New toys

Picked up a used Ruger LCR .357 last week. Got it for almost a hundo under retail in a private sale. Nice carry gun, lightweight, feels great in my hand, and I like the look of it. I didn't like its look when it was first introduced but it kinda grehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifw on me. I wanted to replace the SP101 http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift got stolen last summer.

Took it to the range and shot 5 full .357 loads, and holy shit does it have some snap. Much more than the SP101. All the research I did said the recoil wasn't bad, but I disagree. Next I shot some .38 special +P's and they were much more manageable, as were the standard .38's. I have it loaded with the .38 +P JHP which should pack plenty of punch in an emergency. The .357's will probably pop my eardrums if I fire it without ear protection, and getting the gun back on target after all that recoil could pose problems. I have a bunch of .357 ammo, maybe I'll give it some more range time to see what I can do to lessen the snap.

EDIT: I just saw this, just announced this week. I might want one. http://xdspistol.com/

When a $9 win feels like $500

Went down to Nautica last night. Sat down around 6:30. Got some nice hands but was still hovering around even when my JJ lost to QQ on an 8-9-10 board. No love after getting it in on the flop. Dude made it 15 pre-flop and I bumped to 45. I put him on big slick of course.

Got a bunch back from the Iraqi minister of information. He's still just terrible. I nailed him on about 4 hands. Until he shows me a winner, I'll call him down with any pair every time.

There was a kid on my right that was extremely green. He'd re-raise/check-raise with crap like bottom pair, yet JUST CALL with the nuts. You couldn't put him on a hand. He'd also do other strange shit like bet $10 into a $120 pot, etc. He was up well over $500 for a while but I had the best of him, beating him on several hands and tilting him a bit. I think he left with about $100 profit after we all ate into his stack. Guys like this are some of your scariest opponents, simply because they cannot be read.

So anyway...I ended up $600 deep after doing some gambling and getting a couple of mis-played big pocket pairs cracked. I also got nailed stabbing $100 into a huge pot that nobody seemed to want. I missed the straight and flush draw but got called by KK. I was down to $150 on the table but managed to scrape some wins together with better play and actually hitting a couple of draws. I was back to around $350 when I get 2 red A's during the last 45 min of play. I have the button too. It pretty much folds around to me except one guy that makes it $12. I bump to $25 and the SB calls along with the original raiser. Flop is Q85, rainbow, and the SB bets $30. Original raiser folds and I make it $100. He flat calls. Turn is another Q...ugh. He checks. He doesn't have much of a stack left, just over $100, so I shove, saying "your Q is good". I actually didn't expect him to call. I thought he was on some sort of draw, but no...he had QJ. He said, "yep, my Q is good". Until the river. The beautiful A of spades. "Not any more!" The table went nuts! Damn that's sick, yada yada yada. Hey the best hand won. After it was over I count up, realize I am back in the black, and cash the fuck out! $9 profit bitches! I figure it cost me just about that much in gas, so it was break-even, but I will take that shit.

TGIF!!! It's a 3-day weekend. Gonna celebrate Caprice's b-day. Hitting up Sans Souci downtown, maybe the gun range to try out my new Ruger LCR .357, and who knows what else.

FUCK Shittsburgh and their fans

It was so sweet to see them FAIL last weekend. Get used to it... that team is old and slow, and it's time for them to retool. Let's hope they have a few decades of 5-11 teams while doing so. Let's also hope no more college girls get raped in the process.

If you are from PA, you pretty much get a pass. Get behind your home team. If you have nothing to do with PA and picked them when you were a little kid because they won a lot or because you "like their colors", then piss off!





I was drinking the Tebow Kool Aid last weekend. I think he's a D-bag and I hate the Broncos but DEN is the lesser of the 2 evils. Tebow walks onto the field expecting to win. He exudes confidence. McCoy does not. He needs some talented receivers, and after stringing a few wins together might regain some swagger, but it needs to happen soon, otherwise what we will end up with is Tim Couch again.

I may be buying a full season ticket next year, we will see.

Misc pics from the last 6 months

Another tourney win

Took down 1st out of 22 players Friday night at Julie's. I think everyone was surprised to see me, I have only been there twice. $50 bounty tourney netted me $500 with 10 kills. I played well and got hit with the deck at all the right moments. I (finally) hit 4 of 5 30%'ers to take a few people out. Got lucky with a BB special, 74 suited, against Julie (who was in the pot with J4 for some reason). Flop was 44x. Turn was a 7 and we got the chips in.

I am pretty sure I was chip leader for most of the game. My initial table felt pretty weak except for Hacker and a pretty tight player on my left. I caught Jamie W trying to steal a pot from me, calling his river bet with A-high. I only got caught bluffing once when I stabbed on the river when an A hit. Tight guy on my left had the A. At that table, I took out Cheryl, Pyxis, Jamie, Nicole, and Hacker, if I remember right. 3 or 4 of those were draws. With Cheryl, I flopped an open-ended SF draw.

