Quad-Coaster Weekend

Now that Dancing with the Stars and the Olympics are over, half the eye-candy on TV is gone. At least my online play won't be so easily distracted now. Wifey and I got plenty of live play in over the weekend, and even got to meet the infamous Doc. Chako, who ran off with a couple of my stacks....

We'd put in a few hours almost every day at PJ Pocket's, just watching their Monte Carlo board escalate. Quad Aces and Kings at $600+, Jacks at $1600, Eights $700, Tens and Sevens over $400. My wife had this feeling that once one of them hit, the rest would just come tumbling after... we wanted to be there to see of some of it would come tumbling into our laps. After almost a week, the Quads still hadn't been hit, and we were in the plus column overall by about $300.

We decided to go spread the wealth and return to our original stomping ground, the Midway Casino. They closed down a few months back, but is now under new management, and a banner hanging outside said, "Grand Opening, Feb. 24th." Friday night, we cruised down there, and entered through the backstreets. When we made the turn around the building into the parking lot... it was completely empty! The Grand Opening banner now had a crude 8 patched over the 4.

The night was young and so we continued on to a nearby Silver Dollar. This particular location was doing High Hand payouts every two hours, but the only Monte Carlo Jackpots they paid were Royal Flushes. So a few hands in, literally within 10 minutes of sitting down, I limp in EP with QTo and flop two-pair. I lead out and get callers, even as it comes runner-runner Tens. I drag a nice pot, but the High Hand for this period was Quad Queens, and I wouldn't have gotten a Monte Carlo even if they were paying it cause I "only" had a one-card Quad.

The VERY NEXT hand, I get Pocket 9s and flop a set. When the Turn is the 9 of Hearts, completing the flush, I get a bit tricky (at 3/6!) and check it to the guy holding the Nut Flush, who does the betting for me. Yes, EasyCure, I guess am a Quad-peddler. :) I built myself another nice pot, and the missus noted that I've probably now used up my karmic wad for the entire year.

I sit on my pile of chips for awhile and watch as beat after miss after beat is administered to the wife. She finally hit the felt, but I had her covered so we decided to move on. Next stop was the Silver Dollar here by work, where they had High Hands AND Monte Carlo Quad payouts, but I wasn't expecting to hit any of them. Nothing too exciting at that location, except for the fact that we ran into 3 other people that had also left the house that evening to go to the Midway's Grand Reopening, but had to settle for the Silver Dollar. About two hours in, the wife hit the felt and I had doubled up to cover her, so we headed towards home to see how PJ's Quad board was doing.

The place was jumping, as it usually is on the weekends. They have a nice bar/club area, lots of pool tables and live bands and a dance floor, so it's a popular general hang out location for the kids. We weren't suprised to see all the people, but it was surprising to see that half the board had been hit... Kings, Eights, Royal, and most of them on Thursday - the one night we weren't there! Aces, Tens and Sevens were over $700 and Jacks were $1800, so still worth hanging around for.

We got a seat at their 4th and final feeder table, with three older Korean men in business suits who were obviously new to playing and readily giving away their money. As I waited for a hand that I could get paid on, I looked around for a face I'd only seen in pictures... Doc. Chako had text-messaged me earlier that evening asking if I wanted to hit PJ's. Ah-ha, table 2, seat 6, with a rack and a half in front of him. When the button had passed, I went over to say hi and introduce myself. He was now down to less than half a rack, saying he should have left hours ago, and that this was probably his last hand or two. Yea, I've heard that one before! :)

After a bit, there were enough seats open to break down our table, and me, my wife, and the Korean business men all ended up at Table 3. I managed to tread water for a bit, but my wife picked the hot seat and went on a tear. It all started when she flopped a Straight Flush - 78d, flop was 69Td. There was a bet before her that she called, but the action died when the 3d hit the Turn... obviously no one else had a big Diamond. She flipped over her cards, got paid the $50 jackpot, and got her name up for the last High Hand block for the night.

A bit later, she flopped the nut straight with QT. The way she played it, I knew she had it; but I didn't tell the 3 people behind her - especially the one who raised her on the River with his lower straight. She dragged another huge pot the next hand with another flopped straight. After a few more rounds, I was up $50, and she had over 3 racks in front of her. This is the mound of chips Doc witnessed as he left after almost getting back to even. I racked up and she said she would do the same after the next orbit. She managed to fill up another rack by the time the blinds got back around to her.

