The 2009 WSOP schedule has been released, and barring some poker miracle, with my bankroll at only $700, I will not have enough money to enter a tournament. It is such a bummer because I was over $2K at the beginning of the year, and then had a really crappy run since then. Late last year, I won a small tournament at the Golden Moon in Mississippi for about $600, and shortly after that, final tabled a larger buy-in tournament at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi for about $800. I was set for the 2009 WSOP, or so I thought.
Then on Super Bowl weekend, I went to the Hard Rock in Biloxi, and proceeded to lose about $800 in $1/$2 No Limit Hold 'Em. It was terrible. That, combined with some other not-so-minor poker losses and poor sports betting (courtesy of Manny Pacquiao), has knocked me out of contention for a WSOP bracelet this year. I keep trying to justify the expense of just paying for the trip and the rest of the entry fee out of pocket, but I feel guilty every time I think about it. There is a really juicy $1000 No Limit event this year, which doesn't make the decision any easier.
It has been a real challenge to keep my poker skills sharp over the last year or so -- which may partly explain my recent losses. As much as the poker industry does not want to admit it, the poker craze is clearly on the decline. Now that the 'casual' player is no longer as interested in the game, the casinos and online poker rooms are filled with die hards... which means stronger competition for people like me. Also, with the disappearance of poker from the mainstream radar, local games are harder to organize. The result is that live poker is not as lucrative, or as easy to practice, as it once was. And it sucks. I love the game, but I also miss the poker nights we used to put together with my family and friends. It was a lot of fun.
Nonetheless, the quest continues, and I haven't given up. It looks like a poker trip to New Orleans is in the works for this fall. Who knows, maybe we will sneak in a Vegas trip too. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that my luck changes, and that I keep my misguided sports wagering under control!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Long time, no blog!
Well, at least my blog started out strong! Is it a sign that I am a bad blogger if I go 14 months between posts? Probably so....
I did, in fact, play in Event #3 as planned at last year's World Series of Poker. It was a great experience, and I will share some interesting moments toward the end of this entry. I finished about 700th out of 3000'ish players (they don't tell you exactly what spot you finished in until it gets down to last 300 people or so).
Our first baby arrived in January (my wife is from Wisconsin, and she went into labor just as the NY Giants' field goal went through the uprights to beat the Packers in the NFC Championship -- and coincidentally, Brett Favre's last game), so with all the excitement, I decided not to play in this year's World Series. Right now, several events have been completed in Las Vegas, and reading the results has made me realize how much I miss playing cards on a regular basis.
Although I have not been playing quite as much lately, I have been tracking my true wins/losses since I was at the Rio, and I am about $400-$500 up for 2008. I really think if I can focus on my game that I can win enough for a buy-in for 2009.
When I play at the World Series in 2009, I believe I am going to play a non-No Limit Hold 'Em elimination-style event. At my buy-in level (probably $1500) the fields of players are just too large, and it is too much of a crap shoot. The 3,000 players in Event #3 last year was just so overwhelming, and the scene was so chaotic, that in and of itself was exhausting. For next year, I am looking at either a Limit Hold 'Em event (where each bet or raise that a player makes is limited to a certain amount, as opposed to No Limit, where a player can bet or raise all of his or her chips at any time), or possibly a No Limit Hold 'Em Shootout (where each individual table plays until one person has all the chips at the table, and then each winner goes to a new table made up of other winners from other tables, and the process continues until there is one overall winner) -- who knows, if I have a great year, maybe I'll do one of each!
Please accept my profuse apologies for letting the blog go. I can't guarantee that I will be as consistent about updating the blog as I used to be, but I will promise to try my best to make good quality entries when I do! Stay tuned as the quest continues.
Here are a few interesting things that happened during the tournament last year.....
================
Waiting in line to register the day before the tournament.........
Johnny Chan: What is this line for?
Irish James: Event registration... it's where you should be.
Johnny: You think these people would care if I slipped in line?
Irish James: I think you've earned it.
Johnny: Which event are you in?
Irish James: #3... $1500.. you?
Johnny: The $5000 tomorrow. Do you have $5000 cash? [Flashes a $5K Rio chip]
Irish James: No.
I then proceed to sign up for my event in one of the two cages open for registration. Two feet to my right, Johnny Chan signs up for the $5000 event at the same time.
Irish James: Good luck, Johnny.
Johnny: Same to you.
I might have paid the $1500 just to have that conversation.
