Friday, March 5, 2004

Tonight April blessed me with the maniacal table, lol. In all seriousness, though, this table helps improve my play, just like any other. It is usually capped off before the flop every hand. Some rounds after the flop are capped as well. Once the tourney hits no-limit, things slow down and players become more cautious, but during the first hour, Omaha 8 is a madhouse.

We had four tables for the tourney. I'm not quite sure why five weren't offered. I think that problem was that not many of the Hold'em players wanted in, so those tables wouldn't be breaking.

Carl asked me about my website, said I hadn't updated it in a few days. I told him that I always run behind, opting to not write up, and further, not publish, my stories for a few days. The sooner after a tourney I publish, the more sarcastic and biting the story is if I'm running bad. As you can see, I'm running several days behind right now, sometimes a week, lol.

I told Carl about Richard Brodie, and his journal, Lion Tales. He wrote it down so he could check it out.

Carl is the guy in the lead of the WPT challenge. He has been from almost the beginning. Carl has a fantastic way of picking a certain strategy at a moment's notice and then sticking to it, in order to accomplish whatever mission he is on. In this instance, he wanted to: 1) Win enough tourneys to cover his expenses for playing in the challenge and 2) Get in the top 20 regularly, in order to accrue points. He has done a fantastic job, and is about 500 points ahead of even Betty, who is 2nd in points.

Sometimes Carl will play ultra-passively, and other times he will go all-in hand after hand. He knows what he has to do, and does it without hesitation. He can completely switch from hyped up maniac to Betty Jr. in an instant. I have probably learned more from Carl's method of play than anyone at the Belle. Maybe someday I can get him to start a journal!

Because of the whacked-out table one, I didn't have to do a rebuy. I was sixthed in one pot, but the pot was so huge that I made money, didn't lose it, lol! I know, you're thinking that is impossible in Omaha 8, but it is true. I think 9:10 people saw the flop on that hand. Three of us had A4xx for the nut low, blah. One guy had the high, which was a straight. Had I known I was going to get 1/6th of the pot...hmmm, well, I'm sure I would never have been in the pot to begin with.

My other winning hand before the break was an all-in, as well. I think I had the sole nut low, so I got half. No complaints there.

The break saw me at back down to 75 in chips. That table is expensive. Just to see the flop costs four bets, and gawd forbid you actually catch, because then you are in pretty deep, just to be rivered by someone who had little to nothing, to start. LOL, what a fun table!

Doc Jackson was at my table. He is a local PCP in Kingman. He is under my insurance plan, so after numerous urgings by one of the dealers at the Belle, I finally went to him a few weeks ago when I needed my "stay spayed" shot. I also had a cold.

Unfortunately, I saw one of his associates. Jackson was booked four weeks in advance, since he also doubles as Obstetrician and delivers all of the babies in Kingman. He is very popular due to a fantastic personality.

Anyway, the associate was new, and grumpy, yelling to the nurse outside of the door how he hated all of the new patients he was being given (um, I was one of them), and complaining about everything under the sun. He started his time with me by cutting off every sentence of my replies to his general health questions. He didn't listen to a thing I said, and suggested I had an upper respiratory infection, when it was clear to me that I had a simple head cold, and my lungs were clear. I wasn't coughing, nor did my lungs hurt. What a bust. I had to pay a co-pay to this loser in order to get two minutes of his non-productive time. At least I got the shot, which means Glenn won't get murdered in his sleep for at least another three months.

Getting back to Doc Jackson, in my normally meek and mild mannered approach, I told him that his new doctor sucked, and that I was going to find another one. He suggested I try to come to him in the future, or someone else in his practice (yes, he does OWN the practice) whom he would recommend. I tried to be nice (yeah, right) and asked if there were doctors in Kingman who didn't have 150 screaming kids in the waiting room, nor so many doctors that the patient never sees the same one again, and is shuttled through like an assembly line. He didn't seem to want to answer. I didn't mean to offend him, but truly, no matter how thick skinned I am, I AM a human being, not a piece of meat.

Doc J was one of the first players out when his excellent hand A23xs was called by that whiner from last night having 3377 (???). The whiner hit a three on the river or some such nonsense. Doc J took it very well, like he always does. Good thing he was there to intervene, because had it been me beat with that junk, I would have strangled the whiner.

