Life as a professional poker player has been a massive learning experience, of which the strategy and theory is only a small part of the process. You have to learn how to LIVE as a poker player …

My story was a cross between the last two situations. I lived in Los Angeles for about 4.5 years, trying to make it in the music industry. I play the drums but I wasn’t looking to perform; I worked in promotion, representation, marketing, and other behind-the-scenes type of endeavors. I spent a very brief time working at the William Morris Agency. For those of you who are Entourage fans, it was very much like Ari Gold’s agency… except nobody was filming it and it wasn’t funny. Really super intense environment. My last actual job was with a very cool, very small marketing agency. The main problem at that place of employment was that some projects that were supposed to come through for me to be working on, didn’t. Thus I was left with a light work load at a company where a sizable portion of my income was commission-based.

For most people, this would be really bad. I was loving it, however, because not only had I discovered online poker, but after a couple years of being a fish, I started to take the game (and my game) more seriously. I was reading hand discussions on poker forums and my results were showing. I had lots of time to read and think about what it takes to be a successful poker player, and after swearing to a strict bankroll management system, I started to move up the stakes ladder. When my boss wanted to have a meeting to discuss a more freelance type of business relationship, I was all for it. I had started at the micro stakes of online poker, and climbed my way to the $5/$10NL rung, being very comfortably bankrolled along the way.

So what the hell am I doing grinding live $1/$3NL games now, you may ask? As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and as I’m sure just about everybody knows, life as a professional poker player is a massive learning experience, of which the strategy and theory is only a small part of the process. You have to learn how to LIVE as a poker player, and that is something that I feel I’m getting a better grasp of these days. I feel like I’ve found myself in a groove, having booked a win in 11 of my past 14 cash sessions as a result of some nice rungood mixed with what I hope is some good, patient play. Tournaments continue to confound me but what can you do. So long as I’m paying for the buy-ins via cash game wins (and not taking tournament tilt to the cash table!) then eventually the tournament gods will be forced to smile upon me. (Right?)

My uptrend could be summed up nicely by some hands from my Halloween day session. Having been sick all weekend with some lame virus and a 101+ degree fever, I had no time to shop for a costume. Thus it only made sense to throw on the cowboy hat that was part of a costume I wore a couple years ago, added some shades, and made my way to the Caesars poker room. Somehow nobody realized I was in costume and I’m not sure what to make of that, but whatever. First hand I’m dealt in my $1/$3NL game: 55. A middle position raiser makes it $15, I call, and we’re heads up.

Flop: 7h7s5h

This is an above average flop for my hand, in my opinion. My opponent checks and I bet $15, an amount that I almost never bet and that I hope looks weak. It seemed to have worked as my opponent promptly raises to $40. I see no point in raising, and call quickly.

Turn: 5c

This is a decent turn card for my hand, in my opinion. My opponent decides to check and I assume he’s probably given up. I quickly say “check’s good!”

River: Js

My opponent apparently has not decided to give up and quickly bets a handful of chips, which turns out to be $55. I pause for a bit, saying a silent prayer to the poker gods hoping that they blessed my opponent with 77, which would trigger the mini bad beat jackpot that Caesars runs, and make it $155. But my opponent quickly mucks his Nothing. I show the quads so that I can get paid the extra $100 in bonus high-hand money. This is an above average first hand to start my session, in my opinion.

Time went on as I played underneath my cowboy hat as the only player in costume in the entire poker room. Soon I picked up 99 and opened for $12, which only the Canadian in the big blind calls.

Flop: KsTs9s

For some reason my Canadian opponent announces to me that he has no spades, and then checks. I bet $20, and he calls.

Turn: Ad

My Canadian friend now leads out for $50, and I’m not sure what to make of him, really. I could see several made hands taking this line, at first worried about additional spades coming off on subsequent streets and now betting for protection. I decide to just call.

River: Ac

My opponent bets $50 again. It looks pretty weak and blockerish/valueish, but I’m not sure what a raise would accomplish at this point. I really don’t see him calling with a straight; I guess he could call with a flush but it seems unlikely as well. I just decide to flat the river and my opponent announces he has nothing.

I win some hands and lose some hands over the next couple of hours and nothing really noteworthy happens aside from more people sounding surprised when I tell them I’m in a costume and in no way am I really a cowboy. I go to a new table when mine breaks and work on my folding technique for a while. The final interesting hand develops when I raise 5h6h to $14 from under the gun. A decent young player on the button calls as does the big blind.

