Grand Adventure

My sister and her family came out to the house for a few days last weekend. It was a wonderful time of catching up, playing games, and eating excellent meals.

We broke out into an intense game of beanbag toss. The girls really got into it, and really got good at scoring points. We also played ping pong for bit, with McKinley doing his usual “ball fetch” game. He’s very quick, but has learned not to demolish the balls anymore, making it a fun side game to chase him to the downed ball as fast as you can!

But nothing compares to hanging out at the fire pit. With the new chair set (they recline) it’s arguably the most relaxing place to be on the property. Quiet, with the sounds of the campfire crackling in the background, clear skies, and a comfy chair. At night the stars are very visible and my personal favorite is to look for shooting stars. Nothing beats it.

I’m very grateful they came to visit, and I look to many times more like that when Shell and I retire here (sooner than it seems!).

My brother and his family came to visit us in LaPine. It was a wonderful time of catching up and hanging out with my big brother. I miss the time we used to spend just talking about each other’s lives, and getting his input/advice.

We went to Sisters to attend the Quilt Show. I’m comfortable in my masculinity to share that with you! And my brother needed a dude wingman. We walked through town, ate a lunch, and actually didn’t have too bad a day of it. Believe it or not, we found a quilt someone wanted over $9000 for. I’m not making that up. The guys in the group, our criterion for a quilt??? “yeah, but does it keep me warm?” Not $9000 warm I tell you.

The next day we watched some of the World Cup, then played outdoor games. I challenged Greg to a game of bean-bag toss (I made a second set for the LaPine house). If you know my brother, you know how competitive he is. The loser would have to eat a jalapeno-stuffed marshmellow. Not the normal size marshmellow either, but one of the new ones that is very large designed for campfires. Greg took his loss like a man, and managed to choke down the appetizer I made up for him.

It was a great time of visiting, and I hope to squeeze in something like that with my sister and her family this weekend.

We are buying a new truck to replace my 10-year old SUV. The SUV still runs great, but we’d like to start making payments on a new vehicle when we still have the buying power of my military pay.

I made a kit for my old pickup (circa 1988) that really helped us travel with gear and sleep in the back. With the F-150 I will have even more room to lay down, plus store gear. I started off with a drawing of what I wanted to accomplish, which is an important step for me before making any cuts. It also is very relaxing for some reason.

Pretty much a basic design, but the key is modularity. Shelley will have to put the kit into the back of the truck as it won’t be available until after I leave back to Texas. As with all my projects, McKinley (aka Shop Dog) loves to hang out and chill while I do the work.

The final frame suggests the kit will be very functional. This week Shelley and I will add carpet padding and an indoor/outdoor carpet to the plywood tops. It will be functional, and fairly comfortable to sleep on if we need to (or don’t feel like camping in a tent).

Work on the bean bag toss game finished today. Suprisingly to me, I squeezed this in during halts on the poker table. Per my usual, I underestimated the time it would take. I did have a good feel for project steps and it was well within my tool and skill level to complete. The materials used was one sheet of 5/8 plywood, and I was okay using the cheapest level here. I used a thinner plywood because of having to cart these things around.

The total cost of the project was about $60, including the bean bags and orange paint. This is about $75 less than what you’d pay online, making this project a money saver. Many of my wood working projects are actually more expensive than just buying something similar, but in every case the joy is in the doing, not buying.

Note: you don’t have to paint the platforms, and that would save you about $12. I painted my platforms orange and black (GO BEAVS!) and purchased bean bags in an orange and black set. The colors match nicely. The black paint was used on the racetrack for the poker table too, so the cost was absorbed.

One of the tricky pieces to this project was the angled cuts. If I was in LaPine I’d have my table saw with angle jig and the cuts would be very precise, and exactly the same as the previous cut. Here I had to draw a template and then redo each line for subsequent cuts. Since I was using my jig-saw (probably could have used a circular saw, but I’m not too good at plunge cuts) each angled side piece is slightly different from each other. It doesn’t show too badly after I painted them so I’m not worried. The set is definitely functional from that standpoint.

