I saved my trip to Tinian to visit the Tinian Dynasty resort and casino to Sunday, since the weather looked to be perfect on Saturday and there was talk of rain on Sunday. So gorgeous-weather Saturday became Beach Day, and possibly-rainy-and-cloudy Sunday became Casino day.
We found that there were only two ferries between Saipan and Tinian daily. If I took the ferry both ways, I would either have about 3 hours or 23 hours at the casino before the return ferry. So instead I sprung the extra $40 or so for the return airplane flight, which returned in the early evening.
C was initially interested in coming, but decided to pass in favor of going to a spa for most of the day. It sounded pretty good, actually - sauna, jacuzzi, massage, etc, but I had my gambling quest.
The ferry took about an hour. The windows on the lower passenger deck had not been washed in several weeks and were so coated in detriment from dried seawater that I could barely see out. So I listened to my ipod, watched the vague blueness and greenness through the greyed windows, and dozed.
Tinian looked much like Saipan, but fewer buildings. It looked like a couple dozen people lived on the island... somewhere. Aside from the casino, standing out starkly from the surrounding greenery. Our tour guide showed us quickly around the hotel and shops area, pointing out the pool and buffet and giving us $10 in matchplay coupons. The lobby was airy and spacious, circled in relaxing chairs and sofas... many taken by Chinese-looking tourists who had kicked off their shoes, dumped their bags by the side and dozed off for a couple hours while waiting for their tour bus to arrive.
The casino wasn't huge, but was big enough. There were several rows of slot machines, ranging from nickels to dollars, most of them off to one side of the large room. A bar sat in the center, next to a railed-off area for three or so poker tables, and three or so tables for some card game I had never seen but that the Chinese tourists seemed happy with. But the poker tables... were empty! No players, no dealers!
I found a poster up that read something like, "Texas Holdem! It's that game you've seen on tv, the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker! Come try it out on Friday and Saturday nights in our new poker tournaments!"
Okay, so Sunday was apparently not the best day for the casino trip after all. But I'm not a good tournament player anyhow and was hoping for a cash game, so it wasn't a crushing disappointment.
There were a few blackjack tables, a roulette table, and a few more table games like "Pacific Poker" (whatever that is) and baccarat. There was also a large raised area with one of the large-screen horse racing games you often find in Japanese game centers. A big screen tv displays the (computer generated) horses and you can sit at one of the terminals and wager. The computer horses race, and you collect your winnings.
I started with some slots, and was struck by how quiet the place was. There were very, very few customers, and I was the only one on a slot machine, so there was no din of beeping music, slot machines, and ching-ching-ching-ching of coins cashing out. It was a little unnerving, and I felt like I was doing something I should not be, and making a racket with it in the process.
I lost $20 and decided to get some lunch at the buffet. Which was... meh. It reminded me a lot of a $6.99 chinese lunch buffet someplace in Palo Alto, California. Unremarkable generic asian food, salad, breads, and desserts parked out on steam trays and unmanned. No prime rib here. I had no idea where the next closest place to eat was - probably a 20 minute cab ride to wherever "downtown" was, which might not be any better.
I returned to the casino and sat down to give blackjack a try. My first surprise was that the dealer was only dealt one card face-up, no hole card. The hole card was only dealt at the end after all players had finished. If the dealer had an ace showing, you could still place insurance but you had to wait until all play was over to find out if the dealer hit a ten. But if the dealer hit a blackjack, she would take only your original bet and return any double-down bets to you. I don't remember if I saw someone split with an dealer ace showing, so don't know how that was handled. Gameplay was the same as I was used to, otherwise.
Second surprise was ordering a Corona, then the waitress saying, "That will be $5, sir."
Third surprise was tossing in a red-chip tip for the dealer at the end of her deal, and seeing her eyes widen and the corners of her mouth turn up, as if to say, "wow, really?" She then pulled up the plastic blocker for the drop box slot and sharply rapped "shave and a haircut" against it with the chip before dropping it and thanking me. The sound was loud and carried through the quiet casino, and several folks looked up. I took inventory of the room and guessed that half were Japanese, half Chinese, and none of them very familiar with the custom of tipping. I kept up the occasional dollar tipping now and then and they kept rapping it out to the whole joint. Cheapest way to feel like a big spender I have found.
I played BJ for an hour or two, and was about even when I reckoned I had an hour of play left. Coming all the way out here to find this casino and then break even seemed pretty pointless, so I started upping my bets so that I would either bust out or show a worthy profit. Cards fell my way and I finished ahead about $200, paying for my trip out here and most of C's time at the spa.
The bus rode a dozen of us Japanese tourists out to the airport, where we rode in six-person Pipers back to Saipan. It was about a ten minute flight, making the hour on the ferry seem pretty pointless. As soon as we got to a reasonable altitude, we looked ahead and Saipan was right there. A stone's throw away. Just over the pond.
As I got off the bus from the airport at my hotel, the bus driver said, "Happy Easter."
Easter... I had forgotten. I had just spent most of my Easter Sunday in a casino, gambling at slots and blackjack. I hope that God is as forgiving as they say.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Saipan
After a busy week, last weekend's jaunt to Saipan begins to seem like a long time ago.
Saipan is about a three hour flight from Tokyo, which is long enough to feel like a real trip. But still shorter than visiting Hawaii or Las Vegas; I'm not complaining. I dozed and read Anthony Holden's Big Deal, and my girlfriend C watched the inflight movie, Pride and Prejudice, with a bored-but-nothing-better-to-do air.
We were concerned about going through Immigration in Saipan, since it's a US territory and C has been held up by Immigration officials for 30-45 minutes the last two times we've entered the States. She thinks the issue is that because we separate, me going though the US Citizens line and she through the Visitors line, it looks like she is travelling alone. Luckily this time there were no problems. Of the 500-some people on the flight from Tokyo to Saipan, about 450 were Japanese, 48 Korean, and two white guys, one being me. We gave each other a quick "what are you doing here?" glance on boarding.
I didn't see the other white guy when I got to Saipan. Immigration had 20 lines for Visitors, and one line for Citizens... with no one staffing it. Should I have called ahead to warn them a white guy was coming? I found the Immigration office and the agent on duty opened up the Citizens line and waved me through. The other 20 lines chugged through the hordes of visiting Japanese quickly, and C was processed in a few minutes with no problems.
Saipan has the deep blue sky, bright sun, palm trees and greenery every beach resort should. I was already relaxed. We boarded the charter bus our travel agency arranged, and trundled along the one main road to the main hotels, dropping off groups of Japanese guests. Most of the buildings we passed seemed somewhat beaten down, and the common sight of signs in Chinese as well as English added to the worn-out Chinatown look.
I couldn't help but notice a huge number of signs for game rooms, all proclaiming "POKER". I must have seen 6 or 8 on the bus ride to our hotel. Good lord, Saipan is a hotbed of poker activity! Who knew?!, I mused. Almost all of the poker shops looked even more worn down than their surroundings, though, the kind of dodgy joint you don't feel comfortable walking into with a fist full of money. Later on, I looked at the signs more closely and many promised progressive jackpots and 24-hour play. I didn't visit any of them to confirm, but decided they must be pitching video poker, which made more sense.
Friday and Saturday were the typical beach resort days, and you probably already know how that goes, so I will summarize. There were deep blue skies, puffy clouds, gorgeous sunsets, cool breezes, visits to a nearby beach island with clear, clear turquoise waters, snorkeling, and laying in the sun. I was content, as I was in Maui, just to sit on the beach and read. I finished Big Deal, Wil Wheaton's Dancing Barefoot, and most of his Just A Geek. C didn't bring anything to read, but was perfectly happy to relax on the beach, dozing and looking content.
(C asked what I was reading. I showed her Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek, and tried to explain who the author was. She doesn't know Star Trek: Next Generation. [She hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films when we met, you may recall! How is that possible? I mean, yeah, she's Japanese but still, this is Star Wars we're talking about, here.] "He was also in Stand By Me," I offer hopefully. She brightens up. "Oh... River Phoenix?" "Uh, no..." I guess I'm going to have to go rent Stand By Me sometime. She did get a kick out of the photo on the back cover of Just A Geek. "Look! He's holding the same beer glass you have, the one with the weird geek joke on it that I don't understand! You both really are geeks!")
Sunday she spent going to a spa, and I made my trip to Tinian to check out the Tinian Dynasty Resort and Casino, which I will leave for a followup post.
Monday we did our souvenir shopping, a bit more laziness on the beach, and headed home. It was hard arriving back into Tokyo, which seemed frigid after the straight 30' C days in the sun. But Saipan is close, pretty cheap to get to, and I'm sure we'll be headed back there soon for an even lazier vacation.
Saipan is about a three hour flight from Tokyo, which is long enough to feel like a real trip. But still shorter than visiting Hawaii or Las Vegas; I'm not complaining. I dozed and read Anthony Holden's Big Deal, and my girlfriend C watched the inflight movie, Pride and Prejudice, with a bored-but-nothing-better-to-do air.
