The Borgata Story (My Version)

As expected, the trip to Borgata this weekend was awesome! CNN drove, which was nice, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare before the kickoff of the Eagles game. Upon arrival we checked our bags and hit the B-Bar for some much needed libations and I needed to see some game updates to see where I stood in my Fantasy League. The drinks were good and the game updates were even more uplifting! Team Rastamon crushed its opponent 149 to 82!
While the lounge chairs in B-Bar were comfortable, the view of the TV screens was not acceptable and we decided to relocate to the Gypsy Bar and it's theater-sized screen. We snagged 4 seats up front and started sampling the world's largest Tequila menu. While we were all tempted to try the new $300 Margarita, we stuck to the Cabo Wabo and Patron selections! The Prickly Pear was superb! We ordered a snack selection consisting of chips and salsa, habenero wings and an olive plate. While we had an incredible view of the huge screen from our seats, more incredible still was the view of our waitress, Virginia, a blonde, twenty-something who most likely hailed from Sweden. CNN and I debated at length on whether or not the particular "structural assets" this beauty possesed were "fake or "natural", and I feel confident they were 100% natural, along with here blonde hair!
The drinks were going down fast, the Eagles score was rising fast and we barely noticed that the paper products accompanying our snack baskets were dangerously close to the candle on the table. They burst into flames sometime in the first quarter and while we all stayed fairly calm, it was my quick response with a fresh Heineken Light that ultimately saved the day! When I informed Virginia that I had single-handedly saved the entire establishment from certain death with my quick response, she gave me a replacement Heineken and a bat of her beautiful baby blues!
Just before half-time we went up to the room and had our bags brought up. We popped a bottle of bubbly and watched the rest of the game while preparing for the concert. The view of the ocean from the 42nd floor was breathtaking (maybe just slightly more than Virginia bending over to take a drink order from the table next to us)!
Soon we were off to the concert hall to see Los Lonely Boys and Carlos Santana.
I had heard some of their songs on a CD, but Los Lonely Boys were great live! I only wish they had played more than five songs! There were barely 2000 people at the show and we had excellent seats right in the center of the room. There was a huge bar setup in the lobby which was just s short distance behind us, so it was easy to keep the beer flowing. Carlos Santana was absolutely amazing! The sound he can generate from a guitar is extraordinary! I was very impressed and was actually disappointed when his set ended.
After the show we wanted to get Tony Luke's cheesesteaks, but had to settle for a Fatburger instead, as TL's was closed for the night.
Shortly after that, CNN retired for the night and I headed to the poker room for a little late night action. I sat from 11:30 until almost 3 am when I decided that sleep was a better option for me. After going all-in three times, winning twice and chopping once, I was actually down $30. A dismal session to say the least and I feel I would have won if I had stayed and played, but I was really tired and feeling the effects of the beer and tequila.
We checked out and were on the road about noon Monday and all in all I think it was a great time! Now we can compare this version to CNN's when she gets around to updating!

Borgata, Baby!

This weekend I am headed down to the Borgata along with CNN and two other non-blogging party people. We will be ensconced in a beautiful suite and will be attending the Carlos Santana/Los Lonely Boys concert with the compliments of the Borgata (actually, compliments of my consistent level of high action when I visit!). I'm sure CNN will take advantage of some photo ops and I will have an update when we return. For those who care, Team Rastamon could not pull out the victory in week 2 and now stand in the middle of the pack with a 1-1 record.

Fantasy Football Week 1 Results

Team Rastamon came through in flying colors (red, gold, black and green to be exact!) in week one of the Delco Delinquents League with an early rout of Tedman's State Street and a final score of 114 to 96!

Punching Pussy

This what it would look like if a kitten was kicking your ass!