================
Sitting at my first table, waiting for the tournament to start...
Guy in seat 8: You have got to be kidding me...
Irish James: [Looks around... sees Greg Raymer, 2004 World Champion, sitting down in seat #1]
Greg Raymer and I were involved in one hand heads up. I was dealt two 8's, and called. Raymer raised, everyone folded to me and I called his raise. He put his fossil glasses on put his hand in his chin and stared at me (I think). The flop was A-Q-J. I checked, he bet, and I folded. He said, "That was a good flop, but I didn't want you to see any more cards." I fantasized about giving him the finger, but I just nodded and smirked as if I didn't believe him.... and no, I did not believe him.
================
After dinner, I was hurrying to get back to my table, and nearly got run over by someone on a three-wheeled scooter. I stopped, he stopped, and I looked at him. It was 10-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. He said, "Excuse me!", and kept going.
I did, in fact, play in Event #3 as planned at last year's World Series of Poker. It was a great experience, and I will share some interesting moments toward the end of this entry. I finished about 700th out of 3000'ish players (they don't tell you exactly what spot you finished in until it gets down to last 300 people or so).
Our first baby arrived in January (my wife is from Wisconsin, and she went into labor just as the NY Giants' field goal went through the uprights to beat the Packers in the NFC Championship -- and coincidentally, Brett Favre's last game), so with all the excitement, I decided not to play in this year's World Series. Right now, several events have been completed in Las Vegas, and reading the results has made me realize how much I miss playing cards on a regular basis.
Although I have not been playing quite as much lately, I have been tracking my true wins/losses since I was at the Rio, and I am about $400-$500 up for 2008. I really think if I can focus on my game that I can win enough for a buy-in for 2009.
When I play at the World Series in 2009, I believe I am going to play a non-No Limit Hold 'Em elimination-style event. At my buy-in level (probably $1500) the fields of players are just too large, and it is too much of a crap shoot. The 3,000 players in Event #3 last year was just so overwhelming, and the scene was so chaotic, that in and of itself was exhausting. For next year, I am looking at either a Limit Hold 'Em event (where each bet or raise that a player makes is limited to a certain amount, as opposed to No Limit, where a player can bet or raise all of his or her chips at any time), or possibly a No Limit Hold 'Em Shootout (where each individual table plays until one person has all the chips at the table, and then each winner goes to a new table made up of other winners from other tables, and the process continues until there is one overall winner) -- who knows, if I have a great year, maybe I'll do one of each!
Please accept my profuse apologies for letting the blog go. I can't guarantee that I will be as consistent about updating the blog as I used to be, but I will promise to try my best to make good quality entries when I do! Stay tuned as the quest continues.
Here are a few interesting things that happened during the tournament last year.....
================
Waiting in line to register the day before the tournament.........
Johnny Chan: What is this line for?
Irish James: Event registration... it's where you should be.
Johnny: You think these people would care if I slipped in line?
Irish James: I think you've earned it.
Johnny: Which event are you in?
Irish James: #3... $1500.. you?
Johnny: The $5000 tomorrow. Do you have $5000 cash? [Flashes a $5K Rio chip]
Irish James: No.
I then proceed to sign up for my event in one of the two cages open for registration. Two feet to my right, Johnny Chan signs up for the $5000 event at the same time.
Irish James: Good luck, Johnny.
Johnny: Same to you.
I might have paid the $1500 just to have that conversation.
================
Sitting at my first table, waiting for the tournament to start...
Irish James: [Looks around... sees Greg Raymer, 2004 World Champion, sitting down in seat #1]
Greg Raymer and I were involved in one hand heads up. I was dealt two 8's, and called. Raymer raised, everyone folded to me and I called his raise. He put his fossil glasses on put his hand in his chin and stared at me (I think). The flop was A-Q-J. I checked, he bet, and I folded. He said, "That was a good flop, but I didn't want you to see any more cards." I fantasized about giving him the finger, but I just nodded and smirked as if I didn't believe him.... and no, I did not believe him.
================
After dinner, I was hurrying to get back to my table, and nearly got run over by someone on a three-wheeled scooter. I stopped, he stopped, and I looked at him. It was 10-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. He said, "Excuse me!", and kept going.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Is America on Tilt?
