Rocket ride...that's what Val called it.   When it was clearly over she said a few things...such as "your a Fuckin poker player...you mean to tell me you didn't see this comming?" ........uh no, I didn't

....and "don't you know how to get over a bad beat?",.....hmmm

.....and  "I just wanted to go for a rocket ride"

So...just what was this "rocket ride"?   Well it happened like this,

After playing at Binion's we started to spend alot of time together.   The house I was staying at was centrally located between Val's to the South, Steve's to the West and Ana's to the North and the Spring Valley Club to the East....plus, I had the big flat screen TV, the DVD player, hot tub out back...ect, ect so my house was where we converged regularly....almost daily  I got into the habit of slicing up starwberrys...6 to 8 pounds at a time...the Cali berrys were priced at $1.39 for a 2 lb container...sliced up and layered with confectionares sugar....mmmmm.  

On a typical day val would arrive with Steve and Ana in tow, fire up the stove and pump out pancakes or french toast smoothered in berrys, pop a DVD in and we'd pig and watch tv then head down to the SVC for a noon meeting.  We'd converge at Val's later after 10pm for cards, Pia Gou or chinese poker or stud....Steve liked high-low.   But, the thing was...there was always a group of us playing laughing, running together.

I stopped playing poker.   That tight little world of self-disipline that had worked so well to make a profit at the tables...dissappeared.  Vanished gleefully without a trace....replaced by fun and frivilality and laughter.  Who could blame me?  I totally discarded all my practised ruetines...all the study and note taking of every casino and table and hand history...vanished.  Instead, I fixed Mary's car and Montana's car and the Toyota and Vals' caddy...I was picking up spending money and not worried...I was having a ball....the time of my life!   Val's 90 mph intensity was electrifying...we all picked up speed around her...our jokes, out speech our thoughts and laughter flew...there were other things to do instead of miticulous analysis of card hands and poker room crowds.   I was loving every minuete...and awaking in the morning like an expectant child on Xmas day....what newness and fun would today bring?   What jokes would we laugh at?   I said my daily morning prayers of thanks to be just where I was that day....and truely meant it.   Like the "happy fool", I completely lost myself in Val.

Then...just as Icarius....I flew too close to the sun....I got too close to Val's heart and she freaked....by getting as vicious as only a Vegas "desert rat" could.......
                 ................and she bit me.

I'm not one to take public humiliation very well....and once my trust in some one is shattered, it's pretty much over.   To quote Caralyn Hax   "Everyone knows that public humiliation and broken confidences are deplorable.  Anyone that does either on more than rare and regretted occasions either hasn't a clue or doesn't want one.  Please just accept this isn't someone you can trust."

A second debacle started at the Flamingo and spread like a cancer through out the night ending at Bill's gambling Hall at 6 the next morning.......lets just leave it at that....


She got what she wanted....distance from me.  3,000 miles of distance.  Yes, there was the week of residual phone texting and/or ect....but once that spell was broken...or "shattered"  the shards were just too sharp to clean up by hand. 


A cross country drive at 85 mph helped....from vegas to Santa Rosa New mexico the first day.....she called me the second day during the 18 hours from Santa Rosa to jackson Tennessee.  She was stunned that I was in Texas...she figured I'd be in Vegas "stewing"...thats boiling in my own juices....fuck that.   When I was litterally blinded by my emotions...my survival instinct to flee took over and it was "run-Forest-run!!"....all the way home....well...I did stop in Oklahoma and make a donation at the Fire-Lake Casino's $3-$6 table....and decided to forgo Tunica.   A decided 180 degree turnaround from January at Harrah's when I played the WSOP #2 event and busted #140 out of 449.  I'm happy with top 3rd...out lasting those other 309.

So...I played poker in Las Vegas for 4 months and 2 weeks....showed a profit, started playing no-limit cash and showed a profit.  Got my first royal flush. I spent a wonderful week in San Diego as a guest of John Connelly on his 44 foot Pacemaker.   And I made it out of Vegas alive....with my soul intact....with just a few bruises and hopefully....just maybe...a bit wiser and smarter.....next time will tell.

I haven't been able to play poker like I was since Val......I've sought help to over come whatever is blocking my mental processess and over a period of time my game should come back better than it has ever been...but it ain't easy....growth, for me, never is.   I am sooo grateful to be home among my loving friends...and you know who you are....I am happy once again....and am able to tell you about this. 

