devinarmstrong

Maybe there's something to this:



Sunday Million, finished 400 of 8600. Nothing spectacular but still! Haha

The Seneca $340 tournament went poorly for me. I won my buy-in the night before and freerolled the trip.

My highlight of the tournament:

I am MP with red 7's, raise to 300. LP calls, BB calls.
Flop: K98 all spades. BB checks, I bet 550. BB now folds out of turn before LP can act. While this was happening, LP was in the process of mucking his cards, but not quite, and when bb folds, he realizes he is now closing the action. So he takes his hand back and thinks forever. I am cursing BB in my mind but I obviously can't say anything while LP is deliberating.

Eventually he says "will you show if I fold" and I give my standard "yeah sure whatever". He shows pocket nines for middle set and mucks LOLOLOLOL

(LOLOLOLOL)

The table goes a bit nuts, and he realizes he likely folded the best hand. I say "ummm do you still want me to show?" and before I finish my sentence, he says "no", and I mucked. One of my favourite tournament moments to date.

Well hello there! Since my last entry I've been to such exotic locations as Regina, Halifax, and Calgary. I tried to fit a bit of poker into each of those cities, but only managed to do so in Halifax. The last time I played in Halifax was many years ago, and the poker area was out on the casino floor amidst the noise of the slot machines. Well, they've got themselves a nice little poker room now! I played for an hour or so, only one hand of note really:

$2/$5 nlhe, I bought in for $500. I'd played for a couple of orbits and would definitely categorize the table as loose/passive which is just fine with me. Lots of limping preflop, so when I was utg with TJo I figured my limp might hold and it did. 7 to the flop: QKAr. What's not to like. Blinds check, I obv check, EP bets $20, LP calls, I call.

3 of us to the turn, a nice-looking 5, but it does put two hearts on the board. I check, EP bets $40, LP calls, I raise to $120, and they both call. (!)

River is a beautiful little black 7. These hands don't happen very often... you flop the nuts and it's still the nuts at the river. At this point I put one of them on a hand like AhTh, and the other maybe has the same hand I do. I bet $100 and get called in both spots (!). They both muck and I take it all. Bizarre.

EP had QQ for a flopped set. No raise preflop, after I limp, at a passive table, equals terribad. LP had AJo for top pair with a gutshot straight draw. He overcalled the $100 river bet. Anyway I didn't play many hands after that, gathered up my chips and left. On the way out, one of the players said he recognized me from somewhere and I said (with deliberately exaggerated enthusiasm and glee) "poker night live!"

These guys were ok actually, ok people I mean. Most live poker players drive me nuts though as I've clearly established in this blog. Which brings me to a little $140 tournament I played in Brantford last Thursday. 50 players, top 5 get paid. Fairly early in the process, an annoying hotshot-type of poker player limped EP and I raised from MP with AQo. Folded to him, he hollywoods for a while and eventually folds. I'm already thinking "wtf why so much drama over a meaningless little pot this early in the tournament" when he says--in a fairly aggressive way--"pocket nines! I put you on pocket nines! Show me. Show me. Show me the nines."

At this point, this guy pretty much represents everything I hate about poker. It gives me money but it produces total douchebags who speak to each other in this manner as a matter of course. I guess I could have let it go, but I chose to say "why would I show you my hand? Who cares? There was no action, it's not like we had a big pot and a river card, you're just randomly guessing at any two cards that you think would raise." He'd received his cards for the next hand by now, and was about to fold them when I said "83 offsuit. I put you on 83 offsuit. Show me. Show me. Show me the 83 offsuit".

I'm pretty sure he got the point--the point being that he is a generally annoying person. Since these were the first words I'd said since the tournament had started I think I surprised everyone lol. Also, for some reason, random people (most of whom have no idea what they're doing most of the time) like to give me their "poker advice". I'm not sure why... maybe it's because I'm a pretty quiet person, and I look generally pleasant enough (even though we've clearly established that I'm not actually all that pleasant). People like to say things to me from out of nowhere, like "patience is a huge part of tournament poker. You have to be really disciplined" etc. And unless they're douchebags (like Mr. Showme) I just kinda smile and nod in a generally noncommittal way. There might have been a time in my life when I would have disclosed my total lifetime poker earnings. But that would make me one of the douchebags, and that time has come and gone.

In another hand in this tournament, I bet a flush draw on the flop and turn vs. someone, but gave up on the river when I missed and thought I was getting called. I checked behind, tabled my 4h5h, and said "I have a missed flush draw". My opponent mucked and I dragged the pot.

A guy to my left cold called a shortstack's 8xbb open-shove with 78o, just because. As the tournament went on, this guy would eventually knock out at least 8 players in this manner. Calling massive bets with waaaaaay the worst of it, and hitting. Nice enough guy, never said much except for "call". Opponent after opponent walked away muttering to themselves, and I thought it was fairly amusing. Of course, I wouldn't have found it quite as amusing if he'd done it to me. Perspective really is everything.

Down to the final table, and I remember thinking that if I didn't make the money in this field I should probably stop playing poker. With 6 players left we made a deal to give $20 to 6th. With four players left I suggested we chop the prize money evenly... about $1200 each. I was third in chips. Surprisingly, first and second place agreed, but fourth place nixed the deal. Christ. He busted fourth of course... Karma.