I played pretty tight for the most part but switched gears as players dropped off and we got down to under 7 at the table. Folded a ton of small A's preflop and basically stuck to ABC tourney strategy. I love it how everyone thinks I splash around so much. I really don't in tourneys. I have 2 very distinct styles of play between tourneys and cash, and the last couple tourneys have been prime examples.

"Crazy" Joe was at my table, playing every hand as usual. That didn't last. I bluffed him off a couple hands and had the goods when I called him down. I really don't think he's that crazy. Just a LAG player. He played his tourney like I play the cash game.

Final table went fast. Got down to me and Data heads-up. I had him outchipped by quite a bit. About hand #3, I get AA. He raises, I 3x him, he shoves and exclaims "I'm gambling"...I said that I was not, lol. That did it.

I am trying to sharpen my tourney skills for the casino opening. I'd plan to play their bigger tourneys semi-regularly, especially the deeper stack structures where the payouts may get to 5 figures. I've beaten large fields on many occasion, back in the day. Time to do it again.

Happy New Year! (and happy birthday to me)

It's only been 6 months. I resolve to blog more this year.

Summer was a blast and very active. Concerts, Slaxfest, Cedar Point, lots of biking (and new bikes), camping a couple of times, kickball, my 25th HS reunion, and plenty of other parties. I bought 2 new (to me) bikes, and found a nice one for Caprice too. Sold my Trek for almost as much as I paid. I got an $800 Giant Defy 3 for $600 and a $700 Giant Rapid 3 for $325. Caprice got the women's Defy for $430...very nice bikes and we saved a ton buying used. All of them are in near-mint condition.

Fall brought Browns games, the usual onslaught at work, a new tech, and an all-new server system there as well. We got most of the bugs worked out and things are going well. The new guy is great.

Poker-wise, I haven't played a ton. Went on a losing streak starting with Slaxfest, but recently placed 2nd in my nightmare before Christmas tourney (up $250) and won another $640 playing cash that night. The, lost back $400 at Nautica last Thursday when nothing hit again. I won exactly 3 hands in 3.5 hours.

More to come...

DC Bound

We're heading to DC Friday-Tues this week to see some sights, visit a friend, and do a little biking. I found a couple of nice bike trails to check out. One follows the Potomac south to Mount Vernon and is supposed to be pretty scenic.

Looks like I won't get a chance to play any poker until I get back. Ah well no biggie.

Memorial Day weekend

Great weekend! Hit up the man-date on Friday for Hangover 2. Not bad considering it was almost an exact copy of the first one. Champps for pre and post movie drinks.

Saturday afternoon, we did a bike ride at Carlisle Reservation and hit some serious mud.

Saturday night was the team tourney and cookout at Dave's. Despite what I thought was a solid performance, 3 Stacks of Low Society just couldn't hold on. I actually lasted longest despite being pretty hammered. The beer was going down pretty easy. I somehow managed a $594 win in the cash game. I did my best to donk it off.

Sunday we went to Caprice's family's trailer out on the lake in Huron. Great place to go and hang out. Cooked out and watched a nice storm roll in.

Caprice and I did almost 20 miles on the towpath on Monday, followed by a late lunch at Winking Lizard in Peninsula. Came home and grilled some killer pork chops.

Trying to figure out a night for a 2-table, $20 tourney that Caprice can play in, along with another $.25-.25 NL cash game, or maybe even a $1-1 LIMIT game to help get her feet wet.

I'm also definitely doing another no-max night sometime in June, probably a weeknight where we'll call it around 1:00 am.

We're doing a long weekend in DC from 6/10-6/14, should be fun. Gonna visit Sean, maybe Dohar, see some sights, and do some biking.

Small Nautica win

Up $84 last night after getting $500 deep. Matt G was at my table. The dealers we had were absolutely AWFUL. I don't know what the charity was, but none of the dealers at our table had ever dealt before, and had no clue how the game is played. There was no flow or rhythm at all, and all my hands were garbage for quite a while. 56o started looking like aces, and I got myself into a jam.

...but I never gave up. I refused to book a loss (both good and bad) and scratched my way back into it after changing seats. I grabbed a spot directly across from the dealer and played table captain since no one else seemed to want to. It got the hands moving along, and we even got a halfway decent dealer for the last hour and a half I was there. I played from 4:30-9.

Matt and I were remarking how we can't wait for the casino to open. I'll never play with volunteer dealers again. I don't see charity games doing too well after that.

A friend of mine has a non-profit animal rescue operation where they rescue over 100 dogs a year, and I'm thinking about trying to get a tourney together to help raise some money for them. Caprice is a member of Amvets so we could use their place to play. Details to follow.

