Cliff Notes for the Reading Impaired

Someone I love and respect very much (Glenn, not YOU, dangit), told me that my post was too long winded, rambling and disjointed. Gotta love that honest injun Glenn!

So in the interest of those of you who want some good poker advice, yet lack the skills to read something that is longer than Dick & Jane, here are some cliff notes:

Someone who is a calling station is the weakest link in the poker world. They cannot hope to win or succeed. I think that they generally have low self-confidence. I say "generally" because sometimes this person is a new player, and simply doesn't know where he or she is in the hand, so takes a step back and simply calls down an aggressive player.

Generally, though, a habitual calling station simply does not have good, healthy self-esteem. He cannot be the aggressor, so he plays reactive poker. Reactive poker has no chance of winning in the long run. A player has to be willing to put his balls on the table and bet & raise, not check & call.

If you are a poker player and you are not sure where you stand in this equation, I urge you to either look over hand histories (if you are an online player), get a mentor or think specifically about your last few sessions.

Hold'em is an easy example for this. Ask yourself, "How many pots have I limped into lately?" "How many times have I open-limped?" "How many times have I opened in late or last position and limped?" If you have been doing this quite a bit, you are being too passive. You should be betting and raising when you are in a pot, playing Hold'em, in general. Not open-limping. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, CALLING is not a good, viable strategy. Hold'em is a game of aggression (as is all poker, but in HE, it is even moreso).

When you have a strong hand, you need to be in there raising. When you start looking for MUBS (monsters under the bed) every time you have a strong hand and play a big pot, something is wrong. You cannot see ghosts around every corner when you are playing poker. You need to assume you have the best hand until you are proven wrong. Seeing those MUBS will make you slow down and become passive, when that is not the right strategy.

A good exercise in aggression is one that I practice occasionally and force Glenn to practice, too.

When Glenn is running bad, his play gets more and more passive. It only makes the bad run worse, because even when you are winning, your wins are smaller, whereas you are still getting charged the maximum when you lose, by decent players. So you need to work on your game, shake it off. Read Dr. Al's book, Psychology of Poker. Study hand histories, ask someone who will be honest with you, and a billion other little tricks that smart players use when they are running and/or playing badly.

Here is the trick I was being specific about, though:

Glenn was losing every session, every big hand he was involved in. I think he got 13 or 14 straight sets snapped off either on the turn or river (this is not even counting the premium pairs that didn't flop a set, and got beat via some other reason). So he was dealt pocket aces while I was in the room. He immediately started whining, "Oh, brother, here we go again!" He still raised or re-raised with the aces, he wasn't quite that passive, but he was automatically expecting to be beat. I immediately jumped up and put my hand over the table, so that he couldn't see the board (flop, turn or river), and told him to just kept his pointer on bet/raise/raise any. The action played out, and we had no idea what his opponent hand was when he kept betting into and raising Glenn, but in the end, the pot was pushed Glenn's way. Glenn went and looked up the HH later.

The important thing was, he got the most bets in with his winning hand. Had he been bet into or raised by his opponent after seeing the flop, he would have slowed down, since he was running so badly, and simply started playing reactive, passive poker.

Once again, reactive, passive poker is LOSING poker, and may also well be a sign of low self-esteem. Running bad usually amounts to playing bad. Sure, everyone goes through bad runs. It is a part of poker, but the majority of the people who go through bad runs start PLAYING badly as well, and then the run is worse, because they stop making the most out of their winning hands, while being charged the most with their losing hands. It's a NO-WIN situation. Believe me, you are not "due" to start winning after an extensive bad run. You aren't due anything. You can and will keep on losing, if you aren't right in there plugging those leaks. Be diligent, be assertive, be aggressive. If you lack the self-esteem to always be putting your balls forward in almost every poker situation you find yourself in, you will not ever be a long-term winner in the game of poker or life.

Felicia :)

Self Esteem and Poker

Wow, is this a topic I've covered once or thirteen times already or what?

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), this is a subject matter that is ever prominent in poker, and must be discussed often.

Poker tends to draw gamesters. What a concept, huh? ;) Seriously, though, most poker players aren't the bubbly, outgoing, talkative, social type. They tend to be a little more introspective, serious, watchful and cautious.

Sometimes this means that they have high self-esteem and do not need outside resources to energize them. That is usually a sign that the person is introverted (according to Jung). Other times, these same tendencies are not something that the person was born with, but have developed over time in order to mask low self-confidence.

