... Laurencecastle's Blog | Just another WordPress.com site
We stayed at the Imperial Palace which turned out to be a fantastic location. It was in the middle of everything and had a bunch of casinos either side. For 6 nights we paid £200 so £100 each and got 2 double beds in our room. As for a casino it is definitely one of the lower ranked casinos and we hardly spent any time there, however in terms of a place to stay I highly recommend it. We were literally only there to sleep, shower and change for for about £17 a night, in the centre of the strip you cannot go wrong. You'd be paying way more than that to stay over the road in Caesars and would be there the same amount of time.
Loz and I both got the same bus from Chepstow to Heathrow on Thursday (21st) morning, he got off at Terminal 3 and I stayed on until Terminal 5. Everything ran smoothly at the airport and I boarded the plane fine. I was seated smack bang in the middle of an Indian family of about 15, made up of 4 generations. Between them they had about 3 young children under 5…Why take kids to Vegas??? Obviously the guy in front of me enjoys the recline button and the old women to my left likes to sleep and "lean" to her right…..is that all? nope! there's a french couple to my right with 2 young children. Great.
It was a slog of a plane journey, I watched 3 movies but couldn't sleep a wink so was literally just watching the clock. It made me realise how amazing it would be to be able to play poker on a plane, I could easily burn a 10 hour flight without realising it.
So I land in Vegas at about 7pm Vegas time and have 2 hours to kill until Loz arrives. I get a shuttle to the strip, it was totally amazing driving into the strip for the first time. It's annoying that I'll never get to experience my “first taste of Vegas” again as it's something special. It was getting dark so the lights were shining and I was buzzing
I got to the Imperial Palace and as Loz booked the room I couldn't check in, they were just starting a $1/$2 NLHE cash game so I jumped straight it.
Right away I realised there was no money to be made at the table. Everyone was playing tight and keeping it very ABC, no one was being pushed off hands so it was pretty much just sit there until Loz arrives. I got involved in a few pots but after 90mins of play I was about $30 down and then Loz arrived. It was pretty surreal just seeing Loz strolling in But I cashed in my chips and we joined the checkin queue which lasted 1 hour haha apparently an hour wait is good and some people have waited up to 3 hours?!
In the queue Loz starts talking about the $20 trick he read on 2+2, it had mixed reviews but it was worth a shot. Basically you push the employee checking you in a cheeky $20 and see if they'll sort you out with an upgrade. I'm not really sure what upgrades the IP has to offer as it was no Wynn but we decided to give it a go.
An hour later Loz checks us in and says to the guy "We're checking, if you have any complimentary upgrades we would be more than willing to tip generously for your services"………The guy looked at him, laughed and said nothing. Not really sure what that mean't but we guessed it was a No!
So checked in and we were both pushing 28 hours with no sleep, with that said we weren't tired so decided to get showered (together) smarten up and have a little look around. We didn't want to venture too far so decided to head over the road and check out Caesars, looked at the WSOPC schedule, checked out the poker room, pissed $100 up the wall on roulette and decided to eat. It was about 1am and we decided to eat at Munch Burger in Caesars. I was unable to find a ¼ pounder on the menu so had to go for a ½ pounder...........with a bucket of fries. Steady start to eating in Vegas.
It was our first taste of Vegas food and straight away realised it would be hard not to get fat in Vegas with our free "bucket" of fries haha (each). Once we ate we headed back to get some sleep and refreshed. I figured 8 hours sleep and I'd be sound after being awake about 30 hours. After a good 8 hours we woke up and both feeling fine, no jet lag or anything and we're both buzzing for the days ahead
Friday morning we decided to hit the shops and have a look around the various casinos. We had that burger in the early hours so just got a couple of slices of Pizza at a cafe in Paris. We looked around Paris as well as the Miracle Mile shops and the Forum Towers at Caesars. I was loving the shops, they had an MMA shop so I bought myself a sick Silver Star t-shirt (Anderson Silvas label).
We decided to have a few drinks in Blondies Sports Bar in the Miracle Mile shopping area, it was 10am and they were showing Leeds Vs Reading haha. Was so surreal drinking at 10am on a Friday morning, in Las Vegas watching Leeds Vs Reading I had never tasted Bud Light before so got a few pints of that, I thought it was quite nice, just a flatter version of Bud.
It is a slog walking up and down the strip so by the time we were done with the shops we decided to head back to the IP, get into "evening wear" and head out for some drinks. We checked out all the major casinos, Bellagio, MGM, Mirage, Wynn, etc… We headed to Planet Hollywood for a steak which was nice. Every place in Vegas is rammed as everyone wants the "buffet", so Planet Hollywood had the smallest queue which swayed the decision.
By the time we were done and had a few more drinks we decided to call it a night around 1am and get some rest before our WSOPC Event the next day.
We were up early on Saturday and both buzzing for the Poker Tourney. It was a $350 Championship Event and we swapped 25%. We headed to The Hash House for breakfast looking for a good feed. It was at Imperial Palace and made famous because it featured on the show, "Man Vs Food". He ate the Fried Chicken Hash House Farm Benedict. It has Chipotle cream with peppers, scrambled eggs, griddled mozzarella, fried chicken, bacon, market tomato, spinach, biscuit on top of griddled potatoes. Pictured below…
I ordered their "award winning" Meatloaf Sandwich called The Kokomo, it's girdled Meatloaf with Smoked Mozzarella and Roasted Red Peppers all on their Fresh Amish Style Milk Bread. It was a beast I'll say that much. From the picture it doesn't look massive but the contents were so filling I had to leave a bit. Loz went for the Waffles and got 4 of them, who needs 1 or 2 when you can have 4!!!, needless to say he left some.
Loz had fruit, ice cream and potatoes on his plate. I gave him a slice of my sandwich and at one point he had waffles, eggs, ice cream, strawberrys, potatoes, meatloaf and fried bread on his plate.....why not?
So over to Caesars and get bought into the event. A very nice cardroom and some sick pictures of all the pros on the four walls. Loz and I soon realised we were seated at the same table next to each other? WTF?! it turned out they don't do a random table draw, they simply seat you as you register, so the first person to register is seated at Table 1 Seat 1, the second is seated at Table 1 Seat 2 and so on. Fortunately there was an influx of buyiins and they were freeing up all the seat 10s, I was seated at seat 10 so was moved to another table. They even postponed the start for 30mins which annoyed me. In the end there were 520 runners, which was some sort of record for a $350 event. It was a combination of the online ban and people wanting to ship a Championship Ring on the cheap.
