Summer holidays and baseball go together

I decided to head to the ballpark today for an afternoon game. The St. Louis Cardinals' AAA club is the Memphis Rebdirds -- they were playing the Albuquerque Isotopes (LA Dodgers farm club). Isn't AutoZone Park an attractive venue?


Above: I had a great seat just behind home plate. Can you see the wire fence? The Redbirds' pitcher was Evan MacLane and he pitched eight shutout innings.


Above: Ruben Gotay takes his "hacks."


Above: Rockey Redbird is the team mascot. It must be hot in that uniform.

Photos by MOJO.

Poker pearl #46

Vanessa Selbst (shown above in the scan of the May 19 issue of Card Player magazine) said:

Poker can consume you and take over your life if you let it. Before long, you can shut out everything else in your world and won't be living the healthiest lifestyle, so it's important to find the proper balance . . .

When I started looking at poker as a job or a chore, I began to lose the thrill of playing the game. And that's what it is. Ultimately, it's a game.

No seat for me

Tonight was my last chance to win a seat in the BBT Tournament of Champions sponsored by Full Tilt.

A key hand late: I had ♥3 ♠3 and the flop was ♣7 ♦3 ♦5 -- I had a set! Cardgrrl bet, Bambam moved all in and I also moved in. Cardgrrl got out of the way and Bambam showed ♦A ♦9. At this point I was a 72.6% to win. The turn was the♣8, and I was a 77.3% favorite (according the Card Player magazine's Odds Calculator). Notice that the ♦7 and the ♦8 are no longer outs for the Bammer -- he hits a flush, but I have a full house. He has, however, picked up a straight draw. The river was the ♦J to give him his flush and a 19K pot.

After that I was in shove or fold mode and went out with 8-8 (Smokee had a higher pocket pair).

There were 101 runners, and I finished 16th. For this, I got my 10 bucks back.

Good luck to all the winners.

Easier for me to see

I played bridge online last night with Kate. I was West on this deal (rotated):

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

South opened 1♠, North bid 2♦ and South raised to 3♦. North rebid 3♠ and South raised to 4♠.

I led the ♥2 to the 6, 8 and jack. Declarer led a diamond to the king to advance the ♠J, won by my ♠K.

I could see there was no point in giving partner a diamond ruff (I had a natural trick in that suit), or so I thought. I shifted to a high club, declarer ruffed the second one and drew two more rounds of trumps. On the third spade, I discarded a low club. Here are the cards that were left:

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

Declarer led the ♦7 to my 8 and dummy's king. Do you see how declarer can make the contract? I could, but it was easier as a defender. If South leads a diamond to his ace, he can cash the last trump and I have to discard my ♣8. Now, declarer can exit with a diamond and I'm endplayed in the heart suit.

Declarer didn't do that and was set one trick. I was surprised later to run it through Deep Finesse and find that when I was in with the ♠K, a diamond return is the only play to guarantee setting the contract at that point.

For plus 100, we won 1.69 IMPs. Out of the 71 pairs who played North-South, only six bid and made 4♠. On opening lead, a diamond lead (or a club lead and a diamond shift) is the only way to legitimately set it.

You can see all the results if you click here.

Small bankroll builder, what the heck

When it got to heads up, the villain played passively and it went on forever.

The last hand was a race that would have put me in the chip lead.

ACBL move complete, museum under construction

The ACBL move to the new headquarters is complete. Below is a snapshot of the some of the cubicles:


When I came to the ACBL in 1997, there were about 100 workers. I left a year later and returned in 2002. I don't know the headcount then, but now it's in the low fifties. More and more work has been replaced by technology. Workers don't have to count masterpoint slips -- that is done electronically. Many of the other things that need to be done by a bridge federation can be handled by fewer humans because of advanced technology.

The only part of the new building that is incomplete is the Morehead Library, the museum and the Hall of Fame complex. From what I've seen and heard, it is going to be spectacular. The museum will be interactive. You will be able to listen to a voice that describes the rich ACBL history as you tour it. The Hall of Fame used to be mostly photos hanging on the wall, but that will be improved, too. The tropies will be housed in handsome trophy cases.


Above, a worker lays carpet in what I think will be the Hall of Fame. On the floor at the right, you can see marble with representations of different playing cards.


