You know it's going to be good

These are the kind of receipts parents fear to find. Good thing it was me making the purchase.

(Yes, we already had enough baking soda already.)

Tacoma's monopoly

Spotted at Exit 133 this morning: City buys The News Tribune

Other critics of the purchased have pointed out the City’s monopoly is actually far wider than just the media. The ACLU, which is representing Cosgrove against the City, said, “Let’s look at the facts. Besides Click! and the Tribune, the City owns the Water Works and the Electric Company, plus one of the four railroads. They also have the biggest monopoly in town: Park Place (both North and South garages) and they’ve begun building a hotel on Boardwalk (which they’ve tried to rename as ‘The Esplanade.’)”

Later in the article, they mention Tacoma's short line railroad, and that free parking is available on downtown streets.

Kansas City (lowball), here I come

I don't know how long PokerStars has offered it, but I started playing 2-7 Triple Draw earlier this week (which the cool geezers call Kansas City lowball). It's a nice change, similar to Razz, and there's an amazing lack of strategy written on how to play it.

Two months ago, PokerNews wrote a decent article on the strategy. Michael Weisenberg also wrote a pretty good article for Card Player last year. But the undisputed bible of the game is Daniel Negreanu's chapter in Super/System 2.

I played the game with play money for a while, learning the rules as I went (five card draw, three drawing rounds, worst poker hand wins, straights and flushes count against you, so the best hand is 75432). I liked it, so I searched and found the two online articles I mentioned above. I played it some more and started stomping the play money tables.

I'm too much of a cheapass to actually go buy a poker book (the only ones I own are copies of magazines I bought at the airport), so I went to Barnes & Noble, sat down with Super/System 2, and made notes in my Blackberry. As my contribution to the body of knowledge online, here's my notes:

If you don't have a 2 in your hand, fold, unless you're defending the big blind or stealing from the button. Even then, you're probably not playing too wrong to fold it.

With these starting hands, do the following:

234	Raise or Reraise
235	Raise or Reraise
236	Playable, fold if lots of action
237	Raise or Reraise
238	Fold in early pos, raise in late
23xxx	Only to steal
245	Raise or Reraise
246	Playable, fold if lots of action
247	Raise or Reraise
248	Fold in early pos, raise in late
24xxx	Only to steal
256	Playable, fold if lots of action
257	Raise or Reraise
258	Fold in early pos, raise in late
25xxx	Only to steal
267	Playable, fold if lots of action
26xxx	Fold - the straight possibilities will kill you
27xxx	Only to steal
347	Only to steal or def. blinds
348	Only to steal or def. blinds
357	Only to steal or def. blinds
358	Only to steal or def. blinds
367	Only to steal or def. blinds
457	Only to steal or def. blinds

If you find yourself thinking "This 9-high hand is probably good," it probably isn't.

If you are holding onto an 8 and betting to draw two cards, fold instead.

If you are holding onto an 8, betting to draw one card, and are afraid you'll hit a straight, fold instead.

That's abuot it. Using this strategy at three (non simultaneous) 50¢/$1 tables this morning, I ended up +$9.10, -$20.00, and +$9.35. The -$20 was me playing too many eights and nines. A bit more practice, and I'm gonna do well at this game.

Another Stud Hi/Lo hand: how lo can you go?

This hand features many of the same characters, as it took place only about five minutes after the hand I posted earlier this morning.

Eight of us post the nickel ante, and I'm dealt A♠ 2♣ 7♣. There's six stoppers showing -- one of the eight of us has a 9 for the highest card on the table. My 72A is usually pretty good, but there's going to be a lot of people drawing to the low, and a lot of low cards are already gone.

Toffee74 brings in for 25¢ with his 3♦, and he gets four callers. I raise to 50¢, and Cardrush (to my left) folds. Toffee74 re-raises to 75¢ (hey! don't scare away the fish!), and five of us call, including me.

It's all non-pairing high cards on fourth street, except damajha, who is showing a 65 (another blocker). It's checked to Toffee74, who bets 50¢. Everybody calls, and six players go to fifth street.

I get a 3♥, giving me J732A. There's a nice low on its way, folks. Only two players have lower possibles: damajaha showing 965, and Toffee74 showing 963. It's checked to me, I bet $1, and Toffee74 raises to $2. One more caller, damajaha and two others fold, and I call.

4♦. Monster. 7432A. It's checked to me, and Toffee74 and I cap it, trapping poor Galster64 in the middle, calling away.

The river gets me another ace, for [A♠ 2♣] 7♣ J♥ 3♥ 4♦ [A♦], my monster low and AAJ74 for a weak high.

Galster64 checks, I bet, Toffee74 raises, Galster folds, and we cap it off. He shows [7♦ 5♦] 3♦ 9♦ 6♠ J♦ [8♣] for a jack-high flush, but his low is only 87653, so we split the pot.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
toffee74: shows [7d 5d 3d 9d 6s Jd 8c] (HI: a flush, Jack high; LO: 8,7,6,5,3)
LauricT: shows [As 2c 7c Jh 3h 4d Ad] (HI: a pair of Aces; LO: 7,4,3,2,A)
toffee74 collected $17.45 from pot
LauricT collected $17.45 from pot

$34.90 in the pot in a 50¢/$1 game. Amazing.

Does the E in HORSE stand for +EV?

The beauty of low limit HORSE -- particularly in the Omaha and Stud Hi/Lo games, is that you'll get three or four players going to the river, and if you're going for the low, it's usually pretty easy to see that the other players are going for the high. Therefore, you jam the pot, because betting $4 to make the other two players put $8 in the pot is a very +EV maneuver. Two amazing hands from last night illustrate this well. One now, one in a future post.

It's Stud Hi/Lo, and all eight players post the 5¢ ante. I'm dealt (8♦ 5♥) A♠. My strategy for Stud Hi/Lo is to go for the low, with the idea that I might back into the high. I'll only go for the high if I get dealt a monster to start. 85A is a decent hand to go for the low, and as I look around the table, there's only three low-blockers visible (two sevens and a four). I keep track of the number of blockers on one hand; when it gets to six, it's time to start thinking about folding.

Seven players, including me, go to fourth street for the 25¢ bring-in minimum. I get 7♠, for an 875A low draw with three cards to come. With my ace showing, I'm the current high hand, so I lead with a 5o¢ bet. I get four callers, with only one other person possibly going for the low, toffee74 with 7♣ A♦.

Five of us go to fifth street, where I get 6♦. I've made a low, but not a very good one, 8765A. However, I now have a straight possiblity -- might I scoop this one? Toffee74 got a 2♠, giving him three to the nut low. Cardrush, who is sitting on my left got a second ten, giving him the current high hand of T♠ 9♣ T♣.

Cardrush checks, as does everyone else, so when it gets to me, I put in the $1 bet. Cardrush then checkraises me to $2, implying that he's got trip tens. With just five cards, I can't imagine he's got a boat yet. Toffee74 folds to the checkraise (this is huge!), kt10k (with 4♣ Q♠ K♦) calls the $2, ssvaw25 folds, and I reraise to $3. Only two more blockers have come out, so I've got 7 outs to significantly improve my low, plus two more nines to make a straight (the two fours remaining for the straight are also part of the seven low cards). Nine outs with two cards to come almost demands that I raise here, and doing so will tell me the strength of Cardrush's and kt10k's hands. More importantly, though, I've got a made low, and I'm facing TT9 and KQ4. I'm pretty much a lock for half the pot. With two other players still in, building the pot is almost mandatory here.

