veeRob’s Blog

For those of you that aren’t aware, my two friends and I decided to enter this weekend’s Dream Team Poker tournament at Caesars Palace.  It’s a normal poker tournament, except they have team prizes for how you finish as well as individual prizes.  Unfortunately, both of my teammates busted out early to give us no shot at the team prize, so I was playing only for myself.

The first day went pretty smoothly as I’m used to the faster structure that most of the bigger pro’s aren’t accustomed to.  My first table was a bunch of unknowns except for David Levi, and Shane Schleger joined us shortly thereafter.  I’ve never met Shane, but we have many poker friends in common.  He was a welcome addition to the table as he liked to talk a lot, like I do, and nobody else at the table wanted to chat.  We kept on a conversation until I busted him — he desperation sh0ved UTG for 8 BB’s and I reshoved with A8o.  I even needled him with a slowroll — he tabled K3, and I showed him the 8 and said he had the best hand.  Shane was having fun, so he didn’t mind.  Sorry Shane!

Nick Binger came to our table and proceeded to raise every other pot.  I found sixes and shoved over his raise, and he called with AK.  He hit both cards, but I spiked a six on the turn to double up.  After that, I raised with aces and made top set.  A short stack paid me off, and I almost got David Levi to pay me off with whatever his holding was… possibly two pair.  After that, I went card dead for awhile and went to dinner break with just over ten big blinds.  Folded to me on the button after the break, I shoved for 24k @ 1k/2k with pocket fours.  Joe Sebok was in the BB and made the marginal call with A4s.  He bricked and I doubled up.

I got moved to another table and had a very interesting hand come up.  The cards are standard, but my read made it interesting.  1500/3k blinds, and UTG limps.  I look up, and he looks like a rookie player.  I’m in MP with AKo, so I raise to 10.2k, figuring to have the best hand.  A tight lady cold called my raise, which scared me.  I figured she’d reraise with aces, kings, and queens, and probably AK.  Therefore I figured she almost certainly had JJ or maybe TT.  The limper called, too, which didn’t mean much.

The flop came nine high, all diamonds, and the limper checked.  Now here was the problem… I assumed she had jacks and if I shoved, she would lean towards calling but would possibly fold, giving me credit for a bigger pair, especially if she didn’t have the jack of diamonds.  However, I wasn’t going to push without having a diamond in my hand, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember.  I had to re-check my cards, which then if I moved all in would make it easier for her to call with her jacks.  Not wanting to suicide mission myself with an all in bet with a dry AK, I re-checked my cards.  The king was a diamond, so I shipped.  She tanked and ended up calling, and the limper folded.  She had exactly jacks, no diamond, and I hit a river diamond to win a big pot.  I’m really curious what would have happened if I pushed all in without re-checking my cards.

Not much happened until the end of the day, when I had a flurry of hands.  First I pushed with A6, and the BB woke up with AQ to take a few valuable blinds out of my stack.  Then Jamie Gold pushed from the SB and I called all in from the BB with A9 and won.  Then Jamie limped all in UTG with QT and I shoved with KJ — he made runner runner flush to avoid elimination.  Then I shoved with 88 and a guy called all in for slightly less with aces, and I flopped a full house.  The guy with aces ended up being the actual bubble, which is pretty brutal, but I was happy to get the chips.

Coming into day 2, I folded the first five hands, of which the same guy raised three times.  On my BB, he raised the 4k/8k to 23k, the SB called, and I looked down at 88.  His small raise scared me as he had been raising to 28k or so, but I figured the pair to be best, and I could pick up 50k if they both folded, so I shoved all in.  The raiser called with aces, and I spiked an eight on the river to crack aces again.  Sick.

I lost a small race after that, and then raised with AT and got called.  I shut down on the flop and check-folded.  On my final hand, the button shoved, I insta-called all in with AKs from the SB, and the BB tanked and eventually called with AQs.  The button had 54s and flopped a four while the AQ flopped a flush draw, so I was pretty dead.  54 made trips on the turn, and AQ rivered a flush to leave me in 3rd place in the hand.  I ended up placing 13th for $1332.

