Vacate the bracelets. You bet your ass I just went there.
Pete Rose is never going to go into Cooperstown for less.
USC Football is going to lose a BCS title for less.
Michigan Basketball and the Fab 5 have lost an entire season's wins for less.
The examples go on and on of individuals and institutions breaking the rules to gain a competitive advantage. Lederer, Ferguson, Furst, and Bitar's shenanigans, though, blow away just about every booster, point shaving, and cheating scandal combined. In my opinion they have committed treason against the industry and should receive the poker version of the NCAA death penalty.
If Caesar's Entertainment has the least shred of credibility and caring about the WSOP brand, they will strip these 4 of all bracelets they have won over their careers and ban them from ever competing under the WSOP banner again.
Maybe once every dollar is paid back to the players (fat chance), I may reconsider my position. Most likely not.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
FFL 2011 - Draft Results
After a one year hiatus, we pulled the majority of the guys back for the 2011 version of our fantasy football league. It's a 10 team standard scoring league starting 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1DST, and 1 K. I pulled the 4 spot and prepped for all of 5 minutes prior to the start.
The results:
1.04 Ray Rice, Bal RB
2.07 Hakeem Nicks, NYG WR
3.04 Matt Forte, Chi RB
4.07 Mike Williams, TB WR
5.04 Dallas Clark, Ind TE
6.07 Matt Ryan, Atl QB
7.04 Brandon Marshall, Mia WR
8.07 Marshawn Lynch, Sea RB
9.04 Greg Olsen, Car TE
10.07 Joe Flacco, Bal QB
11.04 Lance Moore, NO WR
12.07 LaDainian Tomlinson, NYJ RB
13.04 Falcons D/ST D/ST
14.07 Garrett Hartley, NO K
Nothing spectacular, but I don't think I have any glaring holes at the main positions either. Comments?
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
The results:
1.04 Ray Rice, Bal RB
2.07 Hakeem Nicks, NYG WR
3.04 Matt Forte, Chi RB
4.07 Mike Williams, TB WR
5.04 Dallas Clark, Ind TE
6.07 Matt Ryan, Atl QB
7.04 Brandon Marshall, Mia WR
8.07 Marshawn Lynch, Sea RB
9.04 Greg Olsen, Car TE
10.07 Joe Flacco, Bal QB
11.04 Lance Moore, NO WR
12.07 LaDainian Tomlinson, NYJ RB
13.04 Falcons D/ST D/ST
14.07 Garrett Hartley, NO K
Nothing spectacular, but I don't think I have any glaring holes at the main positions either. Comments?
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Monday, July 18, 2011
Women's Performance in 2011 WSOP Main Event - A Deeper Dive
Poker Grump brought up an extremely interesting topic over the weekend (at least to me) where he attempted to analyze, from a statistical standpoint, whether the number of female cashers in this year's main event could be considered within the sample variance of a formal sampling test. Or whether, without any causality offered (smartly), some factor or factors contributed to their cash rate being significantly lower than their male counterparts.
Let me be clear up front. I am IN NO WAY bashing female poker players or women in general. I am looking at this solely because I find it intriguing from a math perspective and PG brought it up.
At first read, my hunch (and comment on the post) was that, statistically speaking, the sample size was sufficient to reject the null hypothesis, that the cash rate of the female players in this year's ME was within acceptable tolerance of variance from the expected value of the statistic. Upon further thought and investigation, I decided that underlying distribution used in his analysis (the binomial) was inappropriate for the question at hand (although directionally informative) and wanted to try to take the question further.
At it's root, the binomial distribution models performing some kind of experiment N times where the probability of a successful trial is p. It comes with several assumptions, however, where a few of the important ones include independence of outcome between experiments and a constant potential success rate. Essentially, it is the same as sampling with replacement from a population of size N where a success will occur with rate p.
The original analysis was done from the women's perspective, i.e. what percent of the time, if cash rates are truly the same, would there be 13 or fewer female cashers out of the 242 entrants (5.4% "sampled") when the expected value is 24 (10.1%). I decided to use the same distribution to perform the test from the men's perspective and found that, using this methodology, over 15% of the time would more men cash than there are places in the money. This clearly indicates a deficiency in the test.
So, what would the appropriate distribution be? The true answer to that question is way above my pay grade, as the odds of success for each individual in the field varies wildly, but if we assume for the sake of argument that each entry in the field has the same chance of cashing, I think that the problem is modeled nicely using the hypergeometric distribution. This distribution is frequently taught in statistics classes using examples such as 'there are a red and b blue marbles in a box; what is the probablity that if we choose c of them, that d of our choices will be red.'
So, in our example, we have 6,623 red marbles and 242 blue marbles and want to know what the distribution of blue marbles would be if we pull 693 samples from the box. Using the hypergeometric, we find that the expected mean is the same as the binomial, 24, and should occur almost 9% of the time. The distribution will return 13 or fewer only 0.562% of the time, which is very close (and even more rare) than the PG's binomial.
This was not meant to be a knock on Grump in any way. I believe he was trying to get a quick and dirty answer (and still pretty accurate), and succeeded. Being who I am, and having a little more than enough statistics knowledge to be dangerous, I attempted to see what a more rigorous approach to the problem would lead to.
What did it lead to?
