JJ BANKS’ Blog

     I took a break from poker on Wednesday. I especially didn’t feel great about how I went on “tilt” at The Luxor the other night and donked off $150. So Wednesday was basically just a day for drinking, hanging out around Vegas and acting like someone on vacation. Ironically, I did play some $2/5 NL Hold’em at The Bellagio where the bad players are few and far between and I won like $10 after a few hours, but since I didn’t approach the game like I normally do I’m not counting the win towards my losses so far.

     I got back to serious poker playing on Thursday when I sat down at a $1/2 NL Hold’em table at the MGM Grand. “And eventhough I never won with my AK the MGM Grand was the beginning of a good day!” I didn’t really get involved in any big hands, I just picked up a pot here and there and after three hours I was up $130. However, The MGM Grand has that gay “LA” rule of not being able to buy in for more than $200 at a $1/2 table, so there never was much money on the table for the taking. Realizing I would have to run extremely well to make a windfall at this table, I got up and left for brighter and greener opportunities.

     For some reason I kept finding myself at The Mandalay Bay poker room during my trip. Maybe it was because the poker room at the hotel I was staying at, The Luxor, was kind of chitty, but MB is where I went next. Now, I define myself as a tight player so you know its a pretty big deal when I say that the table I sat down at was one of the “tightest” tables I’ve ever played on. Phil Ivey once said that you should never go into a poker game with a strategy, instead you just need to react and adjust to the players you’re playing with. Normally, I’m the tight player in a game full of “loose splash the pot with chips” kind of players, so being a tight aggressive player is the way I apporach those situations. Here however I had to make a 180 to my normal playing style. Here I got to play like a Gus Hansen or a Tom Dwan and I was the “loose bet/raise every hand” player because I knew the players at the table we’re only going to continue or playback with basically nothing short of the nuts.

     But don’t get the idea that I’m exploiting the playing style that I normally institute. Like I said I’m a tight player, but I’m a tight “aggressive” player and there’s a difference between a tight “aggressive” player and a tight “passive” player which would take another blog in itself for me to explain. Just let me sum up that the tight passive approach is perhaps the worst way you can play No-Limit Texas Hold’em and after 5 hours of playing with these lambs I was up $371.

                                                                                                   The Venetian Poker Room - Las Vegas, NV

     Friday was my final full day so I spent it at my favorite poker room in Las Vegas; The Venetian. And although the layout of The Venetian poker room reminded me of my homebase at The Borgata the result of this session was back to the typical Vegas luck I had been having for the week: 8 hours of playing = -$178. 

     So after five full days in Las Vegas I only had one shining moment so I guess when you look at it like that it’s actually kind of amazing I only finished down -$702. I’ve been told that this series of blogs have sounded kind of depressing to the readers and while it is fun and exciting to be in Las Vegas…let’s face it things in life are always a lot more fun when you win! Everyone feels smarter and better when they win and self-dout and insecurity can creep in when you lose. But when you play poker, really play poker, the day-to-day ups and downs shouldn’t bother you. All you should be concerned with is if you’re playing the best you can which means are you constantly making the right decisions? I honestly feel I played good the whole trip except for that one late night donkey buy-in at The Luxor for $150. To me that was the only time I was playing on “tilt”.

     While I was playing at The Venetian some old local player said the following: “Can you imagine playing this everyday? I can’t. I hate this. I play 4 times a week and I don’t know why? My first thought was “well you’re just a degenerate gambler” but the more I thougt about it the more I realized that there are no short-cuts in life or in poker and you really need to learn to enjoy the journey. Maybe now wasn’t my time for WSOP glory. Is the kid that won event #34 and $500,000 a better poker player than me? I don’t know, I’ve never played against him but then again I shouldn’t be concerned either way about it, because in order for me to really start to enjoy the journey I can only focus on myself and my game. Will there ever be a World Series of Poker Final Table in my future? I don’t know. I’ll just have to keep playing and find out.  

                                                                                                                      The Final Table

AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE TRIP WAS OVER…..!!!!

                                                                                                               Wizard World 2009

     So what do you do when you come home hungover from your trip to Las Vegas? Most people might say spend the day in bed watching porn, but not me, instead I grabbed whatever leftover cash I had and headed over to the Philadelphia Convention Center for Wizard World 2009.

     Wizard World is an expo of everything involving comics, toys and TV/movies. And maybe I was somewhat desensitized from a week full of winning and losing hundred dollar pots at poker that I was indifferent while paying $10 - $25 for some old comics I wanted to add to my collection. This convention did rock though. Most of the vendors were nice and willing to make deals and the comic selection well exceeded my expectations. Just imagine if I had won Event #34….I definitely would have purchased a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15.

