This Week's Edition of "I'm Bored in Las Vegas"
Jerry Yang, Eff the river, and Handicapped Games So after crushing my local high stakes pro home game, I promptly played I can't win for the rest of the week. I played the $1k Monday on FTP, got super unlucky deep as usual. I then made my way into the Bellagio to play some 10-20 and we started a must move game short-handed. I bought in for $3k, lost two, bought in for another two, won one, and then played this pot.
UTG goofball limps UTG five handed, CO limps, BTN limps, I complete SB with 88, BB knuckles. Flop AJ8 rainbow. I lead for $100, BB folds, UTG who has me covered says, "I really should raise you, but I'm just gonna call." He's straight-forward pre-flop but has a tendency to overplay hands post-flop, esp shorthanded. Everybody else folds. On the K turn completing the rainbow I bet $300 leaving myself with $3500 in my stack. Villian bumps it to $1300 and I insta shove. Naturally he has the QT, I can't pair the board, and gg me. From there I went to meet Justin West playing in a 2-5 game so I could give him a ride home. He's playing to his big blind (4 hands) and has an open seat to his left. I sit and say I'm going to do my best to blow the max buy-in in four hands ($500). I post, have the table convinced that I'm a fish, raise the ol KTo to $25 pre and get 4 callers. The flop comes KT9, it goes check, check, check, I bet $100, fold, SB makes it $300, fold, fold, I shove $475 total, he insta calls and tables KQ and says something like "I think I gotcha." LOL. In the words of my good friend Bob, silly money haters. Then the guy to my left says, "I folded QJ pre-flop." But, no waiting, Q on the turn, and I stand up laughing.
So that was Monday. Tuesday I did something completely un-interesting - or I at least have no clue exactly what it was. Wednesday was lake day and the usual shenanigans that go along with that. I hung out with my friend Jon Friedberg to watch his PLHE episode from the series this year. Good times.
Thursday I played some online and actually won a few bucks. That was cool. Then Jared and I went out to meet my buddy Kyle who was in town for his bachelor party this weekend. We picked up Kyle at the Stratosphere and headed to money plays to drink a few cold ones and play some shuffleboard. Kyle, Jared and I grew up together and I've known him since 5th grade, so it was good to see him. From there we headed to the airport to pick up his buddy that was arriving.
When we parked in the garage I saw an airport wheelchair and offered Jared 2-1 to ride a wheelie from where it was resting to a mini-van about 100 feet away. The conditions were no practice, and once forward motion happened he had to maintain the wheelie the entire way. He had to go the length of the truck that it was next to, left around the bed of the truck, and then 80 feet to the minivan, and then had to touch the mini-van with his feet before the front wheels on the wheelchair hit the ground. Traffic? Sucks for him. Mini-van moves? Bummer. Bet on. Oh yeah - it was a double-wide wheelchair. Not big enough for two, but significantly wider than your stock wheelchair. He smoked me for $20.
I then hopped in the wheelchair and we were discussing what I would have to do for an opportunity to get even. Wheelie across the crosswalk at passenger pick up, wheelie down the moving walkway, etc, etc. Then, since I had not met the guy that we were meeting, we decided that we were gonna screw with him and thus I became handicapped. Jared drives a super-lifted Chevy truck, so lifting a handicapped 200 lb guy into the truck was gonna be a pain - and we were gonna get the new guy to take the brunt of it.
I'm not sure what sick and twisted sort of senses of humor we all have, but it turned into "lets screw with the handicapped guy and make new guy think we're sick and twisted." Jared grabs new guy's luggage and throws it on my lap. This hurt by the way. New guy's like, uhhh... Jared says, "It's ok. He can't even feel his legs!" So we get me into the truck, and then the one liners just start coming. Jared: "Devo, wanna run to the store and pick up some beer? Oh wait, you can't! Ahhh hahahaha!" Me: "Nah, I'll just roll with you guys instead." Finally when we get back to the Stratosphere the gig was up and after I got carried out of the truck I said to the new guy, "I'll take it from here," and walked away.
