The Rock Garden

2010-12-22T11:45:00.000-06:00

Rant #2 - I went to the DMV this morning with every intention of renewing my drivers license. I wait in line for a couple of minutes, when I realize that they might not take credit cards. Sure enough on a big paper sign at the desk is we take cash or checks only.

We live in a world of completely fake money so why not take credit cards. I could see that a prudent use of tax dollars would be not to pay the costs of credit card transactions.

Back to the drawing board tomorrow! I am sure after I go through the entire process I will have rant #3.

2010-12-21T07:07:00.000-06:00

I have no followers on this blog, but I need a place to rant so I am starting it again.

The thing that has me a bit ticked is the government's idea of replacing the gas tax with expensive equipment to track our miles. I find this flawed for many reasons.

First the expense of the equipment. Who is going to pay for it? Oh wait tax dollars!

The gas tax is a TAX. The government takes enough of my money for worthless purposes, so why not just add on equivalent which would be close to the average current gas tax. Then allocate that portion to the causes that the gas taxes support. I am sure they are great causes!

We the people are smarter than that. We will begin using public transportation or Cars2Go.

We the people already pay in way to much to support bull shit initiatives.

Wake up people! We should institute the flat tax ASAP!

I am sure I have more to say, but I got that tiny bit of angst off my chest.

2010-05-15T07:59:00.000-05:00

Youth Sports

Here I sit in a hotel room in Houston. I did not sleep well, but the bottom line is our daughters team will be competing for the Texas Director's Cup title in soccer. The schedule has been turned upside down due to the nasty rain yesterday so we play this afternoon. This gives me some time to reflect and comment on youth sports.

Topics covered:

Select soccer
Coaching baseball
Choosing a sport

First lets rant about select soccer. Although our kids get excellent training, select soccer is extremely expensive. Added to the thousands of dollars for fees are travel costs. These go up tremendously when team advance into the playoffs. I guess right now we are blessed that this is something we can afford for the kids to do. After the expense comes the politics. Good or bad select soccer is a BUSINESS. Recently our son's coach was let go. I will not go into the details but the result of this business decision is that the club lost a good coach, some families behaved in totally unacceptable ways, and one or both sides are lying threw there teeth. On the positive side I love watching our kids play and try their personal best. I am trying to calm down as a parent fan and just enjoy the experience. Occasionally I do have to be vocal regarding a bad call or to motivate our children. Truth silent parents are better parents.

Speaking of being silent I wish I had not over heard a couple of the Dad's from the baseball team mumbling how they would be better coaches. In youth sports the coaches are volunteers. We volunteer because we love the game of baseball and we love to watch kids advance their skills. This season has not been a strong season for our team. That being said we are playing at the top level. I know the boys have the skills, but unfortunately we cannot play the game for them.

This leads me to the last topic, choosing a sport. Our son is 10 years old. He is about to tryout for a select soccer team. I definitely encourage this because soccer is a well rounded sport and the select coaches definitely know what they are doing. But my son is also pretty darn good at baseball. He struggles at the plate, but he is a thinker and understands the idiosyncrasies of the game. Does he really have to choose a sport at the age of 10? The other sad part is that baseball and soccer are played during the same season in Texas, so he will not be able to play both in high school. He is also pretty good at golf, but I am thinking that is also a spring sport in Texas. When I grew up I had the opportunity to play every sport - baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, football, and bowling. Select soccer is going to be extremely expensive, so we will need to see how passionate he is for the game. My wife argues if he chooses baseball then we need to get him the same level of coaching they are getting for soccer. I honestly do agree.

All that said I will conclude by saying youth sports are killing us parents. We have to leave work early to get the kids to practice and to games. We have to work late at night to make up for the missed time from the office. Definitely blessed that we work for great companies that permit this flexibility. Finally we had to split up the family this weekend in order to cover the two sports. That is not always an easy decision nor fun.

Kids go kick some butt today. Good luck to the Dallas Texans Austin Division 97 Girls White team. Compete and do your personal best at the state finals. As for the Mustang Diamondbacks please play well and win today so I have the opportunity to coach one more game next Thursday.

Play ball!

2010-05-01T06:29:00.000-05:00

I love youth Baseball!

Last night I had so much fun coaching our team in the baseball tournament. We were playing probably the toughest team in our league as our first game of the tournament. The conclusion was not ideal, but boy they boys sure fought hard. In Little League baseball rarely do you get a complete game. Well last night we went the full 6 innings. We lost 10-8, but with two outs the boys were attacking. The final out came on a bang bang play to first base. Although our fans were not happy it was the correct call from my angle as third base coach. The umpires were the best two umpires we have had all season. They were on top of the game and enthusiastic.

I saw such great effort from these players I was pumped up. We may have won the game if one ball bounces cleaner or I did not make a coaching error.

I made some errors in the pitching department, but we stayed in the game. My big error came during our final at bat. Bases were loaded. A better rips a single. Runners from second and third score. I did not pay attention to our runner coming from first because I was focused on getting the runner from second home. He got caught to far off second base in a pickle between second and third. The result was not good, ending in our second out.

We did have a very scary moment when a batter swung the bat around hitting our catcher in the middle of the back. He was down for awhile. What a tough kiddo because he stayed in the game.

DBacks! I am very proud of you! Now if we can just teach a few of you to not cry when things do not quite go your way the season will be a total success.

2010-04-17T16:48:00.000-05:00

Apparently Unsportsmanlike

I can certainly see how someone would perceive my actions on the baseball field today as unsportsmanlike, but that absolutely was not my intention.

I am coaching third base in a U10 baseball game and we are leading 9-4 with one out. One of our fastest players on the team (our son) is on third. I am collaborating with him on how we are going to score.

The batter hits a high pop fly down the third base line. The catcher hustles down the baseline to make a spectacular catch. The hustle and catch was definitely a web gem. It is a live ball and no one is covering the plate so I send the runner home to score. The opposing team was furious with me. Honestly I did not think I did anything wrong. One of the coaches is a friend and he was pissed at me. I asked him if they really thought it was unsportslike and he said absolutely. I assured him that was not my intention. I apologized to all of the coaches.

Then the moms were bad mouthing along the fence. I turned to them and also apologized.

I viewed this move as aggressive baseball. We have not had many opportunities this season to teach the boys aggressive base running.

Would I do this again? Absolutely! Would I do it with a five run lead? Probably not!

It was not my intention to cause the other team to get upset.

My friend asked me if they would do this in high school baseball. My initial answer was probably not. The more I think about it I have seen this play done during my umpiring days by high school teams. It would be a rare occurrence.

I will agree that by taking this course of action the timing was not appropriate. I could have exercised a bit more respect for the fantastic play.

I would also say that some of the things that were said about me on the side lines were not appropriate. These people have no clue about me. I try to do the right thing and live life with a great deal of integrity. I do make mistakes, but I always try to teach the boys good sportsmanship and to play an aggressive brand of baseball.

I will learn from this experience!

Bottom line is that both teams played a great game today. There were some outstanding plays!

2010-04-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

New Things Happening

I was not sure what I was inspired to post about this week. I think I will summarize a couple of key new things that have been happening in our lives the past 3 - 4 weeks.

Moving completely away from processed foods
Buying local produce every Saturday at the Farmers market
Making our own bread every week
We even made our own wheat thin crackers
We also made strawberry jam from local strawberries
We are growing our own veggies in the yard
We are collecting rain water
We are dehydrating tomatoes from the farmer's market
Eating all organic items
Eating more fresh fruit

Kids are a bit frustrated, but I am feeling good!

Happy & Healthy eating!

2010-03-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

Fantasy Baseball

Well it is time again for fantasy baseball. I got my team yesterday. I think I have a great pitching staff, but the rest of my team sucks. Once again I failed to appreciate Yahoo's approach to automated drafts. I do not spend a ton of time pre-Ranking my players, but I usually move all the injured players out so they do not get drafted and I make sure I have a shot at getting as many of the top 100 players as possible.

I guess my big flaw is that I was to worried about getting a couple of good pitchers I stuck to many pitchers in my top 100. I also drafted dead last so I got back to back picks, but two picks after 13 other teams picked twice.

My second big flaw is that I completely fail to account for the fact that there are 14 teams in our league.

My third flaw this season was that there are a couple of very hot prospects so I wanted a shot at a couple. I got a few to many. I think having Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward on my team will be a benefit. It sucks that Strasburg has to sit out a month in a financial move by Washington, but I understand the fact that he may be worth keeping around.

Regardless of how well my team does this season I need to definitely increase the amount of SMACK talk on the fantasy baseball site. Last year everyone was way to quiet. Right now everyone is bashing my draft, but soon I may have ammunition for smack talk. If not I will certainly make something up.

Go Team!

2010-03-23T22:56:00.003-05:00

Food Revolution

This is a short post, but I absolutely have to add this to my list. Please watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

OMG!

2010-03-23T21:13:00.003-05:00

I will start this post by recommending everyone watch the documentary "Food Inc". Next pick up and read this book, "In the Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. And you should do all of your shopping at Whole Foods and local farmers markets.
So after watching Food Inc. I sent a form letter to Senator Cornyn. Below is his response and below that are my thoughts.

Dear Mr. Shaulis:

Thank you for contacting me about the production and distribution of
genetically modified (GM) foods. I appreciate having the benefit of
your comments.

The United States enjoys the safest and most plentiful food supply in
the world. Key to our successes are production and safety practices
rooted in sound scientific practices. Among these practices,
biotechnology, though still in its infancy, has the potential to help
keep U.S. agriculture at the world's forefront while ensuring a safe,
abundant, and affordable food supply.

Underscoring the immense size and slow response time of the federal
government, biotechnology development, and the development of GM
foods, continually outpaces the standards of federal agencies that
regulate and monitor food products. Several federal agencies,
including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), have a role in the development,
production, and marketing stages of the entire U.S. food
supply—whether traditional or GM. Any plant or animal product intended
for human consumption must undergo strict scrutiny by the FDA and
USDA. Additionally, the USDA must review and approve all GM crop
varieties—subject to further examination by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)—before planting.

As you know, food containing GM plant varieties is now commonplace.
The Congressional Research Service estimates that nearly 70 percent of
the U.S. food supply contains some form of GM crop variety—most
notably corn and soy-based ingredients used in many processed foods.
However, a narrow category of dairy products is currently the only GM
food product derived from animals to be approved. Although questions
were raised about the safety of meat and dairy products derived from
cloned animals, the FDA has concluded that these products are as safe
as meat and dairy products derived from naturally born animals.
Cloning technology does not alter the genetic makeup of animal, but
rather generates an exact copy. The FDA is currently developing
guidelines for monitoring the marketing of cloned and other
animal-based food products with the help of USDA and the biotechnology
industry.

Additionally, questions have been raised regarding labeling
requirements for GM foods. No government regulation exists to compel
food manufacturers to label a product that contains a GM variety,
however GM food products are subject to all existing USDA and FDA
safety and labeling requirements. Moreover, USDA has determined that
cloned animals will not qualify for the USDA Organic marketing label.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent Texans in the United
States Senate, and you may be certain that I will work to ensure that
decisions concerning the development, production, and marketing of our
food supply continue to be rooted in sound and safe scientific
practice. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

My thoughts:

1. At least his office replied, but the form letter is full of Bull Shit.
2. Sound scientific practices my eye. Hmm, lets make sure the results allow Monsanto to monopolize crops.
3. I trust the EPA, USDA & FDA almost as much as I trust Capitol Hill. Wink! Wink!
4. Thank goodness cloned animals do not yet qualify as Organic. Hell up until a month an organic cow was a cow who had access to a pasture.
5. Final note genetically modifying crops to be resistant to Round Up. WTF!!!

I bet this sounds yummy with all of your foods - Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine)!!

I am moving toward this diet - "If God created it and man has not mucked with it, then I can eat it"

Not quite there, but working on it!

Next month they vote on Genetically modified alfalfa and wheat please send your Congressmen & women a note and visit http://www.saynotogmos.org/.

Eat Healthy!

2010-03-22T23:20:00.002-05:00

Well I just had to toss out another post. I have become extremely disillusioned with our political process. Two things specifically get under my skin.

1. Adding items to a bill that are completely out of context such as this added to the health care bill:

"By the way, buried in the new House health care bill is an unrelated but also sweeping measure that rewrites the rules dealing with college loans for needy students"

2. All of the deal making it takes to obtain a vote. I heard the Nebraska deal was removed, but there was still advantages to Louisiana and a couple of other states left in the Health Reform Bill.

Collaboration and Common Sense should rule the day. Special interest and unrelated topics do not belong. Both parties are guilty as hell and should be ashamed as to how they represent us.

Bills should be broken down into reliable and efficient legislation. I think a 2000 + page document that takes a law degree to understand makes little sense. Every member of the house and senate should be able to efficiently discuss the bill and damn it work together to craft what makes sense for the people.

I had some politicians I was planning to support come November, but now I am leaning toward voting out every incumbent.

I have this simple message for the Government of the United States. Get your act together!

Stay tuned for my next post when I reveal the canned response I got from Senator Cornyn regarding the up coming decisions on genetically modified alfalfa and wheat. An entire rant is forthcoming!

Peace!

2010-03-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

This blog was about to die off since there is not much happening in the world of on-line poker. I recognized that there is so much more to post about. So I will try once again to post at least weekly.

So this week is SXSW in Austin Texas. I got to see a set by Surfer Blood at Waterloo Records. Last night I got to see Cracker and the BoDeans at Auditorium Shores. The family was hungry so unfortunately we did not stick around for Cheap Trick. We stopped at Whole Foods for some food and heard a tiny sampling of the Octopus Project. I wish today I was at the Continental Club for Mojo Nixon's party, which includes The Mother Truckers and Mojo himself.

Today we are off to visit a new farmer's market. Despite the rain, we hope to get some local foods. The only way to go.

Peace!

2008-09-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

August 16 – Off to take our daughter to the Emergency room. We happened to select SunRise Children’s Hospital. I will spare everyone the details of our daughter’s symptoms, but it was not quite how we planned to start the vacation. The hospital was great. At least we could watch the Olympics while waiting. The wait was long so my son and I headed back to the resort to swim and goof off. We played air hockey, pool, and showed other guests the finer art of Wii bowling. Around 6:00 PM we headed back to the hospital. The drive to and from the Hospital allowed us to learn some back roads in Vegas. We arrived just about the time our daughter was being dismissed.

Sticking to the game plan I tucked the family in and headed to Downtown Las Vegas around 10:00 PM. My best experiences gambling in Las Vegas has always been downtown, so I drove to my old venue, Binion’s Horseshoe. I must say the parking garage was a tight fit, but at least there was parking. I had heard that $1-2 black jack was back at Binion’s. Well that turned out to be false, so I headed to the poker.room. I bought in to a $1-2 NL game for $50. I know. I am cheap. I do like the challenge of spinning gold out of straw. I won a few hands. My biggest win came as a small blind special with 74s. Two fours came on the flop and I had one caller all the way. I believe I was up to around $75. A new player came to the table. Oh before I forget the Olympics were on and when the US men won the swimming relay the place erupted in applause. It was really cool. The very first hand with the new player I flopped top two pair, Kings and nines. I bet out $15. He went over the top of me $40, essentially putting me all-in. My gut told me that he flopped a set. I ended up mucking my hand. Two hands later I limped in with KQ. The flop came KQ7. I bet $15. Again this guy goes over the top of me. I put him on AQ, so I pushed in my stack. He immediately called. He turned over AQ. For a second I felt like Daniel Negreanu. Everyone reading this can guess the outcome. An Ace hit on the turn and I lose site of a $200 + pot. I went on tilt. I quickly congratulated the player and stormed out of the casino. I acted like a total idiot. That is the way my play has been online, always getting out drawn on the turn or river. Oh I was frustrated because I thought I played excellent poker. I finished my beer watching the Freemont Experience.

I got in the car and got turned down a street with construction that ran by the Golden Nugget. It was quite serendipitous because the street headed me straight for the Stratosphere and I made it back to the resort in record time with little to know traffic. Thank goodness I noticed the police offer patrolling and I was not speeding.

Play on!

2008-08-28T23:14:00.001-05:00

Las Vegas Trip Report August 15-22, 2008

August 15 – Driving from Phoenix area to Las Vegas. We arrived at Hoover Dam approaching dusk. The cost to park was ridiculous ($7) but well worth it to view the Damn up close. Our daughter did not care for it much. Apparently she is terrified of heights.

I believe we arrived in Las Vegas around 7:00 PM. I had not been to Las Vegas since 1991, so I was not sure what to expect. The skyline definitely changed significantly. Our trusted Google map brought us right to our resort, Wyndham Grand Desert Resort.

I made several trips to the car to unpack. I was too cheap to pay the bell hops. Our accommodations were nice. We made a grocery list and I headed to a store called Von’s and to Jack in the Box for dinner. I found the store and picked up supplies for the week. There were only two checkout lines open. I was about eighth in line and there were at least 20 people behind me. It was ridiculous. Definitely all walks of life were out shopping on a Friday night.

Next stop Jack in the Box. I got my order and against my normal practices I checked the content. I was a sandwich short. I parked and walked inside where the quickly corrected the order. After dinner my son and I decided to go for a swim. Man that pool water was cold. We ended up chilling in the hot tub!

Although I was anxious to hit the tables I decided it would be best to stay put for the night. I thought I could kill time playing online. NOT! The internet at the resort sucked.

Rather than an uber post I will post one day at a time!

Play on!

2008-07-16T22:05:00.003-05:00

Thought I would share this brief adventure and even include a bit of poker.

Last night I decided to do some yard work to please the boss. I pruned and weeded the bed along the side of our house. It was not a problem and I had energy to burn. I have been inspired to create another water feature so I decided to start digging the hole. I used a shovel and a pick axe, having a grand old time. I hit something hard so I got my 30 pound rock spike. Wham! Wham! Sphhhhshhhhhh! I hit the #@%&*( main sprinkler line. I was pissed! I turned off the water to the house. How the F... was I going to cut this line. I could not get a hack saw in there. Hmmmm! My wife bought me a all-in-One tool a few years back. It took n act of Congress to figure out how to install the saw blade, but I finally managed. In the pool of water I was only able to cut 3/4 through the pipe. I had to dig deeper into the swamp I created then finsih the job with a mud splattering hack saw. I got the piece of pipe out and boogied to Lowes to buy parts. I returned with a compression fitting two couplers and a end cap.

Note to readers - PVC compression fittings suck! Oh I forgot to add since the water was turned off my wife was let's say "Less than Happy"! I tried four times to get the damn compression fitting to stop leaking. I finally gave up and debated a trip back to Lowes. Hmmm! I bought the end cap for a reason, so I just capped the pipe and turned the water back on. No leak!

Saga continues - Oh I forgot to mention that I did buy two couplers, but I did not have a piece of pipe to connect the two. I stopped at Lowes on the way home from work and got the PVC pipe. I did learn from my boss that there should be a cut-off valve specific to the sprinkler system. I found and opened the box. I was staring at the valving with my sun glasses on trying to study the configuration and figure out how to turn off the water. Then I saw it it laying on top of the pipe. A SNAKE! I was thankful I did not just reach in and attempt to turn a valve. I am not sure what type it was. I poked it with the screw driver. The snake did not put up much of a fight then slithered into the hole next to the pipe. I was thinking to myself -"Man life is full of surprises!"

After several cuts of PVC I got the leak repaired and the water back on.

Poker story will have to be later!

2008-07-06T00:26:00.002-05:00

Hello Internet!

I have not posted in a long time. Poker is not the hot topic these days. My only poker comment is that I lose more often than I win when I have pocket aces. Enough said!

I am going to start writing on this blog anything that happens to get under my skin. Here is today's WTF moment.

We are at the farmer's market downtown Austin. There is a line about 8 persons deep to get a pint of freshly picked blueberries. This non-english speaking lady walks by the entire line and right up to the vendor. "How much?" The farmer explains 3 or 4 times the prices. Lady knods her head. "I take two." The young lady starts to package two pints. "No! No! No! One this size."

Vendor prepares a half pint. The the lady tries paying with WIC. The vendor is like sorry we do not take WIC. "You You take! Just like money."

The lady walks away.

I am primarily kicking myself in the buttocks, because I did not ask this lady to get to the back of the line. It was not worth any hassle, but she should follow the rules.

I have experienced several other WTF moments and hopefully I will post those soon.

2008-01-10T23:04:00.000-06:00

Howdy Bloggers! I have not been inspired to write in a very long time. However, for some strange reason I decided to read some of the old blogs. Scotts' post of the song by DropKick Murphy for some reason inspired me. Perhaps I will see you at that show. Never heard of them, but I liked it!

My state in the poker world is simple. I have no cash at any sites, so I am back to chasing the freerolls. I am not finding very many good freerolls. At poker time I can no longer consider their site a freeroll. They require one raked hand per day to play in their freerolls. That is a crock. Others freerolls have 5000 players so it is a crap shoot. If anyone knows of good sites were I have a shot to win cash please send me a comment or e-mail. I did finally get my last little bit of stash back from Neteller. I still enjoy playing SNGs for FPPs at PokerStars.

Locally I play in a couple tournaments a month. I thought I would share my experience on Monday night. There were 22 persons in the tournament. Essentially I played AJ suited, pocket kinds, then AJ suited again. Both times with AJ I lost to AKo. I was out with the second AJs. I felt I played the hands correctly, so I was not upset. I then moved to the cash game.

The first couple of hours it was a normal NL Holdem cash game. Soon we had 11 players so we split to two tables. I landed at the crazy table. We ended up playing pineapple, crazy pineapple, Omaha, and Holdem. They would do straddles and double straddles. I thought it was totally insane, but I sat there drinking whiskey and water and more importantly extremely patient. I was down to my final 6 bucks when my luck changed. I built up a stack of something around $30 when they decided to play Omaha H/L. The river brought me the nut flush and the nut low. I raked in an $80 pot. It was a nice feeling. So for the first outing ot 2008 I am plus $42. Perhaps I should quit! :o)

To end 2007 I lost with pocket Aces to 57o to finish on the bubble. I was totally on tilt! I still have no clue how he could call a 4X raise. The flop came 553.

What else can I complain about. My back is mucked up, so I can not play golf. It has been a long time since my back was this whacky. Hell to get older.

I doubt anyone reads this silly blog, but once again I am going to attempt to post more often.

Play on!

2007-08-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

"Nice to have a huge Stack"

I am not sure why but it is really hard to be motivated to post. I continue to grind at the low limits on Poker Stars, but I am definitely lacking inspiration to blog. Just now in a micro SNG I lost with jacks full of aces to queens full of aces. I had top pair all-in and my only caller hit a king on the turn to topple my queens. Maybe I should not be playing tonight.

Any way I wanted to share what happened a couple of Monday nights ago. There is a live tournament in Cedar Park. This time I believe there were 24 players. I was sitting at a table of very tough players, so my MO was to be aggressive early and hopefully build up a stack.

The third hand of the night I had pocket Kings. I made it 3x and got two callers. The flop came 67Q rainbow. I think I made it about 6x and same two callers. The turn and river were small cards and not chance of a straight or flush. My only fear was two pair. I made it 8X which would have left me short stacked. Both players called instantly. I went "oh shit"! On had AQ and the other had QJ. I almost tripled up.

The remainder of the night I could raise in position and force action. I called one all-in and lost, but other than that things went my way.

Two interesting hands came later in the evening. I was under the gun with QJ of clubs. The flop came AAK with 2 clubs. There was a reasonable bet of 2X the BB. I called. The turn came the ten of clubs, giving me a royal flush. Here is where I think I made a mistake. The raiser after the flop checked. I immediately went all-in hoping he would think I was stealing the pot and I assumed he had an ace. He thought about calling me for a long while then mucked stating "I bet you have JQ of clubs". I definitely had to show the cards to the table! If I had this situation again I would have checked and hoped that he caught something on the river. Oh well!

Another hand that was interesting was a player went all-in from early position. Everyone folded and it was up to me. I felt obligated to call even though I had 96o. I commented nines have been hitting the flop all night. A nine hit on the flop and my pair of nines held up to the two over cards.

Nothing two eventful until I was heads up. The player I was heads up against had played extremely smart all night. Twice he slowed played pocket aces perfectly and took down enormous pots. I think heads up I only had him by $500 in chips. I alternated between agressive and conservative. I was waiting for a moment to win this tournament. WE exchanged chips for about 30 minutes. I was in the SB and limped in with A5. The flop came 529 or something like that. I made a small bet and the other player went all-in. I felt he was trying to steal so I insta-called. He turned over 54o and my kicker won me the tournament. It was nice to win $187 in profit.

The good news is that I shared the spoils with the family and my better half will let me play again. These games are on a Monday night so it does impact our weekly flow of life. Now I am working my bachelor points so that I can play twice a month.

Play on!

2007-08-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

Well I obviously have not blogged in a long time. I have been meaning to, but for some reason never make it a priority. Here goes a quick shot at catching up.

Two weekends ago I went to Plano, TX for some baseball, golf, and gambling. It only took 2 hours to get through Waco, but we did make it to the Rangers Indians game. Here is a great game if you go to a baseball game, Pass the Cup! In our case it was cap night so we played pass the cap. Rules to the game are:

1. Everyone in your party puts $1 into the cup
2. One person starts with the cup
3. The person with the cup is now attached to the batter at the plate.
4. If the batter gets out you put in another $1, if he gets a hit you take out $1, double $2, and a triple $3, if he hits into a double play you put in $2, if he hits a homerun you get all the money in the cup (everyone then re-antes)
5. Pass the cup and the next person has the next batter.
6. Odd rules - Fielders Choice put in a buck. An error put in a buck, a walk or hit by a pitch is a push and you pass the cup. End of the game all money in the cup is divided back out equally.

It is really a fun game.

We also played a dice game called ships, captain, and crew. Everyone put $1 in the pot. You roll five dice. You must roll a 6,5, and a 4. One you do that then the remaining two dice make up your score. Every player gets three rolls. The person with the highest score drags the pot. So I roll and I get 654 on my first roll and two 4's my score is 8. Since I have two more rolls I can stay put or try to improve my eight. The person who drags the spot and starts the next round. A round is complete when everyone has had a turn.

Saturday night we did manage to play some dealer's choice. I was down most of the night until we played 5 card draw 6's are wild. I hooked up with a straight flush.

I did play in one big tournament here in town with 38 players. I had a full house only to get beat by a bigger full house. I knew it, but could not let my boat go!

Monday night I am going to give it another shot. Hopefully I will have better luck and make it into the money.

Soccer boot camp has been going on all week, so I spend 3 hours per day at the soccer fields. It has been fun for me, but I can not say the same thing for our daughter. The run their asses off in the morning, then work on skills at night.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to doing one post per week. My fingers are tired, so I am not in typing shape.

Peace!

2007-06-12T22:43:00.000-05:00

"Victory Casino"

It has been awhile since I posted. We have been traveling across the US. Our first stop was Memphis. There was a poker room across the street from our hotel and Binion's was just 14 miles away. I resisted and did not play. Next stop was St. Louis. I had played at the Ameristar in the past. Once again I resisted the urge to play. Next stop Chicago. No casinos in Chicago area that I was aware if, but did manage to catch a Cubs game. Note I did have wireless access and played on-line at every Hampton Inn. Final destination was Boyne Falls Michigan. There was a casino 12 miles from the resort. I set out Tuesday night to play poker. I arrived and put my name on the $1-2 NL Holdem table. I only had the minimum bankroll. As I was waiting to be seated I saw the dealer take chips from every player and make an announcement. I asked someone what was going on. It turned out that they were taking their rake. I immediately thought $5 every thirty minutes was steep, especially for a conservative player with a tiny bankroll. I opted to take my name of the list. I went to the sports bar and watched the Yankee -vs red Sox game with a couple of cold beers. I thought the rake was unreasonable, but it could have just been the way it was done. Any thoughts from my two readers would be appreciated.

I still wanted to play poker and the next casino was an hour away. I had enough driving to do so I opted against the adventure. The next best thing was a freeroll at a bar in Petosky Michigan. I arrived and downed a Guinness as I got the scoop. The game was upstairs and the players were fighting for a chance to play in the Michigan regional tournament. Win the regional and you get a trip to the WSOP 2007. Since I was not there for the points I basically was playing for fun. They were a nice group. Toby greated me and made me feel comfortable. He bought me a Pabst Blue Ribbon. I had not had a Pabst in 20+ years. The part I liked most is Pabst bottles have a poker card under the cap. If you guess the card correctly you get a free beer.

I got seated at a table with Toby who had already secured his spot in the regional. I was not getting very good cards. One hand I had KQo. The flop came AQ7 rainbow. I made a modest bet. Toby raised. I called. The turn was uneventful but I just checked. Toby made it $150. I did not put him on an ace so I called. I do not recall the river but Toby bet out again. I still did not feel he had the ace. I thought about it for quite awhile which is unusual for me. Usually I am quick to react. I decided I had the best hand, but I did not raise. I was not ready to go home. Turned out I had a great read on him and significantly increase me stack. I made it to the final table, but I was getting short stacked. I decided to go all-in with AJs. I got two callers, AQo and K8s. Of course the K8 caught the flush and I was eliminated 7th. I need to look up the name of the bar, but I must say they were very hospitable and I had a great time. Cheers to the Petosky poker players and best of luck at the regional.

One side note I did not play this but they did have a cool bar poker game where players had remotes and played on the TVs located in the bar. We need that in Austin. Also Cheers to Toby for making me feel part of the group and buying me a tequila shot. The shot seemed watered down, but hey who can knock the generosity.

I just doinked my entire bankroll on Pitbull poker going all-in with pocket jacks. I was up against pocket queens. I still have my Pokerstars bankroll and hope to get back into some freerolls.

Before I conclude I must share a funny story. My boss went to pick up some lunch today. he game back to the office with his adrenaline pumping. "You will not believe what I just found." When he got into his truck he saw a tuft of hair stuck to his front bumper. I popped open the hood to see a hariy thing caught in the fender well. He pounded on the hood and saw two beady eyes. It was a racoon. i suggested we take a stick and go try to prod him out of the engine. My boss was still astonished that this creature survived the 90 mph trip into the office. As we poked with a yard stick we realized there were two racoons. We decided to leave the hood up and perhaps they would work their way out and escape. After about an hour I saw one of the racoons on the engine. My boss started sounding the car alarm to scare it away. All he managed to do was scare it back into the engine and get others interested. After another inspection there were not two racoons, but three. Around 3:00 PM today all three managed to venture out and make it to the ground. My boss ran down the stairs and moved his truck. The mystery question is what vehicle did they choose next. I thought it was hilarious. They were so cute! :o)

Anyway we had a great time in Michigan. I definitely plan to go back to Memphis and play poker at Binions.

Play on!

2007-05-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

"Tilt of the Worst Kind"

For all two readers of this humble blog I apologize for taking so long to post. This Sunday I experienced the ultimate tilt and I have to share. For those of you who are parents this is a must read.

I take our 7 year old to a birthday party. There are approximately 15 children at this party. The had the "Mad Scientist". Most of these kids would not listen. The Father of the birthday boy told this one boy 5 times to put all four legs of his chair on the floor and quit hitting the wall. The sixth time my tilt began. I walked across the room and set all four legs on the ground. Please leave the chair on the floor. No sooner than I get back to my seat the kid is at it again. Fortunately for him the Dad made him get out of the chair.

The entire presentation kids would push each other wanting to participate in each activity. It drove me absolutely nuts. I tried focusing on the 5 kids who were behaving. That goodness our son was one of them. Focusing on the positive did not help. The kids kept pushing, kept playing with balloons, stealing balloons, and ignoring adults. Oh the tilt was incredible!

