Movies and poker

Met MEATS, Slacks, Hip, and my brother for burgers at Blakes, then went to see Shutter Island. MEATS saw Edge of Darkness by himself, Slacks didn't go to a movie, and Roland joined us for just the movie. Hip wanted to see Cop Out, but it's not in theaters yet.

Decent movie, but not fantastic. I had the plot figured beforehand, so no huge surprises. Visually very cool. Nothing about it creeped me out though. Very little suspense.

Got out around 10 and decided to catch some cards at Gemini. Sat down at a table with Paoli, Sadd, and Roland, and won $540 in about an hour and was home by midnight. Very little of it was from CPMG members. The rest of the table was a bunch of donks. One example...I called $8 from the button with Q9 suited and flopped the nut straight. 2 - $100+ all-ins ahead of me!! The $8 raiser had KK and the other caller had KJ for top pr. Played the players and caught a few hands, then cashed while I was ahead. I was tired anyway. My little man said to stick around, but with Sadd and Paoli there, some huge swings were certainly possible.

I am thinking that stopping in later in the evenings is a good idea. The place was PACKED, and although there were some regulars, there were still plenty of fish.

Poker weekend

Stopped by Gemini for a short while on Sat while out and about, and finished down $19. I was up almost $200, then got AA busted, followed by a full house cracked, which put me down almost $300. OUCH! Managed to get AA then KK back to back to recoup and then got the hell outta there. They pulled me from a total gravy table to a MUCH better table full of seasoned players, so I took the small loss and ran. I would love to have stayed at that table. It was donk city.

Managed to get to Dave's as well. Again, no love in the tourney. A couple hands to note...Dave W can't resist calling a 5X raise with 9-10 suited to catch a pair against my AK. Then, after folding for 2 hours, I have about 8 BB left, and shove with A2 suited, and DP, who was doing his best to give away all his chips (and eventually succeeded in fine fashion, despite having a monster stack), calls with 9-7 suited, catching a pair. The MEATS took it down. NH sir, you are my hero! I need to get back up into the top 10, as I predicted. I am still ahead of Tina in our $100 finish-higher bet, despite barely playing this year.

Of course, there is always the cash game. Played decently and ended up $130 on the plus side.

Gemini

Up almost $300 last night. Played until 2. Was ready to leave, up $200 at 11pm then got whacked and was down to my last hundo. Roland nailed me. I had A-10 hearts, flopped the nut flush draw and a pr of 10's. Turned 2-pr, but it gave Roland Broadway and I missed all those flush and full house outs.

Managed to get it all back plus a bit more. Played really well, probably the best I've played in a while.

Weekend fun

Dumped $350 at Gemini in a couple hours on Saturday afternoon. 1 bad call cost me a ton. I had top-top and called down one of the degens, figuring him for nothing. He had nothing until the river gave him a straight.

Woooo!

This is my 250th post

...I think.

Recap of the past 5 days

Fri 1/29 - made chili
Sat 1/30 - won first place for chili.
Sun 1/31 - up $397 at Gemini Columbus
Tues 2/2 - up $475 at Gemini Columbus

Got through about half the field in the deeper stack at Dave's (58 people...wow) but folded myself out of contention down the stretch. No love. Lost 3 - $100 buy-ins in the cash game. I switched tables because Jamie had a monster stack, but he was getting some hands. I paid him off on a big pot where I had AQ and he had KK, and flop was Q high. He even rivered a K. I gave Chan my last hundo when his A had mine outkicked. I showed him the A, thinking he didn't have one. I am 0-3 when showing Chan cards, so that is not going to happen again.

Gemini in C-bus isn't nearly as nice and new as the Berea location, but their hours rock. They are open just about 24-7 and had been running a few days straight when I was there. The first night I made my $400 in about an hour off a couple Russians. I got JJ on my 3rd hand and he doubled up my $150 buy-in at the $1-3 (yes 1-3) table. I got his brother on a couple small pots and the first guy again later when I flopped a flush against his top-2.

Tuesday night was a tough table. There was a $2-5 Nautica regular there (little guy, looks like Rod Stewart, always wears a funny hat and girlie sunglasses) and he was sitting on about $4500, and pushing it around. Didn't mess with him much. Another Asian guy bought in for $2000 and I was sandwiched in between, and left shortly after that. Anyway, I managed to chip up about $400, lost it all back after this old fat lady called $25 preflop with 10-2 suited and flopped top pr vs my JJ. What is it with women in their 50's/60's and 2-pr? They seem to play any big/little suited hands and always hit 2-pr on me. It's either that or they play every A. I got a big chunk back from her later though after she missed the same straight I was chasing, but i had also hit a pr on the flop. I scraped it all back to a $475 profit and left at 4:30 am.

The 2nd session was certainly the best, not only because I cashed higher but I played well. I made a couple decent moves and laid down decent hands a couple times when I knew I was no good. I also managed to get up when my little man told me to. As soon as the Asian dude bought in for $2k, and started getting aggressive, I knew it was time to go.

