glen
07-15-2004, 05:50 PM
I left for Vegas on May 16th. I had just finished school except for one paper that I needed to get done, which, I might add, still is not done. My computer got a virus or something so it wouldn?t even turn on, and frankly I didn?t feel like doing it that much so I didn?t. I have to do it this week. Maybe it will even get done. I met up with the legendary JV and his collection of vertical stripe shirts at the Orleans, and we immediately hit the Belaggio, where I met Hiatus Over, played some 30-60. I knew JV just from instant messenger and logging some hours with him in online poker, but I had no idea about the extent of his vertical stripe shirt collection. Like I always do, I lost a nickel on my first night in Vegas (4th time I had been there). The first week I settled into a groove, where I would stay up all night and play and sleep all day. I would usually drink about 3 beers, then switch to coffee, until it was 10 a.m. or so, then I would hit the orleans buffet, eat about 3 plates and go to bed, so in other words I gained some weight.
I first made it down to the wsop area to watch the legendary JV play the 2500 nlhe event. JV looks like Huck Seed when he plays poker, like he?s bored and half asleep, but dangerous. I drifted over to the nugget to see if they had a 50-100 going, but they only had 20-40, so I played that. The game was good, but kind of boring, so I left about even to go watch JV, who was about average chips. I ran into Hiatus Over on the rail, who was with Nomar. Nomar claims I used to pound him online, but I think that?s impossible, since he is the ultimate pounder. Both are excellent players. JV was at Grizzle?s table. Grizzle was floating the table hard, taking down a bunch of pots uncontested postflop. Finally JV got in a big hand and middle pair called a big turn bet and JV got knocked out. Poor guy. He was bummed. We all talked about the hand for a while afterwards and came to no definitive conclusion as to what he should have done. I think it was the next night that we went had a nice dinner at the Belaggio. Those that attended were as follows: myself, the legendary JV, Hiatus Over, Nomar, the legendary Neverwin, the legendary Spyder44, and Diplomat and his girlfriend. Never has a conversation been so dominated by poker as that night. Good times.
The next day I played 50-100 with diplomat and I made him fold his overpair of queens incorrectly on the turn. It sounded weird when he told me that?s what he had, but I believe he actually did. Maybe he plays good. Too bad he can?t beat the local 10-20. I think I met Duke that day too. Duke?s a big dude, but a gentle giant, and we started hanging out a bit after that. Oh yeah I met Paluka too, who was all fired up about his big laydown he made in the main event. We got to hang out more a few nights later, and I?m sure I?ll see him again in the city, but he didn?t want to stick around and miss any work. No one I?d met did well in the wsop. Unfortunately no one really had an interesting hands to talk about either, well, diplo did, but he is such a fish he had no chance anyways really, you know, so I just pretended to listen when he was telling me about tripling up at the end of day one etc. . . I wish we got to hang out more, but I think we had conflicting schedules, since diplo had a girlfriend that slept normal hours etc.
Ok, slot portion of the report. I did very well on the nickel slots. I probably made about 200 total. The green alien one is the best. Not only did I win, but I got a lot of free drinks too. Duke and I would hit the slots and drinks like it was a sport. We also pretended we would try to talk to some chicks too, but we never did. We got no game I guess. The Hard Rock has a lot of eye candy, mainly ?scuppahs,? a Boston term for girls that you can tell used to hang out at the mall a lot when they were young. Fun to look at, but you never really want to talk to them. One time were there and there weren?t even any scuppahs, so I got the dumb idea to play blackjack. I don?t even really know basic strategy, so I just asked duke if he would tell me what to do and he agreed. So I bought 200 and he bought like 100. I decided I would give myself 200 to ?gamble? for the trip, so anyways I lost 400 ridiculously fast. I won like 3 hands, and I was only betting ten or fifteen a hand. I hate blackjack.
So Glenn was going to hit the scene soon. Good times were coming, but JV decided to bail like a Melvin, just deciding he had had enough of Vegas. Anyways, I was on the tail end of a long 30-60 session when Glenn showed up in the Belaggio with his friend Ted, who happened to be a blue-chip action fiend. Glenn is probably my best friend in the poker community, even though we have only hung out like twice, but I met him last year and Vegas, and we bs on aim all the time. We grabbed a bite at the bellagio café, but Ted was dying to hit the vegas blue chip games, so I left them and had to crash for like a day, since I had been up for like 36 hours. The next, though, we hooked up with Duke to hit the lanes of Orleans. Now, Glenn had built himself up as somewhat of a bowler, but it was not to be. The hook wasn?t working for him, and Duke stole the show. With his cannon, he would make a hell of a dodgeball player, but his style is this ? if he hits the headpin anywhere, all the pins fall down, maybe one exception in 2 games. I bowl like a pansy, with elegant straight rolls, and always seem to get 100-150. Duke bowled two games just shy of 200. Due to the fact that Glenn told me how awesome he was and never found his groove, he started wigging out, twitching, and never really got comfortable, but the second game he got in the 160s I think. Duke then wanted to hit the strip clubs or get some drinks, but Ted would have none of it. The mirage 3-6 was calling his name, so he put in another 14 hour session.
