Poker History and Playing in Vegas

Not really to my surprise, but my posts have been few and far between. Part of this is not finding time to blog though much of this is the explosion of microblogging (Facebook, Twitter) since I started this blog. I'm going to try to blog more on my poker sessions and see if that will get me writting more on a regular basis.

So I thought I'd start with writing how I got into playing poker on a serious recreational basis and making regular trips to Las Vegas.

Mark Rafn first explained Texas Hold ‘em to me sometime in late 2004 or early 2005 and we played at work for Hershey’s kisses. This was just after BEA Systems announced they were closing the Seattle office and we weren't very busy or very motivated. I first played in Las Vegas in April 2005 (2/4 limit at the Flamingo), but really didn’t know what I was doing. I was there to meet my parents and see the Cubs-Mariners spring training game and coincidentally some of my friends who played were there and introduced me to live hold ‘em for money. I think I screwed around for six months or so – made some trips to Muckleshoot with a couple of friends. I remember one drive where they were trying to explain starting hand ranges to me, so I was pretty clueless at that point. I bought Lee Jones Winning Low Limit Hold ‘em in January of 2006, finally had some idea how to play, and got more serious. That’s really the start of my hold ‘em play with any thought to starting hands and actually strategy of play and level 1 thinking.

I started playing low limit in local card rooms, mainly the now closed Kenmore Lanes. (As a side note, I think I've played more hours in local card rooms that are now closed than that are still open.) Monica and I met her family in Vegas in February 2006 and I got in a few limit sessions. April 2006 was the first time I/we went to Vegas for the primary purpose of playing poker (along with my business partner and some of her friends) and my poker record keeping starts here. A group of us went in November 2006 (I won the Sahara tournament twice) and that was the first time I played no limit cash games. We went in March 2007 and then again in September. In 2008 I went to Vegas in January, March, and August. I was there again for March madness and a "business" trip in October. I'm trying to get back in December.

Why Vegas? Well, the glitz and glamor are a lot of fun. But the big factors are variety of places to play, really bad players, and good tournaments.

Locally I play almost exclusively at Snoqualmie Casino. It opened a year ago so has that new feel and it's a nice place and 15-20 minutes away. But the room is small (10 tables) and cramped. And the choices are 4-8 limit or 2-5 NL with a 300 max buy in. I'd rather play with deeper stacks where there's more money to win. And the tournament selection is pretty sparse. It's weekend mornings at Snoqualmie. Sure there are other tournaments and places to play. But only the tribal ("Indian") casinos have anything close to a no limit game.

I usually play at Snoqualmie Sunday AM when the Bears don't play and Monday or Tuesday night and then Friday or Saturday night. But it winds up twice a week at most. And there's a friendly penny stakes home game that runs occasionally on Wednesdays.