Everything in poker is raging in Las Vegas. The WSOP is in full swing and brings thousands of people into all the poker rooms around the city. Then add my favorite event – the WPBT is coming – Saturday, the 8th, a hoard of us will fill Caesar’s Palace to listen to Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, and Michael Craig, before we try to beat each other’s brains out and outrun the power of The Hammer. Has anyone charted The Hammer’s rating in these tournament events? Like where does it place in hand rankings? Group A?

*****

I’ve been bludgeoning myself with online poker…damn it; I want a seat in the $10,000 buy-in event. I played the $215, 9 seats guaranteed, on PartyPoker on Sunday and came in 61st out of 700+ players. Ugh! And tonight I played 2 seats guaranteed, $215, again on PartyPoker. I came in 14th place. Kee-rist! I picked up pocket Aces three times and got action once, actually busted someone out during that hand.

I’m sure I made a bad play here so I’ll run it by my friends that like to tell me what I did wrong. I had a little over $20,000 in chips, 15 players left, and blinds at $400-800, ante 25. I hadn’t played a hand in quite some time; I did win the blinds about three orbits earlier by raising it pre-flop and everyone gave up. I wasn’t throwing away any winners and had simply sat, treading water for quite some time – in ‘continual fold’ mode. The player UTG raised it to $2,200. I looked down to A-Q and raised it to $5,000. UTG and me. He called the raise. The Flop brought something like 7-4-2. He bet around 4,000, I raised it all-in around $14,000. He called. He held Q-4 off suit and won the pot and I was out. He had about $30K if I remember correctly, pre-flop. I know for sure that I didn’t have to go broke on that hand, especially in retrospect. I just felt that I had the best hand when I put all of my chips in. I have a soft spot in my heart for people that will risk all their chips on Q-4 off. So hack away, poker peers, give me the butt-insky on what I really should have done…other than just fold when he raised it pre-flop.

*****

I made it over to the Rio tonight – after holing up in the little portable hacienda for the last few days. The weather has been incredibly blustering and fussing, baking the desert dry; yet teasing us with lightning storms and clouds, there was an incredible half moon over the lights of the city when I left the Rio. I wanted a picture of it but couldn’t manage to find a place to land in time to get it where I wanted it. The moon is so peaceful, so beautiful, alienating the harsh sunlight, teasing my thoughts with the night air and the beauty of a world that transcends into another portal in time. The slamming, jamming kids at the Rio aren’t even aware it’s out there. But I am.

And I’m also aware that they are there, those slammers and jammers. I will be joining them soon. Satellites are on my agenda right now and in the next few days I’ll be throwing my hat/hair into the ring to see if I can land an opportunity to vie for fortune and fame.

Here are a few of the slammers and jammers:

I’ve been dealing to Arturo Diaz for a long time. He’s on my favorite’s list:

Barney Boatman – the only time I see him is during tournament time. He never gets upset or flips out – NICE! And he smiles!

And this little cutie – but she’s hard to get along with when you’re facing off against her in a poker game – Cecilia Mortenson:

This kid is just the top of the line for me – love him and his family – meet Chau Giang:

This one is too funny. A guy on the rail was telling Chau that Chau gambles too much when he plays. Yeah…just what Chau needs is critiquing from the rail. And doesn’t Chau’s expression just tell it all? Behind him is Marcel Luske.

Chris Bigler has been in my poker daze for a long time – I see him in Aruba, at Bellagio, and at the WSOP. We are always on speaking terms, that’s nice in the poker world:

And isn’t this kid just too cute. He was just getting ready to graze on hamburgers when I saw him last (the picture was taken a few days before), and we got into a discussion about ‘the big one’. I told him I’d really love to win it and I was playing satellites to try to get into it (on the internet) and that if I won, I could see myself falling across the table and bursting into tears. He said that if we ended up being the last two people at the final table, he hoped I would win it. “It would be great for poker, and the difference in the money wouldn’t make that much difference to me.” Damn it! I love his attitude. Go, Chris, go!

And how about David Levi? He’s been in the money in so many events, I was amazed when I saw the stats on that. He’s ‘cashed’ 143 times with 15 first place finishes. And he always says, “Hello!”

Doyle needs no introduction. I remember one of my first encounters with him in which he spoke directly to me, early Mirage days, $400-800, 7 Card Stud. It was four handed and I dealt him low three hands in a row. “Girl, if you low card me again, I’m gonna slap a $100 bill right in your pocket.” Not to worry, every time I’ve ever been threatened with cash, I can’t perform. 🙂

There’s a lot more, ready to upload to Tango, and a lot more to be taken over the next five weeks of poker, poker, poker, but I’m out of steam. I’ll dream of throwing myself onto the table and crying as I scream, “I won! I won! I won!” Dreaming makes it so. See you there!