10k starting stack on a 30min clock but lots of extra levels, we started at 25/25 then went onto 25/50 then 50/75 lol, never seen that level before. I was seated with an English women who looked like an older version of Liv Boeree. She seemed very nice and looked like butter wouldn't melt until…
With blinds at 100/200 she makes it 600, BB pumps it up to 1,800 and she makes it 4000 he calls. Flop comes down all rags with 2 diamonds, bb checks and she shoves. He calls with QJ of diamonds and binks on the river. She went mental calling him allsorts and as she left she said "You fucking prick" haha ! At the end of the day it was a bad preflop call by him, when he 3 bets pre she doesn't re-raise much so he could argue he's priced in. Once he flops the flush draw he's going with it, what more is he looking for. He was probably playing 12k before the hand, if he's committed that much preflop then he's going with it. Chill out love, he binked a flush….get on with it.
At the first break Loz says theres a guy at his table, on his iPad raising every hand. Later I see who it is and it's David Williams, sitting there with a sick framed picture above him on the wall next to Phil Ivey haha. Anyway inevitably both myself and Loz get knocked out. Loz first after 2 limpers he shoved 10 bbs from the bb with AK, initial limper calls with AQ and the other guy finds the call button somehow with JT (for half his stack). J on the flop and Loz is gone.
I last about 2 more hours and feel like I'm playing well, I picked up some decent chips 3-betting preflop and pick up KK. I raise as I have been doing often and some women ships in 17 bigs, I snap her off and she shows AJo, ends up rivering a flush and I'm gone.
During the tournament there was slight commotion as some guy had just jumped off the top level parking lot bridge and killed himself, crazy. There was no emotion at the table and people started with the jokes “Red obviously came in when he bet black”...I had to lol.
The day is pretty much gone so we spend the evening having drinks, checking out the various casinos and gambling. Winning $0, spewing a few hundred…standard.
Sunday was by far the best day, we were fully settled, getting to know our way around and ready to hit the drink. Visiting Vegas makes you realise how genius everything is. Everything is designed and geared up to make you spew money, it's amazing. For example, we often sat down at the slots because you always get offered free drinks (well $1 as you have to tip). Why pay $6 for a Bud at the bar when you can get one for a dollar. But the women takes a while getting your drinks so you end up spewing $10-$20 on the slots haha. At the bars they have video poker on touch screens in the bar, so you get given free drinks while you play to keep you there grinding out. The scantily clad hot women dealers are useful, and some of the places have pole dancers in the middle of the roulette tables, minimum bets are slightly higher but you think ah well why not. It's amazing though, the Casinos are raking it in by the millisecond. To think Harras which isn't the biggest of the casions has purchased the likes of Caesars, Rio, etc… Crazy !
As we walk out of the IP in the morning we get approached by a dodgy looking black guy who asks us both if we want some “nose candy” hahaha !!! Love it. Unfortunately he didn't make a sale on this occasion.
Just a slight side track but theres loads of tramps in Vegas and I was always wondering what the split was between the tramps that are just from Vegas originally and those people that went their to make their fortune and it got the better of them. Thoughts?
For breakfast we decided to hit a random place in Paris…
So as we were yet to see a show and are both Penn and Teller fans theres only one shout. Looked online and they were about $100. Theres plenty of half priced ticket stands in the street and we managed to get our tickets for $60 each, steal. As well as that we got 25% off anything at the VooDoo Steak House at the Rio and free entry to their VooDoo Lounge, best money we spent during our whole stay in Vegas. Penn and Teller are simply awesome. Penn is a very intelligent guy and talks for America (which is a crucial part of their act to keep you distracted). They do their magic is such a way it's pretty amazing. They basically tell you how there tricks are done and even often show you yet, they manage to put a sick spin on the routine and still leave you wondering WTF.
Once we got our tickets from near Paris we thought we'd quickly stroll over to The Rio, as it only looked over the road…..Wrong! It's a fair way out and took a while to walk there. Glad we did though as we sorted our seats early and got some good ones on the front row of the middle tier. Checked out their casino and decided to give the Rio some of our hard eared money, probably $40 each, they clearly need it (lol). So we headed back to the IP got dressed into our evening attire and headed back to the Rio.
So we walk out of the IP and theres a few taxis waiting, a porter guy calls it over for us and opens the door and tells the driver where we need to go. Wasn't really sure if that was tip worthy? but we chucked him $1 anyway. Taxi to the Rio cost about $20, I'm sure he went some sort of long way around. Anyway we get there, get some drinks in and head to the Penn and Teller Theatre. The show was awesome, really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. IMO a show like that is way way above a David Copperfield/Criss Angel show. As those guys try to go for the "supernatural" theme when it's clearly trickery (more Criss Angel really), but Penn and Teller expose everything which was so cool, to do that and still leave the audience stunned is something. Plus the majority of tricks people are aware how to do anyway. They did the standard saw in half trick but somehow managed to put a spin on it to leave the audience thinking WTF?!
They did this sick trick where they took a random from the audience and got took their phone, they then made the phone disapear and reappear inside a dead fish under someones chair in the audience. The amazing thing was they took the blokes phone, and started video recording the trick from the start, they said only the man is going to know how the trick is done because he can watch the video on his phone when he gets home. BUT, we found a video on youtube of a guy from the audience who they do the trick to. It's a really long trick and was totally amazing, it turns out from watching the video that it's over right from the start....
YouTube - My 2 minutes of fame with Penn & Teller at the Rio in Vegas
Once that was over we took our tickets and headed to the VooDoo Lounge, we get in and are ushered to an elevator which takes us to the 51st, as we walk out of the elevator and see the views it was totally sick, the roof terrace was awesome with a bar and massive speakers.
YouTube - Voodoo Lounge, Rio, Las Vegas
We got there about 10ish I'd say so wasn't that packed early on, we could easily get a drink when we wanted, watch the dancers/dj and plenty of room of the roof terrace. This place was the least pretentious "nightlife" place I went to in Vegas. For example we went to Pure at Caesars later in the trip (will be TR'ing about this) and there must have been a good 10 guys outside the club in suits with their "business cards" doing nothing but standing around on their iPhones. Needless excess people on the payroll? 1 or 2 guys would have been more than enough. Anyway at the VooDoo Lounge there was one guy at the door, let us in fine, our free tickets were exchanged for entry, ushered to the lift…done!
I think that the Rio and the Palms are your best shouts for nightlife with sick views, as the others are on the strip they're on top of each other so views won't be as breathtaking as the Rio or Palms, as you can literally take it all in within one view. It was totally sick, I'll definitely be going back there….AMAZING.
