Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Day 1B is just about to begin here at the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic, and we’re expecting a lot more people today than the 188 who took to the felt yesterday. Split starting days are common now on the poker tour and there’s always that question of whether you should play on the first day or the second. The latest possible starting day is usually the most crowded, and so there might be more dead money in the field that day. Then again most pros seem to prefer playing on the later dates, so that might complicate matters. Playing the first day means you have the whole week to enjoy the beach if you get knocked out, but you also have to be ambulatory by noon the day after the Welcome Banquet. A tall order for some, an impossible ordeal for others.
So it all comes down to your own personal preference. In a way it’s like a Rorschach test, there are no right or wrong answers. Unless you look at that inkblot and see Grandma throwing Santa Claus down a flight of stairs. ‘Cause, like, that’s SO wrong.
And with that Tournament Director Matt Savage has instructed the players on the rules, told the dealers where to put the button, and we’ve heard the call of “Shuffle up and deal”. Pics of the players in the field today to follow.
Tags: Aruba, Gene Bromberg, poker tournament
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - Debo34
I can’t believe it…my son Jarod turns 15 this week! For those of you who have met him before he is a little taller than he was 3 years ago when I brought him to Aruba. WTF he is over 6′1″ tall now. He has been reading the learners permit book and is ready to go in and get that done. Now I know why my parents were the way they were. This next weekend I have plans to go up to Portland and meet up with the Wisconsin boys, H0, Wisco, Jon Green, and of course Phil to hang and do some golfing. Should be a fun time.
If you have read my last 2 blogs you know that they have been 2 of my ” favorite Aruba moments”. They are in no particular order, just fun memories I have of my 6 straight years going to Aruba. Aruba moment #3 – The Debo. This moment was pure circumstance, I believe it was Aruba 2006. This was the first year that Phil’s Penthouse party was partially planned. In previous years it was a small, impromptu get-together. Soon after word spread about the fun that was had at these parties and UB stepped in and gave it a little structure. So that day wisco, H0 and I were hanging with Phil watching college football before the party started. The people from the Radisson started coming in and bringing some food and drink to cater the party. The selection was fairly small for drinks, consisting of Champagne, Grey Goose vodka and for some reason they had a couple of bottles of watermelon pucker. Just before any of Phil’s guests arrived Wisco, his friend James (Madtownmell) Mell and myself headed to get a drink at the bar. Wisco asked what I thought we should drink and I told the bartender to give us 3 Vodka with Sprite and a splash of pucker. We made a toast and started drinking. After a couple rounds of these, Wisco and James decided this name needed a drink and decided this drink was forever to be called “the Debo”. As the night went on people would ask what we were drinking, and of course we would just simply say “the Debo”. By the end of the night I would estimate that 50+ people had a Debo in their hands at one time. When all was said and done 44 bottles of Grey Goose Vodka were empty.
The next night something funny happened. We were at the awards party at the Radisson pool and we walked by the bar, and the bartender who we still swear to this day was not at Phil’s party, yells out “Hey, you guys ready for a Debo”? We of course got a big kick out of this. The Debo is still a drink of choice for a few people on the island and has since spread to the drink menu at Players Sports bar in Madison, Wisconsin. I know from time to time The Debo is mentioned in the writings of UB blog master Gene Bromberg. He took a liking to the Debo on that first night and was cussing me the next day. Gene and I talked about ordering them at this year’s WSOP party but decided that the Debo should be reserved for Aruba. If you are one of the fortunate people who get to experience Aruba this year, come find me and your first Debo will be on me.
Debo
Tags: Aruba, Debo34, drinking, Gene Bromberg, Golf, Jon Green, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Radisson, ub, Wisco, WSOP
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Thursday, December 18, 2008 - Gene Bromberg
Last night was UltimateBet’s first-ever Blogger Tournament and I showed up in the mood to play. I just got back from Las Vegas, where many of my fellow pokerbloggers gathered for our yearly festival of binge drinking, reckless gambling, and prolonged sleep deprivation. We had a tournament at the Venetian where I managed to tread water for 6 hours before disappearing below the waves with barely a burble. Not very satisfying.