If it were my party I would have put the Hammer down and I am not talking 72 off suit.

Finally we go outside to make some slime. Oh man the tilt continued! I want yellow, no I want red! No I want yellow! Can we eat this stuff? No! I want green. Can we eat this stuff? NO! I was so on tilt I wanted to force feed them the slime.

So the moral of this story is a 7 year old birthday can put you on Tilt. Give your child $150 and avoid the party.

I think I am still on Tilt!

Play on!

2007-04-03T21:51:00.000-05:00

"Size Does Matter"

I was excited yesterday because I was going to play in the Monday Night Cedar Park tournament. I really like the structure because you only get $1500 to start. It was $20 buy-in.

I arrive a little bit on tilt because the baseball coach called for a last minute batting practice and I still needed to stop at the store for beer and money. I did arrive 5 minutes before the start but I hate cutting it that close. I quickly downed a couple of beers and I was ready to go.

At my table there were 2 players that appeared to be easy marks. The second or third hand I got pocket aces. I wanted to profit so I bet $200. I got one caller. I continue to bet $200, because nothing was threatening on the board. I managed to take half the stack of one of the strongest players in the tournament.

I moved away from the easy table to a tougher table of players I have never played with before. I was holding my own and grabbing a few more chips here and there. The broke down one of the tables and we shifted to two tables. The second hand of the new table I get AQo. I make a small raise and get one caller. Flop comes Q74 (2 diamonds). Other player bets $500, which was about a fourth of my stack. I put him on a queed but I knew I had the better kicker. What I did not pay attention to was the size of his stack. He had a huge stack of chips. My all0in did not make a dent in his stack, so he called my all-in chasing a flush. Of course he hit it on the turn and I was drawing dead. Out in the middle of the pack. Man I hate that!

I played in a cash game afterwards. It was a lot of fun but I managed to lose $8.

My lesson was that size does matter and when there is a table change I need to look around, spending some time analyzing the table, the new players, their position, and the size of there stack. I may not have played the hand much differently but in hind site I should have put him on the flush draw and just called his $500.

Play on!

2007-03-15T22:11:00.000-05:00

"Sailing and Poker"

It has been a little while since I updated this humble blog. This past Sunday I had the pleasure of crewing in a regatta. There were only three of us, so I actually had to do some work. Other than a less than ideal start we had a pretty good race. We did have a little luck in that the fastest boat made a navigation error. The boat ended up correcting course, but the mistake did cost them. They had to spot us 33 seconds per mile so when the math was completed we won by just 9 seconds. Man it was fun! Sailing across the water is so peaceful. I must say the captain did one hell of a job to keep us in the race. There was another San Juan 7.7 that we constantly changing positions with. I think we ended up beating them by only 28 seconds.

I could go on about sailing, but the unique thing is that they hosted a freeroll NL holdem tournament after the regatta. I learned an interesting lesson during this tournament. Many of the players had never played NL Holdem before. I tried playing my normal game and I really should have shifted gears and been the aggressor. I ended up going all-in with pocket tens. I was called by A7o and of course an ace hit on the river. People who have never played in a NL holdem tournament can be dangerous in that they do not have a clue as to what they are doing. If I am in this situation again I am going all-in early and often.

Somehow I managed to sweet talk my lovely wife into letting me play poker Monday night. It was an interesting tournament. There was one new player that I could not get a read on. There is one hand I wish I would have played differently. I truly should have used Slansky's advice on this hand. I had AK of spades. They player to my right raised it to $4K prior to the flop. That was a quarter of his chips. I think I should have raised him all-in and taken my chances. Unfortunately I folded. He showed an ace, but I do not think he had a strong kicker. He may have called my all-in, but hind sight tells me it would have been worth the chance.

I ended up going all-in with KdQd and got walloped by a set of two's. I finished in 5th place. It may have been worth it to play big slick early and take a shot at the new guy. it turns out that he was a loose aggressive player. At one point he went all-in with T5o and of course ran into a big hand.

I am not sure when I will play poker again, but I do know I am going sailing on Sunday.

Peace!

2007-02-27T22:14:00.000-06:00

"Victory is Sweet"

This Saturday night I went to a "guys night out party". The party consisted of alcohol, food, music, and poker. We had nine players start a $20 buy-in NL Holdem tournament. I had to scramble to get there on time. We had a 2 hour baseball practice. After practice we had to rake the field. I rushed home, but I did manage to fly into HEB for some tecate and pretzels. I took a very fast shower and out the door I went. I was a little on tilt. When I arrived there was a friend of mine there that I knew in Houston. I ate a slice a pizza and chugged a tecate. I was ready to go.

Early in the tournament I had TJo and the flop came TTJ. I checked. The other player checked. On the turn there was a flush and straight potential so I checked again. I set the trap for the other player to catch a hand. I led out with a modest bet and he raised me. I made another raise of $2K. He called and I took a third of his stack.

I bluffed more than usual with some reasonable sized bets. I built a reasonable chip stack. I did call an all-in once and lost, but the person was short stacked.

We were down to the final three and all were in the money. I got AKo. The host went all-in. I had to call. He had a medium pocket pair. The turn brought an ace and I took him out. I was heads up against a solid opponent. We battled for along time. I was not going to make a mistake. He would call my big blind and I would just check. Everytime he hit his straight I would fold or check it down. So I never lost a large sum of money. He thought I was psychic. Then came the final hand where I had the opportunity to give him a taste of his own medicine.

I looked at my cards in the small blind and saw AA. I just called the big blind to slow play the aces. He raised, so I popped back the magic words "All-in". He immediately called. He called with Q5o, so I think he thought I was trying to buy the pot. A queen did come on the flop giving me a scare, but I did win pocketing a nice c-note.

There was a cash game going on and I was feeling no pain. We were listening to a DVD of Rush live in Germany for their 30th reunion. I have not been a huge rush fan, but that DVD rocked. I held my own for several hours. It was 3:15 AM when the host and I were playing a hand heads up. I was holding pocket tens in the small blind. I made a small raise. The big blind called me. The flop came 548. I bet out. The big blind goes all-in for about $15 dollars. It was the host of the party. My beer infected brain could not put him on the correct hand. I ended up calling. He turned over 45o for two pair. I did not feel bad since the money was going to the host. The lesson here is to take my time and think about what potential hads the opponent may have. I did not think about it at all.

Any rate I had an awesome time and a net profit of $60.

I am going to miss the next installment of the race for the bracelet. Oh well! Baseball and the kids come first. Perhaps I will show up late and jump into a cash game.

Play on!

2007-02-17T08:41:00.000-06:00

"Living on Prayer"

This Monday I played in a nice tournament with 27 players. I made the final table when I experienced the Bon Jovi song "Living on a Prayer". I am sure every poker player has heard or song this tune during a tournament. We were down to 4 people, so I was in the money. Of course I like that. To my left was a huge stack of chips. I was in the small blind with 89 of diamonds. The blinds were 500/1000. I raised it to $3K. The big blind (chip leader) calls. The flop comes ten of diamonds, jack of diamonds, and jack of spades. I bet $2K. The chip leader raises it another $2K. I immediately go all-in. I mean seriously I have an open ended straight flush draw, a possible straight, and a flush. The chip leader immediate calls me and turns over JT for the insta-boat. Crap I am praying for the straight flush. The prayer was not answered. Thanks a lot Bon Jovi.

It was a fun tournament. Everyone was bitching about the amount of starting chips and the blinds structure. Hell I loved it because you played cards and could not gamble aggressively with chips. We started with $1600. To me it played exactly like most SNG's I have played on-line. I was patient. I played aggressive when I need folks to drop their drawing hands. I played sly when I had the nut, maximizing my chips. I managed two bluffs and both worked. I think I made one mistake where I limped in at the final table in early position. Of course I was raised and I basically donated money. I ahd one lay down which I will never know if it was good or not. I had a straight, but the board showed 4 spades. I had the 9 of spades. There were three better spades available and the player to my right popped a pretty good raise. Upon review I think he stole the pot from me, but it was to early in the tournament to risk half my chips.

Absolutely a great time! I did not take enough beer! At the final table I definitely wanted one more. Another funny thing was the table thought they picked up a tell on me because I looked down at my chips three times in a row after a nice flop. It may have been a tell, but I won the pot. I then continued to use that movement even when I had a weak hand. I definitely need to work on making sure I have no tells.

Well sports season is about to kick in, so poker will be taking a back seat. Hopefully I can skip baseball practice once per month and continue to play in the Cedar Park series. I would like to win the bracelet. Hee Hee!

I will continue playing freerolls when I can. Finished a few spots out of the money last night.

Play on!

2007-02-06T21:23:00.000-06:00

"Opening the door for Casino's in Texas"

I heard on the radio today that one big concern about Perry privatizing the Lotto is that it would bring Casino gambling to Texas. Unfortunately I did not get to here them elaborate, but my thought was Bull Shit sensationalism. Casino gambling in texas will require a vote! Privitization of the Lotto will not cut it. It would solve a bunch of problems in Texas, but it is no happening soon.

I have been playing a little on-line. I took a couple bad bad beats today with pocket jacks and pocket kings. Other than that I am grinding. I could not play in the local game this week because of the sports field lottery. I did get the fields we needed. Sports are definitely going to get in the way of poker for the next couple of months. I am hoping to play in a big tournament on February 12th in Cedar Park. This tournament will have about 20 - 30 persons. Part of the money goes to a six month prize pool. If you accumulate the most points during the six months you win the pool. It should be a ton of fun. I may only get to play in February so hopefully I will win! hee hee!

Next I am going to post the lyrics to a poem that I believe Tex Ritter made into a song. I thought the concept of using a deck of cards to pray was cool. This may need to be on my other blog, but it is a deck of cards.

Deck of Cards

A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning over in Afghanistan. It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't made a noise. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?"

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant, it reminds that there is only one God.
The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.
The Three represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Four stands for the Four Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.
The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.
Seven is for the day God rested after working the six days.
The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, in which God saved the eight people from the flood that destroyed the earth for the first time.
The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten but nine never thanked Him.
Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.
The Jack is a reminder of Satan. One of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.
The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.
The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year. There are a total of 52 cards in a deck, each is a week, 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represents the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each suit has thirteen cards, there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there and after a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"

Play on!

2007-01-28T17:05:00.000-06:00

"Banned from Internet Poker"

I know I have not posted in quite awhile. I doubt anyone reads this crazy blog anymore anyway. A story to share and a poker tournament blunder.

Last weekend on Friday evening I lost the last of my bankroll on Poker Time and Bugsy Club. I still had some money in my Neteller account, so on Saturday I thought no big deal I will pick a site and move the last of my Neteller monies. WRONG! Neteller was no longer permitting US citizens to deposit money at any gambling institution. Congress, you suck! So my answer was that I needed to start playing the freeroll circuit again. The truth is not many sites have freerolls. I found a freeroll that started at around midnight at Poker Time. There were 5000 players fighting for $1000. I think they paid the top 260 positions. At 3:00 AM I found myself in 20th place. I had ATs. I went all-in. Of course the river gives the other player a flush and I am out 20th. The good news is I won a whopping $4.50. I am now back in action with internet gambling. I plan to grind away and maybe play some more freerolls. But for all practical purposes I am banned from the internet.

Last monday night I played in a local game with a $20 buy-in. It was kind of strange because we had 12 players at one table. I did not really care for it, but I rolled with the flow. We got down to 7 players and I was short stacked. Of course I was eliminated 7th. I limped in UTG with 56s and caught a piece of the flop with middle pair with a flop of 567. I pushed all-in. I got one caller. Well it turns out that the caller had flopped a straight. Where I made my mistake was not paying attention that the only two players that could call my all-in were the blinds. The BB had 48o for the straight. Ok yes I should not have limped with 56s. If I was going to gamble I should have pushed all-in pre-flop. But the lesson I am taking away is that I need to pay attention to who my potential opponents were. Needless to say I had fun. Definitely a good group of guys to play with. I liked the old format of 2 $10 games, but sometimes that does take to long. We do typically have to work on Tuesday.

Play on!

2007-01-10T23:35:00.000-06:00

"Sometimes Poker Sucks"

I just finished doing some work and preparing for a workshop this weekend. Lets play a few hands of poker before I turn in for the night. My stack is dwindling rapidly at Bugsy Club. I join a .05/.10 NL ring game with $3. The table is full. I am the button when I am dealt pocket aces. Comes around to me I bet the pot (~.30). I get one caller. The board comes 223. Other player goes all-in. Did he really call my raise with a 2? I call! Pocket aces go down in flames to 92 offsuit. I decide to rebuy for another $3. First hand I am dealt is pocket ladies. This time no messing around I go all-in. I get one caller. Guess what he had? Yup! Pocket aces!

Poker really sucks when you can not play in your local neighborhood weekly tournament. It was tonight. Probably a good thing based on the last two hands. Last time I played I did manage a 1st place and a 3rd place finish.

I am going to miss next Monday's game also. Hopefully I can get a couple of folks over to celebrate my birthday the following weekend. Going to be difficult to narrow the list down to just 7 people, but I will come up with something.

I am down to $7 at Bugsy and only $23 left in Neteller. I am thinking about joining Full Tilt if they do not have aminimum buy-in. My online days appear to be numbered! I just may have to do the freeroll circuit again. Did I mention that Bugsy's Bonus policy sucks!

Ciao

2006-12-29T17:34:00.000-06:00

“Please Break a Glass!”

The title of this belated post comes from Christmas Eve dinner. One thing that typically causes the family to not to speak to each other are heated discussions on politics and religion. Therefore, my brother-in-law instructed me to break a glass if the conversation went in a direction toward politics or religion. We got a couple of good laughs when I mimicked breaking a glass, but never really had to do so. However, in this little blog of mine there is nothing to stop me from discussing politics and poker.

I was reading the Austin American Statesman the other day and there was an article about the Texas horse industry. Once again I was enlightened as to how stupid Texas politicians really are. The gist of the article is that the Texas horse industry is declining due to the larger purses in OK, NM, and LA. They article hints that it is because these other states immediately approved gaming machines, generating larger purses for horse races.

OK Texas Politicians! Listen! Please listen! At every Texas Horse track pass a bill that will permit the establishment of a Poker Room. Poker is not like one-arm bandits. Poker rooms will generate revenue to create larger purses for the horse races. Larger purses mean more revenue. Large purses mean keeping horse breeding in Texas. Large purses keep Texas money in Texas. Oh lets see who benefits? Texans!

Sorry Mom, but the only worthwhile legislation passed by Texas lawmakers is the new tobacco subsidy, I mean Tax.

OK I will break my beer glass and leave politics. I have played some poker over the holidays. I managed to win a $1 buy-in at Bugsy Club this past week. I have been on a down swing at that site, so this was a little boost of $12.50. I am grinding away trying to build my bankroll back up. I have been playing at Bugsy for about 4 months and still have not earned any of my bonus. This aspect of Bugsy Club sucks. Do not get lured into their deposit bonus schemes.

I played in some live games in Austin. I have one 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes. Third is like kissing your sister because you just get your money back. One of the games I was a huge short stack and went all-in four times doubling up each time. It was great. I ended up in second place once playing 84o. The board paired my four and a player went all-in. Eights had been hitting the board all night long to I called. Sure enough an 8 came on the turn! Pretty risky, but fun!

I played in a tournament in Houston. I did not do well because a person called me with pocket nines after I put her all-in. I had A2s. The flop brought KQ7 with two cards being spades giving me a flush draw. I had not played a hand all night so I went all-in. I cannot believe with a board like that she called my all-in move. Needless to say I was crippled when the flush or ace did not hit. The next hand I had pocket 6’s. I went all-in only to be called by three other persons. I was out early. I then became the dealer when it was down to the final 8. When it was heads up I dealt for about 40 minutes and they just kept exchanging blinds. I went crazy so I had to quit dealing. I found two important lessons from this poker session. One was never deal when two ladies are heads up! The other was that I risked my chips unnecessarily against a novice player. I could have just checked it down and only pushed when I achieved the nut flush. I have to do a better job adjusting to player styles. I usually play with people who know what the hell they are doing and it makes the decisions more clear.

I will be playing again this Wednesday. Hopefully I can finish in the money again. It looks like there will be 12 players so probably just one game for a $20 buy-in. Usually we play two $10 buy-ins, which is what I like.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas or Holiday. I better not get started on that subject or I might have to break a glass!

Peace!

2006-11-15T21:47:00.000-06:00

"Just peachy"

Howdy! Things could not be better at this second. Watching the PPT! Eating Botanas de Harina (Hot & Spicy Picante Snax Mix)! Spanish is a reflection of one of April's recent posts. I am drinking hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. And I am playing in a $1 HORSE tournament at Bugsy. Oh yea! I have the movie "the Da Vinci Code" waiting in the wings.

It sounds like I am just peachy; however, I am sad. I read today that Iggy is going on hiatus and his blog is going down under. I plead to you Oh master to continue your blog. Write about anything you wish - your current work place drudge, a bowel movement, a fishing trip, swilling multiple Guinness, the quest for World Peace. I mean just write! Anything you write is better than anything else on this planet. I did write a recent post about Death to Poker Blogs, but the great blog "Guinness and Poker" must not fall victim to the bureaucratic BS that goes on in the US. Perhaps we should all pitch in and move Iggy to DownUnder, so he can legally make a living playing online poker. IGGY please JUST WRITE!

Monday night I played in a local tournament. It was NL Holdem with a $20 buy-in. My kinda of game. There were 24 players. I nice group. I hope to play again. I played extremely well. I ended up finishing 8th place when I went all-in from the big blind with QQ. I got called by A9. An ace appears on the flop and I am sad. If I win this hand I am confident I finish in the money. instead I am out. I checked out the cash game, but it did not feel right to me. Instead I ended up dealing to make the tournament go smoothly.

I did want to mention one strange hand. I was in the small blind with A6o. I called the raise. They deal the flop and I look down. I have no cards. I am like crap what happened. The players who had mucked looked through the muck pile and handed me what they felt were my two cards. I was not sure they gave me the right cards. We decided to just check it down. The bizarre part is I won when a 6 landed on the river. I am usually religious about putting a coin on my cards. I was not drinking much so I can not blame it on alcohol.

I did win a nice pot once with 83o. I felt the guy was weak and an ace came on the flop. I played the hand like I had an ace. He folded on the river giving me a nice stack of chips.

OK right now I am the chip lead in the HORSE tournament. I am playing aggressive in the RAZZ round. So far won two large pots. Hopefully I can hang on to make a couple of bucks.

Time to plop in the movie.

Good night!

Bonus Code IGGY Damn it!

2006-11-12T00:40:00.000-06:00

“ZERO Imagination”

I have been slamming Greg Davis for years. Once again he proves to me that he has zero imagination. Oh lets run a QB sneak! Oh Lets run a QB sneak! Oh wait Lets run a QB sneak. The freaking offensive coordinator has two of the best backs in the country and a huge full back in Henry. Oh wait! QB Sneak!

Horns tried to come back, but the 51 yard field goal was amazing. Hats off the Wildcats for having some imagination!

I will always believe Davis sucks! Man I hope Colt is OK!

Let’s try to change the subject and add a bit of poker content. I signed up at Bugsy Club because of the 100% deposit bonus. What a joke! I have played for about a month and I have only earned 10 bugsy points. I need 100 per $10 of bonus. Yes I am playing some low stakes, but crap I have been logging the hours.

I am about to play in a pot limit Omaha H/L SNG. I am also going to play in a NL Holdem tournament. I have been hitting the alcohol pretty hard, so we shall see what happens. The other night I won the Omaha H/l SNG.

I did manage to beat our 7 year old son today in NL holdem with pocket aces. Then he cleaned out the bank playing black jack!

I just was put all-in with the nut low and the river brought me the wheel! I now have 5K after the first hand. Nice start on a table named after our daughter.

Well I ended up 3rd in the Omaha game, but knocked out with AA in the NL tournament. Person hit two pair on the river.

I am watching Tora Tora Tora.

I am going to regress to last week with one of my more embarrassing moments. I took our 7 year old son to the Longhorn –vs OSU game. We stopped at the Dog and Duck for a quick beer. We then headed to Bevo Street. The tailing gating was happening. My son notices a huge trophy on a table. What’s that? Lets ask. Turns out it was the home of the winning brisket. They invited us to try it. Wow! Was it ever good! Then two gentleman who work for Enterprise car rental offered me a couple of free beers. We headed to the stadium. I had never arrived at my seat 40 minutes before kick off, but our son was excited. By the way Mr. T – thank you for the tickets! After buying our son a Texas size corn dog we headed to our seats. Our row was crowded so I decided to go in one row above. I lifted my son down the correct row. I then stepped over the edge. My ankle hit a concrete edge and I rolled it. I did a face plant right into the metal bench. Everyone was very nice. Fortunately my ankle did not get wrecked. Just one of life’s more embarrassing moments. Our son had a second Texas Size corn dog. He made it through the entire game but passed out on the way home. The 8 block piggy back ride was tough on Dad. The really cool part is I made it home from 15th street in just 21 minutes. The new toll roads are awesome.

One last note! A big shout out to the U7B Sharks and the U10G Clash. Including the tournament the Sharks had a record of 12-1-1 with 88 goals scored and 22 given up. The Clash went undefeated! I am going to miss soccer. It was a great season.

I am not looking forward to waking up in the morning and reading about the Horns defeat. I am sad!

At least Monday night I can play in a poker tournament.

Cheers!

2006-11-01T17:01:00.000-06:00

“Yet another Bubble Finish”

This was an interesting way to finish in a tournament. I was invited to a local home game and I decided to check it out. It was a great group of guys and I had a ton of fun. Of course I did not like how it ended, but I think it was totally my fault for not thinking ahead.

The blinds were ridiculously high ($8k - $16) and we were down to 4 players. I made it through one orbit and I had passed up an all-in opportunity with A8o. I think this was a hand I would later regret not playing. The player to my left was down to a single $1K chip. I had $21K. I had enough for the BB, but the cards were horrible and I had to muck them in hopes that the short stack would get knocked out. What I did not anticipate was that he would become the big blind with only $1K and I was in the the small blind with $5K. With the amount that low of course the chip lead called us. The BB turned over AKs. The chip lead turned over A5o and I had QTo. There was no help for anyone, so the BB won the pot, I lost to the A5 and was out on the bubble. The funny part of the story however is that the person with a single chip ended up doubling up like 7 times in a row and finished in 2nd place.

This all boils down to me not managing my chips properly and paying attention to the blinds. On the previous orbit when I had A8o and some chips, I should have taken my chances against the chip lead, who was to my right. If he calls and I win I would have had enough chips for another round or two.

Over-all I played well and was the chip leader for a long time. I did lose half my chips when top pair on the flop lost to pocket aces. I new he had aces, but the pots odds were appropriate to call and I had the large chip stack.

We played a second tournament, but I could not make any cards nor put in any good positions to make a bluff at the pot. I finally went all in with pocket 7’s. I got one caller. The flop came 3J7 all spades. I was excited to see my set hit only to realize the caller had AT of spades. The board did not pair, so I was on my home!

This group plays every Monday night. It is doubtful my better half will permit me to play every Monday, but I am going to shoot for twice per month.

Another big weekend coming up, but I am taking our son to the Longhorn game Saturday night. It should be a blast.

Go Horns!

2006-10-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

"Death to Poker Blogs"

Man the new legislation has done some damage to poker blogs. Blogs that I read frequently have not posted in a long period of time. The now have the Crypto syndrome and only post every couple of weeks. You know the fact the this legislation was attached to the Port Security Bill smells fishy when the President refuses to address it the day he signed the bill into law.

I have almost emptied all of my accounts and just praying that I receive the checks. My plan is to start looking for some local games, using this bankroll. I will then have some poker content to blog about.

The one thing that keeps running through my head is the huge impact this legislation has had and will have on the poker world. I doubt you will see 8000 entrants in the WSOP Main event in 2007. All that taxable money lost. I think the next move for our wonderful legislatures would be to cave in to big money Casino interests and allow US gambling monopolies to offer on-line poker. This would be a tax cow! It will got a long ways toward paying for Welfare and the 15 Million illegals in our country. Or we could set a world record for the largest wall along our borders. We could pay all the graffiti artists a large sum of money to paint the wall with images of Morality. Man we can educate the heck out of our children with that much money. Every legislator would be in the top 100 billionaires in just a few years.

The next legislation that will be tacked on to the Nuclear Weapons initiative will be the Banning of Poker blogs. An entire culture is on the verge of extinction. The "Blog Father" with have to write about his daily grind. Oh nooooooooooo!

Elections are only a few weeks away. I promise that I will NOT vote for a single incumbents. I am debating about sending all of my representatives an Ace of Spades. Not sure what good it will do, but I think I will feel better.

I decided to see what was happening on the Libertarian front. I had a poker game at my house and a friend made a comment that Williamson Country was 98% Republican and he was the only registered Libertarian. I quickly stated there were two registered Libertarians in Williamson County. The philosophies of the Libertarian party are closer to mine than any other party. The problem is that without more support we do not have a great chance to win. I decided to see what they were saying about the Port Security Bill. On the main page I found this headline:

Congress Chooses to Legislate Morality with Internet Gambling Ban - Over the past weekend, a bill was passed by Congress that essentially bans Internet gambling within the United States. Tennessee Senator and supposed presidential hopeful, Bill Frist, snuck the legislation into a port security bill which passed with only two dissenting votes. The new regulations, which will go into effect when George W. Bush signs the bill, will ban wire transfers to online gaming companies.

Several words jump out at me such as legislate Morality and Fist Fuck. Oops I mean Frist snuck! Our founding fathers certainly did not intend to legislate morality.

Here is another great quote from the website: "Tens of Millions of Americans Dealt a Losing Hand"

Oh I could not agree more than:

Supporters of the legislation accuse online gaming companies of being involved in money laundering operations and, according to the Washington Post, even fronts for terrorist groups.

"This goes beyond the absurd," exclaimed Shane Cory, executive director of the Libertarian National Committee. "Using the supposed War on Terror in defense of this legislation designed to legislate morality is sickening. Using this same reasoning, Congress should close Vegas as 9/11 Hijacker Mohamed Atta made a least two trips to the 'Sin City' before setting out to murder thousands of Americans."

In addition to citing money laundering and terrorism as excuses for the new Internet restrictions championed by Republican politicians, proponents also state that online gambling targets children and gambling addicts.

"Once again, we see politicians in Washington attempting to protect us from what they see as wrong in this world. I have news for them: Americans are smart people who can take care of themselves AND their children," continued Cory. "In restricting Internet activities, I think it would make much more sense to ban instant messaging within Congressional offices rather than ban the online hobbies of millions of tax-paying citizens."

I find myself addicted to NL Omaha-8 SNGs. I placed 2nd earlier and I am the chip lead on the one I am currently playing. It is extremely hard to blog, watch Miami Ink, and play NL Omaha.

I hope you enjoy this post. Check out the Libertarian website, then send your senator and Ace of Spades.

Poker blogs please do not die!

L8TR

2006-10-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

“Angry Beavers”

OK! It is time for me to post. Where do I start! Lets go right for the heart of it. I DO NOT GIVE A RATS ASS ABOUT FOLEY and his banging of teen age boys. What a waste of government time investigating the happenings around this sick bastard.

What does that have to do with poker? Everything! Our government is a total disaster. I am about as conservative as they come, but my political philosophy falls more in line with the Libertarian Party. What is going on in Capitol Hill disturbs the hell out of me. I did take the time to write to my congressman and Senator stating my opinion with respect to on-line gambling. They both responded with vague generic responses. Both voted for the Port bill. Oh Wait I mean Internet gambling bill. How the fuck can our legislation tack on anything and everything at the last second to bills moving through the house and senate. In a deep crackling southern voice: “Been doing it that way since time began!”

Reminds me of that song we heard as kids “I am only a bill just sitting on Capitol Hill… then it is off to the Whitehouse where I wait in a line…” I can definitely think of ways to change those lyrics, so I will work on that for a future post. Who the hell thought an innocent poker blog would turn into a government rant and rave?

My two brain cells are going in multiple directions. Focus Carl focus!

Let’s start with the big cheese! I do not have a problem with George W, because I know realistically one man does not govern this country. I could go on to say special interest groups govern this country, but oh lets not go there. Unfortunately he will sign the “Portal Bill” into law being the rubber stamp that he is. Also there is not much I can do today about electing a President, but soon he will be out of office. I greatly fear who is next in line, but regardless there will be a change. I supported the ouster of Sadam and rebuilding of Iraq; however, it is taking way to damn long. I support securing our borders, but I am not confident the correct actions have taken place. I feel no safer today than I did after 9-11.

Speaking of out of office my new platform is that I will not vote for any incumbent, Federal or State level! Anyone who wasted their time proposing and approving the Internet gambling law does not deserve to remain in office. Our legislatures waste more time than I do. The focus should have been simply, how we can get revenue from internet gambling and not to ban it. Next thing you know I will not be permitted to go to the local grocer and get me a candy corn fix! Ban all candy now!

I am going to suggest that Iggy organize the Great Poker March. We need to get thousands of poker players to play poker on the lawn of every Capitol around the country. There was the Million Man March. How about a million poker players playing holdem on the Whitehouse lawn! Okay that costs money to get to Washington DC. Everyone who plays poker mail a package of Binion’s poker cards to their Congressman.

Personally I am not taking any chances. I have already lost my free money at Party Poker so that is no big deal. It took me three tries to withdrawal my money from PokerTime. I with drew 90% of my money from CNR. I have about $25 to play at CNR and $10 at Paradise and that is all. What I did find interesting was an e-mail from Bugsy Poker Room. Here is a an excerpt:

Regarding the recent bill passed regulating payments to online gaming sites- Most important is that this bill does NOT make it illegal for individuals to play poker online. The bill targets payment processors and US banks and is basically trying to make it difficult for online poker sites to allow their customers to fund their accounts (nothing new here really). The bill does not take effect immediately. After the president signs the bill into law (if) (within the next 7-10 days), a government board will have 270 days to come up with new regulations for the banks and payment processors to follow. And even after the regulations are published they will likely not go into effect immediately, since the banks and payment processors will need time to add systems to comply with the new regulations. Smaller banks have already stated they would not even have the necessary resources in place to monitor such transactions. We want you to know that we will continue doing business with our US customers. We are a legal and licensed business in the Netherlands Antilles and none of our operations are carried out on US soil. We have no intention of closing USA player accounts or restricting their ability to play on BugsysClub. The World Trade Organization ruling brought by Antigua and Barbuda has repeatedly instructed the United States to stop trying to block US residents from playing at such operations while the US simultaneously favors certain US operations (such as horse betting, lottery etc). I will personally update you with any updates to this situation if or when they occur. Luck Bugsy

Now I am pissed! I have worked hard to win the money at Poker Time and they send me this bull shit e-mail. I got my money by referring my brother to the site and have played thousands of raked hands and tournaments. This is total BS. I guess I have to deposit $20 to get my money!

We refer to your withdrawal of $100 on your Poker Time account number ptr07790887.We'd like to inform you that the amount you have requested to withdraw constitutes Free Money, which you have received as a promotional offer. Our Free Money offers (including but not limited to free poker credits, prizes, or service credits) have raked hand requirements which need to be met before they can be withdrawn.You also have to purchase a minimum of $20, before you will be allowed to withdraw the Free Money.As a result, we have reversed the amount of $100 back into your account.