I took 3rd when I shoved 66 into QQ and failed to suck out, good for about $900. Due to the turbo nature of this event, I still had enough time left in the day to play nine holes at a local course.

Which brings me to golf... the season is upon us, and of course I've been out more than a few times by now. I've replaced all of my old clubs; I am now rocking Taylor Made Burner Plus irons and hybrids, Callaway FT woods, an Odyssey putter, and a Wilson Staff bag. With the exception of the woods, all of these things were either clearance or demo items originally so I did manage to not spend a ridiculous amount of money on these clubs, which are clearly much better than I am.



On Good Friday I played Lowville with friends and family... what a beautiful day. Had a few drinks and a big dinner over a 7 hour span, before driving home. Obviously there was a RIDE program stopping cars on the on-ramp, and after disclosing my alcohol consumption, I was asked to do a breathalyzer test. I didn't feel intoxicated at all, and based on how little I'd had to drink over a long period of time, that was no surprise. For a poker player, though, I was NOT cool under pressure. At all. My voice was shaking as I was talking to the cop before doing the test... hell, I might have been shaking along with it. He actually told me I should try to relax a bit lol, I think he was a bit worried about me.

You see, even though I didn't feel drunk, and even though I didn't have much to drink, I know that restrictions in Ontario are tight. I didn't know what the machine was going to have to say about it, and even a 3 day suspension can seriously mess up your life in a number of ways. So I was kind of freaking out.

When I got out of my car, I put my hands in my pockets. He said "sir please keep your hands where I can see them". I apologized and started walking over to his car with him, putting my hands back in my pockets as I walked. He said "sir, please. Your hands". I apologized profusely and told him it was a habit of mine. We got to the car and when we stopped walking I put my hands in my pockets. He said "sir! I've told you twice already!". I confessed that I was kinda freaking out. It was all going really really well.

I said "so if I was hammered and not fit to drive I'd know it right? I'd feel wasted right?". He said "you'd be surprised..." He demonstrated how to blow into the machine, and then I did it, and blew .025 I think... It was halfway to a warning, so I was free to leave.

I might play an event or two in the upcoming Seneca series that kicks off this weekend. Good luck to you if you're playing, unless you're at my table.

(The beard is gone. I shaved it off within hours of seeing this picture lol)

As you can see, I'm currently working at the 2010 Olympic Games, as a camera operator at Pacific Coliseum. There are two events being held here: figure skating and short track speed skating. We average two days of figure skating for each day of speed skating. My assignments...

Speed skating: I'm operating a handheld camera (pictured above), and I'm at centre ice, ice level, right next to the coaches. My primary assignment is to shoot the coaches, especially as the skaters come up to them after the races to hug, high five, etc. I shoot the races as well.

Figure skating: I'm operating a hard camera (very large camera on a tripod). I'm ice level, in the corner across from (and to the right of) the judges. It's a Super Slo Mo camera, which means I'm shooting at a higher frame rate, and am used primarily for the slow motion replays that follow each performance. I try to get tight shots of faces and skate blades but it's difficult... with the higher frame rate the depth of field is very shallow and they are moving very fast. Typically I follow head to toe.

Bored yet? Hehe... well this city is crazy right now, it's very exciting. The events that I'm shooting are exciting as well, each for different reasons. I'm next to the boards for both, getting hit by the ice from the skate blades. Cool. And when Canada competes (not to mention wins a medal) the place is absolutely nuts. Being next to the coaches during speed skating is particularly entertaining... as the skaters go by, the coaches jump up and down and yell and scream in the hopes that their skater will hear the message. Then tense silence as the skaters disappear from earshot. Then the very brief moment of yelling and screaming and jumping again as they go by. Then silence. Repeat, repeat, repeat. As the race gets closer and closer to its conclusion, the coaches get more intense, the crowd gets louder, the announcer starts screaming, the director in my headset starts cutting a bit faster and with more intensity, and if you don't feel a bit of an adrenaline rush at that point, well, you're not human.

I spent the last two mornings golfing before work, which is kinda bizarre considering I'm here for the winter Olympics. Nonetheless, the weather is beautiful, 12 degrees and sunny. Playing golf with my jacket off and mountains in the background is the nuts. I can see why people would live here. At least, when it's not raining, and to be honest it pretty much always is. We're just in an amazing little patch of weather at the moment, and then back to the norm.

On the nights when I just feel like taking it easy (I'm here for the long haul after all) I've been playing at Stars and doing well. I'm still learning a lot about the game which is always good... right now I'm giving a lot of thought to the difference between people who shove light, and people who call light when they know they're playing against people who shove light. Wondering which is more profitable, but more on that some other time.

Music:

"Grounds for Divorce" - Elbow
"Sweet Disposition" - The Temper Trap
"The Mystery Zone" - Spoon

It's that time again! Once a year or so, I remind those of you who came here for poker that there is TONS of archived material at my old myspace site:

my old myspace site

For your convenience (and mine, in the interests of consolidating the material), here are the appropriate links.


