Home, Mohegan, and a new paint job for my car

My R&R odyssey was completed last Saturday in just about the minimum time possible for the mid tour leave program. I would like to say a very big Thank You to the passengers on the Atlanta to Hartford flight who gave up their first class seats for soldiers coming home on leave. We all had spent about 4 days in transit, including a 15+ hour flight from Kuwait to Atlanta via Germany. Your kindness is certainly appreciated.

Saturday afternoon was spent running errands, re-stocking my condo with the essentials, and a new iPhone - yay.

Sunday morning I called Wonka, asking where everyone was watching football, and we decided Mohegan Sun was a good place to both watch the games and play some cards. We arrive about 1pm and get seats at seperate tables after a short wait. I hover between +100 and -100 for a couple hours until I run Aces Full into Aces Full. I had played with my oponnent before, and we both knew it was going to be a split pot on the turn. The board was A3A3 and after a series of value re-raises we both said "Ace" with the intent of moving along to the next hand. Both hands are tabled and there was no more action. Funny thing is neither of us were paying attention, nor was was the dealer. She split up the pot and was about to pass it to each of us when she flipped the river. She was about to muck all the cards when someone from the other end of the table who was not in the hand said the other guy hit his low card and has a bigger boat. -200 for me, ouch.

I take a break and reload up to full buy in. I still had a little over a hundred left, but want to have a full stack to play with rather than play a short stack game.

After the Pats game, Wonka moved over to my table. I had planned on leaving early but a few more hours passed and it was after midnight - 8am Iraq time. I made some good reads vs a couple of AK donkeys building my stack to about 1200. Wonka had been drinking Crown and Cokes all day. I finally dragged him away from the table about 2am, thanks for the nice streak of puke out my window on the highway.

Coming home

I am coming home on leave for 15 days sometime next week. I should be back for a few days before Thanksgiving, and for a week or so afterwards.

Almost no poker for me where I am at. Managed to walk into a random game with some of the PRT cats a couple weeks ago, but it was very social, and an extremely deep structure. 8 players, 2000 in chips and 1/2 blinds to start. Everybody was seeing every flop and calling the entire way down. 6 players to a showdown, and you can imagine how frustrating that type of play is.

We talk about getting a regular game going with a select group, but never manage to get the game off the ground. Something always comes up - there is still a war going on after all...

I see there is a Winter Vegas event scheduled, but unfortunately I will be back in country by the time it kicks off. Too bad, I am so jonesing for Vegas. I doubt that I will be able to play any online poker while I am home. My house has been closed up and everything shut off. That being said, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are both on my target list.

Booom!

No, not that type of Boom!

Played in the Free MWR game this past week and came in second place. No prize for first.


As expected with no reward and no investment the game was horrendous. I would imagine the low stakes / free online games would play better than this. 30 minutes into the game 4 players call a 4 bet and go to the flop. 872 rainbow. Check around to the 4 better. He pushes (AK donkey), next player pushes (QQ), third player pushes (77), 4th player pushes (22); last player calls (85o). Turn is an 8, river is a 5. The result is me and my linguist friend are now 3 handed versus SGT 85o. Too easy.

Still no poker

I have not played any poker since the "for fun" game a couple weeks ago. There have have been a few whispers of a game, hopefully I can get myself an invite. Work has been business as usual for the most part over here, although things are definitely changing post June 30th. You wouldn't know it from the media, but the Iraqis are definitely taking the lead and moving forward. Overall this is an entirely different experience than last time I was here.

Broke my camera a couple days ago, the view screen is cracked limiting the functionality of it. I am probably going to get a new one at the PX, I just hate shelling out cash for something that is sure to get messed up in this environment. The sand and dust gets into everything.



. . The Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders were here for an appearance.


This is the last photo taken before my camera broke:

Poker in Iraq

Getting a real game going is probably going to be impossible. There is a Sunday night game at the MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) tent. Last week I walked over there and there were only 6 names on the list and no prize for the winner other than a certificate. During my last deployment the MWR game had prizes such as a $50 PX card or phone card. Not that I ever had time to play.

