Lazy Days on the Water
I'm so glad I don't have a job. I'm currently sitting in my board shorts with my shirt off on a deck twenty feet from the Colorado River. I just finished playing a short session online. I got it all-in on the flop with AJ on a 742 board vs. 56 and won all the monies with ace high when the board bricked out. There is a cold beer to my left, hot wings on the BBQ behind me, and tan women in bikinis in front of me laying out.
God my life sucks.
And that's pretty much how it's been for the last nine days. After my session last Saturday when I won $3k I immediately left to the lake and stayed there til monday evening, went back tuesday evening til wednesday evening, and then left Thrusday as soon as we woke up to come to the river house in Needles, CA.
Memorial weekend has been an annual trip with many of my friends from high school and many friends that we've made along the way. Names you'd recognize are the three roomies Jared, Danny, and Gil, Shawn (Danny's brother), Nick, and about a dozen others from various places.
When we arrived thrusday we had nine 36 packs of Coors Light.
We had to buy more beer on Saturday. Sick.
Most amusing moment thus far: while floating home drunk on the boat Sunday morning we were lighting fireworks off the boat. An errant spark went through Danny's board shorts and melted directly to his weiner. He seriously has a burn blister on his unit.
It's been an awesome trip doing some R&R getting ready for the series. I'm pretty fired up to play some cards. I've been sneaking off to squeeze in online sessions here and there and playing before going to bed. I haven't experienced that feeling in quite a long time.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Life Changes and a Session of Cards
[Insert Required Intro Text Here] Sorry about going AWOL in the past week, but circumstances have come up in my life that have forced me to take some time off from work. It's very strange how those crazy moments in life completely unsettle everything and alter your paradigms. But when the dust settles after these seasons in life we always end up more grounded and strong.
So, I spent the last several days on the lake with Jared for a party with his work. We left Saturday night to party on the houseboat that Jared's work had rented for the few days. Before we knew it the sun was up and everybody was starting to move about. Jared and I decided to motor out toward the beach to get some sleep on. We were waken up by the sun around nine thirty, and all the boats that we were supposed to meet were not there. We then left to find them, and that adventure took us right back to the dock that we had left four hours earlier. Oops. They were getting ready to launch the houseboat, and I saw an opportunity to squeeze in a cat nap. I snuck into the houseboat and crawled into a bed on the lower deck. Devo out.
I regained consciousness when there was a rythymic knocking on the window above my head. I looked up out the window and saw a pontoon boat tied alongside the houseboat and assumed it was Jared. Then I heard the cackle of a radio from within the houseboat, and realized that it was not my pontoon boat outside but a Callville Bay boat. As I emerged from the bedroom I began to see more and more people that I did not recognize, some in uniform, some not. I deduced that the boat had broken down and we were floating outside of the marina, but who were all these people?!? It was a super confusing moment. Finally I recognized the fifteenth person I saw and they filled me in on what was going on. The rest of Sunday and Monday went off without a hitch, and I came home Monday night tired and tanned.
Oh yeah... I did play some poker in the past week. Saturday I woke up with the itch to go play some cards, and I ended up at the Wynn playing 5-10 NL about an hour later. My friend Justin Sellers (dude who won best all around at Canterbury Fall Classic 06) and I were sitting at a table chatting when they called down a new game. Justin and I took the 2 and 3 seats respectively, and the seats slowly filled up. I had a strong feeling that this was going to be a very good game. I did not recognize anybody and they all sat there like tourists fresh off the plane. I was not to be disappointed. I bought in for $2k, about the most on the table.
Within thirty minutes the line-up looked like this:
1 Really bad player, short stack
2 Justin - solid luckbox
3 Me - No-Limit Fish
4 Really bad player, short stack
5 Really bad player, medium stack
6 Decent young player, big stack
7 Really bad young player, big stack
8 Really bad old foreign guy, big stack
9 Solid, tight player I know
This is a great lineup for a 1-2 NL game, but we're playing 5-10 with no cap on the buy-in. After the first half hour of the game things degenerate very quickly. Seat 8 loses a pot to Justin when his obvious bluff was picked off by the luckbox on the river. For some reason this induces the 8 seat to pull four yellow chips out of his pocket, making his stack about $5500. This then gets the 6 and 7 seat to pull out more money. I pull out my box keys and head to the cage. I return with $10k in cash and one $500 chip and drop it on the table. The 8 seat then removes the $4k that he had put on the table. I ask the floorman to talk to the 8 seat about the money, the 8 seat realizes that I'm talking about him as the floorman talks to him, and he says something in garbled english along the lines of, "You wanna play beeeeg? I sho yoo how play beeeeeg. I either cover you or take off table." He takes the 4k back out of his pocket and then pulls out a $10k nug and puts it on the table.
