Random Space for Random Info

Standing on it's Head

2006-07-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

The current state of poker:

Harrah's is ruining the WSOP

Big name pros are suing the WPT

Sportsbetting CEOs are getting arrested

Congress is restricting online poker

So now I'm back to playing WoW.

/cheer

Another Vegas Trip Report: Part 2

2006-07-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

Since Chris is being a good employee and I’m not, he asked me to finish recapping Day 1 of the trip. I’ll try and make it as short as possible.

** First, I would like to go back to the part of the story that Chris forgot to mention when we were driving with my mom and her b/f to the hotel from the airport, he made a totally funny joke about him and I visiting the little white wedding chapel later and then the car went dead silent. I guess my mom can’t take a joke. I find it hilarious. **

So after winning an insane amount of money at Barbary Coast AND getting tipsy for free (I recommend the margaritas there), we met up with my mom and her b/f to walk down the strip a bit. We moseyed on down to TI to check out the “cool” pirate show, which turned out to be not at all the nice little family show my dad showed me on video tape from his trip to Vegas about 4 years ago. It was a bunch of trampy girls wearing next to nothing who couldn’t act or sing worth a crap (Editors Note: They weren’t singing – it was all taped. But they did suck at lip synching.) I was partly amused laughing at this ridiculous show and partly disappointed it wasn’t the cool fire/battleship/pirate thing I was expecting. But Chris had his digital camera out and was snapping away and videoing the entire thing so I guess it couldn’t be that bad.

It’s getting late now and we’re all hungry so we stop in to Margaritaville: Cheeseburger in Paradise, which happens to be connected to our hotel, for some eats. We immediately head to the bar for margaritas cause that’s the name of the restaurant so you have to get one and then shortly after we got seated at our table. Chris and I both get the Cheeseburger in Paradise because that’s the name of the restaurant so you have to, and half way through our meal my Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill show up (they just arrived into Vegas and got into their hotel – Caesar’s because they are way classier than us). We proceed to squish six people around a four person table and talk, laugh, watch a girl swim around in a neon green gigantic blender after climbing out of a volcano (No, it didn't make sense at the time either), and men walk around on stilts. Highly entertaining AND Chris didn’t make an ass out of himself all night, so that’s a plus!
After a while my mom started to complain that she was tired since it was “2 am” (KY time) and that she got up at “1 am” (Las Vegas time), so after we finished laughing and making fun of her for switching time zones like that, everyone decided to call it a night. I’ll spare everyone the details of the rest of the night. It consisted of us going back to our hotel room and getting in our separate queen beds and going to sleep.

- Amy

Gah, I need to think of another title?

2006-07-18T07:15:00.000-05:00

"Wait, so professionals are allowed to play against us now?"
- Old lady sitting at the 1-3 spread limit game as TheGirlfriend and I sat down with our 3, yes 3, stacks of chips.

In case you were wondering, yes, she was serious. You could see the fear in her eyes.

And yes, she did win all my money.

*****

I suppose that it's about time I get to a recap of the Vegas trip. As it's been a week and a half or so since I returned, it might look like I've just been lazy and unmotivated to try to capture the experience in words. However, I prefer to think that I was just letting the memories marinate a little bit before serving them up.

Mmmm...marinate.

I really wish I was a talented writer and had some kind of interesting device so that I could present the trip report without just chronologically explaining what happened and then what happened next and then we did this and then this happened so then we went here and saw them do this but I don't. Honestly, I may have even just spent upwards of 5 minutes trying to think of one, yet failing. So if anyone has any suggestions, let me know and maybe the next trip I decide to document here can be less boring for my mom and girlfriend to read.

The preceeding paragraph serves absolutely no purpose. Feel free to skip it.

So TheGirlfriend and I were up and out the door on Thursday morning by 4:30 am. I'm dead serious when I say that the only thing that can get me up at that hour is the promise of neon flashing lights and the clanging of bells from slot machines. Unfortunately, the promised land of lights and bells was still a pair of 3 hour flights, broken up by an hour and half layover, away. Grrr.

We arrived at McCarran at 9:30 am which was really wierd cause I remember leaving DC at 6 and traveling for 6 hours but that's what time my phone said when I turned it back on, so I'll just go with it. This was where we began part one of the multi-part operation known as "Operation Meet TheGirlfriend's Extended Family in Vegas and Not Come Across as an Idiot".

See, here's the thing. You can put me in the most spartan Amish community in the armpit of Indiana, throw in some of TheGirlfriend's aunts and uncles, tell me not to say or do anything stupid, and I'm still liable to make some comment about the hot chick churning butter with the sexy bonnet on. Look at the way she pumps that handle.

(TheGirlfriend: You're such an ass.)

You say the same thing, and put me in Vegas and I'm on the verge of being broken up with everytime my mouth opens. (Not to mention what happened the first time I met her mom)

Anyway, amish chicks aside, we met Debbie (GFMom) and Jim (GFMomBF) and carpooled to our hotel - The Flamingo. Cause nothing says Vegas High Roller like pink birds.

After checking into our room, which included a cool, tinted, floor to ceiling window (and obviously 2 queen beds, mom, geez) it was time to hit the pool. This was a new experience for me. In all the times I've been to Vegas, not a single minute had been spent by any pool - let alone drinking Daquiris, Pina Coladas, Miami Vices and watching a scantily clad "promotion girl" use a stripper pole. Perhaps I've been missing out.

And I still have no idea what she was promoting.

However, stripper pole or no - it was 116 freaking degrees and no amount of mist sprayer things were able to keep me in the sun for too long. Plus I was itching to do some -EV gambling.

CanIRebuy: Hey GF, you wanna go next door and play blackjack while drinking free* drinks?
TheGirlfriend: Psh, does a player split 9's against a dealer's 3?
CanIRebuy: um, well, I have no idea - I don't know basic strategy...
TheGirlfriend: Idiot - let's go!

*Free, of course, is relative since you're forced to be playing a game with a house edge. Those tricky casinos!

So it was off to Barbary Coast for our first gambling of the trip. Thankfully, they had a $5 minimum at a few tables because we needed to warm up our luckboxes. The only open table had just seen a group of dejected tourists leave empty handed, so I was determined to stay clear of that bad aura, however TheGirlfriend had other ideas. Throwing all proper gambling caution to the wind she plopped down and dared the dealer to bust her. Not one to leave her alone while her back is against the proverbial gambling wall, I quickly took the 1 seat, while 5 middle aged women filled in 3-7 seats.

We were off to an auspicious start as the dealer picked up right where he left off. He couldn't miss - every ace he seemed to have a face card to go with it. Our aces all seemed to have 5's with them. We both were nearly felted when thankfully he was switched out.

It was like relieving Mariano Rivera with Jose Canseco.

Every player at the table instantly went on a run. Our face cards were pairing with aces, our double downs would hit a big card, the dealer started busting every other time. It was beautiful. We were in the zone. Coincidently, I had cut the deck so all the good karma was partially due to my awesome cut - or at least wasn't ruined by it - and the drunk old chicks felt that because of this I needed a string of Mardi Gras beads for every blackjack that we hit.

When we left, I looked like one of those african women that use all the hoops to stretch out their necks.

ok, not really - I had like 4 strings, but it was still fun.

TheGirlfriend and I ended our first gambling extravaganza with a profit of $40 each, 4 beads, and a ton of laughs. If that doesn't epitomize the Vegas experience, I don't know what does.

Next up - Dinner, Volcano girl and more aunts and uncles.

$50k HORSE Results

2006-07-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

Chip Reese has won the arguably most prestigious event in this year's WSOP and claiming $1.7 million and his third bracelet.

And most importantly, clinches me the fantasy win against TheGirlfriend. Good Game.

H.O.R.S.E. Event Fantasy Picks

2006-07-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

Updated at 11:25 am EST on day 2 (3?):

Team TheGirlfriend:
Howard Lederer - $0
Phil Ivey - T570,000
Jen Harman - $0
Chris Ferguson - $0
Greg Raymer - $0
Total: T570,000

Team CanIRebuy:
Chip Reese - T1,250,000
Daniel Negreanu - $0
Barry Greenstein - $205,920
Todd Brunson - $0
David Williams - $0
Total: $205,920+

Whichever team has the highest total combined cashout amount wins.

Ivey has his work cut out for him. But if there's anyone who can pull it off....

What Time Zone is This?

2006-07-11T08:48:00.000-05:00

There will likely be a rather detailed trip report forth coming, but in the meantime I hope these (poorly taken) pictures can begin to paint some semblance of a few hundred word story.

Things NOT shown:

- 2 for 1 drink specials at the Flamingo pool, complete with Stripper Pole and Hot Body Contests. (How could I NOT get any pictures of that?!?)

- Busting out the lucksack at Barbary Coast blackjack, and walking away with 100% return on investment AND a string of Mardi Gras beads.

- Recognizing Dr. Pauly at the Excalibur, and completely cementing my pseudo-poker-blogging-and-complete-loser status with a "Oh man, I'm a big fan - I love your blog".

- Having Joe Speaker offer me a kiss when I great him with "I can't believe I'm doing this - this is SO gay...." And I'm only 80% sure he was joking ;-)

- Being hit on at the Irish Pub in New York, New York...and being pretty sure that she WASN'T a hooker. And pretty sure that she was a she.

- Plenty more to come...

On to the pictures!

Here are the gentlemen: Bill, Jim, Ollie and Me. How could any group of women resist our charms?

Speaking of the women: TheGirlfriend, Jane, Debbie (GF's Mom), and Judy.

Funny story, while we were all walking through MGM a really short guy in a uniform ran up to them and claimed he was the manager of the nightclub and a few showgirls all got sick and he wondered if they could fill in for one night. Alas, we were running late for the $19.99 steak buffet so they couldn't do it.

True story.

Did someone say showgirl? Unfortunately, the quality of this picture caused TheGirlfriend to lose all picture taking privileges for the rest of the trip. I think she may have done it on purpose.

And just some random pics of TheGirlfriend and me at Caesar's palace. Good times.

Vegas Poker Prep Work

2006-07-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

In order to make sure that I'm not totally donktastic in Vegas this weekend, I played a little $25 NLHE on Party. Since 95% of my pokering has been limit, my NL game is definitely in need of a tune up. Playing these limits probably isn't going to be a quick fix, but it helps a little I'm sure.

So this hand came up and I wasn't sure how I handled it and thought I should run the numbers and see if my play was justifiable or completely fishy.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

BB ($15.69)

UTG ($21.14)

UTG+1 ($0)

MP1 ($33.09)

MP2 ($3.20)

MP3 ($4.75)

CanIRebuy ($23.65)

Button ($10.45)

SB ($24.75)

Preflop: CanIRebuy is CO with Kc, Ts. SB posts a blind of $0.10.

1 fold, MP1 calls $0.25, 2 folds, CO raises to $1, 1 fold, SB (poster) calls $0.90, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.75.

Ok, so potentially a fold here, but I'm in position and trying to practice my post-flop play right? So I raise it up.

Flop: ($3.25) 4h, Js, Qc (4 players)

SB bets $2, MP1 folds, CanIRebuy calls $2.

Here's the first interesting decision for me. I flop open-ended so I have 8 outs, or estimated to a 16% chance to hit my straight (at the time I used the simplification of doubling my outs to convert to percentage, so 8 outs *2 is 16%. The actual percentage is 17%) This 16% chance is about 7 to 1.

It's $2 to call in a $5.25 pot, so I'm getting pot odds of ~2.6 to 1. So how much implied odds do I need to make this call? Since it's $2 to me, I'd need to get back $14 to break even on a 7 to 1 chance. So I only need an additional $8.25 in implied money to break even. Since I have position and the SB has a full stack, this is certainly reasonable. My call is likely correct.

Turn: ($7.25) 6c (3 players)

SB bets $5, CanIRebuy calls $5.

I missed my straight, so the same 7 to 1 odds apply. The pot is $12.25 and it's $5 for me to call, so pot odds of ~2.5 to 1. If we include implied odds though (let's assume that if I hit I get my whole stack in, if I miss then I simply fold) I'm looking at a ($12.25 + $15.65=) $28 pot for a $5 call or 5.5 to 1 odds.

Based on this I should've folded since 5.5 to 1 is less than the 7 to 1 required.

River: ($17.25) 9h (3 players)

SB bets $11, CanIRebuy raises $4.65 (all-in), SB calls $4.65.

I hit my hand, raise all in and of course I win.

Final Pot: $32.90

Based on this, my NL game can use some work. Where's Sklansky's book??

Yup. These are my friends.

