Friday, June 30, 2006

DADI Winners, Boxing and PokerSavvy

I needed to get a new laptop. The dinosaur just wasn’t going to cut it for the DADI last night. After work yesterday, I went to my cousin’s weigh-in, had some dinner and then headed over to Circuit City. My goal was to find a cheap laptop so that if it died soon, I wouldn’t be kicking myself like I am now about the Vaio that I overpaid for.

I found just the trick as soon as I walked in. A Toshiba for $499. Sweet, let’s do it. I wasn’t going to get the extended warrantee but when I found out it was only $159 for 4 years, I bit on that too. So, I should be all set for a while in the laptop department.

I got it home and couldn’t connect to my wireless network. The laptop had an integrated wireless G card but my router is a wireless B. I knew that was a problem and put in the wireless card from the old machine but, of course, couldn’t find the driver install disk. I was running around downloading the drivers and trying to find a cd to burn it to. Finally, I realized that I could have just copied the file to my thumb drive. Duh.

Anyway, I had to start the tourney on the dinosaur but got the new one going during the tourney and downloaded Stars, along with the girly chat client and away I went.

As for the DADI, I was severely card dead. Also, with the team sidebets going, I played it extra cautious. I needed the money, which, of course, we won. I survived until 25th but Don and JJok were still nice and healthy at that point. It was down to 20 when Don went at it with Surf and came out on the losing end of running his KK into George’s AA. They got it all in on a Q high flop. Nothing he could do there. It was all up to JJ at that point. To lock it up, he needed to finished within 10 spots of George for us to win it. He ended up kicking some ass and finishing 3rd overall. Great job team mehmiamidrewisok (?)! I know I was heavy, but thanks for carrying me.

Great job by all at the final table and to Scott who took it down shortly after JJ went out. Well played by all.

Tonight is fight night. My cousin is fighting his 3rd professional fight. He fought a lot as an amateur in the Navy. When he got out, he worked but kept in shape by going to the boxing gym. His first fight was a long time again but last July he had his second fight in Plymouth. He was on the undercard for a Friday Night Fights for ESPN2 and ended up knocking the guy he fought out in the first round. He is hoping to win tonight and then fight again in November at the Roxy in Boston. One fight at a time though. He has honestly fought a couple of potato sacks so far, so we will see how he does tonight. Hopefully I can get some pictures up over the weekend.

Last thing is sign up for Pokersavvy through my link over there on the right (holy crap, my first self pimp). They have a crazy deal with Mansion going in that all you have to do is sign up for Pokersavvy, then download Mansion through them and use their referral code while signing up. Once you make a $50 deposit, all you have to do is bet $50 and you get 900 Savvy Points. You can bet that $50 anywhere. In poker, casino (think Blackjack) or the sports betting area.

What can you get with 900 points you may ask? How about an iPod Shuffle? Not up your ally? How about $90 cash money if you do this promotion this week?? That’s right, 900 points will entitle you to gift cards for $90 but they are letting you convert it to cash that goes directly into your Neteller account! It is virtually risk free really. I make the deposit last night and played blackjack for about 15 minutes. I did lose $5 but I now qualify for the points and the cash so my net for 15 minutes of work was $85! Not bad. You bonus whores and low limit players like me, be proud and do it up!

Have a great weekend all.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Losses

Well, my plan was to post a bunch of happy pictures this morning but it didn't work out for the baseball team last night. It was scoreless into the 4th inning and then our pitching went in the tank. The starter couldn't get it over the plate, then my son couldn't then another kid couldn't before we found someone that could.

It was a 9 run inning for them and the frustrating part about it was we didn't get hit, we just walked tons of kids. Tough way to lose it. All the kids were upset, including my son who said he lost the game for them. He came in down 3-0 with 2 on and noone out and only got 1 out before being pulled with the bases loaded and the score at 5 or 6-0. Either way, they just didn't hit last night anyway. It was a great season though and they all got over it pretty fast at the pool party after the game.

I left the party so I could play the freeroll put on PokerSavvy. It was a very generous 1K freeroll. I should have stayed at the party. I chipped up a little early and then lost 2 coinflips and was gonzo. I got raised by Falstaff and I pushed with AK. He called with pocket 5's and when the flop came K5K it took a minute for me to register that I was boned.

I was down to about 400 chips when I got JJ, on the next hand I think. I raised and was reraised and I pushed them in and was up against AQ. I think the Q hit the flop and out I was. The AK push was probably wrong but it was a freeroll and I didn't want to waste a bunch of time to finish without any cash. Maybe a bad way to play it.

In the Mookie, I lasted longer but still made the Donkey move to put myself out. I was pretty card dead but managed to suck out a big hand against Gary when we got it all in on the flop with a J high board. I had QJ and he had KJ but the Q on the river saved me for a little bit.

I took a few hits and we were down to about 25 or so left when it was folded around to me in the SB and I had K8c. I bumped it trying to steal and the BB flat called. The flop came K high rainbow so I bet the pot and I think he called. We got it all in on the turn I believe and he had big slick. IGHN.

See everyone at the DADI tonight. Real busy at work and I am out of here a little early (Again!) because tonight is the weigh-in for my cousin's fight tomorrow night.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The team marches on and other crap

Well, the kids did it again last night. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and never looked back winning the game 13-3. They all played great and got through, even though our pitcher struggled a little bit with his control. My son did great with 2 walks and an RBI double. Tonight is the final championship game. We haven’t played the other team all year because they were in the West division, so no idea what to expect. Both teams have to use their 3rd pitcher of the week though so it could be a high scoring title game. The coach told me that my son will be the first pitcher out of the bullpen if our starter struggles tonight so my wife is a little nervous. My son is hoping he gets to pitch.

We went out for ice cream after the game so I didn’t get home until about 9 and missed the WWdN. I did log in for a little bit and check out the leader board. Hacker was doing great and KJ and Smokkee were still in also. Congrats to Hacker for his final table. Also congrats to the recently jobless Mean Gene who kicked some tail last night and finished 3rd. Nice going and best of luck in the search.

I played in one $10 SNG and finished fifth. Nothing too memorable as I was short stacked and chipped up to about 2nd in chips with 5 left but didn’t reign in my aggression quick enough. I had just doubled up with A10 vs A9 to put me in a good spot. I had been the push monkey though and when I was dealt AJ in EP on the next hand after that, I shouldn’t have pushed. I did and ran into AQ which left me with crumbs. I was out shortly after that.

I signed up for the DADI tourney last night. This week is really busy and I am going to my cousin’s weigh in tomorrow night. It is early, at 5:30pm, so it shouldn’t conflict with the tourney but I wanted to be safe and register now. As I mentioned, I am team up with MiamiDon and jjok for the team last longer against Jordan, Tripjax and GCox. We are also in another team last longer that Smokkee is running. In both, if any of your teammates don’t register for the tourney, you forfeit, so I am safe for now. We’ll see how it goes but I like our chances. These cash guys seem to do ok in tourneys. Team MehMiamiDrewisok is charging hard tomorrow night.

I hope to make it to the Mookie tonight. Luckily it is pretty late because win or lose tonight, we are going to a neighbor’s house for a team party. I should still be able to make the Mookie and I hope to because it seems I haven’t played it in forever. Mostly because I was the first to be bounced last week. 10 minutes didn’t cure my fix for the best online “home game” going (no offense Hoy).

Ok, last thing for today was the Brazilian wins yesterday. Yes, wins plural because not only did the Brazilians win on the pitch, but they scored a little win right in my own neighborhood. As I have mentioned we are finished off the attic for a new bedroom for my oldest. My wife has been shopping like crazy and while we needed new furniture for his room, she also took it as a time to take advantage and get new furniture for my youngest. His dressers had been purchased by us just before my oldest was born. We had no money (not that we have a lot now but…) and bought these 2 pieces at an unfinished furniture store. I finished them and they have served us well for the last 10 years and 3 kids. The problem with them was the tracks for the drawers sucked and were a constant headache. She finally got me to break down and buy new stuff, even though to look at these, they looked great still.

The new stuff for my 3 year old was to be delivered yesterday. In the morning, my wife and I had to move the old ones out so I said we should just put them out at the end of the driveway with a Free sign on them, just to get rid of them. She agreed and we put them out there. I then jumped in the car and off to work I went. I stopped an grabbed my coffee and got a call on my cell. It was my wife.

She: “Ok, I am watching these 3 Brazilian guys trying to stuff the 2 dressers into the back of a Corolla right now. It might be the funniest thing I have ever seen.”

Me: “Huh, what are you talking about?”

She: “2 minutes after you left this car came around the corner and just about locked up their brakes to stop at the house. They jumped out and are trying to jam the dressers in the car”

Me: “Umm, why don’t you tell them we can keep them for them if they want to come back?”

She: “Oh, yeah, good idea. I’ll call you back.”

She did call back a couple minutes later after one of the guys told her he would come back with a truck from his boss. We have a good sized Brazilian population in my town. There is a lot of construction going on and they are filling a need for labor at a good price. Not to generalize, but I have a couple buddies with business in town. One guy does concrete and another does landscaping. Both of them employee Brazilian workers and they work hard. They come here, work hard for a while, get by and then go back to their home in a better position than they left. Anyway, I got rid of my stuff and apparently it was needed so it was a win-win. Two wins for the Brazilians in one day. Not bad.

Btw, the heat was installed in the new room yesterday. We can start painting anytime after tomorrow and then I have to do the finished work on the trim around the windows and the baseboards before the carpets are put in next Thursday. Then it is all done.

Ok, that’s it for today. Hope to see you at the Mook.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The Party, Laptop and Baseball

The Party

So I will start off with the party on Saturday night. I was pretty busy so I couldn’t post it yesterday, and after some more thought about it, it probably isn’t enough for a full post anyway. It was one of those things that is tough to explain. You sorta had to be there.

Suffice it to say, it was interesting, as any coed sex toy party would be I guess. The people that had the party live in the neighborhood and are friends of friends so that is how we were invited. That meant that there were a lot of people that we didn’t know. Luckily, I arrived with a couple Jack and cokes already down the hatch, and the first half hour was just cocktails. They had margaritas, which wouldn’t normally be my choice, but I decided I better continue on with the hard stuff to prepare for the night. Not that I am a prude or anything, but I had no idea what to expect.