However…the bags don’t slide so well on the surface of the platforms. Ones you can purchase have laminate top options, making it a possibility to slide the bags into the hole. Mine might flip-flop into the hole. I hope to fix this later using some furniture polish. I asked a worker at Home Depot about a varathane covering to the paint, and he said it would make the paint turn white. Too risky to try to get a smooth/slippery top.

I originally planned to use my new Dremel tool to cut the holes. It has a hole-cut jig. Without sharing all the gory details, the Dremel just can’t get it done. (it’s always smart to do test cuts when trying a novel thing…in this case it saved me mucho time not having to redo things). The cost of a 6″ diameter hole saw would have been about $50…nearly doubling the project costs. So, I used my trusty jig saw to cut the holes. Not as crisp, but still functional and it kept the project inexpensive.

One thing I did that I haven’t seen on other bean bag toss sets is I installed handles on one side of each platform. They are *much* easier to move around this way. I’m happy about that, and how they turned out.

The poker table project is done (see image below, with my “supervisor” approving of the work). Considering I started just 3 weeks ago (and frittered away the first week really) not too bad. Like any of my projects, there are things I’d do much differently the second time. Before I forget, I must thank Shelley for letting me take this project on (and her total encouragement of the results), and Harry W., without whom I wouldn’t have finished it in time for our big game party (happening tomorrow afternoon). Here’s my wrap up of the tasks, where I did good and where I goofed up.

1. Have all supplies on hand before starting work. This is a no brainer, but I felt like I needed to crank out as much as I could even without the supplies. As a result, I had to paint the racetrack before I drilled the holes for the cupholders because they hadn’t gotten in until hitting my project time for the bean-bag toss game. And because I did these steps out of order, the felt top was already installed initially, and my hole saw jumped the wood and slightly damaged the felt on one end. It is noticeable if you look, but not too bad.

2. Worry less about areas that will be hidden. I tried to make flush some areas that just didn’t matter, because they can’t be seen by anybody. This ate up precious project time.

3. Don’t buy the cheap(er) gaming felt from JoAnn’s, and spend the extra money on the billiard-speed cloth made expressly for poker tables. I worried about getting the cloth in time, so I went the JoAnn’s route. The felt needs shaving badly (like an Army beret when you first buy it) and I just haven’t had the time to do it right.

4. Try to install the felt top absolutely last. I had to remove it from the table at one point (cutting the cupholder holes, post damage event to the felt) and that gouged a small hole in the side of the felt. It is also noticeable, but not a big deal. As fyi, I can change out the felt later and nobody would see any issues.

5. For the racetrack, use a quality/premium plywood that is presanded on one side. I have the cheapest available at Home Depot…and it shows (at least to me it does). This is after about 4 coats of glossy black enamel paint. Which leads me to…

6. DON”T use glossy black enamel paint for the race track. The whisper vinyl contrasts against it, even though they are both black. A flat black paint would be much better, and would actually hide many imperfections because the vinyl and racetrack would be complementary.

7. Install the legs on the table just before painting the race track and putting the felt top on. This gives you a better sense of the playing height. Definitely cut off 2 inches from a standard banquet table leg set (29 1/2 high, now ~ 27 1/2 high)/

8. Don’t pooh-pooh away the complexity of the leg install. I did fine but had to redo things a bit, costing me about 2 hours extra work to get it where I was happy with it.

9. I got passably good with a jig saw. Truth be told, I’ve used my jig saw on this project more than I have all other times put together. It’s a very versatile tool, and I couldn’t have done the project without it (nor the bean bag toss).

10. The padding for the rail definitely requires two people. Don’t try to do it by yourself or you will be sadly disappointed. If Harry hadn’t come down to visit over Memorial Day I’d be hosed and very unhappy about my table results.

11. The weight of the table is tremendous. Note that I did not use three sheets of 3/4 in plywood, but only the base and the rail were that thickness. The racetrack was 5/8 inch. It’s a two person lift, and Shelley and I had difficulty in moving the table into the house. When the party ends tomorrow I plan to shanghai a guy to help me take it upstairs for its permanent storage place.

