FYI CK,
Bally's isn't rigged, it just hates me. 4 straight times A or K suited in crubs and flopped 2 more, nada. Next 8 times when I didn't have them but 2 crubs on flop, they got there.
2 years ago
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Of poker and planting
Been a bit of a busy Memorial Day weekend.
Made another trip to Bally’s on Friday. Yes CK, I know it’s rigged. Headed out about 5 in the a.m. to beat the work traffic and came back after 8 at night to miss the work rush the other way. Glad I wasn’t heading down Friday afternoon. With the official opening of the shore for starters and the weatherman calling for sun and temps in the 80s the rush was on. As I headed home the traffic heading down was heavy and this was late. Would have hated to be on those roads around 5-6 that day. Had actually planned a trip down Mon night for an overnighter but was reminded I had a doctor appt. on Tue so got shot down.
Still stuck on the limit tables for the time being but it looked like it was going to be a good day. Was up about $100 in the first half hour. Second hand I was there I raise with suited connectors. I flop open ended with an 8 man pot and bet and get 8 callers. I turn the flush draw and call when someone else bets out. Still 5 players. River brings me the nut straight and there’s a better and I raise. Get two callers and take it down over top pair and 2 pair. Guy with 2 pair starts mumbling about going broke chasing gut shots. I just keep my mouth shut. If he wants to think I was chasing a gutterball then who am I to abuse him of that notion. Anyone who ain’t gonna throw $4 into a $32 pot with another possible $20 behind with open ended and flush draws is more than welcome to sit down and play at my table. Took another 2-3 similar pots early on and started to think it was going to be a profitable day. Silly me. Both the pots and the cards started to dry up.
One of my buddies from my previous trip, the guy who limped and checked called with aces sat down. I eventually got a better read on him if I run across him again. Seems he never actually bets unless he has 2 pair or better. Top pair only brings check calls. Saved me a couple of bucks then and maybe more in the future. Had a couple of others like him at the table though and they cost me a few. One guy though cost me more than a few. He started off by playing passive as hell, check calling with big pairs. 3 or 4 hands I had a big pocket pair and kept betting into crappy boards only to have him turn over a bigger pocket pair. Then all of a sudden he did a complete 180. He started raising blind and throwing in raises on the flop. To make it even better one of the idiots from my last post showed up and he kept reraising and egging this guy on. Pots got big and I got a lot tighter knowing that I was going to have to play hands to 2-3 or even capped bets if I wanted to play. Unfortunately my cards sucked and I went on a folding spree. Now that wouldn’t have been so bad but the consequences of the actions of these two cost me later. While these two were one their wildman spree there was a young kid at the opposite end of the table. He’s in almost every pot with them and these guys are egging him on, trash talking and telling him he should call, or bet or raise or fold. Every time the kid would bet the one, or both, of them would raise him and then start the trash talk. Poor kid didn’t know which way was up. As it was he was making piss poor decisions. He would call a 3 bet on the turn then wind up folding to a single bet on the river and the way he was tanking on these decisions made me think he had at least some sort of hand and wasn’t just folding busted draws. Then these guys, the one in particular, would show the bluff and the kid would get razzed by the rest of the table. Got to the point were this kid became a bulldog and wouldn’t let go of his cards for anything. Actually a way to make money in the long run but became a short run killer for me as he started getting lucky as hell on the river. He’d hold on to bottom pair against my top and catch two pair or trips. He’d hit top pair against my flopped two and match his second card on the river. No matter what I did I couldn’t get him to lay it down if he hit a pair on the flop. It seems he decided he wasn’t going to be embarrassed by being bluffed again. Of course by this time Frick and Frack had left and I was paying for the shenanigans. Couple of others too although a couple of players were making out thanks to his doggedness. Guy knew he was playing bad cards too because when he was forced to show he would show his paired A or K or Q but was reluctant to show his kicker and the dealer kept telling him he had to show both. Other than the fact I couldn’t get this kid off his hands and that my cards sucked big time during the period that there was money to be made I had only one more problem at the table, the cell phone or in particular, one woman’s cell. Nice woman and decent player but she would play a hand or two and then would get up to answer her phone. She spent more time away from the table than at it. If you play low limit at a casino regularly knows that you rarely play a full table. There are always a couple of old guys who play for a while then go wandering. It’s even worse midweek as most of the players are these old guys so you are usually playing 8 handed or so. That just made this woman’s jumping up and down even more annoying. Not that I approve of what the old guys do, that also annoys the hell out of me but for some reason, disappearing every 5-10 min to answer a cell call just got to me. Turn the damned thing off will ya.
The rest of the weekend was taken up with planting. No, no more trees or fruit bushes, just plain old veggies. Seems I’m getting later each year when it comes to getting in the tomatoes. Garden also getting smaller every year. Was a time I had an asparagus patch and I put in about 36 tomatoes, an equal number of peppers of various types, couple of rows of cukes and beans and played around with pumpkins, corn, eggplants, squash, both summer and winter, radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and cabbage. One year I even tried potatoes and other peanuts. Had a fair sized garden and varied success. This year however I’m down to 7 tomatoes, 4 green peppers, 4 red peppers, 4 hot longs, a cherry pepper and a fryer. One reason is that years ago we had no idea what to do with most of the stuff I was growing. Some stuff you had limited production by the nature of the veggie, like broccoli or head lettuce. Others just didn’t produce as well or were small items like radishes or beets. The mainstays however, the tomatoes, peppers, cukes and beans, you could wind up picking 2-3 grocery bags full every couple of days. Had to resort to putting a picnic table out front and a coffee can and put people on the honor system and if they weren’t honorable, who cared, the stuff was going to rot anyway so any donation was ahead of the game. Guess I did tend to overdo things. Alas those days are gone. Just hasn’t had the time, or these days the stamina, to do things like that. Have been cutting back the garden the last few years. The asparagus patch stopped producing a few years ago so we let the lawn overrun it and last year let the lawn encroach over more garden space. Last fall I took up about half the remaining space for the berry canes. Just enough room left for the planting mentioned above and a couple of rows of beans and cukes and even the cukes are getting trellised so they go up rather than out. Even this small amount of plants are a drain when you only have 1 ½ arms and you can’t get up and down on your knees to dig. Had to resort to post hole digger, my grabbing tool and a hoe. Hell of a balancing act, juggling between the three. Got everything in eventually and actually got some rain the day after I finished. Now we’ll have to see how the veggies grow. Hopefully we get some good tomatoes; I’m tired of eating flavorless, pink tennis balls from the supermarket. There was a time you could get nice Jersey tomatoes here during the summer but it seems they have even found a way to screw them up as I haven’t tasted anything good from the store in a long while. As for last fall’s work, blueberries are going great and blackberries are looking like I might get some production next year. Raspberries suck however. May have to do a replanting this fall. Or next spring. On the hole I prefer time spent at a poker table, it’s easier.
