Mattazuma's Revenge

Second Thoughts

I have been planning on playing in WSOP event #17, $1000 NL Hold-em.  I won enough at Poker Stars to pay for most of the buy-in, so the out of pocket is only around $350, but I am having second thoughts.

My first problem is with the blind structure.  In most online events, you start with the equivalent of 100 big blinds in level 1.  For example, you start with 1500 chips and the initial blinds are 10/15.  As is WSOP custom, you start with the same number chips as your buy-in.  So, in this event everyone gets 1000 chips.  But the level 1 blinds are 25/25, which is equivalent to only 40 big blinds.  This is understandable, since they don't want to deal with $5 chips, but it hurts my uber-tight style.  I am only going to be able to play a few hands before I have to win a pot.

The other problem is the obvious one, there are going to be an obscene number of people in this event, since it the cheapest one in the entire WSOP.  I figure at least 3000, so my shot at cashing is pretty damn remote.  I have been playing simulated tournaments using Wilson Turbo Tournament Holdem, using a blind structure similar to the real thing.  The Wilson software is very good, the AI can be very strong.  I only make the money about one out of five tries.

So, what is comes down to is, do I want to play in something this big (hopefully fun) even though I know it is EV-?

I'll see how I feel about my play after the blogger tournament Saturday morning.

Concert Review - Los Lonely Boys / James Hunter At Ravinia

Went to Ravinia tonight.  Jonnell convinced me to go see Los Lonely Boys.  From their singles, I figured they would be some kind of semi-light rock band.  Man was I wrong.

The opening act was James Hunter.  I had never heard of him, he is a British rockabilly singer and guitar player.  He had a cool band with a couple of sax players & a stand up bass.  Bad camera phone picture:

I thought they were great.  I'm going to buy their new album off Amazon tonight.  His keyboard player is the first guy I remember seeing at a Ravinia show who got a girl from the audience to go backstage with him.  It was very funny.  Usually the opening act band members don't get groupies.

OK, on to the main act.  Los Lonely Boys were pretty damn amazing.  They are very different live than any of their studio records.  They were more like Santana (I know a cliched comparison) or Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Henry Garza is a great guitar player and his brother Jojo played a great six string bass.  Henry played a little harmonica in one of the songs and threw in the hook from Low Rider, which was pretty cool.  They played a great cover of Superstition as well. 

For the encore, the brothers brought out their father to play with them.  He came out in a big cowboy hat and white shirt, like an old time western singer.  He sang "Folsom Prison Blues" and you could tell where the boys got alot of the singing ability from.  They closed out the concert with their big hit Heaven.  At the end, Jojo was letting the kids in the front of the audience sing the refrain, it was pretty cute.

I wasn't a fan of Los Lonely Boys before, but I am now.  The next time they come back to Chicago, I will definitely be in the audience.

Here is most of our dinner at the concert, a cheese & meat tray from Trotters to Go:

It was really excellent.  Also, we had pudding from Trotters.  Trotters to go has great food to bring out to Ravinia and really isn't any more expensive than buying food at the park.