But back to reality, here is what I picked up at Wizard World 2009:

The Nam #1 - 11, #16

X-Factor #24

Marvel Comics Presents: Weapon X #76, #77, #81

The Incredible Hulk #340

Wolverine #2, #3, #7 - 10

Wolverine (Mini-Series) #1 - 4 

The Punisher War Journal #6

The Uncanny X-Men #103 - 106, #108, #129 - 132, #139, #183, #229, #232 - 233

   Â

     I’ve always considered myself a pretty optimistic person. I always try and see the best in people and whatever happens in life. With that said: “Las Vegas really doesn’t like me that much!”

     12:00pm - 4:00pm Wynn Casino

     I first walked into the Wynn Casino around 11:30am but it took me until about noon before I was seated at a poker table because I spent a half-hour wondering around one of the most fucking beautiful buildings I’ve ever been in. The Wynn without a doubt can give The Bellagio and The Venetian a run for its money with it comes to “who’s the highest of the high end in Vegas”. This was even more noticeable when I bought into a 1/3 No-Limit Hold’em game for $300 and was seated directly to the left of two stacks that both had about $2000 in front of them. Welcome to that lucky 5% you always hear about. So not only did these two players have huge stacks but they were willing to gamble, which meant that my humble pile of 300 in chips would be in danger with ever pot I entered. Now the smart decision would be to move to another table to find a softer game, but hey I’m in Vegas right?, and I left my Vagisil at home, so I decided to hang around. Patiently I waited to find the spot where I could get it all-in with the best of it against these big stack bullies but unfortunatley that moment never came and after 4 hours I was down -$155.

     5:00pm - 8:00pm Treasure Island Casino

     I continued to be patient and wait for good spots as I started playing at “TI” but my discipline didn’t pay off as The Poker Gods didn’t see me fit to get the best of a table full of drunks. My favorite hand of the session was when I called this dude’s “all-in” bet for $65 with KhQh and he turns over 9s3h…neither one of us improves until he nails a 3 on the river.

     Now I understand how you can’t just sit around all day and wait, you do have to get in there and mix it, and I did, but time after time again I would make a good hand while this jerk off shooting Patron would make a great hand. What’s crazy is that I deal with drunk players all the time in AC and usually I get the best of them but this hasn’t been the case so far in LV. I left the Treasure Island poker room down -$196.

     I’ll admit that I’m not big on “change”. I’m happy with the way things are for the most part. If something works then why try and reinvent the wheel? So when I walked into the Excalibur poker room I almost shitted my pants. WTF???? The Excalibur poker room is 100% computerized. No human dealers and no poker chips. The game is entirely played on this gay-ass looking table with video monitors in front of each player. I spent all of 30 seconds looking at this abortion to the game of poker and left before I smacked the poker room director in the face for being a douche.

     You see I love poker. I’ve been poker seriously since June of 2000. Back then I would play whenever I could. I remember my roomate and I playing heads-up against each other night after night and honestly in the beginning I lost…I lost a lot. But fast forward 9 years and not only do I have the bankroll and the documentation to prove that I’m a winning player but I also have the confidence in myself to know that I can hold my own with 90% of players I run into in the 1/2 - 2/5 No-Limit Hold’em range. Which makes it incredibly ironic that my biggest score so far while in Vegas came during a fluke at the roulette wheel. Basically, as I was leaving the Excalibur poker room in a huff I suddenly had an urge to put $10 down on 0 and 00 and wouldn’t you know it, the ball ended up cradling itself into 0 slot. $350 just like that!!! Even crazier is that I played 0 and 00 again for $10 and the ball landed on black 28, one away from the 0. And so without playing one hand of poker I left Excalibur up $320.

     10:00pm - 2:00am Mandalay Bay Casino

     So maybe that random piece of good luck at the Excalibur was all I needed to get the cards flowing for me again? Not so quite. For four hours I sat at the table and nothing really happened. I watch a douche from LA go from $600 to nothing. I watched a guy play 3 hands, once with AA, one with KK, and one with JJ and leave the table with over $700. And I sat and I sat as I looke at 63os and 83os over and over again. Mandalay Bay is a nice poker room eventhough they do have some crazy house rules but overall it’s not bad. However, another losing session and -$92 out of my bankroll.

     2:30am - 4:30am The Luxor Casino

     Frustrated and discouraged I should have just went to my room at The Luxor and gone to bed. But my stubborned dumb ass decided to buy-in one last time for the day and unwiesly I only bought in for $150. My rationale at that late hour was that since I had been running bad all day, if I lost now it would only be for $150. OK, this is perhaps the worst way ever to approach a poker session. And now as I write this I’m laughing at myself with no surprise as I eventually ended up losing all of my $150. Yes, I had a big hand where I had the nut flush draw, a straight draw and two over-cards, but the lesson is is that if you go in expecting to lose, then you’re only inviting the forces of losing to wreck havoc on your bankroll. So, I finished my last session down -$150. And that adds up to -$593 in poker losses for the day.

