A347 double suited in your hand. Short stack to your left. Paulie "4 outs is the nuts" on your right with a big stack. 5 handed action. You're on the button and limp along with the shortie and Paulie. (Big Paulie and Little Paulie). Flop is A36 rainbow. You have two pair and a gutshot straight and a small backdoor flush. Short stack bets pot. Paulie calls. You re-pot. Short stack calls all in for slightly less. Paulie calls!
At this point, you'd assume Paulie has a monster of some sort, or at least a monster draw. But he actually has 5789 with three hearts. When the miracle 4 comes on the turn to give me three pair and Paulie the nut straight, Paulie moves all in and I fold. He scoops the pot, defending his "double gutshot" draw and can't hear you (presumably over the sound of your chips being added to his stack) when you try to tell him he only had a gutshot, not a double gutshot. And he was cold calling two pot bets behind him!
Somewhere in the distance, Paulie walks away with your money, as you tear the hair out of your head in frustration.
For the record, Paulie made just about every 4 outer draw, after cold calling HUGE pot bets for half his stack or more.
Somebody please remind me to make the PLO game cash next time.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
How to lose and still win
The Loser's Tourney (or 'Second Chance tourney') went off with only a small hitch. After announcing that I would make it 6000 chips with the regular blind schedule, I instead switched to 10,000 chips with blinds starting at 100/200 and 20 minute blinds. Stupid poker clock and it's stupid suggested blinds. People (read: W) griped early on about how aggressive the blinds were, especially when someone (read: W) ran top two into quads and lost half her stack. All of a sudden it was all "Gosh, these blinds are fast". Ok, so we all agreed to play 3 levels of the same blinds (100/200) to even things out.
Matty Ebs, after playing stuff like T3o against AK, was knocked out first, followed by W and then myself. I had pocket 4's which I was able to limp with and the flop was A23 rainbow with a few players. Michael B. bet out about 2/3 the pot and I came along for the miracle card, which hit on the turn. It was a 5. We both checked and the river was a 2, pairing the board. This time, I bet 1800 and Michael went all in on top of me. I put him on A5 or A3 or, possibly A2. But it was too hard to fold and I called. He had 46! He had led out on the flop with the gutshot and hit the miracle card to get him paid off. I was short stacked and though I hung on for a while, I eventually called all in with my 9dTd vs. Darko's TT and got busted.
Dawn busted out Matty earlier on a ridonkulous suckout. Matty was all in with the board of A88x and Dawn called with AK. Matty had 89 and Dawn called out for the miracle Ace, which naturally fell on the river. She rode her ill-gotten chips to the finish line and Michael B., Dawn and Darko all chopped for the $627 main prize in order to get a cash game going.
Kearns and Bacini Mary joined us for the cash game, which lasted until 9PM. I was able to flop some monsters and get paid on them to build the big stack at the table. I had AK UTG and flopped AKK against Cheryl's AQ and got paid on every street. Dawn was livid. "How can you flop the nuts and get paid on every street?!? FUUUCK YOOOUUUU!". Hahahah!
I felted Darko as well, by flopping another boat with T8o in the small blind. The flop was T88 and I checked. The turn brought a third club and I assumed someone would bet but it checked again. The river brought another club but there was a problem. The clubs were all in a row! 789T of clubs on the board. I bet out 10 and Darko Hollywooded, showing me the 6d for the bottom end of the str8, like I thought he would call with that! He eventually moved all in for $45 total and I really did have a dilemma. Two cards in the deck crushed me and I thought he might have had 66 with the 6 of clubs. But I was too big stacked and he was too small stacked for me to fold so I did, and he folded the Ace of clubs. Weeeee!
So by the end of the night, I had turned $100 into $371.50. I didn't cash in the loser's tourney, but I ended up making more money than anyone else had the whole day! Yay poker! Suck it Dawn! :-p
Matty Ebs, after playing stuff like T3o against AK, was knocked out first, followed by W and then myself. I had pocket 4's which I was able to limp with and the flop was A23 rainbow with a few players. Michael B. bet out about 2/3 the pot and I came along for the miracle card, which hit on the turn. It was a 5. We both checked and the river was a 2, pairing the board. This time, I bet 1800 and Michael went all in on top of me. I put him on A5 or A3 or, possibly A2. But it was too hard to fold and I called. He had 46! He had led out on the flop with the gutshot and hit the miracle card to get him paid off. I was short stacked and though I hung on for a while, I eventually called all in with my 9dTd vs. Darko's TT and got busted.
Dawn busted out Matty earlier on a ridonkulous suckout. Matty was all in with the board of A88x and Dawn called with AK. Matty had 89 and Dawn called out for the miracle Ace, which naturally fell on the river. She rode her ill-gotten chips to the finish line and Michael B., Dawn and Darko all chopped for the $627 main prize in order to get a cash game going.
Kearns and Bacini Mary joined us for the cash game, which lasted until 9PM. I was able to flop some monsters and get paid on them to build the big stack at the table. I had AK UTG and flopped AKK against Cheryl's AQ and got paid on every street. Dawn was livid. "How can you flop the nuts and get paid on every street?!? FUUUCK YOOOUUUU!". Hahahah!
I felted Darko as well, by flopping another boat with T8o in the small blind. The flop was T88 and I checked. The turn brought a third club and I assumed someone would bet but it checked again. The river brought another club but there was a problem. The clubs were all in a row! 789T of clubs on the board. I bet out 10 and Darko Hollywooded, showing me the 6d for the bottom end of the str8, like I thought he would call with that! He eventually moved all in for $45 total and I really did have a dilemma. Two cards in the deck crushed me and I thought he might have had 66 with the 6 of clubs. But I was too big stacked and he was too small stacked for me to fold so I did, and he folded the Ace of clubs. Weeeee!
