Read grubby at PokerWorks blog #2

Email grubby or grubette
(unless you specify otherwise, emails may make it into future grub posts)

Look for grubette at...
Online Poker

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: 191997




web grub
Visit Our Supporters:

Get great bonus codes for poker stars and titan poker plus the best online rakeback including full tilt rakeback by becoming a Rakeback.org member.

Play Poker Online
Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker
Play poker at the only online poker room designed by the world’s best players.

Posts on This Page

Grubby's Hands of the Week

What is The Hammer?

Who is grubette?

Writings from Truckin'

Links

Poker Blogs

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The day after


Hanging out at Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club until flight.

Car was exchanged for much more pimpin' Jeep Commander that was supposedly the last on the lot. Tow truck arrived at 3:30, right after the wedding ended.

Missed the chapel experience but made reception. Wonderful southern food atypical of wedding grub -- beef brisket, pulled pork, peach soup, strawberry parfait, peach biscuit, much more. Gift to everyone was delicious tub of barbecue sauce made by 93-year-old guy. Poured it on everything, expecting it confiscated at airport.

Wine served but otherwise no alcohol. Duke Inn had other wedding receptions running (our hotel had a high school cheerleading convention), so crashed Fleming-Miller wedding for a Captain & Coke. Shook hands with bride and congratulated her, then also partook in a shrimp skewer. Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Fleming.

Back to original wedding, much dancing -- OMC's "How Bizarre" by request. Danced with previously mentioned 12-year-old for amusement of friends. Later formed dance circle and entered with little kid. Accidentally stepped on her bare feet but she didn't cry until finishing dance.

Many goofy photos, in one of all the college friends, called over 12-year-old to be in our photo. She came over and posed, wonder if this will scar her for life or at least till the braces come off.

Stayed till end, no time for strip club (plus in mixed company), so hung out drinking and eating more outside at Duke Inn terrace.

Cute waitress named Alison put up with us and had snappy comebacks.

Showed magic trick to group, waitress stops by. "Alison," a friend says, "he has a trick to show you."

I show the trick again, not as good the second time.

"Hey that's really cool," she says.

"Now for his next trick he'll get your phone number."

As she walks away, Alison says, "Now I'll show my disappearing act."

Ouch.

— —

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Hot and have to pee

No sign of tow truck.

Wedding in 30 minutes.

20 minutes to hotel.

10 minutes to change.

15 minutes to church.

Called groom and told him to stall and walk slow.

But will most likely miss wedding.

Could always be first at reception, though.

Couldn't possibly miss that too, could I?


— —

Stranded in Chapel Hill


Dang Tarheels.

Wedding in 90 minutes, car broke down, waiting for new rental car in 60-90 minutes. Stalled and steering wheel locked while driving with oncoming traffic. Used up #4 of my nine lives.

Need a drink.

Maybe nice people in mansion will have some Southern hospitality Arnold Palmers.

— —

Short does not mean over 18

At rehearsal dinner near Duke University.

"What about that girl?" I said. "She's cute."

"She's 12 years old."

I squinted and indeed she is underage. I need new contacts. I thought she was just short.

Later she gave a speech (wearing braces) and teared up about how great a friend the bride is and how she helped her through a lot. But come on, honey, 12 years ain't long enough to warrant the tears.

I wanted to say something about the groom, but all the good stories involve porn and strippers.

Tomorrow my friend from college is getting married. Seven college buddies are in Durham to celebrate, but drinks ran too long for any strip clubbing.

Our friend is overly excited for tomorrow night after the wedding because he's marrying a preacher, which comes with all that that entails.

When we left him on his last evening of bachelorhood, I shook his hand and gave the only advice to come to mind: "Don't jerk off."

— —

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Practicality over design

I'll be in Raleigh, North Carolina near Duke University this coming weekend for a friend's wedding.

Arriving a day before on Friday, two of the group will be in the wedding and attending rehearsal dinner. They got the bad beat. The rest of us will be drinking and scouting out strip clubs (and yes, I still owe a posting of the Vegas stripper's house and midget).

