I almost posted the question in the recent "Kill Pots" thread, but then decided to do so here instead. Just thought of it because someone today said he didn't chop as the killer and someone else was very offended by it, but others thought it made sense. It's actually only happened to be perskonally once, before I knew the rule, and I was surprised to chop and then have the dealer tell me to post it again.

I just got back from an early viewing of Interstellar, a film by Christopher Nolan, to be released for wide distribution this Friday. It is a big, epic movie. Its pacing reminded me of 2001 A Space Odyssey with some of the slow but more realistic space travel. It doesn't rush through things, yet I was really into the movie for the entire 2:45 running time - my eyes never left the screen for a second. I give it a thumbs up.

Christopher Nolan films are awesome. I think I've loved every one I've seen.

I just finished Oblivion (actually not as bad as the reviews would suggest), so maybe I'm on a sci-fi kick. But if you enjoyed slower paced sci-fi movies from the 70's, you might like Moon, which came out in 2009 and was not widely seen.

Possible MA GaMBoooL hype thread title brainstorm:

Boston, knows how to play

Born under the wrong tribe

Sector 147 Gambool

I can smell the chips flying already

wild wild western MA woot

I'm in the mood, get ready

I thought all the proposed sites were in eastern MA.

My suggestions:

Beantown Bad Beats
The Midnight Gambol of Paul Revere
Pahk Yah Cah at the Gahmboling Hahl
The William Dawes Memorial Hype Thread

There's gonna be one out by Springfield somewhere, one near Boston, and the natives get one on the south shore.

Bob, let's start a 30 game in Boston.

It'll be fun to make big gambool after work.

Maybe if I put $10 away every day instead of buying cigarettes, then I could play that high by the time they're finished building them.

Meh.

My big fear is that the MA casinos will take away from the Foxwoods games by fragmenting the player pool. Hopefully they also bring some new ones in (ones who don't want to make the 100 mile drive to Connecticut regularly, but will show up to some local establishments of degeneracy).

The way I see it is that Foxwoods and Mohegan are in the middle of nowhere, but they still do alright. The Boston location, with all those people a 10 minute bus ride away just itching to gamble, is going to be the place to play poker at any stake for anyone within a 25 mile radius. Will this hurt the CT and south shore casinos? Time will tell.

I'd be interested in some of the opinions of CA guys (AB, calli, jesse, Captain R, etc) on pool fragmentation. Since CA is really the only place right now where one can really choose casinos to play at for FLHE. Worst case scenario, I'll start learning NL.

It's likely that both MS and FW player pools will shrink, and either they will specialize in certain segments of the pool (FW high limit, MS No limit) or FW will subsume MS's clientele.
Overall, I think the FW/MS pool is large enough to survive competition with a MA casino and it's good for players in New England to have another choice which may be more convenient.

Opinions of people in the MDL area would probably be more relevant. CA has a long history with poker and is less religious than MA. MD is probably closer to what you'd see.

In my opinion, you should start off by recognizing there's probably never going to be LHE on the scale of CA rooms.

I would try organizing a "big" LHE game at a fixed time, e.g., Thursday night is 20/40 night, 7-11 pm. Get like 4 people to commit to it, play 3-handed if you need to just so people see it run and know that if they show up there's a 100% chance of there being a game. If you can get it to regular status (a solid player pool after a few months), expand to other days or extend the time.

Look what happened to Atlantic City once Maryland and Pennsylvania happened (mainly Maryland Live! and Parx)

That's because AC is a ****hole.

I'm from Maryland. I used to drive to AC (mostly Borgata) a few times per year. I was very excited when Delaware got casinos because I could now go a couple times per month. The majority of players sitting around the table in Delaware were usually from Maryland.

Then Maryland got casinos and Maryland live is now one of the top 5 busiest poker rooms in the country. Parx, in Philly, is also a pretty big poker room. The Borgata has probably taken a hit (I haven't been there since Maryland got poker), but it is still a great cardroom, so there are still tons of games going there. The other casinos in the area, including the ones in Delaware, are not doing so well.

My guess for Massachusetts is that a large, well run room near Boston that takes care of its players will do great. I've never been to Foxwoods, but I hear good things about it, so I'd guess it would still maintain its place as a quality poker room. But if other rooms aren't run well, they won't be too successful.

I've seen regular games move from Delaware down to Maryland. I recognize most of the 4/8 O/8 players at Maryland Live from when I played that game in Delaware. Maryland Live has a healthy population of 4/8 LHE, and then a jump to 20/40 (which I haven't tried yet, but soon will) and it took quite a bit of effort by some 20/40 players to get that going, but now it is a regular thing. If you want a game to run, get a regular group to play it and it might draw others in, and it might become a regular thing.

FWIW, weekend Borg might still be the best action one can find on the eastern seaboard.

I was thinking about doing something like that; hosting a weekly game. I've actually seen the 10 game at Foxwoods grow into a sustainable upper-small stakes game because the same 8-10 people just kept showing up every Saturday. Wish it was like that 2-3 years ago, instead of just leaping into 20.

Socal really is a mess in this regard. I.suppose I could blog on it

Definitely.

Random story I thought of while responding in the kill pots thread:

The Oaks is licensed to spread 60, but doesn't (and they don't allow overs at 30 either). There is never an explanation given, so players often speculate.

Three different people at three different times have expressed the opinion that, even if it were spread, they would be the only person willing to play that high.

None of them are the 6 or so people I know play the Bay 80 regularly.

Another story I had forgotten to post:

Him to waitress: "This chowder is 115 [degrees] tops. It needs to be 135. Take it back."

Him to me: "You're gonna eat that?"

Me: "Yeah."

Him: "It's cold. It needs to be 135."

Me: *shrug*

Him: "It's not safe unless it's 135."

Me: *sips*

Him: "Guess I shouldn't expect any better from someone who 3-bets ace ten off."

ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu

lol. I was amazed on how terrible the Bay regs think you are. Being there for an afternoon, did I hear like 3 or 4 of them call you a fish to your face?

My bellagio tables break when I leave and changes line up to get to me. When I'm sober.

At 20 and 40. Ask captain and merry bear whom I will still fight for charity. Discuss.