Last night I took my shot.

The Orleans is a vast and well-run poker room. It can hold a 300-person tournament on a Friday night while still keeping a dozen or more cash games going.

The buyin for the Friday night tournament is $125, with $25 going to the house and dealers. Players receive 12,500 chips and last night there were 225 of them.

Besides being joined by some of my poker playing friends — @bendevlin, @chammiWOW, @silentraise — I recognized several faces from the Southeast Vegas poker scene. I also recognized the Kim Kardashian of poker, who shall remain nameless in this blog. As it turns out her reputation at the poker table is not unfounded, and I’m not talking about playing skill. She finished in the money despite badly playing an A-9o and spiking her cards face up preflop when the SB dared to call her with Q-Q. Of course she turned the A, because she is just that good! (snicker, snicker).

The tournament was paying more than $5600 for first play, so a tidy R.O.I. for the player who wins it all.

Play was good, but not spectacular. There was enough fishing in the first three rounds I thought I was at a B.A.S.S. Tournament, so I sat back and waited for opportunities to crush the limpers. I steadily built my starting stack to more than 22,000 the first two hours playing ABC poker.

After the second break I ended up going card dead, ramming an AJs into a AQo and a AQc into a AKo before going felt.

The complaints I have heard about the tourney — a little smoky and a little too much Hollywooding it by some nitty players — was not untrue. But overall a good experience. I will definitely be back.

Lately, I’ve seen a somewhat similar situation happen in the Green Valley Ranch poker room. I enjoy playing the 10am tournament on the weekends. Since I work during the week, this is the only time I can play this tournament. Usually, the Saturday tournament will get a field of about 50-60 players. It contains many of the same players week to week with a few exceptions here and there.

One of the things I noticed is that the final table (table 7) consistently contained at least 7-8 of the same players every single tournament. I made it my mission to get a seat on that table! The next few weeks, I showed up early to get a shot at the first table draw.

When I arrived, every other table had seat cards on the registration desk, but table 7 seat cards were nowhere to be found. I looked at the sign up list and there were only 6 people signed up and couple of them were on other tables. I asked the young man behind the counter if table 7 was “sold out already?” He stated that “the bosses hold them back for the regulars who play here every day.” I mentioned that I didn’t think this was right and he agreed.

I returned a few more weeks and table 7 continued to be the “restroom in the South”! If you were the right person to ask, you were able to get a seat.
Today, I’d had enough. When I went to register, I noticed that there were no seats seat cards for Table 7 on the counter. I looked at the sign up list and saw that there were about 12-15 players already signed up, but there were still seats available for Table 7. The poker manager, Allan, was at the front counter so I asked him if there were seats available on the table. He started his explanation with a story of how he needs to keep the tables balanced and then admitted that he does save seats for some of his regulars. After some more dancing around the topic, he did give me seat 10 (not my choice of open seats on table 7). I politely thanked him and moved on my way.

“Why is Table 7 so special?” It is the final table for the tournament. As the field begins to shrink, players on the other tables get shifted around. They have to adjust to new players and cards at each new table. Meanwhile, those players at table 7 hardly get moved. Since it is the same players, they also don’t have to deal with the fluctuation in play from the weekend warriors. Having played on many tables in this tournament I can concur that a raise on table 7 is respected more than one on any of the outside tables.

In additional, most poker players have a favorite seat at the table. The GVR regulars are getting to pick their favorite seat at the final table. They are more comfortable at the poker table than the other players in the room. The better you feel about your seat and your table, the better you will play.

Every poker room has regulars and every poker room has players that are closer to the supervisors and managers than the player walking in off the street. However, every player has to be given a fair and equal shot to win a poker tournament BEFORE the first hand is dealt and Green Valley Ranch is not playing fair with its tournament players.

Eric Baldwin - Brought his 'stache....REBUY!

