One Slanted View of Life

4th of July

2011-07-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our cup is half full of 2011 goodness!

Don't forget to fill the rest of the cup with the frothy sweet nectar that is the head of all things excellent. As we get into the grind of the summer time laziness, be sure to support your favorite baseball team... only 983.5 more games to go this year!!

On that note, MLB should be split into two seasons. Outdoor League and Indoor League. Summer and Fall, you play outdoor... play about 2/5 of the normal amount of games you play in a season, and have one less round of playoff ball for the Summer Series. Repeat the process for Winter and Spring for the indoor league.
Games are worth more value, so players try harder. Players can play for a team during Outdoor league, and a different team for Indoor... so super stars get to travel more across the country to play. Games don't have to be 7 games in 7 days either... come on... we know it's not stressful but too much of a good thing = bad thing?

Chew on that while I roll my hot dogs on the grill. Brown them. Not blacken.

Whatever you do....

2010-05-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

...don't play in the BBT5 (see link on the right). The buy-ins are cheap, the prizes are great, and the upcoming TOC is giving away over $50,000 in prizes, including three WSOP Main-event buy-ins with hotel included.

I can't stress enough how much you should not play in any of the qualifying events... The Mookie on Wednesdays... The Poker from the Rail on Mondays... even though most of the players have donkey names, they actually know a little something about the game.

Again, whatever you do... don't play in the BBT5.

p.s. This is a self-serving post in order to limit the amount of players in these events so I actually have a chance to win. I mean... one win for a $11 buy-in and you could win a $12,000 package. Going once... going twice... sold!

-beepbeep

"Do you know what fore-play is?" 'No." "Good, neither does El Guapo."

2009-12-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas season comes upon us and it finally feels like it's here. I guess the 18 inches of snow really changed my mood. Friday, just one week before X-mas, I still didn't have the mood in me even after buying the tree and getting it ready for decorating. Only now, Monday, 3 days before xmas eve, do I actually feel like it's Christmas.

Ski Patrol starts for me tonight, which means I get to ski on my unwaxed, unsharpened skis because I was procrastinating once again and didn't get them tuned up. I did try though, and when I walked in and told them I needed them within the week, they just laughed at me. Luckily it's only a 3-hour shift tonight, but I still won't be able to get them done before my first weekend shift next Saturday because the shop will be closed on X-mas.

Now, I am re-hanging the banister Christmas lights because my first quick attempt was to simply twist them around the railing... but that didn't work out so well because the aren't just one string of lights, they are connected on both ends to actually create a loop... it's like two strings of lights tied together at the ends. It really limits my options.

Time for some lunch. And with that, comes the conclusion to "The Three Amigos." I enjoy my afternoon movies and my internet updates on Mondays. Today is like my Saturday.

Happy Holidays to all, except to those I don't like... but they don't read this anyway.

"I swear officer, it wasn't me in her bushes!"

2009-09-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Says the reformed binocular stalker of Blue Bell....

Would the statement read any different if it said "the bushes."

I'm thinking that the majority of us don't say enough things that could be taken the wrong way. Sure there's some backpedaling so you can explain yourself.. but isn't that worth the discomfort of your listeners? I say so.

So I got these knew contacts today. The doc was great... walked in, he blew air in my eye, made me read letters on a wall that I couldn't read... it was super. Then he says, "your eyes moved a quarter of a point, not bad for your first prescription change."

So I have them in today... and I can't see shit. hey guess what doc? My eyes didn't move a quarter of a point. Luckily I didn't blindly order the new prescription or that would have been 6 months of turn-missing and curb-hopping that my new LuckTruck tires don't deserve. So now I have to go back and see if he'll write me the right rx so I can actually see again. Guess that'll teach me to go to Walmart for a Drs appointment.

(no, i really didn't go to walmart)

borgata blogging...

2009-06-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

follow along on borgatapoker.blogspot.com

it's a truckload of fun down here... you should all be here with me.

It's almost been a month...

2009-05-25T11:07:00.001-07:00

I guess I should post again.

Holidays come, holidays go. It seems that all I do is plan my work schedule around holidays, without actually taking time to DO something on the holidays. I end up working the holidays anyway as most of the customers have the time to sit around and send their emails to our customer service section during their holiday breaks. Which means those emails need to be answered asap considering the events they need info on is only 6 days away. I consider it to be like retail. When everyone else is relaxing, I'm working.

Birthday weekend is coming up. Another backyard BBQ (scheduled around work, lol) for 40 of my closest. Good grillin', good drinkin', good friends. Hopefully we can get the slip and slide set up again and the weather holds up for us. Nothing like drunk 30 something's diving down a slip and slide at 2am.

Borgata Poker Open coming soon. We have a bunch of RPT'ers playing again. Probably the most we've ever had. I'll be down there on some Mon's and Fri's doing some work, so I'll be posting some updates on our players in the RPT Forum. We also have a player heading out to Vegas for the $2500 buy in event in 2 weeks at the WSOP. Best of luck Shawn, we'll be rooting you on from 2500 miles away.

Everyone enjoy yourselves and be safe over the holiday weekends. Don't hurt yourselves.

Boy oh boy... and girl...

2009-04-27T07:14:00.001-07:00

Just passing along the best wishes to all my friends from years gone by (and by that I mean the fantastic days of high school that no one wanted to be in and everyone wishes they could all go back).

My friends Tom and Erin just had their first baby this past week, a girl named Lillian Elizabeth,
Jason and Jenn had their little boy the prior week, Bennett Alexander (his initials are B.A.R... superb!),
Kerrie and Stephen had their second child the prior week as well (I feel bar because I forgot his name... I was at a beer festival when I heard the news... don't hate),
and Jon and Michelle had their first boy back on Nov 4th... William Paul.

Congrats to all of my friends with new additions and best of luck to all those with expecting additions.

Bar hopping has now been replaced with season passes to Sesame Place. shrug.

The day at the B

2009-03-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Spent the early afternoon to early evening down at The Borgata's 500K deepstack. Helped blog a little, chip counting, hand histories, shoulder to cry on... you know.. the norm at any big tourney.

I shared the table with Gorilla (Jeff Shurilla) who will be down there for the whole tourney. Fortunately for him I came bearing gifts... bagels, doughnuts, apples n oranges... all the necessities of sitting on your ass all day and typing up posts.

It was a lot of fun, and in the short time I was there I got to speak to some interesting players. Some were from Greece, Florida, and one poker pro from AC (Chris Reslock, a WSOP bracelet winner). All had interesting stories and some of them have already cashed and might be on their way to the final few tables of the event as we speak. They have to play until midnight tonite, regardless of how many players are left.

Have fun Gorilla.

BeepBeep.

Borgata $500k Guarantee

2009-03-20T09:01:00.001-07:00

The time is upon us. Saturday, March 21st begins the Half-a-mil Guarantee at The Borgata in Atlantic City. I'll be helping out with some chip counts and some personal stories if I can grab anyone interesting during the break. I'll try and find a local player and a distant player and compare some stories.

We have an RPT Super Satellite winner participating in the event as well, Chris Bye from Newtown, PA. We'll be keeping an eye on him throughout the tourney and posting some updates to the forums on Riverchasers.com as well. He'll be sitting down on Sunday's Day 1B. Best of luck Chris.

If anyone hasn't heard, the BBT4 is in full swing on FullTiltPoker. Get your online check-raise ready and come sit with us. Qualify for 2009 WSOP seats with wins or points. The private tourneys have a good group of guys... once you get to know 'em.

BeepBeep.

It's like prison rape today.... get it in behind and come out on top!

2008-12-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

Man was this a tough day to watch poker. I only played 2 tourneys but by god I can't tell you how many times AQ lost to Q9, or AJ losing to KJ.

This was the best .... AJ vs 1010 vs J10 all in preflop. no suited cards. My man flops the wheels off a cadillac, KQ9.

Later in the tourney the J10 guy calls a fella lucky after winning AQ vs 77... HAHAHAH.

This was the last hand I saw before I closed this window... 19 players left from a 320 player tourney - A5 minraises UTG to 2400, folds all around to the BB who insta shoves all in 9k on top and the A5 snap calls off 1/3 of his stack. Air on the board until the river 5 makes him a genius.

Oh boy i can't wait to be 3 outted to go bust!

beepbeep.

Cruelty To Old Men Everywhere....

2008-11-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

Drummer Hero?

2008-10-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

The new Guitar Hero World Tour came out. They re-stole their idea back and added a drum set and microphone. The microphone is allbut useless to me and my friends (although the 5 year old loves to scream "Beat It" from MJ). The only reason I got GH instead of RockBand2, is because they added the drums to GH. After reading lots of previews (especially the youtube link below), I made the pre-order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGL0BHUlPfE

This is the first Guitar Hero or RockBand game that I own, and until Metallica comes out in 09, it'll probably be the last one I pay for. Not because it sucks, but because there are already 4 other games out there that have hundreds of songs on them, and all I have to do is borrow them from friends.

The drum set is tough to catch on to. First of all, because I can carry a beat in the car dashboard, but not on a drum set. Add in the footpedal and my arms are like 2 fighting octopi.

I'll put an average of an hour a day on the game to clear my mind of daily stress. The rules are up though, no playing it while I can be spending time with the woman. (Except for the first night, of course, but that's a given... if it wasn't... someone text her and apologize for the male of the species)

Speaking of... she's asleep. I should be playing.

beepbeep.

Why I love HockeyTowns...

2008-10-22T19:58:00.001-07:00

Only if I had the originality, or the balls... I'd do this at a Phantoms Game.

running Lava

2008-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

"When you run fucking lava, how do you keep your cool?"

Running hot is the greatest feeling... you can do no wrong. Suited connectors flop nut straights, position playing ATC and flopping trips, and simply, having KK hold up against ... hell... anything.

But when you run fucking lava, you are running so hot it burns. AA cracked 3 times by pp's when the money is in PostFlop. 3 outted by hands that should normally triple you up. You, and your opponent have no choice... the money is going in, you are ahead.. DOMINATING... and you can't win to save your life. I'm not talking about losing races, or every now and then you get plucked by a thin draw... but over and over and over and over 90/10 or better, and you can't hold up.

When you run lava... how do you stay cool? There's only so many times I can chalk it up to variance, unluck, or "that's poker".

beepbeep

Deposit Bitches

2008-08-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with gender. I love the children that play online poker and B I T C H about losing a hand. I'm sure this has been covered thousands of times from others. I don't mind using aggressive tactics to tilt a player in a ring table, that's part of the game. If you are in a tournament, that's a different story. If you lose a hand.. GROW THE FUCK UP. Don't sit there and berate a player for winning the hand, regardless of how they did it.

Know your role.

One recent example comes to mind. Monkey gets sucked out on and begins the berating. I, for fun, sharkscope him. He has played 100 games and is down $400. God do I love this kid. It's obvious he borrowed his mom's credit card to deposit money, and it's obvious he's been a deposit bitch since he started.

So, with that, if you hear someone calling you a "DeBit"... it's 2 fold... one, you are an ATM, secondly, you're a bitch.

Hope you aren't a DeBit.

beepbeep

I got 99 problems but...Doctors might be 100.

2008-07-16T19:59:00.001-07:00

Doctor... is there a Doctor in the house? Or at least one with a brain?

So my girl has been sick over the past week and it's unlike anything I've ever been witness too. What started as a simple UTI (with no UTI symptons) turned into a kidney infection. Ok, shit happens. It was an uncomfortable 2 days before she went to her Dr... we've all been there. So she gets to her Dr and goes thru all the tests for urine and blood. Her doc says the blood results will take a few days and the urine showed nothing, so she just prescribed some general antibiotics to fight whatever she had (1st good call... prescribe something for the placebo effect).

We cant even get to the pharmacy before we had to go to the emergency room. We drop off her 5 yr old at school at 9am and went directly to the hospital. After all the same tests based on her symptons (lower back pain, neck pain, lower left stomach pain, painful breathing) the ER nurse came right back and said her urine sample lit up light an xmas tree. UTI. Simple, right? No. The ER doc was concerned about the stiff neck and painful breathing and wanted to do a spinal tap to rule out meningitis (2nd good call... this was AFTER the results came back for a positive UTI and explained ALL the symptons). Not quite sure why you test for meningitis considering it's been 4 days since the onset of any symptoms, and in 2 days, she would have been dead. But Ok... you're the Dr. You understand.

So they do the Spinal Tap. Wasn't as painful as she thought it would be, but still, it wasn't ice cream either.

Now we have a new prescription for really really strong antibiotics. 7 days of 1-a-days and all the problems go away. Right... we wish.

So the ER was Thursday. Friday comes and goes with just general pain from the kidney infection. Saturday comes and the fun begins.

Migraines. Nausea. Vomiting.

Vomiting from the Nausea. Nausea from the Migraines. Migraines are a side effect of the antibiotics. Awesomeness on so many levels. I call the ER doc to go over these new symptoms and they ask if the vomiting is immediately after the taking of the antibiotics... we say "no, it's about 3 hours after". They then say, "ok, then she is getting the antibiotics so that isn't what is giving her the migraines, just give it 2 more days and everything should take care of itself." (3rd good call... if the antibiotics AREN'T causing the migraines, nausea, and vomiting, then what is?.. they should have thought of that the moment they say that it's not the antibiotics).

All the other tests came back negative.

Shall I continue? I shall.