I was determined that last night I would play with more aggression, daring, brio. I wouldn’t sit there and fold-fold-fold. Plus the event was supposed to be fun. Get a bunch of writers and readers together to play a little poker, talk a little trash in the chat, enjoy each other’s company. We were playing for the $100 in prize money and berths in UB’s new Gizmo tournaments. And pride. One thing that’s a constant when my blogging friends lock horns, the money doesn’t matter. It’s all about winning. And how you win. Because if later on you’re going to write about your victory, you might as well have a good story to tell.
I was pleased to find 214 players sitting down when play started at 8pm ET. I was a bit surprised–nay, shocked–that by 8:20pm ET we were down to 107. Yes, in just twenty minutes we lost half the field. OK, the event was a freeroll, but I’ve seen clinically-depressed lemmings with more regard for their self-preservation. On one hand I had Ac-Qc in the big blind and folded when the action in front of me went raise, re-raise, shove. Under normal circumstances calling with Ace-Queen would be downright ludicrous. In this instance I would’ve been way in the lead, as the shover had the massive 6-3 suited and the original raiser called with K-Q. I would’ve flopped an Ace and tripled up. But you shouldn’t be a results-oriented player, that’s not the path to good decision-making. But still, crap.
A bit later I decided to complete the small blind holding 8c-6c and the big blind raised it up. Those one-gappers looked awfully pretty so I decided to call and take a flop. Which came 8d-6s-5d. Tasty. I checked–oh, how sneaky and subtlety I checked! He bet 270 and I shoved for my last thousand. He called and turned over Kh-10c for, uh, a pair draw. The board bricked out and my opponent typed “luckydonky”.
“Heehaw!” I brayed with what I thought was good humor. He then to type some words that were missing strategic letters, but you don’t have to be a crossword puzzler to figure out what “mor on” is supposed to be. I thought his language was a little huge for a friendly freeroll, but maybe he didn’t mean to be profane. I typed back that it seemed his spacebar was stuck and that maybe he should give it a clean with some rubbing alcohol. It pays to be friendly.
As we played I asked my tablemates if they had their own blogs and a few replied that they did. DETROITJAY79 even recognized my name and asked how the Vegas trip was, and I fairly blushed at all the attention. I then managed to donk off a third of my stack when I lost my mind and completed in the small blind holding 2s-8c. The flop came 2d-9d-9c and liking the fact that I connected I fired out 150. My opponent moved in for his last 480 and I had to decide if he really had a nine. Or a pocket pair. Or a bigger deuce. Come to think of it, there weren’t many hands he could have that wouldn’t have me sweating. But I’m an idiot so I called anyway. He rolled over Qh-9h and I needed some manner of miracle to take the pot. The good news is that I DID witness some manner of miracle–the board ran out 8h-8s, giving me a full house. Of course it also gave my opponent a full house, and a larger one at that. That’s pretty sick, going runner-runner and losing anyway. I cringe to think about how much luck I used up.
I ran my stack back up into the 3,000 range before I was sent to the rail. I raised with Big Slick, got two callers, and when the flop came an innocuous 9c-5s-8s I did the ol’ stop-and-go and shoved in the rest of my stack. Hopefully no one made a set on that flop, and indeed no one did. But KING_MOTU saw through my subterfuge and made the call with pocket sevens. I didn’t hit on the turn or river, and as usual my run in a blogger event came to an inglorious end.
So that means I, unlike the winner of last night’s event, won’t be playing in tomorrow’s GIZMO Main Event. Won’t have a chance to win the first prize, a Sony Vaio laptop computer. Of course the winner won’t have the glorious opportunity to write up a whiny post about how he got unlucky, how the breaks never seem to go his way, how he plays great but never gets rewarded, etc etc. Hey, what did you expect from me? I’m a blogger.
