tommytwotoes

The middle was the best part….

The trip was chalk full of crazy poker action, poker attitude and poker idiocy! And I like it! Got off to a bad start on Friday night at Caesar’s palace Jim later reminded me that I banned Caesars a long time ago and that it used to be that every time I used to go by the place that I would flip the building the bird… I guess they recognized that and took advantage of me coming back into their building. That night was rough and my bankroll took a hit After losing my second buy in by flopping a straight and another guy flopping a higher straight it was time to go.

The next morning the plan was for Jim and the other PDC members and wives to go traipsing around the desert at red rock…. “Ohhh I heard someone got married out there once and that it must have been cool” … whatever it’s the fucking desert and fucking hot how much sand can you look at? …instead I made an executive decision that my fat ass is going to sit inside the confines of a casino where the ac is pumping at full force. So I got to Bellagio around 8am. Players still going at it from the night before and me fresh from a 4 hour nap. I got a blow job from a Asian hottie in the lobby, right next to the pretty flowers. Mark that. I went in the poker room and put my name on the SNG list , a satellite to get into the $1000 weekly tournament. Cost me $240 bucks. I am like 10 times better than the avg donk out there playing SNG’s , unfortunately I got raped on the bubble . Fuck you I have kings! Need I say more?

From there I met up with forum member rebelraider at the Venetian.

Phone conversation: “Hey Tom whats up?” …. “not much man, where you want to play some cards?”…”how bout the venetian?”… “sure where is it in relation to Bellagio?”… “ohh its right next door!, go out front and hook a left.”

First let me say it aint right next door. Second let me say I am fat. Third let me say that was how I got in my last workout of the week, for the Bigstack Exercise Survivor Competition. It took me like 35-40 minutes to get from the Bellagio poker room to the entrance of the Venetian. Seriously freaking 40 minutes, yes I am fat, handicap and slow, but that aint “right next door”. And it was well over 100 degrees. I felt like sitting down in the shade and buying a bottle of ice cold water from the immigrant families that line the people bridges, and begging for change while I cooled off. Maybe hold up a sign that read “I aint gonna lie this money is going straight to the rake!”

I got to the Venetian and things were going well. I was playing great poker and blowing bitches up. Sucked out on a one dude runner runner style! Sorry dude get more chips to make me fold next time. Got to pop a boner at the poker table as this milf was sitting next to me and her milf friends came by and then to top things off this milf gets a massage from what had to of been the hottest asian chic in Vegas, Damn. This milf was moaning as this hottie leaned into her . Ohhhhh that feels good… ummmmm…. Jesus fucking Christ how can I play with this shit going on… every man at the table was having to be reminded that it was his turn to act. The massage girl left and I was left with 2 options go and jerk it in the bathroom or just let the hard on die off… The milf announced she was leaving soon after , and then after a few hands announced her last hand. I got 44 and it was limped in. The flop was 3-5-Q, it checks around to the milf and she bets 15 I call for some stupid reason and everyone else folds… she then doesn’t realize that I am in the hand and she turns her cards face up. The dealer says she can still play the hand face up, the turn is a K and I say “well I have you beat now”. She asks if she folds will I show and I say yes. I bet 25 and she folded I turned over my 44, told her I lied. She called me a tease. And I responded “well it’s only fair you having been teasing me for the last 30 minutes or so with that hottie giving you a massage!” , she laughed hit me in the shoulder and then leaned over and kissed my cheek. This shocked me and I said “ well that will give me enough fantasies to last a month!” … everyone laughed and she left.

Me and rebelraider left the Venetian and met up with Jim, Alan(drove in from LA), and Heather for dinner at redrobin then went and played pool at a place near their place. At this point I had only slept like 3 hours on the trip and I was starting to doze off with a full belly of burger meat and queso. Got a few beers in me and I was done.

Woke up on Sunday morning to find that itsoverjonny was playing in a MTT on stars … I railed him for a while, at the same time playing some cash games on FTP. He got down to the final table .. .but I believe while he was at two tables he fell asleep , cause it was auto folding or well it looked like it was autofolding… along with jonny not responding to chat messages… I pulled out the cell phone and placed an emergency wake up text. He came back to the game apparently and replied to my text message with “wake these fucking cards up!” He went out 6th I believe shortly after.

Went to the Wynn on Sunday and played well enough and made some decent money. But I will say them playing with $1 and $3 chips is a pain in the ass. This table was also the worst collection of donkeys I have ever seen. I sit down and the guy to my right says “welcome, you just sat down at a dream table, the guys at the other end are just giving it away.”…. after 30 minutes of play I decided that everyone including that guy that talked to me was giving it away just as much if not more than the guys at the far end of the table. I love it when people think they know everything about poker, but they don’t. Makes me smile.

We left and went to the mirage and made a few more bucks. Nothing really to report here. Besides a reminiscent moment of when me, easytiger and Jim were walking through the mirage doors on the last trip to Vegas and this escort was telling this middle age man how to get her up to his room etc… ahhh Vegas.

