February 9, 2010
I’ve played 6 Full Tilt stud hi tournaments in 3 days and haven’t made the money in any of them, so I’m going to do something else for the rest of the week, before my account is “below zero” as well. Gonna read this friendly book and play pai gow unti friday night.
February 2, 2010
At long last I made it down to Mohegan Sun. I’ve been trying to get there for months, but unlike Foxwoods, a bus doesn’t roll right into my ‘hood for direct service. So I had to put some effort into it. As in, 6am effort. Saw the Saturday night Foxwoods bus returning as I waited in the dark for the #32 to Forest Hills. But, I found a $50 comp offer for new players in one of the righty-yellow online rags, so I had to give it a shot. They may still be running the ad, FYI.
Mohegan is about 30 minutes further than Foxwoods. I found the orange-y interior to be far more pleasing than the pukey blue-based colors of the Woods. The earthy theme is consistent throughout, so if these colors put you on insta-tilt, be prepared. The casino also feels newer, neater, and more loved by its staff than Foxwoods. There aren’t a zillion dirty ashtrays laying around at Mohegan, and I did not see one passed out hobo or crying gambler.
And so the poker room. First of all, it’s not as far as people had me believing. I was expecting it to take me 30 minutes to get to the room, but it really only takes about 10-15 minutes tops. If you can navigate a mall, you can find the poker room, assuming you don’t start playing table games, which I couldn’t because the customer service lady didn’t offer me my 2, $25 table bet and instead just loaded me up with the slot comp. Boo. BTW the 50 line tiki torch slot cannot be opened up – I proved this.
As usual I played some 7CS. None of the players fell asleep at the table, so that alone places them as more advanced than FW players. Everyone was pretty decent and amicable, and had the usual weaknesses of playing too many hands, being stubborn, and drinking 5 cuttysark & cokes in less than an hour. The lighting in the room is really good, I guess, and they have the mondo big cards, which I like because I’m nearly blind, but some ppl hate those. I have to say there is something strange about that room too. Its oval-shaped, its yellow, it has a really high ceiling lined with a bunch of cameras and black junk, and the tournament area is on a stage. The whole thing reminded me of a “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” dream sequence. I even saw a little person. It’s not that it’s a bad space, but its weird, and I anticipate having nightmares about it.
My stack was cut in half in the first 2 hours because I kept getting junkity junk. But then I got some full houses and flushes, got ahead, then overbet a flush (K-9 hi) that got beat (K-10 hi) and that kind of queered me, but the day was nearly over anyway. Meh. This kicked out flush thing is becoming a problem. I wish I hadn’t gone native and lost my winnings. I think it must be the nature of limit games – you’re only going to be able to win so much in a certain amount of time. When I hit rolled 7’s I probably should have stood up. Oh well -I’ll get the cadence of it someday.
I had originally planned to eat at the Margaritaville, which is right next to the poker room, but it was pretty crowded and frankly, the crowd looked like a bunch of sad sacks. So I wandered to the next tequila bar, which was hosting some sort of tasting event. Moving on, I ended up in some joint near the buffet that was 2 restaurants squished together, an asian noodle place (that has don don noodles for $8 FYI) and an italian seafood place. I got a decent mussel dish, and an absolutely bizarre mai tai served in a pint glass. I think the description read “Gosling and gold rums, pineapple and orange juice (!?!), grenadine and a Myers float.” Ok. So, a Hurricane pretty much? Anyway, it was giant, but no crushed ice, no lime, not a mai tai. It had Myers in it at least.
So overall I was pleased with myself for finally getting this damned card and getting up at 5:30 am to hit it. Now I can play the Monday stud tournaments and see if I can keep up in a live tourney. Foxwoods will always be the Ellis Island of East Coast degenerates to me, but its nice to have another option. And another place to collect swizzle sticks from.
Obligitory youtube insert here – “How else could you capture the world, if you don’t attack from the back?”
January 27, 2010
In an effort to keep my brother’s blog alive, I’m going to start putting up my own poker-caper posts, and probably the occasional non-sequitur.
I haven’t been playing as long as Chris (who has) unless you count the old Intellivision poker sessions back in the day. I played 7CS back then, and I primarily play stud now, online and in the Foxwoods dungeon. I don’t know why I like stud. Probably something to do with the fact that you get a whole lotta cards (!), I watch Hoarders, and I have a morbid fear of live NLHE suckouts (I hope to overcome that this year).
Don’t expect a lot of tech talk from me. I brood about live play nuances that may have cost me money, poker room drink selections, and the wacky casino experience. We may be going to Mohegan Sun this weekend, so wish us luck, even though we don’t believe in it.
January 26, 2010
Guess what? Many bloggers have lots of pictures of their dogs as avatars and open shove with fuck-all. Just like real people.