One way that we can tell if someone is lacking in confidence or not, is a simple, little test.

If something is said or written and you feel as if the source is attacking you, personally, you probably have low self-esteem. If you feel that the source was writing or saying something in general, yet you fit the description and admit it, perhaps even laugh about it, you likely have good self-esteem.

I remember once that I had a boyfriend who had issues. First off, he was underdeveloped as a teenager. He was very short and slight, his voice hadn't changed, he had no body hair. His Mom was a nurse with a doctorate, and noticed straight off that something wasn't right. She took him to an Endocrinologist who diagnosed him with low testosterone. He started getting shots. Now, obviously testosterone is needed in the system, but I think he was given too much, or maybe that was all that was available in medicine at the time (70's and early 80's). I'm not sure, I don't know much about it, but put it this way...the guy's Dad was 5'4", the guy's Mom was 4'11". None of his sisters was more than 5'4" tall. He was 6'6" tall when I met him. Something is rotten in Denmark, lol.

So anyway, I'm not sure if the lack of testosterone as a youngster was part of his problem with confidence, or if he just developed that way. Here is the point of the story, though.

Paul was a programmer, and pretty gifted. He was so much more knowledgeable in math and sciences than I was, or will ever be. So sometimes when I was saying something to him, I would repeat the same things over and over and over again.

One day he snapped, "You must think I'm stupid! Do you think I'm that dumb, that you have to repeat things over and over again in order for me to understand them?" He was really angry, totally redfaced.

I had to explain to him that it was for MY benefit that I was repeating. That I just barely had a grasp of something, or didn't really grasp it altogether at all, and was trying to understand it. So I had a habit of repeating myself in order to cement it into my little pea brain.

I do this a lot. I do it in my head, on paper and aloud. I do this for NO ONE's benefit more than my own. I do not have a great grasp of anything scientific. It is one of my weaknesses. And if I stop concentrating for just one second, I lose it altogether. So I try to memorize it, and also try to take it apart and put it back together so that the concept stays put in my brain. It is a way of understanding something that is beyond me.

Glenn used to wonder why I did this, as well. Now he knows, and it doesn't bother him at all.

As far as Paul goes, well, he had some issues, and we are obviously not together anymore. Someone with extremely low self-esteem would simply get steamrolled by someone like me. To him, everything was about HIM. No matter what I said, or how I said it, I was somehow putting him down. He never once stopped to think that in almost every situation, I was trying to educate MYSELF, not him.

This journal is a perfect example of how I am constantly picking, picking, picking at things, and mostly to remind myself of something I don't have a good grasp of. Maybe something that is a pet peeve of mine. Something that bothers me about myself.

But it seems like I'm directing my anger towards someone else, in the minds of those who lack esteem. It seems like I'm taking one person, one site, one something, and just going ballistic on THEM! Which is insane. I am usually trying to clear up a weakness in my own personality, poker play or pet peeve. I might even be poking fun at myself, or something as a whole, but not one individual.

When I read someone's journal, at times I will notice that the author is addressing something that I tend to do in my own journal, or in my own life. My first assumption is that they are speaking about a pet peeve they have, or maybe it is their own habit they are exposing, or that they are ranting in general about something they hate. I never just jump to a conclusion that they are going after me, privately, solely. I don't think I'm being "attacked," and start flaming them. It's not in my personality to think that they are "out to get me."

I see the humor in the situation. I say to myself, "Oh, man, I do that all the time!"

A great example is when a blogger says that one of his pet peeves is when someone overuses LOL or ROFL or emoticons. I am sooooo guilty of that. If he compares it to a pre-teen girl watching Barbie shows, I get a kick out of it. That is the way I write, and it's pathetic and juvenile, but I can't seem to stop it, nor do I really want to. It's kind of "me."

I started the emoticon thing because when I first got online, I used IRC a lot. Usually there were a billion Felicia's on, at any given time. Hence the reason I started using FeliciaLee (first and middle name). I also used Felicia :) Meant to be my name with a smiley. It was just convenience, so that users knew which Felicia they were speaking to.

LOL and ROFL and other juvenile terms were a way of filling up a conversation. Nothing is worse than dead air when relaying a story online. Especially back in the days of the 14k baud connection when someone would type out a huge story, and there was no response from the listener that he was still online (hadn't been disconnected in the middle of it). So tons of people just got used to typing something, anything into the dead air, to let the typist know that they still had an audience.