So, we suffer. Symptoms of UTI and kidney infection are going away but the migraines are 10x worse than the pain of the infections ever were. Monday comes and goes and as she has rested this whole weekend, she feels that she can return to work. The migraines have subsided. So, she goes back to work on Tuesday. I do what every guy should to in this case... schedule a golf round.

Her 45 minute train ride in, and then 1 hour into work brings an abrupt end of her work day. The migraines are back and are worse, the nausea is back, as is the vomiting. Joyous. I get the phone call and offer to pick her up but she decides it would be quicker to take the train home and I would pick her up from the train and head right to the ER.

We do that. We go to the ER and once we are in our room, almost immediately they come in and give us an explination of why she has the migraines. "Spinal Headaches." 20% of spinal tap patients get them and they are caused by two scenarios, 1) lack of reproduction of the spinal fluid; 2) the hole in her spine hasn't closed and is leaking spinal fluid.

It explains it all. Laying on her back stops the migraines because she is using her own body to plug the hole. But once she gets up and moves around... she becomes Leaky Mcspinal-Fluid and voila, migraine.

So they have 2 ways to cure it, 1) heavy doses of caffeine which speed up metabolism and regenerate her bodily fluids faster to hopefully fill the gap, or 2) a "blood patch" where they draw blood from her arm and squeeze it into the hole in her spine so the blood coagulates and closes the gap. They try #1 and it offers a temporary relief (all while jumpstarting her heart to the point of scary heart palpatations). It doesn't work.

So, we go for #2, our last hope. 9:30am appointment this morning. The quote of the week is "Once she gets the blood patch, she'll notice that the migraines will go away with 2 hours and you'll be all set."

Boy, was that Dr right. The blood patch was more painful than the spinal tap, and it wasn't even the injection, it was the removal of the giant tube of blood from her arm... understand she is 5foot3in and 100 lbs (understating the lbs a tiny bit so I don't get hit with a shoe once she gets better). So, once the painful procedure was over, within an hour and a half the migraines were finally gone.

Excellent. It's finally over. We were told during the post-op that she should lift anything over 20lbs or do anything strenuous over the next 3 days, and after that she'll be back to normal. If she does do something strenuous, she might slip the clot out and they'd have to do the whole procedure again.

So we come home, and now, 14 hours after the procedure, she still can't get herself off the couch. Her lower back feels like a 500lb person is sitting on her and movement causes pain. We call the Surgery Center and talk to the Dr on staff and he says..(here it comes, the last good call) "Oh yeah, you'll be like that for about a week, but the stiffness won't go away for about 6 weeks."

WHAT THE FUCKK?????????? Where was that during the pre-op conversation, the during-op conversation, and the post-op recap. No one said she'd be incapacitated with lower back pain for a week and have discomfort for up to 6 weeks.

ALL this came from the fact that Dr Genius wanted to do a spinal tap for precautionary reasons, even though everything pointed away from that fact. Thanks doc.

Beep Beep. See ya'll at the tables.

Grab a beer, I'm bored.

2008-06-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Live action, final table of a satellite tournament. 80 players started, down to 7. The top 3 players all get the same satellite prize package. I'm dealing the final table.

Two shorter stacks at the table, none of which are in the pot, blinds 2000/4000, average stack is maybe 55000.

All folds to the small blind (mid stack) who limps, big blind (mid/smaller stack) checks. Flop AQ7, check check, Turn K, check check, River 8, SB checks... big blind says... You gotta have me... and mucks his hand (to a Check).

As the dealer, I actually hesitated to muck his hand, but it was thrown forward and into the center of the table... I had this look of shock on my face as I looked over to seat #8 (not in the hand, but I knew he was probably the best player at the table) and he had the same look that I did. Small blind shows 56 suited... plays the board, and takes down the 6000 chips.

I moved the pot over to the Small Blind as he was the only one left with cards... the Big Blind sighs deep and says... "ugh... I'm an idiot."

He said he had 5,3 and just assumed that by limping in, the SB had better than 7 high.

You are at the final table of a tournament and you just gave up 3000 chips for being absent minded at the time. Is there a punishment for this? Or, is the feeling of complete idiopidity (thats my word, idiotic/stupidity, it should be in m-w.com soon) enough punishment of it's own?

--------------------------------------

So, I'm pretty sure that my NL days for the near future are over. I haven't sat at a NL cash game in just under a year (except a few months ago at The Borgata when there were no seats at my 5-10 or 3-6 limit tables and I had to sit somewhere... so I sat for an hour, folded all but one hand, made my blinds back and broke even). I have stuck to my strong points and it has been paying off. Limit Hold'em. I was playing stud when I was 18 at Turning Stone, NY, and I was playing Stud at the Taj when I turned 21. When Yahoo!Games started their free games section long before my days at Turning Stone, I played Hearts and 2/4 Limit Hold'em online. Talk about being confused. Took me a while to learn the basic strategies of Hold'em, but I learned them the best way you can... by seeing every hand to the river until I was out of free play money on Yahoo and had to reload. The best part was my friends and I had Dealer-Calls change games once a month and I actually realized that my free Yahoo limit hold'em play gave me an edge over my friends. Yay free lessons.

The Borgata opened up, I concentrated on Limit Hold'em. Realizing that 2-4 was a great way to get my feet wet, I sat for about 6 months... just learning, sometimes up, sometimes down. Moved up to 3-6, more ups than downs. Went to Foxwoods just after Moneymaker won the WSOP and saw him getting sloshed playing with bricks of cash at the NL table 2 tables away from my 6-12 Kill Pot.

I didn't know what a Kill Pot was until Foxwoods... MAN what a great game. I still can't understand why they can't do it at The Borgata.

So NL hold'em became the cat's meow and we all started playing it with reckless abandon. Our home games turned from $5 buy ins to $40 buy ins. I didn't have to go to the ATM for beer money for over a year because there was 2 of us (out of about 10) that were constantly winning while the other 8 traded off who would be the other big winner of the night. Over time, as the buyins and pots grew, friendships started to get in the way. It took a good friend of mine from out of town to say that if we were playing for more that $10, he was out.

This was a lawyer in NYC. Money wasn't an object. His outfit cost more than my laptop. And HE was the one saying he didn't want to play for more than $10. He knew that friendships would be put in the middle if the money kept escalating, and he was right. We maxed the buy in at $10, and had some of the best nights of cards we have had since we all brought $4 in silver to the tables in glass jars.

So, my constant source of boozemoney was cut off. But that was Ok. It was, after all, my friends money. So, if their money was off limits... let's go back to AC. I hit the NL tables for the next few years and I really wasn't seeing a constant win. I wasn't losing every time, but more often that I'd like... I was shaking my head walking away from the 3 outter that just took my stack.

So, last year, I decided to start protecting my bankroll by going back to Limit hold'em. Yes, I was made fun of by those who have never played Limit Hold'em before, but it's not about the laughs, it's about the money.

It has paid off. Over the last year, I have seen a steady increase in my "walking away satisfied" column. Just recently, I have made about 6 trips to The Borgata for work and was able to play 4 of those times. I'm paying for my new tires and alignment for my truck, my -lucktruck-, off of my AC winnings this past month. Off topic... Fuck those tires are expensive... $125 each... I used to wrap my Ford Escort with new tires for $125 installed... back to topic.

Now, this is much different that my online play. I was playing a lot of single table sit and go's online, and when I was keeping track of my stats, and taking the time to play when I should be playing, I turned 100 into about 1200 playing $10 and $20 single tables. I sold off 1000 of it and then went cold. Cashed in 1 out of 20 tournaments and went broke... well... not broke.. but online broke...

So, no more online play...except the occasional blogger or RPT tourney when I'm at home and free of distractions. So I'm concentrating on my strengths and dodging my weaknesses (terrible luck in NL). Let's see how the 2nd half of 2008 treats my "walking away satisfied" column.

Cheers.

Beepbeep.

30th Bday and Event#1 at the Borgata Summer Poker Open

2008-06-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

535 players, including myself. 45 min levels, 8k starting stack, breaks every 2 levels.

For the first 3 hours at my table, it was pretty much small pot poker. Nobody getting monsters vs eachother, and nobody very aggressive. Played perfect into my style. After the first break I was up to around 11K. Very few showdowns, but when I was involved, I knew I had the best of it and was getting paid off. No monsters, but two pairs, low flushes with multiple players in the hand, etc.

In the 3rd level, before the second break, I was around 18+k when I was involved with this hand. Blinds 100/200, no ante. 2 limpers in early position and a raise up to 1600 from the 10 seat (my nemesis). I look down at JJ and reraise to 4000. All folds back to the 10 seat, a quick look at her chips and she counts out the call, states "All-in", pushes in the call, and then moves all her chips in. At this point, her and I were 1 and 2 in chip count, respectively, at the table. The hand prior to this, she had KK and won a decent pot. I ran thru her possible hands. The 1600 raise from her could have easily been a steal. She had the chip lead and was definitely capable of the move. I tanked and every possible situation showed me either dominated by overpair or racing for my tourney life with her facecards. I decided to let it go, showed the JJ. She smiles and said nice laydown, and turns over KK again.

I steal a few more blinds during the 4th level and get back to 17k before the 2nd break.

We finally started getting some chip movements as the low stacks started to make their pushes. I think only one of the short stack pushes actually doubled up. We opened up some seats and they were getting filled immediately as other tables were breaking. A quick look at the board showed that of the 54 tables that started, there were about 35 left. Long way to go.

With the new players, came new styles. Gone was the standard 3x raise, now it was 5x and 6x, and open shoves with the newest shortstacks. A lot of chip ping-pong at this point for all of us. Another costly hand comes too. The same position 10 limps in early, I raise with my AK, get the little blind to call (his first hand at the table), and get the 10 seat to call. Flop comes Q 65 rainbow. Little blind checks, position 10 leads out 5000 into the 7500 pot, and give her the once over and let my AK go. If it was heads up, I may make my stand here and hope she also has AK or a lower PP that didn't set-up on the flop and she can get away from both of them, but with the unknown behind me, I lick my wound and fold away. Little blind folds, she turns over JJ and states that she had me on AK or a lower pp and was calling my reraise. Good read for her, missed flop for me, another 2500 loss for me, but cheap considering the alternative. (Of course, I have the 6 outs twice if I shove and she calls... but... don't like 3:1 dogs)

Not too long later, I have AJ of clubs early on. I 4x raise, all folds to the little blind who is getting shorter stacked as well. He flat calls. Flop K rag rag. Check, Check. Turn Q, Check Check. River J, Check, Check. No way I bet here knowing that he had paint. Any PP and he would have shoved preflop. I was right. He shows AQ, but I get off cheap again.

I'm down to about 12k getting through the end of round 5 and into round 6, the last round before the dinner break. Blinds are up to 600/1200 with 200 ante. I watch as others make moves around me, and I neither have the position or the cards to make my stand. I get down to 10k and I am second to act. It was now or never. As obvious, I wasn't going to let myself be blinded out until I finally found a premium hand. I get J8 of diamonds and after the UTG folds, I take about 8 seconds to count my chips, look at the pot, and move all-in. All folds around to the cutoff and he states "Call". Man am I hoping for AK there. But no luck, he turns over KK and I am pretty set on my diamond draw to be my savior. .... and then the heartpounder starts...

Flop was... 8 (YES!)..... 8 (YESSSSSSSSS!)..... K (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO).

I mean, come on. That's just not right. The player in the 1 seat says to me... sorry boss, I tossed the case 8. I glance at the turn and river but can't recall them, as I knew I was drawing dead. I say my goodgames and walk off. I glance again at the board and they were down to 20 tables... so 200 players, give or take.

I played my game, ran into some big cards and got away cheap. But I couldn't string together any big hands my way to give me comfort in my chip stack. Maybe I shove my AK and I get lucky. Maybe I play that JT into the raise when I would have flopped broadway and got paid off. Maybe I play that 66 into an 3000 UTG raise with an 6500 all in behind me.. .flop was 622... only 2 big hands that I missed, but I still fold those given the circumstances.

Alas... I decided to play some ring games before I left. I was waiting for my 5-10 limit game to start, but not enough interest. So I sat at 3-6 for a spell, made some money and walked away. I'll be back down there this Saturday for work related reasons, but I should be able to sit for a little bit at the 5-10 or 3-6...whatever is open.

Happy 30th to me and better luck next time... just have to stay out of the cooler.

chocolate and peanut butter.

2008-04-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

A) Christmas
B) Spring Break
C) Playoffs!!

The answer... C) Playoffs.... Hockey playoffs to be specific.

The question was "What's your favorite time of the year?"

At least two games a night for the first two rounds. Back to back games, players fighting for their playoff lives, goalies standing on their head to make saves... just... good times all around.

ahem.. .go Detroit...

Add the BBT3... and you have chocolate and peanut butter. My nights have been busy in April and my cards have been cold for '08 so I haven't seen many tournaments in the BBT3 yet.. but the ones I have seen I have played well but I just can't seem to win a race for the life of me. Not that I'm counting, but I am... 0 and 6 in my last 6 coin flips. Yes... variance, yo comprendo. But it is so 'effin frustrating. I made the mistake of selling off the majority of my bankroll because I was running well at the end of 07, and the turn of the year has turned the tables. I'm now buying back some of what I sold off (luckily I have people who owe me money, so it's no out-of-pocket cash, but its money I'm buying back nonetheless).

