Beer-on-the-Girl turns 30

Walt Clyde's brother, Beer-on-the-Girl, turned 30 on Halloween. We rocked it out in style for his birthday. Halloween night - NYC. Then, to Atlantic City for debauchery. (Though, I must say, I am vowing NEVER to go to Manhattan on Halloween in the future, especially the next time Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday. It was absolutely insane.)

Happy 30th, BotG.

No Limit Poker

If you are don't know anything about poker or are just not interested in it, skip this post.


The last time I played poker in A.C., after busting out of the tourney I was in, I sat down for some 1-3 NL (I was at Bally's, and they do 1-3 NL instead of 1-2 NL there). I usually buy in for the maximum $300, even though I probably do not plan to go all-in unless I have the absolute nuts. (I don't want the rest of the table to know this, of course.) I probably shouldn't be buying in for the maximum amount I've set on my bankroll - didn't I learn anything from Mike McDermott in Rounders?

Anyway, I went through a big swing on two big hands that illustrate how great and awful no-limit cash table poker can be, and how, even when I feel like I played the hands described well, luck can either help or hurt you tremendously on any given hand of poker.

So I'm playing...

1) I'm in late position with A-10 of clubs. About three people limp in between the blinds and me. I raise $10 up to $13 total. The blinds call and two limpers call, including one who has just thrown his last $8 in. (Pot has about $60 now.) So now I'm in last position.

Flop comes 7-7-4 rainbow. Everybody checks to me. Fearful that somebody is slowplaying a 7, I make a continuation bet of $25 anyway. The small blind calls after much hesitation and everybody else folds. Now we're at about $110. I eye down the small blind and decide if he checks, I bet no matter what.

Turn is a blank. He checks, I bet $60, and he thinks for a while, then shows 8-8 and folds. Since somebody is all in, I have to show my bluff. It turns out the all-in guy had something random like Q-6 and I won the pot. I probably overplayed it but was proud of myself.

A couple of hands later...

2) I'm in middle position with Q-J diamonds. I just call $3. Everybody folds. The small blind, a tight player, raises to $13. The big blind and I call.

The flop is A hearts - K hearts- 6 diamonds. The small blind bets $10. Big blind folds. I have no business calling, but think maybe he has a middle pair or a flush draw now, and call.

The turn is 10 of diamonds. I now have the nuts and a flush draw. Small blind bets $25. (The pot was about $50). I hollywood for a little while, then raise to $75. He looks over at my stack and says "How much do you have left?" I have about $110 more. He has about $200. I tell him. He thinks for a while. In my head, I'm chanting "PUT ME ALL IN PUT ME ALL IN PUT ME ALL IN". Eventually he just calls.

River is K of clubs. Fuck. He value-bets $25. I know he's got a full house now, but I call anyway, hoping he has a hand like K-Q. Nope, he had A-K the whole time, and he takes down the large pot, more than erasing my winnings from earlier.

I Phil Hellmuth him for about 5 minutes - "do you know you only had 4 outs going into the river?, etc..." He smiles quietly. "What are you smiling about? How freakin lucky you are?" etc... He never responds. The big blind, who folded after the flop, informs me that he folded 10-10 after the flop and would've made the second best hand, and I would've lost to them both anyway if he had called the $10 flop, which he doesn't know why I did. I tell him to fuck off and we continue to play.

Moral of the story: No Limit can be brutal if you don't have a big bankroll!

So close

"Close only counts in horseshoes and slow dancing."

Earlier in the summer, during the free few days I had between when school let out and when I started my work in Teaneck, I cashed at two tournaments in Bally's in Atlantic City. Now that I had another free week after my Teaneck work was done, I went back this week.

Monday I played in the $50 tournament at 1 pm. There were 47 people, top 5 spots paid. I came in 7th.

Tuesday I played in the $50 tournament at 6 pm. There were 84 people, top 9 spots paid. We were down to 11 people, two tables. This guy on the other table and I went out simultaneously in 11th and 10th place.

Both times I was there for four hours with nothing to show for it. I'm simultaneously happy about how I played and annoyed that I didn't win anything.

I think I need to take a break from A.C. and/or poker for a little while. :)

Prostitution Part II

A couple of months back I posted about prostitution and the farce of the "illegality" of this activity. To further reinforce my point, I picked up the free Atlantic City newspaper the last time I was down there. Here's a sampling of the classified ads:



Anyway, this is nothing. Anybody who picks up the free / cheap city papers in NYC, Philadelphia, or I'm sure any other major American city will see the same or worse. I'm sure you could purchase sex fairly easy with a couple of points and clicks as well.

I don't know, it just seems like with the way prostitution (and drug use) is "illegal" in this country the door is wide open for selective and ineffective enforcement and consequences. It also completely opens the door for the market for sex slaves and unsafe working conditions for women, doesn't it? What's wrong with making it legal? Am I just too liberal...?

