The Draft

I'll begin by talking poker as I'm certain a larger proportion of this blog's readers are interested in that compared with the NHL draft.

June was meant to be something of a vacation month, but I still wanted to put in some hands around the Vegas trip. Since returning, and especially the last few days, the games have been AWFUL. I think this is for three main reasons. The first, summer is here and people are going outside. Second, it's been long enough after Black Friday that many regulars have relocated and rejoined the games, throwing the reg:fish ratio out of whack. Finally, Stars had a technical problem a couple days back which wouldn't allow players to update their client without reinstalling the whole thing, which probably caused a lot of fish (who aren't as determined to log in on average as a regular grinding out a living) to simply say screw it and do something else. The result is that June is going to move from a "half vacation month" to "70% vacation month" in terms of volume. I don't really have a problem with that, but I'd love to see the games get better in the near future.

To make matters worse, I haven't been running particularly well this month. A couple HHs to illustrate:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
MP3 ($96.30)
CO ($56.55)
Button ($118.50)
SB ($100.50)
BB ($125.65)
UTG ($50.80)
UTG+1 ($59.90)
MP1 ($116.05)
Hero (MP2) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A♠, A♥
2 folds, MP1 bets $3, Hero raises to $12, MP3 calls $12, CO calls $12, 3 folds, MP1 raises to $116.05 (All-In), Hero calls $88 (All-In), MP3 calls $84.30 (All-In), CO calls $44.55 (All-In)

Flop: ($354.35) 4♦, 10♦, K♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

Turn: ($354.35) 2♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

River: ($354.35) 5♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

Total pot: $354.35 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $227.70 between MP3, CO, MP1 and Hero, won by MP3
Side pot 1: $119.25 between MP3, MP1 and Hero, won by MP3
Side pot 2: $7.40 between MP1 and Hero, won by Hero

Results:
MP1 had A♣, Q♣ (flush, King high).
Hero had A♠, A♥ (flush, King high).
MP3 had Q♥, Q♦ (flush, King high).
CO had 9♦, J♦ (flush, King high).
Outcome: MP1 won $3.70, Hero won $3.70, MP3 won $343.95

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed)
BB ($105.75)
UTG ($101.80)
UTG+1 ($101.50)
MP1 ($41.30)
MP2 ($183.75)
Hero (CO) ($100)
Button ($115.20)
SB ($36.20)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A♣, A♥
2 folds, MP1 bets $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, SB raises to $36.20 (All-In), 1 fold, MP1 raises to $41.30 (All-In), Hero calls $37.30

Flop: ($119.80) 10♠, Q♥, 3♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($119.80) J♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($119.80) A♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $119.80 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $109.60 between MP1, Hero and SB, shared by MP1 and SB ($54.80)
Side pot 1: $10.20 between MP1 and Hero, won by MP1

Results:
SB had K♥, K♠ (straight, Ace high).
MP1 had K♣, K♦ (straight, Ace high).
Hero had A♣, A♥ (three of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: SB won $53.30, MP1 won $63.50

Twosmeets posted a great quote from a Starcraft 2 commentator a couple days back:

"It's a good thing you're playing Starcraft, and not that horrible, horrible game of poker. Imagine you're playing a game, you're doing great, you have a huge lead, it's a lock that you win, and suddenly FIFTY ULTRALISKS spawn and you lose. You shrug and say, 'That's Starcraft! Ultralisks on the river.'"

Couldn't agree more.

At any rate, the NHL draft was yesterday. As in most major North American sports, draft day also typically has a great deal of trade activity. The Flames selected a skilled but smaller Swiss winger at 13th overall in the first round, and a Finnish center (the younger brother of a very high end prospect from last year) in the second round. Overall, I'm fairly happy with the picks as we need skill and speed. Our new GM also felt the need to deal shutdown defenseman Robyn Regehr to Buffalo, unloading Ales Kotalik's contract in the process, netting us two younger players in return (great things aren't really expected of either). This deal has received a ton of public backlash, and for good reason. It is nothing more than a salary dump. Taking a deep breath and a step back to see the big picture however, and it isn't entirely unreasonable from the Flames' standpoint. Hopefully Butler turns into a solid 3-6 defenseman. We also managed to resign Alex Tanguay at a good price, though fairly long term (5 years) for his age. We really needed him back, and a $3.4 million cap hit for a first line player who has great chemistry with your franchise power forward can't be a bad thing.

Whale Fail

Dear Tim Thomas, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara, etc.

Thank you for saving my 2011.

Also, very glad to see Okotoker (Andrew Ference) get his cup after coming so close in '04. Awesome that he mentioned he wished he could share this cup with Iggy, Regehr, Warrener, and others.

Hope nothing too bad goes down in the impending Vancouver riots.

Four For The Price Of One

Since I didn't update much during the last week or so of my Vegas trip, this is going to be one long post. I'll break it down with some subtitles, but if you only care about poker content don't go past the first section.