Annual Bellmawr Pig Roast & Block Party

So this weekend was the annual pig roast and block party up in Bellmawr, NJ. This was my fourth year attending (although I missed last year). Goose and I drove up early Saturday and helped set up as two of the hosts were involved in a wedding that day. We didn't get the pig on the spit until about 4 PM but it was worth the wait when it came off the coals around 10 PM. Goose ate both eyeballs out of the hot carcass and claimed they were delicious. The meat was awesome! Prior to the pig we had been grilling dogs and burgers and there was plenty to drink. Multiple kegs of beer ranging from Coors Light to Heineken and an entire bar set-up with prtemium Vodka, Rum, Gin and Tequila! Of course the highlight, as always, was the 350 pound ice block which we carved runs in so that you could do ice shots. I have a photo of the block below. Yours truly did the carving and let me tell you there was some very drunk people stumbling about this party after giving the block a try. There were also some very unhappy husbands and boyfriends (and a few happy ones, too).
Another highlight and a new edition this year was a live band. THese guys were about 15 years old and they were AWESOME! Their mom's had to drop them and their equipment off at the party, but they played like they have been doing this for years, and not only did it sound great, they actually had awesome stage presence, too! The lead guitarist, who looked about 14, would jump into the crowd as he belted out riffs on his lead guitar and danced about.
Everything was going great until the cops showed up at 11:30 and made us shut it down. The band was on their last song anyway and it was approaching their curfew, too!
Once the cops left we kept the party rolling sans the live music and continued to have fun into the wee hours with a mandatory hottub session to end the night off. The hottub soothed my muscles and prepared me for the uncomfortable sleeping situation I faced: The front seat of Goose's truck! I only had to suffer for a few hours as we were back on the road at 7 am (apparantly the husbands had some strict intstructions from their wives about the hour of their
return to Media).
All in all it was a blast and I am looking forward to the next one.
Pics are of the ice block, the band playing and Miss Piggy, the 80 pound guest of honor.

Fantasy Draft Party Part Deux

The Fantasy Football Draft Party was alot of fun, so much fun that I forgot to take any pics all night and before I knew it I was stumbling out the door to my car with no digital content for this update. Kro and I brought along a case of Red Stripe in the spirit of our team (Rastamon) and I even wore a tie-dyed shirt, Jamaica windbreaker and a necklace made of marijuana leaves (of course they were plastic simulations, PinF).
There was BBQ'd pulled pork, meatballs, tri-color pasta with proscuito, hot pepper shooters and the obligatory assorted chips, dips, chains, whips...wait a minute, I lost my train of thought.... Who's your name again?
Oh, and we had the beer.
We ended up with a decent team and I think we have a good shot this year. Our first matchup starts Thursday night when the regular season kicks off and we are playing against none other than Tedman's "State Street" team.
I predict a rout!

Draft Party

Tonight is the Fantasy Football Draft Party for my league, The Delco Delinquents. This will be my second year playing in the league and I have a new partner this year, too, Mike Krotow, who hails from Saratoga, NY. Last year I came within 2 points of winning the overall league and the playoffs which would have resulted in a very nice payday. Unfortunately, I had to settle for third place and look to make another run at the title this year. I have a new logo and team name to go with my new partner. We are Team Rastamon and the logo is shown here. The party is always alot of fun with good food, drinks and friends. I'll take some pics and let you know how we make out in my next update.

New Sony PSP Ad

Can someone explain to me what this ad means?

New Winner Crowned at World Series of Poker

A former Hollywood talent agent has won the 2006 World Series of Poker and the $12 million first place prize. Jamie Gold outlasted 8772 players to take down the championship being held at the Rio casino in Las Vegas. The favorite going into the final table, poker pro Allen Cunningham, finished in 4th place for a $3.6 million payday. The 2nd place finisher was a 22 year old who took home over $6 million!!
The pic is of the winner and his cash being congratulated by his mentor and winner of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, Johnny Chan.

World Series Main Event

The World Series of Poker Main Event has been underway since last Friday. To accomodate the over 8,600 players who ponied up the $10,000 buy-in, they had to divide Day 1 into 4 groups that played each day from aprox. 2100 players down to 800 or so (day 1 lasted 16 hours). Then they had two flights of Day 2 with about 1600 players each . Tomorrow will be the first day that all the surviving players are combined in one room to play simultaneously and they will play every day until the final nine are seated next Thursday August 10th. The winner will walk with the greatest prize in sports history, a gold bracelet encrusted with 170 diamonds and, oh yeah, $12 million dollars in cash!
I regret not being a part of it again this year, but there are some good events coming up shortly where I will be participating. The World Championship of Online Poker is in September as is the Borgata Poker Open. Then we have the U.S. Poker Championship at the Taj and then the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods and finally the Trump Classic back at the Taj.

