Vegas Sunday

SUNDAY NOV 9

The big day is finally here, the WSOP
main event final table that has been
delayed for 4 months. Unfortunately, I
'll have to watch it on tv like common folk.
The line up to get into the Penn & Teller
theatre at the RIO is crazy long and the
set up isnt very good for spectators.

Went for lunch buffet at the ORLEANS
(241 ACG) and hit their poker room after.
Always seems to be a very busy room,
even during the week. 1/2 hour wait.
Their list procedures are a little sketchy.
Names occasionally appear above you
on the list with out explanation. They have
different colored symbols they can put
with peoples names. Green is phone-in,
blue is table change request, etc...
but people got bumped for no obvious
reason (locals friendly with poker room
manager ?). Watched a bit of the $4/8 and
$8/16 Omaha H/L cash games. Very juicy.
People had very little clue to what a
good starting hand is or even knowing
if they were winning.



A new must-move $1/2 table was started
and we got seated. I didnt even get to
play a hand before I was moved to the
main table. After about a half hour,
JERRY YANG - 2007 World Champion
sat next to me at our table. Super nice guy,
very friendly. He showed a big bluff the
first hand, then he played tight ABC poker
after that (He left +$300).

It was a real up & down session for me,
lots of tough decisions (which I usually avoid).
River beat me on several big hands/pots.
Sometimes I just got outflopped....
I had QQ against villains AK.
Flop is QTJ of spades. Luckily I only lost
about $60 on that hand because villain
had no spades.

I folded a flopped gutshot Q high
straight flush draw, face up to the shock
of the dealer and most of the table.
3 all-ins behind me. Had invested $50
on the flop but would have cost me my
stack, $220 more. What most people fail to
consider in this situation is what your
opponents likely holdings are. With 3
other people all in, it is highly likely
one of them is drawing to the Ace high
flush. One of my other opponents may
have already made the straight.
It is quite possible in this situation that
I am drawing to a one outer to hit the
straight flush. I might even be drawing
completely dead if one of my opponents
holds my str8flush card. Atleast I got a
"wow" out of Jerry Yang for my fold.
Left the Orleans + $25.

1am.
Decided to check out CAESARS PALACE.
The entire casino floor was nearly vacant,
very few people at all. The poker room
was the same, almost empty.
2 tables of $1/2. The high hand jackpots
were a joke. $100 for 4 of a kind,
$100 for a str8 flush, $500 for royal flush.
They scoop $1 from every pot and
all they want to pay back is $100 ?
That's weak.

Signed up with the brush and he told us
to have a seat and grab a cocktail,
wont be long. Sounds good.
After 2 failed attempts to get a drink
from a snobby Caesars waitress,
we bailed. No action, no service,
no thanks. Headed back to the RIV
and called it an early night .

Vegas Saturday

SATURDAY November 8

Late night before, not awake in time for
the AllVegasPoker AVP tourny I planned
on playing. Got up at 1pm. Arrived at the
GOLD COAST Buffet at 2:55pm.
Buffet closes at 3pm for one hour.
Reopens at 4pm for dinner. Played slots
to kill an hour. Anecdotally, the slots seem
to have tightened up a lot. Heard numerous
others throughout the trip mention they
felt slots werent paying out as well as
they had in the past. Burned through - $20
in no time at all. Put $10 in video poker and
milked that until buffet opened.
Drink service on the floor was really slow.
Ordered 2 Crown Royals at a time because
it'd be 20-30 minutes before you saw a
waitress again. Sonny and Tom joined us
for dinner before heading to the WYNN
to play another deep stack tournament.
G.C. Buffet was good as always.
$6 each with ACG.



Next stop, the HARD ROCK Poker Lounge.
Very busy. Nice atmosphere, a little loud
at times. Good dealers, omfy chairs.
$1/hr comps. Tourny going on while there.
Seen JAMIE GOLD, SHAWN SKEIKAN,
THOR HANSON, JEAN-ROBERT BELLANDE.
Also, The Duke of Fremont made an
appearance, shook everyones hand but
didnt play poker. Good session, + $ 247.