I just took a shot at CNR to win a big pot. Someone raised $4 all-in pre-flop and I was holding AQ. What the heck I called. A third player called. Flop came Q67 rainbow. I raised all-in and got called by the third player. The turn came an Ace and the river brought a King. Of course the third player had AK. What I found humorous was that the player that was all-in started bitching about how horrible the site was. He is the one who went all-in with pocket 4s.

OK! If I did not have a nice house, a job, wonderful family, and a reasonable amount of freedoms I think I would consider moving out of the US. I never thought I would say that. I love this country, but government is totally mucked up. I am not sure the two party system makes sense today. There needs to be checks and balances, but not checks for votes. I am going to dedicate myself to third party and independent candidates if they make any sense at all. If no candidate makes sense I am going to do as I have in the past and right in my favorite candidate Yosemite Sam or Bullwinkle the Moose. We might as well have cartoon characters governing this country.

I am sure I have more to say. This post has been broken up throughout the day. It is going to be really really hard to give up on-line poker. I think it is for the best. I try to focus on some other interests such as learning Spanish and developing Web applications. I will also probably focus on live games and maybe organize a road trip across the Red River or to Cajun country. Speaking of Red River – GO HORNS.

Four soccer games this weekend, so it will be busy. I need to watch more of the cartoon, Angry Beavers. I need a good laugh!

Ciao

2006-09-27T23:01:00.000-05:00

"Happenings"

I should be asleep, but I thought I should do a quick post.

Last Friday or Saturday night I entered a $5 tournament on CNR. There were 459 players. I did very well, but ended up finishing in 7th place for a $65 pay out. I have been grinding at CNR and I have tripled my bankroll.

I also have been playing at poker time. I played PL Omaha H/L and tripled up on two hands.

I just watched the Astros win in 15 innings. I just wish St. Louis had lost.

I went to the Longhorn game on Saturday. Great seats on the East side near the 15 yard line. Not much of a game, but the lightening was cool. We decided to escape just before the end of the third quarter. I learned several important lessons at this game. Always take more cash than you expect. You can drink at the Texas Exes during half time. If you see them take Bevo off the field it is time for you to consider getting the heck out of Dodge too.

Sunday the U7 Sharks had a soccer game. We were undefeated until this game. I am solely responsible for our 2-1 loss. The boys really hustled and fought back. I did not take control of the game. The other coach was yelling very loudly at the referee. He was arguing that the referee had to blow the whistle to start play. I kept softly saying that is not true. At one point he had totally distracted the referee and we scored a goal. I did not think it was fair that we scored with the referee no paying attention, so I waved off the goal. I thought we would score more, but the other team had a tough defense. After haftime I tried to straighten out the other coach. I should have calmly taken charge early in the game and set the other coach straight. We teach our boys to be quick on kick ins and goal kicks. Regardless the Sharks are a great bunch of boys and hopefully I will do a better job as a coach controlling the referee and other coach. My son took the loss pretty hard, so hopefully there was a lesson learned there somewhere. I can not wait until our game on Saturday. The only negative is our daughter's game is at the exact same time.

Our daughters team U10 REC got screwed. When the schedule came out we were excited because we were going to compete against Academy teams. Well apparently the Academy teams did not like playing Rec teams and they now put us playing U9 teams. Girls are still learning, but it will get old winning 7-0 every time.

Soccer is my life right now!

I still grind away at the poker tables nightly. I am bummed because everytime the Austin bloggers play poker my wife has a dinner club event. Someday I will get to join that fun bunch again.

I am looking forward to November 4. I get to take our son to the Longhorn -vs OSU game. Hopefully he will have a great time and the Horns will still only have one loss. Oh yeah! I found out to late, but there is a Taco Bell in the stadium, so you can get some cheap munchy food!

I am playing in a NL Omaha H/L tournament and this dude goes all-in every hand. I busted him a couple of times, but it is ridiculous.

Oh well! I busted his ass and won $10!

play on!

2006-09-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

"Stupidest Play ever"

I was playing .05/.10 NL Holdem at Pokertime. I had Q5. I limped in from the small blind. Flop came with Qxx. I bet $.90. I got one caller, then a raise equal half my stack. From my view Pot odds suggested I call, but I decided the correct play was to gamble. I went all in! Both players called. A 5 came on the turn giving me two pair. I liked my chances. I won dragging in an $18 pot. The raiser started calling me names and said "that is the stupidest play I have ever seen!" My only response was "I liked it!"

I really hate it when people call other's names and berate their play. I have had hands stolen from me numerous times by chasers on the river. I do not call them names and question their play. I simply say " nice hand"!

Here is my real reason for posting. I need to join another poker site. I am torn between Bugsy and Full Tilt. Both are giving 100% deposit bonus. Does anyone of my hard core readers (three of you) have a strong opinion? Can I reference anyone to potentially get you some bonus action?

Play on!

2006-09-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

"In the Dog House"

On Saturday night I had a few old friends over for a poker tournament and a cash game. We had ten players buy-in for $10 no limit game. Some of the players had never played a tournament before, so it promised to be interesting. Well the very first hand got interesting.

I was small blind. The strongest player is to my immediate left. Several players limped in an I mucked the small blind. The big blind went all-in. Well he got 2 callers. The BB turns over TT, another player had JJ and the third player A7s. The Jacks held up, eliminating 2 players and tripling up a strong player.

Definitely an interesting start. I bluffed with 52o and won a small pot. I wanted the players to know that I was willing to bluff and I showed my cards. I played very solid after that. I did play one had poorly with an open ended straight draw that never landed. It cost me more than I should have been willing to give up. Another hand I tried eliminating a player by putting him all-in. He hit a pair of nines and doubled up.

I made it down to 4 players. I was holding KQ when the flop came Q74. I immediately went all-in. Player to my left immediately called me turning over AQ. I was out on the bubble. Man I hate going out on the bubble.

I made some bacon-wrapped stuff jalapenos that were a huge success. Thanks Mom for sending me the recipe. I did add a little twist and used pepper bacon. I had to abandon a hand just so I could get a couple of them. I also grilled some fajitas and jalapeno sausage. Other players brought munchies and the tequila was flowing.

We started a cash game. We had 9 players until about 1:00 AM, then 5 us continued. Our 6 year old son got home and he sat down, so we limited the game to Holdem. He played Ok but he was chasing a little bit. He lost all of my winnings so I told him he had to stop and get ready for bed. Of course he took off to his room and I knew he was upset. I brought him back and gave him $5 more. He won a few hands. The party animal stayed with us until about 2:45 AM.

I drove one of the tequila fanatics home. I then cleaned up the house. Now for the dog house part. In the morning my wife noticed a stain on our hand crafted dining room table. Lets just say she was not happy. I am not convinced it happenedd at this party, but she cleans it so she should know better. Now I need to figure out how to fix it. That will be the only way I get out of the dog house.

I have not posted much because I am to busy grinding at the tables. My previous post was of the final image of me winning a tournament with 389 players. I could not believe how much I won. Most of it has been spent on taking the kids to Dave & Busters. Opening savings accounts for the kids, watching the Lady Longhorns beat Penn State in soccer, and sending my wife on a shopping spree. I am hoping to win again. I have finished intot he money one other time and I always manage to make it deep in the tournaments. Despite my success CNR's customer service made me a little mad. It was my mistake, but they were unwilling to work with me. I took most of my money out.

I am now looking for a good bonus and another site to play. Any recommendations would be most appreciated. I am leaning toward Full Tilt Poker. I have an account but have never deposited any money. Hopefully I am still eligible for the 100% bonus.

If anyone needs a bonus please recommend a good site with a favorable buy-in bonus.

I will try to post more often, but soccer season is now in full swing. Hopefully I will get better at multi-tasking and not play three tables at a time.

Party on!

2006-07-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

"Picture Worth a 1000 Words"

I will attempt to post the details soon, but the week promises to be crazy hectic.

2006-07-29T00:51:00.000-05:00

"Gets the Blood Pumping"

I am on a 5 minute break during a $5 +.50 tournament on Check N Raise. I am currently in 17th place, but it has been an interesting ride. Very early int he tournment I limped in with 56 diamonds flop came 2 hearts 34 diamonds. Someone went all in! I called and hit the straight flush on the turn. By the way this tourny started with 327 players. I believe we are down to 111. I was in 12th place when I got pocket ladies. I person to my left went all-in for about half my stack, so down to 54th. I called. He turned over AK. Ace hits on the flop and I get no help. Booooo! A few hands later I get AKo. I do not know why, but AKo is a loser for me so I limped. Flop brought a K52. I bet $400. Player raises to half my stack. I go all-in and win! I currently sit in 17th and the tournament pays top 40. I would love to win this cuz there is like $1700 in the pool. Saving as draft - starting again with 49o!

OK I am in 16th place and in the money! Man tournaments get the Blood Flowing! Heck I finished a bottle of wine and now I am on beer. We are on the second 5 minute break and I have to pee like a race horse. I decided the smart move was to type my comments, then do the post and fold routine. I am glad I fear playing AK. I got AK twice and both times I limped. Thank goodness because I would have lost my shirt both times. Once to a straight and once to a river pair of nines. Soon after that I got AA. I raised $3K. Another player went all-in. I had to call. I won and it moved me to 3rd.

I am in the money and gaurunteed to win more than $12.96. Perhaps I should go pee and wrap this up after I exit. The really sad thing is an 8:00 AM soccer game is going to be really hard!

More soon...

Oh Poker sucks! I was in 6th place. I got pocket Kings. I bet $3500. I get raised. I go all-in. Yes just like the blogger tourny I am up against AA. Down to 12K and 16th place. I am in the big blind, short stacked, and I get the hammer. I got raised and had to fold it. I am in the small blind with pocket 6's. There is a raise. I go all-in. Up against pocket 9's. I am out 16th and only win $16.95. I believe I played these hands correctly. After 2 hours and 45 minutes I expected to get a better return. Oh there was a hand in there somewhere where I hit another 7 high diamond straight flush. Twice in one tournament is amazing.

I need to go to bed, but two more quick hands.

I was playing in a NL Omaha-8 SNG on Pokertime. The very first hand I am dealt Ac2cJh5c. Three players go all-in. It was a $2 buy-in so what the heck. Three jacks appear on the board and instant chip lead. I lost the lead several times but persevered and won $10.

Man poker gets the blood flowing. I may not be able to sleep, but I know the early soccer game is near.

One final note we bought a new car today and the sales person had a WPT hat. It was an omen.

We no longer have to deal with FORD. Honda all the way baby!

Good nght and playon! Wow I actually posted some poker content!

2006-07-22T00:35:00.000-05:00

"Absolutely Nothing on the Tube"

Man TV is dead tonight and I have read almost every poker blog in cyberspace. I must say I really enjoy the writings of Scott Mc andTao of Poker. I do not have any thing great to report. The letter Iggy received is a bit alarming. Shoot! I might have to do something productive if I can not play on-line poker.

Speaking of on-linepoker I have realized that it is time to stay away from Omaha HL. I have also learned tonight that I need to play NL and not limit. I also hate whiners. I played this guy like a fiddle and he states "sick catch". The DA did not realize I caught the nut boat on the turn and slowed played his ass into a nice check and raise move.

Last Friday I did play in a tournament with some 3800 players. I played well, but pocket Jacks were my demise. Got knocked out when I went head to head with pocket Queens. I really thought I was going to make the money the way I was playing. I believe I finished 870. Really close to the money.

I am getting the itch for some live poker. I might just have to host a small game in a few weeks. Probably have about 10 players. Do a little $10 buy-in NL Holdem tournament and then open up a able of dealer's choice. Just need to get the energy to plan the event.

I still can not hear well out of my left ear. Antibiotics are not cutting it. Ever since the psoriasis episode I have had a problem. There is some speculation that the ear infection triggered the out break of psoriasis. I am currently discussing with my dermatologist about taking a drug called Enbrel. It is expensive, but if it can prevent another episode I would be happy.

I have no creative thoughts this evening, but thought I would get in a mini post. I need to find some inspiration. Ok maybe I need to have a drink. I am going to mix a drink, which will lead me to write more or pass out.

You inspired writers please continue to post the wonderful content.

Adios

2006-07-14T17:25:00.000-05:00

About Time for a Post

Well I think I am finally healthy and I am ready for a post. I think I have lots of things to rant about, but I will start by focusing on H.R.4411.

H.R. 4411: Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006

Where is the logic?

Israel is attacking its neighbors. N. Korea is playing in their backyard with large rockets. No control in Iraq. Hundreds killed in train bombing in India. And rebels taking over the streets in Brazil.

The Bozo’s on Capitol Hill are doinking around with morality issues like H.R.4411.

H.R. 4411: Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006

Stamp out the “crack cocaine” equivalent of the internet. I think this legislation will be about as effective as 30 years of drug legislation. Absolutely no effect at all! The House passed this bill this week. Will it stop internet gambling? There is no verbiage stating that gambling on the net is illegal. The bill targets financial institutions, preventing them from paying off shore gambling entities. So my Neteller account based in Canada is not impacted. Scott’s Swiss bank account is probably safe too.

I would add a couple of amendments to this bill.

If Carl’s Credit Union pays Party poker $200, then Carl will receive a bill for the government transaction fee of $40, which is essentially a tax on the transaction.
U.S. Businesses currently with a gambling license in good standing may create on-line applications for international gambling.

Amendment 1 is essentially a tax on the transaction and will go into the general fund. Why our government is not more concerned about getting their fair share of the $12 Billion (I believe more like $50 Billion) international industry, is beyond me. The Bozo’s certainly want to tax the hell out of hard earned income and goods we choose to purchase.

Amendment 2 allows US based gambling institutes to compete with offshore entities. I believe this would result in more revenue for a wasteful government.

I might even consider a third amendment similar to the Grand Mother Law in the St. Louis area. This amendment would limit the amount of the transaction in a certain period of time. This might help the internet in “crack” addicts who can not control their bankroll.

In reality I would not have mucked around with this legislation at all. I would set priorities and believe me this would be so far down on the list. I would simply legalize internet gambling and let the currently licensed companies develop software and grab their piece of the electronic pie. I would then apply the existing tax structure and let the government rake in the revenue.

Other than running for elected office I did do my part. I wrote letters to the Texas Senators and my representative. I did hear back from the Honorable Senator Cornyn. Blah! Blah! Blah! Thank you for expressing your opinion I will do my best to represent the people of Texas. I did not sponsor the bills in question. I will be really surprised if the Senate passes this useless legislation, but who knows.

The real issue I will be facing is my wife. She has level one security clearance and if this becomes a law she surely will interpret it as Internet Gambling is completely illegal and ban me from playing for fear of losing her job.

I have not spent one red cent on the money I have on my internet accounts. I do not plan on making any more transactions except to sign up for other sites from my existing accounts. Government should quit mucking around with something so trivial and allow me to continue to pursue my on-line fishing for gold. Spend your time worrying about the World War that is unfolding before our very eyes.

Enough ranting! I am seriously considering running for a local office as a Libertarian or Independent. My platform would include banning Limestone trains from blocking traffic during rush hour periods for sure. I might also consider a ban of selling fireworks in Williamson County. Oh wait that may be legislating morality. I will have to ponder that platform item further. Most importantly I would do what makes the most common sense when it comes to legislation. The last thing I would do for sure is after every meeting I attend I would bring the cards and start a No Limit tournament with my fellow officers.

I have been playing poker. I have been losing my shirt due to my addiction to Omaha-8. My plan of winning enough money for a new I-pod is not going to well. I may have to get some lessons from Scott.

My goal is to write at least once per week. I want to conclude this little post by saying thank you to all poker bloggers. There has been some awesome content especially coming from the recent blogger adventure in OZ. I have really had some good laughs.

Keep on blogging!

PEACE

2006-06-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

"Psoriasis Sucks"

I apologize for not posting. I recently had another severe outbreak of psoriasis. I can barely feel the tips of my fingers. I basically lost an entire layer of skin. My feet and hands are really sensitive. I am recovering, but I am about to embark on a two week vacation. Unfortunately I am not 100% in vacation shape. I will be praying all week that I continue to get my health back.

Off to the North East on June 17 and returning July 3.

Again I apologize for not posting. Expect my next post sometime in July.

Have a super summer!

2006-05-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

The Perfect Bluff

It has been way to long since I posted last. I managed to survive Lent without playing online poker. Holy Thursday I immediately cranked up Check and Raise poker and played for several hours. Nothing exciting to report since it is just grinding away to try and increase the bank roll. It is definitely a grind at low stakes tables.

Being baptized at the Easter Vigil was an amazing experience, but you will have to indulge my other blog for more detail (not posted yet).

I am sitting at DFW airport on my journey home from St. Louis. Man 6:00 AM flights are way to darn early. I am now sucking down a Grande Carmel Machiatto. So I arrived in St. Louis Friday morning. I was quit bummed that the Cardinals were on the road, but I was excited that there were some casino’s near by. I attended a meeting with a client in the afternoon and worked from the hotel room for a few hours. I zipped down to the bar for a couple of bottles of Guinness. I met a co-worker for dinner and we went to a place I believe called Charlie Ghetti’s (I will need to double check the spelling). I was having a tough time deciding what to order, so I asked the waitress. She suggested the Oso Boco. Again my spelling leaves something to be desired. Accompanied by a couple of glasses of Chianti it had to be one of the most wonderful meals I have ever enjoyed. The mushrooms in the sauce were awesome. Needless to say I cleaned my plate.

Next we went for a walk around St. Louis. I had to getting a closer view of the arch and of the Stadium. The arch was a total trip. Amazing piece of architecture! I am not sure I could go up in it after hearing some stories, but standing underneath it looking up made me dizzy. I assure you it was not the wine. We made it back to the hotel and I decided it was time to head to the casino.

I originally set out to go to Harrah’s. The signs leading to Harrah’s were not straight forward and I drove past the exit. Next thing you know I see the Ameristar. What the heck it is time to check it out. I started to enter the casino and security stopped me. Have you registered? No Sir! You will need to show your identification and register before you can enter. OK! As I register I am explained that the reason I had to wait in line to register was because of the “Old Lady Law”. That is what the lady said. Clarifying she stated that the casino had to track player losses, because the Missouri law states no player can lose more than $500 in a two hour period. I will not debate this law on this post, but it was interesting.

The poker room was upstairs. They were spreading several games, but my only interest was the low end. They had $3-6 limit and $1-2 No Limit. I preferred the $1-2 No Limit, but the buy-in was $100. I did not have that with me. I was willing to lose about $60 of my poker mad money. I put my name on the list for $3-6. My name was called after about 15 minutes, because they opened up a new table. I sat down thinking I could buy –in at the table. WRONG! I had to go to the cashier to get some chips.

I sit down at the end of the table. Let’s see if I can briefly describe the fish. I mean players. To my right and next to the dealer was this lady named Ruby. Ruby was trying to win some money to help pay for her floor replacement due to a flood. Next was a 20 something drinking Crown and Coke. Why the coke? Then you had Chrypto. Next to me was another twenty something who was constantly talking out loud analyzing the players. He was nice enough and the analysis was reasonable accurate; however, obvious. Next was a gentleman with a European accent and he was tight as a nats ass! The next three players knew what they were doing. Then there was another twenty something playing rather loose. Finally next to the dealer was an elder gentleman who was difficult to read, but reasonably tight.

Second or third hand into the evening I made a set of sevens and won about $14. I decided that I also was going to create a table image of being extremely conservative. The fourteen dollars went toward blinds. Occasionally I had cards worthy of seeing a flop. I got up from the table for a little while to call the family. Our son was talking my ear off about his t-ball game that I missed. I made it back to the table. There was a bit of controversy as to whether or not I owed any money. The dealer decided that I did not. Fairly uneventful for the next hour, but I kept donating the blinds. It was approaching 11:00 PM and I knew I had a 30 minute drive back to the Omni. I decided it was time to make my move. I was dealt AJo. The flop completely missed me, T27. A solid player bet $3. I just called! The turn brought a jack, giving me top pair with an ace kicker. Solid player bet out $6. I raised it $6. I think we had one other player chasing. Solid player raised again, so I popped back another $6. The river was a blank. The solid player checked. Of course I bet $6. The solid player was trying to gain a tell. I set there with a Cheshire grin. “I know you have a set” he said. I sat there with the grin. He folded, showing that he had two pair tens and twos. I raked a nice $60 pot. This was set up by playing extremely conservative for a couple of hours. The perfect bluff was set up and well timed. I needed to leave soon, but of course they did not know that.

The very next hand I had KJs. The flop brought AKx with 2 spades. The payer to my left bets, the same solid player calls, and I call. The turn brings something uneventful. The river gives me the nut flush. The player to my left bets out. The solid player calls. I raise. The player to my left raises all-in. Solid player folds his pair of aces. The player to my left and a ace-jack flush. I won about another $50. I was ahead a Ben Franklin, so it was time to rack up and head to the hotel.

Thank you Ameristar for giving me a flexible bankroll to take to the charity golf tournament on Saturday. I will not elaborate, but at the charity golf tournament I drained a put for an eagle. It gave us one of 2 skins and the team won $170 to divide. Thank you St. Louis because I ended up about $150 ahead.

Later I will post about how much I despise Party Poker!

2006-03-18T22:53:00.000-06:00

"Austin Blogger Tournament"

Well I made it to the tournament! I managed to arrive not on tilt, but it was close. I had a 3 hour function this morning and I had hoped to leave before noon. Of course the function did not end until noon and I had to be in South Austin by 1:00 PM. Plus I had no Guinness and I was short $10 for the buy-in so I knew I had to make a pit stop. Traffic sucks in Austin. More on that later, but for someone who grew up in Houston to say this traffic sucks must be an under statement.

I whip into HEB. I was not familiar with this store so I stop and ask "where's the beer?" I quickly grabbed a quad pack of Guinness and a sandwich. Surely the 10 item or less line will move quickly. Nah it was almost as bad as the traffic. Guy in front of me was "like man I need a job". "Hey do you know anyone who would hire someone with a record?" Then he makes a request fo Swisher sweets. He comes back laughing. " Oh No man I am holding up the express lane" Only clever thing I could come up with is "don't worry you will pay" Not to interesting but I feel a little tilt coming on. I hate being late, especially when I am excited about something. I was really looking forward to this tournament.

Off I go in the rain to head south on Mo-Pac. There was a steady rain, but traffic was moving. I slammed down a sandwich and poured a beer into my coffee cup. I called Puppy Feet and he was going to be able to get off work and join the tournament.

I arrived at Dog Brown's place with 8 minutes to spare. Adam Seyer and DeadMoneyInc were out front. I must say for the record that Adam runs the best tournament I have played. We did start a little late, but since when are bloggers on time. I introduced myself to Steve, Bob, Allen, Treygen, Vegas, Vegas, and Gizmo. Soon it was time to pay up and get going. I drew seat 6 on table one. Yes it was my worst nightmare, because Scott was at my table. I do not recall all of the players at the table; however, it was a very fun table.

There were only to hands of note involving myself. I got involved with Treygen. My gut said that he was trying to steal the pot. There were no tells, bu tmy gut was speaking load. I called him down and my AJ beat his T5 (I think). A little later I tangled with Scott. I promised myself that I was not going to be bullied. The flop brought two spades and Scott raised $300, which was a fifth of my stack. I put Scott on a small pair and decided it was worth a shot on the turn to hit my flush draw. It hit. He checked and I raised $300. He called! I took down a nice pot. He put me on the flush draw, but thought for sure he bet enough to make me lay the draw down. Sorry Pal, but I was not going to be bullied.

There were two other hands of note at the first table. Lindsey got knocked out when her QJ lost to a QA after the flop gave them both a set. Lindsey is a tricky player. Allen was the the beneficiary of that hand. The there had was I believe Scott against Mathew. Mathew went All-in after a flop of 422. Scott thought long and hard. He decided to call even thought there was a nice bounty on his head (2 ACL tickets). Mathew (Man I hope I have his name correct) turned of 24 for a full house. Scott turned over 25. A five came on the river. Scott was so lucky.

By now I was on my second or third Guinness. Something had to represent the famous Iggy at this tournament, so I thought a Guinness was a fitting symbol. Check out April's live blog to see the Guinness dominating the final table.

All I can really remember about the second table was that I occasionally stole the blinds at that Adam was down to the felt. The guy was down to $150 bucks. He went all-in a couple of times and kept doubling up. By proposing a chop at the final table he made into the money. Gee I wish I could say that.

Here is how I exited. The blinds were $100/200 and $25 antes. Ryan made it $800. I look at my cards and see pocket Cowboys. I go all-in hoping to take the pot down right then and there. Well Bill to my left immediately called my all-in for about $4000. Oh crap! I thought! Ryan folded. I turn over my KK and Bill sure enough turns over AA. Ryan showed is cards were A6 or something like that. I needed a King. The board filled with hearts and I had the King of hearts. I got excited and thought I had pulled a major suck out on the river. No because Bill had the ace of Hearts. Oh what a way to leave the tournament. Hey if it were the final table of the WSOP I would have played it the same way.

I was very pleased with my play. I was able to bluff several times and take down the blinds. I had a great time. It is always frustrating to finish just out of the money, but KK against AA does not happen that often. Man it was fun!

Adrenalin pumping I needed to leave to make the long journey back to Round Rock. Do I go Mo-PAC or I-35. I chose I-35 because it should be about 15 minutes faster. Oh what a huge mistake. It took 30 -40 minutes to get from Slaughter to Downtown. Did I mention that Austin traffic sucks. How could a freeway bottleneck so badly with no accident or construction. Yeah SXSW was going on by geez. I would have loved to go see some bands. If I had known Echo and the Bunnyman were playing a free concert, I would have been all over it!

I had a great time at the tournament. Thanks April and all who helped to organize it. Thanks Adam for another well run tournament and hosting the event.

Man only 23 days left of not playing online poker, drinking sodas, eating chocolate, eating popcorn, and any desserts. I am reasonably certain I can avoid the sodas, and candy after lent. I have managed to lose a few pounds which was the goal.

OK I am watching the Longhorn game and they are trying there damndest to give it away to West Virginia. The Horns looked so good in the first half.

Well I had better post this be for a computer glitch. Later I plan to put up a post about our first t-ball game.

Cheers!

2006-03-12T09:18:00.000-06:00

"ACE"

OK! I have given up numerous things for Lent of which the most tempting, on-line poker. In reality it has not been that difficult to not play on-line poker, but it has only been week 1. Along with on-line poker, I gave up popcorn, sodas, chocolate, candy, sex (just kidding), and desserts.

I did not give up watching poker on television. So I live vicariously through others. I have not started the web project that is supposed to fill my time, but I have been catching up on some well deserved sleep.

I have been reading a few pages of David Sklansky's "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players". I stole this book from my brother. It is an OK read and there have been a few points of value. I have not found the math portions very useful, but my two brain cells are not keen on math these days. Unless it is helping the 6 year old add 6 + 4. I will probably give a summary of my take aways from this book in the near future.

I am greatly looking forward to playing in the AWPBT. I will essentially be away from the family all day, so I will not be able to do the Sixth Street Adventure and partying following the tournament. I will need to get home and tuck in the kids.

Speaking of kids, we have a new addition to the family. Yesterday we adopted ACE. Ace is a female cat approximately 6 months old. We adopted her from the Williamson County Humane Society. We spent the entire day yesterday going to various animal shelters. We found Ace at our very first stop. The entire day the kids kept chanting "Ace! Ace! Ace!". I felt like I needed an ace to win a tournament or stay alive in a tournament. After the full days adventure, including lunch at Austin Java Company on Barton Springs, we ended up listening to the kids.

We have a miniature Schnauzer, so we new there would be some work to do. Our dogs name is Ash and she attacks any stranger, so we knew it would be no different with a cat. My wife took the dog outside and was holding her by the leash. I brought Ace into the family room near the French door. I was warned not to hold her when introducing her to the dog. Well before I could get her down Ash barked. The cat hissed and dug all billion of her claws into my hands and my right leg as she exited stage right. OUCH! This is one time I should have listened!

Any rate we have a new addition to the family. My wife got very little sleep last night, but we hope all will work out. We have locked the dog in the pantry and we are letting Ace explore the house. First chore is get her acclimated to her litter box!! Boy I hope that does not take long. I think over time the dog and cat will bond or learn to be mutually exclusive.

I am looking forward to visiting with poker bloggers next Saturday. I will just say for the record, that I probably will not remember everyone's names, but I still routinely indulge in reading everyone's blog. I can no longer waste lunch hours at work, something to do with Corporate Policy. I do not like sites being blocked, but I do respect it. I am getting busier at work and I am truly enjoying it.

I am preparing to be mentally on top of my game Saturday, so bloggers beware. I just might make it past the first round. Wink! Wink!

Play on!

2006-02-16T22:04:00.000-06:00

H.O.R.S.E ing Around

This Sunday I got permission from my boss (for those single folks; boss = wife) to play in the next phase of the Cajun Classic. The Cajun Classic is a series of 10 poker tournaments put on by a great host, Puppy Feet. This tournament happened to be H.O.R.S.E.

I know a few of my faithful readers have no clue what H.O.R.S.E stands for so here it is

Holdem – Limit Texas Holdem
Omaha-8 – Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
Razz – Seven Stud with worst hand bringing home the bacon
Stud – Seven card Stud
E - Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo (Note: E comes from the fact that low hand must be <8)

The tournament starts at 1:00 PM. I did not have a chance to eat lunch so I ran into HEB for a beer and brag of pretzels. I then drove through Jack I-the-Box for a jumbo Jack. I new I was running late, but I never been to a tournament that started on time.

I made it to the location exactly at 1:00 PM and I was the only one there other than the host. Puppy feet promptly stated we are going to start on-time and blind people out. He was expecting 10 persons. So I ponied up my $30 buy-in with $5 of the entry going to the Championship prize pool. The winners of all ten events meet in a championship NL Holdem tournament. Just before we sat down Mr. D showed up and we began our round of holdem. Everyone started with 300 tournament chips.

I had no problem blinding folks out, but it sure sucks dealing to 7 invisible persons. It worked out because a few folks showed up and could play the cards that were dealt to their seat. Soon we had seven persons and one more person for sure on the way. I was a bit confused on whether each game lasted per round or by the clock. At first we would get a round in during the 20 minute clock. After awhile it seemed like we only got half way around the table when the clock was up. That did not seem correct so we abandoned the clock and agreed to reinstate the clock when we got down to the final four persons.

The other thing that really threw me off was the change in betting structure. For Holdem and Omaha blinds were used. For all of the stud games antes and bring ins were used. The bring ins were also confusing in that for Stud it was the lowest up card. For Razz and Stud-Eight it was the highest upcard. Betting was confusing because for Stud it was the high hand first to act and for Razz and Stud-8 it was the low hand that was first to act. I still do not quite agree with the Stud-8 approach, but I am so confused I may be wrong on how we actually did it. I just followed along.

Before I get into some specific hands I want to highlight my one potentially big mistake. We were playing a round of Stud-8. I am heads up with one other person, who had to aces showing. I had two tens showing. I also had a ten in the hole. I assumed the other person had a third ace by the way she was betting. It was possible she was going low, but on the turn came a card that made it impossible for her to be going low. I ended up with a Ten low, so I called her bet. Boy was that stupid because in Stud-8 the low must be less than 8 to qualify. I think I donated about $30 bills with this mistake.

There was another hand where Puppy Feet did the same thing. I believe it was in Omaha and I ended up after some caught the mistake scooping a large pot.

