So around 10:30PM sure enough, a group of people came and in and wanted to play at a cash table.  I quickly bought in for $120 and found a seat.  There was 8 of us and it took me about 10 minutes to realize that none of these people had much experience playing cards.  These were all people that had come to Santino’s to enjoy the food, music and positive atmosphere of the place and got caught up in the idea of playing poker.  Most of the guys bought in for $40 to $60, which was fine with me.

These people played the game as any classic newcomer:  They paid to see almost every flop and they never bluffed.  Needless to say, I won over $400 that night and told myself that I had found a new poker home.

As I was driving home however, I actually started to feel a little guilty.  Although it was like taking candy from a baby, what kind of guy likes to take things from a baby?

The Saturday night group is a purely recreational group of card players.  I don’t know what happens on other nights at Santino’s as this was the only time I was there.  The staff was extremely friendly and poker room was spacious.   The table was a bit wobbly, as it was the cheap fold-up kind, but that has to be my only complaint.

So, if looking for a place to go on Saturday nights, check out Santino’s.

I noticed that Cada’s has a new website.  Right now it’s a static page with a promise about an “extended site” coming soon, whatever that means.  I talked with Patrick (the co-owner of Cada’s) about me developing their site, but he said that someone in the family was already promised the gig.  That was quite a while ago so it appears that things aren’t getting accomplished in a timely manner, but I’m sure things will all work out.  In the meantime…Patrick:  If you lose patience, I can get a website up and running for you in 2 days.

This coming Saturday I am giving a lecture on an Introduction to PHP at Walsh College.  If you’ve ever wanted to learn about web development, you’re more than welcomed to attend.  It’s a free session and open to the public.  It’s presented by the Walsh College Open Source Community, which I founded more than 2 years ago.  We focus on technology and development tools related to open source and we’ve gotten a pretty good following.

My wife, Rhonda, is leaving on a cruise this Thursday and will be gone for 10 days.  She’s going with her 2 sisters, so I hope they have a good time.  All I want is a colorful T-Shirt from one of the islands and a promise that she won’t lose too much money at the casinos.

We ended up waiting for a few hours and eventually gave up and went home.  There was about 5 people interested in the Sit and Go, but most of them were still in the tournament and it would have taken another few hours before we could have gotten started.  Oh well; it’s only $4,500…assuming that I would have won.  Tonight there is a tournament starting at 7:00PM, so I’ll probably go back and give this a try.

On another unrelated topic — I finally got my car fixed.  The plastic thingy underneath the engine was damaged this past summer and about 5 screws had been lost.  I tried fixing it myself…but…well…enough said.  Anyway I took it back to the dealership last night and this morning Rhonda and I picked it up.  It was only $30 and now I don’t have to worry about driving through thick snow drifts.

After we picked up my car, we stopped off at Wintergarden Tavern and had lunch.  As usual, we put $20 into keno and won a measly $4, which I gave to the waitress.  The food was good and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We talked for about 2 hours over food, coffee and keno–all in all, a great way to spend a Saturday.

What to do…what to do?  I can never decide.

I’ll probably head out to the River because they usually get about 4 to 5 tables, while Cada’s will have only 2 tables.

For some strange reason, I find the Rules of Poker absolutely fascinating.  There are so many situations that can arise that it’s almost impossible to have a set of rules that cover everything.  I’m the same way with Golf.  It’s amazing how many rules there are and I love nothing better than to discuss a controversial ruling about a golf shot.  Many of the rules of golf however, are depending on the player to act honorably.  Often times it comes down to the “intent” of the golfer, which only he or she knows, so honesty plays a big part.

Poker on the other hand is the exact opposite.  It’s all about who can be the most deceitful, yet believable liar.   However, I think it’s important to know the rules of poker because you never know when it will give you an advantage.  And trust me, I need all the help I can get!

I have two other controversial poker stories that I’d like to share.

Steve is at the table and has Ace, King.  Naturally he raises pre-flop.  Bad Guy re-raises and Steve calls.  Everyone else folds.

The flop is all low cards, which helps neither player.

Bad Guy raises, looks at Steve and says, “I’ve got the winning hand…fold.”