Went back to the strip to check out some
of the smaller poker rooms and maybe
find a soft game. BILLS Gambling Hall was
super busy. All 3 tables in the Poker "room"
were full but lots of short stacks.
Hit OSHEA'S, same thing. FLAMINGO poker
room was reasonably busy, but didnt seem
that inviting. Walked over to the IMPERIAL
PALACE. Short waiting list and the floor
said he'd likely open new table within 20 mins.
Good to his word, 15 minutes later we were
seated at new table. Speaking of tables,
they're huge. 10 man rectangular tables
with no drink holders. They had a giant
PINK dye-sub poster of 2 women printed
on the felt. Very distracting and likely to
cause drunks to miss poker chips that
blend in with the print colours.

Poker wise, it was a rollercoaster night
for me. I couldn't close any of my huge
draws all night, 2 royal flush draws,
2 open ended str8flush draws, 1 dbl gutshot
str8flush draw, they left me hangin without
the payday.

Got stacked at one point and had to
rebuild. I was on the good side off
AA vs. KK and set over set 555 vs. QQQ
to rebuild my stack. I finished the IP session
+ $ 220.

Gina hit her first live straight flush.
10 high with 78 of clubs in her hand.
High hand jackpot paid her + $250 bonus
on top of what was in the pot. She finished
the night + $ 340.

Went back downtown for $6 CALIFORNIA
breakfast buffet. Great value. I can eat $6
worth of bacon...lol. - $20 on video poker.
When we came out to the car, it was raining.
A first for me, raining in vegas.

Vegas Friday

FRIDAY NOV 7

Drove back down to the SILVERTON for
Lunch Buffet. Excellent as always.
Awesome desserts. Carrot cake and the
chocolate crusted pecan pie are A+.
Approx. $9.50 for 2 with ACG coupon.
Back third of restaurant was closed off
for slot machine storage. Explains why
the lineup was so long the other day.
At 1pm the Silverton poker room had
one table. Old farts pushing small pots
back and forth to each other.
The Bass Pro Shops inside the casino
always has some good deals. New Balance
running shoes $34.95. 1/2 price Tommy
Bahama shirts $69.

2pm.
Checked into RIVIERA. As a money
saving measure, they have kiosks for
self check-in. It was pretty simple,
swipe your credit card and it brings
up your room reservation on screen.
Downside, you couldnt select what tower
you wanted or offer a 'tip' to the staff to
upgrade you to a nicer room. Room 934
in the North Mediteranian Tower.
Nice pillowtop king size bed.
In room fridge, flat panel tv, dressing table
(no countertop in bathroom. Tall shower
faucet, plenty of HOT water with strong
pressure. In room safe for extra $3 a day.

More cowboys everywhere. Lots of SEMA
(auto industry) guys everywhere. Supposedly
130,000 people here for the convention.

Went to the WYNN to play $1/3 cash game.
They use $3 chips, which sounds good in
theory, but i don't like it. I won + $145
in the first half hour so i took that money
and bought in (late) to the 7pm $140+$20
deep stack tourny that Sonny & Tom were
playing in. Good structure, 1/2hr blinds
& 10,000 starting chips.
I didnt last more that about 20 minutes.
Only bad beat story in this entire report
( I Promise ). I raise with TT, villain (AK) raises,
I call. Flop is T 4 A. I bet, villain raises,
I push all in (started hand with $9400).
Villain hesitates only 3 seconds then calls
and rolls over AK. Yippee for me. Wait for it.
Turn is K. River is K. I lose. Good example
why I prefer cash games instead of tournys.
Tourny, I'm out and donkey continues.
In cash game, I rebuy and win my money
back from him. On the bright side,
the tourny was basically a freeroll using
other peoples money from the cash game.

