Andy was playing Doyle tonight. I walked by, said ‘hello’, small chit-chat as the dealer shuffled. I hit that game an hour later.

They were playing $20,000-$40,000. Andy told Doyle that he could only play a little bit longer because he was too tired. Doyle agreed. Continue reading Stop blogging about Andy Beal vs. the Corporation or…. →

The Big Game with Andy Beal:

On the Andy side of play. He was playing Minh tonight when I came in to work. I stopped for a moment, sat down beside him in a spare chair, asked how he was doing and his reply went like this. He said he had won both Saturday and Sunday and that he was up right now. They started at $1,000-$2,000 and then moved up to $6,000-$12,000 and now were playing $10,000-$20,000. He also said that he felt he was playing a ‘2nd tier’ player and maybe that’s why he was doing so well. I left him for work and the game ran about another hour and a half. I didn’t deal it.

On the thought that he was playing a ‘2nd tier’ player, of course he meant someone not as skilled as the Corporation. I have no idea if the Corporation is involved with Minh or what the deal is there. A few days ago, I had a conversation with someone that knows ‘Someone’ in the Corporation. The ‘Someone’ had played Andy on this trip and on previous trips. ‘Someone’ felt that Andy really believes that he’s a better player than the members of the Corporation.

I don’t find that line of reasoning hard to believe. Obviously Andy feels he has a shot at besting them or he wouldn’t be there.

I do find it hard to believe that Andy would believe that he could just sit down at a poker table and instantly master the game. Anyone that’s played poker over a period of time, knows how difficult the game really is long term.

When I dealt Table 1, late in the night, the conversation went to Andy and his next opponent, David G. They felt David wouldn’t stand a chance heads up with Andy because David is too passive and not aggressive enough.

It’s interesting to hear the different opinions as I move from table to table. One night last week, when I moved into a $4-$8 Holdem game, they were talking about Andy. They said he was playing Doyle B. in a $100,000-$200,000 game. I laughed. I could see Doyle sitting in a $1,000-$2,000 Mixed Game with a full field and Andy playing Howard heads-up.

I didn’t even bother trying to explain it to them…they were damned excited about it as they speculated and visited, meanwhile arming themselves with buckets of chips that they dumped into the middle of the table. The Chip Wars were on.

Ever notice how much fun it is when you have your fingers on the wrong keys and all those strange symbols and words come out of nowhere? That must be ‘speaking in tongues’ on the keyboard…”I was totally cognizant, awake and yet something spoke, through me…”

*****

I’ve spent some time playing on Empire Poker lately and since online play is as important as B&M play, this post is a must for me. No, I’m not winner. I just can’t figure out how to make Q-Q or K-K hold up against runner-runner…but that’s not the point of this post.

Many times the conversation has come up, whether it’s in a poker game and I’m dealing/playing, or with friends in general conversation, “How can you play online? They cheat!!!!”

My first thought is that cheating is possible in any platform and you will always find people that try to find a shortcut to relieve you of your money…AKA, cheating. I believe that the higher the limit, the more likely you are to find people trying to bend the rules in their favor. Friends getting together, sharing hand information and bankrolls, to separate you from your hard earned $$$$, in lower limit is just not worth it.

I also believe that most, if not all, online poker rooms have set up certain ‘safety locks’ that can be tracked through software and back office programs to assist them in stopping cheating. After all, the online poker room makes so much money so fast, once the servers, technicians, and software is glitch free, why would they try to cheat you? They want you to come back. They want you to be happy.
So if you believe that someone is in collusion with another player, you definitely need to let the online poker room know, 1) the game name you are playing in, 2) the hand #’s in question, 3) the names of the people you think are colluding. Silence does not solve the problem. Running to your friend and saying, “I got cheated!” does not help clean up the game. You can also request hands that you’ve played from the online poker room and see the play of the hands in text format.

When you play online, you look at double or even triple the # of hands per hour that you would look at in a B&M room. The swings are going to be huge. If you play two games at the same time, consider the fact that you might look at over 120 hands per hour. That’s a hell-u-va lot of hands. Before you cry wolf, think about it…but if you’re convinced, let someone know that can check it out for you…like customer service.

Empire has a variety of specials for players, all you have to do is visit their website to find out what they are. Also, if you tell a friend, you have a better opportunity to ‘Win the Race’ cash prizes.
Empire also has instant ‘floor man’ access when you are in a game. Any questions or problems, ask the floor man. I did just that. I got Nevin. He was helpful and courteous in his response.

Food for thought: Just because you log onto a site and they have 70,000 people playing, it doesn’t mean they have the best customer service or the best possible game play. The # 1 priority should be ease of game play and buy-ins and cash outs, customer service and bonuses for being a player. That’s why I’m at Empire.

