Citizen Cope Part II and another live session

That couch, we found out when we got to the box office to pick up our tickets, was actually a bar table just off of center at the back of the venue, which were quite good seats. They told us the wrong option when we bought them (they had the upstairs VIP area closed off and it was downstairs instead). Still good seats.

We messed around and made $50 playing $25 BJ (enough to pay for dinner) then we grabbed dinner at the Burger Bar and it was quite a fine burger. Granted, it's not a place to go on a regular basis ($50 for both of us), but a must try at least once. We'd eaten there before the JT concert that I surprised Amanda with last Labor Day.


After dinner, we stopped into the Peter Lik gallery and oogled his incredible photographs (one day, I'm going to own a couple of those...) and the Jack Gallery to see one of Amanda's favorite pieces of art, Tom Everheart's "Black Velvet Scream". After some high pressure sales by the idiot monkey who really didn't take a hint worth a damn, we headed over into the House of Blues for the show. On the way, we hit up the Mandalay Box office to inquire about Goo Goo Dolls tix for later this month. We landed some pretty good seats for that show the last Saturday of this month, so we're looking forward to that as well.

***PSA*** If you are ever going to enjoy a Citizen Cope concert/show, whatever you do, do not do so on a full stomach.

Man, it was putting me to sleep the first 2 or 3 songs. Soon after that though, things got jamming pretty good. It was a decent show, but nothing great. I don't mind having spent what we did for the VIP tix, but I wouldn't spend that much again. Unfortunately, they found our camera before the show, so we had to check it like it was a coat and, alas, no pictures this time. But it was a relaxing 2 hours spent watching the show.

After the show, we headed home and chilled out for a bit and Assani and I had plans to head out to GVR to play some poker. When we got home from the show, he still hadn't hit the gym yet, so I went w/o him and he was gonna meet me up there later.

When I got to GVR, there wasn't a seat available, but about 1 min after I got on the list, some guy bluffed off his stack and "Seat Open" was called. It was the 7 seat and I bought in for my usual $1,000 and we're off and running. About 2 hands into the session, I realized that my seat was not the best, to say the least. I had to LAG's to my immediate left, so once the 4 seat opened up, I took it.

For the first hour or so, there was nothing too exciting involving yours truly and I hovered between $950 and $1100. That was until this hand came up:

Hand of the Day #1:

There were 2 limpers and Max, an aggressive, but fairly transparent reg. raised to $30 from the CO. The button folded and I look down to see two black Kings. I had been pretty quiet so far into the session and thought that I could play it a bit slow so that I don't announce myself too much. One of the limpers calls then the second limper shoved for $230 more. This was a great thing to see...but what was even better was when Max pondered for about 10 seconds and announced that he was all-in for about $460 as well. Well shit, what am I fading, fellas?

Obviously, I call and I table my KK but neither of the other two fellas table theirs. I ask the dealer to just gimme a K so I don't have to sweat it and he delivers on the turn and Max's QQ was no good. The other fella never showed, so that's cool too. It should always be this easy, right?

Max didn't rebuy and we were down to 5 handed. This is where I excel, usually, but I had one of the super-Lag's two players to my left, so I did tone things down a little bit, but still was building my stack up.

Hand of the Day #2:

We're 5 handed and the game has been playing super fast and loose and 4 of the 5 of us are at least $1300 deep, so it's a deep game as well. 2 players limp and the SB ($1400) makes it $30 to go. I look down at 56s and call and the limpers folded (isn't live play great!). He's been pretty tight and is capable of making moves. I had snapped off a $150 bluff from him w/ top pair, no kicker about an orbit earlier.

(Pot: $70)
Flop: Jc 6d 5h

SB bets out $40 and I just call.

(Pot: $150)
Turn: 2d

SB checks and I bet out $80. He thinks for a bit and calls.

(Pot: $310)
River: 3s

SB thinks for about 5 seconds and bets $150. My move...



What I did:

I called and he showed me 42d for runner runner straight.