Only annoying thing was that as it was a Sunday it closed at 2:30am which sucked. Fairly drunk we naturally just walk back to the strip. Obviously didn't take as long when drunk lol, on the way we bumped into 2 English guys from Northampton who were on their way to the VooDoo Lounge. So we walked back to the strip with them and all went to the Wynn to see what was going down. It was quite a slog and at 3.30am "the moment had gone" so to speak to start drinking again. So we part ways and Loz and I head back up towards the IP, having only had thad breakfast that day (that pretty much fills you for the day) it was 4am and we decide to head for some early morning food. We go to Bills and I get a steak and Loz tackles a breakfast
After this we called it a night about 5.30am to catch some rays for the penultimate full day.
The next 2 days which include the Gun Store and The Caesars Club Pure will be uploaded tomorrow
FYI, Loz wrote a pretty comprehensive travel blog while he was in America, it's 90% finished but the detail is amazing. If ever you get a chance take a read, highly recommend it... Laurencecastle's Blog | Just another WordPress.com site
Hotel
We stayed at the Imperial Palace which turned out to be a fantastic location. It was in the middle of everything and had a bunch of casinos either side. For 6 nights we paid £200 so £100 each and got 2 double beds in our room. As for a casino it is definitely one of the lower ranked casinos and we hardly spent any time there, however in terms of a place to stay I highly recommend it. We were literally only there to sleep, shower and change for for about £17 a night, in the centre of the strip you cannot go wrong. You'd be paying way more than that to stay over the road in Caesars and would be there the same amount of time.
Getting There
Loz and I both got the same bus from Chepstow to Heathrow on Thursday (21st) morning, he got off at Terminal 3 and I stayed on until Terminal 5. Everything ran smoothly at the airport and I boarded the plane fine. I was seated smack bang in the middle of an Indian family of about 15, made up of 4 generations. Between them they had about 3 young children under 5…Why take kids to Vegas??? Obviously the guy in front of me enjoys the recline button and the old women to my left likes to sleep and "lean" to her right…..is that all? nope! there's a french couple to my right with 2 young children. Great.
It was a slog of a plane journey, I watched 3 movies but couldn't sleep a wink so was literally just watching the clock. It made me realise how amazing it would be to be able to play poker on a plane, I could easily burn a 10 hour flight without realising it.
So I land in Vegas at about 7pm Vegas time and have 2 hours to kill until Loz arrives. I get a shuttle to the strip, it was totally amazing driving into the strip for the first time. It's annoying that I'll never get to experience my “first taste of Vegas” again as it's something special. It was getting dark so the lights were shining and I was buzzing
I got to the Imperial Palace and as Loz booked the room I couldn't check in, they were just starting a $1/$2 NLHE cash game so I jumped straight it.Right away I realised there was no money to be made at the table. Everyone was playing tight and keeping it very ABC, no one was being pushed off hands so it was pretty much just sit there until Loz arrives. I got involved in a few pots but after 90mins of play I was about $30 down and then Loz arrived. It was pretty surreal just seeing Loz strolling in
But I cashed in my chips and we joined the checkin queue which lasted 1 hour haha apparently an hour wait is good and some people have waited up to 3 hours?!In the queue Loz starts talking about the $20 trick he read on 2+2, it had mixed reviews but it was worth a shot. Basically you push the employee checking you in a cheeky $20 and see if they'll sort you out with an upgrade. I'm not really sure what upgrades the IP has to offer as it was no Wynn but we decided to give it a go.
An hour later Loz checks us in and says to the guy "We're checking, if you have any complimentary upgrades we would be more than willing to tip generously for your services"………The guy looked at him, laughed and said nothing. Not really sure what that mean't but we guessed it was a No!
So checked in and we were both pushing 28 hours with no sleep, with that said we weren't tired so decided to get showered (together) smarten up and have a little look around. We didn't want to venture too far so decided to head over the road and check out Caesars, looked at the WSOPC schedule, checked out the poker room, pissed $100 up the wall on roulette and decided to eat. It was about 1am and we decided to eat at Munch Burger in Caesars. I was unable to find a ¼ pounder on the menu so had to go for a ½ pounder...........with a bucket of fries. Steady start to eating in Vegas.
It was our first taste of Vegas food and straight away realised it would be hard not to get fat in Vegas with our free "bucket" of fries haha (each). Once we ate we headed back to get some sleep and refreshed. I figured 8 hours sleep and I'd be sound after being awake about 30 hours. After a good 8 hours we woke up and both feeling fine, no jet lag or anything and we're both buzzing for the days ahead
Friday
Friday morning we decided to hit the shops and have a look around the various casinos. We had that burger in the early hours so just got a couple of slices of Pizza at a cafe in Paris. We looked around Paris as well as the Miracle Mile shops and the Forum Towers at Caesars. I was loving the shops, they had an MMA shop so I bought myself a sick Silver Star t-shirt (Anderson Silvas label).
We decided to have a few drinks in Blondies Sports Bar in the Miracle Mile shopping area, it was 10am and they were showing Leeds Vs Reading haha. Was so surreal drinking at 10am on a Friday morning, in Las Vegas watching Leeds Vs Reading
I had never tasted Bud Light before so got a few pints of that, I thought it was quite nice, just a flatter version of Bud.It is a slog walking up and down the strip so by the time we were done with the shops we decided to head back to the IP, get into "evening wear" and head out for some drinks. We checked out all the major casinos, Bellagio, MGM, Mirage, Wynn, etc… We headed to Planet Hollywood for a steak which was nice. Every place in Vegas is rammed as everyone wants the "buffet", so Planet Hollywood had the smallest queue which swayed the decision.
By the time we were done and had a few more drinks we decided to call it a night around 1am and get some rest before our WSOPC Event the next day.
Saturday
We were up early on Saturday and both buzzing for the Poker Tourney. It was a $350 Championship Event and we swapped 25%. We headed to The Hash House for breakfast looking for a good feed. It was at Imperial Palace and made famous because it featured on the show, "Man Vs Food". He ate the Fried Chicken Hash House Farm Benedict. It has Chipotle cream with peppers, scrambled eggs, griddled mozzarella, fried chicken, bacon, market tomato, spinach, biscuit on top of griddled potatoes. Pictured below…
I ordered their "award winning" Meatloaf Sandwich called The Kokomo, it's girdled Meatloaf with Smoked Mozzarella and Roasted Red Peppers all on their Fresh Amish Style Milk Bread. It was a beast I'll say that much. From the picture it doesn't look massive but the contents were so filling I had to leave a bit. Loz went for the Waffles and got 4 of them, who needs 1 or 2 when you can have 4!!!, needless to say he left some.