My wife and I mingled and met a few couples that we didn’t know before. As we were chatting, the woman that was selling the goods arrived and started setting up. She just kept wheeling in suitcase after suitcase. It was pretty funny.

She started off by having us all sit with our partners and she passed out 2 mini cans of Play Doh to each couple. The first order of business was to shape a penis and vagina. Umm, ok. My wife won a prize, woot. Well played, maam. That little exercise seemed to loosen everyone up and the jokes started flying fast and furious. Actually, I think everyone though they had to keep cracking jokes to keep the focus off the machinery that we were surrounded by or something. In any event, the next hour or so was filled with lots of loudness, drunkenness and rudeness basically. The woman selling could barely get a word in while she tried to explain product after product. She had women taking samples of certain “creams” and retiring to the ladies room to “try it on”. It was pretty funny and again loud.

About 15 minutes in, one of woman, apparently feeling pretty good, decides to tell a quick story.

“Ok wait a minute, I have a story. My roommate from college one time got F’d by a Snickers bahhhh (Boston accent of course)! It was coming out of her for 5 days!”

Umm, took much information thanks. This was, of course, at the top of her lungs because the 30 people there or so were jabbering away.

Anyway, I just kept drinking and finally stumbled home late that night with my wife and little bag of some sort. (Hmm, ok, maybe this was enough for a post, oh well)

The Laptop

Well, I called about the laptop yesterday. I called the service center that fixed it the last time I had this power problem. They fixed it in September and it was under the extended warranty. Well apparently, that warrantee expired in February. Wonderful. I asked, if it was the exact same problem, how much would it cost. The lovely woman told me they needed to have the unit to tell me. She said they don’t do estimates over the phone. Umm, ok, not looking for an estimate. Looking to see how much my last repair would have cost me if I didn’t have the warrantee. She kept repeating that they needed to have the unit and that they didn’t do estimates over the phone. She did say that it would cost $99 for them to even look at it though. Great. Thank you for being so helpful. I told her she wasn’t getting my Unit and hung up. I don’t think she cared. I have a feeling that this service center has so many warrantee items to fix through the various electronics stores that they don’t have to try. She certainly didn’t.

So now I have a dilemma. I don’t know if it is worth sending this in and having it fixed, especially since it was just fixed in September and the design of the AC plug seems to be prone to this happening again and again. I may have to just suck it up and buy a cheap laptop, even though this one is perfectly fine if I can get power to it. Maybe I can look into a docking station for it on ebay or something. It pisses me off because I paid extra for the Vaio, which was my first mistake, but now I don’t know what to do about it. Sony is almost impossible to talk to directly and I am not sure they would be too concerned about a 3 year old laptop anyway. Ah well, live and learn. Either way, I need to get the content off the hard drive of that thing. I have tons of picture files and my iTunes library. I don’t know how easy that is to replicate. Can I just take what is on my iPod and put in on a new machine if I get one? Anyone know?

The Playoffs

So the boy’s team kicked ass again last night. They are the 4th seed and beat up on the 1st seed pretty good last night. They play again tonight for the Eastern division championship against the 3rd seed. That team had a kid pitch last night that struck out 16 kids. That is 16 strike outs for 18 total outs! Wow. Glad he can’t pitch against us today, that is for sure.

I think we have an advantage too in that we have a bunch of kids that can pitch. We used our best kid last night, but we still have some good arms that can throw strikes. Also, the bottom of our order has really come alive over the last couple games. My son had a ROUGH night at the plate last night. He stuck out 3 times and walked the other time. I tried to explain that it didn’t matter and that they would need him more tonight but he wasn’t buying it.

That’s all I have today. Out of here a bit early today for the game again. Hope to play in the WWdN on the dinosaur laptop. I did get one $5 SNG go in as I tested to see if I could even play on it and succeeded. I even won it. I missed MATH last night but it was good talking to everyone and Don made another run and chopped with 23skidoo for the top spot. Good job guys.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Rainy pokerless weekend

Another pokerless update unfortunately. This time, I have a new reason; a dead laptop. When I got home on Friday, I tried to turn on the laptop and I got nothing.at.all.

I have had the same problem with this machine before. It is a Sony Vaio which I probably paid too much for, and the design of the power plug is terrible. This is the second time that the post in the machine itself has broken or fallen off. Very flimsy apparently, since I have been extra careful since the first time it was fixed. In any event, it is being sent off to be repaired so my poker playing will be very limited. Well, kinda.

I do have a backup laptop, but I think it is the first laptop every made. It is slowwww and temperamental. I did continue on with the Blackjack foray as I moved onto PlanetUnluck Casino. Oops, did I spell that wrong? Not sure actually. I did my $100 deposit which was matched to let me start off with $200. I finished the requirements last night with…$90. Yes, I lost $10. Not atrocious but not goot. I had a terrible run of cards and hit my wagering requirements at one of the lowest points, $80. I figured wtf, since I was already down $20, why not make it $30 so I would still be double my money overall after Starluck. I play a couple $5 hands with the $80 and had it up to $95. Just.one.more.to.get.back.to.even. Didn’t work out as I lost that one and hightailed it out with my $90. I must have just experienced some bad variance here, since I pretty much played it exactly to the rules of minimum bets and using the chart for my play. Oh well, gotta move on.

I decided to download William Hill and do the next one. Once word of caution for people as stupid as me. I linked to William Hill through someone’s link and I downloaded the GBP version of their software by mistake. I didn’t know there would be a difference. I deposited the $80, but that only translated into $43 pounds so I didn’t get a matching bonus. I didn’t even realize the mistake and played a couple losing hands. Then I noticed the missing match so I called and they told me to download the US version. I did that, but since I had lost a few bucks already, I had to deposit another $10 to get it up to $80 to get the matching bonus. It is all set now though and I will be slowly working through that one. Like I said, the old laptop is slowww so blackjack is ok to use since you don’t have any time limits at all. Poker is a little tougher. Of course, I won’t miss the blogger tourneys, especially DADI this week, so I may have to load up the work laptop with Stars for the night and then get rid of it each time.

No baseball this weekend because it rained like hell the whole weekend. Playoff games resume tonight for my oldest. The tball season ended with screaming kids ripping through ice cream cones instead of baseballs on Saturday. We couldn’t make up the last game with the other team so we just met up and had ice cream and handed out the kids trophies. It was fun for the 5 yr olds.

With all the rain, all was not lost though. I got a ton of work done on finishing the third floor. We got the new wall and sheet rocked up I wired in the ceiling fan and new light fixture. I got lucky in that a friend of a friend had his schedule open up today to plaster the walls so it is all falling in place. Plastering today, heat being installed tomorrow, we need to paint later in the week, then I will do the finish work around the windows and baseboards next weekend. The carpet is being installed on July 6th, while the furniture is coming that same week. My son should have his new room all done by the end of that week.

Last thing today is go check out KJ and let him know if you want to join us for a blogger fantasy football league. He is going to arrange it and has all the rules he can sent out. I meant to pimp it last week because I am definitely in.

Ok, I think that is all I have. I will try to get a post up later about the party my wife and I went to on Saturday night. It deserves it own little space. All I can say is 4 little words: Coed.Sex.Toy.Party.

Gonna be a busy day at work so have a good one.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Friday afternoon, disgustin rant post, please don't read...

Sorry for the second post of today, especially for the faint of heart. This is a non-poker post so be forewarned. Women shield your eyes please. This is just plain disgusting and highly inappropriate.

Now I am a typical guy. I take great joy in bathroom humor. Just ask jjok, I am always the first one to comment about some of his stories while ROFL. For those of you that I have met in person, I don’t think I would be described as a Johnny Cakes chaser or anything.

With that said, I just got out of the crapper totally disgusted by my fellow man. I have a meeting soon so had to take care of business. I know that is not noteworthy, but as I sat there playing Brickbreaker on my blackberry, the most vile dude I have ever came across sat in the 1 Seat. I am in the 3 Seat. This dude comes in and proceeds to grunt and growl like Ron Jeremy in some of his greatest roles. Now mind you, I understand the need for a little extra push now and then if not keeping the proper diet but even this was a little much.

But that wasn’t even the worst part. This dude must have coughed up at least 10, deep from the lung hockers and proceeded to spit them on the floor. The floors are marble and after each hack and wind-up, he would let go with a resounding thwack as semi-solid liquid smacked against unsuspecting smooth marble. WTF is up with that? I didn’t think I worked in the woods. Just vile is all I can say.

Ok, and while I am on the subject of the men’s room, I might as well continue with one additional observation that has me scratching my head.

I probably spent about 15 minutes on the throne (business, Brickbreaker, pins and needles in the legs after they fell asleep, etc.). I probably heard about 3 or 4 people come and go, and without trying to pay attention, there is clearly 2 distinct ways of wiping. The swipe and the rub. I am a swiper, whether it takes me 18 swipes, I swipe, drop, unroll, swipe drop, unroll, …

I don’t get the rub. Sounds like some may feel that if they rub back and forth, they get cleaner. I don’t know, but not for me. Where we do learn the right way to do that?

Sorry for this ridiculous post, but I just had to get it off my chest. I am not sure why I was compelled to share any of this, but alas, I was.

No poker, just Blackjack whoring

No pokery goodness last night for me. I only played blackjack and finished the first casino’s wager requirements. I was as low as $159 but finished on a sick run and got ridiculously lucky as I increased my bets at the right time using the method that Klopzi posted about. Once I won 3 in a row I increased my bet 1 unit. I finished at the high point of the whole time I played and will be cashing out $230 tonight. It took me about 3 hours to complete the requirements so that is a nice $130 profit for such a small amount of time. I will be moving on to the next casino in Scurvydog’s list this weekend at some point.

Not to worry though. Poker is not on the backburner for me. After getting crushed over the last few days, I just needed a quick break and this did the trick. It was monotonous and frustrating at times (who knew you could get beat runner runner runner runner in Blackjack? You can. ) but now I have a small pad for the bankroll that I can blow at poker.

I plan on playing low limit cash games and SNG over the next couple weeks to resuscitate the existing bankroll while keeping the casino fund separate. That is unless my bad run at poker continues and then will dip into it, but I don’t expect that to happen. I just have to play good sound poker and play within my smaller bankroll.

