Blogger Event...

I am catching up on the blog - it's been a busy week.

In the Stars Blogger event, I had the chance to play with Up4Poker, Poker Jones (Hacker59), and my Vegas pal Carmen at various times.



All-in-all it was a fun event, but I was disappointed they had it on Father's day. I was dissapointed for 2 reasons:

1) It was not a very family oriented thing to do on Fathers Day
2) There were too many empty seats - I had AA six times in the first hour! But... I never got paid off, even when betting 3x BB.

I did fairly well placing 62nd out of a pretty large field (2247 with a lot of no showers). I was glad to be railed by Chris. Thanks for the support!

Here is the final outcome...



I had a great time plating and look forward to the next one... hopefully not on Father's day.

Thanks for the comments on the Vegas Posts (I have added you to my links):

Don
Mookie
Chris
Raveen <--- Thanks, nice Blog
TripJax
jjok
and The Frog... not a blogger, yet

I will post this week's poker activities on my next post... this weekend.

Day 4 - Chapter 3 of An Angry Man, a Drunk, a Blonde, and a Cheater…

Day 4 - Chapter 3 of An Angry Man, a Drunk, a Blonde, and a Cheater… Enter the Blonde

Play was pretty much the same as the other table. Chad was all over the place and took down some big pots from the unsuspecting. I was dealt 7d9d – I like to play that and after hearing Negreanu talk about how it can really pay off because no one can put you on it. I called a $10 raise from the KWTH and three others. I was in middle position, KWTH on button. The flop came 7c, 5d, 3d. I had a flush draw with top pair…a weak pair, but the best at the moment. Check around to the kid, he goes $25, fold fold – I call. I am heads-up, pot is about $90. Next card is a 8h, I check, the kid bets $50. I figured he might have caught the 8, but now I have the flush and a gut shot straight draw with 2nd pair. I have 2 outs for the 3rd 7, 3 outs for the 9, 4 outs for the 6, and 8 outs for the flush (take one away for the 6d), that’s 17 outs. I call because I was getting pot odds, plus if I hit I put him all-in and I think I take him down. The next card is the Kc… I check, he bets $30. I figured him for the flush draw now. With these kinds of odds I have to call. He shows A4d WOW!... I take down a huge pot. Lucky I didn't hit my flush...

Meanwhile… AG returns and hands Chad a note: It says, “Come outside, I want to beat your ass.” This scares Chad and really gets the Suit going. Now the Luxor calls security and the AG and 2 friends high tail it.

A while later I get KK on the button. Chad, the cheater, and the KWTH all go all in after the flop of 4,6, 9 rainbow. I call. Chad has 78 off, KWTH JJ, cheater has TT. My KK holds and I rake in a huge $270 pot. Chad is the only one to reload and I take another $50 or so off him.

Things continue on and the EU guy goes to take a break – we are down to three, me, Chad, and the Suit. The Blonde is now railing the Suit and Chad. She is hammered and quite friendly. Seems like they are new found friends. She hangs around even though Chad is making some very crude remarks and asking her to marry him about every 5th hand. EU guy is gone for a while and then I couldn’t believe what happened – The Suit leaves and asks the Blonde to play his $120 stack. She played one hand: I didn’t get cards so I folded - she called Chad down to the river with a bottom pair 2’s and dumped about $60 fo the Suit's money.

She says, I suck at this and stops playing (darn) and I play Chad heads-up for 2 hands. I get JJ and flop a J to take Chad all-in for $120. He shows A4 with an Ace on the flop. My set holds. He rebuys.

The Suit returned with astonishment on his face. A few people joined the table and we were back to 6.

My stack is now over $700. Not bad form $100 buy-in.

I get a sick beat to the EU guy when MY SET IS BEAT BY RUNNER-RUNNER FOR A LARGER FULL HOUSE AGAINST A SMALLER FULL HOUSE for about $150 and I figure I better leave while I am still heavily profitable and take off and cash out for about $575. (He didn’t go all-in, if he did I would have lost another $200)

I love needing a rack to get to the counter – it’s a poker rush!

This night was definately the highlight of my Vegas trip. I went to bed at at about 5:30AM!

