did my weekly contribution to the Poker charity today. Played in the weekly 6:30 NLHE tourney at the Golden Nugget tonight. First of all, I did confirm that the house takes absolutely no juice from the game. Talk about sweet. I blew off nearly half my stack in the first round when I found pocket Queens from early-middle position and raised it from T50 to T300. One of guy calls and late position guy goes over the top and makes it T1000. Now I think the one thing I'm trying to work on in tourney poker is to stay alive. So I was half tempted to go all in but instead I call. Flop is A K x with two of the cards suited and I have to lay it down to the raiser's all in. So the good news was I made a good laydown (I think), but the bad news was that I lost half my stack before the first round was over. So still in the first round I pick up JJ and go all in over an early position raiser. He calls and flips over Kings. I have a glimmer of hope when three spades flop (I have one, he doesn't), but the next two cards are blanks and IGHN.
There are worse ways to spend $30. Although I wonder if maybe I'm probably inhaling enough second hand cigarette smoke that that $30 will come back and haunt me in the form of health bills?
Temptation Resisted
Took a little trip down to LA/Irvine this weekend to visit family. Two of my sister-in-laws just moved into a nice apartment in Irvine and we went down to visit. Truth be told, I need little reason to go to SoCal. Orange County (the OC) is home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside Vietnam and as a result there is some of the best Vietnamese food around. One of our favorites is a restaurant called Brodour which has these rolls called "nem nuong". Theoretically these are an appetizer but I could just as easily eat these things as a meal. It must be the ready abundance of fresh produce, but the food there is just so much better and really resonable.
What does this have to do with Poker or temptation? Not much really except that I was in the Southern California, home to some of the best known Casinos outside of Las Vegas. Saturday night I took a drive up to LA proper to see my best man, DM, in a play called "This may well be true." For those of you who are familiar with the greater LA area, the route to get from Irvine to Hollywood is 405N>55N>5N>101N. I'm not sure if it was on the 5 or the 101, but right there off the freeway is the Commerce Casino. Like a siren calling me to the rocky shoals, the red neon lights beckoned to me.
It's funny how the human mind can rationalize just about anything. There I was on my way to see my very good friend and I couldn't help thinking "well, I've never been there, I should just check it out and see the place." and "I just want to pick up a copy of the latest issue of card player magazine." With truly Herculean effort I stayed on the road and didn't veer off.
And then once again, this time off to the left as I drove back down to Irvine at 2:00 AM. Forget that I was tired and had a headache and my throat hurt from all the yelling over the noise and the smoke, I seriously considered it. I even hatched a plan that I would play until 8:00 in the morning and then drive down, picking up some breakfast for the sisters as a way of appeasing them.
But self preservation kicked in and I drove right by. next time.
What does this have to do with Poker or temptation? Not much really except that I was in the Southern California, home to some of the best known Casinos outside of Las Vegas. Saturday night I took a drive up to LA proper to see my best man, DM, in a play called "This may well be true." For those of you who are familiar with the greater LA area, the route to get from Irvine to Hollywood is 405N>55N>5N>101N. I'm not sure if it was on the 5 or the 101, but right there off the freeway is the Commerce Casino. Like a siren calling me to the rocky shoals, the red neon lights beckoned to me.
It's funny how the human mind can rationalize just about anything. There I was on my way to see my very good friend and I couldn't help thinking "well, I've never been there, I should just check it out and see the place." and "I just want to pick up a copy of the latest issue of card player magazine." With truly Herculean effort I stayed on the road and didn't veer off.
And then once again, this time off to the left as I drove back down to Irvine at 2:00 AM. Forget that I was tired and had a headache and my throat hurt from all the yelling over the noise and the smoke, I seriously considered it. I even hatched a plan that I would play until 8:00 in the morning and then drive down, picking up some breakfast for the sisters as a way of appeasing them.
But self preservation kicked in and I drove right by. next time.
SIGH
Played at the Wednesday night 6:30 tourney at the GN. Played patiently for the first couple of orbits. Decided to make some moves in the second round and was able to pick up some pots. Down to about 14 playes (started with 20 with 2 alternates) I look down to see 88s on the button. Loose aggressive guy who has been going all-in a lot when folded around to him bets T1200 (blinds are 100/200). I know I'm aheah of him so I shove all in from the button. SB calls. Ooops. Now the initial raiser has to call. He flips up AJo and the SB flips over AKo. K and J on the flop. Shite. Another J on the river and the SB and I are out.
After the tourney I tried a new table game called "Texas Hold'em Bonus". The game has to be one of the most inefficient gmaes out there. It uses a shuffling maching to shuffle one deck and then the dealer has to put the deck into a blackjack shoe just to deal out two cards to each player. LC and I tried to figure out a winning strategy but I'm convinced it's just a sucker game designed to ride the popularity of Hold'em. I would have got paid 30 to 1 if I had played the bonus and got pocket aces. Of well.
After the tourney I tried a new table game called "Texas Hold'em Bonus". The game has to be one of the most inefficient gmaes out there. It uses a shuffling maching to shuffle one deck and then the dealer has to put the deck into a blackjack shoe just to deal out two cards to each player. LC and I tried to figure out a winning strategy but I'm convinced it's just a sucker game designed to ride the popularity of Hold'em. I would have got paid 30 to 1 if I had played the bonus and got pocket aces. Of well.
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