...oh, and another cool thing about the C-bus Gemini...they have free wi-fi, and an ATM. There was also a coffee machine, which I didn't see at Berea.

I was down there for the annual education tech conference. Fell off the diet for a few days as you can see. Mon night went out with my coworkers for dinner, then Tues I met a couple friends from there in town. My friend's former frat bro is the GM at Hyde Park downtown C-bus, and he showed us some serious hospitality. He must have brought us about a hundred bucks worth of food, including the 10" high carrot cake. The chocolate cake was just as big and weighed 3 lbs. Nuts. Needless to say, I was a little over on the calorie count the last couple days.

We also went to see The Road, which is not playing in the Cleveland area. Pretty good movie. Very bleak and grim. Feel good movie of the year.

Hey Chan

For some reason I couldn't add a comment on your blog. Anyway...WTF are you doing laying down A's full? Awful laydown. I will NEVER EVER fold the 2nd nuts, especially a full house, unless someone shows me their hand. My guess is he was slow-playing a smaller full house. Bad fold. Bad. Very bad.

You have no guts.

Gemini Report

Had a good night overall. MUCH better experience than Nautica. No parking fees, no hourly $15, etc. The place is nice and clean with free snacks and soft drinks, though I had to pay $.50 for bottled water. I only had a couple bananas as snack because of the diet. The dealers are pretty fast and very courteous. Card shufflers would be a great addition.

Sat down at a $1-2 immediately after getting my membership papers, and chased a few hands that didn't pan out, and was down almost $70 when the tourney started. The tourney sucked, only because I got jack shit for hands, and only won the blinds 3 times before busting out after almost 2 hours. NOTHING hit the flop when I was able to see it. I only folded 1 hand that turned out to be a winner. 7-8 off. So, down $50 from the tourney. With the membership fee, I was down almost $145, and sat at another $1-2 after about a 20 min wait. One thing they do correctly is keep the main table full with must-moves. I wish they did this at Nautica. You often have several tables with 6-7 people, and sometimes very few chips in play.

I sat down with $150 and slowly built it up to almost $700 over the next 3 hrs. Played fairly tight for a cash game, but loosened up after I figured out who the donks were, and there were certainly a few at my table. One hand, I tried river bluffing a $30 pot by tossing out $20, and got called by A9 high (I missed an open-ender). I got it back a bit later after hitting a flush.

I hit 4 flushes and a couple straights to make most of my money. I cashed $690, up almost $550 with in that session, and up almost $400 on the night, even after the tourney, initial $1-2 loss, and membership fee.

There were some familiar faces there; some Nautica regulars, Riegler, Chan, Linda, RR Dave, Grayday, and Gross were all there. Even Pavel the Russian kid that used to play at Ken's was playing $2-5 and had a nice stack built up.

So, my initial thoughts are that this is a great idea, but it's hard to say how long it will last. I think that when the casino is built, legal or not, the state will find a way to shut them down if they feel money is being diverted from the casino. Until then, I'll play there before going to Nautica. It's cheaper and closer to home for me as well. The area is safer. One thing that worries me is the fact that the restrooms are open-air at the ceiling. A Doug Poker, TK, or MEATS could really cause some damage to the room if they have to do the nasty.

Tonight...cooking chili.

Wed night

So, I drop off some chicken paprikas for my dad/grandfather, and head over to the gun range to meet my brother and cap off some rounds (traded up a Kel Tec PF9 that I was having trouble with for an XD 9mm subcompact...sweet deal), but bro Diabl0 can't make it. I've been wanting to try out the new CC sidearm, so I went in by myself and fired off about 100 flawless rounds. Sweet gun. I have the 4" model in .40 with tac light at my bedside for home defense, and love it too.

So, I head downtown to Nautica, figuring to play the 7 pm tourney. I walk in and the place is EMPTY. Just the mgr teaching some dealers. I totally forgot they aren't open until Thursdays during the week. I hadn't been there since before my dad had his heart surgery, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Gemini was closed and no one else was having a game, so I just went home and ate a plate of paprikas. I have enough to have for dinner the rest of the week, since I am only eating a single plate a night. Snacking on apples and salad. Gay, I know, but I weighed in at 187 this morning. That's 16 lbs down and counting. The gut is going away.

So, back to this sweet gun deal. I placed an ad at swapgiant.com that I was looking for that particular gun, after getting a full refund for the Kel Tec, even though I got it way back in October. That thing was a total lemon. Most of the reviews I read were great, and everyone on the gun forums I read liked it as well, but this thing would not extract spent rounds. No stove piping. They were fully seated, with gouge marks from the extractor. Still wasn't fixed after I sent it in.

