Year-end reflections for 2022

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 31, 2022

As I sit here on the cusp of the turning of the calendar, the biggest event in my life over the past year is obvious: I moved for the second time in less than 12 months and for what I hope will be the last time in several years, and perhaps even longer. I described parts of the moving and the settling-in process in this post from April, this post from June and this post from September.

The settling-in continues. I went through a major bout of activity to make my place more or less presentable for out-of-town family in recent days, clearing away clutter — which often involved putting stuff in out-of-the-way locations — and emptying boxes of DVDs and CDs. But the room I’ve designated as an office is a disaster zone, one of the bedrooms is still filled with too much clutter and the other bedroom is usable but not finished in the sense that it contains a bunch of random stuff, such as a detached headboard, a half-height bookcase without shelves or books and two child-sized bed tables.

I have a bunch of projects to do over the next year. I’ll finish the process of reinforcing the mirror I hung in the hallway for a short time until the partially rotted wood gave out and the cable pulled out of the back of the frame. I’ll scan some old documents and get rid of a bunch of paper in my office. I’ll hang curtains over the glass on my front door to replace the shelf liner that I currently use to screen views of the inside. I’ll put up small matching wooden Vs near the back entrance to support the tension rod where I hang a privacy curtain, a jacket or two and the occasional item I need to put in my car for specific trips. And on and on…

Nov. 22, 2022, poker recap

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 16, 2022

On Tuesday morning, Nov. 22, I vacated my room at Harrah’s just before checkout and stowed my duffel bag in the trunk of my car. Then I spent a while strolling outside, mostly around the Borgata property. After nearly an hour, having covered more than 3.4 miles, I found my way to the outdoor parking lot that had functioned as a sort of home base for part of my earlier trip and headed inside to the nearby food court, where I pulled on a collared shirt.

Then I went upstairs to the poker room and put my name on a list for a $1-$3 no limit Texas holdem cash table. About 20 minutes later, a dealer sat down at table nine, near the room’s main entrance. I settled into seat four and bought in for $240. A few of the players bought in for the maximum, $400.

At 12:43 p.m., less than two hours after I’d left my hotel room, I played the very first hand against Ballcap Redbeard, or BCR, the younger white man to my right in seat three. He said he was a Maryland native who worked for a national intelligence agency. I raised to $10 from the hijack and was called by BCR. I made lower set on a flop of ace-seven-six with two hearts. I bet $15, but BCR folded.

Nov. 21, 2022, poker recap: Part 3

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 15, 2022

As mentioned toward the end of my previous post, I was feeling somewhat rundown over the weekend. I tested for Covid-19 both before leaving for Atlantic City and after my trip, and I came up negative each time; also, per usual, I masked at all times in indoor public spaces.

Still, I wasn’t very peppy. What’s more, I really wanted to hit my daily walking goal, so I ended my session at a $1-$2 no limit Texas holdem table before reaching the three-hour mark. After taking a brisk 37-minute walk from Harrah’s to the Golden Nugget and back, covering nearly 2.3 miles, I retreated to my hotel room. I spent some time watching Monday Night Football, snacking on food I’d brought and generally relaxing.

A little more than two hours after I’d left the poker table, I was feeling re-energized. I headed back down to the ground floor and returned to the poker room. I took seat two at table 30 with the $153 in chips that I’d taken away from my last session and had another go at $1-$2 no limit Texas holdem.

I immediately got into a biggish pot from the big blind when I called a $5 raise with what I believe were face cards, or perhaps ace-jack. The five-way flop included a jack and a 10. Barbara, the player in seat five, bet $10 on the flop. I called. She bet $10 on the turn and I called. The river was an ace; both of us checked. Barbara had K♥️10♥️. When I showed my hand, which gave me a pair of jacks to her pair of 10s, she said, “I knew it.” 

Nov. 21, 2022, poker recap: Part 2

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec, 14, 2022

After devoting a few hours to eating lunch, watching the U.S. in the World Cup and resting, I headed downstairs to the Harrah’s poker room. I took a spot at a $1-$2 no limit Texas holdem table around 5:20 p.m. I was in seat nine, right beside the dealer, at table 14.

I won a modest pot early on with 4♣️3♣️ when the flop came 3♠️9♥️4♦️ and the turn brought 4♠️. I placed a bet that prompted my opponent to fold ace-nine.

I made a preflop raise to $7 with A♦️K♦️ and was called by a woman in seat eight. I paired my ace and called down my opponent’s progressively larger bets — $10, $15, $30 — despite the turn bringing a third heart to the board. She had made a pair with Q♦️J♥️, but my pair was higher.

Nov. 21, 2022, poker recap: Interlude

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 13, 2022

After I busted out of the Borgata tournament, I went to an unused table in a quiet corner of the room, which is easily large enough to host a wedding with 100 guests, and perhaps many more than that. Shortly before 2 p.m., I called the fraud department of a bank where I keep significant deposits. A few days earlier, they’d detected unusual activity, and on Monday, they’d called me about this.

It turned out that on Nov. 15, there had been an unusual login to my account from a smart phone in a city where I had not traveled. I thought that I might have signed into the account on the 15th, but I couldn’t actually remember doing so.

I was about to mark this login as fraudulent, which would have frozen my account and required me to go to a physical branch to get a new account number, when I asked the bank agent to review my recent transactions. I don’t know why the agent hadn’t offered to do this earlier, but it cleared everything up. On Nov. 18, I’d paid a bill using an electronic transfer from the bank, as I routinely do. And on Nov. 15, the day of the smartphone login that the bank had flagged, I’d deposited a check for $64.13.

Well.

Nov. 21, 2022, poker recap: Part 1

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 12, 2022

After leaving the Borgata on Sunday night, I got a burger from a restaurant in Harrah’s, went up to my hotel room and watched Sunday night football.

The following morning, I walked back over to the Borgata and registered in the $125 tournament. As it turned out, this had a “survivor” format, meaning that most of the payouts would be pretty flat. In the end, I believe the top seven players would win exactly $1,000 each and the eighth player would win about $550, with no one else receiving money. In a typical tournament, payouts are top-heavy, so in an identically sized field with a similar buy-in, the winner might receive $3,500, the runner-up $2,800, the third-place finisher $2,200 and a handful of others would get smaller amounts.

I had hoped to get to the tournament on time, but I got into line at 11:05, a few minutes after the first hand was dealt. I chatted a bit with an amiable older Philadelphia-area white guy named Brad, who had just driven out.

Nov. 20, 2022, poker recap

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By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 11, 2022

During my Atlantic City trip in early November, I came out ahead by more than $800. As you might imagine, I was eager to make a return trip. I headed back down on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 20.

I’d hoped to duplicate my success in part by retracing my itinerary and experiences from the previous trip, but that plan was thwarted almost immediately. As it turned out, the Tropicana poker room is closed for renovations, so I couldn’t begin the trip by playing there. Instead, I checked into my room at Harrah’s and walked over to the Borgata, where I took seat four at a $1-$3 no limit Texas holdem table shortly before 7 o’clock with a $170 buy-in.

My first notable hand came about 20 minutes in when I found Q♥️Q♣️ in the hijack. I called a $15 bet and found myself in a four-way pot. The runout was jack-eight-eight-seven-nine. There were lots of checks until the river, when the small blind bet $22 into a pot of around $60 and was called. I folded, as did the player to my left. The pot turned out to be a chop: Both remaining players had a 10, leaving them each with a jack-high straight.