De'tente, or a rested development, or exile on no street.

Hey there boys and girls, I figured I'd try some mental regurgitation to fill these faded 'pages'.

 I enjoyed chatting up JOOOOOAnada and Buddy last night. Too bad their heads up match was done, I would have had some fun slinging virtual cards with them. They did show me the live feed of their cute new little bundle Zane. Hansome little devil he is.
Instead I played play money tournaments until about 2 am this morning. Smart, I am not. I did multiply my play money bankroll several times, so at least there's some pride involved. Play money games at least appeared a little less of a fonkey fest than I remember.


I got asked to leave the poker group I was playing in monthly. Their excuse being that I was pushy and made too many suggestions on how to run the game better, oh and there might have been a little yelling match with one of the guys that runs the game that may have had something to do with it.

Here's an example of what pissed them off: There were 6 people left in the first tournament (this is June/July i think). I was the chipleader at the time when dude I mentioned above starts complaining that the blinds were wrong and the levels weren't moved fast enough. He was not in the game at the time. He suggested rather vociferously that we should immediately escalate the blinds to fix the problem. I argued that this was not fair to the people in the game, especially the short stacks. This went on for awhile until I began yelling back at him (mea culpa) that this would not be happening while I was at the table, and that its not everyone's fault at the table that someone can't use a damn timer.

Yeah, I can see where I'm totally wrong there can't you? Apparently my remarks were not appreciated on several occasions and that I 'take the game too seriously'. It obviously had nothing to do with the fact that I was completely crushing the game. At least they had the scruples to pay me off as I was several hundred bucks ahead of the next guy. They forfeited their chances at the year long 1st place prize which I wrapped up anyway with 2 more wins last month. I'm contemplating re-starting my neighborhood game in 2012, its just a pain to run it sometimes.


Kids and wife are healthy and happy. All the kids just had their birthdays, all three bdays are within 4 weeks of each other, which sure is fun right before Christmas.  My son's only wish was to have as many of his friends as possible over to play football and basketball. His wish was granted and we entertained 26 kids. Luckily they didn't stay in the house much, but when they did they sure left one hell of a mess. Never again.

That's all for now, enjoy your Turkey day you hosers, be careful out there.

Winner winner

Well I tell ya folks, despite the fact that online poker is dead (as well as blogs) I was able to get my fix in last night at my monthly home game.

I got really low in the first game, down to 5 BB when I landed pocket fives UTG and ended up making quads on the river.  I tripled up then continued my dominance to a first place win. I got nice and toasted after my win and ended up chopping first in the second tourney.

I extended my lead in the series by a few hundred bucks, and that makes me feel great. I fully believe the absence of online poker has made me focus more and become a better player. SO a hearty fuck you to the DOJ, you can try and take away my hobby, but I shall prevail.

Who is John Galt?

Movin'

Had to go back to blogger, I was no longer monetizing the site and see no reason (other than the fact blogger sucks balls compared with Wordpress) to pay for site hosting. Hopefully all the redirects and such work, not that I post anything particularly meaningful or relavent any more...

Cheers kids, blogs are dead.

The world owes you nothing.

Hey Kids, I get to play poker tonight!! Aren't you soooo happy for me? Cause I am. I get some much needed vacation next week with a long weekend at the beach with family and more and more family weeeeeee! It's a good thing I like them.

Big shouts and hollas out to NUMB, Blood and @themark for cashing in WSOP events. Bloggers gotta represent.

That's all, I'm sure you're glad you wasted the time reading this.

By the way:

Have a good weekend.

No Poker? No Problem

So, its been a long time without online poker for me, but I've found many ways to effectively pass the time and also occasionally scratch that little gambling itch.

I've played in 3 of the 5 monthly poker tournaments near my neighborhood. There's usually 2 tourneys a night and anywhere from 12 to 20 players. I've cashed all three nights I've played to put myself in good position for the year long payout. I'm currently sitting in 2nd place.

I've recently joined Draftstreet to see if I can figure out how to beat daily baseball leagues. It's been a mixed bag so far, I've cashed in only 1 event. So I'll keep on the low and free tourneys until I get a good grip on the scoring system. I think if you use that handy little link there I and you will get some sort of bonus for playing $ games, so hook a brother up.

The WSOP has begun so I can begin sweating my horsies. The Leak should make things interesting.