POY and no-max cash update

No love in the POY. I was up and down due to good play and really awful play. The worst hand was when I THOUGHT I had 9-10 but really had 8-9. I'd had the 9-10 the previous hand. I thought I had broadway on the river and it woulda been the nuts. I shoved out a pretty nice bet and got insta-called by 2-pair. I am glad he didn't shove quickly because I would have called. DUH...just freaking awful. I think I made it past half the field. Lost about $25 in the cash game then donked off a hundo cutting cards with Colin for $50 a pop. Good times.

Jack T-way won the POY. Congrats sir.

My post on the CPMG board regarding last night's no-max game at my place:
2 full tables most of the night. No real monster train wrecks last night despite Grayday buying in for $1800 and Charlie Ha making an appearance. Grayday was VERY quiet at the table. I think Hip won the biggest pot at our table when we both flopped open-ended SF draws and Jen had (I think) 2 pair. I folded on the turn after putting in $60.

I went on a 4 hour run where I couldn't miss, which was fun. I cashed out WAY ahead. Home field advantage I guess.

Had a pretty good time. I cashed up $880. I was up over $900 about 3 hours before we quit and my little man was screaming at me. I ended up losing about $200 back before chipping back up. I didn't want to cash and just sit around. I guess I could have just got up a took some breaks. Oh well it's still a huge win for a $1-1 game. We had about $10k in the bank.

Team tourney this weekend. We added Leastbest to the team. He's fairly solid and does pretty well in tourneys, although he's been doing better in cash lately. Karl is still not a 100% definite to show, so Matt G or Prowest may have to be called in to pinch hit.

Wooo! sold my Eclipse!

Unloaded the Eclipse yesterday, and I'll now be saving almost $500/month between payment and insurance. It's should improve the summer immensely. I'm gonna try to pay down some more credit card debt as well.

We kicked ass at trivia last night too, coming in first for last night and the week.

I'm on vacation next week and hosting the first ever no-cap NLHE game. Mostly as an experiment. Could get crazy, or maybe everyone will just buy in for $200, who knows. But I would guess that when the stacks get big and someone busts, they may buy back in for $500-ish. We'll see.

Oh the drama

Saturday at Dave's turned into a Jerry Springer episode, filled with violence, wife beating, cat fights, and cheating spouses. I predicted about a month ago that this will likely be the last big tourney season at Dave's, and this probably put the icing on the cake. It's unfortunate that it had to happen at such a great venue hosted by a very gracious homeowner. Leave it to the trailer trash to fuck things up.

Anyway, I did manage to book a $505 win on a single $100 buy-in. I was up over $600 for a while and gave back a couple hundo after my 2pr got beat by a better one. Interesting hand of the night...it's last orbit and Grayday is hammered (not that there's anything wrong with that), and he raises to like $30 into a $2 pot, for about the fourth straight hand. I look down at AK and make it $100 to go. TK shoves his last $35 into the pot, and GD calls. Flop is 10-6-3, all spades. I have no spade. GD is first to act and checks. I put him on a big A or even KQ. Possibly a small pair that missed the flop. I bet out another hundo, and he tanks forever. I suddenly start thinking he actually has something. He sstarts whining that he thinks he has to fold, that he can't improve. I ask him if he has an overpair, and he tables 2 red queens. Ouch. I am suddenly sick. He tanks for a few more minutes and actually FOLDS! I was certain he would call. I scoop the side pot. So me and TK table our hands. He has AJ. The turn is the A of spades, and the river is another spade, and me and TK chop $35 of GD's money.

No love in the tourney. I was doing great for the first few rounds, and then flopped an open-ender with some junk hand. Hip and I both called a bet, and when I hit the 8 for my straight, it hit Hip's gutshot for the higher straight, which I never thought he was donkish enough to chase. Man was I wrong. NH sir. Just kidding Hip, nice bubble my friend.

The main event should be fun. I am about at the same point I was at last year, in 11th place. I'll start with $53k in chips, which is well above average.

I'm gonna have another low stakes NLHE game again in June,and maybe a $100, 2-table tourney as well. I'm on vacation next week and I'll probably hit Nautica a couple of nights during the week.

And the asscrack of the year award goes to...

Stopped down at Nautica twice in the last couple weeks, and did OK. I was there 2 weeks ago and was $450 deep, down to my last $27, and managed to cash out with a $10 profit! That's a big win.

Went down last night, got $500 deep, was down to about a hundo, and cashed with $341 in profit. Hit a few hands down the stretch and got paid off. Had a guy (an Asian! I beat an Asian!) re-raising me with my 9's full of A's, when he had 89 suited. He was drawing dead on the turn. Ship it.

Counting up my sessions, I am 8-3 in wins and $1530 profit since 3/4. Gonna try to keep it together and chipping up.