Steve thinks for 30 seconds and folds.  Bad Guy shows pocket Aces; at least he wasn’t bluffing.  In some round about way that only poker players will understand, Steve is grateful to Bad Guy and even thanks him.

A few hours later…lo and behold…now Steve gets pocket Aces and of course it comes down to him and Bad Guy in the hand.

Steve bets, looks at Bad Guy and says, “I owe you one…fold.”

Bad Guy immediately claims that Steve just folded his hand.

“No…I was telling YOU to fold, just like you told me earlier,” insists Steve.

The Floor Manager is called and the Dealer explains exactly what each player said.

The Floor Manager rules that because Steve said “fold”, even though he was suggesting someone else fold, it’s to be interpreted that he folded his OWN hand.

Steve lost the pot and now has a new arch enemy.  What a dick move, right…or was it smart?  Was Bad Guy setting this up all along?

Another example: there are two players in the hand and the turn and river have already been dealt.

Player 1 bets.  Player 2 hesitates…and hesitates…and hesitates.  You can see he wants to call, but isn’t sure his hand is strong enough.  Finally, he counts out the proper amount and is holding the chips in his hand and finally says, “Okay, I’ll pay you off.”

Player 1 turns over his cards.

Player 2 sees he’s beat and says “I didn’t say I call, nor did I put my chips in.”

The Dealer agrees and rules that Player 1 doesn’t have to put in any more chips.  I was surprised, because I’ve heard many players call a bet using all kinds of words.  Fortunately in this case, Player 1 starts laughing a bit and says he’s just kidding and throws in his chips.  The Dealer however, explained that he didn’t have to and that there’s only two ways to make a call:  either push in your chips or say “call”…anything else doesn’t matter.

Are both of these dick moves or smart moves?  Is this simply using the Rules of Poker to your advantage?

What I find interesting is that Sammy’s got some good stories about the game and I really appreciate his opinion.  After all, he’s pretty much seen it all.

This got me thinking about other controversial decisions that I’ve seen and heard about over the past few months which I will post as time permits.

The first situation that I want to discuss happened during a tournament at The River about a year ago.  I wasn’t in the hand, but I was at the table.

Player 1 gets dealt Queen, Queen and Player 2 gets King, King.  Of course both players are betting big pre-flop and everyone else folds.  The flop comes up: Queen, 10, 5.

Player 1 pushes all in and Player 2 calls.

Now here’s the interesting part.

Player 1 turns over his cards and we all see that he has Trip Queens.  Player 2 sees this as well and he obviously isn’t happy.  He stands up, shows the table his pockets Kings, puts them together and places both cards into the Dealers hand, underneath the undealt cards.

The Dealer pulls out the Kings and positions them over the flop along with the Aces and proceeds to deal the turn and river:  King, King.

After the table calms down a bit, Player 1 naturally says that Player 2 mucked his cards.  If I was called to testify before the Poker Supreme court, I would say he clearly “intended” to fold, but wanted to do so in a dramatic fashion.  The Floor Manager is called over.  After he hears what happened, he rules that Player 2 did in fact muck his cards and awards the chips to Player 1.

Now, here’s the question:  When the Dealer put the Kings back into play, did he make a ruling that the cards were NOT mucked?  Obviously YES, or else he would have stopped the hand, awarded the chips and the tournament would have continued.  Why didn’t Player 1 complain BEFORE the turn and river?  By staying silent, did Player 1 inadvertently give his consent for the cards to be put back into play?  How far back can the Floor Manager go to overturn an action made by the Dealer or himself? At what point is the hand “over” and we lose the right to appeal for a ruling?

Can the Floor make a ruling…hear some new evidence…and overturn his own ruling…all within 60 seconds?  Could we not argue that his FIRST ruling was final and anything said after that doesn’t count?

Let me further complicate things and run through another scenario.  Assume something questionable happens at the table, but the Floor Manager isn’t readily available.  The Dealer presents a solution to both players OR asks if they want to wait for the Floor.  Both players agree to the solution and the Dealer continues the hand.  However, as with everything in life, someone has to lose and the losing player NOW wants the Floor Manager to make a ruling.  Is this okay?  This is kind of how I see the first example.