And for those keeping track at home, I’m down a total of -$1025 for the trip so far and I’ve got 3 days to win it back.

   Â

                                                                                                                    The Luxor - Las Vegas, NV

     So here I am back in Sin City for another shot at poker glory. Unlike in ‘08 I’ve upgrade my accommodations (a little). I’m staying at The Luxor this year which is basically the casino that symbolizes everything that old school Vegas dudes hate. And the truth is is that the place does feel more like a section of EPCOT than a place for gambling, but then again this is what’s so great about Vegas and that anything goes. And who am I not to give this tourist trap designed as a casino a chance?

     Seriously how do you screw up a Cobb salad? Ok, so I didn’t get off to the best start with my stay at The Luxor. I mean c’mon look at this fucking disgrace of a Cobb salad! Since when is a Cobb salad something where you just throw whole pieces of bacon, chicken, egg, lettuce and avocado on a plate and call it a salad? I guess I usually wouldn’t be that pissed about this but this room service delight came to me with a Pepsi and a Sierra Mist for the price of $30, so fuck them! I’m going to criticize this so called salad that one of Jerry’s kids could do better with.

     Next, the fucking iron in the room didn’t work! I know I’m being totally West Coast by having to iron a shirt before going to play poker but hey this is Las Vegas and I don’t want to come off like some floozy. But anyways the iron didn’t work and I had to have house keeping bring me up a new one. At this point The Gold Coast from ‘08 isn’t looking too bad. And also at this point I’ve notice I’ve gone this whole blog about the 2009 World Series of Poker without evening talking about poker. So that’s leave Egypt for the moment.

     After catching a cab from The Luxor to The Rio it only took me about 30 minutes or so before I was at a table with 9 other people for a $175 Sit-and-Go Tournament for the WSOP Event #34. The basic notion of these tournaments is that if you beat out the other 9 people at your table then you’re only paying $175 to get into a $1500 WSOP event. The structure of these tournaments are always pretty fast and you need to catch cards to survive so I was actually pretty amazed that I made it down to the last 3 players while basically never having a real hand. However, I was the short stack and when it came time to push my AJ was no good against my opponent’s K5, where he actually ended up making a spade flush.

                                                                                                                    The 2009 World Series of Poker

     I slowly watched any dreams of poker stardom fade away as I took a cab back to The Luxor, where I hit a few bars that were as dead as Ronald Reagan. Now I know I’m bad mouthing The Luxor something fierce here but to tell you the truth the layout of the place isn’t that bad. However, it just seems that it can’t compete with the other big hitters in town. And eventhough I usually never play poker drunk, I did decide to buy into a $1-2 NL Hold’em game at The Luxor’s poker room.

     Now the fact that I had start drinking heavily after getting bounced from my WSOP Sit-N-Go failure had nothing to do with this session at The Luxor, where it seemed flopping two pair didn’t mean shit. Here are some hands for you:

I hold A2 - Flop comes A 2 8 - Turn 8 - end up folding on turn because I know now my two pair is no good now, which is confirmed when the villian shows AJ.

I hold A3 in the big blind - Flop comes A 3 Q - and of course I run up against a guy who limps from late position with AQ.

So before I knew it after two hours I’m down $257 and I’m thinking it’s time to call it a night. And while I’m walking towards the elevator to head to my room I see a 24-hour convenience store that I decide to pop into and to my delight I see that they sell 22 oz cans of Icehouse beer so I grab two of them and call it a night. Finally a +EV situation!

                                                                                                                     Crystal Park Casino - Compton, CA

     I seem to be heading out west a lot lately and this gave me the opportunity to play poker in one of the most beautiful cities in America…yes I’m talking about Compton, CA. Now before you think I’ve joined either The Bloods or The Crips the truth is is that I was in Compton to check out the Crystal Park Casino. Having already checked out the likes of The Commerce and The Bike I thought it was a good idea to see what the other LA poker rooms had to offer. I thought that for all about the time it took me to walk from my rental car to the front doors of Crystal Park. Whereas upon entering “CP” I immediately thought, “What the fuck am I doing here?”

     Now don’t get me wrong, The Crystal Park Casino and Compton itself isn’t as bad as “Boyz N The Hood” or N.W.A make it out to be. I mean compared to Camden, NJ and North Philadelphia I really didn’t feel that threatend at all as a white man in a unfamiliar area. Did I get out the car between the highway exit and the casino parking lot? “Hell NO!” But that’s besides the point. The Crystal Park Casino is literally right off the 91 Freeway and located right next to a Best Buy shopping area so it isn’t exactly “The Hood”. However, once inside the casino you realize right away that you’re not in a very affluent environment. There’s small stakes gambling everywhere from the bingo, blackjack, and the whopping two poker tables running. The poker room was small  and the two tables with players at them were both $1-2 No Limit Hold’em. The casino and poker room really reminded me of The Normandie Casino that I had visited weeks early. Filled with dirty and degenerate gamblers, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, but just not exactly what I was in the mood for after having run really well at a posh place like The Borgata lately. I only played for like an hour, won $62 and headed out the door to find somewhere if not cleaner at least more appealing. I headed over to The Hustler.

