tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67942852008122102782024-03-13T14:44:39.880-07:0088 KeysConfessions of a professional accompanist.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-34879254276752633672019-12-18T20:44:00.000-08:002019-12-18T20:44:25.052-08:00So I Guess I'm a Slot Player Now? - FinalWednesday morning we got up about 9:00 and got showered up and headed downstairs to enjoy a 2 for 1 brunch buffet at Aria. I gotta say it was just okay. The selection was not as varied as I expected and the food was only of slightly above average quality. The highlights for me were the fresh pineapple juice and the gelato. If I had paid $40 per person for it I would have been a little miffed.<br />
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We checked out and headed back over to Bally's. I got into the afternoon poker tournament in the Bally's poker room. I never take notes when I play and it's been too long for me to remember actual hands. I remember I made it past the first break. I remember that at least 4 or 5 people reentered the tournament. I remember I shoved a suited ace with a short stack at the end and ran into pocket queens. That was about 2.5 ish hours of my afternoon. <br />
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After the tournament I dropped $100 or so on a few random slots and some video poker, then I made another pit stop in the CVS next door to Bally's to get some more drinks and snacks. I grabbed another short nap before getting cleaned up for dinner. We decided to try to find something to eat at Venetian before heading across the street for Cirque du Soleil's Love. We requested a Lyft and the first ride it offered me was in a driverless car. I declined and went with a traditional Lyft, but kind of wish I had tried the driverless option. <br />
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At Venetian we checked how long it would take to get a table at Trattoria Reggiano in the Grand Canal Shoppes. We opted not to wait the 45 minutes they estimated since we had a show to catch. We wandered around a little and considered Yardbird, but nothing on the menu tripped my wife's fancy, so we went with an old standby at the Grand Lux Cafe. I got the pasta carbonara and my wife branched out and got some kind of bourbon chicken dish. I think she thought it was going to have a bourbon glaze, but I think the bourbon part of the name referred to bourbon street as it turned out to have some cajun spice to it. We were both very happy with our choices.<br />
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We were going to order a Lyft to cross the street to Mirage since it was raining, but the rideshare pickup at Venetian was very hard to find and then very confusing once we did find it. I pointed out that it didn't seem to be raining at the time, so we just walked across the street. We found the theater and there was already a huge queue of people waiting to get into the show, so we joined them thinking they must be about to open the doors. We wound up standing in that very hot and uncomfortable line for another 20 minutes at least. So pro tip....if you go to see Love don't bother showing up until about 10 minutes before the scheduled start time. <br />
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The show was phenomenal. Our tickets cost $185 even with a discount, but it was worth every single penny. We were seated about halfway up in the lower section which turned out to be almost a perfect vantage point. The show is so well crafted and flows seamlessly from one song to the next. There was really only one lull near the end of the show when they showed an extended video of the Beatles performing a song. I think it was to allow all of the cast to change costumes. Aside from that it was pretty much nonstop performances. <br />
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I don't want to give away any of the surprises built into the show, but even if you aren't a huge Beatles fan you will enjoy it. So many thrilling, touching, funny, entertaining parts that I wanted it to just keep going on and on. I've always been too big of a cheapskate to spend the scratch to go see a Cirque show in the past. I'm now trying to decide which to see next time I'm in Vegas. I'll definitely budget for tickets to Mystere, KA, O, or maybe the new'ish Michael Jackson show One. (I've heard Zumanity is awkward and uncomfortable, so I'm not really interested in that one.)<br />
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Our flight home left the next morning around 9 AM which meant a relatively early departure for the airport. We got back to the hotel a little after midnight. My wife went straight to bed, but I just couldn't picture myself going to bed without gambling a little more on my last night in town. I headed down to the casino with an eye towards playing some kind of table game or poker, but I couldn't bring myself to play blackjack for $15 a hand with their crappy rules. I almost jumped into a 3 card poker game, but reminded myself how bad the house edge on that is. The poker room had a list, so I opted for some more slots.<br />
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There was nobody sitting at the Autumn Moon Dragon Link game near the poker room that had the maxed out $1,000 major jackpot all week. I put in $100 and started playing $1 a spin at the 1 cent denomination. I pretty quickly got a hold and spin that paid about $80. I got one or two more bonuses and was approaching $300. I told myself if I got above $300 I would switch to the 10 cent denomination so the mini and minor would go from $10 and $50 to $100 and $500. I can't remember too many details of how I got there but I wound up cashing out at just over $600 for a $500 profit.<br />
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I played a little while longer on a few other slots like the piggy bank lock it link and my other new favorite, Dancing Drums. I wound up giving about $100 of my profit back and then headed to bed. <br />
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My wife makes fun of me for it, but I use the notes feature on my phone to keep pretty fastidious notes of every penny I spend and all of my gambling wins and losses. That way I can definitively say if I turned a profit or not for the trip. After all was said and done I was up about $150 for the trip on gambling. If I had avoided the poker rooms altogether I would have been about $500 up for the trip With food, drinks, snacks, show tickets, and transportation charges I wound up bringing home about two thirds of the money I had budgeted that I was willing to spend/lose. So all in all a very fun and pretty successful trip from a gambling standpoint. <br />
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I'm already planning the next trip for the week of Memorial Day in May. This time it will be me and my two sons who will be making their very first trip to sin city. I played just enough slots to earn some comped rooms from MLife at their bottom tier resorts so we will be sharing a room in the resort tower at Excalibur for just the cost of the resort fees. I'm hoping if I give them some more play when we are there I might be able to get them to refund some of the resort fees too.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-83402330965273851952019-12-17T20:19:00.001-08:002019-12-17T20:19:31.751-08:00So I Guess I'm a Slot Player Now? - Part 3Tuesday morning we slept in until around 10 o'clock or so My wife had cashed in an offer from some slot app she played on her phone to get us one comped night in a standard king room at Aria. She got an email saying our room was ready super early at like 11 AM. So we packed up some stuff in my backpack and her larger purse and headed across the street to catch the tram from Bellagio to Aria. We checked in using one of the kiosks and found the guest elevators to go check out our room on the 8th floor.<br />
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The room looked out towards the strip facing slightly southeast, so we had a view of Park MGM, MGM Grand, the Polo Towers, and Planet Hollywood. It was a very cool room with lots of fun technology to open the blinds and turn off and on the lights, but it felt like it was half the size of our Bally's room. I'd heard people rave about how comfy the beds were there, but it really wasn't significantly more comfortable than the bed at Bally's. In fact I liked the pillows at Bally's better. The view was way better though.<br />
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We stowed our stuff and hung up the clothes we planned to wear later that night and then made our way over to Cosmopolitan to try out Holstein's. This was one of our favorite places we ate this trip. My wife got her usual well done plain cheeseburger and I got their Gold Standard burger minus the tomato confit. We split a plate of delicious garlic parmesan fries. I got a chocolate malt that was topped with whipped cream and tiny malted milk balls and she was thrilled to discover that they served Pepsi. The best part of the experience though was the service. The staff was so friendly and attentive without being intrusive. And again....they kept the wife supplied with Pepsi the entire time we were there. The bill for the two of us was around $65, which is pricey for two burgers, some fries, and a couple drinks, but well worth it. <br />
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We stopped at the CVS next door to the Waldorf Astoria to grab some drinks and snacks for the room. The wife picked up a bath bomb for the big soaker tub in the room at the Aria. We headed back there and burned through about $150 in record time on a few unsuccessful slot games including another stab at Buffalo Gold, Kronos, Quick Hits, and some more $0.25 Double Top Dollar.<br />
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We had the group slot pull coming up with Matt Bridger that night at 9:00 and we didn't want to exceed our daily gambling budget, so we went back to the room and watched a little TV and took a short nap. About 6:30 PM I showered and got dressed in my fanciest casual duds for the evening's activities. We couldn't agree on a dinner spot so we headed across the sky bridge to the Miracle Mile Shops. After doing a complete circuit of the entire mall we decided to just get sandwiches and fries at the Earl of Sandwich. The wife was not pleased with my indecisiveness and insistence on checking out all the options.<br />
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We arrived at Cosmopolitan a little after 8 o'clock. Matt had asked the group pull participants to arrive at 8:30 so everyone could be accounted for and we could get things rolling at 9. To make things easy we all put $200 in any slot at Cosmo beforehand and then immediately cashed it out so instead of handling a bunch of cash he would just have 16 of the TITO tickets. On the group pull earlier in the week at the Plaza downtown they did it in the high limit slot area. Cosmo apparently refused to allow us to do it there because they didn't want their other high limit players to be bothered by the crowd and added noise. I laughed at the noise comment because the music at Cosmo was blaring and near ear splitting levels. <br />
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So the slot selected was a Dragon Link machine called Spring Festival. I think it was chosen because it had a maxed out $1,000 major. The machine was located right near the bottom of the escalator and not too far inside the door from the strip, so there was a lot of foot traffic and the crowd gathered around one player drew a lot of curiosity from passers by. The machine was set at $2 denomination at $20 a press. Each player had 10 spins, or pairs like my wife and me could split them 5 and 5. Once everybody had completed their 10 spins we divided the profits or loss. I won't steal the thunder from Matt's vlog so if you're interested check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOjaF68otA" target="_blank">video here</a>. (On the video about halfway through you can hear Matt say something like, "Excuse me they're trying to watch." It was because a lady had hilariously kind of elbowed her way to the front to see what all the fuss was about and rather loudly asked what was going on. I was surprised you couldn't really hear her on the video.)<br />
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We hung out a little afterwards and chatted with some of the other participants. Almost all of the others involved were from the UK and Ireland. We had a lovely time making small talk with two friendly young ladies from Sheffield. After collecting our money and getting a little advice from Matt about what denomination he usually plays on the Dancing Drums and 88 Fortunes we headed back to Aria. The wife turned in and I headed down to the poker room and got into a 1-3 no limit game. I repeated the same level of success at Bally's and cashed out down about $100 after the table we were at started to fall apart a couple of hours into the session.<br />
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I wound up hitting another bonus this time on the Buffalo Grand. I scored one of the small progressives for about $30 and then hit a 5X multiplier to make it $150. I won another hundred on a diamond something or other lock it link machine and then called it a night. For the third time my poor poker skills and lack of cards was rescued by the one armed bandits. I was starving and didn't want to stray too far or go anywhere that would take too long so I went back to the CVS just on the other side of the Waldorf Astoria and bought a sub sandwich, some chips, a candy bar and a big Gatorade. I quietly ate those at the desk in the room while watching Catfish on the TV and then crashed.<br />
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Final day coming in the next day or two.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-71282389276322706942019-12-15T19:20:00.000-08:002019-12-15T19:20:08.117-08:00So I Guess I'm a Slot Player Now? - Part 2On Monday we woke up around 8:30 AM Vegas time. I have to be at work by about 6:00 AM Central Time for my job, so it usually takes me a day or two to force myself to sleep in a little more when I get to Pacific Time. We wanted to get some breakfast, but weren't sure where we wanted to go. We wandered over to Paris and decided to try Le Cafe Ile St. Louis. I thought it was great. I got some cheesy grits with sausage. As somebody whose family is from the south I'm very particular about my grits and these were the perfect consistency. My wife was very pleased with the choice because they served Pepsi and her drink was never empty the entire meal. That's usually her number one factor in whether or not our server deserves a big tip or not; was her drink kept filled throughout the meal. I'll definitely go there again on future Vegas trips.<br />
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We lost $40 on a couple of slot machines in the Paris casino, but I can't remember which ones. We then headed south to the Tix 4 Tonight stand outside Planet Hollywood to see about show tickets for that night. We had been considering either a comedy show or something like the Prince tribute show "Purple Reign" at Tropicana. I had been checking prices on Vegas.com so I had a pretty good feel for the prices on that site. Everything at Tix 4 Tonight was slightly more expensive so we decided to just go purchase something on Vegas.com instead. <br />
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We ducked into Planet Hollywood and I lost $20 in a 25 cent Double Top Dollar machine. The wife put $20 of her own money in the same machine and on the very last spin of 75 cents per spin she hit the top dollar bonus and won back her $20 plus $5 more. She cashed out winner and we headed back to Bally's.with a pit stop in the CVS to grab some beverages for the room. (Bally's is one of the few hotels that provides a mini fridge for your own stuff which is great because I love having cold water, pop, and Gatorade in my room in the desert.)<br />
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Back at the room we booked tickets for the late show that night at the Comedy Cellar at Rio and my wife cashed in a 2 for 1 ticket offer for tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Love at Mirage for Wednesday night. We killed some time in the room and then grabbed a couple of 24 hour Deuce passes and headed up to Fremont Street. I've seen several people post lately about how great Pizza Rock is so I was very keen to try it out. We ordered a meatball appetizer and a large pie that was half New Yorker (pepperoni, fennel sausage, and ricotta) and half pepperoni. <br />
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Just as they delivered our pizza there was a power surge and all of the electricity in the restaurant went off. It was mid-afternoon so we could still see just fine, but it went from loud rock music to dead silence....but not for long. The power came back on a few minutes later and for some reason the fire alarm started blaring. We stayed put and finished our delicious lunch, but according to our waitress three of her other tables used the fire alarm as an excuse to dine and dash. <br />
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After lunch we headed over to the D so I could play some blackjack with more favorable rules (I refuse to play on the strip with the terrible 6 to 5 blackjack payouts).I dropped a $100 in like 30-40 minutes. It was very windy and a little bit cold so we didn't just hang out at the Fremont Street Experience. We caught the bus back south on the strip and I took a nap in the room before dinner.<br />
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We decided to keep it simple and grabbed something from the Bally's food court. The wife got Johnny Rockets and I had Pan Asian Express. We Lyfted over to the Rio for the show at Comedy Cellar. At Rio we played some video roulette and and video poker. I think we broke even on the games we played in the casino. We stopped at the Masquerade Bar to get the wife the one alcoholic beverage she likes, a pina colada. I drank a couple of $9 Coronas and decided to put $20 in the video poker game even though the pay table was pretty crappy. I quickly hit a four of a kind and cashed out $50 which was just about exactly enough profit to cover our drinks.<br />
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The comedy show was pretty entertaining, but the crowd was small. The room was only about half full and they moved us from the cheap seats we paid for to better ones much closer to the stage so the areas closest to the comics would be more full. It wasn't the most raucous crowd, but I thought we were laughing loudly enough at the times when something was funny. For some reason the comics were all kind of complaining about how shitty the crowd was. I really feel like their negative attitude towards the crowd just made things worse. I started to feel like, "Look I came here to laugh and have a good time. All of us bought tickets to a comedy show because we wanted to laugh." I honestly was a little pissed that they were being such pricks about it.<br />
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We got back to Bally's just before midnight. I changed into more casual clothes and went down to the poker room to play in the $75 no limit hold em tournament with a $2,000 guarantee. It was pretty uneventful and I made it to the final table. With nine players remaining and blinds at I think 2,000-4,000 the UTG player shoved all in for about 28,000. I looked down at AK off and shoved my last 20,000 in from the small blind. The big blind tanked for a minute or so and asked the dealer for confirmation on the amounts and then called for about 2 thirds of his stack. UTG turned over AJ off and the big blind turned over AQ of spades. I don't remember the exact board runout, but I remember the flop had two spades and the river was a third spade.<br />
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I licked my wounds by putting $100 in Buffalo Gold and hit another bonus for around $300. So for the second day in a row slots had covered losses at poker and/or table games.<br />
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I'll continue the story tomorrow with our move over to Aria for the night in a comped king room and the high limit group slot pull at Cosmopolitan with Matt Bridger.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-22954386218052611892019-12-14T23:24:00.000-08:002019-12-14T23:24:29.477-08:00So I Guess I'm a Slot Player Now?Work had been extra stressful throughout the summer and early fall, so I'd been tossing around the idea of another trip to Vegas around either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I recently discovered the YouTube channel of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/beddlesteadowl" target="_blank">Matt Bridger</a>, a charismatic Brit who is a major Vegas lover and an avid slot player. Just as I was trying to make up my mind when to return to Vegas for my second trip of 2019, Matt announced that he would be making his fourth trip of 2019 to Vegas in late November and was planning to host a couple of group slot pulls.<br />
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Now, I've never been a big slot player. I like games where I feel like I have some kind of control over the outcome...where decisions I make can minimize the house edge or try to gain an advantage over my opponent. Watching Matt's vlogs had intrigued me and for the first time I planned to try to commit more of my gambling budget to some slot play. I emailed Matt asking if I could be part of one of the group slot pulls and when he replied to the affirmative I booked a trip for Sunday through Thursday the week of Thanksgiving.<br />
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The wife and I flew Allegiant from Des Moines to Las Vegas arriving around 2:30 PM on Sunday, November 24th. We caught a Lyft from the airport to Bally's. For the first time ever I got long hauled through the tunnel to the 15. Knowing Lyft's structure I figured it was only a dollar or two more, so I didn't get too worked up over it. We got in line to check in with plans to try the $20 trick to see if we could score an upgrade. There were like 30 people in line in front of us when a front desk employee came by telling everyone that check in wasn't until 4:00 and we would have to pay to check in early.<br />
