My trip to Reno March 24th during NACs (bridge championships,
WPT Poker tournament and Reno Dance Sensation weekend dance
convention).
Day 1:
Wednesday, I get a ride to Oakland from a coworker and catch a Southwest
flight to Reno. First time flying Southwest in over 10 years -- not bad.
It helps to get on first and for the flight to be 1/2 empty though...
My trip to Reno March 24th during NACs (bridge championships,
WPT Poker tournament and Reno Dance Sensation weekend dance
convention).
Day 1:
Wednesday, I get a ride to Oakland from a coworker and catch a Southwest
flight to Reno. First time flying Southwest in over 10 years -- not bad.
It helps to get on first and for the flight to be 1/2 empty though...
Just missed the hotel shuttle so I grab a cab. The cabbie spends the
entire 10 minute drive bitching and moaning about how he was waiting
for 2 hours and all he got was a 10 dollar fare. Which it wasn't since
I wasn't inclined to tip generously after having to endure his complaints.
Check in at poker rate ($25/$35 ka-ching!) and get a great room, huge,
with king bed, non-smoking.
I register for the $120 no rebuy NL tournie. There are about 300 people
in it. It starts right on time at 7pm. Sometime between 11pm and
midnight with the blinds at $200-$400 w/$50 antes for another minute,
my stack around $2800 I push all-in in late position with A9 while
talking to my seatmate. There's a long pause and I look up and see
the button staring at me.
Now I don't know what it is, but whenever people try to "look into m
soul" they must get really scared by what they see because they *always*
misread my hand at that point. Anyway, the guy calls me for all his
chips and flips over KJo. Jack comes on the flop and no help
arrives for me and I'm out (the caller had $50 more than I).
I'm out 30-something out of 299, with 27 paying. Ugh.
By this time the bridge session is over (I used to play lots of
tournament bridge so I know all the top bridge players many of whom
play poker) and a bridge buddy and I sit down at a festive 4-8
table (the limits being spread were 2-4, 4-8, NL w/3-5blinds, $100 bi,
10-20, 20-40, 30-60.
Btw, this is that idiotic 4-8 where the blinds are 2 and 2. It's to make it "easier to see the flop" -- cause you know how hard it is
for people to see the flop in 4-8 right? The raise pre-flop still
has to be $4. So first hand, I pick up pocket Jacks and raise to $6.
I get a "welcome to the table" from the dude in seat 8, a couple of
callers and a flop of AKx. Someone bets into me, calls my raise,
and then folds to my bet on the turn. Next hand I pick up Jacks
again, "Raise!" "Welcome to the table" again from seat 8. Apparently
it was boring before I got there.
All the 4-8 tables also have a 1/2 Kill. If the same person wins two pots
the second one being at least $20, they have to post $6 on the next
hand and the limits are $6-$12.
My buddy gets a table change into my table and says something to me
when the welcome committee in seat 8 suddenly sounds all excited
(if it's possibly to be more excited than he already was): "Are
you the Asya from BARGE list???" "Yes, I am" "I'm North Shore Mike"!
And so it came that us BARGErs found each other the first evening
I was there. Mike introduced me to Murray Logan, another Canadian
BARGEr. As far as I know no other BARGEr made themselves known,
though this bridge player named Larry from Philadelphia was wearing
an ATLARGE hat and fessed up to having actually attended.
We may have recruited three or four non-BARGErs into coming to BARGE
this year. Mostly we did so by having loud outrageous fun right in
front of their faces.
Anyway, 4-8 with North Shore Mike, my bridge buddy Wafik and who
else do we find at our table but Mike Cappeletti Sr. I can't quite
figure out what he is doing at 4-8 hold'em table but since he didn't
play too many hands, I can't say I figured it out.
After being up a little around 2:30am I get up and head to the coffee
shop (dinner was a horrible little sandwich from Port-O-Subs which
was like Subway, only worse). Someone asks me if I'm going to bed and I declare that only a pussy would go to bed at such an early hour.
After coffee shop visit however, I find that I'm totally beat and
I head off to bed.
Next day, Thursday, I get up around noon and watch some
Omaha Hi-Lo tournament. In particular I'm sweating Mike Cappelletti Sr.
After a little while he makes a comment to me about how tight his
table is being -- only two or three people at most seeing every flop.
Then comes this hand: Mike picks up AA64 in early position and raises.
He gets six callers. Yes six. So much for a tight table. Then he
gets a flop of 532 rainbow. Yes, 532. He flopped a wheel and a nut
straight. He bets and after a couple of calls, the cut-off raises
and the button re-raises. I kid you not. Mike just calls and the
betting gets capped on the other end. Four players left. Turn is a
king of the 4th suit. Mike bets, call, raise, call, re-raise all call.
The river is a three. I forget the betting but basically the woman
who called every time the action got to her turned over 53 to take
the high with a full house. The other three split the low with a A4.
Btw, the calling station at that point became the chip leader in the
tournament. Not that she kept that distinction long.
Anyway, after Mike gets knocked out I try some satelites. They are
running continuous single table satelites, winner takes it all in
tournament chips -- can be used to buy into any tournie or satelite
or sold at face to someone else who is. I run into some seriously
bad luck even though I feel like I'm playing really well. I keep
getting all my chips in with the best hand and those are the hands
I'm going out on. Sometimes I've got large enough stack that they
double through me with a dominated hand and then I have to build it
up again... Anyway enough bad beat stories, the point is that I
feel I'm playing well and it's all a matter of time before I win.