So by the end of the night, I had turned $100 into $371.50. I didn't cash in the loser's tourney, but I ended up making more money than anyone else had the whole day! Yay poker! Suck it Dawn! :-p
SNL: Still kicking ass
The debate between Biden and Palin was great last night.
And hell, Dick in a Box *still* cracks me up hysterically.
And hell, Dick in a Box *still* cracks me up hysterically.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Working with my hands
I just finished re-upholstering my old table (the original) with new felt and padding. It was quite an experience and I'm really tired right now. How the hell do people do physical labor for a living?!? My hands are swollen, I have two cuts on them and I'm physically exhausted. And this from only 5 hours of work! This is why I sit on my ass for a living I suppose.
I ran into a few SNAFU's that I probably could have avoided but it was good experience for me. This is why I tried to change the felt on the old table first before I did the new table. Learning by doing is the best way I learn.
Surgery started by taking off the old felt and padding. It was really...shocking...to me to cut into the table for the first time. I was standing over my table, scissors in hand, and I got the strange sensation that I was doing surgery on my child. I almost couldn't do it, but hell kid, you got cancer and you're old man's going to save you.
I cut the felt and padding off (they were both super thin) and ripped out as many of the staples as I could. After taking an X-acto knife and slicing off as much material as I could, it was time to go to work. The first thing I did was unfurl the new padding and lay it across the table. And that's where the first problem reared it's head. The roll of padding wasn't wide enough to cover the whole table! It was short by about 3/4" on both sides. I panicked, but I realized after a while that the rails are 3" wide and I don't actually need the padding to cover the whole table. I got even more clever when I cut the padding for the table and then cut extra strips and stapled them down to the table, effectively covering the whole thing.
My best friend in these proceedings was the new electric power stapler I bought at Home Depot this morning. The best $50 I ever spent. Staples went effortlessly (ok, with some effort pressing down because the padding is thick) into the wood. I could NOT have completed the job with it. I stapled the padding to the sides of the table and some on top, making sure the padding was as flat as I could make it. It was a tough job, because the thicker padding (3/8") made it difficult to bend it around the corners, and also because the table has that stupid dealer's tray, which requires all sorts of other cuts and bends and staples. Much more difficult than I had anticipated.
Once the padding was on and flat to my satisfaction, it was time for the felt to go on. The felt is much easier to work with, being very thin material, but there was a lot of it. It draped over the table and got in my way. I had to staple it to one side of the table before I could hack away the extra enough for me to work with it. I left about a foot on all sides and sprayed the padding with some 3M adhesive. I had read on one of the poker table forums that if you put some adhesive on the padding, the felt won't bunch up as much and you'll avoid air bubbles. It worked pretty well though I killed my hands putting the rest of the felt on. I had to staple every inch or so under the table, all the while pulling the felt taut so it would be flat and even with no air bubbles. Two people would have been VERY helpful here (I'm taking to you Matty Ebs and Darko!).
Halfway through the felt stapling, my stapler jammed. It would have been an easy thing to clear the jam except the nut bolt that held the stapler mechanism together was stuck. I took my best phillips screwdriver to the problem, even using WD40 to loosen it up, and gave it a few good twists. I promptly stripped the thing. They just don't make stuff in China like they used to.
I eventually got the bolt off by twisting it manually with a hand wrench (ow, my hands, again), and cleared the jam. After stapling on the rest of the felt, painstakingly, and cutting away the excess cloth, the table was starting to look good. Last thing was the rails.
This caused me the most problems. You see, the rails have holes cut into them for bolts that are supposed to go into pre-made holes in the table. The idea is that you put the rails down and then screw the bolts in from underneath the table. The issue came when I put the rails on and discovered that the MUCH thicker padding I had installed was now pushing the holes out of position. I could force one hole into view from underneath the table, but none of the others. I ended up getting desparate and using long wood screws to screw the rails into the sides of the table. It felt a bit like cheating, but after wrestling with the rails for over an hour, it was all I could do.
Now, my hands feel like baseball mitts and I have an honest sweat.
Hard work sucks.
I ran into a few SNAFU's that I probably could have avoided but it was good experience for me. This is why I tried to change the felt on the old table first before I did the new table. Learning by doing is the best way I learn.
Surgery started by taking off the old felt and padding. It was really...shocking...to me to cut into the table for the first time. I was standing over my table, scissors in hand, and I got the strange sensation that I was doing surgery on my child. I almost couldn't do it, but hell kid, you got cancer and you're old man's going to save you.
I cut the felt and padding off (they were both super thin) and ripped out as many of the staples as I could. After taking an X-acto knife and slicing off as much material as I could, it was time to go to work. The first thing I did was unfurl the new padding and lay it across the table. And that's where the first problem reared it's head. The roll of padding wasn't wide enough to cover the whole table! It was short by about 3/4" on both sides. I panicked, but I realized after a while that the rails are 3" wide and I don't actually need the padding to cover the whole table. I got even more clever when I cut the padding for the table and then cut extra strips and stapled them down to the table, effectively covering the whole thing.
My best friend in these proceedings was the new electric power stapler I bought at Home Depot this morning. The best $50 I ever spent. Staples went effortlessly (ok, with some effort pressing down because the padding is thick) into the wood. I could NOT have completed the job with it. I stapled the padding to the sides of the table and some on top, making sure the padding was as flat as I could make it. It was a tough job, because the thicker padding (3/8") made it difficult to bend it around the corners, and also because the table has that stupid dealer's tray, which requires all sorts of other cuts and bends and staples. Much more difficult than I had anticipated.