Blue marbles performed less than red marbles in the 2011 main event.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Let me be clear up front. I am IN NO WAY bashing female poker players or women in general. I am looking at this solely because I find it intriguing from a math perspective and PG brought it up.
At first read, my hunch (and comment on the post) was that, statistically speaking, the sample size was sufficient to reject the null hypothesis, that the cash rate of the female players in this year's ME was within acceptable tolerance of variance from the expected value of the statistic. Upon further thought and investigation, I decided that underlying distribution used in his analysis (the binomial) was inappropriate for the question at hand (although directionally informative) and wanted to try to take the question further.
At it's root, the binomial distribution models performing some kind of experiment N times where the probability of a successful trial is p. It comes with several assumptions, however, where a few of the important ones include independence of outcome between experiments and a constant potential success rate. Essentially, it is the same as sampling with replacement from a population of size N where a success will occur with rate p.
The original analysis was done from the women's perspective, i.e. what percent of the time, if cash rates are truly the same, would there be 13 or fewer female cashers out of the 242 entrants (5.4% "sampled") when the expected value is 24 (10.1%). I decided to use the same distribution to perform the test from the men's perspective and found that, using this methodology, over 15% of the time would more men cash than there are places in the money. This clearly indicates a deficiency in the test.
So, what would the appropriate distribution be? The true answer to that question is way above my pay grade, as the odds of success for each individual in the field varies wildly, but if we assume for the sake of argument that each entry in the field has the same chance of cashing, I think that the problem is modeled nicely using the hypergeometric distribution. This distribution is frequently taught in statistics classes using examples such as 'there are a red and b blue marbles in a box; what is the probablity that if we choose c of them, that d of our choices will be red.'
So, in our example, we have 6,623 red marbles and 242 blue marbles and want to know what the distribution of blue marbles would be if we pull 693 samples from the box. Using the hypergeometric, we find that the expected mean is the same as the binomial, 24, and should occur almost 9% of the time. The distribution will return 13 or fewer only 0.562% of the time, which is very close (and even more rare) than the PG's binomial.
This was not meant to be a knock on Grump in any way. I believe he was trying to get a quick and dirty answer (and still pretty accurate), and succeeded. Being who I am, and having a little more than enough statistics knowledge to be dangerous, I attempted to see what a more rigorous approach to the problem would lead to.
What did it lead to?
Blue marbles performed less than red marbles in the 2011 main event.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Monday, May 2, 2011
Reflections
September 11, 2001 was a day that irreversibly shifted the worldview of just about every American that was old enough to understand what happened. Sitting in my office space almost 10 years later, I find it not just a little difficult to focus on the daily tasks for which I am paid to perform. Since the announcement last night, I have been flooded with decade old feelings and memories.
Fear. Loathing. Helplessness. Anger. And the images. Oh, the images. There weren't that many visuals to broadcast, so we kept seeing the same ones over and over and over again.
Similar to this very morning, I got to the office earlier than usual on that day, before 8:00 AM. Less than an hour later, the 3rd floor was abuzz and had nothing to do with selling mortgages. Eventually, I was able to catch the word hijacked from the other side of the wall and was horrified at what I found on the CNN homepage.
In 2001, there was still very little in the way of live streaming of audio or video via the web. I spent about an hour reading and refreshing my browser. Click. Read. Previous. Refresh. Over and over again. By the time of the Pentagon strike, there was absolutely no way I would be working even one more minute on that day and left.
Inevitably, I tuned the radio in the car to the news station and was greeted with the news of a fourth known jet and reports of several more. The news outlets were blindly reporting every nugget of information they came across, most of which would never be retracted. The cumulative and net effect on me was, however, non-retractable. The damage was done.
I was familiar, academically of course, with terrorism. Hijackings were chiefly hostage taking operations in order to achieve some other goal. Now, after decades of playing for increasingly larger sized pots, the jihadists went all-in. (see what I did there? this used to be a poker blog, after all)
All I wanted to do was be as close to my wife and 11 week old daughter as possible. We laid in bed together, my wife and I in horror at what continued to be reported on tv, our daughter between us, blissfully ignorant of anything other than being near mommy. When she was born, exactly 11 weeks prior, she spent 14 days in the NICU while fighting persistant pulmonary hypertension. During those 2 weeks, I had no doubts that everything would be ok. Just over 2 months later, I knew that nothing would be ok again.
It actually took a week before the nightmares started. I thought I had managed to avoid them but I guess, eventually, my brain needed an outlet to purge the badness that was accumulating in there. Needless to say, I slept quite poorly for about 4 nights in a row. Looking back, some of the dreams were actually fairly comical, though disturbing at the time. In one, a 747 came crashing through my grandparents' house in Northeast Philly. Why that house? I'll never understand my subconscious.
Anyway, what was the point? Here we are 10 years later and I feel like the killing of Osama bin Laden is nothing more than the tying up of one loose end while the whole damn thing is still unraveling. For now, it is a not-so-subtle reminder of what happened on that day and how great our country became in the aftermath. If we can hold on to that for a little while, I will happily accept the painful memories that have returned from exile.
Unfortunately, I think that the mission (brilliantly carried out by our military and intelligence, btw) will be quickly politicized and spun into talking points. For now, we got him, good for us, but there are actually a few (thousand) more important things for us, as Americans, to focus on. Let's see if we can get anything accomplished before the current zeitgeist inevitably wanes.