OMG I'm buying a new mustang on the way home.
About five hands after all this fun I won a sweet hand off Justin when I turned a flush and got value out of the five seat. The very next hand I was in the SB and limped into a straddle pot with J T . We saw a flop six ways that came down pretty nice in the form of 9 8 7 . I lead for $80, seat 5 called, and seat 7 made it $400. So sweet. Folded around, I say, "How much you got left?" He replies somewhere around $1400. I know the 5 seat is done with the hand. I re-raise the minimum, total of $720. He somewhat quickly goes all-in. I obviously call figuring that we're chopping or I have to dodge a bunch of outs to full houses. Nope. He had A 9 . WHAT?!? Sweet! Moments like that make me so much happier with no-limit over limit. About twenty minutes after that I won another big pot with JT suited, up almost $3k.
Shortly thereafter though the worst thing ever happened. I got moved to the main game. Arrrrrrggghh! They made me leave the best non-Lamont game ever for the most boring usual game. I can fix this.
Upon arrival I say, "Anybody who leaves this game right now will be paid $50 by me."
$100 later, two guys had left, and we had imported the 6 and 7 seat, and the game got good again. They weren't my first choices for imports, but the 3 primary suspects were next up on the list. Within an hour I had won another $2k pot off the former 7 seat, $850 directly from him. Good investment.
The next four hours were pretty boring as the game never got super juicy again. It felt good to book a nice $3k cash though and head out for the weekend.
OK. I'm tired of writing.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
WSOP Schecule and Mirage Event #6, $2500+100 NLHE
I am taking investors right now The world series is just around the corner and I am pretty excited! I just finalized my intended schedule, and here it is:
Day
Date
Event
Entry Fee
Fri
6/1
#1 Mixed Limit/NLHE Championships
5000
Sat
#3 NLHE
1500
Sun
#4 Pot Limit HE
1500
Mon
#6 Limit HE
1500
Tue
#9 Omaha 8
1500
Wed
#10 NLHE
2000
Fri
6/8
#14 Stud Hi
1500
Sat
#15 NLHE
1500
Sun
#18 Limit HE Championships
5000
Mon
#20 Stud 8
2000
Th
6/14
#24 Stud 8 Championships
3000
Fri
#25 NLHE
2000
Sat
#27 NLHE
1500
Sun
#28 NLHE
3000
Wed
6/20
#34 Limit HE
3000
Th
#35 NLHE
1500
Fri
#37 Pot Limit HE
2000
Sat
#38 NLHE
1500
Sun
#40 Mixed HE
1500
Mon
#42 Omaha 8
1500
Tue
#43 Limit HE
2000
Th
6/28
#46 Stud 8
1000
Fri
#48 Deuce-Seven Limit/Rebuys
1000
Sat
#49 NLHE
1500
Sun
7/1
#51 SHOE
1000
Sat
7/6
#55 NLHE Main Event Day 1B
10000
Total cost of all tournaments is going to be $60k plus any rebuys I may make in event #48.
I am taking investors for all of these events as an entire pool together. Furthermore, since there will be a group of investors, there will be no make up at the end of the WSOP. All profits will only be taken at the end of the series to eliminate any make-up.
For example, say I win event #9 for $200k. Standard arrangements in backing with make-up is to pay back the make-up and then chop up the profits. This would mean that 11k would go back to the backer, and then the player and backer would chop up 189k.
Instead to be fair no profits will be chopped up until the end of the series. Take the above scenario. Win event 9 for a net profit of 189k, bust out of all the other events for a cost of $49k, the total profit would be 140k that would then be chopped up with the original 60k returned to the investors.
I will play for 50% of myself after all-make up. Thus, every $6k of investments is worth 5% of me for the entire series after make-up. In the above scenario a $6k investment would return $13k total.
I am planning on playing all 26 of these events and thus the risk of ruin is decently low. If you are interested, please shoot me an e-mail. Also, if you would like to talk to those currently backing me or those who have backed me in the past, please also feel free to contact me.