The other Doc, Doc Campbell, was sitting in between Doc J and myself for the tourney. This guy was never a doctor, but worked in a hospital and wore scrubs to the poker room years ago after his shift, which earned him the nickname Doc. He is a great guy, but whines too much about bad beats. He is the one who has recently passed me up for the WPT challenge and has been doing extremely well. He is running good, he knows it, I know it. We talk about it. He isn't delusional. He is hitting the money, or at least the top 20, almost every tourney now. He says he has slightly modified his play, but mostly he's just running well.

Betty won this huge pot against two all-in's, and was suddenly the chip lead at our table. I was shocked. Seeing Betty with a mountain of chips is sort of like seeing Dan Harrington raise with 72o. She managed to coast into the top 20 with those chips, rarely playing a hand again.

Mark B. from my Yahoo Journal came to greet me in the cardroom. He and his wife had come to Laughlin from LA again. He didn't have time to play in the tourney, having arrived so late, and needing to go to dinner with his wife and parents, but he wanted to cheer me on. Thanks, Mark!

I managed to make the top 20 by going all-in three times in quick succession, and surviving. I went from two black chips to over 2000 in chips. LOL. Doc Campbell and I were both hanging on at 21 for quite a few rounds. We both made it, as did Betty and Glenn. Our table was broken up, and we were down to the final two. Soon both Betty and Doc busted out, but Glenn and I were still in. When it was down to 12, I flopped top two pair in the BB (QJ). I went all-in, and the SB mulled it over for a century, then finally called. I already knew what he had. He is an older man, and shows his cards. I don't mean to look, but he and I were at the corner of the table, and they were just right there in my face, whenever I looked up to see the flop. I knew he had nothing. A gutshot, I think, with AT. The board first paired fives. Then on the river, the miracle ace. So he had aces and fives, I had my original queens and jacks. No low possible. I was out at 12th, by a very stupid call. That is why I so rarely see this guy in the money. Yes, he plays that badly. Glenn was at my table and rolled his eyes at me. We have both been burned by this guy before, but he is sweet and completely ignorant of the game, so there is nothing to say.

Glenn got busted out the very next hand after me, on the bubble. He had AAxxs. He was short and trying to double through. Instead, some crazy hand knocked him out, as normal.

So call us the bubble twins. But we had a great time, as usual, with great players.

Luckily Ali has been MIA for a couple of weeks, so we caught a break there. I don't know if he just went somewhere else, or if he got kicked out/warned/whatever. I'm just glad he's gone.

James was able to get to felicialee.net, so has read all of my latest posts. Of course he wasn't so glad to read about my whining, lol. He also knows why some of the things I completely don't "get" happen, and what can be done. Some of them are necessary, I guess, and he can't have it another way. Others are happening because he is so easy on his staff, and lets them get away with it. He says he is going to change this. I also told him that if he can explain some of the other things, that would help me quite a bit, in order to understand why some of them would be happening, yet nothing is being done. Go James!

Thursday, March 4, 2004

"Omaha 8/b exists for the same reason that country music exists. There has to be something for people who aren't good enough to play anything else."

--Linda Sherman

The poker room has turned upside down again. For the last three weeks, the Omaha 8 tourney has been very short, never selling out. Last week we only had 32 players, I believe. Along that line of reasoning, we decided to go to the Belle late in the evening. Um, bad plan. The room was packed, with five full Omaha 8 tables. Doh!

We were only able to get into a Stud game. I don't really enjoy 1-5 Stud anymore, but I must say that it's still better than that stupid $2-5 spread limit Hold'em.

A tourist on my right kept complaining about the tourney. "I have been playing all day and I was assured that I would get a seat if I was in a cash game at 5:45pm!" He threw such a fit that James finally gave him a seat before the seats were sold out. In other words, he got a seat before we did, since our table was the last to be started in the poker room.

I told him that I didn't know of a better system for them to hand out tickets. If anyone is involved in the TD business and knows of a better method of pre-registering players for a tournament, please write me.

In his defense, after he cooled off, he did apologize and tell me that the reason he threw such a fit is because he had been playing HE all day, and if he'd been told that if he switched to Stud he might not get a seat, he never would have switched games. He went to the trouble of explaining himself to me and the table after I'd called him on his brown nosing and made him look like a buttmunch in front of a crowd. As usual, I was the only one who said anything about his "preferential treatment."

Because of him, I was unable to get a seat in the tourney. It was sold out. Several of us drew for the last two tickets, but I drew a low card. Glenn drew a queen. He later insisted I play the tourney, since he likes cash games better anyway, and has given up caring about the WPT seat. I thought it would be better if he played, since he is much better at O8 than I am, and has more points.

