johnny

So after much hemming and hawing over the weather I checked the forecast again on Friday morning and saw that it had changed again, with snow now planned for Saturday. We had family just past Buffalo in Rochester, NY while growing up and would spent alternate Christmas holiday's there. Some of those drives were just insane, whiteout snow and 8 or 9 hours on the road. F that hard, I'm never even taking a remote chance on doing that again. Puck, I have no idea how you guys deal with that weather. The drive up was pretty smooth. Just a few patches of sleet, but the majority was just big dark angry clouds who weren't ready to give up their goods.

This next paragraph is in honor of Snickers. At about the Ohio/Pennsylvania border I realize I have to piss. There is big rest stop inside New York though, and Pennsylvania is only 45 miles wide at this point and I keep driving. Inside New York I get the toll ticket and it has the placement of the rest stops listed on the back... it's like another 45 miles to it. Shit, I didn't remember it being that far in and I really have to go. Arrrgh. I continue on, counting down the miles, speeding up more and more. 35 miles... uncomfortable... 35 miles... more so... 25 miles... a little pain, I check around for bottles but only have a water bottle with a small opening.... 15 miles.... I'm sitting a little funny and on my side but I have hope. 10 miles... My eyes are bugging out a little but we're almost there... 2 more miles... a sign saying 10 more miles to the rest stop. FUCK! :upset: 5 miles to go and my vajayjay is seriously a pain'in. I make it there and a truck is slowly moving up the ramp at 15 MPH and I can't get around it... He pulls over and stops, I pull in to a parking space and go inside. There is a bridge over the freeway and the rest stop is in the median. The bridge is full of kids, busloads of them. There is a couple sauntering in front of me with their arms around each other and with all the kids it's hard to get around them. Finally they stop dead to watch the cars to underneath them and I push past and get to the bathroom... more kids. Wait my turn, just about to pass out or something... ahhhhhh, I piss while 2 people come and go in each of the urinals next to me, then take a deep breath and have another normal size piss. I'm back on the road, all happy, and again able to drink my coffee.

Easy parking and a light crowd at the casino. It looks like I'm the first of us to arrive in the poker room. It's about 2:30. I look at the lists. We knew that they were now having a $1/$2 NL game with a $100 min/$200 max but didn't know what would happen to the $1/$2 NL $40 min/$100 max game. They had both running. They had 2 tables of $200 max with 3 person waiting list. They had 3 tables of $100 max running with a long waiting list. Hmmm. Looks like $100 max will be more popular. I sign up for $200 max, but also put my name on the $100 max list thinking that I could switch in a while if I hated my table. I'm called very quickly, buy my chips, and sit down.

I'm UTG first hand and muck trash. The guy next to me gets into a pot with 2 shortstacks and busts them both. They both leave the table and so does he. I post the BB and they open a new $100 max table and call my name as the 10th player. wtf. Since I already posted I play through the CO but just fold trash, then get up and go to the $100 max table since this table was going to remain shorthanded and I really didn't like it much.

I sit at the table that I'll play the all but a few of my hands at. To my left is a nervous guy who's heart you can see beating out of his chest whenever he's in a pot. Next to him is the table loudmouth. Next in line is a lady who limps/folds just about every hand. Next to her is the idiot savant. I'm not using this term to say he looks like rainman or anything, well he looked a lot weirder than that and spoke really funny, but obviously had the math down and knew how to adjust it to the table. At one point he was was only guy with more chips than me. Next to him is some guy I don't remember. Then comes a young toothpick of a guy who plays better hands but overvalues stuff like 2nd pair when he's getting aggression. Two guys who looked like half way decent players were next, followed by bad-perm guy to my right. The looser players were to my left, the tight players to my right, which put me in ultra tight aggressive mode, which turned too passive as the players who I thought were T/A bet into me.

I fold some hands to start and watch the table. Most hands are raised pre-flop and the standard is $10. That's with zero, one, two, three, four, five, or six limpers - they just raise to $10. Flops generally have 3 to 6 way action.