2006-07-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

mhensch607: i totally tried to hook up with a high school graduate last night
mhensch607: the dad cock blocked me
mhensch607: i was at a wedding
mhensch607: and was dancing with her and giving her drinks :-)
mhensch607: and the dad came in and goes, "you belong over there"

Fireworks and Vegas.

2006-07-03T09:31:00.000-05:00

With the 4th of July festivities in full swing here in the Nation's capital, and a 4 day trip to Vegas starting Thursday you'd think that I'd have plenty to write about.

You'd be right, but I'm not gonna. So there.

I'm the big 2-5 today!

2006-06-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

And it's about time my car insurance finally went down.

Rest assured - there will be plenty of celebrating going on. Around these parts we don't hold back when there is a reason to drink....

Is it too soon to call in sick to work tomorrow?

Booze Cruising for Charity

2006-06-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

"Total Donations for the Booze Cruise Fundraiser were over $1000.00 and we will be able to put 7 at-risk youth out on the water this summer for leadership, team building and character strengthening actives thanks directly to your generosity!" - NMHF

Who knew that helping the less fortunate could be so much fun? And more importantly, who remembers doing it?

DMV fun

2006-06-23T11:19:00.002-05:00

So I've spent the last two days getting my life transferred from Michigan residency to DC. My car insurance, my driver's license, my registration, etc.

yes, I've been here for 2 years.

I'd put it off so much because I had heard about the terribly long waits and the exorbitant fees they charge. As long as my registration was valid, I had no need to transfer it over. Well, with my birthday fast approaching, so was the expiration date of my license and my car registration.

Meaning the DMV trip was inevitable and I spent a few days mentally preparing myself for what was surely going to be an ulcer-inducing test of patience and strong willed fortitude.

I'm pleased to report that it went swimmingly. As in, 3 hours of waiting and dealing with helpful, courteous DMVites and I'm all done. Which way exceeded my expectations.

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to say. Although TheGirlfriend says my new picture makes me "look mysterious", so I've got that going for me.

Update: Ok Tim, since you asked so nicely...

Objective Review of "Stacked with Daniel Negreanu"

2006-06-20T12:02:00.000-05:00

Worst. Game. Ever.

Update: Check comments for a deeper analysis.

Yikes.

2006-06-19T11:38:00.000-05:00

I had a fan-fricking-tastic weekend. Friday night we had the end of season kickball party at a bar walking distance to my place. So we're crazy drunk with all our friends and decided to head home at like 1:30 am. As we're drunk-stumbling home we pass by a park filled with homeless people and I get the great idea that we should lie down on the grass and make out for a while. Cause that makes perfect sense.

And is not at all dangerous, cause I'm surely not carrying multiple hundreds of dollars on me and I'm completely able to defend myself and TheGirlfriend, should some unsavory character think otherwise. Obv.

So I wake up Sat a bit hungover, and without much recollection of the specifics of this (classy, I know), and have an enjoyable afternoon with friends by the pool. That night I look for my glasses, but they're no where to be found. Finally, TheGirlfriend remembers that she took them off me while we were making out cause they were in the way, duh. So we figure we just forgot them at the homeless park. So we go back there at like 9 at night and look in the dark for them, but can't find them. So then we start laughing at the thought of a homeless person being able to see better because they're now wearing my glasses.

Which makes me feel good about helping out the less fortunate.

However, Sunday, after I'd resigned myself to having to get an eye exam and pay for new glasses...I ended up finding them on the bottom shelf of my random shelving apparatus. Which is a rather odd spot for them, considering the only other things there are used metro passes and poker chips.

Long story short - no harm.

The brilliance of marketing

2006-06-15T07:36:00.000-05:00

Has anyone seen the new Dwayne Wade commercial? It has the tagline "Fall down seven times, get up eight", which makes me wonder...how is it possible to get up more times than you've fallen? Did the marketing wizards not even question this? Or is it some kinda subtle hyperbole?

I understand that the whole idea behind the slogan is that no matter what, you get up and try again, or something to that effect, but how about translating that into a slogan that actually makes sense?

It wouldn't make sense to say "I'm dealt seven hands, I fold eight of them". Scratch that, I can't even think an appropriate example.

Yes, this really bothers me.

Update: Apparently, it's an ancient japanese saying. So not only are the Converse people dumb...they're unoriginal to boot.

Update Update: Or it's Chinese, or Buddhist...maybe Confuscious said it?

Proof Google is taking over the internet!

2006-06-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

Because these things are NEVER wrong...

2006-06-13T10:25:00.000-05:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8.7
Mind:	8.4
Body:	8.8
Spirit:	9.6
Friends/Family:	7.4
Love:	7.7
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Back on Mother Earth again!

2006-06-12T10:30:00.001-05:00

From the "And I've Never Been So Relieved to be 5 Minutes Late" file...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The reason that we suddenly aborted our landing shortly after touching down was due to the stalled aircraft sitting in the middle of the runway we were landing on. We'll try
landing again shortly..."

And cue the panic attack....now.

Weekend Picture Dump

2006-06-09T13:16:00.000-05:00

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even kno...

Why am I so cranky?

2006-06-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

So I thought that once you graduated college and were no longer in a dorm where, during exam time, frat pledges had to pull the fire alarm to prove their "loyalty to their brothers", you didn't have to worry about finding yourself standing out in the street at 2:30 am in a torrential downpour.

I was wrong.

Kickball Playoffs

2006-05-31T08:16:00.000-05:00

My team, Menace to Sobriety, has a pretty decent shot of making it out of the East Region. We had a pretty low seed compared to our skill level as we suffered a number of uncharacteristic go-from-ahead losses (opposite of "come-from-behind win" obv) by one run.

I feel as if we're the favorite over Money Shots. Our likely second round opponent, OIP, only beat us by a single run in the regular season and we've improved since playing them. So we'll just have to see what happens....

Why not?

2006-05-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Memorial Weekend Week

2006-05-22T08:59:00.000-05:00

So Mike comes Wednesday, which is just in time for kickball and, more importantly, the post-kickball bar scene. After that he's someone else's responsibility (Ida or Rob?) while I go home for the long weekend.

Hanging at the cottage from Friday - Monday? Count me in! And apparently the weather is supposed to be sunny and (drop it like it's) hot. I can't wait.

The only thing that would make it better would be having my sailboat there.

You know, the one that I grew up sailing? The one that I raced in Nationals? The one I wrote my college application essay about? The one I spent many a weekend with just my grandfather, sailing, but more importantly creating a special, loving bond? The one I planned to, one day, teach my kids to sail on?

The one that the yacht club threw out?

Yep, that's the one.

Hi Linds.

2006-05-18T12:24:00.000-05:00

Bored?

Open mouth....Insert foot.

2006-05-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

Ever hear those funny stories about how someone sends a derogatory/sarcastic email to their friends making fun of someone at work, only to their horror, they realize they mistakenly sent it to exact person they were insulting?

It's not funny in real life.

As Requested...

2006-05-04T12:40:00.000-05:00

by Mr. Anonymous:

" how come you haven't written a profile of how excited you are that i am coming to visit?"

Well, despite not being the most common use of the word profile, a quick trip to dictionary.com does give us a remotely relevant definition.

pro·file n. - A formal summary or analysis of data, often in the form of a graph or table, representing distinctive features or characteristics

So let's oblige, shall we?

Kickball tonight (Updated)

2006-05-03T06:52:00.000-05:00

And we can sure use a win.

*Bah, we tied 2-2.

What's that saying..

2006-04-28T07:45:00.000-05:00

Something about not crying wolf?

Wha?!?

2006-04-26T14:18:00.000-05:00

Apparently, the Florida State MySpace Slut, Jenn Sterger, has a writing gig for SI.com.

Um, huh?

What I Learned this Weekend

2006-04-24T08:06:00.000-05:00

* TheGirlfriend and I do NOT make a dominating Beer Pong team.

* We're not half bad at Quarters and FlipCup though.

* After getting drunk at Charity Bar Events, you feel WAY less quilty when you find your credit card receipt the next day...

and the hangovers hurt less too.

* College athletic stars get illegal perks....who knew?

* Fuddrucker's drunk > Fuddrucker's sober

* Hot chicks can, indeed, play poker (7th for $264K in WPT Championship)

* Hot chicks are, indeed, fun to look at.

* Ethiopia, Zambia AND Nairobi are all countries in Africa.

* There is an AIDS Epidemic in Africa.

* Telling the guy who's spent the last year in Africa "curing" AIDS that "There is no cure for AIDS, you know" might be a conversation stopper.

* Speaking of conversation stoppers...the next time I'm asked what I do for a living, I'm making something up.

* Starring in a butt-munching porn to earn money for poker... and then placing 2nd in the WSOP ME, winning millions and becoming a poker celebrity is not a terrible trade. Just don't try to deny it afterwards. (Link should be safe for work)

Finally!

2006-04-20T13:58:00.000-05:00

First kickball win - man, it feels good to drink to victory afterwards instead of drinking away sorrows.

Go M2's!

Finally played some poker last night

2006-04-18T08:13:00.000-05:00

and it didn't go very well. I'm way rusty and not on my game right now. The session was quick and painful and the highlight was a hand where I raised first in on the button and the BB re-raised. I called with my Ah4h. Flop came junk with 2 hearts, BB bet, I raised, BB reraised, and I capped it (probably a bit excessive, but I had him on a HUGE range here, plus going for free card, plus probably tilting). Turn blanked and he checked to me. I checked behind, looking for the flush. The river blanked as well and he bet out. I was getting 8-1 odds but all I had was A high. I only have to be best here 11% of the time...but I folded and he showed me Ten high.

And then started talking smack in the chat.

So I tilted some more hard earned big bets off and mercifully left the table.

I'm not yet ready for 5/10.

The Suckitudity of Kickball

2006-04-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

Sigh....my team is now 0-1-1 after our 4 to 2 defeat at the hands of TheGirlfriend last night. Our team kinda sucks a lot. In the first inning alone there were 3 dropped fly balls that should've been easily caught. Also, I hit a nice double with a runner on 2nd base that should've been an easy RBI but as the throw in from the outfield went over the pitcher's head, it bounced and hit the runner when she was one step away from home plate. I guess jogging with your head down and not paying attention is a bad idea - who knew? So that ended my chances of being a hero.

Hopefully the sucky people get frustrated and stop coming so that our skilled players can get more playing time. Is that mean to hope for?

The one redeeming thing from last night was that, as I was playing first base, I got TheGirlfriend out. She kicked a nice one that made it to the outfield but our team captain scooped it up and fired it over to me before she got to the base. I briefly thought about dropping it and letting her get on safely, but...naw, the thought never crossed my mind! This is kickball! There's no "relationships" in kickball!

Of course afterwards everyone was teasing me about how I was going to be stuck in the doghouse forever now.

It's a price I'm willing to pay.

Good game Amy.

Life Recapitulation

2006-04-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

First of all, don't let the little description at the top of the this blog fool you. While my intentions were for this to be a poker blog, precious little poker gets played, let alone written about here. So if you've come expecting that, I'm sorry to dissappoint you. However, feel free to stay (and keep coming back) if you like reading the boring details of my life.

Ah, who am I kidding...you're only here to see if I put up anymore pics of TheGirlfriend in a bikini, aren't you? You sickos.

Wait, here's something poker related and sicko-related: a post on neverwinpoker.com about a guy scamming Gavin Griffin out of $6500. Also includes a link to pics of GG's (alleged) dudity...you've been warned. Interesting read though.

Also, there's a disturbing thread on 2p2.com where a large team of bots was discovered. They'd been in action since around feb playing almost 24/7 and party didn't catch them until massive emails resulted from the thread. Very disconcerting, and it's probably just the tip of the bot-iceberg. I can't imagine online poker being around longer than 2 or 3 more years and news like this leaves me even more pessimistic. (I'll link to it once I'm not at work where it's firewalled)

Ok, now I don't feel quite as selfish for the rest of this post being solely, um, selfish.

The vacation to Hilton Head was pretty much terrific. The weather was much better then forecasted. It only rained saturday night (it was a freaking deluge with quarter-sized hail) and the rest of the time was a beautiful 80 degrees and sunny. I burned on the first day (you can see the beginnings of it in the pics from the last post) and was in pain the rest of the trip. Considering that when I left home it was snowing, I know you all feel very sorry for me.

Also, while on the beach I stepped on a jagged shell and cut open the bottom of my foot. Life is tough. I hope that I'm not too hindered for my kickball game tonight.

However, I managed to suck it up and enjoy the weekend with a minimum of whining. Except when having the aloe applied to my back...that stuff hurt.