Flop: 5c4s2c

I couldn’t ask for too much better of a flop and after the big blind checks, I bet $25. The button makes it $80 to go, and the big blind folds. We’re relatively deep at this point; he started the hand with approximately $550 and I cover him. I have the best hand here a large percentage of the time. The times I don’t are when he flops a set or two pair (less likely with me holding a 5), has a slowplayed big pair… and not much else. To me a flush draw just seems like his most likely holding. Being deeper stacked I don’t really like reraising and decide on a call.

Turn: 9d

I check and my opponent checks. His check basically confirms my initial read and now he’s taking the free card.

River: 5s

It’s a great card for my hand but I can’t just fire into what I perceive as a missed flush draw, so I check to induce a bet. My opponent kindly obliges with a $120 river bet and I snap call. He announces Q high and I scoop the $440 pot.

I played a couple more rounds before calling it an end to my session and booked a $1050 win; a really nice $1/$3NL Halloween session. Seeing as how none of my fellow poker players at Caesars decided to dress in costume that afternoon, and I at least needed to get a fix of some Halloween madness that evening, I walked across the street and perched myself on the Margaritaville balcony: the quintessential people-watching spot for such an evening. If you’re a Halloween fan, I highly suggest coming to Las Vegas at least one year in your life, solely for the people watching. It’s pretty epic. The venue wasn’t even playing Jimmy Buffet tracks on the outdoor speakers, so my rungood must’ve spilled outside the poker room.

When a person decides to leave a job for the life of a poker player, the scariest thing is not having a guaranteed paycheck. That stress remains at the top of the list throughout a career, and it’ll remain there for me. It’s funny, you jump head first into this profession looking forward to the excitement of doing what you want, whenever you want, for the chance to ride the rollercoaster and do something different with your life. As time goes on, all you crave is some consistency. But you can’t have it both ways and I’m just happy to be on the sunny side of that hill for now. Hopefully I’ll stay there for a little while and if so I’ll be jumping back into the $2/$5NL waters sooner than later.

I’ve torched a lot of money being irresponsible … Vegas definitely has a way of seeping into any crack in your guard wall and blowing it wide open.

If you think that low stakes live poker games tend to be pretty soft, you should check out some of the tournament series that are running this month and next around Vegas.  You’ll see things that will make your head shake and leave you feeling good about the future of poker and its draw to the casual players.  However, these are tournaments we’re talking about, which means you’re a bit handcuffed in regards to how much manipulation of tourists you’ll be able to partake in compared to the cash games.  The structures for a lot of the events are pretty good, but variance is still a bitch.  I won’t go into detail about some of the ridiculous beats I’ve taken over the past week to send me on a walk of shame toward valet.  I’m gonna keep plugging away though with a healthy mix of the series, and cash games when there isn’t an event to my liking.

After I busted out of the AVP tournament at MGM last Saturday, I couldn’t help but notice a plethora of tourists all over the property with Hawaiian shirts and leis on, tropical drinks in hand.  I asked a dealer what type of nonsense was being celebrated in Vegas this weekend but she didn’t know either.  I recalled reading a story about the Margaritaville Casino opening that weekend, which would be attached to the Flamingo.  I don’t know if Jimmy Buffet himself was in town for this grandiose gala of tackiness and vastly overrated music (I fucking hate Jimmy Buffet) but there were a hell of a lot of his fans about.  I decided that I needed to just get it over with… Even though it was basically just a section of the Flamingo, it was like there was a new casino on the strip.  I’d have to go walk through the damn Margaritaville Casino.

I parked at O’Sheas and made the walk across the drive, where there had been set up “the world’s biggest margarita” and entered Margaritaville.  I guess they plan on playing Jimmy Buffet music in there 24/7, which is expected, and which also means I may never go back.  I took a look at the It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere Bar, threw up in my mouth a little bit, and decided to go check out the poker room at the Flamingo, hoping some parrotheads (zzzzzzz) would spill over.  It was actually pretty quiet when I sat down, and all of the players seemed surprisingly sober.  That is, until this guy sat down and instantly announced (slurred) a bounty on another dude at the table:

Here was your standard tourist enjoying himself and who knows how many free drinks, and once again he had found a way to plop himself into my game. It’s a scene that is set nightly in one card room or another around Las Vegas and I almost always find it entertaining in some fashion.  But it really got me thinking. When I look back over my past 3 years playing poker, there are a few leaks I can point to.  Not having poker-playing friends for a long time to really dissect hands and strategy has definitely hindered my development as a player.  I now have some great friends that I can go to anytime I want input, but I wonder where I’d be if I had a coach when I started.  Boredom at the tables is also up there on my leak list.  If I’m card dead, I have to constantly remind myself not to make stupid plays with stupid hands just to keep myself entertained.  But if you want to know what leak has directly cost me the most money, it’s not even close.  That would be playing after drinking.  It’s pretty embarrassing and really dumb, but I’ve torched a lot of money being irresponsible, both online and live. In the past I was really good at grinding up online bankrolls, moving up through the limits with proper money management, and more than once, bombing my account after coming home from being out all night.  I blame myself entirely but Vegas definitely has a way of seeping into any crack in your guard wall and blowing it wide open.