The next night I actually played poker with Glenn. We decided to check out the 40-80 at the mirage. When we showed up, only one game was going, and it was 3 handed, so we decide to wait and see if it would fill a little, since it didn?t look that great. So we stood on the side and just sweated it for a bit. Finally, we decided to just sit, figuring we it would fill up some when we sat. So I bought 2 and a half racks and Glenn bought 3 and we sat down. Since we look like chumps, this dude who had a striking resemblance to Bernie Lomax from Weekend at Bernie?s got a little psyched, and called his buddy on his cell, kind of whispering but easily heard by his new right and left hand opponents: ?Um, yeah, I think you want to get down here now. . . . .? We are both kind of antsy live players, so we had that working for us. In any case he tried to pound us, but it was not to be for this gentleman. We effectively countered his agro style, and he soon lost his chips and went to the stack of hundreds in his pockets, and then left with his tail between his legs. At one point we sat out an orbit and drifted. Glenn said he was very impressed with my play thus far, but pinpointed two river bets he thought I missed both with JJs that I checked on the river. When we got back to the table, Glenn played a hand where after some heavy preflop and flop action on a K xd xd board, his opponent checked to him on the river after the 4th diamond came. Glenn paused and then bet, his opponent called, and he tabled jacks with no diamond. The pot was pushed his way and he said, (and I was fully expecting this statement) ?See, that?s how you bet jacks on the river!? He plays good. We played for about 4 hours, winning collectively around 4500, and then went to Drais with Duke and his friend Ed (not n.p.a.). I needed to check out of my hotel that morning, and was going to rent a car to drive to L.A., when I got the bright idea to see if Duke wanted to just come down for the weekend too. I was staying at my friends who just bought a house. He agreed, so I killed the morning losing in the Orleans 4-8 game with some old timers, and then we were on our way. . . .
I was only going to stay in L.A. for a week, and, well, I am still here. Before I left Vegas my father told me my old employer was asking about my plans, saying that he would be interested in having me come back to the firm in Boston. I was a little lazy persuing it, though, since, like in trainspotting, I was afraid I might end up with a job. But I did ultimately call, and may head back there if they land a few big jobs. Career first ?, of course, I hope that works out. . . .Anyways while out here I talked to Josh W. For some reason I thought he would be a little hippyish from his posts, but it was not to be. Very cool dude. He picked me up and we headed to Commerce. This was the day of the 2+2 nl game that was previously written about. I also had the privilege of watching him play at the hustler first event final table. He played very, very well, and it?s always fun to watch your friends play against top players (In this case, David Pham was chipleader and Josh came in as the small stack, with Josh ultimately taking second to Pham?s 3rd). He told me at commerce once that with his new condo, he was just going to have to win a hustler event to make up for the large amount of money he just committed. Who is this guy, Babe Ruth? Well the answer to that is no, but it was a nice second.
Oh yeah, one night on this trip I would like to forget about. It was bad, wooo, yeah, but I?m over it. I hope the transition from full time poker back to the working world is manageable, as I have had no responsibility for a while. I have not needed to wake up for anything in a few months now. I just take naps on the couch, watch t.v. and play online poker, but everything is going well and I am happy. When the not-so-famous member of Motley crue, Mick Mars, was asked what he would be doing if he were not in the biggest rock band of the time, he said something like, ?I would probably be living with my parents, just walking to the gas station everyday to buy cigarettes.? I feel that is an accurate description of my usefulness to society right now. I am a real bum, but I really enjoy it. I also hang out with this Japanese girl that doesn?t really speak English. She was my friend?s girlfriend, and we met when she came over one time and we all played *sshole, a drinking game that I dominated. Now we hang out, and it?s very funny, since we don?t really know anything about one another. Sometimes when we have misunderstandings it is funny. Once she asked me if I wanted to hang out one weeknd. I said, ?okay, how about Friday or Saturday?? She said, ?Which one?? I said, ?Both are fine by me. . . ? She said, ?Both! Wow!? and sure enough, I was committed to both. . . .
