Online Poker Tournament Rankings

I am out in wonderful Las Vegas. So far I played two tournaments and have ran pretty card dead in both.  I played one $1500 WSOP event at the RIO and got knocked out on level 4 (four hours into the event). I had QhQd and opened in early position for 4x the blinds. An older gentleman smooth called on the button. Flop came  out 4d9d2s. I bet out three quarters of the pot and my opponent raised my all in. I started the hand with 11k in chips. My opponent had 9k in chips.  I called he turned over AdKd turn Jh river As. I pick up 88 two hands later and lost my lat 2 k  in chips. For get talking about the tournaments.

On to the cash games. I have been trying to stay away from where the pros have been playing and that has been working out nicely for me. However, I really do like the $5/$10 game in the Rio tournament room. The action is probably the best you can get in a $5/$10 game. Most of the players opt to take advantage of the button straddle ($20 dollars played on the button, and the action starts on the small bling). So the game plays very big.  I buy in for $1500 in this game and top up whenever I get low in Chips.  In terms of $2/$5 games I strongly recommend that you stay away from rooms like the Belagio, Wynn, Caesars or Venetian. Although I have a major edge playing in any $2/$5 game i find that a lot of grinders play in these games. If you are looking to play in a $2/$5 game I suggest that you find a room that non grinders tend to go to. A few suggestions are the following. The Palms, MGM Grand, Small Poker room at the Rio, and the Hard Rock.

I played at the Hard Rock on Trash Talk Tuesdays and the action was just sick. Min buy-in was 300 and max was 3k.  There was a mandatory 10 dollars Hard Rock straddle and the 2-7 game was always on.  The game played like a $5/$10 game and the skill level was quite low.  A lot of gambling and drinking was going on.  If you are in Vegas on a Tuesday then you must pay a visit to the Hard Rock.  Oh and I ran into Alan Boston playing while I was there.  Boy did i want to play on his table.

If you need any advice about playing the WSOP or playing cash games in Vegas give me a shout. And yes I do plan on playing satellites for the main event (The best valued poker tournament in the world).

Cheers,

Errol

http://www.outstandingpoker.com

 Last week (Friday May 1st) I was up Fallsview Casino playing poker and saw Brody Jenner and his boys playing some $2/5 nl. They just came from drinking the night away at Dragonfly Nightclub (located on the side entrance of the casino). Brody was promoting the club and getting an appearance fee for his time. I had just finished playing some $5/10 NL when my table broke.

I decided to shoot some $5/5 nl (I wasn’t in the mood to leave yet) when I saw Jenner and about three or four others that were with him sitting at the $2/5 nl table ($300 max game). It must have been after 3am.

(image from: hollywoodknights.com)

I told a girl I knew that Jenner was playing and she went over to say hello (she was a big fan of The Hills). He gave her the cold shoulder and remarked “who is Brody Jenner” when she came over. I was a bit shocked that he would be such a dick to a fan. But then again I guess he gets that all the time. Anyways … on to the good part of the story. His crew was very loud and it seemed to me that they did not respect the players at the table. You could tell by looking at the table from a few tables away that these guys did not have any sort of poker etiquette. They were high fiving each other when they won pots etc. I don’t think any of those guys cared if they won or lost any money. The stakes just didn’t mean much to them.

Getting on to the drama. After about an hour or so of them playing I saw Jenner and this Asian fellow get into an altercation. Apparently the Asian fellow wanted to take Jenner outside. Both Jenner and the Asian fellow started swearing and threats were uttered by both of them (I can’t confirm what was being said as I was sitting 2 tables behind them). The floor quickly kicked the Asian fellow out and asked Jenner to leave as well. Jenner seemed to be on the defensive side. Him and his boys continued to utter that they did nothing wrong. The floor took Jenner aside and told him that he had to leave the poker room. He was arguing with the floor for about 25 minutes before security showed up. Jenner kept on bringing one of the waitress’s over to help back his story up. After talking to security for another 30 minutes Jenner and his boys finally decided to leave the casino.

I thought the whole incident was quite comical. It was like the cameras were on Jenner and his crew and they needed to create drama for TV.

Cheers,

Errol

Read Full Blog at http://blogs.outstandingpoker.com/errol

 So I just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of the boys. The trip was great! While in Vegas I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The first few nights we stayed in a room that was a non pool side view. This wasn’t our best choice as the hotel was undergoing construction. That meant an early wake up by the construction crew. After we complained we got moved to a poolside view. What a difference that made.

The poker lounge is located right off the main casino floor and right down the hall from the parking garage. There is a nice restaurant called pink tacos beside the room as well as a Starbucks located next door. The floor at the Hard Rock are excellent. All staff at the Hard Rock Poker Room seems to be a tight bunch. They are a very friendly bunch.