Once the padding was on and flat to my satisfaction, it was time for the felt to go on. The felt is much easier to work with, being very thin material, but there was a lot of it. It draped over the table and got in my way. I had to staple it to one side of the table before I could hack away the extra enough for me to work with it. I left about a foot on all sides and sprayed the padding with some 3M adhesive. I had read on one of the poker table forums that if you put some adhesive on the padding, the felt won't bunch up as much and you'll avoid air bubbles. It worked pretty well though I killed my hands putting the rest of the felt on. I had to staple every inch or so under the table, all the while pulling the felt taut so it would be flat and even with no air bubbles. Two people would have been VERY helpful here (I'm taking to you Matty Ebs and Darko!).
Halfway through the felt stapling, my stapler jammed. It would have been an easy thing to clear the jam except the nut bolt that held the stapler mechanism together was stuck. I took my best phillips screwdriver to the problem, even using WD40 to loosen it up, and gave it a few good twists. I promptly stripped the thing. They just don't make stuff in China like they used to.
I eventually got the bolt off by twisting it manually with a hand wrench (ow, my hands, again), and cleared the jam. After stapling on the rest of the felt, painstakingly, and cutting away the excess cloth, the table was starting to look good. Last thing was the rails.
This caused me the most problems. You see, the rails have holes cut into them for bolts that are supposed to go into pre-made holes in the table. The idea is that you put the rails down and then screw the bolts in from underneath the table. The issue came when I put the rails on and discovered that the MUCH thicker padding I had installed was now pushing the holes out of position. I could force one hole into view from underneath the table, but none of the others. I ended up getting desparate and using long wood screws to screw the rails into the sides of the table. It felt a bit like cheating, but after wrestling with the rails for over an hour, it was all I could do.
Now, my hands feel like baseball mitts and I have an honest sweat.
Hard work sucks.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Busting out Season 6
Last night was the final night of Season 6 of Wall Street Poker. With all the drama that's been going on in the markets lately (Banks failing! Dow falling!), you'd think that all of the luck had run out. But it was all coming my way last night. I took a bunch of shots and only missed once. Here's the breakdown:
First tournament, I hit a set of 10's vs. Lee's AA to bust him. In my defense, I had a decent stack at the time and he was a shortie. I also hit a set of 9's vs. Liezl to double up early. My stack dwindled on a few raise-reraise situations where I had to give up my hand and I was down to $1900. I had Th8h and I had a limper to my right (Kearns). Blinds were 150-300 and I decided to limp, thinking I might have two live cards vs. any caller. But someone to my left raised to $1000 and 4 people called! By the time it got to me, I was getting more than 6 to 1 on my money! I said, "I've got the pot odds" and with waht Christine described as a 'pained look on my face', I made the call. Flop was AKJ with two hearts. I wasn't worried about the made straight although I was sure the draw was out, but my flush draw was pretty good. Kearns bet out and I went all in for less. I think two more people called. With this many high cards, I knew I was gonna see some action. The turn was the prettiest Queen of Hearts you ever saw, making me the flush. At this point, everyone who was in the hand was all in. I turned over the hand that was in the lead, but someone had an Ace of Hearts, I believe, and someone else had KJ for two pair. The river bricked and I scooped the majority of the pot. Kearns said, "Ooooh, you're running so bad today". Ha!
A lot of lucky hands came out last night though. Liezel, with AA in her hand, limps for 200 after someone min-raised. Art came in for another 100 on the BB. The flop was A88. Liezl checked her monster and Art bet out. Liezl raised, Art re-raised all in and Liezl snap called. Art showed K8 (dirty flop!) and Liezl stunned the crowd by showing the nuts. Ummm...the second nuts. I was dealing and I said, "Liezl wins! Probably..." No sooner had I said it than my magic powers turned an 8 on the turn to give Art the Quads! Even now, stunned into silence, Liezl had an out in the deck, but that kind of lightning only strikes once and the case Ace did not materialize.
As the tourney wore on and my lucky powers became evident, Darko starting counting my suckouts. "That's 4!", came the cry. I made it into the money with the shortish stack at the table, but still healthy, after a string of bad starting hands. I looked down to see A9 with about 5500 behind in the BB. Darko, acting first, went all in. He had me covered barely but I called and he showed down Ad5d. My A9 was ahead and the flop was 983! W00t! Top pair! Visions of a first place finish were swimming in my head. Turn was a 2 and I said, "Ship it!". No sooner had I shouted out prematurely than the ghost of Dawn Summers entered the room. In haunting fashion, she cackled with glee like that Fruma Sarah scene in Fiddler on the Roof and sang, "Only Assholes say Ship It! Only Assholes say Ship It! I doom you to a river of insufferable pain!".
4 on the river.
Damn you Ghost of Dawn Summers! Damn you to hell!
I was out of the tourney and my only response was, "That's 1 John. That's 1."
Viet and Darko chopped for 1st and second and we started up the second tourney quickly. Kevin had come by and met Christine for the first time....in 10 years. Yes, it turns out that Kevin and Christine (who knows EVERYBODY!) had gone to Junior High together right here in Manhattan. Wall Street Poker - ~Where everybody knows your naaaame~.
Ahem...
AJ had also come. AJ is a guy from Andy R.'s game in midtown and he's a solid, aggressive player. He also likes to talk smack. I raised in round 2 with Ah-Kc and got calls from AJ and three others. The flop was Ad-8c-3c. That's as good a flop as I can expect from AK, so I bet out 2/3 the pot. AJ called and everyone else folded. Turn was a very very dirty Ac. I know had the nut flush draw and trip Aces with the best kicker. Was there any doubt as to what I was doing?
"All In," I said. A millisecond later, "Call" from AJ. He has 2c6c for the flush. Like I said, Dirty. If ANY other club comes on the board, I can get away from this hand, but the Ace of Clubs got me too emotionally charged. I have 17(!) outs on the river to win here. The case Ace (1), any remaining club (7), any remaining King (3), any remaining 8 (3) and any remaining 3 (3) = 17 outs. I was fully expecting Darko to say, "That's 5!", but my luck had run dry and I doubled up AJ when the river bricked.