Well, time to go. Thanks for your attention.
Made another trip to Bally’s on Friday. Yes CK, I know it’s rigged. Headed out about 5 in the a.m. to beat the work traffic and came back after 8 at night to miss the work rush the other way. Glad I wasn’t heading down Friday afternoon. With the official opening of the shore for starters and the weatherman calling for sun and temps in the 80s the rush was on. As I headed home the traffic heading down was heavy and this was late. Would have hated to be on those roads around 5-6 that day. Had actually planned a trip down Mon night for an overnighter but was reminded I had a doctor appt. on Tue so got shot down.
Still stuck on the limit tables for the time being but it looked like it was going to be a good day. Was up about $100 in the first half hour. Second hand I was there I raise with suited connectors. I flop open ended with an 8 man pot and bet and get 8 callers. I turn the flush draw and call when someone else bets out. Still 5 players. River brings me the nut straight and there’s a better and I raise. Get two callers and take it down over top pair and 2 pair. Guy with 2 pair starts mumbling about going broke chasing gut shots. I just keep my mouth shut. If he wants to think I was chasing a gutterball then who am I to abuse him of that notion. Anyone who ain’t gonna throw $4 into a $32 pot with another possible $20 behind with open ended and flush draws is more than welcome to sit down and play at my table. Took another 2-3 similar pots early on and started to think it was going to be a profitable day. Silly me. Both the pots and the cards started to dry up.
One of my buddies from my previous trip, the guy who limped and checked called with aces sat down. I eventually got a better read on him if I run across him again. Seems he never actually bets unless he has 2 pair or better. Top pair only brings check calls. Saved me a couple of bucks then and maybe more in the future. Had a couple of others like him at the table though and they cost me a few. One guy though cost me more than a few. He started off by playing passive as hell, check calling with big pairs. 3 or 4 hands I had a big pocket pair and kept betting into crappy boards only to have him turn over a bigger pocket pair. Then all of a sudden he did a complete 180. He started raising blind and throwing in raises on the flop. To make it even better one of the idiots from my last post showed up and he kept reraising and egging this guy on. Pots got big and I got a lot tighter knowing that I was going to have to play hands to 2-3 or even capped bets if I wanted to play. Unfortunately my cards sucked and I went on a folding spree. Now that wouldn’t have been so bad but the consequences of the actions of these two cost me later. While these two were one their wildman spree there was a young kid at the opposite end of the table. He’s in almost every pot with them and these guys are egging him on, trash talking and telling him he should call, or bet or raise or fold. Every time the kid would bet the one, or both, of them would raise him and then start the trash talk. Poor kid didn’t know which way was up. As it was he was making piss poor decisions. He would call a 3 bet on the turn then wind up folding to a single bet on the river and the way he was tanking on these decisions made me think he had at least some sort of hand and wasn’t just folding busted draws. Then these guys, the one in particular, would show the bluff and the kid would get razzed by the rest of the table. Got to the point were this kid became a bulldog and wouldn’t let go of his cards for anything. Actually a way to make money in the long run but became a short run killer for me as he started getting lucky as hell on the river. He’d hold on to bottom pair against my top and catch two pair or trips. He’d hit top pair against my flopped two and match his second card on the river. No matter what I did I couldn’t get him to lay it down if he hit a pair on the flop. It seems he decided he wasn’t going to be embarrassed by being bluffed again. Of course by this time Frick and Frack had left and I was paying for the shenanigans. Couple of others too although a couple of players were making out thanks to his doggedness. Guy knew he was playing bad cards too because when he was forced to show he would show his paired A or K or Q but was reluctant to show his kicker and the dealer kept telling him he had to show both. Other than the fact I couldn’t get this kid off his hands and that my cards sucked big time during the period that there was money to be made I had only one more problem at the table, the cell phone or in particular, one woman’s cell. Nice woman and decent player but she would play a hand or two and then would get up to answer her phone. She spent more time away from the table than at it. If you play low limit at a casino regularly knows that you rarely play a full table. There are always a couple of old guys who play for a while then go wandering. It’s even worse midweek as most of the players are these old guys so you are usually playing 8 handed or so. That just made this woman’s jumping up and down even more annoying. Not that I approve of what the old guys do, that also annoys the hell out of me but for some reason, disappearing every 5-10 min to answer a cell call just got to me. Turn the damned thing off will ya.
