Before I get to the tales of the weird, here's a hand I played and I want you to guess what I had:
I limped UTG and a middle position player as well as the button also limped. The small blind completed and the big blind checked. The flop came ♣A ♣4 ♥5 and it was checked around to the middle position limper who bet 10. Everyone else folded and I called. The turn was the ♠5 and I checked again to the middle position player who bet 20. I thought for a little bit, then asked the bettor how much he had remaining in chips. Upon hearing the answer of 80 more, I thought some more, then moved all in over the top. Any guesses what I held?
So during four of the six nights I was there, there was a guy on vacation who was also in the poker room every night. He was recognizable because he was very talkative and decently loud. While some of the regulars got annoyed, I didn't mind him at all and I knew that at the very least the table he was at would be friendly and fun. As some of my bridge partners know, I'm capable of playing at a pretty good level while chatting away.
On his last night playing, he tried to get the people at the table to play a 2-7 sidebet. For those who don't know, it's a simple side game where if someone wins a hand and shows 2-7 (it can be a hand where everybody else folds), everyone in the bet has to pay off a predetermined amount to the winner. It wasn't for anything crazy, just 5 per person. We only had 4 people willing to play and there was a woman who said she wanted to play but that a sidebet like that can easily mess up her play. After a little bit of trying to persuade people to play, one guy said he'd play if it was for 10 per person. With that, the woman agreed to play and we had 6 of us in the sidebet. While the floor did their job of telling us that sidebets were not allowed, we kept going anyway. Now that there was a 50 bonus riding on the 2-7 in a 1/2NL game, it made it worthwhile.
The weirdness began on a hand that I hadn't even been paying attention to. After two limpers, the woman on the button makes a nice sized raise. On the flop, the early limper bets out, and after a call, the woman makes a big raise again. After the turn, it gets checked to the woman who bets about 2/3 of the pot and is then check-raised all in by the early limper for about 80 more. She seemed visibly troubled, and then said, "I call. See, this is what that stupid bet made me do!" as she turned over 2-7 for a pair of 7s, drawing dead to the other guy's set. It's one thing to take a stab or even two stabs at it with 2-7. It's another to call an all-in drawing dead for 80 more. The weirdest thing was that she had been playing really tight, smart poker for an hour and a half before this.
She went all-in and lost about a few hands later. She seemed to be able to laugh about the incident, but she left shortly after. After she left, we managed to get the whole table in on the action. One guy won the 2-7 with a decent-sized preflop reraise while another won with a preflop raise and a flop bet on an AK7 board that scared everyone away. A couple guys took stabs at the 2-7 on the flop, but gave up on it fairly easily and didn't go down in flames like the woman did when faced with resistance. The first 2-7 hand that won post-flop was, well, have you figured out my hand from that first question I asked? I did indeed have 2-7 on that hand, and the middle position limper folded an A face up.
But there was one more weird little hand before I decided to call it a night. The talkative fellow raised it to 11 UTG, which was his regular raise. One guy called and I called from the button with ♦J♦3. The big blind called as well and four people saw a flop of A 10 2 rainbow with no diamonds. It was checked to the preflop raiser who bet 20. For some reason it felt like a standard continuation bet to me, so I decided to float him as everyone else folded. For those unfamiliar with the term, floating essentially means to call an opponent's bet with nothing with the intention of taking the pot away from him on a later street. See here. The turn was the ♦9 and it was checked to me so I took a stab at it with a bet of 30. He said, "Good hand." as he folded 2-7 face up and added, "You couldn't let me have this one?" I showed him my complete bluff and we had a good laugh about it. His 2-7 was actually well ahead!!!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Poker at South Point: The Normal (VegasSummer 09, gambling)
I stayed at the South Point Hotel and Casino for my first 6 nights in Vegas. It's off the strip and was the best value that I found on Hotwire. I will write a more detailed post about the hotel and casino later. The poker room at the South Point was a small area, perhaps able to fit 11 tables at the most. During the 6 nights I was there, there were at most 3 1/2NL tables going and only once did they get a 2/5NL table going. Most of the players were locals, about 60% I would say. Not local pros, but rather just locals and local dealers who wanted to play without dealing with the strip traffic.
