On my way to Seabrook, I sent out a text to bdidde of Biggestron, since I knew that he was in New England and not too far from where I was going. I knew it was a long shot, since it’s really hard to drop everything you are doing to go to a local card room in a little amount of time. You see, I wasn’t planning on going to a poker room during my stay in New England, it just worked out that way. So I fired of a SMS before I left, plugged in the address in the GPS and took off.

About 40 minutes later, I got a reply from bdidde, saying that while the poker room was close, he was unable to make it. But he was very kind to offer the wife and I dinner at his house the next night with his family. Awesome. Of course, I had to check with the wife first, so a few SMS’s later, plans were made.

The next day, the wife and I made out way to Portsmouth, nh and had brunch at Friendly Toast. Friendly Toast has a very interesting decoration style, strange paintings, lamps made out of old KFC buckets, MGD cases and old school memorabilia. Best of all, the food was awesome. They make their own bread daily so they have a different assortment of breads to have with your meal. We took a loaf of Cayenne Pepper and Cheese home with us. The kick of the Cayenne comes after you swallow and has a slow build. It’s great! I had a very tasty omelet which was stuffed with different kinds of meats and veggies and the wife had a huge waffle and a side of eggs. IF you are ever in the area, check out Friendly Toast.

Friendly Toast
121 Congress St
Portsmouth, nh 03801

After the good eats we wondered around Portsmouth and visited a few of the shops, enjoying the weather and the views. A few years back, while we were on the East Coast, I had my right ear pierced after having my left ear pierced many, many years earlier. I thought it would be cool to have each ear pierced on either coast of the USA. So last time we were in Salem, MA I got my right ear pierced. Two and a half months later, it was still red and angry, when it should have been healed and ready to rock. So I took out the earring and let the beast heal. Flash forward a few years, we are in Portsmouth nh and we walk past a tattoo/piercing shop. 20 minutes later, I have both ears pierced again and so far so good.

After we spent most of the day in Portsmouth, we headed out to bdidde’s place. When we arrived it had started to sprinkle. After we all said ‘Hello’ to each other, b’s son started to give us a tour of the house. After the tour was over, we talked for a while and then the Wii was turned on. The game of choice? Wii Sports. There’s nothing like getting your ass handed to you by a kid. I got smoked at Tennis, Baseball, Boxing (we tied, one match a piece) and golf. I also learned about the practice modes and Super Bowling. The final level of Super Bowling is 91 pins. Yeah… 91 pins. You start off with the normal 10 pins and a row is added to the back of the pins each time. Awesome stuff.

After the Wii was turned off in favor of smooth jazz, the BBQ was started and a wonderful dinner of chicken, rice, vegetable skewers and homemade beers. bdidde is a great brewmaster. After dinner, we chatted for a little bit longer and unfortunately there was still a hour or so drive back to Portsmouth. Thank you so much bdidde and family for a great time!

As I’m sitting at home now, with 100+ degree weather outside, I’m day dreaming about the East Coast and more Lobster Rolls.. (see the moblog for my Lobster Roll-a-Day quest). I know that I will be back on the East Coast again.

tags: east coast, friends, lobster rolls, travel

Share This

While on vacation in New England, I was fortunate enough to be able to hit up a local casino in Seabrook. They had a $100 tourny at 7pm and I made the hour trek to enter. The drive was amazing. There is nothing like it where I live. A massive gathering of trees, stone and water. Simply beautiful. I arrived at the racetrack/poker room with 15 minutes to spare. So I signed up for the local players card, which is needed to play, and handed over the entry fee. Then, I waited.

I was assigned table 1, seat 6. Perfect seat for me, right in front of the flop. Four hands into the tournament this old dude, who is a regular, sits down and calls the bet to see the flop. The only other player in the hand makes a 2/3 pot bet and the old guy says, “Does that B stand for bitch or Boston?” Stone face from the other player. The old dude speaks again, “Look at that face. I bet I’m beat.” then he folds. Now the other player breaks his silence. “Dont you ever call me a fuck’n bitch again.” The two exchange words for a few seconds then old man stands up and says, “I’m 65 years old and I’ll kicker your ass. You want to take this outside?!?” The guy in the Boston hat gets up and proceeds to walk out the front of the pokerroom. The floor was called over and the old dude was ejected from the tourney. Apparently, this has happened before.

