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My 2011 Oscar Predictions!

Date: Sat, Feb 26, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I just made my 2011 Oscar Predictions! Make yours with the Official Oscar iPhone App.

Please keep in mind, I think I've only seen 5 of the movies nominated. See if you can name the 5. With two kids and a Mrs...Oscar caliber films...are they on the outside of a Happy Meal box? I didn't think so.

Short Film (Animated): Day & Night, Teddy Newton
Documentary (Feature): Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Short Film (Live Action): The Confession, Tanel Toom
Documentary (Short Subject): Killing in the Name (I chose this one because that's a kick a$$ song from Rage Against the Machine - like I've seen a short documentary not produced by employer this year...geez),
Film Editing: The Fighter, Pamela Martin
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Sound Editing: Tron: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Foreign Language Film: Biutiful, Mexico
Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Sound Mixing: True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Makeup: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Actress in a Supporting Role: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Animated Feature Film: How To Train Your Dragon, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Music (Original Score): How To Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Visual Effects: Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland, Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): True Grit, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Music (Original Song): I See the Light (from "Tangled"), Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
Cinematography: True Grit, Roger Deakins
Costume Design: Alice In Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
Writing (Original Screenplay): The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington &
Best Picture: True Grit, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Directing: True Grit, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

http://bit.ly/d7ZWc2

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Well that was fun - Multi table Rush On Demand

Date: Tue, Feb 22, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

Just finished playing my first multi-table rush on demand tournament on Full Tilt. Now granted, it was a $1 tournament, but it was definitely stacked with really bad players.

I've on again off again success playing rush poker. Some of my biggest wins and biggest losses have been at the hands of this cruel game played at warp speed (exhibit A, exhibit B (one of my favorite posts)) In many ways, this played like tournaments of old. Lots of people making completely unbelievable bluff, a lot of tight wads waiting for aces, people attempting to steal from the little blind, etc, etc..

It would have been fun to win this, but it just wasn't in the cards.I'll take this 4th place finish and probably try one of these again. Have you tried these? What did you think?

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Repeat after me, Lagavulin

Date: Tue, Feb 22, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

For February, the Bourbonatorswere treated to a Single Islay Malt Whisky aged 16 years by the Lagavulin (pronounced Laga-voolin) Distillery of Scotland. For us yanks across the pond, this makes it a scotch. The name Lagavulin comes from the Gaelic Laggan Mhouillin, "the hollow where the mill is". Interesting things you find on these boxes.

It is said that this is the oldest legal distillery to still exist in Scotland. I took the liberty of looking it up on a map and briefly considering making travel plans to it's home. The box described it still having 4 onion shaped stills. The box goes on to describe even more picturesque details of it's origins, but really, I'd go back for the whisky. Let me explain.

The host of this months meeting was hoping I'd be able to stop by the liquor store on my way over. Not really a problem because I drive right by one...if I leave home on time...ya right.

I was in a bit of a rush to get there. Good thing I know exactly where the whiskeys are kept. This particular store doesn't have the greatest variety in the world, but it's got most of the majors covered and usually has room for a few rarities.

I've really been in the mood for DoubleCasked lately. Probably the Balvenie from a few months ago. The first employee to ask me if I need help was a nice young girl I was willing to bet had absolutely no idea what fine whiskey was. I told her I was looking for a new whiskey we'd not drank before that would be as good if not better than the Balvenie and also DoubleCasked. I've seen that blank expression in people before. She was, without a doubt, completely clueless. She just smiled and asked another employee walking by. A nice young man, she asked him, "Do you know anything about whiskey?" To which he replied, um, no.

"Don't worry guys, I'll be ok," I told them. It's really not a big deal to me. I don't expect that on the last minute on a Friday night that there's a whiskey expert in a liquor store.

I went back to reading boxes. I probably should research this more than I do, but that just wouldn't be my style.

The manager comes over and asked if he could help. He said he was quite familiar with whiskey. I said sure and told him what I wanted. We had a budget of $80 and I was really thirsty for a DoubleCasked whiskey that was as good or better than the Balvenie.

He point to the bottle of Lagavulin and said, "I'll bet none of your guys have tried this and I think they will all be very happy with it."

