High On Poker

I first learned “31″ when in Syracuse visiting wifey Kim’s college friend. Her hubby is a poker player and gambler, and apparently the gambling bug is shared by their whole extended family because 31 is a regular staple at their family and friend gatherings. The game is easy to learn, can be played with many players, and can be played for low stakes with a lot of gameplay. Naturally, stakes can always be raised for those looking to really gamble it up.

When I first learned 31, it was under the name Scat. For those who don’t know, Scat means, amongst other things, poop. Like scatalogical humor, which just means dirty jokes. Scatology, medically speaking, is actually the study of poop, too, so I’m not just making this crap up (no pun intended). My host, wifey Kim’s friend, had no idea. Well, whether the game is called Scat or 31, the rules are the same, so feel free to introduce the game to your friends either way.

The game is simple. It is a setup similar to rummy except each player gets three cards and three cards only. The players are allowed to see their cards, but are to protect them from their opponents, also like rummy. The game starts with one card pulled off the deck, placed face-up. The first player to act (to the left of the dealer) can either take the face-up card or the top card from the face-down deck. Then the player has to place a card face up on the face-up pile. The next player now has the same option: take the top card from the face-up pile (left their by the last player to act) or take the face down card, before placing one card face-up in the face-up deck. So, basically, if you’ve ever played rummy, you know the flow of the game.

The object of the game is to get as close to 31 as possible. All numbered cards are worth the numbered value (Ex. 3 = 3 pts.; 10 = 10 pts.). Face cards (K, Q, and J) are worth 10. Aces are worth 11. The key, though, is that you can only play one suit. If you have two or three cards of the same suit, those numbers combine for a higher score, but if you have three different suits, then the hand value is merely the high card in your deck (since you can only play one suit).  Here are some examples:

Kh Ks Jc –> This hand is worth only 10 points, since there cards are all different suits. You can only play one suit, so you only have 10 points.

Ks 7s 9h –> This is worth 17 points, because you have a King for 10 points and a 7 for 10 points, and they are both spades. The 9 doesn’t count because it is a different suit.

Ac 3s 6s –> This is worth 11 points. The 3 and the 6 of spades collectively is worth 9 points, but the Ace of clubs on its own is worth 11, so you play the Ace, not the 3+6.

As 3s 10s –> This is worth 24 points.  All cards play because they are all of one suit.

Hopefully, by now you understand the flow of the game and the points system. I am about to explain the object of the game (i.e., how to win), and how gambling works in 31.  First, though, one more rule about points.

If you have three of a kind in your hand, it is worth 30.5 points. Obviously, that’s very strong, since the goal is to get 31 points. It doesn’t matter if you have 222 or AAA. It’s still 30.5 points.

By now, you know how to set up the game, the flow of the game, and the points system. But you do not yet know how the game is actually played.

Each player starts with a bill. For starters, I recommend a simple $1 bet. So, each player will have a $1 bill in front of them. The round starts by dealing out the three cards per player. Players exchange cards as explained above (i.e., like rummy). After each player has exchange cards at least once (i.e., one orbit), any player can choose to “knock” on their turn if they think their hand is strong enough. When a player knocks, they do not get to pull a card. Rather, everyone else gets one more orbit until it is back to the knocker and we have a showdown. The player with the lowest points has to fold a corner of their dollar bill. The bill is essentially your “lives” in the game. You can play all four corners and, depending on the game, sometimes a “welfare” round, when all four corners are already folded. If you lose again with all corners folded (or in  “welfare”, depending on if you want each player to have an extra “life”), you are out of the game and your $1 goes into the pot. The game progresses like this until there is only one player left. That player gets the whole pot.

Makes sense so far? Here are some additional rules. If you knock and you end up with the lowest points, you lose two lives (i.e., you fold two corners on your bill). If there are two or more people who tie for lowest points, they both lose a life. If you have 31 at any time, you have Scat (or “31″). You can and should expose your cards immediately. Everyone except for you will lose a life.

That’s 31, aka Scat, in a nutshell. It’s an easy game to learn and its a cheap fun game if you are playing around with a large group. As general strategy, obviously try not to feed your opponents high cards if you can avoid it. I also like to knock pretty early in the beginning stages because you can usually catch one player or more with a really awful hand.

If anyone has played 31/Scat by a different name or knows of any other rules or variations, feel free to comment. I may continue this series with Chinese Poker, Big2, or Left-Right-Center. I know I’ve covered Chinese before here; I don’t know Big2 all that well, but its a fun game; L-R-C is also a great game, but it involves dice, so its the variable in the bunch.

Thanks for reading High on Poker. Now go have yourself a very happy new year.

Until next year, make mine poker!

Hey folks. In my recent AC trip reports, I mentioned a couple of card games that are great time killers if you are ever waiting around with your gambling friends. I thought I’d take a moment to give some more details, as I’m sure one or more of these games, all of which involve gambling, probably will appeal to you. Let’s start with the game I learned most recently.

Israeli Poker

First let’s start by acknowledging that I do not know the actual origin of these games, and I am sure that they probably go by many different names. In fact, if you know any of these games by other names, drop me a comment. I’m always curious about these things.

“Israeli Poker”, as it was introduced to me, is a two-person game. Each player is dealt five cards face up, lined up in a row. The two players face each other, with their individual cards lined up. In other words, it looks something like this:

2s  8c Ah 8d Kc <– My Cards
7c 6s  As 2h Qh <– Your Cards

This is not a five card hand. Rather, we each will eventually have five five-card hands, and the cards we start with are merely the first cards in each five card hand.

Once the hands are dealt, the deck is placed to the side, within reach of both players. The non-dealer is first to take a card off the top of the deck. He then places that card in one of his five columns/hands. So, in the example above, if I’m the dealer and you pull a 7d, the smart player would place the 7d under their first column, since it matches their 7c. After you place your card, I would take the next card in the deck. Hypothetically, let’s assume I get a Qc. The logical spot to put it is under my 5th column, with the Kc. So after our first two cards, the result is:

_________ Qc
2s  8c Ah 8d Kc <– My Cards
===============
7c 6s  As  2h Qh <– Your Cards
7d

This process repeats itself. You take one and place it face up. I take one and place it face up. There are some key rules, though. You must place a second card in each column before you move onto the third row of cards. So, if your very next card is 7s, you can’t put it underneath your other two 7s. You’d more likely place it unde the 6s as your next best bet. Because of this restriction, in each row, you will have a card that basically is automatic. For instance, if we play back and forth and end up pulling a 7h with the following board, you will be forced to play it under your As:

6c        Ad  Jd Qc
2s  8c Ah 8d Kc <– My Cards
===============
7c 6s   As 2h Qh <– Your Cards
7d  6h       Kd 4h

Deuces are wild. That’s also very important, for obvious reasons. Of course, when you are playing at home, you can change that rule, but for this type of game, the wild card is actually a great thing to have.

