Resorts Trumps Majestic II

... or at least I assume it does. I haven't been back since the weekend before I went to Austin, because a reliable source told me that they let go 90% of their poker dealers (we knew the layoff was coming - just not how severe it was going to be), and not only did they keep the less talented dealers, they didn't keep ENOUGH dealers to spread games.

So, I knocked off work a little early last week, as I know resorts only has 16 or so tables compared to the 21 that Magestic Star II/Trump has and they only run 3 tables total of no-limit; thus you need to get there early or you're going to wait some time for a seat. I got there around 4 pm or so, and there was still quite a wait for a 5/10 seat, not to mention a NL seat. I sat down at the 5/10 game for an hour or so, and did pretty well. I guess Otis is right - I do have a scary image sitting at the felt: I was dealt AQ in late position, there was a raise, and then a tight-ish player reraised, there was a call and I called instead of capping it.

The flop came down Q high, the original raiser checks, the three-better bets, there's a call, I raise, the original raiser drops, the three better reraises me, the middle guy drops, and I call.

Turn is a blank, flop is still q high, the better bets, I raise, and he calls. River is another baby card, and it's checked to me and I bet and get called. I flip my cards over, and the other guy turns over cowboys, and says, "Man you really had me worried, I really thought you had a set!" Puhleeeeze. If I had a set or KK I'd be getting every bet in there I could!

The NL game at Resorts is a crazy structure: $200 min / $500 max with $5/$10 blinds. Yes, the blinds are way out of proportion to the buy-in, but if you could take Party Poker or Full Tilt and put it in a live game, this would be it. There are people raising and calling with TPGK, and all sorts of crazy things going on - the only issue is that raises are often $55 preflop, and there is not a lot of limping. BUT, if you can beat TPTK, you are going to get paid off - I even got paid $200 when I flopped quad kings! and I didn't slow play them preflop either, and had someone at the table saying "she's got quad kings man", as a joke.

So, this whole trump situation may be a good thing, as the game at Resorts is more aggressive and will force me to play a much better game than I'm used to - to be more aggressive in position, etc.

An Interesting Experiment

First off, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. My birthday celebrations (yes plural) were pretty awesome.

So, some of you might have read elsewhere that I gave up the internet after 7pm CST for 6 weeks. It hasn't been quite as hard as it might be - although I have kind of missed playing poker and chatting with my friends, I've actually been pretty busy instead and have spent the time watching movies or in meetings, etc etc.

I came to a realization Sunday night that what I really need to give up is online poker itself. I really do spend too much time playing during the day while bored to tears on conference calls and there is more important stuff that needs to be done. So with that in mind, yesterday I gave it up, and will continue to do so for the next 15 or 17 days (depending on if I count the Sundays or not. I'm debating counting the Sundays since it's such a short time period, but I haven't decided yet).

Yesterday was SO HARD - I realized how much time in my day I spend playing poker instead of doing other stuff. And believe me, there's a bunch of other stuff to be done. I was counting the minutes an crawling the wall until I had to go get tires replaced in Bolingbrook (exciting), which happened to be very close to Indiana where I could justify playing some cards until the rush hour traffic dwindled. I spent the time doing work around the house and some work-work stuff too, and was amazed at how productive I felt.

This doesn't mean I will be giving up reading about poker, or live poker (obviously), but hopefully I'll get more Real Work done, and feel like I'm actually contributing to society instead of being a degenerate...

no, I'm not dead yet...

I really really need to write up more of the Austin trip but I'm not in the mood for it right now - maybe later.

This is all you really need to know anyway:


I'm so excited for tonight's agenda: Pot Limit Dealer's choice in the citaaaaaah. Craziness should ensue!

Austin, day one

I'm online while April's in the shower before we make our way out for day two of drunken festivities.

The plane ride down was good, I got an exit seat with a window AND no one in the middle seat. Score.

Eva's got the first part of the evening written up already here, so I won't elaborate any further except to say that the ring I was wearing that night flew off my hand and landed on a shed roof and I was forced to ask a cute boy to retrieve it for me because my arms weren't long enough. And I'm sad that we didn't get any pictures of Mike, the truly awesome kind soul who kept us in our cups all night and was the cause of many many drunk voicemails.