What I think I should've done:

The exact same as I did on every street. His continuation bet on the flop was standard and it's an extremely dry board. He checks on the turn and allows me to value bet my well hidden 2pr. When he calls I really think that he's trying to set me up for a move on the river. Had he checked the river, I would have value bet my 2pr and probably called a c/r as he would be pretty sure I didn't have a 4, as I thought the same of him. Like I said, he can make moves and his call on the turn illustrates that because he wasn't calling to hit his 4 outter. All-in-all, a pretty well played hand I think that was unlucky.


Shortly there after, I river trips against the tightest player at the table who had raised preflop and bet it down and I made a good $150 value bet on the end and he said, "I think you're making a move on me" and spite called. At that point, I table my hand and he grumbles and takes his last $100 or so and leaves. One other player had busted as well, so we were down to 4 handed w/ 2 solid players (1 of which was the LAG who had me and my $1990 covered) and one 'meh' player. One of the other guys said he didn't want to play 4-handed and tbh, I was really ok w/ that as it wasn't the best game to be playing in that deep, so I racked up as well and left, booking another $1k win.

A pretty easy, smooth session and an enjoyable day today. So April is off to a blisteringly good start (+$2500) and for my last 3 live sessions, I'm almost $6,000 to the good. Just like the first 2 weeks of February and my professional poker career, we're off on the good foot here in Vegas!

Citizen Cope, Part I

As I mentioned this morning, Citizen Cope is in town and I refuse to stand for a concert, so GA SRO tix are out of the question...

So I went the 'balla' route and got a couch for Amanda & I to watch from the balcony tonight...

They say no cameras in the venue are allowed, but I have my BJII so I'll see what I can do tonight!

Will report back after the show!

Dr. Al and leaving $1,000 on the table

For those that do not play online on Full Tilt, they have an ongoing promotion that has been running since January of last year. It awards you "Iron Man medals" if you accrue a certain number of Full Tilt Points each day, for a minimum of 15 seperate days. They have 4 different levels and you get more medals (which you can use to buy things in the store or entries into tournaments, as well as to buy bonuses) the more days you accrue a minimum of 100 points.

With the move and all that went with it, I was cutting it REAL close on whether I'd make it this month. See, if you miss one month, the amount of months you've been in it (10 for me) is reset to 0, so it really is fairly important (bonus medals etc) to continue to make at least the lowest level of Iron Man, which is Bronze.

I made it w/ @ 20 mins to spare in the month. I played such a woefully small amount of hands this month (like 11k, online), but still pulled in a healthy number between online, live, and rakeback (think 5 figures). So all things considered, with all the upheaval our lives were in this month, I'm thrilled with the end result of my first full month as a pro.

As I was finishing up my session last night to attain my needed points for Iron Man, I checked into twoplustwo (2p2) and noticed that I had a PM from a reg. in there and he informed me that there is a Monday Poker Discussion group that meets @ Tuscany Casino Cafe on Mondays at 9pm, headed by poker author Dr. Alan Schoonmaker. I read this about 820pm and thought, "why not check it out" since I'll be finished w/ my online sess shortly and have nothing else going on.

So I head out and battle the traffic on Flamingo as you approach Koval St. and arrive right @9pm. I noticed Dr. Al in short order and grabbed a seat w/ the other dozen or so people there for the discussion group.

Apparently a week or two prior, Dr. Al had handed out a questionaire for them to fill out and they were going to go over 2 of the guys questions on how to improve they're play. While I liked the idea of it, it tended to get repeatitious and I also noted that everyone in the group is almost exclusive live players, some limit and some uNL players (1/2 and the occassional 2/5 players). So while I don't expect to get into any real deep conversations w/ anyone other than one of the guys there regarding strategy in a bigger, deeper NL game, it was really interesting to hear feedback from more an of "average Joe" player. It was eye opening and while it's not going to directly help me and my game, it did help me realize how more inexperienced players think about the game. Sometimes I think that I tend to overthink things and give 'villains' too much credit, so it was good for me in that respect.