The floor staff was friendly and most of them as well as some dealers knew me by sight by the third night. Unlike poker rooms on the east coast, most of Vegas seems to rake rather than count time. At the South Point, there was a high hand jackpot. This is hit when you use both cards in your hand (must have pair for quads) and hit quads, a straight flush, or a royal flush. These were then divided into suits or which quads you hit (2-A). The hand did not need to reach showdown, but there needs to be $10 in the pot to qualify (of which $1 went to the jackpot). During the time I was there, the diamond royal flush was the biggest draw, having reached over $6k from not having been hit for over a month. The comp system was time-based, with $1.5/hr for the first 4 hours, then $.75/hr after that, with a $9 cap per 24 hours. By the time I left I had $30 in comps (still there I never took them), and that didn't even include the times when I forgot to clock in or out. So you can imagine how much time I spent in that poker room.
Most of the tables were friendly, and whenever possible I tried to get onto a friendly table. There were players who were pretty blatant about their tendencies. One old asian woman, who seemed to be a regular, regularly overbet her top pair while check-calling her draws. For example, if there were 5 limpers to the flop and she hit her top pair of Qs, she'd bet 25 into an 8 pot (1 for rake, 1 for jackpot). She even bet like this when she hit the nut flush on the flop! One of my friends said that 1/2NL in Vegas during the WSOP was probably more like .25/.5 online. One of the ways in which this was true was that preflop raises were all over the place. Raises of 12/15/20 were very common with a wide variety of hands and had a wide variety of hands call these big preflop raises.
In the end, the one tendency that really seemed to matter was an analysis of continuation bet patterns. The key things to know seem to be how often people continuation bet, how many more shots they were going to continue to stab at it, and how often they would call a raise of the continuation bet with two overs that missed the flop. I found that if you were playing against people who can play a little, clearly have read a book or two, you were better raising the continuation bet if you had a piece of the flop. On the other hand, playing against the cowboy or the truck driver, you were better placed to just call the bet.
Below are some hands and plays I made that I found interesting. Hope you do too. For all of these, I played 1/2NL and bought in for 300.
Hand 1.
Holding ♦K♣K in the cutoff, I raise it to 12. Button calls, and flop comes ♠Q ♠5 ♦2
I bet 20, button raises 20 more.
At this point I want to see where I'm at, so I raise it 30 more. I'm in no hurry to raise it too much. I find that especially on the flop, noone ever feels priced out to chase in a raised pot. But if I run into a monster, I'm willing to let go of it without committing too much. After considerable thought, she mucks her hand. If she had raised again after that length of thought, I would have folded easily. After I showed her my K's she said she had AA. From her tight play that I observed afterward, it would not surprise me at all if she did have AA.
Hand 2.
Holding ♦J♦7 in late position, I call an early position raise to 7. Heads up, the flop comes T 7 2 rainbow. Preflop raiser checks to me and I check. I'm not in a tournament trying to amass chips to survive blinds, so I don't feel a need to bet here. If it's clear he caught up by the turn, I can let this go. If not, I feel that I am vulnerable to a wide variety of plays back at me and dangerous turn cards if my flop bet doesn't get him to go away. The turn is another rainbow 5 and it's checked to me again. This time I'm fairly confident I'm ahead and bet 10. The guy now check raises 10 more. I'm still not convinced that his hand suddenly got better or that he'd been slowplaying the whole time, so I call to get more information. The river came a K. This is a very dangerous card. If he had just been making a play back at me with AK, KQ, KJ, he will have caught up. He bet 25. However, there was a wonderful tell that I caught here, something that you won't get online. He reached for his chips to bet BEFORE the K hit on the river and his motion did not slow or change in any way as the K hit the felt. This felt to me like he considered his hand purely a bluff and the river not to have mattered, so I called. He mucked his hand, saying, "You call, you win."
Hand 3
Holding ♦J♦8 on the button I call a raise to 12 from UTG. The flop comes ♦Q ♦T ♠3
The preflop raiser bets 20, and I did not sense a lot of confidence. I decided to raise here to 50 on the sense of weakness, knowing that I'm ok to call if we do get our chips in the middle. The preflop raiser thinks for a while then pushes all in for 100 more. I call and he flips up ♥J♣J. Unless he was very confident he was pushing me off the hand, his play was pretty atrocious. He's drawing extremely thin if I have a Q, and even on this hand that he caught me with, he's no better than 53% to win the hand. One extra inference, is that if I had ♦A♦K or ♦K♦J or even ♦A♦J I was not likely to want to chase him off the hand, to get my chance at $6k high hand jackpot. I think this makes his play even worse. Of course I missed and he won the hand.
