Monday, January 25, 2010

WBCOOP First Round - update

At 30 minutes we have 1351 players on 151 tables.

I got a 3-5 unsuited on the big blind, limped into a flop of Q-5-5. One minimum bet and everybody folded! Bummer.

I was 2 minutes late to the table because I had started a big pot of chicken soup. I hope that'll be my victory dinner tonight. :-)

Pace seems to be slowing down a bit. First 30 minutes were at breakneck speed, it seemed.

Good cards have stopped for a little spell, but I'm going to stick with my strategy. Player taasver is frequently going all in pre-flop. Not sure if he's really getting great hands or just trying to steal blinds. We'll keep a closer eye on him. Maybe I can trap him.

Well, he just got called on an all-in. He had pocket 10's vs. pocket 9's. A none on the flop, he's crippled. Just went all in with a K-4 (next hand), and he pulled it out. Another taasver all-in. Wow. He's stealing a lot of blinds and up to 1200 chips. Oops, one too many and he's gone on the 50th hand.

More WBCOOP Poker

Late position, limped in with Q-10 unsuited. Lousy flop, but check around and I get a pr of 10's on the turn. Everyone folds, I get 130 more chips.

I'm playing strict position and letting some marginal hands go by, but that's OK as I'm more of a 'grind it out' player. Tonight I'll try to pick up the aggressive factor a bit, because most of these guys are very aggressive.

At 20 minutes, we're down to 1470 players and losing about 12 a minute. taasver is the first all-in at my table. Hope it was a good hand - he only won 14o chips.

I just let a suited 8-9 go by on the button, flop is 6-7-9. Huge bet folds the field. You always think 'that could've been my pot', but poker is funny.

At least for the first hour, I'm playing fairly tight, but aggressive. I'll re-evaluate at the first break. Looking for our poker league leader, mikeniks, but don't see him on the list of players. I thought he was registered for sure.

Update

A good hand for late position, A-J unsuited. My pr of J's beat another one due to the ace kicker. My chipstack is up by 255 from that hand.

A-Q unsuited went nowhere.

Another A-Q unsuited gives me a Q high straight, but I split the pot with kimmy_md91.

WBCOOP First Round

I'm going to give periodic updates for as long as I last tonight in this tournament.

We're starting with 1704 players for no limit hold 'em. 10 minutes in and we're already down to 1589 players! I've had pocket J's and K's so far, but my K's got musted by - pocket J's! Must be the good luck hand of the night.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Winter Blues

Well, this time of year is good for re-organizing your office and doing small project around the house, but not for much else if you don't ski.

I'm trying to hit a bucket of balls every week, but there were two weeks that I didn't do that, even with covered and heated tees. So what's a guy to do? I joined on online poker league. Once a week, $5.50, usually 25-35 guys playing. So far my competition views me as less than illustrious, I'm sure, but I hope to change that soon. I've actually been playing pretty decent in the tournaments, not so much in the small stakes cash games. And a guy's got to stick to his budget.

Once golf season starts, poker will go on the back burner for the rest of the good weather. Speaking of golf, rumor has it that Chemung Hills has been sold. Hopefully they will open for golf in the Spring. It's such a nice course, I'd hate to see its loss.

'Crazy Stella' - Rest In Peace

I was sad to see an item in today's Detroit News about Greektown's former standout personality, Stella Paris, who recently passed on.

As a North Cass Corridor resident for a good part of the 70's and into the early 80's, Greektown was beacon to me. Back then, Trapper's Alley really had an alley, King's used books was the dominant store, and many interesting restaurants that have since closed or sold out were a second home for me.

Lamb chops at Grecian Gardens (the absolute best) and the excitement of the persistent rumors that it was a mafia hangout led me there when I had a little extra money. They were more expensive than most of the restaurants but the food was very good. The old International was a great and friendly place, even if you weren't greek. A couple of times I wandered into the coffee shop on Monroe where euchre was game and there was no pretense in furnishings or menu offerings.

Almost every visit, all year long, you would run into Stella, her crazy nurses attire intermized with other articles, ranting, yelling, at you or at nobody in particular. Sometimes I'd see her inside the old bakery. Over the years she just became part of the fabric of Greektown to me. In some ways, I miss that old Greektown. It's so much more commercial now.

The old Greektown had the Bouzouki Lounge - then a fairly classy place with *real* belly dancers. It has since transitioned into a 'Gentlemen's Club'. Of course, that was all before the casinos opened, not that casinos are bad. It was just a different time.

I've been aware of Stella's absence on Monroe for a while now, even though my visits to Greektown have become much less frequent. The story said that she's been living in a nursing facility for the last few years, that she had calmed down some, and that she seemed at peace. I'm happy for that because I don't think she had a lot of peace in her life.

For those of us that remember the 'old' Greektown, it just isn't the same without Hella's, Grecian Gardens or Stella.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Winter - but for how long?

A second in a row winter! Starts early, stays cold, fair amount of snow. This year, you can't even escape by flying to Florida since they are having record low temps, too. We're supposed to get above freezing by the end of the week, so I'll likely go to the driving range that has heated tees. I'm tired of swinging my clubs in the living room, but my wife is thankful that our vaulted ceiling allows me to at least do that with no danger to her knick knacks.

A good number of ugly early morning commutes so far this year. I hope at least the snow removal guys are making some money after many years of spotty snowfall and too warm winter temperatures. Every cloud has a silver lining for somebody!

Speaking of silver linings, Livingston County is getting a battery recycling company, Recupyl Battery Solutions, which will start with 10-12 machinists in a 14,000 sq ft facility in Brighton Township. Every little bit helps with getting people back to work.

Hooray for the students at Maltby Intermediate School in Brighton. They collected 7600 lns of food in a two week period for the Gleaners Food Bank! What an outstanding effort. I know that the food pantry struggles with keeping enough food on the shelf at times, so this is a great accomplishment. We should all follow their lead and pick up something for Gleaners the next time we're shopping.