So far one seems to be the best of the bunch -- Teasers. They even have a nifty coupon for free admission. Not sure if that's a good or bad sign.

Paging through their wedding registry at Macy's (the happy couple, not the gentlemen's club), there was this Vera Wang gravy boat for $155.


Not the stand, mind you, that was an additional $80.

I can't see paying $235 for something that will only be used a couple times a year.

Not to mention that's almost 10 couch dances at Teasers (at $25 each, Durham strippers have that high Duke U. student loan to pay off).

There was a time in my 20s when everyone who got married received my standard gift of a gargoyle statue. It stood out, it was memorable, and it warded off evil. Some even still have theirs above their fireplace.

Now as weddings slow down, I get things more practical.

But a Vera Wang gravy boat?

Instead, I got a beef jerky maker.

— —

Saturday, June 21, 2008

A blog by M. Night Shyamalan

I think my apartment is actually presentable now. If I get a couch I can join Couchsurfing.

The trick will be to keep it this way after Joe leaves. Odds are about as slim as my quitting gambling every day, but I have hopes.

(I call him Joe here because when he played craps for the first time at the MGM Grand, he kept hitting points, and a guy at the end of the table started yelling, "C'mon, L'il Joe!")

I've known Joe for years, working together at the college newspaper and then being roommates in a townhouse with two others. I remember sitting in the kitchen with him watching the breakfast chandelier shake and almost fall as our roommate above had sex with his girlfriend. I remember our refrigerator having three gallons of milk, because we each drank a different type (that was probably the last time I ever drank milk). I remember the backyard getting so long that our neighbors complained, and we cut the blades of grass with scissors.

Years later we ended up living within walking distance, and I'd house- and catsit whenever he and his wife were away. His house was always immaculately decorated and arranged, and I have a fun memory of inviting a girl over to watch a DVD of The Royal Tenenbaums while pretending it was my house. I was all over her during the movie, and I thought she would call me out on not living there when I didn't know how to work the surround sound. Instead, she said, "You had no intention of ever watching the movie, did you?" I shook my head and then she began sucking on my thumb.

Shortly after I moved to Vegas, Joe and his wife moved to London, where they've been since. He's now writing travel books, an ideal job that gets him to travel on the company's dime and then write about his experiences.

So this week we've just been hanging out and catching up.

A couple nights ago we saw M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, which is seemingly an Al Gore environmental horror flick. Afterwards, it kept running through my mind, and I bothered Joe with "what if" scenarios, trying to work through how to make it better. The Central Park and 9/11 callback is so visceral at the beginning that it's all the more disappointing how it's followed up. I think Shyamalan could've done something beginning with the lawnmower incident. Up to that point, he's playing with our expectations a la The Sixth Sense, where we assume certain things are Happening but we only see the before and after. This time we see it, but if we were to see something else (think a "V"-type reveal), it may have been more interesting. May have, because as Joe said, "The Happening" should've been called "Shit Happening."

And what Happened to poor Zooey Deschanel? She was a favorite of mine (she was great in Elf, and I went to Los Angeles to hear her sing), but lately with this and Tin Man she's been out of the paper bag and wide-eyed staring acting school. Marky Mark was a bonafide actor in my eyes until this movie, where he's going to have to regain credibility. Worst of all is Shyamalan, who I thought could at least direct if his scripts were going downhill, but this movie shows otherwise. He doesn't yet realize his recent movies are shit, because he still boasts "A FILM BY M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN" introducing the closing credits.

The best part of the night was eating at OYSY (Oh-ee-she... speaking of Wes Anderson, I'm waiting for a restaurant called ORU), a swank sushi bistro in the Paper District while people-watching out the window on Grand Ave. Glam rolls at not-too-expensive prices, with friendly and extremely fast service.

We shared the specialty maki called the Rainbow Dragon, and it did indeed look like a colorful dragon. Note the eyes are a piece of Octopus tentacle. It contained salmon, eel, ebi, shrimp tempura (to keep it crunchy), super white eel, masago, cucumber, avocado, and wasabi, chili, and black tobiko.