12. Contradicting myself in Item #11, there is some value in having all pieces be 3/4 thickness. Key is when you are installing the tee-nuts for the top to secure to the base. It’s a delicate process with a spade bit to countersink the tee nut and not make the remaining thickness of the top’s 5/8 be too thin. I just can’t imagine how we’d move the sucker around, and it’d make the legs wobbly.

13. I never did get the table legs I ordered from Rockler. After the SNAFU (mentioned below) running into a fourth day of “Out for Delivery) on UPS’s site, I called Rockler and canceled the order. I found comparable legs at Lowe’s. Cheaper, but perhaps not as sturdy but I have no reference to tell. I bought two sets so I can use them for a possible second table using the remaining oval scrap left after cutting the rail ensemble. The felt I have left looks like it will stretch to cover, so I could conceivable have a two table tourney at some point. The smaller table might fit 8, but will definitely fit 6 dudes okay.

Many thanks to Mark Junell and D. Creighton for their posting of project steps on the internet. While I didn’t follow things to a “t” they posted, their work saved much anxiety.

As weird as this sounds, I hope guys ask to either borrow the table or (better yet) invite me to their home game and bring the table. They’d need to have a truck to pick it up, me helping of course, but still it adds to the ambience tremendously. Not as much as real chips do, but still very cool. Our living room looks like it’s ready for poker! It was a fun project, but I’m happy it’s done. I’ve also finished the bean bag toss game, but that will be a separate post.

Out of all the project steps, this one is most definitely a two person process. Not understanding how much foam I’d truly need I bought a 1 inch High Density roll from Jo Ann’s. One thing is certain…I had no clue how expensive foam is. When it came time for this step I layed out the one roll and immediately realized I’d need a second. Even with the second roll I’d be piecing together scraps from the one to make ends meet on the curves. Mark custom purchased the foam (somewhere in Houston) and if I did this project again I’d try that. I can’t imagine SA not having a place I can get foam that would wrap around the entire rail piece. And based on Mark’s costs he put online I’d save half of what I paid at Jo Ann’s for two pieces.

In the picture above the foam is pieced together and the whisper vinyl is layed down underneath. I had a small moment of panic because the vinyl width was unchangeable: Jo Ann’s didn’t make any wider. The fix to that would be having a break in the vinyl. This can be compensated for but each place (at least two if you did this) where the vinyl met up with itself you’d have an obvious point noticable by anybody. It’s one thing for me to know each and every imperfection, but another that shouts out I had to compromise somewhere to make things work. As you can see the vinyl width was just about right, and that was pre-stretching to get taut on the foam.

Harry did the stretching and I did the stapling of the vinyl. We followed Mark’s directions to a “t” here and probably kept us from ruining the vinyl. A very expensive prospect (the vinyl was about 1/4 of the cost of the table).

The vinyl is dusty from my garage floor but it will clean it fine. Although I don’t have pictures to post, I’ve since pieced the whole table together (minus the legs and cup holders) and it looks good. For a first-in-a-long-time project and with the tools I had I’m happy with the results. I’ll post later a picture when I’m done with the cupholders and the table is ready for it’s first “All In!” moment.

Included below are images for the table top itself.  The red felt really looks nice, and is snug against the top.  Underneath there is some “headliner foam”.  In retrospect, I may have used thin bubble wrap stuff because the headliner foam was dang expensive.  But not as much as the whisper vinyl.

Mac helping out, as usual

Here’s the felt mounted on the top.  Note that under the felt is headliner foam, and under that are the tee-nut fastening holes.  This will allow me to dismount the felt top itself by unscrewing it from the bottom of the base board.  I simply need to make a new top (that fits snug inside the race track) with a different color felt and I can modify the table to fit the party’s motif.  Or…if a piece got damaged during one of our moves I can replace it much easier.

