From: "Kevin" Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2012 22:56:43 -0500 Subject: [BARGE] Overdue EMBARGO Trip Report Part I obHaiku: Flew Southwest Airlines Then picked up a rental car Gold Coast and Good Night. You know you're getting old when you fly to Las Vegas, get your luggage and rental car by 10pm and the only thing you can think of is: I've got to get to my hotel and get some sleep! I remember a trip or two in my younger days where I'd fly out on a Friday evening and fly back on Sunday evening without getting even a wink of sleep. Now I'm older, and while perhaps not any wiser, my body screams loud enough and often enough so that even my feeble brain gets the hint. So, off to bed it was, no drinking, no gambling. No kidding. $20 got me an upgrade to a "nicer room". It was worth the price because it was clear that this room had recently been remodeled and was spotless. I've heard some negative comments about the Gold Coast, but I have no complaints. $33 per night and no bedbugs either! So being old was part of the reason for getting a decent amount of rest, but another factor was that I was playing in the WSOP Circuit event on Wednesday. I registered on Wednesday morning and then walked around and killed some time. At some point before the beginning of the tournament, I noticed that Nolan Dalla was in the room, covering the final table from the previous day's event. We shared a few minutes of conversation before I had to get to work. Nolan was also busy, but I asked him if he might have some time later on because there were some things I wanted to discuss with him. He said that he would make some time during one of the breaks. Cool. The tournament was pretty uneventful for me. I had some pretty clueless players at my table, but never found a hand or a situation where I could take huge advantage. There was one player who busted out on a board of 5-6-7-9-K (or something similar). There were four spades on board and this knucklehead leads out with about 10% of his remaining stack (which is large relative to the blinds). His opponent shoves and this guy takes about 30 seconds to call of the rest of his chips with...are you ready?.......red eights. Yup. Thanks for playing sir. I eventually find myself in a situation several levels later (after we've been anteing for a while) where a loose player makes an early position raise. It's folded to me in middle position, and based on stack size and dead money, I decide it's time for an all-in 3 bet. I've got 8-8. As soon as I say "All In", the preflop raiser's chin drops to the floor. Okay, not quite to the floor, but I think his jaw may have hit the table. He clearly was not happy. Good for me, good for my image. Nice planning Kevin. Well executed. Umm, except for the part where Mr. Button-Rock discovers AA. IGHN. Well, actually I didn't go home, I went to find Nolan. You see the breaks were only 10 minutes long, so we never got a chance to talk. Nolan breaks away from his work and we venture over to a nice quite place meditation and relaxation. Not buying it? Well, I mean, that WAS our plan, but somehow there was a bar between where we were and where we were heading, so it seemed like a good place to stop and rest from our long journey. After all, we had already walked about 200 feet. We grabbed a couple of seats and the bartender came over. I noticed a Glenfiddich 18 on the shelf, so naturally it seemed like a good choice. Nolan ordered some drink with a cherry and an umbrella in it and we began to exchange pleasantries. No, he didn't fucking actually order a drink with an umbrella in it. He order a glass of wine. The bartender brought us our drinks, and I beat Nolan to the punch. I pulled out a $20 from my pocket, which was the catalyst for a three way conversation that went something like this: Kevin: I got this Nolan. Nolan: Are you sure? Well, thank you very much. Bartender: Um, sir.that'll be $28. Kevin internalizes, while channeling Nolan: FUCKING Caesar's. As BARGERs, I think we generally take it for granted that everyone knows everyone else, but I've discovered that this is not necessarily true. So, for those of you who don't know Nolan very well, let me give you some insight from my perspective. Nolan is a very opinionated person. This is not to say that he is arrogant (because he is not), belligerent (because he is not), or condescending (because he certainly is not). He does however have strong opinions, but I don't think he opinions are the result of an emotional reaction to the ways things are, but rather they are the result of a great deal of deep thinking and reflection. It has been my experience that he is an absolutely great person to have a conversation with, because even though he and I differ on many things, we are able to have some pretty free and open-minded exchanges. This forces/causes me to examine my positions from a different perspective, and I always seem to walk away slightly more intellectually enriched. We talked about a great many things. Some of which were causal, some of which were humorous, and