Let me preface this post by first saying that I am, in no way, attempting to trivialize what happened by comparing 9/11 to a poker game. It was a tragedy by all accounts, and a day no American will ever forget. This being said, the course of this country since then has taken on an ominously similar course to that of a tilted poker player. For those of you unfamiliar with poker vernacular, a poker player on 'tilt' is usually one who has lost a large number of chips during play, and then continues to play angry, often resulting in the player going broke fairly quickly.
Like it or not, in poker terms, the terrorists won a gigantic pot on 9/11. When I lose a large number of chips in a poker game, I usually play conservatively for a few hands to straighten out my thoughts, and more importantly, minimize the likelihood that I will follow up the loss with irrational play. In the case of 9/11, within four weeks of the attacks, we were at war in Afghanistan.
I am not going to claim that I am an expert in world political matters, but common sense tells me that you first would want to build a framework of international support before making any major moves -- especially in mountainous terrain, on the other side of the earth, and for the purpose of locating a single individual who was quite likely no longer in the country anyway.
We won a small pot by ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan, but then came Iraq. Here are a few pots we vied for since then... we have lost some, and we have won some... you decide for yourself how our stack of chips is looking:
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Finding Osama Bin Laden
- 3301 American deaths (as of this post)
- 60,000 civilian deaths
- Anthrax deaths
- Capturing/executing Saddam Hussein
- POW torture scandal
- Bali and UK subway bombings
- Skyrocketing fuel costs
- Shoe bomber
- Credibility of the US in the international community
- Darfur region of Sudan
- Shoe bomber
- Katrina preparedness
- North Korea nuclear testing
- Iran
- Popular opinion of the war at home
- Beheadings and kidnappings
- Roadside bombs
- 700+ deaths in Israel since 2000 due to terrorism
Some of these are big wins/losses, and some are not... and I know that this list of events is by no means comprehensive. As I said, you decide for yourself where you think we stand, but here's what I think... we have spent $400 billion on the war in Iraq, and we have seen no return whatsover on this investment. There isn't even a need for a poker analogy here. That is an awful lot of money. Some will argue that we are safer than we were before 9/11, and they would challenge me by asking me to admit that the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. I would respond to this request by saying absolutely not. The world, and America, is in shambles right now as compared to where we were pre-9/11 -- and, no, I don't feel safer.
I am a frequent traveller. Before 2001, I was asked before every single flight if I had been in possession of my bags the entire time before I arrived at the counter, which forced me to think before answering. I had to actually show proof that luggage was mine before leaving the airport. I had to show my ID multiple times before boarding and I could walk right up to the gate and fly on standby if I wanted to. Saddam didn't care about any of that, and besides the fact that he was a vile excuse for a human being, I really didn't care about him all that much either. I did, however, care about the 350,000 lives lost since 2003 in the Darfur region of Sudan -- talk about mass destruction.
The biggest victory for the terrorists was the robbery of our liberties, which have yet to be restored hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent lives later. Rather than taking a systematic, calculated, and responsible path to the restoration of our freedoms, security, and credibility, America has taken the road of unbridled, reactionary, tilt -- and we continue bleeding chips each day.
I will do my best at all times to take a logical and rational approach to my poker game, making a special effort to do this at times when I am mentally vulnerable. If I ever, under any circumstances, adjust my game to be based on such concepts as 'justice' or 'revenge', I may as well stop playing and never walk into a card room again.
Like it or not, in poker terms, the terrorists won a gigantic pot on 9/11. When I lose a large number of chips in a poker game, I usually play conservatively for a few hands to straighten out my thoughts, and more importantly, minimize the likelihood that I will follow up the loss with irrational play. In the case of 9/11, within four weeks of the attacks, we were at war in Afghanistan.
I am not going to claim that I am an expert in world political matters, but common sense tells me that you first would want to build a framework of international support before making any major moves -- especially in mountainous terrain, on the other side of the earth, and for the purpose of locating a single individual who was quite likely no longer in the country anyway.