We were concerned about going through Immigration in Saipan, since it's a US territory and C has been held up by Immigration officials for 30-45 minutes the last two times we've entered the States. She thinks the issue is that because we separate, me going though the US Citizens line and she through the Visitors line, it looks like she is travelling alone. Luckily this time there were no problems. Of the 500-some people on the flight from Tokyo to Saipan, about 450 were Japanese, 48 Korean, and two white guys, one being me. We gave each other a quick "what are you doing here?" glance on boarding.
I didn't see the other white guy when I got to Saipan. Immigration had 20 lines for Visitors, and one line for Citizens... with no one staffing it. Should I have called ahead to warn them a white guy was coming? I found the Immigration office and the agent on duty opened up the Citizens line and waved me through. The other 20 lines chugged through the hordes of visiting Japanese quickly, and C was processed in a few minutes with no problems.
Saipan has the deep blue sky, bright sun, palm trees and greenery every beach resort should. I was already relaxed. We boarded the charter bus our travel agency arranged, and trundled along the one main road to the main hotels, dropping off groups of Japanese guests. Most of the buildings we passed seemed somewhat beaten down, and the common sight of signs in Chinese as well as English added to the worn-out Chinatown look.
I couldn't help but notice a huge number of signs for game rooms, all proclaiming "POKER". I must have seen 6 or 8 on the bus ride to our hotel. Good lord, Saipan is a hotbed of poker activity! Who knew?!, I mused. Almost all of the poker shops looked even more worn down than their surroundings, though, the kind of dodgy joint you don't feel comfortable walking into with a fist full of money. Later on, I looked at the signs more closely and many promised progressive jackpots and 24-hour play. I didn't visit any of them to confirm, but decided they must be pitching video poker, which made more sense.Friday and Saturday were the typical beach resort days, and you probably already know how that goes, so I will summarize. There were deep blue skies, puffy clouds, gorgeous sunsets, cool breezes, visits to a nearby beach island with clear, clear turquoise waters, snorkeling, and laying in the sun. I was content, as I was in Maui, just to sit on the beach and read. I finished Big Deal, Wil Wheaton's Dancing Barefoot, and most of his Just A Geek. C didn't bring anything to read, but was perfectly happy to relax on the beach, dozing and looking content.
(C asked what I was reading. I showed her Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek, and tried to explain who the author was. She doesn't know Star Trek: Next Generation. [She hadn't seen any of the Star Wars films when we met, you may recall! How is that possible? I mean, yeah, she's Japanese but still, this is Star Wars we're talking about, here.] "He was also in Stand By Me," I offer hopefully. She brightens up. "Oh... River Phoenix?" "Uh, no..." I guess I'm going to have to go rent Stand By Me sometime. She did get a kick out of the photo on the back cover of Just A Geek. "Look! He's holding the same beer glass you have, the one with the weird geek joke on it that I don't understand! You both really are geeks!")
Sunday she spent going to a spa, and I made my trip to Tinian to check out the Tinian Dynasty Resort and Casino, which I will leave for a followup post.
Monday we did our souvenir shopping, a bit more laziness on the beach, and headed home. It was hard arriving back into Tokyo, which seemed frigid after the straight 30' C days in the sun. But Saipan is close, pretty cheap to get to, and I'm sure we'll be headed back there soon for an even lazier vacation.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Quick One
I can't seem to find much time for blog updates lately. I have the time, actually, but I've been spending it playing online and grinding out the last of my Full Tilt bonus. Bad blogger. At least the bonus is cleared now and I made a reasonable profit doing it. I'm doing pretty well at no limit cash games - Harrington on Holdem is my bible.
I got busy last week and didn't get a chance to write up our visit to the new spot in Shibuya doing poker nights, Bar Jack. Maybe Mike will write something up, but my memory is already fading. Short version - it seems like a reasonable bar. We had a reasonable crowd of around 16 or 18 poker players, many of them regulars from Duke. We did two tournaments, one starting at 7pm and a followup at 9pm. I had to miss the first 20 minutes or so of the first one to meet Mike at the station and guide him in. I lasted until the final 8 people or so, then got my dwindling stack in with Kings on a board of all lower cards, but two spades. My challenger was on a spade draw and hit it. Ah well, that's poker.
Mike stuck in there and won it, netting 3000 or 4000 yen worth of coupons for drinks and such at the bar. I joked that he made it look like I had brought in a ringer to the game, since it was his first time attending. He backed off and graciously allowed some of the others to win the second tourney.
The bar seems like a nice enough joint, though a bit hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. There were some beginners there and some non-poker players hanging out, so hopefully it will help bring in some poker awareness to new people in Shibuya.
I got busy last week and didn't get a chance to write up our visit to the new spot in Shibuya doing poker nights, Bar Jack. Maybe Mike will write something up, but my memory is already fading. Short version - it seems like a reasonable bar. We had a reasonable crowd of around 16 or 18 poker players, many of them regulars from Duke. We did two tournaments, one starting at 7pm and a followup at 9pm. I had to miss the first 20 minutes or so of the first one to meet Mike at the station and guide him in. I lasted until the final 8 people or so, then got my dwindling stack in with Kings on a board of all lower cards, but two spades. My challenger was on a spade draw and hit it. Ah well, that's poker.
Mike stuck in there and won it, netting 3000 or 4000 yen worth of coupons for drinks and such at the bar. I joked that he made it look like I had brought in a ringer to the game, since it was his first time attending. He backed off and graciously allowed some of the others to win the second tourney.
The bar seems like a nice enough joint, though a bit hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. There were some beginners there and some non-poker players hanging out, so hopefully it will help bring in some poker awareness to new people in Shibuya.
Podcast Poker Challenge
I just signed up for the Podcast Poker Challenge, a freeroll tournament on PokerRoom, with players representing their podcast of choice. There hasn't been a lot of talk about this one, so if you see this notice and listen to podcasts, go check it out.
In a point bordering on blasphemy, the Lord Admiral Card Club podcast was not invited or included at the start! Luckily some folks informed Cinci Sean and he got the podcast listed in time for player registrations under the Lord Admiral banner. (I just did so.) I am a dedicated listener to the Ante Up and Five Hundy By Midnight podcasts, but when it comes to poker and podcasts, I gotta align myself with the one and only Lord Admiral.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Driving Practice
Owning your own car in Tokyo falls somewhere between a luxury and an eyebrow-raising absurdity. Cars themselves aren't that expensive, but parking spots run around 20,000-40,000 yen per month in most parts of Tokyo proper. (That's, like, $200-$400 a month, eh.) You can't use them to commute to work, since your daily parking fees would probably run you more than your salary. (Unless you're some bigshot executive who gets a paid spot in the office building's lot.) And Tokyo's mass transit system is extremely comprehensive.
So I've lived in Japan for eight years and my old driver's license from California is long expired. I've never needed a Japanese DL, but once in a while, it would be nice to have. Like if you go on a vacation to a spot outside of Tokyo. But it's not the easiest thing to do.
Brits and Aussies have it easier - they can usually get their current driver's license translated to Japanese, take it to one of the driving test centers, and get it transferred over to a Japanese license with little more fuss than a few hours of paperwork. But for those of us from countries who drive on the right side of the road (unlike Japan), they generally make you take the written and driving exam.
I'm confident behind the wheel, but when the wheel is on the right hand side of the car, suddenly I am out of my element. I drove a bit (sans license) when my GF and I took a trip to Hokkaido and rented a car. I frequently messed up the turn signals and wipers because they're also on the opposite side of the steering column. Driving on the long, straight, low traffic Hokkaido roads and highways was generally no problem, but at least once my old driving habits asserted themselves at the wrong time -- I made a left hand turn out of a gas station into the right-hand lane. I.e. the one with oncoming traffic -- in this case, a semi-tractor trailer heading straight for us. It was several hundred yards away and I quickly adjusted into the correct lane, but it freaked out the girlfriend and gave me something to think about as well.
Obviously, I need some practice driving in the cars and on the roads here before I will be ready to take the exam. I could join one of the driving schools here, but those cost $3000 or $4000 for their one or two-week classes, which is a lot of money and time off from work. I know how to drive, really! I just need to practice these few little specifics.
Tuesday after work, I found a possible cheap way for some basic practice. I went by a game center to kill some time before visiting Bar Jack for the poker game, and spotted...
... this new Driving School game!
It's not terribly exciting, but instead aims to teach presumably grade-school age Japanese kids the basics of driving. Maybe even replacing expensive driving schools? Who knows what Sega is after.
Anyhow, the game is a cheap way for me to get some basic practice in the reversed layout of Japanese cars, and start retraining my habits of what lane to enter when making turns and which hand to use to set the turn signal. It's still weird to change gears with my left hand. I doubt I will be ready for a manual transmission for years.
There's a series of basic driving lessons, starting with very simple tasks on a driving course much like those at the driving schools. If you pass one lesson with a score of 80 or above, you proceed to the next one. If you fail it, you have to pay another 100yen to take it again. You can also get a printed memory card that keeps a record of which lessons you have passed, so when you come back later you can feed your card in and start from the next lesson instead of the beginning.