I looked at the box, then the shelf. I replied to the manager, "I'm not a real math whiz, but I'm pretty sure that with tax, the $84.99 price tag is still over $80."

"Well, let's just see what I can do about that." We walked over to the checkout and he hit the computer. Typing and clicking and typing some more. He put down the mouse and looked up at me and asked, "Is $79.18 with tax gonna work?"

Again, I'm no math whiz, but I do believe that falls below the $80 mark.

"Sold!" I said.

Wow. Was I glad I got this. It was FANTASTIC!

The nose had that smell ofcreosote that Cam tells me is from the peat. The smell isn't all that great, but the taste was really quite exceptional.The tasting notes from the web site describe it as:

Palate: Dry peat smoke fills the palate with a gentle but strong sweetness, followed by sea and salt with touches of wood.

For me the balance of all that made it work. Nothing was really "too" much. It wasn't too smoky or sweet. It was smooth all the way. The light burn of the 43% alcohol was hidden by the linger of it's flavor. Nom nom.

There seemed to be aunanimousagreement that this bottle was worth it, even if I was late. I will send a big thanks out to the manager at Apollo Northwest Liquor. He made an excellent recommendation. We will be back!

If you are interested in more information on this, I found the wikipedia article very interesting as well.

As for the poker. I was the grand master of coolers...receiving them. Oh well, I was conforted by the warmth of this amber nectar.

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Updates to the whiskey blog and me scratching my head

Date: Tue, Feb 15, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I've got enough drafts/notes for posts to flood this blog if only life came with more time. Sigh. I've been busy working on some stuff for my whiskey club's blog. I've added two pages, one that lists all of the whiskey's I have records for (posts written here and photos on my phone...memory will fail me on this every damn time) and the other for our poker points. I should probably write something up someday explaining poker points...hm. Better add that to the queue.

In case you were wondering if I actually play poker any more, the answer is an emphatic yes. I still love the game. I played poker at the bar just tonight. I knew it was going to be a rough night when one of the guys tells us he just wants to get done early. Guess who turned into a lucksack. Friggin' people with places to go. His play did make me question something. I felt like there was something fishy.

He kept claiming that he really just wanted to lose his chips so he could drive toSiouxFalls to visit his girlfriend. I realize this is completely free, donkey poker, but this scenario kept happening. There was one guy at the table that he routinely called a raise from. Now this guy was fairly tight/aggressive. He seemed to have read a few poker books and was well versed in the ones he said he read. The action would be the tight guy would bet every street and the dude needing to leave would call only to fold the river claiming he was on a draw. If he played anyone else at the table, he would play like he normally does. Raising when he hit something, almost anything or he slow played me once when he flopped a boat. He did shove J6o into two large raises, kinda dumb...of course he won them and proceeded to send more chips to the aforementioned guy.

At free, donkey bar poker, I really can't imagine why anyone would dump chips to another player. It just struck me as really odd that he'd play complete spewy to one guy, but aggressive and tight to everyone else.

Things that make you go hm.

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How many times have you asked the poker gods?

Date: Sun, Jan 30, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I don't know how many times I've asked the poker gods to let me flop quads. I know, calling from out of position with medium pocket pairs is stupid, that's why I checked! Plus, 3 other people were going to see this flop so why raise, out of position with 9's?

He bet into me every street too until I was all in :)

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Trip Report 5: Roller Derby at the Riviera

Date: Sun, Jan 23, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

It would appear I took a bit longer of a break then I had planned, getting to the last of my trip reports. You know, it happens. It's friggin' cold here and sitting at a computer writing isn't...who am I trying to kid. I played some poker, hung out with the wife and kids playing Uno, I even played a live cash game at the neighbors house. I took a break. Felt good, now back to the story.

You will remember that I busted 13th in the blogger tournament at Aria. Felt good to go deep, sucked to just miss the money by a hair. I thought hard about sweating Drizzon his journey to win the whole thing, but a few months earlier, StB, Katitude and PokerVixen had talked me into getting tickets to the roller derby. I had only ever seen it on TV, so a live match could be a lot of fun!