Now, hmm, it is nothing more than a bad habit that can't be stopped.

So it cracks me up to read a rant by another blogger who hates stuff like that. Stuff I do every, frigging day and don't even realize it.

But do I feel attacked, personally? Do I feel that someone is going after me? Naw, I just take it as a general rant and rave.

Sometimes the person really IS going after me, and I'm too retarded to see it unless they spell it out. To those people, I usually just say to myself, "Get a life," and move on.

Nothing bothers flamers more than to just be ignored. They are after attention, and I generally refuse to accommodate them.

So with all of these examples, I'm hoping that you get the connection that a healthy self-esteem is required in poker. Someone who is a calling station is the weakest link in the poker world. They cannot hope to win or succeed. I think that they generally have low self-confidence. I say "generally" because sometimes this person is a new player, and simply doesn't know where he or she is in the hand, so takes a step back and simply calls down an aggressive player.

Generally, though, a habitual calling station simply does not have good, healthy self-esteem. He cannot be the aggressor, so he plays reactive poker. Reactive poker has no chance of winning in the long run. A player has to be willing to put his balls on the table and bet & raise, not check & call.

If you are a poker player and you are not sure where you stand in this equation, I urge you to either look over hand histories (if you are an online player), get a mentor or think specifically about your last few sessions.

Hold'em is an easy example for this. Ask yourself, "How many pots have I limped into lately?" "How many times have I open-limped?" "How many times have I opened in late or last position and limped?" If you have been doing this quite a bit, you are being too passive. You should be betting and raising when you are in a pot, playing Hold'em, in general. Not open-limping. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, CALLING is not a good, viable strategy. Hold'em is a game of aggression (as is all poker, but in HE, it is even moreso).

When you have a strong hand, you need to be in there raising. When you start looking for MUBS (monsters under the bed) every time you have a strong hand and play a big pot, something is wrong. You cannot see ghosts around every corner when you are playing poker. You need to assume you have the best hand until you are proven wrong. Seeing those MUBS will make you slow down and become passive, when that is not the right strategy.

A good exercise in aggression is one that I practice occasionally and force Glenn to practice, too.

When Glenn is running bad, his play gets more and more passive. It only makes the bad run worse, because even when you are winning, your wins are smaller, whereas you are still getting charged the maximum when you lose, by decent players. So you need to work on your game, shake it off. Read Dr. Al's book, Psychology of Poker. Study hand histories, ask someone who will be honest with you, and a billion other little tricks that smart players use when they are running and/or playing badly.

Here is the trick I was being specific about, though:

Glenn was losing every session, every big hand he was involved in. I think he got 13 or 14 straight sets snapped off either on the turn or river (this is not even counting the premium pairs that didn't flop a set, and got beat via some other reason). So he was dealt pocket aces while I was in the room. He immediately started whining, "Oh, brother, here we go again!" He still raised or re-raised with the aces, he wasn't quite that passive, but he was automatically expecting to be beat. I immediately jumped up and put my hand over the table, so that he couldn't see the board (flop, turn or river), and told him to just kept his pointer on bet/raise/raise any. The action played out, and we had no idea what his opponent hand was when he kept betting into and raising Glenn, but in the end, the pot was pushed Glenn's way. Glenn went and looked up the HH later.

The important thing was, he got the most bets in with his winning hand. Had he been bet into or raised by his opponent after seeing the flop, he would have slowed down, since he was running so badly, and simply started playing reactive, passive poker.

Once again, reactive, passive poker is LOSING poker, and may also well be a sign of low self-esteem. Running bad usually amounts to playing bad. Sure, everyone goes through bad runs. It is a part of poker, but the majority of the people who go through bad runs start PLAYING badly as well, and then the run is worse, because they stop making the most out of their winning hands, while being charged the most with their losing hands. It's a NO-WIN situation. Believe me, you are not "due" to start winning after an extensive bad run. You aren't due anything. You can and will keep on losing, if you aren't right in there plugging those leaks. Be diligent, be assertive, be aggressive. If you lack the self-esteem to always be putting your balls forward in almost every poker situation you find yourself in, you will not ever be a long-term winner in the game of poker or life.

