I've been a music addict for as long as I can remember. I'm always on the lookout for new music, and I recently discovered a blog that archives all free itunes downloads. It's been awesome...I'm downloading a free bunch of songs every week and not forgetting about it before they expire thanks to my feed reader. Yay for free music!
Also, my friend Pete and his band "The Dusty's" rock. Go download their EP. You won't be sorry.
It's funny how some of us bitch and moan about spending an extra $2 on coffee but will gladly shove $$$ in on a draw or bluff. I discovered a great new "deal" in AC this past trip, so I figured I would compile a bunch of the deals I know about to share with my lucky readers. To quote: Dawn Summers, " How are you not paying me for this!" ;)
1) McCormick and Schmick's right next to the Harrah's poker room has a 10pm-12am happy hour. I love M+S, but I don't usually eat gourmet meals in AC. I think I can count the number of times I have on one hand... As far as I know, they just started doing this, but they have some great CHEAP food deals if you are a degenerate and do not eat dinner until 10pm anyways. How's about a $4 giant, fresh-made hamburger? This has to be one of the best deals in AC.
2) Free breakfast at Harrah's poker room. The first time I was in the poker room at 5am and saw them wheel in a tray filled with danishes and bagels with cream cheese I thought I must be crazy. What kind of casino gives away free stuff? Sure enough, it's a free breakfast for their players. It goes fast, but....free!!!
3) Red Door Spa at Harrah's. I love Red Door Spas. I discovered a hairdresser that I really like at the one at Harrah's (Sam). They also have one of the nicest spa areas of any fancy spa I've ever been to (including Canyon Ranch at the Venetian). Why is a spa listed under saving money at a casino? Cause you can use your comps there 1:1. You heard it here first. I've been doing it for about a year.
4) Obv...free rooms at Harrah's midweek are the nuts. People at the Borgata were so excited about $79 midweek poker rates...well, who needs that when you can get free rooms at Harrah's in their brand new Waterfront Tower, complete with flat screen tv, GIANT shower, and really comfy beds. Get a player's card and start getting offers. Seriously... I am platinum (soon to be Diamond) now, but I got offers when I was Gold too.
5) Breakfast at the deli! This is not so much a deal as something new I discovered... The Harrah's deli now does breakfast! Eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. It's not on their menu board but it is on the order yourself machines.
No, Harrah's did not pay me to write this post. I wish they had, but no...I'm just a fan. Considering they own the majority of casino properties in AC, getting a player's card is a no brainer. Do it.
I've been tracking my play with the iPhone app "poker journal" since March. (Yes, there's an app for that). I first read about it on 2+2, and it's been one of the most valuable pieces of info I've found on that forum. Last year I tried tracking my play through a google docs spreadsheet which quickly became garbage in/ garbage out because who wants to log all the particular details of a really rough session when you first get home? Having tracking on my phone allows me to set everything up when I first sit at the table and keeps me honest. I recently acquired enough data to dump it into excel and do some analysis. What did I find? I'm a far more profitable Omaha player (both limit and pot limit) than NLHE. I'm a winning NLHE player, to be sure, but I make much more consistent money (and more money per average session) at Omaha. Too bad it's frequently hard to find good live Omaha games. The good news is with one exception at the beginning of my tracking, I've been in the black all year. Too bad all of that money has gone to bills.
Next up: recap of past 24 hrs in AC. If you follow me on Twitter, you can skip this section. ;) Sat down at pink O8 at the Borgata. It was a very juicy table. Nonetheless, I quickly found myself down $100 due to flopping second nuts full house and having my low counterfeited on the river. In a three way pot, I gets Nunavut. However, I clawed my way back and netted +150 that session, putting me at +100 for the day after I dropped $50 really quickly at NLHE.
Most of the fish busted from the pink game after that, so I left to go check in at Harrahs. I wish I could just move in to one of their waterfront tower rooms. Went downstairs to play some NLHE...I was SUPER card dead for 2-3 hrs. Then had "one player to a hand" violated when I had quads against top full which cost me $150. Still, I perservered. I pulled off a great all-in river bluff around hour 3 against the guy who told me two hours earlier that girls never bluff. Did not show it because I just don't think showing the bluff is a +ev move for my style of play. Around hour 4.5, I FINALLY doubled up with AA>JJ on 8 high flop. Soon after I was outta there to get some sleep.
