It’s Saturday afternoon here in Las Vegas, and I am sitting in the bingo room at the Gold Coast by myself, relaxing with some mindless activity after an intense day of poker, punctuated by a medical emergency for my friend Wojo.

First, Wojo - the reports are in from his wife Tammy:

I an volunteering to drive Wojo and Tammy home in a rent car if he can’t fly, but I am hopeful that he will be hale and healthy enough to manage the return trip by air.

So thank you for your kind thoughts for Wojo.

————————

Re: poker.  My friend April asked me this morning how I rated my play this year in the tournament.  I told her that I was a happy A+ for about all but five minutes, and in those five minutes, I was an F-.

What I was afraid of happened:  I started worrying about my stack and played too, too, too loose on two hands against a stack that was about the same size as mine.  I gave away too many chips and really crippled my chance of making it into Day 3.

But … I really can’t complain.  This is a game that rewards patience and experience.  My tournament experience continues to grow and I am sure my patience will increase as my testosterone decreases.  By the time I get to the Super Seniors (age 60), I will be loaded for bear.

I leave you with these images of victory:

Now, dinner and Carrot Top!

Well, it’s over!

I had not been posting regularly because I was exhausted. Lots to report, but I will do that tomorrow.

Suffice to say, I was on fumes late in Day 2 when I got AK.  I went all-in and got called by an A7.  The A7 won when there were four hearts on the board and his ace of hearts filled the flush.

In a word, yuck.  But since I kind of did the same thing to another person in Day 1, I can’t complain.  I got the call I wanted, and it just didn’t work out.

I ended up finishing 149th, winning $3983.  That’s a pretty good return on my $1000 investment, and each of my backers will be getting $398.30 for their $100 contribution.  Tips are appreciated.

And I got written up on one of my hands in Poker News:

How cool is that?  Now off to bed!

P.S.  My great friend Wojciech is in the hospital with chest pains.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  He is an amazing person and strong as an ox, but he and his wife Tammy need your love and support. 

Dinner break!

With two hours to go, I have 345,000.  There are 243 players left and the average chip stack is 444,000.

It’s kind of like Day 1 - just a series of ridiculously mediocre hands for a stretch of two hours.  J7, J4, 68, Q3.  You look down at those cards and can’t help but shake your head at how unplayable they are.

What I need to do is keep my eye on preserving what I have in order to get to Day 3.  The table has a lot of solid players at this point, so I can’t really make the moves I was making earlier in the tournament.

Instead, I have to start thinking about all-ins.  As my chips fade, so does my leverage.  I have about fifteen big blinds, and traditional poker strategy dictates that when you get to ten big blinds, your only move is a shove.

I HATE that - it makes the game so much more binary.  You live or die on that one bet.  But that’s the endgame of a freeze out tournament - all of the players except the winner will be there at some point.

So, I am eating a healthy salmon dinner with some Diet Coke for stimulation and will be ready for the last two hours of the day.

Wish me luck - I need it.

Just folded Q 10 again.  Trying to be gooooood.

381,000.  Trying really hard not to get bored and make the same kind of dumb play I did in 2019.  I am about 100,000 above the tournament average, which is a good place to be.

We’re down to 405 players with fifteen minutes to the break.  I am still folding hands that I would totally play in Houston.  I just folded 88 because we are ten-handed and 88 sucks ten-handed - you know there’s someone with a better pocket pair or a draw to a better pair on the flop. With the usual flop, you can’t play unless you catch a third card, so why bother?

——————————

Since that note, we’ve shed another 27 players, now down to 378 from an original 5404 players.  At 377, the payout goes to $2567, and at 324, it goes to $2832.

If you’re interested, here’s the prize schedule.

Second break of the day - at 319,000.

Took a big pot by representing a flush against the guy to my right, who must have had a high pair.

It started with my KQ offsuit, which I limped in with. Two other players called the big blind.  The flop was J 10 3, giving me an open end straight draw.  We all checked.  The turn was a 6.  The guy next to me bet 12,000.   I said something like, “I guess I call,” hoping I would catch an ace or 9 for the straight.

It didn’t happen, but I noticed that there were three spades on the board. My call on the turn was just as consistent with a player drawing to a flush as it was with a player drawing to a straight.  So when the guy to my right bet 15,000, I raised it to 45,000, representing that o had hit my flush. He folded.

The is an example of winning a hand by playing the other guy’s hand. And it only works if the player is smart enough to recognize the story you’re trying to tell.  I’ve gotten burned before when I make that play and the other player calls my bluff.

“You didn’t see the possible flush on the board?” I will say, incredulously.

“Oh, I guess I didn’t,” the less skilled player will respond.

Or that player, to preserve his dignity, will say, “I knew you didn’t have it.”