Quads twice in a row, running into other Midway wannabes, meeting Doc, flopping a straight flush... needless to say, a fun and profitable Friday night! We *had* to go back on Saturday night, so she could collect her $100 High Hand payout, which obviously held up. When we got there, the Jacks were finally crossed off, at $1966. Turns out the guy who hit it was in the same seat the wife was in the previous night, so it was definitely a hot seat that just kept paying out! We got in on the feeder table again and not too long after, the person to my right hit the Quad Aces for $898. What sucked about that one was that someone had just changed seats the hand prior... if he had stayed where he was for one more hand, I think the Aces would have been mine. Instead, all I got was a free drink as the winner bought the table a round.

Just as the night before, our must-move table broke down and we all filled in on table 3. Doc showed up again, asking if we had ever left from the night before! He was first up on the list, and took over the seat that Mr. $1966 Quad Jacks left open, and yes, it continued to be a heater. I experienced it first hand when he flopped a set against my TPTK, and then he took me again when his T4 sooooted rivered the flush against my flopped two-pair. I had just read how he played T5s, but I didn't think he could stoop so low as to play T4!!! Protecting his Kill leg, he justified. Even when I moved directly to his left, he was getting cards left and right. I finally got moved to the main game, and saw him cashing out with over 4 racks.

The wife and I only lasted another hour or so after that, but we still came out ahead for the weekend. Had a lot of fun and got in plenty of play time; but now that the Quad board has fallen, I can get back to my regularly scheduled life... though I hear the Bad Beat at the Muckleshoot hasn't been hit in a few months and is now up to $290K... hmmmm....

Another Week, Already?

Been kind of a weird week... done so many things but it doesn't seem like more than a few days since my last post. Which I see now was Valentine's day. Which was completely uneventful because we had out-of-town company for the week. Which got me a free pass on the obligatory wining and dining of the wife! Woot!



And since I'm always ranting and raving about the Mini-Eggs when I mention Valentine's Day, I did stop by 3 grocery stores last Wednesday morning to stock up for the office, but none of them had their Easter candies up yet, just discounted V-day stuff! Boo! Luckily, the Albertson's by the office was right on schedule and I was highly chocolate'd up by lunchtime!

Lessee... had a pretty important interview for an IT-related job that could get me back on the right career track. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a brain fart during one of the technical questions. I knew I knew the answer, and I told them if I had a computer in front of me I could show them what they wanted to see, but I just couldn't think of the correct terminology sitting there in that conference room. Of course, it came to me half-an-hour later as I was driving away. Other than that though, I think I did pretty well, and I actually have two good references on the inside who tell me I should be a shoo-in. Should know either way within a week's time.

Went to see Final Destination 3. Part 1 was an amusing concept, I really liked #2, but the third installment has just become a parody of the series. Which isn't to say it's not worth seeing. Just make sure you're not in a "horror" movie kind of mood, because this movie seems more worthy of ending up in the Comedy section. You know the deaths are coming, and there was only one scene that made me startle. The rest were just laugh out loud funny. ROFL'ing at the gory demise of teenagers made me feel kinda shameful and dirty, kinda like after watching a porno, but without the satisfaction at the end. Ummm, porn, death, and teenagers is probably not a good combination of things to talk about all in one paragraph. I'll move on now.

So much going on in the world... VPs shooting lawyers, Muslims bounty-hunting cartoonists, ice-skaters hitting the ice... I just honestly couldn't give a rat's ass about it all right now. How lame is the American media to swarm down with the wrath of a Spanish Inquisition just because a shooting accident wasn't reported within 24 hours? Shouldn't they put their efforts towards inquiring about more pressing issues, like the BS the President is shoveling down the public's throats? And those crazy Jihadists out there... I understand if you want to protest the fact that other societies typecast you as a violent and barbaric group. But bombing embassies and killing innocents doesn't go far towards moving you away from that stereotype. And Bryant Gumbel is now the world's biggest racist... there's no black athletes in the Winter Olympics because blacks, errr, 'scuse me, African-Americans, are descendants of Africans, from Africa, which is generally not known as a ski-resort type destination. I used to be such an Olympics whore, watching the Medal Tracker and keeping up with all the sports; but the US coverage has become so lame over the years. When I'm feeling up for Olympics, I turn it on to the Canadian's broadcast... I might have to put up with some extra coverage of Hockey or Curling, but at least its sports and not more commercialized sappy human interest stories.