Loz had fruit, ice cream and potatoes on his plate. I gave him a slice of my sandwich and at one point he had waffles, eggs, ice cream, strawberrys, potatoes, meatloaf and fried bread on his plate.....why not?
So over to Caesars and get bought into the event. A very nice cardroom and some sick pictures of all the pros on the four walls. Loz and I soon realised we were seated at the same table next to each other? WTF?! it turned out they don't do a random table draw, they simply seat you as you register, so the first person to register is seated at Table 1 Seat 1, the second is seated at Table 1 Seat 2 and so on. Fortunately there was an influx of buyiins and they were freeing up all the seat 10s, I was seated at seat 10 so was moved to another table. They even postponed the start for 30mins which annoyed me. In the end there were 520 runners, which was some sort of record for a $350 event. It was a combination of the online ban and people wanting to ship a Championship Ring on the cheap.
10k starting stack on a 30min clock but lots of extra levels, we started at 25/25 then went onto 25/50 then 50/75 lol, never seen that level before. I was seated with an English women who looked like an older version of Liv Boeree. She seemed very nice and looked like butter wouldn't melt until…
With blinds at 100/200 she makes it 600, BB pumps it up to 1,800 and she makes it 4000 he calls. Flop comes down all rags with 2 diamonds, bb checks and she shoves. He calls with QJ of diamonds and binks on the river. She went mental calling him allsorts and as she left she said "You fucking prick" haha ! At the end of the day it was a bad preflop call by him, when he 3 bets pre she doesn't re-raise much so he could argue he's priced in. Once he flops the flush draw he's going with it, what more is he looking for. He was probably playing 12k before the hand, if he's committed that much preflop then he's going with it. Chill out love, he binked a flush….get on with it.
At the first break Loz says theres a guy at his table, on his iPad raising every hand. Later I see who it is and it's David Williams, sitting there with a sick framed picture above him on the wall next to Phil Ivey haha. Anyway inevitably both myself and Loz get knocked out. Loz first after 2 limpers he shoved 10 bbs from the bb with AK, initial limper calls with AQ and the other guy finds the call button somehow with JT (for half his stack). J on the flop and Loz is gone.
I last about 2 more hours and feel like I'm playing well, I picked up some decent chips 3-betting preflop and pick up KK. I raise as I have been doing often and some women ships in 17 bigs, I snap her off and she shows AJo, ends up rivering a flush and I'm gone.
During the tournament there was slight commotion as some guy had just jumped off the top level parking lot bridge and killed himself, crazy. There was no emotion at the table and people started with the jokes “Red obviously came in when he bet black”...I had to lol.
The day is pretty much gone so we spend the evening having drinks, checking out the various casinos and gambling. Winning $0, spewing a few hundred…standard.
Sunday
Sunday was by far the best day, we were fully settled, getting to know our way around and ready to hit the drink. Visiting Vegas makes you realise how genius everything is. Everything is designed and geared up to make you spew money, it's amazing. For example, we often sat down at the slots because you always get offered free drinks (well $1 as you have to tip). Why pay $6 for a Bud at the bar when you can get one for a dollar. But the women takes a while getting your drinks so you end up spewing $10-$20 on the slots haha. At the bars they have video poker on touch screens in the bar, so you get given free drinks while you play to keep you there grinding out. The scantily clad hot women dealers are useful, and some of the places have pole dancers in the middle of the roulette tables, minimum bets are slightly higher but you think ah well why not. It's amazing though, the Casinos are raking it in by the millisecond. To think Harras which isn't the biggest of the casions has purchased the likes of Caesars, Rio, etc… Crazy !
As we walk out of the IP in the morning we get approached by a dodgy looking black guy who asks us both if we want some “nose candy” hahaha !!! Love it. Unfortunately he didn't make a sale on this occasion.
Just a slight side track but theres loads of tramps in Vegas and I was always wondering what the split was between the tramps that are just from Vegas originally and those people that went their to make their fortune and it got the better of them. Thoughts?
For breakfast we decided to hit a random place in Paris…
So as we were yet to see a show and are both Penn and Teller fans theres only one shout. Looked online and they were about $100. Theres plenty of half priced ticket stands in the street and we managed to get our tickets for $60 each, steal. As well as that we got 25% off anything at the VooDoo Steak House at the Rio and free entry to their VooDoo Lounge, best money we spent during our whole stay in Vegas. Penn and Teller are simply awesome. Penn is a very intelligent guy and talks for America (which is a crucial part of their act to keep you distracted). They do their magic is such a way it's pretty amazing. They basically tell you how there tricks are done and even often show you yet, they manage to put a sick spin on the routine and still leave you wondering WTF.
Once we got our tickets from near Paris we thought we'd quickly stroll over to The Rio, as it only looked over the road…..Wrong! It's a fair way out and took a while to walk there. Glad we did though as we sorted our seats early and got some good ones on the front row of the middle tier. Checked out their casino and decided to give the Rio some of our hard eared money, probably $40 each, they clearly need it (lol). So we headed back to the IP got dressed into our evening attire and headed back to the Rio.
So we walk out of the IP and theres a few taxis waiting, a porter guy calls it over for us and opens the door and tells the driver where we need to go. Wasn't really sure if that was tip worthy? but we chucked him $1 anyway. Taxi to the Rio cost about $20, I'm sure he went some sort of long way around. Anyway we get there, get some drinks in and head to the Penn and Teller Theatre. The show was awesome, really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. IMO a show like that is way way above a David Copperfield/Criss Angel show. As those guys try to go for the "supernatural" theme when it's clearly trickery (more Criss Angel really), but Penn and Teller expose everything which was so cool, to do that and still leave the audience stunned is something. Plus the majority of tricks people are aware how to do anyway. They did the standard saw in half trick but somehow managed to put a spin on it to leave the audience thinking WTF?!
They did this sick trick where they took a random from the audience and got took their phone, they then made the phone disapear and reappear inside a dead fish under someones chair in the audience. The amazing thing was they took the blokes phone, and started video recording the trick from the start, they said only the man is going to know how the trick is done because he can watch the video on his phone when he gets home. BUT, we found a video on youtube of a guy from the audience who they do the trick to. It's a really long trick and was totally amazing, it turns out from watching the video that it's over right from the start....
YouTube - My 2 minutes of fame with Penn & Teller at the Rio in Vegas
Once that was over we took our tickets and headed to the VooDoo Lounge, we get in and are ushered to an elevator which takes us to the 51st, as we walk out of the elevator and see the views it was totally sick, the roof terrace was awesome with a bar and massive speakers.
