Tao of Pauly

Providence & Foxwoods... a Sunday Roadtrip

I woke up a late. I was up all Saturday and Saturday night writing my new novel. And sometimes, when I get in the swing of things, I loose time. I passed out a little late and woke up very late! Anyway, there was no hassles renting a car, and no traffic leaving the city. I took the "back-way" thru Connecticut (The Hutch to the Merrit Parkways), avoiding as much of I-95 as possible. I hooked up with Gil and Spider (who left an hour earlier from Brooklyn and I found out I was a good 20 minutes ahead of them). I stopped at the Visitor's Center in Rhode Island and drove the last 40 miles into Providence with them. We got there just past 11am.

I had not been back to Senor's house since this June. They were still renovating and it looked like it was in pieces. I got to see some old fraternity brothers from Emory... like Lou and Parker, and of course Gittler was there with Senor's brother Jay. I had not seen Girtz in the longest time, and it was good to catch up. And of course Lee Fenster made an appearance!

We got to meet Jodd and Ang and see Senor's apartment downstairs. Gil took some pictures of Jodd and I shot some footage. I was flattered to see all of my paintings hung up all over his place.

The food was great (I loved the mini Black & White cookies). I drank a few mimosas before the Bris started. Normally, I don't drink on days I'm going to play poker in a casino... but I knew the event would be a little tough on the stomach, so I decided I would need two drinks to take the edge off. I got a good seat close by and I noticed that a lot of people did not want to be up front. It was a little disturbing sometimes, but I had detached myself from the actual event, in order to fully experience the entire Bris. I did not want my emotions to get the best of me, while I was objectively trying to figure out what was going on. As a Catholic, I never attended a Bris before. I got to wear a kippa (thanks to Fenster who helped me pick one out) and I did not video tape the event. I heard you could not and I felt it was in poor taste anyway.

The most difficult part came moments before the actual "cutting". Jodd is the chillest kid I have ever met and he had no clue what was about to happen, and that's what made me uncomfortable. I got to see how Jodd wore the same kippa for his Bris that Senor and both his brothers wore. It was a tradition, this ceremony, and I kept telling myself that. I watched the Rabbi carefully, how he read some passages in Hebrew. Senor had to hold Jodd during the ceremony and he did a good job, even when Jodd cried. It must have hurt for sure. And while the Rabbi was cutting away, I wish I had downed another Mimosa.

Some of my friends were squeamish. A couple of them (names withheld) suggested that they would not follow tradition with a Bris (seven or eight days after birth) and have the circumcision done in the hospital (like what happened to me... but then again, I was raised Catholic). I thought that was weird, but they were being honest.

Everyone enjoyed the great food spread afterwards, although Jay was making fun of the "cost cutter" brands of generic soda.

I got to talk to Senor's Uncle Ed... or UE as he's called by the Sheer clan. EU introduced me to one of his friends as "the guy who played high school basketball against Kenny Anderson". I was slightly embarrassed. No one had brought that up in many years! My glory days as a high school basketball star were long gone, and those memories are almost fifteen years old! But I got to tell the story and it was fun.

Senor's Mom loved the two books that I got for Jodd. I gave the little fellow my favorite books: Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.

I stayed a little late, after everyone left and took some more footage of Jodd while we wtached some of the football game. I drove Jay to the airport and made my way to Foxwoods Casino.

Foxwoods was buzzing. It was the off-day of the big tournament: The World Poker Finals. It started on Thursday and the final table was slated for Monday night (last night... and Phil Helmuth lost to an unklnown, who pocketed $1 Million in prize money). Anyway, I suspected that some big players might be in the poker room. As soon I sat down at a $2-4 Hold'em table, the players were all talking about Chris Moneymaker... the 2003 WSoP champion (He won $2.5 Million). He sat just two table away, playing Pot Limit Hold'em. One of the young ladies at my table kept saying, "He's so small! He looked so big on TV!" Just like everyone else, we all saw Moneymaker on ESPN's extensive coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker (which was played in May, but aired all summer on ESPN & ESPN2). One of the last times I played at Foxwoods, everyone was buzzing because Ben Affleck played Pot Limit and was giving free money away to players who didn't have enough cash for the buy-in, just so he could get a high stakes game. I did not have enough cash to sit in with Moneymaker. If I did, I probably would have lost it all, but I would have walked away with a great story: "I got to play with a champion..."

Anyway, how did I play? Not so good. I dropped $190 in 8 hours. I was up $100 in the first hour and it was all downhill from there. Why? As always, I played too many hands and on a couple big pots I lost on a few bad beats.

But I had some good hands. In the first ten minutes I sat down, I found myself on the button. I decided that I would aggressive play my position all night, and weakly play my blinds. Anyway, I found a 10-9 off suit on the button. It was definitely playable. Of course the flop comes out 10-10-9. Holy shit... I flopped a fucking full house!! There were 5 other people in on the hand. No one raised, and I smooth-called. I didn't want to raise to knock people out, nor to give away my hand. On the turn, two people stayed in and I raised to $8. They both called and on the river I raised to $8, I got re-raised and one guy dropped. I re-raised the guy and he called. I turned over my full house and his straight was not good enough to win. A young woman nearby said, "I can't believe you didn't jump out of your seat after the flop!" She was watching me the entire time, and I carefully diguised my hand. I tried to play it cool and it worked. It was one of the best plays I ever made in low limit, and unfortunately, it was my only good play all night.

A few hands later, I flopped a flush. And I found myself up $100. Later in the night I saw Oklahoma Johnny... he's a legend in the poker world. He started the Senior Tour and was hosting tht Senior's tourney at Foxwoods. He sat down with a young woman (whom I thought was his grand daughter... but it was his daughter). He was her coach and he didn't play. She wore a fuzzy hat and explained that she "was from Las Vegas and was not used to the cold weather in Connecticut." I sensed that she was prepping to hustle us, so I avoided going heads up with her in any hand. I read some of Oklahoma Johhny's book (which I didn't tell her, nor him). I knew that he preached that you should muck your first fifty hands when you sit down at a game... even if you get a good hand. His theory is that you get used to your surroundings, and get to see what type of players you are playing against. After an hour, and looking at his daughter's stack, I realized that she was doing exactly what he wrote about. She didn't play too many hands. Her father was one of the greatest poker minds of all time, and I made her for a player, even though she insisted she was just starting out. I even read some of her mother's articles on various poker sites. Poker was in her blood and I avoided the shark, which didn't matter because I was getting schooled all night by everyone else.

I got beat badly on pokcet Kings. I kept raising everytime I bet and the kid next to me kept calling. I knew he was on a draw. He eneded up catching a full house on the river and yes, I was wicked pissed. I took Brad Singer's advice... "if you lose on an extremely bad beat, get up and walk away." It was 4am and I played for over eight hours. I watched some of Moneymaker's game before I ate a slice of cheesecake. I left Foxwoods around 4:30am and drove back into the city to return the rental car.