Random Notes 4/20/08

- Regarding today's date... I haven't done a 4/20 in years. I think the last time was just around the end of college... about 8.5 years ago. I miss it sometimes, but not enough to start again. Maybe I'll do a 10-year reunion celebration.


- Living in South Jersey, I've been going to Atlantic City for poker action more and more often as time has gone on. I like to find tournaments when I go. There are about 10 casinos that have poker, however. So, in my Favorites on Internet Explorer, I had a list of each casino's poker page that I could compile when I would decide to do down. I'd been doing this for months. However, recently, I realized that I could simplify my life and just go to Google and search for "Atlantic City Poker Tournaments". I quickly found something that had everything in one place (here's the link, if you're interested).

The point? Always search on Google first before you do anything else. I knew this, but just didn't think to do it.


- I used to spend time as a kid at a friend's house in Teaneck who lives on Brinkerhoff Road. Her family used to do something which I regarded as extremely quirky - they would always leave their computer's power on, even when they weren't using the computer. They would just turn the monitor off. I would question my friend and her parents about this. Their response was that it was "bad" for the computer to start up too much, and thus this was prolonging the life of their computer.

I don't know if they're right or not, but I will say that it would be convenient to not have to wait the 5 minutes or so for the computer to get started, booted, etc... each time I need to quickly do something. I've found myself leaving the power on even when I'm running out for a couple of hours.


- Finally, sports injuries really freak me out. I'm not that squeamish in general, but I can't watch injuries without being disgusted. I suppose that's natural. Anyway, if you have more balls than me, go to this link, watch some of the videos, and tell me what you think. I can't do it.

Skechers

Some time ago, Chuckjerry went public with his addiction to Classic Adidas. I am now ready to go public with my affinity for Skechers.

When I decided to post this, I realized I knew nothing about the company. Apparently they're an independent company which is cool.

I don't have cute pictures of my Skechers collection - (a) because I'm not gay and (b) I don't have a collection per se, but... Skechers are a-mazing. (Just kidding, Chuck, you're not gay - just a Duke fan - oh wait...)



Skechers are great shoes. I'm a guy that doesn't like to spend a lot of time worrying about my outfits for work or casual wear - specifically, if clothes are too fancy, too casual, if they match, etc... Skechers shoes solve all these problems. They're formal enough for shirt-and-tie jobs like mine, yet casual enough to wear with jeans and a sweater to go out to eat. They're comfortable and durable. And they match with almost everything. The Skechers I buy are usually some mix of browns, blacks and greens, and those are versatile. I also wear a 13 or 14, depending on the brand, and Skechers come in my size. They're fashionable enough yet not too "young" for those of us over 30.

I highly recommend you buy Skechers if you haven't already. Many stores carry them but there is also an outlet in Atlantic City - for those of us in South Jersey.



I like Skechers.

New Year's Eve in Atlantic City

Yesterday was New Year's Eve. Happy 2008, everybody!

So my wife and I went to Atlantic City to see Elvis Costello perform at the House of Blues. He put on a good show, as we knew he would.

I looked into getting a hotel room in Atlantic City. Holy crap. Not only was it nearly impossible to get a room, but the rooms that were available were ridiculously overpriced. Supply and demand, I suppose. Most rooms at casinos ranged from $600/$700 up to almost $1000 for one night. Even the cheap places that are not even on the island, like roadside motels that are more suitable for, say, bringing a prostitute to, were in the $200 - $300 range for one night. It was amazing.

Incase you haven't been there in a while, Atlantic City has really changed its image. It has become upscale. Despite the Tropicana probably going under soon, it is doing very well with its new series of upscale shops and restaurants. I have walked on "The Walk" - smart move, by the way, by the casinos - fellas, you can gamble and your wife can, ahhh..., keep herself busy with the shops! It gets even ritzier. The clubs in Atlantic City have become a huge draw for the single crowd. Most of the casinos have posh, ultra-hip night clubs these days.






My brother, after seeing the outside look like this, and the inside of the Tropicana look like this after being away for some time, said something like, "I'm kind of sad. Whatever happened to the run-down, seedy town I remember? It's like when Vinny O's was renovated."





My wife and I went in for New Years Eve two years ago with no specific agenda, and people were dressed to the nines. It really was something. We strolled from casino to casino, having drinks and meeting random people, as is pretty common when everybody has had a few drinks.

We learned to not wait until too late in the evening to park at a casino parking deck, because when you leave at 2 in the morning you will wait for an hour or two just to get your car out of the parking deck. We did better this year and found a public lot on the street.


We split up. I played cards while she shopped, we had dinner together, and eventually saw Elvis.

I wasn't the only Teaneck clown in the casinos. Amazingly, this was early in the evening and both of the boys did well.















To summarize: If you're looking for a good time next New Years, you can do a lot worse than Atlantic City.