I won't hold my breath.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Fear. Loathing. Helplessness. Anger. And the images. Oh, the images. There weren't that many visuals to broadcast, so we kept seeing the same ones over and over and over again.
Similar to this very morning, I got to the office earlier than usual on that day, before 8:00 AM. Less than an hour later, the 3rd floor was abuzz and had nothing to do with selling mortgages. Eventually, I was able to catch the word hijacked from the other side of the wall and was horrified at what I found on the CNN homepage.
In 2001, there was still very little in the way of live streaming of audio or video via the web. I spent about an hour reading and refreshing my browser. Click. Read. Previous. Refresh. Over and over again. By the time of the Pentagon strike, there was absolutely no way I would be working even one more minute on that day and left.
Inevitably, I tuned the radio in the car to the news station and was greeted with the news of a fourth known jet and reports of several more. The news outlets were blindly reporting every nugget of information they came across, most of which would never be retracted. The cumulative and net effect on me was, however, non-retractable. The damage was done.
I was familiar, academically of course, with terrorism. Hijackings were chiefly hostage taking operations in order to achieve some other goal. Now, after decades of playing for increasingly larger sized pots, the jihadists went all-in. (see what I did there? this used to be a poker blog, after all)
All I wanted to do was be as close to my wife and 11 week old daughter as possible. We laid in bed together, my wife and I in horror at what continued to be reported on tv, our daughter between us, blissfully ignorant of anything other than being near mommy. When she was born, exactly 11 weeks prior, she spent 14 days in the NICU while fighting persistant pulmonary hypertension. During those 2 weeks, I had no doubts that everything would be ok. Just over 2 months later, I knew that nothing would be ok again.
It actually took a week before the nightmares started. I thought I had managed to avoid them but I guess, eventually, my brain needed an outlet to purge the badness that was accumulating in there. Needless to say, I slept quite poorly for about 4 nights in a row. Looking back, some of the dreams were actually fairly comical, though disturbing at the time. In one, a 747 came crashing through my grandparents' house in Northeast Philly. Why that house? I'll never understand my subconscious.
Anyway, what was the point? Here we are 10 years later and I feel like the killing of Osama bin Laden is nothing more than the tying up of one loose end while the whole damn thing is still unraveling. For now, it is a not-so-subtle reminder of what happened on that day and how great our country became in the aftermath. If we can hold on to that for a little while, I will happily accept the painful memories that have returned from exile.
Unfortunately, I think that the mission (brilliantly carried out by our military and intelligence, btw) will be quickly politicized and spun into talking points. For now, we got him, good for us, but there are actually a few (thousand) more important things for us, as Americans, to focus on. Let's see if we can get anything accomplished before the current zeitgeist inevitably wanes.
I won't hold my breath.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Friday, March 11, 2011
Politics As Usual
Political climate in the U.S. is so incredibly tense that it's almost impossible to get the real story on anything. Objective and reasonable doesn't sell papers, ad time, etc. so it's almost impossible to get to the facts to formulate a non-biased opinion.
To that end, I have developed a filter that allows me to immediately discount what I am hearing as agenda driven and to be ignored. The following words and terms will immediately find you on my muted list:
Tea Bagger
Lame Stream Media
Faux News
PMSNBC
Barry
Republitard
Hitler
Nazi
George Soros
Koch Brothers
"Big" Anything
I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
To that end, I have developed a filter that allows me to immediately discount what I am hearing as agenda driven and to be ignored. The following words and terms will immediately find you on my muted list:
Tea Bagger
Lame Stream Media
Faux News
PMSNBC
Barry
Republitard
Hitler
Nazi
George Soros
Koch Brothers
"Big" Anything
I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
WBCOOP 2011
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 834046
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Why Yes - WPBT 2010 in Short Form
Why yes, I did take 2nd in the blogger tournament at Aria over the weekend. (ok, I was in the chop but 2nd in chips)
Why yes, Lagasse's was absolutely unbelievable, eclipsed only by the people I had the privilege of hanging out with.
Why yes, I did get dealt quads in pai gow, with JJ up top no less.
Why yes, I also remembered to bet the fortune bonus.
Why yes, I slept no more than 8 hours total for the 3 nights checked in.
Why yes, it was a blast watching Eagles/Cowboys with fans both friendly and not so toward my team.
Why yes, I do miss everyone already, even the ones who by now have already forgotten me.
Why yes, I'm already counting down to next December.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Why yes, Lagasse's was absolutely unbelievable, eclipsed only by the people I had the privilege of hanging out with.
Why yes, I did get dealt quads in pai gow, with JJ up top no less.
Why yes, I also remembered to bet the fortune bonus.
Why yes, I slept no more than 8 hours total for the 3 nights checked in.
Why yes, it was a blast watching Eagles/Cowboys with fans both friendly and not so toward my team.
Why yes, I do miss everyone already, even the ones who by now have already forgotten me.
Why yes, I'm already counting down to next December.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Thursday, October 28, 2010
WPBT 2010 Booked and Confirmed
It looks like The Baccardi Diaries have been picked up for another episode. Arriving at LAS just after 1330 Friday and leaving about 1530 Monday.
43 days and counting... tick... tick... tick...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
43 days and counting... tick... tick... tick...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Steel Panther Test
Just so wrong, especially for me with 2 girls. But still, so damn funny, so Steel Panther.