As for the tournament, the first three levels, I played a total of four hands, at a 50% win rate. Right before the first break, a short stack pushed twice in a row and when I looked down I saw ATs and called. He flipped over AKo and I said “Nice hand.” The flop was all low cards and the turn brought a lovely T for a suckout/knockout.

Now I have T6500, a build up of T1500. The next level I’d pretty quiet as I steal the blinds once. Near the end of the next level, level 5, I look down at QQ and limp in UTG, knowing that someone would raise it up. The chip leader makes it 1200 and I re-raise to 2900. He re-raises me to where I am left with T100. I call. The flop is Q74 and I check, he bets 100 and I call. He shows AK and I table my QQ. I’m way ahead and when I win this pot I will have over 12k in chips and have a very healthy stack. The turn is a T and the river brings a J for the other player to get runner-runner straight. I shake his hand and make my way to the cash tables. 6 hands played in two hours. I will now drive longer to get to the poker room and back to the hotel than I played in that tourney. Sick.

Cash tables was more of the same junk kicking. Table full of donkies and I can’t win a hand. Everytime I play a hand the river kills me. I keep telling myself, “that’s poker”, but the past couple of weeks have been too much. I keep getting everything in ahead and lose. I’m really starting to doubt myself now. I’m not sure if the WSOP is a good thing now. Why waste $1500 on the suckout that I know will send me to the rails?!?

Share This

Ok, so here is the post that I promised a few posts ago. During the Christmas Vacation, the wife and I made the trip to her parents house for a white christmas. I can understand why she says christmas isn’t the same in Southern California as it is near Tahoe. There’s just something about snow and christmas that goes together. Shorts, T-shirts and christmas do not mix.

My Mother-in-law loves to play poker, but her friends.. well.. don’t. So she doesn’t get the opportunity to play that often. Every time we visit, she gets a nice SnG or two every night, but unfortunately for her, we don’t visit that often. This time, one of my holiday gifts to her was a buy-in to a local tournament. So while my mother-in-law was out shopping with her daughters, I was calling up local casino’s looking for a nice tournament for us to play later in the day. When I told her what I was planning she tells me that she is very excited to play in her first poker tournament and that she believes that I will win the tournament. I tell her If we get heads up, I’m not going to show any mercy and we both laugh. After calling a few casinos, the Carson Valley Inn had just the tournament that I was looking for. Carson Valley Inn had a $35+$5 tournament that night and the top 3-5 players who cash, depending on the total players, got a T-shirt. How awesome is that. As an added bonus, if you log an hour of cash table time, you get an extra T$500. I called back around 4pm to sign us up for the tournament.

The in-laws and I arrived at CVI a little after 5pm and bought into the tournament. We also sat down at a 2-6 spread limit game to get our extra T$500. About 40 minutes into the session, I get pocket aces. I was in late position and I min-raised to $4 as the table was loose pre-flop. This may have been a mistake, but I wanted players in the hand and there were 2 players that I new would re-raise with any two cards. There was one caller, then the big blind, one of the players that I new would re-raise me, did just that making it $10 to go. It folded back to me, where I re-raised it another $6. LP called and the BB re-raised again. I called as did the LP player. Now the pot was $53. The flop came down 668. I can put any of the players on a 6 or and 8 based on the pre-flop action. The BB bets $6, I re-raise to $12 the LP calls and the BB raises another $6, where I call and the LP calls. The pot is $107. The Turn is a Jack and the BB bets out, I re-raise, the LP calls and the BB calls. The River is an 8. The BB bets out again, I call with my last few chips and the LP calls. The BB says, I hope you can beat a boat and flips over 85 off suit. I much my cards face up and just stare in awe as to how this jackass, would re-raise me TWICE pre-flop with 8-5 off. Of course he was boasting on about how great he was, but I was bent. What a donkey. I can understand the play AFTER the flop, as he had two pair, but to have his ass beat until he hit a two outer on the river just blows. Mimics online play for the past couple days. Heh.