Overall, the experience was definitely positive.  It’s rare that I get to play with players of this calibur, and for $500, I was very pleased to play with them.  I am sincerely hoping that someone may have noticed my play enough to back me in some bigger tournaments as I don’t have the bankroll to play anything bigger than $500’s.  Either way, I made a few bucks and got a sweet jersey out of the deal, so I can’t complain.

So I heard back from a marketing representative from Caesar Card Club, and they had a very rational explanation for pulling their WSOP league: they got into trouble with Harrah’s for using the World Series of Poker name without permission, essentially.  While this explanation makes perfect sense, it really speaks poorly of Caesar Card Club’s understanding of the poker industry and of their advance planning.  According to their latest email, Caesar Card Club had ads in at least 3 major poker magazines advertising this promotion.  Clearly, Harrah’s saw these ads and had their legal staff do something about it.

As I said, the explanation makes sense, and I do believe the company.  However, this does not excuse the site from simply canceling the promotion.  Their ads and Internet coverage generated users such as myself that deposited or attempted to deposit their site in expectation of a five figure overlay, and they pulled the carpet out from under these players.  Why couldn’t they use the money they had set aside for the WSOP seats and simply run a freeroll that awarded cash prizes?  I would have no problem with this.  Essentially, it would be the same promotion, except the players would have the choice whether or not to buy into the WSOP events they were originally intended for.  Obviously the site would lose out on marketing opportunities for these players wearing the site’s logo, but hey, if they didn’t clear the permission of Harrah’s in advance, they deserve to lose this benefit.

Just my $0.02.

So there’s this online poker room called Caesar Card Club… I had never heard of it, but a buddy mentioned an ad he saw in Card Player for them, and then I saw a post on a poker web site about a promotion they were running.  It was a multi-week poker league where you could play regular $10+1 tournaments and end up with a World Series of Poker seat.  The tournaments ran twice weekly, and were normal cash tournaments, but if you were top two in any tournament, or were a top player in the entire series, you would play in a freeroll in May.  The freeroll awarded one Main Event seat and two preliminary event seats.

It sounded like a decent promotion, so I signed up and went to deposit $22 on their site with my credit card.  Even though it’s a Visa that works on a few poker sites, it didn’t work here.  I emailed with support and we came to the conculsion that I’d need to join PIC Club to deposit.  This was a two-day process, with them needing to verify my phone number and my identity (via a scan of my passport) and then my address (via a scan of a bill).  I finally was approved, but when I went to deposit, I discovered there were fees to deposit with PIC Club.  As I wasn’t aware of this, I emailed Caesar Card Club to complain and see if there was anything they could do since I could potentially be depositing a few hundred dollars over the series.  We emailed back and forth, and I was finally informed they would cover the fees for my deposit.

However, they weren’t running the WSOP promotion anymore.

To make things worse, they already ran their first $10+1 tournament, and it got 22 players if I remember correctly.

So what we’re saying here, is that an online poker room can run a promotion with around $15k in added prizes, get all the publicity for this, get players to join and deposit on the site, and then pull the plug.  Now the players that deposited have no choice but to play on the site, and the site gets all of the benefits of the promotion without any of the cost.  What about the top two players from the first tournament as well?  What about the 3rd place finisher who had a nice start to his points race?  As if there needed to be any more arguments for legalizing online poker, here’s yet another one… shady business practices.

I emailed the site to explain my thoughts, and invited them to defend themselves.  We’ll see what they say.

Event 5 was a quick one. It’s sick because I doubled up in the first hour and was out before the first break. I made a hero call with AQ for my entire stack on an ace high board to double up against a donk with a weak ace, and then got coolered, bad beat, and then coolered again. gg me.

All my crew had the same results, and we decided it best to admit defeat here at Rincon and head home tomorrow, two days ahead of schedule. I’m bummed because I’m still playing well and want to keep playing, but I understand their frustrationand financial situation.

Hopefully we’ll all be playing Dream Team Poker this weekend still. I’ll take a few days to chill and get my head straight, which is good since another Venetian Deep Stack series begins next week.

Well, I just busted from event 4… had a great table, chipped up all day, and then ran kings into aces.  That’s how I’m running.  Made my first dinner break yesterday in event 3, and came back to bust on the 2nd hand in.  Guy shoved from the button for 6k, I re-shoved with AT from the SB for 18k, and the BB called with his 19k stack with AQ.  Button had JT, and I didn’t hit a ten.  It’s getting very frustrating that I’ve been here since Wednesday and am 0 for 4 for even a cash, let alone a final table.