I am hoping tonite is when FTP changes their decks... shuffles once more before dealing the cards... whatever they need to do to give me the 3 out of 6 coinflips that I should be winning.

Oh, here's another one that astonishes me... I have played maybe 150 hands up to this point in the tourney, of which 18 of them were Big Blinds... I go 17 of them with no cards and all raises ahead of me... then on the 18th I got the b!tches (QQ) and i get an 'effin WALK!!?!?!?!

Ok... so I just won a flip... for no money. My A8 vs lowstacks 33. 1 for 7 now... I'm still owed the next 5 in a row... I hope FTP is keeping count like I am... if so, I have a shot to win this biznatch.

I'll be back later after the tourney is over to update my final hand/status.

Good show on BuddyDankRadio again.. best of luck to them at The Borgata and their live broadcast... I'll be listening. Congrats to Waffles for his April Top Pt Earner and his $2K WSOP buy-in. I'll be reloading and hopefully making my push in May.

See ya'll out there.

BeepBeep

----------------------------

Update

Won another race prior to the break, lost one following the break... sitting at 5k and shortstack at the table, blinds 250/500 with ante 50. I wasn't going to fold my way out of the tourney...

99 UTG just after a big hand between two other players, I figure I won't get any action with a raise... so I raise half my stack... get reraised and I click the "Call" button when it's my turn... they table AK off, flop A.. gg me.

Finished 21 out of 105... top 18 make money, top 4 make real money... 7th and 21st really feel the same to me... such is the life on the coinflip.

I might make that my next post... "Life on the Coin"...
Beep Beep

Never say your sorry...

2008-04-02T19:33:00.001-07:00

But sometimes... it's ok to feel it.

and sadly I would never have done this if it wasn't a blogger tournament.

So this was the 2nd hand of the Mookie on Wednesday nite... not a bad way to double up early on. I spent the next hour missing the board like my dishwasher misses the dried lasagna so I began setting up the new Wii with Super Smash Brothers Brawl (I'm not 30 yet... leave me and my video game problem alone).

For those of you who haven't seen a commercial in the past 2 years because of DVR's and TiVo... this basically takes all of the characters that Nintendo has ever made video games for and pits them into a battle royale. It's fantastic on so many levels that I can't describe it in words.

At this point I'm just praying for the break so I can fire up the Wii.

If you haven't had a chance yet... but again, I'm sure if you're reading this I don't have to tell you about it... but check out the Buddy Dank Radio show broadcasting whenever the hell he wants, but specifically during The Mookie.

If you don't know.. now you know.

Until I come back and have to apologize again later...

Beep Beep.

-----------------------------------------

Not sorry... this was just a rough hand... this happened in the middle of the situation I'm about to explain.

So here's the bitch of this... I get moved to a new table and 4x raise 4 different times in mid-to-late position.. each time I get shoved on by a pretty much equal stack... It wasn't desperation time, we were all in the mid stack of the tourney... but if I felt like gambling I'd be playing roulette and not playing poker. Yes.. you gotta win some races.. but you don't always have to get involved in them.. THEY ARE ONLY RACES ... and I'm living proof that when you suck at racing you have to avoid it like ... like.. .like shit you just wanna fucking avoid.

- Mookie was all in prior to me and I laid down.

I 4x raise, dyers shoves... I fold. He says AK

. I 4x again... dyers shoves.. .he says AK again.

I 4x again... PokerFool shoves.. I call (I had him covered) We chop.

Next orbit same positions... I 3x, PokerFool shoves and I lay down.

All in from Martyr and I lay down (1/3 of my stack to call)

Two hands later, all folds to me, I just go away as I'm disgusted by having all these 2nd best hands.

on_thg pushes, Martyr calls, I go away preflop.

If there's anything I hate more than getting my aces cracked by bad play it's having so many playable hands and having to go away because I have lost so much fucking money because I have to raise... limping is no option, shoving is no option, and folding with no action ahead of me is simply idiotic.

I couldn't screencap my last hand as the table broke, but I ran my AK into QQ... no love for Dr. Jones. Speaking of Dr Jones... I'm avioding 100% of the previews for the new Indiana Jones movie as I do with all movies that I really want to see. We'll see how it unfolds.

Beep Beep.

No Skillz to pay the Billz

2008-04-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Alright... can we quit it with the BOOOOOM every 4 hands. Once a tourney... maybe... but jesus it should be used like the Macarena now -you're only allowed to do it if you are a female, 16 years old, and at a wedding.

I blame myself mostly for it... it was my friends and I that did it in our heated battles over Super Mario Kart and 4-player Tetris…and I brought it to poker and to someone who can sell ice to an Eskimo... all facts.

I have no shot at the Skillz series tonite on FullTilt in the BBT3. If you are reading my post, I have no need to describe it in further detail or link to it. My goal was to start playing every event in April with the hopes of grinding out points to backdoor my ass into one of the 2k WSOP seats for having the most points. Hopefully, somewhere along the way I'll fall ass backwards into a win as well... but it ain't easy being me.

The RNG hates me already, and now you add a game where no matter how much I put someone up against the wall... they can 4 out themselves to win half my pot. I'm not naming names here... but when you get 3 bet preflop and you are holding KK77... and you miss the flop and the turn and you are still just holding KK in H/L... go the F away. Are you seriously praying for a 4 outter for HALF THE POT? SAVE YOUR BET. sheesh. I guess they don't teach FOLDING when you are dominated as part of a Skill.

At the first break I'm just over even but if it wasn't for a 4 and 8 outter I'd be near 6k... so be it. Blinds are up so now I can just get all my bets in good and get 2 outted for all my loot... standard operating procedure for me.

I've played a good handful of blogger events, mostly in the BBT2, and there are less than a finger full who can say that when the money went in that I was dead to rights... unless of course the obvious of being extremely short stacked and have to push a.t.c.

Sadly, it's not the bloggers that get me... it's the Riverchasers (tm) players... none of them ever believe I have a hand yet when I get their backs to the wall... I'm the one who ends up with the swirly.

I got halfway thru the Skillz tonite ... pretty much blinded out before the 2nd break. I wasn't going to sit on 3k and see how long it'd last me. I made a push with a suited midPP with a min-wrap. Flopped top pair and still had my overpair…ran into a good drawing hand and was outdrawn. So be it. If you have nothing else to do but rail my table and cheer on the opponents after I go busto, then you need to find a life... one w/o possible jail time for fraud and grand larceny. Just remember, I have nothing to hide.

But on a better note, I think I’m going to start stealing another blogger’s idea… forgive me as I can’t seem to recall who was doing it… but I just picked up a Wii and I think I’m going to be playing it during the breaks. I’m obviously not doing much wrong with the poker.. money is going in good but the hands just aren’t holding. So I figure I’ll just keep my mind busy with other things to distract me from what would normally end up as a horrible chain of events à get 2 outted, tossing the laptop, removing it from the wall and cleaning up the LCD screen from the floor, patching the hole in the wall and repainting, replacing the LCD once it’s shipped from DELL. Oh yeah… add in the part where I pray that my laptop turns back on.. yeah.. that’s a lot of Hail Mary’s.

Things to remember: Say no to Boom. Don’t steal. Folding is a skill. There’s no prayer in poker, God doesn’t want you to win the hand more than your opponent.

Beep beep.

bent over by the RNG....

2008-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Blogger Big Game... first step towards 7 WSOP Seats for the Battle of the Bloggers 3.

I sit a little above the original starting stack going into the break... nothing special happening. I decide to move from my comfy couch to my more comfy bed and play until I won the tourney.

HAHAHAHA....

fooled me.

I gather my Molson, laptop, power plug, phone.... set it all back down to run into the kitchen to grab the bag of peanut butter MnM's... (if anyones thinking of any last minute gift ideas... I have one!)

Pick up the rest of the periphenalia and head upstairs and I'm sure the 5 minutes is now down to 1 and counting....

I set everything down, open the laptop back up and see the cards being dealt but I don't see my hand just yet. I pop an MnM, make sure the Molson is within reach and sit my ass down on my bed. I glance at the screen to see the countdown in the Red and my heart jumps when I see KK. I quickly check the action behind me and see a raise up to 360, the clock is about to fold my hand so I just quickly hit the Raise button and min-raise...

All I was thinking about was I can't believe that I almost dumped KK preflop. Heaven forbid I don't take these blessings in disguise and just run with them.

Folds all around to the original raiser... he tanks then calls the raise.

Flop TT3 rainbow. He checks, I bet 875 into the 1300 pot. He tanks and pushes all in.

The tanking is what almost got me to fold the hand. If he immediately reshoves, I insta-call. He tanked preflop before calling my raise and then check-tank-reraised all in. I had him covered by about 700, so ... we were pretty much even.

I run through the list of hands he could have... or more over... the list of hands he has me on and thinks he can make a move on me...

I can beat AK, all pp's except AA and 33, and I can't beat T/blank. Obviously.. we chop if we both got the KK. I flip the switch to what he thinks I may have... AK is the predominant thought.. I reraise preflop the C-bet the flop... smells AceyKingy to me...and possibly mid pp's with only the min-raise. The min-raise I already feel is coming back to haunt me. I think he has me on a foldable mid PP... I still tank.

I clock myself down to almost zero and with all the thoughts in my head that this is a bad call... I still make it. Only two hands I will give him credit for having is AA and AT. He shows T8 of spades. well played.

I'm down to 640 I think just waiting for the right money to push any two cards or the right cards to push all the money... they both fall into place as PokerFool makes it 3x and NOAIR cold calls... it's half my stack and I figure if I get any piece or a nice draw, I got position as first to act to push the rest of it and will still get action because it's a 5:1 call to see the last 2 cards.

I get exactly what I wish for....

Flop T73, with 2 hearts. I could do w/o the hearts as I'm sure anyone calling my all in will surely have them.

I push the last of it, PokerFool makes the call and NOAIR tanks and then makes the call. I can understand PokerFools call.. but NOAIR must believe he is WAY behind at least one of us with two overcards out there and the original raiser still giving action.

They check it down, not only does two overcards hit the board, but they are both hearts... putting 4 hearts on the board. So now, anyone who called me with paint has me beat and any heart in the hand has me beat... PokerFool shows his 55 no heart and he goes away, NOAIR shows his 66 with the heart and I go away. GG me.

The money isn't right, the hand isn't right, the board isn't right... why put chips in the pot knowing you have to beat TWO other players and most likely you'll need to pull a 2 outter to do it.

Well.. .it's no 2-outer... but runner runner is just as sexy.

Time to regroup and get ready for this week's line-up of BB3 tourneys.

Til next time..

beepbeep.

Not poker related (Thank heaven!)

2008-02-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a great blog from somewhere in the the delta quadrant of the internet (yes, a star trek reference...deal with it..)

Unforgivable Grammy Snubs

I'm not a Grammy fan, but this read was fucking dead-on.

Giddyup.

Back in the Saddle

2008-01-09T21:12:00.001-08:00

I sat down at my first blogger event since the Aussie Millions Final Tournament. I took a little break from MTT play and stuck with sit and go's to rebuild my bankroll after x-fering most of my loot to other players throughout the holidays. Apparently the holiday tables were not good to the players that I x-fered to. I can't tell people enough to stop playing with their whole roll. I always refer to the Ferguson challenge when I talk about bankroll management.... he's the living proof that brains prevail over poker skill.

The Mookie kicked off with 65 players and I played nothing for about 45 minutes. I got dealt the hammer and decided to have some fun considering nothing else was entertaining me. I raise up 4x in 2nd position and get 1 call from the SB. Flop 862. I pair up and can't imagine that the SB would have hit the 6 or 8. He leads out with a pot bet and I try a steal with a 2.5 raise... representing an overpair (or better than top pair at least). He calls the raise and 9 hits the turn. He checks and I put half of my remaining stack in, about 1100. He pushes all in.
---- I think about it. I'm open ended for the straight and have bottom pair. If I consider all my outs live, I'm looking at 8 for the straight and 5 for 2 pair... gives me 13... 26%... yet I am getting 4.5 to 1 for my all in. ---- normally, I'm not one to count my outs vs my odds in a tourney, considering that having right odds and losing means gg japan. I consider how the tourney went so far and figure that I'm not going to build my empire with 1k.. I just didn't have the patience tonite to do that. I call, I hit the straight, double up and go from there. I wanted to at least get yelled at for the play but the table broke immediately after the hand... I'm sure I am getting yelled at in a blog right now anyway.

Sit around the 6 k most of the mid parts of the tourney.

Got another all in double up when the flop comes KJ7... and I was holding KJ... player continuation bets and I push all in and he calls with A9... I didn't see the call coming with something like that considering how few few few hands I was playing.

I get another almost double up when I limp in the SB with QQ, I get reraised preflop by the BB up to 1800ish... i re-pot up to 56ooish and get flat called... yet he only had 8k total. He left himself with 2600 after the call. Flop comes 9 hi, I push all in and he folds.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

So I scoop 5600 w/o having to show the ladies.

The rest is kind of up and down without much to talk about... throughout the tourney I had AA and JJ twice with no action preflop. I got walked with AA once... just sick... nobody even attempted to steal THAT blind, yet they wanted all my other ones.

I am sitting 4/12 and 5/12 for a while when play stalls down as we get near the bubble. Top 8 get paid... time to watch the pushers push and the folders fold. I'll do my fair share to make sure I don't get chip-raped during the all-in or fold period.

