Our second trip to Foxwoods begins tomorrow. I took a pic of a mountain of poker chips to keep me motivated.
One Year Ago Today
In my post from a year ago I read the summary of the post from a year before that, and I mentioned how SNL was pushed back to midnight because of the NFL Playoffs. Charles Barkley was the host, and coincidentally he was the host this year and it was again pushed back a half hour. At first I wondered if it was pushed back at his request because it happened with him twice, but now I know it’s because of football.
Thoughts
I hear a lot of stupid things at the poker table while dealing. Some of it is really terrible poker logic, such as “I hate Aces.” I hear people say that they hate playing Jacks, and the “only” way to play them is to bet big pre-flop and take down the blinds. They’ll say things like “An Ace will always come on the flop, and he always has one.” It just comes down to how stupid they are, and how they just can’t play their hands well.
Some other things I hear a lot are from real amateurs. After they show their cards that lost, they say things like “I was going for the straight.” That’s not so bad, but sometimes I’ll hear them say “I was waiting for the flush.” To use the word waiting is so terrible because they have no idea about percentages and odds of winning. To say “I was playing for the straight” is a stupid way of saying “I just kept putting my money in hoping to catch one of the four cards that could possibly win me this pot.” I laugh to myself every time I hear something like this said at a table, but I hope I can make money off of it while at Foxwoods since I’ll be playing and not dealing.
My Day
I woke up at 2pm like I wanted and the guys must have recently finished working on the bathroom because I heard them working a little earlier. So I was able to take a shower, and then I went to get a haircut. Because my barber isn’t open on Mondays and I want a cut before Foxwoods I went to Wal Mart to get a haircut at the place there.
It wasn’t busy at all, and while I was signing my name on the sheet I heard the two stylists saying “Looks like a buzz cut…You can handle it.” It was said almost derogatorily, and maybe one of them was newish so she wasn’t that thrilled to have to do that cut. She walked me over to the chair and asked what I wanted, and it was awkward saying a buzz cut knowing they already suspected and talked about it. It’s weird how female stylists always cut my hair very rough. I wonder if it’s because they assume guys can take it, or they’re just not used to doing a cut like that. I was suddenly aware that I didn’t know where my eyes should go. It’s a weird problem because I doubt anyone else things about or notices it, but I’m glad the cut was short (as in quick, but it was also cut very short) because it was all I could think about.
After that I cleaned the church, and I listened to what used to be the earliest albums by the Newsboys that I have. So I listened to my Newsboys during three cleanings but I still have at least two more cleanings before I’ll be done. But I’m on to my favorites now so it’s good. I decided to take a shower before I go to bed tonight to clean the loose hair off my head, and then I can get up later tomorrow before leaving for Foxwoods and won’t have to worry about getting in the shower before the guys come to do more work on the bathroom.
My step-dad bought a pizza which we ate, and he took some time off work and was looking forward to watching the Knicks play on NBATV. I was looking forward to it too because I haven’t been able to watch hardly any games this season. But Time Warner Cable doesn’t show MSG anymore, and NBATV wouldn’t even show it because of blackout restrictions. That really sucked, but my step-dad heard of a site online to watch it and he found it, so I did that too although the quality wasn’t very good. The Knicks held on to beat the Bobcats, so it was redemption from last week when we lost to them.
Then I watched Rounders to get myself pumped up for Foxwoods, which is what I wanted to do last time. I paid attention to the betting limits and the chips, and I was surprised that they were very accurate. In the first game at KGB’s the stacks and bet amounts all made sense when I previously thought they didn’t. And the judge’s game (as well as the trust fund babies’ game) also made sense because even though they used crappy chips, their whites, reds, and greens were in the same universal denominations ($1, $5, $25). So that made me really happy.
I noticed a few things that I never noticed before, despite seeing it a million times. When the trust fund game is over Mike asks the chick if all the guys had left so they can settle up after their ruse, and she says “Yeah that’s the last one.” Then I noticed in the car’s reflection a sound guy from the film crew holding up a mic. I always look for those things in movies, and I was happy to see one. I really enjoyed watching it again, and I really love KGB’s black chips because they’re dark black (like basically any casino but Foxwoods I guess) with a great shade of green as the side marks, and it looks so cool. If I ever decide to buy any more chips I’ll get a stack of some with that color scheme just for funsies.
After the movie I packed up a little bit, and now I’m going to bed. I’ll try to keep Facebook and Twitter updated on the goings on, and I may post some daily things on Tumblr so I don’t have to do it all when I get back. So thanks for reading, and “We know a lot is crooked ‘cause we know what’s straight—that little voice inside.”
—Eric Del Medico
