Before I write reports on Vegas and the WSOP like I said, I figured I'd go back and write about one of the older trips first. So this is our one-night trip to the Borgata back in May.
This trip involved myself, Gabe, and Vincent Kim, affectionately known as vk. We were spending the weekend up at vk's place in New York as a sending off for Geoff, since he was leaving for the Peace Corps soon, and we capped off the trip with a stop in AC for a night on the way back. Unfortunately Geoff and a few others present could not / did not want to go to Atlantic City with us. My goal with this report is to make them regret that decision.
So vk had to go to work on Sunday, so Gabe and I went ahead to the Borgata before him. Upon check-in, we tried to bring a cooler full of leftover beer up to the room. Unfortunately security stopped us and told us that we could only bring up 6 beers per person, and we couldn't have the cooler either. They actually had me pretty scared and I was like umm wait so are you gonna confiscate this?? They were like no just bring it over to the bellhop, take out 12 beers and leave everything else with them. So whatever, fine. So we went over to the bellhop, and there were two older women checking their stuff too. They asked us what we were doing and we explained the situation to them. They were like wtf, we'll take up some beers for you. And the whole time they were like "So the party is in your room, right??" Ha. yeah. So they took up some beers for us, and they jokingly told us that they'd come over at 2am. And, despite being a fair bit older than us, I thought one of them was pretty cute! Now if Gabe and I had ANY sort of game at all, we'd have maybe asked them what they were up to later, where they'd be partying, or seriously have encouraged them to come over as opposed to just laughing along like it was a joke. But alas, we don't. It also didn't help that the beers we happened to be carrying were cans of Miller Lite, and we had nothing else to go along with that. But whatever, there was business to take care of at the poker tables.
So we went down to the poker room, Gabe sat at his 2/4 limit game, and I sat at 2/5 no-limit. Now, those of you who have been to poker rooms with me, you know that NL cash games aren't my strength or preference... usually I play mid-limit games or tournaments. But as I was in WSOP training mode at the time, I figured NL cash games would be a good place for this, to try and get used to the deep stacked play of the WSOP. Anyways, I sat down with my $500, and actually managed to turn it into $1400 relatively quickly. The table wasn't all that soft, but there was just one huge donator who helped me out a lot, namely by being willing to call my pre-flop all-in with AJ against my KK, and both of us had just over a full buy-in at the time. What a rush that was -- even as a huge favorite the whole way, I was sweating every single card as I was staring at over $1000 in the middle of the pot. Fortunately my kings held up and I even rivered a set for good measure.
I think Gabe won in his game too.
So then vk showed up after finally finishing at work. It's probably about 9pm at this point. The three of us got some food, and then headed back down to the poker room for some shenanigans at 2/4 limit hold'em. It didn't take long for us to all get to the same table, and that's where the fun started. First of all, vk and I started ordering double JW Blacks. The best part was that after just two rounds, all we had to do was make eye contact with a hand raised as our waitress walked by, she'd nod, and our next JWs would be on their way. A+ for service.
The next part of the story revolves around Gabe. See, Gabe kinda looks like he's 13. Even though he is 21. And not 21 according to a fake ID, but truly 21. Well, Gabe got carded repeatedly that night. And this was nothing new, he got carded just for walking in the poker room at the Taj on a previous trip. But this time it just got completely out of control. He got carded signing up for a table, he got carded buying chips, he got carded taking his seat, he got carded ordering a drink. And then again and again and again. At one point the floor tried to stamp his hand to signify that he's in the clear, but the stamp wouldn't work!! So then a little while later, we're still playing, Gabe isn't even doing anything, and someone comes over to card him AGAIN. This time vk and I burst out laughing, as this is about the 10th or 11th time on the night. And THEN, the floor says they have to card the whole table now because vk and I were laughing!! ha.
Around 2am I run out of gas and head back up to the room. Apparently I missed a good 3-4 more hours of action though, including vk and Gabe playing craps, vk breaking a glass in the restaurant where they got a late night breakfast, and vk blowing cigar smoke in my face as I was sleeping.