(more…)

Share This

First off… GFTS will be updated to fix the ‘gather info for running tournies’ today and… I will be at the WPBT Winter Classic!! Is it ok for a grown man to say “squeeee”? Oh who cares… SQUEEEEEEE!!

The down side is that I arrive the day or the tournament and leave the next night.. not the 4-5 days that I normally do… but 2 is better than 0 in this case….

Share This

Sunday morning I woke up around 10:30 and wanted to try to make the horse tourney and, since it was at the hotel I was staying at, how could I miss it? After making myself presentable, well, at least getting clean, I headed down to the newly moved poker room at the IP. I was maybe 15 minutes late and I was able to join in the festivities. I sat with Falstaff, Bruce, Mattazuma and a few peeps from the Full Tilt Forums and I believe a few from the Ante Up Nation.

I played pretty solid until the stud 8 round where I failed to complete the multiple outs that I had for at most a straight flush since 5th street and the second hand a flush or boat from 6th. Those two hands cost me most of my stack. I believe I donated all of those chips to Bruce, the eventual co-winner. My final hand came down during the first hand of the Hold’Em round. With less than 3bb I had pocket tens UTG and raised it up with Falstaff being the only caller. When the SB and BB folded Falstaff said he had the Hoy and I showed my hand and told him he would hit and Ace on the flop. Sure enough, the Ace hit and I was second out after a little over and hour and a half. Not nearly near where I would have liked to finish, but what can you do, someone has to be second out.

To drown my sorrows I headed back over to Margaritaville for more Landshark Lager and a Cheeseburger in Paradise. I friggen love that place. You must try the Loaded Landshark Lager, which has some sort of lime liquor in it. Mighty tasty.

After I had properly drowned said sorrows, I went back to the IP to watch the outcome of the horse tourney. After a lot of time passes, Falstaff and I went over to play Piagow Poker. This was a new experience for me and boy is that game fun. Falstaff bought in for $100 and I for $60 and for the next two and a half to three hours we hammed it up at the table. Best $45 I’ve ever spent. I rollercoastered from down to $11 to $85 to $15 to $74 back down to $15. I must admit, I play a mean piagow shortstack.

Unfortunately, I completely missed the Saprano’s finale during the piagow fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to see a re-run this week.

After piagow, Falstaff, T and myself headed to the fifth floor of the IP for some food goodness. We ended up at the Pizza Palace and we all had more food than we could eat, the portions are just that big. After dinner, drinks and shooting the shit, Falstaff and T headed back to the place that has a prick for a tournament director and I headed back up to my room. A little bit of online poker and Team America World Police from Netflix and I was off to lala land.

Monday, I woke up around 9, cleaned up again, packed my bags and checked out from the IP. All of the video poker, video slots and piagow playing comped me a little under $25 from my bill, which paid for my first nights room service. I check my bags and headed over to the MGM Grand to play a little more poker. Or so I thought.

I finally ate at a Vegas buffet for breakfast and then looked through the poker room to see if there were any bloggers left, but I didn’t see any. So I thought to myself, I still haven’t seen the Shark Reef over at Mandalay Bay, so a walk and a tram and I was there. If you haven’t been to the Shark Reef, it’s definitely worth it. I took a lot of phonecam pics and really enjoyed myself watching the sea turtles and various sharks while inside the sunken ship.

