Pandora music

The site Pandora may be the world's greatest music site, at least for me.

The idea is you type in an artist or song that you like and it creates a station for you to listen to based on that type of music or artist. I typed in the usual, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, etc. Out pops the most beautiful, wonderful music you'd ever want to hear. Not just the artists you type in, but different and varied groups you might not even have heard of.

And it's free.

If you like the song, you click the thumbs up and probably hear more like that. You don't like it, and click thumbs down. It goes away. The only "bad" song I've heard so far was when "Start Me Up" started. I nearly broke my laptop when that piece of shit floated up. But other than that, it's the most sublime wonderful thing I've found in quite a while.

I also created a Dirty Blues station. Maybe more on the way.

It's basically a scam to try to make you buy the music. I ain't buying shit, mofos.

I'm in frigging heaven here.

WSOP, part 3

Went back for some more satellites on Saturday. First table I sat at was a $225 satellite. The notable players in this were the rich kindly old man in seat 1, myself in seat 2, young shaved head asian guy in 3, a Eurofish in seat 5, a cranky-type woman in 6, a grandmother in 7, and a motorised wheel-chair guy in 8.

The first hand of the game, I was the small blind and dealt Q8 of clubs. Four or five limpers including the big blind were playing (good, I thought, loose players will go out quicker). Flop was Q64 rainbow. I bet the pot (about 125) and all folded. Kindly gentleman tells me, "Congratulations, you are now the official chip leader!"

On the second level, after the blinds raised to 25/50, shaved head asian guy started raising every other hand. I was eager to look him up but unfortunately, he had position on me. When he was one off the button, I saw AJo and raised 3 times the BB and he called, but the big blind (the guy next to the wheelchair guy) who hadn't played a hand the entire time, moved all in. I quickly folded and shaved head asian guy too.

The very next hand, I look at my cards and see AQs. This is actually good for me, it looks like I was stealing before, so now it looks like I'm trying to steal again. I make it 3 times the BB again. This time, shaved head asian guy reraises a substantial amount, probably around 400 (which would be more than half my chips at that point). All fold to me, and I put him on a re-steal, so I move all-in. He quickly calls, so I realise he must not be re-stealing. He has about 400 more chips that I do.

He turns over QQ. Uh-oh. The flop is no help, the turn is a blank, but the river is an Ace. I say, "nice hand" and he looks crushed. Poor bastard. If I had a dollar for every time my QQ was cracked by AQ or AK, I'd have 23 dollars, 14 cents.

None the less, shaved head asian guy keeps raising. He's stealing the blinds from cranky woman and grandma. Those were my blinds to steal, goddamn it. Sometimes the seat draw is the most important card you play in a single table tournament. Suddenly, he runs into the wheel chair guy is low on chips. They essentially go all-in against each other. Wheel chair guy turns over 89 of diamonds (!!) and shaved head asian guy sighs and says, "I'm beat," turning over 55. Wheelchair guy wins the race and is still alive.

Grandma starts to make some moves with Ace-high, but she's cut down. She folds way too much and defends her blinds when she's low on chips. She spirals out when wheel chair guy puts her all-in with a King-high flop. He of course had the king, she had naught but an Ace.

Eurofish starts making some downright bizarre moves. Raising up front and folding to a reraise. Raising and then calling an all-in with Q8o. Raising 1000 into a 100 pot. He seemed to know what he was doing sometimes, and occasionally the calls were correct. But then he would shift into full eratic mode where you couldn't see any logic for his actions.

Around this time, cranky woman goes all-in against the shaved head asian guy and he calls. She shows KK, he shows A6o or something. An ace on the flop wipes her out down to 3 green chips. She goes all-in several times over the next few hands and wins all of them. She's back to normal-sized stack by then, making her even more cranky. She busts out Eurofish when he puts her all-in with his J4s. That takes her crank edge down a notch.

At the 100/200 level, I raise to 600 with my by-now-non-chip-leader stack with AA, hoping and praying for a re-steal or call from shaved head asian guy. He does indeed call, and we get to the flop. The flop is KQ-blank, rainbow, and having only 600 or 800 more, I push all-in. He stares me down for a very long time before folding. I suppose he didn't realise I would do that, or he was trying to push me around if I didn't move in. That was a mistake, I think, because with 600 more chips for a 1200 pot, I'm committed.