It almost looked too cute to eat, but I got over that.

Good sushi restaurants always offer mochi (a bonbon-shaped ice cream ball covered in gelatin) for dessert, and I chose the mango.


Then I spoiled a good dinner with a large popcorn, a shit movie, and Hooters' mexi-fries (like nachos but with fries) and Co-co-colada girlie drink.

— —

Monday, June 16, 2008

Chez Grubby

I can't seem to win on Full Tilt anymore, but at least it warms my heart that people are still playing The Hammer Challenge, even without a formal challenge. Check out this thread on Full Tilt's forum.

I added a FEEDJIT map to the left. The small map shows the last 100 visitors, and if you click on it you'll see the last 1000 visitors. To those reading from Morocco, Brazil, Chile, France, Australia, and Argentina, can I crash on your couch?

Back when I was writing and submitting plays, I began targeting places where I'd never had a production just so I could scratch it off the list and give me the excuse to visit (like Nantucket). My wall had a map of the U.S. with Post-Its for a dozen states that performed my plays. Plus Jerusalem.

Feedjit is similar, showing me that I need to work on broadening appeal to the southern states, sort of like Hillary Clinton. The Blog Readability Test says that Poker Grub's reading level is elementary school (which also matches the level of Pamela Anderson's blog), so if there are no readers in the Dakotas, at least I can appeal to Dakota Fanning.

I first found out about this great widget from Irongirl's blog (whose reading level is junior high school). Her recent post talks about picking Big Brown at the Belmont.

There's an OTB nearby, and I went recently with some friends and plunked down a bunch of money on horses and scratch tickets.



A lot of scratch tickets.



***

The tomatoes are back! Last week, Chipotle removed tomatoes from their salsa because of the salmonella breakout, but today they were back. Visited likewise tomato-less McDonald's and Burger King over the weekend, and sandwiches just aren't the same. Man, I need a better diet.

A friend in Las Vegas is now in a gambling addiction program. For six weeks, they meet four days a week, three hours a day. And all for $5 per session (because, she says, gamblers don't have money because they're always gambling it away). She says it's worked wonders so far. I'm checking if there's something similar, because I'm uncomfortable that Gamblers Anonymous is too focused on a Higher Power. And I doubt I could pick and choose my gambling of choice -- can I keep poker and pai gow but get rid of slots and blackjack? What if I need to play slots for my job? What if I can't exclude myself from casinos?

'Course, I'm also looking into returning to Vegas for a July 4th trip. All the offers that came in are too good to pass up, and I can double- and triple-book rooms and slot tournaments if I can get the timing right. One of the offers is a 3-night stay at Venetian in their 700-square-foot suite (bigger than my apartment), and since it comes with a DVD player, I can hang out, watch movies, read a book, and maybe do some work at the Vegas office.

And spend some time in strip clubs. Because it's cheaper for me to spend money there than spend money playing slots.

This will be a big test of will power. Not playing slots at Venetian is easy -- their floor isn't the most up to date and 3 nights will be a big debit in my comp balance that will be hard to dig out of. Venetian handles room comps like MGM Mirage and Wynn -- they comp upfront, then your play those nights works off the room before triggering any future offers (though if you maintain the level of prior play, you'll still get free offers and keep your deficit). When I had the free room at Wynn in April, I only played the freeplay and then stopped.

A big motivator for my gambling is the offers. If I don't have a player's card, I'm less likely to play. If I know I won't be getting any offers, I don't feel the need to play.

Some people have a desire to win, I have a desire to pick up a free meat thermometer.

***

All weekend, I cleaned my apartment in preparation for a friend from the U.K. who's coming to town.

I need events like this to push me into tidying up, because otherwise I'm disturbingly content having my floor disappear beneath three feet of dirty clothes.

The last time I cleaned was when the cable guy came over.

