BOOM!

So, I suspect all of you out there are enjoying a nice peaceful summer.

Maybe you spend your evenings rocking in your chair on the porch as you watch the fireflies light their butts up for your viewing pleasure.

Maybe you play Drunken Euchre with your backyard neighbors.

Maybe you play poker while your kids make baking soda and vinegar bombs.

Maybe you don't.

Just sayin.

Melted Felt

I saw a link to this blog while reading another Blogger Blog. I'm old and forgetful so I have no clue which one it was I should just go back and try to find it cause I really should link him up too.

My point, and I do have one, is this:

GO READ THIS NOW!

Srsly.

You can thank me later.

Thanks to Lucypher for this link. Phew. Glad I got that monkey off my back.

Pain in the Ass?

Mac: so you are gonna make me go figure this out on my own? 
Mac: WTF is going on
Me: figure what out?
Me: oh they quit their jobs and started a FL poker mag  
Mac: the dish, the skinny  
Mac: the lowdown
Me: the podcast is moving there too
Me: CCN stays the same
Me: sorry I only do fat, er phat
Me: yeah that's it
Mac: how fucking hard is it to get a dns record to propagate?
Me: what site? the anteup one?
Me: still says coming soon for me
Me: but I did get the new podcast feed to work
Me: I suppose you are too lazy to go get that for yourself? 
Mac: I get the server unavailable message from FF
Me: bummer  
Mac: there isn't anything to get Mac: I can't get to the server
Me: doh
Me: banned!
Me: hahahhhaha 
Mac: you are a real pain in the ass sometimes
Mac: you know that?
Me: only sometimes?
Me: I gotta work on that  


Mac: you suck at this  
Mac: just wanted you to know that
Me: it's stupid blogger beta
Me: fuckers 
Mac: hmm  
Mac: I wonder who gave you the link to that
Me: exactly

Damn you MacAnthony!

Me: this will be the single most republished post I have even done
Me: ok I'm going to fucking kill blogger
Me: ok now I'm getting pissed Me: wtf is it with the damn carriage returns?
Me: srsly  
Mac: user error?
Me: yeah, cause I have no idea how to hit ENTER
Me: FU  
Mac: it's the key right above the right shift key  
Mac: in case you forgot

AIPS Razz

Razz post found here.

Back to Normal?

It would appear that I have finally recovered from Vegas Time.

Ah, good old Vegas Time. It starts the moment you arrive and realize that there's a better than average chance, say 100100101010%, that you will be up for 24+ hours before you actually pass out in your bed.

It continues when your decrepit mind won't let you sleep for 8 hours as that would mean sleeping well into the pm hours of Home Time. So, you get up after a measly few hours of sleep and hit the road running. Gamboling, rambling, dining, drinking until, before you know it, it's once again the wee hours of the am when you crash in your room.

This time you do manage to stay comatose until the pm when you struggle to prop your eyeballs open in the bright sunshine long enough to find the nearest Starbucks which will be either at your right elbow or left elbow... unless there's one in front of your nose. Regardless, you crave some of that sweetness that is Starbucks with a longing heretofore reserved for sex and/or poker.

Rinse, repeat.

Then you enjoy yourself some of the best free internets in the world at McCarran before you squeeze yourself into your seat for the snooze home. While you sleep the spittle slowly runs down your chin. Before you know it you are Home.

Home, land of eerie silence. How can you be expected to function without the ding ding ding of the slot machines? What? No one is riffling poker chips? For Shame! And don't even try to convice your progeny to fetch you a drink with the promise of a poker chip in exchange for speedy service. For Shame!!!

Home: where the laundry lies in piles, dishes go unwashed and the sunshine is so dull.

How sad is it that I'm already planning next year's Vegaspalooza?

Not nearly as sad as the fact that I'm already planning Indypalooza and the ever popular Frigidpalooza (aka Chicagopalooza).

Clearly I need a life.

PokerSlut Tour Season X

Season X of the Pokerslut Tour starts tonight!

NLHE DS $5.00 + 1

PW: imapokerslut

Get registered!

Bitter Poker Post

Can be found here.

Click me if you dare.

Not for pussies. No really.

Flickr Meme

By now most of you know that I'm a Picasa fan in spite of the fact that Macanthony says, "Picasa sucks ass." Perhaps even because he says it sucks ass. ;)

Pokerwolf had this Flickr meme that was right up my alley so I had to give it a try.