Afterwards I spent the next six hours at the Mandalay Bay poker room. I made personal history by getting felted my second hand at the table, my a kicker that was 1 lower than my opponents. REBUY! The table was awesome, some real donks, solid players and inbetweeners, but everyone was super nice, chatting and very personable. When I first sat down at the table, we had an almost-retired software engineer who liked to bet hard at pots and new how to build them. His favorite bet was $75. To my right, one of three salesmen who were in town for the Oracle gathering. Near the end of the table an older gentleman who had built up a rather big stack, a frat boy, a random player and another player who was loose-weak. Only four of the players left during the first four hours of the session, so I got to know the players, some more than others.

At one point, a dealer was trying to explain to a player after he got up and started to leave the table, that house rules state that if you are the third player up walking around a full table that once the blinds reach you, you are eligible to be bounced from the table, if there is a list. The player sat back down and asked, “What?” “It doesn’t matter now.” Said the dealer, bringing laughs to the entire table. I flipped him a $1 chip and said, “That’s for the laugh!” About halfway though my session a player named Sam sat to my immediate left. At first he was rather quiet, but as the hands continued to be dealt, he opened up more and more. I strattled just about every other orbit and one of the Oracle sales guys, who would now be the new UTG+1 would raise my strattle every time with a raise of $19. Every. Time. I didn’t mind, because every time I got a huge hand during the strattle, I got and extra $19, which only happened once. Most of the time I didn’t have crap and the hands were not worth the extra $15.

About two hours before I had to leave the table to head to the airport, we got a new player who strattled his first and I said to the table, “Someone else strattled! This is awesome!” He nodded back at me. A little while later, Sam strattled a hand. The three of us randomly started to strattle hands building up pots. Sometimes, the first player would raise it up to $12 and five of the remaining players would call. Talk about and awesome pot builder. One of those hands I was lucky enough to take down, but most of the time I just got out of the way. Near the end of my session, Sam and I tried to get everyone at the table to strattle. We got five players in a row to strattle a hand until the last four players decided that a strattle was not in their game plan. Feh, we tried. Every dealer at the Mandalay Bay poker room was awesome and I will definitely play there again. I cashed out for a small profit of 4.5BB an hour and headed back to the IP to get my bag and head home.

Overall for the trip, pokerwise I finished up $35, paigow down $45, video poker/slots down $110 but up $25 in comps. Considering my first 14 hours there I was down $400 in poker alone and in a funk, coming home down $95 in gambling as a whole, I’m perfectly fine with that!

tags: mandalay bay, paigow, poker, strattle, summer classic 2007

Share This

I’m so awesome.

So AIPS killed very little time for me, so I chilled at the room, talked with my Mom and left for The Orleans for the Summer Classic.

A side note from the previous post, the rest of the Bloggers were around the corner at the Sports Book. HA! I was within mere feet of them and bailed. It’s ok.. I wasn’t in the mood to play and probably would have been a sourpuss.

So I get to The Orleans a few hours early to check out the place, find the poker room and grab a bite to eat. Hunger forced me to call off the search of the poker room and I walked into Fridays as the sushi bar was closed. Then I see a blogger table. I found people I know! I’m sure I’ll forget someone, but from what I remember, there was Columbo, Zeem, Falstaff and friend, BadBlood, IronGirl, S.t.B… I’m missing two people I believe. World Famous Dr. Pauly stopped by for a brief moment as well. We ate, we drank, we were ready to play some poker.

Too bad The Orleans setup the Summer Classic as a friggen Super Turbo. 15 minutes levels, craptastic blinds and ante’s after the first hour of play. We actually got ’shuushed’ by another tournament for congratulating a player who hit runner-runner 4s(?), to which the tournament director also ’shuushed’ us and basically told the players who busted out early to leave the tourney area. We’re all friends/acquaintances, we like to cheer each other on. We’re not a random bunch of people in your standard tournament.

I can’t stand turbos. If I had known that the Summer Classic was a poorly structured ‘sure we will take your money, be a prick about it and kick you out as fast as we can‘ tourney, I would have stayed home and play the online version. I will not be playing any tournaments at The Orleans anytime soon.

