For folks new to blogging, I thought I’d offer up some suggestions to make your blogging easier and more interesting for readers.

Note Taking

First, if you’re going to blog about tournaments, rooms or trip reports, get yourself a voice recorder. Hands or details that seem interesting at the time are often difficult to remember the following day when you’re sleep deprived or hung over. You can get a digital voice recorder (<$100 for a nice one, Olympus or Sony, at any Staples or Best Buy), use the rudimentary voice recorder in your cell-phone or buy an adapter for most iPods. The idea isn’t to become some full-on reporter for the Times but to use the recorder to make notes on details (hands, stack sizes, room features, etc.) that you might not remember when you’re ready to write.

In the absence of a voice recorder, take notes when you can. Writing down stuff that strikes you as interesting detail—number of tables, an unusual hand, characteristics of your opponents, whatever—will make it MUCH easier to write when you’re in front of the computer. You don’t have to take formal notes in a notebook; just jot a few notes on a cocktail napkin or structure sheet. How many tables were left, stack sizes, what guys were wearing, how you were feeling, etc. Anything that will help kick-start your writing when you’re off the felt.

Pictures and Links

Whenever possible, add pictures or links to your blog. Pictures add detail that’s not always easy to convey with words and links to other articles, sites, room listings, etc. give your reader additional info without cluttering your post. At TwoRags, we’ve got very easy image and linking tools for bloggers. If you haven’t already tried them, you should. They’ll really make your blog come to life.

A note on pictures. As with many forums and blogs, you’ll need to host your image somewhere and reference the url in your image link. If you post me at edmond@tworags.com, I’ll put your image(s) on our server, size it appropriately and post you a url link that you can easily use in your blog.

Organization

Finally, organize your blog post into bite size chunks. Whenever I’m running long, I try to break the blog into sections with a heading and some sort of structure so the reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed. If you’re writing short, punchy pieces, it’s not as critical to break your work into sections, but if you’re writing more than 5-6 paragraphs, do the reader a favor and break your work up into discreet units. It’ll be easier for you to edit and him to read.

You can see all of these concepts in use in a blog post I made a few days ago here WSOP Event #15: A rookie goes deep...

Still digging,

Edmond

WSOP Event #15 $1500 NL: In which Dana goes deep, Edmond chops an STT and Adanthar continues his war with luck...


The Setup

My buddy and I flew out to Las Vegas on Saturday morning for Event #10, ($1500 NL). I had planned to head out the night before, but my schedule got spun around a little so I couldn’t head out until the morning. I had a little nervous moment when the self-serve kiosk couldn’t confirm my flight reservation (gotta love that when you get stiff-armed by an ATM at the airport at 5a) but I managed to get on a 7:30a American flight and into Las Vegas well before 9a. I hooked up with Dana (he was on a different flight), grabbed a limo and headed to the Wynn to drop off our bags. Then on to the Rio to register, grab some breakfast with PianoMan and maybe meet up with nath and Adanthar before the event.

Registration went smoothly (<10 minutes) given the time of day, my existing Harrahs rewards card and cash in hand. Dana's registration took slightly longer since he needed to get a Harrahs card and had pre-registered (courtesy of an LA charity event where he felted 200+ other players), but the total time start to finish was <20 minutes.

The lines for the 2p event started to form around 11a, and by 1:30p, they were very long. If you’re going to register for a weekend event, you should try to get to the registration area before 11a to avoid the lines.

After registering, we headed over to the Café Sao Paolo to meet PianoMan for breakfast before he headed back to St. Louis for a break before the Main Event. We had an interesting breakfast with him, his brother and girlfriend and Derek Lerner, who had some entertaining “some girl named Brandi was hitting on me” scoop. PianoMan recapped his week—a 35th place finish in the 6-handed event for 7 grand, a couple of bust-outs and some nice cash game wins. We finished up around 12p and headed back to the tournament area to get a sense of the set-up.

This year’s layout at the Rio was somewhat different than last year’s. Obvious differences: a smaller exhibit area (no room filled with online site booths) and fewer exhibitors in the hallways; a Poker Kitchen area (basically, a grill set up in an unused convention room—good luck, Rio, getting the smoke and grease smell out of that room), the STT signup area was moved near the cashier cage (instead of presenting cash at the table like last year, you must sign up and received a registration card) and the cash game brush area was set up at the back of the Amazon room. In addition, at the front of the room to the left (facing the cage/cashier) is a large TV table/lounge area for final table type viewing. Some things haven’t changed—there are limited bathrooms. One thing that was really odd was the lack of tournament monitors in the room. For any given tournament, you have to hunt to see a level time monitor.

