Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Okay, it's about 2:30 am Vegas time and I'm back in my room after my third winning session of poker. Not a big win, about $115, but it should have been much bigger. One dealer who sat down absolutely cold decked me on two hands right in a row when I was about $250 up.
The first one I had pocket queens. I raise to $20 preflop and get raised to $50 by a guy who had hardly played a hand since he'd sat down about an hour earlier. Very tight player. I call the raise and the flop came jack high. I knew there was a good chance he had aces or kings but I figured I'd better find out right now. I bet $30 and he went all in. I said, "Okay, your kings are good" and folded my queens face up. He turned up pocket kings.
The very next hand I pick up pocket kings in early position. I decide to slow play them and just limp in and another guy raises to $20. I check raise to $60 and he goes all in for about another $70. I call and he turns up pocket aces. Ouch. Cold decked twice in a row and my $250 profit is gone. I went card dead for a while after that, then made a late rally to finish up $115.
When I first got to that table it was tighter than Oprah's spandex jogging suit. I bet 1/3 of the hands ended in a chop because everyone folded to the blinds. Unbelievably tight. I don't usually play the aggressor, I like to sit back and pick my spots, but I loosened that game up by starting to straddle and getting other players to do it too. Not my usual style, but there wasn't gonna be any money made on that table by anyone, including the casino, the way it was going.
Funniest line I heard today: I asked a poker room supervisor if this past weekend's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the busiest conventions of the year in Vegas, had increased the business in the poker room. His reply: "Computer geeks don't gamble. They come to town with a clean shirt and $20 and they leave town with a dirty shirt and $20."
Now I'm waiting for room service to bring me a sandwich, since all the restaurants are closed. Tomorrow I'm meeting a reader for lunch, then another reader in the evening. I'll have to fit in some poker around those meetings somewhere. I'm sure I'll manage. So, up to date scoring:
Poker: +595
Food: -166
Comments
Strange, I usually lose money at Food, too.
Posted by: kehrsam | January 13, 2009 7:50 AM
Cool stuff.
So, when you play at these venues Ed, do you do the Phil Laak thing and try to cover up everything, dark glasses, the hoodie, the earphones, the whole bit...or are you more likely to go au natural, trusting in your poker-face not to give any tells? Or something in between like sunglasses and a ballcap or just a ballcap?
Posted by: Dave S. | January 13, 2009 8:43 AM
Hey! I resemble that remark! Though sometimes I take two shirts - if it's a long trip.
Posted by: NoAstronomer | January 13, 2009 9:59 AM
Heh. I took two business trips out to my company's Vegas facility last year, one for training and one for an emergency programming issue. I got ribbed when I got back both times for not doing any gambling, not even a nickel in a slot machine. Glad to know it's not just me--it's all us computer geeks! :)
Posted by: Scott Simmons | January 13, 2009 10:08 AM
Computer geek here. I went to Vegas in August for a pool tournament and during that week I probably spent 20 hours at the $1/2 no limit tables.
Posted by: llDayo | January 13, 2009 10:26 AM
The person in question is an idiot. The CES is not a 'computer geeks' show - its a consumer electronics show which pulls in mostly sales guys and electrical engineers. Who do gamble. Now if he was talking about Comdex then he would be correct.
(been to CES at least 8 times)
Posted by: yoshi | January 13, 2009 12:21 PM
I think Comdex is correct, but the line I heard about Comdex geeks was: "They come with one suit and one $20 and they don't change either."
Couldn't have been me, I didn't bring a suit.
Posted by: North of 49 | January 13, 2009 4:00 PM
Just had lunch with Ed and it was great (both the food) and the conversation.
I'm just mad I forgot to get a picture.
Posted by: rmp | January 13, 2009 5:25 PM