Local Poker News Flash

(Updated 01/28)

As I'm sitting here eating breakfast, I checked out the websites for the local poker rooms. I'll do this occasionally to see if anything changed on the site, or any new promotions. There usually isn't anything new.

I say "usually" because something happened this morning. The page for the Harrah's poker room couldn't be found. This could be something simple like Caesars making some changes to their websites.

But it wasn't. I clicked on the "Reno/Tahoe" link, which usually takes me to a page listing all three casinos: Harvey's, Harrah's Tahoe, and Harrah's Reno. However, it only listed the two in Tahoe, and not in Reno.

After digging through the Caesars site, I finally got to the Harrah's Reno site. Now for the news... All mention of the poker room has been removed from their site.

In my Harrah's Review page, I mentioned that the poker room was closed on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and that I wouldn't be surprised if they closed up by the end of 2012. It may have happened much sooner than I thought.

I'll have to investigate after work tonight.

UPDATE: (10pm)

LOL Donkaments #8

Harrah's Reno 10am $35 NLHE - 10.21.11

I had a rare day off from work on Friday. And by "rare", I mean my last one was back in late June. So I got some work done on my car, went to the bank, and of course, played some poker.

My first poker stop was at Harrah's for their 10am tourney. Their structures are horrible: 15 min levels, 25/50. 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 400/800. 500/1000, 1k/2k, 2k/4k, etc. For this one, they gave us 2500 chips, and that includes a $5 add-on for 1k chips.

In spite of all that, I actually like their tourneys, and that's because of the quality of the players. Most of the local grinders stay away from Harrah's because they don't want to waste their time. So the players are those who are staying at the hotel, or live downtown. They are all Level 1 players, or even Level 0. It's not uncommon for someone to be playing in their first casino tournament. And this one was no exception.

We had 15 players, and the staff seemed to be surprised it was that large.

If you've played in a previous tournament, followed by their cash game, you get a coupon for an extra 1000 chips. Starting with 3500 chips is way better than starting with 2500 chips.

I was one of the few player with the extra chips, and it really helped. I hit a couple of hands, and I stole a few pots as the table was playing rather timid. By the break at end of the 100/200 level, I was up to 7300 chips and we had 11 players left.

In the next level (200/400), we had five players at our table, and we're still on the Final Table Bubble. UTG went All-In for 600. The Button called. The SB went All-In for 1100. I was the BB, and looked down at 87o. I was getting great pot odds (call 700 to win 3200), assuming that the Button didn't go All-In. He's an 70's guy who had been playing passive. I called the extra 700, and the Button called the extra 500. Flop was A 8 4, and we both checked. Turn was [A84] 8. I bet 1000, and the Button quickly folded. UTG and the SB didn't even have a Pair yet, and were drawing dead. This sent us to the Final Table with just nine players, and I was the healthy chip leader.

I stayed patient, as there were many short stacks. My next big pot was in the next level (400/800). We were down to five handed, and it folded around the SB. He limped in, and I raise to 2000 with TT from the BB. He called, and the Flop was 9 6 3. He checked, I bet 2600, and he called. Turn was [963] 4. He checked, and I went All-In for 5800. He thought for a moment, and called with Q9o. He missed the River, and I doubled up. He was still in, but had less than 1500 chips left.

I knocked out the 4th place player in a race, AK vs his TT, as I flopped an Ace.

The three handed play lasted in to the next level (500/1000). The Button folded, and the SB limped (the Q9o guy from before), even though he only had 2500 total. I'm the BB with ATd, and put him All-in. He shrugged his shoulders, and called with 32o (Why even limp in, let alone call off your chips?) Surprisingly, he didn't double up.