The rest of the weekend was taken up with planting. No, no more trees or fruit bushes, just plain old veggies. Seems I’m getting later each year when it comes to getting in the tomatoes. Garden also getting smaller every year. Was a time I had an asparagus patch and I put in about 36 tomatoes, an equal number of peppers of various types, couple of rows of cukes and beans and played around with pumpkins, corn, eggplants, squash, both summer and winter, radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and cabbage. One year I even tried potatoes and other peanuts. Had a fair sized garden and varied success. This year however I’m down to 7 tomatoes, 4 green peppers, 4 red peppers, 4 hot longs, a cherry pepper and a fryer. One reason is that years ago we had no idea what to do with most of the stuff I was growing. Some stuff you had limited production by the nature of the veggie, like broccoli or head lettuce. Others just didn’t produce as well or were small items like radishes or beets. The mainstays however, the tomatoes, peppers, cukes and beans, you could wind up picking 2-3 grocery bags full every couple of days. Had to resort to putting a picnic table out front and a coffee can and put people on the honor system and if they weren’t honorable, who cared, the stuff was going to rot anyway so any donation was ahead of the game. Guess I did tend to overdo things. Alas those days are gone. Just hasn’t had the time, or these days the stamina, to do things like that. Have been cutting back the garden the last few years. The asparagus patch stopped producing a few years ago so we let the lawn overrun it and last year let the lawn encroach over more garden space. Last fall I took up about half the remaining space for the berry canes. Just enough room left for the planting mentioned above and a couple of rows of beans and cukes and even the cukes are getting trellised so they go up rather than out. Even this small amount of plants are a drain when you only have 1 ½ arms and you can’t get up and down on your knees to dig. Had to resort to post hole digger, my grabbing tool and a hoe. Hell of a balancing act, juggling between the three. Got everything in eventually and actually got some rain the day after I finished. Now we’ll have to see how the veggies grow. Hopefully we get some good tomatoes; I’m tired of eating flavorless, pink tennis balls from the supermarket. There was a time you could get nice Jersey tomatoes here during the summer but it seems they have even found a way to screw them up as I haven’t tasted anything good from the store in a long while. As for last fall’s work, blueberries are going great and blackberries are looking like I might get some production next year. Raspberries suck however. May have to do a replanting this fall. Or next spring. On the hole I prefer time spent at a poker table, it’s easier.
Well, time to go. Thanks for your attention.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Atlantic City, Part II
Played poker on the first day of the trip until about 3 am as had to get up for the beach the next morning as that was the major reason for the trip. Fooled the hell out of my brother as he figured I was going to beg off and play poker all day as we decided to spend a second night there. We drove down to Ocean City and went to the beach at 12th Ave as there is a Mac and Manco’s right there on the boardwalk. Silly us, forgot it was Mon and that the location was only open on weekends. Had to walk down a block or so to get near the open branch. Weather was beautiful, warmer than predicted, up in the 90s but there was a nice breeze coming in off the ocean so it was comfortable. Bad leg made the walk a bit tough but I survived. Bad arm was a different story. I have a collapsible camp chair with footrest I use on the beach. Normally not a problem even though the sand isn’t exactly stable for getting in and out. With my bad arm and not being able to lever myself up and out getting out of it was a real circus. Somehow I managed with a little aid from my nephew. The bigger problem was applying sunscreen. Between the breeze and the bad arm getting sunscreen on my right side was a bitch and it showed later on. I got roasted and had a nice burn for a couple of days, not to mention the itch that accompanied the peeling skin. Scratching with a gimp arm wasn’t exactly satisfying. Overall though the enjoyment of 5-6 hours on the beach in the sun, chomping on some Mac & Manco’s, outweighed the annoyances especially since I found out we won’t be able to get the house we usually rent in Ocean City for vacation this year. Might be my only beach trip this year.
Headed back to AC for some rest and some more poker. Got back to the room and took a nap. The beach is relaxing but the sun is tiring. As a kid I never understood why my parents needed a nap when we got back from the beach when all they did was lie there the whole time. Finally caught on a couple of years ago after I started taking my own daughter there. The sun is a killer for us old farts. Got to the poker room about 6 hoping that the action was a bit more regular than the previous night. If nothing else the table was a bit more chatty and a bit more fun. Play was a bit more like I was used to but the cards sucked early on and I found myself in a hole again. Again I tried pot building when I had potential big draws but again they wouldn’t come. Did hit quads 3 more times, once during the promo time that was supposed to get me the $20 comp, but couldn’t get paid off more than minimum on them. Was down about $150 before the cards started to turn. Wound up getting most of it back eventually by the time the tables were breaking down to one at about 2:30. The final table of the night was the kind of table money could be made. You had a couple of guys playing like it was NL, trying to push people off their hands. You also had 2 idiots going to war with one another, building up the pots with nothing when both were in the same hand. Actually it wasn’t your typical $2-4 table as most of the people there knew what they were doing and with all the raising play was tighter than usual. Unfortunately my cards went further south than Tierra del Fuego. As it was I spent a few hours folding, hit a couple of medium pots and looked like I had hit a few humongous ones only to have one of the idiots catch up on the river to chop. Wound up winning a few bucks on the night and reducing my two day losses to about $40-50. Should have been better. Finally hit the sack around 5:30. Plans were to head back to Ocean City for a few hours and lunch and then head home from there.
