Last day in Florida

After the debacle from yesterday, I woke up at a decent hour (10:30AM) in order to meet Abbie back up in Pompano by Noon or so. But I felt guilty about not seeing much of my parents, so I spent a very leisurely morning having breakfast with them an discussing the real estate and equities markets. My parents think I'm a genius when it comes to these topics, working at Merrill and all, but the truth is I'm only more educated about it than they are. So I spent a few hours with them debating what the downturn in the real estate market meant to their portfolio, whether we could expect a soft landing and explaining the concept of a 'random walk' and how that related to stock price movements. Refreshing....

I left the quagmire of economics talk around the kitchen table and drove up to Pompano, making it there by about 2. I was immediately seated in a 3-5 limit game. I decided to stick to limit today because I had been running poorly at no limit and I usually play limit at casinos since I don't have the opportunity to play it anywhere else. I did fairly well, playing tight and being aggressive with good hands. I check-raised often when I had the nuts and was able to carve out a solid profit in my first hour. Then it hit me. I'm in Florida, playing a game where the max limit table is 3-5 and the max buyin is $100. This would be a great place to play some limit games that I don't normaly play. Namely, 7 stud and Omaha 8. I used to play stud all the time, but I stopped when Hold'em became the primary game and stud was relegated to just a table or two at the casinos. And I've NEVER played Omaha in a casino at all. So I got myself moved to the one stud table that was running at 2-4 stakes. I was on the table for maybe 15 minutes when I got called to the Omaha table. I moved immediately and greeted all the players.

The Omaha table was populated by a group of folks who knew each other. These were local players who had fun talking about their hands and mostly betting like crap. No tricky plays here. Just check-call all the way down to the river. The trick with Omaha is to understand that the minimum winning hand is almost always trips and to throw your hand away the *instant* it can't win. Otherwise, it will cost you 3-4 bets on a hand you can't take down. The other trick is to be able to read your possibilities quickly. In Omaha 8, you can win half the pot if you have the low hand, but you can only use 3 cards from the 5 card board. In addition, your highest card can't be above an 8. So if a flop comes down with 2 cards below an 8, you need the turn or river to be below an 8 to even have a chance of winning half. Ace-deuce in your hand is the best starting low, but if a deuce comes on the board, Ace-trey becomes the best starting hand. Because the situation can change with every card, you need to be mindful all the time when things change and what your chances are to improve. The good news is you almost always have pot odds to draw, EXCEPT that in many cases you will be splitting your half of the pot with someone else if you go low. This changes your pot odds drastically. If you're only fighting for 1/4 of the pot, the pot odds generally aren't there for you to draw. This is also a bit of a paradox, because if you fold, your opponent who holds the same low cards as you will be able to stay in correctly. It's the Prisoner's Dilemma (Google it), played out in Omaha. But you can't think about that, because your opponent will never fold to give *you* the right pot odds, so you can fold with impunity and not feel bad.

Since there are so many draws in Omaha, the pots usually get sizeable, even for 2-4. A typical pot was $70-$80, with some as high as $150. So 'scooping' the pot (meaning getting both the high and the low) was a big deal for your stack.

When I sat at the table, the players immediately told me this wasn't an 'all-in' table. Evidently, many people sit down with the idea that this is a 1-2 NL table. I told them I knew that, but that this was my first time playing Omaha in a casino. One player asked where I had played it before and I said at home. He then helpfully told me that 6 high is not the nut low, but the wheel straight is. I told him I knew that, though in hindsight I should have just nodded and said thank you. It didn't matter though. I ran the table with a run of good cards and good judgement. I won my first three hands and left the table a few hours later up about $125.

I had dinner with Abbie and her grandmother (who had come to play slots) at Myron's Jewish deli downstairs. After being told it would be 30 minutes for a table, we nearly went to McDonalds down the road, but they ended up seating us in 5 minutes instead. We ordered a smorgasboard of delicacies, from stuffed cabbage to blintzes and latkes and hot dogs. After stuffing ourselves like good Jews and engaging in very pleasant conversation, the check came. I instinctively went for it, but Abbie and her grandmother would have none of it. It was their treat. Who was I to argue, although I admit I've never been taken out to dinner by two women before. Really, it was my treat.

Abbie had to go to the airport right afterwards and we said our goodbyes. I high tailed back to the room and continued on with my Omaha game. All of my friends were right back where I left them. I played for another 3 hours before the table broke up and I couldn't get seated anywhere else. It was 10:30 on a Sunday night and things were starting to slow down. But not for me. I got in my car and drove south towards Hollywood with the intention of going to the Seminole Indian casino on route 441. They're open 24 hours and all the local hard core gamblers were going to be there. Going to the Seminole is an entirely different experience than going to the Hard Rock, it's sister casino. The Seminole allows smoking (though not at the table, thankfully). Still, it has a musty smell to it. There *used* to be smoking at the table, but they did away with it a few months ago and it makes it much more pleasant. Still, the cast of characters around the Omaha table at the Seminole was a sight to behold. There were two crusty old grandmothers, one black and one white. The black woman had a cigarette dangling out of her mouth like Sammy Farha. Actually, she looked to me like an old picture of Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist. That is, if Robert Johnson lived until his 80's and had a sex change operation. Rounding out the list of characters was a small drunken asian man who reeked of alcohol on his breath and had about 13 teeth in his mouth. A somewhat confused rastafarian looking old man with a shock of gray in his bushy beard who somehow knew the rules of the game better than the dealer (more on that later). A very annoying and talkative guy with a missing bottom tooth and a huge ganglia in his right forearm. Finally, an old man with white hair and a hole in his throat, with a little tab coming out of it. And me, the odd man out.

Play at the table was pretty good and these folks had obviously played a lot. Some interesting hands won and lost, though nothing to write about here. What's important is that I got a good education in omaha, even if I lost most of my Omaha profit from Pompano. I played until 5AM, with every single player staying until that time. I lost less than most and the old man with the hole in his throat won the most. Ganglia man was on a roll for a while but ended up losing most of his money. He also got the dealer to call the floor to throw him out because of some very annoying behavior. He was obviously a regular there and all the dealers knew he was a pain in the ass. His favorite move was to ask the dealers to push the cards dealt to be in front of him. Nevermind that the cards were dealt, no joke, two inches from where he asked them to be pushed. That was the final straw that made the dealer call the floor. He didn't get booted, but he behaved after the floor came and admonished him.

I was witness to one interesting call to the floor for a ruling and a participant in another. First, my participation. Action around the table moved fairly quickly and there was almost never a raise. So when action came around to the guy to my right, I called almost in unison with him, putting my single $2 chip out on the table about half a second after he did. It was only when my chip went in the middle that I realized he had raised. I did what almost every other table allows. I withdrew my chip and threw my cards in the middle to muck. At that point, the old man with the hole in his throat pressed a hidden button near his shoulder and croaked at the words, "That has to stay in the pot!". Evidently, you're not allowed to call, even out of turn, and then withdraw the money. I see the point of the ruling, but I don't agree with it. If you're going to make me call, I should have to call for the whole bet ($4), not half the bet. But the floor agreed with the old man and my $2 chip stayed in the middle. Later, after he left, the old man with the hole in his throat tossed me a $2 chip and breathed out the words, "no hard feelings". It was a nice gesture, but then he pursed his lips and blew me a kiss, which was creepy and pervy and left me feeling dirty.

