Day 2: Real or Fake?

OK, back to my story of the wedding weekend in South Florida. Day 2 was Saturday. The previous night, we had tentative plans to so to South Beach and see college buddy Steven R and his wife Joan who were staying at a hotel there prior to migrating North for the wedding. South Beach was an hour away, and we had directions scrawled on a napkin from the night before.

They went something like: take 95S to 195 West, take this exit, turn on this street, stay right, and look for this place, and then call me when you don't know where the **** you are.

Thank goodness the directions were spot on so we could avoid all the wacked-out drivers on the way down. I can't stress how white-knuckled I became whilst in Florida. I must be getting old.

We meet up with Steve, Scott, and companions, which make 6 of us. After standing with them for 10 minutes at Starbucks, I assure that I would be much more talkative over two aspirin and a bloody Mary than a frozen-frappa-whatever-china.

We spend a few hours at Van Dyke Cafe on a plaza-like area of South Beach. The food was OK, but the wine and the people watching was fantastic. Joanie came up with a game called R or F, standing for real or fake (you can figure it out). I suggested that maybe we call it X or Y instead of a group of us chanting F-F-F whenever someone walks by.

After leaving that place, we lost Scott and Ali to the rehearsal dinner and the 4 of us proceeded to look for cheezy souvenirs and a place to get drinks by the beach. We end up at a bar at the Ritz Carlton, which as implied, has an expensive Pinot Grigio price per gallon. I never complain about gas prices, only the local Pinot Index....hmm, sounds dirty.

We down at least 5 bottles of the stuff soaking up the sea air, the Xs, the Ys, and the company. At darkfall, equipped with a double-latte, we embrace the Death Race 2000 back to Deerfield Beach.

On the way back, we tried to go to the Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe Casino, which is somewhat on the way back. The place was a madhouse trying to get in, but we soon realized that there was no way of getting out. It was like being at a football stadium where all they wanted to do was direct you to parking. So, being the Pinot Fueled Death Racer that I am, I barrel through empty lanes reserved for non-existing reverse traffic to look for an exit. With the window down, no one seemed to respond to us, but a very loud shot of O-U-T-DONDE? yielded arm motions down dark gravely paths toward either a bayou or an exit. What a racket; this place had 10 entrances and one exit pointed in the opposite direction than the highway.

Nearing the hotel, we hooked up with the rehearsal group finishing dinner at the Cove for a few drinks and then hours by the pool on Dan's last night before his wedding.

Bowlin' bowlin' bowlin'

We've made a spot in the playoffs in our league. That's a big deal. Congrats to my teammates for holding me up while I've been out. You guys have been great.

What are U thinking?

So my first table goes badly....I flop 2pr and lose nearly my entire stack in a $33 SnG against TT flopping trips. BTW, why would they reraise me after I come over the top a min raise with AKo? TT is just no good in that spot, but he flopped a T, good for him.

So I've got some other tourneys loaded and I proceed to finish 10th (egad man, 10th?), 9th, and then I start to look at my original tourney (when I lost to the trips) and I'M STILL IN IT! Don't worry, it won't last long.

I proceed to lose trip KKK vs. 9To, where they called a huge preflop raise and hit their K high straight on the turn (how can you call a huge NL raise w/ 9To?).

G$d darnit. If I'd only play my game, things aren't that difficult, J'a know? So, no results yet; but the only original touney I'm in is the one I suffered the 1st bad beat on. I think I'm in for 4 already w/ 2 losses already. Update to come.

I lose the original tourney when my KQo runs into K4o that rivers a straight with the 4. Sometimes you just wnat to kill someone.

Now after I finish 2 out of 2 for a good kill, I think I've finished 10, 9, 8, 10, 8, and something else scary. What crap. The same people that make you money are the ones that catch lightning in a bottle.

AQo vs. 44 in the 1st stage of a tourney? Would you wager all your chips in the 1st level of blinds (M=30 or more) on 44???? Good for him, I hit the flop with my overcards, and he hit the turn for trips.....this isn't my night.