*******

It’s interesting to hear the different opinions as I move from table to table. One night last week, when I moved into a $4-$8 Holdem game, they were talking about Andy. They said he was playing Doyle B. in a $100,000-$200,000 game. I laughed. I could see Doyle sitting in a $1,000-$2,000 Mixed Game with a full field and Andy playing Howard heads-up.

I didn’t even bother trying to explain it to them…they were damned excited about it as they speculated and visited, meanwhile arming themselves with buckets of chips that they dumped into the middle of the table. The Chip Wars were on.

*****

I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’

But on another side of life in Vegas…it’s not just in Vegas but I live here so it’s my story.

I left work and headed for a Super Wal-Mart around 3:30 a.m. There is a head in kind of parking on the other side of Handicapped Parking. It’s not really parking spaces, just diagonal lines spaced about every three feet. People park there all the time.

When I pulled in, there were three cars pulled in diagonally…no one in handicapped parking, and only two cars in the next horizontal parking lane…more cars over in the next few rows of parking but pretty isolated where I was. I parked parallel about 10 feet from and in line with the diagonally parked vehicles. After I got out, locked my truck, and started to the store, a security guard pulled up and gave me ’10 miles of lip’ about the way I parked and told me to go back and park the way I was supposed to park. I looked around the parking lot and said, “There’s no one around. I’m not blocking anything.”

Guess he had to prove that he was the boss, he continued…told me to go back and park the way I was supposed to park.

I asked, “How about this one? How about if I just leave?”

I did. There was no way I was going to go back, start my truck, park my vehicle somewhere else and then enter the store…I was in a ‘screw you’ frame of mind.

I headed up the street and stopped at an Albertsons that I frequent, about a mile from my home. When I pulled in, I saw her!

She was standing, completely alone, away from the buildings and any cars, in the parking lot, with her arms outspread towards the sky, as if asking, “God, what do I do now?”

There were four or five cars in front of the store and when I pulled up to park, she started to walk towards my truck. I did a mental ‘hell/shit’ kind of thing and headed for the store. She was about 30 yards away and I thought she would maybe just go away before I came back out.

I took my time, didn’t have much on my mind for purchases but looked at a few extra things and I was sure I was going to have to face her one way or the other when I came out.

Now you must have some idea of what’s going through my head at this point. We get panhandled all the time…they stand at street corners, busy intersections, grocery stores, even been approached when I drove through a Burger King line by someone that’s starving. Everywhere we go, some of them ‘will work for food’, some of them have sick kids to feed, some of them had a hard life and need help. So did the rest of us, we just got a job and did the best we could with what we had to do with, but back to the story.

I came out of the store and didn’t see her at first…thought I’d got lucky and she’d left. Then I saw her, leaning against a light post by a car. She hotfooted it right over to my truck. By now I was loading my purchases in my truck and I managed to glance around me, behind me as I loaded groceries…hell I would’ve hated it if she’d had a friend that was ready to hit me in the head.

She took off in a low voice and so fast that I couldn’t hear a word she said. I was cold when I stated, “I can’t hear you!”

She started over…her hotel room had been broken into, she had no way of replacing anything and this was the worst day of her life…could I just spare anything for her.

Funny part of it is that she didn’t look like your ordinary bum. She had a lime green outfit on that would’ve worked with a gym or a mall shopping spree, she appeared to be about 35, hair parted down the center and pulled into pigtails, her clothes weren’t tattered or worn, she had the dusty look of someone that had been in the heat all day and cried/sweated the dust into mud balls/swirls on the skin.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out $10. Handed it to her and she said, “God Bless you.”

I said, “No! God bless you.”

She turned and beat feet down the road, towards a corner gas station. Did she bluff me? Don’t know and don’t care. I got into my truck, with my little purchases, and cried all the way home. I cried because I was so thankful to be where I am. So happy that I have a job, a home, food, a hot shower, a place to be and I’m not out there somewhere searching…

So do you think I’m broken up if you lose when you play poker…NO! I’m not. Are you broken up when I lose when I play poker? NO! You’re not. Am I broken up that life is painful and there is a lot of anguish and misery out there that we never touch upon? Yes.

I wish I could have brought her home for a hot shower, clean clothes, and a meal. But I live alone, in a strange city, in a strange time.

*****
I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’

My first game was $1-$5 7 Card Stud…hard to believe that in a few hours I’d be dealing $20,000-$40,000 Holdem, right?