Speaking of the stratosphere, I saw something that was the most absurd thing I've ever seen. Normal hotel hallway. Just before the elevator foyer was a nook about the size of a non-bathtub shower with nothing else on the walls other than a black box with a red plunger button that read "Area of Rescue." On the bottom left of the box had lights - red said "connected to help" green said "help on way". We laughed hard and then took pictures of crumpled piles of dude with beer in hand.
We played some drunken 1-2 NL (Jared owned me), played some craps, and then played lots of "Cash for Life", cause getting $1k/week for 20 years would be cool.
Friday we ended up heading to the desert to do some shooting. It was a good group of guys and we had a blast. That night we all went to Tryst and had very good times. Saturday was recovery, I played a ton online, and took two super sicko beats within five minutes of each other. JJ v 33 on a J73 flop (lotsa bets in that pot) and then 54 vs 58 on a 543,5 board with many bets going into that pot as well. Stupid poker. And here is Sunday. I played a bunch of the Sunday tourneys, got screwed in every one, and poker is stupid. Hehehe.
Couple of thoughts on the main event final table. First, Alex (dude that beat me heads up this years WSOP) took 4th. I'm pretty sure that's gonna be a real good thing for me as I'm sure they're going to be showing much of the footage from our heads up match.
Second, Jerry Yang. This guy's gotten flamed a bunch on the forums for being a "religious nutjob", but I think he's gonna be good for poker. His story's pretty sweet and he seems like a good guy. I know he made many comments like, "Lord, if you let this hold up I'll blah blah blah..." I think it's really going to come down to how ESPN portrays him and the comments that he was making as to whether it's a good thing for the Christian faith or not. I hate it when people speak Christianese all the time, and I hate it when people think that they're better than others because they're Christian. It could be disasterous if it comes off as "God doesn't like other poker players," but I think it can be a very good thing if it creates some good discussion on Christianity in general.
So, some tentative plans: 26th birthday is on Tuesday, I fly to Detroit on Thursday, and head to LA for the start of Legends Aug 1.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
High Stakes 5 Card No-Peeky...
... with allllllll the rules. Hilarious night last night. After busting out of the Full Tilt Sunday Million 130ish (aoiewnfrapomf aowpeifaopmwefopai), I headed over to John D'Agostino and his girlfriend Mariealena's house for a dinner party that I was late to. The food, even though re-heated, was fantastic! Having a home cooked meal isn't something that I have the pleasure of enjoying very often, so I was thrilled to be able to attend. Also in attendance were Bryan Micon, Dan Druff, and several other internet kids, so invaritably a game of poker was due to break out.
John and I headed out the door with beer in hand on a great midnight redneck adventure to find some poker chips.
I can see the two plus two thread now: "J Dags and Devo Busto! Buying $10 Set of Poker Chips at Wal Mart!"
That's where we ended up after checking out CVS and Walgreens. Sigh: poker isn't as cool as it used to be. I can remember seeing WPT sets of poker chips in seven freaking eleven.
I actually had a moment while John and I were in line. The guy in front of us who looked like a early 50's asian male that should own a liquor store had a bill for $4.64. He handed the cashier a gift card. She swiped it. It only had $2.66 on it. He then handed her a plastic baggie of change - mostly pennies - and she counted out the dollar ninety-eight. She returned the baggie of change to man and he went on his way.
John and I discussed how humbling that is. How gross is it how little we care about money when a hundred bucks would mean the world to that guy? What is the best balance between charity and protecting your own assets? What is the best answer for chartiy?
So, back to the house to partake in not caring about money, everybody buys in for $200, and game on. The first game we played was a completely mindless seven card no-peeky game. Three board cards were placed out (like a flop) that indicated wild cards. For example - there's a 3, 6, and J on the board - this means all threes, sixes, and jacks are now wild - nothing else. Then, we go around the table, turning over cards until you can beat the current high hand. Money goes into the pot before the hand with a $5 ante, whenever you get a wild-card for progressive fees: $5, $10, $20, $40... This is the only time you can fold. If you get a wild card and do not want to pay then you can fold your hand. Otherwise, you eventually turn over all your cards and if you can't beat the high hand you're cards are dead. The third way for money to go into the pot is if you pre-maturely turn cards in any way, shape, or form, and I was a huge fish when it came to this.
