Ok guys. I'm officially moving my blog to TecmoPoker.com
I like the look of it better and I got my sweet custom domain name too :) The only thing I wish it had is the most recent blog showing under the people in my blogroll. This is how I know when someone updates their blog, but I guess I can try to learn to use one of those rss feeders or whatever they are.
So yea, anyway. See you over there!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Vegas Trip Report 3
I know what you're asking yourself after reading the first 2 trip reports (if anybody actually did read them haha). Did Tecmo actually play any poker while in Vegas? Yes, in fact, I did. Here's me (black hoodie, white earphone hanging down) rockin it at the 2/5 NLHE tables at the Rio. You can't see him, but 2fouroffsuit is sitting at the very next table and he can vouch for me :) (Also a very cool dude.) I planned on playing roughly 25 hours of cash while in Vegas, but I was busy having too much fun and only got in about 8-9 hours. Decided to get one last session in the night before my flight. I wanted to see if my runbad would continue or if I could turn it around.
A couple of key hands from that final session-
Hand #1 - UTG (20something probable internet player) limps, 2 more limpers, I look down at KK in the SB and I raise it to 35. UTG 3b to 100, limpers fold. UTG has about $300 behind, and I have him covered. At this point, I put UTG on a very strong range, JJ+ or AK. If he has AA, the money is going in - so be it. If he has anything else, I'm HIGHLY confident he will cbet ANY flop if I just call and check to him. I figure this is the best way to get stacks in so I elect to call. Flop comes down JJx. All things considered, a very good flop for me. His range now becomes AA, QQ, or AK. I'm looking good against 2/3 of those - all of which will cbet that flop. I check and he ships it pretty quickly. I snapcall and he asks if I have a J. I'm immediately worried about AA if he only cares about trips, but he tables QQ, my KK holds. Ship it!
Hand #2 - Random fish limps in EP, I raise it to $30 w/ 55. SB 3bs to $65 and fish calls. I look at SB's stack and he has about $100 behind. Fish has about $200. Not exactly what I was looking for, but the raise was so small I decided to gambool it up. Flop J52rb. Jackpot. SB thinks and shoves his stack, fish folds, and I obviously call. SB tables JJ, much to my dismay. He asks, "overpair?" I somberly reply, "nope, set over set." Turn is the case 5! He immediately says, "I sure hope you have deuces." "Fraid not sir." The way I had been running - hitting a 1 outer felt like things balanced out for the trip.
My friends and I also hit up some buffets out there that were pretty good. The Rio's was decent, and the Bellagio's was probably a bit better. The Bellagio had crab legs that were already cut open for you! Pretty sweet, altho they couldn't really compare to Baltimore crabs ;) The desserts all looked amazing too. As you can see, I'm a big fan of dessert...
We had reached the end of the week and our plane was leaving at 10:00am on Monday, June 8th. This meant that we had to be up pretty early and Mike and Justin decided to head to bed around midnight. I wasn't very tired (is anybody ever tired in Vegas?) so I decided to walk around and check things out on my last night there. I went over and sweated a couple of events that were going on. Brandon Cantu was at one of the end tables and his girl was sitting near him with one of those tiny yapping dogs. I didn't even know dogs were allowed in the Rio. Ivey and Lederer were seated right next to each other, and Hellmuth was behind them at the next table. Ivey and Hellmuth were trash talking back and forth about how long it will take Ivey to pass Phil in total number of bracelets. After winning two already this year, it looks like it won't be long. Then I went over to watch the final table of the $1500 Stud event. John Juanda, Jeffrey Lissandro, and Nicki Frangos were all playing. Frangos got all in on 4th w/ AAKK, but he was up against trip Js. He kept saying he knew the guy had trips, but what was he going to do. He picked up a gut-shot straight draw on 6th street, but it was the gut-shot to the case Jack so it didn't help much. He was down to his last card and someone shouted "Ace of spades!" He peeled up the middle half of his card and it was blank..."ooooo it's blank!".....He flips it over..."ACE OF SPADES!!!! OHHHH HELLLZZ YESSSS. THAT ACE IS BETTER THAN SEX!!!!" hahaha Needless to say, it was a pretty entertaining table. At 3:00am, they started packing up the chips. One of the tournament helpers came around and asked everyone to sign a sheet with their name, address, and a few other pieces of information. Lissandro immediately started whining "Oh goddd, why do I have fill that piece of crap out again, I've already made other final tables this year! Why can't you just find that sheet I already filled out and use it again?! I'm not signing that crap. I'm going home." What a prick. The 20something tournament helper reluctantly just appeased Lissandro and didn't make him sign it. Most poker players that I've met have been great guys. Only Lissandro and Hellmuth have been pricks so far. Unfortunately Lissandro went on to win that event AND another one.