Above you see workers in the Morehead Library doing prep work for the bookcases.

Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

A better plan

Being a member of the International Bridge Press Association has its perks. Each month the IBPA newsletter has some deals by Australian Tim Bourke that are interesting. Here's one:

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

       West   North   East   South
                      2♠    Pass
       Pass   Dbl     Pass   3♥
       Pass   6♥      All Pass

North-South were playing lebensohl in this situation, so South's 3♥ bid showed values. North hoped his partner had nothing wasted in spades and blasted to slam. Sometimes you can't intelligently find out what you need to know. At least this approach kept the defenders in the dark -- sometimes that's worth a trick.

West led the ♠2, an obvious singleton. What would you do?

One line is to hope for a doubleton ♥10. If so, declarer can arranged to ruff two clubs high in the dummy and use his 9 to draw the last trump.

Do you see a better plan?

At the table, declarer won the ♠A and drew three rounds of trumps. Next, he played four rounds of diamonds, discarding two spades from his hand. West was in with the fourth round, and had only clubs left. That return allowed South to win the ♣J.

Five trump tricks (including a spade ruff in the South hand), one spade, three diamonds and three clubs added up to 12 tricks.

Is it the Dank or the Mookie? I can't keep this stuff straight

This was my second stab at one of the BBT tourneys. Close only counts in horseshoes, they say.


Above shows a big hand (about halfway through) in which I was short-stacked and shoved over an all in and ran into K-K and got lucky.

Below was my bust out hand -- pretty much a cooler, in my opinion.



Osssuuu754 was winning (heads up) when I headed for bed, and Yosoyveneno was in second - congrats to both.

Getting closer

I decided to play the same tournament again tonight, and finished 6th. I hate to whine, but during play from the final two tables on, I lost all four races I was in.


Above is my busto hand. We were all in pre-flop and I was a 61% to 39% favorite. If I win this one, who knows?

Short stacks makes for bad ending.

Played for 5 1/2 hours, then as shortstack ran K-Q into K-K.

Position + aggression = money

Even if you only read one poker blog, the Poker Grump's is a must-read. I like the fact that he covers a wide array of topics, but mostly I appreciate the fact that he writes well. Recently, he had a blog piece about whether to show or not after the deal was decided (see here), and that reminded me of one I played in a ca$h game in New Orleans last Sunday.


The game was your normal $1/2 NL hold 'em with your usual mix of tourists, young guys, old guys, etc. Somebody raised to $12 and four of us called. The flop was ♥4 ♦4 ♣6.

The big blind led out for $40, and I called as the others folded. The turn was the ♠10 and the big blind checked. I had $120 left and moved all in. The BB thought for a while and finally folded face up: ♠8 ♣8.

I normally don't show in a cash game, but I couldn't resist: ♥8 ♦8.

Of course, if he had a black 4 and was getting cute with his check, I wouldn't have such a good story. I was guessing, obviously, that he was the type who would check (slowplay) the rainbow flop if he had trips.


Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

I'm two years old

Before May 13, 2008, I read other blogs, but didn't have one of my own. Smokee's was one of those I read, and he had set up a freeroll for poker bloggers. Hmm, I thought, start a blog and enter a tournament for free -- why not? I was such a noobie I didn't know how to contact him, but Katitude contacted him for me. I didn't know it then, but bloggers are friendly that way.

My first post was called At the Crossroads, and was a bridge deal. Since then I've written 317 blog pieces on poker and 230 on bridge. Bridge players don't leave comments very often and poker players do, so I've gone more that route -- it's rewarding to receive comment love. I'm guessing maybe 10 people will leave a comment on this one and perhaps one of them will be a bridge player -- not sure why that is.

Trivia: The first person to leave a comment was anonymous, but the second was Jordan of High on Poker and the third was CK of BWoP.

My statistics say this is post #688, which is nearly one per day -- my keyboard is smokin'. I thank all of you who come.

Mum's the word

After I was knocked out of the poker tournament, I wandered over to the French Quarter. They have mimes that do their thing for tips. Here are two of them:

The guy below just stood there with his front foot up in the air. How can they stand like that for long periods? When I went over and dropped $2 in his tip bucket, he said thank you, but I was watching and his lips didn't move. Maybe he's not a mime, but is called something else?