So I was pretty excited when I first arrived and the first thing that both my cousin Wayne, and my cousin's cousin (cousin^2?) Ryan said was "We have to play some poker this weekend man!" So excited in fact that I even went out and bought some chips to play with since I'd left mine behind. Of course, we never played cause their wives had different plans for them, but it's the thought that count. Should I be concerned that when I see relatives only twice a year, the first thing they relate me to is poker? Is that a bad thing?

The other slightly dissappointing aspect of the trip was that I didn't do any drunken bike riding on the beach at 2 am. Nor did my roommate puke all over the bathroom. Wait, that last one was a good thing. Since he's in Australia right now. Although there was a little puking that took place...my guests just can't seem to hold their alcohol. ;-)

Can't wait to go back!

*****

Tonight is the second week of kickball. Last week I like to think that I held my own. I managed a nice play in right field where I threw out the baserunner trying to stretch a double. Although I did get out on my only time batting. 4 fouls = out. Who knew?

The best part is that we're playing TheGirlfriend's team. So this game is of double importance. Bragging rights for the whole year are on the line. Both in kickball dominance (no one likes to be tagged out by their "wearing shorts with suspect athletic functionality" girlfriend) and in team flip-cup dominance. Hopefully there will be no puking-at-work-the-day-after this time. /fingers crossed.

*****
UPDATE:

Apparently, posting pictures on her in a bikini and constantly libeling her have led TheGirlfriend to feel as if she should get some space of her own to rebutt/expand/contort my post. And since I'd like her to keep making me meals and doing my laundry, who am I to say no?

So without further ado, I present....

TheGirlfriend's Recap of the Recap of Hilton Head

Chris was right in saying that the rest of his post is selfish, considering the entire Hilton Head vacation “recap” is about him… and he managed to only point out the negative aspects of the trip (the hail, getting burnt, stepping on a jagged shell, no poker, no drunken bike riding, etc).

First I would just like to point out he is a liar and did not “manage to suck it up and enjoy the weekend with a minimum of whining”; he whined the entire time and his mother and I were constantly summoned to put sunscreen or aloe on him (depending on time of day).

But he did get it right that the weather was absolutely fantastic, and much better than predicted. So now that you’ve heard about the bad things on the trip, here is a recap of the good J

We definitely got in some quality beach time: naps on the two person towel, a little reading, and some frisbee and bocce ball action. There was also tennis played. Losing to the parents was a little pathetic, but fun none the less. There was even tennis racket throwing involved, which wasn’t funny at the time, but now seems rather humorous. Some rollerblading (Liz, you need some new blades), lots of cards with the grandparents, some shopping, bike riding, lighthouse seeing and most importantly lots of good eating and drinking!

It was pretty much a fantastic “Spring Break”.

And my team is definitely going to win in the game tonight and at the flip cup tables… sorry Chris ;-)

*****

What's this? Poker talk!?!

So I played a while last night for the first time in eons. It was a frustrating night even without being results-oriented. I made some nice plays (mostly because they worked) and some not nice plays (cause they didn't). But seriously, is there anything worse than having a line, it being a good/profitable line (I think), executing all of it up until the end where you doubt yourself and do something dumb and then feel like a schmuck the rest of the session for it?

That was way vague and cryptic. Let me elaborate...

Playing $5/$10, I find myself in the BB with Js9s and one limper in MP to me. He's loose-passive (45/8/0.5) over 110ish hands. I check my option and the flop comes J73r.

I decide that i'm going to check/call the flop and if an undercard comes I'll check/raise the turn. So I check the flop, he bets, I call and turn brings an 8.

I go for the check/raise but he checks behind. Now I assume that my hand is best, but I haven't shown any strength and the pot is kinda small, so when the river brings a 2 I figure the best way to extract any more from him is to check and if he bets then raise.

This is risky because a lot people will only call a raise there with a better hand than mine, but I felt confident in the fact that he'd call with any pair and possibly A high since I've check/raise bluffed him before on the river and gotten caught and also since I've been so passive this hand thus far. Also, if re-raises my check/raise then I can safely fold because he's so passive.

So I check, he bets, I raise and he re-raises. There should've been alarms going off in my head. There's absolutely no way, zero, none, nada, zip, zilch, that he would do that with any hand that would lose to top pair, medium kicker. NONE!

I should've simply folded, I meant to fold, I tried to fold. But I called and was shown 22 for a rivered set. It may seem like that one bet isn't a big deal, but over thousands of hands saving bets like this...and extracting bets like this are the difference between scraping by and crushing the game.

Playing a hand as poorly as this, is frustrating to me cause it proves that I'm not nearly as good as I think I am. After that hand, I immediately got up and left. At least I've learned that much.

Perhaps I'll be less hard on myself after more thought.....but I hope not. I need to learn. And this is how.

Back from Hilton Head...DC sucks.

2006-04-11T07:04:00.000-05:00

So I promise to write up more about the time in Hilton Head for the 3 of you who care, but in the meantime here's a quick and easy picture dump, mostly just to make my sister jealous for not being there.

(I swear, one of these days I'll figure out how to format pictures properly in blogger.....grr.)

TheGirlfriend with her new boyfriend. He's too cute for me...I can't compete with that.

TheGirlfriend and I enjoying our new 2-person towel.

That sound you just heard was my manhood shriveling away to nothingness.

Obligatory "picture with shirt off to show off my awesome muscle-bound physique".

Please don't throw syringes...save those for tossing at Barry.

Out for dinner with the parents. And by dinner, I mean drinks. Mmm...margaritas.

Road Trippin

2006-04-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

Think this can be done in 8 hours? There probably won't be any traffic at 3 am, right?

Looks like the weather this weekend could be better. Don't they know that I have some beach to be enjoying?? Although I like the sound of 80 degrees.

Almost as much as I dislike the sound of 98 degrees.

Ah, who am I kidding - I like their sound too. Nick Lachey is SO dreamy.

One of our pools.

The clubhouse.

But we all know the REAL reason I'm so excited to go.

If you said beach drinking, you're right!

Which usually leads to this:

Some call it passing out, I call it being committed to my personal tanning regiment.

Ah, good times.

The Lesson as Always?

2006-04-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

Don't tempt the Poker Gods.

Shortly after stating "I've been lucky to this point that I haven't lost the biggest pot of my life", take a wild stab at what happened in the next session I played?

That's right - kicked in junk! My AA was flooshed out on the turn, and I missed my nut-floosh redraw. I had a bad read on the guy and in retrospect should've lost about 1.5 or 2 BB less then I did. At the very least, at least playing these stakes is really making me analyze my game and constructively tear apart all my decision making. Think the price of that covers my -EV?

Me neither.

I was slightly vindicated as later on my KK's rivered a set to beat a smaller set, but again my read was totally off as I put in way too many bets when behind. I suppose I should realize that when a player re-raises my check raise that one pair, whether an overpair or not, is behind.

I'll keep that in mind for next time. I humbly bow before the altar of the poker gods and offer a sacrifice of humility. I've learned my lesson, and will surf the rivers of variance in silence and deference. Just keep the good cards, along with the good flops, coming.

Is that too much to ask?

*****

Enough with the pokering, let's discuss my weekend and plans for this week in detail so that all you people who don't know me can get a little piece of CanIRebuy for yourselves. I should charge you for it...but I won't.

My ego-building, self-absorbed, conceit-driven blatherings come free of charge. I'm sure all of you hot, young female readers will think of some appropriate way to thank me.

Speaking of hot, young females - TheGirlfriend was rude enough to have a race sunday morning at the crack of dawn, thus requiring me to wake up at 9 am on a sunday (and the day that we all lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings...how thoughtless can one person be??) to brave the crowds and fight for a spot along the finish line so as to capture her moment of triumph with a picture, thus proving that I do actually care about her and take an interest in her hobbies. Or some crap like that.

And after standing watch for a good 15 minutes, camera at the ready, trying to find the golden-haired needle amongst the sweat-soaked haystack I received a call from her, waiting at the water table, wondering where I was and why I hadn't yet found her to congratulate her. D'oh!

Turns out that singling out the one person you're interested in, while thousands of runners are finishing shoulder-to-shoulder, is a rather difficult feat. Not unlike running a 10 mile race. See Amy? I had it just as hard as you did!

But seriously, I'm way impressed by it...10 freaking miles? That's worthy of a blog post unto it's self. You know, cause being written about in this here blog, is such a sweet prize. Puhlease.

Good job babe. Sorry I missed seeing you finish.

Although I'm pretty sure that my excuse for missing you was better than Dominic's.

(Explanatory sidenote: TheGirlfriend's roommate is Dominic. Dominic's girlfriend is Laura. Laura and TheGirlfriend are close friends, and running partners, who ran this race together. Incidently, Laura also lives in the same building that I do, however she does NOT have an awesome view of the White House with which to stalk the Bush twins. So in essence, we're just a hugely incestuous group who all hang out...minus any incest of course.)

So anyway, I suck cause I missed seeing her finish but I was there and tried. Dominic sucks cause he forgot about the time change and slept in. Oops. Dom sucks > CanIRebuy.

So we drowned our suckiness at the all-you-can-eat/drink brunch at the hotel next door. All the mimosas, champagne, and bloody mary's I can drink? sign me up!

This is the part where I'd regale you with tales of our drunkness but I'm having a hard time remembering any. Not because there weren't some...but because the whole rest of the day is hazy. Stupid all you can drink brunch!

Ok, enough blathering drivel...time to be a productive member of the work force.

Oh, I'll be in Hilton Head thursday through sunday.

YES! Can't wait.

March: Poker Report Card

2006-03-31T08:25:00.000-05:00

March:

Total hands: 5,517
Total net: +152.67

Rate: -0.49 BB/100

2006:
Total hands: 21,075
Total net: 623.05

Rate: 1.32 BB/100

Just a short poker update, which hopefully won't spite the poker gods (should that be capitalized? Poker Gods?) into cutting off my nice run of cards prematurely, for accountabilities sake.

As I mentioned before, I decided to take a shot at $5/$10 and see how it went. To be safe, I've put a few safeguards into place.

- I've only taken $200 to give it a shot. Once this is gone, I moveback down and lick my wounds.

- I only one table, and devote my "down time" to studying the players and practice hand reading. Also, no TV and minimal girlfriend interruption. ;-)

- Only play 100 hand sessions. Evaluate my play and the table dynamics. Leave unless the table is very good and I don't have other pressing matters (like sleep). This is so that I don't lose my bankroll on tilt trying to recover a loss. Which is something I've been prone to do. And is pretty much retarded.

Obviously, once (if?) I become comfortable and gain experience at these stakes these rules will be loosened, but for now I've found that it's really helped me play my "A" game and be comfortable with the amount of money in play. I'm ok with losing the $200 as part of learning and growing my game against better players. If I happen to succeed and stick around for the long term, so much the better!

Since 20BB is hardly enough to withstand a bad run of cards, even the best poker player in the world can lose that much (that little?) if the cards don't cooperate, perhaps I should add a rule to the above:

- Run really really good, and start off winning

Cause that's what I've done.

I'll throw in some detailed statistics that most people skip over and fancy graphs that no one reads once I get home from work.

For now, I'll just report that I've played 5 sessions, resulting in 472 hands played (teeny, tiny, miniscule sample size - I realize this, I know that I've run really well, and I don't yet know if I'm even a winning player at this level. My results are meaningless long term. i know.)

4 of the 5 sessions I've won. The one losing session I only played 72 hands and quit cause it just wasn't happening. The table was too tight, and I had steamed off a few bets. I was proud of myself for being able to suck it up and walk away when I did. /pat on back

My winrate over those 472 hands is 7.5 BB/100. You can do the math if you want. I'm tempting the PG's as it is.

I've won the 2 biggest pots of my life, one with Aces and the other with a flopped set. I've been lucky to this point that I haven't lost the biggest pot of my life yet.

Yes, I know it's going to happen.

Yes, I'm prepared mentally for it.

Only time will tell if it makes me physically ill or not. Let's hope not. I've done enough throwing up in the last two days.

Puns Amuse Me

2006-03-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

Still not playing much poker. Hopefully that'll change soon. What little I have played has seen me treading water at 5/10. It'd be sweet if that keeps up.

If anyone remembers a while back, I linked to an article in the Washington Post that talked about TheGirlfriend (although she didn't have that title back then) and how she joined a kickball league to pick up guys with her "orange Abercrombie & Fitch micro-shorts with suspect athletic functionality" and "her short-shorts [that] show off two perfectly tanned legs".