The game proceeds this way. One card for you; one card for me. We can see how each other’s boards are forming and what cards are out, so counting outs is actually a key component to the game.

Finally, 0n the last row, each player places their cards face down. So you don’t know your opponent’s entire hand until showdown, but you know what direction they are going in. At showdown, both players reveal their hands and then each winning hand counts as a “point.” Points are essentially your betting increments. So, to futz around, I’ll just play $1 per point. If you sweep all five hands, the payout doubles, for $10, if we are playing $1 per point.

At the end of the game, there are two unused cards (5 hands with 5 cards = 25 cards per player). An end board may look something like this (with the last cards face down until all cards are placed):

Qs 2d 5s 4c 3d <– Face Down Until Showdown
————————
4d   Td 5c Ts 6c
Td Th 5d 9d 3c
Qd  6d Ad Jd Qc
2s 8c Ah 8d Kc <– My Cards

===============

7c 6s  As 2h Qh <– Your Cards
7d 6h 7h Kd4h
2c 9c Kh 9h 8h
9s Ac Ks 3s 3h
————————
7s 4s  Jh Jc 5h<–Face Down Until Showdown

God damn, that took a long time, and I’m not even sure it’s worth it. For you RSS readers out there, some of those cards may even be missing. What a fool’s errand. The point is, each column is a heads up 5-card hand. So in the first column, I have 3 Queens (QQ2T4). It looked like I was going for the flush, but with the wild card, I opted to use the final Queen for a set to beat your apparent set of 7s. As we now know, though, you rivered me with a 7, as well, for quads (77729). We’d go down the line, comparing hands, and whoever had the most points gets paid the requisite amount. In this scenario, you win Columns 1, 4 and 5. I won 2 and 3. Therefore, you win 1 point, or $1, assuming it’s $1 per point. Congratulations, moneybags!

Since this is taking so long, I’ll split it up. Next time, we’ll discuss 31, a great game for large crowds.

Until next time, make mine poker!

I played poker.

On Christmas morning, while the gentiles were waking up to gifts, I was waking up with a hangover. Wifey Kim and I were up fairly early, so we decided to order in room service for breakfast. For room service, the food was pretty good and fairly fast. The price, $30 total, wasn’t that bad either.

After breakfast, wifey Kim still had a lot of showering and such to do, so I decided to hit up the casino floor for some Pai Gow. I spent a while at a $25 minimum table filled with mostly Asians. Wifey Kim finally found me when I was down about $100, a common theme of the trip. We decided to leave the game and move on to another.

That’s how our day went. We roamed around, gambling here or there. At around noon or later, we met up with wifey Kim’s grandpa and his girlfriend. they had bussed in for the day, so we had lunch with them at RiRa, an Irish pub/restaurant in the Trop. I had the cheddar burger with sweet potato fries. The meal was delicious and fairly cheap, thanks to a 20% off coupon from my Mom.

After lunch, we did some more gambling. Eventually, we had enough and went upstairs to relax. I headed over to Roose’s room, where Roose, Robbie Hole and Marc were hanging out. I taught Marc Israeli Poker, a game I’ll probably explain here some time soon. We futzed around before heading downstairs and saying goodbye to wifey Kim’s grandpa.

After that, wifey Kim and I hit up the craps table, where we lost some more. We were gambling with my poker money. It’s like a little gift each year, since wifey Kim let’s me play poker a shit ton. So, even though we were losing, we were having fun. My parents stopped by, fresh from Avatar, which they saw at the Trop’s IMAX theater. My mother proclaimed it amazing, which was enough to convince me that I need to see it soon.

Tired of gambling, the crew met up at the Rumba Bar, a newer bar near Trop’s table games floor. We each had a drink or two and enjoyed a cigar. When we were done, we headed to Cuba Libre, another Trop restaurant, fro dinner. We had previously arranged for a table near a TV, since there was an NFL game on, but when we got there, we learned they didn’t have the channel. Lemon!

We still sat near the bar, and ordered a ton of food. Mostly, we just got a bunch of samplers. While we waited for the food, we played 31, another great time-killer of a game that I may describe here shortly. I won for a $4 profit. BOOM!

Dinner was great. Once done, though, the guys were off to poker. I decided to hang with Kim, but when she started to fade, we went upstairs, where I eventually left her for some more poker.

I waited for a good 20 minutes for a seat to open up at 1/2 and when it finally did, I took my seat. The table looked like it was full of rounders. I sat down in the SB and had to sit out a hand. I followed the play as I heard an announcement that a new table was opened. I only heard about 8 names read off, so I returned to the cage and asked if I could be moved, seeing as I hadn’t played a single hand. The cage okayed my move and I joined my most fun table of the trip.

The benefits of a new table versus an established one is pretty obvious. At a new table, everyone starts with at the same level. There are big stacks beyond the max buy-in. There is no history or established reads. Hell, the players are even still on the same plane as it relates to getting into the flow of a game.

The negatives are a lot less, but still worth noting. The biggest negative, in fact the only one I can think of, is the tendency for players to be tighter when their session first starts. Consider most homegames that run multiple tournaments in a night. I can almost guarantee that in the first tournament of the night, the players are tighter and it takes a longer time for the first bust-out. By the last tourney, though, the players are already loosened up from the higher blinds (in later stages of the earlier tournaments) and emboldened by either their previous wins or losses.

So, my new table was tight. I mean, $6 raise preflop and everyone folds tight. But it was fun. It was basically a bunch of Jews and a couple of Asians, including a hot Asian chick sitting to my immediate left. My side of the table also included a young Asian kid on my right and his buddy, a Caucasian kid, on his right. The four of us (including the hot Asian chick) conspiratorially chatted and conspired when some obviously clueless players on the other side of the table made some truly absurd moves. We were all licking our chops.

I actually played fairly well, but the entire session can be boiled down to two hands. The first gave up most of my $80 or so profit. Even though my table crew were licking our chops, the Asian chick busted (after buyin in short twice) and the Asian kid couldn’t get much traction and left down about $100. The nitty table had a lot of small stacks, $100 or less, but I was looking to have fun and it was a relaxed table, so I didn’t mind.

