Hugo's Blogspotting: 10 January

Rollercoaster

Continuing with the theme of looking back at the past year Praz Bansi at the Hitsquad has written a review of his 2007. It’s an excellent glimpse into a year in the life of a poker pro. The ups and downs are well documented in this post.

Praz sums up the agony of getting close in the WSOP:

“I ended up bluffing all my chips off and finished in a painful 10th place. I remember getting up from the table and people going crazy knowing they have made the final, all there friends and family going wild on the rail as I walked away from it all. I remember looking back and it felt like it was all in slow motion, like i was walking away from a massive car crash and my head was spinning.”

More interesting is the perfect description of post-Vegas come down. Adjusting to normal everyday life back at home after the bubble that is Las Vegas with its 24/7 action can be quite difficult.

All of a sudden you’re no longer surrounded by the flashing lights and clanging noises of the slot machines which at first are deafening, but, the longer your stay, become familiar and almost soothing. Not only that, but now there’s no room service or access to hundreds of twenty-four hour restaurants; one is actually reduced to thinking about mundane things like going out to the shops to buy a pint of milk.

“I came back home and things felt really slow, I missed the action and craved the buzz of being over there. I started playing blackjack in the casinos in London which I hadn't done for a while and was playing lots online. I just wasn't interested in playing poker at the time, I wanted instant action and blackjack gave me that,Its so dumb looking back but I was playing upto 5k a hand, and soon enough I had the biggest losing day of my life, I dropped over 120k$ in 1 night.”

Luckily things got better for Praz later in the year and it’s a nice reminder of why we all play this crazy sick game:

“I ran so hot, my timing was bang on and I ended up winning around $300,000 in just 2 weeks. Poker is so fickle but when you are winning big, nothing else matters, big fight with your girl friend? don't matter I'm winning at poker... missed your flight to Prague cos u overslept? it don't matter I'm winning at poker!”


Fun Down Under

Meanwhile the Aussie Millions has started up again and a boat load of Full Tilt pros have made the long flight across the Pacific. Jay Greenspan is blogging from God’s Own and has put up some photos of Chris Ferguson with a python wrapped around him, and Karina Jett and Clonie Gowen messing about with a whip.

So what I hear you ask? And quite rightly too. I only bring it to your attention as the venerable Pauly from the Tao of Poker is in Australia too and his 9th January entry makes for the usual entertaining reading. He writes about playing 2/3 blinds no limit holdem whilst drunk with an even more drunk Gavin Smith. However, in light of the photo of Clonie brandishing a whip, the sentence that jumps out is the following:

“I had spotted… Clonie Gowen (who was also shitfaced and wandered up to Gobboboy to tell him that she though Howard Lederer was an asshole for calling him a freak and a weirdo).”

I don’t know why I find this funny and I don’t want you to think I’m passing moral judgement on Miss Gowan – obviously she’s an adult and free to do what she likes. I wonder if she told Howard Lederer he was an asshole to his face? Maybe she did so after a few jars...

Maybe it’s the fact that Pauly uses the word “shitfaced” to describe her inebriated state; not exactly ladylike and I’m sure it’s not the image that Full Tilt would like to project. Anyway, I hope she wasn’t three sheets to the wind whilst handling that whip.

Bahamas = Birmingham?

There was a time when the only tournament worth traveling to was the WSOP, now poker players end up scratching their heads wondering which tournament they should go to. As the Aussie Millions starts the EPT-PCA event in the Bahamas is winding up and Snoopy has been blogging from there:

““It’s just Birmingham with palm trees,” I proclaim to Floppy in the taxi. The shops try and rip you off, motorists dive on the left and it’s even starting to rain!”

That sounds a bit dismal, can it really be that bad?

“I haven't been particularly impressed as it all feels a little bit fake with corporate infestation oozing out of every pore. It almost feels like Vegas, with everyone trying to rip you off, taxi cabs in every nook and cranny and a resort that closer resembles a Bahamas themed casino rather than a casino in the Bahamas.”

Hmmm, I guess it doesn’t really matter as it’s just another tournament and let’s face it, once you’ve been to one casino you’ve pretty much been to them all. And if you’re a poker player all you really care about is the game so what difference?

Tips from The Paper

The Paper has updated his blog with an excellent guide to tackling the small limit holdem games on offer in Vegas. If there’s one player who has paid his dues at low limit holdem it’s The Paper and amongst his twelve step guide can be found the following gems:

“Don’t play for 18 hours straight when you have just arrived

Don’t play when 90% of the table is old rocks

Mornings and afternoon are full of tough players. Prime time is 7pm-1am

Be aware that some weak players will cost you money by raising with 3rd best hands against your 2nd best hand - get over it.”

I must say that I wish I could have read that the first time I went to Vegas...

The Cycle of Poker

Paul Wasicka has written an interesting entry on his blog which has moved to Pokerroad.com. He theorises that poker moves in circles and that so many players are now utilizing such a hyper-aggressive style that a successful counter-strategy would be a rather check-calling type of style:

“Assume for the moment that players have evolved what they feel is a winning strategy, playing solid, tight, ABC poker. Then a few “pioneers” come along and start running over the tables and creating havoc, getting people to start making marginal calls against them (after all, they usually have nothing, right?). A few of the grinders see how effective this style is and give it a try and eventually come up with some creative plays, maybe a squeeze play or two, and before you know it, the norm is now everyone bullying, fast playing, and pushing their draws heavily. It gets to the point where now a few players feel like if they slow down just a bit, they might be able to trap the maniacs for a few buy-ins. Now the so called pioneers are the ones who have now adapted their style back to the basics and are just playing their cards… hence the cycle repeating itself.”

I don’t know about you, but that’s given a plodder like myself hope…

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

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