A Holiday Poker Tale

AQ Any Good?

Some thoughts on how in certain situations a "premium" hand might not be so premium.  This is one of those things that's very situational of course, but I thought this was a good way to think of things somewhat differently:

Online Poker & the Law

Last night I was reading a forum thread regarding the (now solidly? defunct) effort by Harry Reid to get an online poker regulation scheme through the lame duck session of congress.  I started to type out a response which kept getting longer and eventually I thought, "well, if I was a blogger, I'd turn this answer into a blog post".  Since I'm a vlogger though I offer you some video commentary on Poker's recent visit inside the Beltway:

As noted at the end of the video, I wanted to provide some links to other great blogging in this area.

For some of the leading tracking of the course of the bill, take a look at F-Train's posts here.

For some excellent legal analysis about the ability to win this fight in the courtroom, go to Grange's posts in the CrAAKKer blog here.

For a perspective on the future implications for online poker in an unregulated environment, take a look at this post over on Thinking Poker.

For some general overviews of the course of the Reid bill, take a look at Short Stacked Shamus' writings here at Hard Boiled Poker.

And for some generally grumpy thoughts on the issue, take a look at the Poker Grump's posts here.

Thumbs Down @ Red Rock

I'm typically a "glass half full" kind of person, I try and see the positives in things and definitely tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, but as you'll see here, I really couldn't muster up positives for this recent experience:

Leggo my Ego

This one is pretty self explanatory:

The Crazy Swede

One of my recent trips to the Aria resulted in an encounter with a player I decided to name, "The Crazy Swede":

Thank You Thank You

Appropriate to the season, here are some poker related things for which  I am thankful ...

Popping My DSE Cherry

Recently, I did something I've been meaning to do for a while and that was to play one of the Venetian's DSE tournaments.  In terms of results, well, there's nothing to report, but I felt like I gained some knowledge about what to do the next time.  So, I've got that goin' for me ... which is nice:

Where Have the Posts Gone

Just in case people are checking here and wondering where the posts have gone, they haven't stopped, just moved. I've now transferred my vlogging over to a Wordpress site which you can find here if you are so inclined.

Hat Trick?

Recently I had a day where I had daytime hours free, but had commitments during the evening, I wanted to see if I could get in three consecutive donkaments in three different places:

So, I only got in two out of the three I was shooting for, Mirage lasted too long for me to catch the TI at 2 - still it was a fun day.

Silver Linings

My last video talked about the start of a weekend getting back to playing after a few weeks off, and this one talks about the end of the weekend.  As you'll see, the results didn't pick up much, but I did find some positives to take away from those sessions:

Tournament Play at Aliante

Recently the poker room at Aliante Station changed their Thursday evening tournament from the regular $65 buy in to a $125 buy in.  Although I usually don't get out too much on weekday evenings, I decided to give this one a shot last week.  Here's how it went down:

Warning!  This video contains EXTREME CLOSE UPS!

Cashout Poker at Aria

This week the poker room at the Aria began running a new style of tournaments, Cashout tournaments.  I had an opportunity to sit down with Mel Judah, creator of the format prior to playing and hear him talk about this different type of tournament offering in Las Vegas:

Poker & Pasta

In this video I offer some further thoughts on recent play particularly with regard to adjusting to table dynamics and progress playing against the LAG style - plus see some food from a tasty little Italian bistro here in Las Vegas.

Back to the Tables

Alright so I've been on this little hiatus from poker for a few weeks, but yesterday I got a chance to get back to the felt, so I decided to head back down to the Aria for their 1 pm.  I had some fun and made a (very modest) profit; here's the video to tell the story.  Plus, this video now with Dancing Girls!

I think it's worth talking some about the monster stack that I referenced in the video because really, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.  Imagine a daily tournament structure, even a relatively slow one like this one, where with 8 or so people left one stack is still around 200 bb deep.  The way that he stacked all these chips was a little, well, interesting as well.  Stacks of no more than 20 (which to me is not a problem cause I hate putting more than about 25 in a stack - too afraid I'll knock em over) but he kept all of these stacks in a single row along the rail.  Needless to say it got to the point where he was taking up about 2.5 seat widths of rail space.  Fortunately when the TD colored up he bought up the vast majority of his smaller value chips so the stack could be somewhat contained.  Anyway, that's certainly an interesting experience having that player on your immediate left.