Well now that she is TheGirlfriend, I decided that I better join as well, so as to keep an eye on her and any teammates that get a little too "teammate-y" if you know what I'm saying. Of course, I'd be a total homer if I just joined her team so I'm on a different one that plays the same night so I can still stalk, er, keep watch.

Anyway, here's the schedule for this week:

6:30 (A) Bad News Beers vs. Tail Gators
6:30 (B) Ball in the Family vs. Krazy Kickers

7:15 (A) Below Me vs. Off in Public
7:15 (B) Banana Hammocks vs. Menace 2 Sobriety

8:00 (A) The Big O vs. The Irresistaballs
8:00 (B) Money Shots vs. Nickel and Dimers

8:45 (A) The Ligers vs. Wobbly H
8:45 (B) The Hung and the Restless vs. We Roll on Shabbos

There's some nice team names in there. My team is "Menace 2 Sobriety".

However the matchup that I really like is the "Below Me / Off in Public" match. Should make for some interesting chants.

"GOOOO Below Me"..."Off in Public!"..."Below Me"...."Off in Public!"

I love juvenile humor. ha.

Anyone have any stories to tell?

2006-03-28T08:24:00.000-05:00

So I saw the President of the United States yesterday. Well, really I just saw the back of his head, but technically it was him right?

TheGirlfriend and I were riding our bikes down to the mall to play some frisbage yesterday, when we were ordered to stop in our tracks by a very serious looking secret service guy in full combat fatigues. I think I could've taken him if he had tried to start something. I've got skills.

So, unable to continue along the sidewalk, we debated turning around and detouring but figured that the huge motorcade bearing down on us was for a reason and we should probably stay and see what we could see. Sure enough, after two huge tinted suburbans came two limos and good old GWBush was sitting alone in the back seat of the second one. Where was Laura?

Probably back home in the White House cooking dinner for her man. She's so domestic.

So the whole motorcade stopped not a block from us where POTUS got out and entered a hotel for reasons unknown. I wonder what he was doing? Saving the world undoubtedly...one hotel at a time.

I gotta say, the 13 cops on motorcycles that repeatedly circled around were kinda intimidating. I don't care how good my skills are...they would've whooped me.

So I've been in DC for almost 2 years, and I've finally seen the president. I can check that off my list.

Up next?

Where do you think Jenna and Barbara are?

Anyone play on Pokerroom.com?

2006-03-22T09:07:00.000-05:00

Someone found a hack that allows access to your account. All it requires is that you click a link while logged in. So don't or you could lose all your money. Which, if you play poker like I do, is inevitable anyway but it just takes longer.

Gross.

2006-03-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

It is snowing outside right now. What's Punxatawny Phil have to say about that? I'm beginning to think that maybe weather can't be accurately predicted by an oversized rodent. Call me crazy.

Well the Bracket is Busted!

2006-03-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

That didn't take long. In fact, it was much quicker and a lot less painful than years past. No time being spent on imagining convoluted scenarios involving all my cinderella teams knocking off the clear favorites so I can sneak into the money on the final weekend. None!

Now I'm free to root for the upsets no matter how it affects my brackets. You can take that money and do as you please with it - it's dead to me.

On a related note, TheGirlfriend is in first place. At least she's nice about it and not rubbing it in. Even after I emailed everyone in our league before the tourney started and told them to make fun of her for what I was sure would be a last place performance.

Dating someone WAY more mature than me is AWESOME!!

Speaking of TheGirlfriend...here's more proof of her awesomeness. Her mom and sister and sister's friend came to visit her this weekend, which meant that I got to do what every guy loves to do:

Meet The Mom.

Also known as "Try-Not-To-Say-Anything-Inappropriate-Yet-Still-Maintain-An-Interesting-Conversation-Despite-The-Fact-That-The-Whole-Time-You're-Imagining-TheGirlfriend-Looking-Like-Her-At-That-Age."

And the mom?

MILF-tastic! If I can only just get TheGirlfriend to revert back to her hard-core southern accent...that was hot. Seriously. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Can I just change "TheMom" to "TheMILF" for the rest of the blog or is that too creepy?

Too Creepy? Ok, TheMom it is.

But I'm a little sad about it.

Anyway, the whole weekend got off to an auspicious start as the first time I was supposed to meet up with the whole gaggle, friday night after work, was for dinner. Since I am awesome and totally r00l I over-napped and kept them waiting for a half hour despite 2 calls from TheGirlfriend. Great.

I like to think that I recovered beautifully the rest of the weekend, but really I was probably still pretty deep in the doghouse even after they left sunday. In fact, I'm probably STILL in the doghouse... I just won't know it until she needs something and can conveniently remind me of this occurence.

Seriously, how do you even make up for an error of this magnitude?

Suggestions would sincerely be appreciated.

"Suggestion #1: Calling her mom a MILF is not a good start"

Well thanks, where were you 2 minutes ago?!?

But other than that gaff, I feel like I handled myself very well. Oh, especially when I mentioned that "sometimes I take TheGirlfriend to McDonald's when I feel like getting lucky" to TheMom and TheSister.

Not sure what I was thinking there. Didn't make the conversation awkward AT ALL....sigh.

One of these days I'll become "the guy you can take home to mom" instead of "the guy you can take home to mom and then be forbade from ever speaking to again".

*****

On the poker front, I grew sick of 6-tabling for pennies and decided that I needed a change. You know what I miss? Getting butterflies in my stomach as I play. Being in awe at the amount of money won in pots. Getting upset at throwing away bets here and there. Winning the largest pot of my life and jumping up and running around the room in celebration.

I needed to move up in stakes.

I decided to take $200 and sit at $5/$10 and play 100 hands or lose it all. I was comfortable losing it all as it didn't represent a very large partion of my bankroll. I also was nervous enough (dedicated enough?) to try table selecting and actually watched for 30 minutes before sitting down.

For fear of spiting the poker gods, I won't report any $$ results but suffice to say that I ran really hot. Which was soooooo nice, and much needed after the latest run I've been on. I know I made mistakes, and I'm pretty sure many of the other players figured me for a fish over his head, but I learned more in 2 hours of sitting there than I had in 2 weeks of sitting at 1/2. It's a whole different world.

And I'm hooked.

I can't wait to play again. The problem is that I don't think I'm ready. Aside from a few complete fish, most (all?) of the other players were better than me I think. Perhaps, it's just insecurity. Maybe, just lack of experience to know that I'm not much worse. Maybe, it's true?

But I can't wait to play again and prove myself against much stiffer competition for much higher stakes. I haven't been this invigorated in poker in months.

Table selection, not playing scared, concentrating on one table, being able to fold A high to aggression when it's right, being able to call down with A high when it too is right...this is the roadmap to my $5/$10 dominance.

Be sure to check back in on wednesday to read about how I'm broke and back 6-tabling the beginner tables. It'll be a fun ride!

Poker Overload?

2006-03-15T07:40:00.000-05:00

So, in an effort to whore me some bonus-y goodness, I 5 tabled on party for a while last night. I played a little over 1,000 hands in 3.5 hours, but the bothersome part is that only 50% of those were raked hands. Maybe I was just on too tight tables.

Oh and the other bothersome thing was that I lost $50 clearing the $100 bonus. I swear I've just been running really poorly but we all know that's not true. I'm playing some truly sucky poker. And playing it on 5 tables at once.

So obviously, when faced with another bonus for playing 1500 raked hands, I'm planning on 6 tabling tonight. I know, makes perfect sense right?

After multi-tabling for so long, I decided to switch it up and enter a $1 donkfest. I managed to have an average stack when the money came around thanks to some truly horrendous play by Mr. All-In.

This guy only knew two moves. Call or All-in. He'd worked up a stack of 60,000 when average was 2,000 by constantly ourdrawing people, and occasionally having a good hand. He'd go all in and when everyone would fold he'd show Q3o.

So naturally, I was going to use him to double up a few times or send me packing. It happened once when my 33 beat his AQ. Once when AJo beat his 78o. And once when my Ah2h outraced his 4h8h on a 3h6h7s board. It's always nice to have an ATM at the table.

But I don't understand the guys who were berating his play. What's the point of tapping the glass. Don't you WANT someone to call your all in with far inferior hands? I was so pissed when the rocks at the table were telling him to stop. Don't stop!! Keep doubling me up! I just don't get it.

Anyway, I used his chips to coast into the money once my cards ran cold. Eventually I made a move with JTs and was called by JJ and IGHN in 126 out of 1300 people. Good for a whole 26 cents profit.

Nice.

That's a far better showing than I usually have. I have a lot to improve upon in huge tourney's like these. I've only ever made one final table in probably the 50+ that I've entered.

Although I have no idea if this is a bad ratio or not. Sample size and all.

Sorry, I'm rambling...I miss the Idle Hour Home Game.

/single tear

And the Ego Takes a Hit

2006-03-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

I lost in Dr. Mario to my girlfriend last night.

I died a little bit on the inside.

Weekend Pic Dump

2006-03-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

This JUST In: Shocking Report!

2006-03-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

According to a detailed book exerpt released earlier this week on SI.com, Barry Bonds has taken steroids!

To which anyone with a pair of eyes and any common sense says, "Well, duh!"

Bonds then:

Bonds now:

Vegas Trip Report - March 2006

2006-03-09T07:42:00.000-05:00

WARNING: The following is a long, unedited, exceedingly boring, unfunny recap of my trip. If you aren't closely related to me or dating me, you definitely don't care about any of this. If you are one of those things, not only do I feel sorry for you, but you still probably don't care about any of this.

I'm still unable to fully wrap my mind around the awesome weekend that I had in Vegas. I'm just going to start writing and we'll see where I go. A little free-style typing if you like.

My dad and I were both supposed to arrive in LV friday night at 9:30 pm via different flights. However, my dad gave me my first bad beat of the weekend when he called to tell me that his flight had been delayed...so instead he got on a different one that arrived 2 hours earlier! JEALOUS!

I fully expected to have to cab it alone to the strip and to see him already sitting at a poker table with a rack of chips in front of him. Alas, dad being the nice guy that he was, was waiting for me as I left the plane. We had our obligatory airport-hug and then realized that we were wasting time - we had gambling to do!

Except that so did about a thousand other people...we got to the taxi stand and the line, being corralled by those Disneyland-esque metal fence things that make you feel like cattle being led to the slaughter, wrapped up and down an entire block 5 times. Seriously? Who would've thought that a friday night in Vegas a lot of people would be arriving. Huh.

So we decided that for next time we'd pretend to be Mr. Rodriguez staying at MGM like the person near baggage claim had the sign for. I bet HE didn't have to wait 45 freaking minutes for a cab.

But really, my favorite part about Vegas is being stuck at the airport waiting in line, while being able to see the lights of the strip a mile away. It's like a gamble-a-holic's cocktease. In fact, between that, the showgirls, the topless shows, the billboards and flyers for hookers, that should be Vegas' REAL slogan.

Forget "What happens in Vegas STAYS in Vegas".

It should really be "Vegas - One big cocktease....unless you pay upwards of $500".

...."And even then it might be a dude."

Um, not that I would know.

So anyway, after waiting for a cab for forever, we finally arrive at our hotel, The Tropicana. Home, sweet home.

What's a guy to do when it's 2 am and he's exhausted? Well if he's in Vegas, stay up all night playing poker of course!

We dropped our bags off and headed over to the Excalibur, our make-shift poker home. We like it because it has low stakes, good bonuses and jackpots, is close by and we can't lose a lot of money very quickly. Oh, and my dad loves all the advertisements for their show "Thunder from Down Under". Don't ask.

I started off slowly - we both sat at a 1-3 spread table, and the players were just as bad as last time.

Which of course means that I'm destined to lose a ton of money to them.

Wanna see how I did it? By playing awesome poker and making terrible reads of course! The one hand that I still can't believe went like this:

(yes, my first bad beat story...but this one is self-inflicted)

I was playing at a loose table and the guy next to me, drinking Coors' Light like it's his job, seemed to be the only other player with half a clue, besides my dad and I. He was actually capable of folding post-flop and understand that flushes beat straights, a set beat two pair, etc. In other words, he was shocking good.

So the blind is a single dollar and all 43 of us limp in. I have 2c2s and the flop comes down KhKd2h. SCORE!

No slowplaying here - let's see if anyone with a K will call me down. First to act, I bet out and only Coors' Light guy calls.

Turn is a Qs. I bet, he calls. Hmm...no raise with a King? Maybe he has a bad kicker.

River is Qh, double pairing the board and giving any K or Q a better full house than me.