The other interesting call to the floor involved bushy gray bearded rastafarian guy. A clean cut gentlemen was down to his last $1 chip and he was first to act in the hand. He said, "I'm all in for $1". The rastafarian objected to this move, saying the guy couldn't bet the $1 since it didn't meet the minimum bet requirements! We all assumed you could bet anything you have in front of you since all in was all in. But the floor confirmed that the guy couldn't open a bet with less than the minimum. He could *call* a bet for $1 all in, but he couldn't *start* the betting. It was the first time I'd heard that and it only applies to limit, from what I understand.

5AM came and I picked up my remaining chips and went home, exhausted but satisfied. I got up at noon and promptly went down to the beach for some well deserved rest. It was hot though, so I stayed by the pool area, under a shady canopy, looking at the ocean and listening to the surf. Lulled to sleep, I slept by the pool for about 3 hours before heading back upstairs and showering in preparation for my trip home.

I'll be back soon, I hope. I love you Florida!

A Weekend without sleep...

The Friday game went to 5:30AM and I got to bed at 6AM. Fine for a weekend except I had to be up in 2 hours to make it to Penn Station in order to meet my friend Scott L out on Long Island for an afternoon of fishing! Oh, the sacrifices I make for my poker games!

2 hours of sleep goes *really* quickly when you have to get up afterwards. Shockingly, I wasn't completely dead on my feet. Yes, I had to stand the entire train ride out to Long Island due to all the damn beach goers, but I was alert and awake on the boat. My catches on the 4 hour boat ride consisted of 2 crabs and 1 Robin-fish, which goes right back in the water on account of them being really small. Scott, on the other hand, managed not only to bag two Fluke, but the second one was the BIGGEST one caught on the boat for that trip. There were about 50 other anglers with us, so it was an impressive feat. So not only is his ego stoked over it (yeah, like there was any skill involved!), but he also won the Boat pool. The Boat pool is $2 collected from each fisherman which goes to the lucky guy lucky enough to bag the largest catch that trip. Ka-Ching!

On the boat ride back, we were in the cabin eating our lunch. A group of large guys (and a large girl) were playing cards next to us. It turns out that one of them was a, ahem, cardroom proprietor out on Long Island. His own cardrooms (4 of them) had all been shut down, but he taught me quite a bit about cardroom operations. The most interesting tidbit is that Long Island cardrooms typically rake the pot rather than take a time charge. And what *he* said was that they often rake far above what they advertise in an effort to boost profits. He claimed, and I believe him, that the dealers would often rake an extra $10-$15 dollars from large pots because the players rarely noticed, and when they did the dealers could claim ignorance. Yet another thing to watch out for! Atlantic City and Vegas dealers sometimes rake the pot incorrectly but it's NEVER in the range of 2 to 3 times the regular rake. It's usually just an accidental dollar here and there. The reason, of course, is that the casino dealers are taped and the extra money doesn't even go to them anyway. So, if you're on Long Island in a raked card room, watch out!

The other thing this guy taught us was a new game called BALLS. Scott and I played it for about 30 minutes and it was a lot of fun (not to mention I took about $30 off these guys as a result). Here's how it works. You get a group of players together and each person contributes $1 into the middle. Each player is then dealt 4 cards (of an eventual 5 card hand). Starting with the player to the left of the dealer (whom we'll call player 1 for now), each player has to decide if their hand is good enough to contest the pot. Each player decides, in turn, if they're going to be "in" or "out". When everyone has decided, if there is more than player left, a 5th community card is dealt in the middle. This card is used by everyone and it's rank is also wild. So, for example, if it's a 5h and you have a 5c in your hand, you now have 2 wild cards. The best 5 card hand scoops the pot. The Losers of the hand have to match what the initial pot was ($1 per player). So, if the pot starts with $8 (8 players) and two players lose the hand, they each have to put $8 in the pot. The pot then starts the next hand with $16. But if a player loses the next hand, they don't match $16, just $8. This is so it won't get too expensive. If, at the end of a hand, only 1 player has decided to be "in", then they play against the deck. A four card hand is dealt from the deck and then the 5th card is dealt to be community and wild for the player and the deck. If the player loses to the deck, he/she has to match the initial pot. If the player wins, all players add another dollar and the game starts anew. The only other two rules are: 1. The player who first decides to be "in" or "out" rotates every hand. This is because the last person to decide has a built in advantage. 2. If you win a pot, you have to deal the cards until another person wins the pot.

It's a very fun game and we're definitely going to be playing it soon.

That night, Scott and I had the fish he caught for dinner. He mercifully let me catch a one hour nap while he cooked. It wasn't enough, but it was sufficient. Then we went out to see the new Die Hard movie. The move defies disbelief but it's enough fun and the action sequences are good enough for me to recommend it. It was much better than I would have given it credit for.

I got home at about 1AM, and instead of going to bed immediately, I decided to "quickly" read some blogs and catch up. Karol's blog, www.alarmingnews.com, had a request for breakup songs. So I decided to submit a few by scrolling through my Itunes list and seeing what I could come up with. 3 hours later (!), I had given her nearly 70 songs. Oh yeah, did I mention I had agreed to meet a date the next morning at 10AM at Grand Central?!? Whoops.

5 hours of sleep later, I took a shower and got to Grand Central at 10AM on the nose. We caught a 7 train to go out to Flushing Meadow park to see the Hong Kong Dragon Boat festival. The festival was much crappier than I had hoped for. It's basically a series of boat races, which were cool, and a small fairground with a few tents, which sucked ass. There were about 20 tents sent up, with about 15 of them offering credit cards or cell phone subscriptions. There were 2 offering cold chinese food and the other 3 were stuff strictly for kids. On top of that, it was hot in the sun! We sat under a tree eating cold dumplings, chatted a bit, watched a boat race and then headed back into the city. We decided to go to Blatt's Billiards so I could check out their poker table offerings but they turned out to be closed on the weekend's during the summer! Bummer. So we saw the new Bourne Ultimatum movie instead. It was awesome. The best yet and a great cast, with some ridiculous action sequences. Fun stuff.

We had a drink at a cool rooftop bar in Koreatown afterwards and then I had to say goodbye. The lack of sleep was catching up to me, and quickly. So home I went. I managed to stay up until Entourage (good stuff! 'Your wife cheated on you..with an exact duplicate of you?') but then fell asleep like a baby in a cradle. 6AM I was up and out to work by 7:15. Today is going to be rough, but I plan to come home from band practice by 9:40 and I'll be asleep in my bed by 9:42. Don't call me, please!

New members, good times

The last few session of the Wall Street Poker league have been eventful. There was the brutal dismantling of Tommy Drama by Scott St. G in heads up play on Wed. night. The brutal suckout by The Slayer with 27 on the first hand vs. myself. Also, we entertained an exciting new member of the league, Carol, who promises to expand all of our horizons with regards to higher limit play and other games, Omaha in particular.

Friday was Carol's first time in the league. She comes to us via the F-Train poker blog (look it up). F-Train is a friend of the I Had Outs crew (Karol and Stephane) and, as such, is considered a FOAFOAF (Friend of a Friend of a Friend). Close enough for my tastes if you ask me. She is also part of a new group of members we are getting via writeups on other blogs. Most of those members have been successfully integrated into our Borg-like collective with one notable exception (see recent past blogs for details). Carol, suffice it to say, was fantastic and we hope to see much more of her in the future for reasons I will detail below.