     You’d think that being in LA that there would be plenty of hot women hanging around and working in casinos, but honestly only The Hustler has any kind of decent looking women within their establishment, and even they have nothing on The Borgata Babes, but I digress. The Hustler definitely isn’t as big or as well regarded as The Commerce or The Bicycle Club but for some reason I just like the feel and atmosphere of the venue. Maybe me and Larry Flynnt have a lot in common. Well, let’s see poker and porn…there’s two things. But one thing I don’t dig about The Hustler or LA poker in general is their retarded cash game structure (please refer to previous blogs below if you want even more complaining about this) where the max buy in for a $1-2 NL Hold’em game is a measely $100 and for $2-5 its $200, which results in absolutely no play and just coin flips and shoving matches. It also doesn’t help that night that I couldn’t hit anything on the board or that any kind of moves that I did attempt ran into good hands. But whatever, LA Poker I don’t hate you, but I see you more as the same way as I see Donovan McNabb; you’re still hugely over-rated but you do occassionaly have some bright spots.

                                                                                                                               Hawaiian Gardens Casino - Hawaiian Gardens, CA

     So I was back in Los Angeles last week and despite the bad structure the poker rooms have for their cash games, there’s just too many card rooms around for me not to check them out. I was on a shorter trip than last time so I only had two nights to check out some places I hadn’t played at before. The first place I played at was The Hawaiian Gardens Casino, and my first impression was this place is going to be a shithole because as I was walking towards the poker room I was exposed to at least 3 poker zombies mumbling about their bad luck and bad beats. Great. So I was thinking this was going to be a loser place for losers, but actually the poker room was really well run. Even better the $3/5 No Limit Hold’em game had a max buy-in of $300, now it’s not as good as the normal $500 buy-in I’m use to but its better than the $200 max buy-in that most card rooms in LA go by.

     So maybe the poker room was filled with poker zombies and a good number of house players, but there were some decent players as well as some pretty terrible players. Actually, the mood of the Hawaiian Gardens poker room can best be described as a sports/island bar that just happens to be surrounded by poker tables, so it’s actually kind of a fun place to play if you can put up with the occassional filth that you’ll run into. I played $3/5 No Limit Hold’em for a few hours and finished up $196, which wasn’t that bad considering I lost $100 on my very first hand.

                                                                                                               Normandie Casino - Gardena, CA

     So while I had some time to kill before catching my red-eye flight home I stopped by The Normandie Casino. Now it was around 5:30pm and I was shocked to learn that there were no “no-limit hold’em” games running. What??? Had I just entered a time warp to 1997 or something? Everyone was either playing low stakes limit hold’em or stud. I did find a Omaha Hi-Lo game going with limits at $3 - $6 so I took a seat at that. I really enjoy playing Omaha Hi-Lo and its too bad I don’t get to play it as much as I’d like because usually the games that do run at  The Borgata are too high for my bankroll. Now what’s great about Omaha Hi-Lo is that compared to how many people that play Hold’em and don’t have a clue as to what they are doing, there are even more, and I mean way more players that play Omaha Hi-Lo and don’t have even the slightest clue as to how to play.

     I played the game for a few hours and finished up $47. It seemed like a lot of work for just $47, then I noticed that the rake was $5 every hand regardless of the size of the pot. To me this is kind of crazy but the rake at The Normandie Casino is based on how many players are in the hand and not the size of the pot. For example, 9-7 players = $5, 6 - 5 players = $4, 4 players and below = $3. Now this really stupid because let’s say you have only a $10 pot, the house takes half you money. Now this doesn’t seem like a big deal but over time it can really add up and it makes it equally hard to accumlate chips in a limit game. Also the game was filled with house players and with more players with bad teeth then I’ve ever seen. Not to mention I got to talk to people who still have rabbitt ears on their TVs and are sweating the digital TV cable switchover in February ‘09. Yes, people like this still exisit and most of them live in trailer parks in California. But overall I had a decent time while playing in LA again, and although I still don’t think LA Poker is anywhere as good as the poker I get to play every weekend at The Borgata, I think I’ve grown to understand it and tolerate it more for what it is.

But just one last question……WHAT’S WITH ALL THE FUCKING EATING AT THE TABLES!!!! IT’S GROSS, SLOWS DOWN PLAY AND IT’S ANNOYING!!! TAKE 15 - 30 MINUTES AWAY FROM THE TABLE AND STUFF YOUR DONKEY FACE AND RETURN!!!

 The Commerce Casino. The Bicycle Club. If you play poker seriously then you’ve heard of these venues. I myself had never been to either one of these establishments before, but after spending a week in the Los Angeles area I have to say that these poker rooms do not live up to the hype and praise you’ve heard about them.

