The Poker Chronicles

recap so far...

2005-02-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Day one started off with my ride to the airport showing up an hour late. Both Scott and I wanted to take the $50 first class upgrade that Alaska offers on the day of the flight if there is availability. There almost always is, if you are one of the first to arrive for check in. So showing up an hour and a half preflight, we got the last two first class seats left. Nice. Leather. Sleep.

Was asleep before takeoff once again. My ability to sleep anywhere, anytime is something I cherish and others envy. Last time on Alaska when de-planing (great word), the guy in the seat across the aisle from me looks and me and says "jesus kid, how the hell can you sleep like that?" Apparently I sleep through takeoff and a bunch of turbulence.

So Scotty tries to get even for the %50 upgrade in Heineken. As we get off the plane hes shifted into overdrive. For those that know how hyper-active Scott is sober, imagine him three times that pace. Add to the excitement of arriving in the poker capital of the world and I needed to find a straightjacket fast.

We catch the shuttle over to Enterprise rent a car, where his connections have netted us each a ragtop for $30 bucks a day. Since we are staying at LAX (about a half hour drive from the Commerce) we need to each have a car for flexibility. Poker players will understand this, others might not. :)

Off to the Commerce to check things out. After saying hello to several regulars I hadn't seen in years, I settle into a 40/80 game. Jump out to a nice $1700 win but decide to continue on and nine hours later, after winning a pot once an hour i'm stuck $1996 and quit. Nice start. Scotty has a similar start and we head back to the Hotel around 4am.

Wake up to several phone calls from John, whose driving from Sacramento where he rented a car. Then my brother Dan rolls in and we all head to the bank to load up with cash. After standing at the teller for an hour trying to straighten out a wire, we head off with the top down to Hollywood Park to get some food and put in a session. Scott had been up early and went over to HP to play and was currently in the 100/200 Omaha game buried up to his eyeballs. Dan jumped in the 40/80, john in the 15/30 and I got in the 20/40 so as not to be in the same game as Dan. He moved over to the main game, so I got in the must move 40/80 and got myself stuck about $1000. Moved over to the 40/80 mix (omaha 8 and stud 8) and fared just as bad. Lost $2339 for the session. Cashed out and went over to the Commerce to meet up with the boys, who had left an hour previous.

Got in a 40/80 Holdem game and played all night. Went hours without winning a pot and finally gave up at 6am stuck another $3249 for the session. Got up at about noon, cleaned up and back over to the commerce for the $1060 Omaha event. When I got there John was in a satellite tournament heads up. Scott and John had split the $120 fee and were arguing about weather to take the 50/50 split the other guy offered. Scott wanted to flip a coin and play it out for the $1000 (as the blinds were most of both players' stacks at this point) and john wanted to take the deal. After I explained to Scott that $500 was a little more valuable to john than him, they decided to chop and all three of us signed up for the event.

John has just informed me that we have to go to make the $500 NLHE event today. I'll post more tonite if I get in at a decent hour. Sorry to all that it took so long to get this blog up and running but I should be fine now.

Quick Update

2005-02-04T03:27:00.000-08:00

Its 3:30am Friday morning and im exhausted, but finally got one of our computers up and working. I'll post more tommorow, but suffice to say trip is off to a somewhat disasterous start.

Played my first tournament today, the $1060 Limit Omaha 8. 130 or so staters and busted out around 30th. Wont bore you fine people with the beat stories, use your imagination. :)

Cash games have been a bit of a nightmare. Stuck around 8K so far. 40/80 games are unbelievably good, but Ive gone 4 hours without winning a pot on two separate occasions so far. Self-jinx was very successful.

My attempt at a blog

2005-01-28T23:24:00.000-08:00

This blog was created so some of my friends and family could follow along with my adventure to the World Poker Tour event in LA. It was inspired by my friend Terrence Chan, who was recently at the WPT in Tunica and created a blog so we could all follow along from home. Instead of emails and phone calls rehashing my days adventures to several people, I thought i'd just start a blog so everyone who cared could see how I was doing.

Generally, the only blogs I find somewhat interesting are the ones by people that I know. Hence, all those that don't know me and stumble onto this one will likely be bored silly. I'll do my best to add in as much interesting detail as I can, but make no promises to entertain. :)

I'll be leaving Vancouver and my lovely wife Karen and daughter Chloe on February 1st. Scheduled return date is the 25th, although i'll come home earlier if Karen is having any problems due to the fact that shes seven months pregnant. I won't be alone, as my good friends Scott and John are coming down too. John is not a big fan of air travel, so he's taking Amtrak. Nothing like 24 hours on public transportation. Also, my brother Dan is coming down for a couple days to blast through some of the fortune he's won online this year. :)

Goals for trip:

1. Win the $10,000 WPT event (might as well aim high). Friends and Family have put up 5K (voluntarily I might add) so it won't be too much of a stretch to buy in directly. Might play some supers, but I think my time is better spent in the mid-limit cash games.

2. Come home at least 30K to the good. To do this I will obviously have to finish high in one of the events as well as run very good in the cash games. As far as cash games go i'll be playing mostly 30/60 and 40/80 holdem at the Commerce, 40/80 Omaha 8 (with a 1/2 kill) at the Bike and 40/80 holdem and 40/80 mix (Omaha 8 and Stud 8) at Hollywood Park. Im currently on the best streak of my poker life, so the timing is excellent. Currently have 37 consecutive winning days in a row in the Party 15/30 game. Havent had a losing day since November 15th. Obviously i've now totally jinxed myself.

3. Play 3 rounds of golf with my LA friends Max (whos a prop at HP) and Bruce. Maxy says he might get us on Riviera, so i'm obviously excited about that.

4. See a couple gigs with my other LA friends Gio and his girlfriend Cathleen, including a Modest Mouse show he has tix for.

5. Meet up with a couple of the posters from twoplustwo like Andy Fox and Mike I.

There you have it. Feel free to leave comments or questions.