Anyway, the stack is still healthy. 350,000.

486 players left.  Prize is now $2157.

Now moved to White 103.  

JJ adds another 22,000 to my stack after a preflop raise got called and my 25000 continuation bet gets the caller to fold after the flop.

This is not a friendly table.  A lot of shark eyes here, looking at me and my stack.  Seven of the players look like they play in underground poker games where they are served by Spider from Goodfellas.  

I don’t want to get shot.

And now that I’m in the money, the players are loosening up, big time!

Case in point:  I have 99.  I raise to 12000, and a guy calls me.  He had previously pushed me off a hand with a gross overbet, so I think he thought he owned me.

He didn’t.  The flop was 10 9 4.  I checked.  He bet 15000.  I groused about it, then raised him to 40000.  He goes all-in, and I snap-call with my 999.

And now I am 250,000.

———————————

And now I am 264,000.  KJ catches a jack on the flop, and two preflop raisers give up their hands to my 25000 raise.

811 players!  They are verifying the bubble, but it looks like I’ve cashed for the tournament.

And … it’s verified!  We’re in the money!

Minimum prize going forward is $1,601.  Congratulations to my five backers!  You each make at least $160.10 for your $100 investment.

Woo hoo!

817 players left, 5 to go.  150,000 chips.

Bert texts me: “Don’t go all in until you cash.”  This is surprisingly good advice - I have actually went home empty-handed in another tournament when I went all-in with a big stack and AA against another slightly bigger stack, just minutes before everyone made money.

Now down to 813 …

New table - Black 182.  Sitting next to a guy in a suit - and he looks better than me!

The table is garrulous, and the guy in the suit is holding forth on space and investments.  His name is David Weinstein from Louisiana and he is talking at length about his plane.  

According to WSOP, he has two final tables and eleven cashes.  He told us that he rebought twice in this tournament.

Ordinarily, I would view him as a giant douche, but he seems to be a good guy.  That’s my read so far.

——————————-

Break!  133,500.  15 players to the cash!

90 minutes into Day 2.  Down to 882 players, 71 to go to the cash.

I’m getting some respect today after my tight-aggressive approach has run off some challengers.

I haven’t gotten any monster hands yet, so my having more than I started with is pretty good.

Just took down a pot with 10 10.  Esposito folded to my post-flop bet.  Very cool.

122,000.

First hand:  Q 10 spades, my lucky hand.  But I fold - Josh would be proud of me.  Flop is Q 10 2.  Sigh… 

Big stack takes it down with KQ.  Why do I listen to my son?

—————————

Played my first hand.  A7o in the big blind.  

Everyone folds to the small blind, who calls the 2500.  I want to defend my big blind, so I raise to 8500.  He calls. Flop is a lot of nothing, so he checks and I raise to 12,000.  Brief deliberation, then he folds.

I’m now at 103,000

—————————-

The guy in Seat 1 just spiked a straight in an all-in showdown.  He had AK against AJ.  A jack hits the flop, putting AJ in the lead.  The turn and river improved the AK to an unlikely runner-runner straight.

I look up the guy at Seat 1 in the WSOP database.  His name is John Esposito, and he is a prolific player.  He has a bracelet and 55 cashes.  He’s gruff and focused, a little like late-period John Cassavetes.  I make a note to myself not to play against him if I can avoid it.

—————————-

102,500

At Pavilion Black 161, six minutes to start of Day 2.  These are my 96,000 chips.

Day 2!

Eating at Denny’s (again).  I am not superstitious, but I figure there’s nothing wrong with eating EXACTLY the same meal that I ate on Day 1.

Here’s my table:

I am the second largest stack, but not by much.  Today might be a slog after the small stack gets bounced.

Out of our group, we have four survivors: me, Wojo, Todd, and Mark.  Mark is the big stack with 184,500, which doesn’t surprise me - he has been very successful in the Houston game.  Here are their seat assignments:

We are also joined by our poker buddy John Granato, who  is doing well too at 94,000.

———————

Bert really wants a waffle here at Denny’s, but they don’t make them here.  Actual dialogue:

WAITRESS:  Here are your pancakes.

BERT:  I didn’t order those.  I wanted waffles, but you don’t have them here.

WAITRESS: Uh-huh.

———————

Same outfit at Wednesday - but different black shirt.

40 minutes to Day 2!

Bedtime here in Las Vegas.  The news from today:

*  The prize pool is set coming out of Day 1B:

According to Todd (who made it out of Day 1B along with Mark), the number of players going into Day 2 is 1136.  This means that 325 more players have to be eliminated before everyone else cashes.

I was 211th in my group, so I figure I’ll be around 500th or so out of the Day 2 group.  It will be hard to lose - but not impossible - from that position.  I just need to be super-careful until the bubble has been made.