The Heads-Up match started with me having a 2-1 chip lead. My opponent was an 60's gentleman who had been playing rather tight. However, it was rather obvious from the start that he just wanted to get this over with. He had gotten a phone call, and then started overbetting. It seemed he wanted get his chips in the middle, although there was no mention of a deal by him. I would have done so if he mentioned it, but there was no way I was gonna bring it up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't getting any cards, and he was quickly catching up to me. I did get QQ in the SB, and limped. He didn't raise, and the Flop was K-high. We both checked, and the Turn was an Ace. He checked again, so I bet to end this hand. He quickly folded.

Finally, I limped with A3o. He raised to 4k, and I 3-Bet to 14k. He quickly called, and assumed I was All-In, but I still had 5k - 7k behind. The Flop was 7c 4c 3c. He went All-In. I hate this Flop, as I don't have a Club. But I do have a Pair, so I had to call. He turned over QTh, and missed. We counted the stacks, and I had him covered by one 500 chip.

First place was $240 after the Dealer Tip.

Hand Of The Day #84

Harrah's Reno ~ $1/$2 NLHE ~ 09.18.11

I don't remember the exact details of the Preflop or Flop action. I apologize for this, as it does have some effect on the important part of the hand. But here is my best recollection...

There was a normal raise preflop ($7-$10) from a player in early position. I called in the Hyjack with 8s 7h. Four or five players saw a Flop of Qd 6h 5s. The raiser checked. I think I bet something like $20 with my Open-Ender. The Button called, and the raiser check-raised All-In for around $30-$35. Only the Button and I called.

Turn [Qd 6h 5s] 9c. Bingo! I make a value bet of $50 with my Nut Straight. The Button doesn't take too long to call. He's an Old Man, and he's been playing like an Old Man. A little on the loose side, but very on the passive side. I'm glad he called the $50, but I was a little surprised, as a $50 bet is huge for this table. I'm wondering if he just has a good Top Pair, or something stronger.

River [Qd 6h 5s 9c] 6c. Well, that's not a card I wanted to see. I was gonna bet $75, but I decided to just bet $50. He called the first $50, so hopefully he will call this one.

Well, he didn't call. Instead he said "Raise" rather forcefully. He started to play with his chips, and I went into deep thought. I hate it when Old Geezers say "Raise" on the River, because they are never, ever bluffing. Before he says his raise amount, I tell him not to bother, and show my cards, hoping that he would show his hand. He did, as he had Ac 6d for Trip 6s with an Ace kicker.

Doh!

Over the years, I've learned one of the most important thing that you need to be a winning $1/$2 player is the $20 Value Bet on the River. Most $1/$2 players just want to check it down, get to showdown as cheaply as possible, and hope they have the best hand. So if you can squeeze out that extra $20 (or $10 or $50) on the River every time you have the best hand, then your win-rate will be much higher.

In order to make these thin Value Bets, you need to be able to read hands. Now I will admit that I'm not the best hand reader, but the average $1/$2 player plays their hand almost face up. So being able to follow the action, and determine when I'm 70% likely to have the best hand isn't that difficult at a typical $1/$2 table.

The other thing you need to be able to do is to Bet/Fold. Even though you willingly put money into the pot, you need to be able to fold when your opponent says "Raise". As I said, the average $1/$2 player wants to get to showdown cheaply, especially the older players. So if one of them raises on the River after you bet, then they have a monster hand.

And that goes for this guy, who raised with a hand that he thought was a monster. Now I have no clue why he was still in this hand with just A6, but I'm not gonna blame him. After all, I was the one who folded to what was probably going to be a min-raise of $50.

I have to admit that it never occurred to me that he could just have Trip 6s. If it had been the Queen that paired on the River, then Trips would seem more likely. It's certainly in his range, but at the very bottom of it.

I'm so used to having the mentality of Bet/Fold on my River Value Bets that I just assumed I was beat. And if you go back through this blog and look at the many times that I've folded on the River, I'm almost always right.

