Trivia Choking

So a few weeks ago when I started showing up for pub trivia on Tuesdays, Keenan was joking around that I was the Randy Moss of trivia and now we would win.  Sadly, the past two weeks we have worked our way into second place only to choke on the final question.  Last week in particular it was brutal because we made an awesome comeback from second to last to second place...with only 30 points separating us from the leaders.  The set up on the last question at Orange Ball is like final Jeopardy...you have to wager.  We wagered a lot and ended up with a measly 80 points...putting us from second place to somewhere close to dead last.  Plus we lost to a team of tools who called themselves "Team PokerStars."  We started joking around to them that we were Team FullTilt because FT has better pros...

Losing the glory is bothering me!  And we won't be able to try to actually win one of these damn things until 1/8.  I think it's time for a game of Trivial Pursuit so I can assert my trivia dominance. 

Bonuses of the evening: In Bethesda two weeks ago at Union Jack's we saw a bar fight between a bunch of guys in suits.  Ha-freaking-larious.  Only in Bethesda.  And, at Orange Ball, Curtis bought me and Billy a shot of Patron.  Free drinks are always good.

Pitch

I'm going home for Xmas on Saturday and my sister will be there.  That means a few things: 1) we'll play lots of TCM Scene It, 2) We might watch Centennial, and 3) we'll play some cards.

I think I'm gonna try to get people to play pitch.  My sister and I used to play it with my Great Aunts and Uncles on my Dad's side (we are talking like ~15 years ago here) and we both used to be good at it.  So much so that the very competitive Leus would frequently get cranky that they were being beat by a twelve year old and an eight year old.

Anyways, I haven't played it in quite a while, but I thought I'd post up the rules for people who might be interested in playing some time.

You start with a 53 card deck (52+one joker).  The deal rotates each hand (just like poker!) and you are supposed to deal out six cards to each person, three cards at a time.  One of my cousins always had an issue with the deal out three at a time, and it probably doesn't matter if you deal one or three in the long run, but it's supposed to be three. 

So after the cards are dealt, players bid the number of points they think they can make on the hand clockwise from the dealer.  There are five possible points and you can bid between 0 (a pass) and 5 (shoot the moon).  The five points are high (the highest card of trump), low (the lowest card of trump - aces are high not low), jack (the jack of trump), joker, and game (all tens are worth 10 points, all jacks are worth 1, Q=2, K=3, A=4.  The total in the tricks you took at the end of the hand are added to determine the winner.)  Only high, low, and game are guaranteed to be out in any given hand, depending on the number of people playing.

So the person with the highest bid then gets to determine trump suit (if no one bids, the dealer must bid at least 1).  The highest bidder determines trump by playing whatever card they want to first.  The suit of this first card played is then trump for the hand.  Then it plays like hearts, only trump is obviously broken immediately.  Card ranking is: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T joker J Q K A, with trump taking precedence over the other suits.  High and Low are determined not based on who took them in the trick, but who played the lowest or highest trump card (i.e. whoever was dealt the lowest/highest card).  Sometimes in the middle of a hand you will pull out your contender for low or high and set it to the side instead of putting it with the taken trick because you don't necessarily know if someone has a better card, unless it is the A or 2 of trump.  The other points (jack and joker) are up for grabs; they go to whomever takes them in the trick they are played in. 

At the end of each hand, the bids are determined and if people did not make their bid they lose that number of points.  Otherwise they gain that number of points.  A game generally goes to 11 points and if someone shoots the moon successfully they win the game regardless of how many points they or anyone else have.

To my degenerate friends...oh yes, you can also play for $$$.  LOL

Ummmm...Mike Caro is right.

I don't remember if I read it in his "Book of Tells" or one of his columns in CardPlayer or what, but somewhere I read an article by Mike Caro explaining that it was better for people to have a positive, friendly image at the table because then people are less likely to be gunning for you and also because you are probably not getting the floor wet by tapping the glass.

There was a hand last night that made me realize this first hand.  I frequently play at E and Ricky's Monday night game.  It's a great game and I've made money at it more than once, though I have taken some silly beats.  Anyways, I buy in for the max and after a few hours I have a couple hundred in profit.  By the wee hours of morning I'm sitting on ~$650.  I've been pretty proud of my play all night...made some big folds, made some successful moves at the right times, extracted value from my hands by getting called down to the river, won a decent sized pot with pocket fives on a flushed board against someone I knew was bluffing.  I was not as distracted as I usually am at that game, and the difference was noticeable.  There were a few hands that I screwed up, but none of the screw ups were very expensive or massive.  I had three big pocket pairs the whole night (AA, QQ, and JJ) and somehow won all of them, though my AA never saw a flop after my limp pop move got me heads up with Billy and he folded).