So I'll give it another go next week and see where things go from there. There also is another group that meets up at Binion's on Wednesdays...why not check it out, too, right? ;) As the meeting ended, I had Dr. Al sign one the books I have of his and headed out to the car.

I noticed that I had a serious itch to play some live poker after listening to everyone in the meeting. Tuscany is like a 5 min drive from the Wynn, but I only had like $500 on me, so that wasn't an option. I decided to head home and freshen up, pick up some more cash and head out to GVR to play some $3/$5NL $1,000max.

I got to the casino @ 1215am and they had an open seat in the one $3/$5NL game going. I bought in for a rack & a stack (rack of red $5 chips *$500* and a stack of green $25 chips *$500*) which is my normal buy-in. The lineup didn't see too bad, so I just settled into my session only planning on staying 2 hours or so.

Hand of the Day #1:

The first hand of note has me w/ @ $1100 about 4 orbits into my session. A solid, tight player (a reg and a pro as well) limps UTG ($1200) as does UTG+1 ($500) and the SB and I knuckle my T6o in the BB.

(Pot: $40)
Flop Jc Tc 6h

I bet out $35 and UTG thinks for about 5 seconds and makes it $120. UTG+1 (who also seemed pretty tight) mulls it over for a while and calls. The SB folds and it's to me...



What I did:

I thought for a little while and mucked.

What I think I should've done:

I like my fold here even though I flopped 2 pair. I sat and thought about what UTG is limping w/ UTG and then raising this flop with. I thought his range was AJ, KQc, JT, 66 and mayyyybe JJ or TT. With the flush draw out there I expect him to raise that entire range both for value and protection. So that's what I put him on...but then UTG+1 cold-called the raise behind him w/ me still to act. Now, given how UTG+1 hesitated and such, I put him on a draw, be it a flush draw or something like KQ or 89. So if that's the case, it makes it more likely that UTG has me crushed w/ either a set or a higher 2 pr, that I don't like playing for stacks OOP w/ bottom 2 pr on a extremely draw heavy board.

The turn was Qs and it went check, check, then the river bricked off (3h) and UTG bets $120 and UTG+1 calls and UTG shows JTh for flopped top 2 pr and KQo for UTG+1.

So it felt good that my reads were pretty on and I started cruising along. After my last session at GVR, Assani and I had talked about how I learned that bluffing, as a whole, live, has MUCH less value than just playing lots of hands in position and value betting them to death, so that's what I started doing.

Fast forward about 2 hours and I'm sitting on about $1800 or so when the next hand takes place. About an hour prior to this hand, the 9 seat left and the tight player to my left wanted it. This opened up the seat to my left and I slid over to take that because a new player was coming in who just had the look of a huge LAG and I didn't like the idea of him being on my direct left. He took my old seat and quickly doubled up his stack so that he had me covered by about $200-$300.

Hand of the Day #2:

The LAG straddles for $10 (which he's done nearly every time and has yet to raise it) and I limp UTG w/ J9o (his straddles had been almost never raised, so I thought I could get away with it and we're deep and I have position on him) as do about 1,639 other players at the table. The LAG (Eric) pops it $30 more to $40 total. I know that a few of the others are coming along, so I call as do 2 others.

(Pot: $175)
Flop: 8s Th Qs

GIN! I flop the nuts and he bets out $120. I tank for a short while and decide to put in a small raise to get all the flush draws out behind me and hopefully represent a semi-bluff myself w/ the nuts. I make it $260 and it folds around back to Eric who tanks and eventually calls.