DANGIT!! My first huge hand in Vegas and I just got forfeited by runner-runner. Well I figure that since I'm so great at poker and capable of saving bets here and there, I'm going to check and if he bets I'll have to fold since there's no way that anyone bets that board with less than a K or Q. Being poker suave rules! I'm channelling all my inner-Hellmuth. I can dodge bullets baby! There's only 10 people in the world who can make this fold. This is how to play winning poker, baby.

I check, he BETS his bigger full house, and I fold my baby boat. Of course, I show the table that I just folded a full house so that they know to be scared of my amazing poker skillz.

Coors' light guy then shows his A-high flush and rakes the pot.

Oops.

I'm now on Super-Mega-Self-Inflicted tilt.

But seriously, who bets a flush on a double-paired board? That's one of the worst bets I've ever seen! The only hand that calls him is a full house. There's no need to bluff since he has every other hand beat! ARRGGH.

It was right then and there that I decided to never fold a big pot for one bet against any of these players. Boy am I glad I made that rule.

So anyway, a few of us stayed at that table all night playing. My dad crashed around 5 am Vegas time (all times in Vegas time from here on out). There was a tournament taking place at 9 am. It was $35 buy-in, and registration closed at 8 am. A few of the all-nighters decided to enter it, but I knew that it was a sucker tournament and refused. First of all, $10 went to the Vig. That's 40%!!! That's absurd. Secondly, the blinds DOUBLED every 15 min. WHAT? Basically it was more of a Lotto drawing than a poker tournament. I explained all this to the rest of the guys after they'd entered.

Then I won a $35 pot in the ring game and signed up anyway. I'm an idiot. I should've just burned $35 and saved myself an hour's time. At least that way I could've used the fire for something useful....like making Jiffy Pop or something.

I went out when JJ lost to AK.

So my first Vegas session was over at 10 am after 11 hours of playing. I was stuck $70.

I returned to the room and woke my dad up from his 5 hour nap. We got breakfast and planned our day. First on the agenda? Check out the Heads-Up tournament at Caesars!

***Saturday***

If you remember from a post or two ago, the NBC tournament was being filmed last weekend. It was a 64 person invitational only heads up tournament. I had no idea if we could watch, needed tickets or what, but we decided to head down and check it out.

They were filming it in a room that was an offshoot of the main poker floor. Meaning that you could wait in line for 2 hours to go watch the stars play heads up poker while sitting in the audience, or if you just wanted to play poker you could enter on the other side of the velvet rope and enter the poker room.

Who wants to wait in line in Vegas? Its not like these are taxis!

We enter the poker room and on the far side is the media setup. The huge boom cranes, the lights, the cameras, the interviewers, all the reporters, huge sound booth all sorts of people with "media" tags...I was overwhelmed by it all and kinda starstuck because if you could peer past all the commotion, the stage and risers was only like 20 yds away. There just across the room was Scott Fishman, Hellmuth, Moneymaker, etc playing heads up. Unreal!

Well at a time like that, who needs a media tag? I walked over like I knew what I doing, the whole time my heart racing and palms sweating (who knew I was such a fanboy? I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was starstruck) and picked my way through the throng until I could see everything that was going on. It was way cool.

After watching for a couple minutes (watching poker without knowing hole cards is boring, no matter who is playing) and nervously waiting to be kicked out for not having the requisite documentation I turned around to leave and ran smack into a huge guy.

"oh, i'm sorry....TJ CLOUTIER!...who I just ran into....who's book I own....and who I watch on TV....who's towering over me right now." Or something like that.

In my haste to see the stage...i'd failed to realize that all the players going on in the second round....were all around me!

Greg Raymer, who is HUGELY fat - bordering on spherical - was drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. I never got a chance to ask if it tastes more like Regular Dr. Pepper cause he was talking to Evelyn Ng the whole time.

Which I really can't blame him for.

Johnny Chan was taking pictures not 5 ft from me. And my without my camera.

I did steal his orange though, when he wasn't looking.

k, not really.

As we were leaving, Daniel Negreanu walked in with his posse. Seriously, he has a posse. Who knew? 6 people were following him...fawning all over him. J-Lo has nothing on this guy. J-Lo could probably kick his butt too. I couldn't believe how tiny he was!

So anyway, that pretty much made my weekend right there. I was hoping to be able to see a few of these players from across the room. To see them upclose, and some of them personal (sorry again TJ) was beyond expectation. No matter what happend the rest of the time, the trip was a success.

After that I dragged my dad to the Flamingo with me since I'll be staying there in July and Amy wanted me to scope it out. Well i'm happy to report that it's a hotel with a casino. Shocking. I'm sure she'll like it.

While there I talked my dad into playing a little 2/4. I had no idea that it'd be like playing poker at a retirement home. I think they were running an AARP discount. "Joe", who was sitting across from me, came zooming in on his motorized scooter. He was knocking chairs out of the way and running over toes. Seriously. He'd also mumble under his breath what he had and what he was drawing to. "C'mon 4 - DAMNIT, only a measely pair. Ah, shit...4 hearts out there too."

Of course, his K high flush beat my dad's Q high to put Dad on serious tilt. He blames the rest of his terrible play on that. I blame it on the fact that he sucks at poker. We're still debating who's right.

In fact, we debated this all the way through dinner, at the Newest Vegas Casino - "Hooters". Isn't Vegas the kind of place that Hooters isn't a novelty? Doesn't every single restaurant in Vegas have Hooter's type waitresses? Am I the only one who doens't understand this? What am I missing?

The only interesting thing about it was the poker closet, er room. 3 tables crammed into a shack. The best part was all the guys eating wings while playing cards...gross sticky cards. No thanks, I think I'll pass on playing with your wing sauce covered chips and sticky felt. Maybe next time though.

So we finally head back "home" to the Ex. I sit at 2/4 and run terribly, including one set-over-set that I called down despite knowing I was beat due to the "Coors' Light Guy Corrolary". Also, the guy who loved to check-raise bluff the river with nothing decided to actually have 2 pair against me. So that was cool.

I do the logical thing and when I hear them open a 3/6 table I jump up and play against better players. Obviously. I mean, I was due right?

Right. My favorite hand in the history of CanIRebuy Pokering took place here. Allow me to indulge in another hand history if you will. I was dealt pocket 4's and I limp along with 3 others. The big blind had other ideas though and raised it up. We all call one more.

Flop comes 876r. BB bets again, two callers to me with one to go behind me yet. Getting 13-1 odds, I decide that my 6 outs are probably good and call and guy behind does as well. Pot is $46.

Turn comes Q and again BB bets, 2 callers to me and so I invoke the "Coors' Light Guy Corollary" and call getting 9-1. Guy behind calls and pot is $76.

River is a 2 and it amazingly checks around. BB turns over AJo, caller #1 shows A9, caller #2 shows A5, Last guy shows AK, and incredulously I turn over my 4's and rake in the biggest pot at the table. UNREAL.

Course some of them berate my play, and they all think I'm a huge fish....but I couldn't really hear them over the noise my chips made as I stacked them. Ha. So that was fun.

The only other notable hand from that session saw me holding Qc2c. I had been going on 40 hours without sleep at that point which might explain why I played this hand, who knows? Anyway, a guy who had shown that he was capable of folding to a raise on the river bet out and when it folded to me on a blank board I decided to run a bluff on him, using my tight image to exploit him. I just called until the river and then raised his bet. He thought a while and then called, saying "just top pair". I looked at the board, hadn't paired up and mucked my hand.

About 30 seconds later I realized that i'd hit runner-runner clubs for the flush. Oops, wish I could have that $35 back. It was right then and there I decided it was time for some sleep.

***Sunday***

After finally sleeping (for 11 hours) and feeling refreshed on waking up, we decided that it was time to change things up....wait, no we didn't, we went to the same place for breakfast, had the same thing to eat and went to the same casino to play poker. At least we know what we like.

Today would be different though. Today would be epic. Today was the day....that I got to spin the Excalibur Wheel!

For those of you unfamiliar with this particular bonus, if you get Aces cracked in a $30 or greater pot, or get 4 of a kind or better, you spin a wheel and win the amount that the pointer lands of. It varies from $20 to $100 with a double and a triple space.

Not only did I get to spin it once....or twice....but three times baby!

Pocket 4's flopped a set and rivered the case 4. DEMS QUADS BEETCHES. $30 for me!

AA go down to a flush. $35 for me!

Ts9s flop a JsQs and river a 8s. STRAIGHT FLUSH BIZNATCHES!! $50 for me!

The luckbox was working all day long. It was a great feeling. No matter what card I needed, I would hit it and river someone. I rivered one poor guy out of $100 5 times. It was tremendous. I was afraid his buddies wouldbe waiting for me in the alley after I left. But no, I was fine. Good stuff.

Finally left in the afternoon with $285 profit and was thinking that this might be the first time I leave Vegas with more money than I started with. I was feeling so good that I actually bought my dad lunch and dinner. Can you imagine that?? I was insane!!

(I'd expand more but this is way too long and i'm losing steam...i''m sure anyone that read this far is glad about that)

That night we went to a comedy show back at the Trop. It was pretty funny for a couple of nobodies. The only wierd part was whenever one of the guys would make a raunchy sex joke and my dad would crack up hysterically, I couldn't help but think about him and my mom. That'll ruin any son's day..no matter how much money he made. Ew. I'm getting sick just typing this. Anyway, it was still funny.

4 hours of sleep later and it was our last day there.

To be continued later....when i'm not pissing off my boss.

What day is it? Where am i?

2006-03-07T11:31:00.000-05:00

Holy freak, am I tired. Too tired to do a proper write-up. But rest assured that the best Vegas Trip Report in the history of Vegas Trip Reports shall appear on these pages shortly.

and by "shortly", I mean "eventually".

and by "eventually", I mean "I hope".

However, I will say that I had no idea TJ Cloutier was so tall. Greg Raymer looks like a Weeble (they wobble, but they don't fall down) . And Evelyn Ng is the hottest poker player I've ever seen.

Um, until TheGirlfriend started playing poker of course. Phew.

2006-03-03T13:31:00.000-05:00

I just found out that the NBC National Heads-Up Championship is taking place this weekend at Caesar's Palace. I would pay to be there when Phil Hellmuth gets knocked out and throws a temper tantrum...just so I can see what a jopke he really is.

Good times.

Weekend Plans?

2006-03-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

I have some...I'll be in VEGAS!!

Flying there friday night and leaving monday night. I can't wait.

Here's to hoping that all the losing poker I've been playing either stays here in DC, or is out of my system as a whole. It's been gross.

Check back on tuesday to find out how much I lost.

Fellow Bloggers One Step Closer to Delusions of Grandeur

2006-03-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

A few friends of mine, as well as fellow bloggers, man-whores, and psuedo-regional-celebrities-in-their-own-mind, Mike and Dominic, are one step closer today to being even more elitest and stuck up after being featured* in the Washington Post Express today.

*Featured is this context taken to mean "having half a sentence quoted from their blog on pg 33 in the sidebar, written in a barely legible font"

Go here to see the original Washington Post Express pdf file.

Go here to see their brag post.

And yes, I'm pretty jealous.

February: Poker Report Card

2006-02-28T23:32:00.000-05:00

Feb:

Total hands: 5,141
Total net: -$87.64

Rate: -1.59 BB/100

2006:

Total hands: 15,558
Total net: $470.38

Rate: 1.96 BB/100

"Let Me Re-introduce Myself..."

2006-02-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

So the "administrative assistant" chick, who is currently at the other end of the building chatting with the "front desk administrative assistant" chick (notice the "administrative assistant" hierarchy, who knew?), apparently left her cell phone on.

She also must have a voicemail.

I know this because every minute or so a bad recording of Jay-Z blasts throughout our cube farm. Pretty funny considering everyone I work with is an old, stuffy, white engineering-nerd who thinks that Jay-Z is just 2 letters of the alphabet.

...thinks that 50 Cent is how much change they got from Starbucks this morning.

...thinks that Ma$e is what they hold onto at night when walking to their cars.

...thinks that Ice Cube is what keeps their drinks cold.

...thinks that Snoop Dogg is Charlie Brown's pet.

...thinks Eminem melts in your mouth, not in your hand. (Um...)

Thanks folks, I'll be here all week! Remember to tip your waitress.

*****

Just read this on Phil Gordon's blog and found it very interesting:

Unconfirmed rumor: Phil Ivey is up $16 million in the last couple of days playing against the billionaire Andy Beal in a $100-$200k heads up death match. It must be nice to be Phil Ivey.

More info here: Cardplayer article on "Corporation".

Anyone NOT see this coming?

2006-02-27T08:28:00.000-05:00

So two of online poker's biggest "tournament stars" (if there can be such a thing...gag me) have been busted in the last 3 weeks for using multiple accounts in the same tournaments, played from the same computer. In one case, up to 6 entries!

