High On Poker

*** WARNING: MINIMAL POKER CONTENT ***

About 8 years ago, when I was still going to law school, I came to the realization that in the constant battle of my laziness vs. my impatience, my impatience always wins. I had to go across town every day to class, and my options were to either take a bus crosstown, take a convoluted series of subways, or walk across town. Walking was by far the quickest option. Most of the time, I could walk by the bus as it was stopped to pick us passengers or waiting in traffic. But walking also involved physical exercise, something that didn’t particularly excite me. Even so, walking was the way to go. No waiting for the bus or the subway. Once again, my impatience beat out my laziness.

But lord. LORD! I am so sick of waiting. When it comes to poker, I can’t stand showing up at a room only to find that the game is not going to start for another hour or more. Likewise, I find it terribly annoying to see a long wait list. Hell, even when it comes to home games, I’m often impatient. Nothing irks me more than showing up with 5 minutes to spare before the expected start time only to find out I am the first to arrive.

Its more than just poker though. The real issue that blows my freakin’ mind is the computerized messages at the end of voicemail prompts. It’s goes something like this:

PERSON YOU ARE TRYING TO CALL: Hi, you’ve reached [name]. I’m not available to take your call right now, but if you leave your name, phone number and a brief message, I will get back to you as soon as possible.

COMPUTER VOICE: The customer you are trying to call is unavailable. At the sound of the beep, please leave a message. Use your vocal cords to provide said message. After your message, please hang up or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, dial 5. To hear this message again, dial 9. To waste more time please dial 6.  For more idle stupid instructions press the pound key. Thank you for calling. Please enjoy these next 4 minutes of inane instructions before the beep.

First of all, who the hell needs to know that when you are done leaving your voicemail, you should hang up. What asshole sits on the phone after leaving his or her message wondering, “WHAT NOW!!??”

And who the hell wants to leave a callback number by pressing 5. Seriously? I think that’s the Sprint prompt that notifies you about pressing 5 for a callback number. But everyone has caller ID, and those who block their numbers on caller ID could just leave a message by voice. That’s what they are most likely going to do. Not to mention text messages. Its just nonsense.

Now, you are able to skip over some of these messages. For instance, if you are calling a Verizon number, just dial the star key. If you have Sprint, you have to dial 1. I have no idea what you have to do for AT&T.

But here is the problem with these shortcuts: each telephone provider has their own shortcuts and I can barely tell from the computerized voices which cell provider the person I am calling uses. At least a dozen times (if not 2 dozen) I have heard that robot voice and dialed the star key, expecting it to go directly to the beep, only to get a new prompt: “Please enter your pin code to access your voicemail system.” So, at least one of these other carriers uses the * key to remotely check voicemails; instead of getting to the beep, I end up somewhere else, and the only way to get out of this prompt to enter my pin code is to hang up and dial again…at which point, I wait another 5 minutes for the same inane prompts I was trying to avoid in the first place. Lesson to be learned: If you are unwilling to sit through the prompt once, you’ll usually have to listen to it twice.

Here’s another classic example of ridiculous telephone prompts. I just called a defendant’s insurance company to provide information they requested by letter.  Fortunately, or so I thought, the insurance adjuster included her 1-800 number and her extension in the letter. Should be easy, right?

First, the phone system required me to dial 1 to continue in English. Then, I had to dial another number if I wanted to contact someone using their extension number or name. Then the computerized answering system puts me on hold while it connects me to the extension prompt, which apparently is in Tibet based on the amount of time I’m waiting. At least while I wait, I get some more instructs, informing me that the call may be monitored. I can guarantee dollars to donuts (which nowadays is really just even money) that the first thing the adjuster will tell me is that the call may be monitored. Once I’m off of hold, the computerized voice asked me to dial 1 to enter an extension number and 2 to enter the name directory. Really? REALLY? Ok, fine, split hairs. After this layer, the phone sounds like it is ringing. Lord knows why? I guess hey have a whole other system just for dialing someone via their extension number. After four rings (I guess the computer was busy and had to rush to the phone last minute?), the new computer thingee picks up. It’s a male voice, totally different from the robot female voice from the dozen other prompts I already sat through. This ridiculous male voice then instructs me to enter the four-digit extension number, followed by the pound sign. Now, I understand using the pound sign when the amount of digits are in question, but if the prompt acknowledges that it is four digits, why doesn’t it automatically send me to my desired extension after four digits of dialing. Finally, the actual call goes through…only to end up going to voicemail. After what must be a 90 second message that includes today’s date, the adjuster’s hours, her favorite color and what she plans to do for lunch that day, as well as what to do if the matter is urgent (dial 0), I finally get to the end of this ridiculous series of prompts and can leave my quick message.

