Poker, Craps, and Poker Stories For After Dark

Here are three Poker/Gambling stories I’ve either witnessed or heard about over the years. The last story is unsettling, and it makes me wonder if what Big Bob said to The Kid was true or not. It goes with out saying, no matter how many years you live, you have not seen or heard it all.

This first story happened years ago as I was sitting in a poker game at O’Sheas (now permanently closed) Casino in Las Vegas. What happened has probably been attempted in many Poker Rooms and Casino Table Games, but I am sure, it is very, very rare.

Poker has a term, ‘Angle Shooting’, which refers to players who are not quite outright cheating, but are as close to the cheating line as they can get. This player, Player X, took angle shooting to a whole new level, outright theft.

O’Sheas had one low limit ($1 - $3) Texas Hold em Poker Table setup that was open to the sidewalk. A few players at the table actually sat with their chairs on the sidewalk. This was most likely to attract Customers who were curious about poker, but never played poker. They could watch from the sidewalk. Player X sits down in an open chair with his back to the sidewalk.

Player X is playing conservatively (tight), folding every hand for a couple rounds. Now, on the flop, there is a raise and a re-raise in front of him. Player X calls, The original bettor goes all in on the turn, the next player calls the all in, and Player X goes all in.

The pot has over eight hundred dollars in $100.00 bills and cash. The dealer turns the river card. After the first two players show their hands, Player X stands up, grabs all the $100 bills in the pot, some of the chips too, turns, and runs down the street, getting away. Of course O’Sheas has his picture which I understand is shared with all other Casino’s on the strip. Player X’s short poker career in Las Vegas was officially over. I wonder if he lived another year?

I was playing Craps one evening, when a stumbling drunk Woman barely makes her way to the Craps table. She asks the dealer, “How do you play this game?”, inadvertently dropping a black ($100.00) chip onto the field. As the dealer is explaining the basics of Craps, the shooter rolls a twelve and the Drunk Woman wins $300.00 from the $100.00 bet she didn’t know she made. She now has $400.00 sitting in the field.

She tells the dealer she does not understand any of what he is saying. The next roll is thrown, a nine. The very drunk Woman wins again! The Woman is  oblivious to what is going on. The dealer tells her to pick up her chips from the field - $800.00 in black chips.

She says she does not understand anything, but picks up the chips the dealer is pointing to. She stumbles off presumably to the elevator, heading to her room. I wonder if she knew where the extra black chips came from the next morning?

This final story is so bizarre, I would not believe it if I had not heard it from three different Poker Players who were in the poker room at the time it happened. I have known them for decades, and never heard them tell a lie. I knew one of the players in the hand. I heard it happened, but not the details until recently.

This is a local No Limit Texas Hold em game. The two players remaining in the hand on the Turn each had over ten thousand dollars on the table in front of them before this hand was dealt. Pre Flop and Flop bets are large. The Turn brings a possible Straight Flush with three spades in sequence on the board. 9s, Ts, X, Js. X is a non spade card of no real help to either player.

The two players in the hand on the Turn are: Big Bob, a long time big money player. The second player, an upstart who thinks he is God’s gift to the Poker World; though a tough player in his own right. Let’s call him, The Kid. The Kid is first to act, and goes all in for his Turn play, pushing his remaining chips out in front of him. There is now well over fourteen thousand dollars in the pot.

It is Big Bob’s turn to act. Big Bob contemplates what he will do - call or fold. Big Bob asks The Kid, “Do you want me to call?”

The Kid says, “Hell yes, I want you to call”. Big Bob looks at the The Kid and says, “You know I sold my Soul to the Devil, don’t you? I’m going to win this hand!”

The Kid looks shocked, then scared, but tells Big Bob he wants him to call his all in. Big Bob declares he is all in.

There is a dramatic pause and the Dealer flips the Ks as the River card. The board is 9s, 10s, X, Js, Ks. The unnamed  card, X, is not a spade and no obvious help to either Player.

The Kid, turns over 8s, 7s, for 7s, 8s, 9s, Ts, Js, a beautiful Straight Flush! Big Bob smiles, and turns over the Qs for a Larger Straight Flush, 9s, Ts, Js, Qs, Ks, winning the pot! In the moment, I think I would have ran out of the Poker Room, never to return. For Big Bob, it was just another day at, ‘The Office’.

