Split the Blog?

When Aaron was in town, he mentioned setting up a blog solely for arguing. I like the idea, and am willing to put up dealers-choice.blogspot.com as a blog for that, and use atap.blogspot.com for my own blog. I'll put whoever is interested as co-posters of the blog, or however that works. Let me know what you guys think, by commenting on this post.

Note that you have to register to this blogger service (free), in order to comment. But once you do, I can immediately add you as a blog poster.

Numb

It's hard to believe that's a word. It is, however, a great U2 song.

It also describes the past seven days in Vegas. Highlights included a bit of reading, PS2, and my back being destroyed from sitting on a very anti-ergonomic sofa. Vacation sucks.

The last poker session I had was among the worst I've ever played. Sometimes I forget everything I've ever learned, and last Tuesday night was one of those sessions.

Wednesday I got a look at Caesar's new card room. It's kind of nice, in that it's new. Has a nice entrance, makes you think you're walking into a nice restaurant or a high-roller room. On the inside though, it looks like they took a small convention room and put in some TV's and tables. The room overall doesn't seem that much bigger than the Bellagio. I neglected to look at the rake, that might have put points in favor of Caesar's. I'll have to wait until the Venetian's room opens up in February, to see which one I like better. I don't play much anymore, so I'm not sure how much it matters.

Didn't play any mixed games while I was here. I guess that's for next time. I did learn that before hold'em dominated Vegas tables, and even Stud before that, most tables in town were dealer's choice.

Anyway, tomorrow I fly back to Houston, for better or worse. Have a good new year's eve, and new year, for that matter.

Three Quick Updates

Things I've learned in the past 24 hours:

• Title description updated to reflect >6 views. Will be updated again sometime in the future when necessary.
• I am now faster than the slow karts at lasvegaskarting.com. Will move up to Rotax, which is where I found out a year ago about having little natural talent in the sport.
• Putting a player on a particular style of play is unreliable, and can be unprofitable. More so with trying to bluff a player you assume to be bad, which is wrong in so many ways.

Sorry, forgot the camera. Last day of poker tonight, will report tomorrow.

Two Slow Nights and a 5th Place Finish

The city has been remarkably not crowded over the past two days, which has been unexpected. This applies to the card rooms especially. Tables have been tight or generally lacking opportunities that I can see.

My theory is that all the people my age or below are home for the holidays, and they won't get to Vegas until the next two weekends, when they arrive in droves. By being here in numbers, they, in various ways, draw in the older crowd. There will be drink, there will be merry. All this is unfortunate as I do not plan to play poker after Wednesday.

I placed just out of the money in the late night tournament at Binion's. This may sound like I played well, but I was getting cards when I needed them. Mostly I was playing very tight, getting blinded down when I wasn't getting playable cards. But I'm pretty sure that by employing a variant of Sklansky's 'System' (playing only with a limited number of hands and always going all-in), I was getting the most out of whenever I got good cards. So in effect, I was doubling up or significantly adding to my stack whenever I decided not to fold, making up for my non-optimal play in other areas. This also means that I made relatively few decisions that night.

I was at least 3rd in stacks by the time it got to 5 players; last payout was to 4th place. But the payout difference between even 3rd and 1st was huge. I had jacks against a player all-in who was raising with anything (though usually when shortstacked, in this hand he had me covered), and the pot was offering me much better than 1:1. I call, guy turns over AKo; river gave him a flush to my set. The hand was between who would be chip leader by a fair margin.

It was a fun night, but with so few actual decisions it wasn't much to write about.

Karting tomorrow!

The Best Game In Town (11 Days of Vegas)

I chose this blog's address partly because it was available, mostly because I like the game.

Earlier this summer I was at the Palms with a friend, playing poker. I sat down at the no-limit, as I often like to do, and in the first two hands lost two all-ins in a row. Which I often do not like to do. It's not like they were bad hands either, the first I believe was late position AA preflop against several raises, and the second had me with 16 outs on the flop. Of course, watching those pots get taken gave me That Incredible Sinking Feeling.

Now that I remember, I think a guy sitting across from me said after I got up, "Yeah, but you weren't going to stay anyway." So I spent the next ten minutes thinking about that, and the hand, and then mostly about that guy's statement. I couldn't figure it out. Did he consider my moves poor play? Did he "see this before," in a vision? Or perhaps, was he just, really deep?

