Friday, January 29, 2010

Hey Chan

For some reason I couldn't add a comment on your blog. Anyway...WTF are you doing laying down A's full? Awful laydown. I will NEVER EVER fold the 2nd nuts, especially a full house, unless someone shows me their hand. My guess is he was slow-playing a smaller full house. Bad fold. Bad. Very bad.

You have no guts.

Gemini Report

Had a good night overall. MUCH better experience than Nautica. No parking fees, no hourly $15, etc. The place is nice and clean with free snacks and soft drinks, though I had to pay $.50 for bottled water. I only had a couple bananas as snack because of the diet. The dealers are pretty fast and very courteous. Card shufflers would be a great addition.

Sat down at a $1-2 immediately after getting my membership papers, and chased a few hands that didn't pan out, and was down almost $70 when the tourney started. The tourney sucked, only because I got jack shit for hands, and only won the blinds 3 times before busting out after almost 2 hours. NOTHING hit the flop when I was able to see it. I only folded 1 hand that turned out to be a winner. 7-8 off. So, down $50 from the tourney. With the membership fee, I was down almost $145, and sat at another $1-2 after about a 20 min wait. One thing they do correctly is keep the main table full with must-moves. I wish they did this at Nautica. You often have several tables with 6-7 people, and sometimes very few chips in play.

I sat down with $150 and slowly built it up to almost $700 over the next 3 hrs. Played fairly tight for a cash game, but loosened up after I figured out who the donks were, and there were certainly a few at my table. One hand, I tried river bluffing a $30 pot by tossing out $20, and got called by A9 high (I missed an open-ender). I got it back a bit later after hitting a flush.

I hit 4 flushes and a couple straights to make most of my money. I cashed $690, up almost $550 with in that session, and up almost $400 on the night, even after the tourney, initial $1-2 loss, and membership fee.

There were some familiar faces there; some Nautica regulars, Riegler, Chan, Linda, RR Dave, Grayday, and Gross were all there. Even Pavel the Russian kid that used to play at Ken's was playing $2-5 and had a nice stack built up.

So, my initial thoughts are that this is a great idea, but it's hard to say how long it will last. I think that when the casino is built, legal or not, the state will find a way to shut them down if they feel money is being diverted from the casino. Until then, I'll play there before going to Nautica. It's cheaper and closer to home for me as well. The area is safer. One thing that worries me is the fact that the restrooms are open-air at the ceiling. A Doug Poker, TK, or MEATS could really cause some damage to the room if they have to do the nasty.

Tonight...cooking chili.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Wed night


So, I drop off some chicken paprikas for my dad/grandfather, and head over to the gun range to meet my brother and cap off some rounds (traded up a Kel Tec PF9 that I was having trouble with for an XD 9mm subcompact...sweet deal), but bro Diabl0 can't make it. I've been wanting to try out the new CC sidearm, so I went in by myself and fired off about 100 flawless rounds. Sweet gun. I have the 4" model in .40 with tac light at my bedside for home defense, and love it too.

So, I head downtown to Nautica, figuring to play the 7 pm tourney. I walk in and the place is EMPTY. Just the mgr teaching some dealers. I totally forgot they aren't open until Thursdays during the week. I hadn't been there since before my dad had his heart surgery, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Gemini was closed and no one else was having a game, so I just went home and ate a plate of paprikas. I have enough to have for dinner the rest of the week, since I am only eating a single plate a night. Snacking on apples and salad. Gay, I know, but I weighed in at 187 this morning. That's 16 lbs down and counting. The gut is going away.

So, back to this sweet gun deal. I placed an ad at swapgiant.com that I was looking for that particular gun, after getting a full refund for the Kel Tec, even though I got it way back in October. That thing was a total lemon. Most of the reviews I read were great, and everyone on the gun forums I read liked it as well, but this thing would not extract spent rounds. No stove piping. They were fully seated, with gouge marks from the extractor. Still wasn't fixed after I sent it in.

I get a response from a guy in Strongsville that will sell me his XD for $425 (A new model is about $460 +tax, and there is a long wait list) or he'd toss in 3 extra mags with finger extensions and a Crimson Trace laser grip for $550 total. I didn't want the laser at first, until I looked up what they cost...almost $300 new. So, I got the whole thing for $550, sold the laser on eBay for $225, kept the extra mags, and got a $460 gun and about $90 worth of mags for $325!! Basically about $30 outta pocket after the Kel Tec refund. Ordered a decent holster for it which should be here in a few weeks. The XD is a little bulky to carry, and I still have the LCP for deep concealment, but I can trust the XD to go boom if I ever need it to. Holds 10 +1 or 12 +1 with the finger extension mags.