(Pot: $695)
Turn: 5c

He checks and I think for a bit and bet $560 and then it's his turn to tank. He thinks for about 20 seconds and says "I'm all in" and I snap call. Now here is where I feel I made a bad decision. Before the dealer burns and turns, I ask him what he's got and we both table our hands. He has QQ for top set and I have the nut straight.
Now, I'm a 4:1 favorite and it's a $3600 pot...but for some dumb ass reason, instead of asking him if he wants to run it twice or three times, I offer him to take his raise back and just play for what's in the pot. As a 4:1 favorite...Jesus I am a fucking moron. *sigh* Obviously, he jumps at the chance and the river was the 7h and I scoop the pot. Just a horrible, horrible decision by me and while I'm bankrolled for the game, I let the size of the pot somehow, someway skew my thinking. I was pretty disgusted at myself for leaving @$1,000 on the table. I'd like to think that I can justify it by knowing that if the situation ever comes up again vs Eric, who playing in both of my games (GVR and the Wynn) that I know he'll reciprocate, but no, there's no excuse. I was had a total brain fart and fucked that one away.

So, even after that dumbshit move, I'm cruising along, building my stack up when the final significant hand came up.

Hand of the Day #3:

I'm now sitting on @ $2000 and we're playing 7 handed as people busted out (either to Eric or me it seemed...we both had $2k+ and the next nearest was $900 or so with the rest below $500). Most of the table is now straddling $10, so the games playing a bit bigger at this point. There is one limper then Eric limps in the CO and I make it $60 on the button w/ 9s 9c. It folds around to Eric who tosses out two green $25 chips and we head to the flop headsup.

(Pot: $135)
Flop: Qh 8h 8c

Eric checks and I make a continuation bet of $90. He snap calls.

(Pot: $315)
Turn: 9h

Eric checks and I tank for a little bit and bet $240 and then it's Eric's turn to tank. He asks if I'm going to offer him anything and I say, "No, sorry". He thinks for about a minute and then calls.

(Pot: $795)
River: Ah

Eric thinks for a short while and bets $240. My move...



What I did:

I called and he showed QJo (no heart) and I scoop the pot.


What I think I should've done:

The only decision in the hand was to raise the river or not. After I turn my unlikely full house, I'm wanting to get max value for my hand, but Eric is quite tricky and we're seriously deep here. While I feel like I often have the best hand, I just don't know what would call a river raise here. While 88 and TJh is unlikely here, I can not rule them out, nor could I rule out QQ. My issue wansn't so much whether or not I'm ahead as I thought I was a large % of the time...the question was what could call a river raise??? Thoughts?


So after than hand, I stayed for another 30 mins or so until one guy who open shoved for his remaining $227, 4 out of 6 hands, had his 67o caught by ATo (not me :( ), and the game broke. I cashed out $2393 and called it a night.

While I think I played really well and was able to valuebet well and keep myself out of some nasty spots, that one deal I made sticks in my craw and is eating at me. Maybe that will teach me to not be such a pussy and stop being so damn risk adverse.

Tonight is the Citizen Cope concert at the House of Blues @ Mandalay Bay. We don't have tickets yet and while I REALLY want to go to the show, if we can't get assigned seating, we're not going. With my bad back, I learned last summer that SRO tickets just ain't cutting it anymore for concerts. Gimme a seat or we don't go. We'll see....

Joss Stone, Live @ The Joint (Hard Rock Casino)

Amanda is a big Joss Stone fan and the last time we were out here in Vegas (Labor Day, '07), we just missed being able to see her show, so I was determined to make sure she could see her this time.

She had thought that I'd forgotten about it, as I hadn't mentioned the concert in a couple of weeks, whilst, unbeknownst to her, I had already landed 4th row, center seats for tonight's show. ;) I sprung them on her a few days back and she was pretty jazzed about the show.

So we headed out to the Hard Rock tonight @ 6pm and were able to park valet to not deal with the crowds/taxi's etc like we did last summer when we say Louis XIV and The Killers. That was a nightmare we didn't want to relive.

We grab a quick, tasty, margarita pizza at Mr. Lucky's and then settle into our seats at the show. The show kicked off about 8:10pm and it was exactly as you'd expect from Joss. Very soulful and she's quite the showman. She hams it up a bit and everyone loves it. The show ran about 1:45 and well worth the money spent.


Click the pic below to see the photos I took from the show: