The perfect counterpoint to a country version of a reggae song. Well done, sir!

Thank you for introducing me to Toots and the Maytals. Apparently they're the band who coined the word reggae, so not knowing of them was a big gap in my music knowledge. Sadly, it doesn't look like they're going to have anything in Rolling Stone's Top 500 albums, where they could have easily replaced some of the acts I've heard so far.

Take Me Home Country Roads will be one of the songs that people will still be singing in 300 years, even if it's in makeshift camps warmed by the toxic fires of a collapsed world.

I took a beating yesterday, but I made some mighty folds and was shown the goods on several occasions by kind villains. I have it at around $300 saved yesterday by not using "I'm committed to call less than a pot-sized shove here on the river given my range" or "There's no way he has it this time" or "FU I CALL" as valid criteria for making decisions.

These thoughts will always come up when I'm stuck and getting beat up and agonizing over a big pot, and they will always be frighteningly compelling in the moment, so I'm proud of pushing them away and saving myself many hours of EV. I'll be back at it again on Tuesday.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 8 hours
(+$282.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 3 hours
+$131.02

2024 Running Poker Total: 164 hours, +$1754.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 95 hours, +$5019.88

2024 Grand Total: 259 hours, +$6773.88

Well done, sir! One indicator of a very strong player is turning a would-be disastrous session into a decent winning session by making disciplined folds when necessary. The ability to stay patient and grind out a winning session when the deck is conspiring against you is quite commendable.

Not their *best* album, only excellent. The influence of this band was/is enormous across multiple genres.

https://www.rs500albums.com/350-301/344

Proud of you.

These tax-free profit numbers make me excitable

I think this one was still a losing session but could’ve been worse.

Maybe I was confused. Didn't he say he was +282 for the session? Or did the red font and/or parentheses indicate a loss?

Regardless, even if a loss, taking a manageable loss instead of a huge loss is a definite sign of a strong player.

Correct, Da_Nit. I done goofed and put in a + where there should have been a -. I appreciate the kind words, TopGun in VA!

Good to know that they're on the list! I'm trying not to peek forward on that list, so I checked the Wikipedia awards section for the band, and it let me down. The article had Toots as a Rolling Stone Top 100 singer but neglected to mention their top 500 album placement.



Thanks AF! The poker hourly could be better, but I started the year on a big downswing and didn't get into the black until almost February. Give me about 350 more hours and I should have things straightened out.

My bad. From now on:

Nah, that's on me, Phat Mack. I invited speculation with my earlier post. But thank you for that!

Part of my Year of TV Pirating involves watching classic movies that I've never seen, so I'm watching Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation today, and there's a scene where Gene Hackman visits Teri Garr in her apartment, and he joins her in bed.

While they're talking, Garr gets up and grabs a box of crackers . She returns to the bed and starts eating them.




That got me wondering about the old phrase, "I wouldn't kick him/her out of bed for eating crackers," and if The Conversation could be the origin of that.

Nope. Turns out it's much older, going back to around 1906, when a pitcher for the Phillies complained in a letter that his catcher and roommate (they didn't pay players much back then) was keeping him up by eating crackers in bed. The letter got out to the newspapers and everyone had a good laugh over it, except maybe the pitcher.

Coppola must have been using the phrase as a visual joke.

Yeah after seeing these films and all that I'll def have to get myself into watching the DL version in full finally, and also the books at some point, even if just to see where it really went all wrong with the 1984 adaption. Truly fascinating. So in that sense Villeneuve did a pretty fantastic job and prolly well deserved the fortunes he got for doing what he did, he got many peeps interested in it, that's all it takes. Even though I still think Dune 1 was much better. And yes, Sting was certainly a cast nobody ever asked for...

Well, I don't really wanna get into this discussion but as for my unimportant opinion Kyle MacLachlan certainly has some very distinct, I guess you could say pretty boy, features, whereas that thought never crossed my mind with Chalamet, he looked like a regular guy, good enough to make it on-screen but I never thought of him as a woman-magnet or whatever. But what do I know, you'd have to ask a woman. We could ask the hordes of women we have here on 2+2. Oh wait... And disregarding the fact that if you ask three women you get five opinions. So there's that...

bro, stick to the slots..

I've written about this before, but I can't expect anyone to find everything I write in a nearly 4000-post thread, so here it is.

The full time slot grinders in Springfield do a lot of sitting around, waiting for the normies to build the slots back up to +EV states. I have the choice of either sitting around with them, bored out of my mind, or playing poker. I make money doing the latter, and the time goes by quicker.

