Happy Halloween from Beale Street

Images by MOJO and taken with my Canon on Beale Street, downtown Memphis.

Saturday afternoon fun

I intended to leave around 5:30 to go take Halloween photos. I jumped in this little MTT at 3 p.m., figuring I'd be out by then. Good news/bad news, I didn't leave in time, but won a small payout.

At the final table, I raised with K-K, got called by the big stack, and the big blind. The flop came 10-9-8 (as you see below). I bet half the pot (7,777) and got a big raise behind me and had to give up the hand.

When we were three-handed, the short stack moved all in with K-4. I was 66.24% to win. This would have knocked him out and left me heads up with a big enough stack to have a chance. I'm not whining -- I had good luck earlier (was all in twice and survived, had good cards, plus I bluffed a bunch of times and was never called).

What the heck is a geotag?

In one of his comments about a photo I took, TenMile asked where's the geotag. I have to admit, at the time I didn't really know what the hell he was talking about. Since then, I've done some googling, and found out a little about it. Wikipedia discusses it here.

When you right click on a photo (using a PC that is -- with a MAC it's different, perhaps you control click, MAC users help me out) it gives you some information: which camera took it, the speed, the ISO and other stuff. When you geotag a photo, it adds the latitude, longitude, elevation and even more information. If you go on vacation, you can create an album online that shows a map of where the photos were taken. Nice.

I've also heard that eventually, ALL cameras will include a GPS that will automatically geotag photos. Right now, even expensive ones don't have that capability.

The good news, is that you can geotag your own photos manually. In my case, I went into Picasa and clicked on geotag. Google earth opened up, I entered the address when I shot the photos, and it added that to the properties (as I mentioned above) that can be seen if you right-click.

Fine, I went into Picasa, and did this. When I right-click on the image in Picasa, it shows this:

If you click to enlarge and look near the bottom, you'll see the coordinates of Tom Lee Park where I shot with Jusdealem a couple of weeks ago.

My problem is that this looks great, but when I import the geotagged photos into my blog, it loses that information! Ouch! Does anyone know why or what do do about it?

In the meantime, on the photo shoot, I didn't have to worry about finding people to photograph. In fact, a young lady saw me taking photos, and ran up and said: "Do me! Take my picture." Even though I'd never seen her before, I did, and you can see her posing below:

Dumb and dumber

Read about these to mental heavyweights (not!) here.

Stuff happens

I just saw this on Eric "Rizen" Lynch's web site:

I had my Full Tilt and Bodog accounts hacked and subsequently drained. That really sucked and kind of soured me on online poker for a bit . . . . it was one of those things I never really thought would ever happen to me.

I don't keep much money online because I play only small stakes ($5 tournaments, etc.), but it's pause for thought. Be careful folks -- it's a jungle out there.

Great art at the table

An intra-finesse is a bridge term coined by Brazilian Gariel Chagas to describe certain finessing situations in which declarer executes successive finesses against each defender in the same suit. If it's not clear what that means, read on.

Declarers had a chance to execute this play Monday night on online bridge play:

                ♠ Q 7
                ♥ A 10 6 5
                ♦ A Q 10 9 8 3
                ♣ J
♠ 10 3                        ♠ K J 6
♥ J 7 3                       ♥ K 9 8
♦ 7 5                         ♦ 4 2
♣ K Q 10 9 8 3                ♣ A 7 5 4 2
                ♠ A 9 8 5 4 2
                ♥ Q 4 2
                ♦ K J 6
                ♣ 6

After West opens the bidding with 3♣, many of the 83 declarers played 4♠. How many losers are there? If they are not careful, the declarers in 4♠ could lose one club, one heart and two spades.

Suppose West cashes the ♣K at trick one. Because there is a singleton in dummy, East should give suit preference to help West know to shift to a heart. After this, it does no good for declarer to rise with the ♥A -- South can't draw trumps in time to discard his heart losers on the diamond suit. After the defense wins the first two tricks, it all depends on the play in the spade suit.

Declarer should win the return at trick three in his hand, and advance a low spade, inserting the ♠7 when West plays low. East wins the ♠J and exits. This should be won in the dummy, to lead the ♠Q -- it doesn't matter if East covers or not. The ♠Q pins the 10 in West's hand, and declarer escapes with only one trump loser.