There is this policy in Iraq called General Order Number One. It prohibits all sorts of activities, including gambling. I am sure there are games going on here and there but the risk is far greater than the reward. I would rather not face a letter of reprimand (or worse) for conduct unbecoming than play in a $5 game.

A few nights ago one of my neighbors had a small for fun only game in his trailer. We had 4 players (which sucks), 2 of whom had never played before. They were all US-Arab linguists, and there was no chance of enforcing the "English only at the table" rule.

One of the players is a regular in the San Diego area card rooms and plays in Vegas on a frequent basis. So he and I were teaching the new players about the game. We played for a couple hours NLHE tournament style. Of course the 2 players who had never played won the games. I did make a nice laydown in a hand vs the experienced players. Action as follows:

I over bet the pot pre-flop with AA in the BB. Everyone calls. Pot the flop JT2 and only the experienced player stays. I look at him and figure he is strong, but lead out for 2/3 on the turn. He says all-in. I tell him his 2 pair was good, and fold my aces face up, he shows his 2 pair JT.

At least I was able to play a little, even if it was just for fun. Maybe I will check out the MWR game again tonight.

Shamal

For the past few days there have been some minor shamals or sandstorms in the afternoon and evening. Normally the sky would turn orange-ish and there would be a fair amount of sand flying around, just enough to be an annoyance. Yesterday afternoon it seemed a little stronger than the previous days. This picture doesn't do it justice, but from from the time we entered the chow hall and finished eating the sun had been blotted out and you could not see more than 5-10 feet in front of you.


What is normally a 5-10 minute walk took about 25 minutes blind, and everyone was coated with a thick layer of dusty sand. Think about your normal north eastern snow storm and change the nice fluffy flakes to flying beach sand. Some of the local Iraqis said they had not seen one like that for 20 years.

Greetings from Al Anbar

I finally made it to what could be called home for my second tour in Iraq. So far I have spent a week living in tent city in Kuwait conducting mandatory in country training and briefings. Follow that up with another week in the transient tents at Camp Victory coordinating with higher and waiting on a helo.

Last week I arrived at the place where I can dump my duffel bags out and begin a year of groundhog days. Welcome to Camp Ramadi. This is what it looks like:

All we need is a some neon lights, a few casinos, and someone to hand out flyers for hookers to make this place the Vegas of the middle east!

Welcome to Kuwait

I have been here for a few days now. Imagine feeling the rush of hot air when you open an oven and that is how it feels all the time here. Over a 100 degrees before 8am.

So far it has been Army business as usual here. Training on various military tasks, much of it death by powerpoint, and of course drinking water like a horse. Everyone is looking forward to heading up north as soon as possible.

This is my new transient quarters:


Tents like this are lined up in every direction.

Does anyone know when exactly the BBT4 TOC is? Will we be auto magically registered for it?

My new pad

This is my quarters for the next month or so. A stylish 10 x 10 room fitted with 2 double bunks, a couple of lockers and chipped paint peeling from the walls. A first class upgrade compared to the open bay WWII-era barracks I lived in last time. Luckily my roomate has a Sprint Internet card so a crossover cable allows me to leech his bandwidth.


No, I do not have to make my bed.

Justification for my bad play

As I said in game chat. My apologies in advance for all the gross suckouts I may inflict before I leave this weekend. As Smokkee put it, I have been running like Zeus.

There is never really justification for terrible play but I do have other things on my mind.

In a few days I will be back on active duty preparing for my second tour in Iraq.

I expect to be at Fort Dix NJ for about a month before going overseas. If I can somehow manage a weekend pass, I do plan on heading to AC, since I have never been there.

When I am over there I will try to post some updates within the boundaries of OPSEC.

Got a letter in the mail ...

You are ordered to Active Duty as a member of your Reserve Component unit for the period indicated unless sooner released or unless extended. Proceed from your current location in sufficient time to report by the date specified. You enter active duty upon reporting to unit home station.

