Gregg's game just before the Falls trip

Well, I was brushing up on my game so that I am ripe for Niagara Falls.
So I bought in this $20 game for $110.
Some brush up.
More like a brush off.

The new rebuy in rules are just great.  Gregg did a find job making it more like a casino, easy enough to bank and fair enough to let the rebuy guy into the game again.  I know.  I came back.   The new rules are: one row or less, buy in for $10.  No chips, rebuy for $20.  No busted Aces or Kings advantage.

I don't think it was my play. My lost hands were close hands in one way or another. On the real stupid draws I got lucky.  It was the solidly played hands that lost.  No flops. No turns. No rivers.  I guess I used up all my luck getting the pickerel and the quiet morning air off the dock.

What a group Gregg draws.  Even with Bruce home we had 11 at the table. Blowers made a rare visit and pumped up the action, the mucka jucka, the actual mathematics which is often mucka jucka to me and a few very important sounding cell phone calls.
Jim, Charlie, Peter, Gregg, Bill, Slink, Phil, me, Ron, John - 10 at the table.
I had quad nines and was first to act, and no one bet on the river.  I should have bet a bit.  I counted on an all-in bluff.
Charlie had quad tens and pushed all in early, a huge pile of chips.  He won the pot.  He lost a bundle.

Peter played some fine poker just as he did at Blowers.  I'm happy.  I don't see him any longer as destined to be aggressive until bankroll death.

Gregg got hammered again.  Ron left with some money.  Phil played a nice game and left with money.  Bill was sick and could not catch a draw.  Jim got bad rivers....again.  Slink faked all-in bets and laughed and did the 222222222222222222's genuflection.  Ron more than doubled up and went home early.  I don't remember too much.
I caught an inside draw and took John for 15-15-15.

I was wired again on the coffee, clumsy as a drunk, had one of the Smuggler's whiskey.
Afterward Peter and I went for a meal and a talk at a new Mexican place on Central, Fiesta.  On Wednesday 2 people get an appetizer (spinach casadia) entre (chicken fajitas) all from $20.  Nice.
Good to have some father-son time to talk as well as play.

Thanks Gregg.  You sure can pack them in.  Now if you can only fleece them.  I guess you got too rusty over the summer growing all those tomatoes.  Hey, save me some green ones.

See ya next week.

Pirate Poker

Well, John wanted a much better write up than this one.  However, having virtually no memory left for anything, I can just write an overview.

I left for the game totally disorganized and forgot my Somali-Useful Phrase book. Too bad.  I could have been the affirmative action player with pirate phrases like, " istaag ma waan ku tooganayaa" ha ooyin" or bet with the numbers.  I have all the numbers.
On the way I had no voice in the GPS so I was often on the side of the road with my blinkers on.
On the way home the voice came back, but in Africaneer.  Wow!  given I'd forgotten the Somali phrasebook, that was a bit eerie.
I did bring what I could pass off as doubloons, those silver strike rings with the silver missing.  The guy I bought the rings from "pirated" in one sense the silver.  John's kids liked the rings.
John splashed the pot (or is it "loaded the chest") with plenty of treasure.  There were pirated books and cups and shot glasses.   He won one of his own books about three times before it went to Peter and so he got his money back.  I chased the books. So John would splash the pot with the book which would build the pot and then he would take the pot down.  New pirate poker strategy.
Peter did the best.  I was happy.  I staked him.  He started at the 20 dollar table and with one buy in cleaned that out, then he came to the $100 table and did a nice job winning the most money he has ever won at poker. Shiver me timbers!
Once he layed down a straight because he knew he was beat and he was.
Once he called Todd's  $20 raise holding only a pair of nines and won.
Once he folded to Todd's strong hand and did not lose.
He seemed to just read the player's well.
I think Peter was also ahead on the booty he took home.
I did my usual.
I did fairly well in the beginning and then it drained and drained and I had to rebuy.  I took a decent pot and so ended down $14.

Ed has the worst luck.  A fellow called his $30 preflop raise holding just 2-4 offsuit and after other decent bets proceeded to catch a wheel on the river.
Then I tried to push Ed off with an all-in bet on my bare pocket queens, and he must have seen that.  He called with his bare pocket jacks.



I made lots of mistake.  I misread cards and remembered cards and overbet.
Perhaps it was the pirate movie:  Pirates of the Carribean:On Stranger Tides which John had playing in the background.  Much of it was boring pirate and old English talk or Johnny Depp being cute, or long marches through jungle like, watery, mountainous terrain with bits of dialogue like, " We have to keep going."
Well, yeah Jackass, the movie has to be long enough for folks to eat a couple popcorns.
But this one mermaid played by the French actress Astrid Berges-Frisbey caught my attention.  And I had John play the movie twice.  French actress with a Spanish parent.  Sweet!
And I love vampires anyway.
Most of the mermaids were vampires.
No manatee inspired this movie.