Also of note: borgata changed their cards to some fugly Gemacos last week. The shade of red is very dark (cause of the infamous "I have a flush...oh wait I don't" incident at the Tropicana in 2006, the cards are stiff, and the face cards are ridiculously ugly. But they supposedly work better in the autoshufflers.
Harrahs also changed their cards last week but they are the "nicer" Gemacos. Very flexible and no ugly face cards. However, they are no longer superindex. (and then the peasants rejoiced!) I hate superindex cards for Holdem.
Woke up feeling good. Gonna take a long shower, get some food, and hit the tables again hoping for some more winning sessions.
I allowed myself to get frustrated and tilty at some personal stuff on Monday night. I told myself after I got it together and left the table that I was on poker time-out til next Monday, to prevent myself from doing anything stupid, like angry poker. Angry poker is bad news. Angry poker makes my bank account cry.
So, I haven't played in a week. It's been hard...especially since I've been in NJ for the past few days visiting with my sister. And it was a holiday weekend and I know lots of fish were in AC. But I know it's the right thing to do. There is absolutely no point in playing on tilt. I'm feeling refreshed and ready to get back to my game.
The weekend in NJ with John and Sarah has been great. We've gone shopping in the cute little town that she and John work in. We went to an Agatha Christie play. We've bummed around drinking beer and watching football. It's been very nice.
I have a room that I booked ages ago at Harrah's Monday-Wednesday. I'm very much looking forward to my return to poker. Please, poker gods, let me run at least averagely. :)
Because Dawn Summers is #legendary, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm going to steal her idea of best Tweet/Comment of the week.
Though the week is not yet over, sorry peeps, voting is closed. Yesterday I noted on facebook that I had just passed a farm in rural PA called "Half Ass Farm." Without missing a beat @andrewtappan responded: "Are you at the intersection of North, South, and East Capitol Streets?" HAHAHAHAHAHA. Classic, sir. Well played.
Excuse my maudlin nature earlier in the week. Soon after, I pulled myself out of slump with the assistance of some friends. I was also reminded of my own catchphrase: it could always be worse. Indeed. I have my health; I'm smart; I have awesome family and friends... everything else is just not worth worrying about (says the natural born worrier).
So, yesterday I felt the need to get out of the house. If you know me, you know I am prone to boredom and love to take little random trips. I'll wake up in the morning and think "I should drive to Cleveland to go see the RNR HOF!" It's one of my charming quirks. ;)
Ever since Al, Jen, and Dan came to DC for poker week at the end of July, I've been thinking I should really get downtown and see the new Newseum. I also have a list of things that have somehow eluded me seeing them in the 13+ years I've lived here. Did I do either one of those? No, I decided to go to Gettysburg instead.
I'm a Civil War buff and I have been since like 8th grade (here is where Billy would sing the nerd song, LOL). I've been to every major Civil War battlefield at least once, and a lot of Revolutionary ones too (thank you traveling to random places for work!). The last time I was at Gettysburg was on my high school senior class trip though, so I thought I'd give it another go. It's actually not far at all from MD...I got there in about 1.5 hours. I packed a picnic, put my convertible roof down, and set off to PA for the day.
First off, I was surprised by how crowded it was on a random Thursday in October. It was me and all the retirees, but I had to park in the third overflow parking lot. They have a new visitors center which is really nice, including a new movie with Sam Waterston and Morgan Freeman and a new set up for the cyclorama, which is really amazing.
Then I picked up the self-tour audio cds and set about driving all over the battlefield. What a great way to spend a few hours on a gorgeous fall afternoon. Recommended. If you do the self-drive, make sure you get out, especially at Devil's Den and Little Roundtop. The views of the PA countryside were amazing.
Next up on my fall random trips list: Appomattox, Skyline Drive, Monticello (which amazingly I have never been to before!)
1) I'm having trouble finding someone to be my replacement adviser at school which means
2) I may be out of a job in December
3) At which point my $18k student loan will come due.
4) Been looking for jobs and applying to 2-3 every day for a month. I haven't gotten a single phone call yet.
5) Divorce agreement is all but Court approved...bringing all kinds of issues like "is he the only one who will ever love me" to the fore.
6) Icing on the cake: ex-friend and his girlfriend are Tweeting about how I am bad in bed.
I don't think I'm going to get out of bed today. :/