*  I spent the day with Marina, Tammy, Wojo, and Billy at the bingo hall at the Gold Coast casino.  

I learned a lot about high-end bingo, which is pretty much nothing like classic church bingo. The cards you buy (over 100) are loaded into a computer which keeps track of the potentially winning cards, and tells you when to yell “Bingo!”  Modern technology!

And I won once!

I also played Pai Gow poker, losing $100 in the morning and winning $100 in the evening.  Other wins included $40 at roulette and $1.80 in penny slots!  My wife Lisa will be happy to know I haven’t lost the ranch.

*  I have also made some sports bets. I lost $100 the first day on the first Astros game, I lost $100 betting on Atletico Madrid to win in soccer (they tied 2-2), and I have a $100 bet on tomorrow’s Astros game for them to win and for the total number of runs by both teams to exceed 8, a parley that will pay $374 if both things happen.  That last bet was Tammy’s idea - I trust her good fortune.

*  Cards fly tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., PST.  I’m rested and ready!

See you tomorrow!

Good morning!

The WSOP elves updated the stats from yesterday’s event.  

Where am I out of the 486 remaining players?

I’m 211th, which is above the median point and probably above the average chip stack.

(By the way: I know I have an unusual last name, but I am struck by the other colorful names on that list:  Rambo, Zurn, Spitaleri, Goodly, Katzenmeier.  It’s like a lineup of characters in a Pynchon book.)

Wojo is on the list too at 325 (along with Klanduch, Emmett Hickey, Lineberry, Neuhauser, and Barca (who might be related to the guy who invented the BarcaLounger)).

There is a good recap of the first day here.

Today is a day off for me and Wojo while the next batch of Day 1 players start. Since this is a rebuy tournament, many of the players who busted out yesterday (some who busted out twice) will be trying again today.

I’m not a fan of rebuys. You are competing for the same prizes but you’ve now doubled your out of pocket expenses to get there.

But people get frustrated and the Seniors Tournament doesn’t happen again for another year, so the casino is happy to take your money to let you keep trying.

My poker buddies Rick, Mark, Todd, Greg, Samm, and John Carter (one of my favorite people in the world and a guy referred to by his full name at all times for reasons unknown) are playing today for the first time.  Bert, Billy and Larry are taking their second run at it.

Meanwhile, I will be playing bingo at the Gold Coast and pai gow poker at the Rio.

Onward!

And we are done for the day!

I will not bury the lede, as they say in journalism school.  Going into Day 2 (on Friday), I have 96,000 chips, nearly five times my original stack of 20,000 chips. This almost guarantees that I will cash in the tournament and pay out to my investors.

How did I get there?  With one miracle card on the second to last hand of the night.

Here’s what happened, in very embarrassing detail:

(1)  I had about 47,000 chips, going into the last four hands of the night.  I kind of knew, with the blinds being so high (and only getting higher) that it would be tough to cash on Day 2.  Those chips would evaporate quickly leaving me in the position of having to go all-in with a less than optimal hand in order to stay alive in the tournament.  Despite the advice I was getting from Wojo and Kurt Aichler (monitoring the situation remotely from his home in Mexico), I kind of subconsciously felt that I needed to make a play and boost my stack.

(2)  On the second-to-last hand, the opportunity arrived. I was dealt A10 of spades, a good raising hand (but one that I should never have actually messed with that close to the end of the day).  I raised to 6000.  Everyone folded (yay), except for one guy (boo).

(3)  The flop was KQ7.  For reasons I cannot explain even now, I bet all of my chips.  To be clear, I had no hand - no pair, no flush draw, and only a highly unlikely inside straight draw requiring a jack to hit the board.  But I guess I convinced myself that the guy who called me did not have a hand to call my 47,000 bet.

(4)  I was wrong.  The guy had KQ, which gave him two pair on the flop.  As you would expect, he snap-called my ill-advised bet and started counting his winnings in his head.

(5)  The turn was a blank.  I then said (very specifically), “I need a jack,” which would make my straight and win the hand.

(6)

(H/t to “Owl Babies,” my favorite children’s suspense board book.)

The jack hit like a bomb on the table, shattering the other guy’s tournament and saving mine.  I doubled up to 96,000.

The other guy would thereafter be knocked out on the last hand if the evening, after making his own ill-advised all-in with his remaining chips and not getting a miracle card to save his tournament.  Talk about a reversal of fortune.

So, there you have it.  I made an extraordinarily dumb move, and not only got bailed out by the Poker Gods but they rewarded me with more chips.  I am now above the average chip stack, there are less than 500 players left from the original 2500 entrants in Day 1, and assuming a similar number of players make it out of Day 1B, I will be able to coast into the top 15 percent and make the cash!