Before I go into those details though, I want to quickly recap Friday's tourneys. These were exciting to me for the sole reason that I actually cashed twice, breaking a long drought for me! I feel like A-Rod hitting his 500th HR (which happened tonight actually). I played conservative but aggressive and I got paid off on my good hands. Like when my AA flopped an Ace and I checked called all the way to the turn by Eric D. When he checked the river and I value bet 700, he had to pay me off though I didn't see the strong hand he had (KK?). It was a few hands like that that kept me afloat, but then I ran into a dry spell of cards. Instead of pushing with hands like QT suited, I was patient, folded middle pocket pairs in bad position and waited for good spots. It worked, though by the time I got into second place heads up with Stephen P., I had a serious chip defecit I couldn't overcome. But I was happy enough to cash. The second tourney was more of the same and I got very lucky getting Scott St. G. to double me up twice in the later rounds when he ran 7c9c (or something similar) against my QQ when I pushed all in on the button vs. his big blind. He also pushed all in with 55 vs. my 99 in the opposite situation later on which put me into first place while simultaneously crippling his stack. Anthony C. took him out and we battled it out for a while. I emerged from a chip defecit to pull nearly even when we decided to chop and start a cash game.

Here's where my praise of Carol begins. We had a few cash game dropouts (curse you Darko!) and we only ended up with 5 willing players for a cash game. 5 is too few for a game of Hold'em and I was about to disband the effort when Carol said, "5 isn't too few for Omaha! Let's play that." I thought about it and since we're going to be spreading Omaha for the first time in a cash game on Tuesday, I thought this would be good just for practice. We agreed on $1/$2 stakes ($.50/$1 blinds) and we played Omaha Hi/Lo 8's or better until 5:30AM! Carol came out way ahead, of course, with Scott St. G making some money, Stephen P. breaking even and Paul H. and I losing some buyins. But the experience was great and playing with Carol was an eye-opener. She was also very helpful in teaching us how to read boards, split the pot in the expectation of Hi/Lo and decide what good folding/calling/raising hands were. Carol frequently plays in $15/$30 or higher limit games and sometimes 5/10 NL games, so for her to have the patience to endure our micro stakes and actually take the time to teach us, keeping in the spirit of this League, was saintly. We're thankful for her time and wisdom.

Incidentally, she also happens to be a fascinating person. Just a few nuggets I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I share...

1. She's Asian - Korean to be precise.
2. She's Jewish - From her father.
3. She's Mennonite - From her mother.
4. She's Adopted - Her parents adopted her from Korea when she was a baby.
5. She's a Corporate Lawyer (Corporate Finance)
6. She *used* to be an investment banker
7. She plays high stakes poker - at least for us. The stakes she plays are *just* below what a professional would play, though most semi-pros would play the same stakes.
8. She's very attractive - Not a nugget per se, just an observation. ;-)
9. She's extremely nice, generous AND *funny* - Another observation

For those of you who know me, the above list is almost exactly tailored to my wishlist of the perfect woman. It might be too early in our budding relationship, though, to propose marriage. (jus' kiddin'). The other obstacle there would be her boyfriend, who is most likely a large athletic man (an assumption based on the fact that he played Division I football for Florida State). :-)

All in all, a credit to our table.

Ok, now that I'm through with the placing on the pedestal, it's time for us to figure out how to felt her. She's a good player!!!

P.S. Carol had the best quote at the table given in some time. Here it is:
Scott St. G - "How can I get some of those chips from your stack?"
Carol - "More suckouts"

Are you kidding me?

My streak of poor luck/play continues at my own table. In the first tourney last night, I played tight and conservative. I pushed one or two hands, and was able to take blinds when I needed it. Then I got cute. Blinds were 200/400 and it folded around to me on the button. I had J5o but I tried to make a blind steal. I raised to 1000. Brian folded in the small blind and Paul R. said, "Because I respect you...I'm all in". He only had 300 more so I call. He has KK. What a bad time to make a steal! It was a fine play otherwise, although I might not have made it if I had known Paul only had 900 behind him, making him practically pot committed with any two cards. I was in the 10th seat and Paul was in the 1st seat so it was hard to see his chip stack. I'll pay more attention next time.

The next hand, I have JJ, and I push all in over a raise from Joel R. (new player). He calls with AK and I flop a J to win a race (lo and behold). However, since I doubled up Paul, I was in much worse shape than I should have been. A few hands later, I get AQ and raise to 1500 with blinds at 300/600. Thomas moves all in on me with a slightly smaller chip stack, but it would decimate me if I lost. However, with blinds at 300/600 and me with only about 2000 behind, I feel I have to chance it with AQ. I call and he turns over KK! Despite the reputation for KK as 'Ace Magnets', I don't spike one and I go out the next hand with 9s7s.

I don't mind running into good hands. But I was out on the *first* hand of the second tourney against The Slayer and a head scratching hand that really put me on tilt. Luckily, I suppose, I didn't have any more tourney to play after I was knocked out. I got dealt KhQh on the button and there were 4 limps all around. I raised to 225 and got a call from Paul R. and The Slayer (who was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time). The flop comes K72 rainbow. It checks around to me and I bet 450. I'd been reading lately about making strong moves with strong hands and putting your opponent to a tough decision. With this in mind, I made the bet, Paul folded and Matt came over the top for another 450! In most cases, against most other players, I'd think long and hard about what they could have called a raise with preflop that would enable them to hit something on a K72 rainbow board that would allow them to check-raise post flop. Usually, that would lead me to a set of 2's or 7's and I could fold. K2 or K7 doesn't seem to be reasonable and AK would have probably started out with a raise before me. But that's against most players. Against Matt, though, I have to put him on a wider range of hands. This is the line of thinking that led me to believe he had KT or K9. I moved all in over the top to try and get him to fold his two pair draw and he insta-called, flipping over 2d7d! It was the absolute last hand I had expected to see considering he called a substantial raise out of position. What's worse, of course, is that the EXACT flop came out that was going to get me felted. If any other flop had come out, say without a King or with a paired board, I could have gotten away from it. But NO, it had to be the exact flop to get me to commit my chips. Ah well. Such is life at my own table.

Last day in Florida

After the debacle from yesterday, I woke up at a decent hour (10:30AM) in order to meet Abbie back up in

Pompano by Noon or so. But I felt guilty about not seeing much of my parents, so I spent a very leisurely

morning having breakfast with them an discussing the real estate and equities markets. My parents think I'm

a genius when it comes to these topics, working at Merrill and all, but the truth is I'm only more educated

about it than they are. So I spent a few hours with them debating what the downturn in the real estate

market meant to their portfolio, whether we could expect a soft landing and explaining the concept of a

'random walk' and how that related to stock price movements. Refreshing....

I left the quagmire of economics talk around the kitchen table and drove up to Pompano, making it there by

about 2. I was immediately seated in a 3-5 limit game. I decided to stick to limit today because I had

been running poorly at no limit and I usually play limit at casinos since I don't have the opportunity to

play it anywhere else. I did fairly well, playing tight and being aggressive with good hands. I check-

raised often when I had the nuts and was able to carve out a solid profit in my first hour. Then it hit me.

I'm in Florida, playing a game where the max limit table is 3-5 and the max buyin is $100. This would be a

great place to play some limit games that I don't normaly play. Namely, 7 stud and Omaha 8. I used to play

stud all the time, but I stopped when Hold'em became the primary game and stud was relegated to just a table

or two at the casinos. And I've NEVER played Omaha in a casino at all. So I got myself moved to the one

stud table that was running at 2-4 stakes. I was on the table for maybe 15 minutes when I got called to the

Omaha table. I moved immediately and greeted all the players.

