Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A St. Patty's Day Celebration and A Trip to the Woods.

So last time we left off, I had a potential audition to be on TRL. Unfortunately however, I never got a call back from the casting people. : ( That Wednesday night, I went to UHart to watch Eli's improv group do a show. We were in for a special treat, because the group from Trinity was performing along with them. The cast was much larger than usual, but the show was outstanding comedy, as usual.

Thursday I can't really remember what I did, to be honest. I tried to put the word out for the party. Oh yeah, I went grocery shopping and paid some bills too. Friday I slept pretty late, and then had to start getting ready for the party. I cleaned everything up and went out with Vito to get the beverages. I also made my way over to the gym, mostly just so I could let those hot girls that worked there know about the party, but they said they were busy. Oh well. The party went well, even though there were a few people who couldn't make it. It was kind of weird because this girl came who I used to talk to a few years ago, the summer before I went to college. We had some brief relations, and I never really talked to her again after the fall of 2005. She showed up with a few kids that I knew, but I wasn't sure if it was her at first, because her hair was much shorter, a different color, and she had a hat pulled down kind of far. It wasn't like "Oh heyyyy! How have you been?" though. It was more like we were both pretending we didn't recognize each other. It was definitely an awkward turtle. The one bad part about the party was that someone stole all of my liquor. I couldn't find it anywhere at one point, so that irritated me. If someone came up to me, and just said, "Sorry, man I finished it all," I would have just been like whatever, it was for sharing anyways. The fact that someone actually took it though is just low.

Saturday I slept until 7 PM. I drove down to Montville without even cleaning up. My entire house was trashed, but I didn't feel like doing anything about it so I just left to go hang out with DJ, Jimmers, and Adam, at DJ's house. They let me know that there was going to be a surprise for me when I got there. Oh, boy. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what the surprise was, given our history. I arrived around 9:30. It was a small little shin-dig, but still a fun chill night. DJ came downstairs with my surprise. It was my liquor! He decided that since he knew he was going to have a party/get-together the next night, that he wanted to save it so that it "wouldn't be wasted on all those other people." Lol. Well at least now I knew no one stole it, but I didn't feel much like drinking two nights in a row. I mostly took it easy, and left when the party died down around 12:30. I still didn't want to clean up though, so instead I decided to pay a visit to Foxwoods, which isn't far away.

I bought in for $260 at a 1-2 NL table. As it gets later and later into the night, the games get smaller and smaller. Eventually the table next to ours came over to consolidate, and we were back to a full table. One of the new guys at our table said he was new to poker only having played for about six months. He was hilarious. He kept introducing himself as Horatio every time a floorperson came over, even though that was obviously not his real name. He was very outgoing, and cracked jokes with each of the dealers. We chatted for awhile about a few different things, including when I tried to convince him that online poker is safe, far more convenient, and not rigged. It was so sick, he cashed out with over $2,000 in front of him! He kept hitting the nuts (the best possible hand), and getting it all in. Once with Ac3c on a 9 K Q 4 board with three clubs against J 10. It was funny, he was completely overwhelmed, and in a state of utter glee. He was throwing basically all of his white $1 chips at the dealers for no reason whether or not he was in the hand. Clearly this had been his best night ever. It's always fun to have that kind of casual environment with a person like that at the table. That's one of the few things I like about live poker as opposed to online.

I did well, winning most pots I played, and never losing any big pots, except for one moderate one to this donkish older gentleman. He was playing nearly every hand, often calling to the river, and re-buying once every two or three orbits. It's kind of a bad beat story, but I played it well. It always feels good to me when I have a strong read on a player's tendencies and exploit them perfectly, even if the results aren't ideal. I had 45 o/s in the BB and two or three people limped (so standard). The flop came 4 5 10. I bet out big, and everyone folded except the player I was just describing. The turn was a Q and again I made a pot-sized bet. The river was an 8 and I put him all in. He called instantly, proudly displaying his now-a-powerhouse 10 8 o/s. Whatever to that. nh bro.

