4th of July weekend

Thursday, July 3rd

The day got off to an interesting start, as a round of storms the night before knocked the power out at my work. Unfortunately, I still had to make the 30+ mile drive out there. But in any case, I was home by 10am after a breakfast meeting with the boss, which left me time to work on preparing Abby’s bedroom for painting.

Following several hours of work, I went with Victory and her family to Joey’s comedy club. The headliner was surprisingly excellent, despite the small crowd (which he mentioned multiple times during his routine). He had a lot of energy, and was quite the physical comic.

Friday, July 4th

Woke up somewhat early, and immediately went to work on the bedroom. We primed the walls and ceiling (not my favorite job at all…but then again, rarely do I enjoy and kind of physical labor). Following the work, which seemed exhausting due to most of the work being above my head, we got showered and went to Victory’s parents house for a 4th of July BBQ. The meal was chicken kabobs and corn on the cob, along with a few other items I don’t eat (potato salad, pasta salad, etc….). After dinner we sat down to play some cards. We played one round of Uno (which Linda won), but none of us really wanted to play that. Then we played a game of hearts up to 200….Victory led most of the game, but on the last hand I stuck her with the black Mariah for the late win.

After I got home, we watched the neighbors from down the block put on a display with their fireworks, which in the end must have been several hundred dollars worth.

Saturday, July 5th

I reserved a (free) room for Caesar’s Windsor for Saturday night, as did my buddy Al for him and his wife. We decided to get down there early for the $100 buy-in poker tourney. I have had a good deal of success in the 2 previous tourney’s I played before, splitting 1st 3 ways out of 25 runners the first time (for $833 apiece) and then finishing 6th of 34, after turning down a 6 way chop of $500 (a story for another time).

Early on, I missed out on a couple of chances to accumulate chips.

Tourney Hand #1: I limp 55 (with about 2K in chips) in the 25/50 level. 5 players see a flop of T53r…one of the blinds (the table captain) leads out 100, another player calls and I decide to just call as this board is safe enough to give a free card. Turn is a 7….Captain leads out 350…one fold, and I decide it’s time to raise and make it 800. He says something to the effect of “I can’t believe you played 64 here, but I’ll fold my T.” He proceeds to rant for several minutes about the terrible play in this tournament. In defense of the Captain, he was a decent player, but the kind that likes to tell everyone how wonderful he is. In the meantime, I like to develop a quiet assassin type of image that makes people afraid of playing a pot with me.

Tourney Hand #2: The real missed opportunity here. I raise AA after an EP limper to 200, all fold but the limper calls (seems like a decent player). I flop huge with AJJ. He checks and I go against my standard play of betting my strong hands and decide to check. Turn is a K, he bets 300….I just call again. River is a terrible card, another K (unless he has a K). He checks to me and my worst fears are realize, and folds to my bet of 650. Later he claims he had the jack, which if true means I could have busted him (as I barely had him covered). In hindsight, especially on that board, I think betting the flop is the right play. A free card isn’t likely to do a lot to make his hand strong enough to stand a turn bet. I may as well try to get some value out of him if he has the case A or a J.

Tourney Hand #3: At this point, Victory, Al, and his wife have already been eliminated and I am the only hope. I have accumulated chips from a few bad plays of other players, and this hand comes up. Blinds are 200/400, and the SB (a weak player who I have seen limp some big hands before, has about 5K in chips, I cover with 9K) limps into my BB…I have A3 and decide to check. Flop comes A84, he checks and I decide to check to disguise my hand. Turn is a 7 (putting 2 diamonds on board), he checks, and I min-bet 400…again trying to disguise my hand as a steal and he calls. River is the Ad…giving me trips, but putting a flush draw out. He checks and I bet 800 (1/2 pot), thinking I can get a call out of a marginal hand like a 7. He surprises me and raises 1200 more to 2K….this surprises me as I thought he would lead out with a flush. In the end though, I decided to fold, as he has no reason to believe I have a hand as strong as I do, and I can’t see him being able to pull off this bluff, especially for how small his raise was.

Tourney Hand #4: A little while later we are at the final table, with the top 5 getting paid. Down to 8, my stack is about average, but blinds are going up. I am in the BB with about 10K, SB has about 4500. The table has been pretty tight so far, and the SB has given me two walks to this point. All fold to the SB, and he says that he can’t give me a walk this time, and raises to 2400 (blinds of 300/600). I have Ad9d and move him in. He says something about not being able to fold and tables AK!!! No shit you can’t fold! The flop has a K, and he makes a full house by the river, knocking me into 7th in chips.