I get AKs on or near button for my first hand in the pot. About 4 limpers and I raise to $15. Loudmouth in the BB is annoyed and says "$15? That sounds fishy." and calls. Bad perm guy calls. I miss the flop and it checks to me and I bet $25. Loudmouth folds. Bad perm calls and looks excited. I hit my turn but he's all happy and making small bets so I just call him down and lose to his 2 pair, Queens and Tens. The overcard on the turn slowed him down. Oh well, I pull the extra chips I had from originally buying into the table out of my pocket and put my stack back to $100. I guess I didn't lose that much. I checked later and thought I had $10 in chips left in my pocket but it was $35. I told Snickers that I got felted to start out but it I guess it just "felt" like it.

As it turns out that's the only hand where I'd lose chips post flop. There was a lot of action on the table. As guys would get short, about $25 to $35 in chips, they would push instead of rebuy. Then they would rebuy the whole $100 if they lost. Savant beat Loudmouth several times. Loudmouth was your basic ass, where every word that he's thinking has to come out his mouth. He would push pre-flop with any pair. So he didn't have to do it too often before people started calling him with 2 face cards. He'd lose and bitch about "how he wants his opponents to call like that, nice suckout." One hand he pushes with 77 and gets called by JKs but also called by AQo, much to the dismay of JKs. He says "Ok! I'm the favorite! Lets see if you guys suck out." When he loses he leaves the table for a few minutes and comes back and says "Well, I called my poker advisor and he told me that I'd be a real idiot to leave a table like this." Good on him. The guy dumped $800 that I saw, could have been more. I didn't get much of it.

I raised a few more times, standard 4x + 1BB per limper and everyone just folded. It kind of fucked up the table. Someone fell back to raising $7 pre flop instead of $10 then they all did. So that became the standard raise, $7 no matter how many limpers.

I limped with :Ah: :Th: in late position in the mood for a miracle flop and boom :3h: :6h: :8h: I figuerd it would scare folks off but the two guys who I thought played pretty well both stayed in it. It checked to them, the first guy bets $10, the second guy calls, I call, the other fold. Hmmmm. Well I just called because I want them to bet and call again and the other guys to have stayed in and the only thing I hate is a paired board. Turn = :6s: Shit. First guy bets $15, second guy calls, I call. I hate that the board paired, and I hate that the second guy flat called. The river is :Qh: and first-to-act doesn't seem to care about the heart at all, bets $30. The 2nd guy folds. I just call it. What do you guys think? I was pretty sure I was fuxored. He was pushing if I raised and calling if I pushed, but would he do that with anything but a boat? Apparently. At this point villain just looks at me. That's the other thing about this table, no one would show their cards. They would look at each other until someone finally showed then everyone else would either muck or show if they won, unless they won with just one card then they would muck one and show one. I just showed mine immediately because it was obvious no one was going to play me any different anyway and wtf, you're all idiots. I showed the nut flush and villains jaw drops, "Wow, you could have felted me." and he mucks. I have no idea what he had, but wtf? :Kh: ? a bullshit straight that he raised with? He most likely had :Kh: :Ks: and limped even though he was in MP with 2 limpers. I guess I played the river too timid.

The other hand I played weak-sauce was AK. I raised and this time got a boatload of callers. Flop comes QQK. Bah. I check in EP and the same two guys end up in the pot with me. First guy makes a $10 bet, second guy calls, I call, the others had folded. Turn is blank. $20 bets and calls. River is a Q. These guys were supplying enough action and I figured I was splitting and at any rate someone was going to bet and I could see how much so I check and they both check it down and muck. I'm an idiot.

Oh, speaking of idiot, after a few hours I start wondering why they aren't giving away iPods. This is the mailer I got that led me to believe they were...

[img]http://www.framecentergallery.com/tehpokers/pokerbah.jpg[/img]

So, either they are giving away the stuff at a different casino because that's where the final tournament is being held or they got the date wrong because Black Friday is Nov 23rd, not Nov 16th. Either way, no stuff. I asked about it but they just looked at me like I was the last dumbass off the short bus and said they had no idea what I was talking about. Only got partial credit on my player's club card too because their machine was brokeass.

I checked on Snickers, who was playing $100 max across the room, and said "How's it going?" He leaned back, revealing a really nice stack and we nodded and I went back to my table.