The controls include pretty much everything from a real car. You even have to fasten your seatbelts, and there's a key ignition to start the thing up. There's no HUD to show your speed, so you have to practice looking down at the dashboard to see your speed, lest you exceed the posted limit and lose points. I'm grateful there's no stereo system in the dash for later lessons to test your ability to pay attention to the road and switch the radio station to J-Wave simultaneously.
I've only done the first two lessons, so I suck. But compared to 300,000yen for driving school, this should be a bargain.
So I've lived in Japan for eight years and my old driver's license from California is long expired. I've never needed a Japanese DL, but once in a while, it would be nice to have. Like if you go on a vacation to a spot outside of Tokyo. But it's not the easiest thing to do.
Brits and Aussies have it easier - they can usually get their current driver's license translated to Japanese, take it to one of the driving test centers, and get it transferred over to a Japanese license with little more fuss than a few hours of paperwork. But for those of us from countries who drive on the right side of the road (unlike Japan), they generally make you take the written and driving exam.
I'm confident behind the wheel, but when the wheel is on the right hand side of the car, suddenly I am out of my element. I drove a bit (sans license) when my GF and I took a trip to Hokkaido and rented a car. I frequently messed up the turn signals and wipers because they're also on the opposite side of the steering column. Driving on the long, straight, low traffic Hokkaido roads and highways was generally no problem, but at least once my old driving habits asserted themselves at the wrong time -- I made a left hand turn out of a gas station into the right-hand lane. I.e. the one with oncoming traffic -- in this case, a semi-tractor trailer heading straight for us. It was several hundred yards away and I quickly adjusted into the correct lane, but it freaked out the girlfriend and gave me something to think about as well.
Obviously, I need some practice driving in the cars and on the roads here before I will be ready to take the exam. I could join one of the driving schools here, but those cost $3000 or $4000 for their one or two-week classes, which is a lot of money and time off from work. I know how to drive, really! I just need to practice these few little specifics.
Tuesday after work, I found a possible cheap way for some basic practice. I went by a game center to kill some time before visiting Bar Jack for the poker game, and spotted...
... this new Driving School game!It's not terribly exciting, but instead aims to teach presumably grade-school age Japanese kids the basics of driving. Maybe even replacing expensive driving schools? Who knows what Sega is after.
Anyhow, the game is a cheap way for me to get some basic practice in the reversed layout of Japanese cars, and start retraining my habits of what lane to enter when making turns and which hand to use to set the turn signal. It's still weird to change gears with my left hand. I doubt I will be ready for a manual transmission for years.
There's a series of basic driving lessons, starting with very simple tasks on a driving course much like those at the driving schools. If you pass one lesson with a score of 80 or above, you proceed to the next one. If you fail it, you have to pay another 100yen to take it again. You can also get a printed memory card that keeps a record of which lessons you have passed, so when you come back later you can feed your card in and start from the next lesson instead of the beginning.
The controls include pretty much everything from a real car. You even have to fasten your seatbelts, and there's a key ignition to start the thing up. There's no HUD to show your speed, so you have to practice looking down at the dashboard to see your speed, lest you exceed the posted limit and lose points. I'm grateful there's no stereo system in the dash for later lessons to test your ability to pay attention to the road and switch the radio station to J-Wave simultaneously.I've only done the first two lessons, so I suck. But compared to 300,000yen for driving school, this should be a bargain.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Let's Review
So, for places to play poker in Tokyo, we now have:
Japan Poker Player's Association -- Ueno Room:
- Thursdays - Live Game (simulated cash game). They even simulate a rake by removing some of the play chips from each pot. Kind of shocked me the first time I saw it, but I suppose it trains both the players to know what to expect in a cash game, and the learning dealers so they will know how to calculate and pull the rake for real dealer positions.
- Fridays - Everest Cup (NLHE tourneys) [I think the E-Cups have finished, actually, and they'll probably switch back to a JPPA limit or NL holdem tourney on Friday nights. Pity, since the E-Cup games had no entry fee and decent prizes.]
- Saturday - Mini Straddle Cup events at 2pm, Main Straddle Cup events at 7pm. I haven't gone to many of the Straddle Cup games, so I am unclear on specifics. I think the Mini game tends to be one type of game each month, rotating, so they include 7-Stud and Omaha games. The Main game I think is always holdem, usually NL. There's a point and bounty system for players, but I don't know the details.
Duke :
- Mondays - Live game and/or tournament, aimed at beginners. Very similar to the Friday and Saturday games, but winning does not gain points towards the Vegas Cup.
- Fridays - Weekly tournaments. 7:30pm is Limit Holdem, 9:30pm is T.T.O.S (Texas Holdem, Texas Holdem, Omaha, and Stud, all Limit). Winner of each of these tournaments gains 5 points which can be used in the Vegas Cup.
- Last Friday of the Month - Monthly tournament. The second weekly tournament is replaced with a NLHE tourney for those that have taken first or second in that month's weekly tourneys. Taking first place in this tourney gains you 10 Vegas Cup points, and second place earns you 5 points.
- Fourth Saturday of the Month - Vegas Cup games. 7pm is Limit Holdem, 9pm is H.O.R.S.E. (7-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo, Hold 'em, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Razz.) Taking first place in either of these games wins you 40 points, and second place wins you 15 points.
- Vegas Cup - Every six months or so, Saturday, NLHE. All players who have accumulated points in the games so far can play in the Vegas Cup Final. Each point becomes one chip in the final game, so those who have won consistently since the last Vegas Cup will have larger stacks than those who have just one once or twice. The winner of the Vegas Cup wins a trip to Las Vegas for two, airfare and hotel expenses paid.
Bar Jack:
- Tuesday Night game. Details coming soon.
Hopefully I will be adding to this list as new games open up in town.
Another game!
I just saw on one of the Japanese poker blogger's page that there's a new place to play in town! A bar in Shibuya called "Bar Jack" is now doing poker tournaments every Tuesday night. Maybe next week I can hook up with Mike and go out there to check it out. It looks like a pretty nice place from the photos, and if they can appeal to young, hip Japanese folks (like you find in Shibuya), it will help poker catch on here in Japan.
The bar says they've become a member of the Japan Poker Enterprise Association, which I believe J.O., owner of Duke, started up. So far their web page lists three members, two of which are the bars that J.O. owns. But if a new bar is giving it a try and if it takes off, hopefully we'll see some more places to play spring up.
(Thanks to our friend at "Working at the Net Cafe - Poker Life" for pointing this out to me. If you read this post sometime, introduce youself to me next time we meet so I can find out who you are. ^^;;; )
The bar says they've become a member of the Japan Poker Enterprise Association, which I believe J.O., owner of Duke, started up. So far their web page lists three members, two of which are the bars that J.O. owns. But if a new bar is giving it a try and if it takes off, hopefully we'll see some more places to play spring up.
(Thanks to our friend at "Working at the Net Cafe - Poker Life" for pointing this out to me. If you read this post sometime, introduce youself to me next time we meet so I can find out who you are. ^^;;; )
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Turn to Hymn 42...
I'm going to have to compose some songs of praise to the stock market gods if they keep this up. I'm enjoying fantasizing about quitting the day job, but I'm getting a bit scared that after another few months I might actually do it.
My girlfriend's cold has lingered, so I have not gone out for poker (or other reasons, even) over the last couple weekends. I have to watch her to make sure she doesn't get to any of the housework before I can cut her off. She's worn herself out a couple times doing chores, and prolonged her sickness. I think she's finally on an upswing, though, so maybe I can get out to Duke for some poker this weekend.
My playin the low $25 buyin NLHE tables on Full Tilt is going well, earning me back the funds I lost playing limit HE there. This cheers me up somewhat, and reminds me why I switched to NL in the first place. It still galls me that I continue to have these problems with limit HE, though. Do I just suck at this?
When I have a "Do I just suck at this?" week or so, what really cheers me up is to go play on the Bad Beat Jackpot tables on Party. Last night was a perfect example, doubling my $100 buy-in on one of the $2/$4 tables and doing wonders for my mood. If I'm going to play limit, I know the place to play it.
It seems like the best time to play on these tables is when the jackpot is relatively low, paradoxically. When it gets high, many of the tight-aggressive good players seem to show up, figuring that the odds are better. But when it's low, after it's recently been hit, you get the type of players who want that $70,000 jackpot regardess of what the odds are. Those are the kinds of players you want at your tables, calling down to the river with crap.
My girlfriend's cold has lingered, so I have not gone out for poker (or other reasons, even) over the last couple weekends. I have to watch her to make sure she doesn't get to any of the housework before I can cut her off. She's worn herself out a couple times doing chores, and prolonged her sickness. I think she's finally on an upswing, though, so maybe I can get out to Duke for some poker this weekend.
My playin the low $25 buyin NLHE tables on Full Tilt is going well, earning me back the funds I lost playing limit HE there. This cheers me up somewhat, and reminds me why I switched to NL in the first place. It still galls me that I continue to have these problems with limit HE, though. Do I just suck at this?
When I have a "Do I just suck at this?" week or so, what really cheers me up is to go play on the Bad Beat Jackpot tables on Party. Last night was a perfect example, doubling my $100 buy-in on one of the $2/$4 tables and doing wonders for my mood. If I'm going to play limit, I know the place to play it.