Felt top for table

The poker table project kicked off just before Shelley left for a “she-cation” to the NW. As I posted before, I used Mark Junell’s approach as my starting point Link. But I wanted to modify what he did a bit because he used 3 sheets of 3/4 plywood for his table. 3/4 plywood is very heavy, and even using one sheet and a partial makes for difficult work moving the sucker around as I do my work. I can only imagine how it will be when all assembled. So, for the playing surface/top itself I used 5/8 ply instead. An appreciable difference in weight, and it will be as sturdy as the original design.

At this point, I have ordered all the materials to put the thing together but not everything has arrived. My goal is finishing the thing before our soiree on the 12th, but that is dependent on the materials. The cup holders and folding legs are left to come in. I probably could have gotten both here in SA but it would have taken too much time hunting around town. The legs are coming UPS, and the truck was due per their tracking tool yesterday. I was outside working on the top (how to connect it to the base board…done) and the truck pulled up. UPS usually hits our neighborhood around 7 PM at the end of their route/day apparently. The kid went into the back of the truck, mulled around for about 5 full mins then got in the driver’s seat and drove away. I’m guessing he didn’t have the item On their site it was due today but I never saw the guy. Let’s hope he comes tomorrow.

The total cost of the project is going to hit just above $300. Now, before you gag and wonder if I used hardwoods, stainless steel cup holders, etc, I want to put that into perspective.
Look at this table for sale on a website. That costs $350 without shipping. It only seats 9 people, and the legs look just as bad to me as the folding ones will…but will be less functional and probably less sturdy. I shudder to think if it would even survive one military move let alone at least two more. My table the legs will fold up flat against the base, and the primary concern will be not tearing the vinyl rail.

As with any project I take on, after some of the steps I realize a quicker or better-quality way of doing things. The first thing is that I’d not worry about making the edges flush via the sander. My good friend Harry popped down from Ft Hood last weekend and offered to help me out (and he was a HUGE help…couldn’t have done the vinyl rail by myself). Frankly, there was no point to having things flush at that early stage. What I would do, however, is use a flush-trim bit on my router. After the base of the table was cut using a jig saw I could lay the other pieces of plywood sequentially on top of the base board and use the flush-trim bit to make them exactly the same. I’ve got to think smarter on these things in the future.

If you decide to make a table of your own, I hope you grasp that Mark Junell’s steps are a little bit out of sequence on his site. He talks about putting the felt on the table top before he walks you through how to set the fastening system to the top and base. Obviously you cannot put the felt down before this step or you’d be ripping up the felt. Having said that, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t need to secure the felt top to the base at all. It will/should fit perfectly snug to the race track if you follow the cutting process correctly. I would certainly screw in the rail lip to the base board, and even the race track to the base board. Both are for ensuring a sturdy table, but also it will hide inconsistent edges. Particularly on the rail which may try to pop up on you exposing the base board.

For my table I painted the edge of the baseboard and the race track a glossy black. It should contrast nicely against the red felt, and blend with the black vinyl. I also recommend painting about 2 inches into the baseboard from the side. This will help blend things if your rail isn’t perfectly flush against the baseboard.

I’ll post pictures of more of what I’ve done tomorrow.

Last night I had my first Royal Flush.  I was only able to squeeze out .12 (it was a cash ring game) after hitting it from the guy that was heads up with me.  Still, to hit the highest hand type (odds of getting a Royal Flush are approximately 1 in 649,740) is cool nonetheless.

I did a class presentation on starting hands for Hold Em for a school requirement last week.  Below is my outline:

1.  Card Factors. 

      a. Discussion.  Card strength is the most important criteria of the three card factors.  Whether the cards are connected or suited are important at about the same level to each other.

•  Card strength.  An Ace is better than a 2.  A pair is (generally) better than a non-pair.
• Connectedness
  • A Queen + Jack (i.e. QJ), regardless of suit, as a starting hand is considered to be connected.  The closer to each other, the stronger the connection. 
• Suited
  • Are the two cards dealt to you of the same suit?

         b. Application.   The strong hands in poker are based on card strength, connectedness, and of the same suit working together.