Four months and eight days til Vegas. Tick...tick...tick...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Four months and eight days til Vegas. Tick...tick...tick...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Rising From The Ashes
So where've I been you ask? And I mean that rhetorically, since I know YOU weren't asking. Anyway, I stumbled across those five little words that every blogger who innocently (naively?) wants to remain anonymous hopes to never have to say.
My wife found my blog.
There. I said it. And after the extended hiatus, I'm good with it. I think.
The announcement of this year's winter gathering actually gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get back on the horse, so to speak. I'm going again. Sorry to say for all of you. This year's trip has been paid for since the end of last year's trip courtesy of the good people at Harrah's and the fish that play at their LHE tables. I've talked my friend Jerry into making the trip with me and Riggs has also expressed interest in flying out with us. I'll believe that when I see him at the gate.
For those who like to try to plan out their weekend reeeeaaaalllly early, I found out that, according to GVR's website, Steel Panther is now playing on Saturday nights. So it looks like Friday night will play out a bit differently.
Finally, if you made it this far, our 9 year old daughter now has her own website. It's basically a blog in a website wrapper but I won't tell if you won't. She's been bugging us for upwards of a year to start one so, since she is required to do a project as part of getting her junior black belt, we told her she could incorporate the blog into the project.
Check it out here. She already has a better wit about her than her old man, although she likes to keep her posts short and sweet. Only time will tell whether she sticks with it longer than I did mine.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
My wife found my blog.
There. I said it. And after the extended hiatus, I'm good with it. I think.
The announcement of this year's winter gathering actually gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get back on the horse, so to speak. I'm going again. Sorry to say for all of you. This year's trip has been paid for since the end of last year's trip courtesy of the good people at Harrah's and the fish that play at their LHE tables. I've talked my friend Jerry into making the trip with me and Riggs has also expressed interest in flying out with us. I'll believe that when I see him at the gate.
For those who like to try to plan out their weekend reeeeaaaalllly early, I found out that, according to GVR's website, Steel Panther is now playing on Saturday nights. So it looks like Friday night will play out a bit differently.
Finally, if you made it this far, our 9 year old daughter now has her own website. It's basically a blog in a website wrapper but I won't tell if you won't. She's been bugging us for upwards of a year to start one so, since she is required to do a project as part of getting her junior black belt, we told her she could incorporate the blog into the project.
Check it out here. She already has a better wit about her than her old man, although she likes to keep her posts short and sweet. Only time will tell whether she sticks with it longer than I did mine.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Monday, February 1, 2010
WBCOOP Results
Played events 5 and 6 and the Main Event. Somehow finished 95th in the 8 game event (boy do I not know what I'm doing in the non-lowball stud events) but fizzled a little over half way through each of the two NLHE events. I admit, though, that I was too distracted on Sunday to really play the event well. Trying to work on one laptop while playing a 2,000 player tournament on another is obviously not something I am capable of.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Overkill
Thankfully it happened at bar league where real money was not a factor or I would have gone ballistic. Final table of 8 and we are playing 400/800. I am BB and not all that healthy, but not totally desparate. UTG min raises, EP calls, MP calls. I find AA and push another 5000 on top all in. UTG calls. MP calls. MP flips 99. UTG flips AA. 9 in the door triples up MP. I chop the 3600 side pot with UTG.
Next hand in the SB. MP limps. LP limps. I find AA again and ship my last 1800. MP calls. LP calls. Flop and turn are all kinds of connected, and LP wins with QTo.
Why do I even bother?
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Next hand in the SB. MP limps. LP limps. I find AA again and ship my last 1800. MP calls. LP calls. Flop and turn are all kinds of connected, and LP wins with QTo.
Why do I even bother?
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
WPBT 2009 - The Bacardi Diaries, Part 3
Time. Quite the funny thing in that one's perception of it can warp reality in profound ways. Adding alcohol as a catalyst certainly enhances that particular reaction. This chapter of the recap relies on my trying to reconstruct a timeline, after the fact, as accurately as possible.
Saturday night was passing into Sunday morning and the Geisha Bar was hopping thanks to the tourney runner-up and many willing participants. I could not, however, avoid the allure of -EV games so I sat down at a blogger filled pai gow table. Managed to hit AA up front with a full house behind but didn't have money on the fortune bonus. Oops.
After some amount of time, quite the number of drinks, and about $100 in the black at pai gow, I wandered over to another blogger table. This time it was Let It Ride. A table where a $5200 straight flush was made while I was sparring with the Asian coolers. It was my first time playing the game, but the strategy isn't all that complicated. Managed to dust off the pai gow profit in about an hour, but it was mainly about the comraderie. Please drop a comment if you know who was at that Let It Ride table. For the life of me, I can't remember who I met there.
Anywho, at some point early in the morning (pre-dawn), I made my way back to the IP poker room for some more LHE donkery. Similar to the previous night, I played equally aggressive with air as I did with the nuts and the nice people who were already there eventually grew weary of my shenanigans. Once the table was down to 3, an IP dealer off hours, a crasian waiting for a seat to open at the one NLHE table still going, and myself, I dusted off a bit of my profit, finally leaving around $30 or $40 up for the session.