I swear, I’d rather walk to this woman’s office than sit through the 10 mins of computerized interaction again.

Until next time, dial 1. Then 8. Then 2. Then wait for the next computer to pick up. Then another one after pressing 6. Then finally give up. Oh, and make mine poker!

Around the blogosphere, several bloggers (too many to link) have reacted to an advertising offer sent by PokerStars. These bloggers, nearest I can tell, all have the same reaction. The offer is for a $22 SCOOP tournament entry in exchange for five or six links posted in separate posts. Generally, the blogosphere has determined that this is almost an insulting offer. I generally agree.

Websites often buy links because it will help them appear higher on search engines. So, if Poker Site A offers you $5 for a sidebar link to their site with the anchor text as Online Poker, then Poker Site A will get a bump in their site’s ranking in various search engines. This isn’t just a matter of doing work for Stars. It’s about Stars buying promotion on your website. The fact that the offer apparently required shilling beyond the simple link with additional money (up to a $109 ticket to SCOOP) for posts they like, merely incentivizes ass kissing. Finally, the fact that the offer only lays out the first of the 5 links is another indication that Stars may be taking everyone for a ride.

I’d like to start this next section by stating that we here at High on Poker believe that every individual blogger has the right to operate his or her blog as he or she chooses. This extends to advertising. I may not enjoy or read your blog anymore if every post is a shill post and there is no warning allowing me to skip it in Google Reader, but you have a right to do as you deem fit, since it is your blog.

All that said, you may or may not have noticed that I had taken issue with PokerStars advertising offers from the getgo. In fact, for the last three years at least, I have boycotted the PokerStars blogger tournament because the value of the tournament is not worth it to me. Even though there are some huge prizes, they are relatively few and the amount of time necessary to navigate the big fields make it an unattractive proposition for me. I believe this year, the times for the freerolls was also less than agreeable, not that I even got that far.

This was the first year, though, that I intended to skip the announcement of my boycott. I already made my points in the past, and I like the bloggers who work for or with PokerStars, so out of respect for them and given my previous rants, I kept quiet. Past tense, since this post brings it up, but only in an incidental way.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with the bloggers who think the new deal is a poor one. If its 5 posts for $22 SCOOP ticket, that’s barely over $4 per link. That’s pretty poor. Now, if you just started a blog or are only blogging for freebies or are broke and really want to play a SCOOP event, then maybe it makes slightly more sense. This is where I am all for individual decisions without judgment.  But for the people who agree that it is a poor deal, I wonder why they think the PokerStars Blogger Freerolls were any better. That, too, required a link that helps PokerStars build its page rank via your incoming link. Some websites are willing to pay good money for that link. For big sites, the amount they can receive is well over $100/month. For lesser sites, $50 or even $25 per month is doable if you get lucky (getting ads can be as much about luck as it is reputation of a site, particularly if you are not a site that is well known therough the poker community). Instead, PokerStars offered a freeroll with huge fields at bad times with few prizes that were not merely freerolls into other PokerStars tournaments, similar to the SCOOP offer.

In total, the prizes awarded in this year’s Blogger Freeroll was approximately $62,693, not including prizes for writing the best blog post, which technically is a separate offer that requires more Stars promotion. $62k sounds good. Over 2,000 players made it to the finals, which means as a conservative estimate, 4,000 people entered the tournaments and advertised for PokerStars. One of those preliminary events took over 6 hours (I don’t have info on all the events, so I’m using this as an example). The final took over 10 hours. That’s a lot of time commitment.

But let’s go back to that conservative estimate. If there are 4,000 people playing for a prize pool worth approximately $62,700 (technically, this too should be discounted, because all prizes were merely entries into other PokerStars tournaments, and therefore not worth actually $62,700 to either Stars or to the winners who may or may not make any real cash with their SCOOP entries). 4,000 people sharing $62,700 bucks works out to $15.68 per person. If there were 6,000 players in the Blogger Freerolls, it is reduced to $10.45. And your link is probably still in your blog, so Stars effectively paid $11 for permanent advertising on your blog.