Flickr game:

The Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Not Gadzooks
2. What is your favorite food? Tacos
3. What high school did you go to? Wahtonka
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Viggo Mortensen
6. Favorite drink? Vodka Cranberry
7. Dream vacation? Atlantis, Bahamas
8. Favorite dessert? Cheesecake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Beach Bum
10. What do you love most in life? My sons
11. One Word to describe you. Capable
12. Your flickr name. Gadzooks

Vegas - The End

We changed hotels for the last night in Vegas from Harrah's on the strip to an offstrip site after dropping off DranDead at the airport. Neither of us had really decided what we wanted to do that day.

I was tempted to play the Caesar's $330 at noon but decided against it. After hitting the Rio for a bit we ended up at The Wynn poker room playing cash games. I should have known better given my recent cash game performances.

The Wynn poker room was packed. They had a $100 rebuy that was still running as well as many cash games. The tables were packed in so close to each other that it was practically impossible to get to your table - especially if it was in the back corner - without elbowing at least a half dozen poor unsuspecting gambolers and purse-slapping a few others.

It appeared that there was a whole 1 drink girls for the entire place. Srsly. I saw no more than one at a time and most of the time it was the same one. At one point she promised to bring me another water - the only double I was drinking since the cranberry & vodka - but never returned with it.

I must play a too tight game because the hands I threw away without thinking twice ended up as winners for somebody else (KTo UTG). One hand I was tempted to play would have cost me a HUGE pot had I played it. Nothing like sitting there knowing you would have lost a ton of money had you not folded, except, maybe, getting to play a hand and win a HUGE pot; I know nothing about winning a HUGE pot in live cash games. Zip, zilch, nada. I blinded away $50 and decided I was done with poker for the day.

Back at the hotel room I fork over for internet only to have the most pathetic internet I have ever paid for. I could not send email or upload any of my pictures. What a waste of money. I suppose the only thing left for me to do was play online. Duh.

I actually had a decent session playing online. I did get AA broken by KTo (sound familiar?) with a player (80/15) in the BB who flopped KTX. It's all good though, I managed to grind it back and then some.

I was at the airport early the next day where I enjoyed the best free wireless in the world. I uploaded my pictures, sent my email and downloaded two of the PokerRoad podcasts and otherwise perused the internets until my flight boarded.

Had a great flight. Got home. Played Drunken Euchre sober. I was at the same table all night (losers walk) and still managed to not win.

Found this waiting for me when I got home:

It's good to be home.

Vegas Day ???

Yep, I'm still here but not for much longer.

Yesterday we decided to finally hit up the 2pm tournament at Planet Hollywood. It's now $80 instead of $60 but if you have a player's card you get an additional 500 chip.

I had called Katokat in the morning to see if we could get together sometime during the day. We had settled on dinner at the Rio. She and Mr. Katokat were going to play cash games at the Mirage while we played the tournament.

A woman approached me while I was waiting on DranDead to finish getting her player's card and said, "Hi Zooks, it's Katokat. We decided to come down here and play this with you guys." Wooooooooot! What a blast it turned out to be.

As usual I didn't play too many hands. Most pots I took down preflop. The blinds were getting so high that I was pretty much committed to any hand when I raised with AJ and got one caller from the SB. The flop came out KQx and she checked to me. Well I shoved it in and she says, "I guess I have to call." Crap. She turns over .... wait for it, 44. Yep. She called with bottom pair. I ended up hitting my A on the river. I'm not proud, just lucky.

I get seriously short stacked on a short handed table and I shove UTG with KTo and get a called with AX. I spike a K and double up. Then I pick up AA in the BB and it's raised to me; I only have one more chip than his raise so we get it all in. AA > AT as it should be. Another double up and now we're down to the final table.

Four out of the five of us made the final table wooooooooot! Snuffy ended up being the bubble boy due to a shortish stack and bad button draw. I got lucky and drew the button at the final table. I was in the middle of the pack chipwise but at least I wouldn't have to pay any of the ginormous blinds for quite a while (I had 29K with blinds where 3k/6k). In the mean time a player busted out in front of Snuffy forcing him to pay the blinds sooner than he would have liked. He ended up going out after the first chop deal fell through making him the bubble boy.

We kept trying to negotiate a chop; only the chipleader was reluctant. I don't think he realized how few big blinds even he had. A few hands later, when he was no longer the chip leader (and Snuffy had busted out) another chop offer was made and finally accepted. Woooooooot! I cashed for $435.

After recalling my horrible runs this week I believe that I'm now down about $350. That cash managed to offset about half of my losses for the week.