Got up the next morning and decided I wasn’t hitting the beach. What felt like n annoying sunburn the previous night was on fire in the morning. My brother said something about leaving then but I said no, they could hit the beach; I would find something to occupy my time so we checked out and headed out to Ocean City. Somehow I got caught for a couple of room service meals that I had no part in. So much for being along for the ride. We got to Ocean City and the beach was put aside. Too much wind even though the sun was bright and the temps were high. Actually the temps went over the 80s that were predicted, up in to the 90s on both days but Tues the wind was really heavy unlike Mon when it was comfortable. So since the beach was out we decided on more pizza for lunch and picking up a few goodies on the boardwalk before we headed home. I behaved myself and refrained from loading up on taffy but was seriously jonesing for some fresh roasted peanuts. My nephew wanted some fried Oreos and caramel corn so while he headed to the junk food stand for the Oreos my brother and I headed down the boardwalk a block or two, him headed for the caramel corn place, me for what I thought was a Planter’s store. Bad move. For some reason the peanut store was no longer there and the caramel corn place, unlike the pizza place, had their year round branch open at the other end of the boardwalk. We headed back to the car. Lots of exercise for my bad leg. When we met up with my nephew he said he saw a nut store a block in the other direction so I told my brother to take the car and meet us there as we decided to walk up there. I really needed more exercise but I wanted peanuts. and my nephew said he wanted some other nuts. Well the peanut shop was right off the corner but that wasn’t were my nephew wanted to go, he wanted cashews or something and said that place was up in the next block so headed up there. I got the large economy size bag of peanuts and went to meet my brother at the car figuring my nephew would meet us there. Got there and brother asked where his son was and I explained. We waited 25 minutes for him wondering what the hell happened. When he finally shows he’s carrying a bucket of caramel corn. Peckerwood decided to walk 8 blocks up the boardwalk to the caramel corn shop without letting anyone know. What the hell did he waste $300 on an I-phone for? Would have been a lot faster if we drove up there plus I wanted to get some myself. Sometimes you just want to strangle them. Well, didn’t want to bother with the drive up the boardwalk so we hit the nearest Wawa, grabbed some beverages and headed for home so that we could beat the rush hour traffic on the Sure-Kill.
Heading home we stopped at the rest area on the AC expressway to pay the toll we missed on the way down. This is where I fucked up. Never send a boy, or a brother to do a man’s job. When we got there my brother and nephew headed off to the admin building to pay the toll while I stayed in the car. All the walking had taken its toll on my legs. They came back saying the woman there had no idea what they were talking about and that we had to call the NJ EZPass violation center and gave them a number. I had an uneasy feeling but we headed off and I dialed the number. Well, the feeling turned out to be right. After playing voicemail run around I finally got warm body and she tells me that they don’t do anything unless we have already gotten a violation notice. And that I should call PA EZPass as they issued our transponders. So I called them. They didn’t have a freaking clue as to what I was talking about and told me I should call South Jersey Transportation Authority which gets me right back to the woman they dealt with at the rest area but by this time we are almost to the bridges into Philly. I explain the whole situation, including the message you get when calling the number on billboard, etc and she’s telling me that the message, and the woman at NJ EZPass, are wrong and she’ll see what she can do about it. In the meantime this farce has taken up almost the entire 90 min trip home and nothing ever got done. Got the violation notice last week. Not only that it screwed up a relaxing couple of days just because someone has no frikkin idea about how to run their agency. All in all I will have to say that the good outweighed the bad and it was needed time away from the BS.
Enough for now. More boredom later. Thanks for the attention.
Headed back to AC for some rest and some more poker. Got back to the room and took a nap. The beach is relaxing but the sun is tiring. As a kid I never understood why my parents needed a nap when we got back from the beach when all they did was lie there the whole time. Finally caught on a couple of years ago after I started taking my own daughter there. The sun is a killer for us old farts. Got to the poker room about 6 hoping that the action was a bit more regular than the previous night. If nothing else the table was a bit more chatty and a bit more fun. Play was a bit more like I was used to but the cards sucked early on and I found myself in a hole again. Again I tried pot building when I had potential big draws but again they wouldn’t come. Did hit quads 3 more times, once during the promo time that was supposed to get me the $20 comp, but couldn’t get paid off more than minimum on them. Was down about $150 before the cards started to turn. Wound up getting most of it back eventually by the time the tables were breaking down to one at about 2:30. The final table of the night was the kind of table money could be made. You had a couple of guys playing like it was NL, trying to push people off their hands. You also had 2 idiots going to war with one another, building up the pots with nothing when both were in the same hand. Actually it wasn’t your typical $2-4 table as most of the people there knew what they were doing and with all the raising play was tighter than usual. Unfortunately my cards went further south than Tierra del Fuego. As it was I spent a few hours folding, hit a couple of medium pots and looked like I had hit a few humongous ones only to have one of the idiots catch up on the river to chop. Wound up winning a few bucks on the night and reducing my two day losses to about $40-50. Should have been better. Finally hit the sack around 5:30. Plans were to head back to Ocean City for a few hours and lunch and then head home from there.
Got up the next morning and decided I wasn’t hitting the beach. What felt like n annoying sunburn the previous night was on fire in the morning. My brother said something about leaving then but I said no, they could hit the beach; I would find something to occupy my time so we checked out and headed out to Ocean City. Somehow I got caught for a couple of room service meals that I had no part in. So much for being along for the ride. We got to Ocean City and the beach was put aside. Too much wind even though the sun was bright and the temps were high. Actually the temps went over the 80s that were predicted, up in to the 90s on both days but Tues the wind was really heavy unlike Mon when it was comfortable. So since the beach was out we decided on more pizza for lunch and picking up a few goodies on the boardwalk before we headed home. I behaved myself and refrained from loading up on taffy but was seriously jonesing for some fresh roasted peanuts. My nephew wanted some fried Oreos and caramel corn so while he headed to the junk food stand for the Oreos my brother and I headed down the boardwalk a block or two, him headed for the caramel corn place, me for what I thought was a Planter’s store. Bad move. For some reason the peanut store was no longer there and the caramel corn place, unlike the pizza place, had their year round branch open at the other end of the boardwalk. We headed back to the car. Lots of exercise for my bad leg. When we met up with my nephew he said he saw a nut store a block in the other direction so I told my brother to take the car and meet us there as we decided to walk up there. I really needed more exercise but I wanted peanuts. and my nephew said he wanted some other nuts. Well the peanut shop was right off the corner but that wasn’t were my nephew wanted to go, he wanted cashews or something and said that place was up in the next block so headed up there. I got the large economy size bag of peanuts and went to meet my brother at the car figuring my nephew would meet us there. Got there and brother asked where his son was and I explained. We waited 25 minutes for him wondering what the hell happened. When he finally shows he’s carrying a bucket of caramel corn. Peckerwood decided to walk 8 blocks up the boardwalk to the caramel corn shop without letting anyone know. What the hell did he waste $300 on an I-phone for? Would have been a lot faster if we drove up there plus I wanted to get some myself. Sometimes you just want to strangle them. Well, didn’t want to bother with the drive up the boardwalk so we hit the nearest Wawa, grabbed some beverages and headed for home so that we could beat the rush hour traffic on the Sure-Kill.