Wojo is also in good shape with about 64,000 chips.  He should make the cash too (woo hoo!)  We celebrated at the Rio’s only working bar with martinis:

Tomorrow is a day off.  I plan to see a movie with Billy’s wife and Wojo’s wife, work some crossword puzzles, and maybe walk the Strip.  No cards - I need a break.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Final break of the day.  No report for the last two hours because there has literally been nothing to report.  My cards have been nonexistent for two hours, and when I catch a hand and raise preflop, I get pretty quick folds.

I’m at 49,500.  The blinds are now 1000/2000 with a 2000 ante each rotation.  This means I lose 5000 each orbit, so if I do nothing, I can play 100 more hands before I run out of chips.

Wojo is at about 65000.  He told me to relax and keep playing tight to make it to Day 2.  Sound advice.

————————————

And so, despite Wojo’s advice, the first hand out of the break is 77 and I raise to 6000.  The guy to my right calls the raise.  When I shove all in after the flop, he shows me AJ and says, “You’re driving me crazy.”

Then in rapid succession, I catch KK (fold to my raise) and KJs (fold to raise on the flop).  Just like that, I’m now at 71,500.

NOW, I’m going to be tight, tight, tight.

50 minutes left in the day. 

I’m slowly rebuilding my table reputation as tight-aggressive by firing hard on flops.  Like Sean Connery in “The Untouchables”-hard. No one has fired back yet at my big raises, which I think is because I’m playing so few hands.

Meanwhile, the guy next to me has reverted to raising on every other hand, playing big stack poker.  It may be that he’s on a rush of good hands, but he’s been doing this all day, so I think it’s just his style.

———————————-

And now I’m at the dinner break with 53,900, having popped a few big hands, including a hand where the guy next to me said, “You don’t have an ace” as he folded, after which I agreed - showing him my two aces.

I’m blessed to have a poker crew here in Vegas supporting me and Wojo.  We’re eating Korean BBQ, which is pretty much the best food at the Rio.

Wojo is at 62,000 and has counseled me that we are probably in the 70th percentile of the remaining 900 or so players.  If we are careful, we will bag our chips and get to take Thursday off.

But I just need to be CAREFUL.  When I get tired, I start getting creative, which leads to disaster.  Slow and careful wins the day.

See you on the other side!

 Since I last wrote, Rick and Billy V went out:

It’s now me and Wojo, which keeps our 5% trade alive.  If either of us cashes, the other (or both) gets 5% of the cash. We’ve both done well in the tournament before, so there’s a pretty good chance one of us pays off.

Meanwhile, I’m back to 42,900 after my 10 10 held up against the guy to my right. He asked me if I had JJ, and I told him that I had tens. He told me he had AQ, and I believed him.

—————————

During the break, I told Billy and Wojo that this year’s event was turning out to be less fun than usual. Not sure why.

I’m still doubled up from my original stack, but it just seems like I’m only getting one or two playable hands an hour, and the players at this table are raising pretty much every hand.  No limping, and the raises are pretty substantial.

It’s kind of wearing me out, like sorting 10,000 pennies looking for a collector’s penny worth ten cents. You just want to find that coin and get on with it.

Still haven’t found that one coin that will double me up yet.  Not yet.

————————-

One of the super-aggressive players flamed out, his tens going down to AA.

And there are only two players left from the original table - me and the guy to my right, who now has a pretty big stack - about 70,000 chips.

But my 45,000 ain’t bupkis.  And I just got my first aces of the tournament.  Two players raised to 2500 ahead of me, so I raised to 12,000.  They went away, and now I’m at 50K even.

Still shooting for 80K, which is what Wojo told me to target for the end of the day.

Okay -  feeling better.

I get JJ and make a 4000 raise preflop.  One caller, who is a stern looking guy who has been playing strong against the two super-aggressive players.  The flop is AAK, so I continuation bet another 6000.

The guy thinks long, but gives up his hand.  Back to 40000.

Just had my first idiot play. I don’t want to talk about it.

Suffice to say, I am now at 34,600.

We’re now more than five hours into the tournament and I’ve hit a big lull.  No playable hands - nothing even close.

But as Billy V says, you got enough chips to wait this lull out.  And he’s right: every ten hands, the blind bets take 1300 chips away from me.  At this rate, if I don’t play another pot, I’m out of the tournament in about 320 hands.

So I wait.

———————————

Of the original Houston players, who started with me , two are out.  Bert “fell in love” with his pocket jacks and got bounced.  And Larry … well, here’s how he described it:

 

This is shorthand for Larry having the best hand all-in, and then abruptly not having the best hand on a highly improbable higher straight.  