I also benefited during the first round of razz. I had an eight high, but my opponent was showing A23. I thought for sure I was beat, but when my opponent turned his cards over he had a jack low or something like that. He did not realize the two pair messed up his hand. He thought he would win because he had A23. I had pretty much been losing blinds and bring ins until this hand.

For most of the day I did not get a single hand in Omaha-8 worth playing. One hand I found myself with pocket aces. The board showed a pair of nines on the flop. Mr. W raised $140. I still had a low draw and something just did not seem right about his raise. The turn was another high card and Mr. W popped it for another $140. I called again. On the river came an ace. I was smiling inside with the nuts. Mr. W checked. I be $140 and he called. He turned over pocket kings. I raked a huge pot knocking Mr. W. down to I believe $15 in chips. He is a stong player, so I was in good shape. Soon Mr. W was out and Puppy feet was out. I was heads up against Mr. D.

We started with razz. Oh my cards were horrible for example a pair of kings showing. I lost 2/3 of my stack. We soon switched to stud. I got aggressive and begin to steal antes and bring ins. Soon I had the chip lead back. After about a thirty minute battle I won the final chip from Mr. D. It was a ton of fun! I won $130. More importantly I am now qualified for the championship. I can not wait. I had to share my bounty with my better half and even the kids got a portion of the winnings. Oh well! It was a ton of fun!

Nothing like drinking Guinness and playing a great tournament. I definitely would like to play HORSE again.

Time to play some online poker! Only two weeks left before giving it up for 40 days.

Play on!

2006-02-12T00:32:00.000-06:00

"April Wine"

Listening to some April Wine, "I like to rock.." I get dealt QQ in a freeroll tournament. I get pushed to go all-in. Of course I call. Shit up against pocket rockets. Out 51st out of about 350.

Tonight sucked as far as poker goes. In total I lost about $65. Oh that hurts! I lost twice with full houses and twice with nut flushes. Well at least my new drink was delicious, rum and Cherry-vanilla Coke. I should have had a few more so I can drown my sorrows.

Oh I am on tilt! I was a freeroll, but I hate losing like that. Pehaps my luck will be on the money in the H.O.R.S.E tournament tomorrow. I am not feeling confident, but we will have to see how the cards fall.

I did manage to give the kids a few poker lessons today. The 6 year old is a chip off the old block. I let our daughter play solo for a brief period of time. She did quite well. Perhaps she will be able to win me some girl scout cookies at school during lunch. Those two 9 year old boys Mr. I and Mr. J were huge bluffers. Our daughter will clean there clocks when I am done with the lessons. I may have to hire Scott to really show her the ropes; however, Scott already has a young prodigy he is working on.

I am not sleepy, but the 7:00 AM alarm clock is only a few hours away. I can not find anything on the tube worth watching. Been watching the Olympics most of the day.

I will send out a post after the H.O.R.S.E tourny.

Play on!

2006-02-10T15:32:00.000-06:00

"Oh They are Starting Young!"

Occasionally I have lunch with the kiddos. Well today it was our 9 year old daughters turn. I stopped by Wendy's and picked up some burgers. Unfortunately I can never time it correctly, so I was a bit early. I had a pleasant conversation with a Mom of a former soccer team mate of our daughter.

I sit down to enjoy lunch. I must state for the record that it has to be one of the loudest places on this planet. I probably will not be able to hear for a year. I sat between two girls. Across me was two boys both age 9. They start telling me about how they gamble their lunch items playing holdem. I think Wow!

I start to quiz them when they ask me to play. I won a billion dollars! Hee Hee! I am still not sure what to think about gambling at such a young age. I was probably started sitting on Dad's lap around that age, but I did not start gambling cookies until I was thirteen. It was really cute to say the least.

We played a few hands and I taught a couple of kids how to shuffle. Now our daughter wants to learn how to play. Let the lessons begin.

Man I am blessed in that this humble blog was visited by the famous Iggy. I hope he makes it to Austin for the big tournament.

More later! I am playing in a LIVE H.O.R.S.E tournament this weekend. I am excited. My master gave me permission to play. Yee ha!

Play on!

2006-02-04T15:03:00.000-06:00

"The Iggy Trail"

I read Iggy's blog about getting slammed with great hands. Little did I know that he blazed a trail for me to follow. Fortunately for me it was limit holdem and only resulted in a loss of about $10.

Lets start with pocket Kings and max betting all the way to the river. Chaser picks up his straight on the river. Next lets have pocket Jacks. Chaser win another huge pot with two pair landing on the river. Next was pocket ladies with a lady hitting on the flop. Oh yes there is a flush filled on the river. Next pocket Aces losing to a gut shot straight on the river. Finally I get pocket Kings again. Of course maximum betting all the way to the river where yet another straight is filled. Man that is a path straight to hell. Iggy please start to lead in the other direction. Hee Hee!

I only played for about an hour last night. Losing on all three tables. I decided to turn in early at 1:00 AM. Perhaps tonight as I work on our tax return I can play longer. I did get a late start last night because we watched the movie flight path. I did not read any reviews nor have any expectations. I will say my opinion is that it was like watching paint dry. Perhaps I was just anxious to get to the poker tables.

Today we are heading to Barton Creek Mall to watch Nanny McVeigh. There will be a review to follow.

One more quick note in that I read in the Statesman today that yet another group is lobbying Texas Legislature on gambling. Hmmm should we let the casinos pay high taxes or should we just increase the taxes we pay. Think about it!

Play on!

2006-01-29T22:08:00.000-06:00

"The Bubble Bites"

Well I am still playing with my free money at Poker Time. I believe I am up to around $60. I have found my success on the single table tournaments specifically in a strange game Omaha-8 NL. I have won two tournaments. I have finished in the money two other times. BUT I have finished on the bubble FOUR times. Man that bites! I have not seen anything about my play that I would not do again. Basically when it gets down to four players you get your money in with the best cards and hope to hit.

If finishing second is like kissing your sister, then what is finishing just out of the money. Arghhh!

I did manage Friday night to finish second in a 30 person multi-table NL Holdem tournament on Poker Time. I also won a tournament at Check N Raise Poker, paying $25. Friday was very good to my bankroll, but unfortunately my ring play has given some of it back.

I also have a new mission with respect to poker. I will be saving and planning a road trip to Oklahoma casino. A four hour drive seems to be in order for some gambling fun. Hopefully I can get a couple persons to go with me and keep the travel costs down.

Finally I am considering the Ultimate sacrifice. I have been playing poker almost nightly for about three years now. Oh I guess you could call that an addiction. So my current plan is to give poker up for Lent. It is not walking into the desert with no food or water, but for me I think it will be a HUGE challenge. I may have to put a twist on this sacrifice and state no online poker. I believe April and the blogging champions of Austin are setting up a tournament around SxSW. If that falls during Lent, then I must play. That is if they invite me! Most importantly if they need someone to finish on the Bubble. I am there man!

Play on!

2006-01-24T22:23:00.000-06:00

"Bad Addiction"

I have not posted in a long time. I just have not been motivated. Or it could be due to my "bad addiction". I am addicted to Omaha-8. That freaking game is full of swings. I even read the recent article by Jennifer Harman on best hands for Omaha-8. The article helped but the game is driving me totally insane. I truly hate holding a full house and losing to a higher full house. I truly hate flopping the nut low. Someone else keeps raising also with the nut low and I end up losing money. Every night I play an Omaha-8 table and a limit holdem table. Usually I break even or make a little cash. But man can it swing in the wrong direction fast. What should I do about this horrible addiction? Play on!

Not much more on poker. I have challenged myself to win enough to purchase and ipod. So far I am not doing so hot.

I watched the show Love Monkey tonight and I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the music. I will watch it again. I wish I was a contestant on the second stunt on Fear Factor tonight. The woman who had her hair shaved was brave. No big deal for me since I have little hair to start with.

Finally I must comment on American Idol. Yes I am addicted to reality TV. But some of those people auditioning truly are from or belong on another planet.

I will try to post more often, but I need to be motivated.

Stay away from Omaha-8!

Play on!

2006-01-06T15:36:00.000-06:00

"Sometimes Poker SUCKS"

I just sat down to relax after a productive day. I did my normal and pulled up a .5/1 Limit Omaha HL and a .25/,5 Limit Holdem.

Dealt AK of spades on the holdem table. Flop is all spades. Maximum betting against one other player. Turn pairs the board. Max betting until the end. Yup he had a boat. Huge loss!

Omaha table I have AAKJ double suited. Flop comes A77. Maximum betting all the way with 2 other players. Yes he had a pair of sevens. Another huge loss.

In 15 minutes of play down $30. Oh poker sucks!

I have a few chores but despite poker sucking I will be right back at it later tonight. Hopefully I can play a couple of tournaments. Now I have to go kick the 6 year old's bootie in PS2 Hockey. Maybe I should bet him! LOL

HORNS rule!

more later ... play on!

2006-01-04T23:40:00.000-06:00

"Horns RULE"

What else can be said! What a great football game! In-Vince-Able!

I promise to have a longer post soon. But FN Ayyyyeeeee!

Quick poker content - 5 card stud pot limit.

I sat down with $12. I am dealt A up and Ace down. I raise to $.75. Player A with a king raises max. Player B also with a King raises the pot. I go all-in. Both players call and turn over KK. My rockets hold and I am up to $31 in a matter of one hand.

No that is a poker hand!

Go Horns!

2005-12-22T07:35:00.000-06:00

"Drowning in Someone else's Pain"

Last night I decided to play some tournaments at Poker Time. First tournament I definitely felt the pain. First I entered a 15 player SNG. I was dealt pocket kings. I had an average stack and there were six players left. I made a nice raise. I got re-raised. I popped him back. He re-raised me again. Geez the only hand that can beat pre-flop us AA. Does he have it? My gut says he is pressing with QQ or JJ. I push all-in. Doh! He did have AA and I am out in sixth. Oh the pain!

I then played a 10 player SNG. Nothing really eventful other than I finished on the bubble in 4th. Oh more pain!

I capped the night by playing in another 15 player SNG. I played well and I do not think I risked any chips unnecessarily. We were down to 4 players. I had $4K. Two players were hovering around $1K and the chip lead had $9k. The chip lead was leveraging his stack and stealing chips.
I thought certainly if I am patient one of the short stacks will be eliminated and I would be in the money. I even folded AKo when the chip lead was in the big blind. I knew he would pop me for a large portion of my stack. Finishing in the money was my goal, so I would at least end up even for the night. The chip lead called numerous all-in plays by the short stacks. Every time he did they would suck out and win. The two short stacks grew to over $3K and my stack dwindled to around $2K. The chip lead was around $5K now. I could tell he was a bit on tilt, especially after his AK got walloped by T5o.

I went from "yes I am going to finish in the money and at least second place" to "Oh Crap am I even going to make it in the money!" I was patient and defended my blinds as best as I could. Soon it happened! The player who was the chip lead went all-in against the new chip lead and was eliminated. Off he went in a cursing storm. I went from drowning in his pain to shouting with glee!

After that I got a little crazy and sat in a 5 stud pot limit game. After some high stress and losing most of my stack with KK to a set of dueces, I managed my way back to win a couple of dollars.

This morning I discovered the ME channel on Time Warner. It is nice to hear Austin artist. Heck they played a Reivers video. I was a Reivers junky in the day.

Today I pray the freaking plumbers come back to finish their job. I got screwed yesterday! I still need to battle the shopping scene one more time. I think we should simply stop exchanging gifts and every family MUST place what they spend on Christmas into a savings account. Or better yet donate more to their favorite charity.

Bah humbug!

Oh one other thing - in my previous post I stated that was April sitting next to Mr. Mac. Couldn't be cuz that chick is wearing a dress! Just kidding April! :o)

Play on!

2005-12-20T13:24:00.000-06:00

"Look Alike"

I have read stories about Mr. Mac sneaking out to win tons of cash. What I did not know was that Mr. Mac modeled for a player at Check N raise poker. Here is the evidence. Look at the player on the bottom left. Hmmm! That could be April sitting next to him.

How much does Mr. Mac get paid from Check n Raise poker for using his likeness? Does he like cigars?

I have been playing a little to much poker since I am on vacation. I have eeked my bankroll back up, but it is not as healthy as it should be. Again my down fall is my addiction to Omaha-8. That game has huge swings, especially why you bet aggressively on the turn with the nuts and hammered when the board pairs on the river. Soon it will be my turn to get those big pots.

Currently I do not have much to post. I am waiting on the plumber to get here again. Yesterday he installed one of our pedestal sinks, but the faucets we bought leaked. Two lessons to share:

1. Never permit your significant other to start a remodeling project during the holidays!

2. Do not buy cheap faucets if you are paying a plumber by the hour!

I did learn a ton doing this remodel. I did the demolition, removed and installed tile, and repaired the wall. So far the wife is happy! Now we just need to get the sinks installed. Since I could not install the sinks we are looking at being close to $1000 over budget.

That translates into I need to pay Mr. Mac to teach me how to spin straw into gold!

Hopefully one more post before Ho Ho HO, but just in case all 5 persons who read this crazy blog have a very Merry Christmas.

Play on!

2005-12-11T22:50:00.000-06:00

"In the MONEY"

Well I needed to do a quick post. I have been busy grinding at the tables and attempting to remodel our master bathroom. Remodeling is definitely putting me out of my element.

My wife was kind enough to let me take a break and play in the CNR $10,000 challenge. There were 179 players I believe competing for a total purse of $10,000. I think I was supposed to be in this tournament a year ago. Any rate I sat down this afternoon at 2:00 PM.

Interuption - I just saw on the news how the Texans lost. Geez maybe I can take the job as their placekicker. April I feel the pain!

Any rate I was playing in the tournament. I played extremely conservative. If I decided to get in the mix I made a decent raise, which usually resulted in stealing the blinds. The tournament pays the top 30 players. It was 4:00 PM and still around 60 players. I was in the middle of the pack. I told my kids that I needed to win a couple of hands in order to make it in the money. I got AA and KK exactly when I needed them. I only won the blinds, but I was not going to let anyone suck out on me. At around 5:00 PM. it was down to 31 players. I was staggering around 19th place, but for the past hour I was at a table with three of the chip leaders bullying the table. I had to be patient. For awhile I had #2 on my right and #4 on my left. I could not make any moves. One player at our table ended up making it to the money with only $134. he was patient and I think said numerous prayers that the blinds would not go up! I really had no clue how much the payouts were. So I happened to peek. To my amazement I had just won $100. I would have to make it to the final table to really increase the winnings by much. I found myself on the button with AJ. I went all-in for my last $6K. Of course I got called by the big stack, who had me by the seat of my pants with AQ. I ended up finishing 26th place.

Now it was time for me to install some tile. I figured I had better earn my keep. I borrowed wet saw. I made my first tile cut and it was off. I should have doble checked the measurements on the cutter. After that I could not get another piece of tile to cut. The blade kept binding. Of course I got very frustrated. I called Lowes and it turns out they will cut the tile for me for $.25 a cut. Shit I wish I had known that earlier int he morning. Tomorrow I am off to Lowes to get my tile cut. We will be down to one bathroom for a little while longer. We have grandparents coming on Friday, so I had better get busy.

I should be asleep right now, but I am wired.

I couple of other mentions before I play a few more hands. I ended up making a mistake at Party Poker. I lost almost all of my stake and was down to $4.75. I had to take the kids to a party, so I exited. Well now I can not even lose my last $4.75, because it takes a minumum of $5 to sit down. I will wait another 6 months and maybe they will give another freebie. I am a great "fish" for Party Poker. I still have $8 at Poker time. I am still playing at Paradise with my original $2 stake.

I big thanks to CNR for hosting the tournament today. I am now $100 richer.

I hope April and the other bloggers had a safe journey to Vegas and all come back with huge bankrolls.

Play on!

2005-12-06T00:01:00.000-06:00

"Free Money"

I am only posting a quickie, so Mr. Mac does not smack me around. I do not know why they do it, but Party Poker gave me another free $50. Iggy swears this site is full of fish. I conclude I am a BIG FISH. The suck outs on the river simply amaze me.

So lets go right into the details of back to back hands. I found this to be funny! Wine, tequila, and beer help with the humor.

I had pocket 4's in the BB. The flop comes A4x. I bet and I get raised. We cap the betting every time. Hmmmmmmm! Does my opponent have pocket aces. Normally this girl calls with anything, so I keep pressing with my set. The river brings a 4. I believe quads are good. Yes she did have pocket aces.

The very next hand I get pocket aces. Again maximum betting to the river. Yup the lady filled her straight to take her money back. I thought for sure I could retire ahead for the evening.

I have not lost my free money yet, but I have come close a few times. I think because it is free money I play a little crazier than normal. We will see just how fast I lose this bank roll.

Two more quick comments then I had better get my butt to bed. Fortunately I can sleep in until 6:00 AM!

I am truly sorry I could not play Friday at Adam's. I think I would have been the winner. Yeah right! I wanted to host a tournament, but man this time of year fills up fast. Especially if your better half decides to remodel the master bath. The demolition was fun!

My final comment of the night. How about those HORNS!

play on!

2005-11-30T15:17:00.000-06:00

“Oh Yeah!”

It has been way to long since my last post. My only excuse is that I have been way to busy losing my bankroll. I have been grinding hard, but unfortunately not heading in the correct direction. I typically play two tables at a time. One is Omaha-8 and the other Limit Holdem. Most of the time I win at one table and lose at the other, breaking even for a session. Occasionally I will bust through with a nice win. Anyway I will spare you the sorrow.

I did go to Houston for the Thanksgiving holiday. My brother hosted a poker tournament. I get there in time to play the third tournament. I got knocked out by my sister-in-law when my top two pair were smacked on the river, when she hit her flush draw. She won twice against me on the river and another hand I made a stupid call out of frustration. The game was progressing just way to slow for my taste and it was already 2:30 AM.

There were two controversial topics that came up during this evening that I would like to toss out for discussion. In the end I think we got it right, but lets see.

The blinds are $25/$50. Player A goes all in for a total of $90. Player B calls. Small blind folds and the big blind raises $100. Player B calls. The question is how much should be in the main pot for Player A to win. What initially transpired was that I stated move the $200 from the Big Blinds raise into the side pot and lets go. That was met with resistance. The second opinion was that the main pot should have $270. I stated well what about the small blind. We ended up with the main pot having $295 and the side pot with $250. Did we end up in the right place?

The next argument that came up a couple of times was when playing heads up who should be the small blind. I stated that the dealer should always be the small blind. How can that be? I stated well this came up at another game I was at, so I paid close attention to the WPT. The dealer is the small blind and is first to act. After the flop the dealer has position and the other player is UTG. Well “I watch the WPT too and that is not how they do it!” “What you are saying makes absolutely no sense!” “Dealer should not never be the first to act!” I will watch more poker soon, but what is the correct procedure for heads up play?

2005-11-04T23:44:00.000-06:00

"Man on a mission"

CNR gave me a bonus. In order to earn the bonus I must earn 1000 CP's within 90 days. I am playing like a mad man. In the past two hours I have had pocket aces at least 4 times and witnessed others have it twice. Seems like the algorithm is a little off. But I did win 3 out of the 4 times. The last time I got sucked out on by a flush on the river. I am playing two tables. One .25/.50 holdem and the other .50/1 Omaha-8. So far I have played about 4 hours and I am still even, which is not so bad if all you want to do is grind out points.

I just got quad aces in Omaha-8. A nice hand but it sux to have to split the pot! Oh well I am grinding like a mad man.

I am watching Rules of Engagement, which is a decent movie. I watched Star Wars Episode III earlier. They had some cool fight seens. Now what to watch as I grind away.

Three more soccer games this weekend. Our daughter's team lost their first game Thursday night under the lights. It was a great game, ending 1-0. Soccer team party after the game. Yes another busy weekend. i want to host a poker tournament, but I have not a clue as to when I could fit that in.

I have once again joined a gym. I really like the 5:30 AM work out. it gets the day started off right. I am going to try my damndest to lose that 20 pounds, AGAIN!!!

What else has been going on. Oh yeah! I can no longer write a quick blog during lunch or before work. Big brother is now watching. I can not even enjoy my lunch and read all the wonderful poker blogs. It makes sense but when you put in 8 -10 hours everyday you should be permitted to take a 15 minute break and enjoy a good blog. Oh well! I will just reduce my sleep even more in order to stay in touch with the great blogs.

hard to blog playing two tables! Perhaps more later, cuz I am on a mission.

Play on!

2005-10-28T23:30:00.000-05:00

“Nightmare”

I decided for a night of poker and scary/bizarre movies. I rented “the ring two”, which I am watching now and Constantine. I must say “the ring two” is bizarre, but not nearly as bizarre as the hand I just lost. I am playing $.50/$1.00 Omaha-8. On the river the board paired aces, giving me tens full of aces. I lost to quad aces. Lost half my stack!

I wish I could have made it to April’s poker bash this evening, but it was ladies night for my better half. It is also a big soccer weekend. Two games tomorrow, starting at 9:00 AM, then two more on Sunday.

I have AA44 and the flop was 23T. Yeah a 7 on the river for nut low. Normally this week when I have good starting hands I get horrible flops. I believe for the most part I have been extremely patient and waiting for premium hands. Hopefully things will turn around and I will win a few hands.

I am also playing $.02/.04 limit Holdem on Paradise. I am up $1.70. Very strange in that three hands in a freakin row I got pocket queens. They only won once! I think the algorithm needs some tweaking!

I think I need to start documenting my dreams and turn them into movies. I rarely reach a deep sleep. Perhaps I can get some ambion, then I can write a really bizarre movie.

I have not been motivated recently to post. I recently had a situation that required a ton of deliberation and reflection. I am reasonably sure I made the correct decision. Only time will tell. Hopefully my brain will get back to normal.

I think I am about to join LifeTime fitness. I have not worked out in over a year. I need to get my stuff together and lose some weight.

I will say that I am glad I did not pay big dollars to see “the ring two” at the theatre.

Have a super weekend!

Play on!

2005-10-23T22:01:00.000-05:00

"Birds and I"

I am a little disappointed that my entry from Friday did not get saved in blogspot. Oh Well!

Friday morning I had the pleasure of playing poker on the upper deck at Whole Foods downtown. There I was with a bottled water, bag of pretzels, and a computer. I was playing NL holdem and CNR and my only witness was the birds. Not the most attractive birds mind you, but they were a friendly lot, because I had pretzels. One poor bird had a crooked leg. Of course I felt sorry for him. The birds eyed me as I won this hand. I had a king high flush at the turn. I simply made a modest bet to see if anyone had the nut flush. A player to my right went all-in. I pondered for just a second and I called with my $8.50. He ended up having a flush as I suspected, but not good enough. The birds scattered as I shouted with excitement.

Thursday night I had a good night winning about $35 on CNR. I was a little bored with Holdem, so I played some 5-card and some Omaha-8. In draw I was losing my shirt. I was dealt two pair Qs & 3s. I did not take any cards and raised the maximum. Fortunately everyone folded and I was only down $.30, so I got up from the table. I won several large pots in Omaha-8.

Go Astros! The just tied it! I thought they were doomed after giving up the grand slam in the 7th.

I need to recap a terrific weekend, then I will quickly summarize my Blogger tourny experience. Our daughter's soccer team was in a tournament this weekend. Their first game was Sat. morning at 9:15 AM. Our daughter was put in as goalie and the game ended in 0-0 tie. She boomed some punts. We were so proud of her. Unfortunately I missed the next two games because I got to go to the Longhorns game. We put a whooping on Texas Tech. The pre-game warm up at the Dog and Duck was great! After the football game we went to the Sierra Nevada tailgate party and had a beer. Back to the Dog and Duck until traffic calmed down. I called to see how our daughter's team did in the other two games. They lost 3-1 in game two. She gave up two goals, but she said they were really good shots. The third game they won 1-0. They played in the semi-finals this morning and unfortunatly lost 2-0. Alex gave up both goals. One of the goals should not have happened. Another soccer ball rolled onto the field and several players were disrupted. The ref should have stopped play. Regardless they played a great game. Our daughter did a super job on defense.

Man! Lidge just gave up the game winning home run. Damn!

After the Horns victory I went to a Halloween Party. There was an amazing spread of food. They had poets, then the grand finale was a flame dancer. I had a good time and got home before midnight. I played a little bit if poker before turning in, but I pretty much broke even on the night.

OK! The blogger tournament was fun! It lasted 5 hads and I was out #1442. First of all I had know clue there would be that many players. I was at the table long enough to get the URL's of my opponents. Everyone was really super nice. The players at the table were

Morlith - pokerwolf.blogspot.com
Maudie - kebzweb.com
KAP_Player - kickasspoker.com
Alceste - the-misanthrope.blogspot.com
bbzghost - bbzghost.blogspot.com
ekillian - ekillian.blogspot.com
smoke404
Kwils21 - caught upinthe craze.blogspot.com

Sorry I do not have time at the moment to convert these to links. I will try to edit this post later.

My first hand was AK suited. I raised $80. Everyone folded, so I was won the blinds.

Second hand was AQ. Flop came T6Q. I bet and was raised. I ended up calling the other player to the river and lost to a set of tens. I did not even take the time to attempt to evaluate what he had.

Now down to $600 I play my fifth hand. I look at the screen to see AK suited (spades) again. Definitely need to go all-in. The big stack calls me and turns over TJ of spades. I like the odds. Damn if a jack hit on the flop and I got no help. I would have liked to play longer, but I knew with that many players I need to play good hands and build a stack quickly. I checked in on BurntOrnge and he was doing well. I could not find April or any other Austinites. I think I did see Poker Ninja.

It worked out just fine, because I got to take the kids to hit baseballs.

I should be in bed! I caught a second wind. We watched the movie, "The Interpreter". It was a little slow for my tastes, so I think I got in a couple cat naps. I am going to play a little Omaha-8, then turn in. It was a great weekend!

Tomorrow I get to go to our new office only 6 miles from my house.

Play on!

2005-10-19T06:29:00.000-05:00

"The River Loves you!"

I was playing $.05/.$10 on Paradise Poker last night.

First a brief sidebar. Unfortunately I have let my bankroll get super low due to a crazy move Saturday night. I decided I needed to take a shot at quickly increasing my bankroll, so I joined a $.50/$1.00 Limit Omaha-8 game. In three hand I lost my $5 investment, putting me down to $1.84 at paradise.

Back to the story - I started getting the hands. I hit a boat on the river and two flushes. next thing you know my bank roll is up to $4.35. I got interupted in order to give my better half a massage, so I left a juicy table and my affection for the river.

Man sometimes I hate computers. I just lost a perfectly phrased paragraph with a flash of the screen. Arrgh!

After lathering my wife with icy hot I went back to Paradise poker. I sat down at a table where it was mostly 3 handed or even heads up. My companion, "the river" had left me for another man. Twice I had the nut flush only to have the board pair on the river, giving the lady stealer full boats. At least four times I knew I had the top pair or top two pair going into the river. Yes all four times the river gave him a higher two pair or filled a gut shot straight. Rather than tilt all I could do was type into the chat utility, "the RIVER loves you man- NH". This continued where he would hit his miracle on the river until my $2 was gone. Fortunately I had the snap to stop playing and go fold clothes.

My other site should be back online today, so I can move up in stakes or at least play some no limit. I tried joining Full Tilt poker Saturday night after losing that $5 at omaha. I thought I had about $75 in my Neteller account. When I attempted to make the transfer it was rejected. "What the ..." Well it turns out that I only have $42 in my account. Unfortunately the site and neteller require a minimum transfer of $50. With CNR down for maintenance I had no other bankroll resource. I was sad! It was 2:00 AM, so a decided a little sleep would not hurt. Is Full Tilt a good sight to play or should I venture somewhere else?

Now with the poker content out of the way I turn your attention to soccer and football.

We had four soccer games this weekend. On Saturday the U6 Bobcats can stomped. Our kids seemed totally asleep at 3:15 PM. Oh well! Our son did play well and had some excellent defensive plays. Just before the U6 game our daughters team, The Clash, played a great game and remained undefeated. She played goalie the second half and made a couple of solid saves. Oh yeah! There was this one gal who was constantly yelling at her team mates. What a brat!

On Sunday the Bobcats started our soccer day at 2:15 PM. The team played much better. I believe the game ended in a tie, but we are not supposed to keep score. Again our son played aggressive and assisted on two goals. Go Bobcats! At 3:15 the Clash were supposed to play, but the previous game was running late. It was an exciting game. Our daughter just happened to score the first goal. The most interesting part was that she used her left foot. The Clash went on to win 4-0. This weekend the Clash are playing in a soccer tournament. My wife is a little miffed with me, but I am going to the Longhorn game. Go Horns! I certainly picked a great game to go to. We can only hope "the river" does not show up at that game.

Only Wednesday and I am looking for an action packed weekend. A house warming party in Friday (hopefully I can make a late or brief appearance). On Saturday there are at least 3 soccer games and I hope to make it to at least one. The around noon off to the Dog and Duck for pre-game warm-up. Then to a pumpkin carving party and finally a late appearance to a Halloween Party.

Potentially on Monday I am off to Atlanta for 3 weeks! Yikes!

Well Play on friends!

2005-10-13T07:06:00.000-05:00

"Fold Dummy"

My sincerest apologies for not publishing more frequently. I have numerous excuses, but you shall be spared the details.

I really have not played much serious poker lately. In fact the site that has most of my bankroll is shutdown. Check N Raise poker is apparently moving its affilation to I think Poker Nation. Hopefully it will mean more players and more profit for me. I would like to play some low limit Omaha-8 again. We used to have so much fun on TNT. Lately there has been very little chat at the tables. I have been playing $2 buy-in NL Holdem ring games on Paradise. I have been doing OK, but occasionally I just can not lay down the cards.

Example 1 - 8T (Spades) - Flop is 69 (spades) and a red card

I have an inside straight flush draw. Modest betting around the table with three players. I call. River is a Q of clubs. My attempt to isolate I raise $.25. One player calls. River is 4 of spades, making my flush. I bet $.25. I get raised, putting me all in for another $1.35. I know he has a larger spade than the ten. There is about $3 in the pot. I called knowing damn well I was beat. I do not know how to efficiently calculate pot odds, but betting $1.35 on a prayer I would win $3 was just plain foolish. I need to increase my discipline and lay this one down.

Example 2 - K9o in the BB - flop comes 35T (all spades)

I am holding the King of spades, so I make a decent bet to isolate. Of course I get two callers. Turn is a King, so now I have top pair. I make a decent wager. I get one caller. The river of course is a spade. I make a modest bet at the pot. Yup! I get raised putting me all-in. Does he really have the Ace of spades. But of course he does and I again lose my stack.

I am really going to work on my discipline. My gut was correct both time and I gave away money. I know there will be times when folding a decent hand will be to a total bluff, but there are times when is better to live another day and wait for the NUTS. I know when I do get the NUTS at this site it is usually lucrative. Well as lucrative and a $2 can be!

I do have another small poker dilemma. I have about $75 burning a hole in my online bankroll. What would be the best site to invest these monies? Of course I am looking for a deposit bonus and I am also willing to use someone's code so you too can benefit. I am just not sure what site will be fun! I am looking for some low limit ring games with some fun people. I will take any and all suggestions. I am ready for a change of pace.

By the way April your puppy is adorable, especially in the Longhorn jersey! Daddy Scott I must say you have been blessed with a beautiful child. Let's hope he follows the career path of Mom!

Four soccer games this weekend, so we will be busy! Hopefully the Horns will mop the stadium with some Buffalo hide on Saturday. I most likely will miss the game due to soccer games. Perhaps I should invest in a portable radio and some batteries. It looks like I have a chance to go to the Texas Tech game. I would love for both teams to be undefeated. We can show those Raiders what football is really like!