The Commerce Casino - Commerce, CA

     The Commerce Casino is perhaps the most famous card room in LA. It might even be the biggest card room in the whole world (Foxwoods?). But let me tell you as a player that prefers the likes of The Borgata and The Bellagio, The Commerce Casino is a dump! You’ll find dirty people loitering around the casino and sometimes even dirtier people sitting at your table. And everyone is eating all the time! My #1 poker pet peeve is eating at the table and it seems that in CA when most people decide to go out to eat they somehow found their way to a poker table. I swear of the nine people at the table at least 5 of them were eating or ordering something during the whole session.
     Next, let’s talk about how fucked up LA’s buy-in structure is for No-Limit Hold’em. Listen to this, the max buy-in for a 3-5 NL Hold’em game is $200! WTF? I thought the logic for NL Hold’em was to have a max buy-in of at least 100x the big blind. At a buy-in of only $200 and where the average pre-flop raise is around $20 - $30 it doesn’t take long for you to get your stack committed in situations you wouldn’t normally desire. Basically the game can turn into a coin-flip shove fest. So my biggest problem with LA poker is that there doesn’t seem to be much “play”.
     During my time at the Commerce I was surrounded by loose bad players that unfortunately I wasn’t able to exploit. But it was fun to watch this guy sitting next to me with about $800 in chips get felted after he got drunk and started playing every hand and trying to bluff everyone every hand. In a string of five hands this guy went from $800 to nothing. It was one of the worst displays of poker I had ever seen. But the one good thing I can say about the Commerce Casino is that the parking lot isn’t as bad/dangerous as everyone says it is and the parking is free as well.

The Bicycle Casino - Bell Gardens, CA

     The Bicycle Casino or commonly refer to as “The Bike” is cleaner and nicer than the Commerce Casino but the quality of players is still pretty bad, also everyone loves to eat at the table, as a matter of fact if you play 3-5 No-Limit Hold’em or higher you can get all the free food you want from the casino. That’s a first. But what would seem like a nice perk for the players actually was kind of annoying to me as I watched players display their gluttony as it seemed like everyone was ordering 5 course meals plus desert. The poker table turns into this centerpiece surrounded by side tables filled with food. And as if live poker wasn’t slow enough, all the eating going on only slows the game down even more.
     So there I was playing 3-5 NL Hold’em with their bullshit $200 max buy-in which led to me playing pretty tight and waiting to take advantage of the loose and wild players around me splashing every pot. Because of this structure I believe you just have to be patient and wait for a situation where you can get involved with the best of it, and boy did I find such a situation. Long story short I held Qs Js with a board of 9s 10s 8c which resulted in me stacking my opponent. So yeah you can say I had fun at The Bicycle Casino.

Hustler Casino - Gardena, CA

     I’ve heard a lot of stories about The Hustler Casino. How Larry Flynnt flies in the world’s best poker players to take on, so I was excited to check out this place out. And with the name Hustler involved I was expecting to see hot sluts walking around everywhere. Well, that’s not exactly what you’re going to see. I really didn’t see any hot chicks anywhere inside, even the waitresses were kind of beat and rundown. But the card room was comfortable and well laid out, and from what I was told the table where Larry and players like Phil Ivey and John Hennigan play ultra high stakes games is right there amongst all the normal tables. Well I didn’t see Larry or Phil playing anywhere but my 3-5 No Limit Hold’em game was actually the most solid game I had experience since playing in LA. Most players knew how to control their bets in accordance to their stacks and there really weren’t any shove fests to speak of. This might be a result of the high number of house players I spotted in the card room. Actually the number of house players I saw in LA poker rooms was abnormally high in comparison to other card rooms I’ve been in around the country. But hey I don’t mind house players, they keep the game going and most of them don’t get out of line too often with their betting. 

Hollywood Park Casino - Inglewood, CA

     My final session of LA poker came while I was waiting for my red-eye flight back to Philly. The Hollywood Park Casino is only a stone’s throw away from LAX and is a pretty cool place to play. I loved the fact that there are arcade games everywhere surrounding the poker room. And we’re talking cool arcade games like Donkey Kong, Operation Wolf and an Elvis pinball machine as just a few examples. But like everywhere else in LA there was the $200 max buy-in for the 3-5 No Limit Hold’em game which I again will tell you how much I detest. And once again I was at a table where players were just making huge over-sized bets pre-flop and just shoving on the flop. Is this poker? Maybe its just a result of all the action junkies in the room who are also betting the horses while sitting at the table.Â
     Now don’t think I’m being a whining little bitch, because I know how to adapt to this structure and this kind of play, but the thing is, is that on this day some bad luck and some cold cards resulted in a pretty decent dent in my bankroll. I’m not going to tell you how much I lost but just let me point out these few hands: my set of 4’s stacked by a set of Kings, a guy all-in rivering a flush to beat my straight, I was short-stacked with pocket 8’s and of course my opponent with AK nailed his Ace on the flop…OK, maybe I am starting to sound like a bitch because no one likes to hear bad beat stories, but it just seemed like that during my time playing poker in LA I didn’t exactly feel like I was “playing poker”. I almost felt that due to the structure that comes with a low buy-in for a No-Limit Hold’em game that most of my actions were pretty much determined by the math involved and not by any kind of high level thinking. Man, I can’t wait to get back to The Borgata.Â