I’ve also come to the decision that I don’t like the Harrah’s Corporation, more than I didn’t before.  Last year we received a $10 food voucher with your tournament buyin, much like Venetian does in Las Vegas.  However, this year they only give out vouchers for $500+ tournaments.  I talked with the poker manager, and she said it was a decision because of the economy.  I explained to her that that’s not how it works… you’re supposed to be giving MORE to customers, not LESS.  Harrah’s knows they’ll get a bunch of players because of the World Series of Poker brand name and feel they don’t have to do anything for their players since they’ll come anyway.  I say this because Rincon has $100+/night hotel rooms and higher rake in tournaments (a $300 tournament has $40 rake vs. $30 at Venetian) as well.

I’ve also had two different incidents with Rincon security, who think they’re actual police officers.  The first was the first night we were here.  We were in our room talking and laughing at 1am, and I guess we were loud, so security came and knocked on our door.  I opened the door to an ex-marine looking guy and two backup guys, and I am told they had a noise complaint.  I say, “No problem.  We’ll keep it down.”  As I am shutting the door, he says, “Next time I’m bringing the hotel manager.”  I tell him he doesn’t have to threaten me, and he says it’s not a threat.  Whatever, I close the door on him and we keep it down.  I know they’re security but they don’t have to be dicks.  And a phone call would have been plenty.

The second was when we went into the bar to check out the karaoke on Friday night.  At the front door was a security officer to check ID’s, and she said I couldn’t bring the soda I was drinking into the bar.  I tell her I know, and finish the last sip of the drink and put it on the bar, as she’s checking my ID.  She thinks I’m being difficult, I guess, cuz she says something under her breath as I enter the bar.  Then I catch her staring me down from across the room.  I go back up and ask her if there’s a problem, and she says I’m the one that has a problem.  I explained to her that I was just finishing my drink, and she doesn’t have to be rude to a customer.  She is very confrontational, so I tell her I’d like to know who her supervisor is so I can report her bad attitude.  She refuses to tell me, then has another security guard who’s watching this entire encounter call backup.  I give up on her and walk back in to the bar, and watch the show of three, then four, then five total security guards to assess the situation.  Hilarious and ridiculous at the same time.  Yeah, kick me out for trying to make it clear I didn’t mean anything by finishing my soda.  Whatever.

Another reason I don’t like Harrah’s?  They rejected our team name for the Dream Team Poker tournament.  See, there’s a tournament next weekend where you assemble a team of 3 players, and there’s cash prizes for individuals like a normal tournament, but there’s also prizes for how your team does as a whole.  We wanted to register as “Pocket Douches,” which the Dream Team Poker representative thought was funny.  His boss said it was fine, too, but Caesars Palace came back and said no.  Isn’t douching a cleansing activity?  It’s not dirty!  We changed our name to something less “offensive,” but it takes a shot at Harrah’s.  I’m very excited about the name, but I don’t want to announce it yet.  You’ve heard about a moment of temporary insanity?  Well, this was a moment of temporary brilliance.

OK, enough hate for one blog.  My new theory while I’m here at Rincon is that I’m just running bad this week so my team can win the Dream Team Poker tournament.  Yeah, that’s it.

I’ve been in San Diego at Harrah’s Rincon for the World Series of Poker Circuit for two days now, and there’s not all that much good news to report.  My new crew drove down Wednesday afternoon, with Mike sleeping in the backseat while I played Internet poker through my phone to entertain Richard while driving.  We jumped right into a S&G, and I got down to three handed with Richard and a random.  Richard pushed from the SB with A7, I called with 88 from the BB, and Richard spiked an ace.  He made a deal with the guy for a small team profit.  I was able to meet my family for dinner at the buffet as they all live in San Diego, and decided to take the rest of the night off of poker and visit with them.

Event 1 started off fine, with me chipping up against the terrible (and I mean terrible) players at my table.  I had my 10k starting stack up to around 14k when the following hand came up.  Two limpers at 150/300, and I raised to around 1200 with KJo.  Not my normal play, but my table was limping very light, and I was continually punishing them for doing so.  Only the second limper called, leaving himself around 4k back.  The flop came 9TJ and he checked, so I put him all in as there’s no way I would fold to a check raise.  He instacalled and tabled Q8 sooooooooted.  Robviously.