Monday morning we went downtown and were going to play at the Golden Nugget. Unfortunately the Golden Nugget didn’t want us to play there. We put ourselves on the list only to see a new comer go and directly sit down at a chair were someone had just gotten up from. Jim saw this and quickly went over to the manager after the manager had taken that new guy chips. Jim asked him why wasn’t someone called off the list? The manager replied “ oh I forgot we had a list”….really? you are running one table of NL and you forgot you had a list? Man I can just imagine the stress you are under…. So we left and went to the Venetian where I was consistently sucked out on. And or just made bad plays myself and ended the trip on a losing note instead of a winning note.

All in All it was a good trip, I made money and I will make more trips knowing that I can at least make enough to pay for the trip.

So this weekend I finally ran out of my “fun” money and on Monday I deposited from my official bankroll. So Far I have limited myself to very short sessions about 30 minutes a pop playing 50 cent $1 NL Holdem. Things have gone well as each time i have profited about $60-70, so I cant complain. I will say that the online play will just be at random I don’t plan on any marathon sessions, it will be more of a convience thing. I plan on try to have the bulk of my play be in live games for this experiment.The online games that I have been apart of have been rather tight, almost too tight, I have tried to take advantage of this by being a little LAG.
In other news I had a bad session at one underground room on friday night and another bad session at the other room I frequent. That second room I wish they would move locations but it appears they are not going anywhere. Both of these losses were really nothing to write about just things didnt go my way, I do feel like my heart wasnt in the second one or that my mind was on other things.

Tonight I head off to a room and try to redeem myself. I am setting a goal of $400 in profit for the night(if I hit that I am leaving). I will post back here the results.(ended up only making just over 200 in profit)

Well it was a rocky start on my first month of the 10k Challenge, But the last week or two was good to me. One of the local card rooms provided me with most of my profit. Winstar to my surprise was a losing proposition. And another place in town was a break even spot. $23 an Hour was my pay rate, which I am happy with. But I am hoping that I at least have that at the end of the next month, I would really like it to be above 30 an hour, but that will take some doing. I put in over 80 hours at the tables this month, and hope that trend continues. Tentatively I will set a goal of $25 an hour and 100 hours this next month. I am hoping to make it out to Vegas next weekend and play for a good 20-30 hours while there.
See ya at the tables.

Well like most Tuesday’s now a days I spent it at a certain poker room in town. I made a decent score(+$760). There was one hand in particular that created the lion’s share of the profit.

I had Pocket jacks,was in early position and raised to $17. I get 5 callers. Right before the flop the new waitress walks up behind me and starts massaging my neck/shoulders. I don’t blame her I am a sexy fucking guy but this was not the time for this shit. It freaked me out, yall that know me know that I don’t like that massage crap… see this post for previous documentation: massage . I spilled some chips I was trying to grab to be ready for my next bet/move. I said something like really please stop and it took her a while to stop… just weird .. everyone laughed at me but whatever…. I guess I am the weird one.

So anyway  the flop was J-8-10 two spades. I was probably still freaked out and I under bet. I only bet $30 everyone called. and the last person to act went all in for $10 more which of course everyone called… we are seeing the turn 5 way. which isn’t good, as long as the turn doesn’t pose much of a threat I am going all in. The turn was the 4 of diamonds I believe and I went all in. Guy to my left immediately calls for $160. then the guy next to him calls for like $200+, I was really worried. The last guy to act thought for a long time then showed QQ and folded. Good fold by the way. I flipped over my set of Jacks and two people showed that they had a 9 and where on the open ended straight draw… the other player didn’t show and just mucked(I guess he had two pair or just top pair?). I was surprised that no one was on the flush draw. The river turns over and its the 9 of spades. Thank god no one was on the flush draw and thank god the guy with QQ folded(he would have hit the straight). I ended up taking it down with top set, and my stack was now over $800. I won another $100 hand when I had 10-10 vs 99 a few hands later, all in on the flop of 8-6-3.

After another orbit or two I decided to lock the win up and go home. As I was making this decision, one of the players apparently that actually reads my blog made a comment about how I was texting someone to call me so I could get out of there…..

So late on Saturday I went to Winstar. I sat down at a table of relatively tight players, and nothing much happened. I lost with a flopped straight to a guy with a higher flopped straight(me:5-2 him:5-7 flop: 346). Luckily he didn’t have much in the way of chips, he tried to justify why he was in the hand cause he was in the small blind… I laughed and said dude I was in the big blind and it was limped around … calm down things like that will happen. Just found it funny that he tried to justify it to a guy playing 2-5. Shortly after this the table broke and I was moved to another table.