I lost at Stud. I only made one mistake, but it was big enough to turn a winning session into a losing session. There was this guy next to Glenn. He was big and ugly, wearing a gold medallion a la 1985 and an unbuttoned shirt a la 1975. He took off his shoes to play, and he was not an attractive man, so it wasn't such a great sight. Anyway, all he did was talk. He talked so much, so loudly, and so strangely that he put me off my game for one hand. It was towards the beginning of my session, he had just sat down. I started out with a pair, and made a second pair on board. I never filled up, but his board looked to be either a straight or flush, by the time sixth was out. He bet the maximum on 7th, and even though he would have bet even a busted draw (if he played correctly) in this situation, I still should have called. Instead, my Hold'em rationale reared it's ugly head, and I folded to what turned out to be two smaller pair. We were HU, so there was no reason for me not to call. Bah!

During the tourney, I was sitting to left of the guy who had been so affected by the smoke during the week before. We talked a bit about it, how rude the players were being, even though we'd said nothing. He thanked me for the fan, and the support. I told him that I hadn't been feeling that well the week before, or I wouldn't have been nearly so tactful about the situation. My big mouth probably would have gotten me into trouble, lol.

On my other side was a guy from Tucson. He told me that the Desert Diamond has really gone downhill since Glenn and I visited last year. Too bad, it was beautiful. I figured that their high rake would eventually get them in trouble.

There was a man at the table next to ours. He was a tourist. He had the thickest, curliest, Howard Stern looking hair. It was under a cap, so it stuck straight out like a clown. It was hilarious. Most of the male dealers at the Belle are bald. I kept promising them that if I won the tourney, I would tip them enough to buy a wig like that guy. Seriously, I was jealous of all of that hair! Jeez, I wish I had 1/4 that much hair.

There weren't many ups and downs during this tourney. I wasn't winning big pots, but I wasn't getting knocked out either. I was just kind of floating, staying a little ahead of the blinds. I hate those tourneys. I'd rather just get busted and go home.

Finally our table broke and I went down to the final three tables. I got seated right next to the big hair guy. I didn't last long there, having A2xx, A23x, A2xx and never getting a low on any of them. We were down to 24 players, but I needed to make at least 20 to get WPT points. I couldn't hang on. I was all-in in the BB and didn't make a low, nor anything more than a pair. Blah.

I actually had a great time, though. During this tourney I had a fantastic table, mostly tourists, who were joking around and laughing during the entire two hours we were together. No one was arguing (thus not perpetuating the saying that Omaha is "Argu-ha"), dealers weren't making mistakes and then trying to blame the players, nor vice versa. We were just having a good time. The tourists were even laughing at my jokes, which are pathetic and lame. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, just there to have a fun time for their $25 buy-in.

That is the one great thing about the Belle. There are rarely really bad days in the cardroom.

Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Things are getting crazy. Every tournament is a sold-out mess before 6pm even comes (open registration). People are grumpy that they can't get seats, locals are grumpy that they aren't given preference, seniors are grumpy because the nine-handed tables are seating ten.

I'm just wondering if I'm ever going to win a hand. It's been four tournaments. Four Hold'em tourneys without winning one hand. Some of my cracked classics are: AA, AA, KK, KK, KK, QQ, JJ and AK so many times I can't even count.

I'm down to 5th in the WPT challenge, and falling further behind 1st-4th almost every tourney.

I had to take the seven seat, since we came in rather late. The eight seat was a cowboy from Texas. He had never played casino poker before, much less a tournament. I joked around with him, because he had a good personality. I asked him if he was from somewhere up north, his accent gave him away. Maybe New York City?

The guy in the six seat was a newbie from Phoenix. He was up in Laughlin for a baseball game his son had to play. He tried to project experience, telling me about all of his tourneys in Phoenix, and how the WPT has made Casino Arizona go mad, but it was extremely obvious that he was new himself. At one point he said, "You know, I want to learn all of those chip tricks so that people will think I'm a pro and respect my play." I usually just smile and nod when people say things like this, but I've been running so bad, and I had lost every hand I was in thus far in this tourney (this makes five in a row), that I looked at him incredulously and asked, "Why in the world would you WANT people to think you're good???"

After the first hour, I was already down to about 500 in chips from our original 1000. Nothing new under the sun.