It seems like the best time to play on these tables is when the jackpot is relatively low, paradoxically. When it gets high, many of the tight-aggressive good players seem to show up, figuring that the odds are better. But when it's low, after it's recently been hit, you get the type of players who want that $70,000 jackpot regardess of what the odds are. Those are the kinds of players you want at your tables, calling down to the river with crap.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Another good day!
No poker yesterday - spent my time being there for my sick GF and watching a lot of Japanese tv with her.
But, I have to repeat:
All hail the stock market gods! Praise them, praise them!
Last night was pretty much a repeat of the night before. Color me pleasantly shocked.
It won't continue (I am pretty sure) but it does help to get a couple of damn nice gains to hold me through the down times and mediocre times.
In poker, we tend to feel the pain of our losses strongly and the joy of our wins not so much. We feel bad more than we feel good. Damn it, especially if we're recreational players, let's make an effort to enjoy our wins! Yes, things may (and will) change; yes, let's not get too uppity; yes, the poker or market gods will smite us again one of these days, but let's thank them when they bless us! Soak in the sun while the weather is good! Rainy season is around the corner!
Today, I am smiling.
But, I have to repeat:
All hail the stock market gods! Praise them, praise them!
Last night was pretty much a repeat of the night before. Color me pleasantly shocked.
It won't continue (I am pretty sure) but it does help to get a couple of damn nice gains to hold me through the down times and mediocre times.
In poker, we tend to feel the pain of our losses strongly and the joy of our wins not so much. We feel bad more than we feel good. Damn it, especially if we're recreational players, let's make an effort to enjoy our wins! Yes, things may (and will) change; yes, let's not get too uppity; yes, the poker or market gods will smite us again one of these days, but let's thank them when they bless us! Soak in the sun while the weather is good! Rainy season is around the corner!
Today, I am smiling.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
A good day.
All hail the poker gods! Praise them, praise them!
The above statement is a hint that I will be mentioning good (for me) poker results and hoping not to be smited for my hubris.
My cautious return to NLHE has been going well so far. I've ended most sessions slightly ahead, and yesterday evening I managed a big score at a $25 table on Full Tilt. First I lucked out by going all-in with top set, getting called by a made straight, and sucking out for a full house. Embarassing, but I'll take it. Then several hands later, I hit top set again and baited another player all-in with nothing that I recall but two overcards. I won that hand and finished up with $60 profit on my $25 buyin. Whew. This is how I made that thousand bucks before. But can I keep it up?
All hail the stock market gods! Praise them, praise them!
In other news, the stock system that I have been playing with just had a very good day, and I made about $3000 as I slept last night. Woo! Hopefully I'll see a few more days like that one. If it keeps up, maybe I'll be able to quit the day job and stay at home all day playing poker. Without having to count on my highly questionable poker skills. ;)
The above statement is a hint that I will be mentioning good (for me) poker results and hoping not to be smited for my hubris.
My cautious return to NLHE has been going well so far. I've ended most sessions slightly ahead, and yesterday evening I managed a big score at a $25 table on Full Tilt. First I lucked out by going all-in with top set, getting called by a made straight, and sucking out for a full house. Embarassing, but I'll take it. Then several hands later, I hit top set again and baited another player all-in with nothing that I recall but two overcards. I won that hand and finished up with $60 profit on my $25 buyin. Whew. This is how I made that thousand bucks before. But can I keep it up?
All hail the stock market gods! Praise them, praise them!
In other news, the stock system that I have been playing with just had a very good day, and I made about $3000 as I slept last night. Woo! Hopefully I'll see a few more days like that one. If it keeps up, maybe I'll be able to quit the day job and stay at home all day playing poker. Without having to count on my highly questionable poker skills. ;)
A few notes
A couple more quick thoughts about the JPC 2006.
It was actually Jan Fisher who gave me some quick coaching on box shuffling, not Linda Johnson. My bad. She's damn good at it, too. Mary doesn't box, she... strips, I think it's called, so she called over Jan as the boxing expert. Because I was pathetic at stripping, or whatever it was called.
Another note in Jan's favor (after my snarky comments in the last post), is that she noted in her talks how great it was to play with the Japanese players because everyone seems to be having fun and enjoying the game. It's true. The Ueno games (and the Duke games, too) are always a good time because everyone is there because they love the game. No one is making any money off these games. More importantly, no one is losing any money on these games, so we're there just because we enjoy playing and are trying to learn and improve. In this respect, it's probably a good thing that we can't gamble for money. Once folks start losing thousands of yen during the games, we'll probably see the nasty comments, dark faces, and card flinging that other "real" games see.
I see in Bluejay's blog that Linda and Jan have already headed back home, but Mark, the new JPC Champ, is sticking around until Sunday. (Mary too, I assume.) He's going to be attending the Everest Cup game on Friday night, and they're considering going out for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) afterwards. His blog post title is "Poker while flower viewing?", which is an interesting mental picture.
If you're not familiar with hanami, it's very common in Japan when the cherry blossoms bloom for groups of friends or coworkers to go find an open stretch of ground someplace under a blooming tree (which is a challenge in itself sometimes) and bring food and drinks and admire the blossoms. Actually, what it usually turns into is a lot of Japanese salarymen getting totally wasted on beer and rice wine and getting loud an boisterous and maybe even remembering to look up at the tree once in a while. And I don't mean that in a bad way -- it can be great fun. Many of the parks in Tokyo with big stretches of cherry trees get absolutely packed during the bloom times. Some offices will send out their junior workers early in the day with tarps to stake out claims to good spots, then the rest of the office will show up in the evening to booze it up and enjoy themselves. It can be quite a party. Almost every time I have gone, there's usually at least one very plastered businessman who gets really boisterous and in a springtime mood and does a striptease for the merriment of his coworkers. Almost every time. And we're talking going all the way, using just his necktie as an impromptu loin cloth or a plastic drinking cup to hide the naughty bits.
Actually, considering this and the things I have seen under the cherry trees so far, a bunch of Japanese guys drinking and playing poker under the trees and forgetting to look up is not such an interesting mental image after all.
For those of you who can read Japanese, I found that someone has set up an RSS monitor page of most of the Japanese poker blogs, here. There are a lot of them. I read Japanese slowly and with some difficulty so I usually glance over there, but there are some interesting ones in there.
One which I found particularly interesting is ネカフェに出勤 ポーカーライフ ("Working at the Net Cafe - Poker Life"). It's written by a Japanese guy who had been working various parttime kind of jobs and then found his interest in poker could make him a similar wage. He quit his part time jobs and has been making his money from online poker. Not uncommon in the States but it's not common here that I know of! It's funny because he says he's renting a cheap apartment here in Tokyo for 50,000yen or so a month, but he has no internet access there. So instead he spends his days at internet cafes, playing online poker there! Which is not a bad environment, since most cafes have free soft drinks, books and comics, music, playstations and other games, and some even have showers and other living amenities for those stuck out after last-train-time and killing time until morning.
None of this comes for free, though, so he notes that he often spends more on his net cafe time charges than he does on his rent! That's impressive. He's still making enough to pay his living expenses, and is actually looking at moving to New Zealand for a while to do the same there. Hell, he's got the right idea - you can do this anywhere, so why stay in Tokyo? Go see the world!
Okay, yeah, maybe I am a bit envious.
It was actually Jan Fisher who gave me some quick coaching on box shuffling, not Linda Johnson. My bad. She's damn good at it, too. Mary doesn't box, she... strips, I think it's called, so she called over Jan as the boxing expert. Because I was pathetic at stripping, or whatever it was called.
Another note in Jan's favor (after my snarky comments in the last post), is that she noted in her talks how great it was to play with the Japanese players because everyone seems to be having fun and enjoying the game. It's true. The Ueno games (and the Duke games, too) are always a good time because everyone is there because they love the game. No one is making any money off these games. More importantly, no one is losing any money on these games, so we're there just because we enjoy playing and are trying to learn and improve. In this respect, it's probably a good thing that we can't gamble for money. Once folks start losing thousands of yen during the games, we'll probably see the nasty comments, dark faces, and card flinging that other "real" games see.
I see in Bluejay's blog that Linda and Jan have already headed back home, but Mark, the new JPC Champ, is sticking around until Sunday. (Mary too, I assume.) He's going to be attending the Everest Cup game on Friday night, and they're considering going out for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) afterwards. His blog post title is "Poker while flower viewing?", which is an interesting mental picture.
If you're not familiar with hanami, it's very common in Japan when the cherry blossoms bloom for groups of friends or coworkers to go find an open stretch of ground someplace under a blooming tree (which is a challenge in itself sometimes) and bring food and drinks and admire the blossoms. Actually, what it usually turns into is a lot of Japanese salarymen getting totally wasted on beer and rice wine and getting loud an boisterous and maybe even remembering to look up at the tree once in a while. And I don't mean that in a bad way -- it can be great fun. Many of the parks in Tokyo with big stretches of cherry trees get absolutely packed during the bloom times. Some offices will send out their junior workers early in the day with tarps to stake out claims to good spots, then the rest of the office will show up in the evening to booze it up and enjoy themselves. It can be quite a party. Almost every time I have gone, there's usually at least one very plastered businessman who gets really boisterous and in a springtime mood and does a striptease for the merriment of his coworkers. Almost every time. And we're talking going all the way, using just his necktie as an impromptu loin cloth or a plastic drinking cup to hide the naughty bits.