Cardrush and kt10k both call (a sign that they fear each other's high hand), and on sixth street I get 7♥; the low Hellmuthian pair is not much use to me. Cardrush gets a worthless looking 5♦; kt10k gets A♥, giving him a possible broadway straight, but with two of the tens in Cardrush's hand, I don't think that's a strong possibility, particularly after they both check to me. I bet $1 to build the pot, and they obligingly call.

On the river, I get 6♠, for a high hand of 7766A, and a low of 8765A. They both check to me, I bet $1 to build the pot, and they call again.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
LauricT: shows [8d 5h As 7s 6d 7h 6s] (HI: two pair, Sevens and Sixes; LO: 8,7,6,5,A)
cardrush: mucks hand
kt10k: mucks hand
LauricT collected $9.60 from pot
LauricT collected $9.55 from pot
kt10k leaves the table
LauricT said, "wow"

The hand history shows that Cardrush mucked [2♣ J♠] T♠ 9♣ T♣ 5♦ [8♠]. what was he even doing getting in the hand with JT2? And checkraising with TTJ92 with only two cards to come?

kt10k mucked [Q♥ 3♣] 4♣ Q♠ K♦ A♥ [8♣]. He never raised during the hand, just calling every bet. Q43 is not a good starting hand, although when he hit a pair of queens on fourth street, he might have thought he was good to improve. Two aces, a king, and another queen were already out, though, so he couldn't have felt too good. After that, he was just wedded to high looking cards.

It was Toffee74's fold on fifth street that told me I had the green light to jam the pot with my made low. Every bet beyond that point was going to pay off 1:1, with a 100% +EV. Backing into the high was the icing on the cake.

HORSE: a $46.40 pot in Stud Hi/Lo

I've been doing surprisingly well the last couple of days at PokerStars HORSE tables, both tournaments and ring games. Pretty simple, really: follow my list of starting hands in Omaha, start with three unpaired cards <= 8 in Razz or Stud Hi/Lo, and start with JJx or better in Stud.

And then this game happened tonight (edited out irrelevant stuff):

PokerStars Game: HORSE (7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit, $0.50/$1.00) - 2007/01/07 - 04:09:37 (ET)
Seat 1: Sofa_KingLky ($19.10 in chips)
Seat 2: GigaDeck ($11.80 in chips)
Seat 3: QuinnDnvr ($18.70 in chips)
Seat 4: dlazmdm ($28.85 in chips)
Seat 5: LauricT ($23 in chips)
Seat 6: aislepoker ($21.65 in chips)
Seat 7: ~Angel Kiss~ ($26.65 in chips)
Seat 8: wizball ($12.15 in chips)
[All players post $0.05 ante]
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to GigaDeck [2d]
Dealt to QuinnDnvr [Js]
Dealt to LauricT [6h Ac 5d]
Dealt to aislepoker [Kd]
Dealt to wizball [7h]
GigaDeck: brings-in low $0.25
QuinnDnvr: calls $0.25
dlazmdm: folds
LauricT: raises $0.25 to $0.50 (I've got a good start on the low)
aislepoker: calls $0.50
~Angel Kiss~: folds
wizball: calls $0.50
Sofa_KingLky: folds
GigaDeck: calls $0.25
QuinnDnvr: calls $0.25
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to GigaDeck [2d] [7c]
Dealt to QuinnDnvr [Js] [Jc]
Dealt to LauricT [6h Ac 5d] [Ad] (QuinnDnvr looks to be the one I'll showdown against. And my buried aces beat his jacks. He called before my raise, so I don't think he's got a J down)
Dealt to aislepoker [Kd] [Qs]
Dealt to wizball [7h] [8c]
QuinnDnvr: checks
LauricT: bets $0.50
aislepoker: calls $0.50
wizball: calls $0.50
GigaDeck: calls $0.50
QuinnDnvr: raises $0.50 to $1 (I think he's looking for information here)
LauricT: raises $0.50 to $1.50 (So here's your information. I've got you beat.)
aislepoker: calls $1
wizball: calls $1
GigaDeck: calls $1
QuinnDnvr: calls $0.50
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to GigaDeck [2d 7c] [Kc]
Dealt to QuinnDnvr [Js Jc] [Jh] (!!!)
Dealt to LauricT [6h Ac 5d Ad] [Ah] (See? Beat.)
Dealt to aislepoker [Kd Qs] [9c]
Dealt to wizball [7h 8c] [5s]
QuinnDnvr: bets $1
LauricT: raises $1 to $2 (What I'm trying to say: Hey buddy, here's what I think of your three hooks! What I'm really thinking: Crap -- hope he doesn't have a concealed pair for a boat)
aislepoker: folds
wizball: raises $1 to $3 (Where'd he come from? Looks like he's pushing for the low; he can have it now.)
GigaDeck: calls $3
QuinnDnvr: raises $1 to $4 (I've got AA showing, and he raises with JJJ. His boat has me worried.)
Betting is capped
LauricT: calls $2
wizball: calls $1
GigaDeck: calls $1
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to GigaDeck [2d 7c Kc] [4s]
Dealt to QuinnDnvr [Js Jc Jh] [9s]
Dealt to LauricT [6h Ac 5d Ad Ah] [3s] (Nice. I still have a draw for the low.)
Dealt to wizball [7h 8c 5s] [6d]
QuinnDnvr: bets $1
LauricT: calls $1
wizball: raises $1 to $2 (Showing possible straight.)
GigaDeck: calls $2
QuinnDnvr: calls $1 (We fear the straight.)
LauricT: calls $1 (Yes, we do.)
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to LauricT [6h Ac 5d Ad Ah 3s] [3c] (Boat!)
QuinnDnvr: bets $1
LauricT: raises $1 to $2 (I no longer fear the straight, nor QuinnDnvr's concealed pair. Only if QuinnDnvr has Jd hidden would his quads beat me.)
wizball: raises $1 to $3
GigaDeck: folds (Thanks for your money. Try the veal.)
QuinnDnvr: calls $2 (A good sign)
LauricT: raises $1 to $4 (Feed me.)
Betting is capped
wizball: calls $1
QuinnDnvr: calls $1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LauricT: shows [6h Ac 5d Ad Ah 3s 3c] (HI: a full house, Aces full of Threes)
wizball: shows [2c 6c 7h 8c 5s 6d 4c] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,2)
QuinnDnvr: mucks hand [6s 7s Js Jc Jh 9s 2s] F(a flush, Jack high)
LauricT collected $22.95 from pot
wizball collected $22.95 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46.40 | Rake $0.50
Seat 1: Sofa_KingLky folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 2: GigaDeck folded on the River
Seat 3: QuinnDnvr mucked [6s 7s Js Jc Jh 9s 2s]
Seat 4: dlazmdm folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 5: LauricT showed [6h Ac 5d Ad Ah 3s 3c] and won ($22.95) with HI: a full house, Aces full of Threes
Seat 6: aislepoker folded on the 5th Street
Seat 7: ~Angel Kiss~ folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 8: wizball showed [2c 6c 7h 8c 5s 6d 4c] and won ($22.95) with HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,2

Sucks to be QuinnDnvr.

Key to winning at Happy Days: stay out of hands

Played the midnight tournament at Happy Days Casino last night ($25 entry fee), won both match plays (+$40), some additional blackjack (+$5), placed fifth (+$52), ending up net +$72. One very loud guy at the table -- from his loud, social demeanor; his shiny silk tie; his short buzzcut hair; and his discussion of 2006 model year car deals, I think he was a car salesman -- really made me focus on my play, and the table image I was projecting.