Heading home we stopped at the rest area on the AC expressway to pay the toll we missed on the way down. This is where I fucked up. Never send a boy, or a brother to do a man’s job. When we got there my brother and nephew headed off to the admin building to pay the toll while I stayed in the car. All the walking had taken its toll on my legs. They came back saying the woman there had no idea what they were talking about and that we had to call the NJ EZPass violation center and gave them a number. I had an uneasy feeling but we headed off and I dialed the number. Well, the feeling turned out to be right. After playing voicemail run around I finally got warm body and she tells me that they don’t do anything unless we have already gotten a violation notice. And that I should call PA EZPass as they issued our transponders. So I called them. They didn’t have a freaking clue as to what I was talking about and told me I should call South Jersey Transportation Authority which gets me right back to the woman they dealt with at the rest area but by this time we are almost to the bridges into Philly. I explain the whole situation, including the message you get when calling the number on billboard, etc and she’s telling me that the message, and the woman at NJ EZPass, are wrong and she’ll see what she can do about it. In the meantime this farce has taken up almost the entire 90 min trip home and nothing ever got done. Got the violation notice last week. Not only that it screwed up a relaxing couple of days just because someone has no frikkin idea about how to run their agency. All in all I will have to say that the good outweighed the bad and it was needed time away from the BS.
Enough for now. More boredom later. Thanks for the attention.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Atlantic City Trip, Part I
Went to AC (Atlantic City) on an overnighter a couple of weeks ago. The main purpose of the trip was not poker but beach and sun. They were calling for temps in the 80s at the end of April so my brother and his son decided to get a room down in AC, something they seem to offer slots players that poker players don’t see much of, and then head down to Ocean City, about 15 minutes away, to spend a day sitting on the beach soaking up some sun. Ocean City is also the home of some awesome pizza by the name of Mac & Manco’s and while most of the boardwalk shops don’t open until after Memorial Day M&M keeps one place open all year not to mention opening others on weekends after Easter. My brother and nephew usually get days off weekdays, not weekends and so when things like this are planned I usually don’t get invited as I am working. Being as I am currently without employment at the time I was asked to join them and did so. As we were heading to AC poker was also on my agenda in addition to sun and sand. Water was still too cold to include surf.
We headed down on Sun evening after they both got done work. The weekend had been in the high 70s with even better weather promised so the signs were auspicious. Since the whole plan was my nephew’s I just went along for the ride. He even did the driving and we took his car, which later created a whole ‘nother clusterfuck as his is the only car without an EZPass. My brother took the pass out of his car and gave it to his son. Instead of attaching it to the windshield he tossed it in the console under the dash and of course it doesn’t register the first toll booth we go thru. There is a sign with a number to call if you think a toll wasn’t paid and I dial it up and learn that you can stop at the Transit Authority at the rest area within 48 hours, pay the toll and enclose the receipt in the envelope when the violation notice come in. As the rest area is behind us we decide we’ll stop on the way home and continue on our merry way. Made the trip home interesting.
We get to AC about 5:30-6:00 and head to Bally’s, where my nephew got the room. Get lucky at the parking garage and get a spot near the elevator. If you have never been to AC you won’t realize how rare this can be. Also important as the walk from the garage to the hotel proper is long enough, especially when you are traveling with a gimp, namely me. We get checked in although somehow my credit card winds up being used for security even though I’m only along for the ride. We get to the room and my brother, slot maniac that he is, heads right for the casino. I lay down on the bed figuring to rest a bit and watch some tube before heading to the poker room but the TV choices are very limited so I decide to grab a shower before playing some cards and my nephew heads out to find food saying he’ll meet me at the poker room later. Have never been to Bally’s before and have no idea where the poker room is other than the 6th floor. I take the elevator down, get out and see the sign for poker and ponies. I head in that direction and walk right past it. The entrance is offset at an angle in he same direction I’m walking and the ponies section is in front so I missed it completely until I felt I walked too far and turned around, then it was staring me in the face. Wandered in and wandered to the back to see what action was going.
There wasn’t a lot of action but there were a few tables running. Unlike most AC rooms which spread a $1-2 NL game Bally’s has a $1-3 and there were a few tables going. There were also a couple of $2-4 limit tables, a $1-5 stud game and an interest list for $3-6 limit. Being recently unemployed I could only afford about 2/3s a NL buy in and as I hate playing that without at least 2 buy ins let alone short I knew I was destined for the limit tables. As there weren’t enough players for $3-6 it was no fold ‘em hold ‘em for me.
