Adam LaBare's Poker Blog

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I've talked about The Poker Room here in Jacksonville, Fl quite a few times now. Admittedly, I have not played there much in the last 2 years for a variety of reasons. Small limits, lack of amenities, location, whatever. The truth of the matter is, I've been so engrossed with online play, I've not had a reason to extend from my comfort zone. You're only going to be so successful at an establishment who's betting limit is $2.

As of July 1st, all bets are off...or on, in this case.

I walked in there yesterday evening just before 6pm. It was a madhouse. With increased tournament buy-ins and No-Limit games spread all over the place, everyone had to check it out.

I'll get into more detail here in a minute, but let me just sum things up like this:
JUICY!

I sat down at a table where the stacks were glorious and the play was idiotic. These people still think they're playing $2 limit, and it's simply AMAZING! I could spend a lot of time elaborating on this point, but it's simple. This is Jacksonville's first introduction to No Limit, live action gaming. The southeast has been watching it on TV for years now and is just chomping at the bit to get in on the action.

In Detail...

Gameplay
It is ripe and just waiting to be plucked. People have wads of cash in their pocket and have no clue how to play no-limit hold-em. Men are bringing their wives and giving them hundreds of dollars just to sit and play with them. This is not a knock against women at all, but the reality is, this Poker Room is predominately male.

People are not afraid to get in a pot. A quick comparison. Just came back from Vegas and played several $2 no limit games. Raise a pot to $12, you either force people to fold, or get mixed up with a true hand. Here in Jacksonville, you raise to $15 and get 7 way action. This is almost every hand. Pure insanity.

If you ride out the donkeys, you're going to make money here if you have some level of skill. Practice patience and trust me, you can do well.

I'm going to predict that the newness factor will be strong over the next 90 days. I'm thinking it will die down some after that new car smell wears off. But as the dust settles, I think the potential for steady, quality games will rise to the top.

I'm also going to predict that once they establish their Jackpot structure later this month, the potential for a constant stream of cash will be knocking at their door from open till close.

And speaking of the Jackpot, I spoke with a few different sources yesterday at The Poker Room. They are stating they will be contributing to the pot from every cash game they offer, NL, Limit, Pineapple, Omaha, etc. They are forecasting jackpots in excess of $150,000. That could be a HUGE marketing factor for this room. Actually, if they spend the advertising dollars, it's going to be HUGE any way you look at it.

Facilities
The room itself is large. With 40+ tables, they are spread out rather well. The tables have all been re-felted just within the past few weeks. The chairs are somewhat comfortable, but really do not compare to the seating in most Vegas card rooms.

The air conditioning is not working properly. One end of the room is rather cool, while the other side is virtually a sauna and quite uncomfortable. You know it's bad when the dealers brow drips sweat on to the table. Rather disgusting. Fix the air!

The big screen televisions are nice. However, they are only aligned on one wall making it extremely difficult to view when you are not specifically in optimal position. In the future, it would be nice to invest some money in LCD's which are placed strategically throughout the room to benefit all patrons. Set them up for 360 degree viewing.

Also, I realize this room is part of a simulcast dog track. As a result, virtually every TV is set to horses or dogs running in circles. Believe it or not, not all poker players bet the races. If anything, I would say the majority of clientèle to this establishment are there purely for the poker and care far more about sports. Put the damn ball games on! Let the bettors concentrate on 2 or 3 televisions only or send them up the the 4th floor and let them do their thing there. It is EXTREMELY frustrating when your in a pot with a guy that's screaming for his dog to come in ignoring his action.

Staff
This is my biggest issue with The Poker Room. Let me just first say that for the most part, the dealers are great. Most are friendly, courteous, and funny. Granted, there are others that literally seem to have a stick up their ass. My gripe here though is management, runners and concessions. Everyone in these roles just has such a piss poor attitude every time I'm in there, it really makes me wonder what's going on.

Let's start with the wait staff. These people must be grossly underpaid and or tipped. They are incredibly rude and make you feel like a huge burden every time you make a request. I also believe it is a staffing issue at a higher level. They are never adequately staffed which puts too much stress on any one wait person. This has been the case now for 3 years. I'm really perplexed how this continues to be an issue here. You're wait staff is your ambassador. If they're not kind and personable, they should not be in that role.

Chip runners are responsible obviously for running chips, but they also act as the brush and run the board for seating. This does not work. When you have a line 20 people deep waiting to put their name on a list and you're sitting there on the phone, we may have an issue. Get the right people at the right stations, and make this smooth. Having that many people waiting in a line just to put a name on a list is a little ridiculous.