The Omaha table was populated by a group of folks who knew each other. These were local players who had fun

talking about their hands and mostly betting like crap. No tricky plays here. Just check-call all the way

down to the river. The trick with Omaha is to understand that the minimum winning hand is almost always

trips and to throw your hand away the *instant* it can't win. Otherwise, it will cost you 3-4 bets on a

hand you can't take down. The other trick is to be able to read your possibilities quickly. In Omaha 8,

you can win half the pot if you have the low hand, but you can only use 3 cards from the 5 card board. In

addition, your highest card can't be above an 8. So if a flop comes down with 2 cards below an 8, you need

the turn or river to be below an 8 to even have a chance of winning half. Ace-deuce in your hand is the

best starting low, but if a deuce comes on the board, Ace-trey becomes the best starting hand. Because the

situation can change with every card, you need to be mindful all the time when things change and what your

chances are to improve. The good news is you almost always have pot odds to draw, EXCEPT that in many cases

you will be splitting your half of the pot with someone else if you go low. This changes your pot odds

drastically. If you're only fighting for 1/4 of the pot, the pot odds generally aren't there for you to

draw. This is also a bit of a paradox, because if you fold, your opponent who holds the same low cards as

you will be able to stay in correctly. It's the Prisoner's Dilemma (Google it), played out in Omaha. But

you can't think about that, because your opponent will never fold to give *you* the right pot odds, so you

can fold with impunity and not feel bad.

Since there are so many draws in Omaha, the pots usually get sizeable, even for 2-4. A typical pot was $70

-$80, with some as high as $150. So 'scooping' the pot (meaning getting both the high and the low) was a

big deal for your stack.

When I sat at the table, the players immediately told me this wasn't an 'all-in' table. Evidently, many

people sit down with the idea that this is a 1-2 NL table. I told them I knew that, but that this was my

first time playing Omaha in a casino. One player asked where I had played it before and I said at home. He

then helpfully told me that 6 high is not the nut low, but the wheel straight is. I told him I knew that,

though in hindsight I should have just nodded and said thank you. It didn't matter though. I ran the table

with a run of good cards and good judgement. I won my first three hands and left the table a few hours

later up about $125.

I had dinner with Abbie and her grandmother (who had come to play slots) at Myron's Jewish deli downstairs.

After being told it would be 30 minutes for a table, we nearly went to McDonalds down the road, but they

ended up seating us in 5 minutes instead. We ordered a smorgasboard of delicacies, from stuffed cabbage to

blintzes and latkes and hot dogs. After stuffing ourselves like good Jews and engaging in very pleasant

conversation, the check came. I instinctively went for it, but Abbie and her grandmother would have none of

it. It was their treat. Who was I to argue, although I admit I've never been taken out to dinner by two

women before. Really, it was my treat.

Abbie had to go to the airport right afterwards and we said our goodbyes. I high tailed back to the room

and continued on with my Omaha game. All of my friends were right back where I left them. I played for

another 3 hours before the table broke up and I couldn't get seated anywhere else. It was 10:30 on a Sunday

night and things were starting to slow down. But not for me.

I got in my car and drove south towards Hollywood with the intention of going to the Seminole Indian casino

on route 441. They're open 24 hours and all the local hard core gamblers were going to be there. Going to

the Seminole is an entirely different experience than going to the Hard Rock, it's sister casino. The

Seminole allows smoking (though not at the table, thankfully). Still, it has a musty smell to it. There

*used* to be smoking at the table, but they did away with it a few months ago and it makes it much more

pleasant. Still, the cast of characters around the Omaha table at the Seminole was a sight to behold.

There were two crusty old grandmothers, one black and one white. The black woman had a cigarette dangling

out of her mouth like Sammy Farha. Actually, she looked to me like an old picture of Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist. That is, if Robert Johnson lived until his 80's and had a sex change operation. Rounding out the list of characters was a small drunken asian man who reeked of alcohol on his breath and had about 13 teeth in his mouth. A somewhat confused rastafarian looking old man with a shock of gray in his bushy beard who somehow knew the rules of the game better than the dealer (more on that later). A very annoying and talkative guy with a missing bottom tooth and a huge ganglia in his right forearm. Finally, an old man with white hair and a hole in his throat, with a little tab coming out of it. And me, the odd man out.

Play at the table was pretty good and these folks had obviously played a lot. Some interesting hands won and lost, though nothing to write about here. What's important is that I got a good education in omaha, even if I lost most of my Omaha profit from Pompano. I played until 5AM, with every single player staying until that time. I lost less than most and the old man with the hole in his throat won the most. Ganglia man was on a roll for a while but ended up losing most of his money. He also got the dealer to call the floor to throw him out because of some very annoying behavior. He was obviously a regular there and all the dealers knew he was a pain in the ass. His favorite move was to ask the dealers to push the cards dealt to be in front of him. Nevermind that the cards were dealt, no joke, two inches from where he asked them to be pushed. That was the final straw that made the dealer call the floor. He didn't get booted, but he behaved after the floor came and admonished him.

I was witness to one interesting call to the floor for a ruling and a participant in another. First, my participation. Action around the table moved fairly quickly and there was almost never a raise. So when action came around to the guy to my right, I called almost in unison with him, putting my single $2 chip out on the table about half a second after he did. It was only when my chip went in the middle that I realized he had raised. I did what almost every other table allows. I withdrew my chip and threw my cards in the middle to muck. At that point, the old man with the hole in his throat pressed a hidden button near his shoulder and croaked at the words, "That has to stay in the pot!". Evidently, you're not allowed to call, even out of turn, and then withdraw the money. I see the point of the ruling, but I don't agree with it. If you're going to make me call, I should have to call for the whole bet ($4), not half the bet. But the floor agreed with the old man and my $2 chip stayed in the middle. Later, after he left, the old man with the hole in his throat tossed me a $2 chip and breathed out the words, "no hard feelings". It was a nice gesture, but then he pursed his lips and blew me a kiss, which was creepy and pervy and left me feeling dirty.

The other interesting call to the floor involved bushy gray bearded rastafarian guy. A clean cut gentlemen was down to his last $1 chip and he was first to act in the hand. He said, "I'm all in for $1". The rastafarian objected to this move, saying the guy couldn't bet the $1 since it didn't meet the minimum bet requirements! We all assumed you could bet anything you have in front of you since all in was all in. But the floor confirmed that the guy couldn't open a bet with less than the minimum. He could *call* a bet for $1 all in, but he couldn't *start* the betting. It was the first time I'd heard that and it only applies to limit, from what I understand.

5AM came and I picked up my remaining chips and went home, exhausted but satisfied. I got up at noon and promptly went down to the beach for some well deserved rest. It was hot though, so I stayed by the pool area, under a shady canopy, looking at the ocean and listening to the surf. Lulled to sleep, I slept by the pool for about 3 hours before heading back upstairs and showering in preparation for my trip home.

I'll be back soon, I hope. I love you Florida!

Is there any justice in this world? Probably not...

I'm down a lot today, about $280. And why? Because I played perfect poker, that's why. My losses today came down to 5 essential hands, of which I will elucidate further.

The day started off nicely. Abbie drove down from her grandmother's to meet me down in Hollywood and try some of the casino's down there. First, we stopped at Dania Jai-alai at about 3PM. There was a freeroll tourney happening and what the hey? Free is Free. Abbie went pretty far, about 14 out of 120, but finally busted out on 2 consecutive hands with a pretty short stack. Winner took all in the freeroll, so it was necessary for her to win her races, which she didn't (a common theme of the day). I held out hope to last longer, but my KK all in was called by A9 and, of course, an Ace flopped. So it was off to the cash tables for us...