I was steaming. A hand later, AJ was trash talking how his 2c6c was goooot! I folded and AJ called the hand.
"How about a last longer side bet," I asked.
"Sure," he said. And why not? He outchipped me 2-1.
"You have to give me odds," I said, "you have me way outchipped. $20 to my $10".
He said yes and then I realized, when he raised while saying this, that I should have waited until the hand was over. AJ showed a pair of Aces to take down another 2000 in chips and outdistance me even more. We pooled our money together and he smiled broadly. Bastard.
A few hands later, I have AK again. I raise and Art, to my left, goes all in for $1400. Cheryl calls and I only have $1600 total. I guess this is it then. I kissed the money, shipped it to AJ and went all in for $200 more. Cheryl called and we all showed down. I had AK, Art had AQ and Cheryl had Ace-Jack! I was ahead! Even more miraculously, a King flopped. I won the pot, knocked out Art and managed to triple up. AJ and I were now on equal footing.
I played tight from that point on, winning a few pots but nothing major. AJ managed to spew his whole stack on two hands, neither of which was his fault. First was A-high card where he flopped top pair and someone else flopped two pair, I believe. And the next hand, he was all in with QQ vs. KJ and a King flopped. Just like that, I won $20 on the prop bet and, immesaurably better, complete satisfaction. I went on to win the tourney when, in the money round, I raced my AK vs. Kearn's TT and flopped a King to take him out. I outchipped Cheryl nearly 2-1 at this point and offered a chop with her to take down the last tourney of the season! {smiles}
The 'losers' tourney is this Sunday, with $627 going to the winner. Should be lots of fun and an update will be presented shortly afterwards. I'm postponing the next season of official WSP tourneys until I can get my apartment set up with 2 tables. Should be the beginning of November.
First tournament, I hit a set of 10's vs. Lee's AA to bust him. In my defense, I had a decent stack at the time and he was a shortie. I also hit a set of 9's vs. Liezl to double up early. My stack dwindled on a few raise-reraise situations where I had to give up my hand and I was down to $1900. I had Th8h and I had a limper to my right (Kearns). Blinds were 150-300 and I decided to limp, thinking I might have two live cards vs. any caller. But someone to my left raised to $1000 and 4 people called! By the time it got to me, I was getting more than 6 to 1 on my money! I said, "I've got the pot odds" and with waht Christine described as a 'pained look on my face', I made the call. Flop was AKJ with two hearts. I wasn't worried about the made straight although I was sure the draw was out, but my flush draw was pretty good. Kearns bet out and I went all in for less. I think two more people called. With this many high cards, I knew I was gonna see some action. The turn was the prettiest Queen of Hearts you ever saw, making me the flush. At this point, everyone who was in the hand was all in. I turned over the hand that was in the lead, but someone had an Ace of Hearts, I believe, and someone else had KJ for two pair. The river bricked and I scooped the majority of the pot. Kearns said, "Ooooh, you're running so bad today". Ha!
A lot of lucky hands came out last night though. Liezel, with AA in her hand, limps for 200 after someone min-raised. Art came in for another 100 on the BB. The flop was A88. Liezl checked her monster and Art bet out. Liezl raised, Art re-raised all in and Liezl snap called. Art showed K8 (dirty flop!) and Liezl stunned the crowd by showing the nuts. Ummm...the second nuts. I was dealing and I said, "Liezl wins! Probably..." No sooner had I said it than my magic powers turned an 8 on the turn to give Art the Quads! Even now, stunned into silence, Liezl had an out in the deck, but that kind of lightning only strikes once and the case Ace did not materialize.
As the tourney wore on and my lucky powers became evident, Darko starting counting my suckouts. "That's 4!", came the cry. I made it into the money with the shortish stack at the table, but still healthy, after a string of bad starting hands. I looked down to see A9 with about 5500 behind in the BB. Darko, acting first, went all in. He had me covered barely but I called and he showed down Ad5d. My A9 was ahead and the flop was 983! W00t! Top pair! Visions of a first place finish were swimming in my head. Turn was a 2 and I said, "Ship it!". No sooner had I shouted out prematurely than the ghost of Dawn Summers entered the room. In haunting fashion, she cackled with glee like that Fruma Sarah scene in Fiddler on the Roof and sang, "Only Assholes say Ship It! Only Assholes say Ship It! I doom you to a river of insufferable pain!".
4 on the river.
Damn you Ghost of Dawn Summers! Damn you to hell!
I was out of the tourney and my only response was, "That's 1 John. That's 1."
Viet and Darko chopped for 1st and second and we started up the second tourney quickly. Kevin had come by and met Christine for the first time....in 10 years. Yes, it turns out that Kevin and Christine (who knows EVERYBODY!) had gone to Junior High together right here in Manhattan. Wall Street Poker - ~Where everybody knows your naaaame~.
Ahem...
AJ had also come. AJ is a guy from Andy R.'s game in midtown and he's a solid, aggressive player. He also likes to talk smack. I raised in round 2 with Ah-Kc and got calls from AJ and three others. The flop was Ad-8c-3c. That's as good a flop as I can expect from AK, so I bet out 2/3 the pot. AJ called and everyone else folded. Turn was a very very dirty Ac. I know had the nut flush draw and trip Aces with the best kicker. Was there any doubt as to what I was doing?
"All In," I said. A millisecond later, "Call" from AJ. He has 2c6c for the flush. Like I said, Dirty. If ANY other club comes on the board, I can get away from this hand, but the Ace of Clubs got me too emotionally charged. I have 17(!) outs on the river to win here. The case Ace (1), any remaining club (7), any remaining King (3), any remaining 8 (3) and any remaining 3 (3) = 17 outs. I was fully expecting Darko to say, "That's 5!", but my luck had run dry and I doubled up AJ when the river bricked.