YouTube - Voodoo Lounge, Rio, Las Vegas
We got there about 10ish I'd say so wasn't that packed early on, we could easily get a drink when we wanted, watch the dancers/dj and plenty of room of the roof terrace. This place was the least pretentious "nightlife" place I went to in Vegas. For example we went to Pure at Caesars later in the trip (will be TR'ing about this) and there must have been a good 10 guys outside the club in suits with their "business cards" doing nothing but standing around on their iPhones. Needless excess people on the payroll? 1 or 2 guys would have been more than enough. Anyway at the VooDoo Lounge there was one guy at the door, let us in fine, our free tickets were exchanged for entry, ushered to the lift…done!
I think that the Rio and the Palms are your best shouts for nightlife with sick views, as the others are on the strip they're on top of each other so views won't be as breathtaking as the Rio or Palms, as you can literally take it all in within one view. It was totally sick, I'll definitely be going back there….AMAZING.
Only annoying thing was that as it was a Sunday it closed at 2:30am which sucked. Fairly drunk we naturally just walk back to the strip. Obviously didn't take as long when drunk lol, on the way we bumped into 2 English guys from Northampton who were on their way to the VooDoo Lounge. So we walked back to the strip with them and all went to the Wynn to see what was going down. It was quite a slog and at 3.30am "the moment had gone" so to speak to start drinking again. So we part ways and Loz and I head back up towards the IP, having only had thad breakfast that day (that pretty much fills you for the day) it was 4am and we decide to head for some early morning food. We go to Bills and I get a steak and Loz tackles a breakfast
After this we called it a night about 5.30am to catch some rays for the penultimate full day.
The next 2 days which include the Gun Store and The Caesars Club Pure will be uploaded tomorrow
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
$530 FLHE SCOOP Seat + Update
I played a $55 12 runner SCOOP seat into the $530 FLHE event last night. 1 seat and $70 for 2nd.
Believe it or not I used to love FLHE and played it often, it’s a much more fun game than people give it credit for. I use to watch the FLHE WPT events back in the day and realised it wasn’t just a snooze. These days I tend not to play FLHE tourneys as they don’t get the runners so it generally isn’t worth the time and effort.
The satty was 6-Max and I got to the final 6 as the short stack. I luckboxed a huge pot nuthugging a flush draw which obviously paid off. When we got heads up we were both playing 9k and with blinds at 100/200 so it was a slog. It was up and down and he had me on the back foot for a good while. I then began calling him down very light and realised he was playing/raising/betting with junk every hand. I managed to exploit him from this point on and started getting extra value out of my 2nd pairs, etc...
I ungregistered from the event as I don’t fancy this one so it’ll just be a topup for the Stars roll.
Cash
I’ve continued to grind $100NL and will make a post when I reach 5,000 hands. Upon researching, it seems 50,000-100,000 hands is a fair sample size to see where you are. This type of volume is pretty much impossible for me at the moment as an amateur player. However I’ll continue to grind and can hopefully get in maybe 30k hands by the summertime.
Poker Player UK Tour
I played the opening leg in Bristol this past weekend. The blind structure was god awful, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, etc... on a 30 min clock. Plus it was only a 7.5k starting stack so wasn’t much playing after a few hours. I kept quiet in the early levels then opened up when blinds hit 150/300.
I started 3-betting a lot and quickly got up to 17k. I pick up Qs and some guy opens; I come in for a quick 3-bet which pretty much commits him, its folded back to him, he says “You’ve been doing that far too often....ok! I’m allin”. I snap him off and he shows 99. Flop comes down all blanks however the dreaded 9 on the turn. He fires over the usual rub down “Sorry mate, I had to go with it otherwise I’d be here all day”, blah blah. This left me pretty much crippled and I failed to get going after that, early bath for me.
I doubt I’ll be playing anymore of these, it’s such a shame this is the Coral replacement for last years CBMPT which had a £500 ME at every stop. No one is going to travel up and down the country for a £100 event.
Las Vegas
I’m off next week, everything is now sorted. Looking forward to getting over there and chilling out for a while. Playing some poker and burning some money haha! I noticed that the GUKPT is on in Walsall the day after I get back which runs over a bank holiday weekend. As it isn’t too far I might try and play some sats for the main event, if I fail just head up for some of the side action.
That’s all for now.
Friday, April 8, 2011
FezioJnr.com
I've just bought up FezioJnr.com and .co.uk. Fairly pointless purchases but makes the blog look slightly more professional.
My day job is that of a User Interface Developer so I'm writing HTML, CSS and Javascript on a daily basis therefore I just can't be assed with writing any code for the blog when I get home. With that said I'm going to make an effort to "spice" up the blog slightly, starting with the domain name :) I've also faviconned the address bar right up :)
So therefore watch this space for some interesting blog developments :)
Cheers
My day job is that of a User Interface Developer so I'm writing HTML, CSS and Javascript on a daily basis therefore I just can't be assed with writing any code for the blog when I get home. With that said I'm going to make an effort to "spice" up the blog slightly, starting with the domain name :) I've also faviconned the address bar right up :)
So therefore watch this space for some interesting blog developments :)
Cheers
Thursday, April 7, 2011
$100NL Cash Games and $1k Super Tuesday Seat
Cash Games (1,800 hands at $100NL)
MTT wise March was a great month, I had a number of deep runs and ended up roughly about $2,000 up on the month, great timing with my Vegas trip looming near.
I also started throwing some cash tables into my schedule, mainly playing $100NL 6-Max. I've found the rake to be a killer at $100NL (obv) but on Stars generally the play is fairly soft. My volume has been minimal and I've managed to get in about 1,800 hands at $100NL 6-Max over the past month ending up roughly $450 up which isn't bad. Obviously this sample size is shocking and I'm still in the "educational" phase of cash games, i.e. watching videos and studying where I can. I did consider myself uber shit at cash maybe 2 months ago but I've taken the time to work at my cash game strategy so hopefully it'll pay off. I'm not interested in jumping up the stakes or anything like that, I'm just "getting my feet wet" so to speak. I feel with my current bankroll coupled with my ability, $100NL is where I'm most comfortable at the moment. I'll continue to get my head down and work hard at my game and then readdress my situation in maybe 6 months.
$1,050 Super Tuesday Seat Binkage
Just a quick minor note, I threw 3 $10 rebuy satellites into my schedule the other night into Stars weekly $1050 event. I bought in once at each busted 2 and added on in one so was in for just over $40. I ran good when it mattered and managed to ship a seat (which I then unregistered from and took the T$ to boost the account)...
MTT wise March was a great month, I had a number of deep runs and ended up roughly about $2,000 up on the month, great timing with my Vegas trip looming near.