Went back to RIV to freshen up before
heading back out. Walked everywhere
for the rest of the night so we could
get our drink on. Walked directly accross
the street to SLOTS O' FUN. Used ACG
coupon which got us a chili dog and
a Corona for free. That is one messy
chili dog, bring moist towelettes.
SlotsOfun was very busy place.
No service staff at the booth except
during day because of layoffs.
Had another coupon $15 in chips for $10.
Tables were too busy so saved for later.
They offer $3 Craps, $3 BlackJack,
and the min bet on Roulette is 50 cents.
No wonder this place is busy !

1:30am
Walked down to SAHARA, hoping to
hit a juicy cash game full of people
knocked out of the late tournament.
No $1/2 games going, only 2/4 Limit
and a single $2/5NL game. I sit down
at the $2/5 game, everyone else heads
for the casino floor. My cash game
didnt last long, broke up within a half hr.
I almost had the one guy convinced to
play heads up (the dealer agreed to deal it)
when his girlfriend arrived and that killed
my plan. It could have been good if there
were more players. Left - $10. Watched
PaiGow poker for a couple hours.
Sonny left Pai Gow to shoot some craps
and made a nice + $500 profit after a
young kid got on a hot roll.

6am
We walked down to the PEPPERMILL
restaurant which is right beside the Riviera.
HUGE portions, fair prices. Sonny, Gina
and I ate for $53, I was the only one who
finished my plate. Having been awake all
night gambling, its not that surprising that
conversation turned to prop bets.

Sonny spotted an item on the menu
called 'Fruit Platter'. Seeing how huge
our portions were, he figured that has
got to be a lotta fruit. Gina mentioned
that I dont eat fruit. Its not that I dislike fruit,
I'm not allergic or anything like that,
its just I'm not a big fruit eater.
Sonny suggested a prop bet that I couldnt
finish this fruit platter. I'm not a big eater,
but I have won a couple food bets in the
past (eating worms, crickets etc). I was
pretty close to taking the bet on a whim,
without even setting out a prize if I completed
the task. Sonny, trying to get a better idea
of what he'd have to offer as a prize,
asked the waiter "what exactly does
the fruit platter come with ?". HAHA !
It contains: 1 whole Pineapple, half of a
watermelon, a honeydew melon,
canaloupe melon, several bananas,
several apples, orange slices, grapes,
kiwis, etc. Plus a LOAF of Banana Bread
...LOL ! If I wasnt out of the country, I might
even try this just for laughs. But there's
no way I could make a real attempt at it
without spending some serious time
on the toilet afterwards. My body is
designed for protein, not fruit.

Vegas Thurs

THURS. NOV 6.

Temps: High 66F (19C) , Low 46F (8C)

Up way too early, 9am. Forgot to turn the
ringer for my cellphone off. Went to the
FREMONT Hotel for breakfast buffet.
2 for $7.32 with coupon. They have instituted
a "One coupon per person Per Year" policy.
241 buffet coupons are the main (only)
reason I have for visiting the Fremont.
Good news is, a new year starts soon.
Buffet wasnt as good as on previous trips.
Less selection.

Back over to the EL CORTEZ to put some
valuables and cash in the lock box at the
front desk. Won + $7.50 on HootLoot slots,
enough to play for breakfast.
When cashing in the ticket, I noticed the
ATM fees. $3 + 3.95%. To take out $1000,
the fee was $51. Ouch. Bring cash.

Drove to the Walmart at Charleston & Jones
to get Gina some better shoes. The ones
she brought were giving her blisters.
I was looking for a replacement camera
and some antihistamines.
No luck finding the same model camera.

Next stop was the VENETIAN Hotels
poker room. + $140.
Went for dinner and met up with
SONNY 'The Money' RATTAN &
TOM WHATTAM (guys I know from
http://www.elitepoker.ca/ in Hamilton).

Wanted to do the SILVERTON Casino
buffet, but the line up was long, 1hr +.
Sonny mentioned the Green Valley Ranch
had a 7pm Omaha tourney thursdays,
so we headed there for buffet.
Buffet was decent. I had several
ACG coupons left, so we all got it for
1/2 price. Turns out the info Sonny saw
posted on the AllVegasPoker website
was bogus. Monday is the Omaha tourny.
Thursdays is Holdem. We all decided to
play the holdem tourny since we were
already there anyways. Rake was high,
about 30%. 26 players. I finished 8th.
Tom chopped with 5 left. GVR had
7cash tables going. Three $1/2NL,
three $2/4L, one $3/6L.