None of the above touches on the fact that more than 20 +EV machines have been removed from the Springfield floor so far this year and replaced with unbeatable machines, while 10 or so new slot grinders have shown up during that time to compete for the dwindling resources.

So it's poker.

Speaking of poker. I had a bad day on Tuesday. I got stuck early, then the table turned bad. I transferred to a different table, only to find myself to the left of a serial straddler.

The $5 Mississippi straddle at Springfield is allowed from any position other than the blinds, and the straddler gets to go last preflop, making the player to their left into a sort of acting UTG. If someone on my right straddles every hand, like this shitbag did, then I start all of my hands in either the blinds (who are forced to go first preflop in this configuration) or effectively UTG, which makes it very difficult to win over time, given the power of position in poker.

To counter this, I must either straddle every hand myself, which I don't like to do, or transfer tables, which I'd already just done and didn't want to bother the floor again, or switch seats and put myself on the straddler's right, which I couldn't do because no one was leaving the table.

So I quit early while I was stuck almost $500. I'm going back today to finish the session.

Today I raced against another Ultimate X video poker grinder through the banks of machines adjacent to the poker room. While we were leapfrogging over each other and desperately scrolling through screens, a third Ultimate X grinder walked into the room. He saw the two of us already vying for the machines, ruefully shook his head and walked out.

The third grinder pops into the casino quite often; I think he must live close to the casino. Either that or he doesn't mind driving a lot. My nickname for that guy is Sweatercunny because (1) he always wears a sweater and (2)


Today was a short makeup day concluding yesterday's ragequitted session. Tomorrow I will commence with an attempt to work 4 consecutive 10-hour days, including Easter (sorry Jesus), due to a confluence of big promo payouts. I could really use one of those right about now.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 6 hours
(-$274.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 4 hours
+$149.50

2024 Running Poker Total: 170 hours, +$1480.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 99 hours, +$5169.38

2024 Grand Total: 269 hours, +$6649.38

do you keep a spreadsheet of your daily results?
graphs are always fun

bro you should have tried to seat change anywhere else on that table, a serial straddler is GOLD MINE,

Correct. On one hand, Villain is effectively on the BTN preflop every hand except for the blinds, which gives him great position over everyone; on the other hand, he's committed himself to open 100% of his hands more than 75% of the time—all of his non-blind hands—for 2.5x, which should make it nearly impossible for him to win in the long run, which means that he's donating to someone.

Unfortunately, no one was leaving the table, and on his left I was leaking EV on every hand I was dealt, all of which started me effectively UTG or in the blinds. That serial straddler is a regular player, so a possible plan when I find myself on his left is to get up and leave my chips on the table for as long as I can without being picked up by the floor, and watch the table from a distance until someone on the straddler's right gets up, then return quickly and switch seats to be on his right, assuming that no one else at the table has called that seat before I can get back. They don't have seat change buttons in Springfield.

Being on his right would make me the effective cutoff most hands without having to play every hand like he does.

Am I up for this sort of game? It depends. That Villain often inspires other players at the table to straddle, which complicates things immensely.

I posted some last year. I'll probably post something towards the end of this year.

The Dry 2024 Challenge Update

January: ✓
February: ✓
March: ✓
April: UNLOCKED

I don't own a scale at the moment, but I have gone down 2 belt notches so far this year, so I've lost some volume at least. I assume that lost volume correlates with lost weight.

The AA folks give out a special 90-day sobriety coin to their members who go to meetings and stay on the wagon for 3 months. I don't go to meetings, and if I did, I'd wager that the handful of THC gummies I've enjoyed along the way would be a deal breaker, so I'll settle for the real coin I've been making through working more hours, now that I've given up my former pastime of staying home and day drinking through the week.

Excellent work!

Currently, making a 6-high straight flush in spades using both cards in your hand will yield $8000 from the Springfield MGM poker room.

Yesterday (i.e. a few hours ago) I was dealt 63, and I played it like a stereotypical loose passive donk. I limped, then called a raise preflop, which I almost never do. Then I check/called 2 streets on an 8225 board. The river brought the A and I checked like a standard loose passive. Villain checked behind, but I still won a decent pot, as V had bombed the turn to get me off of my flush draw. Hee-haw; I still called.

After all, I had picked up a gutshot.

Later today, the poker room will have 5 separate $3000 random drawings, from noon until midnight. I will make an attempt to be in the room for all of them.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 6 hours
+$602.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 4 hours
+$249.15

2024 Running Poker Total: 176 hours, +$2082.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 103 hours, +$5418.53

2024 Grand Total: 279 hours, +$7500.53