I feel like a very different poker player now than before I took a couple months off.  I’m more patient and things seem clearer.  I obviously will always have leaks and losing sessions but I’m taking more accountability for my own actions and focusing on just playing well. If the cards would cooperate in one of these tourneys that’d be spectacular, but until they do I’m just gonna keep grinding away.  And even though I still love drinks with friends and you may even catch me with a beer at the table once in a while, I plan on leaving the majority of the in-game indulging to my tourist opponents.  As fun as that can be sometimes, these days it feels better to just pick up the pieces when they shatter themselves with Q7o vs your TT on 553T8:

We had high hopes coming into the 2011 football season but to see them run out to a beautiful 4-0 start is outstanding. And the Tigers are up too! As I write this they currently hold a 2-1 series advantage over the Yankees after stealing home field advantage in NYC. One more win and they advance to the next playoff round. Life is good these days for my hometown teams.

Little did I know that the hole would only grow bigger and deeper as the day went on, culminating with me somehow losing with KQ vs 55 after c-betting a K-6-4 flop. I booked a 4-figure loss and called it a day.

As for me, I find myself in a nice little losing streak. Four straight sessions of posting a loss has me feeling not so outstanding. I’ve been playing for about a week and a half since the end of my two-month break and even though my returning session at Red Rock didn’t go so swell, I was able to shake it off and recoup the loss pretty quickly. I put in a two-session day, booking a win at the 1/3NL game at the Palms followed by a small win in a short Bellagio 2/5NL session. In between sessions I drove out to Summerlin to root on my girlfriend as she ran a 10k race. (That’s kilometers, not thousands, for you lazy gambling degens.) The next day I went back to the Palms and won a little more than two buyins in the 1/3 game.

With my confidence back and really feeling excited to be rounding the Vegas cardrooms again, I made my way to the Bellagio and jumped in a 2/5 game. The table makeup seemed to be what I expected for a Monday afternoon game, consisting of some older gentlemen, your standard well-dressed Euro tourist, and maybe one or two decent youngish players. I was dealt into my 2nd hand when one such youngish player put a straddle on and it somehow folded all the way around to me in the small blind. I looked down at AdKs and raised it to $35. The straddler called.

Flop: Qd-Jd-8h

It’s a super wet board that my opponent could have connected with in myriad ways. I c-bet $45, though, because A) I have equity against lots of hands, B) I don’t want to give up the lead and allow my opponent to take the pot with a worse hand when I also get some better hands to fold, and C) I don’t want my hand to be face-up. My opponent calls.

Turn: 8d

It’s unlikely that this card helped either of us, and since I have the lead and additional equity with the nut flush draw, I bet $85. My opponent calls. At this point he seems most likely to have some sort of pair/combo draw hand, and I’m unlikely to have the best hand at this point. But I have several options available going into the river.

River: Ac

This looks like a good card to me as I assumed it unlikely my opponent would be drawing to a straight on a 3-flush and paired board. I’m beating most pair/combo hands and I can go for value, hoping my opponent views me as betting a scare card. I bet $105 and my opponent calls rather quick. I show and he goes to do the same, which is never a good sign, and reveals the AsJs. His flop call is standard and he made a good call on the turn, knowing what I knew regarding the 8 being unlikely to change anything.

So while we both played the hand well and it was relatively standard, that put me in a hole right off the bat. Little did I know that the hole would only grow bigger and deeper as the day went on, culminating with me somehow losing with KQ vs 55 after c-betting a K-6-4 flop. I booked a 4-figure loss and called it a day.

I was able to put in three wins out of my next four sessions, stepping back down to $1/2NL and $1/3NL to lick my wounds for a while. I think it’s important to not feel like I have to immediately win back what I lost in a particular session, especially as I’m still finding my groove again. I put in a long session at the Pokerati PLO/NL game — damn it was good to see 4 cards again — and though I was stuck early, I grinded out a modest win. I followed that day up with another win at the Palms, but that would be the last of my winning ways for the next 4 days. Tonight I even discovered a way to lose after getting all-in on a Qc8s2s flop with 22 vs KcQs.