As for management, I've never really had any personal issues with anyone. When I worked there, I actually was quite friendly with several members of management. However, as time has worn on at this establishment, it seems the more jaded the management team has become. This does not apply to all, but there are several individuals I'm thinking of that are just unkind, bitter people. Everyone is busy. I get that, but c'mon. You really should have people that are eager to engage their patrons and offer assistance. If you stop to ask a floor person a question, they literally treat you with little respect and poor manners. When you compare to most better class poker rooms in Vegas, California, and even Foxwoods in Ct.; they are severely lacking. Improve your customer service.

Amenities
To be honest, there really are none. Drinks and food are table side, but not cheap. Alcohol is severely overpriced. Food tastes good, but again, mostly overpriced. I hate to keep comparing to other card rooms, but The Poker Room in Jacksonville has a lot of room for growth on this front. Treat your players right. Comps, player points, freerolls, whatever. Do SOMETHING.

In Summary
At the end of the day, The Poker Room in Jacksonville, Fl is the only game in town. With the increase in limits and better tournament buy-ins, the popularity will gain a lot of momentum in the coming weeks. Without competition, I fear the above issues of concern will never be truly addressed. However, I have heard through various grapevines that a new poker room may be in the works for next year more central to main-stay Jacksonville (current room is on the very outskirts of town and can be a bitch of a ride to get to).

Fix your staff and your amenities and I think you have every chance of being hugely successful for years to come.

Labels: adam labare, jacksonville fl, online poker, poker, the poker room, tournaments

Press Release
4/16/2007 10:04 am
Jacksonville, Fl
Adam from the now famous Team Medallion has crashed and burned!

"Had a horrible run on sits and have depleted my funds." States Adam LaBare at a shocking new conference in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. "Wasn't even a matter of tilt." He continues. "I won't kill you with the details...but man alive, what a brutal 3 sits. I made an idiot move in increasing each follow up SnG buy-in in hopes of extracting back my loss".

One joker in the crowd had this to say, "Just wasn't in the cards".

Mr. LaBare was later found beating said joker to a bloody pulp.

When this reporter asked Mr. LaBare what was next in his poker career, Adam responded with a full on roundhouse kick to an unsuspecting cat.

This is a sad day in the poker community. We will all mourn the loss of Adam LaBare.

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I feel like I say this every time I run bad, but I've been a horrible blogger these past few months. And yes, I've been running bad. To the point where I decided to take a few weeks off altogether. The break was two fold. One, to clear my head. And two, my bankroll took a considerable hit therefore the choice to break was easy. Whatever the reason though, I think the break was necessary.

And now for some bloggidy goodness...

Current Status...
Decided to get back in the mix this past Saturday. Enjoyed a relatively peaceful day and got some funds into Stars. What a pain in the ass this has turned into. While I won't go into great detail on the legalities and hindrances with funding your poker account these days, I will offer a gleam of hope...

Paytrucard.com is a godsend to the poker player. PokerStars.com actually suggested I give this company a try. Long story short, you sign up, you instantly receive a Visa debit account. You can associate it with your own credit card and be on your way. Full card number and expiration were provided immediately. I was able to get money onto stars in a matter of 5 minutes. I was very impressed.

I went to use them again this Saturday and was a bit paranoid when their site was down. However, this was a temporary issue and was resolved very quickly.

I also signed up for ePassporte.com and netspend.com but have decided not to utilize. The fee's and hoops with epassporte are just ridiculous. And netspend, while the option to fund via paypal was intriguing, it was not an instantaneous transaction. In the end, Paytrucard.com worked like a charm and they have me as a long term customer if they stay in the game!

With a little ammunition in my account, i was finally able to play some poker. Getting the money in to the account was like a warm, soothing effect. A calm came over me. It was actually kinda weird.

I took it easy Saturday night and played in 3 MTT's. Placed 29th in a $10 event. Put me plus $8 for the day. Cough. Hey, a profit is a profit, shut up!

Didn't have any great game plan for Sunday other than taking a stab at the Sunday Million on PokerStars.com. This tournament has been a thorn in my side for a long time. When my bankroll was healthy a while back, I opted to buy straight in to this tourney rather than hitting satellites. Just plain stupid. This ate through a good chunk of my roll without any significant wins.

I deiced to hit a 1 table satellite. Didn't really have any great run of cards but managed to survive. When the bubble came around, I was fortunate to hit a few key hands which put me in a great position to win outright. After a short battle, I took it down. At this point, it was early in the morning and decided to just relax and not play before the big tournament.

Finally came time to play and I pretty much went in my think tank (headphones and iTunes). Things started out slow but toward the end of the first hour, I made a few moves which backfired completely. I found myself with just over 4k in chips (players start with 10k). I was kicking myself in the ass but remained focused.

Over the next two hours I managed to battle back and found myself on a great run bringing me up to 28k in chips. I managed to sustain in this ballpark for quite a while. I took a little hit down to 19k but managed to double up with a bit extra which brought me up to 48k.