some of which were deeply personal. We probably talked for two or three hours. Nolan, thank you so much for taking the time. It's always a pleasure. I think I only had two (three? four?) scotches, but I hadn't eaten a thing all day and I was mentally drained from the tournament. I decided that it might be -EV to drive, so I left the car at Caesar's and hoofed it over to the Venetian to see who what was going on. I saw and greeted Bob Ogus, who was playing in an Omaha/8 game. He offered me a seat, but I decided that it would be much more fun to just watch the building columns rust, as this happens at a much quicker pace than the action in your standard Omaha/8 game. I was able to grab a seat in a 4-8 LHE game, which I was lucky enough to destroy. The game, not the seat. I was fortunate enough to be good friends with the late, great Barry Tanenbaum. He had a powerful influence on my poker game, and we had many great discussions even before we went the route of "official" lessons. Consequently, although I feel I can handle myself fairly well at a No Limit table, I much prefer to play limit Hold 'em. Every time I get arrogant enough to think I've got this game mastered, I meet another BARGEr who enlightens me and gets me thinking in ways that had never occurred to me previously. Barry was able to do this on pretty much every occasion! I've made it a point to try to share some of this insight with others (when they ask) and so far I think things have worked out pretty well in that regard. Brief interruption for some actual poker content: So this lady raises my BB from UTG+1, one player calls and the rest fold to me. I three bet, she four bets, other guy folds, and I five bet. I mean, what else can you do when you're out of position against an aggressive player who is pounding your BB? WTF was she thinking? Didn't she know who *I* was? What did she think I had - 9 high? Well, yeah, so that's what I had, but she didn't *know* that. I mean she should have been scared, right? Whatever ;-) So the flop comes 9-T-J and the war continues. Bet. Raise. Re-raise. Re-rai. Re-raise. Re-rai (she was Asian after all). It was at this time that I decided to employ some masterful trickery to disguise the strength of my hand, which was bottom pair. So I flat called. I'm sure this threw her completely off of her game. To be fair, I didn't *just* have bottom pair. You see, the flop was 9h Ts Js, and the 9-high that I held preflop consisted of 9s 8s, so I flopped bottom pair and an open end str8 flush draw. She on the other hand, held KQo, and had flopped the nut straight. Despite my extreme poker skill level, I of course was not yet aware of this. The turn is a non-spade Q. DING for me (or so I thought) so I continue with my extremely passive approach, consistent with me not putting in the 7th bet on the flop. Damn that hook sure tasted good. Check, bet, raise, re, re, re, (Inner voice: Does she have A-K? Nah, she's not going 4-bets preflop with A-K. You turned a straight you moron, just put in another raise.) re, re (Inner voice - louder this time - Um, well, she might have KK in which case she also made a straight on the turn, but hers is higher) call. River: King of Spades. Action: BET, Frown, Head shake, CALL. Flush g00t, as NOW I get to see her angrily reveal K-Qo. Man, did she spew forth a rant! Something about who did I think I was, and there was no way I was getting her to fold that hand. I love it when players think so one-dimensionally. Anyway, how could she all me with THAT? She actually thought the nuts were good on the turn? Didn't she know who *I* was? ;-). WARNING TO BARGERS: Do not kid yourself into thinking that the nuts are good enough. In the past, I have had one huge leak in my game, and that's my lack of ability to suck out. I feel that it's only fair to warn you that I have been practicing a great deal and that leak is now almost fully plugged. I've literally dealt thousands and thousands of hands to myself in my basement. Each time I've shoved my entire stack into the middle of the table, so that the each trial would exactly replicate the proper situation. Let me tell you that the results have been truly amazing! I've really gotten good at this facet of the game. It's scary. The only time I still have difficulties is when I put a cardboard cutout of Chic in my opponent's seat, then my results are horrible. Anyway, where was I? Oh: She went on full tilt. Not THAT full tilt, because I actually got paid. (Sorry. Couldn't resist). By the time I was finished, rather than just color up, I made two trips to the cage. I think even Monte was proud of me. (He was destroying the other 4-8 game, as well as the Venetian's stockpile of beer). Part II follows. Play on, -Un A+++ G+++ PKR+ PEG- B++ TB ADB+ M+++ From: "Kevin" Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2012 23:00:49 -0500 Subject: [BARGE] Overdue EMBARGO Trip Report Part II It's been too long, so I don't recall exactly what I did on Thursday and Friday. No, wait, on Thursday I played some more at the Venetian and then went over