Back to BINIONS to play a couple more
hours of poker. ED WOODS from Hamilton
was there and having a real good time.
I really didnt get dealt much that was
playable. + $45 for the session.

Went back to EL CORTEZ.
Won + $11.77 on Turkey Shoot slots,
enough to pay for something to eat.
The El Cortez Cafe was under renovations.
Very limited menu after midnight. 2 breakfasts,
salads, fruit, and drinks. No burgers, fries,
sandwiches, etc. Breakfast was $3.95 .
Home fries were cold, eggs were just ok.
$11.31 for 2. Rate it: 2 / 10

Vegas Trip Report (Start)

This will be a less detailed TR than usual,
so it's not necessarily complete or accurate.
I just didn't take as many notes or pics this trip.

WEDNESDAY NOV 5.
Left London bound for Detroit Wednesday
morning. Paid $287 inclusive for my flight
on Spirit, it actually dropped after booking,
cheap enough that I didn't cry.
Arrived in Vegas without any problems and
headed for the Rental Car Terminal.
Alamo didnt have a car for us.
Actually, they didnt have a car for anyone..lol.
The place was nearly empty. They would just
offer you a car as one was returned. Not what
we ordered, but the Chevy Malibu they offered
us was acceptable, better than waiting.
It was a quiet car, a bit of a pig on gas..
but at $0.50/Litre ($1.80/gal) you can afford
to drive a guzzler down here.
(Paid $124/8 days + $27 gas).

5:30pm
Headed downtown to check in at the
EL CORTEZ hotel. Room 5567 in the
Pavillion tower. $15 a night w/ACG coupon.
Room was adequate. Bed was comfy.
Some minor complaints: No hot water on
second day, shower tub very slow to drain,
Traffic noise, big gap around door. It was
noisy because of the setup of this tower.
Its more like a motel. The hallway entrances
are outside the building. The floor material is
uneven tile, so the laundry carts pushed by
the maids make a racket in the morning.
But hey, for $15 a night, how much can I complain.

Went down to the ElCo casino floor and
played out $10 slot freeplay from the
ACG book. Burned through it playing
Turkey Shoot and Hoot Loot.




Every trip I like to hit a few different places
to eat and play poker. The first new casino
was the GREEN VALLEY RANCH located
south of the strip in Henderson NV.

Dropped my camera getting out of the car, oops.
Smashed the LCD display. Putting a positive spin
on it, it was my $120 "vegas camera" and not my
expensive Panasonic Lumix.

The 'Feast Buffet' was good, but not
exceptional. 2for1 ACG coupon, 2 of us
ate for $20. I wouldn't recommend it
at full price, there are better.

Features: crab legs, mongolian grill,
custom pasta station, prime rib, sliced
turkey and pork ribs. Overall rating 7.5 / 10.

Obama wins ! Plenty of mixed reactions
from players at the poker tables about
their new president.

Headed over to BINIONS to check out their
recently renovated poker room. Its a big
improvement. It's quieter, stylish-modern,
and essentially smoke-free. Rolling office-style
chairs that adjust up and down.
New tables, but someone wasn't thinking
too clearly. They ordered tables with 10
cupholders when they only ever play
games 9 handed. There was some confusion
about who gets which cupholder.
But at least it's an improvement over the
old tables with no cupholders and having
to use those crappy plastic ones that you
have to jam under the table's padded
elbow rest. It wasnt set up yet (the room is
that new) but a table-based player management
system is probably in place by the time I post this.

Now all they need to do is upgrade the
dealers & floor staff and this will be a top
notch room. Binions pays $2 an hour comps.
They record them with pen and paper so
its a little sketchy that you actually get what
you earn. heard a few stories of them not
accurately logging hours. Regular players
accumulate hours towards entry into a freeroll
(25hrs to qualify). Update: When I cashed
mine out at the end of the week, it was short.
This should be corrected when the new
card-swipe player mgt systems is installed.