The image below shows what the mime calls a "Living Statue." I thought she was a female, but it was a he. You can see two tourists checking him out.


When I tried to get a close-up of the statue, some (nitty) old guy jumped in the photo.


First two images by MOJO with my P&S. The young lady in photo No. 2 took the third one.

C'est la vie

The economy might be bad, but if you have a poker tournament, players will come. On Monday, 335 runners paid $345 to play in Event No. 5 of the Bayou Poker Challenge at Harrah's Casino (see image above) in New Orleans -- first place paid ~$22,000. We started with $9000 in tournament chips with 40-minute blind levels -- a nice structure.

At my table, there was the guy who plays online everyday. He won a bad beat jackpot on Ultimate Bet(he had 4-4-4-4 and lost to a diamond straight flush). His share was $125,000, so he quit his job. There was a middle-aged lawyer. There was an Asian lady from Houston who said she plays online for a living. There was a guy who finished 5th in a big online tournament the day before (and I had to hear about it again when a new player came to the table). But mostly, there were schlubs like me.

I was pretty much card dead until Level 3 - blinds were 200/100. I picked up ♥J ♥10 and raised to 600 from the cutoff. The button called. The flop was ♠K ♦Q ♣5. I often lead with a draw as a CB, but this time I checked. The button bet 600, and I called.

The turn was beautiful: ♥A giving me a Broadway straight. Because the board was rainbow, I didn't have to worry about flushes. The pot was 2700, I led out for 2100 and the button called. At this point I put him on A-K or K-Q type hands or he could have something where he decided to float me.

The river was the ♥Q making the board: ♠K ♦Q ♣5 ♥A ♥Q.

That was a real bad card for me as it makes a full-house for some of his holdings. I checked and he bet 2500 into a 6900 pot. I thought for a while and called. He showed ♠5 ♦5 for a boat. He value bet just enough to get me to call -- boo.

I built back up to 7000 and picked up ♦4 ♥4. The blinds were 200/400/25. I limped and a short stack moved all in for 2500 more. What would you do? You know it's either a flip, or the villain has you crushed with a higher pair.

I decided to gamble and called. He showed ♣A ♣Q. The flop included a queen and his hand held. After the short-stack moved in, there was 4150 in the pot and it cost me another 2500 to call. So, from a math standpoint, it was right to call (based on what he actually held), but in retrospect, it was a bad call. I had built back to a playable stack and should have just given up.

That left me with about 4000 which dribbled down to 3200. The Asian lady raised to 850 which was called on my right. I checked my hole cards and saw Q-Q! Yes! I moved in. The button had only 2100. He checked his hole cards and moved in as well. The Asian lady folded, but the guy on my right called and showed: Q-J. The button turned over A-J, so the Q-J is in bad shape. A queen helps me, a jack helps the button.

The flop was J-J-x! The turn was a king, and the river was a brick.

I had hoped to go deep, but was out after only four hours. C'est la vie - wait until next time.

Below are a few of the 335 poker players who entered Event No. 5:

Entrance to the tournament poker area in Harrah's Cssino, New Orleans:


Images by MOJO - shot with my P&S.

I never miss a chance to go to NOLA

When I was playing poker last week, I overheard one player asking another if she was going to New Orleans to the tournament. That reminded me that each May, there is a WSOP Circuit event there called the Bayou Poker Challenge.

I've played twice before, and not done anything in the tournament, but always won enough in the juicy ca$h games to make it a free trip. The Riverside Hilton is across the street and they give discounted rooms to the players. You can park for free if you play by getting your ticket stamped. All in all, a nice little get-away.

I'm traveling there tomorrow, then Sunday I'm doing touristy things. The Gray Line has a tour of the city that includes the Hurricane Katrina stuff (see here), and I'm signed up for that on Sunday afternoon. At nights, I'll be playing pokah. Then, Monday I'm entering Tournament Event #5. Tuesday, I'll travel home unless I make the final table. If I do, well, I'll just have to take one more vacation day, now won't I?

Wednesday is a good night for poker

Thirteen bloggers showed up to play in the Very Josie Tournament. I think I had A-A five times, although twice I was in the BB and got a walk anyway, lol. Still the other three times I won big pots.