There was one other big hand where I got pretty lucky. The player UTG limped in, and the chatty gentleman raised to $7, two players called, and I re-raised to $35 in position, with AK. Everyone called, even the guy who only had $2 committed. Jesus Christ, here we go, come on ace. The flop came 9-high, rainbow, and uncoordinated. Everyone checked to me and I bet like $45 or $55 I can't exactly remember. Only the first player called. He checked in the dark, to the turn which was a Q. I knew he was not confident in the strength of his hand. It's not likely that he had a queen, or any kind of two pair. I really couldn't figure out what he had, but I was positive he was weak. If I bet $100 there's no way he's going to call, I thought. That's like 40% of his stack. I quickly pushed an entire stack of red chips into the middle, planning to fold if he went all in for his $160 more or whatever it was. He called immediately. Barf. Way to go, Andy, you had a nice profit for the night, now you're going to blow it all on a bluff and go home without stopping at the cashier's cage at all. Great. The dealer delivered a beautiful card, the A d. Now if my opponent went all-in I would probably throw up, expecting to see a set or something, but I would have been forced to call given the size of the pot. Instead, however, he checked. Now what do I do? I hit my hand, right? It seems kind of counter-intuitive to put $200 in without a hand, them check when I make my hand, but it makes sense if you think about it. My flop bet was a continuation bet, representing a strong hand after a preflop re-raise. My turn bet was a total bluff when I read weakness. Now on the river, I felt like I had a medium strength hand, with only one pair out of seven cards, and I still had no idea what my opponent could have, and that's the main reason I checked. At the time I couldn't figure it out, but after giving it some thought, I think he had either 88 or 10 10. Either way, I don't think he would call on the river with any hand that I have beat. I showed my AK and he grumbled something about how he should have went all-in on the turn as he mucked his cards. Whew, that close. I managed to play some small pots, and stay out of trouble for the rest of the night. I even got away from 10 10 on an 8 3 2 rainbow flop, and the chatty rich guy showed JJ. Around 7 AM the game broke. I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts, went home and went to bed, still without cleaning up.

Sunday I woke up around 7 PM. I cleaned up the house, and started playing online at 9. I got third in a $20 180 SNG, but still broke about even on the day. I was mostly frustrated with my results in the $20 re-buy. I was chip leader with 35 left, and went out in 24th after losing a series of tough hands. I won't get into it, but that just basically made me not want to play for a little while again. I haven't been as motivated lately, mostly due to bad days on the last two Sundays. Tomorrow I will try to exercise and start at noon. That way I can be feeling good, and hopefully get a good score so that my bankroll and attitude can get back where they should be. By the time I finished it was about 3 AM or so. I just hung out for the rest of Monday, until about 5 PM when I went to bed.

This morning I got up around 4:30 AM, and worked on my iTunes, adding exactly 350 songs. I don't know if you noticed, but I went through an entire sleep cycle in the past five days. That's not bad, and I'm getting better about pushing myself through the days where I'm completely opposite a normal human. I stay up until I can't take it anymore and finally go to bed. Since I'm more tired, I often sleep 10-12 hours those nights, which makes the whole thing go a lot faster. This way I don't feel like such a freak most of the time.

Tomorrow my Mom and brother and sister are coming over in the evening I think, so I actually won't be playing all day. Oops, make that Thursday, for the poker. I'll try to check in again soon.

Until Then,
Southrnctowl

Artists added to iTunes:
Annie Lenox
B-52's
Bananarama
The Bangles
Bow Wow Wow (not to be confused with Bow Wow)
Boy George & Culture Club
The Clash
Crime Mobb
Cutting Crew
The Cure
Depeche Mode
Devo
Duran Duran
Edgar Winter Group
Electric Light Orchestra
The Fixx
Flo Rida
George Michael
Hall & Oates
The Human League
INXS
J. Geils Band
Jefferson Starship
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Jordin Sparks
Judas Priest
KoRn
Loverboy
Madness
Manfred Mann
Neil Diamond
Night Ranger
One Republic
Pat Benatar
Ratt
REO Speedwagon
Rick Springfield
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock
Rusted Root
Sara Bareilles
Styx
Talking Heads
Tommy Tutone
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Warrant
Wang Chung
Wham!
Wilco
Young Berg
Young MC

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