Ultimately, Stars has been great for poker bloggers, specifically with the extra money they offered to the WPBT for the most recent live WPBT tournament in Vegas in December. Even the offers I just slammed are still a sign that they are considering bloggers. But in the end, the math does not make sense. I don’t want $11 and a 16 hour+ commitment to play a freeroll in exchange for advertising on my blog. And so, I don’t accept it.

For the record, here is a link to a December 2008 post that I wrote that said the same thing.

Until next time, make mine poker!

I’ll admit that aside from my utter domination in the Summer Bankroll Challenge – Southern Hemisphere Edition, this year has not been a particularly good one for poker. I am currently down just a little less than $1,000 even though I should be up several grand to meet my 2010 Goal. I’m not terribly concerned at this point, since there is a long road ahead of me, but the losses aren’t exactly pleasant to the eye.

Perhaps even worse, I have barely played any live poker in February, likely a side effect of some bad January results that turned me off of the game for a while, and the SBC-SHE, which has caused me to focus on my online play. My $1200 online win is also probably to blame, since it only encourages more online play.

All that said, I returned to the Tuna Club this weekend for the Sunday $160 tournament. I ended up busting in 10th or 11th after one rebuy. Overall, it was a fun game, but I did not see much in the way of cards early on, which led to my initial “shortstack”. Truth be told, I actually bounced back to the shortstack, but busted when I hit a straight flush draw. There were three players in the hand and I held 9Tc after calling a raise from Asian Mark. The flop was 7c8c8s, so any club gave me a flush (9 flush cards) and any Ten or Six gave me a straight. On the flop, Harris (the other player in the hand) checked and Asian Mark bet 775. I thought for a while and counted up my chips. I had around 4500 behind.

I didn’t want to call because if I missed on the next card, I was likely facing a large bet to see the river. Therefore, a raise was in order.

Thumbing through my stack, I tried to find a good price. I usually would raise 3x the initial bet (around 2400), but that would leave me with even less chips behind for the turn bet/call. I considered a min-raise, but that had the same problem as the call; I would surely get a call on the flop and would likely face a debilitating bet on the turn. So, I pushed all-in. Harris folded and Asian Mark called with JJ. My outs missed and I was busted.

I considered walking, since I hate re-registering late. Re-registering is like rebuying, but you have to repay the fee. As it turned out though, with blinds at 100/200 and around 4500 chips for re-registering, I decided to stay put.

After a while, the blinds went up, as did antes. Once the re-register period was over, the extra stacks were removed from the table and we were down to two tables of 6. This caused me to go through more blinds, and eventually I found myself short again, a little over 10x the BB. I started the push-or-fold routine.

I finally got a decent hand in AQo. I pushed and got folds. On the next hand, I got AQd. I pushed and picked up the blinds. A couple of hands later, I got AK. I pushed and got all folds.

Right around this time, Rafael, who was sitting to my left, pointed out that I had gone all-in a bunch of times and won. Maybe it was a tad later, since I think I had gone all-in 4 times already without anyone looking me up. “You should go for 10.” Realistically, this is a silly suggestion, but I decided to ham it up. The next three times when I pushed, I joked to the table that I was just playing for the 10 all-in wins. Some of the more serious players even cracked a smile, since the goal was so absurd.

I had completed 7 out of 10 of my all-ins when I was in the SB with AJh. The action folded to the terrorist looking dude on my left. The guy was actually pretty friendly and we had chatted lightly during the game. I had noticed he made some aggressive plays with less-than-stellar cards when he saw an opportunity. In one example, he pushed all-in over a late position raiser who he felt was weak. The LP raiser called and showed a very weak AT…but Yusaf Poker had AT too. The other guy almost hit his flush, but Yusaf got lucky.

With all this in mind and a history of pushing from the button in unraised pots, I decided to call when Yusaf pushed. Of course, first I verified with Rafael that calling an all-in and winning would count for my 10 all-in wins. He agreed. This probably wasn’t a real factor in my decision, but I had to keep the goof going.

Sure enough, we actually had some spectators by now, and they along with the rest of the table were commending my call when Yusaf showed 23o against my AJh. Door card: 3. Nothing else was relevant, and I busted. LEMON!

Before this hand, a chick was watching the game from behind me after she had busted from the other table. I had overheard her talking about how she messed up to get herself knocked out. She had concluded that she should just stop playing poker because she was so bad at it.