I had a last longer bet with Laparka, which he won. Short stacked I called MiamiDon’s all in with AQd vs his AKo and at the turn I had 4 to the flush, but missed on the river. I busted like upper 20’s(?) out if 42. That fucking tourney had me on tilt, but the tilt cure was being around the bloggers once again. Vegas by yourself is ass.

Waffles made me lose another $20 by not taking out grubbette and mrs. spaceman to claim the Summer Classic 2007 title. He was short-stacked and Falstaff gave 3-1 odds against Waffles winning. I figured that many suckouts would come Waffles way and took the bet. Less that 5 minutes later, I was handing Falstaff $20.

Afterwards we headed over to the MGM Grand for more mixed games. IronGirl, Penner3 and myself had dinner at the sushi joint at the grand. Good food. IronGirl brought up the fact that not once though dinner did we talk poker strategy, but filled it with Degenerative Disc Disease, Athesma, Allergies, Cats, Dogs.. but of course after she brought up the fact, we went right into poker strategies. Nice.

We finally made it over to the poker room and I watched a few players play a few orbits, thinking about sitting at the $1/$2 NL table. I thought about it a little bit longer, then they broke the table. I believe it was brdweb got moved to a different table which had a Norwegian with $1300 in front of him, max buy in was $200, so he was doing rather well. There was an open seat and tempting fate, I sat down. Bought in for $100. I slowly started to build up a stack. I started to gamboool. I forget a lot of what happened, but Columbo had informed me that we had a fully functional blogger table, of 1/2, that had an open seat. I was already dealt into the current hand, so I called in the dark, and continued to talk to the staff about a table change. I checked the flop in the dark. Continue to talk to the staff. I had the player to my extreme right bet out $15 into a pot of $5. Ok.. time to look at my cards. Q5o. The board shows X5X5 and I raise it up another $15, to which my he re-raises another $15. The river brings a Q, I check, he pushes and I insta-call. He asks if I can beat a set of fives, to which I reply, ‘Yup. Gotta boat.’ As I’m gathering my chips to leave I get dealt into the next hand. I peek and I spy KK. I raise it to $15 and get 3 callers.. I can’t remember much from that point forward.. a lot has blurred, but I think it went to a showdown and the kings held up and I took in another large pot. When I moved to the blogger 1/2 NL table, I had a little over $350.

Now the fun begins. Columbo, Penner, Hoy, MiamiDon, IAK, smokee and a few others which names escape me start it up blogger style. I slowly start building my stack up and get into a massive pot with Don and Penner. I played in the dark until the turn, which I look and see that I have A9o on a board of 8T89.. I forget how the betting goes, but I think I called penner’s call in and Don pushes all in. I have both of them covered and figure I’m still good. So I call. The river escapes me, but I think Penner had 8J? and Don had 78o. The stack I worked so hard on was now a little bit more than my original buy in. Inside I was devastated, outside I’m sure I looked a bit down. Again, things get a bit fuzzy, but I got some chips from smokee once with AQ vs KQ and later I sucked out against him with KJ vs his flopped straight when I rivered a boat. Eventually I hit my high mark for my poker career when I had $634 in front of me.

I told Penner that once I hit above $666 in chips or it was 2:30 am, or I was down to $550, that I would be leaving. I was starting to fade and I didn’t want to donk off all that I had. For now, I wasn’t stuck and I had made a very small profit. I tried to limp in here and there, tried to make a few steals, but ultimately, the time limit hit and I cashed out with $545. Gambling-wise, I’m still stuck, but not by much and I’m in a much better mood, now that I’m with people I know.

During the 1/2 blogger table, Penner and I tried to chop the blinds, but not once in 4 hours were we able to. Props go out to Penner for bluffing a nice sized pot with the hammer, taking it down, and showing the hammer bluff. Bravo.

