Pike Place Market or bust

Above: Pike Place Market is Seattle's No. 1 tourist attraction.

Kate and I took the day off from bridge and did some sightseeing. After a bus tour, we asked the driver to let us off at the Pike Place Market. It's huge. We spent lots of time and barely scratched the surface.

One of the places I've heard about is the Pike Place Fish Market. The employees there throw fish around and have fun with what could be a boring job.

Seen on a tee shirt: "After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F."


Above: Pike Place Fish Market will FedEx seafood to you anywhere in North America. A worker prepares crab legs to be sent to some lucky person.


Above: A customer orders a five pound salmon. A worker heaves it to another who weighs it. Excitement ensues.

You can read about the fish throwing if you click here.


Above: Pike Place Market has zillions of stalls. You can buy artwork, cherries, tee shirts, just about any kind of food and things you've never heard of. This is a shot of one of the many hallways.

Photos taken with my Canon.

Quick update from Seattle

Above: The Washington State Convention Center is the venue for the Fall North American Bridge Championship.

Bridge players are pouring in and the fun has begun. I played with Kate yesterday in a warm-up game. We are going to play again today, then sight-see Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday will be the Senior Mixed Pairs.

Temperatures are in the low 40s and there has been some rain. Really, it's more of an occasional drizzle. Downtown Seattle has a nice vibe. At 5 p.m. it doesn't close up like some cities.

You can read the Daily Bulletins and get other information here.


Above: People get sight-seeing advice.


Above: Bridge at the Convention Center is played on the fourth and sixth floors. Escalators take people to the playing areas.

Photos taken with my P&S.

A common name

Blogger Very Josie recently posted about being a member of the mob -- no, not that mob, the Henden Mob. She's listed in their data base and posted about it here.

I looked myself up and they had me as David Smith from Memphis, David Smith from Walls MS, and I found a couple more of my cashes listed under David Smith, but no home town. (I used to live in Memphis, but moved six miles south to northern Mississippi.) That's the problem having a name like mine.

I e-mailed them and they were responsive. They combined these into one place (see here) and asked me to send a photo. Two of my biggest cashes are missing. Twice I chopped for first through fourth in tournaments that would qualify, but they aren't listed. Maybe, I'll try and find a link to them -- or maybe not.

Poker pearl #69

Ed Miller is one of my favorite writers in Card Player magazine. In the latest issue (see scan above), he discusses continuation betting.

"When you raise preflop and get called by a competent player who has position on you, you should check many flops. Most players bet too often in this situation . . . if you checked half the time, it wouldn't be too much.

"You shouldn't check only with hands you plan to give up. You should check planning to check-call with good hands. You should check planning to check-raise good hands. And you should also check-raise bluff.

"When you play this way, you put a lot of pressure on other players."

Best in the world coming to Seattle

Above: Seattle is the site of the Fall North American Bridge Championship.

I'm leaving Saturday for the NABC in Seattle. The world's best bridge players will be there, the equivalent of the WSOP in poker.

I'm playing with Kate in the Open Board-a-Match Teams and the Senior Mixed Pairs. We'll also be doing some sightseeing, so expect photos.

I'll try and update the blog occcasionally.

Photo taken from the ACBL web site.

Saturday night's alright for poker, get a little action in

Above: The clock said five players left, but it hadn't been updated -- there were only two of us.

I chopped the 7 p.m. tournament at the Gold Strike Saturday night. I wish I could say I played great, but mostly I stayed out of trouble and had a big hand at the right time. At the final table and from under the gun, a big stack moved all in and was called by a short stack. I peeked at my hole cards and saw ♠K ♣K. I had a big stack, too, but I'm sorry, I'm not folding kings. I moved in as well. The other two had A-J and A-10 -- what were they thinking?

After that I just played fairly passively until there were two of us. We battled for a while, but neither could get an edge so we chopped.

During the evening, I saw Q-Q beat K-K with a queen on the river. I saw A-Q beat A-K, again with a queen on the river. I saw J-J beat K-K when jacks ended up with a straight. I saw 10-7 go all in, called by A-A and flopped a straight. Poker can be a crazy game.

The worst play I saw was from a good player. Blinds were 2000/1000/200 and he raised to 6000 with A-Q. A lady who played nothing but the nuts moved all in for 34,000 and he called! She showed him A-A. I'm still not sure what he was thinking. He said later he didn't think she would play that way with aces. Apparently, he hadn't been watching the table.

Photo taken with my iPhone.

I hate carelessness

Reporters these days seem to take less care in their work. I saw an example of that today. A write-up of Event No. 14 of the Borgata Fall Poker Open stated:

(The winner) "had to take down a field that included heavy hitter regulars such as Gionni Demers, James Boyle, Kalid Ali, Larry Gold, Sheree Bykofsky, Dave Zeitlen, Adam Lippert, Leanne Rosenblatt, Arkadiy Tsinis, Austen Johnson, Nachman Berlin, Mike Sica, Josh Brikis, and Dave Zeitlen."