We get to hand for hand it action slows down... I get involved in one hand all in... I'm in the BB with Ad7d and flop comes AKsomething.. all spades... I push, he calls with the Klan... nh.

I buy some hands with an ace here and an ace there, but just do my part to not run into a monster. We get to final table and a few hands in we lose the bubble. Into the money we go and I get A9 and AJ a few hands off eachother, A9 gets no action on an all in and I raise up my AJ, get pushed on and call and wwonka has A9. No luck for him, I double up.

So, we push and pull our way. We get down to 4 handed and I was short stack with 22K vs 57/59/60k... they were playing super tight to not lose position, so I pushed. With 6K up for grabs for the steal, I figure if I can get 2 in a row, that'll get me closer to them and unless they wake up huge, I get away scott-free.

I steal the 2 in a row and wake up to AK hearts on the 3rd hand. I get a raiser in front and I push again to make it look weak with 3 pushes in a row. He laid down. I didn't want that.

We move around some more and I gather more chips and within moments we go from 4 to 2.

Heads up, myself vs Cmitch, he is to my left and we are even in chips, both close to 95k. I get the upper hand early with a few Aces. About 5 or 6 hands in to heads-up, I get in with J7o. Flop was 5h7h9x. Cmitch bets, I raise, he pushes all in, and I make the call and have him covered. He turns over 10h6h. Gutshot str8 draw, flush draw, 1over card. He's a 55:45 favorite here.

10x hits the turn and I blank the river.

I go down huge but get right back in it with a monster flop of quad 7s. I check it to his two pair. he turns a str8 draw and pushes and I make the call with the nuts.

We get back to even and do it again. I get up early with some face card steals and we get into another big hand. I have J6 when the flop comes 10s10s4s. I check, he bets, I call. At this point I put him on the 4. I turn my 6 and it kills me. We get all the money in and he shows his trip 10s. Well played. He bet the big hand and I got an unlucky turn when I paired my card.

He goes up big again and the very next hand I have KK and he pushes all in on the SB. I immediately call and he shows J6. Flop A810. He needs runnerrunner to get there.

He gets there.

J turn, J river.

BOOOOM

I'll take it... 2nd place after I lost the flip with his drawing hand.

gg Cmitch

Beep Beep.

18k up for grabs...Congrats Doc!

2007-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the final list... let's see how I got there.

----------------------------------

For those that are new to the poker blogger world, like myself, but more specifically to those that are even newer to my blog, welcome aboard.

I have qualified for 1 of 27 seats in an Aussie Millions Tournament... an 18k package with all the frills... and the action starts..... NOW (with now being 10pm est).

It couldn't have started sooner. I didn't really think about it until I was hosting an RPT Tournament on Tuesday night and someone mentioned it to me. I pulled up the FTP lobby and saw my name at the top of the list (typical for a screen name that starts with a hyphen). I got my first set of butterflies in a long time. The last time I really had that feeling was sitting down at The Borgata for my first ever cash tournament inside a casino.

With only 27 players registered for this tournament, it feels good to know that I played less than half of the qualifiers and I finished 19th in points overall... but points mean nothing here. The points got me into a $1000 freeroll which started at 9pm and really meant as much to me as my last good dump. Not that I'm downing it in any way shape or form. It's just that 1st place out of 50 players in the freeroll gets $290 big smackers... and 1st place in a 27 person freeroll gets an $18,000 package to go to Australia for 10 days and play against some of the worlds best... and the worlds best gets to play against the winner of this tourney.

Best of luck to everyone, I won't be regularly updating, but I will post some interesting situations if they arise.

BeepBeep.

----------------------------------

A hand you probably won't hear about.... All in at the flop from Lucko... Summer_babe clocks a little bit to decide if AK is good... . it is, but a 3 outter swings the pendulum.

Now... a hand you might hear about...

Battle of the Bloggers Final - Table 2 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:53:15 ET - 2007/12/20
Seat 1: actyper (5,295)
Seat 2: -o-LuckTruck-o- (3,990) I have played about 4 hands total to this point, none to a showdown.
Seat 3: Mike_Maloney (4,380)
Seat 4: Budohorseman (2,540)
Seat 5: lucko21 (5,260)
Seat 8: emptyman (2,945) couldn't miss a flop in the early stages of the 1k BBT2 Freeroll
Seat 9: dnasty13 (1,220)
Budohorseman posts the small blind of 40
lucko21 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to -o-LuckTruck-o- [9h 9s]
emptyman raises to 240
-o-LuckTruck-o- calls 240
lucko21 calls 160 in the BB
*** FLOP *** [Ts 8s 7s]
lucko21 checks
emptyman checks
-o-LuckTruck-o- bets 500 in last position, so this could just look like a standard bet because both players have checked to me, but I got PP with oe Str8 flush draw... not really thinking about the draw... as I actually think my 99 is good and won't get a call.
lucko21 raises to 1,250 first reacion is that this is a steal with As or Ks with possible pair.. he is perfectly capable of pushing my weaktight ass all around this table.
emptyman folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- raises to 3,750, and is all in put the pressure on him hoping my read was right
lucko21 calls 2,500
-o-LuckTruck-o- shows [9h 9s]
lucko21 shows [Ks Qs] K hi flush. Super. So I say...
-o-LuckTruck-o-: nh
*** TURN *** [Ts 8s 7s] [9d] woot... what was that? A card that can help me? Me? no.. never...
*** RIVER *** [Ts 8s 7s 9d] [8d] 12 outter. Beep Beep.
-o-LuckTruck-o- shows a full house, Nines full of Eights
lucko21 shows a flush, King high
-o-LuckTruck-o- wins the pot (8,260) with a full house, Nines full of Eights

So, it comes down to this, I was behind and got lucky. Not the first time, not the last, but very rare that I am in that position. As you can read from most of my blogs.. this is a badbeat world and 99% of the time I am it's bitch slapping post.

------------------------

Final Table at Midnite.... 8th of 9 right now... I have been pushed off of some decent hands, and got no action with real hands... just trying to reverse that progress... still got a lot of action left ... blinds are only 150/300/25

Short tabling is my game so lets see if I can get my cards in and win... regardless if they are good or not...

-------------------------

No love for the lucktruck. I tried hiding the fact that I was carddead for 214 of the 218 hands I saw. If I see another Q-rag this week I'm going to go berserk.

Q8-Q2 showed up 29 times in 218 hands... 13% of my hands...
I had 10 pocket pairs that were 99 or less
1 AA
0 AK
1 KK
2 QQ
0 JJ

Alas... it wasn't meant to be. I tried to fight back by making some standard raises with mediocre hands or low pp's, but it felt like it was push or fold by everyone at the time I started getting low stacked. I was reraised pretty much every time. Maybe it's just my style, but putting all my money in with 44 or A9 preflop isn't the way I play. If I wanted to gamble, I'd throw dice at Harrah's.

The only shocking thing that I really have to say was that when I standard raised with mid level cards, I was reraised 9/10 times. When I standard raised with my AA, KK, and one of my QQ's, I got no action. I had Loretta8 set up 3 to my left and it was the perfect set up. I raised twice into him and he reraised me each time and I layed down.. AJ and 55... yet the times I had AA and KK vs him, I get no reraise.

It just felt that nothing I did throughout went the way I envisioned. I won only one big hand, and you read how that happened. Alas...

Beep Beep and best of luck to Jeciimd in Australia... do us proud!

Another typical day in the life of the Truck...

2007-12-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

$20 knockout tourney, $5 for the knockout...

about halfway thru, i'm on the little with a small stack, but not short stack. UTG limps in, yes.. the UTG limps in (HINT, REMEMBER THIS PLAY)..

A few limps all around to me, I peek at KQ off, limp in myself. BB checks.

Flop KJ4 rainbow. I go all in for 1650. Blinds were 120/240 I think, with 5 total limpers, pot was around 1200 before my push...

BB folds, UTG flat calls (with about 1300 behind after the 1700 call) the rest fold.

I turn over, he turns over J8. Another player immediately says "I folded J8"...

Turn brick, river Jack.

Super.

A limp UTG with J8 and then a call for more than half your stack with mid pair no kicker...

what could he possibly have me on and thought he was ahead? Hell... forget being ahead.. what could he possibly have me on and think the money was right?

f'idiots.

Happy Christmas to All!

2007-12-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

Friendly snowball fight amongst cartoon us's.

Why do I fold?

2007-12-11T11:09:00.001-08:00

Folded at the flop.. it's a Horse freeroll, this was Hi/Lo....I'm in bottom right corner

This one was great... here are my stats for this one... I represented the best the whole way, he found a way to win..

Scoop: 77.50%
Hi: 85.00%
Lo: 37.50%
EE: 0.812

New movie releases

2007-12-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

Is a new Rambo really the answer to the horrid selection of new releases coming out in theaters this coming year? I mean... what ever happened to taking the bad sequels and B movies straight to video... or, in an updated technological world, straight to dvd?

Let's run down the list of trailers that seem grossly uninteresting on Apple.com and hope to find some hay in a needlestack.

P2. Here's a good one - A chick is stuck in a parking garage fighting for her life from a deadbeat that can't get a date..... for the whole movie. Sounds promising. *cough* Bullshit *cough*. Expectations- 0, yes, zero. (0-11 scale based on nothing but my slanted views, and yes, this one goes to 11) Originality - 1, Laughs - 0, Action - 4= E0, O1, L0, A4

Wristcutters. Interesting idea. Anyone who commits suicide goes to the same after-life, where everything just kinda sucks. Some dude that offs himself is now looking for his recently self-offed girlfriend in this new after-life. A twist on Beetlejuice, but a love story. E3, O7, L7, A1

National Treasure 2. How can this be any different than the first? Historical cross-globe treasure hunt with more people this time. I'd rather be subjected to 4 hours of the Pants-Off Dance-Off on Fuse with nothing but BBW's. E3, O2, L5, A9

Untraceable. The story of computer geek cops who can't outwit a bigger computer geek villian. Seems just like a filler movie for someone who needed to make their quota on script writing assignments before they lost their job. E3, O4, L1, A5

Cloverfield. First one that peaked my interest. Of course, I like sci-fi action movies, but they have to be done well... Terminator2, Aliens, Empire Strikes back, The Matrix. From the preview, it looks like Godzilla but it very well might be a robot Godzilla going ballistic on the town like the asteroids in Armageddon or the tidal wave in The Day After Tomorrow. I hope they hide the monster to the very end and it turns out to be a giant robot Britney Spears from her schoolgirl outfit days... this might be the only thing that could resurrect her career. E5, O5, L3, A9

Purple Violets. Edward Burns... that Ben Affleck lookalike... does it again. Makes a movie and puts himself as a main character. There are 2 girls that buck-buck-buck-bagawk about relationships and you got a chickflick with no possible watchable value. Standard movie. E1, O1, L3, A0.

Harold and Kumar 2. If you can't laugh at multi-racial drug comedy, then you ain't livin'. This time, they go overseas and are accused of being terrorists. Another cameo by the "snortin' blow off of whore's dirty ass" Doogie. Anyone see the comic irony in him being gay in real life? E7, O6, L10, A3.

Finally (cuz i'm tired and going to bed)

Jumper. A kid figures out he can teleport anywhere in the world. Woohoo, mutant powers, should have been a comic book first... wait.. .was it? Anyway, he's not the only one who can do it and there are people out there hunting his kind down. Of course, he has to save the girl. Graphics look top notch, hopefully the acting won't pull down the hi-res overload like most cgi driven flicks. E8, O7, L3, A10.

Let's see how far off I am.

Beepbeep.

Winter Scotch Tasting

2007-12-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

About 2 weeks ago I was sitting at one of my local sipping joints (The Drafting Room) and the few of us that were there came across an advert for a Scotch tasting. Now, for those that haven't been brought up to speed, or haven't noticed the headline here, I'm starting to get into the enjoyment of some of the finer drinks behind the bar that don't fit into a pitcher. Yes, I know that Jack-and-Cokes fit into a pitcher, and that is the way I like them... but that's not what I'm talking about.

After our vacation to Scotland a few of us have been looking for some good places with good bartenders that know their Scotch's and just don't buy them and put them on the shelves. Well, today we sat down for what I thought was going to be a 5 Scotch, 4 appetizer tasting. Boy, was I wrong. The 4 appetizers were scratched from the menu and a 5 course meal was put in its place.

Let me say that again... 5 single malts... 5 course meal... $33. (w/o grat, as expected).

Let me put it in poker speak... NUTS!!!!!!

First Course: Grilled Buffalo on toasted Foccaccia with Micro greens & Herb Ricotta.

Scotch: Clynelish 14yr.

Talk about starting off impressively. The buffalo was cooked medium-rare with the toasted Foccaccia as a base. This was my first ever venture into buffalo, and I must admit it was tender and very tasty. The light amount of sauce was a perfect addition as I probably would have drowned out the flavor with too much sauce. The Clynelish was a good start to the list. It was neither overwhelming in the nose nor the finish. A smooth drink with a hint of fruit. A solid start, I must say.

Second Course: Duck Confit over a Mache Salad with Seasoned Sunflower Seeds with a Sweet Onion Marmalade.

Scotch: Craggenmore 12yr.