The floor staff was friendly and most of them as well as some dealers knew me by sight by the third night. Unlike poker rooms on the east coast, most of Vegas seems to rake rather than count time. At the South Point, there was a high hand jackpot. This is hit when you use both cards in your hand (must have pair for quads) and hit quads, a straight flush, or a royal flush. These were then divided into suits or which quads you hit (2-A). The hand did not need to reach showdown, but there needs to be $10 in the pot to qualify (of which $1 went to the jackpot). During the time I was there, the diamond royal flush was the biggest draw, having reached over $6k from not having been hit for over a month. The comp system was time-based, with $1.5/hr for the first 4 hours, then $.75/hr after that, with a $9 cap per 24 hours. By the time I left I had $30 in comps (still there I never took them), and that didn't even include the times when I forgot to clock in or out. So you can imagine how much time I spent in that poker room.
Most of the tables were friendly, and whenever possible I tried to get onto a friendly table. There were players who were pretty blatant about their tendencies. One old asian woman, who seemed to be a regular, regularly overbet her top pair while check-calling her draws. For example, if there were 5 limpers to the flop and she hit her top pair of Qs, she'd bet 25 into an 8 pot (1 for rake, 1 for jackpot). She even bet like this when she hit the nut flush on the flop! One of my friends said that 1/2NL in Vegas during the WSOP was probably more like .25/.5 online. One of the ways in which this was true was that preflop raises were all over the place. Raises of 12/15/20 were very common with a wide variety of hands and had a wide variety of hands call these big preflop raises.
In the end, the one tendency that really seemed to matter was an analysis of continuation bet patterns. The key things to know seem to be how often people continuation bet, how many more shots they were going to continue to stab at it, and how often they would call a raise of the continuation bet with two overs that missed the flop. I found that if you were playing against people who can play a little, clearly have read a book or two, you were better raising the continuation bet if you had a piece of the flop. On the other hand, playing against the cowboy or the truck driver, you were better placed to just call the bet.
Below are some hands and plays I made that I found interesting. Hope you do too. For all of these, I played 1/2NL and bought in for 300.
Hand 1.
Holding ♦K♣K in the cutoff, I raise it to 12. Button calls, and flop comes ♠Q ♠5 ♦2
I bet 20, button raises 20 more.
At this point I want to see where I'm at, so I raise it 30 more. I'm in no hurry to raise it too much. I find that especially on the flop, noone ever feels priced out to chase in a raised pot. But if I run into a monster, I'm willing to let go of it without committing too much. After considerable thought, she mucks her hand. If she had raised again after that length of thought, I would have folded easily. After I showed her my K's she said she had AA. From her tight play that I observed afterward, it would not surprise me at all if she did have AA.
Hand 2.
Holding ♦J♦7 in late position, I call an early position raise to 7. Heads up, the flop comes T 7 2 rainbow. Preflop raiser checks to me and I check. I'm not in a tournament trying to amass chips to survive blinds, so I don't feel a need to bet here. If it's clear he caught up by the turn, I can let this go. If not, I feel that I am vulnerable to a wide variety of plays back at me and dangerous turn cards if my flop bet doesn't get him to go away. The turn is another rainbow 5 and it's checked to me again. This time I'm fairly confident I'm ahead and bet 10. The guy now check raises 10 more. I'm still not convinced that his hand suddenly got better or that he'd been slowplaying the whole time, so I call to get more information. The river came a K. This is a very dangerous card. If he had just been making a play back at me with AK, KQ, KJ, he will have caught up. He bet 25. However, there was a wonderful tell that I caught here, something that you won't get online. He reached for his chips to bet BEFORE the K hit on the river and his motion did not slow or change in any way as the K hit the felt. This felt to me like he considered his hand purely a bluff and the river not to have mattered, so I called. He mucked his hand, saying, "You call, you win."
Hand 3
Holding ♦J♦8 on the button I call a raise to 12 from UTG. The flop comes ♦Q ♦T ♠3
The preflop raiser bets 20, and I did not sense a lot of confidence. I decided to raise here to 50 on the sense of weakness, knowing that I'm ok to call if we do get our chips in the middle. The preflop raiser thinks for a while then pushes all in for 100 more. I call and he flips up ♥J♣J. Unless he was very confident he was pushing me off the hand, his play was pretty atrocious. He's drawing extremely thin if I have a Q, and even on this hand that he caught me with, he's no better than 53% to win the hand. One extra inference, is that if I had ♦A♦K or ♦K♦J or even ♦A♦J I was not likely to want to chase him off the hand, to get my chance at $6k high hand jackpot. I think this makes his play even worse. Of course I missed and he won the hand.