But the question really is, why do you people never return voicemails from drunk women? You know who you are :) And I swear it wasn't me asking people to make out because I was drunk. Really. No way.

I do however, wish that helixx had vonage so he could send me the serial voicemails I left him detailing our night, which were really funny when he recounted them later:

* TXApril is not speaking to helixx
<helixx> you're never speaking to me for one reason or another
<helixx> why this time?
<TXApril> check your voice mails, butthead
<maigrey> you might hve one or two
<helixx> phone was dead. let me go get it
<helixx> oh nice. voicemails and 6 emails from my boss
<helixx> :P
<TXApril> oh quit yer bitching
<helixx> 5 MISSED CALLS wtf
<maigrey> hm
<maigrey> 5 seems maybe
<maigrey> a little low
<helixx> 7 new messages. oy vey
<helixx> i hear someone yelling "ok... guess this band!" and then hear a sound of like chickens clucking because the sound quality is so bad. next message. lol
<helixx> ok... now i'm hearing inappropriate suggestions...
<helixx> and descriptions of cowboys asses
<helixx> tattoo parlor message
<TXApril> did we leave him a message about the deaf mute lesbians?
<maigrey> the cowboys asses was me
<maigrey> hmmmm
<maigrey> probably not
<maigrey> we probably didn't mention they were having sex in the cab either
<TXApril> awww....p0 helixx
<helixx> i'm up to the deaf mute lesbian story
<TXApril> lol
<TXApril> don't tell Hanel!
<TXApril> he doesn't get to hear it
<helixx> NOW i have a call from my boss
<helixx> oh my god
<helixx> that was a real let down
<maigrey> i bet she was less interesting than deaf mute sex in a cab having lesbians

I even got a picture of a cowboy's butt, which was my mission from Eva. Added bonus, we got soco in the shot.

Ok, time to get showered and head off for bbq, shopping, spoon, echo and the bunnymen, and grand national, baby. My phone's charged and I'm ready to go.

a preview of austin

cowboy butts and soco. phear us.

Is anybody out there?

... no, not really. I've been playing and I have ideas of things to write about, but I'm lacking the inspiration/motivation to put them in the blog. So here are a couple quick hits:

• SNGs: At first, I thought that the Nerdvice was pretty useless and wasn't improving my game (sorry nerd), but PokerTracker says otherwise. Since I got the Nerdvice, my roi is now 7.47%, as opposed to the LOSING ONE I had after buying the SNG powertools. Sadly, 7.47% translates to just about enough to cover both of these aids.


• SNG stacking: Stacking is SO COOL. What's stacking you say? That's when you open 6-20 SNGs all at once, and then put all of the windows on top of one another so you can only see one table at a time. This really helps with the boredom of the first 3-5 levels and by the time you get ITM, you have a manageable level of SNGs left. When I get 4 windows left, I spread them out so I can play them HU where I keep an eye on them. The bonus of this is you really minimize tilt - you don't sweat flops (although i have been known to try and find THAT WINDOW to see some), and if you get sucked out on you don't have time to be bitter about it because some other window is beep beep beeping for your attention. Close the window and move on. NB: I cannot do continuous stacking like the nerd and some others do, but it's a nice way to build up the VPP points.


• Live play: This is the subject of many posts that are in my head: a) I'm learning (slowly) that I cannot call, I must fold or raise; b) I have a serious problem with patience and pausing to review action and that has got to be fixed; c) I need to put the red-ass preflop reraise into my arsenal but I am a big chicken; d) sometimes you just gotta fold; e) if you can't put your chips in the middle when you're 90% positive you have the best hand, you should't be playing this game; e) do not even TRY to beat me when I'm playing drunken donkey 3/6 - you can't, and you'll just hurt yourself (see example 1). Not to antagonize the poker gods, but I'm doing ok in this arena


• POY tourney: thanks, biggestron for putting this together. I still hate playing with bloggers. Bring on the Stud/8.


• My Birthday: Is tomorrow, peoples. Gracie already bought me a sitNgo! I had to set up the webcam so she could watch the play since she signed up from work. Oop.


• Austin: I leave Wednesday and I still need to get a ride to the airport. I should apply for membership in Procrastinators Anonymous.