Tags: Bloggers Tournament, Gene Bromberg
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Sunday, December 14, 2008 - Gene Bromberg
My poker-blogging brethren are heading to Vegas this weekend for our yearly get-together and I’m flying out to represent. Over 100 scribblers from all over the country (and a few from beyond America’s shores) will charge around the Strip like a band of marauding Visigoths, pausing from time to time to kibbitz, talk shop, argue about who is and isn’t an A-lister, and engage in extremely negative-EV gambling. And drink. My stars, there will be some serious drinking. My liver already hurts.
In short it’ll be your typical Vegas weekend–hit the ground running and don’t stop running until your flight home is wheels-up. Drinking and gambling and indulging in the other unique delights Vegas offers. This is rather a change from my last Vegas trip, when I spent nearly two months there covering the World Series of Poker. I lived in a condo about 15 minutes from the Strip (in the shadow of South Point, actually) and that distance helped me maintain some grip on reality. Of course about 75% of my neighbors were either cocktail waitresses or strippers, which was rather a change from my neighbors here in Pittsburgh. In Vegas I did a lot more smiling and chatting in the elevators, let me tell you.
Smiling and chatting is something we all should do more often. I’m the quiet sort by nature and one reason I started playing poker in college was that it was an easy way to make new friends. There was a game going just about every night in my buddy’s dorm and we’d gather around a rickety card table and drink Black Label (for God’s sake don’t try that at home) and spend the night insulting each other and telling ridiculous stories about our pathetic love lives. No one lost too much money…except the night when Gary won enough from me to buy his now-wife a very nice Valentine’s Day gift. Lori still needles me about that to this very day, though I think I drank enough at their wedding to even the score.
When my blogging buddies get together this weekend the vibe will be much the same. Well, it will be at times. We usually hit the MGM because the good folks there set aside three or four tables for us to play low-limit mixed games. You’ll have the lunatics who buy into a $3/6 game for a grand and play every hand blind. There will be serious drinking. Harsh words will be exchanged, totally in jest. It’ll be a blast. The next day we have a tournament at the Venetian, and the mood will be a bit more serious. Early on it’ll all be good fun but there’s some decent money (and pride) on the line, and last year’s final table saw players as focused and determined as those at a WSOP final table. So you have a nice mix of fun and intensity, donk and shark.
And one thing I didn’t enough of when I played poker during my summer in Vegas was people having fun. Or, at least not showing it. I’m not saying that everyone should be doing shots and acting like a loon, but it’s depressing to go to the most glitzy city on Earth and watch people sit around a poker table as if they’re sitting in a dentist’s waiting room. Too many people take on a bunker mentality when they play poker, and life (and trips to Vegas) are too short for that. Vegas is supposed to be glamorous, it’s supposed to be romantic. If there’s ever a time to relax, cut loose, and have some fun, it’s when you’re in Vegas.
And especially when you’re at the poker table. Because not only is an amiable and chatty poker table more pleasant, it’s usually more profitable. If people loosen up and relax it’s likely they’ll loosen up their game as well, and that almost always translates into a better game. People will feel like gambling more. They’ll want to join in on the fun. They’ll want to scoop some of those big pots for themselves. And if they start losing, heck, they’ll be having such a good time that they won’t think twice about pulling out more money when they bust out.
I can personally attest to that. I played some poker down in Aruba and was having a fine time playing with some delightful folks when the guy in the ten seat hit his four-outer on the river and stacked me. That hurt, but he apologized for the suckout and was so genial I dug in my pockets for a rebuy instead of head-butting him, which was my first impulse. I was moved to another table with some friends and had a few Balashis and got stacked again when my flopped flush couldn’t survive a three-way all in. Did I burst into tears, did I shake my fist at the ceiling and rail against God? No, I pulled out my wallet and got myself more chips. You lose hands like that sometimes. It happens. But when you’re having fun, a lot of fun, at least you’re getting value for your money.
Of course I’m hoping that during my Vegas trip I’m the one pulling the big pots and smoothing the ruffled feathers of the vanquished with witty bon mots. Fun is fun, but winning is better than losing. And I’ve had more than enough of that lately, thank you very much. This weekend I will be charming and solicious and fill the room with my expansive bonhomie. I just hope the Poker Gods reward my good humor with a few winning hands.
Tags: Gene Bromberg
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