When I busted, she told me, “I busted with AJ earlier. So did ____ (some name I don’t remember).” I replied, “Why didn’t you say something 2 minutes ago before I called!” and then laughed to show I was joking. On that same note, when I lost against 23o, I stood up and said that it was bullshit and the game was rigged. Then I looked around the table and saw some of the onlookers with a concerned look on their faces. I mouthed to them and tilted my head to indicate that I was just joking. By then, my tablemates knew to expect some tomfoolery.

Being the nice guy I am (and always one for encouraging bad players), I chatted briefly with the girl. “What happened with your hand? I heard you were pretty down on yourself.” “I was tired of being pushed around by [name withheld] so I decided to call his all-in with AJ. He had AK and I was out.”

“That call isn’t terrible. Hell, I just called an all-in with AJ. Plus [name withheld] is more than capable of pushing with crap cards. Just because he turned out to have you beat, it doesn’t make it a bad call necessarily.”

I may as well have been talking to myself, because stating those words was somewhat soothing. In my case, I did everything right in the last hand, the guy had crap cards, as I expected, and I still lost. As many people have said before, in Poker, you can do everything right and still lose. Truer words have not been spoken.

Once done, I eventually made my way home. On the way, I realized that if I really want to be the poker player I envision in my head, there are no two ways about it: I have to play more.

Until next time, make mine poker!

From Daniel Negreanu’s blog:

“I’m trying my best, and I know how poker works, when I do that… results come. I’m not one to dwell on bad luck at all, it happens to all of us who play this crazy game!”

Until next time, make mine poker!

Boyo! I am fighting a rant. Fighting hard, homies. Ah fudge it. Here we go.

I have been on the shit end of bad beats before. In fact, for a long period of time, I felt like the poker gods were against me. I don’t even want to go back and look at those posts, because fortunately, that ugly spell is behind me. But, well, that’s not really what this post is about. This post is about the special little snowflakes out there who think that they are super-duper special. You know who I mean. The wannabe Sigmas Six. What’s a Sigma Six? I’m glad you asked.

I’m no mathemagician, but from my understanding, Six Sigma is a math and/or statistic term for super outliers. Since we are talking about bad beats, let’s apply the idea of Six Sigma to luck. Basically, if you charted out all the people in the world, you would find that some have perfectly even luck and others have more bad or good luck. A very select few, however, will have a lot more good or bad luck. Those outliers, as rare as they are, are those tools who never lose or never win in poker. They literally have the best or worst luck around.

Now, whether or not luck really works that way is another story. But the point is, there are way too many people out there who think that they suffer the worst bad beats or have the worst string of cards or the worst luck. Lord knows some of them write about poker on these very Intertubes. I can think of a couple offhand that at various times were so focused on their losing hands that they proclaimed voraciously that they had the worst luck ever. Hell, I may’ve made such a proclamation in the past. It was the distant past, if ever, but it could’ve happened. I have not always been this pokering machine you see before you (via text) today.

So, here the rant really begins:

You are not so special. You are not a precious little bad luck snowflake. You are not cursed. You are not a Sigma Six.

You simply are suffering some bad luck.

Here’s the thing. If you have been playing poker for any significant length of time or at any significant stakes, you should have learned by now that bad beats and bad luck happens. And it even happens in stretches, where for a while, nothing can go right. But you are not special. You aren’t. I know you want to be. Or at least you want to hold it up to the world and say, Look at me! I’m suffering bad luck! The WORST luck ever. I don’t suck! I DON’T! You might not suck at poker; I don’t know. But you do suck at life.

Complaining about bad luck in poker is the equivalent of saying that the clouds must hate you because it has been rainy all week. No, dude. It is going to rain. So, if it rains on your parade, that may suck, but it isn’t because you are cursed or special or a Sigma Six. It’s because your parade is outside and sometimes it rains.

So, here is what I ask of you:

Stop bitching about having the worst luck ever or stop playing poker.

Unless, of course, you are bitching about it while playing against me. In that case, bitch away. You are only hurting yourself and I could use the entertainment.

Until next time, make mine poker!

*** WARNING: NO POKER CONTENT ***

Several weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that I was experimenting with grilled chicken. I am a novice chef, at best, but I love cooking, and so I set about with a goal to make a grilled chicken cutlet that matched as close as possible the grilled chicken available at most any diner or deli in the New York City area.

I had experimented with different marinades and cooking styles, but last night, after a long day that included furniture shopping and some woodwork in my apartment as I tried to fix a completely different piece of furniture, I decided to give it another go. Of course, the defrosted chicken cutlets had a say in the matter; they had to be cooked yesterday or thrown out.

