No...the Transpo is not a new casino. It's the Transportation Building in Boston.
Yesterday, My buddy Greg and I were playing a little .25/.50 during our lunch hour in the food court of the Transpo. Now, we don't have any money on the table -- just a piece of paper with hash marks. A security guard comes over, about 30 minutes into our game, and right away I'm flipping through my mind to see what he's going to say. I have him on the whole "gambling in a State building," but "no money=no gambling."
Nope. I guess we violated the loitering limit. HA! What if there were people waiting (which there weren't) for a seat?
I'm sure it's not a big problem, but now that I have the thought of it being a State building, looks like we're not playing there anymore...
Ok...so, maybe since I don't play in casinos I needed to embrace the closest thing to being banned as I could get...
so...I'm still on my vacation: NC, VT, DC, MD, PA, NJ...all in a week's time.
we're in NJ, at my in-laws, and they were nice enough to trek to Atlantic City with us. I had been there onc before, and it was nice, but today was pretty damn cool: I got to play my first real casino hold 'em!
I played 2/4 hold 'em at the Taj Mahal. Nothing really to report: no bad beats; no crazy suck outs. I lost $15 over the course of 45 minutes, but that was really just because I never got cards...5 times around of blinds lost. I'm fine with that!
Like I've read elsewhere, the speed of play was much faster than I was expecting, but it wasn't too bad, and I didn't make any mistakes.
There was one person of note: a man in his early 50s, missing 3 or 4 bottom front teeth. He must have been in the bathroom when I sat down, but he just appeared out of nowhere...only to pull a piece of crumb cake and a yogurt drink out and start chowing down!! Oh, and the whole time he was doing that, he was taking down pots left and right!!
I've got the fever...
The birthday poker game was a big success...for me, at least. And, no, I don't think anyone let me win because it was my birthday.
Everyone sat down to buy-in at around 9PM. There was 6 of us: me, Reilly, Aram, Matt, Joe, and Jeff. The game was NL hold 'em, with a $20 buy-in. I only had 200 chips in the house, so everyone ended up with T380 -- 8 each of white ($1), red ($5), blue ($10), and black ($25) -- next time I'll make sure I have more chips, and run a T800-1000 stack buy-in.
The blind structure was kind of loose -- where I wanted to play more of a tournament with the blinds ratcheting in regular increments, we ended up playing $1/$2 until there were 4 players left; $2/$4 and then $5/$10 when there were 3; $10/$20 during heads up play.
Out of the six of us, I probably had the most experience playing, followed by Joe, Aram, Jay, Matt and Jeff. Joe was extremely aggressive, and everyone else was playing pretty loose -- I was playing tight, only because I figured it would be my luck to get sucked out early but one of the table rookies.
The gameplay itself didn't hold much in the way of memorable hands, or really bad beats, except this: It's down to 3 of us (me, Matt, Jeff). I'm dealt pocket fours in the big blind. The flop brought A93, and Matt limps in, I call, and Jeff folds. I'm the short stack at this point behind Matt and then Jeff. I'm figuring Matt for a straight draw, and when the next card is a 6 and he limps in again, I go all-in. He flips over A3! There were only 2 cards that were going to save me -- I had about a 4% chance of finding the 4 on the river...and BAM! I grab the 4 and double up!
The final results:
6. Jay
5. Joe
4. Aram
3. Jeff
2. Matt ($40)
1. Me! ($80)
I think I convinced everyone to play again next month, and I'm hoping to have a couple more folks added by then.
today is my birthday, and my wife has organized a poker-themed birthday party for me!
There are probably going to be 15 people over, and I'm going to walk through some of the basics and then try to get people addicted to the rush with a small $5 tourney. A handful of the guests are on my list of potentials for a home game, so I'm hoping that this seals it for them, and we can add a few more.
so...I have to admit: I am a brick and mortar virgin. And up until today, I was a face-to-face, in the flesh, hold 'em virgin.
It ended today. At work.
I work with a guy, G, who, I guess, you could call my poker mentor. He's a seasoned player, and he's taken me under his wing, inviting me to various home games, and indulging me in my small stakes poker talk. He plays 1/2 on the train with a friend of his; now we're playing .25/.50 at lunch.
I know it's small stakes, but let me say, it's really different playing heads up right across the table from someone. I think online play definately slows things down, and gives you a second to think.
I did really well, though.
I'm up $5.50, which is good for the 6 or 7 hands we played. I don't think I lost, and I only folded once.
Highlights:
-Had a KQs. Flopped K-8-4 rainbow; turn 6; river 4. Beat his eights and fours.
-Had QJo. Flopped Q-9-3; turn 10; river 3. I didn't get the straight, but I beat his tens and treys, with a pair of San Francisco waiters.