I was in Vegas for a week (May 30 - June 6) and cannot wait until my return. The WSOP tends to be a bit of a blur to me at the best of times, so this trip, I made use of the handy pen and paper to make notes about my trip. Hopefully whoever finds that paper can piece it all together and have a few good laughs.
Day 1 - Worked all day then took off early in the afternoon to finish up packing and got chauffeured to the airport by my friend. Whether it was the upcoming flight or the fact that I hadn't been to Vegas since last July, I was filled with excitement and nervousness. Skip the boring wait at the airport, flight and wait for my bag and fast forward to check in at Caesars.
Got loaded into my room and almost didn't leave because of the view: (excuse the blurry iPhone pic)
The room was pretty sweet also....they obviously missed my action over the year. Not to waste any time, I headed over to the Rio to check out the action. Not really all that much going on in the cash games, mostly talked to a few dealers who were talking about the Casino Employees event and how anyone could play in it (similar to the Ladies and Seniors Events). Too bad really, I always liked the idea of having a tournament specific to those who are going to take care of us for the rest of the Series.
I headed to the back of the room looking for one of my online friends (who was originally going to pick me up from the airport) that I was going to meet for the first time. It was great timing because he was just chopping the first WSOP payment of 2011, him and his buddy met in the heads up satellite to the 25k (event 2). Good for a laugh anyway, as they had just driven 26 hours across country to get to there. We met up with a couple more friends and had a few drinks to start off the WSOP, a fairly busy evening, seeing as I only got to LV at 8pm that night.
Day 2 - Bit of a housekeeping day really, planned the rest of my trip, rented a car, got my cell phone topped up then went out to a house party near South Point. We watched game 1 of the NBA finals (go Mavs for the record), played some Chinese poker (there's a first time for everything right?) and then went for a swim/hot tub. The house was beautiful and definitely makes me dream of the 'good life', just in time to get geared up for June 1rst and my first event.
Gosh I have sure been neglecting the blog. No time now either....off to Vegas in a few hours in pursuit of a bracelet....only one event planned for this week long stint, but that will do for now.
I have been thinking a fair amount about delayed gratification of late. It is a concept that my mum used to talk to my sister and me. It mostly had to do with how we spent our allowance, and saving for items that we wanted. As much as I wanted to have Guess jeans or Nike pumps...I knew I would have to work for them and that may have meant giving up other things. Even now, with regards to money, I save in some places (no cable, take the bus to work, cut coupons) so I can live extravagantly when I want to. I told my dad once that "I don't like to shop, but I really like nice things"....it's probably a learned behavior of mine to not like to shop, otherwise my credit card bills could be disastrous!
The reason I have been thinking about this, is that with WSOP coming up in less than three weeks, I have been trying to finalize which tournaments I want to play and if I want to sell % of my action. For the most part, I have always had all my own action but am usually willing to trade % with other players in the same tournament. That is usually as far as I go to reduce variance and have some fun in the meantime. I have never been backed, because I think that gives up equity for me and when I win a tournament I want to win it all. I feamel confident enough in my abilities that I want to be the first person to put me in a tournament. It is still tempting for some of the bigger tournaments.
As a rule, I don't think long term backing agreements are good for poker. I am not worried that these arrangements will wreck the game or cause the game to disappear, but I do think that the players who are backed will have a shorter livelihood in poker, largely due to the burden of makeup. In my opinion, there is something so valuable about working and grinding your way up the limits. You learn patience, bankroll management, the value of a dollar and how to grind out a living. It is hard to keep things in perspective when you play 4 and 5 figure tournaments on a regular basis. You stay strung along because you only ever one good day away from a big score.
I guess ultimately it just depends on the individual as to what path they want to take, but if the focus can be on delayed gratification, the individual will be better off in the end.
Yoga
I completed my 30 day challenge. I did 30 classes in April, had to double up a few times to make up for the days where work/life got in the way. Overall, I am really happy I did it, but I know that without a doubt I need a break. That being said, I signed up for a one month pass to another studio...maybe soon I will be doing handstands and wheels, but probably will just be content with being comfortable in a down dog.