With that said, I will be playing the normal tourneys on Stars and that includes the DADI next week. Not only will I be playing, but a part of the crew will be teaming up to meet Jordan’s challenge for a last longer bet. Yup, I was somehow accepted by a couple cash game guys who want to prove they can do this tourney thing just as well as anyone. They both showed just that last night in the Not too. Both jjok and MiamiDon final tabled the Not. Congrats to waffles to taking it down heads up against Don. I didn’t expect my addiction to keep me up that late last night or I would have played too but since I wanted to finish the blackjack requirements, I was able to witness the last couple players including George going out 3rd just as I tuned in. I know Iak was at the final table as well (Check out the new banner, it rocks!). Great job guys!

I did spend some more time going over where I went wrong in the Mookie in that hand with doubleas. You might have seen my post of the hand history. I NEVER dwell on certain hands so don’t get me wrong; I am not dwelling on it. I am trying to use it to expand my game though because doubleas was nice enough to explain his reasoning and it was very thought provoking for me. Coming from a highly successful player, I can learn from his comments and that is what I am hoping I do.

I think that is about it for me today. Not much else to say. It looks like the kids might get washed out this weekend because we have a bunch of rain coming in again. If it holds off, my 9 yr old has a playoff game at 9am tomorrow and my 5 yr old has his last t-ball game. We got the trophies at the house the other day so hopefully we can fit it in and put an end to the season as planned.

Best of luck this weekend.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

I recant my stacking story by Doubleas

Ok, the memory was a little weak apparently. I got the hand history and here it is. Doubleas was right, it did go in on the turn. After rereading his comment, the way he played it makes a lot more sense than the way I was thinking about it. This is why I like playing the blogger events so much. There are a lot of players to learn from. That means you if you are reading this.

Thanks for the lesson Doubleas. I feel a little bit better now, haha.

*********** # 10 **************PokerStars Game #5325458552: Tournament #26692073, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/06/21 - 22:08:48 (ET)Table '26692073 6' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: trkfix (1410 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: weak_player (1610 in chips)
Seat 3: 23skidoo (1770 in chips)
Seat 4: doubleas (1630 in chips)
Seat 5: whozurfan (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: drewspop (1110 in chips)
Seat 8: GCox25 (1780 in chips)
Seat 9: Xanthius (1220 in chips)
doubleas: posts small blind 10
whozurfan: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to drewspop [Qd Ad]
drewspop: raises 80 to 100
GCox25: folds
Xanthius: folds
trkfix: folds weak_player: folds
23skidoo: folds
doubleas: calls 90
whozurfan: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [As 2c Th]
doubleas: checks
whozurfan: checks
drewspop: bets 220
doubleas: calls 220
whozurfan: folds
*** TURN *** [As 2c Th] [8h]
doubleas: checks
drewspop: bets 790 and is all-in
doubleas: calls 790
*** RIVER *** [As 2c Th 8h] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
doubleas: shows [Ks Ac] (a pair of Aces)
drewspop: shows [Qd Ad] (a pair of Aces - lower kicker)
drewspop said, "nh"
doubleas collected 2320 from pot
doubleas said, "thx"
23skidoo said, "gg drew"
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 2320 | Rake 0
Board [As 2c Th 8h Jc]

Wah wah wah

Sorry, no post yesterday. Yeah, I know how you look forward to my ramblings during the week and I apologize. Actually, I was giving you a short break from my whining so I am back with a vengeance today. I am running bad. Real bad.

I worked from home yesterday which resulted in dueling laptops. I had an early conference call with our development team in China and rather than get up at the ass crack of dawn, I decided to do all of my morning calls from home and do the rest of what I needed to at home. I had to leave a little early anyway because my son had his first playoff game last night.

The calls with China can be exhausting because the language barrier alone makes it difficult to communicate over the phone. Couple that with some poor telecommunications systems and you are dead in the water. Luckily, I wasn’t a main participant in the calls so…fire up the home laptop and get in some poker.

I was determined to prove to myself that I didn’t suck. I have been bleeding bankroll over the last couple days trying to work on my cash games. I think my probably has been that I am playing at a level I should be because I am trying to clear bonuses on Stars and Pokerroom. Not smart at all. I know that my cash game is not too strong but I am taking the shot anyway. It hasn’t worked out so well. That coupled with my WWdN “performance” on Tuesday, I was hoping to have a good day at the tables while working.

Here is my quick synopsis of my WWdN. Don’t play the first 10 hands or so other than donate the blinds. Limp in with pocket 5s with 4 others. Flop a set and slow play it. On the river put out a feeler bet only to be raised big by one of the Altanta crew, 23skidoo. Without even paying attention to the board, push (always a +EV play to only pay attention to your own cards!) Get called by 23skidoo who was given the opportunity to catch runner runner straight because I am a dumbass. Game over. Out second. Well played, sir.

Ok, so after that wonderful showing, I did play some cash with waffles and jjok. I flopped a straight and took some cash off of waffles when he insisted on trying to bluff me off a hand. He thought I got greedy on the end, but I didn’t think so. I was 99% sure I had him. He posted the hand so check out his post from Tuesday night. Anyway, I gave most of it back and then joined a SNG with waffles and Jordan and donked out of that one too.

So back to yesterday. My wife had left the house to take all the kids to swimming lessons and my conference call had gotten underway. I decided that I would take a shot at a $20 180 SNG. I had some success on Monday night with one so I thought I would give it a go. I didn’t know what type of players would be playing during the day but jumped in anyway.

I was cruising along, down to about 70 left and right after the first break when my tourney ended. I had A9o in late position and bumped the blinds as it was folded to me. The BB calls. The flop comes down 9 high rainbow. My stack was a little lower than the average, not a short stack really, but just under. The blinds were getting up there and the pot was pretty good size. I didn’t want to see another card. I figured I had to be ahead and I pushed. He insta called me with…K6o. He didn’t even have a pair. He had me covered but not by a lot. All I needed to do was avoid him getting his 3 outer with 2 cards to go. Well, I wouldn’t be whining about this if I had won right? It was quick and painful when the K hit on the turn to put me out around 70th.

I think that put me on tilt. I proceeded to donk off pieces of the bankroll in various spots. A little cash at Stars, a little cash at Poker room. Even a little cash at Doyle’s room, which had been my savior lately. Finally, feeling very defeated, I closed up the home laptop for the day to get some actual work done in the afternoon.

We went to my son’s playoff game which they proceeded to whoops some ass in. The won by the slaughter rule as they scored their 15th run in the bottom of the 5th to make it 15-0. We are the 4th seed so we play the 1st seed Saturday morning for the chance to move on. If they win, it will be Sunday morning for the Eastern Division championship and the chance to play the final on Tuesday night of next week.

I got home and watched a little of the Sox game and played some more cash at Pokeroom. I went from NL to limit and went back and forth for a while. I signed up for the Mookie and kept playing the cash game at PR until my table opened on Stars. I was determined to play it smart. I played it just the opposite.

Again, about 10 hands in (if that) I get AQd in MP and raise it up 5xBB. The only person to call is Doubleas. Uh, oh, not a good thing. That should have put me on warning and made a little more cautious right there. Instead, I think the true donkey in me subconsciously decided I wouldn’t get outplayed after flop, even though I knew I was up against a player better than me.

The flop came down A high and I bet the pot. He called. The turn seems a blank so I bet it out hard again and he smooth called again. Ok, now at this point, I should be really concerned. So many possibilities out there. Two pair, a set. I can’t remember for sure about flush and straight possibilities but they probably existed too. Regardless, when the river was also a blank, I pushed. (?). He instacalled me and showed that I was behind and dominated the entire hand. IGHN in last freakin place in the Mookie.

What do you think about this hand? I know I played it bad because I fell in love with my TPokK, and got what I deserved. Would you have played it the same way as doubleas? Would you have confidently called my river bet of 800 or so after flat calling the flop and turn bets? My reputation of a donkey must preceed me there because although I played it poorly, I may have put someone else on a better hand than TP only. I am not knocking his play, who the hell am I, but I might have raised at some point along the way to see how committed I was to the hand. I probably would have layed it down too so maybe that is why he did what he did,. Anyway, your comments on that one are appreciated. Don’t get me wrong, I played this one like an idiot and was obviously not thinking through it properly.

So, here it is 10:10pm EST and I should shut down the laptop and watch some TV or even just go to bed. Do I do that? Not no, but hell no! Instead, I fire up 2 single table $10 SNGs to try and get back on track. I did manage to win one. Nothing memorable that I can think of. It was nice to get a little cash back. In the second one though, more of my running bad whining material was dropped in my lap.

There are about 7 of us left when I get dealt AA. I raise it up 4xBB and get 2 callers. The blinds are pretty small here so I with 4xBB I knew I would still get some action. The flop came down all low rags, 8 high. I bet out about ¾ of the pot and one of the callers reraised me a few hundred. Rather than play along, I push. I have him covered and hope to end it right here anyway. He calls me with pocket 9s. Not a terrible call with his overpair but I have him dead to 2 outs. I watch in horror as he gets his 2 outer on the river with a 9 and the table chatter starts. I just kept my fingers still. I didn’t want to even bother. I have 200 or so left. Table scraps but when I get big slick in the very next hand, I push the scraps in and get 3 callers. Since they still had chips, the cards didn’t get turned over so when the flop came AA3, I thought I could get back into this. That was, of course, until I saw the 2 and the 4 come runner runner and knew when the cards flipped, I would be out. Sure enough one of the callers had pocket 5s and with them checking me down (I am sure the Aces scared everyone), I was out and severely pissed off.

Shut it down now? Hell no, fire up 2 more. The profit I got in the win made it an easy decision. Plus, I felt like I played them both well so why not. I lost both. I suck. I played like a donkey in one and got sucked out again on the other. I hate poker.

Ok, just send me your screennames and the dollars will flow. That is if I still have any left after the bloodletting.

One last item of note. I have been reading about Klopzi’s successful casino bonus whoring. I wasn’t too interested until I saw the doubleuwhy also had tried the Scurvydog mthod and had success. With my bankroll shrinking like Castanza while swimming, and after reading up on Scurvy’s method, I am going tog give it a shot. For nothing more than a bankroll padding. I downloaded Starluck Casino last night and started up the whoring. I was up about $20 at one point but then came back to even and called it a night. I probably have a couple hundred hands of blackjack in at the minimum bet, but of course I didn’t track it very well. Anyway, I will keep updating that venture over the next few weeks.