Speaking of tournaments I played in the $2500+100 NLHE event at the Mirage today. The good news is that I took 36th. The worst news is that Kenna James busted me. Literally about 15 minutes before I said, "It would really suck if Kevin [Song] or Kenna busted me, because I would never hear the end of it." I was short at this point, lost half my chips in one hand, and then opened with AKo and called Kenna when he shoved all-in. His 55 held up and I was sent trying to get people to go to the lake with me :-).
Today was pretty frustrating in the sense that I once again could not get over the hump. I had a huge stack early on in level three and was chip leader for a while, winning several unnecessairly large pots with one pair. The table was pretty stacked so I was gambling it up a little more than I usually do and things were working out. I then lost a big race with TT vs. AQ and couldn't ever get anything going again even though I was left with an average stack. I still never saw any big hands (no QQ-AA). I'm starting to get quite curious as to when I'm going to see AA in a tournament again as it's been 9 of 10 days now. I even played two tourneys online tonight and didn't see em!
Tomorrow is the $1k Limit event. You bet I'm gonna be in that one!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Mirage Poker Showdown Event #5, $2000+100 NLHE
18th is better than 19th! I had a ton of fun tonight considering the circumstances. I came into today feeling very good. I didn't have anything interesting happen until about 75 minutes in. I had 4600 left when I open-raised to 325 with the blinds 50-100 with 99. I was called by the button and the SB made it 925 to go. I called as did the button. Flop K7x. SB checks, I check, BTN checks. Turn 9. Nice. Board is rainbow. SB bets 1500, I call, BTN folds. River 7, he bets 2k, I go all-in for 2800, he insta-calls and shows AA. Thanks for the freebie buddy.
After that I flopped top two with AK and got some action. Then, with about 16k (good for tournament chip lead at this point) going into the last hand before break, I opened to 350 UTG+1 with J J . The SB called only who had played litereally less than six hands the entire two hours thus far. Flop 2 3 5. He checked, I bet 550, and he made it 1725. He had 4400 left in his stack. My read was that he was strong, but not sure how strong, and he had an ultra-tight image, but he was a young guy with versace sunglasses, whatever that means.
Fold, call, or put him all-in? If I call, what's my plan then?
I decided to just call because it was a strong enough play and I had position, but I was alson thinking strongly about putting him in. The turn came Q and he put the rest of his 4400 in the pot. At this point it was a pretty easy fold. We talked later and he told me that he had 4x4 . Thoughts on this hand?
I didn't do much level three playing a bunch of small pots or most of level four. Last hand before the break, blinds 100-200/25, I raised one limper from the cutoff with QQ to 850 and got calls from the BB and the limper. Flop KQx rainbow. BB checked, limper bet 800, I knew BB was folding, and i decided to just call because this player had a tendency to hang himself.
Turn a blank, he checked, and I bet 2200. He called.
River 9, he checked, and I could tell that he wasn't super excited about that card (ie didn't have JT). I had him squarely on KJ or KT and wanted to get some value. I bet 3100 and he insta called with K9. Devo chip-leader again.
Come back from break, blinds 200-400/25. First hand a guy raises to 1200, I flat call from the hi-jack with 88, SB (Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken") calls. Flop A 8 2. Check, check, I bet 2200, both fold. Bummer.
Next hand: Villian from earlier JJ hand opens to 1100, I flat call with 99, SB/shorty goes almost all-in, first raiser folds, and I insta re-raise knowing he's weak. He had 85o and my nines held up.
Devo huge chip leader with 38k. And I never got past that point. This was level five with about 55 players left. I did not play another interesting hand until there were 20 players left, top 18 getting paid and I had 22k in chips. I went so sickly card dead and was unable to manufacture chips in most ways. Anyways, I opened UTG with JJ, short stack shoved for 10k and I called. He had AQ and I won a race one time. Another player busted at the same time on another table and we were in the money. Sweet! I still had a ton of work to do with 31k in chips and the average at 43k and the leader, some guy named Michael Mizrachi with some stupid number of chips like 150k. He had a hand with 21 left vs the second chip leader, he had 66 vs. AK on a KK6 flop and 7 turn when all the money went in and his hand held up. I cannot remember the last time I had some sweet cooler set-up hand like that. It's been a LONG time. I have to win my chips with ace high and crap like that.
Speaking of which, I made a sick AK high river call on a JT862 board that was good vs. A9 in the 100-200/25 level.