Have a super weekend! I will try my best to get back to posting a couple of times per week. My other blog is keeping me busy too!

Fold Fold Fold

2005-09-30T12:32:00.000-05:00

"Caving In"

On thing I promised myself was that I would not pollute my blog with advertisements. Unfortunately playing in the Blogger tournament sounds like a ton of fun! So out the window my promise goes. Fun must take priority!

If' Momma Mac is going to allow her husband to play, then I can play! I think Scott is going to be changing a ton of diapers in order to earn the priviledge of playing.

I am looking forward to a great time. Since it is on a Sunday hopefully I can play.

Busy weekend ahead! Hopefully I can post some poker happenings later.

See you at the tables!

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

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 9269473

2005-09-26T22:43:00.000-05:00

"Bubble Bubble toil and Trouble"

I just finished playing in a 6 person SNG. I had a lucky suck out with AK. I was all-in and up against pocket kings. The board brought 4 spades and I had the nut flush. I felt I played flawlessly until this hand.

I had A9s. The flop came 459. Now I have four on a flush and top pair. I raise. I get put all-in. The player turned over AA and I got no lovin! Out on the bubble! Net loss for the night was $11.

Last night I played in a NL ring game here in Austin. It was very entertaining. I think in 4.5 hours of play I had 6 playable hands. The good news is that I played patiently and pocketed $20. Not a huge windfall, but a win is a win. Here are some of the hands I remember.

I am in the BB with 53 hearts. The hosts raises. I need to defend the BB, so I call the raise. It turns out the host skipped a player when he raised. She said what about me. We pretended as though she checked and let her call the raises. The board came 537 spades, which gave me two pair. I figured the host (Puppy Feet) had an over pair. My gut was telling me though that another spade was about to hit the board. I mucked two pair. My gut was correct in that the fourth spade hit on the river. The lady Puppy Feet skipped had the nut flush. He was not happy and lost half his stack.

I remember raising with AJo and AQo only to get reraised. I was correct to muck both times when the flop brought no emergency assistance. I also had pocket tens once and pocket sixes once.

Once I limped in on the BB with J3o. The flop came JJ4. I bet only to be raised. I called. Turn did not improve my hand. I thought I was up against another J with a better kicker. I called a modest bet on turn. The raiser checked on the river. I thought about popping back for more money. In hind site I should have, but it was a decent sized pot and I took it down with 3 hooks.

Another hand I had QT of diamonds in the small blind. I was able to limp in. The flop came 8d9d and and Js. Flopped the nut straight. I raised $5 and got one caller. I had a flush draw, a straight flush possible and the nut straight. The turn brought another J. A little scary but I continued to press with $5. I got called. The river brought the 2 of diamonds, giving me the flush. I thought I might be in trouble, but I popped back for $5. He folded and I raked about $30 in one hand. It was sweet. At this point I went in to super conservative mode. I was listening to Scott and only moving with the nuts. I really went card dead. I did not get another hand the rest of the night. I took a couple shots from the BB and button, but my raises always got called or popped back. I had good reads everytime and mucked.

Once I was in the BB with K9 of clubs. The flop brought K78. I bet $5 and got raised $28. I figured he had two pair or a made set. I mucked! Hey showed his cards 78. Whew!

Funny thing was that I never showed my cards. The only lady at the table wanted us to show cards. I kept my play a secret, which is the smart move.

One interesting hand happened and I was not involved. One player went all in with a King on the board. Their was an instant call from a player. The player had pocket kings and had made a boat on the turn. The river brought the fourth King. Sweet.

The Guinness was great! The host was great! All the players were fun and courteous. A few flipped cards from the fan, but other than that a great game. Hopefully I can do that again!

I am taking the day off tomorrow to play golf with my parents. I am pumped! We are playing Star Ranch, which is a new track for me.

Play on!

2005-09-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

"I Never Learn"

I am playing great poker tonight. I am up $5. I get dealt AA. Bet is $.40, player to my right calls, and I raise $1. Player goes all in for $6.50. Player to my right calls, I call. Flop is KQ7. Player to my right checks. I check. Next card is an 8, Check check! River is a 4. Player to my right raises putting me all-in. Is he really holding 56? Why the F*** did I not raise all-in after the flop. Should I call? Debate debate! I call! Sure enough he has 56o and rakes in a huge pot.

My mistake is not raising all-in post flop. Correct Dr. Mac?

Oh it is so frustrating when I make stupid mistakes. Up until this point I only raised when I was sure I was ahead or had the nuts. If I had folded to that raise I would have been down only $.90 for the night. I only have two brain cells left after years of partying, but why could I not rationalize laying down AA?

I think I am going to kick the dog. Just kiddin Ash!!

I need to post my football bets for the week. Of course I do not bet money, but Sound of a Suckout has a good site for talking smack and making bold picks. I won just one bet out of three last week. I need to study the lines a bit more.

I just watched Travis Tritt call $5000 raise with an ace high. It made me feel a bit better. Then he goes all-in with a pair of threes. Eddie wins with a pair of tens. April - Penny Marshall did comment on Phil's gorgeous blue eyes!!

I also watched Big Break IV, US -vs Europe. Europe put a whooping on the Americans on the first episode. I liked the very first Big Break show where the did some tricky shots. The played poker by hitting golf balls through glass panels. I remember correctly the winner had 5 aces.

Hmm what to watch now. Eraser or Hamburger Hill. I think "Eraser". It is 10:00 PM and if I go to bed I will be up at 3:00 AM. Perhaps I need a Rx for some Ambion? If I saw a papaya sitting next to me right now I would eat it!

I can't play any more poker cuz I am on TILT. I may go to the other computer and play 7 card stud for $.02/.04. Am I addicted or what?

Huge weekend at the church festival. If you want to entertain your kids please come by St. Vincent De Paul on Sunday between 11:30AM and 6:00 PM. You will find me running the Coconut Bowling booth. Great food and lots of fun.

I read Sound of a Suckouts pep talk. So I will conclude this mindless post by stating.

"I'll be BACK" Winning that is!

Ciao

2005-09-15T07:11:00.000-05:00

"Therapy needed"

I must say Scott is correct in that I need an intervention or a long session of therapy. Last night at CNR I sat down with $4 at a $.05/.10 table. I have AK. Flop brings KJ8. I make a decent bet but I get raised. I pushed all-in. The turn is a T and the river is a 7. Yes my opponent happened to have K9.

I plopped down another $4. I believe I go as low as $2 and battled my way back to $9.50. It was almost time for bed, then I had another brain "fart". I am in the BB with A9s. I raise to $.30 and get one caller. The flop is AK7. I bet out $.30 and get raised $9, putting me all-in. I called. The opponent had pocket 7's. I lost my entire stack.

Why? Because I am insane! Seriously the reason I lost my stack is that I did not put any thought what's so ever as to what potential hands my opponent might have. I am so used to people bluffing and bullying online that I made an instant call. I need to slow down and think about what could my opponent have. I also need to have the nuts before immediately committing to all-in. I believe I may end up calling 1-800-SCOTTMC.

I know I am playing with free money, but dammit I want to increase my bankroll not toss it away.

Tilt on!

2005-09-12T09:50:00.000-05:00

"Soccer Great, Poker not so Great"

The U6 Bobcats played great on Saturday and had fun! The U9 Clash played great and won their first game. The soccer experience was great!

Saturday went to some friends for steaks and tequila. Yes that is a great combination. We watched the Longhorns win the big game. I got home and was ready for some poker action. I popped open another beer. Of course I was already feeling no pain. I plopped down $4 in $.05/.10 NL table. There was a bully at the table. I knew I would catch him. I was dealt pocket 8's in the small blind. He raised, so I went all-in. I knew he was possibly playing over cards. An ace hit on the river and I was correct he was playing AKo. Quickly down $4. I reloaded. I get dealt pocket Q's. Flop brings 69T. I raise all-in. Turn is 8. The river is a 7, placing a straight on the board. I believe I am going to chop. Wrong, the other player had J7o. Now I am down 8 bucks. Somewhere in this story I sat down at a $.50/1.00 limit game and promptly lost another $8.

I decide to play in the NL tournament, which I buy-in for player points. I was down to about $800 and I go all-in. I lost, so I did a rebuy for $3. I held my own for a long time. I was dealt a pair of J's. The flop came 36T rainbow. I go all-in. I get called by a player with a pair of ladies. I finish in 5th place. Geez! If I could of held on for 3rd I would have broken even for the night. Instead I suffered a large loss. At least large for me!

I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere, but I do not think I played poorly. Perhaps it was the overwhelming confidence I had after the Longhorn victory and the fairy dust our friends daughter gave me. I mean who can lose with "fairy dust"!

Play on!

2005-09-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

“Austin WPBT”

In summary I had a great time. Adam did a super job hosting this event.

The tournament started out by me arriving completely on TILT. I hate being late for anything, so I left the house at noon. I should be able to travel 28 miles in less than an hour, right? I live near Round Rock, so I head down 620. Traffic is backed up from I-35 passed Round Rock High School, so I take short cut number one. I get to McNeil road and traffic at the light near I-35 is at a complete stand still. I commence the rapid U-turn and head for short/detour #2. I make it to 1325 where traffic seemed normal. I then proceed on my journey down South I-35. Keep in mind my wife banded me from I-35 in August 2002 after a near death experience with an 18-wheeler, so I am driving cautiously around 75 mph. Of course I had to slow down for one speed trap. I am doing great and the Google maps state to take exit 226B. That is strange I just passed the exit for Slaughter Lane, but I proceed to follow the directions. I am now lost on 1626 heading west. I make my first call to Adam at 12:50 PM. He had no clue where 1626 was. I keep heading west and the entire time I am starting to get on tilt. I finally decide I was to far west and turn around. I pull into a little gas station. The two gentlemen snicker at me and say “you just take this road here and down by the Albertson’s is Slaughter Ln.” Cool I head down that road. I get to Slaughter lane and now for the big decision, East or West. I turn west. I make yet another mistake. I get to Brodie Ln and decide it is time for a second call to Adam. Dude, I am at Brodie Ln. have I gone to far West. Of course he says yes! Another mile down the road I finally make a U-turn. I am thinking “Man this sucks!” It turned out that the road the two gentlemen sent me on was Manchaca. If I had only turned east I would have been one light away from the final destination. I drive right passed the house, but quickly turn around. There on the front lawn flagging me down was Scott. Geez! I had told Adam to just blind me out, but they graciously waited for my arrival. I am truly on Tilt at this point.

I draw my seat Table 2, seat 3. Going around the Table I have Jennifer, Jan, Jeremy, Marcus, and Mike. My first two cards are pocket pair of 6’s. I raise, then get re-raised. I let the pocket pair go. Two hands later I get pocket 8’s. I raise, then get re-raised again. I let this pair go. I am thinking to my self am I a wus or what. Now I am down a little over one third of my stack. I had poured myself a nice Guinness and placed it under my chair. Adam’s tables were so nice I definitely could not set a beer on the table. About the fifth hand and after only two sips from my beverage it is my turn to shuffle. I stand up and quickly kick my entire beer onto the floor. Tilt factor doubles. Adam quickly provides a towel and the beer is cleaned up. It was a good thing the home has stained concrete floors.

The first person busted out immediately left. I thought that was a little strange. Oh well! This is supposed to be a fun social event.

I settled down a little bit. At this table I only recall three hands. I had pocket 7’s and made a decent raise. Russ had moved to our table. He raised another $500. Damn! I had not seen his play. I thought he might have two high cards, but my gut said he had an over pair. I folded. The flop brought a 7, J, Q. I cringed a little bit for folding, but I felt Russ had a strong hand. At this point I realized there were coasters, so I opened my second Guinness. I needed it to calm the nerves.

I am now getting short stacked. I hate to get out of any tournament, but needed to start making some moves. I went all-in with A3s. Marcus calls me. He turns over Ax and I am way behind. A three hits on the turn and I double up. A couple of hand later I have AJ suited (spades). The flop brings two spades. I raise all-in and get Russ to call. The river brings my fifth spade. I again double up. At this point we draw again for tables.

I draw table one seat 3. At my table are (to my left) Lindsey, Jeremy, April, and Slayre. All I recall about this table was that I kept getting 42o. There is not much you can do with 42o. The only other thing I recall is the quad 5’s. Lindsey needs to audition for a major motion picture, because she definitely had Jeremy baffled. There was one hand where I had a pocket pair. April made a nice raise. I pondered was she making a move or did she have me. I folded. In her blog she states she had a ten. Unfortunately now I do not recall the board, perhaps KQT. She had me!!

Soon we were down to the final table, which I believe was 8 players. To my left were Adam, Russ, Madroxx, Jeremy, April, John, and Lindsey. Scott was the dealer. Soon after the table formed Jeremy and Slayre were eliminated. The realization came that we were down to the bubble. I believe my chip stack was close to Adam’s, but we were definitely short stacked. Adam went all-in with I believe a pair of nines. Madroxx (chip lead) called. Madroxx caught a ten on the river and knocked Adam out on the bubble. Madroxx had numerous outs, but it was a bummer the host finished on the bubble.

I did double up when my A9o was called by Lindsey and A6o. My final stand came with A9s (clubs). April did the instant call, so I knew I was in trouble. She turned over pocket Cowboys. No ace magically appeared and I finished in 5th place. It was an absolute blast.

By the way April did make some awesome chocolate chip cookies. I tried to be good and only eat one, but soon it turned into 6 cookies. She also made rice crispy treats.

Mark did offer me a Heineken, but I stuck with my diet Mountain Dew. When I have a cough the hops in the beer can aggravate the cough. I must admit the Guinness hit the spot and I wish I had not spilled a full beer. I think that was the only alcohol abuse at the tournament.

General observations –

Everyone was nice!

Adam runs a great tournament!

I finally met April, who almost causes as much loss of work production as Iggy. I feel lost without all of her links to Austin blogs.

I finally met the famous Jeremy, who used to work for the start up company that was bought by my current employer. I loved his style of play and table banter. The legend at Whisperwire lives on! He definitely made the table fun and got me to relax a bit.

I did not realize that a player sitting at the final table was the author of Slayre’s Poker Quest. I had the impression that he had to work and would not be there.

I met other bloggers (sorry to those I do not remember):

ScurvyDog, BurntOrange, Mike, Jaxia, and Madroxx.

At times I played way too conservative. I need to learn to push when someone shows signs of weakness.

I folded the hammer twice. I did see April play it successfully into a raise. It was beautiful when she showed the cards. The only other hammer I saw was the last hand of the tournament. Unfortunately it came up on the short end.

I need to purchase the long version of “Freebird”, because two tournaments in a row I heard at least part of this song and I placed in the money!

I am also incredibly superstitious as to what I should wear to a poker tournament. I did include my Grandfather’s necklace, so that may have been the extra boost I needed.

Congratulations to Madroxx for a tournament well played.

I had a fantastic time and it certainly beat yard work. I wish I could have stuck around and obliged Scott in a cash game. But he of all people knows what it means to promise your wife something. I made my pit stop at Fiesta to buy coconuts, then proceeded to Lowes to buy paint. I then met my lovely wife at Sam’s and I helped load the groceries into the van. I was starving so we listened to the kids and had a wonderful dinner from McDonalds (NOT!).

Play on!

2005-09-02T08:03:00.000-05:00

"Thieves"

I just had to fire off another quick post. I just put 15 gallons of gas in the van at a cost of $50. Here is what is puzzling me.

Monday the local 7-11 has a tanker truck fill their store with gasoline product. For this argument lets assume that they paid $2/gallon and are charging $2.50/gallon. On Tuesday there is a hurricane in Louisiana. Now on Thursday they are charging $3.10/gallon. Seems to me that the profit margin doubles. Do stations get a tanker truck daily? I don't think so. It is probably weekly. So next week another tanker arrives to fill the station, but this time the 7-11 pays $2.80/gallon. Now I think they might have the right to charge $3.20/gallon, maintaining a consistent profit margin.

I have no clue if these numbers are real, but I find it amazing that stations can raise and lower their prices simply based on what happens in the media and the stock market.

Yes my prayers go out to all the people impacted by the hurricane. I saw a photo from Atlanta where a store was charging $5.95/gallon. Is that gouging or what?

Yes we need to get off our dependency on oil. Perhaps it is this type of catastophe that will cause everyone to think of a creative solution. I would certainly at some point love to drive a safe car that gets 50+ mpg or take efficient public transportation. For some reason I doubt I will see that any time soon.

I am really pumped about the poker tournament tomorrow. Althought it will cost me $10 round trip (he-he)! Bitch, bitch, bitch! I am bummed in that I have a cough, which means I may end up drinking diet sodas and not consuming all of Scott's Patron.

Ciao!

2005-08-31T07:05:00.000-05:00

" A Quicky"

I just wanted to make a quick post. Ok so it is a new definition for the term "Quicky"!

Everything went well in Ohio. I damn near missed my return flight. My sister is still laughing at me for all the cus words I was blurting after driving 16 miles past the airport. Saving grace was the fact the clock in the rental was WRONG! Gambling with airports is not fun!

Speaking of gambling I had a revelation last night. I was playing $.05/.10 No Limit. Twice I got a good read on the other player when heads up and won some decent sized pots. I did not let them bully me into folding. The revelation came when I was forced to go all-in with one caller to go. The third person called. Once again I had a good read on the player who put me all-in and I would have beat him; however, the other caller had the nuts. So the revelation for me is to think more carefully about going all-in if there are other players that could call. It is all about 'position". Oh and that applies for a "quicky" too!

I am looking forward to playing in the Austin blogger tournament on Saturday. Hmmmm! What strategy will I deploy? Definitely a bunch of tough players! I am definitely hoping to "Crack the Hammer". I think a little experimenting is in order. It will be a long drive to south Austin, so I must place in the money in order to pay for the gas. I am betting it will be $2.89 by Saturday. Sheesh!

I sure wish we had mass transit planned for Austin and not toll roads. Soon no one will be able to afford to put their cars on these roads.

Party on!

2005-08-22T23:11:00.000-05:00

"Blowing Off Steam"

I got home from RCIA and there just was no way I could go to sleep. The 5:00 AM alarm will be rude. I thought I would play some cards and catch up on some blogs. Definitely some good write ups from the event in South Carolina.

Scott - thanks for your kind words.

I must say I just got screwed royally in a 6 person SNG. There were four players left. Two of us around $2k and the other two at $4.5K. I get dealt JJ. The flop comes Q35. I do not recall the river, but I go all-in. I get called by one of the larger stacks from the SB. He called half his stack with 34o. A f'n 4 hits on the river and I am out. I read him correctly and played it correctly. That is the way the cookie crumbles.

Looks like I will not be leaving for Ohio until late Thursday. I need to load up the poker game my Brother in law got me for X-mas on my laptop. Won't be the same as playing for money, but mindless on the plane none the less. Do they have wireless net on planes yet?

I am going to chug my Guinness and see if I can fall asleep. For some reason my brain will not let me. Perhaps another Guinness is in order.

I am looking forward to the Austin Blogger event. It is way south, but I will manage. My better half keeps trying to make other plans, but I reminded her that I am booked.

Play on!

2005-08-22T06:48:00.000-05:00

"A TRIBUTE"

At 7:5AM EST a great man passed away this morning. He is my grandfather, Charles A Leet. I am very sad and uncertain as to the near term future. I will make it to Geneva Ohio to pay tribute to this great man. Not sure how yet, but I will make it!

I am very sad! In my sorrow I must pay a tribute to my Grandfather. I also must ask that God hold my mother and care for her! Dear God please guide our family through this time of sorrow.

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!"

Charles A Leet was the kindest man. In my lifetime I only recall him raising his voice once in a negative way. It took a miraculous golf shot to raise the ire of my Grandfather. My brother and I had been hitting golf balls on the course where my Grandfather's home backed up to. My brother took careful aim and hit a 9 iron toward the house, which was protected by huge trees. We looked in amazement as that ball traveled the height of those huge trees and headed for the house. The little golf ball managed to dodge one billion branches and find its way to the large sliding glass door on the back of Grandpa's house. He was not happy and rightfully so!

I remember at a very young age my Grandfather would host parties at his house on Bathgate. One specific time he served Mai tai drinks to all of his guests. With me being a deviant child, I spent the day drinking down half full glasses of the delicious nectar. Yes this was the first time for me to get drunk. It was not pleasant at the age of ten vomiting and making my Dad pull over on the way home. This was either an omen or a first lesson in the life ahead of me.

I do not recall my age, but I do recall twice when my Grandfather went out of his way to surprise my brother and me. Once he took us horse back riding. He nervously watched us ride around the corral. The horse my brother was on was a bit feisty and bucked a few times. I am sure it made Grandpa a nervous wreck, but I know my brother and I appreciated every last second of our first time on a horse. One day he really surprised us by taking us up in a small airplane. I do not recall what kind of plane it was, but as a kid I always wondered how my Grandfather could spend so much money for us to be up in this plane. We flew along Lake Erie and I vividly remember seeing God's handy work and a rainbow of colors along the shores of a murky lake.

I am not sure I ever let him know how much he inspired me with those generous trips. I was around 12 or 13 years old and I was all about making money. I would rake leaves, shovel snow, and mow lawns to earn extra cash. My Grandfather was a realtor and asked me to mow some of his properties. I was glad my Dad had to tote me around, because some of the yards were huge. At least as I remember them. Receiving a check from my Grandfather was like receiving a pot of gold. I recall one day he asked me to mow his yard. Or perhaps I begged to mow it since it required a riding lawn mower. He showed me how to operate it and off I went. Of course I was going about it all wrong. He quickly came out to correct my technique. It seemed like it took forever that day to mow the grass, but heck it was on a riding lawn mower.

Holiday's at my Grandparents were always great. The one thing you could safely gamble on was the fact that at some point during the family gathering, Grandpa would play his electric organ. He loved experimenting with the drum beat and usually would play a peppy upbeat tune. I really wish he had the chance to hear our daughter play the piano. She plays beautifully and I hope his spirit fills her heart, so that she may continue to take on the challenge of practicing everyday. Yes I am crying at this point. It is Ok to grieve I guess, but I am trying to reflect on all of the wonderful things Grandpa provided us.

I am not just talking material things. His spirit was much much more than that. He traveled to Austin Texas for our wedding. My wife's family spoke very little English, yet he tried his best to fit in and make everyone comfortable. He went to El Paso Texas for the baptism of our daughter. Again he tried to fit in with everyone, despite the language barrier. Grandpa was fortunate and was able to travel to many places in the world. I believe he got along with everyone.

I am not sure how old I was, but either in High School or College. He told me an amazing story how he wanted to learn more about his family history. He started at the library. Either by word of mouth or via the library. He heard that there was a book somewhere in New York about the Leet family. He made the journey to find this book. Sure enough it was about his family. I believe it dated back to something like 1608. The really cool thing about it was the fact that his name was the last name in that book. The book ended with the birth of Charles A. Leet. I truly hope I can get access to that book. I am not sure I have the strength or the wisdom, but I think it would be truly great to continue that book and expand the legacy of Charles A. Leet.

The man was amazing and I am not sure I expressed often enough how he touched my heart. I am so glad that both of our children got to meet him. One hot summer we took him to Fredericksburg. It was extremely hot and it was difficult for Grandpa to keep up in the heat. He stopped in at a little store where they spun there own wool and made blankets etc... That day he ordered himself a handmade blanket from that little store. As usual he hit it off with store proprietor. I am sure he got a good deal on that blanket.

As I try to bring this tribute to conclusion I am in the middle of great debate. Do we take the kids out of school and make the long drive to Geneva Ohio or do I simply go and see this wonderful man alone? I know my Mom deep in her heart would want the kids there. I also know she understands the logistics and the cost to make that happen. I am confident that the Holy Spirit will guide me to the correct decision. I know I want my kids to remember him for his smile and caring demeanor. I am blessed in that I have had a lifetime of memories and our children only have a few brief encounters. I look forward to telling our children about my times with Grandpa and I hope they are blessed with some of his great traits.

We love you Grandpa! Thanks for everything you have provided this family. Your battle with Alzheimer's was a gallant one. I believe you are in good hands now. Please continue to fill us with your spirit and your guiding light. I hope you take the journey into heaven, knowing you have been a great influence to us all.

"Dear lord - please embrace my wonderful Mother. Hold her and hug her in this time of need. I will hold her and hug her, but she needs your strength to guide her and heal the loss of her father. I ask this in Christ our Lord! Amen!"

2005-08-18T07:49:00.000-05:00

“Sailing Away “

“Well it’s not far back to sanity, at least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see
Believe me”

Does anyone remember this Christopher Cross song? Well wind and miracles are two key words from this past Saturday.

Friday night I took our daughter to piano lessons. I decided to go to a near by bar called Hanover’s to study for my class and have a cold beer. I arrived and ran into an old friend (So much for studying). I was not quite in the mood for Guinness, so I compromised with a Black and Tan. My friend and I started conversing when one of his co-workers arrived. Very pleasant conversation; however, my friend made a rude comment to me. Last time I had seen him he had done a similar thing. I calming let it roll off my shoulders and ordered a Bass. Needless to say I am not sure this individual falls into the category of friend.

I left in a rush to pick up our daughter. She was a little upset because she was missing open house at her school. We quickly headed toward the school, but I knew we would not make it in time. The cell phone rang and it was my better half. I think she is psychic. “Honey we are going to go out to eat” with the K family and the H family. “Sounds great honey”! We went to Serrano’s Mexican Café. The main reason I mention this is for all of you parents out there in Austin land. Kids eat free Wednesday through Sunday with the purchase of an adult meal. This ends August 31st, so enjoy. Six adults drinking and 6 goofy children made for a great time, especially since I had an early start with 2 imperial pints.

OK Now to Saturday! I got up reasonably early because I had a long list of honey-do’s. I had permission to go sailing in the afternoon, but I HAD to accomplish certain honey-do’s. I cleaned the gutters! Now that was fun hanging on to the eve’s of the house for dear life and getting poked in the rear-end by spirea bushes. Yee-Ha! Next I did the normal yard beautification project of edge, mow, and trim. Finally I did my most favorite chore of pulling weeds for 2 plus hours. In total I spend about 4.0 hours in the hot Texas heat. Oh wait there is more! I come in from the hot sun and wet mop the floors. I did win the prize in that I could go sailing.

Remember the last time I went sailing there was no wind. This time there was wind and we are going to race. I had never participated in a regatta and I had no earthly clue what is expected of me, but here I am part of a three person crew on a 26 foot sailboat called Vitamin Sea. It is quite an amazing site watching 40 or so boats tacking back and forth across the lake vying for position and perfect access to the starting line. Mr. D our captain definitely had a plan.

The horn blasts into the air from the starters boat and 2 seconds later we zip past the starting line and the race is on. I believe there were 5-6 boats in our flight. I quickly learned my role with respect to the tacking maneuver. Back and forth we went, heading for the first buoy. We are battling it out for first place. The other boat cut directly in front of us twice. If you ask me just a little to close for comfort, but I was informed that that was part of the adventure. Around the first buoy we go, then we head toward the dam and the second buoy. We are still in a very tight race, but things are looking good. The other boat gets around the second buoy just ahead of us. At this point the wind is at our backs and we need to use the spinnaker. Check it out I know some sailing terms! FYI – Spinnaker is the huge and colorful sail. The other team got their spinnaker up with out a problem. Let’s just say we mucked up. First mate M was cursing and there I was not having a clue as to how I could help. Finally we get things straightened out, but now we are way behind.

We head to the third buoy. As we rounded this buoy we mucked up again. This time I had a little part in the fiasco. Captain D had asked me to steer the boat. Heck I did not know you move the rudder right to go left and left to go right. I think that is correct, but I was so confused. I did not do a good job, so I did not keep the wind in the sails like we are supposed to. I think somewhere in this chaos I received a rope burn on my middle finger. I was even wearing gloves! Another mistake and even further behind, but now we are in third place. Captain D is not happy!

You think this is fun! Just wait!

We head back to the buoy by the damn. This time we are ready for the spinnaker move. We executed it flawlessly. Got team! Soon we are back in second place. The really cool part is that we have to go the entire length of Lake Travis on this leg of the race. We got to relax a little bit and have a drink. I was not up for beer after Friday night. I slammed down a bottle of water. It was hot out on the lake, but we were to busy to really notice. Let me tell you working a sailboat is no picnic.

We seem to be making up some ground on the first place boat. I learned that we have to actually spot that team time, since we have a larger keel. I think the keel is the thingy under the boat. We are relaxing and enjoying the ride and it was a beautiful day. The third place boat was nowhere in site. We prepare to round the final buoy, so the spinnaker must come down. Captain D had given me some pointers. My role was to grab the spinnaker and get into the boat as quickly as possible. I stretched out and grabbed the proper rope and pulled handfuls of sail as fast as I possibly could. Then I grabbed the rope for the Genoa (smaller sail) and hoisted it up as quickly as possible. We did it flawlessly as we rounded the final buoy.

Then this look on my face appeared! “Holy shit!” Looking toward the finish line we see this wall of grey clouds. I mean a huge wall! Before we had time to breath the sky opened up, dumping buckets of giant rain drops. The wind increased at least by 3 times. The sailboat is almost on its side. I am clinging on for dear life. Captain D starts yelling “Get the Genoa down Get the Genoa down!” Instinctively I climb up onto the deck of the boat. The damn Genoa will not come down. If feels like we are about to flip over. First mate M and I are frantically trying to bring down that sail, but the wind was not cooperating. I grabbed onto the mast. I leaned out as far as I possibly could. I was able to grab onto the bottom of the Genoa. We tugged and pulled. Finally the sail came down and we stuffed it onto the front deck of the boat. Next thing we know Captain is yelling “Get the Genoa up! Get the Genoa up!” The storm had ended and by some miracle we are only a couple hundred yards behind the lead boat. We quickly jump into action and get the sail back up. We are now heading for the finish line. There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky and it was almost a complete rainbow. Wow that is also a miracle! And I am thinking to myself it is a miracle that my fat butt did not end up in the lake. It is a miracle that the boat did not capsize. One boat in the regatta apparently was not so lucky and it had been flipped over. The regatta sponsors had to pull someone out of the water. Everyone was OK!

The wind on the Lake was now tranquil and almost non-existent. We finished in second place about one minute behind the first place boat. Needless to say the Vitamin Sea would remain in first place over-all. There are six races total. I certainly hope to race again. The second half of the race was nearly flawless.

We ended up meeting my wife and kids at Johnny Carino’s, where I quickly slammed down 3 huge glasses of water and to huge root beers. Man I was thirsty!

What a great time! I can not help but think someone was watching over us. I got one message very loud and clear. “Wear a life jacket next time you idiot!” I probably will not listen to that voice, but it is probably sound advice. Give me that next list of honey do’s, because I am ready do experience it all over again! The other lesson I learned is that “Yes Honey, I am out of shape!” Let’s just say I was a little sore in the legs and arms on Monday.

Sunday we had some friends over for a light dinner and dessert. We had goat cheese and roasted red bell pepper sandwiches. We had a great visit!

Kids started school this week without a hitch. Our son started kindergarten and is really excited. He eagerly wakes up to get ready to go to school. Soccer season will soon be upon us, so we will have something going on every night of the week. For the first time in 9 years my wife and I do not have to work split shifts. It is really nice to have all four of us sit down to dinner every night. We still might have 3 different means, but that is a different story.

I have managed to play a little poker her and there, but nothing exciting. I do get tired of people complaining about the flaws of a given site or the way you played a hand. I guess that comes with the territory. I did manage to get a straight flush on my cell phone video poker.