So...the dust cloud has settled...I've taken a deep breathe and now its time to pick myself up, brush myself off and start over again. 

Peace...out.

Funny how....when I am consistantly beating a game....my mind automatically believes that that good fortune applies laterally to other things.

I'm not that great of a short table player....Simon is alot better at that than me...but for some reason I thought playing a short table at the Planet Hollywood Poker room sounded like a good idea at 5 am...after all I'm comming from the MGM where I had been   p-a-i-n-f-u-l-l-y  g-r-i-n-d-i-n-g   out a modest cash out and surely this short handed table will be a "quicker" way to double that amount.

Well, I'm not a very good short handed table player and I certainly did not have the experience to crush this one.   If I didn't have the $ from the MGM...it would have hurt instead of stung.  

After 6 hours of MGM grinding this am, I'm got 1/2 of what I donated to PH  back.   So, I've had the mandatory "humblization" and will stick to what's been working.....no more short table, limit games while in town this time...if not at all for me.   As Montana says  "you can't beat the rake at those unless you go on a great card rush.....just like those other folks did".  lol

I had great weather driving out....I got the "Cosmic green light" at 6am while at Misha's and decided to start driving instead of doing my cross word puzzle.  :o)   Tennesse was gray and cloudy and I liked that....this was the day that Las Vegas got 4 inches of snow and McCarran airport shut down.   With the cloudy weather, I paid attention to the driving and made Memphis the first night after 14 hours.  Second day and the sun broke through early into Arkansas, and it was sunshine and blue skies all the way across Oklahoma to Amarillo Texas.  Then came my favorite part of the drive....from Amarillo to Flag Staff Arizona.   I slowed down and my head was on a swivel as I drank in as much of the "wide open" as I could.  I raced a train out of town in Tucumcary...lost my voice singing Christmas songs on the radio, ate a Blake's burger in Gallop New Mexico and pulled into Flag Staff at 9 oclock where the motel parking lot had 10 foot snow banks piled all the way around it.  I had a nice leasurely breakfast and drove into LV in the early afternoon.   :o)   Hail, hail the mighty Ford Focus....bringer of gamblers to this dusty town !!

I guess it's only fitting to hit 3 Kings on Christmas mornin... after doing so-so yesterday, Christmas eve when I was distracted by a series of phone calls while I was up and then Mr. Aggression sits down to my right after the college boy was felted so I left with enough to cover dinner & gas.   BUT this morning at 2:30 am I caught my 3 kings Christmas day and cashed out the most so far.   First time, this time, for me to cash out 2 racks.

Las Vegas on Christmas is different...as it should be.   Almost everyone is asian and all the table games are filled with men.   Very, very few women.  A virtual hooker's paradise...lonely men with money...but none of the working girls were in sight.

Lots of changes this year.   None of the games I ripped up last time are around.   The Plaza no longer has a poker room, it's been replaced with slots.   I asked the cashier where the poker room was and she pointed me to a neon "Poker Room" sign hanging over an empty space.   Mandalay Bay had the best $2-$4 limit game that was always running from 3 am until 8 when I would leave for the Gold Coast tournament.  NEITHER of which exist.   That Gold Coast tourney was famous....the ONLY limit & non limit tourney in town.......gone.   They took 4 tables and crammed them into a knook at the other end of the casino and killed the 10 am.    WHY?   Did it get that slow?  If you didn't sign up and pay by 8:30 you were turned away...on Fridays they would try to find another dealer to add another table....I was really looking forward to playing this one.  Such a shame.

The Luxor moved thier room into a smaller hidden area and changed the  games they spread.  Gone is the very profitable $1-$2 no limit with a $50 cap...yes a capped nolimit game.   It was sooo loose 6 to a flop was the norm and the max all-in was $50.  Every hand was followed up with "rebuy"!.   Gone is the $2-$4 limit...the first limit game I played in Vegas.

TI...Treasure Island.....is really slow.   This was where I would go first at 10 pm and play until the game died at 1-2 am.   I went by and the 4 dealers were playing by themselves.   They said I could join the "interest" list for $3-$6 with the 2 others.   This is really, really sad.   Is the poker boom over?   Or has the economy tanked so badly that the $'s just not there?

So.....I've been playing the MGM poker room exclusively.   Montana has a freind working in it so I know that what and how I do is known before I get home.....God I love small towns! 