Good luck and have a great day.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

I'm not so good at MATH...

Last night, after donking it up in the bar league, I came home and decided to sign up for the Monday’s At The Hoy (MATH) tourney that Hoyazo recently started allowing the general public into. The game is a little steeper than I am used to for these blogger tourney’s but the payout are nice. He has consistently had 20 people for the last couple weeks and this week was more of the same with 21 runners.

I didn’t last so long. Actually, I didn’t even sniff the break. The cards worked against me for the most part. I was basically taken out by 2 hands. The first was when the blinds were at 25/50 and I raised it up to 200 from MP. CC was the only caller to see the flop with me. The flop came out a scary 3 clubs and didn’t have one. Nevertheless, heads up, what are the chances he has it? I bet out the pot, so 400 and CC goes over the top, with his big stack to put me all in. I went in the tank and folded with about 30 second left in my timer. I have never played with CC but had to give him some respect there.

That brought me down to 900 or so. I still had time but a couple hands later when I was in the BB I think, I had something like 9 J. There were just limpers into the pot and when I hit middle pair with an oesd, I pushed and was called by top pair that held up. I think it was someone else that did the deed. I said something in chat about dying with my KK instead of that hand, but CC put the mystery to bed for me when he said he flopped the flooosh. Congrats to CC who took this sucker down, as well as to the final table crew which included Hoy, Hacker59, Iak, Drraz, jeciimd, Kat, Guin and Gary. Well played by all.

Anyway, I was out of there, and with it being early still, I decided to play a 180 SNG. I have only played 2 before, once getting second for my biggest score ever of $740. I played a little NL cash before the MATH and had won about $15 so it was almost a freeroll anyway ;)

Waffles had also just busted out so I asked him if he wanted to jump in with me. He was on cloud 9 yesterday after booking his trip to Vegas, and decided to play along. As it was filling up, Surflexus was also knocked from the MATH and I asked him to join. I ended up trading 20% with each of them.

We got started and Waffles, continuing his on again off again relationship with the demons of poker, was out pretty quickly. George was chipping up nicely and I was pretty much even for a while. George mentioned a little while later that Hoyazo was also in the tourney with us, while he was final tabling his own event.

I don’t remember a lot of details but it was getting later in the tourney and my stack was getting small. I remember getting aces and doubling up to get me in a position to get to the money. George went out a while later and when we got down to about 10 places away from the money, Hoyazo was out also I noticed.

As the bubble approached, the guy to my right got real active. I had taken a big pot down with a flush and he was almost down to felt but kept pushing the action and chipped up quickly to get even with me and past me and others at the table. The blinds were huge and I needed to pick up a pot. I got KK and pushed but everyone folded and I got another orbit of relief, as jjok said in girly chat. Mookie was also railing with George and jjok. Anyway, the bubble past, but my cards went silent. It was awful. Finally with the blinds at 600/1200 and my stack at 2500, I got AJs and pushed. It folded around to aggressive guy and he thought for a minute and then called me with the a monster. 36o. The flop came down 4 A X and I was ready to rake the ole pot. Until the 5 on the turn. As soon as I saw that, I thought, you’ve got to be kidding, it is going to be a 2 or 7 for sure. As expected on muthafugginriverstars, the 7 on the river and I was out in 14th for a whopping $43.60. Now, even if I did double up there, I still may not have made it any further, but it was a crap way to go out. Also, as those of you that play these regularly know, once the bubble pops, there is a lot more pushing. If you finish between 10th and 18th, the money is the same. It is not until you get to the top 5 or so that the money is worth the time you have spent. Anyway, not a great way to go out, but probably inevitable given my short stack. After paying out Waffles and Surflexus, I made a whopping $3.60 profit. wOOt! I was off to bed at 1:30am with my big score.

Ok, last thing today is a quick story from Father’s Day that I forgot about yesterday. After we went out to lunch and stopped for ice cream, we were in the house, waiting for wifey to get home to play some waffle ball. My 3 yr old, who is recently potty trained ran into the bathroom to take a poop. He yells out, “I’m all duunnnnnn!”

Apparently I took too long to come in and help him because about 10 seconds later, he came walking out with just his shirt on. Before I could even react, he went screaming past me and out the front door into the front yard. I went running after him and told him to get back in the house. Surprisingly, he actually complied for once and came walking back into the house while his brothers were sitting there. As soon as he gets back in the house, he says, “I’m a pain in the ass!”

I thought my 2 older sons were going to piss themselves laughing. I also couldn’t be the good dad and couldn’t help smiling myself.

When I told my wife when she got home, who do you think got blamed for that one?

Good luck all. See you at the WWdN.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Another weekend ramble

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was busy. The weekend started off on Friday night with some live pokery goodness at my house. We ended up with 30 people for the first tourney and played another one that started at midnight with 16.

I died in 10th in the first one and we were paying the top 5 spots. I never really found a groove and the blinds were starting to kill me. I finally had to push with K10o and was called by pocket 7’s. I lost the coinflip and that was that. The most interesting hand of that tourney came at the final table. I think we were already ITM, down to 5 when the short stack SB had 6K left and the blinds at 2k/4k. It folded to him and he pushed to make it 2k additional for the BB. But he folded. He probably only had about 7k left himself, but didn’t he have the pot odds to call that with any 2 cards? The SB went on to win the whole thing of course.

A couple side games went on while I watched the final table action. Everyone got done at about the same time so we decided to do one more for the diehards. We didn’t want it to last until 3am though so we decided to do a turbo. 5 minute blind levels and it went fast.

We were probably only getting about 2 hands in per level because of shuffling etc. On the first hand, I doubled up when I pushed with a flush draw after the button bet out a good amount on the flop. My flush came on the turn. I also had another big hand a while later which pushed me into the chip lead at the time. Again, I lose the specifics but I ended up in 3rd when I went out against pocket 7s again to the then chip leader. All in all, I broke even for the night.

After everyone left, being the shrewd bankroll manager that I am, I logged onto Full Tilt. I don’t around in some low limit Razz and lost about $15 in a half hour. I went to bed at around 2am.

The next morning, my buddy who is doing the work on my son’s new bedroom in the walkup attic (not sure I have talked about it but whatever, we are finishing off that space as a bedroom and office) came by at 7:30am with the blueboard. We had to bring it up to the attic which was no easy feat. Because of the turns in the hallway, we had to actually walk each sheet out the second floor window to make the swing. We finished that just in time to get to my 5 yr old’s t-ball game. We labored through that (just kidding, although my son took a ball to the eye before the game started and decided to get sympathy from mom rather than play until the last inning). Anyway, after that one was over, we had my 9 yr old’s game. He did great, getting a couple more nice hits and they won their 4th straight. Playoffs start Wednesday.

Saturday afternoon was spent at the bro-in-law’s. It was a nice hot day so we chilled in the backyard while the kids ran through the sprinkler and slid on the slip and slide. Four or five lemonade and jack’s later, we went home so I could lose more money online. Actually, I broke even. I lost $25 in a NL game on Stars but made it back with a little interest actually at Doyle’s room. I do love Doyle’s room for the donkilicious action. It makes me feel like I know what I am doing. At Doyle’s, I actually happened to sit at the table randomly and saw a name that looked familiar. I hadn’t read him much before but pokeramarama was to my immediate right. Rather than blow his cover, I typed in a simple “blogs are ghey” in the chat. I went to his blog and saw that he was blogging his night at the tables. I left a quick comment saying I was at his table and he replied with another comment immediately about how bad a certain player was. We stayed out of each others way and I was getting some cards and picking up some pots. Chad eventually took off and I logged off shortly after that myself. It is always nice to come across someone you recognize and know that there is someone at the table that you can play actual poker with, rather than a complete table of donkeys. Anyway, I have a new addition to my blogroll. Many actually, but more on that later.

On Sunday, I finally got out on the links for the first time this year. I played 9 holes in the morning with my father in law, brother in law, and a buddy of ours. It was nice to get out. I really don’t play much anymore because it is hard to justify spending 5 hours on a weekend day chasing the little white ball around. I had a good time though and played pretty well. Especially for being my only time out this year. I got a sweet new driver last year for Father’s day and I was rocking the Cobra 460 yesterday. The course isn’t the most difficult in the world either. Actually, it is a pretty easy course if you can hit it straight at all. I birdied 2 holes. One was a 285 yd par 4 which I drove to the back of the green and 2 putted from there. That one felt pretty good. The second bird was a 100 yd par 3 which is a highly elevated green. I cut a sand wedge and it fired into the face of the hill and popped up onto the green. It stopped about 6 inches from the cup, which we couldn’t see until we walked up to the green. Better to lucky than good is what I say.

I grabbed the kids and we met my father for lunch, then back to the house for some waffle ball, family style. The wife and 5 yr old beat me and the 9 yr old (don’t ask). By that time it was time for the Stars Blogger freeroll.

I had talked to jjok about this last week and we were both complaining, as I am sure plenty of you did about the timing of this one. The late afternoon on father’s day is probably not the best time to hold this. Again, tough to justify sitting there for hours on end starting at 4pm EST. We both said we would play it ultra aggressive. I decided against playing Jordanesque but wasn’t going to mess around. I got my stack up to a little over 3k from the starting 2k when I met my demise about 45 minutes into the thing. I had the tourist in MP and the flop came down J 7 J. The BB bet out a small amount and I raised it and he called. The turn was an A and when he bet, I pushed and prayed that he didn’t have the A but knowing that he really probably did. I can’t remember who it was, but he had it and I was gone. Again, I pretty much knew I was beat, but didn’t want to toil away and took the shot. I probably should have just skipped the whole thing. I told my wife that I was out and she was surprised. I also told her it would probably be a 6 hour thing since there were 2200 people in.

We made dinner and ate out on the back deck with the kids. After that, I checked in with the tourney and in the hour that we had taken to each, the tourney was down to 450 people! I started to think I made a mistake and this could be over in 3 and a half hours but I was wrong. I started railing everyone that was still in and kept finding more people. People that were still in at that point were Tripjax, Surflexus, Jules, Smokkee, dnasty13 and Roccoboxer. I also saw some others that I hadn’t talked to much in the past, but I knew them from the WWdN and the Mookie so I started railing them too. I had a bunch of windows open and it was hard to keep track actually. Pretty much as soon as I saw Trip’s table, he went out on the next hand. Surf, Smokkee, and Jules went out over time. Rocco came pretty close to the money but went out in the 60s I think.

