I'm an old timer both in age and 2 + 2 postings. My real name is Vince Lepore. I've been banned from 2 + 2 more times than I'd like to remember. Some bannings were justified others not. I was once offered my own forum here on 2+2 by none other than Mason Malmuth. Now he doesn't even look my way when we are in the same room. This is my story.

I retired from my second career in 1999 and moved to Vegas in 2001 to play poker full time. In 2008 I got tired of the grind, got old and retired from poker to take up full time Grandkid sitting.

I have occasionally returned to Vegas, mainly during the WSOP, to play a little. I moved a few years ago to Oregon. A poker room opened a few months ago in the town I live in and I've been playing small buy in tournaments there almost every night. I've done very well in these tournaments and consequently have been thinking of playing more often in larger tournaments. Thus my return to 2 + 2 mainly for info and discussion. When I first started posting on 2 + 2 in the 90's there were not a lot of posters but those that posted were top notch poker analysts from MAson to David to Tom Weideman to Greg Raymer, Jim Brier, Ray Zee and occasionally Caro. Ray Zee is the way I found myself to this blog forum. The discussions back then were great and extremely helpful. I was a part time stud player in Atlantic City in the 90's. When I moved to Vegas in 2001 I couldn't spell Holdem. Mason gave me a copy of HPFAP. I read it and followed it and it kept me eating for the 7 years I played almost everyday at Bellagio.

I grew up in a family that liked playing poker. My father and his 5 Brothers and 2 sisters would play every Sunday in the North End of Boston at my Grand Mothers. So I played some as a kid. When I joined the Air Force in "65 it was only natural to play poker with the guys. Didn't have many female Airmen back then. But just like playing with family, playing with the boys did not get me in the least bit ready for what one faces in most casino poker rooms. I recall going to Vegas once in the 70's and playing this here to fore to me, unheard of game called "Texas Hold'em". I quickly had my ass handed to me on a silver platter and realized that I did not know how to play poker. I retired from the AF in 1985 and in 1987 moved to the DC area as a defense contractor. To kill time on the weekends I would travel to Atlantic City to play Black Jack. The comps there were great at that time and I learned basic strategy and card counting. Never made a lot of money but was a small winner and had lots of fun. The biggest draw back to my winning big I believe was that I was afraid of going broke. That fear stayed with me for the 7 years I played poker in Vegas and is still with me today. You can't play winning poker if you are afraid. You have to be comfortable at the table and you cannot be comfortable if the money is too big for you.

It was never my intention to become a professional poker player. In fact I didn't start playing seriously until 2001 when I was in my mid 50's and might not have started then if the company I worked for hadn't moved me to Patuxent River Maryland. That was the straw that broke my back and forced me to retire early.

I moved to Vegas in 2001. I knew Mason and David from posting on the 2 + 2 forum for a few years before I moved. As I mentioned I was a stud player in Atlantic City and didn't have a clue how to play Holdem. Upon arriving in Vegas with a underwhelming bankroll. I looked up Mason Malmuth. We immediately struck up a warm relationship that eventually grew into a friendship. Mason and mainly David taught me how to play Holdem. And they taught me well. I played for 7 years on a daily basis at the mid limits at Bellagio and was a constant winner. I once logged 110 winning sessions in a row with Mason egging me on to keep the string going. Did I mention I was a little hung up on not going home a loser. Well that string actually save my poker career because it taught me to never ever worry about streaks, winning or losing. During the streak I would sometimes extend my sessions for 20 to 22 hours just to log a $100 and sometimes less win. Sometime I would play for 30 to 40 minutes and quit if I were ahead, and call that a session. Basically what I am saying is that my streak was not a streak at all. It was insanity and I have never played poker like that again nor will I ever. Well, now I just mainly play small buy-in tournaments. I find it very difficult to sit in a cash game anymore. Not because my skills have diminished. On the contrary. i am probably a better poker player today than I ever was. But I just don't like playing cash games anymore. I get bored. Something that doesn't happen to me in a tournament. Maybe because i know there is an end to the tournament although I have adopted the poker continuum attitude towards tournaments too.

Playing Poker in Vegas at Bellagio in the early 2000's was the nuts. There was Bobby's room with Doyle, Jen Harmon, Eli what's his name, Ted Forest, etc, etc,etc. There was round the clock poker. Especially at the mid limits where I played. And there were wonderful tourists and quite a few regular locals that thought poker was a gambling game. The Bellagio is a beautiful Casino. It was frequented by lots of beautiful people and many famous people. Some of them like Alex Rodriguez liked to play poker. Alex played 15-30 limit holdem believe it or not. I once flopped 4 aces against him. To his credit he didn't pay me off and folded on the turn after asking if I had an Ace. So along with great poker games there were a lots of interesting people to watch in a wonderful environment. The Bellagio sports book is right next to the Poker Room. It was a great place to hang out while take a break and eating lunch or dinner or just to watch some sports. David Sklansky was a sports book frequenter. Mainly to bet the ponies. I often wondered why or if he was a winner. I never asked. I knew David pretty well but I doubt that I knew him well enough for him to share that information.