Last year my cash in the Planet Ho tournament brought me to even for the trip. I guess I just dug myself too deep. Had we actually played it out I might very well have cashed for more but I knew it would be a total crapshoot at this point. Besides, we wanted to head over to the Rio and check out the action there.

While at the Rio I was able to watch the final headsup for the PLO event that Vanessa Selbst ended up winning. What a trip that was. Her opponent was raising pot WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT HIS CARDS. He was/is a strip club owner from Australia and quite a character. He was also three sheets to the wind. It was only a matter of time before Selbst cleaned him out.

Daniel Negreanu was playing the final table of a limit event in the ESPN stadium. Once Selbst had one we went over there to watch Daniel play. He got very lucky and caught a lucky river to knock out the 3rd place guy and amass a huge chipstack. Unless he managed to get horribly unlucky he was bound to win the tournament. It was definitely an exciting day at the Rio.

Note: Edit to correct error regard AA v AT hand. AA > AT. All is right with the world.

Vegas Still

I was planning on playing the Planet Hollywood tournament until I got a better offer: hang out with Virge and Compton. We went to Chipoltle for some dinner. I really wasn't hungry but it looked too good to pass up and it was. Chicken tacos with quacamole! Yummmmm!

We headed over to the house where I tried to clean up Lusky old Dell laptop. After doing what I could to get it running better I fired up Full Tilt to play. It was too much to sit there listening to Compton saying, "SHIP IT!" I had to find a table. Luckily I stumbled on to a very nice $25 PLHE table. I spent 30-40 hands figuring out how to get Realtime working. It didn't take too long before I was hitting hands and building a stack.

Thanks to JT for railing me for a while! I sure wish he could have made it out again this year but he had other commitments. Maybe next year.

I left the table up almost two buyins. I guess all it takes it to come to Vegas AND PLAY ONLINE TO HAVE A WINNING SESSION. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I still plan to play a tournament tomorrow I'm just not sure which one. It looks like the Venetian's $150 nooner that they normally run is a great structure but I'm not sure they actually run it when they have the MegaStack tournaments going. I'm going to have to check into that. If not then I'll be playing the Planet Hollywood at 2pm and maybe even again at 7pm.

Vegas the Next Day...

I can't remember what day of the week it is much less how many days I've been here. They all seem to run together now.

Snarf and Blind Guy leave today and Compton returns from California.

Yesterday I made it to the Ceasar's food court for some fried calamari that I loved the last time I was here. I wasn't disappointed.

Blind Guy and I played some 4/8 limit while Snuffy, Snarf and DranDead played in tournaments. I hopped onto a new table and Blind Guy joined me as they had a better seat open for him that the table he was at. Before we knew it The Persian joined us and tilted just about everybody at the table. He smelled horrible. He talked nonstop. He, of course, lied about every hand. In general, he annoyed the crap out of everybody. He eventually spewed his chips after getting a warning from a floor man. He sat around for a few more hands and then left. Thankfully.

Once again I had a horrible session. So few playable hands. A set of deuces cracked by runner runner straight, AK < AQ (he limped his AK), AQ < Q4 (thank you Snuffy, I raised he called from BB). I was going to leave with my last $30 in chips when Snuffy told me that I would break the table if I left as he would leave too. Talk about guilt. I stuck around until I shoved with my last 7 chips with with A6s and walked away from table the instructing Snuffy to pick up my chips should I win. I was going watch Virge and Bleu play video poker since I would surely find that infinitely more enjoyable than spewing my chips at a poker table. I received a text from snarf: wwcd. I had to ask for clarification: winner, winner, chicken dinner. I wrote back to just pick up my chips for me but was informed that floor would not allow that. I had do the walk of shame collect my $28 in chips myself. Poker has not been good to me this trip.

Virge and Bleu came to the IP with us and played some WSOP Texas Hold'em table game. While they were dumping money there I met up with BamBam and Pebbles at the Geisha bar; Snarf left the Hold'em game to go play Let It Ride with them. I strolled over there to watch for a bit and BamBam insisted I play a seat. I finally ponied up $40 of my own money, paid BamBam back and ran it up to $120 at one point but cashed out for $90. How sad is it that the only profit I have made on this trip so far is at $5 Let It Ride?

I was planning to play the $60 tournament at Planet Hollywood tonight but now Compton is suggesting that I hang out with him, Virge and Lusky. We'll see how that plays out. I did managed to win $480 playing this tournament last year; it has a good structure and a cheap buy-in. What more could a down and out poker player ask for?

Vegas Day 3

Snuffy and I decide to take a trip to the Gambler's General Store. Virge met us there and we wandered around checking out all the kewl stuff. I picked up a nice set of Kems on sale!