Almost immediately after the break, I went all-in, at nine-handed, in EP, with AKo. I got two callers. One was this elderly lady who is very, very kind, but told me a couple of months ago that she "lacks the killer instinct," unlike me, and has a hard time with tourneys. I had knocked her out of the Pineapple tourney right on the bubble with a complete suckout. She is so passive and quiet that I never know if she has 72o or AA.

I figured I was beat already. The lady had QQ, the other caller had JJ. The flop was 543. I was getting up to leave. The turn was a ten or something that helped no one. I sucked out on the river with a deuce, lol.

The lady got the sidepot, so she wasn't upset with me, but it was a bad beat, nevertheless.

After that, I just kept getting good enough hands to go all-in. I got AA, and it held up for the first time in the last several times I've had it. I pressured the table, especially once we got shorthanded, and before I knew it, I was up to about 3000.

When we were down to six-handed, I was the SB and the elderly lady was the BB. Not having any clue what she had, I made a big raise with AJo. She immediately called all-in with QQ again. Yipes! She only had about 1000 left, due to the earlier beat, and a bad beat someone else put on her. Flop was harmless, turn ditto. River I sucked out with the ace. She said, "You did that to me last time, at the Pineapple tourney!" I told her I was really sorry, that I had no idea she had such a great hand. She is very, very sweet, and I felt bad putting about three bad beats on her during this tournament alone.

Our table broke and I was seated immediately to the left of Glenn at one of the final two tables. Blah! Glenn was knocked out almost immediately, as he was short and had to take a chance.

My never-winning-a-hand grim reaper came back to find me. He was so disappointed at having lost me for an hour, but he had other business to attend to, like putting a pineapple up Hitler's butt, so he left me alone for a bit, and I actually started winning again. Well, Hitler was in mortal pain, so Death found me at this table, and made sure I lost every hand again. I went from practically the chip lead, to OUT in about five hands. All were premium hands, all were beat. The only sub par hand I held was when I was in the BB for 400. A very shortstacked player went all-in in EP for his last 700. He'd just been handed a horrific bad beat the hand before, so I knew he was tilting. It was passed to me, I looked down to see A4o. I probably would have called with anything in this position, as it was only 300 more to me, against a probable nothing. I called and he had QTs. He got a ten.

After that, Death stayed by my side, filling up Glenn's vacated seat, and taunted me with premium hands regularly, only to make sure they were busted. When we got down to 14 players, suddenly I was the short stack, and then was out.

At least my never-won-a-hand all tournament streak was broken.

The top six players decided to chop the prize pool. Among them were Ionizer Bob, Carl and JJ, a Korean guy I've spoken about before. Way to go, guys!

James told me that he has decided to move the 4/8 FK game over to the Edgewater, and make our "high stakes" game a 5/10 FK. No problem there. Of course, we will have to literally pull teeth to get Glen to spread it, but whatever.

I sat into the game after I busted out of the tourney. Glenn was already there, and looking like a cat that ate a canary. I knew the game must be good. Sure enough, it was a fish fry. Great game! I couldn't win, but it was great nevertheless. Extremely loose, mildly passive, horrible play. You would have thought it was a 2/4 game. Yippee! James is going to try to promote this game by making the max rake $1.00 for the first hour. We'll see.

With floormen like Glen, in the evenings, it will never get going :( He just absolutely refuses. He will do anything within his power (which is considerable, being that he runs the cardroom in the evening shift) to keep from spreading that game.

Glenn did very well in the 5/10. He wishes that it would be spread regularly, because he likes cash games more than I do, but he knows it might be extremely inconsistent.

Monday, March 1, 2004

Jeez, louise, I'm really running bad at Hold'em. Glenn and I got to the Belle around 5pm. We were seated at a $2-5 spread limit game, as the 4/8 was full and had a huge list. Do you think they would possibly spread another 4/8 for the two hours prior to the tourney? No way. That would mean that the house would get extra money, as the max rake would always be applied, and the dealers would get bigger tips. Now we can't have that, can we?

I played 2-5 for two hours. I never won a hand. Never, not one. I had AKo once, and a pocket pair of threes, but nada else. No good aces, no good kings. Blah. At least it was 2-5, lol.

The tourney table I got was a disaster. I hate playing at a table with mostly women.

Sonny is a Thai woman who was to my left. Sonny is addicted to drugs. She drinks and takes drugs, a great combination (not). Her hair is thin on top and her skin is so pasty that it looks like she could fall over in a second, dying from an overdose.

