シーザーズの毎日23時のトーナメントに出ました。バイインとアッドオンは＄７０、115人が参加した。僕は5位で飛び出て、＄４０３をもらいました。良い経験だったけど、僕がただラッキーだったのでそこまで進んだ。最後の25人ぐらいは凄い上手で、プレーを見たり、考え方を聞いたりして勉強になりました。
これからポーカーをまた勉強して、今日のような良いプレヤーになりたい。頑張ります。
Just a short update -- I entered the nightly 11pm tournament at the Caesars poker room, at the encouragement of Celica-san and Kazu-san from the JPPA. Kazu-san and several other Japanese players entered, but I managed to last until 5th place out of 115 entries, and took home a $403 prize. The buyin and addon was $70, so this was a good return.
When we got down to about 25 people, pretty much everyone else was a lot better than me, and were very advanced in their thinking and strategy. I was a short stack from about the time when we got down to 40-50 people, but I managed to hold on and get lucky and double-up when I needed to to stay in the game. I won a lot of races, or I would have been out a lot earlier.
It was a great experience, and very enlightening to see these good players and watch how they made their decisions, see the reads on their opponents, and listen to their conversations and thinking processes. I can tell I need a lot of practice, study, and thought, but I am planning to keep at in and become a better player, and maybe come back next year to actually play in the WSOP.
And the money didn't hurt either.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Almost there
Only a few more days until I leave for Vegas. I am excited and nervous to be meeting so many great poker bloggers and players. Surely I'll get along with someone.
I found a bounty for myself in the blogger tourney, even. I was hoping to find some cds or something from the Japanese band that Dr. Pauly wrote lyrics for - get him to autograph it and I'd earn quite a few suck-up points. Unfortunately my online searches didn't turn up much. I'll continue to keep my eyes open, but it's not going to happen by Friday.
Instead I got something that's related to Japan and poker players, likely of tickling the fancy of a good percent of those who'll be busting me out. I'm tempted to open it up myself and quality control check it, but naw, I will restrain myself.
Japanese players have been doing pretty well in the WSOP so far. Bluejay is keeping a blog for their performances in a special section on the JPPA web page. So far the three players have cashed for a bit less than $30,000. Not bad at all. One of the guys, with the handle of Zico, is a sharp-looking young Japanese guy in the playboy suit, tinted glasses, moussed hair and plenty of silver. I'd expect to see him either in a host club (not that I go to such places) or in Shibuya, macking on possibly underage schoolgirls. Instead he's looking cool at the WSOP and taking down almost-five figure paydays. Hopefully we'll see him on ESPN.
Bluejay himself hasn't cashed yet, and seems to be very annoyed at the fact. He went deep in one of the Omaha events last year, finishing 12th, as I recall, but busted out of the recent Omaha event early.
And me? I'm not playing in the WSOP. Don't be silly.
I found a bounty for myself in the blogger tourney, even. I was hoping to find some cds or something from the Japanese band that Dr. Pauly wrote lyrics for - get him to autograph it and I'd earn quite a few suck-up points. Unfortunately my online searches didn't turn up much. I'll continue to keep my eyes open, but it's not going to happen by Friday.
Instead I got something that's related to Japan and poker players, likely of tickling the fancy of a good percent of those who'll be busting me out. I'm tempted to open it up myself and quality control check it, but naw, I will restrain myself.
Japanese players have been doing pretty well in the WSOP so far. Bluejay is keeping a blog for their performances in a special section on the JPPA web page. So far the three players have cashed for a bit less than $30,000. Not bad at all. One of the guys, with the handle of Zico, is a sharp-looking young Japanese guy in the playboy suit, tinted glasses, moussed hair and plenty of silver. I'd expect to see him either in a host club (not that I go to such places) or in Shibuya, macking on possibly underage schoolgirls. Instead he's looking cool at the WSOP and taking down almost-five figure paydays. Hopefully we'll see him on ESPN.
Bluejay himself hasn't cashed yet, and seems to be very annoyed at the fact. He went deep in one of the Omaha events last year, finishing 12th, as I recall, but busted out of the recent Omaha event early.
And me? I'm not playing in the WSOP. Don't be silly.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Pachislots
A few weeks ago I came across this article about Japan as a gambling market, particularly online. There are some interesting points in it, definitely food for thought.
That certainly catches my attention. Five million slot machines. More than five times the number in the United States.
Of course, they're talking about "slotlike gaming devices", which are both straight slot machines (which payout in gaming tokens, not cash), and pachi-slot machines, which are pachinko machines with a video display in the center than plays a video slot machine. Do well with the pachinko play and you kick off spins of the video slot machine for bonus payouts of pachinko balls.