I then started focusing on Hacker59, Yestbay1, Doubleuwhy, and studioglypic. I have seen them all play in the blogger events that I like and was hoping to see them go far. They all played great and finished in the prizes, actually going deep into the prizes. It was fun to rail them with others like Ingoal and Frankl66. I saw each of them go on huge runs. Dave was the first of the four to go out but collected an ipod for his troubles. I think it was Hacker59 who went out next, getting sooooo close to a WSOP seat when he went out in 15th. Doubleuwhy was next at 14th. They both won a seat in the Stars 100 (or is it 150) seat guarantee tourney so they have another chance to win a seat. I hope to be able to rail them during their run. Best of luck to you both. The last of the group to go was studioglyphic. He made a great run and got his seat in the $1500 WSOP tourney. I thought he was going to win the whole thing. There were lots of people pulling for him and it was fun to watch.

By the final table, the chat was unbelievable. Fast and furious and a lot of funny things being said. Oh, and I almost forgot. I got in trouble in chat. I was at Hacker59’s table and these guys kept going on and on in Spanish. No big deal to me but the admin kept telling them to stop. They must have been asked 10 times. I was going from table to table though and apparently, the admin had asked one of the guys in the tourney still to help him tell his railers to speak English only. I said something about a hand that Hacker was in and the next thing I know, the dude is telling me English only. I thought he was being a donk so I typed in “b.ite me” and then, “is that English enough for you?”

The next thing I see is a red admin chat…”Drew?” Oops. I apologized and Hacker’s railers laughed at me. It was pretty funny.

Anyway, congrats to all those that won prizes last night. Well played. I enjoyed watching the action and I now have some additional material to read through bloglines.

See you all at the WWdN and the Mookie this week. Also, come out tonight for Mondays at the Hoy. This is a new tourney set up by the world famous Hammer player. Give it a try.

EDIT: Sorry, I just realized after posting how long and boring this was. Sorry, it's Monday!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Firewall leak, wOOt!

For a reason that I don't know, nor am I complaining about, the firewall now allows this hella cool site, just in time for the WSOP. Less productivity at work, NOICE! I'm sure you already did, but check out the recap.

The WWdN: Not the and such

I decided to play the WWdN, Not the last night after getting home from my son’s baseball game. There were 19 people as we kicked it off and jjok was noticeably absent, as smokkee noted. I hit him up on the girly chat thing and he got in during the late registration time to get us to 20 players.

It was an odd mix of players with only a few of the normal, as Don calls them, “crew”, with Don, Hoyazo, Smokkee, jjok, and waffles in but no Kat, Jules, George, Mookie, or Carmen in the house. I had a big name to my left to start and CJ would began with a bang as he cracked Don’s bullets on the first or second hand of the tourney. The rest of my table, until Jaxia joined us shortly after the start, I didn’t know anyone. They obviously played a lot together as their banter went back and forth throughout. One of them was last week’s runner up in this tourney, so I figured it would be a tough go.

I managed to grab a few small pots while trying consciously not to overplay my hands in the early levels. I had JJ on one hand where I raised it up preflop and had a caller. When the flop came down all unders, I bet out the pot, only to be raised. I called and then we check back and forth on the turn and river and I took down an ok sized pot. I probably should have been a little more aggressive with the overpair but like I said, it was early and I just wanted to minimize my mistakes. Good or bad, you be the judge.

I think we were still in the first level, possibly the second when I was dealt cowboys. I think I was UTG so I raised it up and was reraised a good amount. We went back and forth again until all the chips were in the middle preflop. I had the guy covered by about T350 and was happy to see his JJ turn over. That is until the CJ luckbox magic rubbed off on this guy as he hit his set on the flop.

Frustrating but that is the game. I played it patiently and ended up slowly getting my stack back up. I did almost get sucked out on when I pushed a while later with the hammer vs A5 sooooted pre-flop, but luckily I hit the 7 on the river to avoid the hammer crack. I was moved to the other table at that point with waffles, darval and others and I continued to get enough cards to win me some pots and build my stack.

By the time we got to the final table, I was almost up to 2k in chips, but I was still a small stack to a lot of people at the table so when I saw big slick, I pushed and was called by a pocket pair and was sent to the rail. I think I ended in 8th or 9th or something. Overall, not that bad given the start.

There was one other suckout that happened while I was seated at CJ’s table that I don’t recall the specifics on . I just remember thinking, man, I don’t even have to be in the hand with him. Just being seated next to him, I should have known not to put my chips in ahead ;)

After I was out, I railed for a bit, but ended up pulling up FT. I had made a deposit there to play a few bracelet races but was down a little so I wanted to play some cash games to try and build it up. I jumped into a 50c/1.00 limit table and proceeded to donk off about $15 more dollars.

As that was going on, and my good starting hands were getting bshed around, I decided to jump into a $6 turbo sng. Again, I got sucked out on early and was down to about T400. Luckily, these guys were not bloggers. The suckout happened when I fell in love with my TPTK on an unconnected, rainbow board. I had raised preflop with AQ soooted and had one caller. The flop came down Q J 4. I bet the pot and was raised. I called and when the turn was a 6, I checked it to him and he pushed. He was a short stack so I had him covered, plus I was only afraid of the set at this point so I called. This guy put all his chips in qith J8o?? He was, of course rewarded on the river with his 8 for 2 pair.

As I said though, these guys were not good and I managed to come back like I did in the wwdn, but this time I was able to seal the deal. In the end, I got heads up with the donkey who had sucked out on that hand and I crushed him. He had sucked out on multiple people, and I am 90% sure that him and his buddy were working together at the table. On one hand I had QQ and was short stacked after the suckout. His buddy raised and I reraised. Another guy goes over the top all in and his buddy lays it down as I call. My QQ held up and the donkey types in “nice laydown john”. His screenname wasn’t john and he didn’t say what he had to the table so I was pretty sure they were working it. They never played against each other and took way too long to make their preflop decisions.

It is always sweeter to bust these colluding donkeys. Maybe I am just being paranoid.

Anyway, that was it for poker for me. My son won his game which pushed them to 6-5 and a 3 game win streak going into the playoffs next week. They beat the first place team yesterday and it was a really good game. It is a lot of fun going to his games.

I feel a little guilty about my 5 yr old though. I am his T-ball coach and we had a game last night at 5:30. His games last about an hour usually. It is basically, once each team bats through the order once per inning for 2 innings, we are done. With my older son playing at 6:00 last night, against the first place team, I was dying to run through it quickly. Not fair to the kids really, but man they can be frustrating at that age. My son is into it but most of the other kids are making mudpies and picking daisys. It can get annoying quick when I am missing my other son’s game at the same time.

Anyway, I rushed to the t-ball game in my work clothes and we got started about 1 minutes late because my assistant “coaches” got there after I did even. I got the kids going and was rifling through our batters to get through it. In the second inning, I am grabbing the ball as the other team tossed it back in when I stepped on a big rut next to home plate. We have had tons of rain lately so there were a bunch of ruts all around home plate. It can be dangerous if the kids were running around there but in t-ball, they just go station to station.

I stepped in this rut, my ankle gave way and I fell back flat on my ass into the mud. In my Dockers. With parents snickering. It was beautiful. Not only am I just trying to rifle through this game, but I fall flat on my ass into a mud spot in front of all the parents. I jumped up, brushed myself off, took a quick bow and finished the last couple batters. I think it was karma for not being into it or something. I think it is also because I am so silky smooooth.

That’s all I have so go visit someone to the right here who does a lot better than I. I am having a home tourney tonight so I may have something to share over the weekend. I have no idea how many I will get tonight. It oculd be one table or it could be four. We’ll see. Good luck to everyone in the Stars freeroll on Sunday. I hope to beat all your asses. And I hope to get my chips in while I am behind against CJ. I want the bounty man. Have a good weekend all.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Not much to report so skip it if you want...

Another quick post here. Not a lot new to report. I got home around 9pm last night after grabbing a few beers after work with a couple of the guys here. The dominos were on there too, and we were also waiting for the “Dominoes mutha fucka” with the fist slam while we drank (I say on there too because I just read someones blog that they were watching last night, but for the life of me I can’t find it again! I am losing my mind I think). I think it was being broadcast from ESPN Desportes though, so I am not sure what the proper Spanish phrase would have been.

When I got home, I was feeling a little sleepy from my Stella drafts and my McDonald’s Extra Value Meal. I fired up the laptop and watched cmitch grinding it out on Bodog. He was quite card dead for the time I was watching. Not too exciting really. He gave it his best though, but the cards didn't treat us right. I pulled up Stars and got ready to register for the Mookie but kept doing headbobs over and over. I think it was the beers anyway? Maybe it was the Red Sox getting their asses kicked by the Twinkies again. Not really sure but either way, I just wasn’t feeling it. I had been up way too late the 2 nights before so I actually decided to turn in for the night. At 10pm. What a wuss.

Baseball games tonight and then onto playing some poker on Stars, FT, Pokerroom, or Doyles. Not sure which. If you feel like playing, hit me with a girly chat IM. I am drewspoppoker on yahoo folks.

Lastly, congrats to Smokkee for taking down the Mookie. An even bigger congrats to Hoyazo for winning his seat to the $1500 WSOP event last night, exactly 1 attempt after final tabling on the same attempt the night before. Can’t wait to see all the screenshots.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Quick post on my donkishness

When I got home last night I got involved in a little project of installing some outdoor speakers for the backyard. My wife had bought them for me for Christmas and once I got the amp I needed for them, I finally got around to hooking them up and hanging them on the side of the house. That, along with some catch with my son distracted me enough to make me miss the start of the WWdN last night.

Congrats to Hoy, Iak, and Don for their final table appearances. Well played sirs.

I did make it in time to sign up for the Full Tilt Bracelet Race last night, but I wish I hadn’t. I played like absolute garbage and was out before the break. I had won the token in a peep over the weekend and was looking forward to playing tight and patient. Unfortunately my inner donkey got the best of me. I am going to try and play a few more of these because I would love to play in one of the circuit events at the WSOP. Especially since my buddy who I just got back from Vegas with called me last night and said he might be going back before the end of August. More on that later if something good happens.