When we were four-handed, it went on forevah. Finally Prettycat1 (Josie's sister) went out, then Josie was eliminated, and I was heads-up with Jordan of High on Poker, (one of my favorite blogs). I had him out-chipped by a lot, but he hung in there. On the final hand, he flopped a set and I flopped an OESD, and the chips went in the middle. The turn gave me a Broadway straight and I had to sweat the board pairing on the river. It was a brick and I was the winner.

Josie and Jordan had a last longer side bet. The chat box was thick with smack talk as the chip lead between them went back and fourth. The decisive hand between them was this: Jordan had A-K and Josie showed J-J, a classic race. Jordan made a pair of kings to cripple our hostess.

Fun tournament. It will be held on the first Wednesday of each month, so give it a try next time if you love to chat, play poker and have a good time.


The Dank (formerly called the Mookie) wasn't as successful. I busted out 38th out of 99. I flopped a combination flush draw and gutshot straight draw and bet into it. The guy behind had flopped a set and he re-raised. The money was right to stick around and see both cards to come, so I shoved and bricked out. I believe you have to get lucky with hands like this when it's late and your stack is dwindling. If you can't embrace the gamble, poker isn't for you.

Playing stats tell a story

Last January they had a free tournament for bloggers. Winners won seats into the SCOOP. I won a cheap seat ($11) and played last night.

There were 18,353 runners entered in my SCOOP event, and that's a lot of donkeys to climb over. It began at 7 p.m. Memphis time and I lasted until around 11:15 when there were 3673 left. 3100 got paid and I could have folded to the "money," but the prize for that was around $12, bleh. The prize for first was $18,000 -- big difference. If I had won my last hand, I would have had a good-sized stack and a chance to run for the big money. I didn't mind, therefore, the way I went out:

In the big blind I had ♦6 ♦5. The button raised 3X the BB, the SB called, and I did, too. The flop was (I think) ♦7 ♦3 ♣2, giving me a baby flush draw and a gutshot -- 12 outs or around 46%. Also, I had enough chips to have plenty of fold equity. I shoved and was called by K-K in the small blind who had been slow playing. The turn and river bricked and I was out.

After, I asked Poker Stars for a Tournament History, and, instead, they sent a list of all 18K+ players, so I asked for the wrong thing. I wanted to see the hand history (don't have it yet, so that's why my busto hand is sketchy -- missing stack sizes, blind and ante sizes, etc.)

They did include my "personal statistics" which were telling:
You finished in 3673rd place (eliminated at hand #43627817444).
252 hands played and saw flop:
- 3 times out of 28 while in small blind (11%)
- 13 times out of 29 while in big blind (45%)
- 21 times out of 195 in other positions (11%)
- a total of 37 times out of 252 (15%)

Pots won at showdown
- 4 out of 7 (57%)
Pots won without showdown - 18

Winning 18 pots without a showdown is a good number, I think, but do you notice anything else?

Only playing 15% of my hands is way too low. I think 20% to 30% is more like it, and maybe even higher in such a large field (you have to take more chances to build up your stack).

What's your percentage normally (in a tournament) and what do you think is optimum for one of these large MTT fields?

===========================================
P.S. There are two more "can't-miss" tournaments tonight. There's the Very Josie Tournament (Click here) at 9 p.m. Eastern time and there's The Dank (See here) at 10 p.m. Eastern. (Yes, it's called The Dank now -- see Waffles.) I'm a goofball degenerate blogger thinking I might do both.

Most exciting band in rock today?

Two local DJs, Drake and Zeke, have been pimping a Los-Angeles-based band called Rock Sugar. The group mixes heavy metal hits with pop songs, like AC/DC's “Shook Me All Night Long” with Madonna's "Like A Prayer.”

Jess Harnell, the lead singer, has done voice work such as on the cartoon series Animaniacs and is the announcer on the America's Funniest Home Videos. He's excellent at imitating other singers such as Axl Rose of Velvet Revolver or Steve Perry of Journey.

Rock Sugar played the Beale Street Music Festival today. The group is high energy. They bounced around the stage and put on a great show. For most songs that they play, they combine two songs. For the last one, they announced look out, it's schizophrenia time -- they combined four songs.

