Celtic & Chompy's Vegas Extravaganza II

[tikay]

Keep it coming Celtic & Chomps, & thanks for doing the Diary for blonde. The more Diaries the better, imo.

When you boys coming home?

[celtic]

chompy there for a couple of weeks still. i'm not going out til tuesday.

[the sicilian]

edna and me confirmed...our nuptials to be announced

[TightEnd]

edna and me confirmed...our nuptials to be announced

thank you for that. Celtic can be bridesmaid.

[Chompy]

That makes about 200 Luton regulars on the Virgin flight next Tuesday by my reckoning. The new arrivals will pretty much double the standard of play around these parts...
Yesterday was a short enough day pokerwise, with the rest of the time spent in the room. That was a new experience but I'm having to pace myself. If I'd gone out it would have been the usual mix of Newcastle Brown, merlot and Venetian night tournament/cash, which would have left me in no kind of shape for today's WSOP'er.
I didn't get to the Venetian $500 until a couple of hours in, but that worked out well enough. They only penalised me 1200 out of the 15000 starting stack (put in 100 per hand) and the blinds were only 100-200, 25 ante.
Celtic has still to realise I think how bad the players in these tournaments can be and yesterday's table was a cracker. I was in seat 1 and the opposite side (seats four through six) was like a poker version of the 12 days of Christmas, "three pairs of shades, two baseball caps and an iPod in seat six (turned on, volume ten)".
I didn't do a lot for the first hour and then got a fit of the girlie giggles. The guy to my left I'd played with briefly at the Rio the day before and he was enjoying seats 4-6 nearly as much as me.
The blinds were up to 300-600, my SB. Seat 3 limped for 600, then seat 4 pulled his shades down and said 'time please'. He sat there motionless for all of a minute before.........folding. That was it, gone.
The next hand wasn't quite so amusing. Seat 6, whose standard bet into pots of around 2000 had been 10000 at least twice before, raised to 1500. I called on the button with AJ. The blinds got out of the way.
The flop came  . He asked how much I'd got back. I said "10,000". It was one 5000 chip on top of five 1000 chips, so didn't take much working out. He asked the dealer to count it...
He then bet 10,000, just be way of a change. I called and he turned over  . The turn was a 10, which was greeted with a 'Wooo yeah'. Lmfao

[Snatiramas]

That is one benefit about the internet.......no effin whooping......great thread by the way......bring home the bacon

[Chompy]

I don't want this to turn in to a bad beat whingefest - the taxi driver that picked me up from the Rio the other day said he was close to triple figures with them already - but here comes another one.
You'd expect a $2,500 WSOP tournament to be played out to a fair standard but my table had no notable names on it and a couple of them looked like they'd never played before. The big fella to my right asked me about an hour in whether this was hold'em poker we were playing. I thought he was joking but he wasn't.
The stack hadn't moved a lot from the opening 5000 at the first break, two hours in, after I'd gone up to around 7000 and back down again. Five hours in and, with around 500 of the 1300-odd players left, I'd got myself a start and was pretty much bang on average at 13000.
It was the first hand with the blinds at 200-400, 50 ante, I made it 1400 with AQ in mid-position. The calling station two to my left, shaking throughout like nothing I'd ever seen, called, as did the SB who'd been on a roll during the previous half hour or so.
Flop came  , SB checked, I bet 2500, shakin stevens folded, SB thought for a few seconds, had a lingering look at what I'd got left, and then pushed all in. With 4000 of 13000 in I could have passed but not the way things had panned out. Funnily enough the last thing that went through my mind before I shoved them in was Avi Darvish's favourite saying 'if not now, when?'. He now owes me a tenner plus interest, plus $2500 imo.
Anyway, he turned over  . The  came on the river. Bye bye Chompy.
So now I've lost a 75-25 shot which would have put me in a good position in the $1500 the other day and an 80-20 which would have put me up to double the average going into the dinner break in the $2500. Why the feck is he making a move on that board anyway? Bad players getting lucky. Nice.
Otherwise, I can't get enough of this WSOP lark. Went to pick up my hefty winnings during the second break yesterday and was in the payout room with three others, Jen Harman, Chris Ferguson and Eli Elezra. Different world.

[Snatiramas]

 
And my problem with whingey bad beat stories is this.......

