Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Trip report NYC

Like many companies in the US, mine has enacted cost cutting measures across the globe. One of the offshoots of that endeavor is a reduction in travel. I haven't been up to the city in a couple of months so I intended to meet up with some old friends; as it turns out I liberated some new acquaintances of their money.

I woke up about 4:15am on Thursday morning and made the hour long drive to the airport. Since I've made the trip so many times I have the timing town pretty good. I made it to security with plenty of time and put my bags through. My luggage got pulled, and I remembered the hard drive I put in my roller, DOH. The security woman removed the drive and I put my toiletry bag back into the front pocket in my bag, and she barked at me "I have to run that back through!" in a gruff voice. I said, "well this bag went through already too". "REMOVE THE ZIPLOCK FROM THE BAG SIR" she bellowed, I just smiled and took it out. I went back to the xray thingy and picked up my bag and hard drive and apparently dropped the ziplock without putting it back in my back....ugh.

Thursday morning there was some snafu with air traffic control, so we sat on the tarmac for 30-45 minutes until we took off. I managed to sleep through most of the flight which was a major score. I usually can't sleep on the plane being 6'4" and 225235, but I got an empty middle seat which I happily shared with my row mate.

My work day was typically batshit crazy as I had about 3 days of projects to finish in 1 1/2. I managed to plow through and finished up around 6:30. Over the course of the day my buddy bailed on me for dinner so I sent out a last minute plea to Jamie and MattyEbbs to see if I could find a dinner companion or better yet a poker game.(unfotunately Jordan was busy filling the pockets of the Nawlins locals). Ebbs replied with an invite to the relocated Wall Street poker game and I weighed my options as the day went on.

After work, I convinced myself that I would find my hotel and some food and get a decent night's sleep. After making my way to Tribeca I discovered it a little more subdued than other areas I've stayed in. Somewhat quiet and uncrowded. When I got to my room I discovered my toiletry issue and I turned right back around to find some food and a bodega.

I walked around for 20 minutes contemplating food options and had a fairly funny conversation with my wife on the phone as I did it. I settled on a place called Edwards and drank a half carafe of wine with my roasted chicken. It was tastily followed up with a healthy snort of Macallan 12. It was this point that I decided I would not be able to avoid poker.

Getting to the game was easy enough, just a short train ride and I was 2 blocks away. I was ushered to the converted apartment and immediately recognized Jaime's table. I'm glad it's getting good use now that he's become domesticated. The game was 1/2 nlhe and I set about getting a feel for the table. I was already getting a little tired and I quickly determined I'd be playing against an aggressive table. I clammed up, but my hand to my chin and avoided eye contact as necessary. Given my familiarity with the players (or lack of) and general uncomfortable feeling being at a new table, playing tight was absolutely the best way to go. At least at first.

Being nearly 5 days later I don't recall too many specific hands. The players were: the mad Hungarian to my right who played through 5-10 hands and busted, to his right was the Russian aggro, a normal looking dude who didn't really make much of an impression, the dealer, the owner of the apartment who loved overbetting crappy boards, the young TAG, the irish nut-peddler, and Matty ebbs who was replaced by the annoyingly smarmy know it all to my left.

For the most part I played straight forward, I would occasionally float a pot and made only one 'move' toward the end of the night. I made a standard raise to $12 with 77 UTG +3. Young tag raises to $25 in late position and I briefly consider raising but call with no other players in the pot. He bet another $25 on the Q-Hi flop and I put him on nothing better than TT. I based my play on my perception that he would get away from another high on the turn and he had not shown down much at all. When the K hit the turn, I decided I would check raise regardless and go with it. He bet another $50 which I felt was very weak so I raised $150 on top. He did give it a good amount of thought and I feared I made a bad read, however he folded face down and I flashed the sevens. It went quick, but he said thank you. I guess he was worse off than I thought. I racked up shortly after that (+365 tyvm), I had been up nearly 20 hours at that point and I needed to get back to the hotel before I passed out and got rolled. I recall having trouble counting the chips and getting a good idea of what amount was in the pot already. My tired mind even miscounted my cash out chips so I was certainly glad to be ahead at the end.


I'll leave my travel tale of success at that. I'm out of practice writing and this stupid little post took me 2 days to finish. Hopefully I can motivate to write some more soon.

Have a pleasant turkey day and those of you with kids give em' one more good squeeze just because, sometimes they need it.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

UGH

Why did I have to go online and figure out I could go to Vegas for less than $100. FML