DranDead meets us at Grand Lux in The Pallazo after walking about 5298342987 miles out of her way when she left out of the wrong entrance to Harrah's. She indulged in two strawberry lemonades with double shots of vodka that ended up costing about $20 each. D'oh! I had the bestest Pot Pie there. It was HUGE!

We collected Blind Guy and Snarf and were off to Binion's for the PLO tournament.

I Gigli'd ON THE FIRST HAND! D'oh. I suck so hard at poker. I limped from the button with QsJsT8 and ended up calling a raise from the BB. Flop QJX. He bets, I pot, he calls. Turn was a 9 and he ships it and I call. My second nuts lost to his nuts (AKTX).

I head over to the 2/4 limit game to waste some time and hopefully get snockered cheaply. I hit a set of Ks and lose to runner runner flush. Another KK<23o. A flopped set of 8s goes down to a rivered flush.

I have now determined that this will be my night to get trashed. I go watch Lusky eat dinner while I make headway on my mission. Did I mention my goal was to get shitfaced?

After dinner we find Drandead and Snarf at a 3/6 O8. Lusky snags a seat while I go get on the waitlist (4th). That Lusky is such a sneaky guy. Eventually I get into the 10 seat and proceed to donk it up while ordering double vodka & cranberry every time the cocktail girl came by. I'm well on my way to achieving my goal. I'm nothing if not diligent. I figure Dran's $20 lemonades were actually cheaper than all of my vodka & cranberries put together.

I guess my friends determined that I was well past the point of hitting my goal so we pile into Lusky's car to head back to the hotel. I had to roll the window down to make myself feel better but about the time we hit the strip I was hurling out the window. Twice. DranDead helped me back to the room where I slipped into a blissful sleep.

I did manage to get up and post on the forum. Dran pokes her head in from a cigarette break on the balcony and was shocked to see me typing away on the laptop.

I felt fine this morning. Thankfully. I'm really getting too old for this.

Let's hope that my poker karma turns around soon or I may just end up on the rail for the rest of the trip.

Vegas Day 2

Read about it here.

Mimi & MeMe

It has been said before by one very drunk and/or stoned person on one of my favorite forums that I resemble Mimi Rogers.

While I was walking off a bad session at Caesar's today there was obviously something going on related to the WSOP Ladies Event set to take place tomorrow as Linda Johnston (tournament director extraordinaire) had shown up in the Poker Room along with several other people.

I received a text from Snarf saying I needed to get back to the Poker Room as Mimi Rodgers had shown up and I needed to get a pic with here. Yeah, right.

I get back to the room and sure enough there's Mimi Rodgers. Before she could make her getaway DranDead asked to take my picture with her and she graciously agreed.

I wished her the best in the tournament tomorrow. I sure hope she takes it down!

Vegas Day 1

We were already running a tad behind last night when Snuffy said it would be just as fast for us to walk to MGM instead or driving. Snuffy is a Nazi slave driver. Two old women walking down the miles and miles of the strip. Two old starving women. Did I mention old? Starving?

We get there and find the table of bloggers. Forgive me if I forget someone but here's who I can recall: Dr. Chako and his lovely Wife (I have twice the ass she has :(), Falstaff, PokerGrump, Columbo, Special K, StB, and California April. They looked to be having a great time. Short Stacked Shamus even showed up when they finally let him out of the cage at the Rio!

Snuffy, DraNDead and I got on the lists for several games then left to find some food. We eventually found our way onto some tables but it took a long time before I was actually called to the blogger table.

I had managed to get up a few dollars at my 3/6 table to donk off at the Blogger table. Good thing I didn't get any playable hands for the entire 4 rounds I played.

Lew Zor.

Yep. That's me. Lew Zor.

-1 in the cash games at MGM last night. Which is actually a HUGE improvement over last year's performance where I managed to donk off about $100 when I managed to brick out on every nut/nut draw I played. I supposed I should see that as a $99 improvement. Yeah, that's it. I'm +$99 from last year.

Enough poker, you say. Tell us about the shopping! Ok, just humor me here would ya? Gee, Thanks. Last year DraNDead and I stumbled onto a purse kiosk that we loved! I have used the purse I bought there everyday since last year. The kiosk is still there this year and we just got back from a Starbuck's run with a new purse for each of us! D'oh! I only have 3lbs to spare on my luggage and I'm sure I'll be pushing it. Good thing I plan on leaving some stuff behind anyway.