One difference in this hand compared to some of the other hands was the Board (Qd 6h 5s 9c 6c). There was no Flushes or Four Card Straights out there. It's a rather non-dramatic Board, and my Straight was somewhat hidden. That's why he thought he had the best hand. Of course, if I had Two Pair or a Set on the Turn, then his raise would be suicidal. But, again, I'm not here to criticize him.

This hand was a valuable lesson for me to not always assume that the opponent is raising with the Nuts. I need to take the texture of the Board into consideration, and figure out what hand he thinks that he has beat.

And when I say "valuable", I mean the preflop action (roughly $25-$40), plus around $100 ($30-$35 x 3) on the Flop, plus $100 ($50 x 2) on the Turn, plus $100 ($50 x 2) on the River, plus whatever he was gonna raise (probably $50-$70).

Ouch!

Honoring Washington, Lincoln, and Jackson

(Before you start reading this, let the dog outside, take a quick visit to the bathroom, and grab a snack along with a cool, refreshing beverage. This is loooong post.)

3:10 - I walk into the Eldorado Poker Room on Monday afternoon. (It's President's Day, and I have the day off.) There is one table of $1/$2 and a list with five names on it. I become player #6, and the Floorman says they will be calling a new table soon.

3:50 - I'm tired of waiting, and I've wasted $100 in a Video Poker machine. I go up to the desk to tell him that I'm leaving, but he says that he's calling the List right now to start the 2nd table. I decide to stick around, but I know the game won't start. I've been here for 40 minutes, and there are plenty of names that were here long before I got here. The List is stale, and many of those players have left the casino. It happens regularly at the Eldorado.

Naturally, I was right. Only four players showed up, and one of them was a Dealer in this room. While we're waiting to see if a fifth player might show up, a seat opens up at the first table. The Dealer takes the open seat, and our 2nd table is officially dead. This seemed very odd to me, so I asked the Floorman the obvious question, "Why does a Dealer get an open seat over a Customer?"

"Because he was the first name on the List," said the Floorman.

"So?", I said. "He's an employee who's in uniform. It looks really bad that you would rather give an open seat to an employee rather than a paying customer."

The Floorman didn't say anything, and walked away.

Typical.

4:00 - I walked out of the room, and headed to some other Downtown rooms to see if I could find a game that actually wanted a customer. I went to Silver Legacy, but they had no games.  Next was Sands Regency, but they only had one table with all White chips on it. I then headed to Harrah's, figuring they would have a $1/$2 table running. I was right.

4:25 $220 - I'm the 8th player at the table, and I have the table covered with my buy-in. I think the next biggest stack is around $150 with half of the table under $100. I expect there to be a lot of limping, checking, and min-raises in my future.

5:00 $125 - Well, I was right about this table. Everyone is super passive, and not betting their hands. I really haven't had much to play with. My first pot was me betting $7 from the Button with Bottom Pair (3) on the Flop. Only the SB called. I bet $15 on the Turn, and $20 on the River. He called both times with 2nd Pair on the Flop (5). (Right Click - Notes - "Calling Station") Other hands involved me stabbing at pots against various players who kept hitting Two Pair or Better, including the Calling Station.

We are now five handed, and I don't see this game lasting much longer.

5:30 $122 - I finally won a decent pot. I had 96o in the SB of a limp pot. I flopped Top Pair (6), bet $5, and got two callers. The Turn gave me Two Pair. I bet $10, and they both called. The River was a 6. I bet $15, and they both reluctantly called.

We lost more players, and are down to three. The Floor grabs some Shill money, and sits in the game to try to keep it alive. He only posted the single $1 Blind, and never played a hand. Once, he accidentally flipped his hand over, A9d. He would have flopped a Pair + Nut Flush Draw. (At Harrah's, when the table gets shorthanded, they only post a $1 Big Blind. It's still $2 to enter the pot.)

The three of us are playing small pots, but the Calling Station is the only one who seems to be catching cards. I finally started to not believe him, and called a $20 River Bet from him when I just had Top Pair (K - K9o). He had hit the Nut Straight on the Turn.