The game on Table 1 was $20-$20 Pot Limit Holdem. These boys had left the art of poker far behind and drifted into the art of conversation. I laughed during the down because of quirky comments that were made but the game was not what I’d term a rammer or a jammer. It needed a fuel injection and that just was not going to happen. I got pushed.

The game on Table 2 was $800-$1,600 Mixed. David G. – 1s, Gus H. – 2s. Chau G. – 3s, Ralph P. – 4s, Jennifer – 5s, Daniel N. – 6s, Shaun S. – 7s, Doyle B. – 8s. When I sat down, the conversation rampaged around cookies…yes, cookies. David and Doyle were interested in a particular kind of cookie carried in the gift shop…they had sent several people over to buy it for them and no one found it.

The action went on around the discussion of cookies. They were gambling. Or rather the person raising wasn’t gambling, they person calling them was…or was it the other way around?

After they got their cookies, Chau asked Doyle for some and Doyle threw the whole bag to Chau…it ‘splatted’ onto the table and a cookie crumb explosion occurred! Cookie crumbs everywhere in front of Chau. As Chau picked up the bag and munched, I called Carmen for a Brush…someone said we needed a vacuum instead of a brush. True!

My next game was heads-up $20,000-$40,000 Holdem. Easy as a slice of pie. Some of the biggest games in the world are the easiest to deal. It’s hard to make a mistake in those games and the people playing them are pretty relaxed…or appear to be. That’s why they’re playing at that level, eh? It would really be difficult to tell who won or lost, since they play for hours and I’m only there for a brief part of it.

Then on to a $30-$60 Holdem…and the rest of the night.

*****
I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’

I spent a few hours playing at Empire Poker after I got home from work. I broke about even, playing $1-$2 Holdem. I like the ease of the game play but not the fact that someone came after me, when I flopped a set, with no over card draw and caught gutter – gutter to make a straight…ugh! I know we’re supposed to love it. But it’s something that I’ve never acquired a taste for, even though I’ve tried all these years.

I sometimes marvel at the comments people make in a B&M game and in the games online. I just got a set beat and picked up K-6 Spades in the blind. The flop came with two spades and I made the Flush on the River. Not to worry. The person I beat popped right into the chat with ‘….then I get chased down by Pokerworks…’

I try to remember to lace up and tie my running shoes before I enter any poker game so when I’m ‘chasing’ someone down, I don’t trip over a shoe lace or have my shoe slip off as in the One Shoe Scenario, if it did, I’d have to keep chasing without it and it would be left at one of the intersections or streets somewhere in cyberspace. 🙂

The person that entered the chat was ‘veebee’ and we established a friendly chat session shortly after that. My handle is ‘PokerWorks’. When you’re playing at Empire, be sure to look for me.

********

My night at work? I hit several ruts in the road. One was in a $30-$60 Holdem game. Jim E., fairly new to our room as a regular. He was in the 9s and not happy…

The first hand I dealt, he zinged his cards over the 10s’s hands and they splatted somewhere around the vicinity of the 4s. The 2nd hand went the same way. I almost felt the 10s cringe when the cards came flying over his hands each time.
We got two new players in the 5 and 6s. Within three hands, Jim threw his cards again. They were airborne until they hit the chips of the 4s. I firmly said, “Just set your cards down, please!”

Jim took off on me. Mumbled something about he’d do whatever he wanted and I couldn’t tell him what to do.
I motioned towards the 4 and 5s and stated, “There’s no reason for your cards to end up down here.”

The 4s started laughing and told me to ‘beat him up…hit him for throwing his cards..’

I said I didn’t want to hit anyone.

Jim grumbled, “What do you think you’re doing?”

I flatly stated, “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I’m running my game.”

The 5s jumped in, “And I support her for doing that.”

Jim shut right up. The 10s left for another game, Jim slid over into it, slammed his chips down in the rack several times, so hard that I thought the rack might break, and got called to transfer. Beautiful! Everyone in my game made comments about how nice it was that he was going. Some people bring pleasure in coming, others in going…

The stage: Bellagio Poker Room, table 1. The time: 2:00 a.m. The characters: Linda/me, I’m the main character, everyone else just moves in and out of my realm of perception and life. The other characters: 1s – Jimmy G., 3s – Brian N., 5s – Eskimo, 7s – Ray, 8s – Cuckoo.

The script is written for total unhappiness, death, doom and destruction. How will our heroine live through this? Sheer strength of will and level headed thinking, baby.

The Game Plaque read $300-$600 mixed, but it was really $100 & $200 Blind, with a spread limit bet up to $500…of course there’s a twist. If anyone just calls the $200, the next person can put a full raise on it, making it $700 to go. Otherwise, the first caller/raiser can only make it $500 to go.

