Las Vegas hotel specials

Looking for the best deal in Vegas for a tourist like myself, involves hours on the Internet. I wasn't looking for the cheapest hotel just the best value. The cheapest room I could find was at the Circus Circus. I am playing at The Orleans , so will stay there with the LIPS discount code for $100 Saturday night. If you are planning to go and don't have the code yet it is: 8ORLC07 remember 07 are both numbers. This gives you a $100 weekend and $50 weekday deal. I chose to spend the other two nights at The Luxor. We get a couple of dinner and drink coupons and I want to check out Christine Agulara's new night spot, LAX. It is a beautiful place and since I don't have little kids to send to the movies at The Orleans, I think I will go for a little grown up fun. The Stratosphere was also a pretty good deal for 2 nights for $200 including (2) all day ride passes. Like I said no kids are coming. We will try the indoor skydiving though! So there you have it, my extensive search is taking me to 2 hotels, one night for dinner reception Saturday night and Tournament, Sunday afternoon. Load up the car after "THE WIN' and on down to the Luxor. This is of course after I win our satellite on Tuesday.

new blog

in addition to my just for fun poker table talk, I have another poker bla bla bla Simply located at: deardealer.today.com. I'll catch up here for all my "personal friends" but if I get lost and stumble over to the wrong address then come visit me there. I'll be at the guesthouse. Be back shortly, I'm trying to get the best deal in Vegas for the nicest room. Results in coming attractions...

A Driveby at the Turn & River

When did the two cards after the flop become the turn and river? In the 70's I remember dealing to some of the late and great poker legends (before they were). At that time they called the card after the flop, 4th street and the river was 5th street. The same terms used in stud. I believe it was after hold-em was intoduced in California that turn and river appeared on the scene as the official new lingo. There was no hold-em there or other places in northers California. It was 1986 when I was dealing at Artichoke Joes near the San Francisco airport. I remember the year because I was pregnant with my second child while dealing. I was working as a cage cashier because I thought it would be easier on me. After I had my baby I left and moved to Laughlin, Nevada to work at the Riverside hotel and casino, as a poker dealer, once again. I really liked the poker room there overlooking the river. It was really beautiful at sunrise, even if you were there all night playing poker. The only thing wrong was that they had a tip pooling rule for the all the dealers which is highly unacceptable to most dealers. worked there a short time because it was the only way to break into poker on "The River". shortly after I started working a The Edgewater, they started playing poker in northern California. Am I always in the wrong place at the right time? All my friends were saying to move back to California and just play because it was a new game and the players were still learning. I just had a baby and wasn't ready to move again...YET!

Women poker players - Today.com

Women poker players - Today.com Read about the WSOP ladies champ Svetlana Gromenkova

Hot Diggety Dog... IT WAS SUITED

How many times do u hear that one in a bad beat story. If you're not drawing to a nut flush on the flop then you just came to play. Most of us do, the percentages are for the elite player that makes a living at it. You cannot even draw to a flush with a big bet made UNLESS: 1) you are willing to get busted with the hand 2) you are getting 4-1 one your money 3)you are short stacked. Many girls have a 50-50% mentality, either you do or you don't. This is the mind of a pleasure player. You have to make up your own mind and know what kind of player you intend to be. A pleasure player also wins big, but the losses are much bigger. A serious player, one who came to win, isn't going to have as much fun as you. They will however, be laughing all the way to the bank.
My friend went to a fund raising tournament at a man's business the other night. She told me the story of the last hand she played and asked what I would have done. She was on the button with 3 players in and raised it over half her chips with a Kh 9h. The FLOP came 9 7 7 TURN 2 RIVER an Ace and no hearts. A player bet half of her remaining chips and she then called the rest off on the river. She then said that he had JJ and that she got a bad beat. Nowadays everyone who has a hand beat calls it a "bad beat". I guess if it takes your money then it is a bad beat to you. This phrase is more overused than when players call trips, a set, even when there is not a pair in the hand. So I asked her why she wanted to know what I would do? Do you think you made the right play? If you think that you got a bad beat, then I'm not sure if you would understand anything I am about to say. First of all you are playing a trap hand and that's exactly what happened. Some people make a button raise every now and then with weak hands, to show strength. You were setting yourself up to be raised. If you hadn't bet half your stack it would have been easier to lay the hand down when the bet was made. To go all in at a tournament at this point, is giving up. There are just too many hands that can beat you on that flop. Also take into consideration that you said the player with the J J's is a tight player. It's a K -Nine, because it's a DOG, not a DAWG, dude!