I’m heading to Michigan this weekend for a college friend’s wedding and am really looking forward to getting out of Vegas for a long weekend. Hopefully I’ll be watching the Detroit teams continue their winning ways with my hometown compadres. You know what else I’m looking forward to? When the days of this Full Tilt drama are behind us and I can possibly picture someone finding this blog interesting instead of salivating in anticipation over the next bullshit press release.

(The shorter version of that story is “I went broke.”)

I was making too many mistakes away from the felt and living a lifestyle that just wasn’t sustainable on my “salary”. I definitely wasn’t going super crazy or ballin’ out of control by any means. But similar to the way a small preflop error can compound on itself and become a large, costly session-killer, smaller mistakes away from the tables can quickly add up and drain a poker player’s bankroll. This shouldn’t be news to any poker player, but when you live in a city like Las Vegas and you like being social and experiencing what the city and life itself has to offer, you have to constantly check yourself.

I look down at 6s7s for my first live hand in two months. Forget that I’m in early position, I can’t help it… the suited connectedness was overpoweringly sexy.

The two biggest realizations I had during my time away were my need to stay humble and my need to stay balanced. Humility has multiple benefits: you’re happier with less, you’re less wasteful, and you end up appreciating important things such as people’s company more than, say, an overpriced cocktail from a tourist-trap of a casino bar. Don’t get me wrong, drinks with friends remains one of my, if not my number one, favorite pastime. Have you been to the Mandarin Bar inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel at CityCenter? Phenomenal venue. But pricey. It’s for sure one of my favorite spots in town, but it’s just a bad idea to spend a large amount of time there drinking $22 glasses of wine. Although you do get complimentary Wasabi peanuts and other snacks with your cocktails. And the restroom is beyond tranquil. Anyway…

I needed the hiatus to show me how unbalanced my life was. I was spending too much time in the casino and around the Strip, putting in too many hours on the grind and draining myself of my alertness and my desire to play well… and my results showed. Balancing your “real” life with your poker life is more important than balancing your 3-betting range. I found a real appreciation for Summerlin, which for those of you who don’t live in Vegas, is a suburb with real grass and trees and, like, only a couple casinos. Just getting away from the madness is essential to staying fresh and keeping my mind interested in what I’m working on and want to excel at. I’ve also been hitting the gym much more regularly over the past couple months, and plan to continue that. I’ve always been a pretty slim dude and have no intentions of winning any lifting competitions, but just seeing some type of results in that department and feeling more fit in general can only help me be happier both at and away from the tables.

Another thing that I really want to start focusing on is finding a way to incorporate some sort of charity into my playing career. I have a couple different ideas and will probably write another blog with more thoughts on this and how it came about.

I don’t mean for this to sound preachy, and a lot or all of it I’m sure has been said before in poker forums and other players’ blogs. I’m not saying you, the reader, should be doing more of this or less of that. In fact I usually have a tendency to think that most people are better than me at all sorts of things in life. I’m just trying to better myself and hopefully putting it in writing will hold me accountable.

So with newfound poker/life weapons in my arsenal, and being super fresh, I was obviously going to crush my first session back from hiatus. I cruised over to Red Rock and got on the short list for $2/$5NL, and jumped in an open seat at a $1/$2 in the meantime. I was stoked to be back in action and my nerves reminded me of when I used to live in LA, when I had a “real” job, and would drive to the Hustler Casino with a gameplan in mind for that night (lol fish). I’m immediately dealt in and I look down at 6s7s for my first live hand in two months. Forget that I’m in early position, I can’t help it… the suited connectedness was overpoweringly sexy. I limp, and a middle-aged Asian fellow in middle position makes it $8. I call after the small blind comes along too.

Flop 8h5s4h.

Unreal. The poker gods had clearly foreseen my return to the ring and arranged a special ceremony in my honor. The small blind leads out for $10, I flat, and the original raiser makes it $32. The small blind calls and it’s time to jump out the window. I make it $90 with the nuts, to which the Asian man asks for a count, and decides on a call. The small blind practically flashes his cards to the entire table and does in fact tell the entire table that he guesses top pair is no good here, and finally folds.

After the dealer half-heartedly does his duty of reminding the $1/$2 players to not talk about hands in a multiway pot, he places the 2h on the turn. This is far from my favorite turn card, especially after the way the Asian man had asked for a count of my flop raise. But I only had a half-pot sized bet left behind, and after all, this was my ceremony, hand-delivered from the gods themselves. I waste little time in moving all-in and the Asian man wastes even less time calling with the nut flush.