On the home front, I've done a little biking (hoping to get out with Caprice tonight) and I am on a bit of a health kick lately. I haven't eaten meat in 5 days and I've been living on about 1100 calories a day, which is WAY low, but has been surprisingly much easier than when I was doing 1900 calories. I was VERY hungry the first 36 hours or so but it has really settled down, and I am starting to feel pretty decent. I'd been having some kidney pain (I think anyway. Going to the doc next week) and it seems to be lessening.

I am trading in the iPad (did I mention I got one for $300 on Craigslist? Couldn't pass up the deal)...but I am trading it for a Dell laptop with Core i3 CPU and all the bells/whistles. It's worth about $500. I'm gonna sell the other Dell I got from the meth heads last month for a hundred bucks. I should be able to get $350-ish for it, so I'll probably pocket that dough. Netflix just came out on the Evo so I really don't need the iPad at all. The best thing about it is that it's always connected. I guess I could leave the laptop on at all times, but the battery would run out.

Big changes coming up at work in the next couple months. One of my bosses is retiring, I am losing a tech, and it looks like the other tech isn't interested in working 5 days a week, so he may be leaving. The superintendent will be taking on a bigger role in tech coordination, and we're also doing a big server virtualization project. Gonna be a busy summer I am guessing. Me an Caprice still have some plans, so they should be OK. Looking forward to a fun summer.

Cash game at my place this weekend

Had a decent time over the weekend. The main table was $.25-.25 and we had $1-1 going in the dining room. World's Greatest Dad packed them in for some donkalicious action. I guess there were some monster pots.

I ended up losing $45 at the kids table. caprice did OK for her first time, although she lost $30 on the night. She mostly folded after calling and then getting raised (she needs to learn that raises don't always mean someone has a better hand), but she did win a few pots, one with AA, which was nice. She folded a nut flush to a full house, but she really should have called that one (the bet was small, but I'm not sure she knew she had the flush. I was sure to let he know that straights and flushes are the bread and butter of the winning players' game.) Anyway, she was able to sit in for quite a while. She'll get better for sure.

I got sucked out by Silent Dave when I shoved with AK after I hit a pair. He hit his set of 7's on the river. I gave Jimmy Bunch a couple pots after making some bad calls, and another where he had me outkicked.

We ended up playing until just after 4am. I made some killer kielbasa/cabbage/noodles and Caprice made a lemon and chocolate chip cake that was freaking awesome.

Went to see Raegen (Caprice's oldest daughter) in her school play on Saturday. The play sucked but she did a great job. I was in drama in HS, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday it got over 80 degrees so I cleaned up the Jeep, washed the dog (who subsequently went outside and rolled in dirt), and then we racked up the bikes for a ride. We headed into Oberlin on the bike trail, had some lunch, and rode back. You can see out track here. Caprice has a nice new bike that should do well for her. She needs some accessories yet but she did great for a first ride, doing 16 miles.

Guess who's back!

Sorry, I've been busy. I'm gonna start posting again here after my longest hiatus ever. Poker is still up and down, more up lately. Work is going pretty well. Caprice and I are still doing great. Looks like we'll be shacking up in a few months. I dumped my iPhone for an HTC Evo, which is freaking sweet and I'm saving $40-ish a month. So much more you can do with them. Sold my Iphone for $285 with all the accessories. I'm looking at buying a used iPad 1st generation for playing with around the house.

My grandfather passed away early last month, that sucked. He had a tough few weeks and finally called it quits. Not bad for 97 years old. I'll miss him. I want to go just like that. He basically just closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

Caprice got a bike over the past weekend. Looking forward to some rides. I got a rack for the Jeep. I'm still trying to sell the Eclipse. Got it all cleaned up and someone is looking at it tonight. Fingers crossed. caprice is going to try to bike the Pedal to the Point event with us. She should be fine with some regular exercise. We'll put in a few 30+ milers.

The fucking weather has sucked ass! Longest winter in history. We've only had like 2 days over 60 and one of them it rained like a mother.

Took Caprice and her oldest daughter to the gun range a couple weeks ago, and they loved it. That was Caprice's 2nd trip. If she wants to take a CCW course, I'd buy her a carry piece. I might give her my LCP and get a Sig P238 for myself. I still carry the XD most of all but need something small for summer.

Things I want to do this summer, since I still have 4 weeks vacation to burn before July...
* Go camping over a 3 or 4-day weekend.
* Weekend trip to Motor City (I just heard the bad beat jackpot is like $400k)
* Florida with Caprice (and maybe her kids) I'm working on getting her to move there :)
* Shoot my AR15 with Caprice and her kids. They'll love it.
* Misc 3-day weekend trips

...just to name a few.

Ok, I'll check back ASAP.