My Precious

It was a Ruby Tuesday's. Back when the Gaelic Game was running and on a night wherein there was no Procedure, I walked into the nearby restaurant chain and found a couple of fellow, local card players already saddled up by the bar.

Rhodes and Eddie were there, like-minded if but for a moment, ingesting sustenance before a long night out seated at the tables. Both of them have different life situations than I. Single. No kids. No real restraints on their lives except their own imaginations. Without much to lose, not much can really hold them back when it comes to an occasional risk.

Me? If you've met me or read this blog for a while, you can probably guess where my risk-aversion falls on the scale of degeneracy. My gambles are calculated and even at the slightest hint of ruin, I hold back. Two years ago, when I began keeping a totally separate bankroll for live poker, I formulated a long-term game plan for my time on the G-Vegas underground game circuit.

"I'll never go broke," I told them. Rhodes and Eddie listened, perhaps keeping their thoughts silent for the moment. In hindsight, what I said there was rather arrogant. It was my way of saying that I play within my bankroll and my skill level in relation to the other players we played with was sufficiently larger such that I'll maintain my winning status over the long-term. I didn't need to take a shot at the 5/10 game. I told them about my plan.

Keep a twenty buy-in bankroll, invest the excess, and maintain the status quo. George Peppard would be proud. And for a while, I was loving it as the plan came together.

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Somewhere along the line, something happened. I suspect it was the combination of several things. I took some bankroll cash and lost it in Vegas in June at table games. Not only that, but the costs of a Procedure add up. Drinks, food, and unmentionables. When your bankroll is $5k, starting out each night of poker $100 in the hole isn't too big of a deal. But as it declines, the dents begin to stand out more and more.

More importantly, my poker game changed. When you adopt a higher variance style of play, you have to be prepared to swallow larger losses. In truth, what once was a sufficient bankroll may no longer be. I didn't adjust.

My play suffered and it created a downward spiral, the bottom of which was an empty money clip where once there used to be stacks of hundreds and twenties.

I used to treat my bankroll with a near obsessive reverence. It would hold it, hug it, squeeze it, love it, and name it George.

But that was in the past.

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Before we get too far in this tale, let's just say it's not finished. I'm not broke.

But.

I've had to make some adjustments. Adjustments to my play, adjustments to my habits, adjustments to my mentality. I don't want to go broke. I don't want to withdraw from the investments I made last year to support this year's poker play. I could. I'd hate it, but I could. I just don't want to.

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I learned something about my game during one hand last Friday at my home game. I made a play at the pot with pocket 8's. The flop came King high but the rest were undercards. To everyone watching, including those in the hand, they were all convinced I either flopped a set or turned two pair. By the river, I was all-in. My opponent called me down with top pair, even saying "I know you have me beat" as he threw his call into the pot.

I'll let you guess what adjustment I made.

More to come.

Game Plan

When we last left off I was heading on my way to Charlotte to see the Roth-led Van Halen concert. The Axeman and I snuck up a bit early and met 2/3rds of the blogger formerly known as Falstaff at an Irish pub called Connolly's. The guy's not shittin' when he says he's losing some poundage. I had last seen him in June in Vegas and there's definitely a noticeable difference. Well, noticeable to me because I'm frequently checking out other men in dark lit bars. Wait. That didn't come out right. Anyway, bottom line is, he's looking good and doing all the right things to hit his target weight. I'm rooting for him.

Van Halen was very good. They opened with "You Really Got Me," which sounded decent. Axeman and I were in the second row. From the top that is. Right next to the Bob Eucker memorial seats. Still it was a great time. If you have ever heard a song by Van Halen on the radio sung by David Lee Roth, well then, they played it last Thursday. The only minor quip I had was that Axeman and I both thought there had to be some backing vocals on tape. No way Wolfgang Van Halen can match Michael Anthony's vocal style so well.

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Hosted another home game on Friday. On Friday morning when I got into work, there were about 3 players confirmed for the game. By midnight, we had eleven players. I played well early, then poorly late. I'm not even going to go into any hands because right now my game is in the shitter. Sure I've been bad beat and coolered a bit, but the jist of it is that I've simply made too many bad decisions for big pots. And that's killing my bank roll.

Hopefully I can turn things around the last three months of the year. The only solace is that I'm not playing as bad as G-Rob. Woah, low blow there. I kid. He did show up pretty drunk Friday and managed to drop a few buy-in's in record time. Even for him. Both he and I need to get our heads back into this game otherwise we'll be playing nickel-dime poker with the local grade schoolers. G-Rob's focus could be off because he's devoting so much time to kick-ball. No, that is not a type-o.

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Sunday, I took the family out to movie night. We caught The Game Plan, the latest Disney movie. It was actually really good. If you have kids in the 7-9 age group, then you'll probably really enjoy this one. Of course, The Rock will appeal to just about any one, guys and gals alike. It was very unusual to see a packed theater on a Sunday afternoon here in G-Vegas for a kids movie like that. Turns out that the movie finished #1 for the weekend. Seriously. Who knew?