 I haven't made it to the Hard Rock's new room yet....maybe that's were all the action is...

Can you believe I'm still in Va?   Nope, me niether.

I had made arrangements to stay in the house In LV for the winter back in Sept and figured I'd be there no later than Oct. 1st but others things have arisen from outside the pariphery....

Okay, okay I said, no later than late october and then it became appearant that that wouldn't do so I might as well stay and vote on Nov. 2nd.....and to keep from amusing my non-republican friends I won't dwell on that other than to say  "it is an interesting time in history to be an American"......

Then Howard called me up and let me know that since I was still on the east coast Nov 3rd, that I simply had to attend his wedding on the 15th.  Now, how could I argue with that?   And what a "happy-happy-happy-day that was"  :o)    Wish I had felt physically better, I would have stayed longer but with my gut flipping I didn't think an oyster feast would stay down.   His place was simply oooozing joy!

www.oldtimeworld.com

So,  I started to get things around to leave again, made plans to join John Jasper in Pheonix for Thanksgiving...then I got the phone call from my Mom the following day that my Uncle was dead from a hunting accident in Southern Va at his family farm.   10 days of family and funereal ensued.  After the service, my Mother came up to me and said "Allen, I do not think that you were to be in Las Vegas today"   and I could not agree more.

Vegas?    for the winter?  I don't know.   I'm leaving town "if and when" I get the "cosmic green-light" .    I'm thinking I shoulda spent these last 3 months getting more prepared to spend the winter here.......time will tell.

I got so pissed at the way "Kings & Queens" poker league continuely refuses to enforce any type of rules or etiquete that I walked out of a game back in early September and did not go back.  I handed over my chips, taking them out of play.   An experienced, older player (mid 40's?) sat down well after the start with blinds at 100-200, and as has become the rule at these events, he beligerantly refused to post blinds as they allow for a late start.   He knew better but what got to me again is the...."unless you are going to kick my ass, F**k you, I'm not posting" an attitude that has become so prevailant at these games.      Unlike buy-in tournaments that have a start time with the exception of blinding off the stack.   Often I become the enforcer of rules at the table which GREATLY deminishes my pleasure...and with some of these hot-headed "bling-bling" kids, it makes me look over my shoulder when I leave.   I had written out a list of 57 basic rules compiled from about 12 differrent leagues and sources about 6-8 mionths ago when I realized that 90% of the players just "don't know" and are more than happy to actually learn the rules and to play better.  That helped for maybe a week?   But this is all worthless when the league itself is driven to providing a "drunken atmostphere"  where anything is allowed.   The sole focus being to "provide exciting poker action with loud & wild gambling fun"  creating a total ruacus plus an added sense of danger with the angle-shooting  "route 1 gangstas"  that ruetinely intimidate the table with thier "shut the F**K up or I'll take your Mother F**king ass out".     I had made up my mind at 1 time that the next time my life was threatened at Calabash to just whip out the cell and call 911 and report that I was verbally assualted and in fear for my life.   F**K Tony.   Yep...that's about what they've become. 

    It all came to a head when the venue hosting the game got in on the act yeasterday.   As I said, I hadn't played a K & Q games since Sept. 7th but yesterday when I got back from Baltimore I recieved this email...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

K & Q's players,

We'd like to invite the top 125th in ranking along with all our nightly winners,
to our regional tournament this Saturday, October 11th!! The tournament will be
held at Floyd's Bar and Grill. Registration will begin at 1pm. Tournament will
start at 2pm sharp.

We look forward to crowning our next winner!!!

See you there....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I was still ranked at 27 even without playing at all for weeks and since this is a "free" poker league, I thought "oh what the hell"........mistake.

   I arrived there at 1: 35 and immediately saw 4 players standing outside very upset.   Seems management of the venue had decided that you either pay them $15 for the buffet or you can't enter the building.   I went up to the "smarmy arab Bitch"  who took total delight in letting me know in no uncertain terms that either I hand over $15 to her or I have to leave the premesis.  Cut and dried.   I said "I don't want the buffet, I qualified for the regional tournament, I'm here solely for the poker".  Her reply, "you have to pay me $15 or you have to leave".

   Now I've played about as many buy-in tourneys as I have freerolls at this time, anywhere from $2 online to $500 vegas $.  I have no problem with buy-in tourneys.......BUT I have always known up front if it would be a buy-in event and how much the buy-in is.  K & Q's have ALWAYS had free games up to this point.    I got pissed.   "Pay me $15 or leave?"   F**K   YOU !!