I also started throwing some cash tables into my schedule, mainly playing $100NL 6-Max. I've found the rake to be a killer at $100NL (obv) but on Stars generally the play is fairly soft. My volume has been minimal and I've managed to get in about 1,800 hands at $100NL 6-Max over the past month ending up roughly $450 up which isn't bad. Obviously this sample size is shocking and I'm still in the "educational" phase of cash games, i.e. watching videos and studying where I can. I did consider myself uber shit at cash maybe 2 months ago but I've taken the time to work at my cash game strategy so hopefully it'll pay off. I'm not interested in jumping up the stakes or anything like that, I'm just "getting my feet wet" so to speak. I feel with my current bankroll coupled with my ability, $100NL is where I'm most comfortable at the moment. I'll continue to get my head down and work hard at my game and then readdress my situation in maybe 6 months.
$1,050 Super Tuesday Seat Binkage
Just a quick minor note, I threw 3 $10 rebuy satellites into my schedule the other night into Stars weekly $1050 event. I bought in once at each busted 2 and added on in one so was in for just over $40. I ran good when it mattered and managed to ship a seat (which I then unregistered from and took the T$ to boost the account)...
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
10/4,904 for $780
I took advantage of the Full Tilt Multi Entry Double Gtd week last night.
I entered 4 times into the $26 $84k and cashed twice. It saw 4,904 players and I finished 96th for $124 and 10th for $777. I'm both please and gutted. Gutted mainly because there was $20k up top and I had a fairly decent stack the whole way through, on the FT bubble I was playing $600k and 3 bet a guy allin with 77, he calls with AQ and binks a Q :( would have been up over a million chips had that held but hey, still a decent run.
It was a long old slog, starting at 7pm (after waking up at 7am that day and doing a full days work finished at 5.30pm) and I didn't bust until 3am, 4 hours sleep and then up at 7am again for work today :)
Taking the night off tonight to catch up on some sleep, playing squash later then will hit the sack and play a decent schedule tomorrow evening.
I've started mixing up some cash into my schedule, mainly $0.50/$1 6-Max due to the Stars hand promotion. Once April hits I'll be going all out to at least push for GoldStar on Stars, this will set me up for 100% FPPs in May where I'll be playing numerous SCOOPs including the $2k event which gives out about 550 FPPs (1,100 FPPs with GoldStar) alone.
Also have Vegas next month so will be hitting up some WSOPC events. Overall it's been a very good month for a part-time $22 MTT grinder, I'll do a month overview post once April hits.
Also next week I have the £100 PokerPlayer UK Tour Event in Bristol which will be a bit of fun. I haven't played live since the UKIPT at Dusk Till Dawn so this should sharpen my live ability just before Vegas :)
I entered 4 times into the $26 $84k and cashed twice. It saw 4,904 players and I finished 96th for $124 and 10th for $777. I'm both please and gutted. Gutted mainly because there was $20k up top and I had a fairly decent stack the whole way through, on the FT bubble I was playing $600k and 3 bet a guy allin with 77, he calls with AQ and binks a Q :( would have been up over a million chips had that held but hey, still a decent run.
It was a long old slog, starting at 7pm (after waking up at 7am that day and doing a full days work finished at 5.30pm) and I didn't bust until 3am, 4 hours sleep and then up at 7am again for work today :)
Taking the night off tonight to catch up on some sleep, playing squash later then will hit the sack and play a decent schedule tomorrow evening.
I've started mixing up some cash into my schedule, mainly $0.50/$1 6-Max due to the Stars hand promotion. Once April hits I'll be going all out to at least push for GoldStar on Stars, this will set me up for 100% FPPs in May where I'll be playing numerous SCOOPs including the $2k event which gives out about 550 FPPs (1,100 FPPs with GoldStar) alone.
Also have Vegas next month so will be hitting up some WSOPC events. Overall it's been a very good month for a part-time $22 MTT grinder, I'll do a month overview post once April hits.
Also next week I have the £100 PokerPlayer UK Tour Event in Bristol which will be a bit of fun. I haven't played live since the UKIPT at Dusk Till Dawn so this should sharpen my live ability just before Vegas :)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Final Table - $27.50 Big A (5/367)
Another session last night and another final table.
Very annoyed with my exit as I had a very commanding chip lead with 18 left. I lost a few small pots at the final table and got down to about 17 bigs. Folded to the c/o who opens which is obv pretty standard, I ship it in from the bb with A6s and he snaps with AQ. Busted in 5th for $520.
During the same session I went deep yet again in the $44 4-Max. I busted 7th for $290. I love this tourney and seem to always do/play well in it. I feel my game coupled with the skill level of the players in this tourney makes it great value for me. People can't quite seem to adjust to 4 handed play. They either become far too aggressive and spew or far too tight and can be taken advantage of. I think the most important factors in 4-Max tourneys are to open endless pots so you get an uber aggro image, therefore getting paid off when you have a hand and also being able to assign ranges, therefore getting value from you 2nd pairs and weaker hands.
I'm currently in the process of setting aside useful hand histories during my 4-handed tourney and will put together a blog post on 4-handed strategy at some point in the future.
I'm taking a few days off from poker, I'm heading to London tomorrow with some mates to visit another mate who's living over there. So I'm going to just chill this weekend and either hit up some poker upon my return on Sunday evening or leave it until Monday.
Final Table screenshot...
Very annoyed with my exit as I had a very commanding chip lead with 18 left. I lost a few small pots at the final table and got down to about 17 bigs. Folded to the c/o who opens which is obv pretty standard, I ship it in from the bb with A6s and he snaps with AQ. Busted in 5th for $520.
During the same session I went deep yet again in the $44 4-Max. I busted 7th for $290. I love this tourney and seem to always do/play well in it. I feel my game coupled with the skill level of the players in this tourney makes it great value for me. People can't quite seem to adjust to 4 handed play. They either become far too aggressive and spew or far too tight and can be taken advantage of. I think the most important factors in 4-Max tourneys are to open endless pots so you get an uber aggro image, therefore getting paid off when you have a hand and also being able to assign ranges, therefore getting value from you 2nd pairs and weaker hands.
I'm currently in the process of setting aside useful hand histories during my 4-handed tourney and will put together a blog post on 4-handed strategy at some point in the future.
I'm taking a few days off from poker, I'm heading to London tomorrow with some mates to visit another mate who's living over there. So I'm going to just chill this weekend and either hit up some poker upon my return on Sunday evening or leave it until Monday.
