Less intelligent eBay buyers
I originally titled this “Stupid eBay buyers” but that seems too harsh. I’m sure this lady isn’t stupid, just less intelligent than a lot of people. By the way, there’s no point to this story really, other than to vent.
I put up my old broken laptop on eBay, and it sold on Friday evening. The lady had asked me some questions before the auction ended, which I happily responded to in a timely fashion. When the auction ended, I was enjoying my Friday evening at the Hard Rock Hotel with some friends. When I came home at 5am, I went straight to bed. There’s where my happiness ended.
Prior to falling asleep, my buyer had sent me payment for the laptop, and apparently decided that since I didn’t respond within minutes with a tracking number, that I was pulling a scam to steal her $56. Forget that my eBay account has a 776 feedback rating meaning that I have made at least that many buyers or sellers happy. Over the course of my slumber, she emailed me first, and then proceeded to request my cell phone number from eBay and call me once and text me three times. Each time my phone vibrated and woke me up.
When I finally woke up for the day, I was none too pleased and told her she was way out of line. She wrote back and even agreed! I just don’t get it. Where’s the judgment? It’s not like I’m running an eBay store and have a staff that answers emails 24/7. It’s very clear that I just sell odds and ends. Yet this lady decided that on a Saturday morning, she should have already received a tracking number from me.
The really weird thing is when I got woken up over and over, I somehow knew it was this lady who bought my laptop. How could I possibly know this before waking up and looking at my missed texts? That completely baffles me, but I swear I woke up and knew who was to blame for a shitty night’s sleep.
The worst hand I played at the WSOP
So I just came across a link the other day to a PocketFives recap from day 4 of the World Series of Poker. You can check it out at http://www.pocketfiveslive.com/perelman-bluffed-seat-literally-6130/. While I appreciate the press since I’m a relative nobody, and I appreciate having one of only a few pictures of me at a poker table, it made me revisit a hand that I misplayed.
As PocketFives relayed, a player in early position raised to 8500 at 2k/4k blinds and another player called from middle position. I was on the button with AhTh, and I elected to call. Both players had me covered, and we were a few hours shy of heading into the money in the Main Event, so it made no sense to reraise. We had just started the day, and I didn’t have a great read on either player. Folding seemed to weak here, so I called.
The flop came A75 with two spades, and the preflop raiser checked. The player in MP, who I Googled the night before and surmised was a decent player, bet out. I smooth called, feeling like I had the best hand, but wanting to see what the early position player did. He folded, so there was no trap here.
The turn paired the 7, and my opponent checked. I thought for a bit, and settled upon betting, and this was my big mistake in the hand. While I correctly had read my opponent for a draw and decided I had the best hand, it was a bad idea to bet. If he folded, I picked up the pot, sure. But if he raised, he’d be putting me to a decision for all my chips. Can I really call for all my chips with AT before the money bubble has bursted? Hell no. Even worse, this was day 4 of the Main Event, meaning that the players that have lasted this long are fairly decent player. My opponent could check raise with any two cards here and be relatively certain that I would fold, knowing that I can’t risk my tournament life before making the money.
As the story goes, he did indeed check raise me. I didn’t take too long to fold, as even though I realized that this was a bluff probably around 80% of the time, I just can’t go all in here. If I do, he would have been priced in to call, and he could have a 7, 55, or a flush draw that could hit on the river. After I folded the player was all too excited to show his bluff — a gutshot straight draw with 42.
Luckily, I’ve gained a lot of emotional calmness this year, and the bluff really didn’t affect me. If anything, I was only upset at myself for making the bet on the turn, which I realized was an error before he made his check raise. The correct play would have been to check behind and then call any normal-sized bet on the river. If a 3 hit, he wins the pot and I’m still in. If anything else hits, he tries to bluff me and fails, and I have more chips to head into the money to fight with.
All in all, it’s really not that band of a hand. I made a bad bet when I should have checked, even though I read the situation 100% correct in that I had the best hand. One of the things about getting better at poker is realizing all of the situations and mindsets of yourself and other opponents, and I underestimated my opponent in this hand. Luckily, I can learn from this mistake and not make it next year, or even in tournaments leading up to next year’s World Series.
Pai gow @ Planet Hollywood
I had some friends in town this weekend, and they were staying at Planet Hollywood. While I do like this casino more than most strip casinos, I had an incident that really soured me on giving them any action.
After playing some video poker and some Wheel of Fortune slot machines, I brought my two friends over to a pai gow table so show them how to play. There were three pai gow tables running, and a total of about 7 players taking up the 18 available seats. I picked the least crowded table, one with one older lady playing in the 5 seat. The table was a $15 table, and I passed up a $10 table to sit at this emptier table. I sat down in the 2 seat, and my friends sat on my left and my right so they could look at my cards and help be explained which cards go where. They’re not Vegas locals, so I told them they’d need to get up if someone else wanted to play.