Felicia :)

Spine

Okay, since I can't write about blogging, blogs, journals and why we are all so retarded (thanks, Matt!), I'll rant about something that is also near and dear to my heart and life. Plus it has to do with poker (which will no doubt disappoint some of you, since you can't play your way out of a frigging wet paper bag and the last thing you want to read about is poker, when your melodrama and soap operaish blogging wars are so much more important). Wow, did I just say that? No, I didn't. It was in parenthesis, that doesn't count. That means I just thought it, I didn't actually say it.

So there, I got that off of my chest, which is important, since I have no chest, hence I have nothing to hold up those rants, and need to get them off as quickly as possible.

Something very important in poker and life, is having backbone, having spine.

Going into a cardroom for the first time, alone, can be intimidating and overwhelming. Surely in the past three years things have gotten easier, but even today, lots of players are nervous when they enter. Yes, they assume that 1-5 Stud player sitting there with his dusty chips, nursing his pension are professionals and "sharks."

A full-time player is not necessarily a professional player. I certainly never was. I don't have the discipline and fortitude for it.

Okay, so going into a cardroom necessitates some spine. But that is just the first time spine is needed. It doesn't end, nor does it get easier from here. It's not like addiction, where admitting the problem is the first, and hardest hurdle, etc, and all of that other bleeding heart liberal tree hugging hippy Kumbaya stuff.

In fact, it gets tougher. So straighten up and be prepared to let your inner-dominatrix loose. If you're a guy, just play along, after all, the thought of a dominatrix is more sexy than a male dominant.

Hold on...

Okay, now that I have masturbated to my fantasies, we can continue.

The first time you walk in, pretend like you are walking into a tattoo parlor, or another place where both the patrons and employees think they are "too good" to talk to you or wait on you in a reasonable manner. For every business you've ever walked into that treated you like SHITE and had no customer service, assume this demeanor tenfold.

At random times during your live poker room experience, cup your balls in your hands while you are going off on someone. It doesn't matter if you don't have physical balls, I still do this, and it causes great confusion and passive behavior by both my opponents and cardroom employees alike. Showing the world your balls is always a good thing. It can never really have any negative effect, as it is both bold and dominant. My balls are huge, and I never miss an opportunity to make sure everyone knows it.

So once you have put your name on some lists, and made sure that you are on various lists of interest that didn't exist until YOU walked into the room (never, ever take no for an answer on this one), start scouting out the tables.

Keep your head very high, so that you are looking down your nose at both the tables and the players. Show your dominance at all times. Keep your spine straight!

Don't ever wear gangsta pants to the cardroom. It is a sign of low self esteem along with low pant esteem and plumbers buttcrack to be constantly pulling up your pants in front of 100 people. You must realize that you look like a fool, as well as act the fool, if you are wearing this attire.

On the same note, don't dress like a hooker! Only hookers need to dress like hookers. Anyone who emulates hooker dress, has to have low self confidence. You aren't there to pick up johns, you are there to play poker with some of the scummiest people in the world. You DON'T want to enter the cardroom dressed like a hooker UNLESS YOU ARE ONE!

It's cold in cardrooms, it's uncomfortable, and no one who has true confidence in her poker abilities wants the kind of attention that comes with looking like a prostitute. Just don't go there.

If the dealer is taking too much rake, speak up. IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO PLAY POKER, YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO PROTECT YOURSELF!!! I cannot stress this point too much. I cannot stress how stupid and reserved people remain in a business like poker, when at every turn someone is trying to take advantage of you, trying to take your money! Speak UP for god's sake!

If you do not know the rake, nor care, just leave now, and don't come back. No, I'm not talking about recreational players here, I'm talking about serious players, obviously (I didn't think that I needed to state that, but have been told that no, to some of my readers, it's just not obvious).

If you see marked cards, yet the dealer refuses to do anything about it, or the floor is called and refuses to change the deck, GET THE EFF UP AND LEAVE IMMEDIATELY! This doesn't count for cardrooms like Riverside which are just too cheap to get new decks, and the players aren't cheating, they are just stupid (I thought that one was obvious, too, but strike two for me).