I usually like limit as I usually come home winners in the 3 figure range and on bad nights my losses are usually under $50. This however was not to be a usual night. While I am used to loose, passive play at these tables I have never seen play like I did at these tables. Passive was hardly the word. I have no idea what the hell these people were even doing at the tables unless it was as my nephew said, that they were sitting there hoping to hit part of the bad beat jackpot. Bally’s bad beat doesn’t only pay the players at the table it takes place at but everyone in the room at a hold ‘em table and my nephew could have been right. These folks seemed to have no interest in winning pots. Check call was the order of the day even when someone was holding the nuts or near nuts. In one hand I flopped trip tens OTB and bet every street as it was checked to me. Had 4 callers on every bet and at showdown some woman had wound up flopping Qs full. Second nuts and this woman check called every street. Not check raise but check called. WTF? Another guy had PPAs at least 5 times and check called with them no matter what the board. No preflop raises, no bets, just checks and calls. I started to wonder what rabbit hole I had fallen down. OTOH, who says you can’t bluff at a $2-4 table. Twice I got away with bluffing with the hammer. Figured, what the hell, as strange as the night was going it couldn’t hurt to try. Won 3 times with it, 2 bluffs and a flopped 2 pair the third time. That and hitting quads were the highlight of the night however. Due to this strange play I really couldn’t make any money on my big hands and I was bleeding chips on my decent ones. Since no one would bet their hands I had to bet out my big hands and thus couldn’t get any raises or reraises in to build up pots so what normally would be big stack builders were decent pots at best. On other hands where I would flop TPTK or TP2K and it would get checked to me I would bet out every street only to have some one call me down with an over pair in the hole. Drove me frikkin nuts. Bet your damned hand will ya. Between that and my pot building bets and raises on draws that never hit I was bleeding profusely and the big hands that hit never got me the kind of pot that repairs the damage. BTW CK, the crubs never came, at least when I played them. I dropped close to $200 early on though I recovered about half of that later on. My nephew wound up doing a lot better winning close to what I lost. Never did really get a handle on the style of play though.
Another thing that puzzled the hell out of me was the play when someone would actually play a hand. I switched tables a bit in. Asked for a switch earlier but the floor seemed to forget me and it took awhile before I made the move. At the new table the play was a bit more what I was used to, though still really passive but some hands actually did get played. Now I am used to check calling at this limit as people chase but again I saw something I wasn’t really used to. You would have two or three checks to start a round then someone would bet and you would get the occasional raise and even reraise. As the action got back to the early players these people would call the 2 and 3 bets. WTF again? I understand check calling a bet but if you are going to check call 2 and 3 bets why the hell aren’t you just betting out in the first place? It’s a good thing we had a room because I don’t think I could have made it through the night without being able to drink these folks had my poor head spinning so much. At least the cocktail hostesses were prompt and friendly.
As far as the poker room at Bally’s itself goes I say it is menza menz. The room itself isn’t real large and there is nothing particularly fancy about it. It’s tucked in behind the racing book so it’s not obvious for bringing in the walk up trade. It is away from the casino floor so it’s relatively quiet though some of the NL players can get real noisy. It has a separate tourney section and runs some fairly low limit tourneys. Most of these however seem to be speed tourneys which I have no interest in playing. They are offering a $15K freeroll for those who put in at least 60 hours at the tables this month. Most of the floor persons were very friendly but I can’t judge their competence until I do some research. I’m not sure whether comps are $.50 or $1 an hour but either way I put in at least 30 hours my last two trips there. At minimum that’s $15 in comps. They also have a promotion where anyone who gets quads gets $20 in comps. I qualified for it once. However I looked at my comp account online and it seems it has only gone up $11 which means something isn’t getting reported right. I’m not that worried about the comps but I do want to make sure my hours are being reported properly in case I decide to go for the freeroll qualification. My nephew put in 10 ors at the tables our last trip down and when he asked the floor about his hours she told him 5.5. Definitely have to check up on them to see what’s going on.
Well this is getting a bit long so we’ll cut the boredom here and follow up on the beach and another night of poker n our next post. Keep those cards and letters coming and thanks for your attention.
We headed down on Sun evening after they both got done work. The weekend had been in the high 70s with even better weather promised so the signs were auspicious. Since the whole plan was my nephew’s I just went along for the ride. He even did the driving and we took his car, which later created a whole ‘nother clusterfuck as his is the only car without an EZPass. My brother took the pass out of his car and gave it to his son. Instead of attaching it to the windshield he tossed it in the console under the dash and of course it doesn’t register the first toll booth we go thru. There is a sign with a number to call if you think a toll wasn’t paid and I dial it up and learn that you can stop at the Transit Authority at the rest area within 48 hours, pay the toll and enclose the receipt in the envelope when the violation notice come in. As the rest area is behind us we decide we’ll stop on the way home and continue on our merry way. Made the trip home interesting.
We get to AC about 5:30-6:00 and head to Bally’s, where my nephew got the room. Get lucky at the parking garage and get a spot near the elevator. If you have never been to AC you won’t realize how rare this can be. Also important as the walk from the garage to the hotel proper is long enough, especially when you are traveling with a gimp, namely me. We get checked in although somehow my credit card winds up being used for security even though I’m only along for the ride. We get to the room and my brother, slot maniac that he is, heads right for the casino. I lay down on the bed figuring to rest a bit and watch some tube before heading to the poker room but the TV choices are very limited so I decide to grab a shower before playing some cards and my nephew heads out to find food saying he’ll meet me at the poker room later. Have never been to Bally’s before and have no idea where the poker room is other than the 6th floor. I take the elevator down, get out and see the sign for poker and ponies. I head in that direction and walk right past it. The entrance is offset at an angle in he same direction I’m walking and the ponies section is in front so I missed it completely until I felt I walked too far and turned around, then it was staring me in the face. Wandered in and wandered to the back to see what action was going.
There wasn’t a lot of action but there were a few tables running. Unlike most AC rooms which spread a $1-2 NL game Bally’s has a $1-3 and there were a few tables going. There were also a couple of $2-4 limit tables, a $1-5 stud game and an interest list for $3-6 limit. Being recently unemployed I could only afford about 2/3s a NL buy in and as I hate playing that without at least 2 buy ins let alone short I knew I was destined for the limit tables. As there weren’t enough players for $3-6 it was no fold ‘em hold ‘em for me.