My stack never bounced back, so I was under 10k for a few orbits.  Then a new dealer pushes in, as they do every half hour, and starts making mistakes left and right.  A mistake here or there is excusable — dealers are only human, and they can miscount a stack or forget to pull in an ante.  But the first five hands we played with this dealer, there was an error every hand.  I kept correcting her when she was incorrectly pulling in antes or bets or counted a player’s stack.  It was getting ridiculous, and I was getting on tilt.  The game was slowing down, and I couldn’t afford that with my stack.  Further, I don’t feel like I should have to do the dealer’s job.

So then two guys get all in on a J5x board… one guy has JT and the other guy has 55.  The turn and river come ten and jack to put a bad beat on the 55 guy.  The JT guy counts out 13,100 in chips total, and the 55 guy puts out two pinks (5000), three grays (500), and a black (100).  For you math majors, that’s 11,600, not 13,100.  Clearly he mistook the gray for a blue (1000).  Again, the dealer was about to pull it in, so I corrected her and told her it wasn’t right.  Her response?  To throw him BACK the pink chip and try to pull in the rest.  At this point I am beside myself with how bad she is.  I finally explain that he needs to put the pink back in and then add three more grays.  The dealer angrily says, “I know.”  Though clearly she doesn’t.  And then we just sit there.

For like thirty seconds, nobody moves.  The guy won’t pay off the bet, and the dealer is not grabbing his chips.  The guy had been drinking and was continually slowing down the game as well, but I was way more tilted by the dealer than this guy, so I hadn’t said anything up til now.  Finally I say, “Why are we waiting?  Pay the bet, deal another hand.”  Now the guy is mad at me, and says something like, “Well we’ll just make it difficult then,” and puts out a stack of greens (25).  I instantly call for a floor.

I explain how the dealer is making tons of errors, the guy is intentionally wasting time trying to pay a bet, etc. etc.  He isn’t able to do much other than to get the bet paid off and color up some of the guy’s smaller chips.  When he comes back, he gets to witness the dealer dealing a hand as I explain to her that she’s missing TWO antes.  Her down is almost over, and we probably saw around 7-8 hands.  Meanwhile, the guy is so angry with me for wanting him to pay off his bet within a 15 minute period of losing the hand that he’s talking shit to me under his breath.  I am ignoring him, trying to focus and just get through this stressful period.  As the dealer is about to get replaced and the blinds are about to go up, I find a hand to push all in with and lose all of my chips.

The guy makes a few more insulting comments in my direction, and now that I am not in a position to get a penalty for berating a player, I blow up on the guy.  I stand up and loudly say to him: “I never said anything bad to you in any direction, but you’ve been going off on me non-stop.  You’ve slowed down the game and pissed everyone off, and now you act like a child and throw insults my way.  You’re three times my age yet you have way less class than me.  You need to learn some manners.  Do you hear me?”  The guy is just speechless.  I have completely put the guy in his place, and have not used any bad words or said anything untrue.  I was very proud of this moment.

Anyway, that’s the excitement of that tournament.  At least I got to go out with a blaze of glory.  Mike continues to amaze me as he made day 2 and ended up busting out in 12th place for a decent cash to start the trip on.  I played event 2 and was out in 4 hours, losing a big race, then getting a big pair cracked, and then running AQ into KK.  Richard is still in, and I’m back in my room playing online.  This weekend should have some decent fields, so I’m hoping to go deep tomorrow or Sunday and have some good news to report.  Wish me luck!

Since I’m bitching about bad customer service today, I might as well give props to Cake (the online poker site) for GOOD customer service.  I was playing in a $7.70 rebuy tournament, and after my initial double buyin, I lost a big hand and was ready to double rebuy again.  When I clicked the “Rebuy” button, a blank window came up, rather than the normal window where I can click to rebuy.  I frantically clicked the “Rebuy” button, but the blank window was all I could get.  I grabbed a screenshot and emailed it to Cake to complain, and they promptly refunded the $14.70 I bought in for.  Correct decision, Cake.  Your software broke, and I was not able to buy back in, so they didn’t argue or say how it was my fault — they just refunded the money to keep a customer happy.  Very well played, Cake.