She does not try to hide her drug use. She takes pills from an old prescription bottle that has all of the writing worn off. She drinks beer after beer. She is very unhappy and lets everyone at the table know how miserable she is. I feel bad for her, but she needs help, not sympathy.

Anyway, my tournament table was a horrid one. My streak of losing continued. I never won a hand. Pocket aces got beat by runner-runner flush. Top two pair flopped got rivered by a flush. On and on, I folded btf, on the flop, on the turn, or got a beat on the river. I had to rebuy twice, which is a record for me. I just kept giving away my chips to absolutely clueless players who played any two cards to the river. Had I not been dealt so many premium hands, and hit the flop solidly, I wouldn't have been in the pot to begin with, but it is hard to throw away pocket aces, even in the limit portion of the tourney.

I just kept losing, I never won a hand. Right after the break, I was dealt KK. I didn't have many chips, due to my previous losing. A fish in seat four who had obviously never played in a tourney, had less chips than I did. Ironically, this was the same guy who caught runner-runner against my aces earlier. He was in most hands, and he shook uncontrollably when he had a monster. His eyes darted around in sheer terror when he was in a hand. He could never remember the blinds, nor the fact that we were playing no-limit, and had to constantly ask the dealer "what is the bet?" even though he could bet as much as he wanted. I love those guys.

Anyway, I got KK in LP. He was in the BB. I went all-in, he debated for a long time, but his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't pick up his chips. He finally did call, but he had 50 less in chips than me, so I got 50 back. I wondered why he hesitated so long, since he had AA, lol.

After the hand, he kept staring at me. He had stared at me after the runner-runner incident, and after I had flopped two pair and he rivered a flush, too. I had no idea why he kept staring at me, but after the last hand, I figured that he probably was wondering why I showed absolutely no emotion. I guess he figured that if he was getting beat this badly, every hand, he would be more emotional about it, instead of sitting and chatting, laughing with the dealer and other players.

I went all-in UTG with the best hand I'd seen since the KK fiasco. 98o. Lots of callers. Larry was on the button with K8s. Flopped a king, he went all-in. At least I got some protection for my gutshot. Nothing improved, and IGHN, once again, never having won a hand.

I was kind of glad I didn't win UTG. The BB would have taken 50 of the 250 pot I'd have won, then I'd have paid 25 for the SB, if I made it that far without the blinds increasing to 50/100. At any rate, I'd have been climbing Mt. Everest without weather protection, and it would most likely have been more frustrating than just busting out immediately.

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While I was playing a cash game, I got into a conversation about cheaters. There was a guy in the two seat, between myself and a lady who is a semi-regular, and always nice. Blackie is the nickname he goes by, and this guy knows every angle in the book. He has to, because he sucks at poker, lol. Anyway, somehow we got into a conversation about cheaters and angleshooters, due to Blackie constantly trying to shoot some angle, then walking away from the table for a while every time he got caught. The dealer was sick of him, and started talking about it. I guess Blackie has been kicked out of the Belle several times for these offenses, but always is let back in. What's new?

The lady in the one seat was appalled that this kind of thing seems to happen all the time. She was ill at having to sit next to Blackie, until he moved. She kept listening to our conversation, wide eyed, and asking questions. She told me that she saw someone palming chips, shorting the pot, over the weekend, but was too scared to report it. The dealer and I told her that it was necessary to report people who are stealing. They are stealing from the other players, including herself, and they will never be punished until the players, dealers, supervisors and surveillance start policing these activities.

Every time I report this kind of criminal activity, James goes around the Belle and asks people about it. Everyone just pooh-poohs it away, like it is no big deal. I can just hear the talk, "Oh, you know, Felicia is always making a big deal about everything. She over exaggerates, she tries to stir up trouble. She is always busting our chops about something."

For whatever reason, people today live in this land called self-delusion. They have made a little shelter around themselves, trying to live these perfect little lives, that are never interrupted by the real world. They don't want to see crime. They don't want to see things that are happening which might not be PC, might not fit into their idealism. It is much better to just ignore it when someone palms a chip, shorts the pot, colludes with another player. They just don't want to get involved.

I have tried to recruit other players to tell James the truth, when he is there. Sometimes another player just looks blankly between myself and James, and says, "I don't know," or "I have no idea what you are talking about." Other times they will say, "I just don't want to get involved," and walk away. Dealers, when questioned, say things like, "Oh, I remember something like that happening...I can't remember the details" and drift way, into the perfect little PC world they have created around themselves.