I ended up losing a full buyin at the JaiAlai fronton with no special hands to speak of. I was making very good reads, laying down hands that ended up being losers and calculating pot odds nicely for calls that ocassionally paid off. I even made quad 7's against, unfortunately, a small stack. The quad 7's were the high hand of the day when I got them at 4:30pm and if they had held up until 6pm, I would have won the $100 high hand of the day jackpot. That would have been nice, but at 5:40, someone made quad Jacks and I lost the money. Fuckers. I ended up losing my buyin on an unfortunate hand that illustrates an issue with the Florida poker setup. The issue is this; the buyins are capped at $100, so unless you make a few double ups, you end up being pot committed to call on any hand you flop a piece of, especially if there is a decent raise preflop. Case in point. I have AK in early position and I raise to $11, which has become my standard raise. It folds all the way around to the small blind who calls. Heads up, the flop is K74, rainbow. I flop top/top, a recipe for disaster I know, but what else can I do? There's $24 in the pot and I have $70 behind me. I bet out $15 and he min-raises to $30. There's now $69 in the pot. I have two choices. I can lay down the AK if I suspect some fould play, but a crappy player could easily make this same min-raise play with any King in his hand. Maybe it's a probe bet to see where he's at. Maybe he has KQ that he think is good. Hell, maybe he has AK. I put him on a range of hands, including hands that beat me like a set or AA that he might limp call with pre-flop. There's about a 50/50 chance I'm beaten here. So I do the only sensible thing. I push all in. Why is that sensible? Because if I'm ahead, he will probably fold. If he believes he's good, he'll call. But, if he's behind, he might suck out on me so getting him to fold is the best chance I have to win. He calls with AA. Still, I don't think I could have gotten away from it. Does anyone disagree with me?

We leave the Jaialai soon afterwards to have an amazing dinner at the Rustic Inn. I had the crab sampler, which was better than I remember it. Abbie had the marinated Tuna Steak which was fantastically flavorful and tasted a lot like steak. It was great to be on the water and eating seafood. It's what Florida life is all about.

Afterwards, we decided to hit the Greyhound race track to see some dogs race and play some poker. I won about $40 back at the track but the dogs weren't racing. Unfortunately, the track is under construction. The place is pretty ratty too, as far as poker rooms go, so we decided to leave after about two hours. We headed a mile down the road to the horse track, which was redone recently and is absolutely beautiful. No joke, the poker room is one of the greatest I've ever seen. It's huge and the poker tables are recessed into a pit which is surrounded by booths and couches and a bar in the back. The players are pretty loose too, which if I had been able to win even one race, I would have won a lot of money off of.

Here's a recap of the 5 hands that killed me at the horse track:

1. First an easy one. I have 7h8h. The kid to my right, a nice kid who moved down here from Staten Island, raises to 7. I call and we get about 5 other callers too. The flop comes K56 with one heard. It checks all around and the Th comes on the turn. I now have a flush draw to go with my OESD. The kid fires out 10 dollars, which I promptly call along with 2 others. There is now $75 in the pot. A harmless 7 comes on the river. I miss my OESD and my flush draw, but I make a crappy pair. I show the pair of 7's and the kid shows 99 to scoop the pot. If that 9 had fallen, I would have doubled through him, no question. What was everyone else calling with, I wonder?

2. The second hand is a damn shame. I have 85 offsuit which I limp in with on a lark. About a zillion other people limp in and the flop is K76 with two clubs. I have one club, but who cares? An old and aggressive man at the end of the table makes it $10, about half the pot. The kid to my right calls and I call, along with one other. I need a non-club 9 or 4 to hit and I stand to make a lot of money. I'm pretty sure the old man is on a flush draw and someone else might have a King. The 9s comes on the turn (Hallelujah). The old man bets out $25 now and it smells more like a flush draw. The kid folds and I move all in for $56 total. The old man calls and the dealer deals out the Ts. The board is K679T, with no flush possibilities. But instead of turning over his busted flush, the old man turns over 8c4c. He hit the Ten on the river to split the pot with me!!! NOOOO!!! We end up making about $10 each. Woopdedoo.

3. The very next hand, I get AsQs. The old man raises to $12 and I represent a steam raise by popping to $50, which is most of my stack. He smooth calls. The flop comes 235. He checks to me, I move all in for my remaining $34 and he calls with JJ. Naturally, none of my outs materialize and I'm felted.

4. Another tough one. I have AsTs in the SB. Everyone limps and the flop is 689 rainbow. The I check, and the BB bets out 10. I'm ok with folding here, except 3 other people call. I figure I'm good with a 7, T or A, so I call. A 7 pops on the turn. I decide to risk it and slowplay a check. It checks all around, to my amazement and a 7 comes on the river. I bet $15 and the original bettor min-raises to $30. Remembering my min-raise disaster with the AK, I only call when it comes around to me. He flips up 88. I turned the hand to kill him, but he boated up and I lost the minimum possible. It still stung though.

5. Last one. This one is a good one. I have AcQc in late position. An older russian woman, raises to $12 and I call along with 3 others. The flop is 2c 4c 6h. The woman bets $25, it folds to a big rastafarian looking guy who's been playing loose the whole time. He raises all in with $44. I have $72 behind me and I move all in on my 15 outer draw. At least I hope it's 15 outs. The woman calls. The rastafarian flips over 77. The woman flips 99. I *DO* have 15 outs. Any club, Queen or Ace wins the pot. Needless to say, I get nothing, and a $200 plus pot goes to the 99.

I really can't say I played anything here poorly, except maybe the AK. But still, I'm mostly pot committed to call in most of these situations. And lots of times, like with my OESD flush draws, I'm a favorite to win. So I'm not disheartened, just pissed that I couldn't peel off money from these donkeys down here. I guess I feel somewhat depressed...

Did I mention the crabs were great?

Pompano has poker too, but the fish bite back

Abbie flew in last night and went directly from the airport to the casino in Pompano Beach. What a trooper! I've never been so proud... :-)

The Pompano racetrack (harness horse racing), like all other parimutuels down in Florida, has poker. What's more, they redid the whole complex a few months ago and it's absolutely beautiful. Of course, with all that beauty comes very long waits for tables. I got there early and couldn't get a seat at a no limit table, so I ponied up for a limit game. Along with the regular 1/2 and 2 straight limit games, the new Florida poker laws allow for strange new limits like 3/5. This is the game I played in. I sat tight, which is the right strategy in this game, and ended up even after an hour when Abbie arrived. We had dinner at Myron's deli, which is one of the best New York Jewish delis I've ever eaten in. The pastrami was delicious and just the right size (and only 9.00 for a full sandwich!).

Abbie and I went to the brush desk and tried to get on the list for no limit, but it was huge (about 40 players ahead of us). We put our names down on the 1/2 NL and the 2/5 NL tables, and signed up for the $100 sit'n'go tourney, which seated nearly immediately. I'll make a long story short. Abbie won the tourney. I placed 5th but I really should have cashed. In these turbo tourneys, you have to get lucky on occassion, and I did early on by doubling up when my AJ flopped two pair to beat an AK. But on my last hand, a bully player to my right went all in for 3000 UTG. Blinds were at 300/600 and I had TT. I had 3300 in chips. I had to make a decision here. If he has a larger pocket pair, I'm crushed. If he has AJ or higher, it's a race. I decided to gamble and pushed all in. He ended up showing AT, which was the best I could hope for! But an Ace spiked on the flop and sent me out. The same guy rode all the way into heads up with Abbie, but Abbie absolutely *crushed* him in heads up play. Another win for Wall Street poker!