The Bullet That Killed Wild Bill
As I alluded to earlier, I ended up spending my time in Vegas as more of a vacation and less of a business trip. The result of this was I only played in a single WSOP event, in addition to one very short cash session. The event was of the 3-day, $1500 NLH variety, and I busted during the 5th level. My first table was actually a really good draw, with four older passive types, Andy Black, and a younger FTP red pro on my left (I believe Soren was his first name). On my direct right, one of the older gentleman had a card protector of a bullet preserved in glass. He told us a lengthy story about how the bullet was the one that killed Wild Bill Hickok when he held A8, earning that hand the nickname "dead man's hand". Apparently his great uncle(?) was hit in the wrist by the bullet after it exited Wild Bill's skull, and it had been passed down in his family through the generations. Andy Black was another interesting character and as you'd expect very much on the chatty side. I lost a fair number of small pots missing flops, etc. and won one decently large one against one of the passive older guys when I opened KcKx, was called by two players and he 3bet very large. I flatted, an A flopped on a monotone clubs board, he bet like 1/3rd pot so I peeled the nut flush draw, turned the nuts and he proceeded to c/f his red queens face up. I doubt he would have gone broke preflop against a committing 4bet (I think we had ~100bb behind at the time), but who knows, perhaps the flat was a mistake.

Our table ended up breaking, and I moved to a much younger table during the 4th level. Things started to unravel when I flopped a set on a double suited board, raised the flop, checked back the turn when the flush completed and had to fold the river when the runner runner four flush hit. I ended up busting with ~40bbs in a BvB battle where the loosest and least aggressive player limped the SB, and I raised with KTo in the BB. Flop came KdTd9x and he donked, I raised, and he jammed with Kx9d. Running diamonds binked and I was done.


Audience Participation
As I didn't spend that much time playing poker, I had a lot of time to do touristy stuff. I saw Mystere (Cirque) for a second time, and ended up being chosen for a gag which requires a couple audience members. After my first viewing two years ago I wondered if the gags were scripted, and it turns out they aren't, as I received no warning. A lot of time was spent on the strip, knocking off attractions like the Secret Garden at the Mirage, and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, among others. We drove out to Red Rock Canyon which made for a nice day trip. Meals of note were at Mesa (I've now eaten at two out of the three Mesa Grill locations in existence, only New York left to go) as well as top notch sushi at Shibuya. I also got a bunch of shopping done, picking up a very inexpensive laptop I'm very happy with thus far, as well as a suit from an outlet mall that I have high hopes for. In general, the cost of just about everything in the US is significantly lower than Canada.


I Survived The Great Oiler Scare Of 2006...
I really hope after tomorrow night I'll be able to say I survived the Canuck scare of 2011. Please get it done Bruins. You've been in every game and have outscored the Canucks by a huge margin in the series. Plus, another bad game could very possibly shatter Luongo's confidence beyond repair for the rest of his career.

Short Games That Feel Long
The last couple days of the trip were less busy, and coupled with the travel time today I was able to put in some hours playing FFIV Complete Collection. I'm right near the end of the original game, which leaves the Interlude and After Years to go. A few years ago I remember thinking to myself that FFIV was a really short game, probably 20-25 hours if you know what you're doing and don't grind more than you need to. That being said, it really doesn't feel short. Typically, I've found that shorter RPGs which feel long are that way because they have a lackluster story, gameplay, or both, and as a result you're just waiting for them to be over. FFIV however is the exception to that rule, as it is of course a very good game. The visual and audio upgrades of the remake are welcome, and I haven't found anything to complain about.

At any rate, now that the break is over I'm actually almost looking forward to grinding some this weekend. Hopefully I can put in respectable volume for the next month and a half or more, after which another short vacation might be in store.

Audible

Ended up deciding not to play the $1k NL event today and instead take it easy. Grinded some live cash for a couple hours and a paltry $100 profit. Picked up a lot of hands early without a lot of action, aside from stacking a maniac shortstack with JdJx on 9x9d8d3d. Later on won a medium sized pot which started out limped when 56hh flopped an EOSFD + bottom pair, turned trips, and rivered the flush. Played with a boxer from West London (can't remember his name, but I recall his pro fight record was 27-4). Cool guy.

Probably will grind a little more cash over the next couple days before playing an event, but mostly go vacation mode for a few. Will update when I have a day of donkament action.

Vegas!

I arrived in Vegas a few hours ago. Instead of heading from the airport directly to Palms Place where we are staying, we stopped at a Best Buy which carried a laptop I wanted to pick up. The model isn't available in Canada and is a hell of a deal. I'm posting from it now, and definitely happy with the machine so far.

The scene at Palms Place was very different than two years ago to say the least. Apparently a bunch of students from UCLA were in town, and as it was 10pm when we got in the place seemed like a combination of a rap video and a Jersey Shore party (with an extremely favorable ratio if one was an unattached male).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the complementary breakfast at Simon tomorrow (and each day of our stay), and I'll be heading down to the Rio to register for Day 1B of a $1k NLH WSOP Event which starts at Noon PST. Hopefully I can make some noise in my first event.