Shirley's Game Blog

December 2008

December 31
The holidays were really nice, but also very hectic. I finally feel like things are settling down and now I have to leave in a few days. I bought myself into the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure so I will be playing the tournament for the first time. Every year, I tell myself that I am going but always back out because of the timing. I almost did it again this year, but I knew I would be disappointed in the end if I did.

I managed to get to Supernova status. It was a difficult task this month because I had to play so many hands in order to achieve it which meant multi-tabling and that led to a losing month. I guess I should listen to Steve when he tells me what's best for me. After 15 years of friendship and poker mentoring, he knows where my strengths and weaknesses are especially in regards to poker.

So with the new year approaching, it would be best if I listened to what he has to say and go back to my poker roots; playing one $30-60 Omaha Hi/Low game the majority of the time when playing online. It's been my bread and butter for years (except for the time when my brain was fried from going through chemo) and why screw with something that works?

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2009!

December 18
The blogger tournaments have been running all week, but I haven't done so hot in them. I registered for the first event and then immediately realized I had a dentist appointment. I clicked the "sit out next hand" button and left the tournament. I hoped I would fold my way into the final event (top 72 from each day advance). I actually got close, but didn't make it. I skipped Tuesday's event and played Wednesday's Pot Limit Omaha 08 tourney, but bombed out. Today's event wasn't any better. I made it through half the field, but made it nowhere close to the final 72. Tomorrow is my last shot, but it is probably my best chance because it is the 8-game mixed event.

Other than playing those blogger tournaments, I have spent the week multi-tabling 10-20 Limit Holdem. Steve checked in on me the other night and was ready to kill me when he saw that I had four games going. He has always been against me playing more than one game especially because my biggest weakness is not paying attention. I explained that there was a logical reason for it, but he still wasn't happy. Although Steve would deny it, I usually listen to what he has to say regarding poker. However, in order for me to get to Supernova status, I had to put in a lot of hands this month. Currently, I am 4500 points away from achieving it, so I should make it within a day or two. I play a lot of online poker but have never achieved Supernova because I don't play for long periods and I don't typically multi-table.

After I get to my Supernova goal, I will spend the rest of the time catching up on Christmas stuff. I have done a lot of shopping and got most of the presents wrapped, but there are a lot of family activities taking place over the next week. After all the Christmas chaos, it will be time for me to pack my bags for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

December 9
The rest of the Latin America Poker Tour was a lot of fun despite the chaos regarding the tournament. I have so many new friends on this tour and every time I go to one of the events, I am grateful that I have met these wonderful people.

On Saturday night, Bluff was holding their party at Christine's and a handful of us went there, but I wasn't enjoying myself at all. The live mariachi music was so damn loud and I was feeling claustrophobic (which doesn't normally happen to me). I went outside with one of my friends and two minutes later, the whole gang was outside and we jumped in taxis and went to a bar down the street called the Zoo. The bar had great music and most of us stayed there until about 5 in the morning. Some of the guys went to another bar afterward, but I wasn't up for that. Getting back to the hotel at 5 was about all I could handle and it took me until about 3 the next day to recover. I finally got up and showered and we planned on going to town. We ran into Thomas on the way out and he said that he and Melina wanted to go as well and asked if we would wait for them. When they came back into the lobby, Alex was with them and the 5 of us went into town to have an authentic Mexican dinner (remember the Marival Resort has shitty food).

Before dinner, we stopped at a jewelry store and Thomas and Melina did their usual bargaining. I have never seen anybody as good as they are at getting the lowest price possible. They worked it as I laughed on the sidelines, but they got the last laugh because they got the price they wanted.

Dinner was only decent, but the company was fantastic. Thomas started working his magic and tried to get deals on bottles of tequila from our waiter. The bottles were expensive, but they weren't any more expensive than they sell in the store. I was surprised that the bottle markup wasn't higher in the restaurant and was also a little shocked that buying bottles of alcohol was common practice in the restaurants in Mexico. All my years of waitressing (including cocktailing), I can't remember selling a bottle of liquor or even being asked about it more than once. Thomas got a little deal on the second bottle, but the guy was pretty firm. Thomas also tried to buy this ugly wicker pig, but the guy tried selling it to him for $120 so he passed on it.

