celebrating the 4th, gambling style

[rmd]

so, yeah, i went to foxwoods yesterday -- there was a tiny list for 1/2NL that got called for a new game almost before i was done at the sign-up desk. was up and down a bit, got ranted at by a tilty guy who was very upset that i'd had the temerity to river a 2nd pair with my AT even though he had my ace outkicked before the river. then he had to phone someone while he was sitting at table and bitch about it to them. when he finally stormed off, after a couple of rebuys, the table chatter after he left resulted in the "i tilt you long time" quote i twittered yesterday.

the sox/yankees game was on almost all the tv's in the poker room, so i got to watch that while being card dead for part of the afternoon. i started picking up cards again in the early evening, but i ended up having my stack savaged when someone i put on AK turned out to have AA, which beat my AKs (K on the flop with four to my flush so MHNG).

i was tired so i decided not to reload. i stuck around for a while longer futzing around with my short stack before deciding to punt and head home since i'd been there all day and could feel my mental focus fading.

over all, i did a few things that were clearly stupid plays, and a few things that felt much smarter (even when they didn't work). but it was nice to actually play some live poker -- i hadn't done so since some time before my LASIK in january, i think, since i think i was wearing glasses last time i played.

on the way out, i stopped to visit the craps table and ended up being fabulously successful playing dark side at a $15 table and managed to win enough to come out ahead for the day. [NOTE TO SELF: consider stocking earplugs when going to a casino, particularly for when you end up standing directly to one side of the stickman on a loud friday night.] when i was up a total of $200 and change, i toked the table guys and took the money and ran.

i drove home through much of the rain that had caused the rain delay at yankee stadium earlier in the day, but the drive was mostly uneventful. i used the "average consumption" reading on the car to check my average fuel consumption on the way down and the way back. my normal/mellow style of highway driving does seem to average about 35 - 36 mpg in the MINI. more aggressive highway driving averages out around 31 - 33 mpg. but it's more fun.

Comments

[scliff.livejournal.com]

short answer: sore loser

Regis went to the Foxwoods poker room to play Texas Hold'em poker. There was a short waiting list for the game with the betting structure she wanted ($1 and $2 blind bets, no limit on raises--the poker that's on TV all the time now). They started a new table for the game so she didn't have to wait. I have the impression that Foxwoods can be very busy and there can be long waits sometimes.

"tilty" is a reference to "on tilt", which, best as I can figure it, is a reference to pinball players who get so upset at the machine that they shove, hit, or kick it so it the tilt sensor fires and the machine shuts down. In poker, this is pretty much equivalent to being a sore loser, but there's an implication that the player is not just ranting, but playing angry and making poor poker decisions in an attempt to either make up for the loss or take revenge on another player in the game. While unpleasant to be around, that sort of play usually winds up having the opposite of its intended effect.

In the hand Regis mentioned, she held an Ace and a Ten as her two "hole" cards, and McTilty held an Ace and a better second card (king, queen, or jack), so he was winning early in the hand and had much better odds of winning. However, one of the three cards that could beat him appeared as the last card (the "river"), and he lost. The odds were greatly in his favor, but not so much that this would be considered a "bad beat". There's a reason they call it "gambling".

So sore loser got angry he lost, without good cause, and proceeded to lose all the chips he had on the table a few times ("re-buying" new chips each time to stay in the game). As I said, unpleasant to be around, but profitable to others.