Thursday, November 08, 2007

Do I still qualify?

I'm a lazy bastard, but technically still a poker blogger, which I hope makes me eligible to play in the WPBT Winter Classic.

Without regard for you virtual ink-stained wretches, I have made plans to be in Las Vegas the weekend of Dec. 7-9.

Woooot. Where do I sign up?

I just made this discovery in the last five minutes while perusing blogs and sliding into the money in the nightly $3 redonkament on Stars. How fucking cool is that? (The fact that I'll be in Vegas, not cashing in a low-limit rebuy tourney.)

Starting more than a decade ago, my buddy Shep and I had gotten into the habit of making a Vegas trip in early December about every other year. Life has gotten in the way in recent years and the trip hasn't happened. In fact, the last time we (I) pulled off a Vegas trip, the bloggers were gathering at Sam's Town. I had been reading blogs at that point, but had not yet begun mine and did not feel like crashing it.

Seriously, if there is anyone out there who actually subscribes to this blog and knows any of the salient details, I'd be most appreciative if you could leave a comment or point me in the right direction.

There has not been much poker lately outside of low-limit online donkeying online. Not very satisfying.

Life continues to be busy. Work and the beginning stages of a cool project have kept me satisfyingly busy. The early stages of winter have begun taking root here in Cleveland, which has put a damper on golf. I hope to get a chance to play next weekend during a quick trip to Florida.

I did find time to head to Mountaineer Park for some live poker. Mountaineer is a horse track across the Ohio River in West Virginia that is just over a two-hour drive from home. A 20-table room opened the same day at Wheeling Downs, a dog track that is not much farther.

The folks in the two counties where the tracks are located thought live poker and table games might be a good thing. I have to agree.

The place had been open only a couple of weeks and the operation (dealers, floor) was a bit rough, but at least at my $1/2 table ($300 max buy-in) the players were astonishingly bad. (I would guess that a dozen members of The Group have also made sojourns to The Mountain and have reported they have also played at tough tables as well.)

The room is nice. Good chairs, chips and cards. The cocktail waitresses were surprisingly attractive. Lots of legs. About two-thirds of the tables were in use on the Friday afternoon/evening I was there and I'm guessing there were as many as 10 $1/2 tables were open by the time I left. They also were spreading $2/5, $5/10 and one table of $10/$25. There were some limit and Omaha tables as well.

I played six hours and left with a whopping $100 profit. Session got off to a rocky start when I dropped $200 after flopping a straight with K-10. Got it all back after paying $16 to set mine with pocket 5s, received a 5 on an ace-high flop and got put all-in by a woman with A-9.

This hand says it all. I raise from MP with A-K. (Standard pre-raise flop in this game was $12 or $15.) Dude on the button calls. Flop contains an ace and I bet $25. Button calls. The turn is a blank and I ask the dude how much he had left. It's $41 and I tell him I'll put him all-in. He says, "I guess I have to call," and shows ... pocket 4s. Easiest $75 I've ever made.