Day 4 - Chapter 2 of An Angry Man, a Drunk, a Blonde, and a Cheater…

Day 4 - Chapter 2 – The Whole Story and The Storm

After a while Scott and Mookie went to bed – about 2AM. Henry came by and told me to kick ass on the drunk. The drunk had gotten his $150 stack by sucking out on Henry. Little did Mook, Scott, or I know the Drunk and Henry had exchanged words. The drunk told Henry – “I’ll go down on you later.”

The next morning I found out more:

The drunk was very rude to Mrs. Mook saying he wanted to put his arm around her and rub stuff (stuff I won’t say here). She told him, "If you touch me you will pull back a stump!!!" I love it! She showed a super nice lady can handle her own in a Vegas poker room. Good thin Mookie was unaware or we would have been down in the county lock-up, using our Poker funds to get him out.

Chad was an overly aggressive player who would flamboyantly raise many hands from any position. In one hand Chad was BB and Clara raised, Chad protested and Stacey told him he got some of his own medicine. Chad told her he used to think she was HOT until she made that comment. She replied – “I guess I'm still HOT then because a comment can't change what I look like?” That’s my girl!!!

Anyhow – now you see why this guy was moved. I didn’t know the whole of it, but I wanted this guy’s money. And this guy did not know I was friends with the aAustin crew until Henry came by later. My strategy was to wait for a good hand and kick his ass. I watched the cards he would play and raise $25 or go all in. He would do so on any Ace or pair before the flop or after hitting any pair on the flop (bottom, middle, it didn’t matter). I took a nice pot off him for about $80 with a flopped straight. I also took a nice pot off him by bluffing. I also took some pots off the Suit. Then a lot of shit went down…

The angry guy (AG) took seat 8 (Mookie’s seat), also two other players took Scott’s seat and the 22-all-in guys seat. One was a tall guy, the other a real good player I had lost a big pot ($85) to when I had top pair and he went all in with 2nd pair and tripped up. I was a little intimidated by this guy and didn’t want to lose my stack to him because I then wouldn’t be able to take Chad’s stack. I avoided hands with him unless I had a strong hand (no big raise calls on a draw even with pot odds). I extended the concept of pot odds beyond the current pot and into future pots I might have against Chad.

At one point Chad touched the AG's arm and AG really freaked out! He told Chad if he touched him again, he wouldn’t get up off the floor, but Chad kept on and on with comments – like “Oh, I like it on the floor”. He was raising almost every pot to $25. He was picking up blinds and limps after blinds and limps. The tall guy got a huge pot off Chad, but Chad reloaded and added on after the first post. After losing about $150, hee told the tall guy "he was a tall, delicious glass of water”. After this the two of them left, so AG moved to seat 2 – far away from Chad. Chad was clearly putting him on huge tilt.

We had a Luxor dealer named Kate join us. When she dealt to our table earlier, Chad told her he loved her, etc. She told Chad he only loved Jack Daniels and other guys! It was clear she joined our table to lighten Chad’s pockets.

OK, so here we have yet another situation. AG and Kate get in an all-in situation and I see her pull a $1 chip from under the table. I protested to our dealer, but he said he didn’t see it. I asked the other players and AG and EU both said they saw it. I was really pissed at this – first off all to do this (even for a $1 chip), but a dealer?!? – and from the same casino? What next, $5 chips? Cards? – she has access, right?

Also – when she was under pressure to call she showed her cards to the Suit and Chad. At this I called the floorman and protested. She got pissed and said I should mind my business when I was not in a hand. I explained that technically – I am in every hand at the table. I raised a big stink and she moved to table 3. This kind of sucked because now we only had 5 players. EU told me he thought the game would break up and we wouldn’t get Chad’s $, but I told him now they would move to 2 blinds and he calmed down. I also told him she was pulling blinds out of her fanny pack so she would have as many chips as possible when she fired at Chad. She hadn’t played a single hand in about 45 minutes. He gave me a look like, “This guy has got this scoped out.” We went on, I was now in a perfect a position I had a drunk, three tight predictable players, and AG on massive tilt.

The Suit was concerned about his safety and moved to table 3. AG and Chad kept on fighting back and forth. Finally, I caught QQ and took AG out for ~$75. He shook my hand and left warning Chad not to leave the Luxor. He and Chad were really getting into it, threats etc. I was surprised the Luxor didn’t call security. They broke our table down and KWTH, EU, Chad and I moved to table 3 with the Cheater and the Suit + 3 others. I lost a little back and my stack was about $325.