The duck was incredible but the Marmalade made this dish. I sampled the duck first w/o the marmalade as I knew what was going to happen once it was introduced. The duck was soft and pulled apart instantly. As sweet and juicy as the duck/marmalade combo was, the Craggenmore was the polar opposite. Dry and spicy with an abundance of pepper. After my first nose of the scotch, I knew to enjoy it after the dish. Personally, I think because of the weight of this drink, it could have been put later on the list as you should be going from the lightest to heaviest throughout the meal. So be it.

Third Course: Seared Scallops, Green Peppercorn & Tarragon Butter, Peruvian Purple Puree.

Scotch: Talisker 10yr.

Yes. Peruvian - Purple - Puree. It's a purple mashed potato that was as tasty as it was exotic. I could have gone through a whole bowl of it. The scallop was a nice size but with the amount of sauce I would have liked 2 of them to enjoy it all. I ended up just forking the rest of the sauce because it was so good. The Talisker is a well known popular scotch. It didn't fail being paired with this dish. A strong smokey/petey nose that finished with a smooth salt/pepper taste. If you are looking for something strong, head on over to the Talisker.

Main Course: Grilled Lamb Chop, Bacon Braised Beluga Lentils, Scotch Infused Roasted Shallot & Tomato Sauce with Garlic Green Beans.

Scotch: Ardbeg 10yr.

At this point I just wanted to grab the chops and dig in. The plate smelled incredible and I was ready to throw out table manners and scarf it down. Alas, visions of Grandma coming across the table and slapping me kept me in check. I wasn't a big fan of the tomato sauce mixture, but the pile of bacon lentils hiding under the chops were gone before the 8 strips of green beans. The chops were slightly seared on one side as a quick cut showed the half medium side and the half rare side. Both sides were just as enjoyable. The Ardbeg, got bless its imaginary soul, was the one drink I was looking forward to. The Ardbeg, for those that don't know, has become a very rare commodity. The distillary was bought back in 1997 as the were about 10 minutes from being bulldozed. So now, 10 years later, we are getting the first runnings of their new 10yr single malt. The straw colored necture is thick and oily. It doesn't look like your typical golden scotch, but close your eyes and breath and any scotch fan will be getting after this one.

Dessert: Butterscotch Brownie w/ Vanilla Chantilly over a Peanut Butter Cashew Brittle.

Scotch: Caol Ila 12yr

A great finish to the whole experience. The brownie was gone instantly but the brittle took some work. Using my hands would have been key, but instead I chose to shoot a few pieces of broken brittle off the table to never be seen again. I waited for dessert to be finished before I dove into the Caol Ila. Another great scotch and highly recommended for those of you just starting out and who might be looking for something not so common. It is smokey all the way through and would have been great in a full glass to cap off the night.

After some conversation with George, our host, I was able to walk out of there with a handful of Johnnie Walker rocks glasses and one of the Craggenmore tasting glasses.

Total tab was $46 with tax/tip

5 glasses that probably retail for $40 +/-

5 course meal, assume $35 +/-

5 scotch samplings, approx $10

You do the math...

Merry Holidays to all! Mine has started off very filling.

If you got all the way to the bottom... check out one funny video... i'm still in tears.

All too familiar

2007-12-02T19:22:00.001-08:00

Just got back from the Borgata Ultimate Super Satellite where Riverchasers backed 8 players... more on that later.

Back to the all too familiar... railing ccrobyn in the final table of a 2-table token tourney... this just makes me wanna jump off the Ben Franklin...

All in at the flop....

Freerollin' into the 750K on FTP

2007-11-25T15:36:00.001-08:00

6:00pm

Started out with a bang!

All the money in at the flop...

Yay... down to 240... no where to go but up!

So, why not... it's HAMMER TIME!!!

This was moments later... how do I not go broke here? We checked it all the way to the river... i bet minimum of 50, he min raises, and I just call.

Ah well... on we go... shortstacked with a mountain ahead of me...
8:55pm

Out. about 3400 in chips. I was up to a little over 4100 after I doubled through the donkey Dabop sitting to my left who slit my throat and left me for dead early on.

BB vs SB coin flip... I had the PP... he had the Ace. No love for the PP.

I wasn't going to sit around with blinds and antes = 1050 per orbit. If I was going to give myself a chance to make any real money I had to get close to 10k so I could start playing again. This win would have put me around 8k and on my way... but... no love... I called Heads (you always call heads)... it came Tails.

gg me.

beepbeep.

Best of luck to Mike_Maloney who was sitting 75th in chips with 24k when I busted. He's the last BBT2 Weekly champ standing... go get some!

from the Devil to the Hammer to BeepBeep

2007-11-23T15:46:00.000-08:00

Just sickening sometimes...

2007-11-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

Late night Thanksgiving Thursday home game is played every year with about 20 people. This year only 5 showed up... not sure what happened but it doesn't matter.

We play a $20 sng tourney to just get our fix in and head home... 75/25 1st/2nd. fun fun

I know all the players, so as long as I don't get sucked into a decent hand against an aggressive player and get unlucky, I can cash out with enough to cover gas money, hopefully more.

Needless to say, I am the unluckiest person I know.

2500 chips to start, I'm up to 3200 early and just watch the fireworks around me. I flop 2 flushes and get paid about 400 on each because of the aggressive players pushing the flop, but they weren't strong flushes, so I raised the turn each time and they went away from their hands.

I sit back and watch 2 players bust pretty quick. We are 3 handed and one player is big stack, the other is short stack. I get heads up in a hand with the big stack as he limps into my big blind. I have 3c4c and the flop comes 3s3h9c. check check. Turn brings Qh. check check. River is Kh. Big stach bets the minimum of 200. I look at the board, any 2 hearts, J10, and pretty much any 3 beats me. I have a terrible feeling and I just flat call.

He turns over KK. Fuck me.

Talk about losing the bare minimum. I asked that if I pushed any bet, what would he do... he said it was a check-raise after any bet I made. No matter what happens, I lose this hand. Thankfully I only lost an extra big blind and don't bust out in 3rd and get no money. Short stack still has 900 to my 2400, to the big stack's 9200.

2 hands later.

I am button with KQ offsuit... little blind has 550 left and I want him in the hand... I'll play my KQ for another 300 for an all in to try and knock him out. He ends up limping, BB bigstack checks.

Flop KJ10.

short stack checks, big stack bets 300, ... i can't imagine any terrible card that will slow me down on the turn, so I call with the hopes that my call entices short stack to get in.

I'm right. He thinks then pushes his 450 all in, big stack calls, I call just hoping to not see a Q on the turn.

Turn is 7. Big stack checks, I push all in to go heads up against the small stack. Big stack calls.

I turn over my KQ. Big stack has J7 (fuck me again and his 5 outter).

I still feel OK because if the big stack takes it all down, I take 2nd still...

Short stack shows 6 9. So, he has no pair, and is double gutted for the straight (Q or 8), but I have one of his queens. 7 outter.

BOOOOOOM!!!! 8Ball on the river and I leave the table just laughing.

Can someone calculate those for me.... 2 outter, 5 outter, 7 outter all in 2 hands in a row I play.

I am too smart for my own good. If I didn't want to get paid, I push all in at the flop and take it down, but only get 2 big blinds for my best hand.

What's an idiot to do.

unbeepbeep

I think I just sat on a teste...

2007-11-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

... is probably not the best way to start a post... but guys... come on... you know what I'm talking about. Ladies... be glad you don't have that problem.

Got some sleep today after my almost all-niter at the Borgata. It's the Wednesday before Turkey Day... biggest bar night of the year... I'm 29 yrs old and staying home... by choice. Some friends are coming over and we're going to throw back some booze here and watch some tv. Plus it gives us a chance to get the kids together to play so we don't really have to watch them. They can go lock themselves in their room and play with all the new toys that the lil one got for her bday last week.

WTF???

Watching the movie "The Zodiac" right now... I thought this was the movie with Jake Gyllenhall (lead actor from Jarhead)... I was wrong... that was the movie "Zodiac" (2007). This is "THE Zodiac" (2005) with one of the Dr's from "Grey's Anatomy". WTF?? Did someone see THE zodiac and say... "HEY... I GOT A GREAT IDEA ABOUT A MOVIE!!"

Back to Back Omaha Hi Hands

Happening immediately on my other table in back to back Texas Hold'em hands...

Nothing spectacular, but interesting RNG...

This one was fun...

Nothing like Flopping the rocks... and then drowing to runner runner.

Time to keep cleaning the house, almost time to forget tonite!

beepbeep

The Borgata 11:30pm tourney

2007-11-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce you to the "Rugger".

$60+15 weeknight at The Borgata with Riggstad and gang in tow. Tourney is a 10k starting stack with 15 min levels. They have been getting around 80-100 players on any given night with an approx payout of $2k for first place.

I get the call from Riggs the day before that they are making a day trip out of it but other obligations kept me from going down during the day and getting a few hours of playtime in. I get on the road around 8pm and get a call from Riggs that they had just arrived. I'm about an hour + away at this point.

Arrive around 9:30 but can't get a seat until around 10:15. I was searching for their new 5-10 limit table but I was 6th on the list... the Borgata got rid of the 6-12 a few months ago and I was all for it. Making change every two hands was not all that time consuming... but it was a hastle. If it wasn't for the damn NJGC I would be vying for the 5-10 KillPot, but the story is in AC you can't play Kill pots with hold'em... BAH.

While I'm waiting for 5-10 a seat opens up at 1-2 NL.... now... I didn't bring enough loot down to get sucked out on in one hand for all my money playing NL and miss my opportunity to play in the tourney, so I sat at the 1-2 NL probably as tight as I was ever going to play. My simple goal was to make the $75 tourney entry fee and freeroll for the rest of the night.

As soon as I walk up to the table, the kid (and will be referred to as kid until the end of the story) 2 seats to my left says, "I'm going to play every hand...". He wasn't joking. He limped, raised, check-raised every pot and his 200 stack was down to 125 in the matter of 15 minutes.

I paid my blinds and just sat until I was in MP with 1010. Kid raises up to 12, I flat call with the hopes to flop the trips and set the trap and take his money and run. Player #3 on the button goes all in for $160. ???? $27 in the pot and you make it $160???

As long as kid goes away I make the call because #3 has to have 88 or 99. Any higher and he would want the action, so all-in wouldn't be the way to go. Any less and he should have thought about laying it down long before he re-checked his hand.

Well... kid says... "I'm all in", and I quickly fold.

#3 has 77 and kid has JackAce off. I threw away the best hand... weeeeeee!!!!!!

Flop 7 5 2. I'm a genius. A river 5 gives #3 the boat and I woulda lost 80% of my stack to his underpair. But alas, this just gave me the right motivation I needed to check the list again for 5-10 limit.

I was second on the list and in about 5 seconds I was called for my seat. I sit down, post up and look down at AK off in MP. No slowplaying as I raise up, get about 5 callers, and flop Ah-10s-5s
. I bet and get reraised immediately by player on my left. Another caller on the end and now I'm assuming that A10 is the nuts vs my AK. The turn brings a brick, I check, player bets, another call on the end, and I call hoping no spade hits the river. Another 10 hits the board as I check again, player bets again, another caller, and I can't assume my AK is good, but 1 bigbet to win 14... I call.

A3 vs ?? vs my AK... winner winner. In my first hand I just won my buy in for the tourney and actually debated walking away. But I still had about 45 min to kill b4 the tourney, so I stayed.

Paid my blinds, got some sweetened iced-t's (mmmm good tea), and cashed out 45 min later with my $75 buy in in hand.

YAY FREEROLL'IN!!!!

It's like Tokening into the Blogger Big Game from a $5 tourney.

Tourney kicks off and I win a few of the first hands and I'm up to 13.5k. I can't imagine that for the next 2 hours I would sit and fold and pay my blinds. At one point, no joke, no lie, no embelishment... I saw 3 face cards in 45 hands. One Ace, one King, and One queen. None at the same time. In a tourney that only lasts about 4.5 hours... not playing for half that stretch wasn't going to get my very far.

At the same time I was getting 8 hi... old man winter was in the 10 seat and had woken up to 8 PP's 10 or better.... 1x10, 3xQ, 3xK, 1xA... and they all WON. It was something out of a tv show. The best part about it is that after all that was said and done, he was at 11k, and I was at 10k.

I was down to my original stack when the blinds were 600/1200 with 200 ante. A full table of 10 puts 3800 in the pot preflop w/o any action. So, in MP after folding for pretty much 2 hours in a row I figured I had earned myself some respect and a move was in order. 2nd to act limps in for 1200 (he limped/folded a lot of hands), I push 9800 in the pot all-in. Someone even says... "Oh, you are here." Pointing out the fact that I haven't done anything in forever.

All folds to the small blind who makes no hesitation in putting his 14k all-in over the top and the rest fold around to me. With his instant action I can only put him on Jacks or better. Nope... AQ offsuit.

Now let me introduce you to "the Rugger". Named after one of my employees who just loved the hand. A monster 10-7. Well... at least I was live. Haha.

Flop 339. I'm a 25% favorite.
Turn 8. I'm a 31% favorite...woohoo it got better!!!
river 7. I'm a 100% favorite... woohooo... I'm a genius.

I'm up to 25k and can now fold for another hour with j7 and j6 for about 7 hands in a row. I wanted to get in the action as there was a lot of blinds and antes to be won, but we were down to 3 tables at this point and with basic math I figured I'd need about 60k to get to the final table and not be the low stack.