Do you see any mention of his main competition, blogger Very Josie? I don't think so.

There's just no excuse for sloppy reporting.

You can read the entire recap here.

School kids discover the magic of bridge

Above: The cover story for the DeSoto county version of The Commercial Appeal is about bridge.

I stopped at a store today and happened to notice the front page of the area newspaper: bridge! Not only bridge, but bridge for elementary-school students, yes! Bridge has a reputation as a game for old people, so I love to see youngsters taking up the game.

The American Contract Bridge League has programs to teach bridge in elementary and high schools. The typical set-up is for local bridge players to ask to teach bridge outside of regular classes as an enrichment program.

ACBL Marketing Department staffers, Vicki Campbell and Darbi Southers, have come up with a better plan: Teach the Teachers. At the beginning of the school year, they contacted school teachers and offered to teach them bridge. Teachers who were interested came to Horn Lake MS, site of the ACBL Headquarters, for a workshop. Teachers gained skills to be able to teach the students. The program is called Youth4Bridge.

More than 30 students at a local elementary school are participating, and they are excited. "The best part is playing against your friends," fifth-grader Kayla Farmer said.

The young player makes a good point: Bridge has a social aspect to it. You are only as good as your partner and you're playing against other humans, not a computer.

"A lot of kids have fun ... pressing buttons on the video games," said fourth-grader Adrian Mills. "This (bridge) is a game where you actually have to think, and it helps reasoning," he said.

You can read the newspaper article here.

You can read more about the Youth4Bridge program if you click here.

USA Today strikes again

If you can't read the image above, click to enlarge and you'll see this headline:

"Penn State-Nebraska doulbes ESPN's TV ratings"

What is a doulbes? Must be something new. I think it's an Outer Tasmanian expression with a meaning similar to gesundheit or something.

This wasn't buried in the back pages; it was near the top on the sports home page. (I captured a screen shot before they had a chance to correct it.)

If you enjoy typos like this, you might want to check out Kim's blog here.

(Steam)rolling into Memphis

I was playing poker online Sunday evening and my phone made a noise indicating an alert. I checked and realized that in one hour I was supposed to be at the Memphis Orpheum Theater to see Mannheim Steamroller. How could I have forgotten? Their show is Christmas music and I guess I'm not thinking Christmas yet. Good thing I set the alert.

What is Mannheim Steamroller? They are a group that offers contemporary interpretations of Christmas music. Are they rock, jazz, classical or what? The answer is yes. What I mean is that they are a fusion of many types and styles.

The show had a video background that changed and corresponded to the piece being played. They were backed by a 12-person orchestra. The Steamroller played 11 pieces, took a 20-minute intermission, then played 10 more plus an encore.

The show was great. The music was amazing and was attractively presented with a nice light show that included fog and other special effects. The group members wore colorful outfits.

Most shows like this ban cameras, but the Steamroller didn't. This was good news for me.

The audience was a mixed bag of all ages. Many concert goers came as families.

Here are some images from the show (click to enlarge):





Photos taken with my P&S.

No, I'm not bitter

The last event of the Magnolia State Poker Championship was yesterday at the Horseshoe Casino (See hotel above). There were 143 runners who paid $560 to play, including moi. First place paid $23.5K - nice. Unfortunately, I finished 20th (18 were paid), so nice run, no moolah. On my bust out hand, I raised three times the big blind. A guy called with ♣7 ♣5 and hit a straight. I couldn't put him on 7-5, sorry. But they were soooooted. Yeah, right.

During the tournament, there was lots of ego at my table. A guy who won this event last year made sure everyone knew about it. Another guy had won a bracelet. Not only did he have it on, he made sure everyone was aware of it. If I ever get like that, just take me out and shoot me.

I did have the pleasure of busting last year's winner. He wasn't bragging so much after that. I raised 2.5 times the big blind from middle position and got called by another player and Mr. Winner. The flop was 10-8-3 rainbow. It went check, check to Mr. Winner who bet the pot. I check-raised enough to put him all in. He went in the tank and called and turned over ♣A ♦8. I showed A♥ ♥10 and my hand held up. Suh-weet.

Usually, I would just lead out with top pair and top kicker, but previous winners are usually winners because they are aggressive, so I let him fall into my trap. Maybe he'll keep his yap shut next time. Nah, probably not. This play had meta-game considerations. After that, if I didn't continuation bet, players weren't so fast to try and take the pot away from me.

After I busted out, I got in the Omaha-8 game. It was $4/8 with a half-kill and lots of fun. One disappointing hand: I was in the big blind and got a free play with A-10-5-5. The flop was A-10-10. Yahtzee! No other pairs came and three of us played to the river. I turned over my hand and one of the others also had A-10, oh well. I had hoped to scoop (no qualifying low) instead of chopping the pot.