Anyways, in the morning at check out, we went to the desk and asked them to tally all our comps and apply them to the room bill. I didn't expect it to be that much since you only get like $1-$2/hr at poker. But I did already have a reduced rate on the room for having played lots of poker, so the initial bill was like $60 instead of the rack rate of like $300. Then she added all our comps on top of that, spouted off a bunch of numbers, and handed me the final bill which said approximately $3 for the final total. Gabe was like, "Wait, what just happened?" And I said, "umm... I think you guys don't owe me any money for the room anymore." WHAT UP (almost) FREE ROOM AT THE BORGATA.
The End.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The Fallout
So it's been a while since my last update. A lot of that has to do with being back in school and not really having time to play.
But a lot of people have been asking me questions like, can you still play online poker, how can you deposit money, etc etc. And the big question: "How are you going to win a seat in the World Series of Poker again?"
So. Basically, the wording on the new legislation wasn't exactly straight-forward, and many sites are not interpreting it as a ban on online poker. However, PartyGaming did decide to back out of the U.S. market. A somewhat surprising move, since they were by far the largest online poker site in the world and basically had a death-grip on the entire market. With their departure from the U.S., the largest sites are now PokerStars and Full Tilt (where I won my seat this year). A few other sites have backed out too, but none that I really cared about (Paradise, Pacific I think, and some others). So at the end of the day, all this means is that I no longer play at Party, and the games at Full Tilt are better and more plentiful. Mainly these days I play at Full Tilt and WPEX, the rakefree site.
In terms of moving money around, the dust hasn't quite settled on this yet. There have always been numerous ways of doing electronic tranfers... but some more dubious than others. The two major methods of depositing/withdrawing money were Neteller and Firepay, which basically are just online wallets like PayPal (who unfortunately has never gotten involved with online poker so that has never been an option). As of now, Firepay has backed out, but Neteller is still around. It is uncertain whether they will remain an option or not, but hopefully other options will not be too difficult if it comes down to it.
As for winning a seat in the World Series of Poker in 2007, ok this will have to be a multi-part answer.
First let me address the report that Harrah's announced that they will no longer be accepting third-party registrations. This would certainly be bad. It would mean no more online satellites, which is how the majority of entrants get into the Main Event (including, of course, me). Phil Gordon on his Poker Edge Podcast said this would be a disaster to the tournament as it is, and we would expect a drop off in participation by like 500%. Then he spoke to a Harrah's representative, and the official word is that nothing has changed from previous years. Meaning that someone else can pay your buy-in, but you just have to go to the main booth to register in person, like we all did this year. So that is fine.
Second part is where will I do it. Well, luckily Full Tilt is still around. Last year I made attempts at Full Tilt, Party and Stars. I was very happy to have won my seat on Full Tilt, because they are by far my favorite site, and as I was required to wear their apparel, I wore it proudly since I like them. If I had won it on Party, I'd have worn it in disgust. Stars... I'm indifferent towards them. So anyways, this year I'll be going for it at Full Tilt and Stars I guess. Last year Rahul won his seat on Party, so hopefully he can do it at Full Tilt or Stars this year. We've made big plans of going #1 and #2 in the Main Event this year :)
Third part is... well, bankroll issues. Last year, when I made my attempt, I set aside $2000 out of my bankroll to take my shot. Which was what I feel to be reasonable fraction of my roll at the time to use on a longshot dream. ok so I got lucky and did it in $800ish, but anyways. The problem is that right now I don't even have $2000 in my whole poker bankroll. Thanks in part to not playing much as I mentioned, spending most of my roll in August/September, and then hitting a nasty downswing over the past week or so when I finally did start playing again (including a trip to Vegas which I'll talk about later). Anyways, basically I'm going to need to rebuild first, before doing anything frivolous like playing WSOP satellites.
Fourth part is again not really having time to play. Tournaments take a big chunk of time, even satellites. Anyways, the plan is that I won't really play any satellites until after my 1st year theory exam in June. In the meantime... I won't have much time to play otherwise either, but hopefully there will be enough time in there to rebuild some semblance of a roll again. Then after my theory exam, assuming that I have rebuilt enough, I'll spend the month of June on satellites (yes I realize this gives me only a month to win it :P). Hopefully by then Rahul will already have his seat and we can have all the reservations in place. And then if I get my seat, then I will join him. Actually I'd probably join him in Vegas either way :)
Anyways. That's all for now. Since I'm on break now and have some free time, I'll probably write a few more entries, on my latest Vegas trip, and also a WSOP 2006 report/summary.
