Call, Raise or Muck It - Poker Blog

No DOT COM

2006-08-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

I played yesterday at the $1,000.00 buy-in at the World Series of Poker. Made it through the second break and then ran out of chips.

A little before the event was to start, an announcement was made about the wearing of anything that had ".com" on it. They had little stickers that had ".net" to put over your ".com". That is okay. I asked a floor person if I would be able to wear BankofAmerica.com or Toyota.com or google.com. He said no. I didn't understand why I couldn't since they are not gambling sites. He said no.

I go and sit at the table and what do I see on the table (in two places) WorldSeriesofPoker.com

I don't understand.

Well, my World Series is over, have a nice day and thanks for playing.

In The Money

2006-06-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

After 11 hours and 40 minutes of playing in the Casino Employee event and dodging bullets from 1160 players, I bowed out in 72nd place. I never got sucked out on, so no bad-beats to tell about. I sucked out once, spiked a Jack on the river after we were in the money.

Getting to the money was strange. When there were 101 players left, (Ninety-nine getting paid), they announced that we would go "round for round". I am not sure why they wanted to do it that way, maybe it was faster then "hand for hand". Each table held up and then we were told to deal. The dealer would deal one complete round - 10 players, 10 hands - 9 player, 9 hands. Every player that was eliminated in the round during this time would share equally in the amount of money that was "won" from 99th place down. After the last table had finished their one round, there was 94 players left. So 7 players chopped up 5 money finishes. And got under the $600 W2G limit.

I found it interesting that I was never moveed from table 149, seat 4 the entire tournament. I was the last original player from the table that was eliminated.

Call, Raise or Muck It!!!

World Series of Poker

2006-06-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

A fellow blogger, FlipChipro of Lasvegasvegas poker blog will be playing in event #2 at the World Series of Poker this year. Providing, of course, that Poker Prof will give him the time off.

Flipchipro won a $1500.00 seat at Sam's Town through a free-roll satellite held on Saturday. One notable hand that I observed: The player on Flipchipro's right made it $3000 and Flipchipro re-raised to $6000 and was called. The flop was 10 x x, player on right checked, Flipchipro said,"all-in" and was called. Flipchipro turned up A A and other player turned up K K. Our hero had to dodge a King and after the turn a heart as there were 3 hearts on board. Doubled through and on his way to a $1,500 seat. Congratulations to Flipchipro!!!

I will be trying event #1 at the WSOP. I have improved from several years ago, not making the break, to just missing the money last year. Hope to see you there.

Remember, when it is your turn to act, Call, Raise or Muck It!!!

Heavyweight Championship of Poker

2006-06-16T12:10:00.001-07:00

The Heavyweight Championship of Poker (HCP) is a $100,000.00 buy-in event planned for December 18th-23rd at Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall. The HCP is an open event that anyone with $100,000.00 can enter and with a full field of 100 players (maximum) can walk away with $5,000,000.00. The idea for this tournament is the brainchild of Stanley Studikoff, editor and publisher of PokerPlayer newspaper. Information is available at their website.

On a different note, I know that several full-time dealers at different poker rooms around town had applied for positions dealing the WSOP. This was done, of course, with permission from their respective poker rooms. Some of these dealers that have quite a bit of experience, have been told that they will be on the reserve list. An inside source confirmed that there are dealers being hired with little or no experience. Last year, the dealers I encountered were just fine. Hopefully, this year will be the same.

Will we reach the 8,000 mark this year?

Call, Raise or Muck It!!

W.S.O.P. Satellites

2006-06-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

The World Series of Poker is now less then a month away. Satellites are everywhere on the internet and in many Poker Rooms here in Vegas.

Sam's Town in Las Vegas has been running qualifying events for a 3-table free roll satellite to be held on June 17th. They are giving away 13 WSOP seats, including a main event seat. There is still time to qualify now through June 10th.

The World Championship of On Line Poker is taking reservations on PokerStars. Dont' miss out on this. It will be bigger and better then last year's tournament.

Full Tilt Poker will give you an extra 10 Million should you win a seat on their site and then win the BIG ONE. Sweet!!

See you at the World Series of Poker.

Almost picked the winner

2006-03-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

I really meant to pick Ted Forrest as my choice to win the Heads-Up Championship at Caesar's. What happened to Phil and Mike. Now that would have been a nice match to watch. But alas, neither made it out of the starting blocks.

Barry Greenstein is the first player to register for The Heavyweight Championship of Poker. He has put up the deposit and is a go for the tournament. A second player has put up his deposit and the H.C.P. is awaiting his signed agreement. You can check out all the information at PokerPlayernewspaper.com.