Sorry, Larry!  Poker can sometimes really suck.

———————————

Just won a big hand on a stone bluff.  Started with J 10 hearts, four players limp to the flop.  The flop is AQ9, so I am open-ended to the straight.  I bet 4000, and get one caller.  We check the turn, and then she checks the river. I bet 5000, and she lets it go.

The key to that hand - she announced that this was her second buy-in today, so she was not going to be inclined to be sent home twice, especially since she’d only been at the table for about 20 minutes.

———————————-

And then I give a little back to the aggressive guy next to me.  I’m playing J7 from the small blind, and we get five limpers because the big blind is a short stack and isn’t ready to go all-in.

Flop is AA8.  We all check.  The next card is a J, which I think might make me the best hand.  Last card is an 8.  I bet 1000.  One guy calls me, and then aggressive guy raises to 4000.  I call and he shows the third 8 that gives him a full house.  It was a good bet - low enough to make me call.

At 42,100.  Just treading water.

Things are slowing down for me. Two newcomers to the table are playing super-aggressive, re-raising preflop and putting people to the test.

This means I have to be more careful about my starting hands, and I’m already being very careful. This definitely slows down my creativity because my experience has been that guys like these are VERY hard to dislodge.

In fact, it was someone like these two who killed my long run at the last Seniors tournament. I bluffed preflop, the guy called, I bluffed after the flop, the guy called, I bluffed on the turn, the guy went all-in and I had to run away. He wasn’t playing his cards, he was playing mine, and he had the right read on me.  In short, it didn’t matter what his cards were - he just knew he would bully me off the hand.

I worry that the same thing would happen with these two guys on any kind of bluff, so I just need to wait for a monster hand.  THEN, I bet and they call and call and call and I win.

————————

And just after writing that, I looked down at 77 and raised to 1200. One of the aggressive guys called me, and my heart sank a little.

The flop was Q64, so I bet 3000, figuring we both missed.  He folded the hand.  Whew!

Back to 44,700.

————————

Second break - 44,500.

Back from break.  Had to walk about half a mile to get to a bathroom that didn’t have a really long line. The downside to playing with a bunch of old men - we all need to go when we need to go.

The hands keep coming - I caught an inside straight on the turn and one of the players bet into me. Still haven’t had to show a hand for a pot - I’m making good reads and attacking weak players.

The guy two seats to my left is a chiropractor from Georgetown, Texas - very nice man.  We exchanged broken back stories and our rehabilitation successes.

And the guy to my left who was irritable has become much more pleasant. This is what happens over time - this game would be BORING without the social interactions, just fold, fold, fold. So as long as we aren’t jerks, we get along and kind of root for each other.

———————————-

The guy to my right who plays every hand has slowed down a little, but he was my huckleberry when I looked down at QQ preflop. I raised to 1000, he called. After the flop was 10 4 4, I bet 3000 and he called.  Worrying about a possible set of fours, we both checked it to the end.  When I showed the QQ, he mucked.

And that was the first showdown hand that I can remember so far.

———————————

A guy in a glossy black leather hat with long gray hair was our first departure from Bronze 54.  He was kind of a hoot - he went all-in with his 6000 chips about five or six times before getting felted by a newcomer to the table.  Every time he went all-in, he said, “Geronimo! It’s a good day to die.”

And eventually, it was!

————————————

Three hours in, I am at 44,500, up 24,500 from my original stack. This is good.

Just sparring right now - have mixed it up a few times with the guy to my left, and he seems to be getting frustrated with me.

The one hand he won, I was in the big blind and he was first to act.  He limped and I checked my blind.  The flop was A blank blank.  When he bet, I said, “I know what you have.”  He said, “You don’t know what I have,” not pleasantly.

I’m not sure I’ve had a showdown hand yet - no one has called any of my river bets.  That’s a very good sign that I am playing well.

————————————

Now we are moving into the grind. The excitement of the first two hours has faded and we’re trying to not make any catastrophic decisions. So far, my play has been better than solid, and I am getting a lot of respect at the table.

Best example of that: When I am in the big blind, people are pausing just a second to decide whether they want to be in a hand with me, and mostly folding.

Another example: just won a good-sized pot by bluffing a flush into a guy with what I assume was a decent ace. He thought long and hard about it, then said, “Can’t beat your flush.”

It’s a good feeling to be perceived as trustworthy at the poker table, especially when you’re not.

—————————

First break - my stack is now 30400.  Off to the bathroom!

And we’re off.

First hand:  2c6c. Not playing that junk.

1987 entrants so far. There will be substantially more - tomorrow is a second Day 1, which will include rebuys from the people who bust out today.

———————

Win my first hand of the day - AJ. Raise to 300, two callers. Bet 700 on the flop, they fold. Easy peasy.