Shortly after that hand, the third player at the table goes busto to the Calling Station, and our game breaks. I've been wanting to play more at Harrah's so I can build up some Points for my Las Vegas trip in June. So I decide to grab a quick bite to eat, and play in the 6pm tournament.

"Shuffle Up & Deal" 6000 - Tonight's tournament is a $65 Bounty tournament ($10 Bounty) with 15 minute levels. We are starting with 10 players, but 11 stacks crammed at the table. I hate when a Poker Room does this, and it's common in Reno. The Rooms would rather squeeze 11 or more players at one table, instead of starting with two short handed tables. They keep the other Dealer at an empty Cash table that has no prayer of starting up until some of the tourney players bust out.

And speaking of "hating", I really don't like small bounty tournaments. Bounty tourneys are great with a larger field because players can win money without cashing. They are really popular in the Home Games that I used to run, where we had 35 or more players. But in these small, one-table tourneys, most of the Bounties go to the players who end up cashing. I would have to knock out seven players to get my buy-in back. If I knock out seven players, I will win the tourney. So why bother doing it?

End of Level 1 (25/50) 5850 - We now have 11 players. There are a few No0bs here, and the play has been, well... interesting. There were three separate preflop raises to 1000, and one to 500. All of them were called.

Since this is a one-table tournament, I'm going with the standard Sit-N-Go strategy of "Tight Early, Aggro Later". This means I haven't played a hand yet.

Level 2 (50/100) 5850 - The play at this table is still on the "Huh?" side. The preflop raises have calmed down to the 500 range. There was two All-Ins preflop; one for 2300 and another for 4400. Neither was called.

It's been easy for me to stay patient with the steady flow of Baby Face cards that I've been getting dealt. The only hand that I played was me getting a Walk in the BB, which is why I didn't lose any chips this level.

Level 3 (100/200) 5500 - We still have 11 players, which is odd for a Bounty tournament. My cards have improved to Baby Aces, which is still not playable at an 11-handed table. The only playable hand I saw was 88, but I was UTG, so it was an easy fold.

Level 4 (200/400) 16400 - First hand of the Level, I raise to 1000 in the Hyjack with AKo. Only the SB called. The Flop was AJ5. He checked, and I decided to try to trap him by checking. Turn [AJ5] A. He checked. I bet 1500, and he called. River [AJ5 A] 7. I go All-In for 3000. He quickly called with QJd. Sometimes, poker is easy.

Later, I limp UTG+1 with AKo, hoping that a shortstack will raise. Two other players limp in. The BB goes All-In for 800, a min-raise. I back-raise All-In, and the limpers fold. BB has 43c, and missed everything for Bounty #1.

Last hand of the level, an active No0b limps in Mid. I'm the SB with AKo (yes, three times in 15 minutes). I decide to limp, and three players see a Flop of Qd Jd Jc. The BB and I check. No0b bet 400, and I'm the only caller. The Turn was [Qd Jd Jc] 5s. I check, and he did as well. The River was [Qd Jd Jc 5c] Ts. Bingo! I bet 1500 with my Broadway. No0b raised to 3000. Now I know he has a J, but I don't know if he has a Full House. I just call, and he proudly shows J6h for Trips. Sometimes, poker is easy.

BREAK - We are down to 7 handed. I'm one of two Chip Leaders. The other one is on my Left+1.

Level 5 (400/800) 19200 - The only hand I played was me squeezing with AJo from the SB. I thought one of the Shortstacks would call, but they didn't. 

I'm now the comfortable Chip Leader. The other Big Stack made some rather loose calls, and wasted half of his stack.

Level 6 (500/1000) 20000 - We are down to 6 handed. The only hand I played was raising to 2500 with Ks Qh, and both Blinds called. Flop was Ad 9d 4d. They both checked, so I bet enough to put either of them All-In. Fortunately, they quickly folded. I decided to show the bluff.