The on-line poker rooms have started sending out their e-mails about satellites for The World Series of Poker. Click on just about any on-line room and you can be overwhelmed with information about satellites for the WSOP.

Mark you Calendars, the WSOP starts in 107 days and a wake-up.

Thanks for playing!

Las Vegas Poker

2006-03-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon... It has been a while since there was a post on this blog, so lets see what we have.

Las Vegas poker is booming. As of January 1, 2006, there were about 42% more poker tables in Vegas then there were on January 1, 2005. The Venetian will open in early April adding another 36 tables to the total. They say they will have a separate high-stakes area that will offer butler service and gourment dining.

Next we will probably see at some poker rooms, food feeders. You know, when the butler brings the food, the food feeder is there to put the food in your mouth. Sweet!!!

Word on the street is that yet another room is in the making. Look for Boyd Gaming to put a room downtown. They have three locations available, The Fremont, The California Club or Main Street Station. Previously in the downtown area, the Fremont had a room.

Speaking of downtown! Binion's will be hosting the "American Poker Player Championship". This tournament begins on May 11, 2006 and runs through May 24, 2006. This tournament should do well. The buy-ins are affordable ($300-$5,000) and there is a nice list of events to play.

The Heads-up championship gets underway at Caesar's on Friday. 64 of poker's finest will be playing. A quote by one of the players, "Certainly, there can be no doubt that I am the pre-tournament favorite." Think about it?

My pick is Barry Greenstein to win it all. No reason, just my pick. The way I have been running at poker, I have probably just put the kiss of death on him.

Okay folks, act when it is your turn!

Thanks for playing.

Win millions, control the dice!

2005-12-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

A friend has informed me that he plans to purchase a book. He finally has learned to read! The book is found at Golden Tourch Craps and will teach my friend how to hold the dice so that a seven only comes up once every seven times and not every six times. The folks at Golden Touch call it "precision shooting". I offered to teach my friend the same thing for just the cost of a six-pack of beer. But he would rather pay the $15 for the book.

I did tell him how to get a free limo ride...Just call a casino and tell them he has a system of how to beat the house at craps.

The 2006 World Series of Poker starts in just 202 days. Satellites are starting to show up around town and on the internet.

Poker players are much easier to buy for during Christmas. Just get them a seat at the 2006 WSOP.

Thanks for playing

Happy Thanksgiving ***

2005-11-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

*** Or as a few of us like to call it.

The anniversary of the day that we celebrate the fact that we killed a lot of original inhabitants of this land and ate dead birds. (I am not sure that we can actually prove that we ate turkeys).

Other anniversaries on this day, include:

Happy Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald day.
Happy Dan Cooper (a.k.a. D.B. Cooper) day.

D.B. Cooper, I believe, survived the jump from 10,000 feet and lived the rest of his life (maybe still living) somewhere in Mexico. You could live like a king in Mexico with $200,000 back in the 1970's. First of all, it was well planned. Four parachutes...making the FBI think that he might be taking hostages with him. Don't want to kill innocent people with a parachute that doesn't open. Boarded the only jet that had a rear exit. Twenty dollar bills, easy to pass back then. Yes, I know that the FBI recorded the serial numbers of the bills. But only one batch ($5,800) has ever been found and by a kid. Let me find $5,800 by a river bank.

Now, D.B. is probably playing on-line in a 2-4 game, living the good life.

Make sure you check out probably one of the best Blogs anywhere that a computer can get to. Lasvegasvegas/pokerblog.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

As as always, thanks for playing.

The Game of Kings

2005-11-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

Pot Limit Omaha - $.25 or $.50 blinds is truly the Game of Kings. Playing on Check n Raise Poker, I have found this great game. Maximum buy-in is $25.00 and playing 3 tables at once is the nuts. My per hour win is about $130.00. Pots range from as little as $1.75 to as much as $100.00 ($227.00 was the biggest I have seen). You have to play 2-3 tables as it is pretty boring. The money is good.

I have re-thought my starting hand requirements for this game. If I can get in as a limper, almost any 4 cards. Notice I said 'almost', 2 4 7 9 is still unplayable for me. Give it a try.

Thanks for Playing.

Foxwoods

2005-11-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

I am a little late with my post about Foxwoods. The poker room is very large. They currently have 88 tables and are going to expand to 120 tables. The Director of Poker is Kathy Raymond and she and her staff run a very efficient operation.

They have a player tracking system that gets you $1.00 per hour if you are playing 10-20 and above. 50 cents for smaller limits. This is kept in your account and can be redeemed as payment for anything in the building, including your room charge.