Final Table screenshot...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Final Table - $44 4-Max (3/207)
Another final table last night and another 3rd place finish :( I played very well all tourney and upped the aggression when we got down to the final 20. Got to the 4-handed final table 2nd in chips. With one bust out I'm in the bb with AK, button raises, sb shoves which is pretty standard. It's 80% of my stack to call but his range is huge so I make the call. Button folds and sb shoves TT and I don't improve :(
Next hand I shove K7s into AK and I'm gone. Slightly gutting as I made very few mistakes throughout the whole tourney and I feel that hand was just a cooler in that spot.
Picked up about $750 so a nice return all the same...
Next hand I shove K7s into AK and I'm gone. Slightly gutting as I made very few mistakes throughout the whole tourney and I feel that hand was just a cooler in that spot.
Picked up about $750 so a nice return all the same...
Monday, March 21, 2011
PokerPlayer UK Tour
PokerPlayer have announced a new UK tour consisting of 6 low buyin, low runner events. This was taken from their promo..."Our high-quality dealer-dealt £110 buy-in tournaments will take place at five fantastic Gala Casino venues across the UK from April, bringing the PokerPlayer community together under one roof for plenty of laughs, lots of action and thousands of pounds in prize money! Each event is capped at 120 runners and promises merchandise giveaways, PokerPlayer staff bounties, side events, a free buffet and much, much more."
Event 1 takes place in April, in non other than BRISTOL ! It'll be at Gala Harbourside and I'll be playing. I qualified last night in a satty that had an overlay of about $1.1k worth of seats.
PokerPlayer ran a number of gtd seat tourneys on Gala/Coral Poker. Last nights was a $33 with 12 seats Gtd. Therefore to meet the gtd they needed roughly 72 runner, the tourney only got 37 lol. So a silly overlay. Low and behold I took down a seat and am looking forward to playing the event.
It's a ranking event so a chance to pad out my Hendon Mob profile. It's a 7.5k starting stack on a 30min clock and capped at 120 players so a fast structure.
See you there.
PokerPlayer ran a number of gtd seat tourneys on Gala/Coral Poker. Last nights was a $33 with 12 seats Gtd. Therefore to meet the gtd they needed roughly 72 runner, the tourney only got 37 lol. So a silly overlay. Low and behold I took down a seat and am looking forward to playing the event.
It's a ranking event so a chance to pad out my Hendon Mob profile. It's a 7.5k starting stack on a 30min clock and capped at 120 players so a fast structure.
See you there.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Final Table - $22 Big A (3/360)
Just a quick update, I finaled the $22 Big Antes again last night. I've cashed in this one endless times, final tabled it 5 times and won it twice. Placed 3rd this time for $800.
I got a nice double up with about 20 left with AA, after a guy 3-bet shove preflop with AT. I then went pretty card dead although picked up some nice spots to get my chips in preflop which chipped me up pretty well.
Getting excited about Vegas which is next month, some good news is one of my mates is coming over with me. He text me one night just saying "Vegas flights booked" out of nowhere haha ! epic.
He plays a little poker so we'll be entering one or two WSOPC events together. Hes been to Vegas before and travelled America so not a bad guy to head over with for my first time in Vegas and the US.
Also the SCOOPs schedule has been announced. I've put in a request at work to have the Mon and Tue off following the first weekend of the SCOOPs so I'll be playing the $22, $215 and $2,100 (6-Max Events) for sure and then the $22 and $215 NLHE events and hopefully the $2k as well if I can satty in. My aim is to play all 6 of the opening events, they're all 2-Day events with amazing structures so fingers crossed for a deep run in one or two of them :D
Screen shot of my score from last night...
I got a nice double up with about 20 left with AA, after a guy 3-bet shove preflop with AT. I then went pretty card dead although picked up some nice spots to get my chips in preflop which chipped me up pretty well.
Getting excited about Vegas which is next month, some good news is one of my mates is coming over with me. He text me one night just saying "Vegas flights booked" out of nowhere haha ! epic.
He plays a little poker so we'll be entering one or two WSOPC events together. Hes been to Vegas before and travelled America so not a bad guy to head over with for my first time in Vegas and the US.
Also the SCOOPs schedule has been announced. I've put in a request at work to have the Mon and Tue off following the first weekend of the SCOOPs so I'll be playing the $22, $215 and $2,100 (6-Max Events) for sure and then the $22 and $215 NLHE events and hopefully the $2k as well if I can satty in. My aim is to play all 6 of the opening events, they're all 2-Day events with amazing structures so fingers crossed for a deep run in one or two of them :D
Screen shot of my score from last night...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Barren Land
Not much to update pokerwise really. Over the last few weeks I've had a handful of cashes and even went on a 20 MTT run without a cash.
On the up side...
I'm heading to Vegas at the end of next month to play a few WSOPC events. I've also been playing a few steps on Stars and have 2 tickets banked thus far in anticipation of the SCOOPs. I've a $215 ticket and a $2,100 ticket. Hopefully I'll build up a couple more $215 tickets as I want to play a good few of the events this year. I'm not sure which I'll play yet, if theres a 4-Max or Big Antes then I'll probably opt for them. I wouldn't mind playing the 2-day events but all depends if I can get time off work.
I'm going away this weekend however will be playing a few MTTs tonight and hopefully Sunday night as well :D I'll hopefully have something positive to report come the end of March :)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Owning Luke Schwartz
Obviously I'm never really going to be crossing paths with Luke Schwartz at the poker table that often, he's a high stakes cash game player and I'm a $20-$40 MTT grinder. However I did get tied up in a hand with him in the recent $216 FTOPS Rush Turbo Event.
I used a step ticket to enter and ended up busting 102 out of 1,907 runners for about $520, gutting as I lost a huge race with KK vs A9, A on the river :( But still a nice return on a ticket.
The Hand
So the hand in question started with me picking up KJo in the bb, he min-raises and I flat from the bb. The flop comes down 8TJ with two spades and I check call a bet of 300. Due to the nature of Rush you are unable to build up notes on players (within reason) and at this point I didn't realise who I was up against, so I decide to check call a 600 bet on the 4 turn. The river is a blank and at this point I figure I'm ahead most of the time as the flush has also missed. I decide to value check as he's folding his AK and smaller pocket pairs to a value bet and he can't bluff 3bet shove as I'm commited to the pot.
However once I check he shoves allin. This threw me off slightly however once I realised it was FullFlush I figured his range was huge and the shove screamed a missed flush draw.
I elect to call and was right when he showed down QTs.
Other News: Nothing major to report, had another Rush final table last night in a $12, busting 3rd out of 200ish for $320. Have the day off work Friday so will be playing a full day of MTTs on Stars and Tilt, hopefully ending the session by playing the $216 6-Max FTOPS event. Will post up full schedule nearer the time. Taking tonight and Thur off poker as I'm watching/playing footie and catching up with mates both nights and hopefully get motivated for a day session on Friday.