TRIP REPORTS:

2010 Borgata Day One

2010 Borgata Day Two

2010 Borgata Day Three

2010 Borgata Day Four

2010 Borgata Day Five

WSOP 2005 trip report

WSOP 2004 trip report

Vegas Feb. 2009

March Regina trip report (unknown year)

WSOP 2008

2008 Turning Stone

2008 Seneca Winter Challenge

November Regina trip report (unknown year)

2007 BCPC Day One

2007 BCPC Day Two

2007 BCPC Day Three

1K Underground tournament

2007 Brantford Spring Classic

Vegas 2008

November Regina trip report 2005

2007 Turning Stone

Underground tournament trip report (unknown year)

2007 Vegas Wynn Classic trip report


ARTICLES:

"An Aggressive Approach to Sit and Go's"

"The Future of Poker: Lac Leamy Casino"

"A Limit Texas Hold'em Quiz"

"A Tale of Two Deals" (lol what a terrible title)

"Playing Scared"

"Poker Commentating 101"

"Stealing"

"The Mad Russian"

"Tournament Tips"

"Laydowns: Hand Analysis in the Heat of Battle"


I've written many more reports since starting this blog, which I will probably link to here as well. And, there are many more articles on my hard drive--and in old issues of Canadian Poker Player magazine--but not on the web as far as I know. Yet. And finally I'm pretty sure I can find some good reports and generally strange poker tales by having a look through some of the forums I used to frequent. My goal is to consolidate just about everything (of substance) I've written, and link to it here in the coming weeks.

Then I'm going to put it all together into one big strategy/anecdotal poker book and make a million dollars.

Because the poker boom isn't over YET is it? Is it? Oh right. It is.

Damn.

I'm writing this from home, so I made it back in one piece... On day five I had time to play three sit and go's. Well, two and a half really but I'll get to that in a sec.

Checked out, left my bag and coat at the desk and had about 8 hours to kill before the 7:00 shuttle to the airport. After going 2 for 2 in the $280 sng's the day before, I guess it's pretty obvious where I headed. Played it and came in 8th (!). Played another one and cashed in at 3rd place. A lot of time had elapsed by now... despite the fast structure, these do take some time to get through. There aren't a lot of donks in the $280's--maybe two or three tops--and the rest of the field isn't giving much away. So they average maybe 2.5 to 3 hours from start to finish.

At 5:00 they started calling the names for a $540 sng, and of course I was on the list. In what I will always remember as one of my greatest moments of degeneracy, I decided to play it, with no real idea of what I would do if I missed my shuttle or my flight. I had become the cliche gambler: "who cares where I'll sleep, or how I'll get home! I'm runnin' good!!!" Sometimes I surprise even myself with my tireless dedication to playing poker. That is, when I'm in "poker mode". When I'm not, I can go for months without thinking about it.

I found out after we started that the $540's began with 7K in chips instead of 5K, because of the higher buy-in. Great, so it would take even longer to complete. Also, there were no soft spots at the table. And I really had to take a leak, and couldn't find a good time to go. And I was checking the time every hand or two because I was really stressed out about the shuttle. Despite all of this, I didn't pay $540 to just sit there and throw it away... I played some great poker, and went deep.

One guy had--by his own admission--been slapped in the face with the deck. 33 and 77 both flopped sets. He had AT vs JT on a TT3 flop. He had 44 that flopped a set and quadded up on the river. And here's the real kicker: he got full action on all of these hands. Stacks. When we were 5-handed he had easily half the chips in play. I was the only player besides him that was above the starting stack, and I was miles behind him.

A little crowd gathered to watch the bubble action... it's not like the winner of the $540 sng gets life-changing money or anything, but I guess it's enough to interest the $120 sng players, and any regs who aren't seated in a game at that moment. I'm sure the mountain of chips the one guy was sitting with attracted attention as well. I had long since missed my airport shuttle when we finally got down to three players, in the money. The chip leader had about 52K of the 70K in play. The other guy and I had about 8K each. Because of this enormous chip lead, and because I had to catch a flight, and because they both wanted to make it in time for late registration to a 7pm tournament, we made a deal. Normally I would never make this deal, but here's what we agreed to:

Original payouts: 2750, 1500, 750. Adjusted payouts: 2600, 1200, 1200.

I shook hands with my opponents as I usually do, and was about to dart off when this older dude came up to me. He is a very regular SNG player at Borgata... I think it's all he does. Good player, creative enough to keep you guessing, but tight enough to outlast the monkeys. Pretty much the perfect mix if you want to beat SNG's on a regular basis. Anyway we'd played in a few together, and he'd watched me at the end of a couple he wasn't in. He shook my hand and said: "Good job. Don't come back." I laughed and took off, ran to the bell desk, grabbed my suitcase, paid the cab driver $20 extra to drive fast, and made the flight. I was stressed as hell throughout this--I'm usually the guy who's early for everything--but I was smiling the whole time.

The AC airport was dead. Dead. No line at all for security, just you, the person who scans your luggage, and the person who waves you through the body scanner. I loved it.