Anyway, my run in the Bracelet race really came down to 2 hands. There was a big stack at the table who was horrible and very lucky. He had been raising with any 2 cards and getting lucky. Anyway, I was in the BB with 98c when he raised to 3XBB. I decided to make the Waffles call and fold if I missed the flop. The flop came K910 rainbow. I checked and the big stack bet out a third of the pot. I called (when I should have raised) and the turn was a J. The big stack again bet out a small bet, I think the same as the first bet, so I called him being open ended. The river was an 8 giving me 2 pair. For some reason I put him on AK. I think I was just hoping at that point. I don’t know why I wouldn’t believe he had the Q, but I didn’t. I think it was his small bets. Anyway, the bet out 500 on the end. I went in the tank and refused to believe he had the Q. Again, I played like crap. Anyway, after typing “bad call here” in the chat, I called to see his Q8 soooted giving him the straight. I should never have been in the hand in the first place and that 8 on the river really sealed it for me.

Anyway, down to about 600 in chips I stole a couple pots but the blinds were keeping me at the same level as I really was card dead. I limped in with ducks a little later and the flop came K10K I think. There were 5 of us in the hand and after we all checked it to the button, he bet out the pot and I pushed, hoping it was a positional steal bet. I was right in that he hadn’t hit the board, but unfortunately for me, he had pocket 8’s and I was done. Another terrible play by me. The blinds weren’t really out of control at that point, although they were getting up there a little. Maybe at 50/100. I needed to make a move but picked a terrible time and make a bad read. All in all, a redonkulous effort by me.

Oh well, hopefully tonight in the Mookie I can play better . Looking forward to it.

Also, as you can see below, I took and awwfukkit bet on cmitch for tonight. I had a few bucks over at Bodog and don't care for their software much. I will be railing him tonight while I am in the Mook. Good luck man.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

My money is on cmitch...

Good luck tomorrow night cmitch. Win me some money will ya?

Let me brag just a little bit…

I bombed out in the Mondays at the Hoy tourney about half way through. Not something to brag about.

I won a $10, 18 person SNG that I played with Jules, Kat, Hoy, and Drraz after the Hoy which kept me up until 2am like a dumbass. See picture and last hand history (DQB!) Not something to brag about.

I watched my kid pitch a complete game, 1 run, 1 walk Little League game yesterday in his first ever pitching appearance. Hella yeah, something to brag about!

The head coach (I am an assistant and coach first) told me on Sunday that he might use my son for an inning that day. We ended up winning pretty big and he gave someone else a shot instead. After the game, he told my son he would get him in at some point in Monday’s game instead. He was a little disappointed but could wait until the next day. He is the youngest kid on his team and had never pitched before on the season, but he had been in a pitching clinic earlier in the spring and wanted to give it a go.

He got to the field an hour before the game as scheduled, but I didn’t get there until a half hour before the game because of work. The coach told me that he had him throw a little and he was throwing about 90% strikes.

When he read out the lineup to the kids, he had my son starting the game! I had no idea he was going to start but I warmed him up and he was throwing strike after strike. He got out there and I think my wife and I were easily way more nervous than he was. He just got out there and started throwing.

At 9, he doesn’t have a ton of arm strength so his pitches weren’t all that fast, but man was he accurate. Like I said before, he only walked 1 kid all day, which you don’t see too often at that level. The game was over in an hour and 20 minutes. A very fast game for Little League. Not only did he pitch great but he made 4 plays on dribblers in front of the mound where he had to run in, grab it and fire to first. It was a ton of fun to watch. He holds his glove up like Clemens and Pettite do. You know, covering his face except for his eyes. As the game got going, he looked like Beckett as he pumped his fist after striking a kid out after coming back from a 3-0 count. He did that twice I think but overall, he was either ahead or they would hit the ball weakly somewhere.

It is amazing how fun it gets when the kids get to be that age. I do fear for what he will be like in 5 years from now, but I am enjoying the hell out of this season, watching him grow up and succeed. Btw, he went 2 for 3 with a walk, including a nice line drive up the middle to the center fielder.

*********************************

Ok, as for that SNG, here is the final hand. Jules was watching as I buried him. I love when the over bet works like a charm. Good times.

> *********** # 139 **************
> PokerStars Game #5239294111: Tournament #26376271, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2006/06/13 - 01:53:11 (ET)
> Table '26376271 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
> Seat 1: Cougaballa21 (9725 in chips)
> Seat 8: drewspop (17275 in chips)
> Cougaballa21: posts the ante 50
> drewspop: posts the ante 50
> Cougaballa21: posts small blind 300
> drewspop: posts big blind 600
> *** HOLE CARDS ***
> Dealt to drewspop [5h 4c]
> Cougaballa21: calls 300
> drewspop: checks
> *** FLOP *** [8s 5c 5s]
> drewspop: checks
> Cougaballa21: checks
> *** TURN *** [8s 5c 5s] [5d]
> drewspop: checks
> Cougaballa21: checks
> *** RIVER *** [8s 5c 5s 5d] [8h]
> drewspop: bets 3000
> Cougaballa21: raises 6075 to 9075 and is all-in
> drewspop: calls 6075
> *** SHOW DOWN ***
> Cougaballa21: shows [Ks 7d] (a full house, Fives full of Eights)
> drewspop: shows [5h 4c] (four of a kind, Fives)
> drraz [observer] said, "gg drews"
> Cougaballa21 is sitting out
> drewspop collected 19450 from pot
> louddwnunder [observer] said, "DQB!!!!!"
> *** SUMMARY ***
> Total pot 19450 | Rake 0
> Board [8s 5c 5s 5d 8h]
> Seat 1: Cougaballa21 (button) (small blind) showed [Ks 7d] and lost with a full house, Fives full of Eights
> Seat 8: drewspop (big blind) showed [5h 4c] and won (19450) with four of a kind, Fives

Monday, June 12, 2006

A bed and a little poker

Very little poker this weekend for me. Yesterday, it finally stopped raining so we got a bunch of baseball in for the kids. I did play a peep for a token on Saturday night before my wife and I had some friends over. Smokkee was in already too so I figured I would see if anyone else might want to join so I hit up Kat. She jumped in and away we went. Unfortunately, Smokkee got beat down early by a donk but Kat and I ended up the last 2 standing. It is easy with Aces as they say. I think I had them 3 times in this one and got me lots of cheeps each time. It was fun but I was sufficiently buzzed by the end of it and our friends were already there as I finished to my wife calling me a degenerate. Luckily, they were good friends and my buddy that I went to Vegas with, so they didn’t mind.

I had little time yesterday to play. I decided to build a bed for my oldest son. My 9 yr old and 5 yr old have been sharing a room for 3 years. They have a huge room so it isn’t really an issue but we have decided to finish off the walk up attic and put another bedroom up there for the oldest. On the other side of the attic, we will have an office. We have been in the house for 6 years and haven’t really needed the room yet, but we know they won’t to share forever so now is the best time to get it done. I think my wife wants to get it done now so I won’t lose all our money at poker ;)

Anyway, we have been looking around for furniture for him and nothing has really struck us yet. Last week, she mentioned that it would be cool if I could build a bat out of baseball bats. I laughed it off but while I was at work on Friday I did a little google search and came across this.

I showed it to wifey and it was all over. I was off to find the materials. Baseball season up here in the northeast is pretty short really. Wooden baseball bats don’t have a long shelf life so I knew I needed to act fast if I was going to find 8 wooden bats of the same size. None of the stores are ordering any more this year so what you can find is what you get.

I checked Sports Authority on Saturday morning and found exactly 7 size 30 wooden Louisville Sluggers. Wow, that was easy huh! Oh, wait a minute, one slight problem. The player’s signatures. There were 4 Manny Ramirez. The other 3 were of a shortshop from a certain New York team, who’s middle name (in my house anyway) if “fuckin”. I called my wife from the store to explain. Uh uh. Get the 4 and keep looking.

I went to about 4 other stores and came up completely empty. Nothing at all anywhere. Sunday morning I went out to Home Depot to get the other materials I needed. Since I found everything I needed, I had to give in and buy the bats I had left behind the day before. Hey, that is what sandpaper is for right?

After we got the younger 2 down to bed, I started. My oldest was at his friend’s house and didn’t even know I was doing this. He came home and my wife brought him down so I could tell him. He was all excited and grabbed a bat and started swinging it. I kept working until he says, “hey, who’s on the bat?” Now DFJ has a pretty illegible scribble for a signature so he couldn’t really make it out. I told him that 4 of them were Manny. He said cool, so who is this? My wife and I looked at each other as he tried to figure it out. Looks like a D, but that’s not Big Papi he says. I started stuttered about it and finally told him.

“Uh uh. No way, I am not sleeping in a bed with those bats” he says, kinda kidding, kinda ready to use it on me. It was a great moment. One where I knew I had done something right with this 9 year old kid. I told him that was a good answer, but I would sand it off if he wanted.

He went up to bed and after messing with my frickin drill, bits, screwdriver bits, and splintering oak, we finished. I say we because I needed my wife to hold this and that, etc. For a 10 thumbs like me, it was a lot harder to do than the short little instructions made it. Anyway, the handiwork is below. Rather than sand, we decided to just turn the DFJ bats toward the back, which will be up against the wall anyway. All I have to do is attach a frame to it.

Ok, that’s it for me today. Don’t forget the Monday at Hoy’s tonight. I hope to make it since I won’t be at my live game tonight. My son has a game that will go until about 8. He might even be pitching an inning or 2. It could get interesting.

Until tomorrow.



Strange...

Got this email today. I think it comes out monthly. I had to just cut out this one.

VEGASRESOURCE.COM NEWSLETTER
================================
LAS VEGAS---In this Newsletter we report on:
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS IN LAS VEGAS
by billhere, Publisher
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LAS VEGAS OPENINGS COMING UP IN THE FUTURE.
==========================================

July 15= Beacher's Rockhouse Bar opening in the
Imperial Palace where Tequila Joe's was located.
The show will be midgets imitating the
rock group Kiss.

Sounds like a can't miss. I thought they were little people?

