I tagged along with a buddy to Vegas for a “Free” $300,000 blackjack tournament he played in this past weekend at the Mirage. I stayed out of the pit and played the $2-$5 PLO across the street at the Venetian. He didn’t last long in the free roll to which his host had invited him, busted out of the main event at the Caesars WSOP-C post haste, found his way to the pit and gave me the following souvenir:

Jon in Oklahoma/Dallas writes wrote in a few months ago:

I really enjoy the website and checking it daily to see what’s going on in the poker world. A dealer at the winstar casino in oklahoma told me about it. I’m from oklahoma, but now live in dallas. I’m not sure if it’s newsworthy, but on friday jan 2nd, at the Firelake Grand Casino in Shawnee, OK, my table hit the Super Bad Beat Jackpot, which was quad 8’s or better beaten, and it was up to about $91,000. The winner got 18,000, the loser got 28,000, and the table share was $6,500. It was pretty amazing…after playing in casinos for about 4 years, i thought i’d never hit a bad beat.

Thanks

No, thank you, Jon. And thank you to the WinStar dealer for introducing us to you. Seriously … sounds like it was an amazing hand.

(I do kinda like the split, though.)

Virginia Heffernan, a tech writer for the New York Times, has an article about online poker appearing in this Sunday’s The Times Magazine. Heffernan seems to have been hanging around some poker forums and found the self-pity of the “bad beat” story to be worth writing about. (She also refers to 2+2 as a “funny poker site.”)

An excerpt: 

Whether or not poker interests you, the bad-beat story is a form to study; everyone needs to know how to tell one. It’s an especially useful genre during a recession. With its combination of numbers, magic, hunches and statistics, the bad-beat story furnishes a nice range of narrative devices to frame a lament about losing, while making it crystal clear that the loss wasn’t your fault.

The article is much more thorough than it appears at first, going from the start of online poker in the late ’90s to Chris Moneymaker to the recent scandals at Absolute and UltimateBet. It gives the Times Magazine readers a nice overview of online poker, with one big, notable exception — Heffernan never once mentions the UIGEA (or the fallout). The overall tone of the piece is that online poker is a normal, legal activity. 

While there’s no new information for Pokerati readers, it’s a well-written article worth reading just to see how the NY Times is presenting online poker to the masses this week. One more time, here’s the link:

“Flop,” by Virginia Heffernan, The Times Magazine

First off, let me tiltily say I’m a little pissed at Tom, who paid our election bet via PokerStars. Granted, I told him that would be fine … after all, Tom is different from most people in the poker biz, in that he likes to pay off his debts as soon as possible … but as a non-frequent casher-outer on Stars, I didn’t know I couldn’t withdraw these recently deposited funds for 48 hours.

Total bullshit! Though I still for the life of me can’t see how this is any different from transferring funds via TD Ameritrade, it’s not cool to know these winnings are still at risk! I mean my goodness, an extra chunk of cash, right there just a few clicks away from games bigger than I usually play? How on earth could any reasonable degenerate be expected to resist?!?

The set-up below: I had been playing at this table for 15 or 20 minutes … started with $200, and my stack was at its session peak when the hand began. While my first mistake was probably even just being in the hand, this was 6-max NL, baby! Am I wrong to think this is a game of trying to out-felt each other? Grinding is for full tables, and limit … I knew what I was doing here.*

Ugh. So greedy. What’s even worse is pocket 9s is pretty much what I put him on … possibly the nut flush draw, but probably pocket 9s or 10s … even before the river hit. When it did, I quickly assessed the sitch and decided he didn’t have the straight flush, but then I just pretended that 99 also was unlikely. Pretending can’t generally be the right move. How hard, really, in wild-crazy shorthanded NL, should it have been to just call his first bet on the chance that he did indeed hit his two-outer?

* As I say this stuff, I really do believe it, but it really just doesn’t sound like it should be right.