A Weekend of Poker

This past weekend I was able to play poker like I used to do back in 2004, non-stop- all night. I got to the Borgata at about 3 pm Friday and immediately headed to the new room. Thanks to all the new tables (85 total) I was able to get into a no-limit cash game very quickly. My first hand I was dealt pocket sevens, raised and was called by several players, then immediately flopped a third seven for a set. I won a nice pot after betting again. The next hand I played was when I was in the Big Blind, (which for those of you in bikinis, means I had my minimum bet already in before I was dealt my cards) and I looked down at a 3 and a 4 of different suits. Noone raised and nearly all of us saw the flop which came 3-3-4 a beautiful sight for me. I put on my acting hat and slow played the hand by checking it after the flop and the turn. On the last card I finally bet out and everyone dropped but an older asian woman a few seats to my right. She raised me about 4 times my bet and I acted like I was thinking about it and said "all-in" in the meakest voice I could muster. She asked if I was sure about that and then said "I call". She had made the straight with her A-5 on the last card, but my full-house was the nuts and she pushed me all her chips with a disgusted look on her face. I made a bit over $500 on my second hand and was starting to really like this table! In fact, I was able to pull off some great bluffs because everyone at the table remebered that hand for a long time after.
I ended up playing until about 2 am and cashed with a low 4- figure profit.
Saturday I slept in, ate breakfast around noon and then hit the tables by 3 pm again. I was playing middle limit (as opposed to no limit) but had a bad run of cards culminating in my ace-high spade flush being beat by a full house. After losing a couple of hundred on that hand as I raised and re-raised this player, I decided to head back to the no-limit tables where I could recover from this minor setback.
Another brutal table choice had me short stacked again in no time. After rasing before the flop with pocket jacks (7 times the blinds) I had two callers, flopped a third jack and then had my substantial bets called by one schmuck who made a diamond flush on the river after calling me with only one diamond and no pair on the flop! He had called my pre-flop raise with 9-7 of diamonds!
Anyway, I took my time, poured an ice cold drink on my steaming head and waited for the right moment. It came when I called a raise with a crappy jack-4 hand and flopped trip jacks. The fourth jack on the turn gave me the absolute nuts with quads and the ace on the river assured me a nice pot as it helped another player make a strong hand. I checked, he bet, I raised, he called, I won! The best kind of revenge!
I played into Sunday morning again and then was back around 4pm Sunday but only played for a few hours before heading home. It was a great weekend, I got to play alot of poker which is what I really needed to get going again and came out with a profit, some nice meals, some nice comps including a new Hawaiin-print embroidered Borgata-logo bathing suit. In fact, when I found out my friend Bill's favorite band was playing at the Borgata on September 24th, I had them use my comps for 4 center-stage tix to see Santana and Los Lonely Boys. CNN herself is going to be coming along that evening and I have a Fiore Suite reserved so we can experience all the late night action of the clubs and bars and maybe even test the maximum capacity of those showers once and for all! Stay tuned for that update!
It will be hard, but I have agreed not to play poker that night!

