Vegas, Christmas, and 2007 Tourney changes

Vegas

Vegas was a lot of fun. I did well in poker, not profitably well, but played solid and learned a few new tricks. I played a tourney at the Rio - it's not the best structure, but it's all right. There ere 80 players and was knocked out in 14th. Not bad - I made some good reads and plays. I got blinded out and was forced to make a move - that's when my A5 got beat with QT.

I played the Caesar’s tourney the next day and that was bad - no cards, best hand was QQ and no action, made a couple moves, but no good. I made it through a third of the field, but it was boring and frustrating.

At the Luxor I played the cash game, I got a ROYAL FLUSH (odds = 1 in 30,940). I won about $80 from the pot and an extra $100 from the high hand pool. If 40 minutes earlier, I would have won a high hand contest and an extra $500. Oh well.

I played a lot of negative equity games (exactly like I said I would NOT). I did real well in "Let it Ride", but shitty in most of the other games.

Christmas

We had a really nice Christmas, the tree days before i helped my brother put up a massive play set for his boys. It came fully UNassembled and it took 57 total hours to complete. It came in 4 200+ pond boxes and a 99 step manual. The weather didn't cooperate much either (rain, clouds, and 45-55 F), but its done and his boys LOVE IT!


That is my little brother, Matt, finishing out the crow's nest 6:30PM Xmas Eve.


Another View


My nephew, Wesley, tearing it up on the slide, Christmas Day.

We spent Christmas Eve at Stacey's parents, and Christmas Day at my brothers house. We had lots of fun and my daughter was happy, happy, happy when she got her 8 Megapixel Canon. We are blessed to have such a good family and friends.

Tournament Changes for 2007

As requested by several players. I will start keeping track of points just like the Big-O (yes, I am copying the master again). It's a lot more fun and its good to reward regular players with some recognition. I like the idea of having a big tourney with buy-in's as a portion of your place on the points lists too.

I am thinking of using 2% of each tourney's pot as a boost for the big tourney. I calculate about $6 a tourney based on an average $300 pot. At the end of the year, we will have a big tourney and based on each person's points position, they will get a discounted buy-in. I will take all the money collected from each regular tournament and add it to the total pot.

I haven't made up my mind, and I would appreciate some feedback on this through a comments post or email.

Psyched!!!

In keeping with the Organic Chemistry theme from my last two posts, I decided to use this chemical symbol for this post. It is the chemical symbol for adrenaline. I am so ready for 1) some time off work, 2) some VEGAS action, and 3) the Holidays!!! I can hardly wait.

Oh yeah and I am in a Donkey race this Saturday at the Big-O. I think this picture sums it up.



This describes the duel for the Big-O points and Money leader title. So far, I hold the lead in both, but Armando is nipping at my heels hooves.

There are $9 separating him and and there are 60 points separating us on that list. It will be very interesting this week to see how it turns out. If he wins he will take both leads. If he doesn't money I retain. Shall I put a nice bounty on his ass?

I am not interested in anything except the bragging rights, as I realize this is just really for fun. However, my competitive nature can't be suppressed .

Also, I am finally back on Pokerstars playing low limit games in preparation for Vegas. I am doing fairly well after a 3 month hiatus (sp?).

My strategy this time in Vegas is to stay away from the negative equity games (every table game and slot and the Luxor's sit-and-go's (ha ah). I will play sessions and set time limits for the sessions. I will try to play the Caesar’s tourney every day. Also, I plan to make my debut at MGM's $200 NL game.

CH3CH2OH = MORE FUN!!!!

I forgot to mention two incredible hands. Each involved quads.

The first one was when Armando got his AA cracked Clara's KK. She let him know by shouting "Dems Quads Bitches". Click the link and see a nice write up from Mookie.

The second occurred once to me and now happened to Ian. He had Ax and flopped AAA for quads. What are the odds? I worked out all the math on this and the odds and calculations can be found here.

Also, there were two other sets of quads and a straight flush on the same night. I chased the rabbit on heads-up once and a fifth set of quads was coming if it was played to 5th street.

All-in-all it was a wild night of cards and hands.

CH3CH2OH = FUN!!!!

We had a wild night at the House this Friday night. With 21 players and lots of shots, we partied pretty hard. Stacey and I didn't money, I busted out fairly early and she made the final table. A few people got really shit faced and it was a blast. We can sum it up with one chemical symbol - ethanol.

Play was very tight on the outset, and I dropped the hammer for the first prize of the night. I was also the unlucky winner of the most rebuys prize package too. I won a damn dollar!!! Oh well.