Anyways, that?s all I feel like writing. So much has happened that I had to just write about a few things. I am kind of sick of playing poker for the moment, so I took yesterday off, won a couple of hundred from spicf when Ivey beat D?agostino, lost some in the evening taking a piece fo jv in a big game, and watched matchstick men, which was okay imo ? my favorite line of that movie was clearly when nick cage says to the psychiatrist, ?See, what I do involves creating value where there is none . . . .? kind of like gambling for some, heh. . . .
I first made it down to the wsop area to watch the legendary JV play the 2500 nlhe event. JV looks like Huck Seed when he plays poker, like he?s bored and half asleep, but dangerous. I drifted over to the nugget to see if they had a 50-100 going, but they only had 20-40, so I played that. The game was good, but kind of boring, so I left about even to go watch JV, who was about average chips. I ran into Hiatus Over on the rail, who was with Nomar. Nomar claims I used to pound him online, but I think that?s impossible, since he is the ultimate pounder. Both are excellent players. JV was at Grizzle?s table. Grizzle was floating the table hard, taking down a bunch of pots uncontested postflop. Finally JV got in a big hand and middle pair called a big turn bet and JV got knocked out. Poor guy. He was bummed. We all talked about the hand for a while afterwards and came to no definitive conclusion as to what he should have done. I think it was the next night that we went had a nice dinner at the Belaggio. Those that attended were as follows: myself, the legendary JV, Hiatus Over, Nomar, the legendary Neverwin, the legendary Spyder44, and Diplomat and his girlfriend. Never has a conversation been so dominated by poker as that night. Good times.
The next day I played 50-100 with diplomat and I made him fold his overpair of queens incorrectly on the turn. It sounded weird when he told me that?s what he had, but I believe he actually did. Maybe he plays good. Too bad he can?t beat the local 10-20. I think I met Duke that day too. Duke?s a big dude, but a gentle giant, and we started hanging out a bit after that. Oh yeah I met Paluka too, who was all fired up about his big laydown he made in the main event. We got to hang out more a few nights later, and I?m sure I?ll see him again in the city, but he didn?t want to stick around and miss any work. No one I?d met did well in the wsop. Unfortunately no one really had an interesting hands to talk about either, well, diplo did, but he is such a fish he had no chance anyways really, you know, so I just pretended to listen when he was telling me about tripling up at the end of day one etc. . . I wish we got to hang out more, but I think we had conflicting schedules, since diplo had a girlfriend that slept normal hours etc.
Ok, slot portion of the report. I did very well on the nickel slots. I probably made about 200 total. The green alien one is the best. Not only did I win, but I got a lot of free drinks too. Duke and I would hit the slots and drinks like it was a sport. We also pretended we would try to talk to some chicks too, but we never did. We got no game I guess. The Hard Rock has a lot of eye candy, mainly ?scuppahs,? a Boston term for girls that you can tell used to hang out at the mall a lot when they were young. Fun to look at, but you never really want to talk to them. One time were there and there weren?t even any scuppahs, so I got the dumb idea to play blackjack. I don?t even really know basic strategy, so I just asked duke if he would tell me what to do and he agreed. So I bought 200 and he bought like 100. I decided I would give myself 200 to ?gamble? for the trip, so anyways I lost 400 ridiculously fast. I won like 3 hands, and I was only betting ten or fifteen a hand. I hate blackjack.
So Glenn was going to hit the scene soon. Good times were coming, but JV decided to bail like a Melvin, just deciding he had had enough of Vegas. Anyways, I was on the tail end of a long 30-60 session when Glenn showed up in the Belaggio with his friend Ted, who happened to be a blue-chip action fiend. Glenn is probably my best friend in the poker community, even though we have only hung out like twice, but I met him last year and Vegas, and we bs on aim all the time. We grabbed a bite at the bellagio café, but Ted was dying to hit the vegas blue chip games, so I left them and had to crash for like a day, since I had been up for like 36 hours. The next, though, we hooked up with Duke to hit the lanes of Orleans. Now, Glenn had built himself up as somewhat of a bowler, but it was not to be. The hook wasn?t working for him, and Duke stole the show. With his cannon, he would make a hell of a dodgeball player, but his style is this ? if he hits the headpin anywhere, all the pins fall down, maybe one exception in 2 games. I bowl like a pansy, with elegant straight rolls, and always seem to get 100-150. Duke bowled two games just shy of 200. Due to the fact that Glenn told me how awesome he was and never found his groove, he started wigging out, twitching, and never really got comfortable, but the second game he got in the 160s I think. Duke then wanted to hit the strip clubs or get some drinks, but Ted would have none of it. The mirage 3-6 was calling his name, so he put in another 14 hour session.