Over $280,000 were seized from their accounts.

With this much money in the hands of 16 and 20 year olds, it's no surprise that they're dumb enough to cheat, probably using some convoluted justification that only makes sense to them. Lacking real-world, real-life experience yet, being exposed to the kind of money only a few people earn can lead to some truly poor decision making.

Just look at a lot of the young NBA stars who get arrested for rape, caught with handguns, drugs, have dozens of kids from multiple women, etc. No perspective.

The troubling thing is that they were caught only after other players emailed Party and asked them to check into it. Only then did Party come back and say that they had all this proof of cheating. What about catching them on your own Party? If you have the capability, why not use it?

The only thing I can see happening from this is that US lawmakers now have some substantial reason to control online poker. If it can't police itself, some Senator in need of a cause will crack down on it to "better protect us". It's only a matter of time...

Met the Mom and Grandparents... eek!

2006-02-23T20:58:00.000-05:00

So this is Amy and Chris is over yonder playing with TiVo/watching girls figure skating (such a girl) and granted me permission to post on his blog. Mistake? Perhaps... I have had two glasses of wine. But seeing how Chris hasn't posted on his blog for a couple days now, which has lead me to be even bored-er (not a word) than usual at work, I thought I would write a little somethin-somethin.

So I met Liz (the mom) and the Grandparents this weekend...

It went very well; I might even classify it as a great weekend. Picked the mom up at the airport with Chris, had lunch, then went home (meeting both mom and grandparents in one day would be way too much - no offense to them, just the whole family thing in general). Met the grandparents the next morning for a Champagne brunch. This was after going out hard core Saturday night, which consisted of drinking heavily with my girls, leaving Chris an amazingly retarded drunk message that he shared with his mom btw, and waking up to find a bruise that covers my entire right knee and I have no idea where it came from.

So anyways, next day Grandma and I got drunk at brunch, did some sight seeing in bitter cold weather (always a plus with grandparents who walk like 1mph), yada yada yada, celebrated G-ma's bday at Ruth's Chris steak house ( i keep shortening from Chris' Grandma to Grandma and now to G-ma - it might be the wine). But my point is, it was fun and awesome and great and I liked it. And I think Chris did too.

So anyways, done with the third glass of wine and Chris is WAYYY to into the figure skating girls on tv so i'm gonna go.

Bye.

*CanIRebuy Update:
Ok, I need to confess. It's true. I was watching figure skating.

Man, do I love skating.

Although I'd wish they'd wear more clothes and stop being so flexible. It hinders my ability to truly appreciate their skating.

Cause that's why I watch.

My New View

2006-02-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's the White House.

Think the Bush twins are home? Can I borrow anyone's telescope?

Wow, you people need to lighten up.

2006-02-15T13:24:00.000-05:00

The FCC has nothing on you guys. I DEMAND free speech!

Next post I'm going to show some comics of Mohammed that I've drawn. Now, THOSE are funny!

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

Personally, I can't wait for March 14th. Now there's a holiday I can get excited for!

*Cue Rimshot!*

(I was gonna say "...sink my teeth into!", but that's what I always yell at the girlfriend for doing.)

(Hi mom!)

Yet again, more of the same.

2006-02-10T13:33:00.000-05:00

I'm sick of losing.

*single tear*

But really, what DOESN'T he own?

2006-02-08T17:33:00.000-05:00

From Mark Cuban's blog:

"I own Phil Jackson. Not literally of course. That thrill belongs to the smartest businesswoman in professional sports, Jeannie Buss. Figuratively however, the coach formerly known as the Zen Master must now be considered my bucket boy."

That cracks me up.

Hand of the Day

2006-02-07T18:49:00.000-05:00

He must've had a tell - I need to work on my facial expressions when the flop comes down.

***** Hand History for Game *****
$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, February 07, 18:44:17 EDT 2006
Table Table 65042 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: ( $31.50 )
Seat 4: ( $41.50 )
Seat 7: ( $32 )
Seat 8: ( $49.50 )
Seat 9: ( $57.35 )
Seat 5: New Best Friend ( $26.75 )
Seat 3: ( $46.50 )
Seat 10: CanIRebuy ( $58.50 )
Seat 6: ( $62.50 )
Seat 1: ( $51 )
SB posts small blind [$0.50].
BB posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to CanIRebuy [ Kd Ts ]
folds.
folds.
New Best Friend calls [$1].
folds.
folds.
folds.
folds.
CanIRebuy raises [$2].
folds.
folds.
New Best Friend calls [$1].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, Ks, 9h ]
New Best Friend folds.

Is addiction to poker genetic?

2006-02-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

So my dad used my instant bankroll link giving him $75 free - and a $25 bonus. Now when I log onto Party at midnight, the night before a work day, I can watch him take all the sucker's money. I predict the first timer's run of good cards will end this week.

Good thing my college loans already have been paid off. How long until he takes out a 2nd mortgage on the house?

Good work dad.

January: Poker Report Card

2006-02-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

Total hands: 10,319
Total net: $552.65

Rate 3.7 BB/100

Also, I just booked the second of my flights to Vegas for the next 6 months.

March 3-6, hotel unsure
July 6-9, staying at Flamingo

Let's hope I dont' go broke before then!

Jack Bauer Power Hour!

2006-01-30T15:03:00.000-05:00

Also known as the "24 Drinking Game - Season 5 Edition"

Ok, so here's the plan for tonight:

Take One Drink whenever

- Jack kills somebody.
- Somebody summarizes what's been going on in the past couple hours.
- Something bad happens to Diane/Derrick
- There's a split screen.
- President Logan ignores his wife because he thinks she's crazy. (Drink twice if he looks right at traitorous Secret Service guy immediately afterwards)
- Jack defies orders/or reminds CTU he no longer works for them.
- A CTU employee looks at another CTU employee suspiciously.
- Somebody mentions the amount of time it will take for something to be accomplished (i.e., "The Delta squad won't be there for another twenty minutes").

Drink twice whenever

-A CTU employee kills somebody.
-Some annoying authority figure shows up (Chappelle, Rudy/Sam, etc.).
-There is an obvious lapse in continuity (i.e., they suddenly find the nuclear bomb in the back of a van).
-Somebody mentions Terri or Kim
-Somebody is revealed to be a mole/traitor, or an important object turns out to be a decoy/red herring.
-Somebody other than Jack defies orders. Drink 3 if the reason is "Jack wouldn't ask if there was any other way!!"
-A main character dies.
-The President is an indecisive, raging pussy

Drink three times whenever

-A supporting character from a previous season shows up (Nina, Mandy, Sherry, Kate, etc.)
-CTU goes into lockdown.
-There is an awkward moment due to Jack's sexual history

Finish the drink whenever

-The main villain changes (example - Gaines to Drazen).
-The final minute does not include a surprise/cliffhanger.

So in the interest of full disclosure, we stole this from here and modified it for this season.

Hopefully there'll be a recap provided tomorrow of our experience...until then, use at your own risk!

Let the GAMES BEGIN!!

Long Session Tonight

2006-01-27T00:42:00.000-05:00

Just wrapped up my first PSO bonus. 500 UB points later I've won $100 and earned $250 in bonuses. Not bad for 2 nights work.

(Edit: According to PT I've played a total of 11.88 hrs clearing this bonus. So an hourly rate of $32.24/hr. I should totally turn pro.)

Full Tilt here I come!

Bankroll at $950.

(Not a bad return on my $42 in the last 27 days!)

I promise some actual substance in my next post - enough with this poker crap!!

Poker Epiphany

2006-01-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

So I'd always heard that Party has the loosest/fishiest tables of all the online sites, and I'd kinda just believed it and moved on. Partly because I was already playing there so it didn't involve any conscious decision making to move there, and partly because if it wasn't true then at least I was still winning rather handily and if it was against decent competition so much the better.

I recently started playing at UB to clear some bonuses and the difference is startling! The tables are much tighter and unlike at Party if you're sitting at a table you don't like, your options for switching tables are rather limited. After playing here one night I can't see why anyone would play here without a bonus of sorts.

And I say all this after having a huge winning night which ended up $130 or something absurd. Imagine how much I'd hate it if I'd lost!

I think the newest plan for me is to finish the PSO bonus and move on, leaving the UB bonus for a few rainy weekends. I should finish this in a day or two. PSO is the best thing to happen to my bankroll since PokerTracker....which I could've gotten free from PSO!!

Bankroll at $740.

Poker Update

2006-01-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

So I've finally run my online bankroll up to enough so that I can start bonus whoring again. This time I'm using PokerSourceOnline.com as my affiliate for most of the bonuses. They are great to use because not only do you get a bonus from them for signing up at a new site, but you also can still get a deposit bonus from the site as well!

So right now I decided to try out UltimateBet since they are running satellites for Aruba right now and I have a wild pipe-dream of getting lucky in one and winning a sweet trip. So I deposited through PSO and now I have $700 in bonuses to earn, $200 from PSO and $500 from UB. So it looks like I'll be doing most of my online play there for the next month or two.

Of course, my first impression of the site is good since the deck ran me over (flopped quads twice) for the little bit I played, but I also like that I can earn the bonus $1 at a time. I don't have to wait until I've cleared all the hands to get the whole thing (like for Party).

If you're looking to start playing at new sites, I'd recommend PSO for you as well. It's hard to turn down free money. If you do sign up because of this, use my referral code - "CanIRebuy" - when you do so that we can be best friends. Thanks.

UPDATE:

Ok, so I feel dirty from all this shilling, but before I go shower I just wanted to share this deal with you as well. If any of you are skeptical about starting a poker account with real money, or hesitant to link your checking account to it...dad, I'm looking in your direction....check this out.

If you go to instantbankroll.com you can start a real money poker account for free and THEY'LL GIVE YOU $75 TO PLAY WITH FOR FREE!!! There is simply no catch. You open an account using them as your affiliate and they give you $75 to play with...THEN once you've played 500 raked hands they'll give you ANOTHER $25 FREE and allow you to cash out. You can't cash out until you hit 500 raked hands, that's the only requirement!

When you download Party (through the instantbankroll.com link), and register for a real money account they'll ask you for a bonus code. Enter in the code "INSTANT" so that you get credited your FREE $75.

This is a great way to start an online bankroll without having to deposit money or risk anything of your own. Go to the site and check it out. I wish I'd known about this when I first started playing.

(ahem, and also, remember to use "CanIRebuy" as your referrer - thanks)

Ugh, I feel sick from selling out.

*****
Oh, and my cold is much better, thanks for asking mom.

Coincidence?

2006-01-23T19:56:00.000-05:00

So Amy made us dinner for the first time Friday night and we both got sick....coincidence?

I might be better off sticking to Taco Bell and Wendy's.

TGIF!

2006-01-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

So I two-tabled for a few hours last night and put in over 900 hands. It appears that my insane heater is over as I finally booked a losing night, down $50 when I finally gave up.

Bankroll at $540ish.

Anyone else excited about the weekend?? Got any fun plans? I can't wait.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!

King of the Quicky

2006-01-19T09:16:00.000-05:00

I only played poker last night for an hour and a half before I went out but I won $73...and that was after being rivered in a $42 pot. So it was a good night.

Although not as good as the dream I had about winning a MTT and taking home $245,000.

Bankroll up to $593 and I'm still running hot.

*****

Sorta as a follow up to some of my previous posts regarding my uncle, here's an email that my aunt sent out to her supporters:

"We are planning to fly home Friday evening! We are excited to have completed all treatments and for [Uncle] to have recovered enough to head back to Michigan. Of course he is still struggling with some side effects, but the doctors feel that he will be ready to travel and recover at home by Friday. He is having some more tests today and some physical therapy, but as long as everything checks out as OK we will be home for the rest of the recovery. So keep us in your positive thoughts and prayers and we will continue on our journey at home!"

So that's a relief and just plain awesome and other words that are synonyms for good.

Talk about a Bad Beat!

2006-01-18T11:22:00.000-05:00

So I passed up playing live poker with the really-bad-pot-smoker-guys last night in order to hang out over at the girlfriend's place and play online. This seemed especially reasonable as she'd expressed interest in starting up her own account and playing micro-stakes, once I taught her a winning strategy. Hurray for cool chicks!

But....

HER INTERNET WOULDN'T WORK!!

Ack!

So instead we watched "Friends" re-runs and played trivial pursuit. Which was what getting her internet to work felt like. A trivial pursuit. get it?

(cue crickets chirping)

*****
Follow up to yesterday's post:

I asked what were three reasons that AQo was better than ATo. This was taken from a point I had just read on page 49 of HPFAP, and it made a significant impression on me.