I left Aria with about 30 minutes to the start of the derby. I normally don't carry a long lens with me without a purpose while in Vegas. They are heavy and big. So I needed to get from Aria to MGM to get my lens and the zip as fast as the monorail can take me to the Riviera on the other end of the strip. Uff. Thankfully, I seem to now my way around the strip like a pro and new to walk quickly from Aria to MGM, dart through the casino avoiding all the tourist pitfalls, up the elevator to the suites, in my room, grab the lens, look longingly at the bed and dream about sleep for a second, then back down the elevator, race through the shopping and food court, thinking about how hungry I was and calculating the time it would take to get food...nope, too long. Hop on the monorail and wait, and wait, and wait.

The MGM and the Riviera are on opposite ends of the train. Sigh. At least there my iPhone was there to keep me busy. Except, at this moment #ATTFAIL was in full affect and my service sucked. VinNay had been texting me, interested in attending the roller derby, but alas, my phone sucked. Data worked, but texting was a nightmare. He ended up doing something else anyways, but damn AT&T.

I get off the monorail at the Las Vegas Hilton. For some reason, I remember the terminal being a lot closer to the Riviera then it was. Could be, I'm pretty much a dumb ass and went the long way, but the nice alley I chose eventually got me there. I really don't recommend taking unknown, poorly lit roads devoid of humans when travelling in Las Vegas. It's really quite creepy and a tad on the scary side. I coped with the situation by cranking Rob Zombie's More Human Than Human and run/walking most of the way there. You know, it might have been really safe but I'm from a small town in Minnesota. I just assume I look like an easy mark.

It took me a while to find the back ballroom hosting the Sin City Rollergirls. The Riviera is what I like to think of as Old School Las Vegas. It's got a lot of glitter, but the smells and the sights are like out of the movies from decades ago. The carpet is really something to behold.

When I arrived, it didn't take me too long to find Kat and PokerVixen. They had pretty decent elevated seats and reserved a nice cushion for me to rest my butt. There was food at the venue and I hadn't eaten since the breakfast at the MGM the previous morning. These burgers weren't spectacular but they did hit the spot.

Seems the Sin City Roller Girls were battling the Hoover Damned. You just have to love the names in roller derby.

I sat with these two fine ladies and enjoyed the action. I really had no idea what was going on, but the ladies helped me out. This is definitely an experience worth checking out. I'd really like to go back next year, hopefully with a faster long lens and a monopod. The following are the shots I got. I'll give some description when necessary, but for the most part, I'll just leave you with the pictures. They do a far better job then I can of sharing with you the night at the derby.

This following little dude provided us our half time entertainment. In case you can't tell, he did a nice little dance rendition of Michael Jackson.

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Like I need another blog

Date: Fri, Jan 21, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

Well, we officially have a for real blog for my whiskey club, aka Bourbonators. To help things along, a few other members will be posting as well cuz we all know I need more blogs. If you are interested it's here: http://www.bourbonators.com- stop by, ask questions, ponder coming to a meeting.

Next meeting is tonight and I've set up emailing posts...which could be occurring while we drink. This could end poorly.

Cheers.

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PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 742766

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Pot Limit 5 Card Draw - How I blew 45 minutes

Date: Mon, Jan 10, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I brought up Facebook tonight to see what's happening in the universe. That's a lot of silly games people play. Full Tilt has been running a lot of freerolls and overlayed tourneys lately starting from social networkingJuggernaut. I figured what the hell, the kids and OhCountess went to bed early and I left the Apple TV up in the bedroom.

Tonight last minute, impulsive tournament was 5 card draw. I outlasted well over half of the field and even got a short railing from Mr. AlCantHang. I sure hope he's enjoying the weather up here in God's Country.

Um, kay. I haven't played this (5 card draw) sober since, um, since, um, since...well, I'm not sure I've ever played 5 card draw sober. A few months ago,inaugural Gambling Tales Podcast Freeroll Champion DeeBakes had talked me into playing Deuce to Seven Triple Draw.I had a good time and walked away thinking about stuff. Not life stuff, or profound stuff, but poker stuff.