One keeps hearing how Moneymaker, winning the WSOP changed poker. It's true and you can see it at the Bellagio today in the lack of the number of mid limit games. But while I was there up until 2008 limit was still going strong. 15-30 was my main game and there was always a round the clock game or two and three during the day. Wow, now I'm wondering why I quit. I really enjoyed the Bellagio Poker room.

Sklansky and Malmuth taught me how to play Limit holdem Poker. In fact it was because of their Books that I learned to play poker in the first place. I have made quite a few poker buddies over my years playing poker. I started playing Casino Poker at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in 1993 when poker was first spread there. I started at 1-5 stud. Same place and same limit Ivey started at. Needless to say I'm no Ivey. I met my first poker buddy there in A.C. His nick name is Dangerous Dan. He is one of my closest friends to this day. another buddy named Anthony gave him the nickname Dangerous. Dan liked to play dice. Anyone that has played craps knows what it is like to have a full house there. All the numbers with Max odds. Never have been able to completely pry him away from the craps table but he's a lot better now. Anthony was a retired guy with connections who got some kind of stipend every month from his connections. He was a high roller when we first met him in 1993. He drove a cab to make ends meet the last I heard of him in 1999. Dan was dangerous because he (and Anthony) was always trying to break the bank at the Taj. Danny was and is a good poker player. Anthony was a gambler. It was Danny that introduced me to Sklansky/Malmuth Seven Stud for Advance Players. I took that book apart. I studied it and heeded it. After a few months I went from 1-5 stud to 15-30 and stayed there as a winning player until I moved to Vegas. That book covers lots of things a good poker player needs not only for Stud but for playing poker in general.

Do you want to hear a sad story. This might be a story that you had to be there to appreciate it. This is Anthony's story. Anthony was connected as I mentioned above. He was from Boston. One time in the 70's or 80's I can't remeber which he was visiting Vegas. IT was early Sunday morning and he was at a Casino Bar when he was approached by a whale. The whale had lost all his cash. Maxed out his credit and ATM's and wanted to continue to play. So he asked Anthony for 50k. Anthony had 10k on him and told the whale he could get more in the morning. The whale said he would take the 10k and give Anthony his Mercedes as collateral. The Mercedes was worth 60k. The deal was that if the whale wasn't back with his money by 7 a.m. Anthony could keep the Mercedes. I believe he said it was 2 in the morning when he gave the whale the money. Anyway at 10 minutes to 7 here comes the whale with pockets full of money he had won at the dice table. He gave Anthony his 10k along with 2k juice. He thanked Anthony and left. That was the sad story that Anthony told Dangerous and I in his living room one day. When we didn't get the sad part he explained. He didn't get the Mercedes. Dangerous and I just looked at each other and roared with laughter.

Atlantic City in the 90's. The nuts for poker players for sure. And the Taj was the place to play. 7 Stud was by far the dominant game being played at the Taj and anywhere else I played back east. I was a defense contractor at the time and lived in the D.C. area. Maryland had an abundance of fire house games then and they were , well shall we say , crazy. I played at a lot of the fire houses in the D.C area but I did not like them. I was always suspicious of the players. A few of them would put a bucket on the side and whenever one of them would win a pot %20 percent of the pot went into the bucket. At the end of the night they would split it. They had a funny name for the bucket that escapes me now. Something to be suspicious about? When I think about it now I wonder how I ever sat in a game like that. But the players were bad and I did some moderate winning there. It's like I tell one of my best buddy's if you are winning and you think they are cheating you let them cheat.

The fellow I am speaking of moved to Vegas in the 90's. He was a young guy with a dream of playing poker for a living. He is extremely poker smart. He might be the best mid limit poker player in the world. My opinion of course. He did very well online when it was going strong in the States. But he would always claim that they were cheating him. Yet he constantly made lots of dough re me online. That's why I told him to let them cheat. Of course they weren't cheating. It was not in the interest of the sites to let cheating go on so they policed the games pretty well. Oh, I was an online winner also but compared to my buddy I was not in the same ball park.

Yes, online poker was great. I can understand why a lot of pros moved to places where they could play legally. The U.S. congress does dumb things sometimes. Making Poker online illegal is one of them.

Yeah interestingly enough my buddy and I and Dangerous all started as Seven Stud players. But once we started with Holdem there was not getting us back to a stud table. Holdem is the poker player's crap game. Fast and Furious. Although I liked playing back East and loved the Taj in the nineties. I knew that what I really wanted to do was play poker in Vegas.