Poker
I already briefly touched on "Black Friday" but now have a better idea as to what the impact is on me. As a person, I don't like that the US government is preventing the citizens from playing online, but as a poker player, I think it may have been better for me than originally anticipated. While it is a bit tougher to get an omaha 8/b game going, it is definitely better when it finally comes together. I have had better tournament results also, including finishing 101rst in the Sunday Million on PokerStars tonight. Maybe it is variance, or maybe I underestimated the poker prowess of our neighbours to the South.
I am really happy that PokerStars has been able to process cashouts for the US players, that will help and maybe even improve the flow of money during WSOP (less than a month away now...) because some players will have their whole roll in cash rather than keeping the majority of their cash online.
SCOOP starts on the 8th of May. I hope I get to play some of the events, but it isn't looking likely because with the absence of the US players, PokerStars decided to move the events 3 hours earlier. In the past, I was able to catch some of the evening events after work if I wanted to, or take an afternoon away from work if the event warranted it. It will be tough this year to take the time....will have a look this week to see what I want to do.
Personally, "Black Friday" has impacted some of me and some of my relationships with American friends. We don't have a normal banter about how our days have gone, or hands to talk about, or tournaments to review. Some have dealt with the situation really well, and things are normal, but it is evident that others begrudge that I can still play where they used to.
I just maintained my monthly quota to remain a Supernova on PokerStars this month...
Fun
April bring basketball playoffs for us every year, we sailed through the semis, with a couple games this month and are headed to the finals for our division this year, have a solid chance of shipping it too! Needless to say.....
Mid-month, a group of friends went out to a rural community hall for the 2nd annual curling extravaganza, it was entirely too much fun. An evening of curling (really everyone should try it) interspersed with a Ukrainian feast of pyrogies, cabbage rolls and skor cake....what else could you ask for? The rum slush definitely helped to keep us warmer on the ice!
Yoga kept me flexible I guess....
Finally, this week, I went to Riverdance. I never saw it on it's first run through after the boom of the Celtic Tiger in the early 2000s. It was an awesome experience that I thoroughly loved, I do still wish I had seen it with a huge full cast. For those of you who are wondering, I only cried a small amount at the beginning, something about Irish hard shoe dance makes me super emotional! My favorite clips from Riverdance....I could watch them over and over! Michael Flately is so haughty and arrogant, but I love it!
I also read a couple books during April...I read Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren and Still Alice by Lisa Genova. The latter was an incredible book that was told from the perspective of a well educated woman as she became increasingly affected by Alzheimer's Disease. If you read it (and you should), I recommend you avoid reading on the train/bus or other public arenas, as there are some intense moments that really take your breath away (and may bring a tear to your eye). It is what I consider a very human book, with situations that you can feel yourself in.
My basement also flooded around Good Friday...thankfully I have people in my life (my mum and step-father) who are proficient at dealing with such emergencies. I didn't have the time to put a diving board in my basement, it was dried up in no time! (Thanks)
All in all, it has been a crazy month, periodically I think about things I should blog and am sure that I have forgotten a number of things tonight....not to worry, I'll be back!
This is horrible in the moment. I don't like what has happened in the poker world in the last 26 hours. Change freaks me out. It always has. My reactions to yesterdays indictment was shock, disbelief, denial, anger and so on. It feels like so many of my friends have been laid off, and potentially more will lose 'normal' jobs based on the fall out. I am concerned for what this will mean for the WSOP this summer...it's only 6 weeks away!
I am fortunate that poker is not my livelihood and that I am Canadian (perhaps foremost), so I can hardly imagine the fear and devastation that some of my American friends are facing. I hope that they can take a few days/weeks of vacation, essentially let cooler heads prevail and start reformulating a plan of attack. Poker players are intelligent people and I have no doubt that we will recover.
I had a bad week a while ago, was chatting to my friend about some of my issues and the comment he made was essentially that my concerns were all 'first world problems' and while I was angry at first to have to acknowledge that, it helped me keep things in perspective. The FBI, DOJ, the indictments and all that surrounding this is just that....a first world problem.
I feel like I have more to write....but I have to go curling. :)
I played my 2nd ever women only tournament yesterday, on PokerStars. At the end of March, they starting running a weekly $55 NL hold em tournaments on Sunday and have just upped the guarantee from $5k to $10k. It worked out fairly well for me and I finished 3rd out of 231 players and managed to pick up a team pro bounty too, from the ever controversial Mer Brit (peachymer).