MX Linux Revives Old Computer

I have an eleven year old Samsung Laptop that used to run Windows 7, but would not upgrade. About three years ago, I put Linux Mint on it and gave it away. A few weeks ago I got it back. I thought I would install the latest version of Linux Mint and give it away again, but things were not quite that straight forward and obvious.

To begin with the battery will not charge, and the laptop was running ‘very’ slow. The dead battery was not unexpected, but the slowness was excruciating. It ran like my very first computer with cassette tape boot and storage. I would start it up, go make a sandwich, and come back, and it would be ready to use.

I did a web check for Linux distributions for old computers and Lubuntu Linux was in all of the articles, so I thought it was a good place to start. I downloaded the latest Lubuntu, put it on a USB stick, and nothing. I tried a different port and nothing. I went back to the bios, played with the boot settings and, nothing.

An interesting side note, I had to tell the bios each boot up where to boot from. The settings defaulted to the hard drive after each boot sequence. This Samsung Laptop has a CD-Rom built in, so I put Lubuntu on a DVD. It loaded to the desktop screen after about six minutes. I blamed this on the painfully slow CPU speed for which I had not discovered the bios setting for. Lubuntu installed, but that was about it. It was painful. Screens could not be resized for starters. Nor could they be relocated on the screen. Lubuntu was painful to use.

After pulling the laptop apart only to find nothing loose, I looked at the bios. The bios it turns out has a setting to slow the CPU speed when the battery falls below below twenty percent. A brilliant idea back in the day, but not practical having a dead battery. I turned the option off. It ran like the champ it is after that, well almost.

I thought I would try Xubuntu, it would not load Firefox web browser when running from the DVD. I did not try to install it. Linux Mint happily installed. Upon reboot however, all I got was a two tone flashing display, like a gray train crossing signal light. I checked around and found it is a sometime issue when a computer has two video cards. This Laptop has built in Intel graphics and a Radeon video Card. Even though I knew the problem, it would not boot so I could disable one of the video cards.

Next up was my daily driver, MX Linux. MX Linux bills itself as a middle weight Linux, so I did not hold out a lot of hope for it. Fortunately, the MX Linux Crew knows about issues with dual video cards. Pressing F4 on the Splash Screen and setting the video menu to on, let me disable a video card.

For the first attempt, I disabled the Intel Video, letting the system use the Radeon Graphics Card. I found the Radeon Graphics card had gone the was of the battery, so I reinstalled disabling the Radeon Video card. Installation went on without a hitch. The needed updates were almost 250 megabytes, and there was some auto building for a few items being installed. But everything was smooth and painless.

Upon reboot, this eleven year old Samsung laptop now can hold its own. It’s not blazingly fast,  but it’s not annoying slow either – coming from someone who has a eleventh generation i7 in his desktop. So all turned out well.

My end point is this, don’t throw away ‘old’ computers, they have a lot of life left. Check the bios before installing Linux, in case there are any surprises, like cpu throttling. Try a few different distributions, some work better on different hardware than others. Finally, enjoy the process, there is nothing expensive to ruin, and lots of potential for someone who can’t afford a computer.

Fit in 15 at 60+! - Short Overview

I rarely review books. I am writing about this book though. I have no relationship with the Author, and am receiving no compensation for this article. It is a valuable book if you are a Senior.

This book is a wise investment. On the surface, it is simplistic. The basis is the Author was over sixty and was having issues while trying to get in shape. Exercise was painful and was not producing results. How many people over 60 are not starting to have real issues with common tasks and simple exercise?

If you are over sixty, you and I both know exactly what the Author faced, and this is where his book shines! Are the books basic exercises simple? Yes they are. They start in a chair, it is difficult to get much simpler with exercise than sitting in a chair. 

I read complaints these exercises are too simplistic. I do them, and they are simple, yet effective. If you want to know how limber you are not, do some of the exercises. I found out I was not as limber as I thought I was. Now, I'm getting better and more limber. I now think, what else do I have to do, and what do I have to lose? Everything?