to the Mirage, where we tried our best to resurrect the ARG Mirage buffet outing. I believe it was Russ Fox who had some extra comp dollars, so he shared them with me. Other attendees (if memory serves) included Randy Collack, David Hellar and The Honorable Mrs. Hellar who is a judge. Sharing dinner with a lawyer and a judge proved very interesting, and we discussed several legal situations. I was able to keep quiet enough to actually learn a few things while making the Mirage restock on crab legs. After dinner, Russ very kindly gave me a few minutes of his time to discuss some hypothetical accounting situations. Thanks Russ, it was very enlightening. >From there, it was back to the Venetian. Oh, did I mention that the Venetian was our host for EMBARGO? Sorry. They did a great job and the room was very active. If you wanted action you could find it for just about any game at any limit. Except Binglaha though. I believe that there was some concern with us using a die in a poker game, but I don't have all of the facts. Anyway, I don't blame the Venetian poker staff. They did everything they could to accommodate us. On Friday, a few of us went to Henderson for sushi. Asya, Ben, Becca and Dean Kerl, me, Oliver, and I either Josh Paley or Lenny Augustine. Damn those Tilt Boys all look alike. It was a small group, so we didn't make an over/ under line. Also, with fewer people you have to be careful about what you order because it might go to waste. So we planned accordingly and everything worked out just fine. After sushi, Oliver, Becca, Dean and I went to the pinball museum. The boys played some games and Becca went shopping. Playing all of those old games was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. After a while Becca returned with some new boots, and it was time go play more poker. I forget which day it was (Friday?), but I did enjoy the traditional Ice breakfast at the Egg and I. Once again the breakfast was comped, and so was the tip. Our benefactor simply requested that in lieu of a tip, we make a donation in memory of Barry Tanenbaum. A bucket was left on the table, and I'm sure that no one left without tossing something into the bucket. I know that Barry was well respected among BARGErs and other poker players. Over the years, I had the opportunity to spend many hours with him. We talked a lot about poker, but we spent as least as much time talking about other things too. Whenever Barry thought I said something wrong, or inaccurate, or just plain stupid, he pulled no punches in his critique. He went right to the point, every time. There are very few people that I would tolerate being that blunt, but I loved and respected Barry a great deal and that was just his style. If you were afraid to hear the truth, then you could go talk to someone else who was more gentle, but less instructive. I do miss him. I don't recall much from Friday. I'm pretty sure that I went to dinner with someone, but I've forgotten with whom and I've forgotten where. Sorry. I played some uneventful poker. I tried to help out the organizers wherever I could, and got just a peak at how much work they actually do to coordinate all of the details that result in a successful ARG event. Thanks so very much to Nick, Bree, and Michael for EVERYTHING you do so that the rest of us can have a great time. These events obviously do not happen by themselves and it takes a great deal of effort to make them run as smoothly as they do. Thanks to the Venetian for hosting us too. Saturday was the Chowaha tournament. I didn't figure to fare well, as I have limited Chowaha experience. The one other time I did play, it was a ring game situation and I spent most of the night folding and constructing a chip castle. Mine was the best that night (a bridge co-designed by the late k-fish) that supported a chip tray containing $2500 in chips. But I was only award 2nd place. Some guy in a black cowboy hat won. Chip Castle contests are so rigged. Early in the tournament, we had a discussion at our table about the number of possible Chowaha flops. I believe it was Michael Mauer who initiated the discussion. We were talking about order of magnitude (trillions) when I suggested that it shouldn't be hard to figure out. It's just 19,600 (the number of hold em flops) * (44 choose 3) * (41 choose 3). That got past most people until someone pointed out that while the order of the cards in an individual flop doesn't matter, the order of the flops themselves does matter. You're much better off hitting the middle flop than you are hitting either the upper or the lower flop. Even though I grokked that, I would be reminded of the significance of this important fact later in the tournament. As soon as the waitress came by I did what any other normal person would do at 11am. I ordered a 12 year old scotch. You know, breakfast *is* the most important meal of the day. And it is important to drink plenty of fluids! Early on, I picked up a few hands but the action was tighter than I thought it would be. I took advantage of this whenever I felt it