I did 10 loads of laundry, bought an Aerobed (the Cadillac of inflatable mattresses), used my new I-GO car (a Prius at $10/hour) to go to Target for Sterilite modular drawers (sure they're stackable, but for what they cost cumulatively, I could've gotten a bureau). Got a new shower curtain, an AC unit, and a wireless router.

Also did some furniture shopping, to see if I could move in a couch or something to sit on, but couldn't decide on anything. I either impulse buy or take a long time to decide, then lose interest. Sounds like my relationships.

While scrubbing the bathtub, listened to the new Alanis Morrissette Flavors of Entanglement over and over. She's back to being angry Alanis, which is a better Alanis creatively.

I still have a bunch more clothes to hide and paper to stack, but I should be able to do it before he arrives tomorrow.

Here's what he can expect at Chez Grubby (courtesy of the Silverton Hotel-Casino and McCarran security who looked the other way when going through my bag):


— —

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reinventing the patent

Working in gaming, we're tasked to come up with ideas to either implement into a game or secure its intellectual property to prevent competitors from using a similar idea.

Many times an idea takes on existing technology appended with the words "in a gaming device." That's the ridiculousness of the industry. There are patents on things you would think are so obvious and mundane that how could someone possibly have rights to it. Yet they do and are spending thousands of dollars to protect it.

Though I didn't invent the catheter, I could probably file a patent on "a catheter in a gaming device." You know, so a player doesn't have to give up his machine to go number 1.

That's why the industry is slow to change, and why there's relatively little new innovations out there (though there are, you just have to look). There are some wonderful ideas filed at the USPTO that disallow anyone from using them, where if we could, I believe more ideas and technology would sprout forth. If not for space travel, we wouldn't have the digital watch or freeze-dried ice cream.

This makes coming up with ideas difficult. It's hard enough thinking up new experiences the player would enjoy, without also having to dance around legal wording.

So while thinking of game ideas, others popped into my head, and I thought I'd write down these inventions to get them out of the way.

Ice cream cupcake. Like an ice cream cake (my favorite) but a smaller version that you can pop into your mouth all at once without silverware. Inside the cupcake would be a mini-scoop of ice cream that would complement the cupcake, perfectly wrapped up as a delicious treat.

Multi-sound car horn. Sometimes you just want a "go ahead of me" honk, but laying on the horn may instead sound like "don't even think about cutting." Having different sounds available will separate the courteous from the anger from the flirting.

Wall chair. Chairs that are always folded against the wall like airline tray tables. If a meeting room requires more chairs, don't steal chairs from offices, just pull down the wall chair for instant seating.

Sleepercycle. A machine that provides cardio and exercises for you while you sleep.

Stair drawers. Those stairs are just taking up space, you might as well be able to pull one out and store old sweaters.

Cool lamps. Like heat lamps, only it keeps you cool in the summer nights.

Ass-drop. A throat lozenge keeps your throat wet. This invention will keep your backside dry in those times of juiciness.

Mattress pockets. Indentations in the bed mattress so that certain protruding body parts aren't always mashed against a firm mattress and can instead enjoy a space of their very own.

Shoe clothes. Why buy different pairs of shoes when you can stick with one and attach new shells to it to match the clothes you're wearing.

Poop-o-meter. Just like you don't always know when you're going to have a baby, this baby will tell you what kind of poop you can expect, so you can plan bathroom time accordingly.

Poker breathalyzer. Blow into the straw, and if your blood alcohol level is above .08, you can't launch Full Tilt.

Inventions are © 2008 by grubby, so don't even think about stealing them.

— —

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Lost in iPodland

Over the weekend, I hit a Muslim woman.

I had my earbuds on and was walking down Western Ave., when I suddenly heard someone running toward me, and when I turned I caught something in black out of the corner of my eye.

My first thought was a ninja. My second was a mugger.

Out of instinct, I flung out my elbow (this is how we grubs fight, with knees and elbows), and I ended up clocking a woman in her boob.

She was wearing a black gown and veil, and hurried by me undeterred before I could apologize.

Looking up north, I didn't see a bus, so she must've been running to something (or someone) else.