Later in the evening, I'm still losing to A-hole plays....I've barely made ONE 3rd place finish, and even that one was as chip leader losing to a two outer (TT to KK??), later A8 to KJ shorthanded, when they flop KJ, why does that never happen when I'm behind? A-holes.

My JJ vs. AQo (in 5th place, I don't have to push here, but you do iuf you want to win), they flop TTQ, then an A to make it f-ing abysmal. How many times can you flip a coin and lose?

Last game of the night? I am up 5-1 in chip lead heads up and I take 2nd....yes, the same story, but damn, heads up?

Final tally: 8, 9, 10, 9, 8, 6, 3, 4, 7, 5, 9, 8, 3 (no cash - played a 6-top), and 2.

Net loss, more than I won last night for sure.....2 cashes? That's f-ing pathetic.

This is not my F-ing night x6.

Small victories...

Finally a nice night, albeit a small one. I played 2-$33 SnGs late tonight (started at 10pm) and I finished 1st in both for a nice score (+$234 net). It's about time!

I had crap cards most of the way, but survived to 5-6 handed on both tables and then I was able to outplay the rest of the way during shorthanded play. Some people are terrible shorthanded.

It's a nice night after not playing for over a week.

Apologies for not finishing the FLA trip, I can't get to it until Sat as I'm headed out of town for the day tomorrow.

They say you can never go home...Unless you take a trip to Fort Lauderdale, FLA

So now I'm back from that wedding. The abridged version of the story is that is was great to see a few college friends and the wedding itself was outstanding....Very well coordinated. The weather was great and I wish all the success to my friend Dan B and his lovely wife and new family. OK, for the longer version, read below....

After a short delay in HOU, Andrea and I arrived in Fort Lauderdale (I'll call it FTL) around 6pm. The arrival was uneventful, and we actually processed all the way through the dodgy rental car outfit (EZ Rental on the net?) and left the airport with the top down on our convertible. There were 4 Cornell guys on this trip, and I'd get to see 2 of the other 3 that evening.

The wedding was on a Sunday, so most people weren't going to be centrally located until Saturday night. We had a few hours to kill before meeting up with Scott G, so Andrea and I decided to hunt around for dinner options. We were staying in a Hampton Inn (I.e. No amenities - that's where they suggested to stay), so we would have to wonder around in the car.

The highways in this part of Florida are quite familiar. In fact, I grew up a mere 1300 miles north of there from Greenwich CT to FLD. I grew up within a few miles of both US1 and I-95. It seemed weird at the time.

Looking around for a place to eat was dire. You'd think that in such a touristy area, there would be loads of high-end places, but we just couldn't find them. We took the worst route possible north on US1 to Boca Raton, mistakenly turned toward the ocean (thinking to get off the service road and head for the ocean) and we didn't find a thing for 10-15 miles that wasn't a chain or fast food.

Reaching despair, we find a liquor store. I suggested to stop there, as I needed to fill the pinot grigio tank for the remainder of the weekend. As we make a U-turn (you cannot make legal U-turns in FLA and there is no provision to make a left turn at any logical point along the roads), we spy an Italian restaurant in a strip center and pull in. We have to valet the car, so we've effectively missed out on the pinot run.

The restaurant is called Rino Vesuvio....Sounds familiar.

We enter the place and it looks pretty good. There's a great patio (but a bit too hot), a small bar with a huge LCD TV and about a 1/2 full dining area. We ask about the wait and we are told a few minutes. We take a seat at the bar. There are many native Italians on the waitstaff and the proprietor looks like he's just gotten off the boat from Sicily.

When we order our first Pinot (after waiting about 10 minutes) we are served by a very nice, but sun-ridden older lady who is tending the small bar (and the whole restaurant), alone. During that 10 minutes, we see her struggle with Gin and Tonics, Chevas on Ice (what would you think is in a Chevas on Ice?) and some simple concoction with grenadine, vodka, and grand marnier. Thankfully, we are just ordering pinot, so we are served only after 2 waiters help her open a bottle. We're off to a great start.

During this amusement, we notice that many parties have been seated before us. I meander over to the reservation book, which looks lightly filled. Only a few more minutes, I hear.