We played in a $50 sit'n'go as well, but the structure of the tourney was even more oppressive than the $100 tourney. If you didn't double up in the first blind level, you were done. I tried making a move on the button with Jh9h, but I ran into AK who flopped an Ace and I lost 2/3 of my meager stack. I managed to actually survive for a while, but lost when I got AQ. Abbie and I ran over to beg for a spot in the now very full 2/5 NL games and we both ended up playing at the same table. I went card dead and kept making moves into the same guy who kept flopping two pair, so I lost a bit. But Abbie was up a bunch when we finally left at 1AM.

Tomorrow, we're going to play at the JaiAlai fonton AND the Greyhound racing track. I'm looking forward to it.

I cast my net in South Florida...and come up with fish

Some unexpected events have occurred here in Sunny (read: Damn Hot) South Florida. First, my flight is supposed to take off at 7PM. I get to the airport in the nick of time, board the flight and discover that rather than taking off at 7, the airline has decided the best course of action would be to keep us on the tarmac until 9PM. I wasn't in the air until 9:15, but once we were airborne, the flight was incredibly quick. I even managed to snag a seat in the comfy exit row because my reading light was broken and I used it as an excuse to take an empty seat. Not that I needed an excuse but I somehow feel guilty moving without 'permission'. I've got to work on that. Chad, the nice young gentlemen sitting next to me, starting chatting about his 14 soujourn from Morocco that he was currently on. Chad is a teacher in South Florida and he travels a lot during the summer months. I let him use my Blackberry to email his girlfriend that he was delayed and we got into a conversation about, what else, poker. He doesn't play, or even bet, but we managed to make a prop bet on when the over/under was going to be on our landing time. I took 12:15AM to be the approx. landing time and we bet $1. He took the under. Bad move on my part because we landed at 11:30pm! I was wayyy off. Still, it's nice to say that I got my mile-high gamble on a little early.

I got my car and headed to my parent's place, putting my head to the pillow at about 1AM. I was definitely excited to start playing some poker. I had originally planned to get up Thursday morning and play golf with my dad, but those plans were scuttled. Instead, I got up late and went out to brunch with my parents and two of their friends. We had a wonderful little brunch of bagels, smoked fish and eggs, capping it off with a nice mid-afternoon nap. It was too hot to be outside (about 97 degrees), so I lounged on the couch for a bit. Then my mother and I went to see my Grandmother for a bit. I got back to the apartment about 5PM and called Wendy to see when she would be coming down. Turns out, she woke up that morning very sick and she wasn't going to make it. Due to the price change for coming down the next day, it was very likely she wasn't going to come down at all! This wouldn't do. I called and begged but to no avail. What's worse, I called Abbie to see if her plans were still solid and now *she* was debating. But after much begging and pleading, it looks like Abbie is going to stick to her original plans. So at least I won't be the only Wall Streeter in attendance.

But for that night, I was on my own. Around 7PM, I got the energy to make the trek over to the Hard Rock and check out how the new No Limit poker laws are affecting traditional South Florida poker. Very nicely, thank you. The law was recently changed in South Florida to allow for No Limit poker with a max buyin of $100. Surprisingly, they are still spreading the old $1/$2, $2/$2 limit games but they've added a very Atlantic City $2/$4 regular limit game. In addition, they are spreading $1/$2 NL, $2/$5 NL and $5/$10 NL!!! All with $100 max buyin!!!! I was very surprised to see the higher limits allowed with the max buyin so low. I glanced at a $5/$10 table, and the big stack at the table was at $1700!!! Naturally, I assumed this to mean that if you dropped below $100, you could make a full buyin of another $100, effectively raising the maximum buyin to $199. But I was assured this was not the case. All rebuys must be capped to $100 maximum at the table. Any money over $100 is money won, not bought. So I can only imagine the all-in fest at the $5/$10 NL table for a guy to have 17 times his buyin at the table. Sick stuff.

I was immediately (no waiting) seated at a 1/2 NL table and bought in for $100, as nearly everyone does. I took about an hour feeling the table out. The table was pretty tight, or so I thought. There was a lot of limping, and when I tried to steal a table full of blinds with a raise to $20, I got caught by someone who ended up flopping trips. What did he call my $20 with? How about K6 offsuit? Yep, it was gonna be one of those night. I was licking my chops. I spent $72 feeling out the table and reloaded back to the maximum and waited. And waited. And waited. I dragged a few small pots but basically sat back. A big stoned spanish kid and his incredibly hot spanish girlfriend sat down and played on opposite ends of the table. He was very loose, showing a big bluff on the first hand. He would regularly commit $50 into a $15 pot and I knew someone was going to crack him sooner or later. His girlfriend played tight (like her body, yes!) and wasn't in more than two hands all night. He, on the other hand, peeled off buyin after buyin. The table exploded in loose chips about 30 minutes later when a very drunk blond woman sat down, glass of wine in her hand. She came in with $100 and called every big bet the spanish kid made. He was usually bluffing at her and she kept winning with bottom pair, Ace high and an ocassional runner runner draw that hit. Soon, she had about $350 in front of her. But it was a matter of time before she peeled it away and she ended up losing half to a guy at the end of the table who flopped a boat. She called off $180 with pocket 4's and didn't seem bummed at all. "That's fine," she slurred. "I don't care anyway." Oh, this was getting good. I looked down at 9To a little while later and limped in with it. Amazingly, no preflop raise from the spanish kid who had slowed down a tad since getting felted by drunk blonde girl twice. The flop came 683, giving me two overs and a gutshot. A tight guy in early position bet $10 into a pot of about $14. Drunk girl called. I knew that if I was able to hit the seven, I might stack one, or both of them, so I called. Four other callers gave me great pot odds. A J came on the turn. Now I had the Open Ender though the turn made a club flush draw. The same tight guy bet out $25. Drunk girl called. It was now $25 into a pot of about $130. I would be getting at least 5:1 on my draw, not including any calers who might be behind me. And if I hit the OESD, I was confident I could get some more bets in on the river. So I called. Two players called behind me. I needed a 7 or a Queen to get paid and the Qc peeled on the river. Granted, it made a runner runner flush draw, but I was hopeful. The spanish kid and the drunk girl both went all in behind me. Normally, I would fold against two all-ins, confident one had the flush. But this time I was sure the spanish kid was bluffing and the drunk girl had something like bottom pair. The tight guy, who started the action, folded in disgust. I moved all in for $14 more and drunk girl put in the $14 for the side action. My straight, needless to say, scooped the whole pot. Hot spanish girl shot her stoned boyfriend a look of disgust. She called my straight before I could. Smart and a tight hot body. Wow.

Action went on like that all night. I scooped two other big pots when my KK in the SB got a $20 preflop raise from drunk girl. I re-raised to $100 and she moved all in for $180. I called, naturally, to see her expected A6o. No Ace came and I was golden. Also, I took down a good pot when my own K6 in the small blind turned trip 6's and got an allin from a guy playing 69. Oh, too bad. My kicker plays.

I was at a height of +295, but ended up staying until 4AM trying to get another big hand and I spent $90 for the privilege. Still, I finished the night up $201, confident that my trip was going to be a big money maker.

During all of this, I was emailing back and forth with Darko trying to convince him to come down for the weekend and take Wendy's place. He said he'd think about it. He was on his way to the Salami Club and needed to win some money for the trip. As the night progressed, he emailed progress reports. The first report was grim. He had 66 and the flop came JJ6. He and another guy ended up putting all their money in. His opponent turned over...JJ. Yeesh, what a cooler. But he reloaded and 45 minuted later came the next progress report:

"I'm up $650!"

Then: "I'm up $900"

Then: "I'm up $1500", "I'm up $2000", "I'm up $2500"

He ended up leaving at 5AM with 2800 in profit, that sick bastard. He's still debating on coming down. True, I can't offer him that kind of action, but we have an ocean. That's something isn't it?

