Big Booms!

I've been extremely busy lately so I haven't had much time for cards. With that note I don't have much to say so instead I will leave you with some videos.


Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas


SANDS in AC


StarDust, Las Vegas


Aladdin Resort, Las Vegas


Boardwalk, Las Vegas


Landmark, Las Vegas


Hacienda, Las Vegas


Castaways, Las Vegas


Top 10 Vegas Implosions

Being Tagged & Update

Okay so I get this comment from my buddy Dillo telling me I'm tagged. At first I have snapshots of kids running around in a school yard yelling "tag, you're it!" Then I realized it was much worse than being tagged it as the overweight school kid in a game that required athletic abilities. Much worse.... I have to share things with you people. Not just one or two things either, 7 total, and they are suppose to be personal. Let me take some of your time and explain to you the rules:

Here's how it works .... cut .... paste ....

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.

C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


So without further ado, here are my 7 things you really didn't need to know about me.

1. When I was a teenager I competed in tournaments playing video games. My "clan" was one of the top clans in Unreal Tournament and Medal of Honor Allied Assault. I believe I have brought my competitiveness from playing in those tournaments to poker.
2. When I was real young I had an imaginary friend. My imaginary friend was perfectly described as someone who passed away in our house long before I was born. I never heard about this person and there were no pictures of them in the house - but I described them perfectly - even knew their name.
3. My first ever poker game I played was for $20. I didn't know what a flush was and never heard of a full house. It was literally the first time I played poker and I folded a Royal Flush. True story, I was put all in on the river and I was one away from the money. I got scared and tossed my cards up on the table. The who room lit up thinking I called and nailed a Royal, however it wasn't the case... I folded, and the dealer and original bettor both knew it.
4. Folding the Royal Flush by being scared was the reason I starting playing poker. I figured, it there are people as bad as me out there than I should be able to do good once I learn a few things. It wasn't until my friend Harry brought me an instructional DVD that I realized you can actually make money by playing poker (poker isn't purely a game of luck). That single DVD has created the thirst of ongoing knowledge and studying I do today. (It also helped that after I watched the DVD I won like 3 games in a row - total luck too, lol).
5. My biggest goal in poker is not to be number 1, but to be amongst the decent players. I would like to have such runs as fellow bloggers Lucko21 and CracknAces, or even Sheet's mental understanding of the game. My ultimate goal is to make enough to help supplement my income.
6. I'm a cat person. It wasn't always the case. All my life I was a dog person. I loved dogs and I couldn't stand cats. I never understood the idea of owning a cat - a dog just seemed like so much fun and a cat... well a cat just sleeps. Not until I was stuck with 3 cats from my ex did I ever care for cats. Getting to know them and being around them everyday made me convert. It's funny, now I seemed to feel the same way about dogs like I did about cats a few years ago. Now I look at a dog and think, "they're messy, dirty, high maintenance, and loud" and my cats... "they just sleep, eat, and shit all on their own". Truly low maintenance animal.
7. Number 7, the last thing about me that most people don't know. I guess if you read this far you're somewhat interested in what I am going to say here. I already talked about my ghost story, my donkiness, and my unManly love of cats. I really don't know what else you people want from me! I guess I can say that I wish I was born a few generations ago. Not when things were financially bad for most people, but when people respected each other. There is so little respect in this world it's sad. Whatever happen to your neighbors bringing you freshly baked cookies, or being invited to people's houses for family BBQ nights? What about actually dressing nice when going to a high-class restaurant? I can't believe when I go to a restaurant with a menu that starts at $28 and see people in shorts and a backwards ballcap. I just hate the way the world has become. I guess I need to get better at playing poker so I can get lost inside casino's all day where the world doesn't exist!

Now that I dragged you through all of this, I am suppose to tag 7 others. That's going to be a problem since everyone I know in the blogging community has already done this. Let's see how many people I can tag: JamyHawk, Lucko21, Hoyazo (he loves to type), Schaubs, Sana (maybe he will finally update), foxypham (my old WPX buddy), and lastly, Nfulton (he hasn't said much lately!).

Wow, I made it... I got 7. I did my part, cheers everyone!

Ace-King Continue

In my last post I brought up a key tournament hand where I was dealt AKos in the BB facing a 4xBB raise and a caller. I thank Jamyhawk and Dillo for providing their feedback on the hand. As promised, I will continue with the conclusion of the hand and my reasoning for my action. Before I do so, let's recap what happened:

Blinds t150 / t300
Hero Chip Stack: t9300
Average Chip Stack: ~t5000
Dealt to Hero: AKos
Hero in the Big Blind

Everyone folded to the luck-box who was in the Cutoff. He raises to t1,200. The Button folds, and my girl who was in the Small Blind calls. There is t2,700 in the pot, t900 for me to call.

What we know: The original raiser has been showing some aggression with weak hands. He has showed down hands as bad as Q2 suited. He’s a gambling player and the only one that can eliminate me. My girl, who just called the raise, would have re-raised with a monster holding and would have folded small pocket pairs. She has a hand like KQ suited, AQ/AJ, or maybe JJ-TT. She’s just calling here because of the raiser’s aggression, hoping to hit the board and take his chips. I have high confidence she’d re-pop him with AK, & AA-QQ so I figure to have the best hand here.

Let's figure this out, there is t2,700 in the pot and I have t9,000 after posting the BB. That means that a little better than 1/3 my stack is on the table. I strongly believe I have the best hand right now. I know if I make a big bet I am sure my girl will fold leaving me heads up with the original re-raiser. There are 9 people left in the tournament and it only cashes the top 3. With the payout structure I feel that this is a good enough chance, if any, to gamble. Here was my reasoning;

If I raise to 3k and get called, I can easy be priced out of the flop. This will leave me with about 6k in chips and even money with most of the field.

If I fold, well... I'm certainly not folding.

If I shove, I have a chance to gain t2,700 in chips which almost ties me for the chip lead in the tournament. If I am called by the original raiser and win, I will have almost t20k in chips, and a massive lead. Of course, if I lose I am out of the tournament.

Being that the tournament only pays down to three I figured it's a good time to give the green light and I shove. As predicted, the original raiser calls my shove after looking at his watch and commenting, "it's late, time to get this over with", and my girl folds.

The luck-box reveals A-2os and your Hero is standing proud with A-K. Before the cards are dealt I give a little show and hide behind the dealer exclaiming, "fade the deuce, fade the deuce". I didn't. The deuce was in the Window and I was sent on the rail with an unimproved Big Slick.

I knew by shoving I was indeed gambling and I did it solely on the payout structures. If the tournament paid down to 5th or more I would have simply raised it to 3k, leaving me 6k behind, and folded to an unfavorable flop. However, I chose my spot and went with my gut that I had the best hand. I was right, but couldn't dodge the poker god's wraith - or shall I say, "the luck-boxes luck". After the end of the tournament my girl came to me and said she had KQ suited and just wanted to get in a hand with him that had potential. I had both opponents read correctly however this time it just didn't matter.

The luck-box went on to finish first in the tournament, my friend Sana ended up finishing second, and my girl bubbled in fourth. All decent runs for them and overall it was a fun night. I'm looking forward to the next charity event MRS hosts, hopefully my story will have a happier ending next time.