Labor Day

It was Labor Day so we're talkin' a little poker and a little BBQ:

Weekend Get Away

Work has been really busy lately and thus just haven't much chance to do a video (or much pokering for that matter). I did take last Friday off and my wife and I went for a long weekend staycation at the Palazzo. Here's how that went down:

"Tell" Me a Story

One thing I enjoy about progressing as a player is increasing my awareness of what is going with the other players in hands - in other words, getting the chance to make use of tells. I'm certainly not to the stage of pegging someone's hand when they eat the Oreo, but here's a story from a recent tournament where tells came into play.



NOTE: I made an error in the hand description in the video - the flop was two clubs not three. The river bought the third club, the 4 of clubs which paired the non club 4 on the flop. Sorry for any confusion.

From a WSOP Move to Matt Affleck

Filmed this video the day the latest rumor broke regarding the sale of the Rio. As you will see however, events actually led me to thinking about Matt Affleck's experience at the main event ...



In the event you haven't seen the details of Matt Affleck's exit from the tournament the hand report can be found here. There's an excellent post on the PokerStars Blog that gives amazing insight into the immediate aftermath of the hand, and you can also catch the interview I heard with Matt shortly after his bust out on the Wicked Chops Podcast.

Listen to The Music

In this video I discuss an important topic - what kind of music to listen to while playing! In particular I reveal my mix designed to inspire you through short stacked tournament play:



So now it's your turn - what kind of music do you like to listen to while playing? Do you have different music that you listen to depending on the type of game/situation you find yourself in?

Also, if you click on the video box above and go to the actual YouTube page with the video you can go to the description underneath the video and find a YouTube playlist with most of the videos mentioned in the short-stacking mix. Maybe you'll find something you like in there.

Randomness BItes

Well, in my last video I talked about wanting to tune up the aggression a bit and I made efforts to put that into play this weekend. I've got some thoughts about that in this video along with some comment about one of the things that just fascinates me about this little game:

Progress Marches On

I've been on a hiatus from playing for the last couple of weeks - just taking a break. It's been a good opportunity to reflect on how I can continue to progress as a player:

Post WSOP Wrap Up

Since the WSOP (and the corresponding busy poker time in Las Vegas) is coming to an end I wanted to kind of recap what I'd been doing during this time. Since a large part of my play during this season has been in the Aria daily tournament, that's where we'll start:

WSOP Report

So last week I took a trip to the Rio hotel in Vegas to play in my first ever WSOP event. Here's what went down:

Cashin' At the WSOP

I sat down with AVPer Cashewz recently to talk about his good run in WSOP event #24. Here's what Doug had to say:



Many thanks to Adam at the Aria for letting us use a table for the interview.

AVP Meet Up

Well if it's early June and there is buzz surrounding a poker tournament in Las Vegas I know the first thing that pops into everyone's minds is the --- AVP tournament!

For those that weren't able to attend, here's what you missed:



I had a bunch of fun playing, even though I was out a far cry from the $. Congrats to LVM for taking home the trophy!

Keeping Things Under Control

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of busting out of the same tournament twice in the span of about an hour and a half. Well since I couldn't take something good from that night in terms of results I looked for something good to take away in terms of the mental aspect of the game:

Memorial Day Weekend Poker

A little video report on my long weekend poker activity:

The Making Of Video

Recently a fellow member of the AVP boards asked if I would help him with a project putting together an audition video for the PokerStars Big Game. He took a couple of minutes to chat with me on cam as we were filming, you can follow a link to his audition video in this vlog entry:

What Took Him So Long?

We've all seen situations where players are unaware of how bad off they are in a hand, but what sometimes surprises me is when people are unaware of how good a situation they are in during a hand. Here's a story where I ran into one such player:

Yes, I know you got bad beat - you told me 87549387 times.

I'm not a computer programmer, but recently I encountered another player who seemed to be caught in a "continuous loop" with wanting to tell a bad beat story. Watch the video to hear about how I (mis)handled the situation:

I'm Back!

As I think I mentioned a little while ago the Vlog went off the rails a bit when I got sick last month and then have been getting slammed at work. But, now it's back on pace with several videos in the queue to get posted soon. To commemorate my slooooow return to vlogging today's video talks about slowplaying - or as I like to call it, how to lose money more often than not:

Chip and a Chair

Yesterday I played the afternoon tournament at TI and took some big hits early on. I lost two big pots one with AQ on a Q high flop when KK flatted right behind me and called two streets (river was checked around when the fourth club hit despite KK having the K of clubs). The other pot I lost with AJ where I limped from the c/o after multiple limpers. The flop came AQx and I lost to UTG who limped with AQ. Anyway, those two pots left me very short stacked and thinking it would be an early out for me - not so much:

Yummy Pizza

I was on an Alaskan cruise several years ago and stopped in to a little pizza parlor in Ketchikan for a bite. The pizza was not particularly memorable, but they were selling t-shirts and I had to get one because it had the following on the back: "Pizza is like sex, when it's good its amazing, and when it's bad - it's still pretty good."