The fascinating thing about people over sixty is we are limber enough, most of the time to do those things we do every day. Completing new or rarely used movements more than a few times, and we know about it the next day, the day after, and the day after. I grew sick and tired of the muscle aches and the frustrations of exercising. There was pain and no gain.

This book is helping me to learn how to manage 'exercise' without waking up sore the next day, and bring satisfaction back to basic exercise. I hope the pep talks and the basic exercises in the book stick with me. They take little time and feel good, so I think they will. I am fairly limber, but if I do out of the usual type of yard work or my even preferred exercise routine, I wake up to spend a few days being very sore.

After modifying my exercise routine as Mr. Jenner suggests, most of my pain  and exercising frustration are now mostly in my past. I wake up knowing I used my muscles, but it is not painful as it used to be. I now look forward to exercising. I am happy to do the simple stretches as they help me feel even better.

The second fact I learned is what happens in our muscles when we get sore, and how to make it better. I scoffed at the suggestion that eating differently would make most of the pain of exercise go away. With nothing to lose I followed the authors suggestions. It is a miracle! I wonder how many years I thought I had Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS), only to realize some exercise pain is diet related.

After reading the book cover to cover, which is recommended before starting the exercises, I found these two insights about exercise and eating alone make the book worth it's asking price. I am sure Mr. Jenner, the author, experienced the exact same issues I have experienced. He dug around and researched until he found the answers. Exercise hurts more when you are over 60! But he found a fix!

His program is simple, it is intended for older adults, not twenty somethings. It is comprehensive. Give the simplest exercises a chance, what do you have to lose? I find the book is more than worth the asking price.

Almost Indestructible - My Echo Dot

 

We all have bought items that after purchase we found were under-engineered. That pretty 'cheap' bicycle that started falling apart before the summer was over. The greatest frying pan ever that started peeling after a few months. The 'budget' car that over time costs more to keep on the road than a luxury car would have. The list is unending.

I found what I think is the most over-engineered $20.00 (at the time) item on the planet! Welcome to my Echo Dot. When I first bought it, I heard the stories about how it spies on you and records everything it hears? I have a commercial router system in the house, and my Echo Dot used little bandwidth when I was using to to play music, etc. Bandwidth when idle was minimal. I wrote it off to updates, etc.

Then one week I received an email from my Internet service provider telling me, I was at the limit of my bandwidth for the week. How could that be? Our bandwidth usage is almost the same week to week, month to month. I was sure there was a mistake, what happened?

Checking my usage on an app that works with my router, I found our bandwidth usage was boringly normal. I was ready to get on the phone and find out what the problem was. Then I checked the usage specifically for my Echo Dot. Wow! It was like being hit with a water balloon! The bandwidth usage for four days  was higher than was used by all other devices in the house combined! And it sat mostly idle for these day as the thrill was gone.

I performed an instant unplug. The excessive bandwidth usage never returned.  Perhaps the Echo Dot thought it was told to play a silent radio channel, was somehow hacked, or was indeed listening and uploading conversation. It had been sitting in the corner for about a year, with me wondering what to do with it.

This afternoon, I decided to look inside the Echo Dot and see why it was so heavy. The Pictures are the result of about ten minutes attacking my Echo Dot with a pry bar and a sixteen ounce (one pound head) hammer. As you can see, I really did not do near the damage I would have with any other electronics I own. With the rest, one or two blows would have shattered the electronics.

There is no obvious reason for the beyond industrial strength build of my Echo Dot. As for why my Echo Dot is so over-engineered is left up to the imagination. However I can not think of any kid's toy or street legal vehicle built to the beyond tough standards of my Echo Dot.

Life and Death in Intensive Care

 

My Father had a stroke when I was about twelve, and was in and out of intensive care for the next six years. I did not know it at the time, but this first day in the intensive care waiting room, was only one of many days. They seemed never ending, going on forever.

It is 8:03 Saturday morning, waiting in the Intensive Care waiting room begins at 8:00. We are a little late. Visitation with patients is five minutes twice a day. Once in the late morning and once in the late afternoon. That works out to three three minutes for my Mother and two minutes for me. Twice a day.

Two minutes was plenty for me, my Father was in a coma so conversation was not happening. During his last time in coma, I finally man'd up, opened one of his eyes, and told him, "It is okay, you can leave if you want." It was the only "in coma" conversation we ever had, the one way conversation that it was. It was perhaps the longest conversation we had that year.