Abbie is flying in later on and I'm going to meet her for poker at Pompano Beach. Can't wait...

Records (and players) were made to be broken

But before we get into that, we'll discuss why I'm getting crushed in the tourneys. Wendy said it perfectly last night; I'm playing too many hands. Granted, those hands are things like AK suited, AQ suited and pocket Jacks. Last night was too much though. When I had my premium hands, I would raise to juice the pot and the flop would miss me completely. When I limped, hoping to catch and trap, the flop missed me completely. When I stabbed at the pot on a bluff, I got re-raised. When I made a read, it was wrong. Basically, nothing worked for me. So I'm on a slide in tourneys. I'm going to shift my strategy though, and dammit and I'm going to get back to the good tourney player I used to be.

Congrats, though, to David, who demolished the second tourney (due in equal parts to skill and a devestating grouping of suckouts). Congrats also to Paul and Eric, new players and friends who chopped the first tourney. Congrats also to Wendy (though she won't admit it), who is playing solid tournament poker and putting another challenge together to win Season 4. She's in second place and she never seems to place less than 5th. Who's going to stop The Hurricane?

Ok, on to the big topic of this post. After the tournaments were over, we had 5 players who wanted to stay for cash, with Darko and John H. coming off the street to fill out a 7 handed table. Play started very aggressively. Even though stakes were $.50/$1, it played much closer to $1/$2. John H., who arrived drunk and proceeded to polish off a 24Oz. bottle of Budweiser while he was playing, set the tone by making consistent button raises of 3X the pot. He got challenged a few times by Wendy and Myself and we would inevitably end up losing.

A typical scenario for me:
AhKc in the SB. Limps all around and John H., on the button, makes it $6 to go. I call along with 2 others. Flop QT7. I bet out $15, get one folder and John H. raises to $50. I fold.

Another hand:
AJ on the buttong. Limps around to John H. who again makes it $6 to go. I call along with one other. Flop is Q74. Check around to me. I bet $10 and everyone folds to John, who calls. Turn is a K. John bets out $20. I call, not putting him on anything. River is a 2. He checks and I bet out $35. He reluctantly calls. What does he have? T4!!! His flopped bottom pair wins.

I'm getting frustrated at this point because John is completely outplaying me and I can't seem to get a read on him. Forget about waiting to get good cards to crack him. Those haven't been coming all night. So I switch gears and try to sit tight. Two hands later, Brian doubles through John. Then Brian doubles Cheryl. And then Wendy. Not all in a row mind you, but Brian is starting to build a very impressive stack. In fact, he's closing in on the record for most profit ($377.50) when he gets engaged in a hand with David. I forget the preflop action (I want to say that Brian raised to $20 on the button and David called), but the flop was 995. David checked and Brian might have bet out a moderate amount. David called. The turn was a 3. David looked at the board and the pot. The pot had about $65-$70 at this point. David must have had about $250 behind him. Brian easily covered that. David said, "All in", leaning back in his chair. Brian insta-called and David's face got a look of pain on it. David flipped up 53 for a crappy two pair, but that would have beaten any Ace high Brian had. But Brian flipped over A9 for flopped trips and the best kicker. He felted David in one shot and broke through the profit record without a glance behind him.

Then it was Cheryl's turn. Cheryl and Brian got into some preflop action and the board flopped JT rag with two hearts. Cheryl and Brian both bet it hard, but when the third rag heart came on the turn, Cheryl pushed all in for about $100. Brian called quickly, turning up QJo. Cheryl had AT with the Ace of Hearts but couldn't improve on the river. It was a stunning call, considering the board had flushed up on the turn and Brian's top pair only had a Queen kicker attached to it. There were dozens of hands Cheryl could have had to beat him. He explained sheepishly that he had thought he had top two pair and was a little embarrassed when he finally showed down. But it was good enough to take down the pot and Cheryl was a bit disappointed that he strong move hadn't worked this time.

In the midst of Brian busting players and building a record stack, John H. was getting progressively sillier. He was very fidgety and went over to my computer to turn up the Itunes volume when a song he liked came on. Then he flopped down in his seat, put on his IPod on full volume and was happily playing air guitar in very broad motions. He seeemed happily drunk but he was making a bit of a spectacle of himself. I kept my feelings to myself because he wasn't disrupting the game too badly and we generally like John. Wendy was babbling about "trying something new" because nothing had been working for her. John commented that maybe she should "try shutting up, because that's something new too". He was smiling and the comment didn't seem to be made maliciously but it put me on my guard. Then he made a comment about someone's mother. Again, it was non-specific and not made maliciously, but I feel, as the host, that it's my duty to try to have everyone enjoy their experience and I can see how a comment like that might be offensive. Darko and I shared a look about it and I felt I had to give a warning. So I did and John protested his innocence. He hadn't meant anything by it and he couldn't believe I could get in his grill about it. We left it at that and kept playing. I didn't want to say anything unless it got out of hand. Then it did. John flicked a $.25 piece over to Wendy, trying to knock down her stack. But he missed badly and the chip went airborne. It flew over the rail and hit the back wall of the living room, rolling behind the couch with a loud crunch. That put me over the edge. I admonished John more harshly this time, letting him know that this wasn't a "fucking card room" but the place where I lived. I was hoping to give the impression that he should treat the players, and my property, with more respect. Fortunately, I don't have to tell anyone else this message because it's self-evident, but something wasn't getting through. A few minutes later, with a stack of about $160, John H. pushed in what might or might not have been a bluff against Darko. Darko called and John just mucked his hand and angrily walked out of the apartment. We called out to him that he outchipped Darko and still had quite a bit of money on the table, but he muttered for us to keep it and let the door slam on his way out.

It's unfortunate that we had to have this experience because I've never had to ban a player yet from our table. I don't mind drinking at the table but I *do* mind rudeness and belligerence. Rule 1 at Wall Street Poker is that this is a fun league. No one is here to win rent money and no one is going to win/lose in amounts that are life changing. We pride ourselves on educating each other so that we can all improve our play and we're friendly because there's no reason to be anything other. We've been fortunate enough to recruit player after player who have been wonderful in all these regards. They're nice, gracious and damn good players. I'm sure that we will continue in this tradition and I apologize to anyone who might have been hurt at all by this incident. I'm a very accomodating person, by nature, so if anyone has any complaints about any part of the game and how the league is setup or the persons within it, please bring it to my attention privately and I'll try to work on a solution that benefits everyone.

Ok, having said that, back to the poker...

It was about 2AM and Brian made a good suggestion. How about we play H.O.R.S.E? We only had 4 players for it, but the decision was made to go ahead with it for the sake of education. We would do two rounds each of each of the games (it turned into 3 rounds by the end of the night). Wendy and I were sitting on short stacks while Darko had about $300 and Brian had a ridiculous amount (to be divulged at the end of this post). Well, my limit skills seem intact, because I was able to build $80 into $226 in 2 hours playing $1/$2 limit! It was fun playing the different games, though it takes some getting used to. Plus, we're not completely familiar with all the betting rules, but we made it up as we went along. Brian and Wendy were busy making side prop bets on the color of the Hold'Em flops and we were all trying to figure out how play Stud Eight! Fun stuff. The night broke up at 4AM(!) and I fell asleep instantly afterwards, exhausted and frustrated and content and nervous and happy. An eventful night.

So for those who want to know, Brian DEMOLISHED the cash profit record by more than doubling it! The previous record ot $377.50 is now at (are you ready for this?) $766!!!! At a, excuse my french, FUCKING SHORT-HANDED $.50/$1 Game!!!!!!!