Notice that declarer finessed West the first time the spade suit was led, then finessed East the second time. Fancy, ya? Also, note that it's a pretty safe bet that East has the ♠K because of the bidding, making the intra-finesse his best shot.

I searched the results here, but didn't see where any declarer found this play. I held the same hand, but our auction was 3♣, 3♦ by my partner, followed by 5♣ by my right-hand opponent. I might have introduced my spade suit at the four level, but not at the five level. I bid 5♦, and we made it for a 7.72 IMP pickup.

It would have been a more fun to blog about this if I had been given the chance to make the play. If you can't create great art, however, it has to be enough just to look at and appreciate it. The same with bridge.

=======================================
You can read more about the intra-finesse here or here or here.

Manning directs traffic

Peyton Manning is like a coach on the field. He's famous for calling his own plays at the line of scrimmage.





Manning is also a physician. He cut the Rams like a surgeon.

Images by MOJO and taken Sunday with my Canon.

Bridge in the Wall Street Journal

There's a nice article on bridge in the Oct. 24 issue of the Wall Street Journal that you can read here. The piece includes two side bars.

The author, William McCall Smith begins:

"I am not sure if there are clinics that will help you get over bridge, but if there are not, then perhaps some enterprising entrepreneur will take up the idea."

Then he goes on to say:

"I feel it would not work. Addicts have to want to change, and most bridge players I know have no desire to do so."

One side bar was written by Juliet Chung. She mentions that Warren Buffet plays bridge. Here's part of the text:

"He (Buffett) says the skills the game teaches— making inferences and working well with a partner—are invaluable in broader life. "I really do recommend it to people," he says."

These are just some teaser quotes. Check out the article, if interested.

NFL fans take their favorite teams seriously

I went to see the St. Louis Rams play the Indianapolis Colts yesterday. The Colts looked like a well-oiled machine. The Rams? Not so much.




Wolynski suggested I take some close-ups. I'm trying to listen to the lady.

Images by MOJO and taken with my Canon with no processing.

Some more "whatever"

Images by MOJO and taken last Friday with my P&S. (I pumped up the color on the first two. The last image was supposed to show the grime -- what it really looks like if one looks past the flashy colors.)

Whatever is one of my favorite words

I love the word whatever. It's a dismissive word. You can use it when you don't want to answer or someone corrects you and you aren't interested in arguing about it. There are other ways to use it, too -- being a flexible word makes it even better.

Here's what Yahoo Answers says it means: "Don't know, Don't care, not interested, now can you keep quiet because I want to get on with the rest of my life." Yeah, that about sums it up. Whatever. Or, if you want to act cool, whatevah.

The other day, I drove my car south from Poplar Avenue onto Highland Street. Just past the railroad tracks, I saw this on the left side of the road:


I happened to have my P&S camera, and this deserved a stop (Jacob would be proud of me). I hopped out of my car and took the photo you see above. I was in a hurry, snapped the one shot, and took off.

When I got home and looked at in on my monitor, I really liked it, so, Friday, I went back to see if it was another tatoo parlor or exactly what. On the other side of this concrete building is The Whatever Store.




I went inside, and it's what we used to call a head shop. There were posters, tee shirts, incense, doodads, gizmos, and, um, well, whatever.

I talked to a lady and asked if they have a web site. She let slip they had a blog, then quickly said: "We don't much go for the Internet. It's not good for stores like this." Yeah, whatever.

There was a sign inside that mentioned their blog, however, and I memorized the address, and looked it up when I got to a computer. From what I read on the blog, they sure hate the police -- no doubt they get hasseled a lot.

There was another sign inside that said: "If you mention any illegal drugs, we will ask you to leave."

I browsed for a while, but didn't buy anything. I wanted to get some patchouli incense, but they were out! They had 47 zillion other kinds of incense, but no patchouli -- rats. I like how that stuff smells.

The place was gritty, but felt safe and was interesting. It's near the University of Memphis campus. My guess is that students are their main customers.

Wolynski said she heard Tennessee was a beautiful state, and challenged me to show her. This may not be exactly what she was talking about. Whatever.

You can see the Whatever Store's blog here.

For the Google map (610 S. Highland) of the Whatever Store click here.

Photos processed in Picasa and have a Geo-tag. I hope TenMile is happy.

Images by MOJO - taken with my P&S.