My SNG results for this trip:

$280: 4th
$280: cash 1st
$280: cash 1st, + win 5-way $100 last-longer
$280: 8th
$280: cash 3rd, but lose $100 last-longer
$540: chop 2nd

Pretty solid. SNG's--and my $2000 win in the survivor tournament--made me come out of this trip with a decent profit, and all meals, travel and accomodation paid for. There were more than a few moments during this trip when I thought: "I could do this". I'm not sure if I'd want to, but if I wanted to, I probably could. I'm not an overly emotional person, so when I take a bad beat, it doesn't effect my play. When I pick up a big hand, most people would have no idea. Maintaining low emotional variance is great for poker, but is it good for life outside of poker? I'd rather not really think about it.

Here's another reason why I think I could do this. I shove light after the tightest player at the table raises, because I know that he knows that he has the image of being the tightest player at the table, and he's getting shortstacked but not pot-committed by his raise, and he hasn't picked up a hand in a while, and he thinks a steal would be easy for him to pull off in this spot. So I work all that out in about .3 seconds, shove with 9To from the small, put my tournament on the line, and get the fold I'm after. This doesn't make me a genius, but it probably makes me good enough to get chips from a lot of people who think they have an edge.

And then I walk past a guy talking to his friend outside the tournament area, and I overhear him saying: "You know, they just catch a few cards for a while, and then they think they have it all figured out." And I realize he could easily be talking about a lot of poker players. Including me.

I'm pretty sure the housekeeping staff is instructed to make as much noise as possible in the hallways at 9am. It's been standard in every casino I've stayed at... Guests sleeping means guests arent gambling, so why not try to get them up earlier than they'd planned? Sigh.

I played $15/$30 limit Omaha hi lo 9 max last night for a few hours before calling it a night... Won a few bucks. Had dinner at a place called Fatburger because that's all that was open at the end of the survivor tournament. I asked for a side of gravy for the fries, and the woman taking the order looked at me like I was crazy. "Gravy?!? What do you need gravy for"? At this point I could have let it go, but the Larry David in me explained that Canadians like to dip their fries in gravy, and I'm shocked that Americans don't do that as well, etc.

Maybe I'm not the guy who should be walking around here in The States, educating people about Canada. I don't know.

$350 nlhe freezeout. I lose 5k of my 10k starting stack on the following hand:

EP raises to 150, I call SB with 6c8c. Heads up.
Flop TJQ with 2 clubs. I check, he bets 250, I call.
Turn 3c, giving me the flush. I bet 525, he calls.
River Ad, I bet 1500, he makes it 4k, I call and he shows me AcKc for a higher flush.

I have to say that I've been running pretty bad, early, in these winter open events. It's ok, no point crying about it. I still have chips, and the blinds are low. Walking around this morning, heading to starbucks as part of the daily routine, I realize that I'm having a great time here. Part of me doesn't want to leave tomorrow. But as always, there's a bigger part of me that does.

50/100, I have about 4K. EP raises to 275, 2 callers, I call on the button with AcJc. Bb calls, 5 players.
Flop J84, with 2 diamonds. EP bets 575, folded to me, I shove, BB folds, and EP calls with 6d8d for middle pair and a flush draw. Brick turn, diamond river, and I bust this event in record time!

Made my way to the cash game room, dropped $200 on THBP along the way. It's like a freakin tax on walking through the casino. I played in the 20/40 lhe game, lost $300. Uh oh, day's not going well.... It was a terrible game , and not just because I lost $300. It was one of those games where no flops were seen. A rock garden. Half the hands were chopped, and the other half were taken down with a single raise preflop. Painful. I'm sure the dealers love it too lol... No flops, no tips, hand after hand.

Eventually I started giving some action to try to get the table going, but after a couple of hundred, it was clear that it wasn't going to work. Left after 30 mins to play a $280 sit and go. Super friendly people in the game.... No headphones for me! One guy had a hat that said "the links of Gettysburg". I asked him where the course was and he said "Gettysburg". Very funny. Then I said that we don't learn a ton of American history in Canada. Similarly, they probably don't learn a lot of Canadian history.... as an example, I mentioned the famous Storming of Regina. Nobody had heard of it, because I made it up of course. Then I said that joke would have played really well in Canada.

Again, I may not be the best ambassador to the Atlantic City poker community.

I ended up winning that sit and go... Payouts were $1600, $600 and $400. We were pretty even in chips when we got heads up, and due to the disparity between first and second $$$, we decided that we'd play on, but the winner would give the loser $300. So I cashed it for $1300 total.

Just registered for the 7pm second chance. So far I've cashed every evening event I've played, and this will be my last chance for a nice mtt score. The girl at the registration desk asked me to take my hat off to match the I.D. I gave her... She couldn't believe the bald guy in the picture was the good-looking guy with the hat, standing in front if her. ;). I'm folically challenged, you see, and I'll be the first to admit that I look about 10 years younger with a hat on, compared to the hat off. So I didn't want to take my hat off, and for fun, produced every piece of I.D. Possible from my wallet: license, health card, fishing license, bank and credit card, ctv photo I.D., etc. This attracted attention, and another clerk asked me about fishing. Jokes all around, and I got to leave my hat on. I run good!

Ended up just chilling in my room before the second chance... Survived to mid-field but no further, thus ending my bid for a nice mtt score.

