Atlantic City - Fo' Reals This Time

Okay, it's been talked about in the past, and while there's always a small percentage chance it won't happen until I buy the plane tickets (which will happen by Thursday), this time it's for real.

Heading to Atlantic City for the first weekend of August. Probably getting in Friday afternoon, and leaving Monday morning. The joy of a long weekend in these parts.

Flying into Newark, because the hour saved in driving from Philly isn't worth the hour in driving to the big airport here instead of the small one that has flights to Newark. And 10 hours of driving each way ain't gonna happen.

It's looking like it'll be me and my buddy N, unless we can scrounge up some other degenerates who have the cash for the trip. (flights run around $460 CAD round trip at the moment, then there's the rental, and the hotel... oh, and the gambling money).

So, anybody want to head on down to AC and help us fish? Lord knows enough of you head there regularly anyway, and can't really need much of an excuse. Hell, some people are visiting the east coast that week anyway, and will have to be tired of NYC by then, right? Some big winners regret not playing more live poker, and should take the opportunity. Did I mention the Borgata $500,000 Deep Stack is that weekend? Not that I'll be playing in it necessarily, but it should mean a higher population of tilted players or those desperate to scrape together a satellite buy-in at the cash tables.

Or, if you can't make it, I'll take any AC advice you have. There's got to be a worthwhile restaurant or two there, right? Hotel/casino suggestions? Best places to not get shived? I'm going in blind after all, and I'm far too pretty for Jersey.

How Do Two Days Go So Fast?

It was the weekend. It was a good weekend too. I just, as often, wish it felt longer.

Friday went off-plan when my friend and I gave up on the idea of catching a Rocky-Horror-esque movie/play thing due to the rush line being around the corner over TWO hours before showtime. Instead we wandered to Little Italy, found a solid restaurant with a great drink selection and nice back patio, and spent a few hours eating and drinking and generally having more fun than standing in line. I capped off the night with a pricing error in my favour at a local music store, leaving with a little Stevie Wonder and a mispriced Simon & Garfunkel Old Friends tour DVD, which is still one of the best shows I've seen.

Saturday was restocking the pantry. Costco, farmers market, and then back home. 2 litres (8 cups) of raspberry jam, a couple mojitos, marinated (barolo vinegar, bourbon, dijon, oil, and spices) bone-in ribeyes on the grill, bad red wine (trying to work through the cheap old stock - this might be a mistake), kebobs, and grilled mashed potatoes later (best friend's idea - mash 'em, wrap 'em in foil with garlic and butter, put on grill - very good) and it could be called a filling and satisfying day.

Sunday involved poker. Naturally, I was running late, and arrived 35 minutes after "start" time... to a table with 3 other people around it. The turnout has been suffering at the home game. The bigger issue is that the host is getting 9-15 affirmatives up to the night before, and then 50% of the people actually show. Last game only had 6. I finished 2nd, which was good for... well, points. Winner-take-all for only 4 people. It wasn't the most satisfying live poker I've played by a long-shot.

The route back home takes me past the folks', so I stopped in to say hi and eat their food. In return I took home more food, kitchen supplies, astronomical binoculars from my grandparents' place and the HUGE tripod that came with them (nearly 6' extended, probably 6'6" with the centre column raised). The tripod could come in handy photography-wise, except it's heavy and gigantic, so not exactly easy transport. What it really does is swing my monopod or tripod decision firmly over to the monopod side for travel purposes. I mean, if it's good enough for Flipchip, who am I to question?

Saying hi and staying for dinner also means dessert, tea, and hanging around chatting for a bit. I pulled myself away, got home, and decided the bunches of mint in my fridge needed to be used immediately. There's a pitcher of julep iced tea in my fridge now, along with a jar of mint simple syrup.

And tonight? I should probably have some more of the roasted tomato cream soup I made last week, and use at least one of the fantastic sausages I picked up on Saturday before tossing the rest in the freezer. Chipotle with beer and onions (that would all be in the sausage) or red hot chorizo with red wine? Any bets on how long before I buy a meat grinder and sausage casings?

Meet the New Boss, Same as the old Boss

GM's out of bankruptcy.

Yah, it was 16-year old boy fast.

Well, it's not REALLY out of bankruptcy. See, the "new" GM is out of bankruptcy. Because the "old" GM sold all it's "good" stuff to a company it created that's owned by the US gubmint, the Canadian and Ontarian (really? we're seperating? sweet!) gubmints, the "old" GM bondholders, and the unions. So the brands they're keeping (Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, GMC), and they stuff that still works is in the new company. All the crap? The shuttered factories? The debts? That's with Motors Liquidation Co., or the "old" GM, which will probably never be out of bankruptcy.