Long story short, I made it into the money. I was running cold at this point though and had to make a move shortly after the bubble burst. When I finally decided to stand my ground, this prompted a good 3 hand run which put me at 98k. I was in a great spot at this stage. I was entirely content with opening my play at this point and directing traffic as I found myself second in chips at my table.

Here comes my regrettable hand of the tournament. Sigh.
2000/4000 blinds w/ an ante.
Under the gun comes out with a raise, double the blind which makes it 8k. At this point, people were shoving good chunks and doing a lot of stealing. The raise in hindsight was fishy. Everyone folded to me in late position. I just call with KQd hoping to hit the flop obviously. Everyone else folds. Flop comes something like 742 rainbow.

At this stage I was actually pleased with the flop thinking it was relatively non threatening. He comes out betting the minimum 4k.

So, I'm going through my normal routine as to what he's holding. Early position, raises minimum, wants to get some value in there but probably doesn't have a high pocket pair. First to act, he probably would have just called. AK maybe? AQ? Maybe middle pair.

I ended up convincing myself I could get him off this hand. Going into the hand, he was at 48k, I was at 98k. After he put his 4k in, I pushed enough in to put him all in. I wanted the pressure back on him and take the pot right here.

He immediately calls and turns over AA. Yeah, I fell for it. Turn, no help. River, K. Naturally.

So, that severely crippled me. I should not have gotten into this situation to begin with. I should have been far more suspect of the raise before hand. I made a bad read at the end of the day. I really did not figure him for AA. However, shame on me for getting this much of my stack involved. If I could replay this hand, I probably should have raised my KQ pre-flop to determine where I really was.

Even though short stacked, I managed to survive two more levels into the payout. I finished 527th out of 6964. Overall, I played a good tournament and it was very nice getting into the money. That AA was really bugging me last night, but it was what it was.

To Sum It All Up...
Was a pretty good weekend of poker. Didn't over due it. Didn't stress myself out. Made a nice little addition to the newly revised bankroll. Certainly plan on continuing that trend.

Job Well Done...
I wanted to say Great Job to my buddy Matt Waldron who had a great run at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. Matt is a regular at Lifesabluff.com and represented the site with style. Matt did extremely well in day 1 and went in to day 2 with a decent stack. Unfortunately, the stars were not properly aligned and Matt finished a mere 30 or so spots from the money. What a horrible beat. You can read how it all went down by checking out the following thread.

Sick Bay...
I also wanted to shoot Frank Frisina well wishes. Frank is the creator/writer at Lifesabluff.com. Frank has been severely under the weather and I just wanted him to know my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Damn collapsing lungs. Might think those things would stay inflated. If you're a fan of lifesabluff.com, you can read more about Frank's situation here.

What's Next?
As for next steps. The original intent this weekend was to actually start giving a hard look at the WSOP satellites. They are officially on my radar.

That's it for now. I'll be returning with a few new articles that can be viewed at www.lifesabluff.com and www.pokerxtreme.com.

Stay tuned!

Labels: adam labare, epassporte.com, frank frisina, lifesabluff.com, matt waldron, netspend.com, paytrucard.com, poker, pokerstars, stars sunday million, world poker tour, wpt, wpt bay 101 shooting star

Yesterday was my shot at greatness. However, it was not meant to be.

With a healthy bankroll, I played a few satellites and got myself into the big tourney at 4:30. I was feeling good. This was my tournament to shine.

First hour was a bit daunting. I made a few small hands. It became pretty apparent I had an individual at the table that was taking advantage of "scared money" that first hour. What I mean by this...this tournament can be intimidating to the first time participant. Many individuals find themselves thrown into this tournament through much smaller satellites and quite literally are out of their league. Certainly no disrespect intended. They just don't have the large MTT experience and it shows. Anyway, this guy just kept raising and check raising each smaller raise and everyone continued to fold to him. I finally had a good hand and went up against him. Didn't put a lot on the line but he sucked out on the river. Figures. Few hands later, similar situation presents itself. I raise small in late position, he re-raises in late position. I just call. I hit a set on the flop. He bets strong. I call. He bets strong again, I raise. He calls. He checks, I bet his remaining stack. He folds. This was the start of a good run for me.

Had a few bumps. Had to battle back at one point. But 3.5 hours in, I find myself at 60k in chips with only a few hundred left to the money. That might sound like a lot of people, but we started with some 6000 entrants and people were dwindling extremely fast.

It's at this stage I usually tighten up and ensure my placement in the money. From there I go on the hunt and play my aggressive game. However, for this tournament, I didn't just want to squeeze into the money. Perhaps I was over eager, perhaps it was just stupidity. But here's where things went south.

I'm feeling great with 60k in chips. Average at this point was 48k. I was second leader at my table...however, the chip leader at my table was also the overall chip leader. He was flirting just over 200k in chips. The one thing I said to msyelf, do NOT tango with this guy. Just stay out of his way and prey on the other stacks. Did I listen to my advice? Obviously not.