Rich played a fine game, then got no cards, then went to sleep, then cashed in.  I was glad Rich was playing tired.  He was good.  I was in three good pots with him and each time we held the same hand.  You would have liked him Gregg.  He straddled every time.
Did I mention he was to my left?
Bilge sucking Scalawag!!
I tried to get him to move to my right, but even the promise of seeing Astrid-Berges-Frisbey  without turning around was not enough to entice him to move.


John played his usual aggressive self and won money.
And books!!  Did I mention he won books??  His own books??


John's girlfriend Danna was the only women at the gathering at either table.  She was sweet and very hospitable.  Nice to meet you Danna.  She played a while and then saw to it we were fed and then I guess she was sleepy.
In Jeopardy we had a category, "People named Danna"
Well, the kids were prepared for that one at least once.

John put out a spread of food: munchies, two kinds of lazana, pizza, fruit, veggies, and this huge platter of meats and cheeses all nicely collated.  It never seemed to empty. and we had a fine lunch while we tried to do Pirate trivia on Pirate jeopardy.
This is not my game.
Rich, the good poker player, once won on Jeopardy and he was very good.  Our team just stumbled along.  I stumbled and fell.  I did know the pirate joke, however,
"What is on each side of your buckin' head?"
"Your buccaneers!!"
This was the extent of my knowledge of pirate trivia.


"Did they want to use another letter in that question?" asked one of John's kids.
"No, why would you say that?"

And off the kids went with their Mom.

Rich was very helpful because he had just played at Niagara Falls (American) and I am going this month for three nights.  He gave me a sense of the no limit games and I may play them.  I told him where I intended to stay, and he told me I might get mugged there.  But I really don't think he has a good sense of Niagara Falls Blvd. motels, left from pre-Thruway days, when that was the main highway to the Falls.  Let's hope he is right about the games, and wrong about the mugging.
I also asked about seeing the Police in Vegas, playing at the Riviera in November.  I wondered if they would be too loud for me.  Todd and others discussed this group and then I mentioned I only knew the songs like "YMCA" and the table looked at me in disbelief.  Finally, they told me it was the Village People sang that song, and yes, they would be very loud.
"Right, " I answered, "It is the Village People who are playing in Vegas."
After that people just made fun of me and I could not get a straight answer from any of my questions.

I explained that I did not really know any names much after Bix Beiderbecke.  Then I realize I was rude not to answer Danna's question about who he was. Sorry.
I listen to a lot of old jazz, especially since I bought an internet radio that works off the wifi and pulls in about a thousand stations.
On WGBH Boston they play 24/7 Ray Smith Jazz Decades.  It was my favorite radio show years ago when Ray was a alive and being the DJ  just an hour a week on NPR.  It focuses on 30-40's jazz and Ray gives a short introduction to each set of tunes.  Often they play rare, even one of a kind, tapings.  Ray was an expert who talked about these players like some guys talk about baseball players.  He had been a drummer and got interested in collecting old jazz.  Lots of Bunny Berrigan and Jack Teagarten.  Some of the tunes were created much later, but still reflect that era of jazz before it became abstract and disharmonic. And sometimes he will play older jazz, perhaps the first in a particular style.
I go to sleep to this every night.

Someone had quads.  I forgot.
It was a very pleasant game without the action of the last one.  No one bought in for $600 (John) like last time.
But then last time I took home over $1000, my largest lifetime poker win.

Gregg's Birthday Game

I had such a great run of luck at this game this week.  It seemed I could not lose.  If I bet to bluff, everyone folded or called me with less than I held.  I started with great cards often and they won, even my pocket jacks.  I only remember losing one hand that I bet on the river.  I was trying to push Bruce out.  I had a pair of fours and he had a pair of nines.  Plenty of better hands out there, but I could not get him to budge.
Here is how I wrote the game up in an email:

There are those days when it just seems that losing is impossible.

I cleared actually $303 in profit, but still I think that is a record for me at Gregg's.  

No matter what I did my opponents seemed to be second best.

I played a few minutes of head-to-head with Gregg before the real game.  When we do this, we cash out afterwards so everyone starts even. I lost $16 dollars in just those few minutes.  A few hands in an all-in with Gregg brought all that back.

In one hand I held junk.  The flop gave me 3-4-5-6.  I bet $2.  The turn gave me a 7.  Bruce had a king and Jim had a king and the river put two on the board.  They bet, raised, reraised and it put Jim all-in and Bruce close to that.  I figured I'd lose to a full house.  Nope!

