It's one or the other, not both

I noticed the above half-page ad in the new issue of Poker Pro magazine.

Right under the site's name it says "Exclusive gaming community." The in the copy underneath it says, "Everyone is welcome to join."

Well, which is it? Exclusive, or open to everyone?

Lacuna in the blog--or in my brain

After a friend of mine recently had trouble with a blog server, I decided that I should make myself a local backup copy of all the stuff I've posted here. I don't know that I'll ever need to do anything with it, but it represents a whole lot of time and effort, and I'd hate for it to go away because some dodo far away, out of my control, pressed the wrong button one day. Or, y'know, some exec at Google decides that the whole blogspot thing is a drag on the company's bottom line and pulls the plug on it.

So I'm going through the archives, saving each week's worth of posts as a separate HTML document on my external hard drive, when suddenly the archive jumps from 12/17/06 to 4/1/07, with nothing in between. I think it's maybe a browser problem, so I try a different browser, same result. Hmmm.

I wonder if it's a systemic problem with blogspot, so check some other people's blogs, and their archives are intact for those dates.

I check my "edit posts" page, where I should be able to get to every post in reverse chronological order, scroll back through, and the same gap emerges--no posts.

I try a Google search for "poker," searching only this domain name, get a bunch of hits. But then when I further constrain the search to that stretch of dates, nothing. It's obviously not a very complete search anyway, because using other three-month intervals finds only a handful of posts, but at least it finds something for other dates.

I try archive.org, the so-called "Wayback Machine" of the Internet. It doesn't acknowledge that pokergrump.blogspot.com even exists via the standard search page, though through a sort of backdoor approach I can locate about 50 posts, none of them in the time frame of interest, however. (Other blogs on blogspot seem to be similarly spotty.)

So the posts seem to have just vanished completely.

But here's the weirdest part: They may have never existed. It's possible that I stopped writing for a while, even though I currently have no memory of such a long gap in my blogging.

My best evidence for that possibility is this: I find the post I called #200--the first time I noted some sort of numerical milestone--on November 17, 2007. When I count backwards in time through the posts listed in my "edit posts" list, that really is the 200th one listed. So maybe I really did stop blogging for three months, and have subsequently blotted it out of memory. I hate to admit that possibility, but it's pretty hard to argue with a list of posts that exactly matches the number I claimed so soon afterward. But it's strange that I don't remember such a long pause, and it doesn't appear that I commented on it upon resuming writing, if that's what actually happened.

Questions: For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, do you remember me going silent for three months or so? For those of you with more technical chops than I have, can you suggest other ways of discovering what, if anything, might be missing? I'm leaning toward thinking that all that's missing is a chunk of my memory, but it would be nice to be more certain of that.

Son of Superfull

Back in August I told you about seeing a hand in which, when the board was complete, one player's seven cards were four kings and three jacks.

I have not seen that duplicated since (and wouldn't expect to for a long time), but tonight at the Venetian I saw maybe the next best thing: board of J-J-J-10-Q, and winning player with J-10 in hand. If the other one is a superfull, maybe this one should just be called quads full.

It seems a shame that in the Official Annals of Poker, the hand would be recorded with neither of the tens showing up.

What's the name of that magazine again?

As I was detouring through the shopping area of the Venetian on my way out (see post below), I passed a display of pamphlets and free magazines. This one caught my eye.

When I first glanced at it, I thought the name of the magazine had a different vowel as the central letter than it actually turned out to be. I think the reasons for my misperception may best be left in the realm of speculation.

The Venetian springs a leak

About 45 minutes ago I was leaving the Venetian via my usual route: up the stairs and down the hallway to the parking garage. But the hallway was blocked off. I assumed they were doing some cleaning, though it seemed odd to do it just as the evening crowd would be starting to come it. So I detoured around through the food court.

As I came to the spot where the corridor to the food court meets the one going to the parking garge, I suddenly understood why it had been closed off. Water was pouring in. It has been raining quite hard most of the day, and apparently the Venetian has a very leaky roof.

You can't really see the water in these pictures, but you can sort of get a sense of the rate it was coming in by looking at the light in the upper left corner of the top picture. It was like that for a broad area. You can see how many garbage carts they brought in to try to catch it; there was that heavy a flow over that entire area, probably a 15 feet x 15 feet section of roof. This is many, many gallons per minutes. Maybe it was a pipe that broke, rather than a leak from the roof. Whatever. It was a big mess.