So I'm on the button and I'm dealt AQ diamonds. Fairly nice hand I'm thinking. One call in front of me, I raise about 4x the BB. I don't remember the exact raise amount. Chip leader is in the BB. I should have paid better attention. I raised unaware that he was in the BB and would probably play almost any hand at this point. He calls my raise. The other caller folds. Flop comes 9 8 3 with two diamonds. He comes out betting. Okay, my mindset went like this. He's obviously playing his stack, as he should be. However, I really think he's full of shit at this point. Call it intuition, call it a gut feeling, whatever. Point is, I really believed I had a better hand at this spot. And in the case that I did not, with the nut flush possibility on my hands, I saw this spot as an opportunity. Like I said, I did not want to just squeeze into the money. I wanted this to be my swan song. I took a chance. I pushed back and went all in. He insta calls with 55.

...

Turn and river bring no help and I'm out of the tournament. Just like that, in the blink of an eye...gone.

It took me a while to cool down. And obviously, I'm still bent out of shape over this. I'm sure other pro's would analyze this play and beat me up over it...but I felt good about my move. Had I walked away the winner in that hand, I would have been sitting with about $140k in chips and a commanding presence moving into the money. My goal was not to play too cautiously. I wanted to be aggressive in certain situations. I deemed these one of those situations and it didn't work out.

In hindsight, would I have played it any differently? I became too attached to this hand, that much I realize. However, thinking back, I should have paid better attention to whom was in the BB. I got carried away with my great position with a good starting hand. Had I just smooth called here, I believe he would have raised and I probably would have come off the hand.

Ugh.

Okay, I'm not going to torture myself. As my wife said last night, there's always next week.

Good luck everyone!

Labels: adam labare, poker, pokerstars, stars sunday million, world series of poker, wsop

So, In my last post I happily praised the poker gods and announced "I'm back".

I lied...

I could put a nice fancy slant on my current situation, or I can just speak the truth.

Boils down to this...
I've been playing a shitty game resulting in zero profit. I've been flirting with a dangerously low bankroll and have been limited with my game choices. When in a tailspin I tend to shut down my exposure to the world until I figure out what the hell is wrong and make the necessary adjustments. And to be perfectly frank, when I'm losing, the last thing I feel is inspiration to write about all things poker. This may be an error though as I find writing about it does help a lot. With recent holidays, job responsibilities, and everything else, I just lost my focus.

Psychologically speaking, I'm sure I could give a shrink plenty of material to analyze. God knows how mental this game is. Long story short, I've been letting negative results affect me personally. However, I can honestly say I will never give up. It's really a matter of understanding that bad runs will end. It takes confidence in your ability. Granted, confidence won't pay the bills unless there is a payoff...but you have to remain confident in your abilities. I've won in the past, I will win in the future. If you hit a brick wall...repeat this mantra over and over again.

For what it's worth, as I mentioned in my last post...separating from poker entirely for a certain amount of time can be refreshing. I didn't play much poker over the holidays but I was able to spend quality time with my new Nintendo Wii along with a certain warlock in World of Warcraft. For all those considering purchasing a Wii...it's worth every penny. Fun as hell. Only set back...you have to get off your ass and move. It's really great. Many, many thanks to my loving wife. She's the best gift giver ever! Not to get sentimental...but you know when people say they enjoy giving gifts more than receiving? These people in my experience are full of shit. Just a ruse in an attempt to appear better than others. My wife is truly the only person I know that I can honestly say enjoys giving more than receiving. She really is an amazing person with the biggest heart one could imagine. Okay...enough sap! As an added diversion I have also started a new blog which has absolutely nothing to do with poker. However, if you're ever in Jacksonville, Fl...might be worth checking out: jaxreview.blogspot.com

Anyhoo...I suppose the real reason I feel inspired to write today is due to the success I had last night on PokerStars. I've been having consistent money appearances in the $10 MTT w/ 1 rebuy and 1 add on at 7:15 each night. I generally stay away from rebuy events, but I like this format as I'm able to quickly accumulate chips and thrive on the poor play of others for the first hour. Just a matter of patience. After everything was said and done, finished 4th. A deep finish with the tournament has eluded me but I really felt like it was just a matter of time. With over 1000 entrants, it can be viewed as a lottery...but I choose to believe my skill has something to do with it. Anyway, this gives me much needed breathing room which will allow me to focus on the overall goal.

What is the overall goal?
Two fold at this point. One, get to this years WSOP to participate in several events. and two, transition from semi-pro to professional.

Tall orders to fill...but one way or the other, it's going to happen. As always, I will continue to document as I progress while sharing whatever nuggets of wisdom I can.

I appreciate all my readers hanging in there!

-Adam

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