Case by case

The International Bridge Press Association, known by the acronym IBPA, has interesting deals that are included in its monthly newsletter. They are created by Australian, Tim Bourke. Below is one in which you are the declarer in 4♥. Go ahead and look at all four hands:

                ♠ K 5 2
                ♥ 7 6 4 3
                ♦ 10 9 4
                ♣ Q 5 2
♠ Q J 10 7                      ♠ 9 8 6 4 3
♥ 10 2                          ♥ 5
♦ Q 7 3                         ♦ A 8 6 5
♣ J 9 8 3                       ♣ K 7 4
                ♠ A
                ♥ A K Q J 9 8
                ♦ K J 2
                ♣ A 10 6

West leads the ♠Q. How do you plan to take 10 tricks? It would be easy if you could get to the ♠K in dummy, but notice the heart spots. Your lowest one is the ♥8.

After drawing trumps, you should advance the ♦K.

Case I: If East takes it and returns a diamond, you play the jack. If West takes that, the ♦10 is an entry to dummy (and you have a discard on the ♠K). The situation is no better for West if he lets the ♦J hold. If so, you can lead a third round of diamonds, and whoever wins will have to lead a club. If West, you make certain of two clubs tricks by playing low from dummy when he makes the forced shift to that suit. Notice that a spade lead is immediately fatal, and a diamond shift gives a ruff-sluff.

Case II: What happens if West had the ♦A? If he takes the ♦K and exits with a low diamond, then either dummy's 9 will hold or East will take it with the queen (and you unblock the jack).

Case III: What happens if the ♦K holds? To counter that, just continue diamonds, and the defense can do no better than cash its two diamond tricks. If West wins, the play follows as described above. If East wins the second diamond trick and exits with a low club, you will let that ride to dummy, making certain of a second club trick.

This deal is over. Next case.

The Walrus gives himself an extra chance

Wally the Walrus and Pete the Pellican were partners at a special game at the Safari Club. The last round they faced the Secretary Bird and the Rueful Rabbit, and played this deal:

                ♠ J 8 6
                ♥ K 5 2
                ♦ 10 9 7
                ♣ J 9 5 3
♠ 5 3                             ♠ A 7
♥ A 10 9 7                        ♥ Q J 8 6 4 3
♦ Q 6 3                           ♦ 8 4 2
♣ 10 8 7 4                        ♣ Q 6
                ♠ K Q 10 9 4 2
                ♥ ---
                ♦ A K J 5
                ♣ A K 2

       North          South
       Pass           2♣
       2♦            2♠
       3♠            6♠
       Pass

Against 6♠, the Secretary Bird led the ♥A, an unfortunate lead.
The Walrus ruffed and led the ♠K, taken by the Rueful Rabbit with the ace. He returned the ♥Q. The Walrus started to discard his low club, then paused to think. Why decide what to do now? It should be better to defer the decision -- the discard could always be taken later. So, he ruffed.

The Walrus drew another round of trumps, then played the ♣A K. On the second high club, the Rueful Rabbit played the ♣Q.

Aha, thought the Walrus. Now I can finesse West for the ♣10, and discard a losing diamond on the ♣J and another on the ♥K. I'm a genius!

Putting thought into action, he lead a club to the 9, and the Rueful Rabbit won the ♣10. The above layout that the Walrus expected, was actually this:

                ♠ J 8 6
                ♥ K 5 2
                ♦ 10 9 7
                ♣ J 9 5 3
♠ 5 3                         ♠ A 7
♥ A 10 9 7 3                  ♥ Q J 8 6 4
♦ 8 6 3                       ♦ Q 4 2
♣ 8 7 4                       ♣ Q 10 6
                ♠ K Q 10 9 4 2
                ♥ ---
                ♦ A K J 5
                ♣ A K 2

"What? Why did you do that?" thundered the Walrus.

The RR's neck turned red. Even though he should be used to it by now, he hated to be yelled at. "I, well, I ..." was all he could manage.

None of the other animals could decide, even later, if he made a great play, or pulled the wrong card. Most suspected the latter.

In the bar after the game, the Hideous Hog held court.

"Norman Kay played a deal like this in a world championship," said the HH. "When he finessed the club, it worked and was called brilliant. Somehow, brilliant plays don't work against the RR. There must be a metaphysical reason, or maybe it's a zen thing - I get those mixed up.

"All this talk makes me thirsty for a bottle of wine. Waiter!"