Celebrity sightings: Paul Wasika, Gavin Smith, and Michael Phelps (who is a big poker enthusiast).

Sickness, after the second chance I played in another $280 sit and go, and lo and behold I won it again. That's 2 for 2 today. We did the same arrangement as the other one I played today; when we were heads up (and I was outchipped) I suggested first give second place $300 to flatten out the crazy top heavy payout structure. My opponent agreed, and I ended up taking it down. Plus the $500 last longer side bet I was in with some of the other players.

All in all I'm running good and playing good. (yes I know that's grammatically incorrect but it's "poker speak"). I'm not exactly on the plane home yet--not until tomorrow night--but it looks like I'll be heading home with a nice profit, and with some fun memories. Pretty much the two reasons I play this game.

2 for 2 in the $280 sng's though... :-). I should probably just play sit and go's, I've played a million of them and I feel totally comfortable.

I Feel like I won already his morning, as there are at least 150 people waiting in line to register for today's event. I preregistered of course as I am not new at this. Should be a good one, $200 single rebuy event, 100k guaranteed prize pool.

So far most of the people I've met and played with have been nice; I generally like Americans. There have been a couple of odd moments though. Last night there was an older woman to the left of me wearing gaudy jewelry... We were down to maybe three tables. a couple of Her friends were nearby watching, and one of them yelled "why do you even care about this, you're already a millionaire!". She turned around and said "I know I know but I want the trophy!!!". Tacky? I dunno.

A bit later I ran into a player down at the cage. He asked where I was from and when I told him, he said--somewhat seriously--"you're Canadian? I'm very sorry for you". Now regardless of whether he was kidding or not, who says that?!?! So I started in about how difficult it must be for an American player to beat the game when they get so heavily taxed on it. (see my rant from last night). I tried to make him feel better tho by saying that we pay a lot of other taxes in Canada so it's ok. Some of it goes towards our health care system, and hey I hope your country ends up getting universal health care. Because that would be great for your country. (to be more like ours).

And that's pretty much where we left that.

One other thing: I ordered pancakes yesterday, and they gave me a freaking ice cream scoop of butter to go with it. Seriously, half a baseball of butter for three pancakes. I asked for a separate plate to store it on.

Tons of players for this $200 nlhe single rebuy event. I was down to about 6k of my original 10k starting stack with 6 minutes to go in the rebuy period. 6 limpers, I have 92o on the button and shove. Win and show a deuce. Next hand, 4 limpers, I wake up with 6to and shove. Win, show the six. 2 minutes left in the rebuy period. Next hand, 3 limpers, I have tt and shove. Get called by 99, he says he only called the massive preflop overbet because of the last few hands. Plan worked perfectly until the 9 on the river. Fml. Rebuy.

I just played next to a girl who used to be a man, very large breasts, very low cut top.

(Edit: on my last day I was in a SNG across from a guy who was talking about her. He had taken a few clandestine pics with his iPhone, and she does create an interesting image. She's huge, probably 6'4", and muscular. A bit of facial hair if I remember correctly. Makeup. Like I said, huge breasts. Usually wears something revealing and frilly. You can see how this would turn heads, and usually in a "point and laugh" kind of way. So I mentioned that it takes balls to sit at a casino poker table like that... casino poker can at times be about as straight, male, and redneck as it gets. The gentleman next to me said that he had some experience with that type of situation in his family... a cousin or something. Said that--compared with walking around every day pretending to be something you're not--getting pointed at, laughed at, and stared at... well, it's a walk in the park. Because it gets to the point where you either be who you are, or you can't go on living. So it's a no-brainer. Sometimes people say some very insightful things at the poker table, seriously... In any case, if it ever came to a physical confrontation, she'd kick the shit out of most guys.)

Last night I played at the same table as a nice guy with a very serious speech impediment. This didn't stop him from talking a lot though, and nor should it I guess. Problem was that nobody at the table could understand him, so there was a lot of nodding and smiling, but not much in the way of actual conversation. At one point the dealer said something to me, but was facing away from me. Couldn't hear her, asked what she'd said. The gentleman with the speech impediment answered, and I couldn't understand that, either. Took everything I had not to burst out laughing.

I'm currently grinding it out in the 100K, typing this, listening to music, sitting on about 11k, playing 100/200 blinds.

EP raises to 500, LP calls, I have Ad7d in SB and call, BB calls.
Flop AK4 with one diamond. Checked to EP who bets 750. I call, heads up.
Turn: 4d. Chk chk.
River 8d, giving me the nut flush on the paired board. I bet 1100, he makes it 5500, I call and he shows me KK of course. Fml. Down to 3k.

Hang around in the 100k until I have AJo in LP at 200/400 a50. Shove 4k, and get called by SB with 22. He had about 12k total.... Why anyone would call 1/3 of their stack in what is a race situation at best is beyond me, but there you have it.

Pretty obvious I lost that race lol.

While I was registering for a $200 "survivor" tournament, a guy came out of the bathroom and told us this story: apparently a guy just came out of one of the stalls completely naked, and walked to the sink to grab some towels to wipe his ass. See, this is why I always feel reluctant about getting out of bed and going out into the world. This exact reason.