The eighth floor is a lounge for invited guests. There is food and drink at no charge. This was a real treat as there is a very nice view and very comfortable.

The poker room's system for handling chips and cash is very different from Las Vegas card rooms. Las Vegas card rooms use an impress bank. This is a bank that is kept at a fixed amount and fills are made with chips for cash from the poker cage. At Foxwoods, the system is the same as you would find in the pit area of a Las Vegas Casino. A player buys chips from the dealer and the money is deposited into a drop box. The rake is put into the dealer's rack after each hand. When a dealer needs to replace the cash for chips, a fill is brought to the table and it is counted by the dealer, a floorperson and a security guard.

Also, cocktail servers can bring food to the tables for the players. This food can be purchased using your player card. The system works very well and I found the service to be better then any Vegas card room.

I would like to report that we won. But maybe next time I will be able to report a winning trip. But as always, I called, raised or mucked it. Mostly Mucked!!

Back from the East

2005-10-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have returned from Washington, D.C. and Foxwoods. Lets start with the Nation's Capitol.

The traffic is un-real! The people who live in the DC, Md, Va area are glutons for punishment. However, there is a unique system that many folks use. It is call slugging and the people who do it are called sluggers. And when they do it, they "slug".

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes are used in Virginia. These lanes allow you to travel in certain directions depending on the time of day. In Virginia, the lanes are actually in between the East and West bound lanes. There are only a few exits on and off. So they cannot be used for a quick trip as they are designed for the long haul to and from DC. You must have three people in your vehicle and the pentaly is high. $50 for a first offense and upwards towards $500.

Now for the sluggers. There are car-pool parking lots along the routes. You pull up to a lot and you will find lines of people (sluggers). You call out that you are going to the "M street metro station" and two sluggers get in your car and off you go to the H.O.V. lanes.

There is a certain etiquette that is followed by the sluggers. No talking, no drinking, no smoking. Now if your driver speaks to you, then you are allowed to talk. If you have a cup of coffee you must pour it out unless it is okayed by the driver.

My son tells me he does this everyday and it works fine. He saves about one to two hours everyday in comuting time.

It seems to me that slugging is the way of the future. We will all be slugging in the future. When we all are sluggers and the H.O.V. lanes slow to a crawl, we will look over into the regular lanes and see four cars whizzing by and wonder "how the hell did this happen?"

Tomorrow, my report on The Foxwoods Casino.

To all you future sluggers out there, have a nice day and thanks for playing!!!

DelMar Racing Contest

2005-10-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a free contest for everyone and everything on-line now. Delmarracing.com has a free racing contest available to anyone who wishes to play. The contest is using the Oak Tree meet for this one. Del Mar was just over and I finished 4200 something. I know that FREE is always FREE, but this one is free. You have $100 to wager each day of racing on just one race. If you are a horse racing fan, this is a good contest. Or you can just throw darts and finish 4200 something.

If you haven't registered for the Poker Stars Blogger Tournament, you need to do so. The tournament is on October 23rd.

Call, Raise or Muck It!

L.I.P.S. Poker Tournament

2005-10-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

The Ladies Invitational Poker Series came to sam's town this past weekend. The ladies had a great time. It was co-sponsored by Check 'n Raise Poker.com. CnR will be re-launching on October 17th and CnR offered all the contestants $100 cash money to be put in their accounts.

I think you will find that with the re-launch, that the site will be a very popular on-line poker site. They have ironed out all of the bugs and will be a positive force in the on-line community.

Call, raise or Muck It.

Do Not Play When Tired!

2005-09-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

Jumped on EuroBet.com to play a little Stud Split. Couldn't find a 3/6 game, so I decided to play 7-stud. I found a nice $3/$6 game and after playing only 3-4 hands, the phone rang and I sat out for about 5 minutes. I came back to the game and picked up 2,4/A and completed to $3, got raised and I called. Four way action to 4th street and I get a 3 and I bet and get raised by K,Q and the other two call and I call.

Let me set the board after 6th street. Me- 2,4/A-3-6-J * 7 seat- K-Q-9-8 * 1 seat- 8-7-5-Q * 3 seat- 4-6-6-J

I have a made 6 and have 4 hearts with a draw to perhaps scoop. I catch the Queen of Hearts on the river and I end up scooping the pot. 7 seat showed a straight and the other two didn't show. I look at the chat window and wonder why it didn't say I had won 48.25 for high and 48.25 for low. It only said I had won 96.50.

And then I looked at the top of the screen. 7 card stud $3/$6. I forgot that I was not playing stud split. DO NOT PLAY WHEN TIRED

I played two more hands and smiled as I racked up another win on-line.

Call, Raise or Muck It!