Actually, considering this and the things I have seen under the cherry trees so far, a bunch of Japanese guys drinking and playing poker under the trees and forgetting to look up is not such an interesting mental image after all.
For those of you who can read Japanese, I found that someone has set up an RSS monitor page of most of the Japanese poker blogs, here. There are a lot of them. I read Japanese slowly and with some difficulty so I usually glance over there, but there are some interesting ones in there.
One which I found particularly interesting is ネカフェに出勤 ポーカーライフ ("Working at the Net Cafe - Poker Life"). It's written by a Japanese guy who had been working various parttime kind of jobs and then found his interest in poker could make him a similar wage. He quit his part time jobs and has been making his money from online poker. Not uncommon in the States but it's not common here that I know of! It's funny because he says he's renting a cheap apartment here in Tokyo for 50,000yen or so a month, but he has no internet access there. So instead he spends his days at internet cafes, playing online poker there! Which is not a bad environment, since most cafes have free soft drinks, books and comics, music, playstations and other games, and some even have showers and other living amenities for those stuck out after last-train-time and killing time until morning.
None of this comes for free, though, so he notes that he often spends more on his net cafe time charges than he does on his rent! That's impressive. He's still making enough to pay his living expenses, and is actually looking at moving to New Zealand for a while to do the same there. Hell, he's got the right idea - you can do this anywhere, so why stay in Tokyo? Go see the world!
Okay, yeah, maybe I am a bit envious.
Monday, March 27, 2006
The Night Before
Friday night I met up with Tokyo's newest (white boy) poker blogger, Mike, to introduce him to the Japan Poker Player's Association poker room in the Ueno area, often referred to as simply "the Ueno Room" by local poker players.
Considering that there aren't any other poker rooms in town, they could probably just call it "The Room" and we would know what they meant.
The only other game in town that I know of is at Duke, a bar in the Nihonbashi area that I have described before. I think of it as "the Poker Bar". My friend J.P. will ask me "Room or Bar?" when I tell him I'm going out to play poker. Hopefully someday he'll have to ask me something a lot more complicated, but for now, that's it.
So anyhow, it was cool to meet up with Mike, who's out here for the Living In Japan adventure. I did the same thing, long time ago, and it made me smile. Somewhere along the line the adventure just became normal life, so it's nice to be reminded of what it was like to wrap things up in your home country, move halfway across the world to someplace bizarrely different in many ways, set up shop in a dingy rat-hole of a temporary apartment, and begin to struggle with the language and finding a place for yourself in a brand new society. Ah, those were the days.
Though several times over the course of the evening, I had to break out the old stand-by, "You know, back when I was a kid..."
as in...
"You know, back when I was a kid, gaijin houses didn't have internet access! I had to buy a converter RJ-11 jack to the headset of my borrowed PHS phone so I could use my laptop's mobile with dialup! Reception at my place was horrible, so I had to set my laptop on my bed and hold the mobile phone up to the window to get a signal, and had to type one-handed until the modem dropped out."
Damn kids today...
Ahem, where was it?
Anyhow, I showed Mike to the Ueno room and explained a bit about the weekly games they run there. It was already getting pretty busy as quite a few folks had shown up for the talks, and Linda and Jan showed up soon and started greeting the players they had met from previous years. I chatted a bit with Mark G's wife Mary, who works as a dealer and was quite friendly and outgoing. Jan also announced to everyone that the doctor who had treated her when she got very ill during last year's JPC, Dr. Yamaguchi, was there that evening and she gave her thanks for saving her life last year.
Bluejay showed up with another foreigner guest, but who was not introduced and who didn't really speak to anyone. I did a double-take - holy smokes, is that Jennifer Harman?! A second later I doubted it - she looked different than J.H. does on tv. I looked closer and started to get uncertain again. How many petite blondes with 1980s Meg Ryan hairstyles are likely to show up with Bluejay to visit his poker room? But no one said anything, no one freaked out, no one introduced themselves to her, so I just kept my mouth shut and waited for the talks to start.
The talks by the Card Player guests were very short. They were actually just a few minutes of off-the-cuff remarks, followed by a few questions from the Japanese audience. Linda Johnson did mention in the "Poker and Television" segment that they were starting a International Poker Tour tv show, with a set roster of 60 players visiting various locations worldwide for televised poker tournaments. Apparently Linda, Jan, Mark, and Hiroshi (Bluejay) are four of the players who will be in each of these events.
I whispered to Mike, "You think the tv audience can take another televised poker tour?" When I was back in the States over Christmas holidays, every time I turned on the tv I would find a poker tournament going on. It was pretty cool at first, but I got kind of sick of it after a while.
Mark and Mary spoke about being poker professionals, he as a player and she as a dealer (and player too, of course), which was interesting. Mary noted that she had done some of the dealing for the High Stakes Poker show, so I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her in future eps. Doyle-san asked a question at the end about how well the high-rollers in that game tipped the dealers. She made a non-committal reply, so I interjected another question, "Who got better tips, the dealers or those women you see walking back and forth in the background sometimes?" She laughed and replied, "Oh, those ladies did, by far! Doyle tipped them very well."
Something to consider if you are a hot lady in a slinky dress considering the life of a poker dealer.
Bluejay skipped his talk about "Japanese Players and Overseas Tournaments". Meg-Ryan-Haircut hung out in the back quietly and left soon afterwards.
So the talks ended pretty quickly and they switched to the dealer training portion of the evening. Linda and Mary each took one of the poker tables that were set up, and began going through all the processes of dealing poker, from the scrambles, shuffles, boxing, cutting, dealing, prompting players for their action, counting chips, figuring all-ins and multiple pots, and any other question about dealing that someone had. Quite a few of the players there act as dealers in the games, and some of them are quite good, but others seemed interested in all the techniques of a pro dealer, as if they planned to become dealers themselves. There are dealers schools in Japan, I know, but I am not sure how well attended they are since there's not a lot of demand for dealers here.
Bluejay was handling the translation at Linda's table, I believe, but there wasn't anyone handling Mary's table. Most of the Japanese can follow English to some extent, but not perfectly, so I sucked it up and tried my best as a translator. Everybody followed along, so that much worked out well.
After Mary went through it all, she encouraged some of those interested in dealing to give it a try. One of our regular amateur dealers gave it a go and managed it all pretty smoothly. One of the guys who looked like he was considering becoming a dealer also tried it out, did a reasonable job, and got some good tips from the professional. Then she suggested I give it a try. Uh... I had asked a question earlier on about how difficult it was nowadays to get work as a dealer, but I really had no intention of becoming a dealer myself! She might have got the wrong idea from my question, but I gave it a try anyhow.
Damn, the first time is not easy! The basic shuffle didn't give me problems, but I had never tried boxing and was hopeless at it. Linda came over with some expert coaching, and I improved somewhat, but would still need a huge amount of practice. I flung cards with too much arm movement, which Mary assured me would exhaust me in 30 minutes of real dealing. I got lost trying to follow whose action it was, and when two or three folks went all in and I had to figure the main and side pots, I felt dizzy and my brain was creaking.
It felt a bit like the first time I found myself in a HORSE game and had to learn all these new games quickly and shift from one to the other. My brain felt STRETCHED and my thinking slowed. Nowadays it gives me no problems, so I assume the dealing will eventually go a lot smoother as well.
So we played some loose and silly holdem for an hour or two to give people practice playing and dealing, then finished up and headed home at 11pm. The Card Player folks were still a bit jet-lagged, and everyone wanted to be well rested for the JPC tourney the next day.
Not much real poker for Mike, but maybe next time. Besides, he has internet at his gaijin house, so he can play online. Kids today are spoiled rotten.
Considering that there aren't any other poker rooms in town, they could probably just call it "The Room" and we would know what they meant.
The only other game in town that I know of is at Duke, a bar in the Nihonbashi area that I have described before. I think of it as "the Poker Bar". My friend J.P. will ask me "Room or Bar?" when I tell him I'm going out to play poker. Hopefully someday he'll have to ask me something a lot more complicated, but for now, that's it.
So anyhow, it was cool to meet up with Mike, who's out here for the Living In Japan adventure. I did the same thing, long time ago, and it made me smile. Somewhere along the line the adventure just became normal life, so it's nice to be reminded of what it was like to wrap things up in your home country, move halfway across the world to someplace bizarrely different in many ways, set up shop in a dingy rat-hole of a temporary apartment, and begin to struggle with the language and finding a place for yourself in a brand new society. Ah, those were the days.
Though several times over the course of the evening, I had to break out the old stand-by, "You know, back when I was a kid..."
as in...
"You know, back when I was a kid, gaijin houses didn't have internet access! I had to buy a converter RJ-11 jack to the headset of my borrowed PHS phone so I could use my laptop's mobile with dialup! Reception at my place was horrible, so I had to set my laptop on my bed and hold the mobile phone up to the window to get a signal, and had to type one-handed until the modem dropped out."