And just like that, on hand number one after a two month hiatus, I am reintroduced to the ultimate emotional rollercoaster that is poker.

The imminent talk-and-text ban on the Las Vegas Strip and across Nevada will not only have a notable impact on 10s of thousands of local lives … but also gives a good microcosm look at how a bill may or may not become a law. Stuff to think about as we watch the next push for federal online poker legislation this fall.

Online Poker Logic
When I first heard about a “distracted driving” bill in Nevada, I was immediately concerned about lives lost and unnecessarily put at risk my future as a photographer of mildly amusing and sometimes pokery license plates. Though I have obtained many of these images with a handheld calling device while driving on Nevada highways, fortunately, using online poker logic, I’m sure I can find a lawyer who will tell me I’m totally in the clear.

The criminalization of “distracted driving” relies on what really is a rather poorly written bill (in parts); nothing makes it specifically illegal to play mobile cameraman so long as I’m not trying to live stream video while driving … and the law as written really is about the transfer of voice and data over handheld devices — and manually connecting to the internet — not about capturing Twitpics on a handheld device for later distribution on the internet (in a car with automatic transmission).

You know, gray area.

But perhaps most important to my defense … I still have a 214 area code, so even if I were to transfer voice and/or data “illegally”, it wouldn’t be taking place in a Nevada jurisdiction. Right? Unenforceable, obv. All that and Twitter is a game of skill.

Technology & Government Control
The Las Vegas-to-Reno mobile phone ban goes into effect Oct 1, with fines of $50, $150, and $250 coming into play Jan 1, 2012. Just a little bit of prison time (6 years max) if you happen to kill someone.

Personally, I believe the law is too far-reaching in how it gives police authority to determine a driver’s mental acuity. And kinda lame that cops are allowed to talk and text on the cell phones while driving — suggesting that all the safety data quoted to pass this bill mighta been kinda bullshit, no? Either that or law enforcement safety is less important than mine.

But regardless, check out this provision:

7. For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed not to be operating a motor vehicle if the motor vehicle is driven autonomously through the use of artificial-intelligence software and the autonomous operation of the motor vehicle is authorized by law.

Holy crap, we have that!?! If fully legal bot cars coming aren’t reason enough to legalize online poker now, well, OMG, I don’t know what America I’m living in.

#ThatsPolitics
Read the lineage of how SB 140 came to be. (Final bill text here.) This is for just a little bill, on the state level … It took three sessions, two governors, and seven individual bills for Nevada to become the 34th state to enact such a texting ban — one that in the end would be strengthened to include a ban on handheld phone convo, too.

Funny thing is … in the time it took to get the bill to the Governor’s desk, a new study came out with data showing that these laws don’t actually work, and in fact have had the opposite effect — increasing crashes and fatalities in three out of four states.

A little poker gossip because sometimes in serious times we like the petty …

Melanie Iglesias vs. WPT (and QuadJacks?)
The guys at Quadjacks have called it “Flushgate” — and reportedly have received quite a bit of wrath from non-poker types over “the abrupt resignation of three Royal Flush girls” — 2010 Maxim Hometown Hottie winner and now MTV personality Melanie Iglesias, Michelle Banzer, and brand spankin’ new RF girl Mica Javier, who had only been on the job for a few weeks. The purging all went down last month right around the time of press announcements for the World Poker Tour’s new Season X … ooh, juicy! You could almost be certain somebody was gonna cry, if not more formally cry foul.

Catpacking in AC
We can only imagine how cut-throat that world can be — where looks absolutely are tied in with your success. Call us old-school here at Pokerati, Melanie is great and all, but she’s still no Lacey Jones, who recently did a lingerie photoshoot with power-model Katerina Van Derham. Meanwhile, here’s a new video featuring Lacey and Maria Ho helping Christina Lindley pick out a dress for her birthday party at the Borgata in Atlantic City this weekend … and New Jersey celeb-hunter Michael Berman interviews this threesome, being dubbed “the Cat Pack” here for the kickoff of WPT Borgata, where there may or may not be openings for three new Royal Flush Girls.

Auction Player?
Speaking of old school, Phil Hellmuth appeared last week on the A&E show Storage Wars — advising a group about strategy in their game of swag auctions, which apparently involves a combination of luck and skill. Not too familiar with that show … when do we get to hear someone say to Phil, “Going, going, gone!?”