Stay tuned for Chapter 3... Enter the Blonde

Day 4 - Chapter 1 - An Angry Man, a Drunk, a Blonde, and a Cheater…

Chapter 1: An Angry Man, a Drunk, a Blonde, and a Cheater…

Day 4 – The Calm before the Storm:

On day 4 we went to Red Rock and had lunch with Carmon and Don. W had a really nice time and got to know them a little better. I had to be at the Luxor by 4PM to get in on the NL prizes, so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the Luxor at 3PM. I got $45 cash for my play. Not bad!!!

We were all hungry around 8PM and went to the RIO buffet. Can you say Sushi!?! Yum.

After that we (Me, Stacey, Scott, Henry and Mr. and Mrs. Mookie) went downtown to experience Binions, 4 Queens and the fabulous Plaza. We were going to play the Plaza midnight tourney, but the field was so small we would have made up half of it. We play each other enough at home, so we bailed back to the Luxor.

The Luxor has a $50 max buy-in game with $1, $1 and $2 blinds. If you have less then $50, you can buy another $50 in chips. So effectively, you can buy in for another $50 after the first blind is posted.

We all play this game. Problem is we don’t want to take each others dough. So when we have 4 players from our group at one table you play two games:

1) take the other guys money
2) get out of the way of your friend so you don’t take their money

If someone raises, we typically fold unless we have a monster, then we re-raise and the original raiser lets their hand go. This really sucks because it’s difficult to get paid off and you fold a lot of good drawing hands that connect. I personally hate playing with more than one of my peeps at the table.

So we divide up. Once we entered the game at about 12:15AM we were seated as follows. Table 1 – Henry, Stacey, Clara, Table 2 – none of us - it was full, Table 3 – Mookie (seat 8) and I (seat 6), and Scott (seat 3). The table was a fairly easy to play.

I remember some of the players at the initial table as follows: the kid with the hat (KWTH), the Steelers fan, the European guy (EU), and the Suit. There were some others, but they were inconsequential fish. KWTH was in seat 1, Steelers was in seat 2, EU seat 5, and Suit was in 7.

I re-bought after my first BB post so I had $98. Play was easy, a few steals here and there. Predictable raises, calls and such. You could see a lot of cheap flops in position. Mookie, Scott, and I did not tangle at all. After about 20 minutes I looked down at AA. I raised to 15 in middle position. Everyone else folded except one caller. The flop came 4,7,10 rainbow. I bet $25, he had position on me and went all-in for about $60 total. I immediately called. He had 22. He lost and left the table. I was up about $90 off the bat.

There was a lot of commotion at table 1 where Stacey, Henry, and Clara were playing. The floorman moved a guy to our table (the Drunk - Chad). He warned him if he caused any more commotion, he was out. I could see he was hammered. He was a very aggressive player (stupidly aggressive) and it was like a feeding frenzy to get at this guys stack (>$150). He immediately informed the table that he did nothing wrong at the other table and there were two people that were assholes to him and such. He also informed the Suit he was a good dresser and his suit “was a perfect sheen and had nice lines that accentuated his build) wtf? was the expression at the table. He also told one guy in seat four he was a good looker. I received no such comment, nor did Scott or Mookie. I am relieved I am not personifying a Johnny Cakes or Vito image at the table.

EU commented on why we got this guy from table 1 and not the hot blonde. There was a blonde girl, she was OK, but you could see a lot of guys eyeing her and seeing her as attractive. EU was a solid player, he took in some big pots. But it was Chad that got lucky on the river to knock Scott out. Scott didn’t rebuy, but went to find Henry instead.

Things really heat up in Chapter 2...

Day 3 - Tuesday

Scott, Stacey, and I met Stacey's parents and Aunt and Uncle at Harrahs for brunch. Stacey and I then met up with Armando, Clara, and Henry at Ceasars. We saw some pros playing a friendly $400/$800 limit game. We saw Allen Cunningham, Billie Baxter, and Sean Sheikhan.

We decided to play the horses. We randomly picked some horses. I hit a quinella and ended up making $4. Whew whoo...

We went back to the Luxor for more $50 NL action... Mookie, henry, and Scott had logged enough time to get some free money (each player logging 15 hours in the room got $85, I didn't make this one). Mookie pulled out his lucky shamrock and got drawn for an extra $150. I ended the day even... not too much of an exciting day... but wait... day 4 is so bizarre I need to blog it in three chapters...