Either way I was bored with this game, John wanted to kick it up, so I suggested Baseball, five card no-peeky, with all the rules. Same format for the game: $5 ante, five down cards to each person that you can't look at, and players turn over cards one at a time to beat the starter card, penalty for pre-matures, but those are much more rare in this game. Here's the goofy rules:
* Threes and nines are wild
* Fours are buy cards - for $10 you get an additional card off the top of the deck - and the fours still play.
* If you turn up the K , you get to throw somebody out of the game. LOL.
* If you turn up the J , you get to steal somebody's up card. Sucks when you get that card early!
* If the Q turns up in any hand, it's a rain-out, game over, start over later. Re-ante to the same pot and all players that anted in the rain-out are dealt in.
That's when the things start getting really silly. We were playing $5-20 spread limit and ended up having several pots in the neighborhood of $1k.
Micon got there late, took Druff's seat, and promptly got stuck $2k. So sick! Even sicker is that he quit about 90 minutes later up $630.
I ended up winning somewhere around $1700 playing this silly game on my buddy's dining room table. Good times.
Poker wise I've been crushing lately, both online and live. I got pretty unlucky yesterday in a couple of spots playing the sunday tournaments deep, but those things happen. Saturday I whacked em good, $2500 online and $2500 live in the 10-20 NL game at the Wynn. I had a couple of encounters with money haters, otherwise I wouldn't have made so much moniez. I love it when they do that!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Adventures on the Run
I cannot disclose my location due to fear of being shot by the mob or a mob of angry poker players. After a crazy week in Las Vegas I decided to take it on the lam instead of going to the mattresses. I bought a one-way ticket out of Vegas Friday afternoon with $14,500 in my pocket, a suitcase full of dirty laundry, and my laptop. A friend of mine has put me up at his mother's place, and my days have pretty much looked like this: get woken up at 7am, move to another room, sleep on an air mattress, wake (or get woken) up around 1:30, dabble online for several hours, and then head into the local casino and play cards all night.
The first night was good times. I sat down in a 60-120 mix game and instantly heard, "Holy shit, it's Bryan Devonshire!" It was a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a while. I instantly lost $500 in my first hand. Excellent. The game broke within an hour and I sat in a 40-80 LHE game. That game quickly broke, and it was me, a good player named Brian, and some guy I've never seen before that was a good player.... NOT. We quickly cleaned him out, and then the heads-up death match started. It was bumped up to 60-120, and then to 75-150. I couldn't really get anything going though, and when all the dust had settled, I was stuck $410 from when the mix game broke. As far as heads up went though, Brian definately kicked my nuts in. From there I went to a full 60 game, blew some more, and quit the night stuck $1900 exactly.
The following day I woke up, played cribbage and euchre online with an old friend of mine for a super long time, and then sat down to a family dinner for the first time in a long time. It was nice. I ended up baby-sitting the kids for a while, and I found myself wondering what to do with kids five and under. I've worked with 3rd-5th graders, junior highers, and high schoolers extensively, but I didn't know what to do with kids that young! It was fun though seeing their innocence and curiousity of the world. I did a good job of keeping them from falling into the pool, and after the kiddos went to bed, I was off to the casino. I put on a bit of a clinic and won $3200.
The next day I got money online for the first time in a long time. I played the $200 rebuy on stars, instantly rebought, added-on (in for $600), was 4th in chips with 23 left, and busted 19th for $1350. 18th paid $2350 and first was $54k. Oh well. I then headed into the casino and ended up winning $1600.
On Monday I ended up going to the casino earlier than usual having no idea that I was about to have my biggest (in terms of bets) winning session ever. We played some 40-80 for a while, I won $1900, and then we finally got the 60 game fired up. Now, the gross thing about this casino, home to the greatest limit hold'em games in the world, is that the 60 game is usually better than the 40 game. This one was no different. After about an hour I introduced the "rock" into the game, which is basically a mandatory straddle that bounces around the table. If you win a pot with the "rock" in it, when you are UTG next, you put the rock back into play. Somebody else wins it, and then they put it back out. So much fun, and so good for action! I put two rubber-bands around $120 in chips, put them in for my straddle to start the rock, and we were off. I won it back the first two times it was in play, and six times in total the entire night.