If you see cheating going on, there are many ways to handle it. First off, the players might be playing low-limit monkey poker, are new to the poker scene, and have no idea they are cheating. You really need to speak up if you see this happening, because most dealers will not say anything, and will NOT protect you. It's up to you. It's not up to the floor, not up to the other players. No one is going to protect your money except YOU, so let the buck stop there, don't pass it on while making excuses (Glenn's M.O.). Take it upon yourself to do something. You can be kind and gentle with said cheaters, you don't have to be harsh. You can just make a comment about how they must be friends, and did they know that collusion/soft play/sharing hands was verboden in the poker world? They will usually take it well. I have had only one instance in which the cheating players took it badly. I have taken this approach probably 100 times, and only had one bad experience. So speak up. No one is going to rock you to sleep in the cardroom. Either protect yourself or get the EFF out of the poker scene.

Another way to handle possible/probable cheats is to go to the floorman. If you suspect very experienced cheats, this is the way to go. If you approach them yourself, you might find a knife at your throat later in the parking lot. You MUST, however, follow up on this, and keep diligent. Make DANG sure that the supervisor comes over and tells one of the cheats to expose his hand when the action is over. That is the only way to know for sure, and it happens a lot, don't think you are living in some bubble, some Kumbaya perfect world. STAY ALERT and KEEP THOSE BALLS FORWARD!

If you get to showdown and have won a pot, keep your cards in your hands until the pot is pushed to you. Let me repeat this for the hearing/reading impaired, because this is the #1 mistake I see both rookies and experienced players alike make (read my post about mucking the winner at Wynn a couple of months ago, Doh!). KEEP YOUR CARDS IN YOUR HANDS UNTIL THE POT IS PUSHED TO YOU!!!!

But, but, but you say...you want to show me how I am so wrong about this. You want to bring up a situation where you don't need to keep your cards. Why? Because you are a moron and you are retarded enough to think I haven't seen EVERY situation known to man. You don't want to believe that it could happen to YOU, because you are so ABOVE those things, and so experienced.

Um, NO, you aren't. You're an idiot for even thinking it couldn't and wouldn't happen to you. So I'll post a situation that you are thinking of, just because I know you are a moron.

You are in a HU pot. The river is dealt. The opponent says, "Good hand, I missed" before seeing your cards. The dealer mucks the board. The pot starts to go to you so you muck. The opponent, the dealer or ANYONE at the table says, "But he never showed his hand! He doesn't even HAVE a live hand. The only LIVE hand is by the guy who supposedly 'missed!'"

Yes, they will say this. And yes, the pot will be pushed to the supposed "live" hand.

I could name a dozen other situations. I could provide examples of some very experienced, very diligent players who still got scammed and saw the pot eventually rewarded to the losing hand. But if you don't believe it, you probably never will. Most people don't...until it happens to THEM!

Go read some tourney reports, some very high buy-in events. Read all of the coverage that ends a situation with a line like, "...And then Phil Ivey's hand was mucked because..." And Phil saying, "JHC, it was no one's fault but my own. I wasn't paying enough attention!"

It happens to EVERYONE. We get tired, we are exhausted. No one is above having the best hand mucked accidentally.

So when a dealer is truly trying to PRY the cards from your hands, do NOT give them up until the pot is truly and securely in front of you, where it belongs. Unless the pot is in your stack, make them pry the cards from your COLD, DEAD FINGERS!!!

Okay, so maybe we have that one understood.

What is the common denominator in everything I've written so far? SPINE! You have to have it to play seriously. I cannot stress this enough.

If you would like to call it something else, feel free. Spine, balls, self-confidence, backbone, self-esteem. I don't care what you want to name it, just make sure you HAVE IT! If you don't, you know what? Losing is a sure thing in your future.

So when else is spine important in a cardroom? ALL THE TIME, that is when! Don't be an idiot, you moron (stolen from Howard Stern).

You want another one? Your name is next on the list, but the floor keeps passing you by to seat locals and/or "tippers?"

GO FRIGGING BALLISTIC and don't shut up until you make it very well known what is going on, and that you will not tolerate it.

The only time you don't speak up in certain situations is when it increases your win rate if you stay silent. For instance, a guy at your table clearly doesn't like women, so he keeps mumbling under his breath about how women shouldn't be allowed in the poker room. At the same time, you are stealing his blinds with impunity and getting him to cap it with you every round when you have a monster. So maybe here you keep your trap shut and bust him. Then go off, when he's walking away and you have his money.

"So women can't play, huh? Shouldn't be allowed in the cardroom, eh? Goodnight then, thanks for the chips!"

