Poker Gods, Where Are You ?
There's a cool storm going on outside right now, with lightning flashing above the strip. Is it the Poker Gods trying to strike down Harrah's chief bean counter ? One can only hope so.
Having said that, of all the things that Harrah's have done with this Series, starting the shootout 6-handed is quite low down the list I would have thought. With 600 runners you have to play 6 handed at some point, otherwise you'll be in the much worse situation of having more than one qualifier from each table. Why not the first round ? Maybe it was just the last straw for Harry ; I have a lot less sympathy for Negreanu and his "I turned up two hours late and found I had been blinded off a lot. This is everyone's fault but mine". And maybe I'm being too cynical but perhaps if he "boycotts" the rest of the series then zero cashes won't look so bad.
It's probably the arbitrary nature of these decisions that is winding people up. While fighting through the crowds to play a single table today I heard separate announcements for the "Pot Limit Omaha freezeout" and the "Pot Limit Omaha rebuy" tournaments. Did they have one each because so many people complained about the change to rebuy ? I wouldn't be surprised. The bottom line is very simple though guys : feet, vote, door. It's not the only poker game in town.
Speaking of which I tried a tournament at the Venetian today, it was OK. Next time I'll play the alternate card and jump straight into the ante level with 4000 chips. I have to say that the poker gods really let me down on the hand that crippled me. I was priced into a call in the BB with Jc8c. The flop came T9x with two clubs. I had about 1.5 x the pot in my stack so I just moved in. One guy passed but the other twat laughed in my face and says "Ha ha I call I have top set ha ha". When he saw my 14-outer he dropped the hilarity a notch, but I missed. I mean come on. If there ever was a chance for the poker gods to smack someone down this was it.
I'm tempted to decamp to the strip sooner rather than later now ; with the (lack of) dealer situation in the Rio, the single tables are struggling, for example today I had to queue for half an hour to play one. This is bad enough but who's going to queue half an hour and then do their chips in the first level like 2 or 3 of them usually do ? No one. More often now we're still 9 or 10 handed after half an hour and that cuts my options down quite a lot.
Not to worry though, I'm happy enough. Especially when I remind myself that I was $1500 down on the trip at one point. I've also scored a ticket for Jay Leno on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to. Kick ass seat as well, in the second row on the aisle, I hope I don't get zinged ! The woman in the box office was great, she said "We normally reserve these seats for our hotel guests so I'll put down you're staying in the Bellagio". I thought this was much more worthy of a tip than the guy who asks you where you're going, tells the cab driver, and then the cab driver asks you where you're going anyway. But when I tried to slip her $10 she said no, we can't accept it ! I'll never understand who you tip and who you don't. I expect I've stiffed people without realising as well. I'm sure I'm not the only person who would prefer that people were just paid more and have it stuck it on the bill. Still, when in Rome ...
Having said that, of all the things that Harrah's have done with this Series, starting the shootout 6-handed is quite low down the list I would have thought. With 600 runners you have to play 6 handed at some point, otherwise you'll be in the much worse situation of having more than one qualifier from each table. Why not the first round ? Maybe it was just the last straw for Harry ; I have a lot less sympathy for Negreanu and his "I turned up two hours late and found I had been blinded off a lot. This is everyone's fault but mine". And maybe I'm being too cynical but perhaps if he "boycotts" the rest of the series then zero cashes won't look so bad.
It's probably the arbitrary nature of these decisions that is winding people up. While fighting through the crowds to play a single table today I heard separate announcements for the "Pot Limit Omaha freezeout" and the "Pot Limit Omaha rebuy" tournaments. Did they have one each because so many people complained about the change to rebuy ? I wouldn't be surprised. The bottom line is very simple though guys : feet, vote, door. It's not the only poker game in town.
Speaking of which I tried a tournament at the Venetian today, it was OK. Next time I'll play the alternate card and jump straight into the ante level with 4000 chips. I have to say that the poker gods really let me down on the hand that crippled me. I was priced into a call in the BB with Jc8c. The flop came T9x with two clubs. I had about 1.5 x the pot in my stack so I just moved in. One guy passed but the other twat laughed in my face and says "Ha ha I call I have top set ha ha". When he saw my 14-outer he dropped the hilarity a notch, but I missed. I mean come on. If there ever was a chance for the poker gods to smack someone down this was it.
I'm tempted to decamp to the strip sooner rather than later now ; with the (lack of) dealer situation in the Rio, the single tables are struggling, for example today I had to queue for half an hour to play one. This is bad enough but who's going to queue half an hour and then do their chips in the first level like 2 or 3 of them usually do ? No one. More often now we're still 9 or 10 handed after half an hour and that cuts my options down quite a lot.
Not to worry though, I'm happy enough. Especially when I remind myself that I was $1500 down on the trip at one point. I've also scored a ticket for Jay Leno on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to. Kick ass seat as well, in the second row on the aisle, I hope I don't get zinged ! The woman in the box office was great, she said "We normally reserve these seats for our hotel guests so I'll put down you're staying in the Bellagio". I thought this was much more worthy of a tip than the guy who asks you where you're going, tells the cab driver, and then the cab driver asks you where you're going anyway. But when I tried to slip her $10 she said no, we can't accept it ! I'll never understand who you tip and who you don't. I expect I've stiffed people without realising as well. I'm sure I'm not the only person who would prefer that people were just paid more and have it stuck it on the bill. Still, when in Rome ...
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