This new table had a lot more action. I doubled up early on when i flopped a straight yet again and a guy with two pair pushed on me. However that is where the fairy tale ends and the never ending suck outs begin. In particular one player constantly caught on me. He would raise to 12-24 preflop with any two cards. and 4 people would call him. Me being one of them several times I flopped two pair and he rivered bottom trips… it was frustrating. Finally I am only sitting on $90 in chips and I get 99. I limp in knowing that he has 100% of the time raised when he was in the SB or BB and its limped to him. He raises to $17, gets 3 callers and i re-pop it for $90 , I was pretty sure that the other guys would fold and they did, the idiot called. After he calls the guy to my right says “man good luck he has been catching on you all night long, I wonder what trash he has this time”. I reply “ya no joke”, I wasnt paying attention and the dealer had just put out the flop and the idiot stood up and said “Ship It! See ya later!” and he turned over A-K , I was annoyed by his comment and surprised he had a hand actually. I then looked at the flop and saw 9-K-9. I stood up slammed my cards on the table face up and said “I flopped quads on your Ass, Bitch!” The Entire table roared in laughter. The guy wasn’t happy about this and said that I got lucky etc, whatever clowndick. A few orbits later he was still raising with any two cards. He raised to 22 after a few limpers and I had A-2off and I decided to call, the flop was 6-7-2(two diamonds) he checked and I pushed all in. He thought for 2-3 minutes and then called with j-9 diamonds, he asked what I had I said “a pair”, the turn came an Ace and I said “now I got two pair” (I still hadn’t actually turned my cards over.). And the river came out the Ace of diamonds giving him the flush, He once again said “ship it”, I said “well if the turn gave me two pair doesn’t that mean I have a full house?” at this point I turned over my cards and the dealer shoved the chips my way. The guy got up and left disgusted, like he was robbed of his poker glory.

Sadly I still left down for the night When me and another guy flopped a straight and he had a freeroll to a flush, and it got there. such is poker. Winstar has been really tough on me since this 10k thing started. I do however have a feeling it will turn around consistently at some point.

So here is food for thought with a poker hand of all things on a poker blog.

some background info first: the room i was playing in is known for being over agressive and loose. raising and reraising preflop with ace high and small pairs.

I was sitting at a table playing 1-2nl and i get 8d8h on the button I have around 325 in chips. It was actually folded around to me … which is rare. I raise and make it $12. the SB folds and the BB reraises, he makes it $40. huh ok. Well at this room I didn’t think much of it besides the guy was trying to “protect his blind” and he likely had a-k or something similar. He might have had an over pair also. But I thought it warranted a call.

The flop was 10d-7d-6d. Yes all diamonds, I have an inside straight flush draw a straight draw and a flush draw not to mention I have a pair. The guy fires out $100 as his bet. What do you do ?

ok after giving yall the morning to talk about it in the forum….

I thought about it and decided to push. I figured that he might have an over pair and he might not. What i was hoping was that all my outs where live and if he has an overpair I have a 52% chance of winning this hand. He immediately called, which i didnt like, he flipped over AhAd. I was surprised by this to some degree and disappointed that my Diamond draw was real slim as only the 9 of diamonds would help me out. Granted my inside straight draw was live and so were my 8’s.  But seeing that A of diamondstook me from a 52% chance of hitting to close to just 20%. The turn flys out and i hit my small miracle the 9 of hearts… no straight flush but I am not going to complain. I then was chanting “no diamond”…”no diamond”…”no diamond”…and the river was a 2 of clubs. Tommy sucks out and wins a decent size pot. Sadly that only got me above evening for the trip.

…I forget the rest of the saying but, BigSlick created a rather funny video, poking fun at me.

httpv://www.youtube.com/v/qjuFckczI7

So last night I was sitting in an underground room playing the usual 1-2. It was a decent game but with a few new to the table regulars that just sat down I knew things where going to get more to the gambling side of things than a serious game. Sure they bring lots of money to the game but with my now limited bankroll I cant afford the swings that these people can. And trust me they are not playing on any kind of bankroll management scheme they are just gambling.

Anyway I got up a few hundred and decided that I needed to get out of there. I had only been there for  a short while and felt that leaving would look weird. Why is is that I feel this way? I shouldn’t its my money. I should be able to leave when I want to. The only thing bad i can think of about leaving after a quick score is that maybe you get a reputation in people’s minds as a quick hit artist, and then on future visits they will play you accordingly. So to avoid it looking like I was leaving on my own accord I texted a friend and asked him to “call me”. He did within minutes and I had my excuse to leave with my quick score.

It seems like there ought to be a service that you text and they call you and you can have a fake conversation with them, and about how you need to leave right then and there. I can see this being useful on many occasions, family events that you really don’t care to be a part of … ring ring… “oh its work I need to go into the office”…. or while on a first date where it just inst going well….ring ring…. “oh my mom was just in a car accident I need to go to the hospital now!”…. or how about at work while in a meeting that you just don’t care about and someone is droning on and on about something….ring ring…”I got to take this call its an important client of ours.” The possibilities are endless.

The other thought that crossed my mind last night was that with my now limited bankroll , I shouldn’t be risking more than $200 on any single hand. Thus when I do win a certain amount I ought to be leaving and going to the next table or place and starting over at $200. Just a thought…