Anyway, enough on logistics…


Event #15: In and out in just under four hours

Event #15 was a $1500 NL event and like the other relatively low buy-in weekend events drew a big field—2,628 entrants, prize pool of about $3.6 million. A look are the crowd...



You can see the Bluff Magazine reporting here.

I was seated at table 157, seat 3. It was an uneventful table; no big names, no crazy hands. I made it through several rounds with a few playable hands—AQo, 88—no big pairs, no suited connectors. With the blinds at 100/200/25 and a stack of 2500 or so, I needed to get busy and pushed with 77 to pick up the blinds and antes. A couple of hands later, I doubled up all-in with AJs v A8s and was feeling somewhat better about my stack. I then promptly lost about a third of my chips in the following hand.

I made it 600 in middle position with AQ and was called some guy in a cowboy hat on the dealer button. I fired 1K at the 973 board, and Tex shoved. Ugh. I asked the dealer for a count and thought for a minute. It was about 4500 or so more for me to call into a 6500-ish pot. I figured I was at best 50/50 if my flush draw and over-cards were good and pitched the hand. Tex showed TT. I thought he had some sort of made hand when he pushed and had I really thought it out, I probably could've concluded that he didn’t have A or K and my draw and over-cards were indeed good. Worst case, he had a set; best case, a worse draw.

In any event, I was in tough shape with 2800 chips a few hands later, when utg+1 raised. Next to act, I picked up 99 and shoved. The table folded to the raiser, he showed QQ and when the other nines refused to present themselves, I was out. I wasn't unhappy with my play but I'm definitely rethinking the AQ hand.

As it turns out, Adanthar had busted out a few hands earlier so I met him at the rail behind nath, who was still in decent shape with a 20BB stack. My friend, Dana, was on fumes but scratching his way along. At this point, it was about 4:30p and I hadn’t eaten all day, so Adanthar and I had lunch before hitting a couple of STTs.


$525 STTs…Charmin soft

The STT set-up is, as I mentioned above, a line by the cashier area. It looks more formidable than it is. Both times Adanthar and I got on line for a $525, we were seated within minutes. This year, though, you have to show your rewards card/register/pay at the cashier and take a registration card to your table. It's actually somewhat more efficient than the old "pay at the table" approach since the dealers aren't handling money at the table. A few pics...

STT sign-up line



Satellite area



The structure

$525 structure


STT #1

Our table included an Iraqi ex-pat with reddish hair. Imagine a 60-ish, short, stocky Saddam Hussein-lookalike with red hair and no poker skills and you’d have our guy. On my right was some guy to my right that kept ranting about beats he’d been taking. To my left, some guy from North Dakota now living in Utah. Adanthar was across the table in the 7 or 8 seat. To his left, a quiet Asian guy; to his right, a woman from somewhere in Texas.

An interesting exchange developed at 50/100 when the complainer to my right raised to 300 from the dealer button, I folded my SB, but Dakota called. The board was all low cards and Dakota led out for 800. Complainer pushed and Dakota waffled and folded KK because "I know you've got aces." Complainer and he then get into an ongoing exchange about who really had what. Complainer claimed he had JJ and Dakota claimed he had KK; both insisted each other was lying. I was sandwiched in between, bemused, trying not to call them both out as idiots.

Early on, Adanthar had doubled up and was the chip leader at the table. With about 6-7 of us left and the blinds at 50/100, I make what he later reminded me was a revealing (aka donkish) 4x raise to 400 with JJ utg. Read his thoughts on betting tells here. The table folded to Adanthar, who waved at the pot like he was shoeing kittens out of a kitchen—all-in. I tanked for about 15-20 seconds (enough time to reflect on how much it would suck to see QQ here) and called. Fortunately, he showed AKo and, because he’s running so delightfully bad, I doubled up.

20 minutes later with the blinds at 100/200, I raised to 800 with QQ from early position (another revealing raise, in retrospect). The big stack at the table, now a woman, pushed and showed AKo when I called. The board bricked off and I was the new chip leader.

A few hands later, Complainer and Dakota mixed it up again. Dakota limped and called Complainer's min-raise from the dealer button. Flop was non-descript and Dakota check-raised all-in when Complainer bet. Dakota showed K5, no pair, no draw v Complainer's AA. Runner 5, runner K and Complainer went off, howling about how bullshit it all was. Two hands later he pushed on my BB with Q9o. With 5 to 1 odds, I called with J5d and promptly flopped a jack. Turn and river, no help and he was apoplectic. Whatever, pal.