In the first of my two hands, the Asian kid was already gone, replaced by a young, fit kid in his early 20s. The Kid was friendly, and sat down while saying, “Let’s give this a whirl.” I was under the impression at first that he was just trying out poker, based on his statement and small buy-in, but he seemed to understand the game fairly well. He had pushed all-in on one occasion and showed an unlikely 2 pair (rivered his second pair) for the win, so I had some thoughts on how he played.

The hand was a doozy. I held 48s and I was either in the blinds, or more likely I made a loose $2 call, since there wasn’t much preflop raising and I could outplay most of the table post-flop. I think there may’ve been a raise from one of the particularly weaker players, so when there were several callers, I joined the fray.

The flop was 6s7sX. It checked around. There was a small bet from the original raiser and I called, along with two other players.

When I hit my flush on the turn, I bet out a decent amount. My only caller was on my right, the Kid. The river was a blank. I was mildly concerned that my 8-high flush was no good, but when the open pushed for over $100, I had to think it out. I remembered that hte last time he pushed, he had rivered two-pair. I considered that he may’ve had two pair again, but I didn’t want to rush my decision. I turned to him and asked, “Do you have the flush?” “I do. It’s a high one too.” He waited a second and said, “The Queen.”

Now, I’ve said this here before, but not in a long while: Often times, people tell the truth when you ask them their hand. This is especially so if they do not hesitate. It is the usual reaction for human beings to tell the truth, and in poker, oftentimes they think, “I’ll tell him the truth, and he won’t believe me.” It’s like reverse psychology.

So, when he admitted to a Queen-high flush, I had to seriously consider that he was telling the truth. It would explain his play 100%. Calls the flop on a draw. Calls the turn when he was slowplaying. Pushes the river because now he knows he’s good. It may’ve even been an overbet for value. I considered that he had a major hand the last time he pushed. He then offered, “I’ll show you no matter what.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everything told me he had me beat. He seemed confident, we were friendly at the table before the hand, he said what hand he allegedly had, it made sense with the play, it fit his past play, and after all of that he offered to show no matter what. I figured he was being friendly. So, I folded. And he showed his bluff. Maybe he had top pair or something, but not a flush. Oh, and he did have the Queen flush card, but not two of the suit.

So, I made a mistake. I misread the situation and maybe talked myself into folding. Lemon! To make it worse, he then said, “I figured, why not, it’s my last hand.” He then packed up and left. FUCKER! I still laughed it off.

Before we get to my last hand, I figured I’d take a moment to discuss one of the more odd exchanges. I was playing a hand with a guy who looked like Pat, the androgynous character from 1980s or 90s SNL, except he was clearly a dude. He played like he thought he knew what he was doing, but it was all very ABC.

So, we are in a hand together and he is staring me down. So, I turn to him and stare him down, eye to eye. We held our pose for at least 30 seconds, which is a long time for a silent stare down. He then mucked and I laughed, “I think we just shared a moment there!” The table loved it and we went off on jokes about our “moment” for another 15 minutes. My favorite line was, “Was it just me, or was Endless Love playing in the background during our hand?”

I love those moments. All at once, all the tension is gone from the table and we are all just friends playing a game.

My final hand was in my last orbit. I held AQd and raised preflop to $12, getting a couple of callers. By now, the table had loosened up somewhat, but it still wasn’t an action table.

The flop came down A22 and it checked around. There were so many players, I didn’t want to mess around just yet. Anyone with a 2 was betting out, given the table, and I was out of position.

The turn was a King. LEMON! If anyone else had an Ace, my kicker would no longer play on the A22Kx board. But I bet out anyway and got one caller.

The river was a harmless 8 (thanks for the editing help, Woffles). My one sole competitor had about $50 in front of him. I figured we were lock for a chop, so I decided to push all-in. I figured I could pretend that I was slowplaying the deuce and maybe puck up the entire pot instead of half. It was a play with no downside in my head.

Now, if he had $300 behind, things would’ve been different. But he didn’t. He had $52, to be exact. So when he called, I was bummed to see his A8. If not for that rivered 8, it would’ve been a chop. Go fucking figure. He had no right to be in that pot with my prefop raise, but I wanted him there, so I wasn’t going to complain.

I was about even before that hand, but after it, I was down $97. It was late and I had enough. It was a fun session, but not entirely profitable. But sometimes, that’s just how poker is.

The boys all went upstairs for a late night hang out, before returning to our rooms for rest. The next morning, we all met up with the large group, as we said our farewells. Before leaving the city, though, we stopped by White House Sub Shop for some of their famous subs. Good stuff!

That’s it for this years X-mas in AC. Thanks for reading.

Until next time, make mine poker!

On Christmas Eve, I was toiling away in my office while Mama High was playing slots and Davey Roose was driving bro-in-law Marc to Atlantic City.

On Christmas Eve, I was meeting wifey Kim at the Port Authority bus terminal for the 3pm bus while Mama High was playing more slots and Davey Roose and Marc hit up the casino for some table games and poker.

On Christmas Eve, I had to wait for the 4pm bus, not because we had arrived late, but because even 30 minutes early, we were 54th in line on a bus that could only fit 50. Shit. It felt like it was going to be one of those trips.

For all the waiting at the Port Authority, the drive was actually pretty easy. I spent most of the ride playing around on my iTouch and reading the terribly cheesy free gambling “magazine” available at the bus station. Wifey Kim was taking her first trip by bus, so I was a bit concerned about how she’d take it, but true to form, the bus was swift and as long as you can control who you are sitting next to, it really isn’t that bad.

When we arrived at Bally’s, wifey Kim quickly got our $25 play through vouchers and met my parents, who were waiting with the car. It was already 7pm, and we had 7:30 dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant in what passes for AC’s suburbs, a good distance from both the casinos and the squalor that surrounds them. The restaurant is called Rafici’s and the food is essentially Italian. Over the last five or so years that the large group has been doing AC for X-mas, it has become our X-mas Eve tradition, and with good cause. The prices are reasonable, the food is good and the portions are plentiful.

Our dinner party was smaller than usual at just 8 people. That 8 was me, wifey Kim, Roose, Marc, my parents and Roose’s parents. As we all sat down, talks of prop bets from the younger generation got into full swing. Last year, the parents got in on some of the action, but this year, they mostly kept out of it. That is, until they started opining on certain prop bets thereby killing my action.

The four of us (me, Roose, Marc and wifey Kim) settled on three bets: total check, first person to be served their entree, and the time that the first entree reached the table. As I scanned the bets, I was not too thrilled with wifey Kim’s picks. She had the lowest bill, the quickest first plate, and had picked herself for first-served, which in and of itself was the only safe bet. She swept all three. God bless that woman. I should have never doubted her.