I love Vegas!

Day 2... O'Shea's and more

Day 2

Stacey woke up early and went to the Rio spa. I slept in and went down th the $50 NL cash tables after eating at the buffet. Scott and Henry were there and so was MM. Mr Mookie was over at Ceasars playing in their tourney.

Henry wanted to learn craps so we attempted to find a cheap table at Barbary Coast. We didn't find a good one, so we tried to parlay our pocket change on the roulette table to fund a run at craps. I started with $20, hit a few numbers a few times and cashed out for $240. Lucky Lucky Lucky.

I walked down to O’Sheas with Scott, Henry, and Mook while MM and Stacey went to the Flamingo for some slots action. I lost about $100 on the craps table pretty quick. Then laso another $100 on the Texas Hold'em table game. Ending up $40 for this little jaunt.

We ended the day with some $50 1/2 NL action with some craps, roulette and BJ mixed in...

Vegas Day 1

We arrived without any major (or minor) issues. We checked in at the Luxor and our rooms were OK - the Rio has the best rooms so far. We went down and played various table games and the $50 cash game. We met up with Stacey's brother Vinny, my Brother-in-law, Dan, her Aunt and Uncle, and her parents. Dan sprung for lunch at the Rio buffet - thanks Dan!

We had comps at the Rio and checked in for Stacey's Aunt and Uncle - they used our comps. Stacey signed up for a two item spa package - a facial and an apricot body scrup. She and her Mom would be set for the spa treatments on Monday morning.

Vinny and Dan had to go, but the others stayed until Tuesday.

I was stuck a couple hundred in the craps game right off the bat. When I bet with the shooter, I lost. When I bet with the house, the shooter got hot. That's craps.

We met up with the gang - Henry, Scott, Mookie, and MM. We headed over to the Sahara to play their tournament. The tournament had a $42 buyin for 2,000 chips. You can also do a single rebuy or addon of $20 for 1,500 chips. If you bust out before the break, you could buy back in as a new player.

We met Carmen and MiamiDon - and that was cool. We all bought in and made a $10 side bet for who would last the longest. I had Mookie and Don on my table. I got crushed when my pocket 8's tripped up on the flop and ran into bigger trips - rebuy. Now I find myself in a three way all in with QQ agains JJ and KK. QQ and KK get killed by JJ when JJ turns a J. I am out before the first break (1st one out from our group). I rebuy into the tourney again and get moved to Carmen's table. However, the blinds are elevated and it's tougher now to see a flop. Not very good results there and I am out again.

We goofed around there and Stacey and I called it a day. Finished down a little on the day, $124 in no return tournaments didn't help. Ready for day two... the best is yet to come on day 4... stay tuned for a three chapter recount of the craziest poker ever!

What happens in Vegas... gets blogged

We are leaving now. Mr. and Mrs. Mookie are here, the truck is loaded with Stacey's outfits , shoes , and sweaters (she gets cold) , and we are off the the airport.

Look forward to playing Hold-em tournaments, craps, NL cash games, roulette, and blackjack. I will post as much as I can. I am bringing the little book that Katitude gave to me as a bounty. I will keep track of my cash activity in this book. Hopefully, it will aid me in remembering my wins/losses for blogging purposes.

Looking forward to playing at Caesars, Luxor, Sahara, Binions, Paris, and Rio. I might even see the high roller room at the PLAZA! The first tourney will be with Carmen and Don.

Wish us all profitability!!!

PreVegas Live Game

We hosted a NL hold-em tournament at our house. We had 16 players sign up and we started a little late. The list of players were as follows (no bloggers): Betty, Brad, Cristine, Diane, Godfrey, Hoa, Ian, Jim, Joe, Julian, Kevin, Kitty, Michael, Rico, Stacey (aka JerseyGirl and my lovely wife!!!), and Todd.

Stacks to start were 15,000, with rebuys for the first hour (for stacks <= 5,000) and either a 5,000 or 10,000 add-on after the first hour.