I usually like limit as I usually come home winners in the 3 figure range and on bad nights my losses are usually under $50. This however was not to be a usual night. While I am used to loose, passive play at these tables I have never seen play like I did at these tables. Passive was hardly the word. I have no idea what the hell these people were even doing at the tables unless it was as my nephew said, that they were sitting there hoping to hit part of the bad beat jackpot. Bally’s bad beat doesn’t only pay the players at the table it takes place at but everyone in the room at a hold ‘em table and my nephew could have been right. These folks seemed to have no interest in winning pots. Check call was the order of the day even when someone was holding the nuts or near nuts. In one hand I flopped trip tens OTB and bet every street as it was checked to me. Had 4 callers on every bet and at showdown some woman had wound up flopping Qs full. Second nuts and this woman check called every street. Not check raise but check called. WTF? Another guy had PPAs at least 5 times and check called with them no matter what the board. No preflop raises, no bets, just checks and calls. I started to wonder what rabbit hole I had fallen down. OTOH, who says you can’t bluff at a $2-4 table. Twice I got away with bluffing with the hammer. Figured, what the hell, as strange as the night was going it couldn’t hurt to try. Won 3 times with it, 2 bluffs and a flopped 2 pair the third time. That and hitting quads were the highlight of the night however. Due to this strange play I really couldn’t make any money on my big hands and I was bleeding chips on my decent ones. Since no one would bet their hands I had to bet out my big hands and thus couldn’t get any raises or reraises in to build up pots so what normally would be big stack builders were decent pots at best. On other hands where I would flop TPTK or TP2K and it would get checked to me I would bet out every street only to have some one call me down with an over pair in the hole. Drove me frikkin nuts. Bet your damned hand will ya. Between that and my pot building bets and raises on draws that never hit I was bleeding profusely and the big hands that hit never got me the kind of pot that repairs the damage. BTW CK, the crubs never came, at least when I played them. I dropped close to $200 early on though I recovered about half of that later on. My nephew wound up doing a lot better winning close to what I lost. Never did really get a handle on the style of play though.
Another thing that puzzled the hell out of me was the play when someone would actually play a hand. I switched tables a bit in. Asked for a switch earlier but the floor seemed to forget me and it took awhile before I made the move. At the new table the play was a bit more what I was used to, though still really passive but some hands actually did get played. Now I am used to check calling at this limit as people chase but again I saw something I wasn’t really used to. You would have two or three checks to start a round then someone would bet and you would get the occasional raise and even reraise. As the action got back to the early players these people would call the 2 and 3 bets. WTF again? I understand check calling a bet but if you are going to check call 2 and 3 bets why the hell aren’t you just betting out in the first place? It’s a good thing we had a room because I don’t think I could have made it through the night without being able to drink these folks had my poor head spinning so much. At least the cocktail hostesses were prompt and friendly.
As far as the poker room at Bally’s itself goes I say it is menza menz. The room itself isn’t real large and there is nothing particularly fancy about it. It’s tucked in behind the racing book so it’s not obvious for bringing in the walk up trade. It is away from the casino floor so it’s relatively quiet though some of the NL players can get real noisy. It has a separate tourney section and runs some fairly low limit tourneys. Most of these however seem to be speed tourneys which I have no interest in playing. They are offering a $15K freeroll for those who put in at least 60 hours at the tables this month. Most of the floor persons were very friendly but I can’t judge their competence until I do some research. I’m not sure whether comps are $.50 or $1 an hour but either way I put in at least 30 hours my last two trips there. At minimum that’s $15 in comps. They also have a promotion where anyone who gets quads gets $20 in comps. I qualified for it once. However I looked at my comp account online and it seems it has only gone up $11 which means something isn’t getting reported right. I’m not that worried about the comps but I do want to make sure my hours are being reported properly in case I decide to go for the freeroll qualification. My nephew put in 10 ors at the tables our last trip down and when he asked the floor about his hours she told him 5.5. Definitely have to check up on them to see what’s going on.
Well this is getting a bit long so we’ll cut the boredom here and follow up on the beach and another night of poker n our next post. Keep those cards and letters coming and thanks for your attention.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Results from the fall
Been awhile since I’ve bored many all two of my loyal readers, partly because I’ve been busy, partly because I’ve been lazy. Still feeling lazy but figure I have got to do something different and it’s time to try and get back into some sort of routine again so I figure I start here.
Busy is both in looking for work and clearing up the loose ends from my former place of employment. Finally got my IRAS opened up to get my 401K moved. Still dicking around with COBRA. I opted for it, with my condition I couldn’t do anything else, but I am trying to get this subsidy that came in with the stimulus package straightened out as paying only 35% of the cost right now is really necessary. They say they are working it out with the health provider and payroll company but as far as I can see that should have nothing to do with me. I read it as my part consists of filling out a form to see if I qualify and I either do or don’t and if I do I pay the 35%. Everything else has to do with the former employer and the Feds. Can’t seem to find out what’s going on either as either they aren’t responding to my emails or they are blocked. Hard to tell which. I’ve sent a number of them from both my online and Outlook accounts. About half have come back NDR, the other half, nada. Have put delivery and read receipts on the Outlook emails and those that weren’t NDR haven’t sent back a receipt so I have no idea whether I’m blocked or being ignored. Guess I may have to make a phone call next week. Still have to make a visit there since I just remembered the other day that I left a piece of equipment there and going to have to pick it up unless they feel like shipping it to me. Since everyone but the HR person has been treating me like a leper since I left it’s not a call or trip I really feel like making. The way things have gone over the last few weeks makes me think that a remark made by someone about a month before I was let go was taken very seriously. More on that later.