I guess they didn't design the canals to double as an emergency drainage system.

How to lose $127 million

This Wall Street Journal article is a fascinating glimpse into the world of casinos and their whales.

I was surprised to read that state gaming regulations prohibit casinos from allowing visibly intoxicated patrons from gambling. If true, this must be the single most widely disregarded rule on the books. At least half of the time that I play poker there is somebody at the table that I can tell within 60 seconds is drunk. I have never--literally not once--seen or heard any casino employee advise such people to leave or stop playing, or cut them off from further alcohol, unless the player is intolerably unruly or falling asleep at the table.

Hat tip: Prof's poker blog.

Guess the casino, #349

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Planet Hollywood

"Amazing Race" finale

I've been watching "The Amazing Race" this season. Tonight was the finale. I just finished watching it on tape. The last leg of the race took place in Vegas. It was cool seeing so many places I know. E.g., at one point they're trying to get to Mandalay Bay, and I recognized that one team's taxi was using the sneaky back way of Koval to Reno to get there, and the contestants in that taxi commented that none of the other cabs was going that way.

Their first task was to rappel down the side of Mandalay Bay--face down! Then they had to dash off to the Mirage and have the performers in "Love" hook them into harnesses with bungie cords and bounce around until they could reach a bunch of flowers high overhead.

Next they were told to go to the casino with the same name as the most famous casino in Monaco. Well, DUH! One of the teams knew instantly that it was the Monte Carlo, but two teams had no idea. One of them even asked, "What country is Monaco in?" They asked a couple of people, including their taxi driver, and got a consensus that it was the Venetian. FAIL!

Once they got to the Monte Carlo, they were ushered into the poker room--a place I've spent many hours. They had to count poker chips (tournament chips) until they had exactly one million dollars' worth. Boy, these people could have used some more experience making and cutting chip stacks! I know stacks of five and ten chips both by sight and by feel now, but I never knew such a talent might help me win a race on a reality TV show. These people didn't even know how to confirm that stacks were the same height; they would bend down to look at them at eye level, instead of the simple expedient of running a finger lightly across the top. Two of the three teams got their count wrong the first time, and one got it wrong a second time, too. I think I could nail that task.

Next it was off to the MGM Grand to meet Wayne Newton (who is now, of course, my close personal friend). He informed them that the finish line of the race was at his house, but not where that was. Once again, I would have an edge here--I've known where his house was, like, forever! As per "Amazing Race" tradition, all the other previously eliminated teams were there to welcome them, including Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho.

Clearly the best team won. Meghan and Cheyne weren't my favorite people--just too Barbie and Ken for my taste--but they were a very strong team, played honorably all the way, treated each other well, were mutually supportive, and were in the lead for a huge portion of the whole season. They deserved it. (You can watch the whole episode here.)

But if Cardgrrl and I had been racing them for this last leg, they wouldn't have had a chance!

Hoover Dam is still there

My sister, brother-in-law, and niece are in town for the big rodeo, and wanted to go see Hoover Dam today. So that's what I did, rather than play poker at Mandalay Bay, as I usually spend my Sundays.

I've been on the dam tour three times before, but it's been 20 years or so. Guess what? The thing is still there!

I had not, however, previously seen the bypass bridge that is under construction. Man, that is somewhere between impressive and frightening. I'm guessing they'll have blinders up so you can't really see anything as you're driving over it, because if you could, I think it would paralyze drivers with either fascination or fear. It is REALLY high! There is allegedly going to be a pedestrian viewing area on it, and that, too, will not be good for those of us with any sort of acrophobic tendencies.

As usual, I took a whole bunch of photos and posted them on Picasa, here. The late afternoon sun made some shots quite nice, others not so much, and some impossible. But other than that, they're pretty much the same as about 10 billion other people have taken when touring the dam. Hope you enjoy them anyway.

Guess the casino, #348

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Luxor

Charity tournament at Binion's

Mere minutes ago I was at Binion's. I happened to hear the announcement of the start of a charity poker tournament, so I wandered over to see who might be playing. It was a small event--just three tables.









You might be able to spot Todd Brunson, Angela Brunson (second photo, back to camera, black leather jacket and beret, next to photographer), Tom McEvoy, Hoyt Corkins, T. J. Cloutier, Kathy Liebert, and Amir Vahedi. Barbara Enright was also there, but hidden behind other people so she didn't show up in any of the pics I took. (See the guy with the green and white striped shirt in the second photo? See half of a platinum-blondish looking head just past him? That's her.)