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We decided to save the money and checked our bags at the bell stand. While the wife was making a quick bathroom run I popped $20 in a video slot machine and cashed out $30. I told her we were done gambling so we could go home and tell everyone we were up for the trip.<br />
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We decided to kill some time locating the five lucky spots at Caesars featured in day one of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Ido3jSRpA" target="_blank">Matt's vlog from August of 2019</a>. The five spots are as follows:<br />
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<ol>
<li>The Four Faced Brahma just outside of Hell's Kitchen</li>
<li>Michelangelo's David in the Appian Way Shops - You're to touch his left big toe</li>
<li>Cleopatra's Barge Club - You're to touch her breasts (I chickened out on this one)</li>
<li>Joe Louis near the sports book - You're supposed to fist bump his left boxing glove</li>
<li>Caesar near reception - You're supposed to touch his left index finger</li>
</ol>
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We found the first one right away as I knew right where it was We then wandered Caesar's Palace for probably 20-30 minutes before we found a property map on the wall with one of those "you are here" markers. David was literally 20 yards behind me up a nearby walkway. We still had a little more time to kill before we could check in at Bally's so we headed over to Bellagio.</div>
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I slipped $100 in a Dragon Link game and decided to try out a Matt Bridger method of playing at the 10 cent denomination on 25 lines for $2.50 a spin. That way the minor and mini jackpots jump up to $500 and $100 respectively. On about the third spin we hit a hold and spin. That's where you get six spots with balls with numbers in them that represent a dollar amount and you get a bonus feature where you get 3 free spins to try to fill in more of the numbered balls. Every time you fill in another ball your free spins reset back to 3.<br />
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We were feeling pretty great about the bonus and I had quickly done the math in my head and figured we had won somewhere around sixty or seventy dollars. Then the machine started adding up the numbers one-by-one and somewhere in the middle the total jumped way up to over $100. I hadn't realized that the ball that said 1000 was not $10, but rather $100 since we were playing dimes and needed to add a zero to the end of the amounts. The total for the bonus was really $162.50. I played it down to a win of $150 and cashed out. We headed back over to Bally's to check in.<br />
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We were horrified to see the line to check in was now probably 400 people deep. There was about 300 people in a winding line waiting to check in at the counter and another 100 or so waiting to use the 8 or so self check kiosks. We made a grave tactical error not spending the money to check in early. I waited in line for the self check kiosks for probably 45 minutes and we wound up in a room in the Resort Tower on the 14th floor with a view of the roof of the casino and the back of Paris. We had a slight glimpse of the Eiffel Tower between the Jubilee Tower and Paris.<br />
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After checking in we cleaned up and headed out to get something to eat. We decided to stroll down to the Linq promenade and pick a place there. We landed at the Tilted Kilt which was okay. I had fish and chips and the wife got her usual plain cheeseburger. As we were dining a woman came around selling these bead leis that had NFL and college logos on them with the profits going to I think some kind of multiple sclerosis charity. Since they had one of our Iowa Hawkeyes I bought it for my wife. The seller said it's bad luck to put a lei on yourself when you first get it so she came around the table and put it on for her complete with kisses on each cheek. As she walked away my wife commented, "Mmmmm...she smelled good."<br />
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After dinner we made our way back to Bally's. The wife was exhausted from all the walking we did, so she said she was going to relax in the room and gave me the green light to head down to the poker room to play a little $1-2 no limit. I was very card dead and cashed out about $100 down after 3 hours or so. On the way back to the room I decided to see what all the fuss was about with all of the machines exclaiming "BUFFALO!" I put $100 in one of the Buffalo Gold variety. I got it down to about $45 when I hit a bonus. It retriggered a few times and I wound up cashing out a little over $500.<br />
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I'll leave it there for now and try to post the rest tomorrow evening.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-8829778988658676122019-07-05T20:20:00.001-07:002019-07-05T20:55:45.005-07:00May 2019 Vegas Trip Report (Part 2)Sorry for the long delay in getting to the rest of the trip. Life, as usual, got in the way of my good intentions. I'm going mostly from memory and the trip was about 2 months ago, so I'll do my best to recap our very mild shenanigans. <br />
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On Day 2 we slept in until about 10:30 or 11:00 since we didn't hit the sack until after 4:00. We got ready and headed down to the food court at Excalibur to try to find some food. We settled on Schlotzky's Deli and got in the line of about 10 people. It soon became apparent that there was only one guy working there taking the orders and making the food and the line was not moving. We waited nearly 15 minutes and only one person had been served, so we made the call to go somewhere else. We settled on the New York New York food court across the street. My brother-in-law got a breakfast burrito from a deli (don't remember the name) and I got a slice of the square pizza Trooper97 has recommended in his video blogs. It was decent, but probably would have been better if I had asked to have it warmed in the pizza oven. <br />
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After that we cut through Park MGM to Aria to play their $140 1 PM daily donkament. I had made pretty deep runs twice in that tournament on my birthday trip last year, so wanted to play it again. Turnout this time around was even lighter than last year. They barely filled up two tables. It was pretty uneventful and I don't remember too many hands. I was seated in seat 2 and the guy in seat 1 was your classic east coast talker. He saw probably 90 percent of the flops and was getting 2 pair an inordinate amount of times. There was an older guy with an Army veteran cap on my left in seat 3 who clearly did not like seat 1. He was making snarky comments under his breath at all of his boastful stories about expensive meals and extravagant spending. <br />
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One of my only memorable winning hands was against the grumpy vet. I don't remember exact betting amounts, but I know he raised preflop to about 3x the blind and I limp-called along with one other person with something like 87 suited on the button. I flopped an open ended straight draw and he made about a three-fourths pot bet. The middle position player called and so did I. The turn checked around. I caught my straight on the river and made a bet of about half the pot on the river which was somewhere around 2,000 tournament chips. He made the call and grumbled about my "loose call" on the flop when he saw my straight. I told him he probably could have won the hand if he had bet the turn, but he gave me a free card to get there. <br />
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My brother-in-law busted before the first break. I busted just before the second break. <br />
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After that we headed over to Planet Hollywood to see if there were any juicy looking cash games. We decided the games didn't look that tempting so we grabbed some dinner at the Earl of Sandwich. After that we headed down to see about getting in a game at MGM Grand. We both got in separate cash games. I wound up at the exact same table I played at on my birthday trip in May 2018 and there was an Irishman at the table who was also there a year ago. I distinctly remember him because I was seated in seat 9 back in 2018 and seat 6 was a young Brit, the Irishman was in seat 7, and a Scotsman was in seat 8. I later told my wife it was like the start to a joke. "An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman walk into a poker room..."<br />
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Right after I was seated they sent a young man to our table who told us he had just turned 21 and this was his very first time playing live poker in a casino. He said he had played a bunch online though. He was just killing time until he went to the David Copperfield show. He needed a little help with the mechanics of the game like posting blinds (especially when he didn't have any $1 chips to do so), tipping, and letting the dealer make change for you. But his play otherwise was solidly tight aggressive. He wasn't afraid to put chips in play and made a pretty tidy profit in the 90 minutes or so that he played. <br />
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I had an extremely uneventful session and when I started to catch myself yawning and losing focus I decided to call it a night down about $30 or so. My brother-in-law had jumped into a late night tourney at MGM Grand. He was a real fan of those small tournaments with overlays and had some success cashing in a couple. I bid him good night and headed back north on the strip to Walgreens to grab some beverages for the room. It was raining just hard enough to be annoying. I honestly don't remember ever getting rained on before in my many trips to Vegas. I just kind of hugged the buildings so I was under the awnings most of the way, so I didn't get all that wet. <br />
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The plan for Wednesday was to play some disc golf. My brother-in-law is really into it and wanted to try out a local course while we were there. We woke up around 9:30 and after showering etc. grabbed lunch at Schlotzky's at Excalibur food court. I stopped to purchase a Cubs cap at the Lids store so my bald noggin wouldn't get fried by the Vegas sun. We caught a Lyft over to Sunset Park which is along E Sunset just on the other side of McCarran. I downloaded a disc golf app to help us navigate the course. We were struggling to find the first hole when a couple of locals who were playing came along and pointed us in the right direction. I decided not to play and just acted as caddy and carried his camo backpack and helped find our way to the next tee box. (I completely forgot to share this little incident. At the Des Moines airport his camo backpack was pulled off to the side for a more thorough search. I asked him why and he just said it always gets searched probably because it's camo. Well it turns out he had forgotten a big bowie knife in the bottom of the bag. He just surrendered it and they let us go on our way.)<br />
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We were pretty whipped after traipsing around in the sun, so we headed back west across the street to Village Pub and Poker to cool off and have a beer. It was a nice little find. They serve beers that are brewed at Ellis Island and both of the ones I tried were very tasty. It turned out there was a little disc golf supply store right next door, so my brother-in-law picked up a specific disc he had been looking for back home. We then caught a Lyft back to Excalibur to get ready for the evening's activities. After cleaning up and napping for a tiny bit we caught another Lyft over to the Rio for dinner at the Carnival World Buffet and the Penn and Teller show. <br />
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The Carnival World Buffet did not impress me as much as it has in the past. I thought the food quality was not as good and it seemed like they had a lot fewer selections than I remembered from 10 years ago or so. Definitely didn't feel like we got value for the price which was almost $40 a person. The desserts were the best part of the buffet to be honest. <br />
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After eating we putzed around in the casino playing some video roulette, video poker, and at least one slot. I told my BIL that I wanted to get to the show early because I heard they had a decent jazz trio that played for about 30 minutes prior to the start featuring Penn Jillette on the upright bass. Well it turned out I had the show time wrong and we actually arrived just as it was about to start. As we were walking up the hall to the theater lobby the ushers started urging us to hurry up or we would miss the beginning of the show. We had seats in about the 3rd row of the balcony right on the aisle in the middle. They were good seats and being in the balcony meant we were safe from being picked to go on stage which was just fine with me. <br />
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The show was very funny and there were several jaw dropping magic bits. I'm told they change up the tricks in the show quite a bit, but I don't want to spoil too much by telling you about what happened. I will share the trick that I thought was maybe the most impressive. Penn asked for volunteers from the audience that were good at identifying the suits and values of playing cards and selected two gentlemen to join him on stage. He opened a new deck of cards and had them shuffle and split the deck into about two equal halves. He then had one start organizing his cards into suit and value order from A up to K. Then he had the other person fan his cards out and he examined them for exactly one minute. Then he talked to the audience while that volunteer put his cards in suit and value order.<br />
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After that he proceeded to stand between them and as he pointed back and forth from one to the other he went through the suits one by one indicating which of them had which card. And he didn't go slow. It was incredibly impressive.<br />
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After the show both Penn and Teller and their incredible jazz pianist Mike Jones stayed in the lobby taking selfies with anyone that wanted one. We got one with Teller (who actually spoke to us):<br />
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After the show we caught a Lyft to Planet Hollywood. I had planned to get in a cash game there, but they had a pretty sizable list and didn't seem like they were inclined to open anymore tables. I decided to call it a night around midnight and my BIL went to MGM Grand to get in a late night tourney.<br />
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On Thursday we woke up late and killed time around the room. While the BIL finished showering I headed down to the Excalibur casino floor. My 88 year old mother loves to play slots, but since she moved into assisted living she rarely gets to play. Before I left for Vegas she gave me $40 to play for her while we connected via Facetime. I started with a buffalo gold slot and we lost $20 without winning a single cent. I then found a penny slot that had a dragon that would occasionally breathe fire on the reels triggering some wild spaces. We won and lost a bit on that one, but eventually lost it all too. I rarely play slots so I'm terrible at picking winners. <br />
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I then joined a $5 blackjack table and for the first time this trip had a little luck. I cashed out up about $125 for the session. It was the typical low stakes blackjack table on the strip with a mix of experienced players and complete newbies with the newbs making lots of weird plays like hitting when they have 13 and the dealer showing a 6. I don't like it when people do that, but I don't get as angry as some players. I'm a firm believer that players only remember the times that it hurts them and forget all the times that it helped them. <br />
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After my<i> </i>BIL came down we headed over to the food court at MGM Grand and grabbed a burger at Johnny Rockets before catching the monorail over to the Westgate for Trooper Thursday. This was my second time participating in a Trooper Thursday and probably my last. Nothing bad happened either time, but more than half the players at my table were regulars who apparently play in the game every single week. Two of the regulars elected to sit out for the bomb pots so that meant you were getting even worse odds on that blind $10 bet. Also Tim barely spoke to me or my BIL except when I was purchasing a hat as I was about to leave. He spent all of his time brewing coffee and bantering with his buddies that play every week. It felt like I had stumbled into someone else's home game and none of the regulars went out of their way to make the "new guys" feel welcome at all. So it was just another 1-3 game except some of it was filmed and put on YouTube.<br />
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I left the game down about $100 and my BIL was up a couple hundred.<br />
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We caught the monorail back to Bally's and my BIL got into another of their tourneys with the overlay. I ran into a nice guy from North Carolina that I had played with there earlier in the week. He started to tell me how earlier in the evening he had made the decision to rack up and leave, but a buddy convinced him to sit back down and continue playing. I was sure it was going to be a bad beat story, but quite the opposite. He said he went on the biggest heater of his life and cashed out almost $1,400 an hour or two later. He showed me a picture of his 2 plus racks of chips.<br />
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We had a very early flight on Friday morning, so I decided to turn in around 11:00 PM. First I headed back to Walgreens to get some water and Gatorade. Especially in the desert I like to have some caffeine free and alcohol free beverages around the hotel room for overnight and early in the morning.<br />
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I have no idea when my BIL made it back to the room. I'm guessing it was after 2 AM for sure. We had to be downstairs to catch a Lyft to the airport by 5:30. That was it...I won a little at video poker and blackjack, but lost pretty consistently at poker. I never had an disastrous sessions, but pretty much lost about $50 to $100 in each cash session I played. I only spent about half of the bankroll I saved up for the trip, so it definitely wasn't the worst gambling result I've had on a trip to Vegas, but it for sure wasn't anywhere near the best.<br />
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I enjoyed having my BIL along with me, but I think I enjoyed my solo trip last year more. It's just nice to have the freedom to do whatever you want without doing that dance of "what do you want to do?"<br />
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A couple observations about Vegas. The food and other things just keep getting more and more expensive. It just isn't the value it used to be. I know I'm just joining the chorus here, but the resort fees are ridiculous. I don't use the spa, fitness center, or pool so it's just lighting money on fire for me. Also literally half of the escalators to the sky bridges on the strip were out of commission this trip. The one that goes over Harmon on the east side of the strip had the up escalator AND the elevator out of order at the same time. If you had a mobility issue and wanted to go south over Harmon on that sky bridge you were shit out of luck. The number of panhandlers, fake Tibetan monks, and general hustlers along the strip and the sky bridges was higher than any trip in recent memory. The only one that almost earned money from me....almost....was a guy on the bridge from NYNY to Excalibur in the wee hours of the morning loudly singing, "IF YOU PUT A DOLLAR IN MY CUP, I'LL SHUT THE F#$% UP!"<br />
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Even with all of those negatives I still can't wait to go back again soon. Currently pricing trips around Thanksgiving and talking with my boys about when they would like to go in 2020. I'm thinking early in the WSOP so I can play the senior event. I also heard rumors they might run another tourney with the same structure as this year's Big 50, but it wouldn't be called that. I would for sure take a stab at that if they do it again.<br />
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If you made it this far, thanks for reading.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-2495997556925647782019-05-13T09:46:00.001-07:002019-05-14T18:32:03.070-07:00May 2019 Vegas Birthday Trip - Day 1Wow...it's been over a year since I posted here. Like always I only post when I have something big to report on, so I'm constantly amazed by the people who post consistently and with overall great quality and interesting content.<br />
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I recently spent a week in Vegas celebrating my birthday with my brother-in-law. We played some poker, saw a show, and ate a little too much. Overall I had a pretty disappointing week of poker results. I was card dead pretty much the entire time. And because I was folding constantly I rarely got action when I did get a playble hand.<br />
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As usual I went for the more inexpensive lodging option to preserve as much of the bankroll as possible, so we were booked at Excalibur. We arrived in town on Monday afternoon about 3:00 PM Vegas time and cabbed it from the airport. I ionly took a cab because I was unsure where the rideshare pickup area was at the airport. With tip that ride cost us $25, so that was the last time we would take a cab while in town and is likely the last time I will ever take a cab in Las Vegas. On average even with a tip included Lyft and Uber seem to be about half as expensive as cabs and I never had to wait more than 2-3 minutes for them to arrive.<br />