People started leaving the table and we got shorthanded. The dynamic changed on the board - instead of $100 max being the popular one now their was a long list for $200 max and no list for $100 max. I played 4 to 6 handed for about 90 more minutes and then left the table. No real hands of importance. I didn't hit one flop. Oh, one hand. I had AQs and raised UTG 5 handed. One guy calls. I miss the flop, which is all spades. I put out $10 bet to sniff him out. He looks at the board then looks at one card, then looks at the board, then looks at his other card. Says "OK" and calls. Ha. I guess the A was the spade. The turn comes a heart and I bet the pot, not wanting to give him the river card, or at least not cheaply. He folds.

Bad perm guy says "Wow, you had the flush." and since I was leaving soon I said "No, he had the flush draw with one card and I didn't want him to draw out. I didn't have anything but I had his Ace/crap hand beat." He look at me and I think his perm straightened a little. He was new to the game and studying, you could tell. It actually made me nostalgic for our first few trips up there. His brain totally fried when one guy had 22 and the other had A6 at showdown with a board of 26J6Q and the pot got pushed to the "wrong guy" and no one said anything. I tried to explain that it wasn't trips over trips like he thought and he just shook his head ponderously. He would account each move with authority. I CALL! I RAISE! But he wouldn't say "I fold!" instead saying "NO!!! I lose!" He woulnd't say "Button is right" instead saying to me "I AM GIVING YOU THE BUTTON!" to which I would reply "THANK YOU! I ENJOY THE BUTTON!" I was having fun with the guy on the other side of me too who would just about have a coronary every time he saw a flop. He called an all in with AKs and ended up against another AKs and before the river was dealt I said "Relax, you're going to split the pot." and he said "I'm not sure!" I said "Got your heart going a little there didn't it?" and he said "Yes, I could have lost!" and I said "Fun stuff."

I we were down to 4 handed again and I just up and left the table. I cashed in my chips and went to see Snickers and looked around the table and got really confused. Oh, they busted up my table when I left and the guys came to this one. I ask Snickers if he's hungry and we decide to play more, and even after absorbing our guys there is a seat open. I look to the manager to see if I can get her attention and she's already pointing at me and telling me to sit my ass down. So I rebuy and sit. Just 1 hand in thebatsman arrives and we talk for a bit while Snickers and I play just about 1 round. Even though I only sat for a short time I got to live some of the hell that Snickers must have been going through for hours because the guy inbetween us was giving us his chip count every hand, how much he's up or down, and telling us what his cards were if he would have hit something after folding and he's playing every hand. We cash out to go have some dinner together at Morrie's, the sandwhich place Snickers always goes to. We had great fun talking for a few hours about the day's play, recent posts, and you fuckers. I was driving home after dinner so I didn't want to drink, but next time we'll have to hit the bar for a bit.

About 9:30 I say goodbye to Bats and Snickers and head home. They were planning on getting to the poker room about 11:00am this morning. The drive home was mostly very enjoyable... clear cold skies, 2 Red Bulls, and a cigar. The last hour in Ohio was white-out lake-effect snow with 25MPH winds though, so I didn't get home early enough to check the boards or write this last night. I kept losing track of how much I was up or down and my estimates were off, but for the little bit of poker I played I ended up $200 after deducting for gas, tolls, food and incidentals. Not too bad.

__________________
Blog Updated 6/21, Oooops, I'm goin to Vegas in a few days.
11:09:32 PM Randy: limit poker is easy
11:19:03 PM Randy: ok, i suck at teh limit

Mirage: FU PKOER
Mirage: F
Mirage: U
Mirage: FUFUFU
Mirage: up a $1.45 still YES

thebatsman

Ok I'm home.Had a great short time with Snickers and Johnny as always. Played 2 sessions down $- 20.00 . I like the Canadian side better.. :nod: .I will post more later.

Left Snicker's Yesterday afternoon..we were both getting beat up a little on the same table.

johnny
. We cash out to go have some dinner together at Morrie's, the sandwhich place Snickers always goes to. We had great fun talking for a few hours about the day's play, recent posts, and you fuckers. I was driving home after dinner so I didn't want to drink, but next time we'll have to hit the bar for a bit.



Agreed I enjoyed this the most and Agreed we gotta hit the bar next time.

Fallsview??? Next time???

Post some more later

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Snickers99

Nice report, Johnny...thank you for the bathroom report! You know how much I love those! And yeah, 'dinner' at Morries was a good time.