My life is just endless excitement, as you can plainly see.


Addendum

LOL. I posted the above, then went to check my Twitter feeds. Got these two right at the top:

ToddBrunson I'm at Binions playing a charity tournament 10 minutes
ago from txt

ToddBrunson Playing with Tom macavoy, Tj cloutier, Cathy liebert, Barbara
enright, max, some wife and vinnie Favorito 7 minutes ago from txt

(Todd could use a little work on his spelling.)

Poker gems, #332

Steve Zolotow, in Card Player magazine column, December 2, 2009 (vol. 22, #24), p. 78.


Avoiding getting involved with trouble hands, especially for a large opening raise with bad position, takes no particular poker skill except discipline, but it will have a bigger impact on your bottom line than making the occasional great laydown or the heroic bluff-catching call. And, it is a lot easier to do correctly.

Guess the casino, #347

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Mandalay Bay

I'm available--cheap

I plan to be playing in the bloggers' tournament at Caesars Palace next Saturday. There is a last-longer challenge, for three-person teams, with a huge overlay provided by the wonderful folks at PokerStars. See here for details. I am not a part of any team, but would like to be. I'm not picky--I'll accept whoever will take me on! If any of my readers are similarly situated, and wouldn't mind teaming up with a guy who has about equal potential to go deep and to inexplicably blow up in the first level, send me a note.

Triple-up with deuce-four

A reader I know, but who wishes to remain anonymous, e-mailed me the following excellent tale:

Venetian 1/2NL last week about 10pm - good table. I was on the button with 2-4
hearts and called a small raise from a wild UTG player and really tight guy.
Flop was 722 rainbow. Bingo. tight guy had AA and really liked his hand. Didn't
see what wild guy had but claimed a big pair. Wild guy bets out flop, tight guy
raises, I call. Wild guy goes all in. Tight guy goes all in. I go all in. About
$240 ish each for a nearly $700 pot. I tripled up. Doubling up sure. But I can
only count a couple times in my life when I've tripled up close to a full buy
in. Wow.

Wow indeed! That surpasses my best 2-4 win, which would have been this hand from August, 2007. I think that pot was around $600. (I note with some shame that that post was early in my understanding of the power of the 2-4, and I referred to it there as a "stupid" hand. I trust that I have since been forgiven by the poker gods for my blasphemy.)

Nh, wp, sir!

29?

I just woke up, and the temperature monitor on my computer says it's 29 degrees outside. That can't be right. This is Las Vegas, in the desert, where it's always warm. It's against the law for it to drop below freezing.

Must be time to get a new computer. This one is obviously broken.

Guess the casino, #346

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Venetian

New tower at Golden Nugget

After playing (badly) at the Golden Nugget tonight, I swung by their new tower to see what all the fuss was about. It's pretty nice, all right.

If you want to see more and better photos, I recommend Vegas Rex's post about the opening last week.

Downtown Las Vegas wishes you a merry Christmas

That is all.

I win a $9 pot

I played at the Golden Nugget tonight. I knew it had been a long time since I played there, but I was surprised when I got home and looked it up--it was December 24, 2008. Basically, every time I think about going there, I end up making a last-second change of plans and veering over to Binion's instead. I not only like Binion's poker room better, but I have a much better track record there.

But GN just opened a new wing, and photos I've seen of it looked nice, so I decided to make an exception and play there instead and take a look at the new place while there.

The first hand I played is shown above. My J-10 of spades fit nicely with the 4s-8s-9s flop, and the Qs on the turn made the whole thing just seem to glow.

Sadly, though, I couldn't win the $137 jackpot. I bet $3 (tiny bet, trying to induce a call, so that I might squeeze in another tiny bet on the river), and neither opponent called. Total pot was just $9, and there's a $20 minimum to qualify for the jackpot.

I showed the hand anyway--it's too pretty to keep to myself. Everybody at the table--and I mean everybody including the dealer--chided me for not speaking up and thereby inducing somebody to call. Nobody seems to care that it is explicitly against the bonus rules in every place that I know of (including GN) to talk about the possibility of a jackpot during the hand.