When I was done, I had successfully created the closest match to simple grilled chicken. Here is my recipe:

1. Brine. I have never brined anything before in my life, so this was completely new to me. I filled a Ziploc bag with 1 quart of cold water, added salt and sugar and then shook it around until the ingredients were dissolved. Once dissolved,  I added the 1 lb. of chicken cutlets. I then let the bag sit in the fridge  for a good hour while I baked some japaleno cornbread for wifey Kim’s Tex-Mex potluck tonight at one of her girlfriend’s places. For the specific ratio of water, salt and sugar, check out this nifty Brining Guide.

2. Butterfly. Once the chickens were brined, I took out each breast and butterflied them, cutting from the center into the meatiest part of the breast until I could open it up like a book. I then butterflied the other half of each breast when necessary.

3. Pound. This one I stole from my days working at the butcher shop. New York deli’s often have these relatively flat pieces of grilled chicken. No doubt, it is because the chicken cooks faster and can probably serve more people in its flattened form. Me? I am just paranoid about cooking things through. I knew that if I pounded the chicken thin, I could avoid this problem. Plus, I wanted to replicate NYC deli grilled chicken as close as possible.

I laid out a long sheet of wax paper and prepared a couple of other similarly-sized sheets. I then laid out my chicken on the paper, covered it with the additional sheet and took to the chicken with my mallet. The result? Flattened, thin chicken.

On a related note (and maybe as 3a), let the chicken sit out for a bit. You want it to be room temperature so that it cooks through easily.

4. Grease and Pre-Heat. I still need to work on my method of cooking, but I’ve found one with the best results, thus far. I have a large griddle that can be placed over two burners on my stove top. I flipped it to the grill side and preheated it. The preheating is key if you want those fine grill marks that do more for appearance than any other step. I then lightly patted down the grill with olive oil (not extra-virgin). Next time, I am going to try vegetable oil or some other oil, which I will explain momentarily.

5. Season. I suppose you can go with all sorts of seasoning, but to keep it easy, I used a mix of dried Italian seasonings that came in a grinder. I also applied a decent amount of salt and pepper. I applied all of these to one side of the chicken, then placed the chicken on the grill with the seasoned side down, and then seasoned the exposed side before flipping.

6. Cook by Sight. Once I allowed the grill-top to heat up and applied a light layer of olive oil, I spread out my flattened chicken breasts. I had 4, but could only fit 3 onto the grill-top at one time. Once placed, I basically cooked by sight, allowing a decent amount of time to pass before I made the first check. After all, to get the sweet grill marks, you need a decent amount of uninterrupted contact. I’m no food-scientist, but I also think waiting a bit helps prevent sticking. Once I’m pleased with the browning on one side, I flip and wait for it to appear cooked through. Since the chicken is pounded thin, it doesn’t take long, and there is little chance that the outside will be cooked but the inside raw.

7. Rest. Not just you. The chicken too. I never really appreciated the point of letting food like steaks rest until I got knee deep in the Food Network. Whatever the case, allowing the chicken to rest will prevent it from oozing all of its delicious juices once you finally cut into your meal.

I learned a couple of lessons from this routine. I thought the meat was too salty, so next time, I may cut down on the amount of salt in the brine or the amount of salt I used to season the meat. After the first round of chicken (3 out of 4 pieces), the grill-top started to smoke because the olive oil was burning, so I had to switch to a grill-pan for round 2. Next time, hopefully another oil will prevent premature boiling so I can cook even more at once.

Hopefully, this recipe for how to simply grill chicken will work for you. If anyone has any other tips or ideas, feel free to share. I love cooking!

Until next time, make mine poker!

Since we at High on Poker’s Central Office discovered that Bethlehem, PA will be overtaking Atlantic City, NJ as the nearest legal poker to New York City, we asked fellow blogger and Bethlehem-native Queens Up to provide a brief guide to Bethlehem. Happy Travels!

The History of Bethlehem

Bethlehem, AKA The Christmas City,  was founded by the Lehigh River by a group of Moravians in 1741. In the past it gained notoriety as a stopping place for George Washington and his troops on the way to Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. More importantly, the area began to bloom when Bethlehem Steel was founded in 1857, which peaked as the 2nd largest steel producer behind US Steel out of Pittsburgh. During WW2, Bethlehem Steel had in their employ over 30,000 workers. The last smelting took place in 1995, and the company ceased to exist in 2003. You would be hard pressed to find a local who doesn’t have some kind of connection to the plant, personally my father worked there as a teenager, and my uncle worked there until it closed.

