The one where age catches up to our hero

So I had a whole bunch of tequila and beer after the gig on Wed. I felt fine going to bed and all day the next day. But then, at 6:30, after wolfing down a dinner of Pastrami and mustard before playing pool with Darko, I started to feel iffy in my stomach. The pain grew until, at 1AM, I couldn't stand it anymore and checked myself into the NY Downtown Hospital's emergency room. 12 hours and a ridiculous battery of tests later, I was released with the prognosis of Gastritis. Blech.

I'm obviously too old for this sh*t anymore. This is sad. I feel like crap today.

Negative Ken at Arlene's Grocery last night!

I'm biased, I know, but I think we rocked the house! There were some equipment issues at the beginning of the set. The shound guy apologized to me personally because he couldn't pinpoint the source of some bass feedback that marred our first tune. But it mostly worked out in the end. My drummer couldn't hear us very well on the monitor, and as a result he missed a few cymbal crashes and drum fills. Also, I heard some wierd echo on my vocals for Seven Nation Army. Strange stuff, but I have to say that Arlene's was a great spot to play. The arena is intimate enough to be close to your friends and the backline equipment is top-notch (meaning it actually works as advertised!).

Wall Street Poker players in attendance were Johnny G (Darko), Wendy R (Fidget, hah!), Matt S (Slayer), Paulie H (Walnuts), Stephane C, Karol S, Scott St. G (The Poker Idiot) and Abbie M. In addition, it was Paulie's 40th birthday (Did you hear my shout out on stage?), and the group went to dinner at Frank's in the East Village afterwards. I couldn't join them as I was getting drunk with my boss and some co-workers, but I hear a good time was had by all.

Pictures are coming just as soon as I migrate this site onto Blogger/Flickr.

Dawn Summers blogs the hell out of our game

http://ihadouts.blogspot.com/2007/06/back-against-wallstreet-game-dawn.html

Good Look club was raided and shut down on Thursday night :-(

Here's a first hand account:
http://fountainofreason.blogspot.com/2007/06/nypd-raid-underground-poker-club.html

I won last night! And then I lost...

I played last night, violating my June hiatus rule. I think the hiatus is officially off, so I can't say that I stuck to it for the entire month, although I lasted quite a while. Meanwhile, with all of my poker clubs shut down, except for the Salami club which is playing 2-5, there isn't anyplace for me to play now even if I wanted to!

So back to last night. I lasted pretty long into the 1st tourney, but I donked off most of my chips when I tried to play the 40 end of a 60/40 play and got my ass handed to me. I had rolled the dice earlier with a short stack against Abbie, pushing with K9 vs. her pocket 10's, but I got lucky to fill the straight and knock her out. I don't know what possessed me to do the same thing with QsTs, but my opponent had AQ. Meanwhile, I nearly pulled it out of the fire when two clubs flopped, but nothing doing.

The second tourney was a much better affair. I caught some decent cards and was able to double through at opportune times. But blinds caught up to me as I patiently waited for someone to bubble. At one point, Darko, Wendy, Ross and I were all about even when Darko took a big lead. Darko and Wendy tangled and Wendy's A3 caught bottom pair on the river vs. Darko's A7. Ross also hung in but eventually bubbled vs. Darko (can't remember the circumstance). That left Me, Wendy and Darko in a tightly contested battle for the money. I doubled through Darko with a well-timed AT that flopped top pair and then busted Wendy when she pushed all in with AJ. I looked down at AK and insta-called. This time the King held up and I was slightly ahead of John. We chopped the money and I took down my first 1st place finish since the first month of the season.