But a lot of people have been asking me questions like, can you still play online poker, how can you deposit money, etc etc. And the big question: "How are you going to win a seat in the World Series of Poker again?"
So. Basically, the wording on the new legislation wasn't exactly straight-forward, and many sites are not interpreting it as a ban on online poker. However, PartyGaming did decide to back out of the U.S. market. A somewhat surprising move, since they were by far the largest online poker site in the world and basically had a death-grip on the entire market. With their departure from the U.S., the largest sites are now PokerStars and Full Tilt (where I won my seat this year). A few other sites have backed out too, but none that I really cared about (Paradise, Pacific I think, and some others). So at the end of the day, all this means is that I no longer play at Party, and the games at Full Tilt are better and more plentiful. Mainly these days I play at Full Tilt and WPEX, the rakefree site.
In terms of moving money around, the dust hasn't quite settled on this yet. There have always been numerous ways of doing electronic tranfers... but some more dubious than others. The two major methods of depositing/withdrawing money were Neteller and Firepay, which basically are just online wallets like PayPal (who unfortunately has never gotten involved with online poker so that has never been an option). As of now, Firepay has backed out, but Neteller is still around. It is uncertain whether they will remain an option or not, but hopefully other options will not be too difficult if it comes down to it.
As for winning a seat in the World Series of Poker in 2007, ok this will have to be a multi-part answer.
First let me address the report that Harrah's announced that they will no longer be accepting third-party registrations. This would certainly be bad. It would mean no more online satellites, which is how the majority of entrants get into the Main Event (including, of course, me). Phil Gordon on his Poker Edge Podcast said this would be a disaster to the tournament as it is, and we would expect a drop off in participation by like 500%. Then he spoke to a Harrah's representative, and the official word is that nothing has changed from previous years. Meaning that someone else can pay your buy-in, but you just have to go to the main booth to register in person, like we all did this year. So that is fine.
Second part is where will I do it. Well, luckily Full Tilt is still around. Last year I made attempts at Full Tilt, Party and Stars. I was very happy to have won my seat on Full Tilt, because they are by far my favorite site, and as I was required to wear their apparel, I wore it proudly since I like them. If I had won it on Party, I'd have worn it in disgust. Stars... I'm indifferent towards them. So anyways, this year I'll be going for it at Full Tilt and Stars I guess. Last year Rahul won his seat on Party, so hopefully he can do it at Full Tilt or Stars this year. We've made big plans of going #1 and #2 in the Main Event this year :)
Third part is... well, bankroll issues. Last year, when I made my attempt, I set aside $2000 out of my bankroll to take my shot. Which was what I feel to be reasonable fraction of my roll at the time to use on a longshot dream. ok so I got lucky and did it in $800ish, but anyways. The problem is that right now I don't even have $2000 in my whole poker bankroll. Thanks in part to not playing much as I mentioned, spending most of my roll in August/September, and then hitting a nasty downswing over the past week or so when I finally did start playing again (including a trip to Vegas which I'll talk about later). Anyways, basically I'm going to need to rebuild first, before doing anything frivolous like playing WSOP satellites.
Fourth part is again not really having time to play. Tournaments take a big chunk of time, even satellites. Anyways, the plan is that I won't really play any satellites until after my 1st year theory exam in June. In the meantime... I won't have much time to play otherwise either, but hopefully there will be enough time in there to rebuild some semblance of a roll again. Then after my theory exam, assuming that I have rebuilt enough, I'll spend the month of June on satellites (yes I realize this gives me only a month to win it :P). Hopefully by then Rahul will already have his seat and we can have all the reservations in place. And then if I get my seat, then I will join him. Actually I'd probably join him in Vegas either way :)
Anyways. That's all for now. Since I'm on break now and have some free time, I'll probably write a few more entries, on my latest Vegas trip, and also a WSOP 2006 report/summary.
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