I played for about 20-30 minutes while my friends caught on. One of them loves to gamble, and probably would have joined in if I had played much longer. But Planet Hollywood never gave him that opportunity. After playing through two dealers AND a deck change, a disgruntled floor man came over and told my friends that they would need to get up to make room for other players.
When I first heard this, I was shocked that they would be this aggressive at nearly 2am on a Thursday night, with no “other players” in sight. Then one of my friends told the floor that was totally fine, and I realized the floor was just saying they’d need to get up IF other players came by. Oh, that’s OK. We were all totally cool with that, and then he made it clear that he indeed meant that they had to get up NOW. I told him if my friends could not sit with me while I played, that I would be leaving, and they’d be losing my action. He literally said, “There’s nothing I can do about that.” Sure there is, buddy, you can let my friends sit down since nobody’s clamoring to play pai gow at 2am! He stood his ground, so I stood mine and cashed out. The dealer apologized on his behalf, and was clearly upset that nice folks like us were getting pushed away. She enjoyed having people to talk to, and I was one of the few pai gow’ers that was tipping
After I cashed out, I found a supervisor to tell him my complaint. I didn’t yet realize it, but this supervisor was a complete douche. First he tried to explain why my friends were asked to stand up. I told him I understood their rationale, but he didn’t let me get to the point where I was going to explain why this was a bad rule. He said, “If you knew why we did it then why did you ask for me?” Umm, because I’m filing a complaint, jackass. I continued on telling him this was a poor rule, because instead of missing out on hypothetical money wagered by non-existent players, they are missing out on ACTUAL money wagered by an ACTUAL player. I’m sure that occasionally a player is discouraged to sit at a table because there are four people present, but at 2am, that number can’t be nearly as much as a player occupying one of the seats consistently betting.
While this supervisor did start our conversation with, “This isn’t the first complaint I’ve gotten about this,” he would not recognize that they lose more money than they gain. I asked him to estimate what they lose on potential customers, and he said he couldn’t do that. I said I could, since I’m a poker player, and started throwing out some numbers. He cut me off and told me I know nothing about table games, which I admitted, and he said that I’m just making an educated guess. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” “Well I can do that, too!” Umm, you just said you couldn’t. “OK, how much per hour do you think you’re losing by having someone in your seat that’s not playing.” He immediately blurted out the biggest number he could fathom to try to prove his point: “$500/hr!!!!”
OK, I give up. “Thank you very much for your time, sir, and for taking my complaint seriously.” He was mouthing off further when I walked away.
In all honesty, if the casino has this rule, perhaps they are losing more per hour than they are making by me gambling. I personally doubt it, but it’s possible. I was curious to hear if a supervisor could actually back this up and tell me a figure or confidently say they’re losing more. He couldn’t. Instead he got emotional and defended their rule without any reason why. Oh well, it was a fun ten minutes for me, and a flustering ten minutes for the gentleman. Mission accomplished.
WSOP Main Event
Well, for those who didn’t hear, I played and cashed in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. After living here for five years, I finally got a chance to play after winning a $550 mega satellite the day before the Main Event begun. Overall, I’m fairly happy with my play. I made it to day 4 and got 530th place for $23,196, a fairly decent return on my original $550 investment.
On day 1 I had 99 vs 77 get all in on a 975 flop, so that was lucky. I also won a big pot when I played pocket aces a little tricky.
On day 2 I hit a very lucky hand when I played AT aggressively and made a straight against a guy’s slow played pocket aces. Then I got very unlucky when a player decided to gamble with his AT against my AK and hit his ten. That knocked me down, but before the day was done I was able to double up with AA vs 8h7h all in preflop
On day 3 I slowly burned away chips until I doubled up with 8c5c after a guy pushed all in on an 855X board with 3 hearts — he turned a flush. After that, I was pretty much card dead through the end of the day.
Day 4 was the day where we broke the money bubble, so I had planned to be cautious until we were in the money. Unfortunately, I found myself forced to push all in with pocket queens twice and AQ once before the money hit. Scary stuff, but I was forced to. I did misplay AT, though, when I bet an ace high board and knew a guy would run a bluff on me — he did.
My demise came when I raised with AsTs and one of the blinds called. When the flop came Kc8c6h and he checked, I checked behind, planning on being done with the hand. The turn came the Th, and he checked again. With this draw heavy board, he isn’t likely to check top pair or a set twice, so I put out a bet now figuring second pair would be good. He surprised me with a check raise, forcing me to fold or go all in. I chatted with him, and it became clear to me that he checked with the intention of seeing a free river card, but now that I had bet, he decided to put me to the test. I ended up going all in, and he called showing KhQh. I was right that he had a flush draw, but I was unlucky that he had top pair to go with it. The hand makes perfect sense. Unfortunately when I read him for a flush draw, I had to gamble that he didn’t have a hand like this… I actually thought I was more likely to see something like Tc9c. Oh well.
