Out in Vegas to take a shot in the World Series of Poker today. I entered event #49, which is a $1500 buy-in No-Limit Holdem tournament. Last year there were about 3000 entrants and the top 10% or so get paid. It’s a 3-day tournament — if you’re lucky — so hopefully I won’t be back to Houston until Tuesday…

UPDATE: Maybe I shouldn’t have started this post with “out” — that is not a word you want to be using!!!

Played for 3 levels — an hour a level… Never could get any cards! I had AK twice — raised with it and took down the blinds once, next time raised with it and got 3 callers — no A or K and I fold on the flop. The only other hand I raised the first hour was KJ suited in late position - again, taking down the blinds.

The ONLY pair I saw in 3 hours was 77. I called a raise of 350 with it and the flop came AKQ all clubs. Nice. I had a 7 of clubs, but that is no good here and I folded on the turn when the original raiser bet.

I raised in late position with A9 of diamonds — with only 3 players behind me — made it 350. He moved all-in and it was back to me for 600 more. The pot had about 850 in it, so it was marginal to call. If I folded I would still have 1700 in chips, if I called and lost only 1100. He later told me he had 5s — which is what I figured… a small pair or bigger ace — either way I am behind. So, I folded like a lawn chair!

Kept getting hands like K2, Q3, and other absolutely unplayable hands. On my 3rd table move I was down to 1075 in chips — from a starting 300 stack. The blinds were 100/200 and I was about to hit the big blind in 2 more hands. If I folded through the blinds I would have less than 800 which is almost impossible to do anything with. So, I pushed with 10 9 of hearts in early position and hoped that everyone would fold. I got two callers — not good news! But the flop was 553 with two hearts, bringing me some hope. One guy bet into the dry side pot and the 3rd player folded. I couldn’t catch a heart to beat his pocket tens. If I had gotten lucky there you never know!

It was a good experience and I saw a bunch of famous poker players. Incidentally, one player asked me if I was in the line for the bathroom (the lines were LONG at the break!) and I told him that he looked familiar. He said, “I’m Matt.” and I replied, “Matros?”, which he affirmed. Matt is a former WPT champion and pro poker player — although his name is not as familiar to those of you that don’t play and he is not a highly recognizable player. I told him that his poker book was one of the first that I had ever read and we chatted about the tournament for a minute, so that was sort of cool…

Enjoyed the experience overall — although it would have been nice to catch some cards! Going to try again in a smaller buy-in tournament tonight over at Harrah’s … we’ll see what happens.

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OK, well it’s not really 90 seconds … It’s 3-4 hours condensed into 90 seconds: Here’s a little compilation video of some of the hands I played during the second half of the tournament, with a cheesy voiceover by me Music by Jay-Z and R Kelly.

The tournament started at 5pm and I was recording it for the first few hours, but the file wouldn’t save — I think it was just huge and I didn’t give it enough time. Anyway, the first three hours were pretty boring anyway — play aces 4 times and get no action with them twice, lose with them once, and double with them once. Probably best play I made in the first hour was not overplaying pocket queens against pocket kings - it would have been pretty easy to stack off here, but I really thought this guy might have a big hand. I made a value bet on the river, but if he shoves I’m 95% sure I was going to lay it down there, as there was a LOT of tournament play left.

Dealt to me [Qc Qs]
Nichiei raises to 350
I call 300
*** FLOP *** [8s Ts Js]
I bet 1,000
Nichiei calls 1,000
*** TURN *** [8s Ts Js] [3h]
I check
Nichiei checks
*** RIVER *** [8s Ts Js 3h] [5h]
I bet 1,000
Nichiei calls 1,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
I show [Qc Qs] a pair of Queens
Nichiei shows [Kh Kd] a pair of Kings
Nichiei wins the pot (5,050) with a pair of Kings

In the video I’m shoving a lot of hands because with my stack it just doesn’t make sense to raise. I don’t want to get reraised and have to call and have my hand stand-up. Basically I want everyone to fold so that I can pick up the blinds and survive. So, say I have a stack of 40K I don’t want to raise to 10K and then have to call an all-in if I have a hand like AQ, AK, or 10 10 — it’s better just to shove as people aren’t going to call you unless they have a very good hand. If you get unlucky, that’s just the breaks…

You can see in one hand I get very lucky when my QJ beats another players pocket jacks. A little earlier in the tournament I had shoved pre-flop with pocket 8s and ran into aces — an 8 on the flop saved me. These were my two suckouts for the entire tournament and, hey, you gotta get lucky! When I made my play I thought it was the right play at the time — and once you’re all-in there’s nothing that you can do about it but sit back and hope for the best!

Anyway, at the end of the day, I’ve decided to keep the $12K for now… I may go out to Vegas and play in one of the smaller WSOP events — like a $1500 or $2K entry tournament. But I think that for now that’s better than spending the $12K on a single tourney entry. Of course, I’m still playing online trying to win a 2nd seat and if that happens I am going for sure!!!