Damn kids today...
Ahem, where was it?
Anyhow, I showed Mike to the Ueno room and explained a bit about the weekly games they run there. It was already getting pretty busy as quite a few folks had shown up for the talks, and Linda and Jan showed up soon and started greeting the players they had met from previous years. I chatted a bit with Mark G's wife Mary, who works as a dealer and was quite friendly and outgoing. Jan also announced to everyone that the doctor who had treated her when she got very ill during last year's JPC, Dr. Yamaguchi, was there that evening and she gave her thanks for saving her life last year.
Bluejay showed up with another foreigner guest, but who was not introduced and who didn't really speak to anyone. I did a double-take - holy smokes, is that Jennifer Harman?! A second later I doubted it - she looked different than J.H. does on tv. I looked closer and started to get uncertain again. How many petite blondes with 1980s Meg Ryan hairstyles are likely to show up with Bluejay to visit his poker room? But no one said anything, no one freaked out, no one introduced themselves to her, so I just kept my mouth shut and waited for the talks to start.
The talks by the Card Player guests were very short. They were actually just a few minutes of off-the-cuff remarks, followed by a few questions from the Japanese audience. Linda Johnson did mention in the "Poker and Television" segment that they were starting a International Poker Tour tv show, with a set roster of 60 players visiting various locations worldwide for televised poker tournaments. Apparently Linda, Jan, Mark, and Hiroshi (Bluejay) are four of the players who will be in each of these events.
I whispered to Mike, "You think the tv audience can take another televised poker tour?" When I was back in the States over Christmas holidays, every time I turned on the tv I would find a poker tournament going on. It was pretty cool at first, but I got kind of sick of it after a while.
Mark and Mary spoke about being poker professionals, he as a player and she as a dealer (and player too, of course), which was interesting. Mary noted that she had done some of the dealing for the High Stakes Poker show, so I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her in future eps. Doyle-san asked a question at the end about how well the high-rollers in that game tipped the dealers. She made a non-committal reply, so I interjected another question, "Who got better tips, the dealers or those women you see walking back and forth in the background sometimes?" She laughed and replied, "Oh, those ladies did, by far! Doyle tipped them very well."
Something to consider if you are a hot lady in a slinky dress considering the life of a poker dealer.
Bluejay skipped his talk about "Japanese Players and Overseas Tournaments". Meg-Ryan-Haircut hung out in the back quietly and left soon afterwards.
So the talks ended pretty quickly and they switched to the dealer training portion of the evening. Linda and Mary each took one of the poker tables that were set up, and began going through all the processes of dealing poker, from the scrambles, shuffles, boxing, cutting, dealing, prompting players for their action, counting chips, figuring all-ins and multiple pots, and any other question about dealing that someone had. Quite a few of the players there act as dealers in the games, and some of them are quite good, but others seemed interested in all the techniques of a pro dealer, as if they planned to become dealers themselves. There are dealers schools in Japan, I know, but I am not sure how well attended they are since there's not a lot of demand for dealers here.
Bluejay was handling the translation at Linda's table, I believe, but there wasn't anyone handling Mary's table. Most of the Japanese can follow English to some extent, but not perfectly, so I sucked it up and tried my best as a translator. Everybody followed along, so that much worked out well.
After Mary went through it all, she encouraged some of those interested in dealing to give it a try. One of our regular amateur dealers gave it a go and managed it all pretty smoothly. One of the guys who looked like he was considering becoming a dealer also tried it out, did a reasonable job, and got some good tips from the professional. Then she suggested I give it a try. Uh... I had asked a question earlier on about how difficult it was nowadays to get work as a dealer, but I really had no intention of becoming a dealer myself! She might have got the wrong idea from my question, but I gave it a try anyhow.
Damn, the first time is not easy! The basic shuffle didn't give me problems, but I had never tried boxing and was hopeless at it. Linda came over with some expert coaching, and I improved somewhat, but would still need a huge amount of practice. I flung cards with too much arm movement, which Mary assured me would exhaust me in 30 minutes of real dealing. I got lost trying to follow whose action it was, and when two or three folks went all in and I had to figure the main and side pots, I felt dizzy and my brain was creaking.
It felt a bit like the first time I found myself in a HORSE game and had to learn all these new games quickly and shift from one to the other. My brain felt STRETCHED and my thinking slowed. Nowadays it gives me no problems, so I assume the dealing will eventually go a lot smoother as well.
So we played some loose and silly holdem for an hour or two to give people practice playing and dealing, then finished up and headed home at 11pm. The Card Player folks were still a bit jet-lagged, and everyone wanted to be well rested for the JPC tourney the next day.
Not much real poker for Mike, but maybe next time. Besides, he has internet at his gaijin house, so he can play online. Kids today are spoiled rotten.
JPC2006 -- Not
After all that build-up, I did not attend the 2006 Japan Poker Championship.
My girlfriend got pretty sick on Friday, with a fever and cough, I discovered when I got home. She had gone to bed early, so I climbed in with her and in the morning asked how she was doing. She still felt pretty awful, obviously, so I decided to skip the tournament and stay home with her.
The decision was pretty easy. I figured myself as dead money in the tournament anyhow, so attending would have left me 10,000yen poorer. It would have been interesting to play with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Mark Gregovich, but would it have been worth 10,000yen? Not really. (Not to diss the Card Player folks that came out from the States, but sick girlfriend comes first. This is how it should be.)
I checked the JPPA web site, and it looks like Mark Gregovich took first. Linda, Jan, and Mary all placed pretty well, but that foreign devil Mark won it. I have to grind my teeth - I really wanted a Japanese to win it and show that there are some damn good poker players here. One or two comments that Jan made on Friday night kind of stuck in my craw, about how the foreigners couldn't compete in the JPC last year because of her illness, so a Japanese won. But they were back this year to win it. It was spoken mostly in jest, but it still smacked of an arrogance I would have been happy to see thwarted.
It didn't happen, obviously, so maybe they were justified in that confidence. Still... woulda been nice.
I was very surprised to see that the first player out was "kugatsu", a very strong, solid player here who inspires a good deal of fear and respect from the other players at the JPPA. Wish I had around to see what happened - it must have been something like Kings versus Aces in the early hands and it didn't turn out well for him.
Anyhow, my begruding congratulations to Mark G for his victory. I hope they come back next year, 'cause I'll be gunning for them!
My girlfriend got pretty sick on Friday, with a fever and cough, I discovered when I got home. She had gone to bed early, so I climbed in with her and in the morning asked how she was doing. She still felt pretty awful, obviously, so I decided to skip the tournament and stay home with her.
The decision was pretty easy. I figured myself as dead money in the tournament anyhow, so attending would have left me 10,000yen poorer. It would have been interesting to play with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Mark Gregovich, but would it have been worth 10,000yen? Not really. (Not to diss the Card Player folks that came out from the States, but sick girlfriend comes first. This is how it should be.)
I checked the JPPA web site, and it looks like Mark Gregovich took first. Linda, Jan, and Mary all placed pretty well, but that foreign devil Mark won it. I have to grind my teeth - I really wanted a Japanese to win it and show that there are some damn good poker players here. One or two comments that Jan made on Friday night kind of stuck in my craw, about how the foreigners couldn't compete in the JPC last year because of her illness, so a Japanese won. But they were back this year to win it. It was spoken mostly in jest, but it still smacked of an arrogance I would have been happy to see thwarted.
It didn't happen, obviously, so maybe they were justified in that confidence. Still... woulda been nice.
I was very surprised to see that the first player out was "kugatsu", a very strong, solid player here who inspires a good deal of fear and respect from the other players at the JPPA. Wish I had around to see what happened - it must have been something like Kings versus Aces in the early hands and it didn't turn out well for him.
Anyhow, my begruding congratulations to Mark G for his victory. I hope they come back next year, 'cause I'll be gunning for them!
Friday, March 24, 2006
SNG
I did manage to get in a Sit And Go last night, as a bit of practice. I took a $5 SNG on Stars, since I didn't find any $5 games I liked on FTP. (The low limit ones seem to be mostly Turbo games, which is fine some days but not what I am after now.)
The SNG was great fun, and not just because I took first and stroked my fragile ego. Stars SNGs just feel better. Deeper stacks and better players. More interesting situations and real decision making. It feels more like real poker than the crazy push-fests you find on some sites. Kind of like playing in a blogger tourney - it's a tougher game, but it's more fun because people have a better idea what they are doing.
In one of the books I read (I think it was Zen and the Art of Poker), I found something that has been extremely helpful in learning how to observe online players, especially in SNGs. Unfortunately I am too dependent on PokerTracker to do this for me online, and when it comes to live play, I am pretty clueless. The tip is, verbally narrate the game as you play it, as if you're the tv or radio announcer for the game, describing the action to the viewers. This really works for me, although I only do this when I am playing tournaments right after work but before my GF gets home. If she routinely finds me talking, talking, talking to myself while alone in my computer room playing online poker, she might have me committed.