   I drove home and brought up all the Virginia gambling laws that shows this to be an illegal endeavor....personally I felt the "shakedown" to be sophmoric with the sense of extortion.....some of those folks rode the bus.   Free poker does not attract the wealthy.  I know some very good players that are desparate to win so they have bus fare home...instead of walking miles at 11 p.m.   That type of hunger brings out a viciousness and hard play you don't see in Las Vegas tourists.   Here's what VA says...

------------------------------------------------------

§ 18.2-325. Definitions.

1. "Illegal gambling" means the making, placing or receipt, of any bet or wager in this Commonwealth of money or other thing of value, made in exchange for a chance to win a prize, stake or other consideration or thing of value, dependent upon the result of any game, contest or any other event the outcome of which is uncertain or a matter of chance, whether such game, contest or event, occurs or is to occur inside or outside the limits of this Commonwealth.

§ 18.2-325. Definitions

4. "Operator" includes any person, firm or association of persons, who conducts, finances, manages, supervises, directs or owns all or part of an illegal gambling enterprise, activity or operation.

§ 18.2-328. Conducting illegal gambling operation; penalties.

The operator of an illegal gambling enterprise, activity or operation shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. However, any such operator who engages in an illegal gambling operation which (i) has been or remains in substantially continuous operation for a period in excess of thirty days or (ii) has gross revenue of $2,000 or more in any single day shall be fined not more than $20,000 and imprisoned not less than one year nor more than ten years.
As used in this section, the term "gross revenue" means the total amount of illegal gambling transactions handled, dealt with, received by or placed with such operation, as distinguished from any net figure or amount from which deductions are taken, without regard to whether money or any other thing of value actually changes hands

§ 18.2-329. Owners, etc., of gambling place permitting its continuance; penalty.

If the owner, lessee, tenant, occupant or other person in control of any place or conveyance, knows, or reasonably should know, that it is being used for illegal gambling, and permits such gambling to continue without having notified a law-enforcement officer of the presence of such illegal gambling activity, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

§ 18.2-334. Exception to article; private residences.

Nothing in this article shall be construed to make it illegal to participate in a game of chance conducted in a private residence, provided such private residence is not commonly used for such games of chance and there is no operator as defined in subsection 4 of § 18.2-325.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

   A business that serves the public and has a liquer lisense is not a "private residence".   As you see the Free poker has to be completely free to be legal in Va.   Or play in your home.   simple.  

   So, I made a phone call to Alexandria's finest explaning the situation.   They agreed to my assessment and said they would send a police officer to see the situation and would I meet them there.   So, I returned to Floyd's.   In the meantime some one "clued in" the "greedy-f**k's"  and they stopped charging.   So, I went in to play and I was allowed to join the tourney after posting.   Tony at first didn't want to let me play but relented when I said I was late because I wasn't allowed in unless I paid the $15.   Makes me wonder if he had coluded with the management and initiated this.    30 mins. later I got a call from the Alex police to meet them outside.  A meeting occured with them and a mangaer and myself.   At which time the tourney went on break.  I thuroughly enjoyed seeing the manager's face pale when he realized he was to be arrested for charging a $15 entrance fee to play poker, making that game illegal in the state of Va.   What it came down to was....1) Floyd's has been educated to the fact that they cannot charge any type of fees for a "free" game.  2) There now exists an Alexandria police report documenting an allegation of an illegal game.   So now Floyd's and K & Q's  are no longer "under the radar".   3) I know EXACTLY what is required to have the next "shake-down" artist arrested.   The police officer decided that for this situation, a "misunderstanding" occured and the manager agreed that he would educate his employees of the situation.  A follow up notification to the property owner should wrap this up.

  "pay me $15 or leave?......$15 or leave the premesis?......F**K You!!"