So now we're down to five players with the blinds at 200/400…me, Adanthar, Dakota, Saddam and an Asian guy hiding in seat 10, who both Adanthar and I pegged as competent. Dakota raised from EP; Asian guy called from the blind. The flop came A76. Asian guy checked and Dakota shoved. Asian guy tanked and called for his stack. Dakota showed 96 and (in)competent Asian showed 45.



96s>45o and we were down to four.

A few minutes later, Dakota shoved some POS hand and lost to Saddam's AA so it was me, Saddam and Adanthar for the money. With the blinds at 200/400 or thereabouts, Saddam raised Adanthar and then called his AJo shove with A2s. Flop came AAKx…2 and Adanthar was out. Gruesome.

At this point, Iraqi guy had me covered 2:1 but immediately proposed a 3:2 money chop in which he would pay the taxes and dealer tip. I’m pretty sure I was EV+ there but I took the 2 grand and headed off to play another one.

I deal in a home game the first Friday of every month where players routinely stack off with hands like pocket tens on a AK772 three heart board. The competition in the $525 STTs is somewhere between that home game and a $20 sit-n-go on Party circa 2004. Seriously.


STT #2

The 2nd STT had a slightly tougher line-up, figure a Stars $20 regular sit-n-go, circa 2005. Early on, I was the SB, with AKo facing an EP raiser, two callers. I usually re-raise here without a second thought, but I just completed, whiffed the flop and check/folded like a nit.

A few hands later I was UTG with AKo and tossed a 100 chip in intending to raise but didn’t state “raise.” so I ended up with two callers. Hate that. The SB bet the KK5 flop and I raised hoping he had a crappy K. “5 no good?”, he asked and folded.

Adanthar busted relatively early when his flopped two pair < KJ no pair flush draw all-in on the flop. I lasted somewhat longer but with less than 10BB found myself utg with JJ. I pushed and was insta-called by DB with 99. Brick, brick, brick, brick…9…and I’m out.


Back to Event #15

At this point, it was getting late 10p or so and I wasn't happy with how I was thinking or playing (see AK hands above) so I checked in on Dana. He was riding a short-stack roller coaster. All-in with K2s multi-way and spiking a K. Then all-in with KK v AQo and getting savaged by a river A. Nonetheless, he was kicking and scratching his way along as the field narrowed from 2600 toward the money—260 or so.

At one point, pulled me over. “There’s this guy in an Ultimate Bet jacket at the next table. What a tool.” I told him that’s Phil Hellmuth and make a silent prayer to the poker gods that they’ll put them at the same table. If anyone will call Hellmuth out as a complete and utter tool, it’ll be my friend. And, with any luck, it'll be on camera.

Around 11p or so, the bubble broke and everyone burst into cheers. Dana was a little perplexed by this, “Are you serious? Net fifteen hundred for 10 hours of work? An ugly call girl in this town makes $300 an hour. You guys need some perspective.” Dana’s just likable enough where this cracked up the entire table. If I had said it, I’d have been pelted with cell phones and iPods.

I sweated him for another couple of hours or so until they had their final break at around 1a. He was kind of cooked at this point, but they were breaking for the night at 2a so I told him to hang in there and avoid anything stupid. He said was fine but sat down at the wrong table at the end of the break. I steered him to his table and kept my fingers crossed that he had another 45 minutes of cogent thought. He did and we were on to Day 2.


Day 2

Sunday morning we met up at the gym in the Wynn for a quick workout before heading back to the Rio. Note: anyone who's serious about playing live poker has to COMMIT to a healthy diet and regular exercise. It's easy to fall into an unhealthy lifestyle—the extended sitting, irregular meals, stress, dehydration. A look around the poker room should give you all the confirmation you need—lots of out-of-shape guys, bad posture, poor food choices, smoking. That's not a winning line for guys without health insurance.

At the start of Day 2, the field was now down to 120 or so (nath busted the night before in 226th) so they moved into a smaller roped off area at the Rio. At this point, his stack was still below average but not horrible. Dana moved in just enough to stay ahead of the blinds—A5o, ATo, etc.—making progress only through field attrition.

After a couple of hours, Matt LaGarde sat down at Dana’s table with what looked to be about 200k+ chips, easily the big stack at the table. I pulled Dana aside and reminded him that Matt could raise and re-raise light, so any decent ace or pair was likely good. On the very next hand, Dana raised half his stack from middle position and Matt put him in from the blind. They showed TT v AJo, and because Dana runs better than Chad Johnson against a horse, he won his third TT coin flip of the tournament and doubled up. Matt apparently runs even better, because just an orbit later he rebuilt his stack to over 300k when another decent stack pushed AKs into his AA big blind.