Operation Iraqi Freedom tour of duty number two coming up.


This must be why I have been running like Zeus.

Close but no Cigar

I have had jury duty all this week. #75 on the list, and the damn lawyers manage to excuse 61 people just so I could be the last one to sit. Lucky seat #7.

In the Skillz game I made the FT but got KOed in 4th place. I managed to put a bad beat on Don when he limped with 33 5 handed. I complete the small blind with 87. Flop 773, and we 4 bet the turn when a deuce comes. It's not like I am folding without a fight here, but the 4 bet had me concerned. Of course I run like Zeus (Thanks Smokkee) and another duece saved me on the river.

It was all downhill after that, though I managed to KO F-train with Ace-rag vs QJ in a battle of the blinds.

Mookie tomorrow (today) night!

The big pot I took off of Wonka

I wasn't going to say anything, but since Dave asked here goes:

On Thursday of last week, Wonka called me about 7 pm and twisted my arm into going to Foxwoods. At first I said no, but my arm is made of rubber. 23 minutes later we were on the road headed south.

We arrive around 8:30 which is essentially the beginning of prime time for a week night. There is open seating and I pick my table. I am initially in the 7 seat and Wonka is at another table. There are 2 solids to my left, with about $500 each and a big stack with about $1000 to my immediate right. There is a crazian at the other end of the table losing large pots on missed flush draws every other hand. I made the mistake of buying in short for $150 before I doubled up with AK. 5 players to the flop after a $15 raise by me. Flop AK3 rainbow, 3 players call my $40 bet on the flop, big stack pushes on the turn when another Ace comes. Aces full of Kings vs Aces full of Threes. Yay, I now have $400 something instead of $700 something if I had bought in for the full $300.

Wonka moves to my table and the players change out during the course of several hours. We both have chipped up to about $550 for him and $650 for me. 6 limpers around the table to the BB who raises to $12 which of course gets 6 callers incuding me, Wonka, and some nice lady.

The flop is 8h6h2s which fits in very nicely with my 97h =)

Initial raiser leads out for $45 into a $84 pot.

This is normally enough to send all but the strongest of holdings flying for cover at a $1/2 table. People are more than willing to limp-call ten bucks pre flop but unless they have an over pair or smack the flop really hard they fold.

Wonka flat calls $45 <-- He does not flat call $45 without a very good hand. He probably has a set. I should fold.

Some nice lady flat calls $45 <-- she has been calling big bets to the river all night and losing. I was more concerned with the set that Wonka probably had than her.

I had been considering raising the initial bettor until 2 players flat called in between.

Let us see. There is now $219 in the pot, and $45 to me in position with an open ended straight, flush, straight flush draw. Flat calling $45 is not normally in the book of plays I like to make but I am up $500 and decide to peel another card off.

I make the comment of "What is there like $300 in the pot now?" (there was $264) before the turn is flipped.

The turn brings a nice off suit Ten to complete my straight. Initial raiser plays with a stack and a half contemplating leading out again for $150 but unfortunately he checks. Wonka looks and him and says "$300" and puts 3 stacks of reds into the pot. Some nice lady folds, and I look at Wonka and ask how much he has left.

Of course I am going to move in with my straight, and I am actually hoping Wonka will fold (since he is my friend and it may make for a long ride home if I stack him). Initial raiser folds and Wonka makes the call with his set, he still has 10 outs. The river is a brick and I win a $1300 somethingish pot. Sorry dude.

The initial raiser had T8c and said he would have stacked off with top 2 until I re-raised.

Some nice lady said she had a Queen high flush draw but she didn't want to go all in with just a flush draw and one card to come.

KKKK

Is there a worse Omaha H/L starting hand than this?

Big Game Victory

I should feel guilty for my lack of posts, but it would feel even more wrong if I didn't post after my Big Game win...



Good game to RecessRampage and Hoyazo, 2nd and 3rd respectively. And thank you to Al, and whomever else is running the BBT4.