IGGY at PokerWorks

Hope everyone enjoyed a super holiday. I ate and drank like a pig.

I also watched too much damn TV thanks to a poker blogging buddy. I had turned them onto DeadWood and they tried to return the favor by sending me season one of the new Battlestar Galactica. The DVD’s sat around for several months before I finally stuck a disc in and watched it. And damnit, I liked it.

Also, I wanna thank Lou Krieger for sending me his last two poker books, “Secrets the Pros Won’t Tell You about winning Hold Em Poker” & ‘Hold Em Excellence’. Lord knows I love poker books so thanks again, Lou, tis truly appreciated.

I had promised to post Irish Jim’s writeup of his time in Vegas with us degenerate poker bloggers. And I thankfully got his email a few days ago, so without further adieu, here’s his fine account:

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Here it is - not up to much but post-Vegas flu is biting on this side of the pond too! I don’t have the links or anything.

My second trip to Las Vegas was designed to be a special one, as I was planning to surprise my sister, whom I hadn’t seen for a year. I timed things so I’d be there a few days early, giving myself space to play poker, craps, drink beer and generally lose my shirt early in the week, thus concealing my gambler-drunkard nature from my sister & her friend.

A couple of weeks before departure I noticed the winter 2007 episode of The WPBT was on the same weekend I’d be arriving. Being the thick-skinned person I am, I thought I’d see if I could get involved, play in the tournament and meet a few of people whose writing I’d been enjoying. A brief email to April resulted in a positive & friendly response, and all was set.

Rather than do a chronological account of my weekend, which would be dreadfully boring (trust me, I’ve already written it and it is!) I thought I’d scribble a few “highlights of the weekend”. This is no particular order, and my apologies to anyone I leave out or whose name I forget.

* The bar by the Sports Book in MGM. I wasn’t sure what the reception for an interloper would be. When I arrived I recognised Dr Pauly, so I steeled my courage and approached him & his buddy, and was met with what turned out to be a standard reaction throughout the weekend: friendliness & welcome.

The rest of the night was spent in conversation with many different people, some of whom I still only know by blog name. Highlight of the night had to be someone (later identified as Waffles) greeting these military types with “Hey, don’t you guys have someone to kill?”…

* The tournament in Saturday. The amount of poker experience and knowledge in the room made this an intimidating place to be, but a good run of cards and some patience helped me to go deep and set the poker side of my trip off to a great start. Getting pocket jacks three hands out of four assisted me to build a stack on my first table, while the banter was always amusing.

Having Veneno on my left helped immensely, as she decided that an Irishman in green just had to be lucky, so she rubbed my arm at every available opportunity. I think this brought me as much luck as it brought her.

* The IP Sportsbook on Sunday. As a big sports fan I was in 7th Heaven here, especially when surrounded by knowledgeable and committed fans of the game. Someone described the experience as being perfect for football fans with ADD - I couldn’t agree more. Knowing nothing about form, I didn’t bet on the games, apart from buying a $50 ticket from Soxlover for $3 - it was a long shot but I wish it had come in, just to see his face. After the games finished simply sitting and chatting to different people here was probably the best experience of the weekend.

* Playing on the 1/2 nl table in the IP on Sunday night. The table was crowded with bloggers (Falstaff, JoeSpeaker, Daddy, Soxlover etc.) and while I got cleaned out fairly rapidly the table banter was hilarious. Highlight of this session was Daddy busting the loudmouth moron - see Falstaff’s blog for an account of the hand. I got killed in the crossfire, but it was worth it.

Overall, it was a fabulous time of socialising with a group of people I’d never met before, but whose company I enjoyed immensely. I’m grateful to everyone who made me welcome and included me in their games, conversations and jokes.

My thanks go to April for organising everything & not ignoring my random email and Iggy for catching me at a weak moment & getting me to promise to write this round-up. To Soxlover, Carter, Heather, Garth, April from CA, Pauly, Change100, Mattazuma and all the others whose beer I drank and company I enjoyed, thank you.

Finally, if anyone from the gathering makes it to Dublin anytime, please be sure to contact me so I can return your welcome & hospitality. Iggy has my contact details.

Irish Jim (as I seem to have been named!)

Regards,
Jim

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.