The majority of the venues that host these games should not even be in business.   The food is generally horrendous....very over priced...which is why they are having trouble remaining in business to begin with and search out these leagues.   The worse burger I ever had was a "buffalo burger" in Oklahoma.  Litterally "shoeleather".   But...a $5 burger.   At one venue, that buffalo burger would have been a major improvement over thier $12 rancid mystery meat burger with condiment packets stolen from the 7/11 next door.   More ketchup?....Jose will be back in 5 minutes.   They set these games up to shake down the players that show up.   It's become a constant to hear the host saying  "If you don't drink more or buy the food we can't have games"  some leagues advertise $300- $500 prizes for first then announce that not enough people are there or that those attending haven't spent enough money and they cut the prize money to $50 & $25  or in the case of Capitol Poker League....don't award the prizes at all.   Two weeks ago CPL had a "thanks for 3 years of poker" goodbye to everyone.  They now only have games at 1 establishment on friday night.   Does this coincide with the "great tournament" that went from a $5,000 buy-in at the Borgata to $2,500 prize pool to "not going to happen".   How many 100's of times did they hawk that "great prize" as they pump the attending crowd to "spend more and drink more and eat more" so "you CAN play for the big money".   Easier to shut down then to actually hold a tournament where you have to pay prizes out of your pocket.   Easier to shut down and keeep everything.   That tournament, just like my prize for finishing 4th at his regional....just does not exist.

Here's a nice little quote from some one else...

"Speaking of which, I hear that CPL has been all but killed by the area's newest (and apparently, hottest) league, Double Me Up (www.doublemeup.net).  The word is that Mark gave a huge speech at last Friday's game at Uptown, explaining that competition had forced them out of every other venue and that only Friday games would be held from this point forward.  However, according to the website there was still a game at Bridges last night, so the exact status of the league is still up in the air.  IF YOU CAN VERIFY OR DEBUNK ANY OF THIS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW (and post it as a comment here so everyone can see).  While I'm sad to see CPL stumble and fall, I'm hardly surprised.  Firehouse was the soul of that league, and once they lost that venue it was only a matter of time.  The empty promises of bus trips and satellites into high buy-in tournaments just served to expedite the inevitable.  I'm sure the new league will be fun too, I just don't like change"

Notice the "empty promises"?   Pretty bad to not payout prizes to those who've won them with good and hard poker play.  CPL doesn't deserve to exist.

End of "Free" poker in Va?  Perhaps, that's just not a bad thing......

When I asked the other players yesterday if they felt like the $15 was an extortion fee...OVERWELMINGLY they said yes and then thanked me for calling the police and making a record of this.   NOT ONE chastised me nor questioned my actions.   NOT ONE said anything good about the buffet.   Most choose to ignore it seeing that it was a sham and not meant to feed 60- 80 people.  So, any one thinking my call to ACPD was petty.......give me  $15 so I can play the next K & Q's regional.  Course, they may make it alot more concidering they've had thier "day of grace".

These free games served a purpose for me when the organised home games were getting robbed regularly in 2006.   Some times that 1.5 hour drive to southern MD to play at the F.O.P. was just too far after working all day.   Then came the realisation that learning tells was easier when you played against those who so innocently gave them off.   Finally, playing against every type of loose/phenominally lucky first timers gave me alot of experience for next to nothing.  But....enough is enough.   If these leagues have to conduct illegal games in order to exist then they shouldn't exist.  

    With playing the leagues in North Carolina, such as "Series 7", I realised just how shabbily handled these Va games are.   Perhaps those NC games are so much better run because of the NC state laws against poker are severe and because they are strictly enforced.

They don't argue for a return to "unregulated" online poker.  Everyone accepts a compromise with a hope of a return. 

""Reciept of money for a chance to win a prize, dependant upon the result of any game, the outcome of which is uncertain.""  An illegal game defined.  and EXACTLY the situation found at Floyd's. 

Clearly, by recieving $15 from each player to participate in King & Queens regional poker tournament Floyd's created an illegal gambling situation by Virginia's standards.
 

It's been another good week.....and I need a few more to breath relaxed...awaiting a large exhale.

It's a bit of work...kinda like a psycological dance in 3 steps.

1) find the game.  This includes opting out of the ones filled with names like "De-Bo" & "Fingers" & "Psyco" & "Shaniqua-fuck-you-up".  Staying away from the "code words"...that spell s-e-t-u-p-2-r-o-b-y-o-u-r-a-s-s.   Times like these Vegas is refreshing with all its honest games...you honestly knew when the locals where ganging up on you.

2)Beat the game.  Staying with the ABC's of good play and not getting sucked in nor distracted...especially from the sound of crack pipes in a back room and police sirens.

3) get out with the money.   In the cuacasion neighborhood the worse so far is temper tantrums by an over sterioded marine........just requires figuring out the propper "got-2-go" technique.   Selecting the right game has a lot to do with back door exits and I don't like it when the host has more than 4 dogs in the back yard.