———————

Guy to my right is playing every hand. Just took a big pot by hitting a full house after he called a 300 preflop raise with his 87. It will be interesting to see whether this style lasts long.

———————-

Won my second hand of the day with my favorite hand Q 10. Flop comes AJ8, so I have an inside straight draw.  I bet 300 and one guy comes along. The next card is an A. I check, he checks. Now I feel pretty good he doesn’t have an A, although he could be trapping me. Next card: another A. I bet 700 and he runs away.

The guy next to me asks me to show my fourth A. “Is that a rule?” I ask. He says I don’t have to if I don’t want to. I don’t, for obvious reasons.

—————————

A word about the guys at the table. The thing I love about the Seniors Tournament is that they all look and act like Hank Hill. Good hearted men in comfortable clothes, mostly with old men beards. No aggression just to be aggressive. Between hands, they talk about tools and dogs and trucks. No college professors as far as I can tell.  Or Democrats.  

They are perfectly pleasant, and we’re all getting to know each other. By the end of the day, those of us left will be good friends.

———————————

Had some ups and downs and was back to my original 20000 stack. I was in the small blind with QJ, with three players who limped (bet the minimum) before it was my turn to act. I raised to 300. They called.

The flop was A 8 7. I was first to act. Because they had limped, I felt pretty good that none of them had an A, and because I had raised, I felt pretty good they thought I did have one. So my bet of 800 took it down, and I’m back to plus 700 for the tournament.

—————————-

This is my card protector for the tournament, custom made for me by my beloved son Josh.

The outer ring says. “Playing Smart Since 1963” and the inner ring says “Durfee #1.” If he had his druthers, he would have also written, “Playing Q 10 is stupid,” but he loves me and understands my blind spots.

—————————

Another big hand where I was bailed out by the poker gods.  

On the button, I get AJ.  Guy two seats to my right raises to 300.  I call, as do two other players.  Flop is K10 7, so I have an inside straight draw.  The bets check around to me and I bet 1000.  The original raiser is the only one who calls, which makes me nervous.  He may have AK.

So I visualize a Q hitting the board and … it does!

There being two hearts on the board, I decide to make it expensive to chase the flush.  “Don’t be greedy,” says Wojo in my mind.  I bet 2500.  After a long tank, the guy folds. I am now up 3000 for the tournament.

I am playing very few hands, but I am playing them very aggressively.  This is a good image to have going forward, brown suit or not.

At Brasilia Bronze 54.

Right away, I make a rookie mistake.  I’m Seat 7, but I sit down at Seat 4.

Grinning, the guy at Seat 8 says, “You’re just testing the dealer, right?”  It’s clear that he thinks I’m dead money. My brown suit probably reinforces this impression - suburban dad decides to test his luck, not any kind of serious player. 

Now I need to recalibrate my game to play off of that impression. Sigh.

Cards fly momentarily!

Tournament day!

I had a decent night’s sleep. I remember dreaming that I was in a bedroom that had a sliding door to the back yard, and some guy was peering into the house while I was getting ready for the day. He opened the sliding door and began to come inside the bedroom, but I confronted him and he left. Later in the dream, it comes out that the guy steals from everyone in the neighborhood.

As a Certified Dream Interpreter, the dream was not exactly difficult to suss out - the guy trying to steal from me is EVERYONE ELSE at the tournament, and I successfully defended my house (my chips) against being taken.

My poker buddy Wojo has a different theory.

“YOU are the man on the outside of the house,” he said.  “You just retired after fighting crime all those years - and now you are on the other side!  You want to take their stuff.”

Billy V, across the table, said, “I’m not telling you my dreams.”

Breakfast today is a 9-grain pancake, sausage and fruit at Denny’s. Wojo is holding forth on how to make it to Day 2.

“Don’t get greedy! Just double up twice and you’re in the top 12 percent.”

Jonathan, listening closely and smiling, says, “That’s all?Just double up twice. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

Wojo is not deterred. “If you have two pair, before you call a big bet, ask yourself ‘What do I beat?’  Don’t get greedy, if the guy is pushing you, he probably has you beat.  We’re all going to make it to Day 2!”

I feel like I’m in the first scene of Reservoir Dogs, when Mr. Pink is detailing his theory of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin.” The best conversations take place at Denny’s.

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Bert eats a big breakfast, as usual:

Less than an hour to cards flying.

And this is what it looks like to buy into a $1000 poker tournament:

It is still a little unnerving, even now, to put ten hundred dollar bills down, never to see them again.

I have been assigned to Table 54, Seat 7, in Brasilia Bronze.

Brasilia is one of the satellite rooms, overflow from the main room for the larger tournaments. 