Early in the game, I'm dealt AA in middle position. Starting stacks are 5000, and everyone's still close to that. UTG raises to 600, and I re-raise to 1500. The cutoff calls, the original raiser calls, and everyone else folds. The flop comes pretty raggy, so I'm sure my aces are good. UTG checks, I put in another 1500, the button thinks for a minute, and calls. UTG folds, and the turn is a Q. I push all in. The button folds, and I muck my cards.

The car salesman (in seat 8) says something to the effect of "Nicely played. I can tell you didn't have anything. Why didn't you show?" I'm in seat 3, and I glance around the table. "Nobody paid to see it," I say. He's not sure what to make of that comment.

Twice over the next 30 minutes, I'm in the pot with the best hand, and get outdrawn. (The guy to my left gets pocket kings four times over the course of the night, getting beat all four times, including once at the final table to go out in 8th place.) Each time was an all-in (against smaller stacks), so my quality cards are shown. Car salesman points out my quality hands to the table: "You're playing exactly right, but you're not winning the hands," he says. "Guess you can throw your well thought-out poker theories right out the window. What 'cha gonna do?"

"Deuce seven, all the way to the river," I answer. The table's amused.

About 20 minutes later, with 23 players left, I get moved to another table. One hand later, I'm moved back to my original table, but now in seat 6, one away from the car salesman. The blinds are moving up, and because of the table image I have set for myself, I'm able to steal car salesman's blinds twice with marginal hands. He'll call almost anyone else at the table, but not me.

I've got a relatively small stack, but I know the other looser players will quickly start knocking each other out now, so I muck pocket threes, KJo, and pocket sixes when faced with a raiser ahead of me. These hands might have won, but at this point, it's just about survival.

My stack is pathetically small -- 11000 -- but I make it to the final table, with blinds at 4000/8000. The ten of us make the "Happy Days Special" deal: 6th-10th get $25; 10% of the pool is a dealer tip. I'm at least going to get my buyin back. Lucky for me, I draw the button, which gives me one orbit to get a good hand. The best I get is Q9s, with five hands to go before the blind, and I fold it. Nothing else comes. With 8 players left, I post my 8000 blind.

Everyone folds, including the small blind. "Looks like I get to live to see another day." I say. Now with 15000, I post the small blind, and fold it in the face of an all-in when I get a garbage hand.

With 11000 left, I get another two bad hands, then the blinds go up to 5000/10000, and we color up. The 11000 becomes 15000, meaning I'll get to the small blind if I have to. No good hands come, but three more players drop out -- two of them in a monster three-way all-in fest. I'm in the positive money. In the big blind, I push all in pre-flop with KJo. It's folded to the small blind (a big stack), who calls me with T7o. A ten hits the flop, nothing helps me, IGHN.

If I'd played those low pocket pairs close to bubbleville, or if I'd have run with the Q9s, I don't think I'd have made it as far. It seems like folding anything less than a premium hand is the key to placing in the money at Happy Days.

The key to placing in the big money, on the other hand, is to call smaller stacks all-ins with losing hands (K9o against AT), then get lucky when a four-on-the-board flush hits you. This happened more times than I can count last night. Too risky for me to play that way.

(Also, I ran into a former scout from when I was scoutmaster -- Kaspar was in the tournament, too, and although he looked forward to knocking me out, we never made it to the same table.)

It's just $5

Bodog offers a $4 + $0.40 tournament, 10 players, top five positions pay $4-$6-$8-$10-$12. Yes, half the field gets paid. I'm pretty sure if you sign up and fold every hand, you'll end up ahead enough to make it profitable.

Yesterday, I got knocked out of three of these in a row, out of the money, losing all three going with the best hand. JJ lost to A9 on a 9-high flop when the river brought another 9. AK lost to AQ preflop when a Q hit. And AJ lost to QT on a board of AJK-J-x. At the 5¢/10¢ limit tables, I got schooled for another 80¢ losing to hands like a calling station's pocket threes when they rivered a set.

Fine. I can play that game. I mentally wrote off another $5, and decided I'd sign up to a 5¢/10¢ limit tables and see the flop at any price, then fold if I didn't hit the flop hard.

I dropped down to about $3.80, then brought down a monster pot when my 52s (calling a capped pre-flop pot) rivered a flush against pocket aces and TPTK. Take that!

Geocaching again, briefly

Caches are a lot easier to find when you've already been there three times. More at Kelly's blog.

Catching up

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, mainly, I guess, because my poker confidence has been pretty low, and I haven't had much to crow about. Back in late October, when I moved from PartyPoker to PokerStars, the word online was that the fishiest players from Party were moving to PokerStars and FullTilt. I signed up at PokerStars to catch the fish (or maybe I was one of the school of fish leaving Party?), and did well for a few weeks. Then FullTilt offered a 100% matching bonus, so I moved my funds there in early November, continuing to win until about Thanksgiving. But since then, it's been a downward trend.

Maybe all the fish got fished out. The percentage of players seeing the flop in the 50¢/$1 games was almost always around 30-33%, sometimes as low as 25-27%. As a point of reference, a table with 35-40% begins to get juicy enough that its waiting list will begin to grow rapidly. However, unlike the other poker rooms, FullTilt only has 9 players per table instead of 10, which means these numbers are an even greater indication of the tightness of the tables.

Should I have played looser, knowing that the tables were so tight? Maybe, but that's not my style, and not something I've had a lot of practice at.

On Boxing Day, after losing another $12 at FullTilt, I pulled my money out, and went in search of easier pickings. In the end, even though FullTilt had paid me $45 in bonuses, I ended up down about $21 from my initial FullTilt buyin.

I'd dug through PokerTracker's hand history, found mistakes (overplaying overcards), and worked to fix them. I'd re-tightened my starting hand requirements. No luck. I was being beat like a wet noodle. (That's not a good thing, if you're the noodle.)

I dug through my quasi-spam emailbox at Yahoo, looking for any poker offers from casinos I hadn't tried yet, and found an offer for $20 free from Bodog Casino. Casino games only, and $500 playthru restriction.

Sure. Why not.

I turned the $20 into a real $16, withdrew it, and sat down at the cheap no-limit poker tables at Bodog... and lost a quarter of it the first day, trying to push pocket 8s through a flop with a K showing. Not smart.

So last night, feeling that I needed to get some real perspective on my game, I went to Happy Days to play in their midnight tournament.* (Well, first I went to Palace with a match play coupon I found in the News Tribune a few weeks ago. It was kind of strange to walk up to the cage, exchange the coupon for a match play ticket, bet $10 on the blackjack table, hit a 20 against the dealers 17, then walk back to the cage and cash out for $30. A quick three minutes work.)

(Oh, and I hit blackjack on my first two hands at Happy Days, too, on match play; nice start to a good evening. Remind me to write up something about tonight, the night I took insurance by mistake.)

When the tournament started, the alternate list was 16 players deep. I played good, tight, aggressive poker, helped by the fact that the two players to my left would telegraph when they planned to fold, and made it as deep as 12th place. Maybe I shouldn't have pushed all in with AQs and 77 on consecutive hands (lost both), but if either of those would have hit, I'd have been in a great spot to go deep into the money instead of just getting my buyin back.

I felt like I was playing some of the best poker I've played in a long time, in spite of getting few good hands. KJo in early position, close to the bubble but with a good sized stack? Folded it. No sense in taking a risk there... but I think I would have pushed with it online.

Maybe that's the difference. I need to push myself to realize that the online chips are just as real as the clay chips in the casino. Perhaps I've forgotten that.