I've played at some very interesting tables with 99% of the people being decent poker-oriented folks interested in the game.   But boyoboy does that other 1% make for some stop-action story telling.

Febuary is paid for and it's only the 14th.

Gotta love a woman that starts the 14th with   "isn't today named after some murder in Chicago"

Well, I can honestly say that my game has improved....so much, that I can take 4 brutal bad beats and still remain in a tournament.   No, I will spare you all the gory details...surfice it to say that I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach and nuasieated...Lost my trip 9's to a full house that filled on the river after disguising my trips.....lost my 10 high flopped straight when the 9 and 10 came runner runner to give the other players jack the higher straight......my pocket aces lost to a flopped full house of King-7-king....I knew she hit and folded them showing.   She later told me she had pocket 7's.   SO....what did all of this lead up to?   My starting stack of $4000T was down to $800T without winning a single pot in 1.5 hours....shoved all-in with Qh-10h and got 2 flat callers before the aggressive player shoves-all-in, they fold and its his pocket 8's vs my 2 overs.  Flop....6-4-7 and I'm going, "come on queen, come on 10"  The turn is a 9 and I'm like, "an 8 will give me a straight".  A folded player goes "I folded one of your eights" so I said to the dealer...."give me the case 8".   and he did.  I one outed the hand....WTF.   I was up and ready to leave and I'm now $3,200T.

Course...that only lasted another hour or so.   It's really pathetic when you get  your All-in called by the big blind, blind.   Everyone else folded and he calls without looking.   The dealer puts them out 2-5-7-9-j.  His 10-7 un spikes a 7 and my Ace-face is no good....he puts me out.  So for 4 hours...I won 1 pot with the 1 outer and then held my own until out at 13th.    At this rate I'd rather sit home and watch the weather channel for a day.

Before the tournament started Greg introduced me to a fellow player, Jim...who goes "I recognised you when I walked in....I was at that table a year ago at the big (400 players) East Coast Billiards tournament when your aces where busted in the first hand....3 minutes after the start you were busted and walking out the door before some tables even started......and that F'n moron tried to make us all believe that he played his pocket dueces correctly....when you shoved all-in we knew you had aces...and he makes a set on the river" (see a previous blog about haveing aces cracked on the first hand....unfortunately, more than once).   What could I say?...actually I said, "I'm still glad that wasn't a $5,000 buy-in" ...remembering that that exact thing had happened to "Happy-Jack" at the WPT tourney at the Borgota.

So....My game has improved....I could get back to center and play correctly again after each beating...although after the 4th one...it did take longer to remain mentally strong and not blindly throw in with a F'this..   I am aware however, that they did take a psycological toll.....I became less willing to gamble and that is never good.   I went out last night and played at bridges and had my 3rd straight flush prior to the final table.    Made 3rd place.....I played poorly at the final table from when it was down to 4...and I busted 3rd.

Soon...it'll be 8 months of unenployment.   My life seems to be in a "holding pattern".   Hopefully, my big diesels in Baltimore will be sold soon....and then it's possible to do another month or 2 in Las Vegas....we'll see.

As for now...I'm off to the blue room and then meet with my poker sponser for dinner.

So...I slept into to 11:00 ...at least I saw the crack of noon.   Hey, after last night, I'm happy to be here....and happily eating my breakfast taco.

Whew...my GAWD what a game!    I was so wired from RedBUll 180 energy platonium juice inn a can...I couldn't sit still for longer than 5 minutes without shoving all-in...

"I'm All-in...thats right you pack of basement lizards...All-in for All of it...count it...all of it  yep the whole enchalata...call me, dare ya, call me...I'm all in"

I knew it was gonna be bad when I pushed back in a free roll prior to the big game....with my 6-4 off suit.

Hey, he missed the flop...I can tell, I've got a read on the bastard...I'm looking at a double gutshot after the flop...any5 or 9 and I've made a straight....he missed so I've got 2 live cards...okay lets see if he's got the balls to put the other half of his stack in on a missed flop.....

He did.  Ace-queen.   hey, the flop was low and with a board like that...I obviously represented a low pair...

I'll never learn....you can't force a fold in a free game.  Can't be done.   It's like trying to bluff by calling...it doesn't work.