The "survivor" event is a good idea. Everyone pays $200 to play. The tournament ends when 10% of the field remains. All remaining players get $2000.

On a topic related to the bathroom story, I regularly see people walking around with their fingers jammed up their noses. (Adults, not toddlers). Twice I've been close enough to someone to hear them farting as they walk out of the tournament area. A guy across from me leaves his unlit cigar on the rail of the table where countless sweaty palms have rested over the last few weeks. He picks it up, sucks on it for a while, puts it back down. I'm not judging or anything of course, but I just want to say that I've been sanitizing the hell out of my hands, and I really really miss playing poker online. Last night in the second chance event, I played with some very cool people, and didn't use my iPod once. Today is a completely different story. It seems like everyone I play against has some kind of "I'm a hotshot" story to tell. As a result, I've heard absolutely nothing but music for the last 90 minutes. It requires you to pay close attention to the chips and the player's physical actions, but it's totally doable.

Headphones are out. Heard at the table next to me, from one player to another: "I'm going to beat you like a rented mule". Sometimes it's worth turning the iPod off I guess. Doing well in this survivor event, we'll see!!

Just won the survivor tournament by finishing top 16 of the 168 entrants. The 2k gets me freerolling the trip, including tomorrow's $300 event, in which I hope to make some real money...

Had breakfast and overheard the following from the elderly couple next to me:

Her: "You know, I saw a woman playing poker last night, and she was sitting at the table, watching a video!"

Him: "Uh huh..."

Her: "Is that a smokescreen or something??? Pretending you're not paying any attention? Aren't you supposed to be watching all the players?"

Him: "Uh huh..."

I wanted to lean over and tell her that in live poker, I've seen people sleep between hands, let alone watch a video. And online.... well let's just say that I play the new Medal of Honour game in one corner of my screen, while multi-tabling Stars, surfing the web, and watching videos. I don't think I'm alone here either.

6 max nlhe, $450, approx 170 entrants. I'll only discuss moderately noteworthy hands.... Let's face it, you don't want to read them, and I don't want to write them.   

25/50, 10k chips to start. I lose 40% of my stack with KK vs 89 on a TJQ64 rainbow board.
Action: I raise UTG to 150, BB calls with 89o, flop TJQr. He checks, I bet 250, he calls.
Turn 6, he checks, I bet 600, he makes it 1600, I call.
River 4, he bets 2k and I call. Bad river call. Rest of hand is fine. Should not have paid him off tho.

Lose more against same player with Kx vs Tx, board KTxxT. (x does not equal x)

Down to half stack at 5k, playing 50/100 blinds. Folded to same opponent from last two hands. He limps the SB, I raise from BB to 400 with AJ. He re-raises to 1500, I tank, and shove 5k total. He calls with 55 (lol) and wins. (Lol).

Rebuy (ouch)

50/100, 10k chips, new table.

I limp KTo utg, 3 players.
Flop T high, 2 diamonds. SB bets 150, BB folds, I go 450, he calls.  
Turn Jd chk chk.  
River offsuit K. He checks, I v-bet 600 with my 2 pair, he calls and shows me a 9 high flush WTF. Ty sir, for extracting the minimum from me.  

Am I actively trying to lose.  Folded to button, who raises to 450. I call SB JhQh.  
Flop Q82.  I Check, he bets 700, I raise to 2500, he calls.  
Turn 8. I shove, he tanks, and eventually folds KK face up.  
I do not show.   Nobody at the table thinks KK is behind there ever.   I agree.   

I play a million other hands and eventually I have around 9000 at 150/300 a25. Folded to me on the button, I make it 800 with AQo. SB r-raises to 2500.  I shove. He tanks. Eventually calls another 6500 with AJo and flops the jack.  Done. Yikes. I run bad at Borgata winter open so far!  

Play an orbit in a 10/20 lhe game, waiting for the 20/40.  Lose a big pot with K5 vs 33 on a 8535j rainbow board.   Go to 20/40. The game doesn't start. Play THBP and win a bit. The highlight was being dealt black kings and not having anyone at the table (including the dealer) needle me about not playing the bonus.

[Backstory: the "bonus" bet is the worst bet in the casino. It's a side bet that you will be dealt certain starting hands.... Pairs, high cards, etc. They don't pay anywhere near what they should of course, and betting the bonus makes the game even more unbeatble than it already is. This doesn't stop most people from playing it of course. So normally when I get dealt a bonus hand, somebody says "oooooooh you didn't play the bonus!!! Why not, look how much you would have won!". And sometimes I will explain that over the course of the past twenty hands, if I had played the bonus, i would have lost more than I would have won. And sometimes I say nothing at all.]

So I was dealt the kings, didn't collect any bonus, and nobody said a word. I let the moment breathe, and then I thanked everyone at the table--including the dealer--for not saying anything. There were some laughs, and one guy said he always thought it was a dick move to point it out. He's right. It's not like I say "you shouldn't have played the bonus" every time people at my table play it and lose.