At lunch today, I played a $4+$0.40 tourney at Bodog. Finished in first place. Is my funk cured? Or will I go back to chasing with suited face overcards?

* As of December 1, Happy Days has midnight tournaments on M-T-W-Th only, but noon and 7 pm tournaments every day.

Edit: Added graph

Back to basics: Learn your starting hands

As I mentioned a few days ago, it's been a crappy month of online poker, down about $100 from my November high point. PokerTracker helped me realize that I was overplaying overcards, and I spent most of lunch Thursday re-reading Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth's "playing overcards" section in Small Stakes Hold 'Em. I also read some of my older posts, and realized that I've really loosened my starting hand requirements too much.

I used to have a cheat-sheet on my desk that I'd refer to as a reminder of what hands to call with, which to raise with, and which to re-raise with, from early, middle, late, and blind positions. I don't know what happened to it, and I'd forgotten I used to have it, until I created a new one (again, based on Small Stakes), and used it on Friday.

It felt good; I wasn't waiting on flops and crossing my fingers for a check-around any more. I ended up +$9.55, but more significantly, I played three simultaneous tables, and ended up ahead at all of them.

Has my flat/downward trend started to improve? Maybe. Time will tell.

Best night in a month, and that's not saying a lot

Last night, I ended up +$11.60. Sad to say, that's the best poker result I've achieved since November 16, when I was up $23. I've had nine losing days (including a frighteningly bad -$52.95 when I tried to play at the $1/$2 table) and five winning days (the best a +$9.75 in spite of losing a $7.75 in tournament play). The $30 in bonuses collected from Full Tilt offset it a bit, but I'm down about $70 from my high point just before Thanksgiving.

I attribute this tough streak to three things: 1) The level of play has gotten tougher. I don't know what to attribute this to, but play has gotten really, really tight. My "voluntarily put money in pot %" stat was at a respectable 23-25%. Experts say that it should be at about that level; higher than that, you're playing too many hands; less than that, you're playing too tight and leaving money on the table.

At PartyPoker, at PokerStars, and (after Party shut down in October) at Full Tilt, at a 9 or 10 person table, I was usually the second or third tightest; seven people played looser, and I could usually end up with some of their money. In the last month at Full Tilt, my stat has been the same, but I've generally been one of the three loosest people at the table. The opposition has tightened up. 2) I failed to adjust to the tighter play, and plays that would have won money in the past -- strong bluffs -- either won a minimum, or lost big. Holding AQ on a flop of 479, I could ram and jam, and would win a big pot against someone wishing with another couple overcards when they folded on the river. Now, I either don't get past the flop, or lose to someone who stayed in with a flopped set.

3) Related to #2, I failed to respect strong betting. Before, there was always one or more players who seemed to raise preflop with any single face card. Someone was always drawing to the flush, and it made sense to make them pay. With the stronger players, you can't profit from these mistakes as often.

I took a full evening this weekend and instead of playing, I used PokerTracker to analyze my stats over the last three weeks. Mistakes I saw in my own game, which I made repeatedly or which cost me a good sized chunk of change:

1) Holding two overcards (e.g., KJ) and a flop comes paired (e.g., 3-5-5), I bet to try and win, and it's raised. Instead of respecting the raise and folding, I doubt the other player's skill, and re-raise. Lost a lot of money doing that.

2) When I'm holding top-pair-top-kicker, and I'm check raised, I should fold more often. There were at least a dozen times I ran into someone who'd flopped a set, and I just bolted blindly along through the river.

3) When I hit trips, and the board has two suited cards (e.g., I have J♥ J♦, and the board is J♣ 3♣ 7♠), don't slowplay. Someone who is staying in is trying to hit their flush card, and will do so to beat you 40% of the time. Don't give them a free chance to do it.

Yes. PokerTracker is worth picking up.

Satiating the Mouse: Day 5, The final day: divorces, toads, and sake

As day 4 drew to a close, we had a late night snack in the hotel's Pop Century cafeteria, then brought it over to the bar, sitting down next to a couple who were alternatively watching Monday Night Football and loudly discussing the future of their relationship, which didn't seem to be going very well.

"This is how Monday Night Football should be watched," said Kevin, referring to the game ending at about midnight instead of 9:00 as it does on the west coast. He nursed his beer, while I checked the fantasy football scores on my Blackberry. To our left, the couple was arguing over how much effort each of them had put into their relationship. Married? I don't know, but I assume so.

Kim and Krys joined us (unlike Washington's archaic laws, kids can sit in the bar, but obviously can't order alcohol). And we watched the game, discussed the next 24 hours, and ate. The couple continued shouting (not too loudly), we watched the middle of the fourth quarter, and Kim, Krys, and I headed back to the hotel room.

Kevin showed up about half an hour later. For want of a clarifying verb, the couple's marriage was coming to an end. Apparently, the husband said, "I'm more interested in the game than you" to the wife. Kevin understood what he meant: "I'm more interested in the game than you are", but that's not the way she took it. Eep.

The previous day, I'd made day 5 reservations for breakfast at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom. We seem to always have a breakfast with Pooh and Piglet at Disneyland, and this trip would be no different. Bland, buffet, breakfast food -- as expected -- and I tried grits for the first time in my life. Bleaugh. After breakfast, we wandered into Tomorrowland, and Kevin accurately pointed out that at 9:00 on a November Tuesday morning, the Tomorrowland Plaza looked as empty as Seattle Center does on a typical day. We rode Stitch, and Space Mountain, then tried to track down the entrance to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (we finally had to ask). Krys got into a conversation with the remote-control robotic garbage can that I had talked to on Day 2 (it had told me that my Trogdor shirt was cool, but Homestar Runner was cooler), and it sang her a birthday song and asked her for a hug -- then taunted her for hugging a trash can.

We rode Haunted Mansion, and Krys had on the way out, we stopped to take a close look at the pet cemetery that we couldn't see in the dark of our previous visit. Way in the back left corner was a statue of Mr. Toad. Apparently, when the new Winnie the Pooh ride was installed, kicking out Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Disney decided to memorialize the old ride here. Pretty cool.

At lunch time, we headed over to Epcot by taking the ferry from the Magic Kindom to the transportation hub, then a monorail the rest of the way. Having ridden Washington State ferries several times, the ride was nothing special, except that the lake had no tide to worry about. On the other end, as we departed, the skipper pulled Krys aside, and required the hordes of people waiting to board to sing her "Happy Birthday" before he would allow them to board. Pretty special.

We briefly wandered over to the beach at The Polynesian resort, and poked at the white sand, then waited for the monorail. I'd heard a rumor, and confirmed it. By asking, we were able to sit in the front car of the monorail, with the driver, and see out forwards, instead of just out the sides. Pretty cool.

At Epcot, we got our Test Track fastpasses, then rode Mission Space again. It seemed much more intense, and we were much more goofy, now that I didn't have a liter of beer in my system. I was starting to get a headache, though.

We then wandered over to The Seas with Nemo et al., where we rode the recently opened Nemo ride. It was OK, nothing special, but kind of cool I guess. The ride projects the Finding Nemo characters into the Epcot aquarium, so it looks like they're interacting with the real fish. At the end, the shell-buggies opened, we stepped out, and Kim saw them:

"DOLPHEEEEEENS!!!" she squealed, bolting for the stairs to get a better look. I swear, if she was two years old, she'd have run out into traffic or needed a kid-leash or something. Krys tears off after her, and Kevin and I look at each other shaking our heads, no comprehension of how cool dolphins must be to females.