The next night I actually played poker with Glenn. We decided to check out the 40-80 at the mirage. When we showed up, only one game was going, and it was 3 handed, so we decide to wait and see if it would fill a little, since it didn?t look that great. So we stood on the side and just sweated it for a bit. Finally, we decided to just sit, figuring we it would fill up some when we sat. So I bought 2 and a half racks and Glenn bought 3 and we sat down. Since we look like chumps, this dude who had a striking resemblance to Bernie Lomax from Weekend at Bernie?s got a little psyched, and called his buddy on his cell, kind of whispering but easily heard by his new right and left hand opponents: ?Um, yeah, I think you want to get down here now. . . . .? We are both kind of antsy live players, so we had that working for us. In any case he tried to pound us, but it was not to be for this gentleman. We effectively countered his agro style, and he soon lost his chips and went to the stack of hundreds in his pockets, and then left with his tail between his legs. At one point we sat out an orbit and drifted. Glenn said he was very impressed with my play thus far, but pinpointed two river bets he thought I missed both with JJs that I checked on the river. When we got back to the table, Glenn played a hand where after some heavy preflop and flop action on a K xd xd board, his opponent checked to him on the river after the 4th diamond came. Glenn paused and then bet, his opponent called, and he tabled jacks with no diamond. The pot was pushed his way and he said, (and I was fully expecting this statement) ?See, that?s how you bet jacks on the river!? He plays good. We played for about 4 hours, winning collectively around 4500, and then went to Drais with Duke and his friend Ed (not n.p.a.). I needed to check out of my hotel that morning, and was going to rent a car to drive to L.A., when I got the bright idea to see if Duke wanted to just come down for the weekend too. I was staying at my friends who just bought a house. He agreed, so I killed the morning losing in the Orleans 4-8 game with some old timers, and then we were on our way. . . .
I was only going to stay in L.A. for a week, and, well, I am still here. Before I left Vegas my father told me my old employer was asking about my plans, saying that he would be interested in having me come back to the firm in Boston. I was a little lazy persuing it, though, since, like in trainspotting, I was afraid I might end up with a job. But I did ultimately call, and may head back there if they land a few big jobs. Career first ?, of course, I hope that works out. . . .Anyways while out here I talked to Josh W. For some reason I thought he would be a little hippyish from his posts, but it was not to be. Very cool dude. He picked me up and we headed to Commerce. This was the day of the 2+2 nl game that was previously written about. I also had the privilege of watching him play at the hustler first event final table. He played very, very well, and it?s always fun to watch your friends play against top players (In this case, David Pham was chipleader and Josh came in as the small stack, with Josh ultimately taking second to Pham?s 3rd). He told me at commerce once that with his new condo, he was just going to have to win a hustler event to make up for the large amount of money he just committed. Who is this guy, Babe Ruth? Well the answer to that is no, but it was a nice second.
Oh yeah, one night on this trip I would like to forget about. It was bad, wooo, yeah, but I?m over it. I hope the transition from full time poker back to the working world is manageable, as I have had no responsibility for a while. I have not needed to wake up for anything in a few months now. I just take naps on the couch, watch t.v. and play online poker, but everything is going well and I am happy. When the not-so-famous member of Motley crue, Mick Mars, was asked what he would be doing if he were not in the biggest rock band of the time, he said something like, ?I would probably be living with my parents, just walking to the gas station everyday to buy cigarettes.? I feel that is an accurate description of my usefulness to society right now. I am a real bum, but I really enjoy it. I also hang out with this Japanese girl that doesn?t really speak English. She was my friend?s girlfriend, and we met when she came over one time and we all played *sshole, a drinking game that I dominated. Now we hang out, and it?s very funny, since we don?t really know anything about one another. Sometimes when we have misunderstandings it is funny. Once she asked me if I wanted to hang out one weeknd. I said, ?okay, how about Friday or Saturday?? She said, ?Which one?? I said, ?Both are fine by me. . . ? She said, ?Both! Wow!? and sure enough, I was committed to both. . . .
Anyways, that?s all I feel like writing. So much has happened that I had to just write about a few things. I am kind of sick of playing poker for the moment, so I took yesterday off, won a couple of hundred from spicf when Ivey beat D?agostino, lost some in the evening taking a piece fo jv in a big game, and watched matchstick men, which was okay imo ? my favorite line of that movie was clearly when nick cage says to the psychiatrist, ?See, what I do involves creating value where there is none . . . .? kind of like gambling for some, heh. . . .