I'm not sure about everyone else but when I made up my mind to quit working and play poker for a living the only place I thought of was Las Vegas. I had been all over the states and lots of other countries but I was drawn to Vegas. Maybe it was because of the Vegas hype. I'm really not sure what drew me there. I was a Stud player and actually did not even like the idea of hold'em. Community cards...yuk! Come on you play yours and I'll play mine. The east coast and the west coast were better places to play stud. The dominant game in Vegas was Hold'em. And not the instant gratification kind of Holdem. Not No Limit. When I moved to Vegas in 2001 the number one spread game was LIMIT Holdem. Can you believe it? Limit freaken Holdem. But it wasn't long before I learned to love it. Hell ninety nine percent of the Holdem Playing population back then treated it as a gambling game. Even today I hear from everyone that I tell that I was a limit player their comments are the same. "You can't beat limit holdem. There's no way to protect your hand". I just smile and turn away.

Vegas had some real good limit poker players back then and I was one of them. Now, to be understood one must qualify a statement like that. Sure Sklansky and Malmuth taught me Holdem poker. In fact the way I learned Holdem is kind of interesting. Before learning Holdem Poker I would recommend learning Poker first. I did it that way without even knowing what I was doing. I started playing Casino poker at the Taj in AC. I played 1-5 stud. After meeting Dangerous he gave me Seven Stud for Advance players by David and Malmuth. I took that book apart. It covers everything one needs to know about playing poker. Game selection, hand selection, betting, raising, folding calling, etc,etc,etc. It covers playing poker. In my mind it just might be the best limit poker book out there and I've read a bunch of them. As I said i took that book apart. I studied it by creating flash cards for everything that needed to be memorized. Then I thought about each concept. Then I would focus one on concept each session I played. Then I discussed each one with Dangerous. When I was satisfied that they were correct I went over and over the concepts until they were mine. And then I discovered TWOPLUSTWO and the fun began.

Like the Blog, hope you keep at it.....

Just sent you a PM. Wondering if I might know someone from your family, from The NorthEnd....

They called it a pushka as I recall - I played in a lot of those DC games in the 90s and early 2000's (both firehouses and underground). We had a 2 night's per week 30-60 mixed game in N. Va after the firehouses closed that ran for several years (basically until the big NL games started running). We played HOSE with an added high/low draw game. I'm sure you would have liked it.

FWIW the pushka was not really cheating or even collusion - it was mostly good player preying on bad loose players. If you looked at who was doing them it was mostly one decent TAG in a pushka with a bad loose player, who would win more pots but still lose money overall (while putting more into the pushka than the TAG).

Pushka, yeah, that was it. Yup, you are probably correct. I did not mean to call the players in the Pushka cheaters. I'm sure they didn't look at it that way. I only remember that the players were good people and not the kind that would cheat in a poker game. My problem with the pushka was that it did in fact influence how those in the pushka played against each other or maybe more to the point how it appeared that they played against each other. I've played lots of poker both as an amateur and semi-pro. I've seen players that were friends check it down after getting heads up. I don't like it when it happens but I really can't say it's cheating. Anyway All of the players that I've seen do this are amateurs that I want in the game.

I haven't posted lately because I'm having a good time on Vacation in Vegas. I arrived here a week ago and have not been on the forum. Will continue my blog where I left off when I get back to Bend, Oregon.

I like Vegas. I stay with my ex roommate who might be the best mid limit poker player in Vegas. He is also the best host a guy could ask for. Talking poker with him is always a fun experience. If you play poker find yourself a friend you respect tht you can talk poker with. I used to talk poker with Mason Malmuth and David Sklansky on a regular basis in the early 2000. I saw Mason at the poker table the other night. I thought about going up and saying hi but he just turned his head away when he saw me. Oh well.

I played the Monday night Horse tourney at the Orleans. Didn't cash. Then the next day I played the Aria $125 1 p.m. Two buy-ins Close but no cash. Decided on the next day to play tournaments with less that 30 entrants. Chopped the first one I played at Caesars 2pm, Then played the 5 pm at Bellagio and chopped that one. On then following day I played the 2pm at Caesars. No cash. Butt chopped the 5 pm at Bellagio again. My sons think I should stop chopping and go for first place but I usually get a good deal and I am fine chopping.

All is not rosy though. I do keep returning to the HU Holdem Machine. Last time n Vegas I won $600 from the machine. This time I've given it back. I relly don't have the time or desire to analyze the machine's play. Not that I could figure out how to beat it. But the machine will raise 0ver 90% of the time you limp from the button. That in itself is exploitable. Anyway that's for another thread in another forum.

So I am off to the Venetian to play the 80k guaranty. Hope I win

I will second that ...

Wow - Mr Marston,

You sound like an interesting guy.

Wish I could have played a few hands of 15 - 30 with you at the "B" in 2001.

Great blog, love it.

However, I can't help but read it in Brooks Hatlen's (The Shawshank Redemption librarian) voice lol!