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I booked the room through my Mlife account and had checked in ahead of time using the MGM Resorts app on my phone. We took the first bad beat of the trip when the kiosks that were supposed to dispense our room key and help us avoid the check in lines were down. The representative turning everyone away from the kiosks sent us to the VIP check in area, so our wait was much less than the standard check in line, but still much longer than iff the kiosks had been operational.<br />
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After we checked in we showered and headed out to find some food. We decided to make our way up to the Linq and grab some In n Out burgers. I've never been there before, but knew enough to order my burger "animal style" to get it cooked with mustard and slathered in special sauce and sauteed onions. I ordered the combo that included a double cheeseburger, fries, and a drink and was very confused when the cashier asked "Just the burger or the fries too?" I thought he was asking did I want fries or not, so I said, "Yeah fries too please."<br />
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Turns out he was asking did I want the french fries anmial style as well. Oh well live and learn I guess. I have to say In n Out Burger didn't live up to the hype. The burger was okay and the fries were very underwhelming. They were almost like shoestring potatoes and seemed very limp and lifeless under the little bit of thousand island dressing and sauteed onions they globbed on top. I probably won't be making a special effort to return there. I'm sure this will be blasphemy to any of my west coast friends, but I honestly thought the burger I had later in the week at Johnny Rockets was better.<br />
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After eating we decided to make our way back south to Bally's to get in a cash game. It took us just 10-15 minutes to get seated at separate tables by vlogger <a href="http://balt999.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">balt999</a>. I was in the 6 seat. Early in the session I called a small raise preflop with 10-8 of clubs from a Japanese gentleman in seat 9 I flopped two clubs and called a small continuation bet of I think $12. I caught my flush on the turn and just called a bet of $25. On the river he bet $60 and I just called. He showed pocket aces and seemed surprised when I revealed my 10 high flush. That left him with about $50 or so in his stack.<br />
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A few hands later I got pocket Aces and the Japanese gentleman was the only caller. We both had a good laugh when he caught a flush to crack my aces and in broken English he said, "I revenge you." Later in the session he got his aces cracked again by another player prompting me to declare that I was going to open fold them the next time I got them.<br />
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The rest of the session was a very card dead roller coaster of small wins and losses until the very last hand I played. I raised to $12 preflop with pocket queens and got 3 callers. I flopped a set of queens on a board that had two clubs. I bet $25 on the flop and only had one call from a woman that had joined our table just 15-20 minutes before this hand occurred. I bet $45 on the turn which was an inconsequential card and she called.<br />
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The third club appeared on the river and she she tossed out two chips. I decided $10 wasn't enough for me to fold considering the size of the pot so I said "Call" and threw out two red chips. The dealer gave me a confused look and said, "Uhhhh....it's $50." I said, "Oh, sorry, I'm color blind and those chips look the same as the $5 chips to me and nobody has had $25 chips in play for the last 6 hours I've been playing at this table. Another player at the table reiterated that everyone else at the table only had red $5 and white $1 chips. I also commented that he hadn't announced the bet size either. He just shrugged. I paid the $50 and immediately racked up muttering angrily to myself. I went over to my brother-in-law's tournament table and explained my grievance loud enough for the dealer involved and the floor person standing nearby to hear. Neither reacted or otherwise pursued it further. I probably won't be back to Bally's poker room in the future.<br />
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All of this begs the question, why are two of the most commonly used chip denominations red and green which is the most common form of color blindness? And why would a casino use shades of red and green that are that hard for color blind people to differentiate. I mean I literally couldn't tell them apart except by the denomination printed on them which is useless when they're at the other end of the table. I ran into the same thing later in the week at Westgate. My home casino here in Iowa uses a bright fire engine red and a very bright green that I can easily identify. Bally's had dull brick red and a very dark shade of green...almost brown. I might have an ADA claim.<br />
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At this point it was about 2 in the morning Vegas time (so like 4 AM by my midwest body clock) and my brother-in-law had just flamed out of the 11 PM tournament. We decided to grab a bite to eat at Hash House a Go Go at the Linq and lick our wounds. After gorging ourselves on their massively sized offerings we decided to call it a night. We walked down to the skybridge from Bally's over to Bellagio to catch the tram from Bellagio down to Park MGM. I thought I remembered where it was, but wandered all over the casino in Bellagio looking for a sign that directed to the tram. We finally stopped and asked a security guard, but I think by the time we walked from the northeast entrance of Bellagio to the very farthest southwest corner to catch the tram and then from the very northwest end of Park MGM to the southeast exit to the strip we probably took more steps than if we just walked straight down the strip. We finally made it back to the room about 4 AM Vegas time and basically collapsed into our respective beds.<br />
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I'll leave it there for now and pick up on Day 2 in another post. JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-15322425994709204182018-03-16T11:20:00.001-07:002018-03-26T06:19:42.765-07:00Hoping for Lightning to Strike (Not Lightning36)I say this every time I decide to post on here again, but jeez it's been a long time since I last felt motivated to share anything. I've got a few things to share, so we'll see if I can fit it all into one post or have to split it into multiple ones. (Super long posts are kind of the trademark of another <a href="http://robvegaspoker.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">certain blogger</a> and I wouldn't want to steal his schtick.) I've got a lot to cover though:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A recent trip to Vegas</li>
<li>Some shenanigans at my local casino</li>
<li>An update on my show choir's super successful season</li>
</ul>
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The wife and I made a very brief visit to Las Vegas for her birthday back in February. We were low-rolling due to some unexpected medical expenses and a dryer that went on the fritz right before the trip taking an unexpected bite out of my gambling and entertainment budget.<br />
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We stayed at Luxor and I'm fairly certain that was the very first time I ever set foot in there. We arrived about 6:00 PM on Valentine's Day and cabbed it from the airport. I don't like to assume I'll get long-hauled, but I have this habit of carrying on a conversation with my traveling companion as the cabbie is loading our bags that makes it clear that I'm not a Vegas newbie. Either it works or there are just way more honest cabbies than you'd expect from all of the stories about tunnel trips to south strip locations. I'd like to think it's just honest people. (I'm a very glass is half full guy with a dose of pragmatism.)<br />
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We had several nice meals and did the usual Vegas touristy stuff like the Bellagio fountain show, Fremont Street Experience, Forum shops, etc. The first two days in town I played three losing sessions of blackjack where I dropped $100 each time and lost probably another $100 here or there on various slots and video poker. So it was lose, lose, and lose some more for the first two days we were there.<br />
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On the final evening we went back to Luxor pretty early because the wife was feeling tired and a little sickly. She has a very sensitive stomach so it doesn't take much to make her queasy. She was settling into bed early at about 8:00 PM, so I told her I was going to take one more stab at the blackjack tables at Luxor. I only had about $200 left in the budget to gamble that I was willing to risk. This time I sat at a $10 table, purchased $100 in chips, and tripled my money in about 20 minutes.<br />
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I headed up to the room to let the wife know I was headed out to the strip to play some poker with my newfound winnings. I caught the tram from Luxor to Excalibur and then hoofed it up to Planet Hollywood. It took me about 15 minutes to get a seat at one of the 1-2 tables. About 20 minutes into my session a typical younger Vegas grinder took the seat to my right. On his third hand in the game he raised to $12 from UTG. I called from UTG+1 with Q-10 suited. I believe there was one other caller preflop in late position.<br />
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The flop was Q-10-X. (Sorry didn't take notes.) He bet $20. I raised to $50. He flat called. On the turn he checked and I counted out my remaining stack. I only had about $125 remaining. If I make a significant enough bet there relative to the pot I'm pot committed no matter what happens, so I decided to just stick it all in. He snap called and I groaned knowing that a grinder like him isn't doing that with just an over pair or top-top. He showed me the bad news...pocket queens. I went ahead and showed my two pair and as I wished the table good luck and got up to leave he quietly said, "Yeah that's a rough one."<br />
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I headed up the street to another of my favorite rooms at Bally's. Got seated pretty quickly at the only 1-2 game they had going. A short time later they opened a 2-3 table and it filled up quickly. The guy on my immediate left at the 1-2 game had a sizeable stack of like $1,500 and I was concerned that he was going to be super active and aggressive, but he played very tight and straight forward. I later learned from the rest of the table that he was just running incredibly hot. He was foreign, but I couldn't make out the accent. Perhaps Israeli? As we were playing, a friend of his with the same accent stopped in the room, put his name on the list for both the 1-2 and the 2-3 and prepared to leave to get something to eat. He gave $500 to his friend on my left and asked him to buy him into whichever game he got called for first. He put the $500 on the table behind his chips, but the dealer asked him to remove it from the table since cash no longer plays at the Bally's poker games.<br />
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His friend made it back just as he was being called for the 2-3 game. The person leaving was in the 3 seat, but the guy in the 2 seat said he wanted to move to that spot, but was currently in a hand. When the new guy got to the table he tried to sit in the 3 seat, but the dealer informed him he would have to wait until the hand was over to take the 2 seat instead. He argued that he wanted the 3 seat, but the dealer told him it was a house rule there that players currently in the game have first pick of seats that are vacated. This didn't sit well with the new guy and he voiced his displeasure rather vehemently. The dealer called over the floor who backed her up and made him wait for the 2 seat.<br />
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After the hand finished they took their respective seats, but the new guy wouldn't let it go. He started threatening the guy that moved to seat 3 and when seat 3 essentially told him to shut up seat 2 reached over and pushed over seat 3's chip stack. Seat 3 immediately returned the favor and the dealer yelled FLOOR! The floor guy came over and issued them both a final warning that if they said anything else he would boot them. After things calmed down over there I turned to my tablemates and said, "I just want to thank everyone here for behaving like adults." Without a beat the dealer replied, "The night is still young."<br />
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I've been playing more frequently at my local casino because their bad beat hasn't hit in a while and has grown to almost $250,000. To qualify in this room it's aces full of kings beat by quads or better. Both hole cards have to play and there is no pot minimum required. They'll pay it on any cash game table that takes a jackpot drop and is at least 4 handed. Losing hand gets half the jackpot. Winning hand gets a quarter of it. Anybody dealt cards at the start of the hand splits the other quarter. I figure lightning can strike and the odds of hitting that are better than the lottery.<br />
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The closest I have come to hitting it was hitting a set of sixes on the flop. My opponent turned a straight flush and we had one pull on the river for me to get the last 6 in the deck.<br />
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Sometimes when I go to the casino I'll take $100 and try to double it at the blackjack table and then go play poker. For some reason I play less timidly if I know half my buy in is house money, so that plan works for me. Tuesday evening when I went to my local casino, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, it was not terribly busy. They had one $5 blackjack table open and it was full. There was one regular $10 blackjack table open and all the seats were full, but the lady sitting at third base had no chips in front of her and was just spectating. Usually if you just hover with cash in hand the floor will ask spectators to make room so you can play, but in this case they seemed oblivious so I moved on.<br />
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I found another $10 table that was the blackjack + 3 variety where you can make a side bet on a 3 card poker hand with your two cards and the dealer's up card. You can choose not to play the side bet and the blackjack plays just like any other game. At Prairie Meadows they pay 3 to 2 on blackjacks and the dealer hits on soft 17. The only other house rule I don't like is they will only let you split aces once. If one of your aces gets another ace dropped on it then you have 12 and that's it. <br />
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This table had two guys at it, but one was coloring up and leaving as I sat down. I won the first two hands I played and lost the third. Just then a guy sat down at first base that was...how should I put this...a little rough around the edges. Leather coat, greasy hair, scraggly beard...looked like he just came off a week long bender. He asked if the dealer was treating us right and I told him that I'd only played 3 hands so it was too early to tell. The other guy at the table may have been a mute since he never spoke once.<br />
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On the very first hand after the rough guy sat down I was dealt 15 and the dealer's up card was a 7. I hit and drew a 10 and busted. Rough guy grumbled that I was playing stupid. I assured him that I was playing exact basic strategy and would not stray from that. He didn't seem to know what that was. When it was the dealer's turn she revealed an 8 under the 7 for 15 and then drew a 4 to give her 19. Rough guy loudly complained that I had "stolen her bust card." The floor person told him to let me play my hand however I wanted. She also brought him a strategy card with the chart for basic strategy on it, but he claimed they made that up to get people to lose more.<br />
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A couple hands later a similar situation happened and he reacted the same. I was back to my original $100 so I shook my head, made eye contact with the floor person who was now strangely silent and said, "I'd like to color up please." Then I took my $100 to the poker room and bought in short to the 1-2 game.<br />
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Lastly I want to brag on my show choir kids a little We had by far our most successful season ever. We competed four times and all four times we were awarded 1st place. They also give out caption awards to the groups. The sort of big three captions are best vocals, best choreography, and best band. So in our four competitions there were 12 of those available to us to win. We won 11 of them only missing out on best band at our penultimate competition.<br />
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Here is a video of my varsity show choir. This year's show was themed around finding love in the world. It is a very fun and light-hearted show that featured a wedding with a very impressive gown and a rocking reception with a very quick onstage costume change that is almost like a magic act. The set list for the show was:<br />
<ul>
<li>"Two Scenes" - San Fermin</li>
<li>"Footprints" - DJ Tiesto</li>
<li>"All Over the World" - ELO</li>
<li>"Around the World in 80 Days" - Bing Crosby</li>
<li>"An Old Fashioned Wedding" - Annie Get Your Gun</li>
<li>"Some Enchanted Evening" - South Pacific</li>
<li>"Celebrate" - Kool and the Gang</li>
<li>"Locomotion" - Little Eva</li>
<li>"We Are Family" - Sister Sledge</li>
<li>"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell</li>
<li>"Shout" - The Isley Brothers</li>
</ul>
Please enjoy and let me know what you think. For the uninitiated show choir can be a strange experience, but most people walk away very impressed when they realize that every person on that stage performing is 18 or under (except for one fat old bald guy at the piano).<br />
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<br />JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-44213280574785012592017-09-25T10:02:00.000-07:002017-09-25T10:14:12.420-07:00Bonus Poker ContentI meant to add this as a short post script to the previous post about the football game, but forgot. Last week I played the $50 tournament at my local casino. I went out in about 25th place when I checked my option in the big blind with A-10. I had about 12 big blinds remaining. The flop was 10 high rainbow, so I bet $1,200. The dealer for some reason announced my bet as $3,300. The next player to act put out $3,500 before I could correct the dealer. The dealer informed the player my bet was really $1,200 and he said, "Okay, I raise to $3,500. It folded back to me and since I would only be left with about $4,000 if I called, I shoved and the other player insta-called. I turned over my top pair top kicker and he revealed...aces.<br />
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The really interesting story from this tournament happened at the table next to mine though. One player at the table was trying to play the role of table captain. You know the type...trying to call out people's hands, making big bluffs and showing them, chiding other players for folding, and just generally trying to control the action and get under the skin of the other players so they'll call him down light.<br />
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In the critical hand the table captain was heads up with an older gentleman who could best be described as nitty. The old man seemed to be taking a while to make his decision when the captain said, "I'll call whatever you bet." In response to this declaration the old man immediately said, "Okay, I'm all in," and pushed his chips forward.<br />
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The table captain starts to muck when the dealer says, "No, you said you would call whatever he bet, you have to call." The captain says, "The action wasn't on me, so that's not binding." The dealer called the floor who listened to all of the involved parties and then called over the other person working the floor that evening. They conferred and declared the captain had to call. It wasn't all of his chips, but it was a significant amount leaving him pretty short. He of course complained rigorously using some colorful language in the process claiming that this ruling was different from "every other poker room in the entire country."<br />
<br />
The poker room at Prairie Meadows fairly recently moved from a separate room on the 4th floor of the complex to the casino floor on the 2nd level. This means it is now under the control and management of the woman that runs all of the table games. According to the poker dealers she is a very "take no shit" kinda gal. She just happened to be checking in with the poker room staff when this all went down and told the guy to watch his language and drop it. The ruling has been made and isn't going to change, so let it go. She gave him one warning and said if he cursed again or brought up the ruling again he would be asked to leave.<br />
<br />
He made it about 3 hands before he brought it up again and she immediately swooped in and said, "That's it. You're done let's go." And then she and a security guard escorted him out and his small stack was left behind to be blinded off.<br />
<br />