I was steaming. A hand later, AJ was trash talking how his 2c6c was goooot! I folded and AJ called the hand.
"How about a last longer side bet," I asked.
"Sure," he said. And why not? He outchipped me 2-1.
"You have to give me odds," I said, "you have me way outchipped. $20 to my $10".
He said yes and then I realized, when he raised while saying this, that I should have waited until the hand was over. AJ showed a pair of Aces to take down another 2000 in chips and outdistance me even more. We pooled our money together and he smiled broadly. Bastard.
A few hands later, I have AK again. I raise and Art, to my left, goes all in for $1400. Cheryl calls and I only have $1600 total. I guess this is it then. I kissed the money, shipped it to AJ and went all in for $200 more. Cheryl called and we all showed down. I had AK, Art had AQ and Cheryl had Ace-Jack! I was ahead! Even more miraculously, a King flopped. I won the pot, knocked out Art and managed to triple up. AJ and I were now on equal footing.
I played tight from that point on, winning a few pots but nothing major. AJ managed to spew his whole stack on two hands, neither of which was his fault. First was A-high card where he flopped top pair and someone else flopped two pair, I believe. And the next hand, he was all in with QQ vs. KJ and a King flopped. Just like that, I won $20 on the prop bet and, immesaurably better, complete satisfaction. I went on to win the tourney when, in the money round, I raced my AK vs. Kearn's TT and flopped a King to take him out. I outchipped Cheryl nearly 2-1 at this point and offered a chop with her to take down the last tourney of the season! {smiles}
The 'losers' tourney is this Sunday, with $627 going to the winner. Should be lots of fun and an update will be presented shortly afterwards. I'm postponing the next season of official WSP tourneys until I can get my apartment set up with 2 tables. Should be the beginning of November.
Rocky "Oh The" Horror
I got an email from PP a few months ago that there was going to be a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture show down at the Showboat, this past Saturday. I wouldn't say I'm a 'big' Rocky Horror fan, but I've seen it a few times in the theaters and I love the soundtrack, so I thought it would be fun to go. I didn't expect Ali would want to go, but she was on board big time. Lisa joined us as well and PP drove us down Saturday morning.
We arrived at noon, had a nice breakfast at the Showboat coffeeshop and PP and Lisa went off to play in the 2PM tourney. The movie wasn't until Midnight, naturally, so Ali and I started wandering. She had never been to a casino before and rather than drag her to the poker room and put her in a chair behind me for hours on end (I *cringe* when I see that), I decided to take her on a tour of casinos and table games. We started with BlackJack at the showboat. $10 minimums and Ali was a pretty quick study, though I was mostly coaching her on what to do. Her stack kept increasing while mine kept decreasing and after we finished a show, she was up $25 and I was down $40. She seemed pretty happy about it.
Next up was a quick walk on the boardwalk to the Taj. We found a $10 craps table and rolled a few but Ali didn't like this one as much. I don't blame her since it was early, the crowds were thin, and it takes a big bankroll to play craps correctly, even if you just play the Pass line. A few rolls was all it took for her to tire out and we left again. We walked over to the Taj poker room, just to observe, and then over to Resorts to play Roulette.
Ali hit numbers early on while I watched and then played with her profit until she was back to even. She always played 23, for her birthday, but it never came. Still, we were having fun. We walked down to Caesars and played some slots and before we knew it it was 6:30p. We needed to head back to the Showboat to eat dinner with PP and Lisa. We wanted to have an early dinner so we could get a nap in before the midnight show. I grabbed a rolling chair, sat Ali down like we were the King and Queen, and took a decadently long time to get back to the Showboat. On the way, there were people walking in the center of the boardwalk, which is usually reserved for vehicles and most people were cognizant enough to get out of the way of the chairs. Somewhere along the way, we were behind two women and a guy who were walking slowly and seemed oblivious. Something about one of the women seemed familiar.
Let's see...
Red curly dishevelled hair. Check.
Long, thin, gaunt body. Check.
Small and ugly looking multi-colored backpack. Check.
"Hey Rubin," I shouted, "Get out of the way!"
Sure enough, W turned around with a look of surprise. It's not a stretch to find W in Atlantic City most weekend, but it was a bit of a coincidence to find her on the Boardwalk and not in the Borgata at the same time I was on the boardwalk. She was walking with her friend Alex and another friend on their way to the Showboat for the 7PM tourney. We were going the same way so I invited them to ditch the tourney and join us for dinner. They agreed it would be a fun idea and we all arrived together.
We all arrived at Casa Di Napoli, after also hooking up with Michael Brown (say it as one word) who was there for the day. We had a reservation for 5 already, but when we tried to expand it to 8, they refused. Adamantly. Alex, who is a Seven Star member (evidently, the highest roller the casino has), whipped out his card and tried to pull some rank. Still, they were having none of it. They said they simply didn't have the room. They did offer to give us reservations at the steak house next door and after perusing the menu and having some debate about it, we agreed. When we walked into that restaurant, we tried to get seated and there was a wait. Again, out came the Seven Star card (and heavenly angels and a choir) and this time it worked. Magically, a table opened up and we were seated immediately. Score!
I order the Prime Rib, "super rare". W ordered the prime rib as well, "medium rare" and we waited for our food amidst pleasant conversation. At one point, Alex got up to wash his hands and came back a long 15 minutes later. Turns out he had passed the tables and won $4000 in the interim. Aha! So *that's* why he's a Seven Star. Imagine what he could have won if he had to go to the bathroom.