Let me elaborate.  When you’re in a hand and you say nothing, aren’t you essentially saying that you’re happy with how the round was handled and that you have no compliants?

Let the discussion begin.

I came back into the U.S. through the Port Huron/Sarnia border.  It seems I get grilled every time I come through no matter what I say.  I’m a Native American Indian and I have a Green Card.  As a native Indian, I don’t need a Green Card, because all Indians are granted free border crossing as ratified by the Jay Treaty.  I got a Green Card many years ago because I thought it would help me get across the border faster, but my plan seems to have back fired.  When I show my Green Card, the border guard let’s me know that I don’t need one.

“I know I don’t NEED one, but I thought it would help.”

“It doesn’t make sense, why did you get your Green Card?”

“I thought it would help.”

“Where did you get your Green Card?”

“At the INS office in Chicago.”

“When did you get it?”

“About 15 years ago.”

“But…WHY did you get a Green Card?”

“Because I thought it would help.”

“You know you don’t NEED one?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you get it?”

“I thought it would help.”

“You thought it would help what exactly?”

“I thought it would help me take twice as long to get across the border.  It’s my mission in life to waste as much of my life as possible.  Thank you for being right here on the front lines with me.”

Okay, I didn’t really say that last part, but my patience was running a little thin.  I know you’re not supposed to joke about these things, but my sarcasm is overriding my frustration.  I’ve even tried NOT showing my Green Card, but then they ask how long I’ve lived in the U.S.  When I tell them they say that I should think about applying for a Green Card to make it easier at the border.

I can’t seem to win.

I was at the River Charity Poker Lounge at 22 Mile and Van Dyke this afternoon for the 2:00 o’clock tournament.  The entry fee was $30 and we started with four tables.

About 30 minutes into the tournament, the blinds were $100 and $200.  I was the Big Blind and was dealt pocket Queens.  Naturally I raise to $1,200 and get 2 calls.

The flop comes up Queen, 3, 7.

I look at my cards again to confirm that I’ve flopped a set.  The two guys check and I bet $3,000.  The middle guy folds and my worthy Opponent shoves all in.  It takes me about 3 seconds to call and I figure he’s got a lower set; either 3′s or 7′s.  I turn over my Queens.

“God Damn IT !!!”  Opponent says.  He snaps his pocket 3′s onto the table while standing up and one of the card slides into the flop.  The card is face up and clearly visible.

I look at the Dealer and say, “He threw his card into the flop.  That’s a muck, right?”

Both players sitting on either side of me are telling the rest of the table that’s it’s definitely a muck.  I know that every Poker room has different rules, but I don’t know the policy at the River.  The Dealer is somewhat hesitant and decides to call the Floor, which happens to be Saad.  Now, anyone who’s played poker in this area knows Saad and will agree that he’s certainly one of the better Floor Managers out there.

Saad comes to the table and the Dealer explains the situation.  Both Opponent and myself are experienced card players, so we say nothing.  At this point, I can see that Saad is hesitant and seems very unsure of what the ruling should be.  A few times he opens his mouth to say something…but stops himself…and looks at the table again.  Finally, he tells to Dealer to continue with the hand.

A 3 comes up on the River.  Obviously, his Quad 3′s beat my Full House.  The table is speechless.  I’m speechless.  What a suck out.

“Eric, I’ll give you you’re $30 back.”  Saad says.

This beat left me severely short stacked and I pretty much consigned myself to another loss. About 10 minutes later I get dealt Ace, Jack and push all in.  The guy next to me has pocket Kings, calls my bet and wins the hand.

On my way out I stop and talk to Saad.

“Eric, that definitely wasn’t a muck.  It was unfortunate how it turned out, but it was the right call.”

“I was just surprised that you seemed very hesitant.  It seemed to me like you wanted to muck the cards, but didn’t want to upset Opponent so you told the Dealer to run the cards, never thinking he hit a Quad.”

“No, that wasn’t the case.  That’s my fault for appearing so unsure.  You’re right, I should have been more decisive.  I’ve mucked Opponent cards in the past regarding other situations, so it’s not like I was afraid to get him upset.”

