I Definitely Crossed the Line This Time

After a loooooong weekend I feel like I could use a nap. Had a lot going for my first weekend in quite a while of not having anything to do...not sure if that makes sense. After what seems like an entirely too busy past couple months my girlfriend a.k.a. CC and I had very little calendar obligations this past weekend. Only thing that had to be done was traveling to the NorthShore for one her client's crawfish boil. Friday while just hanging out at the house and contemplating logging onto Stars or some other form of entertainment I suddenly got the itch to head to Harrah's and play some poker. Figured with Jazz Fest weekend, the Hornets playoff game, and the Zurich Classic going on it could be a good weekend. This is also a good time of the year to run into bachelor party ppl who dominate their home game in Ohio. Saturday was the draft and the Hornets game and I heard something on the radio this morning that was pretty interesting. Apparently the NFL draft dominated the NBA playoffs in TV ratings. Guess that's proof NFL is king. It was a pretty good weekend to be a sports fan and have a tv. Draft, bball playoffs, the Red Sox SWEEPING the Yankees (I HATE THE YANKEES!), Talladega Race (I'm not a big nascar fan but I know this race always has a ton of crashes and I'm not sure why else anyone would watch). Might have had some soccer on tv too...we'll have to hope Bill provides us with some insight to that!..haha

I was ok with the Saints draft. Really happy they didn't take Beanie Wells even though Malcom Jenkins isn't as fast as people thought he was. Mel Kiper rated the Saints draft as a "C" and I think that's fair for the most part. The Hornets squeaked out a win Saturday afternoon after trying to lose the game and still have yet to score more than 95 points in a game this series.

Saturday evening went eat at Tommy's on Tchoupitoulous with some friends and that was ok. I've eaten there a few times and I think I'm done with this restaurant. The food is somewhat mediocre and the service is ok for the most part. If you do find yourself going eat there I'd recommend just doing just doing drinks and ordering this $50 appetizer they have that has bunch of different food. This was pretty damn good but I barely ate half my main course. Our waiter wasn't exactly trying to win a big tip. We had five people so by default he was going to get an ok tip b/c we had some split bills. I am definitely one of those people that tip on service...I could careless you work for tips and I'm supposed to tip x% based off of what "they" say. I will no tip if the server is deserving and I'll tip 50% without thinking twice if the service is there. Me and CC showed up late and met the other three people who were enjoying a bottle of wine and hanging out and the waiter came and said hi and brought us menus and didn't ask if we wanted a glass for wine or anything else to drink. I then asked him for a glass of Makers Mark and he said ok and showed up 15 minutes later with it like he just saved the day or something. I had to ask for another drink (WHICH I HATE!)...you're a waiter, you serve people..you brought them the drink you see the glass is now empty you know they can't just go fix it themselves and being someone who wants to provide great service you should notice that person might want something else to drink??? So I asked for my second drink. Well after the meal he brought the check and my bill was like $55 or something and I was paying cash. I gave him $80 and when he finally made it back with the receipts for people to sign he asked if I needed change...no dude, I tipped you $25 on my $55 bill b/c the service was awesome. First of all that's just rude on his part, bring back the change and the person will leave you what they want to leave...I'm pretty sure that's the way they've been doing this tipping thing since forever. I tell him yes I need change and he brings me back the $20 bill I gave him and whatever else was the change. Now normally I would hit him with the dumb ass tax and only tip the $5. Someone tells you they need change I would bring them back maybe a $10 and 10 $1's or something like that or 10 and two 5's. Well on the third time he brought me back two tens. Gawd I hate dumb waiter/waitresses, but then again when you bring people their food for a living obviously you're not the brightest person walking among us.

I went to the Zurich Classic Sunday afternoon with some friends and that was enjoyable. The weather was great, the sights were great, and ran into some people I haven't seen in a while. Wasn't really feeling up for going because I was really looking forward to being lazy Sunday but it ended up being a good day. After that was over I felt like reading a book and after watching David Grey's two part interview on Cardplayer about "the big game" and talking about the corporation vs. Andy Beal it got me really interested in reading Michael Craig's book The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King. Rode over to Borders Books and bought it and also bought a book that gets donated to one of the boys and girls shelters in the city (guess the cashier caught me at a good time and I felt like doing something nice). It's a pretty easy read and I've been wanted to read it for a while so I'll prolly knock that out over the next week or so.