The lady in seat one said that she was scared about reporting the palming. She didn't want to make a big deal out of it, didn't want to get in trouble. What is wrong with our world today? I thought that it was just an urban legend that self defense experts would tell women that if they were being attacked to yell "FIRE" not "HELP," because if they yell for help, no one will come, but if they yell "FIRE" a crowd will come running. I was naive, of course it's the truth. Some Americans are pathetic.

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Donna is a dealer who just started at the Belle. She was at the unnamed poker room for six years, until the new extortion started.

She is a very competent dealer who deals French style, so cards can never be exposed or flashed. She doesn't make many mistakes.

I am so glad we have her now.

Donna's eyes got very wide when she found out about my journal. She begged me to please be careful and not say anything more, especially given the warnings I have already received. She confirmed that in the six years she worked there, people disappeared. People who spoke out and would not stop. She said that my warning about finding an early grave was serious enough for her to know that it may happen.

So, although I have never backed down from anything in my life, I must admit now that organized crime is thriving at that particular casino, and that my life might be in danger.

From now on, that casino is going to be the "unnamed poker room." The owner is going to be the Godfather. The name of the town will be called, "His town."

I will not stop talking about the extortion or various crimes being committed there, but I will stop saying the names.

Dealers are now required to pay $5.00 to the poker room manager when they walk in the door. Even if they never deal a hand, they still must pay. They must pay $2.50 per shift to the brush. They must pay $2.00 per shift to the cashier. They must tip the cocktail waitresses and play video poker while smoking. They must pay the floorman $1.50 per hour while on the clock, whether they are dealing, on break or propping. They are required to prop in games down to head's up, to keep every table going. They are not given back their rake, nor paid to prop.

A full-time dealer must now pay about $5000 of his or her salary per year to work at the unnamed poker room in extortion.

Dealers are walking out daily. I am confident they will find homes at the Belle, Edgewater and two new poker rooms that are rumored to be opening: Ramada Express and Pioneer.

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After I busted out, which was rather fast, I railbirded the tourney. To my surprise, Betty busted out in 23rd, which means she got no points for the WPT challenge. Everyone was surprised, because she is so tight, and has been known to fold pocket kings with 21 players remaining.

The rumor is that she was steaming. She does this occasionally. If she gets some really bad beats, even with the few hands she plays, she will suddenly just go berserk.

Supposedly, she was tilting, played 3 hands in a row (limped in, then called their raises and/or all-in's) and lost all three hands, with inferior cards.

Does this sound like Betty? Noooo. But it happened, of that I have no doubt. Maybe her AA got busted twice in a row, and she just went off. She has done it before, so, although it doesn't happen often, I can see her purposely busting herself out of the tourney, with quite a few chips, inferior hands, when she could have coasted into the top 20.

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I'm sorry if my post sounds so depressing today. I cannot find any other way to express the things that happened on Monday without censoring the truth.

Unfortunately, sometimes we dwell on the negative, because it can be so overwhelming. We forget to mention the positive in the midst of atrocities. I will not stoop to this, as my heart goes out to those below:

Larry was signaling to James as I was talking about the cheating going on and questioning why nothing was being done about it. Larry was lifting his arm like a schoolboy who needed the restroom, lol. He was doing this WHILE playing, while in hands. He kept nodding, even while he had cards, and confirming to James that what I was saying was the truth. Larry was not even solicited to come to my aid. He just did, he was there for me. He knows the truth, and even if he hated me, which I know he doesn't, he would never back down from supporting what is going on while James is not in the poker room. He even told James that he would tell him more about these things, as he is in the poker room much more that I am, and has been there for ten years.

Betty gets on my last nerve, but never fails to stand up for herself against abuse. She is the one who busted Leon, the buttmunch drinker, about his behavior during a tournament. When everyone else went into a shell and let Leon keep acting the part of the abusive drunk, Betty stood up and said, "I've had just about enough of you! You are over the line, get out of here!" The TD refused to do anything, the table went under cover, but Betty stood up and openly challenged a strong, young, drunk man of 28 years old, when she is easily 65 and much more fragile. She forced him to leave the poker room, and would not back down until he left, even though he could easily have signed up for a cash game, or gone to Glen for help against her.

