A bunch of stuff (not all poker)

With the Olympics coming here the city of Vancouver is under a lot of scrutiny and now it appears they have plans to remove the homeless from the so called secure areas around the Olympic sites. Vancouver like most major cities has a lot of homeless people. According to news reports they plan to move the homeless to shelters at least until the games are over. I can see some interesting confrontations arising as some of the homeless have pets (not sure why) and the shelters don't allow dogs. I know I certainly don't have the answer to solving the homeless problem. I wish I did.

Speaking of the Olympics one thing that has always bugged me is the sports that are judged like figure skating. It is always so subjective and generally really biased. Well I admire the skill of the skaters the whole judging thing is a joke. Reputation means more than anything else especially for the ice dancers. Give me sports where the fastest skier, fastest runner or the best team wins. It would be like in poker someone judging how you played those pocket queens. Hey you played them wrong that costs you 500 chips. Yea right.

Played a live tournament last night and generally stunk. I think I finished 24th out of 40. Got bluffed off a huge pot when I made (the right decision percentage wise) to fold my pocket 5's to a scary board but knowing who was also in the hand and the cards he plays I probably should have called . Then in my last hand my trip 2's got got beat by trip 4's. Just wasn't my night and I really didn't play well.

I see in Vegas the MGM/Mirage bunch who are building the massive City Center project are in deep financial problems. I think there have been massive overruns on City Center. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out. I also read yesterday that Cirque DE Soleil is planning a new show with an Elvis theme which is scheduled to open sometime in December at one of the places at the new City Center (if its finished). Well I have to admit I have never seen a Cirque show but being a long time Elvis fan I might just check it out. I kind of wish it was September that it opened as that's when I will be there next.

I sure have been getting the offers from Harrahs lately for cheap rooms. I never get comped rooms because I don't play slots or table games just poker. Makes me wonder how Vegas is really doing during this current recession. One thing that has increased my cost is the current Canadian dollar. When I went to Vegas last August our Canadian dollar was at par with the American . Now its around the 81 cent mark. Be nice to see it go up some.

Fulltilt versus Pokerstars

I had a lot of free time yesterday with so I played a lot online switching between Fulltilt and Pokerstars. I used to play online at Pokerstars a couple years ago then changed to Fulltilt about a year ago. I tried a few smaller sites but seem to have stuck to the 2 big poker powers. I like both sites as they both have features I like and dislike. On Pokerstars I like the fact that people can post their pic and also what city they are from is displayed which makes a more friendly environment. With Fulltilt they have those silly avatars that really need to be dumped. I like the accessibility of the previous hand function on Fulltilt. Pokerstars has it too but FT is much easier to navigate when you are trying to see what your table mates previous hands were.

Pokerstars does have the feature which tells you how often you are seeing the flop etc. I like that and very easy to read. As you can see both sites have some great features.

As I only play online for practice and to sharpen my game I am not sure which site I would play on if I was actually going to put some money on my account (or unless I win a freeroll). I have a lot of friends who do play online for money but I have never done it for the simple reason is that I love to play live. I can certainly understand people who do play online for money if they don't have casinos close by and if you are playing the small stakes you really can't lose too much. I also realize that that the online sites have been the main reason in the overwhelming increase in popularity of the game and for that I am thank full but I live in British Columbia and here we have lots of casinos. In the Greater Vancouver area alone there are 7 casinos that have poker rooms.

I played 3 freerolls yesterday at Full Tilt. One of them which starts at 340 PM EST starts registration 40 minutes prior to the start. That freeroll filled in 4 seconds. 2700 entrants. Too slow on the click and you are out of luck. I also managed to finally get in on the Canada freeroll which until I sent them an email at FT hadn't been able to access. Its great to have that access now.

I never cashed in any of the freerolls as you need a lot of luck just to get far. No matter how well you play there are so many players that go in with anything, don't respect raises that the suck out factor is huge. I will keep trying as I have said that's the only way you will see me on the pay side of these sites. Yesterday I got eliminated in all 3 with the percentage factor in my favour and yet the underdog knocked me out all 3 times.