At that point, I decided to sit down and play a little blackjack before heading upstairs for a few wimks. I bought in at the nickel table for a single hundred and played for what seemed like a couple hours. I remember calling out for a monkey to be dealt every time I wanted the dealer to peel off a face card for a bust, and I seem to remember most of the people that came and went over that session to be at least mildly amused by my drunken antics. It was, by far, my best session ever (for the bottom feeder that I am), running that initial $100 up over $1300. I had worked my way up to betting $25 a hand (unheard of for me) and was still running good when a new dealer came over. Immediately, I got a bad vibe off the guy and, even through the Bacardi haze, I thought the floor had just sent over a cooler. Of course, why would IP care about someone playing at my level? Either way, I played one shoe against the guy, lost about $100, and called it a night up around $1200 at that table.
Somehow I managed to find my room for some sorely needed shut eye as I intended to meet up with everyone for the Sunday football games. I got up with the clock telling me it was little after 10:00 and, while in the shower, it dawned on me that it wasn't necessarily 10:00 AM. Checked my cell when I got out and confirmed that it was, indeed, 10:30 PM Sunday night. According to Facebook, I had updated my status right before I crashed, at 3:17 PM Sunday afternoon. Evidently, I kept drinking and playing 21 from before dawn on Sunday until into the second halves of the late games. Oops.
Now there were only about 11 hours to kill before my flight home on Monday morning. What to do?
To be concluded...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Saturday night was passing into Sunday morning and the Geisha Bar was hopping thanks to the tourney runner-up and many willing participants. I could not, however, avoid the allure of -EV games so I sat down at a blogger filled pai gow table. Managed to hit AA up front with a full house behind but didn't have money on the fortune bonus. Oops.
After some amount of time, quite the number of drinks, and about $100 in the black at pai gow, I wandered over to another blogger table. This time it was Let It Ride. A table where a $5200 straight flush was made while I was sparring with the Asian coolers. It was my first time playing the game, but the strategy isn't all that complicated. Managed to dust off the pai gow profit in about an hour, but it was mainly about the comraderie. Please drop a comment if you know who was at that Let It Ride table. For the life of me, I can't remember who I met there.
Anywho, at some point early in the morning (pre-dawn), I made my way back to the IP poker room for some more LHE donkery. Similar to the previous night, I played equally aggressive with air as I did with the nuts and the nice people who were already there eventually grew weary of my shenanigans. Once the table was down to 3, an IP dealer off hours, a crasian waiting for a seat to open at the one NLHE table still going, and myself, I dusted off a bit of my profit, finally leaving around $30 or $40 up for the session.
At that point, I decided to sit down and play a little blackjack before heading upstairs for a few wimks. I bought in at the nickel table for a single hundred and played for what seemed like a couple hours. I remember calling out for a monkey to be dealt every time I wanted the dealer to peel off a face card for a bust, and I seem to remember most of the people that came and went over that session to be at least mildly amused by my drunken antics. It was, by far, my best session ever (for the bottom feeder that I am), running that initial $100 up over $1300. I had worked my way up to betting $25 a hand (unheard of for me) and was still running good when a new dealer came over. Immediately, I got a bad vibe off the guy and, even through the Bacardi haze, I thought the floor had just sent over a cooler. Of course, why would IP care about someone playing at my level? Either way, I played one shoe against the guy, lost about $100, and called it a night up around $1200 at that table.
Somehow I managed to find my room for some sorely needed shut eye as I intended to meet up with everyone for the Sunday football games. I got up with the clock telling me it was little after 10:00 and, while in the shower, it dawned on me that it wasn't necessarily 10:00 AM. Checked my cell when I got out and confirmed that it was, indeed, 10:30 PM Sunday night. According to Facebook, I had updated my status right before I crashed, at 3:17 PM Sunday afternoon. Evidently, I kept drinking and playing 21 from before dawn on Sunday until into the second halves of the late games. Oops.
Now there were only about 11 hours to kill before my flight home on Monday morning. What to do?
To be concluded...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
WPBT 2009 - The Bacardi Diaries, Part 2
So after a few hours of drunken sleep, I managed to get myself out of bed around 9:30 AM and grabbed a quick greasy breakfast to try to soak up the remnants of the previous night's libations. A little after 11, I meandered over to the Caesar's poker room and registered early since I didn't really have anything better to do.
My expectations for the tournament were exceedingly low. I was, of course, the stone cold worst poker player in the room. Since I couldn't get anything going in the early stages, I was stuck playing the brand of short stack poker I have grown accustomed to. Thankfully, I got exceedingly lucky a few times.
I did manage to drop one hammer to take down a pot pre-flop, and used my tighty image to pick up a few others with rather marginal holdings to stay afloat. Then I inflicted the first and worst bad beat I put on anyone. It folded to me on the button so I shipped around 12BB all in with A7o. Unfortunately for him, SB was sitting on JJ, called, hit top set, and watched me go runner-runner straight to steal 3/4 of his stack.
I managed to get my stack above the average in the room when I reraised (all in) a very active CJ with 88. I knew I had absolutely no fold equity, but was willing to race for the chance at a double. What I didn't expect was for the BB to consider himself getting good odds and call also. Instant nausea. However, it managed to hold up against 98s (BB) and AQo (CJ). Unexpected triple up. At some point, I busted Otis with some junk like QJo when I decided to defend my BB and it wasn't too much more to call.
Then I got moved to Al's table. Buckle in, it's going to get bumpy.