Hand 4
This hand caused a lot of laughs at the table and perhaps even made its way into someone else's story about playing poker in Vegas. I was bored and straddled to 4. A solid player raised it to 20 from early middle position and another called on the button and it was to me. The preflop raiser was not a random and so I put him on a range of 99 to JJ. I looked down at my cards and the first card I saw was ♠A. Well, I thought, this seems like a great time to make a squeeze play. As long as my read was right, even if I couldn't get the raiser to lay it down preflop, I still had a chance to hit my A. So I raised it 60 more. The preflop raiser thought for a while, tried to get some information by looking at me, and then decided to just make the call. I was pretty sure I could get him off the hand when all of a sudden, the button caller now went all in! To make it worse, his raise was only 25 more, so I didn't get another move. The flop came 853 with two hearts, and I decided that it must be easier to try to beat one person than two, so I pushed all in for 200 more. After much hemming and hawing, the preflop raiser mucked QQ face up. Everyone at the table was sure I had KK or AA. The turn and river came 7 and 2, so I was pretty sure I lost either way. The all-in guy turned up AK! I think that's an atrocious play for a cash game, so I wasn't really expecting it. So I look at my cards and turn over... ♠A♠2. Pair of deuces takes the pot! Everyone had a good laugh about it, and everyone else at the table still swore they thought I had KK or AA. Even the AK guy realized that if I hadn't made my play, he wouldn't even have had a chance to win against the other guy's QQ, so he took it in stride. Besides, the flop gave me a gutshot draw so it wasn't as horrible a beat as it might have seemed at first.
And yes, even that hand was still part of "the normal". In the next post, we'll get to "the weird".
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Categorizing when reviewing (random daily thought)
Often when you ask me whether I liked something, whether it be a restaurant or a movie or whatever, you will hear me say "it's good for what it is". I always find that it is more useful to rate something among a comparable subset of goods/services rather than just giving a blanket opinion.
For example, the NY Times reviews restaurants on a 4 star system. However, there are restaurants where a 2 star review would probably be the highest it could possibly achieve while a 2 star review would be devastating for certain restaurants. This is the same for the Zagat Survey. The only qualifier is usually a price range listed after this main review component. I think that every review site should have a value/worth rating. I've eaten at ridiculously expensive places as well as many cheap places. Personally, I often find good value at both ends of the spectrum and very little value at the places in between.
Another thing I try to avoid is comparing apples to oranges. My friend who saw O with me didn't think it was anything special, saying that he wanted more energy and that he would have a better time at a concert with high energy fans. While the prices are comparable for a night out, I wouldn't make this direct comparison. I understand that there are subjective preferences. I'm sure I have friends who would feel out of place at said concerts that my friend would love. So when I try to give my opinion on something, I try to qualify the event as best I can with as objectively comparable events as possible. And this is why you'll frequently hear me say that something is "good for what it is", and if you're not sure what I think "it is", then you should ask.
For example, the NY Times reviews restaurants on a 4 star system. However, there are restaurants where a 2 star review would probably be the highest it could possibly achieve while a 2 star review would be devastating for certain restaurants. This is the same for the Zagat Survey. The only qualifier is usually a price range listed after this main review component. I think that every review site should have a value/worth rating. I've eaten at ridiculously expensive places as well as many cheap places. Personally, I often find good value at both ends of the spectrum and very little value at the places in between.
Another thing I try to avoid is comparing apples to oranges. My friend who saw O with me didn't think it was anything special, saying that he wanted more energy and that he would have a better time at a concert with high energy fans. While the prices are comparable for a night out, I wouldn't make this direct comparison. I understand that there are subjective preferences. I'm sure I have friends who would feel out of place at said concerts that my friend would love. So when I try to give my opinion on something, I try to qualify the event as best I can with as objectively comparable events as possible. And this is why you'll frequently hear me say that something is "good for what it is", and if you're not sure what I think "it is", then you should ask.
