The highlight of the trip was the Poker Pro Classic, a $1,500 buy-in event which attracted 246 players from across the US and Canada. Many participants had qualified via online tournaments on Ultimate Bet and Bodog, while several more won their seats through online qualifiers at the host venue. The field included Brian Devonshire, Richard Webb, Ultimate Bet's "Hollywood" Dave Stann & Mark "Poker Ho" Kroon and Canada's heads up champ, Ben LaBlond. Poker Pro's editor-in-chief John Wenzel also played. The format was similar to the World Series of Poker's Main Event, with multiple day ones leading to an eventual champion. With a $369,000 prize pool and first place taking down $118,000 the competition was fierce to make the final table. After nearly 16 hours of play on the final day, the champ was crowned. The June issue of Poker Pro will feature more about the tournament.

I was impressed by the host facility. The Four Aces Poker Club is located in an unassuming location in Kahnawake, Quebec…just outside Montreal. Poker enthusiasts may recognize this as 'gound zero' for the poker scandals revealed on 60 Minutes a few years ago. This reservation still operates largely independent from provincial rule and, as such, enjoys autonomy in how it operates and governs itself. Four Aces opened its doors for business at the beginning of 2010 and has developed a very player-friendly atmosphere for poker fans to enjoy the game. Here are a few of my observations:

The management: The GM, Noaman (no, that's not a typo – it's Noaman) Khan and owner, Dan Vigdehous, have the perfect storm for a successful poker club - great location, great action, great service. The location is a 10-15 minute drive from downtown Montreal, easy to find and offers ample free parking. The layout of the club works well. Plenty of tables with great action, but the players are not sitting on top of each other. The chairs are comfortable and the physical tables themselves are first-rate. They also know their players. I observed on several occasions where Dan would do something special for a player based on his knowledge of that person. These guys also know their poker. Dan hosts a weekly poker show on one of Canada's talk radio stations – and it's broadcast right from the poker club. The rake is a bit high (10% capped at $8 at the $1/2 NL), but offset by keeping the players fed and watered. (see Food Service below)

The dealers: They are all young, which made me a bit nervous at first. But the experience factor did not come into play. These dealers know how to run a professional, well-paced game…and keep it fun. On the few occasions where a flare-up occurred between players (and, yes, I seemed to be involved in most of them!), the dealers handled the situation quickly and with a sense of humor. There was a mutual respect between the dealers and the players that is distinctly lacking in many card rooms.

Food service: Chef Jean Pierre Dufort, Jr. keeps the players well-fed with some terrific culinary treats. Whether enjoyed in the stylish restaurant, Carte Blanche, or at the tables, the food is very good. During my stay, I sampled several tasty breakfasts and some great dinners including pasta and chicken. They also serve anchovies on their Caesar salads (is it even a Caesar w/o the chovs???) Many players raved about the steaks, but I didn't have an opportunity to try one.

Wait staff: It's a faux pas (look, I'm even speaking some French now!) for me to mention this team last. In most casinos, it seems you need to have camel-like qualities to survive the cycle time between cocktail waitress sightings. Not at Four Aces. It was never more than a minute between "Hey I'm getting thirsty" to "Oh, there's the waitress". And each of the servers is gorgeous and friendly. The one time a server forgot my order, she refused to take a tip after she remembered. It's clear this team takes pride in their work.

I had a great experience at Four Aces. If you're in the Montreal area, you should make a visit. You'll be glad you did.

Take time to Tilt,

John  

The smaller the buy-in, the bigger the mouth.

For those of you who play tournament poker, you know what I mean. An inordinate number of players want to tell you what a horrible player you are, what they did to your mother last night and what they would do to you if they were in your physical vicinity. I swear the cowardly lion could have avoided all the perils on the way to Oz and simply logged into an online poker game and he would have found his courage in an instant. But, then again, we wouldn't have a treasured film…so I guess it's just as well the golden age of poker didn't dawn in the late 1930s. In this month's Poker Pro, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies wrote "I know it sounds retarded to tilt over a freeroll, but I can't help it". I encounter folks all the time who enter minis (small buy-in tournaments) and seem to be there more to shoot their mouth off than play poker.

