Back in the Game

Well, I never really left. But I've been taking my time since moving back to Atlanta, and that included short poker hours and no blogging.

So I'll try to hit the high points of the last two weeks ... starting with Vegas!

The single-best part of the trip was playing drunken $2/4 limit poker at the Sahara. I had dropped about $300 a few minutes before at the Flamingo, and I wanted to let loose for the first time in the long time. So I followed the advice of this classic post and decided to gamble!

I straddled every time. I put a guy on tilt by winning with 10-4 offsuit. I had a steady stream of alcohol. I won hands I shouldn't have. Any time I thought I was playing too tight, I raised. I tried to play any hand that I could think of a nickname for. It wasn't quite profitable, but I didn't lose too much money, and I had a great time at that table.

Other highlights: sitting at a no limit table with Shirley Williams (the mother of 2004 WSOP runner-up David Williams), winning a tricky no limit game at Binion's and visiting the Rio while the World Series was going on.

My friends and I got invited to a party hosted by Doylesroom.com, which is Doyle Brunson's poker site. I've never played there, but I wouldn't miss an opportunity to go to a poker party with free drinks! It was weird, like something out of the dot-com boom of the late 90s. There were go-go dancers and hot California girls. I got to see Scotty Nguyen, Mike Caro, Todd Brunson, Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patton, Kathy Liebert, Daniel Negreanu and more.

Here's a quick rundown of some other site news:

_ I've decided to not change the name of this blog, even though I don't live in Chile anymore. I like the name, and it would just be a pain to change it up. If you got a problem with that, we can settle it at a heads-up table. Bring it.

_ I started playing 3/6 limit poker again on Sunday, with some success. Each time I return to limit, I do better than the last. I prefer limit poker because I find it to be more interesting than no limit because post-flop play is more important. The only reason I haven't been playing limit over the last couple of months is that I wanted to keep to the "safe" money at $100 buy in no limit ring games. But now I think my risk is only slightly more at 3/6, rakeback is higher from limit games, and the reward is potentially much greater. Go limit!

_ My poker friend from Santiago just started his own poker blog. Check out his blog, The Poker Pilot.

_ I just finished reading Jennifer Harmon's limit section from "Super System II." She does a good job of offering insight into the game and reinforcing the major limit concepts. She doesn't give much new information, but her recommendations are useful because she talks about thinking on the game, reading hands and varying your play based on the exact situation.

_ I have photos from Brunson's WSOP party, which I will post on this site soon if the resolution is good enough.