One of the dealers has jumped in the game because it was short.  He plays a really good game, but is very LAG, and he and I seem to be getting heads up a lot.  One time I have a big hand, but I fold because I KNOW I am beat.  Then there are a few hands after that where I really feel like he was pushing me around and I just couldn't pull the trigger.  And after those hands, he starts tapping my tank, trying to put me on tilt by making little comments about the hand after it was over. 

I didn't think I was on tilt at that point, but my judgment was definitely affected by feeling he had been pushing me around.  So we get four handed and I get A8 on the button.  I really don't remember how the hand went down because after it went down, I was feeling kinda extremely sheepish.  The flop came out AK6.  I do remember me raising and being re-raised and then just calling that re-raise on the flop.  There was a large bet on the turn where I realized I was probably in trouble, but the devil in the back of my head was saying: HEY YOU COULD BE AHEAD (eventhough there's probably no way I am with my pair of aces and a bad kicker).  STOP LETTING HIM PUSH YOU AROUND.  YOU HAVE HIM COVERED BY $100...WHO CARES IF YOU SHIP YOUR ENTIRE PROFIT AND $200 OF YOUR BUY-IN IN THIS HAND.  The devil overpowered the side of me that was saying: "Um more than half his stack is in the middle now...you better hope you have outs since for some dumb reason your ass fell in love with your raggedy ace and decided to put half of your stack in the middle too." 

An eight comes on the river and suddenly I am praying my two pair is good.  I don't think he flopped a set because I don't think he would have played the flop so strong.  I was really expecting him to turn over AK for top two and he tabled K6 and I didn't even see that that was also a flopped two pair at first because I was expecting to be even more crushed than 75/25.  Anyways, instead of going home stuck like I should have, I went home up $700+.  I am such a fish.

Morals of this story:
1) I am a fish at poker.
2) I suck at short-handed play and know it.  I know for a fact that in January it will be much easier for me to get my butt out of the chair when a game gets short.  I feel pretty good about my heads up game.  I can play well when I want to at a full or close to a full table.  I really need to work on my short play though.
3) When you are provoking someone, and you are a LAG player, they might suck out on you more often than they would on another player.  Yeah, you want fish like me to have their judgment impaired so you get paid, but you will probably get sucked out on more than your average player because people will talk themselves into believing you always have the bullshit...especially if they are gunning for you because you have been tapping at their glass.
4) Hey, even I can get lucky every once in awhile!

Seriously, that's not even that bad of a suck out relative to some things that I've seen, but it's the worst beat *I've* given anyone in quite some time...probably the worst one in more than a year (not counting times when I've mushed being short, though even then it's up there).

"Australia" wraps

I have loved history since I can remember.  Many of my Halloween costumes growing up were historical figures, when I used to travel for work I would make sure to hit up any nearby historical sites, and historical fiction is one of my favorite genres of books.

Sadly, it doesn't seem like there have been all that many historical movies out recently (the sequel to Elizabeth is a noted exception). 

Because of that, I've been waiting with baited breath for Baz Luhrmann's "Australia".  It doesn't hurt that I am a Luhrmann fan either.  According to Cinematical it wrapped filming this weekend.  I hope it doesn't suck.

Overheard at the GVPT Holiday Party

Overheard 1:


Steve: I think if you stand near Katie you are 8% more likely to break a law.

Overheard 2:
(While complaining that I had gotten more assignments than other people in our State and Local class)
Steve: To be fair, he did assign 6 to Katie and 3 to Katherine.

2008 WSOP Schedule

The powers that be just released the 2008 schedule.  Find it here.  They're running 8 different $10k buy in events this year...

Wonderland

Last night around 8:30 I realized I left a book in my office that I needed, so I trudged to campus, ran up to the 5th floor of Tydings, grabbed the book, and...got a text message from Anne asking if I wanted to go out.  I tried to protest. 

Me: I look scrubby.
Anne: It's Thursday, no one cares.  You can borrow some makeup when you come pick me up.

Me: I have to be up early tomorrow for sections.
Anne: Fine, we won't stay that late.

Me: It's cold.
Anne: That's a lame excuse.  They have heat.

The lure of good beer was too strong.  Anne lives really close to campus and I was only like 5 minutes from her apartment...and Wonderland is close to her apartment.  I drove over and picked her up.

I'm glad I finally got there.  I know a lot of people who love that bar and now I can see why.  Good music and GREAT beer on tap.  Friendly barkeep. 

Anne had just gotten through telling me that she always runs into people she knows there when all of a sudden some guy with a beard comes up from behind me and gives me a hug.  I turn around and it's my friend Alex from school who tells me he's trying to drown his end of semester stress.  I raise my mug of Anchor Steam (which they have on tap!) and tell him I can relate. 

Anyways, I can imagine it gets very crowded on weekends because it's pretty small, but for midweek drinking it's a perfect bar.