We had a barbeque yesterday with some of my old friends from Tellabs. These folks invited us over pretty regularly, and we had been in our new house for two years without inviting them over, so we were overdue. We had a fantastic wine, a 1998 David Arthur Elevation 1147 Napa Valley Cabernet. Another wine, a 1995 Chateau La Pointe Pomerol was light and disappointing at first, but after a couple hours, improved enough to be enjoyable. It was definitely past its prime. We went to bed around 12:30, so I'm already running a sleep deficit to start the trip.
I arrived at O'Hare around 9:20 this morning to discover that my 10:40 flight was delayed until 11:20. Then it was delayed again until 11:40. Fortunately, that allowed me to eat a yummy Wolfgang Puck sandwich while waiting. Did I mention that within 1 minute of sitting down, the toddler of the woman sitting next to me vomited several times. Several people moved to other tables, and it was funny to see other people so happy to find some empty chairs, then shortly after sitting down realizing why they were empty and moving somewhere else. Since I have two little kids, it didn't bother me at all. I read Dan Harrington's second book while I ate, trying to remind myself to use some actual strategy while I'm in Las Vegas.
I headed to the gate, sat down and read my book. Five minutes after I arrived, an old lady with a nasty hacking cough (not covering her mouth) sat next to me, so I decided that I had urgent business elsewhere. No one's bodily functions, or, rather, misfunctions bothered me for the rest of the day. Out the window I could see the AA symbol on the tail of the plane. It seemed like a good omen.
The flight departed and I was seated in first class next to a young, voluptuous Polish or Russian super model (at least for the purposes of this story :) After 5 minutes, she turned to me and said "Sorry?" and since I didn't say anything, I wittily replied "I didn't say anything". And she said "What?" and I said "What?". It turned out that she wanted her sister (another voluptuous foreign blonde model type) to come sit next to her, but she was having a little difficulty communicating that to me. When she said "Sorry?", what she really meant was "Excuse me", trying to get my attention. So she signalled to her sister to switch seats, but everyone was boarding the plane and it wasn't a good time to do it, so I told her to wait a few minutes, and she smiled and nodded, which is universal body language indicating that she hadn't understood a word that I had said. And her sister headed back anyway, with the flow of traffic, so I was forced (since of course I didn't want any supermodels sitting on my lap or vice-versa) to go against the flow of traffic of all the angry (because I was sitting in first class, and they're all thinking, "Why is this shmo sitting in first class, ok, the supermodels I understand, but why this guy when I have to sit in cattle class") passengers carrying on their luggage. I stepped on some toes (literally) but made it from 4F to 1A. I was in first class, by the way, because I had some frequent flier miles that were going to expire unless I used them. Now I was seated next to a friendly salesman from Connecticut. He was in the food service industry and travelled 50% of the time, and we chatted about food and wine. He visited Las Vegas often but never gambled. I said that was good, gambling against the house is a loser's game.
We flew over the Grand Canyon and saw some other amazing geological formations (i.e., mountains and other stuff that I can't remember what it's called from sixth grade geography class). We landed uneventfully, and the Las Vegas strip is in view of the airport. The airport is only a few miles from the casinos - they don't want to waste any time parting you from your money.
Then I took the world's most expensive cab ride to the Gold Coast, which was about 6 miles long for only $20! There are shuttles, but you have to stand in a line in the sweltering heat and don't get to hear the peppy salsa music that was playing in my cab. The heat wasn't actually sweltering, by the way, it was only 99 degrees today! But it's dry heat, everyone says. Sure, like when you open your oven door and that rush of hot air hits you in the face. I swear it felt exactly like that. Las Vegas is the only place where I've ever felt a hot breeze. Still, it's better than 90 degrees and 90% humidity in Chicago. And in the desert heat, during the 3 minutes that it takes to walk over to the Rio, your wet hair (from taking a shower) dries completely.
I'm staying at the Gold Coast because it's next door to the Rio, where the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is being held. I'm staying here and not there because here is $42 per night and there is $200 per night. And there's probably a good reason, because the Gold Coast may have been fashionable in the 70s but the decor is pretty dated now. I checked in uneventfully (except the wireless access is $10 per day, not free, but that's my fault for not checking) and headed across the street to the Rio to check out the action.
The Rio is not just a casino and hotel, but also a convention center, so the place is huge. To get to the WSOP inside the Rio actually takes just as long as walking from the Gold Coast to the Rio. And how long is that? Exactly one cigarette, according to an Irishman to whom I spoke.
There I met Rick Wampler who has been posting great WSOP reports to the rec.gambling.poker (RGP) usenet discussion group. He is manning the booth for the Put a Bad Beat on Cancer charity.
I walked into the convention hall where the WSOP is being held. There are 200 poker tables set up in there, almost all full. It was an awesome site to behold. The Main Event occupies most of the tables, and there are a few cash games as well. There was no other WSOP event today (Sunday, July 10, 2005).
Some of the poker pros that I saw were Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington, Antonio Esfandiari, John Juanda, Al Krux, and John d'Agostino. I was very surprised that I didn't see a lot more pros, but many had already busted out.
There are some satellites for the next three days' events. To play in those tournaments, it is a $1500 (for Monday) or $1000 (Tues or Wed) buy-in. But instead, you can play in a single table (10 player) satellite tournament to win entry into the tournaments. The satellites were $125 and $175 buy-in. The prizes are $500 chips that can only be used to enter WSOP events, plus cash. Each one-table satellite awards a single winner.