Unless he is the type who will be back tomorrow to donate more to your implant-fund.

Well, I think I've covered lots of crap today. Crap it is, ain't it? When we need this type of military defense just to play freaking poker!

If you are unable or unwilling to stick up for yourself in the cardroom, just go back home and play Shutes and Ladders for cripesake. You need balls to survive and thrive here. You need spine. If you don't have it, you are going to get taken to the cleaners. Play for pennies online, or just stop altogether. You don't have what it takes. Believe me, I DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, so I know! I have the balls, but not the discipline or personality to hack it full-time, professionally. And I have enough SPINE to admit it! So do the same. Take a deep look inside, and if you can't grab your ballsack and say what is going on, what is on your mind and what is wrong inside of the poker room, just GET OUT!

Love ya, hugs and kisses (smooch!),

Felicia :)

Vegas FUBAR Part II and Other Rants

Writing comes easy to me. Always has. Probably always will. I keep a poker journal, a gardening journal, a 'real-life-horrific-events' journal, a cancer journal, half a dozen to-do lists, etc. I can't help it. I write. The fact that I'm not that great at it, and my writing is juvenile, is of no matter. I must do it, so I do. Thank God most of it is never posted for public consumption ;)

Soooo, I left off my story when we were leaving Bellagio to check out the greener pastures of Red Rock.

As we were walking out, I happened to bump into another friend of mine, Marcel Luske. Looking awesome as usual. I ranted and raved about him not returning my e-mail after he had begged me to write him and keep him up-to-date on chemo, only to find out that his assistant or someone had deleted thousands of e-mails accidentally as he was attempting to upgrade servers or some such nonsense. That's me, always willing to make a fool out of myself in public.

Marcel has recorded a song he made up for Charlie Tuttle right before Charlie died last year, and is trying to release it. He has run into some legal snags, since I think the song uses the Rawhide music, or something like that. At any rate, he has paid money to be able to use the music, and although he knows that he is just going to take a loss, he is doing it because he wants everyone to remember what happened at the 2005 WSOP and the magic that the top players created there.

Marcel did several hugs and kisses (ick, ick), and we were headed out. Just joking about the hugs and kisses part...I'm tolerating contact and getting a little more affectionate these days :)

Okay, so Red Rock is way the heck out there. I tried to warn Glenn how far we'd have to drive, even past rush hour, but I don't think he realized exactly what I meant. An hour later we finally arrived.

I noticed right off that RR has chosen to leave off the "stations" part, lol, sort of like Green Valley. If I were known as a Redneck-Vegasland chain, I'd probably choose to leave the "Station" part off of my new, decent casino, too. Does one really want to be reminded of Palace or Boulder when one enters RR or GV? Naw, didn't thinks so!

RR is nice, kind of reminds one of Palms when strolling around.

The lead floor was I.J., who looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place to save my life. Finally, being my loudmouth, typical self, I asked him if I knew him. Yeah. He was a green dealer just getting into dealing and working the tourney circuit at the Four Queens Classic back in 2004. He said that I was extremely gracious and understanding when he was new. I don't even remember that. Chemo must have wiped it out. I do remember having an absolute FIT over the Razz cheating debacle, and the two cheaters getting kicked out, as well as the TD getting fired. That is about it.

So I kept telling I.J. that he must have been hallucinating if he thought I was nice. Nice is something that is just not used to describe me. Nice, gracious, understanding...those adjectives just don't quite fit, do they?

I.J. was really accommodating throughout our session, at any rate, so I do appreciate the effort.

RR was so unorganized and screwed up. Like they would have 20 names on a list, tons of people standing around, or wanting transfers, yet the games they were looking to enter had four open seats! To make matters worse, they had the remote controlled tables to announce seats open, fills, etc. And they still couldn't fill tables worth a crap. Maybe they will iron out their problems.

The one time I did go completely off was when some dealer tried to convince me that RR is an Indian casino and I can't have money on the table. Okay, first off, money doesn't play at RR. No problem. I have no issue with that, other than it's stupid. So instead of having my tiny buy-in in chips (per normal) with cash behind, I just got some reds, so that I didn't have pyramids all over the place and could move easily.