I didn't follow her, turning onto Lincoln to get a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream to shake off the incident.

I never had an iPod before the iPhone, and it does wonders with passing the time, but sometimes it takes me away from real life.

Last week, I got off a bus, and a man and a young girl walked by me to board the same bus. As soon as the man got on, the girl made a mad dash in the opposite direction toward where I was heading, then tripped over her own legs, fell down, and began moaning.

The man then leapt on her, grabbing her up by an arm. "You trying to run away from me? Serves you right," he said as he dragged her to board the bus.

It was a bizarre, slow-motion sight, made more bizarre that it was set to my own personal earbud soundtrack of "Hands Clean" by Alanis Morrissette, a song about a questionable relationship between a young girl and an older man.

Maybe I shouldn't keep the volume up so loud.

— —

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

The gambling monster and slot roll call

I'm postponing the stripper story one more day, to encourage me to post three days in a row but also because I had a bad gambling day today. Not so much a relapse -- because honestly have I ever really stopped -- but one of those sessions that digs right into my core and reveals just how much of a degenerate I really am.

I played in the Bodog blogger tourney tonight, and because Bodog allows blackjack and because they take Visa and because I'm devoid of any will, I dumped $1000. Minus the $11 tourney entry. And minus $23 that I took to a $25 NL table and just pushed every other hand.

The number of blackjacks the dealer gets is incredible, again coming in at 3:1. I don't know why I keep returning.

The ads on the left have funded part of my blackjack affliction, and I usually play at the very site they're advertising. One place I've put $2000 a month into their site. Lucky for me that's the deposit limit they set, and I was turned down when I asked for more.

Though I lost $1000, I did get back up to that point twice -- once in slots (Aztec Treasure, hitting the bonus on a $5 spin at 110x) and once in blackjack at $100 bets before the cards turned.

Why didn't I stop?

I have a weird malfunction that craves not just the action but the loss. Two For the Money (and Owning Mahoney and season 2 of "Dexter," for that matter) hits all the right notes describing addiction.

I dug up Al Pacino's illuminating quote:
Most gamblers, when they go to gamble, they go to win. When we go to gamble, we go to lose. Subconsciously. Me, I never feel better than when they're raking the chips away; not bringing them in. And everyone here knows what I'm talking about. Hell, even when we win it's just a matter of time before we give it all back. But when we lose, that's another story. When we lose, and I'm talking about the kind of loss that makes your asshole pucker to the size of a decimal point -- you know what I mean -- you've just re-created the worst possible nightmare this side of malignant cancer, for the twentieth goddamn time; and you're standing there and you suddenly realize, hey, I'm still... here. I'm still breathing. I'm still alive. Us lemons, we fuck shit up all the time on purpose. Because we constantly need to remind ourselves we're alive. Gambling's not your problem. It's this fucked up need to feel something. To convince yourself you exist. That's the problem.

I can't even count how many times I've blown everything, how many times I've hit bottom, how many times I've cashed my paycheck at the casino and thrown it all away.

This desire is so strong that it trumps everything and anything else -- sleep, food, sex... it all comes down to wanting to feel something. The others, that's just necessity. Gambling is living.

I'm going to have to look into getting some help. I don't like living like a terrorist in a studio apartment with no furniture and clothes on the floor. I don't like not having any money. I don't like feeling the need to rush home to play 200 points on Full Tilt to make Iron Man for the day.

And speaking of that, I should've taken a day off but I bled more money to the Full Tilt sharks. beanmo, you know who you are.

I don't treat poker in the same realm as gambling, at least not SnGs. Cash games, yes. Especially the 6max. Full Tilt has a self-exclusion option, and I wish I could exclude myself from any ring games.

Going all-in as the favorite in a 60/40 or 70/30, I should be happy. But I suck at catching cards. Maybe that's why I'm no good in blackjack.

The night culminated with this hand (click to enlarge):



The pot may seem low at T705, but I was playing a super turbo SnG with everyone beginning at T300. And I really can't blame the guy calling an all-in with 88. In the supers, any pair is good.