Okay, so that was probably a bit more than a rat's ass for those topics, but that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Put in some solid time at the tables down at PJ Pockets. With most WA state casinos now raking an extra dollar for the Jackpot pool (yea, -$5 a pot, not including tip); the Monte Carlo Jackpots are starting to grow at a quickened pace. Case in point, Quad Jacks at PJ's will net you $1500. Quad 8's are at about $900. Everything else is at least $200. I held JJ at least 3 times, but couldn't even catch a 3rd on the flop. And one particular dealer was dropping 2 Jacks on the board about every 3rd hand, but nobody had 'em those times!

So like the BBJ tables at Party, the bigger Jackpots are attracting the fish in droves! While I was playing, I heard the floor take a phone call, "Live game? Yea, we got two of the juiciest games I've ever seen going on right now!" Hell, even without the heightened Jackpots, it's always a wild game there. Do a search for "PJ Pockets" on the 2+2 forum and you'll see someone calling it the best 4/8 game in the US. My wife had a run-in with one of the $5 pros there (as Heafy likes to call them), but I've rambled on long enough so I'll save the story for next time.

Revenge of the Quads

So the last time I posted was just after the Seahawks got robbed lost the Big Game. Oh well, old news, I'm over it. But I will share these two pics that just about sums it up. :)

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The wife had to make an impromptu trip out to NY for the week, leaving me to play Mr. Mom. Between that, classwork, and actual work-work at the office (how dare they!), that left me very little time for Poker playing, blog reading, or even general Internet browsing... my p0rn downloading has been practically nil for the week!!!

Grandma helped out and took the kids for the weekend, which gave me a day off that I promptly wasted away at the local cardroom(s). I did some casino hopping, winning $80 here, losing $60 there... playing break-even Poker over a number of different places sure takes up a lot of time! My longest stretch though was a fun one at the Silver Dollar. I was the last person needed to get a game going, so as new tables often are, it started off pretty slow, friendly and passive.

One lady hit the High Hand of Q's full of 5's early on, and if it held up for another hour, she'd be getting $150. About 4 or 5 hands later, I raise with QQ on the button and get a Q53 flop. The guy to act before me, we'll call him M, bet out so I just smooth-called as to not scare away the limpers before him, and they all called. The turn is a third club and it gets checked to me - I've got the Qc and a Full House draw so I go ahead and bet, and now only M calls. The River is a 5. Sweet - I've got the Nut FH and would split the High Hand payout in an hour. I bet and M raises me... slowplaying a Flush? I reraise and he caps... Dem's Quads, Skeetch. I so had him on the Flop... but nice hand, nice hand. He takes over the High Hand and gets paid $130 or so for the Monte Carlo Jackpot. A lot of commotion over it, and absolutely no sympathy for me from anyone for the one-outer bad beat I just took.

Not too long after that, my BB of K7 is unraised so I get to see the flop of KKJ. I bet and everyone but M folded. As the game was still kind of slow and friendly, I checked the Turn and said, "I've got the King." I looked down at my cards to find the King and was going to expose it to him, when the dealer put out a T on the River and M fired out. I hadn't shown him the card yet, and I thought maybe he didn't hear me, so I called. He had AQ. Hmmm... I gave him air and he bet into me. So that's how it's going to be, huh? Though I didn't say anything out loud, between that and the Quads, M would no longer be a recipient of my nice guy persona.

The hour goes by and M gets paid for the High Hand as well, and we move into the next 3 hour block for a qualifying HH. The table filled up and the action was picking up, so I reloaded with another rack. An older asian guy who's actually pretty funny and likable and a solid player to boot, starts running over the table as he hits hand after hand. After winning 3 in a row at showdown (with actual hands, not crap two-pair), he laughs as the flop comes QQA. He was first to act and turned over his Pocket Queens as he threw out a bet. He collected the tiny pot along with $90 for the Monte Carlo and got his name on the HH board.

A couple of drunken fish came in to donate their money, and I was able to get a few stacks off them, bringing myself to almost break-even. Then I get QQ in the small blind and just call the almost-family pot. Any Ace or King and I was letting go, but the flop came J high so I led out. I was happy to see a Q on the Turn and led out again. It folded around to M who raised me. No flush or straight, so when he only called my re-raise, I knew he was holding two pair or a Set and I had him completely dominated... unless he Rivered Quads on me again.

But the River was the case Queen! BOO-YAH! Anyone else, I would've checked and flashed them the four-titties in my hand and be happy with the pot + Monte Carlo + High Hand. But since the old guy had already gotten paid for the Queens and had an Ace kicker for his HH, and since this was M who was on my naughty-not-nice list, I bet into him. He raised and wussed out by only calling my re-raise. He had JJ.