I liked playing these obscurer games because the remind me of something that seems to bealludingmany of the players in the tournaments. The fundamentals of solid tournament poker.

First rule: Know your position. So many players forget the value of position. I haven't found a game yet where position doesn't matter.

Second rule: Know what you are drawing to/trying to accomplish. Drawing to a gut shot straight draw is crazy gambling in any game. If there are more cards to come, have a plan, count your outs, understand what your opponents are trying to do. In 5 card draw, the number of cards a player chucks is important. Think about what kinds of hands a player stands pat, draws 1, 2 or 3 cards. If they don't shove a lot and draw 1, they are probably drawing. Again, reference rule 1 for how and why to remember this. The more cards make your hand a monster, the more valuable it is. 2233 is two pair but only drawing to 4 cards that make it better.

Third rule: Hammers are still cool and should be played like the proverbial nuts. Er, maybe not.

Forth rule: Never play a hand with a 9 in it. It's neither high nor low. Unless you have a lot of them, 9 high/low sucks in all games.

Fifth rule: Stud 8 sucks. (That's my opinion. It's another way of saying, don't expect to make money at games you suck giant monkey balls playing)

Sixth rule: luck, while a part of the game, doesn't win it. You can bet every street, shove every hand but eventually, luck loses to well timed aggression.

Seventh rule: on the word aggression. When you appear strong, raise. When others continually behave weak, bet stronger. No variation of poker rewards the weak, passive player.

Eight rule: while you can't win if you fold, folding and conserving chips can be a very valuable way to stay alive in a tournament. I remember hearing something from Annie Duke, a woman, once said about tournaments on line, (it went something like this, my memory is poor and I don't remember where this from to even look it up) "...a lot of the time, you can just let the weaker players impale themselves on your chips." While this sounds contradictory to the aggressive, not weak thing, this is also important to remember that when a less skilled player is trying to be aggressive, let them do the raising for you when your hand rocks. They don't mind and are really quite good at it.

These rules aren't colorfast and probably aren't even useful. Some (most) are just the ramblings of an overtired geek, but I think this can definitely spur on some conversation. What are your thoughts on rules that transcend games? Why is it, that the more experience I have playing poker, I find learning variations a little easier? Do you really think you can honestly say, your puppy is cuter then mine? (Shameless plug for my photoblog, almost doing the JJOK always link to yourself thing...but I'm only a D lister...)

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Knowing when to play the hammer

Date: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

I think I picked the wrong time to lay down the hammer preflop. What was I thinking?

Congrats to my friend DeeBakes! He won the Gambling Tales Podcast freeroll the other night! Here's his recap. Head on over and congratulate him.

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Mookied I Did

Date: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

Played the Mookie. Saw old friends. Lost all my chips. (LB)A2 vs (BB)32. A33 flop. Sigh.

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Trip Report 4: The #WPBT Winter Classic Aria featureing a Group Photo

Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

Saturday morning had arrived in Las Vegas. Back in Minnesota, my wife was struggling through one of the worst snow storms we've had in a very long time. The furnace intake pipe had gotten plugged with snow, twice. She was so snowed in, a neighbor in a 4 wheel drive had to take her to work. I honestly had no words for her. I felt terrible sitting in a hotel room, in Las Vegas, enjoying the mid 60's for highs. What could I do? Funny thing, I couldn't even fly home if I wanted to. The airports were all closed.

I pretty much just spent the morning hanging out in my room, watching some cable news and playing some online poker. Stupid I know, but there comes a time when a guy just wants to enjoy the quiet.

The tournament was scheduled to start at noon at Aria. I was really excited to see this place. It opened the day after I left in 2009. Some of the local bloggers had really good things to say and Phil Ivey's Room was there. How cool is that?

Aria and City Center aren't really all that hard to find. They basically define huge. The walk there from MGM isn't too bad. I was hoping to get there early enough for the poker lesson, but that didn't happen. Kinda bummed about that. I did swing by the Louis Vuitton shop for a little motivation. Not that I'd ever want anything there, but I told my wife that if I won the tourney, I'd stop by there on my way out to get her a little something. She just laughed.