Joplin was selected through the recommendation of Poker Player, and resident of Joplin, Jeremiah Smith. In case you missed it, Joplin was hit with an EF-5 Tornado on May 22, 2011. Jeremiah shared this video with us showing the devistation it left behind.

Here are the tourney details:
$240 buy-in with $100 rebuys for the first 4 levels with an additional $100 add-on for double chips at the end of le”vel 4.

Final Table Prizes:
1st – $1,500 Epic Poker Pro/AM Seat, $2500 Cash from Zappos and Championship Bracelet
2nd & 3rd – $1,500 Epic Poker Pro/AM Seat
4th – iPad 2
5th – Palms Casino Weekend Getaway
6th – Cirque du Soleil and Viva Elvis Tickets (2)
7th – VIP Tickets to Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club (4)
8th – Lord Griffon Jewelry Piece
9th – Tickets to X-Factor (2)

They have had a great turn out and we look forward to the final count of the giving power of poker. Until level 4, the play at the tables looks a lot like an online free roll tourney. Shove with anything, flip the coin, and rebuy if it lands on tails.

Here are a few pics to get you through these levels.

Justin Young Brought his 'stache!

Dwyte Pilgrim is having fun!

The Pro/Am event is a $1,500 buy in that players could satellite into via $180 and $340 smaller qualifiers. These were run throughout the upcoming days and offered those that couldn’t spend the full $1,500 a chance to take their shot for less.

Commisioner Annie Duke with Brian Simon

“The first $180,000 from the prize pool will be paid in Main Event seats for the final nine, and additional money will be distributed among the top finishers. For League members, it’s a chance to win entry into the $20,000 Main Event for a fraction of the price. (League members are required to play at least one Pro/Am, so expect to see some familiar faces.) For pros that didn’t qualify for Season One, this is their only way into the Event. For amateurs, it’s not only their one chance at the Epic Poker League but a unique opportunity to play with the best players and grab a piece of poker fame and success.” – Michael Craig: Editor in Chief

Day 1a included 92 entries (33 Epic Poker League members and 59 non-members). Keep in mind, the term “non-member” doesn’t mean the field in full of fish. These are merely players that don’t meet the membership qualifications to earn their card. Their qualification criteria can be viewed here. As well, with the reduction of sponsorship and money from Black Friday, the ability to win one of the 9 $20K seats to the Main, makes this $1,500 swim in the shark tank pretty appealing to the members.

A quick list of Pros that took the felt yesterday would include:
David Baker, Michael Binger, Nick Binger, Andy Bloch, Justin Bonomo, Allen Cunningham, Jimmy Fricke, Matt Glantz, Isaac Haxton, John Hennigan, Peter Jetten, Eugene Katchalov, Bryn Kenney, Chris Klodnicki, Tamas Lendvai, Andy Lichtenberger, J.J. Liu, Matt Matros, Mike Matusow, Michael McDonald, Sorel Mizzi, Dan O’Brien, Brock Parker, Ralph Perry, John Racener, Chino Rheem, Vanessa Selbst, Mike Sexton, Dan Shak, Gavin Smith, Sam Stein, Joe Tehan, and Justin Young.

Day 1b is expected to break the 100 mark (already at 85 in the first hour). Final numbers won’t be in until late registration ends around 4:30pm. Check back for updates on what pros join the shark infested waters here on day 1b.

Here are a few of our(non-media pass having) pictures from the rail:

For more pictures of Krisztina from day 1c check out our inspiration wickedchopspoker

Grump drew a pretty tough table draw that brought many big pros into his path. The starting players at his table included Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer, Tom Schneider, Olivier Busquet, and David ‘The Maven’ Chicotsky!

Pokernews.com did a great job of covering a few hands that Grump was involved in during the course of the first day. Check out the hand where he gets in deep with Tom Schneider!

He finished the day with 8,325. When he returns on Monday, he will have approximately 16 big blinds. For now, it’s time to relax for the weekend and return in Ninja Fighting form.