Monday, January 25, 2010

No poker last week

Didn't get a chance to hit the new Gemini Club last week. I left my bank card in an ATM, and once the machine sucks it up, it becomes property of Diebold Corp (the company that makes the voting machines where they sell elections to the highest bidder) and you cannot get it back. My bank is all online (ING Direct) so I can't jsut walk in with my ID and pull out money. I think I'm gonna ask for a spare card.

Just got my new card this afternoon, so I'll be headed that way this week for sure. Probably play a tourney and some cash.

I'm down 14 lbs, to 189!

I'll be cooking an award-winning batch of chili this Friday night.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Weight loss

I've now lost about 11-12 lbs since 1/1. I haven't been this weight for about 10 years. Feels great.

The following "comedians" suck

* Jeff Dunham
* Wanda Sykes
* The fat bastard on TBS...Frank Caliendo

The above-mentioned, self-proclaimed comedians are not funny. They are the comedic equivalent of a burger and fries.

No poker news to report. I'll probably hit Nautica tomorrow night.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Back to running bad

Wed night at Dave's...

* My middle set of 7's vs Mailman's top set of Q's beat. We both flopped them.
* Stacked off to Grayday with AJ and a flop of J77. He had 7-8 off after calling $8 preflop.
* Small blind, I have 3-5 of spades, get to check it, see a free flop, and flopped a flush with gutshot SF draw. Get my stack in against Grayday (again), and he had flopped the nut flush from the BB with K6 of spades.

FUN FUN FUN!!!

Only real bright spot of the night was spotting Dave's quads after he hit them on the turn. His hesitation at calling my $10 bet screamed "I have quads!". Always does. I bet the same $10 on the river and of course he says..."raise". I said "I know", showed my AJ for the full house, and mucked. Board was 10-10-J-10-4. He showed the quads. I've had quads enough times to be able to spot them. If he'd quickly called my turn bet, or even raised it then, I'd have paid him off on the turn and river for sure. Saved me a bunch of money.

Anyway, I played fine again, with my only real mistake being the call from Grayday with my AJ. Didn't get beaten by dumb luck either...my good hands just weren't good enough.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Happy New Year

...and happy birthday to me.

The holidays were nice. Spent a lot of time with the family, and got a ton of rest.

After some brutal December beats, finally a cash game win at Dave's on Saturday. Got crippled in the tourney after some moron shoved with Q9 on the hand before break (always bad for me) I had pocket 10's, and knew he had junk, as he ALWAYS does. I've taken a ton of money off this guy over the past few years, and he mentioned one instance where I sucked out on him for $200. Whatever. He says "I thought you were making a move", after I'd shown nothing but great hands all night. He goes runner-runner straight after I hit a set on the turn. Oh well, I played good. Can't beat dumb luck, as usual. I just wish my hands would hold up after getting my money in way ahead.

Nearly doubled up on the first hand of the cash game after flopping a set of 5's, then just played conservative poker the rest of the night. Was up about $270 at my peak, and cashed out up $240.

December notes...lost $420 at Adam's just before Christmas and about $350 at Dave's way back in the middle of the month. 2 Sets cracked at Adam's, along with a flush beaten by a straight flush. I was down to my last $30 at Adam's, built it back to over $800, was gonna cash out, but didn't want to break up the game, and lost it all in about 20 minutes over 3 hands. Ouch. I'll go broke with a set EVERY time.

So I am hoping to play a bit more over the coming months. My dad is doing much better (but back to smoking like a chimney), so I don't have to be there every day to take care of him and Grandpa. I still stop by a few times a week to drop off containers of chow (lots of homemade goodness), and take them to the store/pharmacy. I want to play some more tourneys to sharpen up. Probably Nautica during the week.

I am also making a serious attempt to lose weight. I have lost about 8 lbs so far, but it has not been easy. I am probably eating about 1/3 to half of what I normally stuff down my throat, so it's a shock to the system. Major withdrawals for a few days.

I am however learning to appreciate food again. I hadn't realized it until now, but I can't remember the last time I got hungry between meals. I REALLY look forward to dinner. My basic plan is to stick with around 2000 calories a day (until I drop to 180 lbs, then go to 2500/day) by eating smaller portions and by cutting way down on sugar, fat, and dairy. No snacking, no eating out of boredom. So far so good.