Last night I needed a distraction from taxes and logged into a mini tourney on PokerStars. I could see where this was going on the 3rd hand. I have A/K in the cutoff and I'm preceded by a 3x raise and one caller. I repop to 10x and the original raiser calls. Flop comes K/J/10 rainbow. Original raiser bets 2/3 pot and I shove. He insta-calls with a set of 10s. I start to congratulate him and lick my $4 wound when the virtual dealer peels off a Q on the river giving me a straight.

Queue the harassment.

For the next 7 hands I watch this guy implode about my play (arguably questionable, but I'm not going to ponder much on hand 3 of a $4 tourney) until he busts out. He continues for a bit from the virtual rail, but no one is paying attention so I guess he went and kicked his dog or hopefully enrolled in anger management classes. I thought we could return to poker. I was wrong.

With about 600 of the 1,000 original players left (this was a 1,000 player max tourney) I found myself in a battle of the blinds with me in the big blind. The guy next to me was a lightswitch. He had been at the table for 21 hands and made exactly two bets…both all-in preflop. He limps and I check my option with my 6/2o (if you've played with me before, you will recognize these are generally raising cards – but I decided to slowplay this time!). Flop comes 10/5/2 rainbow and the small blind bets the pot. I call. Turn is a jack and the small blind bets the pot. I call. The river is a king. The small blind checks and I put in a value bluff. After about three seconds, the small blind folds and I pick up the pot with bottom pair, no kicker. He proudly tells me he folded 7/7 and "did me a favor" by not raising.

Here is where I make my mistake.

I should have just said "gf" (good fold). But he had a lot of chips, so I thought getting him on tilt might increase my EV. So, instead, I suggested he "stick with being a lightswitch…because playing poker's not really your thing".

And we have ignition!

This guy goes through the regular motions…questioning my lineage, my sexual preferences, looking up various stats about my play, suggesting various rendezvous spots for him to "punch my head in", etc. I pause the episode of Entourage I'm watching and tune in to my new favorite show. It takes very little effort on my part to fan the flame, but I manage to keep him tilting for the next hour. My favorite part of his banter is his advice for me to watch him so I can "learn how to win a tournament". Unfortunately, he's in lock down poker, so I'm not getting any chip spewage…yet.

With about 300 left in the tournament (top 104 get paid), I'm short stacked with A/10s in the big blind. The guy in the cutoff pops it to 2.5x and I shove. He insta-calls with aces. Flop comes Q/7/9. Once again, I'm ready to wish the players a "gg" (good game) and get back to work. An 8 on the turn teases me. And a J on the river gives me a straight and delivers a bad beat to the guy with the rockets. Although I got lucky I don't feel bad about my play. The guy with aces was raising a lot of pots and I had about 20% of my chips already committed in the blind. Of course, the guy to my right (lightswitch) saw things differently. And now he has someone to commiserate with.

It's stupidity, not misery, that loves company.

These two are lighting up the chat box when we go to break. I face the tough choice of enjoying their uninformed thoughts or making a late dinner. My appetite wins out, but when I return a few minutes later, the guy to my right (my friend from the battle of the blinds two hours ago) has clearly taken the lead in attacking me. I mouse over his avatar to learn he's from Glasgow. I ask if he could chat in a Scottish brogue because it might make him more interesting. The other players at the table offer a few LOLs. My new friend to my right is now in a stage 5 meltdown. I kept thinking our table would break soon, but we stayed together for another two hours and this guy would introduce me to each new player alternatively as "luckbox" "suckout king" or some such term.

Shortly after the bubble, my antagonist gets lucky after he's all-in preflop with 8/8 against k/k. An eight hits on the flop and he doubles up. Of course, when he hits a two-outer, it was a well-timed, strategic play. When I do…well, whatever. I opt not to comment about his good fortune as he's already defensive enough about it in the chat box even though no one commented on it.

Five hours later…

…we make the final table. We're playing eight-handed tables in this tournament, so that's how many are left. Believe it or not, the guy to my right (yep, my table was the final table so we never moved) is still reliving my A/10 suckout from five hours previous. He is still strong chip-wise (thanks to his hand with the 8s). The next break I take a short walk to stretch my legs. When I reenter the room I see two jacks in my hand. An instant later I see my Scottish friend shove all his chips forward. I call and he shows 10/10. The board is clean and I bust my new friend. He is silent in losing. I guess there really was nothing left to say…but this was likely the case 4.5 hours ago!