Eventually, wheel chair guy busts out shaved head asian guy, and cranky woman miraculously busts out everyone else. Wheel chair guy and I have about double the starting amount of chips each. Cranky lady has about 8 times more chips than each of us. Wheel chair guy offers a deal to save the buy-in. I vigorously nod and make some agreement noises. Cranky lady, understandably, looks at her mountain of chips and says she wants to win. I think, "This is a business enterprise, not some contest to see whose of our clenched cunt muscles can lock out the most dick."

I resolve to take a stand because I'm either going to place second or third at that point. I don't have a chance to win in third place, but I might be able to do something in second place. So a few hands later, wheel chair guy goes all-in, and I decide I'm going to call with JTo. He has K8o, and a ten on the flop saves me. It's now heads-up with cranky lady and me.

I have a rule, as you know, of not offering deals but I will gladly accept them. With her 4-to-1 chip lead, the odds are large but not unmanageable, especially if she isn't any good heads up.

The first hand, I am the button so I act first on the first round. I watch her look at her cards closely. She shouldn't look at her cards before I act, but she's stupid. So I raise with trash and she folds.

The second hand, she raises, I see trash, so I play weak to give back a little. I fold.

The third hand, I watch her look at her cards and raise with trash. She folds.

The fourth hand, she raises, so I play strong and flat call. I don't remember what the cards were. The flop was a total miss with Q-high. I push all-in. She folds. She starts to make her cranky exasperated noises.

The fifth hand, I watch her look at her cards and get a feeling, so I fold. She shows AK. She makes even more cranky, exasperated, "Why Oh Lord, why me, why poor, poor me, I am like Job's wife who must die because her husband needed to be taught a lesson by Thee, Oh Lord, in thy dispute with the Devil" type of noises.

The sixth hand, she raises and I play strong and call. The flop is A55. I wish I could remember and tell you my cards. I believe I had a queen. I push all-in. She agonises and waits and agonises. She makes exasperated noises. She looks at her cards, shuffles them, looks again. Quite frankly, I was getting a little worried she would call with 66 or 88 or something here. She finally folds and I'm now up to about a 3-1 dog.

"You had the ace?" she asks.

"Of course," I say. "I was worried you had a five," I lied.

"Do you want a deal?" she asks. I gladly and triumphantly take the fucking deal and the fucking money and fucking run. We split it down the middle, two tourney chips each plus $60 cash minus dealer tip. That wasn't so hard, was it?

I take my thousand dollars and play one more $125 table. The table is very unusual in the fact that we were down to 3 players at the 100/200 level. That's probably only 45 minutes or so. I still had my original stack, more or less. The guy to my left had a huge stack, basically 8.5 to 1 on me. The old guy to my right had a slightly larger stack than me.

I break my rule and ask, "Has anyone heard of people making deals?" The dealer nods and start to talk about "saving the buy-in", "chopping," etc. Unfortunately, these dunderheads don't even know what saving the buy-in means. Fortunately, the chatty dealer explains it. The chip leader says, "I'll do what he does," pointing to the old guy. What about little old, poor little me?

Old guy takes the deal and we agree to save the buy-in for second and third. I'm now on a freeroll. Chip leader busts out the old guy on the very next hand, to my chagrin, so now I have to pay that losing geezer part of my potential winnings to save his buy-in.

And, lucky of all luckies, chip leader turns to me with his 9-1 chip lead and says, "You want to chop it? It's a crapshoot really."

"Yeah," I smile nicely, "I've had a chip lead like that lots of times before and still lost." It's very important to lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, and lie some more. Sometimes I wonder about the ease with which these lies pour forth and I wonder if there might be something wrong with me. Then I think of all the asses I've had to kiss, and all the dicks I've had to suck, and all the "Oh you're so big and strong" I've had to utter to get something done in this world that I shrug my shoulders and say, "Fuck 'em."

We split it one tourney chip each, minus 125 for the geezer, so basically just the chip each. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

WSOP part 2

WSOP, part 1

With my new winnings, I went back to play several more satellites the next day. In the first one, I was playing quite well down to about 5 players left. The guy to my immediate left was a loose-mostly-passive player. I wasn't going to be able to buy the button or steal from him. He would always seem to call people's bets. He would show medium-or-lower strength hands, like T9o, 87s, etc. He was the kind of player where if he bet with nothing showing on the board, you would fold because he would never bet unless he had a made hand.

Needing to get in a steal to keep up with the blinds, I made a steal-raise one off the button with J9o. He called as I had hoped he wouldn't, but the beautiful board flop of AKx made me happy. Two of the cards were suited, so I bet the pot to push him off. He folded.