Dinner was great. My salad (free with entree) was blah, mostly because the dressing that I chose. The veal parmigiana made with fra diavolo sauce (by my request) was excellent, although I had a dejavu moment when I realized I ordered the same thing last year only to realize that the spiciness of the sauce covers the flavor of the suffering baby cow a bit too heavily. I like to taste the suffering.

We returned to the casino, where wifey Kim and I finally dropped off our bags and then hit the floor. We started at roulette, but wifey Kim left relatively quickly after losing $40 or so. She just wasn’t feeling the game and moved to the slots. I stuck around with Roose before walking away, down $100.

That’s pretty much how the table games went for most of the evening. I wasn’t able to win in anything, but the losing was relatively slow, so at least I got to enjoy myself.

A little later in the evening, I joined wifey Kim upstairs to unwind and take a break from the table games. The boys were heading over to poker while they waited for our final member, Robbie Hole, fresh off a long day of work. Wifey Kim know of my love for poker and gave her consent. I was off to play.

Naturally, AC during X-mas is a different crowd. The room was filled with predominantly Asians and Jews. Fortunately, both like casinos, so the room was fairly full, given the fact that it was a Thursday afternoon. The Trop’s poker room not-too-recently lost a big portion of the room to slot machines. This is such a disappointment, its hard to express. But at least there were lots of games going.

I put myself on the list for 1/2 and waited for a while before getting a seat. I played for several hours, eventually walking away down $49. It was one of those card dead sessions where the best strategy will still result in a net loss. I had fun, though, chatting with my fellow players as I folded, folded and folded.

I had one “confrontation” that was a bit odd. I had been folding forever, and finally played two back to back hands. Immediately before the first of the two hands, a player moved from one side of the table to the seat to my immediate left and won two pots right off the bat. I then raised the next hand. I don’t remember how that hand ended up. Regardless, the very next hand, I raised preflop again. This must’ve been the first two back-to-back hands I played all night, and I was well into hour 2 or 3. When I raised the second hand, though, one of the players across the table felt the need to comment. “Oh, I see what you are doing! Someone’s playing loose!” Wha?, I thought to myself. I was playing the opposite of loose. I rarely ever played this tight. Now I play two hands in succession and I’m loose. O-kay. He continued, “This is the fourth hand you played in a row!” I looked back at him with a quizocal expression. I finally piped up after folding my hand to someone’s flop bet. “Are you serious? That’s like the second hand I’ve played in the last hour.” “No, man. I’ve been watching you…oh wait. I get it. Sorry man, didn’t mean to ruin your image.”

I had never been so confused in my life. I mean, I know I didn’t play four hands in a row, so where was this all coming from. His mention of “image” let me know that he knew the game somewhat. His confusion over the amount of hands I played, then, was either straight up error on his part or perhaps a bit of a mental game. I simply replied, “You need to work on your counting.” And then I went back to folding.

In hindsight, this kinda reminds me of the near-fight I had in New Orleans. Then, it was a player insisting that I was playing too tight. Admittedly, I need to get over my own ego sometimes. I can let people think incorrect things about me or my game. I don’t need players to see that (a) they can get under my skin and (b) I feel the need to justify myself. In reality, I try hard to cultivate a donkish image, so if it pays off, I shouldn’t complain. After all, when the guy said I was playing loose even though I was playing tight, well, that’s exactly what I want. I don’t just wear the poker uniform for comfort. I wear it because I want to create the image of a degenerate. In reality, I’m a NYC lawyer with a stable family life, a decent income, and an understanding about money, people, and math. But if you were to see me in a poker room and know nothing about me, you’d see a man-child wearing a superhero t-shirt, cargo pants and an oversized hoodie. I may even be wearing sunglasses and a hat at a 1/2 table, like the Phil Douchemuth wannabes that I love to see at a table.

When I was tired of folding, I gathered the troops and we went upstairs to hang out before hitting the sack. And that was about all for my first of two poker sessions.

Part 2 will have my second poker session and little more else. Stay tuned!

Until next time, make mine poker!

Yesterday afternoon, after spending three days in AC, I returned to the Tuna Club for their $150 Sunday tournament. The holiday weekend must’ve cut into the player base, because by the time the game started, we were 6-handed on one table, and eventually ended up with only 10 buy-ins.

I wish I could say I won, but I didn’t. I went out around 5th. But I played really well. I was making reads and strong plays. Unfortunately, though, as we all know by now, you can do everything right and still lose.

If you want to skip a bad beat story, go on to the next paragraph. Otherwise, get comfortable. I had about 8.5k in chips with starting stacks of 4.5k. As has been the case lately, I was mostly card dead for the tournament, but I was able to maximize some hands where I actually caught a good flop. The blinds were increasing, though, so so was my aggression. I finally was dealt KK in EP. With blinds of 150/300, and an ante of 25, I raised preflop to 1300 after there were a couple of limpers. I got one call from a player who liked to talk about how bad he was at poker while taking down hand after hand. The flop was a beautiful AKx with two hearts. I considered my options and checked. I knew that if he didn’t have an Ace, he was out of the hand, and if he did have an Ace, I’d be able to rope him in for his stack, provided he had a decent kicker.  I led out with a strong bet and he pushed. I called and he showed AQ. He looked like he was ready to muck at first when he saw my set, but after tabling his hand, someone mentioned that he was drawing very slim. Even another Ace wasn’t good enough, as it would give me a full house. Naturally, the turn was an Ace and someone else mentioned that he needed the case Ace or one of three Queens to win. The river was a Queen.

The table erupted, but I kept my calm. In fact, I had a huge grin on. I’ve noticed that I am doing this more and more, as you will learn from my AC for X-mas Trip Report, provided that I ever write it up. It’s merely an extension of my belief that you gain nothing by showing your disappointment. Players pick up on your complaints or your general hangdog demeanor. It’s like throwing chum to the sharks. It’ll only up the amount of times you get called down (and then get sucked out on) or get raised and have to fold. So, I smiled. I laughed it off. I said, “Better to happen here then in a cash game,” because that’s actually a very true sentiment. In a cash game, I’m losing my stack. In the tournament, where, incidentally I covered my opponent, I took a hit. But I could come back.

I didn’t. Come back, that is. Losing that hand made me the shortstack and I wasn’t able to mount a comeback, eventually pushing into an overpair when I hit middle pair and thought my opponent was just continuation betting. So goes poker. But at least I wasn’t a whiney bitch about it.