TT holds yet again...




Taken out by a SKIRT

So now the field was thinning quickly…94…87…72…and moving toward better money. It's really funny how focused some players are on the various money jumps. At one point, a middle position medium stack held up AJs (showing his friend behind him) and FOLDED it in an unopened pot. WTF? I was tempted to yell “You SKIRT!” but I was full on multi-tasking at this point, taking pictures, texting nath keeping him up on Matt's progress and PianoMan on Dana's, chatting via phone with Dana's little brother and didn’t feel like spending the rest of the tournament outside on the curb. But seriously, WTF? How do you fold AJs in an unopened pot with 60 players left? Even more surprising, another player openly insisted he was only playing premium hands. He was fortunate to triple up with AA and AKs but still, he was obviously exploitable.

I thought about mentioning the AJs fold to Dana on the next break, but a few hands later Skirt raised from the button and Dana pushed with JJ. Skirt insta-called with AA and Dana was out in 56th with 10 grand for his 21 hours of work. It was sort of anti-climatic but a nice cash nonetheless.

Over 20 hours of poker (600+ hands), Dana never had AA. He had KK twice and both times it was cracked, once by Ax, once by 85o. Even more damning, he had TT all-in three times and each time it held. Hmmm…56th with no premium hands holding up…

When we were waiting to give Dana’s info in the cash out line, there was some big dude in full on Harley gear SOBBING like someone had trashed his vintage Shovelhead. Wow, dude…get a grip already. In any event, they presented Dana with a stack of hundreds and we were off to the Wynn for a nice dinner before the run home.


Wynner, Wynner…Chinese dinner

A note on the Wynn. The Wynn is a beautiful hotel, the nicest casino/hotel/spa property on the Strip in my opinion. Unfortunately, the desk and concierge staff aren’t as accommodating as the property. This was the second time I’ve stayed at the Wynn; both times I was treated like a panhandling railbird. For example, I checked in late (3a) and although I had a confirmed and paid for reservation for a non-smoking room, I was given a smoking room. When I called the front desk and asked if I could be moved at some point later in the day, the front desk person dismissed me with “No one guarantees non-smoking rooms.” She might just as well have said, “We have your monies, fish. Too bad.” Similarly, when my buddy and I called the concierge at 6p on Sunday after he busted out and asked for a reservation at a restaurant, the concierge brushed me off with “This late in the day? Our restaurants are very popular.” I basically had to beg to get a table a Wing Lei, the Chinese restaurant, which, btw, was great. We ended up running up a $800 bill for two—a 56th place finish, Peking duck and Opus One will definitely build a pot—and the food and service were top notch.

On the way back to the room after dinner, I looked in the other restaurants. They obviously had tables available. It’s a shame the desk and concierge staff act more like doormen at some vodka/Redbullshit nightclub instead of hospitality personnel at a five star hotel trying to accommodate registered guests. In my opinion, you’re probably better of staying at the Bellagio. It's slightly less nice but centrally located and with a staff that treats you like a guest rather than an inconvenience.


Conclusion

All in all, not a bad weekend. Nice finish by Dana, some tournament chips from the STTs and a good sense of how things are running. I'll probably head back out in another week for more of the squishy STTs and try to satellite in to the Main Event.

Keep digging!

Edmond

I had the good fortune to attend the Cirque du Soliel show LOVE at the Mirage this past weekend. The show is a interpretation of a number of the Beatles more interesting works interwoven with artistic and athletic performances of more than 60 live artists. The producers (including Sir George Martin) sampled 130 Beatles songs to create 27 new works that serve as the soundtrack for the performances, and the sets, dance and athletic feats are beyond belief. I was transfixed for the entire hour and forty minutes. Even if you're not a Beatles fan, it's a must see event.

I should warn you, though, if you're at all driven or creative, it's pretty humbling. First, you'll be reminded once again about the staggering body of work the Beatles put out, in their 20s, in a relatively short period of time (<10 years as a group). Second, you'll be in awe of the strength and talent of the Cirque performers and their ability to perform and transition with grace and without error. Finally, you'll be struck by the creative and organizational genius that this show requires. It's all I can do to get four friends to agree on a restaurant and then show up on time for the reservation.

If you're in town for the WSOP, get a ticket and go see it. You can see the trailer and buy tickets here. LOVE trailer and tickets.

Edmond