I left about 2:45 a.m. up a buy-in. As I was walking out, I went past the tournament. There were still seven players left! The guy who busted me had what looked like the biggest stack. Maybe my chips helped him win, but I don't really care one way or the other. Screw him, but I'm not bitter.

Photo taken Friday with my P&S.

Cooler or bad play?

Above: The Horseshoe Casino Tunica is the site of a 10-day tournament that is wrapping up this weekend.

I hadn't made it back to the Horseshoe this week until yesterday. One day a doctor's appointment, one day a meeting and one day something else. I thought I was supposed to have all this free time when I retired. What's up with that?

Yesterday, I played again. The tournament began at noon, cost $340 to enter, gave 12,000 in chips to each of 93 runners who decided to give it a try.

After seven hours, we were down to 16 players. The average stack size was ~55k and I had 45-ish. We had just reformed to two tables, so I didn't have an image with many of the players. The blinds were 1600/800/200 so there was 4000 in the pot before any betting.

It folded to the button who raised to 3600. The small blind mucked and I checked my hole cards to see ♠A ♠K.

Obviously, folding is out of the question, so I have three choices. I could just call to see a flop. I think this is weak. I could raise to 10K or so. The problem with this is you're almost pot-committed. I mean if he re-raises to 25K are you going to fold? I could just shove. This has the advantage of (possibly) folding out a hand like J-J or 10-10. The disadvantage is that you might be racing for your tournament life or you might be behind A-A or K-K.

If you just call, the flop is K-7-4 rainbow. Now what? Would you give up the hand now? Of course not.

At the table, I shoved, and the villain had A-A. A king came on the flop, but a second one didn't, and I was walking to the rail. It always seems like a bad play after you've shoved into aces.

Was I always destined to be stacked or could I have avoided this? If I had a good-sized stack, maybe I could have gotten away from it, but being slightly short-stacked means (I think) I was destined to lose and whine in my blog.

Photo taken yesterday with my P&S.

Ruff partner's winner

I heard through the grapevine that Collins Williams, a player from Raleigh NC, is a fan of this blog, but he wishes I would do more bridge and less poker. Okay, Collins, this deal is bridge, and it's for you.

Take at look at all four hands. You are South, declarer in 5♦ doubled. How many do you expect to go down?


I played this deal on BBO. It looks like I had to lose two top spades. Both high diamonds are onside, so I planned to go to dummy and advance the ♦J and lose only one trump trick for down one, right?

Whoa, not so fast. West cashed two high spades, then led a third and East ruffed his partner's winner with the ♦8. Now I had to lose two diamond tricks. If he discards, I can play to only lose one.

There's lots of bad bridge online, but give East credit -- he made a nice play.

Where are we going and what's a handbasket?

"Bowl projections: LSU will face of with Oklahoma State"

This was a headline in the online USA Today that I just saw. Face of, really? Things like this seem to be worse now that more writers are using the Internet. Perhaps they don't take the time to proofread.

Typos are rampant in printed media as well, and seem to be getting worse. The latest issue of Card Player, an excellent poker magazine, has a sub-headline that says the Commerce Casino "sits nicely minutes from downtown Los Angeles." It might be a nice drive, but I'm sure they mean 90 minutes.

The most recent Bluff magazine had a ton of typos, as well. Is it asking too much for a second person to take a look before sending to the printer?

Poker pearl #68

Ante Up magazine has a section that I like titled "Call The Floor." Here's a situation described in the November issue:

At a monthly no-limit tournament, a few guys limped, the small blind (with K-K) raised five times the big blind. Everyone folded but the guy on the button. The flop came 10-6-3. The small blind bet and the button went all-in. After tanking for a few minutes, the small blind called.

The button said, "you got me," and didn't show his cards, though they were still in fron of him.

The small blind threw his cards into the muck face down.

The button said, "You mucked, I win."

The small blind said, "You conceded; I win," and turned over the K-K from the muck.

Who's right?

What do you think? I'll give the answer from the magazine after readers say in the comments section what they believe should happen.

UPDATE: I've given the "answer" from the magazine. See comments.

Event No. 1 is in the books

Above: The Horseshoe Casino (Tunica) is the venue for the Magnolia State Poker Classic.

I finished 10th in Event #1 of the Magnolia State Poker Classic. Tenth out of 308 runners (some of whom were re-entrants) sounds good, but it was a let down.

Early on I called a raise with A-K. The flop was 8-high. How was I to know the villain had raised with A-8? Another 8 came on the turn and he moved all in. Boo on donk villains. I did manage to check top pair twice and let the same guy bet 60,000 into me on a bluff, so I got some of it back.

