Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

How many runners? Any faces about that you haven't seen for a while?

Last time I looked, around 50 odd, plus re-entries. I had rather hoped more might play. This was a £165 Re-Entry - the UKPC (Double Chance) is £500, with a £25,000 Guarantee. Eeek.

Faces I've not seen in a while? Scores of them Ralph, I must have shaken hands with 50 people. I'll namecheck a few later on, but I need to get some work done first.

It was a really lovely evening, though there was a degree of "should have folded pre" to my play, & I really felt a tad ring-rusty. 

I was astonished that almost everyone limped into every hand pre-flop. Maybe that's "pot-control" these days & I need to change my game, as I rarely enter a pot without raising it up, almost always with good position.

A few sample hands will follow once I've cleared my e-Mails & stuff @ work.   

Many thanks to everyone for the kind messages.

[tikay]

Regular readers, look away NOW, this may contain POKER content.

I chose the nut worst night to drive up to The Vic, with the Tube Strike in full flow, took me 2 & a half hours to drive the 13 miles.

I'm always a bit prickly - probably unreasonably - with Reception at The Vic, & I suppose my mood was not the best after that drive, & it was business as usual.

Went to Reception, & the convo went like this.....

Good Evening!

Name?

Kendall

First name?

Tony or Anthony?

I don't know, could be either, I first joined 12 years ago

Why do you have two names?

Bla bla, same name, long time ago......

She tip taps for 45 seconds.

Your name is Anthony, not Tony.

Thank you.


All this without so much as a smidgeon of eye contact, or a smile. Fair to say I am a little over-sensitive to this sort of thing, but I do think "front of house" is incredibly important, as are first impressions, & making Clients feel wanted.   

[RED-DOG]

This happened at the Vic you say? Well I never.

[tikay]

Miss Frosty issued me a new Membership Card, & just as well, as you now need to swipe it to gain entrance to each floor, as they are all protected by Tube-Station style entrance gates.

Once beyond that, I was overwhelmed by how much better the general ambience of the new "Poker Room" (as it is known, I gather) at The Vic.

All hustle & bustle, a reasonable amount of space to wander around between Tables.

Two Tourneys (Main & Omaha) running, plus a Satellite.

Tons of cash Tables, & for the first time I can ever recall, no throng of peope hanging around the desk trying to get seats at Cash Tables.  

I confess to never having been a fan of "The Vic", based on all sorts of experiences down the years, including being turned away for not wearing a collared shirt. To be fair, that was 11 years ago. Nothing like holding a grudge, eh? Proves the "first impressions" thing though.

Anyway, I thought the re-vamped room was superb, absolutely spot on. The average was was quite a surprise - probably nearer 40 than 30.

Everything seemed to run very smoothly, too, imprerssive considering how busy the place was.

Gets a 9.5 out of 10 from me. Miss Frosty cost them half a point.  

Confirmed "The Vic" Fanboy.

[Karabiner]

I've never met with any frostiness at the front desk Tony, and I don't have a membership card and visit infrequently too.

[theprawnidentity]

Give the fans what they want tikay, tell 'em how many bro's you stacked and how light you were at the time!!!!

Remember, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[RED-DOG]

I had the following conversation in the Vic.

"Excuse me, how long is the clock for tonight's tournament please?"

"30 minutes. If you don't like it, don't play."

[Karabiner]

I had the following conversation in the Vic.

"Excuse me, how long is the clock for tonight's tournament please?"

"30 minutes. If you don't like it, don't play."

Was that with The Camel?

[tikay]

Give the fans what they want tikay, tell 'em how many bro's you stacked and how light you were at the time!!!!

Remember, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

That stuff follows.

I abso bossed the tables with both bullets & was not home until way after 11pm. 

[tikay]

I've never met with any frostiness at the front desk Tony, and I don't have a membership card and visit infrequently too.

You simply cannot enter The Vic without a Membership Card now Ralph. All Gaming Areas are guarded at the entrance from the stairs by a swipe-card operated barrier. Yoir Membership Card is your swipe-card.

Miss Frosty auto-issued me with a new Membership Card, I never requested it, fair play to her.

Takes some getting used to, even to pop down to the 1st floor for a pee or a smoke means going through two different swipe-card barriers (both ways), but it is just something new, we can easily get used to it. Only old people are resistant to change.  

[tikay]

Excuse the sort of random order of Posting stuff from last night, but I made notes as I went along.

It's all rather standard stuff really, but it was all rather jolly for me, not having played Live for so long.

[scotty77]

I had the following conversation in the Vic.

"Excuse me, how long is the clock for tonight's tournament please?"

"30 minutes. If you don't like it, don't play."

tbf I can kinda agree with them there!  Know that a gent like you would never do this, but generally in my experience the people who like to focus on these things then follow it up with a lecture on why you should get more chips/longer clocks etc like they do 'down the road' - must get pretty irritating hearing that several times a day!  

I was playing the 6 max tournie the other day and a guy asked Dena how many chips you get.  She replied then he walked away and had a chat with his mate that I could overhear - 'oh 10k for £220 quid isn't good value.  I could head down my local illegal card club and get lots more chips than that'.  Felt like saying well what do you expect from a 1 day side event.