I end up heads up for the tournament and both of us have ~1.5M chips. On the third hand, I pick up 4/8o. My opponent raises the 25k/50k blinds to 75k. I reraise to 225k. He calls. I get a dream flop…A/8/4 rainbow. I bet 625k and he moves all in. I call and he shows A/10s. The board comes runner/runner deuces giving my opponent a higher two pair. I guess the guy from Scotland was right. I should have let him show me how to win the tournament. Instead I trusted my instincts and had to settle for second place.

It's poker-tainment, stupid.

So what is it about these micro-stakes/macro-mouths? I think I get it. These guys play for reputation, not money. They would rather get $4 of value by defending what they think they already know, rather than an investment in information for future application. I guess that's good for players like me in the long run. If someone is so comfortable in their game, they refuse to be open to change, then they are setting themselves up to have an expensive hobby. I know I'll encounter this player again soon on Stars…and I look forward to it. He'll assume I always get my money in with the worst of it and I'll provide him an opportunity to discover otherwise.

The good news is he never will make this discovery.

Take time to Tilt,

John

Take time to Tilt,

John

For some reason, when I play the action amps up and the host struggles with running out of chips the players rebuy so often. Today is no exception and, three hours into the game, the chips are gone and players are rebuying from each other. The players at this game aren't casino veterans so explaining some of the rules abided by at casinos can be confusing. Such as you can't 'go south' and take money off the table. Or what happens when someone (okay, it was me) goes all in out of turn due to being on a heater and the action in front doesn't have to match my bet as it's not a legal bet until it's my turn to act.

Today I was feeling it, so when I looked down at pocket 3s under the gun I looked up at the clock and made note of the time…3:31. I raised the one chip blind to seven. A guy across from me who is a poker veteran reraised me to 20 chips. By the time it came around to me, everyone else folded and I rechecked the clock…3:32. I told my heads-up adversary, "It's 3:32. At 3:33, I'll take all your chips". He accepted this challenge as I called his preflop reraise. The flop was 2/3/5 rainbow. I checked my set to what I was sure was his overpair. He bet 40 chips. I went all in for 200. He looked up at the clock and waited a moment. "It's 3:34, I guess you won't be getting all my chips. I call." And he proudly showed his QQ. I told him, "Nope, it's still 3 3 3" as I showed my set of 3s. My hand held up and I had a nice double up as the host looked nervously at his rapidly depleting chip supply.

Take time to Tilt,

John

You know how you sometimes visualize someone before you meet them and expect them to look a certain way? I did this with the principal from this investment team. I assumed he was a big Texan who would be wearing jeans and Stetsons. Then one of my investors did some checking and thought they discovered this guy might be a former Microsoft executive, so I broadened my visuals to include a slightly geekier Texan. Imagine my surprise when an African American, former college football player walks in the room!

We hit it off and the meeting goes well. At the end he tells us to look for a commitment letter on Monday. Great news! Time to celebrate by heading to "The Bike" to play in the Winning o' the Green $200k guarantee event.

Take time to Tilt,

John

What concerns me is when someone offers an opinion absent any context. I've had more than a few people approach me and offer a critique of either me or Life on Tilt without knowing me or reading the book. It's hard for me to do anything with this input, since it's baseless so I have to discard their thoughts and move on because I'm not dealing with a critic, I'm dealing with someone who's ignorant.

I had a guy in the UK who got ahold of a promotional item for Life on Tilt when it was released a couple of years ago. The blog can be found here: http://wageringwar.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-on-tilt-my-5-sit-gos-are-never.html

I found the piece to be incredibly amusing and recently wrote to the blogger, Jeffrey Prest, to share my reaction and offer him a copy of the book in case he'd like to do a proper review. He graciously accepted my feedback and offer. I should have checked the shipping rates to the UK before I did this, but I ponied up my $48 to ship my $20 book across the pond and Jeffrey proved to be a man of his word.

Today, Jeffrey delivered his review, which I now share with you here:

http://wageringwar.blogspot.com/2010/03/life-on-tilt-review.html

Down with ignorance…up with developing our inner critic!

Take time to Tilt,

John