Meanwhile, we re-draw for seats. First hand, blinds 600-1200/100, I raise to 3500 with QQ UTG. The next player makes it something like 12k. This was the sixth time he had re-raised me in the past 75 minutes. Everybody folded, our stacks were very close, and I said, "All-in."
"Come again?" he said.
"Sorry, I need a break before I can do that again."
Laughter.
"You're all-in?"
"Yes."
"I call."
"Really? Whatcha got?"
"Aces."
Flop A22, turn A, river x.
I get 800 chips in return, it's my big blind. I win. I get 3k in chips.
I then fold my SB vs. a bunch of action. 2300.
There's six seconds on the clock before an hour long dinner break, my button. I'm playing almost any hand.
I get 72o.
AYA! At least the buffet is free and tasty!
Return from dinner, blinds 800-1600/200. I have 2200 before the hand. I get to open shove from the cutoff with Q 8 , make a boat, and almost quadruple up to 8400. Next hand, open shove blind, steal the blinds and antes. 12400. Fold the next hand. 4th hand: open shove JTo, get called by the button. He had jacks. AYA.
Flop: KQ first two cards off the deck. Best non TT flop ever! The last three cards came bricks however, and I went home with my $2927 as a consolation prize.
Oh well. Tomorrow: $2500+100 NLHE. I'm really feeling a big hit coming on soon here. I just need to start running good one freaking time rather than having to actually play good to make my chips. It's impossible to win a tournament through good play alone unfortunately and that's all I have been able to do lately. I honestly haven't seen AA in 8 of the last 9 tournament days, and the one time I saw them I lost a huge pot (5k circuit event). Just an indicator, ya know?
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Mirage Poker Showdown Event #4, $1500+80 NLHE
At least I was out quick enough to go to the lake! Not too much to talk about here.
1st hand: Limp w/22 for 50, next player makes it 325, I folded. 4k in starting stack.
2nd hand: Limp with K Q . Later player raises to 125, we see flop heads up. It comes all rags. I check, he checks, and I decide that I am check-raising any non-threatening turn. It comes 9 putting two spades on board. I check, he bets 200, I raise to 500, he calls. OK fine, he's on a flush draw. River Jx, I bet 700, he calls with J9. Oops... good read on flop though!
About four hands later UTG raises to 175, Men the Master calls in UTG+1, and I make it 700 with AKo in the next position. The original raiser pondered for a long time, asked me if I was bluffing again, and re-raised the minimum-ish. Men put all his chips in the middle. This was the first hand he was dealt period. I put my last 1500 into the pot and see myself up against AA and JJ. Flop TJQ and it held up :-). Nice. Up to 7100.
Two hands later: Men opens to 175, I re-raise to 575, he goes all-in for 3275, and I call with my kings. He had AK, and an A hit immediately on the flop.
Then, I didn't do anything for an hour, got short, doubled up with QJ on a J high flop, lost some chips, and went into the first break with 4200.
First 10 minutes back I see a flop from the SB for 500 with A Q . Flop 762 one spade. I check, he bet 700, and I called. I read him for ace high at best. Turn 7 , I bet 1100 (probably should have just went all-in at this spot... I only had 2900 in my stack going into the turn), and my opponent put me all-in. I still really didn't think he had anything so it was a pretty easy call for me. He had AK! Wow! Not sure if he had a read or was just spewing, but it sure looks like he had a read! River bricked out and I was sent packing. Oh well.
Tomorrow is the $2k+100 NLHE event. Hopefully things will go a little better this time!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Mirage Poker Showdown Event #2, $500+40 Limit, MY End of Day 2
Yep... I took as bad as I possibly could have expected Long story short, I took fiftth.
Good news: We made a percentage adjustment at five handed that gave an extra two percent of the prize pool to firth and fourth, and an extra one percent to second and third while taking six percent off of first. Thus, for the second time in my career, I got the best of a deal/save.
Bad news: I took fifth.
Honestly, not a damn thing I could have done. Here's the key hand: I open raise from the cutoff six handed with the J T , and get called by the button and BB. Flop K 9 2 . Check, I continue, button raises, BB folds, and I peel a card. At the start of this hand I had about 75k and was right up there in top three and we kept trading off the "chip leader" title.
Turn gin: Q .
Check, he bets 4k, I raise to 8k, he calls.
River: Worst card in the deck. J . I still bet because I had him squarely on a Kx, and so what if he had KT, cause then we chop it up.
He raises.
