Monday, March 18, 2013

Channel your inner Uncle Bob

Living in Vegas is a lot like Groundhog day every day you see the same thing over and over. A group flies into town all with various strategies about how make their Vega trip profitable. There is the intellectual, who studies the numbers and determines the games that give him the best edge. There is the disciplined money manager, who has set his budget and knows just how much he has to loose. He is followed closely by the Veteran. The guy who has been to this town many times and knows all the tricks about how to beat the games. And then you have Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob doesn’t know any of this shit. All he knows is that he has some money in his pocket and the courage that goes along with hours of comped drinks He’s not thinking about strategy, discipline or secret tactics he just wants action. Out of this quartet you know who comes out the winner time after time? Uncle Bob, he puts $10 in the machine and hits at 500 to 1.

About a month ago a friend of mine told me this analogy and it got us thinking about how this relates to poker, and we realized that sometimes Uncle Bob sits down at the poker table too. We all have seen the drunk at the table who gets his chips in the middle whenever he feels like it, often times in terrible situations. He has A-3 his opponent has Aces and Uncle Bob just solves that problem by flopping the wheel with the nut flush redraw. After hours of sitting and watching Uncle Bob pound the game it’s natural to feel frustrated and upset that such and inferior opponent can get so lucky. But before we can hate Bob we must first understand the reason’s why he seems to win so much. Those other guys that came to town spent so much time analyzing and figuring out ways to win that they lost site of why we play the game in the first place. Before we ever read a book about 4betting or semi bluffing most off us sat down at the table for one reason and one reason only…. To have fun. The game was all about kicking back having a few beers and playing some cards with friends of family. No one was sitting there criticizing our every decision, there weren’t a million house rules, and dealers? Hell we just dealt ourselves. The game was fun and as a result of this we played more loose and relaxed.

Maybe instead of being frustrated with Uncle Bob we need to learn how to embrace our inner Uncle Bob, I’m not saying we need to start shipping it with A-3 but we need to learn how to enjoy the game even if we aren’t winning. We all play poker for different reasons but the one thing that is certain is that it is a game of choice. No one has ever been forced to play poker, even tournament players who are in makeup with their backers have input about when they want to play. Sometimes the game beats us up so much that we forget about why we are really playing. The next time your stuck in a game and are going through a bad run of cards, instead of beating yourself up and becoming more and more frustrated by the fish to your left. Step back take a deep breath and ask yourself a simple question… What would Uncle Bob do?



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Sunday, March 3, 2013

T.I has a great promotions Stratopshere sucks and I’m pretty sure the Orleans tournament is rigged. (Live Tournament Challenge day 4.5.and 6)

I took Wednesday off from my tournament grind, but got back in full swing on Thursday playing a total of four tournaments that day combine that with the Orleans Friday Night and the Golden Nugget Sunday Morning and that's 6 tournaments in 4 days.

Facebook feeding frenzy -  T.I has one of the most under rated promotions in town. If you check in on Facebook and cash in the tournament they will give you a free buffet voucher. It doesn’t sound like much but in case you didn’t know buffets in this town can be expensive. It’s like getting an extra $30 value.

10:00 Pm Guaranteed - T.I also runs a 10pm $1000 guaranteed tournament that is starting to get popular their were 36 players when I played on Thursday the buy in was $55 and first place was $560.

We have a winner - Right now if I would have to rank the worst run tournaments in town, the Stratosphere would be the winner. Here are some examples of why.

          1. They started at 7:20 for a 7pm tournament.

          2. In level 2 it took nearly 8min for anyone on the staff to notice that the blinds had gone up.

           3. Way to chatty if I was a tourist playing there for the first time I would never come back even if I was staying at the hotel. The dealers spend way to much time engaging in conversation with regulars. It feels like it's you against the city when your playing.

They do have one positive they serve free pizza to all the players. For this reason alone I'm willing to give the place another shot and try to see if I catch them on a better day.

Where the magic happens - I am %90 sure the Orleans Friday Night tournament is rigged, I just can’t prove it. I play this thing on a regular and I have never seen more ……. (insert your own word). It’s not just what happens in my hands but also what I see going on around me. The beats are weird. (How can a guy call off his stack with A-2 in level 2 of the tournament and get there?) Also there seems to be a ton of setup hands and just strange plays. Maybe it’s the re-entry structure, maybe it’s Friday night, maybe it’s just rigged I don’t know, but to borrow the NBA’s slogan this is where amazing happens.

Google me -
Heard a great argument at the Orleans the other night two guys are going back and forth. The guy that goes bust is taking his walk of shame but makes sure to let his opponent know he is a fish. After a few minuets of this the opponent finally shouts back “Oh yea Google me” It got me to thinking what a brilliant comeback, for me personally I have a very common name so I figure if you do Google me something good is bound to come up. The funny part is the guy comes back about 15 minuets later to tell him that he had indeed googled him and he was not impressed with his 31k lifetime earnings.

Easy Money - The Golden Nugget 5k guaranteed tournament is by far the softest in town. The early start brings out one of two kind of players.

             1. Old

             2. Hung over or carrying over from the night before.

Whatever the reason any competent player should have a good shot to go deep.When I say it is soft I mean level 1 thinkers all around. This is the same tournament where in the past my opponents continued to let me steal blind on blind with less then 5bb's. On this day I finished in 7th place out of 34 players however it wasn’t good enough to get in the money as they only played 5 spots. The hand that crippled me actually took place when we were down to 11 players. I raised 2x from the button with AK off. The bb defended with J-8 of spades. The flop came K-7-3 with two spades. He checked, I fired the flop, he called, the turn was 9h he checked, I shipped, he called, the river brought the flush. Oh well better luck next week.


　
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