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Hit that high hand!
Oct. 5th, 2006 03:13 pmA year or so ago I wrote an article for Gutshot on "high hand" strategy in Vegas. I can't remember what numbers I came up with for myself, but I think that it worked out that I had an expected one high hand a trip, or a week, or two high hands every three trips, or every three weeks. Something like that.
So, after eight days of winning a bit, losing a bit, and crawling to a mere $70 up, it was nice to hit a gutshot for a royal flush yesterday. Unless someone else has hit the same hand while I've been asleep, that's $500 in the pocket. You don't get that in the crapshoot tournaments.
The Flamingo currently has a 24-hour high-hand system, and you only need to use one card from your hand, with the highest hand getting $500, the next-highest $400, the next-highest $300 and then $200 apiece until the money runs out. They will be moving over to the more standard "immediate payout" type of high hand (two cards from your hand, progressive, up to $599) in the very near future. This requires slightly different strategy, since obviously quad deuces is more likely to score $599 than is quad Aces. You have to keep your eye on which hands are generating the maximum immediate payout.
Anyhoo, that win puts the poker for the trip into the black by a respectable amount. Although it's a tad tedious, it's good to get some practice in at genuine Miller Low-Limit style games. Once again, I seem to have done better during the day (when you can, believe it or not, win a number of pots wthout a showdown) than during the evening, when it's basically a matter of getting the pot ankle-deep in chips and hoping that your Aces, or top two-pair, or set, aren't outdrawn by a runner-runner straight.
+++++++++++++++
"Our current laws are causing virtually unfettered access to marijuana. Marijuana is far easier to access than alcohol because drug dealers don't card," he said.
And who said this, possibly the most sensible thing I've heard about drug use this year? Ted Kennedy, perhaps? Or some liberal Democrat in Los Angeles?
Nope, it was Rev. Paul Hansen, senior pastor at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Las Vegas.
This is an interesting line from the conservative religious groups in Nevada, who seem to be saying that decriminalisation and an increase on the penalties for sales to those under 21 would be the best of a bad job. Rev David Scheuneman, a Unitarian in Vegas, said that:
"One of the roles of religion is to point out hypocrisy in society. By any means, marijuana is less dangerous to individuals and society than alcohol," adding that "Ads for alcohol are plentiful. You are allowed to buy unlimited amounts, and in Las Vegas we give it away for free to gamblers in casinos and allow people to drink it on the streets".
A proposition is being put to Nevada voters this November whereby the drug would be sold at sanctioned "pot shops", which would levy a $45 an ounce excise tax. In theory, this would be at least part-used for substance-abuse programmes.
This seems so blatantly sensible I guess that it has no chance of passing. I wonder if the drug dealers have set up their own lobby in an attempt to keep the use of it a misdemeanour?
+++++++++++
Not much to report on the old online front. Looks like Bush has not yet signed the act into law. When this happens, there will undoubtedly be developments.
Bluff This!, a regular poster here, has been busy on 2+2 bringing together the relevant information. But at the moment the situation is much as it was yesterday.
I'm not sure what I would do if I were in the US at the moment -- I guess that I'd be frantically trying to see what workarounds I could put together. For me in the UK, it's at worst an inconvenience. For professional online players in the US, it's life-changing.
++++++++++++
Well, I've now gone a week without playing a single hand online, or making a single visit to the gym -- two activities that probably take up more than 40 hours a week of my waking time when I am at home. The gym will be hard work when I get back, since this year has seen a steady reaccumulation of weight (despite muchos gym work!). It looks like I might have to take a more serious look at my diet, on top of doing gym work. Gawd, are there to be no pleasures left open to me?
One more post before I fly back, straight into the joys of a Full Tilt Gold Medal freeroll on Saturday evening.
So, after eight days of winning a bit, losing a bit, and crawling to a mere $70 up, it was nice to hit a gutshot for a royal flush yesterday. Unless someone else has hit the same hand while I've been asleep, that's $500 in the pocket. You don't get that in the crapshoot tournaments.
The Flamingo currently has a 24-hour high-hand system, and you only need to use one card from your hand, with the highest hand getting $500, the next-highest $400, the next-highest $300 and then $200 apiece until the money runs out. They will be moving over to the more standard "immediate payout" type of high hand (two cards from your hand, progressive, up to $599) in the very near future. This requires slightly different strategy, since obviously quad deuces is more likely to score $599 than is quad Aces. You have to keep your eye on which hands are generating the maximum immediate payout.
Anyhoo, that win puts the poker for the trip into the black by a respectable amount. Although it's a tad tedious, it's good to get some practice in at genuine Miller Low-Limit style games. Once again, I seem to have done better during the day (when you can, believe it or not, win a number of pots wthout a showdown) than during the evening, when it's basically a matter of getting the pot ankle-deep in chips and hoping that your Aces, or top two-pair, or set, aren't outdrawn by a runner-runner straight.
+++++++++++++++
"Our current laws are causing virtually unfettered access to marijuana. Marijuana is far easier to access than alcohol because drug dealers don't card," he said.
And who said this, possibly the most sensible thing I've heard about drug use this year? Ted Kennedy, perhaps? Or some liberal Democrat in Los Angeles?
Nope, it was Rev. Paul Hansen, senior pastor at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Las Vegas.
This is an interesting line from the conservative religious groups in Nevada, who seem to be saying that decriminalisation and an increase on the penalties for sales to those under 21 would be the best of a bad job. Rev David Scheuneman, a Unitarian in Vegas, said that:
"One of the roles of religion is to point out hypocrisy in society. By any means, marijuana is less dangerous to individuals and society than alcohol," adding that "Ads for alcohol are plentiful. You are allowed to buy unlimited amounts, and in Las Vegas we give it away for free to gamblers in casinos and allow people to drink it on the streets".
A proposition is being put to Nevada voters this November whereby the drug would be sold at sanctioned "pot shops", which would levy a $45 an ounce excise tax. In theory, this would be at least part-used for substance-abuse programmes.
This seems so blatantly sensible I guess that it has no chance of passing. I wonder if the drug dealers have set up their own lobby in an attempt to keep the use of it a misdemeanour?
+++++++++++
Not much to report on the old online front. Looks like Bush has not yet signed the act into law. When this happens, there will undoubtedly be developments.
Bluff This!, a regular poster here, has been busy on 2+2 bringing together the relevant information. But at the moment the situation is much as it was yesterday.
I'm not sure what I would do if I were in the US at the moment -- I guess that I'd be frantically trying to see what workarounds I could put together. For me in the UK, it's at worst an inconvenience. For professional online players in the US, it's life-changing.
++++++++++++
Well, I've now gone a week without playing a single hand online, or making a single visit to the gym -- two activities that probably take up more than 40 hours a week of my waking time when I am at home. The gym will be hard work when I get back, since this year has seen a steady reaccumulation of weight (despite muchos gym work!). It looks like I might have to take a more serious look at my diet, on top of doing gym work. Gawd, are there to be no pleasures left open to me?
One more post before I fly back, straight into the joys of a Full Tilt Gold Medal freeroll on Saturday evening.