Be sure to check out Poker Grump’s blog here. And you can follow his action on twitter @PokerGrump

Here are a few other photos I caught from his table:

To view our other pictures from the WSOP 2011 go here.

For those of you that may not have been aware of the recent raffle that was held, Internet phenomenon Daniel ‘Jungleman12′ Cates was giving away a $10k entry into the main event for people that followed him on twitter. He would post locations throughout the valley in which he would be handing out tickets free of charge. The only stipulation was that you have never played in the main event previously. This being Daniel’s first WSOP, he wanted give back to the poker community that was just like him.

The final ticket stop and drawing was held today at McFadden’s in the Rio.
Congratulations to Poker Grump! We look forward to railing you on to a strong finish!

I never thought I’d have the opportunity so early in my playing career to participate in the biggest, most prestigious and most recognized poker tournament in the world — the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. I always told myself that I would play it at least once in my lifetime. I would work hard, save up and buy myself into the $10,000 world championships tourney. That once in a lifetime came June 9.

The journey to get to the Amazon Room at Rio began in April. I was having a rather ordinary day when I received a very surprising text message from my good buddy and teammate Chad Harberts saying that I had been one of the lucky ten tickets drawn for the super satellite at the casino I frequent. I knew the other nine players whom were drawn. This was gonna be a difficult test for me. There were some heavy hitters on that list.

In the super satellite I didn’t take many flops early. I was playing tightly and letting the other players battle it out while the levels were still low. Occasionally I would steal in position in order to maintain my stack. Once the original field of 10 was cut in half I kicked into a different gear. Eventually I garnered the chip lead after making some solid plays and getting a little lucky. I was getting my chips in the pots with the best hands, and the hands were holding up.

I ended up heads up with my friend Luis. The first hand of heads up play was a wild one, and the last one. With blinds at 500/1000, I was dealt A-6 off. In heads up play any ace is strong so I decided to test Luis. I had him covered in chips so I went all in. He took about three minutes before deciding to call. He showed J10 off. The best hand held up, and I had secured a spot at the June 9 final table satellite.

For the next month I kept telling myself how wonderful it would be if I could win the final table and claim the $10,000 seat to the World Series of Poker. The list of ten players was again daunting. I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy at all, and I would have to bring my A+ game. The list consisted of some very loose yet aggressive players, and my teammate Ben Devlin.

Just as in April, I decided to start out slow. We began with 10,000 chips, 25/50 blinds and I needed to feel out last year’s final table winner and WSOP Main Event Casher Dwyen Ringbauer. He was the only player at the table I had never played against so I decided to study his play. Being familiar with everyone else’s game I wanted to see if they were going to play it the same as always or change gears. All of them but one changed their game. I’ve never seen them play so tight. This was a table of low limit hold’em players that loved to chase every hand to the river. Now they were as nervous as someone playing for the first time.

After about 20 hands of not playing I decided to be an aggressor. I started picking on the players blinds with large bets to steal pots. I never had a premium hand but with my table image being tight I knew it would work. I managed to maintain my starting stack and added just a few thousand to it when I finally woke up with a monster while I was the big blind. Everyone folded to Dwyen on the button, who limped in for 100. I looked down at K-K and raised to 800 from the BB. He called. The flop came out 9h-7s-4c, a perfect rainbow flop for my big pocket pair. I bet 1,000 on the flop and he quickly reraised to 2000. I wanted him to think I was stealing, so when he raised I moved my entire stack in instantly. Dwyen went in the tank for about two minutes, but decided to call my all-in with Q-Q. After the turn and river bricked, I scooped a huge pot.

With the chip lead I decided to be the captain of the table. Although I wasn’t being dealt particularly strong hands the players were so tight I was pounding on them with alot of advanced plays, check raises and three-betting. Eventually found myself an almost 4-1 chip lead.

