My ninth EMBARGO. “QB-2B-Doo.”

Dieting note: As I told pretty much anyone who would listen, I’m on the Keto diet and have lost 12 pounds in a month. Can’t have carbs, sugar or beer! Thank goodness meat and hard alcohol are okay.

Thursday, January 30th

Sandi and Taylor the dog take me to SJC.

Get on the plane. See Steve Watanabe in row two. Cool. I take the middle seat. Row 2, seat B. QB in 2B.

We talk about poker and jobs and of course Monte. Steve has drink coupons. Yay Steve! Rum and Diet Coke, please.

We get my bag and head to Level zero, spot 21 for the free 7:30 Green Valley Ranch shuttle. They run every two hours. Driver shows up at about 7:27. We are the only two passengers. At 7:32 we are on the way.

Check in.
Head to the poker room to pay off multiple gambling debts and get my badge.

$25 to Randy and $25 to Hammer. Painful :-) $20 to Bozo. $25 to Russ for badge. A lot of money to Nolan D. This is good news as it means Cal beat Stanford in the Big Game for the first time in 10 years.

Diana gets the first hug.

The Thursday tournament is Jam or Fold No-limit hold’em. I got in too late to play. The tournament is in honor of the late, great Monte Christensen. Over $2000 is raised for The American Cancer Society. Monte’s wife Lori took 5th place! Becca won it.

The guys want to go to Pizza Rock but are too kind not wanting to mess up my diet. I have a solution. Diana and I share the wonderful meat-lovers pizza called The Butcher. I scrape off all the meat and cheese and just eat that. No problem.
Slick, Jeff S. and Rich S. are also there. Some very interesting and silly conversations that I can no longer remember.
Oh, we did talk about Diana’s condo on Maui.

I’m standing around. Sharon says: “Let’s do shots.”
She grabs Ron G. and me. We are walking arm in arm with Sharon in the middle. I mention the Wizard of Oz.
Only now do I think of “We’re off to see the bar tender!”
Sharon buys us a round. I have a shot of Jack Daniels. Feel buzzed within a few minutes. Thanks Sharon.

Note: Sharon was being a dutiful daughter all week wheeling her mom, Patsy, around. This was her one night off.

Get into a $3-$6 limit hold’em game with Ron, Steve W., John L. ande some locals. Ron rivers me when his open-ender straight hits.
I finally win a tiny $11 pot. Woo.
Next hand I defend my BB with KT.
Flop Q-T-X. I call Ron’s continuation bet.
Turn K! I go for a check-raise. Ron checks behind. Crap! River J. YUCK. I check. Ron bets. He really could have something like pocket 6’s here. I call. A4. I lose. Me (angrily): “Bye!” Pick up my last 10 chips and storm off.

Go play video poker, win $20.

Friday, January 31st.

Head down for breakfast. Join a table with Kyle, Ron N., Un, Heldar, Dan, Sharon and Patsy. Michelle, the waitress, is awesome.

Random comment Dept.: “Ron G. will be Blofeld’s beef fluffer.”

The World Chowaha Championship.

Each player gets two cards and must play two from the hand and three cards from the boards. Boards?

3 flops, 2 turns, one river. Final boards look like this:

F1 F1 F1
             T1
F2 F2 F2          R
             T2
F3 F3 F3

Turn 1 can be used with the top or middle flop. Turn 2 can be used with the bottom or middle flop. River can be used with any flop.

Easy game.

Around the table:

Nancy, Peter, Kyle, Scoop, Me, Adreas, Kenny and Karen.

I order a “Rum and Diet Coke.” Waitress corrects me to “Rum and Diet.” Later I have a “Captain and Diet.”

Call with 64s in the SB. Flops:

Js Ts 8s
X Y Z
6h 6c 6d for quads!

Peter notes that I flopped quads and it wasn’t even the nuts!

Oh, two guys flew in from Japan to play in this tournament.
Yasu and Tomommitsu.
I think they wanted to come to Vegas anyway, but saw a chance to be
World Champions in a poker event.

Ron G. was in a donkey costume. Pretty funny.

KK and bust Corey.
He throws me two $1 chips and says “Buy your own gift.” It was funny.

Nancy has chocolate as her bust out gift. Offers it to Larry. Larry: “Sure, I’m a diabetic. It will kill me.”

New table: Chic, Dean, D-Low, Kluchman, Chuck, Asya, me and Diana.

I’m all-in in a 4-way pot and make a pair of queens. No one is betting. First two players can’t beat me, but Mr. Low has two pair to knock me out. I gave him two decks of cards that Kris had given me and told him he was allowed to re-gift.

Starving. Un asks if I want to get food. Okay. Seafood buffet. $40? Maybe too expensive for me. Un has special coupon to pay half of mine. Cool!

Eat lots of crab legs and some really good brisket. Other people are stacking like 20 crab legs on a plate. You know you can go back, right?