Saw " The Duke of Fremont ". This guy is a
real character. I had actually seen him on a
previous trip over at the Golden Nugget.

He's always dressed in a fancy suit or tuxedo,
usually has a fedora and cane and walks
around like his shit don't stink. He comes
into the poker room and sits down at $1/2
and pulls $10,000+ in cash out of his briefcase
and puts it on the table. When I saw him do this
the first time, I thought it was a joke,
a casino promotion or something.
Usually he doesn't even play any hands,
he posts his blinds and folds, then disappears,
schmoozing around the casino until he returns
a half hour later to post his blinds, then
disappear again. At Binions, he never left his
seat. He actually played a few hands, not many
but a few.

I played fairly conservative poker.
I had been up or over 24hrs now, it's silly
to get too fancy. Finished the session + $90.

Hit the 'Lanai Express' inside the FREMONT
Hotel before heading back for sleep. Had the
2 item combo plate, spicey rice with orange
chicken and mongolian beef for $6.
Very Satisfiing

The PBR (Professional Bull Riders) were
holding their World Finals event this week
in Vegas, so lots of cowboy hats and
belt buckles everywhere we went.

MGM Mirage - Big Layoffs

Signs of the weak economy hitting
Las Vegas and other gambling
destinations keep rolling in.

Last week various media sources
reported that MGM Mirage had
laid off 2,500 employees, as a
cost-cutting move.

MGM officially denied the reports.

Anonymous inside sources (MGM Mirage
management types) say the media
reports were untrue. The real number
is more like 4,000 employees getting
pink slips.

WPT Fallsview

A 67-year-old retired real estate broker
from Kitchener-Waterloo took home
the North American Poker Championship
title and $1.2 million at the Fallsview
Casino in Niagara Falls this week.

Glen Witmer survived a strong field
of 454 players, competing in only his
second major poker tournament.
Witmer and fellow amateur player
Jim Trenholm, a Toronto firefighter,
were the only two amateur players
to make it to the final table, going
against four experienced professionals.

Unfortunately for Trenholm, he didn't
last long and was the first to be eliminated
from the final table. He was followed by
Ottawa poker pro Marc Karam who headed
for the rail in fifth place earning $171,175.

Next to go was another Canadian Ryan Fisler
who pocketed $228,234 for fourth place.
(Yet another poker pro coming out of
Waterloo, ON. What's in the water there?)

Highly respected US player Kathy Leibert
finished in third place earning $277,684.
This made way for heads up combat between
Witmer and well known tournament pro
Gavin Smith (originally from Guelph,ON),
who resides in Las Vegas.

In the final hand, both players were all-in
with Gavin holding pocket 5's to Glen's AK.
The cards fell Gavin's way, until an Ace on
the river sent Smith home with $532,545
and gave the WPT championship and
$1.2M paycheque to Witmer.

It was an huge return for a small investment.
Glen won his way into the event through a
$170 Step A satellite qualifier.

Craig from PPT

Many of you will know Craig Robillard,
tournament staff from the Premier
Poker Tour events. Craig has been
doing some writing for poker site
http://www.TexasHoldemPoker4U.com/

Drop by and show some support.
Ya just might learn something too.

Full Tilt FTOPS 9

Bigger and better than ever.
Starts Nov. 5th, going for 11 days
covering 25 events taking place
$16 Million in guaranteed prize $.