When heads up play started I was supremely confident this tournament was mine. My opponent Russ, however, was a solid player who seldom made mistakes. He wasn’t going to just hand me the tourney. I quickly tested Russ three times for all his chips trying to take the title, and I lost all three. He had rebuilt his stack to virtually even. He had not outplayed me, but he had outflopped me. The first all-in was my A-J versus his all-in big blind of 4,000. He turned over 8-8 and won the race. After he got almost even with me, I started to tilt. Luckily after playing about two or three levels of heads up without any more momentum swings, we finally got a five-minute break.

I jetted out of the poker room so quick to regroup myself and to remember my goals and why I was playing — my dream of the $10k WSOP seat. Even the second-place money of $1,000 cash wasn’t going to be good enough. After talking to a close friend and his mom who came down to root me on, I was back to normal. I was ready to crush this one out of the ballpark. I returned to my seat like a fighter walking into the cage. For a small poker room we had quite a crowd watching us — 40 or so people and poker room personnel. All the cheers and people’s eyes fixed on us didn’t faze me at all. I was completely in the zone with my shades on and music blaring.

Russ was folding a lot of blinds to me and it seemed like he was tightening up. I decided to make a crazy play at him to see if I could get him off his game. He raised from the small blind, doubling it up. I looked down at 2-3 off. This was the time for me to make a play. I called his bet. With his raise I put him on tens or jacks. The flop came queen high and didn’t connect. Russ led out with a bet, and I called. The turn was a brick, but it did put three cards to a straight on the board. Russ led out again, doubling his flop bet. I paused for about thirty seconds before announcing a reraise. I didn’t want to shove my whole stack in cause of fear that my read was off but at the same time I want him to think that I have a made hand, so I doubled his bet. Russ pondered for quiet some time. I’m thinking he might three bet, but he tapped the table, said, “nice hand” and mucked. What I did next some might question or even think that I may have been out of line, but I wanted him to tilt a little by seeing that I was playing loose. I turned over my 2-3 off and proceeded to rake in the pot. The look on his face said it all. I could tell he was disgusted with that hand, and I knew I had him right where I wanted him.

We played a few more hands and he was surrendering some of the blinds to smaller raises. He had about 19k left to my 81k. On the last hand of heads up, Russ min raised from the small blind, I had a suited J-9. I was gonna push all in, but I knew he was in too deep to fold preflop. I decided to just call and try to hit the flop. On a 9-6-3 rainbow flop I checked and Russ pushed all in. I snap called and took down the tournament. I was going to the Main Event.

A once in a life opportunity for myself and also a dream come true!

I have won two very tough satellite tournaments to get to the Main Event. I hope to see you all July 7 at the Rio as I rep Wasted Aces Poker and Club Fortune Casino at the World Series of Poker!

Brian Simon is a team member of Wasted Aces Poker. You can follow him on Twitter @BrianSimon1984.

This can make for a tough situation for players who are trying to use advanced plays in a tournament situation. The players you are up against are players who do not understand the advanced play and will often do the opposite of what you are trying to influence them to do. In addition,“local’s rooms” tournaments tend to have short blind levels – typically 10-20 minutes – which further handcuffs an advanced player, as that player can ill afford a misstep early in the tournament.

What novice poker players and cash-game only players do not always understand is that tournament poker play is as different from cash game poker play as basketball is from baseball. In a cash game, you can always get more money out of your pocket and keep playing. This allows players with deeper pockets to go three streets on straight and flush draws, and to play weaker starting hands hoping to flop a monster.

The main goal of tournament play is to gather chips as others go broke and work your way toward the highest possible payout. Taking a turn and a river on a draw can cost you significant chips in a situation where you can reload your stack.

Table position, individual stacks compared to the other stacks on the table and tournament structure/payouts are all significant factors in tournament play compared to cash game play.

In cash game play, when a player is short stacked they will wait for an opportunity to get all in to try to double up. If they go broke, they can choose to leave the game or buy more chips.