There were some funny hands. I raise in late with ATs and the button
pushes all in (this is the very first hand of the satelite). Partly
because the stacks are very shallow to begin with ($300 in chips
for the $65 sats and $500 in the $120 sats) and partly because I
have a hunch she doesn't have a big hand I call and get shown Q3s.
For once I don't get sucked out on and I double up early. After
the lady leaves one of the guys tells us that she's been doing this
at every table so far -- pushing all in on the very first hand
with whatever she happens to have. Hey, at least it's a strategy.
I manage to get KO'ed from one sat on the first hand myself. I
have pocket 9s and play heads-up against one other player for a
smallish raise. With the flop of K9x all the chips go in and
I am shown KK. Oops.
I'm in one satelite with North Shore Mike. He folds presto on
one hand. He begs me not to tell on him, but I'm telling.
The dance convention (one of the other reasons I'm there) starts
Thursday night so I register, pick up the schedule, etc. More
about the dancers later.
Friday I have to get up early for a dance workshop. After getting
some lunch (or was it breakfast?) I play some more satelites. I
decided against the $300 buy-in NL as it had another huge field
and I didn't want to spend another 4 hours with nothing to show for it.
Sadly my satelite success was limited to striking a couple of deals
when two or three people were remaining. Oh well, maybe next time.
I did enter the pot limit tournament in the evening for $220. That
was no different than the other tournament experiences... after building
up a stack and losing a chunk of it after raising and folding a big
re-raise w/KQ (he flashed me his AA before mucking) the blinds
started catching up and I had to take a stand with 99, got called by
A9 who spiked an ace. Definitely no more tournaments, just satelites!
Saturday is a mostly dancing day (though I finally found a satelite
I could beat in the afternoon). The dance convention was lame and I
can safely say I'd have had more fun if I'd just stayed with poker
the whole time.
The show Saturday night is quite festive. On the way to it we're
looking for a quick bite and pass by Mike and Murray who are eating
[and drinking, duh] at Chevy's. We join their festive dinner party
and I teach them a new game: "Dancer or Hooker".
Here is the basic idea of the game. The dance convention that's in
town is for Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing and Salsa. Westie and Salsa
ladies normal "dressup" tends to be things that are tight, revealing,
animal print and/or all of the above. You know, things you might
expect a hooker to wear (and I say that with the upmost respect as
I dress that way for dancing myself). So the non-dancers hanging
with me would have to guess whenever a woman dressed that way passed
by us: "Dancer or hooker". I'd tell them if they were right as I
knew about 90+% of the dancers that were in for the convention.
Anyway, we sit for a little while, drinking and playing. Turns out
most players who pass by are bridge players (who also all know me by
name) and I guess another game that can be played is "Bridge player,
poker player or couch potato" but the answer would too frequently
be all of the above.
Anyway, Ben (my dance partner) and I head off to the show which is a
nice mix of amazing dancing and barely tolerable (to me) singing.
It goes on a little too long and we decide to play some more poker
afterwards. Ben plays 2-4 and I play some more 4-8. This game is
so ridiculously good that when it breaks up just an hour or two
later I want to cry. There were three or four total calling stations
and two bluffing stations. My favorite is the guy who sits next
to me who says that he never goes on tilt but every time he loses
a pot on the next hand he bluffs off at least a stack of chips.
In spite of being sucked out on for two huge pots, I'm up more than a rack in about an hour (and this is playing less than a hand per orbit).
And the best thing was everyone at the table was having fun!
According to Ben the 2-4 game varied between being good and fun to
being annoying when some "annoying" people would play. Apparently
they wouldn't post their blinds, would splash the pot and in general
annoy people.
The rest of Saturday night I spend at the escalator bar drinking with
the Canadian M&Ms (Mike and Murray). We are sitting a couple
of stools away from Bob Stupak who has a couple of ... admirers?
star fuckers? angle shooters? talking him up and convincing him to
stake them for the big event next week.
Oh, speaking of celebrities, two big ones were spotted at the Hilton.
Earlier that week Mike saw Prince, surrounded by 10 or 20 bodyguards.
Maybe that's why Mike couldn't look too closely and couldn't confirm
whether or not Prince really is a "sexy mother fucker" as they say.
On my way to the bar Saturday I run into Bill Gates. Not literally but
he's standing in the walkway talking bridge hands with some friends of
mine and I realize that he's in to play in the bridge tournament.
(Even though he's not a particularly great player, apparently he
enjoys entering some National events time and again). Bill had *NO*
bodyguards around. None.
Anyway, I don't drink much so I can't tell you what happened the rest
of the night except I played a whole lot of blackjack with some bridge
buddies. Oh and Murray is good at trivia, but not THAT good, I still
stumped him a few times.
Sunday is a little of a blur. I remember a dance workshop which was
great. I remember some more poker. Finally leaving the hotel to
get dinner with a friend of mine. Hanging at Johnny Rockets later
with M&Ms while they were having dinner. Running into the above-
mentioned guy with an ATLARGE hat. Staying up later than I should
have given that I had an early morning flight home (that's redundant,
all morning flights are early) and playing more black jack with Mike
sweating me (and apparently counting) and telling me when to up
my bets.
Next morning we got up, checked out, grabbed the free shuttle to the
airport, and had an uneventful flight back to Oakland where I went
straight to work.
Overall, the trip was a blast. Can't wait till BARGE. Maybe I'll
make it back to Reno for their June tournaments. Thanks to North
Shore Mike, Murray, my bridge buddies and my dance buddies for
hanging out with me and make it a great five day party...