We gave prizes again to make it interesting...
You got a prize if you:

• loose a showdown with AA, KK, QQ, or AK (suited)
• are the first one knocked out after the rebuy rounds are complete
• bubble
• rebuy the most
• get to a showdown and you hold quads or higher
• win a hand by bluffing and show the hammer (72)

There were five rebuys and the tables played very tight. I started off at seat 2 of a table with with (in order) Michael (Button), Betty, Kitty, Cristine, Julian, Rico, and Brad.

Our table started off with action right away. I won the 2nd hand and a few hands later I hit quad 6's and pulled down a nice pot (and a prize). I was up about T8,500 before the first orbit.

A few hands later I had ATo one from the dealer, blinds were at 100/200 - first round - Brad Raised to T400. I called and the flop came AQ5 rainbow. I had flopped the ace, with a very mediocre kicker. Brad checked and I bet T1200. Brad raised to T3600. I didn't put him on AK or AJ. Being that he raised such a small amount I put him on middle Ace, so I called. Turn = 4. I check, Brad checks. River = 8, diamond flush possibility. I check to see where we are, Brad aggressively goes all in. Hmmm. What does he have? I still have to consider middle Ace, but now maybe with 2 diamonds? Is he bluffing - it is very possible due to my two checks - maybe he smelled my weakness... I can rebuy, I can rebuy, I can rebuy, I call. I said, "Flush"? he said, "Straight!" Holy shit - he played 2c3c - ouch! I had T8000 left so I couldn't rebuy.

I misplayed another hand with QQ - flopped Q87, turned a 3, and rivered an 8. Cristine bet T3k and I called thinking the river was a 6 and not an 8. I thought my trips would hold a - she had the nut flush. I was standing up to rebuy because I didn't see that I had hit a boat until someone yelled out "BOAT!". I felt really stupid and bad for Cristine becasue she didn't initially see it either.

I have will set up an eye appointment after my minor surgery in July.

Michael had a very good run. He hit quad Kings and a prize for a very large pot.

Brad's stack was like a roller coaster - he re-bought twice and chipped up nice toward the final table.

Rico didn't enter a lot of pots. He ran up against Michael's AK with AJ. This hand crippled Rico.

Another killer hand between Brad and I. I had AA on the button. Two callers before Brad raised twice the BB. - Now, I didn't want the two callers to fold so I called. The other callers followed. Flop Q86. Not too threatening. Caller 1 checks, caller 2 checks, Brad goes all-in. Hmmm. I put him on trip 8's, I fold, others fold. I show my AA, he shows A6. whew!

Before the final table they dropped in this order.

Godfrey - 1st out after rebuys - Prize
Ian
Julian
Rico
Stacey - JerseyGirl
Diane

We were at the final table at 11:30PM.

At the final table were (forgot to get chip totals):

Player	Count
Todd	?
Kitty	?
Joe	?
Betty	?
Brad	?
Me	?
Michael	?
Cristine	?
Hoa	?
Joe	?

Kevin was the first to fall. Todd was crippled when his TT call to my KK all-in didn't pan out for him. I believe Michael finished him off. Kitty was next followed by Brad.

Betty was next to go. She tried to go out, but doubled up twice before doing so. Betty was first time player with a lot of game. She made it a long way - congrats!

I was definately short stack and we were at bubble time. Michael would tangle with Joe (both had large stacks) and Michael was knocked out. I backed into the money.

I received fourth place money when my 79 bluff was called and I had the crap beat out of me with Cristine's AK.

Crisitne took third. Fine playing by one member of the Goal Post Dynamic Diva Duo.

Joe and Hoa battled for quite a while - the chip lead was passed back and fourth numerous times. In the end Joe won it. Congratulations to all the money winners, especially Joe, Hoa and Cristine for their solid play.

The cash flowed as follows:

Place	$$$
1st	$144
Hoa	$96
Cristine	$48
Jim	$32

The prizes went down as follows....

Prizes	Who won...
Big Hand Losers	Brad-QQ, Brad-AA
Hammer Bluffers	Godfrey, Kevin, Hoa, and Betty
Most Rebuys	Brad 2
1st Out	Godfrey
Bubble	Michael
Win with Quads or Higher	Jim 66 - Michael KK

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the tourney. Thanks to those that brought food or treats to share. Thanks to Godfrey for helping me with the chips and $$$.

We had a great time and look forward to the next one.

Tough Night - 2 Questions for Bloggers

The Mookie - basically three hands played and lost... then bye bye...