I sat down in a $175 buy-in satellite, and played well until I decided to run a stone cold bluff into the chip leader when I was getting low on chips. She had limped in, and when the flop (which completely missed me) came A-A-8, and she checked it, I knew that she hadn't caught any of it, because she bet or raised whenever she hit the flop. I went all-in and she called, and my read was dead on...she had completely missed the flop. Unfortunately, she had pocket jacks, and I had trash, and no runner runner help came and I go home now (IGHN). I felt stupid and hated to show down a total bluff. I was getting short-stacked and needed to go for it sooner for later, but at least one paint in my hand would've been better than T4 offsuit.
Then I jumped into a $125 satellite. After some excellent play that I totally can't remember, I was dealt pocket kings twice when we were three-handed, and fortunately someone called one of those times. A couple hands later, the small stack went all-in, and the other big stack called. Big stack had KK and small stack had AJ. The flop came KJJ, giving the small stack trip jacks but making a full house for the big stack. The small stack didn't get runner-runner aces or jacks and he was done. Then I proposed to split the prize with the other big stack based on our chip count (he had 2/3 and I had 1/3). He accepted, and he received the two $500 tournament entry chips and I received the $120, plus he paid me $255 (the total value of the prize was $1125). Deals are very common in the satellites. Since I lost the first satellite, I preferred to get the cash rather than have to shell out cash of my own to buy the entry chips. Now I'm up $75 on the day. In retrospect, since I wanted to play in the event, I should've paid to get one of the $500 chips.
I played in one more $125 satellite. Things were going well until I raised 4X the BB with AQo, and someone made a small reraise. It was an easy call given the pot odds. The flop completely missed me, but I made a continuation bet of 300 which was about half the pot. My opponent reraised all-in, and I didn't really want to call but I hadn't realized that I only had about 300 left - I left myself short-stacked, and I would never get anywhere with the remaining 300, so since there was about 1100 in the pot, I had to call and hope to catch an ace or queen on the turn or river. But no help came, and his pocket pair knocked me out.
It was now dinner time (about 7:00 PM) but I wasn't hungry, so I just grabbed a small snack and some badly needed caffeine. The 20-oz bottle of diet Coke that I bought cost $2.50. I can buy a 6-pack of them at home for that price. Everything is ridiculously expensive in Las Vegas. Then I realized that the "free" drinks from the cocktail waitresses were an even worse value. Drinks are free (as long as you are gambling), and almost everyone tips the waitresses $1 per drink. That's fine if you're getting expensive drinks, but I was only drinking diet Coke. Every time I received a cup full of ice that had maybe 6 oz of diet Coke. With a $1 tip, I realized that was an even worse deal than the $2.50 bottle.
I watched a $4-8 limit hold'em cash game while waiting for a seat. A guy had actually fallen asleep in his chair and had to be awakened to play a hand. He won the next three pots, then a few more later, and quit. I took his seat and bought his chips. My very first hand, someone raises my big blind, and there are three other players in, so I have the pot odds to call with any two cards, including my 74 offsuit. The flop comes Q-4-4, and it is checked around (including by me). Someone comes out betting on the turn and I raise. On the river, my opponent makes two pair (aces and queens) but was smart enough to check and just call my bet. He had actually flopped top pair, best kicker (queens with ace kicker) and was slow-playing me while I was slow-playing him! I was lucky to be on the right end of that play. That pot put me up about $50 which I mostly bled away for the next eight (yes, eight) hours.
Another seat opens up, and I think there might be a fistfight between two women who claim they are next (it was first come, first served). But another chair opens up just then, so there is no melee. One of the women is a young Asian girl who spends most of the game reading a Danielle Steele book and also talking on a cell phone. She is barely paying attention to the game and keeps paying her blinds and folding. She calls on the river with poor hands quite often, so despite the distractions, she is welcome at the table. She gets into several arguments, including whether she can use the phone at the table. Talking on a phone at the table is against the rules, but I don't want anyone to do anything to make this player leave.
Another strange thing that happens three times is that a player asked to see another player's losing hand after they mucked it. Here's how it works: Player A shows their hand, and Player B, knowing he is beat, mucks it without showing. This is typical. But any player that was in the hand can request to see the mucked hand. While legal, it's very antagonistic and no one likes it when that happens to them. So thing are very tense for awhile.
Then a new player comes who claims to be a dealer, but he won't say where. He is a big guy with a shaved head and goatee and looks like someone you don't want to mess with. But you can't judge a book by its cover, and inside that hard exterior is an even harder interior. His speaking voice is practically a shout, and he is sitting on my immediate right, so whenever he talks I almost jump out of my seat. He makes a lot of rude comments about the play of others and is one of the players who asked to see someone's mucked hand.
I chat with a few other players. One is a teacher from Salt Lake City, one is a kid from Ireland, another is a kid from New York. There is a very diverse crowd at the WSOP. There is a friendly older gentleman at my table for about 4 hours, and he turns out to be the father of Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari. Antonio comes over and chats with our table, and is a very friendly guy.
Antonio "The Magician" EsfandiariI don't get many decent cards, so I am up and down a bit, although never below my starting amount, and I quit around 3:30. Then I used the quarters in my pocket for almost 3 minutes of enjoyment at video poker.
Tomorrow's tournament starts at 12:00. The satellites should start at the same time, and this is a very good time to play in the satellites, since presumably the good players will have already won some satellites and be playing in the tournament. I'll play in a satellite or two, and if it's not going well, I'll probably play in some cash games, since I'm a better limit player than no-limit player anyway. It is now 4:30 AM (6:30 AM at home) - time for bed!
- schneid
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