Everybody has different views on women's tournaments, I always said you couldn't pay me to play in the ladies event in the WSOP. I have friends that will tell you it is the softest field and others that will tell you it's the toughest. I wouldn't mind hearing Shaun Deeb's perspective after he got dressed up in drag to enter the 2010 ladies event, I don't know where he finished....but it doesn't look like he cashed.
I don't think ladies tournaments are easy. I think in fact that they are significantly harder, especially for me. Things I notice:
1) Women seem to play smaller pots preflop, I feel like there is more limping in to see flops.
2) Once women limp in, they really want to see that flop and will call raises with a wider range of hands.
3) Women will call you down when they flop a pair, they also seem to check call even if they improve their hands on the turn/river....unless it is the nuts.
4) If a woman raises or leads out on a river, you are surely beat. If she three bets preflop, it is AK or a pocket pair and probably QQ +
5) If the woman is aware of all of the above...she probably becomes loose aggressive and plays more of a man style game, none of the previous 'lady' rules apply. This style of game applies to people like Vanessa Russo, Vanessa Selbst, and other more publicly successful women players.
Without a doubt, I become territorial and hyper aggressive when I know I am playing another woman (as evidenced by the final table yesterday), I feel like I can push them over every hand. I will fix this leak over the next few weeks... Many men play women this way also, but that is for another blog. Whether it is just being narcissistic or self centered, I like to be the exception to the rule, center of attention or the girl in the "man's world" (I estimate that about 10 - 15% of players are XX), and these ladies are limping in on my territory...literally and figuratively!
Ultimately, I think it is great that sites are running these kind of tournaments, despite it being challenging to establish that all players are actually women. I think if marketed well, these tournaments will bring a much higher flow of traffic as well as a sense of community among the ladies. Maybe some satellites for the WSOP event...then I would play! Also, I hope that PokerStars will consider a different game format instead of always no limit hold em (I am satisfied with any format of omaha 8/b), even bi-monthly or quarterly. Women are versatile!!!
A closing note to the men....it is incredibly intimidating for a woman to join a poker game, or walk into a poker room. My first year I would shake for the first hour or so at the table, and the players were mostly really kind to me. Be nice to women in the game, live and online alike. A week doesn't go by where I don't get berated in the chat box, thankfully I have been around long enough now that I see the online chat is a reflection of that players insecurity, not a measure of me. I try to focus on the good comments...like today:
ApesAreFun: whos the girl in your avatar talon?
talonchick: me
ApesAreFun: oh
ApesAreFun: you're pretty!
Plus, when they go to the board to fill your game, or fill the empty tournament seat at the WSOP, would you rather a sweaty, unshowered man or a lady who has probably put some effort into her appearance that day?
Namaste.
(Also, I am 11 days [or 13 classes] into my 30 day yoga challenge, it has been incredible, but I am exhausted...have to push through the 'hump' and finish strong!)
Ask anyone around Edmonton, life is about 30% better than it was this time a month ago. As I mentioned before, the snow if finally melting (which makes my sprint for the bus in the morning a bit icy) and the temperature is finally hitting some flip flop weather. Thank God.
I did commit to the 30 day yoga challenge at a local studio (www.infinitefusion.ca) and am so far (5 classes in) happy I have done it. My hips are more flexible and my mind feels more focused. To go along with this, I cut back my poker playing drastically, which has led to better sleep for the most part. I haven't been playing all that well, or running all that well either if I want an excuse, so I hope that moving my focus to something else, for the short term, will help me long term in day to day life and of course with poker. I am off to do a 2nd class in 30 minutes, need to get ahead if I am going to complete 30 classes in 30 days... have at least two basketball games this month, along with Riverdance tickets, a curling weekend away, Easter long weekend and who knows what else may pop up.
Oh yeah, did I hear someone picked UCONN to ship the NCAA tourney? If I could figure out how to do it, I would post my bracket... It was a sad day for me yesterday though, I really like Brad Stevens; his coaching style, his demeanor and how well spoken he is, caught myself rooting for the 'underdogs'. Nonetheless, I picked a champion this year, maybe next year I will actually place a sports bet....