My bust-out hand was an ace that ran into a bigger ace. The blinds were 16,000/8000/3000 and a regular raise would have pot-committed me (I had around 125,000 chips), so I shoved. He thought forever and finally called.

Photo taken today with my P&S.

What are the odds?

Above: The Magnolia State (Fall Classic) Poker Tournament is being held for the next 10 days at the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsonville (Tunica) MS.

The starting stack in the tournament I played yesterday was 15,000. I stayed at that level forever, it seemed -- I was keeping up with the blinds and antes, but that was about it.

When the blinds were 800/1600 with an ante I can't remember, I picked up ♠A ♥A and raised to 4100. Everyone folded and I showed. "Too bad, no action," "Unlucky," etc. were the comments.

On the very next hand, I again picked up ♠A ♥A. Not only two aces but the same two suits!

What are the odds of this. We all know that once out of 220 deals, you might get A-A, but I mean of the same suit? I'm bet that the Poker Grump could figure it out. Does anyone know?

What happened on the deal? Another short stack (similar to mine) re-raised all in with 9-9. I called, of course, and my hand held, putting me back in the game. Nothing jump-starts a blah game like pocket aces.

Photo taken earlier with my P&S.

Wish me luck tomorrow

Above: Want to know what 216,000 in chips looks like? Check out the photo above. The gray ones are 5000 each and I had 40 of them. (Click to enlarge.)

I finished running my errands this morning and thought again about re-entering the tournament that I played in yesterday at the Horseshoe Casino. Because so many players had busted out yesterday, it seemed like there was an overlay -- similar to when an online poker site adds money to the prize pool, but this money added by the players themselves. Anyway, I talked myself into playing again, and I'm glad I did.

We played through the middle of level 14 (stopping at the exact point that the players from Friday (Day IA) did. Yesterday 20 (out of 132 entrants) made it to that point and today 28 did (out of 176). So, tomorrow at 2 p.m., they will combine the two fields and continue play. Of the 48 players left, only 36 will cash.

There are two monster stacks of more than 300,000 chips and a few in the 220,000 range. I have 216,000 and am guessing I'm around fifth or so. The players who barely cash will only win $241 or basically get their money back. First place, however, pays about $18,500, an amount worth shooting for.

Here's my major win for the day: The blinds were $3000/1500/500 and I raised to $7100 from under the gun. A guy called and the small blind peeked at his hole cards to see: ♠A ♣K. He just called. The flop was ♥A ♦K ♥6. He bet 5000 and I raised to 15,000. The other guy folded and it was back to the small blind. He didn't really give it much thought and moved all in. I called and showed ♠6 ♣6 for the flopped set. There were still two aces and two kings in the deck, but the board bricked out and I doubled up from about 110,000 to around 230,000. Life is sweet.

Photo taken by me with my iPhone.

Fun and games not so fun, after all

Above: Cocktail waitresses at the Horseshoe Casino are using iPads to take drink orders. Very high tech. What's next? Robots to make the drinks?

I played in the poker tournament this afternoon and busted out around 60th (there were 132 runners). We started with 12K in chips, the beginning blinds were 25/25 with 40-minute levels -- a great structure. I was shocked, however, to see the big pots players were playing with marginal hands. They obviously didn't understand deep-stack poker. I guess because they could reenter tomorrow, they treated it like a rebuy tournament where anything goes.

My downfall was ♦A ♦K. I raised and only the small blind called. The flop was ♥K ♦10 ♦9. The small blind led out, I made a big raise and he moved all in! What would you do?

I still had 15 big blinds left and talked myself into folding (although mathematically it was right to call and hope for the best). The villain showed Q-J for the flopped straight, so my laydown was a good one, I suppose. I eventually ran 9-9 into jacks and was out the door.

I have some errands to run tomorrow, so may not play. What's the rush? There are two tournaments each day: a main tournament that starts at noon, and a secondary one in the evening at 7 p.m. I'll get to play plenty poker in the next 10 days.

Photo taken by MOJO with my P&S.

Fun and games

Fun and games at the Horseshoe Casino for the next 10 days -- The Magnolia State Poker Tournament means poker, poker and more poker.

The first event is interesting. It has Friday as Day IA then Saturday as Day IB and the players who advance from each day combine on Sunday for the final. The prize pool is guaranteed to be $40,000 and there is a guaranteed seat to the Main Event at a tournament in January that is paid for by Horseshoe (i.e. does not come out of the prize pool). There's also a twist. If you play today and get knocked out, you can reenter tomorrow.

I notice there's a Senior Event on Thursday and the age is 40 or older. I need to check my driver's license, but I believe I qualify, so I'll be playing in that one as well as the one today (and maybe a few others).

Small ca$hes add up

Came in third in a cheapo $5 tournament on Bodog. Every little bit helps the bankroll.