All things equal, I prefer starting in the main room because you are less likely to be moved early in the tournament. A lot of poker is about getting to know the players and their styles, which takes time. If your table gets broken up and redistributed quickly, you just move into new situations and have to start anew in figuring out your playing companions.

The first year I cashed, I literally played the entire tournament in two tables. I knew the players at both tables really well, which gave me a lot of information when making critical decisions.

In 2019, I was moved to several tables during my three day run. Fortunately, I was running hot and coming to each table with a very big stack each time.  That made me the scary new guy to the players at my new tables, meaning that instead of me having to figure them out, they had to figure me out.

Anyway, I am hoping location won’t matter much - if I run hot, they can put me anywhere they want.

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Playing 1-3 Hold ‘Em cash poker right now and up $35. I need to win a little more to make up for my likely Astros loss.  

Not good to chase losses with more betting, but when in Vegas, I can indulge my inner problem gambler.  (My wife does NOT endorse this perspective, by the way.)

We made it to the Rio this afternoon. Easy check-in, but the hotel has seen better days. Rumor is that the hotel is going to be razed to make way for a baseball stadium, possibly as soon as next year.

After settling into the room, we went to the sports book to place a bet on the Astros.  Here, the line was -122, meaning that my $50 bet pays me back $91 if the Astros win.

So after I made the $50 bet, the Braves scored two runs in the first inning, and one more in the second inning, and two more in the third.

This is precisely why I don’t bet on sports at home.  (Plus, it’s kind of illegal, which is not a good look for someone in my pre-retirement profession.)

And I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Before I left, I texted my friend B, offering to place a bet for him on the Astros.  He responded:

Turns out he was right.  

But maybe the Astros can turn this around. Hope springs eternal for this degenerate gambler!

But if things don’t improve soon, I’m going to head down to sign up for the tournament.  I hear the lines are pretty long.

Travel day!

Last night was our poker league’s monthly tournament. Although I did not cash - the quality of play is very high and they are mostly onto my tactics - I noticed that when I played conservatively (as I do in the big Vegas tournament), I was doing well.

So I am not going to read anything negative into last night’s results. And, for what it’s worth, I won the monthly tournament last month and letting other players win every now and then is good for my overall karma. (If you are in my poker league, you know I am kidding about that - I never let anyone else win if I can help it. I am my father’s son - a smiling poker Ninja.)

Anyway, I got a mostly good night sleep. As a recent retiree, I have fewer racing thoughts interfering with my restfulness. But I do find myself peeing more at night, so it’s not perfect. Old age - the gift that keeps on giving (until it very abruptly stops giving altogether).

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I debated my wardrobe this morning and decided against being the Man in Black this year.  Instead, I’m trying out brown and avuncular, with black accents.

To take this picture, I snuck my mask off briefly. One of the recurring themes of this blog is going to be a dispatch from Vegas during Covid, and what they are doing to mitigate risk. I hear that they are pretty strict - masks on at all times throughout the hotel and casino … except at the table, which seems to be the exception that might swallow the rule.

To address that, I stopped at Randall’s and bought some KN95 masks - purportedly 95% effective in screening particles. Check out my carry-on, filled with trail mix and face masks:

I’m sharing these with my roomie Bert, but he already has the gold standard mask - an N95:

We are getting called to the gate, so I will check back in with you later.  Wish me a safe flight!

It’s Monday - one day before the flight to Las Vegas.  Time to take inventory:

• Beard trim: yes.
• Nails trimmed: yes.
• Money for trip: yes.
• Haircut: maybe later today.
• Dark suit and tie: at the dry cleaners to be picked up after 5.

Why is this important?  It’s because poker is as much about psychology as it is about probability, and the right  table image gives me an edge in many important situations.

You’ll note that I did not say that poker is also about luck. That’s because it isn’t.  

As I observed in my 2019 blog, anyone who thinks it’s a game of luck is pretty much “dead money,” meaning that they will curse me for having better cards as they leave the table, not knowing that I only played the winning hand because I knew it could beat them in that particular moment.

And yes, sometimes you get beat by an improbable better hand, but unless you made a dumb play, that’s just a statistical variance rearing it’s (very) ugly head to send you home.  And smart tournament players hedge against that by not being greedy - if you don’t have to put all your chips at risk, you don’t.  Take the small pots and wait for the monster hands.

Back to table image.  I have worn a suit and tie to these tournaments for years because it projects confidence and competence, an intimidating veneer that makes people think twice about whether they should call my bets.

Other people may want to use casual clothes to camouflage their true character as a poker shark, but I think that’s a mistake because (1) it’s easily sussed out by your play; and (2) it can lead to people playing aggressively against you, which is not a good place to be in poker.

