Well after travelling to Las Vegas 3 weekends in the last 5 weeks for the WSOP, i have a lot of gripes about Harrahs, the owner/host of the event.

Let’s start with the venue, the Rio Hotel. I stayed at the Rio 9 years ago, when it was news and it was a nice hotel. I have friends who’ve stayed their more recently and were happy. Well, i stayed in 3 different smoking rooms during my 3 stays. The rooms were ok, but all had numerous large burn holes in the carpet. This 3rd stay, began with my room A/C set to 65, but the temperature reading 76, with it rising to 80 within the first hour. Now, is it really that hard for the housekeeping staff to notice the room was too hot? Well they fixed the A/C sufficiently that evening, but every day, the temperature rose to about 74, despite the thermostat being set at 68. Not a horrible problem, but an annoyance. I called room service on Sunday and was told they were running late and my order would take 45 minutes, it took nearly 1 hour 20 minutes. Finally I called housekeeping on monday about 10am and asked for maid service after 2:30pm (while i would be at WSOP tournament), when i returned to my room at 1:30, the maid was there and had not been told of my request. Conclusion, the little things tend to slip buy.

The Casino Table Game Minimums

The disappointment keeps on coming, when you walk down the casino. It’s evening and the lowest minimum on the blackjack or craps tables are $25, with only 1 $25 table for each game, yet there are empty/closed tables in the casino. It’s obvious that because Rio is off the strip, management has decided to use their “monopoly” like power to bleed the gamblers, but most are just not playing to avoid the high minimum. As for myself, i hope in a cab and spend $10 to get to the center strip where the Bellagio has more $10 blackjack tables, then Rio has open blackjack tables.

The Big Things

Real WSOP problems - a lack of dealers and those that are there, very unhappy. Dealers at the WSOP take a lot of abuse when they make a mistake. This is unfortunate, but not totally unexpected. What is unexpected, is that they don’t find the pay worth the grief. The dealers walked out for 2 hours during the HORSE tournament and i’m told many dealers leave immediately upon receiving their paychecks. The pay for dealers suck, most dealers/croupiers make 50%+ of the earning from tips, poker players don’t tip during the tournament (there are no real chips) so at the WSOP, it’s the responsibility of the “house”-Harrah’s to ensure the staff is properly paid. We assume that Harrah’s generates in excess of $40 million in revenues, not including room rates, gambling in the casino and restaurant sales. I base this on last year’s $100+ million in prize money with harrah’s taking about 8% of the pot, Party Poker paying over $10 million to sponsor the 2006, ESPN buying TV rights, plus other sponsors, hospitality suites etc. Now take 200 tables needing 500 dealers (a lot more than usually needed) for 40 days, requires 400,000 dealer hours, which at $10 per hour (possibly more than they get paid) would cost Harrah’s $4 million, a small percentage of their overall revenues.

So Harrah’s bought the World Series of Poker, a virtual license to print money. They are working at wringing every dime of profit out the event, but maybe they should approach there strategy from the player point of view. If people feel that the tournament isn’t being run well (dealers and floor people) or the casino has artificially high minimums, they may find some descreased interest in future events.

Read this with Nancy Sinatra’s “Boots” playing in the background!

Well i wasn’t the first player knocked out at my table, but i was the second. This time i made it past the first break: I lost on the first hand after the break, betting and getting raised “All-In” on with pocket 8’s losing when my opponent caught his 2nd queen on the flop.

So, my 3rd WSOP game, my 2nd crappy finish. That’s it until next summer. In the meantime, i’ll keep reading and playing some smaller tournaments. More WSOP stories later.

Well I just finished my second World Series of Poker Tournament in the last 10 days and the results were painful. Last week i busted out in 90 minutes. Today i busted out after a little more than 9 hours of play. If finished 73rd of 701 players.

So which finish is worse?

If you think it’s obviously the 90 minute bust, I should probably mention that the the top 72 players in today’s tournament were paid prize money. I might have held on to finish in the money, but with 2 hands before being blinded-out, i caught an unsuited AK and decided that it was likely the best hand I’d see before going bust. So i finished on the bubble, just like the Indy and Nascar drivers that just missed qualifying.

So which is worse?

I can’t be too upset, i’ve played 4 tournaments with 150 or more players and in 3 (in order of when i played them) i’ve finished in the top 82%, 85% and today in the top 88%. Am i ready to declare myself a “professional”? Well not quite yet, but i’m moving my game into the 2nd division.

So, i’ve about figured myself out. I go into a game hard, lose my money, learning a bit about the players, before tightening up. Knowing this, i’ve tightened up earlier in the game and i’ve begun to reverse my losses online. It is really clear to me that i am much more impulse and out of control online. Knowing this, i must adjust or give up the game. So far, adjusting is proving to be a success.

Tip of Month: The Short Stack

Well this may not be a regular feature, but periodically I’ll share a tip that ranges on the blatenly obvious. Today’s Tip: Go after the Short Stack. In tournaments, that’s pretty much the rule, but i’ve found that in cash/ring/side games, that the guy with the short stack, likely got the short stack by being a lousy player. Yesterday, I worked that information like magic, to help a couple of guys reduce their stack to 0.

This isn’t fool proof, but remember to watch the action so you can find the guys who are trash cards and fishing for hand.

By now you must be totally wowed by my use of language! Yes, whether it’s French, German, or even Japanese, i can find a word, sometimes 2, to make it seem as if i do more than sit in front of the computer all day! LOL

So, i continue to talk about the lousy play i’m exhibiting at the online tables. I realized that anyone reading this might want to get a piece of my stack by looking for me online. Well i’ve been playing at Party Poker and the increasing popular Aloha Poker, so if you see me, say hello as you take my money!

This Software Is Rigged: and other rants!

So the two most common outburst seen/heard at the online poker table, is 1) the guy you just beat calling you a moron and 2) the guy who’s AA pocket pair just lost yelling “this software is rigged”! In both cases, the guy making the comment probably isn’t qualified to make reach the conclusion.

The flaw in the in the rigged software scenario is the motive. Why would a poker room, that keeps a rake off every real money game need to cheat? With operators like Party Poker sporting revenues approaching $1 billion, via poker rake, what need or incentive would the operator have for risking their business with “rigged” software. People who distrust any online gaming business, seem to forget that all casino games have a built-in edge/commission/profit for the house, so there is plenty of money to be made, without any cheating.

The reason that so many people seem to draw out a win with a crappy hand, is that so many people play crappy hands that you normally do see make it to a showdown. i think someone is less likely to hard play a suited 3-9 at a casino, either out of fear of embarrassment or not being able to keep a strait face. Either way, i think the online bad beats and miracle hands are a function of too many people playing too many hands.