So with that motto in mind, and since I hadn't played any poker in a while due to a business trip - here are some pizza making tips for everyone:

They're Baaack

Well, ever since I posted the vid about how pocket jacks don't get enough respect guess what hand I've been getting dealt with far more frequency then you would expect?

Yup, I've been getting a lot of chance to play the hooks lately - here are some more thoughts:

Another Year ...

Last week was my birthday which included the expected run of poker themed gifts. Take a look and see what I got:

AVP Plays NLHE

In addition to the mixed game tournament I posted about last time, the AVP meet also involved a no limit hold em tournament the next day. Here's my video from the Mirage which was gracious enough to host us along with the final hand of the heads up match:

Mixed Game Madness!

Played in my first mixed game tournament this past Friday night in conjunction with the AVP meet up. I had a great time trying out some new games and meeting new people:

Show Jacks Some Love

Come on now - are those hooks really as bad as everyone says:

Golfing With Fellow AVPers ...

Friday afternoon I freed myself from the day job early so that I could get in a round of golf with a couple of fellow members of the forums over at www.allvegaspoker.com (AVP). A good time was had by all which means that they are both very tolerant of poor golf abilities. Of course, I couldn't leave the camera behind. Here are the results:



Also, I guess the Vlog is progressing because we now have, for the first time ever, deleted scenes:

I'm A Nice Guy - Just Ask People

Let's face it, usually, when we hear something from someone else at the table about ourselves it isn't positive. Recently, I had the rather pleasant experience of getting complimented at the table. Naturally, I want to spread the word:

In the Zen Zone

A pretty common observation about athletes when they are performing well is that they are "in the zone". I definitely was feeling in the zone playing the other night, and as described in this video it led to some good results:

Just Goofin' Around

No poker content here - I was just having fun and the next thing I know the camera's on.

There may - or may not - have been a couple of cocktails consumed before this shoot:

Drunk Guy Giving Away Money

One of the interesting things about playing poker is the opportunities you have to interact with all sorts of people. Of course, a fair number of those people can lean towards the obnoxious end of the spectrum - but also - a lot of those people can be very profitable to play against. Here's one story I have along those lines:

That's What She Said

I'm a big fan of The Office and of course therefore, am very familiar with the use of the phrase, "That's What She Said". In honor of the show returning after its Olympic break tonight, here are some thoughts on how that comes into play at the poker table:

Hangin With My Pops

I haven't been playing as much the last week as I usually do, but I did get a session in last week with my father who was visiting. Here's how that went down:

Love a Duck!

This is easily my favorite video posted up to this point. A lot of the reason for that is the large amount of work put in by my producer. She's responsible for adding in all the background work and spends way more time editing the videos than I do yapping at the camera a few minutes a week.

Remember - Always Use Protection

Today's video is on the all important subject of protection:

Friday Night Tournament

I played the Friday night Bounty tournament at Aliante the other night and did a video reporting on what happened, here it is:



I thought the chop negotiations (or should I say lack thereof) were interesting. We were down to 10 people. As soon as we hit the final table, someone proposed that the remaining 10 players all be able to keep their own bounty. This is a pretty standard deal in this tournament and I always say yes to that deal. We played just a few minutes 10 handed when we hit the end of a level and were on a break. I called into home to give a report and waited to get back to it. The total chips in play were t362,000 and I was at t96,000. We were coming back to blinds of t4,000 - t8,000. The next level would be t6,000 - t12,000 and I believe they would double every level after that. There were two players with stacks around t40,000 - t45,000. Everyone else had somewhere between 10k and 30k. As it stood then, the top 7 would get paid. The total prize pool was $1700 (if this seems like a small pool, remember that in this tournament half the prize money goes to bounties). The payout structure is 35% to first, 20% to second, 15% to third and then small drops down to seventh.