Well I did manage to get some poker in as I mentioned earlier. Decided to venture off to Harrah's around 8:30 or so and expected to see a lot of action and I wasn't disappointed. Walked up to the poker room and they had about six 1/2 games and three 2/5 games but no 5/10 or 10/25 games. Not sure if they have been running these at all lately. Well as I walked around the room trying to find the best 1/2 game with the most money on the table I couldn't find one that looked really good and eventually all the open seats were locked up and now I was on the list and got called for a brand new game which I was not thrilled about. I put my name on the move list after I found a game that had good amount of money on the table. While waiting I ran into Joe B. and Matt and apparently Joe dresses Matt now due to the awesome plaid shirt Matt was wearing, wasn't quite as stylish as Joe's 1994 Tommy Hilfiger oxford but he was at least trying. The plan was to play 1/2 a while and then jump in the 2/5 game after picking up 3 or $400. Nice plan!

I get in the bad game for a few minutes and raise 4 of the first 6 hands and quickly realize it's gonna be hard to get this game jump started. I see more money on table seven and get a table change. Get moved and just really hit stride right when I sat down. No one seemed to be all that aggressive or skilled. Some pretty novice players and one guy who I've played with a few times and he plays snug and always manages to lose all his chips with hands you just don't' expect him to turn over. I'm not even sure how I won most of my money but I was up pretty quickly and continued to play pretty well. But as I've learned, it doesn't matter how well one plays...it's really hard to be the shufflemaster. I straddle and get A,10 and about 5 ppl limp and I let it live and we saw the flop. A,10,9...not bad for a straddle, or anytime for that matter. I bet out $20 and get minraised to $40 by a guy who only bets when he has a good hand. I decided to mess with him just to see how he would react to the play and reraise to $60. This confused like half the table b/c they couldn't understand why I didn't have to make it $80 (AND I'M NOT JOKING!)...He was somewhat thrown off and just called. I checked when the board paired nines and he followed along with that and I was pretty sure I didn't like this card. River was not and Ace or 10 which I thought I needed to win and I checked. He bet $40 and I knew I had to call and showed me his 9,10. Nice hand sir, not a whole lot I can do there. I then played AK like a fag and lost a relatively big pot and all my profit when I raised on the flop and some other guy shipped it with Qs,7s and made his flush on the river.

I knew that guy wasn't going anywhere with money in front of him...He was there to play and thought he was really good. He also gave congratulated himself on pots, think I saw a mini fist pump once on a $50 pot...yea, he was that guy. He was an over weight bald guy that was mid 50's with a silk Hawaiian style shirt that he thought we be a good idea to not button all the way or wear an undershirt. And don't forget about the pinky ring and man bracelet. Well I eventually got some money from him and double through when I hit my 10,8 gutshot. I then had one of my more memorable hands I've played and completely took advantage of the rule and a dumb player.

(Man this post is getting long)

Here's the hand. I'm dealt 9,7o and from the hi-jack after 4 ppl limp I make it $15 to go and get two callers (button and mp). Flop comes 9,5,3 and check to me and I bet $35 and get called by the button and the other guy folds. This is where it got interesting. Turn card paired the 5 and I start to cut out some chips and kinda try to stall to see what this guy is thinking (chances are he isn't thinking anything!) Well I don't know what he has but I think I might have the best hand. I cut out $65 and push it forward and then the guy says "I'm all in" for like $250 total. Now usually this is where I'd lean back in my chair and start to talk to him BUT I still haven't made my bet and with the chips in my hand I try to grab all them but I left $10 out there and pulled back the $55. Well this guy starts to scream that I can't do that and some other player starts agreeing (and we all know what I think of dumbasses who aren't in the hand talking about the ruling that doesn't affect them). Well the guy is telling me I crossed the line and that's my bet and other people start to point out that I crossed the line, and I tell the dealer to just call the floor because I never released all the $65. She knew the floor was going to rule in my favor but we called them over and I only lost $10 on the turn. I was really happy with myself for thinking quick and not releasing my chips when he acted prematurely. I found it humorous and the other guy was totally flustered. He even made the comment a few minutes later about no hard feelings man. I looked at him dead serious and told him "I'm not really worried if you have hard feelings about it anyway, It's not like I did anything wrong." Well I showed him a bluff about 15 minutes later and he got up from the table completely flustered.

The night was fun. I never did make it to the 2/5 game I was dead even at 3:30am and moved to another game when my table broke. I told myself I was going to play 30 more minutes and win some money. I sat down and picked up a little profit and called it a night at 4am. Joe and Matt were still grinding it out. I had fun and I look forward to playing this coming weekend, not sure if it's gonna be Friday or Saturday. Hopefully Bill quits dragging his feet and gets us some gear before the circuit starts so I have something to wear at final tables.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.