I've never seen anybody get kicked out of a tournament that cheap before, but the dude was really fired up. I mean I get that he disagreed with the decision, but it's a $50 tournament and wasn't for like a $1,000 pot in a cash game or something.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-4940165469436700172017-09-24T13:21:00.001-07:002017-09-25T10:19:31.314-07:00The Thrill of (near) Victory and the Agony of DefeatWow...it's been about a year and a half since I last posted here. Guess I finally did something exciting enough to share. My 24-year old son and I made the last minute decision to head over to Iowa City for the Hawkeyes' prime time show down with the Nittany Lions of Penn State. I know a lot of Hawkeye fans who thought we would probably get blown out by PSU like we did last year at their place, but I had faith that the magic of Kinnick Stadium could help the Hawkeyes keep it close if not win outright.<br />
<br />
We decided we were going to make a day of it and go over early and tailgate even though the weather was predicted to be unseasonably hot for late September. I borrowed my sister-in-law's portable DirecTV satellite setup and we reserved a portable generator from the local A to Z Rental. I took care of the menu and sent my son to buy the beer since he is a Cicerone certified beer expert that is the bar and restaurant manager of a Flix Brewhouse here in Des Moines.<br />
<br />
We met at my house at 7 am and filled up the cooler and then headed to the grocery store to grab a few last minute supplies and then dashed over to the rental place to pick up the generator. We stopped to put fuel in the generator and to buy a couple gallons of extra gas just in case to make it through the afternoon and were on the road by 8 o'clock.<br />
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We got to Iowa City about 10 am and parked at the Finkbine golf course about a mile or so from the stadium. It was already plenty hot at 10 and we were both fairly drenched in sweat by the time we had everything setup about half an hour later. It took about 30 minutes for the satellite dish to get all dialed in to the satellite signal and we cracked our first beer (and ice cold bottle of water) at about 11:15.<br />
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The one piece of tailgating equipment we didn't bring was a tent for shade. We don't own one and I couldn't find one to borrow on short notice. I was too cheap to spend the $100 or so to purchase one at Sam's Club, but we figured we could tough it out with enough cold beverages and a couple of box fans. We were wrong,<br />
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We were able to steal some shade from our neighbors, but by noon the sun was so high you couldn't get shade unless you were directly under their tent. We had a bite to eat and watched all the early start college football games up until halftime and then we started discussing options. We finally decide to pack everything up and head downtown to grab a beverage and some freshly prepared food. My son booked an uber to take us downtown and we decided it was the best $25 either of us had ever spent.<br />
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We killed about 3 hours downtown bar hopping and then caught the free shuttle from the old capitol building to historic Kinnick Stadium. We arrived just in time for the band's pregame performance and then it was game time. I won't go into a lot of details about the game, but suffice it to say the Hawkeyes played one of the prettiest ugly games. They gave up tons of yards, but almost no points...just a field goal and a safety in the first half. Iowa scored a late TD after an interception to make it 7-5 despite about a 225 yard difference in total offense.<br />
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The second half was a nail biter with Iowa taking the lead 19-15 with about 1:50 to go. Our D had been keeping their offense somewhat in check so I was feeling pretty good about our chances to maintain that lead and win the game. PSU worked the ball down the field and scored the game winning TD on 4th and goal from the 7 yard line as time expired. They were required to line up for the point after attempt, but they just took a knee after which their QB punted the ball which drew a chorus of boos from the Kinnick crowd. I heard he spent the first two minutes or so of his ESPN post game interview apologizing for it, so good on him I guess.<br />
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It took us about an hour and a half to walk back to our vehicle and escape the crowded parking lot. Thanks to the close finish almost nobody left early so it was congested.<br />
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All in all it was a great day even if we got our hopes dashed right at the end. The Kinnick crowd was raucous and loud and our beloved Hawkeyes proved they can play with a top 5 team. They have a few winnable games in a row now, so I believe they can contend for the Big Ten West and maybe a potential rematch with Penn State or OSU in the championship game.<br />
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P.S. If you haven't seen it yet, the Iowa Hawkeyes started a new tradition that we're really proud of. The brand new childrens hospital was just completed adjacent to Kinnick Stadium. The top floor facing Kinnick is like a giant press box designed so the very sick kids and their families can watch the home football games. At the end of the first quarter the whole stadium turns and waves to the kids in the hospital as a show of support for what they're going through. Since it was a night game they added the flashlights from their cell phones to make it an even cooler experience. JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-47999345882372538182016-03-24T19:07:00.002-07:002016-04-07T04:33:58.226-07:00An Unexpected GoodbyeLast Saturday morning I got up early and put a cut up chicken, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, parsley, salt, and bay leaves in a pot to simmer for my homemade southern style chicken and dumplings. I settled into the couch to watch some English soccer and get ready for the third day of March Madness when my cell phone rang.<br />
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It's rare that my phone rings since it's used most often for text messages, tweets, and web surfing, but it's even more rare that it rings that early on a weekend. It was a close friend from Kansas City. He had just called me a couple of weeks ago when he was making a last minute trip up to Des Moines, so I figured he was calling about something similar. I was wrong.<br />
<br />
Chris asked, "Where are you?" I said, "Sitting in my messy living room with food on the stove. Why?" He didn't beat around the bush, "Dave died last night." It felt as if I had fallen from a great height. "What? How? What happened?"<br />
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Dave was my very best friend for a large part of my life. We met in 5th grade band when all of the area elementary schools came together for an all district concert. We both played french horn and hit it off immediately. It seems almost everyone has that one friend through middle school and high school that if they aren't at your house, then you are at theirs. That was Dave.<br />
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We were high energy kids who got in trouble for talking and goofing off, but we weren't troublemakers by any stretch. We were in band and choir together. We double-dated for every single high school dance. I drank my first beer with Dave. He got a six pack of tall boys from his Cousin Jim and we drank them as fast as we could behind the dock at the building where we worked in the summer. I was with Dave the very first time I threw up from drinking. Coincidentally the same night as the six-pack mentioned above.<br />
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After high school we roomed together in college and contributed to each others' poor decisions that led to both of us being asked to take a semester off to "re-evaluate our academic goals." Neither of us ever returned to college. We got an apartment together and both got a job at the same fine dining restaurant. Dave eventually got let go because he couldn't stop himself from telling the Maitre D' exactly what he thought of him.<br />
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After going through a few mind numbing office jobs Dave decided that he needed a new adventure. He joined the Marines in 1989 and completed his training just in time to get deployed for Desert Storm. Dave was in a Marine heavy weapons platoon that was attached to the Army's Big Red One 1st Mechanical for the short, but intense battles that took place after the U.S. began their ground campaign against Saddam's troops in 1991. He never talked much about what he saw or did while there, but he was never fully the same after he returned.<br />
<br />
After we both married and had kids we drifted apart. We would still get together when old friends would come back to town and it was always like no time at all had passed.<br />
<br />
It's been 5 days since he died and we still don't know exactly what did him in. He went to bed about midnight and about 4 AM his girlfriend (he and his wife divorced a couple of years ago) realized he wasn't snoring so she checked on him and he was gone. The autopsy results won't be back for a while, but everybody who knows him well knows it will be somehow related to his drinking.<br />
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Dave's ex asked our friend group if we wouldn't mind saying a few words about Dave at the funeral service. I told her I would try. I'm a big crier. I get choked up at songs all the time, so trying to speak at the funeral of one of my best friends in the world was sure to turn on the water works. I finally decided that I didn't give a shit if I cried in front of a bunch of strangers.<br />
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I got up and talked about what good friends Dave and I were through high school, college, and after college. I told everyone that my list of really close friends is very short so losing one of them hits extra hard. I wanted to depict for them how Dave was the type of guy that would do anything for his friends and always had your back. We shared a love of movies and could hold a complete conversation just in movie quotes, so it was apt that I used a movie reference to make my point. If you've seen the movie "The Town" you'll remember the scene where Ben Affleck goes to Jeremy Renner and asks in his Southie accent, "I need your help with somethin'. We're probably gonna have to hurt some people and you can't ask me about it later." Renner thinks for about half a second before asking, "Whose car are we takin'." That was Dave. If you needed his help with anything he didn't stop to consider the consequences or costs. He just showed up and did whatever needed doing.<br />
<br />
Today they buried him with full military honors at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. It still is surreal to me that one of my closest friends is really gone.<br />
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Here are Dave and I just out of college doing what we did best at our first apartment. Dave is on the left and I'm on the right. In the last photo Dave is predictably in the center of the action and I'm on the right again. Rest in peace, friend. A lot of people will miss you.<br />
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<br />JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-76693197770884896412016-03-11T18:48:00.000-08:002016-03-11T18:48:54.195-08:00E5Haven't posted in a while. I have to feel motivated to share a story and tonight that just happens to be true. I'm a small time gambler and definitely not a pro like some other people u see. I work a 9 to 5 job for a big company and only gamble when I feel like a I have a couple of bucks that I can spare. I never gamble money that would keep me from paying my bills, so it's not consequential except that I'm a competitive person and I would rather win than lose, ya know?<br />
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So it's Friday night in the booming metropolis of Des Moines, Iowa. I decided to take $100 and head on out to Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino and try my luck at the tables. The plan was to play a little blackjack and if I happen to double up or more I would take it up to the poker room and play a little 1-2 no limit hold em.<br />
<br />
I arrived at the casino and headed up to their "Sports Pit" on the Mezzanine Level. It's the non-smoking area and on Friday and Saturday night is the only place you can usually find cheap blackjack. As I approached the table there was one guy sitting in the third base (last) seat playing by himself heads up with the dealer and he seemed to be doing well. They were almost to the end of the shoe so I waited patiently before sitting down.<br />
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I took my place in seat 3 of 7 at the table and the dealer started to shuffle. Just then a couple starts to sit down at the Mississippi Stud table next to us and asked, "What kind of blackjack is this?" The dealer and floor person redirected them to our table. They started to sit down in seats 1 and 2. The guy playing the third base spot kind of raised his eyebrows at them, colored up, and skedaddled.<br />
<br />
The older gentleman of the couple says to his friend (date? co-worker?) or whatever she was that they should move so they'll have more room. I almost moved to third base to let hem have more room at the end of the table where they had already set up shop and really wish I had. The gentleman took the last seat and the woman sat down to his right.<br />
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Let me take a moment to say that I normally don't get too worked up over people that play blackjack in a non-traditional way. I try to play optimal strategy and figure they're mostly just hurting themselves if they don't play that way too. I figure there is just as much chance that their unconventional methods could help you in the end as hurt you. But sometimes somebody does something so shit all stupid that you can't help getting a little worked up.<br />
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I don't count cards when I play. As I said before I try to play optimal strategy and I utilize a betting strategy that is meant to maximize the effect of winning streaks and minimize the effect of losing streaks. It goes like this: as long as I keep winning I bet 1 unit, 3 units, 2 units, then 5 units. Then I just bounce back and forth between 5 units and 2 units until I lose a hand. If I win 4 hands in a row then I will have won 8 units. Tonight I was playing $5 so it was $5, $15, $10, and $25. If I lose multiple hands I just keep betting 1 unit until a winning streak starts.<br />
<br />
The table didn't start out well. The couple were playing super unconventional, but were mostly just standing when they should be hitting which is kind of the lesser of two evils when it comes to dumb play. I've lost down to my final $10 of my initial $100 buy in and I went on a streak. My bet is all the way up to $25 and I'm dealt a 4 and a 5. The woman to my left has A6 and the guy has K5. The dealer is showing a 6. I double and draw a 10 for a total of 19. The woman hits and draws a face card and stands on 17. The older gentleman decides to hit his 15 against the dealer's 6. The dealer sort of asks, "Hit?" before granting him another card and sure enough he taps the table and says, "Hit."<br />
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He gets a 7 to bust and the dealer rolls over a 4 under his 6. He then draws a face card for 20 to beat both the woman (who had $5 at stake) and me (who now had $50 on the table). If numb nuts had just stood like he is supposed to I'm back to $105. Instead I'm walking away from the table with steam coming out of my ears with a single red bird in my hand after muttering something like "You've got to be fucking kidding me."<br />
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Did any of you figure out the title? With baseball season just around the corner and my beloved Cubs favored to win it all (I'll believe it when I see it) I had to throw in a baseball reference since the error by third base cost me $100 and E5 is the designation on the score card in baseball for an error by third base.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-24386395409871558522015-12-16T06:28:00.000-08:002015-12-16T06:28:14.863-08:00Donkament Success!Wow it's been a long time since I posted anything here! Sorry to anyone who actually takes the time to read my little missives for posting so sporadically. I'm super impressed with people like <a href="http://robvegaspoker.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">RobVegasPoker</a> who post regularly. As always I only post when I have something worthwhile to share or a rant about something that has ticked me off. This time it's my (spoiler alert) decent finish in a cheap poker tournament at my home casino, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in beautiful Altoona, Iowa.<br />
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The tournament in question is their weekly Tuesday afternoon tournament that kicks off at noon every single Tuesday except when Christmas falls on that day of the week. It's a $30 buy-in with a $5 dealer add-on that gets you an additional 1,000 tournament chips. Pretty much everyone takes the add-on which makes the starting stack 4,000. The structure is quick, but not turbo or hyper speed. The entire tournament takes about 4 and half hours to complete. There are 20 minute blind levels and the levels go as follows:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>50-100</li>
<li>75-150</li>
<li>100-200</li>
<li>200-400</li>
<li>Break (10 mins)</li>
<li>300-600</li>
<li>400-800 </li>
<li>500-1,000</li>
<li>1,000-2,000</li>
<li>Break (10 mins)</li>
<li>2,000-4,000 </li>
<li>3,000-6,000 </li>
<li>5,000-10,000</li>
<li>10,000-20,000</li>
</ul>
Iowa's racing and gaming commission has some weirdly strict rules about tournament poker. The casinos have to submit the tournament details including the maximum number of entries they will accept for each tournament. This tourney is capped at 90 entrants, but they do allow alternates to enter as people bust out for the first two blind levels. On most days they have an alternate list that is 15-20 people deep and usually don't get all of those in since the field for this weekday tournament is heavy with a certain older (aka uber tight) demographic.<br />
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The payouts for yesterday's tournament were as follows:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>$980</li>
<li>$616</li>
<li>$392</li>
<li>$247</li>
<li>$193</li>
<li>$117</li>
<li>$84</li>
<li>$84</li>
<li>$56</li>
<li>$56 </li>
</ol>
I'm a little fuzzy on the 4-5-6 amounts, but it is definitely something in that range. Regardless of the number of entries they always just pay the final table and it's on the top-heavy side, so you have to finish in the top 4 or 5 to make it worth your time in my humble opinion.<br />
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Prairie Meadows has a very, very strict policy regarding the use of electronic devices during their tournaments. If you have your phone out when the dealer starts pitching cards for a hand, your hand is dead. It doesn't matter if you were just checking the time, changing songs on iTunes, or playing a little Trivia Crack to kill time between hands. Your hand is dead. This makes it very hard to take any kind of electronic notes on hands, so I have to go completely off my memory.<br />
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<br />
On about the 4th or 5th hand of the tournament (50-100) I was dealt pocket 10s in early position. I raised to 325 and got two callers. The flop was something like K-10-4 rainbow. I bet 400 and everyone folded. I don't know what everyone else's strategy is when flopping sets, but I don't like to slow play them except in very specific circumstances with an especially aggressive opponent. Otherwise I want to get as much money in the pot as I can.<br />
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I don't remember playing any really significant hands during the next level or two although I'm sure I raised at least once or twice with AK type hands preflop and just took down the blinds.<br />
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In the 3rd level (100-200) one of the younger players at the table who was seated in seat 1 and UTG tossed out a purple 500 chip without saying anything. The dealer looked at him a little sideways and said, "Were you intending to raise there?" The player said, "Oh, yeah, but I guess that's just a call, huh?" The dealer confirmed that it would just be a call of the 200 chip big blind. About 6 players followed suit and limped along including me holding 10-9 of clubs.<br />
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The flop was a lovely 6h-7h-8c to give me the nut straight, but with a scary heart draw on board. The UTG player who allegedly meant to raise preflop bet 1,000. It folded to me and I was considering whether or not to make a reasonable raise or just jam. I only had slightly more than the 4,000 starting stack at this point and I figured any raise at all and I'm pot committed no matter what happens on the turn or river. I announced all-in and moved all my chips in front of my cards. It folded back to the villain and he started monologuing and staring me down as I calmly looked back across the table at him. "The question is did you hit the straight or a set? Which is it...straight or set? <sigh> Okay...I call."<br />
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He rolled over 6-8 off suit for two pair. I showed my 9-10 to give him the bad news that he was about a 75-25 dog. He didn't improve and I doubled up and he was down to about 700 remaining chips. In the post hand chatter he said something along the lines of, "Man that was sick. And the crazy thing is that if I had been allowed to raise there you probably don't even play that hand." I responded, "I'm probably calling with 9-10 suited in that spot even if you raised to 500...or maybe you're an experienced enough player to know the single chip rule and you only wanted everyone to think you intended to raise with 6-8 off suit from under the gun so if it hit it would be well disguised and you could get paid off."<br />