I played one interesting hand that I was very proud of. UTG (Brian from the first night) limped, I raised the Q{moscardsuit:ss} Q{moscardsuit:cs} , the button called, and the BB called. Four ways we saw a flop of 9{moscardsuit:ds} 3{moscardsuit:ss} 3{moscardsuit:cs} . Check, check, I bet, BTN called, BB called, UTG called. Turn T{moscardsuit:cs} . Check, Brian bet, I raised, BTN and BB folded, and Brian 3 bet.
Huh? WTF is he three betting here? I've played with him enough to know his tendencies, and as I was thinking about it, I knew that there was zero way that he could have me beat at that point. Here's why: He's raising TT or 99 pf, probably 33. He's not limping with any hand that contains a 3 except for 33, and that's obv pretty rare. I had him on one of these hands: A{moscardsuit:cs} T{moscardsuit:cs} , J{moscardsuit:cs} 8{moscardsuit:cs} , 7{moscardsuit:cs} 8{moscardsuit:cs} , possibly QJ, possibly AT, possibly T9, and a small chance of something really spewey.
I four-bet, $480 each going in on the turn after he called. The river came the A{moscardsuit:ds} , and thank God he visibly didn't like that card. He checked, I bet, and he folded. He claimed to have QJ.
I just kept on crushing the game until it finally broke around 2:30am, and I was up $8390, good for a little over 74 big bets in eight hours of full ring game action. I got lucky on one huge pot (having the right pot odds to draw to my gutterball the whole way, of course...), and got un-lucky on two big pots and one medium pots. Pretty sweet!
Today, my friend and I went on a two hour adventure to a middle of nowhere casino where we heard that a 75-150 mix game goes every Tuesday night. Long story short: I'm writing this on the way back. The game never went. The usual suspects must be in Vegas for the main event. Sigh...
Anyways, I'm up over $10k for this trip which is a great feeling.
I want to thank y'all for your positive comments and e-mails regarding my last blog post. It makes me very happy to see that there are others in the poker world who agree that there is so much more to life than fame, fortune, and poker, and I pray that y'all would continue to walk with me on this journey of re-discovering what that means. For the record, I am not broke, depressed, or in a bad life situation - I simply had an "ah ha!" moment and realized that I need to make some life changes.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
2007 WSOPoker, My End
.. It's been quite the past several days. I kinda got burned out on tournaments about a week ago after busting out of my 13th straight event, again in a somewhat dirty way. So, I took some time off, and then some life changing things happened and I took some more time off.
I'm chewing on a lot of things right now and don't really know what what to write about, but i've been thinking about some things regarding my life and poker, and I'm pretty disappointed actually. I think that in my quest to become one of the world's best poker players that I have been consumed by a quest to become famous. I think that I've felt that who I was wasn't somebody that wasn't supposed to be famous, and thus I've warped some of who I was. I used to be somebody who genuinely cared about people and did not care about money. I would hate to see myself end up like a player I know who since his successes has become too cool for the people that he knew. He is still super nice to his fans and loves to give autographs and all of that fun stuff, but he treats those of us that are not "fan" and not "friend" very poorly. I have noticed that I myself am very nice and friendly to my "fans", and of course cool with the friends that I do have, but I have managed to treat some old friends of mine very poorly along the way. I would hate for myself to ever end up at that point, and I have seen myself headed in that direction.
I need an attitude adjustment. I need to forget about myself and start thinking about others more. I think this will ultimately end up helping my poker game as well.
I need to get back involved with a Christian community. I have almost completely lost that aspect of myself.
Yeah. Been chewing on a bunch.
My backer is not putting me in the main-event or any other events in the forseeable future. I'm pretty annoyed by that as I found out about it a couple of days ago. I don't have a big enough bankroll to buy myself in (and still have it be a wise decision), so if any of y'all want to put me in, i'll play for 20% unless we work out some long term agreement.
I'm really itchin to get out and do some playing. I've played a few short sessions recently but have been interrupted in all of them.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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