I was reading the Pokergrump (one of my favourite blogs) and he had a bit about Johnny Chans appearance on Poker After Dark. I managed to catch a few minutes of the show. I like PAD but it always seems to be on at times when its tough for me to watch. Jennifer Tilly looked great and I love her personality. Of course I am a little biased as she grew up in BC. She is very distracting at the table with her low cut tops. Of course that's her intention.

The winter Olympics will be here in 10 months and yesterday they announced that ticket sales have been excellent. All available tickets that have been released so far have been sold. Thats great news in this economy. Most of the venues are finished and things are looking good. Lets hope it continues.

Playing tired

I went and played a live tournament last night even though I was tired from the night before. We only had 33 players which normally would be a great thing if I wasn't so tired (good excuse for my dumb play). I knew everybody at my table except for one older guy who by the way he was acting seemed like he hadn't played much. Anyways a few hands in I got dealt KQ suited in the dealer position and with 3 limpers (including old guy) in front of me I decided to bump it up 3 times the big blind. That got rid of everybody except old guy. He just called. Flop missed me completely with J,8,5. Old guy checked and I fired off another 3xBB bet. He called. Hmm. Turn was A. He checked and so did I as had no idea what he had. River was a blank and he bet and I folded. Played that really bad.

A few hands later I look down and there is KQh. This time there was 4 limpers ahead of me so I just decided to limp in and see what the flop did for my hand. Flop came Kc5h4h. It got checked around to me and I thought long and hard and decided to push with top pair and a 4 card flush draw. Everyone folded except (yea you guessed it) old guy who called my all in with K4. I was a little surprised (no really surprised)that he had limped in out of position with K4 as its a hand I can't see myself playing. Anyways the turn and river didn't help and I was out. I stayed around and the old guy was the chip leader when I left with only 3 left at the final table. I guess my read was wrong as he seemed to be doing great.

I see the inquiry is still going on into that Polish guy who got tasered at the Vancouver airport and died. It was a very tragic event. For some bizarre reason this guy who spoke no English flew from Poland To Vancouver to meet his mom and for some crazy reason got lost in immigration. Anyways I guess he got a little agitated and the police were called and he was tasered when they felt threatened. He died. It was very tragic but the way it was handled by the airport and the police (in my humble opinion)was very flawed. I cant understand why an interpretor wasn't called and why they tasered him when there was 4 RCMP officers and one small guy. I am a big supporter of the police but in this case I thing some errors in judgement led to the use of the taser. I really hope both the airport and the RCMP learn from this and I think they will but its really to bad it took this tragic event to make changes in the way tasers are used. I feel sorry for his mom who by the way was told her son wasn't in immigration when she asked about him.

Racing to a top 8

Played last night in my home league. We had 35 players which was low turnout . We usually run anywhere from 40-55 but it was the first night back after a 3 week hiatus. First hand got 22 and with 3 limpers before me in the dealer position I raised it 3 times big blind. Thought I would play a little aggressively when I might usually limp with this hand. Got 3 callers. Oh Oh. Flop came AJ8. Someone bet and got called and I folded. Yikes could be a long night. From then on not a lot of memorable hands but I managed to get pocket 9's and pocket 6's that both held up against the same players AK and A10 and I doubled up a couple times.It was a weird night last night. I never played any cards to the river all night unless I was calling someones all ins. Not my usual style of play but just didn't get a lot of playable cards and when I did someone was always pushing. Fortunately I always was the favourite going in and my pocket pairs held up. Anyways made it to the final table which was good way to start the season.

Played a bit on Pokerstars yesterday after down loading their system to my new laptop. Its been awhile (probably over a year) since I played there. Took a few hands to get used to their system but Played a SNG which I bombed in and then played a heads up match which I won. I do like those heads up matches and I never played that at fulltilt. I plan on playing a few of their freerolls when time permits and see if I can manage to cash. I played a 4 player SNG this morning and had a really interesting hand when we were down to 2 players. I had J4d and the flop came 10,7,8d. I checked and as I had a flush but wanted to see what I could get out of him. He bet and I just called. The turn was 6d. Not really what I wanted to see so but I bet about half my stack. He raised me all in. I thought for awhile and probably should have folded but I called. He of course had the Kd but lo and behold the river gave us the 9d which put a straight flush on the board but it also gave me a straight flush to the Jack. Since I had him covered that was the match. Talk about a strange hand.