I discussed the rules and ethics and pragmatic problems about this issue last year when I missed the jackpot requirement at the Palms by $1. My feeling remains the same. I would feel worse about gaming the system by trying to use some manipulative code word or other shenanigans than I do about having missed out on the bonus money. Even if the dealer says it's OK, it's not. (See here for the story of a dealer who honorably and admirably refused to bend the rules for himself.)

Overall, it was just a whole heckuva lot less fun than the last time I had a straight flush, about three months ago.

Predictably, that was the high point of my luck for the session. It was all downhill from there. Next time, it's back to Binion's.

Poker gems, #331

Phil Ivey, on how his tournament play changed for the 2009 World Series of Poker, as quoted in Michael Craig's blog here.


I introduced the fold into my game this year and they had no idea what hit them.... Next year comes the check-call.

Baby steps

I have written here, more than once, about how Mike Caro has convinced me many times over that I really should try to be more socially engaging with other players at the poker table. But I have also told you about how this is just about the most difficult thing one could ask of me.

My friends seem able to do this. I have watched Cardgrrl slip into the social butterfly role with apparent ease. (She has written about it several times, e.g., here and here.) F-Train, too, has recently been writing about his conscious attempts to be livelier and more engaging to his customers (see here and here.) Even C.K., for whom I think small talk with strangers comes more easily than it does for F-Train or me, has experimented with deliberately altering her table image away from that of the stone-cold killer you'd judge her to be if you paid attention only to her play (see here).

During my Sunday morning session at the Venetian this week I overheard the guy next to me tell somebody else that he was from Washington, D.C. This naturally made me wonder if perhaps he plays in some of the same games as Cardgrrl, so I started asking him about poker in that city. It led to talking about his job (computer geek for the FBI), politics (a fellow libertarian), etc.

Yesterday at Binion's I noticed that another player at the table had a fabulous voice--rich, mellifluous, resonant, perfect diction with just a touch of Southern twang. In one hand, I had A-Q and raised, with him being the only caller. When I bet at the ace-high flop, he flashed his jacks before folding, then started to tell me about how he hated jacks. Now, long-time readers with elephant-like memories may recall that two years ago I ranted about how stupid it is to hate big pocket pairs--even jacks--because they are profitable. I concluded that little screed with the request that if you hate some particular hand, "just shut up about it." So you can see that I'm not inclined to listen to such complaints gladly.

But instead of cutting this guy off at the knees with either a retort about how stupid his remark was, or just responding with silence while I thought the same thing, I seized the moment to compliment him on his voice, noting that it's one that belonged on the radio. He smiled and said, "Thank you. I've made my living with it for the last 30 years." He went on to tell me about his voiceover work, etc.

So now that's twice within the space of a week that I have gone out of my way to engage a fellow player in trivial chit-chat between hands. And y'know what? It only hurt a little itty bitty bit.

What About Bob Clip @ Yahoo! Video

Guess the casino, #345

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Venetian (Thanks to Cardgrrl for the photograph.)

When what to my wondering eyes should appear...

Mere minutes ago I was walking home after a short but successful session at Binion's (I have a big task at home that I've been procrastinating for too long, and simply must tackle it tonight, so I had to settle for a hit-and-run), when I noticed a video camera and spotlight trained on somebody, with a small crowd gathering around. I stopped to see what was going on.

It was none other than Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton.










As I overheard it, the crew was from "CBS Sunday Morning," doing a feature on Newton because there is some sort of museum or display--in New York City, I think--opening this week that has him in it. Sorry I can't give you more details; they weren't exactly handing out press releases, I had to just hear snippets of information here and there. It's entirely possible I got caught in the background in some shots, though I wasn't trying to--I was trying to get on the same side of him as the camera!

I lived in Las Vegas for two years back in 1980-1982, and even then I remember hearing rumors that Newton was starting every show with an apology for his raspy voice, blaming it on a "cold." Apparently his singing voice has completely fallen apart over the ensuing years. The critics are not being kind to his latest (and allegedly last) show, at the Tropicana. This one notes that he heard Newton make excuses for the rough voice back in 1995, while this one says that the voice is "ghastly," "like the Vegas Chainsaw Massacre," and notes that the man "can barely speak, let along sing."

It's sad. Every time I walk to or from one of the downtown poker rooms I pass this plaque in the street, at the southwest corner of Fremont and 7th:





Fifty years is a long time to be performing more or less continuously, at one venue or another, in Vegas. Gotta give the guy credit for longevity, and for knowing how to stretch his time well past the allotted 15 minutes of fame.