In any case, I decided it would not be a good idea to play further, and went for a walk. The Palms is one of the newer casinos, from my point of view. But for Vegas, ~6 years for a casino is middle age. It's still newish though, and still draws the girls, so it's not bad. It basically has a supermarket configuration though, food(slots) in the aisles, other junk along the walls. So without walking very far, I got some fast food, saw if any good movies were playing, and played some DDR.

On the way back to the poker room, I noticed that they had an expansion poker room occupying one of the convention rooms. It was World Series of Poker season, I think, and all the casinos did this then. So I went in, saw what was available, and sat at the 1-2 NL, smaller limits than the other table. Trench warfare; very tight players, bad cards, no confidence, very boring.

Usually at tables like that my head starts rotating randomly, giving my eyes a chance to see if anything more interesting or hotter is nearby. But it was my ears that heard the floor guy and several players discuss "3-6 dealer's choice." If that was what it sounded like, then that would probably be more interesting than waiting in very long lines at say, the airport, or the zoo, which was about the fun level of that particular 1-2 table. So when they started the table I got up and moved there.

Dealer's Choice wasn't exactly what I expected. At first I thought the dealer would call each game before each hand. I like dealers, they see a lot of hands, and probably have a better idea of whats interesting to play than I do. However, in dealer's choice, the button calls the game. But, most of the players's occupations at that table were dealers anyway, probably in town for the tournaments, so it was still good.

We were playing games that I didn't often play due to the texas hold'em craze, and games I had never even heard of. I learned badugie, which is a 4 card low game (lower poker rankings beat higher ones; 2346 beats AAAA) with rainbows (think anti-flush) taking the win. Seven stud, omaha, jacks or better, razz.

I think there's probably a difference between a hold'em player, and a poker player, and a poker player who's good at hold'em. It was nice to realize that.

To be fair, one of the reasons I liked the game was because I was getting lucky more often than usual. This seemed to frustrate the other players, who actually knew the game better but were losing. But at the same time I was learning, and getting better in that single session. But for the other players, it was like reverse-Halloween, where the baby takes candy from YOU.

After a certain point I began calling wildcards when the button got to me, making the kinds of games respectable players wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Wildcards are the dirtiest of the dirty, lowest of the low. They are simply depraved games. But it evened the field a little bit, even the dealers took a while to figure out who won.

I probably had more fun at that session than any other time in Vegas. Poker for me can be grueling, and I don't find it fun or worthwhile unless 1) I'm learning and getting better, or 2) I'm there with a friend.

I'll be in Vegas for the next 11 or so days, and I plan to play some of the mixed games. There's a 20-40 HORSE (hold'em, omaha, razz, stud, eight or better) at the Bellagio, but that's a bit high for me. I might try the 10-20 mixed game at the Wynn. Most likely hold'em though.

Sometimes I actually study at the table. I might bring some anatomy flash cards, as penance for this semester. But that's another post.

Oh yeah, and karting this week. There will definitely be a post about that. Maybe pictures.

Title Explanation

The title should not be taken at face value.

It has to do with a lecture that I recently attended, entitled Stress and Trauma Responses. The lecture was part of a course that, let's say, is perhaps not quite as scientifically oriented as others that I am currently taking.

To demonstrate this, at one point the lecture shifted to the topic of relaxation techniques, and one of those techniques was entitled "cue-controlled relaxation." To summarize, CCR as described involved taking a deep breath, holding it, then releasing while simultaneously uttering a cue phrase.

Example cues included such powerhouses as "Relax," and "Let it go." Others were "It's OK," "Stay calm," and "Trust in God." However, right smack in second to last position was,

"All things are passing"

I almost missed this one. It sounds so innocuous, so relaxing even. It almost makes sense. But really, as with many things, its actual meaning had nothing to do with its intended meaning.

I really liked the fact that in the middle of a lecture that seemed to be plagiarized from a ten-step self help book, there was this gem of a darkly pessimistic, metaphysical commentary. Of course it's undeniable that all things are passing, under almost any interpretation of this rather vague statement. So I'm going to die one day, the Sun is going to burn out one day, the universe goes into heat death and I should RELAX?!?!

It would make my day, probably even year just to see someone who is stressed out actually become relaxed by taking a breath and whispering to themselves something as nonchalantly nihilistic as "All things are passing." Maybe they'll say, "it'll all be over eventually," or perhaps "the end is nigh." And just relax...

Ergo, the title.