As the break was ending one of the players who was probably between 20k and 30k asked me if I would take $300 and have everyone else chop. I checked the actual payouts and saw that second place was scheduled to be $340. I told the person who was proposing the deal that I would take $350 and leave the rest for everyone to chop. When everyone got back he proposed that deal and to my surprise everyone said yes without any kind of debate. One of the guys with around 40k was just on my left and I could tell that he didn't like the deal. He said something along the lines of, "we really should wait till a couple of short stacks bust out," and I could tell he didn't really like the idea of giving people who were unlikely to make the money a share of his equity. He finally said that he didn't care and gave the thumbs up to the deal.

I thought the guy who was pushing the deal was pushing a bad deal for himself. If he just waits for the short people to bust then he increases his payout considerably. It's true that the blinds were high, but he should have been able to dodge the bubble, so I figured he cost himself.

I wish I could say that I picked my figure of what I offered to take on some formula taking into account my chip equity or something, but I didn't. I basically knew it was right for me to get somewhere between second and first place money. I looked at the payouts and suggested the next round number higher then second place. I actually didn't think that everyone would agree so quickly. It turns out I had 26.5% of the chips and got 20.5% of the prize money. I think that's a pretty good deal for me being made while we're still three off the money. Even though I didn't get a full payout on my chip equity stack sizes relative to the blinds make that equity pretty volatile. I think if I can lock up more then second place money while we're still not even in the money that's a good deal.

Super Sunday

Hey, it can't be all poker all the time, today's video has my thoughts on Superbowl XLIV:

A Bountiful Tournament

One of the regular tournaments I play is the Friday night Bounty Tournament at the Aliante Station Casino.  I like this room because by and large I like the people who work there and it's the closest room to where I live.  Unfortunately, the room has struggled to get consistent action during the week, but in large part due to this tournament which regularly gets upwards of 60 entrants Friday nights are good nights to go there and get some good action.  Here's the story of my latest run at their tournament:

More Tommy Angelo Thoughts

Here's another video inspired by listening to Tommy Angelo.  I talk about connecting the dots between some advise about mental state offered by Mr. Angelo and actual play at the table:



As always, this video is cross posted to my video blog thread at allvegaspoker.com.  You can view that thread here.  Check out the forums if you haven't been there before - good poker and Vegas discussions there.

Also, I'm definitely soliciting feedback and suggestions for subjects to do videos on.  If you have ideas, let me know in the comments.

You Reap What You Sow

I get a lot of good nuggets listening to poker podcasts.  This video was inspired by a comment I heard from Brandon Adams:

I'm In the Zone Man!

One of my favorite poker thinkers is Tommy Angelo.  Last week I was catching up on some podcasts and ran across two interviews with Tommy.  As I set out to go play one evening last week, I was thinking about achieving the state of mind that Tommy talks about.  This video talks about the results:

Seeing the World through Half Full Glasses

In my latest video I contemplate the difference between confidence and optimism.  These thoughts were spurred by a comment made by a local Vegas player I met through the forums at www.allvegaspoker.com.  All of my video entries are cross posted in a thread on their forums.  For those not familiar with the site I would highly encourage a visit as it is a great source for information focused on playing live poker in Vegas.  Anyway, on to the video:

Adventrues in the Vegas Heartland

Here's my latest vlog post talking about playing in the Heartland Poker Tour satellites:

Vegas is the Heartland Right?

This week the Heartland Poker Tour is running an event in Las Vegas. I decided to take a run at this when I saw the event announced a few months ago. They basically have a three tiered structure to the event. Single table satellites lead to qualifiers, qualifiers lead to the main event. There are two different structures for the qualifiers, $130 buy in with the top 10% of the entrants getting seats and $250 buy in with the top 20% getting seats. After looking at the different structures, I decided that the $250 was the best way to go and that I should skip the satellites altogether.

I played in my first qualifier Tuesday night. I was a little nervous going in as I'd never attempted to play in anything but Vegas daily tournaments before. As play started, I was observing what was going on and began to get more comfortable seeing nothing that was too out of line with the type of play I had seen before. I was able to double up early with a couple big hands and chipped up a bit more as stealing opportunities arose. People seemed to really not want to get in against the bigger stack. Then .... (warning, bad beat stories ahead - I know bad beat stories suck, but hey this is my blog)

The first thing that happened was being on the wrong end of AA v KK against a short stack, but that didn't take too many of my chips. A few hands later, I picked up KcQs in the hijack and made a standard raise. The button called and everyone else folded. The flop came KdQhXd. I led for about 2/3 the pot and the button raised a healthy amount. I took some time - he had a good sized stack, but I had him covered, I thought there was a good chance I could knock him out here. I 3-bet, and he hesitated a moment and shoved. I snap called and rolled top two. Rather then rolling the AK I expected to see, the button rolled over KhJd. I had him dead to either two running jacks or two running diamonds. The turn was not a jack, but it was a diamond. It seemed to take an eternity for the dealer to roll the river - a diamond. Wow.