We made our way to the streets and found a stand where they sold the wrestling masks (or as I thought, bondage masks - see December 5th journal entry). Everybody bought a mask except for me. They almost had me convinced, but I declined because I couldn't find one that a mouth hole (it was hard to breath through the mesh). I got a great picture of all four of them in their masks in front of the church. Thomas, Melina, and Alex continued to wear their masks even when we got back to the hotel. They thought it was pretty cool that most people didn't recognize them unless they stood and talked for awhile. So when we made our way out to the patio bar again, the three of them decided to only grunt when people came over to talk to them. They even tried to get the waiter to understand what they wanted by just making grunting noises and playing charades with their hands. The waiter got it right and brought us the beers and later brought us the tequila and they pretended to take a shot and then pretended to choke on it. These guys are awesome and I can't wait until the next LAPT event. The next one is in Chili in January and I plan on playing in that after the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It is going to be a very busy month.

December 6
The tournament started without a hitch and I was really feeling good that day. Within an hour, I eliminated one player over the course of three hands. The first pot I took from him was when I semi-bluffed and check-raised him with a flush draw and he mucked. The second hand, I raised in first position with QQ and he called on the button with KT. The flop was king high with all of them hearts (I had the queen of hearts). I checked the turn and he bet a small amount and I called. The river was a heart and I checked to him. He overbet the pot which was strange to me and I called. He showed KT with the ten of hearts and my queen of hearts was good. The final hand against him, we got all of our chips in with KK (me) and TT and my kings held up.

I was feeling good. I had chips. And the best part was I was playing a lot of hands, but only showed down QQ and KK. I didn't look like I was getting out of line and the players gave me respect which was great because I was able to take down a lot of pots with my tight image including when I came over a guy who made a weak river against my 9 high. My pot eventually dwindled when I lost two hands. One of the hands was a race with my AK to his 99 and the other hand I lost with an eight high flush against my opponents ace high flush. At break, I only had $8,800 which was still enough to work with, but less than what we started with (we started with 10k). We had a nice long break, but I had to eat at the shitty patio buffet because I didn't make reservations earlier for the other restaurants. This ended up being a problem during my whole trip and the food at both buffets was absolutely horrible.

When I got back from break, I stayed afloat for awhile and then I made a move when one player raised to $1600 (the blinds were 300-600 and $1600 was a standard raise at my table) and got one called. I was on the button with AJ and I pushed. The original raiser mucked and the other guy thought for awhile and then finally called with 77. I flopped a jack and the guy never improved and he seemed to be a little pissed off about it. A few hands later, I raised in early position with AK and this one guy in middle position called (he always CALLED and managed to take some pots away from people when he floated and made a bet on the turn or river and his opponent folded. He didn't showdown hardly any hands at all) and the guy who lost with the 77 reraised to 5k. I thought he might be steaming still. He certainly seemed like he was steaming, so I pushed with my 18k. The next guy CALLED again, but this time I was thinking "oh shit" and then the other guy said "I knew it!!" and mucked his QQ face up. I turned over my hand and the caller turned over his KK and I didn't improve.

I was so happy with the way I played the tournament and really went for it. I didn't want to make it to the last level of day 1 and then bust out which is what I have done in the last two LAPT tourneys I played. I can honestly say that I played better than I have in 3 years and was more like the aggressive player that I used to be. It is amazing what a raise or reraise can do. I left the tournament area satisfied with my play, but disappointed that things hadn't worked out for me. I went to the bar right next to the tournament area to have a drink with one of my friends.

About 45 minutes later, Change 100 walked out and said "I have worked tournaments in 21 different countries and I have never seen anything like this." We asked what happened and she informed us that they stopped the tournament because poker is illegal in Mexico. WHAT? Our heads were spinning. The whole bar (players had made it out by this time) was abuzz. What was this going to mean? Eventually, they confirmed that they were suspending play for the night and for players to come back at noon the following day. There was a lot of talk and a lot of speculation about what was going to happen, but that didn't stop players from drinking and having a blast. Once again, we all ended up at the patio bar and had a great time laughing.