But I still kept some hundreds under my stack. And this dealer sat down and tried to "force" me to get more chips. At first I tried to be okay with it. I agreed to get some chips due to losing about $150 and having some room. But then he noticed I had MORE hundreds, and tried to bully me into getting chips for them, too. I told him I didn't WANT more chips. He then tried to tell me that the "rule" was that I couldn't have any cash on the table at all, period.

I told him to mother-effing show me that rule, and challenged him on it. I asked if Red Rock was an effing Indian casino and told him I had no pockets (true) and what did he want me to do with mother effing hundreds, eat them? I told him that I understood that cash doesn't play, but I'm NOT going to have a mountain of chips in front of me, while I'm waiting for a transfer and that I didn't know what he expected me to do with the hundreds when I have no pockets and that I'm going to sit and wait for him to show me the rulebook which says I cannot have paper on the table.

No, I was not "nice." No, I was not "gracious" or "understanding," lol. Yes, I was my normal, regular self. Why in God's name any CRM would want me in his cardroom is beyond me! Yes, I told I.J. this :)

Finally after a hour or so they got the O8 running again (prior to that, I had been playing Omaha High, which is a horrible game).

I won back everything save $35 playing O8. Oddly enough, one dealer kept pushing me pot after pot. About 20 or 25 minutes into his down, he said to me, after having pushed me yet another pot, and having heard me vocalize many times, "Sir, your action." HUH? Okay, I look like a dude. Maybe I dress like a guy. I have no chest. I have no hair. But my voice is not deep. I am a soprano with a huge range. Go figure!

We ended up staying at Gold Coast, which is cheap, yet has decent bedding. We slept so badly, however, that we decided to come home the next day and not play anymore in Vegas, even though Richard had invited us to dinner either on Tuesday (if he busted out of the Caesars event early; he didn't) or Wednesday if he was still in at 7pm (he was, but unfortunately didn't make the money).

We were home by noon, and I was back to my little garden, which seems to mean so much more to me than the scummy poker world.

If it weren't for my friends up there playing the tourney circuit, I wouldn't even bother. I never thought that I'd actually WANT to be friends with that subculture. ANY subculture, actually, but especially that one. I hate people, in general. I don't WANT to be liked, and I certainly don't like almost anyone. So why I want to remain in contact with these guys is beyond me, but whatever, it works, and I'm happy to see then whenever I'm in Vegas or LA, etc. There are some great people in that crowd.

So now I am back in my little refuge, and I do want to talk about some things. Poker psychology, for instance. My forte. And I will speak a little bit about blogs, too. Why not? Everyone else seems to have an opinion these days.

Talk to you all soon,

Felicia :)

Vegas Trip Report and Other Nonsense

In a spur of the moment decision, Glenn and I made a quick trip up to Vegas on Tuesday. We headed up about 10am and were already at Caesars poker room by 12:30.

I was shocked that Caesars only had four cash games going on, during their big festival. They are so frigging FUBAR, they can't get anything right.

Dozens of my tourney pals, however, were playing the 1k NLHE event. I haven't seen some of these guys since the 2005 WSOP, so I was happy to greet them again. That has long been a paradox of mine. I can't seem to win big events myself, but I like the top tourney players more than most cash game players. Oy, vey.

Asher Derei was back from his poker hiatus. Last year, he told me that he and his wife were going to fly down under, then do a walkabout for several months. They walked Australia and New Zealand. He said he hasn't lost any weight, but he looks much thinner! Must be all of that muscle he built up doing months of walking. I am ecstatic to see him in better shape, because we both have diabetes, and carrying around extra weight is harmful.

He said he didn't miss poker a bit, and would love to do it again. I don't blame him.

Jean Gaspard, my little French-Haitian-American prince, was his rascally self. He had taken 2nd place in two events already, with the festival just having begun! He is always amusing, and has treated me so well over the years. I tend to either like people, or hate them, and I like Jean, so that is that.

The FUBAR stuff happened not long after I arrived. Not only was Ceasars sucking when it came to cash games, but then I ambled over to the satellite area. Um, I don't know of any other way to say this, except that everything Harrah's touches turns to SHITE when it comes to poker. Not that I didn't already know that, but here is a prime example for you. When we started asking about HOSE satellites for Wednesday's 5k HOSE event (myself and several WCP's who were still in the NLHE event), we were told that "upper management" was forbidding them to spread HOSE sats! Uh, okay. They are running a 5k event, and refuse to spread satellites for it!?!? I'm sure even the newest of the new players understand that this is simply retarded. But then why am I surprised? Harrahs has insisted that anything to do with poker is handled in a "simply retarded" fashion for decades. So I gave my typical reply of "Blow me!" to the so-called "upper management."