•  Card Strength: Pair, Two Pair, Three-of-a-Kind (aka “a Set”), Full-House (a Pair + Set), and Four-of-a-Kind.
• Connectedness: Straight.
• Suited: Flush.
• Connectedness + Suited: Straight Flush.
• Card Strength + Connectedness + Suited: Royale Flush.

 2. Other Factors.  

• Your current position at the table.  Later is better.
• Table dynamics. 
  • Does the table generally play “loose”? (many players in the pot each hand, and/or when cards revealed the losers and even the winner have weak hands?)
  • Does the table play “tight”?
• Overall number of players at the table.
• Size of the chip stacks/money available, yours and your opponents.
• How many are in the pot in front of you
• Are their raises and even re-raises in front of you?
• How well you play after the flop

Modifying my starting hands lately has paid tremendous dividends. In the last 3 weeks I’m up about $20, and for the level of buy in I play that’s pretty significant. I’ve switched to almost exclusively “non-turbo” game formats, which allows for 10 mins per blind structure. The natural adjustment to this is being more selective on hands. Once you’ve decided to play a hand, you must play post-flop well too. One thing I didn’t have an appreciation for is that I play pretty well post-flop (for the buy in level I jump in at). The result is many days of being slightly ahead, with a second place today in a $1 buy in tourn of 90 players which is a nice rake. Below are my results:

The really cool thing for me is that I feel much more in control of my game by not feeling rushed. Some players want to think they are good enough to play a loose-aggressive style of play (Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey are pros who pull this off wonderfully) but the reailty is that we just don’t have the skills to pull it off consistently. I’m now what is referred to as a “tight aggressive” player. I am selective about my starting hands, but once I’m engaged I’m playing aggressively. I’m playing less speculative starting hands, and really am paying attention to position and the betting style of my opponents. When you combine these I’m becoming a formibale opponent.

I’ve been voraciously reading poker texts to improve my game and even the worst of them has had a nugget I’ve internalized. But it wasn’t until the Poker Mindset text (refer to previous postings) did I make a quantum leap in the outcomes of my play. The key concept: play like you will play poker for your lifetime (my interpretation). Don’t feel “lucky” or like you are “due for a good hand” or pressure yourself into situations where you have tough decisions. That last piece is increasingly important…when I’m in a hand I pretty much know if I’m going to fold or not these days. I’ve layed down some pretty nice hands if the situation warrants. And even bad beats are absorbed relatively okay. The other night I raised pre-flop 5x the BB with AKo ( also known as Big Slick, not suited). This is a powerhouse of a starting hand, and even worth a reraise if someone raises in front of you. Anyways, I raised 5x the BB and a guy on the button called me. I figure he has a pocket pair, but I’m only worried about Kings or Aces in the hole, and I figure (correctly) he didn’t have that or he’d reraise me. One other philosophical point: there are hands where you must resign that you might be all in, that the other guy will beat you, and that’s just the way it is. Can you really fold pocket Kings if someone pushes all in?? If they have Aces chalk it up to the poker gods. If they have Queens and hit a third queen, c’est la vie. Anyways, this guy had 32o…the worst hand by many texts to do anything. The flop gave him two pair, but I blindly thought I was in command because who calls with 32 a preflop raise?? Unfortunately I hit an Ace on the Turn, so I pushed hard, and he reraised me all in. I snap called thinking I had him. And…he hit a 3 on the river giving him a full house.

The old me would have bitched in the chat window about how poor it was he even called me. The current me typed in “nh” and left it at that. If I am playing good poker I am MORE in danger of losing to a bad beat than if I wasn’t. I played my hand by the book, and the doofus called me on a whim and a prayer and hit a monster hand. There is nothing you can do about that, and getting steamed only helps him and doesn’t do squat for me. I am in this for the long haul, remember?

It truly feels like I’ve turned the corner for my play, and winning is MUCH more fun than losing even if my play style is less exciting than it used to be.