Of the people who play regularly at the Belle, 99 out of 100 are wonderful. They are absolutely adorable and fun to be around. I wouldn't be there if they weren't. I would play online, I would learn to adapt. Why would I subject myself to cheating, angleshooting, abuse, threats of being killed and smoke if I didn't love most of the people I see every day?

People like Larry and Betty make the Belle what it is. They have balls to stand up for their rights. People like Ionizer Bob, Little Gene, Big Gene, Polio Gene, Chuck, Carl and many dozens of others make my life so enjoyable that I can put up with any numerous small miseries to continue playing live poker.

I thank them all for the joy they have given me since September.

And thank you, readers, for getting through this post and always being so supportive!

Sunday, February 29, 2004

A warm, sunny day in northwestern Arizona. Believe it or not, we haven't had many in the last few weeks. It is rainy and overcast, which is kind of how the winter is here (this year, anyway). At least it's not snowy! We have a day here and there of full, warm sun, then maybe a week of rain or drizzle, to remind us that even Arizona has winter.

I gave Glenn two choices. I told him that while we had a wonderful day, he could either 1) take me to one of the "local attractions," for which he would get the reward of playing poker in Laughlin a bit at the end of the trip, or 2) go food shopping, home shopping, and give the whole house a spring cleaning when we got back.

Which do you think he chose? LOL :)

We went to Lake Havasu, AZ. I had read that it is a beautiful little town on the Colorado River. Our friends, the Brits, sold us the London Bridge and shipped it over here, piece by piece, for us. They even numbered the stones, so we couldn't screw it up when making it.

There is a little English village that lines the shores under the bridge. Yeah, it's a tourist trap, but it is the closest to London I've come to thus far.

There was an English pub. We ate lunch there and had "English" food, lol. It was really neat. There was a Scottish couple there, as well as a couple from England, so that kind of made it more authentic :) I know, I'm easily entertained.

On the way back from Lake Havasu, we took the "Laughlin" route, and swung by the Belle for a couple of hours of poker. We had to play 2-5 spread limit, because although the list had only about 20 people for 4/8, there was no game offered. HELLO!

The pre-Oscar (?) show was on the TV. Since I wasn't in the mood to "kill" the poker game, I was watching the show. I guess they wait for celebs to exit their limos, then interview them when they come into the area. Some of the women were so gorgeous. The dresses were fantastic. Some were just plain ugly and gaudy, but most were tasteful and elegant. I would say I wasn't so hyped to Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie. The other women looked great, that I saw. Julie Andrews is still very handsome. Jeez, does Michael Douglas look just like his dad now, or what? Bill Murray looked like he was 15 years older than the last time I'd see him, too.

I don't get to see stars very often, due to no TV and no magazines/newspapers, so when I do see someone, if they have aged at all, it is startling to me, I haven't been seeing it happen year by year.

Anyway, the women looked great to me, except the ones who had so much plastic surgery that they no longer looked real. Most of them looked fantastic though.

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One of our fellow journal keepers, Poker Babe, won a 5k tourney on Stars. Go PB! It was Omaha 8. I think this might be the biggest win among the more grounded players (I'm not including multi-millionaires, etc).

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I have noticed in the poker journal world that some journalers seem to fade away. Their entries get fewer and farther between, and then just stop. I wonder what happened. Most of the time I take an educated guess and figure that they are losing, and their obsession with poker has been replaced with something else. This doesn't just happen with the journal keepers, I see it on poker forums, too. It is just more noticeable when I go to a website which is no longer being updated.

Lots of the journalers are newbies. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I encourage any newbie to keep a poker journal. The problem that most of them seem to have is being way too results oriented. Any given session to them is a big experience. It's a make or break session. Their moods swing depending on their outcome. Instead of thinking of poker as a lifetime session, they break it down into each playing session and let themselves get emotional over the outcome. Even some of the more experienced players think in terms of "this week" and "this month." While it is just naive to ignore an overall trend in your results, it is also a beginner's trait to base your emotions and reactions on such small samplings.

When I think of each, individual session, I never focus on the results. I focus on my, particular EV of that session. What was my EV? Was it positive for me to play in that game/tourney? How much of an advantage did I really have? What was the rake/juice? When I made this play/that play, was it the right play (regardless of outcome)?

While it may seem to readers that I will write up a story about a particular tourney, and lament over my losing hands, complete with sarcasm and cynicism, in reality, that is only to get a laugh. I never think about losing sessions individually.