Horseshoe Tunica's New Poker Room Opens

The renovation is complete and the room opened yesterday, Christmas Eve, at 9am. It looks really good in the pictures! The following photos are from their facebook page. I probably won't get to see it in person until the tournament on January 3rd. The new tables have built in cup holders and built in chargers for phones/ipads along with free wifi. How cool is that?! Take a look at the larger room...

I love the entrance/desk area and the WSOP logo in the floor tile. I might've went with a darker color for the chairs, but I am not the designer, now am I? Ha! They look comfy, though. It does look great and I can't wait to see it in person. Great job, Horseshoe! Merry Christmas, all!

Wrong Read on the Interstate

If you follow me on twitter (@jusdealem), you may have read where all of my rungood went before I even arrived at the tournament in my last post. If this pre-trny incident had not occurred, I'm quite certain I would've hit my club, doubled up and went on to win the tournament. Yup.

But my luck had already been used up that night. You see, I was on my way to Tunica for that 7pm daily and running a little late, as usual. I had my cruise set at 78 or 79, because I've always heard if you're doing less than 10mph over the limit on the interstate, you won't get a speeding ticket. True? I dunno, but that's what 'They' say and 'They' always seem to know what they're talking about, don't they?

So, I'm driving along, minding my own business, when this vehicle starts coming up on me really fast. I think about getting over and letting them pass, but there is an 18 wheeler just up ahead in the right lane. If I moved over right then, I'd have to slow way down to 60 or so and I have a tournament to get to, right? No time to be slowing down. So, I decide I'll pass the truck and then I'll let this hammer foot, maniac get by me.

But, his headlights keeps getting closer and closer to me. He is right on my ass at nearly 80mph. I hate that! You need to keep a safe distance to the car ahead of you at all times, no matter the road conditions! He was really pissing me off. So, I did what they call a 'brake check', I hit my brakes hard to let him know that if he would just hold on a damn minute and get off my ass, I would move over as soon as I passed the big rig and he could carry on doing 100mph. Welp, he responded to my actions not with a polite "I'm sorry" or even by slowing down, he responded with some flashing blue lights.

That's right, it was a cop. Of all people, I had to brake check a freakin' cop. A state trooper, actually. Doh!!!

I couldn't believe myself. Idiot. You're an idiot. Good job, way to go.

After pulling over, I get my license ready trying to think of something to say. My mind is blank. And if you've ever been pulled over, you know they have to blind you for some reason. There's a spotlight pointed directly at your mirror and then they walk up with a flashlight in your face that could rival the sun in it's brightness. I squint in the direction of the light and say, "I can't see you."

"I don't want you to see me!" came the angry growl behind the blinding light.

Oh shit, he's pissed. Fabulous.

I quietly hand over my license to the beam of light. Then the ass chewing starts. I remain silent and try to look pitiful. I was feeling pitiful, so it wasn't a stretch. After he goes on a bit, I decide to go with the truth, "I really thought you were just being a bad driver. Speeding and getting too close to me." He tells me he was so close because I was speeding and he was getting my tag number. I have no comeback other than "I didn't know that, I'm so sorrrrrry".

He calms down a little and goes on to tell me that even if he were just a random "bad driver", that's still really dumb because people are crazy these days, have guns and people have been killed over road rage. Now, I'm getting a read of some sympathy and understanding. Milk it, milk it! So I do. Which, I did actually, truly agree with him. It was a stupid thing to do and I was thankful for the reminder that yes, people are crazy and it's best to just let them be crazy and let them by.

He left me with a stern, "Don't do that again." instead of the ticket for speeding and reckless driving that I thought was coming. So yea, I used up my rungood that night before I even got to the poker room. But that's fine with me! I lost less than the ticket would've been, so I'm calling that a win! :)

Gettin' Too Frisky

I am on a roll with busting tournaments before the 1st break, lately. Something I've never done before. It's happened in the last 2 tournaments I've played. Twice. Two in a row. Back to back. I never understood people who bust early to anything other than a cooler. Now I am one of them! What's the deal?

In the last tournament, it folded around to the button who limped in. I called in the SB with QcJs. (Yes, I could've and should've raised I suppose, but I thought I'd see a flop and go from there against these 2 particular players.) The button and BB have me covered. The BB, a young, newbie tourist, made a min raise. It meant nothing, he'd been raising often from any position. The button calls, as do I. Good spot to squeeze here...the more I think about it, the more I'm glad I busted, serves me right the way I played it! LOL

Anyway, 3 to the flop which came Jc 6c 3c

So, I have top pair, decent kicker and a flush draw. Pretty good flop. I check to the raiser. He makes an expected continuation bet. The older man on the button raises a large amount. I don't remember exactly, it's been a while, but it was for most of my stack...say I had 8k and he made it 5k. I knew he had a made flush already. I knew it. But I thought my club draw was higher than his made flush. If I could get another club, I would take it down and get a nice double up. It was about 70/30 on the flop. I don't know what's got into me lately, but I have been taking these unnecessary risks. I move all in, the BB folds and he of course snap calls with 10c 7c. No club came and I was out.

I hate how I played it the whole way. Also, in my quest to be Vanessa Selbst Jr...haha just kidding, I could never be that aggro I don't think...but I have been taking more risks, probably not the best risks in hindsight, but I'm actively trying to mix things up. It's a fine line between creative lines and spew, though. I'm still trying to find the balance.

However, in my next tournament, feel free to run over me for the first few levels. I'm not playing a hand 'til after the 1st break. Ha!