Event# /Date /Entry/Guarantee

#1 11-5 21:00 $200+16 NL Hold'em 6-max $1Mill
#2 11-6 14:00 $240+16 PL Omaha/8 K/O $200k
#3 11-6 21:00 $500 + $35 NLH 3x S/O $300k
#4 11-7 14:00 $300+22 NLH (1R / 1A) $600k
#5 11-7 21:00 $200+16 Limit Holdem 6max $150k
#6 11-8 14:00 $500+35 PL Omaha 6-Max $350k
#7 11-8 16:00 $100+9 NL Hold'em $600k
#8 11-9 14:00 $240+16 NLH 6-Max K/O $600k
#9 11-9 18:00 $300+22 NL Hold'em $1.5Mill
#10 11-10 14:00 $300+22 Mixed Hold'em $250k
#11 11-10 21:00 $1000+60 NL Hold'em $1.5Mill
#12 11-11 14:00 $ 200+16 HA (PLH/PLO) $150k
#13 11-11 21:00 $ 500+35 HORSE $300k
#14 11-11 21:00 $ 200+16 NLH Turbo $500k
#15 11-12 14:00 $ 200+16 Omaha 8ob $150k
#16 11-12 21:00 $ 300+22 NLH 6-Max R/B $1Mill
#17 11-13 14:00 $200+16 NLH 4x S/O 6max $250k
#18 11-13 21:00 $300+22 Razz $150k
#19 11-14 14:00 $200+16 NL Hold'em $400k
#20 11-14 21:00 $200+16 Stud 8-or-better $100k
#21 11-15 14:00 $500+35 NLH Heads-up $500k
#22 11-15 14:00 $5000+200 NLH 6-max $2Mill
#23 11-15 16:00 $100+9 PLO R/B $400k
#24 11-16 14:00 $120+9 NLH K/O $500k

Main Event
#25 11-16 18:00 $500 + $35 NLH $2.5Mill

Caesars Mega Stack

Yet another deep stack tournament
series for Las Vegas bound poker players.

Caesars Palace is hosting its Mega Stack
poker series, which will follow the currently
ongoing Caesars Poker Classic. It will run
from November 2nd to 20th and feature
17 events with entry fees from $200-$1,060.

Mega Stack Schedule:

Date /Time / Buy-in / Game
11/1 -- -- (Satellites Begin)
11/2 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/3 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/4 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/4 -3pm- $180+20 PLO
11/5 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/6 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/7 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/8 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/9 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/10 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/11 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/11 -3pm $180+20 Omaha 8/B
11/12 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/13 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE
11/14 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/15 -Noon- $300+30 NLHE
11/16 -Noon- $500+40 NLHE
11/17 -Noon- $200+25 NLHE

11/18 -Noon- $1,000+60
Mega Championship (NLHE)

11/19 -2pm- Mega Ch. Day 2

11/20 -2pm- Final Table

http://www.harrahs.com/images/non_image_assets/CLV_nov_mega_stack_093008.pdf

Poker After Dark - Cash Game II

I really enjoyed the Mayfair Club
episodes this week. I have read
quite a bit about the NY poker scene
back in the day from different books
and magazines. Cool to hear it from
the guys who actually lived it.

October 13-19 looks like another great week !

PAD Cash Game #2 -- $200/400 NL

Patrik Antonius
Dee Tiller
Howard Lederer
Doyle Brunson
Gabe Kaplan
Eli Elezra

Paris LV Poker Room Closes

As of Monday October 7th, the Paris Hotel
permanently closed down their poker room.

This was unannounced to staff or patrons,
but still a heavily predicted closure. According to
the staff at Ballys, all Paris poker room staff will be
transferred to Ballys (Paris' sister hotel which is a
directly connected property).

Duplicate Poker is toast

Duplicate Poker has shut down its
online operations, effective yesterday.

A message was sent to all Duplicate Poker
customers which cited the credit crunch
in the current global financial market
as the reason for the site's demise.

Duplicate Poker had recently entered a
second phase in its fundraising and
development efforts, as the site attempted
to cement its market presence.

The site was originally created as a
direct response to the October 2008
signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act (UIGEA) law.

It offered US players a new, legal format
of poker specifically designed to remove
elements of chance, by have players at the
same seat at each table receive the same cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_poker

If you have money deposited on DP, visit
the homepage for instructions. It shouldnt
be too difficult to get a refund.

JUANDA Wins WSOP Europe

John Juanda beat out a field of 362 players
to become the 08 WSOP Europe Champion
in the £10,000 GBP Main Event. It was a tough
field consisting of many of the top names
from around the world. Total prize pool
was £3.62 million.