The casino came about as a result of an original idea started in 1997-98 by Mayor Cunningham to turn the island that Bethlehem Steel’s buildings were located on into an attraction. The south side of Bethlehem where the major office buildings were located and Lehigh University sits became run-down; the project was supposed to revitalize the area.

The original idea called for an ice skating rink, and 20+ movie screen Cineplex, artistic building, and a Bethlehem Steel historical museum. The opening date was set for mid-1999 but due to a failure to come to agreement with the city council and prospective builders, most of the idea was scrapped at the time. The only idea that did come to fruition during this time was the artistic building known as “The Banana Factory”.

In the mid-2000′s the idea was pushed again, this time with the idea that Sands would build a casino and hotel on the old BS site, and other attractions would be added. Currently the hotel is not finished, as a result of some work stoppage as Sands struggled with funding during the recession. The casino is currently scheduled to open along with the ice skating rink in Nov of 2010.

Attractions and Events

Ever since I was little the Bethlehem Tourism Bureau has sought to market Bethlehem as a vacation spot. They saw this as feasible since Philadelphia is a 45 minute drive down the turnpike (I-476) and New York City is a 90 minute drive down I-78. The first (and still biggest) thing they did was start a music festival called Musikfest.

Musikfest was started in August 1984 as a primarily German music festival. It started out having just a few platzes (places) where various music could be heard. Since 1984, it has grown into the one of the largest mostly free outdoor music festivals in the country, boasting a yearly attendance rate of over 1 million unique visitors during the span of the 10 day festival, and draws not only current big name artists, but runs the gamut of music from all across the globe. And the global theme doesn’t just stop with the music but also includes the food. Where else can you get Crocodile on a Stick or an Ostrich Burger to go with your funnel cake? Musikfest is held every August and is capped off by a fireworks display to close the festival.

Other events that occur throughout the year include the Celtic Classic, Christkindlemarkt and First Nicht. The Celtic Classic features Celtic games, beer, dancing competitions, and bagpipes! Christkindlemarkt spans 4 weekends starting at the end of November and features samples of various foods and crafts from vendors from across the local region and the country. First Nicht is held every December 30 to December 31 and features music, food, and drink in the downtown historical area that culminates in a huge fireworks display at midnight of the new year.

While you are visiting Bethlehem, you will want to stop by Main Street which is located in the historical section. On both sides of the streets you will find niche shops with various wares. The big attraction is The Moravian Bookshop which is the oldest continuously operated book store in the United States. For a good place to eat, try Brew Works which has good American cuisine and various homemade brews. Brew Works also has a downstairs bar where you can get my personal favorite, the $16/bottle Beelzebub.

Notable Persons and Businesses

-Jonathon Frakes attended Liberty High School (my alma mater) and was a Trumpeter in the Grenadier Band.
-Chuck Bednarik, the famous Eagle and last true Ironman in the NFL, played for the Liberty Hurricane Football Team.
-Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson played football for Freedom High School (Liberty’s main rival).
-Daniel Dae Kim (Jin on Lost) was born in Easton and attended Freedom High School.
-Daniel Roebuck (Dr. Arzt on Lost) is a graduate of Bethlehem Catholic High School.
- Just Born Inc, the maker of famous candies such as Peeps and Mike N Ikes, was founded and resides on Stefko Blvd in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem! It’s not just the birthplace of fellow blogger QueensUp! It’s also the birthplace of a little guy we like to call Baby Jesus. But now, it’s so much more!

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Population: ~70,000. 75% Caucasian. Mean household income of ~$50,000. Unemployment rate as of Oct. 2009, 10.5%. Number of registered sex offenders: 65. Birthplace of Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

You may be curious as to why I am sharing these riveting facts about Bethlehem, PA. Well, if you haven’t caught on by now, allow me to assist you. Bethlehem, PA is going to be my new AC.

While discussing all of the changes in NE poker, I neglected the most important part: how it effects me! The short answer is that on a personal level, I am glad to see poker demystified in any way possible. Legalized poker in the NE will help that goal. While I am scared for AC, its mostly because AC was a place I visited since childhood. But even if AC goes belly-up, I still have my memories.

The biggest way it will effect me, though is to give me more options. And the closest option is, you guessed it, Bethlehem, PA!