Horseshoe Poker Room Promo For New Room

The Horseshoe poker room announced this tournament on facebook yesterday. A $25,000 guarantee with 3 WSOP main event seats thrown in. Nice! I'll be there. The WSOP circuit events start January 23rd at Harrah's. Here's a link to the schedule of events. See you there!  

Math is Hard

A poker obstacle I have to overcome; math. I only have some many fingers and toes, ya know.

I'm the one trying to discretely use my phone to constantly calculate the number of bbs in my stack. Don't judge me. LOL  

Guys Are Way Easier

Making friends. I'm the quiet type. The shy type. An introvert, some would say. Sometimes, especially in my freelance photography job, I have to pretend to be a social butterfly, overflowing with smiles and small talk. It doesn't come naturally, but I have enough experience that it seems like it does. I can fake it well enough. I have my camera, I have my media pass. That gives me a reason to walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. 99% of the time, they are very receptive to me and even when they're not (for instance, the person they are with at the event is not their spouse, ahem, and they don't want photos taken, fine), they still decline politely. I've never had someone be rude or blow me off as they walk away as quickly as possible. It's a good thing, too, because I wouldn't be doing that job any longer if they did! Rejection sucks. Twice as bad when you're shy.

So, lately I've been trying to use this 'pretend-I'm-sociable-and-not-an-awkward-dork' method from work in making new, real life poker friends. I've been actually walking up to people in Tunica, introducing myself and starting conversations. Without my camera, my security blanket, mind you. This is a big deal for me lol. It had been going really well, too. In the last month, I've met several guys, who like me, love to talk poker, which is exactly what I was looking for. Up until now, I've only had my husband to discuss strategy or general poker stuff with and all the pros say "to get better, surround yourself with people who are better than you and who care about it as much as you". Sometimes I get to talk with the Bovada & Tunica Tournament Crusher, aka Memphis Mojo, usually on a tournament break and I enjoy those brief talks. But other than that, it's just been my husband to talk with. And while he's won more money than I have in tournaments, I had to laugh the other day when he turned away from the youtube video he was watching and asked me, "What is a value bet?" Yea. And he's on Hendon Mob and I'm not. Sigh. lol.

It took a lot of nerve to talk to these people, because of my shyness, but like I said, all was going great until I had the thought, All of the the poker players I'm talking to are guys. I need to make some female poker friends, too. So, I spotted this female tournament reg in Horseshoe (Roadhouse) who had walked by the table when I was playing the GS main event and wished me luck, saying she pulled for all of the female players. She seemed nice to me then, so I figured I'd walk up and try to get to know her. Umm, noooo. When I attempted to start a conversation by asking how she'd been doing since I saw her last, she totally blew me off with a hurried "I've been running bad in everything.." and straight up walked off!

Oh. Ok then. Hurt my feelings, heifer. Fine. Maybe she had just busted out of the tournament and I should cut her some slack? Umm so had I...I don't think that's any reason to be rude? It was a daily, not a championship, geez. So, I guess I'll just stick to guy poker friends for now, they are way easier to approach and talk to. And for that, thanks, guys, you rock. :)

Crazy Time of Year

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! This is a super busy time of the year with all of the cooking, cleaning, shopping, tree trimming, entertaining, family visits and working, so I'm not sure how much I will be playing poker this month. The blog may be a little neglected until January when life gets back to normal. I may not be playing, but I'm still thinking poker pretty much all of the time lol. An awesome blog reader sent me a copy of Ed Miller's hand ranging book How to Read Hands at NLHE, which was a super nice thing to do. Big thanks to him, it's a great book.

In the last post, I mentioned we played cash after the tournament. It was pretty uneventful for me as far as cards go, but it was a lesson in tilt control for several others at the table. I don't know if it was a full moon that night or what, but there were some crazy people out, y'all.

It started in the tournament registration line at the Shoe, when I spotted a man in a cash game looking an awful lot like a Nick Nolte mugshot...

His long, greasy hair wasn't as wild as Nick's, but he was very similar looking, shirt and all. What really caught my eye was the little green, hair clip he was using to pin his hair back on one side. The kind mom's put in their little girl's hair. I had the perfect spot to snap a pic, but I totally chickened out. Lame. I know.

Then at Harrah's in the cash game, the first thing I heard the 3 seat say was, "Hey, we're at the WSOP final table. I'm trying to win the tournament! I'll play how I want to." as he tabled his 7-3 offsuit winner.

Should we tell him we're not in Vegas on ESPN, that we're actually in a shallow stacked 1/3 cash game in the middle of nowhere? In my opinion, of course not. I don't have a problem with crazy. I welcome it, entertain it. Be crazy, play crazy. It's good for the game. But there were 3 men at the table who had a problem with Mr. WSOP and just had to let him know about it. He continued to defend himself with talk of final tables, I took his side with a smile and a "nice hand". Who cares if he doesn't play 'correct starting hands' or if he doesn't want to chop the blinds? There are several regs at Harrah's who don't chop. Who cares? Outplay him post flop. I noticed that while his opening/calling range was wide, he was fit or fold and if he did get a piece, he would overplay top pair/bad kicker like it was the nuts. That's a great player to have at the table! But they didn't think so, obv. He took a a long break and just when he came back, it was time for me to leave to go meet my husband. Sad face. I wished him luck as I was leaving, he was the nice kind of crazy, hopefully I'll get to see him again at the tables. I'd much rather play with him than the tilted, ego driven players who were berating him. Shame on them.