Hold the Salami
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
If you've been following along, I held an inner debate with myself last night about whether I should go to Salami to play in their tournament. I eventually decided to go to the club, but when I arrived, it was a very different scene than I expected. The place was packed, and they were in the process of starting a second 5/5 NL table. Notably, 5/5 NL plays like 10/20 NL at Salami Club. That's why I only go there for the $60, $40 rebuy/add-on tournaments. Salami, being a small club, only has three tables. If you do that math, that only left one table for the tournament.
I hung out watching some of the 5/5 action, hoping that it wasn't as aggressive as previous days. I saw a preflop raise to $50 which killed off any remnant of hope. As I stood against the wall watching all the commotion, I finally decided to make my exit. If the tournament did occur, it'd be a small affair, a mere afterthought to the real action around the room. I didn't feel like being a second-class citizen, and I didn't feel like the mood was right. So, I retreated to the subway and back to my apartment.
In the comments to my last post, LJ said that I should've went to the Nice Look Club (aka Good Look, aka Good Luck). The thought had occurred to me, but I resolved to call it a night considering my last post and the bad vibes from Salami. Even so, Nice Look is now my undisputed favorite underground card room, and the next time I'm going to a card room after work, it will definitely be Nice Look.
Once home, I settled in and finished this Sunday's episode of The 4400. Amazingly, The 4400 was a precursor to the phenomenom that is Heroes. I LOVE HEROES. I mean, as a self-professed comic book geek, I really appreciate the mature look at the idea of superpowers, and I literally geek out as soon as I see a character enter a room on that damn show. The 4400, however, came out probably 2 years before and has a lot of the same concepts. It, too, is about people who develop super powers, but the show has a much weirder backstory. Rather than evolution, the initial 4,400 people who developed powers got it after they were abducted by the future over 60+ years and then returned to Earth unaged in 2004 or something. The people don't remember anything between being abducted and returning to Earth, so the time displacement and superpower storylines make for an interesting mix. It still falls short of Heroes, though, due to the quality of writing and acting. Still, I'm a big fan.
So, after watching the end of the episode, I fired up the comp to see what was happening. I even looked at Stars and Bodog, where I have no money, to see what tournaments would be available if my money was spread out. Side note: I recently got an email from Bodog about a blogger tournament. It's $10 buy-in, with about $125 of bonus money thrown in by Bodog. I don't mean to sound ingrateful, but that's really not a compelling tournament, and certainly not much thanks or impetus for bloggers to post about Bodog. But alas, post I am. And on that note, if anyone is interested in doing a $50 or $100 swap onto Bodog, Poker.com or PokerStars in exchange of money at Full Tilt or PayPal, send me an email at highonpokr AT yahoo. I want to spread the money around a bit to focus on some different tourneys.
After shutting down Stars and Bodog, I logged onto Full Tilt in time to sign up for the 8:15 Razz MTT. It was a $24+2 (i.e., Token) buy-in, and 2k Guarantee. Within the first hour, I was in first place out of 81 players left. I remained in the top 5 until we were near the money bubble (16 places paid), when I lost a couple of hands due to good starting cards and bad cards on late streets. This is really the heart of Razz tournament poker. Luck plays a larger role because you are so dependent on later cards. Even if you had A2/3 to start against a player showing an 8, you may have to lay down your hand by fifth street if you get two bricks and he gets a 6 and 7. Luck of the draw. The bubble broke and I made it ITM. However, I eventually went out in 12th for only $41 after a couple more hands didn't come through. It was disappointing not going deeper, but I was still happy about my performance. So close, yet so far.
During that tournament, I began chatting with GCox. We decided to play a $5 HORSE SNG. The buy-in is cheaper than I'd usually play, but since I was two-tabling with Razz, I didn't want to invest too much. I played fairly standard poker in the HORSE SNG. Before I knew it we were down to 5 players, with G and I still in the running. No joke, 5 minutes later, the HORSE window pops up (I had the Razz MTT filling the screen and the HORSE SNG in the corner), and its just me, G and one other guy. ITM without even noticing. Ultimately, it was G and me heads-up, but he got the better of me. GG, G. It reminded me of old days.
Wifey Kim came home shortly before I busted in the Razz MTT. Once that was done, I shut down the comp and spent some time with her. After she fell asleep, I watched some Big Brother. If anyone else watches this show, lemme know. All I can say is that it may seem like just another reality show, but its just so much more involved. I mean, any show that has nightly three hour live feeds on Showtime is on another level. Raw feeds, btw, are the shit. Back in the day, the Real World on MTV was actually REAL. The people lived actual lives, had jobs, and were not attention-starved whores and man-sluts. In fact, you actually got to see how they acted. Now, you get a bunch of attention-starved models in a house alternatively making out and fighting, while they work at a cushy 'job' set up by MTV. The worst part is you don't even see anything anymore. Instead, you see a person yell down a hallway "THAT WAS SO RUDE!" and then cut to an interview of the person saying, "I can't believe Robert would bring that girl back to the house. I went in there and told them to
Ah, now I'm just rambling.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 12:47 PM,
7 Comments:
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At 2:28 PM,
Gnome said...
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Unfortunately, Bodog doesn't have a player money transfer option.
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At 2:35 PM,
TripJax said...
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I believe the Grinder watches Big Brother pretty religiously...at least I think I remember reading some stuff about it on his blog...
http://grinderswarehouse.blogspot.com/ -
At 6:14 PM,
said...
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"I saw a preflop raise to $50 which killed off any remnant of hope."
See, you don't need Gam Anon, otherwise you'd be salivating over that action ;) -
At 6:25 PM,
Unknown said...
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I was trying to exchange some Bodog money with Pokerstars money too. Everyone wants to play Bodog now and there's not much of a way to transfer.
Jerkes.
Super Sperm. Heh. That's SLIGHTLY more amusing. -
At 7:26 PM,
GaryC said...
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Thx bro and gg to you too. I know you were otherwise distracted during my heads up rampage, but I was getting run over by the deck.
JUST like old times.
G -
At 7:47 PM,
said...
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You shoulda stayed at Salami. The tournament ended up being 2 tables as the big game merged into 1 table and then a 2/5 game started afterwards and went til the wee hours. We were also discussing who was this mysterious "High on Poker" dude, so you woulda fit right in.
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At 10:49 AM,
jamyhawk said...
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Jordan,
Big Brother is truly unique. My wife got me watching and now we have the showtime feeds as well. Last year we watched online, but that got annoying (for reasons too in depth to get into here).
Anyway, drop me a line anytime to talk BB. I may throw up a post about it soon. I am somewhat frustrated yet amused with how Eric has to keep changing his game play based on what online voters choose.
Maybe I'll see you in the Mook.