On an entirely unrelated note, I was chatting with a coworker today when she asked about the guy who recently won $1M playing poker. I figured out that she was talking about the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge, or whatever they call that show that Negreanu does. She saw it while channel surfing to avoid watching the NY Giants embarrass themselves on national television. My coworker mentioned how she thought it was wrong for a priest to play poker (one of the contestants was a priest) and we bantered for a bit. But the important part is that the show is further exposing the non-poker-playing public to poker. This can only be good for poker.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Tuna Club

I finally had an opportunity to play some live poker last night. Wifey Kim was having dinner at her friend’s place, so that left me solo for the evening. I returned home from work relatively early since the workload is light during the holidays. I packed up my backpack for AC tonight (I leave on a 4pm bus), and suited up in my usual $uperman t-shirt and cargo pants. All ready to go, I hit the road and arrived at the Tuna Club for their 5/10 Limit Omaha 8 or Better game that runs on Wednesdays.

Alas, when I arrived, the game was suffering the same problem it always does. Even though I arrived around 7pm and the room has a promotion where the first 5 people to arrive before 6:15 gets 10% of their buy-in back if they play through 9:30, there were all of four people there for Omaha. The 2/5 NLHE table was hopping, but I didn’t bring the roll, and frankly, don’t have the roll, to play in that game. While idly chatting with one of the dealers, he mentioned how he went on a tear in the 2/5 game a few nights before for almost $5,000 profit. Let that soak in. $5k profit at 2/5. That’s essentially 10 buy-ins. Not too shabby. It’s not too surprising either, though. That 2/5 game, like most underground cash games, plays a lot higher than the blinds would have you believe.

I grabbed a seat at the empty table in the back of the room after saying my hellos. I popped in my ear buds and surfed the web on my iTouch, killing time. I had already mentally decided that I was leaving if the game didn’t start by 8pm. One hour was enough to waste sitting around. I still had to finish packing and shave my head at home, and I intended on leaving the game at 10pm, so it made little sense to wait even longer than 8.

One thing annoyed me while we waited. With 4 players, W, a friend who runs the room, was going to play as our fifth so we could get started. An older Asian man, with thinning long hair and an old blue sweatshirt with a white paw print in the middle and the writing “Lee School Pandas” or something, refused to play five handed. All I could think of, and in fact, I may’ve mumbled it, is, “What is this guy so scared of?” I even offered a bit louder, “Hell, I’ll play shorthanded. I’ll even play heads up.” I motioned to Boat, a regular player who was also waiting, and said, “Come on, Boat. Let’s playu heads up!”

When Fu Manchu wouldn’t budge, I went back to waiting. At about 7:50, I was ready to walk when W came by. “We are ready to start.” Thank fucking god.

It was a fun game. I played my usual disarming self, joking with the table about my poor play. It wasn’t only jokes, though. I just wasn’t focused. I was trying to carry on a conversation with W, but I couldn’t focus on anything. Not the poker. Not W’s conversation. Nothing. But I was having fun, and shorthanded limit O8 is a good time if you can find it. It was almost, for lack of a better word, relaxing.

I made a stupid river bluff out of position against W and another player, who I’ll just call Carnival, since he had more full boats than Carnival Cruiseline. They both folded after W hemmed and hawed that I was just bluffing at the tiny $15 pot with my $10 bet. After both players folded, I showed my bluff, and realized for the first time that I had went runner runner for an improbable straight! W had me read right. I was bluffing. But I had myself read wrong. I was way ahead.

At one point, I was down to about $120 of my $250 buy-in. I clawed my way back and eventually was damn near even when I an interesting hand that was aided by wifey Kim. I held 66xx in the BB and the flop was 36T. It was me, Boat, and Carnival in the pot. Carney, incidentally, was a nice guy. The whole table was chill. We would discuss hands and optimal play. At first it started off heated between Carney and I, but once we started chatting about the PLO SNGs on Stars, we both warmed up a bit. It was the difference between chatting with competition (pre-PokerStars conversation) and chatting with a co-conspirator (post-PokerStars conversation).

I had flopped middle set, but with an obvious low draw (and perhaps a flush draw, I don’t recall), I just checked. I wasn’t pushing players out of the pot with a bet, and I felt the 66 was too vulnerable. To be honest, I may not have even appreciated at the time that I flopped a set. I wasn’t my most observant self last night.

I think it checked around. The turn was an Ace. If someone was drawing low, they just got there, most likely. I think there was a bet from Carney, and Boat and I called. The river was another Ace, giving me a full house, Sixes full of Aces (666AA). I checked. Carney bet. Boat raised. I paused.

It seemed from the action that my full house was no good. TTxx beat me with Tends full of Aces. A6 or AA beat me too. A3 was my biggest concern, since most people were playing A3xx hands. Someone probably had the low.

As I was contemplating what to do, my phone rang. On some level, I knew my phone would be the deciding factor in this hand. Something told me my opponents were strong, but in a high-low game, that could mean a myriad of things.

I reached into my pocket and saw the caller ID on my phone: wifey Kim. “I fold.”

Here’s the thing. Wifey Kim is the best thing that ever happened to me…but her telephone calls and text messages are the worst thing to ever happen to my poker hands. I swear, it’s like she sends bad juju my way through the telephone. As soon as I saw it was wifey Kim, I knew I couldn’t win. So, I didn’t try. I just folded. In fact, I even announced why I folded. “Good news for you guys. My wife is bad luck so I have to fold this hand.”

As it turned out, wifey Kim may be bad luck, but last night, she saved me $20. Carney was rocking the A6 for Aces full of Sixes (AAA66) and Boat had AT for Aces full of Tens (AAATT). I wasn’t second-best. I was third! Good thing wifey Kim’s call gave me a sign. Even when things look bleak, it’s not easy folding a full house.

At about 9:55, I checked my stack. I had $251, exactly $1 more than I started with. I tipped the dealer, Dre, and then packed up. An even session is fine by me. I enjoyed myself for the two hours and that was more than worth my time.

Atlantic City

I plan to catch a 4pm bus to AC tonight with wifey Kim. Our friends and family will precede us down to AC. Davey Roose is driving bro-in-law Marc. My parents are driving down with Roose’s parents. And poor wifey Kim and I are left to fend for ourselves on the big bad bus. Here’s hoping that the Christians are too busy with Christmas to take a bus to AC. This may be one of the most empty trips I’ll be taking to AC by bus.

