Alright, here’s the trip report. Good news right off the bat, he had 3-4 windows open. That certainly can’t hurt, so hopefully it helped reduce risk. 7 players and two dealers alternating. Nobody else had an N95 but we had 2 players and one dealer in surgical masks, 2 players and a dealer in cloth masks, and two pull up neck gaiter style coverings - one thick like a neck warmer, and the other seemed thinner.
I felted the thin neck gaiter in under 30 minutes and he left, so that was nice in more ways than one.
Mask compliance was very good. Everybody kept their noses covered, and masks were only removed to eat (mostly done 10-15 feet from the table) or drink (a mix of at the table and away, but people drinking at the table just took a swig and put it back on pretty quickly).
I ended up not eating at all, and I only drank about 1/3 as much as I expected. I did all my drinking outside - I tried to go out once every two hours or so.
When I went out, I stayed out for a couple minutes to get some air and then chugged some tea.
The table was smaller than a normal table, so the distancing wasn’t great. I’d say about like playing 8 handed in a casino. I felt pretty safe given the level of mask compliance and my N95.
My main concern was one dealer had a beard, so obviously his cloth mask wasn’t sealing as tightly as I’d like… But I never actually saw his nose or mouth for even a second within 15 feet of the table, so it wasn’t slipping out of place.
A few of the players have been playing in other games where not everyone is wearing a mask, so that’s unsettling as their risk profiles are worse than I expected.
One guy who’s overall been pretty careful (or so I thought) is also going to a wedding this weekend, and commented “I wonder if I’ll have to wear a mask?” It’s outdoors, but still not good obviously.
I think I did a good job protecting myself as much as possible. I did touch my face a couple times, but never near my eyes. As soon as I got in the car, I put hand sanitizer on my cheeks and forehead.
It’s a good thing I brought extra masks, my strap snapped on my first drink break. I had them very tight, and when I pulled it off, it snapped. I didn’t tie a loop in them the next time, so I crossed the straps behind my head to get it a little tighter.
The second mask being less tight didn’t sit as snugly on my face, and was less comfortable as a result (counterintuitive). I need to figure out a way to reduce the length of the straps slightly without making them too tight so they snap. Do they sell some kind of cinch or something?
It was tight enough to leave a mark on my nose and cause me chin and jaw discomfort, but a lot of it was because the second one wasn’t seated in quite as comfortable of a spot and crossing the straps applied pressure at a less comfortable angle.
What do you do in a medical setting to get the perfect tightness @CaffeineNeeded and @Will1530?
Among the players we had one Trump voter. At one point we were discussing a reg who wouldn’t come because he refused to wear a mask. “I don’t like wearing one,” he said. The Trump voter chimed in, “Nobody LIKES wearing masks, it’s just something we have to do.”
It was refreshing to hear that from a Trump voter. Although I don’t think he’s a Trumper per se. He made fun of him quite a bit. But he’s got a business that has benefitted heavily from some specific deregulation that Biden would roll back, so…
I’m not trying to excuse his vote/support, just explaining that he’s not some nut job who believes everything Trump says. I think he generally aligns with the GOP, regardless, he just sees Trump as a moron.
Post tax I made a month’s expenses. I ran hot, but if the game runs twice a month which it sounds like it will, I would expect to cover my living expenses in those two sessions if I run neutral.
What’s a TR without a couple hands?
Hand No. 1
Mandatory utg straddle is on so it’s 5/10/20. CO raises to 50, both blinds call, I call 44.
Flop (200) AQ4r the first blind leads 125, I call, the CO calls. I don’t think I’m bluffing that spot often in this lineup, and I don’t think he’ll give me many bluffs on this board, so we slow play. I’m also called, and we’re deep so I don’t want to go nuts with the PFR behind.
Turn (575) Tx He bets ~400, I call. I was going to raise some turns some of the time, but I don’t like this one. I doubt the PFR peels KJ here often, but he can have QQ and AA. SB can also stab KJ on the flop. PFR folds.
River (1375): Ax he bets 700. I think for a little while, make it 2100 and get tank sigh called by KJ. I thought the river was actually close. We’re like $5500 deep and we don’t want to get stuffed on. But I think he’s calling KJ and maybe other AX. Of course he can also have AQ AT A4.
Hand No. 2
Mandatory straddle is on. CO and BTN limp, I’m SB with KJo and call, BB calls, straddle checks.
This play by me is atrocious generally speaking, don’t do it. But it’s a home game, I gotta protect my invite and can’t be folding too much. The limpers have plenty of hands I dominate, the other blinds aren’t raising a ton in this spot, so I just need to be really sharp post flop so I don’t bleed too much money with this VPIP.
Flop (100) JT4r
Checks to the CO, he bets 75, I call. We’re deep stacked and this is one of those tread lightly spots. He’s capable of having a wide range here, including weaker suited Jx and lots of straight draws.
Turn (250) 6x
I check, he bets 150, I call. Nothing really changed. We could even fold here but I think he’d value bet worse and bluff straight draws.
River (550) Kx
I lead for 250, he tanks about 2 mins and calls, I lose to KK. Bet you didn’t see that one coming! It was a call or fold tank, so maybe I’m not getting paid there. He really thought I had Q9.
River was interesting. He’s an opponent I’m playing explo against, and he tends to size big. I do not want to face a big bet here, and I don’t want to let Jx check back. I decided to bet the largest amount I thought he’d call with AJ QJ and maybe J9, and I think he’d view this as a small bet. I expected to lose to Q9 and 44, I didn’t think he’d limp TT+.
Still happy with it, it would have been very hard to find a x/f so I probably saved $150-250 on the river. Given his tank, maybe I need to go smaller. I might have misread his idea of a small bet here.
This is a great example of why we fold KJ preflop in this spot in a regular game.
All in all it was a fun game, it went about as well as I could hope, and hopefully I run good at fading the virus too. If ~15 hours a month in this game saves me ~160 hours a month in a casino in March-May, it’s gotta be way +EV health wise.