DJ Drake introduced them and said, "Rock Sugar is the most exciting band in rock today."

He's right that they are exciting, but are they a gimmick who will fizzle, or are they the next big thing?

(Click on photos to enlarge.)





Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Other acts Saturday

Drive By Truckers is an alternative country band:


His long blond hair is grey, and his voice is okay, but not as strong as it used to me. Two things about Jerry Lee Lewis, however, haven't changed: He can still play the piano and fans love his hits.

The last song he played was Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On, described by John Lennon as the perfect rock and roll song. Towards the end, he stood up, kicked away the piano stool he was sitting on, and the crowd went wild. They knew he was about to do some serious "tickling the ivories."

Down in New Orleans, where everything is fine
All them cats is drinkin' that wine
Drinkin' that mess to their delight
When they get drunk, start drinkin' all night
Drinkin' wine spo-de-o-dee, drinkin' wine, bop ba
Pass that bottle to me.

The Doobie Brothers, Motown and lots more -- that's what Michael McDonald played. He still has this amazingly strong voice. McDonald has surrounded himself with terrific musicians and backup singers, and they can make some serious music. The drummer, by the way, is a female who is from Memphis. I didn't catch her name, but (based on a Google search) I think it's Cindy Mizelle.

But what a fool believes ... he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems . . . to be
Is always better than nothing

.
Hall and Oates only played two songs before the concert was canceled because of a tornado warning. Below is Daryl Hall:

Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Colbie Caillat

Colbie Caillat, who performed at the Beale Street Music Festival on Saturday, is a 24-year-old singer, guitarist and song writer from southern California.


Caillat won a grammy for her duet with Jason Mraz. (The name of the song is "Lucky".) Caillat's father Ken Caillat is a record producer.

"It starts in my toes
And I crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now"

Caillat has an amazine voice and put on a terrific show. She related well to the audience, and seemed to be a down-to-earth type person. It's impressive that she writes most of her songs (and has also written for Taylor Swift). I'd say the future is very bright for her.

Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

A tornado crashed my party

At 9:45, Hall and Oates had played two songs, and the party was going strong. Suddenly, there was an announcement that the park was closing and all acts canceled. A storm was headed our way with 50-60 mph winds that included hail -- a tornado had been confirmed somewhere in Arkansas.

At first we wondered if it was some kind of a joke, but it wasn't, and my night was cut short. I had seen Hall and Oates before, but there were other acts I wanted to check out. I mean, what the heck is Alice in Chains?

Earlier in the day it rained, and when I got to the music festival around 4 p.m., the streets were still wet. Here's a view from the bluffs (where I entered Tom Lee Park) that looks to the northwest. You can see what Memphians call the New Bridge that carries I-40 traffic:


Okay, if you want to be picky, it's "real" name is Hernando de Soto Bridge. But don't try to use that name around here as Memphians will peg you for an out-of-town newbie.

If there is a new bridge, shouldn't there be an Old Bridge? If you thought so, you'd be right. If you look Southwest, you see it (I-55 crosses it). To the left of center, you can see one of the big stages.


Because of the rain, there was mud, just like there is every year:



Some wore boots, but some dealt with the mud in another way:


What's up with the hats? It's one big, giant party and anything goes:



Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Let the music play

I went to Day 1 of the Beale Street Music Festival last night. There's more than music. There are 74,011 eating places. Here's one of them:

The smell is in the air, so you can't resist, don't even try. I had a Corky's BBQ sandwich and a mango smoothie and was proud of myself that I didn't really go crazy.

It always rains this weekend. It can be sunny for 47 days before and 47 days after, but it always rains -- must be somebody's law. Because it rains, it gets muddy, and females wear boots and they've become a fashion statement as you see here:



Lots of characters, shall we say, show up. If you don't see what I mean, click on the photo to enlarge:



This band is called Neon Trees. The drummer is Elaine Bradley (she RAWKS, by the way) and the singer is Tyler Glenn. I need to find out where he gets his hair done. I could use a Mo(jo)hawk like that.



Cindy Wilson, B52s singer, wears some pretty cool shades:



(From the left) John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, Keith Stickland of the B52s and Blues Travelers' bass guitarist Tad Kinchla:


Images by MOJO and taken with my P&S.