I'm writing this at the table during the $200 second chance tournament. Around 200 players, 10k chips to start, fast structure. We are at 300/600 a75. I'm at around my starting stack.... Have played a bunch of hands but haven't written any down. I like the people at this table, has a fun vibe. It's amazing that nobody has told me to stop typing; not the dealers, floor, players.... Awesome.

The TD just asked for the clock to be stopped in the 6 max event. Apparently someone came back from break and sat in the wrong seat. He didn't notice that he had different opponents, and his opponents didn't notice that he was different. He played a few pots, and won. Eventually the rightful owner of the seat came back from break and said something like "WTF". Now they're trying to reconstruct all the action, in order to return all chips to their rightful owners.

I am currently deep in the $200 7pm second chance. About 35 left, 18 get paid, and I have chips. Will do a quick update about busto/victory. I know this is what losers say, but regardless of whether or not I make decent $$$ in this event, it's encouraging to go deep, and this little event is keeping me out of trouble for the night lol.

Finished 14th after losing a flip with AQ vs 99. Min cashed $400 or so minus like $130 witholding tax lol. This witholding tax reminds me that Americans actually get taxed on poker winnings. Even the recreational players. I don't know how they beat this game. It's tough enough to beat in and of itself, and then you have to pay the casino or poker site or whatever to play. And if you win and you're American, you have to pay taxes. Good luck turning any kind of a profit after all that vig.

Up early and back to battle tomorrow for the 100k guarantee, $200 buyin nlhe.

Well I'm going to try to write daily updates from AC, but we'll see how long it lasts. The main problem is that I'm forced to update from my iPod touch. They have free wifi for guests which is great, but I absolutely hate typing on these things. This is why I will never get an iPhone; the keyboard is terrible. Never mind the whole accuracy thing (I will clean up mistakes later)... What really drives me nuts is pressing three buttons to use a comma or a semicolon. Or two buttons to capitalize. Omg I hate typing on iPods/iPhones. Blackberry ftw so very obv.

Ok that rant is done. Wait. Have you ever tried to type an underscore on an iPhone? Try it and tell me how many buttons you have to press before an underscore appears, and you're back to regular typing. One other thing: the wifi signal doesn't make it to the hotel rooms. When I tried to use the guest account up there, the only wifi option that came up was locked, and was called "bitch_you_ain't_got_Internet". I lol'd.

Today started with a $600 win online in the hour or so I had to kill while waiting for the "limo". Yes I'm going to count that as part of the trip lol. Pays for flight and hotel, but it's all relative. I arrive at Pearson, it's dead... clear what I think is security in no time, and get a shoe shine. Watch polite canadians take off belts, hats, shoes as they go through the scanners. I say to the guy shining my shoes: you must see a lot of crazy stuff happen next to you at security. He says no.

We don't have full body scanners in that part of Pearson yet, but we do have a gauntlet you need to run through. After you think you've cleared security, you will be surprised to learn that you've only just begun. About 2/3 of people travelling to the States have to go through a very thorough secondary screening in the hallway after the shoe shine, but before the gates.

The worst part is that the people who weren't selected for the screening walk along the moving sidewalk right next to you, and point And laugh as they go by. It's ok, I would too. Anyway, phase one is where they go through everything you're wearing. Every pocket. Then they get you to stick your hands down your pants (not kidding) and rub them around for a while. Then they swab them for explosive residue. The next step is farther along the line: a bag search. I carry-on whenever possible because I hate luggage carousels, so I had everything I was bringing in that bag, including an old pair of Mickey mouse patterned underwear because I forgot to do laundry before leaving. The girl--to her credit--did not laugh out loud as she held them up and inspected them. She did pause for a second at the title of a book I'd brought along, "The Living Dead", until she realized it was just a collection of short stories about zombies.

In all, the new security measures were very thorough and kind of invasive, and I'm glad I didn't have anything more embarrassing than Mickey mouse underwear, because it all goes on a table in full view of everyone as they pass by.

Flights to Newark were canceled due to extreme weather. Newark isn't that far from here so I was watching the boards carefully, but there wasn't even a delay on this flight. There were however a few drunk people on the plane, who were cheering as we went through some brutal turbulence. The Westjet flight attendant was singing "Wind Beneath my Wings" over the p.a. at this point as well. It all added up to one big ball of crazy.

For the most part though the flight to ac was full of quiet guys with a sort of Owning Mahowny look about them (aside from the small group of drunk conference dudes). I believe "Mahowny" took place between Atlantic City and Toronto, and judging by this flight, it's easy to see where they drew their inspiration from. The flight is dirt cheap--apparently just started being offered a month or so ago--and I think as more people find out about it, it will become really popular.

Why on earth would you spend a poker weekend at Turning Stone, when for $279 you can fly round trip to Borgata--poker heaven btw--and stay for $79/night? Goodbye Turning Stone, hardly knew ya.

Basically, besides the drunk dudes, that flight was nothing like a flight to Vegas. People go to Vegas to have fun. People go to Atlantic city to gamble. That much is evident. The airport in Atlantic city is desolate... I have to make an effort to find the guy who's driving the single cab sitting outside. We drive along a highway that feels like the north end of the 118 at 3am, except with fewer street lights. He says "you're here to play poker?" completely out of nowhere. This happened to me in Vegas as well with a cab driver, and I tell him so. He says he knew it as soon as he saw my face. He said he recognizes poker players immediately; we look smart, and focused.