I win a round of antes and blinds with an uncontested all-in. I'm up to around 30k. I dust off 9k with a preflop raise (blinds 1k/2k) when the BB big stack calls me. Flop comes KJ4 and he leads out with 10k and I only have 20k left... I have to go away with my 5c6c.

Top 9 get paid... I have a lot of luck to do.

We get down to 2 tables and at this point it is all in or fold for half the players. I am one of them. Again, I couldn't get in the action even with 3 limpers ahead of me. 7-3 just isnt' gonna cut it when there are still 3 ppl (2 short stacked) behind me to act and I know at least one is going all in for another 7 or 8 k. I was right, and it was the right fold. I saved my bets for when I thought I could get in the pot and win uncontested or at least call another all-in with a premium hand (if it was ever going to come).

We get down to 13 players and I got my money all in with the chance to triple up with QJ. Not strong, but couldn't wait any long with my severe short-stack. I got 2 callers and the flop comes Kc8c3h. One player pushes all in and pushes the other away so I assume that he has the K and I'm drawing pretty much dead. He turns over 9c3c. Bottom pair with flush draw. I'm still thin, but a lil thicker than I thought.

Turn brings the Q of spades and the table gets loud, but i don't even blink. The River is the Jack of clubs... I runner runner 2 pair, but the club gives him the 9 high flush.

If I didn't dust off that 9k 20 minutes earlier, the 9c3c couldn't have called my all in. I was all in for 11k and he was a BB of 6k. So it was only 5k more to call with so much in antes/blinds/bets. No fault of his, but again, if I had 21K, he can lay it down and I go heads up and win vs the other player who had A7 and was coming for all his chips regardless.

So, I bust out 13th/90 players. Again, top 9 got paid but there was nothing I could do except win an all in when we got to the final two tables... and no love.

Rigg's didnt' fare well as his KK got cracked by ragrag suited. I lasted the longest as the other gang members peeled off in the middle rounds somewhere. In the end, we all got the same prize, I just got to goof off a lil longer in my freeroll.

I sat down at 3-6limit before I left (no 5-10 at 3:30am) and I won $30 bucks to cover my gas/tolls/parking/drinks.

A long day of poker and a break even day. I think I fared the best of the group, but some phone calls after Turkey Day will figure that all out.

As I was walking out the door, Chang was sitting at the same 3-6 that I was and was in a gambooling mood. He gets the suited HAMMER in mid position and gets in the action with a limp and then a call of a raise when 6 other people call the raise. Flop 774... Yahtzee!!! 3 players get to the turn after a raise/call. A 3 hits the turn giving one player the straight to the 7 with his 56. 3 players again get to the river after a raise/call. The river brings the case 7 and stone cold nuts for Chang. YAHTZEE once again!!

The player with the straight checks. Chang CHECKS. Player 3 bets, the straight calls, Chang raises, player 3 calls and the straight folds.

Chang shows his quads and Player 3 shows pocket 1010.

beepbeep Hammer.

Punch it Short-round!

2007-11-19T12:32:00.001-08:00

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Big Game live blogging

2007-11-18T18:40:00.001-08:00

This is my first attempt at live blogging... at it's going to be extra difficult as I am hosting a live Riverchasers Poker Tour tournament right now.

What a great start... 4 hands into the tournament I get a great SB hand... QQ. (unsuited).

TwoBlackAces does a pot raise in MP to 105. I reraise up to 320 with just the hope that the hand gets over with. The last Big Game I played I ran my KK into AA and couldn't let it go and busted pretty early. TBA reraises me to 1k total and I debate just letting it go and seeing the next hand. My devil on my shoulder tells me to call and the board is 10 hi. I check, TBA bets 1750 into the 2200 pot and I lay down... weeeee... didn't go broke. As long as TBA wasn't pushing the hammer, it was a good laydown.

Not too long after, I pick up a nut flush draw and make some strategic bets. Cmitch smooth calls on top pair and I get to my ace... but I really wish the spade came because Peacecorn woulda made the 2nd nuts and I double up. Alas... no spade, but it's a win.

At the break I'm barely ahead of my starting stack... thanks to RPT for not letting me bluff off my stack so far and keeping me busy running the tournament here. I am sitting ok and the chip leader is only holding 12K... so a dbl up and I'm in the top 5.

So much for my PP's in this event again. I get a crowd around me trying to watch me play and I can't let this one go. I figured it was 99 or 66 after the call on the turn. But can I slow down on the river... NOOOOOO.... .... ... I'm an idiot.

NH there cmitch... I couldn't throw out a reraise with the 2 callers to your UTG raise. I guess I should have in this instance.

So, I go back to work. At least my shift covers my buy-in for the night and prior to the event I was able to win my token for the MATH tomorrow... if I decide to play.

With a few minutes left before the 2nd break, 3 tables left, 3 of the top 4 players (cmitch, OtisDart, and HighOnPoker) are all sitting at the same table within 4 seats of eachother.

Otis takes out XxMagicianxX with a big AK vs AQ, all in preflop and moves into 2nd in chips behind Cmitch.

We get to the next break and Otis had pulled slightly ahead of cmitch, but well ahead the rest of the field at this point. There are 25 players left and the top 6 get paid

At the start, this is what the tables looked like.

TwoBlackAces gets a big double up at the final two tables.

Three hands later the AK comes up big again for TBA against our host MiamiDon

Riggstad makes his exit pretty quietly with his 101o vs A10. That'll teach him to play his PP vs one over card. This puts OtisDart in the chiplead by a pretty large stretch.

Smizmiatch gets some live cards against VinNay's big slick and doubles up to aprox 20k.

Smizmiatch gets another huge hand against Lucko21. Lucko was probably making a move that only QQ or better could call... unfortunately, that was the case. gg lucko.

In an interesting turn, Otis was bumped over to smizmiatch's table, putting chipleader 1 and 2 at the same table again. YAY randomness on FTP.

Beep Beep comes around as Zeem rips through Otis's pocketrockets. Big hand for Zeem as on the other table NewinNov busted on the final table bubble.

The final table players start busting out at an incredible speed. At 12:32am, this was the scene

At 12:35am, this was the scene.

twoblackaces pushed AK against VinNay's QQ and Vin hit the Q on the flop.
Zeem's AQ couldn't pull out a miracle vs emptymans AK.
The next hand, TheCloserX5 had Ah3h vs the 44 of VinNay which held the whole way.
Cmitch pushed A7 against Vin's KK and never caught up and busted out 6th.

Sadly, I have to leave the bar as it's closing up. My tourney is over here and I gotta head home... I would love to finish this up, but I'm sure our host will have the wrapup. Best of luck to everyone still in!

BeepBeep.

--UPDATE - Final standings - GG VinNay

My Immaturity Knows No Bounds...

2007-11-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Had to share this story with everyone... well... everyone who reads my Blog... so for the 4 of you out there... here's a non-fictitious tale...

I went to Target today to pick up a new showerhead because..well.. the old one dripped water instead of..well... doing what it should be doing.

So I grab that and shoot up the road where there is an unending road of fast-food joints and restaurants. I wasn't in the mood to sit down anywhere as I wanted to get my showerhead installed before running my 5pm errands. Also, I knew it was going to be a short night out because I have to be at the mountain (Volunteer Ski Patroller I am) at 8am tomorrow for our pre-season refresher and practice lift-evacuation. Man I hope it's not windy... at one point tomorrow I will be sitting on a chair lift for about 45 minutes in whatever weather Mother Nature lays upon us... not fun.

I decide on the quickest fastfood drivethru in the business... Wendy's. They got a decent spicy chicken sandwich that rivals any non-fast food chicken sandwich in the industry. I drive up and there are already 3 cars in line. I take a peak inside and there is no one inside in line, so... F' it. I'm not lazy.

I park and head inside and see what looks to be the manager talking with 2 other patrons/friends in the lobby area near the register. As I walk up, he ushers his friends in front of me to place an order. So be it. Nothing wrong with that. They order two combo meals and the total comes up to something like $1.13. So be it. Nothing wrong with that either. I used to hook up my friends at Subway (yes... I was a Sandwich Artist) when I was 15, but nothing to THAT extreme.

So I take a step back while they prepare their order and I take a peak around the restaurant and the only other ppl in there are 3 younger kids (2 girls, 1 guy) dressed in their Private School getup's. Probably 16 or 17 yrs old considering they probably drove to Wendy's after school or something. Nothing else to look at in the 5 seconds I had to scan the place.

I step up and place my order, and the 2 guys didn't seem to want to get out of the way of the register. So I kinda squeeze between the portly fellas and notice a nice hint of body odor on one of them... ah.. so be it... to be 45 yrs old and smell funny.. could have been a long day at work.

So I place my order, pay, and step back to get some fresh air and a little personal space. I notice that one of the girls from the table has walked up behind one of the other guys and is waiting behind him because she thinks he's in line. She kinda takes a peak around but he doesn't see her back there and just stands in her way.

And then.... ppffffrrrtttt.

He lets one rip right in front of her, ignorant to the fact that she is standing less than a foot behind him.

I lose it. I immediately start cracking up in the middle of everyone. Tears start running down my face as I can't stop laughing and as I look behind the guy I can see tears welling up in the girls face... probably not from laughter though. I think the odor had rushed it's way right up between the two of them and permeated every square inch around her. She is not covering her face with her hand inside of her long sleeve sweater.

Now a good minute has probably gone by as I still can't stop chuckling. My order comes up before theirs does and as I step up to grab my bag the guy steps back and it forces the girl to step back as well. He hears her behind him at this point and gets this look of shock on his face with the..."Oh... I think I get the excessive laughter now," look on his face.

I walk away to grab a straw and napkins from the service counter as she places her order for a yogurt or ice cream or something like that. By the time I load up my bag I turn around and she is looking in my direction (really... looking away from the 2 guys on the other side of her) and is fighting back the laughter. I start cracking up again as I walk by her and I say, "Happy Holidays, it probably can't get any worse than that."

And I was out the door.

Beepbeep.

New South Park = New Mookie

2007-11-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

Got my new flatscreen Plasma TV staring me at the face with nothing but the best programming for it. Brand new South Park is on tonite... after last weeks episode of "Guitar Queer-O" ...I was a little unsatisfied. It had so much potential but fell short.

Glad I missed the first hand, it would have cost me a few chips as the hammer would have hurt a little.

Started off hot out of the gates. 4th hand of the tourney I am second to act with AQ off... obviously not strong in my position, but it's early in the tourney and I can get away with losing a few chips if I miss. I come in with a standard 3x and make it 90, Kajagugu sits to my left and makes it 210. All folds to me and I think about before making the call. It's either AK or PP... I elect to see the flop and go from there... again... it's early.

Quote of South Park, Cartman: "Come on Kenny, girls don't wanna eat poptarts for dinner every night."

Flop comes KT5, all spades... i'm holding the A of spades. If Kajagugu had a PP, he may let it go unless it's QQ or JJ with a spade. I lead out the betting with about 3/4 pot bet. Kaja flat calls. Turn brings the A of diamonds. Now I'm only hoping it was the PP because if it was AK, i'm not drawing to the spade. I lead out 700 into about a 1K pot and Kaja just calls again. Now I have to think he has a big hand and is just waiting for the river to make a push. Problem is that the Q of spades hits the river. I got 2nd nuts to the J9 straight flush... but I can't put him on calling off all those chips with just a gutshot str8 flush draw. I put in another 700 hoping for a reraise with anything strong, but he flat calls with AK and I take it down.

I had Kaja's number again in a small blind vs big blind hand. I flop a boat. Check. Turn Quads. Check. The river brings an Ace and I just put out 150 into a 100 chip pot hoping he comes over the top. He just flat calls with the Ace and saves himself a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico.

I got very aggressive on a drawing hand and it never came. Roguejo flopped a set and didn't think twice about calling the all in at the river when the diamond flush came. Man... I wish I was pushing diamonds and not hearts.

I didn't feel like going broke with no kicker into this pot. Buttom limped, small blind limped, I check. I bet the pot at the flop and oakman42 immediately pushes all in. He could have had anything... AK, AA, 23... it didn't matter... I wasn't risking everything on top pair no kicker. I get my money back next hand with AK in the small with an all in preflop and no callers.

I get to the break very low on the food chain.... nothing spectacular to blog. Only notable mark for me is that the chip leader is still less than 10k... so no one is pulling away with this one. Hopefully I can double up and fight for some player points.

I got a case of the pushies to get some blinds back... I take down 2 in a row and then look down at AsQs UTG.... and I fold.... ?? I had a bad feeling. There was a raise behind me and a call... flop comes with an ace... there's a bet and a reraise. I'm thinking if I played I would be drawing to a Queen... whether someone had AK or 2 pair... I had a bad feeling nonetheless and walked away.

At this point I'm just hoping to have a winning all-in... cards are almost meaningless. I have 1800 and the blinds are 80/160. less than 10 orbits... I get AcQc and peacecorn raises up again preflop sitting 3 to my right... I am on the small and push all in... peace tanks and lays it down again. I have a feeling if I push against him again, I am going to get a call with any mediocre hand.

Blinds have bumped, 100/200 and I'm only sitting on 2200. It's about that time. Other players have gotten the pushies as well... Worst hand turn over for an all in was AQ though... so I have to be picky if I want to go in late position.. early position really doesn't matter...because at least they have to make the decision to play.