Un’s wife was in a fairly minor car accident. No injuries. Whew. Lori, Monte’s wife, joins us a little later. We tell some funny stories about Monte. It’s all a little sad and sweet and fun at the same time.

Pot-Limit Irish poker tournament.

Kind of like hold’em. Don’t ask.

The table:
Andreas, Nolan H., JRX, me, Haroldson, Corey and Timmy.

Our table breaks.

New table:
Dan, Bremer, Kyle, Capps, me, Jacob, Nancy, Gillian and Ron G.

Rum drinks must be watered down. Not catching a buzz at all.

Jesse Capps mentions that we should be drinking Jameson because it is Irish poker. Makes sense to me.

I order a shot of Jameson and sip it slowly. Later, I “buy” shots for Bremer, Jesse and me. $3.

Nancy: “I should have looked.”
Dan: “That will be etched on my tombstone.” Much laughter.

Bozo is buzzing around taking photos. They came out great.

Random Comment Dept. “Psychic Kyle.”

Oh man, Kyle was running over the table building a huge stack. Just beating us on every big hand.

JJ raise and flop top set! I’ve got him now.
Kyle checks, I bet, he folds. Damn it!

Corey’s two pair sends me packing. I give him a poker bottle opener. Also re-gifted from Kris and told him he could re-gift as well.

So I’m down $270 at this point.

Get into a $4-$8 dealer’s choice game with a bunch of people around 10:00 p.m. I don’t think I wrote down the table, but I can remember some of the players. Patriot’s fan, Karen, Ellis, Queenie, Dean, Becca, Scottro, Michigan guy and me.

I’m drinking Jameson while in this game.

Dean: “If I dressed myself, I’d dress like Kubey.” Laughter. Oh, that hurt!

Oh, Becca freakin’ reads my mind during this game. Unbelievable.

Random Comment Dept. “Pat would be a good name for a lowball player.”

Scottro is wearing a Robert Graham shirt. I do not go in for designer clothes at all, but it’s a beautiful shirt. $90. Dang. I might actually pay that much.

Becca and I liked JP’s haircut. He thinks it’s too short. Oh well.

Player A: “I have a 76.”
Player B: “76 what?”
Me: “7-6-5-4-2. Tie ballgame!”

Nolan H. (about Queenie): “We go way back.”
Me: “To yesterday?”
Nolan: “Earlier this evening.” LOL

Saturday, February 1st.

Still in this rockin’ game.

I learn Eric’s game. 5 cards. Toss one. Make two hold’em hands. This is my new favorite game of all time as I win 3 of the first 4 hands.

Queenie: “I’ve lived here 40 years.”
Me: “So you were born here?”
Queenie: “You really have been drinking.”

Dan (from the rail): “It’s like a cemetery. People are dying to get in this game.”

Like 3 hours later:

Table:
Karen, Dan, Ellis, Crunch, Ron G., Don A., Nolan H. and me.

RCD: House Keeping confiscated the toilet paper Ron brought from home.

Nolan to Dan: “Pick any card.”
Dan: “The middle one.”
Nolan tosses away the 5th card instead. Laughter.

RCD: “But Shhhhhhhhhhh.”

Hammer and I have a mini Cal reunion. Go Bears!

Dealer Taj comes in. Maybe 2:30 a.m.?
AJ. Board comes out J-J-X-A-A. More chips to QB. Up like $100. Win another hand or two. Up $180.

Me to dealer Taj: “If I wasn’t already married, I’d propose to you.”

RCD: “Yay! I mean Ohhhh.”

Scribble I can’t quite read: “You give dealer Now.”

Some guy we don’t know named Abel walks up. Gives Nolan $10. Still have no idea why.

RCD: “Traditional Eric’s game.”

Hammer to me: “Okay Boomer.” Bwahahaha.

4:30 a.m. Up about $250. 17.5 stacks of 20 chips each. Pic on Facebook.

Ellis leaves the game. Leaving us 5-handed.

5:00 a.m. We are all fading and call it a night. A day? Whatever. I cash out for $333. Up $233. Pretty cool.

Eli is the cashier. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Eli: “I don’t come on until midnight.”
Me: “Well, you never know.”

Somewhere between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. I have breakfast with Jacob. Jacob is new to EMBARGO. He bought. I got the tip.
Really nice guy despite being a friend of Ron’s.

Pay off $10 ADB last longer losses to Becca and Bremer. Bremer has only gotten $20? Come on people.

I’m too tired to play the noon tournament. I go take a nice nap.

Missed out on the group picture. Darn it. My fault.

Dinner with Bozo and Lawful.
Get the bacon burger. Bozo gets my fries.
I take away the buns and eat it like a steak. Very good.

HOE tournament at 6:30 p.m.

Rotation of limit Hold’em, Omaha-8 and Eight of better stud high/low. Got it? Maybe? Some of it? Okay.

Table:
Nancy, Nolan H., Hammer, D-Low, me, Betty, Jeanne and Jared. Jared had just finished winning the noon tournament. Congrats!

Gambomouse is holding a little blue fish from Jeanne. I think he has a little crush on Jeanne too.