That left me with 7 big blinds and looking for a hand to shove. The next hands I had two face cards and put my tournament life on the line. I got called in two spots and tripled up when I rivered trip jacks. Then a few hands later I doubled up when my A10 held against Arag. I was now sitting at just under the starting stack and was left with about 13 blinds. I was able to chip up some more by shoving playable hands and taking the blinds - it was a pretty passive table.

Right after that, our table broke and I was seated immediately to the right of a big stack, probably around 40k after starting at 10k. As expected, this player was very aggressive. He frequently three bet when there was a raise in front of him often taking the pot down preflop. When he did see a flop he would keep firing till his opponent would fold. It was clear that he felt that with his stack he could simply run the table over and I was sure his range was wide. This was confirmed when he shoved post flop against another big stack. The other guy called with an underpair of deuces and aggro player had shoved A5 with no pair. The board bricked off and agro player was now down to about 10 big blinds. Considering that aggro player was probably pretty close to what average chips would be when the 20 % mark was hit, that was certainly a questionable play. I knew that if I played a big hand in a way that looked weak, he wouldn't be able to resist going after me.

I kept place with the blinds and antes by shoving (I hadn't made any bet other than all-in since getting moved to that table) and eventually looked down at two black queens on the button. This was the spot. I raised to 3x hoping that it would look like I was trying to steal without risking to much. Aggro player looked at his cards, paused a beat and announced all-in. I snap called and he literally groaned. I rolled my ladies over and he rolled over A6 of diamonds. The board was K82 with no diamonds. The turn was another K and as the dealer got ready to burn a card and put up the river, aggro player said, "nice hand" which was of course promptly followed by an A on the river. I shook his hand and left the table actually feeling pretty good. I could play at this level. I adjusted what I was doing to meet the table conditions and it took some sick beats to get me out. I had already planned that failing to win an entry in this event I would play the Thursday night qualifier. Having observed the play Tuesday there was nothing to discourage me from that plan.

Last night's qualifier didn't start as well for me. I tried a couple of steals, but people caught hands so I tightened up. Then I had a couple of good, but second best hands which altogether ended up cutting my starting stack about in half. I was back in shove or fold mode and was able to make some recovery. I went through an orbit where I couldn't play a hand that left me at 5600 with blinds at 300-600. I was in the BB and watched the table fold around to the button. Button was a young kid who seemed to have some idea about what he was doing and he raised to 1700. SB folded and I looked down at two red kings. I shoved of course and button went into the tank. Obviously he didn't have aces, so I just sat there quietly waiting for his decision. He called after about 1:30. I rolled over the kings and he turned over A2 of clubs. I should mention that the call was probably about 3/4 of his stack. That's just such an ugly call for him because there's just no way he's anything better then flipping with me there. Even if I'm making a move with something like J10 he's not in great shape and any pair or any A has him totally dominated. Of course, I wouldn't be talking about what a horrid call he made unless the hand played out the way it did - at least the dealer made it quick this time with an A in the door. The turn bought a third heart raising my outs from 2 to 11, but alas, the river was a brick and for the second time in three nights I walked out of the tournament room well short of the top 20%.

Unlike the night before this time I felt the full disappointment that usually accompanies a bust out. I think it was because my original plan was to play no more than two of the qualifiers figuring that if I couldn't make it in to the main event in two tries that it wasn't to be. Was this really the end of my Heartland dream?

The last qualifier is tonight, and I think I'm going to take another run at it. On one hand, I don't want to be throwing good money after bad, but on the other hand - I'm confident in my play. I definitely can't say that 20% of the people that I've played against so far have outplayed me, so I do feel like I'm +EV in these. Yeah, I think tonight I'll see if the third time is the charm.

Video Freerollin'

I played last weekend in a freeroll tournament that is actually pretty large as it takes qualifiers from the largest group of locals oriented casinos in Las Vegas - Station Casinos. Here's a video recounting what happened:

Poker Christmas and New Year's Resolutions

Here's the latest vlog entry talking about what poker goodies Santa brought me:

Big Hands are Fun

The other day I had a genuine heater that contained a couple of hands worth mentioning.