Busy has also been looking over the south 40 and checking out my work of last fall. Results are about 50-50. Have had a lot of rain so far this spring so I’m glad I got the plants in last fall. It was tough but this spring it would have been damn near impossible. On the bad side, the hollies didn’t make it. They were so small however I think I’m going to reorder and put them in pots for a year or two and see how they do that way. The spruces have all but given up the ghost though they went in so late I wasn’t expecting much there though one seems to be hanging on. The cherries are 50-50. The Black Tartarian is doing well but the Bing also went in late and it’s just looking like a stick. Since I already have a Bing doing at least the right one is growing since you need two different verities to get fruit. Both my walnuts look like kindling. The new one doesn’t seem to have taken; it’s the other that has me pissed. It’s about 4 years since I planted it and it was doing well, about 5 ft high and an inch around. Some buck used it as a rub and seems to have killed it. Time to get out the bow. The Japanese maples were both doing well until someone decided that since the weed trimmer was out of action they had to get real close with the lawn mower. Well the blades didn’t get it but the edge of the deck did. What’s left is still growing but if it survives it’s going to look funny with a crooked trunk. The other is doing well. The surprise is the freebie red maple that the Arbor Day Society sends with your order. Another late planting I really didn’t think it was going anywhere specially since the other red maples were leafing a month ago yet lo and behold the damn thing has put out a few leaves this week. Damn things are the Timex of the tree world. Another red maple I got years ago has been transplanted 4 times, once in the midst of summer and it thrives. Wish my walnuts were like that. This leaves the berries. The blueberries are doing well. Of the 15 planted looks like only one, so far, ain’t making. Thought it was going to be 3 but the other 2 have started kicking up new leaves from the roots. The blackberries are doing just as well. 14 of the 15 canes are sprouting. Going to have to set up the trellis soon. Raspberries are a different story. The goldens seem dead. See nothing coming up around them. The reds were about 50% but Dad went through the rows with the tiller and was a bit frisky. Looks like about 3-4 canes still surviving. Good thing I prefer blackberries. Normally I would be planning on replacements for this fall but looks like I’m going to have to wait until the financial situation straightens out.
Busy also meant a bit of poker but this has gone on long enough so I’ll discuss that in my next post. Thanks for the eyeballs.
Busy is both in looking for work and clearing up the loose ends from my former place of employment. Finally got my IRAS opened up to get my 401K moved. Still dicking around with COBRA. I opted for it, with my condition I couldn’t do anything else, but I am trying to get this subsidy that came in with the stimulus package straightened out as paying only 35% of the cost right now is really necessary. They say they are working it out with the health provider and payroll company but as far as I can see that should have nothing to do with me. I read it as my part consists of filling out a form to see if I qualify and I either do or don’t and if I do I pay the 35%. Everything else has to do with the former employer and the Feds. Can’t seem to find out what’s going on either as either they aren’t responding to my emails or they are blocked. Hard to tell which. I’ve sent a number of them from both my online and Outlook accounts. About half have come back NDR, the other half, nada. Have put delivery and read receipts on the Outlook emails and those that weren’t NDR haven’t sent back a receipt so I have no idea whether I’m blocked or being ignored. Guess I may have to make a phone call next week. Still have to make a visit there since I just remembered the other day that I left a piece of equipment there and going to have to pick it up unless they feel like shipping it to me. Since everyone but the HR person has been treating me like a leper since I left it’s not a call or trip I really feel like making. The way things have gone over the last few weeks makes me think that a remark made by someone about a month before I was let go was taken very seriously. More on that later.
Busy has also been looking over the south 40 and checking out my work of last fall. Results are about 50-50. Have had a lot of rain so far this spring so I’m glad I got the plants in last fall. It was tough but this spring it would have been damn near impossible. On the bad side, the hollies didn’t make it. They were so small however I think I’m going to reorder and put them in pots for a year or two and see how they do that way. The spruces have all but given up the ghost though they went in so late I wasn’t expecting much there though one seems to be hanging on. The cherries are 50-50. The Black Tartarian is doing well but the Bing also went in late and it’s just looking like a stick. Since I already have a Bing doing at least the right one is growing since you need two different verities to get fruit. Both my walnuts look like kindling. The new one doesn’t seem to have taken; it’s the other that has me pissed. It’s about 4 years since I planted it and it was doing well, about 5 ft high and an inch around. Some buck used it as a rub and seems to have killed it. Time to get out the bow. The Japanese maples were both doing well until someone decided that since the weed trimmer was out of action they had to get real close with the lawn mower. Well the blades didn’t get it but the edge of the deck did. What’s left is still growing but if it survives it’s going to look funny with a crooked trunk. The other is doing well. The surprise is the freebie red maple that the Arbor Day Society sends with your order. Another late planting I really didn’t think it was going anywhere specially since the other red maples were leafing a month ago yet lo and behold the damn thing has put out a few leaves this week. Damn things are the Timex of the tree world. Another red maple I got years ago has been transplanted 4 times, once in the midst of summer and it thrives. Wish my walnuts were like that. This leaves the berries. The blueberries are doing well. Of the 15 planted looks like only one, so far, ain’t making. Thought it was going to be 3 but the other 2 have started kicking up new leaves from the roots. The blackberries are doing just as well. 14 of the 15 canes are sprouting. Going to have to set up the trellis soon. Raspberries are a different story. The goldens seem dead. See nothing coming up around them. The reds were about 50% but Dad went through the rows with the tiller and was a bit frisky. Looks like about 3-4 canes still surviving. Good thing I prefer blackberries. Normally I would be planning on replacements for this fall but looks like I’m going to have to wait until the financial situation straightens out.
Busy also meant a bit of poker but this has gone on long enough so I’ll discuss that in my next post. Thanks for the eyeballs.
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