was appropriate, and managed to make the final 2 tables. I was involved in two last longer bets. One was the Board of Directors vs. the Organizers, and the other was the mandatory ADB last longer. When we got close down to 12 handed, I picked up AA twice in a row, and was able to add to my chip stack. Good thing I got those cards when folks were willing to gamble, because pretty much everyone has caught on to what a tight player I am. I made it to the final table. I might not get this right, but I think the finalists included Bob Ogus, Peter Secor, Asya Kamsky, Bree Goldman, Nolan Hee, Eric Rosenberger, Connie Kellers. Early on, Bree and Peter had the two biggest stacks and someone (Bob Ogus?) suggested that we give them 1st and 2nd and split the remaining prize pool. Now, I'm no Scottro but to me this sounded like an absolutely horrible idea. I came to play baby, and I was not giving up my shot at the World Chowaha Championship for a few dollars. A few of the smaller stacks got knocked out, and I was able to double up through Bree when I picked up AA. After many more agonizing minutes of play, we were three handed. Me, Bree and Peter. Damn, two opponents, two last longer bets, and I STILL hadn't won one yet! Peter and I agreed to chop the ADB last longer, and I had finally won cashed in my second ADB last longer. Shortly thereafter Peter got knocked out. Bree and I were heads up, and I don't know whether it was just really bad cards or mutual respect, but there was a lot of preflop folding or limping. The lead went back and forth, and Bree had me about 8:5 when I picked up KK and flopped a King on the bottom flop of K-5-x. We got all the money in as Bree flopped and open end straight draw on the middle flop. She needed a 5 or a T to make the straight, but a 5 on the bottom turn card would give me a full house, sealing the deal. A 4 did come, but it was on the top flop. The river card paired the board, but it paired the middle board which was of no help to me. Bree was the World Champion, and I had to settle for second best. It was a pretty cool final table, but with one organizer, one board member and one former organizer making up to top three finishers, one has to wonder if live poker isn't fixed ;-). After the tournament, I bribed the hostess at the Grand Lux and got (almost) immediate seating for a party of 12 and a bunch of us went to dinner. I took a break to check on the Illinois/Minnesota basketball score. I had Illinois +4 and a money line bet too. I was anticipating a VERY nice payoff when I saw that Illinois had a lead with a few seconds left. I worried about my money line bet when Minnesota tied it up in the final seconds. The game went to overtime, and Illinois lost by 5. ARRRRGH. Basketball is so rigged. On my way back, I spotted Betty Tanenbaum playing in a ring game, and I asked her if she wanted to join us for dinner. She agreed, and I we walked to the Grand Lux. There were a lot of discussions going on, and at one point I Barry's name came up. Betty was seated right next to me. I shared some of my Barry stories, trying to keep an eye towards Betty to make sure that she was not getting uncomfortable. After dinner she gave me a hug and thanked me for talking about Barry. Yes, we both cried. The funniest story I heard about the ring games was when Jeanne David came in with another female player. I think the table had ARGers and non-ARGers alike, and there were some comments made about what a fish this player was. Morons the commentators surely were, as the anonymous player was actually Karina Jett. Hardly fish material! Cocktails were IMPOSSIBLE to get during the ring games, and I were playing dealer's choice with Dean Kerl, his wife Becca and several others. Becca was complaining that she really need a drink, so I volunteered to go to the bar and get her one. I believe it was a kamikaze. I waited at the bar for about 5 minutes and finally caught the attention of a bartender. I ordered the drink and waited. "That'll be $14 sir", or some such outrageous nonsense. Not about to be suckered twice in the same Vegas trip, I slipped a $20 into the VP machine. He nodded, and I handed him a fiver as he began to turn away. Grabbing the drink, I hit CASH OUT on the VP machine, and off I went to deliver the magic potion to Becca. So, I sucked at the WSOP Circuit event, but more than made up for it with a 2nd place finish in Chowaha. Ring games are usually a pretty profitable venture for me, and this trip was no exception. I had a great time, and you've probably read my post about the problem I had with the small scratch on the rental car from my previous post on the subject. I finally settled, sans the $50 Administrative fee. When I get to the airport and my departure gate, I hear the announcement that the flight is oversold. I'm about 3 feet away from the counter when the announcement is made, so I get first crack. $400 voucher and a seat on the next flight. Guess what I did with that $400? CORRECT, and I see you all in 23 more days! Play on, -Un A+++ G+++ PKR+ PEG- B++ TB ADB+ M+++