CSI: South Jersey

OK, sorry for the drama, the mystery and the absence of late. It's time to fill you in on the details. Timeline: July 2, 2006, 0630 hours. I received a call on my cell at approximately 6:30 am Monday morning from a Haddon Township police detective. He informed me that the manager of my building in Westmont was in police custody and he asked if I could come in to the station. I told him I was at the shore and if he explained to me what was going on I could better determine if a trip from the beach was necessary at this ungodly hour. He began to explain the situation and I told him I'd be there as soon as I could. It turns out that late Sunday evening the police responded to reports of fireworks being shot off the roof of the building (this is a 7 story office building near Haddonfield). The police saw two suspects on the roof but they refused to come down. With the assistance of the fire dept. they were able to gain access and found my building manager and his brother in the building. They appeared intoxicated and denied setting off the fireworks (the police had already found his truck in the parking lot with fireworks on the front seat, so they probably weren't buying his story at this point). The police arrested the two and while searching the building made a particularly interesting discovery in a large vacant space I have on the 6th floor. It turns out my manager had a bit of a green thumb and police found grow lights and 11 marijuana plants behind one of the locked doors. If he had done his homework he might have avoided a lengthy jail sentence as in NJ the cutoff for the highest level drug felony is 10 plants, and he was one over! The police continued their search of the space and the next discovery, while not illegal, was even more disturbing. Two fully-equipped bondage dungeons had been painstakenly prepared with chains bolted into the concrete ceiling planks and wall racks and shelves of various toys, whips, gagballs, buttplugs, candles and seran wrap displayed on the walls. I don't think we'll ever know the real truth about what was going on in those rooms, and quite frankly I don't think I really want to know! My manager was charged with manufacturing and possession of controlled substances (they found Ecstacy on him, too) along with the theft and fireworks charges. He was remanded to Camden County Prison on $110,000 full cash bond and awaits a court hearing.
Anyway, in addition to all this we discovered a bunch of items stolen from the building that he was most likely going to sell, maybe on Ebay. Needless to say, it threw my world upside down for the past 2 weeks as I dealt with the police, the tenants and the rumors running amok through the building and tried to find a new building manager. I think things are finally under control now, the new manager started Monday and last weekend I was even able to escape to the shore for a little rest.
Saturday night I hit the Tropicana's craps tables and lucked out when I found an empty table except for one gentleman on the far corner. Normally an empty table is a bad sign, but I plopped down a few hundred and placed $20 on the Pass Line. This guy was amazing. He started hitting numbers like crazy and in less than 20 minutes I was up about $500 and the table was packed with people. When I play craps I take my time building up my bets, but this all happened so fast I couldn't take maximum advantage of the situation. When he finally crapped out it was my turn and I sevened out after three rolls of the dice and decided to cash out. A nice win for such a short time and strolled to the cashier cage and walked out of the casino.
Sunday I was at the Borgata fora little No Limit Texas Hold' Em and to finally see the new poker room. The 85-table room is incredible and is now the largest poker room in AC. The lounge downstairs is great, too, with a huge food court and seating areas with flat screen TVs. I signed up for a game but the wait was not long. When I was seated I recognized two of the players from ESPN poker tournament broadcasts. I played mostly tight-aggressive and was able to win a few pots. I lost one big pot when I bluffed on the river with rags but my bet was just a little too small and the other player called. I only needed to bet a bit more and he would have surely folded. I won another big pot with pocket kings when I moved all-in on the river after my opponent had called every one of my bets (this was my only all-in of the day). I played for about 5 hours total and cashed with anice profit. Then I headed over to Brigantine to see my friend Nicole's new baby boy and went home from there.
Between the Trop and the Borgata it was a great weekend although it was a bit hot on the beach Saturday and Sunday morning. I am planning on returning this weekend, as well.

Update

The past week was a bit stressful for me after an incident in my "real" job had me dealing with police detectives and kept me busy putting out "fires". I am sorry to say I did not get in any poker time in the past ten days and it has cost me money for sure. The closing of the casinos in Atlantic City delayed the start of the Borgata Summer Open and then the crisis at work kept me from participating in any of the events. I even missd the Wallingford game this week but hope to be back in the game next week. I'll be heading down to the shore this weekend for some needed R & R ( and P).

Ponder This

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with Civil Rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by southerners.
Both were succeeded by southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by there three names.
Both names contain 15 letters.

Lincoln was shot at a theater named Ford.
Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln made by Ford.

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Both assassins were killed before they went to trial.

Coincidence or Conspiracy?

Another Win

I sat again in a 6 player cash game last night and had the poker gods on my side from the very start. Within the first few hands I doubled up when I hit my open ended straight draw on the river while my opponent had trip eights. Then a little bit later I raised before the flop with pocket tens and was called by two players. A jack came on the flop but I bet out anyway, one opponent folded, the other had Ace-Jack and I made three tens on the turn to double up again and win a $200 pot. . I don't usually get such good runs of cards but in a matter of just a few hands last night, I was dealt 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 6-6, J-J (twice and won both times with them) as well as A-K and A-Q for good measure. After that people started to back off a bit, leary of every bet I made and it was harder for me to get paid off with winning hands. I started feeling really tired around 11:30 and I gave notice I'd be leaving at midnite. I cashed out with a nice win for the second week in a row and headed home for some needed sleep.

