Nat Arem's Blog

Once again, I slept until about 1 PM, so I missed the first 3 hours of the main event. Jeff and Aaron played in it, along with a bunch of other people like Beck_AA, Exitonly4, Genius28, TheBeat, etc. AFAIK, Jeff, Kush and TheBeat are the only ones that I know still in it. I think they’re down to about 6 tables. Also, about 180 started the event, two tables will get paid and first is 55K.

A 30 minute break ended about 20 minutes ago (I’ve been in the room since then, so something could have happened in the last 20 minutes), but at the break, Jeff had 20K and Kush had a decent stack as well. I’m not sure about TheBeat’s stack.

While pictures are technically allowed, some of the players are being annoying about letting people use cameras anywhere near the table. Aaron got the floor called on him by some guy who didn’t like it (appropriately, Jeff busted him with AA vs the guy’s 99). Therefore, I turned the sounds off on my digital camera and I went into ninja-picture-taking-mode. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t allow me to get good pics because I can’t really set up the picture or hold the camera steady (no flash allowed, so holding it still is necessary for a good shot). That being said, here are the pics that I do have so far for today.

Briefly after I wrote my last entry, Genius28 came over to the Lodge and we played a 5 handed home game with Jeff, Genius28, me, Pegleg and Aaron. Once again, it was dealer’s choice, but we made it a 1/2 no max game. Jeff and Genius bought in for 1K, I bought in for 200 (plus another 100 after I got quartered by Jeff), Aaron bought in for 100 and Pegleg bought in for 100.

Usually, I would choose some version of NL 8-card omaha (hi/lo no qualifier or hi only). Genius, Jeff and Pegleg started off choosing NLHE, but I eventually converted them all to the 8-card game. Even Aaron started playing a 4-card omaha game. The game was full of straddles and re-straddles (by Genius, Jeff and myself, not so much by Aaron and Pegleg), so we often had four blinds in a 5-handed game.

Early on, Jeff quartered me when we got all in pre, although I don’t remember the hand. I definitely had an edge preflop, but I really couldn’t tell you what the edge was. So I was down 100 early and I rebought to bring me back up to 200.

I’ll write about a few of the interesting hands, with the game type at the beginning. Also, the table, clockwise from me, was Genius, Jeff, Aaron, Pegleg. That might help you picture some of the hands in your head.

NLO h/l 8-card: I forget the preflop action, but Genius, Jeff and I get it all in pre. I made the nut club flush, but I had A245 for my low cards and I was counterfeited by a 2 on the flop, so Jeff and Genius got a quarter of the pot each with their A3s (that’s not saying suited, it’s saying there were two A3 hands). Essentially, they each gave me $50 after the hand was over, since the pot was $600 total (I was entitled to half of the pot, meaning I needed to end up with $300 somehow and since I had $200 pre, that means I needed to get $50 from each).

NLHE: UTG, Genius makes it 15, Jeff calls, Aaron pushes in on the button for about 95, blinds fold, Genius insta-calls, Jeff folds. AA for Aaron, JJ for Genius. Jeff folded Qd3d. A diamond draw flops (to Jeff’s dismay), but his folded draw missed and the AA held, so Aaron doubled through early on.

NLO h/l 8-card: Incredibly, Jeff and Genius get all-in pre with 1K each in a 1/2 game. Genius had him crushed with A2345xxx (lock up at least half of the low, and I think he had a few suits and higher connectors) whereas Jeff had AAA2333x (a pretty mediocre hand I think, even though two aces were suited). Either way, Genius quartered Jeff to win about $450 (Genius took a hit against Aaron, so he wasn’t full stacked at 1K anymore).

NLO h/l 8-card: Aaron folds UTG, Pegleg makes it 10 with 73 more behind, Genius, Jeff and I agree to put in the 83 more just to try to bust Pegleg since he was on the short-stack. He agrees to go all-in too, and I end up getting a quarter of the pot with my A3 against Pegleg’s A3 while Pegleg scoops the hi with the nut flush.

Aaron busts around this point to Jeff, but I don’t remember the hand.