And yeah, we talked about hitting Fallsview on the Canadian side in maybe March or April, so you guys that are close have time to plan!

I'll try to post something tomorrow. Fucking wild ride today.

__________________
"I'm disappointed in you, Scotty" -- Michael DeMichele at the 2008 WSOP HORSE Final Table
Check out My Blog, updated 8/24/08

puckhead23

I grew up in Buffalo and know nothing else. As you can see from your trip, the weather guys are always filled with doom and gloom and the weather turns out to be just fine. Regarding your nut flush hand, I would have considered raising the flop. With two players in a Seneca Niagara hand, a slowplayed set will put you all-in, a baby flush will put you all-in, and two pair will likely pay to see the turn. As the hand was played, I think you had to play the river as you did. BTW, I liked your AKs line; nothing weak there. The retarded Seneca Niagara player calls raises with ATC.

How did you get on the mailing list? I had no idea they had a $90 deep stack tourney. I bet that would be a good tourney.

__________________
"Seriously, even if you're not the most skilled player in the tournament, remember that Jamie Gold actually won a tournament" - Randy

mike_eagles

So do Americans need a passport yet to go to and from Canada?

Snickers99

We were talking about this over dinner. Labatts says no, as long as you are driving. If you are flying, then yes, you need a passport. I did some quick research and agree w/Labatts. From what I found (and Labatts said this too), you will need two forms of ID, at least one with your picture (government type issue). They recommend drivers license and birth certificate.

See [url=http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=3669711&page=1:3cycvxj9]this ABC News story[/url:3cycvxj9]. Seems they are shooting for late summer 08 to require passports, but we are shooting for before summer.

__________________
"I'm disappointed in you, Scotty" -- Michael DeMichele at the 2008 WSOP HORSE Final Table
Check out My Blog, updated 8/24/08

mike_eagles

Thanks for the information. I know eventually we will need a passport but did not know when.

johnny

bats - Yes, Fallsview! Or the cheap one... I like the cheap one. I think they both have poker rooms and I bet the cheaper one is softer. Also, the hotel is probably cheaper. At any rate, they are just a 10 minute walk apart.

The hotel at the cheap one ( I say cheap but it's really nice - it's just that the casino has lower stakes ) has a really nice little piano bar next to the walkway to the casino where we can get lubricated before hitting the tables.

__________________
Blog Updated 6/21, Oooops, I'm goin to Vegas in a few days.
11:09:32 PM Randy: limit poker is easy
11:19:03 PM Randy: ok, i suck at teh limit

Mirage: FU PKOER
Mirage: F
Mirage: U
Mirage: FUFUFU
Mirage: up a $1.45 still YES

johnny

Puck - I missed seeing you there. We'll have to make sure the next trip is for a date that we can all make. I think I got on their mailing list when I was up there on my birthday last year and showed them my drivers license to get my free birthday pack. Their eyes lit up and they were like "oooo! driver's license!" then they walked away with it into that little back room while I was standing there going "wtf?" They probably photocopied it. The next time you go they take your drivers license if you sign up for the poker room players card so I bet that gets you on it too. I may also have gotten on it by filling out the page at the following link, because I've never received an email from them.... http://www.senecapokerrooms.com/eclub/index.php

I get one newsletter a month and it tells about the upcoming promotions and tournaments. However, sometimes they are stupid-late and I'll get it at the end of the month.

__________________
Blog Updated 6/21, Oooops, I'm goin to Vegas in a few days.
11:09:32 PM Randy: limit poker is easy
11:19:03 PM Randy: ok, i suck at teh limit

Mirage: FU PKOER
Mirage: F
Mirage: U
Mirage: FUFUFU
Mirage: up a $1.45 still YES

puckhead23

Sorry I missed you guys too. I have a blast playing with you, Snickers, and Labatts. Typically I can go any weekend I want with a little notice, but the week or two around Thanksgiving is always a challenge for me, and it's Snickers' favorite time to come.

Is the birthday pack worth half a damn? Perhaps my wife might give me a few hours to myself Friday to go collect the b-day booty (but not at the expense of, um, b-day booty :wink: ).

__________________
"Seriously, even if you're not the most skilled player in the tournament, remember that Jamie Gold actually won a tournament" - Randy