We wander around the aquarium, and queue up for Turtle Talk with Crush. I had low expectations of this, and was rally amazed at how interactive the computer animated show was. Crush takes questions from kids in the audience, says the kids names when he answers, comments on what they're wearing, and plays with the audience in a way that you know it's really interactive. Must be a camera, a booth with someone who's voice is a dead ringer for Crush, and some method of matching the mouth movements with the speech.

We then slowly made our way to Japan for dinner, stopping at Test Track (fun ride, but GM is really getting their money's worth with the marketing. Most rides at Disney World end in a gift shop; this one ends in a car showroom.

We shopped our way towards Japan, stopping in China for the Circlevision 360° show. Krys bought a Chinese parasol that she had her eye on earlier in the week, and we looked at the museum's show of several hundred ancient Chinese garden warrior spirits that had been unearthed in an archeological dig. Maybe I'll offend a good size chunk of the world's population here, but aren't these just old dirty garden gnomes?

We had dinner at Teppanyaki, a typical but nice Japanese steak house, very Benihana like. I was feeling sicker than I had all week, and merely picked at my food, but the rest of us really liked it. Krys had never been to a cook-in-front-of-you show place, other than Mongolian Grill, and was quite impressed. Kevin had warm sake, which he declared to be excellent. I tried it... feh.

Sick as a dog, I left the group early and headed back to the hotel. Rumor is that they shopped their way through the rest of the world. I packed for the next day's trip home -- I was taking an 8:00 a.m. flight out; the rest of them were leaving at 6:00 a.m., which means early to bed and gawdawful early to rise. They arrived as I was finishing packing, they packed, and we headed to bed. They awoke dark and early and headed out; I tried to go back to sleep for two hours, but was unsuccessful. An hour later, I got up, showered, and caught the bus to the airport.

At the airport, I was early enough, and security was fast enough, that I got to see the Kim, Kevin, and Krys off at the gate. That's unusual to be able to do these days. Their route took them home via Houston; mine was via Dallas. We both hit weather, and were delayed three hours in getting home. From Dallas, I arranged for the three of them to be met by a town car, which took them home (cheaper than a cab!). Otherwise, pretty uneventful trip back.

Good times.

Satiating the Mouse: Day 4, Disney-MGM: Shows and shows and shows

We put off the visit to Disney-MGM until Monday so we could avoid Super Soap Weekend -- Rosie O'Donnell crowding the streets, and Luke and Laura renewing their vows. Ack. Barf. Best to avoid the place.

Instead, we opted go go the one day that the Backlot Tour was closed, but after Journey Into Narnia: Creating the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe re-opened. The crowds were fairly light, and after having breakfast at the hotel, we arrived just after the 9:00 opening. We hung a right on Sunset Blvd., and beelined to the Tower of Terror. Kim didn't want to go on it, so she went to get fastpasses for the Aerosmith roller coaster while Kevin, Krys, and I waited in the 20 minute line. I was surprised Krys wanted to ride this one, but she did. I think she felt like she missed out when Tres, Kevin, and I went on it at California Adventure a couple years ago.

Except for the featured yo-yoing, the ride is surprisingly unlike Californias. The pull-back from the launch point, the push forward on the fifth (?) floor, the phantom image of ourselves ... they're all different enough to make the Florida version a little better than the California one.

It made Krys nauseous. She whined about stomach pains for the next three hours. Toughen up, kid, we got more rides to go. She wasn't up for the roller coaster, though, so Kim and Kevin went on it while we people watched. Once they were done, we strolled up to the Beauty and the Beast show. It was entertaining, but if you didn't know the Disney version of the story, you'd think they cut out too much, which would make it very disjointed.

We next visited Mann's Chinese Theater, checked out the footprints in the concrete, checked out the fur jacket worn by Lucy in the Narnia movie, then went on the Great Movie Ride. Yawn. Pretty cheesy.

Krys still wasn't feeling good, so we stopped at Backlot Express for lunch and to chill out. None of us were very hungry, so we split a basket of chicken strips and a couple desserts. Krys and Kim decided to go back to the hotel; I reminded them that they'll need to catch the bus at 5 from the hotel in order to make our 4:50 dinner reservations.

Yes, you read that right. I told them to leave 10 minutes after dinner in order to get to dinner on time. I think I was starting to get sick or something at this point.

Kevin and I planned to catch the Indiana Jones stunt show, then the Lights, Motors, Action show, which gave us enough time to wander Mickey Avenue for a bit. First, we ran over to the Aerosmith roller coaster to use the remaing two fastpasses. I'd have enjoyed it more, but my head was pounding, and the music, inversion, and corkscrew didn't help.

Next, we stopped to see "The Magic of Disney Animation," but that would have made us late for Indy, so we skipped it. We then wandered through "Walt Disney - One Man's Dream," but skipped the movie at the end, and high tailed it back to Indy. Somehow, we'd gotten our timing wrong, and missed it. I think my sense of time was really failing me now, because we rode Star Tours, which was a bit longer of a wait than it should have been, because the Indy show had just gotten out. Star Tours is, as far as I can tell, exactly like the ride in Disneyland.

Then we went on to Lights, Motors, Action. I don't know how they can make flying cars and burning motorcyclists boring, but they did. Yawn.

We got out of LMA at 4:45, and headed over to the 50's Prime Time Café for dinner. the crowds made us late -- about 5:10 instead of 4:50, and as I called Kim to ask where she and Krys were, Kevin pointed out that I had told them to leave at 5.

I was feeling pretty queasy now, and had a headache, so the 1950's television shows, furnishings, and bar that looked like it was right out of my grandparents rec room were extra surreal. Fortunately, my delay in arriving put us on a waiting list, and we didn't get seated until after Kim and Krys had arrived, at around 5:45.

The premise of this themed restaurants is that "mom" is serving you dinner, and you'd best clean your plate and keep your elbows off the table, or she'll make you stand in the corner. Apparently, I looked ill enough that they didn't want to make me eat all my pot roast, but I didn't get any dessert. OUr waitress turned out to be going to school to be an elementary teacher (in Florida), much like Kim (in Washington). In a manner of speaking, our waitress broke the fourth wall to discuss the differences between Florida and Washington's standardized educational assessment testing. Very, very strange.

I left the planning of the rest of the night up to Kim and Kevin. We wandered for a bit, and stumbled across the Narnia presentation -- no line, starting in about 8 minutes. We were led into a cozy waiting area, about twice the size of my garage. A few props from the movie lined the walls, but the prevalent feature of the room was a large, red, double-doored wardrobe. After a few minutes, the lights fell, the narration began, and the wardrobe opened.

The wardrobe was tunnel-like for about 10 feet, and opened into a much cooler, snowy, forested area. A screen showing clips of the Narnia movie was on the opposite side, but the atmosphere was so breathtakingly realistic -- if you can call an indoor stage set of a fictional location "realistic" - that I reversed myself against the flow of the crowd, went back out of the wardrobe, and back in, just to experience the opening-up of the forest again.

I stood by the lamp post as the "making of" trailer continued, then an actress who was a dead ringer for the White Witch, on a "cliff" overlooking the forest, made a brief speech. We were then ushered through the forest and around the corner, where the trees gradually got greener and the floor less white, until we were in a snow-free, lightly forested area where we could see more props from the movie, including the sled. This fully immersive experience was one of the neatest things I saw all week.

Next -- and I know it was my illness talking now -- I talked the other three into seeing The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. You remember the live Mario Brothers performance making the rounds online? This was very similar, except that the peformers' black outfits were a true dark, dark black, and the stage was lit with black light, so that the puppets really popped off of the black background. Only Ariel and the prince were live actors. Fun show.