I won twice with pocket jacks, catching the third on the flop once.

I tried to push Gregg off the river with an all-in bet when I held just 10-J of diamonds with Q-9-X on board and two diamonds gave me both a flush and a straight draw.  I was very disappointed when Gregg called me, but he had 5-6 of diamonds.  Nothing developed, and I beat him just on the high card.

I won once in a hand where I was behind with Gregg until the river gave me a Queen that made my two pair into a full house and overcame his flush.  I had out-Gregged Gregg.

Jerry was mentioned because there was a huge debate on rebuy rules.  Gregg wanted to rebuy twice in a row with no hands in between because his first rebuy gave him just $10 in chips, the old limit.  The new rule is $19 in chips or less so a guy can't just fold a small blind and rebuy.  Of course, anyone can fold a preflop call and rebuy, so it has not changed actual practice much.  However, I am not concerned since by next game, that rule will certainly change once again.  The basic rule is that all rules must change and most of those changes need to be initiated in the middle of a hand, if possible, but at least in the middle of the game.

Once I tried for my own rule change.  I was dealing but had no cards, and I decided that after the hand was over the dealer ought to be able to take either the winning player's cards or his winnings.  Phil thought this was an ill advised rule and made me give back the pot stack.  It seemed a good rule to me, as long as it was changed back again after I followed it once.

Slink, who is now a professional dealer has decided that it is wrong to stack the chips when the pot is collected after any round of betting.  If we stack them on his deal, he will destroy all that pot order.  So, chips are collected after a round of betting, stacked by some helpful player, unstacked by Slink and then restacked once again by the winner.  

But then poker is more about playing with chips than actually efficiently playing cards.

I'm certain that next game, Slink will decide on his deal that the cards too need to be mixed up and redealt just before the river.  Whenever that happens, Gregg can rebuy.

So the suggestion was that Jerry be contacted by video phone and become the new skyped poker rules Czar.  

At the end of the game I discovered why I had won.  The  card protector that old Alligator Louisiana Mudgriff Dan's daughter sent me after Dan died had been left last week in the box that is the bank.

Thanks, Dan.  

And thanks to all the rest for an enjoyable rainy day.

Oh, and Gregg:  Happy Birthday!!

I hope I can play this well and be this lucky in Vegas.  Sure does boost my ego.

photo from wikimedia commons in public domain in the US

Gregg's first game of the season

Autumn is here because Gregg started up the poker again.
Players were Ed, Jim, Bruce, Phil, Charlie, Gregg, Dewey, and Robin.
I build up a profit of over $100 and lost it all back.  I left down $8.  Gregg left about even.  Charle took about $40.  I don't know the other scores.
Nice day.  Nice game.  I won with pocket Aces twice and both won and lost with trips.
I felt I played well, but I suppose I got tired toward the end and lost my discipline.

Orford Poker

Well, we had quite a fine game on Saturday night and after breakfast on Sunday as well.
Players included Gregg, AJ, Ivan, Cassidy, Dewey, Peter, Chris, Barry, Bill, Slink, Charlie.
The ten cent chip structure along with brass rings worked great and there was plenty of action and still no huge losses.
I did not feel well.  A week of a tough cold and then that misstep on a large common nail that pieced my foot kept me rather uncomfortable.  I think the tetanus shot gave me the huge head ache which did not clear until 2 am.  Still, unlike any other activity, poker is very easy and I just sat still and let folks poke around to make sandwiches.  My beans and rice were very garlicy good, but I think I was the only one to eat them.  Peter made a fine barbecue chicken and the cold cut sandwiches with kimmelwecks from Buffalo brought by Chris went very well.
Slink brought some chocolate brownies.  Good too.
I lost $50 over the two sessions.  Gregg was the most dramatic, getting up to about $100 in winnings and losing it in about two hands.  Slink went home with good profit.  Chris did okay.  Mostly it was just fun.
The heat overcame the air conditioners but it was not stifling, just not as cool as we are accustomed to.
Peter did most of the work: cleaning before and after, making up beds, arranging food and picking up afterward, even some of the shopping.  Thanks. Peter.
Barry cooked the bacon and egg breakfast and it was tasty.  Thanks, Barry.
My real losing hand was to Gregg.  Pocket Aces were cracked by his king high flush.  Had a spade come on the river I'd have beat him.
All in all a great time.   Nice to see Gregg again. Seems he was not a clone after all, but some of the emails have been twisting up in the sending.

“If it wasn't for all the money I keep losing, this poker thing could be a lot of fun.” —VP Pappy

Orford Poker Room