Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:52:27 -0800 From: "Hee, Nolan \(NBC Universal\)" Subject: [ESCARGOT] Escargot Day 1 - "1 outer Heaven/Hell" It was a good start to the day. Work wasn't bashing my butt and so I had a clear head to concentrate on the 1/2 PLHE 1/2 Omaha event. Typically, I've got about a million people calling me each day telling me how their computer problem is going to make NBC Universal come to a grinding halt if I don't drop everything I'm doing and fix it RIGHT NOW. Today, the stars aligned and I was actually done with my duties before sunset. I took off at a decent hour trying desperately not to win my "excellence in navigation" awarad (again). The train sped through to my car waiting at the parking lot and I sailed in clear traffic to the Bike. I find my seat between Omaholic and Fold'em after having missed just one round of blinds (or two). This feels great! I've got close to 1100 in chips and am ready to start blasting! I also see my good buddy Allknight, Oz and Chuck W. on the table. Whaaaaat? 1100 in chips? I'm so intimidating, the table's folded 10 rounds of blinds to me? I THINK the more logical answer is that I started with an extra T100 chip. I quickly find out everybody else started with just 1000 so I toss the dealer a T100 chip. Nobody bats an eye. Like this sort of thing happens every day. Already, I'm trying to give myself a bad beat. Damn this being honest thing is -EV! After several uneventful rounds of ABC play and relatively no movement in my stack size, our table breaks. I get moved to table 1 seat 1. That sounds like a winning combination. I've got Kirk O and Chic N. to my immediate left. Across the table, I see Scott Samural. I start off UTG with crap. I'm running low on chips and post my BB. I fold to Chic's raise. I post my SB and Chic limps! Scott S. calls and I throw in 50 more without looking because, really, why look? I immediately let Chic know that limping was a tragic error that will start me on my comeback road to winning this tourney. Kirk raps pat and we see a flop of KT7 with two spades. Check, check, check and Scott bets 300 into a T400 pot. I've got T475 left and look down at KJ94. I've got a double gutter and top pair. I rai all in. Scott calls and turns up a set of T's. No prob, I've got a Q or 8 for the win. Just then, Kirk leans over and tells me he mucked Q888 ! ! ! Crap. Turn is blank and the river is the case 8 WOO HOO! I'm healthy again. Must have been that good karma I harvested earlier. Very next hand, it's mucked to me and I look down to AKQT single suited on the button. Karma's trying to tell me I'm sailing to the final table. I raise to T350 and Kirk calls. Flop comes Q high with two blanks. I bet all in with my suddenly healthy stack and Kirk quickly calls with QQQ. Grrrrreaaaatttt. No miracle and IGHN to rest up for tomorrow's Limit HE. I guess I should stop learning about the science of Karma by watching "My Name Is Earl". Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:56:15 -0800 From: "Hee, Nolan \(NBC Universal\)" Subject: [ESCARGOT] Escargot Day 2 - "Can someone say suckout?" Work was again quite pleasant. Sort of fun actually. I get a call from one of my more "senior" clients asking if her computer will play a CD. I reply "sure, just pop it in and it'll start playing". Now here comes the fun part. "Where do I put it?" she asks. "There's no slot for the CD". Now, I'm not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of trying to explain where the CD drive is on a computer. It's almost like explaining to someone how to breathe. I try my best to describe the rectangular box with a button under it that slides out when you press said button. Just imagine my surprise when I hear "I don't see anything like that on my computer". DING a lightbulb pops up over my head, "Would you ask your assistant to show you where it is?" Whew . . . Reminds me of the time a lady called about an error message on her computer. I told her to turn her computer off and back on and that should clear the error. She turns her computer off and on and the error is still there. I tell her I'll be up to check it out. When I get there, I see the error. I'm baffled because a reboot should have cleared the error. I ask her to show me how she rebooted the machine and she proceeds to turn the monitor off, wait for a good 10 seconds and turns the monitor back on and says "SEE, it's still there!" Traffic is smooooooth sailing (for an LA Friday) and I get to the Bike in a mere hour. Whoever's betting the over on my arrival time is taking a beating. Let me know next time and for a small cut, I'll hang out at the bar till you win your bet. I'm seated to the left of Omaholic for Friday night's Limit Hold'em tourney. Can't get enough of this guy and it seems like I'm following him around. We also have two Marks (marks?) at our table. One Mark shows he's not a mark by winning this damn event. For a moment, we get a third Marc. Also have Pete-Dogg, Paul Joo and Kenny on our table. This is a table where we'll see lots of action and little pre-flop stealing. First two rounds, I pick up maybe half a hand. I was pretty much a spectator. Best hand I had was 98s so I kept folding and folding. Looked really different from my usual game. I was hoping to catch something after the break to make it look like I was playing in this tourney. There was a spot getting blinded out for a good 3 hours and sad to say, that stack was looking better than my stack. Coming back from the break, I take down a pot or two and then I get dealt A2d at the cutoff. All fold to Omaholic who limps and I RAI with my powerful suited wheel cards! I get the blinds and Omaholic to call and we're off to the races. Flop comes very pretty (but not for my hand) QT9 with one diamond. All check to me. I've got to have some of that with my pre-flop raise right? So I bet. Fold, fold, Omaholic raises. Weeeeellll, don't you know that you shouldn't raise the Crasian especially when he raises pre-flop? I three-bet knowing that this ck-rai is an obvious bluff and he's trying to push me off my position bet. Whoops, I get an Omaholic 4 bet and am sort of glad there's a cap. Turn card is something like the 7 of diamonds. Cool. I've got a draw now. Omaholic bets into me. Now, I'm calling T100 for a T900 pot. Odds are GREAT for a suckout. River comes the perfect card - J of diamonds. O bets into me, I raise, he re-rai, I re-re-rai. O says "there's no way". Come to find out he had KK and made a straight on the river and didn't see the 3 flush. I've got 0.166 EV on the flop and improve to .273 on the turn. Can someone say suckout? I get into a few more confrontations but manage to flop no pairs, no draws, no nada and quickly bust out, just totally wasting that bad beat I put on O. Don't you hate that? You're only allowed so many super-suckouts and they should all come at key junctures in tournaments that cause you to go on incredible card rushes and sail to the final table. Sadly, this wasn't to be. So, I make my way to fire up the CHORSEL table. We've got ARGers sprinkled throughout the casino, but eventually, our table fills. Crazy Don, Kyle, and Paul Joo are capping what felt like every other pot. Our beer pots were more like keg pots! I was down a rack and two hands later, up a rack! Also had a good time with Allknight, Corey, Scott, and Fern. Best invention since the check raise - dollar antes in a 3-6 game. This made our Razz game feel like the gold rush in '49. This made our 6 handed triple draw game (3 out buttons per hand) feel like the first of the month on Skid row! *** POKER STRATEGY *** When playing KC Lowball, don't ask out loud if aces are bad! You may wake up the other players who forgot you're playing 2-7! As players trickled out, Scott Samural and I took on the two local dealers until it was past their bedtime. Can I just say I LOVE BADUGI? We bid adieu to another wonderful day at ESCARGOT 2007.