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More musical recommendations for the faithful:

Himsa - Summon In Thunder

Very, very good. The production quality is a step up from their previous efforts and the vocals/guitar tracks very much benefited from the Devin Townsend production efforts, he of Strapping Young Lad fame.

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Tonight - back to the Gooch. G-Vegas medium game at Gucci Rick's with some Monday Night Football. If Cleveland scores 51 against Cincy, then the Pats score how much? 60? Watch them lay an egg after all the hype.

I Like To Be There When I Can

Well with all that's going down here in the G-Vegas underground, I felt it appropriate to round up the troops for a home game last Thursday. It went surprisingly well. We had seven players and one dedicated dealer to move things along quickly. The action wasn't huge, but it was decent. Players were relatively quiet and it was one of the more enjoyable home games I've hosted in a while. Chillin' may be the appropriate word to describe it. You know, like "With the Wiez'."

Last night, GucciRick resumed his Monday night big game and there were eight players at that game. So it would seem that there still can be some poker played here in town, free of risk, free of rake, but certainly not free of donking. Mainly because I was there both nights.

I'm going to assume that some of the rooms that were either forced to shut down or did so voluntarily will make attempts to resume operation at some point. That's just my opinion based on what I've read about games in other cities. It's like whack-a-mole. For yours truly, however, I have to imagine that the risk will prevent my participation regardless of the measures taken to prevent bustage and robbage.

So I'll do my best to establish a regular home game and try to keep that going. I used to dread organizing one. Calling players, setting up, tearing down, cleaning up. It was a drag. But that was before I realized that it's not really that bad given what can happen elsewhere.

This Thursday's game will be postponed until Friday however. I'll be heading up to Falstaff-ville for a little old-school Van Halen. Word on the street is that the rehearsals in L.A. were very well received, even with Wolfgang on base. I'm looking forward to this as my previous Van Halen concert was in 1987 at the Monsters of Rock tour with Hagar on vocals.

My vote for favorite under-rated, under-played Roth-era Van Halen song: The Full Bug

Strike Two

I'm reminded of the joke where a man refused to leave his house in the face of an upcoming flood. At first a police officer drove by and asked him to evacuate, but he said, "I'm OK, God will save me." When the flood waters hit, forcing the man to his roof, a helicopter flew by with rescuers ready to save him. He declined again claiming his salvation would come from above.

Unfortunately, the man ended up drowning. When he finally arrived at the Pearly Gates, he asked God why he didn't save him like he promised.

God replied, "I sent you a police car and a helicopter, what were you expecting?"

My take on this lesson? Don't ignore the obvious signs.

So if you've read UpForPoker this morning, you know that last night the game we folks have referred to as "The Gaelic Game" was busted. I feel like I've dodged a couple of bullets (both figuratively and literally) by not being at either that game or the one that was robbed a few weeks ago.

In an odd manner of coincidences, this week was the first week I had nothing to do on a Tuesday. No kids' soccer practice, no kids' baseball games. Nothing. In fact, had I won last Friday night when I played, there's a good probability that I'd have been playing last night.

Downswing? Hell, I'll trade a downswing for avoiding arrest and robbery any day.

As I was typing this, I got a phone call from one of the players who was at that game. He mentioned that 5 or 6 deputies followed an apparently oblivious player into the game from the parking lot outside. They had everyone show identification and put their hands on the table in front of them. For whatever reason, they had the dealer in handcuffs.

I don't want to name any names just yet because this is all second-hand information and I don't want to be unfair to anyone.

My source went on to tell me that one by one, they called players over to another desk where they offered them the following deal: Get a ticket, pay the fine, and leave all your money with them (wha???) or contest the ticket, go to court and potentially face a year of jail time for the infraction. My understanding is that most of, if not all, the people took the fine.

My first inclination tells me that the two incidents (robbery and bust) are somewhat intertwined. My guess is that even though no official police report was filed on the robbery at Black Stallion, word got out about what had happened. Most likely, the police know about the games around town, but as of late had turned the other cheek. But with the threat of violence apparently very real, they could no longer do so.

If anyone who reads this was there and wants to clarify anything of what was told to me, feel free to do so, either via the comments or privately.

Good gravy, what's next? Sadly for me, it's home game poker or no game poker.

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm crushing the one-table turbo's? Shazam!

Musings

When G-Rob complains about your posting frequency, then you know you have issues. I still maintain few people want to read about my downswings or even my upswings for that matter, as rare as they may be lately. The material has been done before; by me, by others, and if you're a blogger reading this, then most likely by yourselves as well.

Suffice to say that I've been playing well at times, not so well at times, all the while watching my live bankroll plummet to valleys not seen in quite a while. Oh well, happens I guess. I run goot in single table turbo's though. Shazam!

So I'm just throwing random questions out there that don't have much to do with anything.

