The Doctor, D, Spaceman and Myself

We all meet up at Brother Jimmy’s and it had to be done because Spaceman is from the south and here on audition for: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In case you all don’t know, Brother Jimmy’s here in NYC is kind of a wannabe Southern Shack type of place. It’s our best Big City impression of what we think of when we think of the South…in other words, it’s probably like what Taco Bell is to me when people say, “Let’s go eat some Mexican Food at Taco Bell.” In any case, Spaceman said the place wasn’t that bad (maybe he didn’t want to hurt my feelings for picking the place) and we continued to eat and drink. (oh, just so you know Mrs. Spaceman your grandmother’s coleslaw was mentioned as the best in the South) And for the record, I love Taco Bell, but it’s really not Mexican…nuff said.

As a side note: Our waitress was a total bitch and I was trying to be nice to her and chat her up for the boy’s sake. Then we make a toast to “off shore bank accounts” and ask her to join in and she looked at us with a blank stare and acted rude (a good waitress would have said, what are you boys talking about…flirted and got a better tip) so I asked her if she knew what one plus one was? I know, I know, I’m an asshole. But I think Pauly did say a foul word on her first approach so that may have set her on tilt.

Our next place to hit was the Dublin Bar. I don’t like cold Guinness (I like it kind of warm) so I went with Jack on the rocks. We chatted for a few minutes about poker and life. Pauly was laughing at the couple in the corner that was right behind us and twisted together like a pretzel. I’m thinking he was doing something to her under the jacket, but that’s just me. Then we seen some people bent over at a table…Pauly looks at me and I say…without missing a beat I must admit and pat myself on my back, “they aren’t doing lines.” Then we use the whole…”pass the sugar”…Aussie accent of course. Also, Spaceman mentioned to me that he was even shocked by the immensity that is NYC. I thought about it for a second and had to agree with him.

On a quick side note: I have often read when pros say they use to just sit and talk about hands over and over again and that’s how they developed their skills. I found this approach to be interesting because I play by feel so I could never imagine myself sitting and discussing hands. Yet, yesterday it hit me how valuable this could be. I can’t tell you how much I learned from just sitting and listening Derek talk out hands…and he remembered them so vividly. I now can remember hands also and can talk about them (yet, when I fold I can’t remember what I just folded) with people and I thought I would never reach this point to be honest.

Our next place to hit was Yogi’s bar. But on the way we got a call from everyone’s favorite phone bandit, Al Can’t Hang…he was at a bar drinking…shocker.

I got a call from the Anita “Pinky” Agarwal telling me she was going to sleep…damn Jersey folk always go to bed so damn early.

What can I say about Yogi’s…it’s another cheap City version of what a bar in the south would be…sorry, all these places are in the same neighborhood. We went and had a dandy time…I got to kick a Black Bear in the junk for stupid shitz and giggles. Everyone at the bar was a bit shocked that I would walk up to a bear on it’s hind legs and kick him in the junk…I even seen a few guys wince in pain. Me, I just laughed along with the fellow bloggers.

I tried to get some girls to sit and talk with us and have some drinks. You know, just to give the boys some shitz and giggles stories. But the three girls I started to chat up were from South Africa and wanted to leave. I guess we were all too damn ugly. Then we found girls that were drunk enough to chat with us and I told them they were sitting next to celebrities in Pauly and Spaceman…since the world series was on we were trying to see if Pauly would pop-up on the screen so we could say, “there he is.” That would have gotten him a cool blow-job in the back corner room. According to Derek if you paid enough you could get back there and that’s where all the action was happening…of course he was joking…or at least I hope he was joking.

We then went to Time Out Bar. An old haunt of mine where I use to watch the UCLA games. It was too funny because an old bartender from my neighborhood was working there. She had a massive rack and they guys kept asking me how I knew her and what she did for a living…I told everyone she gave me a hand job…haha! Everyone started to laugh and nobody called bullshit so I went with it. I also ran into Alberto “Mr. San Antonio” Puentes at the bar which was so damn random and funny.

Then we went on to Bourbon Bar for a few drinks. We all started yelling at the T.V. because the World Series was on…Call that Donkey…CALL HIM!!! ...but the MOFO on the t.v. just folded. I guess it helped that we had the view of the cards.

I wanted to hit a few other places but Spaceman was done. As most people know, I can stay up all night hitting the town. So we packed it in for the night and got our Gatorade and water…always kills the hangover.

Interesting conversation I had with Pauly on bankrolls. People are sometimes shocked that I play at a high stud table. Yet, I have to tell you that playing high limits in Stud is very different than playing in a limit 20/40 game. For instance, if you have ever sat at a 20/40 table you know that guys are going to ram and jam a pot with pocket 10’s. Thus, and often, the pot is capped. This would never happen in Stud. Sorry, it just doesn’t happen. Not the nature of the game unless you have some real fucken cowboys at the table which does happen but they tend to get isolated during the game. In a limit 20/40 game it seems that everyone is a fucken cowboy. Go to party and see how big the pots are in 20/40 limit compared to 20/40 stud. Stud is a slower game and a lot more checking takes place sometimes from the first card down. It’s just the nature of the game. Thus, the bankroll to survive in Stud is much smaller than that of limit. Should you have a suffice bankroll to play both…yes, of course. But I would have to double my stud bankroll to play in the higher limit games such as 20/40 or 40/80…that is just my take.

posted by Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa @ 11:30 AM