Blinds were up to something like 2k/4k with a 500 ante so there wasn't much play available to most of us. I open shoved 3 hands in a row at one point and, luckily, was only called the third time. When I had AA. That got me up to around 70k and was second in chips at the table. To Al. Blinds and antes started to eat away at my stack as the chip leader was just bludgeoning the table and nobody seemed to find anything they wanted to go to war with. At last, he managed to fold a hand and I looked down at AKs. Good enough, ship it. This time Bam Bam, immediately on my left, called all in with KK for about 1/2 my stack. An Ace right in the door provided my second filthy beat. Sorry man. But your bounty was killer.
Somehow, I managed to survive long enough to make it to the final table but found myself with the aggressive FTrain and Al, sitting on large stacks to my right. Trying to find a spot proves quite difficult under those circumstances. There were probably 5 or 6 hands that I would have gladly opened with, but none that I really wanted to reraise with, with no hope of receiving a fold in return. At the end, I made my last stand when I was able to get it in first, but with a measly A2s. I'm a bit surprised that Astin called with just 44, considering the number of times I had folded, but he did and spiked a set so that was that. My 6th place finish was about 80 places higher than I had anticipated going in, so I call that a win. Plus I was able to yuck it up with the rest of the die hards who had gathered to rail the last table. Good stuff.
Anyway, having spent the day detoxing, and now that the tournament was behind me, I realized that some food was in order before jumping back into the rum pool. A quick bite at the IP Burger Palace did the trick and I was all set to really immerse myself in that which is WPBT, but we'll save that part of the story for Part 3...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
My expectations for the tournament were exceedingly low. I was, of course, the stone cold worst poker player in the room. Since I couldn't get anything going in the early stages, I was stuck playing the brand of short stack poker I have grown accustomed to. Thankfully, I got exceedingly lucky a few times.
I did manage to drop one hammer to take down a pot pre-flop, and used my tighty image to pick up a few others with rather marginal holdings to stay afloat. Then I inflicted the first and worst bad beat I put on anyone. It folded to me on the button so I shipped around 12BB all in with A7o. Unfortunately for him, SB was sitting on JJ, called, hit top set, and watched me go runner-runner straight to steal 3/4 of his stack.
I managed to get my stack above the average in the room when I reraised (all in) a very active CJ with 88. I knew I had absolutely no fold equity, but was willing to race for the chance at a double. What I didn't expect was for the BB to consider himself getting good odds and call also. Instant nausea. However, it managed to hold up against 98s (BB) and AQo (CJ). Unexpected triple up. At some point, I busted Otis with some junk like QJo when I decided to defend my BB and it wasn't too much more to call.
Then I got moved to Al's table. Buckle in, it's going to get bumpy.
Blinds were up to something like 2k/4k with a 500 ante so there wasn't much play available to most of us. I open shoved 3 hands in a row at one point and, luckily, was only called the third time. When I had AA. That got me up to around 70k and was second in chips at the table. To Al. Blinds and antes started to eat away at my stack as the chip leader was just bludgeoning the table and nobody seemed to find anything they wanted to go to war with. At last, he managed to fold a hand and I looked down at AKs. Good enough, ship it. This time Bam Bam, immediately on my left, called all in with KK for about 1/2 my stack. An Ace right in the door provided my second filthy beat. Sorry man. But your bounty was killer.
Somehow, I managed to survive long enough to make it to the final table but found myself with the aggressive FTrain and Al, sitting on large stacks to my right. Trying to find a spot proves quite difficult under those circumstances. There were probably 5 or 6 hands that I would have gladly opened with, but none that I really wanted to reraise with, with no hope of receiving a fold in return. At the end, I made my last stand when I was able to get it in first, but with a measly A2s. I'm a bit surprised that Astin called with just 44, considering the number of times I had folded, but he did and spiked a set so that was that. My 6th place finish was about 80 places higher than I had anticipated going in, so I call that a win. Plus I was able to yuck it up with the rest of the die hards who had gathered to rail the last table. Good stuff.
Anyway, having spent the day detoxing, and now that the tournament was behind me, I realized that some food was in order before jumping back into the rum pool. A quick bite at the IP Burger Palace did the trick and I was all set to really immerse myself in that which is WPBT, but we'll save that part of the story for Part 3...
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
WPBT 2009 - The Bacardi Diaries, Part 1
The question is, how does a non-writer make sense out of three days where time and space had absolutely no meaning? At some points, time seemed to be frozen, while at others, what seemed like 2 hours was actually 8. Night became day, day became night. The only constants being the people, the cards, and the booze although even that hierarchy shuffled itself numerous times.
Let's start at the beginning, then, shall we? I landed at McCarran on time, just after 6:30 PM local time. Coupled with a non-existant taxi line, I was checked into the IP by 7:30. Next stop was the MGM. Nothing like feeling conspicuously anonymous watching table 16 with awe, and just a bit of fear, waiting for someone I had previously met to remember that they had. Finally, I decided to press the issue and make some reintroductions which were met cordially. Either folks have the best recollections for names and faces I have ever seen, or are really good liars. Either way, I wasn't complaining.
After about an hour I ran into Falstaff, Doc, Rooster, and Kat. Thankfully, they did all remember me without too much difficulty. At that point, though, it was just about time to form up the convoy to GVR.
STEEL F'N PANTHER.
