Response to WPPA Comments

I'm going to respond to all of the WPPA comments I got in the last two weeks.

"As usual, enjoyed reading your posts.

Just curious as to any of these events are going to actually crown
a champion as opposed to deal-making at the end.

I'm a little frustrated that deal-making is becoming more of the
norm. than winning the tournament.

Has the WPPA thought to address this or will they not consider it a
big deal until corporate sponsorship occurs?"

Thanks!

I do not think deal making should ever be banned, nor does the WPPA. Although some people hate making deals, others love it, to reduce their overall risk. This is OUR money, no one is sponsoring these players. When organizations tell individuals what they can and cannot do with their own money, I'm outta there.

"It was a $1,000 buy-in tourney, and a deal that got you $1,240 was too good to refuse?

Am I missing something?"

When one individual, who has over 8 years of Stud tourney experience and is highly skilled, manages to take over 75% of the chips on the table, a save is probably the best bet. My chances of winning at that point were very low, with only about 1.5 years of low-limit Stud tourney experience. I could take my chances, and win this event maybe 10% of the time, if I were lucky, or take the deal, giving me both my buy-in back, and an additional $240. I chose the latter, knowing I was making the correct decision.

"Hey Felicia, come over to the site and reccomend a good Omaha book to me. I really have enjoyed my few forays into the game and would like to learn how to play it correctly."

You won't find a better book than Ray Zee's "Split Games for Advanced Players."

"Hi Felicia, I've read your blog for a long time and look forward to each new entry. You obviously know the Las Vegas poker community very well and I'm hoping you can give me information. I have the opportunity to travel to Vegas at the end of October and am looking for some good places to play lower limit HE and NLHE ring games and tournaments. Also I love to play Omaha hi/lo but there is nowhere in Indiana that offers a ring game or tournament. Any suggestions for my first trip to Sin City?
Thanks for any ideas you can offer. Terry"

Thanks! Vegas changes month-to-month. The hot game one week might be at the Bellagio, and the next week it might be at the Mirage. So make sure to do additional research right before you come.

Just about everywhere spreads LLHE and NLHE these days. Go where the fishies swim and the rake is reasonable. I would suggest Sahara for both of these criteria, plus they have NLHE tourneys every night at 7pm.

Omaha 8 can be found in the lower limits at most Station properties. If you can afford 30/60 and over, try Bellagio and/or Mirage. Call first.

"I can't help picking up the impression from these posts that there aren't many fish around generally. Do you think that's a fair reflection ?
If so, could it just be because it clashes with the Hold-Em event at Binions ?

Also how's the satellite action ?"

For this first tourney, there were a ton of problems. I can't even begin to go into it until it is over, due to time restrictions, but I could write a book on all of the corruption and sabotage of this event (not internal WPPA corruption).

The satellites were good and juicy, because the best players simply bought in, while the players who were weak and hoping to get lucky and qualify for a "big buy-in event" played sat after sat, since there were no regularly scheduled events for them to play. It was awesome, definitely +EV.

"Very good post Felicia. I have experience cheating first hand on a couple of different occasions at my local cardroom. I was sitting at a 3-6 limit holdem game when a man and a woman sat down on each side of me. It didn't take long to figure out that they were married and then I started catching the fishy play that was going on. I saw a lot of raise-reraise action between them when they had someone(me) trapped in between them. One of them would always bet out, then muck on the river when the partner raised. After a couple of hands of this...I just asked for a table change and got out of there. In hindsight, I should have probably called the floor and complained but I just wasn't exactly sure if they were cheating so I didn't want to look stupid. I've also been at tables playing against 2 or 3 friends and these tables always seem to be the loosest going. Raised and capped before the flop on every hand and I'm sure that they were splitting the winnings once they got outside. I actually did okay in this game when I won a monster pot with the nut straight when two of the other playing flopped sets against each other.

All I had to do was call. $150 pot and a little justice was served.

Kevin"

Always report your concerns. Cardrooms generally don't care much about cheating, so that has got to change. Any time that someone lets it slide due to fear or uncertainty, it not only reinforces that cardrooms simply don't care, but it also further taints the poker playing world.

"Can you tell me who won the Saturday No-Limit WPPA tournament at the Orleans and how many entries there were?"

Franco Brunetti. 44.

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Thanks for all of the comments, everyone. I hope I have cleared up some gray areas.

I was very lucky to make a deal in the Omaha 8 tourney for $7,000, as I am not a strong O8 player. This helped to offset some of my costs in dealing with the Orleans (ugh).

I'll go into all of that later. For now, I'm going to sleep and rest, then return to the Orleans on Monday for the final two days.