This was pre-personal electronics time. The hospital waiting room had a television that could barely be heard, which didn't matter as there was only one channel. There were about a dozen chairs for waiting, usually there were less than four people total in the area.

When go in the actual room on Saturday and Sunday, or every day if he's slipping, I see my Father is one of four patients in the room. Calling them patients is generous. Four haggard bodies laying in beds with monitors calling out their pulse, recording their blood pressure. Covered in one sheet, and one thin blanket.

IV's for everyone. If you are an intensive care patient, you get an IV. Besides the saline drip, additional shots are given through the IV. Occasionally the saline solution is changed out for something else. The saline solution becomes a plastic bag of chemical cocktail.

Hanging on the left side of each bed, are catheter bags filling with urine, drop by drop. Urine which is very yellow to tinted red with blood depending on how close the patient is to dying. Every day the bags are weighed to measure fluid flow. I don't know about the bags with blood in them. Maybe they don't bother weighing them.

Beeping machines and ragged breathing are the only noises in the room. All four patients are unconscious. There are no flowers or get well cards. Only one visitor in the room at a time. Just as I can identify the bodies in the bed as actual people, one body is replaced by another body. 

I start to think of them as mute, frigid actors playing a role, and not humans living out their last days in a coma, induced or natural. Generally, they will not leave the room to continue their recovery elsewhere. They go feet first to the hospital morgue, and then on to their final viewing.

Every Saturday, every Sunday, and every day when he takes a turn for the worse I am sitting in that waiting room. Ten hours a day of sitting. My day is broken up by rushed tasteless cafeteria meals that no one ever remembers eating. A few bathroom breaks. No wandering. Riding home with my Mother after six to eat a TV dinner, usually fried chicken, sit around for a while looking at more mundane TV, and off to bed.

During the week days when I am actually in school, I clean house, do my laundry and make dinner. Summer time means cutting the grass. Winter means shoveling snow three days a week or more. Generally we eat frozen TV dinners, but sometimes something simple. What passes for spaghetti, or leftovers from the last time my Mother cooked.

Mornings are pretty routine, I wake to an alarm and get ready for school, my Mother does the same except she goes to work. Usually I eat oatmeal or a couple of raw eggs. Eggs were not a favorite of mine, and raw was better than cooked, gross as that may sound. Conversation is limited. Other than my Father, what is there to talk about?

I missed around fifty days of school my junior year and around fifty days my senior year. I slipped through the schools 'tracking system' until it came time for graduation. My School was not sure I had enough attendance days to graduate. It mattered little that credit wise I was way ahead of the curve. They said they had no idea of my home situation. Eight hundred people from K-12 and I, 'slipped through the cracks'.

Sitting now in a little side room, is my Mother, myself and a nameless Doctor. The Doctor is telling us, this time he has been in a coma thirty days, and as far as they can tell, he will never come out of the coma. With my Mother's permission they want to end life support - pull the plug. How many times can you hear this and make a silent decision you hope you will never be asked about? Rinse and repeat over the previous few years.

On the thirty-third day of coma, he opens his eyes. Rinse and repeat. This time however his stay is short. After three days of being awake, he closes his eyes for the last time. I am mostly emotionless about his death and funeral. It's over - or I checked out.

In his six years in and out of the hospital, he had anger issues. Stroke patients with hair trigger tempers was and maybe is still quite common. His vocabulary never grew to more than perhaps thirty words. "Newspaper" (cigarette) and "Son of a Bitch" being the most common of his vocabulary choices.

Life between hospitalizations was never normal, I was one of two caregivers from about twelve to seventeen when there was no school. What I did for fun was limited in the day time. Those years have become a six year blur with periods of checking or blacking out when the stress became too great, which I did not know of until a few years later.

I spent my teen years onward with white coat syndrome, imagine that. I can't stand the smell of doctor's offices, let alone hospitals. When I need to visit nursing homes, I am filled with a mix of emotions. I know where they are going, and I know how lucky they are not to be there already. 

Then I hope they never make it to the hospital for that final visit, for their sake. Then I pray that I may be a fortunate one. I prefer to miss both stays. However with modern medicine, we generally are not that lucky.