So, out the door, across the county to the "BIG GAME"   where the money is real and the losers call a cab to ride to the ATM.   Smoke filled, musty moldy basement with 2 tables going and 20 people standing around watching.   These always make me nervous....too many speculators...I wonder who's armed with what....The "bling-bling-boys" preffer the silverplated 9mm's but me?  I'm old school mac10.  Anyways...the big hand....played    s-l-o-w-l-y...nope, not Jake's 3-5 off....this was a real money night....

The bully of the table was a rabid firing DC lawyer with a very large bankrool that was second only to his ego.  He'd had command of the table for the last hour and I had yet to tangle with him.....I had spent the last hour noting every betting nuance and when he came in for a raise 6 times the big blind, I knew it was either a pair of 10's or jacks.   Other's would pull a mid position steal like this but not him...I looked down at pocket Queens and counted the folds around to me.

"Reraise...makes it $600"  minimum raise....I wanted him isolated and the "gamblers" on my left took the hint folding around.  He called without looking up.

Flop, 10s-Qs-Qh.  I flop quads.   He bets $300....hmmm is he thinking I'll raise? ...no way.   I sit there rubbing my chin.  I take my hat off and scratch my head.   "flush draw?"   You'd check your trips"...then I smooth called.

Turn is a blank.....5d.  "$600"...he says...a pure continuation bet.  I go raise, make it $900.   You're going to pay for that spade."

And he called!

The river was the 5th spade....AHHH the glorious sight of it all.....3 spades to the flush, 2 Queens smiling, either a flush or a boat...he's paying me off!

"All-in"......you're All-in I ask?   feigning surprise at such a move...I called and he flipped his pocket 10's to let me know that he was a better player than one drawing for a flush....he had his nuts...a boat, 10's full of queens.

"Quads"....quads...I raked back the pot knowing January is taken care of.

While hanging out with Bill and watching him melt aluminum into stars...while awaiting the neighbors call to the fire department   He's casting pieces out of aluminum in his backyard......I got the update on the "crazy cash laden Armenians"....they were towed into Savannah GA last week after bobbing around for 30 hours with no power, they made Norfolk without incident and so headed out and south when they ran into a 3 day storm the last 30 hours of which they bobbed without power until.......they "finally got a cell phone call out" and got a tow in.  

I lost the bet....nobody died.....oh well....I guess some bets are better to lose.   Like Georges bet with us about Hillary, he bet her to win and then said  "When I pay this off...it will be one of the happest days of my life ! "

Spent thanks giving with the "parental units" and then didn't have a single win.....went home for Xmas and my neiphew Ethan was too sick for the R's to come up from SC.....my mother did a "Bourne identity marathon"....too fast for me...I started losing track of it all in the middle of the third movie we watched.....I was happy with the ending of number 1....the 2 of them happy on thier little tropical island beach...

  Got back from Xmas and played my first serious game....and had my first significant win last night, paid my boat insurance for 2008.   Now to make that a common occurance.   Sat next to FredD and doubled him up before flopping a straight and putting him out.   I like private clubs with restored pinball machines set on "Free-Play".....really cool.   it reminded me of 1) Las Vegas's Pinball Hall of Fame....where I'd play until my wrists cramped, get the "action" out of my system and then play some mean poker after having had that "Need for speed" removed.......and 2) Cambridge Maryland...I used to run the tug and barge out of the back creek....there was 3 feet of space on each side between the barge sides and the bridge that spanned the opening of the back creek where Arundul Corporation unloaded sand and stone....the patrons of the restuarant next door to the bridge would come out and line the railing and watch.....waiting to witness desaster if you missed....prior to getting under way, I would play an hour of fast pinball at the arcade up the street...it got my reflexes in shape.   I actually got very, very good at this and often it was set up so that we sailed under my watch which I liked.....I enjoyed being able to do this better than the other tug captains and mates.......   In the winter, at the Texaco dock on the port side, the half rotten skipjacks tied up abreast, sticking out a bit and on the starboardside were the condos and goldplatted yachties with a dog leg thrown in the middle of the channel and the docks of "Yacht Maintenance" to navigate past....this was the adrenalien rush of the whole trip....the first 1/2 hour.

They just finished a Belle Haven Marina video on Youtube....I'll have Donald help me put it up as soon as I can......they Y'all can see this great place....quite a difference from the desert of LV.  In the mean time, seach Belle Haven Marina on Youtube....

The fare at "South Side" is just simply getting better and better.....