Then, to end the evening, we headed into the Fantasmic theater to catch the show. Unlike Disneyland, where Fantasmic is performed on the water and can be seen from several not-very-good locations, Disney-MGM built a huge ampitheater for it. While Disneyland had to build the show to fit around the infrastructure, Disney-MGM built the infrastructure to fit around the show. I think it made for a better show.

We headed back to the hotel at about 10, had a late snack in the Pop Century café, then off to bed. We have one day left, and discussed where we wanted to re-visit. Animal Kingdom was boring; Disney-MGM was less than a day full, and was full of shows, not rides. So, on day 5, we'll head to the Magic Kingdom in the morning, and Epcot again at night.

Fishing with dynamite at Full Tilt

I was feeling real agressive this afternoon. At three simultaneous tables, I was stealing blinds with nothing, countering blind stealers with raises, and throwing in raises on open end flush draws. One spectacular example was where I was on the big blind with 83o, it was folded around to the button, who raises (to steal?), and I raised him back -- you ain't stealing that easy. He calls, and the flop comes. I miss it entirely, and decide to check raise him to see if he really has something. I check, he bets, I raise him -- and he folds. Woot.

And then there's this hand:

Seat 9: girlinmotion ($51.85) [small blind]
Seat 1: sdesi ($146.75) [big blind]
Seat 2: mycroft666 ($18.90)
Seat 3: laurict ($22.25)
Seat 4: LCangler ($14.25)
Seat 5: Rayes ($38.20)
Seat 6: kandy101 ($19.60)
Seat 7: Stronza ($15.70) [button]
Seat 8: Empty

girlinmotion posts the small blind of $0.25
sdesi posts the big blind of $0.50

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to laurict [J♥ Q♦] (A mediocre hand, one I probably shouldn't play in middle position, but it's agression day!)
mycroft666 calls $0.50
laurict calls $0.50
LCangler folds
Rayes folds
kandy101 folds
Stronza folds
girlinmotion folds
sdesi checks
*** FLOP *** [3♠ 3♣ Q♥] (Yay, I hit the flop. Usually, on a paired flop, the first to bet wins it)
sdesi checks
mycroft666 checks
laurict bets $0.50
sdesi raises to $1 (Hmm... he might have a 3. I'll raise and find out)
mycroft666 folds
laurict raises to $1.50
sdesi raises to $2 (Yup -- he's got a 3.)
laurict calls $0.50 (What? What am I thinking here?!)
*** TURN *** [3♠ 3♣ Q♥] [K♠]
sdesi bets $1 (Yup. Definitely got a 3. Or a high Q, like KQ. Eep!)
laurict calls $1(I'm losing, and I still bet? Hello... McFly...)
*** RIVER *** [3♠ 3♣ Q♥ K♠] [2♥]
sdesi checks (trapping me on the river? unlikely. something's up. Have I got him scared? By calling?)
laurict bets $1 (good money after bad...)
sdesi folds
Uncalled bet of $1 returned to laurict
laurict mucks
laurict wins the pot ($7.40)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.75 | Rake $0.35
Board: [3♠ 3♣ Q♥ K♠ 2♥]
Seat 1: sdesi (big blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: laurict collected ($7.40), mucked
laurict: WTF?

Satiating the Mouse: Day 3, Animal Kingdom, French food, hitchhiking ghosts

In the velvet blackness of an African night - at the hour before dawn when the land is full of dreams - a lone voice heralds the new day. As the red disc of the sun rises, the one voice becomes many until the Pride Lands echo with song. The distant mountain floats above the mist. Vast herds move across the golden plain, and the heavens come alive with storks and doves, kingfishers, and flamingos. [nod]

Let's see us some critters. We'll be eating them by nightfall.

Animal Kingdom opens at 9 AM today, so we grabbed breakfast at the hotel, and while Kim headed back to the room to get her cell phone, Krys and I tried to play Space Invaders on a circa-1982 cocktail table arcade game, she ended up loading Qix instead. I used to be good at it -- I still beat her -- but it was over pretty quick.

Onto the bus, and we arrived just before 9; they'd already opened the gates. I think they open the gates 60 minutes ahead of time to allow people to shop, then open the main park at 9. Disney's all about giving you opportunities to give them money.

When the ropes dropped, we slowly sauntered our way to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I wanted to hit this first for a couple of reasons. First, the guidebook we used said that this tends to be the fullest ride at the park. Secondly, and more importantly, my experience at Point Defiance Zoo has shown that the animals tend to more active the earlier in the day you go.

The ride was very similar to the tram tours at Northwest Trek, except instead of buffalo, there's exotic horned deer-like critters. And lions, elephants, zebras... pretty much the whole cast of The Lion King. There's also an annoying storyline pasted on about tracking down some wildlife poachers; by the end of the trip, I was rooting for them to get away with the baby elephant so that the next group of riders wouldn't have to suffer through it.

We then headed over to Expedition Everest and got some fastpasses, then rode on the Kali River Rapids. Twice. It's very similar to the Grizzly River Run at california Adventure, although a bit shorter. The buoy-shaped raft you're in lazily spins its way along the river, so when you reach the big, wet fall, you don't know if you're going to be on the much drier uphill side (facing down the fall, as I was the first time through) or on the completely drenching downhill side (facing up the fall, as Krys was the second time through).

Next, we hopped the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch, which, sadly, was little more than a typical zoo interpretive center plus a petting zoo. Yawn.

"Finding Nemo: The Musical" was supposed to premiere today, but the nearby readerboard didn't have any showtimes listed. I asked a nearby ice cream vendor, and he said that they were secretly doing trial runs of the show, and that the next show would be in 20 minutes. We got in the surprisingly full line (guess it wasn't much of a secret), and enjoyed the show. The great puppetry and fun quick pacing made it, IMHO, the best show we saw all week.

Immediately after, we wandered over to the Festival of the Lion King show. I'm sure it would have been a better show, if Nemo hadn't already spoiled us. It was a very different style of show, a theater-in-the-round performance with audience participation and a circus-like atmosphere, as opposed to Nemo's traditional stage/performers/audience structure.

Krys and Kim didn't want to ride Everest, so Kevin and I headed there while they checked out Dinoland. Everest was probably my favorite ride -- who doesn't like roller coasters that end in mangled track and fling you backwards? -- and the fastpass line was short enough that we rode twice (using the ladies' passes the second time).

For some reason, I can't remember where we had lunch this day. At this point, Kim was a bit tired, Krys wanted to go swimming, and we were kind of bored with Animal Kingdom. Really, maybe we're spoiled, but if you were to combine Woodland Park Zoo, the Point Defiance Zoo, and Northwest Trek, then toss in a few shows, you'd have Animal Kingdom. Definitely not a full days worth of stuff to do here, which is why they closed it at 5 PM, but we were out of there by 2.

With our dining plan structure, we realized we'd need to find another two table service meals somewhere. I called the dining reservations line from my cell phone as we waited for the bus, and asked them, "Can you find me a table service meal at Epcot tonight, somewhere other than Germany?" They got a table for us in France, 6:45 PM. C'est parfait!

We bused back to the hotel, and while Kim napped, we played in the pool. As the shadows got longer and the air got colder, we bailed out after about 45 minutes, changed into "nice" clothes, and played in the hotel arcade until 4:30.