I say, "Really?" But, I cannot fold at this point. I call, and he show me K T and scoops the 80k pot, the biggest one I saw the entire tournament.
Classic suck/re-suck, but still... No possible way it goes more expensive for me, even if it flops KTT, although I suppose it could have come that flop and turned a J... but... arrgh.
From there I could never recover. I re-built to 60k, and then went downhill from there, losing with an overpair to trip tens on a TT8 flop (I had JJ) and I finally busted with the A 3 when I saw the ATT flop vs. T 8 and got all-in on the turn. Oh well...
Today: 1500+80 NLHE event #4, and I need to go to sleep for that!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Mirage Poker Showdown Event #2, $500+40 Limit, End of Day One
Final Table Time Baby! After a great day on the lake Tuesday I strolled into the Mirage Wednesday to play in the $500+40 limit hold'em event. 199 players entered the event, and after 12.5 hours of play we are down to the final nine. We are playing for a $38k first prize and I like my chances. I have 54.5k in chips good for fourth in chips and the leader has 66k. The structure is very good and there is enough room for play.
Getting there was a ton of fun. I ran very well throughout the day making a ton of hands without having too many big hands pre-flop. I never had aces, KK once and lost, QQ twice both good... but I made a ton of hands with the random hands that I found myself in pots in. In limit tournaments I play a lot of hands and my success often depends on making hands with those random cards.
I did something that I've never seen or heard of before. I open-raised with KJ in back to back hands and flopped the nuts both hands and got paid off to the river on both hands. First flop KKJ, turn K, river x, called down the whole way, second hand flop 9TQ, I got check-raised, I 3 bet, and got paid off the whole way by QT. The second was the nuts by the river as well. Ever heard of that?!? Me neither.
So, I need to go to bed as the final table starts in less than 11 hours, but you will get a full report here tomorrow! If you're around the Mirage tomorrow afternoon, stop by, say hello, and give me some sweat!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Poker, Day Off, 2.5 Months of AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
blah blah, blah blah blah, blah. I just completed four days of work good for a net loss of about $400, winning three days of 30-60 and having one huge losing day of 5-10. Here are some of the highlights:
Friday: 6 hous of 30-60. Up 1500 in first two hours, up $115 four hours later when I quit. That was annoying. After that a bunch of us went bowling like the high rollers we are at the Orleans, and I was definately the bowling fish that night. Friedberg hustled me out of five bucks, Sebok won my five bucks, and Ships bowled terribly and still earned my five bucks.
Saturday: 6 hours of 30-60. Down $500, up $500, down $1k, quit up $1k. After that I headed ot Half Shell to kick it with Jared and one of the more amusing series of events I have ever experienced in a bar occured. I was sitting next to Jared playing video poker just laying low. Karaeoke was playing upstairs and it was packed. Pretty lookin female sits in the chair next to me, pulls her walled out of her purse, and fishes out a $20. I acknowledge her with a smile and return to my game. She's buying a drink. Nary a word is spoken. By the time I glance in her direction again she stands up, looks me dead in the eye, flips me off, walks away, SMACKING me in the back good and stiff, and heads towards the door.
"What the hell was that all about?!?" I "ask" her as I stand up out of my chair.
No response. She's out the front door.
That was weird. Jared and I get a good kick out of it.
Two minutes later a cabbie comes up next to us and asks the bartender that he's there for "Julie". No Julie nearby. Nick checks upstairs, comes downstairs, talks to a guy, runs up to Jared and I, says, "Jared! Watch my bar!" and runs out the front door.
I have to follow. By the time I get there I see the same girl across the street having a slap fight with a guy. Aparrently she played frogger and stood in front of traffic and that guy pulled her out of the way. Nick called 911, he split, I wandered across the street to make sure that she didn't play any more "Frogger: The Home Game," and hung out until the police showed up. They asked me some questions, asked her some questions, made sure that I wasn't beating her up or trying to rape her, and then arranged for her to get a ride home. Weird.
Sunday: I made it into the Bellagio and decided that I today I was going to play 5-10 Unlimited Hold-Them. Oops. I lost my first $500 slow, the second $500 in one hand that I got rivered on, and the third and fourth $500 in one hand that played out really weird but it would have been tough to not go broke in any way that I played it. I saw a flop with A5o from the big blind seven ways. It came 553 rainbow. Checked all the way around to the button who decided to bet twenty dollars. That was werid. SB called, and I decided to just call. Five of us saw the turn card, $170 in the pot. It was a T, completing the rainbow. SB bets $80. Getting weirder. I decided to just call again feeling that I was significantly ahead still. Call, call, and the button made it $180. What the heck does that mean? SB calls. $770 in the pot, my turn, $100 to call, I have a little over $900 in my stack having all players covered, but it's all within a hundred dollars. I've got the best hand, enough screwing around, I'm all-in.