Religion & Politics

Some things never change. Years ago I heard someone say "Never talk Religion or Politics at the poker table". Your personal politics may have changed over the years and maybe even your religion but please do not share your feelings at the poker table. Someone is going to have hurt feelings and you are going to try like hell for that person to not be you. See what I mean? You say this and I say that and in the mean time we are missing what is going on at the poker table. If you need to get engrossed in a conversation about a subject with a particular player or two, make a date. This is most defiantly not the place. You lose your focus for the game and are most likely aggravating others at the table. You may be 100% right about your views but you are still 100% by doing this at the table. Opinions are like butts, everybody has one. I have to say some are not looking too good. So do yourself and everyone else a favor and leave these subjects at home or a place you can devote your conversation to someone who you know is interested. If you want respect at the table keep your conversations about your personal feelings to a minimum. Every time you say something you may be leaking a tell to someone who is really in tune to the poker game and not the idle conversation & opinions.

Excuses are for losers

So I have been neglecting my blogging baby. I have a million excuses including falling off a ten foot ladder head first. So now I figure I am about on my 4th or 5th life. I better straighten up. Now that the WSOP is going on there is plenty to read about in the poker world, so I knew it was a good time to take a break. Yea, yea, yea, excuses are for losers. This what I used to tell my kids as they were competing. This stands true in poker. Yes, there are so many similarities between poker and life, just be careful that poker doesn't become your life. For every lifetime winning poker player there are 10,000 losers. Strictly my own guesstamation of odds from viewing 30+ years of people playing poker. When you lose in a poker game go home and think for a moment what hands you could have played better and what hands you shouldn't have played at all. If you continue to fine tune your game and make less mistakes you will have less excuses to make. If you learn by your mistakes and turn your game around to a plus then anytime you don't win you can assess it on your own and know that you just payed for another poker lesson. For more insight on my insights go to my new profitable blogsite at deardealer.today.com

Yak Yak Yak

The old adage "Better to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt" applies so perfectly at the poker table. I would say over 90% of what you hear at the table is b.s. or totally forgettable. To initiate conversation in the middle of the hand shows that you have watched too much poker on t.v. or you really believe that you are going to get valid information from your opponent.

The old timers like, Johnny Moss, Cid Wyman, Jack (Treetop) Strauss & Doyle Brunson never badgered their opponents while playing. Then there was Puggy Wuggy who talked all the time, mostly to try and set someone off. The only person at the table that he ever affected with his cold remarks, were the dealers. He would upset a tourist or two but the regulars went on unscathed. He would say stuff like I hope your wife and kids die a slow death from cancer. Oh yes, only the dealer would know these types of things. So don't be mean spirited to the dealers or the players. Slow rolling players and irritating the dealers, only slows down the game and makes it easier for the dealer to get upset and make mistakes. Yeah, sure the dealer isn't supposed to be affected by table talk and should take everything in stride, BUT OOPS, they are human. Haven't found a machine to deal the game yet. There are of course, mechanical tables now that offer the players a game with no dealer just players. Haven't spoke with a single player that enjoyed it. Of course you are supposed to be there to get the money no to socialize but that is not true of all the players. To most players they came to forget their troubles and enjoy their hobby. It is a very small percentage of players that are actually playing to put food on the table.
So enjoy your game no matter what level player you are, just don't slow it down for everyone else. Talk all you need to when the action is not on you. There is no spotlight at the table and if you think your under one, it is usually not a good thing.