The nine player final table was a mix of
WSOP veterans and up and comers like
Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman and
John Juanda (with nine prior WSOP
bracelets combined), and newcomers
Chris Elliott, Toni Hiltunen and Stanislav
Alekhin making their first WSOP final tables.

The star-studded final table ground on for
an exhausting 22 hours and 484 hands.
The top eight finalists were rewarded with
a minimum of £100,000+ Pounds each.

Almost as big of a story as Juanda's long
overdue bracelet victory is Ivan Demidov.
The Russian finished third for a payday of
£334,850. Even more notably than
his finish here, Demidov is second in chips
among the 'November 9' WSOP finalists.
Final tabling at both WSOP main events
is a huge accomplishment.

Another Casino Windsor Trip Report

Last night at Caesars Windsor I stumbled upon
one of the softest, weakest group of poker players
I've ever encountered anywhere. They werent
'new', bad players who didnt know how to play
the game (ie: not knowing about posting blinds
or that they can check or bet), these were just
plain awful players. Calling raises all the way
to the river with a small pocket pair, giving off
the most painfully obvious tells and trying to
bluff, etc.

Soft players are a bonus, but one of the main
reasons for me to play there was to earn
comps on my Harrah's card. I'm heading to
Vegas again in November and want to eat at
the RIO buffet for free. Harrahs also keeps
offering me free tickets to shows like
Englebert Humperdink and Regis Philbin.
I'm hoping someone who's less than
70 years old will perform at Caesars Windsor
one of these days and they'll give me
some free tix for that ... lol

But now there's a big reason not to go back to
Windsor to take advantageof the comps and
those juicey cash games. It's because of this
poker rooms totally abhorrent treatment of
rules and etiquette.

Until now, I'd never been at a casino where
talking about hands while play was still
going on was condoned. It was really bad.
Players not even in the hand, calling out
potential straights and flushes, talking about
what hands they think players have.
This went on for about a half hour (during
2 different dealers) before I said something.
Dealer didnt seem concerned at all, but the
new dealer coming in who was standing behind
him (shaking her head) took better control of
the table and kept the table talk to a
minimum, although not eliminating it.

You may remember a previous blog post about
a visit to this casino where I witnessed a guy
lose his entire $300 stack, (+ a $700 pot)
because of the Caesars poker room rule that
if you expose your hand with action pending,
your hand is ruled dead and sent to the muck.
This rule is not posted anywhere.
Well, it happened to me.
(I had a slightly better outcome)

I'm playing a short stack, $150 or so.
I'm in late position (cutoff) with QT.

EP raises to $6. This seems like a weak raise
for this player. He has a tendancy to call raises
preflop, but fold postflop unless he hits
atleast top pair.

Its folded around to me, I make it $16.

Button and BigBlind both call.
(they're both loose $2/5 players, so I wasnt
surprised to have them follow with any2cards).


Pot is $60.

Flop is J 9 4 rainbow.

BB bets $25 (he likes to lead out,
out of position for some reason,
he likes to be "aggressive" I guess?).

EP raiser folds.

I shove for $110.
(A good argument could be made that I
played this hand poorly, but I was trying to
outplay these $2/5 donks on this hand to
set something up for later)

Button is still in hand but has his cards hidden.

Big Blind says "All-In" and rolls over QT.
I hesitate and turn over my cards.
Dealer burns a card and is about to run
the last two cards from the deck so we can
chop it up, and the button says
"Wait, I havent called your all-in yet".

Fuckin great, I know where this is going.

Dealer calls floor, who is the guy who killed
dude's hand the last time i was at this casino,
so not looking good. He comes over and says
"I think I know what will happen and you're
not going to be happy". He goes and gets the
shift supervisor to confirm. I state to the table
that if my hand is ruled dead, they should
cover their ears.

Guy to my left says "Your hand is probably dead,
but it totally depends which supervisor is on duty".
Soup arrives and he reviews what happened.
Suprisingly, he rules that my hand is not dead
and explains that the BB who acted out of turn,
his hand will be ruled dead. I acted based on his
mistake, so my action is void. I'm thinking in the
back of my head, BB said "ALL-IN" (for about $600).
So all Button has to do is Call, and he automatically
wins BB's stack, minus the $110 that goes into
my main pot. (Which he could still win if he has
a better hand than me).