I try a little false tell thing.
Not only does Jeanne spot it, she knows it’s a fake too. Dang!

Couple of hours later the table changes enough that I need to update:

Ice, Gerdog, Hammer, Melissa, me, Jeanne and Jared.

I’m killing Melissa, but she’s hanging in there somehow.

I beat Hammer on a couple of small hands.

A9s vs. Hammer. Flop 9x 9h Xh. I check and call.
Turn Yh. I check-raise James all-in. He has 8h8x so he needs an 8 or a heart for a flush.
River Ah. Me: “Damn…”
Oh wait. The Ah give Hammer the flush, but me a full house! Whew.

RCD: “I’m gonna lick it all the way to the core.”

AAxy in Omaha and knock out Gerdog.

New table:
Me, Gillian, Melissa, Barbara, Ron G., Ron N., Dan and Bozo.

RCD: “Two Rons don’t make a right.” Well, I thought it was funny.

AA good. QQ good. Bust Ron with QQ. Doesn’t say which Ron. G?

Start with 4567 vs. Melissa’ in stud, but miss everything. She makes a boat. Lose like 80K of my 180K stack. Ouch.

See Asya and Ben all dressed up around here. Very sharp.

Final Table! Tournament pays 7 places. We agree to take money off of the top 5 spots to have $100 for 8th and 9th.
We are in the money! Yay.

Mickdog, Kurt, Llew, Rich K., Melissa, Jeanne, me, Ross, Samarel.

Oh, the women were just killing it this week. Becca and Chris Kluchman won tournaments and lots of other women were at final tables.

Ross created a “Pentuple Stuff Oreo” as his big blind.
Oh, I looked it up. Should have been “Quintuple.” Sue me.

Jeanne writes on my note paper: “Jeanne gives mouse a new friend :)”

I go stone cold at the final table.

Rick K. has very few chips and goes out 9th.

Samarel hits a river 2-outer to make JJJ to beat Jeanne’s AA66 and knock her out in 8th.

Two extremely questionable/bad plays on my part:

Try a steal raise with A5o. Samarel 3-bets.
Now we’ve played together a lot and I know he is not fooling around here. But this is limit poker, so I have an automatic call, right? Nope. I want to move up the pay ladder and don’t like this spot at all. I fold. He shows JJ. I sort of like my fold here.

Omaha. I have AQXY vs. Kirk. Hard to reconstruct, but I think I bet a Q-T-9 flop and he calls. Turn 2. Check-check. River Ah putting three hearts on the board. Kirk checks. I have Kirk on A2 or AT for two pair. I think my AAQQ is good.

I have 59K left and bet 40K with my two pair.
He calls with 7h5h and I am crippled. Such a dumb river bet.

Looks like I will go out 7th now.

I get my last 19K in with A7 vs. Ross’ A8.
Flop nothing.
Me: “Seven.”
Turn nothing.
Me: “Seven!”
River 7!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry Ross.

44 holds all-in vs. Samarel’s T9.

Llew goes out in 7th.
Me: “Hey Ross, we just made $93.”

Ross out 6th.

AT holds vs. Melissa on a Q-T-X-X-X board. I have some chips again.

A triple all-in develops. Melissa and Mickdog both go out in 5th and 4th.

Cool! I get a plaque at least.

Stud and start with 56-7. Kirk makes queens full.
I’m live for the low, but get the dreaded 9 on the river. Oh well.

3rd place for $618. I’ll take it!

The heads-up battle looks like it could take a while.

Up like $500 for the trip. Well, probably less, but we’ll say $500.

Sunday, February 2nd.

I have no idea what time it is as I cash in my chips.

Eli is there. It’s 1:30 a.m.? 7 hours went by fast!

Need food. Head to the cafe again.

Get seated at a 4-top just in case and order the bacon burger again.

See Timmy and the bar. Chat a bit. Almost fall asleep back at the table.

Scott Samarel joins me a little later. 2nd place. Kirk took first. Two really nice guys. Both played really well.

I don’t remember anything we talked about, but we laughed a lot.

About 2:30 a.m. now. I have a 7:55 a.m. flight.

Take a preemtive shower.
Pack up in 15 minutes.
Set alarm for 5:40 a.m.
Fall asleep and the alarm goes off.

Uber. SWA to SJC. Sandi and Taylor pick me up.
Both are happy to see me. EMBARGO 2020 in the books.

Thanks to Green Valley Ranch for hosting EMBARGO.
Waitresses and poker staff were all very good.
A little smoke coming into the poker room kind of sucked.

I didn’t write down hugs so this is likely incomplete:

Diana, Nancy, Eileen, Llew, Connie, Carol, Betty, Becca, Sharon, Gillian, Adam, Blofeld and JRX.

Oh, record attendance for EMBARGO! 95 signed up. Maybe 90 showed.

Thanks to the organizers for another great rec.gambling event. Very smooth operation. Keep up the great work.
We really appreciate all you do.