Sail on!

2005-08-10T06:58:00.000-05:00

"Amazing"

Congratulations to my wonderful parents! Yes it is AMAZING in that they have been married for 46 wonderful years. Y'all are truly amazing!

It was also amazing last night when I went on a hot streak at CNR, winning 5 hands in a row. I tripled up, then it was a good thing it was bed time!!

Friday night was also pretty amazing. At one point I was playing 4 tables concurrently, two on CNR and 2 on Paradise. On paradise I was just having fun and remained even. On CNR I joined the midnight NL Holdem tournament, using half of my check points. On the .10/.20 NL holdem table I won a huge hand and I was up $20. The tournament started getting tense, but I was holding my own until this hand. I am on the button holding AA. The flop comes 22T. I bet 3000. I get called! The turn is a K. I bet another 3000. The river is an Ace. I put the caller all-in. Absolutely the correct thing to do right? Wrong! The other player had pocket dueces. He had flopped 4 of a kind and hung me out to dry. I still had a decent chip stack. Around two in the morning I had managed to gain the chip lead back and was in the money. I wanted to win really bad. I was heads up against another player from Texas. We duked it out, exchanging the chip lead back and forth. Finally I got a decent hand AJo. I bet a nominal amount. He raised. I went all-iin for $27K. He immediately called. I have AJo and he has A6o. I liked my chances. A six hits on the flop. I had to settle for second place and $31. The cool thing was I never had to re-buy.

The main lesson I learned here was that there was no way in hell I could play four tables and concentrate on the tournament. After I earned enough check points to get my $25 bonus on CNR. I had stopped the ring game to focus on the tournament. I made a couple of good lay downs and two great bluffs, but other than that I really got the cards. Net profit was $75 for the evening, which is not too shabby.

Saturday I did my honey do's, because I had been invited to be part of the crew on a sailboat, Vitamin Sea. I had permission to go, but it depended on the honey do list. I packed up some Guinness, water, and sun screen. I arrived right on time. There was no wind at all. I ad a feeling that once again I would not get to race. Last time I went there was no wind. I am beginning to see a pattern. I did jump into the lake and help clean the bottom of the boat. It can be a little eerie swimming under the bottom of the boat and popping up between the boat and the dock. We did have the captain and his lovely wife over for dinner after the race was cancelled. My wife cooked three recipes from he El Ferrol cook book we got on vacation, spicey potatoes, firey shrimp, and lemon-rosemary flan. Add a little bit of syrah and a temparnillo and it was a great time. The great news is that my better half gave me permission to try again this Saturday. I hope the weather is perfect and I will definitely be praying for at least a little wind.

Congratulations to April on her new puppy, Vegas. What a perfect name! When we got our puppy we named her Ash. It was great when our three year old would run around the house yelling "Nice Ass!" and "Bad Ass!"

I am really looking forward to playing in the Austin Blogger tournament on September 3. I have permission but I have not seen the honey do list. The honey do list can sometimes be "Amazing"!

Oh I forgot one quick rant! Texas House and Senate should proclaim Happy Anniversary to my great parents. Hell last Wednesday you spent your entire hour in session making proclamations about anniversaries and math school awards. Please serve the people of Texas and get off your asses and hammer out a school reform bill. Toss your special interests aside and focus on the quality of education for all children. Your procrastination is truly AMAZING!

Play on!

2005-08-05T06:25:00.000-05:00

"Battle of the Aces"

First of all I need to apologize to those persons using RSS. I obviously have to continue my education regarding these applications. As soon as I have a better understanding I will try to implement something. Thanks Adam for pointing this out. April's links should also be of some help. Added to my list of to do's!

I am so glad I was not involved in this hand last night, but I thought it might be worth some discussion. I do not have all the details, but I can create a quick summary. The game was .10/.20 NLH on Check N Raise poker. I was not getting great cards, so I folded as usual. Two players raised each other pre-flop for a couple of bucks. After the flop there was some healthy betting and raising. Same thing happened at the turn and the river. I believe there was close to $20 in the pot. Player #2 was actually put all-in. Both players turned over AA. The irony here is that the board had four spades. Doesn't that suck to hold the same powerful hand as your opponent yet lose. The winner was indeed remorseful. :)

I had a similar experience on one of the few hands I got involved with. I believe I had A4. The
flop brought me a shot at the wheel. The turn brought me my 5 for the wheel. I bet $2 and got called. On the river brings a fourth spade to the board. I did not have a spade, so I mucked.

I have been taking a beating lately, but I am only 40 check points away from a $25 bonus. That will certainly help. I have been chasing a bit to much lately, so I am reeling the game in a bit. Hopefully I can play in a tournament tonight, but players on CNR are getting scarce. I may make the plunge tonight and join Full Tilt.

I am looking forward to playing in the Austin Bloggers tournament on September 3, but I must seek permission from my goddess. :)

Scott - If you happen to read this little excerpt I have a question for you. Did you go to Deer Park HS? I graduated from J. Frank Dobie HS. Perhaps it truly is a small world!

Party on! Oh wait! I mean play on!

2005-08-03T15:16:00.000-05:00

"A Tall tale"

I just received these photos from my wife. I thought it would be a good time to try the new blogger utilities.

Check out the size of these sunflowers!!

Another view.

Did my wife stand on the shed to get this one?

All I know is the blogger tool works and that we will be planting these giant sunflowers again!

Enjoy!

2005-08-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

"Cracked"

Once again not overly inspired to post, but I did play a little poker last night at Paradise poker. Yep, I am still living off the $2 they gave me a long time ago. I do not have a huge bankroll, but enough to have some low limit fun. I have been playing a bunch of .02/.04 Stud lately and I also play .05/.10 Limit Holdem.

I am playing 7 stud and my very first hand I get a full house only to lose to a larger full house. Ouch!

I am in middle position on the limit holdem table and I am dealt pocket aces. I had just won a nice pot with two pair and ace kicker. Seems like the entire table is in and we make the betting. the flop comes 66x. Again maximum betting. Turn comes no help. Again maximum betting. Of course I believe someone has a 6, but I continue to fire away. There was not flush or straight draw. Four of us showed out cards. AA, QQ, and of course a raise with K6. One person folded on the turn who had TT. Three pocket pairs got "cracked". I just said nice hand and continued playing. There was some joking afterwards, but it was fun!

Now I think I will just toss out some randomness. My two brain cells are being pulled in multiple directions. That is correct in that I only have two brain cells left from all of the partying during my youth. Amazingly enough they usually fire at the same time resulting in a little bit of thought and creativity.

My brain is being pulled back into the world of development at work. Writing code certainly puts my two cells to the test. I have never had any formal training, so it really can be a struggle.

Outside of work my brain is on a totally different tangent. I have started taking RCIA classes. I am not sure this blog needs my thoughts on religion posted, so I am debating about creating a new blog. The spiritual side of me has not been greatly tested. Joining the Catholic church truly feels like the correct thing to do. It is a huge commitment and will take my two brain cells to the maximum. There may be some random spiritual posts on this blog, but I will try to keep it to a minimum. One thing I strongly believe is that I shalt not push my religious beliefs onto others. It is an individual journey!

Finally my brain is fried trying to determine how much poker to play and where to play it. I am tempted to join a new site, but I am not sure which one. Currently I am leaning toward FullTilt. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am looking for a good bonus that does not take a decade to earn. I am looking for a reasonable number of players and some low buy-in tournaments.

Perhaps I should just be smoking crack instead of getting my "aces" cracked! Definitely would make for an interesting religious experience. Hee Hee

I did have one more poker point to ponder. Lately on Check N Raise poker there have been numerous players going all-in early. This is a .05/.10 table and they go all-in for $20 only to win 40 cents. I know in certain situations you want to isolate the chasers, but man if you have a good hand at least attempt to make them earn you some dough!

Play on!

2005-07-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

"Five of a kind"

I have not been overly motivated to blog lately. Work has been taking a toll on me. Things are beginning to settle down, so I thought I would share this little story. Sorry but this story has nothing to do with poker.

This Saturday my entire family met at SeaWorld at San Antonio. My sister's family from Phoenix. My Mom, Dad, Brother and his family, and my other Sister and her family from Houston.

I know we had a great time, but hurding five families, containing 9 grandchildren around a crowded park is not an easy task. We decided to top of the event by seeing Shamu Rocks Texas. Our 8 year old insisted on sitting in the splash zone. Myself, our daughter, our son, and 4 cousins all took seats in the front row right in front of the glass. At least I had the foresight to hand my backpack to my sister. I wish I would have handed her my Texas Longhorn cowboy hat. Oh well!

The music began and Shamu comes zooming out and does a huge flip in the center of the pool. The full house rocks with excitement. Next I look through the glass to see "5 of a kind". They were black and white, but definitely not spades or clubs. Then I look above the pool to see another "five of a kind". Five large white tails. I started laughing my ass off, because I knew what was about to happen. I grabbed my Longhorn hat from my head and tucked it under my chest. What a waste of energy. Those five tails pushed so much freakin water over the glass barrier that they need to change the name from splashzone to Tidal Wave. Instantly soaked only to have two more walls of water come right at us.

The Tidal Wave subsided. I look at our daughter and she is bawling her eyes out and screaming at the top of her lungs "It hurts". "What hurts?" "My foot!" "Why does your foot hurt?" "My blister." I then look at our son. Now he is crying too. "We want out of here." I lead them up the stairs through the crowd. knowing that for us the show was over. Our daughter cried the entire time. All I could do was worry about my nieces and nephews whom we abandoned. I had to trust the fact that three of them were old enough to know what they needed to do to find us after the show. We left them laughing almost as hard as I was.

This put a little negative on otherwise what I thought was a fun day. Thanks to Grandma we saved $24 on the tickets. I did not appreciate the pile of puke in front of the ticket booth. The event definitely did not start off on the right foot. It also took us 1 hour to get out of Austin. TXDOT needs to only work nights.

Lessons learned are:

If you have children under 10 years of age and they want to go to the splash zone, just say no!

If you want to want to smell like a salty fish, then sit in the splash zone.

If you wear your favorite hat do not worry about protecting it. Note: Plan to air it out to get rid of the fish smell.

If you have a blister and salt water gets in. It burns! Wear socks! Or insist your children wear socks even if they do not want to.

You can not beat "5 of a kind"!

Play on!

2005-07-11T13:26:00.000-05:00

"Miscellaneous"

Due to work and life I have not had a chance to complete the Arizona trip report and my demise on Party Poker. I thought I would quickly post a couple of miscellaneous items.

Toast to Mr. Lonnie Zwiener - Mr. Zwiener is the father of one of my best friends from college. Mr. Zwiener passed on July 1, 2005. I will forever appreciate his humor and kindness. His legacy is a fabulous family of 4 boys and 13 grandchildren. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Zwiener family. I was fortunate enough to maintain their yard during the early 90's. Mr. Zwiener gave me an open invitation to enjoy a cold beer everytime I worked in their yard. The boys did a fantastic job honoring their father and I raise a beer in honor of Mr. Zwiener.

Microsoft software sucks - Our daughter has been beginning for this game called Zoo Tycoon 2. She scratched and clawed and saved her money. I agreed to cover the taxes. She spends $30 of her money, which is a ton for an 8 year old. She tries to install in on her computer. Sorry your driver does not have the correct speed to support this game. We tried to install in on her brothers computer (although I doubted it would work). Sorry but you do not have enough processing speed. We tried to install in on my office laptop, which is reasonably high end. Sorry but this package is not compatible with the Radeon 7500. I look up this game on the internet only to find that it is not compatible with about 100 video cards. What kind of crap is that? I decide to return the game at Target and exchange it for the older version which should work. Sorry sir, but you can only exchange it for the exact same item. What the f***? I basically let a couple of target managers no I was very angry. The sited copyright law. I agree that some persons would go home copy the game and try to return it. Would I be this pissed if I had done that? My apologies to the Target managers they should not receive the brundt of my frustration. Microsoft deserves the slam! Upon contacting Microsoft they apparently have a 100% satisfaction garuntee policy. I have not heard back from them since leaving them a message on Friday. If they refund our money I will apologize and move on, but until I get a refund Microsoft Sucks!

Play on!

2005-07-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

Arizona trip report and Casino Adventure

Warning if you are looking for poker content please scroll down and read the sections labeled in blue. This is definitely an Uber post for me, but unfortunately not Guinness fueled.

June 18 - drove to El Paso. We made it to Ft. Stockton before we stopped for sandwiches. We did make a quick pit stop in Stonewall TX to pick up some fresh peaches. We made it to El Paso in about 9 hours. Otherwise uneventful.

June 19 – We had a great brunch, consisting of Machaca and chiliceles. Drove to Scottsdale and after Tucson I believe our son pointed out every cactus along the way. He does now know the difference between cactus and cacti. Stopped at a gas station outside of Tucson, where some goofball almost ran over my wife and kids. The gas pump took 20 minutes to pump 10 gallons. I stopped pumping because it was so damn slow. We made it to our resort, which is nicer that we imagined. They had a beautiful 4500 sq foot pool area with a huge waterfall and hot tub. Kids and I went for a late night swim. Let’s just say the water was a little cold.

Funny moment – We were trying to get our five year old to read a book on the trip. We kept saying “I do not know how”. Of course we know he does. We keep pushing him to read a book. Finally he says I do not know how to read “Giggle Giggle Quack”. “Oh we thought you did not know how to read.”

June 20 – We decided to go to a Desert Botanical Garden, Papalago. We saw cacti from all over the world. We saw lizards, quail, hummingbirds, and ground squirrels. We stopped for some prickly pear iced tea, which was very refreshing. Afterwards we went to the old section of Downtown Scottsdale. We did some window shopping and had lunch at a place called Rusty Spur Saloon. There was a singer named Jimmy who had a great voice and was very entertaining. His mother was there and had to prevent him from singing certain songs with our kids there. We had a buffalo chicken sandwich that was really good. Grilled chicken breast smothered in Buffalo wing sauce. We wrote our names on a dollar bill and placed it on the wall in a predominate place. At the end of each year they take down all of the dollars, have a poker run and donate the money to charity. We finished the day at the pool. At least some of us did. I went on to play poker at Casino Arizona. I am now off to the TPC Desert course, so the poker write up will have to wait. Let’s just say I left the casino a lot lighter than when I entered it. Stay tuned.

It is now Wednesday June 29th and I am sitting at my in-laws in El Paso Texas. I have a bunch of things to report, but I need to first continue my first trip to Casino Arizona.

June 20 (cont…) After we had lunch at the Rusty Spur we got in the van. Let’s just say the van did not cool down in that 113 degree weather. The misses was not too happy. I tried to explain to her that it has always acted that way in this type of weather, but she was having nothing to do with it. We got back to the condo and I took off to see if I could find someone to look at it. The only place I found was finished for the day. The recommended I get Jiffy lube to put in Freon. Well I did not trust them because they had no means of diagnosing if a problem existed and I was not about to pay $100 to end up with 0 Freon.

*** Poker Content (Part 1) ***

The kids finally fell asleep around 10:30 PM. I kissed the wife and off to Casino Arizona. I really did not have a clue as to what to expect, but I had $200 of mad money burning a hole in my wallet. Casino Arizona is split into two locations, but I went to the Talking Stick location, which I knew had the poker room. I walked in and I was overwhelmed. I liked the fact that this was a smoke free poker room; however, my table was right at the edge where smoking was permitted. Despite the occasionally smoke it really was not bad. I had never played holdem in a casino before. Another cool aspect was that you did not hear the constant clanging of one-armed bandits. I wasted no time and signed up for the $3/$6 tables and I was quickly assigned to table 3. I bought in for $50. I got crap cards the entire time, but this is where I learned about the “Kill” pot. Twice I got involved in a kill pot only to get nothing on the flop. Let's just state for the record that “KILL pots can be expensive”. I won a few hands here and there, but for the most part money was flying out of my hands. There was one kill pot where I flopped a pair of kings. I believe I was holding KQo. The flop came JKA. I bet the $6 only to get raised. I folded. It turns out that the raiser was holding QTo for the flopped nut straight. I made a comment to the table that I folded 2 pair. They made comments like “nice lay down”. Truth is I did not have shit, but I wanted the table to think I dropped a big hand! (Hee Hee)

There were two other hands worth mentioning. There is a bad beat jackpot and from 10:00 PM to Midnight the Jackpot for holdem was around $56K. I was in the BB with 56s (spades). The flop brought me an open-ended straight flush draw. I just had to see it to the river. It was expensive and of course it did not hit. Had it hit I would have won 25% of the jackpot, because the winning hand was quad 7s. Damn! About 30 minutes later the table got excited again. The board showed three aces. To win the Jackpot Aces full of tens needs to be beat. Unfortunately the jackpot was not to be ours. I did meet a couple of Longhorn fans. Most of the players at the table were solid. There were two players that were bigger fish than me. The decent pots I won were off of them. Before I called it quits at 2:00 AM, I had burned $120 of my bankroll. I was not happy and I believe I had some tells. Oh yeah! Once I played the hammer from the BB. The flop came 7KJ. I caught a piece of it, but just could not play it. I did chase a few times, but felt I had to since I was not getting any cards. I did have trip aces once only to have the board show four clubs. You guessed it that I did not hold a club. Sigh! Oh yeah! I did not win a hand until I had bought a beer. I much prefer the free drinks in Las Vegas, than paying $5 per beer and they did NOT serve Guinness.

*** End of Poker content Part 1***

June 21 – I got up at the crack of dawn and headed out to find a place called Fletchers, which was recommended by my brother-in-law. I got there about 7:25 AM. They stated it would take about 45 minutes to take a look at the AC. I asked if there was a place to have breakfast. They stated that there was an IHOP a little ways down the street. I started to walk. I did not see an IHOP and I quickly made a decision that it was to hot and the return trip was going to be even hotter. I stopped at a gas station and got a Code red and a bag of pretzels. Breakfast of champions! It turned out that our AC had about 12 ounces to much Freon and could not cool in these temperatures. They tested for leaks and set the amount to the correct levels. Now even a penguin would like out van! My hat is definitely off to Fletcher’s service. They treated all of their customers with respect and appeared to be efficient. Once again our van caused us money on vacation, but $144 was much better than $1000 plus.

I made it back to the condo by 8:45 AM, so we decided to continue with our original plan. We packed up the cooler and set out on a drive via the Apache trail. I will spare most of the details, but it was a beautiful drive. One key fact we were not quite in tune with was that 28 miles of this journey would be on dirt road. At times it was like riding a bull. We had to creep along at 10 mph. The strangest part was that a thunderhead appeared out of nowhere. I saw a bolt of lightening hit a ridge. I turn to my wife “did you see that bolt of lightening?” She replies “No, but I see smoke!” We witnessed the start of one of the fires that was to burn over 60,000 acres of desert. It started to rain and we got behind two bikers. They did not look like happy campers. They finally waved us around them. Finally we arrived at the Roosevelt damn. Next we went to Tonto National Forest. We informed the ranger about the fire, but they of course were already aware. She recommended that we not go up to the Indian ruins, because of lightening, the heat, and numerous swarms of bees. Besides we were too hungry anyway and the kids do an hour long hike. Yeah right! As usual we concluded the day at the pool.

June 22 – This was a fun day for me in that my son (5 years old) and I planned to play golf. The TPC was a couple of blocks from our condo, so we opted for that one. The stadium course was expensive from my point of view ($75), so we opted to play the Desert Course. Unfortunately the Desert Course greens had just been plugged and sanded. I expected to get a discount, but there was none offered. I did not press the issue because we were dropped off, so really had no choice ($50). As expected the course was fairly empty. Our son got to hit a ton of golf shots. It was a challenge to him to try and drive the ball over the desert. He was successful a few times, but did result in 3 lost balls. On the back nine I decided to let him play an entire par three from tee to green. It was an amazing in that he actually got on the green in four and three putted for a seven. I think that is pretty good for a 5 year old. The remainder of the day was spent relaxing at the pool.

June 23 – Finally we get a chance to spend the day with my sister and her family. We decided to go to the Phoenix zoo. My sister had some free passes! Thanks Sis! The kids were great and we had a good time, but it was hot! The one cool think was that we were standing there watching the giant Galapagos turtle. I opted to move to get in some shade. Well right where I was standing came slithering this 6 foot gopher snake. The snake would have probably totally freaked me out if I had not moved. The turtle keeper apparently had experience with snakes and picked it up. The kids were thrilled. She released it on the other side of the turtle cage in the shade. Nature meets the zoo! We spent the remainder of the day at my sister’s doing the slippery slide thing, an apartment pool, and grilling some delicious steaks. After getting slightly lost Peoria we made it back to the condo around 10:30 PM.

June 24 - Today my sister and family, including Uncle D, who had been out of town on business, were coming to the condo to enjoy the pool. I took the kids for a morning swim, and then in order to kill time we decided to find a place to eat a good lunch. We headed toward downtown Scottsdale with a couple of places in mind. Unfortunately the one place was only open for dinner. We settled on a place called Grimaldi’s. It turned out to be an excellent choice. We had an oven-fired pizza topped with sun dried tomatoes and ricotta cheese. Ok half had those ingredients and the other have of course was pepperoni for the kids. We enjoyed ½ carafe of Chianti. Around 4:30 PM our guests arrived. Uncle D and I had a few drinks. We thoroughly enjoyed the pool. The kids were all great. We grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs. The visit was short but an absolute pleasure. Hopefully Uncle D and I can do some business together. I plan to conduct some free quality assurance on his web site when I return to Austin.

*** Poker Content (part 2) ***

My last trip to the casino only left $70 burning a hole in my pocket. It was all money won on the internet, so I figured so what if I lose this found money. For the record my wife will never understand! Everyone was tucked in around 10:00 PM. I decided to check out the other casino, Ft. McDowell. I mean this is a casino adventure. It was a longer drive, but I was there in about 30 minutes. The place was pretty full. The differences were numerous slot machines all ching chinging and clank clanking. The poker room was very small and way in the back. I sat down at the $3/6 table and bought in with my $70. The first dealer I had seemed to be sick. I lost one decent sized pot when my opened straight did not fill. The next dealer sat down and complained about his back, stating that we had to make sure we pushed the cards and chips far enough for him to reach without hurting his back. “My chiropractor is not available until Monday.” I did not have much sympathy. A couple of hands later I thought I was the big blind so I put out the $3. Of course I continued to get crap cards, so after a raise I mucked the cards. The very next hand I was told that I was the big blind. I stated I had just been the big blind. Dealer’s response “To bad you made a mistake, you are now the big blind.” I did not need a dealer being rude to me. I played three more hands then grabbed my chips and headed for the door. The sad part was I had donated $30 in that lame casino. First impressions are everything, so I will not be returning to the Ft. McDowell casino.

I headed back to Casino Arizona where at least I was treated with respect. Now with only $40 left of my bankroll I needed to play smart. Well not if you get great cards. I sat down and found ATo. The flop comes with TTA, giving me a boat. I bet it hard all the way and had two callers until the turn and one caller at the river. A couple of paint cards came on the turn and the river, so I was worried about the guy having an over pair and a larger boat. I took down a nice sized pot. I tipped the dealer and stacked my chips. There was a lady at the table that was a bit crazy to play with. She was 32 years old and told us how she was divorcing her husband of three years who could never give her an orgasm. She now had a man that that could and was able to please her 8 hours at a time. I had a few comments, but held my tongue. There for awhile she would bet to the river blind. The funny part was for about 30 minutes she won every hand. I took one large pot from her with her silly antics, but I did lose to her set of tens, when I had top two pair. She did not appear to be drunk, but she was a little obnoxious, especially when she started to tell the orgasm story a second time and that she pays her soon to be x-husband $2000/month in alimony. As expected her crazy play caused her to lose her stack. I certainly did not mind. I ended up calling it a day at 2:00 AM with $80 in my pocket.

*** End of poker content Part 2***

June 25 – Today was the day for laundry and R&R. We went to the pool a couple of times. The evening trip to the pool we had margaritas and smoothies pool side. Not to much exciting happened until I told my wife I was going back to the casino. I just had to go for it.

*** Poker Content Part 3 ***

I was determined to play smart and win some of my money back. The place was packed since it was a Saturday night. I put my name on a long list for the $3/6 tables. I got placed at table 44, which was quite different from the other areas of the poker room I had played in. There was one player with a large stack of chips, but he did not stay long. As usual I did not get any cards. Mucking the cards gets pretty old. The lady to my right had just won a nice pot with pocket queens. I make a comment loud enough for most of the players to hear. “So what is it like to get a face card?” She laughs and says, “They are nice if you win!” The very next hand I drag the pot with A7, where my 7 was the high kicker. Imagine that! The very next hand I look down to see big slick suited. I raise it up although this is a dangerous hand for me. I lose more often than I win. I kept raising. The lady to my right goes “I guess you finally got some face cards” and mucks her hand. The flop and turn bring me nothing, but I keep pressing the bets. Whew everyone folded to my aggression. I think my comment about face cards set things up to play aggressive. I had turned my $80 into $110. I contemplated getting up and leaving, but wait I came here with found money. I have only been playing 45 minutes. Press on!

It was about 1:00 AM. One side note that I thought was interesting. One of the dealers noticed that some cards were marked. It was interesting in that they had just brought a new set up as I arrived to the table. The cards were indeed marked with a small faint white line. My theory was that the card shuffler was causing it. FYI – every poker room needs card shufflers. He called for a new set up when he noticed on the other deck that one of the aces had a thumb nail mark in it. Hell I could barely see it, so I am not sure how a cheater could see it. The dealer also talked about how the “eye in the sky” now detects chemicals professional cheats used on cards. Apparently they would put a powder on the cards that could be viewed with special glasses. This brings a whole new meaning to the reason everyone wears sun glasses at the tables.

OK back to my final three hands. I limp in with pocket 5’s. Inside I am praying for a 5 to hit the board. I think I only had a set once in three days and I was ready to win bug. The flop comes 5sQhKs. I raise. I get re-raised. I raise again. There are two other players. The turn does not help, but I keep firing. Everyone calls! The river brings another spade and I did not improve. The guy to my left hit the river flush and the lady at the other end of the table had hit a set of queens on the flop. I was dead meat without getting another five. At this point half of my stack is gone. A few hands later I am put all-in with A4s. It was my turn to hit the flush on the river and I drag the pot. I think I am now at $16. Should I leave? How do I explain the loss of $80 to my wife? Man this is found money and I came to gamble. The next hand was perfect. It was a family pot. Everyone called the BB, so the pot was already large. I was holding ATo. The flop comes ATX. I get all of my money in and the pot is close to $60. The turn brings another spade. I am chanting no flush, no flush. Of course the guy next to me stayed in with 56 of spades. I was sure the AT was going to bring me back to life. I am broke! I wish everyone good luck and head back to the condo pondering the words I will say to my wife.

I think in all I played very solid poker. I have mentioned this before, but I need to work on my strategy when cards run dry. I did chase the nut flush a couple of times only to come up empty handed. After the first day jitters I think I erased most of my tells. I am definitely going to work on my reverse tells and my table banter. I also feel it is time for me to buy a poker book in an effort to raise my game to the next level. I blew $200 in 11 hours at the $3/6 holdem tables. I do not think that was too bad. Fortunately for me the second two sessions did not bring many kill pots. Thanks to Casino Arizona for being a gracious host and I hope you spend the rake wisely! I definitely can not wait until I find a way to Vegas. I like to drink a little when I play, so free drinks would add to my banter. Texas legislature needs to hear this loud and clear. Bring poker to Texas NOW!

*** End of all poker content ***

I am going to post this for now. I will finish the Arizona trip report in another segment and I will write a report of my demise on Party Poker.

Play on!

2005-06-16T07:13:00.000-05:00

"To Slow Play or not to ..."

To slow play or not to slow play, that is the question? "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" Shakespeare I am definitely not, but when it comes to slow play I now have a very strong opinion - "NEVER freaking Slow Play!"

The great poker gods bestowed me yesterday afternoon with a Party Poker cap and $100 in my account for which to gamble. I quit playing Party Poker for I disagree with Iggy in that for me it is the home of suck outs and predictable endings. Who can laugh a gift horse in the eyes, so I set out to win some money.

I was in the big blind and limped in holding A2o (Limit Holdem $.5/1). The flop brings 228. I check! Everyone checks around! Turn brings a flush draw! I bet! The world calls my bet! The river is the destined diamond! I bet! I get raised! I reluctantly call knowing that I will see the diamond flush. Perhaps this calling station would have stayed to the river no matter what move I make, but from now on I am making the move.

Very next hand in the small blind I have Q8o. I limp in for another quarter. The flop brings me a queen. I bet out! Numerous callers! Turn brings an 8! I bet again! Two callers! River brings a flush possibility. I lose! I am down $12!

In the course of two hours I tried my luck at Omaha H/L. My set of aces do not fill and I lose a huge pot to a straight. I am down another $12.

I decide to play Seven stud H/L. I fill a Jack high straight on the turn. I lose to a flush! I am down another $15. "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow." Perhaps I should stop playing poker and indulge in the words of Shakespeare.

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes." I put the kids to bed and continue playing Limit Holdem. Was winning for awhile, but then I started hoping and praying for the nut flushes on the river. Oh well the bottom line is that I lost half of my found money and played 170 hands. The promotion requires me to play 500 hands. Will I lose the bankrolll before I get there or shall my fortunes turn.

"I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell."

New bumper sticker in development - "Don't Slow Play"

Play on

2005-06-14T07:14:00.000-05:00

“Tournament Results”

First of all I would like to give a huge thanks to the Degenerate Gambler, Mr. B, for hosting a very well run tournament.

Somehow my wife gave me permission to go play in a poker tournament this Saturday night. A couple of things attracted me to the tournament.

I had been reading Mr. B’s blog and he is a Longhorn fan (bonus)!
I want to test my poker skills against total strangers (i.e. – How bad are my tells?)
I wanted to meet other Austin poker players and bloggers

I anticipated my pit stop to HEB and drive time to be around 35 minutes. Of course purchasing my Guinness took longer than expected. Then I hit every freakin traffic light along the way. The only saving grace to the drive was a lengthy rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s, FreeBird, which I blasted in the minivan (poor speakers). I knew I was in for a good night. I left the house at 7:00 PM and arrived at Mr. B’s house at 7:45 PM. Oh yeah! I got quarter of the way to HEB and remembered that the tournament required cash and a chair, so I sped home to get a chair. Note to self – next time leave the fold up lawn chair at home and take a card table chair.

Of course when I arrived I did not know a soul. I had assistance and quickly located Mr. B. We made our introductions in the kitchen and he gladly accepted my $20 entry fee. The amount of the entry fee was also a huge plus. I get invited to numerous tournaments that are a $50 plus buy-in, which eats up almost my entire monthly allowance, especially adding in beer and munchies. A $20 buy-in I believe is perfect in that it does not create tension and permits for a fun poker environment. I was also introduced to DeadMoney, Inc. I think it is really cool to meet other local bloggers. It was a pleasure meeting Mr. S and congratulations on your new home! Next year I believe we will be cheering for Mr. S at the WSOP!

OK there were 28 players, so 4 tables were created! How I do not know, but Mr. B managed to create 4 tables. I think there was a table in every room! Man I am glad the bathrooms were not big enough for tables. Hee – Hee! The one thing that was strange was that it seemed like very few people were drinking. I was definitely going to have a Guinness fueled experience. Perhaps everyone takes their poker very serious and drinking was not an option. I did greatly appreciate the fact that apparently smoking was not permitted within the house.