Tonight, we do dinner at a local restaurant in a nearby suburb of AC. It’s a Xmas Eve tradition that’s lasted at least the last 6 years. Tomorrow, wifey Kim’s grandpa and his girlfriend will be in AC, so my afternoon may well be taken up with them (no complaints, though). As things are shaping up, there doesn’t look to be much time for poker, but we all know that I’ll be sneaking out of our hotel room either at midnight tonight or 7am tomorrow morning. A man’s got to have his poker.

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Until next time, make mine poker!

With 2009 almost in the bag, it’s time to look forward to 2010 and establish some new poker goals. 2009 has been a good year for me, poker-wise.

I hit my goal after falling well short in 2008, and I’ve come to a new realization about what I need to do in the future to keep growing.

My first goal of the year is to simply earn five figures for the year playing poker. That’s it. It would be more than any previous year, but not such a leap that success would be difficult.

Of course, if I am going to increase my annual profit goal, I’ll need to either play more, play higher or play better. I hope to do all three.

Tournament poker, particularly at the Tuna Club this year, has been a boon for me in live games. I’ve dabbled in some WSOP Circuit events in the past, but if I am going to hit a big score, I’m going to have to increase the frequency and buy-ins to my tournaments. Tuna Club is a far stretch from the WSOP. At Tuna, it’s a $150 buy-in or so, and maybe three tables. WSOP is $300+ minimum and likely 300+ players, as a conservative estimate.

The plan, as of today, is to play in the following events:

The Borgata Winter Open – There is a two-day Omaha 8B tournament that starts on Saturday, January 23rd. I love O8, but I don’t love love it in tournament form. Still, it looks like the best option for a weekend warrior and the O8 aspect adds a nice twist. I expect most of the year to be NLHE, wall-to-wall. It doesn’t hurt that Riggstad and probably AlCantHang will be on hand to hang out after I win the tourney.

Foxwood’s Mega-Stack Challenge XV- From O8 to Oh My! Sadly, all the Indians in Foxwoods are too drunk to work out an exact schedule, but Foxwoods is holding its 15th iteration of its Mega-Stack Challenge from February 9 through the 15th. That means there is only one weekend covered by the event, Feb. 12-14. My main concern is that Foxwoods will load up the high buy-in events for the weekend, since it is near the end of the series. If that’s the case, I might be on the sidelines. From a quick perusal, though, it appears as though last year, Foxwoods held a $500+ event on the Saturday of the February Mega-Stack tournament, so if I do well in January, I may just play that, assuming they have it. Or, more likely, I’ll head over to Borgata for their weekly $300 buy-in weekend tournament.

WSOP Circuit Caesars AC – I’m not a fan of Caesars AC in general. Their table game minimums are too high, their poker room is merely adequate and the whole place has a douchey feel. But if there’s a WSOP event in town, I’m willing to suffer. This year’s WSOP Circuit event at Caesars AC runs from March 3 through March 14, covering two weekends. God willing, I’ll be playing the Friday, March 5th or Sunday March 7th $340 events, both NLHE. Of course, that will require me to either miss a day of work on that Friday (the tournament starts at noon) or on Monday, in case I make it to day 2 of the Sunday event. Worst case scenario, I’ll simply play the one-day Turbo event for $230. If anyone has any experience with WSOP Circuit Turbo events, please let me know how they play. I can deal with short blind periods. In fact, it would probably be an advantage to me, since I am so used to underground and lower buy-in tournaments. But if its a real clusterfuck, I’d rather skip it and spend my money elsewhere

That’s all I have tentatively scheduled for now. But it’s a pretty nice schedule, if I do have to say so myself.

Until next time, make mine poker!

The offices at High on Poker have been a bit quiet lately, as my huge staff of disenfranchised immigrants have taken a break from the grueling work of writing my posts to celebrate the holidays with their families. By that, I mean that I had their families shipped in to assist in a new back-breaking renovation project on the sprawling High on Poker campus of office buildings. It’s not easy being a blogger/mogul.

Meanwhile, I continue to foolishly chase my tail online. I won’t bore you with specifics (not that I know specifics, anyway), but I’ve been playing a lot of MTTs in the $20-30 range and have been consistently going out in the late-middle stages. Now, “a lot” means one or two a night. I’m not an MTT grinder who can play 12 tourneys a day. So my sample size is quite small. Still, I feel primed to hit something and I’ve been getting more and more…annoyed…maybe disappointed…at my lack of results. I just have to remember to shake it off and play my best. I’ve noticed that I’ve been going out in some unlucky situations, but if it weren’t for a messed up hand here or there earlier in the tournament, I wouldn’t be putting myself in situations to end up busto due to bad luck.

Live poker has been nil since Vegas. I’ve thought about heading to Matty’s game or Tuna Club on a couple of occasions, but I’ve been pretty lazy. Oh, and I’ve been spending time with wifey Kim, which beats out poker any day of the week. She is my alpha and omega. I’m one lucky sonuvabitch.

In other news, after accounting for my poker losses in Vegas (~$300), I’m still above my annual goal. I’m going to consider this one a done deal and mark it off as a goal accomplished. I realize that I may dip below the imaginary goal line if I have a bad session in AC (I’ll be there for X-mas), but I don’t want to play scared because of the completely self-imposed deadline of December 31.

Sadly, that’s it for today, folks. I need to make sure that Sanji isn’t stealing anything from the large gift baskets I’ve received from the many sponsors of High on Poker. He keeps saying that he is hungry, but I told him that’s why I give him manna. It if were good enough for the Israelites during the Exodus, I don’t see why it isn’t enough for Sanji and his eight kids. Silly Sanji! Gift baskets are for US Citizens! When will they ever learn.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Having lost the tournament on the near bubble (14th place with 9 spots officially paying), I took a walk around the sports book and considered my options. Poker. It had to be poker. I made some calls and found out that different people were scattered throughout the city. So, I went with what was easy: The Caesar’s 1/3 NLHE game. After all, I was right there.

I was seated at a game near the rail of the raised portion of the room. I took the only available seat, the 1 seat, and looked across the table at the 4 seat, an Asian guy, maybe in his mid-20s, with his Caucasian new bride sitting behind him. How did I know that they were newly wed? She was still wearing her veil and they both wore “Just Married” sweat suits. It was ridiculously cheesy and more than mildly trashy, but apparently it worked for them, since he was up several hundred dollars at least, based on his stack.

To his immediate left was Dan Michalski of Pokerati fame. Dan is an interesting guy. Pokerati is probably one of the premiere poker blogs out there and with good cause. But its clear that Dan is a humble guy and easy to get along with, which I suppose should not be a surprise, but is. At first, Dan and I (intentionally or not) acted like strangers, barely acknowledging each other. I don’t mind this at a poker table. If people knew that we knew each other, it would simply be more information from them. But eventually, it became clear that we knew each other, mostly because we kept getting into pots together where we would show no mercy and then joke about it immediately after.