I waited for Saad to mention something about the $30 he promised to refund, but he didn’t say anything…so I left.

A few hours later after I had time to rethink the hand, it still strikes me as a little odd.

Why was Saad so hesitant about making the ruling?  If he was absolutely sure he made the right decision, why did he offer to refund my $30?  What, if anything, should I do?  Is there any justice in the world?

Can someone please just give me some answers?

As many of you know, I’m on the computer a lot.  I come across many sites and thought I’d post a link to some of the more interesting things I’ve come across.

There’s a good article on Forbe’s website called Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually.  The author points out many things that I personally don’t like about Best Buy.  If you have some time, check out one of my short stories, called Best Buy or Best Lie.  Click on the link or just go to the top of the page and click on Short Stories.  After reading the Forbes article and quickly going through a few of the comments, it’s pretty amazing that the majority of people are very annoyed with BB.  I’ve been saying this for years and it finally looks like the rest of society is catching up with me.  I guess this is what it feels like to be ahead of your time.

For those of you who always wanted to learn web development, there’s a great site called Code Year.  Once you sign up, they will send you an interactive programming lesson every week in 2012 to help you learn.  After a few months, the site claims that you’ll be building apps and web sites before you know it.  It looks like more than 150,000 people have signed up so far.

The Walsh College Open Source Community is a group I founded a few years ago.  We meet on the second Saturday of each month to discuss anything and everything related to open source technology.  It’s free to attend and you don’t have to be a student nor an alumni of Walsh College.  Whenever we have trouble booking a real speaker, you’ll get the privledge of listening to me for two hours.  Trust me, I can ramble on about nothing for quite some time.   In the past I’ve talked about CakePHP, jQuery, PHP, Linux, Apache, etc. I’ve even built a complete web site from scratch while everyone followed along and asked questions.  If you’re interested you can find more information at Meetup.com or send me an email and I’ll give you the dates and times.

That’s it for now, check back soon.

At the event in question there were about four tables when I entered the tournament, but the controversy started at the final table.  The Chip Leader at the table must have been new to the game, because he kept making betting mistakes.  Quite often he would make a String Bet, which is where someone pushes some chips in…and then some more…and then some more, etc.  You’re supposed to make your bet in one forward motion, unless you verbally call out the amount you wish to bet.  The theory behind this rule is that you could push in one pile of chips, see the reaction from your opponent and then decide to bet even more.  It’s a good rule and one that is almost universal among poker rooms.  I say “almost” because each poker room is certainly allowed to make their own rules.

Another type of illegal bet is when someone announces “raise” and puts in less than two times the big blind.

In the tournament I was in, Chip Leader kept making both types of betting mistakes.  The dealer, Derrick, was very patient with the gentlemen and would point out the mistake and politely correct the bet.  This happened on numerous occasions.  Now when I say “numerous”, I don’t mean that it happened twice and I’m exaggerating my side of the story to make a point.  Chip Leader literally made at least 15 illegal bets while I was at the table with him.  I’m guessing that he made numerous more before we were both at the same table.

This of course by itself didn’t bother me, because I’m usually pretty low key and I certainly don’t mind being patient for any new people to the game.

The controversy came when it was down to Chip Leader and myself.  Technically there was still a third player, but she had about 4 chips left and was soon on her way out.  Up to this point, Chip Leader was playing almost every hand and 95% of the time would raise.  He was an aggressive player and realized that the only way I was going to beat him, would be to simply wait for a good hand.

With the beginning of a new deal and being the first to act, Chip Leader looks at his cards and announces “Raise”.  The blinds are $10,000 and $20,000.  He counts out three stacks of chips and places them right behind the betting line.  When he finishes counting, he pushes in the first stack, then the second and finally the third.  Naturally Derrick stops him in mid action and once again, politely explains that it’s an illegal string bet.

“But I announced raise!?”, he retorts.  At this point I can see that Chip Leader is getting flustered and confused.  Obviously he’s convinced that there was nothing wrong with his bet and he’s getting a little frustrated that Derrick keeps correcting him.