UTG+1 calls. Sweet! This is his fifth hand played, he's already stuck $1k when he stacked off in his first hand with top pair very small kicker on a dangerous board.
Next guy folds.
Button, who I'm pretty sure is the one with the other five, thinks for a while. Sweet! He's not boated! He finally gets the clock called on him and then calls.
SB, who I thought had checked out of the hand, says, "I call too." He tables 33. Ouch!
Then the guy to my left tabled TT. Where the heck did that come from? Pre-flop? Flop? Turn? Huh?!?
Button tables K5. Well, at least I wasn't in last place. But for the love of all the Seboks in a tree, I was drawing dead!
Oh well. I went home, rallied the boys, and we played shuffleboard for the night.
Monday: 30-60. I got buried for $1600 pretty quickly, went on a bit of a rush and quit up $550. I took some pretty "what the?!?" beats, but felt that I played really well. These beats were a big part my playing well as my opponents were having a tough time playing against me and I frustrated several of them pretty good. They were just super confused.
Tomorrow: Lake day. Whooo!
Wednesday through a midsummer night's eve: tourneys, tourneys, tourneys! Mirage Poker Showdown, Mandalay Bay WPT event, the things called the World Series of Poker, the Bellagio Cup III, and the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza II. Goal: Win one major event. It's gonna be busy busy busy!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Search and Rescue on the Lake, Part Two
Is it bad breaking down next to a shipwreck? Two nights ago I was peeing in my front yard (it's closer to my recliner than the bathroom. Yes, I know that I am lazy) and I noticed that something was missing off the back of my boat. The boat. The tooner. The Piece of Ship. We recently installed a new 13 gallon gas tank to work in tandem with our old 6 gallon tank, and it was gone. What in the world? Who steals gas tanks off of boats? What's worse is that the fuel line is a quick disconnect. You can take it off of the gas tank with two fingers, and a five year old could figure it out within 60 seconds without any instructions. They decided to cut the line instead.
I had no idea how much this would impact my life within 24 hours.
Fuller, Angie, Danny, Gil (new roomie), and myself headed out onto the lake with plenty of beer, snacks, and 4.5 gallons of gas instead of the 14.5 gallons of gas that we had 12 hours before. Plenty of gas to make it to Sandy Beach, our destination.
We then decided to proceed to Swiss Cove, farther from harbor, but we were just fine on everything. It was just around the corner. By the time we left Sandy the wind had kicked up and we had some good 2-3 foot swells rolling across the lake.
When we arrived at Swiss Cove we did some exploring, and then things started getting fun. While exploring the beach, which was very small in a steep canyon, Fuller, Angie, Xena, and I walked past a rattlesnake. Then, we all walked back past the rattlesnake. Angie, the second to last one out, said, "Oh my God! A snake!" It was tight quarters and the snake was about a foot from her leg. I identified the snake as a Western Diamondback and we both quickly walked forward. The snake did not experience life much longer, and the beach was named "Rattlesnake Beach."
Shortly thereafter we left, and decided to head deeper into the narrows to check out the scenery.
That was about the time we realized that we were dangerously low on gas.
Priority number one was to get back to cell phone coverage. Then we had to get gas.
We made it well into cell coverage, well into the cove where the harbor is, but just not all the way. By this time the sun was all the way down and there was little light left, and suddenly nobody wanted to happen to be going to or from harbor. We were stranded. But we still had beer!
I called Lake Mead dispach and they said that they would have a boat to us within two hours. Good news. Bad news was the wind was blowing us toward shore rapidly and the waves were getting bigger.
We ran aground right on the rocky point of a peninsula. No good. I tied a rope to the boat and started walking it around the point trying to find a better mooring point. Here's what we came up with:
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Yes. We ended up at our final resting place right next to an old shipwreck.