The three reasons that they give are:

1. Better kicker: Obvious, but not a very huge difference. There are only 2 hands (AQ and AJ) that AT is behind that AQ isn't.

2. The non-Ace makes higher pair more often when it pairs: If you pair your kicker, it's a much stronger hand if you make TPTK than MPTK. This makes pots easier to play since you'll know where you stand more often...and that'll be in front.

3. When the non-Ace makes top pair, less threat to overcards: With AQ and a Q on the board, the only scare card is a K. With AT, a K, Q or J all make a higher pair possibility.

For me, the first reason is usually the only one that I'm conscious of while I'm making a decision to play Ax (x being any card). And since it's not usually a large difference I can talk myself into playing worse and worse kickers if my opponents are correspondingly bad. (i.e. I'd play AQ here, so why not AJ...and these players are worse than me so I can play AT and just outplay them after the flop....and if I'd play AT, then A9s can't be any worse...etc and before I know it I'm raising A7s UTG in a tight/aggressive game.)

But it's the combined factors of all these reasons that make playing a slightly worse kicker a slippery slope. A small difference might be made up for in post flop play, but it's a lot harder to make up for a small difference^3.

Hello

2006-01-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

So I still suck at MTT's.

Poker Pop Quiz: Name three reasons why AQo is better than ATo.

Fascinating and Enthralling recount of my weekend....OH YEAH!

2006-01-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

So time with my dad was great this weekend. What?? You wanna know what we did in great detail? Ok, thanks for asking!

After picking me up from work on friday at 3:30 we drove to Bethesda to see my uncle who was in the hospital trying to recover from severe side effects of cancer treatment. It was pretty unreal seeing him with tubes going in everywhere and hands bound to the gurney to prevent him from ripping them out. He was sedated with meds but still had moments of consciousness where he would see us and jerk suddenly up in bed in recognition, pull against his restraints, and then pass out again flat on his back. It was incredibly overwhelming to see someone you love in such a helpless and uncontrolled state despite being told exactly what to expect. I don't know that I'll ever be able to erase that picture from my mind. I think it was probably a good idea that my aunt discouraged her kids from going to see their dad like that. I couldn't imagine....

But anyway, we took my aunts (the wife and her sister who was visiting and helping out) out to dinner. It was my aunt's first time out of the hospital in 13 days. Which explains why she got drunk on half a glass of wine. That was pretty funny. Especially the part when she drunk dialed my mom. My mom is the resident drunk-dial-receiver....she gets them a lot. It's uncanny.

After dropping them off back at the hospital, my dad, Amy and I went to a pool bar and played cards, pool and drank. Good times. Except I lost in pool to my dad. I blame Amy - she was rooting for him. Jerk.

After that we got home and watched my bro win a SnG on Party. My dad thought that was the coolest. Silly old people being shocked by technology.

Saturday we spent on the couch. I was teaching my dad how to play poker (my bro and I bought him Theory of Poker for Christmas) and showing him pokertracker and talking him through my decision making process on hands and whatnot. I'm trying to prep him for our next trip to Vegas baby, Vegas. As always happens when you're pretending to act like an authority, I ended up losing money.

Then we watched the Skins lose (and despite having posted that I thought they were going to lose, I was still rooting for them. Oddly enough, those things are mutually exclusive.) which means my teams were 0/1.

Then I watched the Pats lose (0/2) while my dad took the aunts out for dinner and shopping (sucker!!). Afterwards, I was supposed to go to a friends bday party but decided that I'd rather hang out and spend quality with my dad while he was here...meaning I wanted to play poker.

(shh....dont tell Amy!)

So I stayed in on a saturday night and played poker. I am the definition of loser. But at least I had a huge winning night and finally felt ok about trying to teach my dad to play since I obviously am now the best player in the history of the universe (bankroll at $550). So that was a good night.

Sunday, we woke up early and headed to the hospital to pick up my aunt to drive her to the airport and stopped in to see how my uncle was doing. We went to his room in the ICU but it was empty...?!?! We tracked a nurse down and she told us that he had been moved to another section - out of the ICU. HURRAY!!

(On saturday, the doctors decided that his mental capacity had returned enough to normal that they took him off sedation, which meant that they could remove the breathing tubes, catheter, and other various, scary things. He was doing so much better - his vitals were improving and the other things they were monitoring were getting better also!)

So sunday, when we tracked him down, he was sitting up in bed talking to us about football and basketball of course! He even got up and walked to the bathroom - after being strapped to his bed for 8 days straight! It was so great to see him in such an improved state. It's looking like he's going to recover from the treatment just fine given time. Now we need the treatment to work! GO AWAY CANCER!!

The rest of the day was just icing on the cake after that. Amy, dad and I went to church and then out to lunch where we watched the Colts lose (I was torn who to root for in this game...so either 0/3 or 1/3 depending on my mood). Then I said goodbye to my dad, who had to drive to Detroit sunday night, and watched the Bears lose (0/4 or 1/4). Good grief.

Then Amy and I capped off the night by meeting some friends back at the pool hall where I totally dominated the games and destroyed them in a devastating and embarrassing fashion since I am the man and I rule at all things competitive.

Or I lost every game we played....depends on who you ask.

*****

So I don't know of anyone who would be interested in any of this besides my mom and sister so if your last name isn't Addington, and you made it this far, the answer is no.

You can't have the last 4 minutes of your life back. Thanks for reading though.

Hit em up style

2006-01-13T09:37:00.000-05:00

My dad is coming to visit for the weekend.

My new apartment as of Feb 11th will be 1500 Massachusetts Ave.

You can see the White House from it.

Why won't the Bush twins return my calls?

My bankroll is now at $373.

Running really really hot is sweet.

The cold streak is going to really really suck.

Let's be honest, the Redskins are going to lose.

How can any team be allowed to be called "The Redskins"?

Is that more or less offensive than having a team called "The Bullets" in one of the highest crime areas of the country?

There should be a Lacrosse team named "Stupid Whitemen - without us you would've starved. Take your smallpox and genocide elsewhere."

How would you fit all that on the back of a jersey?

Meet my harem, er, friends:

******
EDIT: Did someone say something about spikes?

Maybe there's just an abnormal amount of atmospheric static electricity in New Jersey. Who knew?

Follow up to the last post...

2006-01-12T14:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm bored at work and decided to run some pot odd numbers to try to better define the problem.

Let's assume that on the turn I am for sure behind. Also, lets assume that my 4 out cards (Jh, Js, Ts, Tc) are worth 3.75 outs on the odd chance they give someone else a better hand (JJ, KJ, KT or whatever).

So 3.75/46, or 11.25 to 1, pot odds are needed to continue. My immediate pot odds are 7.4 to 1.

IF, and this is a HUUUUGE if, Matalbo58 and Pinacol call (instead of reraise) then I'd be getting 9.4 to 1.

And also, IF you can include the implied odds of check-raising the river (meaning that if we miss then we fold and lose no more bets, but if we hit then we can check-raise all the players for one more bet) which would net us 3 more bets we'd be getting odds of about 12.4 to 1. But again this is a huge if.

Also, I suppose that there might've been a small chance that our hand is still best at this point. You never know with some of these players what they're going nuts with and I can see how one or maybe two could have flush draws with a pair, AJ, AK pair and OESD, etc. And obviously, the greater chance our hand has of being best, the lesser pot odds are required. I just have no idea how to calculate this...probably using an equity program like pokerstove against ranges of hands. I'm not going to do this now.

So, like most things in poker, it's hard to say that one way is much better, as you can make arguments for both. However, after looking at it I think that continuing on is -EV as too many things have to happen exactly right for us to make profit here. Without precise reads, this is too risky.

Results??

I folded on the turn, the other two called.

The river brought a non-Q diamond.

It went bet, call, call and all three split the side pot with a Q in hand.

like_a_gnat won the main pot with a fl00sh.

Well that seemed to work...

2006-01-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

Some good news as my aunt sent out an email today saying that my uncle had taken a turn for the better....hurray!

And now to completely change the topic to something much lighter - poker!

I made a killing last night in the 2 hours that I played. Something silly like 19BB/100 for 425 hands. Or to put it in normal person terms: I played for 2 hours and made $83.

(It's a common superstition that you shouldn't write about hot streaks in your blog because the poker gods punish your insolence by following it with huge losing streaks. Whether it's true or not, all this shows is that I'm clearly an idiot.)

But I came across this hand that left me unsure as to what to do so I thought I would post it up until I was stumped and hopefully get some debate going (among my 2 or 3 poker playing readership) as to the best line.

This was at $0.5/1 limit on party and these were the donkest of donks I'd ever played with, however I had no specific reads on any of them except that I was shocked time and again at what they were showing down.

Comments on all streets appreciated.

***** Hand History for Game 3350964169 *****
$0.50/$1 Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, January 11, 00:04:44 EDT 2006
Table Table 81349 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: luivans ( $35.03 )
Seat 10: CanIRebuy ( $44.75 )
Seat 8: Amestab ( $22 )
Seat 5: like_a_gnat ( $1.75 )
Seat 9: stormbuster1 ( $23.50 )
Seat 1: astree ( $30 )
Seat 4: captdans ( $18.50 )
Seat 7: Pinacol ( $19.75 )
Seat 3: Matalbo58 ( $35.50 )
Seat 2: greenpep ( $38 )

stormbuster1 posts small blind [$0.25].
CanIRebuy posts big blind [$0.50].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to CanIRebuy [ Jc Th ]
astree folds.
greenpep folds.
Matalbo58 calls [$0.50].
captdans calls [$0.50].
like_a_gnat calls [$0.50].
luivans folds.
Pinacol calls [$0.50].
Amestab calls [$0.50].
stormbuster1 folds.
CanIRebuy checks.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, Td, Jd ] (6 SB)
CanIRebuy bets [$0.50].
Matalbo58 calls [$0.50].
captdans calls [$0.50].
like_a_gnat raises [$1].
Pinacol raises [$1.50].
Amestab calls [$1.50].
CanIRebuy calls [$1].
Matalbo58 calls [$1].
captdans folds.
like_a_gnat is all-In [$0.25]

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ] (10.75 BB)
CanIRebuy checks.
Matalbo58 bets [$1].
Pinacol calls [$1].
Amestab raises [$2].
CanIRebuy ????

What do I title this one?

2006-01-10T12:42:00.000-05:00

Well in an attempt to update more frequently I'm kinda making myself write something ....despite not really having any fun stories to tell. But maybe this will force me to start thinking of them.

What was the saying about not putting the cart before the horse?

So here's the deal - I really have only one thing on my mind right now so it makes sense to write about that. It's just kinda serious and I like to be fun and upbeat here, so I kinda hesitate. But since this is just for my friends and family, I think it's ok.

My uncle was diagnosed a while ago with metastatic melanoma. Normal melanoma isn't really a huge deal, but this is a whole different beast. The tumors were spread throughout his body and there is no traditional way to cure him. Traditional meaning any typical cancer treatment i.e. chemo, radiation, etc like you would for, say, testicular cancer in early stages. Basically my uncle was told he only had months to live, barring a miracle. That was the doctor's best guess.

Its been about a year and a half I think since it was first found. In that time, my uncle tried all sorts of non-traditional medicine - like going to "herbal healers" and trying specific diets and massages and whatnot. He's had surgeries to remove large tumors that were impeding upon his organs making it hard to breathe, etc. He's also had more traditional care including pills for pain and who knows what else. There have been times when his outlook looked promising and other times when it was uncertain he'd see next week. Through it all he's been upbeat, encouraged and strong. Most of the time you wouldn't even know anything was wrong.

Things started looking up when he was accepted into an experimental treatment at the National Institute of Health, right here in Bethesda, MD (He, like 90+% of my family, lives in Grand Rapids). This was exciting because at NIH they were doing things that couldn't be done anywhere else in the world!! It's a very beautiful facility where amazing things are possible. We counted him very lucky to get accepted.

The treatment plan is pretty amazing to me. It called for an initial surgery where the surgeons removed most of his tumors. From the tumors, the doctors extracted autologous lymphocytes (autologous means that his body created them naturally, lymphocytes are cancer fighting cells) that were in the tumors. Apparently, your body creates a cell that is capable of killing the cancer cells but it can't produce enough of them to overtake the massively reproducing cancer. The doctors then harvest and multiply these lymphocytes in the lab much much faster than your body is capable of producing them. Then they are reintroduced into your body where the larger number is now effective against the cancer.