<br />
He kind of blinked at me with a face that said "you caught me" and stammered, "N-n-no I totally meant to raise there....or whatever it doesn't matter now." I guarantee 100 percent he was trying to shoot an angle there. I expect he had two intentions with that move:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Discourage raises from other players to see a cheap flop</li>
<li>Disguise the strength of his hand if it happened to connect with the flop</li>
</ol>
Aside from that hand there were very few interesting hands. There was one hand early on where I raised UTG with pocket jacks to around 3x the big blind. A middle position player 3-bet and then the big blind shoved. I thought for maybe a minute before folding my jacks. The middle position player called the all in and they rolled over AK (middle position) and QQ (big blind). The AK flopped an ace, but QQ turned a set and I got away relatively unscathed with just the loss of 3 big blinds or so. On the very next hand I was dealt two jacks again. I raised the same amount as before and got two callers this time. The flop was A-A-J. It was checked to me and I bet about half the pot with my boat hoping one of the other players was slow playing an ace, but alas both folded.<br />
<br />
Since this is getting a little long I'll jump to the end. I finished 3rd for a payout of $392. Remember the villain/angle shooter from earlier? He played short stack ninja and when I left he was heads up for the whole tournament with a commanding chip lead. I don't know who won it, but I'd bet he did.<br />
<br />
I tipped $32 of my winnings to the dealers. How do others determine how much to tip in that situation. I figure I've already given $2.50 from the tourney buy-in ($25 to the prize pool, $2.50 to the house and $2.50 to the dealers) plus the $5 add-on, so that makes a total of $39.50 I've personally contributed to their tip pool. That's about 10% of my payout. Agree or disagree?<br />
<br />
So subtracting the tip and the tournament buy-in and add-on I cleared $325 for about 4 hours work. I'll take it.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-55713026324791977182015-04-22T18:17:00.000-07:002015-04-22T18:22:10.332-07:00India Trip (Part 2)In <a href="http://jt88keys.blogspot.com/2015/04/india-trip-report-part-1.html" target="_blank">part 1 of my India trip report</a> I kind of jumped right in with the air travel and the day-to-day itinerary. I want to start part 2 with some more broad observations about India and how it differs from life here in the U.S. of A. The most striking difference is of course the vast difference between the haves and the have nots. The caste system is very much alive and well in India. Service workers are definitely treated as servants and not equals by their Indian customers. I witnessed several instances where Indian restaurant patrons very sternly scolded a server for a mistake or perceived slight. Our Indian counterparts also chastised us for tipping a little too generously for their taste too. They said the norm there is to tip 10 percent at the very most.<br />
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There were also the very poor neighborhoods you would expect to see where people have constructed homes with whatever materials were available to them. This was far more evident during our very short stay in Mumbai than in Pune, but it was still present. As you traveled through the city it wasn't at all unusual to see a fairly modern building next to an empty lot filled with garbage. There were also stray dogs everywhere. They were just part of the landscape, but it was weird how the people and dogs never interacted with each other. The dogs ignored the people just as much as the people ignored the dogs.<br />
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I also saw cows just wandering free on two different occasions. Once there was a group of three of them ambling down the street in the wrong direction while traffic just went around them. Another time they were all grazing in the grass just outside of a tennis court that looked like it was part of some kind of sports club. A co-worker saw two camels being led down the street one morning. On a different morning we spotted somebody leading a herd of about 20-25 sheep down the side of the road in rush hour traffic.<br />
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And the traffic...that's a whole other subject. Where we were, the mix of vehicles was about 35 percent cars and small trucks and 65 percent motorcycles and scooters. Except in the busiest of traffic the signals, signs, and road markings were mere suggestions. Two lane roads were usually treated like they were 3, 4 or 5 lane roads. They would fill every available space at an intersection while waiting for a light to change. The 2-wheeled vehicles went wherever they wanted. They traveled between cars, on the sidewalk, through small openings in the medians, and even crossed to the wrong side of the road traveling against heavy opposing traffic. I also saw a few instances where there were 4 or even 5 passengers on one motorcycle. There would be a toddler sitting in the very front, dad driving, another small child behind him, and a mom riding side saddle holding an infant...none of them wearing helmets.<br />
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All vehicles on the road honk almost constantly, but unlike here it isn't usually angry honking. They honk as a form of communication to say "I'm going to pass you" or "I'm next to you, so please don't change lanes and obliterate me" or to indicate to a pedestrian that they were not going to stop for them. Since they are a former British colony they drive on the left which caused some comedy when my co-worker accidentally started to get into the driver's seat when we were being picked up after work one evening. Here is a picture from outside the mall I mentioned in part 1 that shows the traffic. I'm not sure why, but there is an over abundance of cars in this shot.<br />
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Lastly they are crazy for cricket there in India. It was on the TV every single time I entered the break room at work and there were at least 4 to 5 channels showing it each night when I got back to the hotel. I got one of the locals to explain the rules to me and I now have a pretty good understanding of how the scoring works and the format of the games. I actually found myself enjoying the games and it was something with which to connect with my Indian co-workers.<br />
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The last day I reported on was Tuesday when we went to the Hindu temple. On Wednesday the jet lag and work was catching up with us, so we slept in and grabbed lunch at the hotel and went into work. I just realized I never really mentioned our work schedule. The group of people we were meeting with and training work a schedule that matches up with the regular day shift back here in the states. Since there is a 10.5 hour time difference this means they work a 5:30 PM to 2:30 AM shift. We typically worked 3:00 PM to about 2:00 AM each day.<br />
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On Thursday we went back to MG Road for more shopping because one of our group realized they needed to buy a couple more items for friends back home. We then grabbed lunch at TGI Fridays in the mall near the office before heading into work. Here is a shot of the view from the Fridays patio and a picture of the "scarf guy" that I found in my collection of shots.<br />
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On Friday we went bowling in the mall before grabbing lunch at Chili's. We ate at a lot of American places at the behest of my co-workers who didn't have the most adventurous palettes. If I had my way we would have eaten a little more local cuisine and gotten a little more spice in our diet. Here is a shot of the lanes where we bowled. It was a bowling alley and karaoke club all in one. We stuck to bowling though.<br />
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As we made our way up to the Chili's from the bowling alley there was a large crowd gathered that all seemed to be standing back and looking at something in one of the stores. At first we thought maybe there had been a shoplifting incident or some other kind of problem, but it turned out the large crowd was checking out the cricket team from Kolkata that was making an appearance at the store.<br />
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We worked a slightly shorter day on Friday in order to have a few hours back at the hotel to clean up and pack prior to our very early flight on Saturday morning. The flight departed at 5:25 AM which required getting to the airport to clear the multiple levels of security at the Pune airport. The extra security didn't make me feel much safer since it was mostly for show and almost all of the measures could have been easily defeated by somebody with a desire to do so. I really think the point is that personnel is cheaper there, so they hire more people and add extra levels of checks just to justify having more people. I had to show my passport and itinerary just to gain access to the airport and then showed my papers to not fewer than 12 people before finally boarding the plane...and this is a pretty tiny airport.<br />
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There was increased security everywhere you went. You had to go through a metal detector and possibly send your bags through a metal detector to enter most malls and large public buildings. When our cars would return to the hotel at night they would roll a large mirror under the vehicle, check the engine compartment, check the trunk, and swab the steering wheel with a cloth that detected explosive material. (I shared a car and driver with one of my female co-workers and every night when the guard would reach into the car to swab the steering wheel he would greet me and ignore her. Just another cultural thing I guess.) My Indian co-workers were amazed when I told them that I could saunter into any mall without as much as a pat down. They were under the impression that the U.S. was much more secure.<br />
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On the way home we spent the night in Frankfurt, Germany. We stayed at the Sheraton that was attached to the airport and four of the six people in our party decided to just eat at a restaurant in the airport. I talked another co-worker into braving the train system to go into the city for dinner. I withdrew 50 euros for the express purpose of indulging in a few German beers, but discovered at dinner that my co-worker doesn't drink. Like at all. Ever. So I got one very delicious German hefeweizen with a head so thick it was like whipped cream with dinner and that was it. Here are two shots I took while we were in Frankfurt.<br />
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I got a good night's sleep in Frankfurt and then forced myself to not nap on the flight from there to Chicago to ensure I wouldn't have any problems sleeping Sunday night. I went to bed around 8:15 PM Sunday night and made it to work early Monday morning and suffered pretty much no ill effects from jet lag. I think it made a big difference that I was maintaining essentially the same work schedule as home while in India.<br />
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Sorry this was so long. I probably could/should have split it into three parts. If you lasted this long, thank you for playing along.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-60536670995314505522015-04-20T16:37:00.001-07:002015-04-22T05:26:36.026-07:00India Trip Report (Part 1)I've got a lot to share, so I'm going to divide it into a couple of posts just so this doesn't turn into an epic <a href="http://robvegaspoker.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">RobVegasPoker </a>style post. (I figured he wouldn't mind the ribbing as long as I gave him a reference link.) Just returned from India and wanted to share some anecdotes, insights, and observations. It was a long and eventful journey to reach India. I was initially scheduled to leave on April 9th, but some of you may recall that was the day there were some pretty serious storms in the Chicago area that spawned at least one deadly tornado. Since our initial flight was from Des Moines to Chicago we had to reschedule until the next day. Work didn't come into play until Monday, April 13, so that delay just cut one free day off our trip.<br />
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It also altered our travel itinerary. The initial plan was to fly from Des Moines to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Pune, India. Since the Frankfurt to Pune flight only runs three times a week we had to find a different option. We finally settled on Des Moines to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Mumbai, and Mumbai to Pune. That added about 4-5 more hours to the travel, but hell what are 4 hours when you've already been traveling for 30+ hours?<br />
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I was booked in business class for the entire flight, but due to rescheduling had to fly economy on the Des Moines-Chicago and Mumbai-Pune legs. Neither of those flights are very long, so I sucked it up and took one for the team. It was so much nicer in business class for those longer flights. I didn't drink all that much, but it sure is nice to be pampered. I snapped a few photos of the food and drink options on the first long flight. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-27gst9iOfR0/VTV_pp9IzaI/AAAAAAAAAG8/h4Ep6It1haU/s1600/IMG_0082.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-27gst9iOfR0/VTV_pp9IzaI/AAAAAAAAAG8/h4Ep6It1haU/s1600/IMG_0082.JPG" height="320" title="" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warm nuts and a very stiff bloody mary.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Braised short rib and a Chilean shiraz</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salmon appetizer with fresh green salad and German riesling.</td></tr>
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First here is a look at the amount of leg room I had in my seat. The flight was on a Boeing 777 and I had what seemed like acres of space. The seat reclined fully and had a leg rest that elevated. You could lay the seat completely flat, but I didn't dare or nobody in my section would have gotten any sleep thanks to my snoring. This flight also had a really great selection of recent movies and hit TV shows. On the way I watched Big Hero 6, Birdman, and Whiplash.<br />
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Dessert was a simple ice cream sundae. I didn't remember to snap a picture of it before I dug in, but it was nothing unexpected in either flavor or presentation.<br />
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The second long leg was a Lufthansa flight on an older Boeing 747. The seats were way better than any economy seat, but after flying on that more modern 777 the day before they were a disappointment. They didn't lie all the way flat and if you reclined it as far as it would go it felt like it was trying to dump you onto the floor. I didn't take any photos of the food this go around, but the courses were a seafood appetizer, leg of lamb main course, and a pass from me on dessert. The movie selection on this flight was also lots worse than the earlier one.<br />
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We arrived in Mumbai at about 12:45 AM local time. The others in my group that have been to the Mumbai airport in the middle of the day said it was much more bearable in the wee hours of the morning. I wanted to snap a picture of the massive immigration area, but was afraid they might not take kindly to me snapping photos. Four of our group of seven had cleared immigration when it became apparent that something was up. One of the other guys in our group appeared to be having a fairly animated discussion with the Indian immigration official. They called the other two from our party that were in line to the counter and they got in on the hand waving and passport pointing. <br />
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I won't go into details as to why, because I don't honestly know all of the particulars, but suffice it to say that one of our party wasn't allowed to enter India and was put right back on the very same Lufthansa airliner we had just exited for a return trip to Germany and eventually the USA. I can't imagine doing that trip both directions over the course of 3-4 days.<br />
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We finally made it (down a person) to Pune at about 5:00 AM Sunday morning. We checked into the Hyatt Regency and made our way to our rooms. Here are a few shots of the room:<br />
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I took a shower (using great care to keep the water from getting into my mouth) and after 36 hours traveling it was heavenly. If I wasn't terrified of the bacteria in the water I would have stood there for 20 minutes. After getting connected to the hotel WiFi and chatting via text with my family for a little while I hit the sack and slept like the dead until about noon.<br />
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After waking we went to lunch at a local micro-brewery called Independence Brewing. We got a quick tour of their brewery and, believe it or not, they make beer exactly the same way we do in the USA. Here is a shot of the brewery.<br />
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After a lunch of chicken chendatta and 3 of their house beers we headed down to MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road to do some shopping for souvenirs for our families. We went to a couple of shops that specialize in Indian knick knacks called The Bombey Store and Heritage. The proprietor of Heritage spotted me as a sucker and talked me into going into the room where all of the scarves and high end cashmere pashminas were displayed and sold. He showed me several items and there were a couple in particular that I thought my wife might like, but others from our group had told me about this amazing scarf shop we would be going to later. I convinced the shop owner that I wanted to comparison shop and would return. He dropped the price several times, but I held out.<br />
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After that we went around the corner to a local grocery store so one of the girls in our group could purchase some local tea for her dad. It was very interesting to see the difference in products and selection at a grocery there as compared to here. We then made our way to the local Nike store so I could by team India cricket jerseys for both of my boys. They are big sports fans and are more into soccer, but I wanted to get them something that had more of a local Indian flavor. The two girls that had been to India before wanted us all to experience what they referred to as "the scarf guy," but unfortunately his shop was closed on Sunday. (I later found out the scarf shop in question was called Guru Nanak's Cloth Store.)<br />
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After that we went over to the modern mall in town called the Phoenix Mall. It was pretty much identical to any mall in the USA with a few exceptions among the stores. Stores I saw that were familiar were Apple, Sunglass Hut, Forever 21, Sephora, Bose, JBL, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, Papa Johns, , and McDonalds. (The only difference is that all of the beef options are replaced with chicken and veggie options and anything that would normally be beef is actually water buffalo.)<br />
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After that we went back to the hotel to rest and clean up for dinner that night. Dinner was at a place called Exotica. It was on the top floor of an office building and was sort of indoor-outdoor. The restaurant was indoors, but there were screens they could roll up to let the breeze in. Here is a picture overlooking the road below over the balcony.<br />
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It was a package deal that included an all-you-can-eat buffet with unlimited beer or wine. A dinner like this in India is a very social and relaxed affair. There is no hurry to eat and leave. We probably ate appetizers and sipped drinks for a good 80 minutes before somebody finally suggested we go get main courses off the buffet. I honestly didn't know there was going to be a buffet and thought the many appetizers we ate was all we were going to have and would have been satisfied with that.<br />
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There were a lot of Indian options on the buffet, but everyone in my group from the USA except me opted for the made to order pasta so they could control their Indian spice intake...chickens. I went through the buffet line with an Indian co-worker and he told me what each option was before recommending whether or not I try the dish. The only surprise I had was that the lamb in the lamb biryani was not boneless (discovered only after I shoved a rather large hunk of very bony lamb in my mouth).<br />
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The next day we went back to MG Road to visit "the scarf guy" and to pick up some items in the Indian souvenir shops that we missed getting the day before. The scarf guy didn't disappoint. He was super personable and funny and just bombarded you with options. There were so many scarves of different colors and qualities there that it made your head spin. We all purchased an item or two and afterwards there were probably two or three hundred scarves and other clothing items strewn on the pillow they sell from.<br />
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After scarf shopping we went to the Hard Rock Cafe to get lunch. The menu was pretty much the same as any other Hard Rock except once again the burgers would be water buffalo instead of beef. We then headed in for our first day of work. I won't bore you with the details of training and dealing with the information security department.<br />