                                                                                                                     Caesars Palace

     Aggression is a very powerful tool when it comes to No Limit Hold’em, but sometimes you can be too aggressive believe it or not. Maybe I was too over confident after my session last night at The Bellagio but I sat down at a 2 - 5 No Limit Hold’em table at Caesars Palace and in one hour I was down $500. It started when I had AQ and flopped top pair, but was up against a guy with A3 who had flopped two pair. That hand hurt and I lost over $200 on that hand alone. I don’t want to get into all the details of the betting, but long story short, I should have picked up that he had my AQ beat when he re-raised me on the turn. I played a few hands that couldn’t connect with the flop and then suddenly my stack was only around $120, which isn’t that much in a 2- 5 game. At this point I’m looking to double up my stack so I have some chips to play with, and my opportunity came when I had Jc10c and hit top pair with a flop of 10s 6s 7c. I got the rest of my $120 in the middle but unfortunately I was up against pocket Aces and didn’t improve.

                                                                                                                       Age of Moneyology

     I didn’t like how things were going or how I was playing so I got up from the table and left Caesars. Wow, I just blew $500 in one hour. Looking back I would have played some hands differently, but after walking around on the Vegas Strip for awhile to collect myself I was ready to get into another game, and not worry about winning money but just focus on playing my normal game. Maybe at Caesars I was playing too aggressive because I was so concerned about winning back my money to end my trip to Vegas either even or ahead. When actually I shouldn’t even be worried about that stuff when I’m at the table. I should just focus on the game one hand at a time and let the chips fall where they may. I entered the Planet Hollywood poker room in this state of mind.

                                                                                                                Planet Hollywood

      Planet Hollywood has a nice little poker room but here’s something interesting about it, some genius decided it would be great idea to put a karaoke bar right next to it. Wow, what a distraction. There’s nothing like trying to play poker and listen to a bunch of tourists sing “Sweet Caroline”. The best was when someone decided to sing “The Adams Family” song, my douche chills didn’t go away for at least 20 minutes. But back to poker, I took an empty seat at a 1 - 2 No Limit Hold’em table and was determined not to let the fact that was already down $500 bother me. I was just going to play my game and take it one hand at a time. Nothing really exciting happened for me in the first two hours, however the guy sitting to my left flopped a royal flush and won a high hand jackpot for $1200. Damn I was one seat off. $1200 would have been nice, that would have taken care of my session at Caesars and cleared me for the trip all in one swoop, but again I wasn’t going to let that bother me, I was going to just play my normal game. And with that said, over the 4 hours I was at the table I won $232. I didn’t win any huge pots, just a few pots here and there and one decent size pot when I made two pair with AJ. It was 4:30am and my flight home was at 7:00am so my poker playing days in Las Vegas were over for now.

     Summing up my poker vacation to Las Vegas all I have to say is that I’m glad I gave this a shot. Sure, I probably donked off $1500 by entering that WSOP event, but what if my cards had hit and if now I had a bankroll of $631,000 like David Woo now has. There are a lot of good players out here in Vegas and I learned a lot about my own game while playing out here, and I think that’s really important, because like you saw tonight you need to play the game that suits your own style. I was too aggressive at Caesars and it cost me $500, I simmered down at Planet Hollywood and worked my way to winning $232. So I finished my last night down $268, leaving me $764 in the hole while I boarded my plane back to Philly. $764 is a lot of money but considering I was down $1500 after playing for 3 hours in the WSOP tournament, you could look at it like I won $736 while I was out here.

     So that’s it, Las Vegas I love you and I’m looking forward to seeing you again next year. I’m back at home in New Jersey now and have today off to readjust myself from my trip. Wait, The Borgata is only an hour away……

                                                                                                                    The Mirage

     ***News Flash: WSOP Event #39 No-Limit Hold’em was won by David Woo, earning him $631,656 - you lousy bum!***

     But since I wasn’t anywhere near the final table of the event above I decided to head over to The Mirage poker room. I was looking to play some 1-2 No Limit Hold’em but there was quite a waiting list for that game so when I saw an open seat at a 5-10 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo game I took a seat there. Now, I’ll admit my Omaha Hi-Lo skills aren’t as polished as my Hold’em abilities, and I didn’t exactly play my best poker, but man did I receive some bad beats. It seemed like I missed all my draws when going for the nuts, while my opponents where filling up on me when I did have a good hand. You know, I flop the nut straight but my opponents either hit a flush or a full house on the river, which isn’t uncommon in Omaha, but when I was on draw like my opponents were I never seemed to hit and before I knew it I was down $303.