We won a small pot by ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan, but then came Iraq. Here are a few pots we vied for since then... we have lost some, and we have won some... you decide for yourself how our stack of chips is looking:
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Finding Osama Bin Laden
- 3301 American deaths (as of this post)
- 60,000 civilian deaths
- Anthrax deaths
- Capturing/executing Saddam Hussein
- POW torture scandal
- Bali and UK subway bombings
- Skyrocketing fuel costs
- Shoe bomber
- Credibility of the US in the international community
- Darfur region of Sudan
- Shoe bomber
- Katrina preparedness
- North Korea nuclear testing
- Iran
- Popular opinion of the war at home
- Beheadings and kidnappings
- Roadside bombs
- 700+ deaths in Israel since 2000 due to terrorism
Some of these are big wins/losses, and some are not... and I know that this list of events is by no means comprehensive. As I said, you decide for yourself where you think we stand, but here's what I think... we have spent $400 billion on the war in Iraq, and we have seen no return whatsover on this investment. There isn't even a need for a poker analogy here. That is an awful lot of money. Some will argue that we are safer than we were before 9/11, and they would challenge me by asking me to admit that the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. I would respond to this request by saying absolutely not. The world, and America, is in shambles right now as compared to where we were pre-9/11 -- and, no, I don't feel safer.
I am a frequent traveller. Before 2001, I was asked before every single flight if I had been in possession of my bags the entire time before I arrived at the counter, which forced me to think before answering. I had to actually show proof that luggage was mine before leaving the airport. I had to show my ID multiple times before boarding and I could walk right up to the gate and fly on standby if I wanted to. Saddam didn't care about any of that, and besides the fact that he was a vile excuse for a human being, I really didn't care about him all that much either. I did, however, care about the 350,000 lives lost since 2003 in the Darfur region of Sudan -- talk about mass destruction.
The biggest victory for the terrorists was the robbery of our liberties, which have yet to be restored hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent lives later. Rather than taking a systematic, calculated, and responsible path to the restoration of our freedoms, security, and credibility, America has taken the road of unbridled, reactionary, tilt -- and we continue bleeding chips each day.
I will do my best at all times to take a logical and rational approach to my poker game, making a special effort to do this at times when I am mentally vulnerable. If I ever, under any circumstances, adjust my game to be based on such concepts as 'justice' or 'revenge', I may as well stop playing and never walk into a card room again.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Keeping My Trap Shut
Professional card player Howard Lederer recent wrote a really great article here. In it, he discusses the disadvantages of wearing sunglasses and earphones during tournaments. I wholeheartedly agree that headgear which in any way obscures your ability to discern fine visual or auditory detail translates into a big advantage for your opponents. So many poker players say so much more than they should at the poker table. If I have headphones on, I can't hear it!
I do not spend a huge amount of time playing cards online, but I play in occasional online tournaments just for fun. I prefer the little $10 sit-and-gos, and once in a blue moon, I will register for a small buy-in multi-table tournament.
In a recent $10 sit-and-go, I had the pleasure a playing with someone who simply could not stay away from the table's chat box. He continuously berated the play of other people at the table, bragged about how he wins the cash games at the Borgata four times each week (misspelling 'Borgata' in the process), and throwing around chips like peanuts. Judging from the words that this person was using, the tone of his comments, the fashion in which he clearly embellished the truth at every opportunity, and his general demeanor, I quickly created an image of this person in my head. He seemed to me like someone who probably has very few friends, and highly insecure about everything, including his poker game. To make a long story short, I stuck him for a huge pot, and he never recovered. The sad part is that he told everyone his entire life story without even realizing it. If had asked the poker gods to deliver a person to me who could effectively demonstrate the validity of the axiom that 'Silence is Golden' when it comes to poker, this guy fit the bill perfectly.
I finished the tounament in second place, and then I quickly proceeded today to forget everything I learned! On a whim (and since I had the day off from work) I decided to enter a $30 multi-table tournament on Bodog. I was seated immediately with arguably the best no-limit held 'em tournament player on Bodog, known as 'head2782'** (he says he had an unusually big head as a child). We were seated together for the entire tournament, and believe it or not, I think I got the best of him in the pots we both participated in (he finished 9th, and I finished 7th for around $350). One hand in particular between us, I hit a rare 4-of-kind, and took a large number of chips from him. He complained about his bad luck, and I replied that '..the last thing I wanted to do was upset Mr. Bodog'. Even though this is all I said, I think it was a huge mistake to say it. I said it in respect of his game and reputation (which I would see as a weakness if I were him), but my saving grace was that my comment could have be construed as being sarcastic.
Anyway... the moral of these stories is that even the most benign comments can unintentionally reveal a great deal of information. I need to remember to stay away from the chat boxes online and the headphones at the table!
-------
**I registered for a really cool free tool at Bluff Magazine's website this week. It is called 'thepokerdb' and it allows you to view online multi-table tournament results for most of the big online poker sites, including a 'search by screen name' function. Search 'maddgravy' at Bodog, and you can see the history of my two outstanding and gigantic cashes, including today's. Check out the history of head2782 also. Wow. Where does he find the time?!