Naturally the satellite director got that look in his eye. That look that says, 'this guy knows you.' Oy, I hate when that happens. I simply go off on someone, then they decide that they know me. So in the midst of all of these well-known, big name players, he suddenly goes, "Oh, what is your name?" Oh, brother, here it comes. "I know you, I think. You're Felicia Lee, right?"

NO! I'M MIKE-EFFING-JORDAN! NOW SPREAD THE MOTHER EFFING HOSE SATELLITE!

Okay, so I wasn't quite so rude. But he "reads" my journal all the time, in his own words, so hopefully he will see this and print it out for those who might actually get it.

Soooo, Ceasars was a wash, except that I saw a ton of my friends there and that was great.

Next, we headed over to my old mainstay of poker goodness, Wynn. How can a casino who claims to know nothing about poker get it so right, while another chain who claim they are representing poker players world-wide, screw up so badly? Don't answer that, I have known it for years ;)

Wynn was it's typical, wonderful self, if a little bit deflated, for reasons that I haven't quite figured out (ALL of the rooms on the strip were deflated. People have just run out of steam, run out of money, or simply become diluted with the dozens of poker rooms that have opened recently).

Omaha 8 was super tight and passive when I first sat. I thought it was going to be a bad game. Then three friends from Canada sat down. One girl claimed she had never played O8 before. She was straddling and playing entire hands blind, etc. She gave away $500 in the first 30 minutes or so.

I ran up about $450 before I stopped catching. Glenn wanted to go to Bellagio, so I ended up making $200 when we left. Had I sat there until she gave up and busted out for the final time, I'm sure I would have gotten more of my winnings back. Time is a huge factor in low-limit, loose Omaha 8.

Bellagio was a bit empty, too, but not suffering as much as the afore mentioned cardrooms.

Although I was about 15th on the O8 list and only fourth on the Stud list, I still got into O8 faster. The game was horrible. Sometimes the blinds were chopping, oy vey! There were three loose Asians, but all that happened is that the typical, tight, corncob up the butt white people like me were even tighter, lol :)

I was blinded down about $150 and hadn't caught a thing. Time charge was $5 per down. It was a stupid, pointless, mindless, boring game. No action at all.

Finally I got my Stud seat, but the game wasn't that great, either. The loose players had busted out and left. I managed to recoop most of my $150 from O8, but that was about it.

Fortunately, during this time I was able to say hello to some of my poker friends. Linda came in to deal (ended up playing instead) and I tried to tease her about making a new boyfriend. It's pretty impossible to tease Linda, but I tried, anyway ;)

I told her the one thing I'd learned recently from her is that I will never, ever buy an RV.

She was in good spirits. She uses her journal as an outlet for all of that crazy, RV and dealing stress, like me, so we had a fun chat.

James Van Alstyne was there, playing in the 80/160 HE game. He seemed embarrassed and ashamed that he busted out of the 25k in 5th place. I told him he was great, that it happens to everyone, that he is an awesome person and an awesome player. Just blow it off. He said he was nervous by the attention, the interviews, being on TV, etc. I told him that Ted had just told me the same thing a couple of years ago, and look at what has happened to Ted in the past two years!!! James isn't that far behind. James is a wonderful guy, who can do anything. He is socially awkward, but dang, aren't we all??? We're poker players, for cripes sake. We just crawled out of the sewer. We're all disgusting, bottom-of-the-barrel people according to society at large (obviously this was particularly true before the boom). So regardless of the fact that James seemed to be having an off-day at the final table, he is still a winner, IMO, and according to every, single person (save none), that I talked to about the situation. GO JAMES!

Some of the 40/80 mixed players tried to get me to join their game. I guess I was "the live one" at the mixed game at Wynn. Scary, that they consider a live one to be someone who only tossed ~9 big bets!

The games weren't that great at Bellagio (including the mixed game), so we we decided to check out Red Rock, even though it was a hike, because we'd heard it was something to see...

(part two of FUBAR galore coming soon...)

Felicia :)

Short Vegas Trip

Glenn has a wonderful post up. Go check it out.

I should be back with a Glenn-joke in a minute...

Felicia :)