Luckily, right after that, I met Ken "Teach" Aldridge, winner of the $1500 NLHE 6 handed event. This guy was by far the nicest, most appreciative bracelet winner I've ever met. He was walking by, bracelet on wrist, and I just asked him "so how does it feel?" He immediately went on a 15 minute Shakespearian monologue, explaining the plays he made and how he won with the giddyness of a child. It was so refreshing to meet him and see that people like him could win. He is a retired teacher from North Carolina who just loved every minute of the attention he was getting. We talked for a bit, and he even let me put the bracelet on! I told him I didn't have a camera and he was genuinely bummed out for me. I told him I had my crappy camera phone and he immediately got excited again. He took a pic of me with the bracelet on and a close-up of it. I don't know how good he is at poker, but I was immediately a huge fan of him as a person.
It was a great final night and I was definitely glad I stayed up for it. All in all, the trip was a huge success. I wish I had played a bit more poker, but it turned into more of a vacation than a business trip. Oh yea! I almost forgot to mention that I hit up the DC Hoopament before I left. Had a great time meeting more DC people (including Krantz!), showed off my sweet ballin skillz, and got some good exercise too. Wish Joe Tall could have played, but he's got some freaky stuff going on with fluid in his knee. I do wish I could have stayed for the DC Home Game tho as I'm sure it's going to be a blast. I also would have liked to meet DJ Sensei and Wilt, but they arrived the same day I was leaving. Oh well, next year :) I already can't wait to go back!
Vegas Trip Report 2
So after we get some sleep, we wake up Thursday and hit up Pokernews/Cardplayer to see what's going on down at the Wasop. Turns out Phil Ivey is going to be at the final table of the 2-7 Lowball event. I post on DC saying that I'll be sweating if anyone wants to stop by. We grab a bite and head off. By the time we get there (about 30 min after the final table started) somehow 4 of the 7 players have been eliminated. It's down to Ivey, John Monnette (a 2-7 specialist), and Yan Chen (another 2-7 specialist). Ivey has a ton of chips and we just assume he steamrolled the table. We get some good seats and settle in. (Keep in mind, good seats is a very relative term when it comes to watching Ivey play 2-7.)
Not too long after, I get tap on the shoulder "Hey Tecmo." I turn around, not knowing who to expect with my legions of fans out there, but alas it's THE Joe Tall! My friends and I chat it up with him for a bit (very cool dude) and he goes out to his car and retreives a couple of limited edition, supersweet DC shirts for us. A few other DCers, including DeathDonkey and MichaelSC stop by as well. We run into Entity and IWEARGOGGLES in the halls of the Rio and chat it up with them for a bit too.