The first table for me had 7 players, consisting of Mr. C, Mr. T, myself, Mr. R, Mrs. J, Mr. J, and Mr. R. As the cards were dealt I did not have a clue with respect to anyone’s style or skill level. Mrs. J confused me in that early she appeared to be a calling station, then she became a rock. Mr. J would routinely raise if he was going to be involved in a pot. Mr. R seemed to like Queens. Things were status quo with me losing some and winning some. I did let some decent hands go to good raises. Since “the hammer” seems to be the rage, I started a conversation about how I would not play the hammer unless perhaps I limp in on the big blind. Luck would have it that Mr. J during the conversation makes a huge raise and wins with “the hammer”. For my sole reader, Dad, the hammer is 72. While at this table I did miss play one hand really really bad. I was in a late position and I look at my cards to see two beautiful cowboys. I had cowboys earlier and I am pretty sure they were cracked when an ace it the board on the flop. I actually mucked the cowboys after the ace hit the board. Well this time I call a couple of decent raises. There was a couple hundred in the pot. The flop comes 44K, giving me the nut boat. Mr. T, on my right, makes a raise of $60. My bonehead move was to go all-in. Of course everyone folded, even though Mr. T debated for a moment. Hind site I that I should have called. Perhaps Mr. T had pocket aces and I would have been burned on the river.

Our table was sacrificed and I was moved to another table. I believe we are down to 16 players from 28. I do not recall any major hands at the second table. I believe I just played like a dead rock through this session and watched folks get eliminated. On the other table there was a huge controversy. There was a guy at the table who had just knocked out two players on a hand. After the hand he declared that he had to leave. Let’s just say this pissed a couple of people off. His chips were removed from the game and play continued amongst grumbling. One player thought he should be dealt back in with the stack he had prior to this move. Although leaving was totally screwed up, I did not think players should be allowed back in the game.

Shortly there after we were down to the final table. I drew the button and I believe at the time I was the short stack or at least competing for it. I only recall a couple of hands and some generalities. First I will mention the generalities. I did not get any cards worth a flip most of the time. Getting 92, T4, and 23 is not very fun at all. When I did get decent cards AQs, AJo, and JTs, there was always an all-in move or huge raise. I ended up donating the Big Blind and small blind numerous times. I did try to defend once with a marginal hand only to get re-raised a large sum.

Here is the hand that put me back in to the game. I will say that I was a lucky SOB. Getting no cards and my stack dwindling to less than $2K, I look down to see A9s. Of course it was the ace of spades and I went all-in. Mr. T who was at my original table had built up a healthy stack immediately called my all-in. Crap! I turn over my marginal hand and he turns over pocket kings. Yes on the river I catch my miracle ace and double up. Fortunately for me the person who I pegged as the best player, Mr. S, did not catch any cards. He was eliminated in a race. I decided to be extremely patient. Soon we were down to 5 persons, which put me in the money. I had promised my son a Super Soaker if I had won, which meant that I would have to give our daughter an equal amount. I did not want to finish fifth. I did catch some decent cards and held my own, but I was still having to donate my BB way to much too all-in moves. I think this led to a slight advantage for me in that I was able to win 4 or 5 hands by going all-in with nothing. Once I won a decent pot with T2o.

Mr. R was a solid player. He is the one that I believe liked to play Qx. If he was in the pot with a queen on the board, I felt like he had a pair of queens. I could never take advantage of this, but I think my instinct was correct. He got knocked out 4th by his brother (I think they were brothers). I am in the final three and short stacked compared to the other two. It is 1:30 AM and I had already had to call and wake up my wife. Last time I got home really late she was not happy. I had told her I would be home between midnight and 1:00 AM. Next time I think I will just say 3:00 AM (wink wink). Any rate I had Q9s (spades of course). I like spades! Mr. D had made a decent raise, so I went all-in. Little did I know that all three players would be in the pot, so I had a shot at getting back in it. The flop brought me two spades. I yelled give me a black card. On the turn it was a club. Mr. B, who was dealing, said you got what you asked for you should have been more specific. I yelled give me a black spade. The river was a club. I finished in 3rd place.

It was really cool in that there were two dealers at the final table. I greatly appreciated there efforts. I am not sure who the second dealer was, but I loved his dealer button. It was a small black rat!

Again I would like to that Mr. B for hosting this event. Hopefully I can return and give back some of my winnings. The kids already got a third of it! I did promise! Now my wife wants a piece of the winnings. I think not! She already gets my paycheck. Just kidding honey! Good thing she does not read this blog! I had a great time and met some great people. I apologize to those whom I forgot your names.

The Longhorns gave me a heart attack last night, but they are on to Omaha! Go horns!

Hopefully I will get another blog posted before our vacation. I am really excited to be heading to Scottsdale, where I do play to play live holdem for the first time. I am hoping to play in a tournament, but they have them at odd times that may not fit the family schedule. I do know they are open 24/7, so I can tuck everyone in and head out to the casino. Casino Arizona here I come! I signed up online to be a preferred member, but my tiny back roll will probably not bring me much preference. Hee Hee!

Here is one last note about an online hand. I sat down at a $.05/.10 NL table. There was this dude bragging about how he was up $20. He was playing crazy. I got dealt pocket aces. I raise. He raises back! I go all-in. There also was a third caller, which meant a very nice pot. The flop comes QQx. The bragging fool called my all-in with a Q4o. Lets just say I was not happy getting my aces cracked by that guy! Oh well! I will get him next time!

FYI – My kids tell everyone how much online poker I play. Truth is I have cut down tremendously, but to my point. Since they got a piece of the action, they want me to practice 24/7. (Smile!)

Play on!

2005-06-08T21:37:00.000-05:00

“Political Platform”

Besides the legalization of poker in Texas, I have just come up with my second item for my legislative platform. I am totally opposed to computer viruses and spyware. I pledge to prosecute any MF’er who writes and deploys a virus. I pledge to make spyware illegal.

Yes my stupidity has caused me so much grief. Yes I opened and e-mail that was from support@.com. Yes it contained a nasty virus. The virus itself was easy to eradicate; however, there is now a spyware executable on my work computer that I am having one heck of a time removing. I had to delete over 100 records from my registry today. That sure was risky, but the only other alternative is to pave the machine and reinstall. What did I have to lose? I am down to just two issues. Mediatickets.com are MF’ers I would prosecute in a heart beat. The other one is the Delfin project. These are extremely difficult spyware to remove. Eventually I will beat these MF’ers.

One other lesson I learned during this frustration is that many sites attempt to put third party cookies in your browser. I changed my browser settings so that I am prompted for all third party cookies. Unfortunately primary site cookies are a necessary evil.

Microsoft Antispyware got me half the way and Spyware Doctor was the most useful tool. Of course I was too cheap to purchase Spyware Doctor and had to delete everything manually. I might just purchase this tool, because it was pretty thorough. Perhaps they can remove the installer.exe that keeps trying to execute mediatickets.com or get rid of the Delfin project. The best news is that my computer is virus free and I am able to get some valuable work done.

I really do not have much poker to report on. I do want to say “Go Horns”. The men play on Saturday. I cheered my tail off for the Lady Horns. I am watching the women’s World Series as I type. The softball tournament has been pretty exciting.

I am thinking about asking my better half if I can play in a poker tournament on Saturday. It is hosted by a local blogger and I would not know anyone. The buy-in is reasonable and no rebuys. Really sounds like my kind of tournament and fun. I am going to send him an e-mail and get more detail.

All you MF’ers out there who develop viruses and nasty spyware BEWARE! With my legislative amendments we will hunt you down like the moles that you are.

Hopefully some poker this weekend!

Play on!

2005-05-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

"UNCLE"

I was playing in a tournament last night when this question occurred to me. What do you do when you are getting no cards?

I was at the final table but getting no cards to speak off and the blinds increasing. I would try to limp in with KQ0 and occasionally suited connectors, but nothing ever hit on the flop. I was the short stack at the table on the button. I got K3s, so I went all-in. Of course two of the larger stacks called me. I was dead after the flop. I felt it was worth the risk to gamble.

Normally I am extremely patient and wait for good cards, but sometimes that is a slow death.

I would be curious to hear thoughts on how players win when cards dry up. Is there a winning strategy or do you wait for another day? In the situation above I think I could have gone all-in with anything and just take a chance. Reminds me of a tee shirt - "But they were suited."

I would presume this is more difficult on line without tells. So online I take the WTF approach especially if it is getting late. In a live tournament I try to pick up on tells; however, my ability to pick up on tells is dependent on many factors. One factor might be how much Guinness consumed or tequila. There have been tournaments where I predicted everyone's hand accurately but still did not get any cards to save the day.

I would like to improve my game by understanding how to play well with crappy cards. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have also jumped back into the freeroll circuit. I am using freerolls as a place to try new strategies.

If anyone stumbles on this blog please offer your input on "How to play with crappy cards?" Sounds like a good title for a book!

Play on!

2005-05-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

“Lady Luck”

First I need to do a quick recap of my experience in the Check N Raise $10,000 qualifier. In summary I went out quick. I played three hands.

Hand 1: I hit the nut flush on the river and moved my stack from 2500 to 3700.

Hand 2: I have pocket aces either UTG or second position. The blinds were at 200/400. I raised 400. I got a couple of callers. Flop came with Q5T. I bet 800. There is only one caller. The turn brings an 8. I am now curious as to what my opponent has so I check. My opponent also checks. I am puzzled. The river brings a 9. I am now thinking he was on the straight draw and he just filled it. I check again. He bets out 400. I call. He had two pair Q5 on the flop.

Hand 3: I hold pocket jacks. Flop comes AKJ, giving me a set. I bet half my stack. My opponent raises me so that I have to go all-in. I am thinking he hit the nut straight. No help comes my way and sure enough he was holding QTo.

The only thing I can think of that I could have done differently was to go all-in with the pocket aces and taken the blinds. It was too early in the tournament and relatively small blinds. I was hoping for a bigger payout. Oh well!

I would like to present two song lyrics that a relative to poker.

Tesla’s “Lady Luck”

“Hard as it seems, but not as hard to believe.What can it be?I guess I'm on a losin' streak.”

I have not been on a huge losing streak, but I heard this song yesterday and found it applicable to poker and many of the blogs I read.

This next song lyric has to do with the No Limit ring games I have been playing lately. Several times I have just said WTF and taken “Shots in the Dark” at dragging large pots with less than powerful hands. I have won a few and lost a few, but sometimes it is fun to just go for it.

Ozzy’s “Shot in the dark”

A SHOT IN THE DARK NOT A THING THAT YOU CAN DOA SHOT IN THE DARK ALWAYS CREEPING UP ON YOUBUT JUST LIKE THE WOUNDED AND WHEN IT'S TOO LATETHEY'LL REMEMBER THEY'LL SURRENDER

There was one hand two nights ago where I decided not to take a shot in the dark. However, it was not really a shot in the dark. I had pocket kings. The flop formed an open ended straight with 2 diamonds. A king hit the turn, so I was poised to take this one down. I bet $2 and got two callers. The river brought a third diamond. I checked and one caller raised $6. I wanted to call so bad, but had to assume he had the straight or the flush. I was ahead for the night, so I did not want to blow my winnings on a high risk call. The dude showed his cards and all he had was an ace high. I was the one who surrendered.

Here is a giant “I told you so!” I have been saying since this blog began that Texas needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Let me throw out some quotes from an article in the Houston Chronicle, “Upping the Ante”.

“L’Auberge du Lac Hotel and Casino in Lake Charles, La., is set top open later this month and has a marketing blitz under way that’s focus largely on Houston. I have already seen two full page ads in the Austin American Statesman for this new casino.

“Operators of the $365 million casino complex are advertising heavily to attract Houstonians and other Texas…” Does anyone see a pattern here?

“It views Houston and Lake Charles as similar to New York City and Atlantic City.”

“We have design this market for Houston.”

“…renewed debate over the hundreds of millions of entertainment dollars Texans spend out of state…”

Louisiana casinos already take in $164 million per month.”

“Fifty-three percent of the customers are from out of state, mostly Texas.”

Gee! Shall I go on? One more –

“Gambling is a significant revenue source for the state of Louisiana, which taxes the industry.”

Now I just need a bankroll big enough to qualify as a Texas worthy of a private sea plan to escort me to the L’Auberge du Lac Hotel. I would be happy to wear boots, jeans, and a cowboy hat.

Texas is missing out on a huge revenue stream. Not only are we missing a revenue stream from gambling but the elegance of fine hotels along the Gulf Coast. I do not support gambling bills that only permit one arm bandits, but I will support the legalization of GAMBLING in Texas. Adding our own casinos would put us closer to Succeeding from the Union. Just kidding! ;o)

Here are two quick suggestions for the Texas Congress.

First you should work hard to legalize gambling, because the revenue would solve many of your squabbles.

The second is quit wasting legislative time honoring athletes, honoring the dead, and deliberating over frivolous special interest bills and move on the tougher decisions that truly impact your citizens. All of these concerns can certainly be addressed and communicated outside of the legislative session.

Imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics: 29 have been accused of spousal abuse; 7 have been arrested for fraud; 19 have been accused of writing bad checks; 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses; 3 have done time for assault; 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit; 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges; 8 have been arrested for shoplifting; 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits; 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year. Can you guess which organization this is? Give up yet? It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

This is definitely an uber blog for me. I will attempt to write more often. I am excited in that I already received my check from Check N Raise poker. I am ready to check out the casino’s in Arizona. That is correct Texans! There are even casinos in the Arizona desert. One interesting tidbit about the check I received. There is no affiliation what so ever with the online site. It is a check drafted from a bank. Imagine that!

Play on!

2005-05-11T06:20:00.000-05:00

"Bubble boy again!"

I feel like a rant on Texas politics, but I will hold off on that. Here are a couple of poker nuggets.

Friday night I played in the 12:30 AM free roll on Check N Raise poker. There were 181 players. I believe I played solid poker the entire time. There were 11 players left and I had a middle stack, which probably had me in 7th or 8th place. I was dealt 62o in the big blind. Everyone limped in, so of course I checked. Typically this hand would be in the muck faster than you can say "muck". The flop comes 227. Alright! I bet about a fourth of my stack. I get a caller. Damn! There were two diamonds on the board. Turn is a J. I again bet a fourth of my stack. I get called! What does this guy have? I put him on the flush draw, so I again I bet a fourth of my stack. He calls! The river is a King of diamonds. Crap! If I am correct he caught is flush. I decide to check. Sure enough he puts me all-in. If I fold I might limp into tenth place which was worth $1. Wahoooooo! I called! He did have the flush and once again I am out on the bubble. Was finishing on the bubble hard to take? Sure, but it was 3:00 AM and a 10:15 AM soccer game on Saturday. I believe I played this hand correctly until calling on the river. My intuition was correct and I had him beat until the river. I should have folded, but live and learn.

One of the perks to being an early member of Check N Raise poker was the lure of a $10,000 tournament. That was supposedly August or September of last year. Well they are finally getting around to hosting it this weekend. The really sad part was the scheduled me for the Sunday afternoon qualifier. Top 50 advance to a shot at the grand prize. Of course I have a fully booked Sunday afternoon with the school carnival and now two soccer games. I put in a request to have them switch me to the Saturday night round. I am so glad they obliged! I am confident that if I play my normal game that I can finish in the top 50, but the final event is also Sunday afternoon. First things first! I hope to get permission from my better half to play Saturday night. I am simply planning on drinking some wine or whiskey or beer and have some fun.

I did withdrawal a major chunck of my bank roll at CNR. I am planning on parlaying this money into big winnings at the Casino's in Scottsdale Arizona in late June. Hopefully I will get my check before then. (hee Hee)

Play on!

2005-05-03T06:19:00.000-05:00

“Twilight Zone”

I arrived in Cincinnati. I finally found my way to a taxi. It was really strange in that I had to get off the plane, get on a bus, and walk on 4 moving sidewalks prior to finding a taxi. The taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell! I observed him going 92 mph at one point on the freeway. Needless to say he got me to my hotel in a timely fashion. I checked in and then headed for the training class. Fortunately I was not too late. On my first break I decided to view the city from the 23rd floor. As I glanced around I noticed one of the large buildings had a huge URS sign. That is the company that bought Radian. It was a little bit like being in the twilight zone. Other things made me feel like I was a little like being in the twilight zone. The fact that the corporate office was on Vine Street, because I lived on Vine Street in Geneva Ohio growing up. The fact that one of our products is called Geneva is a little strange. One of the instructors was from Ohio State, which I idolized as a kid. Now I am for the Longhorns all the way, but I do cheer for the “Worthless Nuts”.

The course did provide value, but I am not going to bore you with that. I will quickly summarize the highlights and provide a little bit of poker content.

We met that evening at a restaurant called Nicholson’s. We started off at the bar and we were there for about an hour. The Guinness tasted great. I was having a conversation with Mr. R and this gal walks by carrying a camera. He says “Hey will you take my picture?” Of course he was just flirting, but little did he know that she was a photographer for a local paper. She willingly snapped off some photos and we just might be in the paper for next week’s review of the restaurant. We finally made our way to our tables. There were about 20 -25 of us. It was a fantastic time.

Waitress could not get the cork out of two bottles of wine. We had a ton of appetizers. The muscles were fabulous. I had a filet for dinner and shared several terrific desserts.

I went back to the room and played poker on CNR for about 30 minutes. I managed to win about $.60.

The next day’s training went fine. They do cater in lunch, but we decided to visit a local institution called Skyline Café. They were on the Food network for their unique chili. We just had to have it. I ordered what was called a 4-Way, which is spaghetti, chili, onions, and cheese. And I do mean cheese, a three inch mound of cheddar cheese. The chili is unique in that it had a hint of cinnamon and supposedly chocolate. My conclusion was that it was better than a basic turkey sandwich. After class, one of the attendees decided we needed another team building exercise, so he organized a poker tournament for after dinner. Half the folks went to get sushi and we went to get ribs at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. The rib experience was OK and the Ted’s Pale Ale was very good. Some ladies from some environmental firm (US Environmental maybe!) came up to our table asking where to party in Cincinnati. Of course we did not have a clue. Many images were conjured up, but we will pass on sharing those. Let’s just say that one lady was a little heavier than the Washington Redskin Hogs.

Now I will move on to the poker content. We called Mr. R and he stated that he reserved a room at the Westin and drinks would be served. Sounds cool! Well after searching all of the conference rooms we find out that the room was actually the front room to a restaurant. I was a little concerned with the huge windows and being at the front of the restaurant. Mr. R had bought some plastic chips. We proceeded with the facade that it was a team building exercise. The bar tender pointed out that during a team building exercise no $$$ could be visible on the table. There were 10 players total and Mr. T had bought enough chips for 8. We figured it out so each player starts with $500 for a $20 buy-in. Top three places would get a piece of the prize pool. One person had never played holdem before and she was the only female at the table. My money was on her to win it all! The two other players from the Austin office I felt were the strongest players, but time would tell. Very first hand I get dealt pocket 7s. I decided I needed to portray myself as an aggressive player to test the waters. Blinds were $5 and $10, so I raised it to $40. I thought people would fold, but I got 6 callers. What did I get myself into? The flop came JJx. I checked and everyone checked around. The turn was X and the river was X. The pot was a good size, but I decided to check. Everyone checked around and I actually picked up a good pot with jacks and sevens. Surprise! In other situations I would have kept on firing at the pot, but I had no clue what these players would do.

I did not get any cards so I slipped into my conservative shell. My co-worker Mr. C lost a large pot on the river to Mr. T when a 9 hit giving Mr. T a set to Mr. C’s top two pair. Mr. C was down to about $250. Few hands later Mr. C made a $50 raise. He was re-raised. He went all-in with AKs. He was called and the raiser had pocket aces. Mr. C was the first eliminated about 30 minutes into the event.

I tried limping in a couple of times with tiny pocket pairs – 33 and 22. I ended up moving down to my original stack, but I was still in good shape to attack if I got the cards. Then the craziest hand I have seen in a long time. Basically 4 players were all-in pre-flop. The highest hand was A6o. I was like WOW they are going in with that. I should be in good shape. One person was eliminated and another crippled. Mr. R was an interesting player. I believe he got down to $30 at one point, but kept fighting his way back. The one thing I can say about Mr. R was that he was entertaining. He made sure everyone at the table was having a good time. The organizer of the tournament went out 5th or 6th and soon we were down to the final four. I had a set of two’s and lost to a set of 6’s on the river. I was down to about $150. It was a bad time to get short stacked. Two hands later I got the hand I was waiting for, AA. I went all-in and doubled up! I went all-in a couple of hands later and doubled up.

I forgot to mention the run Mr. S went on. Man this dude was on fire. AA, KK, QQ, QQ, JJ, and AA again. The last time he pocket aces I was in the big blind. He made a large raise, so I just let him have the blinds. Soon Mr. S and Mr. T were battling for the chip lead. Mr. T went all-in and Mr. R called. If Mr. T wins I am in the money. Mr. R turns over AJ and Mr. T turns over 75o. I almost fell out of my chair. It was a good play by Mr. T because he had Mr. R. out chipped 5:1. No help for either one on the flop. No help on the turn. I start chanting, Five! Five! Five! Five! Yes indeed a five hit on the river eliminating Mr. R. I was in the money. I was getting blinded away quickly at this point. I was in the BB with QJo and I went all-in. Mr. T of course calls me with A7. An ace came on the turn and I was drawing dead. Oh well! I did have a couple of great beers, but I do not remember the name.

Mr. S and Mr. T were getting tired so they basically went to war. Mr. S ended up taking first place. We settled up the bar tab and tossed all the plastic chips in a bag to hand back to Mr. R. When I got back to my room I decided to play a little more online at CNR. No more than sitting down I was dealt pocket Kings. Someone raised, putting me all-in. I quickly called. A king came on the flop and my $4 stack quickly grew to $11. I decided a few hands later that I had better get some sleep, because I had homework for the last day of class and a late flight to catch.

We had a great day at class and concluded the trip with a wonderful Mediterranean meal.

Since the trip I have not played much poker. Hopefully this weekend I will find time to enter a tournament and I am looking for another site to join.

Play on!

2005-04-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

“A Blonde Moment”

It is 4:46 AM. In theory I should be in a hotel room sound asleep. I had a flight scheduled to leave for Cincinnati Ohio yesterday at 3:40 PM. A co-worker picks me up at 2:00 PM to get to the airport. It was a smooth ride in a brand new Nissan Titan V8. We park in the park and ride. The shuttle bus takes us to the terminal. I get out of the shuttle bus only to realize that I do not have my wallet. Holy shit! Let me tell everyone very clearly you can not do shit without some sort of ID at an International Airport.

I rescheduled my flight for 6:05 AM this morning. There were no other flights last night permitting someone to bring me my wallet. The really sad part is I knew right where my wallet was. I was hungry so I went to Jack in the Box for a sandwich. I paid for the sandwich and left the wallet sitting on the front passenger seat of the car. Damn! Definitely a blond moment!

Here were my options:

1. Take a taxi home and get my wallet then fly out later. Not!
2. Have my wife bring me my wallet. Not! She was 45 minutes from the house.
3. Just take a taxi home or to my office. Not! How would I pay? Besides rumor had it that it would cost $70 to get me home. Yikes!
4. Sleep at the airport and have my wife bring my wallet. I thought that would be good punishment.
5. Wife come get me and my son miss his soccer game. That would not work because I was the one who insisted he play in his game.
6. Take my friends truck and go get my wallet. Are you kidding ask him to drive his new truck. Besides I already told him to go board and tell the others my fate.
7. Call a friend! I did this and had a great friend ready to come pick me up. I felt so guilty, but you know you have a great friend if they are willing to sacrifice their day to come rescue you from the airport.
8. Finally my brother-in-law offered to come get me. I called my friend back and cancelled her generous offer.

Here is the really cool part. I get picked up from the airport in a beautiful blue Porsche. He took me to the soccer game where I got to watch our team play. It was cool because we only had three players. I am so glad our son made it. They had fun! We then went out for dinner. Least we could do was buy my wife’s brother dinner. We also had my wife’s mom and grand mother with us. The check came for dinner and abuelita grabbed the check. We insisted that we pay. She finally gave us the check. What we did not realize was as she passed the plastic thingy to us she had slipped the bill out. She is a very sneaky lady, but clearly wise. I would have offered to pay, but NO WALLET!

Next my wife wanted me to fill up the van. Ok! May I have your credit card! Again, I had no wallet. At this point I am thinking new should have microchips implanted in our thumbs or something that could be used as ID and perhaps even a credit card. My brother-in-law clearly pointed out that then people would chop off your thumb to steal your identity. Ok! That is a sick thought, but probably true.

Now the challenge was to get to the airport on time. I set two alarms. I woke up every hour almost on the hour. I woke up at 2:15 AM. I decided to shower and shave and head to the airport. I stopped and got a coffee at 7-11. Thank heaven for 7-11! Oh hopefully I turned off both alarms. I made it to the airport with little traffic. I get inside the airport at about 3:45 AM. Of course most everything is closed. I realized I still did not have my boarding pass. The kiosk was not open yet. I drank my coffee and watched a cool episode of The Highwayman. I finally got my boarding pass around 4:30 AM. I go through security. Well as luck would have it I am selected for the extra search. I am a suspicious character. I guess claiming to have forgotten my ID and changing my flight put me high on the profile list. The initial screener did not see that I had been selected for the special treatment. I am sure she got in trouble for not issuing me the orange ticket.

Here are a couple of times.

Empty your pockets
Place your computer in a separate tray from your computer bag
Taking off your shoes is option (wear flip flops!)
Do not over pack your bag – security does not know how to fold!
take your own coffee at 4:00 AM because there is nothing open!

Here I set using airport power to recharge the battery on my laptop. Perhaps I will continue this adventure on the plane. Throughout this entire ordeal I keep convincing myself that this is the way the good Lord intended it to be. I will miss some of the training this morning and I am sure I will be subjected to tons of ridicule. The adventure is just beginning because I will need to arrive safely. Catch a cab to the hotel! Catch a cab to the office. Find a way to obtain a security badge. Find my way to a class in progress I am sure. Perhaps I will make it just in time for lunch and no one will notice I had not been there all morning. Not!

Ciao for now! 5:15 AM

2005-04-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

“Change the Freakin Law”

I was reading a fellow Austin blogger, Love and Casino War. Always good content and it is ironic that I believe he used to work for the company I now work for. Any rate he keeps up with the legal battles in Texas over poker. I will add his link, so you can read the original post. Basically the post is about the legality of business establishments hosting poker tournaments. Here is my spin on!

A bar owner purchases a trip for 2 to Las Vegas and a promotion for his business. He is going to decide the winner of the promotion based on the following. There will be a dart tournament. Each player is given 500 points with their FREE entry. Players may play against anyone or as many people as they choose and when they decide to play. They must play at some point. The players that win collect points from the other players. The player who collects all the points wins the promotional prize. Would this be legal for my business to do?

Change the freakin laws! Oh wait maybe we are trying to create to many laws! My blood pressure increases every time I think about how much money this state could keep within its borders if we legalized poker. Hell everyone is now playing TEXAS Holdem.

Government really infuriates me. For instance I heard on the radio this morning that they are proposing to require high school students to participate in 30 minutes of physical activity per day. What the ??? are our representatives doing messing around with something so ridiculous? You do not need legislature to handle this. The parents, PTA, teachers, school boards and the kids themselves should set these policies. I mean for the current (79th) session of the Texas Senate there are 2607 bills.

Why does the below need to be part of our Senate Bill process?

SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 670

In Memory of

Johnnie Martinez Lopez

WHEREAS, The Senate of the State of Texas joins the citizens of Austin in mourning the loss of Johnnie Martinez Lopez,who died March 18, 2005, at the age of 79; and WHEREAS, Born October 12, 1925, in Austin to John Lopez and Maria de Jesus Arredondo, Johnnie served his country in the United States Navy; and WHEREAS, Known as "Powerhouse John," he served as a sponsor to many East Austin softball and baseball teams, and his invaluable support of these young people will be greatly missed; and WHEREAS, The proprietor of the Powerhouse Lounge, he gave back to the community by serving needy families on Thanksgiving Day;he also helped organize scholarships for students at Johnston High School with funds donated from the Old Timer's Athletic Association; and WHEREAS, A man of courage, strength, and kindness, Johnnie gave unselfishly to others, and the lives of many in his community were improved immeasurably by his generous spirit; and WHEREAS, Johnnie Lopez was a devoted father and grandfather, and he leaves behind memories that will be cherished forever by his family and many friends; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas,79th Legislature, hereby extend sincere condolences to the bereavedfamily of Johnnie Martinez Lopez: his wife, Tommie Lopez; his children, Barbara Godoy, Jo Ann Lopez, Johnny Lopez, Kenneth Lopez,Adam Lopez, Roy Rivera, Jose Rivera, Melinda Magaña, James Moncebaiz,Jo Anna H. Ramos, and John Albert Herrera; his sister, Mary Lopez; and his 34 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren; and, be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be prepared for the members of his family as an expression of deepest sympathy from the Texas Senate, and that when the Senate adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Johnnie Martinez Lopez. Barrientos
________________________________ President of the Senate I hereby certify that the above Resolution was adopted by the Senate on April 21, 2005, by a rising vote. ________________________________ Secretary of the Senate

I also grieve for those who pass on to the heavens. In fact I think I will quickly pay tribute to Lenny Izzarelli, who passed on a couple of days ago. Senators can you please write a resolution for the great Iz? I regret you suffered until the end, but it was an honor to know you and your family. Rest in peace my friend!

Sorry to rant! Hey I am also upset that I will miss two great poker tournaments. Saturday night here in Austin is a local blogger tournament hosted by the Degenerate Gambler. The tournament price ($20) and no rebuys sets up a perfect environment for a ton of fun. Good luck folks!

Also Mr. Guinness, Iggy, set up a great online tournament to qualify for a seat in a WSOP satellite. Thank you for all of you efforts, but unfortunately I am going to be on a plane to lovely Cincinnati.

Finally I wanted to give some kudos to Check N Raise poker. The other night I had a boat with two persons raising into me. I was ready to push all my chips in when the freakin controls vanished. This is a known defect, but I was pissed! The pot was around $7 in a $.10/.20 NL Holdem ring game. I complained to the Pit Boss, who absolutely was gracious and placed an amount equal to the pot into my account. They really should fix that defect; however, as a Lead QA engineer, I can really relate to those hard to resolve/ replicate defects. Most likely they are battling something within the browser or Java Virtual Machine that is somewhat out of their control. Good luck fixing that one, because it is a nasty bug! Thank you for doing the right thing!

Now my challenge is to find a place in Cincinnati where I can get free wireless, a cold beer, and play some online poker. What can I say! I am addicted to the pursuit of winning money for nothin’!

Izzy – I am listening to “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane. It is an upbeat but peaceful tune. I send out a prayer to your family and your many friends.

Keane - Somewhere Only We Know Lyrics
Album: Hopes & Fears

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete
Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and i need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin
I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love
Is this the place that i've been dreaming of
Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and i need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin
And if you have a minute why don't we go
talk about it somewhere only we know
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know
Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and i need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin
And if you have a minute why don't we go
talk about it somewhere only we know
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know
(Instrumental)
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know

Play on!!

2005-04-18T17:04:00.000-05:00

"Down for the Count!"