Through those at the bar and those being seated, we notice something common....They all seem to be from NY/NJ (David would say, "What exit?"). Their accents are sharp and biting. Their patience thin. Their seating? Prompt. I've obviously become a naturalized Texan.

I really don't miss those accents. I love NY and New England, but there's a reason why I stayed down here....The tonals and lack of patience are biting and pervasive. I write it off as a random occurrence (foreshadow alert!)

We see fantastic dishes coming out of the kitchen. Veal, salads, canneloni, all looking near perfection.

We down another pinot.

My friends Scott and Ali are going to join us. We don't know if they are going to eat, but they will be close in another 30 minutes. We tell the hostess for a 4-top, but we implore her to seat us before their arrival (we didn't want to get stuck with a 2-top) so we could order some salads.

Pinot #3. I think I've seen back to back episodes of Law and Order SVU.

We are finally seated and greeted by a seasoned veteran server with, a bit of a strong Italian-native accent. We feel almost obligated to order by his choosing (you want split? I think you should - no, OK, Silvo, please just get us a salad). We start ordering by the bottle to eliminate the need for the bartender to struggle with the corkage.

In the end, I have to admit, the meal was fabulous. Andrea had a fantastic canneloni drenched in tomato basil sauce and I had a house specialty of veal medallions with artichokes and grilled peppers. Our friends joined us, we cleared them out of all the wine they had under $30/bottle, I remastered the intonnations of my long-lost demanding accent, and we figured that there was no way we could run into that sort of issue again. Our could we?

Only after arriving home and watching the Sopranos did I realize that their restaurant is also called Vesuvio's. Go figure.

We met up with the Groom and the many from the wedding party at a seaside bar after dinner. We missed this joint by 1-2 miles, which would have been a perfect start of the evening. Last call was a 2am, but we were shuttled out at 1:30am. It obviously wasn't Spring Break any more. Could we possibly be on a relatively tame weekend with college friends? No way.

Tomorrow, I'll address Saturday.

I gave her my heart. She gave me a pen.

If you recognize the line above you are likely a HUGE John Cusak fan or simply a fan of 80s High School Movies in general. By the way, the quote was from Say Anything. Remember the girl from that movie, Ione Skye? I just spied her (short hair and way thin) in Fever Pitch over the weekend. I hope you guys visit IMDB often, if you look her up, would you have ever thought SHE was married to King AD Rock from the Beasties?

Here's a link to a site devoted to the Camaro from Better Off Dead. This dude loves this car.

1,2,3,4,5...6,7,8,9,10....11,12!

Yes, I made it back from FLA in one piece. The wedding report will follow. However, I spied this amazing link from USA Today's Pop Candy (yes, I look on occasion) that has links to some AMAZING Sesame Street Clips from the 70s (hmm, I suppose 80s too).

One of my favorites is this disco funkalicious counting song - hmm, sounds a bit like The Brand New Heavies from the UK (or my friend Patrick singing in falsetto - SEH-VOHN!!!).

Here's a link to the main blog which has dozens of videos:
http://www.foldedspace.org/weblog/2006/04/sesame_street_video_clips.html

YOU MUST click the link to the 1-12 video....please check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-YcBVEnLT8

OK, who can forget "Letter B" by the Beatles?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVokp_tpDo

90% Genius 10% Dumbass

I only palyed 4 SnGs (2 at a time) last night....(lost wasn't on, why didn't I go out with friends??). For a change, in the first 2, I was chip leader one and 2nd in the other really early; I was dominating the field....but how easily that will change.

Playing solid takes a lot of patience. Now, I'm not an irrational man, but I do have an occasion to get a little "distracted." I'm not saying I get confident, but you do get reads and you think you can play people.

What happens though, is something that isn't written in books....