Dealer’s Choice: From Poker to Pot
A relatively unknown poker player named Jim Rice is representing poker (whether he likes it or not) and pot on Survivor 23: South Pacific. Supposedly a pal (and business partner?) of Paul Wasicka’s, the 35-year-old from Chicago is now a medical marijuana dispenser in Colorado (woot!). His most recent cashes include a 3rd and a 23rd on the Heartland Poker Tour, this year and in 2008, respectively. And now with online poker more illegal than selling weed (in some US jurisdictions) … makes you wonder if certain poker pros would rather be Jim Rice or Jean-Robert Bellande.

Jack Black Rising or Falling Poker Celebrity?
There’s always new Hollywood celebrities getting in on poker — and hosting a charity tourney is often their first foray into niche hero-status and/or business opportunity around their personal poker addictions. Could Jack Black be the latest? The last-place finisher in the WPT’s 2009 Hollywood home game is hosting a charity tourney next month at the Commerce Casino in California, but otherwise still has much to prove before he becomes the next James Woods, whom you may recall back in 2004-05 kicked off his effort to become the Adam West of Poker.

Vegas Living: Closing Down Blush
The luxe but laid-back “boutique” nightclub Blush, at the Wynn, is closing after a four-year run. Ahhh … I remember this “ultra lounge” as the site of multiple VIP poker parties and the place where upon moving to Vegas I met a guy who explained to me the process of importing women to the US for a life of hooker-dom before having to excuse himself to go sell coke. But perhaps more famously, Blush is the place where Antonio Esfandiari “lost” a game of who’s got bigger ballers to Kobe Bryant — with the NBA star supposedly racking up a $21,000 champagne bill that had celebrity and sports media mocking some poker player being called “the magician” … even though he somehow got Kobe to pay for the last 15 bottles of Cristal.

Meanwhile, @KobeBryant’s Twitter account got suspended last week, and @MagicAntonio’s, who had a surprisingly similar number of followers, did not.

Would love to know who has “POKER” … and whether he’s had it forever or acquired it for a premium post-Moneymaker or even post-Jamie Gold.

The big one that didn’t get away.

TRICAT (not a poker player) says the driver of this notably American semi-luxury SUV was an “average 50something white guy” talking on his phone … but he got away before she was could get a clear shot of whoever it was who’s tagged himself with poker everywhere he goes. Drat! But oh well …

I’m thinkin’ Mike Sexton? Bobby Baldwin? Someone who doesn’t drive himself to the WSOP?

And Brunson reports — via the often unreliable Twitter — that he got paid his Full Tilt balance of about $150k … in a way that suggests Lederer is either going door-to-door making payouts (perhaps tidying up affairs before he has to “go away”?) or possibly just living out of his car …

ToddBrunson

He asked how much I had on tilt and I told him 150k.. He said come with me. We went to his car and he opened his trunk and paid me!!!!!! 23 hours ago

ToddBrunson
Look who I just ran into.. I told him the wsop killed me and I was cash short…… http://lockerz.com/s/121600156 23 hours ago

Either way, the stress seems to be doing Lederer right, physically at least, as the previous poster boy for the well-fed high-stakes “poker body” seems to have shed a few (dozen?) pounds around the saddle.

Persona non grata: You mean you haven’t been paid yet? Have you submitted your W-9?

And while it would be nice if someone really did get their Full Tilt balance refunded … it can’t be an ideal structure for payouts when they’re happening out of the trunk of a car, even if it is a $250k Audi.

Doyle said to have been buying up Full Tilt dollars at a discount

Meanwhile, since we’re relying on Twitter here … this seems as good a time to pass on a “rumor” that I feel confident enough about the source — someone inside Bobby’s Room — that it might reveal why Brunson’s father, Doyle, has been extra sour on poker as of late.

Supposedly, a few weeks ago, Doyle was playing in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, and he was tweeting about his slaughter of Billy Baxter. Soon, talk shifted (off-Twitter) to Full Tilt’s money problems. Brunson reportedly said he was confident they intended to pay, and believed they eventually would … and with that began buying up Full Tilt accounts for about 60 cents on the dollar. Can’t confirm the exact amount he purchased … but the kinda money that people playing in the highest-stakes cash game in Vegas might have on Full Tilt Poker.

The next day, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended Full Tilt’s license, effectively shutting the site down indefinitely.

I picked up KK in the first orbit of NL in late position, raised and picked up the blinds …

While at the dealership today I read through 944 magazine a bit.  If you happen to live in a city that 944 covers, and you like going out, doing stuff and checking out new things in your city, I highly recommend picking up a copy. I also highly recommend they pay me for this advertising I’m giving them but that’s probably not going to happen. There are always so many things changing in the city of Las Vegas–new restaurants, DJ appearances/residencies, happy hours, special events–that it is nearly impossible to keep up.  It’s fun to try though, and it’s obviously tough to get bored here.