88 was the hand... Jestocost limped in for 200 in midposition and I'm on the button with 1900. 500 in the pot already and I'm ok with just taking down the blinds, maybe racing for a double up. I push, folds around to Jesto who makes the call with Dueces. OK! Double me up!

I come over the top of Jesto again... he raises up to 720 in MP again, I'm on the button with AJ. Not a hand I'd be proud to go out on... but I push all in hoping that our last hand is still fresh in his mind. He clocks and lays it down.

We are more than halfway through the field at this point. I'm shocked to see i'm in the 30's with more than 50 players left. I haven't really played any hands post flop since my miss with the flush draw.

I pass around a few hands and get 77 in MP. Alas... I put in a 5x raise up to 1500. Peacecorn comes over the top all in from the blinds and I'm just hoping to be in a race to two overs. I was. The 77 holds.

Tourney is moving along pretty fast... we are down to 43 already and I'm 28th with 6100. Jestocost is getting aggressive with his 3x raises preflop to everyone elses tight play. I wouldn't mind getting into another hand with him, but 10 hi each time around isn't gonna do it.

We come back from the break and I'm at a new table. I got "doc" (jeciimd) to my right and snakster across the table. Doc pushes all in on the lil blind against me and I lay down. I have a feeling this may go on each time around but the very next hand doc gets into it with ScottMc. Unlucky there doc.

I am sitting with 44oo, 30/32. Blinds are 250/500 with an ante of 50. 1150 in the pot before any action... which means it's push or go away time. I lay down the hammer when Scott raises half my stack.

My only saving grace is that I have players in position 29/31/32 sitting to my immediate right and left. Which means as long as I don't get coolered, I have a chance at doubling up thru one of the other small stacks. So far, no love. All the action was raised preflop and 7 hi isnt' gonna do it.

I get Kd9d in mp and decide to press my luck. I press and get lucky.

I get AK UTG and bet 4x with no callers. I show.

I get AK again in the cutoff. I raise to 22o0 and Julkeus pushes all in for 2500. I insta-call. He shows 1010 and I lose the race. Not too painful.

I get AA a few hands later UTG again... I make a 3x raise preflop and get no callers.... damn position.

We get into the points and i'm sitting 20/28. Just truckin' along.

Blinds are 300/600 with 75 ante. 1575 in the pot preflop... looking very attractive. I have 8500, so one or two pot steals and I get into the top 50% in chips... hopefully to grind out some more points and look for a double up/steal spot.

I think my rush was over... AK, AK, and AA. Guess I have to play now. Joy Joy.

Blinds up to 400/800 with 100 chip ante. 2k in the pot preflop... that's 25% of my stack. Only one player over 15k so I'm assuming there's 1 theory at the table. Every hand could be an all in.

I didn't even realize that we were getting close to the money. I get JJ in mp and just push. I take it down preflop to win 2k. I'll take it.

I hesitate too long on a suited A4. I should have laid it down when I started debating it.

BuddyDank was to my left and I gave him a walk when he was down to 3500 or so. I only had J8 suited, but I didn't feel like limping and having to fold to his all in, and I wasn't going to risk being greedy with J hi. It was a mistake. He takes down that walk, then takes down the next hand and is almost dead even in chips to me. I get the A4 of spades and I tank a push. I make the wrong decision and push and Buddy sits on AJ. I had chop possibilities after the turn, but no love. No beepbeep.

My aggression was misplaced this tourney, no doubt about that. I get into the BB with no chips left and am in a showdown with the lil blind. Even a win just buys me a few more hands so I would be all in over the next few hands pretty much regardless.

Not sure if I'll be around to defend my title at the RPT tomorrow night (#30641953). We'll see how the schedule shakes out.

Gotta start working on another strong showing next week. Gotta keep up the points.

BeepBeep.

Scotch is yummy...

2007-11-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

Scotch tastings are kind of like the last steak before the electric chair... just without the impending death that follows. Dec. 4th at The Draughting Room in Springhouse they will be having a 4appetizer, 5 scotch tasting. Lock it up. The last tasting I did was on my vaca to Scotland back in '05.. the pic in my profile is from the Ben Nevis Distillary.

This is a mimic of a picture that is in "Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch"... and it's not "YEEHEE" sleepin' with 'lil boys MJ.. it's "glug glug" master of all alcohols MJ.

The reason for our trip was Brian's, aka Bird, Bachelor Party. We spent a few days in Edinburgh, Fort William, and Glasgow and in the middle we found time for golfing at St. Andrew's. Now that doesn't sound like much, except we went in the rainy season (yes I know.. IT'S ALWAYS THE RAINY SEASON IN SCOTLAND).. but this were very speficially the MORE rainy season. We checked the forcast when we jumped on the plane and it said there was 2 feet of snow up in Ft William. Our thoughts were..."So be it, it'll be fun anyway, we're on vacation."

By the time we got up to Ft William, the snow was gone and it was about 50 degrees. Unseasonably high temperatures for the 3 days we were in Ft William. It was a gift from the heavens. As you can see here... Bird also loves him some Scotch...

Here was a quality photo taken of me getting out of one of the St Andrews' sand traps. We played the Eden Course without a drop of rain to be found... again... the pros at the shop said they weren't expecting to be open at all over the next 2 weeks... but alas..someone was looking out for us.

Once we got to Ft William.. .we found the best bartender ever! Now, the hotel bar closes at midnight.... this picture was taken somewhere around the 3:00am hour. The bartender doubled as the desk clerk... so he would go work the counter, we would flag him over and he would open up the metal gate halfway (as you can see), pour us a round of pints and scotch, close it up and head back to the desk.

I had to share one of my favorite pics from the trip... because what would a Bachelor party in Scotland be w/o a Playboy? We meant to mail that in to them and tell them about the trip, but we never got around to it. Anyone know anyone at Playboy that might be interested in telling our story? I doubt it, but it was worth a shot.

All this just because I thought about getting Scotch-drunk on the 4th. Ahh.. booze.

Beep Beep.

RPT Represent!

2007-11-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

With a complete and utter lack of confidence going into the RPT event, I knew that nothing short of another deep run would get me to my goal as player of the week. This means 3 final tables in 3 tournaments over 4 days against over 85 -120 players in each. With Kajagugu sitting at the top after his 1st and 3rd finish, I figured my 6th and 9th place would put me right behind him.

WRONG.

Not realizing that TwoBlackAces also finished at the final table with us (and ahead of me considering I was first out at both final tables), I was actually sitting in 4th behind TBA and dansty13 who took down the Mookie and pick up a ton of points. So now, not only was I trying to fight for player of the week, I now had to keep track of 3 other players with the hopes that I could get at the same table with any of them and take a stab at busting them to help my cause.
Trying to win the event and take down my seat for the Aussie Millions freeroll is always in the back of my mind... but I know my luck at the final table has never been strong. No matter what, in the end, you have to showdown some cards to win the hands. Sounds like a simple thing, but I just never seem to be the one player at the table that has those hands. I normally run into 3 coin flips and lose them all, or I get some monkey on AquaDots that overplays his QJ to my AceKing and I go down.

Not tonight.

I did get a great lesson in folding playable hands out of position. I wish I had screenshots of the entire tourney to show you how many Ace-rags I had UTG/2nd to act. Everyone has their own style, some players play any ace preflop, some don't. I don't. Hell, final 2 tables in this tourney I laid down AK preflop when two other players came in strong. I would have won the hand but that's not the point. I was up against 2 players with a lot of chips, of which one of them had to have a PP. It was 1010 and QJ. Board ended up with KJ out there and I would have won, but again, that's not the point. I don't like risking my chips on 50/50's if I don't have to. Call me tight, I'm ok with that.

I really sat around and did nothing through the first break. I was up to 4k but it wasn't with anything strong, nothing outstanding. I was able to pick up 400 and 500 here and there with some strategic betting out of position. There wasn't a show down so I may have been ahead, I may not have, but it was still early in the tourney and as long as I wasn't going broke... it was just chip movement.

I started my climb against Snakster. He and I have played some cash games in the past and I have a good feeling on where he stands most of the time, but he has the ability to surprise. Blinds 100/200 and I am in late position with 8d9d and there were 2 limps ahead of me. I get in the action with a limp as does 2 players behind me. Snak is in the big blind and makes a pot bet and raises it up to 1000. The 2 limpers ahead of me go away and I'm assuming a flat call in my position is going to get the 2 players behind me closer to being priced in. I call, they fold away. Not what I was expecting.

I flop a christmas miracle. 5d6d7h. BOOOOOM. Snak checks, I check. Turn brings the Ace of clubs. Pot was 2800 and I had about 4800 left. Snak makes a pot bet and I hesitate a few seconds and push all in. Snak tanks and makes the call and was drawing dead. gg Snak. He was able to get back some of his chips back but never fully recovered.

I take another decent pot down with I flop top 2 in the big blind. I got money at the flop and turn, but wasn't called at the river.

I limp into a pot in mid position with K10 suited. Not a standard play from me but I was rolling from the last few pots and the table raising had slowed down because of it...so I felt I could get in cheap and go from there. I take a very big pot from weak_player as I'm assuming he thought i was on a flush draw the whole way. We pushed at the turn and I didn't get spanked by the river card. These are the hands I typically lose at this pt in the tourney, but the LuckTruck kept rollin' w/o being unlucky.

Here against 1tata1 (who may not sing at my wedding because of this hand), was a small vs big situation. She limped with fives and I checked my KQ. She led out the flop with a minimum bet of 300 and I call. She bets 300 again on the turn and I make it 900, she calls. She checks the river and I bet 900 again and she calls. By keeping her first few bets small I was able to draw her in for another 1200...

This was a big hand vs ScarKnight later in the tourney. I was on the big with 77 and Scar raises UTG 3x (somewhere around 2500). The table was getting shorter and the blinds were going up, so coming in UTG always raises some flags. I figured AK or low PP. I reraise preflop up to somewhere around 6000 hoping that it was just a move and Scar can let it go. Worst case scenario we see a flop and play from there. He calls and I think he misses the board completely. I push out and he comes over for his stack... at this point I think it's a move with AK.. hopefully not hearts... I make the call. I was right... and wrong. His UTG raise disguised his Jack hi hand... I never could have put him in this spot. OE Str8 flush draw. I'm behind with my pair when the money goes in... but my real question is what did he think I had.. .and did it matter what I had. He raised out of position to steal the blinds. I reraised him and then I lead out big on the flop. Does he even bother putting me on a hand or his draw enough for him to commit all his chips regardless of my hand. Either way, money went in and 5th street owned me. I am not terribly upset with the way I played the hand, I just think this was one of the flops that put us both in the hand. I didn't have him on any of it, and he hit the biggest draw in the world.

My run of PP's began. 77 vs Scar. 88 the next hand, I raise up on the button and Scar comes over the top of me. I feel myself wanting to push here... but I don't want to race down his AQ for the majority (if not all of) my stack. I lay it down. Next hand was 1010. Jdband 3x's the blind and i got 2k over him. All folds. Next hand was AA. I raise up again and Murrayclan makes the call preflop. Board came J hi, I think I bet out 5k into a 6k pot and he laid down.

Not too long later, Murrayclan and Bayne get into it 1 or 2 hands after Murray lays down JJ preflop to Bayne's reraise. J10 no good to Baynes Q10. Who knows what would have happened if Murray pushed the JJ. Bayne ended up 3rd in the tourney.

Scar busts out and Shamanalix is moved to my left. We are down to the final table and Madbrooklyns qq is trumped by Sham's AA.

I really don't play many hands out at this point. Raising up my good cards to take down the blinds. We get down to 5 handed rather quickly when On_Thg and I get all in preflop. He pushed all in a few times UTG prior to this, so I knew he hand range was all over just trying to stay alive by taking down blinds/antes. I figured my AJ was ahead, didn't think I had him dead to the King.

We get down to 4 and Bayne is now in the same position. He has come over the top of me 3 or 4 times in my bigblind position and I sat with 72, 62, 32 each time. This time I had an Ace and some chips to play. Unlucky board and I double Bayne up at pull myself way below Sham's stack in first place.

I believe it was Sham who took out GCox25 to get us down to 3 handed. The rail was starting to heat up as Kaja was rooting for anyone who wasn't me. I honestly couldn't believe that COMCAST hadn't blown me out of this tourney yet... For those who hadn't read about my weekly catastrophe, my internet/cable/phone all go out (YAY COMCAST TRIPLE PLAY!!) at 12:00 midnite. In the MATH I was sitting 4th/20 and get back online 10th/12. I end up 6th... not too happy with that, but who knows, I could have busted out 19th and on the bubble like I did the week prior when my Aces were pimped by Kaja's 89 as he went on to finish 3rd that tourney.

So it happens again on Wed in the Mookie... I am prepared for it this time and get over to Iron Hill Brewery (god bless free WiFi) as quick as I can. I am severely short stacked and need a lot of help to get back into the tourney. I get a runner runner... or two... to help me out. I finish 9th as Kaja wins a coin flip on his way to 3rd place again.

Luckily for me I called Comcast and asked if there were any scheduled work outages in my area and they said they all had been completed. Yay. We'll see.

Back to the RPT.