Non-gambling Entertainment (VegasSummer 09, entertainment)
There are a lot of things to do in Vegas other than gambling, and with my early exit from the WSOP tournament, we decided to enjoy some of these other forms of entertainment. There was a bowling alley in my hotel and I had a coupon, so we bowled a few games. It was during this time that I checked my phone and found out that Michael Jackson had died. I knew about Farrah Fawcett earlier, but this was really shocking as it was unexpected.
Besides bowling, we watched Transformers 2 on IMAX at the Palms and two nights later caught O at the Bellagio. I thought Transformers 2 was all right though everyone compared it unfavorably to the first one. I don't know if the big screen helped at all during the fight scenes. With the mishmash of shooting, transforming, and kung-fu type fight scenes, it was hard to figure out what was going on. I often couldn't tell whether something was a punch or a kick. While we were waiting to watch Transformers 2, we rewatched Pelham 123. I thought it was ok the first time I saw it, but upon further review, there were just too many stupid plot points and characters. It just wasn't very good.
We were 15 minutes late to O, but I was still amazed. Everything worked, from the acrobats to the clowns, and some of the aquatic acts were truly spectacular. If you've never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, I highly recommend it. And even if you have, I'm sure O would compare favorably. However, I suggest reserving your tickets online or preferably getting comped. It was my friend's last night in Vegas so we bought same-day tickets at full price for mediocre upper level seats. I don't know if I can justify paying $170 for that considering everyone else in the theater probably paid less than we did.
Besides bowling, we watched Transformers 2 on IMAX at the Palms and two nights later caught O at the Bellagio. I thought Transformers 2 was all right though everyone compared it unfavorably to the first one. I don't know if the big screen helped at all during the fight scenes. With the mishmash of shooting, transforming, and kung-fu type fight scenes, it was hard to figure out what was going on. I often couldn't tell whether something was a punch or a kick. While we were waiting to watch Transformers 2, we rewatched Pelham 123. I thought it was ok the first time I saw it, but upon further review, there were just too many stupid plot points and characters. It just wasn't very good.
We were 15 minutes late to O, but I was still amazed. Everything worked, from the acrobats to the clowns, and some of the aquatic acts were truly spectacular. If you've never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, I highly recommend it. And even if you have, I'm sure O would compare favorably. However, I suggest reserving your tickets online or preferably getting comped. It was my friend's last night in Vegas so we bought same-day tickets at full price for mediocre upper level seats. I don't know if I can justify paying $170 for that considering everyone else in the theater probably paid less than we did.
Friday, July 3, 2009
WSOP Event #48 (VegasSummer 09, gambling)
This was the $1500 PLO8 that I really wanted to play. The result was disappointing as I lost rather quickly. Everyone started with 1500 in chips with two rebuys of 1500 each that can be taken at any time in the first three levels. Blinds started at 25/50 and the second level was 50/100. There were at least three pros at my table and I'm pretty sure the pro directly to my left has a WSOP bracelet and ended up being the chip leader after the first day. Nobody at our table took any early rebuys.
It didn't help that I didn't get much in the way of cards. I was dealt A2xx only once during my hour and a half of play, and it was A2KT where everyone folded to my preflop raise. Any kind of speculative hand that I had (eg. 2345 double suited) in position would completely miss the flop. There were only two flops that I really hit. One was quads which I bet the whole way as the other guy chased an A3 low and caught on the river. The other hand I flopped the nut low with a flush draw and gutshot straight draw. The pro that called my bets had top two pair and the second nut low. The river counterfeited my low, filling his gutshot and leaving me without even half the pot.
For my first live tournament experience, I thought I learned a lot. I think if I played a similar event again I'd be more comfortable and more patient. Of course I would still need to get some cards and hit some flops, but I think I learned a lot more about the difference in live and online tournament play.
It didn't help that I didn't get much in the way of cards. I was dealt A2xx only once during my hour and a half of play, and it was A2KT where everyone folded to my preflop raise. Any kind of speculative hand that I had (eg. 2345 double suited) in position would completely miss the flop. There were only two flops that I really hit. One was quads which I bet the whole way as the other guy chased an A3 low and caught on the river. The other hand I flopped the nut low with a flush draw and gutshot straight draw. The pro that called my bets had top two pair and the second nut low. The river counterfeited my low, filling his gutshot and leaving me without even half the pot.
For my first live tournament experience, I thought I learned a lot. I think if I played a similar event again I'd be more comfortable and more patient. Of course I would still need to get some cards and hit some flops, but I think I learned a lot more about the difference in live and online tournament play.
