Sunday, January 30, 2005

Boomer, Snapper and THE BROOM...

Posted by Al Pastor

01/30/05 Oaks Club $3-6 Hold 'em

1:45-3:45 PM
In $80 Out $46
-$36

5:15-5:45 PM
In $60 Out $2
-$58

Hours Played 2005: 33.75
YTD:-$146

Got a late start this morning. Woke up late and spent a long time in the bathtub trying to finish The Broom Of The System, or at least get within striking distance of finishing it. After getting coffee going to the bank and buying a slice of red onion/sage/mozzarella/pumpkin seed pesto pizza, it was well after one before I got on the lists.

Boomer, whose name is often shortened to Boo and who always asks me how to spell my name, BRAD, put me down, at my request, for $2-4 and $3-6 Hold 'em. Hold 'em, as I will elaborate at length in a future installment of these chronicles, is the most fascinating and elegant form of the poker, which is itself the most fascinating of all games. It is also the most popular form at the moment, with its no limit variety enjoying a mainstream trendiness as a television spectator sport. I prefer the limit variety, which, if we follow the metaphor that says money is the language of the game, I would say makes the limit game something like having a conversation, a debate or flirtation or argument, where the no-limit starts to seem like yelling at each other. This is what the $2-4/$3-6 refers to, the limits; there are four rounds of betting with bets and raises in the first two rounds being $2 or $3 and $4 or $6 on the third and fourth rounds. At the Oaks Club, which is where I usually play, and where I played today, they spread games as low as $1-$2, which a player can buy into with as little as $20. This is far and away the lowest limit poker game I have ever seen in casino. Consequently, the $3-6 game, which in most casinos would be the smallest game available, has the status of being a sort-of big game. I am trying to make the transition to this game,the $3-6 as my main game, and it is indeed what I got called for today.

Boomer, by the way, goes about 350 and is 6 and a half feet tall. He has snowy hair and wears thick glasses. He usually doesn't work the board. He is different from the other floor men (floor men, change girls; when there is a boy change girl, and there occasionally is, he is called "change runner," when there is a lady floor man, and there are a few, she is called "floor"), who are mostly tall white guys with sharp, kind of amused looks on their faces and keen eyes. Boomer is sort of cuddly, like a brachiosaurus. My favorite floorman, based solely on his name, is Kingfish.
I played ok. Lots of shitty little pocket pairs, none of which connected. Played for about two hours, early I sat near my nemesis The Cowboy (whose name I found out today is E-, but who shall remain The Cowboy in these installments), who no thanks to me, went broke pretty quickly after I sat down. At quarter to 4 I took a break and went to the Louisiana Fish & Chips and consumed some fried snapper and a few more pages of the Broom. When I came back after eating, I got seated at the same table I left. I played ok. pretty aggressively. but next to nothing was coming through. Had a fair number, enough, certainly, of hands I had to play aggressively, and might have gone too deep with some of them, and not very many of them came through.

I will play again on Wednesday, and report back.

Check out rules for Texas Hold 'em, the general rank of poker hands and so many more poker resources than anyone could possibly need at www.twoplustwo.com.

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