Then again, there's something to be said for a dignified retirement. One of the keys to successfully playing poker for a living is knowing how to quit while you're ahead. I'm guessing that Wayne Newton doesn't play a lot of poker.

Guess the casino, #344

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Treasure Island

City Center opening

The Vdara part of the ginormous City Center complex had its official opening today. As usual with such things, I think the best photos and commentary are to be found at Vegas Rex's blog--see here.

The Aria hotel/casino is slated to open December 16. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I feel done with trying to be one of the first in the door on opening day. I did that for the Eastside Cannery and Aliante Station, but it just wasn't worth the hassle of fighting traffic and crowds. With the M Resort, I got there a few days after the grand opening, and that worked out fine. I expect that Las Vegas Michael and others will be among the first to post early impressions of every new poker room on allvegaspoker.com, but I'll no longer be trying to compete to be first. I hate crowds and traffic.

And speaking of traffic, the Las Vegas Sun has this useful article about how best to get to and into the City Center complex, as well as how to avoid the traffic congestion it will undoubtedly generate if it is not your destination. I was surprised--and a little disgusted--to learn some key facts: (1) There is only one self-parking garage for the entire complex. (2) To access this garage, you must enter the complex from the Strip--no back-roads way into it. (3) There is, however, a convenient back-roads entry to the valet services. (4) If the accompanying map is correct, you can only get to the parking garage from southbound Las Vegas Boulevard, and only exit again going southbound. (But it's possible the sketch is wrong on this detail and there's actually an intersection that allows you to go to and from the place either direction. We'll see.)

I dislike valets. No, it's not that I'm trying to avoid tipping. It's just that I like the sense of freedom and independence from parking myself. I also hate waiting for the valet when I'm ready to go home. When I want to leave, I want to leave now, and sometimes it can be a very, very long wait for somebody to bring you your car. I can't stand that. I dislike the nuisance of taking the car key off of my key ring and putting it back on (and I think it's foolish to hand them all of your keys). Finally, I just don't like strangers driving my car. Even though it's an old beater, it's mine. I've had it for 17 years, since the day I drove it brand-new off of the dealer's lot, and I'm unduly possessive and territorial about it. The stupid valets also tend to fiddle with the driver's seat position and radio, which is beyond annoying. In short, I dislike everything about valets. I used to valet all the time when I first came to Vegas, but I gradually grew to hate the process, and swore off of it. Which is a long explanation for why I raise my eyebrows when I learn that the biggest hotel/casino complex ever to hit this city is entirely built around valet service, with self-parking being a grudging, ugly-stepchild concession to the masses. Dammit, free parking is the birthright of every Las Vegan! Don't tread on me!

Anyway, I'll get to the Aria poker room sooner or later, but this whole parking thing has me already casting a jaundiced eye on it.

Annals of nittiness, #1

I played for a while at the Rio last night. I have mostly been avoiding the place since early August, when I showed up to play and was turned away because they shut down their cash games for a daily freeroll tournament. I was curious to see how the character of the room had changed since implementation of this promotion. Sadly, my worst fears appeared to be borne out: it has become Nit Central. The entire poker room operation now revolves around local nits sitting stoically in their favorite seats, just putting in the hours toward the freeroll tournament. I will undoubtedly stop in there once in a while anyway, but it is a certainty that my frequency of visits is going to be much lower than it used to be, now that I know this. It's really a shame--the Rio used to be one of the most reliably action-oriented places on my circuit.

Anyway, the "You might be a nit if..." thread on allvegaspoker.com to which I recently alluded has had me thinking lately about the phenomenon of the local nit, and the ridiculous things such people say and do. Last night was kind of a high point for that subject. There were two master practitioners at the table, and literally for the entire 90 minutes or so that I was there, all that these two talked about was promotions, comps, deals, coupons, discounts, freerolls, etc. It was like the poker version of one of those horrid web sites or magazines where people share their secrets for saving money by making their own soap from lye and leftover bacon grease.

One of the gentleman involved in the discussion took the cake, though, with his explanation of how to turn poker-playing into a crab legs feast. After 3:00 a.m., as I understand it, the Rio poker room gives $2/hour in food comps. Also, it takes only three hours per day to qualify for the daily freeroll. Then you need to know that the the Rio buffet routinely gives 50% off the price of the buffet to locals (just show your Nevada driver's license), which makes it about $6 for the lunch menu. Finally, you have to know that they charge the lunch price until 3:30, but you can stay through the transition and have access to the expanded dinner menu after that point without paying more. (Many buffets shut down for an hour or two between lunch and dinner hours, but not the Rio's.)