IMO for the most part you should just trust that the venues and tours put on tournies that are suited to the circumstance.  People asking for the clock/levels/chips/breaks; happens on every single tournie thread on blonde too (which tighty always responds to with all the info!) - as if they feel the need to just double check that Mr Trumper hasn't changed the £500 deepstack to a 5k rebuy with 10 min levels since the last time it ran.  

The people that run them know how to structure a tournie perfectly well.  I actually have a theory that one of the biggest problems in live poker is that a very vocal minority crave more chips in small stakes tournies, that has created every casino/card room to have boring schedules that impact massively on the cash games.

[tikay]

Took my seat, was sat next to Ady (sp?) from Luton, who I have shared a ton of hours playing DC. We get along well, & I like him, so that was a nice gentle intro for me.

I was keen to sit & watch a couple of orbits, as I'm ring-rusty, & wanted to get a feel for who did what.

I only missed the first 5 minutes, so no great harm there.

I could barely believe my eyes. Limp limp limpy limp, everyone, every hand. What? I had really expected a Table Captain, or a couple of aggros. Nope, none of that. I suppose this might be Pot Control 2014, not really sure to be honest. New to me.

Anyway, this continues for 20 minutes, & I'm starting to prime my considerable arsenal of moves to take control of these boys. I've yet to enter a Pot, except in the Blinds.

Ady now opens UTG, the first Raise pre I've yet seen. Ady has moves & gears, but on a passive Table, UTG, I'm guessing a solid hand here.

Cut to the chase.....

Flop is 3-4-6, & Ady leads out, first to act.

It's flatted twice, then Cut Off pots it.

Back to Ady who re-pots, & in the twinkling of an eye, two full stacks are in the middle, "on their backs Gents".

Chop chop. Both tabled the flopped nut straight.  Jeez, ranges are wide these days, eh?

Ady's hand was 3-5-7-8, all four suits represented.

I pick up Ady's hand, theatrically, "these your cards Ady?". He shoots a smile. Who opened the betting? I ask. "Gotta dance a bit" he says.

OK, ground rules established then.

[Jon MW]

I had the following conversation in the Vic.

"Excuse me, how long is the clock for tonight's tournament please?"

"30 minutes. If you don't like it, don't play."

tbf I can kinda agree with them there!  Know that a gent like you would never do this, but generally in my experience the people who like to focus on these things then follow it up with a lecture on why you should get more chips/longer clocks etc like they do 'down the road' - must get pretty irritating hearing that several times a day!  

I was playing the 6 max tournie the other day and a guy asked Dena how many chips you get.  She replied then he walked away and had a chat with his mate that I could overhear - 'oh 10k for £220 quid isn't good value.  I could head down my local illegal card club and get lots more chips than that'.  Felt like saying well what do you expect from a 1 day side event.

IMO for the most part you should just trust that the venues and tours put on tournies that are suited to the circumstance.  People asking for the clock/levels/chips/breaks; happens on every single tournie thread on blonde too (which tighty always responds to with all the info!) - as if they feel the need to just double check that Mr Trumper hasn't changed the £500 deepstack to a 5k rebuy with 10 min levels since the last time it ran.  

The people that run them know how to structure a tournie perfectly well.  I actually have a theory that one of the biggest problems in live poker is that a very vocal minority crave more chips in small stakes tournies, that has created every casino/card room to have boring schedules that impact massively on the cash games.

That's true - but I'm sure there must also be a lot of people who just want to know the answer because it's something that's worthwhile to know in any tournament you're playing in. Don't you think?

[tikay]

Seat 9 is middle-aged, pleasant & chatty.

Seat 2 is of either Slovakian or Peruvian descent, not sure which, but has a cracking pair of old style NHS Spectacles, probably replicas, they were so cool. He was late fifties, early sixties.

NHS Specs pots it pre. Ooh, a hand.

It gets back to seat 9, who announces "raise" but underbets. 

Dealer reminds him that NHS Specs has already opened.

In a hearbeat, an instant, I know this is an angle shoot from Seat 9.

Seat 9, with acting abilities straight from Neighbours, has a fake strop, "never saw it", & Dealer forces him to raise properly. He has a chunter, bla bla bla.

I sense Ady to my right, giggling. I know, he knows, confirmed Angle. 

NHS Specs walks slap bang into the trap, groan. POT.

Mr Angle insta says REPOT, in they go.   

Mr Angle - surprise - has the Aces.

NHS Specs has A-J-J-10.

I'm not actually sure if NHS Specs was exploiting the apparent "mistake" by Mr Angle. Maybe, but he did not look the type, his eyebrows were not even touching in the middle. Confirmed honest, then.

Flop J-3-3, bye bye Mr Angle.

Nothing is said, not a word. No rubs, no "deserved it". Suddenly, at once, everyone loses it & bursts into laughter.

Ady tells me Mr Angle pulls this routine regularly in the Cash Games.

You do meet all sorts, eh?