Holy crap. What an amazing time that is. I had written that into the to-do list right at the top, and will never miss another one. Between the old school hair metal and the free flowing alcohol, I managed to talk at least briefly with over half the folks that made the journey. The band played a single one hour set, but I was more than satisifed. Afterward, many of the folk decided to hang there at the poker room, but I caught a cab back to IP with CA April and CJ. Just in time to watch Iggy pouring Waffles into a cab bound for God knows where.
After a brief respite at the Geisha bar, it was finally time to put some money in play. Pai Gow, up about $15 plus about 5 Bacardi and diets. Craps, don't remember, but I do remember lots of cocktail service. Finally I went over to the poker room for a little 2/4 LHE. I never play cash NLHE when I've been drinking. Ever. And I certainly planned on the drinking to continue. There were about 7 or 8 already playing when I sat down and, over the next hour or two, they all either gave up or went broke. I shut down the table after playing an off duty dealer heads up and took her last $30. After tips (dealers and waitresses) and rake, I was probably still up about $80.
It must have been around 5:00 AM by then and I had been up for around 26 hours, but since day 1 was merely an appetizer, I decided to grab a couple hours of sleep before the main course. On tap for Saturday... the tournament at Caesar's followed by shenanigans yet to be determined.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Let's start at the beginning, then, shall we? I landed at McCarran on time, just after 6:30 PM local time. Coupled with a non-existant taxi line, I was checked into the IP by 7:30. Next stop was the MGM. Nothing like feeling conspicuously anonymous watching table 16 with awe, and just a bit of fear, waiting for someone I had previously met to remember that they had. Finally, I decided to press the issue and make some reintroductions which were met cordially. Either folks have the best recollections for names and faces I have ever seen, or are really good liars. Either way, I wasn't complaining.
After about an hour I ran into Falstaff, Doc, Rooster, and Kat. Thankfully, they did all remember me without too much difficulty. At that point, though, it was just about time to form up the convoy to GVR.
STEEL F'N PANTHER.
Holy crap. What an amazing time that is. I had written that into the to-do list right at the top, and will never miss another one. Between the old school hair metal and the free flowing alcohol, I managed to talk at least briefly with over half the folks that made the journey. The band played a single one hour set, but I was more than satisifed. Afterward, many of the folk decided to hang there at the poker room, but I caught a cab back to IP with CA April and CJ. Just in time to watch Iggy pouring Waffles into a cab bound for God knows where.
After a brief respite at the Geisha bar, it was finally time to put some money in play. Pai Gow, up about $15 plus about 5 Bacardi and diets. Craps, don't remember, but I do remember lots of cocktail service. Finally I went over to the poker room for a little 2/4 LHE. I never play cash NLHE when I've been drinking. Ever. And I certainly planned on the drinking to continue. There were about 7 or 8 already playing when I sat down and, over the next hour or two, they all either gave up or went broke. I shut down the table after playing an off duty dealer heads up and took her last $30. After tips (dealers and waitresses) and rake, I was probably still up about $80.
It must have been around 5:00 AM by then and I had been up for around 26 hours, but since day 1 was merely an appetizer, I decided to grab a couple hours of sleep before the main course. On tap for Saturday... the tournament at Caesar's followed by shenanigans yet to be determined.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Winter Gathering - A Preamble
Need a little time to reflect upon my 3 days amongst the luminaries, dignataries, and other random degens at the WPBT, 2009 Edition. However, I did figure I would run through Pauly's check list after the fact to see how I did at a high level.
1. Cut back on sleep immediately. I never sleep well anyway, so this was not a problem.
2. Sip, don't chug. Does sipping really fast count as chugging?
3. Water and Motrin are your best friend. Tylenol, check. Water, probably could have used more.
4. Bring a cell phone charger. Check.
5. Take pictures. FAIL
6. Ask before you post pictures on the internet. N/A
7. Speak your mind and stay in the moment. Mission accomplished, hopefully. Level of assholedness to be determined by peer review.
8. Understand that it will be impossible to spend quality time with everyone. Obv.
9. Don't be Gigli. Is final table Gigli?
10. Never underestimate the importance of a $20 tip. FAIL
11. Food is fuel. The tank seemed to be getting pretty good mileage out in the desert.
12. Wear comfortable shoes. Always.
13. Bring a watch. That's what cell phones are for.
14. Keep your gambling bankroll separate from your other cash. Other cash?
15. $50 bills are bad luck. Natch.
16. Avoid the slots. There are slots in Las Vegas?
17. Don't tell people at your poker table that you have a poker blog. I don't really have one, so not a problem.
18. Bring a jacket and sunglasses. Jacket was a good call. But doesn't one need to actually see the sun to need glasses to defend against it?
19. Never burn the locals. Just 2/4 LHE donkey poker. Nothing too bad.
20. Don't get rolled by a hooker. There are hookers in Las Vegas?
21. Avoid hangovers. Stay drunk. Check and mate.
22. Get off the Strip. STEEL PANTHER!!!
23. Don't die. Month isn't over yet, but it didn't happen in Nevada.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
1. Cut back on sleep immediately. I never sleep well anyway, so this was not a problem.
2. Sip, don't chug. Does sipping really fast count as chugging?
3. Water and Motrin are your best friend. Tylenol, check. Water, probably could have used more.
4. Bring a cell phone charger. Check.
5. Take pictures. FAIL
6. Ask before you post pictures on the internet. N/A
7. Speak your mind and stay in the moment. Mission accomplished, hopefully. Level of assholedness to be determined by peer review.
