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Emily and Jonathan

Originally uploaded by jaslusher

They had a blast at Tybee and looked cute doing it. See for yourself.

If this is true, then my family genes will survive untold millions of years.

My blood sugar has been high for more than two days, but low enough that I can soldier on. It’s to the point now that I haven’t had a reading less than 183 for so long I’m dehydrated and weak.

I think I’m about done soldiering. I think tomorrow is doctor time.

I didn’t win a bracelet, so now I have to go back and build tires.

Sigh.

In any competitive field there will inevitably be striations of talent.  Poker is the same as any other sport.  There is the cream of the crop that includes names like Sam Farha, Hoyt Corkins and Freddy Deeb, not to mention the mega-stars like Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson.  Those are the A-listers.

With an A list, there is going to be a B list and even a C list all ranked in descending order in both talent and fame.  Frankly, the pros that I was playing with were at best B-listers and more likely C-listers.  That day there was also a $5000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament going on that had the cream of the crop in it.  It not only benefited me as a player, since I didn’t have to play them, it also benefited me as a fan boy since on the breaks and such I would end up running into them as they did their thing.  I had a nice little chat with Freddy Deeb about how cold they kept the poker room and which sweatshirt in the WSOP store was the best.

So most of my interactions with pros was with B and C-listers.  I already mentioned knocking Fred Goldberg out, who owns a bracelet, so I don’t want to insult his standing in the poker community.  I know that having a bracelet doesn’t automatically make you the best.  I don’t think much of the skills of Jamie Gold or Jerry Yang, and they both hold Main Event bracelets. I will leave it up to others to decide what list Mr. Goldberg is on.

Other pros (and well onto the B-list) that I played include Greg Mueller, Bernard Lee (who knocked me out) and a plethora of C-listers like Raymond Davis.

The thing about these lower level pros is that they are the cockiest bunch of goofballs you will ever meet.  they talk smack constantly, drop the names of the A-listers constantly in order to sound as if they are peers and generally try to intimidate everybody at the table.  The thing about them is that I don’t think in general they are that great.  I think they have more opportunities to play, which gives them a results edge, but for the most part they weren’t knocking me out with their spectacular play.  So the edge that they try to get over talented amateurs is just trying to verbally bully them.  Let me give you an example.

I sit down at a table after being moved and casually remark at how quiet it was there.  I’ve been sitting for less than a minute.  This cat two seats to my right starts remarking about how we’ve got a live one at the table (referring to me and in poker parlance it isn’t a compliment).  Take a look at him.  His name is Raymond Davis.  He goes on for a minute or two in assessing my skills without ever having seen me play a hand, so I can only figure that he wants to tilt me and establish a pecking order in one shot.  I let him have his say and when he finishes I look him in the eye and say (paraphrasing) “Nice outfit, are you supposed to be the last King of Scotland?  Or are you just a really old Eagle Scout?”  To go along with that weird shirt he was wearing jeans that had red sequins running along the stitching around the pockets and down the leg.  I told him, “By the way, Elton John says nice pants”.  After that the talk was much more cordial.  Uneventful even.  They (he and Greg Mueller) went on to start ragging on other C-list pros like Fun Bobby, who was busy getting punked out (scroll down to We’ll Buy the Kid Dinner) at the table behind me.

Thing is, I can play against guys like that all day.  That kind of needling doesn’t bother me (I’m Dale Slusher’s son of God’s sake) and doesn’t distract me from my game.  I look forward to playing them again.

Check out this poker face.  

I’m back from Vegas and my WSOP event.  I finished in the money!  I got knocked out in 236th place which was good for a payout of $2770.  With the initial buy-in of $1500 it means I made about a $100 an hour playing poker that day.  None too shabby.

I only lost 3 showdowns all day long.  I was very very happy with my play.  Of course, the last showdown that I lost was an all-in bet on my part.  I had AA and my opponent (Bernard Lee) had 99.  The flop came 953 and the rest is history.

I knocked several players out, one of whom is named Fred Goldberg who happens to be the proud owner of a WSOP bracelet.  So even if that had been it, I would still have felt like I accomplished my goal of being able to keep up with the pros.

One of the coolest things about this is that I am now a part of WSOP history.  Check it out.  That’s forever.

Thanks to friends and family that supported me and gave me kind words of encouragement.  Thank you most of all to Marilyn, Emily and Jonathan who are my biggest fans and loudest cheerleaders. I couldn’t do it without your help.

I’m going back next year and I will be a better player when I get there.  Let’s see if we can’t push some of those numbers up.

Tomorrow is the big day.  I’m headed for Vegas!  I’m very excited about it, as this is quite possibly a once in a lifetime chance for me.  Okay, that might be exaggerated, but how I do in this will definitely affect my chances of doing similar things in the future.

I’m playing in World Series of Poker Event #27, it is a No Limit Hold ‘Em event with a $1500 buy-in.  It should have roughly 2500 to 3000 entrants.  That is admittedly bigger than the biggest field I have ever beat.  I won a tourney with 1800 entrants once.  I finished 23rd in a tourney with 1968 entrants last Saturday.  But I can definitely do this.

What I’m extremely thrilled about is that Marilyn is willing to let me try.  $1500 is a big deal to her.  It’s a big deal to everyone, but we are talking about a woman who agonizes over $5 decisions at times.  I’m saying it is a BIG deal.  She is also the most risk averse person I have ever met. So the fact she is letting me gamble a huge amount of money is a vote of confidence (or at least acceptance) in my poker skills.  It means a lot to me.

So Happy Vegas Eve everyone.  Wish me well.

Emily Digging

Originally uploaded by jaslusher

As Father’s day draws nigh, one tends to ask oneself, “What kind of father am I?” I’m the kind that puts his 5 year old to work. The more shovel work she does, the more she might value a good education. That’s my theory at least.

My 20th class reunion was awesome. I had a really good time seeing many of the people who where with me during my formative years.

Turnout was fairly low, only about a quarter of the class showed up. It’s odd that the vast majority of the no-shows were the local people. I don’t know if they just felt like they hadn’t accomplished enough and were embarrassed (I feel your pain) or what. I do know, however, that those locals that didn’t show up are trifling little people. I will let each and every one of them know how trifling they are as the opportunity arises.

The ones that did come had a good time and it reminded me what an exceptional group of people I went to school with. The kids that go to A.R. Johnson are smart, that’s a given. It’s a magnet school, so the students are screened for smarts to start with. But the Class of 88 was exceptional in that there was an abnormally large sample of outgoing (and frankly good-looking) kids in that class. The attendees were a testament to that. It was great seeing them again and reconnecting.

Now I can’t wait for the 25 year reunion!