So I don't really care that it's colder than a well-diggers asshole up here. Because I've spent a whopping three minutes out in the weather, so it's pretty irrelevant. I got into Syracuse about half an hour later than expected because we had to wait at the gate for our crew to arrive from another plane. That's not usually an issue, except that the second we got moving from the gate, the toddler behind me decided she had to pee.
RIGHT THAT SECOND.
And we all had to know about it, as she informed us at the top of her lungs for the first ten minutes of taxiing and ascending, that she had to go NOW. Now I understand, that, being childless, I am naturally somewhat unsympathetic to the plight of those who have spawned. BUT, if you know you're going to be trapped in a metal tube with a couple hundred other people for upwards of an hour, why don't you do what Ray Wylie Hubbard suggests in his song Choctaw Bingo and "strap the kids in, give 'em a little bit a' Benadryl and a Cherry Coke?" Sedate the little buggers until they're old enough to maneuver on their own and not scream their bloody heads off!
Now I gird myself in the comment field for the remarks about how insensitive I am to the plight of the world's parental units. We all know I'm insensitive, get over it.
But I got here, got my rental car, plugged in my GPS, and cruised right down to the Super 8 in Oneida, NY, which is one of two hotels within 5 miles of the Turning Stone casino, and the one that isn't actually the resort, with $200+ rooms. It's not bad. There's a bed, and it seems clean. I have no intention of running a blacklight over the sheets, and that's just for my own peace of mind.
The poker room at Turning Stone is pretty decent, and I'll have a full review up on PokerWorks in a few days. They do allow 18+ gambling, so I felt like the old guy at one of my tables, but the juniors in the room weren't annoying. We'll take a look tomorrow night and see if they can maintain non-asshole status on a weekend.
I made a little money, but it took a while. I stacked off on my first hand for my first buying ($100) running a bluff with a busted straight and flush draw that the guy obviously didn't want to call, but he was willing to give away $50 on a hand where he thought he was beat, and I didn't have enough behind to push him off the hand.
They spread $1/2 with a $100 max buy-in and a $200 max, and the $100 max tables are the popular ones, so that's where I spent most of my time. I bounced chips up and down for most of the night until I managed to move ahead for good flopping middle set on a K-10-4 board and picking up a decent pot. There were a couple of decent pots that I would have taken down could I have made the call preflop, but one was particularly interesting.
I was in late position (cutoff or button, I don't remember) and looked down at J-10 off. I like to see cheap flops with this hand because it can turn into lots of things, and because I read that blurb in Super System where Doyle said it made the most nut straights, and I overplay the hand like so many others. But with 7 players in the hand, it's worth $2. Small Blind raises to $20, and another guy re-raised all in to $30. Now I like my had a lot less, and it doesn't improve when there are two more callers at $30 each. I think for a moment, but not too long, because I can't call $30 preflop with J-10, even when I'm getting 4-1 on my money. I likely would have made the call if it was suited, but I was playing pretty screwed-down poker, and may not have decided to make the call looking for a J-high flush.
So of course the flop comes down J-10-10, original raiser leads for $50 (I put him on Aces or Kings) and the other guy in the pot moved all in for another $55 on top. He was steaming over a river catch the original bettor made on him a few hands earlier for a monster pot, and his preflop calling range was huge. The other guy folded, and the original bettor called. So there were two all ins, and the original bettor had about $200 more behind. He tabled the expected Aces, the second all in guy tabled A-10 off for trips, and the other all in guy turned over 4s for a pile of shit. A-10 held and he stacked a $300+ pot because he could call $30 preflop with A-10 off. I don't have that move right now, as my preflop play has been a lot tighter lately, not raising or calling raises with hands like A-10, K-J or other trouble hands. This does not apply to our home games, where the stakes are too low to make proper poker attractive to me.
So any thoughts? I still make that fold, but with 4 people in, I probably called the $20. I just couldn't make it happen with the re-raise and two overcalls. I made most of my money on a hand a few minutes later when I made a pretty good read against a kid for a $400+ pot. I'll write that up a little later.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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7 comments:
The frequient traveler (me) arms himself with a noise reducing headset and music/podcasts to drown out the little ba$tards.
"But they don't let you listen to anything during take off" I hear you saying. Well, I've noticed that the crew has to take their seats from before takeoff until the plane reaches 10k ft. Unless I'm sitting right in front of the crew seats, I flip my ipod on as soon as they are seated. The plane has never crashed due to my headset or Ipod.
I'll change that habit when they find a way to turn off the kids and babys.
as to the benadryl comment... I think that used to be considered good parenting and is now considered child abuse -- much like discipline.
for the hand in question.. I'd have to have a better feel for the table to give you an accurate "i'd fold" or "i'd call" there.. most of the time I'd fold; however there are circumstances where I've made that call and then cursed myself on the flop when i hit nothing...or worse yet, just enough to get me in trouble and felted.
I think that JT in position is a stack-size, implied odds kind of play.
I think at a $100 1/2 table, you simply can't make that call unless both you and your opponent have 350-400+ stacks.
ya you can't really make that call at a 100max buy-in table even in position. it's chip spewage. just unfortunate there was so much action ahead of you. ez fold.
I would toss that in the muck before the action got to me. You know that if you call it comes down A 10 10 and you get stacked.
I probably see the flop here more often than I should based on the stack sizes (both big and small) and the styles of the players at the table. You have position and assuming someone bets at the flop, you have the odds.
But that said, the main reason I muck here is I'd expect the small blind (who initially raised to 20) to push or reraise when the action gets back to him preflop.
If I knew for certain it wasn't getting reraised behind me, then there's a better chance I call.
But what I mostly want to avoid is spending 30 bucks to see a flop that I don't actually get to see because I'm reraised behind me by a player who has already shown strength preflop.
(And am I misunderstanding the entire sequence or did he really just smooth call with pocket aces in a multiway pot when the action got back to him the second time preflop?)
"...and the other all in guy turned over 4s for a pile of shit..."
Hey man, why didn't you say hello?
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