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This was an every month feature before, but I haven’t posted a Mad Skillz since August!

So, here you go, for all you rap fans out there… and so Brendan knows what to buy for his iPod…

1) Get Like Me (Stuntin is a Habit) - David Banner … Retaining the #1 spot with a new song!

2) That’s Gangsta - Bun B (feat. Sean Kingston)

3) Sexy Can I - Ray J (feat. Yung Berg)

4) Independent - Webbie (feat. Lil’ Boosie & Lil’ Phat) … Incidentally, this is also Nat’s ringtone on my phone

5) What Is It - Baby Bash

Enjoy!!!

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Richele informed me a few weeks back that she is glad that I stopped blogging about poker because those posts were “boring”! Sorry to disappoint any of you non-poker fans, but this is a must-blog moment! (And it should be much more exciting than any of Richele’s recent posts *ahem*)

First of all, had a great referee camp this weekend. I felt that I was pretty much on top of my game and - more importantly - JFLO and Brendan were, as they both had great camps and received numerous positive comments. Basketball officiating, especially at the collegiate level, is a big fraternity and obviously I am rooting hard for them to be hired! Hopefully they’ll get a letter in August to that effect!

We got back to Houston (well, the Woodlands) around 3pm yesterday afternoon and after dropping me off they headed home. A few weeks back I won a entry into Full Tilt’s 150 Seat WSOP Main Event giveaway — a $535 entry tournament where at least 150 seats to the WSOP’s main event would be awarded…

On Full Tilt you can unregister from a tournament and get back the entry fee in “tournament dollars”. Since I wasn’t sure that I would be back in time to play this tourney, I had unregistered and had $535 in “T$” to spend on any online tourneys at Full Tilt. This is a new feature at Full TIlt and a welcome one — a few years ago I had satellited into this same tournament and couldn’t unregister. I wanted to play, but was on my way back from another referee camp with Brendan and JFLO. Our plane was delayed, so I got blinded off for an hour and a half while we were in the air!! Needless to say, I didn’t fare well in that one!

The tournament was set to start at 5pm, so I had plenty of time to get registered, comfortable, and ready to play. About a half hour before I went ahead and bought in to the tournament and got settled in at my desk. The tournament started with 3,385 players!

To make a long (and potentially boring) poker story short, at 1:20am this morning the 151st player busted out and I still had chips, which means…

I am going to play in the 2008 World Series of Poker!!!

And I’m in for only $50 (my original satellite buy-in)! The prize package includes the $10,000 buy-in and $2,000 in travel money. So, right after July 4th I will be headed to Vegas to see if I can keep running good at the pokers!

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OK - it’s been almost a month. I need to blog more. I need to workout. I need to ______. That’s life somewhat, isn’t it? Hopefully along the way we take time out for the important things! Blogging doesn’t really reach the top of my list, but I do appreciate when friends and family are bugging me to blog — it’s nice to be appreciated, even if just for a 10-minute time-filler at work!

It’s been a pretty busy month for me — and by month I mean the last 30 days or so, not just June. I’ve got a lot going on with my business right now and trying to figure out where all that is going to go — and I have some new ideas about things I’d like to pursue, so maybe I’ll start up another business or two this year… So, a lot of potential and not sure what the rest of the year holds, but basically I have been busy. Yes, too busy to blog! GASP!

Anyway, we did manage to get some fun in the last month and here are a few photos from our travels…

Court of Two Sisters champagne at their famous brunch — YUM! We all were in New Orleans for a family/friends reunion crawfish boil — it was a lot of fun! Much thanks that Natalie and others who put it all together — and thanks for getting us that nice family rate at the Omni as well!

Carrie studying on her Macbook … or maybe just browsing the interwebs here — hard to tell!

I had to go check out Harrah’s obviously, since it was about a five minute cab ride from the hotel. The WSOP was in town (for those of you that don’t know, the WSOP isn’t just in Vegas — they have “circuit events” year-round in different locations). The poker room was packed — the list for $1/2 was 30 people long and I didn’t feel like waiting 2-3 hours to play, so I put myself down on the $2/5 list as well, which only had half a dozen or so on it. Got my seat in less than an hour and played pretty well on the night. Headed back to the room around 3am up enough to put myself in the WSOP satellite the next day — however, common sense and responsibility prevailed and instead we just hung out on Sunday by the pool and chilled out

Another random pic… Brendan, Derek, Carrie and I all went out up in the Woodlands a few weeks back… Had a great dinner at Grotto and the waiter overheard Carrie talking about how much she liked the post-dinner cookies with sprinkles, so somehow this “to go” box made it to our table! LOL

Yes, these are all pics from my iPhone because someone keeps “borrowing” my camera and I can’t be bothered to find it right now to upload the other photos! Besides, I have to stretch that out into another blog post if I expect to make 2-3 for June!

Brendan, JFLO and I are headed to referee camp this weekend, so we’ll try to post something from the road… Until then!

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