Linux Simple Overview, Desktop, Menus, Memory Usage

This post is now a little outdated, but should be good for a general guide and overall picture of these Linux Distributions. It is about seven Linux Distributions, memory used when first booted, number of applications in the default menu, startup and shutdown, and Snap packages too. Also mentioned are a few snags you may have when using KDE, or installing a second Ubuntu distribution.

Contrary to popular thought, the memory used between several distributions with different Desktop configurations is relatively minor for newer computers. The biggest differences are really the number of menu entries in each of the distributions.

I mention Snap packages, because they are either loved or hated by users. Loved because everything is configured and dependencies are included. Hated because Snap Packages can not be modified by the user. You get what the maker of the Snap Package deemed proper, nothing more, nothing less.

I tried an Ubuntu Child which did not install Snap packages until, surprise - a later general upgrade. I was not a happy camper. One of the packages was my web browser, which I sync with a few other computers both Linux and Windows. The Windows Firefox looked horrible after sync, so I changed the settings to improve its looks. When I used my other devices the web browser looked horrible on them. Snap packages are not my cup of tea.

In that regard, everything Ubuntu or created from Ubuntu, with the exception of Linux Mint (as far as I am aware) installs snap packages at some point. If you are okay with Snap, Ubuntu is great. If Snap Packaging interferes with your settings and usage, you may want to rethink your choice of Linux Distribution, or spend your time removing Snap Packages and installing from the web sites.

If you wish to add a second distribution on your computer, and your first Distribution is a flavor of Ubuntu or derived from Ubuntu, Grub is not going to be happy. All the Ubuntu derivatives I have tried are identified as “Ubuntu” in Grub.

Grub, in my experience, will not create two Ubuntu entries. What I have experienced is one of the Ubuntu Installs loses it's Grub entry, therefore seems to lose its ability to be booted using Grub.

My main go to Linux is MX Linux which is based on Debian 11 Bullseye. I use the XFCE Desktop which makes a slight difference on memory used as it requires a little less memory.

Ditto for Endeavor OS. Linux Mint Distribution uses Cinnamon Desktop, KDE anything of course uses KDE Desktop. I prefer XFCE for the right click menu option anywhere on the screen.

KDE if you are not aware of it, is a little different in some important respects than XFCE or Cinnamon Desktops. KDE Desktop is KDE centered, and may not run some non KDE programs.

While XFCE and Cinnamon Desktops will run KDE applications. I have never experienced problems with KDE apps, or apps from other Desktops in XFCE or Cinnamon Desktop. Take that comment for what it is worth.

This may have changed since I last time I used KDE, but in general. If your data is stored in KDE applications, they may not export to a format you want to export your data to. It does not feel like an issue in the beginning, but rears its ugly head down the road when you have a lot of information to export and it wants to export to a clunky to use format.

It is important to me that any app I use does not hoard my data or export to a format that is difficult to use, like xml. KDE apps in the past did not easily export so data could be used in other applications. If I wanted to change applications, I would end up doing unending CTRL + C and CTRL + V to copy and paste my data into another program.

A great example of a well behaved application is ZIM Wiki. All the information I put into ZIM is of course displayed in Zim itself. However the information is stored in a folder in individual text files on the hard drive. If I ever wish to replace Zim, I can delete it, and all my information is safe and readable.

In general, if you like to tinker with your Desktop making big and small changes, KDE is the go-to Desktop. XFCE is one the most limited along with Mate, and can be boring. On to what I started this post for:

Distribution causes for concern:

Memory usage at Boot up, Menu Entries, Startup and Shutdown,  Snap

Debian 11.x:                     522588 MB         ~ 43 Menu Entries            Fast    No Snap by default

MX Linux 21.3:                522588 MB         ~ 123 Menu Entries!        Fast      No Snap by default

Endeavor OS 2021.04.1    525452 MB            ~ 47 Menu Entries       Fast     No Snap by default

Feren, Kubuntu, KDE Neon  660236 MB  ~ 55 Menu Entries  Both Pause during boot    Will add Snap

Kubuntu, Feren OS and KDE NEON are based on Ubuntu Linux, so memory usage, menu entries, Startup and Shutdown and Include Snap. Information should be about the same across the distro's. Very nice desktops though!