Combine these, and you see what this guy does: He comes in at 3:00 a.m. to play poker, stays three hours, earns his tournament entry and $6 in comps, returns at precisely 3:25 p.m., pays half price for the lunch buffet, then waits five or ten minutes until they start putting out the dinner menu, which includes the unlimited crab legs that he so covets.

I tell you, he was positively radiant telling the other nit about this marvelous discovery. He repeated at least four times some variant on this summation: "There is just no other place in town where you can play three hours of poker and earn a crab leg buffet!"

I, for one, have a hard time imagining a more miserable approach to playing poker.

The really bizarre part of this is the extent to which such people have mentally compartmentalized their poker dollars and their real-world dollars. They will go to these extraordinarily lengths to save a buck or two or six, but if they make a bad all-in call for, say, $100, oh well, that's how the game goes sometimes. It doesn't seem to occur to them that improving the quality of their play even a little bit would have far handsomer payoffs than all the penny-pinching promotion-whoring that they obsess over.

I'm going to keep my ears open from now on for further examples of extreme nittiness I encounter at the Vegas poker tables, and memorialize them with what I hope will turn into an ongoing occasional series here.


Incidentally, the photo above (taken from this page) is an actual nit (i.e., louse egg). I have looked at, oh, a few dozen of these under the microscope in my former life, and always thought they were kind of cool. The bad part of it, though, was that just seeing one always caused me to feel an unaccountable scalp itch for the rest of the day. Contact with poker nits does much the same thing, except that the creepy/itchy feeling is all over.

Binion's hotel closure might make me fat

If you pay any attention at all to Vegas news, you've already heard the announcement that Binion's will be closing the hotel part of its operations two weeks from today, December 14th. See, e.g., here.

This causes me a bit of a dilemma. You see, I spend a decent amount of time at the Binion's poker room. I don't write about it much, because usually nothing of much interest happens there. For reasons that I can't even begin to guess at, the sessions tend to be pretty boring, with probably fewer tweetworthy/blogworthy stories per hour than any of my other regular haunts. You might be surprised at the amount of time I accumulate there, given how little I say about the place.

I checked today, and I have $137 in food comps on credit, even though I eat at the coffee shop with some regularity. That is, I accumulate comps a lot faster than I use them.

I didn't care too much to learn that the hotel is closing. As long as the poker room is going to stay open, I'm happy.

But then I learned that the coffee shop is part of the closure, and experienced a moment of panic. Sure, the stupid "cafe" thing on the main floor will stay open, but it's crummy, with a very limited menu. There's also the steakhouse, but that's much too expensive for my lowbrow tastes. There just won't be much of anything else left on which to spend my accumulated comps, unless they somehow make them usable at the Four Queens (which is owned by the same company).

So it appears that my best value may be to plan to eat there a whole bunch over the next two weeks. Which means more than my usual portion of burgers, fried chicken, cheap steaks, cheesesteak, and other stuff that isn't too good for me. But at least I'll save on groceries!

Perhaps it's just as well. I talk to my friend Cardgrrl nearly every day via a free video hookup on AIM, and just today she asked if I had eaten anything in the last three weeks or so. Apparently I'm looking a little thin lately. I gather that I could stand some fattening up, and maybe the ol' Binion's coffee shop, in the last few days of its existence, will be just the place for it.



Incidentally, I also wonder what will happen to the Wednesday afternoon poker discussion group that traditionally meets in the coffee shop. If you hear, drop me a note via the comments, please.


Played a few hours at Binion's today after eating lunch there, and picked up the nice new chip shown above, in addition to making my daily nut (mostly by drawing to and hitting two diamond nut flushes against opponents who didn't believe that I had done so).

Poker gems, #330

Antonio Esfandiari, in Card Player magazine interview, December 2, 2009 (vol. 22, #24), p. 41.


If your bankroll can take a hit, you just keep going [after a big loss]. I don't let losing affect me. It's the same as winning, pretty much, because you can't win every session. I think of losing like paying taxes. You have to pay your taxes, and you have to lose.

Guess the casino, #343

To reveal the hidden answer, use your mouse to highlight the space immediately after the word "Answer" below.




Answer: Riviera