“You did say ‘Raise’ “, explains Derrick “…so the bet is twice the big blind, which is $40,000.”

Chip Leader isn’t going to let this one go and insists Derrick call the Floor.  (The Floor is the guys in charge of the poker room and he has the final say on all controversial actions.)

The Floor came over and as usual in these cases, Chip Leader and Derrick both start talking at once.  The Floor politely explains to Chip Leader that he wants to hear the events from the Dealer.  Derrick explains and then Chip Leader says that he didn’t say ”Raise”, but rather he said “Raise, all that…” while pointing at the three stacks.  The third player at the table confirms that she heard him say, ‘Raise, all that’.

The Floor looks over at me and says “Okay, normally that’s considered an illegal bet, but this one time…”

At this point, I finally speak up.  “Wait a minute, what do you mean ‘This one time’?  An illegal bet is an illegal bet, no matter what time it is.”

“Sir…you didn’t even let me finish speaking.  You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

“Sorry.  You’re right.  Go ahead.”

“Normally it’s considered an illegal bet, but this one time I’m going to let it slide.”  He then looks over at Chip Leader.  “Sir, from now on you have to be careful about how you bet.”

This was where I became frustrated and say,  “I don’t understand.  Why don’t the rules apply to this situation?  What other rules are you going to let slide around here?”

Naturally, I didn’t want to appear frustrated because I still had a tournament to finish, but I knew enough that once the Floor makes a ruling, it’s final.  I tried to my best to play it low key and appear that the entire episode didn’t even faze me.  I then looked at my hands and saw that I had suited Ace, Jack.

I re-raise all in and Chip Leader calls.  He turns over pocket 8′s.  I catch a Jack on the turn, knock out the third player and double up.  At this point, both Chip Leader and myself are about even in chips and we decide to split the pot which gives each of us around $350.  Not bad for an entry fee of $30.

I go over to the Floor, apologize and explain that I didn’t mean to cause any problems.  The Floor was very gracious and insisted that I didn’t cause any issues and there was no need to apologize.

Normally I would consider the issue closed, but I’m an Alpha Male and like to get in the last word.  Here’s what I have an issue with:

1. At no time did the Floor ask the Dealer what ruling he had already made.  I would think that 95% of the time, the Floor would want to support what the Dealer has decided.  Overturning the Dealer should only be made in rare circumstances.  After all, the Dealer was right there…saw and heard everything.  The is especially true if it’s a good Dealer with a lot of experience, which was certainly true in this case.
2. Not that it’s necessary…but I think it would have been nice, if after hearing from the Dealer and Chip Leader, if the Floor would have ask if anyone else at the table had anything to add.  I would have spoken up and explained that Chip Leader has been making numerous betting mistakes all along, which I’m sure the Dealer would have agreed with.  This would have established a pattern of betting mistakes on Chip Leaders behalf.  I would have further said that the Dealer has already given Chip Leader numerous warnings and even paused the game and explained the mistakes each and every time.  This wasn’t a random occurence and Chip Leader couldn’t say that he didn’t know or understand or no one explained the betting rules to him.
3. I would have explained to the Floor that I’m usually right.  This would have been the final nail in the coffin and everything would have been settled right then and there.

Given the sequence of events, the outcome wouldn’t have changed as I would have pushed all in anyway, but it makes me think about the next time there is an issue.  I do think that sometimes the rules are too restrictive, but that’s poker.  You have to follow ALL the rules ALL the time.

I need a some blog entries that will accelerate the number of visitors. I’m hopful that I’ll by on the cover of Newsweek by the end of the month. The Fastest Growing Blog in the History of All Blogs would be a great title.

As you may have noticed, I wrote a techie article about CakePHP and jQuery last night. I submitted it to DZone (Developer’s Zone) which is a site that showcases a wide array of techical subjects. Hopefully this will drive some traffic to my blog for the rest of the week.

I also started to post some of my short stories that I’ve written over the years.  I’m going to search through the files from my old blog tonight to see if there’s anything else that I want to post.

My plan now is to pull out all the stops and get my marketing plan into full gear. I’ll keep everyone posted on my growth spurt.