For my first year playing the Main Event, it was definitely liberating to have cashed. I received a lot of pats on the back the next day in the Dream Team Poker tournament, and a ton of Twitter and Facebook kudos. Hopefully next year I can duplicate my run and improve upon it.
Playing the WSOP Main Event
Well, I’m pretty excited. Less than 12 hours from now I will be taking my seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event! I won my seat in one of the last mega satellites down yesterday at the Rio for only a $550 buy-in. When I moved to Las Vegas four years ago, I wanted to play in the Main Event. After trying to qualify since then in tournaments within my bankroll, I have finally succeeded.
I wasn’t too impressed with the mega satellite structure. With only 30 minute levels, I found myself short stacked after not picking up hands and then losing AK vs A5. I ended up pushing all-in without looking at my cards, and a guy called me with QT. I had J9 and got lucky when the board came 678TK. I got lucky again a few levels later when played a hand poorly and reraised a guy all in with AQ and he had AK — I spiked a queen to survive and double up. I got one more double up when I had QQ vs 88. After that, it was mostly smooth sailing until there were 25 of us left, with the tournament awarding 25 seats.
I’m playing Day 1B, which is the 4th of July. Unfortunately they don’t celebrate the holiday in Vegas like they do in San Diego, so I’m not missing too much. And the first day of the Main Event is a short day, so I may even make it outside in time for fireworks… we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be posting updates on Twitter & Facebook, so feel free to check my status there, or on pokernews.com. Good luck, me!
WSOP 2009 is over for me
I played my last WSOP tournament of the year yesterday, and unfortunately I didn’t even survive to the dinner break. I flopped a set of 9’s and my opponent flopped a straight on a J98 board. In a lot of no limit tournaments, you just have to avoid coolers like this. I failed to do so. Not a huge deal, but definitely a disappointment as event #54 was my last chance to have a shot at a bracelet for this year’s WSOP. I cashed in the opening $1k tournament, and then failed to cash in four $1500 events. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering the fields were 2500+, but it would have been nice to have a second cash to keep my confidence up.
Seeing as how I have not found any offers to be backed for the Main Event, I guess I’ll be going another year without playing it. There’s a handful of Venetian tournaments left, so I’ll probably be playing those as much as I can before I take a couple weeks off to visit with family and relax.
Being sick sucks
So after my last WSOP event, I got sick. I was being a good boyfriend and taking care of my sick girlfriend, so I inevitably caught the bug. What can you do? I spent all week in bed resting up for the last couple $1500 events at the series. After watching my buddy Scott Bohlman take 3rd in tonight’s final table, I’m anxious to be playing live again. This is pretty much the last week of poker for the summer for me, so I hope to have a big win before things wind up here in Vegas.
I did get to set up my new computer while resting. I got a sick deal on a little 8.9″ netbook — $180 shipped after all discounts. How could I pass it up? It’s only a pound and a half vs. my normal laptop’s 6 pounds, so my back will save 75% of the weight on weekend trips. The laptop even runs Windows XP so I can use all of the normal poker clients. And amazingly, the keyboard isn’t too small to really hinder my typing.
In other news, one of my roommates is moving out in a few days, and the rest of us are scrambling to find a new roommate. It’s weird because the four of us have been living in this house together for three years, and now the Douche Crew is being split up. Oh well, our roommate was definitely the nicest of the bunch and didn’t belong with us hooligans anyway. If anyone is looking for a room (possibly furnished) in Las Vegas, long term or short term, hit me up!
WSOP 2009 halfway point
So we just hit about the midway point for this summer’s World Series of Poker. I played my 4th WSOP event today, and unfortunately the $1,000 tournament was the only one I cashed in thus far.
The 2nd event I played was a $1,500, and I did good until just before the dinner break when I lost a coin flip with QQ vs AK. Before that, I had aces twice, kings three times, and queens one other time. Never even got a double-up.
The 3rd event I played was also a $1,500, and I made it to day 2 only to go bust just before the money bubble. I had average chips and 15 minutes into play, I raised from the cutoff with AsQs and the SB called. The flop came J32 w/two spades and my opponent checked. Seeing as how there was 10k in the pot and I had 20k back, I just shoved hoping he would lay down his pair. As it turned out, he called with JdTd, and I missed my 15 outs. That was pretty painful.
Today was yet another $1,500 where I just couldn’t get anything going. I hit a one-outer four hours in with my A7 vs. my opponent’s A6. He bet all three streets on an A656A board. I also got a lucky double-up with A6 vs AJ. Unfortunately it was all for nothing as my 99 ran into TT just before the dinner break.