The food came and W and I were highly unsatisfied. The prime rib was medium-well, which isn't even close to how we ordered it. There was no pink at all showing. We spoke up and the waitress went back to the kitchen to tell us there was no rare prime rib available (the ribs are roasted in advance and then cut to order). She would, however, upgrade us to the Ribeye (larger portion) for no additional charge. Ok. I ordered it rare again and this time the food came uot as specified. True, we got it almost when everyone was done, but it was insanely delicious. Probably the best Ribeye I've ever had in my life. It was about an inch thick, super rare (Ali was disgusted) and seriously juicy and tender. W and I pounded our portions (28 oz.) without batting an eye in the space of 10 minutes. Totally worth the wait.
After dinner, we all parted our separate ways. Ali and I went back to our room at Resorts and took a nap. PP and Lisa went to play poker and we all met up at the House of Blues at 11:30.
The place was a sideshow of freaks. Ali described it as a "Rennaisance Faire for Goths" and I laughed. It was appropriate. People were dressed up as all sorts of characters: Magenta, Columbia, Dr. Frank-N-Furter and even Rocky (a guy in a gold sparkly speedo and a spray-on tan and nothing else). Quite a scene. We waited paitently on a long line and were finally let in after a thorough security screening. Our tickets were F3 and F4 and the rows were marked very clearly. We moved up to the front and got to Row F and found it was completely full. Every seat was taken. I looked at my ticket again and there it was in plain English: Seats F3 and F4. A guy in row F, with his arm around his girlfriend and makeup on his face, looked up and saw my confusion. "Forget it," he said, "it's all general admission." I didn't comprehend at first. "They're not seating by your tickets. Go to the back." I protested that I had paid extra for these tickets but I was met by indifference to my plight. Fuckers.
I left Ali there, hoping to find a security guard to roust these bastard squatters from my seat. The security guard had just as much indifference. Maybe more. By this time, a small crowd had formed around the guard, filled with people spouting the same problem. The guard looked like a deer in headlights. He tried to explain, through the shouts and threats, that the promoter had changed the seating to general admission just before they opened the doors. I asked to see the promoter, but she was nowhere to be found, natch. The lights dimmed at that point and I resigned myself to the fact that I had gotten screwed and there was nothing I could do about it. Kind of like when 5 guys rape you in the shower in prison. Not much you can do except relax and try to enjoy the experience.
Ok, that analogy was a little harsh but it seemed to fit my feelings at the time.
We got seats towards the back of the floor and I have to say, it was just as awful as I thought it would be. The stage show was pretty far off and it helps to see the movie to synch it up with the stage show. There were TV's on the side projecting the movie and also a large screen on the stage. But the screen didn't descend far enough. There is a balcony (not open for this show) that extends over the stage which has the unfortunate effect of blocking the vertical view of the poor folks in the back. So the guys up front (in MY seats) got to see the screen, but I didn't. It was terrible.
There were some bright spots. The wedding scene was greeted with throws of rice, which threw Ali for a bit of a loop. The rain scene had the waterguns in full effect. And the audience knew what they were shouting at the appropriate times. It was pretty loud and chaotic and you got the sense that there was something 'cool' going on, but I never really felt it the way I could have if the experience hadn't been tainted from moment one. Ali had had her fill at about the 3/4 mark of the movie so we left and went to bed. A good thing really, because we were exhausted from the day. It turns out that moving around casinos is much more tiring when you're not just sitting there playing poker!
In the morning, we got up and went to Sonsie in the pier shops across from Caesars. I like this place for Brunch, normally, but they changed their menu and no longer have the Strawberry Cream Cheese stuffed french toast that I adore. We got the banana and chocolate chip french toast for Ali and I got the 3 cheese omelet, but it wasn't the same. It looks like I'm going to have to find another go-to brunch place in AC. Any suggestions?
Paul and Lisa had stayed at Resorts to eat brunch at the diner there because they'd been comped because of a screwup on checkin (King bed instead of two Queens). We met up later to drive to the Borgata.
Ali LOVED the Borgata. It's the closest thing to a Vegas casino in AC and it impresses newbies, no doubt. We walked around for a while and found ourselved parked in front of the Multi-Play BlackJack machine for about 2.5 hours. Turns out, this is a great way of training newbies on basic strategy. You can play 7 hands at one time for as little as $.25 a piece! Ali played on the same $20 for 2.5 hours and even doubled her money, all the while I was interjecting strategy notes and why you should split/double/hit/stand at certain spots. It's also a great training tool because you can wait as long as you want to make your move. There isn't the pressure of a live table to go already! By the end of the 2.5 hours, Ali was splitting 9's against a 6 like a pro. I was so proud. She got really excited by the game and I heard these magic words:
"I think we need to have more trips to AC in the future. I can play BlackJack and you can play poker!"
I could have died happy right there.
We *did* end up playing some poker, just so Ali could get the experience of playing in a real poker room. We played 2-4 Limit Hold'em and I think it was the appropriate forum. After a few hours, we collected Lisa (PP stayed overnight at his parents) and took the GreyHound home at 8PM. Considering all that happened, it was a nice little trip and will pay dividends in the future, I hope.
We arrived at noon, had a nice breakfast at the Showboat coffeeshop and PP and Lisa went off to play in the 2PM tourney. The movie wasn't until Midnight, naturally, so Ali and I started wandering. She had never been to a casino before and rather than drag her to the poker room and put her in a chair behind me for hours on end (I *cringe* when I see that), I decided to take her on a tour of casinos and table games. We started with BlackJack at the showboat. $10 minimums and Ali was a pretty quick study, though I was mostly coaching her on what to do. Her stack kept increasing while mine kept decreasing and after we finished a show, she was up $25 and I was down $40. She seemed pretty happy about it.
Next up was a quick walk on the boardwalk to the Taj. We found a $10 craps table and rolled a few but Ali didn't like this one as much. I don't blame her since it was early, the crowds were thin, and it takes a big bankroll to play craps correctly, even if you just play the Pass line. A few rolls was all it took for her to tire out and we left again. We walked over to the Taj poker room, just to observe, and then over to Resorts to play Roulette.