I bought into the 1-3 game for $300 and had "invested" $30-$40 in hands that didn't produce a return when the first big hand came up. Let me tell you about the other players involved. V1 can only go by the name "Cash Machine". He was a big fan of things like calling to the river with gutters regardless of bets, calling raises with offsuit gappers, and showing down second pair weak kicker in hands with lots of action. Once he'd used up his chips in front of him, he'd consistently go into his wallet, pull out a couple more hundreds and get more chips. I have to say, Cash Machine was without a doubt my favorite player at the table. V2 had just recently sat down and hadn't done anything especially remarkable at the table. We'll refer to him as "Average Joe". I start the hand with about $260 - $270, Cash Machine had a little over $200 and Average Joe had a bit under $150.

Cash Machine limps UTG, Average Joe limps UTG +1, it folds to me in the hijack and I look down to discover AcAs. I raise (to $13 I believe) and it folds back to Cash Machine who calls, Average Joe also calls. The dealer puts out an AKx flop with the A and K being hearts. Nice flop for me. I'm thinking about what my bet should be as Cash Machine checks when Average Joe fires out about $20. This made me pause a bit. Generally I'm not a fan of slow-playing without a true monster and by that I mean better than top set on a board with two to a flush and two broadway cards on it. However, this seemed to be a good time to deviate from that approach since I knew Cash Machine would come along with lots weaker hands. I wanted to keep him in the pot, so I just smooth called. I also suspected Average Joe had the case ace and I was happy to let him keep thinking that was good. I was pretty confident that Average Joe wasn't leading out with the draw. Cash Machine calls as well.

The turn is the oh so beautiful king of diamonds, giving me the second nuts in a situation where it was highly doubtful that either of these guys are playing kings. Cash Machine checks again and Average Joe keeps the lead putting out about $60 leaving a little over $50 behind. Now his hand looks a lot like AK or AQ, so I'm getting his stack and now I don't care if Cash Machine catches up so I just call again. The River is the 6 of hearts completing the flush draw - I hope Cash Machine got there. He checks again, Average Joe goes all in and I just call one more time in the hopes that Cash Machine comes over the top. Cash Machine takes his time an appears to be really struggling with his decision which means he doesn't have hearts. He finally just calls.

I immediately turn my hand over so as not to come anywhere near a slow roll and sure enough Average Joe had AK for kings full, no good against aces full. Cash Machine kind of shakes his head and finally flashes the case king before mucking.

It struck me a few minutes later that the hand bore a lot of similarities to the first scene in Rounders. One player flops aces up while the other flops a set of aces, they both fill up on the turn, flush card hitting the river. I can just say that I like Teddy KGB's seat in that hand much more than I like the other. It also really struck me how many different events have to come together to win a really big pot when you have players playing reasonably. This was definitely the Perfect Storm of poker for me. For example - how often is it that between three players and the board do you have all four aces and all four kings in play?

After that hand, the other big one seems almost trivial by comparison: Early position player raises up to around $13, Cash Machine is still around and calls. I'm in the small blind with KK and three-bet to around $45. Both Vs call. The flop is K67 rainbow and I find myself in the position of slow-playing top set twice in the course of an hour. The original raiser led at the pot, Cash Machine called and I called. An A came on the turn and I led with a small be wanting it to look like I floated an A on the flop. The original raiser goes all in which finally gets Cash Machine to fold. I snap call and roll my hand. The original raiser had AK, so yeah, don't be bringing that AK nonsense up against me!

That was enough for more than a double up and so I decided to go ahead and cash out. Just to show what a heater it was, as I'm racking up the dealer asks if I want to look at one more and I do and look down at QQ. I raise, the V from the KK against AK hand calls saying he wants to get some back. There's an A on the flop, I lead, he calls, I check fold the turn still more than doubled up. It'd been quite a while since I had a heater like that. I'd forgotten how fun it can be.

Aria Tournament Review

The new poker room at the Aria Casino has started a daily tournament. Here's a video clip with my thoughts on the tournament:



I'm a poster over at the All Vegas Poker Forums which is a pretty fun poker forum. There's a thread for all of the Vlog posts that you can find here.

NY Weekend Report

Here's a VBlog update talking about playing in Vegas over NY weekend and also relating the aftermath of someone deciding to tap on the glass ...