I know this guy who plays poker and one day he started to hear a voice in his head saying " Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money and move to Vegas".
He ignored the voice.
Later in the day he hears the same voice, "Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money and move to Vegas".
Again he ignores the voice.
Soon he hears the voice every minute of every day, "Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money and move to Vegas".
He can't take it anymore. He believes the voice.
He quits his job, sells his house, takes all his money and flies to Las Vegas.
As soon as he steps off the plane the voice says, "Go to the Horseshoe Casino".
He catches a cab downtown and walks into the Horseshoe.
The voice says, "use your money to buy a seat in the World Series of Poker".
He puts up $10,000 and buys a seat in the tournament.
He goes to his assigned table and seat just as the tournament is starting.
The first hand is dealt and he looks down at the Ace of diamonds and the Ace of spades.
The voice says "Go all in!"
He pushes his entire stack of $10,000 into the pot.
Three players call.
The dealer lays down the flop which is 8-9-10, all hearts.
The voice says, "Oh shit!"

Update

I sat in a 6 player cash game last night in Wallingford and played well. My reads were pretty solid except for two or three hands where I most certainly folded the best cards but there just wasn't enough value in the pot to call the bet. I made some great hands where I got paid off and made some nice bluffs without getting caught. I started at about 9:45pm and I cashed out at 2:30am with 4.5 times my original buy-in and thats when the game ended.

Friday night was Ted's annual Media 5-Miler BBQ which was alot of fun as usual. It was great to see CNN and AKJN there, too.

OK, One More Gambling Joke

The IRS decides to audit Tim, and summons him to the IRS office. The IRS auditor is not surprised when Tim shows up with his attorney. The auditor says, "Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable."

"I'm a great gambler, and I can prove it," says Tim. "How about a demonstration?"

The auditor thinks for a moment and said, "Okay. Go ahead."

Tim says, "I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye."

The auditor thinks a moment and says, "No way! It's a bet."

Tim removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor's jaw drops. Tim says, "Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye."

The auditor can tell Tim isn't blind, so he takes the bet. Tim removes his dentures and bites his good eye. The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Tim's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.

"Want to go double or nothing?" Tim asks. "I'll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and piss into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between."

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there's no way this guy can manage that stunt, so he agrees again.

Tim stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach the wastebasket on other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win. But Tim's attorney moans and puts his head in his hands. "Are you okay?" the auditor asks.

"Not really," says the attorney. "This morning, when Tim told me he'd been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty thousand dollars that he could come in here and piss all over an IRS official's desk and that you'd be happy about it."

Now That's a Poker Player

Two couples were playing poker one evening.
John accidentally dropped some cards on the floor. When he bent down under the table to pick them up he noticed that Bill's wife, Pam, was not wearing any underwear under her dress.
Shocked by this, John tried to sit back up and hit his head on the table.
He emerged red-faced and headed to the kitchen to get some refreshements. Bill's wife followed and asked, "Did you see anything you liked under there?"
Surprised by her boldness, John admitted that he indeed did see something he liked.
She said, "Well, you can have it, but it's going to cost you $100".
After taking a moment to consider the offer, John confirmed that he was indeed interested.
She tells him that her husband works on Fridays and since John didn't he should come by the house Friday around 2 pm.
When Friday rolled around, John showed up at Bill's house at the appointed time and after paying Pam the agreed upon $100, they went into the bedroom and consumated the deal.
John then quickly got dressed and left.
As usual, Bill came home from work on Friday around 6pm and upon entering the house asked his wife, "Did John come by the house this afternoon?"
With a lump in her throat Pam answered, "Why yes he did stop by for a few minutes".
Her heart nearly skipped a beat when he asked, " and did he give you $100?"
In terror she assumed he somehow found out about their meeting and after mustering her best poker face replied, "as a matter of fact he did give me $100".
With a satisfied look on his face Bill told his wife, "Good, I was hoping he did. John stopped by my office this morning and asked to borrow $100 from me. He promised me he'd stop by the house this afternoon and pay me back!"