The games that were spread at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge were $1/$2 nl and $2/$5 nl. The $1-$2 had a buyin of $100/$300 and the $2 -$5 had a buyin of $200/$2,000. What I did notice is that they could only spread a $2-$5 game from Thursday to Sunday in the afternoons to early morning, which is ok because that’s when the Hard Rock gets the majority of traffic. The $1 - $2 spread 1 table in the early mornings and they would have a floor playing as a prop player to get the game going.  I don’t even play $1 - $2 so i didn’t really play at the Hard Rock until the weekend before I went out to the club.

While playing at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge I played $2 - $5 with Jamie Gold. The game was fantastic as everyone had well over 3k in front of them at one point. No clue why Jamie Gold was playing such low limits.  Most of the time i played  $2 - $5 the game was insanely soft. I would buyin for the 2k max and most players had 300 to 500 in front of them.

I did have one major complaint with the poker room. The floor did not really have a solid foundation when it came to a few specific rulings. It seemed to me that the floor basically took the majority of the player’s word when making a ruling. Maybe it was just the one floor I dealt with but that was my general consensus. Most smaller poker rooms generally make “friendly” rullings to appease the majority of the players (to get them to come back).  Stuff like this wouldn’t ever happen if you go to 1 of the 4 top poker rooms in Vegas (Bellagio, Venetian, Caesars, and Wynn).

That being said, the staff at the Hard Rock Lounge were extremely nice to the players. If you had the players they would spread whatever game and whatever limit you wanted. The staff at the poker lounge even walked us in to the Hard Rock club (Body English) on Halloween. It was pretty much the casinos busiest time of the year.

If the Hard Rock ran a $2 - $5 game around the clock every day i pretty much wouldn’t have left the casino. I did extremely well while playing there and the staff made my stay at the Hard Rock a great overall experience.

Oh and I bumped into Daniel Negraunu while playing at the Hard Rock. Apparently he was giving lessons to a contest winner. Here is a pic of me and Negraunu. I played a lot this summer at the WSOP and didn’t stop one pro for a picture. Heck I even played with Phil Galfond and Jamie gold. I guess I just consider these guys to be regular people.

Cheers,

Errol

To read my full blog please go to http://blogs.outstandingpoker.com/errol/

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So I was playing $5/$10 nl during the week of the WPT (at fallsview Casino Resort) as these were the smallest games that were offered. The action was really soft as a lot of tourists and 5/5 and 2/5 regulars were forced to play much above their bankrolls and skill level. I expected to make a few buyins each day during the time I was there. I have had some bad streaks over my poker career and this was one of them. Every time I got my money in (and all the money got in) when I was 70% favourite (or better) to win the hand I would somehow end up losing. I can remember 4 or 5 hands where I got my money in with 2 pair or better vs very marginal hands where I would end up losing. And these were certainly not setup hands. Example 78 suited and the board comes k78 rainbow and I get my money in against a k6 off. K hits turn and guy scoops 900 pot. In that situation the guy thought he was committed as there was 175 in preflop and original raiser put in 130 on the flop which he called and I check raised the flop to put him all in. I also recall about 4 or 5 times where I got all my money in when I had two pair or better vs a naked flush draw or a pair and a flush draw. I lost every single situation. Don’t get me wrong I definitely want to get my money in when I am such a heavy favourite. In poker you certainly don’t want to wait to see a card that will hurt your action or better your opponent’s hand. Unless you are playing deep stack poker (which I wasn’t for the most part) most players who wait to see if a blank comes on the turn are generally playing with scared money. 

On top of running bad I also got setup horribly. Within a 24 hour period I lost two stacks with set over set. One hand there was a raise under the gun and a call in mid position. I had 22 and called on the button. The board came 2J7 rainbow and the guy UTG (initial raiser) lead out. The mid position called and I raised. Both players called and the turn was an A. No flush draw was on board. Everyone checked to me and I bet pot. UTG folded and mid position raised me. I reraised all in and he called with JJ. This is what we call a cold deck. The same thing happened the next day with 44 vs 77. When board came 4710 turn A. All the money got in by the turn. I also ran into a set when I had top 2 pair and a back door flush redraw on the turn. AQ Spades vs 99. Flop AQ9. 7 spades hit the turn. I reraised the player preflop. By the turn all the money got in.

What can I say about this whole experience? Sick runs like this generally happen very rarely. However I can’t really complain as this is the nature of the business. For about 4 days I felt like I was in Mike Matasau’s shoes. I am taking a few days off of poker and then hitting up Vegas for a week where I will probably play a few tournaments at Caesars. Caesars Palace is having its ‘Mega Stack’ Poker Tournaments during the month of October. Action should be good.

Oh yah I forgot to mention that Glen Witmer took down the world poker tour event in Niagara and a cool 1.2 million. I have played with Glen before in Niagara. Glen resides in Waterloo, Ontario Canada. Glen is a really nice guy and it was a pleasure to see him win.

Cheers,

Errol

To read my full blog please go to http://blogs.outstandingpoker.com/errol/

Outstanding Poker Training School - Online Poker Strategy Training Videos from the Pros