Finally hit a jackpot

After numerous years and many close calls, i finally hit a jackpot last night at Hollywood Park. After the excitement wore off, however, I realized that HP is one of the worst when it comes to using the jackpot as a profit center. The jackpot was a measly ~$11k (and my share was ~$4600). I have been saying this for years to no avail, but they should allow to opt out of the jackpot somehow, or the government should ban it (like they did a few years ago - some of you may remember in Los Angeles all jackpots were off the table for quite some time as the government realized what was going on). Somehow, the casinos were able to pay off the right people and now they are back. Just so you dont think I'm crazy for thinking this, I actually worked for one of the local casinos for quite some time and was privy to a lot of financial information. I saw how much was being dropped from every table. This (like all the casinos) do a constant number update each night (usually just $100 - would you believe that in fact they dropped on some days well over $10k?). So for HP to seed their jackpot at $10k is sick. At least the Bike and Hustler seed their jackpots at $20k (and actually their hi-limit game is seeded now at $50k!!). The big $100k jackpots around town may have been done and forced upon the casinos in order to give back a lot of the money, but its still not enough because those jackpots are so much harder to hit. Sorry, I guess I should be happy - and I am, but it just frustrates how the casinos use every little thing they can to steal from us.

Magic Castle Pass

For those of you in Los Angeles and have either a) heard of the castle, or b) been to the castle - you probably know its a cool place to go. I happen to be a member and if anybody needs a pass, PM me your email address and I'll ship it to you. If you want more info on the castle, go to http://www.magiccastle.org.

I've also setup events there before - so if there is enough interest we could bombard the castle with NWP'ers for an evening of awesome magic, good food, and great drinks. And those of you in Vegas would obviously have to make the trek out. It's well worth it.

LAKINGSFAN12

P.S. If you are wondering why I am doing this - honestly, I don't give out enough passes each year and get pissed when they end up raising our dues because they didn't bring enough in. Getting people to the castle is obviously +EV. Since I know everyone here loves cards, you'd probably have a good time there.

Late stages NL tournament strategy

Druff, this isn't so much a question for you but a discussion on some things that happened last night at the ESPN Mason & Ireland tournament at Normandie Casino that I was involved in (finished 4th, btw!)..

First off, we were down to 11 players (2 tables - I was at the table with 5 players at it). I asked the floorman if we were going to 1 table with 10 people or wait till 9 players since that final table of 9 would be a televised table (its going to be shown in LA only on channel 56 - gasp!!@#@ who gets that channel? in March). He said we would play 2 tables of 5 players and I and others urged us to go to 1 table of 10 since I was sure thats how the "big" tourneys work. Since I was almost the chip leader and the blinds at this point were 2000-4000, I felt I didn't want to chunk off a large amount of chips just folding and waiting for that person to get knocked out. I figured if we were at a table of 10 people, maybe it would be 1) less of a grind on my stack, and 2) easier to knock that last person out. Well, he did let us go to 1 table and it took about 3 rounds before the final guy got knocked out (funny thing was it wasnt the shortest stack - it never is, huh?).

Second discussion topic - Down to 4 players. I have fluctated between chip leader and shortest stack. I am now in 3rd position stack wise with 97k and under the gun. Blinds are 15k-30k with 3k ante. Big blind is the chip leader with 260k - small blind is short stack. I look down at two kings. At this point, i want callers, right? I figure if I move all in, i'm only going to get the big blind to call (since its only 60k more for him if he has a decent hand). I really want to knock out the small blind and hope that he just moves over the top of my raise (he had about 80k in chips). So I just double the blind to 60k. It folds to the big blind who calls. The flop comes 10-9-8 and he moves all in (of course i call) and he turns over 10-8. The cool part is that then a Q fell which gave me a TON OF OUTS, but I didn't catch. I am not unhappy with the way I played it all. That late in the game, I feel like I want callers with Kings and I will take KK vs 10-8 any day of the week. I hadn't gotten too many premium hands at that final table and just wanted to milk it for everything its worth.

And lastly, just like you see on TV (and will definitely see when this airs), people play CRAP at these final tables. I don't understand how they survive. I just don't know when/where to make these plays and can't figure out how/why these guys make it. I've made a lot of final tables and have never done this (though I've only won 1 tournament so maybe I play too tight). I just feel like its not worth $20k or whatever the difference is to the next spot (or even two spots) to call an all in with K6 against two all-ins - but it happened last night! And the dude with K6 survived (who then heppened to be the same person to call my bet with 10-8).

Well, just some discussionable thoughts I thought I'd jot down (plus, ive been trying to contact you but you aint answering your cell phone!)