The happy couple got up and I took his lucky seat, mostly glad to leave the shitty seat I was in. I was now immediately on Dan’s right, which probably was not an ideal position, but the 1 seat was cold-decking me, so I was happy for a change of scenery.

A new player sat to my immediate right. He was a clean-cut guy, Caucasian in his late 20s to mid 30s. He was from the North East, like me, and he had a pleasant demeanor, so we hit it off quick. I essentially made my buddy at the table. That’s a more important thing than some people realize. As you get to know your “buddy”, you can pick up more from their game; but more importantly, with familiarity breeds passivity, and that is something you can often exploit.

While chatting with my newfound friend, I overheard something in the distance. “Did you bet on the fight?” My ears perked up. I remembered hearing about a Manny Pacquiao fight that was recently announced, but I wasn’t sure what the overheard voices were discussing. I asked the table, “Does anyone know of any upcoming fights?” Someone mentioned the UFC, and I immediately knew that I had to speak with my height-challenged compadre.

I took a walk from the game. I was probably up about $50-100 by that time, just playing as solid poker as possible.

I found my midget friend, Iggy, who incidentally has a little website called MMAJunkie.com. “So, I heard there is a UFC fight tonight. Any picks on who you think is going to win? Just curious. I won’t hold you to anything.” He rifled through some names, Penn, Mir and Florian. They were all favorites, and Iggy thought they’d win their matches with relative ease. I thanked him and walked off, or more accurately ran to the sportsbook. “Three pick parlay on the UFC fights tongiht: Penn, Mir and Florian.” I got my ticket, $40 to win $116, and returned to the poker table.

The only major hand that I can recall was actually a misplayed but profitable one. I held 33 preflop and called the $3 blinds. Dan, immediately on my left, raised. I don’t have the exact raise amount, but it was probably $12 or $15. There were several callers and when it got back to me, I called as well.

We saw a beautiful 663 flop with two spades. I flopped a nearly unbeatable boat. An EP player bet $20, which was uncharacteristic for the player. I was happy to just call, hoping that someone would turn their nut flush and pay me off. Dan then raised to $60. A player in MP/LP called. He seemed like a fairly loose player, but definitely knowledgeable. He only had about $80+ though in front of him. It folded back to me (the original $20 bettor folded) and I re-raised all-in. I had at least $400 in front of me at the time. Dan folded his QQ (if he is to be believed; given the action, I believe him) and the player with $80+ called.

The turn was a 3; the river was a blank. I showed my Quad 3s and took down the pot. I also got a $100 bonus for my Quads.

In hindsight, I should have flat-called Dan’s raise to $60 or perhaps re-raised to $120, but not all-in. So, it was a misplayed hand overall, but a profitable one nonetheless.

I played for several more orbits before taking a walk to check on the final table of the blogger tournament. As an aside, by that time, everyone knew that Dan and I knew each other at the poker table. We were chatting about the blogger tournament and random bloggers would stop by to start a conversation.

I went back to the sportsbook and decided to check the fight times. According to the sheets I saw, the last fight was to start at 8pm, but it was already past 8 and all the book knew was that Florian had won his fight. I was officially 1 for 1 in my 3-fight parlay.

I was fairly starving at this point and I had reached my poker saturation. Excuse this, as I’ve said this before, but poker really feels like a “need.” As I had once heard, a “want” is something that cannot be satisfied, like money. You always want more money. A “need” is something that can be satisfied for a time, like hunger. You can eat, but only to a point, after which you must stop eating until you are eventually hungry again and the process repeats. Poker felt like food moreso than money. I had enough, and I think I was officially stuffed on poker.

I cashed out after playing another orbit and decided to send out some text messages. Peaker was at MGM playing poker, so I told him I’d meet him after stopping at the IP. I also texted Kat, who was supposed to be at the IP, but I don’t think we got back in touch. I may have texted Schaubs as well, but I don’t recall.

I walked back to the IP and decided to use some of my well-earned comp dollars at their burger joint. I ordered a philly cheesesteak, which I had had shortly after arriving at the IP on Friday. It was actually pretty decent for what it was. I returned to my room and sat down on the bed for a moment. I was just so exhausted. I considered my options and decided to relax before heading to the MGM. I had to be up around 8am the next morning for my flight home.

After a while, I realized that I was not getting out of bed. I was busy refreshing my ipod Touch to get updates on the UFC fight. Frank Mir had won as well. 2 for 2, with only the BJ Penn fight left. I texted Peaker, thanked him for a good trip and apologized for being such a puss. About 3 minutes later, I got a text. I thought it’d be Peaker giving me shit or, more likely, saying goodbye. It wasn’t. It was Schaubs.

I called Schaubs and he mentioned that he was coming to the IP to hang with Pauly for some late night in depth discussions of the horticulture situation in Southern California in Pauly’s hotel room. I like horticulture as much as the next guy, so I agreed to meet up. But first, I had to take care of some business. Some news had just come in. Penn had won. 3 for 3 on my parlay picks, thanks to my diminutive friend. “I’m heading to the Caesars sportsbook. Call me when you get here.”

I walked over solo, happy to collect my moneys. I also took some time to admire all of the hot chicks in the Pussy Cat Dolls section of Caesars. Each dealer was a hot chick wearing a skimpy outfit. Behind them were two chicks dancing in go go cages wearing lingerie. Amazingly, the entire group of girls (dealers and dancers) had made a costume change in the brief time between leaving Caesars and returning. That takes commitment.

I collected my money and was outside the casino when I got a text from Schaubs. He also won a sports bet at Caesars, so I decided to wait for him there, sitting outside in the brisk air. He arrived a short while later and I got another pass of the Pussy Cat Dolls gambling area. “Las Vegas is filled with hot girls whose only marketable skill is that they have nice tits. It’s a magical place.” Schaubs didn’t argue. I continued, “Just think of all those neglectful parents.”

We returned to the IP and hung at the Geisha Bar with a large crew. The One Man Party, AlCantHang, was there, just off of his 2nd place loss to Astin in the Blogger Tourney. I was shocked for three reasons: (1) AlCantHang is a partier, so I expected more party and less poker winnings. (2) Astin was a super shortstack with me when were were down to 18 or less players. God damn that man! I was just glad to hear that a friend won. (3) Even with 2nd place money, Al was pissed. I was shocked. I expected him to be celebrating, but he really seemed irked that he didn’t win. I think I bought him a shot to ease his pain. From the look in his eyes, though, he didn’t need my drink to deaden the senses.