YOU ARE IN VEGAS and I am sitting on my sofa in good old Bricket Wood

[AlexMartin]

That makes about 200 Luton regulars on the Virgin flight next Tuesday by my reckoning. The new arrivals will pretty much double the standard of play around these parts...
Yesterday was a short enough day pokerwise, with the rest of the time spent in the room. That was a new experience but I'm having to pace myself. If I'd gone out it would have been the usual mix of Newcastle Brown, merlot and Venetian night tournament/cash, which would have left me in no kind of shape for today's WSOP'er.
I didn't get to the Venetian $500 until a couple of hours in, but that worked out well enough. They only penalised me 1200 out of the 15000 starting stack (put in 100 per hand) and the blinds were only 100-200, 25 ante.
Celtic has still to realise I think how bad the players in these tournaments can be and yesterday's table was a cracker. I was in seat 1 and the opposite side (seats four through six) was like a poker version of the 12 days of Christmas, "three pairs of shades, two baseball caps and an iPod in seat six (turned on, volume ten)".
I didn't do a lot for the first hour and then got a fit of the girlie giggles. The guy to my left I'd played with briefly at the Rio the day before and he was enjoying seats 4-6 nearly as much as me.
The blinds were up to 300-600, my SB. Seat 3 limped for 600, then seat 4 pulled his shades down and said 'time please'. He sat there motionless for all of a minute before.........folding. That was it, gone.
The next hand wasn't quite so amusing. Seat 6, whose standard bet into pots of around 2000 had been 10000 at least twice before, raised to 1500. I called on the button with AJ. The blinds got out of the way.
The flop came  . He asked how much I'd got back. I said "10,000". It was one 5000 chip on top of five 1000 chips, so didn't take much working out. He asked the dealer to count it...
He then bet 10,000, just be way of a change. I called and he turned over  . The turn was a 10, which was greeted with a 'Wooo yeah'. Lmfao

fell off my chair reading this one, got to use that when i play next.

ul with the beats chompster, keep plugging away and incease the volume of tournies and eventually it will come.

[RED-DOG]

Vegas Diaries, you gotta love em. Keep it up guys.

[celtic]

Well, the big day is almost here, and i gotta say, whilst i'm looking forward to it, part of me is feeling a bit nervous. Kirsty (Missceltic, new member on blonde) has been fantastic, ironed all my clothes for me, is out at the mo buying my suncream, and will pack for me when she returns. As a special treat for her i will let het cut my toe nails for me. It's the least she deserves to be honest I'm gonna miss her a lot, and my daughter, but both are happy for me to go, in fact, my daughter seems very happy im going away and has promised to look after Kirsty ( her step-mum)

I'm on the 10.45 flight to Vegas, the sicilian will be at mine for 6am and we will travel together to Gatwick, maybe Rob Garfield will join us if he can gt his bikini line done in time, Also on the flight is Kevin O'Leary, Evil Edna (Biggest pair of bollocks in Luton imo) and steve Kirk.

We have booked Las Vegas's premier chauffeur service to collect us from the airport (77Dave) tho Dulux was a late booker and may have to get a cab if Jim can only fit me, Rob & Kev in.

Well thats all for now. Next update. Vegas!!!!

[Chompy]

I should be playing the $1500 shootout WSOP event at the moment but things conspired against it one way and another, so I got a taxi up there (top cricket chat with the Pakistani driver) and cashed out just in time.
Playing the $500 at the Venetian instead, can get some lunch, spout some nonsense on here and miss the first hour and a bit of that no worries (40-minute levels, 15,000 stack).
Yesterday was a long one in the Venetian $1000 event and another near thing. Just over 12 hours of poker and missed cashing by about ten spots.
I didn't get there until half an hour after the start, somewhat hung over after the first Newcastle-Merlot session of the trip the night before but felt ready for it.
The first person I saw going to the table was Paul Ephremsen, a Luton occasional/borderline regular. He was already up to 25,000 and, at the first break, was on 33,000 compared to my 12,000. Even then he was insistant we swap 10%, although I wanted to give him 15% for 10%. Top man is Paul, one of those players you know is going to pay up his 10% no hassle.
At the dinner break I'd got up to around 80,000, about 30,000 above average while Paul was on 50,000. We both looked good to cash at one stage but then he ran AQ into AA and I picked up Q3 sixty-five hands in a row. We both went out in the mid 30s (240-odd players) with the top 19 paid. Would have been a good one to win, too, $65,000 to the winner. Paul seemed a bit pissed off having played 12 hours without reward but I'm always kind of happy with that, as long as I haven't put a foot wrong and not got unlucky (I actually made a couple of mistakes yesterday, which wasn't pleasing).
Saw some ridiculous stuff on my table. AA v AQ on an AQ6 flop, runner runner flush. Some miserable old guy was on the right end of it and he went on to crack AA with 77 to take a big chip lead.
I really didn't have to do a lot to get my chips. 2 4 in the SB, flop A 3 8, free turn 5, A on the river and Texan fella couldn't wait to get them all in with A9.
After that I was on the right end of an 'I think I'm probably behind but I'm all in' move. He was right too, as I had 99 on a 966 flop, turn was another 9. Blimey, quads. He had 10 10 UTG and had min raised my BB. Serves him right imo, fecking min raisers.
So that was 12 hours of poker, back to the hotel room for around 2am. I would have been set for the Rio with a decent night's kip but the construction site next to my room decided this morning was the time to move on from the shifting-stuff-around phase to the banging phase...at 6.30am.
Bollocks to that, I rung for a room change, which they were happy to do but they could only offer a standard room at a poker rate, not one in the tower in which I've always stayed. It's baffling that a Harrah's casino can't do better than that for someone planning to play eight or so WSOP events, so I'm off to the Venetian.
I'll get the poker rate over there no worries, and the rooms are good quality. Plus it's a good time to change the scenery a bit anyway, around a week in to the trip.
Finally, just noticed R.Prew chopped a tournament. All kind of weird and wonderful things are happening in the poker world...(well done Tighty)