The funny thing was that he started talking to everyone that passed by, "Did you see that??? I flopped a set... unbelievable!" I think I heard a slight tone of disdain in his voice that I went runner-runner on him. But I'd already had him beat on the Turn... the River was just icing on the cake. Of course he failed to mention how I had outflopped him earlier and he caught his one-outer on me.

I didn't get any of the bonus payouts, but the pot put me up and over my buy-in, so I racked up and left, completely satisfied that the Bitches got him back!

ROBBED!

Goddammed STEALERS. How the hell do you win a Superbowl when your team doesn't convert a first down for the first 19 minutes?

Oh yea, you pay off the refs. Have them take away every big play the opponents make. Have them GIVE a touchdown to a quarterback who couldn't score one otherwise.

C'mon, Porter, let's hear you speak out against the officiating on this one!

Yes, everything went quite according to script. Oh, it wasn't scripted? Then why was it that all the commercials showing players with the trophy were 90% Steelers players? The Bus coming home to retire... no way he wasn't getting his Ring. Storybook ending, brought to you by the fine folks at ABC and the NFL.

I'm watching SportsCenter and they're asking some of the crooks how it felt to realize they'd won a SuperBowl. "It hasn't really sunk in yet..." Yea, no kidding, the way your team played! It's pretty bad when Skip Bayless, who's been ragging on Seattle all week, is on the 'Hawk's side.

MVP for the Black and Gold? The ones in the Black and White.

Game Time

The Big Game is just around the corner. There's been a lot of dissing of Seattle, and not just of the 'Hawks, but of the city itself. Just look for any Skip Bayless or Rick Reilly article, where they say the Seahawks are going to lose because the city they come from is too soft, too nice. Too nice??? Geez, we can't help it if Seattle-ites are a polite crowd and don't mind showing a little common courtesy to others. Unlike some Steelers fans, you don't see any Seattle bloggers badmouthing the opposition or their hometown.

My heart weeps for the future of our society if the rest of the country doesn't know what to do when presented with a modicum of decency.

On that note, THE STEELERS ARE GETTING THEIR EFFIN' ASSES KICKED!!!

I hope that somewhere along the first drive, Joey Porter gets his helmet knocked off and his noggin thudded and we see him sprawled out across midfield calling for his mama. He wants to get physical? He can find out how physical the 'Hawks can get just by asking Sean Taylor of the Redskins or Nick Goings of the Panthers, that is, if they can see straight yet!

Someone said of the silliness that abounds: "Stevens' remarks were directed towards Bettis, so why didn't Bettis retort? Because he's a mature person!"



Bwahaha!

Oh sorry, that must have been my non-Seattle personality creeping out for a sec. Let me take another sip of my latte here. Ahhh. Yes, the Steelers are a great bunch of guys, and it should be a very competitive game between two very good football teams! May the best team win.

Whateva'!

While on the subject of games on TV, my mostest favoritest game of all time is back on the air: Survivor! An interesting start to the new season, with the 16 being divided into 4 groups, older men versus younger men versus older women versus younger women. I think if I had made it onto this cast, I would've had the same reaction as the black lady, "What? Why am I on the 'old' team???"

As far as first episodes go, this one was pretty dull. The smaller tribes make for less dynamics between people, and it was kind of weird seeing a 4 person Tribal Council right off the bat! But I must admit, I like the new dress code they enforced, at least for the younger women's tribe. Those were some itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie-no-room-for-any-polka-dot bikini briefs those girls were wearing. Good thing too, 'cause there wasn't much to look at above the neck.

Not that I watch Survivor for the skin, of course, but it's a nice little distraction. Dancing With The Stars, on the other hand... now that the comedic relief of Frankenstein P is gone, I get my votes in for Jerry Rice, not just because he was a one-time Seahawk, but because of his red-headed Russian dancing partner that always wears only the front half of a dress... hubba hubba! And then there's Stacy Kiebler. 'Nuff said. (A quick search on images.google.com will do ya wonders!)

Okay, that's all I've got to say about Thursday night TV. If you aren't watching along, at least be sure to check out TVGasm and their hilarious recaps.

Now, back to huffing and puffing and machoing up for Super Sunday! The 'Hawks are gonna soar high and rain down a storm of 'Hawk poo all over the Bus' windshield... and I hope they drop a load right into Porter's wide open mouth as well!

GAME ON!