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Tuesday we went to a Hindu temple just as their pre-lunch ceremony began. You couldn't wear footwear into the temple, so the most exciting part of the excursion was the walk from the window where you had to leave your shoes and socks to the gate of the temple. The sidewalk and street were HOT. Not like "Oh this is kind of warm" hot, but like, "If I don't get off this pavement in the next ten seconds I'll need skin grafts on the bottoms of my feet" hot. <br />
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We arrived just as the ceremony was beginning which was signaled by the monk blowing a very loud blast on a conch shell. Then there was about 15-20 minutes of singing and chanting while the monk waved various items first at the idols then at the worshipers. Two of the items were a bowl of I think burning incense and what I can only describe as a tiny menorah of incense. These were walked through the group of worshipers. I was busy paying attention to what the monk at the front of the room was doing, so I didn't see what was happening with the burning items behind me, so when the gentleman approached me with the bowl of burning incense and offered it to me I froze. I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Luckily our host from Pune mimed for me that I was supposed to kind of collect some of the heat and aroma and sweep it over my face and head. After they walked away he explained that it is a blessing...a collecting of positive energy if you will.<br />
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A short time later one of the parishioners at the back of the room urged us to move closer to the front to receive another blessing. The monk at the front started throwing what appeared to me to be handfuls of rice or some other grain at the worshipers. He was slowly working his way across the room from right to left. I was the first of our group to be in the line of fire, so to speak, and didn't realize it wasn't rice until the drops of water hit me square in the face. I was positively douched with that scary bacteria laden Indian water. Oh well...at least none of it got in my mouth. As the ceremony drew to an end an adorable little Indian girl walked up to us with a handful of flowers and flower petals the monk had given her to pass out. We each took one and the man with her (her dad I assume) mimed for us that we were to smell the flowers. After that our guide told us that we were to leave the flowers at the foot of the idol in the back of the temple. <br />
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Here are a couple of pictures I snapped of the interior of the temple.<br />
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Our friend told us that they undress and bathe the idols and change the clothes every day to a different colorful outfit. I didn't understand the meaning behind all of the rituals, but have to say I was moved by the fervor of the believers who were in attendance. They were singing and dancing and lying prostrate and generally just really getting into the whole ceremony. <br />
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After the temple visit we headed over to a local restaurant called Prem's. We shared a lunch of tandoori chicken, butter chicken, chicken biryani, prawns piri piri, some kind of kabob, and the most delicious garlic and cheese naan (Indian flat bread) I've ever had. I would go back just to feast on the bread alone, but everything we were served was delicious. It is an outdoor dining room covered by trees and these balloon and umbrella like awnings. They also have misters spread around the dining area in case it is overly hot. This day it was the perfect temperature for an outdoor meal in the shade, so the misters really weren't needed, but they fired them off once I think just to show off a little. Since we reacted to the misters they fired them off 4 or 5 more times I guess to kind of put on a show for the American visitors. The only problem is that we had to assume they were now coating all of our utensils, cups, and food with more scary Indian water. Here is a picture I took of the dining area at Prem's.showing the offending misters.<br />
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I'm going to leave it there for now and will do another post in a couple of days with more stories and pictures. JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-74044960461852423362015-04-09T12:49:00.000-07:002015-04-09T12:49:19.655-07:00Indian Food Anyone?I guess it's been long enough since I posted on this old thing. I wish I was motivated to post more, but I just never am unless something big happens. As it turns out something kind of big is happening tomorrow. I'm leaving on a business trip that will take me halfway around the world. <br /><br />I'm leaving in the morning for a little over a week in Pune, India. Pune is a city of about 4.5 million people in Southern India just southeast of Mumbai in Maharashtra Province. I've heard the food there is spicy, but not as spicy as northern India with a little bit more sweetness thanks to their use of sorghum.<br /><br />I'll be training a couple of people to provide IT support to our staff there in Pune. We used to always fly them here for training but discovered that receiving training in the USA (no matter how lame or insignificant) made them so much more marketable that they almost always left for greener pastures soon afterwards. So I get to go like 8,000 miles around the globe to train two people. Training that would normally take 2-3 days. Training that I now have to try to stretch to 5 days. I guess we will go real slow and do a lot of review and repetition. <br /><br />I was actually supposed to leave this morning, but my flight from Des Moines to Chicago was cancelled due to inclement weather in the windy city and we couldn't find an alternate that allowed us to make our international connections. So I get to try again tomorrow morning to make the trip from Des Moines, to Chicago, to Frankfurt, to Mumbai, to Pune. Leave at 8:00 AM CDT on Friday and arrive in Pune at 5:00 AM Sunday morning their time. There is a 10.5 hour difference (yeah...ten and a <b><i>half</i></b>) so actual travel time in airplanes and waiting in airports is about 34-35 hours. FUN! <br /><br />At least my company was generous enough to book me in business class for the international legs of the flight, so I'll get a comfy seat that lays flat. (People sitting near me are going to have a long sleepless flight if I have a couple of adult beverages and start sawing logs in my lay flat seat.)<br /><br />I'll be sure to come back here and post along with stories and pictures when I return in a couple of weeks. <br /><br />On the home front I have played a couple of sessions of poker at my home base casino, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino. Nothing all that exciting to report. I had one session where I got my money in good against a loose player with an overpair and he hit a two outer on the river to stack me. Another time I lost my stack flopping a full house and losing to a better full house on the turn.<br /><br />My last session was an entertaining one, but I only left with a small profit of about $40. When I arrived at the table there were two players with pretty big stacks for a $1-$2 no limit hold em game. One was an elderly gentleman I had played with before and he was tight, but not nitty. The other was a guy I had never played with before, but he was very clearly drunk. Like slurring and cursing drunk. He was getting warned on about every other hand about his language by the dealers. At first he was playing relatively conservatively, but then he decided he had a problem with a couple of the guys on my end of the table and started playing really loose. <br /><br />If one of his villains from my end of the table entered a pot, when the action would get to him he would just pick up a random handful of red chips and splash it in the general area in front of his seat. It was usually about $40-$75 each time. A lot of times he did this without ever looking at his cards first. Then if people folded he would tell them what pussies they were and ask why they came to a casino if they didn't want to gamble. At first the drunk was getting lucky and hitting weird two pairs or unexpected flushes, but eventually his luck started to turn. It was pretty clear he was going to lose all of that money he had in front of him if we all just kept him happy and gambling. <br /><br />The old man to my left (different than the one with the big stack mentioned earlier) did not appreciate this style of play and started to loudly and aggressively tell the drunk how he felt. I started whispering under my breath to him to not tap the glass, but he didn't care. Eventually drunk guy started to lose some significant hands and his stack that at one point had ballooned to almost $2,000 dropped back to just above $1,000. The old man's needling, which didn't seem to bother him when he was winning, finally drove him from the table. Myself and three others immediately cashed out and left.<br /><br />I took a quick walk through the table games area before leaving and found drunk guy sitting at a $10 blackjack table betting $100 a hand. Apparently he was determined to try to lose all of that money one way or another. <br /><br />See you back here in a couple of weeks. JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-30142345378280187152014-05-07T11:25:00.002-07:002014-05-07T11:25:36.102-07:00Disney DouchebagA conversation here at work got us trading vacation stories which reminded me of two pretty funny stories from my various trips to Walt Disney World. One of the benefits of my work with the show choir is that I get to travel quite a bit for essentially nothing. I've been to Walt Disney World about 10 times and only paid for admission into any the parks once.<br />
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These are two stories where I was somewhat of a douchebag to other Disney guests; once was intentional and the other was not.<br />
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The first (intentional) one happened when I was much younger...like in my early 20's. I was young enough that the students in the program still thought of me as one of their peers and not as a chaperone or authority figure of any kind. I had spent the day with a half dozen or so of the members of the choir and we all decided we wanted to watch the nightly electric light parade at Magic Kingdom. We stopped and got some ice cream at the shop on main street and went to find prime seating right on the square. We got there probably an hour before the parade started to get a spot exactly where we wanted.<br />
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About five minutes before the parade begins this couple with two kids in tow forces their way between us and instructs their kids to sit down right in front of us in the street. The dad was alternating between standing and half squatting the entire time so he's majorly blocking our view. As politely as possible I said to the dad, "Excuse me, sir, but we got here over an hour ago to get these seats and now you're blocking our view. You're welcome to stand behind us and your kids can sit here in front of us."<br />
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He replied in a very definitive NE U.S.A. accent (Boston, NY, NJ, CT...who knows), "You're too old for Disney and I'm not leaving my kids up there unattended." And with that he turned around and started to get out his giant 90's camcorder to tape the parade. I turned to my friends and said, "We're gonna make sure they can never watch that tape with their kids."<br />
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When the parade started we stood up (because we had to in order see thanks to mister east coast) and got as close as we could to the microphone on his camcorder. We discussed the parade like we were Willard Scott on Thanksgiving morning with one exception...we used every curse word in our arsenal non-stop. <br />
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"Oh wow look at that f-ing float. Have you ever seen so many f-ing lights before? Holy $%@# that dancer was really getting down. Oh eff, that is the most amazing f-ing thing I've ever seen." <br />
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The dad shot us a few perturbed looks and eventually asked us to pipe down. I just smiled and said, "You could always move!" They eventually packed up and moved to a different spot.<br />
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The second (unintentional) one happened on a much more recent trip. The newest attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios was the Toy Story Mania. It's an interactive ride where you have a gun attached to the front of your car and you go through various exhibits firing virtual cream pies, water balloons, lazers, etc at targets. It was very popular and according to the Disney staff we spoke to they said the best bet for getting to ride it without a huge wait was to get to the park before it opened and book it straight to that ride.<br />
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So, that is exactly what we did. Just as we arrived at the entrance to the ride this older guy tried to sprint past us and shoulder his way in front of my group. I stepped in front of him and blocked his path so he had to get in line just behind us. The whole time were winding our way toward the ride our group was loudly commenting on the "nerve of some people trying to cut in front of us" etc. <br />
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When we were almost to the actual ride the lady in front of us with two small kids whipped around and said, "Would you like to go in front us?" I was a bit confused and just said, "Ummm...no?" She said, "I really think you should. In fact, I INSIST!"<br />
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We traded spots with them in the line when suddenly it dawned on me...she thought we were talking about them. I turned around and said, "Uh, ma'am, excuse me. I hope you don't think we were talking about you before. We were trying to give a hard time to the people in line behind you that tried to bump us out of the way to get in line in front of us."<br />
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A look of complete relief washed over her face and she said, "Oh my God I'm so sorry. I did think you were talking about us. You see just yesterday a couple of adults literally pushed my 8-year old daughter out of the way to get in line in front of us for an attraction that had a 20 minute wait. I'm just a little oversensitive because of that I guess."<br />
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I offered to trade them their spot back, but she refused. I felt like kind of a heel, but it all ended well in the end.<br />
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Have you ever accidentally been a douchebag before? It's not nearly as much fun as doing it on purpose. JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-3777790102848233392014-04-22T05:39:00.000-07:002014-04-22T05:41:44.902-07:00It's About Time!Wow...I haven't posted here in almost six months. You can thank the crazy busy show choir competition season for keeping me so occupied that I never have the time nor motivation to fill everyone in on my life. I guess I also think the mundane details of my existence would bore everyone to tears. <br />
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Anyway, here is a quick update on what's happened in the last six months. The show choirs I help direct had a mostly successful competition season. We capped it off with a trip to Los Angeles to compete in an event hosted by Burbank High School. I got to help chaperone 130 teenagers through all of the touristy stuff in the L.A. area. Here's a quick list of stuff we did:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Hollywood Walk of Fame</li>
<li>Hollywood Bus Tour</li>
<li>La Brea Tar Pits</li>
<li>Getty Museum</li>
<li>California Science Center and Exposition Park</li>
<li>Sony Studios Tour </li>
<li>Griffith Observatory</li>
<li>Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum</li>
<li>Universal City Walk</li>
<li>Santa Monica Beach and Pier</li>
<li>Disneyland</li>
</ul>
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We keep 'em busy so they're tuckered out at the end of the day and stay quiet in their hotel rooms. Honestly we don't have to worry much about them. They're very good kids and everyone we worked with in California from the bus drivers to the tour directors commented on how polite and well behaved they were. One of their assignments whenever we travel is to thank at least 20 people who help them out each day even if it's just a stranger that holds the door for them.<br />
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My wife is a few short days away from graduating from college with degrees in history and education with an endorsement in all of the social science classes (economics, government, history, psychology, cultural issues, etc.) She has to take her Praxis exam in May, but once that is done she is a full fledged and licensed teacher in the state of Iowa fulfilling a life long dream. She's applied for about a dozen open teaching positions in our area for next fall and God willing she will be employed and bringing in regular income for the first time since her kidney transplant in 2005.<br />
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All of my time is currently being spent accompanying for rehearsals of the spring musical at our school. Performances are this coming Friday and Saturday. I just have to survive a week of hellish four and five hour tech and dress rehearsals and then I'm free until August when show choir fires back up for the 2014-2015 school year.<br />
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On the gambling front I've played a little poker here and there this year, but nothing noteworthy. A few winning sessions and a few losing sessions. I'm just a recreational player, so I don't keep meticulous records. If I had to guess I'd bet I'm slightly better than break even for the year. My oldest son turned 21, so now he accompanies me to the casino when he's home and doesn't have other plans. I usually spot him a buy-in for blackjack or poker and then he and I split whatever profits we have from the night evenly. We try to avoid getting seated together when playing poker so we don't have to worry about even the hint of collusion or soft play.<br />
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The most notable gambling story occurred on one of his very first trips to the casino. We were playing blackjack and I got dealt two aces. I split them and the dealer dropped an eight on the first ace and then another ace on the second one. I indicated I'd like to split them again and the dealer informed me that you can only split aces once. Now I used to play a lot of blackjack at this casino before I really got into poker and you used to be able to split aces up to four times. I asked the dealer to call over the floor so I could ask when this rule changed and why. (I know why it changed...because it's more advantageous to the house. I wanted to hear what kind of spin the pit boss tried to put on it.) <br />
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He gave me some song and dance about wanting to unify the rules for splitting aces across all of their different blackjack variations to make it less confusing for the players when they can or can't split them. I replied, "So it wasn't because it increases the house edge on the game?" He looked confused and said, "No, that's not the way it was explained to me." I just said, "Uh huh...sure...I'm positive that never factored into the decision. I'll be coloring up and cashing out after this hand." My son and I were both up about $60-$70 at that point. Not big money, but still we were on a pretty good run, so the floor looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Is there a problem, sir?" I just said, "I don't like that you keep changing the rules to increase the house edge, so I'm voting with my gambling dollars by not playing."<br />
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My son was kind of bummed and not ready to leave yet, so he talked me into playing some Three Card Poker. We sat down, bought $100 in red chips each and I placed one $5 chip on the Ante space and one $5 chip on the Pairs Plus space. They dealt out the first hand and I'll be damned if I didn't look down at the Q-J-10 of diamonds. I double-checked it to make sure I wasn't wrong about the suit and sure enough I had hit a straight flush on the very first hand. I put another $5 chip on top of my cards and smugly folded my arms and sat back in my chair. My son said, "Did you like your hand?" I replied nonchalantly, "Eh...I just won about $250 on that hand." He blinked and responded, "Wait, what?!?!? You won how much?"<br />
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About an hour later he also hit a straight flush so we wound up cashing out about $550 profit after about 90 minutes of play. Add to that the approximately $120 in profit from the blackjack and it wasn't a bad night. We grabbed a pie and some breadsticks on the way home from our favorite late night pizzeria and went to bed with full bellies and pockets. He talked me into playing Three Card Poker again the weekend after that and we both dumped about $100 in less than an hour. It was brutal. I think I won maybe two hands that entire session. <br />
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Once the musical wraps this weekend I'll have a lot more free time, so hopefully I'll get into some more gambling shenanigans I can share here.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-58186751986516473632013-10-31T05:31:00.003-07:002013-10-31T05:34:32.075-07:00Guys and DollsWhat's this? Two posts in a single week? Is JT feeling okay? I feel fine. It's just that I only get motivated to post when one of two things happen. <br />
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1. I play poker<br />
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or<br />
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2. Somebody pisses me off<br />