[MissCeltic]

Well today was the day for Celtic to leave for Las Vegas (just in case there is anybody out there he hasn't told!)

He made arrangements for the Sicilian to arrive at ours for 6am - Celtic still being in bed at this time....  The usual daily routine of attemting to wake him up commenced!

After strolling around, taking his time he was finally ready to leave (all he had to do was get washed & dressed as everything else had been done for him, yes including the cutting of toenails!!).  Arrived at Gatwick safely after a journey with Celtic moaning about the Sicilian's driving (Although now we know why the Sicilian's brakes are so worn out!)

Celtic then decided to have a whinge about the long queue to hand his suitcase in and obtain his boarding pass! Always something to moan about (especially as he doesn't do mornings, well other than his early morning finishes at Luton!)

The time came to say goodbye and I am not ashamed to admit that I did have a  !  For some reason I think I am actually going to miss Celtic - the only positive is that I will now be able to use the computer until he returns as opposed to begging to check my e-mails every day.

Good luck Celtic, I'm missing you already.  Enjoy yourself though, you deserve this opportunity.

Good luck to everyone else in Vegas and here's hoping Edna will be keeping her eye on Celtic!! 

[TightEnd]

Welcome to blonde MissCeltic!

Cutting his toenails? not a thought for before midday!

[Chompy]

Just time for another diary entry before I check out of Caesars and move on to the Venetian. Can't say I'm too bothered about leaving and don't think I'll be staying here again in future. Besides which the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian is a class apart from the Augustus Cafe.
Monday's 6.30am bangfest was a late start it now seems, as last night's hammer-fuelled action started ar 3.45am. I got them to send me up a key for a room further down the corridor and got plenty of sleep in the end, but I do feel they should have tried to do more for someone who's stayed at the hotel before, was planning on being here for 19 nights, and playing in Harrah's flagship poker event. Whinge over.
Sunday's late finish meant I wasn't able to take advantage of the soiree that was being held in my honour at the Guy Salon Restaurant. No messing, get upgraded at Caesars and they stage a champagne and hors d'oeuvres soiree in YOUR honour. I hope the staff weren't too disappointed. Got this image of them all standing around, asking 'Where's Chompy?" Perhaps not.
Yesterday's $500 Venetian experience only lasted a few hours. Swapped 10% with a fellow Gutshot regular of the past, Jarvis, who was around average stack when I left. I quickly dropped from 15,000 to 8,000 before getting it back up to the starting stack. With the blinds up to 400-800 I was around the 12,000 mark and had already shoved them a few times on my new table.
I'd been talking to the guy to my left about Anthony, one of the card room supervisors, who's kind of like Beavis and Butthead rolled into one. "He always remembers me because of my name" he said, and then pulled out his ID card. His name was Michael Lee Hunt. That would appeal plenty to Anthony.
I knew what was coming on my exit hand, never been so sure of it in my life. The old bugger UTG raised it to 3000. Always be careful with old buggers putting in proper raises UTG in my experience, but I had no choice with KK three positions later.
I showed Mike Hunt my cards and told him I knew I was pretty much dead already and said the same to old bugger when he called. I wasn't too bothered about running kings into aces at that stage of that tournament, rather there than back at the Rio on the bubble or some such.
I'm thinking of writing a book when I get back home, something along the lines of 'A US player's guide to tournament poker'. Chapter 1 is pretty much already written in my head.
Chapter 1
Playing A7 or A8 suited in early position
Step 1. Raise 6x or 7x the BB.
Step 2. If an ace or two of your suit, arrives on the flop and your remaining chips total ten times or more what's already in the pot, go all in. If you have less than this amount, bet five times the pot as a 'feeler' bet.
I think this would sell well. Or maybe I'm just getting a bit frustrated.