So the deck has been hitting you in the face lately....not great cards, but you are 5 handed and you have gotten 3 consecutive pairs, 88, 77, 66, (no crap) and you've done nothing but take the blinds. You also have a recent memory where you had KK and you had to make the same 4x BB raise that you had been making because you didn't want to be read yourself....so you want action....you are almost TIRED OF BEING THE CHIP LEADER. [Don't worry, that'll change soon]

So you get that marginal hand A9o where you bring it in for a standard raise on 100/200 blinds and you get called by 2 people representing the table police. Of course the flop looks like rags, pairs the A on the turn, and I lose to a baby set on the river. I love agression, but sometimes you really have to throw away a great hand when shorthanded if you are bullying the table or if you don't hit the flop too squarely.

It sucked. I think I finished 4th after leading all the way there.

Saturday live game

On Sat, after unsuccessfully looking for living room furniture (anyone have a 10' x 12' oriental rug to donate?) I hosted our local poker game. Since two of our key regulars were out this weekend for Easter (Tonja and Scott), the game had a different flavor.

Attendees: Myself, Andrea, Randi, David, Klay, Brad, Derek, and Christina.

Results: After going to 1 1/2 buy-ins, Klay ended up the big winner early. He easily cashed up up 2 1/2 buyins total for a nice score. I believe David and Brad also rang in the positive. Me, once rebuying (gasp) quite early, ended up only slightly below par for the night as a result of us playing four-handed for a few late hours. I do like short handed live games (with friends, that is) as long as everyone's is good to go...

After we broke it up (maybe 4am), I did sneak in 2 $33 SnGs...Where I finished 2nd and 3rd for a modest (+$84) win making the overall day profitable. That win actually made my career SnG experience move into the black for the 1st time ever (over $5k in buy-ins, OK, maybe that's only 150 SnGs). Well, that's a lot of Tournaments! I may decide to play online cash games for bonuses only and play tournaments mid week and when bonuses aren't an issue. My shorthanded game has gotten good.

I'm off to Florida on Friday to go to a wedding. Except for some quick SnGs this Tue-Wed, there may be an opportunity to play at the Hard Rock in Hollywood FL this weekend if Andrea is keen. My college friend Scott (and Slip from LV) do like to play cards, and I've never played with them. I think they haev fixed limits there, so it's not worth the hassle. It's funny that I'd rather hit the pool than two guys, once in LV and the other near AC.

Gilbert Gottfried

Prior to Gilbert, I fired up 2 $33 SnGs prior to going out. David generously offered to take me to Midtown so I could meet up with Andrea later and not have two cars. David was ready early, but my two SnGs were on fire, and both finished ITM. I actually took a 1st and a 2nd (+$174) for a nice score and to climb within breathing distance of breaking into the black on Tournament play (according to PokerTracker). See the thread about the live game on Sat for the results!

So Gilbert was pretty good on Friday night. Went with Andrea, Patrick, David, and Randi. I was very surprised that the room was only 20% full that night. Is he really that old? I must admit, the 1st and last 10 minutes of the show had me crying, but he isn't nearly as funny in standup as he is when he is roasting someone (e.g. the Howard Stern Show).

His schtick was pretty clean too, not dirty at all. His roasts can be so profane, which I must admit, is the good part.

We were at the Laff Stop after a routine trip to PJs beforehand. Most of the biggest comics play the Improv now at I-10 and 610, but there are still some good headliners at River Oaks. Lisa Lampinelli is coming in a few weeks, she stole the show at the Comedy Central Pam Anderson Roast.

Movin on up. Test larger SnGs?

I had forgot to mention that I do play single table tournaments (called Sit n Gos or SnG) to work on tournament play. A few years ago, I'd play limit SnGs, but now I play exclusively NL SnGs. My normal buy-in is $30+3, which creates $300 in action, $150 going to the winner ($90 to 2nd and $60 to third). I can play 3 of these at a time. If I play more, they get troublesome if you get in the money (ITM) on more than one table.

The single table tourneys are sometimes really unpredictable. You can't play too tight since the blinds escalate (typical one takes 45 mins), but you can't get too crazy early on. There is some really bad play out there (valuable or positive expected value = +EV), but the erratic play can cause you to suffer some terrible beats when you are playing well. That's pokah.