Tourney Hand #5: An orbit or two later, and I am up to about 7500. Blinds are 500/1000. UTG moves in for 2500 (player with the diamond flush in hand #3). I am planning on calling with any two cards….and then the CO re-raises to 6K. I look down at AhKh, and based on the blind level, my chip stack, and the fact that he could be re-raising with any reasonable ace or mid-pocket pair, I move in. UTG has A5, the CO has JJ, but the JJ holds and I am eliminated in 7th. Of course the players chop the tournament up 6 ways after my elimination, so I have either chopped for first, or been eliminated one spot from cashing in my 3 experiences.

Following the poker, I check into the room. Unfortunately they couldn’t give me the room in new tower that I reserved (city view, king bed, non-smoking), so I selected a room in the old town just to get the king bed. After checking in, we decided to grab a bite to eat and go swimming. The swim helped re-charge my poker mind and desire…though it wouldn’t be satisfied until later that night.

Before dinner, I staked Victory in some Pai Gow, since I am unable to play –EV games due to my bet with Sonny. During that time, she turned a small profit, but was able to have some fun. I also sweated Al and his wife at Carribean Stud while waiting for our dinner reservation, telling the story about how Sonny once got a royal flush at the game but wasn’t playing the progressive, missing out on a jackpot of $90K Canadian, which at the time was about $200 US dollars (not really, actually probably $60K US).

I invited Al and his wife to dinner at Nero’s steakhouse (my previous review of Nero's and Caesar's Windsor) with us. This time, I ordered the rack of lamb, which was excellent. Victory ordered a filet, which has one half of it cooked perfectly for her (well done) and the other half cooked perfectly for me (medium). Go figure…but one of the first good things to happen on the trip. Al ordered a Bone-in NY Strip (he said it was excellent) and his wife ordered the salmon (also good). Dinner was a lot of laughing, fortunately the server had a good sense of humor, as he needed it. The final tab for the bill was like $230, which we paid with reward credits from both mine and Al’s account.

After dinner, it was time for poker. I sat in the 2/5NL game, and was placed in one of the must move games. Unfortunately I didn’t want to move at all. Despite that, it didn’t stop me from making a bad call on a hand and being stuck about 200 when this hand came up:

Cash hand #1: 6 handed right now, UTG opens to 15, 2 callers and I call from the BB with Th7h. Flop comes Jh8x3h…giving me a flush draw and gutshot straight draw. I check with the intention of making a large check-raise. UTG (250 behind, I cover) bets 30, rest fold to me and I raise to 150 (committing me to the pot). He debates for a minute and then shoves…I call and he asks if I have air, I tell him I have a big draw, and am shocked to see he has Tc9c, and had moved in with an open ended straight draw with no fold equity, but somehow had the best hand. The turn was a Qh completing both of our draws, but locking up the hand for me.

Cash hand #2: I get moved to the main game, and have about 800 (covers villain’s 550). Villian limps in EP, and I raise to 25 with QQ. Rest fold and villain calls. Previously I had seen the villain stack off with AT on an ace high flop to AK, so I didn’t take him to be very good. Flop comes T53r….he donks out 40, and after I ask him how much he has behind, I raise to 140 with the full intention of calling a shove as I don’t think he would play a set this way. He debates and shoves, saying something about being “Ready to go home”. This comment kind of scares me, but I decide to go with my instinct, figuring I have to dodge 5 outs. It turns out I have to dodge 6 outs, as he only has an un-improved AK, putting me about 75% to win the pot. Fortunately my hand holds, and I scoop the $1100 pot. It blows my mind how people can lose their mind on a hand like that. If he had gotten his money in pre-flop against me, I might have folded, as limping AA or KK is very possible in a game like this, but as played, there was no way I could fold.

When all was said and done, I ended up winning about $700 in the game.

Sunday, July 6th

After a 30 minute wait at the border, we made it back into the states. Since Abby had been gone for a week on vacation with her mom, I was dying to see her, so we picked her up for most of the afternoon. At home I set up the slip and slide in the backyard and watched her play on that for about half an hour. Then I went inside and watched the end of the Federer/Nadal match. After that, we had grilled burgers and corn, made brownies, and then Victory had the idea to have a water balloon fight. Abby had so much fun soaking both of us, that we repeated the fight 2 more times before we finally had to take her back to her mom’s house.

All in all an excellent weekend, it’s too bad they all can’t be this good.