I get a response from a guy in Strongsville that will sell me his XD for $425 (A new model is about $460 +tax, and there is a long wait list) or he'd toss in 3 extra mags with finger extensions and a Crimson Trace laser grip for $550 total. I didn't want the laser at first, until I looked up what they cost...almost $300 new. So, I got the whole thing for $550, sold the laser on eBay for $225, kept the extra mags, and got a $460 gun and about $90 worth of mags for $325!! Basically about $30 outta pocket after the Kel Tec refund. Ordered a decent holster for it which should be here in a few weeks. The XD is a little bulky to carry, and I still have the LCP for deep concealment, but I can trust the XD to go boom if I ever need it to. Holds 10 +1 or 12 +1 with the finger extension mags.

No poker last week

Didn't get a chance to hit the new Gemini Club last week. I left my bank card in an ATM, and once the machine sucks it up, it becomes property of Diebold Corp (the company that makes the voting machines where they sell elections to the highest bidder) and you cannot get it back. My bank is all online (ING Direct) so I can't jsut walk in with my ID and pull out money. I think I'm gonna ask for a spare card.

Just got my new card this afternoon, so I'll be headed that way this week for sure. Probably play a tourney and some cash.

I'm down 14 lbs, to 189!

I'll be cooking an award-winning batch of chili this Friday night.

Weight loss

I've now lost about 11-12 lbs since 1/1. I haven't been this weight for about 10 years. Feels great.

The following "comedians" suck

* Jeff Dunham
* Wanda Sykes
* The fat bastard on TBS...Frank Caliendo

The above-mentioned, self-proclaimed comedians are not funny. They are the comedic equivalent of a burger and fries.

No poker news to report. I'll probably hit Nautica tomorrow night.

Back to running bad

Wed night at Dave's...

* My middle set of 7's vs Mailman's top set of Q's beat. We both flopped them.
* Stacked off to Grayday with AJ and a flop of J77. He had 7-8 off after calling $8 preflop.
* Small blind, I have 3-5 of spades, get to check it, see a free flop, and flopped a flush with gutshot SF draw. Get my stack in against Grayday (again), and he had flopped the nut flush from the BB with K6 of spades.

FUN FUN FUN!!!

Only real bright spot of the night was spotting Dave's quads after he hit them on the turn. His hesitation at calling my $10 bet screamed "I have quads!". Always does. I bet the same $10 on the river and of course he says..."raise". I said "I know", showed my AJ for the full house, and mucked. Board was 10-10-J-10-4. He showed the quads. I've had quads enough times to be able to spot them. If he'd quickly called my turn bet, or even raised it then, I'd have paid him off on the turn and river for sure. Saved me a bunch of money.

Anyway, I played fine again, with my only real mistake being the call from Grayday with my AJ. Didn't get beaten by dumb luck either...my good hands just weren't good enough.

Happy New Year

...and happy birthday to me.

The holidays were nice. Spent a lot of time with the family, and got a ton of rest.

After some brutal December beats, finally a cash game win at Dave's on Saturday. Got crippled in the tourney after some moron shoved with Q9 on the hand before break (always bad for me) I had pocket 10's, and knew he had junk, as he ALWAYS does. I've taken a ton of money off this guy over the past few years, and he mentioned one instance where I sucked out on him for $200. Whatever. He says "I thought you were making a move", after I'd shown nothing but great hands all night. He goes runner-runner straight after I hit a set on the turn. Oh well, I played good. Can't beat dumb luck, as usual. I just wish my hands would hold up after getting my money in way ahead.

Nearly doubled up on the first hand of the cash game after flopping a set of 5's, then just played conservative poker the rest of the night. Was up about $270 at my peak, and cashed out up $240.

December notes...lost $420 at Adam's just before Christmas and about $350 at Dave's way back in the middle of the month. 2 Sets cracked at Adam's, along with a flush beaten by a straight flush. I was down to my last $30 at Adam's, built it back to over $800, was gonna cash out, but didn't want to break up the game, and lost it all in about 20 minutes over 3 hands. Ouch. I'll go broke with a set EVERY time.

So I am hoping to play a bit more over the coming months. My dad is doing much better (but back to smoking like a chimney), so I don't have to be there every day to take care of him and Grandpa. I still stop by a few times a week to drop off containers of chow (lots of homemade goodness), and take them to the store/pharmacy. I want to play some more tourneys to sharpen up. Probably Nautica during the week.

I am also making a serious attempt to lose weight. I have lost about 8 lbs so far, but it has not been easy. I am probably eating about 1/3 to half of what I normally stuff down my throat, so it's a shock to the system. Major withdrawals for a few days.

I am however learning to appreciate food again. I hadn't realized it until now, but I can't remember the last time I got hungry between meals. I REALLY look forward to dinner. My basic plan is to stick with around 2000 calories a day (until I drop to 180 lbs, then go to 2500/day) by eating smaller portions and by cutting way down on sugar, fat, and dairy. No snacking, no eating out of boredom. So far so good.

No poker this week

Looks like I cant make it out to play this week with the weather and taking care of my dad/grandfather. SOON!!!

See you on the felt. In the meantime, enjoy this sweet video