Krys is a gambler like her old man, and spent most (all?) of the $5 I gave her on ticket-dispensing machines. She's got a good sense of which machines return the greatest EV (in tickets per credit), and when she was done, she got three pocket dart guns and a giant pixie stick. Not $5 worth of loot, but maybe $5 worth of loot and entertainment. I spent most of my credits on the World Poker Tour pinball machine. No trips to Tampa, like last time, so this was my poker fix for the trip. I won a few credits, and left one on the machine when it was time to go. (I also returned to play it later in the trip, and broke the right outlane rail, spinning the metal bar into the launch lane. Oops. I warned the operator about it, and he said he'd shut it down to avoid damaging the table, but I noticed it was still broken and running the next day.)

Back on the bus to Epcot, we leisurely make our way to dinner. Wow. The four of us each get a different appetizer, and we share. I'd had escargot before, in high school French class, but the other three hadn't. It's very much like clams, which makes sense, if you think about mollusk meats. Krys shared her cheese plate, which among the selections, had a very good smooth goat cheese, and a harder, white cheese from Normandy. For dinner I had a fruits de mer skewer, and we went with the waiter's wine recommendations, with Kim drinking a nice burgundy with her steak, and I enjoying a wonderful sweet rosé -- and I generally don't care for wine. We then split and shared rich chocolatey desserts. As a bonus, I got to use my rusty college French (badly mispronouncing vanille) without fearing being ostracized from the country.

After dinner, we waddled around a bit more, playing in the red phonebooths in England (not quite a TARDIS, but they'll do) and chatting about home with a BCer in Canada. Near closing time, we hopped the monorails to Magic Kingdom, where we rattled with around with 999 ghosts and then, finally, visited the hall of presidents. The doorman who greeted us as we entered the "muesum" area had to have been older than Reagan, and his gaunt Riff Raff-like appearance and painfully slow movement leads me to believe he's in about the same state of health (tangent: when Reagan died, we learned the news when we saw the flag at half staff in Disneyland's town circle). As he gave the spiel about what we were about to see, then waved the doors open, he hardly moved. After the show, Krys asked me, "Was he an animatronic, like the presidents?" No, I don't think so, but I can see how you might think that. Maybe he was the skinny ghost who follows us home.

Back to the bus, back to the hotel, too late for a late night snack, so into bed for the night.

Next: Entering Narnia's wardrobe.

Satiating the Mouse: Day 2, Magic Kingdom

Day 1 was a long day, evidenced by the fact that I didn't wake up until 8:30, and didn't irritate anyone with my cheery morning self. We got up and dressed and on the bus -- and Pal Mickey wouldn't talk. As we were leaving Epcot the previous night, he said "What a busy day. I think I'll take a nap for a little while." Turns out, Mickey going to sleep is much like putting a dog to sleep. We were bummed, because he hadn't irritated us enough yet.

At the Magic Kingdom, while the other three stopped at City Hall to get Krys an "It's my birthday" button, I headed to Space Mountain to get fastpasses. We then met up at the Main Street Bakery for breakfast, where we had coffee (ick!), pastries, breafast sandwiches, and yogurt. We then headed over to the Emporium, where they gladly exchanged the defective Mickey for a functional one.

We next rode Space Mountain, which was less impressive than the updated one at Disneyland, but still fun. Then, onto the teacups, which were much better than the overlawyered ones in California. Kim, who's not into barfy spinning rides, went to adventureland to pick us up some fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise. We met up at the Tiki Room.

I enjoyed the "Under New Management" aspect of it, with Gilbert Godfried Iago's snide remarks, but Krys was surprisingly upset that they had ruined the "classic" cheezy attraction. We both agree that we hope they never make this change on the west coast -- there's gotta be at least one original.

The Jungle Cruise was weak -- our skipper just wasn't into it. We then rode Pirates of the Caribbean (the new projected-on-mist effect of Davy Jones, and the super-realistic Johnny Depp animatronics were impressive), and Big Thunder Mountain (just like Disneyland, yay!), then began searching for somewhere for lunch. The Pecos Bill Café was closed, the Pirates restaurant was no good (we didn't want fish), so we ended up waiting in long lines at the Liberty Tree Tavern.

I'd realized before I came here that I'd wanted to visit the Hall of Presidents, which is different than Disneyland's "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln", even though most reviewers said it was a good place to sleep, and that GW Bush's speech was unbelieveably coherent. I particularly wanted to see it because I'd first heard about it on my first date with my wife, back in 1989:

Ted: "Oh wait . . . remember at Disney World? The Hall of Presidents?"

Bill: "Yeah, good! What did he say?"

Ted: "Welcome to the Hall of Presidents!" [mp3]

Not yet, though. Kevin and I rode on Splash Mountain while Kim and Krys shopped. For some reason, Splash is Krys' least favorite ride -- perhaps it was because we had her ride it when she was six, and it scared the tar out of her then.

We'd been in Frontierland and Adventureland nearly all day, so Krys wanted to see other areas of the park. We hopped the train to Toontown, and while the train ride was OK, Toontown itself was surprisingly lame. Shopping and character greeting, yes. Rides, no -- only a little kid's rollercoaster. Yawn.

We wandered over to Tomorrowland again, and rode the Indy Speedway (Autopia). I like the fact that on these cars, the breaks kick in -- and cause the tires to skid -- when you let off quickly on the accelerator. Kim thought I was nuts for flooring it, then stopping and skidding, then flooring it again. Repeatedly. She's right.

Next we "rode" Stitch's Great Escape, which is more of an experience than a ride or a show, but it was cute. Stitch is one of my new favorite Disney characters. We then hopped across to the Buzz Lightyear ride, where I kicked but with a score in the 71,000 range.

Dinnertime, and we headed to the Terrace Noodle Station, which was -- darn -- closed. The parade was starting, and we were able to see most of it from here without fighting the crowds. The fireworks were due to start in 30 minutes, so the plan was to sit tight and catch those, too in this empty area of the park. It started to fill in a little bit after the parade ended, and Kevin and I trotted over to "Cosmic Ray's" to grab dinner for everyone. When we got back to the terrace, the crowd was about four deep, but since we'd already snagged a table up front, we got a great view (and a great photo for my desktop wallpaper).

After the fireworks and dinner, we foolish mortals visited the Haunted Mansion (still one of my all time favorites), then split up briefly while we checked wait times for Pooh, Snow White, and Peter Pan. I wanted to ride the Snow White ride, and Kim came along, while we agreed to meet Kevin and Krys in front of Peter Pan. When we got there, they were nowhere to be found. We called Kevin's cell, and Krys had talked him into riding It's a Small World. Poor guy. Doubly so, really, because as soon as they got off the ride, we talked them both into riding with us, so he had to do it twice, consecutively.

Being the kind-hearted person that I am, I refrained from calling Robbbbbb from the ride this time, and texted him instead.

We then hopped across the path to Peter Pan, rode it, then wandered over to Philharmagic to end the day. Cool 3D show, and the Little Mermaid's 3D shells gave Kevin and me something to joke about for the next three days.

Back on the bus, back to the hotel, back to sleep. Next on day 3: What makes Animal Kingdom better than the Woodland Park Zoo?

Satiating the Mouse: Prelude and Day 1, Epcot

After the UserNet conference in Dallas, I took a few vacation days and met up with the wife, kid, and Kevin at Walt Disney World.

The timing worked out well, and we caught up with each other at the Orlando airport, hopped on the Magical Express, and after a bit of a wait in line, checked into Disney's Pop Century Resort. I'd left Dallas at 5:00 AM (CST), and the other three had left SeaTac at 11:30 PM (PST), so it was time for a noontime (EST) nap as we waited for our luggage to arrive (well, not me -- I watched the end of the Battlestar Galactica disc 1 (miniseries) while they slept).