The cash game kicked off promptly at 11:40 with 8 players, but Ross left after 30 minutes to catch a train. Highlights that I can remember include Abbie flopping top two with KJ and pushing all in on the turn with about $55. Scott called her with AdQd. He had only a Ten or a diamond to save him (provided the diamond didn't fill Abbie's boat), and he caught his card on the river to felt Abbie. She diligently reloaded, but wasn't able to make much back by the time she left. Scott, on the other hand, had a monster stack in front of him after two hours, though he gave much of it back in the last hour of the game. I lost most of my own stack when I called a $4 preflop raise with 45o. Callers included Wendy (who did the initial raise), Darko and Stephane. The flop was 678 rainbow. I checked the bottom straight, Wendy followed through with a $5 bet. Darko raised to $13 with a little speech about ending it right now and I popped it to $30, continuing the same speech. Wendy and Stephane got out of the way. John thought about it and despite my protestations, called. Then I did something stupid. I moved all in just as the turn card was hitting the board. I didn't even wait to see what it was. If I had, I would have noticed that a very ugly 7 hit the turn. John insta-called with 67 to complete his boat. Damn the gods! The night was a blur after that.

Oh, but I bluffed a certain Yale Lawyer at the table with 2d5d. Welcome to Wall Street Poker! ;-)

We gots us a shout out!

Jordan, who writes the High On Poker blog, gave our little home game a glowing review!

I take great pride in running the best homegame in the city, and finally people are starting to notice! But it's not just me you know. All of my regular players have had a hand in making Wall Street Poker what it is today. So that's a shout out to The Poker Idiot, Darko, Wendy, Dimples, Drama and the rest of the kooky crew who make our game fun, interesting and professional.

My hiatus this month (punctuated by only 2 full hours of poker play), has re-energized me for the game and the league. I'm going to devote more energy to the league starting with next season (July 1st) and consequently, you are going to see some changes to this website.

My plan is to move this blog onto blogspot or blogger and make it more widely known. Also, I am going to clean up this site and make it more streamlined. I'm going to get rid of some of the remnants that we don't need and move the photos onto Flickr. Plus, I'm vowing to take more photos (Stephane has inspired me in this area).

This is just the beginning folks...

A little birdie told me...

...That the Dragon Room was busted last night. What is it with Eddie Ting's rooms that they never last for more than a few weeks? Poor guy...

Hat tip to Karol

On birthdays and broken legs

I sent out the Evite a few days ago for last night’s game and the response was tremendous. Nine confirmed seats in an hour and it quickly filled up after that, with a long waiting list of maybe’s. On top of that, I bone-headedly booked my band practice on the same night. So Scott came to the rescue and took over hosting duties while I went and played rock god.



Imagine my surprise when I walked back into my apartment in the middle of the second tournament to find only 9 players around the table. Kevin, a new player who’s only been to the game one time before, bailed on the league without leaving any messages (Bad etiquette Kevin!). And Thomas, who was going to bring a guest, told me at 6:30 that his guest had dropped out and it was going to be him alone. Then he didn’t show up and left me an email saying that he had been to the emergency room at the hospital and it turns out he has a broken fibia! It seems he slipped and fell near the elevator at his workplace and fractured his leg. David, if you’re reading this, Ka-Ching! To make up one lost spot, Puiki, back from her long hiatus studying for the CFA exam, came in for the second tourney.



I can’t comment much on either tourney other than to see we had another all-woman final 3 in the second tourney. I’m very much digging this trend of having many beautiful women at the table. It’s my sincere hope that the league is eventually comprised of nothing but women and me. Is that too much to hope for? :-p



We had a cash game afterwards that almost didn’t get together, since a whole bunch of regular players wimped out (“it’s a school night” whine, whine), but we managed to keep six players around. I decided to break my self-imposed poker hiatus in order to keep the game moving. And if you believe that…



The cash game went well, with a few notable hands. The biggest pot of the night goes to Scott St. Germain, who flopped a boat with K8 and a board of K88. Vivian had 89 against him and John had KJ. Scott played it well and tripled up. Another memorable hand was when Wendy, who was dealing, dealt a flop of AAA, and then a fourth Ace on the turn! The pot was only two dollars, but I took it down with King high. Liezel also took a nice pot when her 3h5h hit a nicely hidden inside straight draw. In the end, I was the big cash winner, followed by Scott. Does this mean my poker hiatus is over? Not quite. I still have plenty of summer to enjoy. But I might sit in a tourney or two before the month is out…