Sad to report that I have finally lost all of my deposit at 24HPoker. I am very saddened that I lost this bank roll without cashing in on my 40% bonus. Basically I learned a couple of lessons. Read the bonus rules very carefully. Personally I think their bonus rules were misleading, but I will take the blame for not asking more specific questions. I thought I would receive $10 of my bonus for every 100 VIP points. I guess that was true; however, they claimed I had to earn the entire bonus. The next lesson I learned is that it is very hard to play low limit tables when there are many extremely aggressive players. Here are my final hands:

I am in the BB with J3o. I check and the flop comes Jxx. I bet. Turn is a 3. I bet more. River is another 3. Hey I have a boat. My opponent of course has a pocket pair greater than my threes.

I am UTG with 66. The flop comes 9455. Maximum bets by three other players. I fold! Of course the river brings another 6, but I had already folded.

I have K9 in the SB. Flop comes K9J. Maximum betting. I did not fill my boat and the winner was holding QT, so he had flopped the nut straight.

QJ, when the flop comes QJ3. Turn and river come ten then another ten. Hey I actually won this hand.

Final straw - AT in the BB. Flop comes AJ3. The turn is a ten. I am all in. The river is a J. You guessed it my opponent had KQo.

I think I played these hands well, but would welcome any comments. Down for the count on 24HPoker. Most likely I will not play there again!

READ THOSE BONUSES CAREFULLY!

The worst part is a could have provided Chicken Feet a $50 bonus if I had joined the site he invited me to. Unfortunately I used up my bankroll to join this site.

Time to move money from other sites. I am going to delete most of one of my account at one site for some vacation cash. I am looking forward to playing in some cash games at some casinos in Scottsdale.

That is it for now!

Play on!

2005-04-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

“All Along the Watchtower”

I thought I would do a quick post. I just heard U2’s version of “All Along the Watchtower”. I thought it rocked. I am now listening to “Hero” by Chad Kroeger.

Man I have a great view from my office!

I have watched a little bit of poker this week. Wow, there were some bad beats. Howard Lederer going all in with two pair on the flop in the 2004 Poker Championship. Opponent gets a King on the river to eliminate him. I watched the WPT last night and unfortunately I do not recall their names. Pocket kings and the opponent hits one of only two outs on the river, an Ace. I think I would melt on the spot if I was at the final table with a $1 million at stake.

Here is what happened to me just last night! “I feel so lonely and I know I am not the only one to every feel this way” some good words from Tesla that apply to the world of bad beats.

Hand #1 – I am holding A6o on the button. The flop brings QQ6, which is looking OK for the home team. This is Pot Limit by the way. I bet ½ the pot. I get two callers. The turn is a Q. I bet ¼ the pot. Once again I get two callers. The turn is an Ace. I am thinking is someone slow playing the 4th queen. Nah! I bet half the pot! I get raised. Chit! I just had to call! Once again I get smacked by the ladies, all four of them!! Basically I was all-in and lost my $4. Ouch! J

Hand #2 – I am in the BB. I am dealt A9o. The flop is A9T, which is once again good for the home team. I bet the pot. I get two callers. The turn is a J. I bet the pot and get one caller. The river is a K. I bet the pot and I get raised putting me all-in. I had to call, but I knew deep down the SOB had a King. Down another $4.

I think it is time to quit. Not!

AC/DC song applies here “Kicked in the Teeth”

Hand #3 – I have K9 of clubs. The flop brings two clubs. My gut told me another club was coming. I was put all-in, but I had to listen to my gut. The cool part was there were other callers. Yes sir the club hits on the river and I rake in $10, making my net loss for the session an entire $2. I can live with that!

Let’s see perhaps I can throw in some off the wall comments.

I have never found a person’s finger in my chili!

Gas prices are outrageous, yet Texas lawmakers want to add more taxes. Can you say very bad timing?
I did remember to file our taxes! That reminds me Taxes SUCK!

I will close with a little Jane’s Addition – “Jane Says”

Play on rock stars!

2005-04-08T14:55:00.000-05:00

My apologies for posting this late, but Blogger seemed to be down last night!

“Grady Rocks”

I just wanted to make a quick post. Thanks April for posting the lyrics to the Grady song! Everyone should catch their high energy show.

I have to say that I watched WPT last night. I must say Mike Matusow is a true ARSE. I would have to have head phones and Grady blasting full volume to sit at a table with him.

I just got in a hand at CNR that was a total hoot. I had just sat down at a NL .05/.10 Holdem table. I get dealt big slick. I limp in. Person raises $2. I put him on small pair. I call. We get a third caller. Hmm! My gut says the best they have is pocket queens. The bettor raises and puts me all-in. Huge pot so I have to call. Flop is a rainbow of small cards (852), turn is a 4, and the river is an eight. No help for me, but the raise had pocket 8’s for quads and the other player had pocket 10’s. I read them right, but got smacked.

A few hands later I had ATo. The board brought AT. A player to my right raised. I reraised, putting him all-in. I won my money back from the quad hit.

OK! Now that we have the hammer theme song, I have to ask the obvious question. Is playing 27 really wise? Personally I think it is a horrible play and I muck it every time. I fully appreciate a good bluff, but it does not have to be 72. I have played in a couple of local ring games where people played the hammer. I say keep on playing the hammer. More often than not, the hammer will lose! I know there is the challenge of pulling it off and showing the cards in victory. I am going against the grain and I will continue to muck it every time. Unless of course everyone limps in when I have the hammer in the big blind. I just might raise!!

For all you Austinites who might stumble on this humble blog. During the month of April ThunderCloud Subs is rolling back their prices. I got a fresh 10 inch ham sandwich today for $1.40. Amazing! Visit there website and enjoy!

Tomorrow I have a meeting at a local Austin coffee house, Flight Path. I have never been there so stay tuned for a review. I have an eye appointment. Oh Joy! Finally I have a lunch date with a former co-worker. We are going to Mike’s Pub. If you have never been to Mike’s you are missing out on extremely cold beer mugs and delicious burgers. Check it out! I believe the owner and his son also play poker!

Rock on!

2005-04-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

“Drawing Dead Sort of”

Occasionally I get in the mood to return to my punk days in the early 80’s, so I listen to a station on Live365.com called “Loud Like it Should Be”. I heard this song today. I thought it was funny! I must apologize to my parents who are my most avid readers for posting this song. Sorry Mom!! It was just one of those songs with a lyric makes you stop and go “Did they really just sing that?”

"Code Blue" by TSOL

I never got along with the girls at my schoolFilling me up with all their morals
and their rulesThey'd pile all their problems on my headI'd rather go out
and fuck the dead'Cause I can do what I want and they won't complainI wanna
fuck I wanna fuck the deadMiddle of the night so silentlyI creep on over to
the mortuaryLift up the casket and fiddle with the deadTheir cold blue flesh
makes me turn red'Cause I can do what I want and they won't complainI wanna
fuck I wanna fuck the deadAnd I don't even care how she died...But I like it
better if she smells of formaldehyde!Never on the rag or say leave me
aloneThey don't scream and they don't moanDon't even cry if I shoot in their
hairLying on the table she smiles and she stares

Chorus

I also heard a song by the SuperSuckers – “Born with a Tail”. I thought we could easily relate this to poker and change the title “Born with a Tell”. Hee Hee

I did manage to make it to that poker tournament on Friday. It was pretty funny in that I got there just in time for a NL ring game to start with Blinds $.50/$1 and a $20 buy-in. The conclusion for the night was that I won about $12. It was also funny in that a card player that I play with a group from central Austin was there.

The other reason for the title of my blog was that a player in the ring game gave a totally new meaning to the term drawing dead.

Well I did no finish this post as intended last night, so I thought I would quickly do it this morning. There is definitely a theme going on “Loud Like It Should Be” this morning. SO far in about 10 minutes three songs using the “F” word.

Hot Water Music – Radio
UnMutuals – F--- Guitar Center

Not sure yet if this is motivation or not.

Ok to continue with the player in the ring game. Here is the new definition of drawing dead. The board is showing 4 spades. I am holding the King of Spades. I just made a small bet to make sure the ace was not in the game. Player to me left goes “Crap I have a spade, but I think you have a bigger one!” Mucks his hand. The next player calls. Final player mucks! We turn over our cards. The caller had two clubs, no pairs, and no straight. Dude! Thanks for the donation!

Classic song – “I want to be sedated” by the Ramones

Other than that hand I played in 4 other pots. One I had pocket Kings and the flop brought a king. I bet $5 and got one caller. Turn was no help! I bet another $5 hoping to get a call. He folded, but I won a decent pot. Another hand I thought I hit a king high straight in the BB on the turn. The cards were at the other end of the table. My contacts were on there last legs and for some reason I could not focus on the cards. I stared and double checked the board. Rechecked the board! Stared some more. I bet $3. Player to my left raised me $5. Again I stared at the board for the longest time. If he had AT, then he had the nut straight. Nothing else was there. I should have raised but did not. He ended up having a pocket tens for a set of tens. I won a nice pot. The other hand was disastrous for me. The board brought a flush and straight draw. I decided that I was going to bet aggressively as if I had hit on the flop. I bet $3. A blank on the turn and I bet $3 again. They guy was calling me down. Do I go all-in? Do I check? Well I decided to stay consistent and bet $3. He called my bluff and I lost a decent pot. Oh well! Net profit was $12. A profit is always good in my book. They did start a second $20 buy-in tournament, but I felt it was going to be going on until 2:00 AM. I had to get up for the garage sale.

We did manage to make $100 at the garage sale. My better half already spent it! So much for adding cash to my poker bank roll.

Saturday we had a couple of soccer games after the garage sale. Little did I know I would end up coaching my daughter’s team. They girls did really well against one of the stronger teams (At least a well coached team). I ended up having to leave with 6 minutes left in the game so I could go coach my son’s team. The Tigers lost 5-4. The bad news was I missed our daughter scoring a goal. After soccer we had some friends over for steaks. I love last minute get togethers. The margaritas were wonderful. It is my simple recipe, but it works every time.

6 oz can limeade
6 oz tequila
3 oz triple sec
One fresh lime
Ice to the top of the blender

If you do not have triple sec add a little orange juice and 9 oz of tequila is better, depending on the tequila. Hee Hee!

Saturday night although I knew the time was going to change I entered into a $5 Omaha H/L tournament at 10:00 PM. Turned out to be a great choice in that I won! The best part was I used check points to enter, so a nice $40 profit. More importantly I completed my last $25 bonus and my bank roll is well above $200. Pretty good since not to long ago I was down to $14.

The tournament was really fun! When it got down to the final three it was an epic battle. The chip lead was constantly changing. I think the three of us battled it out for almost an hour. As normal with Omaha H/L it took a couple of lucky hands where you win both high and low.

Most likely I take some of this bank roll and do some bonus whoring. Or I will just save it and take it out for our trip to Scottsdale. It looks like there are a couple of nice casinos in Scottsdale.

OK I am going to get this posted.

Man I hope that dude who played two clubs against an obvious board returns to take more poker lessons!

I also added a couple of links to some more poker blogs.

Blog on!

2005-03-31T21:54:00.000-06:00

“What the …”

I had read an Austin blog awhile back about some modifications to Shoal Creek. I have not driven down Shoal Creek in quite awhile. Today I decided to miss some traffic and headed south on Shoal Creek from Steck. What the … are those semi-circle curb concoctions every couple of hundred yards on either side of the street. They are filled with a single tree, some tiny plants, and rocks. I predict that all plants and perhaps the trees will not survive. So what were they thinking? Are these there for safety reasons? I seriously doubt it because they now force cyclists out into traffic. Are they for esthetics? They do not look good to me. In fact, they look really out of place. IMHO they look like a total waste of good tax payer money. Probably the next time I travel down Shoal Creek they will be gone. Sheesh!

My second what the … has to do with our state representatives. What are they doing protesting gambling bills today at lunch? I concur that promoting casinos as a means to bail out the educational system is a little loony. First of all no single source of state money should be ear-marked for a single purpose. Casino’s offer much more value in that they could stop the Texas money running away to Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Las Vegas. They could employee thousands of people. They could offer entertainment and a more pleasant atmosphere along the Texas coast. Representatives need to face the facts that Texans like to gamble. I could easily find a poker game hear in Austin seven nights per week. I do not really care for one arm bandits, so putting those at race tracks does nothing for me. I do believe in playing games that require some skill and that at least I have a chance of controlling the outcome.

OK! Here is my platform when I run for office. World Class poker rooms will be built in Galveston, Corpus Christi, Austin, Dallas, and Houston. A portion of the revenue generated would go into the general fund. A portion of the revenue would be set aside for charity. I would create the TPT, Texas Poker Tour. Each poker room would host a championship style tournament annually. Winners would qualify for the Capitol Classic in Austin Texas. Our wonderful representatives claim that gambling impacts the poor. I agree in that many people are looking for that single pull on the slot machine or the 6 numbers to appear in the Lotto. Everyone wants to get rich quick. Poker on the other hand requires a bank roll, skill and patience.

Texas is likely to get poker rooms about as likely as I am going to run for office!

What the … was I doing playing for flushes in 5-card draw. The other night I lost 3 or 4 times when I was dealt four suited cards. The pot sizes were decent, but it required me calling $1.5 - $2.50 to draw my single card. I did not hit a single one, so I went through a $15 bank roll quickly. One of you math gurus needs to educate me on the odds with 5 players playing 5 card draw of filling the flush. I had my share of bad beats, but reckless pay has dwindled my bankroll on 24HPoker. I am going to stick with holdem until I can build my bankroll back.

I am invited to a $40 buy-in tournament Friday night, but my wife has to work and I have to prepare for the neighborhood garage sale. Oh Boy! Perhaps I can take a cut of the proceeds to add to my poker bank roll. NOT! If I can get everything organized I may at least show up and drink a beer. I might deal, but most importantly I might be able to get in a ring game or a losers tournament. The tournament looks like it will have 16 – 24 players, which is nice. Oh well maybe next time!

We have a busy weekend with 3 soccer games, piano recital, and a garage sale.

What the …!

Play on, play SMART!

2005-03-26T14:24:00.000-06:00

“Table Persona”

I was reading an article on one of the blogs. The main point was that you should use different user names at the various sites so people do not pick up on your habits. This makes sense; however, I have the same name at numerous sites. My objective all along was to learn to play against different players and environments, so I am constantly learning how to mix it up. I think if you are a regular at casinos people no that you are. They believe they have a fix on your style of play. The profitable players know how to mix it up. That is my goal!

That being said I have just signed up at Noble Poker. I wanted to play in the blogger Omaha H/L tournament. For the first time I changed my user name. I did not change it to hide my style of play. I changed because my daughter is a Harry Potter freak and wanted me to use a name that related to Harry Potter. I came up with three choices:

Harry Putter or Hairy Putter – since I am an avid golfer who only plays now 4 times per year.

Gringotts – The bank of wizard world.

Daily Profit – The wizard newspaper

I settled on the Daily Profit, which seemed most fitting! A daily profit is any poker player’s goal.

It is about 13 minutes until the blogger tournament starts. I am hopping to meet/chat with April (NotAPokerBlogger), Scurvydog (Sound of a Suck Out) who organized the tournament, and Slayre (Slayre’s Poker Quest). I am sure I will meet other bloggers.

Hopefully I will make some noise! Thanks scurvy for setting the tournament up! I am still on tilt after losing $15 playing 5-card draw this afternoon. I was dealt a set of 4’s and drew 2 cards. I got two aces. My opponent drew 3 cards. He raised $5 and I went over the top for another $5. Of course he had Tens full of threes. Argh! It was just a great hand.

I was also playing Omaha H/L and hit a straight flush. Oh yeah I think I know now the true sound of a “suck out”. I had pocket aces. Board comes xxQ, turn is a K and the river is another K. Of course I lose to 3 kings after capping the pot the entire way. Oh well! I would play the hand exactly the same way every time.

Holy Crap! Just played in a NL SNG (Sit and Go) with 6 players. I was the freakin chip lead and went all-in with AK suited. Flop brought a King, then the Turn brought a King, I typed in nice game, the river game him a straight. We are now even in chips. I get an A7o. He bets, I raise. He calls. Flop brings and A48. I go all-in. He had A4. So Sad! This is only the third SNG and finishing second is not so bad!!

I am still hanging in the blogger tournament. My PC completely froze up once. They should blow off the break, which came after the first hour. I have not had a hand since the first 15 minutes. Also at one point there were 7 players sitting out at our table. Hard to make a large sum of money. I finished 51st going all-in with AA26. Bummer!

I just finished in 58th place in a free roll with 189 players. I lost to pockets deuces on the freakin river. Oh there is no justice. Oh well it cost a ton to enter! :o) It is almost 2:00 AM. I am watching Man on Fire. It is an interesting movie and of course I can not go to sleep until it’s over.

Ok I need to publish this thing, but a few more comments about Noble Poker. When you sign up for their site, they greet you immediately and offer you a bonus. I thought that was a good touch. Personally I did not think the site is easy to navigate and the User Interface is somewhat clunky. I am not certain that I would put money into this site or not. I probably will play another tournament and check it out.

In conclusion your online table persona does not make much different. Play the cards correctly and adjust your game when the need arises.

Play on!

2005-03-19T00:17:00.000-06:00

"WOW"

This will be a short post! First of all I am pissed in that I had already written a post on the kids PC. Freakin explorer error and I lost everything. I know better!

I should be in bed, but I have to post this. I started the evening with so many bad beats. Fortunately for me I have forgotten them all. I had some wine, tequila, and a beer. Foolish for someone who still has a cough. Any rate I had to tell the world that the impossible happened this evening. Granted I did not make a huge some of money, because almost anytime I bet everyone would fold. Here it is! Hold on to your seats. With a 30 minute span I hit 2 (count 'em) two straight flushes playing 5 card draw. If that is not exciting what is!!!

For the night I won about $40 on 24HPoker and $10 on Check N Raise. I was just in a $5 NL Holdem tournament. I went all-in with pocket jacks and an ace on the board. I lost! That is OK cuz I should be in bed and they were VIP points to get in. We are heading to Houston in the morning.

Man I wish I people had gotten great hands when I hit the two straight flushes. Shit I should have recorded those hadn histories. Perhaps I should request them.

Man I am pumped! I may never go to sleep! Hee Hee!

Reporting two straight flushed is a hell of a lot better than reporting bad beats.

Play on!

2005-03-16T07:21:00.000-06:00

"Patience"

Lets see what Webster's has to say.

1 : bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint
2 : steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity

The main reason I selected patience as the word of the day is somehow a database schema got dropped at work. It is a little frustrating because now I have to re-import the data. I was hoping for a smooth morning and this is trying my patience.

After looking up "patience" in the dictionary I find it very interesting how applicable the word is to poker. "Bearing pains" happens often at the poker table when you pocket kings gets whomped by a small straight at the river and it really does little good to "complain".

"Steadfast despite opposition" is also very accurate for poker, especially in a tournament situation and poker provides a ton of adversity.

Speaking of patience, I was very patient last Friday night in a $5 NL Holdem tournament at Check N Raise. I do not remember to many specifics except as usual to place in the money it took two all-in river snags to remain alive. I had managed to make my way to the cheap lead with only 4 players left out of 32. Other than the two lucky river snags I played well and very patient. Hey I even dropped pocket Kings. I think for the first time ever! The board had an ace and a potential flush. It turned out to be a very wise lay down. I do remember putting one of the players all-in when I had pocket jacks. To my chagrin he had pocket queens. There goes a huge portion of my stack. The very next hand I caugh KQo. I am in the money, so I decided to push all-in. The guy who had the pocket ladies called me. Crap this time he had the pocket Jacks and of course they hold up, knocking me out 4th. Not bad winning $28, since it cost me nothing to get in.

Saturday night I was playing at 24HPoker. Of course I was playing a 5 card draw table and a holdem table for a $25 investment. I was in the BB on the 5 card draw table with two pair 4s and 7s. Everyone limped so I drew one card. Wow it is a 4. I bet the Pot, which was about $5. Another player who drew one card goes over the top for another $9. Shit! Could he have filled a boat also. Nah the odds are against it! I call! Well his boat nines over threes placed a whooping on me. I managed to lose both bankrolls at the two tables. Enough to bring tears to your eyes. Since then I have managed to win back about $15 of it. I have enough VIP points to get $10, but it looks like the SOBs are going to make me earn the entire 400 VIP points before I see any of the bonus. I thought I would get $10 each time I hit 100 VIP points. Most likely I did not read the small print.

Well our daughter woke me up at 12:30 AM with a painful ear ache. We gave her ibuprofen and she slept for a little while. I gave her another dose just before I left for the office. I am sure my day is going to be messed up despite the amount of work I need to do. So the key here is "patience".

Obviously I would like to publish every day, but that definitely does not seem to be a reality. At least I seem to find time once a week!

A big thanks to April at http://www.thisisnotapokerblog.com for adding me to her web site. It is nice to read other Austin blogs.

Well hopefully we will be heading to Houston this weekend to celebrate my Mom's 29th birthday. I am a little worried about our daughter, but an ear ache should not prevent this quick trip to the big city.

I do believe that "Patience is a virtue!" I am working on it!

Play on

2005-03-09T22:05:00.000-06:00

“A whole lot of Nothin”

I have not posted in a little while due to this crazy cough. I did not sleep for two entire nights and finally called the Doctor. He prescribed some cough medicine with codeine and I was finally able to get some sleep. I am still not back to my normal self. My guess is that is will take several more weeks. I do know that I need to quit taking the cough medicine, because now it is keeping me awake rather than making me sleepy.

I have managed to play a little poker here and there but not a whole lot of excitement. I really enjoy playing 5-card draw at 24HPoker. While I am playing draw I usually also play a limit holdem game. Most of the time I break even or come out a little bit ahead. I did have three specific hands to mention.

In 5-card draw I was in the small blind so it was only $.25 to call and draw cards. I had four spades so it was worth the effort. I got my fifth spade. I was excited and made a modest raise. The BB who had also only taken one card went over the top of me to match the pot, $9.25. Hmmmm! I made the mistake of calling. Sure enough he had a boat.

In 5-card I was dealt a pat flush. I raised the pot $2.25. I got one caller. The caller took one card. I raised the pot again. He re-raised $5 more. I felt I was pot committed so I called. Yep again he had a boat.

Here is the hand I regret, but would do the same again. Most of the players at this site are like me, solid and cautious players. We all occasionally make our bluffs at the pot. This one particular day there was this guy to my left. He was chatting some smack, which in itself is unusual for this site. Very little chat and usually it is in German or some other language. Sure it supposed to be English only, but I really do not mind. I was dealt 3 jacks. I raised to $1.25 prior to getting cards. The mouth next to me calls. I draw 2 cards and they were blanks. He stands pat. I checked to see what his move was. He raised $6.00. I folded only to see him show his cards A2347. I knew in my soul that he was bluffing, but I did not figure the earning potential was worth the risk. I sure wish I would have called his bluff. Oh well! I am going to remain conservative and continue to protect and grow my bankroll.

I was down all the way to $30 at this site and now I am still hovering around $100. I only play this site on the kids PC, so I am not playing as often as I like.

I missed coaching the Yellow jackets first soccer game and our son also missed the game. I am looking forward to coaching these great kids. This season we have 3 boys and 3 girls. Now our daughters team is a different story. I got a phone call from the league commissioner, assuming he wanted me to coach. I called him back the very next day. He never returned my call. I called him again and was told he was out of town. In the mean time he calls my friend Mr. A. and asks him to coach. No problem with me. Two days before the first scheduled game we did not have a roster. Turns out we only had 4 girls on the team, which is just enough to field a team. Sure 8 year old girls could play for 48 minutes straight. Coach A had the wisdom to reschedule game 1, but then the idiots scheduled a second game for the first weekend. Coach A got that rescheduled and come to find out we are down to 3 girls. Total disorganization and I would be happy at this point to get our money back and invest it in some other activity.

Right now I am sitting on a nice park picnic table typing this little blurb. Our son is having a blast as usual.

I wanted to chime in real quick on the new reality TV show, The Contender. Yes I am a reality junky! Fear Factor, Amazing Race, and Survivor are can’t miss shows. Any rate I enjoyed the contender. They really have some legit fighters. I was really shocked by the first match and really thought Gomez was going to get hammered. Good thing I do not bet on boxing!! The show had bad ratings, but I taped American Idol and watched it live. I will watch it again.

We are supposed to head to Houston in a couple weekends. I hope I am fully recovered by then and things are stable at the office. Hopefully, we can celebrate my Mom’s birthday. Happy ‘early” Birthday Mom!

I can’t not think of anything else to comment on, so continue to play smart and invest wisely. Hopefully in the near future I will catch a bluffer red handed and rake the pot.

Play on!

2005-02-27T21:04:00.000-06:00

"Oscars or Cartoons?"

I would much rather be watching the Oscars; however, our son now has the flu, so cartoon's it is. We are watching Shinzo. Of course we just finished watching his favorite Bay Blade. While I was out running errands his sister and I stopped at Toys R Us to buy him a Bay Blade, Dragoon. I think Spiderman is up next and I actually like the new Spiderman.

It has been a great day. Started the day by reading half of the newspaper. Made bacon and eggs for breakfast! I spent several hours in the back yard pruning roses and cutting shrubs. The dog came outside while I was doing chores and she got filthy. At least she did not look like a bush (he he), After I picked up my mess I had to give her a bath. She definitely needs a hair cut!

At one o'clock it was off to roller skating. Our daughter was going to try out her roller blades. We got there and immediately got into a fight. I hate it when we fight, but she can have quite the attitude. She skated for about 12 minutes with her roller blades. "I can't go fast enough!" We switched to skates and she was happy for a little while. That is why we got into a fight. I was taking off her roller blades when they announced they were going to play the dice game. She was sooooooo upset and of course it was my fault. I quickly got the skates on her and she made it in time to play the dice game. We skated for about two hours. I got her to use her roller blades again for the last 30 minutes. I thought she did great. We then went to Picture It to get my better half some supplies for a photo album. Next to Toys R Us for the Bay Blade purchase.
Next to HEB to buy steaks and a few groceries.

The poker content is coming soon.

Got home and had the wonderful honor of speaking with my youngest sister. I proceeded to light the grill. I made delicious NY strips and some pineapple pork Kabobs. Oh yeah! I dranka pitcher of margaritas.

After dinner I decided to try and play some at 24 Hour poker. Last night I played for quite some time. I was playing two tables limit holdem and 5 card draw. I do not recall many hands other than I won a huge pot in 5 card draw when I was in the BB. Everyone limped in, so I drew two cards. I filled a 9 high straight. Two other players both raising. I was like ruh ro! I ended up winning a $20 pot. Sweeet! I ended up last night ahead $20 bring my total to about $57.

Today after dinner and still drinking margaritas I decided to again play limit holdem and 5 card draw. Despite my set of kings getting beat by a set of Aces, I managed to win another $30 dollars. I really like playing the 5 card draw. So now I am back to $87, but only 20 VIP points. It is going to take forever to get my bonuses. Anyway the fine folks from Europe actually spoke a few words in chat. Very few but it was nice to see. Now I just need to figure out what "fritta" means.

OK! I just won a nice hand with 2 pair, but the board was scary with all puppy feet. I bet aggressively and ended up heads up. I did win!

Oh yeah last night I played the midnight tournament. I was short stacked and went all-in with A8o. There were two callers. The board came QA4. The turn was an eight. I do not remember the river, but the other player had pocket queens. Once again I finished in 12th.

Well I had better save this blog before the computer glitches.

Play on! Spiderman Rocks!

2005-02-26T21:58:00.000-06:00

“Wine is better than Whine”

As I start to write this post I really do not have a clue as to what I wish to convey. I figured I would just start rambling then come up with a title for this post.

First of all the flu Sux! My wife has had a fever for seven plus days. I am coughing up a lung. My daughter is finally recovering but she also coughs all night. And as expected our son is running 101 fever today. Things do not get done and makes life a bit more difficult. Oh well we will make it! Hey I even cleaned the bathrooms today!

I tried a little wood working project in the garage. It was a disaster. I got a Craftsman All-in One for Christmas and I attempted to us it. The bit kept popping out and I did not have a neat execution. Oh well just like anything it will take some practice. At least the All-in part of the tool applies to poker.

Speaking of poker I had deposited $100 into 24Hour Poker with the promise of 40% bonus. Man and I thought Check N Raise was a hard site to earn a bonus. I have already lost almost $70 and I only have 20 VIP points. It takes 100 VIP points per $10 bonus. I do not know what it is about that site, but I lose on the river when I have the best of it going to the river. When I fold to an aggressive bettor of course my card hits on the river. I decided last night to change it up a bit and play 5 card draw. I get a set of aces only go head to head with a person staying with a pat hand. Yup they did have a pat hand when my aces received no help drawing 2 cards. I am tempted just to pull my last $30 out and move on, but I have made great comebacks before. I mean heck I was down to $14 on Check N Raise and now I am back near $150. I had a good night last night winning $40 in two $1/2 Limit Holdem Sessions.

I played in a free roll today Limit Omaha H/L. I finished in 4th place out of 159 players. Not bad! I earned 7 Tournament dollars, which are really cool. They actually act like dollars when I enter tournaments. I played in a NL Holdem tournament at midnight last night and I finished 11th out of 26 players. I went all-in with AJo and found myself head to head with the chip leader who had AKo. Can you say DEAD! Oh well! I hope to play in that tournament again tonight.

OK! I want to close with one quick rant. I heard on the news yesterday that federal monies were being allocated to help divorced parents to cope with their divorce. I guess the primary objective is to make sure the kids are handled properly, which I agree is a worthy objective. But come on Federal money! Our tax dollars! I had nothing to do with them having kids and parting ways. I think this type of cause should be handled by a non-profit organization and the government should give us some of our tax dollars back!

Wow! I just got pocket Kings in .05/.10 NL Holdem table. I am in the BB. Can you believe this crap?

Here is the summary:

Check n Raise Poker Game #1196977: Hold 'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

Sat Feb 26 22:39:01 EST 2005
Table 'Chausson' Seat #5 is the buttonSeat
1: crazyjoe ($11.65)
Seat 2: Big S ($3.15)
Seat 3: naderator ($8.20)
Seat 4: DakotaPoker ($2.15)
Seat 5: LQQKing4AAs ($3.20)
Seat 6: Megley ($4.90)
Seat 7: Chrypto ($7)
Seat 8: InYerFayce ($4)
Seat 9: masconi ($7.05)

Megley: posts small blind $0.05
Chrypto: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE-CARDS ***
Dealt to Chrypto [KS KD]
InYerFayce: folds
masconi: calls $0.10
crazyjoe: folds
Big S: raises $0.40 to $0.40
naderator: folds
DakotaPoker: folds
LQQKing4AAs: folds
Megley: folds
Chrypto: raises $0.80 to $0.90
masconi: foldsBig S: raises $2.75 to $3.15 (all-in)
Chrypto: calls $2.25
*** FLOP *** [4H AD AH]
*** TURN *** [4H AD AH] [3D]
*** RIVER *** [4H AD AH 3D] [2D]
*** SHOW DOWN
***Chrypto: shows [KS KD ] (two pair, aces and kings)
Big S: shows [6H 5D ] (a straight, two to six)
Big S wins ($6.15) with a straight, two to six
*** SUMMARY ***

Ok! I need to make one final comment before I get on with playing cards. I know you are not supposed to blog about your job. I am currently enjoying my job and I find it both rewarding and challenging. The ironic thing is I keep getting calls from recruiters and former co-workers telling me about opportunities. Where were these opportunities when I was unemployed? Will they be there again if fate puts me back in the streets? I sure hope so!

Play on!

Drink wine and don’t whine when you dine on bad beats (beets)!