Bump.
(Just an artificial bump so I don't have to go back to the previous page. A little OCD issue here! )

Traditionally, you could take your left-hand opponent's straddle off by straddling in front of him, and your right-hand opponent could do the same thing to you.

In some games, you could limp in front of straddles, then pop it when it came around. In other words, if you had the $5 straddled to my left, I could limp for $2, knowing that it was coming back to me and I could raise it as much as I wanted. This put the fear of god into late-position straddlers, especially before the era of capped buy-ins when there could be some money on the table.

Here the left-most (i.e. latest) position gets priority, but their forcing of the player on their immediate left to go first is where are all the meta-nanigans come into play, or potential meta-nanigans. We shall see.

Does 25 counts?
:worried:

Eh, I don't mind.

Today I begin my Hawaiian Shirt Phase.

It's a rite of passage for many Americans, of both sexes, of all races and ethnicities and political persuasions. At some point between the ages of 20 and 80 we buy a bunch of Hawaiian shirts and wear them for however long the phase lasts.

I am not a clothes shopper...at all. My family knows this well, and they buy me clothes for my birthday and for Christmas and for some occasions in-between, just to keep me away from wearing rags. Lately they've been buying polo shirts, which have--without exception--been far from flattering for my various rolls of fat, so I took action and spent 45 seconds on Amazon, with the results up in the picture up top.

If these 3 shirts don't shrink too much in the wash, I will spend another minute on Amazon and buy 4 more, and then I'll have my week in Hawaiian shirts.

Last night the table was tougher than usual, so this is not going to be a cakewalk every night. I just need to keep studying and play consistently better than the rest of the field, and I'll be fine in the long run.

Springfield MGM: 4 hours
(-$85.00)

Running Total: 13 hours, +$351.00

If I may....

If your style at the table is kinda TAGish (or at least has some element of tightness), try wearing them at the tables.

I'm kind of a nit, but put on something like that. I believe it gives off the "tourist here to spend money" vibe and has helped me to get action.

I think you're right about that, golddog. I contemplated wearing them back in Las Vegas, but the Hawaiian shirt is often part of the uniform for Strip casino staff, so I held off.

Another thing to consider is name tags. The kind conventioneers wear around their necks on lanyards. I used to have a large collection of them when I played a lot in Vegas.

Biggest action name tag?
Ralph Spoilsport
Spoilsport Motors

I like it! But Springfield's a bit provincial. The players are locals who know that there hasn't been a convention here since the Hartford Civic Center rebuilt their roof after it collapsed during the Blizzard of '78.

How about a New York Yankees Cap? Or a Chicago Blackhawks sweater?

I couldn't pull it off. I'm not enough of a sports fan in general. I used to be, when I was younger, but the cumulative turnover of various beloved lineups every few years eventually wore me down.

I think one of the reasons why Brady was so well loved in New England beyond his Super Bowls and enduring talent was simply that he was with us for 20 years. He was our constant beacon shining from an island in a churning sea of players.

Anyways, you got me thinking about Connecticut sports fans, as that state border sits around 5 miles south of the Springfield MGM.

Take a map of CT and draw a diagonal line roughly like so...



The population on the left side of the line skews towards New York fans; and that on the right side skews towards Boston fans.

In the middle portions, near the red line, you will find some strange hybrids: folks who root for the Red Sox and the NY Giants, and others who like the Yankees and the Patriots.

My buddy Will grew up in the red line area, and he purports to like both the Red Sox and the Yankees, which is just...he's a natural contrarian, so it doesn't upset me at all. I just write it off as a case of stunt rooting.

I bet you could make a super dope diagram illustrating the fanhoods as described above

I gave up on pro sports 30 years ago. I still like wearing ball caps but they draw me into conversations I no longer understand, so I gave up wearing them.

I have a Barcelona Football Club (soccer for you Americans) cap that I proudly wear to confuse people. Which, by the way, I purchased in Barcelona. Which has a long tradition, going back to 1899 for their Football Club.

Welcome back, AF! The above google map snip with the crooked line drawn across it is the limit of my design layout skills.

Seconded.

Also, for me, I have an oddly-shaped head, and ball caps just don't fit on me comfortably.

Hi Zeno. Thanks for stopping by! Now, has anyone with knowledge of the Barcelona club chatted you up? I'm guessing that you'd know enough to hold your own in that conversation.

Unfortunately no! But I can relate that just knowing about the club and showing genuine interest will get you well like and possibly even a few drinks from the locals. Soccer is a religion in Spain as in most of Europe.

Barcelona is a fabulous city. See it before you die and you will die happy.

Barcelona = GOAT city.

Totally agree : Barcelona remains my favorite city visited and #1 city in the world where I would want to live if I had to chose an urban setting

Barcelona has stunningly beautiful women. It may have some other stuff, but I just couldn't pay attention.

Might go just for the beautiful women. Lemme know if you want to do a group trip, SJ.

I went to Barcelona about 15 years ago. Great city, good people, had a good time. Now maybe I has bad luck but didn’t enjoy the food. Really expected more. I actually much better in my part couple trips to England.

I mean food is alright, but I definitely would not rate Barcelona as a top food city, nor would include the quality of the food as one of the reasons to go there...

I think we'll have to go to Barcelona, as we appear to be the only two players who haven't yet visited.

The local MGM will have this on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. It looks kind of juicy, especially the table shares, as long as they don't bump up the promo rake. They usually have 6-10 tables going, so it's not a big stretch to hit a promo.

An ideal plan would be to play for 3-4 hours on Monday and Thursday nights and 4-6 hours on Sunday; but if you've read any of this blog, you'll know that my best-laid plans gang aft a-gley. We shall see.