Poker players ante up for charity

The October issue of All In (scanned and shown above) has an article called "The Beat Goes On."

Poker Pro Phil Gordon (and Rafe Furst) launched the Bad Beat on Cancer initiative in 2003. Its purpose is to urge poker players to pledge 1% of their tournament winnings to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

BBoC has taken it one step further. They have announced a grass-roots poker tour with qualifiers taking place in at least 30 bars, restaurants and other venues every week. This builds towards championship tournaments four times a year.

To sweeten the deal, winners will have an opportunity to play a scaled-down version of Face the Ace. Pros who have committed to being "Aces" are Gordon, Furst, Andy Bloch and Michael Craig.

========================================

I interviewed Gordon in July of 2008. It was a good write-up, except for one minor detail that ended up being embarrassing. I had a brain fart, and in the article I wrote that his initiative was called Put a Bad Beat on Poker instead of Put a Bad Beat on Cancer -- ouch. Hey, other than that, it wasn't so bad.

You can read what I wrote about Gordon and the head-shot I took, if you go here (if it says not a trusted site, ignore -- it's safe, honest). Try not to laugh at the bad beat on poker gaffe.

MOJO hits the 500-post mark

It was July 28 when I posted #400 -- now 500? That's 100 in about four months, or around 25 each month - not bad.

For number 500, guess what? Yeah, some photos I took yesterday. On my way to work each day, I pass a place called Ink Stainz -- it's located on South Third Street. Tuesday I got up a little early.




Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Strange but true

In the Oct. 21 issue of Card Player magazine (shown above), I saw this headline:

"Man Wins Ladies Event at Borgata Poker Open"

Huh? The article went on to say:

Most states have banned casinos from applying sex-based discrimination in their poker tournaments, but a polite request not to enter is usually honored by male cardroom patrons.

Abraham Korotki of Las Vegas NV decided to enter anyway. There were objections and dirty looks, but officials couldn't do anything. First prize was $20,982.

Nicole Rowe was second and won $11,889. She has breast cancer, is facing a double mastectomy, and was disappointed with her finish. She plans to donate $500 of her winnings to breast cancer research, and apply the rest to help cover her expenses while recovering from surgery.

"It doesn't matter," Rowe said. "It was 16 hours of being cancer-free, a diversion from my reality."

You can see all the results from this event if you click here.

You can see Rowe's photo here. She's way too young to have cancer, not that any age is a good age.

***
Just a thought: What about Senior Events? Couldn't a younger person enter and claim age discrimination if they turned him or her away?
***

Where's the fun?

I played in a poker tournament at the Horseshoe (shown above) Sunday. There were 120 players divided into Juniors and Seniors. They played down to 10 of each, then formed two final tables that had five each of Juniors and Seniors. At least that's what they announced. I didn't see it because I busted out with 41 left

We started with $10,000 in tournament chips. The levels were 30 minutes. Unfortunately, 10,000 was my high mark -- I never built up more than that. You probably think I had bad cards. Actually, I had A-A and raised and everyone folded. I had K-K and made a standard raise, and everyone folded. I had Q-Q, raised got two callers, but they folded when the flop was low cards and I made a continuation bet.

Then the hand that killed me. I don't remember what the blinds were, but I was in the BB, and I had around $8,600 in chips. There were two limpers to me. I had ♣10 ♦7. The flop was: ♦J ♥7 ♠7. If you read this blog, you probably remember that I don't slow play trips usually, but there was an aggressive guy behind me. I checked and he bet and the other player called, as did I. The turn was the ♣2. There are no flush draws, nor straight draws (except gut shot draws), so I checked again. The aggro guy didn't disappoint -- he bet bigger and the lady folded. What would you do?

I put him on a jack, and decided that I would get more money out of him if I just checked and let him bet the river. The river was the ♥J, ouch! I should have check-raised fourth street and taken it down. On the other hand, there were only two more jacks out that would give him a winner (or he could have hit his kicker), and in tournaments, you have to accumulate chips. Regardless of any rationalizing, this hand was a killer. Instead of winning a bunch of chips, I lost a bunch.

Now, I had around 3500 in chips. I built back up to $6,000, mostly through agression, but was never able to win a big pot. I saw a hand in which three players ended up all in. The winner had A-A, another guy had J-J, and a third had A-K. It's not about getting aces or kings. It's getting them and winning big pots.