     Now The Mirage poker room is a very nice room and a decent size with a variety of different games, but on the downside the players there, at least at my table, were old riff raffs from the old days of Vegas. Maybe it was because I was playing Omaha, which hasn’t taken off with the young generation of poker players like Hold’em has, because I’d say the average age of the players at my table was probably around 50, with a few guys nearing their 70’s. One guy kept falling asleep at the table and actually looked like he was ready to drop dead at any second. I was kind of annoyed that the poker floorperson allowed a guy to sleep at our table. You really can’t get much action from a guy who’s passed out. Also, ironically these guys where talking about the “old glory days” of Las Vegas and most of their information was wrong. I’ve read a lot about the history of Las Vegas and it was funny to listen to these “locals” try and impress us “tourists” with their folklore that sounded to me like complete BS. So I didn’t exactly have a great time at The Mirage, but the night was young and The Bellagio was close by.

                                                                                                                    The Bellagio - the center of the poker universe.

     The safe play when being down $303 is to seek out an easy game where you can win you’re money back, and since the last time I played at The Bellagio I ran into the hardest poker table I had ever faced, my move to go back to The Bellagio wouldn’t exactly be considered a high percentage play. But how often am I in Vegas? If I’m matching myself against Atlantic City’s best at The Borgata every weekend why not take on Las Vegas’ best at The Bellagio while I’m here? I waited for about 30 minutes before I was seated at a 2 - 5 No Limit Hold’em table, but to my surprise this was the exact opposite of the table I faced here the other night. My table this time was a poker player’s dream! Of the ten players at the table I’d say only 3 or 4 had a strong handle on the game, the other players were timid “newbies” to live poker, drunk Austrailian businessmen, and even one really hot chick who was looking to dump $200 to pass the time while her boyfriend played his high-limit game. Needless to say I was very happy I decided to come back to The Bellagio.

     I played from 12:30am until 5:30am and won $767. My big hand of the night came when I was holding Ac7c and made the nut club flush on the turn and basically tripled up my stack. I was tired as shit at 5:30am and was shocked when I looked in on “The Big Game” and saw that players like Johnny Chan, Kenny Tran, and Sam Farha were wide awake, playing super high level limits, and apparently had been playing for close to 18 hours straight. How do these guys do it? They are so sick! I my not be anywhere near their level but I was very happy with how my night had turned around and I headed home to “The Ghetto Coast” having once again cut into my deficit.

     With one night left in Las Vegas I’m currently down $496 for my trip. Not bad considering I lost $1500 with my short-lived tournament experience. Can I leave Vegas back at even or ahead? I’m heading to Caesar’s Palace tonight to find out.   

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                                                                                                                       The Venetian

     Human innovation is the key to our species’ survival. And Las Vegas may be the greatest accomplishment in mankind’s history. The city not only shows why America is the best country in the world, but also why capitalism is the only way to go. Where money talks and bullshit…well if you don’t have the cash…then get the fuck out of the way.

     I came back with a vengence today and won $500 while playing 1-2 No Limit Hold’em at The Venetian. To make a long story short, I won a few small pots and was doing pretty good until I was dealt pocket Jacks, I flopped a set of Jacks, my opponent turned a straight and I rivered a full house, basically taking him for everything he had by winning a $800 pot. I played from 6:30pm until 4:30am, then I headed over to The Palms where I saw two girls making at the bar, one even showed her tits while the other kissed them, made some friends playing Blackjack and headed back to “The Ghetto Coast” around 6am.

                                                                                                                       This hallway is a testament to the greatness of mankind.

     But besides having a good night of poker, I was also amazed by how awesome The Venetian is. This is definitely the nicest casino I’ve ever been in. So much style and class, a good mixture of gamblers from young to old, and not an “Mtv” casino like The Palms or The Hard Rock. The Venetian is actually designed better than The Bellagio, and this has nothing to do with the fact that I just won $500 playing there. The place really is amazing.

                                                                                                                   Look at this ceiling! Da Vinci eat your heart out.

     So after tonight I’ve put a nice dent in my deficit. I’m only $960 in the hole. Can I win the rest back by Wednesday morning? Let’s hope and see.

                                                                                                                     The Rio - Home of the 2008 World Series of Poker

     My shot at poker glory ended after 3 hours on Saturday as I was knocked out in 2060th place in a field of 2720 for the 2008 World Series of Poker Event #39 $1500 No-Limit Hold’em Tournament. In tournament poker you have to find a way to quickly collect chips as the blinds and antes will constantly rise. I however couldn’t get anything going or find any favorable situations and that’s a recipe for disaster.