A lot of current pachinko machines, maybe more than half, are pachi-slot machines. There are also a lot of straight slot machines too - usually the first floor of a typical parlor is pachinko and pachi-slot machines, and the second floor (often smaller than the first floor) is slot machines and other medal games. Often they'll have a section for the computerized horse racing games.
Most pachinko parlors open at 10am or so. Walk by them at 9:30am, and you will see a line of people waiting to get in. The one in the same building as my gym sets out rows of folding chairs in front of the main entrance so folks can sit and wait more comfortably for opening time. I've often seen 40 or 50 people are patiently sitting, reading sports and horse-racing newspapers, waiting for the doors to open so they can get inside and get at those pachinko machines.
Recently they released a new themed pachinko machine based on "Winter Sonata", a wildly popular Korean tv drama, especially among middle aged Japanese women. The machines had a video screen and apparently doing well would kick off video segments of key scenes from the show. Opening day for these machines was all over most tv news shows that evening. Lines for the machines were an hour or more long. Most of those waiting were middle aged Japanese women. (This show ran and finished something like five years ago.)
Okay, okay, so Japanese love their pachinko. And their pachi-slots. Does that mean they'll become serious slot machine players for real money? It wouldn't surprise me.
What if the casinos cut out the middleman and set up pachinko and pachislot machines that pay out directly in cash? Would that fly? I don't know - many Japanese say they play pachinko for relaxation and stress relief. Their neighborhood parlor is fine for that - would they travel across town to play for cash at a casino? I am skeptical.
Pachinko parlors are also noisy and chaotic in a different way than the noisy chaos of a casino. The atmospheres may not mix well.
Still, lots of Japanese play the gaming-token-only slot machines and medal games, and they'd probably transition over well to slots for cash.
That would be nice. I wonder if my MGM Player's card will work at MGM Tokyo?
With the most slot-machine-like gaming devices of any country in the world, Japan is a huge and growing market. Brian Gordon, a partner in the Las Vegas-based financial consulting company Applied Analysis, said Japan has to be seen as a huge opportunity if only because of the size of the market and turnover in slotlike gaming devices.
Already, there are 5 million devices in Japan, compared with 830 000 in the United States, 240 000 in Russia and 200 000 in Australia, a recent Deutsche Bank study of Japan found.
That certainly catches my attention. Five million slot machines. More than five times the number in the United States.
Of course, they're talking about "slotlike gaming devices", which are both straight slot machines (which payout in gaming tokens, not cash), and pachi-slot machines, which are pachinko machines with a video display in the center than plays a video slot machine. Do well with the pachinko play and you kick off spins of the video slot machine for bonus payouts of pachinko balls.
A lot of current pachinko machines, maybe more than half, are pachi-slot machines. There are also a lot of straight slot machines too - usually the first floor of a typical parlor is pachinko and pachi-slot machines, and the second floor (often smaller than the first floor) is slot machines and other medal games. Often they'll have a section for the computerized horse racing games.
Most pachinko parlors open at 10am or so. Walk by them at 9:30am, and you will see a line of people waiting to get in. The one in the same building as my gym sets out rows of folding chairs in front of the main entrance so folks can sit and wait more comfortably for opening time. I've often seen 40 or 50 people are patiently sitting, reading sports and horse-racing newspapers, waiting for the doors to open so they can get inside and get at those pachinko machines.
Recently they released a new themed pachinko machine based on "Winter Sonata", a wildly popular Korean tv drama, especially among middle aged Japanese women. The machines had a video screen and apparently doing well would kick off video segments of key scenes from the show. Opening day for these machines was all over most tv news shows that evening. Lines for the machines were an hour or more long. Most of those waiting were middle aged Japanese women. (This show ran and finished something like five years ago.)
Okay, okay, so Japanese love their pachinko. And their pachi-slots. Does that mean they'll become serious slot machine players for real money? It wouldn't surprise me.
What if the casinos cut out the middleman and set up pachinko and pachislot machines that pay out directly in cash? Would that fly? I don't know - many Japanese say they play pachinko for relaxation and stress relief. Their neighborhood parlor is fine for that - would they travel across town to play for cash at a casino? I am skeptical.
Pachinko parlors are also noisy and chaotic in a different way than the noisy chaos of a casino. The atmospheres may not mix well.
Still, lots of Japanese play the gaming-token-only slot machines and medal games, and they'd probably transition over well to slots for cash.
In addition to the potential in the existing market, moves are afoot in Japan to legalise Las Vegas-style casino gambling.
Given strong operator interest in Asian gaming, Falcone said the opening of Japan should seriously interest U.S. operators, including Harrah's Entertainment, MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd.
That would be nice. I wonder if my MGM Player's card will work at MGM Tokyo?
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