Tao of Poker

I'm Back... After 48 Hours of Mayhem: Poker and the Golden Globes

Went up to Foxwoods Saturday night with Derek and returned slightly disappointed after one of my worst experiences there since I started playing poker regularly at that casino. I'll blog more specifics to the Tao of Poker on Tuesday. What was wrong? Foxwoods was a headache. It was the most crowded (the poker room) that I've ever seen. There were no less than 250-300 people waiting for a low limit game!!! Then at 6am, a little over 700 people showed up for a 200 person No Limit tournament on Sunday morning... and although I got a psuedo-ticket for Seat 197 (Derek got 198)... we were shut out due to a floor managers error. He had to squeeze 20 more people onto 20 tournament tables after they complained to the tribal gaming commission about the serious fuck-up. I got bumped! Ahhh, I was wicked pissed that I did not get to play in the tournament! I'll be writing a complaint letter very soon. So anyway, it took 4.5 hours for my $2-4 game to be called!!! Yes, I had to wait until 4am for an open seat to play! Techincally... But I kinda bucked the system and found a loophole. I actually pulled a slick move and hopped on a $4-8 table when someone's name was called and they did not answer (because they obviously got tired of waiting and went home). I could not wait three more hours to jump on a table. Derek made a similar move earlier and got onto a $2-4 table after he lost patience waiting around for ninety minutes to play.

Some odd & random Foxwoods notes: I'm great at $4-8 ($30 hourly win rate) and I got my ass handed to me at the $2-4 tables. I was up $160 the first hour that I got to a $4-8 table. Then I lost a lot of close hands.... I almost got into another fight when some old black guy accussed me of cheating (colluding with another player who kept raising my reraises - the guy had nothing and I had a full house 7s over 10s) after I took down a huge $140 pot (on a $2-4 table)... luckily my brother was at the same table and he took control of the situation and yelled at the old guy telling him and everyone within earshot who I was, how I was his brother and I never met the guy whom the black guy accussed me of being cheating partners with.... Derek seriously prevented me from kicking that guy's ass in the parking lot and getting black booked at Foxwoods.

Of course after hanging out with my old college room mate Skippy on Saturday im the city, and then playing poker all night, I drove back to the city Sunday afternoon and went to a party on Sunday night!

Yep, it was Haley's GOLDEN GLOBES party last night! Just when I forget Haley is from L.A., there's this yearly reminder... a night when everyone gets dressed up, drinks too much, and shouts insults at the TV! I showed up looking like a mess. I stumbled in her place only to find a guy from her acting class wearing a tuxedo, sipping champagne, and chomping on a small plate of Surinamese curry potatoes in her hallway! What a scene I wandered into... Haley had been drinking since 3pm and forty actors and actresses squeezed into her apartment, dressed up like they were attending the ceremony... with plenty of designer lables, name dropping, and lots of booze flowing. Alas, I had been awake for 36 hours when I showed up... seriously undressed and found myself in room filled with Hollyweird wannabes! No Armani or Dolce suits adroned my body. I had on ripped jeans, my green Mirage hat, and a soiled t-shirt flung over my ratty thermal underwear long-sleeve shirt. Unshaven for weeks, I smelled like an unusual mixture of the third floor of a nursing home and industrial antispetic (that all casinos use). I passed out a few times on the couch (for no more than a few minutes at a time). Although I dropped $50 at Foxwoods, I made all my money back when I took some of Haley's friends for $200 betting on various Golden Globe categories (Bill Murray's win was clutch!) I laughed when a group of girls almost got into a fight because one of Haley's Columbia friends jacked up on Dexitrim and champagne said, "Nicole Kidman looked like a hooker in her odd flapper dress." Seriously, it was silly but caused quite a stir. One woman took offense to her comment. Haley almost had to call the cops when the two started shoving each other! And I thought card rooms were dangerous? Get a group of neurotic actresses together and add plenty of alcohol, various narcotics, and diet pills, and you're ripe for a bare-knuckle, hair pulling, tit squeezing, fracas!

As you can tell, I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things after being out of my skull the last two days.... more updates coming for sure!