Ali hit numbers early on while I watched and then played with her profit until she was back to even. She always played 23, for her birthday, but it never came. Still, we were having fun. We walked down to Caesars and played some slots and before we knew it it was 6:30p. We needed to head back to the Showboat to eat dinner with PP and Lisa. We wanted to have an early dinner so we could get a nap in before the midnight show. I grabbed a rolling chair, sat Ali down like we were the King and Queen, and took a decadently long time to get back to the Showboat. On the way, there were people walking in the center of the boardwalk, which is usually reserved for vehicles and most people were cognizant enough to get out of the way of the chairs. Somewhere along the way, we were behind two women and a guy who were walking slowly and seemed oblivious. Something about one of the women seemed familiar.
Let's see...
Red curly dishevelled hair. Check.
Long, thin, gaunt body. Check.
Small and ugly looking multi-colored backpack. Check.
"Hey Rubin," I shouted, "Get out of the way!"
Sure enough, W turned around with a look of surprise. It's not a stretch to find W in Atlantic City most weekend, but it was a bit of a coincidence to find her on the Boardwalk and not in the Borgata at the same time I was on the boardwalk. She was walking with her friend Alex and another friend on their way to the Showboat for the 7PM tourney. We were going the same way so I invited them to ditch the tourney and join us for dinner. They agreed it would be a fun idea and we all arrived together.
We all arrived at Casa Di Napoli, after also hooking up with Michael Brown (say it as one word) who was there for the day. We had a reservation for 5 already, but when we tried to expand it to 8, they refused. Adamantly. Alex, who is a Seven Star member (evidently, the highest roller the casino has), whipped out his card and tried to pull some rank. Still, they were having none of it. They said they simply didn't have the room. They did offer to give us reservations at the steak house next door and after perusing the menu and having some debate about it, we agreed. When we walked into that restaurant, we tried to get seated and there was a wait. Again, out came the Seven Star card (and heavenly angels and a choir) and this time it worked. Magically, a table opened up and we were seated immediately. Score!
I order the Prime Rib, "super rare". W ordered the prime rib as well, "medium rare" and we waited for our food amidst pleasant conversation. At one point, Alex got up to wash his hands and came back a long 15 minutes later. Turns out he had passed the tables and won $4000 in the interim. Aha! So *that's* why he's a Seven Star. Imagine what he could have won if he had to go to the bathroom.
The food came and W and I were highly unsatisfied. The prime rib was medium-well, which isn't even close to how we ordered it. There was no pink at all showing. We spoke up and the waitress went back to the kitchen to tell us there was no rare prime rib available (the ribs are roasted in advance and then cut to order). She would, however, upgrade us to the Ribeye (larger portion) for no additional charge. Ok. I ordered it rare again and this time the food came uot as specified. True, we got it almost when everyone was done, but it was insanely delicious. Probably the best Ribeye I've ever had in my life. It was about an inch thick, super rare (Ali was disgusted) and seriously juicy and tender. W and I pounded our portions (28 oz.) without batting an eye in the space of 10 minutes. Totally worth the wait.
After dinner, we all parted our separate ways. Ali and I went back to our room at Resorts and took a nap. PP and Lisa went to play poker and we all met up at the House of Blues at 11:30.
The place was a sideshow of freaks. Ali described it as a "Rennaisance Faire for Goths" and I laughed. It was appropriate. People were dressed up as all sorts of characters: Magenta, Columbia, Dr. Frank-N-Furter and even Rocky (a guy in a gold sparkly speedo and a spray-on tan and nothing else). Quite a scene. We waited paitently on a long line and were finally let in after a thorough security screening. Our tickets were F3 and F4 and the rows were marked very clearly. We moved up to the front and got to Row F and found it was completely full. Every seat was taken. I looked at my ticket again and there it was in plain English: Seats F3 and F4. A guy in row F, with his arm around his girlfriend and makeup on his face, looked up and saw my confusion. "Forget it," he said, "it's all general admission." I didn't comprehend at first. "They're not seating by your tickets. Go to the back." I protested that I had paid extra for these tickets but I was met by indifference to my plight. Fuckers.
I left Ali there, hoping to find a security guard to roust these bastard squatters from my seat. The security guard had just as much indifference. Maybe more. By this time, a small crowd had formed around the guard, filled with people spouting the same problem. The guard looked like a deer in headlights. He tried to explain, through the shouts and threats, that the promoter had changed the seating to general admission just before they opened the doors. I asked to see the promoter, but she was nowhere to be found, natch. The lights dimmed at that point and I resigned myself to the fact that I had gotten screwed and there was nothing I could do about it. Kind of like when 5 guys rape you in the shower in prison. Not much you can do except relax and try to enjoy the experience.
Ok, that analogy was a little harsh but it seemed to fit my feelings at the time.
We got seats towards the back of the floor and I have to say, it was just as awful as I thought it would be. The stage show was pretty far off and it helps to see the movie to synch it up with the stage show. There were TV's on the side projecting the movie and also a large screen on the stage. But the screen didn't descend far enough. There is a balcony (not open for this show) that extends over the stage which has the unfortunate effect of blocking the vertical view of the poor folks in the back. So the guys up front (in MY seats) got to see the screen, but I didn't. It was terrible.
There were some bright spots. The wedding scene was greeted with throws of rice, which threw Ali for a bit of a loop. The rain scene had the waterguns in full effect. And the audience knew what they were shouting at the appropriate times. It was pretty loud and chaotic and you got the sense that there was something 'cool' going on, but I never really felt it the way I could have if the experience hadn't been tainted from moment one. Ali had had her fill at about the 3/4 mark of the movie so we left and went to bed. A good thing really, because we were exhausted from the day. It turns out that moving around casinos is much more tiring when you're not just sitting there playing poker!