Once Ivey's table went on dinner break, we busted out some photos to get signed and I had a few players I particularly wanted to get. I ended up getting most of them, including Ivey, Negreanu, Elezra, Huck Seed, Matusow, and Greenstein. I ended up sweating the $10k Mixed event final table sitting next to Matusow, Andy Bloch, and Orel Hershiser haha. See below for Matusow and Bloch :)
Once Ivey's table returned from break, we sat back in for the long haul. We wanted to see someone actually win one of these things and be handed the bracelet and all. It was as entertaining as it could be too. Ivey eventually got heads up and his stack dwindled to 140k (1.1m total in the tourney). Somehow he managed to recapture the lead against John Monnette and eventually took it down. Later that night, while checking Pokernews/Cardplayer, I realize that I'm actually in all of the pictures taken of Ivey when he won! haha I was rockin' my QB Bills jersey and you could see me pretty clearly on all of the sites. Soon I'll be in the front of the photo ;) , but not bad for now!
Later on, I saw some dude rockin a DC shirt playing in the $2500 NLHE event. I found out it was AMT and started sweating him a bit. He's from my DC/Baltimore area so I def wanted to say wusup to him. Chatted with him on breaks here and there and he was doing very well. Then Ivey got seated to his left, and not too long after that AMT busted :( Was still cool to meet him tho.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Vegas Trip Report 1
So I flew out to Vegas on June 3rd after I got off work. My friend Mike and I met at my girlfriend's house, who was kind enough to drive us to the airport. (Thank you :) ) We hopped on our plane, ready to hit the strip in 5.5 hours. We knew we had to hurry because those guys handing out hooker cards are bound to run out sooner or later. We find 2 seats together, next to a girl in the window seat. Little did we know that said girl was a few cards short of a full deck, and also equipped with super hearing. We learned this rather quickly though as we proceeded to sit on the airplane for 2.5 hours before taking off. The pilot would update us regularly that there was "lots of weather out there" and "still weather out there." Of course there's weather out there. There's ALWAYS weather out there. What he meant of course was bad weather. The funny thing is, it was clear and sunny and we had to wait over an hour for the doom clouds to appear. Sweet, glad we waited so now we have to wait. Anyway, so pyschogirl is the type who talks to herself and yells things like "ARRGHH WHY AREN'T WE FLYING YET!" I tried to explain that there was quite a lot of weather out there, but she would have none of it. "I JUST WANT TO BE IN VEGAS," she shouted. And I just wanted a tranquilizer dart large enough to knock out a wooly mammoth. Sometimes we don't get what we want.
So we finally take off and get to Vegas without any problems. Oh, other than nutso having to go to the bathroom 6 times. If your bladder is the size of a thimble, DON'T PICK A WINDOW SEAT. Although I probably shouldn't be too upset at her lack of seat selection skills - at least she didn't piss on me....as far as I know.
So we land in Vegas, hitch a cab to the Rio, and meet up w/ my other friend, Justin, who got our room comped for the week. We head up to the room to unpack and rest a bit. Then we walk in and see a very oddly placed window.
If you can't make it out, that is a window above one of the beds which looks directly into the shower. Now don't get me wrong. I can see where this would be a great little addition to the room, but not a room with 3 dudes. And I mean, really, who puts a window there? Anyway, we covered it up with a hand towel so as to avoid any accidental full frontals. That's -EV for sure.
At this point, we were all pretty hungry so we went down to the All American Bar and Grill. It's about 3:00 am and we just want a little snack. I ordered the chicken tender appetizer. Apparently appetizer means HUGE MEAL in Vegas. I didn't even finish half of it. At the end of the meal, the three of us decided this was a great time to try out this fancy game everyone seems to play - credit card roulette. It kinda sucked that there were only 3 of us, making the game a rather short one, but whatever. We had the waitress pick one card, then another. Whoever's card isn't selected has to pay the whole bill. Mike's card gets picked first and Justin and I have to sweat it out. Then she picks mine! Wahoo! My first foray into the world of degen CCRoulette was a successful one! The trip did not start out well for Justin. On top of paying the bill, he lost a good bit in the pit waiting for us to arrive. Southwest sent both Mike and I $50 vouchers for our flight being delayed. A nice, unexpected gesture. I wonder if they'll send Justin a voucher for costing him $ in the pit?
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