I do not spend a huge amount of time playing cards online, but I play in occasional online tournaments just for fun. I prefer the little $10 sit-and-gos, and once in a blue moon, I will register for a small buy-in multi-table tournament.
In a recent $10 sit-and-go, I had the pleasure a playing with someone who simply could not stay away from the table's chat box. He continuously berated the play of other people at the table, bragged about how he wins the cash games at the Borgata four times each week (misspelling 'Borgata' in the process), and throwing around chips like peanuts. Judging from the words that this person was using, the tone of his comments, the fashion in which he clearly embellished the truth at every opportunity, and his general demeanor, I quickly created an image of this person in my head. He seemed to me like someone who probably has very few friends, and highly insecure about everything, including his poker game. To make a long story short, I stuck him for a huge pot, and he never recovered. The sad part is that he told everyone his entire life story without even realizing it. If had asked the poker gods to deliver a person to me who could effectively demonstrate the validity of the axiom that 'Silence is Golden' when it comes to poker, this guy fit the bill perfectly.
I finished the tounament in second place, and then I quickly proceeded today to forget everything I learned! On a whim (and since I had the day off from work) I decided to enter a $30 multi-table tournament on Bodog. I was seated immediately with arguably the best no-limit held 'em tournament player on Bodog, known as 'head2782'** (he says he had an unusually big head as a child). We were seated together for the entire tournament, and believe it or not, I think I got the best of him in the pots we both participated in (he finished 9th, and I finished 7th for around $350). One hand in particular between us, I hit a rare 4-of-kind, and took a large number of chips from him. He complained about his bad luck, and I replied that '..the last thing I wanted to do was upset Mr. Bodog'. Even though this is all I said, I think it was a huge mistake to say it. I said it in respect of his game and reputation (which I would see as a weakness if I were him), but my saving grace was that my comment could have be construed as being sarcastic.
Anyway... the moral of these stories is that even the most benign comments can unintentionally reveal a great deal of information. I need to remember to stay away from the chat boxes online and the headphones at the table!
-------
**I registered for a really cool free tool at Bluff Magazine's website this week. It is called 'thepokerdb' and it allows you to view online multi-table tournament results for most of the big online poker sites, including a 'search by screen name' function. Search 'maddgravy' at Bodog, and you can see the history of my two outstanding and gigantic cashes, including today's. Check out the history of head2782 also. Wow. Where does he find the time?!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Buy-in reached!
I was in Las Vegas last weekend, and I am happy to say that I had a very nice couple of days at the poker table, and I am now officially staked for my $1500 buy-in on June 2nd.
For our annual guys' weekend, we decided to try downtown Las Vegas this time instead of the strip. In the past, our trip has been reserved for Super Bowl weekend, but we opted this year to go to during the March Madness college basketball tournament regional finals. The sports part of the trip was pretty much a bust... we arrived too late to watch two of the four games, and we didn't really find anywhere downtown that was very good for watching sports. I foresee moving things back to the strip on Super Bowl weekend next year. One major advantage to staying downtown, though, is that everything is very convenient. If you get tired of one casino, you can be at the next one within a few minutes. In most cases on the strip, you are looking at a nice 15 minute walk.
We did find an interesting card room at the Plaza Hotel and Casino at the end of Fremont Street. The 'room' itself, is really not a room per se, but more like a carved out corner of the casino. While not the nicest poker spot in Vegas, it does have a great option for tournament play. From 10am until midnight every day, they offer $40 sit-and-go 10-seat tournaments, which turned out to be profitable for me (13 tournaments played, four won, second place twice). Coincidentally, my sister and brother-in-law gave me Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book for my birthday, where he suggests that a good way to practice for final tables is to play in sit-and-go tournaments. I found my experience last weekend to support his suggestion.
Although this is true, based on my experiences last weekend, I think that there are some differences between final tables of multi-table tournaments and single-table sit-and-gos. The most significant difference is that with multi-table tournaments it can take a heck of a lot of concentration, energy, and time to get to the final table depending on the size and structure of the event. With sit-and-gos, it is a simple matter of throwing in your money and you are magically at the final table already! The point is that mental and physical fatigue figure into the final table of large multi-table tournaments. It is no secret that anyone playing in the World Series has to be prepared for long hours of intense play, which further supports my intended plan of getting plenty of rest in the days preceding the tournament. In fact, I am considering moving my flight to Thursday instead of Friday so that I can get used to the time difference and get settled in.
On a completely different note, I also finally came to the realization last weekend that 'other' casino games are for suckers. I know that my coming to this conclusion will not seem like much of a groundbreaking achievement to most, and I know that casinos don't offer games just for the fun of it. Even though I half-heartedly came to this conclusion long ago, the non-poker casino games have always nonetheless been a big source of entertainment for me. The fact is, however, that games like blackjack and craps are volatile... you either finish the session up big or down big, there is rarely any in-between. On the other hand, just about anyone can take $100 to a $1-$2 limit hold 'em table, play a super tight game, and sit there for hours listening to people talk, watching the casino, having free cocktails, and if you are in a nice place, enjoying the surroundings of an upscale card room. With blackjack or craps, you can start with the same amount and be up to $300 in ten minutes, or, the more likely outcome, down the same amount in the same time span. Given the choice, I will take poker every time! I like to keep it cheap, and poker is the way to have cheap fun in Vegas.
So, now that I am staked for the WSOP, where do I go from here? For the next two months, I am planning to focus almost exclusively on multi-table tournaments. Deep-stack events are hard to come by in Atlanta, Georgia, so I am going to have to make do with the local bar games and perhaps a junket to Atlantic City with Pablo and maybe a trip to Tunica. Since funding is no longer a concern, I can experiment a little bit, and see what works best against different styles of play.
For our annual guys' weekend, we decided to try downtown Las Vegas this time instead of the strip. In the past, our trip has been reserved for Super Bowl weekend, but we opted this year to go to during the March Madness college basketball tournament regional finals. The sports part of the trip was pretty much a bust... we arrived too late to watch two of the four games, and we didn't really find anywhere downtown that was very good for watching sports. I foresee moving things back to the strip on Super Bowl weekend next year. One major advantage to staying downtown, though, is that everything is very convenient. If you get tired of one casino, you can be at the next one within a few minutes. In most cases on the strip, you are looking at a nice 15 minute walk.
We did find an interesting card room at the Plaza Hotel and Casino at the end of Fremont Street. The 'room' itself, is really not a room per se, but more like a carved out corner of the casino. While not the nicest poker spot in Vegas, it does have a great option for tournament play. From 10am until midnight every day, they offer $40 sit-and-go 10-seat tournaments, which turned out to be profitable for me (13 tournaments played, four won, second place twice). Coincidentally, my sister and brother-in-law gave me Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book for my birthday, where he suggests that a good way to practice for final tables is to play in sit-and-go tournaments. I found my experience last weekend to support his suggestion.
Although this is true, based on my experiences last weekend, I think that there are some differences between final tables of multi-table tournaments and single-table sit-and-gos. The most significant difference is that with multi-table tournaments it can take a heck of a lot of concentration, energy, and time to get to the final table depending on the size and structure of the event. With sit-and-gos, it is a simple matter of throwing in your money and you are magically at the final table already! The point is that mental and physical fatigue figure into the final table of large multi-table tournaments. It is no secret that anyone playing in the World Series has to be prepared for long hours of intense play, which further supports my intended plan of getting plenty of rest in the days preceding the tournament. In fact, I am considering moving my flight to Thursday instead of Friday so that I can get used to the time difference and get settled in.
On a completely different note, I also finally came to the realization last weekend that 'other' casino games are for suckers. I know that my coming to this conclusion will not seem like much of a groundbreaking achievement to most, and I know that casinos don't offer games just for the fun of it. Even though I half-heartedly came to this conclusion long ago, the non-poker casino games have always nonetheless been a big source of entertainment for me. The fact is, however, that games like blackjack and craps are volatile... you either finish the session up big or down big, there is rarely any in-between. On the other hand, just about anyone can take $100 to a $1-$2 limit hold 'em table, play a super tight game, and sit there for hours listening to people talk, watching the casino, having free cocktails, and if you are in a nice place, enjoying the surroundings of an upscale card room. With blackjack or craps, you can start with the same amount and be up to $300 in ten minutes, or, the more likely outcome, down the same amount in the same time span. Given the choice, I will take poker every time! I like to keep it cheap, and poker is the way to have cheap fun in Vegas.
So, now that I am staked for the WSOP, where do I go from here? For the next two months, I am planning to focus almost exclusively on multi-table tournaments. Deep-stack events are hard to come by in Atlanta, Georgia, so I am going to have to make do with the local bar games and perhaps a junket to Atlantic City with Pablo and maybe a trip to Tunica. Since funding is no longer a concern, I can experiment a little bit, and see what works best against different styles of play.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Auditors Are No Match For Card Players!
By day, I am an IT Manager for an aluminum company. The company I work for takes technology security and compliance very seriously, and every so often, our head office sends internal auditors to my office in Atlanta to make sure we are on the up and up. Right now, we are in the middle of a two-week marathon audit, and I am so ready for it to be over.
One interesting realization I have come to during their visit, believe it or not, is that as I have begun to play cards more seriously these audits have become easier to endure. For anyone who has been involved in an audit, we know that some auditors use very interesting techniques to extract information. Some of them are your best buddies, some of them are stern and authoritative, and some of them are timid so that you feel sorry for them, oddly enough. The problem is, if you say too much to an auditor, they latch on to information that they find interesting and then they sink in their claws, asking for documentation of every detail about the subject. The bottom line is that they are in your office to find problems with your processes. If there are major problems with the way things are being done, they will find those things very quickly. Once you are 'out of the woods', an audit soon becomes an exercise in nit-picking and time wasting. Of course, anything they find, no matter how insignificant, can rarely be argued effectively enough to result in the finding's dismissal from the final audit report. To add insult to injury, the dirty laundry is then distributed after the audit to every IT executive across the company. What a drag.
Poker has helped me become more economical with my communication in these situations. While I firmly believe that audits are necessary to make sure things are being run the way they should, I believe with equal conviction that any auditor can walk into an office such as mine and determine within a day whether or not an IT environment is generally secure and compliant. So.. if they chose to spend two weeks chasing non-existent problems in my office, I pledge to not give any leads or information unless I am forced to turn over my cards!
My opponents on the felt are auditors of my poker game. They use every tactic under the sun to get information from me -- they talk, they stare, they boast, they stand up, they wave their arms, they ask if I have a king, they ask me if I will show my hand if they fold... you name it. Just like auditors in my office, they can forget it. I will show my cards when I have to, and only when I have to.
I think this will be a challenge at the World Series. It will be difficult not to make friendly conversation at the table, especially if I am seated with top pros. I am convinced, however, that if I can handle a two-week IT audit, I can keep my trap shut during a 3-day poker tournament. As painful as this couple of weeks has been, the bright side is that it has been unbelievably good practice!
One interesting realization I have come to during their visit, believe it or not, is that as I have begun to play cards more seriously these audits have become easier to endure. For anyone who has been involved in an audit, we know that some auditors use very interesting techniques to extract information. Some of them are your best buddies, some of them are stern and authoritative, and some of them are timid so that you feel sorry for them, oddly enough. The problem is, if you say too much to an auditor, they latch on to information that they find interesting and then they sink in their claws, asking for documentation of every detail about the subject. The bottom line is that they are in your office to find problems with your processes. If there are major problems with the way things are being done, they will find those things very quickly. Once you are 'out of the woods', an audit soon becomes an exercise in nit-picking and time wasting. Of course, anything they find, no matter how insignificant, can rarely be argued effectively enough to result in the finding's dismissal from the final audit report. To add insult to injury, the dirty laundry is then distributed after the audit to every IT executive across the company. What a drag.
Poker has helped me become more economical with my communication in these situations. While I firmly believe that audits are necessary to make sure things are being run the way they should, I believe with equal conviction that any auditor can walk into an office such as mine and determine within a day whether or not an IT environment is generally secure and compliant. So.. if they chose to spend two weeks chasing non-existent problems in my office, I pledge to not give any leads or information unless I am forced to turn over my cards!
My opponents on the felt are auditors of my poker game. They use every tactic under the sun to get information from me -- they talk, they stare, they boast, they stand up, they wave their arms, they ask if I have a king, they ask me if I will show my hand if they fold... you name it. Just like auditors in my office, they can forget it. I will show my cards when I have to, and only when I have to.
I think this will be a challenge at the World Series. It will be difficult not to make friendly conversation at the table, especially if I am seated with top pros. I am convinced, however, that if I can handle a two-week IT audit, I can keep my trap shut during a 3-day poker tournament. As painful as this couple of weeks has been, the bright side is that it has been unbelievably good practice!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
A Poker Lesson from Pablo
I am a lot like Steve Dannenmann. Not because I finished in second place in the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event and won $4.2 million, but because I often feel like I am only the third or fourth best player in my home game -- which Steve Dannenmann has been quoted as saying about himself more than once.