I've been actively seeking out new music and keep finding old stuff. I have been picking through the Grateful Dead library and been getting some good bootlegs. I've also filled out my library with older Massive Attack, Acen (yes I went though the early 90's rave scene), the entire Daft Punk library, the new Beasties, and a Joy Division remaster.

I keep expanding my role at work by digging in to Wordpress (not that this site shows it), Sitecore, and some other CMS. Enough so that I know I will never have the patience and attention to detail to be a real programmer.

OK, I think I had a point at the beginning of this post, but I gotta go home. See you kids soon.

WSOP BEGINS!!

Cheers to all those headed to Vegas, may the chips be with you! For those of us living vicariously through others we have props. Jordan has the details here: WSOP 11 props

Additionally he and I bet on ME entries. I thought I was going high at 5635, but jordan went higher at 6319. CK was nice enough to be the arbitrator in our guesses. So where are you at?? My initial guess was 5300, but I moved it up. I've seen guesses as low as 4000 and CK set the line at 5000 after getting our guesses.

I'll be watching for those updates so lets gettem started!!!!!!!

The rapture

Really People?

How did this nutjob gain global pub for this shit? Guy adds a few numbers up and poof! The world is ending.

Seriously people.

Your life is not ending. God is not coming to save you....especially you. You will still have your life, your loved, ones, your world. I suggest you start controlling the things you can control and leave God alone. He has better to do than come and save you....especially you. Now go home, kiss your wife, kids, and whoever else you hold dear. Remember to live today and let tomorrow work itself out.

-Skidoo

Reality 86'd

The intranets showed me this awesome documentary about Blag Flag in 1986. Just when I was starting to cultivate a taste in music, this stuff smacked my brain.

I'm glad that David Markey had the wherewithal to chronicle this.


"Reality 86'd" A film by David Markey from David Markey on Vimeo.

Edit: you have to go to Vimeo to watch it. Give yourself an hour.

So what happens?

I'm beginning to think that Party Poker will have a real good chance to return to the US before the other two big poker sites. They followed the rules the the US laid out and are viewed as legit by the UK.


Could Party Poker have a leg up on reentering the US sooner than other sites given their compliance so far??

New game in town

I played a new neighborhood game for the second time last night. A good friend of mine turned me on to a juicy traveling game last month. It rotates houses every month and takes a very small rake for an end of the year leader board. Last month I played a little too tight and ended up 3rd in the first tourney. Bad beat in the second. This month I had a better understanding of my opponents, and outplayed/outdrew them all night. I won both tourneys last night chopping with the 2nd place guy both times. I now am atop the 2011 leader board. Then I won another 100 or so playing dealers choice. It was so nice having a great feel for the cards and players. A perfect storm of awesome. Pulled in a little over 5 bills then woke up this morning and played three sets of winning tennis.

Like I told Waffles, you gotta play like a champion for things to happen, I'm starting to do just that in cards and life. It's a great feeling sometimes.

Otis reminded me.

I read this post by Otis just a few minutes ago and was reminded of this story:

Some background:
My soon to be wife and I decided we wanted some very special wedding rings. We are both of Irish descent, but not thoroughly steeped in the Irish traditions other than a healthy (or not so) taste for adult beverages. However it was our bright idea that we would have crafted for us, unique Irish knot wedding rings. We researched our lineages for designs and found a unique and not-too girly design that we would have fashioned into rings. Long story short we had these beautiful yet heavy rings crafted in 14K gold with a nice diamond nugget for my wife being the only real design difference. These were expensive rings.

Fast forward a few years and we were at my cousin's lake house. I was teaching my children to hang on for dear life to the inner-tube while my cousin sped. I remember thinking about removing my ring, but decided, nah we won't be going too fast because of the kids. Well, I decided to let my cousin pull just me and he punished the everliving crap out of me. I distinctly remember my final dismount as he ran me into a huge wake going about 30mph. I was floating gleefully through the air, arms and legs splayed and I felt the tug of my ring leaving my finger. I tried shifting my body towards the giant golden circle floating towards the cool blue water (that slo-mo NOOOOOOOOOO in my head) but to no avail. It sank like so many shiny lures before it and lays at the bottom of Lake Sidney Lanier.

My wife got a real nice shiny new ring for that one, and I have a nice cheap band of white gold.