And Happy Birthday to all of us! Wall Street Poker is one year old today! June 8, 2006 was the first tournament of the inaugural season. While the seasons are now quarterly, the first season was an extended 7 months, with Wendy narrowly pulling ahead of me in the last three weeks to take the title. Ah, memories…

Cash game madness

We had a rollicking cash game after our recent June 1st tournaments. Not that the tournaments were uneventful. For the first time in Wall Street Poker history, we had an all women final 3. Mary, Liezl and Abbie duked it out, with Liezl taking a big lead over Abbie heads up. Abbie tried to negotiate a 50/50 chop (good try Abbie), but Liezl would have none of it. She didn't even make a counter offer! It was a blood feud from there on in and the final hand was a doozy. With an Ace on the flop, Abbie fired out a pot bet, which Liezl called. A blank fell on the turn. Abbie fired again. Liezl called one more time. The river was a King. Abbie moved all in and Liezl called. Abbie said, "It's yours", showing a Jack high bluff. Liezl turned over Queen high! Wow.

The cash game was insane, as Stephane kept getting stacked by various players. The most cringe-inducing play was by Liezl, who called a small pre-flop raise on the button with Qd6c with 4 other players calling. The flop was 3 clubs, K95. Stephane, who had flopped top two, bet the pot, and Liezl called with her 6 flush draw. The turn was a blank and Stephane went all in for $31. Liezl conferred with Vera, her partner in crime for the night, and concluded that they were pot committed! Wowsers. A club fell on the river and Liezl scooped the pot, sending Stephane into her Tilty McTiltster mode. She'll be talking about that hand for a while, I'm sure. ;-)

Coming to you live...from the Dragon Room

Karol invited me to the Dragon room on Tuesday, and even though I got killed in AC, I went anyway. To make a long story short, I was up $300 in 15 minutes and then lost everything in the next two hours.

Two hands that stand out...
1. I have A7 after I straddled UTG to $6. I decline to take my option after 5 people limped and the flop was A94. I led out for $15 and got a raise to $30. I call. The turn is a 4. He bets out $30. I honestly put him on A-middle here and I was thinking that the two pair now on board would improve my hand with the 9 kicker on the board. SO I called. The river is a 7. Now, I believe I'm good, but I check in the hopes of re-raising a timid bet. But the river was not timid. He bet $60. I thought about it for a while and which hands he wouldn't have raised pre-flop that the board would have hit him with. I called to see him show A4. Bad judgement.

2. QJ in the SB. MP raises to $12 pre-flop and three players call. I call and the BB completes. Flop is QQ5. I bet out $25, hoping to represent the 5. Everyone folds to the button, who raises to $50. I decided to push all in since I only have $100 behind. He calls. Before we flip, I ask, "Do you want to do business?" He says, "Yeah, sure!". We flip and he has KQ. I ask to run it 3 times and he says "Nah, let's just run it once". The MP protests on my behalf but the dealer says the guy is new and didn't know what I was actually asking about. I get so incensed that I say 'Fuck it' and let it run. The turn was a 5, putting QQ55 on the board. Someone says, "Ok, no problem. It's a chopped pot anyway." Until the river hit a King. Ouch and double ouch.

So I went tonight to Karol's blogger party (Steph and Karol were there but it was a bit lame otherwise) and Darko, Vivian and Scott Levy showed up too. We went out for dinner afterwards and hit The Dragon Room afterwards. In fact, they are playing behind me as I type this. True to my word, I am taking a poker hiatus for the month of June, and though it is tempting to sit down in this fishing pond, I am dutifully watching Scott, Viv and John all rake in pot after pot.

Now I know what a smack addict feels like...