Monthly Archives: April 2004

News

Goodbye, Hollywood Park?

Leave a comment

Uh, oh. What does this mean for poker in LA?

Some See Winner in Hollywood Park Move

An effort to move the famed Hollywood Park racetrack from Inglewood to Irvine is a tale of the suburbs and the inner city.

For Irvine, a racetrack at the former El Toro Marine base would bolster its hopes to transform the closed base into a giant park surrounded by homes, offices and stores. Until 2002, the old military compound was headed for rebirth as a commercial airport.

In Inglewood, some track old-timers lament the prospect of losing the 66-year-old institution that opened during Hollywood’s golden era. But city officials are upbeat about the possibility of a move, which would open the track’s 237 acres to retail development that could double its current tax take.

Cars

This is the one I want

Leave a comment

Top Gear tells us about the new Lotus Exige. I want it.

It looks like a bad ass alien, features Lotus handling, and has a Toyota engine tweaked by Lotus:

Not that the engine is all that heavy itself, of course, being an all-alloy unit, but in conjunction with Toyota’s six-speed manual gearbox it’s the perfect companion for this latest Lotus – the company’s engineers devised a new management system for the engine, making it better suited to trackday use with top torque of 133lbf.ft coming in at a massive 6800rpm and max power arriving even further up the rev range at 7800rpm.

One major difference is that Lotus has aimed to get rid of the thump-in-the-back difference between cam profiles that’s so noticeable (and intoxicating) in the Celica. The company was keen to avoid upsetting the balance of the car; the high-speed cam comes in at around 6200rpm but stays working until you drop below 5800rpm, meaning you won’t be bumped back down to standard output during gearchanges – though with a red shift light on the dash, you should always be able to change up at exactly the right moment.

Plus it weighs just 1929 pounds, has a hard top, and gets 32.1 mpg. Cool.

More photos here.

Poker

Sunday morning freerolls at Multi

Leave a comment

It’s damn early (9 AM), but it’s free for players who have played 200 raked hands or more. Even better, I made $30. The hourly rate for that is lousy, but it was fun. Here’s the hand that bounced me:

No-Limit Hold’em Tourney, Big Blind is t1500 (8 handed)

BB (t4480)
UTG (t31466)
UTG+1 (t18172)
MP1 (t41840)
Hero (t1842)
CO (t24056)
Button (t20764)
SB (t3380)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Qc, Kd.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, Hero raises to t1842 (All-In), CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls t342.

Hero shows Qc Kd. BB shows Th 9s.

Flop: (t4434) Td, 9d, Ah (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t4434) 9c (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t4434) 2h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t4434
Main Pot: t4434 (t4434), between BB and Hero. > Pot won by BB (t4434).

Results:
BB (full house, nines full of tens).
Hero (one pair, nines).
Outcome: BB wins t4434.

Anyway, I’m happy to finish where I did. At one point I was close to going out, but I doubled through a couple times with some lucky flops. I more than doubled through right before making it to the final table, but I don’t remember what I had then.

Three regrets: not calling with J9o on the button (would have flopped a set and made a boat on the river), not calling a bet on a scary flop with tens (the other guy had nines), not going all-in with jacks (I was on the bubble, and not willing to go out–so I guess I just regret the timing of this one).