17 May 2007

That was a long-ass drive ... but I love long-ass drives, so I enjoyed getting here.  Except, of course, for crossing lake Pontchartrain.  That sucked ass.  It's the same thing as when I cross a really big bridge (like the one in Tampa).  I have to keep saying to myself "fight the impulse ... you will not swerve violently to the side".  So I grip the steering wheel extra tight ... my whole body goes tense ... just so I can remain in control of my impulses and keep the car in a straight line.  The bridge over lake Pontchartrain didn't cause that impulse because of the height--there's no real height to it.  It caused the impulse because of the makeshift railing they still have in place over parts of the bridge.  Apparently it takes a really long time to fix a bridge.  I don't think it's as bad as it was last year, but I still drove about 30 miles an hours behind a semi the whole way across.  Makes me feel safer.  Of all the places I'd want to go over the side, lake Pontchartrain is not one of them.  Do you remember that scene in Poltergeist?  You know, when they finally figure out the house is over an indian burial ground and one of the characters falls into the hole for the swimming pool and all these dead bodies start floating up?  OK, now I know the water flowed out of lake Pontchartrain, so it's not very likely that there'd be any bodies in the lake but still ... that's what I was thinking about the whole way across. 

The city looks better than it did last year.  Maybe because I arrived at two in the morning and couldn't see much ...

18 May 2007

Hit the Riverwalk today in search of items I forgot to pack (eyeliner, razor, cotton balls).  I bought the eyeliner at the body shop.  Great ... $9 for crappy eyeliner.  Wow, those are trendy, rude clerks.  I hate trendy people, they make me want to vomit.  What made me want to vomit worse was that the sundries shop wanted $5 for a pack of cotton pads.  Are you on crack?  It's just cotton, for Christ's sake.  I paid the $6 for three razors (some things you can't do without) but I can make due with kleenex before I pay $5 for cotton pads.  I think I paid $0.89 at Sally's for a considerably larger pack.  Anyway, I'm back at the Hilton, sitting in a courtyard over the river typing this out and listening to jazz music playing.  I can't find any free wi-fi around here, so I'm going to have to pay the hotel's ridiculous charges because I don't feel like going out to find a public library and my offline directory of wi-fi spots didn't load properly.  Anyway, at this point it's too much effort to try to avoid paying the corporate, money-grubbing bastards their fees for what should be free ... so I'll pay $12 for 24 hours.  Sigh.

I have another hour to kill before I can hit the poker tables ... gotta tend the responsibilities of my real-life job.  Guess I'll let you know how that goes in a bit.

It sucked.  I had a two and a half hour wait to get onto a table, and then I got stuck at a table with no action.  I don't know why I didn't switch tables--I should have.  Instead, I switched games to the 4-8 half & half.  That was fun for a couple of hours but then we switched to Omaha Hi only about the time I started getting tired.  So I lost some money.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better J

19 May 2007

OK, another two hour wait for a seat with screw-ups along the way--it pissed me off enough that I wrote it up in the room review.  Anyway, I get to my seat and it's a fantastic table.  A few hours later, I'm up several hundred bucks.  Then I have this run of incredibly horrible luck combined with me making a few bad plays and in no time I'm down two buy-ins.  I wasn't going to buy in again, even though the table was totally ripe, so I called it a night.  The company at the table was miserable, anyway.  On my left we have Mr. Bump-on-a-log who occasionally pipes in with comments on poker strategy and speculation of others' hands.  Don't you have anything better to talk about?  I mean come on, we are engaged in a preposterous war, we're trashing the environment, there's an election on the horizon, and celestial bodies are losing their planetary status ... but all you can talk about is whether you had correct odds to raise in that situation.  SHUT UP!  You ruin the game for everybody when you start in with that shit.  Now, on my right, we have Mr. Bluebird-of-happiness who won't stop calling everyone at the table a moron, idiot, or bad player as he sits there and loses several thousand dollars making some of the most horrid calls I've seen in my life.  Now, I shouldn't really talk, because (obviously) I made a few bad ones tonight, or else I wouldn't have lost my chips, but I wasn't calling everyone else at the table stupid.  ARGH!  And the really shitty part is that I've the ladies' tournament tomorrow then I leave town so I won't have time to get even.  In the hole for the whole trip.  That sucks.

20 May 2007

Ladies' tournament ... Ack!  How do I always get stuck at the table with the anal-retentive, self-professed poker expert?  The whole hour she played (before, of course, donkeying off her chips with a mid-pair, which she initially over-bet and was unable to abandon after the flop), she annoyed the crap out of me by constantly correcting the dealer and the other players.  Is your life really so pathetic that you can only derive pleasure from correcting other people?  Shut up and let the dealer run the game.  I mean, if you're in the hand and there's a problem, then of course say something but, otherwise, leave the dealer alone ... they're doing their best.  And I happen to like a lot of the dealers and don't like to see them mistreated.  So let that be a tip to all of you single men out there ... if you are trying to impress us, don't do it by correcting the dealer unnecessarily.  We aren't going to think you are studly if you do that, we are just going to think you're an asshole.

OK, so what happened to me?  Besides annoying lady, I was doing just fine ... until my encounter with seat 8.  I'll admit I horribly misplayed it, but I frankly still don't know what I should have done differently.  This lady wouldn't raise anything (I saw her take down the pot with pocket aces twice when she hadn't raised once) and would only bet her strong hands if it'd been checked to her (otherwise, she'd call).  So I'm in the small blind with A-7 off, two limpers, and I can tell the big blind is going to check.  I should've thrown it away, in retrospect, but I figured my ace was good since everyone limped so I called.  The flop comes down with an ace and garbage.  The blinds were 100-200 with a 25 ante, so I bet out 400.  Big blind folds, seat 8 calls, other limper folds.  Now, I immediately think seat 8 has limped with a better ace because of her previous behavior, but then the turn comes down another ace.  So I second guess myself and say the odds are pretty good that she doesn't have the last ace in the deck.  So I bet out 400 again, as a feeler, and she calls.  I knew I was sunk then, but I (stupidly) felt like I needed to see a showdown and I didn't want her to set the price, so I bet out 400 on the river.  She called and revealed A-Q suited.  That was the majority of my chips.  After that, I waited too long to make a move ... I was literally anted off.  It's my own fault ...

The tournament sucked because they started us with 1500 chips and only gave us 30 minute rounds.  Why bother to have a ladies' tournament if you are going to run it like that?  If I go next year, it probably won't be to play the ladies' event.  Incidentally, I lost more playing an hour in the cash games ... I just couldn't pick up much of a hand ... but I should've known better than to play when I had that limited of an amount of time.  This whole trip has sucked.  Oh, but the free buffet you get for registering for a tournament wasn't bad ... they've got a chocolate fountain and pralines J