Now, I sleep. I can has night night.

tags: hammer, mgm grand, poker, summer classic, travel, wpbt

Share This

After being a good boy and not playing a single hand of anything, I enjoyed Vegas the way non-gamblers do, taking in the sights. I believe I walked half the strip yesterday going in and out of the casinos/hotels. It’s really interesting seeing the different groups of people walking around Vegas. You can always tell the bachelorette parties as one girl has on a tierra and or a feather boa. Then there’s the group of ladies all in white, not really sure what that means, but it really doesn’t matter. While walking across the street from NYNY to Excalibur I noticed that there were about 5 people with what seemed to be controls for the traffic lights. If I was in their shoes, I’d have a little fun every once and a while and only let one car though at a time, but then again, I’m evil like that.

The lions at the MGM Grand look like they have a lot of fun, chasing after each other, playing keep-away with the snacks that they are given.. it really makes me miss my cats and dogs.

Anyhoo.. it seems like the Mixed Games at the MGM were a bust. I didn’t see anyone there and bailed around 9:30. I’m sure there was a few bloggers there, but sometimes it’s hard to spot the blogger in the crowd. It’s not like I saw anyone in the ‘I’m blogging this’ shirt. Heh.

So I headed back to the IP and ….. went to bed. Walking around Vegas is hard work.

In a few hours the Summer Classic begins… and in a few minutes AIPS Event #6. Yes.. I’m in sin city and I’m playing online poker.

tags: aips, summer classic, travel, vegas, wpbt

Share This

Needless to say.. I’m not at Binions right now. I lost a $350 pot going up against a pretty solid player, who announced that he was leaving the table after the current orbit. We are playing $1-2 NL and I get pocket queens and raise it up the standard for the table, $15 which he calls. The flop comes a harmless 5TT and since the guy is a solid player, I do not put him on a T maybe AK down to AJ, or KK - 99.. so I make a pot sized bet and he re-raises me, basically all in. There was hint #1. Of course, I completely ignore that huge hint and think he’s just trying to steal.. and call. He shows ATo and hours worth of grinding are wasted.

Rinse and repeat the following morning except for once difference.. I was way ahead when all the loot got in but still managed to lose. Now I’m playing the penny tables on Full Tilt, confidence broken. My head is not here. My dog took my bankroll before I got here and I had very little time to rebuild. I came here with less that 1/5th of what I wanted to bring.. One bone head move and one suckout and I’m twiddling my fingers until the Summer Classic.

I’m still laughing that the $1/2 is a limit that I haven’t worked up to yet, and it’s the lowest limit here. I’ve been told that it’s just like the 0.25/0.50 online and it probably is, but I’m still not prepared. It’s a head game that I’m just not into. Not after the sessions that I’ve had..

And the kicker… I’m here until Monday night. Good Times.

tags: busted, full tilt, poker, travel, vegas

Share This

I know there are a few bloggers that are going to try and hit up the HORSE Tourney at Binions and I’d like to give it a shot. So, I’m going to head down to the local card room, which is in the lobby of the IP, so convenient, and try to win my buyin. I’ll check back in a few hours with, hopefully, good news.

tags: poker, summer classic, travel

Share This

The last few Vegas trips that I’ve taken, I leave at night. That way I still work a full day and party all night. This morning I check my flight time and my flight leaves at 10:15am. AM!! I have a little more than a hour to get to the airport.

Luckily I packed the night before, so I was able to leave the house quickly. One problem, I do not have any cash on me. I hit up the nearest ATM only to find out that my card was locked. I cannot start out my trip cashless, so I fly to the bank. I get some loot and the number to call to get my card unlocked.

Now I race to the airport and the freeway is oddly clear. I have a shot to make my flight! Three miles before my exit, there is a sea of red lights. My flight leaves in 40 minutes. It seems like hours pass, but I arrive at the parking lot and get into the airport with 15 minutes to spare.

The airport security check in is usually very quick, so I get my boarding pass and it says that it isn’t a boarding pass. Then I spy the security line. I’m going to miss my flight.

Ultimately, I missed the flight by less than 5 minutes. At least I now have time to get my ATM card taken care of and my cell phone charged.

The lesson of the day: Pay Attention!

tags: summer classic, travel

Share This