Watched that horrible video from the Fox network yesterday where some so called comedians poked fun at our Canadian military. They obviously thought they were funny but when we have lost 116 Canadian soldiers I along with most Canadians was not amused. We are scheduled to pull out in 2011 and non too soon for my liking. Anyways that video has been picked up by all the network stations and is getting a lot of play in Canada. Anyways there has been so much backlash to the video that the one comedian was supposed to appear in Calgary for a show and it has now been cancelled as their was threats to his safety. They have evidently now apologized and hopefully have learned a lesson.

Freerolls

I got to say I was fairly impressed with the rapid response of the Fulltilt poker staff when I emailed them about a problem I am having registering for the Canada freerolls on their site. I can register for any other freerolls but the country specific ones always gives me the error that I have to contact the fulltilt staff. I am not saying the response was correct but I will certainly try their suggestion. It doesn't make sense that you can register for other freerolls but the ones that are country specific you can't. They have given me few things to follow and if that doesn't work they need my IP address. We will see if that works.


Speaking of those freerolls I played a couple yesterday with less than glamorous results. I think in the one that was awarding tournament dollars I finished in the 200's out of 2700. Okay but no cigar. Made one really dumb play when my son who also plays was watching over my shoulder and said to call this guy who had gone all in. I had KJd. He had A8 and he paired the A on the flop. Even though I had him covered that basically crippled me. Normally I don't call all ins unless I am really sure I am the favourite going in.

I used to play on Pokerstars a lot but haven't for a long time. I think I will go back and play some on there in the next few weeks just for a change. Its always nice to change things around and play on different sites. I really do like the setup of Fulltilt though.

The home poker league starts tonite. Its great to sharpen the game and you can play 5 nights a week. I sure have found the competition great and found it really helped when I played in Vegas and on trips to the casinos here.

Customer Service (not a lot of poker content)

I was out shopping on Friday night and went into several stores with my wife who was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding. So we went into 7 stores in 2 shopping centres or plazas where we live. Most of the stores were almost empty. The amazing thing was that in only 2 stores did a sales clerk even greet us. In fact it was in the last store (which had a going out of business sale) that clerk actually asked if she could help us. I was stunned as she was the first. I thanked her for asking and she seemed surprised. I relayed to her what had transpired over the evening and she said well it only makes sense to greet and ask people if the help. No kidding. Its funny because in the other stores clerks were either looking at flyer's, their cellphones or just rearranging stock. Now I am the type that likes to browse on my own and so does my wife but we also like to be acknowledged. I can't understand store managers and owners who don't instruct staff to greet customers. They don't have to hound them but just make them feel welcome with a smile and a greeting and an offer of help if they need it.

Poker is not my only love. I am also a runner who over the years has ran 12 marathons and probably close to 40 half marathons. While I don't race now I still love to go out in the morning for a run. Its so mind clearing and a great for stress relief. In fact if I know I am going to be playing poker in casino or in a tournament later that day I always run that morning as I find I think clearer and I have a much better frame of mind. I use to run 6 times a week with mileage of anywhere from 40km to 100 km per week depending on what I was training for. Now I run for fitness and just for the joy of it. Hopefully I will always be able to do that. Even when I travel to places like Las Vegas or Where ever I take my running shoes with me and try to get a run in.

I see Treasure Island in Vegas has been sold . It was part of the MGM/Mirage chain but now has been bought privately. Its always been a great hotel. Its poker room has always rated well with a lot of poker regulars. I know the site
www.allvegaspoker.com has many great ratings about it. That's one site I read just about everyday as there are always lots of great trip reports, room reviews etc on it. I have never played at TI but hope to on my next Vegas trip in September.