8. Understand that it will be impossible to spend quality time with everyone. Obv.
9. Don't be Gigli. Is final table Gigli?
10. Never underestimate the importance of a $20 tip. FAIL
11. Food is fuel. The tank seemed to be getting pretty good mileage out in the desert.
12. Wear comfortable shoes. Always.
13. Bring a watch. That's what cell phones are for.
14. Keep your gambling bankroll separate from your other cash. Other cash?
15. $50 bills are bad luck. Natch.
16. Avoid the slots. There are slots in Las Vegas?
17. Don't tell people at your poker table that you have a poker blog. I don't really have one, so not a problem.
18. Bring a jacket and sunglasses. Jacket was a good call. But doesn't one need to actually see the sun to need glasses to defend against it?
19. Never burn the locals. Just 2/4 LHE donkey poker. Nothing too bad.
20. Don't get rolled by a hooker. There are hookers in Las Vegas?
21. Avoid hangovers. Stay drunk. Check and mate.
22. Get off the Strip. STEEL PANTHER!!!
23. Don't die. Month isn't over yet, but it didn't happen in Nevada.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
48 And Counting
Just 48 more hours until my plane to Vegas should be somewhere over Kentucky.
Of course, I'm currently 3/4 of the way through a 14 hour a day work bender trying to bang out 7 days worth of deliverables in 4 days so I fully expect the time to pass pretty quickly.
Plus I needed to get something else in this space to take the place of that last piece of crap I posted. Kids and work. Work and kids. Lather, rinse, repeat.
See ya Friday evening, Sin City.
Of course, I'm currently 3/4 of the way through a 14 hour a day work bender trying to bang out 7 days worth of deliverables in 4 days so I fully expect the time to pass pretty quickly.
Plus I needed to get something else in this space to take the place of that last piece of crap I posted. Kids and work. Work and kids. Lather, rinse, repeat.
See ya Friday evening, Sin City.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Poker Under The Sea
Seven days and counting. And based on what follows, it is abundantly clear that I need to get away. Too much kid stuff and not enough adult debauchery. That. Shall. Change. For a long weekend, at least.
In lieu of anything thought provoking or even interesting in the least, here's some nonsense about what the poker scene would look like in Bikini Bottom.
Sponge Bob Square Pants - Also known as Bikini Bottom Square, Sponge Bob traded in his jellyfishing net for a seat at the aquatic felt. Much like his previous hobby, though, he has an affinity for refusing to scoop any pot he wins, preferring to release the chips back into the wild. Needless to say, when he is playing, the rail can become quite the profitable location.
Patrick Star - Although Patrick lives under a rock, that classification certainly cannot be applied to his game. Playing every hand, inevitably someone will need to call for a clock at which point Patrick will usually attempt to order a sandwich from the dealer. Other than his best friend, no one really likes being at the table with him.
Eugene H Krabs - Tiring of sobbing uncontrollably every time he was forced to post a blind or ante, Mr. Krabs decided to make some easy money opening the Krusty Kasino. This player friendly establishment offers such amenities as a 25% rake and full price cocktails at the tables.
Sandy Cheeks - She's from Texas y'all, nuff said.
Squidward Tentacles - The underwater poker brat is constantly perplexed by the play of all of the bottom feeders surrounding him at the table. Squidward tries to apply level 3 thinking to his opponents, like Patrick, who don't realize that they aren't actually at Super Weenie Hut. The result? The blow ups are spectacular.
Ugh, I could go on but why bother? Dumbest. Post. Ever. T-7 days until the Vegas retreat. Boy do I need it.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
In lieu of anything thought provoking or even interesting in the least, here's some nonsense about what the poker scene would look like in Bikini Bottom.
Sponge Bob Square Pants - Also known as Bikini Bottom Square, Sponge Bob traded in his jellyfishing net for a seat at the aquatic felt. Much like his previous hobby, though, he has an affinity for refusing to scoop any pot he wins, preferring to release the chips back into the wild. Needless to say, when he is playing, the rail can become quite the profitable location.
Patrick Star - Although Patrick lives under a rock, that classification certainly cannot be applied to his game. Playing every hand, inevitably someone will need to call for a clock at which point Patrick will usually attempt to order a sandwich from the dealer. Other than his best friend, no one really likes being at the table with him.
Eugene H Krabs - Tiring of sobbing uncontrollably every time he was forced to post a blind or ante, Mr. Krabs decided to make some easy money opening the Krusty Kasino. This player friendly establishment offers such amenities as a 25% rake and full price cocktails at the tables.
Sandy Cheeks - She's from Texas y'all, nuff said.
Squidward Tentacles - The underwater poker brat is constantly perplexed by the play of all of the bottom feeders surrounding him at the table. Squidward tries to apply level 3 thinking to his opponents, like Patrick, who don't realize that they aren't actually at Super Weenie Hut. The result? The blow ups are spectacular.
Ugh, I could go on but why bother? Dumbest. Post. Ever. T-7 days until the Vegas retreat. Boy do I need it.
And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're not getting back...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Book It!
Flight and hotel have been reserved for Vegas. PHL > LAS 12/11 arriving around dinner time. LAS > PHL 12/14 leaving after breakfast.
Going to be a loooonnnng 7 weeks.
Going to be a loooonnnng 7 weeks.
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