The walk into Aria isn't completely finished from the Bellagio side. You are walking around TheCosmopolitanwhich I believe open THE DAY AFTER I LEFT (I smell conspiracy). When I finally found something with Aria on it, I also ran into CKwhich was good. She gave me directions to the card room. Aimless wandering could end.

The night before had pretty muchdecimatedmy cash supplies. I learned a valuable lesson about modern casinos. The ATM's are label "Coupon" something. I guess it makes sense they want you thinking about cashing out rather then getting more cash.

The card room really is beautiful. It's not quite as secluded asCaesar's but it's not sitting next to a live band. Whew.

Lot's of bloggers were already there. Here's Dawn.

Joe Speaker relaxing the day after golf. Like the zen :)

On the left, you can see my bounty, a photograph I shot when Kat was in town circling the lakes with her hubby. I think I actually took this photo when we were down to two tables. I have a habit of keeping my bounty in my bag until someone asks.

My starting table, to the best of my memory, had CaityCaity, VinNay, Avoque, PokerGnome, ThisIsNotApril, PokerVixenand I know I'm forgetting people and some of these might have moved to our table. Very sorry about that. I had a notebook.I failed to use it.Sigh.

I felt really good going into the tournament. Structure seemed excellent, the staff of the Aria Poker Room were outstanding. I had an excellent mix of players. Team Skol (Drizz, Mattazuma and myself) were all wearing our purple with pride.

Gnome was on my left. He was schooling the table in tight/aggressive. I was trying to stay in that range. I seemed to keep an average to slightly short stack all day. Which is better then no stack. There weren't many memorable hands. I remember the first time I took my bounty out was for CK. I was shortish and moved in. I was definitely in a could be stealing position. I think I had KK, so I wanted a call. She folded, the bounty not quite enough to get her to do it. Maybe next year I frame something bigger.

I had a lot of fun with every dealer. As soon as someone new would sit down, I'dapologizefor the table. Just in case. I didn't want to forget to do it. You never know with this bunch.

My big lucky moment came when I shipped it in with QQ. Special K called with AJo. He had been on a rush for a while, accumulating chips. When the flop came ace high, I grabbed my camera bag and started standing up. I hate that feeling when you see the flop hit that ace. Ugh. Now you are on a two outer. Vindication in the form of a resuck filled me with much joy when the third queen came on the river. I got the queen and didn't even use my "ONE TIME!" yell. Gotta save that for the final table to the Main Event.

There was only a few hands I really regret. One had BuddyDank raising and this old guy next to me (he was someone's dad. Don't remember who) moving all in. I looked down and found 44. Not a great hand, but I was in the little blind and it was starting to get really expensive. Buddy had been his usual nit/aggressive and the old guy had a really bad habit of show me his cards. I did see this one, but every time he'd shoved before, he showed me his ace. I was at best in coin flip. Of course, I would have flopped a full house and busted both of them. I don't know if it was right to fold.

Something that was weighing on my mind about then was the Luckbox Last Longer Challenge. Drizz and I were both still in it. Matt had busted 70th and we were still in the running. Ugh. Metagames. Drizz also had to be two to my left at that time. Double Ugh.

My run would end in 13 place. I think I had J9o in early position. The blinds were just about to put me in the too short to do anything range so I had hoped to get one more steal in before the jump. Shellywas also short and found AJ. Why did it have to be AJ. AQ would have been so much better. As it turns out, not only did she get my photo, but she also got the little bottle of Wild Turkey from ebhizzle, got from me, that I got from VinNay and he got from Dr. Pauly. Very glad it went to someone that loves a good tradition! See ya next year! (Maybe we need to talk about getting it mounted. Just a thought)

With my demise, Team Skol was still in it. Our champion, Drizz just need to go a little deeper. I know I probably should have stayed, but I had tickets for the Sin City Roller Girls with Kat and PokerVixen. I had just enough time to get to the Riviera to catch most of it. With modern technology, Matt stayed behind and kept me posted with Twitter. Now, going into the tournament, I was already stuck $250. This tournament added $135 to this. Uff.