How awesome a shell game is that?

You go bankrupt, shove all the bad crap into a generic company and leave it in bankruptcy, and sell all the good stuff to the government and come out with the same name looking all sparkly.

Management will be cut by 20%, and executives tiers by 35%. Around 40% of the dealers are gone, and health care and pension obligations are down $48 billion too.

The promises of fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles will come to fruition, honest! They'll make cars people want, fo reals! No more executive bloat! Labour costs down! Rainbows and puppies and lollipops for everyone!

Bull. Shit.

There's been a lot of shuffling at the top, there's a new boss, and a whole whack of debt to the American and Canadian taxpayers. The union will sell their share as quickly as possible because they just want the cash, not the responsibility. That way, they can also start holding GM over a barrel again if times get good. Their labour costs may be in line with Toyota and Nissan and the like now, but that will change over a couple decades. If they last that long.

It all smells like crap to me. There will be token gestures. Designs won't be innovative, because that would involve taking a risk, and risks are scary to suits. Expect more cars that look the same as every other car on the market. Expect minor improvement being sold as the second coming. Expect deals and cuts and a million other incentives to buy overpriced vehicles. Expect that eventually, it will be bloated again with focus not on car quality or consumer happiness, but the bottom line and exterior businesses that make more money for them. Why? Because building a fuel efficient car that is fully-loaded and will work for 10 years without needing major service means less sales, less secondary money from the GM service shops, less loans, and more need to keep improving enough that people WANT to upgrade.

GM is floundering. Every commercial, every press release, every piece of news stinks of bullshit and death to me.

The silence from Chrysler is deafening.

Ford, oddly enough, is actually sounding honest. As honest as an American car company can at least. They've had an extra year to get their shit together, having gone bankrupt before the credit crisis. They've jumped on the opening made by their competition's problems and the fact they didn't need taxpayer money to surivive (thanks to the loans they secured when they went under). I don't think they're being revolutionary, but they're playing to their strengths - trucks, the Mustang, and small fuel-efficient cars that have already worked in Europe. All they're doing now is talking about them, and juicing them up a bit. Are they the "new Ford"? I don't think so, but they're newer than the "new GM".

PLO is Scary

Played the $5k again last night. Notice a pattern?

Out 82nd I think when this hand happened:

I've got JJ3K, with I think a J and 3 suited.

Flop comes JT2 rainbow.

I bet, get repopped, and I push for 4k more than the 7k bet that's out there.

Bad guy flips over 89QK... double wraparound, yay.

Turn was a blank, river 7 ended it for me.

Any 7,A,8,9,Q, or K would have given him the straight. That's 20 outs, twice.

Lesson learned, Omaha, lesson learned. Today, I hate you a little bit.

Flopped sets never win.

Man, I Suck

Mookie, 45 man NLHE SnG, and $5k last night. No cash in any. No brilliant plays. A couple fantastic catches to save my ass, but more completely expected screw-jobs by the board to kick it.

I need some live play.

Oh, that's right... I'll be doing that on Sunday.

If I didn't have plans already, I might have done it drunkenly on Saturday in NY, but alas, someone only notified me 4 days beforehand.

Actually, it's a weekend I'm looking forward to. Rocky Horror-esque movie-watching for Toronto's Fringe (*IF* rush tix can be got... stupid nobody telling me about this stuff beforehand. What, I'm supposed to look it up myself?), restocking the ol' pantry (hey, when you cook as much as I do, that qualifies as enjoyable), more jam (raspberry this time - much easier), grilling some meat, drinking some wine (that can't be a problem with muscle relaxants, can it?), live poker, and general merriment. All with a fucked back.

Right, the back. Anyone following me on Twitter (link's up to the left) is well-versed in my whining the past few days. Whatever I did to my back two weeks ago is back with a vengeance after pretty much fading away. Standing up, be it from a chair or bed, is excrutiatingly painful. Bending over? Really depends how much moving around I've been doing beforehand. In short - being still leads to extreme lower back pain when I decide to move. Constantly moving seems to ease it. Go figure. Naturally, my doctor is on vacation, so my appointment with him is in 2 weeks. In the meantime? Robaxacet, ice, and various pillows in various places. But not there... those aren't pillows.

Frustration

Well, that barely felt like a weekend.

Great Indian food on Friday night, and general vegging afterwards. Saturday saw an easy day followed up with a multi-birthday party that will likely cap off the annual early summer birthday rush.

Who throws a party and doesn't put the booze out? It resulted in many of the gifted bottles of wine being opened as options were still in a cabinet in the corner. If you don't want people drinking your booze, four little letters let people prepare appropriately. It's better than being passive-aggressive or lazy, whichever it was.