AQ soooooted - UTG+1 - Rasied 3x BB - all fold to Smokee OTB - he goes all in - I fold

a few hands later... I am BB 5s6h Smokee limps on the button... flop = 2s, 3s, 4s - Smokee checks, I bet 40, next card blank, he bets 80, I call, next card blank, he bets 250, I call.. he turns over KQs - nice play... he flops flush and plays it well - I was schooled.

a few more hands later...

I get JJ two before the button... I go all in, against AA - SEE YA... not a good showing

I hope my game/luck is in better shape next week.

Carrying forward with Mookie's questions about drinking while playing... I would like to ask 2 questions:

1) Do you listen to any type of music with headphones while playing? Why/Why not?

2) Do you where sunglasses while playing live games (you need help if you where them online)? Why/Why not?

I am planning on mixing this up in Vegas, just curious what all you bloggers do.

SCAM, SPAM...Thank you MAAM

Monday I opened my email to see a message from Stars about a $ transer in my account. At first I thought, "I didn't transfer any money! - SCAM, SPAM, ...no actually THANK YOU MAAM!

I posted a sympathy/rant on Kat's blog titled: Untitled - Sunday, June 04, 2006

I complained about a bad beat I had taken in a 41/2 NL game and only having $10.90 left in my stars account NOT ENOUGH FOR THE MOOKIE! - she sent me a $1 - unsolicited - I didn't expect that, or even want it. How nice is that!?!

Well, Wednesday is a long time to wait from Monday - so Kat - I must confess, I played a ST SNG for $10+1... sorry. However, I won it - so now you have $4.50 in your Stars account - I considered you as staking me 10% - so you get 10% of those winnings.

So far I have been a blogger for only a short time. I am having a lot of fun. I must say all the bloggers are cool, but the nicest blogger I haven't met is Katitude! I am really impressed with that gesture and I am very grateful.

Thanks!

Catching up...

I busted early in the Mookie. I didn't get very good cards, but stayed alive for a while. I made a bad call with KJ off. Got a lucky top pair flop KK, slow played, and went over the top of a big raise (Pot sized) by Jorden. Turned out he had AQ and caught the Ace on the river. My junk hurts. Read and comment on the whole play on his blog - there are a lot of good comments there.

Played at the Big O last night. I made the final table. I continued to try and find player tells. I picked up a few. I watched betting patterns and body language to give me some hints. I am getting a little better at this, but I think the big thing is to stay focused and WATCH!

One hand the tells paid off for was: When I had middle pair after the flop and a new guy kept raising by very small increments. I had seen him show down King high on one occasion and call all the way to the river and fold to a re-raise or all in. Also, when he thought he had the winning hand – he wouldn’t hesitate to push… so I decided to check call him all the way down. This betting pattern and the fact that he would put his chips waaaay into the pot when he was weak told me to call. I was approaching the felt, so this was putting a lot of trust in my read. He checked the river and showed nothing. I won a nice pot to keep me alive for a while longer.

I didn't money, but I played pretty solid. On my last hand I went all in with my crumbs with 66 and hit a 6 on the flop. Two other players were in and there was another all-in side pot. There was an A on the flop and one of the other players had A5 the other QQ. I was surprised the QQ called after the A5 went all-in after the flop. QQ would only have 25% of his stack left if he missed. In the end QQ caught a Q on the turn and A5 and I were all gone...

My gorgeous wife, Jerseygirl moneyed fourth. She played very well and had a lesson on pot odds. She is getting better and better all the time. She is playing 3-4 live games a week, some free-roles, no on-line.

I hadn't had enough, so when we got home, I played a $10 4-person SNG on Stars and took the whole thing down in about 20 hands. I won my lost Big O money back.

I am reading blogs today and I am really enjoying reading about Chris, Carmen, and Miami Don adventures. You must read Don's story about Shawn Sheikhan, and Billy Baxter.

These kinds of stories and reliving past trips during talk at the Big-O have PSYCHED beyond belief to get to Vegas.

Today I may play a FPP tourney on Stars and will have to fix a sprinkler valve - I am so tired of maintaining the sprinkler system. In the last month I have had to make 5 repairs from chewed sprinkler heads (thanks to my dog Rocco) to broken pipes IN THE GROUND (thanks to the builder for putting them in shallow next to the driveway). This one is a wiring problem.