From what I've read and heard this is the main idea of what my uncle has undergone in the last week. Of course, in reality it is a lot more involved. In order to lessen the load on the lymphocytes, he received 4 or 5 days of chemotherapy. And after the lymphocytes were reintroduced, he was given treatments of IL-2, which is an immune system booster.

The only problem with IL-2 is that it has some pretty drastic side effects. I've seen quotes that high dosage IL-2 has a 4% mortality rate. This likely is a result of the most severe side effects which include heart failure, fluid in lungs and respiratory distress (info taken from bottom of this page). Obviously, all of these things are rare and the benefits of the treatment certainly outweigh the risk....or at least my uncle thinks so, I suppose there is room for argument there.

(btw, I'm sorry this became so long and drawnout...I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started typing. You can blame my boss for not dropping in unexpectedly yet today.)

So my uncle started the last phase of his treatment, these IL-2 injections, a few days ago. For a while things were going fine.

As of right now, he's in the ICU hooked up to a respirator suffering from low blood pressure, fluid in his lungs, kidney failure and a feeding tube. In his brief moments of consciousness he is confused and doesn't know where he is.

In other words, things could be better.

I think the last I heard he was stable and the doctors felt positive about things, but he's by no means in the clear and there is a lot of uncertainty. But that's at least a little encouraging.

So I guess that's the backstory to what's really been on my mind. Which is...

What can I do?

How can I help?

My Aunt is here with her husband who is semi-delusional and terribly sick. Every one of her family members is at least 600 miles away. Her kids. Her parents. Her brother and sisters.

Except me.

I'm 20 miles away.

and I'm paralyzed by an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and helplessness.

*****
Update!

Ok, so in a "Chris-stop-your-whining" twist, my OTHER aunt is flying in tonight to stay for the week at the family lodge with my aunt. So I get to play chauffer and grocery-getter. Which is good and makes me happy.

But keep praying for my uncle and his doctors.

Quick! Before my boss sees me...

2006-01-09T11:14:00.000-05:00

So this weekend was great - football, partying and poker.

Skins and Pats won.

Eli lost.

I've been looking for apartments since I have to be out of my place by Feb. 19th. I've got some good leads. It looks like I'll be paying $1100/month. It sickens me that that sounds like a bargain. /shudder

Btw, how would you rewrite that sentence to avoid having the same word twice in a row (that that), yet without being overly wordy or repetitive?

It sickens me that $1100 sounds like a bargain?

That which sickens me is $1100 sounding bargainful?

The bargain with which I am becoming accustomed to, is an amount approximately equal to $1100/mo, or thereabouts?

Did I mentioned that I played poker? I like it a lot.

I've been running hot at .5/1 - winning at a rate of almost 7.5BB/100. Bankroll's up to $200. The move to 1/2 is planned for $250. And then 2/4 at $500.

And yes, I know this is considered being "under bankrolled" for all those 150BB sticklers out there.

It's my money and I can tempt poker-fate as I please.

New Year?

2006-01-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

So I'm playing poker again and I'm enjoying it. Who knew?

When I withdrew my bankroll a few months ago I left something like $42. Let's see how far this takes me, shall we? (Up to $120 after tonight)

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T20:22:00.000-05:00

Here's to a happy and fun 2006. I hope it's great for everyone!!

Now let's drink!

Not bad for my first time...

2005-12-28T11:59:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

2005-12-22T12:52:00.000-05:00

My boss wore a "members only" jacket out to lunch today.

I find that hysterical.

Christmas break?

2005-12-17T19:53:00.000-05:00

I'll be home the 22nd to the 27th. Bring it suckas!

How to save money this Christmas...

2005-12-13T14:56:00.000-05:00

Seasonal Humor

2005-12-08T10:48:00.000-05:00

There's still time to join the bandwagon!

2005-12-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

From Peter King's article on SI.com:

"Upset of the year. Of the Millennium. I guess I'm a sucker for Brett Favre at Soldier Field. He hasn't lost there since Red Grange played at Wrigley.

Green Bay 24, Chicago 10"

I warned David about this earlier this week....an upset is on the way!

Phew, Glad we got THAT settled....

2005-11-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

HURRAY! (and thanks to those of you who offered opinions...or quoted sources ;-)

What's that?? You want to know how my fantasy football team is doing? Well frankly, i kinda find it boring but since you insist....

Although I suffered a rather large, but not all-together unexpected, defeat at the hands of "Brege's Army" last weekend, my team, "Jeanie is HOT" is now guaranteed a playoff spot thanks to the unlikely upset of "Call Me Big Pappa" by the previously un-undefeated "No Talent @$$ Clowns". That's right, Ben's first victory of the season came against the league's highest scoring team and secured me a playoff spot. That's worth a boo ya.

Boo ya.

Thanks Ben.

So this week, in order to maintain my season-long momentum streak, I need a big showing against the "Daverinos". This is the same team against which I broke out my Super-Advanced Fantasy Football Tactics (Not For Use By Children Under 12), otherwise known as "SADFFT(NFUBCU12)". Well I've slightly modified it and renamed it "Double-Advanced Variable Ideal Design - Since Ultimately Chris Kicks Serious ASS" which, coincidently, is abbreviated to "DAVID-SUCKS-ASS".

So here's the basic idea behind the "DAVID-SUCKS-ASS". As I'm sure you all remember, his two QB's and my top 2 WR's are on the same teams. So originally I planned on playing whoever played for the QB that he benched. But the brilliance behind the "DAVID-SUCKS-ASS" is that I'm betting that Dave benches Favre and plays Eli this week. This would allow me to play Driver, and not Burress...which is what I'd prefer to do AND have a chance at making up points on Dave. BRILLIANT!

I'll take Favre in a November game outdoors against a division rival over an unproven second-year player going up against a Bill Parcells defense anyday. You just know that Favre is going to pull off one of those 4 TD, crazy accurate games that make him think he can still play for 3 more years. And I'm going to be on the receiving end of it...er, well, Driver will be.

"DAVID-SUCKS-ASS" FTW!! ;-)

Please help me out.

2005-11-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

Without consulting any third party sources, which one is more correct:

(A) hooray

or

(B) hurray

As in: We won the game - hooray/hurray!

You can even vote anonymously if you choose, but let me know, this is really bothering me.

kthnxbye.

Thanksgiving

2005-11-22T08:53:00.000-05:00

In 12 hours from now I'll be home in Michigan ready to start the Thanksgiving festivities. Hurray! I can't wait.

It's also supposed to snow a lot and we're driving a few hours to our cousins in Indiana....last year we drove during a snow storm and about every third car ended up in the ditch. We were lucky to make it. Of course, that was also the drive which we stopped for fast food and all of us ended up with food poisoning the next day. So ya win some, you lose some. Unless you're my mom...she didn't get sick at all.

Course she does have to put up with me as a child. Talk about your ultimate sacrifice.

Boo ya.

Oh and I bought TIVO yesterday for $35. Discounts, coupons, and rebates FTW!

Oh, and Sarah and I also pulled another come from behind win in fantasy football. Down 28 pts with only Driver and Moore to play...they decided to put up 32 or something nuts like that. And I'd given up all hope....I wasn't even going to watch the game. Sarah thinks that it's becuase she's started taking more interest in the team again that we pulled it off. Personally, I think that it's cause I'm just really good. To each his own I 'spose.

But it's a good thing that my spot in the playoffs is secured because my last three games are against the top 3 scorers in the league. That can't be good.

Seriously?

2005-11-17T09:45:00.000-05:00

Who knew that parking tickets were so expensive? At least I beat the tow trunk there...THAT would've been expensive.

Stupid big city crazy street parking rules.

Is it thanksgiving yet?

I know she was a sorority girl...

2005-11-14T16:06:00.000-05:00

but seriously, even facebook is laughing at me. So sad....

Representin' tha A2!

2005-11-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

I'm in Ann Arbor tonight till monday morning. Good times will be had.

And contrary to popular opinion, Ann Arbor is not a whore.

It's much more PC to say "woman of loose moral values". Yeah, and midgets are "vertically challenged".

or are you ok with "midget" Mike?

That's It, I'm Pulling Out.

2005-11-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

Due to my complete lack of interest in poker currently, I'm thinking of withdrawing my bankroll, putting most of it in a Roth IRA and using the rest to buy a video camera ;)

Yay or Nay?

Buzzy is HOW OLD?!?!

2005-11-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

So I'm pretty sure that this is the weekend that I'll be back in Ann Arbor. I better make sure that I have plane tickets...and that the airline hasn't gone under. I just read that Independence Air filed for chapter 11. So now you can't claim to never garner useful information from this.

It's David's 21st birthday wednesday, meaning that thursday night out most of my friends have (and probably you all are the only ones who read this) will be extra special...so special that I'll be there! I can't miss my old roomies 21st birthday! Someone needs to be responsible and tell him when he's had enough to drink.

And then when that person's not looking, I"ll keep feeding him more shots. Should be fun.

Of course, the real fun should be Friday night.

And then the football game saturday.

And then Idle Hour Home Game.

And then Thanksgiving dinner - my sister may come!!

That'd be sweet. K, I need to cheer on the Patriots. That was a really wierd play.

Poker Recapitulation

2005-11-04T13:06:00.000-05:00

So the really-bad-pot-smoker-guys are still really bad. There were some new guys who I hadn't met before so I had hopes of there being a semi-decent game taking place but no, they fit right in with the rest. I've decided that unless the stakes are raised I'm not going to bother with going to these anymore. You'd think that playing really bad players would be the ideal situation but not when they don't know the rules and one hand takes 5 minutes to play. My time's not all that precious, but my sanity is...

Some sanity testing moments:

- The game was supposed to start around 8:30 so I arrived fashionably late at 8:55. From the time I got there, it took 20 minutes to figure out blind sizes and chip denominations. Seriously, 45 minutes is about 40 minutes too long for this. Especially for guys that play every week. How hard is it to remember what worked last week? The chips they use even have denominations marked on them. Wouldn't it be less confusing to use them as marked? "The ones that say 10 count as quarters. The ones that are 100 are dollars except for the red 100's, those are 5 dollars."

Can I get a Cliff's Notes for this please?

- After the third time someone won with a flush, the guy sitting next to me kinda whispered "How did he win?"When I explained what a flush was, and where it ranked, he said "You mean I need to pay attention to the suits too? I've only been looking at the number!"

And yes, this is the guy I inevitably lost all my money too. Who didn't see this coming? Don't everyone speak up at once please.

- Early on it became apparent that the apartment above us was inbibing in some, shall we say, illegal substances. This particular crowd is rather fond of this substance and so the game was halted for 15 while they tracked down exactly who and what was taking place. They never did track down exactly who, but it wasn't for lack of effort.

I watched the Piston's win.

- After the same guy folded in the unraised BB for the third time. And having the "option" explained to him, he replied with a string of expletives unsuitable for my PG-13 audience. Yep, my kind of people.

Man, I miss Idle Hour! See ya'll in a week!

Quickie

2005-11-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

So I'm playing poker tonight with the really-bad-pot-smoker-guys I've played with in the past. They got that name cause they play poker really poorly and also smoke pot. Although I suppose it'd still be appropo if they didn't play poker at all and just smoked really bad pot...like the cheap stuff you get from your trailer trash cousin or something. So perhaps I need to work on my naming convention so as to avoid ambiguity. Although the duality kinda tickles my funny bone.

Kinda like how I've lived with NewGuy for 6 months, so he's not really new.

Or how Hot New Southern Accent Girl doesn't have an accent.

Or how McDud isn't a McD...well, that ones accurate.

*****
btw, sorry i don't post much anymore - blame the fact that I now have responsibility at work. Although as I type this I'm struck by the urge to launch into a million and one different stories....perhaps once this ship stop sinking.

btw, the ship that I am referring to is literally a ship design that I'm working on which keeps sinking when 2 compartment damage is applied to it. It's not at all a metaphor for my pathetic life being tossed about by waves of unfullfilled expectations in a turbulent sea of hopelessness and despair.

Cause I could see how it could be mis-interpretted.

Best Halloween Costume Ever!

2005-10-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

No, it's not mine - i'm not creative enough.

My friend Mike is though....

Posted for posterity...

2005-10-25T13:10:00.000-05:00

I need to brag while I still can....

Despite making a total rookie move and not starting 2 of my best players, I still managed to win this week and take sole possession of first place. Where was my GM to help me out and fix the errors of my way?? Good question...What do I pay her for anyway??

And yes, I realize that I'm probably the only one in my league to actually take this seriously. But I simply don't do things half-assed...unless it's hard or I'm not good at it. Then I take a nap instead.

Hey

2005-10-24T18:20:00.000-05:00

sup.