So, we wait for another 90 minutes and finally I see a boat coming around the point. I flag the boat down with my flashlight and some morse code, and the boat happens to be the park ranger boat. Long story short, they would not give us gas or a tow, but only a ride back to the dock. I'm like, "C'mon! We need like a third of a gallon of gas!" They wouldn't have it. So, we put on some lifejackets, I go into former guide/search and rescue mode, make sure everybody is off the boat safely. I give the ranger boat a quick shove and step across to the starboard bow of the rescue boat.
Somewhere in my drunken calculations of how much umph I needed to give off my rear leg to bridge the gap to my front leg I forgot to carry a digit or a decimal point or something. This failure was further compounded by the fact that I had also pushed the boat further away with my lead leg.
Shit.
I end up going feet over ass over head straight into the drink, and nobody but Fuller noticed. The SAR guys weren't worried about me. I was the Search and Rescue guy myself complete with a rescue harness complete with knife, whistle, and quick-release retaining belt on. All that comes out of ricks mouth, in a complete normal tone of voice while standing next to one of the rangers is, "Uhh... man overboard?." I did it all without a sound other than "Sploooosh!" I popped back up, pulled myself back in the boat, and prepared myself for the laughter that was going to be directed at me.
Oh yeah. My cell phone, wallet, and car keys were in the pocket of my boardies. Cell phone still doesn't work as of this moment. LOL.
Today I hitched a ride with a Cuban dude on this boat as he was leaving harbor to my Piece of Ship. Gas and oil in the tank, get engine running, shove off rocks, back to harbor. All good.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
WSOP Circuit at Caesar's Palace, $5000+150 NLHE Main Event
MY end of day one, and controversy from the mansion.
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I saw more hands in four 75 minute levels today than I did in 14 90 minute levels at the Bellagio last week - not only pre-flop, but post flop too.
Again, that's the good news. The bad news is that most of them got shoved right up my ass.
First hand I played: I flat called a raise to 250 in the first level, blinds 25-50, with A K on the button, opponent unknown, he's already been very active. Heads up flop: A Q 5 . He checks, I bet 350 (575 in pot), he raises to 1k, I call. Turn x , he checks, I decide to check behind. River a blank, he checks again, I decide to go to value town and bet 1k, he calls and shows 55. Werid. Oh well - thanks for charging the minimum.
Then I saw a flop with 77 that came 743 two diamonds, bet big, got called by Hollywood Dave. He said, "If I call, do you promise to bet more on the turn?" I said, "Sure!"
Before we saw the turn card heads up I bet 2k dark. I was trying to goad him into playing back at me with what I sense to be a really big hand. He just called - it was a T turn. River came 9, I bet 2500, and he folded A K face up. Oooh... that could have been a bad dark shot, but I'm pretty sure I'm firing that turn regardless of the card. I read him for a big hand, and was right - he flopped huge - I just thought his hand contained a pair of ones or thirteens or something like that.
Then, I played another semi-large pot against Dave with KK and took it down on the flop.
Then, I opened with aces (I do get those!) and got action from both blinds. This was in level one still. I had opened to 200. Flop A J 7 . Check, check, I bet 375, and get called in both spots (sweet!). Turn looked sweet: J . Check, check, and I decided to check behind as there was a good chance of busting somebody if they hit one of the million draws out there, and if somebody had a J I would be able to get much more chips than if I kept banging... just my opinion. River came a blank, SB checked, BB bet 1500, I made it 4500 and he insta-called, flashing a jack. Thoughts?
Then, I re-raised the set of fives guy on the button to 1k pre-flop with QQ and got called. Flop ATx, he fired 2k and I mucked.
First break.
Are you freakin kidding me? What a roller coaster! I was up to 15k from my 10k starting stack, but I really felt like I should have had 90k (all the chips that started on my table). OK... so 25k is a more realistic number.
Level two: five minutes in a tight old guy who tends to over-play his top pair/over-pair hands opens to 400, blinds 50-100. I see aces in position and decide to just flat call. He's the other one that's gotten a decent amount of chips and I want them all. Idea is for him to flop a pair or an overpair, bang away way too hard, and give me a bunch of chips. Both blinds call (oops), and we see the flop (t1600) four ways of Q95 rainbow. Looks pretty alright. Check, check, he bets 1300, and I decide that it's best to just call again for the above stated reasons, and plus if he happened to flop a set of queens or nines I will lose the minimum and still win the maximum. He was good enough to get away from those one pair hands when played back at. Turn came 6 completing the rainbow. Heads up he bet 2500, and once again I decided to flat call. River T, he checked.
