I’m getting ready to play the cash games and tournaments today on Poker Stars. I decided to skip the weekend WSOP event because tomorrow the $2,500 6 max NL tournament begins and if I made it far in the weekend event, I would have to miss Monday’s event. Instead I decided to just play online and spend some more time with my family. I am enjoying relaxing on this trip and especially enjoying laying on the floor and playing with my baby girl.
So far I am 0 for 6 in tournaments. The worst tournament by far for me was the Venetian deep stack event. I got dealt absolute rags all tournament, yet somehow managed to stay alive until day 2. On day 2 there were 18 people left to bust before the money when I lost an all in flip to go broke. Not only did I play for 16 hours only to get nothing, but I busted right at 5 PM so it took me an hour in traffic to get home. If I could design the worst possible outcome for a tournament, I would say making it to day 2, busting shortly before the money AND having to leave the casino in rush hour would be about right.
I read DN’s blog about men playing in the ladies event and I couldn’t agree more. I can’t believe 6 guys did that. I mean I don’t care if some of them lost a bet or were just trying to be funny or whatever. Just stay the fuck away from the ladies event guys. How hard is that? After my good friend Casey Martin won the right to a golf cart on the PGA tour through the Supreme court, a few knuckleheads tried to argue that they should have the right to play the LPGA and some even took their case to court. I just think it is downright pathetic that people do stuff like this. If you can’t cut it at what you are ultimately trying to achieve, don’t go looking for some silly loop hole.
The women get one event a year at the WSOP. As DN pointed out, it is good for the game as it brings women out in the 1000′s just to play in this event. I have only sat with 3 women all month, so generally speaking not a lot of women are playing the WSOP. But they do come out for that one. There is nothing unfair about it. Because it is not an open field event, as Barry Shulman pointed out, the event does not earn POY points. Sure, the winner gets a bracelet, but I think it is great that there is a designated ambassador for women’s poker each year. So what is the harm in such an event? Who loses? Even in the most cut throat sense, if some of these men weren’t so stupid they would realize that getting 1,000 women excited about playing poker is a good thing because they might start playing more poker and stimulate the poker economy.
Anyway, enough about that. Friday night I took my wife to NOBU which was absolutely off the charts. I love that place. After NOBU we went to see Richard Vos who was playing at the Harrah’s Improv. He did actually improv it. There were no rehearsed lines from what I could tell. I thought it was because he was drunk. He looked drunk! But then he said later he had been sober for 23 years. So I was like wtf? He just acted like he was totally wasted so I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I guess he was sober and just didn’t feel like putting in much effort on this show. Luckily he is pretty damn funny without even trying so we still had a good time.
Well, poker has been rough so far. I can’t get anything going in the tournaments. I know a lot of pros have had lots of terrible starts to the WSOP and then out of nowhere they bink a bracelet. So I am going to avoid getting too low about the way the WSOP is going until I bust form the main event. I know I am playing some good poker, that much I am sure of. I actually feel like I really worked to peak for the WSOP and I feel I am playing great. I don’t think I have made even one decision at the felt that I hated. Maybe a few I later felt wasn’t optimal, but no real poor decisions. Basically I am just running poorly, plain and simple. But it’s early. I will probably play another 10 events so anything can still happen.