Bethlehem, PA is approximately 1.5 hours from Manhattan, a good 45 minutes faster than the fastest mode of transportation to AC. If I were to bypass NYC driving by picking up a rental car in, say, beautiful Newark, a 15 min. train ride from my home, I can be in Ole Bethy in 1 hour, fifteen minutes by car. That’s a good hour faster than AC, not including the trip to and from the bus station in Manhattan.

Bethlehem, PA. The home to future WPBT gatherings? Ok, that’s pushing it. But for the time being, it looks like the best candidate for live, legal poker for HoP and the rest of NY.

Until next time, make mine PA poker!

First off, I am glad that people appreciated the last post about the spread of legalized poker in the North East and its likely effect on AC. Riggstad wrote up his own opinion, as did HeffMike. All of us seem to agree that at the very least, AC will have to become a destination town, rather than a gambling town. In other words, the city needs to find ways to attract travelers beyond the mere fact that there is legalized gambling.

With that in mind, I argued for lower hotel room rates. Oddly, Heff and Rigg did not seem to think that was the right move. I simply wish to reiterate the point that the low prices are necessary to entice travelers to come to AC. Why fly to AC for a $450/night weekend room when you can fly to Vegas for a $99/night room? Lower room rates will attract travelers to AC as a destination.

Well, I guess AC has been reading my blog, because I recently received a free room in the mail from Tropicana AC.

In the annals of AC casinos, Tropicana is actually one of my favorites. Showboat was (and I guess still is) the unofficial official AC Casino/Hotel of HighOnPoker, but Tropicana was my first true AC love.

As a kid, my family went to AC at least once a year. We usually stayed at the Tropicana. I knew the hotel like the back of my hand. Me and my brothers would spend hours playing elevator tag or running to the arcades (which have since been replaced by more slots) where we would play Street Fighter until we ran out of change. They even had a basement amusement park for kids called Tivoli Piers. To this day, I can vividly remember the layout, including the bumper cars and a cool shooting game. Hell, my brothers and I could sing the the songs that played in the background of some of the rides.

Of course, all that family friendly bullshit is gone. The Trop eventually went wall-to-wall slots wherever they could. They still have a lot of table games, including a huge table-game-only area. The Asian pit is decent. The rooms are average to above-average. The food options are probably tops for any Boardwalk property. Hell, they even have an IMAX movie theater in the hotel.

They were also under some financial strains recently.  Less than 2 yrs ago, they filed for bankruptcy, only to emerge in December free of debt. The Tropicana in AC was bought out of bankruptcy by Carl Icahn. So perhaps I have Mr. Icahn to thank for the casino’s newfound generosity.

Last week, I received a mailing from Tropicana. It mentioned Two Free Nights, EVERY WEEK, through April 8. The mailing also included $25 free slot play and other offers, including free comp dollars to the Trop’s various restaurants, free tickets to a new (lame-looking) show, and other giveaways. What it did not say was what the limitations would be.

I looked at the mailing and had to consider that it was possibly a scam. At the very least, it would actually be limited in certain ways, like weekdays only. At the worst, it was a complete fake or was a timeshare scam. There was a dedicated phone number for the mailing, so I called it first.

No answer. Hmm. I tried again the next day. No answer.

I had my suspicions now, but it was the weekend, and perhaps this special offer was not staffed during irregular business hours. I tried again on Monday. This is what I was told.

The Tropicana has, in fact, offered me the following:

2 free night…

every week…

until April 8…

ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!

I have never received such a generous offer from AC. Naturally, I immediately booked the first weekend in March for wifey Kim and I. The plan is to visit AC for the day on Saturday and see Alice in Wonderland in 3D IMAX at the Trop. I am also eying weekends late in March to go with friends for a proper poker trip.

I’m guessing the next management and shitty economy are to blame for this fine offer. All I know is that it has already induced me to book a room and make purchases at Tropicana. I can only hope that the Trop benefits from this great offer and begins an AC trend.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Like dominoes, the morals of New England are toppling around us. Where once a land of Amish, Puritanical Witch Hunters, Orthodox Jews and Jesus Freaks roamed the land, now opportunistic Indians, degenerate gamblers, and blue hairs make their home.

For those who have not been following along, over the last year, there have been some huge changes to the poker scene in the Northeast, with some of the biggest changes yet to actually take hold.

In September 2009, I wrote about a recent Pennsylvania law that permitted the addition of table games to a state that had already legalized slots.