Amazingly, I’m not super frustrated right now even though I haven’t cashed in any other WSOP events, nor any Venetian, Caesars Palace, or Binion’s events. I think that has to do with my good frame of mind and me pacing myself. I’ve been only playing about 4 days a week, and I just took a 3 day mini-vacation to San Diego to see some friends and some good bands. I’m not Daniel Negreanu, so I don’t want to play 100 hours/week right now. Hopefully somewhere before the end of the series I’ll have another decent cash to report. I feel like I’m playing well, though, so I just need a little bit of luck to get me there.
My first World Series of Poker tournament
OK, well it wasn’t really my first World Series of Poker tournament. When I first moved to Las Vegas in 2005, I entered the opening $1,500 event. I lasted 7 hours and busted before the dinner break. I also played a $2,000 event that I satellited into on UltimateBet. I didn’t even last 3 hours because I a player chased a flush draw. But I wasn’t at a skill level to be playing the WSOP in 2005, and so I haven’t played since.
Now it’s 2009, and I feel pretty comfortable playing tournaments, so I decided to play the opening $1000 “Stimulus” tournament. After two full days, I took 59th place out of 6,012 entrants for a $9,631 payday. It feels great to start my summer with a decent cash (my 4th biggest thus far) and a deep run. It was fun playing it, as well, since I got PokerNews to cover me and post hand updates.
In all honesty, the tournament was pretty easy for me. I didn’t have many difficult decisions that I thought I would face going into the tournament. On day 1 I took a beat pretty early on with queens against AQ for a big pot, but powered through and ended up doubling with QQ against 99 after the dinner break. On the last hand of the day, I got another double up with AJ on a AT48… I had gotten my opponent to call my all-in with only A9 due to past history and me calling the clock on him.
I came into day 2 top 5% in chips, and it didn’t take long for us to reach the money. I slowly increased my stack until right before the dinner break when I won a big pot — I had raised with 99, a tight guy had reraised me, and I pushed in knowing he could only call with aces or kings. He folded and told me he folded queens. That was the best hand I played all tournament, being very confident I had the worst hand but that he would fold.
After dinner, I busted a guy that had a lot of chips when he pushed in on a 789 flop with TT when I had JJ… pretty much a cooler. I won another big pot when a guy pushed in for waaaaaay too many chips UTG with 88 and I had queens again. Unfortunately, after that, I didn’t pick up many hands, and at the end of the night I pushed all in with 66 from the BB after a new player had raised. He had queens, called, and I didn’t hit. That was the literal first time I was all in with the worst hand in the tournament. At least two times people had sucked out on me big time, but I failed to have luck on my side that hand, and I couldn’t hit a six.
Again, I’m very pleased with how I played, and I feel really good going into the rest of the summer. I plan to play at least two more $1,500 events at the WSOP, and possibly more. In the meantime, I will be playing Venetian $300’s and $500’s, and perhaps other venues. Hopefully I will have more big cashes to blog about soon.
DoylesRoom discrimination
I was going to title this blog “DoylesRoom deposit problems,” but “DoylesRoom discrimination” made much more of a headline. See, I’ve been effectively banned from DoylesRoom, but not really. Read on.
About a year ago I played the site’s weekly bounty tournament, back when DoylesRoom was not yet on the Cake network. I ended up winning the tournament, but en route to the final table had some sort of disagreement with a DoylesRoom representative named Trish in the chat room. As it has been a year, I don’t even remember what it was about.
Anyway, fast forward to a few months ago when I tried to redeposit on my credit card to play more of the bounty tournaments. My card didn’t work, and when I contected support, I was told my ability to deposit via credit card had been suspended due to a manager’s decision. Upon further emails, they said it dated back to an incident that matched up with the time I had a disagreement with Trish. I was even told my credit card deposit banning was due to me being “very reckless on the forums.” Nobody in support was able to lift this ban, even though I’ve served my time. Further, it is completely ridiculous that the site is punishing me by not allowing me to put more money on their site.
I found Trish’s email address and sent her a note explaining the situation, and pleading my case that I have served my time and whatever was said could not have been bad enough to warrant a permanent credit card deposit ban. She checked with “management” and came back and told me that this decision would stand.
Really, DoylesRoom? This is how you want to handle things? I said something to offend someone in your “forum” (which I still haven’t confirmed means the chat rooms at the poker table) and your penalty is to remove my ability to bring business to your site? I can still chat on the site, I can still deposit to their site using other deposit methods (in fact, they gave me access to an exclusive deposit method last year), and I can still send and receive money to other DoylesRoom customers. But I can’t deposit via credit card.
Now that the site is on the Cake network, I really have no reason to play there, other than the bounty tournaments. I still have a balance high enough to play these, so at this point it’s just the prinicipal of the matter. I am hoping that this blog post will get some attention and someone will wake up and realize how dumb this ban is. Doyle? Todd? Pam? HELP!