The #WPBT hashtag was filling with people talking about the chop. It was a big one. Drizz negotiated it well and Team Skol ended up 3rd in the last longer challenge! $58 dollars in cold hard cash and $200 in PokerStars money! That makes me slightly less stuck! Woot! Woot!

I know there's stuff I'm forgetting from the day. I got a feeling there's gonna be an odds and ends posts filled with all the crap I've forgotten.

I'll share the pics and stories from the roller derby in my next post. Now, it's time for something I know a few of you have been waiting patiently for. Before the tournament April was kind enough to get the poker room manager to delay the tournament a few minutes and take a group photo! You won't see this many bloggers together in one photo all that often. We had 97 paid entrants in the tournament. Several photos were taken. Large group shots are much like herding cats. You just never get everyone together, smiling and looking shart at the same time. The two pictures seemed the best.

If you would like a copy of one of these without the watermark and with better resolution, just drop me an email at the link above. Up on top where it says "Contact Information". If you click through them, you will see a larger version. Normally, I hope people send me an email requesting permission to use my photographs in their blogs. I don't think I've ever declined a request. I just like the courtesy of being asked. You don't need to do that for these two photos. They are for you. You can still drop me an email to say hi :) These should be on Flickr in the next day or two.

WPBT Winter Classic 2010

Still to come, Roller Derby, Lagasse Sport Stadium and a photowalk I won't soon forget. Stay tuned!

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Struggling with frustraion

Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

For being a subscriber to Card Player magazine, I get these regular emails, the Card Player Newsletter. Now usually, I read the Pro Tips and move on. I get the hard copy of the magazine so I'll usually be reading it later. This one caught my eye. A tip from Thomas Marchese:

It really has to do with patience and not getting frustrated. With live tournaments you are really playing in just a few, even during the course of a year. It is just about playing you're A-game as much as you can until you run good. Everyone is going to run good at some point, so all you can do is play your best consistently and you will have better results eventually. Thomas Marchese

Ain't this the truth. I find staying in my A game to be about the hardest thing to do. It becomes increasingly hard when you are trying to focus with kids, a dog, a puppy, a job, a life, just trying to get a slice of your attention. Getting the good run of cards is something that just seems so far away.

I really think my biggest struggle with this game is just this. Staying in my A game.

How do you stay in your A game? Are you able to get away before your C game kicks in? It might just be time to read Elements of Poker, by Tommy Angelo.

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Trip Report Part 3: The Neon Museum and more flushing sounds #WPBT

Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 Internet Live Tournament

So basically, parts one and two got you through Thursday. What can I say, there was a lot to Thursday.

Friday started the way Fridays usually start on this trip. Very slowly and please, for the love of Pete, keep it down. There are headaches among us. It's not like I really slept a lot. I think the total for the night was 3 hours. Weee!

So my credit cardreceiptsshow me as having breakfast at the buffet at MGM. This matches my memory fairly well and a photo I took (shown on the right). Again, my company was really the highlight of the meal. Gracie, Pablo and BettyUnderground.

The food there was pretty tasty, but the service, well, we had to beg to get our check. When we finished eating, most of the staff were just standing around, except our waitress. No one knew where she was or interested in helping us find her. Bad, bad, bad.

I wondered over to the card room, still a bit shellshocked from the night before. I hate losing, it destroys my confidence. There's this new thing being dealt over at the MGM card room. It's called "Beginner Hold 'em". My poker dyslexia read it as "Lightly Breaded Fish". The one kind of seafood I like. It's regular ring hold 'em with a max buy in of $50 and set up as a 5¢/$1. I only had about 35 minutes to kill before we needed to leave for the Neon Museum, so what the hell? Pablo, California April and Shelly were in...

Really, if you need $15 quickly and know how to read people and play aggressively, this is your game. In 30 minute I made $15. Most of it just firing at pots no one wanted.

But I had places to be...

Kat was running into some logistical problems so it was up to me to find Mattazumaand his lovely lady down the Strip aways to catch a cab. The Neon Museum is on the other end of the Strip and by the other end I mean go past Downtown other end. It's most definitely a cab ride.