HeadsUp

HighOnPoker, always a font of good ways to separate me from money, is getting together some sort of prop bet for NBC's Heads Up Championship. Poker, gambling, and not dependent on MY ability...SOLD.


Here is the lineup of talent:


Jason Alexander
Patrik Antonius
Eric Baldwin
David Benyamine
Andy Bloch
Liv Boeree
James Bord
Doyle Brunson
Joe Cada
Daniel Cates
Johnny Chan
Don Cheadle
Nicolas Chouity
Allen Cunningham
Jonathan Duhamel
Annie Duke
Tom Dwan
Peter Eastgate
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Chris Ferguson
Ted Forrest
Phil Galfond
Phil Gordon
Barry Greenstein
Bertrand Grospellier
Joe Hachem
Gus Hansen
Jennifer Harman
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Ivey
Faraz Jaka
John Juanda
Gabe Kaplan
Frank Kassela
Eugene Katchalov
Phil Laak
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Ayaz Mahmood
Thomas Marchese
Mike Matusow
Jason Mercier
Michael Mizrachi
Sorel Mizzi
Chris Moneymaker
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Annette Obrestad
Dennis Phillips
Dwyte Pilgrim
John Racener
Greg Raymer
Vanessa Rousso
Kara Scott
Huck Seed
Erik Seidel
Vanessa Selbst
Emmitt Smith
Gavin Smith
Jennifer Tilly
Melburn Whitmire
David Williams
Justin Young


I think it would be a good idea for each participant to pick 5 players one of which must be a celebrity, one WSOP champ, one female, and 2 wildcards. Also, maybe as a tiebreaker we could use the card suit brackets that are set just before the filming. Check in with HOP, and lets get this moving...

More Music Please

I've been searching high and low for new sources, avenues, and applications of music. I'm by no means a music snob or whatever, I try to do my best and listen with an open mind....even to that crap my kids like. I found this via my love of post-punk and joy division and it hit me so hard I had to share. I'm sure this isn't up everyones' ally, but heregoes.





Feel free to put me on a path if you think you have suggestions, and big thanks to Mary for sharing Musicophilia and for opening my music brain again.

Fantasy Baseball

Hey there kids, I'm interested in running a Head to Head league on yahoo this season. It will be 6x6 format with the following setup (these can be changed if necessary).


Ideally I'd get 12 owners, but will accept 10-16. So if my 4 readers will tell 3 friends a peace, I should get a full league by opening day. (March 31'st)

Cost is negotiable, but I'm thinking between $20-50 for the season. Post here or email me if you are interested, once I have a minimum of 10 interested, I'll proceed.

WOOOT Baseball!! You kids be careful out there.

This was fun....must of been the drugs.

I stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday for a fever and flu like symptoms. Somewhere in my tussin-fueled fog I managed to win my first non-blogger MTT in awhile. I'm officially addicted to the turbo and super tubo versions of On-Demand and Rush On-demand tourneys in values of 2.50-11. This tournament officially had 215 entrants and took just UNDER 2 hours.

Joy Division FTW

VIA Mary
VIA DANGEROUSMINDS

The Ugly

Well my memories of WPBT and Vegas have all but faded into oblivion, however I did want to address something mostly for myself. If I didn't manage to link you or mention you in the past 2 posts, but I did in fact meet you, well I'm slack. Its not you its me.

What I did want to get out for me to remember is that I'm a junkie. I'm reckless, thoughtless, and plain ignorant at times. It's something that's hard to admit when you pretend to be a pretty smart guy. I simply don't have an excuse for Thursday night. I can't convince myself that it was actually me. I ran through my bankroll in a matter of hours. When I was done with that I hit the ATM and damn near drained my checking account. I didn't walk upstairs and go to bed, I didn't sleep it off. I didn't listen to the me that said on the plane 'Don't be an idiot...please'

Nope, I kept pushing the throttle....oblivious to anything other than the fix, the gamble, the booze. It makes me sick to think about what I put in jeopardy. For the sake of....nothing. selfishness, hardheadedness, greed, stupidity? I don't know. I couldn't shake that pit in the bottom of my stomach the rest of the weekend, so please forgive me if I was a little off. I was scared shitless of myself, of fucking up again, of losing. So, no more Vegas for me. Some guys just can't handle it.

Peace.