NLO hi 8-card: I raise to 10 UTG with 5d6d7c7sKxKxQx9x with both kings suited. Genius and Jeff call, Pegleg folds. Flop is gin: 3d4h7d. I flopped the nut straight, a straight flush draw and top set. I bet 100 (heh, we were gambling), Genius insta-pushes, Jeff folds and I insta-call. He shows Ad2d5h6s8x and three more cards that didn’t really play. So he flopped the nut straight, the nut flush draw and he had a redraw to a higher straight. I turn the 4d, so I hit my straight flush and the suspense ended quickly. I take down the almost $600 pot. I took a pic of the board:

My relevant cards with the board, but Genius had mucked his hand. He was busy matching my stack because we got all in without actually putting chips in the pot.

I’m getting kinda tired now, but the only relevant hands after this was one where Jeff quartered Pegleg in a $300+ pot, then Jeff finally busted Pegleg in a $200 pot. Pegleg had gotten up as high as $250 from his $100 buyin.

Here are some more random pics from the home game:

Genius proudly showing down the 2nd nuts in a NLHE hand (Q high with quad AAAA on board)

Jeff trying to figure out how many cards he has dealt so far. Yes, it is hard to count to 8.

Aaron and Jeff making fun of H@££INGGOL’s STT play. He was apparently donking it up in a $555 turbo or a $1050 regular STT. Aaron was railing online after he busted and declined to rebuy.

In the end, I won about $250, Jeff lost about $200, Aaron lost $100, Pegleg lost $100 and Genius won about $150.

Also, the poker room here is absolutely packed. All the games have huge waiting lists and it’s basically impossible to get a seat. I took a few pictures, although they don’t do the crowd justice (you aren’t allowed to take pictures on the gaming floor, so I did it ninja-style).

Jeff and Aaron (partially blocked)

Genius28

The poker room

… I haven’t done much.

After passing out around 2 AM, I woke up today at 1 PM. Somehow, Jeff got up for the 10 AM $500 tournament. He actually made it through the first five hours or so with a nice stack, but he busted out after losing a hand to TheBeat with AA after getting in on the flop against Qx on a Qxx board. They actually got a good portion of the chips in preflop somehow. Then he lost a race with AK against TT and he was out.

After visiting Jeff in the tournament area (when he was still in), I went over to the food court to get some breakfast/lunch. A few minutes after sitting down, Genius28 (who I hadn’t met before) saw me and came over to say hi. We were eating lunch for a bit, then Jeff came by after busting and joined us. The three of us talked for around an hour, and that is the one picture that I have for this blog entry:

Jeff on the left, Genius28 on the right

After finishing lunch, the three of us went over to the poker room to try to get in a game. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly busy. All of the games had long wait lists, so we decided to just go back to our rooms. Genius might be coming over here in a little bit and then I plan on meeting up with some other P5ers/2+2ers/Stars people for some drinks tonight. I’ll be sure to bring the camera.

That’s it for now.

Jeff and Aaron put their 1K freezeout on hold for a bit and the four of us decided to play a winner-take-all dealer’s choice freezeout for an undisclosed sum. We all started with 100 in chips and the blinds were 1/2. We could choose any PL or NL version of omaha or hold em.

Early on, Pegleg The Calling Machine stacked off in a game of 4-card PLO8 with AA89 on a 289 flop against Jeff’s 22xx (some low cards). The conclusion is that Pegleg is a huge omaha donkey (especially in split pot), although he denies it.

Soon after that, Aaron stacked off in a game of NLHE with, I think, 45dd against Jeff’s AK on a 6d Kx 7d board. I’m not sure if that is the right flop, but the important thing is that Aaron had an up-and-down and a flush draw against Jeff’s TPTK. Jeff didn’t have a diamond (I don’t think). Jeff’s hand held, and he was at around 300 chips pretty quickly.