We played twitter tag until we finally hooked up at the taxi stand of Bally's. I had the address of the Museum and experience getting there, so the cabbie's lack of knowledge didn't stop us. Of course, we called ahead just in case to make sure they knew there was a good chance we might be light. We are bloggers and not terribly organized.

The first picture on this post is of the new gateway to the Neon Graveyard. The city invested in a very nice entrance. This is much improved over last year. Now the city dudes using the leaf blowers were a bit annoying, but I understand things need to get done. This was one indication to me that things were indeed moving forward on this place. Last year we were told that by this year, they would have a building ready. The building was still in the same shape as last year with the offices still across the street in a small office complex. Hopefully, their dreams come true soon. I'd love to be able to shoot at a different time then none or 2 PM.

This following picture is of our tour guide. She was most definitely a girly girl. Right down to the peroxide blond hair. Thankfully, she knew all the good stories to tell about the many pieces on display.

A probably should look at the white balance of this one. Seems a little cold. For some reason, I just love the layers of signs.

This dude is still here! It would be so awesome if he was moved to somewhere that made a better background. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until I get some better glass. The detail on this one is amazing.

Finally, the silver slipper. This is the first in a series of restored signs that the hope to place down the center of the Strip, a bit of nostalgia for us history buffs.

I'm still going through the pictures. A lot of stuff hadn't changed since last year so I didn't bother shooting it again. I still very much enjoyed the tour. She told a few new stories and hanging out with Kat and Mattazuma is always a good time.

When we were done, we shared a cab back to the IP. I was an easy monorail ride back to MGM. I figured I go back there, freshen up in the hotel room and get ready for a night of poker. Tonight was cash game poker.

After sitting on the bed in my hotel room, I noticed a hour had passed. Let this be warning to you new people. If you stop moving for a few minutes, be prepared to lose some time sleeping. It happens.

I cleared cobwebs out of my brain from the unscheduled siesta and headed down to the card room. I bought into the $2/$4 limit hold 'em game as per my custom. I've never been very profitable at these stakes, but they weren't spreading $3/$6 either. Shelly and April were looking for that as well.

I sat at the table all night. Shelly was there. Wolfshead, Jasper6294and a blogger I'd never met and didn't catch his name was there. Wolfshead was there when I got there and couldn't wait to get to a bigger game. I had fun tweeting that I could see him and was at his table. At that point, we'd never seen each other formally. Jasper was running with the gods and so was the other blogger.This very nice pharmacist from Chicago was sitting on my left, a cowboy on my right. The cowboy was a good, solid card player. Shelly was 3 to my right. The cowboy's wife was on the opposite end of her husband. I had nice conversations with the people on either side of me. I should the pharmacist my blog. She seemed to have a good time reading it on my phone. She also thought it was kinda cool I seemed to know tons of people in the card room. Hi fellow bloggers!

The night didn't go well at all.

Shelly mentioned it in her blog. she said I was "...getting kicked in the gut." Frankly, it felt like repeated kicks to the nuts with a "thank you sir, may I have another" coming from my mouth every 10 minutes. Let's see. I ran into quads, once while I was holding the big end of the full house, once were I flopped the nuts straight and they rivered it. My two pair was never good. AA lost to AQ. If I flopped the straight, someone would improve with runner runner to something bigger. It was some of the most miserable poker I've played in forever. I could tell bad beat stories all night. I really should have listened PokerGrump, "$2/$4 limit is impossible to beat. Don't even try." $200 lesson learned.

I will say this about the MGM poker room, there is a very good chance I will never play there again. This has nothing to do with the dealers, the players or any of the staff in the card room. My experience there was just fine. No, this comes from the fact that someone decided to place a live band right next to the poker room. There were times that night we couldn't hear the people sitting next to us. As for hearing the dealers, not a chance. They were yelling and doing the best they could, but the band was just too loud. To put icing on the cake, beside being loud, they also sucked and sucked bad.

At one point, a few of us were trying to figure out what the song was they were trying to play. Granted, I know nothing of country music, but this was indescribable. One guy finally cracked it. They were playing "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton. We had no clue. They were stumbling all over their instruments. Sad. I hope they pick a new venue next year for the mixed games. This was awful.

So, here's my degeneracy so far.