Weekend at the Stone
Just got back from Turning Stone. Made a few bucks playing poker. I got a room with Mike. Normally I don't get rooms but he offered to pay for it, so why not? The room was nice and on the 16th floor of the Tower Hotel. Good view overlooking the Mohawk valley. I could see all the way to Sherrill.
While in the room, I finally saw Snakes on a Plane. I enjoyed it. It delivers what it promises, which is snakes on a plane. I imagine if you had ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), it would really scare the shit out of you. Oddly enough, I don't have ophidiophobia. Snakes really don't scare me at all. Bugs do, but snakes don't. I've only seen a few snakes, one was in a science class. There's been one or two small snakes spotted in my lawn, but I walk past them without giving them much thought. I suppose if I saw a cobra coming at me, I'd probably be scared, but that has yet to happen.
After watching Samuel L kick some ass, Mike and I went down to the poker room. On our way, we were propositioned. These three girls, who were quite drunk, approached us. One of them said it was her birthday but she needed more money to gamble, and for $5 she would let us come to her room and "do whatever." We passed on the offer.
The next day I drove Mike to Hancock Airport in Syracuse for his flight to Texas. I gotta say, Syracuse's airport is tiny. I liked it, though. I'm not gonna lie, I'm terrified to drive to Logan Airport in Boston. Not that we have a massive airport, it's just difficult to get to and difficult to find your way around. Hancock was a breeze though, only one terminal and the airport was right off I-81.
After driving back to the casino, I was walking towards the poker room when I walked past Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion. He was at the Stone Friday and Saturday to help promote Lighning Poker. Lightning Poker is an electronic poker table without chips, cards, or a dealer. Virtual cards are shuffled by a program that deals out to each player. Their cards appear on a screen and they make decisions on the screen. The flop, turn, and river appear on a large screen in the middle of the table. Everything is electronic. They look pretty stupid, actually. It is the same as playing online only you can see your opponent. But you can't watch your opponent place chips into the pot, or verbally announce his bets.
They've been running sit & goes at these Lightning tables for over a week now. A sit & go is a one table tournament. The buy-in was either $60 or $115 for different sit & goes. For the $60, $50 went to the prize pool, $10 to the casino. That's a 20% rake on your money which is more than twice what most online casinos charge for their sit & goes. Not a great investment.
Raymer was playing the $115 sit & goes. He was getting paid to do so and was playing for free. The idea was that people would pay the $115 ($15 of which went directly to the casino) to play against a World Champion. They did in droves. Raymer played nothing but sit & goes, starting at about noon and going all the way to 2 AM with a dinner break mixed in. Poor guy didn't even get to play in one of the side games. Poor guy didn't even cash in any of the sit & goes. Still, he got paid to be there and didn't lose anything on the sit & goes.
When I walked by Raymer, I didn't know if I should say anything. What do you say? "Hey, I saw you on TV!" or "Hey, you're Greg Raymer!" The only two things I might have been able to say are "Hey, could you stake me?" or "Way to represent Foxwoods, Greg." Neither of those things are even worth saying to a total stranger.
While in the room, I finally saw Snakes on a Plane. I enjoyed it. It delivers what it promises, which is snakes on a plane. I imagine if you had ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), it would really scare the shit out of you. Oddly enough, I don't have ophidiophobia. Snakes really don't scare me at all. Bugs do, but snakes don't. I've only seen a few snakes, one was in a science class. There's been one or two small snakes spotted in my lawn, but I walk past them without giving them much thought. I suppose if I saw a cobra coming at me, I'd probably be scared, but that has yet to happen.
After watching Samuel L kick some ass, Mike and I went down to the poker room. On our way, we were propositioned. These three girls, who were quite drunk, approached us. One of them said it was her birthday but she needed more money to gamble, and for $5 she would let us come to her room and "do whatever." We passed on the offer.
The next day I drove Mike to Hancock Airport in Syracuse for his flight to Texas. I gotta say, Syracuse's airport is tiny. I liked it, though. I'm not gonna lie, I'm terrified to drive to Logan Airport in Boston. Not that we have a massive airport, it's just difficult to get to and difficult to find your way around. Hancock was a breeze though, only one terminal and the airport was right off I-81.
After driving back to the casino, I was walking towards the poker room when I walked past Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion. He was at the Stone Friday and Saturday to help promote Lighning Poker. Lightning Poker is an electronic poker table without chips, cards, or a dealer. Virtual cards are shuffled by a program that deals out to each player. Their cards appear on a screen and they make decisions on the screen. The flop, turn, and river appear on a large screen in the middle of the table. Everything is electronic. They look pretty stupid, actually. It is the same as playing online only you can see your opponent. But you can't watch your opponent place chips into the pot, or verbally announce his bets.
They've been running sit & goes at these Lightning tables for over a week now. A sit & go is a one table tournament. The buy-in was either $60 or $115 for different sit & goes. For the $60, $50 went to the prize pool, $10 to the casino. That's a 20% rake on your money which is more than twice what most online casinos charge for their sit & goes. Not a great investment.
Raymer was playing the $115 sit & goes. He was getting paid to do so and was playing for free. The idea was that people would pay the $115 ($15 of which went directly to the casino) to play against a World Champion. They did in droves. Raymer played nothing but sit & goes, starting at about noon and going all the way to 2 AM with a dinner break mixed in. Poor guy didn't even get to play in one of the side games. Poor guy didn't even cash in any of the sit & goes. Still, he got paid to be there and didn't lose anything on the sit & goes.
When I walked by Raymer, I didn't know if I should say anything. What do you say? "Hey, I saw you on TV!" or "Hey, you're Greg Raymer!" The only two things I might have been able to say are "Hey, could you stake me?" or "Way to represent Foxwoods, Greg." Neither of those things are even worth saying to a total stranger.
posted by rob | 6:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home