Maybe only one orbit later, I tried the same raise in the same position, but this time had some goods: AQo. I was glad when he called. The flop was two-suited small cards, ten-high. I bet the pot and he called, but not entusiastically. I put him on a flush draw and when the turn was another low blank, I pushed all-in. I was low enough that a pot bet would have committed me, so might as well continue to represent JJ, QQ, etc. If I didn't bet, I would be forced to fold to anything unless he miraculously checked. Comments here?

Unfortunately, he called with T4o, hence top pair. He had correctly read me as AK or similar, or maybe he just wasn't reading at all. I wasn't too upset about it; I had made a fairly good read and would have been right more than 50% of the time. I did fail to integrate more information into my decision, such as him holding a small pair or top pair on the small board. I should have given up when he called. If he had a set, I felt he would have raised on the flop. I definitely made a mistake pushing the hand so hard. Could be the rust of taking some time off. Duly noted, and back into line for another satellite.

In the next table, I found one very interesting hand that didn't affect the game, but I was very intrigued. Blinds were early, 50/100. In the big blind with only the limping small blind, I see AQo, so I raise. The small blind is fairly weak; he seems extra-tight, so a limp could be KQ, KJ, etc. He calls, so I put him safely on a small ace, biggish-king or small pair. The flop is KKJ. With a flop like that, no one wants to bet or call. He checks, which I determine could be a trap; but on the other hand, I check to setup my own bluff of the trips with a straight backdoor or something similar, but even if I can win this pot, I'm going to keep it small. I set the mental alarm that says "Don't go broke".

The turn is some blank, no flush draw. So he checks, nervously, I thought, and I check. I read him for not having the full house or trips. But the flashing light "Don't go broke" is still there. The river is another blank, and he now bets a very small amount, less than the pot, maybe only 100. Normally, that would be a bad sign, but I don't have any bad feelings. I am not certain what he has, but I still have a good read that I can break him, so I raised approximately the pot, which would have been about 400-500 then. I had enough chips to fold and continue; I wasn't going to put any more in. It was enough for him to really think about the call and would have dented his chips.

The small blind then goes into the tank. It could be an act, but he really does appear to be folding. And when he's counting his chips, he's counting out a call, not a raise. I am pretty sure he's going to fold. Some table talk ensues, which I found quite irritating, but couldn't do anything about.

One guy at the other end says about me, "You sat that long on AK?" Which was what I wanted them to believe, but shut up for chrissakes!

The guy next to him mutters, "Geez, just fold." Which was what I wanted him to do, but shut the fuck up already!!

Someone else whispers to the second guy, "I would have bet on the turn." For fuck's sake, I know! Shut the fuck up motherfuckers!

And the guy, amazingly, calls. He waits for me to show, he called so he has the right. I turn over the AQ, and it takes about 10 seconds for everyone to realise I missed. He turns over 33! I don't know how he made that call, but that's pretty amazing to me.

I lied and said, "I forgot I had a queen." Everyone laughs and agrees they've made that mistake. The guy turns to me and says, "I though you had the king." I said, "Yeah, so did I." Inside, I'm thinking, "What if I had 66, asshole? Next time, fold."

Comments on this one?

So I played for a while longer, got down to four players blinded down and took a stand on terrible cards. I had to make a move, and none of my steal attempts had been working.

Then, having enough of the satellites for a day, I went back to Binions for the 1pm tourney. It's supposedly $175 on the weekend, but there's an "optional tip" add-on for $25 and twice as many chips and a "rebuy" for $50 in the first hour. Only, the "optional tip" is bought by everyone (why would you start for half your chips) and the "rebuy" is actually an "add-on" because you don't have to bust out to take it. So it's really a $250 tournament. Now you know.

I definitely like these tourneys because they play long (probably too long to be worth it for the small prize) and are good for practice. For the first hour, nothing much happens, I am simply learning the players and coasting. I was able to get to the final table twice last year (or longer) and monied twice. Both times, though, I only got a few hundred dollars more than my buy-in. The problem this time was that this should have been a bigger tourney, but only 41 players buy-in, below the anticipated 60-70 usual. Slow weekend, probably due to the WSOP, of course. But it was also a holiday weekend. The floorman though it was unusually low, however, so I don't know.