In November 2009, I wrote about a law that recently passed in Ohio that permitted casinos, including poker, in several major cities.

Well, just a few months later and it looks like we get to add Delaware and possibly even Maryland to new Northeast poker hotspots.  Lawmakers in Delaware recently voted to extend their already legal slots and sportsbetting (incidentally, the only legal sportsbetting on the East Coast) to include table games and a law has been proposed in Maryland to expand their video lottery operations. The Delaware law recently passedand if the Maryland law passes , AC will be facing even more competition from its nearby neighbors.

I’ve been trying to determine if my concerns for AC are unfounded or not, but after creating a Google Map with the old poker options (for me, that meant AC, Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun and Turning Stone), I added the new potential rooms based on various reports I had seen and have created a map that looks like a nightmare for AC.

Here is an old map showing just the poker options generally available to people in the New York City area.

View NorthEast Poker 2008 in a larger map

I recommend zooming out to get the full effect.

As you can see, there was not much competition. Why? Because almost universally, gambling was frowned upon. When AC introduced gambling, it was merely because of the depressed seaside town and the success of Vegas that allowed the gambling expansion. When Native Americans figured out they could open casinos, Connecticut and even upstate New York saw additional casinos to compete with Atlantic City. But even then, the options were few and far between. After all, the puritanical, anti-gambling sentiment that permeated the Northeast was still in full effect.

Now, a demystification of gambling, together with the financial needs of the State have seen gambling sprout like a weed in a neglected garden. Of course, even weeds can eventually be turned into a commodity.

The result:

View NorthEast Poker 2010 in a larger map

The old haunts are depicted with the yellow dollar signs, since those are where I currently make money (holla!). I added the nearest new likely casinos with the fire icon, since they seem to be spreading like wildfire and are a danger to AC. I used simple red warning signs for some of the further rooms, which I do not think are likely to directly affect AC, except for maybe reducing some charter flights.

What do you see? AC is under siege! I even included a recently added West Virginia room (I’m sure there are more) to demonstrate how this isn’t just an attack from one direction; AC is taking it from all ends.

What can AC do? Well, mostly pray. Unless AC can find another reason to attract customers, AC will continue to suffer. In my estimation, that means that AC needs to do three things:

1. Lower Room Rates – Room rates in AC are often prohibitively high, especially during the summer months. But if AC is going to attract players who can find poker nearby, AC will have to be a destination and all destinations need affordable accommodations. This way, when your buddy says, “Let’s go play some poker this weekend!” you’ll say, “Okay, I have some cheap rooms at the Tropicana in AC and I love that place, so let’s go!” instead of “We’ll hit the casino downtown, since it’s convenient. AC is overpriced anyway.”

This may already be happening. I received an advert with two free rooms in the Tropicana Casino Hotel for any time until April. It seems to include weekends, which is a rarity. The Trop is a great property, but it was recently under a lot of financial troubles and was sold to another company. That is probably the impetus for the free rooms, but at least the owners recognize that the first step to profit is to bring back the players.

2. Continue featuring Big Entertainment – AC already does a fairly good job with their slew of live entertainment. It isn’t Vegas, with large, established shows, but there are usually big comedy acts or musical acts in town every weekend and lesser acts during the week. AC needs to continue, and possible build, on this, because that, too, will create a Destination Town, as opposed to a gambling town.  For instance, when wifey Kim conned me into going to Dancing with the Star Live, she did so by suggesting we see the AC show. We did. It sucked. But at least we were already in AC, where we had an expensive steak dinner and gambled.

3. Diversify and Advertise – AC had been doing a good job of diversifying beyond gambling. The Tropicana, for instance, has an IMAX 3D theater. An outdoor outlet mall sprung up a few blocks from the boardwalk. Caesars renovated the old Ocean One mall to create an updated mall-like experience. A scary-looking carnival sprung up on the Boardwalk. These are key to AC’s future. AC cannot simply rely on being a gambling destination, so alternative activities, especially for the winter months when the beach is useless, is key. But even more than that, AC needs to rehabilitate its image. It’s seen as a shady, dirty, gambling hole that is a joke in comparison to Las Vegas. But if more people knew of the other things to do in AC (more is needed), then perhaps that image can be fixed and the crowd will look forward to AC, rather than settle for it because its the nearest gambling destination.

In the meanwhile, I’m already mapping nearby destinations. Allentown, Pennsylvania, here I come!

Until next time, make mine poker!