Textual hand history below:

More…

Warning: What follows is a bad beat story. If you have an aversion to such tales (like I do), please skip this post.

I was playing very well on PokerStars this eve, so I decided to try my new-and-improving tournament game in their “Nightly Seventy Grand” — a $50+5, $70k guaranteed … with about 1,300 players, 198 get paid.

Though I made one mistake that cost me half my stack, and one fold that was correct but woulda worked out in my favor, I was still in good chip position (about 230thish with 735 or so remaining) and my head was in the right place. No tilt factor … knew to be patient and I’d get my hand.

I had already begun thinking about the glorious post I would write upon taking down the $12k first prize — and accepting in my mind that odds were still against my actual winning, so this would more likely be a battle to see just how deep I could get into the real money — but instead I got a reminder of why poker sucks “tournament pro” must be such a terrible way to make a living.

Click below for the complete textual hand history. I can’t stop thinking about it — about an hour and a half later. I’m pretty sure I played the hand itself as right as i could (pushing all-in preflop with Aces), so all I’m left with are regrets over the hand I misplayed an orbit or so earlier. Those extra chips (I was in the top 25 at the time) probably woulda been enough to push RoryClan83 and his 44 out of there, and even if not I’d still have been alive after my Aces got so painfully double-cracked.

Instead, I gave the dumbass my distinguished opponent from Del Boca the ammunition to kill me.

(He would go on to finish in 100th place, paying $105.)

More…

Just got back on the grid and playing electronic catch-up … here are some of the things that are making good browser viewing, but not quite stimulating a full-fledged post:

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

photo: Jackie Endsley
Putting your last dollar toward a bad-beat jackpot may not have been the best career strategy for this guy.

Audio

I got a call yesterday at the WSOP from the Butler. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple months — not since me and my jiu-jitsu coach and heavy metal teacher got booted out of our sweet pad (pool table, poker table, dart board, 65-inch HDTV, Strip-view bedroom, fireplace/jacuzzi bathroom, no utilities) on the Eastside. We of course knew all was headed south when the Butler — the guy who set the whole housing arrangement up — walked into our casa unannounced to do a cocaine deal, and shortly thereafter got busted by The Boss (who owned the house, in theory, though not on paper) for stealing rent money.

(I met the Butler last year at the WSOP, as he was trying to sell his private concierge services to poker players and convince me to turn him into a recurring character on Pokerati.)

Anyhow, so I got a call from an unknown 973 number yesterday that I answered in the press box. “Hey, Dan, it’s John. Are you at the Series? How’s it going?”

“Um, uh, pretty good? We’re just getting rolling … so what’s up? Did you make it to Kansas City?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good. I’m calling because I need a stake.”

“Yeow, dude … can’t help you out. Wouldn’t know how to get you money if I could.”

“Western Union.”

“Sorry, man Have you tried Tom? His number is 602-97… .”

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Damnit, where’s my head? I guess I went on tilt when I folded away a $700 pot. I had K-J (with a jack as the top card on a no-straight, no-flush board) and folded to an all-in from Mr. iPod Hoodie Happy Feet. He showed me Q-J.

Tight is wrong! That or I shoulda thought longer to keep him on the hand I put him on on the flop.

Two questionable all-ins later (one of which fell victim to a three outer) I find myself down about $500 and some change. Have already put a call in to Goldfarb to talk me through this mini-meltdown.

Four what, you ask? Since coming home from the WSOP I have had four of my worst live-action, cash poker sessions in a long time. All have been 40+ BB losses. Sure, I have had losses this big in the past…in fact I expect to have one every once in a while. You can play perfectly and they will happen. I never like them…and its not much fun having them come all within a 10-day stretch.