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As it happens both of those two things happened in the last 24 hours (unrelated to one another).<br />
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Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino hosts 3 or 4 no limit hold 'em poker tournaments each week. The structure in these tournaments is awful, but they're a fun and inexpensive diversion. Depending on the tournament and its buy-in you get either 2,000 or 2,500 chips. Blinds start at 25-50 and essentially double every 20 minutes. <br />
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The Wednesday night tournament started out as a ladies only event, but then ladies would often ask if their husband or boyfriend could play with them. The fields for the ladies only event were only about 15-20 people which hardly makes it worth it for a $25+5 tournament, so they eventually opened it up to everyone and billed it as the "Guys and Dolls" tournament. Corny, right?<br />
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My usual M.O. for these donkaments is to either bust by the first break or go very deep. The blinds go up so fast that if you haven't chipped up by that first break you are already in shove or fold mode by level 4. <br />
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On about the second or third hand I limped from UTG+1 with 66. I think 7 people saw the flop of 9-7-9 and it checked all the way around. The turn was another 9. The blinds checked to me and I decided to donk bet my tiny boat. I bet 200 into the pot of 350. The older woman to my immediate left called and everyone else folded. Now...in my experience when the 65+ ladies at the table call or bet they usually have the nuts or pretty near to it, so I was none to happy that my only caller was a woman with some cobwebs on the old cooter. I figured she had to have a bigger pair than me for a better boat or maybe even quads.<br />
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The river was a jack. I checked and she bet another 200. I should have gone with my gut instinct and folded, but I couldn't talk myself into laying it down to such a small bet. I called and she shows J-10. She called my turn bet with just a gut shot and hit one of her 13 outs to beat or tie me. I guess I'm supposed to be happy that she called my turn bet when I was like a 70-30 favorite in the hand, but I was only disgusted. I hatched a plan right then to take this old biddy to value town the next time I had any kind of hand. <br />
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As it turned out the only time I saw two cards worth playing from then on was on my final hand. There was one hand where I had Q9 suited in the cutoff, but a tight player made it 500 to go preflop and I didn't feel like putting in almost half my remaining stack with that hand. It turns out I would have flopped two pair and turned a full house. The original raiser had pocket kings and his only caller flopped a straight with KJ. I would have tripled up had I played that one hand. It's hard not to be results oriented.<br />
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There was one other interesting hand that I wasn't involved in. I missed the preflop action because I folded my rags early and kind of disengaged. Things kind of caught my attention when one of the more TAG regulars in seat 10 bet the flop of 4-Q-4 and the even older lady than the one from the first story in seat 1 called. The turn was a 2 and he bet again and she called. The river was another Q making the final board 4-Q-4-2-Q. He shook his head and checked. She made a very small bet for the size of the flop and he folded pocket 2's face up and said, "That queen counterfeited me." The old woman showed pocket aces. He definitely had a full house to her 3 pair and had laid down the winner to a bet that was like 1/15 the actual pot.<br />
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On my final hand I shoved my paltry 725 chips in the middle with JJ and got two callers. They both checked the low flop of like 9-6-4. I knew I was sunk when a king fell on the turn and one of them shoved his whole stack in the middle. He rolled over KQ suited and I headed for the door halfway through level 3 without even uttering a "good luck" or "good game" to anybody at the table.<br />
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One other thing about this tournament. Prairie Meadows has on the whole one of the best crew of dealers around. They're generally experienced, fast, efficient, friendly, and accurate. They rarely make mistakes. During the recent HPT event they brought in table games dealers to supplement the poker dealer staff. Most of those table games dealers are mediocre poker dealers at best. If you had one of them at your table you could expect to get in about half as many hands and expect at least 1 or 2 errors per down. Players were regularly helping them determine the amount for side pots and preventing them from pushing pots to the wrong player.<br />
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Since I only lasted part of 3 levels I only had two dealers. The first was a regular dealer mechanically he was solid, but he never called out raises or bet amounts. People were constantly asking him how much it was. The second dealer that came to our table was a recruited table games dealer. I thought once the HPT left town we wouldn't have to put up with them anymore, but here he was.<br />
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He looked bleary-eyed like he had just woken from a nap. Somebody asked him how many entrants the tournament wound up with and he kind of angrily said, "I don't know I just got here. I got called in on my day off." His very first hand at the table he never reminded the blinds to put out their bets. Three people to their left had folded when I pointed out to them that they needed to post their blinds. From there he was just as bad as any of the other table games dealers. <br />
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And now for the angry rant portion of today's program. I've started riding the bus to work. Several years back I rode the bus to work and I actually really liked it. I can just zone out and listen to some music and even doze a little along the way. Then my schedule changed and my start time was before the bus route could get me downtown.<br />
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I recently discovered that there is a route that runs from the mall near my house to downtown that has a stop right in front of my building. It gets me here with about 10 minutes to spare. I drive from my house to the mall and park near where the buses pick up and drop off. There are two routes that run from the mall. Most mornings when I arrive in my car both buses are already sitting there waiting for passengers. Today when I arrived neither bus was there yet. I checked the clock and saw that it was 5:32. My bus is supposed to depart at 5:38.<br />
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I sat in my car dinking around with my phone listening to the wacky morning radio guys to kill the time. A bus approached the stop, but its sign still read "Bus Garage." Since I wasn't sure if it was my route or the other one I didn't immediately leap from my car. Finally after a minute or two he changed the sign to display my route info and I got out of the car to walk over to the bus. To my surprise he shut the doors and started to pull away while I was still 50 feet or so from the bus. I sprinted after him and was able to catch up as he turned out of the bus dropoff area. He stopped when I knocked on one of the windows. I checked my phone, saw that the time was only 5:36, and held it up for the driver to see. He just frowned and shrugged at me.<br />
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So...talk to you again when I play poker or get angry. :-) JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-39678778701423761692013-10-28T05:23:00.003-07:002013-10-28T05:26:58.423-07:00Heartland Poker Tour (Again)The Heartland Poker Tour returned to my home base brick and mortar casino, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino over the past week or so. I was unable to make it out on any of the days when they were running the super cheap single table satellites, but I wanted to take a stab at winning my way into the main event for cheap. I came agonizingly close to qualifying the last time they were here. <br />
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A quick look back at my blog archives shows that I never updated anybody on my attempt to qualify that time around. It's been 6 months, so I don't remember any specific hands except the last one. I bought into an $80 single table satellite. The top two finishers earned their way into a $330+30 qualifier where 1 in 5 players earned a seat in the $1,500+150 main event. <br />
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I placed in the top two in my single table satellite and signed up for the $330+30 event that was starting just an hour or so later. I played patient and made my way through the majority of the way with about an average stack. I only got short as the bubble approached. Enough players signed up for the tournament that 14 players would get entry into the main and 15th place would pocket about $1,300. It's been too long for me to remember stack sizes, but I remember that I was short enough that I would barely survive another orbit with the current blinds and antes. I shoved from the cutoff with AJ of hearts and the big blind woke up with pocket aces. I think the turn gave me a flush draw to add some sweat for the BB, but it didn't materialize on the river and it was buh-bye JT in 17th place.<br />
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So I went out last Friday night and the only qualifiers remaining were single table $330+30 satellites where the top 2 earned seats in the main and a $165+15 tourney where 1 in 10 would earn seats in the main. I didn't really want to spend the $360 for the single table event, so I decided I would take a shot at the tourney. I arrived at the casino a little before 6:00 PM when I thought the tournament started and discovered it didn't really begin until 8:00.<br />
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I decided to jump into a cash game and see if I could reduce the cost of the tournament buy-in through the other poker players. I got seated at a new $1-2 no limit hold 'em table that was just opening. I bought in for $200 and buckled up for the ride. One of the players at my table was a regular in the $2-5 games there and was notorious for his wild style of play. True to form he was raising about 75% of the hands to like $17 preflop and then firing $40-50 continuation bets whether he hit or not. He was calling or raising if he got any part of a flop and was getting lucky, so he quickly doubled his $300 buy in.<br />
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About 20 minutes into the session I looked down at the old German Virgin, 99 (nein, nein...get it?), UTG. I still had about $195 of my original $200 buy-in. Normally I'd make at least a modest raise there to like $8 or $10, but I figured there was a high likelihood Mr. Maniac would enter the pot for a raise, so I limped. Oddly he folded preflop and it limped around with 8 players seeing the flop. The flop was 4-9-10 with two diamonds (neither of my nines were a diamond).<br />
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I bet $8 and only got one caller. The turn was another 10. This time I bet out $20 and the only other remaining player popped it to $75 leaving only about $50 behind. I'm not folding a boat there, so I announced all-in and he snap called. Since it was limped around he really could have had any two cards, so I was really hoping not to see something like 10-4. Neither of us revealed our hands right away. <br />
<br />
I don't remember the river card except that it was definitely a third diamond which puckered the old pooper a little bit. We both flipped our hands pretty much simultaneously. He had A-10 and he seemed shocked to see that he was beat. If he hadn't lost about $100 to the maniac already I would have nearly doubled up. As it was I went from about $195 to somewhere around $340. I wound up cashing out about $360 an hour or so later making my tournament buy-in $20 whole dollars out of my own pocket.<br />
<br />
Not much to tell about the tournament. There was lower turnout for it than I expected with only 27 runners. That meant that two seats were up for grabs with third place getting about $1,000. I was the most card dead I can ever remember being in a tournament. I think I saw like two pocket pairs the entire time and only 2-3 hands with two broadway cards. On the final hand with the blinds at 800-400 with a 100 ante I shoved my stack of about $7,500 from the button with 10-8 of spades. I figured I had pretty good fold equity there and could really use the 1,900 in tournament chips sitting on the felt.<br />
<br />
Just my luck the big blind had pocket aces. He called and I never even sniffed anything close to a draw and that was all she wrote. I was out in about 20th out of 27.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-30258477978970929312013-04-22T07:37:00.002-07:002013-04-22T07:37:49.926-07:00Poker Content for a Change<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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I’ve been playing quite a bit of poker in the last couple of
months, but have neglected to write up any post session recaps here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not the type that takes notes on hands
after I’ve played them so if they’re going to wind up in the blog it will be based
on my admittedly fuzzy memory.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About a month and a half ago I took $600 out of my income
tax refund and set it aside to try to start a poker bankroll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t regularly played no limit poker in
quite a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first few sessions
were unremarkable. I generally either broke even or lost or won about $100 or
so. The roll stayed pretty much right where it began for about a month. Then
two weeks ago the variance pendulum swung in my favor.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a really good weekend when the Heartland Poker Tour
was in town. All of the poker degenerates that follow that tournament paid off
my TAG playing style and I profited about $1,200 in just that weekend. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A week or so later I had one of those nights where it seemed
like everything broke my way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My big
pocket pairs held up. My suited connectors turned into well-disguised rivered
straights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My middle pocket pairs turned
into aces cracking sets. The game basically played itself. Yes I made a few big
lay downs and stole a few pots, but most of my profits came from just good
old-fashioned run good. I cashed out about $600 in profit from a session where
I was up almost $800 at one point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following weekend I played both Friday and Saturday
night. Friday night I had about $100 profit and Saturday night I had about $650
profit. I decided to take a day off from work and play a mid-week donkament to
see if my run good worked in tournaments too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The donkament often fills up and the only way to ensure you
get a seat is to play in a cash game in the 2-3 hours prior to the tournament.
If you are in a cash game two hours before the tournament starts they give you
a line pass that allows you to sign up for the tournament before tournament
entry opens to everyone else. I should mention that the tournament structure is
really terrible. You start with 1,500 tournament chips. It has 20 minute levels
and blinds start at 25-50 and pretty much double each level with no antes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had bought into the pre-tournament cash game for $300 and
my stack had dwindled to about $175 when the floor came over and told our
dealer to deal one more hand before breaking the game to setup for the
tournament. LAG player straddled and the player immediately to his left raised
to $22 preflop. I’d only seen him raise that much one other time and at the
showdown he showed two jacks which he had stubbornly played all the way to
river with an ace on the board. (He lost that hand.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I called from middle position with pocket eights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was set mining or looking for a chance to
bluff him off his hand if a scary card hit the board. The straddler called, but
I knew that was going to happen no matter what. The flop was 6-7-8 with two
clubs. I had hit my set of eights, but it was a very wet board. I didn’t like
it, but I decided I needed to play the hand aggressively to get rid of any
drawing hands. It checked to me and I made a bet of $40. Straddler min-raised
to $80. Original raiser shoved for about $200. I made the crying call for the
remainder of my stack and the straddler also called. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The board ran out without completing the club flush draw and
we all revealed our hands. Original raiser had unimproved pocket kings. I had a
set of eights. Straddler had called $18 more preflop with 4-5 off suit and
flopped the eight high straight. I was less than pleased.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I made my exit to the hallway outside the poker room to wait
for the tournament to start. I was sitting texting my bad beat story to my wife
when the guy walked up to me and started trying to explain his call and re-hash
the hand with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As politely as I could
I told him to I wasn’t really in the mood to break down the hand where he had
just taken my whole stack and suggested perhaps he should move along. I think
my exact words were, “Dude! Not right now. I would just keep walking if I were
you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tournament didn’t go much better. I shoved with about 10
big blinds left in the fifth level with pocket aces and got called by pocket
tens. Ten on the turn and buh-bye JT88Keys.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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This past weekend I was only able to make it out to the
poker room on Saturday night. I almost didn’t go, but boy am I glad I did. I
got called for a set at table 4 about 5 minutes after putting my name on the
list. I walked over to the table and started to set my chips down at the open
seat when the dealer stopped me saying the gentleman in seat 1 was moving there
after the current hand ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
annoyed, but waited for the hand to play out and took my spot to the dealer’s
left.</div>
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The very first hand I get dealt pocket jacks. I raised to
$12 and got three callers. The board contained an ace and I folded when there
was a bet and call ahead of me. Both players had aces, so no big deal and a
pretty easy fold on the flop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My stack
is now down to $188 of the $200 I bought in for.</div>
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About 3 hands later I look down at two red aces. The hand
was straddled, so I made a slightly larger than usual raise to $18 and wound up
getting four callers. Add that to the couple of other limpers that folded and
there is now a little over $100 in the pot and I get to play my aces against
four opponents. Yippee!</div>
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I was right in the middle…two to act before me and two to act
after me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flop was 8-6-3 with two
diamonds. I bet $55. The next guy to act shoved for about $225. The next player
to act folded and the one after that shoved for about $110. The next player
folded and now it’s back to me. I thought for a minute or so. It felt to me
like the guy that shoved may have hit a set, but it seemed equally as likely
that he had some kind of combo straight/flush draw.</div>
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I didn’t like it, but I resigned myself to rebuying if I
lost and made the call. Nobody revealed their hands and the board ran out with
another 6 and another 8. At this point I’m thinking, “Great…one of these guys
probably called with just top pair on the flop and just went runner-runner for
a boat.” I turned over my aces and the other two revealed pocket nines and
pocket kings. As I was staking my approximately $550 in chips one of the regulars
at the end of the table said, “I’m guessing that turn and river put a scare
into you.” I replied, “I’m not gonna lie…my butthole was firmly clenched.”</div>
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The next big hand I called a preflop raise to $12 on
the button with AK of diamonds. There were five players in the hand. I hit the
nut flush when a 2-4-10 of diamonds flopped. It checked to me and I bet out $20
into the approximately $60 pot. I got two calls from the SB and the player in
the hijack. The turn card was an inconsequential card. It wasn’t another
diamond and didn’t pair the board. The SB bet $25 and the player in the hijack
just called. Now I had a decision to make. Do I pull the trigger on the big
raise now or just call and try to get more value on the river. </div>
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I opted to just call after thinking it over for a few
seconds for dramatic effect. I fully expected the SB to bet the river blank, but he surprised
me by only betting $20 into what was now a $235 pot. The hijack of course called. I
raised it to $100. The SB shoved his remaining $50 or so and the hijack
confirmed that it was $100 total and made the call. I flipped over my flopped
nut flush. The SB mucked and the hijack showed A-10 of spades. I guess he
thought his top pair, top kicker was good there.</div>
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The only other big hand I won was another with pocket aces.