Before the break we had 5 rebuys (I had 2). I was making moves and had chipped up pretty nicely until I had a fit of donkness and blew about a 35K stack in a couple of hands.

In one hand, I held Ac5c on the button, and the flop came 2c3c3, Todd bet 300 and I called. Before the turn I had gut shot at the wheel, the nut flush draw, and a gut shot straight flush draw. The turn brought me the 4h and I got the wheel. Todd bet 500 and I called. The river brought a delightfully harmless 5d. Todd bet 7K and I moved all in and he called. He showed me a big blind special, 35o... time for rebuy #1.

One hand later I rebought again after giving my chips to Stuart trying to bluff him off a set... it didn't work.

Virtually everyone added on and we were back after several shots. 8 people did a shot of something and few people did two shots. Mando's long pours on me got me pretty lit. I hit Stacey with the sink joke, that was very bad and I feel so ashamed. She fought back later with the "Welcome to the Club" quip. If you don't get those jokes... well too bad :-)

Back to poker...

Mike B. got the 1st out prize. Sorry dude...

Play continued and we got down to two tables. Stacey did some more shots and was really tearing it up. The more she drank the taller her stack got. The final table bubble was Kitty (no prize). I didn't take chip counts at the final table. But

Stacey looked like this....



and later... like this...



She is a liiiiiiighhhhht weeeeeigggghhhhhtttttt.... LOL

The prizes went down as follows:

Prizes	Who won...
Big Hand Losers	Godfrey-QQ, Kitty-QQ, Justin - QQ, Armando-AA (Clara whiped him out with KK to make quad K's)
Hammer Bluffers	Jim, Armando, Justin
Most Rebuys	Jim - 2
1st Out	Mike B.
Bubble	Clara
Win with the Jimmy (KQs) or the Mookie (T8s)	Clara KQs (to knock out Brad)

The final five were Rico (5th), Joe (4th) Justin (3rd) and stuart and Ian played it out for about 45 minutes heads up. I have 10 yellow chips I use for 25K chips. At one point Ian had all of them. The poker gods apparently were not going to let him keep them. Stuart fought back from a 6 to 1 chip disadvantage to take the title when he flopped a straight and got it all in.

We had a great year of Poker and fun. I want to personally thank everyone for coming out this week and all previous weeks. Thanks to all that brought food and for all the good times. thanks for Godfrey for helping keep the $$$ and the chips straight. We are glad we finished the year with a 21 person tourney. We got a little crazy, and probably won't again for a while, we'll mellow out and play some "good" poker.

A special shout out to Armando and Rico. Rico got a lot of us started playing tourney's and Armando brought this to a whole new level. Their selflessness has allowed me to copy all their good ideas!!! Thanks guys.

If you have some ideas on what I can change, add, or delete , leave a comment or shoot me an email. I am totally interested in keeping this going and making it as fun as possible.

Thanks for all the good times. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Jim and Stacey

Ready for the Last 2006 Home Tourney

The tables, chairs, cards, buttons and most importantly PRIZES (they are really no biggie) are set and ready to go. We have 21 so far and will start at 7:00PM sharp.

So far we have 21 confirmed (in no particular order), and room for three more:

1 - Me
2 - Jersey Girl
3 - Jerry
4 - Henry
5 - Carol
6 - Mookie = Armando
7 - Diane
8 - Michael
9 - Godfrey
10 - Rico
11 - Todd
12 - David
13 - Greg
14 - Joe
15 - Kitty
16 - Brad
17 - Ian
18 - Justin
19 - Cristine
20 - Mike
21 - Stuart

Donkey Race

This pretty much sums up the Christmas Bash at Armando and Clara's house. I had a fairly safe lead for the money leader at the Big_O going in. After the break I had 50K in chips. But then I fell apart and made bad calls and didn't push big hands when I had them. Mookie played well and took down back-to-back Big-O wins to take the money lead from me. Read all about it here.

I took the lead back by squeeeking into third place in a second smaller tourney. Mookie got 4th. I hold both the money and chip leads temporarily. As this video demonstrates, donkey races can end badly.

We have had a great RSVP response on our last tourney of the year at our house, 21 so far!!! We have prizes lined up for several classes of fish and donk behavior:

• Lose a showdown with a Big Hand = AA, KK, QQ
• Hammer Bluff - Bluff and show the hammer (7-2 un-suited)
• Most Rebuys
• 1st Out after rebuys
• Bubble :-(
• Mook Out - Win a hand in a showdown with the Mookie = 10-8 sooooted
• Jimmy - Win a hand in a showdown with the Jimmy = KQ sooooted

I will post the results.