I came home from the WSOP with the plan of rebuilding the portion of my bankroll that was expended in tournament buy-ins over the past two months. I was counting on the super-juicy $40/$80 and $60/$120 limit hold ’em and mixed games at CA (Casino Arizona) to do the trick. I’m not off to a good start. There is a $1,000 buy-in tournament at CA on August 18, limited to 450 players with a guaranteed $250,000 1st place prize. I am planning on winning, so that just might get me even for the series.

I have always kept perfect records of every session of casino poker I have ever played and whenever I have an especially brutal run, I have found comfort in being able to reflect on the bottom line. As long as I can boot up the spreadsheet and see black ink, I can remind myself that I am a winning player. Individual losses hurt, but it’s one long game.

Partially inspired by a recent Fresh Princess post, BeyondTheTable’s new producer, Sit-n-Go Steve, and I decided to settle our long running fued over who is BeyondTheTable’s true heads-up stud. I understand that there are more characters in the BeyondTheTable cast, but a recent BTT episode featured Dan admitting to squandering his ENTIRE online bankroll in heads-up SnG’s while hopingly chatting with on the phone with his female ex-tolerator. As for Tom,… well… it’s been a while since he’s seen heads up action. (Tom, unlike Dan, my ribbing is intended purely for motivational purposes Yeah, that’s it).

The Players: F I2 O G G Y (Karridy, duh.) -vs- Raistlin32
The Prop: Online heads-up, Best of seven.
The Bet (Summary): Loser will wear a sandwich board, created by the winner, for 30 minutes at the intersection of the winner’s choosing.

More…

TUNICA RESORTS, MS (thanks Poker Shrink) — First, let me say the Gold Strike has the nicest looking poker room I’ve seen so far, and the friendliest staff. Now normally I don’t play rebuy tournaments because they draw too many sucking out donks and the real play doesn’t start until after the rebuy period is over. But what the hay, I’m on (poker) vacation. Entry fee, two rebuys and a double add-on later ($120 total), I’m sitting in the big blind (1,000 with 75 ante) with about 5,000 chips (under average) when a guy in late position raises to 3,000. I call with A-7 suited, the flop misses me, I go all-in and the raiser calls me — with A-4 offsuit! He also has hit nothing. Yes, he was priced in but why did he raise in the first place? Because this is a non-deep-stack, quick-blind-structure sitch, like so many poker tournaments all over.

Compounding the problem is the weirdness of the rebuy structure. Let see if I can explain it without writing an encyclopedia. First hour, you can rebuy as many times as you like: $20 for 1,000 chips if you get below the initial 1,000 that cost you $40. Or if you bust out, you can buy 1,000 for $20 or 2,000 for $40. Then at the hour break, you can add on 2,000 chips for $20 or 4,000 for $40. Correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like the thing to do is not even show up the first hour (or play extremely carefully) and take the value add-on(s) at the break.

Back at the hand: You guessed it. The raiser sucked out, hitting a straight on the river.

NEXT UP: More gambling. No, not poker but a trip to “beautifully restored” downtown Tunica.

ALT HED: mannysbadbeats.com

LAS VEGAS–Fawcett is out — he couldn’t have played AK worse, in my respectful opinion — Troy is hanging on at about the starting stack … you can find plenty of good coverage at PokerBlog, and in the meantime, I’m about to go on the radio. Click here to tune in to “Bad Beats” w/ Eddie & Brad on AM-1300 The Zone in Austin.

Show starts at 7 pm central time.

LAS VEGAS–Be sure to tune in to “Bad Beats” on AM-1300 The Zone in Austin. I’ll be going on the air in about 20 minutes (7:05 pm CST) to talk about what’s going on at the WSOP. (If only I knew!)

Also, Eddie and Brad, what’s up with your near non-presence on AM-1300’s website? I swear, sometimes they treat you like second-class citizens there. I’d say it’s probably because you are only about poker and there are very few Longhorns at the final table, but really it probably has more to do with Eddie’s being black. Seriously, like you’re not even listed in the line-up. When you go to company parties, do you have to drink from a separate water fountain?