Here is what was an early revelation to me when I started playing seriously: in most hands, none of the players have a good hand and they are all primed to fold to any bet.  So a decent-sized bet, large enough to deter a player from trying to draw a better hand, will usually take down a pot.  (And yes, sometimes a player in the hand has better cards, but that’s why you don’t make an oversized bet - a quick little probe tells you where you are and if you get some resistance, you have room to retreat.)

So, if you look vulnerable, people fire at you to see how strong you really are.  But if you look formidable, they might think twice.  That’s why it’s worth the effort to look good.

———————————

I skipped my regular Monday workout today to get some stuff done around the house before the long trip.

This apparently did not go over well with two of my investors, Art and B.:

I know where they are coming from.  For years, Art’s mantra has been, “Health before wealth,” shorthand for the premise that work obligations should not trump a scheduled workout.  And I agree with that, but not today - there is too much to do and a long week ahead.  As such, I am treating today like the rest day before running a marathon.

Hmmm.  Maybe the Viking cap would be a good look for the table.  

Maybe not.

In 2013, I turned fifty years old.  

I didn't feel fifty, not at all.  I was in good health, running regularly, playing basketball, a little overweight, but almost no gray hairs or wrinkles.  

I could not have been happier at home as well - I was 23 years married to a wonderful person, with two amazing kids, living well in a lovely home.

I was in the prime of my career at the District Attorney's Office, a master of my small universe.  I was well-known and respected in all of the Harris County state and federal courts, and the District Attorney's go-to problem solver.  

I was also teaching and speaking throughout in the state as an expert on legal ethics, criminal law, and public information.  That year, I even got to speak for the first time to the Houston Rockets in their dressing room about staying out of trouble, which I thereafter did every October until the pandemic.

To commemorate the occasion of my fiftieth birthday, I started a blog reviewing craft beers and telling stories about my life.  Although it ran out of gas after sixteen beers, it's still kind of a good read.

At fifty, I had achieved about everything I wanted to do.  My bucket list, such as it was, was down to two things:  

(1)    I wanted to see what a major league curveball, fastball, and slider look like from inside the batter's box; and

(2)    I wanted to play really competitive poker in Las Vegas.  

While I have not yet stood in to face those pitches, turning fifty had opened a door for me to realize my dream of playing poker in the Big Leagues.

Allow me to explain.  

For me, there are two kinds of poker - cash poker and tournament poker.  (I don't count the third kind - recreational poker for low stakes (e.g., nickel-dime-quarter; M&Ms; matchsticks) - because it does not interest me at all).

Cash poker is great fun, but a little dangerous.  You can make a lot of money, but if you are playing no-limit table stakes - which, for me, is the only way to play - all of your money is at risk on every hand.  The fruits of six hours of solid play can turn to ashes when your kings get cracked by aces on an all-in hand.

No, it's better to cap your potential losses by playing tournament poker.  You buy into the tournament and one of two things happens: you lose and take home nothing, or you win and take home some amount more than what you bought in for.  Sometimes, substantially more than what you bought in for.

The problem is that most tournaments only pay when 85 to 90 percent of the field has lost all of their chips.  Think of it this way: under these rules, if you sit down with eight other players in a single table tournament, only one of the players at the table gets paid.  Now extrapolate that out to a tournament with 100 players and that means only 10 to 15 of those players win money.

Despite these daunting odds, I felt confident at age fifty that I could win at tournament poker.  I had been playing a lot of computer poker tournaments and doing well, and I had started playing in a poker league in Houston and doing well.  I had a good sense of the basic principles of the game and had begun to play more creatively, looking for vulnerabilities in other players' games and exploiting them with aggressive stratagems.

But . . . Vegas tournaments were different in two ways.  One, the quality of play at the top was very good and was skewing younger and more aggressive, far beyond my comfort level at that time.  You could have a great hand and still get bullied out of the hand by a little thug in a hoodie who cared more about his table image than his money, a kid intent on showing his girlfriend that he could make a middle-aged family man dance to his tune.

Second, the World Series of Poker tournaments were expensive.  While there were accessible tournaments that cost anywhere from $50 to $350, the prestige events all started at $5000 per entry.  I was a good player, but not that good.

But there was one tournament that negated those two issues: the Seniors Tournament.  No one younger than 50, and only (!) $1000.  I really wanted that to be my first foray into serious WSOP tournament poker.

So I began to plan my debut for June of 2014, and almost got there.  In the spring, I checked the calendar.  I had plenty of vacation time.  I had won substantially more than $1000 in my home games, so I had the money.  I had no other family events planned for the weekend of the tournament -- well, nothing other than my daughter's high school graduation.

It turns out that you cannot negotiate your way out of attending your daughter's graduation, especially for a poker tournament.

So, no Seniors Tournament in 2014.

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