Full Tilt Poker Game #28203336536: FTOPS Event #26 (209402890), Table 203 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:20:03 ET - 2011/02/14
Seat 1: TheDzuu (2,137)
Seat 2: madeleine88 (1,900)
Seat 3: FezioJnr (3,240)
Seat 4: Kimmo84 (2,570)
Seat 5: mlagoo (4,141)
Seat 6: Farsjer (3,495), is sitting out
Seat 7: Nice hAnd ok (3,940)
Seat 8: __FullFlush1__ (3,705)
Seat 9: CrystalBalla (2,526)
madeleine88 posts the small blind of 50
FezioJnr posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FezioJnr [Jh Kc]
Kimmo84 folds
mlagoo folds
Farsjer folds
Nice hAnd ok folds
__FullFlush1__ raises to 200
CrystalBalla folds
TheDzuu folds
madeleine88 folds
FezioJnr calls 100
*** FLOP *** [8s Td Js]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 300
FezioJnr calls 300
*** TURN *** [8s Td Js] [4c]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 600
FezioJnr calls 600
*** RIVER *** [8s Td Js 4c] [5c]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 2,605, and is all in
FezioJnr has 15 seconds left to act
FezioJnr has requested TIME
FezioJnr calls 2,140, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 465 returned to __FullFlush1__
*** SHOW DOWN ***
__FullFlush1__ shows [Qs Ts] a pair of Tens
FezioJnr shows [Jh Kc] a pair of Jacks
FezioJnr wins the pot (6,530) with a pair of Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Board: [8s Td Js 4c 5c]
Seat 3: FezioJnr (big blind) showed [Jh Kc] and won (6,530) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 8: __FullFlush1__ showed [Qs Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
I used a step ticket to enter and ended up busting 102 out of 1,907 runners for about $520, gutting as I lost a huge race with KK vs A9, A on the river :( But still a nice return on a ticket.
The Hand
So the hand in question started with me picking up KJo in the bb, he min-raises and I flat from the bb. The flop comes down 8TJ with two spades and I check call a bet of 300. Due to the nature of Rush you are unable to build up notes on players (within reason) and at this point I didn't realise who I was up against, so I decide to check call a 600 bet on the 4 turn. The river is a blank and at this point I figure I'm ahead most of the time as the flush has also missed. I decide to value check as he's folding his AK and smaller pocket pairs to a value bet and he can't bluff 3bet shove as I'm commited to the pot.
However once I check he shoves allin. This threw me off slightly however once I realised it was FullFlush I figured his range was huge and the shove screamed a missed flush draw.
I elect to call and was right when he showed down QTs.
Other News: Nothing major to report, had another Rush final table last night in a $12, busting 3rd out of 200ish for $320. Have the day off work Friday so will be playing a full day of MTTs on Stars and Tilt, hopefully ending the session by playing the $216 6-Max FTOPS event. Will post up full schedule nearer the time. Taking tonight and Thur off poker as I'm watching/playing footie and catching up with mates both nights and hopefully get motivated for a day session on Friday.
Full Tilt Poker Game #28203336536: FTOPS Event #26 (209402890), Table 203 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:20:03 ET - 2011/02/14
Seat 1: TheDzuu (2,137)
Seat 2: madeleine88 (1,900)
Seat 3: FezioJnr (3,240)
Seat 4: Kimmo84 (2,570)
Seat 5: mlagoo (4,141)
Seat 6: Farsjer (3,495), is sitting out
Seat 7: Nice hAnd ok (3,940)
Seat 8: __FullFlush1__ (3,705)
Seat 9: CrystalBalla (2,526)
madeleine88 posts the small blind of 50
FezioJnr posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FezioJnr [Jh Kc]
Kimmo84 folds
mlagoo folds
Farsjer folds
Nice hAnd ok folds
__FullFlush1__ raises to 200
CrystalBalla folds
TheDzuu folds
madeleine88 folds
FezioJnr calls 100
*** FLOP *** [8s Td Js]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 300
FezioJnr calls 300
*** TURN *** [8s Td Js] [4c]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 600
FezioJnr calls 600
*** RIVER *** [8s Td Js 4c] [5c]
FezioJnr checks
__FullFlush1__ bets 2,605, and is all in
FezioJnr has 15 seconds left to act
FezioJnr has requested TIME
FezioJnr calls 2,140, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 465 returned to __FullFlush1__
*** SHOW DOWN ***
__FullFlush1__ shows [Qs Ts] a pair of Tens
FezioJnr shows [Jh Kc] a pair of Jacks
FezioJnr wins the pot (6,530) with a pair of Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Board: [8s Td Js 4c 5c]
Seat 3: FezioJnr (big blind) showed [Jh Kc] and won (6,530) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 8: __FullFlush1__ showed [Qs Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
Monday, February 14, 2011
UKIPT Recap + Rush Shippage
Well overall it was a fairly uneventful trip to Nottingham. I busted the main event in the 2nd from last level of Day 1 after playing solid poker all day. I followed this up by busting the £300 side event in the last level of the day at 5am after making a great preflop call with A4o lol.
May fire up some hand reviews over the next few weeks but I've just fired up an online MTT session so focusing on that for now.
On Sunday night I decided against playing the £100 charity side event and decided to chill out at the Hilton and grind some online poker. I fired up a session of Rush poker then decided to order some room service, ended up paying about £25 for an Angus burger, chips and a beer lol. This included £4 delivery charge haha :D On top of this the internet cost me £15 for 24 hours lol.
After a dire start to the session which included two set over set bustouts I managed to run deep and run good in a $26 ROD. Fortunately the final table was so so weak and managed to own with about 5 left. Ended up shipping it for almost $1.3k :) Happy days and a welcome turn of events which turned a dire deficit of a weekend into a profitable trip within 90 mins :D
May fire up some hand reviews over the next few weeks but I've just fired up an online MTT session so focusing on that for now.
On Sunday night I decided against playing the £100 charity side event and decided to chill out at the Hilton and grind some online poker. I fired up a session of Rush poker then decided to order some room service, ended up paying about £25 for an Angus burger, chips and a beer lol. This included £4 delivery charge haha :D On top of this the internet cost me £15 for 24 hours lol.
After a dire start to the session which included two set over set bustouts I managed to run deep and run good in a $26 ROD. Fortunately the final table was so so weak and managed to own with about 5 left. Ended up shipping it for almost $1.3k :) Happy days and a welcome turn of events which turned a dire deficit of a weekend into a profitable trip within 90 mins :D
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