At around 2:30, our luggage showed up (sooner than I expected), and other than the baggage handlers breaking the foil on my electric razor, everything went smoothly. Our plan for the day: hit Epcot, which closes at midnight for resort customers ("Extra Magic Hours"). We had dinner reservations at the Biergarten for 5:35.

I should mention here that we'd signed up for the Disney Dining Plan, which for $38 per person per day gives you one table service meal (entree, beverage, appetizer, and desert), one counter service meal (entree, beverage, and desert), and one snack (almost any snack or drink) each day. It's an outstanding deal -- if you ever go to WDW, do it. We felt bad about all the food we ended up throwing away after gorging ourselves all week. I gained four pounds in spite of all the walking.

Day 1: Epcot

We first stopped at the gift shop to pick up a Pal Mickey, a stuffed Mickey Mouse with an infrared receiver in his nose, theoretically giving him the ability to give you tips and advice on what to see in different parts of the World, and will point you to shorter lines and alert you to upcoming parades.

Pal Mickey is the Wesley Crusher of the Disney empire. Sometimes, rarely, he gave useful information. More often, he'd just say something annoying and blatently obvious. By day three, "Shut up, Mickey" was the most common phrase on our lips. By day four, we turned him off. On the last day, we left him in the hotel.

Our first ride was Spaceship Earth, a doom buggies type ride that shows the history of communication while spiraling inside of the big Epcot golf ball. The classroom of the future depicted in that ride was eerily like River Tam's in Serenity; I expected the animatronic teacher to jab a blade into the student's head. No such luck. It's a nice educational exibit, though, which shows how we got from cave paintings to the series of tubes that we have today.

Surprisingly, Krys wanted to ride Mission: Space. It's strange, what she'll ride and what she won't. Splash Mountain, no way. Tower of Terror, willing to try it once. Rock-n-Roller Coaster, let's do it again. We got fastpasses for Mission: Space, wandered over to Test Track, didn't want to wait, then slowly shopped our way towards Germany, riding Mexico's Rio del Tiempo and Norway's troll-infested Maelstrom. We watched a pair of Chinese acrobats balance plates (and each other) on their heads, then on to dinner at the Biergarten Restaurant, a German buffet.

I had a liter of Beck's Dark. Kevin had, I believe, a liter of Dinkel Acker Dark. We staggered out quite full and quite happy. Kim, who has been to restaurants in the real Germany, was pleased with its authenticity.

Test Track was no longer handing out fastpasses, so we went on Mission: Space. It's divided into two options: the "light" green ride, and the more intense "orange" ride. We chose orange. The more intense ride is, I beleve, the first ride to come with barf bags, standard. In our full, tipsy state, this was going to be fun.

Surprisingly, it seemed hardly intense at all. Why?

"Drink up," said Ford, "you've got three pints to get through."

"Three pints?" said Arthur. "At lunchtime?"

The man next to ford grinned and nodded happily. Ford ignored him. He said, "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

"Very deep," said Arthur, "you should send that in to the Reader's Digest. They've got a page for people like you."

"Drink up."

"Why three pints all of a sudden?"

"Muscle relaxant, you'll need it."

"Muscle relaxant?"

"Muscle relaxant.
...
"If you’ve never been through a matter transference before, you’ve probably lost some salt and protein. The beer should have cushioned your system a bit."

It was a fun ride, but not aneurysm inducing. We then looped through the rest of the international areas, expecting to hit Test Track after the crowds died down. We failed, however, to pick up our Extra Magic Hours bracelets, which would have meant trudging back to the main gate, then back to test track. We were tired, so it was day over instead.

We bus back to the hotel, and to sleep. We didn't set the alarm clock -- the Magic Kingdom opens the next day at 9, and knowing me, I'll be up and bouncing at 6:00 ready to go, irritating the heck out of Kim, Krys, and Kevin.

Money for nothin', chips for free

One of the hour-long sessions at the conference this morning went for 15 minutes instead, so I had an hour to burn. I signed into Full Tilt (only about 10,000 players on at 8 AM PST on a Wednesday) and played a 0.50/$1 game while waiting for more players to show up at the $1+$0.25 HORSE tournament table.

The ring game was looser than I expected -- I figured only the degenerates who knew the game would be playing at this time of the morning -- but one guy was voluntarily in the pot something like 78% of the time, so I could pretty much safely ignore him. In spite of losing a TPTK hand to a loose guy who flopped trips, I still ended up +$3.65 for the hour.

The HORSE tournament started just about the time I was thinking it was too late to start a tournament. I'd only built my 1500 stack to 1695, making me fourth out of seven, but it was time to go to the next session. I crossed my fingers, checked "sit out", and closed my laptop, leaving the table running.

Looking at the hand history:

• Lost a big blind of 100 on the turn (limit hold em), then small blind of 60 (Omaha)
• Won 360 with a big blind hand of 9s 6s 5c Qd (two pair) (Omaha, four players checked to river, no low), then lost small blind of 60
• Lost 25 x 10 in Razz antes
• Lost 30 x 11 in Stud antes
• Lost 40 x 9 in Stud 8 antes, and was in the money when the fourth place player lost to a set
• Then hold em kicked back in:
  • I big blinded my last 95, and won 285 with T7o with a one card flush.
  • Then lost the 150 small blind, skipped a hand, and was all in with 135 hitting another flush while holding pocket tens, winning 405.
  • Then lost the 150 small blind, skipped a hand, and was all in with 255, and the other players folded, back up to 405.
  • Then lost the 150 small blind, skipped a hand, and was all in with 255, tripling up to 765 with J5s, (pair of jacks).
  • The next hand, the third place player gets knocked out. Two hands later, I lose, ending in second place, winning $2.40 (net +$1.15).

Nice run -- too bad I wasn't around to see it.

Texas is Hold 'Em-free

I'm in Dallas for a week for a conference, and arrived late Saturday in order to be sure I was in time for a Sunday afternoon session. Having all of Saturday night and Sunday morning, I figured I'd have time to find some local card rooms and play a few hours of poker.

Yeah, well, not really. I knew coming down that poker games with a rake are illegal, and that there's no casinos in Texas. There's ads... for Shreveport, Lousiana and Duncan, Oklahoma. With no rental car, those 2-3 hour drives aren't gonna happen.

Several local web forums (link, link) indicate that there's a thriving underground poker scene, but particularly after a SWAT team raid this summer, you won't find out the card room locations online, and you'll basically have to be screened to get in. It also sounds like higher stakes than I want to play, too.

In fact, the only place I found that spreads any game with a reasonable limit is (NSFW) The Lodge strip club, which hosts a free tournament on Sunday afternoons. Not gonna work. So, it's online from the hotel room.

Wil Wheaton posed a question on the CardSquad blog. "With Party Poker pulling out of the US market, Full Tilt and Poker Stars have exploded, and I've heard from lots of people that the games are incredibly easy to beat now, even on PokerStars, which has a reputation for tougher competition and stronger players." He's got few replies, but I can say that from my experience, it's true. I played at PokerStars 12 days in late August and early September, and ended up -$16.70. I've played at PokerStars 11 times in October/November, and am +$65.68.

On the advice of Tres, I started playing at FullTilt tonight. I don't like it as much as PokerStars; their tournaments aren't as frequent, and FullTilt's screens aren't as re-sizeable, making it challenging to multi-table on a small laptop monitor. Still, I'm ahead there so far.