After VW, it was that time: 7pm on a Thursday, which means Pokerati 1/2 PLO/NLH at the Palms.  When I got there around 8 there was a full game up and running and Danielle was already on the waiting list.  It took about 15 minutes before we had enough people to start a second table.  Pretty impressive, I must say, but not entirely surprising.  The half-and-half nature of the game is just so much more interesting and entertaining in my opinion, that I think you’ll eventually see it spread elsewhere more regularly.  This coupled with the fact that the WSOP is in full swing means there’s no shortage of players around.

I picked up KK in the first orbit of NL in late position, raised and picked up the blinds.  That was pretty much the only hand of note for me before this one: we’re playing PLO 9-handed and there’s a button straddle.  Danielle limps, Randy Dorfman limps, I look at Ac Kd 7c7d and limp along.  The pair is on the low side in this hand that I don’t love, but I do love the AK double-suited and want to bring in lots of players that I dominate suit-wise.  Pauly limps, Merchdawg raises in late position to 20.  I immediately put Merch on QQxx or JJxx or something similar at best, just by the way he raised combined with my A and K blockers.  All of us limpers plus the button call.  

Flop Ax7s3s.  

It checks to me and thinking back I kinda like leading in the hopes of Merchdawg bluff raising, but I checked and it ends up checking through.  I was definitely going to check-raise a c-bet from Merchdawg and go with it if he reraised, assuming he has a flush draw.  The turn brought an offsuit 8 and it checked to Randy who bets pot (120).  I took a quick look around the table to gauge other people’s interest and there didn’t seem to be much.  If there was I would’ve shoved for 130ish more.  As it is, Randy is never folding whether he has draws, a set, or two pair, and I figured flatting gives him a chance to bluff at a blank river, whereas I could possibly get away from a river spade based on my read.  I’m not sure, that could be flawed.  The river is the As which looks like gin to me.  Randy pots it and I call all-in for less.  AT98 is good, Mr. Dorfman.

I just decided to bail after that.  I’ve been getting pretty pounded for the majority of the past two months, with a couple highlights here and there in between.  It’s really not that much fun, I must say, especially now that we’re smack in the middle of the WSOP when all poker players hope to be reaching the peak of their run-good.  But what can you do?  I never have that moment of agony when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, and I get to play cards every single day, if I so choose.  So it could be worse.  I could’ve been driving a car with fewer safety features that one night in West Hollywood.

Mindset, mindset, mindset! It’s a common buzzword around poker, and with each calculated risk/reward scenario being played out inside the inner workings of the brain, there’s no doubt that a poker player’s mindset is important. If you haven’t cleared your head of hang ups, fears, negative habits and weak confidence, you just won’t go far.

But your head is attached to your body, and if you haven’t put consistent effort towards taking care of your body, your mind will be less likely to cooperate. That doesn’t have to mean running marathons or lifting weights. There are things poker players can do without dramatically altering their routines that can improve the chances that your mind will be in the right place at the right time. No matter what your current level of fitness, here are 5 simple ways for poker players to keep their bodies in gear throughout the WSOP:

Hydration
Half your weight in ounces of water is the general rule for “enough water” and if you drink that much you’d miss more hands than it’s worth with trips to the bathroom. So here’s the tip: Just drink water. Drink your energy drinks when you need them (notice “need them”, which is not morning, noon and night) and lay off the soda, alcohol and anything that’s not water.

• More water = improved blood flow (blood is thinner) = more oxygen to your brain = clearer thinking and improved focus = less stress

Sleep
Please, no less than 7 hours. You need sleep. You need good sleep, and to get good sleep, you need a routine. With long nights of poker it can be hard to hit the sack at the same time so have an end of day routine regardless of what time that may be. A few things you do everyday to wind down. Let your body get off the poker track and actually relax so you’ll come back with a clear head for the next round.

• More sleep = rest from the stress of playing = improved mood, patience, focus

Movement:
Your body was not meant to be still for extended periods of time. During breaks, get up and purposefully walk around. Those are seriously long hallways inside the Rio. Walk two of them, there and back, and I’d bet you’ll hit at least a ½-1 mile. If you can, go farther and workout at least once a week.

• Movement = blood flow = more oxygen to your brain = clear thinking and improved focus = less stress

Breathe
Sitting hunched over the table doesn’t give your lungs much room to expand. If you breathe shallow, you circulate less oxygen and trap toxins in your blood stream that need to get out. Every hour consciously breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth for 3 breaths.