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (VegasSummer 09, food)
Only an hour off the plane and barely checked into my room, my buddy calls me and says that he and his friend are going to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. As many of my readers know, I love all the L'Ateliers, having eaten at four of its worldwide locations (NYC, LV, HK, Paris).
So off we went to a huge meal on my first night in Vegas. I opted not to have any wine since I was playing the WSOP event #48 the next day. We decided on the "discovery menu" and added one of the miniburgers each because it's one of my favorite items on the menu and it was actually cheaper than the price on the NYC menu.
Foie gras parfait with port wine and parmesan foam
this amuse is one of the best things at L'atelier and I can never get enough of it.
Smoked salmon in an herb gelee with light wasabi cream
this was everything I would want in a starter. Light, tasty, with a kick from the wasabi cream and a good mix of textures.
Poached baby Kusshi oysters with French Echire butter
we all agreed that this was the least impressive of all the dishes.
Maine lobster in a tomato sauce and green asparagus
well-cooked and tasty, one of my friends said that this was his favorite dish. I liked it but was not blown away.
Foie gras ravioli in a warm chicken broth with herbs
this was much better than the one time I ordered this in NYC. For some reason the flavors melded much better this time. Great dish in cold weather.
Mackerel filet, baby artichokes, ginger oil
this was the most impressive dish for me. Just spectacular flavors and a perfectly cooked piece of fish.
Beef and foie gras burgers with caramelized bell peppers
wonderful as always. the flavors, the fat, the meat, it all just goes so well together.
Entree choice of foie gras stuffed quail or hanger steak with fried shallots
i've had the quail many times so I decided to try the hanger steak. It was very good but I'm not sure I would ever order it a la carte.
Peach confit infused with Moscato d'Asti, apricot milkshake
this was good but it was heavier than we all expected for a predessert.
Acai granitem, light caramel cream
good dessert to round out a great meal.
The discovery menu was $148 and the extra burger was $16. Unless you go crazy, I never find L'atelier to be overpriced for the consistently high quality of food.
So off we went to a huge meal on my first night in Vegas. I opted not to have any wine since I was playing the WSOP event #48 the next day. We decided on the "discovery menu" and added one of the miniburgers each because it's one of my favorite items on the menu and it was actually cheaper than the price on the NYC menu.
Foie gras parfait with port wine and parmesan foam
this amuse is one of the best things at L'atelier and I can never get enough of it.
Smoked salmon in an herb gelee with light wasabi cream
this was everything I would want in a starter. Light, tasty, with a kick from the wasabi cream and a good mix of textures.
Poached baby Kusshi oysters with French Echire butter
we all agreed that this was the least impressive of all the dishes.
Maine lobster in a tomato sauce and green asparagus
well-cooked and tasty, one of my friends said that this was his favorite dish. I liked it but was not blown away.
Foie gras ravioli in a warm chicken broth with herbs
this was much better than the one time I ordered this in NYC. For some reason the flavors melded much better this time. Great dish in cold weather.
Mackerel filet, baby artichokes, ginger oil
this was the most impressive dish for me. Just spectacular flavors and a perfectly cooked piece of fish.
Beef and foie gras burgers with caramelized bell peppers
wonderful as always. the flavors, the fat, the meat, it all just goes so well together.
Entree choice of foie gras stuffed quail or hanger steak with fried shallots
i've had the quail many times so I decided to try the hanger steak. It was very good but I'm not sure I would ever order it a la carte.
Peach confit infused with Moscato d'Asti, apricot milkshake
this was good but it was heavier than we all expected for a predessert.
Acai granitem, light caramel cream
good dessert to round out a great meal.
The discovery menu was $148 and the extra burger was $16. Unless you go crazy, I never find L'atelier to be overpriced for the consistently high quality of food.
Back from Vegas (VegasSummer 09)
Just came back from Vegas today, and will start posting my thoughts about the trip. I'm mostly going to go in chronological order, and will discuss food, hotels, gambling, etc. I know that it probably would've been more fun if I had updated in a more real-time fashion, but I only paid for internet use 1 out of every 3 days anyway.
The posts will be labeled VegasSummer09 in case I mix other posts in between.
I wish everyone a happy 4th of July weekend, and I think that Kobayashi will be very good value this year as a bet. It's his last year as he is retiring, and I imagine this means that he can go all out and extend himself without worrying too much about future repercussions since he won't be competing anymore.
The posts will be labeled VegasSummer09 in case I mix other posts in between.