The following day, we went downstairs to check out what was happening. We were told the players were asked to come back at 5 because they still didn't know what was going to happen. We weren't going to waste our day waiting around especially since we weren't in the tournament anymore, so we went out and did the canopy tour. The zip lines were a lot longer than the ones I did in Costa Rica and it was a little more scary because we weren't really over the jungle (which makes it not seem so high). We went from one side of the river to another and it was beautiful, but scary at the same time and the guys insisted that I let out 2 screams while it was my turn (I refuse to believe it).

When we got back, it was a little after 5 and the tournament was being chopped up 89 ways. Each player got a base of 5k and then the rest was divided based on chip counts. The remaining players also got $500 added to their money by Stars for the trouble. Some players who had been eliminated the day before insisted on getting their money back. Most of us thought it was ridiculous that they expected it, but that didn't stop them from creating a huge scene. One woman got knocked down, one guy fell into the little pond next to the waiting area and a lot of angry Venezuelans were saying things I didn't understand. Rumor has it that the Venezuelans got arrested because they called the police and demanding their money back. The police said "Gambling is illegal. You were gambling?" and then took them away to jail. Moral of the story is - Don't be a douchebag.

December 5
I arrived at the LAX International airport and as soon as I walked in the doors, I saw Pauly and Change100. I haven't seen either of them since the World Series of Poker and was wondering what they were doing there. Unlike me, they immediately knew that all of us were there for the same reason. We all would be flying to Mexico for some poker, drinking, and maybe a little fun in the sun.

PokerStars always does a great job at picking the hotels for their Latin America Poker Tournaments and at first sight, it looked like they did it again. The Marival Resort was beautiful and the staff that greeted us were extremely friendly. When we went to the check-in counter, things started to get a little weird. They had us sign a badly interpreted, badly photocopied piece of paper that said we wouldn't be gambling on property. I wondered what that meant. Were we not supposed to make prop bets on the side? Obviously, we were going to be gambling because we were there to play in the tournament. I signed the thing and in return, they gave me the key to my room. The room was okay. It smelled a little musty, but I knew that was from the humidity and air conditioner and they couldn't do anything about it. The view was spectacular because I could see the pools and the ocean at the same time. After briefly looking at the view, I closed the drapes and went to bed because I needed some rest for the PokerStars party.

The Stars party was pretty standard: Entertainment, food, alcohol, and a lot of players from all over the world mixing and mingling. I stuck to visiting with the people I know. I first stopped to talk with Pauly and Change100 and then Otis. Before long, my buddies Melina, Alex, and Thomas showed up. They were completely star struck when they met Pauly because they all had been long time readers of his great blog. The one thing that was different about this party is they had girls with whistles that were putting the peer pressure on people to tilt their head back and drink the tequila they were serving. She approached Alex and he was reluctant, but gave in after a little persuading. His comment was, "I am such a bitch to peer pressure" and that was my inside joke for the whole trip. Anytime I wanted him to drink a shot, I would just say "Hey bitch. Drink this tequila." and he would.

After the party, people started making their way to the hotel bar and they eventually told us there was no more beer. Marival is an all-inclusive resort so the beer was flowing at a rapid pace. Instead of beer, they offered tequila or whiskey. Pauly took the tequila and so did Otis (he was celebrating his birthday) and then we went to the patio bar instead. They still had cerveza there and so we sat there and drank until about 3 in the morning. The great thing about hanging with writers is that all of them have such a great sense of humor (I think they have to) and I find them witty as hell which makes me spend much of my time laughing. Unfortunately, one of the reasons we were all laughing so hard was because I had a true dingbat moment: While walking out of the party, I said "What's the deal with the bondage masks? Why do they sell them everywhere in Mexico?" I had no idea that they were Mexican wrestling masks. I have never seen the movie Nacho Libre. I gotta get out more.

December 3
Both tournaments at the Bike were a bust. The No Limit tournament was going great for the majority of it, but when we got close to the money, I couldn't win a hand. I ended up being eliminated at four tables and they only paid three.

In the Omaha event, I was sitting at the best table in the room and it was extremely frustrating that I couldn't take my opponents chips. One of the players is a great NL tournament player, but has never played an Omaha tournament. He ran so hot and eventually finished in 2nd place.

I am heading out tomorrow morning for the Latin America Poker Tour in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. I am looking forward to seeing all my friends that I have made on the LAPT tour. This trip will be a little shorter than my previous ones because I have been spending so much time away from home and I have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas. I will make sure to keep my journal updated on how I am doing in the event.