• Conscious breathing = more oxygen to your brain = clear thinking and improved focus = less stress

Fuel
When you’re under stress — by definition any situation that makes your heart rate and blood pressure change without warning — it affects your digestion. You need fuel (aka food) to keep going and help you recover. Two simple food rules that will ensure your body gets the nutrition it needs:

1. Avoid fried food or fatty food (fatty= pizza, red meat & cream-base such as ranch dressing; fried= french fries, chicken tenders with heavy batter, and most things that leave heavy grease stains behind)
2. Eat 1 fruit and 1 vegetable at least once a day (and more if you can)

There’s no quick fix. It takes a combination of behaviors before a mindset emerges that leads to a consistent lifestyle. Poker players are athletes, albeit non-traditional ones, and if you don’t start treating yourself as such, you will find yourself losing a competitive edge to those who do.

From PokerGrump on the 215, presumably returning home from the WSOP:

And here’s one seen in a fast-food drive-thru, across the street from Casino Dealer School, sent to us via @KBBMT:

Like this one on a Trailblazer making a (non-legally binding?) statement in the VIP Poker area of the Venetian parking lot:

Some people around Las Vegas, of course, are keeping lower profiles than others:

Poker media asking the tough questions:

Those who’ve read Lost Vegas may recognize the “Redneck Riviera” off to the left … westbound on Trop a few lights away from the Strip. Pauly called this fortress of blight and putridity home for two months during the 2005 WSOP. It’s also near where I began tailing this fine imported automobile with a driver clearly driven by poker:

click to zoom in.

I wanted to follow close enough to grab a shot of the plate with the school bus rolling past the Adult Superstore — caption contest maybe? — but traffic sped up and I missed the shot … and before the Clark County school kids would pass the next porn outlet, Pocket 8s+Broadway would turn into the Orleans … leaving many to wonder about the role of education poker in bridging the rich-poor gap as seen in Las Vegas neighborhoods surrounding the Rio.

(Of course it is, but surely that can’t be a silver main event bracelet he’s wearing, right?)

This video was shot at MGM yesterday, about 9:30. (That’s the lion attack exhibit in the background.)

Again, without saying this is for certain any one specific person who has never been formally accused of any crimes yet still finds himself living something of an OJ Simpson retirement … Hamilton has apparently resurfaced from poker exile in the Nevada amateur pub leagues and has been showing up at the MGM about once a week for the past month or so to in put in some hours on the low-stakes grind.

(Check it out, pretty much the same type of crumpled visor Hamilton wore in the notorious Raw Vegas vid.)

Supposedly this player was noticeably a bit tilted by the lingering camera, and quickly got up to put his name on the 2/5 list as “RR”.

UPDATE: RH said in ’08 he keeps his bracelet in a safe, only to be taken out for the World Series. Thinks obviously coulda changed since then, but that was his answer almost three years ago. [Video interview]

John K’s blog, interesting, well-analyzed poker-tinted life stuff from an accomplished Vegas grinder still trying to get there: [JK's Blog]

Pauly, on a site not about poker, on a documentary about Mad Men culture, and why it’s better to be a creative person than a suit. [Tao of Pauly]

Wonk out with your Donk out … our friends at CardRunners have set up a site monitoring legal developments in poker. [Poker Law Bulletin]

Corny T-shirts, designed by women poker players for women poker players at family picnics and in ladies events. [PMS Pokerwear]

A rap album all about poker — Portland, Maine, represent! (PokerRapper]

Yo, turns out Jeff Madsen was right about 9/11 all along, obv. [The Onion]

With apologies to Wicked Chops for my poor tournament PLO skills creepy zoom-lens camera-guy results … take your pick, er, I mean pic:

UPDATE: Van Halen now … off of Diver Down. So really, how much should you bet when you flop middle set on a draw-heavy board, against one big stack, and the other player a shorty? Now KISS … you can see where this is going, right? Nirvana next.

(Think he’s bluffing?)

Then I saw the plate and thought, pfft, dude we so already got that one … but it is a nicer pic, I guess. Just an iPhone, really?

Then I went back to the original post about this specific license plate, also spotted at the Rio during the WSOP, shortly before the main event … and WTF?

There’s gotta be a story here, if not a dead body or at least a prop bet …

Though presumably not involved, the West Virginia variety of this plate original is here.

UPDATE: Or Panorama Towers. Word is the ride belongs to Jeff Madsen.