In the morning, we got up and went to Sonsie in the pier shops across from Caesars. I like this place for Brunch, normally, but they changed their menu and no longer have the Strawberry Cream Cheese stuffed french toast that I adore. We got the banana and chocolate chip french toast for Ali and I got the 3 cheese omelet, but it wasn't the same. It looks like I'm going to have to find another go-to brunch place in AC. Any suggestions?
Paul and Lisa had stayed at Resorts to eat brunch at the diner there because they'd been comped because of a screwup on checkin (King bed instead of two Queens). We met up later to drive to the Borgata.
Ali LOVED the Borgata. It's the closest thing to a Vegas casino in AC and it impresses newbies, no doubt. We walked around for a while and found ourselved parked in front of the Multi-Play BlackJack machine for about 2.5 hours. Turns out, this is a great way of training newbies on basic strategy. You can play 7 hands at one time for as little as $.25 a piece! Ali played on the same $20 for 2.5 hours and even doubled her money, all the while I was interjecting strategy notes and why you should split/double/hit/stand at certain spots. It's also a great training tool because you can wait as long as you want to make your move. There isn't the pressure of a live table to go already! By the end of the 2.5 hours, Ali was splitting 9's against a 6 like a pro. I was so proud. She got really excited by the game and I heard these magic words:
"I think we need to have more trips to AC in the future. I can play BlackJack and you can play poker!"
I could have died happy right there.
We *did* end up playing some poker, just so Ali could get the experience of playing in a real poker room. We played 2-4 Limit Hold'em and I think it was the appropriate forum. After a few hours, we collected Lisa (PP stayed overnight at his parents) and took the GreyHound home at 8PM. Considering all that happened, it was a nice little trip and will pay dividends in the future, I hope.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dawn gifts me mobneys and then writes about it
We had a cash game two weeks ago where I put up big numbers. Dawn managed to blog about it, although she's highly jealous of my luckboxery ways. Still, she managed to leave with a profit so she should probably STOP WHINING.
Life update
I haven't blogged in a while but it's not because of a lack of things going on in my life, but BECAUSE of them. The sheer quantity of things that have been going on since I got back from Florida has been staggering. I can't comment fully on all of them, but I'll take a swipe at listing them.
1. Root Canal - I was having serious pain in my upper left molar all through my Florida trip and the only thing that made the experience bearable was regular dosages of Advil. I initially thought the pain was my impacted wisdom teeth causing trouble, but the pain started to get more localized to the one tooth. Upon my return to New York, my wonderful (and super hot) dentist on Wall Street identified the issue. I made plans to get the root canal and to also get my wisdom teeth removed five days later, but decided the two operations in one week was too much unnecessary trauma. So I had the root canal and postponed the wisdom teeth until next month. Something to look forward to.
2. My relationship with Ali progresses. Not only did her father treat us to the Jets home opener vs. the dreaded Pats (they lost, grr...), but I got to meet her sister as well. Evidently, I made a good impression, because I was invited to her sister's 21st birthday bash this weekend and met the rest of her family for Sunday brunch. It's nice for something to be going smooth in my life. We've been doing great stuff in the last two weeks, including a great Saturday last weekend when we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, had ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, dinner at Henry's End in Brooklyn Heights and a quick visit to the MoonStruck house. I'm still the master of awesome dates.
3. Wall Street melts down - Are you kidding me with this shit? In the space of two weeks, every independent investment bank on the street is GONE. Merrill gets bought by Bank of America, Lehman falls and Morgan Stanley and Goldman become commercial banks. Can you imagine a Goldman Sachs local BRANCH?!? What has the world come to? In the meantime, my job is relatively unaffected although I don't hold out much hope for my end of year bonus to be anything more than a pittance. I'm seriously considering alternative careers. Maybe open a bar/poker room in Montana?
Way too much going on in my life. I'm anxious about re-upholstering my new poker table with the suited speed cloth that I got to replace the suede that's currently there. But I have to wait for 5 consecutive free hours to do the work. {Sigh}
1. Root Canal - I was having serious pain in my upper left molar all through my Florida trip and the only thing that made the experience bearable was regular dosages of Advil. I initially thought the pain was my impacted wisdom teeth causing trouble, but the pain started to get more localized to the one tooth. Upon my return to New York, my wonderful (and super hot) dentist on Wall Street identified the issue. I made plans to get the root canal and to also get my wisdom teeth removed five days later, but decided the two operations in one week was too much unnecessary trauma. So I had the root canal and postponed the wisdom teeth until next month. Something to look forward to.
2. My relationship with Ali progresses. Not only did her father treat us to the Jets home opener vs. the dreaded Pats (they lost, grr...), but I got to meet her sister as well. Evidently, I made a good impression, because I was invited to her sister's 21st birthday bash this weekend and met the rest of her family for Sunday brunch. It's nice for something to be going smooth in my life. We've been doing great stuff in the last two weeks, including a great Saturday last weekend when we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, had ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, dinner at Henry's End in Brooklyn Heights and a quick visit to the MoonStruck house. I'm still the master of awesome dates.
3. Wall Street melts down - Are you kidding me with this shit? In the space of two weeks, every independent investment bank on the street is GONE. Merrill gets bought by Bank of America, Lehman falls and Morgan Stanley and Goldman become commercial banks. Can you imagine a Goldman Sachs local BRANCH?!? What has the world come to? In the meantime, my job is relatively unaffected although I don't hold out much hope for my end of year bonus to be anything more than a pittance. I'm seriously considering alternative careers. Maybe open a bar/poker room in Montana?
Way too much going on in my life. I'm anxious about re-upholstering my new poker table with the suited speed cloth that I got to replace the suede that's currently there. But I have to wait for 5 consecutive free hours to do the work. {Sigh}
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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