Finally, I was down to $4000, and the blinds were 400/800/100. I was UTG and shoved with ♠A ♠9. A guy on the button called (instead of reraising to isolate, lol) and showed ♦A ♦J. C'est la guerre.

As I walked out, I turned around and thought about a photo I wanted to take. Then, I changed my mind and headed for the door. I was remember thinking: Poker is supposed to be fun. Why don't I feel like I had any?




Images by MOJO and taken yesterday with my P&S.

Stuff heard at the poker table

I played at the Gold Strike (shown above) last night. I got there early to get in the Omaha-8 game, played until 11:30 and headed home a $6 loser.

Because the poker was unremarkable (if an Omaha-8 game can be unremarkable), here are some things I heard:
============================================
There was a lady at the table who was from Iowa. I don't know her age, but she said she had a husband for 40 years, he died, and she has a new one for 15 years -- you do the math.

A guy at the table asked her were there places to play in Iowa. She said "I play in bars."

Now the dealer jumped in. "Ma'am, isn't that illegal?" he asked.

"I've been doing it for 25 years," she announced.

"You've been breaking the law for 25 years?" the dealer asked in mock horror.

"I've been breaking the law for a lot longer than that. There were other things before poker."

Needless to say, we were all cracking up.

*

A guy next to me was a horrible calling station. At some point he introduced himself and confided to me the he does this (poker) for a living. "I ain't worked in 30 years," he said. I didn't say anything, but all I could think was wow.

*

A dealer said this:
"Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional."

*

A dealer who said he was 40 years old, told us this:
"A guy told me he has stocks older than I am."
*

Images by MOJO and taken Saturday evening with my P&S.

Off to the poker wars today

Above is the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, the site of the 2009 Magnolia Fall Poker Classic.

I'll be playing today in an event they call Battle of the Ages. Say what? It works like this: Half the field will be 39 years old or younger and half the field will be 40 or older. They are limiting it to 120 players, and one group is composed of whippersnappers spring chickens (sorta) and the rest are geezers the more mature type players.

Don't forget that if I finish in the top five, I get an entry into a freeroll to vie for a seat in the WSOP Main Event next summer. Now that would be sweet.

I'll be starting at table 22, seat 4. If I do anything good, I'll tweet about it. If you don't see any tweets, um, well, draw your own conclusions, ha.


Image of the Horseshoe Casino taken by MOJO with my P&S last night around 6 p.m.

Another small cash

Not much money, but I outlasted nearly 1100 other donkeys. Now 1st place would have been worth the 5 1/2 hours I spent playing this thing.


I didn't win much on the hand above because the other guy was a short stack, but it was fun to have quads.

Three more park scenes

Images by MOJO at Tom Lee Park with my Canon.

Here's a new one

There was a bridge tournament in Raleigh NC last weekend, and a friend (Steve) reported this to me. He was playing 3NT on the deal shown below:

                  ♠ 5
                  ♥ A 2
                  ♦ 10 9 7 
                  ♣ K 10 8 7 5 4 2
==
                  ♠ K Q 9 7
                  ♥ K 10 5
                  ♦ A Q 5
                  ♣ Q 9 3

A low diamond was led to the jack and queen. Steve advanced the ♣Q, taken on his right. East returned a low diamond, ducked to West's ♦K.

West now shifted to a heart. Steve won the ♥A in dummy, led to his ♦A, then ran clubs. At trick 12, declarer led the ♠5 from dummy, and everyone discarded a heart!

East had ♠10 8 6 2 and saw no reason to keep them. Steve had discarded his four spades, so West decided to discard ♠A J 4 3 after seeing Steve discard all his. Too bad for East-West that Steve was paying attention.

Parks are for recreation

Jusdealem said that this is volleyball meets soccer meets something else. They used their feet and a small hard ball. Does anyone know what this game is?







She gave the football a big kick (above).


They are playing cards. I wonder, is it bridge?

Photos by MOJO. First,second and fourth shots taken at Harbor Town park. The third one was taken at Tom Lee Park - all with my Canon.

Parks are for sitting

Photos by MOJO - the first and third shots are taken at Tom Lee Park and the middle one at the Harbor Town park - all with my Canon.

Parks are for families - part 2

Images by MOJO - taken at Tom Lee Park with my Canon.