I listed the menu entries, but my counting skills are not the sharpest, so I may be off a few numbers either way. MX Linux as noted has more menu entries than any other two Distributions combined. I am not privy to details, but I think this comes from the Anti X side of MX Linux. Anti X has so many menu entries, even a seasoned user may get lost in the menu.

I am not sure why a distribution goes out of its way to stuff the menu with apps and options, but it happens. I am more in line with elementary OS and Zorin OS Linux, less is better. I would rather add fifteen packages than remove thirty or more packages and menu entries.

A few points to remember are:

Memory usage is not really an issue for newer computers unless you are a very heavy graphics applications user. Even memory starved computers (64 bit) can run (almost) any distribution, though the user may be happy with the outcome. (At least a few distributions these days check available memory and will not install on low memory machines.)

KDE is a tinkerers dream, and options seem endless. Cinnamon has enough desktop options to keep most users happy. XFCE is the most limited modifiable Desktop environment.

If you are trying out KDE, ensure your KDE applications have a usable export options - to .txt or some such. Ubuntu based distributions are all similar, so expect the same results from different flavors. KDE also favors the use of Snap packages from what I (unofficially) read.

Finally, without modifying Grub Menu, Grub does not know what to do with two Ubuntu Distributions, one of them may lose its Grub entry. Ubuntu does have a Grub entry modify app and there are other apps that replace grub.

Simple and Cheap home Composting

 

It is springtime finally, and that means many Gardeners are out buying hundreds of dollars of plants and bags of dirt for their lawns and gardens. Some of us mulch and save some money on dirt. Some of these Gardeners them even make mulch.

The upsides of mulching are many, and I won't take space to tell you about it, as you already probably know. I have used all the mulching methods I will mention here, and each has its advantages depending on your needs.

The simplest for a small home is a Crock-pot liner with a cover. This is where kitchen scraps start their journey to becoming mulch for me. Most kitchen scraps go into the Crock-pot. 

If you are not sure what to mulch, there are several resources on the web. In general any dying vegetables and vegetable scraps are fair game. No meat as you do not want the things that meat attracts. I also add tea bags and a few tea bag paper wrappers. Eggs shells are okay for most areas.

Once the Crock-pot is full it goes to the backyard to have it contents buried. In about six weeks, there is little sign of what I buried. This is the easiest method I have found for mulching a little kitchen waste.

If you have more than occasional kitchen waste to compost this method works well. It does not, where I live in the Southwest produce compost, but it works well as the process is about 3/4 composted. All it takes is four clay planters or other containers with bottom holes in them that will stack. Find a raised base to keep the bottom container off the ground.

Add scraps to one container until it is full. Place a second container on top and start filling it. Continue until the fourth container is filled and stacked. If you live in a dry climate as I do, you need to add water to the top container and let it filter down to the bottom container.

Add enough water that water reaches the fourth container and starts dripping out. In my experience, when the fourth container is full, the bottom container has made 'almost' mulch that can be mixed in with your garden soil.

For yard waste, I found two methods I prefer. The first is four straw bales stacked two high against a fence wall with about a three foot gap between them. Add your yard waste as you collect it. If you live in a dry climate, the yard waste will need some water and possibly nitrogen to speed up the process. Eventually the straw bales themselves will compost and will need to be replaced.

The second is simply a 55 gallon plastic barrel with the bottom cut off. Add yard waste as you collect it. This works well for smaller amounts of yard and kitchen waste. When you need a little compost roll the barrel over a few feet and collect what compost that is left behind.

In wrapping up:

Crock-pot -> hole in ground or clay pots.

Four stacking clay pots filled from the bottom up -> add to your garden soil

Straw bales stacked -> compost is at the bottom of the pile. -- Pic at top of article

55 gallon barrel with the bottom cut out -> roll the barrel to the side to collect the compost.  - Pic at top of article

A small disclaimer. Many composting articles show pictures of cubic yards of compost being produced. If you are a single home owner in the city, the amount of compost you will actually produce will be more limited and the process slower.

All the materials added to the composting process return to the dirt they were before, minus most of the water. So do not expect a lot of compost for your work and time. The compost you do create however is something to be proud of and beneficial to your garden and yard.