I was able to take down a fairly large pot after the first hour. Approximately 4 limpers in front of my big blind, plus small-blind and I see KQs. I didn't feel too good about a raise, especially if someone is willing to call with a pair. The flop is a beautiful KTJ, but two suited not my suit. I bet out the pot to try to catch a set or chaser, and get one caller. The turn is a non-suited blank so I go all-in, which was appropriate to the size of the pot, and my stack size. The guy thinks it over, and says "I know I'm behind." I wasn't too happy because he must have a flush draw, although I'll still take the call. Someone else says, "Even I know you're behind, that player hasn't played a hand since this thing started." Why don't you assholes flapping your ass-cheeks in the wind just shut the motherfuck up?! Even if it benefits me, I don't want any table talk.

Stunningly, he calls with T7 suited for the flush draw and doesn't make it. I was now the chip leader at the table, and started stealing some good blind money. Our table was broken down, and my first hand at the new table (where I was, say, second largest stack) I look down to see QQ. I raise to 400 or so, the small blind reraise to 1000. I went all-in, easily covering her and she calls. She turns over AA. Her boyfriend or husband who happened to be sitting next to her starts yelling and cheering. The flop contains a Q, and I bust the poor bitch out. Her husband starts glaring at me, he's real pissed. I don't say anything, because if I had a dollar for every time my AA is busted by KK or QQ, well, I'd have about 10 dollars. I determine that I can take him out by using his anger.

Well, now, of course, I've got a really large stack, so I start bossing people around. Especially that pissed husband who gets really pissed when my steal with 85o wins against the guy next to him who had KJs. So I try to steal again against the mad husband's blind with T7s, and he calls me defiantly with AJo. Uh oh. A 7 on the flop gets him hopping mad and yelling, but a Jack on the river makes him burst out in cheers and jabbing his fists toward me. Oh well, that was only 25% of my stack or so and I'm still good.

On the last hand before the third break, down to two tables, a semi-tricky player on the button raises my big-blind. The table is essentially empty as everyone else is leaving for a break. I look down to see T4 off-suit, so I try to re-steal by reraising him all-in, about 15-20% of my stack. He calls with AJ, and no help, so I lose. I end the hour with only average stack now.

With possibly one too many steals gone bad, I play the fourth hour a little more conservatively to try to get to the final table. I do some blatant steals with 75o and even 83o, to great success. With antes 75 and blinds 400-800 or something, putting up 3000 to steal 2000 is a bargain.

The mad-husband guy busts out in a rage to someone else and leaves. We get down to 11 players, so the tables are about to join. I try to steal with a very small stack and lose. They only pay 6 places, so I didn't make it. Too bad.

WSOP, part 1

After taking more than a year off, I have jumped back into the poker scene. July 4th weekend is a perfect time to start, considering the World Series of Poker® has just recently started.

Before that, though, I visited the Horseshoe to see what was going on. In a word, not a goddamned thing. Last year, only the final event was held in Binion's. This year, as I walked into the Horseshoe, there wasn't even anything so much as a paper sign to indicate the series event even existed.

Running over to the Rio (where it's held now that Harrah's bough the Horseshoe and the World Series of Poker® name), I looked in vain for the event. Walked all over the place, ducking and weaving, looking for the World Series. I saw some signs, but they never pointed anywhere substantive. I asked around and pit bosses pointed vaguely about. Finally, with some triangulation of directions and signs, I was able to discover a semi-hidden passage way toward the pool area and the conference centers. Walking about another 5 miles (no, seriously), I was able to finally!! get to the convention center where the event is held.

Outside the huge room, there were several vendors hawking stupid useless shit. There were the requisite short-shorts ass-cheek-showing and tied-shirt-belly-showing girls. I know this is a manly event, but please let women have some dignity who come to participate or watch the game. One scum-sucking guy was selling "program guides" that looked to me like free Card Player magazines for $10. Anyone who was stupid enough to stop and look at his wares was given the hard sell. And if they didn't want any, he would give them a "discount" if they were "playing".

Inside the huge room, the light was bright and the air was clear. It really is a wonderful thing to walk into a brightly lit poker room with hundreds of tables and thousands of players. I may be exaggerating the numbers, but it really brings a smile to your lips and a watering in your mouth. Pavlov should have done his experiments on poker players listing to the click/clack of poker chips.

I quickly moved over to the satellite tables. I am considered somewhat of a "satellite specialist" and in previous years, used to make a large amount of cash feeding on the single-table tournaments and selling tournament chips. I used to harbour the quaint notion that I could one day win the main event; easily beating 6 or 8 hundred players. I remember thinking, "I need to be really good to beat 'The Spainard'", "I could whoop that sorry gay-ass Varkonyi", "I probably couldn't have called that maniac Moneymaker either", and "I'm not too impressed with Fossilman, he seems overrated". Now, however, with the sheer number of players, I don't think I have a real shot any more, if indeed I ever had one.