In tournament play when their chip stack is dwindling, novice tournament players try to avoid going broke by waiting for a huge hand rather than the best possible hand. They don’t care that the likelihood of getting dealt pocket aces is once every 220 hands. They believe those aces are coming in the next hand or two. The novice players lets their chip stack dwindle so low that by the time they put all of their chips in the pot it is very easy for a much bigger stack to call the all-in. In the old days of poker they called this getting “blinded off like Broomcorn’s uncle.” It’s a term Doyle Brunson first introduced in his bible of poker, “SuperSystem.” It meant a player that was playing so tight he ran out of money waiting for a good hand.

In low buy-in tourneys, you may start with just 2,000 or 3,000 chips, which probably equals 40-60 big blinds. As the blinds go up and the chip stacks start to diminish you will inevitably find yourself in the 10 big blind range at some point.

When you get to the 10x big blind range you only have two moves left – fold or “shove” (go all-in). Ten big blinds is a chip stack on life support. There is no reason to limp or call a raise. You either have a hand good enough to go all-in or bad enough to fold. There is no in between.

It amazes me when I see a player just call in a 10x big blinds situation. For example, the blinds in the tournament are now 100-200. This is probably just the third level of the tournament. If you have 1,800 chips left you only have nine big blinds. Novice players tend to think that having 1,800 of their starting 3,000 gives them opportunities to fish around preflop. It does not. If another player makes a standard raise of 600 and you just call, you have committed one third of your remaining stack to the pot preflop. In this situation you are heads up. There are 1,500 chips in the pot with the raise, your call and the two folded blinds (600+600+100+200=1500). You have 1,200 chips remaining in your stack.

Regardless of whether or not you connect with the flop you probably cannot fold. If you fold you have reduced your stack to just six big blinds.

The bigger question is what hand did you call the raise with in the first place. Was it a pocket pair, A-K, A-Q, A-J or A-10? If they answer is yes, you should not have called but rather put your whole stack in the pot preflop. The 1,800 raise would have been 3x of the original raise. Now you are putting the pressure on the original raiser. He can’t outplay you on the flop because all of your chips are in the middle. He also has to decide if his starting hand is worth 9x big blinds since that is what you made it preflop.

Was your starting hand Q-J, K-10, 10-9, 9-8, A-2, A-3 or worse? Then you should fold. Don’t flat call and take a flop with a marginal hand and low chips. You are risking elimination with a weak hand. If you call a preflop raise with K-10 or A-3 and flop the king or the ace it is actually the worst card for you. More often than not, you are beat by a better king or a better ace. In a situation like that you are actually hoping to hit the under card, not the big card.

All-in or fold is the best move for a couple of reasons. The all-in puts pressure on every player after you. They know they can’t outplay you after the flop because you will have committed all your chips already. Secondly, you might pick up both blinds unchallenged, which will add significantly to your stack.

Good luck on the felt!

Chad Harberts is the poker room supervisor at Club Fortune Casino and co-founder of Wasted Aces Poker.com. If you have poker-related questions email Chad at charberts@gamingventuresinc.com. You can follow Chad’s poker adventures on Twitter @chadharberts or @wastedacespoker, and follow the Club Fortune Poker Room on Twitter @CFCPoker.

I recently learned of an amazing application for iPhone(not sure if it is on other platforms yet) that can analyze more than I could ever think to analyze on my own. The Poker Journal app by Michael Golden has been a vital tool in keeping stats for me on the felt. I encourage you to check out the video below to learn more about how you can learn more about your game!

The second must have application is available for iPhone and now for Droid! The Vegas Poker Now mobile app is key when you are looking for room reviews, tournaments, and other poker events throughout the Las Vegas poker scene.

I like the ability to search for tournaments by casino, start time, buy-in, and type. As well, you can view the rooms by Popularity, Name, and Distance. It will provide you with a map to the casino as well as reviews that others have provided.

Here is a photo of the layout when you look at a particular room. Everything you need is laid out perfectly!