Nothing is quite as exciting in poker as gearing up for the big summer tourneys such as the WSOP and Venetian DeepStacks. My plans for this year's summer poker series was split into two trips. The first trip is over and I'll be recounting the events here for you. I’ll be back in July for a few more events and will blog those as well.
Not even counting any particular results, the trip was a personal success as we held the TPE workshop, I got to know the TPE guys even better (since we are usually scattered across the North American continent), and I played live poker at what I think is the most advanced level I’ve ever played it. I felt differently about the game this time and I saw more opportunities at the tables. I aggressively attacked them and I was accumulating chips much more easily this time around and if not for a few unlucky spots I think I could have made some runs.
I left New York from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport on Thursday night. If you don’t know anything about New York and traveling, here’s one rule you should live by: If a comparable flight is going out of MacArthur and you are on Long Island, take it. MacArthur is a breeze to get through. You can be past security in less than 10 minutes. There’s no walking, and usually very few delays.
Unfortunately, as soon as I got there the sky opened up and a hellacious storm pounded the airport delaying the incoming plane that I would be taking. This was a bit nerve-wracking as I had a connection to catch in Chicago. We were scheduled to leave at 7:15 and didn’t leave until 8:20, into a huge storm. However, even though we got to Chicago 40 minutes late, my connecting flight was also being held back so I caught it. I did have to Sprint across Midway OJ style, because my landing flight was gate B26, and my connecting flight was gate A29 meaning I was at the extreme tip of each terminal. I was wearing flip flops and running was tough with my bags but I made it.
I landed in Las Vegas at 12:15, called Killingbird and found out they were playing drunk 1-2 at some local casino. It took a while for them to get there but when they did I heard the stories of the straddle and double straddle game they were inflicting on the locals, it was 1-2-4-8 and then if bigdog was first to put money in the pot it was raised to 35. From the sounds of it they were having a blast though.
We got back to the house and I was pretty blown away by the digs. KB did a great job securing us a nice place. Here is a video tour he put together. It was spacious, clean and well equipped with a pool table, grill and plenty of amenities. It was also a war zone as KB thought it would be a great idea to order 500 TPE stress balls as promotional items, not realizing putting them into a house with 8 guys would render them as ammunition. So I was pelted by dozens of balls but fought back valiantly. However, bigdog is wicked fast for a big guy. I’ll admit that he probably won the stress ball war but it wasn’t without catching a few shots himself. It’s nice to know that the established a rule that you can’t get nailed in the head while sleeping, though. The first thing I did after escaping the battle was have a ice cold TPE Donk Ale brewed by TPE member Praetor. No joke this beer is amazing. Well done man!
The next day was the TPE workshop and that was a huge success. We had 6 members attend and we covered some vital material. Starting stack sizes, bet sizing, 3/4/5 betting, post flop play, live poker, and closing tournaments. Then to close out the day we fired up a video of bigdog playing a live sweat and he walked everyonethrough what he was doing and why. I think everyone got a lot out of the day (including myself).
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And that led us to the TPE/ttwist b-day party at Blue Martini, TPE member king102, works at the hotspot and was able to get us a VIP party. There were about 30 or so people there and we had a great time. Here's a pic of tmck21 and hawkeye hanging with the TPE crew.
The next day brought the first tournament of the series for me. My schedule for the first leg of this series was the WSOP 1.5k, WSOP 1k, Venetian Deepstack 1.5k and Venetian Deepstack 1k. Saturday was the 1k. I’ll be posting about the 1.5k in my next blog.