EDIT: Good point jjok. Maybe Iggy could help clarify the politically correct reference?

Friday, June 09, 2006

Bloggery Fun

Played a bunch and lost plenty tonight. This one just happened. I know it is a hand history, but not a bad beat. This was just AFTER jjok stacked me on the first hand we played heads up at this table while we were waiting for it to fill. He flopped a set while I turned 2 pair. No bueno for me. Anyone, this one helped me a bit.

PokerStars Game #5207257109: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2006/06/10 - 00:27:45 (ET)
Table 'Brunonia' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Betty63077 ($6.45 in chips)
Seat 2: jjok ($49.90 in chips)
Seat 3: louddwnunder ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 4: PMcGuffin ($10.60 in chips)
Seat 7: drewspop ($25 in chips)
Seat 8: SoxLover ($25 in chips)
Seat 9: DNVDVS ($8.25 in chips)
louddwnunder: posts small blind $0.10
PMcGuffin: posts big blind $0.25
weak_player: sits out
DNVDVS: posts big blind $0.25
CATBALLS56 leaves the table
Betty63077: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to drewspop [2d 7d]
drewspop: raises $1 to $1.25
Boobie Lover joins the table at seat #5
SoxLover: folds
DNVDVS: calls $1
Betty63077: folds
jjok: folds
Boobie Lover said, "Look at these donkeys"
louddwnunder: folds
PMcGuffin: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3d 4s]
PMcGuffin: checks
drewspop: checks
DNVDVS: checks
*** TURN *** [Ts 3d 4s] [Qd]
weak_player said, "heehaw"
PMcGuffin: checks
drewspop: bets $1.50
DNVDVS: calls $1.50
jjok said, "hey boobs"
PMcGuffin: calls $1.50
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3d 4s Qd] [Td]
PMcGuffin: checks
Boobie Lover said, "Can I switch seats? I want to post UTG"
drewspop: bets $2
DNVDVS: folds
PMcGuffin: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
drewspop: shows [2d 7d] (a flush, Queen high)
PMcGuffin: mucks hand
drewspop collected $12 from pot
louddwnunder said, "hey boobie :)"
drewspop said, "weeeee"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.60 | Rake $0.60
Board [Ts 3d 4s Qd Td]
Seat 1: Betty63077 folded before Flop
Seat 2: jjok (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: louddwnunder (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: PMcGuffin (big blind) mucked [Kc Qc]
Seat 7: drewspop showed [2d 7d] and won ($12) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 8: SoxLover folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: DNVDVS folded on the River

My impatient Thursday night

Happy Friday. I need the weekend.

I played a little bit on both Poker Room and Stars last night. I have made a new commitment to wifey though. I have to get my daily run in before I can play poker online. That is a good motivator for me to get home and get it done. If I don’t, I will sink to the bottom of the lake in the sprint tri in July.

Anyway, I made a deposit into Poker Room last week because they were running a reload bonus. I hadn’t played there in a long time. I ended up all over the place while I watched the Sox kick some Yankee arse.

First I fired up 2 $5 SNGs. I was out in 10th in the first one when my nut flush on the turn was sucked out on by the dude that went in with his set of 6s. The river paired the board and I was gone. In the other one, I didn’t cash either. Can’t even remember what the deal there was but either way, I was down $11 on the night quickly.

I then decided to fire up a couple limit tables to try and clear some of the bonus. I sat in with $20 on 2 50c/1.00 tables and did some grinding for about a half hour. I checked my bonus page and figured out that the player points clear pretty slowly at that level. I closed one of those and jumped into a $20 tourney that was just starting. It had about 90-100 people in it and the structure seemed interesting. The first 6 levels were extreme turbo, 3 minutes each. After that, it went to 12 minute normal levels. I, umm, never made it there. In the sixth level, with the blinds at 100/200 and my stack about even with what I started, I made a move and was gone in about 40th with the top 15 paying. I liked the structure though. If I had any hands at all, it would have gotten interesting quick.

While I was playing in that, I decided to open up a $1/$2 limit table to clear the bonus a little quicker (think I was a little impatient last night??). Luckily, I did my best Waffles impersonation when I limped in MP after 3 new people had joined the table and all posted. I had 89o but with 4 and a half bets already in, I figured WTF. Of course, the BB must have been thinking the same, and must have had a good hand too because he bumped it up. I called with everyone else!

Well naturally, since online poker is obviously rigged, the donk that plays 89o to a raise gets rewarded! The flop came 6 7 10 rainbow. The BB bet and I called along with 2 others. The turn was a Q. The BB bet and I raised and he reraised me! The river was ac Ace. He checked and I bet. He mucked his superior pre-flop hand as I raked the $40 pot. wOOt! I left a little while later and basically broke even.

I was still restless though, and after reading about some of Klopzi’s posts about Blackjack (I know I know, STAY AWAY), I decide again, wtf? I think I had the awwfuckkits. I sat in with just $20 and went with his system of counting points for wins, etc, etc. I was up to about $36 at one point and left with about $30. Not too bad really. Me likey the pokah a lot better though, so I will be staying away from that in the future (I think ;)

The last thing I did was play a 45 SNG on Stars for $11. I made it to the final table and went out in 9th so I was the double bubble. I pushed with A10 and was called by the donkey, KJ. He hit his J and I was down to 1 BB. I survived 2 straight pushes, the first of which I, of course with no chips, got pocket Aces. Bastards! Anyway, my time came shortly after that. Oh well. Mookie hit me up on the girly chat to ask if I was playing the WWdN: Not The, but I couldn’t do it. I had conference calls with both China and Munich this morning, so I had to get on a train at 6:20 this morning. Yes, that did suck. Did I say I may be going to China next month?

Anyway, I didn’t realize Mookie was trying to it to 3 tables so it would satify the hairy bastard's bet. Luckily, he hit paydirt in a 27 SNG so the mop will be trimmed all nice and purdy for the Vegas trip. Best of luck to Mookie, Rocco, and the rest of the crew on their Vegas Vacation.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Bubble Night at the Mookie

This is going up pretty late because work is pretty busy this week. Hmm, wonder if that is because I was in Vegas last week and at field day Tuesday. Anyway, this is going to be a quick one.

Played in the Mookie last night. When I signed up at about 8:30pm EST, there were only about 16 registered. It didn't look like he was going to get the same showing as last week, which I missed while I was away.

In the last 5 minutes there was a flurry of registrations and once again, the Mookie had a new record number of players with 50! It is probably getting old reading everywhere, but this is a great tourney and I have a blast. I feel comfortable doing the ragging and receiving the ragging to/from everyone in this one.

I even had a couple people that I hadn't talked to before congrat me on my Caesar's tourney and my Vegas luck. Thanks guys. I knew I was getting about 30 visits a day but I thought it was just Don, Carmen, Matt and Hoyazo using various machines so I would feel better. Just kidding, I know my wife tunes in sometimes so she can make fun of me. Anyway, if Bone_Daddy84 or VegasRico stop by, nice talking to you guys. Also, I didn't talk to him myself but stump12 made an impressive debut. I think he said he has a blog but he might just be a Hoy devotee. Not really sure.

Anyway, I donked it up for a bit and sometime after the break I doubled up with cowboys and held on until we had 10 left, with 9 paying. Yeah, given the title, you know where I ended up right? I was in middle position with only 5 of us at the table and the blinds were at 300/600 with 50 antes I think and I pushed my last 3500 or so in with KQh. 21skidoo, of the venerable Atlanta crew woke up with A10c and after I flopped a Q, he turned the A for the suck, resuck and I was gone. Who wants to win money anyway?

I ended up railing the final table where jjok, Waffles, Hoyazo, HCR33 and GScottW were ruling the roost. GScottW, the only non-blogger of the crew took in down after going heads up with Waffles. Unfortunately, time is running out for Mookie and the Chia Fro. Dude, it was 105 last Friday in Vegas, you gotta trim that thing man.

Nice job to all. Gotta get back to work.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Random Crappy Wednesday

Well, my day today is starting off just great. I was up at about 4:30am when my bed was overrun by little people. It had been pouring rain all night and that apparently woke up my kids. At 4:30, when my 5 year old came in looking for a place to lay down with us, I decided it was time for me to get up. I checked out my email and bloglines. I saw that Matty took down the WWdN last night. Nice going man!

Of course, since I was up so early, I barely made it out the door in time to drive to get my train this morning. Since it was still pouring, I went through the garage so it would be a quick walk to my nice dry car. The only problem was…I left my fucking moonroof wide open all night. Not only that, but I jumped right into the seat before I even realized it.

With a soaking wet ass, I had to run in and grab the key to my wife’s car, the Miami Don special, which the kid’s carseats into my car, and haul ass off to the train. Luckily, that is where I am right now. Wifey wasn’t planning on leaving the house today anyway. It is too shitty out. I love New England weather.

Anyway, I haven’t played a single hand of online poker since I got back from Vegas. I played at the bar on Monday night, but that has been it. I went out in 12th place in the first game and was out before the break in the second game when my Aces got cracked by J10. I bumped before the flop to 3xBB and he called. The flop was QJ4 and he pushed! I called and then watches as the runner runner straight came down with a 9 and a K. I pushed in my scraps on the next hand so I could go home. I still missed the Monday’s at Hoy’s though.

I don’t usually play both sessions at the bar but I had yesterday off from work so I could help out at field day for my oldest son. We actually had pretty nice weather for it and I was assigned to “The Big Sponge”. At my station, the kids line up between 2 buckets. The first person in line soaks a big sponge in the bucket and then passes it back over their head to the next person. That person then passes it back between their legs to the next person. It goes over and under until the last person gets it and then they squeeze out whatever is left into the other bucket. The team to fill the bucket at the end wins.

The kids love it, but it isn’t the most fun if you are one of the volunteers. It was me and one other guy and 2 moms at the stations. On average, we needed to refill 3 big plastic buckets for each class that came to the station. That is every 10 minutes. I got a lot of exercise yesterday at least. All of the kids had fun so it was a good day anyway.