So last night I was played about7 SnGs waiting for my girlfriend to come over. Three became 5, became 7.... About midway through the 7th, I felt like I had been playing well but cashing only once...came in 6th, 4th, 3th, 6th (lost w/ KK to AA), 8th, 7th (hmm, maybe not so good). Since I thought that I had little time to go before I had to quit, I played one last SnG at a higher limit $55 ($50+5).

I was amazed to see that the play was not that much better at this limit (1st place = $250). In fact, after suffering a few beats, I was chip leader with over 50% of chips in play w/ 4 people to go. I was able to hold that lead until heads up, and then the following hand took place (so I had 9500 to his 10500).

I'm dealt AdKd in the BB and check after he completes (I had been raising his BB every time when I was SB with him laying down most hands, I was looking to make a move on the flop or turn if he bet).

Flop comes A K xr (x meaning offsuit low card and r meaning "rainbow" three cards of different suits). I check the 2pr and he checks back. Turn is another low card, and I check again (I'm hoping he picks up something, he wouldn't complete pre-flop (PF) with an A so he would have checked the flop, if he had a King or made 2pr, he'd bet here). He checks back on the turn. Now I know I have make a value bet.

On the river comes a Q. With the pot at 900, I make an 800 value bet with top 2pr, he min raises to 1600, which looks to me like he was trying to steal after checking the last two streets. I move all in for the rest of my +8000 or so and he immediately calls (ack) and shows me JT (T is ten) for a rivered straight. I take 2nd place (+$150 instead of $250) losing to a gutshot.

I always dread slowplaying anything. In heads up play, having 2pr is a monster. This was a hand I likely should have only moved in on when I was the short stack or had a dominant chip lead. At nearly 50/50% slowplaying that had was a way to go broke. RATS.

So, I may start to enterain playing the $55 SnGs, or maybe the multi-table tourneys (MTT) to look for a bigger score.

That's all for now. I'm going to see Gilbert Gottfried with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. I hope to bust a gut; he's gotten dirtier and funnier with the years....

[Late edit]: played 2 $33 SnGs simultaneously waiting to go out Friday (expecting early exit) and wound up finishing 1st and 2nd for a nice score. I had the chip lead in the 2nd place finish and lost two coin flips (my pair vs his two overcards) twice in a row. That's pokah!

Square one.

So let's get started talking about poker. Maybe in the 1st post, I should talk about the limits that I play. I've played most forms of poker, but you have to admit that Texas Hold'em is the only game around right now. I play both limit and no limit.

My introduction to the casino version of the game was in SW Louisiana at Coushatta. In Louisiana, their low limit game is $3/6/12. This version is a hybrid of a typical limit game as the bets double twice over the board. The 1st river bet can be $6 or 12. If the 1st bet is 12, all raises must be 12; if the 1st bet is 6, raises may be 6 until the 1st raise of 12 is entered. It's a great format when a low number of players are in the pot and you are a good value better. It's not a bluffing format.

Most traditional limit poker is, of course, dual limit like $3/6. After playing in Louisiana, you'll soon tire of striaght $3/6 or lower as the action is lively on Fifth Street in Louisiana.

I don't go to Louisiana much, so I mostly play online. My normal limits are $3/6 and NL$100 (where the $100 is the max buy-in). Those limits may seem low, but you can easily multi-table online to see many more hands per hour. So while the $3/6 may be boring live, it's a rush playing 4 tables at once (w/ approx $600 in action).

My yearly trip to Vegas does include poker now, so I play $3/6 (only if there's a KILL), or $4/8. $4/8 is the min game at the Bellagio, so it's easy to play that limit. I usually go to Vegas during Rounds 1 and 2 of the NCAA Basketball tourney, so I avoid NL due to the unpredictability. I bet it's juicy, but I don't have the patience for it.

Home games with my friends focus on lower limits to keep everyone involved. We most often play $1/3 limit with a $2/4 kill. Those limits are low enough to encourage action, not break anyone, and still shows signs of profitability.

OK, there's a start on the limits I play. Later posts will discuss results, hand-analysis, and other life-experiences besides poker (gasp).