Speaking of home games, my wife and I had a chance to play with our regular group of friends a couple of weeks ago at our house, and my buddy Pablo was down in Atlanta from Washington, DC to visit. We played a hold 'em micro buy-in tournament w/rebuys and I was heads up with Pablo at around midnight for all the marbles. I do not often find myself in this position at my home game. For whatever reason, I seem to do quite well in tournaments with strangers, but rarely as well in my home game. I tend to think it is due my loose play, combined with my consumption of an adult beverage or two throughout the evening, finally compounded with the superior skills of my opponents.
Throughout the 20 minutes or so of heads up play, I learned a good poker lesson from Pablo. You may remember from a previous post that, for various reasons, I have sworn off chopping pots. For now, this is primarily due to my need to take advantage of every opportunity I can find to develop my heads-up skills.
The lesson Pablo helped me learn was how fatigue plays a part in late tournament play. Is my opponent excited about winning the whole thing, or will he be just as happy to to go home with more money than he came with and get to sleep as soon as possible? Before heads-up play, when the game was three-handed (I was up against Pablo and my wife), I did something sneaky. I asked them both what their thoughts were on chopping the pot. They both were up for it. (I was a distant second in chips behind Pablo, with a slight edge over Katie). After asking this question, and hearing their reply, I said I was not quite ready yet. They both read this blog, so they knew as well as I did that I would never be ready!
After my wife was eliminated, Pablo offered several times to chop the pot. Given the late hour, I knew Pablo was getting tired of playing and wanted to go home -- which is the essence of the lesson I learned: Tired tournament players are often impatient, and will either gamble with coin flips, or call large bets with marginal holdings. I declined each request Pablo made to split the winnings, and inched my way back into the game with what I thought was solid post-flop decisions.
A long story short, I won the tournament and 100% of the money (although it involved a fairly significant bad beat for Pablo) and I was happy with how I played. For the World Series, I plan to use this lesson to my advantage, getting plenty of rest the week before, avoiding alcohol, eating right, and exercising regularly. I think this will help to keep me alert and energized for the tournament.
Speaking of home games, my wife and I had a chance to play with our regular group of friends a couple of weeks ago at our house, and my buddy Pablo was down in Atlanta from Washington, DC to visit. We played a hold 'em micro buy-in tournament w/rebuys and I was heads up with Pablo at around midnight for all the marbles. I do not often find myself in this position at my home game. For whatever reason, I seem to do quite well in tournaments with strangers, but rarely as well in my home game. I tend to think it is due my loose play, combined with my consumption of an adult beverage or two throughout the evening, finally compounded with the superior skills of my opponents.
Throughout the 20 minutes or so of heads up play, I learned a good poker lesson from Pablo. You may remember from a previous post that, for various reasons, I have sworn off chopping pots. For now, this is primarily due to my need to take advantage of every opportunity I can find to develop my heads-up skills.
The lesson Pablo helped me learn was how fatigue plays a part in late tournament play. Is my opponent excited about winning the whole thing, or will he be just as happy to to go home with more money than he came with and get to sleep as soon as possible? Before heads-up play, when the game was three-handed (I was up against Pablo and my wife), I did something sneaky. I asked them both what their thoughts were on chopping the pot. They both were up for it. (I was a distant second in chips behind Pablo, with a slight edge over Katie). After asking this question, and hearing their reply, I said I was not quite ready yet. They both read this blog, so they knew as well as I did that I would never be ready!
After my wife was eliminated, Pablo offered several times to chop the pot. Given the late hour, I knew Pablo was getting tired of playing and wanted to go home -- which is the essence of the lesson I learned: Tired tournament players are often impatient, and will either gamble with coin flips, or call large bets with marginal holdings. I declined each request Pablo made to split the winnings, and inched my way back into the game with what I thought was solid post-flop decisions.
A long story short, I won the tournament and 100% of the money (although it involved a fairly significant bad beat for Pablo) and I was happy with how I played. For the World Series, I plan to use this lesson to my advantage, getting plenty of rest the week before, avoiding alcohol, eating right, and exercising regularly. I think this will help to keep me alert and energized for the tournament.
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