It is back to work today. I did work Monday of this week but didn’t get too much done really. Now I don’t have any time off again until the week after the 4th of July when we go up to my mother’s cabin in Maine. For some reason, I mentioned to my sister that they do a sprint triathlon the weekend we are up there. I said that we should give it a shot. This was a couple months ago and she didn’t really say whether she wanted to do it or not. Well, last week while I was boozing it up in Vegas, she emailed me and said she was all registered and that I should send it in quick. Ugh. I only have a month to get ready now. Not that I think or even want to be competitive, but I at least want to survive! The tri is a half mile swim, 15 mile bike and then a 3.5 mile run so it’s not like it is something I need to train all year for, but I still need to get going. Especially the swimming part. I am sure I will be bitching about some of the crap I am doing to get ready for this thing over the next month so bear with me.

To wrap up my Vegas musings, on the morning I was leaving, I walked over to Caesars to see if any of the pros were playing in the Las Vegas Open. As I was crossing in front of club Pure, along comes Sean Sheikan. Well, as you read in Don’s blog, he had a little trouble with Billy Baxter a couple days before so I couldn’t pass up asking him about it and seeing what the reaction would be.

He was alone and I just said, “Hey, you get any of your money back from the other day?” He stopped and as he shuffled his chips from one hand to the other said,
“What day was it?”
“Two days ago, Thursday, Baxter took a bunch off of you playing triple draw I think”
“Oh, I don’t really remember, we just go back and forth usually anyway”
“Oh yeah, I think he rivered the nuts on you”
“You know, there are so many hands like that, it happens though man”
“Ok man, good luck”
“Yeah, you too”

Now I know, not a real exciting conversation or story really but it showed a couple things about these guys I think. For one, either he was lying or he really didn’t give the 20K or so as much thought as anyone else would have. He really seemed as if he didn’t remember what I was talking about, yet I know Don saw it all come down. Second, this guy may not be as much of an asshole as we think. He didn’t just blow me off or keep walking while answering a quick question. He stopped and chatted. Seemed like a down to earth guy. Third, we all know the coverage that gets broadcast on TV is edited up pretty good. Maybe this guy isn’t all bad. Of course, if I asked him about the side bet with Baxter that he couldn’t cover that day, he may have turned a little nastier but who knows.

Well, that’s it for me today. Go read someone more interesting. There are lots of them over to your right. Go tell Matt congrats on his win too.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Casino Games in Vegas

Ok, this is my casino games post. In other words, my other than poker tourney post. My, Ihadahorshoeupmyassthewholetime post.

I got to Vegas around noon on Wednesday and after checking in, went for a quick walk down the strip. The first place we ended up was at the Aladdin. We were looking for some poker and I sat in at $2/$4 limit here. I think I mentioned I got my head kicked in here. After I lost about $120, I headed down and met up with Don and Carmen for the first time at MGM. I explained before that this is where the mullet man took me for a big pot with a gutshot on the river, but I scraped back to a small profit with pocket aces.

I then met up with my buddies and we ended up going to eat at Margaritaville, then heading over to the Shadow bar at Caesars. I left one of my buddies there and headed over to Aladdin again at around 1am. Being the smart guy that I am, I decided it was a good idea to play the 2am Aladdin tourney with 19 other degenerates. This was a great decision since I had already been up for 23 hours when it started. When I found myself doing headbobs onto the top of my beer bottle, it was time to shove and lose.

Of course my buddy went on to bubble, coming in 5th. While he played on, I sat down at video poker and won my tourney buyin back. Started with $20 and got up with $80. Not too bad. We left there at about 4am to walk back to the Imperial and got harassed repeatedly along the way by some fine upstanding pimps, hoes, and lookouts. It was grand.

Having successfully made it back to my room without any knife wounds and my bankroll intact (yeah, no safes in the IP, sweet), I went to sleep for about 3 hours. I got up around 7:30 and we headed off to get some breakfast. After some food in the back of O’Sheas, we found our way to the craps table there. Now O’Sheas is a place you can always find some cheap gambooling. The $5 craps table got thrown at for a while going up and down for a while, but also introducing us to The Fire Bet. I walked away from the table up about $20 and sat in for some 3 Card Poker. I started with $100 and lost about $60 pretty quick. The dealer even said maybe I should try some blackjack. I took his advice and clawed back to even.

No, I haven’t started the lucky part. Hold on, I am getting there.

I headed up to the Barbary Coast, a place where I have always had a ton of luck at the craps tables. I toiled for about an hour, leaving about $50 up to go register for the Caesars Tourney.

After the tourney, doing a few dial-a-shots, and having some dinner, we decided to head over to the Hard Rock for some people watching and some drinking. We got there and I had a couple Jack and cokes but was getting sleepy. I tried one of my personal crack drinks (Red Bull/Vodka) but that didn’t even do the trick. I decided to take a walk around and find a perfectly placed Video Poker machine. Their machines are along the rail of the casino so you have the casino view on one side and the outer aisle view on the other. Unfortunately, I was again in headbob mode and quickly lost my $20. I stumbled back through the casino and saw a $5 3 Card Poker table. There were a couple seats so I figured I would stay awake that way. WARNING: LUCKY SHIT FAST APPROACHING!

I decided to play $10 a hand but only play the pair plus. If you don’t know the game, follow the link. They do a better job explaining than I do. Anyway, about 3 hands in, BAM, I get a straight flush for $400. I play a couple more hands and get a straight. I lose a couple hands, tip the dealer $10, and walk away from the table, maybe 15 minutes total, with $450. Sweet.

We get back to the strip and I decide to give Blackjack a shot. I end up giving Harrah’s $100 of the money I took from Hard Rock, then played 2 spins of Roulette with the numbers my kids told me. $5 per spot, lost both rolls (shockingly, I know). With that, I was off to bed at around 2 am or so.

I got up the next morning and grabbed breakfast at O’Shea’s again. It was about 9am and Don was going to pick me up at noon for the tourney at Binions. I played craps for a while going up and down. Finally, I decided to give the Fire Bet a try or 2. I play $1 for me and $1 for the dealer. A new shooter had just joined the table and he went on a tear. He was rolling forever it seemed and the money kept being pushed my way, although I wasn’t betting nearly enough in hindsight. Regardless, this guy hit 5 different point numbers before he crapped out. My Fire Bet, one of the worst house advantage side bets out there, paid me $250, and the dealers $250. I walked away from the table with about $550 after a couple losing shooters after that guy.

MinvanDon picked me up and we went to Binions for that tourney. After all that, he drove back to the MGM where he went to work on the cash game donkeys while I met up with my buddies (also donkeys) who had been drinking at NYNY all afternoon.

We ended up over at Hooters for dinner (what, good wings?). We actually had to check it out because my first trip to Vegas, I stayed at the San Remo, the dump that was remodeled as the new Hooters hotel and casino. They did a great job with it and I played a little more break even craps for a while after we ate.

We headed back down the strip at that point and stopped into the Barbary Coast again to see what damage we could do. The craps tables were packed so me and my buddy sat at a $5 3 Card Poker table. I lost the first 6 hands and decided to walk around and try to find a blackjack table. I made a loop around the room and it was pretty packed at each table. I came up to another 3 Card Poker table that was empty and started for it, just as 3 other people sat down at it. I decided to just jump into the corner of the table for a few hands. On the very first hand I get dealt another straight flush! I was only playing $5 this time, but still, I had another $200 hit. I played for a little while later but left the table shortly after that with about $270.

By this time it was about midnight and I was getting tired again (I know, I am an old fuck). As we walked past O’Sheas, the craps table was packed. We walked in and I saw a spot next to a guy we had seen there that morning when I won the Fire Bet. I decided what the hell and jumped in with my first hundred. The table minimum had moved up to $10 so the swings were faster than my normal games. I was quickly down to about $30 but tried to convince my buddy to jump in with the other hundred I had just won at Barbary. He refused and said he was just going to sleep. He was hurtin from the booze, lack or food and sleep. You know, the normal Vegas stuff.

Anyway, I had my pass line bet out and plopped down the other hundred to get the come bets going. I was getting low again a little while later when another new shooter joined us. A woman that said she had never shot before. I threw down $2 for me and $1 for the dealers again on the Fire Bet and wouldn’t you know it, she went off. I was having fun yapping it up with the guy I had seen in the morning, and a couple that was on my right making just field bets.

Anyway, I could see my chips growing and turning from red ones to green one pretty rapidly. Again, I was still betting too conservatively but hey, that’s how I roll. Anyway, when the shooter hit the 4th different point number, the guy who saw me hit the Fire Bet in the morning says, “Hey, she just hit her fourth number. You won that shit again.”

I didn’t even realize it. So at that point, I had a $50 bonus coming to me, since 4 numbers is 25-1. I needed her to roll either a 4 or a 6 for a point to move on. Sure enough, she rolls the 4. I am pleading with her, amongst everyone else at the winning craps table of course, to hit the 4. After about 5 harmless rolls, BAM, she hits the 4! I am up to the $500 bonus. If she rolls the 6 on the come out roll, I am going to get real excited. She rolls a 5. Bummer, but about 3 rolls later she hits it! Ok, come on 6! Nope, a 9.

The drama was over shortly when she finally did roll the dreaded 7 but it was pretty hard to complain. I had about $1,000 in front of me. The last roll, I had about $100 on the table too. It was an amazing roll. I threw 2 green chips to the shooter and then watched her friend roll the come out, then crap out. Same thing with her other friend. As soon as that one happened, I colored in and walked away with about $900.

The funniest part was I was the only one playing the Fire Bet and the dealers were loving it. I put $500 in their tip can on the day. Not too shabby. Anyway, I went off to sleep after that.

The next morning was when we were going home so I didn’t have a lot of time to gamble. Probably a good thing really. I did manage to win another $100 playing single deck blackjack at Harrah’s though.

One last thing too. We were walking back to our room to get our bags out and check out. My buddy got a call on his cell in the middle of the casino at the IP. I was standing there, itching for some more action so I decided, wtf, let’s give the Roulette wheel another shot. I grabbed another 4 red chips and put one on 3 and one on 25. Nothing. One more try, one on 3 and one on 25.

All I did was watch the dealers as her eyes went wide as she said, “25!” I almost knew it was coming. With that $175, I paid for the room for both of us at checkout (oh yeah, the IP is high class baby). It was a sweet way to end the trip.

Ok, I think that is all I had for casino games. I was lucky, lucky, lucky for sure. Hope Mookie and the gang have the same experience. I know that Rocco likes his dice too. Play the Fire Bet man!

Who links to me?