I'm sitting 2nd in chips, 2:1 over Bayne and not too far behind Sham. I get queens in the big and I'm able to take down a 23k pot when I lead out for 25k... not sure what Sham had here, but I was content with a push if he thought I was full of it.

Sham takes out Bayne and we go heads up... 5:1 disadvantage and someone from the rail talks about a chop. Now obviously I have a lot more riding on this than Sham does. If I win, I take down the weekly champ and freeroll into FTOPS#7, I get the $300 first place prize, and I get the seat into the Aussie Millions freeroll. I was hoping Sham already had his seat and was willing to give it up uncontested. I offered him first place money to give up the seat because I knew it would include 1st place points for the week. I was in no position to barter as my 58k looked up at Shams 229k. No chop.

We trade blinds for a little when I get A3 in the big. Sham raises up a minimum raise and I flat call. Flow coms A 10 7. I check, Sham bets 12,8, I push all in and Sham lays down.
A few hands later I have Ah9h in the big. Sham raises up pot to 9,800, I reraise all in and Sham calls with QhJs. Board ATT79. I survive a big double up and immediately offer the money chop again. We agree and play it out for the seat.

At this point AlCantHang and cracknaces get into some friendly banter on the rail over some stuff... pretty comical.

We play it out a little bit and I get a walk with the Hammer.... I show it.

Not too long after I look down at a suited AK in the BB. Sham limps for 1500 more and I raise up preflop to 14k and he calls. The board comes KQ3. I led out for 28k, and after thinking about it, he comes over the top for everything he has. I make the call and I turn over my AK and he shows K9. I dodge the river and go from 126 up to 253k while he falls down less than 35k.
I give up 3 hands in a row. One was J hi that I raised on the LB and Sham comes back over the top for it all. I wasn't going to dbl him up with J hi.

A get Ah5h in the Big and Sham pushes all in on the Small. I call and we turn over and run it out....

Bingo, Yahtzee, Viola, Yippee aye aye ohhh....

It felt like a good game, I think I played like a puss on one or two hands with low pp's... but... whatever I did worked. See the other 26 winners in December and I'm sure I'll be seeing everyone else throughout the next 5 weeks of the promo. I promised the girl that if I was able to pull off the weekly champ then that was a good enough goal to set and I wouldn't be playing in every tourney...

well...now... i'm second only to Kaja for the overall pts lead... oh what to do what to do. I may have to bend my promise a little bit over the next month... but she'll understand if I do well this Sunday in the FTOPS...

Until then... thanks for the railing guys. Appreciate it.

Beep Beep.

Comcast is out to get me...

2007-11-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Mookie or Bust…

Following my 6th place finish in the MATH after my internet connection debacle I’m firing away at the Mookie tonite to hopefully make a deep run to continue my weekly points accumulation. My two goals are to 1) win my seat for the Aussie Millions promo, or 2) win the weekly points total for my buy-in to the Sunday FTP Guarantee tourney.

I don’t have much luck in the Mookie so I’m not really shooting for that #1 spot, so my real goal is just to grind out and make the moves necessary to give myself a chance for a final table.

I got picked as a horse from Riggstad in the Hoyse Race… $20 bones/head, pick 4 horses, take top 3 cumulative pts, winner take all. Looks like 10 people in this Race so the pot is $200… hope I can give Riggstad two Race wins in a row and peel off my fee to cover my buyin for the tourney…we’ll see how it shapes out.

Started off well, dealt AA and QQ in the first 3 orbits, won them both before the turn but I got some good value from them preflop. Hoping not to recreate the disaster with Kajagugu and his 89s vs my AA on the bubble of last weeks tourney. I went from 4th to bubble (19th) in a tourney I was just playing extremely well. Gotta jump back on the bike though, can’t dwell on bad beats, right?

About 45 minutes into the tourney, I’m at 3655 and surflexus is at 1740. I get KK on the big. Kaellinn18 raises up 3x to 180 with smooth calls from killinkegz and surflexus. I make it 800 to go with my only fear being Kaellinn18… if he has AA… gg japan. If he lets it go, I know I got the goods for the other 2. Kaellinn lets it go, Kegz lays down, surflexus tanks for 6 seconds and pushes all in for his 1700 with snowmen. I insta-call and after the flop I insta-lose. Surf bangs his 8 and I continue my unlucky run being a 4:1 favorite. In Surf’s defense, he was playing in the FTOPS and did justify that it was double up or concentrate on FTOPS. Not a problem there. But Kaellinn18 defended the play saying that he was short-stacked. Come on. 30-60 blinds.. 1700 in chips.. and short-stacked? Having less chips than everyone and short-stacked are two completely different things. So be it, another play, another day.

So now I sit with 1700 after the break… blinds 60/120… short-stacked. Lol. I have a girlfriend asleep on the couch and Finding Nemo in the background. “Haha… you’re a clown fish. Tell me a joke.“

I just passed through the blinds and saw the whole orbit with 8 hi… that was fun. Not even a Hammer to push with and have an excuse when I bust out. Got down to 1200 and debated an all in with AJ… Katitude has around 1800 and was short stacked too and raised to 480 before me… but I got nothing else to play… I push.. and Kat folds… didn’t see that coming.

Few hands later I got 88 utg and hope to buy a round of blinds. I push, I win. It’s normally in this scenario when I run into QJ or A8 and get smoked.

My problem is now, when and if I do wake up to a hand… I probably won’t be getting respect because my range of hands has widened w/o a showdown in the last 30 minutes. So I probably won’t get anyone to lay down 2nd tier cards from here on out unless I get moved or double up again.

I have a chance to pick up about 1200 when Kat announces she’s all in next hand regardless. All folds to her and she makes the move she said she was going to do. I have nothing but K6, but I can’t believe that she has that beat going all in blind… I only have the blinds behind me but I decide to lay it down. Mike_Maloney makes the call and shows 66 to Kat’s QJo. Flop of A67 and Kat is pretty much dead. My question to myself.. .and who knows the answer… is if I go with my gut and push, does Mike follow me into the pot for my 2300 when he has 5400. A little less than half his stack to go against 2 allin’s with 66…. I don’t know.

Just waiting for an all-in at this point… huntsvegas is to my right and makes it 700 to go, I instapush with AK and am instacalled with AK. Chop it up… what I wouldn’t give to have had AQ here.

Again, Just waiting to push and there are 2 all-ins ahead of me. I’m not strong with my K8 of clubs but I’m looking at 3:1 here… I lay it down. I woulda hit. So be it.

I get 99 2 hands later and put half my stack in with a pot bet… Mike_Maloney tries to knock me out with a reraise with his 55 but I hold off this 4:1 draw and double up. I’m pulling out of the hole Riggstad…hope you were your worst horse.

Get down to about 30 players and I’m still near the bottom… surviving all in’s w/o callers. Hit the 2nd break with just over 4k in chips…23 of 27 players though. Shocked I’m not at the bottom of the barrel. We’ll see.

WAIT....WHAT'S THIS??? IT'S 12:15am... WHAT'S THAT MEAN???

It's time for Comcast to shutdown my internet again. Down it goes and off I go to Iron Hill once again. I was able to make it there rather quickly and I'm assuming the RNG on FT noticed what happened to me again and felt bad... when I got back, I couldn't lose.

I doubled up with Q hi, pulled two runner runners after getting all in with the best 1 out of 2 times... next thing I know. I'm 3/19. I don't have pics because the comfort of my Durango isn't becoming for copying/pasting/saving hand histories. I don't have a runninng program that records all my hands, so If I don't get the pic from the Hand History before the table closes... I don't get it. I do have a terrible pic of my truck outside of Iron Hill.. you can see the fermenting kegs through the windows (Iron Hill is a micro-brewery for those that don't know). It's not worth putting up here cuz it's too dark. I guess I have to go thank them again for the use of their internet with lunch over there.

Thanks to Riggstad for his belief in the LuckTruck and picking me as a horse... I did well for his squad but I needed to pull off a victory and hope that Kajagugu got knocked out early in the money.

That didn't happen as Kaja and I went heads up for my tourney life with 9 players left. My 77 didn't hold up against Kaja's AdKd. Gutshotting broadway was a devilish way to take me out... but any A or K and it was good as well. 4:1 going to the river... seems like a pattern with me.

Good game to all. See ya in the Riverchasers O.T. tonite for those that make it... I'm hoping Kaja gets the hook from his wife and I have a shot at player of the week. 6th of 78 and 9th of 117.. both first out at final table. Both times Kaja finished ahead of me.

Buena suerte a mi.

Monday Night Football... ehh...not so good.

2007-11-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

MNF or the MATH?

Monday Nite Football....Ravens...Steelers...not the matchup I'm really wanting to go out and drop 25 bucks at the bar for... Although I would really like to go meet up with them to brag about the 6-2 Lions. How does a second rate starter end up in Detroit and begin talking shit about winning 10 games this year. Yeah, Detroit has had some stellar recruiting/drafting in the past 3 years... but injuries to the best up and coming receiving core in the league have thrown them under the bus after week 3. Now, Kitna is 6 and 2 after routing the Broncos and going into a struggling Arizona squad (don't let that mean anything though... Eagles ate up the Lions in Philly and look at them).

MNF or the MATH is still the decision to be had, but after looking at the first quarter stats and Ravens have 3 turnovers already... plus I already have my Token for the tourney... decision is easy.

I was ecstatic to find out that the MATH was a 6handed tourney. Creates a lot more action for the obvious reasons and works a little better into my style of play. After about 15 minutes into the MATH... this happens

BEEP BEEP.

When your password is hammer... the wheel of fate isn't rolling in your direction.

Moved up early in the action by outkicking Hoy with trip aces, but lost that back pretty quick to Wadzilla and his cheering section when my JJ was outflopped with Wad's JackAce.

Near the first break Loretta8 was moved over to my right. Now, for those of you that haven't heard my Loretta story... we were in the Mookie last week and he was moved to my table near the middle of the tourney. He had about 6500 in chips to my 20k (I think I was in the top 5 or 6 at the time). He pushes all in 3 hands in a row and won the antes and blinds each time. This put him up to about 9200ish. The very next hand I'm 2nd to act with pocket tens and I raise up 4x. All folds around to Loretta who pushes all in again. I make the call and he silently turns over QQ and rakes half my stack.

I mean... come on. That's just not supposed to happen like that. Right now, in the MATH he has raised up the last 4 hands in a row. My luck I'll peek down at KK and be dominated again. (Please don't let me lose like that again).

I hit the break with about 3400 in chips... nothing to Blog about, but it's where I was. 33/52.

Now for dinner. Hot soup with crackers. Almost left it burning on the stove after the break ended. Looked down at QQ. Wad raises up UTG and is flatcalled by TripJax to his left. Action around to me and I push the stack, hoping one of the two has a lower pair and will call or at worst I'm racing against AK. Not the case. Wad moves in with AA and Trip folds away.

BEEP BEEP.

Not too long after, I remember my soup on the stove. While I was scraping the chicken off the bottom of the pot I see that Wad got his chips right back with KK this time vs QQ (coincidentally vs Loretta8).

Tourney started moving pretty fast. Blinds were up to 100/200 and it seemed closer and closer to limp or all in. I ran hot with 3 hands in a row. Raised with AJ and won the blinds. Raised with KQ on the button, 1 caller, flopped Q66. Next hand AQ I raise up with 1 caller. Flop KQx. turnK. River A. No flush for TripJax and my aces and kings were good. Put me close to 11k in just 3 hands.

So then.. .I'm moving along smoothly, up to about 17K... 20 players left... i'm in 4th place... and my window goes cold... youknow... kind of looks like it's freezing because another program is loading....

No, that's not it. My modem has 2 blinking lights. normally... it has 8.
Comcast Cable decided that no one needed cable after midnight in my neighborhood and shut it down to do maintenance. I waited a few minutes before I made my decision to jump in the Durango.

I live 2 seconds from a restaurant that I know has free WiFi... so I rolled up to the side door and logged back in. I was smart enough to grab my power cable as well on the way out the door. So I can survive in the truck until the end of the tourney.

I went from 4th of 20 to 11th of 12. I lost about 6k in the mad dash over there. Now I sit 9th of 10 and PirateLawyer is sucking out to stay alive. He just missed his straight draw and we're on the bubble.

I get BIG CARDS. KK vs AJ... needed to 4flush the river to stay alive, but best hand won. QQ vs J10 against cmitch again. Get up to 50k... 2k behind the chip leader.

Everyone plays tight/all in while on the bubble. Riggstad gets unlucky and wheels his 99 into 1010. He's down to 4k and doubles up twice to get back into 4th place while we are still on the bubble.

Twice we get to hand for hand dealing and we are the short table. This means we pay more blinds per hand and get less in the pot for antes. No fun, but luck of the draw I guess. Riggstad pulled a lucky one out and was moved off our table right before this happened.

We get down to 8 players and it is a battle 3 handed at our table. Props to NumbBono and Kajagugu for a tough table. I bust out 6th after my internet connection goes slow on my in the parking lot (i know... shocker). I was moving my mouse to hit raise with suited A4 and the screen freezes on me and it doesn't take my little raise, it instead raises half my stack. I get put all in and I know I'm dead... I lay it down and leave myself with 10k.

A few hands later I look down at A6 of spades UTG... not the best position but 6 handed and lowstack... it was time to move. Get picked off by AK as I should have and gg Japan. Not too shabby for dumping 2/5 of the stack to Comcast.