But losing over and over with these hands (hands like AK vs. AQ always seem to crop up, along with the Q) makes me think Full Tilt can smell the gambling stank on me.

I'm done playing for the night, but while I'm wallowing in my losses, I may as well list the results of the Vegas trip last week.

Usually I write down the casino and the win/loss, but this time I wrote down each casino and game.

I haven't tallied everything up, because I don't want to know how much I lost. I do know that I won't be going to Vegas again for some time.


grubby's gambling diary

Ellis Island (Wednesday)
While waiting for food, a friend and I immediately won in blackjack. I joked that I should take my $55 winnings and go home early so that I could leave Vegas a winner for the first time.

After dinner, played craps and I hit a number and then sevened out. My friend had never played craps before. Virginal shooters and female shooters are my favorites to bet on.

And he didn't let me down, hitting five points, during which he lost a contact lens and rolled the dice in one hand while holding the lens in the other.

He then took his chips to blackjack but was called over by the boxman to color up. Carrying the stacks of chips, he dropped them all and they went flying. I was torn between taking a picture and helping him.

Won $120 in craps, another $100 in blackjack, and $40 in video poker.

Then happily spent all the winnings at a strip club, which I'll post about tomorrow.

Flamingo (Thursday)
$100 NL poker: +560 (despite losing KK that I was able to let go when an old guy raised all-in on the river -- old locals rarely bluff)

Westin
Video blackjack: +80 (blackjack slots are awful, but I wanted a quick win and I could easily playthrough my $50 in freeplay)

Silverton
My $400 in slot freeplay at Silverton began the downfall.

Press Your Luck -- Venice Riches: -300
Mr. Cashman -- African Dusk: -60
Mr. Cashman -- Jail Bird: -300
Geisha: +130 (saw a guy hit for $1000)
Glitz: -300
Thai Treasures: -150
Village People Party: -100
Monopoly Jackpot Station: -200
The Ring of Silver: -100
Life of Luxury -- Far East Fortunes: -100
Life of Luxury -- Riches of Rome: +220 (hit the three low progressives but ended up giving $200 back)
Mr. Cashman -- Jewel of the Enchantress: -200 (was actually up $200 on this game but continued playing)
Mr. Cashman -- Betting Zoo: -200
Pelican Pete: -50
Hitchcock Theater: +200 (got the Birds Bonus and the Shower Curtain wild for a $500 win but kept playing)
Millionizer -- Flame of Olympus: +130

Palazzo (Friday)
Multi-Play Blackjack: +20 (you play seven hands at once)



Be careful of playing this game drunk, though, or you'll make moves like grubette's boyfriend:



Venetian
Monopoly Big Event -- Ocean's Deep: +16 (back-to-back Big Events saved this from being down $300)
Hot Hot Super Jackpot -- Reels o'Dublin: -100 (grubette played her favorite Mystical Fortunes and won $400, and she gave me $100)
Grizzly: -200
Count Money: -200
Wolf Run: +29
Life of Luxury -- Jungle Cats: +20
Life of Luxury -- Riches of Rome: -100

Harrah's (Saturday)
Rapa Nui Riches: -200

Las Vegas Hilton
Bigger Bang Big Event -- Los Aztecas: -240
Wheel of Fortune: +410
Hot Hot Super Jackpot -- Triple Golden Cherries: -40
Goldfish: +30

O'Sheas
Video poker: +20
$100 NL poker: -45
Hot Hot Penny -- Star of India: +160

Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon (aka Barbary Coast)
eBay: -100 (it was so big, I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture)



Monopoly Big Event -- Mystical Dragon: +12 (had multiplier up to 30x and was down $300 before a Once Around)
Goldfish: -200
Mr. Cashman -- Arctic Wins: -40
Li'l Lucy -- Flamin' Fortune: -100
John Wayne: +150