Button player, finally breaks his silence and says
"I'm just going to muck, you 2 can play it out".
Floor says if everyone's aggreable, BB and I
can chop it up. Not wanting to be a dick,
I dont bring up the fact that the BB's hand is
ruled dead and I should scoop the entire pot.
I'm happy to chop it rather than be broke by
a stupid interpretation of a house rule.

Dealer runs out the turn and river. K , Q.

Button has a total FIT and starts ranting,
he folded A T and would have made broadway.

What a clusterfuck.

I understand and agree with the intent of their
"No exposing your cards with action pending"
rule. It has some merit, but it is more trouble
than its worth. The easiest, and probably smartest
thing for me, is to just head the other direction
to Niagara and avoid Caesars Windsor.

F$cking Erick Lindgren

Watch F*cking Erick Lindgren on RawVegas.tv

Poker After Dark this week

Poker After Dark kicks off

'Mission Impossible' week

September 22, 2008 by Haley Hintze

It's another theme week for NBC's popular

late-night poker program, "Poker After Dark,"

and this week's series of episodes pokes

a bit of "light-hearted" fun at series regular

Mike Matusow.

Titled "Mission Impossible," the week's

six-player shootout is named as a lefthanded

nod to the "The Mouth," who despite his

formidable poker talents has lodged a perfectly

imperfect 0-8 career record on the show to date.

It's not only that Matusow hasn't won yet on PAD,

but that each of his five opponents this week has

triumphed on the show at least once.

Matusow's opponents this coming week are

Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, David Williams,

Clonie Gowen and Gavin Smith.

Hellmuth, another frequent series player,
has lodged three wins in ten appearances,

while Gowen has triumphed twice and the

others have one victory each.

The seating lineup for the week:

Seat 1: Mike Matusow

Seat 2: Phil Laak

Seat 3: Phil Hellmuth

Seat 4: David Williams

Seat 5: Clonie Gowen

Seat 6: Gavin Smith

Good reason to play at Harrah's LV

Harrah's is offering an interesting bonus
for morning poker players that amounts to
much more than rakeback or $1/hour comps.

Daily beginning Monday September 15th,
play in the Harrah's poker room for at least
one hour between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m and
you'll then receive a 10 percent buy-in
bonus for your next visit to the poker room.

A voucher will be given for 10 percent of
your buy-in, up to $30, which you can cash in
on your next visit to the Harrah's poker room.

CardRunners - Free 24hr Pass

Online poker training site CardRunners
is currently offering free limited passes.

For those unfamiliar, CardRunners.com
is an online poker training site. It conducts
the majority of training via video lessons
where subscribers can view the hole cards
of pros in real games/tournies & listen to
their real-time thought process as they
play a 20-60 minute session.

Its been a long time since I was on there,
but CardRunners videos helped me a lot
with online sng and tourny strategy.
Taylor Caby on cash games, and Jackal69
& Action Jeff's tourny vids were the best
back then, but the online game has evolved
since then and I'm sure the information on
their site has advanced too.

CardRunners used to be highly focused on
Limit & NL Cash games (PokerXfactor was
the best tourny training site), but they have
expanded to have a thick library of sng and
tourny vids now too.

To pick up your pass which gives you full
access to the site for 24 hrs, Send an e-mail
to: support@cardrunners.com with subject line
"CR Daypass: Non-USA" and they will email
you back with a code and website link that will
give you 24 hours of access to the entire
CardRunners site.

Offer expires Sept. 30.

Harrah's LV Hotel Deals

Harrah's Las Vegas hotel, which is
located between the Venetian &
Flamingo and across from Caesars
& the Mirage, has some great prices
for a centre strip location.
$45-65 during the week throughout
most of October-Dec31 (some exceptions)

Use Code: PKGHLT1 if you're not seeing
these low rates.