I am not making this up. He probably just wanted a nice tip (which he got) but that was still a pretty sick guess.

The Borgata is amazing. The hotel part of it is beautiful and more importantly, the tournament area is perfect. They have it in their Events Centre, so it is big, bright, and quiet. Optimal. The cash game room is massive as well.

Immediate seating in a 10/20 lhe game, six handed must move. I get dealt black queens my first hand, I get action and they hold up. Play a few more rounds before being called for a $280 cash single table sng, quit the lhe game up $80.

5k chips, 25/50 to start, 20 min levels. I'm like wow this structure is amazing, but then I remember that I'm playing live poker which will average about a hand an hour unlike online. Also after 25/50, it goes 50/100, 100/200 a25, 200/400 a50, 300/600 a75, 400/800 a100, etc. So not a lot of foreplay.... pretty much gets right down to the fucking, apologies for being crude. That's fine with me... After all the turbo sng's online, the foreplay part isn't my biggest strength anyway. Cue the comments from ex gf's lol...

I don't mean to carry on with the lewdness here, but the waitresses aren't wearing very much, and my first waitress has part of her nipple sticking out of her top. I can't help but notice--I'm sitting, she's standing, I turn around to order a coffee and bam there's a piece of nipple in my face.

Anyway a foreplay hand to illustrate the donktastic nature of the player base:

LP limps 50, I raise to 200 on the button with AKo. BB calls, LP calls.
Flop KdKc6d. BB bets 325, LP folds, I call.
Turn 4d completing flush draw, I don't have a diamond. BB bets 825, I call.
River 4c giving me the boat. He bets 500, I raise to 1500, he calls.

Now I think I'm going to see that I rivered his flush. Or maybe, maybe, maybe he has A6, or the even less likely AA. Not many other hands he can have here. But he says "Damn I had a full house too", and shows me the four of hearts. Ok.

At one point I note that I'm probably the only one in the poker room listening to "Endless Love"--the Glee version no less--on my iPod. It's a long story. At another point we are 6 handed, folded to me on the button with JQo. I raise to 600, BB re-raises to 2k. I have to fold. Guy to my left has been getting big pairs and turning them into sets all night. Because of this, he has amassed a mountain of chips and considers himself to be an expert player. He decides to lean over and tell me: "you shouldn't raise unless your hand can stand a re-raise. Life tilt time, here we come.... So I say "no lessons please sir. No lessons. That's when the other earphone goes in". At which point I went ahead and put the other earphone in, drowning him and the rest of the world out.

Live poker. It's not rigged, but it's annoying as hell.

Obv I bubble that sng when we jam on the flop and my top pair < opponent's middle pair. No worries, I played some great aggressive shorthanded poker for a long while. Good preparation for the $450 6 max nlhe event tomorrow morning.

[EDIT]

First of all, if you want to know why I don't love playing live poker with live poker players in honest to goodness casinos, read this thread. Hand sanitizer ftw.

Further edit: 2010 has been great, in a profitable kind of way, for me so far. A nice change from, say, 2009... it takes me back to 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. I'm in GREAT shape for this Borgata trip. I've been playing tons, my poker muscle is as tuned as it has been in some time. I've had some very deep runs in some sizable online tournaments, suffered some cruel beats late, but a nice score is really just a matter of time if I keep this up.

Basically I'm folding queens preflop (correctly) at one table, and making the big pot-sized call on the river with ace high (correctly) at another. This is when I know I'm playing well; when I can make the big calls, and the big laydowns. The two ends of the spectrum. And when I'm focused and playing well, it doesn't really matter how many beats I take because I know I will make money. It may not be 20K in one shot, but I feel like I can't lose. And I don't.

So there you have it, you need a bit of ego to be successful at this game, and as you can see, I have one. I'm in the process of developing a game plan for this trip... a way to play to my strengths and cut out my weaknesses. Oh yeah. That's right.

Music:

"Moth's Wings", Passion Pit
"Too Late For Goodbyes", Julian Lennon
"PDA", Interpol
"Officer Down", Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle
"Everywhere I Go", The Call
"Sometime Around Midnight", The Airborne Toxic Event

[/EDIT]

I'll be spending February in Vancouver, shooting the figure skating and short track speed skating events for the Olympics. Every day. I'm looking forward to it, but it seems like a lot of work, so before I do that, I'm going to do this:

Jan. 25: Fly to Atlantic City (never been) and check in at Borgata.
Jan. 26: play in a $450 6-max NLHE tournament, a Borgata Winter Open event.
Jan. 27: play in a $200 NLHE event.
Jan. 28: play in a $350 NLHE event.
Jan. 29: Fly home.

These events are very well attended... should be big prize pools considering the relatively low buy-in's. And, flights to Atlantic City are dirt cheap right now. I guess it's not the most popular winter destination.

What we have here--compared even to my old Regina trips, let alone some of my Vegas trips--is a low-roller poker trip. But it should be a blast. I will definitely post a trip report, and I may try to post them daily from AC. We'll see.