The guy who had originally had the one seat raised preflop to $12. He is a
pretty active player who will raise with lots of different hands, but usually
has at least a little something. I raised to $30 with my pocket aces. A younger
Asian kid who had played relatively conservatively all night shoved for his
last $91. The original raiser tanked for a minute or two before finally
folding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I confirmed I was the only
person left to act and called while turning over my aces. He revealed pocket
sixes. Neither of us improved and I won another $100 or so. The original raiser
said he folded AQ of spades. I wish he had called. Knowing his very aggressive
style he probably would have gotten it all in on the turn when the board was
queen high.</div>
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I left pretty soon there after. The kid I busted who had the pocket sixes
left along with two of his buddies that were also at our table. I didn’t
feel like playing five handed against a bunch of regulars I didn’t feel I had
much of a skill advantage over. I cashed out exactly $953. I tipped 3 bucks to
the cage and left with $750 profit from my original $200 buy in. My goal is to run my poker bankroll up to around $5,000 by the
end of the summer and then use a big chunk of it to book a Christmas cruise to
the Caribbean for my family.</div>
JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-19638131891092007512013-03-27T05:42:00.001-07:002013-03-27T05:42:31.134-07:00Marriage EqualityYesterday the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments for and against gay marriage. I don't know all of the legal ins an outs they were considering or what the impact of their decision might mean for the broader future of the United States of America. I'll leave that analysis to one of the many bloggers who also happen to be lawyers. <br /><br />I do know this. Even the fact that they are considering the case created a launching pad for discussions among my many friends throughout social media. Many of my friends on Facebook changed their profile picture to a giant equal sign and it led to an in depth discussion between me and my teenaged son.<br /><br />As anyone that has read this blog in the past knows, I work with the show choir program at my local high school. I know this is going to sound like a broad generalization and those should probably be avoided when discussing something like civil rights and equality, but the performing arts does seem to draw more than its fair share of openly gay participants. I don't know that the percentage of gay members is any higher or lower than any other activity. I do think they feel more accepted in the performing arts community and as a result fewer of them feel the need to hide who they are. (I think that's a good thing if you were wondering.)<br /><br />Anyway...I got a little off track there. All of that was just to say that I have lots of very close friends who also happen to be gay. Politically I'm pretty conservative, but I fall firmly on the side of gay rights when it comes to marriage. Why shouldn't two consenting adults be allowed to marry? I seriously don't care what your sexual preference is. Do you like to have clamps put on your nipples while getting spanked with a ping-pong paddle? Super. Do you enjoy dressing up in a big furry rabbit costume and bumping your over-sized mascot heads together while bumping uglies? Wonderful. Do you prefer penis over vagina or vice versa? Awesome. I don't care. Enjoy it. <br /><br />I don't know every argument against gay marriage, but the two I hear the most are because it goes against tradition and the old biblical/religious argument against it.<br /><br />Let me start with the tradition argument. I don't get how you can even make that argument with a straight face. In business and life the "we've always done it this way" argument is the lamest of all. Times change. People evolve (hopefully). You can keep your tradition while we start making new ones over here. <br /><br />As for the biblical/religious arguments...<br /><br />I grew up in a staunchly Christan family. We attended Southern Baptist churches from the time I was born until I was in my twenties. These were the epitome of strict conservative social values. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't dance. Don't gamble. And for God's sake, don't associate wtih people who do. All of those commands really led me to try, and decide I liked, almost all of those things. I smoked, drank, danced, and gambled my way through most of my adult life. <br /><br />The Bible thumpers refer to "the scriptures" when arguing against homosexuality, but it cracks me up when they reference the book of Leviticus and its condemnation of "men laying down with other men." They love to cherry pick the scripture and choose the passages they like while overlooking the rest. Maybe if they were strictly adhering to all of the laws put forth in the Old Testament I could take them seriously, but I don't recall ever seeing one of the women from the church walking around shouting "UNCLEAN" when they were menstruating. I also recall a couple of their daughters getting pregnant while they were unmarried, but I don't remember them getting stoned to death over it.<br /><br />So guess what? All of the laws of Leviticus are archaic and out of place with modern society. All of them...<br /><br />Here's where the discussion went with my teenage son last night. Christians argue that gay marriage will degrade the institution of marriage and they hold up their religion as the defining reason why it shouldn't be allowed. Our church has never come right out and said one way or another where they stand on this issue. They talk a lot about inclusion in general, but I don't expect them to start performing or recognizing gay marriages in the church. And nobody is trying to tell them they have to as far as I know.<br /><br />Many churches may not believe that gay marriage fits with their beliefs and they're allowed to believe whatever they want when it comes to their religion. They aren't allowed, however, to foist their beliefs onto the rest of society by trying to make it law for everyone. Jews and Muslims don't believe in eating pork, but I don't see them trying to get a law passed outlawing sales of pork products. <br /><br />So if your church wants to allow gay people to marry and another doesn't...great. This country was founded by people seeking religious freedom. You're free to believe whatever you want. Just don't try to <i>force </i>the rest of us to believe it with you.<br /><br />All of that to say that I fully support the right to marry for everyone. If you're a consenting adult I don't care what happens in your bedroom. If you love one another you should be allowed to make it official in every state in the nation. I'm proud that my state has already made it legal and I look forward to the day when that's the case in all 50 states.<br /><br />Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.<br /><br />Oh wait...I just thought of another argument against allowing gay marriage. I heard this one yesterday on the evening news. Apparently one of the aguments against was that the point of marriage was to produce children. I think it was Justice Kagan who then asked something like "If that's the case should we deny marriage to couples who are both over the age of fifty or sixty?" I wondered sort of the same thing. Should we give fertility tests to poeple who apply for a marriage license and deny them to the infertile? So dumb...JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-57367733579146994472013-01-22T12:56:00.001-08:002013-01-22T16:50:44.712-08:00My First Call as an EMTThis is the tale of my very first call as a fully registered and licensed Emergency Medical Technician. I had literally received my certification in the mail the day before this call occurred. <br />
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On the volunteer fire department we were discouraged from responding directly to the scene of the call. Usually the local PD would respond and arrive to assess the situation before the FD got there. It didn't make sense in most instances for somebody to go to the scene without all of the equipment and supplies on the ambulance or fire trucks. The only exception was if it was on the direct route between your home and the fire station or was one of your immediate neighbors. <br />
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It was around 4:30 in the afternoon and I had just gotten home from my boring office job. I hadn't even changed out of my business casual attire of cheap Dockers and button down shirt when my FD pager went off announcing a possible heart problem in the apartment building right next door to mine. I figured I could at least get a history and record the patient's vital signs so when the ambulance arrived they could just package them up and head to the hospital. Besides, like 80% of these possible heart calls turned out to be bad bologna and not a real cardiac issue.<br />
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I grabbed my sphygmomanometer (fancy name for a blood pressure cuff I was forced to learn in my EMT training) stethoscope, badge and identification and headed next door on foot. I arrived at exactly the same time as the police officer. We were greeted by a 70+ year old woman who informed us that she thought her elderly aunt was suffering a heart attack. I asked where the patient was and she directed me to the bathroom.<br />
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I discovered her 90+ year old aunt lying on the floor with her pants still around her knees. I introduced myself as being from the fire department and told her I was just going to check her pulse and blood pressure. She was very disoriented and barely acknowledged my presence. Her pulse was rapid (150) and very thready. I slapped the BP cuff on her and started to inflate it and before I could even begin to deflate it she let out the most awful gasping breath that lasted about 10 seconds and then ceased respirations. I jabbed two fingers onto her carotid artery and confirmed what I already feared. Her heart was no longer beating.<br />
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I hooked my hands under her arms and dragged her frail 100 pound frame out into the living room and shouted at the cop, "Get on the radio and tell the ambulance to step it up because we are starting CPR!" The cop did as he was told and then told me he would do respirations since he had his one way valve mask with him. I started compressions and felt two or three ribs crack on the very first set of 5. It was only about 2-3 minutes later when the ambulance crew arrived and packaged her up and headed for the hospital. <br />
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I wish I could tell you that being there to initiate CPR right away saved her, but she didn't make it. It doesn't haunt me or anything because at 90 something it was just her time. In the course of my service as an EMT I saw multiple dead bodies and worked on people who were alive, but died soon after we treated them. This was the one and only time in my life that I have witnessed somebody drawing their very last breath and I will never forget it.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-15022829477570254302013-01-18T12:59:00.001-08:002013-01-18T12:59:35.401-08:00Tales from the FDWow...I haven't written anything here in almost as long as Very Josie. The other day I was chatting with some friends when a turn in the conversation led to my revelation that I used to be a volunteer firefighter and EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) back in the late 80's and early 90's. I quit when my oldest son was born because it takes a lot of time and commitment to do it right and I didn't want to miss his childhood. <br /><br />As you can guess I have a treasure trove of stories from my time on the FD. I'll tell a few of the better stories here and if you're interested I can always share more.<br /><br />
<h3>
"What is the Grossest Thing You've Ever Seen?"</h3>
<br />Without fail the first thing people ask when they find out you were an EMT is, "What is the grossest thing you've ever seen?" There are lots of stories that fit under the gross category, but I don't even have to think about this one. One story stands out above all others. <br /><br />I was a very green rookie and had only had my EMT certification for maybe 6 months when the call came in. The police department was asking for assistance. They had discovered a body in a mobile home and needed us to come verify they were dead. The police never declare somebody dead and even though this guy was very obviously dead they needed us to confirm it. It wasn't a good sign when they told us we should probably bring along some of the fire air packs. <br /><br />Did I mention that it was the middle of July and the mobile home wasn't air-conditioned? Did I also mention that the reason the cops were called was because the occupant hadn't been seen by his neighbors for several days and a foul odor was emanating from the residence? Yeah...we already knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but hoped the air packs would at least spare our olfactory nerves.<br /><br />There are only three times when an EMT can declare somebody dead in the field.<br /><br />1. If rigor mortis has set in. Rigor mortis can occur shortly after death, but will eventually subside.<br /><br />2. If the body is dismembered. E.G. the head is missing or something.<br /><br />3. If lividity has occurred. Lividity is what happens when your body stops circulating the blood and gravity causes it to pool anywhere the body is touching the ground. It looks like a big bruise and the blood will even ooze out of the pores in the skin if you press on it.<br /><br />In this case we were checking for number 3. We arrived on the ambulance and the experienced paramedic turned to me and said, "Suit up, rookie, you're going in with me." We donned our air packs and made our way into the dimly lit mobile home. The poor bastard was lying on his back just in front of his couch. I felt a twinge of sadness that somebody could spend nearly a week without somebody missing them. <br /><br />We positioned ourselves on either side of the body and prepared to pull him forward at the waist so we could check his back for lividity. He was a pretty big dude who looked even bigger because he was a tiny bit bloated. The paramedic counted to 3 and we pulled on his upper arms to lift him. He came about 2 inches off the floor when....well....<br /><br />Have you ever had roast chicken? You know how the skin on a roast bird just kind of slides off the meat? Yeah...that happened. With a sickening smacking sound his skin separated at each shoulder and started to slide down his arms. We both immediately dropped him and the paramedic jumped up and said, "Yep he's dead. Lets get out of here until the coroner arrives." I high-tailed it outside and ripped off my mask. I was sweating not just because the mobile home was an oven, but because I was on the verge of purging the contents of my stomach. Swear to God, but the coroner strolled in without any air pack eating a fucking sandwich when he got there.<br /><br />The stories aren't all as gross as that one. Some are sad. Others are inspirational. Still others are scary. Want to hear more? Ask me anything in the comments and I'll write up more stories if you're interested.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-27270788541479783712012-11-06T10:13:00.004-08:002012-11-06T10:13:54.824-08:00Play Money FunI like playing poker, but most of the time I don't have the disposable income to play as much as I would like. Recently "The Dank" got rebooted on Poker Stars as a play money home game. This has led me to start playing a lot of play money sit n go tournaments on Poker Stars just to kill time while watching football on the weekend or in the evenings to wind down before bed.<br /><br />Since they are play money games it's impossible to not play them a little looser than you would with real money at stake and it has made me realize something. My normal style of poker is way too tight. I've had lots of success in these sit n go tourney's thanks to looser than usual play that is just a wee bit tighter than most of the maniacs on there who are shoving on the first hand with any face card.<br /><br />I have to admit to a little douche-baggery on my part though. I can't help but mess with the players that take play money games way too seriously. You see all kinds, but the ones that make me laugh the hardest are the ones that are pausing a really long time to try to make their easy decisions seem like hard decisions. These are the same guys that lose their minds when somebody snaps off their TPTK shove because they called with bottom pair and hit trips or two pair on the river.<br /><br />So the other night I had made it to the final 3 in a two table sit n go that paid 4 spots. I had a fairly sizeable chip lead. The other two players were super tight and clearly took their play money game very seriously based on comments they had made earlier in the game to the "donks" and "idiots" who kept getting lucky. I announced that I needed to leave (which was partly true) and started declaring what cards I had and shoving preflop. When they both would fold I'd show my cards to prove I was being honest about what I held. <br /><br />About 6 hands into this process I'm dealt pocket aces. I'm dishonest for the first time and announce 9-2 off suit and shove. The player with the next largest stack of like 5,000 to my 18,000 called and revealed King-Jack off suit. He caught a King, but nothing more and was eliminated in third place.<br /><br />I chuckled to myself as I pictured him punching his keyboard while cursing about that lying sack of shit JT88Keys. It kind of makes me wish there was a way for them to send me private messages on there.<br /><br />So if you miss the days of your youth spent burning ants with a magnifying glass, you really should play some play money tournaments on Poker Stars. It's very entertaining.JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794285200812210278.post-48771411366421405322012-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:002012-10-03T19:43:23.317-07:00AccountabilitySo...time to get accountable for myself. I've not been the type of blogger who posts regularly about every mundane detail of my life. I'm not condemning that style of blogging. In fact I quite enjoy the day-in-the-life style of writing that gives me a glimpse into their every day life. The funniest thing is it invariably doesn't make me go, "Look how different their life is from mine." I actually am much more likely to think, "Wow, I'm a lot more like them than I would have imagined."<br /><br />So I'm about to bang out details more personal than usual on this little laptop keyboard. I've worked for a Fortune 500 financial services company for more than 20 years now. I started out as a peon that did data entry work. Even though I felt completely overwhelmed for about the first six months that I worked there I soon discovered I had a knack for the intricacies of qualified pension plans and their myriad compliance rules. I also was personable, outgoing, and had an ease with verbal and written communication so they promoted me into a position as a contract administrator where I was the single point of contact for about 30 of our pension customers.<br /><br />After a couple of years in that position I moved into the training and education department just as they began a year long project to document a new system that was going to revolutionize the way we processed the requests of our clients. It would allow us to process most requests the same day they were received and produce payments for them in just a day or two.<br /><br />When that system rolled out into production the department that took phone calls from customers with computer issues was ill-prepared. They couldn't differentiate between the callers that had a real problem and the ones who just plain didn't have a clue what they were doing. That was where I came in. My work in the training department gave me the knowledge to at the very least determine the difference between system issues and training issues. Even though I knew little to nothing about computers and computer programs I was now a computer technician.<br /><br />I held that job for 15 years and got really, really good at it. I can say without hesitation or undue pride that I was one of the best computer technicians in the Pension department. My customer surveys were universally positive. My customers often told me, "Oh I'm so glad it was you that answered," when they called our support line. I was comfortable and content except for one thing. The job didn't really have any upward career path. If I stayed in that position I could be good at what I did...maybe the best at it...but I'd never progress any further. I'd never make any more money and worst of all I'd just stagnate. I didn't know how unfulfilled I really was until my boss approached me out of the blue one day.<br /><br />He was the supervisor of two very similar teams. One was the team I was currently on. The other was another call center that took phone calls on problems related to our in-house proprietary mainframe computer systems. They dealt with the complex issues that come up when things get entered incorrectly by a peon or a programmer misses the colon that should have been a semi-colon. He wanted me to consider moving onto the other team. They had an opening and he thought I would be a good fit. Moving would open up a career path into the systems programming and project area where he ultimately thought I could be very successful. He told me to give it a fair shot of like 6-12 months and if I hated it I could move back to my old team. So where was the risk? The risk I was most afraid of was what if I loved it? What if I became really successful? What if I realized I had wasted like 10+ years in the wrong job? Worst of all what if I had to attend a bunch of meetings? (I loathe meetings.)<br /><br />I took the job and started about two weeks ago. I haven't felt this uncomfortable or anxious over work in years. So now to the real point of this post. In my new job I have to dress up a lot more than before. In the old job I crawled under desks and lugged computer equipment hither and yon. I got sweaty. They let us wear jeans to work every day even though nearly everyone else in our buttoned down world were only allowed to wear them as a reward once in a great while. I haven't dressed up for work in years. <br /><br />And now to the real point of this post. About two years ago I quit smoking and gained a bunch of weight. That was long after I stopped dressing up for work. I don't fit into any of my dress work clothes any more. My wife went out and bought me a few pairs of slacks and a few new shirts and I'm all set for now, but I don't like the way they fit or the way I look in them. So I'm doing something about it. It's only been a few days, but I've started changing my diet. I'm sitting here snacking on grapes instead of chips or cookies.<br /><br />I'm making plans to begin an exercise regimen. I'm the type that once I put my mind to doing this I will succeed at it. The success might not be permanent long term. I've done it in the past. About 10 years ago I did the same thing and lost down to about 195 pounds. At the beginning of this week I was 278 pounds. Before I quit smoking I was around 235 and never wavered far from it no matter what I ate or how little I exercised. Two hundred and seventy-eight pounds!!! That's so close to 300... I'm disgusted with myself.<br /><br />I know I won't regularly update anybody on my progress through this blog, but now I've put it out there. I have to do it. I have a strong sense of accountability, so it's happening. I'm stubborn if nothing else. My very aggressive stretch goal is 50 pounds by January. That's about 4 pounds a week.<br />
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Here goes nothing....or hopefully a lot less of something. (Me I'm talking about less of me.)JT88Keyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14030012435363552208noreply@blogger.com11