Level 7 (1000/2000) 33000 - It folded to the Button, who min-raised to 4k and he has 4k behind. The SB went All-In for 6k. I'm the BB, and look at 85o. Doing the Math, I need to call 6k to win 16k plus two Bounties. I decide to gamble by going All-In and the Button calls with 22. The SB has A4o. There's an 8 on the Flop, and I collect Bounty #2 and Bounty #3. The next hand. the J6 No0b went All-In for 6k. I'm in the SB, look down at KK, and say "Hello!" to Bounty #4. We're down to 3-handed.

Level 8 (2000/4000) 18000 - 3-handed play goes on for a while with no big hands. I'm trying to stay patient, but I'm slowly bleeding chips with the Blinds this high. Through these small pots, I loose the chip lead to a young lady who's a No0b. She finally gets into a Coin Flip with the other player who's the former Big Stack. She has 99, and he has AQ. An Ace hit the Flop, but a 9 on the River pops the Bubble, and she gets her first Bounty.

Before the Dealer pushed the Pot to her, she asked, "Do you want to split the money?" I'm trying to cut down on the number of chops that I do in these tournaments. But she has a chip lead of more than 2-1. If the Blinds were lower, I would rather play it out since she's a No0b. I've got under 5 Big Blinds, so one little mistake would mean I get 2nd. A even-money chop is just too good of equity to say 'No'. We chop the $440 prize pool, and we each get our own Bounty, #5 for me.

I know that I just said that I don't like small Bounty tournament, but I think this proves my point. The two of us got 7 out of 11 Bounties. If we add the Bounties back into the prizepool, it would be $550, or $275 each. With my five $10 Bounties, I left the table with $270.

8:20 $220 - If you play in the Cash game for one hour after the tournament, Harrah's will give you $10 and a coupon for 1000 chips in a future tournament. So I sit down as Player #6, and once again, I have to table covered. The next largest stack is around $130. The J6 No0b is on the other end of the table, and has around $60. I'm only planning on being here until 10pm, so hopefully this quickie session will go better than the afternoon quickie session.

9:00 $316 - We're down to five players, as the No0b busted. He was still very active, but I didn't get any of his money.

The pots have been small as expected, but things are going much better for me. Two noteworthy hands. First was a $70 stack raised to $12 from the Hyjack. The SB called. I'm the BB with 55. I make the reluctant call, even though neither player has many chips for me to win if I hit my Set. Flop was Q-high with a Flush Draw. The SB and I check. The Hyjack bet $10, and the SB folds. As I've mentioned various times before, that bet means Weak. I decide to check-raise to $25. He thinks for almost a minute before folding.

Second hand was me having 76o in the SB on a Board of 998 T. I lead out on Turn for $5. Two players called, and the Button raised to $10. Having the bad end of the Straight, and being out of position, I just call. The other two players also call. River [998 T] K. We check, and the Button bets $15. I call, and so does another player. Button shows A9 for Trips, and the other player shows KJ. Ship it!

9:30 $201 - Things went sour for me. I ended up paying off two shortstacks who had AA and KK in different hands. We are now a full 10-handed table. I'm getting tired, so hopefully my last two orbits will be profitable.

10:10 $276 - My cards were relative quiet, but the action was good at the table. I got all my money in one hand. There were a few limpers, and I raise to $7 from the Hyjack with KJo. The Button called. The SB raised to $11, but the Dealer said he had to make it $12. Most of the limpers call. I 4-Bet to $60, to either win the pot, or get heads-up. Everyone folded, except the SB who called and a Shortstack who called for his last $35. The Flop is J-high, and the SB checked. I ship it All-In for $143, and the SB folds rather quickly. I show my hand, much to the surprise of the table. The Shortstack has 77, but misses his 2-outer.