Mr. Saturday Night Special

I had every intention of having a really memorable Saturday. I was going to wake up before 10, trek out to Flushing, shoot indoor Archery at a range there, eat authentic Vietnamese food, and maybe even catch the Mets game (if they were playing at Shea, that is). But, of course, none of that happened. Since I had been at the Good Look club until 2:30a the night before, and I hadn't gone to sleep until 4:30, my body decided that Saturday morning would be a great time to catch up on all that sleep I had been missing all week! What great timing! So, yes, I got up at 1:30p. You wanna make something of it?!?

So I puttered around the house for a bit until I started to feel hungry. Famished actually. And I thought that some soup dumplings from Chinatown would go down really nicely. I called all the usual suspects to round up a dinner crew, but alas, everyone was doing something else. Either they were in another city, or they had already eaten, or they didn't pick up their phones! So I tucked my Saturday New York Times under my arm, walked to Water Street and hailed a cab. The cab dropped me off at the corner of Bowery and Pell street, where lives a curious little shop called Joe's Shanghai. Normally, in Chinatown, I go to a great little place called Shanghai Cafe, which is bright and has neon and some of the best soup dumplings I've ever eaten. But Joe's Shanghai was written up in Zagat's as being 'phenomenal' so I decided to give it a shot. When I walked to the storefront, I got a quick lesson in the power of Zagat's. Shanghai Cafe, which is not listed in Zagat's, never has a wait for a table. Joe's Shanghai, on the other hand, had a mob of people waiting outside for their number to be called. What's more, they looked to be in two camps. One group were local asian families. Another was midwestern looking tourists, complete with maps, cameras and a fresh copy of Zagat. What else? I put my name on the list for a table for one and she told me it would be 10 minutes for a table. I was confused. 10 minutes? That's it? Joe's is a small place, perhaps 14 tables, so how could they give me a table for 2 in only 10 minutes. Especially when she told the couple behind me that it would be 30 minutes?!? I got my answer when she called me AND a family of 7, to be seated at a table for 8! AHA! Chinese efficiency at it's finest. My particular dinner mates were a very pleasant, but somewhat uncultured, family from Maryland. I say uncultured because I find it shocking that you would go to Chinatown to find authentic Shanghai food and then order Sesame Chicken. Nevetheless, I had a ball instructing them how to eat their soup dumpling and which sites to see during their stay here. I told them to go to Ferara's Cafe for desert after dinner, to catch Midsummer's Night Swing at Lincoln Center and to make sure they took a stroll through Central Park on Sunday Morning for brunch at the Boathouse. I was probably aiming a little high. Still, my dinner was great. I had an order of soup dumplings and the Salt and Pepper pork chops. Both were great, but given that I couldn't sit alone quietly and read my paper (my original plan), I don't know if I would go back to Joe's alone again. The food was great, and the service was snappy, but I like solitude if I'm going to be eating alone. Not that I didn't enjoy my Maryland family. By the way, they wolfed down their food like they had a train to catch and they were done eating before I was. In fact, they paid there check and left me sitting there only halfway through my meal. In the meantime, ANOTHER family of 7 was seated at my table. They looked throughly confused at my presence but I quickly caught them up to Joe's ingenous seating scheme. They were still confused, though to be fair they were from Florida and this is how most Floridians look.

I was going to stroll a bit in Little Italy after dinner, but it was crowded so I cabbed it home. I was home about an hour or so when I got the call from Darko. "You up for Salami tonight"? Sure, why not? So we met up at 10p and flagged down a taxi for some vicious 2/5 NL action, Manhattan style. But when we got there, Ricardo was nowhere to be found (he's on 'vacation') and there was only one table going, with a waitlist. We got up to 4 on the waitlist and we only needed 2 more for me to feel comfortable opening up a new table, but then one guy got impatient and left. John and I looked at each other and were thinking the same thing. Good Look. So we made our apologies and caught another cab uptown.

When we arrived, the club was strangley empty, for Good Look standards. There were about 60 players there with 4 1-2 tables, a 10/20 limit table and a 2/5 table going. We got seated right away and it was rough going for me. I saw crap cards for hours at a stretch, and when I did raise pre-flop with AQ suited and the like, the flop would invariably come out with absolutely nothing. John, on the other hand, was getting paid off left and right. In 3 hours, he built up his 160 buyin to about 700. I was treading water all night, never able to pull in a profit. Finally, I lost $80 when my AT hit top pair against a large stack's flopped two pair. He boated up on the turn and the board four flushed on the river. He coyly checked the turn and river and was peeved when I didn't call. Uh, Duh! I only had one pair and no heart on a paired and flushed board. Sorry to bother you. So I was down to $45 at one point when I made a valiant comeback. I double up when my AQ caught a Queen on the flop. A guy with a flush draw called me down (he had to for such little money) and he didn't catch. Then I got into another AQ situation when I went all in preflop against one heavy raise. I got two callers. The flop was garbage and one guy bet about a pot bet. The other guy flashed AQ and folded. I figured I must be beat and turned over my own AQ. The raiser, turned over his AQ and we chopped two ways! 3 AQ's in the same hand, it was nuts. So I was still alive when I got Ac-Ks. I raised preflop to $15 and got 5 callers. The flop was As Ts 4s. I had top pair, top kicker and the top flush draw. I bet it out, about $25. The player to my left raised and I went all in. He called with Ah Qs. He called out for a spade when I pointed out that I had the better spade and he saw how crushed he was. The Kc came on the turn to lock it up for me. At this point, I was up by $13 and Darko was up about $550. I asked if we should leave since I had gotten back to even and he was up quite a bit and it was 4:30 in the morning. But no, he wanted to crack this table. To his point, it was a very crackable table. There were a few players, including a guy with a cigarette in his mouth (Sammy Farha style) who we took to calling Cancer Man, who were bound to get stacked soon. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the cards to make it happen. I gave up $100 soon afterwards when I made runner runner King flush and paid off a value bet from a guy who made runner runner Ace flush. John went on a long slide, paying off folks with the second or third nuts until he was down to only $100 in profit. Still good, but a long way from where he was. It was closing in on 7:00a and we were both tired. Finally, we called for our courtesy hands, which turned out to be 3 hands actually. On my very last hand, with $120 in my stack, I picked up JJ one off from the cutoff. I raised to $15 when it got to me and the flop was 378 rainbow. There was about $75 in the pot and I had about $100 behind me. one guy led out the betting with $25 and it folded to me. I moved all in and he called with 56 for the OESD. It didn't hit and I built up my stack to $272, which was only $13 down from where I started. We left with me feeling fortunate to have gotten away so cheaply after being dealt shit all night.

We walked down to the Hollywood Diner and had a very very late night breakfast and called it a night. I was in bed at 9 and woke up at 1 to spend the day with my friend Lisl. We went walking through the West Village, checking out some of the local architecture and generally catching up. On West 10th Street, we ran into the cutest little bookstore specializing in out of print and antique cookbooks. It was called Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks and the proprietor, Bonnie, has a show on NPR where she talks about cooking. Highly recommended as a slice of Old New York, if you're into that sort of thing. I picked up an old cookbook about coffee as a gift for my sister-in-law. We ate dinner at a dreadful Thai place on 7th Avenue and ended up at Barnes and Noble at 68th street, browsing the wares. I picked up a copy of the first (not the latest) Harry Potter book. Yes, I've broken down. The peer pressure has become too much for me.

I'm looking forward to playing tonight and tomorrow at the Wall Street game and for my sojourn to Florida. It should be fun. Abbie and Wendy wil be along, so expect some good blogging about it in the future!