I took control of some pots early and worked my way up to about 130-150. After hanging out in that range for awhile while I went with some version of omaha each time, I gradually managed to take down some decent pots even in Jeff’s game of choice, NLHE. The pivotal hand came during Jeff’s deal where he went with 5-card NL omaha hi (the first time he did not go with NLHE or PLHE during HU). I had AKQTX double suited and Jeff raised his button. Even though I hadn’t been gambling much, I thought Jeff was getting tired and might be in the mood to gamble. I went all in kinda out of the blue, and Jeff insta-called JXXXX with XXXX being a bunch of middle cards (terrible call). As I suspected, he was getting tired. I made kings and queens, so I won a huge pot. Jeff later doubled up his 40 chip stack in a NLHE deal when I had him 60/40 preflop, then I won a 5-card NL omaha hi hand to end it.

Ship the three buyins, thx.

We haven’t headed back to the poker room since coming back from the tournament. We did briefly start walking to go see Aaron play in the $340, but we met him on his way back after he busted. As far as I know, gobboboy was the only one left with chips and he busted later, so I don’t think anyone is still left in.

However, Jeff brought chips with him, so we decided to get a home game going with the four of us (Jeff, Aaron, Pegleg, myself). I suggested that we play six card pot limit omaha hi lo with no qualifier. They agreed, but since they weren’t familiar with the game, we only played .5/1. Pegleg and Aaron sat with 60 each and Jeff and I sat with 100 (although I rebought for another 100 after I dropped 50 to Pegleg, so there was 320 in play). Either way, the game was pretty crazy and somewhat hard to follow.

By the end, I won about $25, Pegleg won about $40, Jeff lost about $70 and Aaron won about $5.
I took some pictures of it…

Jeff getting ready to deal

Pegleg and Aaron

Jeff dealing (yes, dealing six cards can take awhile)

I don’t remember the hand, but Jeff was posing with his WCOOP bracelet with his winning hand. I think he quartered Pegleg.

Another hand at showdown. I have no idea what the action was…

Same thing, another showdown. My stack is looking pretty big at this point, but I made a dumb play against Pegleg and he scooped me.

After we got bored of the 6 card PLO h/l no qualifier, Aaron and Jeff decided to play a 1K freezeout. They’re playing limit holdem and they both started with 200 chips. Blinds are 1/2 and stakes are 2/4. The match is currently going on with Jeff up about 2.5 stacks. Here are some pictures from the start a few minutes ago.

Today is the $300+$40 tournament. There were about 250 players, starting chips were 2500 and first is around $22K.

So far, Jeff, Pegleg, Exitonly4, Kush, Premier and probably others have busted out. The only two that I know of who are still in are Aaron with a short stack and gobboboy with a nice stack of 16K at the last break. Oh, and Frink X and beck_AA are both still in (I think), but I’m not sure about their stacks.

I finally got some pictures, although I somehow managed to miss Exitonly4. I’ll get some pics of him at some point later.

The Lodge at Turning Stone. It’s a separate building from the main hotel and casino, but it’s connected via an enclosed walkway, which you can see on the right side of the picture. It’s a bit nicer than the hotel and tower accomodations.

Jeff in seat one playing the $340.

Jeff again

Jeff in seat one with Premier (Maros Lechman) in the three seat with the forward-facing white hat.

Jeff discussing top-secret strategy with his protege, AaronBeen.

gobboboy staring menacingly at the competition that he’s about to own (he’s on break)

Even more strategizing going on, this time with PeglegMcgee listening in. Also, Kush is sitting down talking to them and P5er helixx is sitting down in a P5s hat.

Frink X and beck_AA. They told me Murs316 and Bill Ivey are around, so I’ll have to track them down.

gobboboy explaining how to do the gobbo-dance to two unknowns … at least, I don’t know who they are. Actually, I initially thought that the guy in the black was Exitonly4 before I met him (I’d only seen small pics of Ray, so they looked similar enough).

Jeff complaining about some bad-beat or terrible play … blah blah blah. Actually, Aaron and Pegleg look mildly entertained, so maybe it wasn’t a bad beat story.

One last pic for this entry

I’ll be back later with more pics and an update if anyone that I know is going deep in the tourney.