Sunset Station (Sunday)
Hot Hot Penny -- Planet Loot: -70
Goldfish: -40
Bigger Bang Big Event -- Los Aztecas: -240
Bruce Lee: +120
Macaw Magic: +14
Jackpot Deluxe -- Geisha: +70
Jackpot Deluxe -- Flame of Olympus: -30
Wizard of Oz: -52
Mr. Cashman -- Owl Capone: +15 (a new Mr. Cashman, but it looked like the game was 7 years old)

Harrah's
Qing's Dragons: -30
Survivor: -200
Tiki Torch: -100
Noah's Ark: -100
Monopoly Big Event -- Egyptian Riches: -300

Wynn Las Vegas
8/16 limit poker: -380
Multi-play Blackjack: -200 (so easy to hit the max bet button by accident, which can be a $70 spin)
pai gow: -300

Palazzo
King of the Wild: +26

Silverton (Monday)
Hitchcock Theater: -180
Goldfish: -20
Press Your Luck -- Australian Gold: -440
Mr. Cashman -- Betting Zoo: -200

The Palms
Pick'em Poker: -120
Moon Festival: +140
Triple Fortune Dragon: +100
Fixin' to Win Big Home Improvement: -20
Life of Luxury -- Alpine Adventure: -300
Life of Luxury -- Wolf Spirit: -200
Wizard of Oz: -340
King Kong Cash -- Treasure Cats: -200
Hot Hot Super Jackpot -- Golden Chariots: -100
Hitchcock Theater: -300
Monopoly Up Up and Away: -200
Capricorn Mountain: -200
Double Dolphins: -20

Harrah's
Monopoly Big Event -- Jackpot Party: +80

— —

Monday, June 02, 2008

Trying for the WSOP

To no great success, I've been secretly and anonymously playing Bodog's weekly blogger tournaments every Tuesday night at 9:05 p.m. ET.

My problem is that I'm too tempted by their blackjack which is just a click away. So much so that I cap out their deposit limit each month. But never mind my addiction (more on that in tomorrow's post).

Bodog's blogger tourneys are actually pretty good, and all you have to do to qualify is be a poker blogger. Bloggers are a notoriously tight-aggressive lot, so you can scoop many an orphaned pot early on. If you get pushed back, you know it's time to fold.

Each week's tournament has been accumulating points where the winner with the most points is awarded a $10,000 WSOP seat and $2000 in expenses. Not bad for 60 or so players every week at $11 per tourney.

Tomorrow night, tourney host $mokkee will have a $270 tournament entry bounty on his head -- bust him and you'll be entered into the semifinal on June 8, where Bodog guarantees 5 seats to the WSOP. I'll enter this tournament for $270 (ahem, new month with reset deposit restrictions), particularly if the overlays are as good as they have been. And this time I'll just deposit $270, so no blackjack.

Likewise, I'll try to satellite into Full Tilt's $535 150-seat guarantee on June 15 while double-teaming Poker Stars' 200-seat guarantee the same night for cheaper at $370 with $500 more awarded in travel expenses.

I need a way to get to the WSOP fast since I don't have plans this year to be there, and the summer just wouldn't be the same without that long walk down Rio's hallway to the convention space.

I was in Vegas in April and last week, but I haven't posted about either yet because I'm still waiting for the sting of the losses to wear off. I've almost been a week back, and this past loss is still lingering, made worse by dumping a bunch in Full Tilt's super turbo SnGs this weekend. Everyone beginning with T300 is a throwback to Party's old T800 start, and though it's high variance I think the time saved and lower rake is ultimately worth it.

Players are much more apt to folding in the $7+.50 and $14+1 super turbos; players are much more aware in the $42+3 and $70+5. I probably need to multi the $14+1 games, they seem a goldmine.

Some of the regular SnG players have switched to the supers. The trick against them is player notes and loosening your calling ranges, particularly against an all-in from the cutoff or Button.

Last week's Vegas trip began promising with a $320 win, a midget sighting, and being invited to a stripper's house. But more on that tomorrow.

— —
copyright © 2003-2010 poker grub| powered by blogger
Banner