Snarf and Blind Guy will be hitting the ground running. We'll probably get a call from the luggage carousel asking us to put him on the list at Caesar's. Before then I need to hit the shower and take a nap. Us old ladies like naps.

Vegas Countdown!

It's on.

Too bad I have to do laundry and pack yet.

It'll get done.

Provided there are no weather related delays I'll land about 5:30pm Vegas time! The plan is to hit MGM about 9:00pm for mixed games with the bloggers. Should be a blast.

Saturday will be spent at Caesar's while Snuffy plays the Blogger TOC and hopefully wins a WSOP ME Seat!

Sunday is PLO at Binion's.

Monday is open so far but I'm sure we'll fill it up.

Some are planning to play the O8 at Caesar's as well. I wouldn't touch that with a somebody else's money. I'm sure I can find something else to entertain me during that time. I can always wander around and find some trouble. If all else fails, I love the Food Court at Caesar's.

Back to the laundry.

OMGWTF I Suck II

Same table different hand:



Another Click through, sorry.

OMGWTF I Suck

Reader Viewers click through to see hand replayer.

PokerNews

Check out PokerNews for the latest chips counts and standings for the 2008 WSOP. The also have some great articles like this one:

Cash Games at the WSOP: Getting Bigger and Better
June 01, 2008
Stephen Noh
In just one day, the landscape of the cash games at the Rio Convention Center has changed drastically. Along with the usual $2/5, $5/10, and $10/25 no-limit hold'em games, we witnessed the first $25/50 no-limit hold'em table, along with a very large $25/50 pot-limit Omaha game.

Limit hold'em tables made their return, with $4/8, $10/20, $20/40, $50/100, and $100/200 tables being spread, along with some $10/20 and $20/40 limit Omaha-8 or better tables introduced and a fun $20/40 B.O.T.E mixed game.

The most interesting table of the day, though, was the new $200/400 mixed game table. Featuring a mix of pot-limit Omaha, razz, 2-7 triple draw, and Omaha-8, the game included the likes of Josh Arieh and Robert Williamson, among others, hiding behind walls of black $100 chips. These players would coolly rake in thousand-dollar pots without so much as cracking a smile.

There was also a fairly big game spread in the high-stakes area of the Rio; a $75/150 Omaha-8 or better game. Fan favorite Marcel Luske stopped by and played for a bit, much to the pleasure of the railbirds watching.

The scene at the Rio so far, though, has been all about the medium- to high-stakes PLO and hold'em games, which are filled with younger players. Some of these games filled with up-and-coming players are incredibly social. For example, a $5/10 no-limit game filled with 20-somethings with fairly deep stacks featured a rule that everyone had to take table shots, along with a rotating masseuse who worked on each player. Looking around at the PLO tables, too, there were faces young enough to be checked for IDs filling many of the seats.

With the quick-paced structure of the first heat of the $1,500 no-limit tournament today, the cash games were packed with players on tournament tilt who had just busted out. The inevitable bad beats and coolers that players faced in such a shallow tournament led to some very good action. One player who was still in the event sat down in my game during the dinner break and raised the first 15 hands he saw, exclaiming, "I've been playing so tight in that thing, I need to get some aggression out!"

Another fun development in this year's WSOP cash games has been the introduction of the All In energy drink. All In, which is a sponsor for this year's series, is providing complimentary energy drinks to players, creating an army of poker zombies that play throughout the night. Games are still going through the wee hours of the morning, with players who can't resist free energy drink warping from completely zoned out to fits of hyperactive energy.

All in all, the games are starting to get bigger, more exciting, and more packed. The World Series is just starting to gain steam, players haven't gone broke yet, and everyone is eager to see where this crazy ride is going to go next!

Somebody PLEASE BUY ME INTO THIS GAME!

No Sets Tonight

I got a ton of small pairs tonight and played most of them - some to a raise.

I called a smallish raise with my 44 but folded when the OTHER 44 HAND BET THE FLOP.

That's right. This guy bet the flop. His agg was a 6 over 21 hands.

No wonder I didn't hit a set.

---

Played in a home game today. I chipped up nicely when I flopped a straight; scored some more chips when I had QQ on a J high board. Then I went card dead. The few hands I did play I totally missed.

I ended up shoving my remaining 1000 chips in blind when I talked the other short stack (also with 1000) to go in blind with me. He showed 85o to my K9o. Unfortunately, the guy who got the majority of my chips when his QQ his a set v my AQ on a Q high flop decided to call our all ins with 44. The flop was 9x4. NH. GG. IGHN.