Thursday, March 25, 2004

Another great Omaha night (not). I really hate this game. None of my hands stood up. During the first hour, I never got any portion of a pot. Not a half, not a fourth, not a sixth. I had to rebuy twice, pumping the pot with the nut hand on the flop, on the turn, only to be outdrawn on the river both times.

I finally went all-in right after the break when my QQ flopped a set in the BB. I turned a FH, but the lone all-in caller (who had top pair, queens, btw), rivered an emergency low.

After that, I never won a hand again, and was out in no time flat.

Glenn had a bad beat and was out even before me. He flopped top set, queens, and got a caller with top pair. This was the same clueless guy who called my all-in with no pair a few weeks ago and hit runner-runner to boot me out. Well, he did the same to Glenn, hit runner-runner to make a flush. Glenn said he didn't even have a low draw, he had nothing, just absolutely nothing.

Omaha is like my worst nightmare, lol.

James was in the poker room and commented that he liked Glenn's guest post better than all of mine. He wants them short and sweet, no commentary, no colorful characters, no length or depth. Just wham, bam, thank you, ma'am.

Men, always premature! LOL.

Anyway, James says that he is working up some new ideas for tourneys. First off, we are going to get rid of this stupid 100 in starting chips that makes the first hour such a crapshoot. We are going to get 500 in chips.

Second, he is finally going to get some chips of higher value than 100. That will make the playing of the hands so much faster and easier.

Third, he is going to make the Tuesday night $100+10 NLHE tourney into something more like $50+5. Plus he is going to add $400 to the prize pool. There will be ONE optional rebuy/add-on, for $50, so it will still be a $100 tourney, but the locals won't feel so put out that they had to put up $110 right at the beginning (they are good at deluding themselves that they don't actually spend this much for the $25 tourneys).

Fourth, he is going to cut back on the amount of players paid for the Tuesday night tourneys. Paying 10 players when only 30 enter is just ludicrous. It makes no sense to reward the top 33% of players, while punishing the winner, who should get a bigger share of the prize pool.

I told him he absolutely needs to spread a NLHE tourney. From start to end. That is what people come to play, not this limit for the first hour, NL after that, junk. No one likes it. We all accept it, we are used to it, but when I tell tourists what we are doing, they look at me like it is the stupidest thing they have ever heard. The Sahara has ten tables and packed 175 players into their NLHE tourney on Sunday. Think about it. That is what people want, not this limit to no-limit crap.

He is also thinking about starting some one table tourneys, like Sit-n-Go's, on Sundays. This is just in the primary stages of planning. Something he is kicking around. I told him that if he can work it out, I will come in on Sundays with a book and sit there waiting for each to be filled, hour after hour. Shorthanded play is my fave, so I would love playing in SNG after SNG all day long. Sundays are slow at the Belle.

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Ali was back on Thursday. I thought he had been banned from the Belle. I guess I should have known better. Cheating isn't nearly important enough to ban a player from the Belle, lol. It has to be something really bad, like manslaughter.

Heck, even the guy who HIT Ward, and cursed at him, didn't get banned. He got a three month suspension. Awww, poor guy, was the punishment just a little harsh for your crime? "You poor, widdle ting, can't play at the Belle for twee whole monts."

I guess sometime when Lavenna starts with her arguing crap I'll just reach out, call her a stupid MFer, and slap her across the head. Maybe I'll get suspended a whole three months!!! (this is a joke)

Or should I just stand behind Glenn while he is in a tournament, and tell him what hole cards the other players have, and how to play his hand? Like Ali, I won't even get suspended for that offense! I'll be welcomed right back at the Belle, just like one of the regulars! What a bonus for cheating!

At any rate, Ali was back to his usual antics. "I am so great, you guys all suck. I make 150k per year off of you horrible, sucky poker players. I haven't had to work in 15 years because I am so great and you are so bad."

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George is a new dealer at the Belle, very experienced. He is used to more standardized rules in a cardroom. He warned a player named Mike about checking with his chips, in the middle of the table.

I laughed and said, "George, no one told you? Not only is angleshooting tolerated at the Belle, but it is an accepted way of life!"

He was incredulous. No one had told him. He asked me more about it. I told him that I didn't believe many of the seniors even knew they were angleshooting, that is just the way they had learned to play poker. He still acted like he didn't half believe me. I told him about all kinds of angles that were permitted. He was appalled when I said that players constantly called bets, only to find out that there had been a raise, and then were allowed to bring back their call, although they had clearly said "Call" to a raise, lol.

The look on his face was priceless. The other locals just kept looking at me like I'd lost my mind. After all, that is GOOD poker, right?

I made sure to have Doug confirm what I was saying. "Oh, sure, they can check with chips, no problem!" Doug smiled. Life at the Belle...

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Yesterday Glenn and I went to the Mad Greek in Baker, CA. We have been there a couple of times. It was always fantastic.

For whatever reason, they had some kind of brain fart in the whole place yesterday. Everything was wrong.

They served me a Greek salad withOUT feta cheese. Hello! Feta cheese! The cornerstone of the Greek salad. When I asked about it, they said they were OUT of feta cheese. A Greek chain OUT of feta cheese??? They didn't offer to give me my money back, nothing. I am sitting there sarcastically saying that the cornerstone of the Greek salad is feta cheese, and they are out of feta cheese, but not bothering to tell their customers. All the while, this Hispanic girl who knows nothing about Greek food is looking at me like I'm the one who's lost my mind.

I ordered a meal to go, for later, but that was wrong, too. Dangit! They forgot about Glenn's strawberry shake. They acted like they had just been released from some lunatic asylum and had no idea what they were doing, where they were working, or what kind of food they were serving.

I have to say, though, the food was still fabulous, lol.

After Baker, and seeing the world's largest thermometer again, we went to Searchlight, NV, which is the hub of the poker world (LOL). They have a casino with ONE poker table. They spread 2/4 HE on Friday and Saturday nights. I predict this will be the next stop on the WPT.

If you're a woman, I wouldn't suggest going to Searchlight alone, at night.

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Glenn got an e-mail from Planet saying that they have a WPT satellite going on for 500 points. Any of you who signed up for Planet through Glenn should have been given 500 points for free, so you can play in the satellite. Maybe we'll all meet up at the Bellagio next month! Go get 'em, guys!

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I am sitting and waiting for Planet to contact me now with the finalized list of players for Sunday. If your name comes up, and you cannot play, please contact both myself and Planet immediately to have your name removed, and the $20 added back to your account.

If you have signed up and want to play, but your name doesn't appear on the list, ditto.

The tourney is at 9pm EST (6pm PST) on Sunday night, March 28, 2004.