Ah ha! Got him! He has precicely AQ, KK, maybe KQ, or some goofy bluff hand. Time to go to value town... he has about 6k left, not enough to be committed, so I bet 2500.
He called instantly. OK, still no problem. Then I saw his hand. Pocket queens.
POCKET QUEENS?!?!? For the love of all panty-waist poker players in paradise, he had a set?!?
Once again, I was pretty thrilled to lose the minimum. That hand knocked me down to 8300. I went into the second break with 9300.
Level three, 100-200, was a roller coaster with no particularly interesting hands. I dropped to 8k, doubled up with 66 on a 457 flop that I shoved, got called by QQ, and hit one of my ten outs on the turn with the 8. Dropped to 13, back to 16, down to 10, and went on break with 12250.
Level four. Steve Dannenman replaced one of our bustouts, and the cosmic tumblers would fall into place to teleport my chips in front of him.
I limp with 9 T UTG, blinds 100-200/25. Steve raised to 700 middle position, and we see a flop heads up. 1925 in the pot. It came Q7 6 . I check, he checked. Turn, J . I check (thought about betting, but wanted to play the hand carefully and not get priced out of my draw). Steve bets 700 and I quickly call. The river comes beautifully, K . I lead for 2k just in-case Steve has some AK/KT type hand or maybe a weak 2 pair. He raises to 5k. Sweet! He was screwing around with a set! I move all-in for about 11k total, and he instantly calls. I'm still thrilled as I table my second nut straight, and then say, "Wow. That's sick. What a cooler!" when I see Steve's A T . Left with 950 I bust two hands later when I shoved with 55 and lost to T 6 on a 346, T, 8 board.
Oh well...
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In other news there has been some controversy brewing over the end of the poker tournament at the Playboy mansion. I had left shortly before this, but I saw all the set-up. We had to be off the mansion grounds by a set time, and to accomodate this the tournament directors were forced to end the tournament by chip count rather than playing it out. I heard that they did not get a lot of time, but again do not know the details for sure. The player who took third basically could not win by picking up the blinds and antes, so Steve and Shannon simply folded their hands to lock up first and second.
He's not happy about this at all, and is taking aim at everything, including the charity, not just the parties involved - the two other players and the tournament directors. I am not sure when they went to number of hands, but the player who took third is livid. First point: no reason for him to have conflict with anybody other than who was responsible for that final table period.
But wait, here's some more gasoline on the fire! Steve was drunk as a skunk (as were 99% of the people in attendance... but that's besides the point). Annie Duke was sweating him in at the end. I have a great picture of them both in my previous blog, and that is basically what it looked like. Two drunken idiots having a great time while this drunken idiot laughed along and took pictures. The bad news is that Annie was telling Steve that he really should not be playing a hand While drunk Steve protested and said he wanted to at least look at his cards, and she said no way. This is a pretty blatant violation of the "one player to a hand rule".
Maybe Steve was serious about looking at his cards, maybe he was joking because it would sound funny, or maybe he was just there having a great time at the playboy mansion. I still think that it would have been pretty impossible for it to slip beyond his conscious realization that if he folded every hand he would lock up a seat in the main event. The place was a zoo - just look at the pictures! There were at least 50 people within five feet of the felt on that final table. Further, if the guy had a problem with Annie sweating Steve, or suspected foul play, why didn't he say anything Saturday night?!? This just came up recently.
Nothing obviously can be done now as the event has concluded, but lots of damage to many reputations of individuals and orginazations can be done if this is made public without all the facts and circumstances out there.
Just my two cents.
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Shortly after writing this, I received this e-mail and thought I should pass it along.
"We are obviously so sorry that Terrence feels he was slighted in any way. I obviously would have prefered that everyone was happy, as we raised even more money this year than last, which was our goal. The kids in inner cities that benefit from this program and the hundreds of lives being saved in Africa as a direct result of people donating and attending this event I'm sure are more than thankful for everyone's support. I am more than happy to refund Terrence's monies that he paid to attend the event if he feel he was wronged in any way by winning a $15,000 prize. I cannot in good conscience split up a prize after the event when Steve and Shannon won, and I believe one of them is going to re-donate the prize back in order to benefit the Urban Health Institute." - Joy Miller, Urban Health Institute Tournament Consultant
Any questions, concerns, or interest in where the monies raised for the 501C3 non-profit organization go can be directed to Joy Miller at joyjoy712003@yahoo.com
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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