Is a song good because they play it on the radio, or do they play it on the radio because the song is good?
Dreams
I had a dream where I was walking around some store with my dad, and I had an iPad. The weird thing was that it came in a case which was like a smaller kayak, so if you can imagine a big piece of colorful plastic. But I was just thinking that I didn’t know why I even had one because I have an iPhone already.
One Year Ago Today
I cashed in a poker tournament online and made a little in cash games so it wasn’t too bad. Not much else happened that day.
Thoughts
I’ll explain the title in case it doesn’t make sense. When I hear a song on the radio I like—with the latest one being “Cough Syrup” by Young the Giant, which I’ll explain more about later—I sometimes end up buying the album it’s from. After listening to it a few times the one I heard on the radio—the one that made me listen to them in the first place—is almost always the one I like the most. So I wonder if I like it the most because they play it more often (so I’ve heard it more), or if they picked that one to put on the radio because it’s their best song. These are the things I think about.
My Day
I used my alarm’s snooze for the first time today, and I don’t know if it worked but I got up about 15 minutes later instead of like an hour. I had some breakfast and then a little lunch, and I was able to relax for a little bit before work. The poker room was very dead when we got there, and it didn’t get any better. The board was horrible and I figured we’d soon get double-breaks and go home at 11pm or even before. But somehow we snuck through and because some people left Brian and I got full shifts.
At my first table there was a hand between two guys, and the first guy bet and another guy raised. The first guy thought for a while and then called. On the turn he quickly shoved all-in, and the other guy called even faster. The first guy asked if he had a set, which is what I thought he had too. I also thought that this was a battle between overpairs, and the second guy confidently turned over 4 5 for a flopped pair of fours. The other guy showed pocket Aces, and the table was shocked and so was I. The guy said that because he thought so long on the flop he figured he had overcards I guess, but I think that was a bad read and a worse call. I mean I could excuse it if he was the one who put the first guy all-in, but to instantly call was terrible. Unfortunately I put another four on the river to bust the first guy, and I felt really bad. But the other guy tipped me $10, so I wasn’t really upset. I felt bad for the guy and hoped he’d win it back, and I dealt to him later and he was around even again. But he tried to bluff several times and lost like half his stack during my down, so I don’t feel too bad for him anymore.
You may remember how about a month ago I told a story of how Sarah got on my case for not immediately pushing the button to say I had an open seat. Well tonight I had a chance to do the same thing to her and really get back at her. You know, to do the old switcheroo. I was at the board and I saw a guy get up from her table, but she never pushed the button. I really wanted to get back at her, but I decided to take the high road and let it go. But she better not do that to me again because I let it go this time.
At a tournament table there was one old guy in seat 10 who complained every hand that he wasn’t getting cards. He said that he hates that seat because he never gets dealt anything good, which is ridiculous because that seat has no bearing on the cards being dealt. That’s one of the things that I hate the most. So he kept getting chipped down until he was all-in with his big blind, and the other guy had Aces. He showed 8 5 and said that he can never win with those cards, and I thought it was funny because that’s our home game hand. So at first I wanted to make that a winner to shut him up and because it’s our hand. The flop was 8 x 5 so he flopped two pair, but then I turned an Ace to give the other guy a set. The river was a blank and that old guy got knocked out. Another player said that I shouldn’t have teased him, but then I realized that I was happy I did that because that guy was super annoying and deserved to go bust.
So the night was slow but ended up being pretty good. Toward the end of the night I checked my toke box and I had $100 exactly, and after my next table Brian and I saw who made more at our last down. He made $19 and I knew it’d be close, and I had $20 which is an even stack and just beats him. I ended up making $132 tonight so it was good. Now I have in cash about double what I plan to bring with me to Foxwoods, so I’ll only need to go to the bank afterward if I win. I got home late, and now at 6am I’m going to bed. Thanks for reading, and “These fishes in the sea they’re staring at me, oh oh oh, oh oh oh.”
—Eric Del Medico