Jimmy immediately said, “Lovely Linda. Come on, Linda, let’s get this going today.”

Brian chimed in with a rendition of some melody and sang, “She’s lovely…lovely, Linda.”

I laughed…short lived…ready for the player/dealer war that I knew was coming.

I announced the Time Pot, counted the rack down, put the used deck into the Shuffle Master and took the newly shuffled deck out and immediately Eskimo informed me that he wanted a scramble each hand, before the deck was put into the Shuffle Master.

“Ok.”

It was Deuce to 7 Triple Draw and the raises went in. I expected a $300 bet and it was $500…no one told me the limit was different than the Game Plaque stated. When I stopped to make sure there was a $1,000 in front of each of the three players in the hand, Eskimo informed me that I didn’t have to look at the bets, they were called. He wasn’t in the hand of course.

I smiled and said, “Believe it or not, it’s part of my job.”

He replied, “Well if you get mad, hit Jimmy.” He thought that was pretty funny and chuckled over it.

I said, “I’m not mad…why would I be?”

That went unanswered as I expected it would. Surprisingly, Ray threw away all of his cards and drew five more, after calling $900 more. Cuckoo and Brian drew two, long and short of it, Cuckoo gave it up on the second draw and Ray won the hand with a 7-6-5-3-2.

Brian had the perfect face for the script…he was ready to KILL something.

By the time we came to the end of Deuce, Cuckoo was crying, Brian was steaming and creased up two of his cards.
I called for a Set Up. I opened the Shuffle Master and waited as Jimmy brought me a Set Up. Brian told me to go ahead and deal the deck in the Shuffle Master. I waited and replied, “He’s bringing the Set Up.”

Brian insisted that I deal the deck that had already been shuffled. I sat there and waited. He was ready to jump out of his chair and I stared out into the poker room, thinking about the glass of wine I was going to have when I got home…peaceful, restful haven, undisturbed by anger and frustration…umhhhh…yummy, yummy, home!

My thought. Why should I speed the game up? If Brian wanted it to run smoothly, he shouldn’t have creased his cards. If I hurry up and deal the deck out of the Shuffle Master, is there a bonus in it for me? No! Same anger, same crap, same ugly faces and attitudes…different day.

I spread the first deck of the Set Up, scrambled it, put it into the Shuffle Master. Spread the 2nd deck, scrambled, shuffled and just as I was going to deal, Brian interjected. “You are not going to deal that deck.”

Me, “No?”

Brian replied with something like this, “No you are not. It’s got to be shuffled by the machine.”

I sat back and waited…the script was written for me to be completely relaxed and at ease…I played the part very well.

Ray asked what was wrong. I replied, “Nothing, honey. We’re just going to wait a minute.”

He was smiling and couldn’t even get to where everyone else was at the table.

Cuckoo was grumbling and asking Eskimo if ‘the scramble was going ok, if everything was working out there…’

Cuckoo lost a few more hands and tried to slam his cards through the rack, taking off with, “This mother fucker, fucking fucker…” kind of thing.

Just the kind of thing that you really can’t even call a floor person for because then he’s going to say he wasn’t talking to me. In reality, I don’t believe he’s sane at that moment or really talking to anyone or thing…he’s just lost in the Black Hole of no self-control. It’s not even in his realm of comprehension that his Poker Face is bleeding and everyone knows it.

I didn’t need to read a script for this one, I always keep my hands up, by my stomach when the hands over. After the third time that Cuckoo tried to merge his cards with the rack, I asked, “Are you getting tired of throwing cards at me?”

He grumbled, “I’m really hurting you. You’re not losing any money. You’re not losing…”

I almost laughed when I replied, “Yeah, so? I can’t change it.”

He went on crying, “You’re not losing any money…”

I said, “It’s Bullshit! That’s what it is.”

He kept crying…big slobbering, angry, belligerent tears that were filled with ‘fuck, fucking mother fucker’…

Lee and David L. took a seat, confusion on the posting of the blind…because the game rule was that if you were in the Big Blind and you elected to let it pass, even if you were a new player, you would have to post the small and big blind behind the button to take a hand…a new twist to go with all the other twisted twists from these guys.

I got pushed, moved right into a $10-$20 Pot Limit Holdem game. My last down of the night and pretty peaceful after all the player stress/emotion at table 1.

The beginning of my night was easy and filled with fun loving, poker playing people…I just happened to run aground and hit a snag on table 1. I escaped when the blissful winds of peace blew in to fill my sails and take me off to cool running, open water, moonlit skies and home, wonderful, peaceful harmony…HOME.

Just the right ending for a great script. Cut to…Home.