Now that my friend's is a poker player!

A Brutal Final Hand

Last night I played in the Wallingford home game and things started out very nice. I have a pretty tight table image over there and that has allowed me to get away with some nice bluffs. I try not to push it too much and if I get caught I go back to my usual tight play, but last night it seemed like nobody wanted to tangle with me. I did hit a snag when I tried to get tricky and limped in (didn't raise pre-flop) with pocket aces and when two fours came on the flop I knew I had let a crappy hand in for free and it was going to cost me. I was right and almost left as we were only going to play for another hour. I decided to rebuy and within 30 minutes had more than doubled my stack again when the final hand came up. Of course, at the time I didn't know it would be the final hand.
I was in the small blind and called the bet with 3-4 offsuit. It looked like the big blind checked (I thought he motoioned with his hand) and the dealer thought so, too and even asked him at which time he decided to make a weak raise of $5. I quickly called as I had been able to get this player to dump hands off to me earlier. The flop came Q-2-3 all hearts. Now this is a dangerous board for 3-4 even if I had a heart, which I didn't. I bet anyway to see where I was at and the player called. Now I figure he probably has at least one heart and is looking to make his flush. The 4 of hearts comes on the turn and now I have two pair but I know he made his flush, I bet again thinking if he doesn't have the nut flush (Ace high) he might be worried by my bet. He called again so I know he has a flush, just not sure how strong it is and I have 4 outs to the full house anyway. The river is a black 3 making me a full house, threes full of fours, beating a flush, of course. I decide to bet strong and make him think I am bluffing, and there are actually only two possible cards he could be holding in his hand that can beat me. I bet out $40 and he pushes all in, I had to call and the pot is now about $400. Of course he turns over the only two cards that can beat my hand, the ace and five of hearts for a straight flush and the absolute nuts! I can't call this a bad beat as I shouldn't have played the hand in a raised pot (even a weakly raised pot like this one) and I shouldn't have been chasing a four-outer either. It was just a bad hand, it still sucks, but I did it to myself. Of course 99+% of the time I take that nice pot down so I can't really complain. Needless to say, not one of my better nights as far as final results go, but I actually played well for the session overall (not including this hand or the pocket aces earlier) and in the long run playing well and making the right decisions leads to positive results at year end which is what it is all about.

Life's a Beach

Even though it rained most of the time, my first trip to the beach this year was still enjoyable. I even managed to get a little sunburn on Sunday. On Friday night I had the ritualistic slices at Mack & Manko's and a little soft serve to top it off. Saturday was raining so I headed to AC and instead of hitting my usual haunts, The Taj and Borgata, I decided to check out the new poker room at the Hilton. It's a nice space and even has some windows, but the hosts have a lot to learn about running a poker room. They were spreading only low limit games, but they did have a No Limit game in session so I took a seat to check things out. I mostly folded pre-flop as I tried to get a feel for the players. They were mostly weak-passive, limping in to the pot and then checking and calling bets. The first hand I played I raised from early position with a pocket pair of sevens and got at least five callers. I flopped a third seven to make my set but there were two hearts on the board and with that many callers I knew a suck-out was coming. I bet strong and all but one player dropped out. Of course the next card out was a heart and while I knew I was beat I decided to call just so I could see what the guy was holding as it might be worth something down the road. Of course he had the ace of hearts and the case seven, also a heart. I didn't play many more hands as I decided that with this group I had to play ABC poker to establish a table image and then maybe I could make some moves later on. The poker gods were not kind to me this day as every one of the few hands I played improved on the flop but were always paired with some kind of draw against me. I flopped another set, but with three diamonds on the flop it was a guaranteed suck-out waiting to happen. I flop top two pair on another hand, but of course they're no good when you can't get the drawing hands to fold even to strong bets. I played for maybe two hours and left the table down about $200. If I had more time I think it would have been profitable to wait it out, but I had dinner reservations and didn't want to be late.
Sunday the sun finally broke out, but it was still a bit windy on the beach and the water was way too cold for swimming, although a few brave souls gave it a shot.
I am looking forward to many more beach trips this summer with both better weather and better luck at the tables.