July 1, 2009
The damage so far: 1 stained lacoste shirt, prognosis poor but Dawn may save it; a 10 replacement ken cole tee; a 2.75 atm fee; and about an hour lost travel time. As usual, a crazy clueless someone is sitting behind me, calling harrahs and asking random questions of the switchboard. And he’s liable to talk the entire way down. I suck.
June 28, 2009
Certain establishments in NYC have bizarre taglines. John’s: No slices. Ess-A-Bagel: No toasting. I don’t read mandarin, but this is Chinatown’s equivalent.
June 23, 2009
Do I Stink?
Brutal, brutal weekend at the Taj last weekend.
Well, the second half of it. It’s not the amount of money lost; I’ve lost that sum before. It was the relentless, unidirectional rapidity of the loss. I scooped ZERO kill pots in 12 hours. Zero. I’m not sure how that’s possible. Three pair and four pair coming out of every orifice. An A high flush run down by a straight flush. Fish who chase every single damn low draw and they get there against me and no one else.
I want to say it was just a bad run but Omaha 8 is supposed to be low variance and here I am getting rocked harder than any 10/20 game I played by average-to-terrible players. And no one in the posse plays O8, so I’m free to delude myself about my ability
as much as I want.
Anyway, played about 1000 hands on FTP this week and all seems normal. I’ll give the live game ONE more try.
June 20, 2009
Hitting AC for the weekend. Uneventful (ie good) train ride down.
Atlantic City, or Chechnya
Latest sign of the Taj’s active neglect: there’s a soggy spot about 2 foot wide next to the air conditioner. I don’t particularly care since its in the corner and easily avoided, but these guys stopped trying a while ago. Chilling with some 5/10 O8. Ill decide on whether or not to donkament at showboat later.
June 17, 2009
I last until the very, very, end of Day 1, Level 8, when blinds were at 500/1000. No fatal hand especially, just a matter of not growing your chip stack relative to the blinds, which soon leads to picking a spot with which to double up, which soon leads to gimme a hand I can shove with, no matter how speculative.
Some key hands of the tournament:
Omaha This was early, and I probably made the right play but it annoyed me for about an orbit. The first family pot at the the table, and I’m BB so I’m stuck with playing 8-8-T-Q with two ♥– total garbage. Of course I flop the joint, rainbow no less. I bet, middle position raises, cutoff calls, I reraise. The turn pairs the 9. Fuck. Check, check, bet. Now what. I shut down, middle calls. River brings a third heart, 9JK♥-9♥-6 ♥ . They check it down, and split with the same straight I had. Steam.
Razz Not much to say about this one, but since it was the first hand that took a chunk out of my highwater mark of about 10,000 in chips I’ll mention it: took seventy-six to the river against seventy-five, and I pretty much knew he had it, but we both made on fifth street so I had to pay him off. Fucking razz.
Stud I don’t lose all of these. Was able to limp into a four-way with split 5s. Fourth street brings a third five. I make it two bets. One caller. Continue to bet out, villain raises me one time, and on seventh street puts me all in, which is great because I just filled up, pairing my fifth street 4. He had kings up the whole time so I was always ahead.
Stud8 rolled up 5s — something about 5s this tournament — which is beautiful because a shortish stack takes a shot since he’s thinks he’s pretty good for hi with KKx, and it sure looks I’m betting the low. we flip on fifth street and he sees the bad news.
Hold ‘em I can’t remember any hold’em hands of mine worth discussing — I think I squeezed kings once, but got no action. Kid Poker — I got moved to his table around 2AM to watch him play about five hands — made a good hold’em read, even in defeat: on a K 6 3 two ♦ board, he doesnt put opponent on the King, so he thinks at worst he has overs. turns out opp was on a flush draw and KP was actually ahead, but the flush came.
Here’s the hand I when down in flames with — pretty ordinary omaha-wise.
Me: A♦ A♣ 6♦ Q♥
Him: A♠ 2♦ T♠ 5♦
Board Q♠ 7♣ 4♠ – T♥ – 3♠
Frankly I never saw the flush, I was too focused on my AA holding up for a split.
So, a 220th finish out of 770 runners. Winnings, nil. Not an overwhelming experience though. Can’t wait for another chance. ♠♥♦♣
June 15, 2009
I went from 6400 to 9500 to 2500 to 5700 at the break. Going to war with your hand at this point costs you half your stack when you lose. Uncomfortable.
The retiree to my right who is pretty good has about 22k now. He also crippled me in a hand of razz. Bet call bet call bet call and suddenly you’re down to 2500.
But then stud to the rescue. Split 5s and I get to see 4th street cheap. Its another 5 and everyone leaves except one donkish player who proceeds to call every street. helpful.
Something about me and 5s tonight.blinds are gonna be 200 400 next. Half the field busted out 400 of 770 left.