Sunday was a late wakeup (let's say 3ish, with me finally decided to walk at 4ish). I opted to fire up some poker for the first time in a few days. $25k NLHE guarantee was fun, with me bouncing all over the place for a while before settling down with a well-above average stack. I like my play, but in the end went out with 60 or so to the money. Out in the 200's with 1800 starting. Ah well.

Latest RNG lesson learned? I will win a race as the odds dictate when someone is playing their ace aggressively (ie.- QQ vs AK, and the AK is re-raising, betting the all-under flop, etc.). I will lose a race if I put A-rag-off all-in and they make the crying call pre-flop from the blinds... every time.

Also played the $2 rebuy satellite to the 50-50, won a seat easily, and unregistered for the T$, since I was tired of HE for the day, and another multi-hour flipfest wasn't appealing. Instead, I used half the T$ to buy into the $5k PLO nightly game.

Which I spent most of in the top 10, regularly showing up in 1st on the list, and ALWAYS being at the table of whoever the chipleader was when I wasn't. I really liked my play in the game, but once the bubble burst, I saw my stack disappear rapidly to donks who suddenly didn't care. 2nd pair would hold against my multiple draws. AAxx DS would fall to KQJ5 with 3 of one suit. I quickly found myself on the rail in the 20's or 30's without a decision I regretted. It was mildly frustrating, but on the flipside, I got to go to sleep and realized how mentally tired I was from 3 donk-filled games in a row (yah, there's a reason I don't do crazy multitabling).

Which doesn't mean I won't be back.

A side note, farewell to the The Donkament. I'm sad to see it go, but understand the reason why. Another bloggerment bites the dust.

Not that I don't expect it to show up again on Kat's birthdays though.

GL to the donkeys bloggers in the ME. LJ's in Day 2 if I recall. I think Lucko plays today. Not sure who else is out there playing, but if you go deep, I'm sure we'll all hear about it.

And GL to Pauly, Change100, Otis, F-Train, Al, and everyone else walking through the Amazon rivers of donkey blood in their efforts to provide us weaklings with coverage. The end of the tunnel is near guys... just keep dodging the trains.

Time to Return to NLHE?

Played the nightly 5k PLO guarantee again last night. Damned Jordan. Anyway, out in the 130's when a nut flush didn't get there against top set and an overpair. Probably not the best spot to go for it, but the play is so terrible before you get to the 50's that it seemed worthwhile.

So I decided to fire up a $10 45-man SnG. Taking 1st in that was fun. The quad 9's helped. The set of kings followed immediately by the set of queens didn't hurt either. The big helper though was after those chipped me up from last to 3rd - when I saw cowboys again (let's say an orbit after the back-to-back sets) and called the 3 all-ins before me. AT, QQ, TT... the kings, amazingly, held, giving me around 3x the chips of second place and knocking out 3 players at once.

From there, 3rd fell quickly, and a back-and-forth HU match took place, with me finally finishing it off with QQ hitting a set on the flop followed by 45h flopping two pair on the next hand vs K5.

What? You expected me to win because of skill? HA! Luck is where it's at baby!

Day Off

Well, as much as it has thrown off my internal calendar (still not getting a hang of this Thursday), the mid-week holiday was nice. Up at 2pm to the whines of Dawn Summers lamenting my absence on Twitter so far that day. I decided to crawl out of bed an hour later, do those things one does when one wakes up, and then eat an english muffin whilst firing up some PLO.

$5 rebuy and 4k guarantee. Small cash in the rebuy, and a push-and-pray ouster in the 4k with around 20 to go before the cash. I decided that then was a good time to shower, get dressed, do some laundry, and get started on dinner. Double elk burger with feta, parmesan, and Cape Vessey goat cheese on a sesame bun with some hashbrown-sized taters was quite good, especially when chased by an Innis & Gunn pale.

Then I fired up the 5k PLO and went out halfway through the pack when I flopped the nut straight, only to see the board pair on the turn and an Ace fall on the river. I tracked it the whole way. I checked the flop, bet the turn and got called, and knew without a doubt in my mind that the rivered A gave some guy with AA the boat. That guy checked, and I pushed, because despite knowing I was beat with no information to indicate that, I still figured maybe I was wrong. Silly me, I should know I read online like your cards are up. Sure enough, he snap-called with the rivered boat and I was done.

Then I forgot about The Mookie. See what a holiday does. Totally messes you up.

WSOP ME starts tomorrow. My heart goes out to our bloggers in the field. That donkey reek ain't going to come out of your clothes for months.

GL to the bloggers who are playing the ME. I think the power couple of Lucko and LJ are in there, did Iggy ever decide if he was ponying up for a repeat run? What about the BBT4 TOC winners?