Anyhow, I think I played well in the SNG, encouraging me that I may have a reasonable chance in the JPC game tomorrow. The table was pretty passive at the start, and I found I could limp in with speculative hands and then bet aggressively after the flop and often take the pot regardless of my cards. A couple of players were eliminated, and chip leaders status was passed back and forth many times.
At one point I had taken a substantial chip lead, so I raised 3BB from the CO with 10-3 of diamonds to put some pressure on the blinds. Just the small blind called, with a bit less than half my stack. The flop came J-A-A, two diamonds. SB checked, and I made a half-pot bet to try to see if he had an ace or jack or would give it up immediately. In retrospect, probably a mistake -- should have just taken my free card to try to make my flush. But I felt that if I checked there, he'd bet strongly on the turn and I'd half to fold my hand in fear of either an ace or jack.
So I bet 350, and he immediately raises to 1750, all-in. Whoops. Guess he has an ace or jack.
I was going to fold it, but then stopped to look at my pot odds. Since it was an all-in, I could call and get two more cards to try to complete my flush. I hit the time bank button and grabbed my calculator and odds sheet. There was about 3100 chips in the pot, and I had to call 1400, so I was getting a bit more than 2 to 1 odds. My odds chart showed me with about 1.86 to 1 odds to make my flush with two cards to come, so I was getting the odds. As well, I had the chance to eliminate another player, and I would still have a reasonable stack if I lost, so I made the call.
He flipped over A-8, confirming what I already knew, and I crossed my fingers.
Turn was 5 of hearts. I took a deep breath.
River was 8 of diamonds! Yes!
Oh wait. No. He took the pot with his full house.
So I still need to learn to account for such things. The eight of diamonds was not an actual out for me, so I only had 8 outs instead of 9. According to PT, I checked later, I still had the odds with 8 outs, so I'm still content with my decision.
I hung in there, and it came down to four players, all of us fairly evenly stacked. It went back and forth many times, bet-fold or bet-raise-fold. I was enjoying it - this was good patience training for me, though one of the players, who I had tagged in my mind as a frat boy by his icon for a college sports team and general demeanor, started to complain about how this was boring him.
I ignored it and kept playing the same. I wasn't going to do something stupid and get knocked out now. It wasn't that I was on the bubble, it was that losing patience and making a bad move, something I knew in my gut was the wrong play, is a mistake I frequently make that knocks me out of the game right when it starts to look like I could make a decent showing.
Finally, several hands later, I am dealt pocket Jacks on the button. UTG (not frat boy) goes all-in, and I have him barely covered, so I call. The other players stand clear, and he turns over Td-4d. There are two fives on the flop, and I catch a third Jack on the turn for a totally unneccessary full house to break the bubble.
Guess he saw my location and doesn't believe where I live.
The next hand, the other non-frat-boy player goes all-in, and I find As-Ks. I call, and he shows A-8 offsuit. I pair my King and send him home too. I am heads up with Frat Boy.
This is either somewhat flattering or fairly disturbing. Or both.
Actually I think he had been getting upset by my fairly aggressive play so far, and had sworn revenge. The smack talk began.
During this time we went back and forth but didn't get into any major pots or hurt each other much, though he was starting to catch up with my stack. I was actually starting to get a bit paranoid, since I was being dealt some pretty good cards while in the big blind but never got any action, as he would fold immediately. J-K. Then pocket queens. Then pocket Kings! Come on, man, call me!
Shit, is my machine hacked? Can he see my cards? I open up Task Manager to look for unfamiliar processes. All looks normal. Behind the Task Manager window I see I have another hand. A-10 of clubs. I call, and Frat Boy jumps all-in. A-10 is not bad headsup, I figure, so I call. He has A-6 offsuit. A ten comes on the flop, and an Ace on the River, and I take first place.
It felt good. I should do this more often.
The SNG was great fun, and not just because I took first and stroked my fragile ego. Stars SNGs just feel better. Deeper stacks and better players. More interesting situations and real decision making. It feels more like real poker than the crazy push-fests you find on some sites. Kind of like playing in a blogger tourney - it's a tougher game, but it's more fun because people have a better idea what they are doing.
In one of the books I read (I think it was Zen and the Art of Poker), I found something that has been extremely helpful in learning how to observe online players, especially in SNGs. Unfortunately I am too dependent on PokerTracker to do this for me online, and when it comes to live play, I am pretty clueless. The tip is, verbally narrate the game as you play it, as if you're the tv or radio announcer for the game, describing the action to the viewers. This really works for me, although I only do this when I am playing tournaments right after work but before my GF gets home. If she routinely finds me talking, talking, talking to myself while alone in my computer room playing online poker, she might have me committed.
Anyhow, I think I played well in the SNG, encouraging me that I may have a reasonable chance in the JPC game tomorrow. The table was pretty passive at the start, and I found I could limp in with speculative hands and then bet aggressively after the flop and often take the pot regardless of my cards. A couple of players were eliminated, and chip leaders status was passed back and forth many times.
At one point I had taken a substantial chip lead, so I raised 3BB from the CO with 10-3 of diamonds to put some pressure on the blinds. Just the small blind called, with a bit less than half my stack. The flop came J-A-A, two diamonds. SB checked, and I made a half-pot bet to try to see if he had an ace or jack or would give it up immediately. In retrospect, probably a mistake -- should have just taken my free card to try to make my flush. But I felt that if I checked there, he'd bet strongly on the turn and I'd half to fold my hand in fear of either an ace or jack.
So I bet 350, and he immediately raises to 1750, all-in. Whoops. Guess he has an ace or jack.
I was going to fold it, but then stopped to look at my pot odds. Since it was an all-in, I could call and get two more cards to try to complete my flush. I hit the time bank button and grabbed my calculator and odds sheet. There was about 3100 chips in the pot, and I had to call 1400, so I was getting a bit more than 2 to 1 odds. My odds chart showed me with about 1.86 to 1 odds to make my flush with two cards to come, so I was getting the odds. As well, I had the chance to eliminate another player, and I would still have a reasonable stack if I lost, so I made the call.
He flipped over A-8, confirming what I already knew, and I crossed my fingers.
Turn was 5 of hearts. I took a deep breath.
River was 8 of diamonds! Yes!
Oh wait. No. He took the pot with his full house.
So I still need to learn to account for such things. The eight of diamonds was not an actual out for me, so I only had 8 outs instead of 9. According to PT, I checked later, I still had the odds with 8 outs, so I'm still content with my decision.
I hung in there, and it came down to four players, all of us fairly evenly stacked. It went back and forth many times, bet-fold or bet-raise-fold. I was enjoying it - this was good patience training for me, though one of the players, who I had tagged in my mind as a frat boy by his icon for a college sports team and general demeanor, started to complain about how this was boring him.
jrayuofl said, "no battles"
jrayuofl said, "all of u guys have had the same stacks for a while"
jrayuofl said, "bet raise fold"
jrayuofl said, "fk it this blows"
JONROBBY42 said, "you keep folding too pudd"
JONROBBY42 said, "you aint called a hand cause your short and on the bubble"
jrayuofl said, "im not raiseing then folding"
I ignored it and kept playing the same. I wasn't going to do something stupid and get knocked out now. It wasn't that I was on the bubble, it was that losing patience and making a bad move, something I knew in my gut was the wrong play, is a mistake I frequently make that knocks me out of the game right when it starts to look like I could make a decent showing.
JamesAt15 said, "everybody get comfortable"
JamesAt15: folds
JamesAt15 said, "we're gonna be here a while"
Finally, several hands later, I am dealt pocket Jacks on the button. UTG (not frat boy) goes all-in, and I have him barely covered, so I call. The other players stand clear, and he turns over Td-4d. There are two fives on the flop, and I catch a third Jack on the turn for a totally unneccessary full house to break the bubble.
jrayuofl said, "tokyo my ***"
jrayuofl said, "i will destroy u"
Guess he saw my location and doesn't believe where I live.
The next hand, the other non-frat-boy player goes all-in, and I find As-Ks. I call, and he shows A-8 offsuit. I pair my King and send him home too. I am heads up with Frat Boy.
jrayuofl said, "wanted u all night"
This is either somewhat flattering or fairly disturbing. Or both.
Actually I think he had been getting upset by my fairly aggressive play so far, and had sworn revenge. The smack talk began.
jrayuofl said, "lol good try wise guy"
jrayuofl said, "i own you"
jrayuofl said, "you noit"
jrayuofl said, "tilt"
jrayuofl said, "2nd aint bad man"
jrayuofl said, "pays 13 50"
During this time we went back and forth but didn't get into any major pots or hurt each other much, though he was starting to catch up with my stack. I was actually starting to get a bit paranoid, since I was being dealt some pretty good cards while in the big blind but never got any action, as he would fold immediately. J-K. Then pocket queens. Then pocket Kings! Come on, man, call me!
Shit, is my machine hacked? Can he see my cards? I open up Task Manager to look for unfamiliar processes. All looks normal. Behind the Task Manager window I see I have another hand. A-10 of clubs. I call, and Frat Boy jumps all-in. A-10 is not bad headsup, I figure, so I call. He has A-6 offsuit. A ten comes on the flop, and an Ace on the River, and I take first place.
