Negreanu Wins 2013 WSOP POY

Congrats to Daniel Negreanu on picking up his 2nd WSOP Player of the Year. The first was in 2004 and he's the only player to win POY twice. Impressive these days for a non-whipper snapper, eh? Also, congrats to Vanessa Selbst for making my morning with this gem of a tweet:

                                                                              lol!


In other news, I dusted off my tournament game last night in a Horseshoe daily. Smaller than usual turnout, probably because of the temporary move to Roadhouse next door. I did ok in the beginning and mid-stages, but my late game play needs work; way too tight. To be fair, I *was* card dead at the final table and in a really bad spot for late position steals with Memphis Mojo in the small blind and a very active player with a lot of chips in the big blind to my button. For my Cutoff, I had the active player and an extreme short stack, who would likely shove over an open raise from me and then I'd have to call off with air...So, I just wasn't in a good spot in late position. To counter, I tried an UTG open for 3x the blind with a marginal hand, 9d10d. Fail. The active player 3 bet shoved. Blah. I folded, he had Tens. Lost a few hands later, King high to Ace high. C'est la vie. 5 spots paid and I got 5th. Sigh. Maybe next time! It was fun to final table with you, Mojo, looking forward to many more. ;)

Was He Fishing??

The husband and I went over to Tunica yesterday to play some cards. He wanted to play the 3pm $10k guarantee Horseshoe tournament and I played a 1/3 NL cash game. I went to the cage to get chips and saw my husband was seated right next to every poker blogger's favorite Cardinal's fan, Memphis Mojo!   My husband had position on him, but that didn't stop Mojo from taking nearly all of his chips when he hit a straight vs. my husband's set of nines. The flop came 9 Q x and Russell incorrectly put Mojo on AQ, he said he never even thought about JT...big mistake, Russell. ;)

Anyway, he was out not long after and went to 'hustle' pool downstairs while I tried to get somewhere in the cash game. I started off with a slow and steady climb, then I guess the doom switch got flipped and it turned to not so slow and steady downhill freefall. I was getting frustrated, which I try hard not to get frustrated and keep emotion/tilt out of my game, but sometimes it creeps in. But luckily I can get up and get out when I feel like I'm about to 'frustration spew' my chips away. So, that's what I did, I cashed out down half a buyin and went to find Russell. The pool game went better than the poker game for him and he had won enough beers to be pretty lit when I got there lol.

Now on to the title of this post..During my cash game, I went to get a coffee, because that's what nits do, drink coffee, dammit. Haha! So, I was at the coffee machine when this tall, distinguished looking Asian man came up and started chatting with me. He was not drinking coffee, obviously. He asked if I was up, I was a little at the time. He asked if I ever played 2/5 and that he saw me playing and I should come join him in his 2/5 game. He said it's too hard to get anywhere in 1/3, the pots are so small, the players so tight, etc. But in 2/5, the players gamble more and you can win much more...I'm nodding and agreeing with him, but at the same time, I'm thinking, Is he trying to reel in a fish here? OMG am I the fish?!? What part of me looks like I want to gamble, I am drinking coffee for goodness sake?!

So, I dunno how to take that nice man's invitation LOL. What do you think?? I just told him he would see me in his game soon. ;)

Horseshoe Tunica Poker Room Reno Underway

It looks like the poker room renovations have begun at Horseshoe Tunica. I saw this tweet this morning:

 @Horseshoetunica: Our poker room has moved temporarily to @RoadhouseTunica while we renovate, enlarge, and add a @WSOP Lounge!

A WSOP lounge?? I wonder if that means the Horseshoe will start hosting the WSOP circuit series in January rather than Harrah's where it is usually held? Hmmm, it sounds that way to me. I think that will be a nice change! Can't wait to see the new room, which is expected to be ready in 6-8 weeks. 

I read some gossip on 2+2 a while back about how they put a lot of money into the new Roadhouse poker room only to close it a short time later. So now it's being used as a temporary room for Horseshoe. (All 3 casinos, Harrah's, Horseshoe & Roadhouse, are Caesars properties.)

The following photo is from their facebook page and they said the room is located on the 2nd floor at Roadhouse. As far as I know it will be business as usual, with the same games and same daily tournament schedule at this new location, which is right next door to the Horseshoe. I think I'll check it out soon.

Gold Strike Fall Poker Classic

This tournament series hasn't been promoted very well, as it's only a few weeks away and isn't even on the Gold Strike website yet. There's not even a thread on 2+2 in the tournament forum, which is very unusual. Johnny Grooms is usually great about promoting the Gold Strike and Beau Rivage trnys and really on top of things, but he seems to be dropping the ball on this one. Anyway, I found the schedule on the GS facebook page. With so little promotion, I don't expect great numbers, but you never know. Maybe word will get out in time. There's a $100k guarantee to kick things off and an Election Day Voter's Choice on the 5th, which is interesting. I plan to play an event or two. Anyone else playing?

Still Alive

From a $60 buyin 

Yep, I'm still here, y'all. Haven't forgotten about this blog, I have just been super busy the last few weeks! Between work & family events, my free time has been so short. I haven't even been able to squeeze in any poker time! It will be at least Tuesday before I can make my way to Tunica again...but for now, I do have a poker story involving my husband to share. 

He's a truck driver and his most frequent run is a delivery in Reno, Nevada. There are mini casinos in the stores & gas stations everywhere out there, including the truck stop where he stays. They have a small poker room that's usually spreading just one table of 3/6 limit holdem. They will switch to NL if requested, but everyone at the table has to agree, so that's rare. 

The above picture is one he sent me a few days ago. He was seated to the right of a guy who was getting wasted on shots of Jager and beer chasers. Drinking one shot after another, playing crazy with any two cards, tipping dealers when he wasn't even in the hand and even throwing chips to the nearby blackjack dealer...LOL. Tipping everybody, losing pots he'd capped all the way. Literally throwing his money away. Good times!

Eventually, the Jagermeister got to him (not sure, but isn't that German for instant asshole?) and turned the nice guy into an aggressive jerk. He was trying to get Russell to do shots with him, but he kept declining. Then the waitress came by and the guy ordered his shot plus one for my husband. Russell was about to say no to her when the drunk guy suddenly grabbed his head! He had one hand behind Russell's head and the other covering his mouth in an attempt to keep him from saying no...Well that didn't go over too well with Russell. He didn't want some stranger's dirty hands on his face, I don't blame him! So, he grabbed the guys hand, twisted it hard and told him, sternly, he needed to relax. I guess he realized he'd went too far and he did calm down for a little while, but then he started being rude to the dealers and was eventually told to leave for the night. But not before Russell got a nice chip stack from the guy. And a story to tell, ha!