Ironically, as I approach my 7th or 8th year of pooker exploits (including time off), and approach the magical 10th year soon (in which is supposedly gained World Class status), I realise I am content to simply make my money $1000 to $2000 dollars at a time, skimming the cream off of the sweet nectar of single-table satellites.

So I sat down at the first satellite table and about an hour in not playing much, I busted out when my AQo runs into A9o which turns into a straight on the river. I wasn't upset, in fact, it's curious how quickly the groove slipped back on. I haven't played a single hand of cash poker for essentially 15 months, and here I was, playing well, alert and attentive and intuitive within 10 minutes of sitting down.

I promptly sat down at another table and started playing again. With some maneuvers and a KK hand, I easily passed the first hour in great shape, but very low on chips. I've always played deep in almost any tournament, which may be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on when I make my moves toward the end. I could probably shorten my average depth of play but make more earnings if I boosted my chip count more often, but I'll get there eventually.

So, after the first hour, we get down to five players (from the initial 10), including a fairly decent player to my immediate right, a complete fish across from me, and two others. At a key point UTG, I look down to see AA, and I raise. Fish goes all in, all fold, I call. He has QQ. An unfortunate queen on the flop gives him all my chips except 3 greens (75). Fortunately, or unfortunately, the blinds are 100. My next hand is the big blind, so I post short. Four people see the flop (woohoo to quadruple up), and check the pot down to the end. Amazingly, I turn over my cards, 88, and it's good! I think Fish had a King-high for the side pot.

Next hand in the small blind, all fold around, I see AJo, I go all in against the big blind and he calls. He turns over K9o, my unimproved hand wins. I essentially go all-in or steal some more hands to move up to average stack again. After a few more levels, we're down to three players, just the Fish, Decent Guy, and I. I am now small stack again, and I go all-in with AQo. Both players call, easily covering me. The flop comes out with a raggedy rainbow, and the Fish (amazingly to me), bets the pot against the Decent Guy. Decent player guy flips his top. He starts yelling at the fish, "You better have a good hand, I can't believe you bet me out of the pot, we can get rid of this player and you're pushing me off the hand." Etc.

Fish turns over King-high, my AQ wins. Now the Decent player guy who is demoted to Decent-player-who-is-over-emotional-and-won't-progress-until-he-can-handle-himself-better starts really chewing in on the fish. He's yelling practically, continuing into the next hand about how bad the play was. The dealer, trying to break the tension, turns to me and says, "You don't mind the play, do you?" and I smile and say no. I pretend like I don't even know why he should be upset. "Fish could have won the pot," I say, not using the name "fish" but instead referring to the player. Inside, I'm thinking, "Don't educate the motherfucking fish you motherfucking twitter headed motherfucking motherfucker and shut your mouth now."

The Decent-but-emotional-guy then calms down about three hands later and apologises. The dealer then says, "I've seen all kinds of plays and players. Everyone can do what they feel is best. I recognise you and the other guy," referring to the guy formerly sitting to the right of Decent Player Guy. Then, horror of horrors, the dealer turns to me and says, "And I recognise you too." Cold ice hit my anus and I tried to smile weakly. Internally I said, "Dealers should speak only when A) action is to be called or B) when fucking spoken to, asshole."

A few levels later, I was able to bust out Fish and so it was heads-up betwixt me and Decent player guy. He had about a 4-1 chip lead on me. I have a rule that I don't offer deals, but I will gladly accept them (even if I am chip leader, or I should say, ESPECIALLY if I am chip leader -- heads-up can go either way and you have great negotiation leverage), but Decent guy didn't offer.

The first hand I raised as the button and he folded. Second hand, he limped, I raised, he folded. Third hand, I raised, he folded. This guy wasn't very good heads up. Fourth hand, he raised all-in. I saw K6o, called immediately and showed my junk. I was pretty certain this guy wouldn't raise all-in with a premium hand. He immediately started bitching, much to my joy, because it meant I was ahead. "How could you call that, with King-high? Oh man, I can't believe that. How can you call that?" He proceeded to flip over an equally worthless J5o.

The hand held up and now I was a 8-1 chip leader. We went all-in about four times with 1 chop, and three double-ups before he lost. He left in shame. I tipped the dealer and sold my tourney chips for continued action...