It felt good. I should do this more often.
Traffic
It's a little disheartening to see that most traffic to my blog comes from random people clicking the "Next Blog" or "Recent Updates" buttons on blogger.com. If only I were more interesting...
Maybe I should just start regularly posting pics of cute Japanese girls.
Maybe I should just start regularly posting pics of cute Japanese girls.
Tonight!
I'm off to the JPPA tonight for the Night-Before-The-2006-Japan-Poker-Championship party! I'll also be meeting up with Tokyo's newest poker blogger, since it seems like a good opportunity to introduce him to the thriving (THRIVING!) poker culture here.
Tonight the Card Player guests will give several talks. Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher will be speaking on "Poker and Television", Mark Gregovich will be speaking on "Poker Players", and Bluejay will be speaking with an unnamed foreigner guest on "Japanese players and overseas poker tournaments".
That last one certainly piques my interest. Bluejay seems to know quite a few name poker pros, and has said that some of them have expressed interest in coming to visit Japan. I won't get my hopes up too high, but I am very curious who the secret guest could be.
I told Mike that "a poker game might even break out" after the talks, but I'm not sure how likely that really is. Sounds like we'll have a busy evening already, and Bluejay may have plans to go out with the foreigner guests afterwards. We'll see. I have already warned my GF that I'll be out late, so if plans at the poker room dry up, Roppongi beckons. If Mike hasn't been, someone's gotta take him. It's a moral imperative. He's a foreigner guy in Tokyo... he's gotta go to Roppongi! It's in The Code!
Tonight the Card Player guests will give several talks. Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher will be speaking on "Poker and Television", Mark Gregovich will be speaking on "Poker Players", and Bluejay will be speaking with an unnamed foreigner guest on "Japanese players and overseas poker tournaments".
That last one certainly piques my interest. Bluejay seems to know quite a few name poker pros, and has said that some of them have expressed interest in coming to visit Japan. I won't get my hopes up too high, but I am very curious who the secret guest could be.
I told Mike that "a poker game might even break out" after the talks, but I'm not sure how likely that really is. Sounds like we'll have a busy evening already, and Bluejay may have plans to go out with the foreigner guests afterwards. We'll see. I have already warned my GF that I'll be out late, so if plans at the poker room dry up, Roppongi beckons. If Mike hasn't been, someone's gotta take him. It's a moral imperative. He's a foreigner guy in Tokyo... he's gotta go to Roppongi! It's in The Code!
Taxes.
I was hoping to play a bunch of SNGs and small tourneys this week, but it didn't work out that way. Work and taxes have kept me busy.
Taxes turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought they would be. Up until now my company has done the tax return for me, which sounds like it is very common here in Japan. But since I bought an apartment this year, our company accountant said I'd have to do it myself.
Naturally I put it off... and put it off... and put it off. I dread taxes in general, and particular dread trying to work out how to do the taxes in Japanese. And I dreaded having to call my realtor or the tax offices and struggle with my lacking Japanese to try to find out what I needed and how to get it. And I am a procrastinator to begin with, so the chances of my taking the initiative and getting these done were about the same as Ichiro deciding to give up baseball in favor of coaching the Japanese Olympic women's curling team.
My GF reminded me several times over the last few weeks. I kept saying, "yeah, okay, I will do it," and then putting it off again. Finally, the March 15 deadline loomed up and she turned on Nag Mode. I resented it, of course, but it's what I needed. That's me, Mr. Passive-Aggressive.
We were planning to go to the tax office on the 15th (the deadline day!) and work through it with their tax planners, but the web site showed that they were expecting huge crowds that day. (Imagine that!) My GF called them and they actually said it was okay to come in a few days later. Damn nice of them! So we did.
I was near stunned at how easy it was. We went in to the tax office the day afterwards and went to the Tax Guidance area, and were quickly shown to a table with the relevent documents all spread out and an employee quickly sat down with us to work through it. We had brought the tax documents we thought we needed, but quickly found that we needed more documentation about the apartment purchase. The tax official gave us the list of documents we needed, and maps to the office where I could pick them up. He also went through the statement and worked out all the figures for us, pencilling them in. "All right, now, all you have to do is bring back those two forms, turn this in, and you're done."
This is what I had been dreading?
I had to wait a few more days to get another free morning to hit the real estate registration office, also straightforward. Back to the tax office, where another official quickly checked though all the paperwork, confirmed the figures were all correct, told me to write over them in pen, and then sent me on to turn them in. Took all of 20 minutes. According to the official, I should get my refund (deposited directly into my bank account) in less than a month.
Color me impressed, and very sheepish. I could have done this two months ago, easy.
Taxes turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought they would be. Up until now my company has done the tax return for me, which sounds like it is very common here in Japan. But since I bought an apartment this year, our company accountant said I'd have to do it myself.
Naturally I put it off... and put it off... and put it off. I dread taxes in general, and particular dread trying to work out how to do the taxes in Japanese. And I dreaded having to call my realtor or the tax offices and struggle with my lacking Japanese to try to find out what I needed and how to get it. And I am a procrastinator to begin with, so the chances of my taking the initiative and getting these done were about the same as Ichiro deciding to give up baseball in favor of coaching the Japanese Olympic women's curling team.
My GF reminded me several times over the last few weeks. I kept saying, "yeah, okay, I will do it," and then putting it off again. Finally, the March 15 deadline loomed up and she turned on Nag Mode. I resented it, of course, but it's what I needed. That's me, Mr. Passive-Aggressive.
We were planning to go to the tax office on the 15th (the deadline day!) and work through it with their tax planners, but the web site showed that they were expecting huge crowds that day. (Imagine that!) My GF called them and they actually said it was okay to come in a few days later. Damn nice of them! So we did.
I was near stunned at how easy it was. We went in to the tax office the day afterwards and went to the Tax Guidance area, and were quickly shown to a table with the relevent documents all spread out and an employee quickly sat down with us to work through it. We had brought the tax documents we thought we needed, but quickly found that we needed more documentation about the apartment purchase. The tax official gave us the list of documents we needed, and maps to the office where I could pick them up. He also went through the statement and worked out all the figures for us, pencilling them in. "All right, now, all you have to do is bring back those two forms, turn this in, and you're done."
This is what I had been dreading?
I had to wait a few more days to get another free morning to hit the real estate registration office, also straightforward. Back to the tax office, where another official quickly checked though all the paperwork, confirmed the figures were all correct, told me to write over them in pen, and then sent me on to turn them in. Took all of 20 minutes. According to the official, I should get my refund (deposited directly into my bank account) in less than a month.
Color me impressed, and very sheepish. I could have done this two months ago, easy.
Monday, March 20, 2006
2006 JPC -- Next weekend!
My god, the 2006 JPC is this Saturday!
As I wrote before, several writers from Card Player Magazine, all friends of Bluejay, are coming out this week to play in the JPC and give talks and answer questions. Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher, who have come for JPC before, are returning, and this time around Mark Gregorich is attending as well.
Yesterday I logged onto the JPPA web page and registered to play. I won one of the Everest Cup tourneys a few months back (the iPod nano I received for first place almost never leaves my side), so I have the right to play. But the tournament fee is 10,000 yen, or around $85, which is the largest tourney buy-in I'll have ever put up. And I feel very much like dead money. But ah well, maybe I'll get lucky!
All this week I will be re-reading my Harrington volume 1 (and volume 2 if I get to it), and playing SNGs and small tourneys in the evening to try to prepare. I don't think it will make much difference, but it will be better than going in cold.
Friday night the Card Player guys will be doing some talks and Q&A, so I will try to make that session as well. The JPC starts at noon on Saturday, and will probably take most of the day. First place receives the custom 2006 JPC bracelet, and travel coupons worth 50,000yen. (Enough to put a decent dent into your next trip to Vegas.) Second through fifth pay out with travel coupons, down to 10,000yen for fifth. Me, I will be happy if I can outlast half the field.
As I wrote before, several writers from Card Player Magazine, all friends of Bluejay, are coming out this week to play in the JPC and give talks and answer questions. Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher, who have come for JPC before, are returning, and this time around Mark Gregorich is attending as well.
Yesterday I logged onto the JPPA web page and registered to play. I won one of the Everest Cup tourneys a few months back (the iPod nano I received for first place almost never leaves my side), so I have the right to play. But the tournament fee is 10,000 yen, or around $85, which is the largest tourney buy-in I'll have ever put up. And I feel very much like dead money. But ah well, maybe I'll get lucky!
All this week I will be re-reading my Harrington volume 1 (and volume 2 if I get to it), and playing SNGs and small tourneys in the evening to try to prepare. I don't think it will make much difference, but it will be better than going in cold.
Friday night the Card Player guys will be doing some talks and Q&A, so I will try to make that session as well. The JPC starts at noon on Saturday, and will probably take most of the day. First place receives the custom 2006 JPC bracelet, and travel coupons worth 50,000yen. (Enough to put a decent dent into your next trip to Vegas.) Second through fifth pay out with travel coupons, down to 10,000yen for fifth. Me, I will be happy if I can outlast half the field.
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