Eventually, Pauly, Schaubs and I headed upstairs. Over our horticulture appreciation, I had the exact same conversation with Pauly as I had the night before. I mean, it was new to me, since I didn’t remember much of the last night, but I’m pretty sure Pauly thought he was watching a rerun.

I was still exhausted and I considered calling it a night, but Schaubs had yet to ever play Pai Gow. We hit the casino floor, both of us well shitfaced now, and stumbled our way to a Pai Gow table with two empty seats side by side. A third seat opened up just as CK arrived, so she joined us. It was around 12am.

Schaubs did something I had never before done: make a plan. He suggested a stop-loss and also a hard end time. Both seemed to make sense. We bought in for $200 apiece, but agreed only to play with $100 as our stoploss. (Quick casino tip: If you only plan to play for a certain sum and you have self control, always buy in for more. The casino notices how much you buy in for and considers that when they work out your comp dollars. The More You Know… du-dee du dee!). We also agreed to walk at 12:30, which was essentially 30 minutes.

An odd thing happened on the way to 12:30. CK kept chopping. Schaubs got like 5 Pai Gows to start (i.e., no pair hands, which is pretty bad). And I was on a tear. I have a simple strategy:

1. No Fortune Bonus.

2. Start with an amount, usually the table minimum.

3. If I win, add an extra $5. If I push, don’t change the bet size. If I lose, go back to the initial bet. If you keep winning, keep adding those $5.

12:30 came around and Schaubs was down maybe $50, CK was near even, and I was up $60 or so. That’s when Schaubs, the Commissioner of our Pai Gow rules, added an amendment. “Ok. At 12:30, we can both play for two losses. Not back to back. Two losses total. If I lose a hand, win 3 and then lose 1, I’m out.” Ok, I thought. It caps losses and we were having fun, drinking more heavily then ever, because in Pai Gow, a push is a win, but only if booze is involved.

It wasn’t until about 1:10 that Schaubs had finally lost two hands. He had made back most of his money, but now that he was done, as per our rules, that was it for him. I could keep playing, though, since I still had “one life”. CK had moved on when we added our extension. The dealer was changing decks, which she saw as a bad omen. She was right, too. Her replacement player was losing steadily. Good for CK.

“Hey, I have an idea,” this time it was me with the suggestion. “We can share my 1 life. If either of us lose, we both leave.” Schaubs one-upped me, “And if we win three in a row, we can get a new life!” This was the most complicated problem gambling rationale ever, but it made sorta sense. I even offered, “And I will pay your losses. I wouldn’t even be playing if not for you.” Ironically, that meant my exposure was tiny. After all, Schaubs was only down $20 or so at this point and could only lose one more hand before he had to quit. I was up over $100, so I could afford to make that offer.

Sure enough, we then both went on tears, earning two “free lifes” before we lost three hands between the two of us and decided to stop adding rules. We packed up around 2:30, after intending to stay only until 12:30. I was up over $200 and Schaubs was up a few bucks too. That made it a +$300 Pai Gow run on my trip. So, look for my new blog High On Pai Gow.

I finally decided I needed some sleep, so I made my way to the Geisha Bar to say my goodnights. That’s an impossible task in this group. Just when I thought I was in the clear, I’d get into another conversation with a random blogger. This is not a complaint. Quite the opposite. It was awesome getting to chat with everyone.

A couple of highlights of that last minute Geisha Bar stop: I met BloodyP for the first time. He pulled the old, “Do you know who I am?” Now, I’ve always pictured BloodyP as a skinny tweaker, probably in a tattered, blood and snot stained shirt, with disheveled hair. Instead, he looked like a normal guy. A bit…too normal.

I also got into a conversation with Iggy. He had no idea I was actually going to use all of his picks for a parlay bet, and was pretty happy to see I had made some loot off of his well-seasoned brain. Now, I don’t know if it was the booze or what, but it was actually kinda flattering all the nice things Iggy had to say. It was like a freakin’ mutual admiration society. Ironically, Iggy is one of those characters in the bloggoverse who can come off as a bit intimidating, if for no other reason than his appropriate nickname as the Blogfather, not to mention those tiny midget hands. Tiny hands always unnerve me. But I probably feel more comfortable around him than most. He’s just such a generous guy, and even though he hates the Jews, he doesn’t seem to mind me much, probably because I’m a self-hating Jew.

The last notable conversation (that I can remember) was with Carter. Now, Carter, I have to admit that (a) I’m not sure if we ever met before…I feel like we have, but I’ve met other Carters and other guys who look like you in this group, but I’m terrible with names, faces and memory in general, so please take no offense. And (b) I don’t read your blog regularly, so if you see this, hit me up with a comment or email with your blog site.

The memorable part about my conversation with Carter was simply the fact that he had such nice things to say about the blog. I’ve been on the other side of the coin on this one many times. There are some blogs that you read and you can really get to know the writer to the extent that you feel that on some level, you know them. And you do. People write more honestly than they’d ever talk to a stranger or even some close friends and family members. It gets to the point that sometimes, you just want to introduce yourself to a fellow blogger because meeting them is like meeting someone you already know; and its also like meeting a celebrity in a way. Ironically,  on the very same trip, I had failed to work up the “courage” to speak with PokerGrump during the Blogger Tournament. I wasn’t sure if it was him, and even if it was, I wasn’t sure what to say. Well, Carter just wanted to say hi, and I was more than glad to chat. If I remember correctly, he may be in the NY area soon, so that’s another reason for you to hit me up with an email or comment.

I finally decided I had enough and returned upstairs. I packed up to make my morning easier and hit the sack.

My next morning and flight back were uneventful. I watched football on the JetBlue TVs, but my three team NFL parlay (timed intentionally with my flight) was lost in the second game, so instead, I just enjoyed football for the sake of football (and my pickem league).

This was probably the most fulfilling WPBT trip I have had. It really is one big family reunion, and whereas I used to feel like a newbie and then an outside looking in (neither of which were true, but that’s just how I felt), now I just feel like one of the family. I admit that I could’ve used more time in Vegas and maybe spent some more time with various people, but these trips have got to be played by ear.

Thanks to everyone for a great trip. That includes wifey Kim. There aren’t many women who would encourage their husbands to spend a weekend (their birthday weekend no less) in a city known for debauchery with a bunch of Invisible Internet Friends. She’s the real prize in all of this, even if you all will never ever get to meet her.

Until next time, make mine poker!