- If your daughter is playing soccer and scores 3 goals in a game, is it appropriate to storm the field and throw your hat onto it in celebration? How about a dead octopus?

- If you go to a strip club and receive no lap dances, were you ever really there? (Apply tree falling in the forest logic if you wish.)

- With so many stupid people in this world, is it necessarily a crime to make money off their stupidity? If not, do you have any suggestions?

- If you're running bad in poker and have to move down in stakes, does it depress you to realize that running good at the lower stakes is only half as profitable as you would have been had you stayed where you were?

- If every man has a dark side, should he try to abolish it at the risk of it becoming uncontrollable or should he acknowledge it if it meant keeping it under proper restraint? If I, show you my dark side....(R. Waters)

- If you could play one song on any instrument in front of a live audience, as part of a band or solo act, what song and what instrument would it be?

- If you were a writer on the TV show Heroes, could you invent a super-power that hasn't been done before in either comics or movies? Are super-powers subject to copyright infringement?

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In other random news, I'm going for broke by trying to host a home game this Thursday. Phone calls and emails will go out today and tomorrow.

On the musical side, the metal album of the year right now is The Absence - Riders of the Plague. New Arch Enemy comes out soon, but they have their work cut out for them if they hope to top the latest from Tampa's best extreme metal offering. There is a cover tune of Testament's Into The Pit that is done just about perfectly. It's Extreme Metal of 2007 meeting Classic Thrash Metal of 1987. How can you go wrong with that?

Thursday's at Blood's

For the next several months, I'll be stuck at home on Thursday nights. Kids with soccer, kids with baseball, and as of last week, the Mrs. at night class.

Playing live poker is still one of the things I'd like to continue to do, but lately there's been some things going on that have been detrimental to that. Robberies, busts, and moronic wrestling matches. (What's my age again?)

So since I can't go out on Thursday's until next May, I'm going to start regularly hosting a game on Thursday nights at the house. If people want to play, they can show up. Perhaps some nights we'll have a tournament. Some nights could be HORSE. Most nights will probably be 1/2NL, but hell, PLO is not out of the question.

In fact, the number of players who show up won't matter either, as long as it's less than ten. Ten will be my max just because of space limitations. If just one person shows up and wants to take my bankroll in a headsup match, so be it.

Anyway, an email to my distribution list will be going out soon. I'd like to start up on Thursday the 20th.

There won't be stupid drinking or stupid antics by yours truly. Just another home game hopefully rising from the ashes of its early demise.

Karma, For She Hath Forsaken Me

So I busted the slow-roller last Friday night....

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I'm not sure what it is. They do say nice guys finish last, and maybe, I'm perceived as being a nice guy. Possibly because I tend not to actively be a prick towards others. Still, because of that perception, I tend to get crapped on. At this stage in life, I probably won't change very much. Trying on a new personality will be a fruitless endeavor, so I'll just keep up with my old ways, being nice, finishing last, taken advantage of.

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No worries though. It just happens when I play poker.

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I managed to flop a flush on Friday night. I had position on the slow-roller and he just kept leading into me, every betting round. Finally on the river, he went all in. I called.

He tabled his garbage hand.

There it was. My opportunity to get him back for the trash-talk. To get him back for the three consecutive slow-rolls.

I didn't do it.

I tabled my hand quickly and raked in the pot. I chose the high road. But it led over a cliff. Into a pile of poo.

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Holding AJ in mid position, I flopped trips on a KJJ flop. I bet. I got called. Wash-rinse-repeat. On the river, I finally realized I doubled my opponent up, who held KJ. I don't mind the hand, the same action follows if he had QJ or JT. Those things happen.

Not two minutes later, the guy got up to leave. Hit and run? It looked as much. But to be fair, he said it wasn't. The guy happened to be the person who got hit the worst at the robbery at Black Stallion. Something about the game right then and there spooked him enough such that he felt he had to leave.

Having never been involved in such an event, who am I to judge? It was unfortunate for me is all. But still, thanks karma.

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Later on, I flopped trips. On the turn I got my opponent all-in with his naked flush draw. He hit, of course. They always do.

And then he did a dance. Right there at the table, he did the old "Churn the Butter." I did not enjoy the rendition. Karma must have however. She'd schedule a repeat performance soon enough.

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I made a big call. This time someone pushed on the turn. I had only a pair of fours and the 2nd nut flush draw. But I thought I was good.

I was.

Opponent had no pair, but the nut flush draw.

An innocuous card hit the river and I still thought I was good.

I wasn't.

The card filled a highly disguised inside straight.

More dancing.

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It was past 3am and I new I was in trouble. My curfew is a more than reasonable 3am and I was going to be late. Sure enough, I was late and caught the requisite AND appropriate ration of shit from the Mrs.

Later that morning after she further expressed her disappointment in my later than normal return time, she said, "Are you even having fun playing poker lately?"

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Karma is having fun. I, on the other hand, had to answer truthfully.

"No, not lately."