                                                                                                                    Hey, I only had to outlast 2719 other players, no problem.

     Each player started with 3000 in chips and the beginning blinds were 25-50 with 1 hour levels. I heard a lot of players complaining that this structure was too fast but given that this is just a preliminary event I think starting with 60 big blinds and 1 hour levels is more then generous. I didn’t win any big pots or lose any big pots so by the time the blinds were 100 - 200 I was left with about 1300 in chips and I was one of the smallest stacks at the table. I’d guess that the average stack size at the table was probably around 4000 chips. At this level the opening raise was about 600 chips, so when I looked down and saw that I had pocket 10’s I had a good feeling that this was an opportunity to at least double-up. I was in late position and a player in middle position made the standard raise to 600, the action was folded to me and I decided to go all-in, with his bet of 600 and with 300 in blinds the pot was at 900, and since I only had 1300 in chips I see this as the correct decision. The initial raiser calls:

Jeff Larsen: 10s 10h

Guy in shades: Ah Js

The Board:    Flop: Ks 6d Qs    Turn: 7c     River: Ad

     An Ace on the River and I’m out the door. I played the best I could and I got my money in there with the best of it. Actually, if you want to hear something sick, I should have been knocked out of the tournament 2 hours earlier when I had pockets 6’s and limped into a seven way pot which featured a flop of Ah 6h 4h. A player in early position bet, a player in middle position raised and I threw my set of 6’s into the muck. That’s right I threw away a set! With a bet and a raise in a seven way pot I knew someone had to have flop the flush. And sure enough after the initial bettor folded, the raiser showed his hand of 9h7h. Now, how many players are disciplined enough to fold my hand in that situation? Sure maybe the board would have paired and I would have won with a full house, but the percentages are against it.   

     Eventhough I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, playing in a World Series of Poker Event has a level of excitement that is truly one of a kind. Just like the city of Las Vegas. I fucking love this town! I’m even staying in a shitty ass hotel and still having a ball. Let me tell you about The Gold Coast Casino or the “Ghetto Coast” as I have been calling it.

                                                                                                                   “The Ghetto Coast Casino”

     Now to spend 5 nights in Las Vegas for under $500 is a bargain but you do get what you pay for. The Gold Coast slogan is “Serving the locals since they were tourists” and it truly feels that way. From the median age of 55 for most guests, to the toothless wonders roaming the hotel lobby, this hotel isn’t going to be making any “Best of Vegas” lists anytime soon. I wanted to write a blog on Saturday but it took the hotel’s technicans all day to fix my room’s internet connection. I have a feeling that not many guests at this hotel either have or can afford a laptop computer so the internet connections aren’t used much or maintained at all. And oh, you have to pay $11.99 a day to use the internet, that’s so weak, but it’s actually the norm for Vegas hotels. And do you think the ice machine would work? No, sorry! It’s only 111 degrees outside and you expect your hotel to have a working ice machine! How foolish of me.

                                                                                                                       The Gold Coast attracts all the high rollers with their penny slots.

     But who has time to complain about missing amenities when you’re in Las Vegas? Me I guess. But on the brightside “The Ghetto Coast” does have a liquor store in the lobby, which carries Icehouse Beer, my favorite beer of all-time, and the Asian escorts are friendly when you decline their offers. Also, the hotel is located right in between The Rio and The Palms, so it’s location is key.

                                                                                                                 The Palms - the hottest place on Earth

     I have often boasted about the Babes seen at The Borgata in Atlantic City. Well, last night I made my first trip to The Palms casino and without a doubt this place has the most amazing and hottest girls per squre foot than anywhere else in the world! Their poker room only has 4 tables but the view is overwhelming. Every 20 seconds you hear the “click-clak” of high heels on marble floors attached to the most ridiculous female bodies you have ever seen. We’re talking models, we’re talking pornstars, we’re talking just the hottest women from all over the country hanging out in one place, wearing the most outrageous outfits you can imagine. I could only sit at the poker table for 4 hours because I just couldn’t concentrate. It was so ridiculous! Fortunately, in those four hours I won $236 so its fair to say I have nothing but praise for The Palms.

     To escape the sensory overload of The Palms I headed to the Bellagio where I played poker until 6am. I sat down at a 2/5 No-Limit table, (that’s the lowest game The Bellagio offers) and it was the hardest table I’ve ever been at. Every hand I played I was challenged and put to the test. A sharp contrast to how I was steamrolling the poker table at The Palms. Every player in The Bellagio is dead serious about poker, from the guys at my table to the world’s best players, just to name a few: Johnny Chan, Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, Kenny Tran and David Benyamine who were all playing a $2,000/$4,000 Mixed game last night. I left The Bellagio -$196 finishing the night with a $40 profit, woo who! So now I’m only down -$1460 for my trip.

     Today’s gameplan: Check out The Venetian and win back more money. Â