I wish everyone a happy 4th of July weekend, and I think that Kobayashi will be very good value this year as a bet. It's his last year as he is retiring, and I imagine this means that he can go all out and extend himself without worrying too much about future repercussions since he won't be competing anymore.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Vegas update (gambling, entertainment, food)
Just a quick post so that noone thinks I'm buried up to my neck in the desert somewhere.
Got KOed of the 1500 PLO8 tournament in 1.5 hours. There were at least 3 pros at my table, and I think the pro directly to my left was actually the chip leader after the first day. It wasn't so much that as the fact that I didn't have any cards and didn't hit any flops. The only flops I hit were quads with a guy chasing A3 low all the way and catching it on the river and another hand where I flopped the nut low and flush draw against someone's two pair and second nut low and my low got counterfeited on the river for his wheel.
Food-wise, the notable meals were a meal at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and a teppanyaki meal with Kobe beef. Other than that, I've mostly eaten in the hotel, including an averagish prime rib at the steakhouse and some 75cent (beef) hot dogs and $5 steak and eggs at 5 in the morning.
I will jot down all the stuff I want to post about so I can do it later. But as I'm going to bed at like 6am every day, I will probably not be writing any more posts until I get back.
Got KOed of the 1500 PLO8 tournament in 1.5 hours. There were at least 3 pros at my table, and I think the pro directly to my left was actually the chip leader after the first day. It wasn't so much that as the fact that I didn't have any cards and didn't hit any flops. The only flops I hit were quads with a guy chasing A3 low all the way and catching it on the river and another hand where I flopped the nut low and flush draw against someone's two pair and second nut low and my low got counterfeited on the river for his wheel.
Food-wise, the notable meals were a meal at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and a teppanyaki meal with Kobe beef. Other than that, I've mostly eaten in the hotel, including an averagish prime rib at the steakhouse and some 75cent (beef) hot dogs and $5 steak and eggs at 5 in the morning.
I will jot down all the stuff I want to post about so I can do it later. But as I'm going to bed at like 6am every day, I will probably not be writing any more posts until I get back.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Food videos (food)
Some food videos I want to share. These are not particularly new, but interesting enough to rewatch even.
Gordon Ramsay on what might be the best farmed caviar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF-rPKM-2EU
Dan Barber on humane foie gras. I am hoping to get a reservation at his farm/restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns when my mom visits in September:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
Jennifer Lee on Chinese food history in America. I have always been quite fascinated with American Chinese food actually:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html
Both of the last two talks come from Taste3 http://www.taste3.com/ which looks to have been quite a conference. However, I used links from TED http://www.ted.com/ because I think that if you haven't heard of TED, you should definitely check it out.
Gordon Ramsay on what might be the best farmed caviar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF-rPKM-2EU
Dan Barber on humane foie gras. I am hoping to get a reservation at his farm/restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns when my mom visits in September:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
Jennifer Lee on Chinese food history in America. I have always been quite fascinated with American Chinese food actually:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html
Both of the last two talks come from Taste3 http://www.taste3.com/ which looks to have been quite a conference. However, I used links from TED http://www.ted.com/ because I think that if you haven't heard of TED, you should definitely check it out.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Need some sun (food, health)
Not just because of the constant rain lately. I'll avoid that soon enough when I'm out in Vegas. The reason we might need more sun comes from a study presented at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting. Researchers found that after placing subjects on a calorie-restricted diet, those with higher vitamin D levels had increased loss of belly fat. While vitamin D also comes from healthy food sources like fatty fish, our skin makes vitamin D after exposure to ultraviolet light. So the whole fit-bodied tanned culture might be more than just a correlation of being someplace sunny.
As I prepare (really haven't prepared anything) for my trip, I decided to introduce more flavors to my palate since the detox and light chinese food. However, I think I went overboard by having three tacos with my first exposure to Mexican spices and beef and pork all at once. It was delicious though. I wonder what I will end up eating while in Vegas. The fact that it's 9 nights is a bit daunting since that's a long time to be on vacation alone.
As I prepare (really haven't prepared anything) for my trip, I decided to introduce more flavors to my palate since the detox and light chinese food. However, I think I went overboard by having three tacos with my first exposure to Mexican spices and beef and pork all at once. It was delicious though. I wonder what I will end up eating while in Vegas. The fact that it's 9 nights is a bit daunting since that's a long time to be on vacation alone.
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