I also played another hand that I could have won with a $40 Hero Call on the River against a traveling player who just arrived in town for the various tournament series that are starting this week. But I wimped out because my Hero Call Winning Percentage (or HCW% for you internet geeks) sucks lately. I know that I don't have win even half of my Hero Calls for it to be profitable, but I'm way below that over the last few months.

A Day At The Races

I played in three daily tournaments on Sunday. Here's what happened:

Harrah's $45 11am 10am: I got to Harrah's about 10:10 in the morning. I was gonna walk over to the Poker Room to register for the 11am tourney, and head up to the buffet for some breakfast. However, as I walked towards the room, I noticed that two tables were running. As it turned out, they changed their schedule since I was here a month ago, and the tourney started at 10am. I got into the tourney one hand before late registration ended as the 16th player.

The players got knocked rather quickly including two different double eliminations, and it only took around 30 minutes to combine to one table. I helped out by knocking out a lady with my AQ. I raised preflop, c-bet the Flop, bet again when I hit the A on the Turn, and went All-In on the River. She called the whole way, but she didn't show her hand.

At the Final Table, I was 2nd in chips. The Chip leader was from my table, and he seemed to have a clue about the game. Unfortunately, he got seated on my Left+1.

Even though there was some short stacks, it didn't take long for us to get into a big pot. It folded to me in the Cutoff, and I raised with KTh (sorry, I don't remember the specific amounts and blinds). Only the Chip Leader called from the SB. The Flop was 8-high with two Hearts. He checked. I bet. He check-raised. I insta-shiped all in with just a Flush Draw and two Overcards.

The reason for the All-In was from a few hands earlier. A Shortstack moved All-In. The Chip Leader considered making a thin call, but said that making those calls is a good way to blow a chip lead. I took this to mean that he would fold to an All-In, but I was wrong. He called rather quickly, which I didn't like. I turned over my Draw, and he got that "Are you kidding me?" look on his face. He turn over QJh for a Flush Draw and two Overcards. The Turn and River were bricks, and I win a monster pot with K-high.

Since I had such a monster stack with eight players left, I went into Lockdown mode. There was no reason for me to play without a "real" hand, and I did pick-up a few hands. When we got to the first break, there were only five players left. I had over 21k, which was more than half of the chips in play.

I stayed in Lockdown mode, waiting to get to the money. When it was four handed (400/800 level), I got into a big hand. It folded to the SB who just limped. It was a lady who had knocked out a few players, and was second in chips. I just checked my option with K9o. The Flop was K 4 3. She bet 1000, and I called. Turn [K 4 3] 9. She bet 2000. I think she has a real hand like Two Pair, so I min-raise to 4000 with my Top Two Pair. She just calls. River [K 4 3 9] T. She quickly goes All-In for 7500, and I call. She shows KT for a rivered Two Pair.

Suddenly, my monster stack is down to around 6500. I now have to go from Lockdown mode to Steal mode. Fortunately, the other two player were Super Nits and on my Left. I was able to slowly grind back my stack. When we got to three handed, we did a quick chip count. The Chip Leader had just over 25k, I had 16k, and the third player was under 5k. It didn't take long to get rid of the shortstack.

Only two players got paid, and the Floor brought over the payouts. The payouts were 65% & 35%, which was $312 and $168 for a prize pool of $480. I suggested a tweak to the payouts since we were close in chips; $200 each and play for the $80. She agreed.

Heads-up didn't last long, as I made short work of her. I got a good chunk of her chips when I raised with 93o on the Button. I hit nothing on the Flop, and bet the Flop and Turn. I backed into a K-high Straight by the River, but she didn't call my value bet. The match ended a few hands later. She was quite happy to get the $200, and I was quite happy to get another notch on my belt, even if it was a small notch.

Peppermill $65 1pm: When I got to the Peppermill at 12:50, there was a long line for tourney registration. As it turned out, this tourney got 70 players, which was huge for a daily tournament in Reno. I had some good, some bad, and some ugly. I finished in 27th place.

Peppermill $95 (Cash Me Out) 6:30pm: This tourney had a more reasonable field of 42. I got down to the final two table when this hand happened. I raised to 4000 in the 700/1500/200 level with AK. Only one of the Blinds called. The Flop was K-high. He checked, and so did I. The Flop was rather dry, and it was good one to trap with. The Turn was a Ten. He bet out 3000, which was about 40% of his stack. I grabbed my stack of 1k chips, and pushed them foward. He though for a bit, and reluctantly called with AQ. As you can guess, the River was a Jack, giving him Broadway. This left me with 3500, and I was out two hands later in 14th place.

It's hard to complain about the 4-outer. I've been really good at avoiding the 2, 3, and 4-outers lately, so I was kinda due for one. But still, Ouch! That hand would have put in decent shape to make it to the Final Table where I can work my magic.

Camped Out At Harrah's

First, the important stuff. I did sign a 12 month lease for an apartment in a large complex on the south end of town. It's a 2-Bedroom with Washer/Dryer in the apartment. I haven't used a laundromat in over 10 years, and I'm not about to start now. I'm also about a five minute drive from Peppermill and Atlantis.

I stayed at Harrah's Reno, since I had a 3 Free Nights offer. I also tried to do all of my Poker and Pit play at Harrah's to help build points for my cross country road trip when I haul my junk across the country.

The best word to describe the Harrah's Reno Poker Room is "Pathetic". They have six regular tables and one small table for Stud games, except they have no Stud games. In fact, the room has only two tables with Shufflers because the other table are never used. In my various sessions, there was never two full tables of Cash games (1/2 NL). Often, they start a table with only four players, and use a single $2 Blind. The tournaments I played didn't have two full tables, and they usually broke the Cash game, because there just weren't enough players.

As for my Poker, the Cash games were profitable (4 session, +$335, 10.75 hrs). They best way to describe the quality of players is to use a word that some of the Internet players use ... Droolers. There were a couple of decent 20's kids, but most of the players were either really tight or just really bad. I hit a few big hands, and most of them got paid off. If all of the local "Pros" will be at the Peppermill, then I will definitely be visiting other rooms to grab the "low hanging fruit".

I played in two tournaments. The structures were horrible with the blinds doubling every level (25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 400/800, 500/1000, 1000/2000, 2000/4000... ). Being Harrah's, home of the World Series of Poker, they didn't even have any Tournament software. They were using a mechanical timer which looked like the timer that Wendy's uses to remind the employees to stir the Chili. (That was my first job in High School). They also used the bare minimum number of chips to run a tournament, and the Dealer started coloring up chips on Hand #2. It's really pathetic they don't have enough chips to run a two table tournament.

The first tournament (Mon night) was a $65 Bounty, with $10 for the Bounty. It had 18 players, so I tried the "Fold To The Final Table" strategy. However, I didn't do a very good job of it, and was the first one out. The second tourney (Tue night) was their Deepstack. This one started with 9k chips, but only had 13 players. I made it to the Final Table. But as often happens in the Shove-Fests, the Shortstacks just kept doubling up, and the Blinds got retarded. I ended up in fourth place when the BB, who was the tightest guy there, woke up with QQ. Harrah's only paid two spots, and nobody ever mentioned the Chop word.

Although I was hoping that I wouldn't do this, I ended up dumping a lot of money in the Pit. The main reason for this was because there were stretches of time when there was nothing to do. My Body never switched over to Western Time Zone. So I was in bed by 11pm, and was up at 4:30am. Not too many Poker tables open at 6am in Reno. Also, if I signed up on the List at the Poker Room as the second or third player, it was up to an hour wait due to only having one table running. After I move there, this shouldn't hopefully won't be a problem. I can just hop in my car, and make the 10 minute ride home.